Ghost hunters look to spring spirits from jail

11/19/00

BY TOM HAYDON
STAFF WRITER

John Wilton stands in the doorway of a long-unused cell -- its iron door hanging open -- in the South River police headquarters' basement.

"Is there anybody there?" Wilton calls softly into the tomb-like darkness. "Can you tell me your name?"

A moment later he joins others in a corner of the basement.

"I'll bet I got a growl," said Wilton, playing back a cassette tape he recorded. He hears his own voice first and then what sounds like a gravelly, indecipherable noise.

Far more distinguishable are patches of light that Wilton and his wife, Nancy, captured on an infrared videotape recording in the police department's basement during a visit last week.

The Wiltons call them "orbs" and, while invisible to the eye, they can be seen plain as day streaking across a basement hallway on the Wiltons' videotape.

"They say these orbs of light are spiritual energy, potential evidence of ghosts," John Wilton said.

For two years, the South River couple has investigated reports of hauntings and the presence of spirits in buildings, homes and cemeteries around New Jersey and other states.

When South River closed its police headquarters earlier this month for renovations, Kenneth Roginski, a member of the borough historical society, asked his friends the Wiltons to examine the 92-year-old building for ghosts.

Roginski's interest in ghosts at the police station began after he learned an officer had committed suicide there more than 70 years ago, that a former police chief was shot and killed on the site, and that at least two prisoners had hanged themselves.

Wilton, who works for a marketing firm, said he grew up with a curiosity about ghosts. Two years ago he and Nancy, a legal secretary, noticed unusual things in their apartment: objects being moved, shoes being turned over. They began looking into the paranormal.

The Wiltons, who now belong to the Westfield-based New Jersey Ghost Hunters Society, estimate their equipment, including digital and infrared video cameras, audio tape recorders and electromagnetic field meters, have cost them more than $5,000.

On their Internet Web site, the couple invites inquiries from people who suspect spirits may be in their homes, and receive requests each week to investigate mysterious occurrences.

South River police earlier this month moved into portable trailers they will use during a $2.4 million renovation and expansion of their old headquarters.

In October, historical society members toured the building with retired South River police Chief Paul Borak, who recounted many stories, including the chief's murder and the suicide.

In 1936, the year before Borak joined the force, a man came to police headquarters looking for then- Chief Charles Eberwein. When Eberwein opened his office door and said, 'Can I help you?' the man pulled out a gun and shot him, Borak recalled. Several other shots were fired. "There's probably still bullets in the window casing," Borak said.

Jacob Rutkowski, a 48-year-old tavern owner who had a long-simmering disagreement with Eberwein, was identified as the killer. Two days later, he shot and killed himself.

A year or two after the murder, Borak was the one to discover the body of another officer, who shot himself on the building's second floor, he recalled. "He was a nice guy. He was a smart officer," Borak said.

However, Borak said there were never any reports of people seeing ghosts of either the late chief or the dead officer.

The Wiltons and another friend, William Kleemeyer of Scotch Plains, videotaped "orbs" of light in the basement and in a second-floor courtroom, their only sign of possible spiritual activity in the old police headquarters.

But the couple has a host of stories about their other-worldly experiences, involving voices being recorded, items being moved and packs of batteries suddenly going dead and then becoming usable again.

"I see dozens of orb pictures a day, but when you hear a voice on a tape recorder and nobody is speaking . . ." John Wilton said, leaving that thought hanging in mid-air.

Stories of contacting the dead predate the Egyptian Empire, said Bruce Goldberg, a Los Angeles- based author and hypnotherapist. "There are thousands of studies verifying this," said Goldberg, a retired dentist who now concentrates on hypnotherapy. He has served as a consultant to several television news and talk programs, including CNN, Oprah and Jerry Springer, he said.

Is electromagnetic activity evidence of spirits?

No, says William Roll, a former professor at the Duke University Rhine Research Center and Institute for Parapsychology. "There is no evidence of that at all."

There is an old theory that dead bodies exude ectoplasm that can form an image of the person, said Roll, but he doubts its validity. "I've never come across that," Roll said. Strong electromagnetic fields, however, may cause anomalies, such as spheres of light, he said.

Parapsychologist Joanne McMahon of South Orange said she believes people investigating spirits are picking up something, but they can't assume the culprits are ghosts.

"Just because you can't explain something doesn't mean the dead are responsible. That's a leap of faith," said McMahon, who has researched the psychic and supernatural for 20 years.

She also discounts the theory that sounds on tape recorders are signs of ghosts. "We thought we put that to rest in the '70s. This has come up before. We're picking up signals all the time," McMahon said.

Wilton calls himself a skeptic.

"That means I keep an open mind that there could be something there," said Wilton. "I want to believe it, but I'm not going to run out and tell someone I've caught a ghost."

He admits people joke about his activities, but said many of those same people want to talk to him privately to ask about things they've seen and cannot explain.

Tom Haydon covers South River. He can be reached at thaydon@starledger.com or at (732) 634-4706.