This location is a city park right in the heart of downtown San Jose. We knew it would be nearly impossible to investigate due to the number of homeless people, commuters, and near-by businesses. However, few people know the history of this location. In this park, back in 1933, a good old-fashioned lynching took place. Two men (Holmes and Thurmond) murdered a young man by the name of Brooke Hart. They were pleading not guilty by insanity; however, people were so angry over this that some 5,000 to 10,000 (reports vary) people gathered into this place. They broke into the old prison across the street, grabbed the claimed murderers (they did not get a trial), and hung them from a tree in the park. The tree was later removed and no reference of this event exists in the park today.
The purpose of this investigation was to get people to think about the history of a location. Places you go to every day may have very well had some tragedy associated with them. And not all haunted places are due to negative energy -- simple personal attachment can bind a spirit to a site. We hoped at best to be able to capture an EVP, or some sign of even a residual haunting from that event.
One of the very first things we noticed was the K2 activity. It was spiking at varying intervals and intensity. We were unable to locate any source and it didn't get stronger in any one direction. The intervals were random beyond any normal mechanical source, such as a remote sensor or wireless broadcasts. We brought out the digital EMF as well as the TriField meter set to statia electricity measurements. All devices were experiencing the high fluctations and mostly at mid-level. This however, is not evidence of paranormal; it's simply unexplainable at the time.
Given the location, there were no personal experiences. The old courthouse across the street is quite creepy and closed off, and we hope to be able to investigate that in the future.
The evidence review was rough, given all the noise in the area. We relied in our experience with EVPs and knowing that first: they generally come across as whispers, and second: they often only imprint on one device. We each held voice recorders and video cameras. This allowed us to cross-reference all the audio. Usually a faint sound on one recorder comes out completely different on another. The EVPs we ended up sticking with were ones that were captured fairly clearly on one recorder, but not heard at all on the other (even though we were always standing close to each other). The best EVP caught was during the height of the K2 activity, which possibly justifies the EMF activity as being paranormal. It also relates to the history of the site.
