Oakslea Bed and Breakfast Jackson Tennessee

Site History
One of the oldest surviving homes in Madison County, Tennessee, Oakslea Place was built in 1860 as a one-story Greek Revival style house by Judge John Read who named it Oakslea for the large number of fine old oak trees which covered the land. Judge Read's nephew and heir, R. V. Hicks, added a second story in the Colonial Revival style around 1900. Subsequent owners included J. D. Hoppers (1911), Thomas Polk (1914) and Dr. and Mrs. Jere Crook (1917). In 1958, the house and grounds were sold to Dr. Waldon Harrison whose family lived there until the present owner, Ric Testani bought Oakslea Place in 2004. Mr. Testani is restoring the house with the intention of preserving its heritage and history, and he opened it to the public as a Bed and Breakfast establishment in 2006. Oakslea Place is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and contains over 9000 square feet of living space. The city of Jackson, Tennessee has grown and developed around the property.

Eyewitness Reports of Paranormal Activity
Owner Ric Testani has had numerous encounters with paranormal phenomena since moving into the house in July, 2004 including personal apparition sights of an elderly African-American gentleman and a female apparition. He reports that two other female entities, a mother and daughter, have also been identified as inhabiting the house. In addition to apparition sightings, Mr. Testani has also experienced audio phenomena (voices, footsteps, etc.), olfactory phenomena (perfumes, flowers, etc.) and physical movement of objects (opening and closing doors and a lamp which was picked up and dropped). He has also been touched numerous times by unseen hands. Guests in the house have also sighted apparitions and experienced various types of paranormal activity. One of the strangest reports involved the apparition of the elderly African-American male. A bartender at a party which was held at the house was touched by the apparition who then introduced himself, saying that he was Hampton, the butler. Locally, the house has a reputation of being haunted.

MMSGH Investigators Present
Michele King, Southern Phantom and Rich Ervin

Also Present
Ric Testani, Oakslea Place owner
L. S., guest paranormal investigator from Jackson, Tennessee

Investigation Conditions
Average Temperature Inside 68 degrees F
Average Humidity Inside 31%
Weather Outside 63 degrees F, windy, intermittent heavy rain
Solar X-Rays Normal
Geomagnetic Field Quiet
Moon Phase Waning Gibbous, 66% of full
Pollen 0.1 (extremely low)

Investigation Duration
Start Time 1:05 AM Saturday morning 1/21/06
End Time 4:15 AM Saturday morning 1/21/06

Equipment Used

Michele Sony CCD-TRV58 Hi8 analog IR NightShot video camcorder and Sony MP120 8MM video cassette tapes, Olympus Stylus 800 8.0 megapixel digital camera, GE analog micro-cassette audio recorder with external microphone and Panasonic normal bias micro-cassette audio tapes

S. P. Olympus C-5000 5.0 megapixel digital camera, Marantz PMD221 analog full-size cassette audio recorder with and external Radio Shack 33-3013 microphone and Sony C-90HFL normal bias audio tapes, Sharp MD-SR60 digital mini-disc recorder with external microphone, Sony CCD-TRV75 High8 Analog IR NightShot video camcorder with Sony HVL-IRH2 extender light and Sony Hi8MP video cassette tapes, CellSensor Ghost Meter EMF meter, Radio Shack 63-1086 Personal Weather Station, Durabrand CD-109 portable CD player, Jim Gibson Solo Piano Songs of the Civil War CD, Sacagawea gold dollar coin

Rich Marantz PMD-360 full-size cassette audio recorder with Radio Shack 33-3013 external condenser microphone and Maxell normal bias audio tapes, K-11 Safe Range EMF meter

Equipment Placement

We arrived at Oakslea Place at 9:40 PM on Friday night. Ric Testani gave us a tour of the house while Rich performed a cursory EMF sweep during the tour. No moving EMF fields were encountered. After a tour of the premises and a lengthy interview lasting over 3 hours, we began our official investigation at 1:05 AM on Saturday morning. Equipment was placed in various areas downstairs and upstairs to monitor and document possible paranormal activity.

Michele placed a microcassette recorder with an external microphone on the lower flight of stairs in the entrance hall. She positioned her analog video camcorder to monitor the hallway at the top of the stairs. Michele also took numerous digital photos throughout the house during the investigation.

Southern Phantom placed an analog full-size audio cassette recorder with an external microphone in the back upstairs sitting room on the southeast corner of the house. This recorder was later moved to the Tara Room downstairs and finally to the Webster Library Room. S. P. also positioned an analog video camcorder in the back upstairs hallway to monitor the hallway, back bedrooms and stairway. Later in the investigation, this video camcorder was moved several times to monitor the Tara Room, the front entrance stairway and the Webster Library Room. Southern Phantom also placed three trigger objects (gold Sacagawea dollar coins) in the upstairs back bedroom in the southeast corner of the house, in the upstairs laundry room and on the mantle in the Tara Room. He also took numerous digital photos throughout the house during the investigation. At 1:25 AM, Rich and S. P. conducted an EMF sweep of the entire house using two different types of EMF meters. Twice during the investigation, they both participated in EVP Q&A sessions in the back upstairs sitting room and in the Tara Room downstairs. Around 3 AM, S. P. played a CD of period Civil War music in the Tara Room.

Rich placed an analog full-size audio cassette recorder with an external microphone in the Tara Room downstairs, but soon moved it to the same back upstairs sitting room on the southeast corner of the house where Southern Phantom had placed his audio recorder. A 30 minute EVP Q&A session was conducted in this room using both audio recorders. Around 3:30 AM, Rich moved his audio recorder to the Tara Room downstairs where another EVP Q&A session was conducted.

Investigation Results

Photo Results

All digital photos taken during the investigation revealed false positives possibly caused by dust or other atmospheric contaminants. No paranormal photographic evidence was obtained.

Audio Results

One EVP with two female voices was recorded by Michele on the entryway staircase (audio recording below).

Southern Phantom recorded an unintelligible whispered voice near the top of the back staircase. When reversed, the whispered voice revealed a hidden message (audio recording below).

Rich recorded EVPs of a male voice in the Tara Room downstairs and the voice of a female in the southeast sitting room upstairs (audio recording below).

No audible sounds were heard during the investigation except for brief movement noted by Rich at 1:36 AM in the back upstairs bedroom which was adjacent to the sitting room used for an EVP Q&A session.

The use of period Civil War music did not stimulate an increase in paranormal activity.

Video Results

Southern Phantom recorded faint light anomalies in the back upstairs hallway and in the Tara Room downstairs. The anomalies are too faint to show up well in web videos.

EMF Results

EMF readings were flat during all sweeps of the premises. No spikes were noted except for one brief 15 milligauss spike noted by Rich at 1:48 AM during the EVP Q&A session in the southeast sitting room upstairs. The room had gotten very cold just before the spike occurred.

Manipulation of Equipment or Objects

Michele's flashlight turned on by itself at 1:15 AM while she was holding it. The flashlight continued to turn off and on. Michele had to push the button on the flashlight to finally turn it off.

Michele's video camcorder was turned off around 3:20 AM while monitoring the second floor. A button has to be pushed in and a lever moved at the same time in order to turn it off. Everyone was downstairs when this event occurred.

None of the trigger object coins were moved during the investigation.

Analog Audio Evidence
Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) recorded at the site
Audio files have been digitized in MP3 file format

Two Female Voices (75 KB)
Analog recording by Michele King
Three different female entities are thought to inhabit the house. Michele captured this EVP of two distinct female voices on the first flight of stairs in the entrance hall. At the beginning of the recording, a female voice seems to say, "Happy." A second later, a second distinctly different female voice repeats, "Happy." What do you hear? We'd like to know.

Whispered Male Voice (34 KB)
Digital minidisc recording by Southern Phantom
This unintelligible whispered EVP was recorded upstairs near the top of the back stairway. When played in reverse, the whisper revealed a hidden message (below). What do you hear? We'd like to know. Email your interpretation to us.

Whispered Male Voice Reversed (12 KB)
Digital minidisc recording by Southern Phantom
When the unintelligible EVP whisper is reversed, a male's voice seems to say, "It's not him." What do you hear? We'd like to know. Email your interpretation to us.

Male Voice #1 (32 KB)
Analog recording by Rich Ervin
This EVP was recorded in the Tara Room downstairs. A soft male's voice seems to say, "Be kind." What do you hear? We'd like to know. Email your interpretation to us.

Female Voice (101 KB)
Analog recording by Rich Ervin
This EVP was recorded in the sitting area of the northeast upstairs back bedroom. During an EVP Q&A session, a soft female voice seems to answer, "I'm here", when Southern Phantom asks who is present. What do you hear? We'd like to know. Email your interpretation to us.

Male Voice #2 (26 KB)
Analog recording by Rich Ervin
This EVP was recorded in the Tara Room downstairs. A tired sounding male voice seems to say, "I need to rest ". An apparition of an elderly African-American man dressed in a butler's uniform has been sighted several times in the house. What do you hear? We'd like to know. Email your interpretation to us.

Investigation Conclusions
Although Michele, S. P. and Rich recorded audio phenomena and Southern Phantom also captured light anomalies on video, we cannot reach a final conclusion about the reported paranormal activity at Oakslea Place until we conduct a follow-up investigation scheduled for early March 2006.

Watch the news video of this investigation. Watch The Video Report


Click on the image to enlarge	Click on the image to enlarge