GHOST HUNTER'S - OAK ALLEY PLANTATION
OAK ALLEY PLANTATION
Review: Oak Alley Plantation
When I heard that TAPS was going to Oak Alley Plantation, I was quite pleased. I was fortunate enough to visit Oak Alley in the fall of 1995, just around Halloween, and I have vivid memories of the location and the stories. While I did not have much of a chance to investigate the premises at the time, despite my keen interest, the building is still connected to my memories of unusual and exciting encounters in and around New Orleans.
The location didn't disappoint, and as I said, most of the stories hadn't changed, so I could focus on the investigation itself in short order. Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed the presence of Barry Fitzgerald. There's a very specific reason for this, and it ties into some of the things he did after he replaced Brian Harnois as tech manager of GHI.
I'll happily admit that Barry is too reactive to the slightest hint of anything spooky about a site, and he jumps to conclusions about every little change in the air and shift in peripheral vision. He takes too much credence in the folklore he does know, and he fails to recognize the gaps in that particular brand of knowledge. These are the things that a lot of people dislike about his style. (His reactions in the "alley" are a perfect example.)
On the other hand, he is willing to look at new ways to measure and correlate raw data, and he makes a solid attempt at understanding what the data is telling him. He likes to compare and contrast readings on the same item from more than one device. Even if it falls short of the best scientific approach at times, that concept is something to be fostered in the paranormal investigative field.
This episode provides a good example; Barry does exactly what I think TAPS should have been doing all along. When the K-II Meter began to respond in the middle of the doorway while in Joe's hand, Barry's first instinct was to pull out another EMF meter to correlate and substantiate the readings. It didn't work out, but it was a great response and, in my opinion, the right response. That's not something that TAPS is shown doing very often, and it's not been present during the more infamous K-II sessions.
Review by John Keegan - Critical Myth
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