Ghosts & the Supernatural – Shirley Villalobos says that at the Cobblestone Road Tavern, she actually encountered an angel. Shirley encountered a intoxicated woman that was accusing Shirley of flirting with her boyfriend. The woman challenged Shirley to fight her. Inside Shirley’s mind, she did not want to fight and she knew in her heart she was not flirting with the intoxicated woman’s boyfriend. She asked Jesus for protection. When she did, a flash of light appeared out of nowhere and when the light flash was gone the intoxicated woman was lying on her back on the floor. She looked at the wall behind where the woman was standing and saw a glowing face, a face that had a serene smile. Shirley knew this was an angel.
The building was built in the 1850’s to 1860’s, by the Ahern family. It was called the “Old Stone Jug” and the Ahern family owned it until 1870 when it was sold to Michael Heinz.
It is a two-story building and it was at one point, a bar on top of a bar. In 1949, the second level opened up to the railroad tracks and the railroad workers used to get off and eat and drink there as well as housing.
This went on until about 1920’s-1930’s, then, it was just a bar on the main street level.
There were no reported deaths that are known of, but with the railroad right next the building you could have had people who were hit by the rail cars. The workers, after drinking could have ended up in a fight or something.
The investigation:
When we arrived, Matt as usual, was chatting with a friend outside the Cobblestone Road Tavern entrance and greeted us with a smile. The man he was chatting with excused himself so we could get started. Matt gave us all the low down of things (which you just read) and we went inside to figure out our game plan and begin set up.
Jim Heater and Mark Edwards had figured out where the DVR cameras should be placed, and set up the cameras to start recording. They had set up one in the basement at the bottom of the stairs to the basement, and one at the top of the stairs where I had my hand grabbed. Another camera near the entrance facing down the bar towards the staircase, and one in the dining area.
Marcia Bezanis Mack had captured what we feel is a shadow figure sitting between three customers at a table. We attempted multiple times to try to re-create the shadow, but could not. Marcia shared the photo with Matt and he had shared it in turn with the gentlemen that were at the table. They found it exciting to see the picture as well as Matt was.
Angie Edwards was busy running a scan on the building to get readings with the mel-meter, and was getting strange readings in the doorway of the bar and dining area ranging from 0.3 up to 0.5 and continually fluxuating while in the doorway. Source of the readings could not be determined as they would be there, then they wouldn’t.
I began to do a pendulum session and got a “no, don’t want to communicate response” immediately. I verified the answer with a “can you make it swing North to South” movement, and it did. I was putting my pendulum away when I remembered a conversation with Angie and Mark Edwards prior to the investigation where Angie suggested having Mark (who loves his Harley Davidson and knew the ‘biker lingo’ for models and engines) ask some questions during the EVP session due to the fact some of the patrons believe a customer’s spirit from a few years back is probably hanging around there.
So with that information, I had re-started a pendulum session telling it Mark wanted to talk to him. I said “ I am going to whip
out my pendulum and let Mark ask you some questions” right after saying that, we caught an EVP saying “yeah”. During Marks questions, my pendulum gave strong responses to his questions. We were fortunate to have sitting with us a man named Jeff Krawczykowski for the session who knew the man who is believed to be there in spirit. Jeff tossed in a couple of personal questions to help us verify who we were communicating with. He even attempted to trick the pendulum by asking questions he knew not to be true. The pendulum gave all the right answers to him, as he was convinced, knowing I did not know anything of the spirit in question.
Jeff left soon after that excited about the conversation.
Referencing to the hand that grabbed mine, Jim Heater began an EVP session at the top of the stairs. Mark Edwards was taking photographs during the session. Mark caught what we believe to be an anomalies movement when Jim left the stairs and Angie Edwards began hers. The series of pictures show the movement of this towards Angie. Mark had asked any spirits to come into the shots to have it’s picture taken. The series of movement ended with Angie feeling something touch her head. The anomalties never showed up after the touch.
Shortly after Angie felt the touch, Marcia Bezanis Mack entered the stairwell and also was touched on her shoulder with a slight downward force. These two experiences validated my personal experience.
During this whole investigation, the DVR system acted up by continually shutting down and starting back up on it’s own. A activity Jim Heater said never happened before.
There is defiantly something there. It is friendly and playful, as one investigator put it… “like a Cheers with a ghost.” At no time did we feel it meant anyone any harm, It just likes the people, food, and drink! (I think it likes the prices too…I did!)
And the customer experience I have to put out there, is a must if you are ever in West Chicago!
By Teresa Williams – HPI Senior Lead Investigator
