Haunted Collector
| Haunted Collector | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Paranormal Documentary |
| Created by | John Zaffis |
| Presented by | John Zaffis |
| Starring | John Zaffis Chris Zaffis Aimee Zaffis Brian Cano Beth Ezzo (Season 1) Jason Gates (Seasons 2,3) Jesslyn Brown (Seasons 2,3) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 30 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Scott Gurney Deirdre Gurney Rick Sasson Rick Telles |
| Production location | United States |
| Cinematography | David Lane |
| Editors | Megan Carson Mimi Snow Carey Williams |
| Running time | 45 minutes |
| Production company | Gurney Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | Syfy |
| Release | June 1, 2011 – May 10, 2013 |
Haunted Collector is an American television
demonologist John Zaffis, who investigate alleged haunted locations with the hopes of identifying and removing any on-site artifacts or trigger objects that may be the source of the supposed paranormal or poltergeist
activity.
The production of the second season started in December 2011 and premiered on June 6, 2012.
On September 17, 2012, Syfy announced that the series was renewed for 12-episode third season, which premiered on March 6, 2013.[1]
On November 8, 2013, Syfy announced that it had cancelled Haunted Collector.
The series was rebroadcast under the name The Haunted Collector Files on Travel Channel in 2021.[2]
Plot
Demonologist John Zaffis and his family investigate the sites of alleged paranormal occurrences. The Zaffis family and their team travel around the world to investigate items that Zaffis identifies as having something to do with spirits or energies. Zaffis removes the items from the location and takes them to his haunted relics museum in a barn on his property in Stratford, Connecticut.
Broadcast
The programme broadcast on Syfy in the United States and Really in the United Kingdom.
Summary
According to Zaffis, an artifact itself may either be of a paranormal nature such as a religious object once used in occult rituals or a non-paranormal nature such as an antique purchased at an estate sale or garage sale. Once an artifact is deemed to be a possible source of paranormal activity, it is removed from the premises in hopes that the activity in the location being investigated will be mitigated or cease altogether. The artifact is then housed in John Zaffis' paranormal artifact museum.
Cast and crew
- John Zaffis - team leader, owner of Zaffis Paranormal Museum in Stratford, Connecticut
- Chris Zaffis - paranormal investigator
- Aimee Zaffis - historical researcher
- Brian Cano - equipment technician
- Beth Ezzo - lead investigator/sensitive (Season 1)
- Jason Gates - paranormal investigator/historical researcher (Season 2 - Season 3)
- Jesslyn Brown - investigator (Season 2 - Season 3)
Episode structure
- Client tour: John and Aimee walk-through with the client through their home finding possible haunted items.
- Phase 1 - daytime sweep: Brian, Chris, and Jason set up the equipment and go through home doing EMF sweeps.
- Historical research: Aimee and Jason go to the local library to dig up any historical information on the location.
- Phase 2 - nighttime investigation: The whole team (minus Aimee) investigates entire location at night using night vision.
- Item research: John brings the item he believes is haunted to an expert depending on what type of item it is and finds out more information about it.
- Final client meeting: John tells the client about the findings on their investigation and asks if they would like the haunted item removed.
- Placing haunted item in paranormal museum: John removes the haunted item and stores it in his "paranormal museum".
- Client follow-up (not aired): A voice-over of John tells the viewers about how the client is doing without the haunted item in their possession after a few weeks or months.
Episodes
Season 1 (2011)
| No. | Title | Haunted item(s) | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Haunted Bayou/Library Ghost" | Case 1: Royal Typewriter | March 31, 2011 | |
| In the series premiere, John Zaffis and his paranormal team travel to Lake Charles, Louisiana, to help a woman locate objects in her house that they feel are haunted or might have "energy" attached to them. After digging in the basement crawl space, they find an old revolver that John suggests may have been used in a local bank robbery in 1961. Then they head to Deep River Public Library in Deep River, Connecticut, where a female figure thought to be Julia Spencer, the wife of original owner Richard P. Spencer, has reportedly been seen among the book shelves. | ||||
| 2 | "My Mother's Ghost/Paranormal Predator" | Case 1: The San Francisco Music Box Company burl wood Mako shark jaw bones/ cane gun | April 14, 2011 | |
|
Zaffis and his team go to Brooklyn, New York, where a man committed murder with it in the 1870s.[3] | ||||
| 3 | "Burning Spirits/Ghosts of the West" | Case 1: 1920s Japanese miners dynamite wooden blasting box Case 2: 1870s bullets lodged into a wood ceiling | April 28, 2011 | |
|
The team heads to the former Buffalo Bill Cody ), the 26 people who were killed in the saloon, and its 400 bullet holes in the three-inch wood ceiling. | ||||
| 4 | "The Sanitarium/Firehouse Phantom" | Case 1: Poison bottle/Owner's property Case 2: Victorian mourning brooch | May 11, 2011 | |
|
The team investigates a house in their hometown of Rutherford Hall Sanitarium. Then it's off to Hose Co. 3 Fire Museum in Pueblo, Colorado , built in 1895, where it's claimed that old fire vehicles drive off on their own and several deaths occurred. The team discovers a Victorian mourning brooch made out of human hair locked in a forgotten cabinet. | ||||
| 5 | "Uncivil Spirit/Revolutionary Ghost" | Case 1: Minie ball Case 2: Owner's 21-year-old son/property | May 18, 2011[4] | |
|
The team examines a sorcery and folk magic. | ||||
| 6 | "Slaughterhouse Ghosts/Supernatural Sword" | Case 1: Foster Bros. skinning knife from the mid-1870s to Saint John the Baptist & Late 1890s Execution sword | May 25, 2011[4] | |
|
The team investigates a 200-year-old barn in Hungarian family. The team speculates the barn's history is the cause of the owner's horse constantly being scratched. Later, they travel to a private house in Jacksonville, North Carolina, where it's claimed that a malevolent force led a married couple to separation when the husband became possessed by black magic. After lifting the carpet in his bedroom, the team finds a Cross of Salem symbol painted in what they say is blood, which they feel could be the cause of his blackouts. | ||||
Season 2 (2012)
| No. | Title | Haunted item(s) | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | "Haunted Mansion/Ghost Mill" | Case 1: Young girl's vertebrae bone Case 2: 1940s worker's lunch box/Native American scalping knife from the War of 1812 | January 11, 2012 | |
|
In the second-season premiere, John Zaffis and his paranormal team travel to a 200-year-old mansion in grain mill in Huron, Ohio , 48 hours before it is to be demolished. They learn that the mill had many work-related accidents, including an inspector who fell to her death from the 9th-floor elevator shaft and a worker who was buried alive in concrete in one of the silos. | ||||
| 8 | "Haunted Inn/Long Live the Kings" | Case 1: Garrote made with wooden keg taps and piano wire Case 2: Antique love locket | January 25, 2012 | |
|
The team investigates the Hulbert House, a 200-year-old bed-and-breakfast in Mayport Village, Florida , where a relative of John King was brutally murdered with a pitchfork while sitting in a rocking chair. The current owners say they have been touched by an "unseen force", heard voices, and saw a "lady in white" by the rocker. | ||||
| 9 | "Haunted Villa/Spirit Springs" | Case 1: Late-1700s engraved pocket watch Case 2: Native American fetish doll (with porcupine quills) | February 1, 2012 | |
| The team investigates claims of paranormal activity at a colonial villa turned restaurant built in the late 1700s (Silvio's Italian Villa) in Warwick, New York, that first belonged to Martha Ellis who found out after 45 years of marriage that her husband Levi was an adulterer and got a divorce with a big trial in 1837. The villa then belonged to Roy Vail, a gunsmith who, after his wife Edith died of a heart attack, committed suicide in what is now one of the dining rooms of the restaurant. Later, the team travels to Stephenson, Virginia, to investigate Historic Jordan Springs, a natural spring with claims of a shadowy figure of a monk in the building that once housed a Civil War hospital and a monastery. | ||||
| 10 | "Priest Gun/Haunted Asylum" | Case 1: Gold-inlaid dentistry electrodes | February 8, 2012 | |
|
The team investigates paranormal claims of a shadowy figure at a former antique dealer's haunted house in lobotomies and electric shock treatments on their patients against their will. | ||||
| 11 | "Haunted Rectory/Grand Midway Ghosts" | Case 1: Wooden tool handle used as a breakstick in dog fighting Case 2: Autolite-brand 1900s coal miner's methane gas head lamp | February 15, 2012 | |
|
The team investigates alongside a dog who is allegedly "paranormally trained" at the old, historically registered Sedamsville Rectory in Cincinnati, Ohio, that's supposedly haunted by the ghost of a cloaked priest who was murdered there in the late 1800s. However, the team discovers the rectory was a part of a local dog-fighting ring. Then the team investigates paranormal claims of whispers, shadow figures and poltergeist activity at the former Grand Midway Hotel now serving as a personal residence in Windber, Pennsylvania , a former coal mining town around the start of the 20th century. | ||||
| 12 | "Stirring the Dead/Ghost Writer" | Case 1: Mid-to-late-1800s brass screw-top lid compass and old leather boot Case 2: Inconclusive (no items were determined haunted) | February 22, 2012 | |
| The team investigates a newly renovated home from the 1800s in Lorain County, Ohio, where the basement is full of old objects from decades past. Also it is claimed that a dark shadow figure believed to be the former owner's son Malcolm Holiday, who was killed by a train on the nearby tracks in 1902, is haunting the halls. Next, the team heads to Tipp City, Ohio, to investigate Browse Awhile Books, a book store built as a barbershop in 1871 where they believe the spirit of a little child who died in a fire here may be the cause of paranormal activity. | ||||
| 13 | "Casino Phantom/California Nightmare" | Case 1: 1890s Wizard hand-mucking card-cheating device Case 2: Inconclusive (no items determined to be haunted) | March 7, 2012 | |
|
The team checks out paranormal claims that employees are being grabbed by an unseen force at Las Vegas, Nevada, once run by illegal offshore gambler Anthony Cornero (a.k.a. Tony Stralla) in the 1940s. Next, the team heads to Glendora, California, where they investigate a law enforcement officer's 10-acre property home where he says weird knocking sounds and dark shadows terrify him and his family. Through research, it is learned that the house first belonged to a wealthy family who threw lavish parties in the 1940s and left it abandoned. Then in the 1980s, the home became a halfway house for criminals and drug addicts. | ||||
| 14 | "Bare Bones/Octagon Haunting" | Case 1: Mid-1800s metal leeching jarCase 2: Portrait of founder Elizabeth Akers Caldwell | March 14, 2012 | |
| The team helps a family who found bones in the walls of their home that was built in the 1820s in the village of Forestville, New York. The house sits right next to the 188-year-old pioneer cemetery which the team also investigates. Through research, it is learned that the Reverend James Bennett bought the house in 1865 and his son Jerome died from tuberculosis in the home; both are buried in the cemetery. Next, the team travels to Franklin, Kentucky, to investigate Octagon Hall, an eight-sided plantation house museum used as a hospital during the American Civil War. The house was built in 1847 by Andrew Jackson Caldwell, and his daughter Mary Elizabeth is believed to haunt the place where she burned to death while playing in the kitchen fireplace. | ||||
| 15 | "Ghost Tavern/Terror House" | Case 1: Late-1700s metal baby rattle/teething ring Case 2: Late-1800s to early-1900s ice pick | March 21, 2012 | |
|
The team investigate claims of a phantom baby's cries at King's Tavern in bandits. Next, they investigate the claims of paranormal activity at a woman's 114-year-old haunted house in Schuyler Lake, New York . Upon research, they learn that the house's original owner, Englishman Robert Jones (the acting town doctor), allegedly failed to treat a resident named Paul who was stabbed with an ice pick in front of the house in 1915. | ||||
| 16 | "Firestarter/Haunted Museum" | Case 1: Broken Klansman robe from a Ku Klux Klan chapter based in West Virginia | March 28, 2012 | |
| The team head to Ansonia, Connecticut, to investigate a home that a mother and children say is prone to spontaneous fires, a dark figure and a little imp-like apparition with red eyes. Next, they investigate the Hardin County History Museum in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, where people report a ghost of a man in a brown suit they believe to be a man named Christopher Frays who used to live next door during the Civil War period. | ||||
| 17 | "Enfield Horror/Masonic Spirits" | Case 1: Early 1900s hand-carved bone Italian horn cornicello Case 2: Civil War-era three-bladed fleam | April 4, 2012 | |
| The team heads to Enfield, Connecticut, to investigate the house of a family who claim to have been plagued by malevolent paranormal activity for five years. The family says they heard a voice on a baby monitor say "You are all going to die." The team says that in 1930, an Italian immigrant named Charles Comparetto, who lived in the house, became infatuated with his neighbor, stabbed her seven times, shot her husband, and then shot himself in the home, leaving his body's blood stain on the living room floor. Then they return to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, to visit the Morrison Masonic lodge that was chartered in 1823 and was once used as a Civil War hospital during Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's campaign that took many civilian lives. | ||||
| 18 | "Haunted Island/Ghosts of Maui" | Case 1: Early-1930s woman's metal bedframe with color reversal film (with footage of an unknown actress) and tin reel case | April 11, 2012 | |
|
The team travels to Iao Theater on the island of Maui where a ghost of a woman (believed to be an unknown actress) is said to be seen flying around the building. They learn that the theater sits at the base of the sacred Iao Valley that was taken by Kamehameha I in a bloody battle with Hawaiian warriors. | ||||
Season 3 (2013)
| No. | Title | Haunted item(s) | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | "Farm Stalker/Echo Club Spirits" | Case 1: Leyden jar Case 2: Early-20th century account ledger and club membership photograph | February 22, 2013 | |
|
First the Haunted Collector team travels to Montgomery, New York, to meet a frightened owner of Highland horse farm who believes the previous owner who died on the property is hurting her horses. Next, they head to Niagara Falls, New York , to investigate the Echo Club, a Polish-American club that was built in 1885 where the members say they are being terrorized by a malevolent entity. | ||||
| 20 | "Cigar Bar Spirits/Child's Play" | Case 1: 1870s-era syringes in velvet caseCase 2: Late-19th century pewter casket plate | March 1, 2013 | |
|
The team travels to the Caffe Vittoria, and a cigar bar, Stanza dei Sigari, both built in the late 1800s. Paranormal claims include a black shadowy figure that frightens his staff and customers. They discover the cigar bar used to be a baby farm in 1879 run by a Miss Elwood, who poisoned the babies with arsenic. Next, they head to Wappingers Falls, New York , to investigate claims of a ghost named Lucy D. Perrin in an 1870 Victorian house which burned down and was rebuilt two years later by the prominent Van Wyck family. | ||||
| 21 | "Ghost Behind Bars/Haunted Brothel" | Case 1: Photograph of Lucy Case 2: Late-1800s to early-1900s laudanum bottle | March 8, 2013 | |
| The team travels to Deer Lodge, Montana, to investigate the old Montana State Prison, built in 1908, which held several women prisoners. Staff and visitors say they see a shadowy figure of a female inmate named Lucy Cornforth who was sentenced to life in prison for accidentally poisoning her 8-year-old daughter named Mary Jane. Next, they head to Butte, Montana, to meet the owner of the former Dumas Brothel from the 1890s, who has plans to renovate it into a hotel. They learn about Sarah, a prostitute who may have fallen in love with a miner named James only to commit suicide after she learned he was killed in a copper mine explosion. | ||||
| 22 | "Island Of Fear/tropical Terror" | Case 1: Ancient Puerto Rican ceremony stone Case 2: Native santeria (coconut filled with hair and a chicken tongue to make people nervous) | March 15, 2013 | |
|
The team travels to the tropical island of Puerto Rico to investigate Casa Blanca (also known as the Ponce de Leon estate) in San Juan. Built in 1521, it was the former home of Ponce de Leon and his family, who spent 200 years there. Today, it is a museum and the staff claim paranormal activity such as doors slamming on their own and shadow figures. Next, they investigate a family that claims physical and auditory disturbances in their residence in Guayama, Puerto Rico . | ||||
| 23 | "Haunted Emmitt House Ghosts/Shadow Intruder" | Case 1: Early to mid-1800s handmade veil/Patch box ("Long May You Live & Be Happy") Case 2: Early 1900s The Great Wallace Brother Circus token (jester symbol) | March 22, 2013 | |
| The team travels to Waverly, Ohio, to investigate the haunted Emmitt House which was built as a hotel in 1861 by the prominent entrepreneur James Emmitt on the Erie Canal. Through research they learn that Emmitt lost two children; his 6-month-old son and Elizabeth, his 4-year-old daughter, from a smallpox epidemic. Next, they head to Brighton, Michigan, to investigate a private residence where a homeowner and his mother are being plagued by unsettling events and physical attacks. | ||||
| 24 | "Spirits of Gettysburg/Headless Horseman" | Case 1: 1784 Antique Bramah Key (pick-proof key) Case 2: Union Army staff lieutenant colonel shoulder board | March 29, 2013 | |
|
The team travels to William S. Rosecrans ) (mispronounced as "William Rosencrans"), who owned coal mines in West Virginia. | ||||
| 25 | "Ghosts of Geneva/Fort Fear" | Case 1: Engraving stone ("Thomas 1779") Case 2: 1950-60s Roofing spikes (used as a safety feature on boots or shoes) | April 6, 2013 | |
|
The team travels to Detroit Riot of 1967 . | ||||
| 26 | "Shadow Boxer/Ghost Storm [2]" | Case 1: seizures )Case 2: Inconclusive (no items determined to be haunted) | April 13, 2013 | |
| The team travels to Kansas City, Missouri to investigate claims of two little girl ghosts who are frightening the children of Whosoever Community Center which used to be schoolhouse in 1889. They learn that the building housed boxing programs throughout the years and an amateur boxer named Anthony "Tex" Johnston who had epilepsy. He's 22 years old and had died in the bathtub in his hotel room after losing a match. Next, they head to Joplin, Missouri, to investigate a private residence where a man who died after being impaled during the tornado of May 22, 2011, is contacting the family with messages of the number "22" through a 19th-century mirror above the staircase. | ||||
| 27 | "Lakeside Terror/Pythian Secrets" | Case 1: 1900s to 1920s-era colored glass ring/1920s silver-plated hip flask with engraving "B.M." (Bud Maynard) Case 2: 1870-1871 German iron cross medallion from the Franco-Prussian War ("W" on it stands for King Wilheim) | April 20, 2013 | |
|
The team travels to Nazi S.S. agent POWs. In 1942, one of the Knights of Pythian, William Rensenbrink (German-born), had committed suicide when he cut his throat with a razor blade there. | ||||
| 28 | "Hollywood Haunting [3]/Gold Rush Ghost [4]" | Case 1: 1919-1924 music sheets Case 2: 1850s-period costume dress | April 27, 2013 | |
|
The team travels to Hollywood, California to investigate a house in the Hollywood Hills that used to be Orson Welles's house when he was writing Citizen Kane. He is supposedly haunting the place where he spent two years as a recluse due to the bitter feud with William Randolph Hearst. They find an old cigar box with sheet music in the basement predating 1924 that belonged to Welles' mother named Beatrice who was a concert pianist and died when he was nine years old, which made him lose interest in music. Next, they head to Columbia, California, to investigate the Fallon Hotel (est. in 1847) & Theater (est. in 1857) in an old gold rush town.[5] . When in costume, the hotel Front Desk Manager named Olivia Phillips resembles former saloon owner Martha Carlos who was the last face prominent miner named John Smith saw when he got into a physical altercation with her and was shot in the head by her husband. | ||||
| 29 | "Haunted Seminary/Ghost Games [6]" | Case 1: 1800s bonnet (with a secret pocket sewn inside for hiding items) and blouse (with bullet holes) Case 2: Late 1800s-1890s clay pendant (used for a game called "Hide the Thimble")[7] | May 3, 2013 | |
|
The team travels to Huckle buckle beanstalk . He accidentally fell over and drowned into the creek near the house. | ||||
| 30 | "House Of Pain/Antique Spirits" | Case 1: Inconclusive (no items determined to be haunted) Case 2: Late 1800s to early 1900s Casket handle and Trepanning tool (medical device to drill holes in human's skulls for mental illness or headaches) | May 10, 2013 | |
|
The team travels to mortician who experimented on dead bodies in the basement and invented the "666" elixir to treat malaria , died there in 1909. | ||||
See also
- Ghost hunting
- List of reportedly haunted locations in the United States
- List of reportedly haunted locations in the world
- Paranormal television
References
- ^ "Syfy Renews Hit Paranormal Series "Haunted Collector" for Third Season". Retrieved 24 November 2012.
- ^ "The Haunted Collector Files (Paranormal)".
- ^ "Haunted Collector Episodes - Haunted Collector Season 2 2012 Episode Guides - Watch Haunted Collector Episodes from SyFy". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 2012-09-27.
- ^ a b TV.com (2011-06-01). "Haunted Collector Episodes". TV.com. Archived from the original on 2011-08-11. Retrieved 2012-09-27.
External links
- Official website
- Haunted Collector at IMDb
- John Zaffis on Season Two of 'Haunted Collector'
- John Zaffis Paranormal Museum
- Haunted Collector at TV Guide
- Haunted Collector TV Schedule SyFy TV Guide
- John Zaffis 1st thoughts about John Zaffis ...
- Haunted Collector’ John Zaffis Steals Valuables From Vulnerable People
- Haunted Collector TV Muse
- Haunted Collector Watch Series7
- Haunted Collector U-Verese
- Haunted Collector" Star John Zaffis
- Haunted Collector Series
- Syfy holds casting call for "Haunted Collector"
- Haunted Collector returns Seasons 3
