Stockyards Paranormal Investigations

Downtown Café

Pre-Investigation

The Downtown Café is located in the court square of historic Weatherford Texas. The building that currently houses the Café was built around 1910. According to Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, a pharmacy has been operating out of the building from approximately _______ to __________. We were told that one of the early pharmacists, Howard Rae, shot himself in the cellar of the building. We were able to confirm that a Robert Howard Rae, a pharmacist, died of a self inflicted pistol shot wound on August 25, 1925. A copy of his death certificate is below. Many people suspect that Mr. Rae haunts the place.

Current reports of activity include doors closing by themselves, “creepy” feelings, things being moved out of place, and people (waitresses) being touched.
Investigation
On the evening of Saturday April 25, the Stockyards Paranormal Investigation team made our first trip to Weatherford for an investigation. Our team that night consisted of Monica, Paula, Cheryl, Shirley, Kevin, and our guest Melody. Since this location is fairly small we decided to divide into smaller teams with one team investigating while the other team waited outside.

We found the Café difficult to investigate.. Due to the site’s location in the court square, heavy traffic and pedestrian noises wreaked havoc on EVP recordings and photographs were compromised because of large mirrors and reflective surfaces. Naturally occurring EMF readings were predominate in the kitchen and around the cashier’s table, registering around a 0.1 or 0.2.

Before we split up into teams, Cheryl, Monica, and Shirley all heard a very distinct rustling noise behind the counter. They tried to locate a physical cause of the sound and tried to recreate the sound but without success. A few minutes later, they all heard the rustling again behind the counter. The sound was never heard again for the rest of the evening.

Neither team was able to catch much in the way of evidence during each team’s initial session. Later in the evening we gathered in the kitchen and had some success in communication using the K2 meter. We placed the K2 meter on a table in the kitchen. and had everyone gather around this table. Kevin began the session with some provoking in an effort to get a reaction from Mr. Rae on the K2 meter. Paula was also using dowsing rods during this session. Paula quickly began to get activity on the dowsing rods to Kevin’s questions. Through a long series of yes and no questions Paula got positive responses to the following questions:

We were communicating with the spirit of Howard Rae.
He was depressed at the time he killed himself.
He was using drugs at the time he killed himself. We asked this same question twice to verify the answer.
He was worried that his family would discover that he was using drugs.
His wife’s name was Zandie.
He does not want to leave the Café.
Someone died as the result of him making a mistake on a prescription. It is possible that this mistake was made due to his use of drugs.

As we got into this last bit of questioning we began to have activity on the K2 meter. The light on the meter had been dark during the entire session, however during this line of questioning the lights began to flicker. We then got the following responses on the K2 meter:

Is this Howard? yes
Are there other spirits here? Yes

We continued to ask questions however we only received one more response on the K2 meter and this was not in response to a question.

We found the Downtown Café a challenge to investigate however it was still a lot of fun. We did not catch any unusual photos during the evening and caught no evidence on our video.

We would like to thank the management of the Downtown Café for the opportunity to investigate here. We would love a chance to come back on a quieter night and try some different techniques. We would also have loved to have gotten into the cellar, however during this night’s investigation it was not possible.