Free April Slaughter by Ghosthunting Texas

and hangs above a sign bearing the name of the bookstore you’ll find inside today. Books & Crannies is a quaint little bookstore with a lot of charm.

    Ron and Gayle Harris own and manage the store, along with two upstairs apartments in the building. Unfortunately, the Iris was ravaged by fire in May 2005, and most of the bookstore was lost in the blaze. The community of Terrell rallied around the couple and donated thousands of books to restock shelves, while several people put in hours of volunteer time to help rebuild and preserve a piece of Terrell’s history.
    Allen and I set out one Saturday afternoon to visit the bookstore and to introduce ourselves as investigators with The Paranormal Source, Inc. Just as we walked in, we were greeted by a beautiful cat named Maddie, who we learned came to the Iris after becoming an orphan when Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans. She has since taken up residence at the bookstore and greets the customers as they come into her home to peruse the large selection of books.
    After a quick look around, Allen and I introduced ourselves to Gayle and asked her if she had ever experienced anything paranormal in the building.
    “I hear things every now and again,” she said. “Sometimes I get the distinct feeling that I am not alone when I know there is no one else in the store with me.”
    We sat and spoke with Gayle for quite some time before asking her if she would ever be interested in having a professional paranormal investigation team come in and solidify some of her experiences by trying to document activity in the building. She and her best friend “Doc” were excited about the proposition and we scheduled our first of two investigations of the theatre.
    One of my major areas of study over the past couple of years has been research on the various “ghost box” devices that are available to investigators in the field. Allen and I have acquired several different versions of radio devices altered to continually scan the radio bands, which in theory provide those on the other side a source of audio noise from which they can form words
and sentences to communicate with us. We asked Gayle and her husband if we could experiment with these devices in their bookstore, and they graciously allowed us to try.
    One of our first experiments was with a prototype of what is called the MiniBox—a radio device that was inspired by an invention of Colorado resident Frank Sumption. For years, Frank has been building and giving his aptly named “Frank’s Boxes” to different researchers for use, but as these are not readily available to the public, Ron Ricketts was inspired to build a version of the device for mass production. I had been given MiniBox Prototype # 3, which we brought along on this particular investigation.
    Allen set up the MiniBox in the theatre, as well as our video camera and digital audio recorders to catch whatever information may come through. We all sat in the vintage theatre seats and listened as the sound fluctuated and echoed off the walls. We made small talk as we passed the time, waiting to hear something from the MiniBox.
    Suddenly the box blared, “April!” We instantly fell silent and waited. My name had come across the box very clearly, and atop the background radio noise that was continuously moving.
    “Hello, is there anyone here with us that would like to make themselves known and say hello?” I asked.
    “Yes, several. Active conduit,” responded the box.
    Just as the box had suddenly begun to communicate, it just as quickly went silent and no other words came through. The radio noise was back to being random and unintelligible, though we waited for quite some time for it to begin again.
    When we finally decided to turn the box off and begin working with other equipment, the distinct sound of heavy boots walking across the wood floor startled us. There was no mistaking that sound. Someone unseen had walked into the theatre but could not be