Chowning’s Tavern & the Paranormal Attack
In my last blog, EVP technology gave me insights into one of the most troubling, yet intriguing photos I have ever taken; this time the Ovilus gives a hint to the mystery that surrounds the story of a former security guard and a photo from Chowning’s Tavern. The account may be a residual haunting–a paranormal episode that plays over and over again and usually involves violence and death. Nobody knows why the participant ghosts seem to be locked into reenacting a violent, homicidal act, but they apparently relive the violence oblivious to what’s presently going on. The soundtrack to what is now a paranormal assault played one time for a former Colonial Williamsburg security guard Chuck Rayle, and it has forever changed him:
One evening Chuck and his photographer friend Chris were walking down the alley next to Chowning’s; as the two friends approached the seating area in back of the tavern they both heard what sounded like a group of people coming out of the front of the tavern. Obviously from their location in the back of the building they could not see the group, but they could hear what sounded like several men and one woman laughing and talking as they exited the tavern. A few more steps, and although they could not hear what one of the men said, they heard the woman say, “No!”. As they continued walking towards the building’s front, they heard the woman again say, “No!”, this time a little louder and with more conviction. A few seconds later the woman screamed out her refusal a third time, sending a chill down their spines and the two men began to sprint towards the front of Chowning’s. Chuck pulled out his revolver and his badge as he ran, Chris pulled out his cell phone and began to dial 911. As the two rounded the corner of the tavern, they fully expected to break up an attack on a woman . . . and were dumbfounded to discover that no one was there. Not yet convinced that what they heard was not in real time, they began to frantically search the area for the woman and her attackers. About forty minutes later they finally realized that what they just experienced was a moment in time–a residual haunting. One part of this audible phenomena that the two men did not realize until after their futile search–all of the ambient sounds of a summer evening in Colonial Williamsburg were wiped from their perception as if necessary to focus on the assault. Somehow the resonance of the crickets, tree frogs, and other nocturnal insects, the AC units at Chowning’s, the wind in the trees, and the tourists talking as they take an evening stroll through the ‘burg–all of the reverberating noises of a mid-summer night became inaudible as if replaced by this residual soundtrack to a paranormal attack.
About one year later I stood looking down that same alley as I related Chuck’s story to a group on my ghost tour, wondering if I would ever know what really happened in front of Chowning’s Tavern. An experienced paranormal investigator was on the tour, and he happened to have an app on his phone called the Ovilus. What it does is send out a lexicon of words electronically, and if any ghosts are nearby and want to communicate, they can select words to come up on the app. He showed me what came up on the screen immediately following the haunting tale, claiming that this was the first time he ever had names show up on the app. The names of three men (Robert, William, and Murphy) came up followed by the name of one woman: Audrey. I couldn’t help but wonder if Audrey was the woman that was attacked there, and that she was giving up the names of her attackers. Likewise I couldn’t help but wonder if Audrey was raped, or worse if she was raped and killed. Was she reliving this experience over and over again ad nauseam, or perhaps is she trying to drop clues to the living as to how she met her demise? Chuck has asked a friend of his at the Williamsburg Police Department to search the records to see if a woman named Audrey was attacked in Colonial Williamsburg, or if she disappeared here and was never heard from again. I can only wait for more answers to be found (keep in mind that this officer has to go through written records–he doesn’t have the convenience of typing in a name, searching through a database, and getting an answer in just a few seconds. As if to reinforce the narrative that you have just read, it was just last week when taking EVPs by the tavern, that EVP specialist Mike Graham captured a woman screaming as if she was being attacked on his device. When he played the recording for me, I could plainly hear the woman screaming, as if she is once again reliving the episode that may have ended her life. So the next time you walk down the alley next to Chowning’s Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg, keep your ears open for more clues from Audrey; perhaps if you listen closely she will tell you more . . .
Here is the alley next to Chowning’s Tavern, with a large red orb in the tree:
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Here is a face that I captured in a tavern window:
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Here is an intriguing face that has that mid-19th century, Civil War era look, from another window:
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Finally a group of ghosts, interestingly enough several males and I think that the face in the top left is female; could this be the group of males that attacked a woman in front of the tavern somewhere in time?
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Check out other ghost photo blogs including the following: the ghost of a small child and others attracted to what is familiar to them, the ghosts in the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, VA; the ghosts in Julep’s Restaurant in Richmond, Va; ghosts in a Las Vegas casino; dark hooded apparitions in Colonial Williamsburg, the ghosts ofMerchant Square, Williamsburg, the ghosts of Jerome, AZ P1, Jerome, AZ P2, the ghosts of Relics Restaurant, Sedona, AZ, the ghosts of the Red Garter, Williams, AZ P1, the ghosts of the Red Garter, Williams, AZ, P2, ghosts in theBarnes & Noble Bookstore that featured my book, Williamsburg’s most haunted: the Peyton Randolph House, the ghosts of Antelope Canyon in Page, AZ, one of America’s most haunted roads: Crawford Road, near Yorktown, VA, Civil War ghosts in my house, Civil War ghosts at Edgewood Plantation, photographic proof that ghosts are attracted to children, the story of how one of my ghost photos was positively identified by a group of friends, and other paranormal posts.
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After 2 years of research, a lot of experimentation, and over 10,000 photographs, check out the world’s first groundbreaking photographic study of ghosts: Haunted, Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography (Part 1) available at both Schiffer Publishing and at Amazon, nominated for consideration in the nonfiction category for the 19th annual Library of Virginia Literary Awards:
Amazon: http://amzn.com/0764350609
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Part 2 of this book features the largest number of ghosts ever captured in a single camera shot, as well as several photos of apparitions that look alien to our world. Here is the link:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/0764355724
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Tim Scullion is a published author, photographer, and musician. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree Cum Laude. In addition to the book mentioned above, Tim has written a novel, a series of instruction books on the guitar, a children’s book (all available on Amazon) and has a photo-essay published by the University of Virginia in the book Troubled Times Companion, Vol. III.
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