DETECTIVE MAGAZINE HEAVEN

(Note: I am posted this write-up on my main blog, THE SPLATTING NUN!).

An interesting little documentary about supposed spirit infestations at Fox Hollow Farm in Indiana.

Fox Hollow Farm, in the Hamilton County town of Westfield, Indiana, was once owned and occupied by businessman Herb Baumeister, his wife Julie and their children. Here’s a slightly out of focus picture of the family:

Herb had a secret desire for male companionship in the sexual context and so would bring back young men to the estate at times when Julie and the kids were out. The biggest problem of all was that Herb was killing most (but not all) of his conquests and then burning and burying the remains in a wooded area directly behind the main house.

To find out more about this, here’s the book to read on it:

I read this book quite a while ago – it’s excellent and I recommend it highly.

But anyway, back to THE HAUNTING OF FOX HOLLOW FARM.

As far as “ghost” documentary films go, I was pleased to see that – in my opinion – they weren’t giving you “cheap”, false and unwarranted thrills as so many of the “ghost hunter” TV shows tend to do. This is usually because shows which do that are all crap and no substance. My opinion – for what it’s worth.

Anyway, one of the new owners of Fox Hollow Farm, a lady, indicates that she had seen a man in a red shirt on the back of the property (from a distance) and upon closer inspection, and then gradually noticed that he had no legs and appeared to be floating over the ground and disappeared into a tree. Literally. Alarmed, she contacted a group of paranormal investigators to check it out.

Most of this documentary, which clocks in at just over an hour, relies on EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) recordings to “prove” that the place is haunted, especially the area around the indoor swimming pool where Herb killed his victims. Luckily someone, presumably on the team, was able to “understand” what was being said on these EVP’s and provided captions. Otherwise some of these recordings sounded to me like the spritz of a nearly empty aerosol spray can. But, then, my hearing isn’t at an optimal level, so what the hell do I know?

It’s never really clear to me whether any one of the voices is purported to be Herb (who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, while camping with his son in Canada and before he could answer the murder charges). He did not harm his son nor is there any indication that he molested the boy, which is really the only “happy ending” to the Herb Baumeister saga.

At one point in the film, an “entity” is asked if he is Herb. The EVP reply is “You know who I am”. I would imagine that if the investigators had known for sure it was Herb that it would have negated the need for them to ask.

One of the team sent to investigate the area was an Indian “seer” of some kind. It is his contention that there are 32 victims in total (the “official” count was 13), with one body being that of a little girl. There’s no evidence of this other than the statement made by the seer.

I don’t really know if you can get this movie as a single DVD. I found it as part of an 8-movie set called HAUNTED HOLLOWS for 5 bucks at a local Wal-Mart. It has several movies that claim to be documentaries or quasi-documentaries. It also, for some strange reason, has the latest (that I know of) CHILDREN OF THE CORN snorefest on it. This one must be the chaff amongst the wheat.

The Herb Baumeister story was recently featured as part of the Christopher Mason television series BEHIND MANSION WALLS on the Investigation Discovery Channel. Not the hauntings, just the murder part of it.