This Paranormal Life - #327 The Dakota - New York's Most Haunted Building

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

When The Dakota was built in New York City in 1880 it was an oddity. Built with no expense spared, it was beautiful and futuristic - capable of powering itself and all it's surrounding streets with it's own basement power station - yet so far away from downtown Manhattan that it was named The Dakota because it might as well have been the midwest. But as soon as construction was complete it became clear that something was 'off' about the building. Strange and unfortunate events befell the first people to live there, and over time, ghosts were seen stalking it's halls. The building has been home to countless celebrities over the years and many have had paranormal experiences of their own. Is The Dakota as haunted as they say? Time for Rory and Kit to investigate.LIVE TOUR - https://www.thisparanormallife.com/tourFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunitySupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeIntro music by www.purple-planet.comResearch by Amy GrisdaleEdited by Philip Shacklady Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are iPhones the mark of the beast described in the Bible? Is the jungle full of monkey ghosts? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life! Hello! Hey! And welcome back to This Paranormal Life, the weekly comedy podcast where every Tuesday we get to the bottom of a different paranormal tale and decide whether it's really paranormal or not.

You're joined by me, Kit Greer-Molvena, and my co-paranormal investigator, Rory Powers, who's sitting across from me. How you doing today, Rory? Doing fantastic, Kit. You know, as humans, we put our emphasis on the ghost of humans, but there's nothing out there to say that animals themselves can't have ghosts too. Many people can't go to SeaWorld because it's a mistreatment of the animals. I can't go because I am overwhelmed by the sheer number of ghost dolphins flipping around, flapping around, doing little jumps in the air. It's frankly terrifying and a little cute, I will admit. But it's something that we should acknowledge.

Ghost animals. And we should be sympathetic to people like us, people who are sensitive to the paranormal, mediums, things like that. Because if you think the baboon enclosure at London Zoo is noisy, if you can hear the dead ones, it's insane.

I almost went mad. It's overwhelming. It truly is. So a little bit of a dark note to kick off the podcast, but it is true. People forget that, Rory. We're just animals too. So, you know, there's nothing special that means that there's just human ghosts and there's not animal ghosts. I think that's a safe assumption to make. But it is not what we're here to talk about today.

Rory, we have a doozy of a case ready for you ready for us to get to the bottom i'll see if it's paranormal or not are you ready or what animal are we talking about this week but no animal no animal actually the intro question was a bit of a misdirection apologies no i got really down there mentally down into like the animal path but don't worry you're going to be very excited because we have, it's big. We're actually looking into, I'll say it's a location and it's a place, it's a building. Okay, okay, very cool. Some sort of zoo, perhaps?

Some place where the animals are, sorry, what? I just don't want to get, it wasn't even the only intro question. There was actually another pretty interesting question at the beginning about our iPhones. Could that be the sign of the devil or something? Yeah. Forget that one, though, because the ghost monkeys are actually pretty interesting to me.

Yeah. But even more interesting is the topic of this week's episode, which has been demanded by a lot of people. So a lot of people are really excited to hear this one. And I'll give you another tease. It's a haunting. Whoa! The haunted veterinarium.

No, no. Where do the animals come from then? There is none. We've covered many haunted cryptids. They're technically animals. Things like that in the past. That's not what's happening today. I mean, if it will get you to shut up and pay attention i'll drop a hint and say that there's maybe a

dog will turn up at some point you're like there was a rat there was a rat at one point in 1975 he died in his ghost haunts the hallways are you happy i've said too much already we've got an iconic haunted building to rip open the floorboards of and get to the bottom of and find out if it's really haunted right after a couple of words from today's sponsors. Today's story begins in one of the most famous residential buildings in New York City. New York City. The Dakota. We actually don't hang out in NYC that often on this Paranormal Life. Or in this regular life.

I've only been to New York City once, and I was young and fat enough that the only thing I remember was the M&M World. I don't remember anything else aside from the M&M World. Isn't it crazy how, you know, everyone looks down on the M&M store. Right. You know, people in London, people in New York, you know, whenever... Rory, you're a Londoner, you live here,

and if you go through, like, Leicester Square or whatever, you're like, I can't believe it. Imagine being the type of person that comes to London, all they want to do is go to the M&M store. That was you! It was me. I'd like to say I was a different person. And clearly, it was a memory that lasted

a lifetime. You want to investigate something paranormal? Investigate the f***ing M&M's store. Because even me or anyone who has no interest or passion or love for the confectionery known as M&M's, as soon as

you enter that store, your pupils go back into your head and the next thing you know, you're walking out with, I bought an M&M t-shirt. I don't even eat M&M's. I had an M&M's t-shirt and an M&M's action figure.

When was the last time you ate M&M's? I haven't eaten M&M's probably since, it was an accident at some point in my life. I would say, yeah, someone else's birthday party

when I was 12 crazy uh that being said and we are getting off topic and i do need to claw it back and bring it back to the present day i'm getting wound up very early as well i don't know if you remember rory whenever we were at school and crunchy m&ms hit the streets yeah it was the largest i've ever been in my life bro what were they putting in those things? They were crazy. I had never tasted anything like it.

How can something have so much sugar in it and yet not deliver any nutrients or nourishments? It was like eating crispy air. They were so light

and delicious. That was like the little kids version of like pirates going blind from eating too many rabbits because there's no nutrient. They're stuck on an island and they die from eating rabbit because there's no nutrients in it.

That was me circa 2004 eating crunchy M&Ms. I think there was even times where I locked myself in the bathroom so my parents couldn't get to me and were just eating an entire family bag of crunchy M&Ms. That shit was nuts. We were f***ed up because we were hanging out in our hometown and I seem to remember

our local shop, I seem to remember crunchy M&M's landed around the same time as Oreos. Right, that's how far behind we were. Because the UK

didn't always have Oreos. Yeah. And bro, that was a dark summer. That was Northern Ireland's version of the opioid crisis in America. Little kids laid out in the street, packets of Oreo crumbs

around their mouths. It was sad. It was, it really was. It was a dangerous time. When the sugar crash happened, they were looking like zombies. There's only so far

that childhood metabolism can take you. And I definitely pushed its limits. But Rory, we do need to solve that. Thankfully, we actually are going to solve the problem of you not having been to,

I've been to New York a couple of times as an adult and it's amazing. You're not going to want to leave, which is maybe a problem because we're going there in October. We're going for our first ever New York as part of our world tour.

We're going there for our first ever live show at the Gramercy Theatre. Woo! So you're saying that this place, this city, this New York

is filled with some haunted locations that we don't know about yet? That's exactly what I'm saying. Head over to thisparanormalife.com forward slash tour. Pick up your tickets

for the Gramercy Theatre and we're going to check out one of these buildings right now. We're going to be doing the pre-show Meet and Greet at the M&M. You're going to want to check it out. Like I say, we're at the Dakota. This is a famous building

and landmark. As much a part of the city as everything bagels or organised crime. Have you seen the Dakota before, before we get any further? No, I've never even heard of this till right now. This is a very grand Upper West Side building, one that needs a lot of upkeep. Crews of electricians, carpenters and decorators

are sent regularly to maintain its stellar reputation. And one morning, a team of painters arrive to give the upper corridors a makeover. Hmm, okay. They quickly set to work peeling off the old wallpaper and laying down a coat of primer on the exposed plaster. The day wore on. Before long, they were almost done. But it was pretty chaotic. There were sheets all over the floor and stepladders lining the hall.

Sure. Oh, I'm beat. Almost done with this coat. Hey, Jerry, can you pass me a rag? One rag coming up. Oh, hello there, little girl. Where'd you come from? I'd investigate Jerry first, because he seems like he's dead or about to die.

That motherfucker's had a few crunchy M&Ms in his lifetime. One rag, coming up. Sorry, my hands are all covered in this crunchy, delicious dust. He's wheezing as he lifts the ladders up the stairs. Eat a salad, brother. Tommy, I'm going to have to take an hour between this next job. I've got to swing by Times Square.

I'm gonna have to take an hour between his next job. I gotta swing by Times Square. The workmen glanced down to see a small blonde child standing amongst them. It was as if she'd just appeared on the spot. Kick her. Kick her now. She was dressed. Kind of old-fashioned, too.

The men recognized her hairstyle from their own grandmothers. Roundhouse that little girl now. No, we don't know. We know. We don't know what's happening yet. Okay. Just assume the stance. That's all I'll say.

Jerry has his hands in the Hadouken pose, ready to go. He's already said the words Kame. Under his breath. Ready to go he's already said the words Kame under his breath ready to go she had on shiny leather shoes with silver buckles white tights a yellow dress

and was clutching a small red ball would you describe her as obtuse or translucent how would you describe

the genetic makeup of this beast you mean opaque opaque I was like has she been hit in the M&M store too How would you describe the genetic makeup of this beast? You mean opaque? Opaque. I was like, has she been hitting the M&M store too? What are you saying?

Opaque, I meant. You're like, is she Rory circa 2004? Maybe the strangest thing was these guys worked there all the time. They'd met all the residents and they didn't recognize her. They started mouthing to each other. Where does she live? No idea. Jerry kneeled down.

Are you visiting here, sweetie? Where's your mommy? I think Jerry needs to go to a doctor. Jerry huffed from an oxygen tank. Where's your mommy? Sweetie, go get help. Uncle Jerry's sticker's gonna pop. Don't go to work.

You're so ill. She stood silently, looking up at the faces of the painters. Then she turned her attention to the ball and began bouncing it on the spot. Did you hear me, princess? Where are your parents? She caught the ball and looked up again. It's my birthday. Well, happy birthday. You must be having a party. Well, we don't want to get your party dress covered in paint. Why don't you head on home? She turned to walk away without saying a

word. Jerry turned to hand over his rag. When he turned back again, about one second later, she was already gone. What the? She probably went into one of the apartments down there. Just then, a young woman and her daughter emerged from an apartment. Oh, hello. Are you going to the party? We just met the birthday girl. She was about your age. The mother looked confused. What party? What neighbor? We're the only family with kids on this floor. In fact, I think Madison here is the only girl her age in the whole building. Oh, my mistake. Good day, ma'am. But that didn't sit right with Jerry. He didn't see the little girl again, so he started asking around the building.

It turned out he wasn't the only one to have met her. Countless others had seen the exact same girl, sometimes decades apart. Oof. She can be seen wandering the corridors playing with her ball or waving to people passing by the windows had those painters seen a ghost oh jesus christ there was no need to be that loud on the sorry i wrote that in as part of jerry's dialogue but i sorry that's not right yeah had they seen a ghost that's what he scared the shit out of me yes Sorry, that's not right.

Yeah. Had they seen a ghost? That's what I meant to say. Yeah, you scared the shit out of me. Yes, I think is the answer. All right, let me show you a picture of this building. Yeah, because I think it's one thing to say that this building was old, creepy and decrepit, needing of work. I assume that describes a lot of buildings in New York City.

It's an old city. There are building permits and historical buildings that have restrictions around what you can and can't do with them meaning a lot of these buildings have probably been around for a long time yeah this one ain't decrepit but it does need upkeep for sure alright well there's no need to then correct me if it needs upkeep but it's technically not decrepit well it's just you said that it was you know falling apart I think is what you said

and it's actually so I kind of was right then falling apart I think is what you said and it's it's actually so I kind of was right because you said it yeah I'm looking at it right now and it looks old as shit it's perfect

and pristine but the paint is old and falling apart and it needs constant renewal so not pristine then it's in dangerous need of reworking

it's like a shining diamond and the inside of the diamond with some rough edges with some rough edges, of course. There's damp. There's black mold. This sounds terrible. Creaky old floorboards.

I mean, I'm looking at this thing right now. It is where Bruce Wayne lives in Gotham City. I wouldn't be surprised if there are gargoyles on the roof. This thing is old. I think I literally wrote that in the script i was like bruce wayne lives here yeah alfred lives here it's very cool it's very very cool but yes this is an old building as rory says if there's a building in new york city that's haunted uh this is as good a candidate as any this looks like where dracula stays when he wants to

see a broadway show yeah it's beautiful gothic looking, built back in 1880. It was called the Dakota because at the time, it was so far from downtown, it might as well have been in the Midwest. It probably would have taken three days by horse and carriage to get to Brooklyn, which is something we have here too.

The city's gotten bigger over the years. So now it's all central London, but back in the day, even Shepard's Bush bigger over the years. So now it's all central London. But back in the day, even Shepherd's Bush was technically in Wales. Yeah, me popping down to the big Tesco by my apartment in the olden days would have been a seven-day pilgrimage across ancient lands where probably half of the party would die before they even see a meal deal. Yeah, not everyone knows that even the 40 days in the desert in the Bible,

that was, they walked like 15 minutes. Two feet, yeah. But in reality, the Dakota sits today right on the edge of Central Park, making it one of the most famous and valuable buildings in the city. Jesus, wow. It is 65 apartments,

with some residents living there for a very long time. Hundreds of years, for example. One little girl in particular. But even though I said its age makes it even more possible this place is paranormal, the truth is that ghostly activity has been reported since the first day this thing was opened. Whoa.

Which is why, as paranormal investigators, we highly recommend before you build even a goddamn car park, call us. Sure. Have us look around. See whether the ground's cursed or not. See whether there's any ghosts.

Because it's all fun and games when you've got a cool apartment building like this. But what if you, what if you build a hospital for people with weak hearts they can't take a fright yeah sure yeah what if it's a special facility for easily frightened children i hope you've got good laundry facilities because damn near every child just wet the bed on the first night that's why you get us involved we've got a We've got a great track record of angering the souls of the dead.

Right. So if you bring us to a location, you're going to find out very fast whether it's haunted or not. Right. Because we'll find a way to disrespect it almost immediately. But in this case, it isn't just ghostly little girls running around the corridors. Many residents report objects moving around their apartments on their own. Even big things like furniture or rugs. They also report hearing footsteps

and odd noises at strange times in their apartments. Okay, what we're hearing here is your typical kind of poltergeist activity. Spirits or specters interacting with the physical world, moving objects it's your classic case of a haunted location

that's what we're seeing it is and look Rory knows as well as I do the P word sometimes it's a bad word hey we all read the reviews

the Enfield haunting was boring we all we all we all know it it's true I put some work into it but there's nothing

you could do there's nothing there shit just it moves oh it moves a lego piece from one side of the room to the other oh i threw a cookie at the mom's head i don't remember the specifics of it i've forgotten what i don't know what point you're trying to make right now i'm kind of lost what i'm trying to say yeah okay is i don't switch off what is what i'm trying to say Yeah Is Don't switch off Is what I'm trying to say Because I saw some reviews Say that people People got sick of

Hearing about Lego pieces Being thrown across the room And The people are saying They've heard enough Poltergeist cases Right But I promise you

That this is Some juicy shit There's a bit more Well it is juicy I don't want to get people Too excited Because yeah it is It's absolutely ghosts

it's mostly ghosts okay but some real physical tangible evidence today yeah well yeah cut that cut that because

I just don't want to get hung up on people expecting evidence and then because again the reviews are scathing they're saying it's clickbait

I'm saying that it's the most amazing haunting ever and then I tell them about the Enfield haunting and they say it's complete shit

it's complete shit. It's a ton of shit. We've mostly covered it. It was the little girl in the hallway. That's kind of 99%. But yes, this is classic poltergeist behavior, which is poltergeists, they love to do little things. You know, we're not painting with broad strokes here. We're not slitting open your cat's throat in the middle of the night.

It's like, you need to stop using metaphors on this episode. You've gone quite far enough. All of your analogies have been wildly misplaced and proved such a bad point. So just, I ban you from this now. You have to just say normal sentences. feel like i'm being persecuted like a person who stole a loaf of bread stop using analogies just say just say a normal sentence what i'm trying to say is just say what it is say what you want to say in english it's like no it's not like something it is say what it is it's such autopilot for me to use analogies

it's almost like don't say what it's like don't say you're using an analogy to describe analogies yeah so I think just let's go with the script let's hear about some of this crazy evidence

let's hear about it just one last one just to this is like the Enfield hunting on frigging drugs. I'm kidding. It's like, so unnecessary.

Like, don't switch off. Don't switch off is what I'm trying to say. Just because there's ghosts. That sounds worse. Yeah, it kind of does. All right, here's an example. Residents Frederick and Susanna Weinstein

once saw the lights of a chandelier flickering on and off in their living room when they were walking from the street below. So they're in the street looking up to their apartment. Okay. And they're seeing a chandelier flickering on and off. This was a problem because they didn't own a chandelier. Whoa. They rushed up to the flat just to find their own lights and fixtures in place.

rushed up to the flat just to find their own lights and fixtures in place. But Frederick noticed the patch of ceiling where they'd seen the mystery chandelier had patched up bolt holes where a chandelier once hung. Wow, that's pretty cool stuff. Oh, that's scary. I don't like that at all. I mean, you could imagine this happening anywhere. You know, imagine seeing a roaring fire in your house and all you have is radiators. And then you find that there used to be a fireplace in your house.

It's like not only just something ghostly, but it's actually pretty much verifiably proven that's what used to be there. Yeah, you're almost like glimpsing through a window into the past. And this is kind of cool because it is paranormal. It is spooky, but it's not a malicious kind of haunting. I don't understand why this is happening. It's almost like a time slip or you're in some sort of situation where the spirit world is kind of bleeding into the real world. I like it. I don't know how often we've seen that, to be honest. No, really never. Usually

there's motivation or some driven reason why a spirit would be interacting with humans, but this is kind of just like, hey, there used to be f***ing candles up there. Yeah. Now there isn't anymore, but we're going to show them to you for a little second. That's kind of cool. I like that. But there are more sinister stories of the Dakota building, and they come from the basement. One time, a porter was conducting a tour for some new residents. He informed them of the haunted history, but they weren't having it. Ghosts? You can't be serious. If you don't believe me, sir, I can take you to the basement. Things move around by themselves down there. I can show you.

See this metal rod? Something threw it at me while I was down here just this morning. The new tenants were intrigued, and one of them bent down to inspect the bar. He tried to pick it up, but it was too heavy to lift. Wow. And let's check down here. They say the ghost of Edward Clark... They say the ghost of Edward Clark... They say the ghost of Edward Clark. They say the ghost of Edward Clark. They say the ghost of Edward

Clark hangs out. They say the ghost of Edward Clark. Edward Clark. Edward Clark. Stay your time, man. It's fine. You don't have to rush it or anything. I can't be bothered. For f***'s sake. They say the ghost of Edward Clark.

Can you stop looking at me? Look away. Because you... You tell me I can't make an analogy. Well, that's my whole shit. That's my whole shit. And if I don't have that, I guess I can't even read a line anymore. Yeah, it's just saying a guy's name.

It's really not that hard. Egwork Clark. I can't say it. Egwork. I feel like I would be able to say it if I was just allowed a little analogy. I think that's a character from a Star Wars movie. Ekwork Clark.

Just take your time. We're in no rush. You can do it slowly if you want. It's fine. Okay, I'll try that. Oh, yeah, that's a good idea. Okay. Let's check down here.

That's a bit slow. I think you're speeding that up. Why are you interrupting me? We can speed it up in post, motherfucker. You told me to do it slow, and it's actually really helping. Okay. They say the ghost of Edward

Fuck! You said it wrong! Fuck! Slow, you said it wrong! I think I just have to go slower. Edward Fuck! I can't say this, god damn. Let's check down here. They say Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaavavavavavavavavavavavavavavavavavavavavavava The rod landed inches from the porter's feet. The new tenant was outraged. My God, that could have killed you!

Who's there? Show yourself! They ran to the stairwell and emerged in the lobby. They hadn't seen or heard another soul on the stairs, and the doorman confirmed nobody had passed him to go outside or up into the Dakota's hallways. There was no one around. Hmm. Okay, well there you go now we have poltergeist not only interacting with the physical world but chucking shit real hard real fast in an attempt to either intimidate or injure someone it seems like i mean again this is kind of classic poltergeist behavior i mean poltergeist we. I mean, poltergeist, we've said it many times before,

they are known to be little tricksters. Yes. And often to do bad things. But usually they do stop short of really harming people. Even in this case, we can say, oh, well, yeah, it could have killed him, but it didn't. He missed. And so he probably was messing around with them.

Yeah, I don't know how many recorded deaths we have of people from poltergeist activity. It's always kind of like tormenting, haunting, some playful scratching. Maybe a knife goes flying across the kitchen or something goes on fire. Sure, someone might lose a finger. Someone might lose a finger, but no one loses a life.

That's an important line that weirdly, maybe because poltergeists know if they actually kill them, then we can fight them in their world. Yeah. You kill me. Guess what? Mother. Now I'm a ghost and I can actually get you in a headlock because I assume

you're some weak little 15th century child Prince. And as soon as I enter the ghost world, I'm actually kind of jacked. We had protein shakes when I was alive. Yeah, you're going to be able to beat him just on a kind of nutrition basis. They only had gruel during his lifetime and you have Starbucks and muscle milk.

Yeah. So I could punch him into the next hell, wherever that is. So it's actually pretty smart of him to know not to do that. All right, we've heard quite a bit about some alarming poltergeist sightings, phenomena, ghostly stuff, and seen by quite a few different people.

But what we're lacking is a bit of a why and maybe some physical evidence, which we're hopefully going to see in the second half of today's investigation, right after a couple of words from today's sponsors. Reminder, you can get every episode of This Paranormal Life available ad-free right now at patreon.com forward slash

This Paranormal Life. All right, we're back and talking about the Dakota. All right, the guy we were just talking about, Edward Clark. It's true, he really was spotted around here. He was, like I say, he was the guy who basically built this place. And he was first spotted as a ghost in the 1930s.

His ghost is actually sometimes called the wig man. Primarily because, unfortunately for him, even in the afterlife, he still wears a hairpiece. Well, that's the thing. You usually are seen as a specter in the clothes you died in. So you, this isn't like a motto that I have for my life, but live in a wig, die in a wig, live again in a wig. You've got to be careful.

That's why I've said it many times on this podcast before, I wear a three-piece suit every single day for every occasion because I'm always ready for death and I want to look good for eternity. And maybe in a hundred years, if you're wandering East London, you might see Rory's ghost double-fisting a bag of M&Ms in a three-piece suit. Repairmen, electricians and other visitors have reported seeing an apparition of a short man with a long nose and beard wearing wire-framed glasses, a wig and a frock coat. Hard to miss it sounds like basically. Pretty distinct look. A bewildered electrician once came face to face with the wig man. Edward gave the young worker an intense stare out before reaching up to his head and snatching off his own wig.

He shook it angrily in the electrician's face before turning around and disappearing into thin air. Hold on. Who grabbed whose wig? Sorry, Edward grabbed his own wig and shaked it at him. Shook it at him shook it at him okay uh i wish that wasn't the story i was reading but apparently that's what happened that's what he does at least once um because i was gonna say it's kind of rude for a poltergeist to be interacting with the human world and even though he is a ghost from another time and presumably floating

and throwing things about we call him the wig man right but in our defense he's making it pretty hard for it to not be about the wig if he's showing up

shaking his wig in people's faces slapping you about with his wig I'll I'd probably call him the wig man too this is him back in his like

ghost apartment talking to his ghost wife and he's like there's other cool about me i like i had abs i was in good shape when i write it but no one calls me ab man and she's like well sweetie you'd in fairness you did well one time one time one time i shook the wig i did i was around i didn't mean to do it and not everyone that's what I'm known about forever I've got wooden teeth remember when I bit that guy no one calls me

a wooden teeth guy it's just a wig man which would be better Rory before we get in to like what might be happening back here as a paranormal investigator

do you have any like raw instincts of like what could be causing it I mean with poltergeist stuff there's usually like a hard and fast cause yeah uh of someone dies or whatever but here we've actually got a

number of different ghosts and different uh phenomena yeah this is a hard one to explain because you said ghosts were turning up as soon as this thing was basically built yeah um which would maybe lead you to believe that there was something that originally took place on that land before the apartment was built i mean if this is just a hot spot for paranormal activity maybe even existing on some ley lines what you have here is i believe you said 65 apartments where over hundreds of years nasty shit could have happened in those apartments if this is a place with heightened paranormal activity the odds are you're gonna get a whole bunch of ghosts inspectors and weird shit going down here couldn't have said it better myself

you know it is worth pointing out that the building itself is kind of fascinating this thing is actually kind of up your street because this is almost like something from the days of Thomas Edison or like the movie The Prestige. This was back when inventions felt daring and futuristic and exciting. For example, this building has its own power plant in the basement.

Whoa, well, there you go, folks. Ghosts and electricity do not mix well. Tesla himself knew that. That's crazy. I guess so it has like a self-contained power source essentially. Exactly, it has a whole like steam boiler room created at 1880 at the time that it was built

and allegedly can generate enough power to heat every building within a four mile radius also allegedly bring the dead back to life you over torqued it chief he could have left a couple megawatts for the other buildings this thing can power lights that existed 200 years ago that's how strong it is. The residents are just like, I haven't eaten in three years. There's so much electricity,

my body doesn't need fuel anymore. Right. I just brought home a raw chicken and the electricity in the air cooked it and burnt it within seconds. Like, this could be a clue. Could be a clue as to why, why this building is the borderline Heathrow of the ghost world. Thousands of ghosts coming and going casually. Some say

that the building itself could be cursed. After all, the man who built it, Edward Clark, he actually died two years before the building was even finished. Ooh, the building's second victim might be even more famous. Now, the Dakota's first residents were actually allowed to move in right before construction was completed. And one of the first men to do so was a little composer known as Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Whoa. But he didn't even survive until the building officially opened. Whoa.

But he didn't even survive until the building officially opened. Now, the records say he died of cholera, but the legend goes that he actually unalived himself because the dark energy in the building was so evil. I'm going to need to see some proof of that. Moving on. Okay. So the scientists, doctors, police, and city records say he died of cholera. But BigfootHunter69 on CryptidWiki.com said it was probably the curse.

It was a ghost. And Rory, even to talk about a recent investigation we did where we talked about the Curse of the Exorcist movie, the Dakota even has a cursed movie of its own. Researcher Amy's favorite 1968 1968's Rosemary's Baby, was shot, some of it, outside the Dakota. Oh, wow. But it's not directly about the building itself.

It's not. But that didn't stop, potentially, the sheer proximity of shooting at the Dakota. Several people involved in the production had things happen to them, including the composer fell into a coma, which was weirdly similar to the movie storyline. Whoa.

The producer, William Castle, contracted kidney stones and was rushed to hospital where he had crazy hallucinations. And that's, of course, not getting into the most horrible, most famous things that happened around that movie, which are far too dark to cover on this podcast, but you can Google that if you're a true crime lover. Which actually creates a bit of a pattern,

because we actually should know about anything paranormal going on in this building, because its residents over the years have been some of the most high-profile people on Earth. People who have lived in the Dakota include Bono, Melanie Griffith, Antonio Banderas, Cher, Billy Joel, Madonna, Judd Apatow, and many, many more. And those listed are the ones that survived the curse. Judy Holliday lived in apartment 77 and died shortly afterwards at age 43. Marilyn Monroe visited her right before she passed,

and Marilyn herself of course met a mysterious premature end a few years later. Now that might sound like a reach to Rory because he's a little doubting Thomas, but believe it or not, the next owners of Judy's apartment, while they didn't see a ghost of Judy, they did see the spirit of a little boy appear in their living room. He was about 10 years old and dressed in early 1900s clothes, ticking all the boxes so far. As soon as he appeared, they said the whole room was filled with a musty smell that made them feel sick. When suddenly, the lights cut out.

smell that made them feel sick when suddenly the lights cut out the guy closest to the door felt around for the light switch and he felt a hand on his as he reached to flick the switch on when the light came on there was no one near to him who was this just some guy this was the this is the the guy who lived in the flat after judy. Right. The thing that really worried him is he said the hand felt like it was trying to bat his hand away to keep him in the dark. That shouldn't be the thing that really worried him. The whole thing should be the thing that real worried him. The fact he can see through the boy should worry him.

That's creepy though. If you see a ghost and then the lights go off and then you go to turn on the lights and the ghost is like f*** off. F*** off. Don't.

Stop it. Bro, if I see a ghost and the lights go off I'm going to start spinning like a Beyblade in every direction hoping that I make contact with it.

That is terrifying because I don't know how ghosts work entirely but I assume they are like Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell they have night vision goggles and they can hang on the roof and they're maybe even more powerful in the dark wow video game deep cut there yeah but of course, by far the most famous person to have a terrible fate befall them at the Dakota was the Beatles' John Lennon. Not only did he live in the Dakota, he was actually shot right outside the entrance. I had no idea. I had no idea this building was so interlinked with all these tragic events.

That's crazy. December 1980. I'm actually surprised that I knew about the Dakota. But even hosting this podcast, I didn't know about this whole history. I guess almost the celebrity history overshadows the paranormal side. Yeah. Maybe it's not surprising, but I'd never heard this, but quite a lot of people have seen John Lennon's ghost around the Dakota,

including his wife, Yoko Ono, who still lives there. One drizzly Tuesday afternoon, she wandered into the living room to find him sitting at the piano. She says he looked up and spoke to her, saying, Do not be afraid. I am still with you. That's sweet. Presumably, it sounded a bit like that. Fascinatingly, and I need to have a bit more respect for the guy, because he wasn't just

a victim of a supposed curse, he actually reported seeing supernatural happenings in the building while alive. He claims he saw a UFO from one of the windows of his apartment. Whoa! He also repeatedly met a ghost he called the Crying Lady. Holy shit!

And he would see her regularly wandering the hallways. You know, this may be exactly what we need to turn ourselves into Beatles fans. Because I don't know if we've talked at length about it on the podcast, but Kit, you and I have kind of, we'll say, controversial opinions

about the Beatles. They're trash, they're ass, they're garbagio. We don't need to get into the details or anything, because a lot of people do really love the Beatles. In the same way, I assume some weirdos out there like heart attacks. Right. You know when you read those articles about people who like getting kicked in the nuts?

Like that's their fetish? I assume that must be what it's like to enjoy the music of the Beatles. Right, right, right. Yeah, it's kind of like listening to like, we all live in a yellow submarine is like a feat of endurance, like walking on coals. How long can you listen to? Or like the Guinness World Record for like getting stung by scorpions.

Right, yeah. But all right, Rory, we're reaching the end of our investigation and we're still missing our why we're still missing our what is going on here to make all this happen i mean i joked about cryptid wiki earlier that is a cryptid wiki original theory about the power plant and it feels good it feels you know something i don't know if scientific is the word but right it's an explanation a material half Materialistic kind of explanation for what's happening you said these ghosts were showing up from day one

Does that imply that the powerpoint was up and operational from day one essentially? I think that's that's potentially the idea okay. I mean the only other possible explanation is that it is a more simple cut and dry curse. You know, did one of these deaths, you could say was Edward Clark, was his death and his unfinished business in dying before the Dakota

was ever even finished, did that set off the chain reaction? Right. And then Tchaikovsky died and then the bad vibes caused hauntings to this day. Edward was like, oh, I had unfinished business on Earth.

Now everyone will. So now their spirits can never rest because they're doomed to haunt the Earth forever until the building is maybe completed. Right.

I guess it was. It has been for a long time. Okay, never mind. Out there he's gone. And I mean, maybe the only other last one is,

has anyone ever dug underneath a building? Maybe there's some kind of burial site or some sort of traditional ground. But you mentioned it earlier, that's kind of the only other, like the location being haunted. Right. Is the only other explanation.

We've had that before. Some places just being more prone to paranormal activity. And in a big city like New York, you're going to find a few of those places. At least the one thing you do have to admit is, I don't know if you're on the same page as me, I was surprised at how many sightings there have been. Well, I think you told me about three of them.

So unless there's a bunch more that you're not telling me about. You know, I know there is 65 apartments. So there's a lot more than three people living there, but I'm not saying only three people have ever seen something. I'm saying that is three cases that on their own could be an investigation into the paranormal. You know, these aren't necessarily just, okay, in one case it was like a light swinging or whatever,

but a little boy appearing in a room and then smacking your hands away from the lights interacting with you. I forgot about that one, yeah. John Lennon himself. Someone who, we talk about motivations in this paranormal life. I know he was a bit f***ing weird, but did he need to go out of his way to tell everyone about seeing ghosts? I mean, he also said he saw a UFO from the window.

So not saying that makes it any more or less believable. He did take a lot of acid, yeah. Okay, moving on. I guess what I'm asking is, where's your head at today? I don't know. This is a weird one. With cases like this, with hauntings of residential areas, we like to find an explanation as to why they're haunted.

Because that's the only way you can ever kind of explain these phenomenons. We've had it in the past where someone brought a cursed object to a location, or maybe it's built on top of an old graveyard or a well where someone was thrown down. And that's kind of how you find your explanation this time i know we have a few threads we can kind of pull on but i mean is this also just what happens when you have an incredibly old building in the center of one of the biggest cities in the world where hundreds if not maybe thousands of people are entering and exiting and living in it for over 200 years. There's bound to be some ghost stories. There's bound to be some creepy stories.

There is going to be some stories. Does that make it less paranormal? You know, I suppose. You're like, explain the wig man. Explain him now. Because that's more than just creaky floorboards well it's definitely too strange to be made up i suppose you know and i can't believe i'm saying this on my own friggin podcast but uh i suppose there's a lack of photographic and video evidence here yeah

surely this place has like lobby cctv or something at this point at this point it definitely would at this point it definitely would and uh these are some of the richest motherfuckers in america uh they can afford the ring doorbell cam uh you know so there's no reason to not have it i would say other than kind of disinterest. I feel perfectly on the fence. You know, this is one of those where I think sat here in East London recording this, I'm, you know, it's easy to not believe. But I think if I talked to anyone who lived in this building and they told me the story, I'd believe every word of it.

Right, right. If you actually met the people themselves. Yeah, it's true. It's very different when you're out there on the field. And at the end of every episode of This Paranormal Life, we each give a yes, we each give a no, whatever we decide. And we decide whether it's truly paranormal or not. Rory, in the case of the haunting of the Dakota building, what do you say? It's a great story. I love the variety of the examples that we had today.

But there's just not enough here for me to confidently say that this is paranormal. It's going to be a no from me this week. Was it when I said Edward Clark? Edward Clark? That kind of threw, I was kind of tuning out by that. I kind of just saw the light in your eye just die when I said it for the 16th time.

God damn it. I guess it's a no. I guess it's a no. I guess it's a no. Just simply on the basis of a lack of physical evidence. I do think it's an interesting one. I think it's, sorry to say,

but there's a bit of star power about the whole thing. That when we've got people who have nothing to lose and are trying to get a book deal about a ghost they saw that jacked them off in bed. Again, this is why I told you to stop doing analogies and metaphors.

And it's hard to believe those people. But if you've got... I've already forgotten the point you were trying to make. You talked about a dude getting jacked off by a ghost. Something so irrelevant to the original point of what you were trying to say. If you've got Antonio Banderas himself saying he saw the wig man. Antonio doesn't need to see the wig man. Antonio has no book to sell. Antonio has no vested interest in believing in the paranormal. So if he says he sees a UFO, it's kind of

interesting. That was the wildest sentence I've maybe ever heard on this podcast. Head over to Patreon. God damn it. I'm losing the listeners. I'm losing Rory. I'm losing my goddamn mind because I can't get a yes over here. Even when I hand up a double yes on a platter. How to describe the Patreon. It's kind of like, imagine if a ghost jacked you off. Imagine if you dropped your trousers and a ghost jacked you off. That's just a metaphor that I think.

Yeah, that's what I call bonus content, brother. Because you didn't see it coming. You didn't see it coming. God damn it. Hey, if you want more believable stories on this paranormal life, well, the Patreon isn't always the best place to get it. They're always hilarious,

but sometimes they are more believable. We have had true double yeses over on the Patreon. Patreon.com forward slash This Paranormal Life. That is the real second home of this show, the place where we get supported by our listeners and they make it possible for us to make the show and have done for years and years now. Oftentimes we use it to cover kind of insane stories

that we wouldn't be able to cover on the main episode. We've also done like breaking news segments recently. And of course, on the after party tier, we've got weekly

behind the scenes podcasts. So you can get another five podcasts a month over on Patreon. Patreon.com is our dakota it is a is a building housing uh almost 3 000 individuals every one of them more sick and twisted than the last and we just uh occasionally will open the door throw in a bit of bonus content and close it as quick as we can and And they kind of scramble about

fighting each other to listen to it first. It is a negative picture. And for someone who's been attacking me for my analogies all night, I don't know that it's great. This one is apt.

It is an apt analogy. It is accurate. It is perfect. It is succinct. I should quickly say to link it back to the beginning, we are going to be at the beautiful

Gramercy Theatre, Manhattan, Sunday, 15th of October. Tickets are available say to link it back to the beginning we are going to be at the beautiful Gramercy Theatre Manhattan Sunday 15th of October tickets are available at thisparanormallife.com forward slash tour the link is in the description of this podcast uh Rory are you excited for that one I can't wait the last time I was in New York City it was a little more chocolatey well I'm pretty hungry now. And most people's visits. After talking about it for this long.

So, all right. We might have to push back the show an hour or two because we're getting in very close to the stage time. Right. But now that I'm thinking about it, the M&M store will be closed

after the show so that we have no choice but to get... We've got to go beforehand. There beforehand and it's nowhere near the theater. Nowhere near. We should at least take a picture

beforehand at the M&M World. And yeah, maybe pick up a shirt or two. Of course. Because once I smell that sweet smell that they pump out, you just get infected, brother. And if I'm thinking about how excited I got about crunchy M&Ms back in about 20 years ago, I don't even know what the psychos over at M&Ms

have been dreaming up since then. So I need to tap back in and see what's going on. Wait until we get my mum on the podcast. And I'm like, man, those olden days eating peanut M&Ms were so crazy. You just used to like have a couple and then it was like this fever dream and you couldn't stop and you were like hallucinating.

My mum's like, you're just allergic to peanuts. We tried to tell you so many times. You wouldn't stop eating peanut M&Ms. Yeah, you break out in hives and you're foaming at the mouth. It's the fucking wildest high of your life. Your mom yelling, there's so many varieties that don't have peanuts. And you're screaming, but they're the best ones they're pretty good i don't want to have to rate m&ms but it goes you don't have to crunchy top tier peanut butter second i don't know if you've ever had a peanut

butter m&m you haven't lived mother but it's the second best. It's almost as good as the one you have had. So I have lived. To be clear, I've eaten many crunchy M&M's. And then it goes peanut. And then it goes regular. That's the list of M& of owners. So I have lived. And at the end of every episode, we like to thank some of the patrons who are on the shout

out tier on patreon.com. So let's get right into it. Special thank you to Lindsay Ocal. Lindsay Ocal me on my cell phone. Late night when I need my wig. Lindsay's my wig gal. Whenever I need a new wig for a different occasion, if I'm going to a fancy event, if I'm going to a movie screening, I give Lindsay a call. She turns up with my wig.

Whatever I want, whatever I'm feeling. You have hair. Is that a wig? No. Okay. Lindsay call call me he's getting suspicious i'm thinking about it you never get a haircut special thank you to jeremiah schley jeremiah schley is the name of the number one vampire hunter in new york city really he's a vampire slayer. He is. You call him to deal with any vampire

or creature of the night that you need slayed and he'll do it for you. He'll put a wooden stake through the heart of any night beast. It's just worth specifying to Jeremiah

before you book them because I booked Jeremiah to slay and Jeremiah turned up in full drag and granted did an unbelievable performance he schlayed he really did uh i saw it it was voguing was unbelievable but um he did one of those drops i don't know what they're called drop or whatever oh my god 10 out of 10 great but

yeah i still had a problem that i needed the vampires bit you so so it doesn't matter how hard you schlay as long as you're if you shlay. As long as you're... If you're not shlaying them, they're going to get you. Thanks also to Astraea Phantasmagoria. Shout out to Astraea Phantasmagoria, a planet we don't hear from often. Pretty cool that, I guess, the Council of Elders has... They created a Patreon account and wanted to just support the boys. That's cool.

We ended up there on a little road trip um to investigate something uh can't say what that is that's classified yeah exactly but a cool planet cool planet very no m&m store i will say yeah that was a little bit devastating because we did not bring enough for the journey the journey was about 21 years. And I get cranky. I get cranky. We ran out of rations in the first seven minutes. It was a lot of peanut butter M&Ms. And we had so many of the other varieties,

but they're worthless to me. I shot them out the airlock. And thanks lastly today to Aisling. Aisling, creator and inventor ando of the trademarked ass sling uh for whenever someone like rory well buckle up because whenever you broke your ass notoriously you really could have done with this now i think ashling probably heard that story and then you know got into inventing mode um but she's actually devised a sling for exactly that problem and a sling for your ass it's kind of a wheelchair i'll be honest

that's kind of what that is because it sounds like a giant adult diaper essentially that you wear around your ass uh well i don't have to do that anymore are you in since the procedure as as an investor uh I'll consider it. You know, I haven't broken my ass in quite a while. But that's the thing about breaking your ass. You never know when it's going to happen. I guess I'll take six.

Thank you, Aisling. Thank you to everyone who has supported us on Patreon. Thank you for all the shoutout supporters. We will be back with more shout-outs from next week and a brand new paranormal tale courtesy of Rory.

Can you give us a sneak peek of what you're going to talk about? Nope. Haven't done it yet. What do you mean haven't done it yet? What day is it? Oh my God.

It's due in a few days. Wait, what are we talking about? The next episode. You got, there's one coming, right? Of what? Oh my God. What?

Sorry, I kind of, as soon as we start doing the shout outs, I turn off. I really turn off. So I didn't really, I zoned out. Rory went... Is this about the Patreon? Rory went Joe Biden mode

at the end of the podcast. I tell you, yeah, my brain's as slick as a flea. My whole, this is it. And then that's what the problem is. All right. Sorry, no, we were talking about... I need to get Rory some M&M's stat.

And that's what's going to happen. We'll be back. Hopefully his brain is working again. We'll be back on Tuesday with a brand new Paranormal Tale back on Friday for the after party over on patreon.com. Welcome to the podcast, everyone.

Good night. This week, we're done. We are. You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea and ice cream? Yes, we can deliver that.

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