In the first half, Connie Willis (info) welcomed Tina Mattingly, owner of Waverly Hills Sanatorium, who discussed recent creepy encounters within one of the "most haunted places on earth." At the height of its operation, Mattingly related, the state-of-the-art facility housed over 200 tuberculosis patients and employed hundreds of people in the Louisville, Kentucky area. Among its more creepy features was a "body chute" that delivered deceased patients to the railroad for transport.
She also related the story of how she saved the 187,000-square-foot building from being torn down in 2001. Her intention at the time was to preserve a piece of history in the area. Unaware of the hauntings at first, Mattingly was shocked to learn that paranormal activity is rampant there. "It's like it's alive," she said about the property. She talked about coming face-to-face with spirits, including a man in a tan baseball hat and a homeless man with a dog. Often the spirits aren't seen but heard, felt, or even smelled. Mattingly also described an experiment in which cigarettes were sometimes left for the otherworldly residents; the cigarettes would disappear, and the smell of tobacco smoke would soon waft through the facility, she claimed. View related images.
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Bill, calling from Kentucky during the Open Lines in the latter half, reminded listeners that despite Waverly's reputation as a haunted place, it's important to remember that many more people survived their stay than perished there. He offered to provide Tina with photos of his relatives during their time at Waverly, demonstrating that the hospital played a very positive role in the community.
Also listening in Kentucky was Barry, who shared that at his location a few miles from Waverly, he regularly sees apparitions in his home. He discovered that another hospital, St. John's, once stood where his neighborhood is now located. To him, this suggests that paranormal energy runs throughout that part of Kentucky, and isn't confined to a physical building.
Aaron in California described an eerie encounter he had years ago. Suddenly overcome with an intuition to go outside, he recalled, he was met by an alien craft above him. Despite this experience, he remained skeptical of Bigfoot, he said, but he credited Connie with helping him understand the phenomenon better.