SITM:  We’re started, but Barry’s on the phone.   Hello, Barry.

CC:  Hi, how ya’ doin’ today?

SITM:  Good, now, what is your job?  What exactly do you do?

CC:  We do ----

SITM:  No, no, you.  No, no, I don’t want a “we”.  Just, no, you, “you”.  Hello!  Hello!  Are we ---- you gotta listen to me when I’m talking to you, okay?  All right.  So, what . . . are you employed by a company or ---- who pays you?

CC:  We get paid by private donations and so on.

SITM:  Is this the only job ---- do you have a regular job, too?

CC:  Yes, I do.  All of the team members do.

SITM:  Well, I’m just talking about you.  I don’t really want to get into the other team members.  This is just a one-on-one.  You and me, okay?

CC:  Sounds good.

SITM:  Me and Barry.  How many different buildings have you gone to where you looked for ghosts?

CC:  Approximately forty.

SITM:  Forty?

CC:  Um hmm.

SITM:  Now, is there any in this area where the radio station is that you’ve gone to?

CC:  I would say the closest to that area would probably be an abandoned mill in Farmington.

SITM:  An abandoned mill?

CC:  Yes.

SITM:  Well, if it’s a ---- abandoned, why would you have to go there if nobody lives there?

CC:  Well, we don’t actually have to go anywhere.  We do all of our investigations based on, I guess, sightings by regular people here and there.  People who work in certain areas who hear rumors or see things or hear things.

SITM:  Now, my point is, if the building is abandoned, why would it matter, ‘cause it’s not going to affect anybody.  Here, of course, there are people working here, but an abandoned building is . . . who cares?

CC:  Well, I get what you’re saying.  This abandoned mill happened to be right across from an elementary school.  Teachers and students were reporting seeing faces in the windows.

[Laughing]

SITM:  And they weren’t drunk?

CC:  I hope not.  They were, like, thirteen-year-olds, twelve-year-olds.

SITM:  So, now, did you go there yourself?

CC:  Yes, we did.

SITM:  What’d ---- what did you see?

CC:  We actually found some interesting things inside the mill.  We found lots of the original equipment, and so on, was still in place, along with a lot of the uniforms and aprons and so on.  This mill had been abandoned back quite a few years ago.  But as far as ghosts, we didn’t register anything on our equipment.

SITM:  There was a restaurant ---- I wanna’ say in Simsbury, not that long ago, well, not that ---- it’s been around forever . . . is it the Pettibone Tavern, now?  Is it ----

CC:  Yes, it is.

SITM:  What was it known before that?  Was it the Simsbury Inn?

CC:  Actually, it was known as the Jonathan Pettibone Tavern, but it’s now known by another name.

SITM:  Now, when I went in there once, a couple of years ago, the help told me that the place was cuckoo and the woman that used to own the place killed her husband or something.

CC:  Yeah, her husband ----

SITM:  Was that the place?

CC:  Her husband killed her.

SITM:  Is that the way it was?

CC:  Yes.

SITM:  And there’s still a picture of the two of them in the lobby or ----

CC:  There is.

SITM:  And I went in there and I laughed at it when somebody told me the story and the next thing I know, all the lights in the place went out.

[Laughing]

CC:  Is that the truth?

SITM:  Yes.  I don’t know if somebody shut them off on purpose just to freak me out, but it got me thinking, at least.

CC:  Yeah, we actually ---- we went there to investigate that site, but we were turned away by management.  He was rather rude, so we ----

SITM:  Really?

CC:  ---- decided no to go in.

SITM:  Well, I mean, as long as it doesn’t affect the T-bones.

[Laughing]

CC:  Right.

SITM:  It really shouldn’t have anything to do with it.  How many of these do you do in a year’s time, would you say?

CC:  A year’s time, approximately fifteen.

SITM:  What’s the ---- what’s the strangest place you’ve ever gone and . . . do you exorcise the ghosts, or what . . . what do you do?

CC:  The strangest place that we’ve ever been, as far as the amount of hauntings were concerned, was a place called Moses Y. Beach Elementary School in Wallingford.

SITM:  Um hmm?

CC:  That place was probably the strangest that I had been to, outside of the more famous places like the Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery in Burlington, otherwise known as the Green Lady Cemetery.

SITM:  Right.

CC:  As far as exorcising ghosts, no, we don’t do that.  We’re not priests, so we don’t sanction that or ----

SITM:  Well, what do you do to clean up the place, I mean ----

CC:  We don’t clean up the place.

SITM:  You don’t clean it up?

CC:  No, that’s not our job.

SITM:  Well, what do you do?  Do you just tell people, “Yes, your place is haunted,” and you leave?

CC:  Basically, what we do is we go in, we determine whether or not we can gather any kind of evidence based on any kind of observations that we make.  If we determine that the place ----

SITM:  But there’s an old ----

CC:  ---- is haunted . . .  and it really is a rarity . . . if we determine that, then we present a full-bound report to the people who have asked us to go in and do the investigation.

SITM:  My point is, there’s an old expression that says, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”

CC:  Ah.

SITM:  So, if you go in there and you make a determine [sic] that the building is haunted, what good is it gonna’ do to the people that own the place if you just recognize it and leave?

CC:  Well, I don’t believe that ghosts present a problem.  I do believe that some of the people who spread lies, or myths, or legends about areas that may not be haunted, is part ---- more part of the problem than anything else.

SITM:  So, what’s the ---- now, do you get into arguments with people, or are they kind of crazy . . . are they nervous or scared when they invite you in, or what?

CC:  There’s some people that do argue with you, particularly when you go in and you find ----- or at least, we determine after an exhaustive search through records ---- research records, our video records, and so on ---- when we determine that there’s nothing there, there tend to be some people that get a little upset with you, but for the most part, most of the arguments come from the e-mail that we receive from people who more support the ---- people like the Warrens of Connecticut.

SITM:  I was just gonna’ ask you.  Have you ever gone out with them?

CC:  No, no, we actually don’t agree on the methods of investigation.

SITM:  I actually went on a trip with them once ---- well, not a trip ---- but I went to a house and these people were so whacked.  They thought their daughter’s house . . . or daughter’s room was haunted and they went in there and they, you know, threw dust around and . . . I was laughing my ass off in the kitchen, to be honest with you.  [Laughing]  I just think the whole process is a little bit on the weird side.  Did you see ----

CC:  Have you been to our website?

SITM:  No.

CC:  If you go to our website, you’ll know that we are skeptics, first . . . first and foremost.  And we are believers, second.

SITM:  Now, so ---- so you’re kind of like a layman in that regard?  It takes a lot to convince you.

CC:  It takes a lot to convince us.  We do very deep research into all of the subjects that we investigate, all of the places ---- the buildings, the people, and so on, and we come up with the information based on records . . . based on actual records from townships, and so on, rather than based on what someone tells us.

SITM:  We’re talking to Barry Dillinger ---- now, what’s the name of your website?

CC:  Creepy Connecticut.

SITM:  Creepy Connecticut.

CC:  Yes.

SITM:  Where did you ---- Tell me about Dudleytown.

CC:  Oh, Dudleytown’s a very interesting story.  It starts way back in the early fifteen hundreds.  It follows a curse that was supposedly put onto the Dudley family.  The descendants carried it, supposedly, from England to the United States.  In the seventeen-forties, the Dudleys ---- three of the brothers ---- moved into Dudleytown and helped to found a small area of Cornwall, Connecticut in Litchfield County.  Once that curse followed them into the town, supposedly, there began to be strange occurrences ---- murders, suicides, people going insane ---- until the place was eventually abandoned and, since the nineteen-twenties, it has been a place where people have supposedly seen ghosts, have had apparitions approach them, and so on.  We don’t agree with that assessment, however.

SITM:  Have you gone there yourself?

CC:  No one is actually allowed into that area.  The Dark Entry Forest Association owns that land.  They’ve owned it since the nineteen-twenties and they don’t allow anyone to ---- it was closed down, actually, in the nineteen-nineties after a forest fire was set by vandals.

SITM:  Where do you ---- where did you get your training to do this?  I mean, are you self-taught or did you go to school, or ---- it just seems kind of a strange hobby.

CC:  Absolutely self-taught.  I don’t believe that there’s anyone out there that can actually certify an investigator.  I believe that amateur ghost hunters are some of the most intelligent people.  They go out and they do research into records, and so on, to find out what they can do to prove or disprove a haunting.  I don’t believe there’s anybody out there that can actually certify a paranormal investigator.

SITM:  If you can’t fix the problem, what makes you spend time on this in the first place?  Why don’t you just forget about it?

CC:  Again, I don’t believe that ghosts are a problem, so, therefore, I don’t believe there’s anything to fix.  Knowing the truth about any sites that may or may not be haunted is more what I’m interested in, and my team as well.

SITM:  Do you ---- have you ever seen any ghosts yourself?

CC:  I’ve never seen a ghost.

SITM:  Never?

CC:  No.

SITM:  Do you believe in that Babe Ruth curse, and all that, that prevented the Red Sox from ----

CC:  I’m not sure if I believe in it, but it was an incredible coincidence, wasn’t it?

SITM:  Did you see, “Ghostbusters”?

CC:  Yes.  [Laughing]

SITM:  What about ectoplasm?

CC:  Ectoplasm?  Never seen it.

SITM:  No, huh?

CC:  No.

SITM:  Do people pay you to go look at their property?

CC:  Some people do.

SITM:  Well, how do you make a determination as to who ---- what do you do?  Do you just  ---- are you a volunteer and if they wanna’ give you a tip, you take it, is that it?

CC:  It’s actually . . . it’s actually considered a donation, if they’d like to make it to our team.  We go in with all of our equipment and we set up and we do a very thorough walk-through of the property, sometimes up to six hours ----

SITM:  What kind of equipment do you have?  What do you bring?  Like a . . . a vacuum cleaner?  Orick or something, or ----

CC:  Actually, a vacuum cleaner is very good for dust, but, no, we don’t use that.  We actually use video cameras, we use photographic equipment, we use EMF, we use temperature gauges . . . we also have audio so that we can pick up anything that we can’t see with the naked eye, or hear with our ears.

SITM:  Have you ---- where did you hear the rumor about this building being haunted?

CC:  I actually heard it from an ex-intern who used to work at that station.

SITM:  Who was probably fired.

CC:  He actually met with me and told me that there were some jocks that were hearing things ---- footsteps, [Laughing] equipment ---- electronic equipment being turned on when no one else was in the room ----

SITM:  No, no, no, you see, the footsteps were the general manager firing their asses.

[Laughing]

CC:  Well, we’d like to find out for sure.

SITM:  And, no one’s ever asked you to come down here before?

CC:  No, actually, we heard about it, so we actually e-mailed the station just recently to find out whether or not we could set that up.

SITM:  What kind of ---- did you get a positive or a negative reaction from the people here when you contacted them?

CC:  We actually haven’t been contacted yet.  We just sent the e-mail approximately a week ago.

SITM:  Hmm.  Now, do you ---- is there a special time of the day where your investigating would work better than another, or does it matter?

CC:  We actually don’t believe ---- at Creepy Connecticut, we don’t believe it matters if it’s day or night.  That’s where we’re at odds with a lot of other paranormalists.

SITM:  Do you ever get into debates with people like the Warrens or others?  I mean, have you ---- do you go to conferences together and share ideas?

CC:  Absolutely.  We don’t necessarily ---- we’re not welcome at many of these conferences and lectures because we’re more the skeptic than the believer.  But, yes, we have gotten into debates or arguments with people in that field.

SITM:  What do you do for a real job?

CC:  I’m a restaurant manager.

SITM:  Oh.  And anything in your restaurant that seems a little creepy other than the bacon and tomato?

CC:  Yeah, actually there is ---- many of the restaurants I have worked in, there is no ---- no strange occurrences, but the one that I work at, in particular, happens to have some strange things that at one of the tables . . . one of the areas in the restaurant, in particular.

SITM:  The one that you’re at now?

CC:  Yes.

SITM:  Can you tell us the name of it?

CC:  Sorry, I can’t.  I wish I could.

SITM:  Can you give us a ---- give me a hint?

[Laughing]

CC:  Yes, it’s in Connecticut.

SITM:  Sheesh.  [Laughing]  Can we break it down, I mean, do you know if I’ve been there before?

CC:  I believe you probably have not, but we could always share that information a little bit later off the air.

SITM:  What do you specialize in?

CC:  We specialize, actually in ---- mostly in EVPs ---- you’re talking about the restaurant?

SITM:  Yeah.

[Laughing]

CC:  Everything.

SITM:  I mean, do you have a ---- like, Casper the Sandwich, or something like that?

CC:  No.  Not likely yet, but we may do that in the future.

[Laughing]

SITM:  That would be kind of a neat thing to have on the ---- I know that, you know, Randy’s Worchestershire Pizza has a Sebastian Showcase ----

CC:  Is that right?

SITM:  ---- which is a nice sausage pizza.  I thought, maybe at your restaurant, you could have a . . . you know . . . Casper the Ghost Turkey, or something.

CC:  I’ll tell you what, I’ll bring it up to my general manager.

SITM:  Does he ---- is he a little nervous about what you do?

CC:  She.

SITM:  She?  Okay.

CC:  No, she’s not nervous at all.  In fact, she’s probably listening right now.

SITM:  And, have customers in the store ever said anything, like ----

CC:  Yes, actually, we’ve had customers and servers who have complained about this.

SITM:  Well, complained, or noticed.  I mean ----

CC:  Complained.

SITM:  What do they complain about?

CC:  About the fact that the lights flicker, about the table ---- actually, the chairs at the table frequently breaking, other things like that.  Wine glasses would shatter.

SITM:  Just by themselves?  Right on the table?

CC:  Right on the table.

SITM:  Sheesh.

MARY SCANLON:  Is it Jonathan Pasco’s?

CC:  I’m sorry?

MARY SCANLON:  Is it Jonathan Pasco’s?

CC:  No, it’s not.

SITM:  All right, well, by rule of ----

CC:  Narrow it down.

SITM:  ---- rule of elimination [Laughing]  And you don’t get freaked out by any of this?  If you don’t get paid, why do you have such a fascination?  I don’t do anything unless I get compensated.  Maybe it’s just a [Laughing] the Republican side of me.  Are you a Liberal?

[Laughing]

CC:  I don’t believe that really enters into it, whether I would be Conservative, Liberal, or anything else, but I do it because I think it’s fascinating.  Obviously, you have me on the air because you’re fascinated with it, and I think it’s a fascinating subject.  You know, more than eighty percent of the people in this world believe in spirits and the afterlife.

SITM:  So, what I’m saying is that, if I have you on the air or I don’t, I still get the same paycheck.  That’s all I’m saying.

CC:  Absolutely, but, you know, what you’re doing for us, too, is you’re giving us awareness ---- of our website, and so on, and what we do ----

SITM:  Okay.

CC:  ---- so it really helps us as well.

SITM:  And when did you start getting interested in this?  When you were in high school?  Was there an event?  Did you have some kind of epiphany that got you into this?

CC:  Actually, right after the death of my grandmother, I began, really in earnest, looking into this . . . the afterlife, and so on.  And when I moved to Connecticut about three years ago, I had asked someone at random if they knew anywhere there were haunted sites that I could go see, and I was just inundated with so many that I couldn’t even count them.

SITM:  And where did you find this team that you associate with?  I mean, how did you find people to help you with this, who share the same beliefs?

CC:  Well, it’s a very exhaustive service that we provide, so I had to get the very best, and what I do is, I have a series of tests that I hand out to these folks to make sure that they’re worthy of being on the team.

SITM:  The ---- I know this is gonna’ sound a little bit weird, but there’s a picture in my house of my significant other’s grandmother ----

CC:  Uh huh.

SITM:  ---- and, I wanna’ say, maybe, six months or so ago, there was something in the back of the picture which looked like blood that was dripping down from the back of the picture, and made a giant red spot on the yellow wall.  And it had something to do with . . . something in her life at that particular time and, I wiped it up and never thought I would see it again and, almost on the anniversary of some event concerning her mother or her grandmother, this thing started leaking out again.  I mean, would this come under the auspices of something that you would look at?

CC:  Absolutely.

SITM:  I mean, you’d probably just put a ---- slap a coat of paint on it [Laughing] put up a different picture, right?

CC:  Do you still live in the same house?

SITM:  Yes.

CC:  And this still occurs regularly?

SITM:  Um, I wouldn’t say, “regularly”, but it’s happened two or three times now.

CC:  And I assume that your significant other believes in the afterlife.

SITM:  Not necessarily.

CC:  Oh.  Do you?

SITM:  No.  [Laughing]

CC:  Oh.

SITM:  But I just thought it was interesting conversation.  If it happens again, I’ll probably ----

CC:  Slap a coat of paint on it.

SITM:  ---- no, I’ll throw the picture out.  [Laughing]  I mean, she’s been dead for a number of years.  Why are we even looking at her picture in the first place?  [Laughing]  Hey, it was great talking to you and, if you wanna’ come into the radio station, anytime, the door’s always open.

CC:  Absolutely.  Yeah, I believe that we’ll be down very soon.  We’ll make arrangements to get down there and, hopefully, that we can help you out and find something and, if not, then maybe I can check out your house.

SITM:  In addition to that, if you get a chance, could you call Comcast [Laughing] and, you know ----

CC:  Try to get the Mets on?

SITM:  Well, I’m thinking there’s some kind of ghost in their system that’s preventing it from going out on the regular cable, so if you’re gonna’ go to 1-800-COMCAST and see if you can get in the building somewhere in New Hampshire, maybe you can be the ----

CC:  I’ll tell you what, it sounds like there is a ghost in the machine, but I don’t think that’s something that we deal with.

SITM:  All right.  Appreciate it.  Thank you.  Thank you, Harry.

CC:  Thank you very much.

SITM:  Harry.

MARY SCANLON:  Barry.

SITM:  Barry [Laughing]

Music Begins.

SITM:  It’s haunted!  It’s alive!  Nine twenty-one!  Sebastian Radio Program.  Comin’ back on the Rock, one-oh-six-point-nine, WCCC.

END OF INTERVIEW