Ghost hunter says most – but not all – incidents explainable
by Otto Ross on Oct. 31, 2008, under Calendar, Local
El Tiradito Shrine
Think your house has ghosts or other supernatural phenomena?
You may want to call Mark Boccuzzi, who founded Tucson Paranormal Research in 2006.
The group looks for proof of “survival of consciousness,” more commonly referred to as ghosts.
Boccuzzi has trouble defining his far-from-ordinary lifestyle.
The 45-year-old says he’s always had an interest in the unusual and became fascinated with the supernatural after a series of strange occurrences in his dorm room at Salem (W.Va.) College in 1986.
“The word ‘skeptical’ is kind of loaded and doesn’t always have a positive connotation, but I think if you do this kind of stuff you need to be skeptical,” says Boccuzzi, who started his first paranormal research team about nine years ago.
Over the years, he developed the elaborate process he now follows.
TPR does not get rid of “ghosts” but instead observes and researches reported phenomenon.
First, Boccuzzi extensively and repeatedly interviews a prospective client via e-mail and telephone. That rules out people who are mentally unstable or flat-out frauds, among other things.
Next, Boccuzzi and a team of three or four do repeated observations in the home for about a month, taking multiple readings, voice recordings and video footage.
The team uses everything from thermometers and video cameras to electromagnetic field meters and Ouija boards. Members create “control” areas throughout the house to ensure that their observations are not affected by outside stimuli.
They also try to engage the alleged presence, asking the “ghost” various questions, encouraging it to make contact and even requesting it to send a message via the Ouija board.
An investigation takes months to complete, concluding with data analysis that itself can take months.
Boccuzzi says virtually all of his investigations find that nothing supernatural or even unexplainable is occurring.
It is the 2 percent to 3 percent of instances that he has found to be legitimately unexplainable that keeps him going.
One of the unexplained instances occurred at Tombstone’s Bird Cage Theatre, recognized by many paranormal groups as haunted.
Boccuzzi got hooked while living in California in 1999. After doing extensive advance research on the allegedly haunted Rose Hill Cemetery in Antioch, Calif., he and friends visited the site but found nothing.
That promptly deterred everyone but Boccuzzi, who was hooked.
“The history of these locations is fascinating,” he says. “The process was really interesting.”
46 W. Simpson St.
Velasco House
Hotel Congress
Z Mansion resident Rebecca Luiten gets ghostly in this time-lapse photo. Owner Tom Hill says paranormal researchers have told him an upstairs room now used for laundry is haunted. But he suggests that any ghosts in the home are friendly.
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1. El Tiradito
(The Little Castaway)
420 S. Main Ave.
The shrine is on the spot where legends says shepherd Juan Oliveras was killed by his father-in-law and later buried. Legend says Oliveras was killed for having an affair with his mother-on-law.
According to folklore, your wish will come true if you light a candle at the shrine in the evening and it burns all night.
An unusual experience led Phoenix-based author Stella Pope Duarte to research a book about the shrine. In a 2005 Tucson Citizen interview, she recalled the fateful trip to Barrio Viejo. “I had never heard about El Tiradito . . . When we were heading to El Minuto, (my daughter and I) passed El Tiradito. . . . I said, ‘Oh, look, there’s a little shrine.’”
When she returned to her van, the lights were on and the battery was dead. It was light out when she arrived at the restaurant, and an alarm screams when the lights are left on.
“So, during that time, my daughter said, ‘Mom, let’s go see the shrine.’ ” said Pope Duarte, who believes the man buried there wants her to tell his story.
2. 46 W. Simpson St.
This home in Barrio Historico has been the site of many a ghostly happening, according to Tucson Citizen archives. For instance:
• Unexplained noises have been reported, including the sounds of a radio playing.
• Herminia Suarez lived in the house in 1946 and she and her five children, including Mary Rivera, frequently spotted “la muchachita,”a girl age 7 or 8. “Rivera’s husband, Alfonso, had an experience in the house – one that so unnerved him that he never stayed there overnight again,” Citizen reporter Paul L. Allen wrote in 2003. “He awoke to a noise, and intended to get up and investigate. As he tried to sit up . . . he felt strong, cold hands pressing his chest, pinning him to the bed. Struggling against the pressure, he half-rose, only to be pressed forcefully back to the bed.”
3. The Velasco House
471, 475, 477 S. Stone Ave.
and 522 S. Russell St.
Dating to the 1850s, the house is mostly connected to former owner Carlos Ygnacio Velasco, who lived there from 1878 until his death in 1914.
After he died, the house was abandoned and later was turned into apartments. It fell into disrepair, but eventually ended up in more capable hands and extensive remodeling began.
Not long after the renovations were started, several unexplained experiences occurred, including several reports of an apparition of a man’s head and shoulders, in one instance identified as Velasco.
4. Hotel Congress
311 E. Congress St.
Hotel Congress co-owner Shana Oseran has told the Citizen she’s heard of and seen countless unexplained incidents.
Two that stand out are incidents involving guests and perhaps unearthly visitors.
In one instance, a man was staying at the hotel with his dog. He later wrote to the hotel with this account: As he slept, there was a gust of wind. The dog started barking and the bathroom door slammed shut. The man turned on a light, saw nothing and went back to sleep. The next morning, “every single towel and washcloth was in the toilet,” Oseran recounted to the Citizen.
In another instance, a man complained that, “All night, I had to stay in the room with that guy with the suitcase sitting in the chair.”
Then there was the fire department photographer who told Oseran that pictures taken of rooms in the Hotel Congress contained white orbs.
5. Z Mansion
288 N. Church Ave.
Owner Tom Hill and his family live in the mansion, which was built in 1898 as a private home. Now it’s available for public events on a limited basis.
He says a local paranormal research group says an upper room used for laundry is haunted.
“We have seven kids,” Hill once told the Citizen. “I don’t think any ghost really wants to hang out. . . . If there are ghosts, they are Casper – happy guys.”
Compiled from Citizen archives
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HAUNTED ARIZONA
• www.arizona-leisure.com/arizona-haunted-hotels.html
• www.sgha.net/az/invest_az.html
southwest ghost hunters assc.
• www.hauntedhouses.com/states/az
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Bird Cage Theatre
With a team at the Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone, Boccuzzi tried to contact an alleged ghost by asking questions of it.
Investigators found that when he asked a question, the electromagnetic readings recorded on field meters placed around the theatre would spike.
While Boccuzzi says this is not definitive evidence that something supernatural was at play, it is something he cannot explain and must investigate further.
Boccuzzi’s first ‘encounter’
Boccuzzi says his first paranormal encounter occurred one morning while he was asleep in his Salem College dorm room.
He awoke to find himself paralyzed in bed, overwhelmed by what he described as a dark presence pushing down on his chest. After several terrifying repetitions of this over time, when it happened again, he began reciting The Lord’s Prayer. The experience stopped and never recurred.
Not satisfied to simply chalk the experience up to a run-in with some incomprehensible evil force, he determined to find an explanation. Eventually, Boccuzzi learned about a condition called sleep paralysis, which is known to cause the symptoms he had experienced.
He would later adopt this skeptical approach to the supernatural as the framework for his paranormal investigations.
Boccuzzi’s background
Aside from Tucson Paranormal Research Boccuzzi works in a University of Arizona research lab studying advances in consciousness and health.
He has also been involved in a many organizations dedicated to the study of such things as mediums, entity contact and psychic properties – such as the Windbridge Institute.
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IF YOU GO
What: Dias de los Muertos Walking Tour of Tucson’s Historic Hauntings
Who: Ghost Girl Tours leader Rebecca Petithory-Hayes
When: 6 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Jácome Plaza, 101 N. Stone Ave.
Price: $10 per person
Details: Bring a camera. Don’t bring kids younger than 13. You can bring copies of photos of deceased loved ones to post at El Tiradito shrine.
For more information and future tour dates, call 293-1455 or e-mail tuazghostgirl@q.com.
