Jim Morrison, the lead singer for The Doors, died on July 3, 1971 in Paris, France. Tomorrow will be the 39th anniversary of his death.

While die-hard fans make the pilgrimage to his grave, others might have better luck paying honor to the singer here in the United States. Specifically, while paying a visit to the bathroom of a certain restaurant in Los Angeles, CA.

The restaurant is called Mexico, and it is located at 8512 Santa Monica Blvd.  As far fetched as this sounds, there is a connection to the whole thing that makes the ghost story seem plausible.

The building-turned-restaurant is actually a former recording studio, also known as The Doors Workshop. It is the same studio where The Doors recorded “L.A. Woman”. The bathroom sits exactly where Jim Morrison sat in the booth to record his vocals.

The bathroom is unisex, so Morrison’s spirit is available to all. The bathroom looks sizable enough to fit everyone: male, female, and even Mr. Mojo Risin’ himself.

In a recent AOL News interview, Mexico’s office manager Christine Chilcote made a statement about the paranormal activity in the potty: “Funky things happen all the time we can’t explain. Lights popping on and off at weird times. But when that bathroom door handle jiggles by itself, that’s the weirdest sign. It’s totally inexplicable.”

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The A & E cable network will soon debut a brand new paranormal reality series.

Truth be told, despite my affinity for the paranormal, the majority of these types of shows don’t interest me and I don’t watch most of them. Yet, the television in my home will be tuned in to the A & E cable network to watch Paranormal Cops on Tuesday night.

I’ll tell you why.

There’s a shtick for this new show, of course, but it is a shtick that intrigues me. This team is comprised of Chicago police officers who “moonlight” as paranormal detectives. This new series allows us to “ride along” with the Chicago Paranormal Detectives (CPD).

I trust the “cop intuition” or “blue sense” that many good cops possess. A good cop can sense danger in their environment. A phrase used by cops is generally some variant of: “I just had a feeling in my gut that something wasn’t right.” This feeling allows them to observe evidence or quickly pinpoint suspicious activity to support that feeling. 

Don’t get me wrong, a person does not have to choose law enforcement as their day job to possess these skills in order to investigate the departed.  A good cop also possesses a specific skill set that helps to evaluate the living. A good cop can function as a human lie detector. They can infer the demeanor, facial expressions, emotions of people to detect lying, or guilt. This skill is crucial when evaluating a potential client before taking on a case. This team (hopefully like every other team out there) will not take a case based solely on a homeowner’s feeling that something “is just not right” about their environment. The homeowner must offer observed evidence and pinpointed examples of paranormal activity to support that feeling.

What makes this team stand out for me is the knowledge that members of this team were heavily screened, trained and certified to perform their day jobs. They successfully passed a battery of tests that predicted that they would be good cops. Predictions aren’t always right. “Bad cops” have been recruited into law enforcement.

Yet, there are no established and uniform screening guidelines for paranormal investigators. Anyone can form or join a paranormal team, and that worries me. Some groups do employ strict guidelines to screen and select team members. These groups are also strict in their screening process of potential clients. Not all groups are as strict. Additionally, there are generally accepted principles and methods utilized during paranormal investigatons, but they aren’t always adhered to. Paranormal teams have been known to split over the disagreement of paranormal investigation methodologies. The research methods, tools and techniques must be uniform across the board or how will we prove anything?

That is what appeals to me about CPD’s paranormal investigative methods. The methods, according to their website, are aligned with the same methods used to investigate crime scenes.

A visit to the Chicago Paranormal Detectives website reveals that pets must be removed from a home prior to an investigation. This is absolutely necessary in order to create a controlled and safe environment.

Yet, with the day job in law enforcement, it would make sense to me to employ a dog on investigations. In law enforcement, K9 units are trained to support officers in a way that’s more reliable than what man and technology can do without their aid.  The acute senses of a dog could aid in paranormal investigations. Use the K9 unit in tandem with the K2 meter. If any team could select and train a dog for paranormal investigations, this team would be it. This team doesn’t use a K9, as far as I know, so that’s neither here nor there for this show at the moment.

End of rant.

I can’t predict whether this will be a good show or a bad show. I have this feeling in my gut that the show might be good. I studied the Paranormal Cops website, the Chicago Paranormal Detectives website, as well as the team’s blog. I will examine the last piece of evidence on Tuesday night to decide whether it’s good or bad.

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Paranormal Cops Series Premiere January 19, 10:30/9:30C  on A & E.

Check local listings

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When I had car trouble a few years ago, I called my sister to pick me up from work. She wasn’t feeling up to taking me all the way home that day. I hung out with her for a while and called my dad for a ride home. My dad arrived at my sister’s house in his full-sized pickup truck with a shell, with his friend Carly by his side in the passenger seat. My sister came outside with me to see me off. We both noticed a boy, who we identified as Carly’s son Jimi, in the back of the truck. He looked out of the truck’s shell at my sister and me. He looked happy to see us and gave us a huge smile. My sister and I commented about how we liked Jimi. I hugged my sister goodbye.

As I approached the truck, Carly slid to the middle of the seat to allow room for me. I climbed in and took the passenger side seat. I greeted my dad, gave Carly a hug, and turned around to greet Jimi. Jimi wasn’t there.

I turned to my dad and Carly and asked, “Where’s Jimi?”

Jimi was at his dad’s house, they said. I was quite confused, but insisted that there was a young boy in the back of the truck. The boy smiled at my sister and me. My dad said I was seeing things. As we pulled away, I noticed my sister still outside, waving her hand and smiling at us. A confused look came over her face before she turned around and went back inside her house.

I called my sister later that night to tell her that there was no one in the back of the truck. She was as surprised as I was. She added that as we pulled away, she waved at the little boy, he waved back.

Months went by, during which time my sister and I received some ribbing about the ghost boy. Then it was forgotten, for while. Others started “seeing things” in the back of the truck, inside that  shell.

My dad worked as a contractor for a time for Qwest Communications, arranging for service and towing. One hot summer day, my dad answered a call for a broken down truck at Kolb and Valencia. The driver of the disabled vehicle was sitting against a fence when my dad pulled up. It was too hot for him to wait for my dad inside the vehicle. My dad examined the disabled truck, while the driver looked on. The driver asked if it was maybe a little too hot to let the kids stay in the back of the truck with no air conditioning. My dad said there were no kids in his truck. The driver took a closer look, and thoroughly examined my dad’s truck to satisfy himself. He said he distinctly saw kids looking out the shell windows.

Several months later, my dad took a job at a roofing company. One day, he arrived at the roofing yard, parked out front and walked in. Someone at the yard asked if the kids in the back of the truck were his grandchildren. My dad said that there were no children there. The inquirer decided to go outside to make sure. A couple other workers refused to even get near the truck at the mere thought of ghosts, particularly at the thought of ghostly children. The inquirer continued to insist that he saw kids looking out the window, and had even commented to another worker as my dad pulled in, saying that he was probably on his way somewhere with the grandkids.

Once since then, my sister and I joined my dad on a camping trip. Since we had other commitments, we only visited with him for a few hours and ate a steak dinner around the campfire. By nightfall, I kept my back to the truck, as I felt that someone was watching me. So did my sister. We drove back to Tucson through the Coronado National Forest late that night, feeling rather creeped out and quite jumpy.

My dad since removed the camper shell to install a tool box in the back of his truck. The  shell sits on my uncle’s property, reserved for occasional camping trips. I don’t know if the “children” are attached to the truck or to the camper shell. It could be a defect in the glass, but that would be an eerie defect, to say the least. My uncle hasn’t reported any activity associated with that shell stored in his yard. There’s seemingly no paranormal activity attached to the truck either.

One day soon, I will take a full camping trip with my dad. Perhaps those kids might come along with my dad. Although the kids in the truck look quite happy and not menacing in any way, I think I’ll keep my back to the truck again and let them play in peace.