Arrival
All PIM members arrived at the location at 6:50 pm. Susan, who would be with the group during the investigation, let the group in through the back entrance. Allison Jorlin, Milwaukee Ghosts – Tours & Investigations founder, would arrive shortly after for part of the night.
After all equipment was brought in the group went on a tour of the building at 7:10 pm with Susan, as well as Jason, the manager of Pabst/Riverside/Turner Hall. Karen was the only one who did not go on the tour. She is one of the group’s sensitives and wanted to write down her impressions of the location before knowing any of the history of the paranormal experiences had there. She had no prior knowledge prior to arriving at Riverside.
When the group completed their tour and Karen completed walking around doing her sensitive impressions of the building, all members at around 8 pm started to get their equipment ready to be placed throughout the building.
While the group was setting up, Karen at one point while setting up her camera on the stage left stair area thought she heard a couple kids laughing nearby. She at first attributed to it possibly being voices from outside. The doors to the theater were still open and you could hear noises and voices from the street. She had no prior knowledge of knowing children’s laughter was reported previously. It was undetermined if this was a paranormal experience or not.
Allison left at this point of the evening as she had another engagement to attend as it was her birthday that night.
The group had all of their equipment pretty much set up, so Karen and Mary went around and took baseline electromagnetic frequency (EMF) readings around the building. When they were up by the Lighting Room they ventured into one of the smaller rooms to see what they could find. Mary headed into the left smaller room, and at 9:04 pm Karen reported hearing a woman’s voice. She asked Mary if she just said something, but Mary said she didn’t. She thought the voice said, “Holy crap” or something similar. Unfortunately, no recording devices were on at the time and this was not captured. They then returned to the first floor of the theater.
All equipment was up with only the voice recorders started at 9:45 pm. They all then headed up to the 8th floor (Green Room) of the building to take a mini break. They then headed back to the 1st floor at 10:22 pm.
Jason came down with the group as he was going to help them turn off all of the lights they needed off for the investigation. Gravy and Jason at one point headed upstairs so Jason could show him how to shut the lights off for the upper floors.
After they arrived back, Noah, Gravy, Eric and Susan headed upstairs around 11:10 pm to take care of the upper level lights and get some of the equipment started. Karen and Mary took this time to try their own electronic voice phenomena (EVP) session while in the theater. Shortly after, Noah then called down to Mary to notify her that one of her voice recorders batteries were dead already. She and Karen then started their way back upstairs so she could replace the batteries, and on their way out of the theater they both thought they heard a whispery echo. They had voice recorders going on at this point, but the voice was not captured.
Once they replaced the batteries and the group had all of the lights off, they then headed back to the 1st floor and were ready to begin the night’s investigation.
Investigators
Theater (Floor Level) – 11:28 pm
Everyone spread throughout the theater-seating area while Eric sat on the edge of the stage. The group then took about seven minutes of controlled silence to observe the normal sounds of the building. At 11:31 pm it was noted there was a metallic noise from the stage, which they would hear a few other times throughout the night. They came to the conclusion that this noise was nothing paranormal.
At 11:37 pm the group started an EVP session trying to direct their questions to any spirit in the building who wanted to answer. At 11:42 pm, Susan reported hearing a “tuba” sound, but wasn’t sure of where it was coming from. Gravy at 11:50 pm reported feeling a very heavy feeling while sitting in his seat. He said it felt like someone sat on top of him.
No other activities occurred during this time and they concluded the session at 12:03 am.
Basement (Washer/Dryer Room) – 12:09 am
Deciding to head to the basement, the group left out candy on the stage for the “children” of the building to go after. This was considered to be a trigger object – an object used to try to get a spirit to interact.
Once everyone was in the basement area, all group members spread out with all of the women on the side with the washers and dryers. It was reported that women were touched while in this part of the basement.
The group took a few minutes of controlled silence and then at 12:12 am started an EVP session. At one point during the EVP session, the stationary K2 meter that was set up did show a higher EMF level, but it was not found to be paranormal by any means.
After no activities occurred the group concluded the session at 12:31 am and headed to another part of the basement.
Basement (Small-side room) – 12:40 am
Prior to starting an EVP session in the room, Mary, Noah and Gravy checked out the room. After Mary left it, they called Karen in to get her impressions of it since she hadn’t been in it previously. She felt this small room had a lot of anxiety and that there was abuse associated with it. There was a very small room/closet also in the room with doors where she felt women were abused by the negative-predatory “male” she picked up on earlier in the night.
Deciding to see if they could get in contact with the “male,” Noah and Gravy left the room, but asked Mary to return so it was just the women in the room. They conducted an EVP session directing questions toward the negative male.
At one point, Karen felt a scared “female” came into the room and was trying to warn them that “he” was coming.
No other activities occurred at this time, and the women concluded the EVP session at 12:55 am.
The group then headed up to the 3rd floor where they spread out throughout the halls.
START TIME: 1:05 am LOCATION: 3rd Floor – All spread out throughout the halls but Mary was in the Men’s bathroom and Karen was on the stairs half way up to the 4th floor
The group took another five minutes to listen to the controlled silence around them. Once the controlled silence was over, the group started an EVP session.
After no activities occurred, the group concluded the session at 1:26 am and decided to take a quick break. They wanted to also figure out what to do about their parking situation since they were on the street and there is no parking on the street after 2 am in downtown Milwaukee.
They all headed to the 8th floor Green Room where they discussed what to do while they asked Jason how much longer the group could stay since they wanted to continue investigating the 4th floor and Light Booth areas. They decided to chance leaving the car on the street, and were told they could stay until 3 am. They then quickly went back downstairs at 1:53 am and then to the 4th floor to continue investigating.
In order to cover all areas to make the best of the little time they had, Noah and Eric (Group 1) headed up the Lighting Booth while Karen, Gravy, Mary and Susan (Group 2) stayed on the 4th floor.
Lighting Booth – 1:53 am
Group 1 – Noah and Eric entered the Lighting Booth and made sure that all equipment was still running. They wanted to first determine if the group on the 4th floor could be heard in the Lighting Booth and it was determined that Group 2 could not be heard. Noah then called Gravy to let them know that so they could proceed investigating the 4th floor.
Noah sat on the couch and Eric sat in a chair near the front of the booth. They started the investigation by first allowing for five minutes of silence so that the normal sounds of the room could be established. It was noted that there was a high-pitched squeal that was coming from some sort of fan run by a rubber belt. Other than that the room was very quiet.
After the five minutes of silence an EVP session was started. No activities occurred during this time. At 2:30 am the investigation was ended and Noah and Eric began breaking down the equipment in the Lighting Booth.
4th Floor – 1:53 pm
Group 2 – Spread out throughout the hallway were toys left as trigger objects for any of the “children” to play with. Karen felt there was a young “girl” in the small-closet down the right hallway. Initially Gravy was over by it, but he asked Mary if they could switch spots to see if the “girl” would respond better.
After trying to direct their questions to the “girl” and to any of the other “children” that might be there, the group concluded the session at 2:11 am and headed into the Balcony.
Balcony – 2:12 am
The group started an EVP session right away when they got situated in their seats. After there appeared to be no response, the group started making comments to the spirits of Riverside that the spirits of the Pabst Theater were better in the hopes to get some type of a response.
At one point Karen felt a “male” spirit come up behind her, but he left as quickly as he came.
When they saw Group 1 turning on the lights in the Lighting Booth at 2:30 am, Group 2 concluded their EVP session and started to help take things down.
Once all equipment was gathered and all the lights were back on as they were when PIM arrived, the group left the location around 3:05 am.
Evidence
Control Recorder – 9:40 pm
A noise can be heard at the beginning of this track from a control recorder
Control Recorder – 12:46 am
A noise that sounds like a whisper can be heard after a snapping noise
4th Floor – 1:17 am
A whisper can be heard after an investigator asks a question
Conclusion
The Riverside Theater was a great place to investigate. The size of the location combined with the varied reports of activity makes it an ideal location to investigate. PIM was able to capture several pieces of evidence during this investigation. Although not definitive, PIM feels further investigations are needed to tease out what is going on at this historic theater. There are also more areas of the theater PIM did not investigate which may yield interesting evidence as well. PIM looks forward to its next investigation at the Riverside Theater and would like to thank Susan Scot Fry for being our guide and filling us in on the claims at the theater, as well as manager, Jason Gierl, for staying up most of the night while we investigated.
