Chasing Spirits: The Building of the "Ghost Adventures" Crew

NICK GROFF

with Jeff Belanger

THE BUILDING OF THE

GHOST ADVENTURES
CREW

NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY

Acknowledgments

Introduction

CHAPTER 1:
Near Death

CHAPTER 2:
Making Television

CHAPTER 3:
Finding Virginia City

CHAPTER 4:
The
Ghost Adventures
Crew Comes Together

CHAPTER 5:
Investigating Virginia City

CHAPTER 6:
Investigating the Goldfield Hotel

CHAPTER 7:
Editing and Then Selling the Documentary

CHAPTER 8:
Selling the Series

CHAPTER 9:
The TV Adventure Begins

CHAPTER 10:
What’s a Ghost and How Do We Find One?

CHAPTER 11:
Possession in Savannah

CHAPTER 12:
Favorite Cases

CHAPTER 13:
Linda Vista Hospital: The Game Changer

CHAPTER 14:
My Paranormal Life

CHAPTER 15:
The Spiritual Journey

Paranormal Investigation Equipment

Appendix: Paranormal Resources

To my wife Veronique, our LOVE is an ADVENTURE!

—Nick Groff

I would like to thank Maureen and David Groff; without them I wouldn’t be here today. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for always giving me enthusiasm and courage throughout my life.

Thank you, Veronique, for always sticking by my side and guiding us throughout our journey together. I love you more than anything this world can ever offer. We are blessed to have a perfect, amazing little girl, Annabelle. I can’t wait to see what the rest of our lives will hold for us.

Thank you, Grandmas Groff and Narragon. You both are amazing ladies. You have always been there for me and opened up my mind to a world that is so complex.

Thank you to my sister, Dianna, who has always had my back through good times and bad. I will never forget you buying my first tape, Compton’s Most Wanted, and giving it to me on my twelfth birthday.

This dream wouldn’t be a reality without the amazing people at the Travel Channel. Thank you for all of your support!

Thank you to my literary agent, Jill Marr, for believing in me and the book. Thank you to my editor, Danielle Perez, for believing in this book and for your editorial guidance. Thank
you to Andy Rigrod for always having my back throughout a world of fun. It has been a blast working together! It’s hard to find good people in this industry and you are truly a genuine person.

Thank you to all my friends. I raise my beer up high and drink together as one to the future. Mike Anderson, Erik Avilla, Morgan Groff, Hector Pérez Jr., Marco Bonenfant, Justin Narragon, Aaron Goodwin, Vartan and Lisa, Zak Bagans, Pete and Jim Owns, Jeff Belanger, and Danny Bedrosian.

Thank you to all my Groff and Narragon families.

THANK YOU to my amazing fans who have always been there and know who I really am. You all ROCK! Into the future we grow together.

Thank you, Nick, for asking me to be a part of this book. It’s been a pleasure working with you on each episode of
Ghost Adventures
, and the various other opportunities that have come up along the way. I respect your honesty and work ethic and value our friendship.

Thank you to my
Ghost Adventures
family: Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin, Kathy DaSilva, Joe Townley, Hugh Hansen, Erik Kesten, Anthony DiDonato, Eric Paulen, and the other amazing people I’ve had the privilege to work with on this great show.

A big thanks to everyone at the Travel Channel who believed in
Ghost Adventures
and us!

Thank you to my wife, Megan, and daughter, Sophie, for putting up with my crazy life and for being a cheerleader when I
need it. Thank you also to Tim Weisberg, Connie Mianecki, and Edna Van Baulen.

Thank you to Jill Marr and to Danielle Perez for your help in taking this idea and turning it into a real book.

Finally, a big thanks to
Ghost Adventures
fans everywhere! Your support, ghost stories, and great attitude mean the world to me. You make all of the hard work worth it.

T
wo seconds. Big, life-changing experiences don’t take months or years to happen. The game changers occur in a flash of time. My life changed forever when I locked eyes with a spirit at Linda Vista Hospital in East Los Angeles during a
Ghost Adventures
lockdown. That moment—what she was wearing, the color of her eyes, her clothing, and the expression on her face—are all cut into my permanent memory like the deep scar that circles my left biceps. If I close my eyes right now, I can relive the experience just as it happened in that dark surgical suite, where the only light came from the LCD screen of my video camera.

Amid the now empty glass cabinets, the old tile walls, and the no longer used surgery lighting equipment, a woman now stood. She shouldn’t have been there…and another second later, she was gone.

Since childhood my life has been full of paranormal experiences—yet I’ve always had questions. But those two seconds at Linda Vista changed me in every way. The way I deal
with other people, how I think about the universe around me, and what I know about the spirit world all became clear in that moment of raw fear and shock.

My name is Nick Groff, and this is my story—how this paranormal investigator was made from the cradle to the TV screen. These are my own ghost adventures.

I’m writing this book because we can’t cover all of the story in a television show. There are things the camera misses, and things the camera was never meant to see. You’re about to get all of it—the successes, the fights, the challenges, and the paranormal encounters that have played a big role in making me who I am today. I want to tell you about some of my favorite cases and give you more history on the haunts that have left a mark on me.

Over the years, I’ve been asked a lot of questions about the paranormal, about being on a television show, and about my life. I’m going to try to answer everything I can about how I got to this point right here. I’m at a good place right now, but it can be frightening too.

I was born on April 19, 1980, in San Jose, California. Though I was born on the West Coast, I feel like more of a New England guy because my family moved to a small town in southern New Hampshire when I was one.

I grew up surrounded by woods. It was awesome. I was a hyperactive kid, and I got into a lot of trouble. Running around the woods and exploring helped me burn off some of that energy, but not all of it. There were plenty of times my adventures ended in blood.

One of my earliest memories involves my older sister, Dianna. We were jumping on the couches in the living room of our Nashua, New Hampshire, house, when all of a sudden Dianna
missed and slammed her chin against the coffee table. Her chin split open and blood was everywhere. She was rushed to the hospital, where she got stitches…but I’ll never forget the blood. The scene slowed down for me, almost the way a movie might show a tragic event in slow motion. I can still see her blood on the floor, on her hands, running down her chin and neck. I felt like a video camera capturing this scene: my sister crying, my parents frantic to comfort her and stop the bleeding. Some scenes never leave your head.