The interviewer’s comments are denoted through initials JK, while the interviewee’s responses are denoted through initials MJ.
JK: Got any stories weird stories from your past growing up in the suburbs around Boston?
MJ: Yea I’m from a town called Winchester about ten minutes north of the city. I live across the street from these woods called the Brooks Parkhurst Forest. So, there’s an old mansion called the “Brooks Mansion” in the middle of the forest close to this pond. Apparently it was built at some point in the late 1800s. The town tried to restore it and turn it into this kind of landmark at some point over the last 20 years, but people didn’t keep it in good shape and… so it kinda fell into ruin. Anyway, me and some of my buddies had always heard it was haunted by the ghost of the lady that owned the house and died there sometime in the early 1900s. Now, being normal people, ya know, we all thought this was bullshit…. We did not believe in ghosts. In the past, I’d walked by the house with my dad.. but I’d never gone inside. I’d heard stories about other kids going there to drink, but that was pretty much it.
JK: Was there specific kind of story that you had heard about this ghost?
MJ: Yea, a couple kids who were a few grades ahead of us told us they went in the house one night in the early fall.. had heard a bunch of weird noises, got freaked out, and left. They mentioned they had heard the front door slam while they were upstairs in the mansion, and that made them freak and run out one of the back doors. I told them it was probably the wind, but they all said it was a super calm night with no breeze at all. So anyway, like a year later, me and two of my friends are smoking a spliff out in the woods and we start talking about the mansion and how some people think it has a ghost. We all decide to take the 10-15 minute walk through the woods to get to it. It was a mid September night, probably around 60 degrees– and get this– no wind. Like none. It was a wicked nice night, that’s why we were out there smoking in the first place. So basically, we get to the mansion, open the front door and roll inside. At this point we were definitely all a little high, but no one was stoned. The inside was pretty run down. The floors creaked, the walls were a mess. A lot of windows broken, some graffiti on the walls. It was all typical abandoned house stuff. So we walk around taking it all in and head up stairs. As soon as we get to the top we hear this noise that sounds exactly like wind blowing through an empty house…. But there’s no wind at all. The night is dead still. We look outside and none of the trees are blowing around. This starts to get us scared. Maybe we were higher than we thought. After like 15 seconds of this, we hear the door slam, like loudly slam, beneath us. We all let out a couple swears and bolt down the stairs and out one of the back doors. Freaky stuff. I’ve never gone back in the house.
Conclusion:
This sounded like a classic old haunted house story: old lady dies in her mansion and then her spirit stands guard over it for the rest of time. When I asked the kid if he now believes in ghosts, he said, “Uh well before I didn’t but now I don’t really know what to think. Maybe I was higher than I thought, but that door definitely slammed and there was no wind– or other people around– to do it. Definitely makes you think.” From this response, it is clear the interviewee is still unsure about the existence of the supernatural, but– if I had to bet– I would say he is slightly leaning towards believing in ghosts.