VICKSBURG, Miss– News Mississippi’s Chelsea Corona and Courtney Carter teamed up with Brian Riley of the Mississippi Paranormal Society to tour Vicksburg’s most haunted places. It’s a thrilling show at Parkside Playhouse.
Driving around a corner in Vicksburg, then there it stands–Parkside Playhouse. It’s aged from the outside, as it should be since the place was built in 1936. But the history of the grounds goes back much further.
“Where you stand there,” says John Hesselberg with the theater, as he points, “is part of the siege lines from the Civil War,” Hesselberg is talking about the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863, “and here is where I’ve seen apparitions and heard my name called clear as a bell.”
Needless to say, this reporter was eager to remove herself from that spot.
Hesselberg claims to have heard his name called. He’s also heard a cocktail party in the back hall of the theater and he’s seen figures moving about in the theater.
“I was setting up for a show one night, and I pulled out the velvet ropes so the crowd wouldn’t go in before they’re supposed to,” says Hesselberg, “I just saw the rope unravel by itself.”
The stands the velvet ropes attach to are about twenty-five pounds a piece.
Pic: Chelsea Corona speaks with John Hesselberg, a board member at Parkside Playhouse. They stand where the velvet ropes unraveled themselves.
“Another person once saw the doors close by themselves, and heard the footsteps,” says Hesselberg. I didn’t want to alarm her so I told her it was some of the crew leaving.”
Brian Riley with the Mississippi Paranormal Society says this place is really active.
“We’ve had conversations on the ghost box,” says Riley.
The ghost box is a radio device that scrolls through the frequencies at a rate of 4 channels per second. So it’s impossible for words to be heard, unless those words are the spirits using the box to communicate.
Riley says they’ve heard several words from spirits in the green room of the theater.
“We’ve heard soldier,” says Riley. Hesselberg was there for that investigation.
“We asked if he was a soldier, then he said ‘father,'” says Hesselberg. It is rumored that green room stands where the former rest tents stood for the injured during the Civil War.
One of the spirits came across the ghost box to call an investigator a name, according to Riley.
Here’s a clip from the tour of Parkside Playhouse, partially edited:
*warning, language that some may find offensive*
