This month I talk with Mr. Haunted or Jim Petonito. An investigator of many years and many cases. I’m looking forward to sharing a small bit of his story with you.
By Jim Malliard, The Malliard Report
Jim: What got you interested into the paranormal?
JP: As far as I can remember I’ve always had an interest in the supernatural. My first experience that I consider ‘paranormal’ is when I was about 10 years old. I was listening to a baseball game on the radio at about 8 PM while on my bed. I was lying on my stomach with my knees bent and had my feet dangling in the air. My radio was only AM and the type with 2 dials on it, one for volume and one for tuning, and the radio was to the right of me on top of the dresser. My mother had company downstairs and I was told to stay in bed. Even though the lights were on, I began to get the feeling of being watched. The radio began changing stations on its own. I immediately thought ‘I can’t go downstairs, what do I do?’ So, I look over at the radio and I can see the tuning dial moving quickly back and forth. I was frozen and couldn’t move until ‘something’ with great force threw my legs down. I immediately ran downstairs yelling, “Ma! Ma! There’s a ghost in my room! It threw my legs down and it was turning my radio.” Before I could finish, she told me “Get back in bed! There are no such things as ghosts!”
Jim: You have been part of some famous investigations, do you have a favorite one?
JP: At 11 PM, Dave, his wife Lisa and their 14 year old son, Ben planned to watch a Seinfeld rerun. The family had been having trouble sleeping lately, since Ben’s 20 year old cousin had committed suicide a few days earlier. Little did they know, the events of that evening would change their lives forever.
About 10 minutes into the program, the TV started to change channels on its own. Lisa suggested that it might be her nephew’s spirit trying to communicate. At that point, it stopped. Dave asked “If you are a spirit go to channel 24.” After going to 24, the TV raced from channel 72 to zero over and over again.
They put a bible next to the TV and prayed for the spirit to go away. But, before the first prayer was over, the bible was thrown to the floor. They went to sleep and hoped maybe tomorrow it would stop. Again, everything was fine until 11 PM. Again, the channels were racing from 72 to zero.
Ben had an idea. He said “Let’s say that channel 1 is A, Channel 2 is B and channel 26 is Z. The cable box immediately switched to channels 25, 5 then 19 which spelled ‘Yes.’
Using this code, they talked with the TV for the next 2 hours. They discovered that they were supposedly talking to a spirit whose name was Joe Dana, a man who was murdered in their same 1st floor apartment 10 years earlier. Joe also added that he was rolled up in a carpet and buried under a porch down the street. When they asked Joe how they could help him, Joe requested that he have a Christian burial since his body was never found and the murderer never caught. He even gave Dave his social security number and Dave recorded all this information and decided to call the police and check out his story. An officer arrived the next morning and inquired how Dave had gotten this information. When he told him the story about the cable box, understandably, the cop looked at him like he was nuts. But when Dave asked him a series of questions, including his birthday and even his home phone number, the TV answered all of them correctly. The events that the officer witnessed were included in a police report. An investigation turned up that no one named Joe Dana ever lived in their house or was ever reported missing. And the social security number he gave never existed. This case made local headlines and was my favorite story.
Jim: Give us some advice for new investigators?
JP: Back up all your evidence! Since I started out with audio and video cassette tapes, I recently started to convert all my tapes to digital, and video to DVD. In the process, I lost a lot of quality and lost some forever. I also noticed whispering is always a problem on investigations. When you hear a whisper while reviewing evidence, you want to know when it was a ‘voice’ and not an investigator whispering. And keep experimenting!
Jim: You host an internet radio show now, what got you interested in that?
JP: I wasn’t interested in it, but after being a guest a couple times on the radio show called Voices Carry, I was approached and asked if I’d be interested in hosting my own show. At first I wasn’t, but thinking about how I loved listening to Art Bell on Coast to Coast, especially the Halloween episode called Ghost to Ghost, I wanted to do a lot of ghost story call-in shows because they were my favorite. I felt if I can create shows that people find memorable and forget their problems for an hour, I’m in.
Jim: Lastly, what’s next for you? Investigations?
JP: Investigating (especially the Exorcism stuff) takes up a lot of your time and so does taking care of your family. I tried to do both, but I am concentrating on raising my 2 daughters now. When I’m old, I will never say, ‘I wish I did more ghost hunting in my life!’ I still try and hook up people who are having problems with help in their area. The paranormal will always be there, but for me, its family first.
Jim: Tell people where they can find you and your radio show.
JP: My website is a small picture of things I’ve done, but its www.MrHaunted.com. My Radio show is The Haunted Chronicles on www.Paramaniaradio.com.
About the Author:
Jim Malliard grew up with the paranormal practically woven into his DNA. When he was as young as 3 years old, he would spend time in cemeteries with his family talking to his friends who where unseen; and to this day, those experiences have left him wondering and fueled his drive to seek out the truth. Jim now lives in northwestern Pennsylvania with his family. He runs Meadville Paranormal and his radio show, The Malliard Report, from there. You can hear his show on Tuesdays at 9 pm Eastern time via the many internet radio networks. Find out more at www.malliard.com.
