Hell's Gate
At 44 Licking Pike in Wilder, Kentucky... just across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio... lies, what has been called "the most haunted place in America." Bob Macky's Music World, a country/western bar and nightclub, is well known for it's mechanical bull. It is better known for more violent encounters with spirits than anywhere else in the US. Visitors and staff members report everything from poltergeist-like phenomena, to disembodied voices and laughter, to actual physical attacks by unseen forces. There are, on record, 29 sworn affidavits of sightings, several from police and clergy.
Paranormal Investigator Doug Hensley was called in to determine the causes for the strange occurrences. Mr. Hensley, author of Hell's Gate, made some startling discoveries. I had the happy chance to interview Mr. Hensley for this article.
"In twenty years of psychic investigations into ghosts, haunting, poltergeists and demonic like possessions, I have never encountered a more malevolent or destructive case than that which I experienced at Bobby Mackey’s Music World in Wilder, Kentucky. Doug Hensley, in ‘Hell’s Gate,’ has taken on the formidable and dangerous task of telling the story. Through his eyes can be seen the images of the dark side of human nature and how collective Evil insidiously breaks down the spiritual protection of those who challenge it naively. This is a very convincing story, but more than that, it is a nightmare of the real." -Dr. Peter D. Moscow Ph.D., MDSRad - President United States Psychotronic Association
The owner, Bobby Mackey, denies any existence of ghosts at the nightclub, but he will not step foot in the place alone. At one point a customer who had been attacked by a spirit in the bathroom sued him. He claimed that Mackey was at fault for not having the ghosts "cleaned out" of the bar. The customer who sued Bobby Mackey sill visits the nightclub in hopes that he will "see the evil finally run off." He will not enter the place until there is a crowd inside. "His wife, Janet has refused to come back inside the club. She has not stepped foot inside the place for over two years," reports Hensley.
The building itself has a dark history. At one time, the structure was a slaughterhouse, and a deep well was dug in the basement to collect animal blood and body fluids. When the slaughterhouse closed, Satanists used the well of blood for rituals.
In 1896, two devil worshippers beheaded a woman named Pearl Bryan and used her head in their ceremonies. After they were caught, before they were hanged, the men were offered life sentences in exchange for disclosing the whereabouts of the missing head. Both men refused. They claimed that to do so would bring down the wrath of the devil himself.
The cursed building was a speakeasy in the 1920s. Several unsolved mob murders added more violence to the already tainted past.
Sightings, Encounters, Real Ghosts, and Sally Jessie Raphael have investigated this place. They all conclude that the place is haunted.
So many people are skeptical. Mr. Hensley himself never experienced anything paranormal before this. When I asked him what he, personally, saw. I didn't expect anything big. He replied, "I have seen several things happen inside the nightclub. I saw a door open and close, the juke box come on unplugged and once saw a garbage can fly violently behind the bar. If someone does not believe in ghosts they need to read my book then visit this nightclub."
Mr. Hensley still writes (mostly fiction now), he has several movie deals signed and several new book deals pending. We'll keep our eyes open.
FrightScape would like to offer a special thank you to Mr. Doug Hensley for his time. His book Hell's Gate is available at a discount through FrightScape.
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