My Haunted Beginnings

-Welcome to the Haunted Blog!

This is my very first entry into the world of blogging. For those who do not know who I am. My name is Shamus Denniston. I am the Director, Founder and Lead Investigator of the Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations (TSPI). A paranormal team based out of southeastern Connecticut. We travel throughout New England and beyond helping those in need of help.

I first want to start out by saying. I did not find the paranormal, as much as it found me. Some of my earliest memories were of my father and uncle in our living room, telling ghost stories from the old country (Ireland). Recalling stories of visitations from dead relatives, leprechauns, and other mystical Celtic creatures. My childhood was full of this wonderful world the supernatural and superstition. Growing up in an Irish household, this was par course for family gatherings. Those were always my favorite times with my dad's relatives. But their conversations sometimes turned a little too relevant for me. When my father would tell stories about strange happenings around our own house. I would hear stories about a spirit that my mother came to call as "George". According to my parents, he was living in our house. Looking back on things, I never knew why our house had a ghost. I always pictured a haunted house to be the one up on a hill, creepy, dilapidated, full of spiders and cob webs. I used to think, my house is not run down or full of cob webs. Was my dad having a bit of fun with my brothers and I...

Until one night, something happened. I must have been 9 or 10 years old when it happened. I was in the bedroom at the end of a long hallway, that led to an open living room. At the far corner of the living room stood a baby grand white piano. One night I was awakened to the sound of someone calling my name. I opened the bedroom door, and the sound stopped. I listened, there was some sort of gravitational pull, calling me down the hallway, but being a kid, I was scared to death. I recalled this occurring a few times. My Mom said that I could of been sleep walking, but I knew I was awake.

Then came the piano. The piano would sometimes play on its own. It was never a song, but always this foreboding "Dink, Dink, Dink" on some high note on the piano. It goes without saying, but I was frightened at the thought of what or who was playing the piano.

One afternoon he was working in his office in the downstairs part of the house, with the door closed. The office had a breezeway that led to the garage. After some time, he heard the sound of the garage door open. Then, the doors from the garage, to breezeway and then into the house open. He then heard someone walk upstairs and the sound of grocery bags being put down on the kitchen table. He came out of his office to greet my mother that was home from the store, only to find no one. The house completely locked up and the garage door closed. He did not immediately assume George was the culprit, and soon returned to his office, this time he left the office door open. A little while passed and he heard the garage door open. This time, assuming my mother was home from the store, he continued to work, and heard the doors leading to the house open. Instead of seeing my Mother pass by his office door with an arm full of bags. He saw a shadow man, standing about 6 ft. tall, starring right at him. The room drained of any heat, leaving this lifeless chill and with a man with no face looking right at him. The shadow man, then walked into the house. As frightened as he was, my Dad chased him, but to no avail the man disappeared.

About a half hour later, we found my father standing in the middle of the driveway, waiting for us to come home. My father was the toughest man I knew, former cop and growing up as a teenager in the slums of Liverpool, England, he didn't scare very easily. That incident really shook him, and I will never forget the way he looked when we found him.

Occurrences like that, only fueled my curiosity for all things unexplained. It came to no surprise that I eventually became a paranormal investigator. My passion grew for wanting to capture evidence of these spirits. With some training and experience under my belt, I founded Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations in 2010 with Todd Radley and with the assistance of Harrison Fortier Jr. Today, we still chase those shadow people and with a greater calling. Our numbers have grown from three to eight. With a steady case load, truck load full of evidence and documentation. Most of all, helping those in need understand and get closure from their haunting experiences.