March 19, 2007

One Night At Lemp

Rate this encounter:[an error occurred while processing this directive] Meggie, St. Louis, Missouri, September 15, 2005

I spent a memorable night at The Lemp Mansion with my cousin, Cindy. It was memorable for me, because of the activity. Memorable for Cindy, because it firmly cemented in her mind that she would never return.

We stayed in the Charles Lemp suite. Charles was the last of the Lemp family to commit suicide in the Mansion. Stories have circulated that he went downstairs and shot his dog then returned to his bedroom to shoot himself. This is not true. He shot himself in the morning on his bed. He was the only member of the Lemp family to leave a suicide note and the fourth to commit suicide (Three killed themselves in the Mansion and a sister in her home in another St. Louis neighborhood). Charles stated that when found, "blame no one but me." He left word that his last remaining brother, Edwin, was to have his body taken immediately, without any further preparation, and have it cremated and to bury the ashes on his farm in St. Louis County. The burial spot of Charles Lemp's ashes will never be known. After the death of Edwin, all Lemp papers were burned along with valuable artwork and other items as requested by Edwin of his groundskeeper.

The night we stayed in Charles's suite, there was a party in the outside gazebo that lasted until around midnight. All other suites were occupied for the night, so any investigation we might be able to do was limited. We did wander about the house and took some photographs, did a little EVP work, and took some video film. There was nothing remarkable. At around 1:00 AM, we decided to call it a night. I set up my video camcorder (which is not equipped with night vision) on a small table at the entrance to the room, pointing it toward a corner where there was a little light coming in through the window from outside. The guest table was set up in this corner and it included a coffeemaker, muffins, and an ice bucket filled with ice, wine, and orange juice. My reason for setting up the camera was to use it to record audio, as my tape recorder would make a rather loud "click" when the tape was finished, and the camcorder would simply shutdown after two hours. I did not expect any video to be useful.

I was sleeping peacefully for about an hour, but awoke when my cousin began to move around. She was hot in the room and finding it difficult to sleep. We spoke for a few seconds, and I drifted back off... but not for long. Almost immediately I was totally awakened by the sound of the ice in our ice bucket being literally tossed into the sink in the room. It was very loud. I asked Cindy, "What was that?" She replied, "I think it was the ice." We could both see the bucket sitting on the table and knew it had not moved, but there was no mistaking the sound we heard.

After awhile, I was able to sleep again, though I don't believe Cindy ever did.

When I reviewed the two hours of video tape the next day, I noticed that the little light that came in through the drapes began to distort after awhile. The camcorder self-focuses, and I assumed it was trying to do just that. Gradually it began to get more and more distorted. I continued to watch it, and reached the point in the tape where Cindy and I awoke just before the sound of the ice. There it was, on the tape, the recording of the ice being thrown into the sink. I was delighted to have caught it on tape! It was loud and sounded exactly as it had the night before!

I recorded a copy of that portion of the tape onto DVD to keep it safe. It was a very exciting night and a very good catch for me. I since returned to Lemp and spent an hour closed up in Charles' room alone, attempting to record EVPs through asking questions, but was unable to get a response.

I will not give up. I continue to visit Lemp and will continue to try to contact Charles Lemp every chance I get. I recommend anyone who can visit this top haunted America site to go!