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S2 E8 Al Cooley - Podcast Host and Author of Ghost in the Valley
11 Plays13 days ago
This week i had the pleasure to welcome fellow podcast Host, and Author of Spencer's Ghost, The Guardian
Both the Ghost in the Valley podcast, and Spencer's Ghost, were created after Al grew up in a Haunted house.
He experienced a ghostly female apparition and stopped from falling by an unknown hand.
Al also experienced hearing heavy footsteps walking across the hallway and pounding on the wall, and breathing in his ear, and finally being cautioned by a priest about getting involved with the paranormal.
All finally got given an evil look from a Police officer, before being told by the officer that some of his ghost stories are true
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction and Guest Appearance
00:00:12
Lee Hatfield
Hello, everybody, and welcome to the latest episode of SEPA Paranormal Chronicles. Tonight, I have got the pleasure to speak to Cooley. Al is the host of the Ghost in the Valley podcast, and he's author is also an author of the book, Spencer's Ghost, The Guardian, which is about personal experiences, but we'll get onto that later. Al, good evening, my friend.
00:00:39
Al Cooley
Good evening. and Thank you for having me on your show.
00:00:42
Lee Hatfield
Well, both of us have been talking and I know that I'm repaying the favour and we're both going to be on each other. So all the listeners have got something to look forward to in the next few weeks.
00:00:53
Al Cooley
Mm-hmm.
00:00:55
Lee Hatfield
So I've just been talking about it off air, but I'll just mention it quickly again. the The US has been having some some really sucky weather, even more so than where I am in Canada.
00:01:06
Lee Hatfield
So has that affected you much?
00:01:09
Al Cooley
Oh, yeah. I mean, well, first of all, I mean, since I never had COVID before. So I, my wife and I, we contacted COVID right before Thanksgiving. And this thing has lingered on, man. I'm telling you what, I've never had it. I don't want it again.
Personal Experiences and Inspiration
00:01:25
Al Cooley
It was actually absolutely terrible. Just got my sense of smell back. And, uh, So after dealing with that, and then all of a sudden, then we get this, like you had put, i like you had kindly said, sucky weather.
00:01:39
Al Cooley
That's when they kindly, so it's like it's it's like not letting up, you know? I mean, there had there was no school for... this whole week, and looks like it's canceled for us this week, and maybe next week we'll have school.
00:01:52
Al Cooley
But it's, uh, temperatures have been hovering around zero to minuses at night, uh, no higher than, and than the teens. I think I got up in a single digits this past weekend, and the snow is unbelievable.
00:01:52
Lee Hatfield
Wow.
00:02:04
Al Cooley
So, and we haven't, we haven't seen this for, for a few years, but we'll get through it.
00:02:08
Lee Hatfield
what hour Oh, yeah as everybody does. I know a friend of mine sent me some pictures from a place in Russia in Siberia, and they'd got between 10 and 40 foot snowdrifts.
00:02:21
Al Cooley
Wow. Yeah.
00:02:24
Lee Hatfield
that
00:02:24
Al Cooley
And they just go across the country or just like that. Yeah.
00:02:26
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But I'm in Canada. We get used to it. we We often get two or three feet a year. So whatever.
00:02:34
Al Cooley
Yeah. Used to it. all
00:02:35
Lee Hatfield
Exactly. Yeah.
00:02:36
Al Cooley
Yeah.
00:02:37
Lee Hatfield
OK, so the host of Ghost in the Valley and you're also an author. But if you'd like, let's go back to the very beginning of how did your paranormal story begin?
00:02:51
Al Cooley
Well, it actually began when, story that's where my where my book comes into play, you know, because it's written about a true story growing growing up in a haunted house. Up until I'm i'm like 12 years old, I've never experienced anything paranormal or believed in ghosts or...
00:03:09
Al Cooley
goblins or anything like that, you know. So moving and into this house was an experience for me, you know, from day one. And so I would say at 12 years old, when we, when we pull up the driveway and I seen her in a window, the upstairs window, and i was the only one that seen her.
00:03:29
Al Cooley
And eventually yeah my sister would, my brother, through the next five years. But Yeah, that was the first day. I would say 12 years of age.
00:03:42
Al Cooley
So i knew it was real then. you know but back you Now we're going back to 1960, 1967, so I'm showing my age a little bit. So, you know, like I had said on so many podcasts, you know, like they always ask me, how how come it took you so long to write this book, you know?
00:04:02
Al Cooley
Took you over 50 years write this book. And I said, well, really, who do you go to? I mean, who do I talk to? to say I seen a ghost, you know, so, uh, you know, back then, i mean, you don't have viner internet, internet or YouTube or Google or any any of that.
00:04:19
Al Cooley
So all you had was your encyclopedias. And if you, I mentioned anything about a ghost, you know, that's why I kept it quiet for so, so long because, you know, you get labeled crazy and goofy and, out there, you know?
00:04:34
Al Cooley
So now I, you know, I really don't care. i mean, it's like, you know, cut the story out and, uh, It is i' unbelievable, you know. But I'm not one of these people that where, you know, some people, a ghost or spirit follows follows them their whole life.
00:04:50
Al Cooley
So you move this house or this house or this house, so it's with you. Now, mine was like a one and done. So,
00:04:58
Al Cooley
And those five years were traumatic for me, you know, because you're going through your, what, 12 years old to 16 and everything we witnessed in that house, you know, and then just it just stays with you. you know So when I wrote the book a couple of years ago, out it kind of just kind of come back to me because you don't forget about that stuff.
00:05:20
Al Cooley
Or my sister would call and say, did you did you remember this put in a book, you know And I'm like, oh, well, that's a great idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, forgot about that, you know.
00:05:30
Al Cooley
So I'm working on book two right now. So book two is going to be starting off where this one, last one just left off at, you know, and then, but basically you want to go into the more, more of the yeah newer years, you know.
00:05:30
Lee Hatfield
It's really, oh, sorry.
00:05:43
Al Cooley
So it's only going it's only going to two book series.
00:05:46
Lee Hatfield
Right.
00:05:47
Al Cooley
And so, because I really don't want to go on and on and just make crap up, you know, so. I, you know, I just, uh, it's real life experiences and and i have my good responses for it, you know? So it's like, who do I sell this book to? You know, cause I'm 12 years old.
00:06:05
Al Cooley
I'm going on 16, the good one to 16 years of age. And so Amazon says like, you know, who's your target audience? I'm like, I don't know, I was probably say 12 years old or 16 years but you know, surprisingly, I get so much responses from all the older generation.
00:06:25
Al Cooley
that Because you're going back to a time, like I said, you know, that there was no internet. there were in And I'm going back to experiences that... you see today on a lot of your TV shows, you know, so it's the same stuff.
00:06:38
Al Cooley
I mean, excuse me, it doesn't matter if it's in Canada or United States or New Zealand, this stuff happens, uh, coast to coast everywhere.
00:06:47
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, for sure.
Changing Perceptions of Paranormal
00:06:49
Lee Hatfield
And it it's interesting because I've always been interested in the paranormal for as long as I can remember. And when I was a kid, because obviously we're we're roughly the same age.
00:07:01
Lee Hatfield
Again, like you said, there was no Internet and yeah it was all or books or magazines. And there was a magazine in the UK called The Unexplained.
00:07:13
Lee Hatfield
And, yeah, as most kids do when they get a subscription, they probably get the first five or six, maybe the first 10. And then they go, OK, I'm getting bored with this and don't buy any more. And i I was on one of the Facebook pages and somebody posted a picture of the first cover.
00:07:30
Lee Hatfield
And I went, oh, my God. i I remember that from as a kid. And I've now found the internet database where you can actually download them all.
00:07:40
Lee Hatfield
So I'm reliving my childhood through these magazines. And
00:07:46
Al Cooley
Isn't that great that you could do that? You know?
00:07:49
Lee Hatfield
That's it. and
00:07:49
Al Cooley
Yeah.
00:07:50
Lee Hatfield
And another point to what to what you were saying, when we were children, if you mentioned that you saw ghosts, spirits, fairies, whatever, you were basically told to either be quiet and shut up, or you were deemed to be kind of like losing your marbles a little bit.
00:08:12
Lee Hatfield
But in this day and age, like We go to Comic-Con conventions as an investigation team. We have a booth. And the amount of people that come up to us, up oh, let me tell you about the time when.
00:08:25
Al Cooley
Yeah.
00:08:25
Lee Hatfield
and And it happens all the time.
00:08:26
Lee Hatfield
And it's it's becoming more sociable yeah to to tell these stories now from when it was from when we were young.
00:08:35
Al Cooley
Oh yeah, mean I mean, the internet has grown so big over the last, oh I mean, I got into podcasting, what, eight years ago, and it was like maybe 350,000 podcasts out there. I think we're out there, if you're looking at the records, now there's over like, what, 50 million?
00:08:53
Al Cooley
So it's, I mean, if you can't find what you're looking for on a podcast, then there's something wrong, because there's a podcast for everything out there.
00:09:04
Al Cooley
And that's what love about it, know, because the only thing i we had as growing up, and probably use you as well, was like Art Bell, Coast to Coast Radio.
00:09:04
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:09:05
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:09:13
Al Cooley
And, you know, he was labeled goofy for having all these people on it seeing werewolves or animals. Bigfoot or, you know, way back then.
00:09:24
Lee Hatfield
yeah
00:09:24
Al Cooley
So, and now you you can go on any, any place on, on YouTube and pick up podcasts on cooking or working on a car or, and, you know, so to me, my interest has always been, and the you know, the paranormal or like music.
Podcasting Journey and Niche
00:09:43
Al Cooley
And no so, i you know, I can go there and I'll, like my talk radio would be all these podcasts and You know, like yours your show, my show. And it's great that that we can go on there and have guests come on.
00:09:55
Al Cooley
And I'm sure our guest, yours and mine, can relate to a lot of different people out there. You know what I'm saying?
00:10:04
Lee Hatfield
That's it. And one thing that I find, you can talk to 50 different people that have had a a spooky experience, so to speak, but no two stories are the same.
00:10:20
Lee Hatfield
It's all down to to personal experience for what's happened. A lot of people can... say, oh yeah, I had an experience when I was five, when I was six, when was seven, but every experience is completely different.
00:10:37
Al Cooley
Right.
00:10:37
Lee Hatfield
Never two are the same.
00:10:39
Al Cooley
Right. You know, so, you know, growing up in that house, like I said, it was, to me, it was traumatic, you know, and... I'll just give you a little bit, you know, out the day we were moving out, keep mind though, my mom and dad, they didn't know they'd never seen anything.
00:10:58
Al Cooley
They didn't believe anything. up well i I'm looking back on them, I think they did, but they they held that stiff upper lip, as you would say, you know, and not show you're scared or and any of that, you know. And i remember moving out.
00:11:16
Al Cooley
Now I've seen, I called the the ghost in the in the house Alice. I just named her, you know, and it turns out there's more than one in the house over those five years.
00:11:26
Al Cooley
But anyway, the one I'm talking about is Alice and we're moving out. Well, let me go back a little bit. Cause the first, I only seen her like maybe twice in those five years. It doesn't mean that something hasn't happened every day.
00:11:40
Al Cooley
You know, you always get the banging and the, and the movements and the noises and the footsteps every day. but actually seeing her.
00:11:51
Al Cooley
Like I said, when we pulled up the driveway, I seen her in the upper window. So when we first moved into, went into the house, first time I'm seeing this house, our furniture's not there yet. So, you know, it's like an older home with wooden floors. So, you know, when you, when you talk, you get that echo.
00:12:10
Al Cooley
So I felt like that was really cool, man. I could, I could say something that was echoing. So I says, I says, hello, hello.
00:12:15
Lee Hatfield
yeah
00:12:17
Al Cooley
And it was like, hello. and then this, girl answers back, hello. i'm like, okay, that's my sister. cause okay She's about the same age as me. She came up. She must have come upstairs and not messing with me, you know. So I'm checking all the rooms. oh There's nobody up there but me.
00:12:32
Al Cooley
And I says, hello. And she says, hello. Back at me again. And so I'm assuming this must be this girl, you know. And the so i went downstairs. I went upstairs.
00:12:45
Al Cooley
I go downstairs and they're all downstairs. And I said, there was a voice upstairs. And actually I get
Encounters with the Paranormal
00:12:53
Al Cooley
grounded again for making it up stories, you know.
00:12:54
Lee Hatfield
a you
00:12:55
Al Cooley
So like good my dad says, go down, well, at the time he was my mom's boyfriend. He says, go downstairs and the if you could can, change the light bulbs in the basement. I said, okay. It's like one of these basements, you know, it's like, because it's such an old home, there's like dirt floors and cona coal furnace and very old.
00:13:15
Al Cooley
And I couldn't reach the light. It was so so high up. So I got me a cinder block, you know, stand on the cinder block to turn this light. And this, I go to, I'm falling backwards, straight back off the center block, right?
00:13:27
Al Cooley
And this hand comes up in crowd from like the back of your thigh and just like kind of and my but in butt end and just kind of pushes me back up on the block. I thought, Tommy, I call him Tommy, that's my mom's boyfriend.
00:13:41
Al Cooley
I says, Tommy, e says thank you. And I learned, I looked down, there's nobody there. So now this is all the first day and, uh, now should I run back upstairs? You know?
00:13:53
Al Cooley
Uh, so all this stuff went on over the next five years. Just, I mean, nothing really bad happened to me or my sister or my brother, but I would say my two uncles. Yes, very much so.
00:14:05
Al Cooley
Uh, And it was the last day we're moving out. You know, and i' yeah keep in mind, I was so terrified when we lived there. And then moving out now, I'm kind of sad because it's hard to explain it that you got a connection with us, you know.
00:14:20
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:14:21
Al Cooley
And I'm like, I'm kind of sad we're leaving, you right? And the whole week before he moved out, there was not a single bit of activity. It just, it just stopped like nothing.
00:14:34
Al Cooley
And now I'm like kind of, okay, really? I mean, you're going to, you're going to play me like this because this whole time you're messing with me now, you're not going to, you're not going respond. So I'm just laying in bed, right? just night before we moved out. And I just but about to doze off and I see her at the bottom of my bed, of like a full apparition hologram of her.
00:14:55
Al Cooley
And I didn't say anything. She didn't say anything. We just said, Sarah, was like for five minutes and then she just kind like just faded out. that was it. You know, I, if I could look back down and say, you know, who are you, who's your, who are you, where'd you, how'd you die?
00:15:08
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:15:10
Al Cooley
Or, you know, what's your name? I'm not, I could have all these questions. I love to ask now, but then I just, we just had a stare down like, like looking. And, uh, so the next day,
00:15:22
Al Cooley
we were We were moving out of the house and the landlord came and to give my mother back her deposit for security deposit or whatever was. And I remember the landlord telling my mother, oh, he says, hu I'm going sad to see you guys leave. You guys are great tenants of this home.
00:15:41
Al Cooley
My mom says, oh, we we enjoyed it. The kids made up these crazy stories that the house was haunted, but we enjoyed ourselves. And i I'll never forget this, man. The landlord looked right at my mother and says, but it is haunted.
00:15:57
Al Cooley
You know, I'm surprised you lasted this long.
00:16:00
Lee Hatfield
Well,
00:16:00
Al Cooley
and So my mom's like, was driving away. He says, he's about as crazy as you are. You you still don't get it, do you, Mom?
00:16:07
Lee Hatfield
yeah.
00:16:09
Al Cooley
So yeah he said he he said, no, a young girl died in the home. So now that I'm doing book two, wife and I were going to the library to get some information on this home because their house burnt down in 2005.
00:16:28
Al Cooley
and five so there's really no information on this house, man. I'm going to all the places I can go to try to get in, but for some reason there's no information on his home.
00:16:41
Al Cooley
So I went, I went to the library and going through the old phone books and the archives of the yeah properties. And I found up the house on the phone book. And so I'm back to 1928 right now.
00:16:56
Al Cooley
So, and the person that lived in the house, her name was Alice.
00:17:01
Lee Hatfield
Wow.
00:17:02
Al Cooley
Yeah, I wouldn't know that.
00:17:04
Al Cooley
So I told my wife, that's really weird, man. I named the ghosts her house.
00:17:04
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:17:12
Lee Hatfield
That is spooky. so
00:17:13
Al Cooley
Yeah, yeah, so yeah so i we're doing some background information now. And I would love to go. And now once I get the, I got the years and the people that lived in this house,
00:17:24
Al Cooley
I want to investigate and go and like the a little bit on them, what I can get off of their history, you know. So this it is kindal kind of fun doing that, you know, you're trying you're digging up some old history of a home that no longer exists.
00:17:40
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:17:41
Al Cooley
Now I heard through on some, some reliable sources that, know, the house broke down in 2005. I also, I also heard that a person died in the house during that fire.
00:17:53
Al Cooley
So I'm, I just, I'm just surprised I can't get the information I need, you know. And, uh, so I'm, I'm going to do some more digging. That's my, that's my goal this year is to, uh,
00:18:03
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. You'd think that kind of information would be in the local papers, you'd think.
00:18:11
Al Cooley
Mm-hmm.
00:18:12
Al Cooley
And that's what i'm that som I'm trying to get. I'm trying to get that exact date when the house burnt down.
00:18:12
Lee Hatfield
Especially that reason.
00:18:16
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:18:17
Al Cooley
And then once that happens, I can go back to archives of the newspapers, our local newspaper. And I'm sure it would have been in there.
00:18:24
Al Cooley
I'm sure I'm positive.
00:18:25
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:18:27
Lee Hatfield
So have you been able to find out anything in particular about the girl?
00:18:34
Al Cooley
No. I wish I could. Because... that was the only information he, he threw out to my mother. and since then, you know, he's passed on.
00:18:46
Al Cooley
And, uh, so, so, so many people in this book that I, that I referenced this book are, are no longer with us.
00:18:52
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:18:53
Al Cooley
Uh, my mom and dad are both gone, you know, and, My sister and my brother and I, we they can remember, but not so much to my brother, because he was he's 10 years younger than I am. So, he'd have been like two moving in eight when we moved out.
00:19:08
Al Cooley
So, he was he knew some stuff. He he does witness did witness some stuff. Because I had told them back then, because i had witnessed... him talking to, there was nobody in the room and he's talking to somebody.
00:19:23
Al Cooley
And I, so I told him back, well, after he left the room, I said, leave my brother alone, you know? And they said, I don't think they ever messed with him after that. But my sister, oh yeah, she, she seen the, that's where we had a difference because I said Alice was around 10 years old, 10 to 12, about the same age as me at that time, 10 or 10 to 12, that age range.
00:19:47
Al Cooley
Now, the one she's seen in front of her door, she said she was about 21, early 20s. She would guess. I said, no, that's not right.
00:19:59
Al Cooley
That's not right. know, she's 10. So we I would say, you know, you got to think this through, man. you're She's not. Here it turns out. that there was more, there was like, i think there was six ghosts in the house, six spirits.
00:20:15
Lee Hatfield
Wow.
00:20:16
Al Cooley
And so naturally the the one girl was a around 21 years old. So my sister's, yeah, she's seen who she's seen, I seen who I seen, but we're looking at two different people.
00:20:29
Al Cooley
You know, you if you keep keep in mind right now, if there are people out there listening, you say, yeah if you say, I don't know about that, i you know, but keep in mind right now, if you're laying in bed,
00:20:40
Al Cooley
Okay, you you go to bed tonight. Keep this mind. You're laying there and you hear footsteps coming up your stairs. i mean I mean, actual footsteps coming up your steps.
00:20:52
Al Cooley
But there's nobody there. And then you hear the heavy, heavy footsteps walking across the hallway to your room, pounding on your wall, like somebody with a fist, pounding on your wall.
00:21:04
Al Cooley
And the pictures fall off your wall. And somebody, and you you get this, you know, breathing in your ear.
00:21:12
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:14
Al Cooley
Now, you don't tell me that that's that's a car light going down the stair coming down the street. And this is what I've been told by my parents. That's like just a car going down the street. you That's the light you see in the cross. That's the car light.
00:21:27
Al Cooley
That pounding your hearing, that's the wood out, the tree you branch outside hitting your your your wall. That footsteps is the pipes in the basement hanging. I'm thinking to myself, bull crap, you know.
00:21:39
Al Cooley
i've i'm not ki Believe me, I'm trying to rule this stuff out. I agree with them. You know, but it could be a car light. It could be a branch. But not when something's, you know when something's pounding on your wall.
00:21:49
Lee Hatfield
hundred per cent
00:21:49
Al Cooley
you know when somebody's walking up your steps, you know? And that's, so I was never so, I shouldn't say i felt bad for my sister, I was never so happy that the night she was scared so senseless was
Support and Skepticism
00:22:04
Al Cooley
when these footsteps came up, right?
00:22:06
Al Cooley
And all I seen, because I looked up at the last minute, I i seen like a light go past my doorway. That's when she started, when she was screaming, because she, that's when she's seen her.
00:22:18
Lee Hatfield
Bye.
00:22:19
Al Cooley
You know, so now I'm saying, yes, I got me an ally, you know, because now my sister and I'll see you you know, or more my friend came over and he didn't, you know, you know, back then how your young kids and your, your buddy comes over and you're gonna he's going spend that night. going some spooky movies on TV that night.
00:22:35
Al Cooley
My mom and dad went all dancing and i said, yeah, I have a friend come over. I'll order some pizza that and then pop. And said, okay. He comes over. He already knew about some of the stories I was telling, you know, when he says nothing is still happening.
00:22:50
Al Cooley
I says, no, actually it's been pretty quiet this past week or so. And he goes, oh, good. i i probably should never said that, you know, because we're sitting there watching TV.
00:23:00
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:23:01
Al Cooley
Now, keep in mind that the door, the back door is behind us. And the couch kind of sits like the middle the living room. So it was one of those old doors where you hear, you know, this green door.
00:23:14
Al Cooley
and that That opened up first, and then you you heard like that the footsteps coming up from behind you. We both turned around, and there was nothing there. And then you it felt like there some, like a presence, that an ice-cold breeze that went through the front of us and out the back.
00:23:31
Al Cooley
Then the footsteps back to the door, the door was on again, the door shutting. my buddy got up whenever called his mother says, pick me up.
00:23:43
Al Cooley
I need to come home. And, uh, and he never came back. He never came back.
00:23:47
Lee Hatfield
Oh, wow.
00:23:47
Al Cooley
So, you know, he's still my friend to this day.
00:23:48
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:23:50
Al Cooley
I mean, I just talked to him recently and, uh, yeah. So, you know, stuff like that, you just don't forget, you know, and say that's a, that's a,
00:23:57
Lee Hatfield
No.
00:23:59
Al Cooley
air conditioning doing that. We didn't have air conditioning. you know we We had fan window air. So where's the ice cold breeze coming from the through the through your body?
00:24:11
Al Cooley
How do you explain the footsteps? How do you explain the door opening but opening and and closing by itself?
00:24:14
Lee Hatfield
Exactly.
00:24:18
Al Cooley
so and that And that was just that was normal to us. you know But that's why my sister and i we just talked about that the other day.
00:24:23
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:24:27
Al Cooley
we didn't have friends come over to the house because it was a we're afraid bad that what's going to happen to them and then you're going to lose a friend or uh because things are like i say it's that things were different back then and god forbid if you went to church and you mentioned anything like that happened to your pastor you're going to burn in hell because you don't talk about that.
00:24:49
Lee Hatfield
Oh, for sure.
00:24:50
Al Cooley
You know, we don't talk about that.
00:24:51
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:24:51
Al Cooley
so Why not? You know, so, but like I say, who do who you get? Well, my number one advocate was my grandmother. And that's who it, in my in my book, she, she was a person, my go-to.
00:25:03
Al Cooley
She believed everything. She, she was right there for me. You know, so she knew, she knew, she followed, it she she followed in the house. You know, she was one of these people that had these remedies from past, down to generations where,
00:25:16
Lee Hatfield
right.
00:25:16
Al Cooley
yeah So yeah, she was my go-to and it was, hot says I can't believe you're my mother's mother. you know
00:25:23
Lee Hatfield
But it's it's interesting, though, because I was at an investigation before Christmas. And it's a place that they're raising money to have it to put back to how it used to look 100 years ago.
00:25:37
Lee Hatfield
And the ground floor is almost finished. It's got you know all the old worldy furniture and all this kind of stuff. But they the first floor is actually still quite derelict.
00:25:50
Lee Hatfield
They're just raising money to to be able to to rebuild it. And we was up there, me and a colleague, and I literally felt like something grabbed my hand. But and I was kind of stood in a window light that's on a slanted roof. So you've got kind of like the window cut out.
00:26:09
Lee Hatfield
And my first thought was, it's a cobweb. But then my immediate reaction was, hang on a minute, my left hand is hanging out of my pam pocket.
00:26:22
Lee Hatfield
And my elbow was out. So if had been any cobweb, my head, my shoulder, my arm would have taken the cobweb. So it definitely wasn't the cobweb, but only I felt it.
00:26:29
Al Cooley
Mm-hmm.
00:26:33
Lee Hatfield
And it literally felt like somebody got hold of my hand. yeah You talk to other people and they go, well, you imagined it, or it it was this, it was that. And you go, no, it felt like somebody held my hand.
00:26:49
Al Cooley
and And it's really so hard to explain.
00:26:51
Al Cooley
I mean, how do you explain that? even even in today's so Even in today's technology with spirit boxes and EVPs and everything you have out there, the gridlocks on the infrared, and you have all of it that information and say record it,
00:26:52
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:27:14
Al Cooley
And people still don't believe you.
00:27:15
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:27:16
Al Cooley
So it's a, I, I, I was a long time ago. I stopped worrying about if people believe me or not. Uh, I know what I saw.
00:27:27
Al Cooley
and know what happened. Uh, I still consider that how that house, uh, very, There was some evil in that house.
00:27:40
Al Cooley
i so And I could never believe that that would be Alice because i had nothing but good things happen to me. I was told numerous times, like I say, I always claim I have a guardian angel because so many times I've been been warned, don't go, don't do that.
00:27:59
Al Cooley
You know, cause every time I did something happened, you know? So I had like that, that, that, that feeling like, you know, yeah you know, when somebody, you feel like somebody's watching you, uh, and it's those, those feelings that you can't really explain, you know?
00:28:10
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:28:16
Al Cooley
So I thought, do I have guests i am on my podcast? I have guests come on. and They may have a similar experience or something with Bigfoot.
00:28:27
Al Cooley
Or to say, you know, there's something, you' you're not going to believe this. And I said, well, it's your it's your time, it's your story. And how can I say, I don't believe you, when you could say the same thing about my story, you know.
00:28:39
Al Cooley
so And that was a thing back then, man. my my One of my best friends was, he didn't believe in all that. didn't believe in ghosts or spirits or ha hauntings, but he had a connection with UFOs.
00:28:54
Al Cooley
and mental telepathy with these aliens.
00:28:57
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:28:58
Al Cooley
and that you know And I would like to, yeah, okay, oh okay, okay. But the how can I actually do that? Well, he could say the same thing about me. You know what I'm saying? Because back then, we're going back, what, 50-some years ago,
00:29:13
Al Cooley
60 years ago that, uh, what he's telling me then is happening today. you watch you watch any TV show with aliens or, uh, UFOs, what he was saying then about the black eyed kids and UFOs and his story then is the same as it is today.
00:29:31
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:29:31
Al Cooley
And, uh, he's no longer with us. I wish he was a man. I'd love to have him on my show and reminiscing some of this stuff, you know, and, uh, So, you know, yeah, it's, and that, that house led me into, I had my own video production company for about 15 years.
00:29:51
Al Cooley
And I decided to make a documentary on, uh, Ghost in a Valley, hence my podcast, Ghost in the Valley. So I did this documentary based on true ghost stories in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
00:30:05
Al Cooley
So like I said, you know, yeah we didn't have the internet I could use to utilize to get ghost stories. So I actually spent money to go in like Cleveland, Ohio and Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and Columbus, you know, all of these big cities. I go even to the to the smaller towns to their review papers and ask for true ghost stories.
00:30:27
Al Cooley
Oh, my God, that I get, like, the stories come out the wazoo, you know. and And so so it led me into that that that documentary. So when my son-in-law was telling me, don't know about the mid-2000s, that I would say about 2000.
00:30:46
Al Cooley
fifteen He was talking about podcasts. I said I had no idea what he's talking about. I never really caught on to about 2017 and i started listening to him. I think, okay, I like this, you know, maybe I can do a part of my own podcast on just on that paranormal.
00:31:04
Al Cooley
And so that's how that started out.
Educational Value of Sharing Stories
00:31:05
Al Cooley
So I said, well, I'm going to name the podcast. I like that Ghost in the Valley with my documentary. So that's how I went with that. And which then led me into why I write this book, you know, because it's my daughter would always say and son, you know, dad, I think you heard these stories like 100 And I said, yeah, you probably did, you know.
00:31:26
Al Cooley
So that's that's, yes, where it all began. Well, it began back at 12 years of age and hasn't let up since. So i I've always had this fascination. and like on my show, I'm sure on on your show as well, you learn a lot.
00:31:42
Al Cooley
You learn on different things in the paranormal. You know, i had like a fae or... I know I knew about the black eyed kids. I didn't know about the white eyed kids.
00:31:53
Al Cooley
So now I'm getting to know a little deeper into that. <unk> it It's such a big field, you know, and I love when people come on and they they're really, when they're really timid at first, like to they don't really want talk about it because it's, they've been told they're crazy their whole life.
00:32:12
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:32:12
Al Cooley
You know, and so no you know, you're feel free. There's people out there who's going to relate to what you are saying, period.
00:32:19
Al Cooley
They're going to relate to what you're saying.
00:32:20
Lee Hatfield
And that's it.
00:32:20
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. That's it. And it it's interesting what you say because, yeah. Some of the people that I've interviewed, i was talking to somebody about fairies, and she was saying that one night she actually vomited soil coming out of her mouth after having something attach itself to her back.
00:32:43
Lee Hatfield
And the way she describes it, she said, yeah if there was nobody else there, because there was two two witnesses, she literally was saying, I would never have told anybody.
00:32:54
Lee Hatfield
because people would think I was crazy. And I interviewed a guy who lives in Mexico, Brazil, back of the woods, and his girlfriend at the time got this pendant that was allegedly haunted or possessed or whatever.
00:33:14
Lee Hatfield
And once you put it on, she then went, flipped over into a crab position, and then proceeded to walk up a wall backwards. And like when you hear these kind of stories, your jaw just goes like, oh.
00:33:30
Al Cooley
Right.
00:33:30
Al Cooley
Mm-hmm.
00:33:31
Lee Hatfield
yeah
00:33:31
Lee Hatfield
And it's it's fascinating that these people who are now open to telling all these stories rather than keeping them all secret.
00:33:43
Lee Hatfield
Because it makes your job and my job a lot easier.
Community and Networking
00:33:46
Al Cooley
yeah There's so many different avenues you you can go to now, you know, like I went to a paranormal conference conference last year or excuse me, a paracon.
00:33:49
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:33:58
Al Cooley
And it was so cool that I got to meet a lot of my guests or on my show. I didn't know some people I knew they're going to be there but so the other ones I did not and so I had like eight people had that had been on my show i finally got to meet how that was so exciting for me and I'm sure it was like she said it was so exciting for to them a couple of people told me so I says this is so cool you know that yeah I finally put a a persons right there in front of me that was to the voice and and we I could have I could have probably spent a week there
00:34:12
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. Are we aligned?
00:34:29
Al Cooley
And then driving home from the ParaCon, it was in Kentucky. So was driving back to Ohio and I grew up
00:34:41
Al Cooley
I can't remember her name, but she's they run the Kentucky Ghost Hunters out of Owensburg. I don't want to mess it up, but it's an noch it's an auction house. and one's I think it's Owensboro in the Kentucky.
00:35:01
Al Cooley
And she says, you're, you're, you're going to be driving right by our place. Why don't you stop by and check out our, our museum, haunted museum. I says, I'll tell myself why not, you know? So, uh, that was, that was, that took me back to almost my house I grew up, you know, cause I could sense, I could sense the energy in that home of, uh, a spirit.
00:35:24
Al Cooley
And, uh, first I think a I kind of let her down at first because she says, you do you feel anything right now? I said, no, I don't feel nothing. You know, so if it's there, it's gone or something. I don't know. i don't feel nothing.
00:35:36
Al Cooley
But then we went to the other room. I'm like, oh my goodness, I feel it. Oh wow. You know, it's it's so hard to, and then you can't explain that.
00:35:45
Al Cooley
And as soon as I felt that, that, that it's like a big thick oak door just opened up and closed by itself, you know, and it's so hard to, uh,
00:35:45
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:36:00
Al Cooley
I don't know, you can't really put into words. I mean, things that used that happen that you witness, you know, and the gentleman that was sitting next to me, his name is Wayne, or Dwayne, he was sitting next to me, and he had his arm up like by his head, and I just noticed his arm started bleeding, you know.
00:36:20
Al Cooley
was sitting there for quite a while talking. And arm just started bleeding. He didn't pick out or nothing. And looked like a little, like a little pinhole in his blood just coming out of this little pinhole in his arm.
00:36:31
Al Cooley
And I'm like, Hey, Dwayne, your, your, your arm's bleeding, man. He says, Oh, that happens all the time. You know, it happens in here. So I don't know. I was like, you know, uh,
00:36:44
Al Cooley
and she And she has haunted dolls in there. And i always say, you know, just be getre very careful on what you, what remember when my priest in our church was telling me, and I was telling him about way back when I was making my documentary.
00:37:01
Al Cooley
I just threw it out at him, you know, got his opinion on it. And I thought he was going to say, no, don't do that. You're going to burn in hell. You know, like, like I heard growing up, he was into it, man.
00:37:12
Al Cooley
He was like, well, this is, yeah well, okay.
00:37:12
Lee Hatfield
Oh,
00:37:15
Al Cooley
All right. You know, and then he says, if I can give you and any advice when you start your investigating these stories. So I said, what's that? He says, be very careful because there's a thin line.
00:37:28
Al Cooley
between something that's ornery and a demon. You know, just be very careful. and And he was dead dog serious, man. Just look at me straight in the eye like, be careful out there and maybe do it like a protection protection prayer before you go in and do em before you can before you leave.
00:37:44
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:37:47
Al Cooley
Because, how are we saying, it doesn't matter if it's a haunted doll, what's if it's a a pendulum or you know Ouija board, if the if the session or the house just had a seance in it, and they never closed out any of those sessions, then you're going to leave a portal open.
00:38:06
Al Cooley
And this is coming from our priest, you know. And I'm thinking, man, if you talked about like this every every Sunday, I'd be unsure. I would never miss a Sunday, you know. So...
00:38:14
Lee Hatfield
but But it's true what you say, because I, as a paranormal investigator myself and I'm part of a team, if you call us, we literally have a questionnaire that we that we will go through.
00:38:29
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. And we'll we'll cover everything about how many people in your family, whose experience, what, what rooms. Yeah. And then we even go into. yeah Some of the more sensitive questions.
00:38:42
Lee Hatfield
yeah Are you on any medication? yeah Has there been any mental health in the family? and it's that's not derogatory towards that individual. But I've got a paramedic background.
00:38:54
Lee Hatfield
was paramedic for 13 years. So I know what can happen to people when they're going through these, or yeah going through a crisis.
00:38:56
Al Cooley
Uh-huh.
00:39:03
Lee Hatfield
So I can then depict if it is of a paranormal nature or if it's something else. And we go through all these kind of questions and stuff like that before we even think about it being paranormal.
00:39:19
Lee Hatfield
You've got noises in your in your loft, in your attic. Well, do you have a rodent problem? Have you got loose tiles and and birds? again So we go through all that.
00:39:28
Al Cooley
Yeah, you want you want to debunk it.
00:39:30
Al Cooley
Right.
00:39:30
Lee Hatfield
Exactly, exactly.
00:39:31
Lee Hatfield
but And then you've got the other kind of people that I say just go out for shits and giggles that want to go out and want to be scared. but yeah And like yeah the boyfriend, girlfriend scenario, oh, let's go here, we'll have a fun, we'll get scared.
00:39:47
Lee Hatfield
And they are completely separate to how we do it. We want to be taken seriously. And I think, you to have people like that, that want to genuinely either help the person or to find out what's really going on, that is helping the industry, if you like, tenfold.
00:40:08
Al Cooley
I think a lot of that problem is you watch, it to me, people watching Ghost Hunters or Ghost Adventures, and they're automatically thinking of the demon. They're automatically thinking of Linda Blair or the Exorcist. you know That's what they want, that's and they know that. they That's why they add all the stuff to their TV shows to you know to sell that show.
00:40:27
Al Cooley
Personally, me, in all these years, 60 years of paranormal activity, yeah i can say maybe came across something demonic once. and That I don't deal with. I won't even attempt to deal with it. i've been I've heard a few people on a few podcasts talk about, well, you can do it yourself. you can Anybody can get rid of... who You can maybe smudge a home or cleanse a home. i be To actually...
00:40:57
Al Cooley
move a spirit on to me. I am not qualified to do that or I kind of leave that to like, you know, it's the clergy or or whoever that you're going to bring in.
00:41:01
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, agreed. Yeah.
00:41:09
Al Cooley
You're saying like, you know, you want to debunk everything. I totally agree with that because I always said paranormal is like fishing, you know, some, You may go out there to that fishing hole you get one day, you get a lot of bites and the rest of the week you didn't get nothing, you know? So, and they pick and choose they want who they want to connect with.
00:41:26
Al Cooley
I found that out, you know, but, That's why the Catholic churches, when they when they do send an exorcism team, they that's what they do. They debunk to make sure of mental health, of schizophrenia. or You want to roll that stuff out.
00:41:45
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:41:47
Al Cooley
Because night lot of times, I hate to say it, like nine times out of ten, it's not haunted. It's not paranormal. I kind of agree with my parents. Well, yeah, yeah bang the pipes have been known to bang on the when they kick in, if you've got water heat, gurgles and surges in your walls and your pipes, you know, I know those sounds, you know, uh, or the wind outside, maybe going through a rafter or through a a crawl space in your home, you know, he did stuff you don't think about, the whistling through the cracks of your windows.
00:42:14
Lee Hatfield
yeah
00:42:16
Al Cooley
I mean, there's, there's so many things that that could be, once you eliminate that, then all a sudden they'll, they're paranormal stop, their activity stops, you know
00:42:27
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. Yeah.
00:42:27
Al Cooley
But then you get those cases where it is actually... that exactly a lot of energy in that house from a, a spirit. Now, a lot of them your Native Americans will say that it's not the person that's haunted. It's, it's the ground of the structure. Uh, that's why they take, uh, the ground so seriously, you know, on building things on, on, because it's sacred to them. The ground is sacred to them, earth, mother earth.
00:42:59
Al Cooley
the the water, the plants, anything that grows, it has a spirit, you know. And so I kind of have opened up a lot to a lot of things that go in and spiritualism and I'll be doing that and Christianity.
Beliefs and Future Projects
00:43:18
Al Cooley
And, the you know, yeah that's why i don't I don't really like to talk about religion on the show because everybody has their own beliefs. like you i I've always been a firm believer that if you're moving the Spirit on, He's either going to heaven or to hell.
00:43:36
Al Cooley
Catholics believe in the purgatory, you know, so that little bit of time between you dot your death, where you're going to go. You're in a Baptist church, a Methodist church, Protestant protestant church. They believe when you die, bam, you're going right over.
00:43:49
Al Cooley
if you're going to hell, heaven, that's where you're going. There is no, I'm going to think about it.
00:43:53
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:43:53
Al Cooley
that So there's a there's a big, i don't think we any of us know until we pass on. you know and And what are you moving on to? Well, some people believe you're just go going into another realm.
00:44:04
Al Cooley
What is that realm? Well, I don't know. I like to think it's heaven. you know But I've had a lot of people on my show that says no. you know so
00:44:15
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. As long as it's got bacon, I'm i'm happy.
00:44:18
Lee Hatfield
I don't care.
00:44:18
Al Cooley
Bacon, yeah.
00:44:19
Lee Hatfield
yeah
00:44:20
Al Cooley
It's all about bacon's crispy, right?
00:44:24
Al Cooley
Yeah.
00:44:24
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, exactly.
00:44:26
Lee Hatfield
So, Al, we are unfortunately coming to the end and you have got one of those voices that, your perfect voice for radio because it's so soothing. So my wife's going to love listening to this podcast when when to release it because she's going to go, oh man, I could listen to that guy all night.
00:44:43
Lee Hatfield
So when are you expecting book two to to come out?
00:44:49
Al Cooley
I'm looking at 2027, maybe next year. Uh, I'm really excited about this one. You know, there was there was a there was a chapter that left out of book one and, uh, I have a lot of trains and in the book one. Well, you cause we hopped a train and we went the wrong direction, right? We ended up in New York, but, uh,
00:45:11
Al Cooley
So I had this one, the one story on the train track. I thought it was phenomenal, but they left that one out. said, why did you do that? Well, because, excuse me because there's too many train stories in there.
00:45:24
Al Cooley
So... It starts out with that one. I'm excited about the second one because and then it takes me, takes you into 2025, you know, sitting on a front porch and then thinking back on so a couple of these stories, you know, and thinking back, I call it Grandma Perot, my book and my grandmother and my friend Joseph, who do, I didn't mention this, but I still play in the band.
00:45:51
Al Cooley
And in my book, I play in a high school band, you know, and you'll still get the same guys for we're still playing today. so Joseph, who's in my book, were just talking about this the other day.
00:46:03
Al Cooley
So he's still around. So he starts out my second chapter in the book, you know. It's really, what i'll real quick for you off here, you know, my my book signing in Warren, Ohio, the book,
00:46:15
Al Cooley
Spencer's Ghosts was basically all took place in Warren, Ohio. When I did my book signing, I did it at the Ghost Walk at Halloween last year, right?
00:46:26
Lee Hatfield
Awesome. Yeah.
00:46:26
Al Cooley
And at the same spot that I'm sitting at,
00:46:27
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:46:30
Al Cooley
hey there's a log cabin that's in my book. There's a courthouse square that's in my book. You know, and it was so cool that these people coming up and talking to me know the area.
00:46:41
Lee Hatfield
yeah
00:46:41
Al Cooley
And, uh, and I'm thinking, and so I think that sold a lot in in this area because they, they can, uh, relate to uh, some, a lot of the stories, you know, even this one cop was sitting there and he kind like, give me this evil, evil look, you know the whole time. Like, I think this, I told my wife, I think he's to come over and kick my ass because he's, he's, uh, he got that look on his face.
00:47:05
Al Cooley
And then, uh, he walks up to me and I was like, how are you doing? I said, I'm okay. You know, he says about your book. I said, yeah,
00:47:16
Al Cooley
I was over there. That stuff happens over there.
00:47:20
Al Cooley
So here he, now he wants us to explain his story to me.
00:47:20
Lee Hatfield
wow
00:47:23
Al Cooley
Right. So that's how people are. You know, you don't know who you can't judge a book by its cover.
00:47:23
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:47:29
Al Cooley
You know, so i hear I'm judging him as being, thinking I'm nuts.
00:47:29
Lee Hatfield
Exactly.
00:47:30
Lee Hatfield
Exactly.
00:47:33
Al Cooley
Here he had a lot of ghost stories to tell me, you know, of that area.
00:47:35
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, that's cool. And it it's funny because I was talking to an author friend. She lives in Tennessee, Sin Schrader Hill. Don't know if you know her.
00:47:45
Al Cooley
Oh yeah, she's been my show a couple times.
00:47:46
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. And, oh, okay.
00:47:47
Al Cooley
She's the one I met in Kentucky. Yeah.
00:47:49
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. And she's an absolute sweetheart.
00:47:49
Al Cooley
Yeah.
00:47:52
Lee Hatfield
I said, and she asked me because I'd been a paramedic if I had any stories. So I sent her a couple of stories and she said, oh, by the way, both your stories are in my book. Yeah.
00:48:05
Al Cooley
Oh yeah. i don't I don't have it here. have I just had her book over here on the counter.
00:48:09
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:48:10
Al Cooley
But yeah, I wrote the foreword to her book, the one book, you know, and and I was so thrilled that when i got there, she was used one of the people so speaking at the panel in the convention, right?
00:48:23
Al Cooley
And I said, I want to sit back and back and back a ways and just listen to her. And here she spotted me like in the audience, you the al coolie is in the house i'm like oh my gosh she called me out but she's so sweet man she's a sweet she's a sweet person i met her husband and uh yeah yeah they're they're all so nice and you get that little circle now that you're you're mentioned central hill and uh uh yeah yeah yeah so many yeah
00:48:37
Lee Hatfield
She is. She's an absolute.
00:48:46
Lee Hatfield
Exactly. Yeah. Tommy Cullen, all that kind of crowd.
00:48:54
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. So what, apart from the book, have you got anything else on the agenda?
00:49:02
Al Cooley
Not really. I'm planning on a couple of Paracons this year that I've been wanting to go to. I want to go to the yeah Mothman Festival.
00:49:10
Lee Hatfield
Oh, that'd be cool. Yeah.
00:49:11
Al Cooley
I've been wanting to get down there and see that. i I haven't made made it yet. So this might be my first year. I've had some guests on my show from Berkshire, Massachusetts.
00:49:21
Al Cooley
I want to go up there and meet the people that were in the UFOs over the Berkshires. It's on Netflix on Unsolved Mysteries. And so I want to go meet the people who were on my show from Netflix.
00:49:33
Lee Hatfield
yeah
00:49:34
Al Cooley
Uh, so I got, I got some plans where I want to go, where I want people I want to see. I'm really excited getting the second book done and, uh, getting out there. my podcast is doing very well. It's on every other Monday, uh, ghost in the Valley podcast.
00:49:51
Al Cooley
That's, uh, I have my website is authoralkooley.com where you can get all my past episodes of Ghost in the Valley and also pick up my book there as well.
00:50:04
Al Cooley
And so, yeah, I got some i guess some stuff happening and it's going to good year.
00:50:11
Lee Hatfield
i can I can tell that you're a podcaster because that was going to be my next question. Where can people find you? and
00:50:19
Al Cooley
Yeah, I'm sorry about that.
00:50:21
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, that's that we'll We'll just erase that bit and we'll put it.
00:50:23
Al Cooley
All right, right yeah.
00:50:24
Lee Hatfield
yeah Al, it's been an absolute pleasure. I can't wait to be a guest on yours in a couple of weeks' time. But for now, thank you for your time, sir. I hope that snow goes away pretty soon so you can have some warmer weather.
00:50:39
Lee Hatfield
But
00:50:39
Al Cooley
Thank you very much, Lee, and thank you for having me on your show. I really appreciate it, and I look forward to having you on mine. I really do.
00:50:47
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, and I'm going to go onto your website and um'm I'm definitely going to order Ghost in the Valley to to add to my collection of paranormal books.
00:50:52
Al Cooley
All righty.
00:50:57
Lee Hatfield
oh Have a great evening, my friend.
00:50:58
Al Cooley
Thank you.
00:50:59
Lee Hatfield
Thanks very much. Take care. Bye-bye.
00:51:01
Al Cooley
thank you