Ghost Asylum is an American paranormal television series that aired from September 7, 2014, to June 5, 2016, on Destination America. The series features a group of professional ghost hunters that try to "trap ghosts" in the country's most haunted abandoned asylums, sanitoriums, and mental hospitals.[1] The show was renewed for a second season of 15 episodes, which premiered on April 5, 2015, and aired in two halves with the second half airing in late-2014.[2]
The series follows the paranormal team known as the "Tennessee Wraith Chasers"; the pilot of the series was originally named "Ghostland Tennessee" before it was renamed for the Destination America network.[3]
Premise
The series features a group of fearless ghost hunters with their paranormal team called the Tennessee Wraith Chasers, who use various methods to try and create supernatural inventions during their investigations in America's most haunted locations, which just happen to be abandoned asylums. Their specialty is investigating the many decaying and derelict mental institutions littered across The United States.
In the series premiere, a group of ghost hunters called the Tennessee Waith Chasers (TWC) hunt for ghosts at Kentucky's Old War Memorial Hospital, where they search for the spirit of a doctor rumored to be haunting the halls of the facility.
The team investigates Mississippi's massive Kuhn State Memorial Hospital, built in 1835 because of a smallpox outbreak; and it also treated wounded Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. They invent a Faraday cage-like box to trap a spirit while ghost hunting.
TWC investigate the Hayswood Infirmary, which once served as a home for servicemen suffering from PTSD (known then as shell shock) after surviving the attack on Pearl Harbor. The guys also review a disputed raw unedited video capturing a supposed apparition in the hospital's window known as the "Hayswood Ghost".
The team investigates the abandoned St. Vincent's Home, once operated by the Brothers of Mercy. They discover the home had its share of tragedy, including an incident in 1962 when a male nurse went insane and suffocated two patients, and the murder of a priest years later. They build a vacuum trap with crystals to capture an evil entity they sense.
TWC investigate the dark history of Missouri's Old Ironton Psychiatric, an abandoned asylum that harbors the local legend that tells of a deranged patient in the 1950s killing three nurses on the premises and now allegedly haunts the halls. To trap this ghost, the guys build a big battery shaped like a pyramid that covers a Tesla coil.
The team investigates North Carolina's Cannon Memorial Hospital with a psych ward that drove its patients insane. One such patient held a doctor and some nurses at gunpoint in the 1960s before he was apprehened by the police. To trap a spirit, they build an infrasound generator to boost the sound that pushes the entity towards an infinity mirror.
In the season 2 opener, the Tennessee Wraith Chasers (TWC) stay in their home state where they investigate an American Marine Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. To trap the ghost of a Civil War soldier named Henry Wood, they build a "Water Wall Cone" trap, an elaborate fountain that will keep the entity from crossing the curtain of running water.
Known as the "Southern Gates of Hell" TWC is on the hunt at Sloss Furnaces in Alabama. While on the job, this ghastly metal foundry claimed the lives of countless workers by either burning or gassing them to death.
The Tennessee Wraith Chasers are on the hunt in one of the Northeast's deadliest locations, Rolling Hills Asylum, where tragedy and mistreatment transformed a place that was supposed to help the needy into a hell house of despair. It is home to the spirits of Nurse Emma who tortured her patients, Roy the gentle giant and Raymond, a sexual deviant. In order to trap these entities, they build an "Inferno Box" that works like a Faraday Cage which doesn't let any EMF's in or out.
TWC investigate Albans Sanatorium, a former boys' school and experimental hospital. They try to make contact with the spirit of a murdered girl and rid the basement of a demonic entity.
The Tennessee Wraith Chasers investigate Kentucky's Waverly Hills Sanatorium, where the spirits of tuberculosis patients who died during their stay still haunt the place. It's also haunted by the ghost of Nurse Betty who hanged herself after having an abortion in the 1920s. They prepare to trap a dark entity nicknamed "The Creeper" with what they call a "Phantom Voltage Inducer", a device with magnetic panels that helps amplify a spirit's own energy.
The Tennessee Wraith Chasers set out to trap the feuding spirits of a white supremacist and the head of a biker gang during the investigation of a penitentiary located in Moundsville, West Virginia.
TWC return to handle unfinished business at Cannon Memorial Hospital. This time, the guys arrive with information on a forsaken spirit of a Native American and new equipment, an explosive trap they invented in order to trap an entity.
TWC investigate Fenwick Hall on Fenwick Plantation, a 300-year old brick house that was the home of John Fenwick who filled it with secret rooms, hidden passageways and a tunnel filled with treasure. They learn the story of young lovers Ann and Tony who met a tragic end at Fenwick's hands. During their investigation, the guys search for the spirits of spies, pirates and a headless horsemen. In order to trap a ghost horse, they build an "Electrostatic Shape-Shifter" device that uses a Van de Graaff generator to produce energy.
TWC head to the legendary Pennhurst Asylum in Pennsylvania, an institution infamous for its abusive treatment towards its patients, suicides and other horrors. They investigate in hopes of freeing any abused child spirits from their imprisonment in the nightmarish buildings by trapping them in their "Wraith Toy Box" filled with fun and safe trigger objects.
TWC investigate Hill View Manor, a former poor farm believed to be one of the most-haunted buildings in Western Pennsylvania. The guys make a "Power Pyramid" made out of granite and quartz with a copper cap, creating kinetic energy to trap the spirits of two patients who committed suicide, as well as a gargoyle-like entity that hides in the shadows.
TWC travel to Augusta to be the first paranormal team to investigate the Sibley Mill, which was once a cotton mill, a fabric factory and a gunpowder works used by the Confederate Army during the Civil War. They create a "Phantom Writer", a case filled with iron powder, making a magnetic field in order to trap the spirits of loom worker Maude Williamson, who was murdered by her lover in the weave room and assembly worker Clark Williams whose skull was crushed by a steam cylinder in the slasher room.
TWC travel to the Delaware State Park to investigate the Fort Delaware, a former Civil War prison camp off the coast of Delaware City, Delaware, where there are claims of a fight occurring between two ghostly generals.
TWC head to haunted Mansfield, Ohio to investigate the highly haunted Bissman Building, where people have reported a dark portal that spirits travel through.
TWC travel to Kentucky to be the first paranormal team to investigate the Old Crow Distillery, where they made Old Crow Bourbon. The buildings now stand abandoned and haunted by Dr. James Crow, who died in his on-site cabin in 1856 and a worker who was crushed by a freight elevator. In order to trap their spirits, the guys build a containment device called a "Wraith Casket Trap", a metal coffin with ultrasonic sensors, an IR camera, and Porter as a trigger object, lying in wait for a ghost.
In the season 3 opener, the Tennessee Wraith Chasers investigate the U.S.S. Edson, a haunted destroyer that served in the Vietnam War currently docked at the Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum in Michigan. In order to communicate with a sailor who committed suicide and a caretaker who died of a heart attack on board, instead of building their usual trap, they conduct an experiment. They design a "cryogenic cloak", a rack with troughs of water with dry ice to form a cascading mist so spirits can manifest.
TWC investigate their state's Old South Pittsburg Hospital, one of the most haunted locations in Tennessee. Since the last time they were here when they first started, the guys encountered an angry doctor who performed experiments on patients and the ghost of Jim, a drug addict who appears as a 7-foot tall shadow. They go to a pyrotechnics expert to get a Rubens Tube for their "Shadow Seeker" trap, which uses sound that's pumped into the tube in-sync with a flame that acts as an energy source to help manifest the shadows.
TWC head to Illinois to investigate the infamous Peoria State Hospital, one of the most infamous insane asylums in Midwest, where many deaths from disease, abuse, and suicide all took place. In order to trap a child spirit named Casey looking for his mother and the former patient Rhoda Derry, who was stuck in an Utica Cage for 40 years, they build a "Phantom Cage" with a music box and quartz crystals placed inside.
Note: During the investigation, the guys were joined by Emily and Gina, two female paranormal investigators from St. Louis, Missouri.
The TWC travel to Missouri to investigate claims of hauntings at the Missouri State Penitentiary, operated from the 19th century until its closure in 2004, dubbed "The most violent 47 acres in America" due to riots, and violence.
TWC investigate the Pauly Jail, the oldest working jail in Alabama, built in 1897. It's said to be haunted by the spirits of former inmates who died there. A drunk man killed by fire while smoking in his cell, an African-American man who was lynched and shot 150 times, and a falsely accused woman who was hanged on the gallows. In order to trap them, they design another "Devil's Toy Box", this time filled with smoke and lined with mirrors and so a ghost can see its own reflection into infinity and it can't figure out how to get out.
TWC head out west to Ione, California to investigate the infamous Preston Castle, the first reformatory for troubled boys in the state, now haunted by those souls who died there. They learn about the head housekeeper Anna, who was brutally bludgeoned to death by two teenage boys who she caught in a compromising position in her room. And a ward named Samuel Goins, who was shot in the back and killed trying to escape. In order to trap them, the guys perform and experiment called "Energy Feast" of heat, light, kinetic, or electromagnetic energies to provide the spirits with enough energy to help them better communicate and manifest, and which one they prefer.
TWC travel to the island of Kauai to be the second professional Paranormal team to investigate the abandoned Coco Palms Resort, that's said to be haunted by ancient Hawaiian spirits known as "choking ghosts" who strangle their victims, and the night marchers. This ancient warriors march in a single file, pounding their drums, and not wanting anyone directly staring at them. So, in order to trap them without looking at them with their eyes, the guys design a "Para-Cam" helmet with a 360-degree cameras.
TWC returns to their home state to investigate Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, which held some of the most violent criminals in Tennessee, including it most infamous inmate, James Earl Ray, who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. In the order to trap the former inmate of a little person named Jack Jett who was stabbed 19 times, the guys build a "Wraith Fog Trap" with four spinning lasers that projects onto a moisture-rich thick fog to draw entities in, transforming into electricity with a Jacob's ladder.
