Original Newspaper Articles (not the best quality, email for better)

Cocoa Tribune: August 12, 1937 – A detective goes re-discusses the grizzly murder of Ethel Allen.

Cocoa Tribune: March 23, 1958 – Conrad Korecky, 72, died.  He bought Jack’s Tavern and made it into Cooney’s Tavern.

Cocoa Tribune: November 22, 1934 – Details of the recent murder.

Cocoa Tribune: November 29, 1934 – More details of the horrendous murder.

Cocoa Tribune: September 14, 1933 – Jack Allen’s building plans to build a tavern in Rockledge.

The 1930 Census which shows Ethel Allen’s family.

Melbourne Times: November 29, 1934 – Details of the murder in the nearby city of Melbourne.

Melbourne Times: November 30, 1934 – More details… it was a big story.

Witness Affidavits

Waitress at Ashley’s of Rockledge who is a strong believer of the paranormal after witnessing extreme activity.

Waitress at Ashley’s who witnesses smoky apparitions and hears many vocal things.

Bartender at Ashley’s who says she really hasn’t experienced much, but talks about others’ finds.

The Investigation:

Date of Trip: August 10, 2012

Time of Departure: 10:30 PM

Address: 1609 South US 1

                Rockledge, Florida 32955

Participants: Terry, Manny, Joey, Gracie & Mango

Lunar Cycle: Waxing Gibbous

Weather: Fair, decent cloud cover.  It lightly rained throughout the night.  Tropical Storm off the coast.

     Ashley’s of Rockledge is the alleged place where many believe Ethel Allen was brutally murdered.  Her body was later discovered along the banks of the Indian River, about 8 miles south of Ashley’s.  She was supposed to have many suitors, and some even allege she was a prostitute.  It is also the presumed location of a ‘former Indian burial ground’, and the place where a child is said to have run out in the road and been hit by a car.  Haunts for this location include Ethel Allen, her murderer, a 1920’s flapper, a small girl, a man in a top hat, and several other unidentified individuals.

Evidence has shown that Ethel Allen was indeed a woman who lived near Rockledge and frequented the Tavern (then called Jack’s Tavern).  She was brutally murdered in 1934, and her grave is about 15 minutes from Ashley’s.  Many people visit her grave and lay flowers to honor her memory even to this day.  Her mutilated body was found burned, naked, and partially dismembered.  The only things that were found on her body were a tattoo of a rose and the initials, “W.B” as well as pantyhose wrapped around her leg.  At the time, tattoo’s were not part of civilized society, and tattoo’ed women actually were part of the circus.  Check out the article that I wrote on early justice here.

The Night of:

  We arrived around 9 PM, and sampled some of Ashley’s food.  Pretty amazing it is.  We always try to get the booth upstairs, all the way in the corner, as this is where much paranormal activity has been noted.  We interviewed the owner of the place, Greg, and our courteous guide Christie.  We also had the opportunity to talk to Steve, another investigator who had found several pieces of evidence in his investigations of the Tavern, as well as a growl at the Crooked Mile Cemetery.  One of his best pieces of evidence was using the spirit box, where he asked if anyone was there, and received a “Yes.” from a woman’s voice.  It was also during this time, that we were talking to one worker at Ashley’s who said that they had no idea what all the excitement was about – that they had worked there for years and never seen or really felt anything strange.

As Ashley’s operates as a Tavern, and Friday’s are karaoke night, we waited until about 1 AM to begin our actual investigation.  We split into two teams, Manny and Terry, and Gracie with Joey.  Manny and I started with the men’s bathroom, while Gracie and Joey did the women’s.  What all prior research about the men’s bathroom stated that it was the darkest place of the entire restaurant.  It is a very small corner of the Tavern, with vaulted ceilings.  Even the door handle looks kind of spooky.  Of all the places, this was labeled as the one where we would find a malevolent spirit.

We started with some EVPs.  Manny asked if anyone was there with us, advised the spirit that we only wanted to know their story, and then we anxiously waited.  Then, I stepped out to give Manny a couple minutes alone.  Spirits generally only manifest themselves when in small company.  It was there that Manny said he felt suddenly anxious, like he didn’t belong there.  Two unknown streaks of light flicker across the camera, and then he ran for the door.  I tried my lot alone, but nothing seemed to happen.

We then switched, and did the women’s bathroom.  This was formerly a storage room, and Ethel Allen was, according to mediums that had been here before, was hiding in here from her murderer.  This is also an alleged place where she was murdered.  We pulled out the item radiation detector, which measures Alpha, Beta, and Gamma rays (not your conventional paranormal tool because it measures higher intensities).  It went crazy in here.  The general reading is about 15 beeps a minute, but we caught 23!  We also noted that there was a toliet paper roll on the ground, which, at the end of the night, we found completely cut in half.  Ironic, because some people have claimed that toliet paper goes crazy on the roll in here.  The fact that it was cut in half was intriguing, and nobody in our group knows why this is.  Definitely some spooky form of evidence.

I then sat alone while the rest of the group did some EVPs upstairs.  I received several waves of emotions that flew over me, congruent with the item radiation detectors readings.  I was trying something out that I had read about, called automatic writing.  You write whatever comes to mind, and it relaxes you and allows spirits to manifest easier off of your energy.  The bottom of the restaurant is much harder to be in pitch black, with no noise.  The road is relatively close, and cars are driving by constantly.  Also, trains drive by all the time, their breaks going crazy, causing the whole place to shake.  Lets just say that I wasn’t the only one to jump when a train blew it’s whistle.

Next, I spent some time on the far stairwell.  I sat there, for awhile, trying to communicate with the spirits of the past.  There are some great shots of paranormal activity at this location in Ashley’s, and I believe I actually caught some shadow people on camera.  When looking at the video, there are seemingly shadows that interrupt the light between the wall and the light on my camera!  In addition to this, the item radiation detector kept beeping around the times the passes occurred!  I didn’t know this at the time either.  I packed up, and went upstairs to see what was going on.

There, the rest of the group had placed a ball and a stuffed turtle on the floor. There is a spirit there, of a child, according to several witnesses.  This is probably true, because with my IR thermometer, I found the temperature to be 68 degrees, in contrast to the 73 degrees that was everywhere else.  This was not around anything that would cause the differential (air ways, fridge, etc).  We set up several cameras here on this as well.

Between the temperature differentials, the unexplained streaks of light that sent Manny running out of the men’s bathroom, the shadow people that were passing in front of me and the item radiation detector in the hallway, the unknown cause of the toliet paper roll mutilation, and the measurements on the item radiation detector, I am thinking that there is definitely some activity here.  I would not be surprised about a full apparition when the spirits were more comfortable with me.