AND I spent an unforgettable night at The Lemp Mansion with my cousin, Cindy. It was unforgettable for me because of the activity. Unforgettable for Cindy because it firmly established in her mind that she would never return.
We were staying in Charles Lemp's apartment. Charles was the last of the Lemp family to commit suicide at the Mansion. There were stories that he went downstairs and shot his dog, then went back to the bedroom to kill himself.
That's not true. He shot himself that morning, in his bed. He was the only member of the Lemp family to leave a note, and the fourth to commit suicide. Three at the Mansion and a sister at her home in another part of St. Louis. Charles said that when they found him, “blame no one but me.”
He left a message that his last surviving brother, Edwin, was to be taken immediately, without any further preparations, cremated, and his ashes buried on his farm in St. Louis County. The burial site of Charles Lemps' ashes will never be revealed. After Edwin's death, all of Lemps' papers were burned along with valuable works of art and other items, as Edwin had requested from his gardener.
The night we stayed at Charles's apartment, there was a party going on in the gazebo outside until about midnight. All the other apartments were booked for the night, so any investigation we could do was circumscribed. We wandered around the house and took some pictures, did some EVP work, and shot some video. There was nothing out of the ordinary. At about 1:00 AM, we decided to call it a day. I set up my video camera, which does not have night vision, on a diminutive table near the entrance to the room, pointing it toward a corner where some outside airy came in through the window. The guest table was set up in that corner and contained a coffee maker, muffins, and an ice bucket filled with ice, wine, and orange juice. The reason I set up the camera was to apply it for audio recording, since my tape recorder made a pretty noisy “click” when the tape ran out, and the camera simply turned off after two hours. I did not expect any video to be useful.
I slept soundly for about an hour, but I woke up when my cousin started moving. It was warm in her room and she had a challenging time falling asleep. We talked for a few seconds and I fell asleep again…but not for long. Almost immediately I was completely awakened by the sound of ice in our ice bucket being literally thrown into the sink in the room. It was very noisy. I asked Cindy, “What was that?” She said, “I think it was ice.” We both saw the bucket on the table and knew it hadn't moved, but there was no mistaking the sound we had heard.
After a while I managed to fall asleep again, although I don't think Cindy ever did.
When I reviewed the two hours of video the next day, I noticed that the diminutive amount of airy that had filtered through the curtains began to distort after a moment. The camera was focusing on itself, and I assumed that was what it was trying to do. Gradually, the image became more and more distorted. I continued watching until I got to the point where Cindy and I woke up just before the sound of ice. It was on tape, a recording of ice being thrown into the sink. I was thrilled that I had managed to record it! It was noisy and sounded exactly the same as the night before!
I burned a copy of that part of the tape onto DVD to keep it secure. It was a very thrilling night and a very good catch for me. I went back to Lemp and spent an hour locked in Charles' room by myself trying to record EVPSs asking questions but I couldn't get any answers.
I will not give up. I still visit Lemp and will try to contact Charles Lemp every chance I get. I recommend it to anyone who can visit this best haunted site in America!
I haven't uploaded the video yet. I have another video from Lemp on YouTube that is basically a walkthrough of the downstairs and upstairs dining room. Then I go around the corner upstairs to the hallway that leads back to the elderly vault door and there seems to be a man at or on that door. I posted it on TAPS and some people initially thought it was the man who came out of Charles Lemp's apartment but the man looked out and came out through the main door in the hallway. The door is painted black and is a bit shiny and worn in places but still very compelling because it is in Lemp. I have done some pretty extensive research on the residence and its family. I find them very unique. I plan to “master” it and those who lived there. I know it like the back of my hand and while the man at the door seems basic to take down, he is still weird. Anything can happen in this house. I will add my YouTube link. The video I talk about in the story is arduous because I have audio problems on my computer and without it the video is not worth much. But I managed to solve part of the problem and maybe it's my camera video downloader. I'm working on it.
