DÉJÀ-BOO: Investigating the Forgotten Ghosts of the Bartlebee Candy Factory

(Be sure to watch the accompanying episode, "DÉJÀ-BOO: Investigating the Forgotten Ghosts of the Bartlebee Candy Factory" for the full experience.)

Preface: 

    Weeks ago, we received a manila folder in our PO box from an unknown sender. Within the folder was a single image, with the words "Bartlebee Brands - Factory Nine" scrawled on the back.

    While we are certainly no strangers to being sent anonymous ghost “evidence”, it’s unusual to receive such things through the mail in lieu of our email inbox or social media accounts. We were intrigued; while we've heard the name "Bartlebee" buzzing around various urban legends before, we have never ourselves looked into the truth or history behind them. Initially, I wanted to throw this evidence out since it was clearly doctored, but Jessica and Francisco decided we should give it the benefit of the doubt. 

    Our research into Bartlebee Brands led us to contact a historian by the name of Penny M. From what she told us, Bartlebee Brands used to be a big candy company here in America. Factory Nine (the location the photographs were taken at) was the largest and the last of their manufacturing plants to be built, finishing construction in 1941. Oddly, Bartlebee Brands co-founder Aaron Fulch died that same year, after visiting the factory for the first time. Perhaps this is what has led to so many urban legends surrounding the factory in the modern day. 

    In my opinion, though, his death does not seem mysterious or otherworldly by any means. If my math is correct, the man was well over 70 years old at the time… likely just an unfortunate coincidence. After Fulch’s death, the factory seemed to become a bad luck magnet. While Miss M did not give the various urban legends of otherworldly humming, ghostly touches or full body apparitions any credibility, she did inform us that many of them spawned from real world events and tragedies -- such is the case for many ghost stories passed down from person to person. With each retelling, the story changes, becoming a warped version of the truth. 

    Armed with the information Miss M had given us and our reliable investigative gear, the four of us trekked out to the long abandoned factory. It was quite a hike out of the city, the sun setting as we finally caught our first glimpse of the building. The once meticulously maintained gardens were now overgrown and weeds broke through the cracked concrete paths. Jess even tripped over a particularly thick root and almost knocked the camera out of Grant's hands. Surprisingly, the factory was easy to get into. No crawling through broken windows or jumping fences... it was almost inviting. Despite how run down and shabby the building has become over the years, you could tell it was once very impressive. The paint was faded, the machines covered in a thick layer of dust, and yet the smiling face of the company's bee mascot greeted us from posters and decorations at every turn. There was shockingly little graffiti on the walls, and the air smelt like a confusing mix of stale sweetness and rot. See for yourself in this article's accompanying Déjà-Boo episode!

Investigation breakdown:

    We started our investigation on the first floor, in the former gift shop and retail space. We used this space to establish a baseline of activity. 

1. EMF Detector: Upon turning on our EMF Detector, the device was immediately blinking into the yellow, frequently jumping up to orange or red as we moved about the space. It's likely there might be some old machine or faulty wiring causing this reaction somewhere in this decrepit building.
2. EVP Recorder: No anomalies detected.
3. Spirit Box: Something new we're trying with this investigation is the add-on of a honeytone amplifier, which helps filter real words from the radio static noise of a spirit box. What better time to debut this device than at the old bee themed factory, eh? We let the spirit box run for about a minute. This far out of the city I'm unsure how strong the radio signals are, nevertheless we did catch a few words (as is expected). The words were seemingly random and had no correlation connecting them.
4. Thermal Camera: No anomalies detected.
5. REM Pod: At first we thought the REM Pod was malfunctioning, but we quickly realized it was just Francisco's foot that had accidentally entered its range. Oops! 

    With our baseline of activity (that being: essentially none) established, we began delving deeper into the bowels of the building.

Bathroom

    One of the most popular myths people love to share about the Bartlebee Factory is that of a disembodied woman's voice. Very unhelpfully, this legend is unspecific about the location of this specter, simply saying she haunts "one of the bathrooms" of the factory, of which there are several on each floor and in each wing. Maybe she's supposed to haunt all of them, who knows. We picked one at random and tried to see if our EVP recorder could pick up this spirit's voice.

    While not a voice, our device did record some sort of unintelligible sound. As much as we have listened to it, none of us can make any sense of what it could be. In addition, every time we used the EVP recorder it would pick up a consistent humming noise... maybe it's finally time to get a new one. This little thing has been with us for many years, made its way through many an (alleged) haunting, but it seems it's finally time for it to pass on. So long, soldier.

Room Full Of Machines

    I have no idea what these big machines are called, but I have to imagine they made some sort of candy in some way. The room smelled much sweeter than any other place in the factory, so much so that it made it a little hard to breathe. Francisco dared me to lick one of the rusted mixing things, but since I do not plan on dying of one million old time-y diseases, I declined the offer. This room was not notable in any way, except for the fact that Jess's shoe got caught on some sort of sticky residue (which Francisco also tried to get me to lick) and pulled it off her foot. Jess thinks this was ghost slime, but it was probably some sort of 50 year old rotten candy nobody ever bothered to clean up.

West Wing Hallway

    Another of Factory Nine's many ghost stories is that of full body apparitions, like the one in the photograph that prompted us to visit this facility in the first place. Normally, we would try to recreate this photo in the exact same location it was taken, but this factory is absolutely enormous. Without a map or tour guide, it probably would have taken hours to try and find the right hallway. Instead, we settled for one in the west wing of the six sided building. While we were shooting, we didn't think we captured anything. It wasn't until later as Grant began editing the video that anyone noticed this:

    It's incredibly hard to see, almost not there, but there's the faintest hint of some kind of... thing. Of course, this could be a million things before it's a ghost: dust, a smudge on the camera lens, a weird light reflection. But still... even I, skeptical as I am nowadays, have to admit it does look remarkably similar to the "ghost" in the photograph that was mailed to us. 

Top Floor Office

When we reached the topmost level of the building, high up enough that looking out the windows would make anyone nervous, we found what we assume to once have been management's offices. It is here where we decided to break out the spirit box once again, in an attempt to try contacting the spirit of the late Aaron Fulch himself - who, according to the stories, never left the factory grounds after his passing. 

The spirit box session started out the same as any other, with myself asking questions and the machine spitting out random words it picked up from various local radio stations. Questions like "what's your name", "why are you still here", and "how did you die" were met with responses like "apple fritter", "work hours" and "best country music".

Towards the end of the session, Jess believes we recorded what could be a conversation with the dead. As I have discussed in many videos, spirit box sessions work on the power of suggestion and word association. A question only receives an "answer" if you personally believe it does. Regardless, I have transcribed this section of the video here:

Myself: Mr. Aaron Fulch, if you're here, we'd like to speak with you. If you are here, please speak into this machine so we can hear you.
Spirit box: What
Francisco: Mr. Fulch, people believe that this factory caused you to die from a curse, is that true?
Spirit box: (silence)
Francisco: Is this building cursed?
Spirit box: Better times (Static. I make note of this since the new honeytone addition to our device is supposed to filter that out.)
Myself: Better times... are you saying that this factory used to have better times?
Jess: Yeah, this place is kind of gross now, it probably looked way better when it was in operation.
Spirit box: (unintelligible) walk to
Myself: Do you want us to walk somewhere? Where do you want us to go?
Spirit box: here

    At this point, we did not get any more intelligent responses from the device. To me, this "conversation" is just nonsense words given meaning by our preconceived biases. But for the believers amongst you, I'm sure this seems compelling.

    As far as we were able to determine, Mr. Fulch sadly has no direct family members still alive today. He was buried in a family plot in his hometown's cemetery.

Boiler Room

    Our final stop of the night was the infamous boiler room, which exploded in the 1950s due to unknown means, tragically causing the deaths of several factory workers and visitors. It was quite a trek, going from the very top floor down into the basement. We'd hoped that being underground would give us a break from the hot summer air that occupied the rest of the factory, but no such luck. If anything, it felt even warmer down there. 

    Now, last season I said we wouldn't use these anymore, because I think they're unreliable and dumb. But we've read the comments and you all have been begging for it to come back, so... I broke out the maglights. As a refresher, if you turn the flashlights to the point just between on and off, they'll flicker. Some people believe spirits can manipulate this energy and respond to yes or no questions. I won't spoil the segment, since apparently you all love it, but we may or may not have gotten supernatural confirmation that ghosts' favorite candy flavor is... boo-berry.

Closing Thoughts:

    For the Déjà-Boo crew, our evening spent at the Bartlebee candy factory was very active. Not with ghostly activity, but rather the sheer amount of walking between hallways and climbing flights of stairs we had to do. The building is something that seems larger than life, and perhaps that, combined with its tragic history, is why it has become the victim of so many different tall tales. It's not uncommon for places like this - places that have been long forgotten as anything other than a place that caused pain for many people years ago - to become something people feel uncomfortable thinking about or acknowledging in any way other than fear. This building was the site of many accidents and deaths, but that does not mean those events have any energy that remains in any tangible way. After all, it’s only a building.

    For example, when asked about the ghost in the photograph, Miss M identified the man as one Randell Wert. According to the urban legends and ghost stories, Wert was beaten to death during the union strikes in the 1950s, his spirit remaining to haunt the company that mistreated him. But upon conducting further research, Randell Wert is very much still alive, happily retired in sunny Florida. So whose image did we really capture...? Could it have been an echo of the past, trapped in time? The ghost of a still living man? Or is it all simply the power of suggestion? 

    In conclusion, the Bartlebee Factory, while an interesting step back in time, does not hold any conclusive evidence of ghosts or other paranormal phenomena. Spirit box sessions, REM pod detections and EVP recordings can all be explained away if you’re a skeptic. While the photograph our team captured seems compelling, the “ghost” only appeared in one image, and none of us witnessed anything with our own eyes. Therefore, the choice to choose whether you believe Factory Nine to be haunted or not lies solely with you.

- Ethan