'Ghost Adventures' recap: 'Mustang Ranch'

Courtesy: The Travel Channel
BY NOWAL MASSARI

What better ingredients for a haunting than sex, lies, money and murder? This week's "Ghost Adventures" bring viewers a taste of all these things when they investigate the Mustang Ranch, a brothel just outside of Reno, Nevada.

Joe and Sally Conforte, no strangers to owning brothels, opened the Mustang Ranch in 1967. Professional boxer Oscar Bonavena, was a friend to the Conforte's, but perhaps a little too close to Sally, as it is believed that they were having an affair. At the time, only women were allowed to own brothels, making Sally Conforte a fairly wealthy woman and Bonavena was often heard bragging that one day he would own the ranch. Unfortunately for him, he would never make good on that brag. In 1976, Bonavena came to the ranch and was shot dead at the gates by the Conforte's body guard.

The Ghost Adventures Crew meet up with Tara Cann, manager of the ranch, to discuss what kinds of paranormal activity has been experienced there. She tells them that most of the girls who work there refuse to go into the B Hall, and room B1 in particular. According to reports, girls have been held down by an unseen presence and bruised or had marks left on their necks while in that room. Even new girls who haven't heard any of the stories prior to entering that room, have reported the same things.

In addition to icy cold feelings, severe and sudden mood swings have been reported after staying in B1. After using sage in an attempt to get rid of negative energy, she called in a Shaman to cleanse the ranch of what he believed to be very angry spirits, or quite possibly, demons.

The morning of the investigation, a housekeeper named Lorena quit after reaching a breaking point with all of the ghostly activity she had experienced. Zak and the crew speak with one of her co-workers, who has also experienced the unexplained. She tells the crew that both she and Lorena had their hair pulled on numerous occasions, in addition to feeling unsafe and like they were being watched. The housekeeper then tells them that she had seen a man in a white shirt, standing outside of the gates one day, just staring at her before he disappeared. When shown a photo of Oscar Bonavena, the woman begins to get extremely emotional and admits this is the man she had seen that day.

The crew then meet up with Madam Susan Austin and talk about a previous investigation conducted by none other than EVP specialists, Mark and Debby Constantino. It was in May of 2012 when the Constantinos investigated with Madam Susan and a few of the girls who worked at the ranch. One year prior, Madam Susan's close friend Benni had died, and the night of the investigation she says that she suddenly felt the presence of her lost loved one. She said "Benni, I miss you," and the EVP recorder picked up "Benni." The voice, according to Madam Susan, belonged to Benni herself. Knowing the quality of evidence they get as a team, the guys head to Mark and Debby's home to listen to some of the other recordings collected from that night.

Heading into the Constantino's home, Zak points out that you can tell exactly who lives there by the zombies crawling out of the garden, gargoyles and bone wind chimes. Once settled in, the Constantino's play a few audio clips from that night. The first clip is of Madam Susan asking if there is anyone in the room wearing a plaid shirt that likes the B hallway, with the response "...in the shadows" caught on the EVP recorder. The next question was asked by one of the girls who worked at the ranch, and the response was definitely something you would expect to hear out of a brothel patron, "Please tell me what you want." The response was, "Your tits."

Upon hearing this piece of evidence, Zak recalls a conversation he'd had earlier that day with Phoenix, one of the current working girls. One of her co-workers had been attacked in B hall and received bruises on her breasts by an unseen assailant.

While setting up the nerve center, Zak asks why Oscar was at the ranch when his Ovilus 3 offers up the word "affair." Joined by the Constantinos, the GAC family head into the main part of the ranch. They hear a strange knocking sound near the kitchen, which turns out to be a regular occurrence according to one of the workers, Jose. He claims that every night, around the same time, he hears 3 knocks followed by the sight of a shadow man. While inspecting the noise, Zak steps out into the hallway and captures an anomaly that appears to be a foot that seems to move closer to the wall in order to let him pass.

Zak heads to Mustang Ranch hotspot, room B1, and conducts a Spirit Box session. He asks if anyone can come through and talk with him, when the Ovilus 3 responds "How?" While still in B1, the Ovilus 3 also gives the words "cleansing," "burning" and "now." When he meets back up with the rest of the crew, they decide that the spirits were talking about how they felt when the Shaman came to cleanse the ranch.

Approximately two nights before the investigation, a man stayed in room D4 of the brothel and experienced some unexplainable activity. After placing the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the outside door handle, the lights began to flicker followed by the sign coming off of the handle and sliding under the door. He got up only to find no one on the other side of the door.

Deciding to conduct an experiment, Zak and Nick decide to send Mark and Debby into the room without telling them about the man from two nights ago. Zak suggests that the couple should get intimate in order to stir up some paranormal activity. Mark seems to think it's a good idea, however Debby is unamused.

Once inside the room, with no air conditioning running or any wind blowing, the 'Do Not Disturb' sign begins to move. Debby asks what happened in the room two nights ago and the Spirit Box clearly says "ghosts." She then asks, presumably to Oscar Bonavena,"Were you killed?" The Spirit Box is silent, however, Mark's recorder picks up an EVP that states "demon...go to sleep."

The final question was again, directed to Bonavena, when Debby asks, "Did you die in the parking lot?" A male voice is picked up on the recorder stating "gun...shots...hurt." Mark begins to feel a strong pain in his head, so they move to room B1 to conduct a session there, however after 20 minutes they receive no responses.

Coming back together, the entire crew conduct one final Spirit Box session in the ranch. Mark asks if Oscar is afraid of them and if he thinks that they are there to hurt him, to which the responses "yes" and "yeah" come through in the same male voice. After asking who is touching and attacking women, the name "Paul" comes through, however there is no elaboration and Paul's identity is left unknown.

Continuing with the Spirit Box session, they ask what areas on women the spirit likes to touch. Zak and Aaron both hear the word "shirt" with their own ears and it is then repeated over the box. According to the response from the Spirit Box, there are seven spirits that live at the Mustang Ranch and when Zak attempts to try something, a voice tells him to wait. For what? We never find out.

To wrap up the investigation, the crew reaches out to Benni, close friend of Madam Susan Austin. Mark asks if Benni has a message for "Susie" and Benni appears to correct him, much like Zak had been corrected earlier, by responding, "Madam." Mark then asks about the male spirit that is there and the investigation literally ends with a bang, as a loud noise is heard in the next room. After that, all responses and activities cease.

With some captivating evidence that can't be explained away, it seems that the Ghost Adventures Crew have some pretty solid proof to back up the claims that the Mustang Ranch is, in fact, a haunted brothel.

Don't forget to tune in to the Travel Channel next week, October 25 at 9 p.m. to catch the GAC's investigation of Indiana's Thornhaven Manor.