The Haunted Museum by Zak Bagans

Posted by blogger in Vegas Ghosts
The Haunted Museum by Zak Bagans - Photo

A Paranormal Pioneer

 

Known for his love of the paranormal and his truly spine-chilling Travel Channel show, Ghost Adventures, Zak Bagans is now the proud curator of ‘The Haunted Museum’ in Las Vegas. Housing hundreds of supposedly haunted, cursed, and paranormally active objects, the museum is a conglomeration of haunted items and artifacts from literally all over the world.

Zak Bagans developed an interest in the paranormal at just ten years old, where he used to scour garage and estate sales with his mother to find odd collectibles. This fascination soon turned to a life-long pursuit of answers about the afterlife. With his unmatched knowledge and expertise, people from all over have come to the museum to ask Zak to take in their haunted objects. The building that the museum is built in is haunted all on its own. Built in 1930, it was owned by businessman Cyril Wengert, and rumors tell that he used to perform rituals in the basement. Consisting of 33 rooms, The Haunted Museum houses some of the earth’s most cursed dolls, pictures, ancient artifacts, a Dybbuk box, and pretty much anything else you can think of! Below is a shortlist of just a few of the haunted objects you can experience at the museum.

 

The Dybbuk Box

The World’s Most Haunted Object

 

What is a Dybbuk Box? Put simply; it’s a box with a ghost inside! Based off of Jewish mythology and history, a Dybbuk is a restless and usually malicious spirit that can possess the living. There is one Dybbuk box in particular that found its way to Zak’s museum. Passed around a few times before it came to Vegas, this box was originally purchased at an estate sale in 2001. It belonged to a Holocaust survivor in Poland named Havaleh, who had purchased it in Spain before immigrating to the United States. Upon hearing that the box was a family heirloom, the estate sale purchaser tried to give the money back, but the family refused. They said they no longer wanted the box and that it should never be opened as it contained a powerful Dybbuk.

 

Throwing caution to the wind, the box was opened by the buyer. Inside, two 1920’s pennies, a lock of blonde, and a lock of brown hair were found, as well as a small statue, a wine goblet, one dried rosebud, and a small candle holder. The buyer of the box started to experience horrifying nightmares shortly after he came into possession of the box. He began to grow tired of the box and gave it to his mother as a gift, hoping that it was safe for her since she didn’t open it. But she suffered a stroke the same day he gave her the box. Everyone who has owned the box reports the smell of cat urine and jasmine flowers surrounding the box, as well as nightmares of an ‘old hag’ once they acquire the box.

The vintage wine cabinet inspired the movie ‘The Possession.’ Shortly after it arrived at the museum, mysterious holes began to appear in the walls around the artifact, almost as if something was attempting to break out from inside. A Vegas marketing executive, as well as many visitors, have witnessed a larger-than-life black-cloaked figure hovering around the box itself.

 

 

Dr. Kevorkian’s Volkswagen Death Van

Dr. Death

 

Dr. Kevorkian was born in May of 1928 and was an American pathologist. He championed terminal patient’s right to die by physician-assisted suicide. He always stated that ‘dying is not a crime’ and pushed the medical world to introduce elective euthanasia to human beings. Kevorkian admitted to assisting over 130 patients to that end and was convicted of murder in 1999. He has gained the nickname ‘Dr. Death’ because of his views.

 

In 1998 Kevorkian was arrested and tried for a cause of voluntary euthanasia he administered on a man named Thomas Youk who suffered greatly from Lou Gehrig’s disease, or ALS. While this all seems like manslaughter at best, the problem started to arise when patients who were not terminally ill, as well as patients who didn’t ask for euthanasia, began to die under Dr. Kevorkian’s care. His counseling with patients did not consist of psychiatric exams to understand if the patients truly wanted to end their lives or if they even understood what the word meant.

 

With this in mind, most patients were given a month to consider their decision and change their minds if they wanted. Dr. Kevorkian videotaped interviews with his patients and videotaped the suicides which he called ‘medicides.’ So where does the VW van come into play? Dr. Kevorkian used this van to administer the lethal doses of drugs intended to carry out the assisted suicides. There was a small bed in the back of the rusting van that patients took their final breaths on. The sadness and hopelessness the van witnessed is unspeakable.

Regardless of any opinion of medically assisted suicide, it is horrifying to think of patients who didn’t understand the weight of their agreements taking their last breath in an old Volkswagen next to Dr. Death. The van sits at The Haunted Museum now, attracting visitors’ attention and emanating the energies that it marinated in while it was in use.

 

Original Staircase from Indiana’s Demon House

Stairway to Hell

 

Notorious for its potent paranormal activity before being demolished in 2014, The Demon House in Indiana was home to dark forces and supernatural happenings. The story starts in Gary, Indiana when a mother claimed that her three young children had become possessed by demons that resided in the home. Soon after they arrived, it was reported that swarms of large black flies began appearing around the house, respawning after numerous attempts to rid the house of them by pest control. Footsteps in the basement and the opening and closing of doors followed soon after that. After minor strange occurrences started to spook the family, it was then reported that three children that lived in the home became possessed. Their eyes bulged, their voices changed, and they had twisted faces. The 9-year-old boy described what it felt like to be killed and walked up a wall in the presence of a caseworker and a mental health specialist. The 7-year-old boy clenched his hands around his brother’s throat, choking him, and needed two adults to pry him off. The girl reportedly hovered above her bed while unconscious. The children later received mental health counseling and were found to be of sound mind and body. They described what it felt like to be possessed in the home, some describing it as a choking pain, others felt nauseous.

After hearing the story and the happenings here, Zak Bagans actually bought the haunted home in 2014 and bulldozed the entire property due to its evil inhabitants. Needing a new exhibit for his museum, he salvaged the home’s staircase and brought it to the museum. The banister and steps of the home’s staircase now sit in a dingy corner of the museum, resting on a small pile of dirt from the original house. Construction workers who installed it at The Haunted Museum refused to come back after walking off the site in the middle of the job. Who knows precisely what they could have witnessed that spooked them so bad! Visitors to the museum feel extreme nausea and even faint when nearby the staircase, without even realizing its history! Did the demonic entities from the Indiana home follow the staircase materials all the way to Las Vegas?

 

Endless Haunted Items

 

The museum also houses Robert and Annabelle the dolls, which have been reported to be the most haunted in the world! Have you ever visited the museum? Did you experience any strange happenings or energies while around these haunted objects?

 

Sources Cited:

https://thehauntedmuseum.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dybbuk_box

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kevorkian

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/us/04kevorkian.html

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2018/12/28/zak-bagans-demon-house-real-story-10-things-know-gary-indiana-latoya-ammons/2430585002/