Hat Man Returns

Jim Harold's Campfire

In 'Hat Man Returns,' Jim Harold's Campfire features a chilling account from Taylor, who experienced multiple paranormal events in an old Victorian apartment in Denver. From

Key takeaways

• The presence in the Victorian apartment manifested through intense fear, visualizations of a gargoyle-like entity, and physical sensations like touch.
• Multiple residents experienced identical phenomena, suggesting shared or collective paranormal activity.

Main topics

• Haunted Victorian apartment
• Hat Man phenomenon

Notable quotes

"I just had this overall sense that there was something else with us in the room."

"It was so strong in my mind. And it was so, I felt so confident that it was there."

Conclusion

The episode closes with unresolved mystery and deep unease, emphasizing how paranormal

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) The Hat Man returns up next on Jim Harreld's Campfire. Sit back, relax, and warm yourself by Jim Harreld's Campfire. Taylor is on the line from Colorado and she's been listening, she said, for eight or nine years. She looks too young to be listening for eight or nine years. Well, we're so glad to have her with us. Taylor, I appreciate it. And you have a story about something haunted. I'll let you tell people about it, my goodness. Tell us what happened. Speaker 2 (0:40) Thanks, Jim. I'm really excited to be on the show. I've listened for a long time and honestly always wish I had something to call in about, but it just happens when you least expect it. Speaker 2 (0:55) But, so, this happened about a few years ago. My boyfriend and I were looking for an apartment to live in here in Denver. We hadn't lived with each other yet before, so it was our first apartment together. And a friend of mine notified me about somebody in her apartment building moving out. Speaker 2 (1:19) And it was a older Victorian-style home built in about the 1890s, somewhere in there. I've always been drawn to history and character. And even though I've always been interested in paranormal, I actually have to say going into looking at the apartment, it really didn't cross my mind. I didn't have that sense going in it. touring it, I just, it never really, it never really crossed my mind. But living in the apartment for about almost about a month at that point, my boyfriend and I experienced like one of our first paranormal or kind of weird experiences. Leading up to that point, not a single thing had happened, but we were watching a movie and the movie finished. And we were sitting in our living room and it was got a little bit dark because we had all the lights off the movie finished, but we just were talking about the movie and then just ended up talking about all sorts of stuff. And we just were having a fun time being in our new apartment. And we also, we also were enjoying the fact that the top of the living room. Because of this old Victorian home, it went really high ceilings with skylights. So we were enjoying like the moon coming through. And again, it was just a positive experience until all of a sudden I experienced something that I've never had happened to me before, which was just this overwhelming feeling of fear came over me in the moment. And I just had this overall sense that. There was something else with us in the room. And I just got really scared and didn't really know how to describe the feeling to my boyfriend at the time. But I was so scared to open my eyes. I ended up closing my eyes because I knew that if I were to open my eyes again, I might see something. Speaker 2 (3:40) That was there, the presence that I felt. I was so nervous of seeing it. So Speaker 6 (3:45) I Speaker 2 (3:45) kept my eyes closed and I made my boyfriend go turn the lights on. I said, please just go turn them on, turn them on. So he goes and turn the lights on. And I said, I'm sorry, I just have a weird feeling, but let's just go to bed. So it wasn't until the next day that I felt comfortable explaining to him the feeling I was having because in that moment, I was too scared to talk about it. Speaker 2 (4:10) So I ended up explaining to him that I actually felt in my mind I could visualize the presence that I felt. And it sounds so crazy, but it was in the form of like a gargoyle. Oh, man. Speaker 1 (4:31) Ooh, you're giving me chills here. Speaker 2 (4:35) Yeah. And it sounds, it's hard to say that because I didn't actually see it with my own eyes, but it was so strong in my mind. And it was so, I felt so confident that it was there. Something I didn't mention was because those really high ceilings that we had, and there was like a brick, brick. That went all the way up. That was like the old fireplace that ran through the whole house, multi-level. And above that was like a little ledge, which we ended up putting a bunch of books up there. And partially because I, that empty shelf, that's where in my mind, this presence was, or. Oh Speaker 1 (5:21) my goodness. Speaker 2 (5:22) Kind of. what seemed like in my mind and I don't know where I would have gotten this imagery from and it was all of the sudden but the craziest part about it is my boyfriend said he felt the same way and and he didn't want to tell me in the moment because he didn't want to make us even more scared right Speaker 1 (5:45) um Speaker 2 (5:45) but he also felt exactly what I was what I had experienced Speaker 1 (5:53) Wow. So Speaker 2 (5:53) that was the first experience. And then. A few more things happened while we lived there. So it was just a constant feeling like there, one moment you're just living your life, you're not thinking about anything, and then it's just all of a sudden you have this sense that you're not alone. And I've never felt that way until I lived in that apartment. My boyfriend experienced that all the time as well. One other thing that happened to me personally was One night we're laying in bed, getting ready to go to bed, and my cat always comes and lays on me every night before I go to sleep. And she's laying on my chest, and I just felt like, well, she was acting a little weird. She kept looking in different areas. And I assumed it was like a bug that she saw or something. Right. But it kind of freaked me out a little bit just because... It felt like she did it a bunch of times, but I tried to just brush it off. So I'm petting her and I'm also simultaneously looking on my phone. And while I'm petting her. Jim, I swear I felt something touch my hand. And it spooked me enough that I just, you know, it felt, it just didn't feel like I was making it up. So I tried to, I even told my boyfriend in the moment, I'm like, I'm so scared. And he's like, we're just on the verge of going to sleep. And he's like, just try to get some sleep. And I said, you're right. Let me go to bed. And I remember thinking, well, if I go to bed. Then I'll wake up and it'll be like nothing happened. But that was the night that after I fell asleep, I ended up opening my eyes to. Speaker 2 (7:47) something really scary sitting on my bed that night. Wow. Speaker 1 (7:52) The face Speaker 2 (7:52) was, yeah, and it was pretty quick because I ended up immediately going back into my covers and my pillow and closing my eyes again. But it was. A very, very uncomfortable face. I've described it as like demon-like. Speaker 1 (8:14) Wow. And how Speaker 2 (8:15) it looked. You know, I can't say for sure that what I saw wasn't something that I maybe kind of. almost dreamt because I was in a sleep state. However, the feeling that I had was so, um, Speaker 2 (8:40) I haven't experienced fear like that, to be honest. I was crying and I was just, I was panicking because I couldn't believe how scared I felt in that moment. And the only thing I could do and what I thought to do was I put my head back, you know, I was under the covers and I just kept saying in my head. Get out of my house. Get out of my house. I visualized going in and opening the door and making it get out. Speaker 1 (9:12) Wow. Speaker 2 (9:41) You felt like you heard somebody come in the apartment or walk across or you felt like you saw something pass. But it wasn't the other person. But there was a night that I was sleeping and my boyfriend stayed up a little bit later than I did playing video games. And he was in the dark and he had headphones on and was kind of just locked into the game he was playing. And he said that. He thought that I came up behind him and put my hand on his shoulder. But I was fast asleep and he got really spooked by that because he came running in and said, did you just come and try to say, you know, try to get my attention? And I said, I just woke up. I was like, no, I was starting to fall asleep. I've been laying here the whole time. And he said that it was just. Undoubtedly, something put their hand on his shoulder, but it wasn't me. Well, Speaker 1 (10:44) let me ask you, this place, I mean, did you know anything about the— I mean, my goodness, all the things that you just recounted, amazing. Even one of those would be amazing, let alone all these series of them. Yeah. And terrifying. Did you know anything about the place, anything that would have, like— explain some of this? Speaker 2 (11:03) So I definitely didn't at the time. Um, we Speaker 2 (11:11) We honestly didn't do much research at the time while living there. I don't know if I was worried about something I'd find out, but I ended up doing research on it after and I still couldn't find anything unusual. Obviously, being, you know, home built before 1900, it's definitely older, so it has history. But nothing stood out to me that would lead me to think that. Or have a reason for it to be specifically haunted. But doing my research, I saw that, you know, that the neighborhood that we were in, in general, there are haunted homes. And we also were really close to, like, truly a block away from a hospital. And I've heard a couple people talk about how we could have experienced some, we could have been picking up on some spirits from there. That makes a little more sense to me just because of the fact that I felt like it would always come and go, the presence. And it never felt the same. It felt like different types of presences. And they would really come and go just as fast as they'd get there, they'd leave. Or I'd also ask them to leave. Speaker 1 (12:29) Well, I got to tell you, that is, you've got a lot more courage than I have. You've got a lot more courage than I have because I could have never stood up to that. My goodness. My goodness. I'm guessing you were kind of glad to get out of there. Speaker 2 (12:42) We were. Yeah. I will say some of it died down a little bit towards the end of us living there. I think that I really. just tried to keep positive energy in the space that we lived in. The woman who lived in the apartment before us, she lived there for about 10 years. So there's also a part of me that feels like Her leaving that apartment could have brought on some of, you know, some disruption. Just they might have been there could have been something so used to her presence for so long. But, yeah, we were glad we were glad to get out of there. Speaker 1 (13:23) Well, thank you for listening all these years for sharing this amazing experience. And stay spooky. Speaker 2 (13:31) Thanks, Jim. Stay spooky. Speaker 1 (13:34) Welcome to the Campfire. I'm Jim Harreld. And boy, did we get off to quite a start there with that story. And we've got many, many more great ones to come. Welcome to Jim Harreld's Campfire, the show where we talk to real people about their real experience with real paranormal activity. It's a great time to tell your friends and family about because now we are officially in spooky season. Labor Day's over. We're headed right into the fall. Football is back. So is the spooky. So tell your friends and family, send them a link today for this show. And if you enjoy this show, don't forget our other free podcasts, the Paranormal Podcast, the show that I have been doing since 2005, covering things like ghosts, UFOs, cryptid creatures, and so much more. And you can get it for free wherever you get this show. And then also... Don't forget the Paranormal Report, the free weekly paranormal news show I do with my bride, Dar Harold. She's a pistol, and I think you will enjoy her perspective. She brings a fresh and different look at it than I do, and sometimes we even argue a little bit. But it's a lot of fun. I think you'll enjoy it. And I think you'll enjoy this next Campfire Story. Speaker 1 (14:51) Julie is on the line from New York. She listened for a while and she kind of got away and then she found her way back, which is the important thing. And it's very important that she's come on the show to share her story. And this sounds like a frightening one, Julie. Thank you so much for joining us from New York. Tell us what happened. Speaker 7 (15:11) Thank you so much for having me. So I grew up in Portland, Oregon. I spent my weekends going to my best friend's father's house. He had a house in North Portland on Mohawk Street. There was always lots of activity in this house. We were told that it was haunted. Her father and his husband would say, you know, oh, this happened, that happened. But we had never seen anything personally over the years. Like we believed them, but we never personally saw anything. But mostly the activity was on the second floor of the house. Now, this was a pretty old house for Portland. One of those houses that every room you go into has a door. So very closed off. We were downstairs in what they called the library. Had a bunch of books and a small TV. We were watching TV, stayed up late. We both fell asleep. A hard, hard sleep. Woke up. went up to the second floor to her bedroom. Now her bedroom is shaped like an L. So the long part of the L was all these big windows on the whole wall that overlooked the backyard. Speaker 1 (16:18) The Speaker 7 (16:19) short part of the L, a queen size bed fit in there with just enough room for someone to walk down each side. So really just so you could get into the bed and out. So we're exhausted. We get upstairs, get in the bed. And then I'm thinking she's already back asleep. But I look at the end of the bed and there's a man standing at the end of the bed on my side. And I'm trying to rationalize this. I'm like, OK, it's a shadow coming in through the window. Um, then I'm, I start focusing on the windows and I'm like, it's definitely not a shadow. A shadow can't cast back into the house like that, um, from where the light is downstairs. And it's a very distinct. Speaker 7 (17:10) figure. So I describe it, it was like if somebody took a cardboard cutout of someone and painted it just flat black. I couldn't see any features. I definitely could not see through it, but it was a tall... Speaker 7 (17:28) Just the feeling I got was a man. It was a tall man in like a trench coat, the very squared shoulders, and a hat, like a wide brimmed hat. Not like a cowboy hat, and not a top hat, but just a wide brimmed hat. You could see. Like Speaker 1 (17:44) a Speaker 7 (17:44) fedora. Speaker 1 (17:45) Like a fedora. Very Speaker 7 (17:46) distinct, this figure. Yes, yes, exactly. Speaker 7 (17:52) I watched it for as long as I could. I was actually terrified to move. I felt like if I closed my eyes, if I opened my eyes, it would be in my face. I never saw it move. I stayed awake for as long as I could. I don't know. Maybe it was like 20 minutes. I honestly don't know. But as soon as we woke up in the morning, we woke up at the same time. my friend and I both like word by word. I was like, did you see that? She was like, oh my God. I'm like at the end of the bed. She's like on your side. I'm like hat. She said coat. We both booked it downstairs so fast. I have chills right now. Like reflecting back on this. I never saw that again, but it was definitely, we both saw it. Both had the same overwhelming feeling of being afraid to move, being afraid to say anything. It wasn't, I don't know if it was like a curiosity feeling that I was getting from it, but it wasn't the most friendly, but I can't say that it was negative either. Speaker 7 (18:58) But it's an image I've never that's never left my mind. And then it's as I got older and the Internet came about, I remembered the story and I looked it up. And what really chilled me to like the core is people have accounts of the same thing from all over the place. And they call it the hat man. Speaker 1 (19:17) Yep. I was just about to say the hat man. And it is interesting because it has this trench coat look. It's got the hat. It's just and it's weird how it's the same thing. You would think that it's slightly different, but they have. I mean, you gave pretty much the textbook description of the hat man. Do you have any? I mean, after looking all this stuff up and thinking about it, what do you you said it wasn't particularly nasty, but it wasn't particularly friendly. What do you think it was? Do you have any idea, any speculation, any theories for us, Julie? Speaker 7 (19:52) Well, around that time, it kind of became a tumultuous period for my friend. And I did see some reports that it would come when people are kind of at a crossroads. She unfortunately, you know, had some. Some not so great things happened, some not so great choices. That was also kind of the ending of our friendship. I became actually closer with her older sister. So I was still with the family all the time. It was just, it was a major transition point in our life looking back. Other than that, I can't really say. The only other thing that stands out is after that event for the next four weekends, we did experience a lot of other. things that we can't explain in the house. Like heavy breathing right behind us, doors that we knew were shut being opened, different things like that. And not on the second floor, on the main floor. And then it just abruptly stopped again for us. Speaker 1 (20:58) Just weird stuff. The thing is, is that I think sometimes, you know, people feel they have to have a solution if they tell their story. But no, just knowing it exists and other people, I'm sure, are listening and said, I saw him too. You know, just that I think is so, so helpful. Yeah. Julie, thank you so much for joining us