By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
In keeping with its new slate of programs, the Val Verde County Library played host
Thursday to Pete the Haunted Clown and his human companion, Del Rioan Paul Mancha.
Barb Galvan, the county library’s reference librarian, welcomed the dozen-odd souls who
attended the presentation.
Galvan told the group, “On Thursdays, we are now open from 10
a.m. to 8 p.m., so we
are trying to do some programs here in the evenings.”
She said other programs, including a return of the “Family Fun Nights,” are planned and
noted the programs are sponsored by The Friends of the Val Verde County Library.
Galvan then introduced Paul Mancha, founder of Silent Society of the Paranormal and
one of the city’s most ardent paranormal investigators and explorers.
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, ghouls and goblins, spirits and non-spirits,”
Mancha began, invited attendees to take photos and videos of his program.
Mancha said he called his presentation “Silent Society of the Paranormal 101 or Little
Things Most Haunted in Del Rio.”
With a flourish, Mancha introduced Pete, a seemingly-innocuous Raggedly Ann-type
clown doll, and Hazel, a doll also believed to be inhabited by a spirit.
Mancha said Pete came to him after being in a south Del Rio storage unit for some time.
He referred to Pete as “a supernatural entity” and said he has used the clown doll to help
him cleanse houses containing “negative energy.”
Mancha next launched into stories about paranormal investigations he has conducted in
reportedly haunted locales around Del Rio, including the old Perry store on the grounds
of the Whitehead Memorial Museum, the Casa De La Cultura annex on Garza Street and
the building purchased several years ago by the city to serve as the new City Hall on
South Main Street.
While sharing his stories, Mancha played snippets of videos shot during the
investigations, inviting attendees to see the “shadow people” and a “skinwalker” he said
some of those videos had captured.
Mancha’s stories sometimes veered into short history lessons of the sites he and his
fellow investigators had visited and videotaped, and he shared with attendees photos of
the infamous Dr. Brinkley’s operating room and a 16mm film of Del Rio’s downtown in
the early 20th century.
Mancha also brought along several K2 meters, handheld devices that detect
electromagnetic fields (EMF) in an area. A higher EMF, indicated by a series of colored
lights, is said to indicate spirit activity.
He played videos showing “spirit box sessions” recorded in the Perry store and in the old
North Heights building, where Mancha said he and his team were permitted to investigate
before it was torn down by the school district.
“Spirit boxes” scan AM and FM radio frequencies and will sometimes emit a particular
word or phrase, which some believe indicates an attempt at communication by spirits in
the area. Are the shadows and floating orbs of light in Mancha’s videos something, or are they
nothing? A brief glimpse of spirits or simply an example of pareidolia, the mind’s
insistence on imposing order on a chaotic image, like seeing a face in a cloud formation
or hearing voices in the static?
As Mancha himself told those attending his program, “I’m not trying to make you a
believer. . . It’s just great to explore the unknown.”
Mancha said he will next bring Pete and his haunted sibling to a series of “Spooky
November” events planned at the Whitehead Museum on Nov. 14 and 15.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
