Laseks Lounge a Steel Workers favorite haunt after work which may well be haunted.

Laseks lounge was the kind of place that steel workers from 2nd ave side of J&L later LTV steel would frequent after work when they wanted a cold one it was also a favorite for steel workers retirement party's located along bottom of Bates Street in Pittsburgh's South  Oakland section. Just a short walk from the now long gone  2nd ave mill gate it served up a cold Iron City Beer for decades .
But when the mill closed in the 90's  it was not long before Laseks business all but disappeared despite the fact the mill site was redeveloped with an office park it was not enough  and they closed in late 90's and it has held several different business since  .
The first time I stepped in was after it was closed and had been bought by a local realtor who hired me to cleanup the electrical wiring in the place which was horrendous amazing there was never a fire.
The interior was paneled and dated and consisted of 2 levels with bar/restaurant  downstairs and party area upstairs. I could just imagine when my dad a retired J&L Steel worker and friends had their party's there.

Years of people smoking had stained the walls in some areas. sad to see it like this you could tell at one time it was a very nice place. but had not been kept up with.

So it was when myself and small crew of contractors started working on the place and when things started getting interesting.

People complained that they felt they where being watched  or seeing strange shadows.  or seeing items  moving like chairs  which had moved after they left the room or hearing voices .
 Yea sure this was all going on my one helper a former marine said nothing scares me and aint no ghost going to do so. How ever when he was working upstairs by himself late one night he did not stay up there long and was soon down in the garages with us which ran underneath.
He said he heard voices talking but could not find them.

Now do to the fact the road is right next to it and parkway runs beside it you have to figure some of what went on like the voices was from cars going by waiting in traffic but when the voices where still there and there was no traffic well thats another story.
We asked one of the owners and a former worker had they ever experienced such things and they said they had as well figuring it was one of the old steel workers hanging around though no one ever died in the place it did have a huge attachment to many a worker who put down a cold one .

Is the place really haunted you will have to find out for your self. when it is open for business. mostly in evenings.

A Real life Boogey Man who travelled thru Pa. at one time and claimed " He eat little children " his name - Albert Fish

Thou in his later years he gave the impression of a kindly old grandfather he was nothing but a psychotic child rapist and killer .
He was Albert Fish born in the Washington DC area in  1870 to a father who was 43 years older than his mother and was a boat captain who would die while Albert was young and would see him sent to an orphanage where his dark sexual perversions would begin in his early life as he would learn to enjoy the beatings he received for his bad behavior.

His mother would finally take him back after getting herself stabilized but the damage was done .
and she forced him into a marriage which did not last which she hoped would dissuade his sexual proclivity's

.


Thou he had 6 children he never abused them but any one else's child was open game 
  
He was mentally evaluated several times and found to have psychiatric problems but was released every time.  

He was a very disturbed individual who made his money as a traveling painter and apparently as a male prostitute at times and his travels took him to many states including Pa. where he prowled for mentally ill and African American children who he thought authorities would be less than enthusiastic to investigate claims made by them or if they disappeared,. 

He was eventually caught and convicted and executed in the electric chair in Sing Sing prison in NYC  in  January of 1936  for the murder and disembowelment of a 12 year old Grace Budd whose family allowed him to take her to a birthday party. 

How such a sick individual could go on and do what he did for so long even back then is pretty incredible but his constant travels is what kept authorities from figuring out what was going on.   

 I HAVE ONLY WRITTEN PART OF WHAT ALL HE DID AND BELOW ARE LINKS WITH MORE INFO ON HIM  AND I WARN YOU IT IS VERY DISTURBING TO READ  IF YOU WISH TO PROCEED DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK.

http://murderpedia.org/male.F/f/fish-albert.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orJiXNQeScs

Big Foot Sightings in Fayette County ? Or is it a Wildman in Furs or Something Else?

Its a story and rumor which has been passed down for over 100 years in Fayette

County Pa. how a big hairy ape looking creature has been spotted in the woods.

Now there are plenty of theory's as to what it may be  from a Big Foot / Sasquatch  to a Big Black Bear with mange to a Wild Man living in the woods and wearing furs for clothes. To a government experiment accidentally released into the woods .To alien UFO's releasing them from their craft.

What ever it is it sure has plenty of people on there guard when in the woods of Fayettenam as the area is known due to the high crime rate the county has due to high unemployment and drug related activity.

http://www.bigfootencounters.com/articles/fayettecnty.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SHODDak3xk

http://www.stangordon.info/wp/2013/04/23/fayette-county-pa-bigfoot-sighting-reported-march-21-2013/

While some of the sightings can be dismissed as total hog wash and foolishness for some there are lingering questions what did the witnesses really see?

 and why would such a creature choose Fayette County to stomp around?

 

Well one thing for sure would be excellent resources for food with the heavy woods and excellent hiding places because Fayette County is riddled with abandoned coal and  stone mines and quarry's

as well as old abandoned industrial workings. 

and its a very rural and isolated sections would make perfect cover for such a beast if it exists. 

Unlike next door Westmoreland and Allegheny county's which have a much higher population and development

Of course some of the sightings could be the good ole boys just playing pranks on people as well.

But until one of these beasts is captured we will never know for sure and its all speculation if they even exist. 

As far as a bear with bad case of mange very possible you often see packs of wild dogs with it. .
 How ever the wild man theory of some one living in the wild and wearing furs for clothes can not be discounted because the wood are so thick  and it is totally possible. One could be hiding from human contact  and possibly due to severe mental health conditions causing it. Some one could easily live off the land and hide deep in the woods in Fayette County with no problems.

So what ever it is stay tuned and hopefully we will know for sure some day.

Red Stars on Homes in Rural America is it a commie movement or something? No not really

You often see a single red painted star or rusted star on many rural homes in Western Pa. and while it looks alot like the infamous red star of the former USSR the Soviet Union  its far from something anything having to do with Communists .

Its just one of the many symbols from the Pa. Dutch culture for bringing good luck.
A Barn Star

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

While at one time it was a builders trade mark it has become a universal good luck symbol and can be found all over Pa. 

Although it looks a lot like the Communist red star  which was first seen in Russia in 1917

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

The Barn Star or pa. Star as ts some times known has been around long before the communists adopted and perverted it much like the NAZI and there use of the Swasticka 

Many home owners buy and install the red barn stars strictly for decoration and are not even aware its significance. and so it goes .

So no its not the commies invading its for good luck. but dont be surprised if you find some one with commie leanings is using one for its perverted purpose. 

 

 

A Very Strange Case of a Fire in One mobile home being put out when a 2nd fire breaks out in another trailer down the road .

This is one of the strangest fires I have come across in many years.
I have been a Broadcast Engineer for  WAVL 910 AM  since 2000 and when I first started doing work for the station the short road which leads into the station had a half dozen mobile homes located along its left side. Some where well kept while others where not. But one day  in June of 2005 I get a phone call from a neighbor said I may want to get up there as a trailer had caught fire and then after first trailer was put out a 2nd fire started in another trailer and it may have been a power surge.
Worried I might have possible damage at the station transmit site I drive up to Kiski Twp.  and firefighters are wrapping up. I identify my self and they allow me down to the station  I check my meters and yes the station did have a surge the Lightning  alert LED was lighted meaning we took at least 1000 volt charge thru the antenna system. But there was no alert on incoming electric power
Everything seemed OK I reported what I find to the State Fire Marshal  who thanked me for the info
and showed me the damage at the other trailer . Very bizarre it was all blown out around the wall switch like something shorted out yet no one along the road reported there light blinking or power loss to indicate the Air Conditioner in first trailer failing and catching fire and the switch catching fire in the other trailer. While no one was home and no major appliance running .

Original trailer to have fire is to right where fire started in Air Conditioner 

2nd trailer which mysteriously caught fire after first was put out

I never did hear if the State  Fire Marshal got any further with his investigation but it was definitely one of those head scratchers .  How the 2nd trailer caught fire. the first trailer you could clearly see was started around the air conditioner and people where home the 2nd ?  and to start so much later than first if it was a power surge.

A horrific Trolley Accident near Echo Pa. which nearly whipped out 2 families on there way to a picnic unsolved to this day

Yes what a beautiful day it was as passengers  mainly from two families  The Ribblet and  Conner boarded the trolley to Woodland  Park near Ebensberg Pa.  on the Southern Cambria Trolley line  on August 12  of 1916 .

Trolley barn where cars 102 and 104 originated from

Little did they know what was soon to be their last day on earth for 25 of them almost  instantly  when the trolley they where riding on would  go out of control and runaway down a steep cliff at  estimated 40 mph and slam into another trolley coming the other way at 15 mph the equivalent of 55 mph head on collision of wooden trolleys which telescoped them. It is a miracle any one survived.

A big Thank You to Facebook Group
Jackson Township Historical Preservation who provided the  Black & White Images 
.

http://www3.gendisasters.com/pennsylvania/12325/echo-pa-trolley-cars-collide-aug-1916

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19160812&id=HuwbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=S0kEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6761,2787002&hl=en

 A rewritten easier to read newspaper article with more details of the wreck

http://www.camgenpa.com/news/1916UNK.html

What really happened that day in 1916 will never be known to cause the problem as there was n problems reported with the car the day before or during routine maintenance.  But the trolley would runaway and the conductors did all they could to try and stop that run away car from reversing motors to trying to take the conductor rod off the power line  as it came screaming down thru the valley past Echo and Brookdale stops and   passing the trolley barn and to meet its fate near a curve near  Mineral Point

Johnstown residents scramble to get aide to the rural site of accident

When news of the horrific crash came into Johnstown  and Ebensberg residents quickly assembled what cars where available and transported doctors and nurses to the  scene and trolleys where quickly made into make shift ambulances. as where  business owner  trucks  even a close by railroad car   of a passing train  was utilized to get the injured aide

It was a horrifying site mutilated bodies and pieces of trolleys everywhere.  and the screams of the survivors in the middle of no where even today it is still a very rural area  near mineral point where a Dam has been constructed and only way back to where there are some bridge ruins and where the accident happened can be viewed. is via a 2 1/2 mile  gravel foot trail.  according to locals

The run away would have been coming from left hand side you can still see part of the old right of way which is visible

Why there was never a state marker put up over this tragedy is unknown but there should be one I was also surprised a movie was never made on the accident as well.  The line went out of business in 1928 when it could not meet its financial obligation to survivors of the wreck and defaulted on its bonds  and this was not the first wreck on the line there where several due to its very steep daunting  route  which challenged those who rode it.  . But this is not the only tragedy to hit this valley Mineral Point was ripped off the map at one point and 48 of its residents killed as flood waters roared down thru this valley during the Johnstown flood.

and of course all the jobs lost when all the mills shut down almost bringing Johnstown and the valley to its knees.  

For such a tragic accident that happened there is very little to be found on it other than couple old pictures and newspaper accounts and only memory's handed down thru the generations. to survivors family members.  There was a well written article in the Pittsburgh Press Sunday Roto Magazine

in 70's  which I have not been able to locate.
Currently there is a plan to turn the old trolley route into a bike trail as much of the old right of way still exists  and is passable.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=324x1488

Wreck site is located behind this dam