Credible Paranormal Investigations
The Old Red Courthouse
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 When Ardis Stembridge and Rick Castelano completed their very first investigation under the auspices
of Credible Paranormal at the Lawrence hotel, they were saying their goodbye's to an inebriated Carl, founder of
the DFW Ghost Hunters, outside the main entrance of the building. Ardis's eyes fell on the Old Red Courthouse that
sat a block away adjacent an empty lot. He didn't know much about it, but knew that it was well over a hundred
years old and played an important role in North Texas history. He asked Carl if he knew anything about the place or if he
had ever investigated it. "I dunno" was all Carl offered. It seemed to Ardis that any paranormal
investigator would love to spend a few hours in a place as old and as beautiful as the Courthouse which, once abandoned, had
recently been refurbished and turned into a museum of local history. "Well, I'm going to investigate that building
someday" Ardis proclaimed. Five Months and eighteen days later, Credible Paranormal became the first paranormal
investigative team to investigate the Old Red Courthouse.
Reports Of Activity: Through our research, we found many claims of the Courthouse being haunted, but none were specific. The museum staff stated the same thing - that visitors to the museum often cited second-hand stories about a friend of a friend claiming to have a paranormal experience in the building, but no employees had ever encountered anything. Fact and Myth: A common belief around Dallas is that quite a few executions had taken place in this building. In reality, all hangings took place at a nearby location that has since been developed. However, there was at least one tragic event that took place in this building. During the early 1900's, a young black man had been caught raping a toddler and was held in the courthouse while awaiting trial. An angry mob overpowered a police barricade, stormed the building and threw the man out of the thrid floor window. He survived the fall, but the angry crowd drug the man down the street and lynched him from an arch over a city street. Other tragedies include the shooting death of a former Dallas Mayor and the death of a contruction worker who died of a heat stroke while rennovating the place. But the most famous death associated with the location was the assasination of President John F. Kennedy who was allegedly killed by lone-gunman Lee H. Oswald just behind the courthouse. Jack Ruby, the nightclub owner who killed Oswald, later stood trial at this location.    Investigators Involved:
Findings: The only odd thing that we discovered during this investigation was that several media rooms, which were motion activated and required someone to physically enter into them to activate informative documentaries for the museum guests, were activating while no one was in them. They even seemed to activate upon request at times. The museum security staff noted that they walk passed these media rooms every night and they have never activated by simply being in the area. We could never adequately explain this occurrence.    Despite not finding anything paranormal, we had a great time. We especially enjoyed
crawling around the attic of the old courthouse while being led by a very pregnant museum staffer who had absolutely no problem
climbing through, up, and over hundreds of plumbing pipes that criss-crossed the attic. She eventually led us to one
of the turretts where we found names scratched into the plaster walls of the turrets, some dating back to 1913. However,
one name really stood out....
 Lee Harvey's name found scratched in the wall of a turrett on the opposite side of the grassy knoll?
Perhaps he wasn't the lone gunman...
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