Sunday evening, June 24, 1973 Reverend William Lawson had finished his sermon at the Upstairs Lounge (above the Jimani) and was socializing with his mostly gay congregation.  Services were held here in the bar each Sunday because the church lacked the funds for a building of its own.  Down at the street level someone opened the door to the narrow passage leading to the lounge, lit a Molotov cocktail and threw it onto the stairs, then shut the door and pad-locked it.  

The passage was quickly engulfed in flames, but it was contained because the bottom door was locked and the door to the room at the top of the stairs was shut.  Then someone opened the door at the top of the stairs.  The oxygen starved fire tore through the room, igniting everything in its path.  29 people would die in the next 16 minutes.  

20 people escaped through the back and along some roof tops, but most of the patrons were trapped.  Many died instantly in the initial flash fire, but some tried escaping through the windows.  They were barred.  Reverend Lawson was one of the victims trapped half in and out of the blazing building, lodged between the bars of a window.  Horrified onlookers watched as he died.

October 2001 Kalila Smith and I are having drinks at Pirates Alley Cafe in the French Quarter.  She tells me that the owner of the Jimani Lounge has called and asked that she investigate the building. She wants me to go along, so we call Ronnie and make an appointment to check things out October 27.  

That night after 11 Kalila, Jeff and I head to the Jimani.  Ronnie has the keys to the upstairs passage, but makes one thing very clear.  He will not go up the stairs.  Ronnie is a big guy, and he looks like he can hold his own with just about anything, but he is obviously afraid of the stairwell.  

The minute he opens the passage you can feel it, that feeling that something is very very wrong here.  The three of us go in, Ronnie waits on the sidewalk.  I start snapping photos with my digital and I get phenomena almost immediately.  Kalila starts to channel, and she is very uncomfortable.  She can hear the screams of the victims and she can feel the fire.  I have to admit, I felt warm myself.  Several times I smelled an acrid, smoky scent that gave me chills.

When I edit my photos I am excited by the results, so we call Ronnie and go back the next night.  This time its me, Kalila, Jeff, Johnny, Debe and Rudy.  Jeff shoots video in infra-red, so does Debe and I take more photos with my digital.  Once again we get a lot of phenomena.  Jeff and Debe getting lots of orbs on the video cameras.

In December a friend of mine, Melanie Foshe comes to visit from Los Angeles.  She is a cast member from the USS Hornet episode of FEAR, and also a very gifted medium.  Two other friends also fly in, James and Cynthia.  Of course the first thing I arrange is a trip to the Jimani.  

It hits Melanie on the sidewalk in front of the building.  She starts crying, she can hear the screams.  We wait outside for awhile to let her calm, then proceed to the passage.   I am shooting video in infra-red and Jeff is using the digital camera.  

I get phenomena immediately and so does Jeff.  Melanie starts to channel and the spirits are trying to flee so her legs are moving rapidly.  She has to sit on the stairs to keep from falling.  James has his own methods of communicating with the dead, so he heads to the top of the stairs and hangs out.  Cynthia is there to back us all up, so she hangs on the landing where she can see everyone.  I am in the middle, so I can tape the hotspots (so to speak) and Melanie.

Melanie is channeling like a big dog, and the ghosts are trying to speak through her,  she keeps repeating Keri, keri care care Karon Carol, she cant understand what the ghost is trying to say.  She heads to the top of the stairs, and this continues.  I am now on the landing.

My right hand is holding the video camera up and my left is down.  I can feel heat on my left hand, it starts to intensify and its almost unbearable.  My throat constricts and its hard for me to breathe.  All this time I am getting orbs streaking all over the place on video.  

Finally Melanie can take no more so we leave.  

This is an ongoing investigation.  I will go back, and I will update this accordingly. 

~Kriss

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