BECKLEY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – The City of Beckley is well known for a number of things..the Exhibition Coal Mine, championship sports teams, nearby state and national parks, and Tamarack. Now Beckley will become known for some of its more quiet and shadowy citizens… the resident ghosts who dwell amongst us.
The TV series “Kindred Spirits,” which investigates paranormal activity in homes and other locations around the world filmed, an episode in Beckley in November. The episode will air as the seventh season finale on Friday, March 24 at 9 pm on the Travel Chanel, and streams on Discovery Plus.
The producers of the series contacted Scott Worley in March of 2022. Worley runs “Haunted Beckley,” and gives ghost tours of the local area, and also conducts ghost hunts in buildings that are supposedly haunted. Although Worley has been conducting his haunted enterprises since 2010, he says he has no idea how the producers had heard of him and his paranormal work, and he was flabbergasted by the call.
“They wanted me to select three locations in Beckley for their series,” Worley explained. “Then they would narrow it down to one. I had to write about the history of each location, what made each one haunted, and what ‘spirits’ had been seen there. There were teleconferences and ZOOM meetings, and a lot of information passed back and forth between Boston, where the producer was, and Beckley,” he said.
The program finally selected Beckley’s Historic Black Knight as the location for their shoot. The main reason for this choice was the 1947 murder of socialite Nelle Rand and her paramour E. Ray Bailey. Shot to death while having a clandestine rendezvous in his car on an access road behind Black Knight, their bodies were then moved from Mr. Bai!ey’s car to Old Penman Road near the modern-day Raleigh County Memorial Airport. The bodies were found the next morning. Mrs Rand was married to Dr. K.K. Rand, and Bailey was also married, so the murders created quite a scandal in Beckley, dominating the headlines, and although there was an exhaustive investigation, to this day, the murders remain unsolved.
Worley says Nelle Rand‘s ghost has been seen at Black Knight, both in the building and on the access road. “She is always wearing the blue dress she was wearing the night she was murdered,” he added.
There are other spirits haunting the halls and rooms of Historic Black Knight, but Worley says he is not going to give away all of the nearly 100-year-old building’s secrets. “There are fascinating stories at Black Knight. You can see more of them on Kindred Spirits or come for the next paranormal investigation,” he said.
The production team, including hosts Amy Bruni, Adam Berry, and psychic Chip Coffey, came to Beckley the second week of November in 2022. They spent four days filming with Worley, and although he cannot divulge what the investigators saw, he says, “they were not disappointed.”
There will be a special viewing party of the “Country Club Murders” episode of “Kindred Spirits” the night it premieres, Friday, March 24th. The event is scheduled for 6 pm at Beckley’s Historic Black Knight’s Main Ballroom. For those who want to enjoy hors d’uerves and a cash bar before the viewing, a $10 VIP ticket is available. The ticket also includes a Q and A with Worley, and a tour of the facility, highlighting the areas investigated during the program. The episode itself can be viewed for free beginning at 7 pm, also in the main ballroom.
To buy tickets to the event, contact Beckley’s Historic Black Knight at (304) 253-7321.
