Clyde Lewis revisits the Fat City haunting: a 1975 murder-suicide, a basement he calls the Chamber of Guf, and an EVP that whispered "free me."
At a glance
Guest: Helen Johnson, Christina George, Roger Cluton, Scott, Jonathan (Dr. Stranger)
Topics: 1975 New Cafe murder-suicide · Chamber of Guf · EVP recordings · spirit photography · ghosts versus demons · Dybbuk box folklore
Also discussed: Vivian · Jack · Bob · Raiders of the Lost Ark · The Possession · John Wayne Gacy · Kevin Maness
A Whisper Under the Leaking Pipe
A pipe in the basement of Fat City restaurant dripped into a bucket, the way basement pipes do. Then Christina George, a psychic visiting from Sacramento, asked the dead waitress to give them a sign. According to Scott of Northwest Ghost Recon, the drip turned into a spray. He says his recorder caught two words: "Free me." Or "Release me." The team never settled on which one. Lewis played the clip on air more than once and told listeners to pay attention to what follows the words. He hears a snicker, low and ugly, riding behind the plea.
That recording anchored a Ground Zero rewind hour built around one building in Portland's Multnomah Village. Roger Cluton says the investigation began with a voice on tape: during an earlier session, while he stepped outside for a cigarette, his recorder picked up someone saying "Fat City." He took that as a direction, and the team went.
The Murder Beneath the Dining Room
Helen Johnson bought Fat City twelve years before the broadcast, and she lays out the building's past lives like a family tree: a grocery store in 1915, then Al Calls, then the Cotton Cafe, whose owners died in a car accident, then the New Cafe, run by Art and Frida.
Johnson's account of May 15, 1975 is specific. Vivian, a waitress starting her dinner shift, had ended an affair with a man named Bob, who lived down the street above what is now a shoe store. Johnson says Bob walked in, went behind the counter, and shot Vivian twice, once in each shoulder. She ran for the stairs; a bullet hole still marks the top of them. In the basement he shot her in the face, fired twice more, molested her body, and then shot himself. Frida returned from an errand at six and found both of them at the bottom of the stairs.
Vivian left an eight-year-old daughter. She is buried in Tigard. Her husband Jack later became a morning regular at the diner. When Johnson asked him about the murder, she says he answered, "first of all, the bitch got what she deserved." Near the kitchen hangs a license plate that reads Vivian, beside a table that holds the old news report of her death. Johnson put it there on purpose.
Every Team Found Something
Johnson says three paranormal groups have worked the building: the Strong Women of the Paranormal from Sacramento, Northwest Ghost Recon from Washington, and TAPS. Asked on air what TAPS found, she answered, "Nothing," then corrected herself: "I think they all found things, something."
The something, in her telling, is constant. A dishwasher was shoved in the basement. A garbage can lid spun in the bathroom. Her cook Jose watched a spatula move, a spatula weighted at the handle so it should not balance that way. The account she finds most convincing belongs to a waitress who had worked there fifteen years without an experience, until she lifted her head out of the refrigerator and saw a blonde woman in front of her. The waitress said it was Vivian, and then she was gone.
Lewis claims a photo he took near the stove caught a white mass with a sunken, damaged face, and he points out that Vivian was shot in the face. Cluton says his photo of a head near the stairwell has changed position on his memory card. The violence in Johnson's account runs past her walls: a butcher kitty-corner from the restaurant fell into his saw and decapitated himself. Johnson estimates 90 percent of the village's shop owners believe their buildings hold spirits, and the team heard the same across the street at Renner's Bar and Grill.
A Chamber of Souls Below
Lewis reaches past the standard haunting script for a term from a phone conversation with Kevin Maness: the guff, the treasury of souls from Jewish mysticism where unborn spirits wait. He argues the basement of Fat City has become such a chamber, a Well of Souls like the one in Raiders of the Lost Ark. "It is the most aggressive group of ghosts I've ever seen in my investigation," he says. "It's almost as if they're cramped, they're angry, and they want out."
George claims she felt the crowd on the first night. She says she grabbed a napkin off the counter and started writing, and that a woman who matched Vivian kept asking for help. She also claims something else was down there, a shadow figure with features in its face that reminded her of a grim reaper, holding the other spirits hostage. She says it issued a challenge: "You think you can come in and fix this?" In the basement she grew nauseated and vomited. Lewis treats her sickness as evidence the contact was genuine; the episode offers nothing beyond her account to confirm it.
The team claims an EVP from the building contains the word "Satan," and that the same word in reverse sounds like "spigot," a reversal the show dubs Satan's spigot. Lewis links the basement to the Dybbuk box that surfaced in Portland, the wine cabinet of Jewish folklore said to imprison a dislocated soul.
Ghosts, Demons, and Hard Questions
The phone lines turned the rest of the hour into an argument. A caller named Pat told Lewis, "What they are are demons, okay?" insisting that only calling on Jesus Christ protects anyone. Lewis answered, "They're ghosts, Pat." Justin from Washington claimed sleep paralysis is demonic and curable through the name of Christ. Lewis pushed back: "Just because you're a child of God does not mean you know everything." Pressed on his own faith, he called himself "a child of God that thinks" with "a hardened faith," and said he does not believe in "the romanticized Jesus who stands in a sponge-painted world who looks like Barry Gibb."
Ray argued the Holy Spirit is itself a spirit, so spirits cannot be judged by appearance. A skeptic named Jay demanded proof. Lewis countered: "Hey, Jay, do you love your family? Well, sure. Prove it to me. You can't. Because you have no evidence." Phillip from New Mexico, a former pastor, sided with Lewis against the clichés of shallow belief.
The follow-up plans closed the show. Dr. Burgess claims he recorded sixteen distinct ghost names on a Friday night and ten to fifteen more on Saturday, and he asked what the accumulation of thirty-plus spirits is for: "Are they slaves? Are they weapons that could be used by some of these, by the Masonics or the Jewish mystics or whomever?" He says he has fifty square feet of acacia wood to line a full-scale replica of the Ark of the Covenant, a capacitor meant to draw spirits out of the building, delivered by hearse, with a rabbi for protection. Cora, a caller who says she has worked some 400 investigations, told Lewis the spirits asked her for help and she is ready to go back.
Nobody resolved what the whisper said. The recording stays two syllables buried in pipe noise and something Lewis calls a snicker, and the license plate stays on the wall.
Questions this episode answers
What happened at Fat City restaurant in 1975?
Owner Helen Johnson says a waitress named Vivian was murdered at the New Cafe, the building's former restaurant, on May 15, 1975.
Johnson's on-air account holds that Vivian had ended an affair with a man named Bob, who came into the restaurant during dinner service, walked behind the counter, and shot her twice. She ran for the stairs and he followed, shooting her again before the assault ended in the basement, where he killed himself. Frida, who ran the New Cafe with her husband Art, returned from an errand and found both bodies at the bottom of the stairs.
Johnson says Vivian left an eight-year-old daughter and is buried in Tigard. She also says Vivian's husband Jack, a later regular at the diner, told her "the bitch got what she deserved" when she asked about the killing. A license plate reading Vivian hangs near the kitchen as a memorial, next to a table holding the news report of her death.
What EVP evidence did investigators capture at Fat City?
Scott of Northwest Ghost Recon claims a recorder captured the words "Free me" or "Release me" in the basement after Christina George asked for communication.
Scott says a leaking pipe that had been dripping steadily began spraying into a bucket the moment George asked Vivian for a sign, and the two words appear on the recording that followed. Lewis says he hears an evil snickering after the plea. Roger Cluton claims an earlier recording captured a voice saying "Fat City," which directed the team to the restaurant in the first place, and that a recorder left running in the building picked up the sound of pots and pans banging.
Lewis also argues that another EVP contains the word "Satan," which he says sounds like "spigot" in reverse. None of these recordings were independently verified during the broadcast; they remain the investigators' claims, open to interpretation.
What is the Chamber of Guf?
The Chamber of Guf is a concept from Jewish mysticism, a treasury or well where unborn souls gather, and Lewis argues the Fat City basement has become one.
Lewis says he discussed the idea by phone with Kevin Maness and applies it to the basement because of the trauma that happened there. He compares the space to the Well of Souls from Raiders of the Lost Ark and connects it to the Dybbuk box, the wine cabinet of Jewish folklore said to hold a dislocated soul, which inspired the film The Possession.
Christina George claims the basement holds spirits being kept there by a dark figure she describes as resembling a grim reaper, and Lewis calls the gathering "the most aggressive group of ghosts" he has encountered. These are the participants' characterizations, presented as their experiences on the show.
Are the spirits at Fat City demons or ghosts?
Lewis argues they are ghosts; callers Pat and Justin insisted they are demons that require the name of Jesus Christ to repel.
Pat told Lewis, "What they are are demons, okay?" and he answered, "They're ghosts, Pat." Justin from Washington claimed sleep paralysis is demonic and curable by calling on Christ. Lewis replied, "Just because you're a child of God does not mean you know everything," and described his own position as "a child of God that thinks" with "a hardened faith."
Ray argued the Holy Spirit is itself a spirit, so spirits cannot be judged by appearance. Phillip from New Mexico, a former pastor, agreed with Lewis that reflexive clichés fail to engage the complexity of the subject.
Who is Dr. Stranger and what does he use to talk to ghosts?
Jonathan, called Dr. Stranger on the show, claims he built machines, including a Frank's box boosted with a Van de Graaff generator and a $25 plasma ball, that let him converse with ghosts.
"The exotic materials used were available at Spencer's Gifts," Jonathan says. "I bought a plasma ball for $25." He claims ghosts convert ambient heat energy to manipulate recordings and form images, and that added power sources let them do more. "The difference is that I have built machines that help us do something we couldn't do before," he says, "which is to actually converse with these ghosts."
Lewis frames the method with his own line: "Spirits have the power to reach out to us. Because they don't have mouths." Jonathan also claims he investigated John Wayne Gacy's suits and captured a photo of Gacy's clown face.
What is planned for the next Fat City investigation?
Dr. Burgess says he will build a full-scale replica of the Ark of the Covenant as a capacitor to draw spirits out of the basement.
Burgess claims he recorded sixteen distinct ghost names on a Friday night and ten to fifteen more on Saturday, at least thirty spirits in total, and he asks whether they are "slaves" or "weapons" for mystics. He says he has fifty square feet of acacia wood, the material specified in the Old Testament account, to line the box.
The plan, as described on air, involves delivering the Ark by hearse and bringing in a rabbi for protection. Lewis capped the segment by quoting Raiders of the Lost Ark: "Don't look at it, Marion!" The investigation's photos and EVPs are collected in the Kindle book Dr. Stranger and Friends Talk to Ghosts.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Fat City restaurant?
Fat City is a diner in Multnomah Village, a small commercial pocket of Portland, Oregon. Owner Helen Johnson says the building was a grocery store in 1915 and later operated as Al Calls, the Cotton Cafe, and the New Cafe before becoming Fat City, and that it had run as a restaurant for 37 years at the time of the broadcast.
What is a Dybbuk box?
A Dybbuk box is a wine cabinet that, according to Jewish folklore, contains a dibbuk, a dislocated soul said to possess the living. A box associated with Portland became the basis for the 2012 film The Possession. Lewis mentions the artifact while arguing that the Fat City basement may hold trapped spirits.
Has the Fat City paranormal evidence been verified?
No. The EVP recordings, photographs, and psychic impressions discussed on the episode are claims made by the investigators and the restaurant's owner, and none were independently verified on air. The account of the 1975 murder-suicide comes from the owner's retelling of the building's history, and Lewis himself presents the recordings as open to interpretation.
What is Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis?
Ground Zero is a long-running paranormal and conspiracy talk radio program hosted by Clyde Lewis, with a body of work stretching back more than three decades. This episode is a rewind edition revisiting the show's on-location investigation of Fat City restaurant.
Who's on this episode
- Helen Johnson, owner of Fat City
- Christina George, psychic, Strong Women of the Paranormal
- Roger Cluton, investigator, Northwest Ghost Recon
- Scott, investigator, Northwest Ghost Recon
- Jonathan (Dr. Stranger), investigator and device builder
Callers: Justin from Washington, Ray, Phillip from New Mexico, Cora, Chris Reeves.
