Bad juju stuff.

General General Discussion
1

Greg’s thread on having his stolen Wilson returned kind of had a small side drift that got me to thinking about the whole “bad juju” thing.

What are some of the places and things that have given, at the individual level, a generally bad vibe. I.E; the bad juju.

For me, Things:

Anything Nazi marked. Especially guns. won’t shoot, handle or even let them in my house. Couldn’t pay me to take one. Epitome of bad juju in my world. judge me as you see fit.

Places:

Montezumas Castle in Las Vegas, NM. Can’t explain why, but one of the few places that when I was in there the feeling of dread was overwhelming to the point of having a hard time breathing. Could not get out fast enough. Again, not sure of the “why”, but will never set foot in that place again if I can help it.

Anyone else care to share?

2

The only legitimate “bad juju” moment was when I was at a hotel in Jefferson City overnight. Late at night I woke up to the lever rattling on the door. The next morning room service discovered a human corpse in one of the rooms. Whether it was a Murder or death by natural causes I don’t know nor do I care. Needless to say I have never been back to that particular hotel.

3

Like I said in Greg’s thread, the Lorraine Motel give me bad vibes.

4

I understand why some folks won’t touch third reich stuff. But I have a shit ton. My collection got started with all the things my grandfather brought back from the war. Since then I have collected all things world war II from uniforms, field gear, daggers and firearms from all the primary participants.

I don’t think an inanimate object has an anima. I get why some want nothing to do with anything associated with WWII Germany, but I think if your grandfather was part of the Bataan death march you probably wouldn’t want too many Japanese things in your home, let alone a bunch of Arisaka rifles or rising sun flags.

There are some things I won’t collect. Guys who get gaga over black soap, lampshades and other things are not my crowd. It’s not that I think these objects have negative energy, I’m just not interested in anything fabricated from humans. I can’t even really have taxidermy in my house, just not my thing.

A friend of mine back in the 80s pulled guard duty at one of those camps, can’t remember which and he swore it was the most haunted place he had ever been. Not that things were moving around or anything like that, but more he never felt like he was alone even when he was alone. Now that could have just been a matter of he knew what happened there so felt like it was haunted or maybe it was something else. Wasn’t there, so I can’t say for sure.

The only serious bad juju thing for me are people who do drugs. Can’t be around them, don’t want to know them.

5

When I was a teenager I had what might be characterized as a genuine encounter with a demonic entity.

Since then I’ve sort of been “gifted” with being able to pick up vibes. I can tell whether a small building, house, office, etc., is haunted just by walking into it.

As I stated in the other thread, I bought a Pennsylvania State Police Colt 6520 off GunsAmerica. It turns out you can Google the serial number and the state police’s inventory comes up listing where your serial number was assigned. Mine was assigned to Belle Vernon, Troop B.

I used to work in law enforcement. I’m also a student of history, so any “genuine artifact” is always of interest to me. I actually sacrificed my Vietnam Tiger Stripe camo Colt 6920 to get the PA state police rifle. The 6520 is about as special a rifle can be to me not only for its history but because it’s pretty close in configuration to the very first AR I ever owned in 1992.

The funny thing is, I get a weird vibe off it. This is actually the first time I ever can recall getting a “vibe” from an inanimate object, and I’ve been in many, many haunted locations over the years.

Being that the gun was assigned to some small precinct in a rural area, it’s probably not likely it was ever used to take a life, but who knows?

I’m sure the history associated with it is putting a bias in my head, but still–there’s that weird vibe. It’s almost a creepy, but respectful feeling, like you picked up a bloody sword and knew it had been used to kill a very evil person or something. Handling it feels like it’s got some “foreboding”, “disquiet”, “apprehension”, or premonition of something bad attached to it.

Even though I’ve had many genuine paranormal encounters over the years, this is the one time I think it might be my imagination. My reverence for it having been a police weapon and my interest in history is doing something psychologically to me.

But it just creeps me out that my favorite rifle feels like I’m holding an object infused with some kind of trepidation every time I handle it.

6

My girlfriend and I paid $30 to take the Amador Hotel ghost tour in Las Cruces, New Mexico back in 2013. I felt an evil presence in that place, and several nights later felt the same evil presence in my house. I rebuked it in the name of Jesus and told it that it hadn’t been invited to follow me home. I have had a couple of other creepy feelings since then but nothing spectacular. My girlfriend said that a radio came on by itself in an unoccupied room.

7

Tell us again about the army dress uniform coat with the engagement ring still in the pocket. That would have given me such heebie jeebies I think I’d have given up the hobby right then and there.

8

Doc,
I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the current state of the Lorraine motel, but it’s not a motel anymore, it’s a civil right museum. They preserved the area where MLK, Jr.'s room was and the balcony. Of course, the warehouse where J.E. Ray shot from is also still there, barely 50 yds or so away. An easy shot with a scoped rifle.

Anyway, the bad vibe came to me as we were walking around the exterior in the courtyard between the two buildings.

9

I believe you. I’ve been in the courthouse in Lincoln, New Mexico where Billy the Kid escaped and killed two deputies on his way out. Didn’t get even a hint of a creepy feeling. But we took a road trip to Tombstone Arizona one time. It’s got a lot of haunted places and the creepiest feeling I got was in the Rose Tree Museum. Something DID NOT LIKE US being there. My girlfriend’s daughter noticed it too.

So, yeah, if I ever get the chance I’d visit that museum just to see what I could pick up.

10

I work in the welding supply industry. Working with compressed gases, and the like. I see Nazi cylinders, typically from Linde, almost daily. When the allies captured them, they turned the swastika into what looks like a window, for example;
2019-03-26_02-05-10 by Willis, on Flickr

I am still amazed at how many of these are still in circulation. Can’t help but think they were used for much worse than just oxy fuel cutting and so-on.

11

Around 2006 or 2007, I bought some AK mags and a surplus type 56 chest rig from ebay(back when they didn’t care about gun parts). The chest rig smelled like death, and had what appeared to be blood stains on it. I wasn’t really creeped out by it or anything, I just wasn’t interested in trying to salvage it, so I tossed it in the garbage.

I put the garbage can out by the road the night before garbage pickup, which I’ve always done, and the next morning when I went out to leave for work, I found the garbage can tipped over with the sack ripped open and garbage all over the front yard. I don’t know if it was coyotes or a neighbors dog that did it, but whatever it was took the chest rig with them. That was the first time anything had knocked our garbage can over in 3-4 years of living there, and it’s never happened since. I try not to read too much into things like this, but it’s always stuck with me.

12

That is interesting as hell, learn something new everyday.

I can not rationalize why the Nazi stuff gets under my skin so bad. My logical brain says it’s dumb. The rest of me just can’t get to the same place.

13

My dad worked at White Sands Missile Range. One time I got to see some old V2 rocket frames that someone had pulled out of the desert. They still had the Nazi swastikas stamped into the frame joints.

14

Wasn’t anything really scary.

When I was a kid growing up I interested in anything WWII because of stories my grandfather told me. Again, uniforms, decorations or field gear…it was all fascinating to me. But I always treated it like kids who collect coins or baseball cards.

My grandparents also put out the word to their circle of friends that I was always looking for such things and as a result I usually got a “box of stuff” from someone who had no heirs and thought “at least I would take care of it and appreciate it.”

Now even at 12 years old I knew in the back of my mind that a lot of this stuff belonged to someone no longer with us who was either killed in the war or died after the fact and nobody was willing to throw out his uniform and medals.

But even with that basic realization nothing really hit home until years later when I was going through a pretty cool Ike jacket and found what was either an engagement or wedding ring. In either case the widow put her ring in her husbands pocket and then probably forgot it was ever there when she gave me the uniform sometime in the early 80s.

It was many years later when I was reorganizing everything and happened to check pockets and that ring dropped out and I realized just how personal some of this stuff was.

15

Dang. That story gives me chills.

That GI may have lied wounded in a foxhole, or some shithole hospital somewhere, and died wondering how he was going to get back to her. Or he bought it instantly from an exploding shell or something and never knew what hit him.

He more than likely never had a chance to write to her and tell her to prepare herself for his demise.

That poor woman’s hopes and dreams for the rest of her life probably died with a visit from two military guys, or a letter, or telegram, or whatever. She probably cried for weeks and finally out of grief put the engagement ring in that pocket in an effort to “keep the two together.” She may have remained broken-hearted and single forever, or she may have married someone whom she loved but who never quite lived up to the one she “lost in the war.”

She lived an entire life after that incident, and that expensive ring that some GI scrimped and saved for, or finagled from someone he knew just became a forgotten gesture.

Bad juju for sure.

16

We should probably keep in mind that for almost 10 years everything in Germany was nazi and the postal inspector probably had a swastika on his uniform somewhere. I understand what that stuff represents, but not everyone worked in a death camp and not every firearm killed somebody.

Then there are trophies, what if your uncle or some other relative fought in the war and captured a Luger. Would that still bother you? I knew a guy who was jewish and had flags his grandfathered captured in his firearms room.

Along those lines, when European jews in Palestine fought to create Israel, one of the primary rifles used were German K-98s complete with waffenampts. This is why I can’t assign a presence to objects, is that rifle evil for helping the Germans fight their war of oppression or is the rifle good because it helped those who were being oppressed fight for their independence?

To me it’s just a rifle with lots of history.

I understand association, for example I wouldn’t want to own anything used by a serial killer, but here I don’t think the object has any “juju” I just don’t want anything to do with that stuff. I wouldn’t want to own artwork by Manson for example.

17

Another story.

My dad was 74, a healthy old geezer and in pretty good shape, but was getting old enough that he didn’t have the hand strength to cycle the action on a semi auto pistol anymore. I suggested one of my .357 magnum Ruger Security Six revolvers because he could shoot it single action and he did have the hand strength for that.

I basically gave it to him since he had given me a Glock he didn’t like.

We took it out and shot a couple of cylinder fulls through it. He was overjoyed. He immediately went home, set up his reloading bench, and started cranking out .357 and .38 shells for the next range trip.

Twenty-four hours later he took to his death bed with cancer and he was gone two months later.

18

Years ago someone who claimed to have been in the IDF showed me some photos of old beat up German Panzer IV’s the Arabs had been using. Most were destroyed but he claimed they captured some. I don’t remember which war it was but I found it ironic that the modern enemies of Israel were still trying to kill them with Nazi equipment.

19

Might have went like that, but unlikely as his uniform was perfect.

He either died before he could get back to her and she simply kept the ring with his other effects or when he died after the war she put the ring in the box with his uniform and medals.

The ring was rather simple so hard to say if it was an engagement or wedding ring.

When I found the ring many years later I wondered if I should try and return it to her but I didn’t know if it would provide comfort in her later years or simply open old wounds that she had put behind her.

20

Honestly I think you did the right thing. My mom had to go to assisted living due to dementia, and I learned she was probably happier not “remembering” too much about her old life. I began to cut my visits short, because if I stayed too long the memories that she was someplace other than her home would come drifting back and she would become depressed. I stayed away for almost a full week and next time I visited her she was under the impression that she had been in the assisted living facility for several years instead of just a few weeks. She didn’t ask when she’s going home or become depressed. She had forgotten most of it or assumed it was long in the past. I had to admit my presence was causing her to be unhappy because it made her realize her plight, so I started only visiting once a week or so and not staying too long. She seemed a lot happier that way.