Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum

Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum is located in downtown Las Vegas. Zak Bagans is known for his tv show, Ghost Adventures and he has collected haunted objects over the years. The actual building itself, before it became a haunted museum, is haunted. It used to be the building for the Nevada State Bar. People working there would have paranormal experiences and a woman would even salt her office to keep the spirits at bay. I loved Bridget Marquardt’s podcast on the Haunted Museum. She interviews one of the tours guides at the museum and it’s an interesting listen!

I really under estimated the magnitude of all the rooms and artifacts. This tour is extensive and it’s hard to take in the majority of things on display. I would love to go back, now knowing a little more of what they have at the museum and to see the new developments.

The doll room where you go to check in is the only room in the museum you can take photos. This is also where you would go to the restroom. Once start the tour, you can’t stop for any breaks.

The tours are an hour and a half. I was told by one of the staff members if you show at 8:00PM in line, you will be guaranteed a tour. I went in mid July, waited in line at 7:45PM, and the entire process of waiting in line and being checked in took an hour. I was very happy with the wait and check in time because some Yelp/TripAdvisor reviewers said they had to wait at least 2 hours.

The Two Creepiest Rooms

Pictured: Lee Sober Shapiro

The creepiest rooms (for me) were Lee Sober Shapiro and Ed Gein’s Cauldron.

Lee Sober Shapiro was (allegedly) a paranormal investigator and (supposedly) died from hearing demons from a spirit box. A whole room is dedicated to this woman. She was deteriorating as she was hearing the demons from the spirit box, she took Polaroid photos of herself as this was happening, and died. The photos of her deteriorating is very disturbing.

I found this blog entry from Lee’s “grandchild” however, she doesn’t provide any useful information and doesn’t seem to have the verbiage of a 17 year old.

Other than the blog entry, I can’t find anything on Lee Sober Shapiro except for a grave, news article, obituary, and a thread on Reddit so I am bit skeptical of this story. Despite the lack of information I am able to find out about this woman or her background, her room still takes the cake for being the creepiest room. If anyone has any information about this woman, please let me know because I would really love to research this more.

For more information about my investigation of Lee Sober Shapiro, click here.

The museum is pretty theatrical in certain rooms and especially where they keep Ed Gein’s cauldron. This man made a woman’s skin suit after his mother passed. In the room, there was a two headed animal along with the floor boards, and farm house feel, no thank you! This was a room that I was so happy to get out of.

The Un-Creepiest Thing

[Photo taken from The Atlantic]

Un-creepiest thing: Jack Kevorkian’s Assisted Suicide Bus. Jack was a doctor who assisted hundreds of terminally ill people with assisted suicide. – horrible circumstances but these ill people chose to die they way they decided. They also had control of the chemicals that resulted in their death.

“My aim in helping the patient was not to cause death. My aim was to end suffering. It’s got to be decriminalized.”– Jack Kevorkian

Ethics plays a huge role in this and I can’t say whether or not he was ethical as I don’t know to what extent he recommended his patients a “way out” (for lack of a better term). However, I didn’t find this room “creepy” but potentially humane.

For the people who love True Crime: they also display some non paranormal, murder related items and have “murderer” themed rooms. Example of this is they have a photo of Chris Farley’s dead body, Ted Bundy’s glasses from when he abducted a little girl, Sharon Tate’s wedding dress, items from a murderer who would torture and kill men along with his journal describing what he would do to his victims.

Most Known Items at the Museum

[Photo from Peggy The Doll Facebook page]

Peggy the Doll – Peggy is supposed to be a demon possessed doll. There is a spirit box by Peggy playing throughout the day in case she was to communicate. I tried to ask Peggy questions. It broke up with batches of silence from the spirit box but I couldn’t take any clear answers.
Bela Lugosi’s Mirror: Bela Lugosi used this mirror for scying and the mirror is thought to be a portal for the super natural. This mirror witnessed a murder and supposedly, things from the other side will appear. I was very surprised at how normal this mirror is. It looks no different than a bathroom mirror. There is another huge mirror with Egyptian design in the same room (I am not sure of the haunting significance). I mean, if I was going to be doing some magic with a mirror, I would pick a over the top, dramatic mirror. My tour guide said a woman fainted a few weeks ago just from looking at it. It’s creepy how the most ordinary things could be the creepiest. Kenny Biddle from the Skeptical Inquirer went researching to fact check the mirror and couldn’t verify the information given. In this article, Kenny shared correspondence with the family who did not acknowledge anything about Lugosi being interested in the occult or a mirror. While it doesn’t mean it’s not true. I always believe in fact checking and see what is verifiable.
Dybbuk Box is in an isolated room and supposed to be the most haunted thing. Post Malone had a paranormal experience with it and has had bad luck ever since (as told by my tour guide). I didn’t have any creepy experiences in this room.
Demon House This is the only room with a crucifix above the door frame. Zak took the dirt and staircase from the original house.
Devil’s Rocking Chair – Zak bought this chair from Carl Glatzel Jr. before Lorraine Warren died. (The Warrens never had possession of the chair as mentioned by Tony Spera, their son-in-law.)

[Photo from TMZ]

The audio they play when showing you the chair is disturbing. You hear a demon laughing as the mother is yelling at the demon to get out of her son. Zak even closed down the exhibit in June 2019 because of a guest fainting and the tour guides crying uncontrollably. From what I have researched, this is the most legit piece they had due to the documentation of this case, the audio recording, and public information available. (For reference “Trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson”, also read “The Devil in Connecticut” by Gerald Brittle)