Finding Redd Foxx

Paranormal investigators seek evidence of spirits in star's former home

F. ANDREW TAYLOR/VIEW Ghost Hunters Busters, from left, Dan Webb, Nick Mowery, Andrew Trujillo and Justin Connell, collect data in search of evidence of paranormal activity inside Redd Foxx?s former home. F. ANDREW TAYLOR/VIEW Ghost Hunters Busters used a variety of equipment to search for Redd Foxx/s ghost. F. ANDREW TAYLOR/VIEW Ghost Hunters Busters, from left, Dan Webb, Andrew Trujillo, Nick Mowery and Justin Connell, stand in the light of a laser grid scope they used to search for paranormal activity in Redd Foxx?s former Eastern Avenue home, which is now a real estate office decorated for Halloween. The scope creates a curtain of light beams that could be interrupted to reveal an apparition passing through the room. Redd Foxx Advertisement

Comedian Redd Foxx was a big name in Las Vegas and on TV. He died in Los Angeles in 1991, but there are those who say his spirit still haunts his Eastern Avenue home.

The four men who make up the Ghost Hunters Busters set out to determine if Foxx was still lurking about on the evening of Oct. 13. They roamed Foxx's former house waving around an assortment of meters, audio recorders and specialty cameras.

"I'm getting a three on this right now," said Nick Mowery, indicating a handheld meter about the size of a pack of cigarettes. "Some ghost hunters would be making a big deal out of it, but I'm guessing it's probably coming off of that light there."

Mowery and his fellow Ghost Hunters Busters work together on their day jobs, and around eight months ago, it occurred to them that they had a mutual interest in the paranormal.

"We all realized we were watching the same shows, the ghost hunting shows," Mowery said. "We already had a lot of the equipment, so we had the idea to form our own group."

Since April the group has investigated many of the area's paranormal hot spots, including the Amargosa Opera House at Death Valley Junction, the Boulder City Hotel and the Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings.

"Clark Gable waited there for two days while they were searching for his wife," Mowery said. "She's just one of the ghosts that are supposed to be there."

Gable's wife, actress Carole Lombard, died in a plane crash on nearby Mount Potosi during World War II.

Any discussion of haunted houses in Las Vegas invariably leads to Foxx.

Foxx portrayed the lovable curmudgeon Fred Sanford for six seasons on the hit sitcom "Sanford and Son." On stage he was known as one of the raunchiest stand-ups of his time.

Near the end of Foxx's life, bad money management, three divorces and an exuberant lifestyle had left him bankrupt. In 1989 the IRS seized his Las Vegas home and decades of memorabilia, including photos of Foxx with celebrity friends.

Despite these difficulties, things seemed to be turning around for Foxx before he died on the set of his new sitcom, "The Royal Family." At first the cast and crew thought he was doing one of his classic routines, a fake heart attack. It wasn't fake.

Since he was evicted, his former home has changed hands three times.

"First an Elvis impersonator lived here," said current owner Shannon Day, who runs her real estate business from the building. "Then there was an air conditioning company here before I came in."

Elvis impersonator Jesse Garon said that when he lived in the house, light switches would mysteriously switch on or off, and doors would slam in the night. He also said he and his uncle watched a sliding door open by itself.

"I never believed that stuff before," Garon said. "We ended up putting it back on the market six months after we moved in."

The staff of the air conditioning company claimed the blinds would move by themselves. They, too, said the sliding door would move and replaced it with a hinged door. Until a deadbolt was installed, they said it would periodically swing open by itself. Nothing nearly that dramatic happened during the Ghost Hunters Busters investigation.

"We're skeptics; that's why we call ourselves Ghost Hunters Busters," Mowery said. "If we hear a scratching sound, we don't run around screaming and saying it's paranormal."

Although they don't believe in every bump in the night, they clearly believe in some of them. Two months ago the Ghost Hunters Busters began posting videos of their investigations on their website, tboystudio.com.

"You've really got to check out our third episode," Mowery said. "We got some great EMF (electromagnetic field) action."

The video shows the Ghost Hunters Busters asking questions of a spirit named Margurie in a private home at an undisclosed location in Henderson. As they ask questions, their EMF meter flashes and beeps, seemingly in response.

At Foxx's former home, the group members called out questions, shot lots of video and recorded hours of audio. They also broke out an MP3 player to play the theme song from "Sanford and Son," figuring either Foxx would get sick of the song so that it would anger him or he would be so delighted to hear it again that it would amuse him.

Day has made improvements to the home, which fell into disrepair before she bought it. She gets quite a few requests to investigate the place, but she's very particular about whom she let's in. It is, after all, her place of business.

The Ghost Hunters Busters impressed her as having a professional attitude, and she was comfortable letting them spend much of a night there.

She admits she has seen a few odd, unexplained things there but isn't so quick to ascribe them to the paranormal.

"If something ends up in a place you don't remember putting it, it seems more likely it's just a moment of absentmindedness," Day said. "One day I was typing and suddenly all the text on the monitor turned red. I probably just hit the wrong button."

Contact Sunrise and Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 380-4532.