During the GhoSt Augustine Haunted Pub tour of Tuesday, July 28th, 2010, we visited 2 haunted pub/restaurants and two haunted pubs. The third stop of the night, the first pub visit was to McLean’s English Pub. McLean’s boasts two super natural entities, which are considered by most to be completely separate from one another. The first, the “Lady in Red” was discussed as being a cinematic ghost. The second was Roy, a previous pub proprietor. During the discussions of the evening, we had placed two EMF detectors on a table top as an observation point. As our guide, Ty was telling the tales of the lady in red and of Roy, the meters would occasionally go off. Later in the evening, Ty remarked that Roy must have left because the meter activity had stopped. I remarked, in jest, that Roy was off hitting on the lady in Red. At that moment, both meters started massive readings for quite some time. Roy must have really enjoyed the joke!

My name is Ty, and I’m one of the GhoSt Augustine haunted pub tour guides. One of my pub stops is an establishment which has had a history of many residents over a span of 150 years. The spirit is particularly interesting because it interacts often with the pub owner, who lives upstairs . Without going into much detail here — you’ll need to attend the tour for the full story! — I will say that the spirit is a mischievous poltergeist whose identity remains unknown . During my tour I relate various documented activities and anecdotes regarding this particular haunt. Based on these occurrences , I always venture a guess that the spirit is that of a young boy. The following event might shed some light on this mystery.

One evening I was waiting outside the establishment for my group to reconvene before heading to the next stop. A woman in my group approached me, claiming t hat she had psychic ability. Her talent was corroborated by her husband and friend who accompanied her. She surprised me by saying, “Ty, I need to correct you on one important point in your story. T he spirit is not a boy.” In response to my puzzled expression, s he continued . “She is a girl, and was eleven years old when she died. She complains that someone braids her hair much too tightly.” The psychic explained that the girl would prefer to wear her hair down, but the adult won’t pay her any mind.

I pressed her to help me understand her ps ychic gift. “It’s not necessarily a gift,” she told me. “I’ve been able to see into the spirit world for as long as I can remember. Believe me, some things you just don’t want to know.” She hesitated briefly. “By the way, did you know the strap in the back of your vest is undone?” She tied the strap around its buckle. Since then, neither spirit nor dry cleaner has loosened it.

A few years ago I was hanging out with my friend walking around downtown St. Augustine. She knew I worked for GhoSt Augustine and asked me to take her to a haunted spot that was included on one of our tours. We just happened to be near Harry’s Seafood Bar & Grille, a normal stop on the Haunted Pub Tour, so I brought her inside. She follwed me up the stair case to the second floor asking, “Where the heck are we going!?”
“Almost there”, I said as we walked down an ‘L’ shaped hallway before I pushed open the paint peeling door to the ladies restroom. “Oh, you have to go the restroom,” she said chuckling. I responded, “Actually, I don’t.” She looked confused.
I continued, “this is where Katalina’s bedroom was hundreds of years ago before the building became many other things, like Harry’s.” I continued telling her the tragic story of Katalina and watched as her eyes widened in excitement. She started calling Katalina tauntingly. We sat down on the wicker love seat waiting for something to happen. After about 10 minutes, I myself, was feeling very impatient and yelled out, “Katalina’s just afraid to meet new people! Forget this girl!” My friend joined in, “Yeah, what a coward!”
I added, “What a pathetic excuse for a haunting!” as we laughed ourselves out of the bathroom and on to other activities for the evening.

Quite a bit of time had passed from that night and since I had gone on the Haunted Pub Tour. One night, on a spur of the moment, I decided to go on the tour with an old boyfriend for some fun. We stopped at Harry’s and went up to the second floor where the tour guide went over the history to the group, including the tragedy of Katalina. While she was telling the story, I had a sudden urge to use the restroom. When I pushed opened the familiar paint peeling door, I had a flashback of that night with my friend and smiled. There was no one in the restroom and it was very quiet. After coming out of the stall I went over to the sink to wash my hands. After shutting off the faucet I realized the towel dispenser near me what out, so I had to walk to the other side of the room and use the other one. While pulling the paper towel off, I could hear the water running in the sink I had just used, behind me. I slowly turned around. The water pressure seemed
like it was increasing, or as if someone was turning the handle. I walked over to the sink. “Did I forget to turn the faucet off?” I asked myself before I realized that the water was up to full blast. I put my hand under the water to test its temperature before immediately yanking it away followed by an, “Ouch!” The water felt boiling hot! I quickly turned the handle and ran out of the bathroom back to the group. After seeing the horrid expression on my face the tour guide asked, “Are you ok?” I mumbled in disbelief, “She turned the hot water on- full blast.”
The tour guide laughed, “You must’ve done something to piss her off, because that means she doesn’t like you.” The next time I went on the Haunted Pub Tour, I made sure to go into the girls’ restroom on the second floor at Harry’s and apologize to Katalina.
I have now learned NEVER to provoke another spirit again.  ~MM