Introduction:
Chris Travis and Lance Brooks of Texas Spirit Seekers approached the General Manager of Del Frisco’s Steak House in Ft. Worth Texas, about the possibility of conducting a scientific investigation of the paranormal activity that has been reported in the building for many years. He agreed to let the TSS investigation team come in and conduct a thorough investigation of the building. Texas Spirit Seekers is scientific in its approach to dealing with the paranormal and does not except the information gathered from Psychics, Séances or Ouija boards as this evidence can be tampered with by the individual giving the information, they have preconceived ideas about the paranormal before the start an investigation, they believe the place to be haunted before the go in the home.
We at Texas Spirit Seekers use the Null Hypothesis for every investigation we conduct. We state that the property in question has no paranormal activity before the investigation starts and try to debunk any of the reports of the paranormal, collect evidence using instrumentation such as audio recorders, video cameras, DVR systems, EMF meters, thermometers, etc. and review all data collected. We do report personal experiences but it is not accepted as paranormal activity unless it can be backed up by our instrumentation. The final report will have an introduction, history of the property if available, list of investigation team members, all experiences, data of interest, instrumentation used, comments, and a final record/conclusion. We at TSS do not charge for any of our services and will not accept payment or contributions to the group; we do this as a service to the community.

History of Hells Half Acre and the Del Frisco’s Building:
The Del Frisco’s building is located in the area of Fort Worth that was once known as Hells Half Acre, this refurbished 1890s building is rumored to have been a popular brothel in its day. Because of the controversial nature of the areas businesses, Hells Half Acre has little in the way of recorded history, a few old letters, stories passed down, and a few notes from the locals who were able to read and write. The center of “Hells Half Acre” was located in present day downtown Ft. Worth with boundaries between Calhoun on the east, Throckmorton on the west, Weatherford on the north and 12th street on the south. This area of Ft. Worth had many respectable stores, homes, shops and a wide array of saloons, gambling establishments and bordellos. The Acre was nirvana for any adult male with money and a need and was willing to give them both up. There were many hangouts in the Acre with names such as Waco Tap, The White Elephant, Two Minnie’s and the Eclipse. Along with the many lonely and thirsty men in the town their were many of the most famous names in the west such as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Sam Bass, Luke Short, Butch Cassidy, Harry Longabaugh and others that visited the acre. The last of Hells Half Acre came in 1968 when much of the area was covered over by the Tarrant County Convention Center, burying all of the past both the good and the bad. The Del Frisco’s building is a small part of history that survived. There are rumors of a young woman that was strangled in the basement, a man being shot in the back of the head and others.

Reported Paranormal Experiences:
There have been a number of reports of unexplained experiences at Del Frisco’s, a report of a cold breeze blowing through the wine cellar strong enough to rattle the wine bottles in the racks. There is also the report of a gentleman walking up the stairs from the basement to the top floor, wondering around upstairs and then walking back down to the basement. The feeling of being watched.

Texas Spirit Seekers Investigators:

Lance Brooks, Teresa Allen, John Penny, Chris Travis, James Leslie, Adam Brooks, Chris Dee of (ASUP).

Date: 04/19/2008
Time: 2300 hrs – 0400 hrs
Location: Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House
812 Main Street, Ft. Worth, Texas 76102
817-877-3999
Weather: Clear, 69°

Instrumentation:

Cameras: Digital: Panasonic DMC-TZ3
35mm: Canon EOS Rebel T2 and K2

Video: Sony HDR-SR1, Sony DCR-HC40 MiniDV, Sony DCR-HC26 MiniDV, Sony DCR-TRV33.

DVR: Hitachi DVR, 2 Sony 24IR, 2 54IR and 1 104IR and cameras.

Thermometer: Fisher Scientific IR Thermometer with external air probe.

Audio: 4, Olympus VN-4100PC

EMF Meters: TriField Meter – Alpha Lab, Extech EMF Meter

Personal Experiences:

Team 2: Lance Brooks, Chris Travis and John Penny
No personal experiences.

Team 3: Chris Travis, Adam Brooks and John Penny
No personal experiences.

Evidence of Interest:
Photographs:

EVP’s (Electronic Voice Phenomena):
All evp’s were thrown out as evidence as there was too much interference with the recording.
Video Clips:
All video evidence was disregarded, poor quality evidence, interference.

Comments:
As always Texas, Spirit Seekers go into an investigation with the idea that the property is not haunted, just a good number of stories being told. The TSS team had only one personal experience, some sounds, voices that later were thrown out of the evidence pool as there were more employees in the building than we originally thought which lead to some interference with the recordings and video . I really take little value in personal experiences as they are not quantifiable and sometimes can be caused by the investigators own imagination but still attach them to the report as good information applied to evidence that can be quantified . We collected 24hrs of DVR video; 12hrs of audio, 200 photographs both digital and 35mm, and 2hrs of HDD video. During the initial emf sweeps of the building we noticed a higher than normal emf in all of the rooms in the building, these levels were high enough that if someone is sensitive to emf it could cause headaches, nausea, rashes and in some cases hallucinations. When all of the lights were turned off and the only power left on was to the equipment in the kitchen there were still high emf in some areas. We were not able to use emf meters at this investigation. We only had a couple of photos with orbs but nothing notable as they could be dust particles.

Conclusion:
After a thorough review of all evidence collected at Del Frisco’s Stake House in Fort Worth, Texas we have concluded that the building may or may not have paranormal activity. There were many factors that lead to the poor quality of the evidence that was collected in the building, 1. The noise from the Ft. Worth Arts Festival could be heard in most of the audio and 2. There were more employees in the building than was originally noted. We do feel however that Del Frisco’s should be reinvestigated and that if subsequent investigations are performed, there is an opportunity to capture more conclusive evidence.

Lance Brooks (Co-Founder and Lead Investigator)