EP 3: The Tavern - Part II

*SPOILER ALERT: The following blog post contains spoilers for Episode 2, 3 & 4! Before reading on, listen to The Tavern - Part I & II! Afterward, make sure to read this "Behind-the-Episode" blog for photos and extras!

With the first episode of The Night Owl Podcast, I realized Royal Legion Tattoo had spoiled me a little. It was either good fortune or fate that I’d stumbled upon a story that would conveniently fit together into a single contained episode that would also have a very satisfying resolution. With the Tavern, things turned out to be different. The pieces of the puzzle I was finding here weren’t fitting together quite like they had in the tattoo shop’s case. I began to grow a bit nervous and frustrated as to where this story was going to end up. How was I going to make this into an episode that would mirror what I’d accomplished with Episode 1?

The Tavern — 922 W. 12th St. Austin, Texas

Well, things were off to a bumpy start, but The Tavern has now expanded into a 3-part episode series! As I should have expected from my interviews on Episode 2, this case wasn’t going to be an easy one to crack. There was a very dark crime that was said to have been committed, the victim was a child, and she was said to be haunting the building. This already felt heavier than before.

To hear what unfolded as I brought friend and clairvoyant Sara to the Tavern, listen to this episode. There’s just too much that went down to repeat it all here. But I’m going to share with you some of the behind the scenes photos and anecdotes that occurred during our 1st investigation at The Tavern together on October 25th.

Outside The Tavern on October 25th, waiting for Sara and her husband Rene to arrive

When Sara first got there, she kept looking up at the upstairs window you see in the picture above. She informed me she was a bit confused about this location. She hadn’t received much and was getting a lot of smoke and fog.

This is the actual page from Sara’s notebook from her drawings on October 25th. (She asks that you excuse the work — she wants everyone to know she is not a professional artist. This process just helps her)

Above you can see the actual sketches Sara made during this first investigation. I’ll try to navigate you through some of the work. The top half of the page is what she sketched briefly the night before, after our phone call. The wavy lines represented the smoke and foggy haze she was getting. She added more details and drew in more of the male face while she was there getting more from her readings in the space. But the image of the male with the mustache is “Walter”, the man who supposedly is oppressing Emily. He’s the one who was kind of just watching and hanging out until we opened the crawlspace. Then he got a lot more interested in what we were doing and wouldn’t go away and let Sara talk with Emily. He’s also who Sara believes committed the horrible act. But there’s more that develops on this in Episode 4.

The images on the bottom have is what Sara sketched during the investigation. She carried the notebook around with her at all times and drew as she read or received stuff. It seems to help her process what’s coming through. It’s nice, too, for us because we then get visual references that help illustrate this tale! Thanks Sara!

In the bottom half you can see a larger image of Walter’s face. There’s also the drawing of