Danny Thomas (a.k.a. Doc Strangeway), a clown-college alumnus who harbors a love for Texas history and all-things paranormal, is the owner and lead tour guide of Houston Ghost Tour, which escorts brave souls on ghost hunts and walking tours around the Houston-area’s haunted spots. The tours cost between $18 and $30 and run year round.
Thomas talked with KPRC 2 about some of the strangest things he witnessed while giving tours and shared some of his favorite spooky spots around town.
Q: What made you interested in launching Houston Ghost Tour?
A: Me and a couple friends lived in New Orleans for a little while after Hurricane Katrina and we did ghost tours down there. We were all professional entertainers and when we got the ability to move back to Houston, we moved back and there weren’t any ghost tours like those in the New Orleans marketplace here in Houston so we decided to do something similar here. So we found a couple of haunted locations and decided we could bring our entertainment to Houston.
Q: What’s your connection to Houston? Why did you start your ghost tours here?
A: I am a Houston native and most of us who were for Houston Ghost Tour have grown up in the area, known all about and lived here most of our lives. I wanted to be back in my hometown full-time and doing what I love so I thought I should bring it back with me. Houston is my home, being born and raised on the northside of Houston. I joined the military, moved around, saw enough of the world that I decided Houston should be my home and that I wanted to share my love and appreciation for it with everyone.
Q: What is your most memorable experience as a tour guide?
A: It is quite often, almost every week on almost every tour, that people catch photos. These things happen quite often. We try not to take ghost photos while we’re out there. We let customers do that so they can have the experience so most of the ghost photos you see on our website and on our social media pages were taken by customers. You can see apparitions and orbs and we have EVPs. You name it, we have 12 years of evidence. To narrow it down to maybe a couple, I’ve seen accidents happen out of nowhere, people pass out, one lady who started speaking a strange language that she didn’t know. Her family said she was acting very strange and she didn’t normally do these like that but when she left the tour everything was fine. I didn’t really know what was going on and I really can’t chock it up to the paranormal but I know something strange was going on there and that’s kind of what you get when you’re dealing with the paranormal. There are three words that get stuck in your head: weird, crazy and coincidence. Everything seems weird, everything could make you crazy and everything, you could chock up to coincidence.
Q: What is your favorite strange, dark, or unusual spot in the Houston area?
A: The Elder Street Artist Lofts. That’s what it’s called now but it used to be the Jefferson Davis Hospital and it’s probably one of the top three haunted locations in Houston. When you research it, there are so many stories coming out of that location that you just can’t keep up with it all. Another one would be Glenwood Cemetery. It’s the cemetery where a lot of famou people are buried. There are governors and actors and Howard Hughes and his family. It’s very beautiful, with monuments and trees.
CLICK HERE for the whole interview with KPRC 2.