Haunted Vegas Tour

Beyond the neon

By Caroline Fontein

Las Vegas is known for its lively nightlife, but there is one tour devoted to showing people the exact opposite. The Haunted Vegas Tour explores the mysterious side of Sin City by visiting different sites where there have been recurring ghost sightings. Don't worry if you are a skeptic, this tour is anything but cheesy.

"Good evening, you've had your last chance to run," says Jac, the guide on the night the tour was attended. He explains that this tour features "the best ghost stories from around town," but it is not a hokey Halloween-type tour.

"It's just about as highly documented as you can get," says Jac. All of the ghosts and haunted sites mentioned in the tour have been researched and well documented in various studies on paranormal activity in Las Vegas.

Robert Allen, the creator of Haunted Vegas Tour, based the two-and-a-half hour tour on the Discovery Channel's "Haunted Ghost Towns" and paranormal author Janice Oberding's book, "Haunted Vegas." 

"We have celebrity ghosts unlike other places," says Jac. "Many of them have not left the building." The tour stops by about 16 to 21 haunted locations including places where the ghosts of Bugsy Siegel, Liberace, Redd Foxx and Tupac Shakur, among others have been spotted.

Apart from his role as a tour guide, Jac tells guests that he is also a mortician and pulls out his license to prove it. Although he has not practiced in over 30 years, the eeriness of his past profession adds to his creepy persona.

As the bus gets moving Jac explains the history behind different peoples' deaths along with where and how their ghost has been sighted. He uses a video played on a flat screen at the front of the bus to supplement his captivating explanation. 

Jac encourages people to take lots of pictures in hopes of catching an orb, ghostly energy that manifests itself through cameras and videos. He shows pictures of orbs that guests have captured on previous tours. 

Along with learning about ghosts, the tour provides people with a lot of history on Las Vegas and some of the celebrities who have lived there. Even if you are not a believer in the paranormal world, it is interesting to hear stories about some of these colorful characters.

The bus rambles on to the next haunted site, and Jac takes a break from ghost stories to lighten the mood with a few jokes.

"Maybe now you don't like flowers, but one day they'll grow on you," says Jac as the bus passes a cemetery. Only a few guests laugh at his haunting allusion to the afterlife, but it adds to the frighteningly fun time on this spooky tour.