Haunted Lubbock

By Nicole Crites, RaShayla Daniels, Alyssa Herzog and Maddy McCarty

In Lubbock, when there’s something strange is your neighborhood… call Anita and Billy Fisher, a couple dedicated to investigating paranormal activity.

Anita Fisher, president of the Lubbock Ghost Investigation Society, calls herself a “discerner of spirits” (or medium), and said she was born with the ability to communicate with the afterlife.

[Video by Allison Terry]

The Fishers and their team have investigated hauntings all over the South, including many in their hometown of Lubbock.

“Lubbock is not really as haunted as people want to believe it is,” Anita Fisher said.

Billy Fisher shook his head in disagreement. ““I think it is,” he said, “but people just don’t want to talk about it.”

Anita and Billy Fisher speak with journalism students at Schlotzsky’s Deli in Lubbock on Tuesday.

Many Lubbock residents have sought out the society to help get rid of paranormal activity or spirits in their homes. The couple said they find this to be a problem maybe 2 percent of the time. Instead of assuming ghosts, they search for the most likely and mundane possibilities first—such as carbon monoxide leaks.

However, the Fishers have had many paranormal experiences here. They have occurred at multiple houses in a small section of Tech Terrace, a trailer park in west Lubbock, where a demonic possession occurred, and the east side of town, which they said is the most active.

Historical Hauntings

Located in East Lubbock, behind the Lubbock Cemetery, is an old trestle from the Santa Fe railroad, referred to as Hell’s Gate.

“Hell’s Gate; fantastic stories—most of them are untrue, I will guarantee you that,” Billy Fisher said.

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An old railroad trestle nicknamed “Hell’s Gate” remains standing from the Santa Fe Railroad in northeast Lubbock. (Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU)

Anita said she has seen spirits at Hell’s Gate, including a woman dressed in vintage attire sitting on the pipes and one woman who was burned alive there. Black magic may also have a part in the haunting.

“Lubbock does have a few satanic groups,” Billy Fisher said. “They used to go to Hell’s Gate and do black magic rituals out there, so that kind of added to the mystic.”

The Fishers also said the Lubbock Cemetery is especially paranormally active.

“Very haunted, a lot of spirits out there,” Billy Fisher said.

Buddy Holly’s alma mater, Lubbock High School, was the city’s first high school, built in 1891. The Fishers , who attended the school, said its tower and former library are among some of the most actively haunted places in Lubbock.

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An entrance to the Lubbock Cemetery is located off East 19th Street. (Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU)

The city’s first premier hotel, Pioneer Hotel, is famously rumored to have a disturbing past and a fourth floor full of ghosts. The Lubbock Ghost Investigation Society confirms that it is definitely haunted.

“I sure wouldn’t buy a condo there,” Billy Fisher said.

He added that Lubbockites have, unfortunately, always been very tight-lipped about local hauntings.

Texas Tech’s campus is full of ghost stories, but the Fishers said administration will not allow the investigators into the buildings famously rumored to have ghosts walking the halls.

Texas Tech University

Texas Tech University was founded in 1923 and since then, many changes have occurred on its campus. Buildings have been torn down and rebuilt, and additions have allowed for the student population to grow. One popular building was recently been built in the location of an old morgue. Other old buildings are said to be haunted.

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The Rawls Business Administration Building. (Jordann Fowler for The Hub@TTU)

The new building for the Rawls College of Business was built in 2011. The lot sitting under the building used to belong to a morgue, said Capt. Stephen Hinkle of the Texas Tech Police Department.

“Thompson Hall was one of the haunted buildings, but it was torn down. That’s where the Rawls College of Business is at,” Hinkle said. “People said it was haunted because it used to be Gross-Anatomy and a morgue way back in the day.”

Hinkle said Gaston Hall was considered haunted before it was torn down, and he had also heard rumors of the science buildings having paranormal activity.

The biology building is rumored to have the spirit of a student who committed suicide by jumping off the roof during Tech’s annual Carol of Lights celebration. Since then, some students have reported seeing a dark figure roaming the area every year during the Carol of Lights.

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The Biology Building. (Jordann Fowler for The Hub@TTU)

According to professors in the chemistry building, there are rumors of this hall being haunted, too. Laquetta Purkiss, unit coordinator and chemistry lab instructor, said she has even seen a ghost in the building before.

Weeks Hall, an abandoned dorm, is also said to be haunted. A student who entered the dorm, who wishes to be unnamed due to a fear of fines or punishment, said he had heard of several murders that had happened there. He said he immediately felt uneasy as when he walked into the hall, littered by trash.

“I looked like people just up and left,” he said.

About Nicole Crites

Entertainment Director - Senior journalism major from Fort Worth, TX