CHRISTINE MILLER takes a look back at Most Haunted: Caeser’s Nightclub
Episode Title: Caeser’s Nightclub
Location: Streatham, London
Series: 2 Episode Number: 27
Originally broadcast: 2003
Medium: Derek Acorah
Parapsychologist: Phil Whyman, Dr Matthew Smith & Dr Ciaran O’Keeffe
The Ghost of Ruth Ellis?
Caesars nightclub first opened its doors in 1929 and maintained its title of the largest nightclub in London until it closed in 2010. It has a rich and varied history, with everyone from The Rolling Stones to Charlie Chaplin having performed here.
In the 1950s, it was a hotbed for London’s criminal underworld, including Ronnie and Reggie Kray who allegedly frequented here.
The last woman in Great Britain to be hanged, Ruth Ellis, happened to work in the club in the 1950s. Interestingly, she has been known to follow the owner, Fred Batt, home to his Surrey country home. (See my Most Haunted Review ‘Clock House Series 2; Episode 26’ for more details).
A woman has been spotted with blonde hair who walks through the walls of the nightclub baring an uncanny resemblance to Ruth Ellis.
Could it be her ghost who walks the corridors of Caesars?
Fred Batt certainly seems to think so, as she worked in this very building as a photographer’s assistant before she was sentenced to be hanged by infamous executioner Albert Pierrepoint in 1955.
Feelings of being watched, cold spots, footsteps backstage, doors opening and closing on their own, a woman heard screaming on the dance floor, and a woman seen walking the hallways have all been reported.
Fred said that he is particularly uneasy in the building and claims that the hauntings have a negative feel to them.
Not just Fred, however, as staff members have been left petrified more than once by ghostly encounters, so much so that many refuse to stay after revellers have left for home.
For the first time, psychic Derek Acorah is aware of the location he and the team are visiting. Derek arrives and is drawn to a particular spot, and (apparently) unbeknownst to him, this is the spot where Ruth Ellis’s ghost is most often seen.
He picks up on the spirit of Reggie Kray who is trying to communicate with him, saying that a man called Richardson would ‘go crazy if he knew I was here’. When asked by Yvette if this adds up, Fred states that the club in the 1950s was a place frequented by a rival gang to the Krays, called the Richardson’s.
In the immediate vicinity, Derek also picked up on the spirit of a petite, pretty young woman. This, he claims is the ghost of Ruth Ellis, who, after complimenting Acorah on his suit, states that ‘they got it wrong’. She shows him a gun, fires three times and puts the gun down. ‘It was not four, it was three. I would know, I did it’ she says. Derek is unaware of what this means, and so Phil Wyman explains that at her trial, Ellis was accused of firing the gun four times at her lover. Her lover, David and her have reconciled in the afterlife and are now back together again, Derek states.
Ghost Child and Black Magic
The team next move to the dressing room area of the nightclub. This area had previously been bricked up but in 1994 Batt had them renovated and this is when paranormal activity began to manifest here. Derek picks up on the spirit of a young girl anywhere between the ages of 5-9 who lost her life close by from falling. Derek says this girl is responsible for cold spots and loud noises. Fred says this area of the nightclub was once a creche.
Nearby within one of the dressing rooms, Derek claims that there were two males who practised black magic, and this has affected the amount of paranormal activity. Yvette quickly interrupts to ask what the noises are, and it soon becomes apparent that there is a continuous strange noise which Derek attributes to the two males.
Derek says that these two males were well known, but states that if he picks up on their names it would be improper to publicly name them as dabblers of black magic. Fred states that there were many, many famous people who would have used these dressing rooms throughout the years. A number of clearly audible noises follow, from knocking to a shuffling sound, both of which had no seemingly rational explanation, even after a trip to the roof where the noises seemed to be occurring.
With the lights out, the group continue to explore the building. Derek senses a young woman around the age of 18 who was strangled to death; she was most likely a prostitute. The name he picks up on is Kate McIntyre, however there are no records of anyone of this name. Fred concedes that the surrounding area has been a red-light district, so it is possible that a woman of this name did exist. The dragging sound from earlier, Derek says was a re-enactment of her death, where her murderer dragged her and strangled her to death.
Light Anomalies or Dust?
Yvette and her PA Suzanna both go into one of the dressing rooms. They sit in silence and begin to hear faint noises, like a banging. They become increasingly nervous and decide to move to another room.
Meanwhile Karl is investigating solo elsewhere and grows increasingly cold. He asks aloud for Ruth Ellis and a small orb is caught on his camera. This happens twice. Back to the girls, and after being spooked by a picture of a lion hanging on the wall, they begin to hear banging noises from above, however there is no other floor above them and having investigated the rooftop earlier, they believe there is no rational explanation for these noises.
With that, the group’s 24-hour investigation of Caesar’s Nightclub comes to a close.
