In this episode, the Ghost Hunters crew travels to California to investigate the haunted reform school Preston Castle.  Am I the only one who thinks the TAPS crew should invest in two sets of equipment, one of which can be left on the west coast?  It seems like every other week they're having to drive back and forth across the country.  

I'm not complaining, because Steve Gonsalves is one of my favorite Ghost Hunters, and obviously he's not going to be flying to California any time soon.  But I've made that cross-country trip there and back again once in my life, and once was plenty.  Their gas bill must be absolutely insane.  And I bet they get tired of eating at drive throughs.

Anyway, Preston Castle was the juvenile detention of its day, where young offenders were sent to jail, basically.  Old abandoned jails have traditionally been excellent fodder for the show, and Preston Castle is no exception.  Let's put it this way: a lot of the people who "graduated" from the Preston Reform School went on to become famous boxers, according to the Wikipedia article.  Any school where you end up picking up boxing as a trade is probably a pretty rough place indeed!

(Random girly aside: when did Amy Bruni dye her hair?  I think the red really works for her!)

In addition to the usual torment and sadness and death inherent to any jail, Preston Castle carries the prerequisite story of a grisly murder.  One of the female employees was kicked to death and stuffed in a corner of the laundry room in the basement.  Her killer was never found, although one boy was tried three times and finally acquitted.  

Is her spirit angry that the person who beat her to death was never punished?  Hard to say, but a lot of disembodied screams and moans are caught on EVP.  (The one which they decipher as "slow down" sounds more to me like "oh noooooo," a moan of terror.  But that's just me.)

Jason and Grant get some of the best action in this episode.  Grant thinks he sees a face peeking at them out of the corner of his eye.  Then when he asks if they know his name, a voice clearly says "Graaaaant."  The voice seems to be coming from a room that happens to be missing its floor, and when Grant tries to investigate the room below it, the floor sinks and threatens to fall out beneath him.  Ghost hunting is dangerous, kids!

Preston Castle abounds in footsteps, the sound of closing doors, and funny noises which Jason and Grant finally source to a collection of old gurneys.   The gurneys won't slide around on their own, though; someone would have to be in there rattling them around.  Let me tell you something, a dark basement medical clinic room full of abandoned turn of the century gurneys is plenty scary, even without the possibility of an unseen presence nudging them around.

All in all, a very engrossing hour of television!