Patricia "Patty" "Buddy" Louise Tunis - Research

I believe that Patricia "Patty" Louise "Buddy" Hill Tunis is the woman who has been with me since we came back from Las Vegas. I wasn't going to put her name out there, but she's literally going down the line and waking people I'm connected to at 3am now if I manage to be asleep. My husband was woken up at 3am on the dot last night. She wants to be heard. I hope I'm doing the right thing. She has living family and I always really hesitate to publicly post anything that could be painful for families, and 1980 was a bad year for this one.

Patricia was born in Hilo, HI 02/25/1920 - alternate info states born in New York, 12th grade education, was a housewife in 1955 Census, member of the US Presbyterian Church in the 1970s. She was 60 when she died in the MGM fire and her burial is UNKNOWN (if any). I was unable to find any photos of her online. 

She married James Floyd Tunis (1919-2000) on 9/2/1944 in Sarasota, FL. Mr. Tunis was in the USAF. They had three children, NAME WITHHELD FOR PRIVACY (B: 6/8/48 in Van Nuys, CA, an artist in WI) NAME WITHHELD and daughter Wendy Louise Tunis who died in 1984. Women don't do well being born into the Tunis family, it seems. James Tunis remarried in 1960 after he and Patty divorced. 

Father: William Hardy "Doc" Hill -  B: 6/15/1890 (Asheville, NC), D: 6/1970 (Hilo, HI), buried in Homelani Memorial Park. Doc hill was an eye doctor as well as a Hawaiian Senator - 1928-1959 for the Territory of HI and 1959-1967 as the State of Hawaii. Very shrewd businessman.

Stepmother: Ouida Lewis Mundy Hill (7/29/1899-1/9/2000 - lived to 100!) From her obituary:

Ouida Hill, considered the grand dame of Big Island society for more than 30 years through the 1960s, died at age 100 earlier this month (January, 2000) in her Honolulu condominium. She met her husband, William Hardy "Doc" Hill, on the beach at Waikiki in the 1930s. He was a prominent Big Island businessman and longtime state senator, and preceded her in death in June 1970. Doc Hill's colorful career in the Legislature included his appearance in a kimono to protest an overtime session, saying his wife had left for Hilo in disgust over his odor. The Hills were hosts to people from all over the world, from royalty to political figures, in their Keauhou estate in Kona, recalled longtime newswoman Maxine Hughes. "The two of them made a good team both socially and politically," said retired legislator Joe Garcia. Doc Hill, famed for presenting silver dollars to his guests, owned most everything in Hilo during his career as a businessman. But his wife, whom he called his "little redhead," was considered a political and social force in her own right. Ouida Hill was born in Virginia. She was a registered nurse when she reached Hawaii in 1926 as an employee of the Mayo brothers, who founded the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. In pre-World War II days, she was famous for conducting horse races with ranchwoman Anna Lindsey Perry-Fiske, who died in Waimea at age 94 in 1996. In an interview last year when she turned 100, Hill was quoted as saying, "I feel no different at 100 than I did at 99. I try to think young." No funeral service was held. Her ashes were returned to Hilo's Homelani Cemetery, where her husband is interred.

Half sister: Shirley Leilani Hill, B: 8/4/1927 (Hawaii), D: 7/24/94 (age 66), New Jersey. Married to Harold Arnold Steiner, Jr (B: 10/20/1923, D: 7/15/2011, burial unknown). Possible daughter: Leilani Hill (age 40, Bothell, WA) - is her niece in WA the connection??

Mother: Winifred Rachel "Winnie" Erdman Patten - B: 6/14/1895, D: 10/17/1980, buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery next to her husband. Patty died a month after her mother... this poor family... :(

Stepfather: Roy J. Patten - WWI (Canadian) Soldier. 

Patty was found in the 25th Floor stairwell. She was so close to getting out! One more floor and she was home free. I can't find any record of who she was staying with (if anyone) and what she was doing in Las Vegas on November 21, 1980.

The information (other than her stats) in the MGM Fire book about Patty. 

Patty's father and stepmother, the Hills.

Bally Hotel - Phyllis Thomas Died a Hero.

We arrived home from Las Vegas early on the morning of April 23rd. As I mentioned in my earlier entry, paranormally my life was very calm upon returning and I was sleeping like a baby. That lasted until about Friday.

Friday I started to not feel well again, and I also started to be woken up again at the 3am hour. I knew that I had someone that came back from the hotel with me. After Sunday, when things came to a head with lack-of-sleep and starting to feel really, really bad I called in my girl Jax for the assist.

What she figured out is I had not one but two women that came back from me.  We both felt that one of them was Sara Galico, that she was very much just along for the ride and curious since Dave got her attention. I since believe she has moved on from our household and isn't interested in us anymore.

The other woman I am still working with.

Initially I thought that this was Phyllis Thomas, 20, who died near the registration desk on the Casino Floor. I researched her in the MGM Fire book when I came home, and what I found out about Ms. Thomas is that she died a hero:

Ms. Thomas - you have my utmost respect for your kindness and bravery that you chose to show another human being in your young 20 years during the scariest moment imaginable.

I lit a candle for her and asked for her healing. After I worked with Phyllis specifically, I expected things to chill out in my life again, as I thought she had to be who we had captured on that EVP asking for help, as she'd told me she liked to be called Lys or Lyssa as I was reading about her.

(If you missed that EVP, here it is again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_z2TMtWv0c )

The activity continued however after I did a ritual for Ms. Thomas. Jax continued to get to be talked to by whoever it is that's around as well. We both came up with the same female name AND nickname of a different woman, independently of each other.

I'm 90% confident I know who she is. I have not been able to come up with a photo of her, but her family was of prominence, and I was able to find lot of information and two of her living children. Which is why I'm not publicly going to state her name.

At least not until I can help her accomplish whatever it is that she's needing to do if it has to do with them. For whatever reason, I'm having a really hard time deducing how I can help her. There's something I am missing or not understanding. In an effort to try to figure this out, I've started the voice recorder as I've gone to bed at night as Dave says I very actively talk to the other side as I sleep. I figure between my yammering and encouraging her to leave EVPs we might get some traction.

The issue is that every night the battery gets drained far too quickly. This recorder has a 8-12 hour battery. And I am not sleeping 8-10 hours (try 3-4 at this point). So basically it's just me hissing various wake up times "It's 3:23 and they just woke me up again..." "3:03 am...." Or trying to do that and seeing it's dead.

I'm not giving up.

Work activity is ramping up again. Coworker caught his hand in the belts and gears of a POWERED OFF oven today. I can't keep up with the continual negativity in this building for too much longer and not be affected.

The Bally Hotel - Part Five: The Halls and Stairwells from 12am until 2am

Around midnight I headed back to the lobby of the Casino to walk the long hallway where the old restaurants were and the Ballrooms are. All of the hallways have an odd feeling, but this one particular hallway feels particularly heavy.

No matter how many photos I took I could not get these doors or the emergency phone bank closest to them to take a clear photo. Heavy energy here. The volunteer firefighter/EMT who's funeral photos I bought on ebay because it bothered me they were on there died in this area trying to save others. RIP William Gerbosi.

I recognized this booth from one of the vintage photos. Pretty wild its still there.

Another strange blurry shot down the same hall.

Headed back towards the casino floor

Elevator on the left is the one Dave was stuck in. It wouldn't come for me. 

I did an EVP session facing the elevator bank at around 1:30 am. I didn't feel alone.

I got up from the elevators and moved over to this seating area in the lobby, I felt like I still had someone with me. I continued my EVP session here and got up to take a photo back down the hall towards our room as I felt company.

These long vents in the hallway is part of what made the hotel such a death trap. The way the design was made cut corners (it has since been retrofitted correctly, one of the safest places to stay now!) and the toxic smoke pumped into rooms and hallways through these.

We carefully reviewed all the rest of the audio from my midnight to 2am sessions. The AC units were running near the staircases and the wooshing was way too loud to hear anything they might have been saying. The only EVP we got was the one upon first entering the room.

It is my sincere hope that our efforts to remember everyone who died in the terrible MGM Fire are not offensive or painful for any of the victims' family or friends (living or otherwise), or any of the other spirits of the old MGM Hotel. We truly feel connected to the grounds and plan on staying there again and again in the future.

I'll never forget the terror these people went through fighting for their lives. Some of them sadly still seem to be stuck fighting.

Light Anomaly near 24th Floor Stairwell, 2am EVP session

Photo of MGM fire victim location in locked stairwell

Post-Investigation Research - who died on the 16th & 24th floors, and in the elevators?

Many people died in the elevators and stairwells of the Bally Hotel. More interesting synchronicities when I looked up the fatalities - Davids didn't fare so well in elevators during the fire.

ASHER, David, 39, Indiana, Found Casino Elevator

BLAIR, David R., Jr., 22, Ohio, Found 20th Floor Elevator

SANDERS, David F., 39, Indiana, Found Casino Elevator (**See SANDERS, Barbara J.)

The fire department paperwork and report indicated that these people died in different elevators than the one my David had trouble in, however. 

And how about that 24th floor lobby where I knew I wasn't alone and did late night EVP sessions?

HOLSHUH, Steven Jack, Found 24th Floor Lobby **See SANDERS, Catherine Ann

SANDERS, Barbara J., Indiana, Found Casino Elevator (**See SANDERS, David F.)
SANDERS, Catherine Ann, 23, Found 24th Floor Lobby

PANGBURN, Diane, 23, Found 24th Floor Lobby

PEHA, Daniel, Found 24th Floor Lobby

SIERRA, Margarita, Found 24th Floor Lobby
SIERRA, Pablo, Found 24th Floor Lobby

SPAGNOLA, Tom, 40, Found 24th Floor Lobby

Elsewhere on the 24th Floor:

SIERRA, Manuel, Found Room 2403 

PALAZZOLO, Charles, 40, Found in doorway Room 2418

Map of 24th Floor Fatalities

The Light Anomaly Photo was taken outside the Westernmost Stairwell (known as W2 on the Fire Report maps) on the 24th floor at about 1am.

Only one death in this west stairwell, as the people in the center stairwells and center areas of the hotel fared much worse: 

PETERSEN, Roberta, 23, Found 1st Floor, West Stairwell

(Synchronicity: My mother's name is Roberta)

From the MGM Fire Book

The elevator that gave David so much trouble on Floor 16, as well as a view as to where Sara and Leon Galico were staying and Sara died:

Again, here's the link to the entire report if you want to dig further:

http://www.clarkcountynv.gov/fire/Documents/MGM_FIREInvestigationReport1980.pdf

Room 2427 Interior Shots - Balcony.

Window will only open 1 inch.

Imagine how maddening it must have been to see Fire Department across the street and be completely trapped.

Photos of the Bally from Outside

On Flamingo Road

Shots from the Garage shared with the Paris

Looking out over Flamingo

 

The area where the awning was by front doors, collapsed in fire

Fireball came out and torched cars and collapsed the awning

Vicinity where the Neptune Fountain was at the time of the fire

Our room light in 2427 is the fourth one back from the L in BALLYS, third from top floor. 2115 is much closer to the elevator bank in the middle and three floors lower.

More shots of where the fireball blew out

The neon tube on the way up has been remodeled since 2009. It's about 1/3 the length and the entrance from the strip is far different.