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Nestled in the historic Rainsford District bordering downtown Cheyenne, we find the quaint Deselms Fine Art Gallery at 303 East 17^th Street. When you walk amongst the fine art displayed here it is hard to believe that there have been a number of deaths at this location. Built in 1883, tt was the home and clinic of Union Pacific's Dr. Barkwell. Due to severe and gruesome railroad injuries common at the time, many patients perished in his home.

The home also is infamous for the murder of film producer Alan Ross, whose body was found in the crawl space under the house eight years ago. Mr. Ross and his common-law wife had lived in the house before it was turned into the art gallery. Police searched the crawl space beneath the house at the time he went missing, but did not find any evidence of him.  The police searched the crawl space again in July 2000.  This time, as they entered the musty confined space, Allen's shoe was seen sticking out of the dirt ... his body was finally found. 

A man, who'd lived next door for 20 years, told us that for the past five years, he had been hearing a moaning sound coming through the closed-off tunnel in the basement that had once connected the two homes.  He continually told his wife of the sound. Once Allen's body was unearthed, the moaning stopped. 

These stories of tragedy do not stand alone, for there is yet another tale of turmoil to be told.  The date was October 22, 1965, when 15-year-old Anthony Blankenship violently attacked 86-year-old Lena Herbert in her upstairs room. With a long and demented rap sheet behind him, Blankenship was arrested and sent to Evanston, WY. for a psychological evaluation.  Doctors determined that he was without psychosis and had fully known at the time of the attack that the vile acts he was committing were wrong. With no regret or empathy, the junior-high student confessed, he was tried for first degree murder, and sent to the Rawlins prison for a dismal life of hard labor.

Recently, a woman who claims she is able to "clean" places of spirits came to the Gallery. After walked around looking at the artwork, she expressed with certainly that she felt spirits there.  She said any building that old has some residual spiritual energy.  The owner told her about the home's Allen Ross murder, but she replied that it was not him she was communicating with. She went upstairs where she reported feeling the presence of a terrified woman who was hiding.  The medium relayed that the spirit "comes out" once in a while and may cause disruptions.  About a year later, the Gallery owner was stunned to learn of Lena Herbert's murder that had transpired upstairs.

One evening just before Halloween of 2001, the gallery was hosting an artist's drawing class. The owner went outdoors and placed a battery-operated skull under the porch to decorate for Halloween, while the artists were inside painting. Immediately upon doing this all of the lights in the house went out. He flipped the breaker to no avail. The lights would not turn back on, that is ... until he removed the skull from beneath the porch.

With the buildings history, the owner allowed C.P.I., Cheyenne Paranormal Investigators, to investigate the premises. Two of the investigators experienced a soft whisper in their ears and could feel a small breeze while in the crawl space. Another saw a dark shadowy object go by him in the alleged area where Allen was shot. Two Investigators heard a metal tapping sound coming from a hole in the wall where the old stairs used to be. Before the investigation began, all lights inside and outside of the gallery were turned off.  Halfway through the evening the outside lights came back on by themselves.

Investigators also report that an upstairs door unlatched itself and the door mystically opened without any human assistance. The current tenants relay similar accounts.  The clink of the latch turning and the creak of the old door opening were captured on the audio from the handheld DVR recorder the investigator was carrying. A second audio tape also recorded the sound of the door unlatching and opening, as well as the investigator uttering "did you hear that!"  Finally, an infra-red camera had been set up in that area and also captured the door opening by itself.