Jason Hawes

Jason Hawes is likely best known for being a paranormal investigator on the TV programme 'Ghost Hunters'. He has also founded 'TAPS', which stands for 'The Atlantic Paranormal Society'. Jason works as both a paranormal investigator and a plumber, is married, and one of his children has followed in his footsteps regarding partaking in investigations of the paranormal. His daughter, Satori Hawes, is a well known figure in the paranormal field and she has worked at the Conjuring House. Jason has had conflicts with the owner of this property in recent years, but has successfully defended himself from accusations, and tries to stick up for others targeted by the owner.

History

Jason Hawes was born on the 27th of December 1971 in Canandaigua, which is a city in New York, America. His full name is Jason Conrad Hawes, and his height is 6ft 1. When he was young, his family moved to New York. When he was roughly seven years old, his dad was offered a position at a company in Rhode Island, and so the family relocated to Warwick, Rhode Island. I've found conflicting dates for when this move occured. The two differing dates cited are 1971 and 1979. The 1971 date could be when the family moved to New York, and the the 1979 date could be when the family moved to Rhode Island. This is purely speculation from me though regarding where these two dates have come from.

When growing up in Rhode Island, which is in the New England region of America, Jason had what he considers as a life changing experience. During this time, he ran into a man who randomly advised him not to let his anger get the best of him and that he needed to control himself. The man then walked away with no explanation to his words. Then, four or five hours later, there was a major altercation and Jason caused a great deal of injury to someone else as a result. However, the situation could have been much worse if he hadn't remembered what the random man had advised him earlier in the day. Due to this random encounter, Jason stopped and walked away from the situation. He has said thst he doesn't think the random man was sent by God, but he does admit it was a profound experience.

During the year of 1990, Jason graduated from Toll Gate High School in Warwick, Rhode Island. It was also during this year that he founded The Atlantic Paranormal Society, also known as TAPS. This is something he created with Grant Wilson, a fellow plumber. This organisation as launched from a spare room of his apartment during the days when the Internet was no where near what it is today. I have found information saying that Jason founded the Rhode Island Paranormal Society, also known as RIPS, during the same year of 1990. From what I can tell, either TAPS started under this different name, or RIPS is a completely seperate group that sources have confused with TAPS. As I've found conflicting information saying that TAPS was founded during 1993, perhaps it began as RIPS during 1990, but became TAPS during 1993. Again, this point is purely speculation as the commonly cited year for the creation of TAPS is 1990. Jason has been said to found TAPS at either the age of nineteen or twenty-two.

During 1995 Jason received an automotive degree from New England Tech, and he worked as an auto technician for a bit and then changed fields to computer systems. During the year of 2000, he went to work for the Roto-Rooter plumbing company and advanced to a supervisor position. It's also been said that it was the year 2000 that he married his high school sweetheart, Kristen Cornell, but I have found a conflicting date to this. A date I believe is more trustworthy regarding his marriage is the 20th of May 1998. He had a personal experience which occured when he was eighteen years old, and this could either be the experience with the random man or a different one which he prefers not to discuss. The one Jason prefers not to discuss, due to it being highly personal, is what led to him to wondering more about the paranormal.

When Jason founded TAPS, he created a website which became the go-to place for people who had questions regarding the paranormal. He was offered his own TV programme multiple times, but turned them down as he was concerned about the viewers not understanding what they did, and he was concerned that his passion wouldn't translate on camera. He also didn't want to be seen as unprofessional or as harming the paranormal field. Jason is a firm believer in the paranormal, but he also thinks that at least 80% of it can be disproved. It's the unknown 20% mentality which led to production companies asking him to work with them behind the scenes on programmes such as 'Scariest Places on Earth' which first aired during the year 2000.

During 2002, John Leland wrote an article in the New York Times which was based on an investigation with Jason. This article took off as it showed that Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson were not afraid to debunk as they investigated. A company called Pilgrim, who were small at the time but are now a major production company, contacted Jason and Grant following the article. They said they wanted Jason and Grant to be themselves and they would just follow them with the cameras on. It seems Jason was reluctant to this offer, but agreed after it was pointed out if they said no then someone else would say yes due to the attention which they had brought with the article.

Jason, Grant, and Steve Gonsalves all decided to take up the offer, and this is how the TV programme 'Ghost Hunters' came to be. Jason has said he hated the name 'Ghost Hunters' as it didn't reflect what they did as a team, but he has also said the name was the only thing they didn't have a say in when it came to the programme. With TAPS, Jason would try to disprove hauntings. The first episode of 'Ghost Hunters' aired on the 6th of October 2004. When Jason first started filming 'Ghost Hunters', his sons were four years old. Jason has six children in total, three sons and three daughters. These are: Austin, Logan, Connor, Samantha, Haily, and Satori. Austin and Logan are twins, and Connor is older than them. Jason's three sons have all been American football players. They have played for the Exeter/West Greenwich/Prout team, and they have played for the Scarlet Knights. It's unclear if the Scarlet Knights is nickname for the Prout team, but it is a nickname for the Rutgers University team; so one could be a high school team they played with, and the other could be a university team they played with.

Jason's daughters are older than his sons, and they were around before Jason was a 'ghost hunter'. Apparently Jason's wife, Kristen, keeps her distance from his paranormal work; however one of his daughters, Satori, has followed in his footsteps and claims to be able to directly communicate to spirits when with her partner Cody Ray DesBiens. Both Satori and Cody are researchers and investigators with TAPS, and Satori has been featured as a guest investigator on 'Ghost Hunters' and 'Ghost Nation'. Satori was employed at the Conjuring House, which is also known as the Burriville farmhouse and the Old Arnold Estate. This is the house which contained the haunting which inspired the first film in the 'Conjuring' horror film franchise that was inspired by the cases of Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Satori was employed at the house for nearly two years and lost thousands of pounds in personal items during a barn fire on the property. Apparently the owner originally said Satori would be reimbursed, but then refused. In fairly recent times to writing this article, Friday the 13th of December 2024, Jason has claimed that the owner of the Conjuring House has been harassing him for weeks. The owner is Jacqueline Nuñez, and she has accused Jason of trespassing on the property and of being part of a plot to have her assassinated. Jason has filed a police report against Jacqueline with Rhode Island's West Greenwich Police Department due to having recieved multiple threatening messages from her.

The messages started after Jacqueline obtained CCTV footage which showed what she claimed to be Jason trespassing and leaving the property in a truck. She shared the CCTV footage, and Jason has said the footage has been proven to not be him. Apparently the footage actually showed a man who had knowingly been at the property. Some of Jacqueline's texts read as follows: "You will someday be prosecuted for your slander and numerous murder attempts on my life", "I am told that you know of an assassination attempt on me", "I will never be defeated or destroyed by any (expletive) paranormal person, now or at any time in the future".

Jason has taken this matter to the police to protect himself and his family. He also wants to stick up for all past, present, and future employees and guests of the house and so is speaking out publicly about these matters. Since Jason has spoken out about it, Jacqueline has backed off from threats with him as he has lawyers and the ability to defend himself. Another odd situation Jason has been involved in involves a little old woman he was invited to the home of. When invited into the location, the woman told him about the crazy stuff going on in the house. The little old lady then said she was going into the kitchen to get some snacks, and came out swinging a frying pan as she thought that Jason was a burglar.

Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson, and Steve Gonsalves are the only TAPS members involved with the first season of 'Ghost Hunters' which stayed with the programme for almost twelve years. Jason has had to deal with the problem of stalkers. Apparently Jason and Grant had to stop going to residential houses as part of their plumbing work because they had too many fans of this programme requesting plumbing services just to meet them. The plumbing knowledge has helped them in their investigations though as they can identify normal explanations for sounds and they can resolve any unexplained flows of water. They have also done lectures at colleges and the team collaborates with religious clergy. They have investigated alledged cases of possessions but they say that 99% of these cases are not possessions. Instead, the possession cases frequently turn out to be related to individuals who are medicated, or under medicated, or religious. They've also found these cases come from troubled families.

They haven't shown any of these darker cases, or ones regarding troubled cases on the TV programme. However, Jason has witnessed poltergeist activity and full body apparitions. He has also seen possession cases where people have been speaking in a language not spoken in 3000 years. When it comes to ouija boards, Jason doesn't believe the board has any power. Instead, he thinks that by using one, you are asking and allowing something to use you and to channel through you and not the board. Jason also wants to know what truly happened at the Amityville house, another location which Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated. He has studied the case for many years and believes that there is too much hype and not enough truth to it.

During season nine of Ghost Hunters, in the nineteenth episode, Jason kills a cicada which is on Steve's back. Apparently it's believed thst the spirit of that insect has been responsible for any bad luck in Jason's life since, and as a result he regrets killing it and devotes his free time educating people on the value and importance of insects. I don't know how true this is though. 'Ghost Hunters' ended on the 26th of October 2016, but it was brought back without Jason Hawes and others during the August of 2019. Instead, Jason made a different programme called 'Ghost Nation' which first aired on the Travel Channel during the October of 2019. Apparently Discovery Plus picked up 'Ghost Hunters' during 2021 and this did involve Jason Hawes, Steve Gonsalves, Shari DeBenedetti, and Dave Tango. This revival either didn't happen or was short lived as I have recently seen that Jason has said there are no plans to bring back 'Ghost Hunters' to Discovery.

Jason has worked with John Zaffis, who is a paranormal researcher likely best known for his tv programme 'Haunted Collector'. Jason has also been involved with a few books, and apparently six of the books are bestsellers. 'Ghost Hunting: True Stories of Unexplained Phenomena from The Atlantic Paranormal Society' was written with Michael Jan Friedman and Grant Wilson, and was first published on the 2nd of October 2007. 'Ghost Files' was also written with Michael and Grant, and was first published on the 13th of September 2011. Another book is 'Ghost Hunt: Chilling Tales of the Unknown' and this was done by Jason, Grant, and Cameron Dokey. Apparently Jason has also written four sci-fi/thriller stories and enjoys writing screenplay. He also enjoys deep-sea fishing and still works at Roto-Rooter. During 2020, the TV programme 'Most Terrifying with Jason Hawes' began which features interviews with locals and historians regarding reports of paranormal activity. The TAPS team which Jason founded now features many members from Rhode Island, and the team continues today.

My Thoughts

I have never seen 'Ghost Hunters', and so first heard about Jason Hawes through watching the youtube channel 'Beardo Gets Scared'. Beardo has gained a friendship with Jason, and so he speaks about him occasionally on his channel. I still hadn't learned much about Jason though through Beardo, aside from that he was involved with TAPS and 'Ghost Hunters'. Even now, I still haven't seen much of Jason's content. There was a moment where Beardo debunked some footage from 'Ghost Hunters' regarding Grant, and so I saw Jason's response video to Beardo's debunk. I though Jason came across as very calm and level headed in his response, and he seemed very open minded and willing to debunk his own footage.

As a result, I think Jason is a good example of how the mindset of a paranormal investigator should be. I'm not saying his practices are perfect, and I can't comment on these as I haven't seen them, but from the reaction video and what I've read about him, it seems he shows very well that you can both believe in the paranormal and accurately debunk most of it. I've seen from people too often a mindset which is too skeptical, or too willing to believe, and it seems Jason has good balance. Just as people should be open to the paranormal existing even if they don't believe it does, people should also be open to the paranormal not existing even if they believe it does. It's ok to believe, or to be skeptical, but at the end of the day none of us know for sure and this needs to be reflected during any investigation or review of footage.

Thank You!

Thank you for reading this article! In case you are wondering, I am well aware of the controversy around Cody and Satori. As this was an article about Jason, and not specifically about them, I decided it best to stick to things primarily involving Jason. As far as I'm aware, he has weighed in on the controversy, but that's something for a different article which is primarily about Cody and Satori. As I haven't researched them yet, I'm reserving judgement until I learn more. I hope you found this documentation of Jason Hawes interesting, and as usual, please email me or leave a comment if anything in the article is incorrect and link your source. If this is done, then I will amend the article as soon as I can. The next haunted location article will be published on Monday the 16th of December, and will document a location in Edinburgh. The following article will be published on Friday the 20th of December, and will document a paranormal experience.

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Sources I Have Used

1. IMDb

2. IMDb: Bio

3. The Providence Journal

4. Fandom

5. nj.com

6. New York Post

7. Geek Dad

8. Simon and Schuster

9. Little, Brown Book Group

10. Grunge

11. Simon and Schuster: Ghost Files