If Sam Waddles had any out of the extraordinary experiences in the beginning years of his life, he kept those stories to himself even to his grave. There are also no known experiences throughout his high school and collegiate years. He did however, attend Montevallo; the most notoriously haunted university in Alabama. He became quite familiar with the storied haunting of King House, Palmer Hall, Reynolds Hall, and the Main Residence Hall on Montevallo's campus. This seems to indicate that conceivably Sam experienced one or more of these phenomenon.
Sam began work with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, shortly after graduation, as a Dam Engineer. In 1961, Waddles began working on the finishing stages of the Coffeeville Lock and Dam in Clarke County, Alabama. In these first few years after college Sam became lost in his work and his fervor for the supernatural began to diminish. Sam lived in Naheola while working on the Coffeeville Dam and would frequent the Tombigbee in his free time, helping to get away from the pressures of dam building.
In 1963, Sam's mother finally succumbed to an 82 year battle with what is now known to be Odine's Curse; doctor's of the time were just discovering what this disease actually was. In the following weeks Sam spent much of his time on the river trying to come to terms with his mother's death. On one of his trips up river Sam rounded a bend and was greeted by a grim sight. A ship was engulfed in flames.
Drifting down river, the burning ship seemed out of control. Not sure what he could do, Sam tried calling out to any passengers on the ship. No one answered his calls. He frantically searched the murky depths for anyone that may have jumped ship to escape a fiery death. No one was to be seen. An impending sense of doom began to settle into Sam; there was something very wrong with what he was seeing. As the blazing ship slowly glided towards him, Sam couldn't make his eyes leave the fiery destruction. Finally, the boat passed by Sam, seemingly close enough for him to reach out and touch, yet he felt no heat from flames that could have, should have burnt him to an ember. As the rear of the boat came into Sam's view, the name 'Eliza Battle' was clearly visible on the stern. Sam was finally able to tear his eyes away from the flaming hull to search the river any survivors, he saw none. He turned back for one last look at the 'Eliza Battle' before it rounded the bend, only to see the muddy, brown waters of the Tombigbee.
Sam soon discovered that the 'Eliza Battle' was, in fact, a paddle steamer from the 1800s that while one day carrying its intended cargo of passengers down river inexplicably caught fire. To make matters worse, the 'Eliza Battle' was also carrying a boat load of cotton bales that day which fueled the unfathomable flames. Many accounts of the accident put as many as fifty dead and one hundred injured in the chaos that ensued. Sam had just witnessed what many call 'The Phantom Steamboat of the Tombigbee'. This was his first known encounter with paranormal activity.
While Sam had always harbored a fascination with the occult and paranormal, up until that point in his life he had never had any proof of its existence. Still reeling from the death of his mother, Sam took the experience to heart and began seeking the meaning of life and death. From that day forth, he was a seeker of truth and an adventurer into the world of ghostly apparitions, demonic possessions and all things preternatural.
Years after the completion of the Coffeeville Lock and Dam, Sam moved back to his home town of Andalusia. Soon after, he began to investigate some of the folklore surrounding Andalusia such as the Prestwood Bridge and Consolation Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery hauntings. Sam became well known around Andalusia for his scientific approach to examining these happenings. In fact, he became so well known that towns other than Andalusia wanted his help in solving their so called 'hauntings'. Throughout these investigations Sam used solid scientific methods to disprove ghost story after ghost story, never experiencing anything like that day on the Tombigbee.
For reasons unknown, Sam left his home town in February of 1982 and never returned. Waddles trekked across the United States, searching for and investigating any cases of haunting that he came across. By the summer of 1985, Sam ended his journey in Connecticut. In his travels, Sam had experienced many things that no branch of any science could explain. As a result, he became very religiously involved with the Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement. While attending mass at our Lady of the Rosary Chapel in Monroe, Sam was introduced to Bishop Robert Fidelis McKenna. The two became quick friends because of their interest in the supernatural and occult.
Bishop McKenna came to value Waddles's knowledge of the paranormal. Bishop McKenna often asked Waddles to accompany him to exorcisms and the like, so that a scientific method could be integrated with his religious approach. In 1986, Sam accompanied McKenna to West Pittston, Pennsylvania at the request of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Sam unofficially recorded scientific data for McKenna and the Warrens in the Smurl Haunting case. Sam came out of the experience with great respect and admiration for the Warren's and the manner in which they investigated the supernatural.
After the Smurl Haunting, Sam was convinced as to the existence of the after-life and many other phenomenons that science just could not explain. Sam never again recorded scientific data at a supposed haunting, but he did investigate several minor cases with Bishop McKenna and the Warrens as a religious spectator. Sam died from respiratory complications November 5, 2003 in his home in Connecticut.
