The Formation of GBNJ

By Bill Malkin, GBNJ CEO

Many people ask me, "Bill, how did you and your team of handsome rogues form Ghostbusters-New Jersey?" 

To those people I say, "Well it is a long story, ya got an hour or two?" 

Then they reply, "No, just give me the highlights." 

Okay you asked for it.

The story of the formation of GBNJ begins in 1996.  Dave Mallozzi, Tim Mabes and I were members of Boy Scout Troop 63 in Mercerville, NJ.  The three of us had been pretty good friends since we joined the troop in the early 1990's.  Well anyway, we were on a camping trip in the Pine Barrens of South Jersey and didn't want to go canoeing with the rest of the troop.  We heard of these abandoned bog iron refining towns, so we went went in search of one armed with only Dave's 35mm camera (High School class project).  After hiking many miles through the sandy soil of the Pine Barrens and not finding any of these so called ghost towns, we decided to turn back. 

On our way back to camp the sky started growing dark and we spotted a weird animal.  It was a terrifying 7foot tall red skinned monster. It had the head of a horse,  winged body of a dragon, a long tail flowing out of the beast's rear, and two thin arms that ended with three fingers tipped with razor sharp claws.  Needless to say we were freaked, Dave tried to snap some pics (none of which came out clear) then we tore ass. 

I did some research and found out the thing we encountered closely resembled the Jersey Devil.  This sparked an interest in the paranormal for the three of us that lasted well into our college years.  I became obsessed with the Jersey Devil and NJ paranormal, so I enrolled as a New Jersey History Major.  During the summers I worked at Allaire State Park as seasonal maintenance and had many encounters with panorama phenomena in the 18th century town buildings (To this day I will not go into James P. Allaire's mansion's cellar alone).  Tim went into parapsychology and spent his summers researching phenomena at Gettysburg and Pearl Harbor.  Dave enrolled as a communications major intent to revolutionize spiritual photography.

It was during the latter years of our college life that we founded the Jersey Devil Paranormal Society Club  to lead monthly expeditions into some of New Jersey's most haunted sites.  Things really started booming when my uncle bought Sickman's Mill, (listed as one of PA 10 most haunted sites) and we could guarantee a real spiritual encounter.   Soon these outings became very popular and Dave realized there was money in the paranormal.  During my senior year (2000) the three of us formed Jersey Devil Paranormal Services to provide paranormal investigations and ghost hunts at a reasonable fee.

Things were humming along good for us until May of 2002, when I met Rich Roy of the JerZey Ghostbusters.  A customer had inadvertently forgot to cancel our services when they ordered an investigation from the JZGB's.  Things were a little awkward until the class 5 started ripping apart a sofa, then Rich tossed me a Proton Pack and asked me to help.  I was in love. (with the equipment)  Rich was so impressed that he helped me get in contact with GBI and gave me plenty of assistance in how to create a franchise.  He even went as far as letting me bust a few ghost on Halloween 2002.  GHOSTBUSTERS-NJ was born.