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Tech professor featured as expert guest on Travel Channel’s “The Dead Files”
Tech associate professor of history Paula Hinton speaks with show co-host and former
NYPD homicide detective Steve DiSchiavi on location at Lantana Cemetery in Crossville
on a recent episode of “The Dead Files.”
A Tennessee Tech University faculty member is making an appearance on the Travel Channel’s
long-running paranormal crime series, “The Dead Files” – but thankfully not as the
primary subject.
Paula Hinton, associate professor of history at Tech, appears on two episodes of the
hit show this season as an expert guest. One episode, “Isolated,” which first aired
on Oct. 12, finds Hinton on location at Lantana Cemetery in Crossville, Tennessee
where she offers viewers a history lesson on some of the cemetery’s most notable inhabitants.
Another episode, “The Eternal Haunting,” airs Oct. 19 and finds Hinton sharing accounts
of a Civil War-era train robbery and the storied history of Franklin, Kentucky’s Octagon
Hall – a museum and landmark that previously served as a residence, school, hospital,
and hideout for confederate soldiers during the Civil War.
“I was a fan of the show, so it was really neat,” said Hinton, reflecting on the experience.
“It was also a bit overwhelming because I wanted to get it right.”
Premiering in 2011, “The Dead Files” features a psychic and a former homicide detective
who investigate allegedly haunted locations at the request of clients who write into
the show.
For Hinton, the topic was a natural fit. At Tech, her courses include student favorites
such as, “Ghosts, Myths and Legends in American History," "The History of Crime in
America," and "Women Who Kill." Still, the show’s format required her to be a quick
study.
“There was a lot of work involved,” said Hinton, “The way the show works, they give
you 10 to 20 possible angles or topics that could be unearthed during the psychic
and homicide detective’s investigations. About 20 hours before my interviews took
place, they called to say, ‘These are the topics we will end up using.’”
Hinton traces her own interest in true crime to her early days as an undergraduate
student.
“I knew I would be a history major, but I didn’t have a focus yet,” said Hinton. “One
semester, I took three really tough seminars: one on the Holocaust, one on African
American history and one on women’s history. I had listened to these terrible stories
of people being so badly victimized. When it came time to do my research paper in
my women’s history class, I thought ‘I cannot do any more victims.’ What’s the opposite
of a victim? It’s a perpetrator. So, I did my research paper on women who committed
murder.”
Hinton says her research for the television series also provided creative inspiration
for her lesson plans at Tech.
“The train robbery that we discuss in the second episode will definitely be coming
up in my history of crime class,” added Hinton. “And the episode we filmed at the
cemetery in Crossville gave me a deeper appreciation for the many individual stories
that a cemetery holds. Each person buried there has a story that is compelling to
one degree or another.”
Among the stories from the cemetery that most moved Hinton was that of a soldier who,
in 1950, was on a military plane traveling from Alaska to Montana and disappeared
over the Canadian wilderness. Forty-four passengers vanished, never to be found. The
soldier’s mother waited nearly a decade before finally accepting that her son had
perished and placing a marker in the cemetery.
The experience also caused Hinton to reflect on a beloved colleague and renowned authority
on Tennessee history: the late Tech Professor Michael “Birdie” Birdwell, who passed
away last year.
“He wouldn’t have even needed to look anything up!” said Hinton. “He was an absolute
expert on Tennessee history. I thought about him a lot and kept thinking this would
have been perfect for him.”
With a television credit under her belt and the memory of her friend and coworker
close at hand, Hinton continues to teach history – with a twist.
“I’m teaching regular history but it’s through different glasses, glasses that are
maybe a little more fun and intriguing,” concluded Hinton.
“The Dead Files” airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. central on The Travel Channel. Learn more
at www.travelchannel.com/shows/the-dead-files.
