Here is my story. I don't write real good so I asked a friend I work with to write it for me.
Someone once said that both the best and worst stories are the ones that are never told. Maybe that is true. I carry a good deal of stories from the time I attended Hyles Anderson College (HAC) and the years that I was a member of the First Baptist Church of Hammond (FBC).There was a post recently that referred to an incident that I thought was dead and buried and I hoped I would never have to speak of again. I was told that it would be in my very best interest to forget it and never mention it again. But the years have passed. Leadership at the church and college have changed. Maybe today is the day to tell this tale. My parents live in a different city than they did when this occurred. My brothers and sisters are grown and probably could not be found. I don’t think they would be harmed like I once feared they would. I think I am relatively safe.
There were many urban legends and myths that were attached to (FBC) and (HAC). At the college a new student quickly learned that there were secret tunnels running under the campus. New students were also told to beware strange people walking by themselves wearing trench coats indoors. Then there was the one about a peeping tom who prowled the rooftops trying to look into the windows of girl’s dorm rooms.
But what isn’t talked about here are the “legends†about the FBC property in downtown Hammond. The old FBC building at 523 Sibley was really 3 connected buildings with a brick façade. Facing the church from Sibley the auditorium was on the west, the educational building was in the middle, and Miller Hall was on the east. On the south side of Sibley was the 2 story Walker Building. As you went east on Sibley, the Minas parking lot was on the north, and the 3 story church parking garage was on the south. One block north was State St. On that street was the Spanish Auditorium, The Youth Center, The Annex, The Rescue Mission, The Powder Room, and The Siefer Building.
There are legends that have been associated with the property at 523 Sibley. There was a trap door under Jack Hyles desk from which he could escape in the event he needed to get out of the office in a hurry. There was the man who brought a rifle into a Sunday Morning service. There was the man who came forward and professed to be saved then handed Bro. Hyles a handgun and told him, I was paid to kill you but I want to get saved instead. There was the strange smell that emanated from the basement of Miller Hall. For that matter there was the really strange smell that emanated from the auditorium restrooms on the mezzanine level between the main floor and balcony. Then there was the intruder that shot a security guard one night while he was in the upstairs women’s powder room. Unexplained pops and noises. Footsteps heard in empty buildings. Sometimes you would sit in church and wonder what could happen next.
But the post from a few days ago jogged my memory and the feelings I have lived with for so long have returned. Was there really a secret group that spied on the pastoral staff, school faculty, staff members and students? Were listening devices installed in the buildings, offices, and work areas? Jack Hyles and his staff just always seemed to know what was going on. A staff member would have a need, Jack Hyles would be there to help. Someone on the staff had an emergency and had to take a trip, Jack Hyles always knew and would help pay for it. A staff member would utter words meant in confidence and those words would be repeated in sermons or meetings.
At HAC among the students it was even more eerie. Students at HAC would get in trouble and no one could explain how the discipline committee would know. Something would be said among friends and very soon after that a staff member would show up and take that student with them, never to be seen again. Their belongings would just disappear and someone else would show up to take their place. Unapproved music would be played in the dorms and demerits would appear on a student’s demerit report. Fights would take place as certain students would be called narcs and tattletales and security would show up to rescue the guy in time. It was as if the leadership knew everything about you. No one knew how they were found out. No one has talked. Until today.
I became an officer of the Hyles Anderson College Security Department in 1985. Very soon after I found that there were perks to the job. Free coffee and other foods, along with passes to be out of the dorms at all hours. A special unsupervised security dorm at Baptist City that gave you a private room. In my room there I found that I could hide a television set above the ceiling tiles in the corner. There was a special football and basketball team just for security guards. And I didn’t have to go to church. It was great. And best of all. You knew everything that was going on. All the news and every bit of gossip was known to our little group. It was a very well connected job.
In addition to other assignments I was assigned to work 4 nights a week at the church property in Hammond. On most nights it was long and boring. The hardest thing you had to do was keep from falling asleep. Generally when you started your tour you dropped off your things in the closet in the hallway near Jack Hyles office. There was a chair outside his door and that is where you sat when you weren’t making rounds. Every hour you had to walk on the outside of all buildings and check the doors to make sure they were locked from the outside. After this was completed you radioed in and said that all was secure.
But once a night, or about every 6 hours you had to open every building FBC owned in Hammond and walk through them. This was to make sure there was no fire or intruders. Sometimes this was enjoyable and sometimes not. It was very boring and tedious. But it was your job, your duty, so you did it. You would start with the Walker Building, then work your way through the Sibley buildings, Miller Hall, educational and auditorium. Then the buildings on the south side of State St. You would then work your way up State St and finish with the Siefer Building.
When a security guard drove to work he often parked in the little lot next to Miller Hall called the staff lot. Though it took me some time to notice, there was something odd about that little parking lot. There were always the same 5 or 6 cars parked there at night. The cars were always the same but after several years working I noticed that the first of June every year the types cars that were parked in that lot changed. I asked someone and got a lot of different answers. The most believable was that the church had an agreement with homeowners who lived nearby to park there.
I really liked working at the church. There were so many old buildings that had so many nooks and crannies that it was fun to explore, and to be honest, I searched them all. At least all I could anyways. There were some places that were off limits. The first week I was training, a guy named Jimmy was showing me the ropes. As we moved from building to building he described the places that were off limits. The basement of the Siefer Building, the Rescue Mission and the sub basement of Miller Hall were all places we were to avoid. I guess what fascinated me were the places I was not supposed to be so I was constantly trying to gain access to those places. Now I can say my curiosity is what got me in trouble.
One night after I had been working for about 4 years I was making the nightly rounds. I was almost finished and the only building left to check was Miller Hall. I would always walk through a building from the top floor and make my way down to the basement. Now to be honest, Miller Hall was the most boring building to walk through. It was kept relatively clean, and there never was anyone there. But I did my duty. I looked in every room, tried every handle. It was the same as most nights, all doors were locked, everything was secure. I remember going into the basement. For some reason that basement fascinated me. Built in the early 1900’s the basement had been a swimming pool. The pool was gone but I still found it fascinating to walk around trying to place where everything then had been.
At the bottom of the basement stairway there was another flight of stairs that led down to a lower landing. There was a door on that landing and it looked like there could be a level under the basement. When I was in training the guy who trained me told me not to try to open that door. It was always locked and it was no concern of ours. He speculated that it was a room that had all the old pool equipment. On this night I was really curious. I walked down that lower flight of stairs and tried to open the door. It was locked. So I pulled out my giant roll of keys. And I tried each one in the lock. There must have been twenty-five keys on that ring. After I had tried most of the keys I pushed one in about halfway and turned the handle. To my surprise the door opened. The lights were off but about 5 feet in front of me was another door. This one had no lock and so I turned the handle and opened it.
It opened into a large, well lit room and I utterly stunned. I was amazed by what I saw. There were several tables set up in a long row. On each table was what looked like an electrical box with many wires coming from the front. There were sets of headphones coming out of each box and on each table were at least 3 reel-to-reel tape machines. I was in shock. It was as if I was in a different building from FBC. This room shouldn’t have been here. I slowly walked down the row wondering what I had stumbled on to. One of the boxes had a piece of masking tape stuck on it and written there was the word Prophets. The next box had a piece of tape that said John Rice. Another box had written on it the word Jones. Another had the word Admin, and another had written on it Faculty I, and another Faculty II. I saw that each of these electrical boxes was labeled from a part of the college campus. Then there was a box labeled church staff, and another labeled HB1, and another HB2.
I almost fainted. It was hard to breathe as the realization struck me. The rumors were true. I had stumbled upon a recording center. The people I worked for and who taught me, the people I prayed for and worshiped with every Sunday were spying on me and everyone else that worked for them.
When I gathered my composure I took a step toward one of the tables. On each table was a notebook with strange writing on it. Then it dawned on me. Shorthand. Whoever ran this place was listening to the recordings and then transcribing them.
I stumbled back to the door. I closed it as quietly as I could. I shut the outside door and as quietly as I could crept up the stairs to the hallway outside Jack Hyles’ office. My hands were shaking as I took my hand held radio and called in the code to tell the dispatcher that I had completed my rounds. As I tell this story on this day I wonder if the shakiness of my voice gave away that something was very wrong with me.
I tried to put out of my mind what I had seen. The next few hours seemed to pass very slowly. It was hard to go about business as usual. My fellow officers and shift commander called and would come by and I tried to act as if nothing had happened. Finally it was time to go home. I got in my car and drove to my room at Baptist City. I cleaned up and readied for the day.
I arrived at the main campus and went to my first class. It was hard to focus on studying the Bible when I had the incident of the previous night running through my head. Finally the bell rang and class was over. As I was leaving class, one of my security buddies was waiting for me at the door. He said that the chief needed to see me immediately. We went downstairs, which was odd because the chief’s office was upstairs. I was ushered into a room and there were several people there. On the desk in front of me was the TV set I kept hidden in the ceiling of my room. The man in the middle started asking me questions. I tried not to lose my composure but the next few minutes were a blur. I was peppered with questions most of which I could not answer. I was accused of breaking many rules, some I had broken, some I hadn’t.
After what seemed a very long time, I was informed that I was immediately expelled. I was to leave Hyles Anderson College and never come back. I remember asking if I could have my property back and he just smiled and said no. As I got up from my chair I noticed 2 men were in the room that I hadn’t realized before. They were in a back corner of the big office and had stayed silent the whole time. I didn’t know their names but I had seen them at church. One was an usher in the balcony and another I had seen in the choir. When they looked at me and I felt a chill go through my body.
As I left the room my security buddy escorted me to another office. The men from the church who were in the office followed me. They produced 8â€x10†pictures of my family’s house and property, and told me it would be in my best interest to never come back to Northwest Indiana.
I drove back to Baptist City. There were 2 guards outside my door. They said nothing to me. As quickly as I could I stuffed all my belongings in my car and drove away. I won’t bore you with the rest of my story. It has been a hard road.
Thank you for reading. It feels like a load has finally been lifted. Up to that night I enjoyed my time at Hyles Anderson but I know I can never go back. All I can say is that, it is what it is.
Thank you,
Scott Johnson
April 1, 2015
