By Laura D.C Kolnoski
MONMOUTH COUNTY – Do you believe in ghosts, aka paranormal activity? Gregg Caggiano and his investigative team at Ghosts on the Coast NJ do. They also recognize hooey when they see it.
Caggiano is an award-winning historian, lecturer, author and consultant with a degree in history from New Jersey City University and teaching certifications in history and elementary education from Brookdale Community College. Since 2015, he has lectured in Brookdale’s Lifelong Learning Department.
An expert on Sandy Hook’s marine life and military history, Caggiano served as a field guide at the park and continues working there with Clean Ocean Action. He lectures on an array of topics at colleges, libraries, museums and historic sites, including Murphy’s Tavern in Rumson, a Prohibition-era speakeasy.
“I always loved history and grew up watching shows like ‘Unsolved Mysteries,’ ” he said. His parents regularly took him to reenactment events for the battles of Monmouth and Gettysburg, the latter falling on his birthday.
The Holmdel resident founded GOTCNJ in 2015, which attracts over 33,000 followers on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. He and his team of principal co-investigators – Patty Bickauskas, Brett Bodner and Christian Seuffert, all of Monmouth County – delve into potentially haunted places, crimes and pirates from Rahway to Cape May.
“There is perhaps no area of New Jersey richer in history than the Bayshore,” Caggiano said. “The coastline has been witness to Lenape Indians, early European explorers, American Revolutionary War battles, Prohibition-era mobsters and rumrunners and numerous murders, some unsolved to this day. This has led to not only three centuries of history, but endless myths and legends and rumors of ghostly encounters and hauntings.”
Caggiano got his first taste of the paranormal while volunteering at Perth Amboy’s 1764 Proprietary House, the governor’s mansion of Benjamin Franklin’s son William, said to be haunted.
While a teacher and hockey coach at Mother Teresa Regional School in Atlantic Highlands, he became a Halloween tour guide at the Atlantic Highlands Historical Society’s Strauss Mansion, the Queen Anne-style home overlooking Raritan Bay built in the 1890s for Adolph Strauss, founder of Abraham & Strauss department stores. Caggiano conducted events there for years, served on the board of directors and continues to volunteer.
Paranormal activity was detected during his investigations of the mansion. A security camera picked up a piano playing in the parlor, then captured something else two weeks later.
“The footage began at 12:40 a.m. despite there being no movement to trigger filming and there was a bang within the house,” he said. “A shadow darts from the left side of the foyer entrance to the right of the front door.” The team tried to determine if it was caused by a passing car, but no vehicle was detected.
“We cannot 100% confirm what happens in the video is paranormal, but there was no person present in the house and we tried to replicate every possible incident which caused this, to no avail,” Caggiano said.
At Port Monmouth’s historic Spy House (the Seabrook-Wilson House), rumors of strange occurrences are rampant, but “no outstanding evidence” of paranormal activity was found by GOTCNJ.
“Discovering that nearly everything about the Spy House’s ‘pop culture’ is false is disappointing, but as an educator and historian, it is a necessary part of the job,” Caggiano said, adding he and his team are always skeptical of paranormal claims. “Most of the exciting stories told about the building were made up by a former caretaker.”
“Obviously, we believe, but with so much rubbish out there, mainly psychics and attention-seekers who create shock value content, we try to painstakingly debunk not only instances of paranormal activity, but myths and legends as well. I believe that is why our channel is so popular and why we have been given access to private residences and established historic sites.”
Ghosts on the Coast NJ was the first team allowed to investigate Marlpit Hall and the Taylor-Butler House in Middletown, and Covenhoven House in Freehold by the Monmouth County Historical Association.
“The people overseeing such sites know we are going to focus on the history and also be sane with our findings,” Caggiano said, explaining investigations begin with copious research. On scene, electromagnetic field detectors and meters are employed, along with a “spirit box radio,” which scans radio frequencies. Set to sweep, the equipment creates static white noise and “sometimes voices come through,” he said.
Echoes of the Past
Monmouth County’s Deep Cut Gardens was commissioned by notorious mobster Vito Genovese, modeled after his home in Naples, Italy. He lived there from 1935 until 1937. Half of the 54 acres was donated to the Monmouth County Park system in the 1970s.
“Not much went on there,” Caggiano said of his team’s investigation. “We got a voice saying ‘Anna’ on the box.” In the 1990s, he noted, someone reportedly saw a ghost of a previous owner’s cat.
“Sometimes paranormal investigating spins you in different directions,” he said. “We must examine or call into question something that is of this earth, rather than something supernatural. We can’t prove anything is paranormal, but we can prove what is not.”
Most recently, GOTCNJ has been investigating the Jonathan Cooper House on Rumson’s Hance Road, a private home built in 1877, the site of two murders and “bizarre occurrences” as well as Prohibition bootlegging. Work halted when they encountered a filled-in tunnel and two brick walls. The team was able to get a camera on a wire inside, but opening the wall could pose structural problems. He said the owners “are thinking about it.”
“Between the sealed bootlegging tunnel and speakeasy room, there was a lot of potential,” Caggiano said. “Unfortunately, our cameras could only uncover a single box. We will return for a paranormal investigation.”
Author of books, articles, and publications, Caggiano’s work has been referenced in the New York Daily News, The New York Times, and on “The Today Show.” A lifelong culinary devotee and lecturer on food, beverage and hospitality, Caggiano also works at his friend’s Family Tavola restaurants in Little Silver and Point Pleasant.
Caggiano returns to Strauss Mansion this October. Upcoming lectures exploring the Titanic, Monmouth County cemeteries, “The Haunted History of New Jersey” and more are scheduled through October 29 can be found at gregcaggiano.com.
The article originally appeared in the September 11 – September 17, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
