Jason Hawes

Personal life

Jason Hawes was born in Canandaigua, New York, and moved to Warwick, Rhode Island, in 1979. He claims that at age twenty, after a girlfriend who practiced Reiki manipulated his life force energy, he started seeing apparitions. Paranormal researcher John Zaffis told Hawes that he was becoming sensitive to paranormal phenomena. In 1990, Hawes founded the Rhode Island Paranormal Society (RIPS) as a support group for people who had paranormal experiences. At twenty-two, he founded TAPS and co-created the major television hit Ghost Hunters, which became the flagship show of the Syfy Channel and made it one of the top watched channels on cable. The show's initial run ended in 2016, although it was revived for a 12th season in 2019 without Hawes's participation, though he was mentioned in two episodes of the A&E version by Grant Wilson. By that time, Hawes had opted to create his own show, Ghost Nation, with Ghost Hunters alumni Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango, which aired on the Travel Channel from October 2019 until the series ended in 2021 when the trio returned to Ghost Hunters after it moved to Travel Channel. Hawes has written two books on the paranormal and four sci-fi/thriller screenplays. He and fellow TAPS founder Grant Wilson are longtime co-workers at their day job as plumbers for Roto-Rooter, with Hawes being the one who brought Wilson into the plumbing business. Hawes has mentioned on several occasions he has a fondness for beanie hats with brims. The two are former co-owners of the Spalding Inn in Whitefield, New Hampshire, which they sold in the summer of 2014. Hawes has used public ghost hunting events and personal appearances to raise money for charities such as the Shriners Hospitals for Children and Cure Kids Cancer. In March 2005, a 51-year-old man named Barry Clinton Eckstrom from Upper St. Clair Township, Pennsylvania, began sending threatening emails to Hawes. Hawes alerted the FBI in Providence. When the emails began including threats against then President George W. Bush, the Secret Service became involved. Eckstrom also used Hawes's name to send emails to some female members of TAPS, threatening to rape and murder them. While under surveillance by federal agents, Eckstrom used a Bethel Park, Pennsylvania library computer to send an email in Hawes's name to Roto-Rooter's Cincinnati headquarters, threatening to shoot employees there. Next, Eckstrom typed a message threatening to kill President Bush, again in Hawes's name, using the Department of Homeland Security's website. Before he could send the message, he was arrested. Because of these activities, Eckstrom was sentenced to two years in federal prison in January 2006.