Ghost tours nationwide have an axe to grind with Lizzie Borden House owner: 'Infuriating'
Dan Medeiros The Herald News Published 4:01 a.m. ET Oct. 5, 2023
Updated 11:45 a.m. ET Oct. 6, 2023
FALL RIVER — When Jeanine Plumer read the news that U.S. Ghost Adventures, the owners of the Lizzie Borden House, were claiming trademark infringement against neighboring café Miss Lizzie’s Coffee, she had to laugh at the irony.
U.S. Ghost Adventures, she said, “has done that to all of us.”
Plumer founded and owns Austin Ghost Tours, a company that has guided tourists through the spookier side of Austin, Texas, since 1996.
She is also in contact with many locally owned ghost tour operators who have grievances against U.S. Ghost Adventures and its owner, Lance Zaal. She and others allege that the company, which advertises ghost tours in 79 locations nationwide including Fall River, has moved into their cities, used similar names to existing businesses, infringed on trademarks, taken ideas from their businesses, and created confusion for customers by making it seem as if they’re connected — the same kind of accusations U.S. Ghost Adventures has made against Miss Lizzie’s Coffee.
“If that’s not the pot calling the kettle black, I don’t know what is," said Jarrod Riddle, a historian and owner of Spirit of Arizona Tours in Phoenix, who said he thinks U.S. Ghost Adventures guides may have copied stories from his tour. “There’s no doubt about it that this guy is not original, between where he opens up a tour, what he calls a tour … this guy is not original.” Zaal did not respond to multiple attempts to contact him for this story via phone, text, and email.
Orlando: Causing customer confusion in the ghost tour business
Ting Rappa is the owner of American Ghost Adventures in Florida, a corporation she registered in 2010. Since then, the year-round business leads guests on tours of downtown Orlando and other communities in search of spirits — literally, in the case of her haunted pub crawls. She said she met with Zaal in 2016 in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he lived and a business he founded, Innovation Works LLC, is headquartered. “He proposed to me at that time the start of what he has now," Rappa said. “He said he was looking to do some big things throughout the nation, and I think that Orlando would be a fantastic market.”
Rappa said that Zaal wanted to join her in American Ghost Adventures. According to a July 8, 2016, email sent by Zaal to Rappa provided to The Herald News, Zaal said he “would like to become a partner with you.”
“I'm not very familiar with ghost hunts, and I don't want to mess with what you have going on there, but I do believe I can do some great things with you in Orlando,” he wrote at the time.
Rappa said she asked Zaal whether a partnership meant she would have a piece of his businesses — she said he told her no, that he just wanted to be a partner in her tour business.
“I said, 'That doesn’t work for me. I’m doing well on my own,'” she said.
According to incorporation records, a few months after their meeting, Zaal got into the ghost tour business in Williamsburg, founding Colonial Ghosts LLC in October 2016.
“He liked the name American Ghost Adventures so much. The next thing I know, he names his company U.S. Ghost Adventures," Rappa said. U.S. Ghost Adventures was incorporated in 2020. "Not U.S. Ghost Tours, not U.S. something else, but mimicking mine almost 100 percent.”
U.S. Ghost Adventures currently offers tours of downtown Orlando and pub crawls. The two companies’ tours start about a half-mile apart.
“It causes confusion down here," Rappa said, adding that even Florida’s state department itself confused the two companies, sending her paperwork intended for USGA. “That’s how easily mistaken it is. It’s so close.”
'He mimics our name intentionally,' Austin Ghost Tours operator claims
Plumer’s company, Austin Ghost Tours, has filed paperwork with the state of Texas to do business as both "Austin Ghosts" and "Austin Ghost." The first Google search result for Austin ghost tours is austinghosts.com — a website for U.S. Ghost Adventures. They also operate tours there under the name Austin Ghosts.Plumer's company is at austinghosttours.com. This has caused considerable customer confusion, she said. “They meet where we meet. Go to the same locations that we go to," Plumer said. “He mimics our name intentionally to confuse customers.”
U.S. Ghost Adventures and Austin Ghost Tours meet two blocks apart. One of the stops on the U.S. Ghost Adventures tour is the spot where Austin Ghost Tours meets.
In many cities where USGA operates, but not all, USGA uses similar names to tours that existed before it moved in. Providence Ghost Tours is locally owned since 2007; USGA owns Ghosts of Providence. Then there’s Ghosts of Newport, locally owned since 2002, versus Newport Ghosts, USGA-owned. The owners of both local companies said they knew of the rival company, but had little or no contact with it.
Across the country, a representative from Haunted San Diego Ghost Tours, who declined to be named for this story, said USGA’s San Diego Ghosts has made things difficult for the company and confusing for customers.
“We've had instances of their customers showing up at our meeting locations, mistaking us for them, and vice versa,” the representative said. “Their lack of clear communication has resulted in misplaced calls from their customers seeking directions because they have no phone number on their site and the customer did not know what else to do.”
Baltimore: 'He did to us exactly what he’s accusing these other people of doing'
In the dispute over the “Lizzie Borden” service mark, The Herald News received a press release on Sept. 7 claiming that both Zaal and Miss Lizzie’s Coffee owner Joseph Pereira “have cordially resolved the use of the of the Lizzie Borden name. The owner of Miss Lizzie’s coffee shop has agreed to change the name.” When a Herald News reporter contacted Pereira that day to verify the information, Pereira said he hadn't heard of any such agreement, was unaware of this press release, and hadn't agreed to change his coffee shop’s name. Pereira also said that Zaal was in the room with him, having traveled to Fall River to meet with him. When the reporter asked to speak with Zaal about the press release, Pereira said Zaal declined to come to the phone. A spokesperson for Interdependence Public Relations verified that Zaal’s company sent the press release.
But while Zaal has sought both informal deals and legal recourse from Miss Lizzie’s Coffee, one business owner who says she has been harmed by USGA has also tried both with no luck.
Melissa Rowell has been in business since 2007 as Baltimore Ghost Tours, with the website baltimoreghosttours.com. When USGA moved in a few years ago, it took the name Baltimore Ghosts with the website tourbaltimoreghosts.com.
“Once we got wind that they were using our name, which is service-marked, we sent [Zaal] a letter through our lawyer that said, ‘Hey, can you please change that to something a bit different?’” Rowell said.
Rowell provided legal documents from June 2021 from her attorney to Zaal, asking USGA to stop using their service-marked name and use another.
“Our understanding is that in at least four other cities, you have recently started a business of providing historical haunted tours in that city, and have chosen for your name the same name of an already-established business in that city,” Rowell’s attorneys wrote. “It is clear that your business plan is to ride the coattails of an established business, confuse consumers into contacting you for a tour … and provide your own service.”
Zaal’s lawyers responded by asserting that the company’s service mark was “merely generic.” They declined to change the company’s name, and added: “My client strongly denies it is engaged in any predatory behavior.”
Rowell said she can't do much else. “The only reason we haven’t filed an infringement suit is that we can’t afford it right now,” Rowell said.
Both tours begin across the street from one another.
A Google search for Baltimore Ghost Tours also reveals that the Google Business listing — a tab on the right side of the search page including hours, website and reviews — has information from both companies merged. She said she has no control over this Google Business listing and suspects USGA does. She alleges that USGA has been replying to positive reviews from her customers and deleting her own replies.
Rowell — and many other tour operators contacted — said she has no problem with business competition. “That’s fine. Just don’t try to confuse people and deceive them, and make them think that your company is ours that’s been around for 20 years. That’s all.
"He did to us exactly what he’s accusing these other people of doing, which is using their trademark," Rowell said. “It’s very ironic, and it’s absolutely infuriating.”
Salem tour operator: 'Nobody owns the history'
In a business where the product is supernatural folklore, it can be difficult to tell where stories originated. Jarrod Riddle, of Spirit of Phoenix, said he’s a historian whose tours are more based in true crime than the supernatural. He started his business in 2019, with USGA opening up in town a year or so later. He said he’s done deep dives into dark chapters of local history “that you would never find on a map." “And all of a sudden, that’s two of [USGA’s] stops,” Riddle said. Riddle said he has not taken a USGA tour to double-check if his stories are being used by the rival company. But he said he has seen tours at locations in downtown Phoenix that his tour uses, but which have no previously documented ghost hauntings or supernatural activity. He said he gets along well with other tour operators, but is irritated by USGA. “Maybe I’m taking it a little personally because I’m a historian, but I just don’t like someone coming into my city, trying to tell my city’s story, and they’re not even from here," he said. Giovanni Alabiso
of the Haunted Footsteps Ghost Tour in Salem — the Witch City, where every autumn multiple ghost tours can be found sharing the same narrow streets — said the theft of intellectual property by rivals sometimes happens, and is difficult to prove. “That’s kind of everybody, though — that's not unique to [USGA],” Alabiso said. "The history is the history. Nobody owns the history,” he said. “But when they start telling personal stories that you’re telling … when other companies start doing that, we start taking a little notice.” Alabiso said he and his guides have not had direct dealings with Zaal’s company, except to say several rival tour companies get along and have tried to start a tour association, but USGA “had no interest in joining.” “They don’t want to be part of the community. They just want the almighty dollar.” Alabiso added: “I’m very happy that somebody opened up [Miss] Lizzie’s [Coffee], giving him a taste of his own medicine.”
Dan Medeiros can be reached at dmedeiros@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.
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