Episode 007: Hauntings

Hello, my nefarious nyctophiles and nighttime wanderers. I was so hard at work on our new space noir audio-drama, Confessions from the Nocturne Nebula, that I hardly had time to think about anything else, including these little chats of ours. But I’m excited to sink back into our dark dealings and have an extra special episode planned for you today. Yes, today, I’d like to talk to you about hauntings. Now, it might surprise you to discover that it’s not just ghosts that can haunt, but demons or other supernatural beings can take up the charge of haunting a particular person, family, or location. But, for today’s conversation, I would like to talk about places that are considered haunted. And, more specifically, places in the United States. Now, the United States of America was founded back in 1776 so it’s still a relatively new country but that doesn’t mean it lacks a rich ghostly history. No, no, no, my friends. Quite the contrary. America is rife with spectors and apparitions. I have personally visited more than my fair share of purportedly haunted locations, though I have yet to see any actual ghost activity, but I’m sure most of us can name at least one place we know with claims of supernatural occurrences. Even my husband, when he learned about the topic of this episode, shouted out “Haunted Toys’R Us!” Now, he would argue that he didn’t exactly shout this, but it is otherwise true…. Much to my surprise. Yes, Sunnyvale, California, where my bridegroom was born, laid claim to a haunted toy store. The Toys ‘R Us was constructed in 1970 and, shortly thereafter, strange occurrences in the store brought it to the attention of those interested in the paranormal. Faucets would turn on and off all by themselves, staff would hear their name being called when no one was around, toys would fly off the shelves, and people reported feeling phantom touches. Eventually psychic Sylvia Browne was called in to conduct a series of seances, in part for the television show, “That’s Incredible”. Browne claimed the ghost haunting the rows of carefully packaged toys was Jan "Johnny" Johnson, a traveling preacher from Sweden and sometimes farmworker, who suffered a broken heart and then an ax injury while chopping wood that left him slowly bleeding until he died on the land where the Toy R Us stood from 1970 until 2018. Now, I don’t know how much that story of Johnny Johnson holds water, but Snopes considers the haunting of the Sunnyvale Toys R Us a verified urban legend. As mentioned, the store closed in 2018, but the location reopened in late 2019 - that’s this year - as a SPIRIT Halloween store. My guess is, they don’t mind the extra spookiness brought on by a ghost there. Anyway, moving right along. Perhaps the most famous haunted house in the United States is the Dutch Colonial located at 112 Ocean Avenue on the south shore of Long Island, New York, made famous by The Amityville Horror. In this house, Ronald DeFeo Jr., also called Butch, murdered six members of his family with a shotgun on November 13, 1974. [3] Now, the thing is, I could spend an entire episode talking about just this house. And I plan to do just that. So let me offer a painfully brief synopsis for now. Defeo was convicted of second-degree murder the following November and, in December of that same year, George and Kathy Lutz moved into the house with their three children and their dog, Harry. What ensued was a nightmare of Hollywood proportions that included demonic apparitions, oozing walls, and bodily levitation. After taking up residence in December of 1975, the Lutz family moved out promptly on January 14, 1976. Roughly twenty films were inspired by this short stint at 112 Ocean Avenue which still stands today although the address has been changed to prevent a deluge of tourists and horror hounds from flocking to the location regularly. As I mentioned, I plan to delve into this topic further in the future, but for now, we must be brief. My home state of Arizona could take up a year of shows with all its ghost towns and haunted sites. From the Monte Vista Hotel in Flagstaff where John Wayne reportedly saw a ghost in his room back in the 1950s [5] to the Copper Queen Hotel of Bisbee where the ghost of Julia Lowell, a prostitute who killed herself for love, still whispers in the ears of male guests and staff. But the Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone is believed to be the most haunted location in the state. The saloon and brothel in one of the West’s Wildest cities was open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and it boasts 140 bullet holes in its walls today from that tumultuous time. And, as Destination Strange on Roadtrippers.com points out, those are just the bullets that missed. Yep, according to most estimations, a total of 26 people died during the operation of what The New York Times called “…wildest, wickedest night spot between Basin and Barbary Coast,” back in 1882. [6] But perhaps the most grisly murder to take place in the Bird Cage happened when a high-stakes gambler named Billy Milgreen captured the eye of two women of the night: Margarita and Gold Dollar. Now, Gold Dollar was none too happy about the divided attentions so she attacked Margarita with a double-edged stiletto, repeatedly stabbing her in the chest. Margarita died and Gold Dollar fled the scene. When she was apprehended, the murder weapon could not be found so no charges were filed. A hundred years after the fact, a stiletto was found tucked away behind the theatre and now sits on proud display inside. [7] Of course, more of our local listeners might find it more interesting that, according to Kristin Hunt of Thrillist, Casey Moore's in Tempe is home to not one, but two ghosts: Sarah, who was strangled by her lover on the grounds, and an unnamed young boy whose photograph was found onsite when the building was going through renovations some years back. [8] All the Arizona haunted sites might pale against the Crescent Hotel of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, however, which identifies itself as “America’s Most Haunted Hotel” on its own website [9] and Legends of America lists a host of ghostly spirits that walk the halls, including Michael, a redheaded stonemason from Ireland brought over to help with the construction of the building in 1885 who then fell from the roof and landed on the second floor where Room 218 stands today. There’s also a nurse dressed all in white who remains from when the Crescent Hotel was known as Baker's Cancer Hospital, a medical institution that dealt more in patient fraud than actual healing and that old quack Doctor Baker himself has stuck around too plus a cancer patient who calls herself Theodora and likes to pop in and out of the Crescent’s second floor. While the first floor is largely populated by spirits in Victorian garb - sitting at tables, standing by the stairs, appearing in mirrors. Really, it’s almost too much to keep track of all the ghosts that creep around the Crescent Hotel. But when a building has gone through as many years and transformations as the Crescent, the ghosts start to gather. [10] Now, the Whaley House in San Diego was built in 1857 which is way before the movie Poltergeist came into being so I guess they didn't realize that you shouldn't build a house on top of a graveyard. The Scots-Irish Thomas Whaley was born in 1823 in New York City and took over his father's successful business operations in 1849 before setting off for San Francisco during the California gold rush. He then moved to San Diego in 1851 and stayed there for two years before heading back to New York in search of a bride. Thomas Whaley met Anna Eloise Delaunay and, once they were wed, they returned to San Diego together in 1853 and moved into their new home, The Whaley House, in 1857. Anna and Thomas had six children together, one of whom, Thomas Whaley, Jr., died of scarlet fever at only 18 months old. The death of their infant son was followed by the loss of the family store to a fire and that store was part of the Whaley’s actual home. At this point the family decided they were dealing with some bad luck and packed up to move to San Francisco, leaving the house and local business affairs in the hands of another for the next nine years [11] before returning to the San Diego home to see if they had shaken off their rotten luck. Some time after returning to the Whaley House, two of the Whaley daughters, Violet Eloise and Anna Amelia, were both married on January 5, 1882, Anna married her first cousin, John T. Whaley, while Violet married one George Bertolacci. Now, I know what you’re thinking. First cousins? Ew, gross. But Violet actually seems to be the one that really got the short end of the stick here. Bertolacci proved to be quite the disreputable fellow and only married the Whaley daughter for her dowry. While the couple was heading back East for their honeymoon, poor Mrs. Bertolacci woke up to find her husband gone. Of course, this being the Victorian era, Violet was shunned by polite society after returning home. At 22 years of age, she shot herself in the chest with her father’s 32-calibre gun. Once again, the family moved out of the Whaley House following tragedy, for two decades this time, and the house fell into disrepair, but Francis Whaley, Thomas’s oldest son, took up renovation in 1909 and the remaining family resumed residence. All in all, six family members died inside the Whaley house. In the modern day, guests and the staff have claimed to catch visions of these family members moving about the premises or making strange noises. Life magazine called The Whaley House “the most haunted house in America” in 2005. But, the hauntings might have started even before the Whaleys took up their occupancy. The Whaley family “told the San Diego Union that they heard heavy footsteps in the house which they believed to be the ghost of James "Yankee Jim" Robinson, who had earlier been hanged on the property for stealing a boat.” [11] And I did mention that bit about the house being built on the site of an old graveyard, right? Way I see it, The Whaley House didn’t have much of a chance of avoiding hauntings. This next haunted mansion stands as a testament that achieving the American Dream does not always mean finding happiness in this world. The Winchester Mystery House, constructed under the direction sweet of Sarah Winchester, is a 24,000 square foot mansion that contains 160 rooms, 10k windows, 2k doors, 27 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 17 chimneys, 13 bathrooms, and six kitchens. Yes, six kitchens. [12] Sarah Lockwood Winchester was the widow of William Wirt Winchester of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. In 1873, the Winchester rifle Model 73 was released and this is important for two reasons. First, the gun became known as the "Gun that Won the West" and Sarah Winchester eventually came to believe the spirits of all those killed by Winchester rifles were after her. [13] Sarah lost her only child, a daughter, as an infant, and her husband’s loss soon thereafter had her worried that her life was plagued by tragedy so, as the story goes, she visited a psychic who channeled her dead husband. It was through this medium that Sarah Winchester was told to move west and begin construction on a house and to never stop construction. Only that would keep her safe from the ghosts of all those killed by Winchester rifles. And, with the death of her husband, Sarah had inherited a monumental amount. More than $20 million which would be more than half a billion dollars today. She also received nearly 50% of the ownership of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company which yielded an additional thousand dollars a day. That would be about $26k in the present day. And, as anyone who watches HGTV can tell you, that’s quite a home renovation budget. [14] So Sarah bought an 8-room farmhouse in California and got to work in 1884. Some say, men worked day and night until her death in 1922 on the construction of the 7-floor mansion. Other accounts say that Sarah took breaks on occasion so that she could rest from the ever present workers and the noise they made. The 1906 earthquake damaged the mansion. And today, it stands only four stories high. But what makes the Winchester Mystery House such a mystery? That has something to do with the way the house was constructed. See, Sarah didn’t use an architect to oversee the operation. Instead, she simply kept adding on to the structure and adding design elements meant to confuse any potential ghosts sent to haunt her, like staircases that lead nowhere and decoy restrooms. Whether the garbled together construction or the trickery in design concocted by Sarah, the Winchester Mystery House has an undeniably spooky feel and visitors insist it’s haunted. Sarah Winchester herself never claimed to see ghostly apparitions but some people have said they’ve seen a worker in white overalls pushing a wheelbarrow on the property. [15] And the house was featured on the show Ghost Adventures. Well, I would certainly love to keep chatting about haunted locations around the country but that’s all the time we have for today so come back next month for Part Two and I’ll share a bit more about my favorite purportedly haunted site in the United States. Maybe you can guess where it is? Until then, I hope you have magic dreams and moonlit nights. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Morticians Daughter and thank you to Tempe Organics for supporting this episode. Haunting was written and performed by Carly Schorman. And produced by Mark Anderson and the team at YabYum Music and Arts. -- [1] https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/haunted-Toys-R-Us-bay-area-sf-ghost-14461699.php [2] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/haunted-toys-r-us/ [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_DeFeo_Jr. [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amityville_Horror [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reportedly_haunted_locations_in_the_United_States [6] https://maps.roadtrippers.com/stories/the-ghosts-of-the-wild-west-are-still-raging-at-tombstones-bird-cage-theater [7] https://www.travelchannel.com/shows/ghost-adventures/articles/bird-cage-theaters-haunted-history [8] Thrillist - https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/haunted-restaurants-and-bars-in-america [9] https://crescent-hotel.com/blog/unexplained-happenings-at-americas-most-haunted-hotel/ [10] https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ar-crescenthotel/2/ [11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaley_House_(San_Diego,_California) [12] https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/sarahs-story/ [13] https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/timeline/ [14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House [15] https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2018/01/30/winchester-house-helen-mirren-true-story/1076785001/