In addition, I figured we would have a fun little something on here for our Halloween extravaganza. Here is what we have today.
Haunted Places Of California
The Winchester Mansion
San Jose, California
Sarah Winchester built her 700-room house in San Jose, California, from plans channeled to her by benevolent spirits to protect her from the phantoms of Indians killed by the rifle that bears her family name. To discourage evil spirits from entering, she based much of the construction on the number thirteen and added 950 doors and 10,000 windows, most of which lead nowhere. She even slept in a different bedroom every night to keep one-step ahead of them. Nevertheless, she treated the good spirits royally. Every night at midnight, a large bell in the bell tower rang out three times to summon spirits to her séance room at the center of the house. She also held regular banquets, where servants set out five-course meals on thirteen solid gold plates and cutlery, although the only guests were Sarah and twelve invisible ghosts. She died in 1922 and left instructions that “the ghosts continue to be welcomed and provided for." Guided tours of the house started in 1923. Many psychics have contacted spirits here, and witnesses report discarnate voices, moving balls of light, and a gray-haired female apparition floating through the halls.
The Barrymore Estate
Beverly Hills, California
In the late 1970's there were frequent reports of encounters with the ghosts of John, Lionel, and Ethyl Barrymore by visitors to their former mansion, high in the Hollywood hills. More recent are reports of the wandering specter of a man who was killed in a private cable car on the property. The Barrymore Estate is at 6 Beverly Grove, Beverly Hills, CA, 90212.
The Whaley House
San Diego, CA
It was built in 1857 by Thomas Whaley, who also rented out part of the house as a county courtroom and records depository. But the $65-per-month rent never made up for all the grief he received because of it. His beautiful home became the center of a power struggle between people in Old Town, where the mansion was located, and the New Towner’s, who wanted the county records kept in their section of the growing city. One day while Thomas was out of town, a gang of New Towner’s broke into his house, terrorized his wife and daughter, and stole all the records. For nearly twenty years Thomas tried to collect damages from the County for his ransacked house, but he died without ever receiving a dime. Almost a century later, when the County bought the house and started restoration, strange things began to happen. Workers told of ghosts walking on the second floor, windows that opened by themselves, and alarms which went off for no reason. Visitors to the house have reported seeing the ghosts of Thomas and his wife in the hallways and descending the staircase, as well as the ghosts of his dog, little girl, and baby son (who died at 17 months). Several people have reported seeing a man hanging in a doorway in the house. He is thought to be the ghost of Jim Robinson, who was caught stealing a boat and sentenced to death by a drunken judge. When he was hung on a gallows on the Wharton property, the noose failed to snap his neck, and he hung flailing in the air for nearly an hour, cursing and screaming, before he finally strangled to death.
The Moss Beach Distillery Restaurant
Moss Beach, California
The gruesome ghost of a lady in a blue dress, soaked in blood, haunts an old speakeasy on Highway 1 just south of San Francisco. Moss Beach residents say she is the spirit of a young woman stabbed to death in front of the old Moss Beach Distillery restaurant, nearly 70 years ago. The restaurant used to be a speakeasy in the 1920's, and was frequented by many unsavory and flamboyant characters. Her jealous lover, the piano player at the bar, murdered the beautiful young woman on the beach. Servers, chefs, and customers have witnessed her phantom standing near the piano or dancing alone in deserted rooms. Once, a boy ran screaming from the restroom, insisting that a woman covered in blood touched him. More recently, two of the town's police officers saw her bloody figure standing in the middle of the highway in front of the cliff-side restaurant. Last year, two servers saw a stool tip over and do a somersault. On average, her ghost has been sighted once or twice every year for the last 50 years. The most recent phenomenon occurred just a few months ago, when all the settings in the restaurant's automatic thermostat system were changed. The complicated reprogramming would have taken most people three or four hours. It was impossible for any kind of malfunction in the electronic circuitry to have changed the settings. "The company told me that there was no way it could have been done except manually," owner John Barber related, "but I had the only key!"
The Queen Mary
Long Beach, California
This ocean liner, now permanently docked at the Port of Long Beach, was commissioned in 1936 and made over a thousand Atlantic crossings. Staff, guests, and investigators have reported many incidents of strange rapping noises, moving objects, disembodied voices, and ghostly apparitions on the dry docked ship. The ghosts of two women who drowned there haunt the First Class Swimming Pool. One is dressed in 1960s clothing and the other wears 1930s attire. The forlorn ghost of a little boy who fell overboard near the pool has also been sighted in the passageway there. The old first class lounge, now know as the Queens Salon, is haunted by the ghost of a beautiful woman in a flowing white dress. Unexplainable balls of light and the apparition of a black-haired man in a 1930s suit have been seen by tour guides in the First Class Suite area. The Forward Storage Room, where the ship’s archives are kept, is haunted by the sounds of children playing. Inexplicable pounding sounds have been recorded near the Bosun’s Locker, which is the area of the hull that sliced the British Light Cruiser Curacoa in half during World War II. Because of her wartime sailing orders, the Queen Mary was not allowed to stop to rescue survivors, and 338 men perished in the cold ocean. The Tourist Class Swimming Pool is haunted by the presence of a woman who drowned in it, and the third-level Cabin B340 is haunted by a murdered purser and is no longer rented out because of unexplained disturbances there. Poltergeist activity has been reported in the Kitchen, where a cook was murdered during World War II. It is said his cooking was so terrible that it caused a riot among troops being carried to the front. The violence quickly got out of hand and the cook ended up stuffed inside an oven and burned to death. His ghastly screams were somehow impregnated into the ship's iron bulkhead and are sometimes replayed to startled visitors. The ghosts in the ship’s Morgue could have any of a number of identities. Sixteen crewmembers, two G.I.s and 31 passengers have died on the ship. But the most documented sighting is the apparition of an 18-year-old crewman, John Pedder. Pedder was crushed to death while trying to slip through an automatically closing door in Shaft Alley during a routine watertight drill on July 10, 1966. It was hatchway Door #13. Another crewman allegedly haunting the Queen Mary is Senior 2nd Officer William Stark. He was accidentally poisoned in 1949, when he drank tetrachloride that the staff captain kept in an old gin bottle. So far, over fifty witnesses have reported paranormal happenings on this ship, and the list keeps growing.
(All information presented here was found at http://www.haunted-places.com/. Visit this website for more haunted places in your state.)
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Answers for yesterday's baseball trivia
1. 1905
2. 1947
3. Woodrow Wilson
4. Reggie Jackson
5. Bob Gibson
6. Dizzy and Daffy Dean
7. Babe Ruth
8. Darold Knowles
9. Goose Goslin
10. John McGraw
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