HGB Ep. 588 - Beattie Mansion

Moment in Oddity - Odd Orchids

At History Goes Bump, we love nothing more than to be outside gardening. Any listeners that I am personal friends with have seen my posts of my various orchids in bloom. Recently I saw an article discussing two very unique looking orchids. The white egret orchid and the naked man orchid. The white egret orchid is found in China, Japan, Korea and Russia. Its delicate petals really do resemble a white egret in mid-flight. The blooms are said to represent purity and freedom with their ethereal fringed petals that sway in the wind. The plant grows naturally in grassy wetlands, upland bogs and seepage slopes. This exquisitely beautiful plant can be purchased online through many orchid growers. And of course, my other mention was the naked man orchid. Yes, that is indeed one of its common names. This species of orchid is also known as the Italian orchid and is native to the Mediterranean Basin. The flowers themselves grow atop a thick stem and are densely gathered, similar in appearance to a Lily of the Nile flowering stalk. In Italy, these orchids are believed to promote virility. The individual flowers do actually look like naked people. They are generally colored with variations of pink and purple, with pure white specimens being quite rare. The reason why the common name for this orchid is naked man and not naked woman is due to a certain, ahem, way that the flower's petals are arranged. These orchids are also available online and we encourage our listeners to look them both up, if nothing more than for a chuckle. Nature can produce some stunning varieties of flowers, but orchids that closely resemble feathered white egrets and another looking like a crowd of naked men, certainly are odd.

This Month in History - Battle of Hamburger Hill

In the month of May, on the 11th, in 1969, the Battle of "Hamburger Hill" began during the Vietnam War. U.S. troops were attempting to seize Dong Ap Bia Mountain. This battle endured multiple attempts to scale the mountain over a ten day period and led to many bloody hand-to-hand combats with the North Vietnamese. The mountain was called Hill 937 by US forces and was part of Operation Apache Snow with the objective of driving the North Vietnamese forces from the A Sau (Ah Shaw) Valley. The battle was especially brutal with major losses on both sides. The U.S. suffered 72 killed and over 372 wounded while the North Vietnamese were said to have had an estimated 630 soldiers killed. The U.S. captured Hill 937 but later abandoned it on June 5th. The North Vietnamese re-occupied Hamburger Hill a month later. This battle and abandonment of the target, brought about questions regarding the purpose and costs of the battle. The outrage over what appeared to be a senseless loss of American lives was aggravated by photographs published in Life magazine of U.S. soldiers killed during the battle. It fueled anti-war sentiments regarding criticism of the high casualty rate and perceived lack of strategic clarity during the Vietnam War. Despite the criticism, many soldiers and military leaders disagreed and Army General Melvin Zais stated, “Those people are acting like this was a catastrophe for the U.S. troops. This was a tremendous, gallant victory.”

Beattie Mansion (Suggested by: Sarah Crom)

The Beattie Mansion in St. Joseph, Missouri has stood for more than 170 years. This began as a home for the Beatties and later became a home for unwed women and orphans and then an assisted living facility that occasionally served the addicted and people with mental health issues. The current owner wanted to open a boutique hotel, but he had trouble keeping help. Something was scaring them all off. Once he started having his own unexplained experiences, he knew he needed to open up the house to investigators. There has been no shortage of activity for these investigators. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Beattie Mansion! 

St. Joseph, Missouri is where Jesse James supposedly died. The city was founded on the Missouri River by Joseph Robidoux (Robe ee do) and the city is named for him and the biblical St. Joseph. This was a frontier town that leaned toward the wild side and thus became a launch point for people heading for the Wild West. Thus the nickname "Gateway to the West" was given to it. Not only did the railroad end here until western routes were built, but the Pony Express also ended here. St. Joseph was officially incorporated in 1843. In 1854, Armstrong and Eliza Beattie built their mansion in St. Joseph on Main Street. It would be called the "House on the Hill." Armstrong Beattie was born in 1811 in Virginia. When he was ten, his family moved to Howard County, Missouri. His father died shortly thereafter and he found work as a hat maker in Columbia, Missouri. Eliza Snoddy came into his life in 1841 and the couple married. They would have no children, but would eventually took under their wing several nieces and nephews. The Beatties moved to Hunstville, Missouri and Armstrong worked as a merchant for ten years. In 1852, the Beatties arrived in St. Joseph and Armstrong set his sights on the banking industry. The only banking offered in the town was out of the back of John Corby's general store. And all that really consisted of was a metal safe. So Armstrong was going to become St. Joseph's first full-time banker. He opened his bank in a storeroom under the City Hotel and ran the following advertisement in the St. Joseph Gazette on January 28, 1853: "A. BEATTIE, Banker and Dealer in Exchange, St. Joseph, Missouri, 'Buys and sells exchanges on all the Eastern, Western, and Southern cities and sells on San Francisco, California in sums to suit. Collections made on all the principal cities of the Union and proceeds to promptly remitted for at current rates of exchange. Land warrants bought and sold. Office on Jule Street in the City Hotel Building.'" The banking business flourished and Beattie was able to build his own bank building on Second Street. In 1872, he moved to the west side of Third Street into a building which had been the United States Express Company. So the old Pony Express building that is today the St. Joseph Historical Society. In 1854, the Beatties built their mansion. The house was two-stories with a flat roof and built from red brick. There was a veranda on both levels in the front. The interior was typical with bedrooms on the second floor and the first floor having a parlor, dining room and other community spaces. The basement had the kitchen and a dumb waiter was used to bring up food.

Eliza had a sister named Margaret Snoddy who married a man named Robert Wilson in 1826. The couple would have two sons, John and James, and a daughter named Mary Ann. Margaret died in 1837 at the age of 29. Little Mary Ann was taken to Armstrong and Eliza and they raised her as their own. In 1855, she married a man named Rufus L. McDonald and they had seven children. Mary Ann's brother James came to St. Joseph when he reached adulthood and Armstrong brought him into partnership in the bank. On his side of the family, Armstrong had a nephew named Thomas Weakley and he brought him into the bank too. Not only did he work with banking, but Armstrong got involved in politics and he served on the City Council from 1855 to 1856 and then he was voted in as mayor six times: 1857, 1858, 1860, 1866, 1876 and 1878. Armstrong was thought of very highly and the newspaper said of him in 1878, "No man has exercised a greater influence upon the character of business stability, integrity and progress of our city than Mr. Beattie. We are all greatly indebted to him. He has made his way in the world by unswerving integrity, energy, industry, and business capacity. No man is more widely or favorably known among the bankers of the West." 

Not long after that, Armstrong would contract cholera. It was the third time in his life that he was stricken with the illness and this final time would kill him. He died on July 26,1878 and was buried in Mount Mora Cemetery. His funeral was attended by many city and county officials and business leaders. The Globe wrote of Armstrong after his death in 1878, "Ex-Mayor Beattie, of St. Joseph, died this morning, after a short illness.  Mr. Beattie was one of the oldest as well as one of the most generally respected citizens of our sister city, and perhaps did as much as any other man to give St. Joseph her present commercial importance.  He was at the head of the oldest and most substantial bank in the city, and it can be said of him that he has been of great use to his fellow men, his community, and to himself." Now the story told about Armstrong and his will is that he left only the house to Eliza, but no money to upkeep the house or her in general and that he gave his money to nieces and nephews. This story seems to be told to lend credence to Eliza haunting the place because it was all she owned. We found his will that was dated August 30, 1875 and presented to court July 29, 1878. And the beginning of it reads, "I, Armstrong Beattie of sound and disposing mind do make and ordain this my last will and testament hereby revoking all other wills heretofore made. 1st I desire and request my executor to pay all my just debts. 2nd I give bequeath and devise to my wife Eliza J. Beattie my household and kitchen furniture, and one half of all my estate personal real and mixed, absolutely, of which I may die possessed and seized. 3rd In the event that my said wife shall depart this life before I do, I give bequeath and devise to the brother, nephews and nieces and sister of my said wife to wit" and it goes on to name them all and then continues with divisions of the rest of the estate. So it sounds to us like Eliza got the house and half of everything else after debts were paid.

Eliza didn't have the house for long as she died two years after Armstrong. The family sold the mansion to the Ladies Union Benevolent Association (LUBA) and they refurbished it and opened the "Home for the Friendless." This was a place for all of the discards of the city from the homeless to prostitutes to widows to orphans. The first month it was open, eighteen people moved in. St. Joseph apparently was full of brothels, eighty of them, so several of those residents were sex workers who had children out of wedlock. The mansion became a refuge for them. A death occurred in the house in 1892. This was four-year-old Mabel Iden. A big change came for the house in 1895. The house was converted into the Memorial Home for the Aged and another wing was added to the house. It ran as a home for the elderly for 100 years and then residents were moved to a more modern facility. The Beattie Mansion was then used as a group home for the mentally ill and substance abuse addicts. That shut down and the house sat empty for awhile and then in 2005, the mansion was bought by Michael Burkart who had dreams of renovating it into a bed and breakfast.

Renovations didn't go according to plan because of all the supernatural activity that took place in the house, so it is in pretty rough shape. Tools would go missing or get moved. Construction crews kept getting run off because of the level of weird stuff and (owner) finally gave up on trying to make the place a bed and breakfast. The mansion hosts every kind of haunting activity. There are two pianos in the house that get played by ghosts. Child ghosts like to run up and down the stairs and even swing on the chandeliers and this has been caught on SLS cameras. There are disembodied footsteps, dragging sounds and slamming doors. There are creepers here and that is what they call them. These are entities that move along the ceilings and up and down the corners of rooms. Shadow figures and full-body apparitions are seen. Most importantly, this place has a haunted potty chair. Yep, you heard that right. This is a wooden chair that has a square cut out of it and was apparently used as a portable toilet. The manager and main guide is psychic Mary Ann Podrasky. Podrasky has said, "We have footsteps, whistling, my name is called, we’ve heard piano music played. I’ve heard singing right in this area, which I attribute to Eliza. My husband’s been locked in the basement before. I thought it was hilarious."

It is believed that at least a hundred people have passed in the mansion over the years. The main spirits thought to be here include Armstrong and Eliza Beattie. Eliza seems to hang out mostly on the second floor and is a constant presence. A child spirit named Mabel Iden also hangs out in a bedroom on the second floor. The kitchen hosts quite a bit of strange stuff. The most haunted area is, of course, the basement. There is an unhappy spirit in the basement who people call either Charles or Walt. He likes to taunt visitors and has been heard laughing and walking the hallways. Some people think he is just a grumpy former caretaker who is seen looking dirty because he was usually taking care of the boiler.

The paranormal group Afterlife Sessions investigated in 2018. The group were in the kitchen doing a Spirit Box session. They asked if the spirits had good memories of the kitchen and "I did not" was the answer. They asked if the butler was there and "almost done" was the response. They got a whiff of perfume while doing the session. In the basement, they tried an experiment with a teddy bear on one end of a hallway that had a Mel Meter just a little bit in front of it, then an area with sprinkled baby powder and then another device that could light up. They did get that device to light up, but no ghost seemed to run through the series they had set up. They were trying to get the children down there to walk though the powder to get to the bear. One of the investigator's last names was Biddle and that came through the Spirit Box. They brought the teddy bear upstairs and placed it in a seat with the light-up device in front of it and asked if the spirit would touch the bear. The Spirit Box said "no" and then "I ain't dead," but then the light did go on.

Marcia Davis and the Midwest Ghost Hunters investigated in 2019. They used the Portal for a Spirit Box session. Earlier in the evening, Marcia had found a quarter on the basement floor and she put it in her pocket. They got "coin" to come though the Portal and then when they asked if the spirit needed money, "I do" came through. And then WHOA!!!, the Portal said, "Marcia pinched it." When they asked why the spirit needed money, they got "broke." The next morning, Marcia got caught up on the basement door knob and had opened it, without realizing she had done that and the investigators thought the door had opened on its own. So they start doing a Portal session after that and asked if the spirit opened the door and the Portal answered "Marcia." They captured a whistle on one their cameras. On another camera they got this weird light anomaly that we found to be pretty interesting in the way it moved. It seemed to go along the hall and then disappeared into the floor just as the investigators come into the space. They caught an EVP saying, "Get inspired."

Michaela Miller-Stout wrote for Medium in 2021 about a visit she made to the house, "Two of my friends volunteered to join me at the Beattie Mansion for photos. Almost immediately upon setting foot in the house with Podrasky, events began to take place. There was no shortage of disembodied voices and breathing, doors opening and closing, feelings of being touched, camera malfunctions, footsteps and seeing figures watching curiously from down the hall. After the short hour and a half we spent in the mansion, we could safely say this was one of the most active places any of us had ever been to. After our visit, even Podrasky admitted, 'They showed off for you three.'" They captured an EVP saying "go" twice. (EVP says go) 

Jason of Cemetery Road on YouTube investigated in September of 2022 and he got a cold chill near a stairway in the newer section that has a lot of activity near it. He also thought he heard someone coming down the stairs and he asked if anyone was there and there was nothing. This was as he was doing an initial walk through of the house. During the investigation that night, they caught an audible "hi" on the camera and they heard it at the time as well. There were the sounds of hard shoes on a hard floor. Jason had his son with him and they decided to do a dowsing rod session in Room 19. Someone indicated they were in the room and said that they passed away in the room and that they were a man. The spirit said they took their own life. It also indicated that both the Beatties were in the house. When Jason asked if it was okay for them to be there, there was no response. Then he asked if they wanted them to leave and it said "yes" so they left the room. But what if it meant the house in general? They did dowsing rods in another room and were speaking to an elderly person who liked having them there. This was a really tame investigation.

Amy from Amy's Crypt investigated the mansion in 2022. One of the main things that happened is that they placed a Para4ce Music Box on the bed in the room where Mabel hangs out. Amy asked Mabel to get the music box to go off and it went off for an extended period of time. Her boyfriend Jarrad was down in the basement by himself with the Ghost Tube App and he asked, "How do you feel about me being in this room right now and it responded "insulted." Later it said "there was a moron" and Jarrad wondered if it was calling him a moron. A cat ball on the bed went off a little later. They had a relatively quiet investigation.

Sue Poshusta of Short Bus Paranormal Investigators told KCTV5 about an experience she had in the house in 2024. She had a music box across the room from her and she invited the children to come in and play. The music box started playing like crazy. She asked them to stop playing the music box and suddenly, the right side of her body turned to ice. So it was as if the children came running over to her.

We get the feeling that the hauntings at the mansion are more subtle. And we've heard that the spirits embrace a more calm investigating technique. But just because ghosts are a little more shy and quiet about being around, doesn't mean they aren't haunting a place. Is the Beattie Mansion haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 587 - McCune Mansion

Moment in Oddity - Discovery of the Endurance

Shipwrecks can be a fascinating place to explore for divers. They can become amazing reefs, teaming with sea life creating their own unique ecosystem. But when a shipwreck occurs in the coldest ocean region of the world, the effects of time can sometimes surprise you. In February of 2022, a large-scale international scientific expedition set out from Cape Town, Africa. The journey would take the scientists to Antarctica in pursuit of finding the Endurance. The Endurance was a three masted barkentine ship owned by Sir Ernest Shackleton. The vessel was built for navigating through 'pack ice' conditions and was to be used from 1914-1917. The journey that Shackleton sought to accomplish was to travel across Antarctica from the Atlantic to Pacific oceans. In 1915, the Endurance became trapped in ice and was ultimately crushed in the Weddell Sea. Despite the tragedy of losing the ship, all 28 crew members survived. One hundred and seven years later, scientists set out to locate the wreckage. Underwater robots, helicopters and advanced technology were used. At the time of the sinking, the ship's captain, Frank Worsley, used a sextant and a theodolite to identify the spot where the ship went down and the captain recorded it in his journal. This provided the scientists a good starting point to focus their search. When the wreckage of the Endurance was found the ship was in amazing condition. The vessel was found upright and not buried or overturned as expected and the ship was well preserved. The name 'Endurance' was still legible on many parts of the ship including the stern, railings, steering wheel, ropes and some of the ship's original supplies. Although some sea life had called the wreckage of the Endurance home, the fact that it was found, so well preserved, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - The First Kentucky Derby

In the month of May, on the 17th, in 1875, the first Kentucky Derby was held at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. At the time, the racing location was known as the Louisville Jockey Club. The inaugural event took place in front of an estimated 10,000 spectators. The distance run was 1.5 miles and the field of 15 horses consisted of 3 year olds. Of the 15 jockeys, 13 were African American and the winning jockey was Oliver Lewis. His mount, a three year old chestnut colt named Aristides, was trained by future Hall of Famer, Ansel Williamson. Aristides' portion of the $3,050 purse was $2,850 with $200 going to the second place winner, Volcano. The Kentucky Derby is the oldest continuously held horse race in the United States. It became the third race added to what is now known as the Triple Crown. The order of the races are as follows: The Kentucky Derby is the first race, with the Preakness Stakes being run 2 weeks later and finally the Belmont Stakes 3 weeks after that. The Kentucky Derby has become a celebrated American tradition, known for its rich history, exciting races, outrageous hats, and of course, its signature drink, the Mint Julep.

McCune Mansion (Suggested by: Derrick Hughes) 

The McCune Mansion sits perched atop a hill on Main Street in Salt Lake City, Utah. This splendid Victorian is unique both outside and inside. The interior features exotic materials from around the world. The home has not only been privately owned, but served as a dance studio, art gallery, office space and now wedding venue. And what would a Victorian mansion be without some ghosts stories? Join us as we share the history and hauntings of the McCune Mansion.

Mormon pioneers founded Salt Lake City in 1847. The religious group was seeking religious freedom and Brigham Young found that for them in the West. The city would serve as territorial capitol and then the state capital of Utah. But long before that the Shoshone, Goshute, Ute and Paiute set up their seasonal camps in the valley near the Great Salt Lake that the Goshute called Pi'a-pa, meaning "big water." The land was never considered owned by any indigenous groups, so none of them received anything when settlers arrived. About a year before the Mormons pioneers arrived, the Donner Party passed through the valley. Those first years weren't easy for the Latter Day Saints, but things got far better with the California Gold Rush. Many people came to the town on their way to seeking their fortunes. Here in Salt Lake City they bought farm goods and livestock, along with clothing and supplies. The city would later experience tensions between the LDS and the United States government and non-LDS residents. Those would ease in the early 1900s, but the Great Depression and World Wars would also take a toll. After the wars, Salt Lake City grew rapidly. Today, the city is not only the capitol of a major religion, but a successful secular metropolis. 

Alfred W. McCune was born in 1849 in Calcutta, India at the British Fort William. His father was a member of the British Army and he and his wife would have seven sons and one daughter all born at the Fort. Unfortunately, three of the boys and their daughter would all die as children. In 1851, the McCunes invited two sailors to a church meeting in their home and by the time the sailors left, the McCune family had converted from Plymouth Brethren Christians to Mormonism. After that, Alfred's parents became Mormon missionaries. The McCunes emigrated to New York City in 1857. The family then proceeded to Chicago via train and then by wagon to Salt Lake City. McCune's father added two more wives to the family and had another 15 children.

Alfred was a hard worker and started as a stock herder and then moved on to being a laborer for the Union Pacific Railroad. It was through the railroad that Alfred began to build his wealth. As the Utah Southern Railroad was building a rail line through the southern part of Utah, Alfred supplied the workers with provisions. He partnered with two other men and they built the Utah Southern Railroad Extension and they founded a general store in the town of Milton. By 1881, McCune had also opened a huge cattle and horse ranch in southern Utah. In 1872, he married Elizabeth Claridge whose family had emigrated to the US in 1853. The couple would have nine children. McCune's interest in the railroads and general stores extended into Montana and Oregon and the family moved to Montana in 1885. In 1888, they moved to Salt Lake City and McCune purchased interest in the streetcar system. Under his guidance, the streetcar went from mule-drawn to electric. But he wasn't done there. Eventually he took over the Salt Lake Herald and the became a part-owner of the Utah Power Company. His expertise in the railroad would lead him to building railroads and mines in Peru through the latter part of his life with partners like J.P. Morgan, William Randolph Hearst and Frederick Vanderbilt. So this was a really successful man who came from very humble beginnings.

In 1900, the McCunes decided to build their mansion. The McCunes wanted their house up on a hill so they had a view of the city and the LDS Temple. Both Alfred and Elizabeth had diverse tastes and they had toured Britain, so when it came to designing a home they wanted to explore a variety of styles. They sent the architect they had chosen, S.C. Dallas, on a two year tour of America and Europe to study different techniques. In the end, the design was Gothic Revival with East Asian influence and the exterior was Shingle Style. The exterior was made from Red Butte Canyon Sandstone and featured a conical turret and oval portico. And they spared no expense with the interior of the house. Material was brought in from literally everywhere in the world. There was mahogany from San Domingo, red roof tiles from the Netherlands, oak from England, onyx from Utah and a rare white-grained mahogany from South Africa. An enormous broad mirror wall was transported from Germany and other walls were covered in Russian Leather, moiré (mwah) silks and French tapestries. The fireplaces were made from Nubian marble.

When the house was finished the following year - at a cost of $1 million - it had running water, 21 rooms and three floors. The first floor had an octagonal reception room with embossed figures on the ceiling, a large dining room, a sitting room, a main hall with an exquisite fireplace and mantle, tea room and drawing room. There was also a hidden room under the grand staircase where musicians would play music for parties. The second floor had bedrooms and a glorious central hall with stairs leading up to what is today a board room. The third floor's two ballrooms are something to behold with their marble columns and plush round sofas, arched openings, painted ceilings and gold colored accents everywhere. There are huge mirrors, balconies and alcoves. Several types of woods were used. A German craftsman spent 8 months making the furnishings from an artificial marble. The third floor also has what is called a "Hunting Room" that was styled in English Renaissance and based on Haddon Hall in England. The walls have woodland and hunting scenes painted on them. 

The mansion was perfectly designed for parties and the McCunes loved to host them. Elizabeth enjoyed entertaining friends. Alfred would have political allies come to the house for meetings in the dining room. Special occasions were observed, particularly holidays. The couple raised their family for the twenty years they lived in the house and then they decided to move further West, all the way to Los Angeles. Rather than sell their dream home, they decided to donate it to the LDS Church. The Church accepted the gift and planned to give it to the church president, Heber J. Grant, to use as a personal residence. Grant wasn't crazy about the idea because the place was just too ornate for him. The cleaning alone - lol! The Chruch decided to open the LDS School of Music in the mansion. The name changed in 1924 to the McCune School of Music and Art. The school offered junior college-level courses in music and dance and was accredited by the the National Association of Schools of Music. The administration of the school decided to expand and refocus in 1942 and the music school became a preparatory school for junior high and high school students. Brigham Young University absorbed the school as a branch in 1952. The problem with that is that BYU couldn't get it accredited, so the University let it go. By 1957, the school had been closed by the Church Board of Education. 

The LDS Church held onto the house until 1972 when they sold it and it reopened as Virginia Tanner Modern Dance School. Virginia Tanner was known as America's Children's Dance Teacher. Her parents started her in ballet early, but she didn't like the formal dance. She was a free spirit and her father encouraged her freestyle dance. Her mother made her black bloomers, so that her movement was free. Virginia studied dance with many famous teachers and she taught for Doris Humphrey in New York. When she returned home to Salt Lake City in the 1940s, she directed the dance department at the McCune School of Music and Art. She organized the Children's Dance Theater in 1949. Tanner became well known and was invited to conduct workshops on children's dance throughout the country and in the 1970s, the National Endowment for the Arts asked her to direct a pilot program for children's dance in school districts in five states. Tanner had a rare gift for teaching and inspiring children with dance. She passed away in 1979. At the school in the mansion, the girls wore white Ginny dresses, which basically were like the dress Wendy from Peter Pan wore. The skirt flowed making them perfect for dance.

Through all of this, the house wasn't refurbished and it was deteriorating. The school moved out in the 1990s and Philip McCarthey bought it in 1999. He was a shareholder of the Kearns-Tribune Corp., which published The Salt Lake Tribune. McCarthey got several family members to partner with him and they set to renovating the mansion. They had plans to open a wedding and reception venue and they did just that in 2001 and that is what it remains today. A carriage house on the property had been designed by architect Henry Monheim and built for Judge R. N. Baskin in 1872 to go with his mansion. Baskin's mansion was razed when the McCune's built their mansion. It was remodeled in 1926 and used as a Mormon meeting house. It was refurbished with the mansion by McCarthey.

Ghost stories have been told about the house ever since the McCune family moved out. That room under the stairs that once hosted music orchestration still has the sounds of musical instruments coming from it on occasion. And there are people who claimed that shortly after the music school moved in, music was heard coming from the house in general at times when classes weren't in session and no one was in the mansion. Furniture moves around on its own as do other objects. The lights turn on and off on their own. Doors unlock themselves and disembodied voices are heard. It is believed that there are two specific spirits here. The first belongs to Alfred McCune. He is seen as a full-bodied apparition wearing a long black coat and sometimes a cape. It seems strange that Alfred would come back to a house that the family had left in 1920, but maybe he just was really attached to it.

The other spirit belongs to a young girl and no one is sure who she is. We checked the death records on the McCune's three daughters and they all lived into adulthood with all of them passing in the 1960s. The little girl is said to resemble a portrait hanging in the house, which makes us wonder if she is attached to the portrait. Mirrors are really her thing and this house is full of them. People have claimed to see her walking in and out of a mirror in the western part of the mansion. Her full-bodied apparition has joined a few weddings and she is seen laughing and dancing. And she has appeared in a couple of wedding photos. A little ghost bomb if you will. Her footprints have also been seen in several rooms. They will just start or end in the middle of the room.

An interesting story was told by the McCarthey family. They were celebrating Christmas in the mansion shortly after they bought it. This was the first time that Christmas had been celebrated in the house since the McCunes moved out in 1920. Somebody from the McCune family might have been excited about this because the ballroom lights kept popping on and off. The McCartheys called an electrician in a few days later because they figured something was wrong with the wiring. The electrician found nothing wrong and he told the family that there was a light switch two floors down and maybe someone had been playing with it. The problem was that the family had no idea about the switch.

McCarthey told KSL.com that during renovations, an electrician told him that he saw something in an enormous German mirror that is in the Drawing Room. "He was just getting ready to make sure that the electricity was OK, when a little girl came out of the mirror wearing white. She came out of the mirror, she looked to her left, looked to her right, decided everything was OK, and went back in the mirror. That electrician never came back here to work again." The Salt Lake Tribune also interviewed Phil and he told them that several times, he has turned off the lights and locked the house up tight and then gotten in his car, looked at the house one last time and then saw that the lights were on again. He also has sometimes been driving away from the mansion and watched the lights turn on and off in several rooms from the rearview mirror. One of his sons told him that he saw a calm, non-threatening man dressed in a black cape appear, the man watched him and then disappeared.

Story from "The Ghostly Tales of Salt Lake City" by Laurie Allen, Cassie Ashton, Nanette Guest-Watts and Kristen Clay. A woman lived across the street at the Kensington and one night she was outside on her balcony, talking to a friend on the phone and she saw a man on the stairs who started walking down the stairs and about halfway down, he just disappeared. She wouldn't go out on her balcony after that. A person on the ghost tour was taking pictures of the house and in one of the pictures in a second floor window on the left, there is a figure. No one was in the mansion at the time.    

On the last episode we talked about Masons. Well, Joseph Smith had a great interest in Masonic knowledge and it is said that the early Mormon pioneers followed the 42nd Parallel in the US to get to Utah. There are those who believe this is a ley line. On top of that, it is said that Brigham Young laid out Salt Lake City along ley lines. The Great Salt Lake is said to be a vortex. We don't know if any of that is true, but the McCune Mansion in Utah certainly seems to have some strange things going on inside of it. Is the McCune Mansion haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 586 - Houghton Mansion and the Masons

Moment in Oddity - Indiana Bell building rotation (Suggested by: Duey Oxberger)

The Indiana Bell building was constructed in 1907 and stands at 240 N Meridian St, Indianapolis, Indiana. By 1929, Indiana Bell company determined that they required a larger building to accommodate their business needs. At the beginning, the company thought they would just demolish their current building and build a new one. However, after hiring Vonnegut, Bohn and Muller Architects for the demolition and rebuild of the structure, the architects told Indiana Bell that the building itself did not need a demo job, just a rotate job. If the building was rotated 90 degrees and shifted 100 feet west, the company would end up with the extra space they desired to build on an addition. As reported in different newspaper articles, the rotation launched on October 14, 1930. During the 31 day process, there were rollers, T5-ton jacks and 18 men involved. Amazingly, business as usual continued within the building while the 11,000 ton structure was in the process of rotation. The rotation rate was calculated at 15 inches per hour. This rate meant that the employees working within could not even feel the movement of the building. At the end of the process, the architectural team was able to place the building within one-sixty-fourth of an inch from the original calculated location! We are always amazed at stories where buildings are picked up and moved to a different location. But to move an eight story, 11,000 ton building while employees continued to work within, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Astor Place Riot

In the month of May, on the 10th in 1849, angry crowds rioted outside of Astor Place Opera House in lower Manhattan, New York. British actor William Charles Macready and American actor Edwin Forrest were to perform "Macbeth" inside the opera house. Both were well known Shakespearean actors and a conflict had developed between the two of them. Three days before the riot, Forrest's supporters had bought hundreds of tickets for seats in the theater. Most of the audience were working class New Yorkers. The protestors had brought objects like rotten eggs, potatoes, apples, lemons, shoes and bottles filled with stinky liquids. The protestors began with hissing and booing during Macready's performance and then began hurling the objects at the stage. Some of the theater goers even ripped up their seats. The riot was fueled by anti-British sentiment, especially with the Irish immigrants who faced discrimination and viewed Macready as a symbol of British dominance and the upper class. On May 10th, police were concerned about the level of man-power they had available if a more serious riot occurred. The state's Seventh Regiment were assembled in Washington Square Park, as well as mounted troops, light artillery and hussars, to a total of 350 men along with the 100 police officers outside the theater alone. By the time the play opened at 7:30 p.m., 10,000 people filled the streets surrounding the theater. The rioters broke theater windows and attempted to set fire to the building. By the end of the riot, between 22 and 31 people were killed and 259 were injured including both civilians, police and militia. The Astor Place Riot is also known as the Shakespeare Riot. It is reported that prior to the riot, New York had not known so much gunfire and death since the Revolutionary War.

Houghton Mansion and the Masons (Suggested by: Nicole Cardarelli)

The Houghton Mansion in North Adams, Massachusetts was named for the family that commissioned its construction. Their biography is ripe for ghost stories with a tragic car accident leading to further deaths from broken hearts and suicides. The house then spent nearly a century hosting a chapter of the Masonic Order. The Masons have always carried an air of mystery around their organization with rumors of bizarre rituals, sacrifices and hidden knowledge. Many former Masonic temples and centers pop up on haunted lists and we have featured a few. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Houghton Mansion.

North Adams, Massachusetts was settled by Europeans in 1745, during King George's War, when Fort Massachusetts was built along the Hoosac River. That fort would be burned during the Siege of Fort Massachusetts in 1746 when 21 militiamen were no match for a French and Indian battalion numbering 1,000. The Fort was later rebuilt and then refortified for the French and Indian War in 1754. After that, it fell into disrepair. The North Adams Women's Club raised funds to reconstruct the Fort and was reopened as a memorial in 1933 that could be toured. That shut down in the 1960s and the Fort was demolished. A commemorative plaque with a reconstructed chimney are all that remains. The town of North Adams was named for Samuel Adams and became a mill town since water power could be generated from the confluence of the Hoosic River and various manufacturing was the main industry. Everything from clothing to marble to ironworks to cabinets were produced. In the mid 1800s, Arnold Print Works became one of the world's leading manufacturers of printed textiles and this company was started by Albert Charles Houghton (Hoe-ton), or A.C. as most people called him.

A.C. Houghton was born in 1844 in Vermont. A.C. was a driven man from an early age and founded the Houghton Chemical Works of Stamford before he was 21-years-old. He also got involved in real estate and started amassing a small fortune. Cordelia Smith of Stamford became his wife in 1866 and they would have five daughters: Laura, Florence, Susan, Alice and Mary. In 1868, A.C. opened the Parker Mill in North Adams and he would move the family there in 1870. In 1881, he became the president of the Arnold Print Works. And he even dipped his toes into beer when he took over the A.J. Houghton Brewing Company out of Boston when his father, A.J. Houghton died in 1892. There were 31 breweries in Boston at the time. The Stony Brook area had 24 alone and only one of them is still active today. Many of the buildings are gone too, but the A.J. Houghton one is still there at the corner of Station and Halleck Streets. The brewery specialized in Vienna Lager and also made Pavonia Lager Beer, Vienna Old Time Lager and Rockland Ale. That shut down in 1918 due to Prohibition. Houghton became director of the Boston & Albany Railroad in 1895. In 1896, A.C. became the first mayor of North Adams and he served two, one year terms.

It was after this that A.C. decided to build his third home in North Adams. This would be his most extravagant house and was designed in the Neo-Classical Revival style. The outer clapboards are thinner at the base to make the house appear taller. It stood three stories and had a roof of Spanish tile. Behind the house, a formal garden was planted. There was a large horse barn on the property as well. In 1900, A.C. and his wife Cordelia moved in with their 23-year-old daughter Mary who had decided not to marry and planned to just care for A.C. whose health was failing. At this point, Florence, Susan and Alice had all married and were raising their own families. Laura had died in infancy. 

Cars were all the rage by 1914 and the Houghtons decided to buy their first automobile. This was a seven passenger Pierce-Arrow touring car. There was just one problem. The Houghtons had no idea how to drive a car. They decided to send the man who had been the keeper of their horses and carriages to go learn how to drive the car. His name was John Widders and he had also been a family friend. Now he was their official chauffeur. A.C. decided to travel to Bennington, Vermont and he told Mary that she could bring a friend. She asked her childhood friend Sybil Hutton to join her and Sybil's husband Robert came along. The group set out in the Pierce Arrow for the pleasure drive with Widders at the wheel. This drive would be anything but pleasurable. 

First, the road they were driving along was under repair. This was a road designed for carriages, not cars. The road was very narrow, so two cars could barely fit when passing. As Widders made his way up the gentle grade of Oak Hill Road, he saw a team of horses parked ahead on the right side of the road. He passed them on the left, but there wasn't enough road there and the tires on the left side of the car left the road, causing the car to tilt off the road. They had been heading uphill and so the car rolled down the embankment and rolled three times before coming to a stop. Mary was still in the car, but everyone else had been thrown from the car. This was a car with no roof, so you can imagine that if Mary was still in the car, that wasn't a good thing. She was mortally injured, but still alive. She was taken to North Adams Hospital where she passed away later that day. Sybil Hutton had been killed instantly with the first roll. Dr. Hutton, A.C. and Widders all walked away from the accident with minor injuries.  

Widders was riddled with guilt and the following morning, he was found dead in the cellar of the horse barn with a bullet in his head. He had apparently taken his own life with a horse pistol. The investigator for the State of Vermont exonerated Widders and said that the soft shoulder of the road was to blame. But that mattered little since Widders was no longer alive. The family had him buried in their family plot at South View Cemetery, so they didn't blame him either. A.C. Houghton would die 10 days after the accident. Some say that it was from injuries caused by the accident, but others claim he died from a broken heart. He was 70 years old. 

Cordelia Houghton remained in the house until her death four years later in 1918. By this point, Florence had moved into the house with her husband, William Gallup, to care for her mother. The couple remained in the house until 1926 and they sold it to the local Masonic order, which is today the Lafayette-Greylock Freemasons. This was formed from a merger of two lodges with the original dating back to 1847. The Masons would remain in the house for 90 years. They pulled out the formal garden and constructed their lodge building on the spot. 

Freemasonry claims to go back to the Middle Ages, but the oldest document referencing the Masons is the Regius Poem from 1390. The First Grand Lodge of England formed in 1717 from four lodges. The fraternity spread throughout Europe and then came over to the American Colonies. Many of the Founding Fathers were Freemasons. Forty-four signers of the Declaration of Independence belonged to the Fraternal Order. President George Washington laid the cornerstone for the U.S. Capitol on September 18, 1793 and paintings about the moment feature him wearing his Masonic apron during the ceremony. He placed an inscribed silver plate under the cornerstone and to this day, nobody can figure out where the cornerstone is located. Metal detectors have been unable to find that metal plate. Our Supreme Court was shaped by Chief Justice John Marshall, also a Mason. The goal of Freemasonry is to spread the ideals of the Enlightenment and contribute to social improvement. They founded orphanages and homes for widows and the elderly. We've talked about several here on the podcast. And while they have done many good things, there are those that claim there is a dark side to Freemasonry.

Now much of what we are going to share here is based on conspiracy theories and such, but its extremely intriguing and we find some of it compelling. Many members of the Freemasons and Eastern Star join for the camaraderie and business dealings. Most probably don't know the ancient origins of their rituals and maybe think its all just a fun little aside. Few reach the upper echelons of membership and probably are never taught some of the darker things. Now there really may be nothing to any of this, but let's be honest, if you have secret handshakes and hide your rituals and membership is by "invite only," you are asking for scrutiny. Anyone who has been inside these old Masonic Lodges has probably gotten a weird feeling because of the symbology all around them from the black and white checkerboard floors to carved chairs and sculptures of ancient deities and the head dude is called the Worshipful Master. The weirdest temple is in DC. The Masonic Lodge in DC is called the House of the Temple and was inspired by the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus - so yeah, a tomb. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The interior has black statues representing Egyptian figures made from black marble. That marble came from Lake Champlain and took 15 years to find. They are all carved from that one piece and the carving was done inside the temple. Greek figures adorn the lamps and chandeliers.

Freemasonry communicates secretly through symbolism. Washington, D.C. was laid out specifically according to Mason design. From overhead, one can see the pentagram that Masons have as one of their symbols. The square and compass are other symbols laid out in the street plans and such for D.C. The most obvious symbol is the Washington Monument. We all know that it is meant to be a giant phallic symbol. It measures 66,635 inches tall and 6,660 inches long at the base. And what does that phallic symbol need to be complete? A womb, right? That would be the domed Capitol Building. In ancient mythology and the mystery religions of Egypt, placing this phallus and womb in this way was like setting up an energy generator and this was to draw up the seed of Osiris from the Underworld. For those that don't know the Egyptian myth behind this, Osiris and Isis were brother and sister and also became husband and wife. They also had a brother named Set who was jealous of Osiris and he killed him one day so that he could be king. Set cut Osiris' body into 13 pieces and scattered them. Isis was devastated and managed to collect 12 pieces, but she never found his phallus. She had great magical powers and brought Osiris back to life. She fashioned him a phallus from a magical obelisk and soon becomes pregnant. After this, Osiris descended to the underworld and he is lord of that domain. their son Horus then became king of Egypt. Another location where you can find this design is St. Peter's Square. There's a giant obelisk and then St. Peter's Basilica as the womb. 

Francis Bacon was an English philosopher and the father of empiricism. He was a part of the scientific revolution and he wrote a book titled "New Atlantis" about a utopian island. Bacon believed that America was the New Atlantis. He was influential to some of the Founders. Thomas Jefferson wrote, "[Francis] Bacon, [John] Locke and [Isaac] Newton. I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of these superstructures which have been raised in the Physical and Moral Sciences." Thomas Jefferson was also the man who suggested that the Capitol should resemble the Roman Pantheon, which was a circular domed rotunda dedicated to all pagan gods. Some believe that Bacon was the father of Freemasonry in America.

Masonic lodges offer three masonic degrees and these are Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason. Most Masons fall into those degrees, but there are masonic bodies that offer higher degrees to Master Masons, all the way up to the 33rd degree. That's what Shriners are - 33rd degree Masons. Their main ritual reflects on this character named Hiram Abiff, which Masons claim was the chief architect of King Solomon's Temple. The Bible does mention a master craftsman named Hiram in 1 Kings 7:13-14 and he cast the bronze furnishings and ornate decorations for the temple. The King of Tyre sent building materials for the temple and his name was also Hiram, but it isn't believed by Masons that this was Hiram Abiff. The Masonic ritual reenacts his murder at the hands of three fellowcraft masons. He is ambushed while leaving and tied up. The three demand to know the secrets of a master mason and he refuses to tell them. Each one asks and then strikes him with a mason's tool. The first two hits injure him and the last kills him. His body is hidden under a pile of rubble temporarily and then the assailants retrieve it at night and take it outside the city of Jerusalem and bury it in a shallow grave. Hiram's body is found later by other masons and given a proper burial. King Solomon declares that the secret word of a master mason is now lost, so he replaces it with another secret word. And that is the main secret the upper echelon of Masons are keeping. 

Other rituals conducted by the Masons are to raise Osiris, who was called Apollo by the Greeks. Ancient myths believe that Apollo will be raised again and indwell a man and take his place leading a new Golden Age. And just to really add something to this, you know the missions to the moon were called Apollo and then a number. Buzz Aldrin is a Mason and he carried a special deputation with him that was intended to establish territorial jurisdiction on the moon for the Grand Lodge of Texas. Oh and in the Bible, in Revelation 9:11 is says, "They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon."

I was checking out this particular orders Facebook page and just a couple posts down was this:

Umm, why are they using the image from the movie poster for The Exorcist for whatever this is?

The Masons couldn't upkeep the house after 90 years and in 2017, sold to hotel developer Benjamin Svenson for $160,000. The Houghton House today is still privately owned and no longer open for tours or investigations, which is a real bummer. The house still looks much like it did when the Houghtons lived there. Siding covers the clapboard now and the Spanish tile roof was replaced with asphalt. Its also said to be the most haunted place in North Adams. Masons, visitors and investigators all have reported hearing the disembodied voices of a man and a lady thought to be Mr. and Mrs. Houghton. Shadow figures were also seen many times. And Mary Houghton’s former room was always a place that made people feel an overwhelming sense of sorrow. There also is the spirit of a young girl in the basement who is thought to go back to a house that was on the property before the Houghton Mansion. The mansion was built on the basement and foundation from that previous house. The young girl is seen walking across the basement and fading into the walls. The lockers in the Mason's locker room would open and close on their own.

There are those who believe that the activities of the Masons may have conjured entities in the house as well and it DOES seem that most Masonic buildings have some kind of haunting going on inside. Same for the Odd Fellows. Could it be their use of real human bones in rituals, particularly in the past? Talk about causing unrest! Queenofdan on Reddit said, "I slept over at that place a good dozen or so times, and every time is different! We’ve had moments that were so dramatic we would run to each other like toddlers and huddle, and other times not much happened except we’d spook ourselves with anticipation. But that place is definitely spooky." Another group caught an EVP of who they thought was Widders saying, "I have a heavy heart."

Hometown Ghost Stories are Dave and Rob and they investigated in 2014 and they decided to try out the claim that a certain door will close when A.C. is asked to do it. The first time they asked, the door closed immediately. The second time they asked, it didn't close and then they said, "Let's do a countdown to three and on three, close the door" and sure enough, the door closed on three. Rob was in Mary's bedroom by himself when he heard a massive bang that startled him so much that he jumped to his feet and knocked over an end table. He tried to see what in the room could've made the sound and he couldn't find anything. Dave tried an experiment where he knocked on a wooden altar in the middle of a room and asked something to knock in return  and something did. He tried it again with the same result. When they reviewed the footage, they noticed they captured a shadow figure moving left to right when the knocking sounds were made. Rob was investigating Widder's bedroom later and wasn't really getting anything and then all of a sudden there was a drastic drop in temperature in the room and Robe could hear footsteps moving up the hall and then he heard a door slam. He thought maybe it was Dave, but when he radioed him, he found out that Dave was out in his car in the parking lot.

Ghost Adventures hit the Houghton Mansion early on with it being their second episode of Season 1. On the episode, a member of the Masons told Zak that he was in the mansion one day, standing near the side entrance hall when he heard the side-entrance door open and close and then there were footsteps. He assumed someone had come in and he looked and saw snowy footprints on the ground in the hallway leading away from the door. There was no snow on the ground, so this wasn't surprising. What was surprising is that the footsteps just stopped abruptly and there was no one else in the house that he could find. The crew were shown a wall that was made from rock taken from the Hoosac Tunnel. This was a tunnel that stretched nearly five miles and was constructed from 1851 to 1875. Two hundred men lost their lives during the construction and people started calling it "The Bloody Pit." There are those that think these stones are cursed because they came from the Bloody Pit, particularly with the tragedy that befell the Houghtons. A former president here, Josh Mantello, told Zak that members would use audio recorders in the house to see if they could catch anything and that in Mary Houghton's former room they caught screams and someone yelling "Get out!" Mantello also said he saw a full-bodied apparition on the third floor, standing in a doorway at night. They also captured a picture of a ghostly face in a third-floor window. In the basement, Mantello and others have been tapped on the shoulder by something they couldn't see. During the investigation, they capture a wispy human-shaped shadow bolt from the left side of the hall to the right side and they hear an audible yell from a woman. They also hear footsteps in Mary's room. They hear the sounds of doors shutting while in the Masonic Temple. They capture an EVP of a man saying "Ran for help." Could this have been John Witters?

The Central New Hampshire Paranormal Society and Boston Paranormal Investigators investigated the mansion in 2014. They share on the BPI blog, "The session in the bedroom was interrupted by Eric Perry who took David out of the room for a minute. David came back in and informed us that there was an incredible amount of activity in the basement and that they eventually had to leave as several of the group members just sighted a full body apparition of a little girl." So the rest of the group heads to the basement and they didn't see the apparition but, "We were asking several questions about the little girl entity and when we played back a set of three questions. We heard an audible ‘yes’ when we asked if she like animals." And they continue, "After another short break we headed to the Ball Room. A large room that was directly below the Masonic Temple and an addition attached to the backside of the property. The site for the addition sat on what was once Mary Houghton’s garden and we could have told you that in retrospect because the room smelled of flowers. You can imagine the excitement from the group when we walked into this grand room and all smelled the same sweet scent...After another break it was time to head to the third floor. This is where the servants quarters were located including the room of John Widders, the Chauffeur who in his guilt shot himself in a barn formally on the property. We spent about 20 Minutes in his bedroom...The Freemason guides indicated that although his presence was felt around the house, it came and went periodically. During our time in the room, one of the investigators meters constantly went off, but other than that it was pretty quiet. That is, until we moved over to the next room. We started asking for anything/anyone to give us a sign, specifically for John Widders. Several of us took photos which led to one of the more interesting ones of the night. The photo of the potential shadow person or black mass that can be seen in the anomalies section of the report. After this point, a spirit box that was on and had been left by the other group started getting active. Immediately we all turned toward the box and were startled by what could not be mistaken for anything other than ‘Get Out’. We confirmed this with one another before we heard it again. As we started to get uneasy it took a third time for us to pack up and immediate leave the floor. We did not want to be where we were not welcome."

Irene Loewenson wrote in The Williams Record in October of 2019, "Williamstown resident James 'Cricket' Wondoloski, [estimates] that he has spent the night in the purportedly haunted North Adams mansion 13 times. Wondoloski would stay in the mansion with a group of friends who were also interested in ghost-hunting. On his first overnight, he and his friends saw a lantern-like light float up the stairs and heard creaking but did not see anyone walking. Then, the light went out. 'We all freaked out,' he said. 'And then we were quiet and we could hear footsteps right above our heads… We went up, and there was nobody there...It was quite fun to go...Sometimes a lot of things happened. Sometimes nothing happened.' On more eventful nights, he has felt a 40-degree gust of air in the middle of summer, heard a girlish giggle and been scratched on the back of his neck, he said. His friend reported feeling a tug on his ponytail." 

The Houghton family endured a tragedy no family should ever have to experience. Is the pain from the car accident somehow locked into the house, trapping those connected to the accident? And what about the Masons? Were they just interacting with the former owners or did they conjure some entities themselves? Is the Houghton mansion haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 585 - S.K. Pierce Mansion

Moment in Oddity - Bone Collector Caterpillar (Suggested by: Michael Rogers)

The vast majority of caterpillars are herbivores. They can quickly consume all the leaves and blossoms of your favorite garden plant. There are some caterpillars however, that fall into the category of carnivorous, believe it or not. One of these carnivorous caterpillars is known as the 'bone collector caterpillar'. This interesting little fella is found on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Describing the insect as unique is an understatement. The caterpillar is a scavenger for the most part, but it is also known to be cannibalistic at times. Yes, they will also eat their own kind. This strange insect will pull its meals from spider webs. Sounds dangerous for the caterpillar, right? Well not entirely, the creatures disguise themselves with the cadavers of other insects that they find. This helps to camouflage them while pilfering their next meal from unsuspecting spiders. These carnivorous caterpillars happily feast on the leftovers that a spider has hanging around its web. The caterpillar's corpse costume hides them from the unwitting spider hosts. This newly discovered insect was happened upon by Dr. Daniel Rubinoff and his colleagues while hiking the Waianae mountains nearly 20 years ago. But only recently had an article published about it in April of 2025. At the time of its discovery, the group was searching for the Hawaiian case caterpillar who shares the same genus as the Bone Collector caterpillar. The Dr. stated, “We see this little, tiny sac covered in bug bits, and honestly, we weren’t sure what it was,” says Rubinoff. “And then we take it back [to the lab], and we realize there is a little caterpillar in there.” A caterpillar that masquerades in a macabre mask and gives us Buffalo Bill, Silence of the Lambs vibes, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Brahms Born

In the month of May, on the 7th, in 1833, composer Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany. Brahms composed over 200 songs in his lifetime including orchestral, choral, piano, symphonies and chamber works, including his German Requiem commemorating the death of his mother. In his early years, he studied music with his father who was a horn and double bass musician. By the age of seven, Johannes was sent for piano lessons with F.W. Cossel then, three years later, Brahm graduated to lessons from Cossel's teacher, Edward Marxsen. As a teen, Johannes earned money for his family by playing near the docks of Hamburg. He also spent time composing and giving recitals. In 1853, Brahms was recommended to composer Robert Schumann and the two struck up a friendship. Due to the praises of Schumann in a public article, Brahms became well known in the world of music. Brahms was influenced by composers like Schumann, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and Wagner just to name a few. Though he never married and was not apt to showing his emotions in his personal life, his musical compositions displayed deep and emotional spectrums. Pieces would range from intense energy and drama, to impeccable lyricism. Despite not easily showing outward emotions, Brahms loved spending time with children and dogs. After his good friend Robert Schumann died in 1856, Brahms offered Clara Schumann, Robert's widow, emotional support and assistance. Although Johannes and Clara developed a strong connection historians debate whether or not they ever became more than that. In April of 1897, Johannes Brahms passed away from cancer of the liver, less than a year after the death of Clara Schumann.

S.K. Pierce Victorian Mansion (Suggested by: Missy Crawford and Brittany Cox) 

One can't miss the S.K. Pierce Mansion in Gardner, Massachusetts. This magnificent mansion is a huge Victorian that takes up the whole corner of West Broadway and Union Street. The grand exterior makes it very inviting, but the ghost stories connected to this place might just make you think twice before entering. There are those that claim this home is the second most haunted house in Massachusetts. Some owners have been chased out by spirits. There could be more than a dozen spirits here and one of them may be the furniture magnate for whom the house was built and named: S.K. Pierce. Join us for the history and hauntings of the S.K. Pierce Mansion.

Just last month, April 2025, the S.K. Pierce Victorian mansion was listed for sale. HGB clubhouse perhaps? It's a little steep at $1.2 million, but it has a fascinating history. The mansion is located at 4 West Broadway in Gardner, Massachusetts. Gardner was first settled by Europeans in 1764 and incorporated into a township in 1785. The town was named for Colonel Thomas Gardner, an American politician and soldier who was fatally wounded at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Woodworking factories and sawmills were the initial industries and this would grow into a furniture manufacturing powerhouse that included twelve furniture factories. So many chairs were made here that Gardner became "The Chair City of the World." They averaged 1.2 million chairs a year. To recognize this, the town has a twenty foot chair monument. A little fun fact is that an employee of one of these furniture companies, Edward G. Watkins, created a time recording device in 1888 that was used to record employees work schedule. You know, a time clock. And it was because of this that we get our saying "punching the clock." Gardner became the City of Gardner in 1923.

We've talked in other episodes about lumber barons and robber barons. Perhaps there was such a thing as a furniture baron? Ok, so that's our creation, but if there was such a thing as a furniture baron, Sylvester Knowlton Pierce would have been one. I guess the term magnate fits better. Pierce was born in 1820 in Massachusetts and went by the nickname S.K. He married Susan Elvira Jackson in 1845 and the couple had one son in 1856 whom they named Frank. S.K. amassed a large fortune with his furniture empire and he decided it was time to build himself a home befitting his station in life.

Construction began on S.K.'s masterpiece of a Victorian mansion in 1873. Architects E. Boyden and Son designed the mansion in the Second Empire architectural style, so it basically looks like the Addams Family house. The current paint job is dark gray with black shutters, so that fits with that imagery perfectly. We're not sure what color it was originally. When the mansion was completed two years later, it was three stories tall and had a basement that had a tunnel that led across the street to a furniture factory. There were 26 rooms that included 10 bedrooms, a formal dining room, billiards room, two parlors, library and four bathrooms. S.K. spared no expense in the construction and he made sure the house was as modern as possible. There were two cisterns that collected rainwater from the slate roof, so the Pierce's had running water in the house. There was gas lighting and there were speaking tubes and electric bells for communication throughout the house. A dumb waiter could reach all three floors. The interior decor was gorgeous with 16 types of wood and hand-carved moldings and cornices, a walnut staircase, Tiffany glass everywhere, crystal chandeliers and massive doors that were nine-feet tall and constructed from solid black walnut. And when we say "solid" we mean solid. The doors weighed over five-hundred pounds apiece. A tower with a circular staircase led up to a widow’s walk,so the family had sweeping views of South Gardner.

Tragedy struck right after the Pierces moved into their dream home. Susan contracted a bacterial infection, that we have heard was the flesh-eating kind, and she passed away only a few weeks after moving into the house. S.K. grieved her for a year, but when a woman thirty years younger than his wife caught his eye, he got over his sorrow. This was Nellie West and he married her in 1878. They would have two sons together, Stuart and Edward. Together, the Pierces became the social hub of Gardner. They hosted P.T. Barnum and other prominent people in the area. After ten years of marriage, S.K. passed away in the house in 1888 and he left the house to Nellie who remained in it until her death in 1902. Then the house passed onto the three Pierce boys who fought over ownership of the house and the furniture business. Frank and Stuart finally gave up and left the house to Edward. The Freemasons used the house for meetings at this time and Edward hosted some famous people at the house including President Calvin Coolidge when he was a Senator for Massachusetts, Norman Rockwell and Bette Davis. Another tragedy for the Pierce family took place here when Edward's two-year-old daughter contracted a bacterial infection and died in the house. Not sure if it was the same kind that Susan died from. About that same time, The Great Depression began and it hit the furniture business hard. Edward couldn't keep up with the house, so he and his wife opened it as a boarding house. This part of the history is murky. The sensational stories claim that the place was a brothel that hosted gambling and drinking. A lady of the evening was said to have been killed here in what later came to be known as the Red Room. Of course, we found no newspaper accounts to support this.

A Finnish immigrant named Eino Saari was sleeping in his bed when a fire broke out in 1963. When the firemen arrived, they found a weird situation. Saari had been mostly consumed and the bed was badly burned, but the fire hadn't spread to any other part of the room. This sounded like a classic example of spontaneous combustion. A young boy drowned in the basement as well during this time. Many people had died here. Edward maintained ownership of the house until 1965, when he had to sell it out of the hands of the Pierce family and a good friend named Jay Stemmermen bought the house and allowed him to live at the house until he died in 1967. By the 1980s, Stemmerman had abandoned the house. Jay was an artist and he created some weird pieces while at the house that he left behind. Paintings depicted half-man, half-beast creatures. Other pictures depicted orgies.

The mansion was slated to be demolished in 1996, but fortunately, that didn't happen. The Victorian was bought in 2000 by Suzanne and Mark Veau (Vo) and they renovated the house. Weird stuff started happening in the house and they eventually invited TAPS to come investigate and after that, they decided to start hosting ghost tours of the house. They put the house on the market in 2007 when they divorced and had to keep reducing the price before anyone would buy it because of the haunted reputation. The couple who did buy it in 2009 had no idea about the hauntings. They just thought they were getting a great deal. Amityville anyone? LOL! Although we don't believe that house had any hauntings. Anyway, Lillian Otero and Edwin Gonzalez became the new owners. After they purchased the house in 2009, they had so many paranormal experiences that they moved out of the house. The couple claimed that the ghosts in the house were angry and threatening and that one of them had even possessed Lillian. They claimed the place had been their dream home, so something must have happened to them. We'll get more into their experiences in a minute. When the couple moved out, they handed the keys over to a woman named Marion to be the caretaker and despite new owners, she has remained the caretaker to this day.

The Dark Carnival is a circus-themed haunted attraction that was established in 2010 and provided high intensity scary shows across the state of New Jersey. They worked with top animators and prop masters in the haunt industry to keep their shows cutting edge. In 2015, they - and the "they" is Rob and Allison Conti - decided to go a different route and they acquired the S.K. Pierce Mansion from Edwin and Lillian and set about restoring it further. And Yes, Lillian and Edwin owned the house for seven years, but only lived in it for two of them. Their website says, "The Dark Carnival will open the Mansion to the public for overnight rentals for the brave souls who wish to experience the Mansion during it's darkest hours, and for historical ghost tours where guests can learn about both the positive and negative history of this home. During the Halloween season we plan to open the basement only of the Mansion (weekends only in October) for what will truly be a one of a kind SK Pierce themed Halloween attraction as it will be the only haunt in the country that combines the haunt industry and the paranormal industry. As guests travel through the bowels of the Mansion, they will encounter 30-35 of our trained actors, high end illusions and animations, and may even get a glimpse of the truly paranormal. Best of all, since this attraction is only in the basement, guests can have some scares in the spirit of the season without ever affecting the majesty of the main levels of this marvelous home."

And, whelp, that never seemed to happen. The website is set up for tours, so we believe they did offer those through the years. And now the place is on the market for over $1 million. Today, the house sits on .23 acres and has 9 bedrooms and 3.5 baths with that gray exterior adorned by black shutters. The listing agent isn't shy about the haunted reputation and is using that as an angle to sell the house. And there are many stories to back up those paranormal claims. Residents of the house and guests have all claimed to experience paranormal activity. Full-bodied apparitions were seen and furniture would move on its own. Disembodied chanting and voices have been heard. The screens have come flying off the windows. There have been foul odors and weird temperature changes. And probably the weirdest claim is a sound like a lion's roar, which could shake the house. Visitors claim to be pushed by something they can't see. One was almost pushed down the stairs and another felt as though something tried to force them out a third story window.

There are estimates of thirteen ghosts here with a few of them being identified. These include S.K. Pierce himself, Susan Pierce, Edward Pierce, a Pierce nanny named Mattie Cornwell, David - the red room strangler - and the prostitute he murdered in the red room, a young boy, a younger girl, Eino Saari and some unnamed dark entities in the basement. A neighbor living next door had seen lights turn on and off in the mansion when it was empty. The fire alarms would go off as well with no fire and she would see shadows moving inside. Clearly, Mark and Suzanne experienced some stuff.

Edwin Gonzalez knew in his gut that something was wrong with the house before they put in an offer in 2009. When he and Lillian toured the house, he felt a weird pressure in certain rooms and even became nauseous a couple times. He hoped it was just lunch because Lillian really loved the house. After they closed on the house and moved in, they met their neighbor and he asked them about their children. Edwin and Lillian were confused because they didn't have kids. They explained they had no children and the neighbor looked confused. He asked, "Who was the kid that I saw earlier in the house today?" Edwin asked, "What do you mean?" The neighbor explained that he saw a boy who was probably five or six years old looking out of one of the windows on third floor and then almost immediately that same boy was looking out of a window on the opposite end of the house. Edwin just said there was no way because only he and Lillian were in the house and that it would be impossible for anybody to move that fast in the house because that person would literally have to go through a wall to do it that fast. Lillian and Edwin didn't immediately think they had a ghost though. Maybe just a weird neighbor.

But it wasn't a weird neighbor who slammed one of the big doors downstairs in the middle of the night, awakening Lillian and Edwin. They would also hear loud knocking and the doorbell went off by itself later that week. Edwin worked from home and he made the former nursery his office. He was working in there late one afternoon when the image of a man appeared and rushed towards him. The vision was so real that Edwin threw up his hands to protect himself and squeezed his eyes shut. When nothing happened, he opened then and looked around the room and there was no one there. He checked the house and he was alone. It really freaked him out. He believed this was the spirit of Eino Saari. One morning Lillian was awakened and told by a voice to get up and get dressed and go into the basement and start digging. She dug around in the kiln and found a bone. Edwin had a doctor's appointment the next day and he took the bone with him. The doctor confirmed that the bone was human. It was the pelvic bone of a teenage female. The police came to investigate the house and took the bone. No one knows who the bone belongs to, but there is some lore that claims S.K.'s son had impregnated a servant girl and did away with her. Lillian and Edwin's stories and this discovery of bones led to a book written by Joni Mayhan entitled "Bones in the Basement: Surviving the S.K. Pierce Haunted Victorian Mansion."

This excerpt is from the first chapter of that book. (Read excerpt) 

Joni was a part of investigations in the house and during one they recorded this EVP saying "Franklin." (SK Pierce EVP Franklin) And they got this through the Spirit Box in the basement. (SK Pierce Ghost Box Devil) Is this confirming a demon in the basement? And there's this chilling EVP. (SK Pierce EVP Help Me) A female voice calling out for help? Joni told the Dark House Podcast during an interview that she felt the spirits turned negative on Edwin and Lillian because they weren't upkeeping the house. Once the current owners came in and started pouring money into repairs, the hauntings became much more friendly.

Ghost Adventures visited in 2013 on the invite of Lillian and Edwin. They caught the sound of several loud bangs that seemed to get progressively louder. Aaron was touched on the shoulder by something on the third floor and when he and Zak ask who is up there, they hear an audible "me." The 3rd floor X camera captures a ball of light that moves above the mirror and disappears into the room that Zak and Aaron are standing in front of. The Spirit Box says "he's here", "David?", "hi", "no", "not sure" and "Lillian." The only EVP they captured said, "go to sleep."

A woman named Jeanne visited the house in October 2022. She wrote on Facebook, "A tour was taking place while I was there. These were guided tours and they started in the basement & worked their way up. When I got home & looked at my photos, I could clearly see a man, with his hands behind his back, on the first floor. But, up on the 3rd floor, there was a young boy, pointing down to us. The tours were by group, guided and if they were only on the first floor, who is that young boy on the 3rd floor? You can see the man on the 1st floor window on the right. The boy is on the top floor, middle window." (We'll post picture.) There is clearly a little head up in that window.

Jason Hawes returned to the mansion in 2025. This was his third visit and he said he's always had activity there. Upon entering, Jason and his friend JV immediately heard a bang coming from the basement. They put a REM pod on the kiln. They hear a noise that sounds like a bunch of boxes falling over. And then an audible whisper. The REM Pod went off a minute later when they asked if the person who was hurt was there with them. They heard whispering again. They think they picked up the sound of a cat later and there are reports of a ghost cat. This was a really interesting investigation, especially with all the audible voices. The caretaker/manager that we mentioned earlier, Marion, shared a picture with the guys of a figure captured in a window and it sure looks like a woman. 

The Stromedy Channel on YouTube featured a tour of the house and Marion shared a picture of something taken down in the basement on there that we'll share on Instagram also. They used a phone app for a Ghost Box and got some interesting stuff that mostly felt negative telling them to leave and go and they felt like many spirits were trying to talk to them, but this one male spirit was in charge and not letting them. The group went upstairs and used a real Spirit Box and thought they were communicating with Maddie and the story they got was that Maddie was dragged out of this room, down to the basement and killed and that Sylvester is the bad guy in the house. They also did a sort of Estes Method, but not with noise cancelling headphones, so not sure I would trust this. But during that they got that this was a family secret and a son was involved. Something interesting did happen during this when they asked Maddie to give a sign. A chair in the corner started rocking on its own. There is nothing historically to back up this story, but maybe it was just hidden well and we do have this pelvic bone that was found. Where did that come from? We will warn you if you go to watch this video that they are part of this new generation of  YouTube ghosts shows and so the camera movements are very jerky and there is a lot of silly scared reactions to everything. 

This mansion is just glorious to look at and the fact that it possibly has spirits inside it, makes it even more enchanting. Many people have had experiences here. We hope that whoever buys it next, does indeed open it to the public as there had been a waiting list of over 3,000 people wanting to overnight at the place. Is the S.K. Pierce Mansion haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 584 - Haunted San Juan Capistrano

Moment in Oddity - Cataphiles (Suggested by: Jared Rang)

We are all familiar with what catacombs are. Underground burial sites consisting of tunnels and chambers where the dead are buried. Paris, France has more than six million people buried in the numerous tunnels with historical dates spanning back to ancient times. There are also groups of people called Cataphiles that can range from the unhoused to young people looking to party, or even urban explorers. Some of those Cataphiles make up a unique group of approximately 150 people. This group of people are known as the Untergunters. Back in the 80's and 90's it was popular for students to throw secret parties in the network of tunnels under Paris. Those students have since grown up into successful adults, but many of them still have the penchant for the capital's mysterious underground. Since the 1990's the group has restored crypts, staged readings and plays in monuments at night, and they even organized rock concerts in abandoned quarries. They were discovered by the authorities in 2004, when police found an underground cinema and a complete restaurant and bar underneath the Seine. The group was not identified until they revealed themselves after restoring a neoclassical Paresian landmark, the Pantheon clock. The mission to restore the clock began in September 2005 and continued for a year. The entire process took place right under the noses of the Pantheon security officials. The 'illegal restorers' were able to set up a secret workshop and lounge under the building's famous dome. The process was overseen by professional clockmaker, Jean-Baptiste Viot. The secret group of "cultural guerrillas" cleaned and repaired the antique, rusted clock. Once the classic piece of history was fully restored, there was controversial discussions about whether or not they should let the Pantheon's officials know what they had accomplished. The decision was finally made to let the officials know so that the clock would begin being wound. Initially, their disclosure was thought to be a hoax, but once the Pantheon's officials were shown the clock as well as the group's secret workspace, they began digesting the scope of what had occurred. Although The Center of National Monuments was not pleased by how easily the group was able to 'break in' and perform the task. Charges were pressed against the Untergunthers, and the Pantheon's administrator was replaced. Fortunately, the four members who were charged were cleared in court. It is said that the group now has another secret restoration project in Paris planned. The fact that people have had the ability to form a community based in the catacombs of Paris and go undetected for a year restoring a piece of a National Monument, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Mary Mother Jones Born

In the month of May, on the 1st, in 1830, Mary 'Mother' Jones was claimed to be born in County Cork, Ireland. She immigrated to Toronto, Canada with her family when she was five years old. Once she was old enough to contribute to her family, she went to work as a teacher and dressmaker. She was once labeled by a U.S. district attorney as, "the most dangerous woman in America". Mary experienced tragedy in her younger years, losing her husband as well as her four children to yellow fever in 1867. She also lost all of her belongings in the Chicago Fire of 1871. She moved through those tragedies and became a fiery speaker and organizer who was dedicated to improving working conditions in the labor force. She joined the Knights of labor as well as the United Mine Workers. She was known for her public speaking skills and her ability to motivate support for strikes, even being the leader of these strikes. She was highly opposed to child labor and organized marches in protest of children working in mines and factories. She made some unique decisions for the times, welcoming African American laborers into unions and organizing the wives of miners into teams to protest the working conditions the miners suffered through. To the miner's, she earned the nickname of, "the miner's angel". She continued to fight for the rights of workers into her 80s and assisted in the struggles to unionize different industries. It is said that the last speech she gave was when she was 100 years old. The age could be argued over however. Although Mary "Mother" Jones claimed her birthday was May 1st, 1830, it is believed that this was a date she adopted due the date being celebrated as International Workers' Day. Some sources suggest that her actual birth date may have been August 1, 1837.

Haunted San Juan Capistrano

We had the chance to visit San Juan Capistrano and the mission there, as well as the Los Rios Historic District in April 2025. The historic district still hosts three original adobe homes, along with quaint shops and distinctive eateries. Much of the mission is in ruins today, but the colorful gardens, swallows and beautiful interior of the Serra Chapel make this a mission not to be missed. And the main downtown of San Juan Capistrano has its bits of history alongside modern businesses. All of these areas have their ghosts. Join us for the history and hauntings of San Juan Capistrano!

In our episode on La Purisima Mission, we talked about a Franciscan missionary named Junipero Serra. He was considered one of the most important Spanish missionaries in the Americas and for this reason, he was chosen as one of the subjects for the two statues that represent the state of California at the U.S. Capital. The Acjachemen (Ah-HAWSH-eh-men) were the indigenous tribe in this area of California when the Spanish arrived. They had lived here for 10,000 years and their main village was called Putuidem. The Mission at San Juan Capistrano was the seventh of 21 missions founded in California and was considered the birthplace of Orange County. Father Serra founded the mission at San Juan Capistrano in 1776, building it just 60 yards from another village named Acjachema and this made it easier for the Spaniards to exploit the native population. The chapel that was built here is considered the oldest surviving church in the state and the only one standing where Serra celebrated Mass. Adobe homes sprang up around the mission and three of them survive to our modern era. These homes are in the Los Rios Historic District and are known as the Silvas Adobe, the Rios Adobe and the Montanez Adobe. 

The Los Rios District is the oldest residential neighborhood in California. There were originally 40 adobe structures here that were mostly replaced by 19th century wooden board and batten structures. There are several cute shops for shopping, a coffee house and bistros. There are railroad tracks and a depot just outside the neighborhood where Amtrak still brings through a commuter train. The Los Rios Street was placed on the National Registry in 1983. The Silvas Adobe was built in 1794. Jose Maria Silvas rebuilt the adobe in 1868. He married Maria Manuela de Jesus Yorba who was the daughter of Domingo Yorba and Catalina Olivares. There are no reported hauntings of this adobe, but the other two are another story.

The Rios Adobe was built in 1794 for Feliciano Rios who was a Spanish soldier based at the mission. This is the oldest home continuously occupied by one family in the state of California. The Rios family still owns it and the current resident is Stephen Rios, who also uses it as his law office. He believes spirits live and says that when he was a young boy, he and his father, Dan Rios, were sleeping in the front bedroom. They heard the back door open and then these disembodied footsteps came towards the room that they were in and then they heard them stop, as if someone was listening on the other side of the door. They then heard the disembodied footsteps start up again and head back towards the back door. They didn't hear the door open or close and after a bit, they ventured out of the room. They found all the doors were locked and they were the only two people inside the house. There are some who think this is the spirit of a 19th century gold hunter named Joaquin Murietta. He had been a friend of Stephen’s great-grandfather Gregorio Rios and he frequently stopped at the adobe. He was very successful in his mining and some jealous American miners apparently beat him nearly to death and did kill his brother. Murietta vowed revenge and he killed nearly a dozen men before marshals tracked him down and killed him. 

The main ghost haunting several locations including Los Rios Street and the Mission is our traditional white lady. She is seen here wearing a long white dress and surrounded in mist at her feet. Pamela Hallan-Gibson writes in her 1983 book Ghosts and Legends of San Juan Capistrano that "she has been reported in the foothills behind Del Obispo, in the flatlands between Trabuco Creek and the old El Camino real, and in the Mission cemetery off Ortega Highway. But she first made her appearance on Los Rios Street somewhere near the end of the last century." She has been seen at the edge of the driveway to the Rios Adobe with a large dog on a rawhide leash. She has never been menacing and sometimes smiles at people. Her long white dress flows behind her when she walks down the street. A young man was walking home one night in the late 1930s from a dance at Capistrano Union High School when he saw the lady in white walking a dog down the street. He thought it was odd since it was so late at night. Then something weird happened. She had just been off to the side of him, but suddenly she was ahead of him by a distance and he hadn't seen her pass him. Pamela Hallan-Gibson describes it this way in her book, "He turned the corner and proceeded toward his house. Again, he stopped. There she was, leaning against a fencepost, directly ahead of him. This time he did not linger. He set out on a dead run toward his house, reaching the front door as quickly as he could. Banging to be let in, the door was flung open by his father who saw his agitation and asked what was wrong. 'Nothing,' said the young man, not wanting his father to know he had seen a ghost. The father looked at him for a moment, and then walked to the window, lifting the edge of the curtain. 'Don't worry,' he said. 'She won't hurt you.' And then he walked away."

The Montanez Adobe was constructed in 1794 and named for Doña Polonia Montanez, a 19th century resident. It was restored in 1981 by the San Juan Capistrano Historical Society and features a beautiful butterfly garden out in front with benches, so you can enjoy the flowers and butterflies. Today, the adobe is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Dunivin and runs as a museum. Doña Montañez was the village midwife and she delivered babies. She also served as San Juan’s spiritual leader after the mission was abandoned. There was no priest, so she led prayers and Bible reading. A legend claims that after a period of no rain in 1890, she took a group of children with her to the hills above Del Obispo and the group prayed for rain. It worked. This seems to have had such a powerful spiritual energy connected to it, that balls of light are reported in the living room of the adobe and the sounds of chanting are heard. People claim these are the spirits of the Dona and the children. 

Lupe Combs House

Right behind the wooden sign that says "Los Rios Historic District," sits a wooden house. This is right next to the train tracks and had once been the Hummingbird House Cafe. When we visited, it appeared to be the office for a realty company. This is officially known as the Lupe Combs House and was built in 1878 in Forester City and then moved to San Juan Capistrano in 1882. It gets its name from Constable Jack Combs. There was a building behind the house where weekend prisoners were kept during Constable Combs’ tenure. The house would go on to serve as a general store, candy store, post office and cafe. Barbara Neal Varma wrote an article for Orange Coast Magazine about a ghost tour she took along the historic district. This was their first stop and here is what she wrote, "First stop: an old brown house that was once the home of Modesta Avila, Orange County’s first felon. Apparently she hadn’t cared much for the Santa Fe Railroad’s encroachment on her property and strung a clothesline across the tracks. A tame protest by today’s standards. But at that time, such unladylike behavior was not to be tolerated, and she was sentenced to three years in San Quentin [in 1889] for attempted train obstruction. 'She was only 22 when she died in prison,' [the tour guide] August said. 'Some say her spirit has returned to reclaim her home.' With that happy thought, he powered up his iPad. 'We believe we’ve captured her voice.' At first, there was nothing but static. Then a man’s voice on the audio recording calling out Modesta’s name. Then...wait, what was that? August played it again. This time, I heard it—a rush of words that seemed to say, 'I don’t like the train.'" People also claim to see her apparition in the structure and also out in the yard and on the porch. Especially at night.

O’Neill Museum/Garcia-Pryor House

The O'Neill Museum is the oldest wooden structure here and is located at the end of the street. This house was built by saloon keeper Jose Dolores Garcia between 1870 and 1880 as a gift for his wife. There was no kitchen or bathroom. The bathroom was added in 1895 and the kitchen in the 1920s. The outside plaque on the house reads, "Jose Dolores Garcia was a prominent citizen of San Juan Capistrano who was Juaneno Indian and Spanish descent. In 1862, he married Maria Refugia Yorba at the Mission. He promised her a new and unique house. After extensive research on horseback in the Anaheim area, he built this Victorian style house around 1870. Here they lived happily until his untimely death in 1897." Garcia was shot to death in front of the saloon. His wife was unable to care for the house on her own, so she sold it to a man named Albert Pryor in 1903. After Pryor died in 1955, the townspeople got superstitious about the house and no one would buy it after that. At some point, Alfred Cornwell acquired the house when he bought the El Adobe Restaurant because it was on the back lot. In 1976, he donated the home to the San Juan Capistrano Historical Society, and it was moved to its current location. Albert Pryor's spirit haunts the home. He used to like to sit on the porch in a rocking chair and people still claim to see him there. There are those who claim that once the house moved, the activity stopped, but maybe the museum just put the kibosh on ghost stories because we know spirits can move with houses or items.

El Adobe de Capistrano Restaurant

Since we just mentioned it, we should talk about the El Adobe de Capistrano Restaurant next. This was originally two adobes. The northern part was the home of Miguel Yorba, built in 1797, possibly by his father Jose Antonio Yorba II. The southern part used to be the Justice Court and Juzgado (jail) and was built in the early 1800s. The jail was down in the cellar, so it was very much like a dungeon. That southern building has also been used as a post office, store, and stagecoach depot. The Seeley & Wright Stage Line from Los Angeles to San Diego operated in the 1850s and stopped in San Juan Capistrano overnight and passed through the space between the two adobes. That is now the foyer of the restaurant. The two adobes were joined in 1910 by Harry and Georgia Vander Leck who used them as a house and store. In 1946, Clarence Brown purchased the adobes and turned them into the El Adobe de Capistrano Restaurant, which opened on July 8, 1948 with a wedding reception for the first Commanding General of Camp Pendleton, General Joseph C. Fegan. Someone who was a big fan of the restaurant was President Richard Nixon. He loved the Mexican cuisine here. A later owner named Roland Olsen added a large area to the west side of the building featuring a ceiling that slides open to the sky. The old jail is the wine cellar. A chapel area was also added for weddings. The restaurant is owned by Rancho Mission Viejo and leased to Melinda and Tony Moiso, Gilbert Aguirre and Steve Nordeck. 

With a history as a jail, it isn't surprising that the place is said to be haunted. This also served as a hospital after the 1812 earthquake. Staff claims that something unseen taps them on the shoulders. Faint murmuring is heard. One waitress quit abruptly after she saw an apparition. A bartender said that "she was crying and left and never came back." Perhaps she spotted the headless friar that makes appearances on the patio. With him comes a drastic drop in temperature. Inmates at the jail had to provide their own food and there was one young man whose mother brought him food every night. This man died in the jail and jail staff kept giving her the run around when she would ask where her son was. It seems she died shortly thereafter, maybe from a broken heart, and now her spirit walks the hallways seeking her son. Employees don't care to go down to the wine cellar as they get an unsettled feeling there. The sounds of chains rattling are heard and shadow figures are seen. A few have even claimed to feel an oppressive weight on their chest, as if unseen hands were pressing down upon them.

Ramos House Cafe

The Ramos House Cafe is the newest house in the Los Rios district, having been built in 1890 as a board and batten house. This was originally built by the Aguilar Family and was later bought by the Ramos family who lived in it for a long time.The Ramos Family was one of San Juan Capistrano’s oldest families. A small room under the main bedroom was said to be a hiding place for vaqueros running from would be captors. John Q. Humphreys opened the Ramos House as a cafe in 1995. He preserved much of the original structure, adding a commercial kitchen at the back of the house and laying out the patio area around the century old Mulberry tree there. Michelle Winrich worked as a server at the cafe for ten years. When Chef Humphreys decided to sell in 2020, she and her husband Kris decided to buy it and they have carried on the earlier traditions of the cafe. It is closed on Wednesdays, so it was closed when we were there, but it looks like a nice place to eat. This place is said to have poltergeists. Workmen were restoring the house in the 1980s and they were the only people there. They would lock up their tools at night. They would often find them scattered about the house in places where they had not left them. Sometimes they would leave for as little as five minutes and return to find boxes scattered throughout the rooms. They opened the trap door leading up to the attic and they claimed to feel something they couldn't see, come swooping down on them. Chairs in the restaurant will move back on their own. Glasses will tip over on their own.

Belford Terrace

Belford Terrace is a neighborhood in San Juan Capistrano north of the Ortega Highway and the Old Mission Cemetery. It is named for what once stood here and that was the Belford Terrace Mansion that was built in the 1890s. Father Albert Quetu was serving in the area in the early 1900s and he acquired the mansion. He was said to be an eccentric clergyman with a plan to start a French colony. Father Albert made that his main goal and he neglected his priestly. The mansion eventually burned down and the fire killed a young girl named Denise Duprez who was in the home at the time. Her spirit is said to haunt the Belford Terrace neighborhood.

Forster Mansion

The Forster Mansion sits on the Ortega Highway between the Capistrano Inn and the shopping center to the east. It was built in 1910 by Frank A. Forster who was the grandson of Don Juan Forster who owned the Mission at one time. Forster hired architects Train & Williams to design the mansion in the Mission Revival Style. The first floor was made from concrete and the second floor was wood with plaster. This was the first stucco covered home built here. Rocks from Salt Creek in South Laguna were hauled over to build a massive rock fireplace. Forster threw big parties and BBQs, so it was a social hub. The house was left to the Forster children and one of the daughters, Alice, lived in it for a long time and then she willed it to her nephew, Pancho. In 1975, Bill Reid and Nario Iwata bought the house and it fell into disrepair. Martha Gresham bought the mansion in 1983 and she restored it to its former glory. She sold the mansion in 1990 to photographer Phillip Stewart Charis and the house was used as a wedding venue.

There is a ghost here and he apparently is cigar smoking. Owner Bill Reid was the first to report the spectre back in the 1970s. he thought the spirit came from the old cemetery located across the street on the hill. He claimed to hear doors opening and slamming shut upstairs when he was the only person in the house. Bill often smelled cigar smoke as well and he didn't smoke them. Martha Gresham claimed to be psychic and claimed she saw this spirit often. She took to calling him George. She described him wearing khaki clothes and said he had a mustache and was short. She thought he was an original builder of the house. To back up these stories, during the restoration work, contractors found a petrified cigar stub behind a plaster wall. The house hosted Halloween parties, but recently closed due to bankruptcy

Trabuco Creek

There were two Acjachemen villages on the main stem of the Trabuco Creek, which got its name from a type of gun that was a blunderbuss. An expedition had been coming through in 1769 in July when a soldiers trabuco went missing. The gun was never found and the creek was named in its honor. Trabuco Creek has a La Llorona adjacent ghost. In the late 19th century, the walkway that extends from Los Rios Street past Zoomars Petting Zoo to Paseo Adelanto used to be the only route to the ocean from San Juan Capistrano. There were painted ladies that worked that route and one of them fell in love with a man on a white horse. He told her that he would marry her and he brought gifts for her children. When the man didn't return for her and the children, she walked them down to Trabuco Creek and drowned them. Overcome with grief, she then drowned herself. Her spirit is now seen walking the route and along the creek searching for her children.

Inn at the Mission San Juan Capistrano

The long hallways at this hotel are crazy. They go on and on. This hotel was opened in December 2020 right next to the Mission and is part of the Marriott chain of hotels. The rooms are described as being hacienda-like. The Great Stone Church can be seen from the outdoor patio. Authentic Spanish food is served up in the Ysidora Restaurant and Lounge. What makes the place really special is its olive grove and they make their own private label EVOO. Despite being a brand new location, it is haunted. Employees at the Inn at the Mission San Juan Capistrano have captured activity on their phones. Some of this includes orbs and other kinds of anomalies that move in very interesting ways. And that's not surprising considering this is a fairly new hotel and when they broke ground, they found human remains. 

So basically, it was built partially over a cemetery and it is right next to the mission. Paranormal investigators Mackie and Amanda stayed at the hotel in 2022 and they pulled out a Boo Buddy. There was a flashlight that they had turned on and they said, "If you want to play with the Boo Buddy, turn off the flashlight" and the flashlight went off. One of the ladies seemed to be psychic and said that she sensed that there was Spanish man there with two children, a boy and girl. So maybe it was one of them, but, of course, I take the psychic thing with a grain of salt because one would expect a Spanish man to be there along with kids based on the history. They did a Spirit Box session and got the word Pollo and it also said "Hey Amanda." Something turned off their camera and they heard the click before it happened. They definitely felt they caught a lot of activity and we would agree. Their flashlight was going on and off like crazy in their room.

Mission San Juan Capistrano (Mission Chanting)

The most haunted location in San Juan Capistrano is, of course, the mission itself. When Junipero Serro founded it in 1776, he named it for Saint John of Capistrano who was a Franciscan friar from the Italian town of Capestrano. He was known as the "Soldier Saint" and led a crusade against the invading Ottoman Empire at the siege of Belgrade in 1456. There is another mission named for him in San Antonio, Texas. The goal of the mission was the same as the previous six that had been opened: to assimilate the indigenous people into Spanish culture and to make them Catholics. Part of the culture was teaching them the fundamentals of Spanish agricultural and village life. For the indigenous Acjachemen (Ah-HAWSH-eh-men) to become a part of the Mission, they had to give up nearly everything about their lives from the food they ate to their clothing to their traditions to their spiritual beliefs. Many of them would give up their lives too as the Spanish brought their diseases. And most of them really had no choice. With the arrival of the Spanish horses, mules and oxen, indigenous animals and plants were destroyed. Food was hard to come by and the Mission offered food.

Before the Spanish arrived, there were around 65,000 Native Americans living in the coastal zone of California in 1770. By 1830, only 17,000 remained living, a decline of 74%. And the diseases just kept hitting. Cases of the Spanish Flu started showing up in Southern California in mid-September 1918. San Juan Capistrano was hit pretty hard. But something other than illness devastated the Mission in 1812. It was the early morning hours of December 8, 1812 and the Great Stone Church was full of Indian parishioners. They were observing the "Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin." The church had been constructed in 1797 and made from stone rather than adobe that was quarried from gullies and creek beds carried by hand or oxen drawn carts from as far as six miles away. Limestone was crushed up and mixed into a mortar. It was constructed in the shape of a cross. The signature element was a 120-foot tall bell tower. The tower could be seen for ten miles and held two bells. The bells became a part of the culture of the Mission, ringing out for meal times and church services and could be heard further away than ten miles. So on that morning in 1812, the church was full when an earthquake shook the coast of Alta California. The Mission was rocked and the bell tower had no chance of standing. IT came crashing down through the roof of the sanctuary, killing 40 people. The church was left in ruins and those ruins can still be seen at the Mission as the church was never rebuilt.

The earthquake just seemed to take the spirit out of the Mission and it fell into decline. The Spanish government wasn't doing as good a job at keeping the place supplied either and the Native population started leaving. Then in 1818, the Mission was sacked by a French pirate named Hipólito Bouchard who was working for Argentina. He had been raiding the coast of California and Comandante Ruíz sent a group of thirty men to protect the Mission from a raid. Two pirates representing Brouchard gave the Mission their demands to provide provisions. A young man named Lieutenant Argüello was leading the garrison and he replied that the pirates needed to leave or he would provide "an immediate supply of shot and shell." Unfortunately, the pirates were greater in number and 140 of them attacked the Mission and looted the Mission warehouses. The Mission was spared from being burned down, but all ammunition, supplies and valuables in the area were taken.

Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821 and the Mexican government took over the area and the Mission. By 1834, the Franciscans had abandoned the Mission and taken everything of value with them. The population dived to 861 people. In 1845, Governor Pio Pico sold the Mission itself at auction and it was purchased by Don Juan Forster, whom we mentioned earlier. He was Governor Pico’s brother-in-law.  For the next 20 years, the Mission was a private ranch for the Forster family. After California became a state in 1850, California Bishop Joseph Alemany petitioned the U.S. government to get the Mission back under the ownership of the Catholic Church. President Abraham Lincoln made that happen in 1865 with a proclamation. In 1895, restoration efforts were started and resident padre Father St. John O’Sullivan pushed for more preservation after he arrived in 1910. He had come to try to recover from Tuberculosis and he did, living another 23 years. His greatest achievement was the rebuild of the Serra Chapel and it is beautiful inside. It has a rustic feel upon first entering, but the spectacular retablo behind the altar is anything but rustic. This is a masterpiece of Baroque art that was hand-carved from 396 individual pieces of cherry wood and overlaid in gold leaf in Barcelona. Historians estimate that it is 400 years old and it was imported from Barcelona in 1806 for the Los Angeles cathedral. The cathedral never used it , so it was installed in the Serra Chapel in 1922.

The Mission has run as a museum for decades. The largest California Pepper Tree was here until 2005 when it was felled due to disease. The Mission was once known for the migration of the swallows. The American cliff swallow spends its winters in Goya, Argentina and then travels 6,000 miles back to the American southwest in the spring. They chose the Mission as a soft spot to land because no one there destroyed their mud nests. There were also two rivers nearby and a constant supply of insects to eat. They became the icon of the Mission and people would travel from all over to witness their return. The main flock returns on March 19th, which is Saint Joseph's Day. But that was long ago. The numbers started going down in the 1990s and there are very few that return anymore. We only saw a handful and they were outside the Mission. There were only a few mud nests when we were there.

The Mission is said to be the most haunted place in the town. Ghost Hunters investigated during Season 9 and Josh Gates joined the team. They had lots of equipment issues and batteries draining and this is something reported by many people. Jason, Steve and Josh start in the area of the earthquake ruins, where they hear strange disembodied voices that they can't figure out where they are coming from. Britt and KJ spy movement by the fountain and then they see a shadow move down a hallway. Then there is a big rattling sound. They track the sound down to a gate, but who moved it? In the courtyard, Josh and Tango follow the sound of footsteps, then they see a figure moving! They chase it and when they arrive they smell a strong aroma of perfume. Michelle and Tango hear an odd knocking sound in the Soldier's Barracks. The crew believe that they interacted with a spirit that people call Magdalena. She was a young woman who died in the earthquake in 1812. The reason she was there was because her father told her see needed to seek penance for meeting with a young artist her father disliked. When her body was found, she was holding a candle in her hand. In death, she carries that candle. People claim to see Magdalena’s face, illuminated by a candle, appearing in a window of the Great Stone Church.

The Lady in White appears here on occasion. The spirit of Father Albert Quetu is said to be here. People see a faceless monk, who roams the back corridors. His sandals are heard echoing in the hallways. And there is a headless soldier who stands guard near the garrison building. The sound of bells are heard when the bells aren't ringing. The Old Mission Cemetery here has many people buried there, but no markers for them. Perhaps that is why this area seems to be the most haunted. The White Lady hangs out at the cemetery gate. Jerry Nieblas, cemetery spokesman and vice chair of Juañeno Band of Mission Indians, said the woman has approached cemetery visitors and asked for help finding her two children. The spirit is usually crying. 

The Mission is really something to see, especially the Serra Chapel. San Juan Capistrano is a neat and historic town. They do have ghost tours here on the occasional weekend, which we unfortunately missed. We imagine the nights on Los Rios Street can be pretty creepy. And the ruins of a Mission at night seem pretty creepy too. Is San Juan Capistrano haunted? That is for you to decide!