HGB Ep. 555 - Arlington Resort Hotel and Spa

Moment in Oddity - Ewart Postcard (Suggested by: Jenny Lynn Raines)

In today's world, most of us know someone who has pursued finding genetic leads to extended family. Many companies have been founded to assist in these searches such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com. Sometimes it's simply to document a family tree, but other times it's in search of a long lost loved one. In the case of a West Sussex, United Kingdom family, the search actually came to them unexpectedly. You see, the Davies family received a postcard this last August of 2024, from a long lost relative. The postcard was delivered 100 years late in spite of being sent in 1903. The postcard was addressed to a Lydia, having been sent by her brother, Ewart. It arrived at the Swansea Building Society's Cradock Street branch. The postal anomaly was published in different forms of media. The news gained the attention of separate families that discovered that they were related. Ewart's grandson, Nick Davies stated that meeting new family members due to the discovered postcard was "extraordinary". As the family story goes, Ewart was summering at his grandfather's and knowing that his sister back in Swansea collected postcards, he decided to send one to Lydia. The postcard brought together 4 distant relatives, some of which had general knowledge of possible extended family but no solid details regarding their personal information. It is thought that perhaps the postcard fell out of a bible that was purchased at auction following a house clearance. This may have then prompted the finder to put it back into the postal system. Regardless of what brought this family reunion to fruition, receiving a postcard 100 years late, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Discovery of Manhattan Island

In the month of September, on the 11th, in 1609, Henry Hudson discovered Manhattan Island. Hudson was an English sea explorer working for the Dutch East India Company. His goal was to find the reputed Northeast Passage to Cathay, now present day China. Instead, his exploration brought him to New Netherlands. Hudson explored the region around modern day New York's metropolitan area. The first Dutch colonists arrived with the first 31 families in 1623, and by 1625, the colony of New Amsterdam was established. Henry's journey took him up the Hudson River which was named for him in 1664 when the English took over the colony from the Dutch. This is also when New Netherlands was renamed New York, after the Duke of York. By 1664, the village of New Amsterdam was a community of 1,500 people who spoke 18 different languages. Although Henry Hudson never did find a Northeast passage to China, he greatly contributed to the navigational geography of North America.

Arlington Hotel & Spa (Suggested by: Sandra Latham Parr)

The Arlington Hotel and Spa has so many ghost stories that are connected to it that it would make more sense for us to tell the listeners that it is located in Haunt Springs rather than Hot Springs, Arkansas. The hotel is located in the heart of downtown Hot Springs and is the third version of the hotel to stand and has been here for 100 years. This is a large and glorious historic hotel that hosted the rich, powerful and famous decades ago. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Arlington Resort Hotel and Spa.

The thermal springs in Hot Springs attracted Native Americans for centuries to come and partake of the healing waters. A French Jesuit priest named Father Marquette joined forces with an explorer named Louis Jolliet to explore the northern portion of the Mississippi River Valley. In 1673, they traveled down to Arkansas and claimed the area for France. Spain would obtain it in 1763 via the Treaty of Paris and then was back in France's hands by 1800. America would end up with it in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase. A man named Prudhomme was the first permanent settler, but the Quapaw tribe owned the springs. They ceded the land in 1818 through a treaty. The Hot Springs were protected as the Hot Springs Reservation 1832 and that became Hot Springs National Park in 1921.

Railroad Executive Samuel Fordyce started early with the railroad. He was twenty when he became a station agent for the Central Ohio Railroad. A year later, the Civil War had broken out and he enlisted with the First Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. He eventually was promoted to captain and wound up wounded three times and captured three times. After the war, his health was in decline from his war wounds and he had heard about the healing benefits of the water in Hot Springs, so he moved. He assisted with the growth of the city and he joined forces with two other entrepreneurs, Samuel Stitt and William Gaines, to build the Arlington Hotel in 1875. This was the first luxury hotel in the area and became the anchor for the bathhouse district. it had 120 guest rooms and had gas lighting. The hotel was three-stories and built from wood. Despite being the first, the hotel soon lagged behind other hotels being built like the Majestic and Eastman and it was razed in 1893. The newer rendition had a larger guest capacity with 300 rooms with five levels and updated amenities and was designed in the Spanish Revival style. The interior featured a rotunda, pink parlor, grand ballroom and the show piece was the grand ornamental oak stairway that circled a beautiful glass dome.

Things went well until 1923 when a fire started at an electrical panel. William Pinkerton was staying at the hotel and he, along with other guests, figured that the fire would be quickly put out, so he found himself a comfortable chair on the spacious veranda to enjoy a cigar. Pinkerton was quite wrong as the building burned completely to the ground and he lost all his belongings. It was decided to rebuild again, but this time the hotel was put on a plot across the street from the original. The new and current Arlington Hotel opened on November 28, 1924 with a gala New Year's Eve dinner dance. The hotel was designed by the primary architect of the Arkansas State Capitol, George R. Mann. This was designed in the Mediterranean style and features two massive towers that make it quite distinct. There were 560 guest rooms, a Writing Room, Card Room, Board Room, Crystal Ballroom and Venetian Room. A Music Room opened onto the Venetian Room and featured performances by the Arlington Orchestra. Vacationers got to enjoy the ease of not having to leave the hotel to enjoy the mineral springs. The Arlington had an in-house bath house and for those willing to pay more, there were 50 rooms that had the water piped in.

The 1950s brought the upgrade of air conditioning and heat and in 1969, the original hand-operated elevators were replaced with three guest elevators. It's a bummer to lose the nostalgia of the original elevator, but never fear, the Arlington still features the manually operated original bath house elevator that is lined with beveled glass and shining brass. The first radio station in Arkansas, KTHS, broadcast from the Arlington. Former Arkansas governor Joe T. Robinson announced his acceptance of the Democratic nomination for vice president in 1928 from the radio station. He used the hotel as his campaign headquarters. Many Miss Arkansas pageants were hosted at the hotel and several luminaries stayed here including U.S. presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, Tony Bennett, Babe Ruth, Barbara Streisand and Yoko Ono. 

The infamous have stayed here as well. Al Capone liked to rent out the entire fourth floor for his crew and he would stay in Room 443 and so that suite has been named for him. Capone liked this room because he could look across the street from his window and see the activities at the Southern Club, which is today the Wax Museum. Many of the original rooms are still in use with a few changes here and there. The Writing Room is now a Starbucks and the Card Room had its name changed to Magnolia Room. The hotel has several suites for rent, not only named for Al Capone, but there is also The Reagan and The Babe Ruth. Mineral Water Rooms feature bathtubs with hot springs mineral water piped in. There are twin outdoor pools, spa services, a convention center, shops, restaurants and an award winning lobby bar.

The Arlington Hotel wasn't one of those hotels that liked to talk about their strange activity. But several years ago, the hotel management started allowing employees to share encounters that they had with the other side. And they certainly were glad they did because people have been flocking to the haunted rooms. There are reports of faucets turning themselves on and off on their own. Disembodied laughter is heard and lights flash on and off by themselves. Guests and staff have seen full-bodied apparitions in period clothing strolling through the lobby and walking in the hallways. One spirit that has been seen is a little girl in a pink dress. There is also a woman who has is seen wearing a wedding dress. The fourth floor is home to the spirit of former bellhop Henry Tweedle. 

Some guests were staying at the hotel and they captured what looks like two footprints in the carpet standing in front of the door to Room 723. They are believed to belong to a lady in white that haunts the hotel. Guests also claim to have seen the spirit of a man taking a bath on the men's side of the bath house. A man wearing a black suit is seen in the laundry room. A bartender claims that a certain bottle of wine likes to jump off the shelf on occasion and this has been witnessed by guests. The elevator will run by itself to the fourth floor and then open. People believe this is the spirit of Al Capone. We spoke with Erin Egnatz about the spirit of Capone haunting places and here is yet another one of those places.

Carmen Jones is the Arlington Director of Operations and she told The Sentinel-Record, "The Magnolia Room downstairs, occasionally we'll be setting up for a group and the lights will go real bright and then they flicker. I've had our maintenance department, and we've brought in electricians to look at it, and there's nothing wrong with the wiring, it's not the dimming switch; it's just unexplainable. There's also a chandelier in the Venetian Dining Room that's in the far back corner, and you can be standing there at the serving station and all of a sudden it will go extremely bright and it's the only chandelier in the room that will do it, and then it'll dim back out, and all of them are on the same wiring." 

Jones says that Room 824 is the most haunted room in the hotel. She said, ""I've heard several stories... of items falling off the bathroom shelf, the lights turning on and flickering while people are trying to sleep," she said. "A lot of the experiences take place between around 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. This particular bathroom, the sink will turn on periodically and the bathroom will get all steamy while they're asleep, and they wake up and they walk in there and their items fall off the shelves." Jones said of the Capone Suite, "I've had a lot of guests say that occasionally when you stay in there, you catch the smell of a cigar, and of course, it's a non-smoking hotel, so we do not know where that's coming from. Guests have heard the connecting doorknob turn, but you can't access that doorknob from the other room because there's no doorknob on the other side, but they'll see the doorknob like start moving."

Natural State Paranormal investigated in 2021 and they stayed in Room 824 and when they asked if anyone wanted to speak to them, they captured an EVP saying "No way." And then a few minutes later they asked if the spirits wanted them to leave and an EVP said "Yeah." A REM Pod set up in the middle of the bed went off several times. It went like this, they set up the REM Pod and were getting ready to leave the room and it went off. They would ask for the spirit to do it again and nothing. Then they would start to leave again and the REM Pod would go off again. It did this several times so it was like it was telling them not to go. Or just really messing around with them. Probably the coolest thing happened at the end of the evening in their room. They were using the SLS Camera and had an entity appear on it a couple times and it almost seemed like it was hanging on the back of the bathroom door and so they were capturing this via the mirror. When they asked if it was behind the door, the Spirit Box said "hiding."

And wouldn't you know, Hot Springs has a ghost tour because there are other haunts here too. Bathhouse Row still has eight surviving bathhouses and continues to be the architectural core of downtown Hot Springs. These bathhouses took the place of the early sweat lodges built by the Native Americans. The year 1946 was the height of the bathing era with over one million baths taken. They need a McDonald's sign for that, "Over 1 Million Served." Bathhouse Row was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987, but unfortunately hasn't seen much use. Only two of the houses are still operating and a third has been adapted into the Fordyce Bathhouse Visitor Center and Museum. The Hale is the oldest bathhouse having opened in 1893 and it was renovated into a theater in 1981, but closed before it was even open a year. Right across from Bathhouse Row is the Bathhouse Soapery and Caldarium, which had originally been a Japanese Tea Room. A beautiful high schooler named Violet Boles had worked here. A young man had become obsessed with her and when she wouldn't reciprocate his feelings, he murdered her in the tea room. The haunting going on here is that people claim to sometimes feel as though someone is wrapping their hands around your neck in the store's back left corner. 

Adair Park sits between between Granny’s Kitchen and It’s About Rocks. This is the original site of the Arlington Hotel and some people may have died n the fire. In particular, there are those who say at least one man did because they hear his groans in the park at night. Those groans and moans have been captured as EVP. St. John the Baptist is a Catholic Church at 589 W. Grand Ave. Apparently, the site was once home to a pauper's cemetery and as always seems to happen in these cases, not all the bones were moved. Colonel George Latta bought the cemetery and made an honest effort, but while the church was being constructed boned kept being unearthed. These bones were put inside a very large box that was sealed and placed under the altar rail where they remained for many years, but don't seem to be there anymore and no one knows what happened to the bones. The church is said to be haunted with shadow figures being seen and the lights have a mind of their own. 

The Poet's Loft was a performance art theater that had been located at 514 Central Avenue in the upper part of the building. Back at the time when Hot Springs was a little wilder it was called The Raven Club and was a gambling hall and bordello. In 1912, it was a jewelry store and loan office. Today, we aren't sure what is upstairs, it might be a jewelry repair shop, but the ground floor is an antique shop. There were said to be several spirits here. Ghost Lab investigated The Poet's Loft in 2010. Shortly before that time, a regular performer at the club named Tee, died. People claimed that he was haunting the place. The stairway leading up into the former club had reports of people being shoved. An employee named Sam told the crew that he was closing up one night and as he walked down the stairs, he felt a hand pressing against his back. He was the only one in the building. The front door would also open by itself and slam shut. A picture with Tee in it would never stay straight on the wall. It would always go crooked and several employees would watch it move. A dark apparition wearing a hat would be seen. A local poet named Celeste had been really nervous on stage and after she got done reading her poem, she felt a hand rest on her shoulder as if telling her that she did a good job. There was no one behind her and an employee told her it was something that Tee would do. The crew captured the sound of bongos playing, which is what Tee played.

The Ohio Club is located at 336 Central Avenue. The Ohio Club is Arkansas' oldest bar. This started as a bar and casino in 1905. Al Jolson performed at the club in 1915. Al Capone would frequent the place as did Bugsy Segel, Bugs Moran and Lucky Luciano during Prohibition. At the time, it was called the Ohio Cigar Store with 10 feet of the front being walled off to contain the cigar store and then there were two doors that led into the bar and upstairs to the casino.  In the 1930s, Mae West performed here. (Come up and see me sometime!) They continue the tradition of live performances. And hard to believe, but the casino and sports book remained open until 1967. Owners and employees claim that they have had unexplained experiences. Doors slam on their own, music is heard even though no music is playing and glasses are heard clinking.

The Malco Theatre is located at 817 Central Ave and is known as the Maxwell Blade Theater of Magic today. The Princess Theater originally sat on this spot and was built in 1910. It featured vaudeville acts and silent films, but that all ended on Christmas Eve of 1934. The theater caught fire and burned all the way down to its foundation. Rebuilding began immediately and this new rendition of the theater was larger and had an irregular shape. The architectural style was changed to art deco. The theater was sold to the Malco Theater Group and the name was changed to the Malco Theater and reopened in 1947. The Malco was segregated until 1964 with black patrons having a separate ticketing booth, separate entrance, separate concessions and they could only sit in the balcony. The theater has retained that separate entrance as a tribute to civil rights victories. The Malco mostly ran as a movie theater through the years until it was purchased in 1995 by magician Maxwell Blade. He completely renovated the building with new seating and a state-of-the-art sound and lighting system. Blade himself claims to have never seen a ghost in the theater, but he did hear a theater seat folding up and down when he was getting ready to leave the empty theater one night. When he went further into the theater to see what made the sound, he saw a shadow figure crossing the exit. He left quickly and it shook him enough that he wouldn't be in the theater alone at night for some time. And when he would bring his daughter to the theater years ago when she was only three, she would ask who the little boy was that was standing at the top of the theater’s staircase. Four people are said to have died in the theater and one was a little boy who died in the upstairs bathroom of the theater in the early 1970s.

Hot Springs is a cute little town with a history of healing and haunts. Are the Arlington Hotel and these locations in Hot Springs haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 554 - Alberta's Crowsnest Pass

Moment in Oddity - Gates of Hell Hacienda Heights (Suggested by: Duey Oxberger)

There is a suburban community in the hills of Los Angeles County, California called Hacienda Heights. Within that populace there is a place that draws the curious and seekers of the strange and creepy. It is called The Gates of Hell Hacienda Heights. Urban legends abound when it comes to this place. It is said that the property used to be the home of a sanatorium that was shut down in the 1940's due to malpractice. The property is sealed off with fencing topped with barbed wire looking ominous to those wanting to explore the area beyond. The gate itself used to be the back entrance to a different building other than the purported hospital. This building actually had an underground tunnel that led to the main building. The structure is said to be covered in cult symbols and there are red stains inside and around the property. Whether rituals were actually performed here is uncertain but just the sound of this place makes ones imagination run a little wild. Although many may wish to explore this decrepit and creepy location, it is advised to do little more than a 'drive by' to see the gate. Security cameras abound and of course there is the challenge of the sharp wire itself. Creepy old buildings draw many of us to them and perhaps there's nothing to this location at all. But some urban legends certainly can be odd.

This Month in History - Great Fire of London

In the month of September, on the 2nd, in 1666, the Great Fire of London started and swept through the city for five days. The fire started at a bakery located on the fittingly named Pudding Lane. Although this pudding name was actually inspired by the offal that the butchers of the area sent down to the river to be loaded on waste barges. Church warden and baker, Thomas Farriner, owned the establishment and he was awakened in the wee hours of the morning by smoke coming in under the door of his bedroom. His bakery downstairs was on fire. He and his daughter escaped from an upstairs window, but their maid refused to jump from the window and she became the first victim of the fire. Indecisiveness on the paty of the Lord Mayor, allowed the fire to become a storm that nearly engulfed the entire city. The fire was stopped by strong easterly winds and the Tower of London using gunpowder to create firebreaks. Most reports claim that only eight people were killed, but historians believe the toll was far higher with bodies being completely consumed and because the destruction left economic and social problems that caused starvation and exposure. Fifteen percent of the city's housing was destroyed. London was rebuilt on its same medieval street plan, which remains the same today. 

Alberta's Crowsnest Pass (Suggested by: Matt Brooks)

Nestled within the Canadian Rockies in southwest Alberta is Crowsnest Pass. The name is a translation of Native American words that meant "the nest of the crow." Crowsnest Pass is an area of stunning scenery, but also a place of tragedy, rum running, coal mining and was the home of the last woman to hang in Alberta. There are many interesting stories about this location and several of them seem to have ghosts connected to them. Join us for the history and hauntings of Alberta's Crowsnest Pass!

Crowsnest Pass is not just a geographic feature, but also the name of a municipality. The municipality of Crowsnest Pass was formed in 1979 by combining five municipalities: the Village of Bellevue, the Town of Blairmore, the Town of Coleman, the Village of Frank, and Improvement District No. 5, which included the Hamlet of Hillcrest. Many residents of Crowsnest Pass worked in coal mining, which had been a main part of the economy and the driving force of the growth of the population here since 1900. The Canadian-American Coal and Coke Company established the first town. Many immigrants from around the world came here to mine. Coal mines on the Alberta side of the pass have all closed at this point, so residents travel to the British Columbia side for work. Rum runners, forest fires, coal mining and natural disasters are all part of the legacy here. One of the main points of interest is the Burmis Tree. Think of this as a tree skeleton. The Burmis Tree is thought to have lived for 700 years and then it died, leaving its twisted branches bare. This death occurred in the 1970s and two decades later, the tree was toppled in a wind storm. Generally this would mean that the tree would be left to decay back into the land or be hauled off for firewood, but the residents didn't want to lose their beloved tree so they secured it with brackets and steel rods. In 2004, some vandals cut off one of its main branches and the residents came back to its rescue and glued the large branch back on and braced it with a prop pole. 

The Frank Slide Interpretive Centre tells the story of a natural disaster that took just 90 seconds to change the lives of the people that lived in the Village of Frank. The Blackfoot and Kutenai had lived here before European settlers and they referred to the nearby Turtle Mountain as the "Mountain That Moves." They would never camp at the base of the mountain. The village was named for Henry Frank who was a co-owner of the Canadian-American Coal and Coke Company. Frank helped layout the town and by 1903, there were 600 people in the village. None of them knew how dangerous their location was. Turtle Mountain was an anticline, a geographic feature that forms when convergent tectonic plates fold rock layers into an arch. This makes for a very unstable mountain. As did the fault line beneath it. Add to that mining operations with the digging of shafts and pulling material like coal out of the mountain and Turtle Mountain was a ticking time bomb.

There were signs that were ignored. Coal would fall from the ceiling and seams of the tunnel and rather than realize that this meant the mountain was unstable, the miners were glad that their work was made easier. All they had to do was shovel the coal into carts and bins. The mountain would shake on occasion too. A warm winter in 1903 allowed more water into the caverns and then that water froze in the fissures and caused erosion. The night of April 28, 1903 saw temperatures drop to below zero. The following morning, 82 million tons of limestone rock broke off the peak of Turtle Mountain and took just 90 seconds for the slide to reach up the opposing hills. The section of slide was 3,300 feet wide and 1,394 feet high and traveled at 70 mph. There was nothing anyone could do to escape and at least 70 lives were lost, possibly 90. However, several survivors were pulled from the rubble and Charlie the Horse was found alive after being trapped in the mine for 31 days. Although, his rescuers did him wrong by allowing him to gorge on oats and brandy. This was a starved horse and eating that much killed him. Solid train cars were thrown two miles by the force. The village of Frank was buried under 150 feet of rubble. The sound was heard over 124 miles away. This was the most deadly landslide in Canadian history. The path of the slide still has no vegetation or soil to this day.

Such a devastating disaster leaves an opening for legends and ghost stories, especially when most of the dead were left buried under the slide. Many people who have visited the Frank Slide area claim to feel an oppressive feeling and a sense of being watched by something unseen. Disembodied whispers are heard and strange lights are seen floating around the debris field. Could these represent miners headlamps? Those lights bob around as though the spirits holding the lights are stumbling around on the rubble. Mysterious mists sometimes form and visitors claim to see shadow figures and apparitions. Montie Lewis was a painted lady that worked in the Village of Frank and she was murdered one night. She was found hacked up good and she had defensive wounds, so she fought for her life. A newcomer in town was blamed for the murder and he was quickly hanged, but it is thought that they had the wrong man. Montie's lover is said to have confessed later and he said he killed her because he had to repay a gambling debt. Montie liked to spend her money on expensive jewelry and she wore it to bed every night for safe keeping. Apparently, her lover decided to kill her to steal that jewelry, but he actually didn't take the jewelry and only took around $200 Montie had in her room. Montie now haunts the streets of Frank and her favorite thing to do is lure hikers off trails and her screams are heard in the valley. Of course, these could be slide victims as well. In the 1980s, two boys were hiking through the pass and they became lost and then trapped. The boys yelled for help, but their voices seemed to be drowned out by the stone walls of the mountains around them and something else. They claimed to hear the yelling of a woman. The lost hikers were found after their parents reported them missing and a search party found them.

So we've had the deadliest landslide in Canadian history here, which is bad enough. But this location also boasts the deadliest mine tragedy in Canadian history. The Hillcrest Mine Disaster Memorial Park pays tribute to the victims of this mine explosion. Hillcrest started as a company town for Hillcrest Coal and Coke, eventually becoming Hillcrest Collieries in 1909. The name came from Charles Plummer Hill who staked the original coal claim in 1898. Over time, six million tons of coal were pulled from this mine and it was the kind of coal suitable for industrial use. The disaster occurred on the morning of June 19, 1914, right at shift change. There is always a problem with a build up of gas in mines and on this morning, methane gas had built to a dangerous level and it triggered an explosion. Men near the blast were killed immediately, but it would be the afterdamp that proved most dangerous. Afterdamp is a toxic mixture of gases released after an explosion. 

On top of that, fires started that also created suffocating smoke. Rescuers got to work immediately bringing bodies to the surface in coal cars. Most on board were either charred or suffocated. Desperate family members gathered outside the mine. One Hundred and eighty-nine men perished that day of the 237 that entered the mine. The first victim found was a man named Charles Ironmonger who worked the hoist cable outside the mine that hauled miners to the surface in cars. The blast was so powerful that, despite being outside, Charles was thrown 60 feet into the air and into the hoist house. The oldest victim was 54 and the youngest was 17. Widows were left devastated and destitute. This would spark changes in Workman's Compensation and safety regulations. The mine reopened and would experience another explosion in 1926 that only killed two men. The mine permanently closed in 1939.

Hillcrest Cemetery is located at 200 4 Avenue on the eastern slope of Turtle Mountain in Crowsnest Pass and is a Provincial Historic Resource that is on nearly two acres of land. Two mass graves were dug at the cemetery to ensure the bodies were buried quickly. One grave was for the Protestants and the other for the Catholics. A beautiful memorial reads, "As they had worked, so they were laid. Shoulder to shoulder in common graves." Every year since the disaster, residents of Crowsnest Pass have honored the dead at the cemetery. The first year was led by the International Order of Oddfellows and 1,000 people attended. Over the years, the community added a picket fence and curbing around the mass graves and several monuments. For the 100th anniversary, a major landscaping project was completed. The cemetery is said to be haunted by the victims of the disaster. People see shadow figures and strange lights here too.

West Canadian Collieries opened the Bellevue Mine in 1905 after coal deposits were found in 1903 . The company founded the town of Bellevue on the flat land above the mine. The young daughter of one of the owners of the coal mining company had exclaimed, “Quelle belle vue!” when she saw the view, which means "what a beautiful view" and the name Bellevue stuck. The WCC opened many mines in the area. They had operations in Lille, which is today a ghost town, and they built the settlement of Maple Leaf next to Bellevue and opened the Mohawk Bituminous Mine there in 1909. Working conditions within the Bellevue Mine weren't great and employees would complain often and hold strikes. Fan systems that would help in mines later with pushing out gases, weren't in use here. Fire bosses also were negligent in checking the gas levels. That is why during a partial shift change on December 9th, 1910 the mine erupted in an explosion. The closest rescue crew was in Hosmer, British Columbia, which was six hours away by rail. Bellevue Mine managers John Powell, Frank Lewis, and Pit Boss John Anderson knew they were the only hope and they ran into the mine without protective gear or breathing apparatuses. The crew from British Columbia brought miners, engineers, fire bosses, pit bosses and a town doctor. One rescuer named Fred Alderson died when he handed his breathing apparatus to another person. Thirty miners had died, but it could have been worse if this had been a day shift. Two hundred men could have died.

Bellevue suffered more tragedy in a fire in 1917. Most of the business district was destroyed. That same year, Bellevue finally incorporated into a village. Surprisingly, they also elected the first female mayor in Alberta at that time. Miners held a six month strike in 1924. The mine had difficulties throughout the 1940s and 1950s and then the mine lost its largest customer. The mine sought to sell on markets overseas, but had no luck. The mine closed for good in January 1961. Today, the mine functions as a museum and the Bellevue Underground Mine Tour maintains and operates 985 feet of restored tunnel that people can tour. 

On the seedy side of things, Bellevue was another big rum running town. Emilio Picariello was the kingpin of the Crowsnest rum runners. People called him Emperor Pic. He didn't live in Bellevue, but three local miners set their sites on robbing him when he came through on the Canadian Pacific Railway’s train No. 63. These miners were George Arkoff, Ausby Auloff and Tom Bassoff. They robbed the train at gunpoint, but Emperor Pic wasn't aboard. The men ran off and split up. Auloff headed for the United States, but Bassoff and Arkoff remained in the Pass area. They were so brazen, they stopped at the Bellevue Cafe for food one day. They were reported and three constables entered the café through the front and back doors and a shootout ensued. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Ernest Usher and APP Constable F.W.E. Bailey were killed. Arkoff was killed and Bassoff was wounded and he escaped into the rubble of the Frank Slide. He was pursued and eventually apprehended, but Special Constable Nicolas Kyslik was shot and killed by friendly fire. Bassoff was found guilty of murder and hanged in Lethbridge, Alberta on December 22, 1920. Auloff was captured in 1924 near Butte, Montana and returned to Alberta where he stood trial and was sentenced to seven years for the robbery. He died in 1926.

The mine has many ghost stories connected to it. Bellevue miners reportedly saw a ghostly white horse walking through the mine shafts, sometimes accompanied by other ghosts. One of those spirits was a little boy and the other was our traditional woman in white. Many of the spirits are seen maily by school children visiting the mines and historic area. They will ask, "who is that man?" and the teachers or tour guides will look where the child is pointing and see nothing. The Bellevue Mine runs a haunted mine attraction every Halloween. Two staff members were in their stations awaiting their opportunity to scare guests when they felt a presence float above the top of them and then press down on them. This is weird enough, but it gets weirder because those scare stations weren't near each other. The cast had all gathered together at the end of the night and the two staff members shared their experiences and realized they had both had the same thing happen to them.

A tour guide was leading a group one day and she asked all the tour attendees to turn off their lights in the mine to show them how dark it could be. Suddenly, she felt as though she were kicked by a horse, so she turned on her light thinking she would find that a bratty kid had kicked her. After turning the light on, she saw that her tour group was too far away so it couldn't have been any of them. On another tour, a different guide got to this same area where they do the "turn off your lights" thing and she felt a pair of hands grab her and lift her up and then drop her a few inches. She quickly turned on her light and saw that her tour group was too far away for any of them to have grabbed her. Other tour guides have felt taps on their shoulders when no one is behind them. A father and his young son were on a tour and they claimed to be tickled by something they couldn't see. They claimed that a voice whispered "Fred." There was a rescuer who died when he was overcome by gas. Ghost hunters visited the mine and also had an experience with Fred. 

In 2016, Executive Director of the mine Elaine Hruby and Vice Chairman Ron Hruby shared an experience they had in 2013. The museum at the mine had just acquired a mine whistle. Later on a tour, Elaine and another woman heard a whistle and Elaine told the woman that Ron had probably set up the whistle and was testing it. She later told Ron that the whistle sounded great and he looked at her funny. He told her that the whistle was still on his desk.

Blairmore is the oldest permanent settlement in Crowsnest Pass. It first was used as a Canadian Pacific Railway stop that was called The Springs for a nearby cold sulphur spring. The name was changed to Blairmore in 1898 and the town was incorporated in 1911. Coal mining started here in 1907 and its economic prowess grew after the Frank Slide. An eight-month miners strike took place in 1933. Emperor Pic that we mentioned earlier, owned the Alberta Hotel in Blairmore and he ran it as his front. In 1922, he and an accomplice named Florence Losandro shot and killed Constable Steven Lawson. The men were caught, convicted and hanged for the murder.

Lost Lemon Campground is in Blairmore at 11001 19th Avenue. The camp is named for the Lost Lemon Mine and there is a legend about this mine that dates back to 1870. A party of prospectors left Montana, heading for Canada and two of the men, Frank Lemon and Blackjack, broke off from the group. They found gold ore along their way and decided to take samples back to Montana to find someone to bankroll a mining operation. The two men set up camp, but after a bit of drinking, the two fought with each other and by morning, Blackjack had been killed by Frank Lemon. Lemon returned to Montana and confessed his crime to a priest, not from guilt, but because he felt Blackjack was haunting him. He had heard ghostly moans the night after he killed Blackjack and even saw disembodied glowing eyes. The priest sent a man to find the body of Blackjack and bury him properly, which was done, but it mattered not. Blackjack tormented Lemon until the man had gone insane. He was sent off to his brother's ranch where he died. The legend continued though with people seeking the Lost Lemon Mine and the treasure of gold there. Any search has been cursed with forest fires, bouts of illness and even insanity and people claim to see Blackjack's ghost guarding the area.

Greenhill Mine was started by the West Canadian Collieries in 1913 in Blairmore. The mine was on the side of Bluff Mountain and hit peak production in 1946 and was closed in 1957. Wolf Paranormal Investigations investigated the Greenhill Mine in 2013. They reported, "Inside [one of the machine buildings], hanging from a rafter, was a large object comprised of what looked like small branches tangled together into the shape of a kind of mobile. Bolted onto the concrete floor were various pieces of smaller equipment, one of which may have been a crusher. Robyn asked for a sign of any spirit presence, and almost immediately, she reported hearing what she described as a growl. She asked Trevor if his stomach had just rumbled, and Trevor said he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t think it was him. When Robyn made a second request for a sign of spirit presence, both she and Trevor heard what they described as machinery grinding. Since there is no power to any of the buildings in the complex, Robyn and Trevor went outside the building to see if they could find a possible source for the distinctive sound. They were unsuccessful. When they returned to the inside of the building and Robyn asked a third time for a sign of spirit presence, both she and Trevor heard a pebble being tossed. Trevor noted that it came from behind Robyn’s back. Robyn asked for the event to be repeated, just to be sure it was not a fluke, and no sooner had she made the request than both she and Trevor heard the sound of many pebbles being dropped on the roof of the building. The wind had come up, so they immediately went outside to see if trees were responsible for the sound. There were no coniferous (cone-bearing) trees near the building; there were only slender aspens whose limbs reached well above the roof. Robyn and Trevor checked everything near the outside of the building, but they could not find the source of the sounds they heard. At the same time Robyn and Trevor were experiencing unusual events, Holly and Michele were experiencing similar events at the compressor building, where a large boiler outside used to power the compressors that powered the air hoses and other tools. A request was made for a sign of spirit presence, and suddenly, from somewhere near the boiler, both Holly and Michele heard the sound of pebbles being scattered across the concrete slab into which the boiler is bolted. Trying to ensure that this was not just a fluke or a small animal, a request for confirmation of spirit presence was made. Both Holly and Michele reported hearing pebbles being thrown on the roof almost immediately, as well as loud banging against the sides of the compressor building itself. Holly and Michele investigated the exterior of the building, searching for possible causes for the odd sounds. They noted that the wind had come up, and that there were several slender aspens swaying back and forth, but none were hitting the building, and there were no coniferous trees near the roof that could explain the sound of many pebbles being thrown down on it. Concerned that perhaps a nesting animal had been disturbed, or that there was larger wildlife in the woods that could pose a potential threat, Holly and Michele decided to leave the area and meet with Robyn and Trevor to find a different area of the site to investigate. After reporting the events to Robyn and Trevor, Holly and Michele returned to the vehicle and sat inside to wait for Robyn and Trevor to finish their investigation of the machine building, which they were still in when Michele and Holly reported their experiences. Interestingly, Robyn and Trevor later reported hearing footsteps and a disembodied voice, both of which they attributed to Holly. However, they realized that Holly could not be the source of either sound: She and Michele were in the car, which was parked approximately 100 feet away from the building Robyn and Trevor were still investigating, and Holly’s gait was slow and awkward due to a broken toe, whereas the footsteps Robyn and Trevor heard were quicker and more even."

Crowsnest Pass is beautiful and provided an opportunity for a new life to many immigrants. Coal mining brought work and wealth, but also tragedy for countless families. The mountains could be unforgiving. And now they seem to be unable to give up their ghosts. Is Alberta's Crowsnest Pass haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 553 - The Hanford Bastille

Moment in Oddity - Mummified Clown (Suggested by: Savannah Marchione)

Throughout the centuries mummies have been discovered after having been mummified by environmental circumstances. However, there has also been a long history of humans mummifying their deceased for various reasons. One such mummified body is that of Achile Chatouilleu who was a circus performer that died in 1912. His clown character that he portrayed was known as "The French Tickler". Prior to his death, he told his family that he wished to be buried in his clown costume, specifically, his Shriners parade costume which he wore in the first Shriners parade. Achile's body was embalmed with arsenic and mercury. Due to that toxic combination, his body was sealed in a glass coffin which kept his body preserved, at least until June of 2022. You see, Achile had become a rental of property of sorts. The California Institute of Abnormal Arts had rented the clowns' mummified remains for many years but sadly, the location that displayed various oddities, hosted underground bands and performance artists, permanently closed on June 19, 2022. We were unable to find where Achile's body is now, however it is said that his family lives on a ranch near Yosemite National Park so he may be in residence there located in his glass coffin, looking forward to his next adventure. This may sound crass, but clown carrion, circulating entertainment venues for cash, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Lake Nyos Explodes

In the month of August, on the 21st in 1986, Lake Nyos exploded. In all of recorded history, there have only been two exploding killer lakes and they were both in the country of Cameroon. The first occurred in 1984 at Lake Monoun which killed 37 people. The second occurred at Lake Nyos in 1986 and was more deadly. This was a limnic eruption. Also notoriously known as a 'lake overturn'. This is a unique type of natural disaster where dissolved carbon dioxide suddenly explodes from deep lake waters creating a gas cloud that asphyxiates wildlife, livestock and humans. Over three thousand animals and 1,746 villagers were killed during this event. So what exactly is an exploding killer lake? Basically, these are lakes that were formed from a hydrovolcanic eruption that created a crater in the lakes. Carbon dioxide builds up within this crater over time, just like the CO2 in a soda bottle. The water serves as a type of cap keeping the CO2 locked down, but sometimes something happens that causes that cap effect to shift. It could be an earthquake or even a monsoon-like rainstorm. In the case of Lake Nyos, it appears that a simple landslide broke the surface and released a giant cloud of carbon dioxide. It exploded upward and stripped the air of oxygen. This could have happened again but scientists discovered a way to hopefully prevent this type of disaster in the future. In 2001, French scientists installed the first degassing tube to slowly release the carbon dioxide from the lake. This is similar in theory to the burper pipes used at city dumps to release any built up methane or carbon dioxide. Two additional pipes were installed in 2011 and by 2019 it was determined that a single degassing tube would be sufficient to keep the lake explosion free.

The Hanford Bastille

The Bastille is a former jail that dates back to the Wild West and ran as a jail for nearly 70 years. The building has had many iterations after it closed as a jail. This was an art gallery, a restaurant, a bar and a nightclub. Today, it stands empty and in need of major renovations. This may or may not please the current residents of the building, the ghosts. For years, ghost stories have been told about the building. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Hanford Bastille.

The Tachi Yokuts were the first to reside in the area that would become Hanford. Immigrants came and farmed the land and the settlement grew, especially after the Southern Pacific Railroad laid tracks. James Madison Hanford was the auditor for the railroad company and the town was named for him.  Most of the labor for the railroad were Chinese immigrants. James Hanford sold lots in the town and the growth continued until fires devastated Hanford in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Hanford was incorporated on August 12, 1891 to facilitate fire protection and the town became the county seat for Kings County. Growth resumed with lots of building. The only opera house between Los Angeles and San Francisco was here and a Civic Auditorium was built. Thriving towns usually find themselves dealing with crime and Kings County needed an official jail. The Bastille would become that and it resembles a small castle, so clearly it was meant to be as imposing as a smaller sized jail could be. The Bastille served as Kings County’s jail and sheriff’s office starting in 1897.

The McDougall Brothers of San Francisco designed the Bastille and it was considered state-of-the-art for the time. Frank Sharples’ Exeter Granite Company was awarded the construction contract. Something didn't bode well for the jail during construction. An associate of Sharples became disgruntled and he shot Sharples in the neck. Sharples managed to survive. The structure was hewn from solid pieces of granite that weighed around 2-tons each. The outside was overlaid with red brick and was said to be so strong that no jail break was possible. Jail cells were made from steel and there was a capacity of up to 60 inmates. The general population was kept on the first floor, while inmates thought to be insane were kept on the second floor. That only lasted for a brief period of time and then women and children were kept on the second floor. So all ages and genders were in the Bastille. A jail matron was introduced to the jail in 1917. Her name was Louise Gerrebrands and she was actually the wife of the sheriff. She was paid 25 cents per hour.  

For those first couple of decades, the Bastille was well maintained under the Gerrebrands. Then Sheriff Charles Gerrebrand retired in 1920 and things went downhill for the jail. By 1922, a jail that was meant for 60 inmates, had 260 inmates and conditions became horrible, especially for females who were incarcerated. Several of them were assaulted by both male inmates and guards. Children were abused. Several grand juries convened to try to decide what to do to improve the jail. An addition with more cells was suggested after one, but this never came to fruition. Another ordered improvements to the sanitary conditions. And again, nothing came of this. There were at least three suicides at the jail that we'll talk about later. Another inmate who tried to off himself was John Brown. Sheriff William Buckner unlocked the door to Brown's cell and Brown made a mad dash towards the steel bars of his cell and knocked himself silly, gashing his head open to the skull. A physician stitched him up and then he was strapped to a cot to keep him from doing any more self-harm. Another horrifying incident here at the jail took place in April of 1962. A Hanford laborer named John Holloman was serving a six -day sentence for public intoxication when his delirium tremens from alcohol detox got the best of him and he slashed at his throat and the inside of his arm with a razor blade. He fortunately survived and would be the last suicide attempt before the jail closed two years later. 

The Bastille was closed in 1964, but it wouldn't sit empty for long. The jail's next iteration would be as The Bastille Gallery, which was Kings County's Museum of Art. It took six months to clean up the jail and to keep costs down, the walls were covered in burlap. The gallery would remain for a decade. The City of Hanford took over the property and they thought the best move forward was to demolish the building, but thankful, many residents were dismayed and formed a committee to fight any kind of demolition. This committee sought out the help of an entrepreneur who was good and saving historic structures and turning them into new businesses. In 1977, the first restaurant and bar moved into the space. Randy Shaw is the building Superintendent. The city owns the building, but nothing is being done with it at this time because it has deteriorated so bad. Renovations would take at least a million dollars and the city council recently rejected a plan to fund those renovations here in 2024.

People claim to see faces looking out of the windows and flickering light as if it is coming from candles or lantern lights. Visitors claim to have been touched on the first floor. Shadow figures were often seen in solitary confinement. An apparition of a woman in 1920s period clothing has been seen walking on the staircase. This is more than likely not the most well known female apparition at the Bastille. That would be Mary, which legends claim was an inmate who hanged herself in the upstairs portion of the jail. A Mary Fincher had been an inmate at the jail and she did die in the jail, but it was from a heart attack. There are at least three suicides in the jail that were documented. Ben Halermann hanged himself in 1940. He was proprietor of the Brunswick Barber Shop in Corcoran and had been booked for drunkenness. He used twine wrapped around a bar above his head in the cell. An inmate named John J. Alves had been arrested for the murder of his wife and child and he attempted suicide by slicing his arm with a barber's razor. He was unsuccessful that time, but later did manage to kill himself on June 15, 1937 by hanging. He wasn't quite dead yet when they cut him down, but he died later at the hospital. The sheriff's department has the razor on display with other jail artifacts. 

Another inmate who committed suicide was named Frank McMurty. A newspaper article claimed that he had been seen 20 minutes before he was found hanging. Frank's ghost is said to be at the Bastille and he was seen quickly after he died. A newspaper article reads, "Two persons who are occupying the cell in which Frank McMurty committed suicide, at the county jail, created a great deal of excitement there last night. They both claim that McMurty's ghost put in an appearance, and it was as natural as life. When Jailer Morse, who was awakened by their screams, got down to the cell and turned on the light, they were both scared white, and begged to be removed."

Betsy Lewis wrote in The Hanford Sentinel in 1982, "An unsuspecting cocktail waitress ventured up the back stairs in the dark after closing time to find some spare staples. Something resembling a haggard woman in a jail smock was sitting by the windowsill. And it moved. ‘I heard this shriek,’ recalls Jimmy Jimenez, La Bastille’s bartender and manager. ‘I thought somebody had grabbed her. But then she just flew down those stairs a minute later.’ Within seconds another waitress, who had gone to investigate, also was making tracks out the front door. Jimenez grabbed a knife and took a look for himself…but ‘it’ had gone."

Local business owner Jessica Szalai told the Hanford Sentinel in 2021, "We ate and I kept looking up to the second floor balcony. One of the servers whispered in my ear, 'Do you see it?' I was so focused on the balcony I didn’t look at the waitress I just said, 'I don’t know why I keep looking up.' I looked up and I saw a dark shadow like a silhouette of a man standing next to the rail, I was startled. The figure turned and walked right into a brick wall." This is a spot where a prisoner is believed to have hanged himself.

A cook at the Bastille was washing dishes at a sink when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She turned and saw what she described as "kind of foggy." She couldn't see a mouth or neck, but she could see dark gray hair and two dark holes for eyes. The thing then slithered under a table. Another person described seeing Mary as gliding up a spiral staircase. Mary was in a long gown that went up her neck and was from the turn-of-the-century. By 1992, the ghost of Mary had become well known throughout the area. Seances were conducted, but without any results.

The Fresno Flyer interviewed Kaitlyn Lusk in 2022 who was the Recreational Coordinator for the Hanford Civic Center at the time. She said, "I absolutely will not come in here after dark. And I NEVER go upstairs; I just can’t do it." Lusk went on to share a time when she and a co-worker were giving a group of school chidren a tour of the Bastille. The children had just left the building and the co-worker was in a back room near the cell block when Lusk heard her screaming. Lusk ran back to the room and found her co-worker pale and shaking and the co-worker said that she felt someone she couldn't see, grab her around the neck. There was no one but the to women in the jail at the time. Lusk also told the magazine, "I’ve heard some things, like strange noises coming from upstairs when there’s nobody up there. We do have a lot of homeless people who come onto the grounds, so the first thought is that maybe someone broke in looking for a place to sleep. But, then we go to investigate and there’s nobody there."

Ghost Hunters investigated in 2023 for their episode "Dead Man Walking." It was very cool, they had Chandler Riggs of "The Walking Dead" fame join them. Victor Rosa was a former restaurant manager and he told the TAPS team that often he would have opening of closing employees claim to see something. For example, they would be downstairs cleaning and they would look up and see someone watching them from above when they were the only person in the building. Others would claim to feel as though something unseen were standing next to them. The superintendent Shaw told Jason and Steve that a bartender looked over his shoulder one night and up on the second level he saw a guard dressed in a 1920s era uniform standing there. He looked away and then thought about what he had just seen and that it wasn't possible that it was a real person and he looked back and the guard was gone.

During the investigation the heard disembodied steps on the stairs and they also heard dragging noises. They brought alcohol and cigarettes for trigger objects. They caught a voice saying something when they emptied out the Bastille. Later, with the sound amplified, the voice said, "I think they're gone." They may have debunked people seeing Mary looking out a window because part of the chandelier shows up in one of the windows and could look like a head. Steve and Tango heard disembodied footsteps made with boots in a room on the first level. Both of them later felt as though something were behind them. Tango was tapped on his back. Steve almost said, "Excuse me" when he backed up because it felt like an actual person. There was a really loud audible sound that sounded like a cupboard door closing. That was their first night of investigating.

For the second night, the Sheriff's office loaned them the razor that John Alves had attempted suicide with to use as a trigger object. They caught some really loud disembodied steps when they asked if Frank McMurty were with them. There were loud knocks captured and then there was this really loud metallic sound, which the team thought could be a big piece of metal that looked like it had been on a dust covered bench and was now on the floor. While they were talking about this, they heard a child make some kind of giggling sound that they got on the recorder. Perhaps the child was the one who dropped the piece of metal? When they tested the metal piece for the sound, it was the exact same sound. And then...the episode went off the rails because Jason brought in his daughter Satori. She and her boyfriend do this hand holding thing and go through the ABCs like table tipping. They got the letters ORVI, so I'm thinking the name is going to be Orville, but she just stops and goes, oh your fist name is Orvie? Who has ever heard of that name? Then they ask about the last name and get CL and the boyfriend goes, oh, Clyde? How do you stop after two letters? Then they asked if it was an inmate - no, then if it was someone who worked there and they got responses that led them to believe it was a sheriff. Sure enough, Jason Googles Orvie Clyde and he's in the 1940 census. Reddit called this fakery and we completely agree. Apparently this sheriff was looking for his pen and somehow they figure out to look behind a baseboard and there's an old fountain pen. We want to believe, but it just was so fake. If it wasn't, they need to hire a new video editor.

Kings County Courthouse

Right across from the Bastille is the Old Kings County Courthouse. The Kings County Courthouse was built in 1896 and designed by John Haggerty and W.H. Wilcox in the Classical Revival style. There was an expansion in 1914 and it ran as a courthouse until 1976. It was remodeled in the 1980s and now houses offices, shops and restaurants. Every year it hosts a haunted house attraction for Halloween and that is fitting as people claim that something unseen lurks here, flashing on and off lights and locking and unlocking doors.

Hanford Fox Theater

William Fox had been born in Hungary in 1879 and his family immigrated to America shortly thereafter. His family was poor and William started work early to support his family by selling candy in Central park. He also worked as a newsie. Fox started his own company in 1900 and soon turned his interest to buying theaters and eventually building them too. In 1915, he founded the Fox film Corporation and in the 1920s, he founded the Fox West Coast Theaters chain. And if you're wondering, yes, 20th Century Fox gets the Fox name from him, as does Fox News, Fox Sports and the Fox Corporation. William Fox built the Hanford Fox Theater in 1929 and it was designed as an atmospheric theater, which most of our listeners are probably familiar with. These are the theaters that tried to give the impression of being outside under a night sky with twinkling stars and a crescent moon. The rest of the decor imitated a Spanish courtyard and Greco-Roman columns supported the proscenium. The large fire-proof screen at the Hanford Theater depicts a Spanish village with cypress trees and several buildings with terra cotta roofs. The exterior is designed in a mission style with a glorious tower offset from the center. The theater was set-up for stage shows with vaudeville providing entertainment before films. Interestingly, Fox thought that the moving picture flicks were a passing fad. 

The Hanford Theater wasn't doing well after television came onto the scene and it was slated to become a cheap shoe box theater or XXX palace, but it was saved by a man named J. Daniel Humason in 1979. He was a historic preservationist and he enlisted his family to help him save the theater. They renovated it and reopened it in 1982 with 889 seats downstairs and 142 seats in the balcony, which was nicknamed the Cabaret. There are live entertainers and the occasional movie and silent film. Humason has said that he hasn't experienced any kind of ghostly activity, but the custodial staff have told him that see the apparition of an old, frail woman sitting in the balcony in seat A33. Humason finds this strange because the only death at the theater was a male projectionist in the 1940s. There is also something strange going on with a prop. Humason said, "There is something going on with this prop that was left behind - a cane that keeps moving around and being found in different places. One time it was hanging from the light fixtures, which are 20 feet high. It's most likely someone playing tricks."

Fatte Albert's Pizza Co.

Just a couple of blocks away from the Bastille is Fatte Albert's Pizza Co., which is located at 110 E. Seventh Street. The owner, Wendy Gonzales, told The Hanford Sentinel that her employees were afraid to go down into the basement and that she herself had experienced creepy things. The paper shares, "Gonzales said that one evening she was visiting with one of her friends and five of her fellow employees were working in the kitchen, when suddenly the front door of the restaurant opened and slammed shut. Footsteps could be heard across the restaurant floor, then the door to the basement opened and slammed shut and pizza boxes flew off the counter. 'There was no wind that night, and our doors cannot ‘slam' shut, because they have an apparatus that forces them to close slowly,' she said. 'When it happened, both my friend and I said ‘What in the world was that?'"

Irwin Street Inn & Restaurant

The Irwin Street Inn & Restaurant is located at 522 North Irwin Street. A family by the name of Wright built the original main house in the 1890s. In 1980, preservationist Max Walden bought the house and renovated it. Walden wasn't satisfied with just that house. He purchased several other nearby buildings, so that there were eventually four buildings in the compound. The main building was always two-story, but the other three were one-story, so they were all raised up so that the "first floors" became the "second floors." All buildings were decorated with Victorian furniture and had a stained-glass window in each room and the bathrooms featured pull-chain toilets, sinks on pedestals and claw-foot tubs. The rooms have been updated again with modern amenities like showers, televisions and WiFi. Celebrities performing at the Fox Theater like to stay here and events can be hosted like weddings and banquets.

The restaurant was owned by Frank Garcia in 2010. He had claimed that he never really experienced anything, but that people through the years claimed that there were three ghosts on the property. Guests claimed to see full-bodied apparitions in the dining area and on the second floor. Garcia said, "There was one time where we were getting strange calls from Room 101 that sounded like someone speaking in tongues. The problem was, no one was in that room; we knew that for sure." Other things that have happened include sheets getting moved around, windows being slammed shut and lamps switching themselves on and off.

The city of Hanford has some very cool historic buildings in its downtown area and a few Victorian homes. Tourists say it's a nice place to visit, especially if you are seeking ghosts. Are the Bastille and these other locations in Hanford haunted? That is for you to decide!
 

HGB Ep. 552 - Haunted Abbeville, South Carolina

Moment in Oddity - Swallowing Gum

As children, many of us were told, don't swallow watermelon seeds or a watermelon plant will grow inside your tummy. Or this one, don't swallow gum or it will ball up in your stomach and never be digested, or at minimum the gum would take seven years to digest. Now, gum has several ingredients that are digested easily. There are sweeteners and other flavoring ingredients and softeners like vegetable oil added so that the piece of gum doesn't get rock hard after the first few minutes. However, there are some ingredients that are not digestible. At one time, the base of chewing gum was sourced from the sapodilla tree which was not able to be digested by the human body. After WWII, the demand for gum increased to the point that the sapodilla trees' sustainability was unable to keep up with the production. The gum base evolution began with combining polymers that were both synthetic and natural. While it is still true that our bodies cannot break down the base of gum, our bodies ARE able to pass the undigestible portion, similar to how we pass corn kernels. And that fact reminds me of the game, 'First Corn'. If you know you know. Our bodies are capable of amazing feats, but the thought of having a huge, undigestible ball of gum stuck in our gut, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Davy Crockett Born

In the month of August, on the 17th, in 1786, Davy Crockett was born. Known by the nickname, "King of the Wild Frontier", Davy, or David as he preferred to be called, was born near Limestone, Tennessee. Growing up he became known as a great hunter and storyteller, an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. After being elected to Congress in 1827, he came up against President Andrew Jackson where he passionately opposed many of the President's policies, most notably, the Indian Removal Act. This hostility towards Jackson's policies caused Crockett's defeat in the election of 1831. He was re-elected in 1833 and then lost again in 1835. This motivated his subsequent exit to the Mexican state of Tejas, later to become Texas. In January of 1836, Davy joined the Texas Revolution and died at the Battle of the Alamo in March of that year at the age of 49. To this day, it is yet undetermined whether Crockett died in battle or was executed after surrendering, due to varying eye witness accounts.

Haunted Abbeville, South Carolina

The town of Abbeville in South Carolina is near the Georgia state line and hosted the last war council for Jefferson Davis. The Confederacy died in this town. The tree-lined square hosts many historic buildings and the town itself is filled with Victorian and Gothic styled homes. This all makes Abbeville seem like a quiet little town. But underneath that southern charm are ghost stories. Many buildings here are said to be haunted. Join us for the history and hauntings of the town of Abbeville, South Carolina.

A group of French Huguenots settled Abbeville (a bee vl) in 1758. The site was originally named John de la Howe for one of those Huguenots, but eventually John suggested the name Abbeville after his hometown in France. Revolutionary War hero General Andrew Pickens called Abbeville home and he owned a lot of property here including a fresh-water spring known as the Big Spring. Pickens donated the spring to the people of Abbeville to use as their primary water source. The town was incorporated in 1840. This town would become the birthplace and deathbed of the Confederacy. Secession Hill was the gathering place for secessionists and they met there on November 22, 1860 to make their plan to leave the Union. A month later, South Carolina seceded. When the war ended, Confederate President Jefferson Davis stopped at his friend Armistead Burt's home in Abbeville for a night. This was May 2, 1865 and in the parlor of the Burt-Stark Mansion, he held his last official cabinet meeting and dissolved the Confederate government. The tallest building in South Carolina is here, the Prysmian Copper Wire Tower. There are many historic buildings here and a few of them are reputedly haunted. That's probably why they host a ghost tour in the town during October. Here are a few of those places.

Abbeville Welcome Center

We should probably start with the town's welcome center, which is located at 100 Court Square. This building had housed the State of South Carolina Bank and its special because it is one of the few historic buildings to have survived fires that occurred in the 1870s. This is the starting point for the walking tours of the city and also is the home for the Greater Abbeville Chamber of Commerce. The Old Bank Building was built in 1865 and designed by S. Henry James. The lobby has a series of paintings done by artist Wilbur Kurtz in 1922. These paintings feature a hundred years of Abbeville's history from Gen. Andrew Pickens to Jefferson Davis' Last War Council Meeting. Nations Bank donated the building and paintings to the city in 1996. One ghost story connected to this building features the spirit of a young boy who likes to chase staff in the hallways, but he is usually seen as an apparition outside the building, staring down the street. A former volunteer at the Chamber of Commerce said of a ghost in the building, "He’s an older man, and we can hear him whistling all the time. A medium visited us one day several years ago and described the man as an older white man around sixty or seventy years old. She said he was wearing blue jean overalls and a white short-sleeved t-shirt. Each time he was seen, he was apparently sweeping or mopping the floor of the bank, so we were okay with that." - LaNelle, Marjorie. The Apparitions of Abbeville (The History & Mystery of the South Carolina Lakelands Book 2) (p. 98). Palmetto Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Abbeville County Museum

Our next location here is one of our favorite kinds of places to investigate and that is an old county jail. Today, this is the Abbeville County Museum and is located at 215 Poplar Street. The building was constructed between 1830 and 1850, making it the oldest building in town, and functioned as the jail until 1948. Rather than having half the jail house the criminals and the other half housing the warden and his family, this old jail kept prisoners on the second and third floors and the ground floor was reserved for the warden and his family. The top floor usually had the worst offenders and it is believed hangings took place up there. It really was the perfect place for them as the roof is crossed by thick wooden beams that easily could've had ropes thrown over them. After being the jail, it served as the county morgue for awhile and then was the Abbeville American Legion and dance hall. That was mainly in the 1960s. The building became the Abbeville County Museum in 1976. Staff members have heard disembodied footsteps. Mary Baskin Hutchinson was an Abbeville historian and she shared a story about a tour she gave to a medium. She took the medium up to the third floor and he separated from the group and went over to the corner and had what she described as "an animated conversation with nothing." The medium returned to the group and he told Mary that there was a spirit here of a black man and that he wanted to talk to Mary because he was afraid they were trying to put him out. The spirit identified himself as Earl Miller and said he was 28-years-old and that he had been there at the jail since 1905. So Mary talked to him and told him that he was welcome to stay and help watch over the museum, but she requested that he stay up on the third floor.

Bernibrooks Inn

Bernibrooks Inn is located at 200 W. Pinckney Street. This started off as the home William Brooks built for his daughter Maggie Whitfield Brooks in 1860. This was constructed in the Colonial Revival design and is a really large house and this was because he hoped Maggie would have a large family. Maggie had different desires and she never married or had children. She transformed the house into a boarding house for traveling railroad workers. Maggie lived in the house until her death at the age of eighty-seven. The house passed into other hands and it was not maintained. An elderly couple named Nichols were told they had to leave the house because it became unlivable. A family named Parnell purchased the house and just left it in its sad state. The Berni family bought it in 1993 and they renovated the house. The renovations took a long time, so they didn't open the Bernibrooks Inn until 2003. It seems that it closed in 2016, so you can't stay here any longer. The haunting experiences started happening when the Berni's started renovating the house. It is believed that Maggie haunts her former home. The first thing that happened is that they found a penny at the top of the stairway. This isn't necessarily weird, but pennies started showing up everywhere. Some of the pennies were found outside too. Not sure the specifics of pennies in this case, but a book written about the ghosts in Abbeville has a whole chapter with a very elaborate story about a Confederate soldier who stayed at the boarding house and Maggie would say to him, "Penny for your thoughts?" and he would respond that he didn't like pennies because they had Lincoln on them and then they would laugh. It was a cute story, but uh...Lincoln wasn't on the penny until 1909.

John A. Harris House

The John A. Harris House is located at 200 South Main Street. This site was originally owned by former Governor Patrick Noble who governed in the 1840s. He built his summer home here. That house was demolished and John A. Harris built his home here in 1896, which was designed by Atlanta firm Bruce & Morgan. That firm had also designed Tillman Hall at Clemson University. John Harris was the former president of Abbeville Mills. These included the Abbeville Furniture Co. manufacturing plant and The Abbeville Cotton Mill, which was the first mill in Abbeville. His home was built in the Victorian style with a wide wrap around veranda and portico supported by slender columns. The house stayed in the family for many years. John's grandson Grant Harris had a friend named Debra come to visit him. When she entered the house, she told Grant she just had the weirdest sensation. When she was coming up the front steps, she felt a presence walk past her and there was an icy chill to this feeling. Grant told her that it was probably his grandfather John as this type of thing happened often. The house was put up for sale and we're not sure who owns it now, but it is in need of a lot of love. 

The General's House  

The General's House is also known as the McGowan-Barksdale-Bundy House and is located at 211 North Main Street. The nickname refers to two former owners who were generals, Confederate Brigadier General Samuel McGowan and World War II General William E. Barksdale. McGowan is the man who had the house built in 1888 over the foundation of his prior home that had burned down. He had moved to Abbeville in 1841 and purchased a Gothic Revival home from a widow, which burned in 1887. Atlanta architect G.L. Norman designed the house in the Queen Anne Victorian style and features towers and turrets. A beautiful unique feature in the interior of the house is a multicolored interior window with a cross over a landing on the stairwell and the sun shines through it perfectly. There is a root cellar and a basement that has eight rooms. The main floor has four rooms, a library, kitchen/dining area, large living hall and a parlor. A grand staircase leads up to the second floor which has a central hall and four bedrooms off the hall. The attic is on the third floor. The last owner was J.D. Bundy and he deeded the house to the Abbeville County Historical Society in 1989. The house is today a museum focused on military history that has added three servant cabins to the property and a train caboose.

An anonymous journalist visited the house with a photographer friend and they got a tour from an elderly caretaker. When they got up to the second floor, the journalist heard an audible cough. The journalist mentioned to the caretaker who was taking them through the house that they probably shouldn't disturb the person on this floor. The caretaker asked the journalist what she was talking about because they were the only people in the house. Then she heard the coughing again. Marjorie LaNelle writes in her book "The Apparitions of Abbeville: The History and Mystery of the South Carolina Lakelands" what happened next, "'See?' I said loudly and insistently. 'There IS somebody up here!' I hurried to the front room where the door was open. 'It's coming from in here!' As I looked into the room, I saw the bed was neatly made and the room was tidy. It had a bed and a chest of drawers alongside a desk and chair. But there was no one in the room - at least no one that the human eye could apparently see! 'That there's the room where William McGowan died,' said George as he pointed to the room with his walking cane. 'He was General McGowan's son,' he added. 'Died of pneumonia,' said George. 'He was only thirty-nine years old.'" People claim to see the ghost of William McGowan looking out the upstairs round window. The scent of cherry tobacco has been smelled. And that phantom cough has been heard by other people as well.

Trinity Episcopal Church

Trinity Episcopal Church is located at 200 Church St. The church started in 1842 in a clapboard building. In 1858, it as decided that the congregation needed a fine building for their services and they hired architect George E. Walker from Columbia to design the church. He found inspiration in the Gothic cathedrals in Europe and it shows. This is a beautiful church with a tall front column with a soaring spire topped with a cross. The cornerstone was laid on June 27, 1859 and the church was built from handmade bricks. The interior features handmade woodwork. The really glorious part of this church though are the 19th century American stained glass windows. The father of stained glass painting in America, William Gibson, designed the chancel window that is entitled "Suffer the Little Children." Another window is from the 20th century and was crafted by J&R Lamb Studios and depicts the Holy Family. There are interesting legends connected to the church. One legend claims that the chancel window was intended for a Northern congregation, but couldn't get through a Union blockade of Charleston during the Civil War and so the church adapted it to their church. There is nothing to support this and is thought to have been specifically crafted for the church. The church has a bell that was gifted to the church by a member named J. Foster Marshall who was a colonel that died in the Battle of Second Manassas. During the war, a Confederate officer saw the bell and thought it would be handy to melt it down and make a cannon, but thankfully the bell wasn't made from the right kind of metal, so it was saved.

There was a woman visiting the town with her daughter and they were walking down the street towards the Trinity Episcopal Church when all of a sudden the young girl broke away from her mother and ran towards the church and then she went inside. Her mother caught up to her and found her in the vestibule talking to something the mother couldn't see. Her daughter came over to her very excited and proclaimed, "Mother, I want you to meet my new friend Elizabeth. She wants us to help her." The mother saw no one, so she ushered her daughter out of the church. But the daughter was set on helping Elizabeth, so the mother visited the church several times with her daughter over the next couple of weeks and eventually she too could see Elizabeth. Elizabeth told the mother her problem and there was an attempt to cross her over, but it didn't work because the spirit of Elizabeth is still seen and felt in the church. People see a woman sitting in the front pew, wearing an old-fashioned dress. The sounds of disembodied weeping are heard as well. If the spirit is approached, it vanishes. The Elizabeth in this story is thought to be Elizabeth Marshall. Her husband Drew joined the Confederate Army during the Civil War and Elizabeth would come to the church everyday with the couples son and sit in the front pew and pray for the safety of her husband. Unfortunately, Drew was killed at the Battle of Second Manassas in 1862. For some reason, Elizabeth was accused of being an informant and so her son was killed in retaliation. She tried to attack the soldiers who did this and it is thought she was then murdered herself.

The Belmont Inn

The Belmont Inn is a classic hotel featuring modern amenities and a restaurant and bar that was originally known as the Eureka Hotel, which was built in 1903 for $30,000. The first floor was open to salesmen selling their wares and served mostly people traveling on the railroad. Regular patrons were also vaudeville entertainers who would perform at the Abbeville Opera House. Fanny Brice became a regular. She was comedian who created The Baby Snooks Show and the 1968 film "Funny Girl" is loosely based on her life story. Brice started in burlesque, joined the Ziegfeld Follies, performed multiple times on Broadway and recorded several records for Victor and Columbia Records. The Eureka Hotel became the Belmont Inn in 1920 and ran as that until 1950, when the inn became a semi-residential home for the elderly. That lasted until the 1970s and then it closed for several years. In 1984, it was restored and reopened as a hotel with 25 rooms. It closed again for a while and passed through a few hands and is today owned by Jim Petty and his wife Susan Botts and Susan is happy to tell people that her establishment is haunted. The claim is that this is the second most haunted hotel in South Carolina.

The inn is said to be haunted by a former bellhop named Abraham who worked with the original opening crew. He likes to walk up and down the hallways and jiggle the doorknobs. People have seen him still in his bellhop uniform and a few guests have claimed that Abraham jumped into bed with them to suggle. The website Drugstore Divas stayed at the inn and wrote, "I was laying in bed in The Belmont Inn in Abbeville, SC and heard noise outside in the hallway. Instead of immediately thinking it was other guests, I thought it was Abraham, the bellhop. The dead bellhop. Who haunts the hotel. So when I heard footsteps in the hallway, my first thought wasn’t other guests walking back to their rooms after a night out on court square. My first thought was Abraham must be checking the doorknobs." There are other spirits here as well. One of these ghosts carries over from the opera house where she was performing, but she took ill and returned to the Belmont Inn where she was staying and she died in her room. A woman in a black Victorian era dress with a lace veil over her face and black gloves has been seen on several occasions near the registration desk. One person who saw her said that this spirit passed right by her and disappeared into the wall and that this ghost appeared to be floating before that. The guest who saw her wasn't afraid, just surprised. She is thought to be completely residual. Rooms 5 and 12 are said to be the most active if you book this hotel.

Another spirit likes to hang out on the stairs. Marjorie shares this story in her book that she was told by a couple who stayed at the hotel, "On a late evening in December, I attended a year-end awards ceremony for my place of employment that was held in the dining room on the second floor of the Belmont Inn. My husband and I entered the hotel through the side door on the basement level and took the elevator to the main floor. The bartender directed us to the elevator and stairs and said the choice was ours as to which one we would like to utilize. He then stated that there would be directional signs to point the way once we reached the second/main floor. We chose to utilize the elevator. Once we reached the next level and stepped off of the elevator, I noticed a tall, well-dressed lady wearing a long, baby-blue Victorian dress. One could tell that it was tailor-made, as it fit her hourglass figure perfectly. She was also wearing a rather large, matching, wide-brimmed hat that tied around her chin. Lace gloves covered her hands, and she was holding a closed white parasol. She simply stood at the foot of the staircase as if looking frantically for something. As we passed by, she turned and seemed to look straight through my husband and me as if we were not even there. The look on her face was that of panic and sadness. She then turned her head to the right as if to look up to toward the top of the grand staircase, one step at a time. It was apparent that she had lost something very valuable. I uttered a friendly Southern, “Hey, how are you?” and we continued walking toward our destination. My husband gave me the strangest look, and he asked me who I was talking to. “That reenactor at the stairs,” I answered, and he gave me yet another strange look, but he didn’t ask any more questions as we followed the directional signs and finally reached our destination. The incident puzzled me during our dinner engagement, and my husband insisted I was seeing things, because he hadn’t witnessed any such lady. I couldn’t help but wonder if she ever found what she was looking for, but I hope she did. Over and over in my mind, I wondered about what I had seen. I just summed it up as a reenactor or actress who was about to head to the neighboring opera house for her performance in a play. That must be what it was, I continued to try to convince myself. After dinner, I excused myself for a restroom break before we headed home. At that time, I met one of the concierges of the establishment. When I asked him about it, he explained to me that there is a ghost story in the hotel about a lady who lost her most valuable necklace and still, even in the afterlife, searches for it. “She has been seen here a lot.” He giggled. “I haven’t seen her, but a lot of people say they have! She’s usually right around the grand staircase,” he concluded." 

Abbeville Opera House

And since we mentioned the Abbeville Opera House, we should feature this location next. The theater is located at 100 Court Square #102. The Abbeville Opera House was designed by architect William Augustus Edwards and opened in 1904. This was part of a government complex that included a courthouse. The building is three stories and made from red brick with brick sunburst around the keystones and the parapet has raised central portion. The interior theater has three levels: orchestra section, balcony and upper gallery. There are box seats on each corner and large Corinthian columns flank the theater from orchestra floor to ceiling. The stage area is 7,500 square feet and there are twelve dressing rooms. While updates have been made to the lighting, the old system is still here for historical interest. The first restoration of the theater came in 1968 and brought the seating up to 420. Everything was changed to red upholstery on seats, red carpeting and red velvet curtains with gold trim.

The theater wasn't officially dedicated until 1908, but the first production took place back in 1904 and this was "The Clansman." Other plays put on here included "The Great Divide" and "Ben HUr" with real horses in the production. Vaudeville was in its heyday and Abbeville was a popular stop off for traveling companies. Theater greats like Jimmy Durante and Fanny Brice played here as did the Ziegfield Follies. The place was so popular that the Southern Railroad ran special trains to accommodate the hundreds of people who came to Abbeville for the plays. Speeches were hosted here as well with one of the most famous being by William Jennings Bryan. The theater eventually became the home of the Abbeville Community Theater. Today, the theater hosts plays and music concerts by tribute bands and other musical performances.

David Eller was an Abbeville Tour Guide and he shared about the ghosts at the opera house. The first one to take up residence is believed to be a construction worker who died during the construction in 1904. He fell to his death from the top of the theater into the parking lot. He likes to bang pipes and hang out in the dressing rooms and he is blamed for making props disappear. The second is the young woman who had been staying at the Belmont Inn. She was touring with a company from New York to Atlanta and they had a stop over in Abbeville. This actress inhabits the house side of the theater and she has a special seat in the third balcony. They leave a light on for her - which is more than likely the traditional ghost light of all theaters - and leave her chair in its place and empty. If they move the chair, her spirit becomes quite angry and bad things happen during the production. People have claimed to see her apparition out of the corner of their eye. (That chair that they leave open is an original chair and the only one not updated into the cushy comfy chairs that now are part of the seating arrangement.

Abbeville seems like it should just be a quaint little southern town, full of charm and areas for peaceful ruminations. But clearly, its reputation as one of the most haunted towns in South Carolina seems to have some support. Are these buildings in Abbeville haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 551 - USS The Sullivans

Moment in Oddity - Father of the Marathon (Suggested by: Michael Rogers)

There was a Japanese man by the name of Shizo Kanakuri. He was known as the "father of the marathon" in Japan. The event was the Olympics and the year was 1912. It tooks weeks for Shizo to arrive at the starting line in Stockholm, Sweden. Shizo was the first Japanese athlete to qualify for an Olympics and he was proud to represent his country. The day of his event, Stockholm was experiencing a heat wave and during the marathon, racers were dropping out at every mile. Of 68 starters, only 34 marathoners would cross the finish line. At about two thirds of the way through the marathon, Shizo Kanakuri suddenly disappeared. He never let officials know that he was quitting the race and nobody knew where he vanished to. He was considered a missing person in Sweden for decades. Apparently Shizo found himself at a farm along the marathon route where a family fed him, gave him clothing and offered a place to sleep. Although the runner was safe, the race organizers had no idea where Shizo disappeared to. Eventually over the years, urban legends were created around the Japanese marathoner, with people saying he had been running around Sweden for years looking for the finish line. In reality he continued to run races once home in Japan and went into education where he worked to introduce as many people as possible to athletics. Later, in 1967, Swedish officials organized a return trip for Kanakuri so that he may finish his marathon from 1912. A ceremony was held for Shizo and the event was widely covered by the Swedish media. When Shizo Kanakuri finally crossed the finish line, his time was noted at 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds, securing a position for the slowest marathon ever completed and that certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Klondike Gold Rush

In the month of August, on the 16th in 1896, gold was discovered in Alaska, sparking the Great Klondike Gold Rush. Also known as the Yukon Gold Rush, the discovery by Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie prompted a mass departure of eager prospectors from their homesteads to the Canadian Yukon Territory and Alaska. The promise of riches emboldened 100,000 people to leave their current lives and commence the long and treacherous migration, seeking the valuable mineral. Unfortunately only half of those who began the journey actually arrived at their destination. Although the gold rush was good for the region's economy, it had an adverse effect on the environment and the native people of the Yukon and Alaskan territories. Loss of native wildlife, deforestation and water contamination were widespread. The native people were exposed to diseases from the prospectors and their hunting and fishing grounds were ruined as well. Those who completed the harsh journey also found that the riches were grossly exaggerated and many people immediately returned from whence they came. The Klondike Gold Rush slowed to a trickle by the end of 1898 and many were left destitute.

USS The Sullivans (Suggested by: Erica Merhoff)

USS The Sullivans is berthed now at the Buffalo Naval and Servicemen's Park in New York. We learned a lot about USS The Sullivans when we toured the USS Yorktown in June 2024. It's a very different name for a ship and that's because it was named for five brothers who all died aboard the same ship when it was sunk by a Japanese submarine during World War II. Those brothers just may be haunting their namesake. Or maybe there are other spirits here. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of USS The Sullivans.

The loss of a child is devastating. Some historical stories that we share on this podcast are quite painful because in previous centuries, it wasn't out of the ordinary for a family to lose multiple children, especially before they made it to adulthood. Losing five grown sons all at once would be an immense pain that none of us could begin to comprehend. The Sullivan clan had an ancient stronghold in West Cork, Ireland. The first Sullivans emigrated to America in 1849. Thomas Sullivan would come down through that line and marry Alleta Abel in Waterloo, Iowa in 1914. They bought a house at 98 Adams Street in Waterloo and started the building of their large Irish-Catholic family. Over the next 17 years, they had seven children, five boys and two girls. The boys were George, Francis or Frank, Joseph, Madison or Matt and Albert and the girls were Genevieve and Kathleen. Kathleen died when she was just five months old from pneumonia.

The Sullivans had an idyllic life, even during the Depression. Thomas Sullivan never lost his job and he taught his boys to hunt and fish. The brothers loved to play baseball and football in a vacant lot by their house. After George and Frank graduated from high school, they decided to join the Navy because jobs were pretty scarce in Waterloo. They served their time and returned home in 1941 and got jobs in the Rath Meat Packing plant. Their brother Albert had married a woman named Katherine Mary and they had a son. When George and Frank had joined the Navy, they convinced their friend Bill Ball to join up too. Ball stayed in the Navy and he was stationed on the USS Arizona that was parked at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, bringing America into World War II. Ten Nakajima B5N2 Kate torpedo bombers attacked the Arizona and scored four direct hits with one of them causing an explosion in the magazines at the forward part of the ship. In total, 1,177 men were killed on the USS Arizona and one of them was Bill Ball. The wreck of the Arizona remains at Pearl Harbor as a memorial. We would be remiss if we didn't mention that this memorial is said to be haunted. Visitors and staff have reported strange sounds that include disembodied whispers, disembodied footsteps and the sounds of distant explosions. An Australian family shared a photo in 2011 after their visit that seemed to show a young and sad face in the shimmering oil above the wreckage.

When the brothers heard that their friend Ball had been killed at Pearl Harbor, they were inspired to sign up to fight in World War II. George said, "Well, I guess our minds are made up, aren’t they fellows? And, when we go in, we want to go in together. If the worst comes to the worst, why we’ll all have gone down together." George and Frank had already been in the Navy, so the five brothers agreed to join the Navy and they requested to all be stationed on the same ship. The Waterloo Iowa Courier featured the brothers in a story because it was big news for their town. Letting five brothers serve together was out of the norm because the Navy had been crafting a policy prohibiting such a practice. But the Navy agreed and stationed the Sullivans on the USS Juneau, which was the first US ship to be camouflage-painted.

The USS Juneau was an Atlanta-class light cruiser that had been launched in October of 1941. She headed into the Pacific theater on August 22, 1942 and had her first major action in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942. Juneau helped repel four Japanese attacks. Her next fight would be the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942. The Juneau shot down six Japanese torpedo bombers early. The main part of the battle took place in the evening when it was pitch dark and the Juneau was struck on her port side by a torpedo. She began to list, but she was able to maintain a speed of 13 knots and started heading toward Espiritu Santo for repairs. Another ship named the San Francisco accompanied the Juneau as it needed repairs too. Along the way, a Japanese submarine  shot two torpedoes towards the San Francisco, with both missing. Unfortunately, one of them found the Juneau and hit the same spot she had been hit before and an explosion rocked the cruiser immediately and she sank below the water in just 20 seconds after breaking in two. The date was November 13, 1942.

There wasn't just the San Francisco with the Juneau. Another ship named the Helena was also traveling in the group. The commanders of both ships thought that no one had survived the attack on the Juneau, so they quickly left. But 100 sailors had survived and they had to fend for themselves for eight days in the open ocean before they were rescued. At the time of rescue, only 10 men were still alive. The rest had sucuumbed to the elements and shark attacks. There are different stories as to what happened to the brothers. The most probable scenario seems to be that three of the Sullivan brothers went down with the ship immediately. Another brother was wounded and managed to make it to the surface, but died shortly thereafter from his wounds. George made it to the surface and into a raft, but after days of no food or water, he seems to have become disoriented and jumped out of the raft into the water and was grabbed by a shark.

It would take weeks before the Sullivan parents were told the fates of their sons. A survivor who was friends with George wrote the Sullivans to tell them, "I am afraid all hope is gone for your boys. I don’t know whether a letter of this sort helps you or hurts. But it’s the truth. I saw it." But there was nothing official from the Navy, so Alleta wrote the Navy, "I am writing you in regards to a rumor going around that my five sons were killed in action in November. I hated to bother you, but it has worried me so that I wanted to know if it was true. So please tell me. It has worried me so." The Sullivans got their answer on January 11, 1943 when a knock came on their door and they opened it to see Lt. Commander Truman Jones standing there. He said he had some news about their boys. Thomas inquired, “Which one?” “I’m sorry,” was the response. “All five.” Now Lt. Commander Jones could only tell them that all five were missing in action, but he added that they were presumed dead.

President Roosevelt wrote a letter to the Sullivans and in part he said, "I want you to know the entire nation shares your sorrow. I send you my deepest sympathy in your hour of trial and pray that in Almighty God you will find the comfort and help that only He can bring." In no time, five gold stars were hanging in the window of the Sullivan family and Alleta was called "the champion Gold Star Mother." She had become the Mrs. Bixby of World War II. Mrs. Bixby had lost five sons during the Civil War. No one would blame the Sullivans for curling up into balls and giving up, but they did the opposite. They were invited to Washington DC and met with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Vice President Henry A. Wallace. The Navy then asked them to tour defense plants to inspire the workers. Tom and Alleta also spoke at 235 bond rallies and they appreciated the distraction as Alleta said that the trips kept her from thinking. Their campaign was very successful in selling war bonds. And then there was Genevieve. She had gone from having five brothers to an only child. She enlisted in the Navy. It was a PR bonanza for the Navy.

In 1944, the film "The Fighting Sullivans" debuted featuring a mix of truth and fiction. The war ended and the celebrity died down and the Sullivans returned to a quiet life, no doubt wondering what their house might have been like if it had been filled with all their children and possible grandchildren. Tom passed away in March of 1965 and Alleta passed in April 1972. Streets and parks were named for the boys and Waterloo honored them with The Five Sullivan Brothers Conventions Center and the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum. And in April 1943, Alleta christened USS The Sullivans, named for her sons. It was the first US ship ever named for more than one person.

The largest and most important class of US Destroyers was the Fletcher-class. The USS The Sullivans was one of these class and was laid down in October 1942 at the San Francisco Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation. Originally, it was going to be named the Putnam, but after the Sullivans were killed, it was decided to name the destroyer Sullivan. Then President Roosevelt changed the name to The Sullivans to make sure that all the brothers were honored. The ship launched on February 6, 1943 and was commissioned on September 30, 1943. It measured 376 feet and could carry 310 sailors. She did a brief shakedown and headed for Pearl Harbor in December of 1943. In January, she left with Task Group 58.2, which was headed to the Marshall Islands. Her first major battle was the Battle of Kwajalein. The Sullivans main responsibility was covering various Task Groups. She helped beat off Japanese air attacks and helped with the attack on the island of Ponape. The Sullivans participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea on June 19, 1944. In July, she joined Bombardment Unit One in attacking airfields and shore batteries on Iwo Jima.

The USS Houston was hit hard in October 0f 1944 and The Sullivans rescued 118 of the sailors and cared for that ship's wounded until they were transferred to another ship. The Sullivans had a lucky shamrock painted on her funnel and it really seemed that this was a lucky ship. She took no hits and when Typhoon Cobra swept through Manila, damaging several ships and sinking three destroyers, The Sullivans came through with no damage. In 1945, she helped support the invasion of Okinawa. She continued her service until June of 1945. The Sullivans was decommissioned at San Diego on January 10, 1946 after being overhauled and placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

The Sullivans was reactivated for the Korean War in 1951. The destroyer carried on screening activities, plane guard duty, bombarded shore targets, supported United Nations ground troops and interdicted enemy supply lines. The Sullivans was ordered home in early 1953. During the summer of 1953, she did a tour of duty with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. In 1958, she supported the landings of Marines in Beirut. The Sullivans joined the carrier Lake Champlain in Florida for the splash down of Commander Alan Shepard's Mercury space capsule in 1961. In 1962, she took part in the naval blockade of Cuba after it was discovered that the Soviet Union placed missiles there. The Sullivans was decommissioned at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1965 and remained in reserve until the 1970s. She was donated to the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park in Buffalo, New York in 1977 and she now serves as a memorial and museum.

In her time, the destroyer earned nine battle stars during World War II and two battle stars for Korean War service. She's had a rough go of it lately. In 2021, she began taking on water and listing and she was sitting lower in the water and lost electrical power in April 2022. A serious hull breach had happened at this time and the damage to the interior was considerable. She had repairs and reopened in August 2022 and then efforts were made to winterize the destroyer. Later this year, 2024, it is hoped to drydock USS The Sullivans in Erie or Cleveland, but a lot of money is needed to tow the ship and do the repairs. Because of damage, the lower decks are closed to visitors.

Tales of strange occurrences on the destroyer date all the way back to 1969. People have reported that the lights flicker on and off by themselves and that electrical equipment is sometimes found turned on and no one knows how that happened. This includes radios that turn on by themselves and many times, a strange static broadcasts from the radios. And speaking of sounds, the blips of a radar are heard in various places of the ship, not necessarily where the radar is located. There are those who claim that all five Sullivan brothers haunt their namesake, but the most prevalent claim is that eldest brother George is here, seeking to find his brothers. A photo on the destroyer that features the five brothers usually reveals a mist over the face of George when a picture is snapped of it. A shadowy figure is seen on several decks and is thought to be George. One encounter that a security guard had with this figure was terrifying. The guard came face to face with a horrifying spirit he described as a disembodied torso with a burned and disfigured face. He later identified George as being the spirit he saw when presented with a memorial picture of the Sullivans. He then quit shortly thereafter as the experience shook him so much. In regards to all the brothers, witnesses have claimed to see five luminous figures in passages on the ship. 

Ghost Hunters Extraordinaire investigated the destroyer in 2016. They asked if the Sullivans were there and they heard what they thought was shuffling of a feet and they asked if they could do that again. The Mel Meter dropped suddenly from 64 degrees to 54 degrees. One of their cameras turned off the recording and then turned it back on without assistance. Investigators have all found the mess area to be the most active area of the ship and that makes sense since this was used as a makeshift hospital when rescuing sailors from other ships. On one occasion, the power turned off on the destroyer and a couple employees went to try to lead guests off the darkened ship. An employee heard noises coming from down a hallway that lead to the room with the control panels. She saw a glow coming from the room and assumed that a guest either had a flashlight or a glowstick. She called out and no one responded to her. She looked in the room and saw that the glow was coming from a radar scanner panel that was fully functional. There was no one in the room and the radar wasn't thought to work anymore. The employee ran out to get another employee and when they returned, they found the room completely dark.

Ghost Hunters investigated The Sullivans in 2014 on their episode "Phantom Fleet." The whole team was inside a room when Jason jumped because there was a loud crash that reverberated down the hall. They decided to see if they could figure what caused the sound. They found that a hatch that had been opened was now slammed shut. There was no one else on the ship and the hatch is obviously heavy, so they couldn't explain how this happened.

Reporter Stacey Frey visited the destroyer in October of 2000 for WKBW Buffalo's Good Morning Western New York. She was joined by Staff Duty Officer Ed Kirkwood who shared personal experiences he has had. He once was on a lunch break and a couple came into the ship store to buy some post cards. It was winter and so everything was shut down except the store. They wandered over to the USS The Sullivans and found a man who was an admiral was aboard the ship and he gave them a tour, showing them the boiler room and the engine room. In the boiler room, he explained to them that a fire had broken out and one of the sailors got injured. Later, the couple was talking to Kirkwood and he was stumped because he had never heard the story before. He asked a couple of docents about it and they said that no one had gotten injured on the ship in that way. On top of that, there was no one on the destroyer to give tours. Remember, it was shut down for the winter. So who gave that couple a tour and what accident was he referring to? Could it have been part of what happened on the USS Juneau? Was this one of the Sullivan brothers? None of them had been the rank of admiral. Kirkwood also told Frey that he likes to hum to himself when he is locking up to help with his nerves because he is a little bit afraid of the ship. He sometimes hears a humming join him and he has heard sounds of disembodied voices yelling in response to him when he yells down a hatch to make sure the place is empty. He has locked hatches and returned to find them unlocked. Another strange thing that happened to him is that his watch jumped inexplicably to military time. A visitor to the ship told him that the same thing happened to her husband's watch when they toured the ship.

Did the brothers Sullivan help to protect the USS The Sullivans or was it just really a lucky ship that never received any damage or experienced any accidents? It seems very possible for sailors to leave a bit of themselves behind after spending a long time on what they call a "tin can." Are the strange occurrences here just connected to the energy of the sailors who served onboard? Is the USS The Sullivans haunted? That is for you to decide!