HGB Ep. 584 - Haunted San Juan Capistrano

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

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

This Month in History - Mary Mother Jones Born

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

Haunted San Juan Capistrano

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lupe Combs House

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

O’Neill Museum/Garcia-Pryor House

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

El Adobe de Capistrano Restaurant

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

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

Ramos House Cafe

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

Belford Terrace

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

Forster Mansion

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

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

Trabuco Creek

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

Inn at the Mission San Juan Capistrano

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

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

Mission San Juan Capistrano (Mission Chanting)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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