HGB Ep. 635 - Haunted Whiskey Row

This Month in History - 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

In the month of April, on the 18th, in 1906, a massive magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck San Francisco, California, at 5:12am. What followed the 42-60 second earthquake was widespread devastation and destruction. The tremor emanated from a rupture of the San Andreas Fault line and traveled a spanse of roughly 275-296 miles. Broken gas lines and overturned stoves ignited fires that became known as, 'Ham and Egg Fires' which burned uncontrollably for three days. Broken water mains made fire fighting nearly impossible. Approximately 28,000 buildings were destroyed, affecting roughly 500 blocks in the city's center. Property damage  was said to be around $350 million in 1906 dollars. Over 80% of San Francisco was destroyed with nearby Santa Rosa and San Jose impacted as well. Although early reports cited lower numbers, it is now believed that over 3,000 people perished due to the earthquake and resulting fires and 250,000 people were left homeless. This natural disaster led to major developments in seismology and motivated the city to rebuild with better earthquake-resistant structures. 

Haunted Whiskey Row

Over the years, HGB has featured several Millionaire Rows from various historic city downtowns, and this is where the millionaires of old built their stone palaces. In Prescott, Arizona, there is a block that has been named Whiskey Row. Listeners won't be surprised to learn that this patch of rough and tumble was dotted with saloons and other forms of entertainment. Today, it is dotted with haunted locations. Join us for the history and hauntings of Whiskey Row.

The future Prescott was inhabited by the Yavapai (yah-vah-PIE) tribe living in their wickiups, which were small round or cone-shaped houses made of a willow frame covered with brush and dirt. Yavapai means "people of the sun" and they lived here for hundreds of years and still do on reservations. Their allies were the nearby Apache. When gold was found near the Prescott area, Ohio railroad magnates partnered to establish the Arizona Territory in 1863. Fort Whipple would be founded to be the territorial capital and settlers started moving to the new settlement. John NOble Goodwin was the Arizona Territorial Governor in 1864 and he initiated a tour of the territory. Fort Whipple was moved 20 miles away to a higher area and Goodwin decided to establish a new territorial capital on the east side of Granite Creek. A public meeting was held and it was decided to name it Prescott for historian William H. Prescott. Lots were sold and the new community began to flourish. Mining for silver and gold enriched it. This would remain the capital until November of 1867. Prescott would be the capital again from 1877 to 1889. Virgil Earp became the constable in 1878. Fires burned down the downtown in 1900, so it was rebuilt with brick. One of the places that was devastated with fire was Whiskey Row. 

The history of this area is a bit murky, but it is believed it started with a bar opened up by Isaac Goldberg. Other accounts say that this area was established closer to Granite Creek, but was moved because drunk people kept falling into the creek and drowning. Whatever the case, Goldberg got things started in 1864. 

Goldberg had been born in the late 1830s in Piotrkow, Poland. He followed his brother to the United States and started his new life in California. When gold was struck in Arizona, Isaac headed there and ended up in Prescott. People called him Lomo de Oro, which means "Gold Lion" because he spent all his free time prospecting. For work, he opened up that bar. And this bar wasn't much to look at. He set up a plank of wood and put a bunch of whisky bottles on it and then he added a little shanty over the top and he was ready for business. Isaac had this tin cup and for 50 cents, he would give a customer a dram of whiskey. Miners could pay in absolute gold. He needed help eventually and so he hires this Confederate deserter who was missing part of his nose to be a bartender. Goldberg made a $100 a month with his bar. Eventually, Goldberg opened a saloon on Montezuma Street. This street would be Whiskey Row. Whiskey Row would cover the block on Montezuma Street between Goodwin and Gurley Streets. Many other saloons would follow and attract the likes of the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday. In 1897, Whiskey Row became the first section of Prescott to have exterior public lighting installed. Whiskey Row is still home to many bars and restaurants today and many of the historic buildings that were built after the Great Fire of 1900 still stand. Several of them have ghost stories.

Woman in White

Whiskey Row is anchored by the Courthouse Plaza. The first or original courthouse was built in 1867 and housed the jail and Sheriff ’s Office on the ground floor and a community meeting hall and courtroom on the second floor. Executions took place in the fenced yard behind the courthouse. Our first two spirits are found here. There is a woman in white seen along Whiskey Row where it is believed she died in the Great Fire. She is seen most often near Courthouse Plaza and she is seen in a long white period dress. People claim she remains because she is looking for a lost love who died in the fire as well. 

Mike the Ghost Dog

Next we have a ghost dog. This four-legged spook is named Mike and nobody knows how he ended up in town, but the city adopted him and everybody loved him. Patrons on Whiskey Row would order two steaks, one for them and the other for Mike. He was frequently running around the courthouse plaza. Mike lived from 1946 to 1960 and when he died in 1960, a plaque was put up in the square's northwest corner to memorialize him that reads, "In memory of our community dog, Mike. Self-appointed guardian of the plaza, official welcomer of visitors and general ambassador of good will. Mike was known and loved by all. Regardless of race, color, creed or station in life, he was a silent, tolerant, loyal friend. Take heed if you will: a moral life herein." A paranormal investigator and author Darlene Wilson claims that she has recorded a dog barking in the square when no dogs were present and also the voice of a male calling out, "Here, Mike!" 

Whiskey River Tavern

Whiskey River Tavern is the current business at 214 South Montezuma Street. This building has seen a lot of different iterations. There has been Rickety Cricket Brewing Company, Far From Folsom, Coyote Joe's, Annie's Attic, Cantina, County Seat Restaurant, Brick and Bones and Arizona Hotel. 

That last one was the original. The Arizona Hotel was a two-story brothel. There is a supernatural story going back to the time when Coyote Joe's was here. The owner's cousin told him that she had a visit from a young female ghost that told her that there was going to be a fire in Joe’s and two weeks later, indeed, there was a fire in the dining room. So the owner opened a separate nightclub upstairs and named it in honor of the name the ghost went by, Annie. So this became Annie's Attic. Spirits in the building like to gather in the kitchen and they play with burners and ovens, making it hard to get food cooked completely. Parker Anderson reports in Haunted Prescott, "One of the new bartenders was closing early one morning when the pans and utensils started flying across the room. He took off running, called the manager and said, 'I’m out of here, and by the way, someone needs to go close the front door and lock up.'" Anderson was also told by the owner of Rickety Cricket, Terry Thomson, "that during the renovations of the new restaurant many strange things happened to him and his staff. One night he was in the kitchen working when one of the spice containers went flying across the room. On another night, he and another employee were the only ones there. There were three raps on the wall, and Terry thought it was the employee trying to scare him. Terry was telling his employee to stop when he saw him outside, waiting for Terry. Then Terry heard the three raps again, only louder. Another employee is very familiar with the building; as a child, he used to play with Annie, not knowing that she was a ghost. Terry and his staff all believed some of the ghostly activity came from Annie."

The Grumpy Sicilian 

The Grumpy Sicilian is located at 126 S. Montezuma Street. This is another location that has rotating restaurants in it for the last 100 years. This has also been the Devil's Pantry and Adirondack (A der ron dak) Cafe. 

A previous owner had some patrons ask him what was above the restaurant, an apartment? The owner answered no, that it was his office. They asked if he had a secretary who worked in the office with red hair. When he said no, they told him that they had seen a red-haired woman come down the stairs. The owner checked upstairs, but there was no one up there. He later found out who this mysterious woman might be. A customer told him a few weeks later that she used to come into the restaurant as a little girl all the time with her grandparents. One day, they stopped taking her there and when she asked why, they told her a woman had been murdered there. This was apparently an Irish woman who was shot. The owner was stunned. He didn't believe in ghosts, but now he wondered if that murder victim was haunting his restaurant.

The Grand Highland Hotel

The Grand Highland Hotel is located at 154 S. Montezuma Street. This boutique hotel offers 12 historically themed rooms and they offer a wedding setting. This started as the Grand Saloon & Hotel, which opened in 1903. This two-story hotel was more than likely a brothel. 

In 1949, a curio shop opened on the first floor of the hotel. This was the Holiday Shop and it was run by Howard Hinson Sr. who moved from the east. Hinson saved up his money and he was able to purchase the building. The hotel at that time had 16 guest rooms, 3 shared bathrooms and an apartment for the manager. Hinson added to the hotel in 1971 by purchasing the building next door. A fire destroyed parts of the buildings in May 2012 and the empty space created the inspiration for the Holiday Courtyard. In 2021, Nick & Sara Medina, purchased the hotel from the Hinsons making it part of the Medina Hospitality brand. Kelly Bartholomew wrote on Facebook, "My husband and I stayed in the Big Nose Kate room July 4th weekend of 2020 and experienced a presence. First, I had my drink on the counter in the bathroom. It had been sitting there for awhile but when my husband and I started arguing the glass flew off the sink and shattered! We thought maybe it was just a fluke (but immediately stopped arguing!). Then, around 3:30 am, I was awoken by a strong sense of a presence, my heart was racing and I was frightened. When we woke up that morning, I shared the experience with my husband and he revealed the same thing had happened to him at the same time! We were both a little shaken and told the front desk attendant who confirmed others had similar experiences in that room. When returning home and looking at pictures from our visit, we noticed the outline of a woman in the tub in this photo. Perhaps Kate was there all along?" Adrienne Dillmore wrote on Facebook, "My husband and I stayed in room 201, Jan 23 2021. On the first night I suddenly fell sick and fell asleep early. The second night, I was awaken by the sound of someone walking by my side of the bed. (Closest to the bathroom) it sounded like boards cricking. Then I felt something sit on the bed next to me. My heart was pounding and I couldn’t breathe. I slowly tapped my husband to wake up, and told him what happened. He said that prior to him falling asleep he heard the handles on the dresser moving. As well as sounds coming from the wall behind our headboard. But there is no building there. I did ask the front desk if anyone ever reported anything in that room and he said no. I know what happened and it still freaks me out to this day." 

Hotel St. Michael

Hotel St. Michael is now a part of the Best Western family of hotels. Hotel St. Michael is directly across from the Courthouse Plaza. This started as Hotel Burke, which was opened in 1890 by businessman Dennis Burke and lawman Michael J. Hickey, who assisted in the hangings of two murderers, Dennis W. Dilda and Frank Wilson, in the late 1880s. Burke was also a military veteran and was a mayor of Prescott. He wanted to make his hotel more enticing than other hotels in town, so he advertised it as being fireproof. Only, it wasn't. So in the Great Fire of 1900, the Hotel Burke burned to the ground. 

Burke and Hickey rebuilt, constructing an even bigger hotel and adding a dining hall. They reopened in 1901. This new hotel had these new elements that were these types of grotesques but they were thought to represent local politicians, kinda like caricatures. In 1907, Hickey bought out Burke and renamed the hotel, Hotel St. Michael. He sold to Ed Shumate who sold to John Duke. Duke made several upgrades like telephones in the rooms and installing an elevator, the first in Prescott. Famous people who stayed here include Tex Ritter, Teddy Roosevelt and Barry Goldwater. Today, the hotel has added Fire & Sword, a new iteration of the hotel's original speakeasy on Whiskey Row. The speakeasy has a copper ceiling and original bricks and serves up craft cocktails. There is also the Bistro St. Michael that serves up comfort food and refreshing drinks. Guests claim to hear whispers and strange knocks, especially on the third floor. Lights also go on and off on their own. 

A guest staying in Room 325 was visited by a ghost named Mary. Mary was dressed in a period dress with a bustle skirt and corset. Other guests have seen her too and people have taken to calling her the "Lady of the Night." There have also been reports of the scent of cigars and perfume in rooms. At least 3 females have died here and 29 males. One of those males was John Opie who was shot and killed with a rifle. Another man unalived himself in 1935 by drinking cyanide.

Parker Anderson and Darlene Wilson write in their book Haunted Prescott, "Another story is about a couple who went for a weekend trip to Prescott, where they stayed at the Hotel St. Michael. They sat on the bed to watch TV. The man had his feet dangling off the end of the bed, and all of a sudden, he sat right up. He said that something cold had passed by his foot, and his foot was still tingling. Later that night, they were heading out, walking down the empty hallway, and they could smell the strong odor of a woman’s perfume. It was an old type of perfume, something the lady’s grandmother would have worn, like powdery lilac. In the middle of the night, the man woke up and said that, as clear as day, he heard a woman say, 'Show your face.' It sounded like it came from the end of his bed. He said that it wasn’t scary—almost playful, actually. Another couple reported that they stayed in room 228. They checked in at 6:00 p.m., and around 7:00 p.m., there was a knock on their door. He got up to open the door, but before he got there, a young lady opened it instead. She asked if there was a certain person in their room. They said that this person was not in their room. At that point, she closed the door. Jeff opened it immediately and looked down the hall, but she was gone. When they went downstairs shortly after that, they notified the lobby clerk that someone had tried to come in their room. The clerk in the lobby said that it was not possible since they had the only key. When they went back up to their room, the window was wide open, and the air conditioner was set at fifty-five degrees. It was the middle of January and freezing outside." 

Matt's Saloon

Matt's Longhorn Saloon is one of Prescott's last true Honky Tonks. The saloon is located at 112 South Montezuma and the building is officially known as the D. Levy Building. The name is in honor of the D. Levy & Company General Merchandise store that opened here in 1901 after the Great Fire destroyed a previous structure. 

This remained a mercantile until 1934. By this time, Prohibition had ended, so the building reopened as a saloon. Matt's Longhorn Saloon would open in the 1960s and has provided live music from country artists like Buck Owens and Waylon Jennings. There is dancing and the decor is mostly mounted game and skulls and there is a twenty-foot bar. Live bands play from the balcony to leave plenty of room for dancing. Steve McQueen hung out here when he was filming a movie in 1971. People claim to see shadow figures here and the apparitions of a Native American spirit and a duster wearing cowboy. An elderly male ghost likes to hang out in the basement and a little girl ghost has been seen in the women's restroom a few times asking for her mommy. Employees have thought she was a real little girl until she disappeared.

The Palace Saloon

The Palace Saloon is probably the most famous historic place in Prescott. This is located at 120 S. Montezuma Street. Historians claim it opened in 1883, but according to D.C. Thorne, his father, D.C. Thorne Sr. opened it in 1868. He wrote, "My father had the distinction of opening in l868, the famous Palace Bar, where the present Palace now stands on Whiskey Row (Montezuma Street)." Thorne did buy Lot 19, on Block 13 in 1867 and he owned it until 1883. 

The truth, however, is that it was opened by Nathan Ellis and Al Whitney. The original palace was burned down by a fire in 1883. The owner at the time, Robert Brow, built the new Palace, determined to make it fire proof by having a stone foundation and brick walls. The roof was made from iron. The interior featured a 20-foot bar with a beautiful back-bar. There were two club rooms and three gaming tables, crowned with three heavy chandeliers. Regular customers were Doc Holliday and the Earps and Prescott's own Buckey O'Neill. Buckey got his nickname because he liked to go up against the odds or buck the tiger in the game of faro. He was born in Missouri and came to Prescott in 1881 to work as a court reporter. He would later become a probate judge, sheriff and owner of the stockman's paper "Hoof and Hor." He was also mayor of Prescott in 1898 and helped sign up men to fight in Cuba during the Spanish American War. Buckey himself  was the captain of A Troop of the United States Volunteer Cavalry in Cuba. He lost his life there at the foot of Kettle Hill on July 1, 1898. O'Neill was the only regimental officer killed from among the Arizona volunteers.
 
The Palace Saloon was refurbished in 1897 and expensive fixtures were added. The owner, Bob Brow, wanted this to be a first-class restaurant and saloon. Just three years later, the Great Fire of 1900 destroyed it. Many of the interior fixtures and the alcohol were saved by residents. The oak bar was carried across the street to the Courthouse Plaza. The liquor made it over there too. The local barber saved his chair and implements and brought them to the plaza. The locals drank as the town burned down and the following day, the barber was doing haircuts in the plaza and gaming and drinking was happening there too. Soon, tin buildings and tents were erected to keep business going while the town was rebuilt. 

Bob Brow was committed to rebuilding, but it would be tough. Ben Belcher and Barney Smith had owned the saloon next door, Cabinet Saloon, and they were in the same predicament. The three men decided to pool their interests and they put up a new building that was second to none. This would be the new Palace Saloon. The Arizona State Inventory of Historic Places says of the saloon, "The Palace Hotel is a two story masonry structure 75 feet wide and 125 feet deep. Construction materials included native grey granite, iron, and pressed ornamental bricks.  An interesting feature of the front facade is the central pediment.  It carries the great seal of the Territory of Arizona and on either side figures of a mountain lion and a bear.  One of each animal had been given to each of the Arizona contingency in the Spanish American War by Robert Brow for use as their mascots." The entrance was made up of massive double doors of solid oak with beautiful frosted plate glass having the words "Palace" lettered in them. The interior was carved oak everywhere, much of it golden oak. The front bar was 24 feet long, made of solid oak with polished cherry top and has the finest French plate glass oval top mirrors. Electric fixtures were added to it. There were women who worked the bar singing and dancing and probably some other things. A glass of beer was five cents. A law passed by Arizona put the kabosh on hostesses and gambling. World War I made things tough and then there was Prohibition. But the Palace managed to survive. The food was great, as was the entertainment, but eventually the place fell into disrepair. Dave and Marilyn Michelson saved it in 1996 when they leased it and restored it. They matched it back to the 1901 look.  

This also happens to be the most haunted location on Whiskey Row. The reason why is that there were murders here. A working girl named Jennie Clark was beaten to death by Fred Glover, her lover, inside the saloon. After beating her, he stomped her as well and this was in front of a bar full of people who did nothing to stop him, including a candidate for sheriff. Glover was sentenced to death but the Governor commuted his sentence to life in prison and he was eventually released in 1890 and disappeared. Bar employees claim that they’ve had the stays pulled out of their corset uniforms and the female workers have been attacked in the bathroom. People believe that both Jennie and Glover haunt the Palace.

Parker Anderson and Darlene Wilson share in Haunted Prescott, "The owner had a beautiful porcelain mannequin dressed in period clothing at the top of the stairs. Located upstairs are the offices of the owner and partner now, but this used to be where two 'ladies of the night' had their rooms. One day, the owner came into work and found the porcelain mannequin shattered on the floor below the stairs, having fallen over the railing. So he went out and bought “Annie,” the mannequin seen now at the top of the stairs. Time passes, and the owner came to work to find that Annie had been turned completely around; he thought people were playing a joke on him, so he installed cameras. Time went by, and he came to work and noticed that Annie had been moved again, but this time her head was turned, as if watching the patrons below. The owner went through his surveillance video and saw Annie moving and her head turning, but no one is there moving her—at least no one he can see." 

Ghost Adventures investigated in 2016. The crew captured an EVP saying "Get back." They heard disembodied bootsteps, unexplained bangs and children screaming. Zak felt something touch his hand. The Ovilus gave the following words: "INCLUDE", "ALICE", "MASTER", "PREACH", "JACKIE." The SLS Camera picked up a figure standing next to the bar. Jay felt like something stabbed him in the leg and he also felt pulled back when he went into the crawl space in the basement. 

Closers have had glasses jump off shelves and land on the floor, not breaking. The owner was once nearly hit by a falling brass planter. The apparition of a former mortuary owner named Frank Nevin is seen and it is thought he sticks around here because he lost that mortuary in a poker game to the Sheriff at the time. Bottles and chairs have gone flying across rooms. A group of teachers was waiting on their lunch one day when they suddenly jumped up screaming and ran for the front entrance. Their waiter asked what was wrong and they said the condiments on the buffet had come flying out and were thrown at them. And like so many other places, the women's bathroom is haunted. Stall doors bang on their own and will get rattled when occupied and the person comes out to see they are alone in the bathroom. An employee who had a job that kept her in the basement most of the time, was moved to an upstairs position. She had to go down into the basement for merchandise a couple weeks later and as she climbed the stairs, she felt pain on her chest and stomach. Something had scratched her. This happened another time as well. Employees figured that a spirit in the basement had missed her not being down there and had possibly grabbed her to get her to stay downstairs. 

Whiskey Row has a very interesting history since this was definitely the seedy side of town. Is it possible that some of that previous history has carried over into the present era? Is Whiskey Row haunted? That is for you to decide! 

HGB Ep. 495 - Haunted Schools

Moment in Oddity - Tunguska Event

Most of us have seen the movie Armageddon about an asteroid that is threatening to collide with Earth. It's estimated by scientists that asteroids hit the Earth once every 500,000 years. Meteors, on the other hand are very prevalent at approximately 17,000 impacts per year. There was an event back in 1908 that occurred in a remote area of Siberia called the Tunguska Event. It occurred on June 30, just after 7 a.m. in what is now believed to have been a meteoric air burst. 80 million trees were flattened, some were burned and people 60 kilometers away were knocked off their feet. Eyewitnesses described a fireball in the sky. The stony asteroid of about 160-200 feet in size approached the Earth at what was estimated to be approximately 60,000 mph. Although it is classified as an impact event, the asteroid is believed to have exploded around 3 to 6 miles above the Earth, leaving no impact crater. The Tunguska event is the largest impact event in recorded history. Although there was no impact crater, the impact zone was approximately 5 miles across where trees had been scorched and stripped of their branches yet still remained upright. However, trees that were further away from ground zero had been partially scorched and knocked down in directions facing away from the center, thus creating a circular pattern of downed trees. The information of the event that I provided tends to be a common opinion, however there are some who believe Tunguska could be related to extraterrestrial activity. Regardless of origin, the Tunguska event certainly is odd.

This Month in History - The Death of Billy the Kid (Suggested by: Sarah Silver)

In the month of July, on the 14th, in 1881, 'Billy the Kid' was shot and killed. As the story goes, Billy showed up at his friend's house at 12:30 a.m.. Unfortunately, his friend was being questioned by Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett, at the time. Both Billy and Garrett drew their weapons, but the sheriff shot first, killing 'Billy the Kid'. However over the years other theories have emerged. Some believed that the sheriff shot the wrong man and Billy got away. To add to the mystery decades later, two separate men came to light which many believed to be the famous outlaw. The first man was John Miller, who lived in a small village in New Mexico. When he died, there was found in his possession a pistol with 21 notches on the grip, the same count of deaths attributed to 'Billy the Kid'. The second was a resident of Hico, Texas. His name was Ollie "Brushy Bill" Roberts. 'Brushy Bill' secured an audience with the governor of New Mexico in 1950. He sought a pardon for Billy's murders which failed and Roberts died soon afterwards. These tales are not surprising or unusual given the fact that we have heard similar stories about famous figures some believe to not actually dead. Elvis Presley or Adolf Hitler anyone? Actual literature of the time seemed to centralize around sensationalized newspaper articles and books hammered out quickly to cash in on the event. Researcher and author Jim Montavalli seems to believe that the 1882 biography written by sheriff Garrett, is the most trustworthy account of 'Billy the Kids' death, noting that Garrett deemed the shooting a lucky break. According to Garrett, he and his deputies traveled to Maxwell's ranch and upon arrival, saw some men camped out. They heard one man speaking fluent Spanish (which Billy was known for) and this man started walking towards Maxwell's home. Garrett quietly entered the house and questioned Maxwell who had been sleeping. Maxwell confirmed to the sheriff that Billy had been around the property. Suddenly a man came into view holding a gun and knife asking in Spanish "Who's that?". Sheriff Garrett raised his weapon and shot twice, killing the outlaw. According to the account, a Coroner's Jury held an inquest and determined that indeed, the body was that of 'Billy the Kid'. Unfortunately we will never know for certain if indeed the body was correctly identified. A flood in September of 1904 washed away the grave markers in Fort Sumner's Old Military Cemetery leaving the definitive location of the outlaws body a mystery. 

Haunted Schools

School is scary enough without having ghosts running around the halls. There's all that social pressure and expectation of good grades. A haunted school means that you don't just have to skirt the visible bullies, but the shadow figures lurking in the corners. Join us as we explore these reputedly haunted schools from around the world!

Riverside Park School

We're going to start with a doozie right here in Florida in Jacksonville. This originally was known as Riverside Park School, but today has been dubbed the Devil's School. The original school was just a tiny place built from wood in 1891. After being deemed a fire hazard, it was rebuilt in 1917 out of brick and renamed Riverside Grammar School. It was designed by Rutledge Holmes and was the county's fourth public school. There was an auditorium, offices and a large cafeteria with a fireplace on the first floor and classrooms on the second floor. The school changed names again in 1950 to Annie Lytle Public School in honor of the principal Annie Lytle Housh. The construction of two major interstates, 95 and 10, isolated the school and by 1960, it was closed. For the next ten years it was used as storage and office space. The property was sold in 1980 with a plan to turn it into senior apartments, but that never came to fruition and the building fell into disrepair. A fire in 1995 caved in the auditorium roof. Another effort was made in 1999 to turn the property into condominiums, but public outcry over its historical significance shut that down and it is today a historic landmark. One that was marked with graffiti and dogged with tales of hauntings and satanic worship.

Renovations have been attempted at the school with paint being applied to graffiti and broken windows being replaced. But that doesn't fix the legends connected to the school. Stories claim that a principal of the school had been a cannibal. The principal would call students up to his office and they would never be seen again according to these tales. The details got even darker with claims that the principal had converted a closet into a meat locker and he would hang the children up in there. There are versions that claim that multiple staff members were in on the cannibalism. There is a alternate version with the principal just going berserk and murdering a bunch of kids. 

There was a bad janitor here too who would take students down to the boiler room and boil them alive. One kidnapped student managed to escape when the boiler room exploded. Sounds inspired by Freddie Krueger. There was a fire and several students were killed and these students ghosts haunted the school after that. Then there are stories of Satanic rituals taking place on the school grounds. And that possibly may be the only bit of truth in these legends as much of the graffiti in the school is of Satanic iconography. There are some who believe the fire that happened in 1995 was caused by candles used during one of these rituals. The truth is that the building became a dangerous place when it was abandoned. Whether there are ghosts there or not, its definitely not a place for children anymore.

Tonk Upper Primary Government School

This school is located in India and was established in 1999. It's a co-educational school that teaches in Hindi and provides an upper primary level education. In 2014, three students at the school claimed that they saw the spirit of a young girl in the restroom and that she tried to push them down into the toilets. All three had passed out in the restroom and that is what they claimed caused them to faint. All the students were told to stay home for a week while the school was cleansed of evil spirits. The story claimed that 300 people took part in the cleansing and one of them was a villager that was said to be possessed by the deity Tejaji. The villager said that since it had been two months since a puja had been conducted at the school, the spirit came in. The villagers then agreed to be sure to perform a puja ceremony at least every two months to prevent spirits at the school. A Puja ceremony ranges from a brief daily ritual to an elaborate temple ritual and is observed in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

Lee William’s High School

This school is located in Kingman, Arizona. The high school opened in August of 2012 and is named for Richard Lee Williams who was a former school principal and firefighter who died while fighting the Doxol Disaster in 1973. Eleven firefighters perished in this blaze that is also known as the Kingman Explosion, which happened during a propane transfer from a Doxol railroad car to a storage tank. A hairline crack allowed the propane to leak and static electricity ignited the gas leading to the explosion. The original Kingman High School opened in 1917. In 1993, a north campus was built for upper classmen, while freshman continued at the original old school. Eventually the new north campus became the high school for all students and the old campus was converted into a middle school. The old school was gutted in 2010 to update it and make it a second high school. The only original part remaining besides the outer walls is the gymnasium, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A new auxiliary gym was built. Something else preserved during the renovation was the "Mohave County Union High School 1917" monument sign. 

But something was disturbed during the renovation. There was a pioneer cemetery here with eleven graves, seven coffins and several artifacts. But even before that, the land itself was witness to conflict between pioneers and the indigenous people. The haunting activity was so pronounced that the principal, Steve Elwood, spoke to the Los Angeles Times in 2013. Principal Elwood shared that ghosts of women and men in period clothing from pioneer prairie times have appeared at graduation events on the football field. Students claim to have seen a spirit wearing a bowler hat and long coat lurking in the hallways. There are reports of disembodied footsteps, alarms that go off on their own, lights that flicker and hand dryers that go off on their own too. The spirit of a little girl calls out that she wants to play. The school janitor has probably had the most experiences as the ghosts seem most active at night when he is there alone. He often hears voices in classrooms when no one is in them. He told the LA Times, "Some nights I hear footsteps. Last fall, I was [cleaning] in the girls’ bathroom and I heard someone going into the boys’ lavatory. I hear voices coming from some rooms, little kids mumbling. I can’t really hear what they’re saying. It’s kind of freaky, but it really doesn’t bother me. I just tell them all to go home."

El Paso High School

El Paso High School is the oldest operating high school in El Paso, Texas and is nicknamed "The Lady on the Hill." It was built in 1916 by the Trost & Trost architectural firm in the Greco-Roman style and features a Corinthian porch. Because of the time that it was built, this is a fancy school. The bathrooms and shower rooms are made from marble and porcelain. The main corridor floor is from marble and classroom floors were laid from hard maple. A bronze tablet above the front doors reads, "A Cultivated Mind is the Genius of Democracy: It is the Only Dictator that Free Men Acknowledge and the Only Security that Free Men Desire." The school became a national historic landmark in 1980.

The school is said to be haunted because it was used as an overflow morgue during the Spanish Flu of 1918. Then it served as a hospital for casualties from World War II. The most well known ghost story told about the school involves a picture. This is a class picture taken in 1985 that sits in a trophy case. A woman in white is seen in the center of the picture, somewhat blurry and students and staff claim that this was no one who went to the school or worked there. No one was actually standing in the spot when the picture was taken. And since this was from 1985, it couldn't have been photoshopped. People think this is the spirit of a female student who committed suicide many years ago when she jumped off one of the school’s balconies. Sometimes that spirit appears as a residual haunting jumping from the balcony. A strange mist sometimes fills the halls as well. Sometimes noise is heard as though a group of people are playing basketball in the gym, but there is nobody in there when people check.

West High School

West High School is located in Anchorage , Alaska. The school was established in 1953 on Romig Hill. For a time, Anchorage Community College held classes at the school until they had a campus built in the early 1970s. An earthquake in 1964 destroyed most of the school's second floor and damaged part of the first floor. All that survived on the second floor is the band and choir rooms and nothing else was rebuilt. A science wing was added in 1996 and the school underwent a major renovation in 1998. The auditotium is the largest of any high school in Alaska and holds 2,000 people. It was constructed in 1954. Many rock concerts were hosted here featuring Ozzy Osbourne, Steppenwolf, Ted Nugent, Johnny Cash and the Bee Gees.

A woman in white haunts the auditorium. The theater teacher named David Block told the Anchorage Daily News in 2017, "I've never, ever seen a ghost in there -- I can't say I even believe in ghosts. I haven't ever seen her, but enough people have seen her that I have to believe that something is going on." Block also said that two assistant principals and a security guard saw something white flash through a corridor behind the balcony and that one of those principals was so rattled that he won't talk about the incident. Block continued, "Even I don't like going into the passage behind the balcony." The spirit has been seen among the seats, sometimes walking a hallway, sometimes hiding backstage or down in the basement. People also claim that a former janitor haunts the school still doing his cleaning job. Disembodied footsteps are heard and doors slam.

Mgotjane Primary School 

This primary school is located in Swaziland. It's always the girls' restroom isn't it? Three girls went to the bathroom together and while one of them stood outside of the stall, the other two entered a stall. They both heard a voice screaming at them from down in the toilet that they should stop peeing on it. The girl waiting outside also heard the voice also and asked who was in the stall with the girls. The voice in the toilet got louder and louder and the three girls ran back to their class and reported what happened to a teacher. The teacher was skeptical, as were the parents of the girls. And then other girls in the junior class started reporting the same phenomenon. And that wasn't all. A female teacher left the school in 2013 and refused to return because she claimed that evil spirits had attacked her in the school. Another teacher soon followed, claiming that he felt unsafe at the school.

A teacher named Thulani Dlamini said, "At times it comes as an evil spirit or in the form of a person. One night in June, I was in my room when I overheard footsteps of people approaching my quarters.  My colleagues had once told me of how their sleep was interrupted by a strange spirit and that got me thinking. I immediately reached for my bible and started reading it. As I read my bible I heard one of my colleagues shouting that he was being attacked by four short men who were trying to strangle him. The time was after midnight if I recall correctly. Late that same night, at around 2am the ‘four men’ came to my house. Two entered through the back door and the other two through the main door. Upon entering, two stood at the edge of my bed and the other was by the headboard. They kicked me on my back after they could not sit on me or strangle me. They also tried to press me face down so I couldn’t breathe but they couldn’t. Just before the crack of dawn Mduduzi came knocking pleading to come and spend the night in my room." The school was closed for a few days and a prayer session was held with parents, teachers and students. We're not sure if it did the trick or not, but there haven't been any more recent reports of hauntings.

Majiji Primary School

There is another haunted primary school in Africa. Majiji Primary School is located in Zimbabwe. In 2022, reports came out of this school of paranormal activity. These reports claimed that a goblin was attacking students and staff. The school closed for a while and then a prophetess named Sithembiso Moyo came to the school to conduct a cleansing ceremony. She claimed the goblin was caused by the spirit of a late teacher. Moyo said, "There is a spirit of a male teacher who died at the school. The family of the long deceased teacher failed to perform traditional rituals to cleanse his spirit from the school and his spirit is now troubled. It is today that we get rid of it and make sure that the spirit of the late teacher will be exorcised and tamed so that he rests in peace." We're not sure if it worked or not.

Roy High School

The high school is located in Roy, Utah and was built in 1965. It soon became the county's largest high school and was ranked in the top ten of schools in the nation. And its also one of the most haunted schools in America. There is a female spirit that hangs out in the theater named Mable. Students claim that she moves props and plays with the lighting. There is also the spirit of a floating head that students have claimed watches them when they are in the school alone. There are people who think the head belongs to a boy who was hit by a train when he was walking to school. Another spirit who likes to wear a purple hat has been seen and this spectre tries to get students to follow her. She gives off a malevolent feeling. 

Sophi B. Wright Middle School

It really isn't shocking to hear that a school is haunted in New Orleans. That is where Sophi B. Wright Middle School is located. Middle schools are always scary, but this one even frightened the National Guard. The school was the first all-girls school in the city and was built in 1912 by local architect E.A. Christy in the “Collegiate Gothic” style. Sophie B. Wright spent her life working in education and this started at the age of fourteen when she opened a day school for girls in a spare room at her family's home in 1880. Right before she died in 1912, the Sophie B. Wright High School was opened and named for her. In 2007, the school became a charter school catering to grades 6 to 12. It underwent major renovations in 2016. 

During Hurricane Katrina, the school was evacuated and the National Guard used it as living quarters. They were the first to report strange things happening at the school. Sergeant Robin Hairston reported that she saw the apparition of a girl in a doorway. Specialist Rosales Leanor claimed to see the shadow of a young woman when she was in the bathroom and she ran out in terror. Once these stories came out, staff from the school told stories about paranormal experiences that they had endured as well. One said he opened a closet to find a little girl ghost giggling at him. After the National Guard vacated the school, a chaplain was called in to cleanse the school and apparently it worked.

Yanagawa High School

Yanagawa is a private high school in Japan that was established over 80 years ago. It made news in Japan Today in 2014 when videos from inside the school started going viral. These featured dozens of girls collapsing and it was claimed that a vengeful spirit was causing the issue. One girl started the frenzy when she yelled that she couldn't move her body. Girls near here started yelling that they were paralyzed too. Some screamed, “kill me” or “die.” This behavior continued for a couple of hours. Apparently the girls had gone on a field trip to Mt. Hiko and the Aburagi Dam area, where a headless ghost is said to wander. People thought the girls had somehow brought the ghost back with them. Maybe one of them had been possessed. The school closed for the rest of the day when the frenzy started and students were sent home. It remained closed the following day while authorities investigated. It was eventually blamed on some kind of group hysterics. But many still believe there was a ghost involved, maybe even Hanako-san, a spirit that haunts bathrooms in Japanese schools. 

Parker Roads Elementary

Diane has several family members who live in Florissant, Missouri and this town is home to our next haunted school, Parker Roads Elementary. Apparently, this school was built over an old burying ground. Before the school was built in the 1950s, the state of Missouri ordered Leaf Brown Cemetery to dig up all the bodies in the cemetery and move them to another cemetery, but as usually happens, at least one body was left behind. This is a spirit that is seen only by the children. They claim that she is a blonde woman wearing a black dress with no eyes. She usually hangs out in...you guessed it, the bathrooms.

Westall High School

This school in Melbourne, Australia isn't exactly haunted, but it did experience a weird UFO visit. It was around 11 am on Wednesday April 6, 1966 that students and a teacher from Westall High School reported seeing a UFO. They claimed that it appeared to be saucer-shaped and was a silvery-green color. The craft was twice the size of a standard car at the time and descended, then flew over the school. It then headed to a stand of trees where it disappeared. The stunned students claimed that the UFO reappeared around 20 minutes later and then sped up and flew to the north-west.

Farrar Schoolhouse

The Farrar Schoolhouse is located in Maxwell, Iowa and was dedicated in 1922. A man named C.G. Geddes donated six acres of his farm for the Washington Township Consolidated School District. This school building would combine all the one-room schoolhouses in the area to one building. Some people in the district were not happy with the new schoolhouse because it cost $100,000 and had the modern amenities of electric lights, indoor bathrooms and boiler heating. The school was named for the town of Farrar, which eventually became part of Maxwell. The school closed down in 2002 and sat abandoned for five years. Jim and Nancy Oliver bought the schoolhouse in 2006 and quickly noticed that things were off. They were told when they asked around about hauntings that students had experienced unexplained stuff for years before the school closed. They would watch doors slam themselves and saw shadow figures. Former janitor Bill Webb would find the gym lights on all the time after he would shut them off. He would also hear disembodied footsteps when he was in the school alone.

Nancy Oliver herself saw the ghost of a young boy near the gym. She also heard the giggle of a little girl and looked in a classroom where she heard it coming from and saw the figure of a girl with a long, frilly dress and curly hair. Steven Tracy founded Iowa Paranormal and he said that his team once saw a full-bodied apparition on the third floor near the principal's office. His group thinks that a former principal might be haunting the building even though nobody died on the property. Other experiences had by people investigating the building include balls rolling by themselves in a classroom on the third floor, music has been heard coming from the gym, the spirit of a boy was seen coming out of Room 206 and a nine-foot tall shadow figure was seen on the third floor.

The schoolhouse has been featured on Discovery Channels "My Ghost Story" and "Ghost Stalkers" and been investigated by a number of paranormal celebrities like Johnny Houser, David Rountree and Christopher Booth. John E. L. Tenney said of Farrar, "Farrar flummoxed me, and in doing so, I fell in love with it. It was quiet and loud, inactive and hyperactive. It was cold and hot and warm and spoke and sang and laughed all while standing mute. Lockers slammed, ethereal footsteps ran down hallways, and yet, for all the multitude of experiences and non-experiences, the one thing I came to learn was that this school could teach me something."

Pocatello High School

We covered Pocatello High School in Ep. 49 back in 2015. Pocatello High School is located in Idaho and the city of Pocatello is known as the Gateway to the Northwest. It was founded in 1889. Many of the historic buildings from Pocatello's earliest days still exist today. One of those buildings is Pocatello High School. The school was built in 1892 and named West Side School. The building featured a belfry, gables and arched windows. All grades attended classes in the school. The school was a matter of pride for the city and because of this, two presidents spoke at the school. Those presidents were Theodore Roosevelt in 1902 and William Howard Taft in 1908. The school thrived until 1914, when a fire broke out. A boiler had apparently started the fire. Students and teachers rushed to save what they could and the fire department arrived on horse drawn carriages. It was no use. The school was completely destroyed, burned to the ground. The town decided to rebuild the school in the former's footprint. Students met on the lawn and in churches while they waited for the new school to be built. That new school was finished in 1917. The school was expanded in 1939 and a gymnasium was added. Major renovations were done in 1996 and a new gymnasium was completed in 2006. The school would seem to be a typical high school, until one hears about the supernatural occurrences that have been experienced within the school.

A peculiarity of this high school is that a real skeleton was used in science classes. Obviously, the school decided this was not a good idea and they switched to using a plastic skeleton. Apparently, the spirit behind the skeleton was not happy about this switch. Science teachers started finding bones from the real skeleton tucked inside cabinets and in other places within the science department. It was in the 40s or 50s when two girls at the school decided that life for them was over. They made a pact with each other that they would commit suicide. Only one of the girls went through with the plan because the other chickened out. The girl who followed through with the horrible plan, hung herself from her locker. She wore a distinctive perfume that is smelled in the hallways to this day. The most intense scent came from her original locker. It got so bad that her locker was finally removed. Custodial staff sees a young girl's apparition in the hallways at night.

On several occasions, the tinkling of piano keys has been heard coming from the music room at night. When someone goes to investigate, there is never anybody found playing the piano. Toilets flush on their own when no one is in the restrooms. The same thing happens with the lights. They are repeatedly turned on and off and it gets so intense that police are called.  Whispers are heard throughout the school and no one is found in the areas from which the whispering originates.

In 2014, a dark, shadowy figure was captured on a security camera moving from a bench into a bathroom. The lights also flickered in the video and the security alarm went off. The video was widely circulated online and on TV. Some people have debunked the video claiming it is a cobweb or string that has caused the weird anomaly walking around in the video, but that doesn't explain the lights. They have investigated the school several times over seven years and John Brian said that they were doing investigating near the bathroom where the security footage was shot and they had equipment go missing there. A janitor found it in a stairwell up in a window well out of reach of most people. He had gone up there to dust and saw the equipment. Don Contant was a principal at the school and he claimed to witness several paranormal things and heard many stories. He would hear banging on the floor and go over and bang back on the floor and tell the ghosts to stop banging because he had work to do. When A&E brought Ghost Hunters back in 2019, they visited the high school.  

Milton Schoolhouse

The Milton Schoolhouse was covered by us in 2015 on episode 90. In 1904, the Milton Schoolhouse was built. The original parts of the school consisted of four classrooms, restrooms on the ground floor and a boiler room. Two new additions were made to the school in 1930 and 1937. This construction saw the addition of eighteen new classrooms, a gymnasium, and a cafeteria. The school served elementary students and was the main schoolhouse for Alton from 1904 until it was closed in 1986. The Milton School sat abandoned for 4 years after that. In 1990, a man named Gary Levi purchased the building. A warehouse was added to the building in 1993 and he operated the Intaglio/Levay Glass and Giftware company from it until 1998. After the glass company was shut down the building sat dormant again, this time for eleven years. In 2009, it was purchased by Meredith Elston who rented out space in the school to small local businesses. Those businesses included a coffee shop, massage parlor, an aromatherapy store, three photography studios, a pet groomer, an electrician and a party bus company. Doug Mattingly bought the school before the pandemic in 2020. He is renovating the building and attempting to rejuvenate it. They have built out and rented a couple of apartments in the north wing and the south wing is becoming commercial studios. The gym is being set up as a place to host weddings, concerts and receptions. Some commercial tenants have carried over from previous years, including Maeva's Coffee.

What is most commonly associated with the school building; however, is the hauntings. Over the years, there have been reports of many kinds of activities in the schoolhouse. These vary and include footsteps, shadowy figures in a basement stairwell, a shadow seen peeking out of a second floor window, strange noises in the boiler room and other odd things. Patrick Keller mentioned on his Big Seance Podcast featuring this location that the cellar was very creepy. Exploding boilers killed many people. Did someone lose their life here? Or did something happen on the land? The most commonly reported occurrence of activity over the last 60 years revolves around the haunting of the school by a young girl supposedly named Mary and possibly also the spirit of the twisted man who would be her killer. 

According to legend, school had dismissed for the day on a fall afternoon. Everyone had gone home except for a girl who was working on a seasonal bulletin board for her class. A janitor took advantage of the opportunity and dragged her away to a locker room where she was found assaulted and deceased. A few days after this, the body of the janitor was found hanging in the school with a note scrawled near him which simply stated "I did it." The story has no evidence to support it, so it more than likely never happened. But there are things happening here that lend credence to a young girl ghost being in the school. For years following this, children claimed to have encounters with strange figures, hear sounds all around the school and the name Mary floated through the halls like a secret word on the tips of everyone's tongue. When Intaglio Design took over the building, employees claimed to see the apparition of a small girl while working there. They claimed to find glass items shattered near a specific shower stall in the previous locker room. 

There was even one employee who claimed the apparition of the young girl became very attached to her. Her office was located by a stair well outside of the gymnasium. An apparition of a young girl was often seen in her office, out of the corner of her eye in other rooms, and was even reported to have typed on the computer when no one else could have possibly been in her office. Little X's and O's were left behind on the screen. This employee grew attached to the spirit of the little girl. Over the years, she claimed another spirit was in the school as well. This one, she said, was threatening. Other employees felt short of breath and panicked in the area surrounding the girls shower room and even supported the story that they had seen the office employee terrorized by a spirit in a hallway. The woman eventually left her job and refused to return to the building. A few years later, it was shut down again, until the purchase in 2009. Ghost Hunters investigated the property in 2010. They experienced lights turning on and off by themselves and heard disembodied footsteps. They also heard a disembodied voice shush them.

Poasttown Elementary

We covered Poasttown Elementary on episode 228 in 2017. Poasttown started off as a town in Ohio named West Liberty and was platted by Peter Post in 1818. There was another town in Ohio with that name, so in 1848 it was decided to change the name in honor of the founder. Poasttown Elementary got its start on August 18, 1936, when the voters of Madison Township passed a bond issue for a consolidated elementary school at Poasttown to replace the township's one-room school. On September 7, 1937, the new school on Franklin-Trenton Road opened although not all the construction was completed. The school wouldn't be officially dedicated until April 15, 1938. Pupils were assigned to the new school from Upper and Lower Browns Run, Dubbs, Pike and old Poasttown. There were 200 students at that time.The schoolhouse has a history that is relatively peaceful. There is a story that a young girl, named Sarah, fell three floors down a stairwell and was killed by a serious head injury. There doesn't seem to be any evidence backing that story though. The school eventually closed in 2000 and the building is now owned and operated by Darrell and Brenda Whisman. Darrell had attended the elementary school in the 1960s. He soon figured out the school was haunted. Poasttown Elementary’s official motto has become "When you leave, you believe."

One reason that there might be hauntings here could be because the town has known tragedy. There were two train crashes about a mile away from the property, one in 1895 and the other in 1910. Interestingly, both happened on July 4. The 1910 crash was a head-on collision of a passenger train and a freight train that was the worst railroad crash in Butler County’s history. The crash killed 24 people and injured at least 35 and the area where the school would eventually be built was used as a triage area. There was also a great flood in 1913 and six people were killed. Whisman noticed the haunting activity almost immediately after he bought the building in 2004. He said, "We’ll hear a desk being drug across the floor above us. We’ll hear little kids’ footsteps. I’ve heard voices with my own ears when nobody is here but me and my wife. I just can’t explain it."

He had a friend doing construction work one day who let out a loud scream from the top floor. Darrel said, "He runs down to me. He can’t catch his breath and he’s saying, ‘There’s something up there.' I thought maybe a dog or possum got inside. But then he says, 'Dude, it’s a ghost.'" Dozens of paranormal investigators have done ghost hunts at the school. Paranormal investigator Mike Palmer founded the Paranormal Investigators of Northern Kentucky and they have investigated the school twice. Palmer said, "It’s very rare for our instruments to simultaneously go off and do so on command. This place is definitely active." One of his team members has become nauseous when inside the school. The team also captured an EVP of an older man saying, "Russ will eat it." This was after an investigator commented that she felt a critter run past her feet. 

Our listener Angela wrote us, "I am with Big Country Paranormal and we have seen full bodied apparitions, (7 foot tall) a door to the roof open and slam shut,  black floating masses, white mists, voices, strange glowing lights floating through the rooms, and even a gremlin-like creature! It was built on the ground once used to temporarily lay the dead from a fatal train accident. The janitor died in a fire and it is said  a child had a fatal fall near the stairs.  There is so much more to tell you and even an episode of Ghost Brothers was filmed there. I saw a full bodied apparition and a goblin like creature while on my first visit!"

All of these schools have been places for learning. Is it possible that some of the children that were once there as students have returned in the afterlife? Are schools attractive to other spirits? Are these school haunted? That is for you to decide!

Ep. 275 - Haunted Flagstaff

 
Moment in Oddity - The Aroostook War
Suggested by: Katrina Rae Saulis

There was a time in America when one lone state declared war without the backing of the rest of the country. This was the only time it happened in US history and it was called the Aroostook War. The state involved was Maine, of course. The Aroostook War was named after Maine's northernmost county and the dispute got started because the borders there weren't clearly defined. Maine gained statehood in 1820 and began issuing land grants, but Canadian lumberjacks ignored them and continued to cut timber in the Aroostook region. They went further by kidnapping an American land agent in February of 1839. The war was on and came to a head...in a bar. An Aroostook militiaman raised a toast to Maine in a local bar and the Canadians drinking in the bar didn't like it and a fight broke out. Noses were bloodied and eyes were blackened. Not a shot was fired and the two governments came to an agreement on the border. This episode was the last confrontation between the United States and the United Kingdom and the fact that it was considered a war without a single shot and settled basically with a bar fight, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - First V2 Rocket Falls on London

In the month of September, on the 8th, in 1944, the first V2 rocket fell on London. The V2 had been sent by Hitler and the Germans and it left a huge crater that was 30ft deep. The rocket took only seven minutes to travel from mobile platforms near The Hague in the Netherlands, to Chiswick. The rocket had three quarters of a ton of explosive on board and it broke the sound barrier so there was no sound as it flew.The blast killed three people, demolished 11 houses and damaged over 500 other houses. The youngest victim, Rosemary Clarke, was just three. Her brother John recalled, "The best way of describing it is television with the sound off. You're deafened. That's what it boils down to. Seeing an airing cupboard crumble in front of you without a sound is an eerie experience." An aftershock followed that sounded like multiple thunderstorms and then there was an eerie silence. The residents thought that a gas main had exploded. Residents quickly figured out that this was not a gas problem when government officials arrived. The truth about the Germans' new weapon was an open secret, but not acknowledged publicly until November 10. Londoners took to calling the V2 rockets "flying gas pipes."

Haunted Flagstaff (Suggested by listener: Susan Johnson)

Flagstaff, Arizona has its roots in the railway and its growth in the timber industry. The flourishing town became a hotspot for tourism with the Grand Canyon just up the road. This meant hotels were needed and two that remain today are the Hotel Weatherford and the Hotel Monte Vista. They not only have a history, but they also have a reputation for being haunted. Another building with ghost stories is the Flagstaff Public Library. Susan Johnson of Freaky Flagstaff Foottours joins me to share the history and ghosts stories of these locations as well as the horrific true crime story about the Walkup Family that has some hauntings connected to it as well. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Flagstaff, Arizona!

The memorial for the Walkup children is simple and yet very moving because it is clear that these four children alllost their lives on the same day. It's a grave marker that tells a horrifying story. Do the spirits of the children still remain in the home where their lives were so violently taken from them? Are the hotels and library in Flafgstaff Haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes: 
Freaky Flagstaff Foottours: http://freakyflagstafffoottours.com

HGB Ep. 221 - Jerome Grand Hotel

 
Moment in Oddity - Zarafa the Giraffe

Zarafa was a giraffe that was gifted to Charles X of France from the Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt, Mehmet Ali Pasha in 1827. She was captured as a baby by Arab hunters in Sudan and eventually transported by boat down the Nile to Alexandria. She then boarded a ship to Marseilles that had a hole cut through the deck to accommodate her height. The group traveling with her felt that it was too dangerous to take her to Paris by ship, so they decided to walk her the 900km or 559 miles. She had an entire entourage including A naturalist named Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire join her on the walk. Saint-Hilaire ordered a two-part yellow coat to keep her warm and shoes for her feet. The trip took 41 days and she arrived in Lyon on June 6, 1827. A crowd of 30,000 greeted her. Zarafa was presented to the King on 9 July 1827. A crowd of 100,000, an eighth of the population of Paris, came to see her. She was a sensation and giraffe fever swept the country of France. Women arranged their hair in towering styles and spotted fabrics became the rage along with a color referred to as "belly of giraffe." Home decor was plastered with giraffe images. We sometimes take giraffes in zoos for granted. The journey and craze surrounding Zarafa for us living in the modern era, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Mexico Fight for Independence Begins

In the month of September, on the 16th, in 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang the bells in the town of Dolores Hidalgo and told the local people to start their fight for independence from Spain and recover the land stolen from their forefathers. This was the beginning of the break from Spain for Mexico. The middle class was tied of sharing their wealth with Spain. Two priests became the main protagonists of the Independence: Hidalgo and Jose Maria Morelos. On the 16th, Hidalgo also freed the prisoners in Dolores amd locked up the Spanish authorities. Hidalgo started with a small group of 600 men, but he eventually had 100,000. A little less than a year later, Hidalgo was tricked, captured and executed by firing squad. The fight continued for years and Mexico's first independent government was formed on September 28th in 1821.

Jerome Grand Hotel (Suggested by listener Katie Hickcox)

The city of Jerome in Arizona sits perched above the beautiful Verde Valley on Cleopatra Hill. Today, it is considered an artist community, but it once was considered the "Wickedest City in the West." Like so many Arizona towns, Jerome began as a mining town with a focus on copper. In its heyday, it was one of the richest mines in the world and was dubbed the Billion Dollar Copper Camp. Thousands made the town their home, from miners to prostitutes to lawmen. A hospital was needed for all these people and that is what the Jerome Grand Hotel started as, but in 1996 it became a hotel. Throughout its years, it has earned a reputation for being haunted. Many guests and employees claim to have had experiences. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Jerome Grand Hotel.

William Andrews Clark was one of the richest men in the United States when he was alive. Even today, his fortune would rival that of  Bill Gates and William Buffett.When he died, he was worth the equivalent today of $31 billion dollars. But most people don't know him. His contemporaries like Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan have all the notoriety, while he has none. His wealth was derived from an unsexy metal: copper. Clark was one of the great Copper Barons. But that was not the only reason that he is not as well known. He spent most of his time in the wild west and Clark was not a philanthropist that left endowments or buildings with his name on them as a legacy. But he did build towns, many of them in Montana. But Arizona has Clark to thank as well.

In 1876, the first mining claims were made in the area where the town of Jerome would be founded. The United Verde Copper Company was incorporated in January 1883 named for the Verde Valley where the copper was found. William Clark bought the United Verde Copper Company in 1888 for $80,000. He implemented big changes with its operation and innovative technologies were introduced. Clark brought in the narrow gauge railroad and that brought more people to the region. In 1899, Jerome was incorporated as a city. It was named for the secretary of the mining company, Eugene Jerome. In 1903, The New York Sun ran the headline "THIS JEROME IS A BAD ONE. THE ARIZONA COPPER CAMP NOW THE WICKEDEST TOWN."

Copper became a key part of bringing electricity to the masses and in 1909, electricity came to Jerome. The town hit its top population in 1929 at 15,000 residents. In 1935, Phelps Dodge Mining Corp. purchased the United Verde Copper Company for $22,800,000.00 and operated the mine until it closed in 1953. The mine had been open for seventy-seven years and in that time it produced nearly 33 million tons of copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc ore. The population nose-dived to less than 500 and Jerome became a virtual ghosts town. Today, the town plays up its ghost town status as a tourist attraction.

Visitors to the town can't miss the highest public structure in the Verde Valley, the Jerome Grand Hotel. The building was constructed in 1926 by the United Verde Copper Company to serve as a hospital for its employees and their families. The 30,000 square foot and five story structure was built in the Spanish Mission style and was built to withstand the nearby mining blasts. The hospital was also fire-proof and many consider it an engineering marvel since it was built on a 50 degree slope. It was named the United Verde Hospital after the company. By the 1930s, it was the most modern and well equipped hospital in Arizona. The hospital officially closed in 1950 as the population of Jerome dwindled to nothing. And the building sat abandoned for forty-four years with moderate maintenance in case it needed to be used in an emergency. That maintenance stopped in 1971 and then the building was neglected.

The Phelps Dodge Mining Corporation owned the abandoned hospital and sold it in 1994 to the Altherr family. The family began the restoration and decided to reopen as a hotel, which they named after the town, the Jerome Grand Hotel. The doors were opened for business in 1996. Most of the original elements were kept, including the Otis elevator that was installed in October 1926 and the cast iron radiators. The elevator has not been modernized with automatic doors or any other upgrades and surprisingly has been out of order for only a total of 4 hours and 15 minutes in the past 10 years. The door is the old pull the gate. The decor is set to the 1920s and 1930s. The hotel features a bar and restaurant as well and interestingly, the restaurant is named Asylum. The scenery from the hotel is said to be amazing and beautiful. The hotel underwent a recent renovation. Until August of this year, 2017, they had offered ghost tours with raving reviews. The owners decided they didn't want to be marketed as a haunted hotel. They said it was never the intention. So it seems they are taking the misguided direction that the Stanley Hotel went down.

The hotel is reputedly haunted by several specters and all manner of strange phenomena has been experienced. This hotel is thought to be one of the most haunted buildings in Arizona. The television series "Sightings" featured the Jerome Grand Hotel on one of their episodes and a number of paranormal investigation groups have recorded paranormal activity. Shortly after the hospital opened, both patients and staff started having experiences they couldn't explain. There were disembodied voices that featured coughing and moaning and imperceptible talking. These sounds came from empty rooms, leaving nurses feeling uneasy. And speaking of nurses, one of the first full-bodied apparitions ever reported was that of a woman in a white nurse's outfit hanging around one of the hospital balconies. The sounds of coughing and labored breathing have been heard by guests of the hotel as well.

Jerome was full of miners, so it isn't surprising that one of the ghosts seen at the hotel belongs to an old bearded miner. A patient at the hospital made the first reported sighting and he claimed that the miner had been floating down the hall and that he turned on all the lights as he went. Some time later, a nurse reported seeing a bearded man in miner's clothing standing at the end of a hallway. She approached him and he disappeared. This spirit has continued to be seen by hotel guests. He is generally seen on the second and third floor. Room 20 reputedly is home to a ghost cat. Some of the experiences have been threatening. Guests and staff have reported being pushed in the hallways.

One guest was so disturbed by seeing a door open by itself in his room that he ran to the lobby and slept there, unwilling to return to his room while it was still dark. The hotel lobby may not have been the best place though because it is considered the most active area in the hotel. The lobby doors open and close by themselves as though unseen guests are coming and going. Items fly off the shelves in the gift shop. Pictures are pulled from the walls in the lobby and chairs have been rearranged. Desk clerks receive phone calls from empty rooms. When they pick up the phone, they hear no one on the other end. As for the rest of the hotel, objects move by an unseen force and phantom footsteps are heard walking the hallways and the stairs. The cleaning staff have experienced the most paranormal activity. They hear their names called out when no one is there and their cleaning supplies get moved or go missing. Guests and staff both claim that the ghost a little boy around the age of six likes to hang around the third floor.

We just produced an exclusive bonus episode that featured haunted elevators. One of the elevators we did not include in that episode is the 1926 Otis elevator here at the Jerome Grand Hotel. There are two ghosts connected to this elevator. The first is our infamous lady in white, but this lady is actually elderly which makes her unique, since most of our ladies in white are younger. She is usually seen standing near the elevator. The other ghost is the most well known spirit at the hotel. His name is Claude Harvey and he was once the maintenance man for the hospital back in 1935. Most people called him Scotty and they were shocked when they heard about his death. His body was found pinned under the elevator, but the inquest found that his cause of death was not being crushed by the elevator. His neck was broken and he had a scratch behind one of his ears. Some thought that he had jumped down the elevator shaft, but there was no reason for him to kill himself. The death was officially ruled an accident, but many believed he had been murdered and then dumped in the shaft where his body was later pinned by the elevator car. And perhaps because of all these reasons, Scotty is not at rest. Almost immediately after his death, the elevator started behaving oddly. Lights are seen in the elevator shaft and there are no lights in there. When the building was abandoned, people claimed to hear the elevator creaking up and down. There was no electricity, so why was the elevator going up and down? Others have claimed to actually see Scotty as a shadow person in the basement and near the elevator. Some see his full-bodied apparition and he appears angry and makes people feel uncomfortable, but he has never hurt anyone.

Kari S. on Yelp wrote, "My son and I had an incredible time at this boutique hotel. The drive to Jerome was well worth it, scary, but worth it. We checked in and the staff was super friendly and explained everything to us (manual elevator, etc.) and we were put in room 37b. This is an absolutely beautiful hotel and it is most definitely haunted. We had many paranormal interactions during our one night stay. The hotel staff also gave my son a copy of the death certificate and a letter from the 24 year old girl's family...she lost her life after jumping to her death from the window in room 37b. If you want more info I highly encourage you to read the journals at the front desk and/or to take the ghost tour with Chris."

Kari on TripAdvisor, reviewed the ghost tour at the hotel and included a weird picture, which we included here:

Many people have died in this building. Do their spirits still remain here after death? Are more than just the living staying at the hotel? The front desk has journals full of guest's ghostly experiences. Is the Jerome Grand Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 171 - Casey Moore's Oyster House

 
Moment in Oddity - Exploding Killer Lakes
Suggested by: Michael Rogers

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 and killed 37 people. The second occurred at Lake Nyos in 1986 and was more deadly. 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 happen again and scientists are looking for a way to prevent it in the future. Exploding killer lakes certainly are odd!

This Day in History - Thomas Paine Writes "These Are the Times That Try Men's Souls"

On this day, December 19th, in 1776, Thomas Paine publishes his first essay in a collection of essays that would become "The American Crisis." Thomas Paine, was born in Thetford in Norfolk on January 29, 1737. He met Benjamin Franklin in London and asked the man to help him emigrate to the new colonies. He did so in 1774. Paine settled in Philadelphia and became a journalist. He wrote articles on various topics, but in 1776 he wrote the pamphlet "Common Sense" and established himself as a revolutionary propagandist. He had only been in the colonies for a year, but he committed himself to American independence. During the Revolutionary War, Paine wrote a collection of essays and compiled them in "The American Crisis." The first of these essays was published on the 19th and began with the famous line, "These are the times that try men's souls."

Casey Moore's Oyster House (Suggested by Alicia Taylor)

Tempe, Arizona is the seventh largest city in the state of Arizona. The town was built on an agricultural base and grew out of the combining of two distinct pioneer towns. Many of the original historical structures built in Tempe have survived and its one of the town's greatest attributes. One of these buildings was originally a family home that is now a restaurant named Casey Moore's Oyster House. Locals love to gather for a beer and seafood. Patrons and employees all claim that the restaurant is haunted by several spirits. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Casey Moore's Oyster House.

For 1,500 years the Hohokam People called the future Tempe, Arizona home. They were here until 1450, leaving behind innovative canals they had built to bring the waters of the Salt River to their crops. Those same canals laid the foundation for the current irrigation system. Charles Trumbull Hayden came to the area in 1870 and established a settlement along the Salt River that he named Hayden’s Ferry. He built a flour mill, warehouses, blacksmith shops. There was also a ferry to cross the Salt River. The flour mill still stands as a historic structure and was operated until 1990. The Hayden home also still stands today. Hispanic families arrived from northern Mexico and established a nearby town called San Pablo. Eventually, Hayden's Ferry and San Pablo combined to form Tempe. There is a place in Greece called Vale of Tempe and an Englishman named “Lord” Darrell Duppa, who had helped establish Phoenix, suggested the name Tempe because it had the same lush beauty of the Vale of Tempe. The railroad came in 1887 and Tempe soon became an important business and shipping center because of the agriculture in the area. 

Education in Arizona can trace its origins to Tempe. In 1885, the Arizona legislature chose Tempe for the Territorial Normal School, which trained teachers for Arizona schools. William A. Moeur and his brother Benjamin were prominent members of Tempe and William helped set up the public school system in town. He was a member of the first school board and chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors from 1912 to 1915. In 1910, he and his wife Mary built a home on three lots at the corner of 9th and Ash. The house is a mix of architectural styles. The roof is Victorian with gabled vents, front and dormer with a bellcast copper roof. The house itself is Western Colonial with the typical square floor plan and columned porch. There are two stories built mostly from brick and there is a sun room at the south end of the house. Masonry blocks outline all the corners and edges of the home. It is a larger home consisting of 4,061 square feet. William lived in the home until his death in the house in 1929. His wife Mary remained until she died in the house in the 1940s.

The house passed through several owners and there are discrepancies as to the variety of businesses it housed. It definitely was a boarding house for a time and some claim that it was a bordello as well. In 1973, it underwent extensive renovation to open it up as a restaurant. It was called Ninth & Ash. In 1986, another owner bought the property and did even more renovating. A covered patio on the northeast corner was enclosed as was a covered patio along the north facade. A fire escape staircase was added to the west facade and the sun room on the south facade was also enclosed. The nicest addition was adding several pieces of stained art glass to the window panes. This restaurant was called Casey Moore's Oyster House and it is the current business there. It originally had been at 7th St. and Maple, but had been displaced.

The restaurant's website claims that Casey Moore was born in 1886 to Irish immigrants. She loved to sing and play the piano and she invited friends and neighbors to her house often. The restaurant is apparently named for her, but we're not exactly sure why or how she is connected to the restaurant. The interior of the bar is decorated in a Scottish motif, while the outside is very Irish. A real fun fact about this bar is that  it has its very own Blarney Stone. This is not one that you would want to bend over backwards and kiss though. This one has been thoroughly peed upon! This is a bathroom area outside for the men. You just step inside, unzip and donate your beer back to the bar. Okay, so you pee on something that is suppose to be a replica of the Blarney Stone. There is a motion activated waterfall and a little moat to wash away your contribution. There is also a koi pond and a band of stray cats that hang around the spacious patio.

The restaurant has reports from neighbors, patrons and employees about strange occurrences and sightings. While we usually hear 3am being the magic hour for spooks, it would seem that 4am is the witching hour at Casey's. Neighbors report seeing a couple dancing in an upstairs room when no one is suppose to be in the restaurant. Police have been called out to investigate the intruders and there is always no one there. The alarms are even still set. It has been surmised that since William and Mary died in the house, that this ghostly couple is them still enjoying their house in the afterlife. Did they used to dance in the house and this is some kind of residual energy?

Workers claim that utensils fly off tables in the upper area and interestingly, forks end up hitting the same spot on the wall. Place settings, chairs and tables are moved about during the night and employees find them in a disarray in the morning. A full room of customers has witnessed paintings come crashing down from the wall and lamps above tables swing by themselves. The apparition of a young woman has been seen. She is described as having dark black hair and light eyes. People wonder if she was a prostitute in the brothel and whether she was murdered upstairs. She disappears when people's eyes meet her gaze. Most only see her from the corner of their eyes. Some claim she expresses displeasure when couples get a little romantic in the restaurant.

A bartender named Austin Owen claimed that during reconstruction an old photograph was found of a young boy. One of the owners kept the photo. Employees claimed to see the spirit of a young boy roaming about the house and when the owner showed the picture to the employees, they agreed that the ghost resembled the boy in the picture.

The restaurant embraces the tales of hauntings. The website states, "It’s no secret in and around Tempe, that 'Our House' has a mysterious history. In the wee hours of the morning, passers-by have seen a woman dressed in 'turn of the century' clothing dancing in our upstairs dining room. Articles disappear and suddenly show up in odd places. Neck ties are 'tugged' and objects become weightless However, strange this may seem to some, the spirits that linger in this old establishment are “family” to us here at Casey’s."

As we researched, we found another haunted restaurant that had been run out of a historic property in Tempe, the Hayden House. The restaurant was called Monti's La Casa Vieja and it had been the oldest restaurant in the city covering 11,000 square feet. It had been in business for 60 years when it closed on November 17th in 2014. The owner, Michael Monti, wanted to pursue other avenues and the cost of beef was too much. His father opened the restaurant 1956 and it was known for its Roman bread, steak and historic memorabilia. A real estate firm bought the site and plans were made to develop two high-rise towers on the site. The house was rumored to be slated for demolition, but it was a protected historic property. We're not sure of the state of the site today.

The hauntings reported here were two different types. The full-bodied apparition of a cowboy had been seen in one of the rooms named the Mural Room. The Fountain Room featured disembodied laughter and the sound of clinking glasses and cutlery. Do these restless spirits still remain on the property even though the restaurant is no longer open?

Tempe has a long history with many historic structures that could be retaining the essence of those who built the town. Is Casey Moore's Oyster House haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Podcast, Ep. 70 - Haunted Tombstone

Moment in Oddity - The Case of the Backward Imposter Body

A very strange medical case presented itself in 1881. A man had been in a tragic accident that had taken his life. His body was sent off for an autopsy and what the doctors found was quite strange. The man's organs were transposed. This means that all his organs were in the opposite side of the body than where they would be in a normal human. The heart was on the right side. The liver was on the left side. There had been other cases of people with transposed organs, but all died as infants. The fact that this man had lived into adulthood was quite amazing. But the case takes an even weirder, sinister twist. You see, these doctors loved having such a specimen. How could they possibly let this medical marvel go back to his family for burial? They decided that they must keep the body. They didn't need the head. After all, the brain is in both hemispheres of the head. Perhaps you have already guessed what they did. These unscrupulous doctors cut off the head of this man and attached it to the body of another. Then they sent that body to the family. The family, of course, noticed something amiss and sued. It's bad enough that doctors would do such a thing, but the fact that they actually thought they could get away with their deed is just plain odd.

This Day in History - The Hobbit is Published

On this day, September 21st, in 1937, J.R.R. Tolkien's classic "The Hobbit" was published. George Allen & Unwin Ltd. of London were the first edition publishers. It debuted with much acclaim and by December the 1,500 copy first run was sold out. The Hobbit was written for young adult readers and was nominated for the prestigious Carnegie Medal, but the book is enjoyed by adults as well. The novel is the recording of a journey taken by a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. He joins thirteen dwarfs and a wizard named Gandalf in a quest to take back the dwarfs old home and treasure, which was taken from them by a dragon named Smaug. Tolkien was influenced by many other works when it came to writing the Hobbit. George MacDonalds "The Princess and the Goblin" influenced his imagery of goblins. MacDonald also helped Tolkien to meld his Christianity with fantasy. William Morse and Jules Verne also influenced Tolkien. Norse mythology runs heavy in the novel as Tolkien was a Germanic Philology scholar and had a passion for Norse stories. The novel has withstood the changing of the decades and is even more popular today, having been made into a series of films by Peter Jackson.

Haunted Tombstone

We are joined on today's episode by author and medium Janice Carlson to discuss her experiences in Tombstone, Arizona. Tombstone calls itself "The West's Most Famous Town" and it probably is just that. Come with us as we explore the history and hauntings of Tombstone!

Ed Schieffelin was a quirky looking fellow. He had long black hair that hung below his shoulders and his long black beard was tangled in knots. He looked forty even though he was only twenty-nine years old. His clothing and hat were very worn and covered in patches made from deerskin and rabbit fur. His appearance reminded people of a wild animal. Ed was part of a scouting expedition whose purpose it was to basically spy on the Chiricahua (chir-i-cow-uh) Apache tribe. Ed was also a prospector and he was always searching for precious minerals and gems. He had just been in the Grand Canyon area, but found nothing.  He would wander out in the barren land around camp looking for precious stones. His fellow scouts would laugh and tell him that the only stone he would find out there would be his tombstone. Ed got the last laugh when he stumbled upon some silver. He named the mine Tombstone as a reminder of what the doubters had said. The year was 1877 and Schieffelin is credited as founder of the town of Tombstone.

As happened in that day, people heard about the silver strike and they came to the area seeking their own treasure. They came for good reason because Ed's strike was assayed as the Mother Lode. It was necessary for a town to be built, so a man named Solon M. Allis came and laid out the town. Ed was a millionaire at this point and he went off in search of more adventure. He was found dead in a cabin in Oregon, laying across a table where he was working gold ore. His journal remarked that he had struck it rich again, but left no indication where the find was located. Ed was brought back to Tombstone and buried in prospector's clothing according to his wishes. A monument was built in his honor.

By 1880, the town's population had soared to close to 20,000 people that were made up of white men, women, children, Mexicans and Chinese. There were a hundred saloons and a thriving red light district. There were also theaters. Schieffelin Hall was built by Ed's brother Al and still stands today and is used for government offices. It is the largest standing adobe structure in the southwest. One of its claims to fame is that Wyatt and Morgan Earp saw a play there the night Morgan was assassinated. For a time, it served as a Masonic Hall and then it fell into disrepair. It has been fully restored and quite possibly could be the most haunted location in Tombstone. The sounds of spurs and something that sounds like chains have been heard many times. Groups of people hear it at a time, so it is hard to relegate to just someone's overactive imagination.

Twice the town was ravaged by fire. Once in 1881 and again in 1882. One of the fires is rumored to have started when a lit cigar hit a barrel of whiskey at a saloon. Significant pieces of property were damaged and forty men lost their lives. The smell of smoke is still smelled today and some people claim to have seen the spirits of burn victims wandering around. Janice told us that this particular soul sense is named clairalience.

Over time, the silver mines started filling with water and it was too costly to pump it out. The town slowed down and people started leaving. In the end, $37 million in ore was pulled from the mines. Today, around 1500 people call Tombstone home. That doesn't include the ghosts.

Photo courtesy of Janice Carlson

Janice made a visit to Boothill Cemetery where she tried testing her medium skills to figure out what particular people died from. There are many Boothill graveyards throughout the west and they derive their name from the idea that gunfighters died with their boots on. In Tombstone's Boothill Cemetery, three men who died at the shootout at the O.K. Corral are buried here: Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury. Three hundred people are buried here in total. The cemetery was no longer used after 1886 except to bury the occasional criminal. The City Cemetery on Allen Street became the new burial ground. This website has a detailed layout of Boothill Cemetery: http://boothillgraves.com/

The O.K. Corral shootout was between the Earps and the Clantons. The Clanton group included Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury, Billy Claiborne and Wes Fuller. The Earps' group included Virgil, Wyatt and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday. It lasted all of thirty seconds and three men were dead. Morgan suffered a gunshot to his shoulder and Virgil was hit in the leg. No one is sure who shot first, but one of Holliday's bullets was the first to hit a body. The area is said to be haunted by those who died and gunshots are heard many times. Ghost Hunters has paid the place a visit.

Janice met up with Sister Paranormal Investigators at their shop, The Undertaker Shop. The place is reportedly quite haunted and Janice regaled us with the haunting experiences she had there as well as those of the ladies who own the shop.

Undertaker Shop - Photo courtesy of Janice Carlson

The Old Tombstone Hotel has a haunted room. Room 119 had a guest who hung himself one night and now reportedly has decided to never checkout. His disembodied voice is heard and objects move about the room. Apparitions of cowboys and stagecoach drivers have been seen at various locations. The Crystal Palace Saloon seems to be one of their favorite locations to visit. The First Marshal of Tombstone, Marshal Fred White, was shot down in the street by Curly Bill Brocius in October of 1880. Curly and his gang decided to shoot up the town one morning and Marshal White decided to disarm them. Curly supposedly accidentally shot the Marshal in the groin and he died two days later. He was shot in front of where the Bird Cage Saloon stands today and his spirit has been seen in the area and could possibly be one of the haunts at the saloon. And we have our woman in white! She is seen on the main street of Tombstone wearing a long white dress. There are two tales behind her haunting. She was either a mother so distraught over her child's death from Yellow Fever that she killed herself or she was the Madame of a brothel who was hanged for her crime.

It would seem the Old West is still alive in Tombstone. Do the cowboys, ladies of the evening, prospectors and gunfighters of the past still carry on in Tombstone today? Is this town haunted? That is for you to decide!

Janice Carlson's "Soul Sensing" book is fascinating and we highly recommend it. Check out Janice's website at:  http://www.janicecarlson.com