HGB Podcast Ep. 99 - Fort Edmonton

Moment in Oddity - Legos Washing Up on British Beach

Something peculiar has been happening at a beach in Cornwall, England. Pieces of Legos have been washing up on shore. And as if that were not strange enough, it has been happening for 17 years. While children might be praising God that fish have learned to poop out Legos, the cause for this is rather mundane. On Feb. 13, 1997 a shipping container from a New York-bound Tokio Express freighter was hit by a huge wave. The container contained 5 million Lego pieces and it tumbled into the ocean. Ever since that happened, anytime there is a harsh storm, Lego pieces wash up on the beach. Oddly, the Lego pieces all have a nautical theme, like seaweed, spear guns, octopuses and scuba gear. Plastic dragons and daises have also been known to wash up on the beach occasionally. British writer Tracey Williams created a Facebook page called Lego Lost at Sea and any recovered Lego pieces are documented there. Williams has said, “These days the holy grail is an octopus or a dragon. I only know of three octopuses being found — and one was by me — in a cave in Challaborough, Devon. It’s quite competitive. If you heard that your neighbor had found a green dragon, you’d want to go out and find one yourself.” While the explanation is clear, Legos washing up on a beach certainly is odd! And we would like to add that since we are featuring a haunted site in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, we should mention the website Oddmonton.ca that features oddities and curiosities in Edmonton.

This Day in History - Nellie Bly Ends Round the World Trip
 by: Jade Lewis

On this day, January 25th in 1890, Nellie Bly arrives in New Jersey after her 72 day trip around the world. Nellie Bly was the pen name of American journalist Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman. She was also a writer, industrialist, inventor, and a charity worker who was widely known for this record-breaking trip in emulation of Jules Verne's fictional character Phileas Fogg, and an exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She was a pioneer in her field, and launched a new kind of investigative journalism.
In 1888, Bly suggested to her editor at the New York World that she take a trip around the world, attempting to turn the fictional Around the World in Eighty Days into fact for the first time. A year later, at 9:40 a.m. on November 14, 1889, she boarded the Augusta Victoria, a steamer of the Hamburg America Line and began her 24,899-mile journey. She brought with her the dress she was wearing, a sturdy overcoat, several changes of underwear and a small travel bag carrying her toiletry essentials. She carried most of her money in a bag tied around her neck. The New York newspaper Cosmopolitan sponsored its own reporter, Elizabeth Bisland, to beat the time of both Phileas Fogg and Bly. Bisland would travel the opposite way around the world. To sustain interest in the story, the World organized a “Nellie Bly Guessing Match” in which readers were asked to estimate Bly’s arrival time to the second, with the Grand Prize consisting at first of a free trip to Europe and, later on, spending money for the trip. On her travels around the world, Bly went through England, France (where she met Jules Verne in Amiens), Brindisi, the Suez Canal, Colombo(Ceylon), the Straits Settlements of Penang and Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan. The development of efficient submarine cable networks and the electric telegraph allowed Bly to send short progress reports though longer dispatches had to travel by regular post and were thus often delayed by several weeks. Bly traveled using steamships and the existing railroad systems which caused occasional setbacks, particularly on the Asian leg of her race. During these stops, she visited a leper colony in China and she bought a monkey in Singapore. As a result of rough weather on her Pacific crossing, she arrived in San Francisco on the White Star liner Oceanic on January 21, two days behind schedule. However, World owner Pulitzer chartered a private train to bring her home, and she arrived back in New Jersey on January 25, 1890, at 3:51PM.

Fort Edmonton (Research Assistant Jade Lewis and listener Tania Turner, who also suggested it)

Fort Edmonton is a settlement that dates back to the true beginnings of Canada becoming an official country and to Alberta becoming a province. It moved many times and witnessed much history. It played a key role in history with both European settlers and the natives that lived on the land. Is this why its current location at Fort Edmonton Park seems to have unexplained activity? Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Fort Edmonton.

The area that is now known as Alberta, Canada was first settled by the indian tribes: the Cree, Blackfoot and Blood. These tribes were semi-nomadic and traveled following the buffalo herds. These native people traveled in groups of lodges, which was a term used to identify a group that shared a teepee as a family unit. The Blackfoot traveled as 10 to 30 lodges, which could equal up to 240 members. In 1670, King Charles II of England granted trading rights to the Hudson Bay Company for Alberta, which was called Rupert's Land. The land was named for the King's cousin Rupert. He was the one who got the Royal Charter and land grants for “the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson Bay.”

The Hudson Bay is considered the great inland sea. The Hudson Bay Company named itself for this sea and they made it a practice early on to build their forts near the water. They would trade with the native people there. Exchanging metal goods like knives and kettles and special items like beads and blankets for fur pelts. In the late 18th century, the company was forced to move operations more inland.

It is believed that Anthony Henday was the first European to explore Alberta for the Hudson Bay Company, but that was not until 1754. Before him, French fur traders more than likely had come and many had intermingled with the Indian tribes creating a new race known as the Metis. The Metis tribe would go on to establish itself in present day Manitoba. Today, there are approximately 400,000 Metis in Canada. The word Metis is French for "mixed."

A rivalry began with another company called the North West Company when they built a fort in the region in 1778. They fought over territories and trading for years. Finally in 1821, the Hudson Bay Company absorbed the North West Company. The early history of Alberta is tied heavily to this fur trading. Alberta eventually became a province in 1905. The town of Edmonton was selected as her capital.

The city of Edmonton was an area bought by the Canadian government from the Hudson Bay Company in 1870. In 1892, Edmonton would formally be incorporated as a town. Not many called the place home until the Klondike Gold Rush started in 1896 and Edmonton became a hub for supplies. In 1930, Edmonton became the "Gateway to the North" and when oil was discovered there in 1947, its economy changed forever. But before Alberta was a province and before Edmonton was a city, the Hudson Bay Company founded Fort Edmonton.

Fort Edmonton was established on the northern Saskatchewan river in 1795 by the Hudson Bay Company as a fortified trading post next to its rival North West Company. We mentioned earlier that the North West Company had built a fort in 1778. That was Fort Augustus. Due to the competitive nature of both trading companies, it was said that the two fort were built a “musket-shot” apart in distance. It was John Peter Prudent, a clerk for the Hudson Bay Company, who named the fort after Edmonton, Middlesex, England. Both trading posts, Edmonton and Augustus were moved several times, but they retained their names. Fort Edmonton was home to several Canadian historical figures such as the first woman from European descent to live in the region, French Canadian, Marie-Anne Gaboury, grandmother to Louise Riel, the founder of the province of Manitoba.  Also, from 1826 to 1853 the fort thrived under the management of the colorful John Rowand, a fur trader who was from Montreal, who remained at the fort until his death in 1854 once he was appointed to the fort. He was called “one of the most pushing bustling men in the service…warm hearted and friendly in an extraordinary degree”.  He was known as Iron Shirt by the Native Americans and was considered one of the most influential white men on the Saskatchewan plains.

As mentioned, Fort Edmonton was moved several times. Each time that it was moved was coined as a Mark. There are five Marks for the Fort. The first was built in 1795 and lasted until 1801. Several years of declining and increasingly scarce fire wood caused the fort to be moved upstream to what is now the  Rossdale area in Downtown Edmonton. The second Mark was built in 1801 and lasted until 1810 when it was moved to the mouth of White Earth Creek 100 km north east form the modern city of Edmonton to Smoky Lake Alberta and the third Mark was built. This one stood from 1810 to 1812. The Indians would not trade at this location and so it was moved again. The fourth Mark stood from 1813 to 1830. At that time the two forts returned to an original site, and then in 1821, the Hudson Bay Company merged with the rival North West Company, and the Fort Augustus name was dropped. Finally in the 1830s, the fifth and final Mark of Fort Edmonton was completed.  The fort had to be moved to higher ground after a severe flood, and it is this site where the Alberta legislature building now sits.

Through the years, several noteworthy explorers came through or stayed at the fort. James Sinclair, son of the Hudson’s Bay Company president, twice led large parties of settler’s half-way across Canada, from the Red Valley to the Columbia valley. In 1859, the 9th Earl of Southesk visited on his way to the Rocky Mountains, hoping that the fresh mountain air would improve his health. From 1870 to 1885, the fort was under threat of Indian warfare quite regularly.  The Cree Chief Maskipiton was killed during a battle with the Blackfoot.  Fifteen years later, the fort was in the middle of the North West Rebellion, the Edmonton telegraph wire was cut, and settlers went behind the old wooden palisade, but luckily they were not attacked.

In 1915 the fort was demolished.  The fort was  reconstructed in 1966 as a way for families to enjoy the history and named Fort Edmonton Park. Tania shared that the fort has streets named after historical dates in time that represent the different periods of 1885, 1905 and 1920. People can take a train or the old street car for a ride. People can stroll leisurely or stop to have a bite to eat. They have delicious ice cream and treats and there is a visitor center when you first walk up to the park. The fort was built from material spanning all the Marks. Buildings from the other periods were found and moved to the park as well. For this reason, people believe this has caused spirits to be attached to Fort Edmonton Park.

In 2003 a group was visiting the Fort Edmonton Park and they were touring the Firkins House. Dr. Firkins and his family built the home in 1912. It is Edwardian in style.  As the group took a picture near the Firkins’ children's bedrooms, the picture revealed the image of a purple eyed figure sitting on the bed after it was developed.  Also, the group saw a small boy playing with a red ball. There were no children in the group, but no one felt it was a threat. This boy has also sometimes been described as a teenager. Haunting experiences started with the Firkins House back when it was first moved. Rumors were already being whispered that the home was haunted. When construction crews moved it and restored it, they claimed that their tools were moved around or went missing and that windowpanes would go up and down unassisted. What is responsible for the hauntings is unknown. The Firkins had daughters and no one died in the home.

In the study/library the group witnessed a female entity form in the middle of the bookcase. Another picture caught an orb with the face of a male inside. There are reports throughout the park of people feeling eerie energy coming from the windows of the buildings. The staff report unexplained thumps, footsteps and feeling that someone is standing behind them. This location was featured on Creepy Canada due to its haunted reputation. Employees claim that several items on the show were fabricated including a haunted ventriloquist doll and a book of magic. And most employees say that nothing haunted is going on anywhere in the park.

Are the spirits of the explorers from the past still clinging to the fort? Could spirits have followed their moved homes to this new location? Is there something about the land in connection to the indigenous people who once lived here causing the weird feelings people have at this location? Is Fort Edmonton haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Podcast, Ep. 98 - St. Cecilia Music Center & the Ada Witch

 
Moment in Oddity - The Ghostbuster Ruling

Stambovsky vs. Ackley is a ruling that went through the New York Appellate courts in 1991 that has come to be known as the Ghostbuster Ruling. Helen Ackley owned a home in Nyack, New York. Between the years of 1977 and 1989, Ackley reported numerous poltergeist events at the home. There was enough activity that it caught the attention of Reader's Digest and the publication wrote a story about the haunted house. Ackley claimed that there were numerous ghosts in the house and that the  poltergeists woke her every morning by shaking her bed. They left gifts for members of the family apparently also. In 1989, Ackley decided to sell the home. Neither she nor her real estate agent, Ellis Realty, disclosed that the property was haunted to the interested buyer, Jeffrey Stambovsky. Stambovsky put down a down payment of $32,500 and agreed to pay $650,000 for the house. The contract was drawn, but then Stambovsky found out about the haunting reputation and he sued to get out of the contract. The New York Supreme Court dismissed the case, but Stambovsky appealed. The Appellate Court ruled that the house was indeed haunted because the haunting had been reported in a national publication and in the local papers, but that the seller was not required at the time to disclose the haunting. So no damages were paid to Stambovsky. But the court did break the contract. A court that rules that a house is indeed haunted certainly is odd.

This Day in History - Prohibition Starts

On this day, January 20th, in 1920, the 18th Amendment is put into effect and Prohibition begins. The 18th Amendment was ratified on January 29th, 1919. The Amendment read, "After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited." The movement to ban alcohol began with the Temperance Movement and the hope was that prohibition would curb the drinking of alcohol. The amendment did not make drinking alcohol illegal, just the manufacturing and selling of alcohol was illegal. The effort worked for many years. It wasn't until the end of Prohibition that drinking started to increase again. Speakeasies became prevalent and gangsters rose to power using the distribution of alcohol as their chief means of money making. The 18th Amendment was the only amendment that was ever repealed and this took place in 1933, when the 21st Amendment was ratified.

St. Cecilia Music Center & the Ada Witch of Grand Rapids (Research Assistant Sharon Spungen)

Our research assistant Sharon Spungen experienced two tours with Grand Rapids Ghost Tours that were hosted by Robert and Nicole DuShane and Julie Rathsack, who also are the authors of "Ghosts of Grand Rapids." Sharon found the tours and the book invaluable for research.

Grand Rapids, Michigan has been known as Furniture City because of the industry upon which the city was built. People might be surprised to find that this city is considered the world leader in the production of office furniture. Grand Rapids is a city awash in history, murder, mayhem and urban legends. And these factors tend to lend themselves to tales of hauntings. There are a couple of fairly well-known "urban legends" concerning Grand Rapids and its haunted history. The first comes from the St. Cecilia Music Center and the second is known as the legend of the"Ada Witch." Come with us as we explore the history and hauntings of these.

The Hopewell Indians lived in this area of Michigan and built their huge burial mounds over 2000 years ago, which can still be seen outside the Gerald R. Ford Museum. It is believed that these peaceful mound builders may have been annihilated by another tribe, perhaps the Sioux. Around 300 years ago, the People of the Three Fires (the Ottawa, the Chippewa, and the Potawatomie) inhabited the area. In 1825, the first white permanent settler came to the future Grand Rapids. That settler was Isaac McCoy who was a Baptist minister. A trading post was established in 1826 by French trader Louis Campau. Louis was born in 1791 in Detroit, Michigan. He was a descendant of Etienne Campau who was born in La Rochelle France in 1638 and came from Picardy to Montreal, Canada, in the seventeenth century. Etienne's sons traveled to Detroit, Michigan and the Campau family became enmeshed there. Etienne's son Jacque was Louis' great great grandfather. So this family goes way back here. Louis fought in the War of 1812 and established the first trading post in Michigan in Saginaw and then he moved south to establish the trading post in the future Grand Rapids. He traded fur pelts for metals and textile goods. Louis became the city's most prominent founder after purchasing the entirety of the downtown area in 1831 from the federal government for a whopping $90.00. He named his parcel Grand Rapids.

Grand Rapids, Michigan was incorporated as a city on April 2, 1850. After a global showing in Philadelphia in 1876, Grand Rapids' reputation as the city of fine furniture was solidified. Thanks to the Grand River, wood was readily available and transported to factories. Grand Rapids was also the first city to fluoridate its water – in 1945.  But it was a cutting edge city in other ways as well. During the Great Depression, before the federal government instituted a program to help workers find jobs, Grand Rapids created a jobs program. And in 1916, after removing an outdated aldermanic governmental system, the city implemented a Commissioner-Manager form of leadership still used today. *Fun fact* Grand Rapids was also the hometown of President Gerald R. Ford, who, with his wife Betty, is interred in a burial mound just outside the museum bearing his name.

Sharon said that one of the particular highlights from the Grand Rapids Ghost Tour was the St. Cecilia Music Center. St. Cecilia is considered the patron saint of music. Many musical organizations take on the name of St. Cecilia for that reason. Grand Rapids had the St. Cecilia Society and in 1890 they decided to find a permanent home. They purchased a lot on Sheldon Avenue, but their dreamed dissolved as a zoning issue forced them to sell the land. After a couple more years passed, the Society purchased the property at 24 Ransom NE, which is the present home of the music center. Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb designed the St. Cecilia Music Center and he was directed to design a “simple and dignified” temple of music.

Construction on the building began in 1892 and society members started an ambitious fundraising effort to gather the funds needed to build the building. Cookbooks were written, calendars were designed and a souvenir silver spoon was produced by Herkner Jewelers and they were sold as part of the fundraiser. Chicken and oyster dinners were sold to the public and performances were staged in the old Powers Opera House as well. A special edition of the Grand Rapids Evening Press was even created to help gain funds. The building was completed in the spring of 1894. The total cost, which included furnishings, came to $53,000. Dedication of the St. Cecilia Music Center took place in November of 1894. The incredible fact about this building is that it was the only place in the world built by women solely for the appreciation, study and performance of music. There is an extraordinary Tiffany window that was installed in 1895.

The structure was built in the classical style and the facade was divided into three parts: a base, a middle and the top. The base was constructed of sandstone, while the middle section was brick. The top has been crowned with a cornice and terra cotta frieze that is graced with plump cherubs. And in musical tradition, those plump little angels are holding trumpets. Inside the center is the Library, which is called the Idema Room, that has built-in storage for music. There is the Reception Room that is called the Presidents Room, and features a wonderful fireplace with mantel and a several large arched windows overlooking Ransom Avenue. Originally, the center of the building was the auditorium. It featured 500 main-floor seats that were lit by beautiful chandeliers, intricately looped and gathered draperies over the proscenium arch and a skylight that caused a warm glow due to its sixteen stained glass panels. The upstairs ballroom had windows that could be opened out into the auditorium to accommodate balcony seating.

Major repairs were needed in 1901 to reinforce the roof beams. Renovations in 1925 removed the skylight and two large pillars in the middle of the auditorium and the balcony was closed off. These renovations improved the acoustics to the point that even today, the music center is considered one of the finest recital halls in this country or abroad. The heating and electrical systems were renovated in 1974, along with the auditorium, which was named for the Royce family that had donated a large amount of money to the society. The stage and building became barrier free in 1984 with further upgrades. The Opus 2 capital campaign was launched in 1996 to help maintain the building. The center hosts world renowned musicians and has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Descriptions of the haunting activities at St. Cecilia's include hair being tugged as well as jackets and sleeves, hair being stroked and disembodied whispers in the ear that include demands like, "Get out!" There are disembodied grunts, groans and growls. Shadow people are seen. Seat 106 is said to always be in the lowered position for no apparent reason. On two separate occasions, in the lower level of the space, a woman's voice has been recorded laughing in the background. This woman was not present while they were recording. The elevator goes up and down without assistance and things go missing. And then there is the mysterious woman sitting in the auditorium and a janitor in a jumpsuit that is seen backstage. A janitor that is not employed by the center and who disappears.

The Grand Rapids Press reported:

"'Something's happening, and either we have homeless people living here or we have ghosts,' said [Cathy] Holbrook, the center's executive director. So she invited the West Michigan Ghost Hunters Society to come in and conduct three investigations of the building. Society members brought all sorts of equipment, including computers and audio recorders, and stayed late into the night, she said. '(Investigators) definitely found what they would say was paranormal activity in the building,' Adding that most of the incidents seemed to occur in the auditorium. Some of the investigators reported seeing strange shadows in the building, and glowing orbs showed up in a few photos they took, according to a society report. A psychic felt like the elevator was a "portal" used by the spirits, and she sensed a housekeeper, soldier and a variety of performers in different parts of the building, the report says. Holbrook said the investigation's creepiest finds were recordings of unexplained voices, or EVPs. She said that in one, a male appears to say, 'Move it.' 'The hair on the back of your neck stands up,' she said. 'That was the most shocking, to be able to hear someone speaking.'"

 Elizabeth wrote:

 "I had a paranormal experience at the music center in 2011. I was walking back through the hallway from looking at the tunnels that are underground and all of a sudden I felt as though I had a spider web brush my shoulder and arm. At first I didn't think anything of it and kept walking then it happened again. I think I asked the people I was with if I had anything on me and it turns out I didn't. I then talked with the paranormal team that was with me and found out that sometimes when being touched, it can feel like spider webs. I also found out that the hallway I was walking in had reports of common experiences. Also the same night my friend and I went up to the ballroom. I was taking recordings as I asked questions. A few days later I reviewed the recordings and heard a lady laughing. No one was in the room at the time other than my guy friend and me."

A famous piece of Grand Rapids lore is the story of the Ada Witch, which has been told for 150 years. The story begins in the rural area of Ada Township in West Michigan. It was the late 1800s and a married woman was allegedly having an affair with a local man. They would meet clandestinely in what is known as Seidman Park. Her husband suspected that something was awry and he followed her and found the lovers together. In a rage, he killed her and battled with her lover. Both men died there as well. While it made for a great story, there were no names connected to the story, so people wondered if it was true. A group of paranormal investigators declared they had discovered the Ada Witch to be Sarah McMillan who was buried in Findlay Cemetery in Ada. People visited the cemetery and soon the tombstone was desecrated and broken up. Pieces of it were even being sold on eBay. But was Sarah really the Ada Witch?

The historically accurate facts are that Sarah McMillan was simply a victim of typhoid. Researcher Nicole Bray searched Ada records to find any evidence of two or three people all dying on the same day due to murder. She found nothing. While there were many stories of tragic losses that were uncovered, there was no evidence of the deaths of three individuals that match the details of the legend. But legends, unlike the rest of us, seem to refuse to die. And the good news is that Sarah got a brand new headstone and the cemetery is now secure. But what of the Ada Witch legend? There are enough sightings to make one wonder if there really is some truth to the legend.

Ada resident Julie Wiley believes she saw the Ada Witch when she saw a ghostly apparition along Bailey Rd and she says she'll never forget that night 12-years ago. "I'm a 100% believer of it. I know what I saw. I didn't drive that way for the longest time because I was afraid I was going to see her again. I was driving home from work, heading down Bailey Dr. I was coming up the crest of the hill and all of the sudden I see a woman sitting in the middle of the street. She had a long, flowing blue dress on. She was sitting there waving her arms, and the words coming out of her mouth, to me, looked like she was asking, 'help me; help me.'" When Wiley got to work, she was very shaken and she told her boss what she had seen. He said, "Oh my gosh, you just saw the Ada Witch."

There are many reported sightings of a female apparition, near Findlay Cemetery, which is more than likely how Sarah found herself connected to this legend. This female spirit is seen along many of the streets and roads near the cemetery particularly up and down the 2 Mile Rd. This is the road where Findlay Cemetery is located. She's also been seen along Honey Creek Rd. According to the legend, this is where the Ada Witch's body found. And she is seen on Conservation Ave. Hunters claim to have heard footsteps in the woods near this road and some have even said they were tapped on the shoulder, but when they would turn around, nobody would be behind them. The Ada Witch appears as a woman dressed in a long white or blue dress, with long, flowing hair.

There seems to be no reason for the hauntings at the music center, but there definitely are reports of unexplained activity. Is the St. Cecilia Music Center haunted? Is Grand Rapids home to a true urban legend? Is the Ada Witch real? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:
Grand Rapids Ghost Tour:  http://ghostsofgrandrapids.com/
To order the book click here!
Grand Rapid Ghost Investigators sent this video they made of an investigation at this location:

HGB Podcast, Ep. 97 - Pythian Castle

Moment in Oddity - Phantom of the Opera

The novel "Phantom of the Opera" was written by French journalist Gaston Leroux and originally was published as a series of articles in La Galois. Leroux was an investigative reporter and he based the novel on very real facts. The opera house in the book was based on a real opera house named Opera Garnier in Paris, which actually had underground tunnels and an underground lake.The Opera Garnier did catch fire and a woman was killed when a chandelier fell from the ceiling. Their was a real man named Erik that Leroux based his Phantom character on that was from the Normandy area. He had been born with a disfigured face and his parents abandoned him when he was still a child. A sideshow circus brought him into their fold and put him on display as a freak. When Erik was older, the circus traveled to Persia and he ran away, soon finding himself performing for the Shah. He began work as an architect assistant at this time also and soon was designing buildings himself. He helped in the construction of the Opera Garnier and got by in society by covering his face with a mask. He became wealthy and was always seen wearing a suit and felt top hat. Box 5 was his at the opera house, just as it is in the novel and he had built into the balcony a hollow column, so he could come and go as he pleased. He did fall in love with an opera singer named Kristina and kidnapped her, holding her for 3 weeks. His apartment was below the opera house and the rejection by the opera singer caused him to wall up his apartment where he more than likely died of starvation. When the Opera Bastille was built to replace the Opera Garnier, workmen found the apartment with a skeleton inside. It wore a ring that Erik was known to have worn. Fact can sometimes be stranger than fiction and sometimes an odd true legend can make fiction all too real.

This Day in History - Space Shuttle Columbia Final Launch

On this day, January 16th, in 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia launches for what will be its last voyage to space. Columbia was the oldest shuttle in the fleet and was launched for the first time in 1981. This final mission was its 28th. On board were seven astronauts: Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Dave Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Mike Anderson, Laurel Clark and Ilan (Ihlahn) Ramon. The crew and shuttle were carrying 80 scientific experiments and the mission lasted sixteen days. Columbia was returning to Earth on February 1st when something went terribly wrong and the shuttle broke apart upon re-entry killing all those on board. A piece of insulating foam had broken off from an external tank during liftoff and punched a hole in one of the wings allowing the heat from re-entry to destroy the support structure and the shuttle broke apart. The Columbia was not rebuilt and the 84,000 pieces of it that were collected are now stored in an office suite at Kennedy Space Center.

Pythian Castle (Research Assistant Amy Connor)

One would not expect to find a castle in a Missouri city like Springfield, but indeed there is a structure here that is very castle-like and thus it has been given the name Pythian Castle. It is a massive structure that has found itself under the supervision of various owners in the past with very different uses for the building. It has served as an orphanage and retirement home and also as a place to rehabilitate injured service members. And POWs even found themselves incarcerated in the basement. The building has not been a place of tragedy, but emotions could have been high for military members and orphans alike. Or is there some other reason for supernatural activity in the building because there is definitely something unexplained going on within the walls? Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Pythian Castle.

Springfield, MO was founded in 1833 in the Greene & Christian County seats. It was included in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Springfield was the host of a Civil War battle and also helped usher in the Wild West Era with a gunfight between Wild Bill Hickok and Davis Tutt in the town square. It's safe to say the city is rich in history. Included in the town's history is that of Pythian Castle. Pythian Castle sits in what is now considered the North end of town. It was built by the Knights of Pythias in 1913. The Knights of Pythias was a fraternal organization formed in Washington D.C. in 1864. It was the first to be chartered by an act of congress. The order was founded by Justus H. Rathbone and is dedicated to universal peace. There are more than 2,000 lodges in the world. The order is named for Pythias, one of the members of the Damon and Pythias story from Greece. These two men were real historical figures that were against the King of Syracuse because he had obtained the throne by fraud. Damon was condemned to death and Pythias joined his friend out of loyalty and love. It is that spirit in which the order was founded. The Civil War was raging when the order formed and Abraham Lincoln wrote of it,"The purposes of your organization are most wonderful. If we could but bring its spirit to all our citizenry, what a wonderful thing it would be. It breathes the spirit of Friendship, Charity and Benevolence. It is one of the best agencies conceived for the upholding of government, honoring the flag, for the reuniting of our brethren of the North and of the South, for teaching the people to love one another, and portraying the sanctity of the home and loved ones. I would suggest that these great principles be perpetuated and that you go to the Congress of the United States and ask for a charter, and so organize on a great scale throughout this nation, and disseminate this wonderful work that you have so nobly started. I will do all in my power to assist you in this application and with your work." This is a secret and ritualistic organization though and for some reason, these orders like Masons, Oddfellows and such, always have haunted buildings.

Pythian Castle was originally built on 53 (now down to 2.6)  acres that were bought for $1 from the Chamber of Commerce that was desperate for the Knights to choose Springfield for their lodge over several other cities in Missouri. It would take the organization 20 more years to raise the $75,000 it would cost to build. Construction began in 1913, though it's unclear how long it took. The building is constructed of Carthage stone, a particularly hard type of limestone found in the Ozarks. The interior is made of steel framework with poured concrete floors and stairs. The walls consist of fireproof pyrobar blocks covered in steel mesh and several coatings of plaster. (Pyrobar is a fire-resistant gypsum based product that was used between 1903 and 1960 and makes wall building rapid.) It is two stories with a full basement and comes to almost 40,000 square feet. When it was completed it featured a grand foyer, meeting room, ballroom, dining hall and sitting parlors. The second floor featured a theater with a working ticket booth, seats, upper projection, theater lighting and dressing rooms in the back. This meant the theater was well suited for film and live plays. There was also an underground steam tunnel that connected the main building to the power house in the back.

The building was originally meant to be an orphanage and retirement home for children and widows of the Knights. It was named the Pythian Home of Missouri. For nearly 30 years it ran as such until it was commandeered by the U.S military in 1942 to be used during WW2. POWs were held in the basement and the rest of the property was used to entertain and rehabilitate injured U.S troops from the adjacent O'Reilly General Hospital. It was renamed the Enlisted Men's Service club during this time. It included a movie theater, bowling alley, arts & crafts area, pool hall, library & ballroom. Many famous actors, actresses, musicians and other performers of the day often graced the ballroom and stage to cheer up sick and injured soldiers. After WW2 ended, the building was retained by the U.S government as a reserve center until it was sold as surplus in 1993. It was bought by it's current owner in 2003 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. It was renamed Pythian Castle. Pythian Castle now offers day and night ghost tours, history tours and event hosting.

A far as hauntings go, it certainly falls under that category. It has been featured on several TV shows, including; Ghost Lab, Haunted Collector and Children of the Grave. It was also featured in the book Haunted Route 66 and has even earned the title of Certified Haunted Castle. Many of the hauntings are rumored to be from the spirits of orphans that were abused here and POWs that were purported to be tortured here. Both of these are legends, so we can't be sure of their authenticity. No public records were found proving either to be anything other than rumors. But both of those would certainly make hauntings make sense. Encounters include disembodied voices, temperature changes, orbs, full & partial bodied apparitions, objects moving on their own, strong changes in emotion, unexplained scents and physical encounters.

One story goes as far back as WW2. A young soldier was preparing to deploy and found himself on the second floor alone. He suddenly felt very uneasy and as if there were someone in the room with him, even though he was certain he was alone. He then heard a man and woman speaking in hushed tones. When asked what he did next he said "I got the heck out of there!"

Another tale includes two young men riding mopeds around town late one night when they happened upon the castle. One of the men decided he wanted to show it to his friend so they decided to walk up the front steps. As they approached the front door they heard a loud banging overhead. It was after midnight, with no cars in the lot. So they were understandably shaken up and left pretty quickly.

Another story is that of a pair of sisters that were on a ghost tour. They were each in separate parts of the building when they had their experiences. The first was in the steam tunnel and while recording one sister got an EVP of a male voice saying "Get out", but she didn't know until she arrived home later that evening. Around the same time her sister was in a room on the second floor taking pictures when her ear was blown into. She quickly ran out of the room and exited the building in fright. The sisters also had issues with fully charged batteries draining quickly only to find that the batteries were in fact fully charged when they arrived home.

Have the lonely and sad souls of orphans and wounded servicemen decided to make Pythian Castle their eternal home? Is there some other reason for unexplained experiences in the castle? Is Pythain Castle haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Podcast, Ep. 96 - Oystermouth Castle

Moment in Oddity - Kashima Reiko

As if public restrooms are not terrifying places in and of themselves, particularly in the dark of night, there is the Japanese legend of Kashima Reiko to make you never want to enter a bathroom alone again, especially in Asia. Kashima Reiko was a young girl who was attacked by a group ofmen in a public restroom. They beat her so badly that she was left to die in the bathroom. Kashima had a strong spirit and she didn't want to die, so she pulled herself along the ground and made her way out of the bathroom. She screamed for help as best she could, but no one came. She continued to pull herself along the ground until she came to the Meishin Expressway. Unfortunately, she collapsed on the train tracks and passed out probably from the loss of blood. When she heard the train coming, it was too late for to move and the train ran over her, cutting her in half at the waist and killing her. This caused Kashima to become a vengeful ghost. She also wanted to know where her legs were. Her choice of spot to haunt is the bathroom. It could be any bathroom according to some tellings of the legend, even your own bathroom. When she appears, she not only is horrific to behold, but she will ask several questions and it is said that if you can't answer her questions, she will tear your legs off. Her favorite questions is to ask where her legs are and the best way to respond to her is to reply, “On the Meishin Expressway." If she asks “Who told you that?”, you should reply “Kashima Reiko told me." Then she will leave you alone and crawl away. Kashima Reiko is one creepy and odd legend!

This Day in History - First X-ray Photos Produced
by: Steven Pappas

On this day, January 12th, in 1896, the first X-ray photographs in the US were produced at Davidson College outside of Charlotte, NC. Dr. Henry Louis Smith, a professor of physics at the college, performed one of the first X-ray experiments in the country and published his work in the Charlotte Observer. The photo showed a bullet lodged into a man's hand and was considered groundbreaking. Three of his students also produced an image, but their production of an image included some illegal activity. On the night of the 12th, the students bribed the janitor at the university to let them into the medical lab. After three hours of experiments, the three finally developed a successful image. The image showed two .22 rifle cartridges,  two rings and a pin inside a pillbox as well as a human finger they had sliced from a cadaver with a pocketknife. Years later, one of the students admitted to their wrong doing, but also pointed out that they had been part of history when he wrote, "We kept our picture and escapade a secret and it was not until later that we realized we were making history for the college instead of just breaking the rules."

Oystermouth Castle (Research Assistant Freya Porter)

Our research assistant and listener favorite Freya Porter joins us on this episode to share the history and hauntings of a location near to where she grew up. Her family is very familiar with the Oystermouth Castle and she shares their personal experiences about this old and wonderful castle.

Mumbles is a small resort town that is a headland overlooking Swansea Bay. It has a pier there that was the end point for the Mumbles Railway, which was the oldest passenger railway in the world at the end of the 1800s. Mumbles is also home to an old castle known as Oystermouth. It was fought over by the Welsh and the Normans for years and today is under restoration. As is the case with so many other castles, this one has some unexplained and haunting activity taking place within its stone walls.

Oystermouth Castle is nestled on a hill overlooking the Swansea Bay in South Wales. Today it's the heart of Mumbles, the small Victorian seaside village where Freya grew up, and a favourite picnic spot for its wide grassy spaces and hills that are perfect for rolling down. We imagine Freya knows from experience. The first Oystermouth Castle was founded by William de Londres following the capture of Gower by the Normans in 1106, but as most "starter pack" castles were in those times it was of the "motte and bailey" design on the hill, and none of the original structure has survived. Mottes were mounds that castle keeps were built upon and these mounds overlooked a lower area that was fenced off. This fenced off area was considered a courtyard and known as the bailey. This design was easy to build and cheap because they were mostly made from earth and wood. This design originates in 950 and was brought to Great Britain by the Normans. The Normans came from Northern France and Normandy is named for them. These motte and bailey castles were key to the Normans' successful capture of the British Isles.

Motte and Bailey Model

Oystermouth Castle being replaced as stone structures began  during the 12th century and the structure was constantly remodeled and built upon thanks to the successive Welsh uprisings that kept destroying the buildings. A Welsh uprising burnt the castle down in 1116 and this was lead by Gruffydd ap Rhys ap Tewdr and "William de Londres for fear of him left his castle and all his cattle and all his precious wealth." It was rebuilt as a Welsh fortress, only to be destroyed again when the Normans retook it in 1137. In 1135, a large Norman force was wiped out by the army of Hywel ap Maredudd. Lord Rhys of Deheubarth plundered Gower in 1189 and besieged Swansea for 10 weeks in 1192. In 1215, Llywelyn the Great invaded Gower and reclaimed the castle for the Welsh. There's some controversy on who exactly took (and possibly burnt down) the castle in 1215. A pamphlet states that Rhys Grug and Rhys Ieuanc, allies of Llewelyn ap Iorweth (known in English as Llewelyn the Great, the greatest Prince of Gwynedd), attacked Swansea and then "started for the castle of Ystum Llwynarth (Oystermouth) and encamped around it that night, and the next day [they] took the castle and the town." This seems to have been simplified in history to be attributed just to Llewelyn the Great. It did fall back into Norman hands. Llewelyn ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd,  "laid waste to all of Gower" in 1257, and despite Edward I's defeat of Gwynedd in 1287, Rhys ap Maredudd "attacked and burnt Swansea and took Osytermouth." Between 1403 - 1405 the whole of Gower was probably controlled by Owain Glyndwr, like most of Wales. All accounts still maintain that all the Welsh rebels were supported by the Welsh people of Gower. *Fun fact* King Edward Longshanks, whom many are probably familiar with because of the film "Braveheart," visited the castle in 1284.

In the 13th century, the de Braoses, then Lords of Gower, made Oystermouth Castle their chief residence over Swansea Castle. They rebuilt the castle in stone and most of the structures left today are from that period. One of the standing structures is the chapel, constructed by Lady Alina (sometimes referred to as Aledora) de Mowbray. She had a tumultuous life. She was the daughter of William de Braose, Lord of Gower. William de Braose was apparently extremely unpopular with his tenants, and in 1203, one of them complained to the king himself. He was kidnapped by the steward of Oystermouth Castle, John Iweyn, in March and imprisoned in the castle until he withdrew the complaints! Alina married her first husband, John de Mowbray, in 1298. He was twelve at the time and she was seven. John de Mowbray is properly named as a Yorkist in the War of the Roses. After her husband's execution for his participation in the 1322 insurrection with Thomas of Lancaster, Alina fled by boat from Gower to Devon, but she was captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London. On her release she obtained confirmation of ownership of Gower for her and her heirs from King Edward III, and was Lady of Gower in Oystermouth Castle with her second husband Richard de Peshale whom she met while the two were prisoners in the Tower of London, until her death in 1331. Her cause of death is factually unknown. The use of her chapel was short-lived, because the chief residence of the Gower lords was moved elsewhere after her death.

The castle fell into disrepair over the centuries, but in the 1840s George Grant Francis attempted to restore it while it was under the ownership of the Duke of Beaufort. In 1927, the Duke gave the castle to the Swansea Corporation and today it falls under the responsibility of the Swansea City Council and the local organisation Friends of Oystermouth Castle. In 2010, a £3.1 million conservation project was launched to preserve what remains of the castle. The restoration works have uncovered many new murals, staircases and various artifacts, while opening up new areas of the castle for the public and constructing a 30 foot high glass viewing bridge. The site was reopened to the public in June 2012, but unfortunately Freya hasn't been able to explore it fully because it's only open from April to September and she only goes home during the Christmas season, which is the longest school holiday for Australian schools. The site also runs various events throughout the year, including a "Halloween Spooktacular" in October.

The main ghost story surrounding the castle, and one that has many reported sightings, is the ghost of the eternal White Lady (yes, another one!). The ghost is of a young woman wearing a white robe or dress, usually seen around the exterior of the castle. She always seems to be crying, and the back of her clothing is torn open, revealing large, bloody gashes. It has been suggested that she was the victim of whipping, and there is a whipping post located in the castle's dungeon. Several theories as to her identity have been put forward, including that she was simply a prisoner or a servant, but the most popular is that she is the spirit of Alina de Mowbray herself. The lack of information surrounding her death only adds to the credibility of this claim.

From the Explore Gower website:

"A man, letting his dog off its lead to have a run around the castle's spacious grounds, was surprised to see his pet suddenly race towards him from behind a tree in obvious terror. Curious as to what had caused the animal's fright, the man walked over to the tree where he saw what he at first figured to be a large white sheet resting on the grass near the trunk of the tree. As he approached the sheet, however, it suddenly emerged from the ground and took the form of a woman wearing a white robe. She then faded from sight like dissolving mist.

On another occasion the young children of a family picnicking on the castle grounds appeared from behind a tree screaming. When asked what had frightened them, they explained they had seen a scary lady dressed in a long white robe with a cord fastened around her waist. She appeared to the children as if she had been sobbing, although she had made no sound whatsoever. When the children's father went to the tree to see the woman in white for himself, the figure turned her back to the man to reveal her back bleeding profusely from open lacerations."

From the site Pure Spirit:

"In May 2011, a construction worker was tapped on the shoulder while trying to re-open a murder hole. Murder holes [window-like slits in the sides of the walls] were used by defenders to pour boiling oil, water or even burning tarred sand down on attacking soliders – the scene of many horrific deaths. The incident made the local press and the worker, Mike Smith, told reporters: “I don’t usually believe in the paranormal but it was a strange experience and I know other staff have experienced some odd goings-on at the castle too. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before but there are also stories of people walking dogs close to the castle and seeing their dogs barking hysterically at absolutely nothing at all.”

In October 2012 PROOF, a paranormal investigation team, was called in as part of the Halloween Spooktacular celebrations at the castle. In a video on the PROOFTV YouTube channel, the investigators try to communicate with the spirits at the castle using a mix of Welsh and English (Freya has seen videos of Welsh castle investigations before, and some teams specifically want a Welsh language speaker on the team for this reason. It's very hard to communicate if you and the spirit don't speak the same language!). The camerawork is pretty bad and she's not altogether convinced on the effectiveness of these devices, but they seem to have possibly made contact with the White Lady's spirit. The video supports the theory that the White Lady may be Lady Alina de Mowbray, or possibly a mistress of Lord John Mowbray keeping with the prisoner/servant theory.

Freya revealed her experience:

"I may have seen the White Lady myself when I was little, maybe five or six years old. I remember playing at the bottom of the castle hill and looking up to see a woman in white standing on the top of the hill. I remember her wearing a long white dress (which I thought was weird because at the time, the only long white dresses I'd seen were on brides) and looking sad. Even though I couldn't see her face very well, I could feel that she was unhappy. I must have looked away to tell whoever was with me about the Lady (although I don't remember what I said) and looked back to point her out only to find that she was gone. That might not have been a ghost - maybe a sad lady in a white dress happened to be walking there at the time - but I like to think it was! At the time it didn't even cross my mind that she could have been a ghost. I just shrugged it off and kept playing!"

Strange things have occurred at the Oystermouth Castle. Is this castle haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:
http://www.castlewales.com/oyster.html - A history of the castle, dated 1992 so not very recent, but includes some gorgeous dated photos of the site
http://www.castlewales.com/motte.html - The "motte and bailey" castle design
http://www.swansea.gov.uk/oystermouthcastle - The Swansea government website for the castle. The history tab is all about the reconstruction work, not the actual history!
http://www.visitswanseabay.com/listings/oystermouth-castle/ - Not much information but lots of recent photos of the castle, including the glass bridge
http://www.explore-gower.co.uk/explore/gower-history/castles-and-forts/oystermouth-castle - Some information on the White Lady, but does record some dates incorrectly
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/paranormal-investigators-called-over-ghosts-2020410 - A news report on the paranormal investigation of the site
http://inpurespirit.com/3574/the-murder-hole-ghost-of-oystermouth-castle/ - The murder hole experience
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-28080212 - The information on Lady Alina and a stone carving of her found in 2014
http://www.welsh-american-bookstore.com/Interviews/alina-white-lady-oystermouth.html - An interview with the author of Alina: The White Lady of Oystermouth.

HGB Podcast, Ep. 95 - Griffith Park

Moment in Oddity - Dark Watchers of Santa Lucia Mountains

The Chumash Native Americans speak of the legend of the Dark Watchers. These creatures even made their way into the cave drawings of the Chumash. The Dark Watchers are seen in the Santa Lucia Mountains that stretch from Avila Beach, through San Luis Obispo, and all the way to Monterey in California. People claim that they appear to be giant human shaped phantoms and they are most commonly seen at twilight. The Dark Watchers usually appear to be staring off and unaware of anyone being near them and as night falls and darkness creeps in, they simply disappear as if swallowed by the inky blackness. John Steinbeck wrote of them in his short story Flight, "Pepe looked up to the top of the next dry withered ridge. He saw a dark form against the sky, a man's figure standing on top of a rock, and he glanced away quickly not to appear curious. When a moment later he looked up again, the figure was gone." Some people have described the Dark Watchers as wearing hats and capes. Are these just Dark Watchers spirits, demons or something else? We may never know, but they certainly are creepy and odd!

This Day in History - Elvis Presley Receives First Guitar
by: Steven Pappas

On this day, January 8th, in 1946, Elvis Presley is given his first guitar. Elvis said his mother rarely let him out of her sight and was hesitant to buy him something like a bicycle or a rifle. So when he was 11 years old, his mother Gladys took him to a hardware store and bought him a guitar for six dollars and ninety-five cents. Elvis viewed this as just one of a few steps during his childhood toward a musical upbringing, but the rest of us know how important it was to put that guitar in his hands. Elvis would go on to set the world on fire. He remains the highest grossing individual musician in history with an estimated 600 million units sold. His 10 number one albums spent a combined 90+ weeks at number one on the charts. He had 18 number one songs, starred in 31 feature films, won 3 Grammys and it all began with one woman putting a guitar into the hands of the man who would be, and remains, the king of rock and roll.

Griffith Park (Research Assistant Lianna Sapien)

The Santa Monica Mountains are one of the most visited natural areas in California and Griffith Park is a favorite location. The most familiar attribute of the park is the famous "Hollywood" sign. The park has been the scene to more than just fun outdoor activities. There is a belief that a curse is tied to the land here and that is why Griffith Park has been tied to urban legends, deaths and hauntings. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Griffith Park.

The Santa Monica Mountains parallel the Pacific Ocean along the coast of southern California. The mountain range stretches from Point Mugu in Ventura County to the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. This was home to the Chumash and Tongva Native American tribes. They lived here for 8,000 years and then the Spanish arrived and their numbers dwindled. The Santa Monica Mountains today are home to Griffith Park. This park is the largest municipal park with urban wilderness area in the United States and it stretches over 4,200 acres. Adults and children come to the park for camping, biking, horseback riding, interaction with animals and the chance to climb aboard a steam train. The adventurous types can hike along the mountain and get a closer look at the iconic “Hollywood” sign and scientific minds can visit the Griffith Observatory and take in the Los Angeles skyline.

Don Antonio Feliz was a rancher who had inherited the property that would later become Griffith Park from his mother Maria Verdugo de Feliz. He shared the ranch with his sister Soledad and his niece Dona Petronilla (don-ya pe-tro-ni-ya) who was blind according to some accounts. Petronilla had been orphaned by Feliz's brother, so Feliz took her in. The ranch was named Rancho Los Feliz. In 1863, small pox swept through and Don Antonio Feliz came down with the dreaded disease. Petronilla was sent to the pueblo to prevent her from becoming sick. While on his deathbed, Feliz was visited by a friend named Don Antonio Coronel. This so called friend coveted the ranch and he coerced Feliz into signing a will that left his extensive land holdings to Coronel and a few modest jewelry pieces to his sister Soledad. Feliz died and his niece returned to find Coronel in charge of the property. She had been left nothing. She was enraged and she cursed the land that a great misfortune would befall whomever owned the land of Rancho Los Feliz and that included Coronel.

Then something bizarre occurred. Petronilla, who was only in her twenties, dropped dead. At least, that is what the legend claims. Historical documents indicate that she married, had a son and died thirty-four years later. But the curse does seem to be very real. Don Coronel didn't believe the curse until his family members started dropped like flies in violent ways. Coronel became a believer and he sold the land before he himself was caught up in any more misfortune. The next owner had cattle and a dairy farm. The cattle sickened and the property flooded and the owner was heavily in debt. Fire swept through the timberline as well. This owner decided to sell what did seem to be cursed property. The property was then purchased by Colonel Griffith J. Griffith in 1882.

The Colonel made his money in coal mining and started an ostrich ranch on the property.  Though ostrich feathers were popular in fashions at the time, Griffith's primary interest in the farm was to draw people to his nearby property holdings. He was a notorious land baron and hoped to lay out the land in suburban tracts. Then in a sudden turn of events, Griffith donated the land to create a park named for himself in 1896. People wondered what would make a man poised to make a lot of money in development to all of a sudden donate the land. Rumors of the curse really fired up at this time and a party celebrating the transfer of the land would lead to claims of more than just a curse. This place appeared to be haunted.

Major Horace Bell was a frontier writer and newspaperman who was known for embellishment. He founded "The Porcupine" in Los Angeles, which was a paper dedicated to social commentary. He popularized the story about the Feliz Curse and he related that Griffith seemed to be tormented by visits from the spirit of Don Antonio Feliz and demons. He wrote that at the party where the city's influential people had gathered in Griffith Park to celebrate the transfer of the land from Griffith to the city, the ghost of Feliz took a seat usually reserved for Griffith and proclaimed, “I come to invite you to dine with me in hell. In your great honor I have brought an escort of sub-demons.” The lights went out and a cacophony of gongs and cymbals filled the room. All of the guests fled before the demons would have arrived.

The curse did seem to attach to more than just the land in the case of the Colonel though. It was either that or the alcohol. In 1903, he had accused his wife of conspiring with the Pope to poison him, so he shot her. He didn't kill her, but he did blind her in one eye and disfigured her face. He was sentenced to two years in San Quentin for the attack. Despite his grand donation of the Griffith Park land, when he was released from jail, he was damaged goods and rejected by society. He died in 1919 from liver disease and only a handful of people attended his funeral.

The park has been in the hands of the government since the time of the Colonel, but it seems to be sharing control with supernatural forces as well. There is no shortage of haunting experiences and other high strangeness in this park. Despite the fact that Petronilla died in her son's home decades after she supposedly cursed the land, there are claims that her apparition is active. The spirit is described as a young woman in a white dress, sometimes riding a white horse. At midnight, she is reportedly often seen in an adobe house, watching from the adobe’s windows on dark and rainy nights. Her uncle Don Feliz's ghost is reportedly still seen wandering his former ranchland on horseback. The ghost of Griffith J. Griffith has often been spotted, also on horseback, checking on the upkeep of the land.

Actress Peg Entwistle is a tragic figure. She was born Millicent Lilian Entwistle on July 1, 1908 in Port Talbot, Wales. Loss came early for her when her mother died when she was a child. She and her father moved to New York after that and her father remarried. Then her father was killed when he was run over by a car on Park Avenue. Her younger brothers went to live with an uncle, but Peg decided she wanted to be an actress and she stayed in New York. She made her stage debut with the Boston repertory company at 17 and then she moved onto working on Broadway with the prestigious Theater Guild productions. She was unhappily married to a man that was a dead beat dad to a child from a previous marriage and they ended up divorcing when she found out. Stage work started to dry up, so she decided to head to Hollywood. She was signed by RKO, but she went absolutely nowhere and depression set in.

On September 18th in 1932, Peg had been drinking and she was in the grip of depression. She told her uncle who she was living with at the time that she was going to walk up to a drugstore to meet friends, but instead she crawled her way up to the "Hollywoodland" sign. She took off her coat and folded it neatly placing it on the ground along with her purse. She climbed the ladder up to the top of the letter H and jumped to her death. She was 24 years old. People staring at the sign after dark have reported seeing a young woman jumping from the letter H and that they hear her scream on the way down, vanishing before hitting the ground. Other sightings include those of a woman matching her description and period clothes wandering the parks trails, as well as walking up the path between the sign and her former residence. The smell of gardenia, her perfume scent of choice, has been reported to linger near where her apparition is seen.

On  Halloween night in 1976, 22-year-old musician Rand Garrett and aspiring actress Nancy Jeanson, 20, were having sex on a picnic bench near Mt. Hollywood Drive when they were crushed by a falling tree. The lovers had been childhood sweethearts and their distraught families spread their ashes around the picnic table. A group of workers that were hired to clear the tree fell sick or were injured before they could finish the job, including a supervisor who was found dead of an apparent heart attack at the scene. His chainsaw was bent and his hair had turned white. Sightings of a ghostly couple in the area persist and people familiar with the tale make pilgrimages to the site in the hopes of witnessing paranormal activity. The picnic table and tree still reside in the same spot. The LA Times reported the following:

 "People thought I was damn crazy," says retired city tree trimmer Morris Carl when he tried to explain what happened to him a few days after authorization had been given to clear the fallen tree and he was tapped for the duty. "I drove up there with a job to do and I aimed to do it. What I didn't figure on was getting scared out of my wits!"

Carl is quick to add that up to that day he never gave much thought to whether ghosts were real. "But from that point on I certainly don't give any thought that they aren't," he says.

According to the incident report he filed with his supervisor later that evening, Carl arrived at the site at 11:40 a.m. on November 7. He was to be joined by two other Bureau of Street Services Tree Division workers with a large truck and loader to remove the material later in the afternoon but until then he was charged with sawing up the branches and trunk of the large sycamore tree into more manageable pieces. Only a few minutes into it he wrote that was overcome with a strange sensation.

"In my statement I said that I felt funny. What happened was I'd sawed off the crown of the tree when from out of nowhere I got hit with these real strong chills so hard it was as if I was coming down with the fastest flu ever. I tried to shake it off and get back to work, but each time I'd fire up the saw and get near the tree I'd get real cold and hear this weird moaning and crying. So I'd stop the saw and listen and it would go away. But then I'd start her up again and it would come back. Finally I was freezing so bad I had to go to the truck and get my coat."

That's when Carl wrote that the fallen tree started shaking violently.

"I set down the saw on the picnic table and headed over to the truck, and that's when I heard it start shaking from behind me. The tree just went crazy! Not just lightly shaking, but bouncing up and down as if someone was picking it up and dropping it."

It landed repeatedly on the table with such force as to knock the heavy powersaw off the table to the ground.

As soon as that happened," he wote in the report, "the tree stopped moving."
But then the moaning started up again, accompanied by a warning from an ominous voice that Carl says sounded as if someone was sitting right there in the cab with him and whispering into his ear.

"It told me 'leave us alone' very insistently," Carl says. "So I tried, but the engine wouldn't turn over. Next thing is this rubbing sound along the windshield and letters are being written across the fogged up glass. First there's an "n" and an "e" and the first word is "next." Then there's a "t" and an "i" and then that ends up being "time." Then a "y" and an "o" and a "u."

The last word was "die."

"Man, but did the truck engine finally fire up right then and I burned rubber, Carl says. "Left the saw right there on the ground in broad daylight and just got the hell out. I still get chills, and no there never was a next time. I never went back."

One of the stranger stories to come out of Griffith Park is a story about some kind of creature that is described to be similar to a werewolf. Some claim it is one of those demons promised by Don Feliz. The story has been around for decades. In October of 2005, three men allegedly retreated from a late night excursion into the park after an encounter with a beast that had green skin and red hair. The men visited a friend immediately after their experience and to prove they weren't making the story up, she had each of them draw the creature separately. With minor variations,  the men’s sketches all matched. The monster's legs were very long as were its feet and they claimed it was taking huge strides as it made its way down the street. Its back was bent backwards and its neck was very long and bent forward in a way that no human could be bent. More recently, an 11 year old boy named Jack said that on a 2009 visit, he was chased by an unusually large coyote. Reaching the top of a hill, he saw another kid around his age, and warned him about the coyote. “I’m quite glad you warned me,” the kid told Jack, then handed him an old firecracker. “Here, take this. Its good luck.” The kid then ran through some bushes and onto a small path. Fearing the coyote, Jack tried to follow him, but never caught up, and never saw the kid, or the coyote, again.

Did Horace Bell embellish the story of the Feliz Curse? We know that some of his facts are not backed up by history. But the misfortune surrounding ownership of the land is very real. And there are many witnesses who have experienced strange things here. Is there a curse? Do demonic entities roam about in the park? Is Griffith Park haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:
Haunted Hayride at Griffith Park Old Zoo in October: http://losangeleshauntedhayride.com/

HGB Podcast, Ep. 94 - Peoria State Hospital

Moment in Oddity - Nosferatu Director's Skull Stolen

FW Murnau (FV Murnoe) was a silent film director in the 1920s and apparently, in July of last year, his skull was stolen from his grave. Murnau was best known for his film "Nosferatu," an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula." Prana Film Studios was unable to obtain rights to the book, so Count Dracula became Count Olaf and he took on probably the most terrifying vampiric look of all. Murnau was buried in his family plot in Stahnsdorf, about 12 miles south-west of central Berlin, after he died following a car crash in 1931. His brothers' graves were left undisturbed, so this was a targeted grave robbing. Wax residue was found near the grave and since candles are not necessary for light in the darkness anymore thanks to flashlights, authorities believe that the grave robbing has occult ties. This was not the first time the grave has been disturbed, so the cemetery might want to consider concrete. We're not sure if these skull thieves wanted to see if Murnau had perhaps become his creation, but stealing a man's skull is just plain odd!

This Day in History - Charles Messier Discovers M80

On this day, January 4th, in 1781, Charles Messier discovers M80, which is a globular cluster in the constellation Scorpio. Messier Object 80, as it is formally known, was one of the first discoveries made by Messier, who was a French astronomer and surveyor. M80 is estimated to be at a distance of 32,600 light-years away with a spatial diameter of about 95 light-years. The cluster contains several hundred thousand stars making it one of the more densely populated globular clusters in the Milky Way. M80 is unique in that it contains a large number of blue stragglers. These are stars that are believed to be younger than the rest of the cluster they are located within and they are blue and more luminous. One theory surmises they are younger because they were captured by the cluster and are not really a part of the cluster. In 1860, a nova was found in the cluster.

Peoria State Hospital

 
We are joined on the program today by Sylvia Shultz. Sylvia is a paranormal investigator, writer and host of the Lights Out Podcast. She got involved in paranormal research while writing and researching her nonfiction book "Ghosts of the Illinois River" in 2010. Her fascination with ghosts dates back to her childhood, as she is an avid reader who was raised on Grimm’s Fairy Tales.  A few years ago, Sylvia was inspired to write a collection of people’s supernatural experiences at the Peoria State Hospital in Bartonville, Illinois. This project became the book "Fractured Spirits: Hauntings at the Peoria State Hospital." Both the book and Sylvia's research were featured on an episode of Ghost Hunters (“Prescription for Fear”, which aired January 30, 2013).  Sylvia lives in Illinois with her husband. She works at the Fondulac District Library and she also serves as the Publicity Director for Dark Continents Publishing. In addition to nonfiction, she also writes romance and horror.

The Peoria State Hospital opened in 1901 in the village of Bartonville in Illinois. The asylum was home for the mentally ill for seventy-two years and it provided some of the state of the art care at the time, but it was also the scene of some very tragic circumstances. Many people died here, both patients and staff. These tragedies combined with the fact that Bartonville was once Native American land and it is an area surrounded by water and limestone have quite possibly led to the Peoria State Hospital being rumored to be haunted. There seems to be many fractured spirits here at the Peoria State Hospital. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Peoria State Hospital with Sylvia Shults.

The care at Peoria State Hospital was unlike what we have heard about at other asylums. Is it actually the positive feelings felt at Peoria that are causing some spirits to make this their home in the afterlife? Is Peoria State Hospital haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:
More on Sylvia: http://www.sylviashults.com/sylvia/
To get Sylvia's book Fractured Spirits: Visit Amazon, or check out the publisher’s website at www.crossroadpress.com. Your local independent bookstore would also be happy to order it for you from Crossroad Press.