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.

HGB Podcast Ep. 93 - Eloise Asylum

 
Moment in Oddity - A Cleaning Lady Foils Nazi Spies

In January 1941, the Radio Intelligence Division of the Federal Communications Commission picked up the signals from an unauthorized radio inside an apartment building in the Bronx. The FBI was notified and the G-men were on the case. They started investigating stores that sold parts that could be used to build shortwave radios. They found a store in Manhattan whose owner thought that a certain customer had been acting nervous and paranoid. That man was Joseph Klein and he was a German American. He shared his apartment with two other men, one of whom had been a German officer and the other that was a Russian. Both men had become citizens. But their loyalties were not with America. The former officer had been called to Germany and trained as a radio operator and sent back to America as a sleeper. The Russian had been trained in Germany in the sending and receiving of coded messages by radio. The G-men were able to pick up the radio messages sent by the spies, but they could not figure out the code. The Nazis used published books to design their code. In order to crack the code, the G-men would need to find out what book was being used. They had seen one of the spies pick up a book at a Yorkville store, but they did not see the title. The store stamped the inside of its books, so if they could enter the apartment and find the Yorkville book, they would have their code breaker. The G-men's hands were tied. It was illegal for them to enter the apartment without a warrant and a warrant would tip their hands, so they enlisted the services of an unlikely person: a cleaning lady. The woman was very excited to help, but she also was scared because if she was caught, she might be killed. She called the G-men a few days later and told them that she found only one book in the apartment that was stamped by the Yorkville store. It proved to be the key to the code. The G-men continued to collect and decode messages and foiled the Nazi spy ring. The fact that they did it with the help of a cleaning lady is odd!

This Day in History - First Ball Drop For New Year's Eve
by: Jessica Bell

On this day, December 31st, in 1907, the first ball is dropped to welcome in the year 1908 at Times Square in New York City. Times Square had been the site of New Year’s Eve celebrations since 1904. After the city banned the fireworks display in Times Square, the owner of The New York Times, Alfred Ochs, arranged to have a large illuminated seven-hundred-pound iron and wood ball lowered from the tower flagpole precisely at midnight to signal the end of 1907 and the beginning of 1908. The ball descended 141 feet (43 m) in 60 seconds down a specially designed flagpole, beginning at 11:59 p.m. ET, and resting at midnight to signal the start of the new year. In 1942 and 1943, the glowing Ball was temporarily retired due to the wartime "dimout" of lights in New York City. The crowds who still gathered in Times Square in those years greeted the New Year with a minute of silence followed by chimes ringing out from sound trucks parked at the base of the Times Tower. The current version of the ball features a computerized LED lighting system and an outer surface consisting of triangle-shaped crystal panels. Thanks to satellite technology, a worldwide audience estimated at over one billion people watches the ceremony each year. The lowering of the Ball has become the world's symbolic welcome to the New Year. We wish all of the listeners to History Goes Bump a very happy and healthy New Year!

Eloise Asylum

We were joined on the episode today by Bill Clayton. Bill Clayton is a writer from Ann Arbor, Michigan. He's been writing professionally for more than 30 years. He has been the editor for the Michigan Engineer, the magazine published by the University of Michigan College of Engineering. He also writes and edits content for the College of Engineering Web site. He also regularly contributes to a number of magazines and writes about various topics, many dealing with science and he has interviewed celebrities, CEOs and average Joes, but what got our attention is his writing on the ghosts and urban legends of Detroit.

The term asylum brings about many images and most of them are not pleasant. Particularly the asylums of years ago. Today, we know more about mental illness and have better plans for caring for people, but in the past, mentally ill people were treated as cast offs and it was permissable to do horrid things to these people. One of the most notorious asylums in America was Eloise Asylum. Conditions were overcrowded and care was subpar at times. The asylum grew from the origins of a poorhouse to a schoolhouse and post office to a series of buildings built over the years to house the large amount of sick and mentally ill people brought here. Eloise is reputed to be one of the most haunted locations in the Detroit area for good reason. There is also a cemetery nearby named Butler Cemetery that has a reputation for being haunted. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Eloise Asylum.

Here is an account by Nite Wolfe:

"By the time I was in my teenage 'I want to be scared' stage, there were only three dilapidated buildings left standing on the hospital side of Michigan Ave. The piggery, cannery and the train depot were left on the farm side of the avenue. My friends and I were very taken with the buildings and had toured them many a late night. We always contained a sense of well being upon entering and though we had seen many cops patrolling the area, they had never seen us and were never caught. Upon entering the first of the many steel doors in the back area of the Old Hospital building itself you could either go directly downstairs or directly up. We chose to go down first. In the ruined basement our flashlights played upon five-foot tall metal crib-like enclosures and a metal straight-backed chair with leather straps on the armrests and legs. Turning and immediate right you faced the morgue, complete with pull out drawers and metal table with leather padding. One other room in the basement we found disturbing; we were never sure what it would have been called. The room was about 8 by 6 and along the left side there was a cell with a swinging door leaving just enough room to walk. Contained in the cell was a metal cot bolted to the wall and a place where the toilet had once been. When the cell door suddenly slammed behind me as I searched I quickly ran out."

Government employees have seen apparitions. One woman claims to have seen a brown haired woman in a window several times. Lights are turned off and on. Disembodied growls and moans are heard. Channel 4 in Detroit joined the Michigan Ghost Hunters Society on a ghost hunt and before it even got dark, they captured an entity in a window. The elevator was uncooperative as if something else were controlling it. Strange orbs of light were captured. Different colors and different sizes.

This is a poem written on May 29, 1979 by Joseph Micheal Slezak:

"Eloise: The Passing of a Friend

When first we met,
She stood tall and proud;
Her family ten thousand strong.
From "A" to "N"
Each blade of grass
Hand clipped, lest it grow too long.
Unfortunately, it is no longer so;
For that, my friend, was two decades ago.

The bingos, the dances,
The movies, the games,
The carnival, when summer came 'round.
The neat tulip beds,
The walks on the lawn --
Group laughter is such a sweet sound.
Unfortunately, it is no longer so;
For that, my friends, was two decades ago.

There were fresh oven smells
From the bakery
Where the bread was far better than all.
Yes, the shops and the store
And the post office, too,
Were there, if you wanted to call.
Unfortunately, it is no longer so;
For that, my friend, was two decades ago.

Can you tell me why
It all worked so well
Back when we first met?
And now weeds replace lawn,
And from dead buildings we feel
The doom that decay begets.
Unfortunately, it is now so;
For I wrote this my friend, but two days ago."

So perhaps the time spent at Eloise Asylum was not always unpleasant. Maybe some former residents find it hard to leave. Have the bad experiences of some patients led to negative energy and hauntings on the property? Bodies have been disturbed and built over. Has this caused spirits to be at unrest? Is the Eloise Asylum haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:
Bill Clayton's writer's page:   http://www.writers.net/writers/26232
Urban Legends -- The Spirits of Detroit Are Alive and Just Waiting to Be Scared Up
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxMyTU4sxDI4YmgxR3hldXA0VUU/view
"Do Einstein's Laws Prove Ghosts Exist?"  http://www.livescience.com/16951-einstein-physics-ghosts-proof.html

HGB Podcast, Ep. 92 - Magnolia Hotel

Moment in Oddity - Mummified Cat as Mascot

The Milwaukee Press Club has a very unusual mascot. The Milwaukee Press Club was established in 1885 and is considered the oldest continuously operating press club in America. So it would be only fitting that their mascot would be old as well. But mummified? The club's mascot is a mummified cat named Anubis. He is one hundred years old and sits encased in glass above the bar at the club's headquarter, which is named the Newsroom Pub. Until 1950, no one knew where Anubis had come from. It was that year that President Woodrow Wilson's former personal secretary and Washington correspondent Tom Brahany confessed that as a student journalist, he helped to steal the mummified cat. It had been originally in the possession of the Wisconsin Historical Society and then passed on to the cheif game and fish warden. Newsman Charlie Lush wanted to borrow the cat to display at a cat show, but the warden said that wasn't possible since the cat was state property. But he also added that if the cat disappeared after hours, there wasn't much he could do. So Lush got Brahany to help him steal the cat. And it was never returned. Instead, it ended up at the press club and they cleaned it up and named it Anubis. It was a good move for Anubis. He would have been forgotten at the historical society, but he has instead been glorified by poets, orators and statesmen and is enshrined in the hearts of scholars and savants. Anubis appears to be well loved. But his position as a mascot for a press club is certainly odd!

This Day in History - Radio City Music Hall Opens
by: Jessica Bell

On this day, December 27th, in 1932, Radio City Music Hall opens.  John D. Rockefeller, Jr. held a $91 million, 24-year lease on a piece of midtown Manhattan property properly known as "the speakeasy belt." Plans to gentrify the neighborhood by building a new Metropolitan Opera House on the site were dashed by the failing economy and the business outlook was dim. Nevertheless, Rockefeller decided to build an entire complex of buildings on the property-buildings so superior that they would attract commercial tenants even in a depressed city flooded with vacant rental space. Radio City Music Hall was to be a palace for the people. A place of beauty offering high-quality entertainment at prices ordinary people could afford. It was intended to entertain and amuse, but also to elevate and inspire. The shimmering gold stage curtain is the largest in the world. Audiences have thrilled to the sound of the "Mighty Wurlitzer" organ, which was built especially for the theatre. Its pipes, which range in size from a few inches to 32 feet, are housed in eleven separate rooms. The Hall contains more than 25,000 lights and features four-color stage lighting. Original mechanisms still in use today make it possible to send up fountains of water and bring down torrents of rain. Fog and clouds are created by a mechanical system that draws steam directly from a Con Edison generating plant nearby. More than 300 million people have come to the Music Hall to enjoy stage shows, movies, concerts and special events.

Magnolia Hotel (Pictures and research help from Rhonda Mayfield)

Photo by Rhonda Mayfield

The historic Magnolia Hotel is located in Seguin, Texas. Its history includes use as a fort and was built by a man rooted in Texas history as a colonist. The property has existed for 150 years and passed through the hands of many owners and is currently under restoration. Its current state is nothing like the grand hotel it had been once upon a time. Hotels tell many stories and this one has stories that include murder and prostitution. Spirits are at unrest here. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Magnolia Hotel.

Seguin, (Segeen) Texas has a small town feel with streets lined by Queen Anne style homes and trees. It is east of San Antonio and is one of the oldest towns in Texas. Frontier rangers settled in the area in 1838 and named it Seguin after Colonel Juan N. Seguin who was a Tejano that fought against the dictator Santa Anna with his Anglo counterparts. German immigrants arrived in the 1840s. It was at this same time that Seguin became a stagecoach stop and the place where this stop was located was the Magnolia Hotel.

The original Magnolia Hotel was a two room log cabin that was built by James Campbell in 1840 and used as a fort. Campbell was an original DeWitt Colonist. The DeWitt Colony was one of the main colonies that helped to settle Texas. It was named for Green DeWitt who had petitioned the Mexican government to set up a parcel of land for hundreds of Catholic families and many Mexican nationals. After a couple of attempts, the petition was agreed to and the area was surveyed and a capitol was chosen. In 1826, the colony was attacked by Indians on a horse raid and the capital was moved. Despite being the second most successful Anglo-American settlement in Texas, the colony soon faltered when DeWitt was unable to get enough families to come. The colony later became a county. Not much is known of Campbell's part in the colony other than he was with it early on. Campbell went on to become a Texas Ranger and fought as a Confederate soldier in Company D of the 4th Texas Regiment in John Bell Hood's famous brigade. He also co-founded Seguin as one of the thirty-three signers of the charter that established the town in 1838.

Photo by Rhonda Mayfield; original concrete structure

In 1844, Joseph Johnson bought the property and added a concrete building to the back. The log cabin was converted to a stagecoach stop and the concrete building was opened as a hotel. An interesting note about Seguin is this use of concrete as a building material. It was unique and before long, Seguin had the largest concentration of concrete buildings in the country and some would even say the world. The type of concrete used was called limecrete and it was developed by John Park who was a chemist and inventor who moved to Seguin in the early 1840s. He built the hotel addition that became the Magnolia Hotel. It is the oldest concrete building in town. A bell was rung every time a stagecoach came to the stop and it is believed that the bell originally came from the Alamo. It was found in the San Antonio River in 1845.

By 1847 Jeremiah Calvert owned the hotel and his daughter married the nephew of President Andrew Jackson in the hotel that year. Calvert sold the property to Dr. William Reid in 1850 and he ran the hotel for ten years. In 1853, the log cabin was replaced by a two story frame wood building. It was built in the Greek Revival style. Thomas Dickey Johnson took over in 1860 and he held the property until 1900. That same year, the stagecoach arrival bell stopped being rung and it was donated to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. During the time that the hotel was a stagecoach stop, it had been the center of the town. The stagecoaches not only brought people, but it brought the mail and newspapers and other goods. So it was sad to see that come to an end. The hotel also fell out of its premiere position as the hotel to stay at in the early 1900s when other hotels were built that advertised that they were fireproof while the Magnolia was not.

Photo by Rhonda Mayfield

The hotel passed through several hands until the 1930s when the Lannom family acquired the property. The family decided to use the first floor as their residence and they rented out the second floor as apartments. They did this for sixty-five years. Then the building fell into disrepair. During that time, since the hotel was empty, it became a haven for homeless people and drug users. Erin O. Wallace, author of Haunted New Braunfels, purchased the hotel in 2013 and has been working to restore the property. Two rooms have been finished and an old porcelain sign found in the building hangs outside the door. And based on pictures taken by Rhonda, it would appear that the entire outside has been repainted. The original stagecoach bell also hangs outside the property with a sign describing its use.

Photo by Rhonda Mayfield

The Magnolia Hotel has a reputation for being haunted and there are several reasons why this may be the case. Wilhelm Faust, who was commonly known as William, had grown tired of his wife. He had actually become interested in her sister. He decided that the best way to end his marriage would be to murder his wife and he chose one of the favorite weapons of choice in the 1870s: an axe. It was 1874 and he had traveled to Seguin and was staying at the Magnolia Hotel on business. His wife hated staying alone, so she stayed with some friends in New Braunfels. This was a typical routine and William knew it well. He knew that his wife would be staying in the friends' daughter's room and that she would be sleeping on the floor. In the middle of the night, he stole a horse from the Magnolia Hotel and rode to the friends' house. He broke into the house and swung the axe at the body on the floor. He had made a terrible mistake though. The daughter Emma had switched places with his wife and she was the one on the floor. His wife was in the bed. So he swung the axe at the bed. As he went for another swing, Emma's brother came into the room and scared William away. His wife had not been killed by the attack, but he did blind her. William was caught and sent to prison for life. He was shot and killed while in jail in 1876.

William is not at rest and for some reason, he has chosen the Magnolia Hotel as his final resting place. People have reported strange smells in the room he had once occupied and a shadowy figure has been seen in the window of the room. Emma has joined him, many claim. Is it because she is tied to her murderer somehow in the afterlife? Or is this young girl that reportedly haunts the hotel, someone else? This little girl ghost roams the hallways.

Could the limecrete that part of the building is constructed from be a conduit for supernatural activity just as limestone can be? An English man who had been a traveling salesman was staying at the hotel and he committed suicide by cutting his own throat. Amelia was a young child who passed away in her sleep. Both of these rooms are upstairs and it is believed the spirits of these two people haunt the upstairs. Lights have been caught on video flickering and turning off and on. Another room upstairs seems to harbor a malevolent spirit. People are very uncomfortable in the room and have felt pressure tighten around their throats. The basement is creepy and has spirits at unrest. There are various noises that are heard down there that seem to be more than just shifting ground or other natural sounds.

Ms. Idella was a fortune teller who lived at the hotel and is one of the more famous haunts here. Several orphaned children died at the hotel and seem to have never left and a young woman who was waiting for her beau to show up on a stagecoach died from a broken heart when he never did arrive. Willy was a young woman who took her own life and the life of her child. The list of deaths is extensive at this property, leading to an extensive list of ghosts here and makes us wonder why there seem to be so many at this location. Many figures have been photographed in pictures. Strange mists have been picked up on digital pictures as well.

The owners reported just last week that, "Seems the second floor of the Magnolia Hotel was rather active yesterday for our A/C and electrical contractors! The antique pictures that are sitting on the mantel kept flying off whenever the contractors entered the room. They would place them back only to discover they were once again tossed off. After these several incidents they refused to be alone upstairs BUT thankfully they did finish the job."

The Magnolia Hotel has a long and rich history and has been the scene of tragedy. Has this led to the house having supernatural activity? Is the Magnolia Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!