Los Angeles, part three!

I'm back! I took an extra weekend off to get ready for my classes this semester, but now I have retuend and I am ready to show off more of America's haunted places! My holiday was a lovely one, but I missed home, and my blog. I returned to Ann Arbor from LA a week ago. In my three weeks back home, I did a lot of amazing things, and saw a lot of fantastic people. Unfortunately I didn't get to visit any particularly haunted sights (the exception is below), but that doesn't mean I can't give you a tour of more haunted locations in and around Los Angeles. Today I'll feature two more hotspots among the high-rises and freeways.


What goes on here?



Our first stop takes us to the Avila Adobe, the oldest private building in Los Angeles. I had the pleasure of walking through it myself. The creaky, old home was built in 1818 as a private residence for the Avila family, one of the first in the region. It is a gorgeous adobe-style home situated right in the middle of LA, surrounded by tall buildings, Olvera Street and the ever-bustling Union Station. It's open and free to visit. It's like stepping back into the past, and listening to the creaky floors and gazing on the made beds and tables of the adobe is both comforting and a little unnerving.

Avila was married twice before he died, leaving a young woman in her early 20's widowed and alone. It is reported that she, Maria, haunts the adobe, rocking in her chair on the front porch, invisible, and can be heard in the adobe, in the master bedroom, sobbing over her lost husband. Whispers are heard, and those creaky floors sometimes give way to unseen footsteps. Over all, the house does have an eerie vibe. Just walking through it once had me glancing over my shoulder a few times. And while it's not extraordinarily haunted, I think it's safe to say that, with such a long history as the adobe has, it's not unlikely that something might be flitting around the corners, or walking along familiar hallways.

Our second stop takes us to the glamorous Sunset Blvd in Wets Hollywood. The Chateau Marmont is a famous hangout of film's elite. The best of the best have stayed there since it's opening in 1927. It is a place where the rich and famous can play, be who they want to be and do what they want to do The Chateau Marmont is infamous as being the place to get away with everything you can't in front of the camera, and its tragic history is testament to that. Just a few of the incidents to happen here include John Belushi's death, Natalie Wood's supposed affair with director Nicholas Ray, Helmut Newton's car crash in the driveway (in which he died), several drug-induced stints by many actors and musicians and F. Scott Fitzgerald's heart attack. Even Hotel California is thought to be about the Chateau Marmont. With a history like that, how could it not be haunted??



John Belushi is one of the ghosts said to haunt the Chateau. There's not much evidence for it, but the belief might stem from the way he died. A drug overdose isn't exactly the most serene way of going., afterall. Perhaps Belushi simply wasn't ready to stop being one of the funniest men alive.

Several people report the feeling of being watched, and have felt the presence of someone they can't see. Voices, apparitions, there seems to be every kind of haunting here. The biggest downside to this hotel is that it is strictly private, and going on the grounds is forbidden without a reservation or an invitation. However, if you've managed to secure a spot among the elite, please email me and let me know what you've witnessed! The internet can only provide so much, after all, and I need to know more!


I apologize for the short entry this week. School and work have just begun again, and I'm going in a million different directions at once. Next week will feature three all-new hauntings from across the states! Enjoy your week, and happy haunting!


If you'd like to know more about the places examined above, or see where I got some of my pictures, here are some helpful links!:

http://www.examiner.com/la-in-los-angeles/phantoms-roam-popular-olvera-street
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chateau_Marmont_Hotel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avila_Adobe
http://elpueblo.lacity.org/elpaa1.htm
http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-photo/caligyrl/1/1289349290/avila-adobe.jpg/tpod.html

Los Angeles

In less than a week I'll be traveling home to Los Angeles for the first time in about nine months. I'm very excited to see my family and friends again, and just as excited to strike out and explore my city after dark. I want to highlight a few of the haunted sections of my city before I get home. This is just a taste of the weird that LA has to offer. We are home to Hollywood, after all. Let's get started!


What goes on here?

First on the list is the illustrious Griffith Park, a staple in the LA community and one of the biggest nature areas we have to offer. Home to the Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles Zoo and Gene Autry Museum, the park started off as a ranch in the 1700's belonging to Vincente Feliz and family. It was bought in the 1880's by Griffith J. Griffith (you read that right), and turned into an Ostrich farm. Griffith hoped to lure people to Los Angeles County and make it prosper, but not very many moved to the area. One of the reasons is speculated to have been that the area was haunted by Felis himself. The park was donated by Griffith in 1896 to the city of Los Angeles. Since then it has sprouted two zoos (one now abandoned), a world-renowned Observatory, the Greek Theatre, famous Hollywood sign and many trails for running, hiking and picnicking.  A rich history has contributed to many odd things happening in and around the park.



The Curse

Before he died, Vincente Feliz bequeathed the majority of his wealth not to his family, but to a man called Don Antonio Coronel. It is not certain whether he did this of his own accord, or was manipulated, but either way, the land did not pass down to his children. After Feliz' death, his niece put a curse on the land, the lawyer and Coronel and proceeded to drop dead. After that, Coronel was shot dead, and his family suffered from disease and most of them perished from that and their huge loss of money.

Unfortunately most of the story isn't true, but there is no proof that a curse was not placed on Griffith Park. Many people have seen an apparition floating around the grounds that is said to be Feliz himself. Go out for a run at dusk and you just might catch a glimpse of the first owner of the park.

There is also the legend of the haunted picnic table. The legend says that on October 31, 1976 two lovers were crushed by a falling tree while they were.. ahem, gettin' down, if you know what I mean. It's not for certain if the place is actually haunted, but the legend still persists, so perhaps there are spooky voices, chills in the air and static on car radios.


(Griffith J. Griffith, or President Roosevelt?)

The second location is not far from the Park. It is the equally-famous Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  A gorgeous, well-planned and frankly huge cemetery in the middle of Hollywood on Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood Forever is home to just about any and every celebrity. It boasts the graves of Douglas Fairbanks to Johnny Ramone. It's even home to Griffith J. Griffith.

One of the more famous graves, and subject of two hauntings, is that of Valentino. Valentino was a very successful silent film star, and often called the "latin lover" of cinema. He met an untimely death at age 31, however, suffering from appendicitis, and complications from its removal which lead to pleuritis. His female fans especially were devastated. One seems to be more hurt than all the others. Valentino is said to be visited on the anniversary of his death by a "lady in black." She walks through the cemetery, stops at his grave, and lays two long-stemmed roses in front of the headstone. It's reported she's seen every night, but I can't find much else on the topic.

Another fan of Valentino's still stops by to see his master long after death. It has been reported that Valentino's dog comes to the grave after dark every once in a while, still loyal to his owner from beyond the grave.



Clifton Webb, the original "Mr. Belvedere," is reported as strolling in the Abbey of the Psalms Mausoleum. People have witnessed the smell of cologne, cold drafts and low voices inside the mausoleum.

And last, but sure not least, is the ghost of Virginia Rappe. A young starlet, she had just signed a contract with "Fatty" Arbuckle when she died suddenly at age 26. Arbuckle was accused of rape, but found not guilty, but the trauma Rappe went through the night she died could give credence to the cold spot felt above her headstone, or the whispering voices some report.



There is so much more to LA, that this will become a multiple-parter. I hope you enjoyed part one, and will go experience some of these places for yourself! I recommend a jog through Griffith Park just before dusk, and then a trip over to Hollywood Forever to see if you can catch a glimpse of the Lady in Black.

As always, if you'd like to know more, click the links below!
(Info and pictures are credited to the websites below)

http://www.weirdca.com/location.php?location=123
http://blogging.la/2007/03/08/top-la-legends-11-griffith-park-is-cursed-and-haunted/
http://strangeusa.com/Viewlocation.aspx?id=646&desc=%20Griffith%20park%20%20Los%20Angeles%20%20Ca
http://strangeusa.com/Viewlocation.aspx?id=527&desc=%20Hollywood%20Forever%20Cemetery%20%20Los%20Angeles%20%20Ca
http://www.hollywoodforever.com/interactive-site-map
http://www.weirdca.com/location.php?location=138

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Downtown_LA_from_GP_Obs.jpg

This is an incredible article on the history and corruption of Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Check it out if you've got the time!
http://www.tabletmag.com/arts-and-culture/78893/burial-plots/

Look to the Skies: UFO Phenomena

For my Culture and Personality class, I will be writing a term paper on Mass Hysteria, with specific focus on the UFO phenomenon. In light of that, I thought I would devote at least one blog, if not a few, to a couple of major events in the UFO community. Everyone has heard of Roswell, of course, but not everyone knows of the Arnold Report, the Airship hysteria of 1897, or the Battle of Los Angeles (not the movie, but close). I would like to highlight these and perhaps a few others. Let's get started, shall we?

First, the Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting happened in 1947, in the skies above Mt. Rainier, Washington. Before Arnold's report, UFOs weren't very high on the human radar. America had gone through the panic of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds Halloween broadcast back in 1938, but since then the idea of aliens had taken a back burner to the second World War. When Arnold saw nine unidentified objects flying through the air "like a saucer would," America was introduced to the flying saucer and ran with it. Ufoevidence.org has several articles outlining the report Arnold made to the Air Force and other inquirers:

"At around 3:00 in the afternoon, he was flying at about 9,000 feet, near Mount Rainier, when a flash of light caught his eye. He turned and saw a procession of nine very strange objects flying from north to south in front of his plane. They were flat and rather heel-shaped, very shiny, and they moved erratically, like a "saucer would if you skipped it across water." 


Since then, Arnold's report has been criticized by skeptics the world over. But, what UFO experience hasn't been? In any case, this is the one that started it all...

After his initial report, America (and the world) were kicked into panic-mode. "Flying saucers" were everywhere. There was no going back now. America had UFO fever.



Far before the idea of flying saucers came about, however, Americans in the northern states were hysterical over something they could only describe as an Airship. Now, all of us in the Steampunk community know all about airships. For us, they're the main form of travel in an alternate Victorian world, more elegant than airplanes or helicopters. These are not, however, our main form of travel. In fact, even in 1897 these weren't the way to travel. But residents from California to Michigan saw something in the sky from a period of 1896-97.

With over 1500 reports from individuals, the mystery airships have become the best-documented paranormal phenomenon from antiquity. It seems there wasn't a person alive who didn't witness some mystery flying in the skies during this chunk of time. But what did they really see?

Wikipedia has way more than I thought on the subject of the mystery airships. It seems Sacramento and San Francisco were the first to report strange flying objects in the skies over California. Witnesses reported seeing a dark object behind a very bright light. Shouts of orders were heard from the ground, as well as singing. A man named Lowry reported two men pedaling to keep the aircraft aloft, and above them something like a passenger compartment.

Similar reports were given all over the continental US. One man even claimed to talk to two nude pilots from Mars. A lot of the reports claim to have seen crashes and airships on the ground, and one even describes the "pilot" telling about a device that let him shrink the airship enough to fit in his pocket! Most of the reports are honestly funny. "anonymous, but reliable" witnesses, nude pilots, even a woman strapped to a chair as a prisoner were told to various newspapers all over the country. At this point, most researchers believe these were all lies, hoaxes, or a serious of personal airships people weren't familiar with. Whatever the case, there wasn't a person alive in the US who hadn't seen the mysterious airships.

The last event isn't well known to the general population, either. In fact, most of the residents from the city in which it happened have no clue that such a thing took place. At the height of the second World War, 1942, a mysterious object was spotted by citizens and military officers alike over the coast of Los Angeles, California. At first officers thought we (I'm from there, after all) were being attacked by the Japanese. It was disturbing enough that a blackout was called for the city, and dozens of rounds of anti-aircraft bullets were fired on the object.

The Los Angeles Times has had two articles on the incident, one from 1942 and the other from 2011:

"No one knows what, if anything, the GIs saw in the early morning hours when their antiaircraft batteries opened fire. And after more than 1,000 antiaircraft and .50-caliber machine gun rounds were expended, there was no evidence that they had hit any targets. A single moment of the incident was preserved in a dramatic photo that ran in the next day’s Los Angeles Times, the image of several searchlight beams converged on a single point in the night sky above Culver City. Over the years that photo became legend among UFO-ologists who maintain the searchlights were trained on an alien spaceship, and that the photo is evidence of an extra-terrestrial visitation."

 This could have been an actual raid, a fake raid used to scare the 2,000,000 residents of LA, or any number of things. It seems that no one has been satisfied with the explanations offered by officials. So what was it? We might not ever know.



What we do know is that there have been thousands of reports on unidentified flying objects spanning the globe for (at this point) over a hundred years. The verdict is still out on every single one of those reports, but the truth is out there somewhere.

If you've got any UFO stories of your own, feel free to email me, or leave them in the comments section! I would love to hear them!


http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case511.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_airship#Specific_cases
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2011/03/tv-skeptic-fact-or-faked-paranormal-files-the-real-battle-of-la.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Los_Angeles
http://www.mufon.com/
http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/

Whaley House

In the Old Town district of San Diego, California, stands one of the most important buildings in the history of the city- The Whaley House. Built sometime in 1856, it belonged to Thomas Whaley, a notable businessman from San Francisco. He and his family inhabited the building until the last daughter's death in 1953. Over the years the Whaley house was a family residence, a theatre to the Tanner Troupe, and was even rented out to the San Diego County Court. The house itself was actually built on the site of the hanging of Yankee Jim Robinson, a convicted man in San Diego.

The Whaley House is considered to be one of the most haunted in the country. Even Mr. Whaley himself heard mysterious footsteps, which he told his children was "just Yankee Jim." But it seems that the majority of activity started when the house was opened as a museum in 1960. One of the bigger surprises is that most activity takes place during the day, something slightly abnormal for most haunted locations.


What goes on here?
The first (and seemingly one of the most prominent) ghosts here in Yankee Jim. According to Shadowlands, Yankee Jim was hung for stealing a boat. He seems to be the cause of the loud footsteps ringing through the house. There are reports of a tall man with unruly blonde hair (like Robinson was said to have), and a man's laughter heard in several of the rooms.

There is the apparition of a woman in a white dress and gold hoop earrings that is only seen in the court room of the house. There are more ghosts on the property, including an old attourney from the Civil War who fell in love with the house, and Mrs. Whaley, who likes to play the piano to make her presence known. Children and even the spirit of the Whaley's terrier Dolly roam the House, reliving their time among the living.

Music and singing are often heard by the employees and visitors to the House, as well as children laughing and babies crying upstairs. There are phantom smells of perfume, and during the week between Christmas and New Year's the smells of baking waft in the air.

It seems like the Whaleys never left their family home. Whether these are residual or intelligent is left up to investigators. What is evident is that this house definitely earns its title as the most haunted house in America. If you'd like to know more, or even schedule tours, there are several websites below with more details, and even some pictures!

http://whaleyhouse.org/ghostly.htm
http://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/ca/whaley_house.cfm
http://theshadowlands.net/famous/whaley.htm
http://www.sdparanormal.com/page/page/199234.htm
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Whaley+House&aq=f