Haunting America

Haunting America

Karen Stollznow

Acknowledgements

My sincere thanks goes to Matthew Baxter for accompanying me on various investigations and for handling the layout.

For Blade.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Legends that Haunt America

Chapter 1:Alcatraz

Chapter 2:Coral Castle

Chapter 3:The Lemp Mansion

Chapter 4:The Myrtles Plantation

Chapter 5:San Antonio Railroad Tracks

Chapter 6:Silver Cliff Cemetery

Chapter 7:Waverly Hills Sanatorium

Chapter 8:The Winchester Mystery House

Introduction: Legends that Haunt America

America is more haunted than ever before. In recent decades, paranormal television has popularized places that are believed to be haunted. Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Most Haunted, Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files, and many more shows have promoted numerous locations as haunted, and have crafted a steady stream of new legends along the way. They have also created a demand for more hauntings, and have spawned many nouveau haunted places to feed the reality TV beast. The psychologist Robert A. Baker (1921-2005) used to say, There are no haunted places, only haunted people. For some of these people, the historical seems to equal haunted. Today, every historic restaurant, theater, and hotel appears to have resident ghosts, especially if the place has a big mortgage. There is profit in the paranormal. This is the business of haunting, and the most haunted is often the most marketed.

However, some locations have long-held reputations of being strange or haunted. Haunting America visits some of these classic places that haunt America. Alcatraz prison was closed decades ago, although it is believed that some ghostly prisoners never left the island. The Lemp Mansion was the home of the beer baron family thought to be the victims of a curse that drove several members to commit suicide. The Myrtles Plantation is said to be the site of ten murders and at least twelve ghosts. Waverly Hills Sanatorium was a tuberculosis hospital during the epidemic of the twentieth century, and is reportedly the most haunted place in the country. All of these places fight for the title of most haunted in America.

These are legendary, must-see places, and people make pilgrimages to these supernatural shrines from all over the country. They also travel from around the globe; I traveled from Australia to visit them. In what is known as legend tripping, intrepid travelers try to recreate the fabled phenomena. They drive to the San Antonio railroad tracks to see if the tiny hands of ghostly children will push their car across the railroad crossing to safety. They visit The Myrtles Plantation hoping to capture a photo of the spirit woman and children trapped in the mirror. They camp overnight among the tombstones at Silver Cliff Cemetery to catch a glimpse of the dancing blue lights. They scour Coral Castle looking for hidden codes and the secrets of the universe. They trek through the body chute at Waverly Hills to follow the final path taken by thousands of corpses that were wheeled down the tunnel. People go to these sites because they are famous, as much as they visit them because they are believed to be haunted.

Legend tripping is exciting but it can be a dangerous pastime too. It is risky to play on railroad tracks that are still in use, or to hunt for paranormal activity in a dark building that is falling to pieces. The intention of this book is not to take the fun out of the haunted, because who doesn’t love a good ghost story? Haunting America recounts the popular legends of these places, which are prefaced with the caveats, It is said and, According to legend. There are tales of haunted paintings, ghostly animals, poltergeists, and phantom piano playing. We find out about Timmy, the ghost of a little boy who likes to play ball with the living, the specter of a slave woman named Chloe who wears a turban to hide her missing ear, and the perverted spirit of Billy who spies on women in the restroom. We hear about Ed Leedskalnin who dedicated his whole life to erecting a castle for his Sweet Sixteen, and the story of Sarah Winchester who spent her lifetime building a mansion for the spirits of people who died at the hands of the Winchester rifle.

However, there’s a difference between enjoying these stories and believing in them. To believe in the ghosts we need proof. Paranormal television has shaped the public’s ideas about what a ghost is, how to find them, and what constitutes evidence. Unlike these shows, the investigations in this book don’t rely on Electromagnetic Field readers, Geiger counters, thermal imaging cameras, or K2 meters. They don’t involve the analysis of orb photos or recordings of Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVPs), which are believed to be voices of the dead. Instead of searching for phenomena, this book examines the specific claims and looks for possible natural explanations before resorting to paranormal ones.

This type of historical research and investigation involves visits to libraries, sifting through archives, examining primary documents and consulting other reliable sources. Fieldwork is important too, and each case includes a road trip to the premises, where I attend tours, speak with informants, and conduct hands-on investigations. I explore the folklore and the plausibility of these stories when taking into consideration the historical events. The more you research these stories, the less haunted they become. Sometimes, history can actually solve the case, or reveal that there isn’t one…

The real history is more interesting than vague reports of weird feelings, or yet another account of phantom footsteps. These stories encompass major events and themes in America’s history, including wars, slavery, immigration, mining booms and busts, crime and punishment, prohibition, and national disasters. They include famous people, such as Al Capone, the Birdman of Alcatraz, Harry Houdini, and Theodore Roosevelt. The human condition underpins these stories; success and accomplishment, love, revenge, tragedy, disease and death. It is easy to forget that there are real people behind the haunted stories. Unfortunately, when legend transforms the dead into ghosts it often turns them into caricatures.

The ghost stories are entertaining, but sometimes they do damage to America’s history. Folklore has the habit of making history, or rather, making up history. Legends tend to supplant history in popular culture. Oral tradition, the Internet, television, and even books are so cluttered with folklore told as fact and embellished in the retelling that it can be difficult to reach the truth. A lot of information is often lost or destroyed, eyewitnesses pass away, and the folklore is all that’s left behind. There will always be people who only want the stories, but this book is for those who love the legends, and also want to know the truth. Haunting America peels back the layers of folklore to reveal the fascinating facts behind some of the notorious legends that haunt America.

Chapter 1

Alcatraz

Alcatraz, otherwise known as The Rock, is yet another claimant to the title of America’s Most Haunted place, and it certainly reigns as one of the world’s most famous prisons. During its three decades of operation, Alcatraz was the Hollywood of prisons, with a cast of infamous outlaws and mobsters with aliases, starring Al Scarface Capone, Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz, Arthur Doc Barker, Alvin Creepy Karpis, and George Machine Gun Kelly. Alcatraz held such a mystique that gangsters wanted to go there to enhance their reputation among other criminals.

Alcatraz still holds a mystique for many people. Alcatraz is larger than life, and the history of the prison is interwoven with legends of its brutality, its notorious criminals, and the question of whether it was escape-proof, or not. Shameless San Francisco tourists buy and even wear t-shirts that brag, I Escaped Alcatraz. One way or another, everyone escaped from Alcatraz, although legend holds that some ghostly prisoners never left the island.

The Rest is History

Alcatraz is an island in the San Francisco Bay that lies 1.5 miles from the mainland. The Bay waters hide what was once a valley, and The Rock is actually the top of a mountain. The uninviting island is rocky, whipped by salty winds, surrounded by icy waters and enveloped by fog, giving it a sinister appearance. It is said that Native American people avoided the area because they believed it was cursed, although the land was probably used as a fishing and hunting ground for the Ohlone and Miwok people. They obviously thought that the isolated location would make a great prison too. Those who broke tribal law may have been banished there, and there is archaeological evidence that it was used as a burial ground for these exiles.

Figure 1.1 Alcatraz Island.

The island is barren with very few plants and trees, but it is a haven for birds. When Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala sailed into the area in 1775, he named the island La Isla de los Alcatraces, meaning, the Island of the Pelicans. The name was eventually Anglicized to Alcatraz. Pelicans don’t nest on the island anymore, but the land is now home to hawks, ravens, geese, finches, hummingbirds and seagulls. During Spanish occupation, Native Americans also used the island as a refuge for those who didn’t want to be converted by the Christian missionaries.

During the California Gold Rush (1848-55), San Francisco grew from a small outpost of 300 people to a bustling boomtown of 30,000, and Alcatraz went through a number of identities. In 1854, a lighthouse was built for ships to navigate the foggy weather. San Francisco Bay was vulnerable to enemy attack, so the island was fortified and by 1858 Alcatraz was a seacoast fortress. Before Alcatraz became a civilian prison, it was a military prison. Between the years 1860 and 1933 a mixed bag of prisoners were sent to the island. During the Civil War era, captured Confederate soldiers were imprisoned, along with Union soldiers, for crimes including desertion, theft, assault, rape, and murder. The military prison housed Native American people involved in land disputes, convicts from the 1898 Spanish-American War, World War I conscientious objectors, and army soldiers who were imprisoned for punishment or retraining. Some of these early prisoners built the prison to house themselves.

In 1933, administration of the island was transferred from the War Department to the Department of Justice. These were the days of bank robbers, kidnappers, gangsters and other racketeers, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons had plans to build an experimental super prison for the nation’s worst criminals. This project was much to the dismay of the people of San Francisco, who wanted a statue of peace erected on the island instead. In 1934, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary opened as a maximum security prison for incorrigible prisoners.

The Hard Cell

Alcatraz had been modernized and was now the highest security prison in America. The building was constructed of rows of solid concrete cells that had no contact with outer walls. There were four cellblocks in total, and each was like a prison within the prison, with bars made of tool-resistant steel that could withstand cutting with a hacksaw. A mechanical locking system allowed guards to open individual cells or rows of cells remotely using levers. The prison also had the very first metal detectors. This was the end of the road for America’s most dangerous and violent criminals who refused to conform to the rules of other prisons. Alcatraz was the prisons’ prison system, ruled by the iron-fisted Warden James A. Johnston. As they said, When you break the rules you go to prison. When you break the rules in prison, you go to Alcatraz.

About 1545 prisoners did time within these walls, but only men, because women weren’t deemed to be incorrigible until 1969. The average stay was 8-10 years, although Creepy Karpis served 25 years in total, which was the longest stretch on the island. These prisoners were long-term troublemakers. No man was directly sent to Alcatraz, and only two men were ever paroled from there. Some prisoners were considered highly dangerous, or they were escape risks. Others had abused their privileges in minimum security jails, while Alcatraz was a minimum privilege prison.

Figure 1.2. Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz.

Robert Stroud the Birdman was a murderer with