During my trip to LA back in 2005, I decided to go on a "ghost tour".
We wound our way through he Hollywood Hills (much to the protests of my stomach which had taken in some hot, spicy pasta and some wine about an hour before). At one point, our duteous (and dubious) driver stopped at the side of the road and told us we could get out and have a look around. We did. I walked a few yards and looked south to see the Los Angeles Valley stretched out before me. The City was covered in a thick blanket of fog and it added an etherealness to the night.
As I looked out upon the fog enshrouded city a mother and her preteen daughter stood next to me and the little girl said, "Mommy, I don't like it here. Can we go?" The mother said everything would be okay but the girl was adamant. "Something bad is here. Let's go." The mother said it was just her imagination. At this point, I spoke up and said, "I believe your daughter is quite correct. I feel it, too."
There was a heaviness in the area as if the very air which surrounded us was negatively charged. She looked at me for a moment then nodded with a look of uncertainty in her eyes. We went back to the van and when we were all gathered round the Guide, he told us that we now stood in front of the gate which once lead to the residence of Roman Polanski and his wife, Sharon Tate. I heard another tourist mutter, "Jesus...".
We left that place and went up around the hill to the former estate of Rudolf Valentino: Falcon's Lair. Not long afterwards we wound our way back down into the city. I had begun to sweat and was slightly nauseous. As we entered West Hollywood I asked the Guide to stop and let me out.
"But we still have 3 more places to go."
I told him I was about to be sick, so he let me out. As I walked the rest of the way to my hotel, I lost my dinner in some bushes. Was it just the hills and the winding roads that we drove thru or was it something else?
Friday, October 31, 2003
While I was in Los Angeles in October of 2003, beginning my celebrity grave hunting adventures at the famous Hollywood Forever Cemetery, I had a rather strange experience. As I was walking toward the Abbey Of The Psalms Mausoleum, a feeling of dread came over me. I could think of no idea why I should feel so afraid, but as I got closer to it, the feeling grew. It got to the point where I was forcing myself to go forward. I don't know how far away from it I was when I finally stopped, but one thing was for sure, I could not continue and would not approach any further. I also actually felt a sudden need to go to the bathroom (which I found in the Office, thanks to Annette Lloyd). In all the other parts of the cemetery, I felt nothing but peace among the stillness of the graves and tombs, but for some strange reason, the AotP was different. At first, I couldn't figure out why, but then I felt that there was definitely something wrong about the place. I felt the need to try and get closer and as I did, I felt the presence of something there, the presence of something that shouldn't have been there at all. A mausoleum is supposed to be part of sacred ground, but I felt nothing sacred about this place. My theory is that somehow, a Gate or Door exists there, a Gate or Door to a place dark, cold and foreboding. A place of evil. And I think that it is through this Gateway or Door that something enters our world, something that has no business being here.
On June 11, actor, DeForest Kelley, known the world over as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy on Star Trek, passed away from cancer. I had the pleasure of meeting him once at a book signing in Dallas back when "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" had been released. One night I had a dream that I was in my old neighborhood in Dallas, walking down Douglas Avenue towards the street I lived on when I looked up and saw DeForest Kelley in his medical uniform standing about 50 yards away from me.
He was smiling and waving as if to say goodbye. I woke myself up saying, "Goodbye, Bones."
It gave me a good feeling that he came by to tell me goodbye on his way to the Other Side.
Back in 1999 while I was guarding a construction site one night, I happened to discover an old cemetery. The cemetery isn't that widely used anymore. As a matter of fact, the last burial was in 1997 and the gravestones date back as far as 1875. I decided to make a sojourn to the old cemetery one day, just to see how big the place actually was. Some of the graves were so old that there were depressions in the ground here and there where I assumed the casket had simply rotted away and fallen apart, allowing the dirt to fall in. As I was reading the name and dates on this one headstone, I caught a glimpse of something moving at a nearby tree. I looked over there and much to my astonishment, I saw a little girl wearing a white bonnet and a blue dress, timidly watching me from behind the tree. As soon as I made direct eye contact with her, she vanished. I got goose bumps all over! I made my way over to the area, did some searching and found the grave of a little girl. I can't remember her name, but she was 12 years old when she died. I went by there and left some flowers for her, to let her know that she hasn't been forgotten.
The incident took place in Austin, Texas on August 19, 1995 between 11:30pm and Midnight.
A friend of mine named Kevin had been going thru some bad times of late. He had been suffering from partial paralysis from an injury he had sustained years ago in a diving accident. His business was failing, his bank account was dwindling and since he had lost his lease with the apartment he lived in, he had to live with a friend until he could get back on his feet. As sometimes happens in all of us, Kevin lost hope and felt that there was no way out and so, committed suicide on August 17th. I was told about this the next day by a mutual friend of ours. A bunch of us got together later to remember him & grieve.Two nights later, while at a payphone at the corner of S. Lamar and Barton Skyway (a well lit street corner) talking to a lady friend, I caught a glimpse of something moving out of the corner of my right eye. I looked to my right across the street and saw Kevin! He was walking without any sign of paralysis at all! He looked completely solid. As he walked he looked at me, smiled, nodded, and then disappeared! Oddly enough, I was not frightened by the experience, but I sure was surprised. I went and told another mutual friend of ours of my encounter and he told me that he had heard that Kevin' Sister In Law had also seen him. According to her report, she was making some sandwiches in the kitchen of the house she shared with her husband, Drew (Kevin' brother), when she felt a chill, followed by the feeling that she was being watched. When she turned around, Kevin was standing in the doorway of the kitchen a few feet away from her. He spoke to her saying, "I'm okay. Everything is alright. Where's Drew?" She screamed and he disappeared. She and I are the only ones who saw him. Two days later, Kevin was taken to Dallas and laid to rest there. As far as I know, his ghost has not been seen since.
Ghost of a Cat
Back in the 1970's when my Parents and 2 brothers and I still lived in University Park in Dallas, TX, our pets were mostly cats. We had a Siamese cat named "Fancy", and believe me the name fit. We had her for several years and she liked to sleep on our beds at night.
She picked up a habit of climbing up a tree onto the garden wall. She would then walk up to the tile roof and jump up on the window ledge and wait there until someone saw her and went to open the window to let her in, especially while we watched TV in the upstairs "Living Room".
One day as my parents and I were driving off to somewhere with the 2 brothers, I happened to glance out the rear window and saw Fancy go down into one of the street drains. It was a cold and snowy day. When we returned to the house later that evening, we waited for Fancy to return. We never saw her again. I think she got killed somewhere down under the streets.
A few days later while I was watching TV in the aforementioned upstairs living room, I sensed something at the window that Fancy used to come in through. I looked but there was nothing there. This happened several more times for several more days. I never saw her but I kept sensing her presence. It got so strong that finally as the presence of Fancy once came to the outside of the window, I opened it and said, "Okay, I hear ya. Come on in."
I was immediately enveloped with a feeling of peace and joy. The incident never happened again, so I felt that Fancy finally did come home. Once she did, she went on to that Other Place.
My First Ghost
My earliest memory was of my maternal Grandfather, whom my brothers and I called “Foddy” because we couldn’t say “Grandfather”. It was Foddy who taught me to fish and play cards and he would take Stewart, Bryan and myself on trips downtown just to see the city. One day, when I was about five years old, I saw Mom and Dad all dressed in black and looking very sad, especially Mom. I asked Mom what was wrong and she told me that Foddy had gone to Heaven.
They had left a baby sitter with us. I was 5, Stewart was 4 and Bryan was 2. When I asked them where they were going, Mom told me that they were going to Foddy’s funeral. I didn’t understand, but I let it go. I didn’t find out until it was explained to me later. Foddy had been ill because of a couple of heart attacks he’d had in previous years. One day, he went to lie down on the couch at his and Granny’s house. He had a third heart attack and passed away while he slept. Granny came home and found him dead. After Foddy had been buried, I began having disturbing dreams about him. I found myself standing in a field of stones with names and numbers on them.
I found myself sinking into the ground and looking at him as though I was looking through a cross section of the ground and through the casket at him. He was dressed in his best suit and lying very still.
Pretty wild for a five year old kid who knew nothing about death, only that his grandfather was in Heaven.About a year later, Mom and Dad took the three of us boys over to Granny’s house to spend the night. We had some dinner and then watched Granny’s color TV and then went to bed. Stewart and Bryan slept in the back bedroom and I slept in Foddy’s old bed. I had trouble sleeping because, not only was I in a strange bed, but I had the feeling that I was being watched. I sat up and looked over toward the bedroom door and sensed a presence there! It gave me a terrible fright and I woke Granny up and pleaded for her to call Mom and Dad to come and get me. As soon as I became frightened, the presence vanished. Mom and Dad came and got me and took me home to where I slept in my own bed. Thinking about it now and looking back, I’m pretty sure that it was just Foddy looking in on me, checking out his beloved wife and his grandson. I never told anyone about this until last month. I told Bryan and it gave him the creeps. But that was the first.
