Ghosts of the Winchester Mystery House

Last month when I talked about séances in the Old West, I told y'all I would blog about the Winchester Mansion this month. Well, I have since been reminded that fellow Sweetheart Paisley Kirkpatrick wrote about the history of the famous haunted mansion back in 2011.  http://bit.ly/2a7Yyu2

After reading Paisley's post, I decided there was no point in trying to match her splendid work. Instead, I'll share a few anecdotes about the mansion and its eccentric owner gleaned from Earl Murray's book, Ghosts Of The Old West. Available on Amazon, new in paperback or used in hard cover, this gem is a fun read you might want to pick up if you are intrigued by "Desert Spirits, Haunted Cabins, Lost Trail, and Other Strange Encounters" -- quoting the subtitle.



Winchestery Mystery House; photo by Jim Heaphy; Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

In his chapter "The Legacy of Winchester Mansion," Mr. Murray mentions Sarah Winchester's quirky home included many up-to-the-minute features such as modern heating and sewer systems, button-operated gas lights, three working elevators, fireplaces with hinged drops for ashes and concealed firewood boxes. Wool was used for insulation, a pioneering development, and Sarah fashioned a window catch based on the Winchester rifle trigger and trip-hammer design.



Sarah Winchester ca. 1865; public domain

The inventive lady even had a tiltable floor installed to get rid of water dumped on the floor (why it was dumped, Murray doesn't say). The water sluiced out a trap door onto her garden below. Sounds like she was quite an architect!

In the garden stood a statue of an Indian who Sarah named Chief Little Fawn. He could fire arrows at supposed enemies -- ghosts -- hiding in the shrubbery, and she hoped he might help her atone for all the Indians killed by the famous Winchester repeating rifle.

Chief Little Fawn; photo by Jesse Means; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/legalcode

Sarah spent much of her time in the Grand Ballroom, where she often played her rosewood grand piano through the night, or switched to a huge organ on the opposite side of the room. Why? Because she wanted to entertain the spirits who she believed were ever present. Since she suffered from severe arthritis in her later years, it was rumored someone else must be playing through her fingers.

Earl Murray offers other tidbits about Sarah's life in the mansion, but I'll skip ahead now to more recent times and relate some eerie happenings in the Winchester Mansion.

On Halloween night in 1975, Jeanne Borgan, a psychic from northern California, and a group of other people held a séance in the bedroom where Sarah Winchester died. Borgan, who had reportedly seen ghostly apparitions in the house before, said on that night the air grew cold and clammy in the death room and everyone present began to visibly age. Like all of them, Borgan's hair turned gray and deep lines creased her face. She fell to the floor, unable to move. The others carried her outside, where she quickly recovered.

Quoting from Murray's book, "The other people who were there with me saw it all," she said. "I didn't remember anything, just the sudden buildup of energy within myself and then feeling some kind of strange takeover. Mrs. Winchester was a powerful person."

Psychic Sylvia Brown and four other people once spent a night in the mansion. Brown recorded organ music only she could hear. Walking through the house, the group saw lights with no source and felt many cold spots. Exploding red balls of light were witnessed in the death bedroom.

Another woman lost her sight while touring the mansion. When her husband tried to lead her out, he couldn't find an exit. Finally, a tour guide led them outside, where the woman was soon able to see again.

There have been many more strange occurrences witnessed by tour guides and employees who spend a lot of time in the mansion. One stands out. An office manager named Sue guided a tour group through one of the kitchens. Seated at the kitchen table, a small woman in a long dress and bonnet nodded to the group. They nodded back and smiled.

Later, Sue asked her supervisor who the woman was that they'd hired to look like Sarah Winchester. The supervisor didn't know what she was talking about. They hadn't hired anyone to impersonate the dead woman. When the two checked the kitchen, they found only a chair pulled out from the table.

Such is the ghostly legacy of Sarah and her peculiar, sometimes spine-chilling home. 

THE HAUNTED FORT WORTH TX STOCKYARDS!

Do you believe in ghosts? I do. This time of year, tales of hauntings appear to thrill or frighten us. Here is a replay of a guest post from last year about ghosts in the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Fort Worth Stockyards on Exchange Street off Main Street

Cowtown Winery Haunted Stockyards Tour

By Bea Smith

The Stockyards actually have a branch of the Trinity River flowing under Exchange, the main street. Many people believe that water holds spiritual activity and heightens paranormal activity.

The Stockyards Hotel was built in 1910 and was a crown jewel of a hotel, attracting rich oil tycoons. Bonnie and Clyde reportedly stayed in room 305, which overlooked Merrick Fine Western Wear, then a jewelry store, and the bank nearby.  Two stories are told about their stay. One is that they rented the room to stake out the two businesses, but they liked Fort Worth so much they decided not to rob it. The other is that they told the owners of the bank and the jewelry store that they weren’t there to rob them or cause any trouble; Bonnie and Clyde were just hiding out from the law until things cooled down a bit.

The Stockyards Hotel has a full-bodied apparition named Jesse. He’s a cowboy who couldn’t have afforded to stay in the Stockyards at the time. People speculate that he just wanted to stay there in the afterlife.  Visitors hear his spurs jingling as he walks through the hall or see him but he never interacts with anyone.

People feel the presence of a former employee, Jake. He was a messenger from the 1900’s and he loved his job of 30 -40 years. Visitors feel hot and cold spots and some of his physical duties are still taken care of: if guests leave their room unlocked, it will be locked when they return. For the last 30 years, the phone rings after hours. No one is there and the call cannot be traced, put on hold, or transferred. 

Stockyard Hotel

Love Shack, owned by Tim Love. Ten years ago or so, an Australian couple was vacationing in the Stockyards and staying in the hotel.  They had been having a wonderful time and seemed to be very happy. One early morning the man woke up his fiancée, very energized and agitated, and said he had something to show her. She followed him across the street to the closed restaurant, where he climbed to the second floor and threw himself off the balcony headfirst, dying instantly. She later said she felt some evil force had inhabited her lover.

Exchange Building: Rodeo Arena: Had a rodeo since 1908. Hotbed of paranormal activity. There is a phantom black horse that runs around the arena.

Apparitions are of a deceased cowboys in old-time clothing.  The rodeo was very dangerous and many lost their lives during the performance.  EVP’s (electronic voice phenomenon; conversation not heard by the human ear) record hearing a voice saying, “Cow, cow, cow.” And “Pig, pig, pig.”

People have also recorded seeing the spirit of Quanah Parker, who was the first Native American to ride in a rodeo.

Exchange Rodeo Arena

Exchange Building: A man’s small child followed him to work in the early 1900’s. He wasn’t sure what to do with her, so he let her wander around. She went to play in the vault and an employee inadvertently locked her in. She wasn’t discovered in the airtight building until the next morning, where she had suffocated.  Employees say they get an eerie feeling upstairs. They see a little girl running around playing and trying to get their attention. She looks out windows at dawn. One early morning, there were hand prints on the inside of the door. The paranormal team from the stockyards found two prints.

The body of a prostitute was found inside years ago when prostitution was a licensed profession. She was probably murdered offsite and then dumped there. Her rose-scented perfume, for which she was known, can still be smelled on tours.

Exchange Building

Armour Swift Corporate Building: 1900’s-1970’s. Arson destroyed the building and, with all the residual animal fat, it took 1 month to put out completely. The Spaghetti Warehouse was there after the building was rebuilt, but they couldn’t keep staff. Silverware would fly, things would be moved, strange noises, and creepy feelings.  It’s a power company now.

Former Spaghetti Warehouse, now offices.

Riscky’s Steakhouse: A Brothel was above--a high class brothel; more expensive. The last member of the Riscky family is very embarrassed about the brothel and won’t let people go up there. She threw everything away—but one red rocker, owned by the Madam, mysteriously reappeared in the building.  The bells that signaled the men that their time was up are still there and working. The windows where the women would stand to attract customers have been boarded up because people kept seeing apparitions of working women standing and posing in them.

Saunders Park: When it was Hell’s Half Acre, people would take care of disputes by shooting at each other. Dead or dying were dumped into the river by the park. Sometimes the water was red with blood. Divers report that there are too many human bones to count remaining on the bottom of that part of the river.

Saunders Park

Miss Molly’s B and B: Molly is actually the name of the lead cow in the simulated cattle drive and the mascot of FW. The actual Madam was Miss Josie. It was a speakeasy until the 1930’s, then became a low end brothel. 

The girls were actually 11-15 years old. Most of the girls were orphans or runaways.  Miss Josie was abusive. She didn’t take any guff from the male customers and was known to throw them out on the street. She was very obese and ill-tempered. The girls had huge quotas and, if they didn’t meet them or they talked back, Josie would lock them in the closet without food, water, or facilities as long as she felt they needed. Girls were very competitive and would poison each other’s food and lotion, resulting in some violent illnesses and deaths.  

Miss Josie had a daughter, father unknown, who she abused terribly. When the little girl was 8 years old, she disappeared.  Everyone thought Josie had killed her but it was never investigated.  One time a little girl on the ghost tour had her hair pulled and said that “Mary was messing with her.” No one had told the little girl that Josie’s daughter was named Mary. The owner keeps toys for Mary that no one else is allowed to play with, and the playthings move around.

Josie’s room and the Cowboy’s room are the most haunted. Men have their shoulders rubbed or their heads patted, but women report feeling very unwelcome and watched.

The real Miss Molly leading the herd

Longhorn Saloon:  Three cowboys stopped to drink, boys between 15 and 17. They got drunk and got back on what they thought were their horses. The men whose horses they stole confronted them and the boys were hanged in the saloon.  Now women in the Ladies bathroom report having their legs tugged and feeling like they are being watched.

Cowtown Winery: The paranormal team that works the Stockyards swept the building and found just as much activity as Miss Molly’s.  It used to be a Chinese Laundromat with the family living above.  People feel the presence of a young boy. A medium said he was killed by an abusive parent, who kept him in a cupboard behind the bar. There is an old-fashioned sock monkey doll no one admits to having brought in.  It will disappear for days, then reappear in odd places.

Another presence is also felt. Wine is spilled during the night, crackers are spilled, and cases topple over. The motion detector is never tripped.  People hear glass break and rush in, but nothing is broken.

Cowtown Winery, start and end of ghost the tour

While the guide was talking about the little boy, the street light in the alley was flickering. When she got to the story of the other presence, it went out with a “Pop!” Everyone jumped, watched, and then laughed at themselves. As the tour dispersed and the guide went back in, one of the remaining tourists said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if the light came back on?”

And it did.