Meek Estate and McConaghy House, Hayward CA: Voices from the Past

In December 2009, Los Angeles Paranormal had the pleasure of presenting at “Voices From the Past,” an event held by the Hayward Area Historical Society and the American Paranormal Research Association (APRA). The 2-day event featured lectures and evidence presentation from both LAPA and APRA, and two nights of investigations at two historical locations: the Meek Estate and the McConaghy House. It was an amazing event. We met so many great folks and experienced some really interesting paranormal activity at the two locations.

LAPA investigated the McConaghy House the first night. There, we heard what sounded like disembodied voices in the attic, and we later captured the following evp in one of the children’s bedrooms:

Captured in Mary’s bedroom at the McConaghy house in Hayward, CA. We were sitting in a circle at the foot of Mary’s bed, and there was an antique ladies hat resting on a wooden chest. You will hear one of the people we were investigating with saying “you’re gonna need to move the hat because there are other people.” Then, the EVP comes in right after her – it sounds to us like it’s saying something like “the show” or “good show,” although we’re unsure of what that could be in reference to. Were we amusing a watchful spirit? Perhaps the hat was worn to a show or used in a show?

On night two, LAPA investigated the eerily foreboding (see photo above) Meek Estate. Grant was with a group of people upstairs in the children’s playroom when the door to the room mysteriously opened with no visible cause. Grant immediately got up to inspect the door at which point footsteps were clearly heard in the hallway outside the room. However, upon inspection, it was learned that no one else was around. Although the events were witnessed by several people, the incident was not captured on video and therefore falls in the annals of  “personal experience.”

Another interesting event of the evening occurred again upstairs, this time while we were in a room near the servants quarters. In the middle of an EVP session, Layla tried to elicit a response by knocking on a door (to the tune of “shave and a haircut”) – and got a response in the form of knocking that sounded like it was coming from the next room. Startled, we all immediately ran out into the hallway and heard a louder knock near the top of the servant’s staircase. Upon further inspection, we learned that we were alone in the house at that time. *listen with headphones* – the knocking is faint, but we all clearly heard it at the time.

Thank you again to APRA Paranormal, Heather Farquhar of the Hayward Area Historical Society, and all the attendees of this awesome event!

For more information visit: Hayward Area Historical Society
and also visit APRA’s site: APRA Paranormal

Los Angeles Paranormal Returns to Linda Vista Hospital

In 2009, LAPA documented paranormal activity at the Linda Vista Hospital in East LA when we captured what sounded like the voice of a little girl humming in the surgery area. We later returned with the crew of the Ghost Adventures TV show (Travel Channel) and experienced paranormal activity once again, including the capture of an evp that sounded like the same humming. In January, 2010, Los Angeles Paranormal Association returned once more to Linda Vista hospital with a host of noted and experienced paranormal investigators. Special thanks to Mark and Debby Constantino, Andy Coppock, Michelle Ayers, Jen Brown, APRA Paranormal and Dave Harvey & Kristin Baalman of Altered States Para Radio.

Silver Spirits at the Old Washoe Club

In late November, Los Angeles Paranormal Association visited Virginia City, Nevada in our search for haunted real estate. While there we investigated notoriously haunted Old Washoe Club.

Virginia City, Nevada, or “Old Virginny Town” as it was called by locals, was built around the infamous Comstock Lode, which, in 1859, was the first major discovery of silver in the US, and which lured fortune-seeking prospectors from all over the world. Here, immense fortunes were made by a lucky few while countless others toiled in the mines, often meeting their death in pursuit of the same.

Death came in many forms on the Comstock, not only in the mines, but on the rowdy streets, in the saloons, gambling halls and brothels. Shootouts, bar-room brawls and straight up murder were everyday occurrences. Disease was rife and epidemics such as the typhoid epidemic of 1874, were commonplace.

The Old Washoe Club was built in 1862, during the heart of the silver rush. Originally built as an office building, it later housed a saloon on the first floor, as it still does to this day. It was one of the few Civil War era buildings to survive the great fire of 1875, and this fact led to it’s history being forever altered when a newly established “Millionaire’s Club” relocated after the fire from it’s original home across the street to the Washoe Club’s second floor.

The Millionaire’s Club was where the newly rich and elite of the ‘Comstock’ could rub elbows, drink in excess, gamble and cavort with ‘soiled doves,’ away from the riff-raff of the wild and wooly streets below. Many of the most powerful and notable men of the era were known to grace the spiral staircase that led to the upper floors, including Ulysses S. Grant and honorary Millionaire’s Club member, Mark Twain.

Today, the millionaires, wild west cowboys and soiled doves are long gone in body – but perhaps not in spirit, as the Old Washoe Club is known as one of the more haunted buildings in a very haunted town. It’s haunted reputation has been fueled by media coverage, most notably from the Ghost Adventures documentary, in which the filmmakers, Zak Bagans, Nick Groff and Aaron Goodwin captured on video what appeared to be a full-bodied apparition in the ballroom. Subsequent investigations by EVP specialists Mark and Debby Constantino yielded EVPs that seemed to clearly call out the names ‘Zak’ and ‘Nick.’

Our two-night investigation of the Old Washoe was to be marked by an unexpected snowstorm that blanketed the town and turned the streets to ice. The wind was whipping and icy snow pelted us in our faces as we slipped and slid our way down the street toward the former Millionaire’s Club. The air inside as we entered the building was only marginally warmer as we ascended the steep staircase from the side entrance that leads directly to the Millionaires Club. The upper floors of the building are not heated and needless to say, it was mighty cold.

Unsure of what to expect, we did experience a high level of paranormal activity during our investigation, especially in the wee hours of the morning. From hearing low, murmuring male conversation throughout both nights with no known origin, to hearing footsteps on the 3rd floor above us and shuffling and shadows at the top of the stairs as we stood at the bottom looking up. We also captured unexplained movement and footsteps on our remote audio recorder during an hour-long break while we were not in the building, from approximately 2:00am to 3:00am. Perhaps most startling, we heard what we believe to be the disembodied voice of a little girl, who later appeared again on our recorded audio, along with evps of other mysterious voices that we did not hear at the time.

Given the bawdy history of the location, we were not expecting to encounter the spirit of a little girl, although we later learned that, according to reports, a little girl has been one of three spirits commonly known to haunt the location. According to some reports, she was an orphan sold into prostitution at a young age and others believe that she may have been the daughter of one of the prostitutes who lived and worked here.

We may never know for sure, but we hope to return to the Old Washoe Club to find out more about the silver spirits that linger there. Preferably in warmer weather.

- LMH

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***As always, the following EVP clips should be listened to with a good set of headphones and the volume turned up high.***

It was approximately 3:00 am on the first night of our investigation, and we had just returned from a break in which we left to get coffee. Upon our return, we conducted an EVP session in the ballroom. Layla asked the question ‘do you mind that we came back?’ and we heard what sounds like the disembodied voice of a little girl saying ‘get out.’

During another EVP session in the ballroom, Layla asks “can you come closer to us?” A few seconds later, you can hear what again sounds like the voice of the little girl, either talking or laughing. In this case, as you can tell from the clip, we did not hear the voice at the time, but only upon review of the audio. *EVP occurs at approx :20 seconds in.

A chilling EVP from the ballroom. In this one, Layla says “we’re not here to harm you” and the response sounds like an angry child yelling “die.” Not audible to us at the time of recording.

Next, another evp from the ballroom. Layla asks, “if you’re a little girl, how old are you?” About halfway through the clip, you will hear a loud drip (water leak dripping into a bucket). Right after the drip, we hear what sounds like a very faint “twenty” then something else we can’t make out, and then, more clearly, a whispery “seven”. It sounds like it could be 3 different voices, and these were not audible to us at the time. Could there have been more than one spirit speaking to us? *This evp is very faint, so you will want to make sure you have a good set of headphones and the volume turned up all the way. The drip occures at approx :10seconds, and the EVPs begin at about :11seconds in.

In this next clip, Layla first asks about the ‘Vigilance group’ and receives no response, but right before she asks about the story of a woman who had been hurt there (some reports reference a prostitute who had been slashed by a knife), we hear what sounds to us like a male voice saying “i am the doc” or “i am the doctor.” Not audible to us at the time of the recording. The loud ‘popping’ sounds you will hear are drops of water falling into a bucket. *EVP occurs at approximately :32 seconds in.

In this clip, Brian, Grant, Les and Layla were all standing at the foot of the stairs that lead from the 2nd to the 3rd floor of the former Millionaire’s Club. Layla was getting ready to ask a question when we heard what sounded like footsteps above us. We later heard more footsteps and along with shuffling and shadows at the top of the stairs.

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*thank you to our friends Kristin Baalman of Altered States Para Radio and Maria Quijada of Channel Islands Ghost Trackers for braving the cold and snow to join us for this investigation. We are still reviewing our video footage from the Old Washoe club, so stay tuned…

Undisclosed Location – Pebbles

When we tried to use a rubber bouncy-ball to prompt interaction, we were completely stunned by the response — pebbles being thrown. **listen with headphones on and volume up**

EVPs – Undisclosed Location

***Note*** You will want to listen to the following EVP’s with headphones on and volume up.

EVP 1 – Step Out Into the Corridor

There were 3 of us in the hotel, and we were standing together in the basement at the t-junction of 2 hallways. We were calling down the hallway because we were hearing odd noises from down there – growls, bangs, movement, voices… it had been raining, so you can also hear dripping. In this clip, Brian asks whoever or whatever was communicating with us to step out into the corridor and we hear a voice that sounds a bit like a whispery growl say “yeah” in response.

EVP 2 – Hello?

Same corridor, again with the 3 of us standing together and calling down to something that seemed to be communicating with us. Layla says “hello?” and a couple of seconds later, what sounds like a male disembodied voice says “hello?” back.

EVP 3 – Laughter / Teasing

This was captured in between the lobby and the dining room. Disembodied laughter and then childlike teasing noises underneath Brian’s voice. This was not audible to us at the time it occurred, but appeared on our recorded audio.

EVP 4 – Unexplained Movement in the Basement

The 3 of us were in a room in the basement near the old elevator shaft, and we caught these unexplainable shuffling noises from within the room.

EVP 5 – Are You One of the Miners?

Another clip from the basement, after the rains. Here, Grant asks “Are you one of the miners that was wrongfully cheated out of your money?” The response is an almost electronic sounding ‘yes’ that was not audible at the time.

Return to Alcatraz: A Night on The Rock

Los Angeles Paranormal returned to Alcatraz in mid-September to participate in an event that few have the opportunity to experience – an overnight investigation of the infamous former penitentiary. Yes, we spent the night on The Rock! Special thanks to Mark and Debby Constantino for allowing us to tag along, and also to the crew from Altered States Paranormal Radio (Dave Harvey, Kristin Baalman and Tom Durant). Thanks also to comic Mike Brody and to Terry Campbell of the Haunted Wolfe Manor for joining us during part of the investigation, which led to the capture of some really cool EVPs.

We began the evening with a comprehensive, behind-the-scenes tour of the island (graciously led by Ranger John and his accomplice, Ranger Roger), the highlight of which was being allowed access to the basement of the former Citadel — the oldest part of the prison (left over from ‘Fort Alcatraz’ days), and which includes the original and infamous ‘hole.’

Our official investigation later took us to various other parts of the prison, such as the isolation cells, the dining hall, the showers and the infirmary, along with the main cell blocks. It was cold, it was windy, and late in the evening it started thundering and lightning. It was intense.

It was during the storm, later in the evening in the infirmary area where we captured the following evps:

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It was late, it was stormy, and there were 5 of us in our group, wandering the old infirmary hallways at Alcatraz. We had found our way into an infirmary room known as the ‘bug room,’ where mentally unstable and/or rowdy patients were kept. We were setting up and getting ready to do an EVP session, and Layla happened to have her recorder on, resting on top of a backpack. Here, you will hear the investigators talking in the background, but throughout the clip there is a loud, breathy, angry sounding, whispery voice or voices in the foreground. It’s difficult to make out everything with the various layers of sound, but we can hear a loud whispery voice say, from the beginning “op-en uuuup”, and then “out!” Then you hear investigator Mike Brody in the background saying ‘close the door’ and then Layla saying ‘yeah’ but with an angry whisper over the top of her voice. Finally a clipped, electronic-sounding, female whispery disembodied voice says “Get…out!” So the whole clip plays out like this: ‘Op-en uuuupp’ ‘Out!’ (‘close the door’ with whisper over it) (‘yeah’ with odd whisper over it) ‘Get…Out!’ You will likely have to listen several times in order to hear everything, but the disembodied voice/s seems to be talking over our background chatter throughout this entire clip.

Later, as we walked through the infirmary hallway, Mike saw a shadow in the surgery room, so we went in and conducted an EVP session. During the session, Layla stated, ‘we know you’re here, Mike saw you,’ at which point we all audibly heard what can only be described as a loud, disembodied breath or breathy outburst, like scream or yell. It sounded similar to the breathy voices we had captured in the bug room. Luckily, we were able to capture the strange sound on our audio. The recorded sound is less breathy but very obviously some type of outburst, and you can hear us immediately react to what we heard.

The final clip was captured during a session in the dark room (x-ray developing room?) off of the hydrotherapy room. Robert Stroud, aka ‘the Birdman of Alcatraz’ had his own cell in the infirmary. During this EVP session, Mike had just finished asking, ‘Did you know the Birdman?’ at which point Terry asked, ‘What was he like?’ – the response sounds to us like “baaad…” *headphones required for this clip

As with the first time we set foot on Alcatraz Island, we again set out on the ferry back to the mainland with a certainty that whatever grief, terror, pain, anger, loneliness and despair had been felt on this island many years ago – some piece of that energy remains behind, imprisoned forever on this rocky outcrop of land. We were fortunate to be going home – not everyone who’s been to Alcatraz had that chance.

*For further reading, check out Mike Brody’s account of the Alcatraz overnight at Ghostvillage.com

and visit Mark and Debby Constantino’s website: www.spirits-speak.com

-LMH

Los Angeles Paranormal on Japanese TV!

LAPA made our ‘international television debut’ on August 16 when we appeared in a segment on the hit Japanese TV show “Sekai No Hate Made ItteQ.” The show name translates loosely to “Go To the Ends of the Earth,” and it is a variety show airing on Japan’s NTV network (Nippon Television). They send their roving reporters out to explore mysteries and have adventures in various corners of the world.

In this episode, they sent one of their correspondents, Japanese comedian, Daisuke Miyagawa, to the US to ride some scary rollercoasters – and to Los Angeles to visit a haunted hospital (Linda Vista) with us!

The crew were a great pleasure to work with and we had a lot of fun. We hope you get a kick out of it!

You can check it out on YouTube here: (our segment starts at 04:07)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkzM7zUvXjo&feature=player_embedded

*note: oddly enough, the scream that occurs during the intro to the hospital was not staged and was never explained…

The Ghost Ship Speaks: Star of India

The Star of India is a tremendously atmospheric ship with a long and storied past. Someone or something appears to remain behind, following visitors and apparently answering questions. But I am getting ahead of myself . . . a little history first:

“The Star of India is the world’s oldest active ship. She began her life on the stocks at Ramsey Shipyard in the Isle of Man in 1863. Iron ships were experiments of sorts then, with most vessels still being built of wood. Within five months of laying her keel, the ship was launched into her element. She bore the name Euterpe, after the Greek goddess of music.

Euterpe was a full-rigged ship and would remain so until 1901, when the Alaska Packers Association rigged her down to a barque, her present rig. She began her sailing life with two near-disastrous voyages to India. On her first trip she suffered a collision and a mutiny. On her second trip, a cyclone caught Euterpe in the Bay of Bengal, and with her topmasts cut away, she barely made port. Shortly afterward, her first captain died on board and was buried at sea.

After such a hard luck beginning, Euterpe settled down and made four more voyages to India as a cargo ship. In 1871 she was purchased by the Shaw Savill line of London and embarked on a quarter century of hauling emigrants to New Zealand, sometimes also touching Australia, California and Chile. She made 21 circumnavigations in this service, some of them lasting up to a year. It was rugged voyaging, with the little iron ship battling through terrific gales, “labouring and rolling in a most distressing manner,” according to her log.” (sdmaritime.com/contentpage.asp?contentID=48)

We were enthusiastic about investigating the Star of India, since she has such an amazing and tragic past. If ever spirits were to wander a place, this would be it. We didn’t have to wait long for the odd experiences to commence.

Layla and I started our investigation in the First Mate’s Cabin while Grant and Brian headed towards the lower decks. Seemingly out of nowhere, a puddle formed on the vinyl mat where the original bed was. This made no sense, considering that there was only one slow drip in the ceiling nowhere near the puddle. As quickly as the puddle formed, it disappeared. There was no logical source for it, and no reason for it to vanish. As we asked our questions, there were occasionally audible responses. This rattled my nerves, since it’s not often that you hear direct responses; but we were lucky enough to catch two on the clips below. I don’t know who or what was communicating with us, a source of frustration sometimes. This left us with the need to return and attempt to retrieve more information. All we know now is that the person responding was not the first mate. Who was he?

We quickly acclimated to the particular sounds of a ship: the creaking, the sea noises, and the night birds outside. I was surrounded by the musty, oily, salty smell of the ship and the ocean, and realized how sharp one’s senses become in the dark. Every place has its own scent, a peculiar mixture of organic growth and human industry, of must, paint, wood and vermin. The Star of India transported me to another reality, one where there was real danger in the everyday life and work of the ship. And then, of course, there is the question of which reality is operating when voices speak to you from the dark. The darkness on the lower decks is all-consuming and blacker in some areas than others, a fact not entirely explained by natural light sources. There is that thick, oppressive feeling that accompanies something strange, a sensation that is now familiar but no less frightening when it happens. It happened to us again on the deck below the Captain’s Quarters, below a staircase. There were footsteps above our head, so clear that we all heard them and had no doubt as to what we were hearing. Of course, there was no one upstairs. That fact never ceases to amaze me–how does this happen? How does any of this happen?

Around the time of the footsteps, I noticed that the area in front of me seemed alive with some kind of energy, and I instinctively moved forward (this is a change from the early days of ghost hunting, when I would have instinctively moved away). At that moment, I heard a slide and a tremendous crash. It was so startling, that I screamed for only the second time during an investigation. After I recovered from the shock, we quickly confirmed that we had all heard the same thing. It almost goes without saying that nothing was out of place, nothing had fallen, and that no known source of the crash could be identified.

We continued to have odd experiences on the ship that night. It seemed, once again, that something inanimate had come alive. Equally odd was how quickly the activity shut itself off–near the end of our stay there seemed to be a clear disappearance of paranormal activity: it stopped as quickly as it had started. I am always amazed how that works: you feel tremendous movement and energy all around you as you walk into a place, and then later, at some random point in the evening, it simply vanishes. Why?

The Star of India left us with at least two amazing audio clips and several personal experiences shared by the entire group. The haunted history of the ship matched our experience: the man who committed suicide in the First Mate’s Cabin may not have been the spirit communicating with us, but something was still in that room as other reports confirm. The footsteps on the lower deck match up to numerous reports from the same area. The crashes and other unexplained noises have a long history of scaring visitors.

We can’t confirm who might have spoken to us that night, but there was a clear attempt at communication. As for the crashes, bangs, raps and other odd noises, that might simply be the repetition of daily life at sea: cargo sliding around the deck, materials falling to the floor in rough seas, or even–perhaps–a permanent reminder and testament to the restless souls of the sailors who lost their lives on the Star of India, so many decades ago.

Kirsten A. Thorne

EVP Session – Star of India – First Mate’s Cabin

Los Angeles Paranormal Association recently had the privilege to investigate the world’s oldest active ship, the Star of India, formerly the Euterpe, which is moored at the Maritime Museum of San Diego. We experienced several odd occurrences during our investigation, including unexplained crashing and dragging sounds, mysterious footsteps, phantom doors creaking open, and audible disembodied voices.

Here, Kirsten and Layla were conducting an EVP session in the first mate’s cabin. Layla asked the question ‘are you the first mate?’, and we heard an audible response. At the time, we knew we had heard something odd, but we weren’t sure what we had heard – in fact we bantered back and forth about it being the other person’s stomach. Listening to the clip later, we heard what sounds to us like a male voice saying ‘no.’ **This clip is audible without headphones, but clearer with headphones.

more about “AVP – Star of India – Are You the Fir…“, posted with vodpod

During the same session in the First Mate’s cabin, we noticed water dripping down from the ceiling. We were trying to identify the source of the dripping when we captured the following clip. Shortly after Kirsten says ‘but I can’t tell,’ listen for what sounds to us like a disembodied male voice.

**This clip requires headphones.

more about “EVP – Star of India – Dripping“, posted with vodpod

Ghost Adventures!

Los Angeles Paranormal Association was fortunate to be asked to participate in an episode of the Ghost Adventures series, starring Zak Bagans, Nick Groff and Aaron Goodwin, and which airs on the Travel Channel. Kirsten and Layla were initially taking the guys on a tour of the location to describe our paranormal experiences from a prior investigation – but it turned into a real paranormal happening when we started hearing and experiencing some very wild things during an EVP session!! The show will air next season, which begins in October, so stay tuned for more on our amazing adventures and some TRULY AMAZING evidence…

***update*** Dec 13th, 2009 — What an awesome episode it was!! Once again, being able to take part in the Ghost Adventures episode at Linda Vista Hospital was an incredible experience for us in so many ways. Not only was their equipment malfunctioning during our live EVP session with them, but to capture that EXACT SAME little girls voice as we had the first time, is simply amazing. Not only that, but Nick later saw a complete fully-bodied apparition of a female in the exact same spot where we had captured the humming both times. They also captured quite a bit more phenomenal evidence that night during their lockdown. Here is a promo video featuring just some of our experience there with the guys… Ghost Adventures – Voices in the Linda Vista Hospital