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"content": "\u003cp>Jim Groverman, the owner of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/petaluma\">Petaluma\u003c/a> Pumpkin Patch and Amazing Corn Maze, has been building corn mazes for more than 30 years. And he does it all by hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t map anything out,” he said. “I do it all in my head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While other creations vie for the “biggest corn maze in the world” title — including \u003ca href=\"https://www.coolpatchpumpkins.com/\">Dixon’s record-holding Cool Patch Pumpkins\u003c/a> — Groverman’s \u003ca href=\"https://petalumapumpkinpatch.com/corn-maze/\">four-acre corn maze\u003c/a> holds a different charm. And it’s just one of many Bay Area corn mazes in full holiday swing this month, offering the public a chance to solve these life-sized puzzles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#Experttipsforsolvingacornmaze\">Expert tips for solving a corn maze\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#bay-area-corn-maze-near-me\">Bay Area corn mazes to visit this spooky season\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Some corn mazes, like Groverman’s, are hand-cut with just one way in and out. Others boast intricate patterns and hidden checkpoints — not to mention all the other activities on the farm during fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read on to find out how the Bay Area’s corn mazes are made, with expert tips from their creators on how to get out of them. And if you’re eager for a challenge, we’ve got a roundup of Bay Area corn mazes where you can get lost in the stalks yourself.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How is a corn maze made?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>How corn maze creators actually design and build their labyrinths can be very different from farm to farm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Groverman, the key to a solid corn maze — like any crop, is “good soil.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting in March, he takes soil samples, adding fertilizers as needed, before working the soil and preparing it for planting. While the old saying says corn should be \u003ca href=\"https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/news/2025/07/02/knee-high-by-fourth-of-july-adage-is-becoming-obsolete-heres-why/84426153007/\">“knee high at the Fourth of July\u003c/a>,” Groverman waits until the end of June to plant, so his stalks can still be that welcoming green color in time for his October maze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059448\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12059448 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze1-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The corn kernel sandbox at the Petaluma Pumpkin Patch and Amazing Corn Maze. Jim Groverman, owner of the Petaluma Pumpkin Patch, has been building corn mazes for more than 30 years. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Petaluma Pumpkin Patch and Amazing Corn Maze)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Groverman plants 30,000 seeds per acre in total — 7 inches apart, in rows 2-and-a-half feet apart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All summer long, he weeds the rows to keep the crows out of the young stalks, because “they’ll just go along and pull the corn right out of the ground” at that height.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once the corn gets tall enough, Groverman grabs his shovel and gets to work sculpting his maze. With a team of two, just making the pathway takes four to five eight-hour days, “at least,” he said. “I try to have it all made and completed by the first of August.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final touch: Groverman then lets the remaining corn grow tall until October, when he opens his doors to the public.[aside postID=news_12054079 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904-PRESIDIOHIKES-11-BL-KQED.jpg']Frank Andreotti, farm manager at \u003ca href=\"https://andreottifamilyfarm.com/\">Andreotti Family Farm\u003c/a> in Half Moon Bay, takes a similar freehand approach — but with a little more power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all his corn has grown in, Andreotti constructs his 10-acre corn maze in just a few hours by plowing a 6-foot-wide path with a tractor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I’m driving through, I just have in my mind the outlay of the entire field,” he said. “It’s like freehand painting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Denise Fantozzi, on the other hand, is one farm owner who took the GPS route — and it’s paid off. Each year at Fantozzi Farms, located in the Central Valley, \u003ca href=\"https://fantozzifarms.com/corn-maze/\">she and her husband dream up a new design for the maze\u003c/a>, which is actually three mazes in one. The pair works with a company called Maze Play to input the design into a GPS and then, when the stalks are about 3 feet tall, they cut the maze exactly to the design.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year’s theme is how food goes from the farm to the grocery store to the table, Fantozzi said. The smallest of the mazes is designed to be short and easy for school groups to complete, featuring animal tracks that kids can identify as they navigate the maze. The second-largest maze invites older children to play “Farm Scene Investigation,” a Clue-like game in which they can search for hidden pictures in the maze to identify which animals stole Farmer Joe’s pies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The largest of the mazes, for teens and adults, includes 12 hidden checkpoints and can take anywhere from 40 minutes to two hours to complete, Fantozzi said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an intricate design every year,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Experttipsforsolvingacornmaze\">\u003c/a>What are some top tips for solving a corn maze?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Consider shelling out for the map\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Groverman’s is a traditional maze, with one way in and one way out — and to complete it, you have to pass through each corner and climb two towers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You really have to cover the whole area,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059308\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059308\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The corn maze path at Andreotti Family Farms in Half Moon Bay on Oct. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Groverman’s maze takes around 45 minutes to complete, but if you’re worried about solving it, you can purchase a postcard featuring an aerial map to help you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s so many times I go in to rescue people at the end of the night,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Look for clues in your surroundings\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andreotti’s, on the other hand, is full of dead ends, but should only take up to 25 minutes, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before entering the maze, he recommends you get a lay of the land first: Take note of any landmarks, “and use the sun,” he advised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059307\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059307\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sun shines through the leaves of a corn stalk in the corn maze at Andreotti Family Farms in Half Moon Bay on Oct. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Know how to get out if you really need to \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fantozzi’s mazes also come with a map, but that doesn’t mean people don’t still get turned around, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you get really lost and you just want to get out of the maze, you can walk between any two rows of corn and it’ll take you right to the side,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is an out if you really get completely lost,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"bay-area-corn-maze-near-me\">\u003c/a>Bay Area corn mazes (and pumpkin patches) to get you into the spooky season mood\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://petalumapumpkinpatch.com/\">\u003cstrong>Petaluma Pumpkin Patch and Amazing Corn Maze\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>, Petaluma\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Admission to Groverman’s corn maze is $9 during the day and $13 for the night maze. Kids under 5 years old enter for free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apart from their handmade corn maze, Groverman grows everything that is sold at the pumpkin patch, including pumpkins, gourds and squash. There’s even a giant corn box, filled with around 8,000 pounds of corn grain to play in like a sandbox.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059452\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12059452 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Children enjoying pony rides at the Petaluma Pumpkin Patch and Amazing Corn Maze. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Petaluma Pumpkin Patch and Amazing Corn Maze)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You’ll also find food vendors, farm animals, a bounce house, a super slide and giant chair and — on the weekend — pony rides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The entire pumpkin patch is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and Sundays and until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://andreottifamilyfarm.com/\">\u003cstrong>Andreotti Family Farm\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>, Half Moon Bay\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also known for its U-pick sunflower field, Andreotti’s pumpkin patch, hay rides and corn maze location opened on Oct. 4 this year after heavy rains delayed the opening. Andreotti’s team grows all their own crops, including edible and decorative pumpkins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tickets to the corn maze can be purchased in advance and cost $12, plus a processing fee. Kids 3 and under enter for free. The hay ride is $7 plus a fee, and takes visitors on a tour of the property. The farm is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.webbranchinc.com/\">\u003cstrong>Webb Ranch\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>, Portola Valley\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This small quarter-acre corn maze is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and reservations are required on weekends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Webb Ranch also offers a bounce house open daily, in addition to a kids’ farm obstacle course and haunted house. On the weekends, they are open for tractor hay rides, a petting zoo and a reptile zoo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059455\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059455\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/WebbCornMaze1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/WebbCornMaze1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/WebbCornMaze1-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/WebbCornMaze1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Webb Ranch, located in the Portola Valley, is a small quarter-acre corn maze and is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Reservations are required on weekends. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Webb Ranch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Webb pumpkin patch store sells pumpkins and other produce like jams, honeys and corn stalks for purchase, plus other Halloween supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weekend entry to the patch, including all activities, is $35 for children under 12, $15 for teens and adults and $10 for adults accompanying a child. Kids under two enter for free and senior admission is $10. Weekday passes are discounted and don’t require a reservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://fantozzifarms.com/\">\u003cstrong>Fantozzi Farms,\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> Central Valley\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This Patterson maze in Stanislaus County may be more of a trek from the Bay Area, but its three different mazes for all age levels are designed to entice a family-oriented crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The maze is open in the evenings on weekdays until 7 p.m. and until 10 p.m. on Fridays, plus Saturdays 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sundays 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also available at the farm is a hayride through “Scarecrow Alley,” featuring a community contest to make the favorite scarecrow, pipe slides, live pig races and even a pig derby. There’s also a petting zoo, paintball shooting range and an evening haunted maze on Friday and Saturday nights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Admission to the whole farm is $15 on weekends and $12 on weekdays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeCeDp_MY_h4G6VWj_-VPl-BJlQ3Uya2H0vxRZZd_47BpXwVA/viewform?embedded=true\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Jim Groverman, the owner of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/petaluma\">Petaluma\u003c/a> Pumpkin Patch and Amazing Corn Maze, has been building corn mazes for more than 30 years. And he does it all by hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t map anything out,” he said. “I do it all in my head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While other creations vie for the “biggest corn maze in the world” title — including \u003ca href=\"https://www.coolpatchpumpkins.com/\">Dixon’s record-holding Cool Patch Pumpkins\u003c/a> — Groverman’s \u003ca href=\"https://petalumapumpkinpatch.com/corn-maze/\">four-acre corn maze\u003c/a> holds a different charm. And it’s just one of many Bay Area corn mazes in full holiday swing this month, offering the public a chance to solve these life-sized puzzles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#Experttipsforsolvingacornmaze\">Expert tips for solving a corn maze\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#bay-area-corn-maze-near-me\">Bay Area corn mazes to visit this spooky season\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Some corn mazes, like Groverman’s, are hand-cut with just one way in and out. Others boast intricate patterns and hidden checkpoints — not to mention all the other activities on the farm during fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read on to find out how the Bay Area’s corn mazes are made, with expert tips from their creators on how to get out of them. And if you’re eager for a challenge, we’ve got a roundup of Bay Area corn mazes where you can get lost in the stalks yourself.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How is a corn maze made?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>How corn maze creators actually design and build their labyrinths can be very different from farm to farm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Groverman, the key to a solid corn maze — like any crop, is “good soil.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting in March, he takes soil samples, adding fertilizers as needed, before working the soil and preparing it for planting. While the old saying says corn should be \u003ca href=\"https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/news/2025/07/02/knee-high-by-fourth-of-july-adage-is-becoming-obsolete-heres-why/84426153007/\">“knee high at the Fourth of July\u003c/a>,” Groverman waits until the end of June to plant, so his stalks can still be that welcoming green color in time for his October maze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059448\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12059448 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze1-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The corn kernel sandbox at the Petaluma Pumpkin Patch and Amazing Corn Maze. Jim Groverman, owner of the Petaluma Pumpkin Patch, has been building corn mazes for more than 30 years. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Petaluma Pumpkin Patch and Amazing Corn Maze)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Groverman plants 30,000 seeds per acre in total — 7 inches apart, in rows 2-and-a-half feet apart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All summer long, he weeds the rows to keep the crows out of the young stalks, because “they’ll just go along and pull the corn right out of the ground” at that height.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once the corn gets tall enough, Groverman grabs his shovel and gets to work sculpting his maze. With a team of two, just making the pathway takes four to five eight-hour days, “at least,” he said. “I try to have it all made and completed by the first of August.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final touch: Groverman then lets the remaining corn grow tall until October, when he opens his doors to the public.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Frank Andreotti, farm manager at \u003ca href=\"https://andreottifamilyfarm.com/\">Andreotti Family Farm\u003c/a> in Half Moon Bay, takes a similar freehand approach — but with a little more power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all his corn has grown in, Andreotti constructs his 10-acre corn maze in just a few hours by plowing a 6-foot-wide path with a tractor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I’m driving through, I just have in my mind the outlay of the entire field,” he said. “It’s like freehand painting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Denise Fantozzi, on the other hand, is one farm owner who took the GPS route — and it’s paid off. Each year at Fantozzi Farms, located in the Central Valley, \u003ca href=\"https://fantozzifarms.com/corn-maze/\">she and her husband dream up a new design for the maze\u003c/a>, which is actually three mazes in one. The pair works with a company called Maze Play to input the design into a GPS and then, when the stalks are about 3 feet tall, they cut the maze exactly to the design.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year’s theme is how food goes from the farm to the grocery store to the table, Fantozzi said. The smallest of the mazes is designed to be short and easy for school groups to complete, featuring animal tracks that kids can identify as they navigate the maze. The second-largest maze invites older children to play “Farm Scene Investigation,” a Clue-like game in which they can search for hidden pictures in the maze to identify which animals stole Farmer Joe’s pies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The largest of the mazes, for teens and adults, includes 12 hidden checkpoints and can take anywhere from 40 minutes to two hours to complete, Fantozzi said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an intricate design every year,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Experttipsforsolvingacornmaze\">\u003c/a>What are some top tips for solving a corn maze?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Consider shelling out for the map\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Groverman’s is a traditional maze, with one way in and one way out — and to complete it, you have to pass through each corner and climb two towers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You really have to cover the whole area,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059308\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059308\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The corn maze path at Andreotti Family Farms in Half Moon Bay on Oct. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Groverman’s maze takes around 45 minutes to complete, but if you’re worried about solving it, you can purchase a postcard featuring an aerial map to help you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s so many times I go in to rescue people at the end of the night,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Look for clues in your surroundings\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andreotti’s, on the other hand, is full of dead ends, but should only take up to 25 minutes, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before entering the maze, he recommends you get a lay of the land first: Take note of any landmarks, “and use the sun,” he advised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059307\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059307\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251009-CORNMAZEBTS-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sun shines through the leaves of a corn stalk in the corn maze at Andreotti Family Farms in Half Moon Bay on Oct. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Know how to get out if you really need to \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fantozzi’s mazes also come with a map, but that doesn’t mean people don’t still get turned around, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you get really lost and you just want to get out of the maze, you can walk between any two rows of corn and it’ll take you right to the side,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is an out if you really get completely lost,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"bay-area-corn-maze-near-me\">\u003c/a>Bay Area corn mazes (and pumpkin patches) to get you into the spooky season mood\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://petalumapumpkinpatch.com/\">\u003cstrong>Petaluma Pumpkin Patch and Amazing Corn Maze\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>, Petaluma\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Admission to Groverman’s corn maze is $9 during the day and $13 for the night maze. Kids under 5 years old enter for free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apart from their handmade corn maze, Groverman grows everything that is sold at the pumpkin patch, including pumpkins, gourds and squash. There’s even a giant corn box, filled with around 8,000 pounds of corn grain to play in like a sandbox.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059452\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12059452 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/PetalumaCornMaze2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Children enjoying pony rides at the Petaluma Pumpkin Patch and Amazing Corn Maze. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Petaluma Pumpkin Patch and Amazing Corn Maze)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You’ll also find food vendors, farm animals, a bounce house, a super slide and giant chair and — on the weekend — pony rides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The entire pumpkin patch is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and Sundays and until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://andreottifamilyfarm.com/\">\u003cstrong>Andreotti Family Farm\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>, Half Moon Bay\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also known for its U-pick sunflower field, Andreotti’s pumpkin patch, hay rides and corn maze location opened on Oct. 4 this year after heavy rains delayed the opening. Andreotti’s team grows all their own crops, including edible and decorative pumpkins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tickets to the corn maze can be purchased in advance and cost $12, plus a processing fee. Kids 3 and under enter for free. The hay ride is $7 plus a fee, and takes visitors on a tour of the property. The farm is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.webbranchinc.com/\">\u003cstrong>Webb Ranch\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>, Portola Valley\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This small quarter-acre corn maze is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and reservations are required on weekends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Webb Ranch also offers a bounce house open daily, in addition to a kids’ farm obstacle course and haunted house. On the weekends, they are open for tractor hay rides, a petting zoo and a reptile zoo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059455\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059455\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/WebbCornMaze1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/WebbCornMaze1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/WebbCornMaze1-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/WebbCornMaze1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Webb Ranch, located in the Portola Valley, is a small quarter-acre corn maze and is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Reservations are required on weekends. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Webb Ranch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Webb pumpkin patch store sells pumpkins and other produce like jams, honeys and corn stalks for purchase, plus other Halloween supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weekend entry to the patch, including all activities, is $35 for children under 12, $15 for teens and adults and $10 for adults accompanying a child. Kids under two enter for free and senior admission is $10. Weekday passes are discounted and don’t require a reservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://fantozzifarms.com/\">\u003cstrong>Fantozzi Farms,\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> Central Valley\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This Patterson maze in Stanislaus County may be more of a trek from the Bay Area, but its three different mazes for all age levels are designed to entice a family-oriented crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The maze is open in the evenings on weekdays until 7 p.m. and until 10 p.m. on Fridays, plus Saturdays 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sundays 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also available at the farm is a hayride through “Scarecrow Alley,” featuring a community contest to make the favorite scarecrow, pipe slides, live pig races and even a pig derby. There’s also a petting zoo, paintball shooting range and an evening haunted maze on Friday and Saturday nights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Admission to the whole farm is $15 on weekends and $12 on weekdays.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe\n src='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeCeDp_MY_h4G6VWj_-VPl-BJlQ3Uya2H0vxRZZd_47BpXwVA/viewform?embedded=true?embedded=true'\n title='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeCeDp_MY_h4G6VWj_-VPl-BJlQ3Uya2H0vxRZZd_47BpXwVA/viewform?embedded=true'\n width='760' height='500'\n frameborder='0'\n marginheight='0' marginwidth='0'>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "san-francisco-nail-artist-turns-manicures-into-wearable-art-rooted-in-mexican-heritage",
"title": "San Francisco Nail Artist Turns Manicures Into Wearable Art Rooted in Mexican Heritage",
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"headTitle": "San Francisco Nail Artist Turns Manicures Into Wearable Art Rooted in Mexican Heritage | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Sign up for K Onda KQED, a monthly newsletter focused on the Bay Area’s Latinx community. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/k-onda\">\u003cem>Click here to subscribe.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Against a sky blue backdrop, Laysa Cazares painted a series of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> poppies. With a tiny brush, she used shades of orange to create petals just a few millimeters wide that looked like they were fluttering in a breeze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lifelong artist, Cazares’ favorite medium may seem unusual: fingernails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a little canvas where you can put whatever you want, and it’s wearable art, which I think is really cool,” the 29-year-old said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cazares, raised in Manteca and now based in San Francisco, is among a growing number of high-end nail artists elevating traditional manicures into works of art amid the booming multibillion-dollar beauty industry. She has built a following for her three-dimensional, airbrushed and hand-painted nail designs that incorporate fashion, her Mexican heritage and meticulous artistry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent morning, her right hand featured metallic charcoal gray adorned with polka dots, which she said are trending. Her left hand showed a light blue-hued design with three-dimensional spheres inspired by a bubble bath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055054\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055054\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Laysa Cazares pulls gel from a container during a nail-sculpting class at Sparkle SF in San Francisco on Sept. 4, 2025. Cazares, a Hayward native, is known for her detailed, three-dimensional nail art. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cazares, who goes by the moniker \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nailbruja/\">Nail Bruja\u003c/a> — “nail witch” in Spanglish — uses a variety of gels to layer on clients’ nails, create longer nails and sculpt 3D objects from scratch. She then applies paints and polishes to create intricate designs and effects like a cat-eye shimmer or reflective shine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For one client, she created a tiny cat that looked like it was poking out from behind a nail. For another, she shaped long, pointy nails to resemble plant leaves dotted with 3D ladybugs and raindrops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s almost like clay, so you can just mold it and then you paint it and you can do whatever,” she said. “That wasn’t a thing 10 years ago until recently, so it’s really cool to be able to make whatever you want on your nail.”[aside postID=arts_13981143 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/240916_ElGrito_EG_007-1020x680.jpg']Her love affair with nails started early. She remembers waking up early — and sometimes being late — because she painted her nails in the morning to match her outfit. She credits her older sister for introducing her to painting, ceramics and other crafts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After high school, Cazares decided against college but wanted a career in art. She didn’t see a clear path until her sister suggested she become a licensed nail technician, which she did in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her parents were skeptical at first, questioning how she could earn a living wage doing manicures and pedicures. Nail technicians \u003ca href=\"https://www.bls.gov/ooh/personal-care-and-service/manicurists-and-pedicurists.htm\">made an average\u003c/a> of $16.66 per hour or about $34,660 a year in 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The industry has a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11275303/nail-salon-workers-allege-wage-theft-indicate-larger-exploitation\">history of labor exploitation\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have immigrant parents, they’re from Mexico, and my mom, one of her favorite sayings, ‘I didn’t cross a country for you to not be successful,’” Cazeres said. That made her more determined to pursue nail art in a way that would be lucrative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six years ago, she immersed herself in nail art while working at a Fremont salon specializing in designs with long acrylic tips, which were popular at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had a full clientele and it just clicked like, ‘Oh, I really could actually live off of this and have it be my career full time,” she said. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Oh, maybe going to school would have been cool, too.’ But I love nails and I love art. So being a nail artist just works. I get to combine both.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, she moved to Miami, which also has a robust nail industry. She returned to California last December and now works at Sparkle SF, a salon in San Francisco’s Mission District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055050\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055050\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-5-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-5-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-5-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-5-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Polaroids of staff and visitors decorate a wall inside Sparkle SF in San Francisco on Sept. 4, 2025. The studio doubles as both a workplace and a creative hub for nail art. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco is just such a fun, quirky, unique place where even the older generations are into nail art,” she said. “Younger people will do all the crazy stuff, and they’re not scared to get 3D. They’re not scared to like chrome or airbrush or anything. They’re down to try it all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sparke SF is strictly for nail art and doesn’t offer pedicures, massages or facials, said owner Mia Rubie, who started the salon more than a decade ago and has watched nail art continuously evolve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now, there’s so many possibilities with nail art,” thanks in part to social media, she said. Clients “are making it a very personalized experience, like something tailored to their own interests or something that they’re into or dedicating nails to somebody else or things like that. People are discovering that you can use it as a valid expression of art.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The history of nails is very multicultural,” said Jillian Hernandez, a professor of women’s studies at the University of Florida who leads the Full Set Project, a team of scholars researching the nail industry. The intricate nail designs innovated by Vietnamese nail techs caught on with Black and Latina women, who helped turn long, brightly decorated nails into bold fashion statements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her team plans to release a documentary, \u003ca href=\"https://historymiami.org/event/film-screening-panel-discussion-full-set-a-celebration-of-miami-nail-artistry/\">\u003cem>Nail Tech: Portrait of an Artist\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, in December, chronicling the career of Miami-based nail artist Kro Vargas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055053\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055053\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-21-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-21-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-21-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-21-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An assortment of intricate nail designs displayed at Sparkle SF in San Francisco on Sept. 4, 2025. The salon is known for showcasing bold, colorful and three-dimensional nail artistry. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Over the last decade, particularly the last five years since COVID, there was increasing interest in self-care practices, but also famous women of color like Cardi B, for example, entered the mainstream and also entered spaces of fashion and brought their own aesthetics to these spaces,” Hernandez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shift from seeing nails as simple grooming to fashionable art is slowly changing how workers in the industry are viewed, Hernandez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It gets to this fundamental question of how do we value workers? We tend to undervalue care work because it’s associated with women and people of color,” she said. “All nail techs are artists, and they should be respected for their labor, whether they’re in the corner salon or whether they’re in these highly specialized studios doing nails for celebrities. That’s extremely important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cost of nail art is also rising as designs require more expertise and time. At Sparkle, prices start around $60 for a basic manicure, but intricate designs can cost a few hundred dollars and take several hours. Cazares said her designs typically last about a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055052\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055052\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-19-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-19-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-19-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-19-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nail artist Laysa Cazares works at her station inside Sparkle SF in San Francisco on Sept. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The most expensive set she has ever done took eight hours, covered both hands with Swarovski crystals and cost $1,400.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nails aren’t a necessity; they are a luxury,” Cazares said. “I love the feeling of feeling put together, and for a lot of people, this does that for them. For women who work corporate tech jobs, their jobs are so demanding; this is a form of self-expression.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That resonates with San Mateo resident Cristina Medina, 30, who had her first manicure in middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My mom always had her nails done for as long as I can remember, so I think I got it from her, the habit of getting my nails done,” she said. “I’ve always correlated getting my nails done as a way of self-pampering, of taking care of myself. It helps me feel more put together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12057050\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12057050\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250919-K-ONDA-NAIL-ARTIST-DIPTYCH-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1129\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250919-K-ONDA-NAIL-ARTIST-DIPTYCH-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250919-K-ONDA-NAIL-ARTIST-DIPTYCH-1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250919-K-ONDA-NAIL-ARTIST-DIPTYCH-1-1536x867.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Specialty designs by San Francisco nail artist Laysa Cazares. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Laysa Cazares)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Medina has a standing appointment every three weeks. Her designs range from a simple French tip to more seasonal creations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I like to spice it up during the holidays,” she said. “For example, Halloween and Dia de los Muertos are coming up, so I might mess with orange, brown colors or even pumpkin. It really gives me that creative freedom and gives me a way to express myself throughout the year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cazares is hosting an event this month called \u003ca href=\"http://www.nomicreativestudios.com\">Hexed by Nail Bruja & Friends\u003c/a> to showcase nail art the way an art gallery exhibits paintings. The Friday event will also feature vendors, tarot card readings and cocktails, and will run from 6–9 p.m. at a retro pinball arcade at 1767 Waller St. in San Francisco. Tickets are $30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Clarification:\u003c/strong> An earlier version of this story said “Latina and Black women pioneered long, brightly decorated nails as fashion statements well before the mainstream embraced the look, she said, while many Vietnamese women have worked in salons.” To clarify, the professor emphasized that Black and Latina women helped popularize and bring visibility to nail art as a cultural fashion statement, while Vietnamese women, many of them immigrants, played a central role in the nail salon industry where the style was widely practiced.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "San Francisco Nail Artist Turns Manicures Into Wearable Art Rooted in Mexican Heritage | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Sign up for K Onda KQED, a monthly newsletter focused on the Bay Area’s Latinx community. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/k-onda\">\u003cem>Click here to subscribe.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Against a sky blue backdrop, Laysa Cazares painted a series of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> poppies. With a tiny brush, she used shades of orange to create petals just a few millimeters wide that looked like they were fluttering in a breeze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lifelong artist, Cazares’ favorite medium may seem unusual: fingernails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a little canvas where you can put whatever you want, and it’s wearable art, which I think is really cool,” the 29-year-old said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cazares, raised in Manteca and now based in San Francisco, is among a growing number of high-end nail artists elevating traditional manicures into works of art amid the booming multibillion-dollar beauty industry. She has built a following for her three-dimensional, airbrushed and hand-painted nail designs that incorporate fashion, her Mexican heritage and meticulous artistry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent morning, her right hand featured metallic charcoal gray adorned with polka dots, which she said are trending. Her left hand showed a light blue-hued design with three-dimensional spheres inspired by a bubble bath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055054\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055054\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Laysa Cazares pulls gel from a container during a nail-sculpting class at Sparkle SF in San Francisco on Sept. 4, 2025. Cazares, a Hayward native, is known for her detailed, three-dimensional nail art. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cazares, who goes by the moniker \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nailbruja/\">Nail Bruja\u003c/a> — “nail witch” in Spanglish — uses a variety of gels to layer on clients’ nails, create longer nails and sculpt 3D objects from scratch. She then applies paints and polishes to create intricate designs and effects like a cat-eye shimmer or reflective shine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For one client, she created a tiny cat that looked like it was poking out from behind a nail. For another, she shaped long, pointy nails to resemble plant leaves dotted with 3D ladybugs and raindrops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s almost like clay, so you can just mold it and then you paint it and you can do whatever,” she said. “That wasn’t a thing 10 years ago until recently, so it’s really cool to be able to make whatever you want on your nail.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Her love affair with nails started early. She remembers waking up early — and sometimes being late — because she painted her nails in the morning to match her outfit. She credits her older sister for introducing her to painting, ceramics and other crafts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After high school, Cazares decided against college but wanted a career in art. She didn’t see a clear path until her sister suggested she become a licensed nail technician, which she did in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her parents were skeptical at first, questioning how she could earn a living wage doing manicures and pedicures. Nail technicians \u003ca href=\"https://www.bls.gov/ooh/personal-care-and-service/manicurists-and-pedicurists.htm\">made an average\u003c/a> of $16.66 per hour or about $34,660 a year in 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The industry has a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11275303/nail-salon-workers-allege-wage-theft-indicate-larger-exploitation\">history of labor exploitation\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have immigrant parents, they’re from Mexico, and my mom, one of her favorite sayings, ‘I didn’t cross a country for you to not be successful,’” Cazeres said. That made her more determined to pursue nail art in a way that would be lucrative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six years ago, she immersed herself in nail art while working at a Fremont salon specializing in designs with long acrylic tips, which were popular at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had a full clientele and it just clicked like, ‘Oh, I really could actually live off of this and have it be my career full time,” she said. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Oh, maybe going to school would have been cool, too.’ But I love nails and I love art. So being a nail artist just works. I get to combine both.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, she moved to Miami, which also has a robust nail industry. She returned to California last December and now works at Sparkle SF, a salon in San Francisco’s Mission District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055050\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055050\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-5-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-5-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-5-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-5-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Polaroids of staff and visitors decorate a wall inside Sparkle SF in San Francisco on Sept. 4, 2025. The studio doubles as both a workplace and a creative hub for nail art. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco is just such a fun, quirky, unique place where even the older generations are into nail art,” she said. “Younger people will do all the crazy stuff, and they’re not scared to get 3D. They’re not scared to like chrome or airbrush or anything. They’re down to try it all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sparke SF is strictly for nail art and doesn’t offer pedicures, massages or facials, said owner Mia Rubie, who started the salon more than a decade ago and has watched nail art continuously evolve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now, there’s so many possibilities with nail art,” thanks in part to social media, she said. Clients “are making it a very personalized experience, like something tailored to their own interests or something that they’re into or dedicating nails to somebody else or things like that. People are discovering that you can use it as a valid expression of art.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The history of nails is very multicultural,” said Jillian Hernandez, a professor of women’s studies at the University of Florida who leads the Full Set Project, a team of scholars researching the nail industry. The intricate nail designs innovated by Vietnamese nail techs caught on with Black and Latina women, who helped turn long, brightly decorated nails into bold fashion statements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her team plans to release a documentary, \u003ca href=\"https://historymiami.org/event/film-screening-panel-discussion-full-set-a-celebration-of-miami-nail-artistry/\">\u003cem>Nail Tech: Portrait of an Artist\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, in December, chronicling the career of Miami-based nail artist Kro Vargas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055053\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055053\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-21-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-21-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-21-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-21-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An assortment of intricate nail designs displayed at Sparkle SF in San Francisco on Sept. 4, 2025. The salon is known for showcasing bold, colorful and three-dimensional nail artistry. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Over the last decade, particularly the last five years since COVID, there was increasing interest in self-care practices, but also famous women of color like Cardi B, for example, entered the mainstream and also entered spaces of fashion and brought their own aesthetics to these spaces,” Hernandez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shift from seeing nails as simple grooming to fashionable art is slowly changing how workers in the industry are viewed, Hernandez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It gets to this fundamental question of how do we value workers? We tend to undervalue care work because it’s associated with women and people of color,” she said. “All nail techs are artists, and they should be respected for their labor, whether they’re in the corner salon or whether they’re in these highly specialized studios doing nails for celebrities. That’s extremely important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cost of nail art is also rising as designs require more expertise and time. At Sparkle, prices start around $60 for a basic manicure, but intricate designs can cost a few hundred dollars and take several hours. Cazares said her designs typically last about a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055052\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055052\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-19-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-19-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-19-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250904_K-ONDA-SEPTEMBER-NAIL-ARTIST-_GH-19-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nail artist Laysa Cazares works at her station inside Sparkle SF in San Francisco on Sept. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The most expensive set she has ever done took eight hours, covered both hands with Swarovski crystals and cost $1,400.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nails aren’t a necessity; they are a luxury,” Cazares said. “I love the feeling of feeling put together, and for a lot of people, this does that for them. For women who work corporate tech jobs, their jobs are so demanding; this is a form of self-expression.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That resonates with San Mateo resident Cristina Medina, 30, who had her first manicure in middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My mom always had her nails done for as long as I can remember, so I think I got it from her, the habit of getting my nails done,” she said. “I’ve always correlated getting my nails done as a way of self-pampering, of taking care of myself. It helps me feel more put together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12057050\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12057050\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250919-K-ONDA-NAIL-ARTIST-DIPTYCH-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1129\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250919-K-ONDA-NAIL-ARTIST-DIPTYCH-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250919-K-ONDA-NAIL-ARTIST-DIPTYCH-1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250919-K-ONDA-NAIL-ARTIST-DIPTYCH-1-1536x867.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Specialty designs by San Francisco nail artist Laysa Cazares. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Laysa Cazares)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Medina has a standing appointment every three weeks. Her designs range from a simple French tip to more seasonal creations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I like to spice it up during the holidays,” she said. “For example, Halloween and Dia de los Muertos are coming up, so I might mess with orange, brown colors or even pumpkin. It really gives me that creative freedom and gives me a way to express myself throughout the year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cazares is hosting an event this month called \u003ca href=\"http://www.nomicreativestudios.com\">Hexed by Nail Bruja & Friends\u003c/a> to showcase nail art the way an art gallery exhibits paintings. The Friday event will also feature vendors, tarot card readings and cocktails, and will run from 6–9 p.m. at a retro pinball arcade at 1767 Waller St. in San Francisco. Tickets are $30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Clarification:\u003c/strong> An earlier version of this story said “Latina and Black women pioneered long, brightly decorated nails as fashion statements well before the mainstream embraced the look, she said, while many Vietnamese women have worked in salons.” To clarify, the professor emphasized that Black and Latina women helped popularize and bring visibility to nail art as a cultural fashion statement, while Vietnamese women, many of them immigrants, played a central role in the nail salon industry where the style was widely practiced.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "the-uss-hornet-in-alameda-is-a-destination-for-paranormal-enthusiasts-and-you-can-spend-the-night-there",
"title": "The USS Hornet in Alameda Is a Destination for Paranormal Enthusiasts — and You Can Spend the Night There",
"publishDate": 1730368803,
"format": "audio",
"headTitle": "The USS Hornet in Alameda Is a Destination for Paranormal Enthusiasts — and You Can Spend the Night There | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"term": 33523,
"site": "news"
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are a number of spaces around the Bay Area that attract ghost hunters … people who don’t run away from things that go bump in the night — but rather seek them out. One of those hot spots is floating in Alameda: the USS Hornet, a massive retired aircraft carrier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During World War II, the Hornet carried thousands of crewmen and more than a hundred aircraft as it battled around the Pacific. And decades later, the Hornet picked up American astronauts after splashdown following two of the moon landings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But fascinating history aside, the USS Hornet is also said to be haunted and offers overnight tours. Paranormal enthusiasts from near and far come to spend the night in the original sailors’ bunks and set up ghost-detecting instruments in some of the ship’s deepest compartments. To find out more, Bay Curious tagged along on a recent tour with about ten other thrill seekers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Unsettling Encounters\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the Hornet’s sick bay, rows of WWII-era hospital beds with white sheets and metal frames stretched back into shadowed corners. Faye Navarro, private events manager on the USS Hornet, placed a small, coffin-shaped box on one of the beds: a motion-detecting music box used to sense the presence of spirits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011402\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011402\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people walk around on a ship.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tour guide, Faye Navarro, left, leads a group of participants on a History Mystery Tour on the USS Hornet in Alameda on Oct. 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When you’re looking down, and this thing is going off, and you don’t see anybody, it gets creepy,” Navarro said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s something particular about this place,” her fellow tour guide Steve Jackson said. He’s been to other spaces rumored to be haunted, like the Winchester Mystery House, but he believes the USS Hornet is exceptionally full of ghosts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re not just the spirits that were here when the ship was active,” Jackson said. “They’re spirits from all over the place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To communicate with them, Jackson and Navarro used pendulums, dowsing rods, and even Maglite flashlights, which they unscrew just enough so that they were turned off and then lay on the floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The theory is the spirits are able to bridge the gap between the battery and the light to be able to answer questions,” Jackson said. “But sadly, they can only answer yes or no questions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is there more than one spirit in here?” Jackson called out into the darkness of the sick bay. The flashlight stayed off, indicating a “no” answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011397\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011397\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A man squats down with a measuring instrument in a red-lit room, as two other people watch.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tour guide, Steve Jackson, center, sets up a radiating electromagneticity (REM) pod used to detect paranormal activity during a History Mystery Tour on the USS Hornet in Alameda on Oct. 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Is it just you that’s in here?” he asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"more Bay Curious stories\" tag=\"bay-curious\"]And the flashlight winked on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the nearby surgery room, guest Ashley Juarez Bilow climbed onto the operating table, next to a tray of old surgical instruments … and felt something gripping her foot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It didn’t feel like a bad entity,” Juarez Bilow said. “Felt like someone caring for me, like when your mother looks at your knee when you have a boo-boo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deeper inside the ship, in a big metal room with pipes running across the ceiling, guest Zaniah Velazquez felt the presence of her late mother. She said she often feels spirits around her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been like that all my life,” she said. “I’m very sensitive to stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Velazquez said she had an especially creepy experience the first time she spent the night on the USS Hornet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011400\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011400\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Several people stand in a dark, tight enclosure.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Participants of the History Mystery Tour look into jail cells on the USS Hornet in Alameda on Oct. 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I felt something get on top of me. It wouldn’t let me move. And I started praying,” she said. “I felt it get up off of me. When I turned around, that’s when I seen it pass by. I seen a black shadow pass by,” Velazquez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As midnight approached, the group walked carefully through the pitch black, even deeper into the heart of the ship. In Radio Central, a small room with walls covered in knobs and switches, the electromagnetic field (EMF) sensors lit up and the flashlights flickered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011392\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011392\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A woman lying down under a lamp.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liz Gibbons, left, monitors for spirits as Hira Zahir, right, lays on the operating table inside the USS Hornet in Alameda on Oct. 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Did you guys see that little orb?” Velazquez said. “I seen something pass by. Like a little ball of light.”Around midnight, the guides left, and the rest of the guests got ready to spend the night in the sailors’ sleeping compartments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Juarez Bilow brought her Ouija board and tarot cards. She hoped to run into more spirits … but wasn’t afraid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011401\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011401\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a red-lit room holds a small pendulum, while a woman sits next to him watching.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">History Mystery Tour guide Faye Navarro, left, watches as her co-guide, Steve Jackson, uses a pendulum to communicate with spirits on the USS Hornet in Alameda on Oct. 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011393\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011393\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Old-fashioned operating tools on metal table.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Operating tools on the USS Hornet in Alameda on Oct. 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Because entities, if you don’t interact with them, they generally leave you alone,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The USS Hornet holds paranormal overnight adventure tours about once a month. To find out more, go to their website at uss-hornet.org. And if sleeping on a ship brimming with ghosts isn’t your thing, they also have daytime tours and overnights that focus on the ship’s history — and are presumably way less spooky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011388\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011388\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A ramp leading up to a ship.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The ramp to the USS Hornet in Alameda on Oct. 25, 2024. The ship is open after hours for the History Mystery Tours that run throughout the year. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>There’s a number of spaces around the Bay Area that attract ghost hunters … people who don’t run away from things that go bump in the night — but rather, seek them out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And one of those hot spots is floating in Alameda….\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>(large ship rocks and creaks while the sound of water can be heard)\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>It’s the massive retired aircraft carrier — the USS Hornet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During WWII, the Hornet carried thousands of crewmen, and more than a hundred aircraft, as it battled around the Pacific. And decades later, the Hornet picked up American astronauts after splashdown following two of the moon landings!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a lot of history to this place, but today, we’re putting that all aside. Because it’s Halloween, after all. So, instead of \u003ci>history, \u003c/i>we’re going into the \u003ci>mystery.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The USS Hornet is said to be haunted. So today on the show, we’re tagging along on an after-hours tour to see what paranormal activity we can find.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price, and this is Bay Curious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SPONSOR MESSAGE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>It’s a Friday night, around sunset and KQED reporter Katherine Monahan is climbing aboard the USS Hornet in Alameda with ten other curious guests. Many of these are experienced ghost hunters who have brought their own ghost-detecting instruments for tonight’s activities. Just as the sun dips below the horizon, the intrepid team heads into the dark, steely depths of the ship…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[sounds of people moving around onboard the ship]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>We’re gonna go ahead and walk this way. Watch your step\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/b> Docent and paranormal investigator Faye Navarro leads us by flashlight through echoing metal hallways, past pitch-black rooms filled with old naval equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>Watch your head, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>We step into the Hornet’s sick bay, where wounded crewmembers would have been treated … and where likely some of them died. Rows of WWII-era hospital beds with white sheets and metal frames stretch back into shadowed corners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Navarro places a small, coffin-shaped box on one of the beds. A piece of equipment she’s calibrating so we can use it to sense the presence of spirits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>This is our motion detective, uh, music box. We’ll calibrate the space … \u003ci>[a small music box plays a high-pitched tune]\u003c/i> … When you’re looking down, and this thing is going off, and you don’t see anybody, it gets creepy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Navarro’s partner, Steve Jackson, takes out two little mag flashlights — the kind where you twist the top to turn them on and off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He unscrews them just enough so that they’re off and sets them on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>The theory is the spirits are able to bridge the gap between the battery and the light to be able to answer questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>And they start talking to ghosts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>Is there more than one spirit in here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>The flashlight stays off, indicating a no-answer\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>Is it just you that’s in here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>And it comes on\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>Thank you, can you turn the flashlight off please?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b> … and it goes back off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>There’s something particular about this place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Jackson has been to other spaces that are known as haunted — like the Winchester Mystery House. But he says the USS Hornet is exceptionally full of ghosts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>They’re not just the spirits that were here when the ship was active. They’re spirits from all over the place. I mean, the spirit will come with somebody, and it’ll stay, or a spirit will leave with somebody.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Nearby is the surgery room, with an operating table for the patient and a tray of old instruments for the doctor. A single surgical lamp spotlights the bed — the only light in this otherwise dark room. One of the guests, Ashley Juarez Bilow, climbs on, lays down, and reaches out to the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ashley Juarez Bilow:\u003c/b> Doctor, could you please check my leg? My right leg? (pause) Oh, it feels like my foot is being held right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>She says it’s not a frightening feeling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ashley Juarez Bilow: \u003c/b>I felt like my foot was being gripped, like held on to. It didn’t feel like a bad entity. Felt like someone caring for me and checking something out, like when your mother looks at your knee when you have a boo-boo kind of thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>She says she’s kind of used to this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ashley Juarez Bilow:\u003c/b> I’ve been into it since I was about 13. I used to go to my local cemetery with my Ouija board and go talk to the spirits over there. I was a little bit of a weird kid, so I liked the paranormal. I liked the supernatural. I believe in all of it. I believe your spirit can stay on this earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Our guides, Navarro and Jackson, lead us on through the dark, up a metal staircase so narrow it’s more of a ladder. We peer through doorways at dusty pieces of the past: sonar buoy casings and old radio equipment. We come to a big, open room with pipes running across the ceiling. And here, we’re introduced to a new means of communication with the spirit world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>Has anybody heard of or seen a Human Pendulum?\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Guest: \u003c/b>Human what?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro:\u003c/b> Pendulum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Guest:\u003c/b> Is that the wires that cross?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>No. This is with people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>They ask for a volunteer to stand in the middle of the room and just allow their body to go loose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>So Spirits, we have a new friend here that is willing to be your, um, talking board, so to speak. So if you can touch her lightly and show us what your yes answer will be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>The volunteer leans slightly forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro:\u003c/b> Forward is a yes. Okay, can you show us what your no answer is going to be, please? (pause) Yep, backwards. Okay, Spirit, that we’re talking to right now, Are you a crew member? (pause) No. Okay. Is this your first time on the ship? (pause) Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>And this is when Zaniah Velazquez, another guest, starts to feel she knows who this is. She reaches out in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b>Eres tu Mama?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro:\u003c/b> Yes\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b>I asked her, ‘Is it you, mom?’ Because my mom passed away, you know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>We got a yes. It went forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b> Estas aqui ma?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b> I love you mama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Velazquez lost her mother three years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b>I’ve lost a lot of friends and family members. But I feel her presence, always. And my friends. They’re always around. But she’s there to protect me. You know?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>She says she often feels spirits around her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b>I’ve been like that all my life. I’m very sensitive to stuff. As soon as I came in the ship, I started feeling like, uh, like I went outside and, you know, started talking. Like, you know, I’m just like, I come in peace. Like, don’t follow me home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>It can be unsettling, she says. Sometimes, she even gets nauseous, overwhelmed. But all in all, she says, it’s fun, and she keeps coming back for more. This is actually her fifth time on the tour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: The first, first day we spent the night here. It was creepy to me because I felt something get on top of me. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[eerie music plays]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b>It wouldn’t let me move. And I started praying. Once I started praying, that’s when I felt it. I felt it leave. And then it came back again the second time. And then I was like, oh man, that’s when I really, like, started, like I was praying in Spanish. That’s when I, you know, I felt it get up off of me when I turned around. That’s when I see, I seen it pass by. I seen a black shadow pass by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>[sounds of people walking around]\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>It’s almost midnight now and getting cold. We walk — carefully, it’s pitch black — even deeper into the heart of the ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>This is Radio Central. This is one of the secretest places on the ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>The walls of this small room are covered with knobs and switches. Jackson and Navarro set up their equipment — including a temperature sensor that beeps if the air gets abruptly colder. They lay the flashlights on the ground, and immediately they start winking on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>Okay, can you turn that flashlight off for us, please? Thank you. Did you follow us from the other space? \u003ci>[device beeps] \u003c/i>A temperature change? Mm hmm. It got colder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>That wasn’t my stomach either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherin Monahan: \u003c/b>I did hear it. Uh-huh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>And then Velazquez sees something\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez:\u003c/b> Did you guys see that little orb? Mm mm. I seen something pass by. Like a little ball of light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>Outside?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b>Yeah, outside the door. I seen it go that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>BEAT / MUSIC / CREEPY SOUNDS\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Around midnight, the guides leave, and the rest of the guests get ready to spend the night in the original sailors’ sleeping compartments. Ashley Juarez Bilow — the one who felt the doctor touch her foot on the operating table — has her ouija board and tarot cards. She’s with her husband, and she’s hoping to communicate with his late mother — whom she sensed earlier in one of the rooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ashley Juarez Bilow: \u003c/b>I have a feeling that it might be her. So I want to ask questions to see if she’s here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Her husband, David Juarez Bilow, is more of a skeptic but happy to be here with his wife.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>David Juarez Bilow: \u003c/b>I find these cool places that say that they’re haunted, because I know that she likes it, I just bring her along. I mean, happy wife, happy life, right? (laughs)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>As he goes to get some snacks from the vending machine, Ashley says that she expects to run into more spirits tonight but … she’s not afraid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ashley Juarez Bilow:\u003c/b> Because entities, if you don’t interact with them, they generally leave you alone. I learned that in the cemeteries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Solid advice … if you want to come spend the night on the USS Hornet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just crawl into a nice WWII-era metal cot, close your eyes, and see what happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>MUSIC BOX MUSIC\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>That was KQED reporter Katherine Monahan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The USS Hornet holds paranormal overnight adventure tours about once a month. To find out more, go to their website at uss-hornet.org. And if sleeping on a ship brimming with ghosts isn’t your thing, they, of course, have daytime tours and also overnights that focus on the ship’s history — and are presumably way less spooky. Presumably.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is made by Ana De Almeida Amaral, Amanda Font, Christopher Beale, Olivia Allen-Price. Extra support from Jen, Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Nighty Night!\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "The USS Hornet in Alameda Is a Destination for Paranormal Enthusiasts — and You Can Spend the Night There | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are a number of spaces around the Bay Area that attract ghost hunters … people who don’t run away from things that go bump in the night — but rather seek them out. One of those hot spots is floating in Alameda: the USS Hornet, a massive retired aircraft carrier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During World War II, the Hornet carried thousands of crewmen and more than a hundred aircraft as it battled around the Pacific. And decades later, the Hornet picked up American astronauts after splashdown following two of the moon landings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But fascinating history aside, the USS Hornet is also said to be haunted and offers overnight tours. Paranormal enthusiasts from near and far come to spend the night in the original sailors’ bunks and set up ghost-detecting instruments in some of the ship’s deepest compartments. To find out more, Bay Curious tagged along on a recent tour with about ten other thrill seekers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Unsettling Encounters\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the Hornet’s sick bay, rows of WWII-era hospital beds with white sheets and metal frames stretched back into shadowed corners. Faye Navarro, private events manager on the USS Hornet, placed a small, coffin-shaped box on one of the beds: a motion-detecting music box used to sense the presence of spirits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011402\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011402\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people walk around on a ship.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/29_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_362-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tour guide, Faye Navarro, left, leads a group of participants on a History Mystery Tour on the USS Hornet in Alameda on Oct. 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When you’re looking down, and this thing is going off, and you don’t see anybody, it gets creepy,” Navarro said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s something particular about this place,” her fellow tour guide Steve Jackson said. He’s been to other spaces rumored to be haunted, like the Winchester Mystery House, but he believes the USS Hornet is exceptionally full of ghosts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re not just the spirits that were here when the ship was active,” Jackson said. “They’re spirits from all over the place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To communicate with them, Jackson and Navarro used pendulums, dowsing rods, and even Maglite flashlights, which they unscrew just enough so that they were turned off and then lay on the floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The theory is the spirits are able to bridge the gap between the battery and the light to be able to answer questions,” Jackson said. “But sadly, they can only answer yes or no questions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is there more than one spirit in here?” Jackson called out into the darkness of the sick bay. The flashlight stayed off, indicating a “no” answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011397\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011397\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A man squats down with a measuring instrument in a red-lit room, as two other people watch.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/21_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_205-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tour guide, Steve Jackson, center, sets up a radiating electromagneticity (REM) pod used to detect paranormal activity during a History Mystery Tour on the USS Hornet in Alameda on Oct. 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Is it just you that’s in here?” he asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>And the flashlight winked on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the nearby surgery room, guest Ashley Juarez Bilow climbed onto the operating table, next to a tray of old surgical instruments … and felt something gripping her foot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It didn’t feel like a bad entity,” Juarez Bilow said. “Felt like someone caring for me, like when your mother looks at your knee when you have a boo-boo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deeper inside the ship, in a big metal room with pipes running across the ceiling, guest Zaniah Velazquez felt the presence of her late mother. She said she often feels spirits around her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been like that all my life,” she said. “I’m very sensitive to stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Velazquez said she had an especially creepy experience the first time she spent the night on the USS Hornet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011400\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011400\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Several people stand in a dark, tight enclosure.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/26_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_318-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Participants of the History Mystery Tour look into jail cells on the USS Hornet in Alameda on Oct. 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I felt something get on top of me. It wouldn’t let me move. And I started praying,” she said. “I felt it get up off of me. When I turned around, that’s when I seen it pass by. I seen a black shadow pass by,” Velazquez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As midnight approached, the group walked carefully through the pitch black, even deeper into the heart of the ship. In Radio Central, a small room with walls covered in knobs and switches, the electromagnetic field (EMF) sensors lit up and the flashlights flickered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011392\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011392\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A woman lying down under a lamp.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/09_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_095-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liz Gibbons, left, monitors for spirits as Hira Zahir, right, lays on the operating table inside the USS Hornet in Alameda on Oct. 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Did you guys see that little orb?” Velazquez said. “I seen something pass by. Like a little ball of light.”Around midnight, the guides left, and the rest of the guests got ready to spend the night in the sailors’ sleeping compartments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Juarez Bilow brought her Ouija board and tarot cards. She hoped to run into more spirits … but wasn’t afraid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011401\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011401\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a red-lit room holds a small pendulum, while a woman sits next to him watching.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/28_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_331-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">History Mystery Tour guide Faye Navarro, left, watches as her co-guide, Steve Jackson, uses a pendulum to communicate with spirits on the USS Hornet in Alameda on Oct. 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011393\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011393\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Old-fashioned operating tools on metal table.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/11_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_099-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Operating tools on the USS Hornet in Alameda on Oct. 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Because entities, if you don’t interact with them, they generally leave you alone,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The USS Hornet holds paranormal overnight adventure tours about once a month. To find out more, go to their website at uss-hornet.org. And if sleeping on a ship brimming with ghosts isn’t your thing, they also have daytime tours and overnights that focus on the ship’s history — and are presumably way less spooky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011388\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011388\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A ramp leading up to a ship.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/06_20241025_USSHORNET_MIDDLETON_050-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The ramp to the USS Hornet in Alameda on Oct. 25, 2024. The ship is open after hours for the History Mystery Tours that run throughout the year. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>There’s a number of spaces around the Bay Area that attract ghost hunters … people who don’t run away from things that go bump in the night — but rather, seek them out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And one of those hot spots is floating in Alameda….\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>(large ship rocks and creaks while the sound of water can be heard)\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>It’s the massive retired aircraft carrier — the USS Hornet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During WWII, the Hornet carried thousands of crewmen, and more than a hundred aircraft, as it battled around the Pacific. And decades later, the Hornet picked up American astronauts after splashdown following two of the moon landings!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a lot of history to this place, but today, we’re putting that all aside. Because it’s Halloween, after all. So, instead of \u003ci>history, \u003c/i>we’re going into the \u003ci>mystery.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The USS Hornet is said to be haunted. So today on the show, we’re tagging along on an after-hours tour to see what paranormal activity we can find.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price, and this is Bay Curious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SPONSOR MESSAGE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>It’s a Friday night, around sunset and KQED reporter Katherine Monahan is climbing aboard the USS Hornet in Alameda with ten other curious guests. Many of these are experienced ghost hunters who have brought their own ghost-detecting instruments for tonight’s activities. Just as the sun dips below the horizon, the intrepid team heads into the dark, steely depths of the ship…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[sounds of people moving around onboard the ship]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>We’re gonna go ahead and walk this way. Watch your step\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/b> Docent and paranormal investigator Faye Navarro leads us by flashlight through echoing metal hallways, past pitch-black rooms filled with old naval equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>Watch your head, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>We step into the Hornet’s sick bay, where wounded crewmembers would have been treated … and where likely some of them died. Rows of WWII-era hospital beds with white sheets and metal frames stretch back into shadowed corners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Navarro places a small, coffin-shaped box on one of the beds. A piece of equipment she’s calibrating so we can use it to sense the presence of spirits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>This is our motion detective, uh, music box. We’ll calibrate the space … \u003ci>[a small music box plays a high-pitched tune]\u003c/i> … When you’re looking down, and this thing is going off, and you don’t see anybody, it gets creepy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Navarro’s partner, Steve Jackson, takes out two little mag flashlights — the kind where you twist the top to turn them on and off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He unscrews them just enough so that they’re off and sets them on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>The theory is the spirits are able to bridge the gap between the battery and the light to be able to answer questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>And they start talking to ghosts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>Is there more than one spirit in here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>The flashlight stays off, indicating a no-answer\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>Is it just you that’s in here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>And it comes on\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>Thank you, can you turn the flashlight off please?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b> … and it goes back off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>There’s something particular about this place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Jackson has been to other spaces that are known as haunted — like the Winchester Mystery House. But he says the USS Hornet is exceptionally full of ghosts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>They’re not just the spirits that were here when the ship was active. They’re spirits from all over the place. I mean, the spirit will come with somebody, and it’ll stay, or a spirit will leave with somebody.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Nearby is the surgery room, with an operating table for the patient and a tray of old instruments for the doctor. A single surgical lamp spotlights the bed — the only light in this otherwise dark room. One of the guests, Ashley Juarez Bilow, climbs on, lays down, and reaches out to the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ashley Juarez Bilow:\u003c/b> Doctor, could you please check my leg? My right leg? (pause) Oh, it feels like my foot is being held right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>She says it’s not a frightening feeling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ashley Juarez Bilow: \u003c/b>I felt like my foot was being gripped, like held on to. It didn’t feel like a bad entity. Felt like someone caring for me and checking something out, like when your mother looks at your knee when you have a boo-boo kind of thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>She says she’s kind of used to this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ashley Juarez Bilow:\u003c/b> I’ve been into it since I was about 13. I used to go to my local cemetery with my Ouija board and go talk to the spirits over there. I was a little bit of a weird kid, so I liked the paranormal. I liked the supernatural. I believe in all of it. I believe your spirit can stay on this earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Our guides, Navarro and Jackson, lead us on through the dark, up a metal staircase so narrow it’s more of a ladder. We peer through doorways at dusty pieces of the past: sonar buoy casings and old radio equipment. We come to a big, open room with pipes running across the ceiling. And here, we’re introduced to a new means of communication with the spirit world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>Has anybody heard of or seen a Human Pendulum?\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Guest: \u003c/b>Human what?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro:\u003c/b> Pendulum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Guest:\u003c/b> Is that the wires that cross?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>No. This is with people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>They ask for a volunteer to stand in the middle of the room and just allow their body to go loose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>So Spirits, we have a new friend here that is willing to be your, um, talking board, so to speak. So if you can touch her lightly and show us what your yes answer will be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>The volunteer leans slightly forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro:\u003c/b> Forward is a yes. Okay, can you show us what your no answer is going to be, please? (pause) Yep, backwards. Okay, Spirit, that we’re talking to right now, Are you a crew member? (pause) No. Okay. Is this your first time on the ship? (pause) Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>And this is when Zaniah Velazquez, another guest, starts to feel she knows who this is. She reaches out in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b>Eres tu Mama?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro:\u003c/b> Yes\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b>I asked her, ‘Is it you, mom?’ Because my mom passed away, you know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>We got a yes. It went forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b> Estas aqui ma?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b> I love you mama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Velazquez lost her mother three years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b>I’ve lost a lot of friends and family members. But I feel her presence, always. And my friends. They’re always around. But she’s there to protect me. You know?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>She says she often feels spirits around her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b>I’ve been like that all my life. I’m very sensitive to stuff. As soon as I came in the ship, I started feeling like, uh, like I went outside and, you know, started talking. Like, you know, I’m just like, I come in peace. Like, don’t follow me home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>It can be unsettling, she says. Sometimes, she even gets nauseous, overwhelmed. But all in all, she says, it’s fun, and she keeps coming back for more. This is actually her fifth time on the tour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: The first, first day we spent the night here. It was creepy to me because I felt something get on top of me. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[eerie music plays]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b>It wouldn’t let me move. And I started praying. Once I started praying, that’s when I felt it. I felt it leave. And then it came back again the second time. And then I was like, oh man, that’s when I really, like, started, like I was praying in Spanish. That’s when I, you know, I felt it get up off of me when I turned around. That’s when I see, I seen it pass by. I seen a black shadow pass by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>[sounds of people walking around]\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>It’s almost midnight now and getting cold. We walk — carefully, it’s pitch black — even deeper into the heart of the ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>This is Radio Central. This is one of the secretest places on the ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>The walls of this small room are covered with knobs and switches. Jackson and Navarro set up their equipment — including a temperature sensor that beeps if the air gets abruptly colder. They lay the flashlights on the ground, and immediately they start winking on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>Okay, can you turn that flashlight off for us, please? Thank you. Did you follow us from the other space? \u003ci>[device beeps] \u003c/i>A temperature change? Mm hmm. It got colder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Jackson: \u003c/b>That wasn’t my stomach either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherin Monahan: \u003c/b>I did hear it. Uh-huh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>And then Velazquez sees something\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez:\u003c/b> Did you guys see that little orb? Mm mm. I seen something pass by. Like a little ball of light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye Navarro: \u003c/b>Outside?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zaniah Velazquez: \u003c/b>Yeah, outside the door. I seen it go that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>BEAT / MUSIC / CREEPY SOUNDS\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Around midnight, the guides leave, and the rest of the guests get ready to spend the night in the original sailors’ sleeping compartments. Ashley Juarez Bilow — the one who felt the doctor touch her foot on the operating table — has her ouija board and tarot cards. She’s with her husband, and she’s hoping to communicate with his late mother — whom she sensed earlier in one of the rooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ashley Juarez Bilow: \u003c/b>I have a feeling that it might be her. So I want to ask questions to see if she’s here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Her husband, David Juarez Bilow, is more of a skeptic but happy to be here with his wife.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>David Juarez Bilow: \u003c/b>I find these cool places that say that they’re haunted, because I know that she likes it, I just bring her along. I mean, happy wife, happy life, right? (laughs)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>As he goes to get some snacks from the vending machine, Ashley says that she expects to run into more spirits tonight but … she’s not afraid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ashley Juarez Bilow:\u003c/b> Because entities, if you don’t interact with them, they generally leave you alone. I learned that in the cemeteries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katherine Monahan: \u003c/b>Solid advice … if you want to come spend the night on the USS Hornet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just crawl into a nice WWII-era metal cot, close your eyes, and see what happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>MUSIC BOX MUSIC\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>That was KQED reporter Katherine Monahan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The USS Hornet holds paranormal overnight adventure tours about once a month. To find out more, go to their website at uss-hornet.org. And if sleeping on a ship brimming with ghosts isn’t your thing, they, of course, have daytime tours and also overnights that focus on the ship’s history — and are presumably way less spooky. Presumably.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is made by Ana De Almeida Amaral, Amanda Font, Christopher Beale, Olivia Allen-Price. Extra support from Jen, Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Nighty Night!\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"slug": "the-ghost-of-a-legend-how-a-san-francisco-civil-rights-icon-was-made-a-monster",
"title": "Ghost of a Legend: How a San Francisco Civil Rights Icon Was Made a Monster",
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"headTitle": "Ghost of a Legend: How a San Francisco Civil Rights Icon Was Made a Monster | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story first published online and aired on “Bay Curious” on Oct 25, 2018.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What are the most haunted places in San Francisco?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the question that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> listener Kelsey Poole asked us a few weeks ago. Which is how I found myself standing with her on the steep streets of San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood as the sun went down — on the San Francisco Ghost Hunt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11699617\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11699617\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1271\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-1020x675.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-1200x794.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-1180x781.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-960x636.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-240x159.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-375x248.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-520x344.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christian Cagigal leading the San Francisco Ghost Hunt through Pacific Heights \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A Tennessee transplant to the Bay Area, Poole is actually already a fan of going on ghost tours when she travels, as a way to learn the history of a city she’s visiting — plus “you get some spooky stories that keep you up at night,” she says. But she’d never done one in San Francisco. \u003cem>(Want to go on a ghost hunt with the Bay Curious team on Nov. 1? \u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bay-curious-sf-ghost-hunt-tour-and-meetup-tickets-51352552868\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Details and tickets here\u003c/a>!)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Ghost Hunt tour is led by performer Christian Cagigal, who leads us through these streets in full 19th century dress, top hat and clacking cane. From tales of ghostly apparitions to aristocrats meeting grisly ends, every corner brings another ghoulish story from San Francisco history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700249\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11700249\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1401\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-800x584.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-1020x744.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-1200x876.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-1180x861.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-960x701.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-240x175.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-375x274.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-520x379.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bay Curious listener Kelsey Poole \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There’s one stop on this tour we discovered, however, that tells a real-life story bigger than any Halloween legend: at the corner of Octavia and Bush streets, the place known as Mary Ellen Pleasant Memorial Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ghost of Mary Ellen Pleasant — a 19th century entrepreneur who once lived in a now-vanished mansion nearby, and actually planted the eucalyptus trees above our heads — is said to still haunt this unlit corner. Her spirit is said to summon chills, frighten dogs and even throw eucalyptus nuts at passers-by. (For the record, we escaped unscathed that night.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700253\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11700253 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/10062018_AW_GhostStory_100-e1540151423725.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1343\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christian Cagigal holds up a photograph of 19th century San Francisco on his Ghost Hunt tour, at Mary Ellen Memorial Park \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pleasant, Cagigal tells us, was born into slavery in the South and came to San Francisco in the mid-1800s — defying white society’s constraints to not only amass great wealth, but to use her power to advance the cause of civil rights in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700602\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 291px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11700602 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/AAD-2997.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"291\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/AAD-2997.jpg 291w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/AAD-2997-160x220.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/AAD-2997-240x330.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 291px) 100vw, 291px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photograph of Mary Ellen Pleasant, age 87. \u003ccite>(Courtesy San Francisco Public Library History Center)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yet she was \u003cem>also\u003c/em> described as a witch, a “voodoo queen” and even a murderer. What’s real here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Her life is so enshrouded in mystery because she was her own spin doctor,” says Sacramento writer and performer Susheel Bibbs, who has studied Pleasant’s story for decades. Pleasant wrote three autobiographies — but each one contradicts the other on basic facts, such as the year of her birth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We do know that she was born in Georgia, and was raised in Nantucket, Massachusetts, “in indenture,” says Bibbs. There on the East Coast, the young Pleasant became a crucial figure in the civil rights fight, secretly teaming up with abolitionists and rescuing escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her double life actually including presenting as a white woman when she could.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was very used to being covert,” Bibbs says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The death of her first husband left her rich, and she arrived in San Francisco in 1852 — still passing as white. She invested this sizable fortune in property by establishing boardinghouses and laundries: services that a town full of prospectors relied on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700259\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11700259\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sacramento writer and performer Susheel Bibbs \u003ccite>(Carly Severn / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In these spaces, she learned the private secrets of powerful men, and used them as another kind of currency, to rise in society. While wealthy white people of San Francisco knew her as the white boardinghouse proprietress, the city’s growing black community knew her \u003cem>real\u003c/em> identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To them, she was known as “The Black City Hall,” who brought the Underground Railroad to the West and helped black people find employment. And almost a century before Rosa Parks, Pleasant challenged San Francisco’s segregated transit system in court, winning black people the right to ride the streetcars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My cause,” Pleasant wrote in one of her memoirs, “was the cause of freedom and equality for myself and for my people. And I’d rather be a corpse than a coward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700604\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1007px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11700604\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1007\" height=\"565\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3.png 1007w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3-800x449.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3-960x539.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3-240x135.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3-375x210.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3-520x292.png 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1007px) 100vw, 1007px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mary Ellen Pleasant pictured in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1899 \u003ccite>(Courtesy San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After the Civil War, over a decade after she arrived in the city, Pleasant finally checked the box that said “Black” on the census of 1865. While this undoubtedly caused a stir, Pleasant continued to move in wealthy white circles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But by the 1880s, the wild, mud-caked San Francisco that Mary Ellen Pleasant the capitalist had carved her way into had itself transformed into a “very much more overtly racist” city, says Bibbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the nation, emancipated slaves became a convenient scapegoat for the economy’s woes — and as a wealthy, older black woman, Pleasant now inspired suspicion, even fear. The press coined a racist nickname: “Mammy Pleasant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whispers grew that she had some otherworldly hold over the wealthy white people she was close to — especially when Pleasant became entangled in the scandalous 1883 trial of Nevada Sen. William Sharon, accused of seducing and then abandoning a young woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was like the O.J. Simpson trial” in notoriety, says Bibbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700255\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11700255 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/10062018_AW_GhostStory_102-e1540151451936.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The crowd listens to Christian Cagigal telling the story of Mary Ellen Pleasant on the San Francisco Ghost Hunt tour \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lawyers for Sharon claimed that Pleasant, as the young woman’s friend, had used dark forces to manipulate her into entrapping the senator. And rather than rejecting the rumors, she defied them — encouraged them. She carried a voodoo doll in court, claiming she would use it to bring about his death. Wild thing is, he soon \u003cem>did\u003c/em> die during the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pleasant’s status as a “voodoo queen” grew, cementing her reputation as a quasi-mystical figure in San Francisco. To the public, voodoo meant blood magic and malevolent intent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Mary Ellen Pleasant, however, the real voodoo — vodoun, or vodun — was actually her religion from her ancestral homeland of Haiti, says Bibbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scandal followed scandal. When her business partner, a Scotsman named Thomas Bell, was found dead in Pleasant’s mansion in 1899, his widow collaborated on a full-page smear piece in the San Francisco Chronicle with the headline “The Queen of the Voodoos.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700490\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1359px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11700490\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1359\" height=\"867\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2.png 1359w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-160x102.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-800x510.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-1020x651.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-1200x766.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-1180x753.png 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-960x612.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-240x153.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-375x239.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-520x332.png 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1359px) 100vw, 1359px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “Queen of the Voodoos” article about Mary Ellen Pleasant in the San Francisco Chronicle \u003ccite>(Courtesy San Francisco Chronicle )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The press had used the language of the supernatural to describe her for years — but now, they made her into a flat-out monster, accusing her of witchcraft and heavily implying she murdered Bell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s telling who gets a legend — and who gets a ghost story. Mary Ellen Pleasant was demonized in her own lifetime. Yet in a system so loaded against a black woman in the public eye, playing with rumor, as she did, was perhaps the only way to play the game — even if it was ultimately her undoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She died in 1904, in her 90s, and her obituary in the San Francisco Examiner was titled: “Mammy Pleasant Will Work Weird Spells No More.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How we’re remembered depends on who’s telling your story. And with such varying accounts, “one could not tell \u003cem>who\u003c/em> she was,” says Bibbs. “Was she the … mother of civil rights, or was she a murderess?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700257\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11700257\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1311\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-800x546.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-1020x696.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-1200x819.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-1180x806.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-960x656.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-240x164.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-375x256.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-520x355.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The San Francisco Ghost Hunt concludes in Room 407 — rumored to be haunted — of the Hotel Majestic in Pacific Heights \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Or as Christian Cagigal put it in closing on the San Francisco Ghost Hunt, under those eucalyptus trees she’s said to haunt: “When there’s three versions of your life story. We don’t know what to do with your life story…. And we \u003cem>forget\u003c/em> your story.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He keeps Mary Ellen Pleasant on his ghost hunt, he says, “so we might start to remember.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The nights are getting longer. Pumpkins are popping up on doorsteps all over town. And soon ghoulish trick or treaters may be knocking at your door. Today on Bay Curious, we’ve got a treat for you to kick off spooky season, all inspired by this question from a listener.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kelsey Poole: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hi, I’m Kelsey Poole and my question is, what are the most haunted places in San Francisco?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We sent Kelsey on a San Francisco Ghost Hunt tour to learn the haunted side of the city’s history.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kelsey Poole: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s a cool way to see the city and you get some spooky stories that keep you up at night.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what we didn’t expect to find on the tour was the real life story that would shake us the most. Something not found in many San Francisco history books. Something more significant than any Halloween legend.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m Olivia Allen-Price, this is Bay Curious. Today we’re bringing back a story we first aired in 2018 about a crusading heroine who somehow became a demon in her own lifetime. That’s all just ahead. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sponsor message\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bay Curious reporter Carly Seven went along with Kelsey on the ghost tour and brings us the tale.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christian Cagigal: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alright ghost hunters. Gather ‘round, gather ‘round.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The San Francisco Ghost Hunt starts at dusk in the city’s Pacific Heights neighborhood in the shadow of those looming Victorians.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christian Cagigal: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hello and welcome to the San Francisco Ghost Hunt walking tour. Thank you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Actor Christian Cagigal leads us around the steep streets in full 19th century dress – top hat and clacking cane. Every corner brings another ghoulish story from San Francisco history, from ghostly apparitions to an aristocrat who disappeared under grisly circumstances.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christian Cagigal: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Windows and doors were said to slam shut throughout the entire house, as inside, they discovered the pickled body of George Atherton.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But on one particularly dark street corner, our guide Christian places his flickering lantern down on the sidewalk to illuminate a large circular plaque under our feet, dedicated to a woman who lived and died here over a century ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christian Cagigal: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She was said to be worth $30 million. For anybody, anytime, that is an accomplishment. For a woman in the Victorian time, quite an accomplishment. For an African-American woman, for that time, almost unheard of. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Almost.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> This, my friends, is Miss Mary Ellen Pleasant.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The excitable crowd on this tour has come to be scared. But sometimes Christian says they get more than they bargained for. Mary’s ghost is said to summon chills, frighten dogs, even throw nuts from the nearby eucalyptus trees at people like us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christian Cagigal: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not on your head. From behind … on your back.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the crowds disperse into the night, I wondered: why would the soul still be so restless? I wanted to learn more about the flesh and blood Mary. And there’s one person who knows her better than most, Sacramento writer Susheel Bibbs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her life is so enshrouded in mystery because she was her own spin doctor.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mary wrote three autobiographies, but each one contradicts the other. Here’s what we do know about her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She was born a slave in Georgia. She was raised in Nantucket in indenture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There on the East Coast, years before she came to San Francisco, Mary was a crucial figure in the civil rights fight, secretly teaming up with abolitionists and rescuing escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad. In this world, nothing could ever be as it seemed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She was very used to being covert, and she often said that words were made to conceal feelings and that she was good at it.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And that double life included presenting as a white woman when she could. Early on, she married well, and rich. And when she was widowed, she inherited all that money.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$45,000 in gold from her husband’s estate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And she made the journey by steamer to San Francisco in 1852, still passing as white. She found a town filled with men come to make their gold rush fortunes. They were far from home and needed somewhere to live. So Mary buys up boarding houses and laundries.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All kinds of things that she thinks will be a niche in San Francisco to make more money.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thing is, Mary also did the cooking and the cleaning for these men. Why? Because you can hear secrets that way. She had the dirty laundry of influential men, literally, and she was using it as leverage to further her real cause, bringing the Underground Railroad out west. You see, only San Francisco’s growing Black community knew her as a Black woman. They called her the Black City Hall, the place where you go to get what you need.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She helped African Americans get jobs on steamers and in homes and in her own businesses.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not only that, almost a century before Rosa Parks, Mary Ellen Pleasant challenged the city’s segregated transit system.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She won in and out of court, and in 1868, African Americans could ride the trolleys in San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the Civil War. Over a decade after she arrived in the city, Mary finally checked the box that said Black on the census of 1865. Susheel, who also performs as Mary on stage, reads from her memoirs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My cause was the cause of freedom and equality for myself and for my people, and I’d rather be a corpse than a coward.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But by the 1880s, the wild mud-caked San Francisco that Mary Ellen Pleasant, the capitalist, had carved her way into, had itself transformed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Very much more overtly racist.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Across the nation, emancipated slaves became a convenient scapegoat for the economy’s woes. And as a wealthy, older Black woman, Mary now inspired suspicion, even fear. And that is how a heroine becomes a villain. Now, the press coined a racist nickname, Mammy Pleasant. And in 1883, she became entangled in the scandalous trial of a Nevada senator accused of seducing, then abandoning a young woman. That woman was Mary’s friend.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was a trial like the O.J. Simpson trial of the 20th century and went all the way to New York and it was reported everywhere, every day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though she wasn’t on trial, Mary was painted as a sinister crone with an otherworldly hold over the white people she was close to. But rather than rejecting the rumors, she defied them, encouraged them even, during the senator’s trial.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At one point, she planted a voodoo doll and said that, you know, he would die. He did die during, over the course of the trials.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To Mary Ellen Pleasant, voodoo wasn’t just some scare tactic. It was, vodoun, or vodun, a belief system from her ancestral homeland of Haiti.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was Pleasant’s religion from the time she was a child. She was born the daughter of a voodoo priestess and the granddaughter of a voodoo priest from Haiti.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scandal followed scandal. When her wealthy white business partner was found dead in her mansion, his widow collaborated on a full page smear piece in the San Francisco Chronicle. The headline…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Paul Lancour (reading from newspaper): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Queen of the Voodoos\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The press had used the language of the supernatural to describe her for years, and now they made her into a flat out monster. And the public turned on her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They exploited those rumors and called her a blackmailer. They called her a baby stealer. So I would say that it was hate, revenge and racism.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pleasant died in 1904, in her 90s. After such a life, so many achievements, this was the obituary she received in the San Francisco Examiner.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Paul Lancour (reading from a newspaper): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mammy Pleasant will work weird spells no more.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s telling who gets a legend and who gets a ghost story. How we are remembered depends on who’s telling your story. Or as our tour guide, Christian put it ,under those haunted eucalyptus trees in San Francisco …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christian Cagigal: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But when there’s three versions of your life story, we don’t know what to do with your life story. We stop telling your life story and we forget your story.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He keeps Mary Ellen Pleasant on his ghost hunt, he says so that she’s not forgotten. But given Mary’s own penchant for mystery and a good story, then maybe you could choose a worse time to get to know Mary Ellen Pleasant than Halloween.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before we go, let’s check back in with Kelsey, our question asker.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What do you think about the story of Mary Ellen Pleasant?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kelsey Poole: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was really cool history I didn’t know before. But I hope she doesn’t throw a gumball at me.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reporter Carly Seven. Thanks for bringing us this story. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mark your calendars for a super fun event we have coming up. It’s a free and festive block party and open house at KQED headquarters in San Francisco’s Mission District. It’s called KQED Fest, and it’s a daylong celebration of local food, music, culture and your favorite KQED, PBS and NPR programs. Bay Curious will be live on stage talking about the statewide propositions that we recently covered in our Prop Fest series. So be sure to swing by and say hello. I’ll be there. It all goes down on October 19th. Find details and register for free at kqed.org/live. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is produced by Amanda Font, Christopher Beale, Ana De Almeida Amaral and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Additional support from Victoria Mauleon, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m Olivia Ellen Price, and I hope to see you at KQED Fest. Thanks for listening!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story first published online and aired on “Bay Curious” on Oct 25, 2018.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What are the most haunted places in San Francisco?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the question that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> listener Kelsey Poole asked us a few weeks ago. Which is how I found myself standing with her on the steep streets of San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood as the sun went down — on the San Francisco Ghost Hunt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11699617\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11699617\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1271\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-1020x675.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-1200x794.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-1180x781.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-960x636.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-240x159.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-375x248.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut-520x344.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christian Cagigal leading the San Francisco Ghost Hunt through Pacific Heights \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A Tennessee transplant to the Bay Area, Poole is actually already a fan of going on ghost tours when she travels, as a way to learn the history of a city she’s visiting — plus “you get some spooky stories that keep you up at night,” she says. But she’d never done one in San Francisco. \u003cem>(Want to go on a ghost hunt with the Bay Curious team on Nov. 1? \u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bay-curious-sf-ghost-hunt-tour-and-meetup-tickets-51352552868\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Details and tickets here\u003c/a>!)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Ghost Hunt tour is led by performer Christian Cagigal, who leads us through these streets in full 19th century dress, top hat and clacking cane. From tales of ghostly apparitions to aristocrats meeting grisly ends, every corner brings another ghoulish story from San Francisco history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700249\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11700249\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1401\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-800x584.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-1020x744.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-1200x876.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-1180x861.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-960x701.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-240x175.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-375x274.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33238_10062018_AW_GhostStory_11-qut-520x379.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bay Curious listener Kelsey Poole \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There’s one stop on this tour we discovered, however, that tells a real-life story bigger than any Halloween legend: at the corner of Octavia and Bush streets, the place known as Mary Ellen Pleasant Memorial Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ghost of Mary Ellen Pleasant — a 19th century entrepreneur who once lived in a now-vanished mansion nearby, and actually planted the eucalyptus trees above our heads — is said to still haunt this unlit corner. Her spirit is said to summon chills, frighten dogs and even throw eucalyptus nuts at passers-by. (For the record, we escaped unscathed that night.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700253\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11700253 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/10062018_AW_GhostStory_100-e1540151423725.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1343\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christian Cagigal holds up a photograph of 19th century San Francisco on his Ghost Hunt tour, at Mary Ellen Memorial Park \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pleasant, Cagigal tells us, was born into slavery in the South and came to San Francisco in the mid-1800s — defying white society’s constraints to not only amass great wealth, but to use her power to advance the cause of civil rights in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700602\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 291px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11700602 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/AAD-2997.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"291\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/AAD-2997.jpg 291w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/AAD-2997-160x220.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/AAD-2997-240x330.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 291px) 100vw, 291px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photograph of Mary Ellen Pleasant, age 87. \u003ccite>(Courtesy San Francisco Public Library History Center)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yet she was \u003cem>also\u003c/em> described as a witch, a “voodoo queen” and even a murderer. What’s real here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Her life is so enshrouded in mystery because she was her own spin doctor,” says Sacramento writer and performer Susheel Bibbs, who has studied Pleasant’s story for decades. Pleasant wrote three autobiographies — but each one contradicts the other on basic facts, such as the year of her birth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We do know that she was born in Georgia, and was raised in Nantucket, Massachusetts, “in indenture,” says Bibbs. There on the East Coast, the young Pleasant became a crucial figure in the civil rights fight, secretly teaming up with abolitionists and rescuing escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her double life actually including presenting as a white woman when she could.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was very used to being covert,” Bibbs says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The death of her first husband left her rich, and she arrived in San Francisco in 1852 — still passing as white. She invested this sizable fortune in property by establishing boardinghouses and laundries: services that a town full of prospectors relied on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700259\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11700259\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33344_DSC_1169-qut-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sacramento writer and performer Susheel Bibbs \u003ccite>(Carly Severn / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In these spaces, she learned the private secrets of powerful men, and used them as another kind of currency, to rise in society. While wealthy white people of San Francisco knew her as the white boardinghouse proprietress, the city’s growing black community knew her \u003cem>real\u003c/em> identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To them, she was known as “The Black City Hall,” who brought the Underground Railroad to the West and helped black people find employment. And almost a century before Rosa Parks, Pleasant challenged San Francisco’s segregated transit system in court, winning black people the right to ride the streetcars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My cause,” Pleasant wrote in one of her memoirs, “was the cause of freedom and equality for myself and for my people. And I’d rather be a corpse than a coward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700604\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1007px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11700604\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1007\" height=\"565\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3.png 1007w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3-800x449.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3-960x539.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3-240x135.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3-375x210.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-3-520x292.png 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1007px) 100vw, 1007px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mary Ellen Pleasant pictured in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1899 \u003ccite>(Courtesy San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After the Civil War, over a decade after she arrived in the city, Pleasant finally checked the box that said “Black” on the census of 1865. While this undoubtedly caused a stir, Pleasant continued to move in wealthy white circles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But by the 1880s, the wild, mud-caked San Francisco that Mary Ellen Pleasant the capitalist had carved her way into had itself transformed into a “very much more overtly racist” city, says Bibbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the nation, emancipated slaves became a convenient scapegoat for the economy’s woes — and as a wealthy, older black woman, Pleasant now inspired suspicion, even fear. The press coined a racist nickname: “Mammy Pleasant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whispers grew that she had some otherworldly hold over the wealthy white people she was close to — especially when Pleasant became entangled in the scandalous 1883 trial of Nevada Sen. William Sharon, accused of seducing and then abandoning a young woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was like the O.J. Simpson trial” in notoriety, says Bibbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700255\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11700255 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/10062018_AW_GhostStory_102-e1540151451936.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The crowd listens to Christian Cagigal telling the story of Mary Ellen Pleasant on the San Francisco Ghost Hunt tour \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lawyers for Sharon claimed that Pleasant, as the young woman’s friend, had used dark forces to manipulate her into entrapping the senator. And rather than rejecting the rumors, she defied them — encouraged them. She carried a voodoo doll in court, claiming she would use it to bring about his death. Wild thing is, he soon \u003cem>did\u003c/em> die during the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pleasant’s status as a “voodoo queen” grew, cementing her reputation as a quasi-mystical figure in San Francisco. To the public, voodoo meant blood magic and malevolent intent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Mary Ellen Pleasant, however, the real voodoo — vodoun, or vodun — was actually her religion from her ancestral homeland of Haiti, says Bibbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scandal followed scandal. When her business partner, a Scotsman named Thomas Bell, was found dead in Pleasant’s mansion in 1899, his widow collaborated on a full-page smear piece in the San Francisco Chronicle with the headline “The Queen of the Voodoos.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700490\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1359px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11700490\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1359\" height=\"867\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2.png 1359w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-160x102.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-800x510.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-1020x651.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-1200x766.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-1180x753.png 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-960x612.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-240x153.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-375x239.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Chron-2-520x332.png 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1359px) 100vw, 1359px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “Queen of the Voodoos” article about Mary Ellen Pleasant in the San Francisco Chronicle \u003ccite>(Courtesy San Francisco Chronicle )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The press had used the language of the supernatural to describe her for years — but now, they made her into a flat-out monster, accusing her of witchcraft and heavily implying she murdered Bell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s telling who gets a legend — and who gets a ghost story. Mary Ellen Pleasant was demonized in her own lifetime. Yet in a system so loaded against a black woman in the public eye, playing with rumor, as she did, was perhaps the only way to play the game — even if it was ultimately her undoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She died in 1904, in her 90s, and her obituary in the San Francisco Examiner was titled: “Mammy Pleasant Will Work Weird Spells No More.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How we’re remembered depends on who’s telling your story. And with such varying accounts, “one could not tell \u003cem>who\u003c/em> she was,” says Bibbs. “Was she the … mother of civil rights, or was she a murderess?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11700257\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11700257\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1311\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-800x546.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-1020x696.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-1200x819.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-1180x806.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-960x656.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-240x164.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-375x256.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33243_10062018_AW_GhostStory_76-qut-520x355.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The San Francisco Ghost Hunt concludes in Room 407 — rumored to be haunted — of the Hotel Majestic in Pacific Heights \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Or as Christian Cagigal put it in closing on the San Francisco Ghost Hunt, under those eucalyptus trees she’s said to haunt: “When there’s three versions of your life story. We don’t know what to do with your life story…. And we \u003cem>forget\u003c/em> your story.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He keeps Mary Ellen Pleasant on his ghost hunt, he says, “so we might start to remember.”\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The nights are getting longer. Pumpkins are popping up on doorsteps all over town. And soon ghoulish trick or treaters may be knocking at your door. Today on Bay Curious, we’ve got a treat for you to kick off spooky season, all inspired by this question from a listener.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kelsey Poole: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hi, I’m Kelsey Poole and my question is, what are the most haunted places in San Francisco?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We sent Kelsey on a San Francisco Ghost Hunt tour to learn the haunted side of the city’s history.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kelsey Poole: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s a cool way to see the city and you get some spooky stories that keep you up at night.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what we didn’t expect to find on the tour was the real life story that would shake us the most. Something not found in many San Francisco history books. Something more significant than any Halloween legend.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m Olivia Allen-Price, this is Bay Curious. Today we’re bringing back a story we first aired in 2018 about a crusading heroine who somehow became a demon in her own lifetime. That’s all just ahead. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sponsor message\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bay Curious reporter Carly Seven went along with Kelsey on the ghost tour and brings us the tale.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christian Cagigal: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alright ghost hunters. Gather ‘round, gather ‘round.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The San Francisco Ghost Hunt starts at dusk in the city’s Pacific Heights neighborhood in the shadow of those looming Victorians.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christian Cagigal: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hello and welcome to the San Francisco Ghost Hunt walking tour. Thank you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Actor Christian Cagigal leads us around the steep streets in full 19th century dress – top hat and clacking cane. Every corner brings another ghoulish story from San Francisco history, from ghostly apparitions to an aristocrat who disappeared under grisly circumstances.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christian Cagigal: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Windows and doors were said to slam shut throughout the entire house, as inside, they discovered the pickled body of George Atherton.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But on one particularly dark street corner, our guide Christian places his flickering lantern down on the sidewalk to illuminate a large circular plaque under our feet, dedicated to a woman who lived and died here over a century ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christian Cagigal: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She was said to be worth $30 million. For anybody, anytime, that is an accomplishment. For a woman in the Victorian time, quite an accomplishment. For an African-American woman, for that time, almost unheard of. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Almost.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> This, my friends, is Miss Mary Ellen Pleasant.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The excitable crowd on this tour has come to be scared. But sometimes Christian says they get more than they bargained for. Mary’s ghost is said to summon chills, frighten dogs, even throw nuts from the nearby eucalyptus trees at people like us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christian Cagigal: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not on your head. From behind … on your back.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the crowds disperse into the night, I wondered: why would the soul still be so restless? I wanted to learn more about the flesh and blood Mary. And there’s one person who knows her better than most, Sacramento writer Susheel Bibbs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her life is so enshrouded in mystery because she was her own spin doctor.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mary wrote three autobiographies, but each one contradicts the other. Here’s what we do know about her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She was born a slave in Georgia. She was raised in Nantucket in indenture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There on the East Coast, years before she came to San Francisco, Mary was a crucial figure in the civil rights fight, secretly teaming up with abolitionists and rescuing escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad. In this world, nothing could ever be as it seemed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She was very used to being covert, and she often said that words were made to conceal feelings and that she was good at it.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And that double life included presenting as a white woman when she could. Early on, she married well, and rich. And when she was widowed, she inherited all that money.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$45,000 in gold from her husband’s estate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And she made the journey by steamer to San Francisco in 1852, still passing as white. She found a town filled with men come to make their gold rush fortunes. They were far from home and needed somewhere to live. So Mary buys up boarding houses and laundries.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All kinds of things that she thinks will be a niche in San Francisco to make more money.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thing is, Mary also did the cooking and the cleaning for these men. Why? Because you can hear secrets that way. She had the dirty laundry of influential men, literally, and she was using it as leverage to further her real cause, bringing the Underground Railroad out west. You see, only San Francisco’s growing Black community knew her as a Black woman. They called her the Black City Hall, the place where you go to get what you need.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She helped African Americans get jobs on steamers and in homes and in her own businesses.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not only that, almost a century before Rosa Parks, Mary Ellen Pleasant challenged the city’s segregated transit system.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She won in and out of court, and in 1868, African Americans could ride the trolleys in San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the Civil War. Over a decade after she arrived in the city, Mary finally checked the box that said Black on the census of 1865. Susheel, who also performs as Mary on stage, reads from her memoirs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My cause was the cause of freedom and equality for myself and for my people, and I’d rather be a corpse than a coward.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But by the 1880s, the wild mud-caked San Francisco that Mary Ellen Pleasant, the capitalist, had carved her way into, had itself transformed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Very much more overtly racist.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Across the nation, emancipated slaves became a convenient scapegoat for the economy’s woes. And as a wealthy, older Black woman, Mary now inspired suspicion, even fear. And that is how a heroine becomes a villain. Now, the press coined a racist nickname, Mammy Pleasant. And in 1883, she became entangled in the scandalous trial of a Nevada senator accused of seducing, then abandoning a young woman. That woman was Mary’s friend.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was a trial like the O.J. Simpson trial of the 20th century and went all the way to New York and it was reported everywhere, every day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though she wasn’t on trial, Mary was painted as a sinister crone with an otherworldly hold over the white people she was close to. But rather than rejecting the rumors, she defied them, encouraged them even, during the senator’s trial.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At one point, she planted a voodoo doll and said that, you know, he would die. He did die during, over the course of the trials.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To Mary Ellen Pleasant, voodoo wasn’t just some scare tactic. It was, vodoun, or vodun, a belief system from her ancestral homeland of Haiti.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was Pleasant’s religion from the time she was a child. She was born the daughter of a voodoo priestess and the granddaughter of a voodoo priest from Haiti.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scandal followed scandal. When her wealthy white business partner was found dead in her mansion, his widow collaborated on a full page smear piece in the San Francisco Chronicle. The headline…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Paul Lancour (reading from newspaper): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Queen of the Voodoos\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The press had used the language of the supernatural to describe her for years, and now they made her into a flat out monster. And the public turned on her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Susheel Bibbs: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They exploited those rumors and called her a blackmailer. They called her a baby stealer. So I would say that it was hate, revenge and racism.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pleasant died in 1904, in her 90s. After such a life, so many achievements, this was the obituary she received in the San Francisco Examiner.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Paul Lancour (reading from a newspaper): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mammy Pleasant will work weird spells no more.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s telling who gets a legend and who gets a ghost story. How we are remembered depends on who’s telling your story. Or as our tour guide, Christian put it ,under those haunted eucalyptus trees in San Francisco …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Christian Cagigal: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But when there’s three versions of your life story, we don’t know what to do with your life story. We stop telling your life story and we forget your story.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He keeps Mary Ellen Pleasant on his ghost hunt, he says so that she’s not forgotten. But given Mary’s own penchant for mystery and a good story, then maybe you could choose a worse time to get to know Mary Ellen Pleasant than Halloween.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before we go, let’s check back in with Kelsey, our question asker.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What do you think about the story of Mary Ellen Pleasant?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kelsey Poole: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was really cool history I didn’t know before. But I hope she doesn’t throw a gumball at me.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reporter Carly Seven. Thanks for bringing us this story. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mark your calendars for a super fun event we have coming up. It’s a free and festive block party and open house at KQED headquarters in San Francisco’s Mission District. It’s called KQED Fest, and it’s a daylong celebration of local food, music, culture and your favorite KQED, PBS and NPR programs. Bay Curious will be live on stage talking about the statewide propositions that we recently covered in our Prop Fest series. So be sure to swing by and say hello. I’ll be there. It all goes down on October 19th. Find details and register for free at kqed.org/live. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is produced by Amanda Font, Christopher Beale, Ana De Almeida Amaral and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Additional support from Victoria Mauleon, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m Olivia Ellen Price, and I hope to see you at KQED Fest. Thanks for listening!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/div>"
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"content": "\u003cp>Spirit Halloween, one of spooky season’s favorite internet memes, is now 40 years old — and its origins are in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chain, which has over 1,500 pop-ups nationwide and has been known for \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043278951/spirit-halloween\">quickly snagging\u003c/a> up empty storefronts, is the brainchild of Joe Marver. In 1983, he opened a Halloween store at the Castro Valley Mall. At the time, he did business in party goods and women’s apparel, and when a dancewear store selling costumes at the mall closed, he saw an opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I put all of my clothing in storage. I went to a trade show in Chicago, picked up everything I could that had to do with Halloween, and put it in my store, and it was amazing,” the 80-year-old said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why Halloween, in particular? According to the \u003ca href=\"https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/halloween-spending-reach-record-122-billion-participation-exceeds-pre\">National Retail Federation\u003c/a>, U.S. Halloween spending is projected to reach a record $12.2 billion in 2023, exceeding pre-pandemic levels. The trade association predicts the holiday will surpass the previous record, $10.6 billion, in 2022. (According to career guidance site \u003ca href=\"https://www.zippia.com/spirit-halloween-careers-39164/revenue/\">Zippia\u003c/a>, Spirit Halloween’s annual revenue is approximately $1.1 billion.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether Marver has a special affinity for Halloween, a 2016 Bloomberg \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-halloween-pop-up-shops/#xj4y7vzkg\">article\u003c/a> described it as not a “strong love.” KQED asked him again about this impression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had to be somewhat into it to start it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marver’s gamble worked out, and the concept took off, opening more stores in the West and Midwest. In 1999, he decided to sell the store to the company Spencer’s Gifts, also a Halloween specialty retail chain headquartered in New Jersey, which continues to run Spirit Halloween.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Spirit brings tremendous expertise to the non-mall seasonal Halloween retail business. Their approach to operating seasonal stores outside of the mall environment will contribute to our continuing strong hold on this holiday market,” said John Hacala, Spencer’s Gifts CEO at the time, in the press release announcing the acquisition. [aside postID=news_11965502 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-Mugshot.jpg'] Marver said he stayed involved in the business, primarily as a consultant, and left it around a decade ago. He currently runs a boutique hotel, Twisp River Suites, in Twisp, Washington.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He looked back on the store’s founding and shared insight on running a seasonal business, speaking with KQED’s Brian Watt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brian Watt: Why did you decide to sell? It sounds like it was going well.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joe Marver: I approached [Spencer’s Gifts] with a deal that I thought was quite fair and generous for me in 1998. And they talked about it and said, “No, I don’t think so.” And I went back home, and I continued and increased the number of stores, and I got up to a great number. I put friends and family in the business with franchises, and it just worked very well. A year later, in ’99, they approached me and said, “We’ll do your deal.” And I said, OK.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Even the most enthusiastic Halloween celebrations would wonder how someone builds a business around something that is only for one season of the year. What do you think about that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It seems like a temporary, seasonal business, but it’s not. You have to buy all the merchandise. That starts February, March and get everything ready to be shipped. [Then], let’s talk about finding the locations. That usually starts in May or June. [And] taking a location, beginning of August, in order to prepare the location, decorate the location, set up all of the goods, and then, you need two weeks after Halloween to break it all down, get everything set up [and] leave the location.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I tried to do Christmas stores at one point, but it was way too competitive. Gas stations did Christmas. Everybody did Christmas. So I gave that up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Just living Halloween things for 10 months strikes me as a lot.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, I think they’re doing a lot of online selling — they’ll do it all year round for costumes, makeup, masks, parties [and] events. And so, they’re keeping busy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When I was working for another radio station in Los Angeles, and we were coming up on Halloween, we noticed these stores. I talked to one guy who was a manager of one of these stores. I want to know if what he told me at that time was true about the empty stores in strip malls. Did they become a hot commodity in the run-up to Halloween? Do you compete for the right to set up a store around Halloween? \u003c/strong>[aside postID=news_11963206 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/WMH_Front-at-Sunset-1020x675.jpg'] Well, back in the day when you’re talking about, it was kind of difficult to get the right location. Some of the people in the strip centers wanted to have the big boxes come in, but then, some of them realized it [was] not going to happen. “Let’s do Halloween. Let’s get something going. Maybe it’ll bring business to the other tenants.” And I think that’s what it’s about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There are plenty of jokes and memes about the store — like the social media posts of people posing as Spirit Halloween costumes. What do you make of all that, in light of what you started 40 years ago?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I just feel honored, to be honest with you. I’m so proud of what I started, and I’m so proud of the people who involved themselves and became so successful with the company. It’s like a tribute to me, to everybody who loves Halloween.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How do you celebrate Halloween now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I just basically decorate my hotel, and I get 200 to 300 kids who come by and trick-or-treat. And it just brings back the memories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Spirit Halloween, one of spooky season’s favorite internet memes, is now 40 years old — and its origins are in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chain, which has over 1,500 pop-ups nationwide and has been known for \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043278951/spirit-halloween\">quickly snagging\u003c/a> up empty storefronts, is the brainchild of Joe Marver. In 1983, he opened a Halloween store at the Castro Valley Mall. At the time, he did business in party goods and women’s apparel, and when a dancewear store selling costumes at the mall closed, he saw an opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I put all of my clothing in storage. I went to a trade show in Chicago, picked up everything I could that had to do with Halloween, and put it in my store, and it was amazing,” the 80-year-old said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why Halloween, in particular? According to the \u003ca href=\"https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/halloween-spending-reach-record-122-billion-participation-exceeds-pre\">National Retail Federation\u003c/a>, U.S. Halloween spending is projected to reach a record $12.2 billion in 2023, exceeding pre-pandemic levels. The trade association predicts the holiday will surpass the previous record, $10.6 billion, in 2022. (According to career guidance site \u003ca href=\"https://www.zippia.com/spirit-halloween-careers-39164/revenue/\">Zippia\u003c/a>, Spirit Halloween’s annual revenue is approximately $1.1 billion.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether Marver has a special affinity for Halloween, a 2016 Bloomberg \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-halloween-pop-up-shops/#xj4y7vzkg\">article\u003c/a> described it as not a “strong love.” KQED asked him again about this impression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had to be somewhat into it to start it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marver’s gamble worked out, and the concept took off, opening more stores in the West and Midwest. In 1999, he decided to sell the store to the company Spencer’s Gifts, also a Halloween specialty retail chain headquartered in New Jersey, which continues to run Spirit Halloween.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Spirit brings tremendous expertise to the non-mall seasonal Halloween retail business. Their approach to operating seasonal stores outside of the mall environment will contribute to our continuing strong hold on this holiday market,” said John Hacala, Spencer’s Gifts CEO at the time, in the press release announcing the acquisition. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> Marver said he stayed involved in the business, primarily as a consultant, and left it around a decade ago. He currently runs a boutique hotel, Twisp River Suites, in Twisp, Washington.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He looked back on the store’s founding and shared insight on running a seasonal business, speaking with KQED’s Brian Watt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brian Watt: Why did you decide to sell? It sounds like it was going well.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joe Marver: I approached [Spencer’s Gifts] with a deal that I thought was quite fair and generous for me in 1998. And they talked about it and said, “No, I don’t think so.” And I went back home, and I continued and increased the number of stores, and I got up to a great number. I put friends and family in the business with franchises, and it just worked very well. A year later, in ’99, they approached me and said, “We’ll do your deal.” And I said, OK.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Even the most enthusiastic Halloween celebrations would wonder how someone builds a business around something that is only for one season of the year. What do you think about that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It seems like a temporary, seasonal business, but it’s not. You have to buy all the merchandise. That starts February, March and get everything ready to be shipped. [Then], let’s talk about finding the locations. That usually starts in May or June. [And] taking a location, beginning of August, in order to prepare the location, decorate the location, set up all of the goods, and then, you need two weeks after Halloween to break it all down, get everything set up [and] leave the location.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I tried to do Christmas stores at one point, but it was way too competitive. Gas stations did Christmas. Everybody did Christmas. So I gave that up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Just living Halloween things for 10 months strikes me as a lot.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, I think they’re doing a lot of online selling — they’ll do it all year round for costumes, makeup, masks, parties [and] events. And so, they’re keeping busy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When I was working for another radio station in Los Angeles, and we were coming up on Halloween, we noticed these stores. I talked to one guy who was a manager of one of these stores. I want to know if what he told me at that time was true about the empty stores in strip malls. Did they become a hot commodity in the run-up to Halloween? Do you compete for the right to set up a store around Halloween? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> Well, back in the day when you’re talking about, it was kind of difficult to get the right location. Some of the people in the strip centers wanted to have the big boxes come in, but then, some of them realized it [was] not going to happen. “Let’s do Halloween. Let’s get something going. Maybe it’ll bring business to the other tenants.” And I think that’s what it’s about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There are plenty of jokes and memes about the store — like the social media posts of people posing as Spirit Halloween costumes. What do you make of all that, in light of what you started 40 years ago?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I just feel honored, to be honest with you. I’m so proud of what I started, and I’m so proud of the people who involved themselves and became so successful with the company. It’s like a tribute to me, to everybody who loves Halloween.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How do you celebrate Halloween now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I just basically decorate my hotel, and I get 200 to 300 kids who come by and trick-or-treat. And it just brings back the memories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Murder in the Belfry: How the Story of Theodore Durrant Captivated Victorian San Francisco",
"headTitle": "Murder in the Belfry: How the Story of Theodore Durrant Captivated Victorian San Francisco | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003cem>Read a transcript of this episode.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ne hundred twenty-eight years ago, San Francisco was haunted by a bizarre, brutal murder case. And in terms of macabre ingredients, this story truly had it all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To make matters worse, this all happened inside one of the city’s revered churches. A mild-mannered \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">gentleman\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> suspected of killing two young women who knew and trusted him. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">His name was Theodore Durrant, but the press called him “The Demon of the Belfry.” \u003c/span>[baycuriousbug]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back in 1895, San Franciscans found themselves completely obsessed with this case. But if you ask someone living here now whether they know about “the Demon of the Belfry,” there’s a good chance they’ve never even heard of it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What was it about these murders that possessed this city? And how did such an infamous case virtually disappear from the Bay Area’s memory? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>The church on Bartlett Street\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you try to find the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz002hrvgg\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Emmanuel Baptist Church\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> these days, you’ll be out of luck as the building was torn down at the turn of the century. But head to the 24th and Mission BART station and walk just a few blocks northwest, and you’ll find yourself near the site that obsessed 1890s San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, only an apartment building and Victorian houses are on this tree-lined stretch of Bartlett Street between 22nd and 23rd streets. But back then, this huge church would have dominated this street. And at the very top, reaching into the sky above the Mission District, was the church’s bell tower, or belfry — a dark, lonely room which, for several years in the 1890s, became the most dreaded space in San Francisco. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1895, the days of this place being a muddy, chaotic mining backwater were long gone, and San Francisco had become a bustling, modern city staring down a new century. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For almost 20 years, these streets had felt the hum of electricity and the rattle of cable cars alongside the endless thrum of the sheer number of people living within these 7 square miles — around 300,000 of them. The devastating earthquake and fire of 1906 was still more than a decade away.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At this time, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/1054/files/Mission_District_context_111607%20(2).pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the Mission District was called a streetcar suburb\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: a place increasingly well-connected by mass transit to downtown and heavily inhabited by a working-class mix of immigrants, the majority at this time from Europe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the middle of it all, on Bartlett Street, was the Emmanuel Baptist Church — where a quiet, mild-mannered young medical student in his early 20s called Theo Durrant volunteered at the Sunday School.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965545\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965545\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist-800x549.png\" alt=\"Black and white image of the front of a large stone church\" width=\"800\" height=\"549\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist-800x549.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist-160x110.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist.png 901w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The front of the Emanuel Baptist Church in San Francisco, 1895. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento, California.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>‘In the shadow of the altar’\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One afternoon in early April 1895, a young Mission District schoolteacher named Blanche Lamont vanished. She was last seen with a friend of hers: Theo Durrant. When Lamont didn’t come home, Durrant was questioned, but police ultimately had no evidence of foul play.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Police were “utterly baffled,” \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC18950410.2.198&srpos=4&e=------189-en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN-%22blanche+lamont%22----1895---\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wrote the \u003cem>San Francisco Call\u003c/em> newspaper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, at how “Blanche Lamont, a beautiful girl … has disappeared as mysteriously as if the earth had swallowed her.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nine days after Lamont disappeared, another young woman who attended the Emmanuel Baptist Church, Minnie Williams, didn’t come home either. Like Lamont, Williams was last seen with Theo Durrant — who’d been spotted walking her into the church.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The morning after Williams went missing, a volunteer setting up for the church’s Easter service the next day, opened one of the church closets and found Williams’ murdered body lying on the floor inside, covered in blood. She had been beaten, raped, stabbed and strangled, and rags had been stuffed down her throat.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When police searched the rest of the building, the last place they looked was the very top — in the belfry — and discovered the naked body of Lamont, who had died by strangulation. Her corpse had been laid out as if asleep and hidden up there for almost two weeks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instantly, the \u003cem>San Francisco Call\u003c/em> newspaper dubbed it “one of the most atrocious murders ever committed in San Francisco,” with the headline “Struck Down in the Shadow of the Altar.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Theo Durrant was immediately the prime suspect. And from the moment he was arrested, San Francisco’s mania for the “Demon of the Belfry” caught fire.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965565\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965565\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-800x471.jpg\" alt=\"Side by side portraits of two young woman with dark curly hair, taken in the 1890s.\" width=\"800\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-800x471.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-1020x601.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-160x94.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-1536x905.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Portraits of Blanche Lamont (left) and Minnie Williams (right). \u003ccite>(Wikimedia Commons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>An instant sensation\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s hard to convey just how\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">all-consuming this case was in 1895 — dominating the local news and spilling out into newspaper coverage that extended far beyond San Francisco. There was even a play about the case called \u003cem>Crime of a Century\u003c/em> that started running in San Francisco \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">during \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the trial.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As for why this case sparked such immediate interest, “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">there was the undercurrent of that if this could happen in a church … it could happen anywhere,” said Virginia McConnell, author of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://books.google.com/books/about/Sympathy_for_the_Devil.html?id=dKra0SYhzc0C\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cem>Sympathy For the Devil: The Emmanuel Baptist Murders of Old San Francisco\u003c/em>.\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not just that, but, “It could happen in your home.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This murder trial had all the elements to mesmerize a willing city. It had a cast of young characters: well-spoken medical student Durrant and the two young women (whose attractiveness was frequently noted by the press) that he stood accused of violently murdering with his bare hands.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The fact that this crime happened in such a church — and was perpetrated by a young man with all the outward appearances of a total gentleman — reinforced all those fears that people living in a big, growing metropolis can become susceptible to. Namely, a panic that their city was sinking into an unprecedented moral decay. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was an anxiety all too eagerly stoked by the newspapers, both local and further afield, that framed these crimes as the ultimate sign of San Francisco’s irredeemable rot. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As Grass Valley’s \u003cem>Morning Union\u003c/em> newspaper wrote, the cases were \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MU18950416.2.23&srpos=26&e=------189-en--20--21-byDA-txt-txIN-%22emmanuel+baptist+church%22----1895---\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Casting reproach upon the already too low standard of morals in that city\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and a cloud of shame on the good name of our beautiful State.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was also breathless speculation about the sexual elements of the case. Had Durrant been romantically involved with either of the two women? Was this “gentleman,” in fact, a depraved pervert who’d habitually harassed and exposed his way through the Mission District, as was rumored? Whispers about the latter were straight-up “misconceptions,” McConnell said, but that didn’t stop the press from running with them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>‘Spinal shivers’ in court\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the evidence against him mounted up, Durrant’s only hope was winning over the jury on the stand, which he truly failed to do.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Durrant constantly contradicted his alibis and introduced new implausible theories about anyone else who could have murdered Lamont and Williams rather than himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He did not do himself any favors by getting on the stand,” McConnell said, but his lawyers saw no other route to success. “They had no defense for him.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965546\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965546\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-800x608.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of a courtroom scene\" width=\"800\" height=\"608\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-800x608.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-1020x776.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-160x122.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-1536x1168.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration of the courtroom scene during Theo Durrant’s trial, published in the San Francisco Examiner. \u003ccite>(Newspapers.com)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Added to all this was a media fascination with Durrant’s family and the dynamics of their relationship. Rumors of an inappropriate closeness between Durrant, his mother Isabella and his sister Maud spread like wildfire. It was all stoked by Isabella’s proud, unabashed demeanor in court as she watched her son on the stand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The courtroom was packed every day. The Bay Area didn’t just indulge their fascination with this case through the papers but also physically descended on the courtroom in person. Attending the trial became a sport for many, who craned their necks to see Durrant and his infamous family in the flesh, desperate to hear every gory detail. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So vivid were the stories, so graphic the pictures, so awful the scenes depicted that men and women leaned forward with straining eyes and hard-drawn breath, catching at every word, hypnotized by the horror of it,” \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/457751594/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wrote the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em>.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The people had been lured into court by those same irresistible, addictive newspaper accounts they were reading every single day. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The major San Francisco newspapers, including the \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em>, competed feverishly for who could attract the most readers with stories that were melodramatic, gossipy and wildly readable. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just the \u003ci>Examiner’s\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sfexaminer.newspapers.com/image/457751594/?terms=annie%20laurie%20durrant\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> description of the crime scene details\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that were read aloud in the courtroom reads like an excerpt from a gothic horror novel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Men with a good turn at description had pictured the finding of the bodies of the murdered girls. They had spattered the blood upon the walls. They had dragged Lamont up the belfry’s croaking stairs. The shuddering wind whistled and moaned about that haunted steeple,” one excerpt reads.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the trial progressed, the coverage became more lurid, outlandish, and highly unethical, with reporters assigning themselves the kind of investigative role during the trial that you might expect more from the lawyers themselves or the police.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “They knew that the more sensational it was — the more information they could get — they could sell newspapers,” McConnell said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exaggeration often tipped over into the fabrication of whole events, McConnell said, as when one newspaper printed a dramatic story about Durrant going on the run and terrorizing the city, “running through people’s backyards in the Mission District.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this case, “That whole thing was fake,” McConnell said. “The newspaper had nothing else to print” that day. But nonetheless, the press was secure in the knowledge that their readers craved these kinds of stories. \u003c/span>[emailsignup newslettername=\"baycurious\" align=\"right\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A growing taste for true crime\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1890s San Francisco was already familiar with the tropes and thrills of what we’d now term true crime. As horribly new as this double murder seemed back in 1895, there \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">precedent for these kinds of famous killings. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just seven years before Theo went up to the belfry, the serial killer called “Jack the Ripper” terrorized another foggy city, London, in a saga that may have unfolded thousands of miles away but became a worldwide sensation, thanks to the popular press. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The moment the story of Lamont and Williams’ murders broke, the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> wrote, “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The analogy with the murderous career of Jack the Ripper in London will at once suggest itself,” asking, “Is the same bloody drama to be repeated in San Francisco?”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The trial of Lizzie Borden, accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an ax in their Massachusetts home, had happened just three years before. Boston had even had its own Belfry Murderer 20 years earlier — dubbed “the Bat.” So, by 1895, readers were well and truly familiar with the true crime playbook.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As gruesome as the details were, for many people, reading about the case or getting a front-row seat in the courtroom was a distraction from the grind of daily life. Or as McConnell put it, “This is entertainment. Think about what the entertainment \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">back then: zippo.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965626\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 535px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965626\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526.jpg\" alt=\"Victorian portrait of a man with a mustache\" width=\"535\" height=\"670\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526.jpg 535w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526-160x200.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 535px) 100vw, 535px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Theo Durrant\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Man or demon?\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One enduring claim about these murders is the idea that Durrant was a necrophiliac who killed and hid Lamont and Williams specifically to be able to sexually abuse their bodies after their death. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But, McConnell said, even though an examination found that Williams \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">raped before her death, there is virtually no evidence that necrophilia ever occurred — just rumor and speculation. And for McConnell, the fact that these particular allegations \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">are \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">still taken as absolute fact is a testament not just to perennial appetites for ghoulish detail but also to the difficulty so many onlookers in 1895 had with the notion that a man could kill just for the sake of killing — not for money, or to satisfy depraved sexual desires. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Surely, the line of thought went that such a man must have a monster hidden inside him. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s no coincidence that in 1895, you’d have seen Durrant compared to Jekyll and Hyde in the press, both local and national — like in the \u003cem>Utica Saturday Globe\u003c/em>, which boasted that an upcoming issue would contain a full account of Durrant’s “remarkable crime and of his Jekyll and Hyde life, together with special photo-engravings illustrating to the horrible story of murder at which the whole world stood aghast.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Robert Louis Stevenson had only written \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in 1886\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> —\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> not even a decade before the belfry murders took place. In that relatively short time, this gothic horror novella had already become a common reference point for a normal-looking exterior that concealed a fiendish, murdering alter-ego. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The papers endlessly reported how small and meek Durrant seemed in court, with his neat clothes and hair and slightly oddball manners — as if it was all a disguise he would dramatically rip off at any moment to reveal the real fiend underneath.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A tale of two victims\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the idea of what a criminal does — and doesn’t — “look like” is still recognizable today, then the idea of a “perfect victim” is unfortunately just as relevant.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though Durrant was charged with the murders of both Lamont and Williams (and Williams’ killing was by far the more bloody, physically brutal one), the all-male prosecution team only chose to try him for the murder of Lamont. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965544\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965544\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white image of a group of children sitting on the stairs that lead up to their wooden schoolhouse. Their teacher stands to the left of the staircase wearing a modest black dress and hat.\" width=\"640\" height=\"477\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students-160x119.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blanche Lamont with a group of her students in Hecla, Montana, in October 1893. Lamont was then 20 years old. \u003ccite>(Library of Congress)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There was thinking in terms of what is more appealing to an all-male jury,” noted McConnell. Lamont was seen as an upstanding, modest woman with a respectable profession as a teacher in training. By contrast, servant girl Williams was a child of divorce with a patchy employment record: a \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lower-class woman hustling solo in the Bay Area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Williams “frequently did things that back then would have been looked at askance,” McConnell said. “She went out on her own. She was frequently out after dark because she had no one to escort her.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was this necessary self-sufficiency in life that made Williams ultimately less sympathetic in death — echoing broader male anxieties about the independence that women were increasingly acquiring in the shadow of a new century. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even the popularity of bicycles among women and how they encouraged them to wear large “bloomer” pants to ride them was a cause for concern around this time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But this wasn’t even the only way that women’s behavior was itself tacitly on trial alongside Durrant himself. The women who packed out the courtroom became the subject of scathing commentary from the reporters who were there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Several of the major newspaper reporters were themselves women. One of them conducted many jailhouse interviews with Durrant and extracted what amounted to a confession from him — albeit in the third person. Another, so-called “sob sister,” Annie Laurie, reserved her worst ire for the women in the crowd in her courtroom sketches — \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/457751621/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">some of whom, she wrote, “simpered and giggled\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> whenever they saw anyone looking at them.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Laurie wrote that the women she saw in court “were all triumphant at getting in, they were all well dressed, and they all looked like women who had someone who ought to have made them stay home.” Lamont and Williams reflected those male anxieties about women leaving the domestic space. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“She criticized all the women, and yet she was trying to establish herself,” McConnell said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like several modern serial killers, Durrant also attracted female admirers who sent gifts to him in jail. One of these was so infamous she even got her name in the press: a married Oakland woman dubbed “The Sweet Pea Girl” because of the flowers she lavished upon the alleged murderer. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But with women of the time shut out from many aspects of public life, it’s not hard to imagine why inserting themselves into momentous events might have appealed — even if it’s hard to stomach now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>An end to the trial\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the end, it took the jury 20 minutes to unanimously find Durrant guilty of Lamont’s murder. He was taken to San Quentin State Prison, even as his parents steadfastly campaigned for their son’s release. They even \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/insidecdcr/2018/07/14/1897-film-of-convicted-killer-durrant-shapes-prison-policy/\">hired a filmmaker to \u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">bring an early movie camera — a kinetoscope — into San Quentin\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to film Durrant looking suitably sensitive in the prison’s flower garden. No known copies of the film have survived.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In January 1898, almost three years after he killed Lamont and Williams, Theo Durrant was executed by hanging at the age of 27. On the scaffold, he gave one last speech, calling himself, “An innocent boy who has \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">not \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">stained his hands with crimes that have been put upon him by the press of San Francisco.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But after all of the scandal, all of the column inches screaming about gore and sex, it’s the figures of Lamont and Williams that should linger with us — not their killer. In particular, it’s hard not to dwell on Williams, in particular. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Unlike Lamont, her death never even warranted a trial. “Minnie was somewhat disposable because she really had nothing going for her” in the eyes of the male prosecution team and jury, McConnell said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While Lamont’s body was sent home to Montana for a family burial, Williams was buried in San Francisco — only to be dug up decades later when burials within the city limits were outlawed. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10779164/why-are-so-many-dead-people-in-colma-and-so-few-in-san-francisco\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her body was shipped down to Colma with tens of thousands of others\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and dumped in a mass, anonymous grave. An “imperfect victim,” discarded just as much in death as she was in life.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A relic of the past\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though the Emmanuel Baptist Church swiftly resumed services, neighbors clamored for years that the building be demolished and the stain cleaned from Bartlett Street. In 1906, damage from the earthquake forced the issue. Finally, the church and its infamous belfry were torn down — and every trace of this place was wiped from the face of San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965630\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965630\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-800x770.jpg\" alt=\"Image taken in the middle of a city street, a 3 story gray building is visible to the right side of the street. There are trees on the left and right sides of the image. \" width=\"800\" height=\"770\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-800x770.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-1020x982.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-160x154.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-1536x1479.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The spot on Bartlett Street where the Emanuel Baptist Church once stood. \u003ccite>(Carly Severn/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And in a way, Durrant has been too. Back then, San Francisco thought he could be their Jack the Ripper, the ultimate boogeyman stopped in his tracks before he truly could get started. Or \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MU18950416.2.23&srpos=26&e=------189-en--20--21-byDA-txt-txIN-%22emmanuel+baptist+church%22----1895---\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">as the \u003cem>Morning Union\u003c/em> newspaper penned\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, “in the criminal history of California, there possibly has never been a fouler double murder committed.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Durrant \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the worst thing the Bay Area could imagine back then. But just think of a few infamous serial murder cases that have stalked California and the West Coast since ‘the Demon in the Belfry.’ We’ve had the Zodiac. Ted Bundy. The Manson Family. The Night Stalker. The Golden State Killer. McConnell said Durrant is “boring compared to them” — and this kind of murder event is “no longer an anomaly.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While the belfry murders might sometimes be listed as part of San Francisco’s macabre history or occasionally do the rounds on true crime podcasts, Durrant does not occupy anywhere near the space in the public consciousness as those other killers. When he is mentioned, it’s often in conjunction with\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/lgbtq-history-maud-allan-unnatural-practices-women/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the wild and compelling adventures of his sister Maud,\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> who moved to Europe shortly before the murders, changed her name to avoid any link to her murderer brother and became an avant-garde dancer who would be entangled in one of the most infamous libel trials of the early 20th century.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Durrant case may be a slice of Old San Francisco that hasn’t quite kept our attention today. But even as many things have changed beyond recognition here when it comes to true crime — and how it makes us act, makes us feel? Some things never change.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 128 years ago, San Francisco was haunted by a bizarre, brutal murder case. A mild-mannered, upstanding \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“gentleman” was\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> suspected of killing two young women who knew and trusted him. And to make matters worse, it happened inside one of the city’s revered churches. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Church bell ringing]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The suspect came to be known as “The Demon of the Belfry.” And in 1895, San Franciscans found themselves completely obsessed with this case.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Theme music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you ask someone living here now whether they know about “the Demon of the Belfry,” there’s a good chance they’ve never even heard of it. I was one of them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Boo Curious. And we’ve made it to our final installment in the series. This week, we’re revisiting The Demon of the Belfry case to learn: What happened inside that church? What was it about these murders that possessed the city? And how did such an infamous case virtually disappear from the Bay Area’s memory? We’ll find out just ahead. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Now, stay close. You don’t want to get lost. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[spooky laugh]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[church bell ringing]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The Demon of the Belfry murders were the talk of the town in San Francisco around the turn of the century. Here to tell us the tale is KQED’s Carly Severn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music shift] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[sound of a busy cityscape, street cars]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By 1895, San Francisco’s earlier life as a muddy, chaotic mining backwater was all but gone. This place was now a bustling, modern city staring down a new century. For almost 20 years, these streets had felt the hum of electricity and the rattle of cable cars. Seven by 7 miles \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">packed \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">with people — around 300,000 of them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back then, the Mission District was what was called a streetcar suburb, a place increasingly well-connected by mass transit to downtown and heavily inhabited by a working-class mix of immigrants, the majority at this time from Europe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[sound of church bells] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And in the middle of it all, on Bartlett Street, was the Emmanuel Baptist Church. A huge, imposing building. And on the very top, reaching into the sky above the Mission District, was the church’s bell tower — the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">belfry\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. And for several years in the 1890s, that dark, lonely belfry\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">became the most dreaded space in San Francisco. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[church bells fade] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s a short version of the case: A quiet, mild-mannered young medical student in his early twenties called Theo Durrant volunteered at the Sunday School. One afternoon in early April 1895, a young Mission District schoolteacher called Blanche Lamont was last seen with a friend of hers … Theo Durrant. When Blanche didn’t come home, Theo was questioned, but the police had no evidence of foul play.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The police are utterly baffled. Blanche Lamont, a beautiful girl … has disappeared as mysteriously as if the earth had swallowed her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nine days after Blanche disappeared, another young woman who attended the Emmanuel Baptist church — Minnie Williams — didn’t come home either. Like Blanche, she was last seen with Theo Durrant … walking into the church.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams were members of the Emmanuel Baptist church and members of the Sunday school class. Both were 21-year-old brunettes, pretty and modest girls.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The morning after Minnie went missing, a volunteer opened one of the church closets … and found Minnie’s murdered body lying on the floor inside. And when police searched the rest of the building, the last place they looked was the very top: in the belfry. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They broke in the door. It was so dark they could not see, and one of them struck a match. As the light flared, they saw before them the dead body of the girl for whom they were searching. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The body of Blanche Lamont had been hidden up there for almost two weeks. Theo Durrant was immediately the prime suspect. And from the moment he was arrested, San Francisco’s mania for the “Demon of the Belfry” caught fire.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was the undercurrent of that, that this could happen in a church if it could happen in a church. It could happen anywhere. It could happen in your home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music ends]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Writer Virginia McConnell used to practice law in San Francisco in the 1970s. When she moved into teaching, she also began digging into criminal histories of the past … and wound up writing a whole book on the Theo Durrant case. This murder trial had all the elements to mesmerize a willing city. It had a cast of young characters: well-spoken medical student Theo and the two attractive young women he stood accused of violently murdering with his bare hands. And this horrific double murder had taken place in a sacred space – the Emmanuel Baptist Church – which had then become these women’s tomb. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was the horror of, you know, is not the same as if, you know, you did it down at the local bar, but you did it in a church. So where was God now? Supposedly protecting his people. What happened to these two girls? That they could not be protected? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not only that, this reinforced all those fears that people living in a big, growing metropolis are susceptible to. That panic that their city was sinking into an unprecedented moral decay – an anxiety stoked by the newspapers that framed these crimes as the ultimate sign of San Francisco’s irredeemable rot. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Casting reproach upon the already too low standard of morals in that city and a cloud of shame on the good name of our beautiful State.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music begins] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">there was the breathless speculation about sex — scandalous, intriguing, salacious. Had Theo been romantically involved with either of the two women? Was this “gentleman,” in fact, a depraved pervert who’d habitually harassed and exposed his way through the Mission District, as was rumored?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They still have these misconceptions that Theo was luring women into the church and exposing himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">then \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">there was Theo’s family. Rumors of an \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">inappropriate \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">closeness between Theo, his mother, and his sister spread like wildfire. It’s hard to convey just how\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> all-consuming\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> this case was in 1895. It dominated the news, swallowing up all the oxygen, and was covered far beyond San Francisco, all across the country. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music ends]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And as the evidence against him mounted up, Theo Durrant’s only hope was winning over the jury on the stand, which this oddly mannered young man truly failed to do. He constantly contradicted his own alibis and introduced new implausible theories about anyone else who could have murdered Blanche and Minnie rather than himself.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He did not do himself any favors by getting on the stand, but they had no other …. They had no defense for him. They had no defense.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[sounds of people talking in a courtroom]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that’s the thing: this courtroom was packed. Because the Bay Area didn’t \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">indulge their fascination with this case through the papers. They also physically descended on the courtroom in person.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So vivid were the stories, so graphic the pictures, so awful the scenes depicted that men and women leaned forward with straining eyes and hard-drawn breath, catching at every word, hypnotized by the horror of it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The major San Francisco newspapers, including the Chronicle, competed feverishly for who could attract the most readers with stories that were melodramatic, gossipy and \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">crazy\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">-readable. And as the trial progressed, the coverage became more lurid, more outlandish, and \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">highly \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">unethical. With reporters assigning themselves the kind of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">investigative \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">role \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">during the trial itself \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">that you might more expect from the lawyers themselves or the police.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Because they knew that [the] more sensational it was, the more information they could get. They could sell newspapers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One newspaper printed a dramatic story about Theo going on the run and terrorizing the city:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They were going to arrest him, and he had escaped, and he was running through people’s backyards in the Mission district.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a great story! Except… it never happened.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That whole thing was fake. That was false. The newspaper had nothing else to print. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the papers knew their readers \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wanted \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this. Humans have \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">always \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wanted to gobble up true crime stories – whether in the daily paper back then or on our TV screens. Or increasingly, in our podcast feeds. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hello there. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And as horribly new as this double murder seemed back in 1895, there was precedent for these kinds of famous killings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The analogy with the murderous career of Jack the Ripper in London will at once suggest itself … Is the same bloody drama to be repeated in San Francisco?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just seven years before Theo went up to the belfry, the serial killer called “Jack the Ripper” terrorized \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">another \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">foggy city, London — in a saga that may have unfolded thousands of miles away but became a worldwide sensation thanks to the popular press. The trial of Lizzie Borden, accused of murdering her own father and stepmother with an ax in their Massachusetts home, had happened just \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">three\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> years before. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Boston \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">had even had its own Belfry Murderer 20 years earlier — dubbed “the Bat.” So, by 1895, there \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">playbook \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for this stuff. And as horrible as it was, for many people, this was a distraction from the grind of daily life:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This is entertainment. Think about what the entertainment was back then. Zippo. That’s what it was. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But many onlookers in 1895 clearly \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">had difficulty \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">with the notion that a man could kill \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for the sake of killing — not for profit or to satisfy depraved desires. Which is maybe why the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">worst \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">legends about Theo Durrant were based around what he might have done to Blanche and Minnie’s bodies \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">after \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">their death — gruesome speculation about his “true” motive that endures to this day. It’s no coincidence that you’d have seen Theo compared to “Jekyll and Hyde” in the press — a book that was published not \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">that \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">long before the Belfry case but had already become a\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">n understood reference for a normal-looking exterior that concealed a fiendish, murdering alter-ego. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a way, I think, of coming to terms with people who seem to be good can do bad things. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the idea of what a criminal does — and doesn’t — “look like” is still recognizable today … then the idea of a “perfect victim” is unfortunately just as relevant. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though Theo was charged with the murders of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">both \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blanche and Minnie and Minnie’s killing was by far the more bloody, physically brutal one, the all-male prosecution team chose to only try him for the murder of Blanche. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> There was thinking in terms of what is more appealing to an all-male jury. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blanche was seen as an upstanding woman with a respectable profession as a teacher in training. By contrast, servant girl Minnie was a child of divorce with a patchy employment record: a \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lower-class woman hustling solo in the Bay Area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> She was on her own. She frequently did things that back then would have been looked at askance. She went out on her own. She was frequently out, you know, after dark because she had no one to escort her. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it was this necessary self-sufficiency in life that made Minnie ultimately less sympathetic in death — echoing wider male anxieties about the independence that women were increasingly acquiring in the shadow of a new century. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But this wasn’t \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">even \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the only way that the behavior of women was itself tacitly on trial alongside Theo himself. The \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">women \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">who packed out that courtroom became the subject of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">scathing \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">commentary from the reporters who were there — some of whom, for what it’s worth, were women themselves.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They were all well dressed, and they all looked like women who had someone who ought to have made them stay home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like several \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">modern \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">serial killers, Theo also attracted admirers – groupies, even, who sent gifts to him in jail. One of these was so infamous she even got her own name in the press: a married Oakland woman dubbed “The Sweet Pea Girl” because of the flowers she lavished upon Theo. But with women of the time shut out from many aspects of public life, it’s not hard to imagine why inserting themselves into momentous events might have held an appeal — even if it’s hard to stomach now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the end, it took the jury just 20 minutes to unanimously find Theo Durrant guilty of Blanche’s murder. He was taken to San Quentin State Prison, even as his parents steadfastly campaigned for their son’s release. In January 1898 — almost three years after he killed Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams — Theo Durrant was executed by hanging age 27. On the scaffold, he gave one last speech, calling himself: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading Theo Durrant quote: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">An innocent boy who has \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">not \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">stained his hands with crimes that have been put upon him by the press of San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music starts]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But after all of the scandal, all of the column inches screaming about gore and sex, it’s the figures of Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams that should linger with us — not their killer. And it’s hard not to be left with thoughts of Minnie Williams in particular. Unlike Blanche, her death never even warranted a trial. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Minnie was somewhat disposable because she really had nothing going for her. You know, that’s what was in their in their eyes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And while Blanche’s body was sent home to Montana for a family burial, Minnie was buried in San Francisco — only to be dug up several decades later when cemeteries started moving south to make way for a growing city. Her body was shipped down to Colma with tens of thousands of others and dumped in a mass, anonymous grave. An “imperfect victim,” discarded just as much in death as she was in life.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music stops]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though the Emmanuel Baptist Church swiftly resumed services, neighbors clamored for years that the building be demolished and the stain cleaned from Bartlett Street. In 1906, damage from the earthquake forced the issue. Finally, the Church and its infamous belfry were torn down — and every trace of this place was wiped from the face of San Francisco. And in a way, Theo Durrant has been too. Back then, San Francisco thought Theo could be their Jack the Ripper, the ultimate boogeyman stopped in his tracks before he truly could get started. Or, as one newspaper put it:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the criminal history of California, there possibly has never been a fouler double murder committed than that just brought to light in San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Theo \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">worst \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">thing the Bay Area could imagine back then. But just think of a few of the infamous serial murder cases that have stalked California and the West Coast since ‘The Demon in the Belfry.’ We’ve had the Zodiac. Ted Bundy. The Manson Family. The Night Stalker. The Golden State Killer. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> He’s boring compared to them. So I think that is \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">probably the biggest thing is that it’s no longer a, you know, an anomaly. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So this \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">may \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">be a slice of Old San Francisco that hasn’t quite kept our attention today. But even as many things have changed beyond recognition when it comes to true crime — and the way it makes us \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">act\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, makes us \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">feel\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">? Some things \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">never \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">change here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was reporter Carly Severn. And with that, we blow out the candles on this Boo Curious series. Thank you for listening along. We learned that Sarah Winchester may have just been doing her best when she designed her spooky mansion. We saw how a legend, true or not, can bring a community like Hayward together. Then there was the Church of Satan — more performance art than anything truly sinister. And the Dunsmuir Estate — more of a fixer-upper than a house of horrors. As the saying goes, things are not always what they seem. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. The show is produced by Amanda Font, Christopher Beale, and me, Olivia Allen-Price. The vocal performers in this episode were Paul Lancour, Dan Brekke, Bianca Taylor, and Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman. Additional support for Bay Curious comes from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldana, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan, and the whole KQED Family. I hope you have a wonderful week and a safe and celebratory Halloween. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003cem>Read a transcript of this episode.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">O\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>ne hundred twenty-eight years ago, San Francisco was haunted by a bizarre, brutal murder case. And in terms of macabre ingredients, this story truly had it all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To make matters worse, this all happened inside one of the city’s revered churches. A mild-mannered \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">gentleman\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> suspected of killing two young women who knew and trusted him. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">His name was Theodore Durrant, but the press called him “The Demon of the Belfry.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n What do you wonder about the Bay Area, its culture or people that you want KQED to investigate?\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Ask Bay Curious.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back in 1895, San Franciscans found themselves completely obsessed with this case. But if you ask someone living here now whether they know about “the Demon of the Belfry,” there’s a good chance they’ve never even heard of it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What was it about these murders that possessed this city? And how did such an infamous case virtually disappear from the Bay Area’s memory? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>The church on Bartlett Street\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you try to find the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz002hrvgg\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Emmanuel Baptist Church\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> these days, you’ll be out of luck as the building was torn down at the turn of the century. But head to the 24th and Mission BART station and walk just a few blocks northwest, and you’ll find yourself near the site that obsessed 1890s San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, only an apartment building and Victorian houses are on this tree-lined stretch of Bartlett Street between 22nd and 23rd streets. But back then, this huge church would have dominated this street. And at the very top, reaching into the sky above the Mission District, was the church’s bell tower, or belfry — a dark, lonely room which, for several years in the 1890s, became the most dreaded space in San Francisco. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1895, the days of this place being a muddy, chaotic mining backwater were long gone, and San Francisco had become a bustling, modern city staring down a new century. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For almost 20 years, these streets had felt the hum of electricity and the rattle of cable cars alongside the endless thrum of the sheer number of people living within these 7 square miles — around 300,000 of them. The devastating earthquake and fire of 1906 was still more than a decade away.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At this time, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/1054/files/Mission_District_context_111607%20(2).pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the Mission District was called a streetcar suburb\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: a place increasingly well-connected by mass transit to downtown and heavily inhabited by a working-class mix of immigrants, the majority at this time from Europe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the middle of it all, on Bartlett Street, was the Emmanuel Baptist Church — where a quiet, mild-mannered young medical student in his early 20s called Theo Durrant volunteered at the Sunday School.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965545\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965545\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist-800x549.png\" alt=\"Black and white image of the front of a large stone church\" width=\"800\" height=\"549\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist-800x549.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist-160x110.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Emmanuel-Baptist.png 901w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The front of the Emanuel Baptist Church in San Francisco, 1895. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento, California.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>‘In the shadow of the altar’\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One afternoon in early April 1895, a young Mission District schoolteacher named Blanche Lamont vanished. She was last seen with a friend of hers: Theo Durrant. When Lamont didn’t come home, Durrant was questioned, but police ultimately had no evidence of foul play.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Police were “utterly baffled,” \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC18950410.2.198&srpos=4&e=------189-en--20--1-byDA-txt-txIN-%22blanche+lamont%22----1895---\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wrote the \u003cem>San Francisco Call\u003c/em> newspaper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, at how “Blanche Lamont, a beautiful girl … has disappeared as mysteriously as if the earth had swallowed her.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nine days after Lamont disappeared, another young woman who attended the Emmanuel Baptist Church, Minnie Williams, didn’t come home either. Like Lamont, Williams was last seen with Theo Durrant — who’d been spotted walking her into the church.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The morning after Williams went missing, a volunteer setting up for the church’s Easter service the next day, opened one of the church closets and found Williams’ murdered body lying on the floor inside, covered in blood. She had been beaten, raped, stabbed and strangled, and rags had been stuffed down her throat.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When police searched the rest of the building, the last place they looked was the very top — in the belfry — and discovered the naked body of Lamont, who had died by strangulation. Her corpse had been laid out as if asleep and hidden up there for almost two weeks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instantly, the \u003cem>San Francisco Call\u003c/em> newspaper dubbed it “one of the most atrocious murders ever committed in San Francisco,” with the headline “Struck Down in the Shadow of the Altar.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Theo Durrant was immediately the prime suspect. And from the moment he was arrested, San Francisco’s mania for the “Demon of the Belfry” caught fire.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965565\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965565\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-800x471.jpg\" alt=\"Side by side portraits of two young woman with dark curly hair, taken in the 1890s.\" width=\"800\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-800x471.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-1020x601.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-160x94.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie-1536x905.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche-and-Minnie.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Portraits of Blanche Lamont (left) and Minnie Williams (right). \u003ccite>(Wikimedia Commons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>An instant sensation\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s hard to convey just how\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">all-consuming this case was in 1895 — dominating the local news and spilling out into newspaper coverage that extended far beyond San Francisco. There was even a play about the case called \u003cem>Crime of a Century\u003c/em> that started running in San Francisco \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">during \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the trial.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As for why this case sparked such immediate interest, “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">there was the undercurrent of that if this could happen in a church … it could happen anywhere,” said Virginia McConnell, author of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://books.google.com/books/about/Sympathy_for_the_Devil.html?id=dKra0SYhzc0C\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cem>Sympathy For the Devil: The Emmanuel Baptist Murders of Old San Francisco\u003c/em>.\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not just that, but, “It could happen in your home.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This murder trial had all the elements to mesmerize a willing city. It had a cast of young characters: well-spoken medical student Durrant and the two young women (whose attractiveness was frequently noted by the press) that he stood accused of violently murdering with his bare hands.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The fact that this crime happened in such a church — and was perpetrated by a young man with all the outward appearances of a total gentleman — reinforced all those fears that people living in a big, growing metropolis can become susceptible to. Namely, a panic that their city was sinking into an unprecedented moral decay. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was an anxiety all too eagerly stoked by the newspapers, both local and further afield, that framed these crimes as the ultimate sign of San Francisco’s irredeemable rot. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As Grass Valley’s \u003cem>Morning Union\u003c/em> newspaper wrote, the cases were \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MU18950416.2.23&srpos=26&e=------189-en--20--21-byDA-txt-txIN-%22emmanuel+baptist+church%22----1895---\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Casting reproach upon the already too low standard of morals in that city\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and a cloud of shame on the good name of our beautiful State.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was also breathless speculation about the sexual elements of the case. Had Durrant been romantically involved with either of the two women? Was this “gentleman,” in fact, a depraved pervert who’d habitually harassed and exposed his way through the Mission District, as was rumored? Whispers about the latter were straight-up “misconceptions,” McConnell said, but that didn’t stop the press from running with them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>‘Spinal shivers’ in court\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the evidence against him mounted up, Durrant’s only hope was winning over the jury on the stand, which he truly failed to do.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Durrant constantly contradicted his alibis and introduced new implausible theories about anyone else who could have murdered Lamont and Williams rather than himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He did not do himself any favors by getting on the stand,” McConnell said, but his lawyers saw no other route to success. “They had no defense for him.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965546\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965546\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-800x608.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of a courtroom scene\" width=\"800\" height=\"608\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-800x608.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-1020x776.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-160x122.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709-1536x1168.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/The_San_Francisco_Examiner_1895_07_23_page_3-scaled-e1698258698709.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration of the courtroom scene during Theo Durrant’s trial, published in the San Francisco Examiner. \u003ccite>(Newspapers.com)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Added to all this was a media fascination with Durrant’s family and the dynamics of their relationship. Rumors of an inappropriate closeness between Durrant, his mother Isabella and his sister Maud spread like wildfire. It was all stoked by Isabella’s proud, unabashed demeanor in court as she watched her son on the stand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The courtroom was packed every day. The Bay Area didn’t just indulge their fascination with this case through the papers but also physically descended on the courtroom in person. Attending the trial became a sport for many, who craned their necks to see Durrant and his infamous family in the flesh, desperate to hear every gory detail. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So vivid were the stories, so graphic the pictures, so awful the scenes depicted that men and women leaned forward with straining eyes and hard-drawn breath, catching at every word, hypnotized by the horror of it,” \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/457751594/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wrote the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em>.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The people had been lured into court by those same irresistible, addictive newspaper accounts they were reading every single day. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The major San Francisco newspapers, including the \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em>, competed feverishly for who could attract the most readers with stories that were melodramatic, gossipy and wildly readable. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just the \u003ci>Examiner’s\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sfexaminer.newspapers.com/image/457751594/?terms=annie%20laurie%20durrant\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> description of the crime scene details\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that were read aloud in the courtroom reads like an excerpt from a gothic horror novel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Men with a good turn at description had pictured the finding of the bodies of the murdered girls. They had spattered the blood upon the walls. They had dragged Lamont up the belfry’s croaking stairs. The shuddering wind whistled and moaned about that haunted steeple,” one excerpt reads.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the trial progressed, the coverage became more lurid, outlandish, and highly unethical, with reporters assigning themselves the kind of investigative role during the trial that you might expect more from the lawyers themselves or the police.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “They knew that the more sensational it was — the more information they could get — they could sell newspapers,” McConnell said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exaggeration often tipped over into the fabrication of whole events, McConnell said, as when one newspaper printed a dramatic story about Durrant going on the run and terrorizing the city, “running through people’s backyards in the Mission District.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this case, “That whole thing was fake,” McConnell said. “The newspaper had nothing else to print” that day. But nonetheless, the press was secure in the knowledge that their readers craved these kinds of stories. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A growing taste for true crime\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1890s San Francisco was already familiar with the tropes and thrills of what we’d now term true crime. As horribly new as this double murder seemed back in 1895, there \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">precedent for these kinds of famous killings. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just seven years before Theo went up to the belfry, the serial killer called “Jack the Ripper” terrorized another foggy city, London, in a saga that may have unfolded thousands of miles away but became a worldwide sensation, thanks to the popular press. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The moment the story of Lamont and Williams’ murders broke, the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> wrote, “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The analogy with the murderous career of Jack the Ripper in London will at once suggest itself,” asking, “Is the same bloody drama to be repeated in San Francisco?”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The trial of Lizzie Borden, accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an ax in their Massachusetts home, had happened just three years before. Boston had even had its own Belfry Murderer 20 years earlier — dubbed “the Bat.” So, by 1895, readers were well and truly familiar with the true crime playbook.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As gruesome as the details were, for many people, reading about the case or getting a front-row seat in the courtroom was a distraction from the grind of daily life. Or as McConnell put it, “This is entertainment. Think about what the entertainment \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">back then: zippo.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965626\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 535px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965626\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526.jpg\" alt=\"Victorian portrait of a man with a mustache\" width=\"535\" height=\"670\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526.jpg 535w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Durrant-526-160x200.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 535px) 100vw, 535px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Theo Durrant\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Man or demon?\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One enduring claim about these murders is the idea that Durrant was a necrophiliac who killed and hid Lamont and Williams specifically to be able to sexually abuse their bodies after their death. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But, McConnell said, even though an examination found that Williams \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">raped before her death, there is virtually no evidence that necrophilia ever occurred — just rumor and speculation. And for McConnell, the fact that these particular allegations \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">are \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">still taken as absolute fact is a testament not just to perennial appetites for ghoulish detail but also to the difficulty so many onlookers in 1895 had with the notion that a man could kill just for the sake of killing — not for money, or to satisfy depraved sexual desires. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Surely, the line of thought went that such a man must have a monster hidden inside him. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s no coincidence that in 1895, you’d have seen Durrant compared to Jekyll and Hyde in the press, both local and national — like in the \u003cem>Utica Saturday Globe\u003c/em>, which boasted that an upcoming issue would contain a full account of Durrant’s “remarkable crime and of his Jekyll and Hyde life, together with special photo-engravings illustrating to the horrible story of murder at which the whole world stood aghast.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Robert Louis Stevenson had only written \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in 1886\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> —\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> not even a decade before the belfry murders took place. In that relatively short time, this gothic horror novella had already become a common reference point for a normal-looking exterior that concealed a fiendish, murdering alter-ego. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The papers endlessly reported how small and meek Durrant seemed in court, with his neat clothes and hair and slightly oddball manners — as if it was all a disguise he would dramatically rip off at any moment to reveal the real fiend underneath.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A tale of two victims\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the idea of what a criminal does — and doesn’t — “look like” is still recognizable today, then the idea of a “perfect victim” is unfortunately just as relevant.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though Durrant was charged with the murders of both Lamont and Williams (and Williams’ killing was by far the more bloody, physically brutal one), the all-male prosecution team only chose to try him for the murder of Lamont. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965544\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965544\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white image of a group of children sitting on the stairs that lead up to their wooden schoolhouse. Their teacher stands to the left of the staircase wearing a modest black dress and hat.\" width=\"640\" height=\"477\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Blanche_Lamont_with_students-160x119.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blanche Lamont with a group of her students in Hecla, Montana, in October 1893. Lamont was then 20 years old. \u003ccite>(Library of Congress)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There was thinking in terms of what is more appealing to an all-male jury,” noted McConnell. Lamont was seen as an upstanding, modest woman with a respectable profession as a teacher in training. By contrast, servant girl Williams was a child of divorce with a patchy employment record: a \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lower-class woman hustling solo in the Bay Area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Williams “frequently did things that back then would have been looked at askance,” McConnell said. “She went out on her own. She was frequently out after dark because she had no one to escort her.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was this necessary self-sufficiency in life that made Williams ultimately less sympathetic in death — echoing broader male anxieties about the independence that women were increasingly acquiring in the shadow of a new century. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even the popularity of bicycles among women and how they encouraged them to wear large “bloomer” pants to ride them was a cause for concern around this time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But this wasn’t even the only way that women’s behavior was itself tacitly on trial alongside Durrant himself. The women who packed out the courtroom became the subject of scathing commentary from the reporters who were there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Several of the major newspaper reporters were themselves women. One of them conducted many jailhouse interviews with Durrant and extracted what amounted to a confession from him — albeit in the third person. Another, so-called “sob sister,” Annie Laurie, reserved her worst ire for the women in the crowd in her courtroom sketches — \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/457751621/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">some of whom, she wrote, “simpered and giggled\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> whenever they saw anyone looking at them.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Laurie wrote that the women she saw in court “were all triumphant at getting in, they were all well dressed, and they all looked like women who had someone who ought to have made them stay home.” Lamont and Williams reflected those male anxieties about women leaving the domestic space. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“She criticized all the women, and yet she was trying to establish herself,” McConnell said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like several modern serial killers, Durrant also attracted female admirers who sent gifts to him in jail. One of these was so infamous she even got her name in the press: a married Oakland woman dubbed “The Sweet Pea Girl” because of the flowers she lavished upon the alleged murderer. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But with women of the time shut out from many aspects of public life, it’s not hard to imagine why inserting themselves into momentous events might have appealed — even if it’s hard to stomach now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>An end to the trial\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the end, it took the jury 20 minutes to unanimously find Durrant guilty of Lamont’s murder. He was taken to San Quentin State Prison, even as his parents steadfastly campaigned for their son’s release. They even \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/insidecdcr/2018/07/14/1897-film-of-convicted-killer-durrant-shapes-prison-policy/\">hired a filmmaker to \u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">bring an early movie camera — a kinetoscope — into San Quentin\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to film Durrant looking suitably sensitive in the prison’s flower garden. No known copies of the film have survived.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In January 1898, almost three years after he killed Lamont and Williams, Theo Durrant was executed by hanging at the age of 27. On the scaffold, he gave one last speech, calling himself, “An innocent boy who has \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">not \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">stained his hands with crimes that have been put upon him by the press of San Francisco.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But after all of the scandal, all of the column inches screaming about gore and sex, it’s the figures of Lamont and Williams that should linger with us — not their killer. In particular, it’s hard not to dwell on Williams, in particular. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Unlike Lamont, her death never even warranted a trial. “Minnie was somewhat disposable because she really had nothing going for her” in the eyes of the male prosecution team and jury, McConnell said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While Lamont’s body was sent home to Montana for a family burial, Williams was buried in San Francisco — only to be dug up decades later when burials within the city limits were outlawed. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10779164/why-are-so-many-dead-people-in-colma-and-so-few-in-san-francisco\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her body was shipped down to Colma with tens of thousands of others\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and dumped in a mass, anonymous grave. An “imperfect victim,” discarded just as much in death as she was in life.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>A relic of the past\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though the Emmanuel Baptist Church swiftly resumed services, neighbors clamored for years that the building be demolished and the stain cleaned from Bartlett Street. In 1906, damage from the earthquake forced the issue. Finally, the church and its infamous belfry were torn down — and every trace of this place was wiped from the face of San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965630\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11965630\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-800x770.jpg\" alt=\"Image taken in the middle of a city street, a 3 story gray building is visible to the right side of the street. There are trees on the left and right sides of the image. \" width=\"800\" height=\"770\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-800x770.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-1020x982.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-160x154.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127-1536x1479.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Bartlett-Street-where-EBC-stood-Carly-Severn-scaled-e1698263132127.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The spot on Bartlett Street where the Emanuel Baptist Church once stood. \u003ccite>(Carly Severn/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And in a way, Durrant has been too. Back then, San Francisco thought he could be their Jack the Ripper, the ultimate boogeyman stopped in his tracks before he truly could get started. Or \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MU18950416.2.23&srpos=26&e=------189-en--20--21-byDA-txt-txIN-%22emmanuel+baptist+church%22----1895---\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">as the \u003cem>Morning Union\u003c/em> newspaper penned\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, “in the criminal history of California, there possibly has never been a fouler double murder committed.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Durrant \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the worst thing the Bay Area could imagine back then. But just think of a few infamous serial murder cases that have stalked California and the West Coast since ‘the Demon in the Belfry.’ We’ve had the Zodiac. Ted Bundy. The Manson Family. The Night Stalker. The Golden State Killer. McConnell said Durrant is “boring compared to them” — and this kind of murder event is “no longer an anomaly.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While the belfry murders might sometimes be listed as part of San Francisco’s macabre history or occasionally do the rounds on true crime podcasts, Durrant does not occupy anywhere near the space in the public consciousness as those other killers. When he is mentioned, it’s often in conjunction with\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/lgbtq-history-maud-allan-unnatural-practices-women/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the wild and compelling adventures of his sister Maud,\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> who moved to Europe shortly before the murders, changed her name to avoid any link to her murderer brother and became an avant-garde dancer who would be entangled in one of the most infamous libel trials of the early 20th century.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Durrant case may be a slice of Old San Francisco that hasn’t quite kept our attention today. But even as many things have changed beyond recognition here when it comes to true crime — and how it makes us act, makes us feel? Some things never change.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 128 years ago, San Francisco was haunted by a bizarre, brutal murder case. A mild-mannered, upstanding \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“gentleman” was\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> suspected of killing two young women who knew and trusted him. And to make matters worse, it happened inside one of the city’s revered churches. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Church bell ringing]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The suspect came to be known as “The Demon of the Belfry.” And in 1895, San Franciscans found themselves completely obsessed with this case.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Theme music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you ask someone living here now whether they know about “the Demon of the Belfry,” there’s a good chance they’ve never even heard of it. I was one of them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Boo Curious. And we’ve made it to our final installment in the series. This week, we’re revisiting The Demon of the Belfry case to learn: What happened inside that church? What was it about these murders that possessed the city? And how did such an infamous case virtually disappear from the Bay Area’s memory? We’ll find out just ahead. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Now, stay close. You don’t want to get lost. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[spooky laugh]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[church bell ringing]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The Demon of the Belfry murders were the talk of the town in San Francisco around the turn of the century. Here to tell us the tale is KQED’s Carly Severn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music shift] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[sound of a busy cityscape, street cars]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By 1895, San Francisco’s earlier life as a muddy, chaotic mining backwater was all but gone. This place was now a bustling, modern city staring down a new century. For almost 20 years, these streets had felt the hum of electricity and the rattle of cable cars. Seven by 7 miles \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">packed \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">with people — around 300,000 of them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back then, the Mission District was what was called a streetcar suburb, a place increasingly well-connected by mass transit to downtown and heavily inhabited by a working-class mix of immigrants, the majority at this time from Europe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[sound of church bells] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And in the middle of it all, on Bartlett Street, was the Emmanuel Baptist Church. A huge, imposing building. And on the very top, reaching into the sky above the Mission District, was the church’s bell tower — the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">belfry\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. And for several years in the 1890s, that dark, lonely belfry\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">became the most dreaded space in San Francisco. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[church bells fade] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s a short version of the case: A quiet, mild-mannered young medical student in his early twenties called Theo Durrant volunteered at the Sunday School. One afternoon in early April 1895, a young Mission District schoolteacher called Blanche Lamont was last seen with a friend of hers … Theo Durrant. When Blanche didn’t come home, Theo was questioned, but the police had no evidence of foul play.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The police are utterly baffled. Blanche Lamont, a beautiful girl … has disappeared as mysteriously as if the earth had swallowed her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nine days after Blanche disappeared, another young woman who attended the Emmanuel Baptist church — Minnie Williams — didn’t come home either. Like Blanche, she was last seen with Theo Durrant … walking into the church.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams were members of the Emmanuel Baptist church and members of the Sunday school class. Both were 21-year-old brunettes, pretty and modest girls.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The morning after Minnie went missing, a volunteer opened one of the church closets … and found Minnie’s murdered body lying on the floor inside. And when police searched the rest of the building, the last place they looked was the very top: in the belfry. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They broke in the door. It was so dark they could not see, and one of them struck a match. As the light flared, they saw before them the dead body of the girl for whom they were searching. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The body of Blanche Lamont had been hidden up there for almost two weeks. Theo Durrant was immediately the prime suspect. And from the moment he was arrested, San Francisco’s mania for the “Demon of the Belfry” caught fire.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was the undercurrent of that, that this could happen in a church if it could happen in a church. It could happen anywhere. It could happen in your home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music ends]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Writer Virginia McConnell used to practice law in San Francisco in the 1970s. When she moved into teaching, she also began digging into criminal histories of the past … and wound up writing a whole book on the Theo Durrant case. This murder trial had all the elements to mesmerize a willing city. It had a cast of young characters: well-spoken medical student Theo and the two attractive young women he stood accused of violently murdering with his bare hands. And this horrific double murder had taken place in a sacred space – the Emmanuel Baptist Church – which had then become these women’s tomb. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was the horror of, you know, is not the same as if, you know, you did it down at the local bar, but you did it in a church. So where was God now? Supposedly protecting his people. What happened to these two girls? That they could not be protected? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not only that, this reinforced all those fears that people living in a big, growing metropolis are susceptible to. That panic that their city was sinking into an unprecedented moral decay – an anxiety stoked by the newspapers that framed these crimes as the ultimate sign of San Francisco’s irredeemable rot. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Casting reproach upon the already too low standard of morals in that city and a cloud of shame on the good name of our beautiful State.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music begins] \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">there was the breathless speculation about sex — scandalous, intriguing, salacious. Had Theo been romantically involved with either of the two women? Was this “gentleman,” in fact, a depraved pervert who’d habitually harassed and exposed his way through the Mission District, as was rumored?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They still have these misconceptions that Theo was luring women into the church and exposing himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">then \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">there was Theo’s family. Rumors of an \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">inappropriate \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">closeness between Theo, his mother, and his sister spread like wildfire. It’s hard to convey just how\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> all-consuming\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> this case was in 1895. It dominated the news, swallowing up all the oxygen, and was covered far beyond San Francisco, all across the country. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music ends]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And as the evidence against him mounted up, Theo Durrant’s only hope was winning over the jury on the stand, which this oddly mannered young man truly failed to do. He constantly contradicted his own alibis and introduced new implausible theories about anyone else who could have murdered Blanche and Minnie rather than himself.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He did not do himself any favors by getting on the stand, but they had no other …. They had no defense for him. They had no defense.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[sounds of people talking in a courtroom]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that’s the thing: this courtroom was packed. Because the Bay Area didn’t \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">indulge their fascination with this case through the papers. They also physically descended on the courtroom in person.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So vivid were the stories, so graphic the pictures, so awful the scenes depicted that men and women leaned forward with straining eyes and hard-drawn breath, catching at every word, hypnotized by the horror of it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The major San Francisco newspapers, including the Chronicle, competed feverishly for who could attract the most readers with stories that were melodramatic, gossipy and \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">crazy\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">-readable. And as the trial progressed, the coverage became more lurid, more outlandish, and \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">highly \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">unethical. With reporters assigning themselves the kind of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">investigative \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">role \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">during the trial itself \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">that you might more expect from the lawyers themselves or the police.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Because they knew that [the] more sensational it was, the more information they could get. They could sell newspapers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One newspaper printed a dramatic story about Theo going on the run and terrorizing the city:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They were going to arrest him, and he had escaped, and he was running through people’s backyards in the Mission district.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a great story! Except… it never happened.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That whole thing was fake. That was false. The newspaper had nothing else to print. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the papers knew their readers \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wanted \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this. Humans have \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">always \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wanted to gobble up true crime stories – whether in the daily paper back then or on our TV screens. Or increasingly, in our podcast feeds. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hello there. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And as horribly new as this double murder seemed back in 1895, there was precedent for these kinds of famous killings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The analogy with the murderous career of Jack the Ripper in London will at once suggest itself … Is the same bloody drama to be repeated in San Francisco?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just seven years before Theo went up to the belfry, the serial killer called “Jack the Ripper” terrorized \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">another \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">foggy city, London — in a saga that may have unfolded thousands of miles away but became a worldwide sensation thanks to the popular press. The trial of Lizzie Borden, accused of murdering her own father and stepmother with an ax in their Massachusetts home, had happened just \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">three\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> years before. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Boston \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">had even had its own Belfry Murderer 20 years earlier — dubbed “the Bat.” So, by 1895, there \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">playbook \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for this stuff. And as horrible as it was, for many people, this was a distraction from the grind of daily life:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This is entertainment. Think about what the entertainment was back then. Zippo. That’s what it was. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But many onlookers in 1895 clearly \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">had difficulty \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">with the notion that a man could kill \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for the sake of killing — not for profit or to satisfy depraved desires. Which is maybe why the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">worst \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">legends about Theo Durrant were based around what he might have done to Blanche and Minnie’s bodies \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">after \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">their death — gruesome speculation about his “true” motive that endures to this day. It’s no coincidence that you’d have seen Theo compared to “Jekyll and Hyde” in the press — a book that was published not \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">that \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">long before the Belfry case but had already become a\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">n understood reference for a normal-looking exterior that concealed a fiendish, murdering alter-ego. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a way, I think, of coming to terms with people who seem to be good can do bad things. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the idea of what a criminal does — and doesn’t — “look like” is still recognizable today … then the idea of a “perfect victim” is unfortunately just as relevant. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though Theo was charged with the murders of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">both \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blanche and Minnie and Minnie’s killing was by far the more bloody, physically brutal one, the all-male prosecution team chose to only try him for the murder of Blanche. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> There was thinking in terms of what is more appealing to an all-male jury. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blanche was seen as an upstanding woman with a respectable profession as a teacher in training. By contrast, servant girl Minnie was a child of divorce with a patchy employment record: a \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lower-class woman hustling solo in the Bay Area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> She was on her own. She frequently did things that back then would have been looked at askance. She went out on her own. She was frequently out, you know, after dark because she had no one to escort her. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it was this necessary self-sufficiency in life that made Minnie ultimately less sympathetic in death — echoing wider male anxieties about the independence that women were increasingly acquiring in the shadow of a new century. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But this wasn’t \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">even \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the only way that the behavior of women was itself tacitly on trial alongside Theo himself. The \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">women \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">who packed out that courtroom became the subject of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">scathing \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">commentary from the reporters who were there — some of whom, for what it’s worth, were women themselves.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[typing on a typewriter]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They were all well dressed, and they all looked like women who had someone who ought to have made them stay home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like several \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">modern \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">serial killers, Theo also attracted admirers – groupies, even, who sent gifts to him in jail. One of these was so infamous she even got her own name in the press: a married Oakland woman dubbed “The Sweet Pea Girl” because of the flowers she lavished upon Theo. But with women of the time shut out from many aspects of public life, it’s not hard to imagine why inserting themselves into momentous events might have held an appeal — even if it’s hard to stomach now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the end, it took the jury just 20 minutes to unanimously find Theo Durrant guilty of Blanche’s murder. He was taken to San Quentin State Prison, even as his parents steadfastly campaigned for their son’s release. In January 1898 — almost three years after he killed Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams — Theo Durrant was executed by hanging age 27. On the scaffold, he gave one last speech, calling himself: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading Theo Durrant quote: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">An innocent boy who has \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">not \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">stained his hands with crimes that have been put upon him by the press of San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music starts]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But after all of the scandal, all of the column inches screaming about gore and sex, it’s the figures of Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams that should linger with us — not their killer. And it’s hard not to be left with thoughts of Minnie Williams in particular. Unlike Blanche, her death never even warranted a trial. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Minnie was somewhat disposable because she really had nothing going for her. You know, that’s what was in their in their eyes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And while Blanche’s body was sent home to Montana for a family burial, Minnie was buried in San Francisco — only to be dug up several decades later when cemeteries started moving south to make way for a growing city. Her body was shipped down to Colma with tens of thousands of others and dumped in a mass, anonymous grave. An “imperfect victim,” discarded just as much in death as she was in life.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[music stops]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though the Emmanuel Baptist Church swiftly resumed services, neighbors clamored for years that the building be demolished and the stain cleaned from Bartlett Street. In 1906, damage from the earthquake forced the issue. Finally, the Church and its infamous belfry were torn down — and every trace of this place was wiped from the face of San Francisco. And in a way, Theo Durrant has been too. Back then, San Francisco thought Theo could be their Jack the Ripper, the ultimate boogeyman stopped in his tracks before he truly could get started. Or, as one newspaper put it:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice reading a newspaper clipping: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the criminal history of California, there possibly has never been a fouler double murder committed than that just brought to light in San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Theo \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">worst \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">thing the Bay Area could imagine back then. But just think of a few of the infamous serial murder cases that have stalked California and the West Coast since ‘The Demon in the Belfry.’ We’ve had the Zodiac. Ted Bundy. The Manson Family. The Night Stalker. The Golden State Killer. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Virginia McConnell\u003c/b>\u003cb>:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> He’s boring compared to them. So I think that is \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">probably the biggest thing is that it’s no longer a, you know, an anomaly. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So this \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">may \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">be a slice of Old San Francisco that hasn’t quite kept our attention today. But even as many things have changed beyond recognition when it comes to true crime — and the way it makes us \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">act\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, makes us \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">feel\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">? Some things \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">never \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">change here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was reporter Carly Severn. And with that, we blow out the candles on this Boo Curious series. Thank you for listening along. We learned that Sarah Winchester may have just been doing her best when she designed her spooky mansion. We saw how a legend, true or not, can bring a community like Hayward together. Then there was the Church of Satan — more performance art than anything truly sinister. And the Dunsmuir Estate — more of a fixer-upper than a house of horrors. As the saying goes, things are not always what they seem. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. The show is produced by Amanda Font, Christopher Beale, and me, Olivia Allen-Price. The vocal performers in this episode were Paul Lancour, Dan Brekke, Bianca Taylor, and Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman. Additional support for Bay Curious comes from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldana, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan, and the whole KQED Family. I hope you have a wonderful week and a safe and celebratory Halloween. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"slug": "after-100-years-the-mysteries-of-the-winchester-house-endure",
"title": "After 100 Years, the Mysteries of the Winchester House Endure",
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"headTitle": "After 100 Years, the Mysteries of the Winchester House Endure | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">Read a transcript of this episode.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone in the Bay Area has visited the Winchester Mystery House. But even those who’ve never set foot inside it know at least a little about the shadowy legends that surround it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This vast, sprawling mansion in San José dating from 1886, set among lush gardens, is primarily infamous for the bizarre architectural features that greet visitors within its walls — staircases that lead to nowhere … mysteriously placed doors and windows … [baycuriousbug]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Mystery House, which opened its doors to the public one hundred years ago, is also famous for the apparent strangeness of its Victorian creator. This house-like-no-other was the home and brainchild of Sarah Winchester, the widowed heiress to one of the biggest, most successful weapons manufacturers of the time: the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah, so the legend goes, moved from the East Coast to California to build this home after a psychic told her that doing so would appease the angry ghosts of all the people killed by Winchester rifles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 24,000 square feet, the resulting 160-room mansion boasts 10,000 windows, 2,000 doors, 47 stairways, 17 chimneys and 13 bathrooms. In today’s money, the Mystery House’s construction costs would have totaled $71 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a tourist attraction, much is made of the Mystery House’s innate spookiness. And when you’re inside it, on one of the House’s daily public tours, it feels plausible that this mansion was designed by someone who perhaps wasn’t fully operating on this astral plane. But to understand the house — and how it came to be — you have to understand the human behind the legend.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A move out West\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Sarah Winchester was born Sarah Lockwood Pardee in 1839 in Connecticut. After marrying William Winchester, she suffered two waves of devastating loss in her life. The first, in her late twenties, was the death of her only child, Annie, at 5 weeks old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fourteen years later, in 1880, her father-in-law Oliver Winchester died, followed within a matter of months by her husband William. Then Sarah’s elder sister passed away too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was the turning point at which, according to the legend, Sarah heeded a medium’s warning that she must move to the West Coast. But according to Sarah’s biographer, Bay Area writer Mary Jo Ignoffo, “It’s not so much that a psychic told her to go, as family circumstances and life led her to California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963323\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-Winchester-in-Carriage.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11963323\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-Winchester-in-Carriage-800x569.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white archival image of a woman sitting in the back of a horse drawn carriage. The man at the front of the carriage is wearing a top hat, and it is pulled by 2 horses. It sits unmoving in front of a house, with trees to either side of the image.\" width=\"800\" height=\"569\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-Winchester-in-Carriage-800x569.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-Winchester-in-Carriage-1020x726.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-Winchester-in-Carriage-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-Winchester-in-Carriage-1536x1093.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-Winchester-in-Carriage.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sarah Winchester in a horse-drawn carriage. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Winchester Mystery House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ignoffo says Sarah’s own doctor was urging her to seek out warmer climes that would be better for her health and her grief. What’s more, says Ignoffo, one of Sarah’s surviving sisters was planning her own move out West to Oakland — a relocation that spurred the rest of the family, including Sarah, to join her and make the huge move together. This account sees Sarah move to the Bay Area not as a lone widow hell-bent on a pact with the dead, but as a family — the only family she really had left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But to examine the legend further, is it still possible that Sarah may have felt a creeping worry that the victims of Winchester guns could come back to haunt her? For Ignoffo, the snag with this theory is the extent to which Sarah chose to remain involved with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company after her husband’s death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as a rich heiress, Sarah stayed on as an active, engaged member on the company’s board when perhaps she really didn’t have to. “If she felt so guilty about money coming from guns, would she have spent so much time, literally years and reams … of paper analyzing the books and investing the money?” asks Ignoffo.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Building a mystery\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Already keenly interested in architecture, in 1886 Sarah purchased the modest two-story farmhouse in the San José area that she would turn into her giant mansion over more than three decades of construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She kind of unleashed her interior design, artistic talents, her desire to be an architect on that house,” said Ignoffo, and this place “was her canvas.” Sarah, the aspiring designer who certainly wasn’t held back by lack of funds, “Would say, ‘Oh, try it this way. No, I don’t like that. Rip it down, let’s try it again. Oh, I like this wood better,’” imagined Ignoffo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah’s new San José neighbors were baffled, and the local press became fascinated. And they weren’t just intrigued by the scale of her ever-expanding compound. They were also mystified by the Winchester widow herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was a hyper-private outsider, who shunned the aristocrats of the South Bay social scene. And despite all that interest, Sarah stayed silent as the grave about what on Earth — or maybe elsewhere — was driving her to keep expanding and transforming her strange, increasingly vast home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963313\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Pre-1906-View-from-Water-Tower-cmyk-BW-scaled-e1696376606137.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11963313\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Pre-1906-View-from-Water-Tower-cmyk-BW-scaled-e1696376606137-800x489.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white archival image of a large and sprawling mansion with many pointed towers\" width=\"800\" height=\"489\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Pre-1906-View-from-Water-Tower-cmyk-BW-scaled-e1696376606137-800x489.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Pre-1906-View-from-Water-Tower-cmyk-BW-scaled-e1696376606137-1020x623.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Pre-1906-View-from-Water-Tower-cmyk-BW-scaled-e1696376606137-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Pre-1906-View-from-Water-Tower-cmyk-BW-scaled-e1696376606137-1536x938.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Pre-1906-View-from-Water-Tower-cmyk-BW-scaled-e1696376606137.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo of the Winchester House prior to the 1906 earthquake. Several stories of the house were badly damaged in the quake. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Winchester Mystery House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She was also one of those most unfathomable creatures: a single woman, who had no interest in making other people comfortable with explanations. And because she wouldn’t engage with the press, they simply, “started creating stories,” said Ignoffo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One rumor claimed that Sarah believed eternally remodeling the house would keep her alive. Others said she obsessively tried to contact the spirit world through seances in the house. Many of these myths took hold in Sarah’s own lifetime, fueled by her silence and withdrawal from public life, but also onlookers’ feelings about the grandeur and expense of her seemingly inexplicable mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The earliest references about her and her house are about how outlandishly large it was,” notes Ignoffo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the last decade of her life, Sarah owned many homes over the South Bay — not just the Winchester Mystery House. It was in one of these other houses that she actually chose to spend most of her final years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the very end, something drew her back — and it was to the Winchester Mystery House that Sarah returned to see out her last days on earth, alone. She died inside the house of heart failure in 1922: A Victorian from another era in the Roaring Twenties, who lived long enough to see the first airplane fly and the Titanic sink. She’d survived the so-called “Spanish Flu” pandemic, and had no idea the World War she’d just lived through wouldn’t be the last.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah’s house had fallen silent, but not for long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963332\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-WInchesters-Bedroom.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11963332\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-WInchesters-Bedroom-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A preserved Victorian era bedroom with an ornately carved wooden headboard, sitting area, and lace curtains.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-WInchesters-Bedroom-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-WInchesters-Bedroom-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-WInchesters-Bedroom-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-WInchesters-Bedroom-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-WInchesters-Bedroom.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sarah Winchester’s bedroom, preserved. \u003ccite>(Carly Severn/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Opening the doors\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The next year, in the spring of 1923, the mansion was leased by John and Mayme Brown who apparently planned to build an amusement park on the site, but pivoted to public tours of the house, given the existing interest and intrigue that had taken root locally during Sarah’s lifetime. Her home, says Ignoffo, “was turned into a haunted house to attract tourists within months of her death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That year, the doors of Sarah’s house were opened to the general public, who thrilled to finally see the place about which they’d heard so many wild rumors. They were egged on by breathless promotion, like in a 1929 advertisement from the \u003cem>Oakland Tribune\u003c/em> that read: “World’s most marvelous and oddest house; Under construction 36 years; Cost: millions; Builder guided by the spirits … Open every day 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The official legend has it that the name, “Mystery House” was allegedly bestowed by Harry Houdini himself after he visited on Halloween night 1924. But considering the name appears in a local newspaper article in May that year, we can probably attribute that one to a little more early myth-making too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But still, the question remains: Why does this place look so odd? According to the legend, Sarah intended these strange features by design to either confuse the spirits in her house or as a way to pay homage to them. But when it came to architectural design, remember that Sarah was an enthusiastic amateur learning as she went, and a lot of the apparent “mysteries” might simply betray those false starts. They might also be add-ons to the bones of the original farmhouse, says Ignoffo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963333\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Staricase-to-nowhere-sign.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11963333\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Staricase-to-nowhere-sign-800x597.jpg\" alt='A sign on a cream colored wood paneled wall that says \"Staircase to nowhere.\" The sign also includes an illustration of a hand pointing to the right.' width=\"800\" height=\"597\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Staricase-to-nowhere-sign-800x597.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Staricase-to-nowhere-sign-1020x761.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Staricase-to-nowhere-sign-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Staricase-to-nowhere-sign-1536x1146.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Staricase-to-nowhere-sign.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staircases and doors that lead to nowhere are a hallmark of what makes the Winchester House ‘mysterious.’ \u003ccite>(Carly Severn/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There’s also the question of the Great Earthquake of 1906. Sarah’s house, like countless homes across the Bay Area, suffered severe damage from these shockwaves — so much so that the quake actually reduced the building’s height by several stories, says Ignoffo. Which means all those weird doors, all those “stairs to nowhere” could have led somewhere very real when they were first built.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Touching the spirit world\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>And what of the ghosts?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since it first opened its doors, much of the Mystery House’s supernatural appeal has been fueled by the image of Sarah as a devoted Spiritualist, uniquely vulnerable to notions of vengeful spirits, and obsessed with inviting in the denizens of the netherworld through seances held in the Mystery House itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spiritualism — a belief system that hinged on attempting contact with the dead — was absolutely popular among upper-crust women like Sarah. Less than 20 miles away from the Mystery House, Jane Stanford, co-founder of Stanford University, was herself experimenting with seances following the death of her son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Ignoffo says she’s been unable to find any record that Sarah ever attended those Spiritualist gatherings that were going on locally. And what’s more, this picture of Sarah the recluse, shut away in her scary house communing solo with the dead, runs fundamentally contrary to the whole point of Spiritualism, says Ignoffo. “If you were to have a seance, you would not do it in a closet in the middle of your house. You would invite other like-minded people,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At its very most basic level, Spiritualism is a social enterprise,” notes Ignoffo. And Sarah had a well-documented aversion to visitors in her house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite this, the longstanding suggestion of an otherworldly connection has still made the Winchester Mystery House famous worldwide among ghost-hunters and supernatural enthusiasts alike, who report unearthly sightings and unexplained sensed presences in its corridors and rooms. Many who arrive for the Mystery House’s public tours today are visiting in the hope of experiencing just that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963334\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11963334\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"An ornately decorated Victorian dining room with a table in the center. Around the table are seating 4 fake ghosts, covered in white sheets. There are two large candelabras on the table as well as a fake dinner.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Winchester Mystery House holds a special All Hallows Eve event in October 2021, where they really lean into the idea of the house being haunted. \u003ccite>(Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And regardless of your personal threshold for belief in the supernatural, there is something about the claustrophobic proportions of this place — its rabbit-warren feeling, its curious darkness even in the bright San José sunshine — that, combined with the knowledge that you’re deep within a building that has been giving people the shivers for 100 years now, could give even skeptical visitors a shiver down their spine.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A century of mystery\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In many ways, the Mystery House legends represent all the things that feel like they should be true, especially when you think of how you yourself might feel, placed into Sarah Winchester’s shoes. How could a person get rich from making new instruments of death and not feel guilty? How could a lonely woman suffer such tragedy and never once feel the impulse to see if her lost loved ones could talk back?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghosts aside, the hard facts of Sarah’s life might actually leave us with a far more recognizable story about how people react to overwhelming change and loss — and how they can alienate themselves from the world in the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But let’s face it: When we talk about death through ghosts and ghouls, we’re offered straightforward, even pleasurable scares. It’s death in the real world, and what it does to the humans left living, that’s truly unsettling to dwell on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, faced with that choice, if you go to the Mystery House and feel a sudden chill down your spine, perhaps it’s hard not to feel your thoughts drawn to the supernatural in the right settings. Especially at this time of year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because sometimes even when we know the facts, it’s just far more appealing to indulge in a little mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where are we, Olivia?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We are just outside the entrance to the mansion tour at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. And I’m so excited to be here. I have been here before, but it’s been a really long time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Winchester Mystery House is one of those places that’s in all the tourist guidebooks. A spooky historic attraction that’s kinda like Alcatraz, or riding a cable car, in that many people who grew up here know about it — but have never visited. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Announcement (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Walk of the Spirits tour at 12:10 is departing at the front of the house on the front porch.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One crisp fall day in the South Bay, with Halloween just around the corner, reporter Carly Severn and I braved a tour of the sprawling house.\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music begins\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s a disorienting maze of rooms. Staircases leading to nowhere. And then, there are the ghosts … This is Boo Curious. Your tour of the Bay Area’s creepiest places. Today on the show, to kick off our month-long series, we’re taking you inside the eerie Winchester Mystery House … and unpacking the ghostly legend that’s apparently behind it all. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Now stay close. You don’t want to get lost..\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sponsor message\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Winchester Mystery House may be internationally famous for its bizarre, otherworldly architecture — and stories about the ghosts who still stalk its corridors. But almost 140 years after its construction, the real mystery of this place is actually about the woman who lived … and died … within these walls: Sarah Winchester. Let’s go over the threshold with reporter Carly Severn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexis, our tour guide:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Welcome to the Winchester Mystery House. My name is Alexis. I’ll be your guide today for your hour-long tour of Mrs. Winchester’s beautiful yet slightly unusual mansion. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Mystery House is so confusing, so labyrinthine, that one of the first things our tour guide tells us is: \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">don’t \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">go wandering off alone.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just stick with me at all times. It’s really easy to get lost inside this home. So I’m your only way out of here alive. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And if the name of this place sounds familiar to you, that’s because it’s “Winchester” as in “Winchester Rifle” — one of the most notorious guns in history. Death was right there in Sarah Winchester’s name.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Start slow but propulsive by lonesome piano music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was one of the biggest, most profitable weapons manufacturers of the 19th century. And by marrying into the family that owned it, Sarah Winchester was the heiress to that fortune. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The legend goes that Sarah moved from the East Coast to California after a psychic told her that building this bizarre place would appease the angry ghosts of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">all \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">those people killed by Winchester rifles.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sound Effect: Ghost moan\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ghosts she spoke to in seances, sequestered inside her house of mystery.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music out\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is also the version of this story that’s repeated in the 2018 horror movie “Winchester,” which stars Helen Mirren \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">as \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Helen Mirren Clip from Film: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The spirits… killed by the rifle…. They guide me. The bells summon them… They communicate through plans, drawings … they want me to reconstruct the rooms they died in … then they can enter our world.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And when you’re inside it, on one of their public tours, it’s kinda plausible that this mansion \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">designed by someone who wasn’t, shall we say … \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fully \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">operating on this astral plane?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t know what floor we’re on. Like, we could be on the seventh floor. We could be on the third floor, like with the staircases being strangely sized and shaped. It’s very disorienting. Yeah.\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This place, you kind of get lost the minute you step through the door. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Start weird, slightly campy, mysterious music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Winchester Mystery House sprawls across 24,000 square feet. It has 160 rooms, including 13 bathrooms. There are 17 chimneys, 47 stairways – many of which lead nowhere — 2,000 doors and 10,000 windows. If you built the Mystery House today, construction costs would come to $71 million. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">End music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The house itself \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">is\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> fascinating. Yet as the tour makes clear, the woman behind it — the one who locked herself away in this \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">dark\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, doom-laded place — is even more so. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I really love this house and the history behind it, but mainly I love Sarah more than anything. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But with so much rumor and legend, what do we really know about Sarah Winchester? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Start lonesome percussive string music with swells and quiet\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Now, everyone knows Sarah as Sarah Winchester, but she was originally born as Sarah Lockwood Pardee. She was born in 1839, New Haven, Connecticut. And she grew up very well-educated in life.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah married the Winchester heir, William, in 1862. But she was then fated to suffer multiple waves of devastating loss in her life. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In her twenties, she lost her only child when they were just 5 weeks old. Fourteen years later, in 1880, her father-in-law died. Followed closely by her own husband, and then, her sister. And the legend goes, it was at that point that Sarah decided to move out to California — on a desperate quest at the behest of a psychic. Right?\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music end\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo Ignoffo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I don’t hold the general public responsible for misperceptions. It’s really a 100-year-old marketing campaign.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Sarah Winchester’s biographer, Bay Area writer Mary Jo Ignoffo. And she says that first off, this spooky relocation theory just doesn’t check out.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mary Jo says Sarah’s own \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">doctor \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was urging her to seek out warmer climes that would be better for her health, and grief. What’s more, Sarah didn’t move out here alone. One of her surviving sisters was \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">already \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">planning to leave the East Coast for Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo Ignoffo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s not so much that a psychic told her to go as family circumstances and life led her to California.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">could\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Sarah have felt that creeping worry that the victims of Winchester guns might come back to haunt her? For Mary Jo, the big problem with \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">theory is how much Sarah chose to remain involved with the Winchester Repeating Arms company even after her husband’s death. Sarah stayed on as an active, highly engaged member on the company’s board for years — when she could have just … cut loose with her money.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music beings: piano, inspired, forward moving, but still lonely\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah landed in the Bay Area already a keen amateur architect. And in 1886, she purchased a modest two-story farmhouse in the San José area — and converted it into her giant mansion. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It was her canvas. She would say, oh, try it this way. No, I don’t like that. Rip it down. Let’s try it again. Oh, I like this wood better. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The construction consumed her for over three decades. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> She kind of unleashed her interior design, artistic talents, her desire to be an architect on that house.\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music end\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah’s new San Jose neighbors were baffled, and the local press became fascinated. And they weren’t just intrigued by the scale of her ever-expanding compound. They were also mystified by the Winchester widow herself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She was a hyper-private outsider, who shunned the aristocrats of the South Bay social scene. And despite all that interest, Sarah stayed silent as the grave about what on earth — or maybe elsewhere — was driving her to keep expanding and transforming her strange, sprawling home. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She was also one of those most unfathomable creatures: a single woman, who had no interest in making other people comfortable with explanations.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> She would not talk to the press. And so they started creating stories.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One rumor at the time claimed that Sarah believed eternally re-modelling the house would keep \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">her \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">alive. Others said that Sarah was obsessively trying to contact the spirit world through those seances of hers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then finally, the last iteration is: she’s crazy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music enter: cinematic, ambient, matter of fact not too sad\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The new century arrived. Sarah grew older, and older still. By the last decade of her life, she owned many homes around the South Bay — not just the Winchester Mystery House. It was in one of these other houses that she actually chose to spend\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">most of her final years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But in the very end, something drew her back – and it was to the Winchester Mystery House that Sarah returned to see out her last days on earth, alone. She died inside the house of heart failure in 1922: A Victorian from another era in the Roaring Twenties, who lived long enough to see the first airplane fly … and the Titanic sink. After all those years of construction, Sarah’s house finally fell silent…\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A few seconds of silence…\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But … it did not stay silent for long.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music begins: Busy, opening, ’50s-era sounding, faster paced\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just months after Sarah died, in the spring of 1923, the mansion was leased by a couple who apparently planned to build an amusement park on the site, complete with a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">rollercoaster\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, but they pivoted to offering public tours of the place. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her house was turned into a haunted house to attract tourists within months of her death. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The public thrilled to finally see inside Mrs Winchester’s house of intrigue, egged on by breathless promotion … like this 1929 advert from the \u003cem>Oakland Tribune\u003c/em>:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Booming male voice reading newspaper clip: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">World’s most marvelous and oddest house. Under construction 36 years. Cost: millions. Builder guided by the spirits … Open every day 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music out\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But still, the question remains: Why \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">does\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> this place look so odd? According to the legend, Sarah intended these strange features by design to either confuse the spirits in her house — or as a way to pay homage to them, like decorating your home for Halloween.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But remember that when it came to architectural design, Sarah was an enthusiastic amateur learning as she went — and a lot of the apparent “mysteries” might simply betray those false starts. And then … there’s what happened in 1906.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The house at its peak literally was seven stories. And in the earthquake of 1096, the top floors collapsed in on themselves. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">means all those weird doors, all those “stairs to nowhere” … might have led somewhere very real when they were first built. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music begins: ghostly whaling\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So now, we come to it. What about the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ghosts\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">? So much of this place’s appeal has been fueled by this legend of Sarah as a devoted Spiritualist. A lonely widow obsessed with \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">inviting in the netherworld \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">through her seances. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the Mystery House tour, you can even place your hands on the table and hear the sounds of a seance echo around you:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Clip from seance demonstration in house:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Sing all spirits hearken all souls. We gather to offer a clarion call to the spirit world as we seek to open a window for those who still reside here in the Winchester mansion.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spiritualism was technically a belief system that hinged on attempting contact with the dead. And it \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">popular among upper-crust women like Sarah at this time.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Mary Jo says there’s no record that Sarah ever attended the local Spiritualist gatherings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And this image of Sarah the recluse, shut away in her scary house communing solo with the dead, runs contrary to the whole point of Spiritualism:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you were to have a seance, you would not do it in a closet in the middle of your house. You would invite other like minded people. At its very most basic level, Spiritualism is a social enterprise. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">… and \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">had a well documented aversion to visitors in her house.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music begin: playful, harpsichord, percussive\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of course, this hasn’t stopped over a century of rumors about an “otherworldly connection” making the Winchester Mystery House famous worldwide. Ghost hunters and supernatural enthusiasts report unearthly sightings and unexplained presences sensed in its winding corridors and infinite rooms. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And let’s face it, visitors who arrive at the Mystery House for its public tours today are coming in the hope of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">experiencing just that\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — as our tour guide Alexis can attest to.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We sit down in certain areas on the Spirit tour, and I have had people ask me, what’s the most possessed seat? And I never know what to say to them. And I say, You know what? That one. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even a total skeptic has to admit it, in that bright San José sunshine, this place \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">is \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">disorienting and claustrophobic enough to \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">really \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">give you the creeps. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music end\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In many ways, the Mystery House legends represent all the things that feel like they \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">should \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">be true — especially when you think of how you’d feel in Sarah Winchester’s shoes. How could a person get rich from making new instruments of death and \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">not \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">feel guilty? How \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">could\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a lonely woman \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">s\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">uffer such tragedy and never once feel the impulse to see if her lost loved ones could … talk back? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what if the hard facts of Sarah’s life actually leave us with a far more recognizable story about how people react to overwhelming change and loss? How they can alienate themselves from the world in the process? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And let’s face it: When we talk about death through ghosts and ghouls, we’re offered straightforward, even pleasurable scares. It’s death in the real world, and what it does to the humans left living, that’s truly unsettling to dwell on.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So faced with \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">that \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">choice? Listen, if you go to the Mystery House and feel a sudden chill down your spine … well, maybe it’s hard \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">not\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to feel your thoughts drawn to the supernatural in the right settings. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Especially\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">time of year. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">our\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> tour, being led into the Mystery House’s dark, cold basement, we certainly weren’t immune from just that:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay … Descending stairs into the darkness. Okay. [Olivia heard muffled in background: “This is very dark!”] This is the thing; you can come in with all this, you know, “I’ve got my factual hat on”, and then you come into a dark room that’s cold, and you’re like, “Well .. Who’s to say? Who’s to say?!” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because sometimes … even when we \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">know \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">facts\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, it’s just far more appealing to indulge … in a little mystery.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Boo Curious theme music begins\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>OLIVIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was KQED’s Carly Severn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>OLIVIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is the first in our four part Boo Curious series this year. That’s right, the whole month of October we’ll be bringing out eerie stories, with a Bay Curious twist. Be sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss the fun.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>OLIVIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This just in: Bay Curious is up for a Signal Award. That’s a listeners choice award for podcasts. We’d love if you could give us a vote. Find a link in our show notes or at BayCurious.org.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>OLIVIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tickets are now available for our upcoming theatrical walking tour of the AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park. Come Learn about the history of this amazing space from the people who helped create it. Plus live music, dance and The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Space is limited. Learn more at KQED.org/live.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>OLIVIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode was produced by Amanda Font, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Shout out to Dan Brekke, for his voice work. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldana, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family. Have a good one, everybody!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music ends\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The Winchester Mystery has been thrilling visitors for a century now with its bizarre architecture and ghostly tales about its Victorian creator, Sarah Winchester. Can we ever know the truth behind the legends?",
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"title": "After 100 Years, the Mysteries of the Winchester House Endure | KQED",
"description": "The Winchester Mystery has been thrilling visitors for a century now with its bizarre architecture and ghostly tales about its Victorian creator, Sarah Winchester. Can we ever know the truth behind the legends?",
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"headline": "After 100 Years, the Mysteries of the Winchester House Endure",
"datePublished": "2023-10-05T03:00:16-07:00",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">Read a transcript of this episode.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone in the Bay Area has visited the Winchester Mystery House. But even those who’ve never set foot inside it know at least a little about the shadowy legends that surround it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This vast, sprawling mansion in San José dating from 1886, set among lush gardens, is primarily infamous for the bizarre architectural features that greet visitors within its walls — staircases that lead to nowhere … mysteriously placed doors and windows … \u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n What do you wonder about the Bay Area, its culture or people that you want KQED to investigate?\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Ask Bay Curious.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Mystery House, which opened its doors to the public one hundred years ago, is also famous for the apparent strangeness of its Victorian creator. This house-like-no-other was the home and brainchild of Sarah Winchester, the widowed heiress to one of the biggest, most successful weapons manufacturers of the time: the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah, so the legend goes, moved from the East Coast to California to build this home after a psychic told her that doing so would appease the angry ghosts of all the people killed by Winchester rifles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 24,000 square feet, the resulting 160-room mansion boasts 10,000 windows, 2,000 doors, 47 stairways, 17 chimneys and 13 bathrooms. In today’s money, the Mystery House’s construction costs would have totaled $71 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a tourist attraction, much is made of the Mystery House’s innate spookiness. And when you’re inside it, on one of the House’s daily public tours, it feels plausible that this mansion was designed by someone who perhaps wasn’t fully operating on this astral plane. But to understand the house — and how it came to be — you have to understand the human behind the legend.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A move out West\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Sarah Winchester was born Sarah Lockwood Pardee in 1839 in Connecticut. After marrying William Winchester, she suffered two waves of devastating loss in her life. The first, in her late twenties, was the death of her only child, Annie, at 5 weeks old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fourteen years later, in 1880, her father-in-law Oliver Winchester died, followed within a matter of months by her husband William. Then Sarah’s elder sister passed away too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was the turning point at which, according to the legend, Sarah heeded a medium’s warning that she must move to the West Coast. But according to Sarah’s biographer, Bay Area writer Mary Jo Ignoffo, “It’s not so much that a psychic told her to go, as family circumstances and life led her to California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963323\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-Winchester-in-Carriage.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11963323\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-Winchester-in-Carriage-800x569.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white archival image of a woman sitting in the back of a horse drawn carriage. The man at the front of the carriage is wearing a top hat, and it is pulled by 2 horses. It sits unmoving in front of a house, with trees to either side of the image.\" width=\"800\" height=\"569\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-Winchester-in-Carriage-800x569.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-Winchester-in-Carriage-1020x726.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-Winchester-in-Carriage-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-Winchester-in-Carriage-1536x1093.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-Winchester-in-Carriage.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sarah Winchester in a horse-drawn carriage. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Winchester Mystery House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ignoffo says Sarah’s own doctor was urging her to seek out warmer climes that would be better for her health and her grief. What’s more, says Ignoffo, one of Sarah’s surviving sisters was planning her own move out West to Oakland — a relocation that spurred the rest of the family, including Sarah, to join her and make the huge move together. This account sees Sarah move to the Bay Area not as a lone widow hell-bent on a pact with the dead, but as a family — the only family she really had left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But to examine the legend further, is it still possible that Sarah may have felt a creeping worry that the victims of Winchester guns could come back to haunt her? For Ignoffo, the snag with this theory is the extent to which Sarah chose to remain involved with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company after her husband’s death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as a rich heiress, Sarah stayed on as an active, engaged member on the company’s board when perhaps she really didn’t have to. “If she felt so guilty about money coming from guns, would she have spent so much time, literally years and reams … of paper analyzing the books and investing the money?” asks Ignoffo.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Building a mystery\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Already keenly interested in architecture, in 1886 Sarah purchased the modest two-story farmhouse in the San José area that she would turn into her giant mansion over more than three decades of construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She kind of unleashed her interior design, artistic talents, her desire to be an architect on that house,” said Ignoffo, and this place “was her canvas.” Sarah, the aspiring designer who certainly wasn’t held back by lack of funds, “Would say, ‘Oh, try it this way. No, I don’t like that. Rip it down, let’s try it again. Oh, I like this wood better,’” imagined Ignoffo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah’s new San José neighbors were baffled, and the local press became fascinated. And they weren’t just intrigued by the scale of her ever-expanding compound. They were also mystified by the Winchester widow herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was a hyper-private outsider, who shunned the aristocrats of the South Bay social scene. And despite all that interest, Sarah stayed silent as the grave about what on Earth — or maybe elsewhere — was driving her to keep expanding and transforming her strange, increasingly vast home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963313\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Pre-1906-View-from-Water-Tower-cmyk-BW-scaled-e1696376606137.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11963313\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Pre-1906-View-from-Water-Tower-cmyk-BW-scaled-e1696376606137-800x489.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white archival image of a large and sprawling mansion with many pointed towers\" width=\"800\" height=\"489\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Pre-1906-View-from-Water-Tower-cmyk-BW-scaled-e1696376606137-800x489.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Pre-1906-View-from-Water-Tower-cmyk-BW-scaled-e1696376606137-1020x623.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Pre-1906-View-from-Water-Tower-cmyk-BW-scaled-e1696376606137-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Pre-1906-View-from-Water-Tower-cmyk-BW-scaled-e1696376606137-1536x938.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Pre-1906-View-from-Water-Tower-cmyk-BW-scaled-e1696376606137.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo of the Winchester House prior to the 1906 earthquake. Several stories of the house were badly damaged in the quake. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Winchester Mystery House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She was also one of those most unfathomable creatures: a single woman, who had no interest in making other people comfortable with explanations. And because she wouldn’t engage with the press, they simply, “started creating stories,” said Ignoffo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One rumor claimed that Sarah believed eternally remodeling the house would keep her alive. Others said she obsessively tried to contact the spirit world through seances in the house. Many of these myths took hold in Sarah’s own lifetime, fueled by her silence and withdrawal from public life, but also onlookers’ feelings about the grandeur and expense of her seemingly inexplicable mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The earliest references about her and her house are about how outlandishly large it was,” notes Ignoffo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the last decade of her life, Sarah owned many homes over the South Bay — not just the Winchester Mystery House. It was in one of these other houses that she actually chose to spend most of her final years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the very end, something drew her back — and it was to the Winchester Mystery House that Sarah returned to see out her last days on earth, alone. She died inside the house of heart failure in 1922: A Victorian from another era in the Roaring Twenties, who lived long enough to see the first airplane fly and the Titanic sink. She’d survived the so-called “Spanish Flu” pandemic, and had no idea the World War she’d just lived through wouldn’t be the last.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah’s house had fallen silent, but not for long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963332\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-WInchesters-Bedroom.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11963332\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-WInchesters-Bedroom-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A preserved Victorian era bedroom with an ornately carved wooden headboard, sitting area, and lace curtains.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-WInchesters-Bedroom-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-WInchesters-Bedroom-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-WInchesters-Bedroom-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-WInchesters-Bedroom-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Sarah-WInchesters-Bedroom.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sarah Winchester’s bedroom, preserved. \u003ccite>(Carly Severn/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Opening the doors\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The next year, in the spring of 1923, the mansion was leased by John and Mayme Brown who apparently planned to build an amusement park on the site, but pivoted to public tours of the house, given the existing interest and intrigue that had taken root locally during Sarah’s lifetime. Her home, says Ignoffo, “was turned into a haunted house to attract tourists within months of her death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That year, the doors of Sarah’s house were opened to the general public, who thrilled to finally see the place about which they’d heard so many wild rumors. They were egged on by breathless promotion, like in a 1929 advertisement from the \u003cem>Oakland Tribune\u003c/em> that read: “World’s most marvelous and oddest house; Under construction 36 years; Cost: millions; Builder guided by the spirits … Open every day 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The official legend has it that the name, “Mystery House” was allegedly bestowed by Harry Houdini himself after he visited on Halloween night 1924. But considering the name appears in a local newspaper article in May that year, we can probably attribute that one to a little more early myth-making too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But still, the question remains: Why does this place look so odd? According to the legend, Sarah intended these strange features by design to either confuse the spirits in her house or as a way to pay homage to them. But when it came to architectural design, remember that Sarah was an enthusiastic amateur learning as she went, and a lot of the apparent “mysteries” might simply betray those false starts. They might also be add-ons to the bones of the original farmhouse, says Ignoffo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963333\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Staricase-to-nowhere-sign.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11963333\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Staricase-to-nowhere-sign-800x597.jpg\" alt='A sign on a cream colored wood paneled wall that says \"Staircase to nowhere.\" The sign also includes an illustration of a hand pointing to the right.' width=\"800\" height=\"597\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Staricase-to-nowhere-sign-800x597.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Staricase-to-nowhere-sign-1020x761.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Staricase-to-nowhere-sign-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Staricase-to-nowhere-sign-1536x1146.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Staricase-to-nowhere-sign.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staircases and doors that lead to nowhere are a hallmark of what makes the Winchester House ‘mysterious.’ \u003ccite>(Carly Severn/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There’s also the question of the Great Earthquake of 1906. Sarah’s house, like countless homes across the Bay Area, suffered severe damage from these shockwaves — so much so that the quake actually reduced the building’s height by several stories, says Ignoffo. Which means all those weird doors, all those “stairs to nowhere” could have led somewhere very real when they were first built.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Touching the spirit world\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>And what of the ghosts?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since it first opened its doors, much of the Mystery House’s supernatural appeal has been fueled by the image of Sarah as a devoted Spiritualist, uniquely vulnerable to notions of vengeful spirits, and obsessed with inviting in the denizens of the netherworld through seances held in the Mystery House itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spiritualism — a belief system that hinged on attempting contact with the dead — was absolutely popular among upper-crust women like Sarah. Less than 20 miles away from the Mystery House, Jane Stanford, co-founder of Stanford University, was herself experimenting with seances following the death of her son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Ignoffo says she’s been unable to find any record that Sarah ever attended those Spiritualist gatherings that were going on locally. And what’s more, this picture of Sarah the recluse, shut away in her scary house communing solo with the dead, runs fundamentally contrary to the whole point of Spiritualism, says Ignoffo. “If you were to have a seance, you would not do it in a closet in the middle of your house. You would invite other like-minded people,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At its very most basic level, Spiritualism is a social enterprise,” notes Ignoffo. And Sarah had a well-documented aversion to visitors in her house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite this, the longstanding suggestion of an otherworldly connection has still made the Winchester Mystery House famous worldwide among ghost-hunters and supernatural enthusiasts alike, who report unearthly sightings and unexplained sensed presences in its corridors and rooms. Many who arrive for the Mystery House’s public tours today are visiting in the hope of experiencing just that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963334\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11963334\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"An ornately decorated Victorian dining room with a table in the center. Around the table are seating 4 fake ghosts, covered in white sheets. There are two large candelabras on the table as well as a fake dinner.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1236199193-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Winchester Mystery House holds a special All Hallows Eve event in October 2021, where they really lean into the idea of the house being haunted. \u003ccite>(Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And regardless of your personal threshold for belief in the supernatural, there is something about the claustrophobic proportions of this place — its rabbit-warren feeling, its curious darkness even in the bright San José sunshine — that, combined with the knowledge that you’re deep within a building that has been giving people the shivers for 100 years now, could give even skeptical visitors a shiver down their spine.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A century of mystery\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In many ways, the Mystery House legends represent all the things that feel like they should be true, especially when you think of how you yourself might feel, placed into Sarah Winchester’s shoes. How could a person get rich from making new instruments of death and not feel guilty? How could a lonely woman suffer such tragedy and never once feel the impulse to see if her lost loved ones could talk back?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghosts aside, the hard facts of Sarah’s life might actually leave us with a far more recognizable story about how people react to overwhelming change and loss — and how they can alienate themselves from the world in the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But let’s face it: When we talk about death through ghosts and ghouls, we’re offered straightforward, even pleasurable scares. It’s death in the real world, and what it does to the humans left living, that’s truly unsettling to dwell on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, faced with that choice, if you go to the Mystery House and feel a sudden chill down your spine, perhaps it’s hard not to feel your thoughts drawn to the supernatural in the right settings. Especially at this time of year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because sometimes even when we know the facts, it’s just far more appealing to indulge in a little mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where are we, Olivia?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We are just outside the entrance to the mansion tour at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. And I’m so excited to be here. I have been here before, but it’s been a really long time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Winchester Mystery House is one of those places that’s in all the tourist guidebooks. A spooky historic attraction that’s kinda like Alcatraz, or riding a cable car, in that many people who grew up here know about it — but have never visited. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Announcement (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Walk of the Spirits tour at 12:10 is departing at the front of the house on the front porch.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One crisp fall day in the South Bay, with Halloween just around the corner, reporter Carly Severn and I braved a tour of the sprawling house.\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music begins\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s a disorienting maze of rooms. Staircases leading to nowhere. And then, there are the ghosts … This is Boo Curious. Your tour of the Bay Area’s creepiest places. Today on the show, to kick off our month-long series, we’re taking you inside the eerie Winchester Mystery House … and unpacking the ghostly legend that’s apparently behind it all. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Now stay close. You don’t want to get lost..\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sponsor message\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Winchester Mystery House may be internationally famous for its bizarre, otherworldly architecture — and stories about the ghosts who still stalk its corridors. But almost 140 years after its construction, the real mystery of this place is actually about the woman who lived … and died … within these walls: Sarah Winchester. Let’s go over the threshold with reporter Carly Severn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexis, our tour guide:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Welcome to the Winchester Mystery House. My name is Alexis. I’ll be your guide today for your hour-long tour of Mrs. Winchester’s beautiful yet slightly unusual mansion. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Mystery House is so confusing, so labyrinthine, that one of the first things our tour guide tells us is: \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">don’t \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">go wandering off alone.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just stick with me at all times. It’s really easy to get lost inside this home. So I’m your only way out of here alive. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And if the name of this place sounds familiar to you, that’s because it’s “Winchester” as in “Winchester Rifle” — one of the most notorious guns in history. Death was right there in Sarah Winchester’s name.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Start slow but propulsive by lonesome piano music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was one of the biggest, most profitable weapons manufacturers of the 19th century. And by marrying into the family that owned it, Sarah Winchester was the heiress to that fortune. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The legend goes that Sarah moved from the East Coast to California after a psychic told her that building this bizarre place would appease the angry ghosts of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">all \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">those people killed by Winchester rifles.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sound Effect: Ghost moan\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ghosts she spoke to in seances, sequestered inside her house of mystery.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music out\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is also the version of this story that’s repeated in the 2018 horror movie “Winchester,” which stars Helen Mirren \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">as \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Helen Mirren Clip from Film: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The spirits… killed by the rifle…. They guide me. The bells summon them… They communicate through plans, drawings … they want me to reconstruct the rooms they died in … then they can enter our world.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And when you’re inside it, on one of their public tours, it’s kinda plausible that this mansion \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">designed by someone who wasn’t, shall we say … \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fully \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">operating on this astral plane?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t know what floor we’re on. Like, we could be on the seventh floor. We could be on the third floor, like with the staircases being strangely sized and shaped. It’s very disorienting. Yeah.\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This place, you kind of get lost the minute you step through the door. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Start weird, slightly campy, mysterious music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Winchester Mystery House sprawls across 24,000 square feet. It has 160 rooms, including 13 bathrooms. There are 17 chimneys, 47 stairways – many of which lead nowhere — 2,000 doors and 10,000 windows. If you built the Mystery House today, construction costs would come to $71 million. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">End music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The house itself \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">is\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> fascinating. Yet as the tour makes clear, the woman behind it — the one who locked herself away in this \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">dark\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, doom-laded place — is even more so. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I really love this house and the history behind it, but mainly I love Sarah more than anything. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But with so much rumor and legend, what do we really know about Sarah Winchester? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Start lonesome percussive string music with swells and quiet\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Now, everyone knows Sarah as Sarah Winchester, but she was originally born as Sarah Lockwood Pardee. She was born in 1839, New Haven, Connecticut. And she grew up very well-educated in life.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah married the Winchester heir, William, in 1862. But she was then fated to suffer multiple waves of devastating loss in her life. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In her twenties, she lost her only child when they were just 5 weeks old. Fourteen years later, in 1880, her father-in-law died. Followed closely by her own husband, and then, her sister. And the legend goes, it was at that point that Sarah decided to move out to California — on a desperate quest at the behest of a psychic. Right?\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music end\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo Ignoffo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I don’t hold the general public responsible for misperceptions. It’s really a 100-year-old marketing campaign.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Sarah Winchester’s biographer, Bay Area writer Mary Jo Ignoffo. And she says that first off, this spooky relocation theory just doesn’t check out.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mary Jo says Sarah’s own \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">doctor \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was urging her to seek out warmer climes that would be better for her health, and grief. What’s more, Sarah didn’t move out here alone. One of her surviving sisters was \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">already \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">planning to leave the East Coast for Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo Ignoffo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s not so much that a psychic told her to go as family circumstances and life led her to California.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">could\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Sarah have felt that creeping worry that the victims of Winchester guns might come back to haunt her? For Mary Jo, the big problem with \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">theory is how much Sarah chose to remain involved with the Winchester Repeating Arms company even after her husband’s death. Sarah stayed on as an active, highly engaged member on the company’s board for years — when she could have just … cut loose with her money.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music beings: piano, inspired, forward moving, but still lonely\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah landed in the Bay Area already a keen amateur architect. And in 1886, she purchased a modest two-story farmhouse in the San José area — and converted it into her giant mansion. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It was her canvas. She would say, oh, try it this way. No, I don’t like that. Rip it down. Let’s try it again. Oh, I like this wood better. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The construction consumed her for over three decades. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> She kind of unleashed her interior design, artistic talents, her desire to be an architect on that house.\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music end\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah’s new San Jose neighbors were baffled, and the local press became fascinated. And they weren’t just intrigued by the scale of her ever-expanding compound. They were also mystified by the Winchester widow herself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She was a hyper-private outsider, who shunned the aristocrats of the South Bay social scene. And despite all that interest, Sarah stayed silent as the grave about what on earth — or maybe elsewhere — was driving her to keep expanding and transforming her strange, sprawling home. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She was also one of those most unfathomable creatures: a single woman, who had no interest in making other people comfortable with explanations.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> She would not talk to the press. And so they started creating stories.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One rumor at the time claimed that Sarah believed eternally re-modelling the house would keep \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">her \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">alive. Others said that Sarah was obsessively trying to contact the spirit world through those seances of hers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then finally, the last iteration is: she’s crazy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music enter: cinematic, ambient, matter of fact not too sad\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The new century arrived. Sarah grew older, and older still. By the last decade of her life, she owned many homes around the South Bay — not just the Winchester Mystery House. It was in one of these other houses that she actually chose to spend\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">most of her final years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But in the very end, something drew her back – and it was to the Winchester Mystery House that Sarah returned to see out her last days on earth, alone. She died inside the house of heart failure in 1922: A Victorian from another era in the Roaring Twenties, who lived long enough to see the first airplane fly … and the Titanic sink. After all those years of construction, Sarah’s house finally fell silent…\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A few seconds of silence…\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But … it did not stay silent for long.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music begins: Busy, opening, ’50s-era sounding, faster paced\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just months after Sarah died, in the spring of 1923, the mansion was leased by a couple who apparently planned to build an amusement park on the site, complete with a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">rollercoaster\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, but they pivoted to offering public tours of the place. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her house was turned into a haunted house to attract tourists within months of her death. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The public thrilled to finally see inside Mrs Winchester’s house of intrigue, egged on by breathless promotion … like this 1929 advert from the \u003cem>Oakland Tribune\u003c/em>:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Booming male voice reading newspaper clip: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">World’s most marvelous and oddest house. Under construction 36 years. Cost: millions. Builder guided by the spirits … Open every day 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music out\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But still, the question remains: Why \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">does\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> this place look so odd? According to the legend, Sarah intended these strange features by design to either confuse the spirits in her house — or as a way to pay homage to them, like decorating your home for Halloween.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But remember that when it came to architectural design, Sarah was an enthusiastic amateur learning as she went — and a lot of the apparent “mysteries” might simply betray those false starts. And then … there’s what happened in 1906.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The house at its peak literally was seven stories. And in the earthquake of 1096, the top floors collapsed in on themselves. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">means all those weird doors, all those “stairs to nowhere” … might have led somewhere very real when they were first built. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music begins: ghostly whaling\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So now, we come to it. What about the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ghosts\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">? So much of this place’s appeal has been fueled by this legend of Sarah as a devoted Spiritualist. A lonely widow obsessed with \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">inviting in the netherworld \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">through her seances. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the Mystery House tour, you can even place your hands on the table and hear the sounds of a seance echo around you:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Clip from seance demonstration in house:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Sing all spirits hearken all souls. We gather to offer a clarion call to the spirit world as we seek to open a window for those who still reside here in the Winchester mansion.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spiritualism was technically a belief system that hinged on attempting contact with the dead. And it \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">popular among upper-crust women like Sarah at this time.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Mary Jo says there’s no record that Sarah ever attended the local Spiritualist gatherings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And this image of Sarah the recluse, shut away in her scary house communing solo with the dead, runs contrary to the whole point of Spiritualism:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mary Jo: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you were to have a seance, you would not do it in a closet in the middle of your house. You would invite other like minded people. At its very most basic level, Spiritualism is a social enterprise. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">… and \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">had a well documented aversion to visitors in her house.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music begin: playful, harpsichord, percussive\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of course, this hasn’t stopped over a century of rumors about an “otherworldly connection” making the Winchester Mystery House famous worldwide. Ghost hunters and supernatural enthusiasts report unearthly sightings and unexplained presences sensed in its winding corridors and infinite rooms. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And let’s face it, visitors who arrive at the Mystery House for its public tours today are coming in the hope of \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">experiencing just that\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — as our tour guide Alexis can attest to.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alexis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We sit down in certain areas on the Spirit tour, and I have had people ask me, what’s the most possessed seat? And I never know what to say to them. And I say, You know what? That one. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even a total skeptic has to admit it, in that bright San José sunshine, this place \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">is \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">disorienting and claustrophobic enough to \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">really \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">give you the creeps. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music end\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In many ways, the Mystery House legends represent all the things that feel like they \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">should \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">be true — especially when you think of how you’d feel in Sarah Winchester’s shoes. How could a person get rich from making new instruments of death and \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">not \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">feel guilty? How \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">could\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a lonely woman \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">s\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">uffer such tragedy and never once feel the impulse to see if her lost loved ones could … talk back? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what if the hard facts of Sarah’s life actually leave us with a far more recognizable story about how people react to overwhelming change and loss? How they can alienate themselves from the world in the process? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And let’s face it: When we talk about death through ghosts and ghouls, we’re offered straightforward, even pleasurable scares. It’s death in the real world, and what it does to the humans left living, that’s truly unsettling to dwell on.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So faced with \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">that \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">choice? Listen, if you go to the Mystery House and feel a sudden chill down your spine … well, maybe it’s hard \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">not\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to feel your thoughts drawn to the supernatural in the right settings. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Especially\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">this \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">time of year. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">our\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> tour, being led into the Mystery House’s dark, cold basement, we certainly weren’t immune from just that:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay … Descending stairs into the darkness. Okay. [Olivia heard muffled in background: “This is very dark!”] This is the thing; you can come in with all this, you know, “I’ve got my factual hat on”, and then you come into a dark room that’s cold, and you’re like, “Well .. Who’s to say? Who’s to say?!” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because sometimes … even when we \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">know \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">facts\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, it’s just far more appealing to indulge … in a little mystery.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Boo Curious theme music begins\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>OLIVIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was KQED’s Carly Severn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>OLIVIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is the first in our four part Boo Curious series this year. That’s right, the whole month of October we’ll be bringing out eerie stories, with a Bay Curious twist. Be sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss the fun.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>OLIVIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This just in: Bay Curious is up for a Signal Award. That’s a listeners choice award for podcasts. We’d love if you could give us a vote. Find a link in our show notes or at BayCurious.org.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>OLIVIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tickets are now available for our upcoming theatrical walking tour of the AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park. Come Learn about the history of this amazing space from the people who helped create it. Plus live music, dance and The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Space is limited. Learn more at KQED.org/live.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>OLIVIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode was produced by Amanda Font, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Shout out to Dan Brekke, for his voice work. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldana, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family. Have a good one, everybody!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music ends\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">Read a transcript of this episode.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting next week, we’ve got a whole month of stories about creepy, eerie and potentially haunted places in the Bay Area planned for you, as part of a series we’re calling BOO Curious! To get you in the mood for spooky season, we thought we’d share a ghost story from our friends over at the \u003ca href=\"https://snapjudgment.org/spooked/\">Spooked\u003c/a> podcast, from Snap Judgment Studios and KQED. [baycuriousbug]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show is hosted by Glynn Washington, and if you’re one of those people who really enjoys feeling the goosebumps then Spooked has got you covered with year-round chills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kristen Cortez is a new teacher in beautiful Los Gatos, California. From her classroom window, she can see rolling, golden hills. Redwood trees. The sun is almost always shining. And yet … something lurks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Have you been to the grocery store in the last week or two? There are pumpkins out front as you walk in. Brown jugs of apple cider are hanging out in the produce aisle, pretending to be nutritious. And it seems like at the end of every aisle is a display of pumpkin spice something or another. Happy Pumpkin Spice season to those of you who celebrate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For us here at Bay Curious, the change of the seasons means it’s time to start preparing for our annual Halloween episode. And this year, we just had too many ideas. We couldn’t decide what to do. So we did them all! We’re taking over the entire month of October for a series we’re calling … Wait for it … Boo Curious. It will be an eerie tour of the San Francisco Bay Area, made with love by your friends at Bay Curious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get you in that spooky season spirit, today we’re going to share an episode from the Spooked podcast. If you like scary stories — the kind you might hear around a campfire — Spooked will be a year-round delight for your listening pleasure. The episode we’ll hear today, takes place right here in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Today, Bay Curious presents: Spooked. We’ll be right back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003c/b>If you want to lean into this listening experience. Turn off the lights. And turn up the sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kristin Cortez:\u003c/b> I had just got my first teaching job as an 11th grade English teacher, and I was really excited about it. The building was a two story old fashioned building with rolling green lawns in the front. I was put in a room in the main building which overlooked the front lawn, and it was in a room upstairs that you could see from the street. I also was going to graduate school in the evenings so I would stay late and work until after dark and then I would leave to go to my night class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I was working in my classroom in the evenings, sometimes I would be overwhelmed with a feeling of melancholy and sadness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I started getting the sensation that somebody was watching me. The little hairs on the back of my neck would stand up like sort of a feeling of static.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I would feel like I could see something out of the periphery of my vision, like a shadow, like a smoky shadow. And then whenever I looked, there would be nothing there. But I kept having this sense that someone was standing there hovering over me at my desk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would give me this feeling of wanting to leave the room as fast as possible. But I would often convince myself that I must be delusional or I must be tired. It was under a lot of stress as a new teacher, then, I definitely wasn’t getting enough sleep. So when I began to notice strange things happening in the classroom, I tended to discount what was going on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I would go into the classroom early in the morning and I started to notice things that were out of place. In particular, the chalk from the chalkboard tray, this is back when we had blackboards that covered the wall, the chalk would be removed and in a pile in the middle of the room and sometimes look like somebody had stepped on them and crushed them. The chalkboard erasers would be in different places than where I had left them in the chalkboard tray.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a new teacher, kids play pranks on you. And I just assumed that maybe I hadn’t noticed the night before that kids had messed with my classroom. One morning, I walked in and again the chalk was on the floor in the middle of the room, there was a message written on the board. It was in the lower right corner and it was somewhat small in kind of a cryptic old fashioned handwriting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Was the word help written in chalk? Even though I was sure I had raised it the night before, I convinced myself that maybe I hadn’t noticed it the night before and maybe the kids had done it, but it didn’t look like a typical student’s handwriting. It was cursive, like old fashioned cursive. I couldn’t think of any student who had that kind of handwriting. I had a rowdy seventh period class, they were notorious for blurting out and asking questions and try to side rail, whatever it was that I was talking about, they used to call me by my last name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day, one of them said, “Hey Sandoval, what were you doing here last night, like, so late?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I said, What are you talking about?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the student said, “I was walking my dog by the school right out on Main Street. And I looked up and I saw that you were still in your classroom. What were you doing?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I said, well, I was working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then the student said, “Well, if you’re working, why were you standing at the window and staring out?” I said, I don’t remember standing at the window and looking out. They said that they couldn’t see my face or my facial expressions, but they tried to wave to me to get my attention. But I was just standing there. Stock still, staring out the window. Again, I discounted it, I didn’t think too much of it, but then one night I had night class and I didn’t have time to pick up dinner and my husband had offered to swing by the high school to drop off food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We picked a time for him to meet me down in this court. That was right next to the corner of the front of the school. And from that court, you could see the window of my classroom. I went downstairs and I went up to the side of his car on the driver’s side, and his back was turned to me because he was looking up at the building where my classroom was. And so I knocked on the window. And when he turned to look at me, he jumped and he looked so startled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So he rolled down the window and he said, I could have sworn I just saw you in the window looking down. And I was wondering why you weren’t coming down to meet me and why you were standing there staring at me in the window. And we both looked back up together and there was nothing there. At that point, I was getting scared to be in the classroom, that very oppressive feeling, the classroom started to grow heavier and heavier with time, I began to sense that somebody was in the room with me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that must be the figure that other people have seen standing in the window. I was really nervous about asking around or reporting the feelings that I had because it was a new teacher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I wasn’t sure, you know, if people would think I was crazy and I just — I didn’t want to destroy people’s confidence in me. It was working on a Friday night, it was mid-October. I realized that it was Friday the 13th. I was working very late grading papers and trying to get my work done. I noticed the scent of smoke like a campfire, and at that moment I started to hear whispers. It sounded like they were coming from the vents up above in the ceiling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I heard the whisper get louder and it started to build up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then all of a sudden I heard get. I could feel my whole body just clam up with tension, I could feel my heart thudding, I felt a combination of both dread and absolute terror and the feeling of urgency that I needed to just drop everything that I was doing and get out of that room. Nothing was as important as getting out of that room. I left without taking the papers home with me. They were scattered and spread out on my desk and I wasn’t about to take the time to gather them up and get them organized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I just left the room. I decided at that point I wasn’t going to stay and work in my classroom late anymore and I wasn’t going to get there early. I was just going to figure out ways to get my work done, go home in between, or go to a coffee shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was an older teacher who had been there for decades, she had been there so long that she had taught some of the teachers that I was teaching with. So I asked her, has there ever been a fire in the school? I didn’t have the courage to tell her why I was asking. I just told her it smelled like something burning in my room. And she said, oh, well, there was a fire that devastated the entire town way back when.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it was so big that it burned pretty much everything on Main Street where the high school is located. When I looked up the fire that the senior teacher had told me about, I learned that the fire had occurred on October 13th. This building wasn’t even here when it happened, even though the fire had never touched the walls of this building. I started to wonder if maybe there was something, some residue of some kind of tragedy or something that was left over from that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So the school year went by in the spring, we had our annual Sadie Hawkins dance, the dances where the girls asked the boys to the dance. I, of course, was assigned to chaperone and it involved me staying late until after the dance shut down at like midnight. I realized after I’d finished chaperoning the dance that I needed to go back to my room to grab my things. You know, most of the teachers, as soon as the administrators release us from our chaperone duties, everybody makes themselves scarce and they take off as fast as they can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So I couldn’t find anybody to go back up there with me. When I went back into the building, it was dark. The only light was the green and red exit signs near each of the main double doors. It felt as if once I entered that building, I was sort of cut off from the rest of the world and cut off from other human contact. I was scared. I was really nervous. And if I didn’t have to get my purse, I would not go back into that building or into my room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I opened up my classroom door. It was dark in the room and the only light that was coming in was from the front windows which faced the street. I looked to the right of the door and in front of the blackboard there was a woman. She was standing with her face, almost touching the blackboard, and all I could see was her back. Her hair was pulled up in an old fashioned kind of hairdo and she had a high color, dark dress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was kind of like a charcoal gray color and it looked like an old period dress. I could not see her shoes because the bottom half was faded out, almost as if her feet had disappeared. At that moment when I saw her, I felt a shot of cold going through the core of me, I knew it was whoever I had felt in that room. I was trying to talk myself into believing that it was somebody who had gotten into the room and not what I thought it was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so very tentatively, I said, excuse me, you’re not supposed to be in my room. You need to leave now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there was this weird, awkward pause and the woman didn’t move at first. And then all of a sudden she started to turn her head. And I saw the side of her face looked like her face was burnt. She looked at me out of the corner of her eyes when they locked with mine. It was a strange and overwhelming feeling of recognition, as if I knew her and she knew me. I was just filled with that sense of dread, mixed with terror, mixed with sorrow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a horrible feeling. I just turned and I left as fast as I could. I started calling to see if anybody was in the building. Is anybody here? Is anybody still here? Help me help. I needed to be with another human being and I did not want to be alone. I found the janitor locking up the theater in the main building downstairs. I said, I think there’s somebody in my room. Can you come with me?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we went back in the room, there was nothing there. I was shaking all over. I grabbed my purse and my keys and whatever papers I was going to great over the weekend and I bolted from the room. I had trouble getting my work done that weekend. I had trouble sleeping, I couldn’t stop thinking about that, that vision, that face — the side of her face, the way she looked at me out of the corner of her eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I really tried hard not to go or stay in my classroom after the bell rang, I didn’t go there in the early morning anymore. I just avoided being in the room as much as possible. Years went by, and I never told that story to anybody until 12 or 13 years later. A lot of things that happened between those years, there wasn’t a new teacher anymore. I had had babies. I had gone through life. It was just a much better, happier time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I felt safe enough and confident enough to start researching, I went to the library and I went through all the historical photo files of Los Gatos and read some of the stories about the fire that destroyed all of the buildings that were on Main Street. I looked at lots and lots of old photos. I searched and searched for a face that might have matched the one that I saw. I became kind of obsessed for a while. I found this old photo of a teacher at an old desk with a blackboard behind her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And to the left of the desk was a window that looked very much like the windows of my classroom. I felt like that picture wanted me to find it. The woman looked just like the woman that I saw. I think that woman who I saw was an old school marm, old in the sense that she had been a school teacher maybe a century prior. I feel like she might have died in that location by fire. When I think of a schoolmarm, I think of a woman whose entire life is devoted to teaching children. Maybe she had spent too long working too long, late at night at school. And maybe that’s why, you know, if there had been a fire in that location and took her life, maybe it was because she was there when she wasn’t teaching. Maybe she had spent extra hours there and had subjected herself to something that could have been avoided if she had been working only the hours that she should be working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During my first year of teaching, I was easily working 16 hour days. I didn’t have any free time. I didn’t even see my new husband very much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I felt very alone. Maybe whatever was there was commiserating with me, it was less of like scaring me out, more of protecting me. I thought maybe there was a warning in there that I shouldn’t be working that much or that late in the building. But maybe that’s why she had decided to show herself to me. And, you know, I think that later on in life, maybe one of the reasons why I didn’t get the same feeling in that room was because I had learned more of a work life balance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I used to have students always ask me for stories about the school, and eventually I decided to tell that story of the presence in the room that I had come face to face with. By about the third year of telling this story, I started thinking about the woman and how she looked, and what was odd is that she looked like me, a little bit. She was about the same size, very similar stature. Her coloring was very similar. She had dark hair, dark eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I started thinking it would be fun to dress up as her and show my students what she looked like. So I went down to the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco and went to my favorite vintage clothing store, where they have clothes from every single era. I described to the owner what I was looking for. And of course, I didn’t want to tell her. This was the dress that I thought I saw on a ghost, but I described exactly what it was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And she pulled out a dress out of the back that looked exactly like the one that I had seen on the woman in my classroom. I went and looked at some hair tutorials and did my hair exactly like that, that era. And I remember when my students walked in the door, my back was facing them. When they came in the room, they kind of freaked out because they said it looked so realistic. I worried around all day, and then I started to get kind of creeped out about wearing it because it smells a 100 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It smells like history. I think I might have worn it twice, two different years in a row. I have not worn it for a few years, but I will keep it forever. When I retire from teaching, I should probably leave the dress in the room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Glynn Washington: \u003c/b>Thank you, Kristin, for sharing your story with Spooked but you should know that Kristin is a Spooked listener, she reached out to tell us her story and we want you to do the same thing if you have a truly terrifying tale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Be sure to drop us a line at spooked@snapjudgement.org. The original score for that story was by Richard Haig. Was produced by Zoë Ferrigno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b> That was an episode of Spooked, hosted by Glynn Washington. If you love what you just heard, be sure to subscribe to Spooked wherever you listen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can also come out to Spooked Live, Presented by Snap Judgement and KQED Live. It’s a night of true-life supernatural stories from people who can scarcely believe they lived them. And it all comes to life on stage at the Fox Theatre in Oakland on, of course, Friday the 13th. More details and tickets at KQED.org/live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another event coming up, this one by Bay Curious. We’re doing a theatrical walking tour of the AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park. Learn about the history of this amazing space from the people who helped create it. Plus live music, dance and The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Space is limited. Learn more at KQED.org/live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is made by Amanda Font, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldana, Maha Sanad and Holly Kernan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a great week.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">Read a transcript of this episode.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting next week, we’ve got a whole month of stories about creepy, eerie and potentially haunted places in the Bay Area planned for you, as part of a series we’re calling BOO Curious! To get you in the mood for spooky season, we thought we’d share a ghost story from our friends over at the \u003ca href=\"https://snapjudgment.org/spooked/\">Spooked\u003c/a> podcast, from Snap Judgment Studios and KQED. \u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n What do you wonder about the Bay Area, its culture or people that you want KQED to investigate?\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Ask Bay Curious.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The show is hosted by Glynn Washington, and if you’re one of those people who really enjoys feeling the goosebumps then Spooked has got you covered with year-round chills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kristen Cortez is a new teacher in beautiful Los Gatos, California. From her classroom window, she can see rolling, golden hills. Redwood trees. The sun is almost always shining. And yet … something lurks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>Have you been to the grocery store in the last week or two? There are pumpkins out front as you walk in. Brown jugs of apple cider are hanging out in the produce aisle, pretending to be nutritious. And it seems like at the end of every aisle is a display of pumpkin spice something or another. Happy Pumpkin Spice season to those of you who celebrate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For us here at Bay Curious, the change of the seasons means it’s time to start preparing for our annual Halloween episode. And this year, we just had too many ideas. We couldn’t decide what to do. So we did them all! We’re taking over the entire month of October for a series we’re calling … Wait for it … Boo Curious. It will be an eerie tour of the San Francisco Bay Area, made with love by your friends at Bay Curious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get you in that spooky season spirit, today we’re going to share an episode from the Spooked podcast. If you like scary stories — the kind you might hear around a campfire — Spooked will be a year-round delight for your listening pleasure. The episode we’ll hear today, takes place right here in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Today, Bay Curious presents: Spooked. We’ll be right back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003c/b>If you want to lean into this listening experience. Turn off the lights. And turn up the sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kristin Cortez:\u003c/b> I had just got my first teaching job as an 11th grade English teacher, and I was really excited about it. The building was a two story old fashioned building with rolling green lawns in the front. I was put in a room in the main building which overlooked the front lawn, and it was in a room upstairs that you could see from the street. I also was going to graduate school in the evenings so I would stay late and work until after dark and then I would leave to go to my night class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I was working in my classroom in the evenings, sometimes I would be overwhelmed with a feeling of melancholy and sadness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I started getting the sensation that somebody was watching me. The little hairs on the back of my neck would stand up like sort of a feeling of static.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I would feel like I could see something out of the periphery of my vision, like a shadow, like a smoky shadow. And then whenever I looked, there would be nothing there. But I kept having this sense that someone was standing there hovering over me at my desk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would give me this feeling of wanting to leave the room as fast as possible. But I would often convince myself that I must be delusional or I must be tired. It was under a lot of stress as a new teacher, then, I definitely wasn’t getting enough sleep. So when I began to notice strange things happening in the classroom, I tended to discount what was going on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I would go into the classroom early in the morning and I started to notice things that were out of place. In particular, the chalk from the chalkboard tray, this is back when we had blackboards that covered the wall, the chalk would be removed and in a pile in the middle of the room and sometimes look like somebody had stepped on them and crushed them. The chalkboard erasers would be in different places than where I had left them in the chalkboard tray.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a new teacher, kids play pranks on you. And I just assumed that maybe I hadn’t noticed the night before that kids had messed with my classroom. One morning, I walked in and again the chalk was on the floor in the middle of the room, there was a message written on the board. It was in the lower right corner and it was somewhat small in kind of a cryptic old fashioned handwriting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Was the word help written in chalk? Even though I was sure I had raised it the night before, I convinced myself that maybe I hadn’t noticed it the night before and maybe the kids had done it, but it didn’t look like a typical student’s handwriting. It was cursive, like old fashioned cursive. I couldn’t think of any student who had that kind of handwriting. I had a rowdy seventh period class, they were notorious for blurting out and asking questions and try to side rail, whatever it was that I was talking about, they used to call me by my last name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day, one of them said, “Hey Sandoval, what were you doing here last night, like, so late?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I said, What are you talking about?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the student said, “I was walking my dog by the school right out on Main Street. And I looked up and I saw that you were still in your classroom. What were you doing?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I said, well, I was working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then the student said, “Well, if you’re working, why were you standing at the window and staring out?” I said, I don’t remember standing at the window and looking out. They said that they couldn’t see my face or my facial expressions, but they tried to wave to me to get my attention. But I was just standing there. Stock still, staring out the window. Again, I discounted it, I didn’t think too much of it, but then one night I had night class and I didn’t have time to pick up dinner and my husband had offered to swing by the high school to drop off food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We picked a time for him to meet me down in this court. That was right next to the corner of the front of the school. And from that court, you could see the window of my classroom. I went downstairs and I went up to the side of his car on the driver’s side, and his back was turned to me because he was looking up at the building where my classroom was. And so I knocked on the window. And when he turned to look at me, he jumped and he looked so startled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So he rolled down the window and he said, I could have sworn I just saw you in the window looking down. And I was wondering why you weren’t coming down to meet me and why you were standing there staring at me in the window. And we both looked back up together and there was nothing there. At that point, I was getting scared to be in the classroom, that very oppressive feeling, the classroom started to grow heavier and heavier with time, I began to sense that somebody was in the room with me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that must be the figure that other people have seen standing in the window. I was really nervous about asking around or reporting the feelings that I had because it was a new teacher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I wasn’t sure, you know, if people would think I was crazy and I just — I didn’t want to destroy people’s confidence in me. It was working on a Friday night, it was mid-October. I realized that it was Friday the 13th. I was working very late grading papers and trying to get my work done. I noticed the scent of smoke like a campfire, and at that moment I started to hear whispers. It sounded like they were coming from the vents up above in the ceiling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I heard the whisper get louder and it started to build up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then all of a sudden I heard get. I could feel my whole body just clam up with tension, I could feel my heart thudding, I felt a combination of both dread and absolute terror and the feeling of urgency that I needed to just drop everything that I was doing and get out of that room. Nothing was as important as getting out of that room. I left without taking the papers home with me. They were scattered and spread out on my desk and I wasn’t about to take the time to gather them up and get them organized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I just left the room. I decided at that point I wasn’t going to stay and work in my classroom late anymore and I wasn’t going to get there early. I was just going to figure out ways to get my work done, go home in between, or go to a coffee shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was an older teacher who had been there for decades, she had been there so long that she had taught some of the teachers that I was teaching with. So I asked her, has there ever been a fire in the school? I didn’t have the courage to tell her why I was asking. I just told her it smelled like something burning in my room. And she said, oh, well, there was a fire that devastated the entire town way back when.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it was so big that it burned pretty much everything on Main Street where the high school is located. When I looked up the fire that the senior teacher had told me about, I learned that the fire had occurred on October 13th. This building wasn’t even here when it happened, even though the fire had never touched the walls of this building. I started to wonder if maybe there was something, some residue of some kind of tragedy or something that was left over from that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So the school year went by in the spring, we had our annual Sadie Hawkins dance, the dances where the girls asked the boys to the dance. I, of course, was assigned to chaperone and it involved me staying late until after the dance shut down at like midnight. I realized after I’d finished chaperoning the dance that I needed to go back to my room to grab my things. You know, most of the teachers, as soon as the administrators release us from our chaperone duties, everybody makes themselves scarce and they take off as fast as they can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So I couldn’t find anybody to go back up there with me. When I went back into the building, it was dark. The only light was the green and red exit signs near each of the main double doors. It felt as if once I entered that building, I was sort of cut off from the rest of the world and cut off from other human contact. I was scared. I was really nervous. And if I didn’t have to get my purse, I would not go back into that building or into my room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I opened up my classroom door. It was dark in the room and the only light that was coming in was from the front windows which faced the street. I looked to the right of the door and in front of the blackboard there was a woman. She was standing with her face, almost touching the blackboard, and all I could see was her back. Her hair was pulled up in an old fashioned kind of hairdo and she had a high color, dark dress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was kind of like a charcoal gray color and it looked like an old period dress. I could not see her shoes because the bottom half was faded out, almost as if her feet had disappeared. At that moment when I saw her, I felt a shot of cold going through the core of me, I knew it was whoever I had felt in that room. I was trying to talk myself into believing that it was somebody who had gotten into the room and not what I thought it was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so very tentatively, I said, excuse me, you’re not supposed to be in my room. You need to leave now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there was this weird, awkward pause and the woman didn’t move at first. And then all of a sudden she started to turn her head. And I saw the side of her face looked like her face was burnt. She looked at me out of the corner of her eyes when they locked with mine. It was a strange and overwhelming feeling of recognition, as if I knew her and she knew me. I was just filled with that sense of dread, mixed with terror, mixed with sorrow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a horrible feeling. I just turned and I left as fast as I could. I started calling to see if anybody was in the building. Is anybody here? Is anybody still here? Help me help. I needed to be with another human being and I did not want to be alone. I found the janitor locking up the theater in the main building downstairs. I said, I think there’s somebody in my room. Can you come with me?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we went back in the room, there was nothing there. I was shaking all over. I grabbed my purse and my keys and whatever papers I was going to great over the weekend and I bolted from the room. I had trouble getting my work done that weekend. I had trouble sleeping, I couldn’t stop thinking about that, that vision, that face — the side of her face, the way she looked at me out of the corner of her eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I really tried hard not to go or stay in my classroom after the bell rang, I didn’t go there in the early morning anymore. I just avoided being in the room as much as possible. Years went by, and I never told that story to anybody until 12 or 13 years later. A lot of things that happened between those years, there wasn’t a new teacher anymore. I had had babies. I had gone through life. It was just a much better, happier time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I felt safe enough and confident enough to start researching, I went to the library and I went through all the historical photo files of Los Gatos and read some of the stories about the fire that destroyed all of the buildings that were on Main Street. I looked at lots and lots of old photos. I searched and searched for a face that might have matched the one that I saw. I became kind of obsessed for a while. I found this old photo of a teacher at an old desk with a blackboard behind her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And to the left of the desk was a window that looked very much like the windows of my classroom. I felt like that picture wanted me to find it. The woman looked just like the woman that I saw. I think that woman who I saw was an old school marm, old in the sense that she had been a school teacher maybe a century prior. I feel like she might have died in that location by fire. When I think of a schoolmarm, I think of a woman whose entire life is devoted to teaching children. Maybe she had spent too long working too long, late at night at school. And maybe that’s why, you know, if there had been a fire in that location and took her life, maybe it was because she was there when she wasn’t teaching. Maybe she had spent extra hours there and had subjected herself to something that could have been avoided if she had been working only the hours that she should be working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During my first year of teaching, I was easily working 16 hour days. I didn’t have any free time. I didn’t even see my new husband very much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I felt very alone. Maybe whatever was there was commiserating with me, it was less of like scaring me out, more of protecting me. I thought maybe there was a warning in there that I shouldn’t be working that much or that late in the building. But maybe that’s why she had decided to show herself to me. And, you know, I think that later on in life, maybe one of the reasons why I didn’t get the same feeling in that room was because I had learned more of a work life balance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I used to have students always ask me for stories about the school, and eventually I decided to tell that story of the presence in the room that I had come face to face with. By about the third year of telling this story, I started thinking about the woman and how she looked, and what was odd is that she looked like me, a little bit. She was about the same size, very similar stature. Her coloring was very similar. She had dark hair, dark eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I started thinking it would be fun to dress up as her and show my students what she looked like. So I went down to the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco and went to my favorite vintage clothing store, where they have clothes from every single era. I described to the owner what I was looking for. And of course, I didn’t want to tell her. This was the dress that I thought I saw on a ghost, but I described exactly what it was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And she pulled out a dress out of the back that looked exactly like the one that I had seen on the woman in my classroom. I went and looked at some hair tutorials and did my hair exactly like that, that era. And I remember when my students walked in the door, my back was facing them. When they came in the room, they kind of freaked out because they said it looked so realistic. I worried around all day, and then I started to get kind of creeped out about wearing it because it smells a 100 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It smells like history. I think I might have worn it twice, two different years in a row. I have not worn it for a few years, but I will keep it forever. When I retire from teaching, I should probably leave the dress in the room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Glynn Washington: \u003c/b>Thank you, Kristin, for sharing your story with Spooked but you should know that Kristin is a Spooked listener, she reached out to tell us her story and we want you to do the same thing if you have a truly terrifying tale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Be sure to drop us a line at spooked@snapjudgement.org. The original score for that story was by Richard Haig. Was produced by Zoë Ferrigno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b> That was an episode of Spooked, hosted by Glynn Washington. If you love what you just heard, be sure to subscribe to Spooked wherever you listen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can also come out to Spooked Live, Presented by Snap Judgement and KQED Live. It’s a night of true-life supernatural stories from people who can scarcely believe they lived them. And it all comes to life on stage at the Fox Theatre in Oakland on, of course, Friday the 13th. More details and tickets at KQED.org/live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another event coming up, this one by Bay Curious. We’re doing a theatrical walking tour of the AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park. Learn about the history of this amazing space from the people who helped create it. Plus live music, dance and The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Space is limited. Learn more at KQED.org/live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is made by Amanda Font, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldana, Maha Sanad and Holly Kernan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a great week.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Monica Gandhi: COVID-19 Update\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Should kids go trick-or-treating this Halloween? And should children aged 5 to 11 be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine, now that it’s been approved for that age group? UCSF Dr. Monica Gandhi weighs in on the latest public health guidance — and why she’s received death threats from publicly posting her views on social media.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guest:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Monica Gandhi, UCSF infectious disease\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>This Week in California Politics\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s been a week for accountability hearings. In Sacramento, the state’s unemployment agency, the Employment Development Department, faced questions over how poorly they handled the flood of unemployment claims triggered by the pandemic. And on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., California lawmakers led a Congressional hearing to investigate the role of oil companies in spreading disinformation about climate change. We also chat through the latest in local politics, including San Francisco’s proposal to create a sick leave program for domestic workers like nannies and housecleaners.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guests:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guy Marzorati, KQED politics and government reporter\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times political writer\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Something Beautiful: Pronzini Pumpkin Patch\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For this week’s look at Something Beautiful, we indulge in fall festivities at Pronzini’s Pumpkin Patch in Petaluma.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/stowe02.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11894013\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/stowe02.png\" alt='Cartoon: a ghostly image of a Victorian-era woman floating above a dark, spooky lake. Text reads, \"The Lady of Stow Lake, is she out there?\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/stowe02.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/stowe02-800x800.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/stowe02-1020x1020.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/stowe02-160x160.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/stowe02-1536x1536.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the day, Stow Lake is usually dotted with tourists and local families enjoying the beauty of Golden Gate Park as they float on \u003ca href=\"https://stowlakeboathouse.com/\">rented rowboats and pedal boats\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But tales of nighttime visits to the lake depict a markedly different ambience: \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/san-francisco-ghost-stories-white-lady-stow-lake-12247189.php\">For over 100 years people have recounted a range of very spooky happenings\u003c/a> near the lake’s watery depths (OK, it’s not that deep).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While accounts differ, \u003ca href=\"https://goldengatepark.com/stow-lake-ghost.html\">the general story of the Lady of Stow Lake\u003c/a> (the apparition is also called the “White Lady of Stow Lake”), is that long ago, a woman was visiting the lake while pushing her baby in a stroller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The woman turned away to chat with someone, then turned back to find that the stroller and baby had disappeared, presumably into the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some people say if you visit the area at night, you might see a woman — glowing in a white dress — variously lurking around the lake or levitating above the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People have also reported unexplained car trouble and other odd phenomenon near the lake at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sounds like it’s time for a Halloween visit to the lake … or the car mechanic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>If you want to explore more haunted sites in the Bay Area, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11893685/ghost-stories-and-macabre-tales-to-binge-this-halloween\">check out what Bay Curious has to offer\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/stowe02.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11894013\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/stowe02.png\" alt='Cartoon: a ghostly image of a Victorian-era woman floating above a dark, spooky lake. Text reads, \"The Lady of Stow Lake, is she out there?\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/stowe02.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/stowe02-800x800.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/stowe02-1020x1020.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/stowe02-160x160.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/stowe02-1536x1536.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the day, Stow Lake is usually dotted with tourists and local families enjoying the beauty of Golden Gate Park as they float on \u003ca href=\"https://stowlakeboathouse.com/\">rented rowboats and pedal boats\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But tales of nighttime visits to the lake depict a markedly different ambience: \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/san-francisco-ghost-stories-white-lady-stow-lake-12247189.php\">For over 100 years people have recounted a range of very spooky happenings\u003c/a> near the lake’s watery depths (OK, it’s not that deep).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While accounts differ, \u003ca href=\"https://goldengatepark.com/stow-lake-ghost.html\">the general story of the Lady of Stow Lake\u003c/a> (the apparition is also called the “White Lady of Stow Lake”), is that long ago, a woman was visiting the lake while pushing her baby in a stroller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The woman turned away to chat with someone, then turned back to find that the stroller and baby had disappeared, presumably into the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some people say if you visit the area at night, you might see a woman — glowing in a white dress — variously lurking around the lake or levitating above the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People have also reported unexplained car trouble and other odd phenomenon near the lake at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sounds like it’s time for a Halloween visit to the lake … or the car mechanic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>If you want to explore more haunted sites in the Bay Area, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11893685/ghost-stories-and-macabre-tales-to-binge-this-halloween\">check out what Bay Curious has to offer\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Today, Bay Curious is releasing a special Halloween episode — and it delves deep into a few of the Bay Area’s local legends and supernatural stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can listen to our Bay Area Ghost Stories episode by hitting the play button above, or wherever you get your podcasts. The episode features stories from Wes Leslie of \u003ca href=\"https://thehauntghosttours.com/\">The Haunt Ghost Tours\u003c/a>, Tommy Netzband of the \u003ca href=\"https://hauntedhaight.com/\">Haunted Haight Walking Tour\u003c/a> and Bay Area storyteller \u003ca href=\"https://jpfrary.com/\">JP Frary\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this audio special has got you in the mood for more macabre tales, read on for our seven suggestions on how to get into the Halloween spirit this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Livestream our Chilling Histories of California storytelling night\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11893728\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/https___cdn.evbuc_.com_images_165895179_367916542203_1_original.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/https___cdn.evbuc_.com_images_165895179_367916542203_1_original.jpg 1000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/https___cdn.evbuc_.com_images_165895179_367916542203_1_original-800x400.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/https___cdn.evbuc_.com_images_165895179_367916542203_1_original-160x80.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, October 28, KQED is holding \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/events/167829457425\">a live storytelling night of haunting and curious California tales\u003c/a>, with a lineup that includes Glynn Washington (Spooked, Snap Judgment), Ying Liu (The Haunted Bay) and the San Francisco Chronicle’s Kevin Fagan, as well as several KQED storytellers. Bay Curious’s Olivia Allen-Price will also be making an appearance. (Proof of vaccination and masking will be requested from all attendees.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you can’t make the event in person, or aren’t ready to attend an event like this right now during the pandemic, you can \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/events/167829457425\">livestream the night for free\u003c/a>. Just make sure to turn your lights down \u003cem>low\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/events/167829457425\">Get tickets or a livestream link for Chilling Histories of California.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>Test your trivia knowledge of the Bay Area’s haunted history\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11893767\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1020px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11893767\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/eric-carlson-xVvj8yvkWvo-unsplash_hauntedquiz-1020x574-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1020\" height=\"574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/eric-carlson-xVvj8yvkWvo-unsplash_hauntedquiz-1020x574-1.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/eric-carlson-xVvj8yvkWvo-unsplash_hauntedquiz-1020x574-1-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/eric-carlson-xVvj8yvkWvo-unsplash_hauntedquiz-1020x574-1-160x90.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fog hovers over the Golden Gate Bridge at twilight. \u003ccite>(Eric Carlson/Unsplash)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From the San Francisco mansion that inspired horror writer Shirley Jackson to the secret buried under the Legion of Honor, the Bay Area has no shortage of macabre legends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Test your knowledge of the darker side of local history with this trivia set compiled by our friends at KQED Arts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13888121/quiz-how-well-do-you-know-the-bay-areas-haunted-history\">Try the Bay Area Haunted History quiz for yourself.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>Learn why your mind plays tricks on you deep in the Santa Cruz redwoods\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889342\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11889342\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Mystery-Spot-Entrance-Sign.jpg\" alt='A large yellow-and-black sign reads \"Welcome to Mystery Spot, Santa Cruz, California U.S.A.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1441\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Mystery-Spot-Entrance-Sign.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Mystery-Spot-Entrance-Sign-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Mystery-Spot-Entrance-Sign-1020x766.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Mystery-Spot-Entrance-Sign-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Mystery-Spot-Entrance-Sign-1536x1153.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The iconic yellow-and-black sign welcomes visitors to the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz, California. \u003ccite>(Amanda Font/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nestled under the trees in the Santa Cruz Mountains lies one of the greater Bay Area’s most beloved attractions: the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot. And if you haven’t visited yet, you’ve almost certainly seen those ubiquitous bumper stickers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this place, your eyes and brain will play tricks on you, and make games of your powers of perception. But why does this happen? We dived into (some of) the possible answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://tools.applemediaservices.com/podcast-episode/1000539271730?country=us\">Listen to the episode\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11889331/whats-behind-one-of-californias-most-ubiquitous-bumper-stickers\">read more about the Mystery Spot.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>From rumrunning to ghosts and speakeasies, uncover the many lives of Pacifica’s castle\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889778\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11889778\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pacifica-castle-azzaro.jpg\" alt=\"A blue sky and ocean behind a castle like building.\" width=\"800\" height=\"537\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pacifica-castle-azzaro.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pacifica-castle-azzaro-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Sam Mazza Castle sits high on a hill in Pacifica’s Sharp Pointe neighborhood. It has been here since 1908 and has had many lives. \u003ccite>(Robert Azzaro/Courtesy Sam Mazza Foundation)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ever driven Highway 1 through the city of Pacifica and wondered what that great stone castle is? You’re not alone: Many Bay Curious listeners wanted to know, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the tale of how that castle first came to have a reputation, how foggy Pacifica became a smuggler’s paradise, and why the castle’s historian is convinced these stones are haunted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11889508/rumrunning-ghosts-and-speakeasies-the-many-lives-of-pacificas-castle\">Hear or read about the mysterious castle of Pacifica.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>Uncover the famous dead of Colma\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10795849\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 5760px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10795849\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5760\" height=\"3840\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321.jpg 5760w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321-1440x960.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321-960x640.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 5760px) 100vw, 5760px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In many parts of Colma, neat rows of gravestones are visible as far as the eye can see. \u003ccite>(Olivia Allen-Price/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the early 1920s the land in the city of Colma, just south of San Francisco, was set aside specifically for cemeteries. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10779164/why-are-so-many-dead-people-in-colma-and-so-few-in-san-francisco\">Over 100,000 bodies were exhumed and moved there\u003c/a> after SF evicted their dead to make room for more housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But who, exactly, is buried in Colma? It turns out there are more household names there than you might first think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11891074/some-of-the-most-famous-people-buried-in-colma-with-map\">\u003cstrong>Read about the graves of Colma, and see the map.\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>Descend into the dark tunnels below San Francisco\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11782625\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11782625\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39796_Tunnel_02-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39796_Tunnel_02-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39796_Tunnel_02-qut-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39796_Tunnel_02-qut-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39796_Tunnel_02-qut-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39796_Tunnel_02-qut-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Megan Abadie in the San Francisco sewers. \u003ccite>(Sruti Mamidanna/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The myth of the underground — a silent world hidden under our feet — continues to fascinate people, not least because there are very real labyrinths under major world cities — like the infamous catacombs of Paris, lined with the bones of the city’s dead, or the terrifying catacombs under Odessa, in Ukraine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listeners told us they’d heard stories of secret passageways running under San Francisco, so we investigated — and what we found led us into the darkest stretches of the subterranean sewer network. Come with us if you dare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11782405/tunnels-under-san-francisco-inside-the-dark-dangerous-world-of-the-sewers\">See the story of the sewers with underground photos\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=726sQLKGAjk\">watch the video.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>Discover a ‘haunted’ lighthouse on the Big Sur coast\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11701904\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11701904\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse.jpg\" alt=\"The Point Sur Lighthouse has been operating since 1889. It's one of California's oldest and most remote light stations.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Point Sur Lighthouse has been operating since 1889. It’s one of California’s oldest and most remote light stations. \u003ccite>(Sasha Khokha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Perched on the rocky coastline between Carmel and Big Sur, Point Sur Lighthouse has been guiding ships into the Pacific Coast since 1889. But the treacherous landscape and rough weather have meant the lighthouse also has seen many shipwrecks — and up to 11 ships have been lost near its coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People claim the lighthouse is haunted by the ghosts of people who died in those shipwrecks, as well as the ghosts of the former lighthouse keepers who lived and worked on the isolated station. KQED’s California Report Magazine went to investigate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11701114/a-lighthouse-so-beautiful-ghosts-come-back-to-haunt-it\">Read or hear about the place that’s been called “one of the most haunted lighthouses in the United States.”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Get into the spirit of Halloween this week with our supernatural-themed story recommendations.",
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"title": "Ghost Stories and Macabre Tales to Binge This Halloween | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Today, Bay Curious is releasing a special Halloween episode — and it delves deep into a few of the Bay Area’s local legends and supernatural stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can listen to our Bay Area Ghost Stories episode by hitting the play button above, or wherever you get your podcasts. The episode features stories from Wes Leslie of \u003ca href=\"https://thehauntghosttours.com/\">The Haunt Ghost Tours\u003c/a>, Tommy Netzband of the \u003ca href=\"https://hauntedhaight.com/\">Haunted Haight Walking Tour\u003c/a> and Bay Area storyteller \u003ca href=\"https://jpfrary.com/\">JP Frary\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this audio special has got you in the mood for more macabre tales, read on for our seven suggestions on how to get into the Halloween spirit this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Livestream our Chilling Histories of California storytelling night\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11893728\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/https___cdn.evbuc_.com_images_165895179_367916542203_1_original.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/https___cdn.evbuc_.com_images_165895179_367916542203_1_original.jpg 1000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/https___cdn.evbuc_.com_images_165895179_367916542203_1_original-800x400.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/https___cdn.evbuc_.com_images_165895179_367916542203_1_original-160x80.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, October 28, KQED is holding \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/events/167829457425\">a live storytelling night of haunting and curious California tales\u003c/a>, with a lineup that includes Glynn Washington (Spooked, Snap Judgment), Ying Liu (The Haunted Bay) and the San Francisco Chronicle’s Kevin Fagan, as well as several KQED storytellers. Bay Curious’s Olivia Allen-Price will also be making an appearance. (Proof of vaccination and masking will be requested from all attendees.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you can’t make the event in person, or aren’t ready to attend an event like this right now during the pandemic, you can \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/events/167829457425\">livestream the night for free\u003c/a>. Just make sure to turn your lights down \u003cem>low\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/events/167829457425\">Get tickets or a livestream link for Chilling Histories of California.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>Test your trivia knowledge of the Bay Area’s haunted history\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11893767\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1020px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11893767\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/eric-carlson-xVvj8yvkWvo-unsplash_hauntedquiz-1020x574-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1020\" height=\"574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/eric-carlson-xVvj8yvkWvo-unsplash_hauntedquiz-1020x574-1.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/eric-carlson-xVvj8yvkWvo-unsplash_hauntedquiz-1020x574-1-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/eric-carlson-xVvj8yvkWvo-unsplash_hauntedquiz-1020x574-1-160x90.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fog hovers over the Golden Gate Bridge at twilight. \u003ccite>(Eric Carlson/Unsplash)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From the San Francisco mansion that inspired horror writer Shirley Jackson to the secret buried under the Legion of Honor, the Bay Area has no shortage of macabre legends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Test your knowledge of the darker side of local history with this trivia set compiled by our friends at KQED Arts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13888121/quiz-how-well-do-you-know-the-bay-areas-haunted-history\">Try the Bay Area Haunted History quiz for yourself.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>Learn why your mind plays tricks on you deep in the Santa Cruz redwoods\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889342\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11889342\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Mystery-Spot-Entrance-Sign.jpg\" alt='A large yellow-and-black sign reads \"Welcome to Mystery Spot, Santa Cruz, California U.S.A.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1441\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Mystery-Spot-Entrance-Sign.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Mystery-Spot-Entrance-Sign-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Mystery-Spot-Entrance-Sign-1020x766.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Mystery-Spot-Entrance-Sign-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Mystery-Spot-Entrance-Sign-1536x1153.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The iconic yellow-and-black sign welcomes visitors to the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz, California. \u003ccite>(Amanda Font/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nestled under the trees in the Santa Cruz Mountains lies one of the greater Bay Area’s most beloved attractions: the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot. And if you haven’t visited yet, you’ve almost certainly seen those ubiquitous bumper stickers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this place, your eyes and brain will play tricks on you, and make games of your powers of perception. But why does this happen? We dived into (some of) the possible answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://tools.applemediaservices.com/podcast-episode/1000539271730?country=us\">Listen to the episode\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11889331/whats-behind-one-of-californias-most-ubiquitous-bumper-stickers\">read more about the Mystery Spot.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>From rumrunning to ghosts and speakeasies, uncover the many lives of Pacifica’s castle\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889778\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11889778\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pacifica-castle-azzaro.jpg\" alt=\"A blue sky and ocean behind a castle like building.\" width=\"800\" height=\"537\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pacifica-castle-azzaro.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/pacifica-castle-azzaro-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Sam Mazza Castle sits high on a hill in Pacifica’s Sharp Pointe neighborhood. It has been here since 1908 and has had many lives. \u003ccite>(Robert Azzaro/Courtesy Sam Mazza Foundation)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ever driven Highway 1 through the city of Pacifica and wondered what that great stone castle is? You’re not alone: Many Bay Curious listeners wanted to know, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the tale of how that castle first came to have a reputation, how foggy Pacifica became a smuggler’s paradise, and why the castle’s historian is convinced these stones are haunted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11889508/rumrunning-ghosts-and-speakeasies-the-many-lives-of-pacificas-castle\">Hear or read about the mysterious castle of Pacifica.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>Uncover the famous dead of Colma\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10795849\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 5760px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10795849\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5760\" height=\"3840\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321.jpg 5760w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321-1440x960.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/12/V0A9321-960x640.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 5760px) 100vw, 5760px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In many parts of Colma, neat rows of gravestones are visible as far as the eye can see. \u003ccite>(Olivia Allen-Price/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the early 1920s the land in the city of Colma, just south of San Francisco, was set aside specifically for cemeteries. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10779164/why-are-so-many-dead-people-in-colma-and-so-few-in-san-francisco\">Over 100,000 bodies were exhumed and moved there\u003c/a> after SF evicted their dead to make room for more housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But who, exactly, is buried in Colma? It turns out there are more household names there than you might first think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11891074/some-of-the-most-famous-people-buried-in-colma-with-map\">\u003cstrong>Read about the graves of Colma, and see the map.\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>Descend into the dark tunnels below San Francisco\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11782625\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11782625\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39796_Tunnel_02-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39796_Tunnel_02-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39796_Tunnel_02-qut-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39796_Tunnel_02-qut-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39796_Tunnel_02-qut-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39796_Tunnel_02-qut-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Megan Abadie in the San Francisco sewers. \u003ccite>(Sruti Mamidanna/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The myth of the underground — a silent world hidden under our feet — continues to fascinate people, not least because there are very real labyrinths under major world cities — like the infamous catacombs of Paris, lined with the bones of the city’s dead, or the terrifying catacombs under Odessa, in Ukraine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listeners told us they’d heard stories of secret passageways running under San Francisco, so we investigated — and what we found led us into the darkest stretches of the subterranean sewer network. Come with us if you dare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11782405/tunnels-under-san-francisco-inside-the-dark-dangerous-world-of-the-sewers\">See the story of the sewers with underground photos\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=726sQLKGAjk\">watch the video.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>Discover a ‘haunted’ lighthouse on the Big Sur coast\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11701904\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11701904\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse.jpg\" alt=\"The Point Sur Lighthouse has been operating since 1889. It's one of California's oldest and most remote light stations.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/Lighthouse-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Point Sur Lighthouse has been operating since 1889. It’s one of California’s oldest and most remote light stations. \u003ccite>(Sasha Khokha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Perched on the rocky coastline between Carmel and Big Sur, Point Sur Lighthouse has been guiding ships into the Pacific Coast since 1889. But the treacherous landscape and rough weather have meant the lighthouse also has seen many shipwrecks — and up to 11 ships have been lost near its coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People claim the lighthouse is haunted by the ghosts of people who died in those shipwrecks, as well as the ghosts of the former lighthouse keepers who lived and worked on the isolated station. KQED’s California Report Magazine went to investigate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11701114/a-lighthouse-so-beautiful-ghosts-come-back-to-haunt-it\">Read or hear about the place that’s been called “one of the most haunted lighthouses in the United States.”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Halloween 2020: 6 ideas para celebrar con distanciamiento, pero con diversión también",
"title": "Halloween 2020: 6 ideas para celebrar con distanciamiento, pero con diversión también",
"headTitle": "KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11843120/halloween-2020-ideas-covid\">\u003cem>Read in English\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desde fines del 2019, ya había gente emocionada por el hecho que Halloween, o la noche de brujas, en 2020 sería en un sábado:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"es\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">2020 is about to be lit:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valentine’s Day is on a Friday\u003cbr>\n4th of July is on a Saturday\u003cbr>\nHalloween is on a Saturday\u003cbr>\nThanksgiving is on a Thursday\u003cbr>\nChristmas is on a Friday\u003cbr>\nNew Year’s Day is a Friday \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/1QKqr1Yrus\">pic.twitter.com/1QKqr1Yrus\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Kamala Anderson (@caliboycomplex) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/caliboycomplex/status/1202316814857846784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">4 de diciembre de 2019\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tuit de un usuario que dice: \"La vamos a pasar bien divertido en el 2020. El día de San Valentín cae en un viernes. El 4 de julio será un sábado. Halloween será un sábado. El día de acción de gracias será un jueves. La navidad será un viernes. El día de año nuevo será un viernes\".\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>…y es justo decir que incluso cuando comenzó la pandemia de covid-19 e iniciaron las órdenes de quedarse en casa por todo el Área de la Bahía, muchos de nosotros nunca nos imaginamos que las normas de distanciamiento social seguirían vigentes hasta Halloween.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero aquí estamos, a finales de octubre del 2020, y la pandemia ni se acerca a su fin. No es extraño que este Halloween representa para muchos todo lo que nos ha negado el 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Avanza a:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#truco\">Consejos para pedir o dar dulces de una manera segura\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tubo\">Cómo hacer un conducto de dulces de larga distancia\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#terror\">Los beneficios de las películas de terror para el cuerpo y la mente\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Por su parte, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/coronavirusliveupdates\">la guía del estado para poder celebrar Halloween\u003c/a> durante la pandemia se enfoca más en lo que no se puede hacer que en lo que sí se permite. Por ejemplo, se le pide a los californianos que no pidan o den dulces.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"La costumbre de ir de puerta a puerta en grupos, tocando las puertas y colocando las manos de uno dentro de cubetas llenas de golosinas deliciosas…provocan un mayor riesgo de que se propague el covid-19\", afirmó el Secretario de salud y recursos humanos de California, el Dr. Mark Ghaly a principios de este mes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844242\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11844242\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Toni-Cuenca-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Toni-Cuenca-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Toni-Cuenca-from-Pexels-1-1020x680.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Toni-Cuenca-from-Pexels-1-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Toni-Cuenca-from-Pexels-1-1536x1024.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Toni-Cuenca-from-Pexels-1.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Muchas tradiciones de Halloween ya no se permitirán en el 2020 debido a la pandemia del coronavirus. \u003ccite>(Toni Cuenca/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Las grandes fiestas de la noche de brujas también ya no serán posibles, ya que estos son focos de transmisión del virus. Si un pequeño convivio se lleva a cabo fuera del grupo íntimo de personas que viven dentro del mismo hogar, entonces deberá de ocurrir al exterior y mantener una sana distancia, lo cual pone un límite de dos horas y que no incluya más de tres hogares, dice Ghaly.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cabe mencionar que octubre y noviembre marcan el inicio de otras celebraciones que se basan en reuniones, como el día de los muertos, Diwali, y el día de acción de gracias. Precisamente por eso es tan importante que mantenga puesto su cubrebocas y el distanciamiento social cuando esté conviviendo con personas que vivan fuera de su hogar.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Básicamente, los funcionarios de salud pública insisten que la mejor manera para celebrar Halloween es quedarse en casa o de manera virtual. Pero a la alegría que provoca el reunirse para esta festividad, ¿cómo puede celebrar uno a distancia o desde casa?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Que bien que preguntó. Tenemos seis ideas para prevenir que Halloween este año sea pésimo.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"truco\">\u003c/a>Cómo funcionarios de salud sugieren que usted pida o de dulces a una distancia segura\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>La pandemia del covid-19 no quiere decir que todas las maneras de pedir o dar dulces ya no están disponibles este año. Tomando en cuenta que algunos padres todavía saldrán con sus hijos a pedir dulces, los funcionarios de salud del Área de la Bahía\u003ca href=\"https://covid-19.acgov.org/covid19-assets/docs/press/joint-statement-2020.09.28.pdf\"> consideran como de \"riesgo moderado\"\u003c/a> pedir dulces siempre y cuando \"las familias recojan los dulces en bolsas preparadas que estén afuera de cada casa\", pero también que estas familias mantengan el distanciamiento social y permanezcan \"a un lado de la entrada de coches o al otro lado del patio\".\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Las autoridades de salubridad del Área de la Bahía también recomiendan que quienes salgan a pedir dulces hagan lo siguiente:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Traigan con sí mismo desinfectante de manos y que lo usen de manera frecuente. También que se laven las manos inmediatamente luego de llegar a casa, especialmente si tocaron bolsas de dulces.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Mantenga su distancia de otras personas que están pidiendo dulces y siempre lleve puesto su cubrebocas.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>No coma los dulces mientras sigue afuera, porque esto requiere que se quite el cubrebocas y toque la envoltura de los dulces.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Recuerde, según las pautas de salud, cualquier forma de pedir o dar dulces todavía conlleva ciertos riesgos durante la pandemia. Precisamente por eso, ir con los niños a pasear por el vecindario con sus disfraces para ver las decoraciones que cada casa tiene para la noche de brujas y también disfrutar el aire fresco del otoño, pero nunca pedir dulces, podría ser la manera más segura para que la familia disfrute el Halloween.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ya que el día de los muertos ocurre tan solo unos días después del Halloween, las normas de salud \u003ca href=\"https://covid-19.acgov.org/covid19-assets/docs/press/joint-statement-2020.09.28.pdf\">también incluyen sugerencias sobre cómo celebrar\u003c/a> con la familia sin correr riesgos. Autoridades de salud invitan a quienes celebran esta ocasión a que se queden en casa. Si planea intercambiar recuerdos, música, o recetas familiares o va preparar una ofrenda para quienes se han adelantado, hágalo dentro de su hogar con su núcleo familiar.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"tubo\">\u003c/a>Construya un mecanismo para entregar dulces a larga distancia\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>¿Qué pasa si está en casa en la noche de Halloween y tocan su puerta para pedirle dulces pero no quiere negarles unos caramelos? Pues quizás tendrá que ingeniárselas con un método para entregar dulces por larga distancia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phoenix Artifex es un educador del Área de la Bahía que dirige un programa llamado 'Phoenix’s Curiosity Cabinet' (o el gabinete de curiosidades de Phoenix), el cual le enseña a jóvenes ideas científicas a través del diseño y la manufactura. Ahora colaboran de manera virtual con estudiantes para construir un tirachinas para dulces, el cual podrá arrojar golosinas a quien las pida, sin que haya contacto físico entre personas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero dado el hecho que un tirachinas quizás no sea la opción más apropiada o segura para un patio, Artifex recomienda el uso de \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/24/916166310/no-trick-or-treat-americans-get-creative-to-celebrate-halloween-safely\">mecanismos de distribución más sencillos\u003c/a>, como una resbaladilla o un pequeño tobogán de dulces. Una opción es construir una resbaladilla no muy elegante hecha de cajas de cartón, o un conducto hecho de tubos de correo. Luego sólo tiene que ajustar los ángulos para que su \"sistema práctico de distribución de dulces\" esté listo, dice Artifex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844243\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11844243 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-800x1067.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-800x1067.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-1020x1360.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-160x213.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-1152x1536.png 1152w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-1536x2048.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-1122x1496.png 1122w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-840x1120.png 840w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-687x916.png 687w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-414x552.png 414w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-354x472.png 354w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1.png 1900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Un tobogán de dulces hecho para largas distancias, construido por Beau Logo en Daly CIty, \u003ccite>(Kalya Golub)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pero sin importar lo que quiera construir, Artifex recomienda que tome en cuenta la escala del proyecto, la distancia que quiere que abarque su diseño, y el campo de dispersión del proyecto. Por razones de seguridad, tome en cuenta la fuerza en que su diseño podría lanzar los dulces, y también que duras están las bolsas que llevan las golosinas adentro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beau Logo y Kayla Golub, residentes de Daly City, han construido un tobogán de dulces afuera de su casa y compartieron su método con KQED. Escogieron un tubo de PVC (policloruro de vinilo) color negro de 4 pies. Prototipos anteriores estaban compuestos de tubos más pequeños que estaban conectados juntos, pero cuando probaban estos modelos, los caramelos se quedaban atorados en las bisagras que conectaban los conductos. Pero con el tubo de PVC, lograron cubrirlo con cinta de color naranja para provocar un aspecto \"más Halloween\".\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Para completar el diseño en su jardín, Golub y Logo incluyeron un arreglo estilo panteón, inspirado por su película favorita de Halloween, \"Hocus Pocus\", el cual dirige a quienes vengan por dulces al tobogán. También han marcado la acera para demostrar cuánta distancia es seis pies. \"En caso si se forma una fila\", dice Golub. El propósito de todo esto es de una manera continuar regalando dulces y que la gente \"pueda pasar y disfrutar la obra de amor de Logo, en especial durante esta época en que todos nosotros necesitamos sentir un poco de normalidad y conexión a nuestra comunidad\".\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844244\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11844244\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Janelle-1-800x947.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"947\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Janelle-1-800x947.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Janelle-1-1020x1207.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Janelle-1-160x189.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Janelle-1-1298x1536.png 1298w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Janelle-1-1731x2048.png 1731w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Janelle-1.png 1900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">El tobogán de caramelos hecho por Beau Logo, a lado de un arreglo estilo panteón, inspirado por la película \"Hocus Pocus\". \u003ccite>(Janelle Kim)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Si planea quedarse en casa para repartir dulces usando un método de larga distancia, funcionarios de salud del Área de la Bahía recomiendan que:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Se lave las manos con agua y jabón por al menos 20 segundos antes y después de preparar los dulces o bolsas de regalos.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Mantenga la distancia lo más que pueda de quienes vengan a pedir dulces y siempre lleve puesto su tapabocas.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"terror\">\u003c/a>Disfrute la adrenalina de una película de terror\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sentarse para ver una película de terror en la noche de Halloween puede parecer como una recomendación un poco muy obvia. Pero según \u003ca href=\"https://www.margeekerr.com/\">Margee Kerr\u003c/a>, socióloga y autora del libro \"Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear\", (o 'Gritar: Aventuras espeluznantes en la ciencia del miedo') esto podría ser una manera inesperada de acumular algunos beneficios físicos y psicológicos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">¿Por qué? Cuando decide ver una película de terror, lo que incluye dos horas de sustos, gritos y hasta brincar de miedo, ha tomado la decisión de \"suspender cualquier recelo que tenga y entrar a este mundo de fantasías donde te vas a asustar\", dice Kerr.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eso quiere decir que ya no puede darle tanta prioridad a su \"razonamiento analítico\" y la realidad de cada día, razona Kerr. Ya no piensa sobre lo que tiene que ir a comprar al supermercado o las facturas que debe (o la pandemia, o las elecciones) y en lugar, su cuerpo entra en un estado de \"lucha o escape\".\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844245\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11844245\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Andrea-Piacquadio-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Andrea-Piacquadio-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Andrea-Piacquadio-from-Pexels-1-1020x680.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Andrea-Piacquadio-from-Pexels-1-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Andrea-Piacquadio-from-Pexels-1-1536x1024.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Andrea-Piacquadio-from-Pexels-1.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ver películas de terror puede producir ciertos efectos positivos para tu cuerpo, y tu mente también. \u003ccite>(Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">El efecto que esto tiene en su cuerpo es algo bastante fuerte, dice Kerr, ya que provoca que quienes estén viendo la película se sientan extra presentes y enfocados. Además, Kerr afirma que quienes han participado en los estudios que ha hecho de esto reportan \"un estado de ánimo más elevado\" luego de escoger una actividad que active ese estado de lucha o escape, como ver una película de terror.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">El cambio de humor entre estas personas se basa en que ellos sintieron que en verdad enfrentaron sus miedos y lograron aprender algo de ellos mismos. Esta sensación de empoderamiento, control y resistencia, dice Kerr, podría sentirse muy bien ahora, ya que seguimos en una pandemia y se acerca una elección que podría ser bastante tumultuosa. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"Creo que a todos nosotros nos podría beneficiar sentir un poco esa sensación de que 'lo podemos lograr'\".\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>…O cualquier película, en verdad…\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Kerr le recuerda que no hay nada mal si no disfruta algunas películas de terror, como el género de \"horror corporal\" o que tengan mucha sangre. Quizás escoja ver una película de sustos que sea un poco más tranquila pero \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/18538/6-perfect-comedy-horror-movies-to-watch-this-halloween\">con un toque de humor\u003c/a>. Si planea ver una de estas películas con miembros de su familia que son más jóvenes, puede escoger películas que son más amigables a los pequeños, como \"Hocus Pocus\" o \"Coraline\" (or \"El extraño mundo de Jack\", si es que está listo para debatir si es en verdad es una película de Halloween o de Navidad).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>¿Pero qué puedes hacer si no le gustan para nada las películas de terror, a pesar de ser un aficionado del Halloween? No tiene que forzarse a ver una de esas películas, o dejar que alguien más lo presione, dice Kerr. Esto es importante mencionar ya que los beneficios físicos y psicológicos que pueden ocurrir al ver una película de sustos sólo ocurre cuando ha escogido verla por su propia voluntad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844247\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11844247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-August-de-Richelieu-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-August-de-Richelieu-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-August-de-Richelieu-from-Pexels-1-1020x680.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-August-de-Richelieu-from-Pexels-1-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-August-de-Richelieu-from-Pexels-1-1536x1024.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-August-de-Richelieu-from-Pexels-1.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ver películas que provocan emociones intensas puede tener beneficios positivos, y no tienen que ser películas de terror. \u003ccite>(August de Richelieu/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Se trata de ver algo que le proveerá una experiencia compuesta de emociones intensas. Quizás para usted, esto conlleva llorar al final de una película romántica o reír hasta que salgan lagrimas al ver una comedia favorita.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Cuando escogemos hacer algo que nos lleva a un lugar intenso, debemos de también tener en cuenta que esta experiencia debe de centrar nuestros cuerpos para que logramos sentir que estamos en control\", dice ella.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Busque maneras para tener momentos espeluznantes, virtualmente\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hablando de películas de terror, si alguna vez ha visto uno de estos largometrajes en un cine rodeado de desconocidos que también están gritando o riendo de la misma manera que usted, entonces sabe bien qué divertido es esa experiencia colectiva, o de la misma manera hacer esto en casa acompañado de amistades y familiares pero con las luces apagadas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Esta sensación transformativa de poder pertenecer a algo más grande que uno mismo viene de lo que el sociólogo Émile Durkheim llama \"la efervescencia colectiva\". Sin embargo, las restricciones de distanciamiento social que tendremos que observar durante este Halloween resultan que no habrá fiestas para ver películas o reunirse con amistades fuera de su círculo cercano.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Si planea recrear este ambiente a través de Zoom por una celebración virtual, o quizás una fiesta de disfraces por videollamada con amistades, hay que aceptar el hecho que nunca igualará lo que se siente estar juntos en persona, dice Kerr. Pero esto no debe provocar desilusión.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844248\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11844248\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Gabby-K-from-Pexels2-1-800x533.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Gabby-K-from-Pexels2-1-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Gabby-K-from-Pexels2-1-1020x680.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Gabby-K-from-Pexels2-1-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Gabby-K-from-Pexels2-1-1536x1024.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Gabby-K-from-Pexels2-1.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A pesar de que el Halloween ocurre durante la pandemia del covid-19, eso no quiere decir que tengas que pasar esta ocasión solo. \u003ccite>(Gabby K/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sin embargo, reunirse por Internet puede permitir que construya un \"poco de conectividad social\", aconseja. Particularmente si todos los que participan se comprometen a estar completamente presente, para poder preservar un poco de la experiencia compartida. \"Creo que es crítico e importante que usemos cualquier recurso para poder seguir conectados\", dice ella.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Si aún así no puedes pasar tiempo con personas fuera de tu hogar porque no están dentro de tu círculo íntimo, Kerr sugiere que considere visitar a un autocine.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">El \u003ca href=\"https://www.westwinddi.com/locations/solano\">autocine West Wind\u003c/a> del Condado de Solano, por ejemplo, ofrece películas de terror como \"Soy leyenda \", \"Carrie\" e \"IT\" a lo largo del fin de semana de Halloween (además incluyen películas como \"Monsters, Inc.\" para los jóvenes). Es una manera de experimentar esa sensación de un momento compartido, \"donde la atención de todos está en una cosa\", dice Kerr, mientras mantiene el distanciamiento físico desde su carro.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Y por fin, tome el día (o la noche) libre y evita el d\u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>oomscrolling\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Halloween es un momento para disfrutar de ciertos sustos, pero quizás esta vez decida omitir de esta lista el \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">doomscrolling\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, en especial si se va quedar en casa.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844249\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11844249\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/doomscroll-Photo-by-Ketut-Subiyanto-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/doomscroll-Photo-by-Ketut-Subiyanto-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/doomscroll-Photo-by-Ketut-Subiyanto-from-Pexels-1-1020x680.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/doomscroll-Photo-by-Ketut-Subiyanto-from-Pexels-1-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/doomscroll-Photo-by-Ketut-Subiyanto-from-Pexels-1-1536x1024.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/doomscroll-Photo-by-Ketut-Subiyanto-from-Pexels-1.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Haga el intento de no entrar al Internet y evitar el doomscrolling durante la noche (y el día) de brujas. \u003ccite>(Ketut Subiyanto/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Este término en inglés, el cual se hizo popular gracias al periodista Karen K. Ho, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13886630/how-to-stop-doomscrolling-and-start-using-the-internet-mindfully\">se refiere al hábito de navegar por las redes sociales y las páginas de medios informativos\u003c/a> de una manera compulsiva. En las palabras de Nastia Voynovskaya, editora de KQED, es \"seguir recargando la página en donde recibe noticias y perderse entre los titulares, tuits y comentarios sobre la pandemia, los incendios, las elecciones y el racismo sistémico\". \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">¿Entonces por qué no se compromete a que Halloween sea la noche en que no lea malas noticias por Twitter?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tanto si decide pasar la noche construyendo un invento para distribuir dulces de una manera segura o si escoge ver una película de sustos con las luces apagadas, haga el intento de no entrar al Internet y evitar el \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">doomscrolling\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13886630/how-to-stop-doomscrolling-and-start-using-the-internet-mindfully\">Nuestra guía práctica para prevenir el \u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">doomscrolling\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> tiene varios consejos para lograr esta meta, la cual también incluye apps que pueden controlar su consumo del Internet.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">¡Feliz noche de brujas!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Este artículo fue traducido por el periodista, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/ccabreralomel%C3%AD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Manténgase informado con las noticias de KQED en Español. Suscríbase a nuestro boletín bilingüe ➡ \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">kqed.org/newsletters\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Fiestas de disfraces, pedir y dar dulces, todas las tradiciones que conlleva la noche de brujas ya no serán posible a causa de la pandemia. Aquí tiene unas alternativas para poder divertirse y estar seguro.",
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"description": "Fiestas de disfraces, pedir y dar dulces, todas las tradiciones que conlleva la noche de brujas ya no serán posible a causa de la pandemia. Aquí tiene unas alternativas para poder divertirse y estar seguro.",
"title": "Halloween 2020: 6 ideas para celebrar con distanciamiento, pero con diversión también | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11843120/halloween-2020-ideas-covid\">\u003cem>Read in English\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desde fines del 2019, ya había gente emocionada por el hecho que Halloween, o la noche de brujas, en 2020 sería en un sábado:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"es\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">2020 is about to be lit:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valentine’s Day is on a Friday\u003cbr>\n4th of July is on a Saturday\u003cbr>\nHalloween is on a Saturday\u003cbr>\nThanksgiving is on a Thursday\u003cbr>\nChristmas is on a Friday\u003cbr>\nNew Year’s Day is a Friday \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/1QKqr1Yrus\">pic.twitter.com/1QKqr1Yrus\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Kamala Anderson (@caliboycomplex) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/caliboycomplex/status/1202316814857846784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">4 de diciembre de 2019\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tuit de un usuario que dice: \"La vamos a pasar bien divertido en el 2020. El día de San Valentín cae en un viernes. El 4 de julio será un sábado. Halloween será un sábado. El día de acción de gracias será un jueves. La navidad será un viernes. El día de año nuevo será un viernes\".\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>…y es justo decir que incluso cuando comenzó la pandemia de covid-19 e iniciaron las órdenes de quedarse en casa por todo el Área de la Bahía, muchos de nosotros nunca nos imaginamos que las normas de distanciamiento social seguirían vigentes hasta Halloween.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero aquí estamos, a finales de octubre del 2020, y la pandemia ni se acerca a su fin. No es extraño que este Halloween representa para muchos todo lo que nos ha negado el 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Avanza a:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#truco\">Consejos para pedir o dar dulces de una manera segura\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tubo\">Cómo hacer un conducto de dulces de larga distancia\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#terror\">Los beneficios de las películas de terror para el cuerpo y la mente\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Por su parte, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/coronavirusliveupdates\">la guía del estado para poder celebrar Halloween\u003c/a> durante la pandemia se enfoca más en lo que no se puede hacer que en lo que sí se permite. Por ejemplo, se le pide a los californianos que no pidan o den dulces.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"La costumbre de ir de puerta a puerta en grupos, tocando las puertas y colocando las manos de uno dentro de cubetas llenas de golosinas deliciosas…provocan un mayor riesgo de que se propague el covid-19\", afirmó el Secretario de salud y recursos humanos de California, el Dr. Mark Ghaly a principios de este mes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844242\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11844242\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Toni-Cuenca-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Toni-Cuenca-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Toni-Cuenca-from-Pexels-1-1020x680.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Toni-Cuenca-from-Pexels-1-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Toni-Cuenca-from-Pexels-1-1536x1024.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Toni-Cuenca-from-Pexels-1.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Muchas tradiciones de Halloween ya no se permitirán en el 2020 debido a la pandemia del coronavirus. \u003ccite>(Toni Cuenca/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Las grandes fiestas de la noche de brujas también ya no serán posibles, ya que estos son focos de transmisión del virus. Si un pequeño convivio se lleva a cabo fuera del grupo íntimo de personas que viven dentro del mismo hogar, entonces deberá de ocurrir al exterior y mantener una sana distancia, lo cual pone un límite de dos horas y que no incluya más de tres hogares, dice Ghaly.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cabe mencionar que octubre y noviembre marcan el inicio de otras celebraciones que se basan en reuniones, como el día de los muertos, Diwali, y el día de acción de gracias. Precisamente por eso es tan importante que mantenga puesto su cubrebocas y el distanciamiento social cuando esté conviviendo con personas que vivan fuera de su hogar.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Básicamente, los funcionarios de salud pública insisten que la mejor manera para celebrar Halloween es quedarse en casa o de manera virtual. Pero a la alegría que provoca el reunirse para esta festividad, ¿cómo puede celebrar uno a distancia o desde casa?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Que bien que preguntó. Tenemos seis ideas para prevenir que Halloween este año sea pésimo.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"truco\">\u003c/a>Cómo funcionarios de salud sugieren que usted pida o de dulces a una distancia segura\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>La pandemia del covid-19 no quiere decir que todas las maneras de pedir o dar dulces ya no están disponibles este año. Tomando en cuenta que algunos padres todavía saldrán con sus hijos a pedir dulces, los funcionarios de salud del Área de la Bahía\u003ca href=\"https://covid-19.acgov.org/covid19-assets/docs/press/joint-statement-2020.09.28.pdf\"> consideran como de \"riesgo moderado\"\u003c/a> pedir dulces siempre y cuando \"las familias recojan los dulces en bolsas preparadas que estén afuera de cada casa\", pero también que estas familias mantengan el distanciamiento social y permanezcan \"a un lado de la entrada de coches o al otro lado del patio\".\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Las autoridades de salubridad del Área de la Bahía también recomiendan que quienes salgan a pedir dulces hagan lo siguiente:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Traigan con sí mismo desinfectante de manos y que lo usen de manera frecuente. También que se laven las manos inmediatamente luego de llegar a casa, especialmente si tocaron bolsas de dulces.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Mantenga su distancia de otras personas que están pidiendo dulces y siempre lleve puesto su cubrebocas.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>No coma los dulces mientras sigue afuera, porque esto requiere que se quite el cubrebocas y toque la envoltura de los dulces.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Recuerde, según las pautas de salud, cualquier forma de pedir o dar dulces todavía conlleva ciertos riesgos durante la pandemia. Precisamente por eso, ir con los niños a pasear por el vecindario con sus disfraces para ver las decoraciones que cada casa tiene para la noche de brujas y también disfrutar el aire fresco del otoño, pero nunca pedir dulces, podría ser la manera más segura para que la familia disfrute el Halloween.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ya que el día de los muertos ocurre tan solo unos días después del Halloween, las normas de salud \u003ca href=\"https://covid-19.acgov.org/covid19-assets/docs/press/joint-statement-2020.09.28.pdf\">también incluyen sugerencias sobre cómo celebrar\u003c/a> con la familia sin correr riesgos. Autoridades de salud invitan a quienes celebran esta ocasión a que se queden en casa. Si planea intercambiar recuerdos, música, o recetas familiares o va preparar una ofrenda para quienes se han adelantado, hágalo dentro de su hogar con su núcleo familiar.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"tubo\">\u003c/a>Construya un mecanismo para entregar dulces a larga distancia\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>¿Qué pasa si está en casa en la noche de Halloween y tocan su puerta para pedirle dulces pero no quiere negarles unos caramelos? Pues quizás tendrá que ingeniárselas con un método para entregar dulces por larga distancia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phoenix Artifex es un educador del Área de la Bahía que dirige un programa llamado 'Phoenix’s Curiosity Cabinet' (o el gabinete de curiosidades de Phoenix), el cual le enseña a jóvenes ideas científicas a través del diseño y la manufactura. Ahora colaboran de manera virtual con estudiantes para construir un tirachinas para dulces, el cual podrá arrojar golosinas a quien las pida, sin que haya contacto físico entre personas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pero dado el hecho que un tirachinas quizás no sea la opción más apropiada o segura para un patio, Artifex recomienda el uso de \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/24/916166310/no-trick-or-treat-americans-get-creative-to-celebrate-halloween-safely\">mecanismos de distribución más sencillos\u003c/a>, como una resbaladilla o un pequeño tobogán de dulces. Una opción es construir una resbaladilla no muy elegante hecha de cajas de cartón, o un conducto hecho de tubos de correo. Luego sólo tiene que ajustar los ángulos para que su \"sistema práctico de distribución de dulces\" esté listo, dice Artifex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844243\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11844243 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-800x1067.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-800x1067.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-1020x1360.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-160x213.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-1152x1536.png 1152w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-1536x2048.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-1122x1496.png 1122w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-840x1120.png 840w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-687x916.png 687w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-414x552.png 414w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1-354x472.png 354w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Kayla-1-EXPORT-1.png 1900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Un tobogán de dulces hecho para largas distancias, construido por Beau Logo en Daly CIty, \u003ccite>(Kalya Golub)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pero sin importar lo que quiera construir, Artifex recomienda que tome en cuenta la escala del proyecto, la distancia que quiere que abarque su diseño, y el campo de dispersión del proyecto. Por razones de seguridad, tome en cuenta la fuerza en que su diseño podría lanzar los dulces, y también que duras están las bolsas que llevan las golosinas adentro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beau Logo y Kayla Golub, residentes de Daly City, han construido un tobogán de dulces afuera de su casa y compartieron su método con KQED. Escogieron un tubo de PVC (policloruro de vinilo) color negro de 4 pies. Prototipos anteriores estaban compuestos de tubos más pequeños que estaban conectados juntos, pero cuando probaban estos modelos, los caramelos se quedaban atorados en las bisagras que conectaban los conductos. Pero con el tubo de PVC, lograron cubrirlo con cinta de color naranja para provocar un aspecto \"más Halloween\".\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Para completar el diseño en su jardín, Golub y Logo incluyeron un arreglo estilo panteón, inspirado por su película favorita de Halloween, \"Hocus Pocus\", el cual dirige a quienes vengan por dulces al tobogán. También han marcado la acera para demostrar cuánta distancia es seis pies. \"En caso si se forma una fila\", dice Golub. El propósito de todo esto es de una manera continuar regalando dulces y que la gente \"pueda pasar y disfrutar la obra de amor de Logo, en especial durante esta época en que todos nosotros necesitamos sentir un poco de normalidad y conexión a nuestra comunidad\".\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844244\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11844244\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Janelle-1-800x947.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"947\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Janelle-1-800x947.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Janelle-1-1020x1207.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Janelle-1-160x189.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Janelle-1-1298x1536.png 1298w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Janelle-1-1731x2048.png 1731w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Janelle-1.png 1900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">El tobogán de caramelos hecho por Beau Logo, a lado de un arreglo estilo panteón, inspirado por la película \"Hocus Pocus\". \u003ccite>(Janelle Kim)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Si planea quedarse en casa para repartir dulces usando un método de larga distancia, funcionarios de salud del Área de la Bahía recomiendan que:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Se lave las manos con agua y jabón por al menos 20 segundos antes y después de preparar los dulces o bolsas de regalos.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Mantenga la distancia lo más que pueda de quienes vengan a pedir dulces y siempre lleve puesto su tapabocas.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"terror\">\u003c/a>Disfrute la adrenalina de una película de terror\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sentarse para ver una película de terror en la noche de Halloween puede parecer como una recomendación un poco muy obvia. Pero según \u003ca href=\"https://www.margeekerr.com/\">Margee Kerr\u003c/a>, socióloga y autora del libro \"Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear\", (o 'Gritar: Aventuras espeluznantes en la ciencia del miedo') esto podría ser una manera inesperada de acumular algunos beneficios físicos y psicológicos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">¿Por qué? Cuando decide ver una película de terror, lo que incluye dos horas de sustos, gritos y hasta brincar de miedo, ha tomado la decisión de \"suspender cualquier recelo que tenga y entrar a este mundo de fantasías donde te vas a asustar\", dice Kerr.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eso quiere decir que ya no puede darle tanta prioridad a su \"razonamiento analítico\" y la realidad de cada día, razona Kerr. Ya no piensa sobre lo que tiene que ir a comprar al supermercado o las facturas que debe (o la pandemia, o las elecciones) y en lugar, su cuerpo entra en un estado de \"lucha o escape\".\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844245\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11844245\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Andrea-Piacquadio-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Andrea-Piacquadio-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Andrea-Piacquadio-from-Pexels-1-1020x680.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Andrea-Piacquadio-from-Pexels-1-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Andrea-Piacquadio-from-Pexels-1-1536x1024.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Andrea-Piacquadio-from-Pexels-1.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ver películas de terror puede producir ciertos efectos positivos para tu cuerpo, y tu mente también. \u003ccite>(Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">El efecto que esto tiene en su cuerpo es algo bastante fuerte, dice Kerr, ya que provoca que quienes estén viendo la película se sientan extra presentes y enfocados. Además, Kerr afirma que quienes han participado en los estudios que ha hecho de esto reportan \"un estado de ánimo más elevado\" luego de escoger una actividad que active ese estado de lucha o escape, como ver una película de terror.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">El cambio de humor entre estas personas se basa en que ellos sintieron que en verdad enfrentaron sus miedos y lograron aprender algo de ellos mismos. Esta sensación de empoderamiento, control y resistencia, dice Kerr, podría sentirse muy bien ahora, ya que seguimos en una pandemia y se acerca una elección que podría ser bastante tumultuosa. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"Creo que a todos nosotros nos podría beneficiar sentir un poco esa sensación de que 'lo podemos lograr'\".\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>…O cualquier película, en verdad…\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Kerr le recuerda que no hay nada mal si no disfruta algunas películas de terror, como el género de \"horror corporal\" o que tengan mucha sangre. Quizás escoja ver una película de sustos que sea un poco más tranquila pero \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/18538/6-perfect-comedy-horror-movies-to-watch-this-halloween\">con un toque de humor\u003c/a>. Si planea ver una de estas películas con miembros de su familia que son más jóvenes, puede escoger películas que son más amigables a los pequeños, como \"Hocus Pocus\" o \"Coraline\" (or \"El extraño mundo de Jack\", si es que está listo para debatir si es en verdad es una película de Halloween o de Navidad).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>¿Pero qué puedes hacer si no le gustan para nada las películas de terror, a pesar de ser un aficionado del Halloween? No tiene que forzarse a ver una de esas películas, o dejar que alguien más lo presione, dice Kerr. Esto es importante mencionar ya que los beneficios físicos y psicológicos que pueden ocurrir al ver una película de sustos sólo ocurre cuando ha escogido verla por su propia voluntad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844247\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11844247\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-August-de-Richelieu-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-August-de-Richelieu-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-August-de-Richelieu-from-Pexels-1-1020x680.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-August-de-Richelieu-from-Pexels-1-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-August-de-Richelieu-from-Pexels-1-1536x1024.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-August-de-Richelieu-from-Pexels-1.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ver películas que provocan emociones intensas puede tener beneficios positivos, y no tienen que ser películas de terror. \u003ccite>(August de Richelieu/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Se trata de ver algo que le proveerá una experiencia compuesta de emociones intensas. Quizás para usted, esto conlleva llorar al final de una película romántica o reír hasta que salgan lagrimas al ver una comedia favorita.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Cuando escogemos hacer algo que nos lleva a un lugar intenso, debemos de también tener en cuenta que esta experiencia debe de centrar nuestros cuerpos para que logramos sentir que estamos en control\", dice ella.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Busque maneras para tener momentos espeluznantes, virtualmente\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hablando de películas de terror, si alguna vez ha visto uno de estos largometrajes en un cine rodeado de desconocidos que también están gritando o riendo de la misma manera que usted, entonces sabe bien qué divertido es esa experiencia colectiva, o de la misma manera hacer esto en casa acompañado de amistades y familiares pero con las luces apagadas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Esta sensación transformativa de poder pertenecer a algo más grande que uno mismo viene de lo que el sociólogo Émile Durkheim llama \"la efervescencia colectiva\". Sin embargo, las restricciones de distanciamiento social que tendremos que observar durante este Halloween resultan que no habrá fiestas para ver películas o reunirse con amistades fuera de su círculo cercano.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Si planea recrear este ambiente a través de Zoom por una celebración virtual, o quizás una fiesta de disfraces por videollamada con amistades, hay que aceptar el hecho que nunca igualará lo que se siente estar juntos en persona, dice Kerr. Pero esto no debe provocar desilusión.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844248\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11844248\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Gabby-K-from-Pexels2-1-800x533.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Gabby-K-from-Pexels2-1-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Gabby-K-from-Pexels2-1-1020x680.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Gabby-K-from-Pexels2-1-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Gabby-K-from-Pexels2-1-1536x1024.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/Photo-by-Gabby-K-from-Pexels2-1.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A pesar de que el Halloween ocurre durante la pandemia del covid-19, eso no quiere decir que tengas que pasar esta ocasión solo. \u003ccite>(Gabby K/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sin embargo, reunirse por Internet puede permitir que construya un \"poco de conectividad social\", aconseja. Particularmente si todos los que participan se comprometen a estar completamente presente, para poder preservar un poco de la experiencia compartida. \"Creo que es crítico e importante que usemos cualquier recurso para poder seguir conectados\", dice ella.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Si aún así no puedes pasar tiempo con personas fuera de tu hogar porque no están dentro de tu círculo íntimo, Kerr sugiere que considere visitar a un autocine.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">El \u003ca href=\"https://www.westwinddi.com/locations/solano\">autocine West Wind\u003c/a> del Condado de Solano, por ejemplo, ofrece películas de terror como \"Soy leyenda \", \"Carrie\" e \"IT\" a lo largo del fin de semana de Halloween (además incluyen películas como \"Monsters, Inc.\" para los jóvenes). Es una manera de experimentar esa sensación de un momento compartido, \"donde la atención de todos está en una cosa\", dice Kerr, mientras mantiene el distanciamiento físico desde su carro.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Y por fin, tome el día (o la noche) libre y evita el d\u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>oomscrolling\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Halloween es un momento para disfrutar de ciertos sustos, pero quizás esta vez decida omitir de esta lista el \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">doomscrolling\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, en especial si se va quedar en casa.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844249\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11844249\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/doomscroll-Photo-by-Ketut-Subiyanto-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/doomscroll-Photo-by-Ketut-Subiyanto-from-Pexels-1-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/doomscroll-Photo-by-Ketut-Subiyanto-from-Pexels-1-1020x680.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/doomscroll-Photo-by-Ketut-Subiyanto-from-Pexels-1-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/doomscroll-Photo-by-Ketut-Subiyanto-from-Pexels-1-1536x1024.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/doomscroll-Photo-by-Ketut-Subiyanto-from-Pexels-1.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Haga el intento de no entrar al Internet y evitar el doomscrolling durante la noche (y el día) de brujas. \u003ccite>(Ketut Subiyanto/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Este término en inglés, el cual se hizo popular gracias al periodista Karen K. Ho, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13886630/how-to-stop-doomscrolling-and-start-using-the-internet-mindfully\">se refiere al hábito de navegar por las redes sociales y las páginas de medios informativos\u003c/a> de una manera compulsiva. En las palabras de Nastia Voynovskaya, editora de KQED, es \"seguir recargando la página en donde recibe noticias y perderse entre los titulares, tuits y comentarios sobre la pandemia, los incendios, las elecciones y el racismo sistémico\". \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">¿Entonces por qué no se compromete a que Halloween sea la noche en que no lea malas noticias por Twitter?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tanto si decide pasar la noche construyendo un invento para distribuir dulces de una manera segura o si escoge ver una película de sustos con las luces apagadas, haga el intento de no entrar al Internet y evitar el \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">doomscrolling\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13886630/how-to-stop-doomscrolling-and-start-using-the-internet-mindfully\">Nuestra guía práctica para prevenir el \u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">doomscrolling\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> tiene varios consejos para lograr esta meta, la cual también incluye apps que pueden controlar su consumo del Internet.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">¡Feliz noche de brujas!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Este artículo fue traducido por el periodista, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/ccabreralomel%C3%AD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Manténgase informado con las noticias de KQED en Español. Suscríbase a nuestro boletín bilingüe ➡ \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">kqed.org/newsletters\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"politicalbreakdown": {
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"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"order": 16
},
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