Transcript for 10/29/24: NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH – HAUNTINGS BEYOND THE HOUSE W/ JEFF DAVIS

Just across the courtyard from my apartment are two memorials dedicated to young men who were shot on the sidewalk while attending a party. The memorial has been there for years and when I lived on the other side of the complex, I never really had to see it.

But ever since we moved across the complex closer to the road -- we are less than about 500 feet away from what looks like a little cemetery on the street. There are crosses, flowers, and pinwheels, and pictures of the young boys. It never really fazed me walking by it to get to my car -- until the other night. I brought my car up the drive to park. It was raining very hard so I tried to move as fast as I could to get to the apartment to dry off.

I ran past the fence and then stopped dead in my tracks. Standing above the makeshift graves was what appeared to be a hooded figure, lighting candles in the rain. I determined it was a young girl, or a woman, looking like she was wearing a bourka.

I stepped back slowly and observed the woman lighting candles in a rainstorm. I thought it was peculiar, but then it dawned on me that it was more than peculiar-- it was not right. It was like it didn't belong.

The rain began to let up a bit and I decided to walk toward the graves and get to my home. The scary part was having to pass the hooded figure. I did it, trying not to stare-- I said "hello" and there was no answer -- just a whimpering under the hood -- the woman was crying and very pale. I was chilled -- and thought of how scary it was.

I walked past the two graves and the candles were not lit. Even though I watched them being lit.

That was enough paranormal activity for one night. The whole time I have lived in the area the scariest thing to think about was being mugged or shot -- not encountering some ghoulish figure mourning over graves at midnight in a heavy downpour.

I had no words -- and no explanation only to wonder if I have been oblivious to my area being haunted -- or somehow under the curse fo Santeria or Santa Muerte -- I even wondered if what I saw was The Crying Woman or La Llorona-- that of course would not have been a good thing.

But I am still here and it had me thinking about haunted houses and that while the obvious explanations of homes being haunted is all about poltergeists -- we could be dealing with an environment that has been so polluted spiritually that it has created a mark.

When I am faced with the idea of talking about haunted houses or haunted places, there is often a tendency to go straight for the sensational angle of playing the Electronic Voice Phenomenon and trying to snap pictures or videos. This, of course, is all part of the showmanship and many people need to see or hear it to believe it. The best thing is experiencing it.

There have been a lot of people that I have talked to over the years about how their houses are haunted and while they say they don’t mind their restless haunt, they most certainly wish that they were made aware of the ghost prior to buying, and of course the sordid details of why the ghost is there in the first place.

Most real estate laws require sellers to disclose “material facts” such as structural concerns, the age, and condition of the roof and shingles, leaks in the foundation and walls, existing mold and mildew, and total square footage. Material facts can also include other items that affect the house’s value such as the amount of property taxes, details about individuals who claim to have an interest in the house or overlaps on adjacent properties.

Items not considered material facts include personal information about a seller, such as pending foreclosure or divorce, illnesses of the seller, and the seller’s reasons for moving. What if the seller’s reason for moving involves the paranormal?

In my old neighborhood, there was a house that was haunted by the ghost of a little girl. The girl’s face would sometimes appear in the window and the couple who lived there also claimed that there were times when the little girl would make the bed and even clean the house.

While this seems to be atypical even for a ghost they wanted to rent their home but the tenants would not remain. They would complain about knocking and broken items. The ghost apparently liked the original owners but detested the others who would come in.

For some time the place was rented out to a practicing witch. She was not a traditional witch and the entire house was decorated with all sorts of religious iconography, including artifacts and icons used in Santeria rituals and a room that was changed without permission into a meditation room covered in pages from the bible and other apocryphal texts.

Needless to say, the house was becoming a breeding ground for paranormal hijinks and soon the original owner’s husband an eye doctor came to me and said that he was going to sell the house because he was getting a divorce. He needed the house exorcised of all restless spirits.

It was a task that wasn’t all that easy and from what I understand, the ghosts never left the home and whenever I would see the new owner he would ask me questions about some of the things that went on there.

I had to disclose that while I was unaware of any satanic activity, the home was pretty much clean. He then disclosed to me that it was never disclosed to him that a young girl hung herself in the upstairs room on a pipe in the closet. The girl had found a very pretty nightgown brushed her hair and put on makeup. She then took a blanket that she always slept with tied it around the pipe and hanged there for days before her mother found her.

This type of story is all too typical. Many realtors overlook a traumatic event in a home because in reality deaths happen in homes every day. It is nothing out of the ordinary to hear of deaths that happen in homes. However, if there seems to be some sort of traumatic event wouldn’t it be a courtesy to be informed in case there are paranormal activities that seem to be manifesting because of the event?

I get emails and calls all the time where people tell me that their houses are haunted and they have proof that something is happening that they do not understand, They try to reason and rationalize why their home has been selected for the poltergeist activity --and the best they can come up with is that someone died there.

Well let us be frank, people die in homes all the time. If death is the only criterion for a haunt then hospitals should be the most haunted places on the planet.

Yes, I know that Hospitals can be haunted -- but most of the time the hospitals that make it on a cable channel exclusive have been abandoned or the wing where they kept the mental patients adds more fuel to the story.

It sets the stage-- but there is one thing that I never hear from people who are plagued by ghosts-- have they ever stopped to think that perhaps it is the environment that is haunted -- that it is not just one spot -- but many that are connected through something called a Toroidal or Torsion Vortex?

Is it possible for a house to haunt a landscape or vice versa, is it the area alone that triggers ghosts or perhaps an event happens in an area that is so horrific That the the magnetic echoes of that event curse the area where it happened?

For example in the annals of horrific Hollywood-related crimes that have left a lasting imprint on Los Angeles, the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders have always ranked in the top tier. The bloody killing of pregnant actor Sharon Tate and others over two days by members of a cult headed by Charles Manson has sparked its own cottage industry of books and films, including Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time ... In Hollywood.’

A While ago I was watching a documentary about the Wonderland Murders. I did some digging and study and found that this slaughter took place in Laurel Canyon in California. Laurel Canyon, a winding canyon in Los Angeles, is said to be haunted by several spooky stories.

Laurel Canyon is also known for being a center of counterculture activity in the 1960s and 1970s, and for being home to many famous rock musicians, including Jim Morrison, Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, and Carole King. 

The Wonderland Murders, is an iconic and brutal mass murder in a city known for its murders. Named for the street in Laurel Canyon where the murders took place inside the house of a small-time drug gang, The story draws in many famous names like Liberace, and porn star John Holmes.

Though it happened in 1981, the aftermath of the Wonderland Murders spans decades with characters, details, subplots and investigative twists that prove the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction adage, including: Hollywood underworld’s most violent drug kingpin; three murder trials with zero convictions; a bribed juror and accusations of a corrupt federal agent; the birth of the crack cocaine epidemic; the investigators being investigated themselves.

Laurel Canyon was said to be a breeding ground for the beginnings of a Satanic empire --as many Rock Legends and Secret agents called Laurel Canyon their home.

Once upon a time in Hollywood, there was a man named Paul Bern, a not-so-good-looking Hollywood mystery man who was able to convince a blonde bombshell actress to marry him.

Sitting at 9860 Easton Drive, in Beverly Hills, was a Bavarian-style house built sometime between 1910 and 1920. Paul Bern owned the house in the 1920s and 30s and had his new bride Jean Harlow, move in with him after they were married in July of 1932.

Paul Bern was a cinematic genius. Born in Germany in 1889, he began dating Harlow, shocking thousands in Hollywood as he lagged behind when it came to looks.

What he lacked in looks, though, he made up in personality.

Bern had helped launch the career of Harlow, but tragically, 2 months after they were married, Paul Bern was found dead in the home with a gunshot wound to the head and what appeared to be a suicide note. The official cause of death was ruled a suicide but there have long been rumors that Bern’s death was actually a murder staged to look like a suicide.

The butler found his body in his wife’s bedroom; he was nude, drenched in his wife’s favorite perfume, and lying in front of a full-length mirror. However, he called MGM instead of the police, prompting the studio to send over its own security staff.

Two hours later, the Los Angeles police were notified. Later, a suicide note left on a dressing room was discovered. Paul wrote, “Dearest Dear… Unfortunately, this is the only way to make good the frightful wrong I have done you and wipe out by abject humility. I love you…. Paul”

Beneath his signature, he added a postscript saying, “You understand that last night was only a comedy.”

To this day, Paul Bern’s death is considered a mystery.

Many people claim that Bern’s death somehow hexed the house with a curse that has seen tragedy strike its occupants on multiple occasions. After Bern’s death, Harlow moved out but later died an untimely death at the age of 26 from kidney disease. In the years that followed, two other people committed suicide in the Easton Drive home and one person drowned in the pool. In 1963, the ill-fated house on Easton drive was purchased by the young celebrity hairstylist, Jay Sebring.

Jay was engaged to the then-struggling actress Sharon Tate. However, she ended their three-year relationship when she met her future husband, Roman Polanski.

As their breakup was far from bitter, they remained close friends. One night in 1966, Sharon stayed at Jay’s house on her own. While sleeping in his master bedroom she later recounted to several friends how she was suddenly awoken by an apparition of “a creepy little naked man” at the side of her bed, who later was walking through the bedroom. Startled, Sharon bolted out of bed and ran down the stairs where she saw another apparition, this one was a dead body tied to the staircase banisters – the corpse’s throat was slit.

Sharon later said that she believed that the first apparition in the bedroom was the ghost of Paul Bern. She did not know who the other apparition belonged to, only that she could only determine that whoever it was they were tied and murdered horribly.

Many people believe that the second ghost – the murdered one – was a chilling premonition that foreshadowed Sharon and Jay’s own tragic deaths.

We all know what happened on that horrific night 50 years ago when Sharon, Jay, and friends Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski and a guest of the groundskeeper, Steven Parent were brutally murdered by members of the Manson Family.

After his murder, Jay Sebring’s house was sold to a doctor and his family and it is reportedly still owned by the same people today.

What happened to the people at 10050 Cielo Drive that fateful night was sudden, violent, and incredibly tragic. In fact, what happened there was so terrifyingly violent that the whole area seemed to be affected by it.

Later in 1981 came the Wonderland or Laurel Canyon Murders which many police and investigators said were comparable to the Manson murders.

It was a drug-related murder where Porn Star John Holmes and several unidentified men entered the Wonderland house and bludgeoned to death 4 people-- on survived but suffered permanent brain damage.

Although neighbors would later report having heard screams, no phone calls were placed to the police until 4:00 pm on July 1, over 12 hours later, when furniture movers working at the house next door heard a woman moaning.

When questioned, neighbors said the drug-fueled Wonderland parties often included loud, violent screaming and disruptive noise, so when they heard the murders occurring, they simply believed another party was taking place. The house was notorious for round-the-clock mayhem and debauchery.

There are other haunts in the area A mansion in Laurel Canyon that was once owned by Gypsy Rose Lee and Carole King is said to be so haunted that actress Courteney Cox had to sell it. Music producer Rick Rubin, who currently lives in Errol Flynn's former Laurel Canyon mansion, also claims to have experienced spiritual activity there. 

Drivers have reported seeing a "ghost carriage" pulled by two ghostly white horses at the intersection of Laurel Canyon and Lookout Mountain around midnight.

The innate fear of darkness and stress can contribute to the perception of scariness in an environment, as studied in the effects of nighttime lighting conditions and stress on virtual environments.

Laural Canyon has winding roads and a thick canopy of trees making is dark and foreboding.

A creepy environment can make you feel uneasy because you think there might be a threat, but the signals aren't clear.

Being alone in a seemingly endless place, like a forest or road, can make you feel unsettled.

Many people feel safe in their cars but on the open road at night or even in the daytime motorists have had encounters or have seen things while driving that have terrified them.

The road is an open public space that literally anyone can access. It’s mandatory to use if you want to get from point A to point B which means that you’re probably going to see some interesting things outside your window or right in front of you.

Perhaps you have seen something in a rearview mirror where everything is closer than it appears. Maybe you have stopped to help a car accident victim but can’t find a car anywhere and then when you look away for just a moment, the victim disappears.

There are stories about people who have taken a wrong turn somewhere and have gotten lost – some have taken the wrong turn into a time vortex. This allegedly happened near the ghost town of Modena located in Gadianton Canyon Utah in 1972.

Four girls came from a rodeo in Pioche, Nevada back to their dorm in Cedar City, which is part of Southern Utah University. They came through Highway 56 at about 10 p.m. The region is known to be haunted by phantoms that do not resemble anything of this earth. There are weird tales of demonic-looking beings that appear to be like animals. They have been mostly described as “lion people” or wolves. Some say that they may be Native American shamans who disguise themselves and change their surroundings in order to harass anyone in the area.

While driving, the black asphalt with the white center line instantly turned into bright cement.

While trying to figure out what happened, the scenery suddenly changed. The original red canyon walls were opening up to an entirely new environment. “Instead of moonlit desert, they saw grainfields on the right and Ponderosa Pine, on the left.” which are said to not be common in that area of the state. The girls then drove to a parking lot at a tavern on the side of the road. One of the girls wanted to ask for help and another was curious if any of the men were “cute.” A few men came out of the building. But as soon as they came out, the girl screamed and told the girl driving to floor it and get out as fast as she can. Soon, the girls found themselves being chased by “tri-wheeled, egg-shaped vehicles.”

It turns out that the girl screamed because she claimed what she saw was in fact not even human. The story has evolved over the years, however, when I heard about it, when I was much younger, I was told that the men looked like dogs or wolfmen wearing clothing.

If these girls somehow got lost in a dimensional rift then perhaps the idea of seeing “beastly beings” may be an indication of how evolution might have been in that parallel universe. That is if you believe in such things.

Many people are unaware that horrifying stories from road trips are not all that rare – in fact people have been known to file police reports on all sorts of things that appear in the shadows on the road.

Most cops will tell you they’ve seen it all. It’s the nature of the job to be exposed to virtually everything people have to offer, from the weird to the hilarious to the disturbing, however, it is the disturbing that seems to be the norm.

Every town has its legends about the lady in the white dress walking aimlessly down a country road. The story goes that she was a bride who was rejected – or had lost her newlywed husband in a car crash.

There is also the story of the area in town where it appears you are going downhill – however, when you put the car in neutral the car actually goes in reverse taking you back up the hill.

In Lewisville, Pennsylvania there is a place near the train tracks. If you park there and pour flour or cornstarch on the trunk of your car and ghost children from a doomed school bus crash will push your car while it is in neutral. You can go back and look at the trunk and some people say they see the impressions of little hands on the trunk.

In Virginia, there has been the terrifying urban legend of the ghost of a serial killer named Bunny man. The Bunny man sightings originated from two incidents in Fairfax County, Virginia, in 1970, but has been spread throughout the Washington, D.C., area.

Stories about Bunny Man sightings have many variations; most involve a man wearing a rabbit costume who attacks people with an ax or hatchet.

Most of the stories occur around Colchester Overpass, a Southern Railway overpass spanning Colchester Road near Clifton, Virginia, sometimes referred to as Bunny Man Bridge.

Needless to say, roads are unpredictable and literally, anything can happen.

One of the most terrifying Hollywood tragedies is the story of Jayne Mansfield.

Jayne Mansfield flirted with Satanism and her death is shrouded in mystery if not terror.

Jane Mansfield was fascinated by Satan and the occult and would call Anton LaVey the head of the Church of Satan for spiritual counseling.

LaVey did not approve of her seeing her then-boyfriend, Lawyer Sam Brody. Apparently, Brody disrespected a statue at LaVey’s home and LaVey took offense. He warned Mansfield that Brody would die in a horrible car crash and that she should not spend time with him. LaVey had told her that he took a piece of paper with Brody’s name on it and set fire to it in his hand.

In 1967 Brody, Mansfield, her three children, and her dogs were in a car driving in Mississippi. There was low visibility and she had to be at a television interview the next morning. The car was speeding down a winding road and slammed into the back of a tanker truck carrying pesticide. The driver, Brody, and Mansfield were killed instantly. Mansfield was nearly decapitated. The children survived.

LaVey claims that before her death he accidentally clipped an article out of the newspaper featuring Mansfield and accidentally cut the newspaper photo, removing her head.

There have been terrifying legends surrounding the case - one legend says that when paramedics arrived on the scene Mansfield’s head was nearly taken off of her neck and that when she was found she was attempting to talk and that she was blinking. Others say that she actually screamed out with what little air she could push through her damaged vocal cords.

Police over time have been involved in reporting some of the most bizarre and absurd cases that seldom get reported in the mainstream news. A few years ago the Colorado State Patrol were called to the scene of an overturned car in a ditch. The woman who was driving the vehicle managed to escape. The woman told the Colorado State Patrol that she saw the vampire in front of her car so she put her SUV into reverse and went into the canal in Mesa County.

State Patrol said it did not believe drugs or alcohol were involved in the crash and the woman was not charged.

Back in 2015, you may remember the news story that made the national mainstream news about four officers that recall hearing a “mysterious voice” that they say led them to find a baby girl trapped inside an overturned car.

According to local news outlets in Utah County, four police officers from the Spanish Fork Police Department all say that they heard a voice calling to them — a female voice that cried “help me.” The strange sounds were heard coming from a vehicle that had gone into a river with a 30-40 degree temperature.

As they approached the car, the officers said they heard the voice, and rushed to see if there was anyone inside the car that needed rescuing.

Much to their surprise, 18-month-old Lily Groesback was in her child seat, passed out, but alive. Her 25-year-old mother was also in the car, but she had passed away. The coroner estimated that the mother died 14 hours before the rescuers arrived.

The mystery voice that helped locate the Utah baby was heard by all of the officers who approached the car, and at one point, one of the men answered the cry for help.

According to ABC News, the voice is something that no one can explain. Since the woman was dead, and the child was passed out, there wasn’t a clear explanation. Many believe that the voice was otherworldly and that the fact that Lily survived is truly a miracle.

There have been many paranormal investigators who have pointed out that just before any paranormal or paradigm-changing event the human mind slows down the impulses and there seems to be a calming or an environmental change.

The officers were already on the scene mentally preparing for a rescue and so their minds and their senses together were generating a greater frequency. The energy levels were probably at a fever pitch allowing all four to share the experience of hearing the mother of the baby speaking to them audibly.

This type of activity has also been reported by ghost hunters who have explored several areas that have been energized through trauma and tragedy. It is recommended that these sites be avoided. However, there are a few paranormal investigators who go to these areas and have picked up voices saying “help me” or picking up screaming, police radios, ambulance conversations, and also sounds of crashes.

Only more evidence is that environments are supercharged with paranormal activity and that it might spread from area to area. If it can follow an average person -- a vortex could form over the area creating all sorts of paranormal electromagnetic activity.