Halloween Experts

Dressed in black, with her pointed hat and broomstick, frequently accompanied by a black cat, the witch of our childhood nightmares used her magical powers for evil purposes. Her wicked cackle and bad complexion served as identification and emphasis of her cruel intentions. She could turn you into a frog, cause you to do things against your will, and throw fireballs at brainless scarecrows, among other horrific spells. And of course, we all knew that her power came from consorting, conversing and otherwise hobnobbing with evil spirits. Naturally, since Halloween was a time when evil roamed the earth, she became closely associated with this holiday.

In actuality, there are real witches, but they are nothing like the vicious harridan who chased Dorothy down the yellow brick road, locked Rapunzel in her tower, or built a gingerbread house to lure greedy children. Witches have been practicing their craft and living among us peacefully, down through the centuries, since before history was recorded. They practice their faith and their rituals privately or within their spiritual family, or coven, not for the sake of secrecy, but because their faith is a personal relationship between the witch and the divine. Their theology venerates the Goddess and the Horned God, polar opposites, but complimentary facets of a single godhead, although some groups believe that they are individual beings. As a matter of strict fact, witches don’t believe in the devil or demons. They celebrate nature and its cycles. They draw strength from the seasons and the phases of the moon. The elements, fire, water, earth, and air, are the symbols of their sacraments. This inspires the witch with an involved concern for the environment and all living creatures.

A practicing witch may be male or female. The word “warlock” is never used to refer to a male witch, because it is a term that means “oathbreaker” and indicates a traitor to the faith. This nature-based faith encourages its adherents to seek the divine in all things, all people. Their law is simple. “‘An it harm none, do as ye will.” It celebrates free will and the choice to do good without prescribing the manner or method. A witch will use natural remedies for common ills, sometimes brewing “potions” that are really home remedies for common ailments. They may actually cast spells, but their magic is usually used for healing, love, wisdom, creativity and other positive outcomes. Oh yes, witches do believe in magic. They believe it is a law of nature, and the science of using nature to produce change.

Just as in any other faith, there are a few practitioners of the craft who would use the powers of the divine, through nature, to harm others or gain personal power. Fortunately, witches also subscribe to the “Law of Three”, which states that anything they do, for good or ill, will come back to them threefold. It is far less likely that a witch will use his or her faith for selfish purposes when they know that it will return to them bigger and badder than they sent it out into the world.

Some modern day witches use the name Wicca, to label their faith. Wicca is a relatively new term, introduced in the 1950′s by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant to describe the Neo-Pagan faith. Since the 1960′s, Wicca has come to incorporate many “denominations” of practicing witches, who, although their methods may differ, their basic tenets of harmony with nature and all its creatures remain firmly fixed. Witches celebrate four to eight seasonal festivals throughout the year. These Sabbats include the Greater Sabbats of Samhain (October 31, Halloween), Imbolc (February 1st or 2nd, first signs of spring), Beltaine (May Eve or May Day, May 1 or 2), and Lughnasadh (Lammas, Harvest August 1 or 2). In many cases, the equinoxes and solstices are also celebrated.

Just for informational purposes, that pointed hat that is so often associated with witches, is called a steeple hat or “Hennin”. It was worn in medieval times by both men and women, to concentrate “wisdom from above” into the mind of the wearer. Remember, in some cultures and societies, the witch was far better known as a wise woman and healer.

Wilder, Kentucky is one of those small rural communities where everyone knows your name. With a population of less than 3,000, one would expect a strong family feeling among its residents. Its proximity to Cincinnati, Ohio, about 2 miles away, makes entertainment and adventure easily accessible. Wilder, however, boasts it’s own nightclub and tavern that is visited by thrill seekers from all over the world. What makes them all flock to this sleepy little Kentucky town? Wilder is the home of Bobby Mackey’s Music World: arguably one of the most sinister and haunted places in the world.

The site where Bobby Mackey’s Music world is located, was first developed in the 1850′s as a slaughterhouse. In it’s heyday, it was one of the largest meat packing facilities in the Cincinnati area. Business soon outgrew the facility, however, and in the 1890′s it was closed and the building was abandoned. In the basement of the building was a well. It was into this well that the blood and refuse from the slaughterhouse was drained. Evidence suggests that this was one of the features that attracted a local group of occultists to the abandoned building. The well was used to dispose of the evidence of their satanic rituals and animal sacrifices. It is believed that, among these occultists, were one Scott Jackson, a dental surgery student from Cincinnati, and his roommate, Alonzo Walling. Jackson was from a wealthy family, and he became the suitor of Pearl Bryan, the lovely and popular daughter of a well-to-do family from Greencastle, Indiana. When Pearl confided to him that she was pregnant, he convinced her that allowing him to perform an abortion, to preserve their reputations, was the wisest course of action.

On February 1, 1896, Pearl told her family that she was going to visit friends in Indianapolis. Instead, she met Jackson and Walling in Cincinnati. She was 5 months pregnant. After a botched attempt at an abortion using dental tools borrowed from school, Jackson had a hysterical and seriously wounded young woman on his hands. At this point, Jackson and Walling took Pearl into Northern Kentucky. When and why their mission became a macabre and vicious murder plan is unknown. Pearl’s body was found less than 2 miles from the slaughterhouse. Her head had been severed and was nowhere to be found. Walling would later testify that Jackson took the head because “he had plans for it”. The young men were soon arrested, and during the ensuing trial, they refused to reveal what had become of Pearl’s head. Investigators did discover Pearl’s beautiful blonde hair in a suitcase in Jackson’s rooms. Prosecutors even offered to commute the death sentence to life in prison for the location of her head, but Jackson refused. It is widely believed that Pearl’s head was used in a satanic ritual at the old slaughterhouse and then disposed of in the well. Revealing this would have exposed other occultists in the secret society.

After the trial, the slaughterhouse was again abandoned and eventually torn down. On its foundations, a roadhouse was built in the 1930′s. The tavern was frequented by gangland figures and was the scene of several shootings. It reopened again in the 1950′s as a nightclub. The owner’s daughter, Johanna, fell in love with one of the singers in the club. Her father, enraged, had the young man killed. In revenge, Johanna tried, unsuccessfully, to poison her father, and then, committed suicide…in the now infamous basement of the building. Johanna was 5 months pregnant at the time. In the 1970′s, the bar opened again, but was eventually shut down by the authorities after fatal shootings there.

Bobby Mackey, a well known country singer in Northern Kentucky, and his wife Janet, bought the building in 1978 to turn it into a country bar. It was successful from the start, attracting guests from all over the area. Bobby and Janet hired Carl Lawson as a caretaker and maintenance man, providing him with living quarters upstairs. Carl soon began to have strange experiences there. Lawson told author Doug Hensley, “I’d double check at the end of the night and make sure that everything was turned off. Then I’d come back down hours later and the bar lights would be on. The front doors would be unlocked, when I knew that I’d locked them. The jukebox would be playing the ‘Anniversary Waltz’ even though I’d unplugged it and the power was turned off.”

Lawson’s experiences went from strange to frightening, though, when he met the spirit who called herself “Johanna”. She was often accompanied by the scent of roses. She would converse with Lawson, sometimes, even when others were present. Local residents began to think Lawson was crazy, and talking to himself. Before long, other spirits began to reveal themselves to Carl: dark sinister men behind the bar, and odd noises and scents in the basement, near an old sealed up well. Lawson had heard the stories about the well, and in an effort to bring some relief from the restless spirits, decided, one night, to sprinkle it with holy water. Instead of calming them, this seemed to provoke the spirits, because soon other employees and guests began to have the same kind of strange experiences that had plagued Lawson.

Bobby Mackey, himself, did not believe in the “ghost stories”, and worried that the rumors would affect his business. He instructed Carl to keep quiet about his experiences. His wife, Janet had been silent, until this time, but finally admitted to him that she, too, had seen the ghosts, heard the noises and even smelled the scent of Johanna’s signature rose perfume. One night, Janet went to the basement to check on something. While she was there, she suddenly smelled a strong scent of roses, and felt something unseen move past her. She was suddenly grabbed by the waist and thrown down the stairs. She struggled and got away from the force holding her there, and ran up the stairs. When she had nearly reached the top, she felt a presence pushing her back down. She looked up toward the doorway and heard a voice from behind her screaming “Get out! Get out!” She escaped, and refused to set foot in the bar for nearly 3 decades. Just like Pearl, and Johanna before her, Janet was 5 months pregnant at the time of the incident.

Once Janet came forward with her story, many others admitted to paranormal experiences at the nightclub. An exorcism in 1994 seems to have failed miserably, because the incidents continue to this day. The bar has been investigated by many “ghost hunting” groups like “Ghost Hunters”, “Ghost Adventures” and it is part of the Haunted Cincinnati tours. Bobby Mackey still says that he doesn’t believe in ghosts, but there are thousands who have visted the site and have become convinced. Want to find out for yourself? Visit Bobby Mackey’s “Wake the Dead” Halloween Party on October 31, and experience what has been called one of the most haunted places in the world.

We have talked about designing the perfect Jack O’Lantern. We have discussed the varieties of pumpkins available. We examined carving tools and carving alternatives. Now, as the season creeps closer, as Halloween season is wont to do (insert creepy laugh here), it’s time to think about selecting and preparing your pumpkin for carving. You may choose to purchase a pumpkin from a retailer, but consider that these have been bounced around from the patch to the store and mauled by many others making their choices. If possible, choose your pumpkin at a farmer’s market, roadside produce stand or, best of all, go right to the pumpkin patch to make your choice.

What to Look For:

1. Choose a pumpkin that has no soft spots, bruises, or discoloration on the skin.

2. Any size pumpkin will do, but the bigger, the better! Carving patterns can be enlarged easily, but shrinking them makes the detail work harder, if not impossible.

3. Look for a pumpkin that has a firmly attached stem attached. This is the sign of a healthy pumpkin. NEVER lift the pumpkin by its stem! Not only could you lose the handle for your lid, but you can damage the pumpkin and make it age quicker.

4. Select a pumpkin with a flat bottom (or side, depending on your design), as this will make it easier to display your masterpiece without having it roll away.

5. Check the bottom of your pumpkin for damage or soft spots. This can be the thinnest part of the pumpkin. If you pick it up, and it feels particularly heavy and the weight shifts when you tilt it …put it back. You don’t want to know what can grow inside a rotting pumpkin.

Once you get your pumpkin home, you need to prepare it. These steps are important if you want to keep Jack smiling for a while:

1. Choose your opening. If you are cutting a “lid”, then your first cut will be an angled cut, so that you lift out a cone shaped wedge around the stem. Angling the lid cut will keep the lid from falling into the pumpkin. Make your cut big enough to give you room to do the scooping and scraping you will need to do in a few minutes. You may choose, instead, to remove the bottom of the pumpkin and set it down over the light source you choose. If using a candle, you will still need to cut a vent in the top, and the top will scorch.
***NOTE: this should be the ONLY angled cut you make on your carving. All other cuts should be made perpendicular to the surface.

2. Once the pumpkin is open, remove the “brains” or “guts” with a sturdy scoop. While scooping, remember that the front edge, or design side of the pumpkin needs to be thinned to 1/2 to 1 inch thick, to make the more intricate cuts easier.

3. DON’T SKIP THIS STEP!!! Before you begin carving your design, fill a tub with cold water. It should be deep enough to submerge your pumpkin. Let it float and fill with water, so that it settles gently toward the bottom of the tub. Let it soak overnight. The pumpkin will absorb the water and become very firm, making your carving much easier. If you add a little bleach to the water, it will retard mold that might form on your Jack O’Lantern.

4. Once carved, coat all cut edges with petroleum jelly to prevent shrivelling.

5. If you are serious about keeping your pumpkin fresh for a long time, bring it in from the porch every night, and moisten it, using a plant mister, put it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Remember that you must dry all surfaces before putting it out for display, to prevent mold from growing.

“Yankee Jim” Robinson had a dream. It wasn’t really such an unusual dream, and it was one shared by many a young boy. Jim wanted to be a pirate. He had tried other illegal activities, but was largely unsuccessful at making a life out of crime. There weren’t many pirates about in San Diego in 1852, and Jim decided the time was right to embark upon his chosen career. Given the circumstances of his unfortunate end, one has to suspect that Jim didn’t have both oars in the water. His first act of piracy was the attempt to steal a rowboat, an attempt that earned the big man a serious blow to the head and the death sentence from an unsympathetic jury. He was hanged, before he ever recovered from his head wound.

The hanging was a public spectacle, attended by one Thomas Whaley, local businessman. He had come to San Diego in 1849 with the Gold Rush, and set up a business selling hardware, woodworking, and mining equipment. His business flourished quickly, but, it’s not quite clear, in 1855, when he decided to buy property to build a family home and new location for his business, why he chose the very spot where he watched Big Jim die. This is, in fact, what happened, and he built a single story granary and adjacent 2-story Greek Revival style, brick home. From almost the moment the family moved in, they began to hear ghostly footsteps, and feel a choking sensation in the area of an archway over the stairs to the 2nd floor. It was in this spot that Yankee Jim was hanged. Thomas became convinced that Yankee Jim Robinson haunted his residence.

In 1868, a theater troup operated out of the front upstairs bedroom, and the San Diego County Courthouse rented the former granary. Thomas ran a general store from the 1st floor of the house. In March, 1871, while Thomas was out of town, county officers raided the Whaley property and removed all court records and documents, abandoning the property and refusing to pay any rent owed. Thomas tried to sue the county for back rent. He lost, and remained bitter about it for the rest of his life.

Thomas Whaley and his wife, Anna, had six children. One of his daughters, Violet, either committed suicide or was murdered on the property in 1885. The youngest of their children, Lillian, lived in the house until her death in 1953. She was convinced that Yankee Jim haunted the house. Other guests and staff members at the Whaley house have encountered the ghosts of Thomas, himself, his wife Anna, who frequents the rose garden, their pet terrier, Dolly Varden, and a small, swarthy woman in calico who seems to live in the courthouse. Besides the ghostly footsteps, the sounds of activity in the former courtroom, guests have witnessed the apparition of a young girl, supposedly a playmate of the Whaley children, in the dining room. The frequency of these purported paranormal activities and the large number of people who have witnessed them have caused the government of the state of California to officially recognize The Whaley House as a haunted location. It is one of only 2 such locations in the state. The San Diego Paranormal Society conducts a monthly, night time “ghost hunt” at Whaley House, and offers special tours during October for Halloween season.

Every day, people come to tour Whaley House as an historic landmark. It was the first 2 story brick building in San Diego, housed the first commercial theater, served as a county courthouse and general store. How many of the visitors are there for the history isn’t clear. What is known is that of the 100,000 visitors per year, a large portion of them come to witness something extraordinary, something that will prove The Whaley House’s reputation as the most haunted house in America.