Halloween Experts

“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.