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.

Materials:
6 white flat sheets (queen size were used in this project)
3 boards, 1″x2″, 8 feet long (or 6 pieces of PVC pipe 4 feet long can be used)
Plastic grocery sacks, newspapers, black markers, heavy tape
Heavy black thread or non-reflective fishing line

Directions:
Cut the boards or PVC pipe into 4 foot sections. Cut one end of each at an angle, to make it easier to insert it into the ground. Pound these gently into the ground with a hammer. You don’t want to set them in too firmly at first, until you get a feel for how big your circle will need to be. This will depend on the size of your finished ghosts.
Next, make the heads, by stuffing a white plastic grocery bag with crumpled newspaper. Alternatively, you could use large styrofoam balls. Secure a head to each stake with tape (duct tape works well for this).

Drape a sheet over each head, so that you have an equal amount of fabric hanging on each side. At this point you can secure the sheet to the head in any of several ways: You can tie the head at the “neck” with string or fishing line, or, for the “neckless” version we have pictured, try gluing the very top of the sheet to the plastic bag head, or, stitching it there with fishing line and a darning needle.

With the permanent black marker, you may draw faces on your ghosts, or leave them blank, for an eerie effect. Tie the sheets together at the sides, as pictured, for the ghosts’ joined hands. If desired, attach fishing line to each knot and tie them to a tree branch to raise the hands to different heights and keep them off the ground. For the free standing ghosts, you can make your stakes longer, or your placement a little further apart to keep the ghost “hands” from dragging on the ground. If you choose to make the free standing ghost circle, try placing an artificial campfire in the center. Light your “campfire” with the flickering electronic pumpkin lights available at many party stores and Halloween shops.

Finish the project by pounding the stakes securely into the ground with a hammer. The ghosts can be stored and reused year after year. Watch this site for other ghostly yard decoration projects!

Because of its location, Alton was a hub for the Underground Railroad, a network of homes with hiding places and tunnels to aid slaves escaping to freedom in the North. Alton was also the site of the seventh Lincoln-Douglas debate. It was the site of the first penitentiary in the state of Illinois, and during the Civil War, housed some 12,000 Confederate prisoners of war. During the smallpox epidemic of 1863-1864, thousands of prisoners died, and a memorial marks the site of a mass Confederate grave of over 1,300 casualties.

The Mansion House on State Street in Alton was once a hotel. In the 1830′s an old Indian fighter named Tom Boothby retired to the back downstairs apartment in the house. He had lost an arm and an eye in his adventures, and lived as a recluse, never leaving the hotel. The screams from his nightmares about the Indians coming to get him frequently woke his neighbors. Finally, after 2 years of uncomfortable retirement, Tom died in the night, still tormented by dreams of vengeful Indians. His screams and footsteps are still heard by visitors and residents of the Mansion.

The First Unitarian Church, built on the burned out ruins of a Catholic Cathedral, may still be the home to the spirit of a pastor who committed suicide there. The old Cracker Factory, which has been operated as an office building and antique store for many years, is supposedly occupied by several prankster spirits, who whistle, change radio stations and move objects around.

The Milton School in Alton was built in 1904, and in the 1930′s may have been the scene of the brutal murder of a little girl. The janitor, who was believed to be the culprit, committed suicide shortly thereafter. Both spirits are still said to haunt the school, which is now used as a factory which makes decorative glass objects.

Residents and visitors to Alton have experienced encounters with spirits and ghostly presences in many other locations in and around the city. A bus and walking tour of haunted locations is offered during the spring and summer, and special tours run during October for Halloween season. These tours are hosted by the author of “Haunted Alton” and are reportedly the only historically accurate tours of the many haunted sites in the city.

Choose a theme. This should include consideration of the age of the children who will be touring your haunted space. Younger children may be frightened of some effects that will delight older children. There are three kinds of haunted house attractions to include: the kind that startle, the kind that set a scary atmosphere, and the kind that just gross everyone out. The path should include many sharp turns, and your attractions should be positioned just around the corners for maximum effect.

Fences, porch and large trees in the backyard will supply the base for the walls for your haunted space. Sturdy clothesline can be strung between the house and these elements, with poles for support every six feet. Old sheets, pinned to the clothesline, that reach to the ground will make great corridors. You can purchase these at second hand stores very inexpensively. The sheets can be spray painted in dark, spooky colors and patterns, to add to the atmosphere. Provide lighting by using strings of Halloween lights, usually available in purple and orange, to cast an eerie glow. Black lights and strobe lights will also help set the mood, and still give enough light to safely navigate your haunted maze. Make sure that you include an open area, partway through, both as a feature, and to provide an “escape” for kids who might become too frightened to continue. This open area is the perfect place to build your haunted graveyard. Using plastic headstones and body-sized patches of potting soil, make “fresh” graves. Use plenty of fake spider webs on all your outdoor elements to add to the creepiness.

Scary props can be purchased, rented, or homemade. Stuff clothing to make dead bodies. Stuff a cloth bag to make a head and add a scary mask for personality. Alternate these with the occasional volunteer, dressed as zombies or vampires, who can reach out and startle your visitors. Use Halloween sound effects, or music CD’s to add to the mood. A well-placed fog machine will help create that perfect haunted atmosphere, and will also disguise some of the normal, everyday things that might remind your guests that they are just in your backyard, not the haunted grounds of Dracula’s castle.

Some things to remember:

1. Encourage visitors to stay on the marked path, both for safety and to keep them from pulling down your walls & props.

2. If using dry ice, instead of a fog machine, make sure it is only handled by adults, since exposure to skin can cause injury.

3. Have volunteers positioned along the path who can help children “escape” if they become too frightened to continue.

4. Place old pieces of carpet over extension cords, to prevent tripping.

5. Remember to keep your scary scenes dimly lit to add to the fright.

6. If using jack o’lanterns as decorations or lighting, use battery operated lighting in them, to reduce the chance of a fire hazard.

Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, PA, was opened in 1829 under the “Pennsylvania System”. It was the most expensive building to have ever been built in the United States at the time it opened, and it became the prototype for over 300 other prisons across the country. Designed by the Quakers to force inmates to look inside themselves and then to seek God, the Pennsylvania System placed prisoners in complete solitude for the duration of their incarceration, and drove many a sane man quite mad. Cells contained a bunk, toilet, table and a bible. The only light was from a slit in the roof, where sunlight, called the “Eye of God”, would filter in. If a prisoner had to leave his cell for any reason, he was hooded, so that he could not see the other inmates. Communication of any kind between prisoners was forbidden. Sometimes, in desperate need of interaction, prisoners would tap on pipes, or whisper through vents to each other. If caught, they were brutally punished.

It is said that the Quakers had nothing to do with the punishments that were meted out at the prison. It was the hired staff that designed and enforced the torture that the inmates endured. Punishments like:
The Water Bath. Especially popular during the winter months, the offender was dunked in a bath of ice cold water, and then hung on a wall for the night. Often a thin coat of ice would cover the prisoner’s body by morning.

Then there was the Mad Chair. Inmates were strapped into the chair with leather bindings, so tightly that no possible movement could be achieved. They might be left in this chair for days, with no food, until their circulation almost stopped from lack of motion and the tight straps. It was not uncommon for a man to go insane before this punishment was over.

Most gruesome of all was the Iron Gag. This was considered by the prison staff to be apt punishment for an inmate who broke the “no communication” rule. An iron collar was clamped around the prisoner’s tongue, with chains that attached to the wrists, which were then tied behind the back. This ensured that any movement would tear the tongue and cause severe bleeding. It was not uncommon for a prisoner to die from blood loss before this punishment ended.

In the 1840’s, author Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities) visited the prison, and was horrified at the conditions, causing him to write of the psychological torment of the prisoners. He wrote that incarceration at Eastern State Penitentiary was tantamount to being buried alive. The prison was intended to house 250 prisoners, but before it’s reform in 1913, over 1700 inmates were housed there. The state finally took over the prison in 1913 and the Pennsylvania system was abolished. The property continued to be operated as a state prison until it was finally closed in 1971. The history of the prison doesn’t end there, though.

During it’s restoration, a locksmith working in the cellblock was attempting to remove a 140 year old lock. As he removed the key, a powerful force struck him and held him paralyzed, while he witnessed tormented faces appear on the walls of the cell, and hundreds of figures swirled out of the cell and around the cellblock, as if he had released them from whatever had held them trapped for so long. The locksmith’s experience was so vivid that he trembled in fear whenever he told the story, even many years later. Since that time, employees and visitors alike have had countless paranormal experiences, including hearing giggling, whispers and weeping coming from within the walls. According to the Assistant Director, there are about two dozen paranormal investigations done per year at Eastern State. They almost always find evidence of activity. Eastern State Penitentiary has been named on many lists as one of the most haunted places in America. MTV’s “FEAR”, FOX’s “Scariest Places on Earth” and Sci Fi’s Ghost Hunters, all filmed here.

What better place to host a Halloween Haunted House? And they do! “Terror Behind the Walls” is a haunted attraction within the walls of the prison. There are actually five separate haunted places to be visited. Their FAQ’s explain that they will do their best to terrify you. For us, we think that the possibility of mingling with actual tormented spirits is terrifying enough! All proceeds from ticket sales to Terror Behind the Walls goes to the preservation of this 175 year old historic prison.