Ghost tours are popular in San Francisco and the Bay Area and, like everything in the States, there are many to choose from. These include the Alcatraz Ghost Tour, the Chinatown Ghost Tour, the Vampire Tour of San Francisco and the Napa Ghost Winery Tour. However, The San Francisco Ghost Hunt is the only tour to guarantee a ghost sighting! (http://www.sfghosthunt.com/homepage.html) Our host, Jim Fassbinder, has been conducting this tour since 1998, promising his attendees will have an encounter with a San Franciscan ghost. As we assembled at the meeting place, the sumptuously tacky lobby of the otherwise grand Queen Anne Hotel, I wondered if Jim would arrange a clichéd trick. Would an assistant, in period costume, leap out at an appropriate time? Would a plant utter a disembodied, bloodcurdling scream?

Then came the disclaimer, only ten minutes into the evening. "I can't really guarantee a ghost but many people have seen strange things on this tour and I hope that you too will meet a real ghost in a safe, supportive way".

Clearly, a ghost sighting is all in the broad definition. Jim told us to "open" our senses to the possibility of "ghosts in all their forms. A ghost is an extreme emotion stuck in time". We could witness an apparition or poltergeist activity. Perhaps our photographs would reveal orbs, "balls of energy". We might experience a mystical fragrance, such as the overwhelming aroma of flowers, yet not see any source. A ghost may visit us in the form of an emotion, "ghosts are formed from emotional events" and can generate strong feelings. We should be sensitive to "cold spots" in the hotel and on the tour. Then I smelled a 'hot reading' as he told us to listen carefully, "because if you heard people discussing you from a room that turned out to be empty, you'd want to investigate it, wouldn't you?"

If the Ghost Hunt couldn't guarantee a ghost, it guaranteed three hours of history, story weaving and sightseeing. We would hear tales of the Voodoo Queen of San Francisco, a bordello turned church, a feminist romance writer, a wayward bride, a wealthy pig-farming family of feuding sisters whose story ends in murder, of earthquakes, fires, friendly ghosts and violent poltergeists. All in the exclusive Pacific Heights district of San Francisco, famous for its magnificent views and the 'Painted Ladies' Victorian houses of Postcard Row.

Before we could start the proceedings, Jim explained that he needed to perform a test to determine if the spirits were "willing to reveal themselves" that evening. Jim performed a card trick but all the while vowed it was a "paranormal" exercise. Upon receiving a "positive response that the ghosts would be out tonight", we moved into the hotel dining room where Jim dimmed the lights and shared a few stories about the century old Queen Anne Hotel.

The building started its life in 1890 as boarding school, known as the Miss Mary Lake's School for Girls. Over the next few decades it transformed into the Cosmos Gentleman's Club before becoming the Episcopal Dioceses' Girls Friendly Society Lodge. The building would spend a period of 50 years of disuse, until 1980 when it was carefully renovated
and finally reopened in 1995 as a 48-room hotel. Throughout the changing faces of the building, one resident has always remained. School mistress Miss Mary Lake reputedly wanders the stairs and halls of the hotel, occasionally playing the piano in the
parlour or grooming herself before one of the hallway mirrors. The most curious phenomena takes place in her former bedroom, room 410, The Mary Lake Suite. Anecdotally, Mary Lake tightly 'tucks' her guests into their beds, every night! According to Jim, many guests report a "comforting presence" in the room. Other guests claim that they awoke to find her sitting on the bed, gazing at them. With the room booked out for months ahead and at US $350 a night, this one will have to remain a mystery!

We were then granted ten minutes to explore the premises. Jim had told us about an unspecified chair that Mary Lake also haunts, her "spirit" caressing the arm of anyone who sits in the chair. A few of us deduced which chair Jim was referring to but after a sit, experienced nothing but a rather comfy cushion. I took a photograph of the ornate chair that captured a tiny dust 'orb', utterly convincing a few passers-by that I had "caught the ghost".

We then commenced our trek around the neighborhood, up and down the famously steep streets of San Francisco. Jim had changed into a Dickensian-style cloak and hat and was carrying a kerosene lamp. We came upon a row of manicured Victorian houses where Jim uttered a truism, "people tell me the scariest part of the tour is finding out that these houses go for over $2 million dollars each!"

As we crossed California Street, Jim told us to be on the lookout for Flora. Every ghost in the Bay Area has an epithet and Flora is San Francisco's most reported ghost. A young girl from a wealthy family, Flora was betrothed to an older man. Knowing she could never go through with this arranged marriage, she fled the city, taking nothing with her but the bridal gown she wore. She was never seen alive again. Jim claims that many people have seen Flora's ghost, aimlessly wandering the street. No one on our tour saw a thing.

As we turned into Sacramento Street, an imposing mansion loomed ahead of us. Richard Craig Chambers, owner of several silver mines in Utah, built the palatial residence in 1887. He died in 1901, bequeathing his property to his two feuding nieces, who detested each other. Unable to live together, one sister moved into a house she had built beside the mansion. Claudia Chambers, a pig fancier, remained in the mansion. Claudia died a gruesome death. Her body was almost sawed in half in what her family reported as "a farm implementation accident". Jim has a different theory. Jim claims that the Chambers mansion housed an "insane male member of the family" who was confined to the attic. One day, he escaped from his confinement and attacked Claudia with a knife, chasing her throughout the house and brutally stabbing her to death. What proof does Jim have to support this theory? Apparently, numerous séances have been held in the house and he has "pieced together the truth from psychic's reports". Furthermore, in the days where the tour included a walk through the mansion itself, one attendee, an "honest cop with the LAPD homicide unit", began "speaking in tongues". Although xenoglossia is usually meaningless gibberish, Jim claims that the cop "revealed the truth of Claudia's death". This was murder, not an "accident". Would this "proof" hold up in court? Jim claims that the mansion is now haunted by violent poltergeist activity. There is "lots of angry energy" with objects being hurled about, household items broken and people attacked!

Jim's web site promises that the attendee will have the opportunity to "touch eerie haunted artifacts that sometimes behave strangely". At this point, Jim produced an old key that he claimed was a "relic" from the Chambers house, and possibly the key to the room where Claudia was "murdered". He then performed a trick whereby the key appeared to move of its own accord. Later he also demonstrated 'automatic writing'. Obviously compelled to provide his guests with ghosts, Jim vehemently insisted that these were displays of the paranormal, not of magic.

As the cold San Franciscan wind set in, we arrived at Atherton Mansion, California's answer to the Amityville Horror. This is the former home of the beautiful and flirtatious "feminist romance writer" Gertrude Atherton. Gertrude lived with her husband George and mother-in-law. The two women were well known for berating George for being "ineffectual". In an effort to assert himself, George accepted an offer to journey to Chile with a group of sailors. A mere three days into the voyage, George died of kidney failure. The ship's captain preserved George's body in a barrel of rum and his remains were shipped back to his widow. His 'arrival' coincided with the start of some curious phenomena. The Atherton house was besieged by poltergeist activity, forcing the women to flee the home. The phenomena reputedly continues to this day and Gertrude is now also one of the resident ghosts. Jim described Gertrude as "a ghost seen as a glowing ball and likes to play pranks on men". Sylvia Browne once conducted a séance at the Atherton mansion, claiming she could sense the presence of "women who don't like men" and "a frail man". I guess she'd heard this story too.

Our final stop was at a magnificent mansion on the corner of Bush and Octavia Streets and bordered by a grove of eucalyptus trees (which are to be found everywhere in the SF Bay!). This was the home of Mary Ellen Pleasant, better known as the Voodoo Queen of San Francisco. Mary was born into slavery in Georgia in 1814. Her early years are undocumented but it is known that she was emancipated, received some schooling and eventually lived in New Orleans where she assisted in the dangerous work of freeing
slaves. Here she met the infamous Marie Laveau, the original Voodoo Queen. Mary learned Marie's craft of acquiring 'sensitive' information and cleverly using this to blackmail the elite, to gain wealth and influence. In the mid 19th century, Mary made a final move, to San Francisco, where she continued her mission of liberating the enslaved and is known today by yet another epithet, "The Mother of Civil Rights in California". Mary also employed her cunning to exploit the SF wealthy and amassed an incredible fortune of 30 million dollars! Later in life she was discredited after a disastrous lawsuit and lost her social influence. She died penniless and was buried in Napa. It is believed that Mary haunts the mansion and premises, and can be seen at night, amongst the eucalypt trees that she had actually planted herself. Others claim she is a mischievous ghost, who pelts disbelievers with gumnuts! The corner has become a spot where people visit to 'make a wish'. In keeping with this tale, Jim produced a small 'good luck voodoo doll' and allowed the tour members to make a wish. The bitter cold had set in and I simply wished the tour would end. In an event that I could only attribute to Mary, the tour was over.

1661 Octavia Street plaque honoring African-American Mary Ellen Pleasant.

Also see: CALIFORNIA VOODOO QUEEN: Mary Ellen Pleasant

Jim's website states that he shares "real ghost stories based on serious documented research" although this clearly involved a lot of anecdotal 'evidence', bias and dramatic embellishment. Did any of the (mostly believing) tour members witness the guaranteed ghost? No. But many interpreted Jim's magic tricks as displays of the paranormal, based on his misleading claims. This was a theatrical tour, presented with great flair but no skepticism. Why, that would spoil the atmosphere!

Overall, the tour was extremely entertaining and although the background research for the 'paranormal phenomena' consisted mostly of anecdotal evidence and whimsical newspaper articles, these stories are 'ripping yarns' and are historically significant from a folkloric perspective. And if there are ghosts in this city, who can blame them for hanging around? As Rudyard Kipling once said, "There's only one drawback of San Francisco. It's hard to leave".

Karen Stollznow

20 QUESTIONS WITH KAREN STOLLZNOW Karen has researched and written about a large range of phenomena, including: ghosts, psychics, aura reading, poltergeists, mediums and spiritualism, chain letters, astrology, tarot, divination, hoaxes, pareidolia, angels, cults, curses, UFOs, legends, cryptozoology, psychic healing, tarot, graphology, automatic writing, anti-gravity spots, conspiracy theories, and alternative medicine. > MORE HERE <

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