Hillcrest’s colorful past may be darker than the colors on the rainbow flag. The Uptown community has a spooky past that many don’t know about – odd deaths, moving cemeteries (minus the bodies), strange hauntings and untimely curses are all a part of the community’s history, from its earliest days to the present day.

Paranormal activity in Uptown San Diego is documented by more than fortune tellers and eccentric used-bookstore owners. Researchers, historians, and everyday people have had paranormal experiences, seen ghosts, or witnessed too-odd-to-be-normal circumstances.

The Deeble family

Hillcrest was the scene of an interesting story in the 1930s. The Deeble family owned a prosperous mortuary in Hillcrest, and was the first to have a motorized automobile as a hearse.

The Deebles suffered a horrible curse following a tragic event in August, 1930.

“The son accidentally ran over and killed an older man – a pedestrian – with his vehicle. Years later, his father was crossing the street and was killed by a car,” said historian Sarai Johnson.

The local newspaper covered the incident.

“A 70-year-old man, believed by police and hospital attendants to be Andy Dundee, was fatally injured last night when he was struck by an auto driven by William Deeble, 18, of 3140 Third Street, at Sixth and Beech streets,” says the August 1, 1930, edition of the San Diego Union.

Dundee’s skull was badly fractured. He died shortly after.

By December 1932, rumors passed that this well-to-do mortuary family was cursed by Andy Dundee’s ghost – who required revenge for his death.

“San Diego’s traffic fatality toll reached 54 for 1932 with the death of W.D. Deeble, 50, 3140 Third Avenue, who was struck by an auto at Fourth Avenue and Spruce Street,” according to the December 20, 1932, edition of the San Diego Union. He was crossing the street on the way to buy a copy of Life magazine – an ironic end to an earthly existence.

Moving graveyards and restless spirits

Though relocated in 1970 to Mount Hope, Calvary Cemetery in Mission Hills has its own dark past. Underneath the green, rolling soccer fields of Pioneer Park rest the graves of countless bodies, dating as far back as the late 1800s.

“In 1870, the City of San Diego set aside 10 acres of land, bought from Joseph Manasse, for a cemetery,” wrote Laurie Bissell in the Journal of San Diego History. “Half of the cemetery would be for Protestant burials, the other half for the Catholics. The Protestants never used their plot. The Catholic section, said to have been laid out by Father Antonio Ubach [of Mission San Diego de Alcala], became known as Calvary Cemetery. Many early San Diegans such as the Bandinis and Couts, the Ames and Father Ubach were amongst the 1,650 buried at Calvary.”

“With the opening of Holy Cross, a new Catholic cemetery in 1919, Calvary fell to disuse. Burials continued through 1960, but were rare. The Catholic Parish of the Immaculate Conception continued to maintain Calvary through 1939, when the City took on the responsibility to provide employment under the W.P.A. Just before the City took over, a fire in the caretaker’s shack, located on Calvary grounds, destroyed all the burial records except one book which dated back to 1899. Unmarked graves lost their identity.”

After much deterioration and vandalism of this site, the city removed the gravestones and “stored” them in a ravine at Mount Hope Cemetery.

The bodies never left.

Pioneer Memorial Park has approximately 147 headstones from the old Calvary Cemetery. Originally, the cemetery had between 1,600 and 2,000 graves, according to pioneerpark.net, a Web site created by extensive research through Grant Elementary School in Mission Hills.

Peter O’Malley was born June 29, 1846 in County Mayo, Ireland. He lived in San Diego for 50 years. Peter and his wife lived in the cemetery caretaker’s house at 1701 West Washington Ave.. Today, this house borders Pioneer Park. Peter died December 27, 1933. His death certificate shows he was the Calvary Cemetery caretaker and the last time he worked was in 1922. Peter was buried in Calvary Cemetery.

Graveyards – like life – are not forever, according to Seth Mallios, professor of anthropology at San Diego State University and author of Cemeteries of San Diego.

The city of San Diego has a rich cultural history extending over two-and-a-half centuries.

“This book is as much about San Diego’s living as it is about its dead,” said Mallios in a March 2007 press release. “Everyone living in San Diego has a link to the region’s past. We occupy the same space and continue to transform the local environment, and for many of us, San Diego will eventually be our final resting place.”

Cemeteries of San Diego does more than talk about missing cemeteries – it alludes to San Diego’s own historical relationship with the dead. “Coming from the East Coast where there is a reverence for cemeteries – where it is emphasized that these are gravestones, these are very large, heavy objects that are anchored to the deceased – I was under the false belief that it was the same way in San Diego,” Mallios said. “It’s not. Time and time again, we see that these gravestones move all over the County.”

Historian Sarai Johnson agrees.

“Our culture is more detached about death,” Johnson says. “In San Diego, historically people would die at home; houses used to be built with parlors where families would hold wakes. Now that medical technology has advanced, we go to hospitals and have better options than to just accept death.”

“One of the things that a lot of western scholars have noted is that everything with the ritual of death is being decreased these days,” Mallios says. “Funerals aren’t as big. The precessions aren’t as big. Gravestones are much smaller.

“Just because today’s American society isn’t that tied to paying respects to the dead, that doesn’t mean we’ll always feel that way. And that’s where this is an endangered resource. If we forget where these individuals are buried, if these gravestones either get grown over with grass or get vandalized and discarded, we will lose these resources forever.”

Perhaps respect is just what restless spirits need in San Diego.

A spirit advocate

San Diego is a hotbed for paranormal activity. “By its very definition, paranormal activity is anything that is outside of what a reasonable person would determine to be normal,” said Bonnie Vent, paranormal researcher, medium, and self-proclaimed “Spirit Advocate.”

Her Web site, www.sdparanormal.com includes videos and transcripts of communications with the dead. “It is not pseudo-science – it is truly science in the making. What we know about science today is far different than 100 years ago. Our five senses only detect about 10 percent of our environment, and even that statistic is just a best guess.”

Vent’s work has led to numerous investigations of haunted houses in San Diego, including Hotel Del Coronado, Villa Montezuma, The Comedy Store in La Jolla, and the infamous Whaley House in Old Town.

“Being a ‘spirit advocate’ you provide an active voice for spirits on the other side,” Vent says. “Delivering these messages also includes some historic research to provide proof of the accuracy of the message as well as action items to assist the spirit in finishing their projects here with us. Providing tangible proof of ‘life after death’ and providing a bridge between their dimension and ours has become my life’s work.

Former San Diego resident and builder of Villa Montezuma in Downtown, Jesse Shepherd is just one of the many spirits Vent has communicated with. Rumored to have been gay, Shepherd was a renowned concert pianist, writer, and medium. According to the San Diego Historical Society, he reputedly gave séances in his home, claiming to be in touch with ancient Egyptian spirits, and put on a remarkable piano performance, which included singing “in two voices,” made possible by his great vocal range. He sometimes claimed that the spirits of famous composers or pianists performed through him, and he considered his musical talents to be the result of intuition rather than study and practice.

“He claimed to channel Chopin on one hand and Beethoven on the other when he performed his concerts on the piano,” Vent said. “There is some speculation as to whether he did psychic readings at the Villa Montezuma. It was rumored and denied by one of the gentlemen who paid to have the house built. The evidence is strong that he had these abilities; there is just debate where he may have used those skill sets. Jesse told me that he did readings at the Villa. I believe him.”

Shepherd spoke through Vent on numerous occasions. According to Vent, on December 7, 2002, Shepherd spoke of his home, and how its architecture accentuated his work as a medium and spiritualist: “My house the Villa Montezuma was built with my spiritual gifts in mind. Those that were working on the house at the time had no idea of what I had in store. It is a regret of mine that I was not able to stay and do the work I had longed to do.

“One of the prime spots [for attracting energy] is just off the music room. … It was my intention to have séances in this area. I did on several occasions have a large table set up in the Music Room. Some of San Diego’s most prominent ladies attended these séances. I always found having female energy present enhanced the experience. I would give each person a small glass of sherry to calm their nerves. I was never sure if they were nervous about contacting the other side or what their husbands would say if they found out. These séances were done secretly. On several occasions we talked with relatives of the ladies and sometimes we would contact more noteworthy individuals.”

Before the Ghosts & Gravestones Tour of San Diego was cancelled last year, scores of locals and tourists visited Shepherd’s Villa Montezuma home.

“I’m sure some people wonder if I am always at the Villa,” said Shepherd through Vent during one of her contacts with this colorful figure. “The answer is no. I do enjoy coming to see the tours – the actors remind me of myself… I have been spotted on occasion. I usually like to stand right behind the actor and pretend I am once again putting on my show. Sometimes they sense my presence and forget their lines.” For more information on Jesse Shepherd and Villa Montezuma, visit http://www.villamontezuma.org/.

The Whaley House

Probably the most famous haunted house in San Diego is the Whaley House in Old Town.

“People have reported the full gamut [of paranormal activity] – Thomas and Anna Whaley materializing, smelling cigar smoke, lavender perfume, things moving on their own, etc,” Vent says. “There is a little girl spirit there as well, who, to the best of my knowledge, has not identified herself. I asked her what her name is, and she replied that she is not allowed to speak to strangers. She will take your hand, and I have had several encounters with her. There are several non-Whaley spirits there as well.”

According to the Save Our Heritage Organization, the Whaley House is the most well known haunted house in the United States. The earliest documented ghost at the Whaley House is known as Yankee Jim, who was convicted of attempted grand larceny in San Diego in 1852 and hanged on a gallows off the back of a wagon on the site where the Whaley house now stands.

Although Thomas Whaley had been a spectator at the execution, he did not let it dissuade him from buying the property a few years later and building a home for his family there. According to the San Diego Union, “soon after the couple and their children moved in, heavy footsteps were heard moving about the house. Whaley described them as sounding as though they were made by the boots of a large man. Finally he came to the conclusion that these unexplained footfalls were made by Yankee Jim Robinson.”

Countless visitors to the Whaley house have reported encountering Thomas Whaley himself. The late June Reading, former curator of the Whaley House Museum, said, “We had a little girl perhaps 5 or 6 years old who waved to a man she said was standing in the parlor. We couldn’t see him. But often children’s sensitivity is greater than an adult’s.” However, many adults have reported seeing the apparition of Whaley usually on the upper landing. One said he was “clad in frock coat and pantaloons, the face turned away from her, so she could not make it out. Suddenly it faded away.”

The specter of Anna Whaley has also been reported in the downstairs rooms and in the garden. In 1964, Mrs. Whaley’s floating, drifting spirit appeared to [television personality Regis Philbin. He responded in an interview that year: “All of a sudden I noticed something on the wall. There was something filmy white, it looked like an apparition of some kind. I got so excited I couldn’t restrain myself! I flipped on the [flash]light and nothing was there but a portrait of Anna Whaley, the long-dead mistress of the house.”

America’s Most Haunted is also a California State Park and museum, open daily. For tours and further information about this home’s infamous history, call 619-297-7511 or visit http://www.whaleyhouse.org/.

Looking for a tour of San Diego’s most haunted? Check out tours with ghost hunter Michael Brown, whose tour is based on his own paranormal experiences in Old Town San Diego. Tours are Thursday through Sunday, both at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. in Old Town. There are no tours in November and December, so make reservations soon! For more information or to make a reservations, visit http://www.oldtownsmosthaunted.com.

Is paranormal activity real? Are parts of San Diego actually haunted, retaining the energies of those who have come before us? There is much debate, but even historians tend to believe:

“Paranormal activity is normal,” says Johnson. “Our culture has shifted our thinking to be more concrete, logical, and so we are dismissive of paranormal activity. The more we examine paranormal activities the more we will be able to

discern between the paranormal and superstition. I believe that paranormal activity exists, it is a part of our natural environment, and that some people are more sensitive to it than others.”