Page 68 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

48 Ghosts and Phantoms

something—keeps walking around half the tions that were expended there in the early
night turning all the lights on. Located at 2482 days of San Diego. Many individuals who
San Diego Avenue in Old San Diego, the have visited the old house have heard the
Whaley House has been restored and is now sounds of a crowded courtroom in session and
owned and operated by the San Diego Histori- the noisy meetings of men in Thomas Wha-
cal Society as a tourist attraction. Often, while ley’s upstairs study. According to many psychi-
conducting tours through the old mansion, cal researchers, the fact that this one single
members of the society have heard eerie foot- mansion served so many facets of city life, in
steps moving about other parts of the house addition to being a family home, almost guar-
when the rooms were visibly unoccupied. antees several layers of psychic residue perme-
ating themselves upon the environment.
June Reading, a former director of the
Whaley House, told of footsteps being heard Many sensitive visitors to the Whaley
in the master bedroom and on the stairs. Win- House have also perceived the image of Anna
dows, even when fastened down with three Whaley, who, some feel, still watches over the
four-inch bolts on each side, would fly open of mansion that she loved so much. And who,
their own accord—often in the middle of the according to a good number of those who
night, triggering the burglar alarm. People have encountered her presence, deeply resents
often reported having heard screams echoing the intrusion of strangers.
throughout the second story of the mansion, Reading remembered the night in 1964
and once a large, heavy china closet had top- when television talk show host Regis Philbin
pled over by itself. Numerous individuals had and a friend saw Anna Whaley as they sat on
sensed or psychically seen the image of a scaf- the Andrew Jackson sofa at 2:30 A.M.The
fold and a hanging man on the south side of ghostly image floated from the study, through
the mansion.
the music room, and into the parlor. At that
moment, Philbin, in nervous excitement, dis-
solved the apparition with the beam of his
flashlight.
NO one is allowed in the Whaley House In the fall of 1966, a group of newspeople

after 4 P.M. volunteered to stay in Whaley House to spend
the night with Yankee Jim. Special permission
was granted to the journalists by the historical
society, and the ghost hunters settled in for
According to Reading, 10 years before their overnight stay. The wife of one of the
Thomas Whaley constructed his home on the reporters had to be taken home by 9:30 P.M.
site, a sailor named Yankee Jim Robinson had She was badly shaken and claimed that she
been hanged on the spot of what would later had seen something on the upper floor that
become the arch between the music room and she refused to describe. The entire party of
the living room in the mansion. Whaley had journalists left the house before dawn. They,
been an observer when Yankee Jim kept his too, refused to discuss the reason for their pre-
appointment with the hangman.
mature departure, but some people say the
Some visitors to the Whaley House have ghost of Yankee Jim, still protesting the horror
reported seeing a gaudily dressed woman with of his death, confronted them. Since that
a painted face lean out of a second-story win- time, night visits have not been permitted in
dow. In Reading’s opinion, that could well be Whaley House.
an actress from one of the theatrical troupes
In addition to the sightings of the primary
that had leased the second floor in November
spirits of Thomas and Anna Whaley, Reading
1868.
said that the other ghosts most often seen
The Court House Wing of the mansion is include those of Yankee Jim, who walks across
generally thought to be the most haunted spot the upstairs sitting room to the top of the
in the Whaley House, due to the violent emo- stairs; a young girl named Washburn, a play-

The Gale Enc y clopedia of the Unusu al and Unexplained