THE HAUNTED MALIBU

Author D.S. Dollman (<-- the picture is not her!) of the online group JustGhostStories found a recent haunted house article in the Great Falls Tribune apparently related to a 1975 disappearance of a woman who lived there.

http://http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070906/NEWS01/70906003/1002AID=/20070906/NEWS01/70906003/1002

What is really interesting is the comments. Readers were upset that the Tribune was so callous in sharing this “un-news-worthy” item so soon after the disappearance. (32 years ago!) This brought to mind how our society goes so overboard to make sure there won’t be any lingering memories.

We completely remodeled Columbine High School in Littleton, CO. They bulldozed the Luby’s in Killeen, Texas because of the shootings there. I remember a McDonalds that met a similar fate, but I don’t remember where it was. And more recently, an Amish community built a whole new school rather than fix the bullet holes in the old one.

I remember they didn’t tear down the clock tower at the University of Texas after the shootings there. In fact, I’m a bit fuzzy about when we started razing every building where a mass murder occurs, but I know a place where a most grizzly crime took place that still exists, and I’ve been in it many times!

First, let me warn you. The murders were BAD. Do not read the rest of this post if you are eating.

There is a building on the Southwest Freeway at Westpark in Houston we all know as the Haunted Malibu. It was a Malibu Gran Prix family fun center, with a go-cart track and an arcade. One night in the early ‘80s, just after closing, three disgruntled employees entered the building and murdered everybody. All five victims were mutilated. One 19-year-old, who tried to hide in the bathroom, had a 12-inch knife twisted into his brain like a corkscrew. (Don’t say I didn’t warn you!) The “gentleman” pictured above was found guilty of this murder.

If you look this up on Wikipedia, it says the place was shuttered because of the murders, but not so. After a short while, the center reopened. My Scouts went there many times after washing cars on Saturdays, between 1986 and 1993. When we had someone with us that didn’t know about the murders, we would watch them use the restroom. Often they came out and said something like: “What’s up with that bathroom! I can’t go with somebody watching me!” I swear, from personal experience, that no one is ever alone in that bathroom, and the sensation is most uncomfortable.

The building was a car dealership for awhile, but now it stands abandoned and forlorn, a canvas for gangs to post graffiti on.

What do we accomplish when we destroy a place where ghosts remain? Does it hurt the ghosts? Obviously tearing down the scene of the crime doesn’t satisfy a spirit’s unfinished business, so what becomes of them?

IS THIS HELL’S GATE?

There’s something about the left side of this gate at Goliad State Historical Park in south Texas.

Weirdness: inside the museum stands a model of the Mission Espiritu Santo. At the location where this gate is now, the model builder inserted a man doubled over in agony.

Weirdness: In some old maps there was a well at this location. The area does sink, and has been filled in with concrete.

Weirdness: One Halloween weekend I stayed at this park and I was completely alone in it. On another Halloween weekend the park was crowded. Soon after sunset, multitudes of costumed people lit torches and marched into the mission chapel. It was most bizarre and quite against the posted rules in Texas state parks, and it did not seem to be appropriate for a chapel. Park rangers were nowhere to be found! The next Halloween, it was empty again.

Extreme Weirdness: In 1986 we stayed at the park on a full moon. A presence at this gate called several to go there around midnight. Those that dared to walk across the place returned to our screened shelter crying for no reason. They did not understand what happened to them. The experience changed the course of their lives, and not for the better!

More Weirdness: I have seen this place in my dreams since I was a young child, long before I had been to Texas.

I believe this may be a portal through which evil spirits pass. After seeing the effect it can have on people, I won’t walk over that spot, day or night!

The area has plenty of reasons to be haunted. Goliad has a violent history. For instance, in 1836 Santa Anna executed 300 prisoners here who thought they were about to be released. Legend has it that the San Antonio River that runs through the park turned red with blood! Across the highway, an actual apparition haunts the old Presidio.

LA POSADA: A HAUNTED HOTEL

In 1991, while on a high-adventure trip with my Boy Scout troop, we had a most spiritual time in Santa Fe. That particular morning, we went out to Nambe Falls to go swimming, then came back into town later for the afternoon. A summer thunderstorm came up, and we ducked into the Woolworths on the historic plaza square to escape the deluge. From the television over the coffee bar we learned that a whole family had been swept away by a wall of water that came crashing down a normally dry arroyo. We had crossed that same place four hours earlier.

That evening we took a ghost walk on which we were privileged to see the Staab House (click the link to read about it). The house is completely surrounded by the modern La Posada Hotel. What they don’t tell you is WHY the house is inside a hotel. So I will…

Julia Staab loved that Victorian mansion, but it eventually passed hands to the folks who built La Posada. But Julia’s ghost would not let the construction workers tear down the house. At times she was violent. Other times, the workers just became sick. The builders had to give up. But they built the hotel anyway, with the complete Staab mansion contained inside it! This turned out to be a good business move, too—the ghost of Julia Staab is still quite active, and the hotel gets a premium rate from those souls brave enough to stay a night in the haunted house!

The photo was taken in the sitting room. We couldn’t see Julia, but we could sure feel her presence!

MYSTERIOUS MARFA LIGHTS—
MYSTERIOUS ENCHANTED ROCK—
GHOSTS? ALIENS? NATURAL PHENOMENON?

Earlier this evening I reviewed a book over on my “Scouts From The Big City” blog titled: “The Ghost of Mount Chinati,” by Walter LeCroy, a fellow Texan. It is the story of a Boy Scout named Corbie Ransom and his close encounter with the Marfa Lights.

Marfa is an isolated small town in West Texas. The lights appear shortly after sundown above the hills south of town. Many folks have seen these lights. They appear often enough to have received significant media attention. Yet no one has been able to prove what they are.

Above is a photo of Enchanted Rock in the Texas hill country, the crowning jewel of the most popular park in the state. The solid granite dome rises 500 feet above the surrounding country. The landmark is considered sacred by the Indians. At night, flashes of light are sometimes seen that appear to originate in the rock. Again, no explanation is offered. There does not seem to be any correlation with weather conditions or the moon.

Anybody have thoughts to contribute about these mysterious lights?