Tag Archives: ghost

The Ghosts of Alcatraz

Nationality: American
Age: 13
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Francisco, California
Performance Date: 2/26/19
Primary Language: English

Main Piece

Informant: “My class always talks about how Alcatraz is haunted.”

Collector: “Really? Are there any specific ghosts that people mention?”

Informant: “Yeah! Al Capone is one of the most common ones I hear, and then the people who tried escaping the island when they were prisoners. A lot of my classmates say that they are stuck at sea, and that on the boat ride over there that the ghosts try to get help from the passengers.”

Collector: “Do they know that Al Capone didn’t die on Alcatraz?”

Informant: “I think so…they say that the reason his ghost stays there is because that is where he suffered the most during his life.”

Collector: “Has your class been there together or have they just hear about it in the city?”

Informant: “We went on a field trip and people working there even mentioned it. They sell some stuff in the gift shop that has to do with it! I think they might give tours about the ghosts.” 

Analysis

Alcatraz offers a prime example of how folklore can be used in a marketable way with a great deal of the tourism to the spot inspired by famous ghost stories. Although the informant is younger and did not have any detailed examples of haunting stories on the island, she probably has a greater idea of it being a haunted spot than some older people she knows. The amount of time that has passed since the prison was actively in use and not just a National Park designated land has allowed it to become further associated with the past identities that it has held, with particular attention to the era in which it held its prison.

 

“La Llorona”

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 20
Residence: Colorado
Performance Date: 4-17-19
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Main Piece: “The story of La Llorona, was one that my mom used to tell me a lot when I was a kid. The story goes that there was this lady who would go to the river and cry… and she would always be crying… every day. She would go to the river because one day years ago, when she went out to the river, she took her children with her and just drowned them cause she was possessed. So she felt horrible and ever since that day she would go down to the river every day and cry. My mom used to say that if I was bad, La Llorona would come and get me, and then take me to the river and drown me. My mom even said that one time she saw her when she was a child, and she was convinced that she existed. La Llorona would always be described as wearing a veil. One day when my mom was younger and she was home, she went outside and sine she grew up on a ranch there were a bunch of corn fields that lined the property. And while she was outside, she looked over and standing at the edge of the cornfield there was a lady with a veil standing in-front of the corn field.”

 

Background: UV knows this myth from his mother from when he was growing up in Mexico. His mother would tell him this story along with his other siblings, and he said that it always scared him. He mentioned that this was a very common myth that was told in Mexico, and that almost everybody he knew had been told some variation of this story. It was something that was very prevalent in UV’s life. UV also discussed that when he heard this story, that the themes and the message he got out of it was that, La Llorona represented the consequences if you do bad. Probably not a demon, but if you disobey your parents and if you do bad things then bad things will happen to you. Specifically in this case since he was told this as a child, he said that it further reinforced his obedience because he didn’t want anything to happen to him so he made sure to be kind and follow the rules so that La Llorona wouldn’t come get him.

 

Context of Performance: UV told me this story while we were hanging out at my apartment and talking about the different stories and myths that our parents used to tell us when we were kids. We were also talking about how the story of La Llorona was being made into a live action film, and he wanted to tell me the story that he had heard when he was a child so that we could see how it compared to the new movie.

 

Analysis: Being from America, I was vaguely familiar with this story but only from a very surface level. It was certainly interesting to hear how dark this story was and especially the consequences that come from it. Given that this was mainly a story to be told to children, it was just surprising to me to hear about a specter figure who would seek children who were bad and then drown them if she got a hold of them. But this story may simply seem dark to me because American myths for children are generally more lighthearted, and my own cultural bias may be playing into this. Based on the conversation I had with UV, I find that this story is a pretty effective tool for parents to use to ensure their children do not disobey them or act out. UV mentioned that Mexico is very big on respect and especially obeying your family, so this story certainly reinforces that idea for young kids. I think in some ways, this story could also even remind parents to keep an eye on their children so that they aren’t getting into trouble. La Llorona may be a scary specter for children, but it may also even represent a looming danger around children, one that parents must always make sure they are aware of so that they can keep their children safe.

 

For another version of this legend, see:

The Curse of La Llorona. Directed Michael Chaves. Warner Bros. Entertainment, 2019.

Poltergeist

Nationality: American
Age: 34
Occupation: Program Coordinator at the School of Interactive Media and Games and the University of southern California, and freelance comic book writer
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 6, 2018
Primary Language: English

Collected in the informant’s office on his free time. I asked him to describe a time where he experienced something that he couldn’t explain.

The informant attended the University of Southern California many years ago. The apartment he discusses is not known to be haunted.
Informant: “Um… Well, uhh… When I was in school here at USC, uh, there was a series of very strange events in my building. And, uhh… one night there was a loud, uh, series of noises from my living room of my one-bedroom apartment. I could see that my, uh, cla- my roommate was asleep next to us, and but there was clearly someone in the other room. And when I went in to investigate, things had been knocked off the shelves and walls, but the room was not broken into. Uh, and I am convinced that it was a poltergeist.”

Interviewer: “What would you define a poltergeist as?”

Informant: “Uh, well poltergeists are, uh, unmoored spirits traditionally, uh, kept from the afterlife by their own unfinished business, uhh, frequently revolved, or revolving around, like, rage, hate, or anger – Negative emotions that have kept them tethered to the world. But, uh, poltergeists traditionally, uh, travel. Uh, they’re not tied to one singular location. Um, so I believe at the time, uh, there was a, it was simply a poltergeist was moving through our apartment complex.”

Interviewer: “Interesting… Were there any other details about the incident?”

Informant: “[Sighs and smacks lips, thinking] Um… Only that a apropo of nothing, a similar incident was reported by our downstairs neighbors the night before, and, uh, a very strange occurrence happened a few days later when everyone was watching a movie together, and in the same moment, everyone screamed, uh, because we all saw, in the same moment, a face in the screen. It was like a, just an image of like, the characters were standing in front of a bush, and the green bush, for a moment, shifted, and we all saw it.”

Interviewer: “You saw the face too?”

Informant: “I saw the face, yeah.”

Interviewer: “What did the face look like?”

Informant: “Uh, it was just a brief moment of, like, an, an angry man’s face. Like a screaming face.”

Interviewer: “What do you think that was? Same thing?”

Informant: “[Sighs deeply in thought] … Yes? It couldn’t have been a different poltergeist. Like probably the same spirit infesting the building, uh, for that period of time.”
The informant has an interesting claim of poltergeists being able to move from location to location, not tied to a person or place like other sources claim. He also has a reliable account due to other people also being witnesses to multiple accounts of this “poltergeist.”

Marjorie Jackson’s House

Nationality: American
Age: 48
Occupation: Stay-at-Home Mother
Residence: San Jose, CA
Performance Date: 4/20/18
Primary Language: English
Language: German, Japanese, French

Context & Analysis

The subject, my mother, and I were getting coffee for breakfast and I asked her if she could tell me some stories about her childhood. The subject’s father (who has recently passed away) was a history professor in the Midwest. The family moved frequently because of this, which made it difficult for them to settle in a single area for too long. The subject stated that this was one of the most memorable urban legends, or ghost stories, that she knew of as a teenager living in Indiana. This legend is a classic example of the ‘neighborhood haunted house’ and also happened to be a traceable true story that was of large international interest. According to usatoday.com, Marjorie Jackson—an heiress to the Standard Grocery Chain—hid as much as $15 million in various places in her home—“in closets, toolboxes, garbage cans and vacuum cleaner bags” (usatoday.com). In 1977, Jackson was killed when two burglars broke into her home and shot her in the stomach. It is interesting that the subject did not point out the infamous nature of this story in her narrative, instead presenting it as an urban legend. While the “hole” aspect of the story seems to be more of an embellishment, the rest of her account aligns with the documented case of Jackson’s murder in 1977.

(Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/09/21/murdered-heiress-mystery/72590690/)

Main Piece

“When I was in high school there was this house that a lady was murdered in; her name was Marjorie Jackson, um, and the house…so people went in—supposedly she hid money in her walls and under her mattresses and stuff and she didn’t have any money in the bank so she hid it all over her house, so supposedly people [burglars] came in and after they heard those rumors and they killed her and there were holes all over the walls. So, like, me and my friends sometimes [laughs] would go to the house because nobody wanted to buy it so we would sneak in there and there really were holes all over and it was probably not safe to go in there cuz it was kind of [laughs] condemned. That was Marjorie Jackson’s house.”

Legend: The Shadow

I discovered this legend when researching unique legends online. The following is the quoted legend from online.

“The Shadow”

“I didn’t know that’s what it was called until much later. I was living in a house in Laguna Beach that had been there since the 1920s. In it’s history, it had been a speakeasy, a brothel and a house for smuggling illegal immigrants.

One day, my new wife and I were having an argument. I can’t even recall what it was about. She walked down the block to get a cup of coffee and cool off, and I was alone in the house. The way the place was built was incredibly haphazard. There was a bedroom and living room on one side, then a bathroom with two entrances. On the other side of the bathroom was a hallway that had windows in one side and two bedrooms on the other. From my bedroom, I could look across the hall into the bathroom, then through the bathroom and down the other hall. I was standing at my dresser, and I just noticed movement out the corner of my eye, and looked down there. There was… and honest to god, this gives me goose bumps just typing it, 17 years later, a black figure. It was maybe three feet tall, and it was only vaguely humanoid. It looked like black scribbles, like someone had scribbled a human shape, but the scribbles moved, like electricity arcing, that’s the best way to describe it.

There was no sound that I could remember. I distinctly remember when I saw it I wasn’t afraid, just like, WTF? Then it noticed me looking at it. I can’t say it turned around, it just, focused on me I guess. THEN I was scared. I didn’t move, didn’t scream, nothing, I was just frozen, because it just fucking came at me, it RUSHED down the hall towards me. I have no idea what it intended, but as soon as it entered the bathroom, the door closest to me just SLAMMED shut on it. I screamed. I yelled for my wife. She wasn’t home. I went the fuck outside, into the daylight, and didn’t go back in until she got home about 10 minutes later.

I don’t believe in ghosts. I don’t believe I saw something supernatural, but I know I saw something. I don’t know what it was.”

Analysis:

I found this legend especially interesting because I am from Laguna Beach and found personal interest in the ghost story taking place in my hometown. There is a similar styled home in my neighbor that is also rumored to be haunted. It is one of the oldest homes in Laguna Beach and has its own lighthouse and saltwater swimming pool that is embedded in the actual rocks. I visited this home once and immediately felt it had an eerie atmosphere. To this day, whenever I pass the home I still continually feel that strange, supernatural element to it. I therefore found this legend extremely relatable and am curious of its origins. It would be interesting to know if perhaps the teller of the legend lived in the same home I saw or a different one.

Website Citation: For other similar ghost legends, visit the following URL where this legend was originally published:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/Mandatory/ghost-stories_b_8296528.html