Following their near-fatal experience on Saipan, the team decided to go on retreat prior to beginning their investigation of Los Angeles, California and the mainland United States. The area for the retreat was the northern shore of Kaua’i, Hawai’i – Polaris’s hometown and the unofficial starting point for the Outcast Earth project. The entire team – Polaris, Ash, Anvil, Cipher, Trespass, Meridian and Rune – participated and were even joined by Polaris’s eldest son and former OCE member, Coyote.

“The eight of us parked at Ha'ena Beach Park and then walked into Ke'e Beach to camp,” Polaris wrote in his journal of January 8, 2007. “Ke'e Beach may be the prettiest site on the island. It has thickets of palm trees and the dense island forests that Kaua'i is so famous for. The beach is encircled by a huge natural lagoon which serves as a wave break and provides some great snorkeling. But with the winter waves being so high we chose not to even try snorkeling although some of our braver members went into the water with their boogie-boards...”

Over the next few days, the team debated the future of OCE. Paramount to their discussion was the importance of recent events such as the mysterious appearance of Tahiki on Iwo Jima and the warning he seemed to deliver to Ash [See Black Sands of Iwo Jima]; followed by the ominous fortunes received by both Meridian and Cipher during their visit to the Hachiman Jinja shrine on Saipan. Cipher’s fortune, which warned that he would be struck by a great wind that would “blacken” him. appeared to have been fulfilled... as his serious injuries in the cave on Saipan would attest. But what about the other warnings? What did Tahiki mean when he told Ash that the OCE team had enemies that would “sneak into your midst like flies?” Additionally, Meridian was warned that a great typhoon that she had survived previously was forming again and she should use great care to avoid it. What is the “great typhoon?” What did Tahiki mean and is he helping or hindering the team’s efforts? What enemies could the team possibly have and will they attempt to infiltrate the group unnoticed... like a fly on the wall?

Cipher was the major proponent for what was to become known as the “curse theory.” He proposed that the team, or at least certain members, had somehow become the target of unknown paranormal forces who meant to do them harm. Cipher cited his own near-death experience as proof of this curse, although most of his compatriots remained unconvinced. He was not able to explain why or how the team was jinxed, but the “curse theory” would continue to raise its ugly head in the months to come.

DISNEYLAND: The team arrived in Los Angeles in mid-February 2007 and finally took possession of their customized all-terrain vehicles, known affectionately as the “camels.” In actuality, the “camels” are Japanese military-made vehicles similar to American humvees but lighter, faster and more fuel-efficient. The vehicles represent the teams’ most expensive venture and it took nearly a year for them to be refurbished for the team’s use. With their land transportation secured, the team set off to the only logical first-stop for visitors to L.A... Disneyland!

Meridian described the trip: “As a change of pace, today Polaris decided to take us to Disneyland. But because it was Polaris's idea, he was still looking for paranormal phenomenon at the most carefully coiffed and controlled place on earth. So, while the rest of us were enjoying frozen lemonade and rides of every description, Polaris was scouring the park for old crime scenes, sites of personal tragedy and strange park features going all the way back to Disneyland's first years. P's search for the stranger features at DL did not interfere with anyone's incessant riding of Space Mountain, however...”

And to everyone’s surprise, Polaris was successful in finding a variety of unusual and unexplained stories coming out of the Magical Kingdom:

From the research I’ve done, there have been nine deaths in the park since it opened in 1955. The majority of these, although tragic, can be largely attributed to stupid guests (mostly adolescent and young adult males) doing stupid things at inopportune times often while under the influence of alcohol. A lot of the websites I found that had information on these deaths were quick to paint Disneyland as some kind of abattoir for unsuspecting tourists. Phrases like “blood-splattered history,” “unfortunate souls” and “killer attractions” were easily found. One site was even decorated with cartoons of Mickey-like rodents carrying coffins out of the park. Frankly, I can more readily believe that Mickey’s a peeping-tom (as Trespass would have us believe) than accept Disneyland as some kind of neon killing field. According to statistics found on Wikipedia, Disneyland welcomed their two billionth guest in 2006. That's two billion people who have walked through their doors since 1955 with only nine deaths in that same time period. That means their fatality rate is about .000000001% or very freaking low considering the number of morons who must be accounted for in that two billion figure. I am not trying to be the Disney Corporation’s apologist here, but let’s keep things in perspective. “Blood-splattered history?” For Pete’s sake?!?!

Regardless, I was morbidly interested in what parts of the park had claimed lives. For individual attractions, the Matterhorn and the People-Mover (curiously enough) appear to be tied for first place with two fatalities each. In both cases, the deaths were caused by the guests ignoring safety precautions or deliberately taking themselves out of their seats while the rides were in motion. The area of the park (but not necessarily a single attraction) that has claimed the greatest number of lives, however, is the River of the Americas. That was not a huge surprise to me. Historically, people have always liked to drown themselves by underestimating large bodies of water. The fact that everything else in the park is so carefully controlled probably leads some [visitors] to believe that the River of the Americas is just another ride with built in safety precautions rather than a swiftly moving element of nature. For me, the most heartbreaking tragedy occurred on the river in 1973 when two brothers from Brooklyn, New York, decided to hide out on Tom Sawyer Island in the middle of the river to watch the nighttime fireworks. One online source referred to Tom Sawyer Island as a “land form [that] beckons guests to their deaths, much like the Sirens of classical mythology.” Wow. Upon additional research, however, it doesn’t seem like 18-year old Bogden Delaurot and his younger brother (whose name does not appear in any of the accounts I could locate) were beckoned to the island by anything more supernatural than teenage hijinks. The brothers apparently engineered their unauthorized stay by climbing the fence that separated the “burning settler’s cabin” from the rest of the island. The cabin (if it’s even still there – the team didn’t ride any of the ships around the river during our visit to see for sure) was only visible from the water on the island’s far end. The last time I remember seeing the cabin was during a family visit to the park in the mid-1980s. The brothers hid behind the cabin until the Disneyland staff had emptied the island of all its visitors and shut down the rafts that provided transportation to park’s mainland. Once the seriousness of the boys’ situation presented itself, they decided to make the situation worse by swimming across the river in the dark. Apparently the younger boy couldn’t swim so Bogden decided to carry him on his back.

No one really seems to know if the weight of the younger boy, the temperature of the water, the swiftness of the current [or] all of these lead to Bogden’s death, but somewhere between the island’s edge and the shore of the mainland he slipped beneath the waters and vanished. The younger brother was spotted by visitors and staff members who dispatched a boat and pulled him to safety. Bogden’s body was found the following morning.

Two other deaths occurred on the river in 1983 and 1998. The first of the two incidents had some eerie parallels to the Delaurot death in that it involved two young men who decided to challenge the river waters at night. The victim was Philip Straughan, a resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who was celebrating both his high school graduation and his eighteenth birthday. Straughan and a male friend snuck into a “staff only” area and stole an inflatable motorboat for a joyride around the island. Both boys had been drinking and the raft quickly struck a rock near the island’s shore. Straughan was thrown into the water and drowned. Just as tragic was the death of Luan Phi Dawson in ’98. This was truly a freak accident in which Dawson and his wife were injured when a rope broke loose from the sailing ship, Columbia, and sent a metal cleat flying through the air. The cleat hit Dawson in the head and rendered him brain dead. He died later in the hospital. It should be noted that the Dawson tragedy is one of the few examples in which the victim was not somehow culpable in the accident. Disneyland was found negligent in that case. (Journal entry from February 21, 2007)

Polaris additionally found at least one case of murder in the park:

This happened in March 1981 when a local defense contractor had rented the park for a private party. Mel Yorba, a young man who was apparently under the influence of alcohol, decided to enlighten the festivities by grabbing a young woman in an inappropriate manner near the base of the Matterhorn. The girl’s boyfriend, 28-year old James O’Driscoll, took exception to Yorba’s behavior and the two men began exchanging blows. Then O’Driscoll pulled a knife and depending on whose account you believe, he either stabbed Yorba to death or Yorba lost his balance and fell upon the blade. Either way, O’Driscoll and his girlfriend took off running with Disneyland security in hot pursuit. Apparently O’Driscoll threw the murder weapon into the moat outside of Sleeping Beauty’s castle and then hid in some bushes where he was soon apprehended. The girlfriend was arrested when she tried to sneak out the front entrance. Yorba died, perhaps partially due to the fact that Disneyland staff did not immediately call for paramedics for some inexplicable reason. O’Driscoll got eight years to life for second-degree murder. Disneyland was sued by Yorba’s family and was ordered to pay $600,000 in damages. (Journal entry from February 22, 2007)

The one thing the Magical Kingdom did seem to inspire (besides happiness, of course) was urban legend. Whether pulled from these real and tragic deaths, or just the stuff of gossip, the entire Disney corporation is rife with legend. For more, see our enewsletter The Wonderfully Bizarre World of Disney.

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ANVIL: After their enjoyable time at Disneyland, the team turned their attention to a more grim Los Angeles story – the gruesome murder to Betty Short, better known as the “Black Dahlia.” But before that investigation got solidly underway, the team would suffer another loss that some ascribed to the “curse theory.” On February 26, 2007, original team member Anvil mysteriously vanished from his hotel room. Trespass described the incident in his journal:

...Last night, after we (myself, Polaris, Meridian, Ash and Rune) got back from visiting the Bowers Museum, we went to Anvil’s hotel room to check on him. We had not been able to contact him since late yesterday morning. He didn’t answer his door so we thought he was probably sleeping, still getting over the flu, and left him alone. He hasn't been resting or eating like he should, so his illness has just been hanging on. Polaris and I went by his room again around 7:30 p.m. to see if he wanted any dinner and to check on him. Still no answer at the door so I called his cell phone and Polaris call his room phone. He didn’t answer either. We could hear the room phone ringing through the door but not the cell phone. So I went down to the front desk of the hotel and they gave me another key card for his room. When we let ourselves in we found Anvil was gone. At first Polaris thought that maybe he had felt much better so he decided to go out, but then we noticed that his luggage was gone which was really strange. I went back down to the front desk but the dude there told me that Anvil hadn’t checked out. But then again, the room reservations were in Polaris’s name so even if Anvil decided to leave for some reason, he wouldn’t check us all out. We’ve been calling and texting him repeatedly on his cell phone, but we haven’t received any answer...

Although the team contacted the police, authorities refused to investigate because there was no sign of foul play. In fact, Anvil appears to have packed up most of his belongings and simply walked out of the hotel. He left behind some toiletries and an Outcast Earth embroidered pullover sweater which had been ripped down the center. The team decided to use their own psychic abilities to “sweep” the hotel room for clues. Although nothing conclusive was found, several members had similar impressions. Nearly all of them stated that Anvil left the room under his own power, but that somehow had had been coerced to do so. Ash took it a step further. He told the team he felt that some malevolent personality had entered the room through the window and had then forced Anvil to leave. The problem was that Anvil’s room was on the hotel’s sixth story, and although it was accessible by rooftop ladders it would have been a frightening endeavor for anyone wanting access. However it happened, all the team members felt that there was certainly more to Anvil’s disappearance than met the eye. To date, no one has come forward claiming to know Anvil’s whereabouts. The motive for his departure is still unknown.

Although reeling from the loss of Anvil, the team persevered and concluded their investigation on the Black Dahlia murder. Their quest took them all over L.A., including to residential neighborhoods and the famous Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel, the last “official” place where Betty Short was seen alive. Polaris detailed that investigative highlights in his journal entry of March 13, 2007:

The Biltmore is probably the most famous hotel in L.A. and anyone who was ever anyone in California has stayed there at some point or another, including presidents, movie stars and monarchs. It also hosted the Academy Awards for years and years. Today, it's dwarfed by the surrounding buildings, but when it was originally built in 1928 is was the crowning jewel of the city. The hotel houses nearly 700 hotel guest rooms plus 350,000 square feet of office space.

Our webmasters told us that Short was last seen exiting the hotel through the Olive Street exit which is still there and looks very similar to how it did in 1947. [Webmaster's Note: Most investigations undertaken by the OCE team will begin in a state of intentional ignorance. By providing as few details on the incident under investigation as possible, we have the greatest opportunity to produce relative psychic impressions without contaminating our sensitives with extraneous detail.]

The five of us (Rune, Meridian, Trespass, Ash and myself) loitered around in the lobby for about 45 minutes, but no one seemed to be getting any impressions off the place. Or maybe more accurately, everyone was getting too many impressions off the place. Ash even noted this to me when he said, “This lobby is too noisy and crowded. I can’t concentrate on anything in here.” We might have had a different outcome if we had seen the lobby as Short had seen it: late at night when it was quiet and relatively deserted. Unfortunately, we visited mid-morning when everyone was setting off for the day, checking out, hailing cabs and trams, wheeling their luggage about. It was kind of an exercise in futility, so we decided to go find the vacant lot instead.

According to what we know, the body of Short was found in a vacant lot near the intersection of 39th street and Norton Avenue in the Leimert Park area of L.A. The area is now a quiet and picturesque suburb filled with Spanish-inspired architecture and neatly manicured lawns. I guess part of me expected to find some kind of memorial to Elizabeth Short erected near the curb where her body was dumped. But the dump site is actually now someone's driveway. We took like a bazillion photos of it. I'm not sure why since it's well... a driveway. Regardless, since the area is largely residential, we were able to spend more time here with few distractions other than the occasional pedestrian or passing car. I think we quickly became a bit of an oddity, due partly to us parking the brightly-painted Camels nearby and then milling around on the sidewalk with our cameras. At one point a lady out walking her Schnauzer asked us if we were reporters or a tour group. (Tour groups actually take people here? Wow! That's AMAZING!!) Rune told her we were travel journalists and were writing about the Black Dahlia murder. (I guess that’s a pretty accurate description of what we do!) To our surprise and pleasure, the lady knew all about the dump site (an indication of how ingrained this crime has become among native Los Angelinos) and began to point out pertinent areas. She probably told us too much, because she went into a lot of detail about the condition of the body when it was found. [These] were details we were deliberately trying to avoid to keep from contaminating our own psychic impressions. Fortunately, most of us had already made some copious notes about the dump site before she and the dog walked up, so I don’t think our impressions were hampered too much by her helpfulness.

Ash continued to be our “heavy hitter” and drew an interesting doodle of the body which showed a long “slice” running horizontally across the body and Short’s arms raised above her head like a “V”. Ash said he saw the body like “she was signaling a touch-down” with her arms. Ash drew the body was being clothed, but told me later that he thought she was actually nude when discovered but he was too embarrassed to draw a naked female body, especially with Meridian and Rune there. How cute. Trespass and Rune said they didn’t come up with any strong impressions of the site one way or the other, although Rune was largely distracted by her conversation with the lady with the dog. Meridian and I had a few other notations. Meridian thought that Short had been pushed out of a car and then tumbled down an incline into the vacant lot. She said that it was her impression that Short’s limbs were “all akimbo” as a result. I felt more that she was carried or dragged into the lot, although I also felt that she was originally transported in a car. (I guess that part is just common sense though?) We both felt that the body had been mutilated in various ways although neither of us could say exactly how. I had the impression of a clown’s face too. Don’t know what that meant...

The best piece of “evidence” the team conjured up was Ash's drawing of the body which had two similarities with the actual corpse recovered from the vacant lot in 1947. First, Short's arms were positioned (apparently deliberately so) above her head. Ash described it and drew it like a “referee signaling a touchdown.” In reality, however, the upper part of the arms were positioned perpendicular to the torso and then bent at a 90-degree angle so their ran parallel to the head. Not quite a touchdown position, but close. Second, Ash drew a large gaping wound just above the pelvic area. The most heinous thing about the Dahlia murder was that the body had been completely bisected at the thorax below the rib cage. The wound Ash illustrated is too low on the body and does not show the body as being severed, but again it's close. Ash also told the team that he saw the body as being nude when it was dumped.

As for the actual condition of the corpse, there were a lot of grotesque details that the team didn't seem to glean at all. The coroner’s report stated that Elizabeth was bound by the hands and feet while her captor inflicted numerous small cuts all over her body. He shaved off her pubic hair which he then inserted into her vagina, then he beat her senseless and forced her to eat human excrement (presumably her own). Then there was a second beating, during which Elizabeth died. But the sadistic nature of her captor wasn’t satisfied, so he brutally mutilated her body by cutting away large pieces of flesh, including her breasts. One of the most deviant mutilations was when the murderer sliced the edges of her mouth from ear to ear so it looked like the corpse was wearing a huge, sickening grin! When Polaris looked at the postmortem photos of Short's face, it occurred to him that maybe this was the “clown's face” he saw in his vision as it made her mouth look extra long like a clown's facial makeup.

Finally, the killer bisected her entire body at the mid-section. This procedure was so meticulous that even at the time the police were sure it would have required the skill of a surgeon. During this process, the killer also made an incision that indicated he intended (at least symbolically) to perform a hysterectomy on the corpse. The body was subsequently drained of all blood, scrubbed clean and dumped in the vacant lot for discovery.

Needless to say, the team did not “crack” the Black Dahlia case, but the consensus was that the murderer was a L.A. area physician named George Hodel. The case against Hodel is compellingly made in a book written by his son Steve and entitled BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER.

THE HAUNTED RMS QUEEN MARY: Afterwards, the team turned their attention to some of the more notable haunted venues around Los Angeles, Long Beach and Hollywood. In Long Beach, the team visited the world-famous RMS Queen Mary and found themselves challenged to separate fact from fiction as to the ship’s alleged hauntings. The Queen Mary offers regular “ghost tours” of the decks, but the often melodramatic nature of these tours only succeeded in annoying most of the members. Polaris attempted to clarify the haunting situation aboard the ship in his journal:

After taking our “canned tour” the other day, I wanted to spend a little time trying to separate fact from fiction about the ship and her sordid past. Like I mentioned in my previous entry, there are about a zillion different haunting legends about this ship and [incidents] seemed to have occurred all over it on every deck and under every conceivable circumstance. Concerned that Trespass might be correct and the legends of the ship are being exaggerated by its operators for monetary gain, I looked to other sources for information. I was particularly interested in two spots... The first was the First Class swimming pool and the second was an air-tight door that our guide told us “cut a man in half” when he tried to squeeze through it while it was closing. To our guide's credit, I found both of these tales in independent sources... although with slightly different details. Here's what the book HAUNTED PLACES: GHOSTLY ABODES, SACRED SITES, UFO LANDINGS AND OTHER SUPERNATURAL LOCATIONS by Dennis W. Hauck had to say about these two haunted sites:

“The first class swimming pool is haunted by the ghosts of two women who drowned there. One is dressed in 1960s clothing and the other wears 1930s attire. The forlorn ghost of a little boy who fell overboard near the pool has been sighted in the passageway... But the most documented sighting is the apparition of an eighteen-year old crewman, John Pedder. Pedder was crushed to death while trying to slip through an automatically closing door in shaft alley during a routine watertight drill on July 10, 1966. It was hatchway Door No. 13.”

I found other documentation of these hauntings as well, so I guess we can assume that they are legit. Pedder's death certainly is a fact, as I found a manifest of all the people who had died on board the Queen Mary and he's listed both as a crew member and a fatality for July 10, 1966. The cause of death was officially listed as “crushed to death in a watertight door.” That's a little different from what our guide told us, as he said Pedder was sliced in two at the waist (shades of the Black Dahlia???) and his ghost is sometimes seen just from the waist up. It makes you wonder if his disembodied legs are roaming around somewhere too?

As for the first class swimming pool, that it certainly a haunted site although I had less luck finding credible evidence of the “1930s woman” and “1960s woman” who are said to infest the area. We were told that both women are dressed in period bathing suits and will often leave wet footprints on the pool deck. Looking at the manifest again, however, I only found three deaths for the entire decade of the 1930s. The latter two fatalities are clearly identified as men. The first fatality (who is actually the first one ever recorded on the manifest) is listed as A.J.G. Gelding on June 8, 1936. Gelding is further identified as a member of the crew who was killed by a skull fracture and a laceration to the brain. Obviously, Gelding [was] not a woman. Cruise ships of the time did not employ women for the most part and even if Gelding was a female crew member, she would not be swimming in the First Class pool. Sorry, no luck there.

There was also no mention of a female having died aboard ship during the decade of the 1940s. It should be noted, however, that the Queen Mary was put into wartime service in early 1940 to be used as a troop ship. All the fatalities for that period are male and obviously servicemen. The first clearly female fatality on the ship was on August 8, 1954, when Mrs. M.W. Ferris died of a coronary thrombosis (that's a heart attack to you and me). Several other women died between 1954 and the ship's retirement in 1967, but none were shown to have drowned. The only two possible candidates for the “1960s woman” was Mrs. L. Somino or Mrs. F. Teasdale who died in 1956 and 1966 respectively. The natures of their deaths were not recorded.

Three people were recorded as being lost overboard, but two were crew members. The third was Mr. P.H. Davies on July 26, 1950. It does not record Davies' age, but considering he is addressed as “Mr.” instead of “Master” as you would expect for a small boy of the era, I must assume that he was an adult. Also, the few children who did die aboard the Queen Mary were specifically noted as being children in the manifest. So again, no luck in finding any supporting evidence for the “forlorn ghost of a little boy who fell overboard near the pool has been sighted in the passageway” as documented in HAUNTED PLACES.

So in the end, we are not left with any proof that the first class swimming pool actually took any lives despite its reputation and that it is featured in many books, television shows and movies. Certainly the promoters of the Queen Mary want you to believe it's haunted. They even have a live 24-hour webcam on the pool on their website. (Just in case you want to sit there for years hoping some woman in 1930s or 1960s swim wear will come trotting by.) Curiously, their website also has a spot for reporting paranormal phenomenon on the ship, but it only has four entries and [they are] all six years old...

THE PHANTOM PIER: Following the Queen Mary investigation, the team had one of their most amazing and spontaneous psychic experiences. While returning from visiting the famous J. Paul Getty Museum, Polaris suggested that the team visit the Santa Monica Pier. The pier has lots of carnival rides, arcades, kiosks, shops and restaurants. The team ate at Bubba Gump's and then went down the promenade to look at the ocean. While they were standing there, Polaris pointed down the beach to the south and said, “Hey, there used to be another pier down there.” Everyone went to the railing but saw no evidence of another pier. Polaris looked at Ash and said, “Do you see it, too?” Amazingly, Ash confirmed that he did and added that the pier a big ferris wheel. Separately, Ash and Polaris produced drawings that showed a long boardwalk with shops and rides on it with a big ferris wheel in the middle. By this time, the team was intrigued enough that they decided to walk down the beach. The area Polaris was really interested in was right around a little municipal park and a large parking lot. But after a close inspection, no signs of a pier existed there. A visitor to the OCE website cracked the mystery for us, however. She sent and email confirming that an oceanside amusement park called the Pacific Ocean Park (or “POP”) once stood in that approximate location.

“POP” was built in 1958 and was intended to be competition for the newly opened Disneyland. Apparently it was very successful in its early years and even beat Disneyland’s attendance records on several occasions. The park had a nautical theme and the names of the attractions reflected that: Ocean Skyway, Deepest Deep, Sea Circus, etc., etc. Everything was built along the length of the pier and there was an artificial island that sat off the pier’s end called Mystery Island which involved a train ride through a tropical forest complete with volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. There are several websites that pay homage to “POP’s” legacy, what there is of it. The park itself only lasted about eleven years, so mementos of its existence are few and far between. One website had photos of the abandoned structures prior to their demolition. These graffiti-strewn remains appear to have taken on their own aura. No one had any money to either refurbish or demolish the place, so it sat for nearly a decade as a haven for transients, criminals, drug addicts and apparently young skateboarders and surfers. Its mystique was further heightened by several fires, apparently all arson-caused, that continued to degrade the structures. Finally, seventeen years after POP first broke ground, the City of Los Angeles decided it was too dangerous and too ugly to continue and demolished it. [Click here to see an animation on the OCE team's psychic impressions and compare them to the real Pacific Ocean Park.]

HOLLYWOOD HAUNTINGS: The team spent several days touring the Hollywood area and looking into famous hauntings connected to the movie industry. Among the sites they visited were Graumann’s Chinese Theater, El Capitan Hotel and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Ash and Cipher spent some extra time at the latter, looking into the rumors that 1950s film icon Montgomery Clift haunts one of the rooms in the hotel. [For more on this investigation, see the enewsletter Cipher and Ash’s Tour of the Haunted Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.]

With the debate about curses still raging among the OCE members, the lure to investigate the alleged curse surrounding the film REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE was irresistible. The curse allegedly caused the premature and tragic deaths of the film’s three stars: James Dean, Sal Mineo and Natalie Wood. But Meridian, the team’s resident skeptic, was quick to debunk the curse theory:

I think one must also take into account how these actors died and why. Dean, who from everything I have ever read on him, was highly disturbed and borderline suicidal. There are plenty of tales of Dean’s “death wish” and even he apparently joked about it. Toward the end of his life, his daredevil behavior culminated in his fascination with racing. I don’t know if you can honestly classify the car accident that took his life as being “freak,” as Dean failed to yield to an oncoming car while driving his new sports car and was killed as a result. In light of all this, you could say that Dean’s death was both understandable and anticipated.

After Rebel finished filming, Mineo apparently had ongoing problems with drugs and alcohol. He had a crazy lifestyle and I guess his death may be characterized as “freak” in nature. A lifelong criminal named Lionel Ray Williams apparently bragged about killing Mineo, but the murder itself was unintentional. I don't know if Williams was ever charged in Mineo's death, I couldn’t find that out when I was hunting around the internet, so Cipher may be right when he writes that the murder is still unsolved. Officially it may be. Williams said his [intention] was to mug Mineo. The actor was only stabbed once, but the blade Williams used managed to strike his heart and killed Mineo almost instantaneously. I guess that fits the definition of a “freak” death???

Finally there is Natalie Wood. After Rebel Without a Cause, she went on to a stellar career in Hollywood. Her movies included Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, West Side Story, The Great Race and more. Although her accidental drowning [was] truly tragic, and probably the result of severe intoxication, I think we can say that her life and productivity after Rebel Without a Cause was substantial and she was hardly cursed. [Journal entry from May 11, 2007]

MORE HOLLYWOOD HAUNTINGS: The team’s final investigations in Los Angeles also had to do with Hollywood legends: gangster Bugsy Siegel, actor Ozzie Nelson and magician Harry Houdini.

Siegel’s biography reads very much like the rise and fall of an American psychopath as he was clearly violent and malevolent at a very early age. The son of Jewish immigrants from Austria, Siegel was raised on the poor, crime-ridden streets of Brooklyn, New York. He learned quickly from the experience and at age nine had his own extortion racket in place, a scheme which required street vendors to pay him protection money or risk the quick incineration of their merchandise. One of his close friends was Meyer Lansky, who would later grow up to be the innovative financial genius for the entire Mob. There are various stories about Siegel and Lansky’s early friendship, but apparently they were loyal enough to save each other on numerous occasions from imminent incarceration or death. Siegel appears to be the more erratic of the two men with no obvious compunction against rape or murder. He took his first human life in 1930 and apparently found the experience easy and rewarding. He and Lansky quickly formed a hits-for-hire operation with Benjamin acting as the trigger man. This unique business venture was the forerunner of Siegel’s more infamous venture, Murder Inc. It was this violent compulsiveness that earned Siegel his legendary moniker, “Bugsy,” contemporary slang that meant “crazy.”

Onto 1932, Siegel earned his reputation in gangland circles as a bootlegger, extortionist, racketeer and efficient killer. His mob bosses, in particular Charles “Lucky” Luciano, sent the 27-year old Siegel west to investigate crime opportunities in Los Angeles. Siegel was immediately enamored with the southern California climate and lifestyle. Among his most notable successes in California during the mid-1930s was his establishment of a cross-country wire service that allowed the East Coast mob to receive almost instantaneous race results and scam millions of dollars out of the gambling masses in New York and elsewhere. But Siegel did not miss other chances to make an illegal buck. In Brooklyn, he had grown up alongside actor George Raft and now used that connection to gain entry into the powerful circles of the Hollywood elite. Through these new connections, he was able to blackmail various actors, actresses and producers; control the union labor on movie production; and obtain loans that he never bothered to repay.

Siegel’s good looks and beguiling nature helped him mix with famous Los Angelinos. Celebrities flocked to meet with him, intoxicated by his frightening reputation that most would just whisper about. He had multiple extramarital affairs and his mistresses included starlets Ketti Gallian, Wendy Barrie and Marie “The Body” MacDonald. His most famous affair was with Virginia Hill, a rich heiress from Alabama who supplemented her wealth by blackmailing actors and actresses. Hill owned an expansive Beverly Hills mansion where Siegel often stayed – and was ultimately murdered.

Siegel’s own residence was known as the Castillo del Lago, an impressive nine-story building and the site of numerous accounts of haunting phenomenon, presumably by Siegel's ghost. Located at 6342 Mullholland Highway, the Castillo was originally built in 1926 and was purchased by Siegel in the late-1930s. Bugsy used it as a 20,000-square foot gambling casino for entertaining celebrities, politicians and other gangland dignitaries during the height of his success. A party at the Castillo promised plenty of food, drugs, alcohol and sex… a perhaps a shake-down or beating as well. His parties were so well known, Siegel was often referred to as the “King of the Sunset Strip.”

The gambling parties at the Castillo may have paved the way for Siegel’s establishment of large-scale gambling in the quiet desert town of Las Vegas. Using a million dollars of mob money, Siegel began construction on the Flamingo resort and casino, but the venture was a financial nightmare. Siegel’s lavish taste and complete ignorance about building construction drove up the costs to a whopping $6 million and apparently allowed the contractors to bilk thousands out of the gangster by fudging inventories and labor reports. Luciano was not happy but through the intervention of his old friend Meyer Lansky, the mob agreed to let Siegel open the resort and repay his mounting debts. Sadly for Siegel, the Flamingo was a disaster. Despite the lure of legal gambling, few visitors wanted to brave the long drive through the desert to a town with few other amenities. Luciano had had enough and ordered a hit on Siegel.

On June 20th, 1947, a mob assassin named Eddie Cannizzaro shot Siegel multiple times through a window as he sat reading a newspaper in the living room of Virginia Hill’s mansion. Popular myth states that Siegel was killed by one gunshot through the left eye from behind. In fact, Cannizzaro riddled Siegel’s body with bullets, one of which tore through his left ear and cheek, causing the eye to pop out of the socket, fly across the room and land about fifteen feet away. The media quickly published graphic photos of the crime scene, a contemporary tradition meant as a final humiliation to career criminals like Siegel.

Siegel was cremated and his ashes were interred in a crypt in the Jewish section of the Hollywood Park Memorial Cemetery. The only two people to attend his funeral were his brother and a rabbi.

After Siegel was killed in 1947 (ironically, just six months after the murder of the “Black Dahlia”), the Castillo was sold off to numerous owners, most of whom reported strange phenomenon like unexplained cold spots, disappearing objects, the inability of cameras to work inside the building; and a prevailing sense of dread that often overcame many visitors. Although no apparition of Siegel has ever been reported in the Castillo, the residue of his unstable and violent personality is usually blamed from these occurrences. The Castillo’s last notable owner was pop music legend, Madonna. The “Material Girl” never publicly reported any haunting phenomenon, however. Music pioneer Simon Fuller (creator of American Idol) owns the property today.

Having had limited success tracking down the ghost of Bugsy Siegel, the team decided to spend their last days in the city looking for the apparitions of other Los Angelinos. They were particularly interested in less known apparitions.

None of the team was around when Ozzie Nelson was a fixture in Hollywood. He may be best remembered as being a pioneer for what we would call “reality television.” Ozzie began as a band leader in the early 1940s and appeared on both radio and early television variety shows like Red Skelton Show. Nelson's real claim to fame however was in developing an early family sitcom entitled the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. The show, which ran for an unprecedented 14 years, followed the day-to-day happenings of Ozzie, and his real-life wife and sons. Obviously this TV Ozzie preceded Ozzy Osbourne in both time and ingenuity. The show was extremely popular and ultimately led to the phenomenal career of his younger son Ricky. Sadly, Ricky Nelson died in 1985 in a tragic plane crash. Ozzie also met a premature end in 1975 after a protracted battle with cancer.

Ozzie, however, appeared reluctant to leave the home where his show had been filmed and where he lived during the last quarter-decade of his life. One of the most curious haunting legends is that Ozzie Nelson's ghost has a tendency to grope women. The team didn't find any accounts of Ozzie Nelson having ever sexually harassed anyone during life. Quite the opposite, he seemed to be extremely devoted to his wife Harriet, as is witnessed by their reluctance to ever work apart. Still, more than one female witness has apparently claimed that unseen hands have grabbed her breasts in the Nelson house. Maybe being out of body freed up some repressed feelings? More likely it's something else. If Ozzie was a decent guy in life who's to say he wouldn't be decent after crossing over?

Finally, on June 7, 2007, the team went searching for the lost mansion of world-famous magician (and debunker of spiritualism), Harry Houdini. Little remains of the mansion of Harry Houdini. Sadly, Houdini's international reputation and bigger-than-life image did not spare his estate from destruction by fire not long after his death. The team was curious as to whether any of [the mansion] remained, so they spent the afternoon creeping through some of the more majestic areas of Hollywood Hills, all the while hoping we wouldn't run afoul of the security guards, attack dogs or the local police. The actual address of the estate is well known but a more contemporary home now occupies the area which is a maze of curving, tree-lined streets.

The team parked alongside the road and walked up to the heavily wooded hills where the estate was said to have once existed. The members had to climb a couple of fences and thrash around in the bushes, but eventually stumbled upon the remains of a red brick staircase with an ornate banister. The staircase is all that's left of the estate's main entrance, but even this was quite impressive. It wound its way up a steep hillside thick with fruit and palm trees and overgrown enough with weeds and vines to give it an appropriately Gothic air. The members took a lot of photos of the area but didn't get any real impressions off the property other than its old age.

There are a lot of legends about the property, some of them predating Houdini. One we found claimed that a curse (god yes, more curses) lingered over the property after the son of the original owner killed his lover in a jealous rage by throwing him off a balcony. Although his father's money and influence helped him beat the murder rap, the family was disgraced and sold the property to Houdini and his wife, Bess. Another legend states that a solitary female figure, the quintessential “woman in white,” haunts the property. There's no indication as to whom this woman may have been, but eyewitnesses claim to have seen her gossamer image floating about on the mansion's balconies.

The mansion's macabre history becomes even more convoluted considering Houdini's long and antagonistic relationship with the paranormal. He was close friends with Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes and a man who passionately embraced the spiritualism movement that swept the United States and Europe during the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Conan Doyle's interest in the paranormal began with the death of his son during World War I. In his grief, Conan Doyle turned to mediums in hopes of reaching out to the spirit world. He later excitedly told Houdini of a séance in which his son had appeared in the room and kissed his father on the head. Houdini did not share Conan Doyle's belief in spiritualism and spent a large part of his life trying to unmask professional mediums as con artists. As an innovative magician, Houdini recognized many techniques used by mediums as being little more than carnival tricks and he was deeply offended that these scam artists were making themselves very rich off of grieving people like Conan Doyle.

After expending the latter half of his career trying to unmask mediums, one of Houdini's most anticipated tricks was a pact he made with his wife Bess, in which he promised to send her a very clear message from the afterlife if he preceded her in death. prove the existence of the afterlife. Apparently the couple created an elaborate set of password known only to the two of them. Part of the code included the words "believe" and "Rosabelle," the title of a song Bess had been singing when Harry first met her. When Harry died unexpectedly, Mrs. Houdini upheld the pact for years by meeting with professional psychics and challenging them to discover her secret code.

On January 8, 1929, a well-known medium named Arthur Ford claimed that he had done what other spiritualists had endeavored to do for three years... he cracked the “survival code.” To correctly guess the survival code would mean more than international fame for a professional psychic, it would be an opportunity for the entire spiritualist movement to denounce Houdini once and for all.

Bess Houdini, who had agreed to let Ford hold the seance to reach her dead husband in her home, was quoted the following morning in a local newspaper: "I had no idea what combination of words Harry would use, and when he said 'believe,' it was a surprise."

Was this proof of life after death? Had Arthur Ford at last debunked the world greatest magician while legitimizing his own dubious profession? As with many things that Ford was involved with, looks were deceiving.

If Ford was skilled at anything, it was being meticulous about his craft. Many mediums were known for doing covert research on their clients (whom Ford referred to as “suckers”), but Ford actually kept detailed dossiers and voluminous files on everyone he had ever done or planned to do a reading for. After Harry Houdini died, Ford struck up a friendship with Bess and slowly worked his way into her confidence. Sometime just prior to his seance, Bess apparently confided the survival code to Ford. There were also reports that at least part of the survival code had been published in an interview with Bess about a year previously. Why then did Bess apparently validate Ford's pronouncement?

Part of the reason may be found in Bess Houdini's state of mind in January 1929. At the time, Bess was both physically and emotionally sick and was highly vulnerable. Ford befriended her shortly after Harry's death and apparently spent months gaining her trust. Ultimately, Bess seemed to retract her endorsement of Ford and the medium fell into obscurity. Bess went to her own grave believing that she never did (or ever could) contact her beloved husband.

Following the Houdini investigation, the team left Los Angeles for eastern California and the Mojave Desert to seek out the alleged haunting of a horse.