Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Ghosts at Greystone? Fact or Fiction

Some people don't want to talk about a 'haunted' Greystone Mansion. Those people aren't me. :)
According to the Travel Channel, spirits materialize as spectral orbs on digital cameras and they can also be heard on digital tape recorders. There have been many ghost hunters in the Mansion looking for proof of their presence in the house. According to one such person, the Grand Foyer of the home is a vortex or portal in which spirits travel back and forth from this world to the next. How convenient; it's right by the car port. According to Cynthia and Ranger Steve, during one of the numerous tapings of the home for feature films, the sound engineer left his equipment on overnight and what he heard th enext day was quite enlightening. Steve and Cynthia heard it as well, so if it's a joke, they're all in on it. They heard loud bangs and crashes and what sounded like a fleet of moving men pushing armoires down the main staircase as well as voices though no words were able to be made out. For all of the racket recorded, there was no damage to be found.
So, what happened here that would cause spirits to remain? Lots of things!!!!
The most notorious event to occur in the home was the murder/suicide of Edward Doheny Jr. (who received the house as a wedding gift from his father, oil barron and sometimes shady character Edward Doheny Sr.) and his personal secretary. As the story goes, the secretary was mentally imbalanced (not good) and was also in need of a raise but Doheny wouldn't give it to him. The secretary, who had a private room at the mansion, shot Doheny in the head, then himself. The case was closed in 36 hours marking the secretary as the killer and Doheny as the victim.
HOWEVER....according to new evidence, we find that Doheny was rumored to be having an affair with the secretary. The dude secretary. With this in mind, the gunman has now become a fed up Mrs. Doheny. Apparently, people in the Doheny's social circle knew of Ed Jr's bisexual dalliances and the Mrs. had enough of it going on in her own house. The secretary had worked for the Doheny's for several years under various professions, grounds keeper, maintenance man, etc. Why keep crazy on the payroll for so long? Well, he wasn't crazy, he was his boyfriend!
It's very plausable that Mrs. Doheny could have shot both of them in a fit of rage and when the doctor (who, btw, moved the body while trying to revive Ed Jr. Now I have only seen ER a few times, but CPR really doesn't work on head wounds. And CSI has taught me to never move the body when I find one laying in the street or in the park. Even if it's in my way.) and police showed up, the story of the angry and crazy assistant played very well. No one really knows what happened. If Mrs. Doheny did do it, she took it with her to her grave. Creepy.
Another tragic event found daughter Lucy's playmate falling from a second floor bedroom window and breaking her neck when she hit the pation pavement below.
And another occurred when a house maid locked herself in a walk in refrigerator and killed herself. She did it in the fridge so she wouldn't make a mess! The poor woman! The fridge, BTW, is in my wing of the house on my floor. Good times.
But on a positive note (if that can be said...) I was taking some photos in the Doheny's private movie theater (It's fab BTW. It is in need of major restoration, but fab) and there were a ton of orbs that showed up on my camera screen. I think that they are there because of the good times they had in the space. The theater still holds positive engergy and even in an abandoned state, still has life in it.
The bottom line is, all old houses take on a life of their own. The history lives in them and sometimes a different kind of life goes on after one life ends.

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