April Slaughter (23 page)

Read April Slaughter Online

Authors: Ghosthunting Texas

Tags: #Supernatural, #Body; Mind & Spirit, #Travel, #Ghosts - Texas, #General, #United States, #Texas, #Ghosts, #West South Central (AR; LA; OK; TX), #South

“There is an urn cabinet upstairs that is rumored to have once housed the cremated remains of orphaned children,” Pete explained. “A medium I worked with told me that she believed the spirit of the little girl I had seen was attached to that cabinet, as she had somehow gotten herself locked in the bottom portion of it during a game of hide-and-seek and had suffocated. Several people have also said they’ve heard children crying in the vicinity of the cabinet.
“Investigator Tom Kennedy saw the apparition of a man in a wool suit in the small dining room above the entrance just seconds before a medium described the spirit to a separate room of people. Tom hadn’t been with them, but both he and the medium reported identical descriptions of the man.”
“Has anything strange happened anywhere else in the building?” I asked.
“Team member Rebecca Draper conducted an experiment in the basement where she placed a small rubber ball in front of her on the floor, and asked that someone move it so she could see,” said Pete. “The ball did indeed move, and a rather significant distance. Unexplained footsteps were heard in the basement as well, and we also received reports that someone saw what they described as a young slave cowering in one of the corners down there.”
“I have heard that the staircase in the restaurant is active as well,” I said.
“Yes. People have reported seeing a man tumbling down the stairs. Two separate mediums I have spoken with tell me that they see a man with heart issues, possibly causing a heart attack and a fall down the stairs.”
I asked Pete his opinion of why he thought the Spaghetti Warehouse was haunted.
“I think there are many factors to it,” he answered. “The building has been home to many businesses over the years, and there are many stories about people having been involved in fatal accidents. The restaurant is also filled with antiques that could have brought with them their own residual energy. Those sorts of things can really add up and cause people to experience phenomena on a rather consistent basis.”
Pete and his team at Lone Star Spirits continue their ongoing research of the historical warehouse building. They hope to determine whether or not the phenomena experienced there are genuine manifestations of an intelligent and interactive spirit (or spirits), purely residual energy, or perhaps even poltergeist activity.
Researchers have long been examining the possibility that poltergeists are the manifestations of the human mind’s ability to project outward into the physical environment, causing
chaotic movements of objects and often mirroring things we believe to be paranormal in nature.
Allen and I truly enjoyed the unique dining experience of the Spaghetti Warehouse and the many stories of the ghosts that call it home. I didn’t want to leave, and felt sad that I lived so far away that I couldn’t just pop in from time to time.
If there are ghosts haunting the restaurant who are content and at peace to be there, I hope I have the opportunity to see and interact with them on a future visit. It is my sincere hope that the forlorn “lady in white” will someday be able to let go of the past that binds her to the old warehouse building and reunite with the spirit of her beloved husband.
Lone Star Spirits and The Paranormal Source, Inc. plan a collaborative effort to investigate the restaurant in the coming months. I hope we will be able to shed a bit more light on that which tends to stay hidden in the dark.
CHAPTER 27
USS
Texas
LA PORTE
USS
Texas
exterior
(Jerry Bowers)
WHEN I WAS A LITTLE GIRL, one of my all-time favorite board games was Battleship. Naturally, I was usually the one who lost, but I still had a great time trying to sink my opponent’s fleet. If you think about it, it’s strange that a popular board game for children was inspired by vessels of destruction. I suppose G.I. Joe or the myriad of other aggressive games and toys available to youngsters today aren’t much better. At any rate, I have fond memories of the game, and have always thought that an actual real-life battleship would be one of the coolest things to see.
The battleship USS
Texas
rests today at the San Jacinto Battleground a short distance from Houston. The ship spent thirty-four years and six weeks as a U.S. Navy vessel, commissioned in 1914 and decommissioned in 1948. The “Mighty T” sailed 728,000 miles during its service, and it is the only remaining
United States Navy battleship that fought in both World Wars. It has undergone quite a few renovations, but much of the ship remains as it was when it first launched into open waters.
For years, visitors to the ship have reported seeing the apparition of a red-headed sailor in his dress whites smiling at them as they pass by. He is sometimes seen standing near a ladder or walking along the ship’s deck, and has earned the appropriate nickname of “Red.” Those who have tried to approach the sailor and say hello are often disappointed at his lack of a response shortly before he turns a corner and disappears. He never speaks, but the smile on his face would indicate that he is happy being aboard the ship.
I became a Navy wife shortly after I turned twenty, and my first husband was often deployed on several different types of Navy ships during his time in the military. My first opportunity to walk onboard a Navy vessel was on a different type of ship called a frigate. In the past decade, I have been on all types of Navy vessels, and they are not exactly the homiest of environments. Our men and women in the service spend large amounts of time on these ships (some of them likened to floating cities), and none of them were built for comfort.
There’s no telling the exact number of sailors who lived and worked on the
Texas
. Although living on these ships and spending so much time away from family and friends is difficult, sailors are incredibly dedicated people and it is not surprising to me that their spirits are believed to walk the narrow hallways of this battleship to this day.
When I first compiled my list of locations for my haunted road trip, my husband was excited to see the battleship
Texas
listed as a destination.
“I haven’t been to the ship since I was a kid, but I’d made many trips out there when my family was living in Houston,” said Allen.
When Allen and I arrived at the
Texas
and climbed aboard, I was only half-serious when I asked him if he’d ever seen a ghost aboard the ship.
“Come to think of it, I think I actually may have,” he said. “One summer we’d had family come out to Houston to visit us, and whenever we had family come out, visiting the
Texas
was just something we did.
“I don’t ever remember hearing that the ship was haunted when I was a kid, so I didn’t visit thinking I would run into anything strange while I was there.”
“How old were you when you had a strange experience here?” I asked.
“Thirteen or fourteen, maybe. I can’t remember exactly.”
Allen pointed out the enormous gun barrels jutting out toward the front of the ship as we walked along the top deck.
“On this particular visit, I wanted to crawl up into one of the main turrets that housed one of these fourteen-inch guns,” he continued. “No one else wanted to crawl up in there with me because they knew it was going to be extremely hot in there. It’s an entirely enclosed space, and on a hot summer day it wouldn’t be fun in there for long.
“I decided I wanted to go up inside anyway, so I crawled up the ladder. When I got into the turret area, there was an older gentleman sitting on a small steel seat inside. I said hello, and just started looking around at everything. I was in awe of how much stuff had been crammed into such a small space, and I made mention of how large the gun was.
“That apparently sparked his interest, and he told me that the very spot we were standing in was his duty station during World War II. His entire naval career was spent manning that gun, and as I asked questions about the various controls and whatnot in the room, he calmly explained to me how each and every one of them worked.
“He told me how hot it would get in that room, and his only reprieve from the heat would be when he stripped down to his underwear to keep as cool as possible. These guns were not automatic. They’d shoot one huge round and then have to be reloaded. It was seriously hard work to keep that gun firing when it needed to be.”
“I wonder how it felt for him to be back in that space,” I said.
“He had a very solemn but peaceful look on his face during our entire conversation,” said Allen. “I could tell that he was proud of the time he spent there, but he also looked very worn by the experience.”
“I got distracted by something and for a short moment my attention was pulled away from him,” Allen continued. “I turned back toward him to ask about something, but he was gone.”
“Gone? You mean he just up and left the room?” I asked.
“Yes, but I didn’t hear or see him leave. He just wasn’t there anymore.”
Allen did not suspect that he might have carried on a conversation with a ghost. He had no idea the ship was reportedly haunted. He was just interested in seeing the mechanics of it. When he crawled out of the turret, he mentioned the man to his family but none of them had seen him. He continued with his tour of the ship, and didn’t think much more of the incident until now.
“I wonder if you interrupted the spirit of a sailor stopping in for a visit to his old duty station,” I said.
“I don’t know. He was there one second, and the next he was gone. He was an older guy, so it’s not as if he could have just taken off that quickly without my noticing.”
As ghosthunters, I think we tend to forget that not everything works according to our timeline, or in the way we would most like them to. We’re preoccupied during the day with our
lives and the things we need to get done, but how often do we stop to think that perhaps those on the other side have schedules or routines as well? We want ghosts to give us signs of their presence when we’re lurking about in some dark place, not necessarily when they want to give them to us.
It’s something I have thought about for years—how often are we seeing and experiencing the spirits of those who have passed on during our regular, everyday lives and not realizing it? It is possible that Allen met and spoke with an individual who had died years earlier, but because he seemed real and physical at the time (and appeared in the middle of the day), Allen automatically perceived him as a living, breathing person. I truly believe that the dead are all around us, and that seeing and interacting with them is not exclusive to those with psychic abilities.
I don’t think that every ghost we encounter is “earth bound.” In fact, I think spirits often make nostalgic visits of their own to people and places that meant a great deal to them during their lives. I don’t presume to know for sure, but part of me thinks the sailor Allen encountered probably lived a long and happy life once he left the
Texas
. He may have died somewhere else in the country, or on the opposite side of the planet, but this ship probably meant enough to him to revisit it.
Sailor after sailor came and went on the battleship
Texas
. They saw times of peace as well as times of war. They suffered through being separated from their families, working long, hard hours, and probably endured rather frightening moments on numerous occasions. The entire spectrum of human emotion, from devastation and loss to victory and elation, was experienced on this ship. Is it any wonder that a sailor or two might still be “manning the rails” long after the battleship’s days at sea have ended?
Spotlight on Ghosts: Ghost Dogs of Orozimbo Plantation
The Battle of San Jacint occurred on April 21, 1836, and lasted a mere eighteen minutes. Sam Houston led the Texas army to fight Santa Anna, the president of Mexico, resulting in the loss of hundreds of men, only nine of which were Texas soldiers. San Jacinto was the victory that ende the Texas Revolution and secured Texas’ inde endence from Mexico. Santa Anna was caught dressed as a common soldier the day after the battle, and he was held prisoner at several plantations in the south while his captors negotiated his fate. He was eventually transported to the Orozimbo Plantation on the Brazos River, less than a dozen miles north of West Columbia.
A Mexican officer accompanied by several of his men made plans to advance on the plantation and free their president. The thick trees bordering the river provided an excellent cover as they advanced one stormy evening, taking advantage of the sound of the pouring rain to conceal their approach to the farmhouse in which Santa Anna was held prisoner. Just as they were about to rush the guards, an eerie and unmistakable sound of howling dogs came quickly towards them, and the Mexican men were forced to retreat. Those keeping guard at the farmhouse went to investigate, but found no animals in the area.
The howling dogs had been heard by many, yet no one could explain where they had come from as they had not been seen. Speculation arose that they may have belonged to a man who went off to war and never came home, forever leaving his faithful friends to search for him.
It has been well over a century since Santa Anna was held at Orozimbo, yet stories of the phantom dogs never seem to fade away. In fact, many people still claim to hear the pack roaming through the dense jungle of trees near the property, letting out an eerie howl as they approach. While Santa Anna was eventually allowed to return to his country, the ghosts dogs are still—and might forever be—keeping watch over Orozimbo Plantation.

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