Queer Hauntings: True Tales of Gay and Lesbian Ghosts

Queer Hauntings

True Tales of Gay & Lesbian Ghosts

Compiled by

Ken Summers

Published by Lethe Press at Smashwords

Maple Shade NJ

Copyright ©2009 Ken Summers.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the author.

This trade paperback edition published by

Lethe Press,

118 Heritage Ave,

Maple Shade, NJ 08052.

lethepressbooks.com lethepress@aol.com

Cover by Niki Smith

Book design by Toby Johnson

ISBN 1-59021-239-8 / 978-1-59021-239-4

_______________________________________________

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Summers, Ken, 1979-

Queer hauntings : true tales of gay & lesbian ghosts / compiled by Ken Summers.

p. cm.

ISBN 1-59021-239-8 (alk. paper)

1. Ghosts. 2. Haunted places. 3. Gays--Miscellanea. I. Title.

BF1471.S86 2009

133.1086’640973--dc22

2009035444

Table of Contents

Title Page

Preface

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Gay & Lesbian Hauntings in the United States

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Eastern States

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Fall River, Massachusetts

After the Forty Whacks: The Other Borden House

—

Provincetown, MA

Here Comes the Bride: A Guest House Ghost

—

Boonton, New Jersey

Not Quite Terminal: Jersey's Haunted Nightclub

—

Mine Hill, New Jersey

Dying for a Drink: New Jersey's Original Gay Bar

—

Trenton, New Jersey

Remembering Buddies: Ghost of a Gay Bar

—

New York City, New York

Boxed and Bottled Spirits: Death Surrounds Nocturnal New York

—

West Hills, New York

The Good Gay Poet: Walking with Whitman

—

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Slave to the Rhythm: Hidden Heritage in Philadelphia

—

Rexmont, Pennsylvania

Death is Such a Drag: A Case of Closets

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Southern States

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Clearwater, Florida

Final Curtain Call: Undead Management at Royalty Theatre

—

Savannah, Georgia

Moonlight in the Garden: Jim Williams and Mercer House

—

Summerville

A Man's Home is His Castle: The Corpsewood Murders

—

New Orleans, Louisiana

A Haunting Most Kinky:The Bastinado Ghost

—

New Orleans, Louisiana

Spirited Behavior: Famous Phantoms of the Big Easy

—

New Orleans, Louisiana

Burned in Effigy: Tragedy Lives on at the Upstairs Lounge

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Western States

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Beverly Hills, California

The Return of the Sheik: Valentino's Haunted Home

—

Beverly Hills, California

Belvedere's Return: The Ghost of Clifton Webb

—

Beverly Hills, California

Movie Monsters: Did the Director of Frankenstein Return?

—

Los Angeles, California

A Grand Illusion: Who Haunts the Houdini Mansion?

—

Long Beach, California

Musical Therapy: The Innocent Spirit of Long Beach

—

San Diego, California

Music and Mediums: The House of Francis Grierson

—

San Francisco, California

Smile for the Camera: The Afterlife of Harvey Milk

—

San Francisco, California

A Liquored Time Warp: Golden Gate Ghost Story

—

Las Vegas, Nevada

Shadows and Sequins: Liberace Lives On

—

Reno, Nevada

Loose Women: Nevada's Wayward Lesbian Ghost

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Part II: Other Gay and Lesbian Ghosts around the World

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United Kingdom

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Amersham, England

Bottom's Up: A Pub with a Pinch

—

Brighton, England

Spirits on Tap: Death and the Gay Bar

—

East Dereham, England

Getting a Rise: Phantom Hands at the George Hotel

—

Gloucester, England

Pilgrim's Rest: The Monk of the New Inn

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London, England

Nowhere to Run: Flight of the Mollies

—

London, England

From One Queen to Another: A Spirit at the Queen's Theatre

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Oxford, England

Wilde and Free: Oscar Returns to Oxford

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Scarborough, England

Heads Will Roll: The Specter of a King's Lover

—

Shrewsbury, England

Sign of the Cross: Fitz Manor's Forgotten Crime

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Cahir, Ireland

A Bishop's Revenge: The Haunting of John Atherton

—

Llangollen, Wales

Tea for Two: The Ladies of Llangollen

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Other Countries

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Zanzibar, Africa

Sleep Tight: The Legendary Man-Loving Bat Demon

—

Toronto, Canada

Ghosts in the Limelight: Toronto's Haunted Gay Playhouse

—

Pasay City, Philippines

Stiletto Echoes: A Haunted Transvestite Theater

—

Cachtice, Slovakia

For Love of Beauty: Slovakia's Bloodiest Countess

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Epilogue

Appendices

Bibliography

Websites of Interest

Haunted GLBT Bars and Clubs

Haunted GLBT-Owned Accommodations

About the Author

Preface

Vodka cranberry.

The name of this cocktail screamed inside my head while sitting inside the dimly lit Adams Street Bar in eastern Akron. I found myself perched on a barstool during a slow Friday evening, not out of eagerness to see a drag show or sing show tunes at the sparse adjoining piano bar. I came to find Chris.

I first met the lanky blond during my college years. He was a driver for the campus bus service returning to pursue his education after a prolonged absence. He was spry and outgoing—a giddy, gangly blue-eyed boy with a face straight off of a German WWII propaganda poster. Ironic, considering he recently returned from living several years in Berlin along with his other half: a dark, moody German winner of the green card lottery.

Chris would be responsible for my decent into local paranormal lore. On one occasion, he mentioned the tale of a haunted covered bridge in Everett, Ohio and his experiences there one summer night with a female friend. The sound of a wagon came from the darkened bridge, yet no horse or rider ever appeared. Previously, the only ghosts I had searched for in vain were a decent drive from my hometown. The Cuyahoga Valley was a favorite haunt of mine—my backyard practically—so the idea of spirits inhabiting my neighborhood was an exciting newsflash. Borrowing the title Moonspender from a Jonathan Gash novel, I formed a website and collected this and other ghostly tales from along the Cuyahoga River.

Our casual friendship followed the ebb and flow of our ever-changing personal lives. One night, we watched Victor, Victoria in his apartment while his boyfriend stormed off to the bedroom in a tantrum. Between the two of us, we polished off an entire liter of vodka mixed with cranberry juice. An awkward moment passed between us late that night. Lines were crossed that led to certain uneasiness in later months. We still maintained our friendship, enough that Chris called me later in the year to get his mind off a few broken ribs (his other half had thrown him down a flight of stairs during an argument). Months passed without any correspondence between us. Our friendship reduced to chance meetings at the same Akron clubs, updating one another on our lackluster lives and sharing a few laughs.

As I leaned over the counter at the rectangular bar to place my drink order, the sensation of a body too close for comfort against my back startled me. I turned around swiftly to face the mystery greeter and found myself staring at a blank, slate-grey wall. I shrugged it off; it wouldn’t be the first place I visited to host some form of haunting. Continuing my acclimatization, I sipped my beverage and chatted with a few friends. Slowly the alcohol calmed my exhausted nerves.

Did you hear about the guy who killed himself? He was a regular here.

I looked up from my cape codder. A Golden Girls rerun droned dismally from an overhead television in the background. My friend John updated me on the latest happening at the bar: a customer (he had forgotten his name) hanged himself in his closet earlier that month in a fit of dire depression. I interrogated him for further details, but the only facts he could recall were a former German boyfriend, blond hair, and above-average height.

Shock gave way to uncontrollable sobbing fueled by Russian firewater. Waves of emotion poured over me. My composure would return fleetingly, replaced moments later by another inundation of grief. I was a total mess. The following day felt like a dream. And then there was the sudden puzzling memory: the presence behind me earlier in the evening.

Chris?

I pondered the implications of it. The vodka and cranberry, allusions to that night so long ago. Was it all coincidence? Was my overactive imagination responsible for connecting nonexistent cues from beyond the grave? Surely, my experience wasn’t self-concocted. I never drank cranberry juice and vodka anymore. The presence behind me was something I could not see. I felt it. Chris was the only answer that made any sense.

In truth, the notion was a great comfort. I felt guilty in the subsequent months for having neglected the friendship. If only I had stayed in contact, I thought, I could have prevented his death. However, the visitation showed no ill will. Regardless of why Chris chose to contact me, the fact remained that he had. On other occasions, I sensed his presence and caught the occasional silhouette of his form in darkened rooms. A friend and psychic told me that a tall blond man continues to visit me and inject writing ideas into my head. I’ve felt no overwhelming urge to visit his final resting place in Stow, Ohio. He isn’t there, after all.

The experience awakened something else within me, a question haunting me since my early explorations of ghostly hangouts. Stories I researched involving relationships always dealt with heterosexual couples. Where were the gay, lesbian, and bisexual entities in paranormal literature? Are the dead asexual? Is ghostology limited to straight society? I had to know the answer. I scoured history, books, and paranormal groups. And slowly the forgotten, overlooked, and unpublicized spirits of a not-so-straight nature were revealed.

This book is the product of my quest. And I owe it all to Chris.

My very first gay ghost.

Introduction

There is an underlying terror of death deep within human consciousness. Life’s greatest mystery awaits us after we exhale our last breath. Heaven or hell, blackness or rebirth, it’s all philosophical speculation. As human beings, we wish to matter and have purpose. There must be some reward for life’s insufferable journey. When our light snuffs out, we hope for an envisioned continuance in the afterlife.

Death, to the spiritually minded, is but a doorway, opening out of our mortal existence. While our bones crumble to dust in subterranean coffins, the soul continues its infinite journey. Some passageways lead the spirits of the dead back to our conscious world, hiding in shadows and haunting our homes. But these skeletons are not the only monsters sharing quarters with shoes and coat hangers. Behind closet doors, we hide an assortment of secrets and personal demons.

The term coming out of the closet is used to describe the shedding of some secret life, predominantly the embarrassed silence and denial of homosexuality. This rebirth of self-identity can be painful, isolating, and, in less-accepting circles, dangerous. Some gays and lesbians choose to live out their lives in confidentiality, taking their sexual identities with them to the grave. Others proclaim their gayness to the world with lifted voices. It’s a decision each person must make individually.

In reading tales of ghosts and hauntings, themes of fear and rejection recur with much regularity. Lonely souls seek acknowledgement from the living so that their lives are not forgotten. This terror of abandonment is shared by the many gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered individuals deciding whether to share their truth with friends and relatives. No one, living or deceased, wants to feel invisible and unloved.

Yet some ghosts are invisible. The best-known ghost stories and haunted places revolve around heterosexual entities. Gowned ladies eternally wait for their male lovers, happily-married couples and their children loiter in their favorite homes. Many other tales surround ambiguous specters, demonic possessions, and unearthly animals. Feminine men and butch women are not often to be found, and when a haunting displays homosexual characteristics, it is often rejected, scoffed at, or ignored by paranormal investigators.

In this book, you will find some of the many pink phantoms and lavender apparitions which have fallen through the cracks. From the urban streets of New Orleans and London to the isolated countryside of Zanzibar and the United States, Queer Paranormal lifts the veil separating sexual orientation from supernatural activity and explores the other side of the metaphysical closet. Ghosts of legendary celebrities mingle with ordinary individuals. Horrific murders, forgotten history, and strange characters emerge once more as their stories are retold.

Though there are undeniable gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals discussed in these chapters, some characters have been at the center of much debate surrounding their sexuality. Not everyone was forthcoming with his or her personal proclivities in life; absolute knowledge often is taken to the grave. These assumptions and deductions are part of the collective myth surrounding these people and are by no means to assume that they may not have been bisexual, curious, or misinterpreted by friends, historians, and investigators. They fall under a broad spectrum of queer identities. This in no way reflects upon their character. Sexuality is not intended to be taboo with paranormal claims nor should it be. Identifying someone as gay, bisexual, or straight is not a moral judgment: it’s a human trait.

Background information is provided for many of the identified spirits to give a sense of their humanity. While they are deceased, they once lived and loved as you or I. Who they were in life is as valid and important as their behavior in the afterlife. Though historical research has pieced together many mysteries of several queer hauntings, some of the dead retain their secrets. Detailed records chronicling the lives of everyday individuals were not always kept. Incomplete facts have been left as they are; several enigmas remain a mystery.

Scattered throughout the pages are a handful of GLBT businesses hiding more than just shy lovers in darkened corners. Phantoms ignore rainbow flags and techno beats. Their desire to be seen or heard outweighs reluctance toward major renovations in their surroundings. Most specific locations mentioned are accessible to the public, giving the reader an opportunity to explore and experience possible paranormal activity for him or herself.

Whether you’re looking for a spooky experience on an upcoming trip or a creepy story for a chilly autumn night, this book offers something for everyone. Now, new meaning can be given to the expression gay haunt. And perhaps, this might inspire the next gay or lesbian ghost hunter to see beyond traditional haunted houses and explore a queerer side of the paranormal realm.

Part I: Gay & Lesbian Hauntings in the United States

Eastern States

~~~

Fall River, Massachusetts

After the Forty Whacks

The Other Borden House

New England has suffered its share of tragedies and despicable acts. From the early days of the Salem witch trials, the land has