Page 25 - 200609 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - September 2006

Spirit Messages from a Murderer 25 Spirit Messages from a Murderer 25 Spirit Messages from a said he was planning to leave the following day. T Trivia about death, Spirit Messages from a rivia about death, Murderer But, people noticed that Lucas Garcia all of a dying and graves Murderer dying and graves sudden had a great deal of cash on him and he had no job. The local lawman took it upon By Richard Senate himself to do a little investigating. He walked Presidential "grave" facts By Richard Senate over to Garcia’s adobe home and look around. He discovered a newly turned plot of soil in the back yard. It was about three feet wide and six feet long. It looked very much like a grave. He dug down and found, not far from the surface, the body of the stranger. The cause of death wasn’t in question, the man’s skull was crushed in. Garcia was arrested and questioned. He said the stranger had, out of the goodness of his heart, given him all of his money! The stranger had left early in the morning before sun up and someone else must have killed him and buried 1. Most-visited presidential grave: John F. the man in Garcia’s yard to implicate him. It Kennedy's in Arlington National Cemetery in was a story that seemed un-believable. Arlington, Va. The lawman locked the suspect in the brick jail and rode to Santa Barbara for 2. The only other president buried in instructions. The Santa Barbara was at that time Arlington: William Howard Taft. the county seat. As the sun went down the town 3. The only president buried in Washington, The cold seemed to issue from the dark folk gathered in the saloons and talked of how D.C. proper: Woodrow Wilson, who was laid maw of the old brick building. The whole scene good the stranger had been and how bad Garcia to rest in the National Cathedral. was surreal in the extreme. There we were, a was. He was thought to be behind almost every group of us, in the cold before the old building, crime in the community. Their anger grew hot 4. The only president buried on the grounds attempting to contact a ghost. Not just any and it wasn’t long before a mob was formed of a state capitol: James Polk in Nashville, ghost, but one of the best-known ghosts in and, with burning torches, they marched up Tenn. Ventura, California. Valdez Alley to the little jail. One of the leaders For decades the little brick building was of the mob shot off the padlock of the iron door 5. The only presidents buried together: John rumored haunted by the spirit of a man lynched and they rushed in to pull Lucas Garcia out. He Adams and his son John Quincy Adams are in 1869. The little thick-walled building started was screaming that he was innocent of any in a basement crypt in Quincy, Mass. life as a water filter, constructed by the Spanish crime but the mob jerked him to a tall pear tree Padres in the early years of the Nineteenth on the corner of Main Street and Ventura 6. The two presidents who died on the same Century. It was attached to a seven mile Avenue. Someone produced a rope and Garcia day: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died aqueduct, filtered the water and ran it through suffered western justice. July 4, 1826. underground pipes to the many fountains at In fairness to the community, the mob Mission San Buenaventura, the ninth and last seemingly wasn’t motivated by race. Latinos 7. The states with the most presidential burial mission founded by Father Junipero Serra. The made up that largest percentage of the local sites: Ohio and Virginia (tie). building was nick named “El Caballo” (the residents. It is evident that no one really liked horse) because, so the story goes, the water font Garcia and all agreed that Ventura would be a was carved to resemble a horse’s head, the better place without him. In Ottawa, Ontario, Canada purified water coming out of the horse’s mouth From that time on the small brick In Ottawa, Ontario, Canada People Listen To (the Spanish and their Native converts did have building was said to be haunted by the ghost of People Listen To a sense of humor). After California became part Lucas Garcia. Stories were told that , when the The ‘X’ Zone Radio Show The ‘X’ Zone Radio Show of the United States a rain storm caused a moon was full, a the stroke of midnight, a voice with with landslide that took out a section of the aqueduct. would issue from the structure calling out; “ I Rob McConnell Without water to process, the small filter am innocent!” Rob McConnell on building was abandoned. But in just a few years Because of its lurid past, and rumors of on the structure would take on a new role. The City ghosts, the small building on Valdez Alley was AM 580 CFRA AM 580 CFRA of San Buenaventura (today known as Ventura) included on a walking tour of haunted places in was incorporated on March 10, 1866 and as a Ventura. Only on this night an experiment was new community it needed a jail. The old filter planned. It would be an attempt to communicate was converted into a single cell jail by adding with the departed spirit to discover if he was an iron door and cutting a slit like window really innocent of murder. through the walls. It was at this time that the ghost story came into being. Richard L. Senate lives in Carson City, Nevada, In 1869 a stranger rode into the dusty with his wife Debbie and his two daughters. He town of San Buenaventura. No one ever learned is the author of several books on ghosts the name of this man but everyone was sure he including: Hollywood Ghosts, The Haunted was rich, from his fine clothing to the huge wad Southland, Ghosts of Ventura, and others. His of cash he was prone to show at every website is www.ghost-stalker.com opportunity. He went into the largest saloon and bought drinks for everyone. He told them he To fin out more about Richard Senate and his was heading for Los Angeles on business and treks across America on his ghostly qyests, visit would rest here the night before continuing on. his website at: www. He drank away the evening and, the last anyone www. saw of him he was drinking with Lucas Garcia, ghost-stalker. an unsavory local character. ghost-stalker. The next day the stranger was gone. No com one suspected anything was wrong because he com