Episode 4: Mission San Fernando

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In this exciting GHOSTS WANTED episode, Lee Barron meets the guardians at the gate...the legendary "Indian" at the door...plus five more souls! Our crew also discovers mysterious small blue spirits at the second gate, possibly the souls of children who have found peace and comfort among the walls of the oldest mission in Los Angeles.

The Mission San Fernando, Rey de Espana, was established in 1797 as one of a chain of missions which were built to convert the native peoples (Tongva) to Christianity and to consolidate Spanish power along the coast of California. The establishment of the missions in California was traumatic for the Native Indians, as they were forced to change their lifestyle, beliefs and culture.

The Mission was utilized in a number of ways during the late 1800s; it was a station for the Butterfield Stage Lines; it served as a warehouse for the Porter Land and Water Company; and in 1896, the quadrangle was used as a hog farm. San Fernando's church became a working church again in 1923 when the Oblate priests arrived.

WATER LEVEL: HIGH (ACTIVE FOUNTAIN)

UPDATE 5/21/08

GHOSTS WANTED returned to this location to follow up on another ghost.

TO SEE THE "VANISING HITCHHIKER" EPISODE PRESS HERE

Episode 3: The Haunted Statue

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Sadly, this historic bronze was witness to the deaths of two young children who played, perhaps too adventurously, amongst the rocks and water at its feet. Psychic Lee Barron was able to sense the death imprint of two separate incidents where young boys met their last day by receiving fatal concussions on the boulders while playing in the fountain. Lee senses that the incidents are twenty five years apart, due to the varying strengths of the "signals".

Here is a photograph from 1927 depicting the statue in its original state as the centerpiece for a peaceful fountain in front of the Fox Carthay Circle theater. The popular cinema palace no longer stands, but was on par with Grauman's Chinese Theater in reputation, and hosted grand premieres and celebrities of the day. Click here to read the amazing history of this cinema palace and to see photos of the modern monstrosity which now takes its place.

WATER LEVEL: MEDIUM (FORMER POIND, PIPES UNDERNEATH)

UPDATE! 3/16/08

In a bizarre GHOSTS WANTED twist of fate, the statue of the miner at Carthay Circle, which was the subject of our last episode, was hijacked by scrap metal thieves and nearly boiled down and shipped to China.

Article reprinted in full from Los Angeles Times, February 16, 2006:
Police strike pay dirt in hunt for stolen statue of miner
The bronze miner who stood for 80 years in a Mid-City park suffered the height of indignities.

He was ripped from his pedestal in the park two blocks from Beverly Hills, cut in half above the knees and trucked to a scrap yard on Alameda Street south of downtown. There he was thrown amid the lumpen metal masses -- common copper plumbing, old radiators, transmissions and beer kegs.

Fortunately, police found the miner before he was crushed in the bailer, sent to China and melted in a foundry forge. And they may have ended a peculiar crime spree as well.

Residents of Carthay Circle were delighted to learn the old miner survived, albeit with amputated legs.

"I'm glad he's only cut in half and not melted down," said Judy Moore, president of the Carthay Circle Neighborhood Assn. "At least he didn't go into the witch's brew to become God knows what." Moore said the neighborhood association is willing to help pay to fix the miner.

UPDATE 7/6/08

GHOSTS WANTED returned to this location to follow up on another ghost.

TO SEE "INVISIBLE VAUDEVILLIAN" EPISODE PRESS HERE

UPDATE 1/8/09

The "cursed" statue returns home! ...But, for how long?

UPDATE 1/8/09

According to an L.A.Times article dated Feb.19, 1939, the intersection where the "cursed" statue resides was infamous for the numerous "terrible smash-ups" that occurred as a result of ten lanes of traffic (and two trolley lines) that at that time converged around the statue's island. (The "accident problem" was later solved by converting some of the streets to "one-way" traffic.)

UPDATE 5/13/09

The "miner of misfortune" has once again been attacked. This time he may have been the target of a hate crime. The word "Jew" was spray-painted across his mining pan.

Episode 2: The Spirit of Bess Houdini

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Ghosts Wanted returns to Laurel Canyon to investigate the ruins of the real Houdini mansion. Contrary to standard Houdini mansion investigations, Lee Barron stations his investigation across the street amongst the foundation of the guest house that was once connected to the estate. At the time of filming, Lee was not informed of the history of the grounds, and was only instructed by crew to contact Houdini. Instead, he was only able to perceive strongly the energy of an older woman who lived alone, but received many guests. GHOSTS WANTED believes that he has detected the residual energy of Bess Houdini.

The Laurel Canyon Association reports as much in their historical record:

By the time Harry Houdini had moved to Laurel Canyon, he was already a rich and famous celebrity. He had come to California to further his fortune in the Hollywood film industry. In actuality, he had spent little time at his lavish estate on Laurel Canyon Boulevard before he died. His wife, Bess, lived out her days at the estate's guest house, using the mansion to conduct seances with her dead husband.

The date of his death was October 31, 1926 -- Halloween, one of three days (October 31-November 2) of Samhain, the Celtic New Year, when the veil between the living and the dead allegedly is at its thinnest and the living can make contact with the dead.

WATER LEVEL: MEDIUM (NEAR UNDERGROUND RIVER)

Episode 1: The Phantom Carriage

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For the premiere webisode of Ghosts Wanted, Psychic Lee Barron investigates the intersection of Laurel Canyon and Lookout Mountain based on a neighborhood tip that a haunted stagecoach arrives every night at midnight. While Frank Zappa lived here in the 1960's, in the 1860's Los Angeles was only 10 years old and the Spaniards and Mexican "Californios" were fighting for control of the land formerly home to the Tongva Native American Tribes.

Yet, is it possible that the sounds of crackling branches could be the residual energy of the First Trackless Trolley in America? The Laurel Canyon Trackless Trolley (technological ancestor to the electric car) was operating briefly after the turn of the century by the Laurel Canyon Utility Company in order to create real estate interest, but failed because the roads were not paved. Trolley transportation did not return to Los Angeles again until 1947.

WATER LEVEL: HIGH (DIRECTLY OVER UNDERGROUND RIVER)