THE PADRE HOTEL – BAKERSFIELD
The Padre Hotel is a very haunted hotel. When I was working with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services in regard to the Northridge Earthquake, I stayed one night in this hotel, before heading to Los Angeles to take on my duties as a Disaster Courier working the DAC (Disaster Assistance Centers) in the Greater Los Angeles area. As a Disaster Courier, we would have a briefing in a hotel lobby and then headed out in our government rented vehicles to our assigned DAC centers. We would stay in constant communication with our team leader via our government issued cell phones.
I stayed one night in Bakersfield, before reporting to work in Los Angeles. This would be my only time to relax before I get into the heart of a disaster. A reasonable priced hotel is what I was looking for. I found the Padre Hotel on 1702 18th Street. I fell in love with the history of this hotel. The hotel was built in the 1920s and during the 1960s the owner at that time had connections with the Chicago mob. Things turned dark for the hotel during the 60s, but before that it was a hotel that many people desired to stay at.
During the 50s, there was a fire on the 7th floor. Many people perished from this fire and many of the victims were children. Legend also has it that there was an earthquake during the same period that trapped guests in the basement and some people in that basement lost their lives. Other deaths are jilted lovers that would go up to the top floor and leap to their deaths. Many guests that stay in this hotel hear the giggles of ghostly children, especially on the 7th floor. They say that Room 704 is the most haunted room in the hotel. One of the oddest things about this hotel is that there is a handprint of a little girl on a door and the hotel janitors and management have tried washing the handprint away, even sanding it down and it keeps reappearing. This sort of reminds me of the Black Rose imprint on the wall at the Ione Hotel in Ione, California. A prostitute commits suicide in her room, the prostitute is known as The Black Rose. After she died a black rose appears on the wall of that room and all of the cleaning and scraping off of this image and the image will reappear again and again and again. At the Padre Hotel many guests have seen an apparition of a little girl wearing 1920s attire, along with hat and gloves.
When I stayed at this hotel, I was lying in my bed trying to go to sleep and I heard the soft whispers of a young girl. When I turned on the light, there was no one there. When I finally did fall asleep, I felt a tugging on by right big toe. I tried to ignore it, but the tug got harder and I woke up startled from the tugging and found no cause for the tugging. That is my experience at this very haunted hotel in Bakersfield. In the morning, I heard one guest talking about hearing children running in the hallway and when they opened the door, there was no one in the hallway.
Other reports of haunting activity in this hotel is a cowboy type of man is seen, wearing a cowboy hat. Some guests at this hotel say that they see the cowboy jumping out of a window. When they look out the window, there is no cowboy to be seen. Another frightening aspect of this hotel is that people see floating faces in the hallway and some of the faces look sinister.
FRANKENSTEIN CASTLE
I was stationed in Germany for 3 years. US Army. Worked with the DST (Drug Suppression Team) CID (Criminal Investigation Divison) and my job was working undercover narcotics throughout Germany from Bremerhaven to Munich. When not working, I enjoyed my R&R. At one point of time, i took some time off and visited Frankenstein Castle in Darmstadt, Germany. This castle is very impressive. A man named Johann Dippel once lived here. Legend has it that he was involved in attempting the reanimation of human body parts of the recent dead. Yes, Johann Dippel was the inspiration for Frankenstein. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankentein was influenced by the Johann Dippel story. When she was challenged by poet Lord Byron to come up with a ghost story, Mary took the challenge going up against Lord Byron, Mary’s future husband Percy at Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Mary won, her ghost story was the best and Frankenstein was born. Mary’s story on Frankenstein was cited as one of the first true works of science fiction. As a young solider, I was fascinated with this castle and I stared at the castle for a considerable amount of time, evisioning on how Johann Dippel was conducting his experiments on human body parts. During the time I was there, in 1974, I was not a paranormal investigator, but yes, I was fascinated with the paranormal. Added Note: I did not witness anything paranormal at Frankenstein’s Castle.
By Paul Dale Roberts, HPI’s Esoteric Detectives
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