The Oakland Cemetery

By Paul Dale Roberts, HPI Ghostwriter, Ghosthunter, Demonologist

I am getting up at 6am tomorrow (Feb 9, 2008 Saturday). I am meeting a bunch of HPI Paranormal Investigators-in-Training/Scouts at Starbucks on 15th and Broadway at 8am and then we are headed over to Starbucks at 420 West Grand, Oakland to meet up with Anah Denzeiberg, HPI Paranormal Investigator and Guide that will take us to two cemeteries. One is located at 6450 Camden Street, Oakland, and the other is located at 5000 Piedmont Avenue in Oakland.

Michele Stump, HPI Paranormal Investigator/Historian/Researcher, she says:

“The first one (cemetery) contains a mass grave of 412 unidentified victims of the Jonestown massacre. This is the Evergreen cemetery. Here is the website:
www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4734 — The other one contains the grave of Elizabeth Short, aka “The Black Dahlia”. She was perhaps the most famous murder victim of all time. Her body was found completely bi-sected and lying in an empty lot in Downtown Los Angeles in 1947. Her murder is still a mystery and her killer was never brought to justice. This is the Mountain View Cemetery. Here is the website for more information: www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4490“

A quick look into the history of the Peoples’ Temple. Charismatic Reverend Jim Jones started the Peoples’ Temple in San Francisco. The church he created started innocently enough and he gathered many followers. Jones became friends with politicians and made sure his congregation would support the candidate of Jones’ choice.

There were rumors of abuse being done on the members of the Peoples’ Temple. Jim Jones decided to move his congregation to an isolated area in Guyana and called his new retreat Jonestown. More rumors surfaced, everything from torture, rape, slavery, drug use, brainwashing, unhealthy living conditions and many other atrocities. It was time for Senator Leo Ryan to look into these allegations. The Senator brought his team to investigate and when secret notes were passed to the Senator detailing the horror of Jonestown, the Senator took some members of the congregation with him. A team of Jones’ assassins gunned the Senator and his team down. Later Jim called for a ‘white night’ and forced his congregation to drink poisoned Kool-Aid. Over 900 people died, including Jim Jones.

Let’s do another quick look into history. Let’s talk about Elizabeth Short, aka The Black Dahlia. January 1947, police found the body of a woman cut in half at the torso. Her body was found in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles, CA. The body was of The Black Dahlia, she had been tortured, maimed and murdered. BD was carved into her body and her body was actually sawed in half. There was grass pushed into her private area. It was the worse crime scene that Los Angeles has ever experienced.
 

Now that we looked into the history of these infamous cases, it’s up to HPI to see if we can locate any paranormal activity at these grave sites.

Roll Call for HPI Paranormal Investigators-in-training: Anah Denzeiberg – Guide; Kevin Jones – Videographer for Current TV; Stephen Henderson; Monica Talani, Debbie Talani, Scott Reber, Jessie Garcia, Tavia Jones, Karen Dowd, Maria Alarcon, Amberine Frehman, Nicol Fletcher and Maria Eivers.

Roll Call for HPI Core Member Paranormal Investigators: Holly DeLaughter – Sensitive/Professional Photographer; Michele Stump – Researcher/Historian; Paul Dale Roberts – Ghostwriter, Tim Hawkins – Lead Investigator, Chris Grissom – Technician and Shannon McCabe, HPI president.

Our first stop was the Evergreen Cemetery. Michele Stump and I, gave a briefing on the history of the Peoples’ Temple, Jonestown & the Guyana Poisoned Kool-Aid Massacre for all the investigators. Shannon McCabe gave a briefing in regard to how to use various ghost hunting equipment, how to analyze what they find and areas to conduct their search.

Shannon and I, broke up the teams and sent them on their way to do their investigations. Tim Hawkins located the Guyana victim’s mass grave site, we all brought out our audio digital recorders for some possible EVPs. Debbie Talani scouted out a location for the Oakland Chapter Hell’s Angels grave sites. I gave a history lesson on the Hell’s Angels for the group and then we took digital photographs of the grave sites and did some EVP work. Debbie Talani took a picture of one of the Hell’s Angel’s grave site and it appears she captured some ectoplasm on her film. But after further scrutiny by Debbie, she ruled out the ectoplasm and determined it to be a glare. Debbie also showed Shannon and I, a picture she took at the last scouting mission at the Sutter Creek Palace, in which she captures what looks like a ghostly face on a picture hanging on the wall.

Our second stop was the gorgeous Mountain View Cemetery and Anah points out Section 66, which is where Elizabeth Short aka the Black Dahlia is buried. Michele Stump and I, give a brief history lesson the horrible crime that was committed upon the Black Dahlia, while Kevin Jones filmed away for Current TV. We did some more EVP work and snapped a whole lot of photos. Everything we investigated is pending analysis. After this investigation, Shannon and I, gave a debriefing on the purpose of this scouting mission, what we are seeking and how we can all become better investigators.

To end this fantastic scouting mission, we all headed over to the Raj India Cuisine, 4086 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland, CA 94611. If you ever have a chance, stop at this fabulous restaurant and try out their exotic food. I tried out their spicy lamb with bell peppers, herbs, Indian spices, tomatoes, curry over rice. My God, it made my ghostly taste buds tingle!

This day was a gorgeous, warm beautiful day, with clear blue skies, it was an exciting scouting mission and as I packed up Debbie, Scott, Monica & Michele in my car, we did a convoy back to Sacramento, with Chris Grissom and Tim Hawkins leading us out of Oakland and back to Sacramento. Now the core members have to get ready for another investigation, an all-nighter at the Sacramento Theater Company! We are all meeting at 11:15pm to stay awake till the wee hours!

11:15pm is finally here!

HPI Paranormal Investigators roll call: Bryan Coleman – Videographer; Michele Stump – Researcher/Historian; John Wachter – Vice President; Paul Dale Roberts – Ghostwriter; Chris Grissom – Technician; Donna Reynolds – Sensitive; Tim Hawkins – Lead Investigator; Shannon McCabe – President; Maria Eivers – Empath; Holly DeLaughter – Professional Photograph / Sensitive.

Guests from Chicago & San Jose, CA: Greg McAleer and David Jimenez- These two great guys will be having a national ghost hunting show on a very famous channel! Greg flew in from Chicago to “interview” HPI for his upcoming show!

Sacramento Theater Company Costume Shop Manager: Jessica Minnihan.
 

I interviewed both Greg & David and asked them what type of paranormal experiences they had and how they got into reality TV, here is what they said:

Greg McAleer: Greg tells me that he investigated the Whaley House in San Diego with a lot of great results. He lived in a haunted house growing up. He moved in this home at the age of 11. In this home, someone committed suicide. He remembers hearing ghostly footsteps and at age 16 there were a series of loud knocks on the walls that frightened him. Once Greg walked into what felt like a force field and when he came out of it, his brain felt like it was swimming in water, he felt like he had a hangover, but hadn’t been drinking, he will never forget that eerie experience. After living in this haunted house, Greg has always had a fascination for the paranormal. He is also an incredible cameraman.

David Jimenez: Once he was taking pictures and felt a strong tug at his arm by an unseen force. His camera malfunctioned in a haunted location for no apparent reason. When David lived in Boston he remembers a time when he saw a full body apparition of a woman sitting on the floor watching TV and when he approached the woman, she vanished. He felt a presence at a local tattoo parlor. David is actually Greg’s cast member for their upcoming reality series!
Be on the lookout for the show: Sorry we can’t tell you the name, but when we can, we will!

After my interviews with Greg and David, I floated around to the teams in various locations of the theater to see what they were experiencing. We saw some floating orbs on the video monitor, we conducted two seances in two different locations of the theater that has the most activity and there were no results. Chris, Holly and Michele heard metallic tapping sounds in the costume shop area, but the tapping sounds had no intelligent responses back. Michele and Holly heard strange creaking sounds, but that could be chalked up to the building being so old. I captured a possible EVP of a dog barking which sounded like ‘yip yip’. John Wachter also took a picture of a blueish orb, we need further analysis on it to determine if it is paranormal. The only thing that I found really paranormal that happened tonight was when I conducted the two seances, someone’s stomach made a loud growling noise, which made the seance circle jump!

All the evidence is being analyzed and we’ll send our results to Shannon. Be sure to check www.HPIparanormal.net for updated findings.

Since I am in the comic book business, it is my duty for my business Jazma Online! to see what comic books are on the market. I do reviews, interviews within the comic book industry. Also, since I am in the ghost hunting business, I might as well combine both industries and discover what paranormal comic books are in the market right now. On Feb 8, 2008, Friday, I went to A1 Comics and checked out their racks for new and exciting paranormal comics or comics that touch upon the paranormal and here is what I found: Midnighter #16 – Wildstorm; Northlanders – Sven the Returned – Vertigo; The Vinyl Underground #5 – Vertigo; Doktor Sleepless – Your Imaginary Friend #5 – Avatar; Eve – Vampire Diva #3 – Arcana; Full Cirkle 1a – Full Circle; Incursion #3 – Platinum Studios; Jungle Girl 4 – Dynamite; The Misadventures of Clark and Jefferson Book 2 – Ape Entertainment; MidKnight – Red 5 Comics; The Overman Book 3 – Image; Space Doubles – The 3rd World News; Ubu Bubu – Slave Labor Graphics; Ed Burn’s Dockwalloper – Virgin Comics. Marvel Comics has a whole slew of bizarre comics like: The Twelve, Omega the Unknown, Moby Dick, Lords of Avalon, Sword of Darkness, Clandestine, Annihilation Conquest and Anita Blake – Vampire Hunter.

So, if you don’t have any paranormal work to do, stop by A1 Comics in Sacramento and discover some intriguing paranormal comics to read! While you are conducting surveillance and are getting bored to your wits end, you can read a good paranormal comic book! That is my recommendation!

Before I go, I wrote the article called ‘The 6 Types of Hauntings’. Then remembered there is a 7th Type of Haunting! It’s called ‘The Religious Haunting’. The Religious Haunting is where a dwelling, an establishment or even a person may be haunted by something of religious significance. Case Example: The Miracle of Fatima, in which the Virgin Mary appeared. Some people make claims of seeing the face of Jesus Christ in the bark of their oak tree or even in a bowl of Cheerios. Some people fall victim of stigmata, the bleeding of the palms, forehead, feet. These are the locations of the body, in which Jesus received his wounds after being crucified on the cross. There are angel sightings, many angel sightings have occurred at car crashes with fatalities. So add this to your list of hauntings!

PAUL’S FINDINGS OF THE OAKLAND SCOUTING MISSION:
Debbie Talani contacted me and told me that at the Evergreen Cemetery, when Shannon was explaining about the temperature fluctuations, an EVP was picked up of a cat meowing and there were no cats around.
Debbie Talani laid her audio digital recorder at the Elizabeth Short gravesite. And when Anah and Michele were talking, the EVP of a male voice says “I’m in love”.
Debbie Talani also took a picture of ectoplasm at the Hell’s Angels gravesites.

Paul Dale Roberts, HPI Ghostwriter, Ghosthunter, Demonologist
Email: [email protected]
www.HPIparanormal.net
www.hauntedamericatours.com
www.jazmaonline.com
www.ghostsandstories.com/paul.html
Paranormal Cellular Hotline: 916 203 7503 (for comments on this story).

Be on the lookout for the:
HPI NORTHERN CA PARANORMAL CONFERENCE
www.HPIparanormal.net at the Brookdale Lodge May 16-18th, 2008

If you have a possible investigation call: 1-888-709-4HPI

Copyright © 2008 Paul Dale Roberts, HPI Ghostwriter Copyright© 2008
all rights reserved.