Valoween: Unraveling the Ghostly Romances and Haunted Histories of Valentine's Day

Rissa Miller, our cherished folklore expert, returns to unravel the captivating evolution of Valentine's Day, from its shadowy Roman roots and stories of Saint Valentine to the pagan charms of Lupercalia. Discover how the Industrial Revolution sweetened the deal, turning Victorian chocolates into tokens of affection, and see how these traditions intertwine with our passion for the paranormal. Celebrate “Valoween” with us—a delightful fusion of love and haunting tales that captures the essence of these seemingly disparate holidays.

Our episode journeys through America’s haunted past, uncovering ghostly romances that defy time and tragedy. From star-crossed Mohican lovers in New York to the lingering spirits of Pennsylvania's Acomac Inn, these stories offer poignant reflections on love and loss. Travel with us to Ellicott City's Judge's Bench in Maryland, where the playful spirit of Mary enchants visitors, and revel in the rich tapestry of hauntings that weave love and the supernatural into the fabric of our history.

Venture into the mystical allure of New Orleans, where tales of haunted love continue to mesmerize. Encounter the tragic "bride under the bridge" and explore the notorious legacy of Lavinia Fisher in Charleston. Wrap up with the romantic saga of Thomas Rowell and Lucinda at Florida's Don CeSar Hotel, where their undying love echoes in the halls. As we celebrate Galentine's Day and Valoween, let these enchanting stories remind us of the enduring power of love, even in the realm of the spectral and unexplained.

Chapters

• 0:01 Valoween
• 11:51 Ghostly Love Stories in American History
• 19:20 The Haunting of Acomac Inn
• 26:21 Haunted Tales of Maryland and Missouri
• 36:25 Ghostly Tales of New Orleans
• 48:01 Enchanting Tale of Lavinia Fisher
• 58:06 Ghostly Love Story of Don Cesar
• 1:05:39 Celebrating Galentine's Day and Valoween

Transcript

Logan: 0:01

Well, hey there, fellow truth seekers, before we dive into this week's episode of Generation X Paranormal, we've got something special to share with you.

Nicole: 0:08

That's right. If you love exploring the unknown with us, why not take your support to the next level by joining us on Patreon?

Logan: 0:14

Yeah, and by becoming a Patreon you'll unlock exclusive perks, like behind the scenes content that's coming up early, access to episodes which you can get right now, and bonus material we don't typically share anywhere else, not to mention your support helps keep the lights on, literally and figuratively, so we can continue bringing you the spooky, mysterious and downright bizarre stories you crave yeah. Plus, it's a way to join a community of like-minded explorers and who doesn't love geeking out about ghosts, ufos and cryptids together?

Nicole: 0:46

So head over to patreoncom, forward, slash genxparanormal and choose the tier that's right for you. Whether you're a casual fan or a hardcore investigator, there's something for everyone.

Logan: 0:58

And honestly, guys, your support means the world to us. Together, we can keep unraveling the mysteries of the universe.

Nicole: 1:05

Thanks for being part of the Generation X Paranormal Family. Now let's get back to the show. Thank you.

Logan: 1:57

Well, hey, everybody, welcome back, Hello everyone. So we are celebrating a holiday, as you can tell by the hearts around this guy here. Well, someday we're going to have to come up with a name for this guy, I think.

Nicole: 2:11

Yeah, maybe you guys need to let us know what he should be named.

Logan: 2:14

Yeah, maybe that's name him or her, I don't know, it doesn't really matter. Name this Anyway. So we are celebrating Valentine's Day, but actually we are calling it Val-a-ween. So you know, I don't really know a ton about this holiday or this new version of this holiday. So what we decided to do was bring back an old friend of the show.

Nicole: 2:38

Yes, we have.

Logan: 2:39

We have Rissa Miller and Rissa Miller has been on a couple of times and we love having her on, but you know she's got a much better accounting of what Valoween is than I do. Do you know much about it?

Nicole: 2:50

I do not, it's a recent thing. So she's going to explain all that to us and tell us some stories.

Logan: 2:55

Yeah, we can't wait. So what do you say? We bring her on. Let's talk to her. Sounds good, hey, rissa.

Logan: 3:09

Hello, good, hey, rissa, hello. Hey, it's so awesome to have you back on.

Rissa Miller: 3:12

Well, thanks for having me back again I always enjoy being a guest on gen x paranormal. We love having you here.

Logan: 3:15

It's awesome and you've kind of become the, which is great, but you've kind of become the holiday guest which is perfect for us. You know it's nice to have. You know it's always nice to have somebody to come on that can kind of share in some of that fun so pretty excited.

Rissa Miller: 3:34

Well, it's a pleasure, and folklore which kind of covers holidays is definitely one of my areas of expertise, so I'm happy to be here, and today we're going to talk, you know, I guess, about Valentine's Day, with all those hearts behind you.

Rissa Miller: 3:47

I know, yeah, you got some love for that ghost back there.

Rissa Miller: 3:50

I see, yeah.

Logan: 3:51

We try to be festive, If you remember, for the holiday one, the Christmas one. We try to decorate him for the holidays, make him feel like he's. You know, part of the show, you know, not just our mascot, Right right right.

Rissa Miller: 4:02

Yeah, well, you know, not just our mascot, yeah well, you know, everybody should have a little more love for ghosts, because you know, that's what we're going to be talking about today, right like that's awesome stories yes yeah, I can't wait, you know I can't wait to hear what she has to tell us.

Logan: 4:17

Yeah yeah, yeah, if you could tell us a little bit about kind of the as a start with, like the origin of the, of the holiday that we're kind of talking about.

Logan: 4:25

We're super excited about that

Rissa Miller: 4:26

, absolutely, so you know the really interesting thing is that the true origin of Valentine's Day is actually unknown. Historians definitely are not sure and it could have come from multiple different places, but really nobody knows. So the name Valentine historically, especially in Roman times, was not unusual. It was a pretty common name and there are lots of stories associated with people named Valentine, and there's even more than one Saint Valentine. So that makes it a little difficult to pin down the origin. Now, reminding a tiny bit, some people like to say that Valentine's Day's pagan origin is Lupercalia.

Rissa Miller: 5:10

So, maybe, but it's a holiday that celebrates fertility. It was a festival honoring Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage, but the thing is, a lot of historians aren't sure that they're actually really the same or that they can even be wedded together. That said, let's look at some stories about St Valentine. There was one really lovely story that one of the St Valentines restored sight to a blind girl and later, legendarily I don't know if this is true or not sent her a letter and it was signed your Valentine. So some people say that's maybe the history of the idea of Valentine's. But you know, there's a lot of Victorian stuff Shocking, I know, for me to say that, right Surprise, the Victorians were involved Of course.

Rissa Miller: 6:09

So in the Victorian time it did become more common to think about things like lovebirds. In early spring is when birds start to fly back after winter, and that's when the phrase lovebirds became common. And then you also have the idea of offering chocolates or candy. Well, there weren't even chocolates and candy available. Through most of history. Sugar was a tropical crop and it wasn't until industrialization that that sugar was widely available. Chocolate as well. Chocolate is from South America. It's not like they had it everywhere. So during the time of the Industrial Revolution is when stuff like that became more common, as well as paper greeting cards. Before the Victorian era, maybe occasionally. You know, people sent letters. Definitely, love letters were a thing for you know, as long as people could write. But the idea of a Valentine came later and Cupid was Greek, not Roman. So you know.

Nicole: 7:18

Yeah, they all mesh together.

Rissa Miller: 7:20

Yeah, cupid was known to Greeks as Eros, and he was the handsome god of love, so all of these things have sort of mashed up together to give us the holiday we think of now as Valentine's Day. It's definitely a mashup holiday, though, and this modern manifestation is from all over the place. I really like the newer uh versions. Like galentine's day, it does trace its history literally back to parks and rec.

Rissa Miller: 7:51

Season two episode 16, when amy poehler has the ladies celebrating.

Rissa Miller: 7:57

Ladies uh brunch and gifts and toasts, and you know I love that. It's a lot of fun. Um, and then, of course, today we're going to get spooky and we're going to talk about valoween. So valoween is the mashup between valentine's day and halloween. Yes, I cannot find a true origin. I think this started on social media. Okay, um, that is, that is my official opinion on the subject. I cannot verify that for you. Um, it doesn't seem to exist before about 10 years ago, anywhere it does seem to exist for quite a while on pinterest.

Rissa Miller: 8:32

That seems to be where, historically, I can find the oldest posts about it wow, um, I still can't, though, yeah yeah, it's cool, but you know, um also, there's some debate apparently whether Valoween is February the 13th, which is also Galentine's Day, according to Parks and Rec.

Rissa Miller: 8:49

Or is it?

Rissa Miller: 8:50

the same day as Valentine's Day, February 14th.

Nicole: 8:54

Hmm.

Rissa Miller: 8:54

You know what Go for, whatever works for you

Logan: 8:57

I think, yeah, I mean, why not?

Logan: 8:58

I mean, if it's something created out of Pinterest and it's still relatively new?

Rissa Miller: 9:02

Right, hey, maybe it just hasn't really found its way yet.

Logan: 9:05

Right yeah.

Rissa Miller: 9:06

I did want to share that. I I got this cute spooky Valentine. I bought it locally to me in Pennsylvania at a place called the dark parlor where the house artists Lauren Ray draws spooky greeting cards and she has made a whole series of these spooky Valoween greetings. So mine has a centipede and it says I want to be your love bug. And I just thought it was too cute. I had to get a spooky Valentine, since I knew I'd be chatting with you all.

Logan: 9:35

Yeah, that's awesome. That's really cool. What a great piece of art too.

Rissa Miller: 9:39

Isn't it lovely?

Logan: 9:39

Yeah.

Rissa Miller: 9:41

But yeah, it's not. Unless you're on Pinterest I suppose it's not super easy or Etsy, to find a spooky Valentine, and that's one way that I knew it wasn't actually going to go back to the Victorians or something like that. I just weren't there. It just was not there to be found. So, for those looking. You know you can always check out Etsy for all of your Valoween needs.

Logan: 10:05

Yeah, nice plug for Etsy yep right.

Nicole: 10:09

I'm good with that

Rissa Miller: 10:10

well you know, I feel like it's the small makers and artists that do these things first, and then, large companies catch on because they're like, oh, this is a viable thing and we can sell it exactly so, but that's how these things always begin.

Logan: 10:23

Yep, that's fun though too, because you know it's fun though too, because you know, it's like kind of like the old days when we were younger. It was like you had a little artist communities and everything, and while that still exists in a lot of places, it's harder to kind of nail down. Now there's a much bigger community that's capable of doing that, so that's pretty cool

Nicole: 10:42

you can get things farther.

Nicole: 10:44

You know, like from where we're at, there's not a lot of that,

Logan: 10:46

yeah

Nicole: 10:46

, to access. So yeah you know, definitely getting on there, you can get it from, even you know, across the ocean

Rissa Miller: 10:52

absolutely

Nicole: 10:52

, which I have done

Logan: 10:54

yes, you have

Rissa Miller: 10:54

yeah, I also have time that's where my krampus cookie cutter came from was somewhere, oh yeah yeah, that one was not available at my local Michael's.

Logan: 11:05

No, I wouldn't think that'd be the case, or the I can't remember which one it was that did the poop thing. I'm sure that's not available at your local.

Rissa Miller: 11:14

Well, that is a Spanish tradition. That's right, you probably have to refer to Spanish makers to get those.

Rissa Miller: 11:22

Yes, the Tio de Nadal your favorite new Christmas story.

Logan: 11:25

It makes me laugh still.

Nicole: 11:28

What's funny was my uncle contacted us after he watched that episode. You better not walk into his house and do anything. It was a total joke, but it was really funny,

Rissa Miller: 11:42

oh I love it.

Rissa Miller: 11:43

I'm so glad that he's able to embrace these cultural traditions oh yeah all right, so let's move on to.

Rissa Miller: 11:51

Let's get into some spooky love stories yeah, I'm excited, let's go for it.

Rissa Miller: 11:55

The first one I have for you is kind of a romeo and juliet story and, um, some of these are going to be sad. I'm going to give you a heads up okay um, the first one. We're going to go to new york state, uh, north of of Manhattan Island, even a little north of Sleepy Hollow, and we're going way back in time to when the villages there were Mohican.

Rissa Miller: 12:16

And there was a chief and his village was I might say this word badly. I don't know the Mohican language, so if anybody who is listening is an expert in native languages, please forgive me. I'm trying. I'm going to say that it was Patcayote was how the village was pronounced. So this chief had a really special daughter. She was really brilliant, she was really lovely and everybody wanted to marry her.

Rissa Miller: 12:45

But one day, walking in the woods, she met a very special man. Unfortunately, he was the son of an enemy tribe and, much like in Romeo and Juliet, that does never, ever stop people from falling in love just because their families are rivals. And even though many men tried to win her heart, she really, really wanted this one. Now the chief of the Mohicans was a stubborn guy. He was not going to listen to his daughters' pleas to meet this young man and because he was from a rival tribe, the young man couldn't exactly go ask for her in marriage and his tribe couldn't win against the Mohicans. They were sort of legendary warriors and you know they played huge roles in the American Revolution and other wars that came. So they decided instead to run away in the night, basically to elope kind of just like Romeo and Juliet right.

Rissa Miller: 13:48

Well, this is where the story changes. For Romeo and Juliet, their ancestors became incredibly angry this is a legend and they sent a storm, and it was a big storm lightning, thunder. The sky just opens and it's it's such a deluge that it starts to become a mudslide in the forest where they are and there's a huge crash, blinding lightning, and then a boulder is set loose and it begins rolling down a hill. It hits them, carries them in the mudslide down to a rushing stream and, unfortunately, they both die and their bodies are, according to the legend, trapped under the boulder. The boulder is still there. It is in Clavrock Creek and the story is that it is a monument to them that the enemy tribes, if they would have just cooperated, both of them would have lived and both of their tribes would have lived on through them, and they say that right before a storm. You can still hear her crying. They call it Spook Rock, and the Greenport Historical Society actually set up a plaque in 2016 to memorialize what happened to the two tribes at that time.

Logan: 15:10

Wow, it's sad. It is really sad. You know there's something about. You know I don't know what it is, you know if you see a ghost and you know you see the actual, if you see an apparition or not. But something about kids laughing or women crying scare the you know what out of me. If that ever comes down to it. I don't know what it is. Just the thought of that it's kind of haunting, yeah.

Rissa Miller: 15:33

Yeah, well, you know, I feel like this is one of those stories that, even though it's quite tragic and there was loss of life, that there's a valuable lesson.

Logan: 15:44

Sure.

Rissa Miller: 15:45

You know cooperation always beats trying to run away, and you know it isn't always going to be feasible. I'm sure that their parents would have probably never been into the idea, but then at the end it would have been so much better than what happened, losing both of them, yeah.

Logan: 16:04

No, it is absolutely a great message in itself. And yeah, I mean right Kind of out of the page of Romeo and Juliet, you know. But yeah, if you have two battling entities but yet you know they can't find common ground, tragedy happens. So no, that makes perfect sense.

Nicole: 16:27

It sounds similar. When you started the story, I thought it was this other thing that I had heard and I don't know where it is. I just remember something about a story about a Native American woman and I thought it was similar to that, but it has to do with a waterfall somewhere Interesting.

Rissa Miller: 16:38

I don't think I know that story.

Nicole: 16:40

Yeah, and I cannot remember where it was. I heard it a long long time ago, but it might be out west somewhere.

Logan: 16:46

We'll save it for next Valoween.

Nicole: 16:47

Yeah, I'll have to look it up later and let you know.

Nicole: 16:50

But I know I've heard that story somewhere. Yeah, but once again, they can't prove that they know for sure who this person was. It's just like you know, like a legend, yeah.

Rissa Miller: 17:00

Yeah, we know. There are definitely a lot of stories of natives, male or female, that fell in love with colonists and it was just not approved by either side. Right so many of those stories are tragic. People either had to run away and become isolated, which you know historically was a really big deal, because if you didn't have the support of a village it was a lot harder to cut it.

Nicole: 17:32

And.

Rissa Miller: 17:33

You know, if you didn't have a community. So either people were in that scenario or often one or both partners died. And it is tragic. It is absolutely a sad and difficult lesson that I feel like humanity is still working on.

Nicole: 17:49

Yes, unfortunately, yeah, yeah.

Rissa Miller: 17:54

So, moving a little further south into Pennsylvania, my next story is at a place called the Acomac Inn. Now, the Acomac is a native Algonquin word, meaning across the water, and the inn is a real place. You can drive by it. Right now it is for sale. If you have $1.5 million, you could purchase it, you know. On a whim, whatever my birthday, birthday coming up sure, if you want a haunted restaurant of your own, that would be awesome.

Logan: 18:25

I'd love to buy something like that. That'd be really awesome.

Rissa Miller: 18:27

Be neat yep, so um, the akamek is a real place. I have dined there in my life. Now they have been closed since, I believe, believe 2019. But as a child, I ate there. My parents have been there several times and it was a really lovely place in its day. I'm not sure what happened or why it closed. I don't think it was because of the hauntings. The hauntings there are actually kind of beloved in the community, much like the Acomac itself. This is the place where the first steamboat in America was launched. It is the landing place on the Susquehanna River where the Marquis de Lafayette came in 1778 and signed the treaty where France joined the United States against the British. So it's a place with lots of very cool history.

Logan: 19:16

Yeah, no kidding.

Rissa Miller: 19:17

But embedded in that history is the ghost story.

Rissa Miller: 19:20

Dun, dun, dun so in 1874, the Coyle family John and Mary owned the Acomac Inn and they had a son named Johnny Jr. So he was a really excellent sailor and a good boatsman and since they lived on a river, that made him a very fine prospect. They owned the ferry station and the inn. Unfortunately, he also had a really bad temper and he was kind of unpredictable. His behavior was challenging. If we were looking at him today we might say that he had some emotional health issues to work on. But they didn't have that kind of language in 1874.

Logan: 19:59

Right.

Rissa Miller: 20:00

So they employed a young woman who was an orphan from Chambersburg named Emily Myers. Now Emily would have been doing very well to marry Johnny, because he was completely smitten with her, since she had no family and she had no dowry. However, she knew him and she was like nope, nope, nope. He asked her repeatedly to marry him and she always said no. It just continued to do her work. So on May 30th in 1882, he asked her one more time and she said no. And johnny decided that if he couldn't have emily, nobody else was going to have her either, and he shot and killed her in their barn oh my gosh so then uh he was like uh-oh uh, this isn't good.

Rissa Miller: 20:52

so he sort of turned the gun on himself, but he wasn't successful in killing himself. He injured himself and then he ran off into the woods and 10 days later he was caught and charged with her murder.

Logan: 21:06

Wow.

Rissa Miller: 21:07

Yeah, he was found guilty of her murder, but because his family was so prominent, he was able to get a retrial. So they took him to a different part of Pennsylvania and he got his retrial. So they took him to a different part of pennsylvania and he got his retrial and that jury also said oh yeah, this guy is super guilty of murdering emily myers. Yeah, um, he was hanged, he died and they tried to bury him in their hometown of marietta, pennsylvania, and the city refused. They're like we, we don't want this murderer here. Wow. So they brought him back to the Acomac. He was buried there and his tombstone and burial plot can still be seen there today. It is only 50 feet away from the building. Now where Emily Myers is buried is kind of a mystery. Some people believe she's buried there, but she had no family to bury her, so it's not like they would have taken her home.

Rissa Miller: 21:59

That was her home, so it's very likely that she indeed could be buried at the Acomac Inn.

Logan: 22:08

Wow, that is wild.

Rissa Miller: 22:10

Isn't it Now? For decades patrons of the AcomEC reported seeing both Emily and Johnny as apparitions at the inn. So Emily is always sad. Emily is always crying. She will frequently show up as a full-bodied apparition pleading for help, weeping into her hands. I have not personally seen her, but my understanding from witnesses that she shows up so fully formed that one time a staff member was closing down for the night thought there was a woman sitting on the porch, called the police. The cops get there and it's the ghost of Emily crying. Wow.

Logan: 22:53

So the cops actually saw that.

Rissa Miller: 22:55

Apparently a lot of people have seen her. Wow, now Johnny does not show up as a full-bodied apparition, but even in death he seems to have kept his bad temper. Broken dishes, slammed doors, all kinds of other encounters with him make people very aware that there are two totally different apparitions at the Acomac. Now can you imagine not wanting to marry someone?

Nicole: 23:22

I was just about to say that she's not aware that he's there, because that's awful.

Rissa Miller: 23:28

Not wanting to marry someone and getting stuck with them literally forever. Exactly.

Nicole: 23:32

That's why she's crying yeah.

Logan: 23:35

And he, of course, is once an a-hole, always an a-hole. So he's just gonna, you know well, that's what they.

Nicole: 23:41

They say who did we talk to you about that?

Logan: 23:42

I don't remember I'm not sure who it was but yeah, they said that they will keep that same um yeah, I think the term personality yeah, the term was I won't say here because it's a little colorful, but yeah, once an a-hole, always an a-hole yeah, yeah, that sounds about right.

Rissa Miller: 23:59

And uh, it, it. There are other ghosts that come and go from the akamak. Um, there's a cat ghost, which sounds super fun to me, and there's the ghost of a confederate soldier who was a spy. But um, emily and johnny still show up. Still, I mean, I don't know that anybody's really been in the building and all that much since it's been put up for sale. I guess maybe the current owner and the realtor, but I keep thinking to myself. At least when it was a busy and popular restaurant, the two of them had other people to interact with, with the staff and patrons.

Rissa Miller: 24:32

And now it's kind of like just them.

Logan: 24:35

Can you imagine what, the uh, what, how increased of activity that's probably going on in there right now?

Nicole: 24:42

well, especially when they sell it and people take over, they're probably going to renovate.

Logan: 24:47

That's usually that's usually when things get knocked loose, for sure well, let's put a pin on that one and hopefully we come back to that one whenever yeah oh yeah, and it's a beautiful property.

Rissa Miller: 24:58

It's right on the Susquehanna River, so hopefully somebody wants to reopen it and hopefully Emily and Johnny are hopeful. Yeah.

Logan: 25:06

And hey, audience for sure, and audience we're going to put up pictures and stuff of it. So if you got 1.5 million right, is that what it was? That's right, 1.5 million, that's nothing you know. Just I don't know. Just take a second job or something or make that your job. You know, you never know.

Rissa Miller: 25:22

Yeah, that's true yeah, yeah, you never know who's listening.

Logan: 25:25

Maybe somebody's looking for a historic investment property if I had 1.5, believe me I'd actually do it. I'd be something that would be really cool to renovate and have and even bring this story you know as, as part of it, create you know, bed and breakfast or something. Oh, I don't know.

Rissa Miller: 25:41

Yeah, it's had a lot of different lives, since it's been an inn with sleeping quarters. It's been an inn that was just a restaurant. So and it is. When you look at the pictures, it's a great old building. It's a gorgeous site.

Logan: 25:55

That's really cool. It's awesome and those listening on the podcast look it up.

Rissa Miller: 25:59

It's pretty cool. So now we're going to move south again into Maryland and we're going to go to a town called Ellicott City. Now, ellicott City holds a special place in my heart. It is where I got started as a ghost tour guide many years ago. I have worked there for a long time for Maryland history tours and that's where this story comes from. So it is the ghost of the Judge's Bench. So the Judge's Bench is a building. It dates back to the late 1800s and it is made of the very particular kind of stone that's common in Ellicott City.

Rissa Miller: 26:31

It's a composite stone that has quartz crystal in it, and the story goes that that's why ellicott city is so very haunted is that the quartz crystal composite sort of holds and binds spirits down in the city right ellicott also sits at the crux of two rivers so you have that energy as well, holding and binding your ghosts down.

Logan: 27:01

Yeah, that seems to be a pretty common thing, you know, even from most paranormal researchers. You know, quartz just seems to have that capability to lock down memory and limestone. And then you have running water increases activity. So, yeah, let's talk about a recipe.

Rissa Miller: 27:16

Even better in Ellicott City. It's down in a valley and then they put an electric grid over the top, so it's almost like a box. Yeah, I mean, I know a ghost box is a real thing, but in the way of describing a piece of land it's like a land, ghost box.

Logan: 27:34

An opposite Faraday cage. Yeah, everything's locked into that one area like that.

Rissa Miller: 27:38

that's pretty wild yeah, perfect yeah well, I have another story of a forbidden love. And, um, the judge's bench, like I said, dates back to the 1800s. It's made on a foundation of this composite uh, stone. It's been a resident, it's been a grocery store, it's been a flooring store. Right now it's a really popular tavern. It was named the judges bench because right up the hill they used to have the courthouse and the judges would go down there afterwards and get their bourbon. And, uh, it's a town, it's a town favorite that's still popular for having really excellent bourbon. Uh, I think I even sent you maybe a picture of like one of their really famous bourbon flights.

Logan: 28:19

Yeah, we'll put it up there for sure, and I do love them. That's still a thing.

Rissa Miller: 28:22

They've still got it. So in the 1940 and 1970, it was called Burger's Grocery and it was kind of a mom and pop local grocery store before we had things you know like Kroger and huge complex grocery stores like that. Back when you know you went to a mom and pop store to get your food and the couple who owned the store started their business right after they were they're married. They lived upstairs from the store and they had a daughter. Her name was mary. Now nowadays ellicott city is a sort of upscale tourist destination, but back then in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, it had a reputation as a different kind of town. It was a town that had survived the Prohibition and come out just partying and happy and ready to go, and it was a town known for basically wine, women and song. In fact it was such a reputable town that even the local Fort Meade military were not the soldiers there were told they were not allowed to go to Ellicott city because it was so wild, which is probably like you should go to Ellicott city.

Logan: 29:31

Yeah, that means, every soldier was there.

Rissa Miller: 29:34

Yeah, pretty much so. Um, that said, they didn't want Mary to date any boys from town. They wanted to find her an honorable young man to be her husband, and by the time she was 19, of course, she met and fell in love with a boy who was from Ellicott city and, um, her parents were like, yeah, no, you can't marry him, we don't even want to meet him. Um, and she just she couldn't see any way this was going to work out in her favor. So, unfortunately, in 1962, mary hanged herself on the third floor of the building, but she never left. She is a very popular ghost about town the judges, bench folks who work there, the current owners. The current owners, when they took over, were non-believers and they have since changed their minds and decided that they are believers.

Rissa Miller: 30:34

And you know, there's a sort of a happy addendum to the story. In the late 90s there was a young man who was going to college in the area and he worked at the judge's bench as, like his you know college job as a bartender. He could see Mary and he could interact with her the years he was in school and then he even stayed after because he and Mary really developed a great friendship and he didn't want to leave and move on to his professional career because he had to leave her behind. Um, eventually he did. He couldn't stay forever, but um the the guess. To me the happy part is at least she finally got to have not only someone who could see and interact with her as a ghost, but she got to have her ellica city boy and um at least have that relationship with someone even after her death oh wow, that's sad.

Nicole: 31:29

Yeah, that's sad it is.

Rissa Miller: 31:31

It is a tragic story. It is a it was a yet another story yes it's very sad, but I uh, I do love that. She at least she does have a lot of interaction. People go in there just to look for her. Apparently, she likes to. She's very playful. She's still a 19 year old, you know. She's stayed forever. I know several people who've had interactions with her in the bathrooms and in the different parts of the pub, but uh, she's a very busy and actually playful yes, she is always kind of upbeat okay okay, yeah, she's like I said, she's a 19 year old, she's still.

Rissa Miller: 32:11

She will always be there and that's it.

Nicole: 32:13

They see her and hear her, or is it? She's just moving stuff around.

Rissa Miller: 32:17

All of the above, all of it.

Logan: 32:20

That's cool, all of the above, so she's not what some people consider residual.

Rissa Miller: 32:26

She's not residual. I like the city has lots of residual stories, but I chose Mary specifically because she is a very active interactive.

Nicole: 32:35

That's awesome. Those are the best. Yeah, they are the best. Residuals are good because because you know, they're just as paranormal, but and they tell a story and they tell a story, but the active are always but when you get a response from them, it's different different is a good word, positive or negative?

Rissa Miller: 32:55

yeah so now I'm going to come all the way over to missouri, to springfield, to phelps grove park for another story of lost love that that's a familiar, it is so, since the two of you know phelps grove park, any chance that you've seen any, uh, ghostly activity there yourselves?

Nicole: 33:16

no, and you and you know, I went to college in Springfield and that was the big story, you know at Phelps Grove Park. You need to go there. So we were there all the time but I never saw anything, and most of the people don't see anything. It's just mostly like a legend.

Rissa Miller: 33:31

I think it could be a legend you know, I dug around a lot on this one. I really wanted to find names and I couldn't find them. It doesn't mean they're not there. Right it just means you know, without being in Springfield, Missouri, and going to your newspaper archives, I could not find them online.

Logan: 33:51

Right. Well, I think, even having gone there myself, everybody talks about it, but I don't even know if I remember, because I know you'll get into it. Well, there's a bridge involved there is but there's. There's not. I'm not 100 sure where the bridge would have been, because there's a couple of places where it could have it still exists and there's a picture okay, yeah, maybe that was all. You just forget where it is yeah, I did.

Rissa Miller: 34:13

Well, there are three entrances to the park, says the woman who's never been there but looked at maps. That's what confused me.

Logan: 34:19

There are three entr. There are three entrances to the park, says the woman who's never been there but looked at maps.

Rissa Miller: 34:22

That's what confused me. There are three entrances. There are three entrances to the park. So Phelps Grove Park actually dates back to 1914. It was at the south side of the Springfield city limits back then and it was part of the John and Mary Phelps homestead. At the time they're kind of considered the founding mother and father of the city. He was a Missouri congressman, he was the governor of Missouri and his wife, mary, was involved with educating orphans after the Civil War. Today it is a 31-acre park and it's not as big as it used to be. They've sort of trimmed it away over time but it does still have the McGcgregor waiting pool, memorial rose garden, a baseball field, walking trails, tennis courts and lots of pavilions and and the fieldstone bridge.

Rissa Miller: 35:09

Now, I love bridge stories because the thing about bridges is that they're liminal space, meaning a bridge is kind of, you know, that connection between this side and this side and in the middle you're kind of floating right perfect place for ghost stories, right sure absolutely bridges seem to have a cryptid or a ghost story or something yeah, so especially all uh mothman, but yeah, yeah, yeah well I'm a big fan of Mothman personally, but I don't know, I don't know. I don't think that I would say Mothman is my favorite cryptid, but he's, he's up there. He's up there, probably top five yeah for sure, for sure.

Logan: 35:49

Ours too, yeah.

Rissa Miller: 35:51

Yeah, top five.

Logan: 36:00

I'm sitting here favorite cryptid oh, there's a lot of I don't know. They interchange for me, yeah, yeah, let me get back to the park.

Rissa Miller: 36:03

Yeah, sorry, you get lost a long time with that, but yeah, you're right, let's, let's head back so the interesting thing about this particular fieldstone bridge is that it's not going over a body of water. It's arching over a drainage canal, so maybe it's possible, logan, that you just overlooked it.

Nicole: 36:17

I probably did you know, you've seen it. He just forgets. It's possible, logan, that you've just overlooked it. I probably did. You've seen it. He just forgets it's not a huge bridge.

Logan: 36:23

Okay, makes sense then.

Rissa Miller: 36:25

So the story would date back to pre-1950s, and in the 1950s is when more and more people were able to afford cars because they were starting to be mass produced, manufactured in factories. Before that, cars were only for the very, very rich. This is a horse-drawn carriage story at its core. At its beginning I did find modern takes on this that say it was in the 70s or 80s and a car flipped, but there's a lot older stuff on it, on a carriage. So I'm going to place the origin of this pre-1950. On their wedding night, a couple's crossing the bridge in their horse-drawn carriage. Something spooks the horse, the carriage tips over, which happened a lot when horses spooked, especially if they reared up.

Rissa Miller: 37:10

And the carriage tipped over the railing of the bridge. The way the carriage landed it instantly killed the couple bridge. The way the carriage landed it instantly killed the couple and the story is that people still see the woman in her wedding gown walking under and around the bridge.

Nicole: 37:26

This is another story of super tragic loss.

Rissa Miller: 37:29

They call her the bride of the bridge or the bride under the bridge. There's another story that the horse was frightened by robbers. Now we'll learn here very shortly not in our next story but the one after that that highwaymen and robbers were really common historically. So that's definitely a possibility of what could have spooked someone out for a wedding night carriage ride.

Logan: 37:55

Right.

Rissa Miller: 37:55

You know yeah. And that's definitely I mean go ahead, I catch off, I was gonna say you know, if I were a robber and I saw somebody in all their wedding finery, I'd be like I'm taking the brad's jewelry yeah, that's the thing that definitely could have happened yeah, for sure, but it's interesting because I've only heard the horse-drawn carriage, I haven't heard the, the vehicle one no, I mean mostly just centers around.

Nicole: 38:19

They say the the lady in white yeah, that's what they call her is lady in white and and to this day, it's still a big thing.

Logan: 38:27

It's not like it's gone away, it's still a a very active if if they want to say it's a legend or whether or not it is or not, but um, but it's still very active today and I still think people even go there and try to do paranormal research in that area too.

Rissa Miller: 38:42

I did read that as well. That's right around that bridge. They do detect EMF and. Evps and things like that, which is why I really wanted to find newspaper stories about what happened and it just was hard to find things pre-1950 for to dig on at a distance right you know, if I ever get over there, I'm gonna look it up yeah, hey, let us know, we'll meet you sounds good.

Rissa Miller: 39:06

Legends always start from something yeah, they do they do, and there's always there's always that origin story which you know, is part of what I love to find. I love to find the beginning yeah, yeah, yeah it's also nice to call a ghost by their name.

Logan: 39:20

Yeah exactly right get more.

Nicole: 39:21

It's part of what I love to find.

Rissa Miller: 39:22

I love to find the beginning.

Nicole: 39:23

Yeah, it's also nice to call a ghost by their name.

Logan: 39:24

Yeah, exactly, right, I get more response. Yeah, because you don't need to go. Hey, lady in white say do something. Yeah, and you know honestly.

Rissa Miller: 39:29

I even like the bride under the bridge better, because lady in white has become a trope and I can say that there aren't ladies in white. There certainly are, uh, but it's kind of like hey, you, you know? Yeah, exactly that's what they call every lady that's anywhere, some white customer gown and yeah, there's the lady in white, the lady in gray, the lady in red, and, uh, these are all super common tropes now in the ghost world and I'm like, well, who is the lady in white?

Logan: 39:57

Cause they're not all the same.

Nicole: 39:59

Who is this lady? I have a name people, exactly, and you know, even if you, you know even the bride under the bridge is a little more defining.

Logan: 40:08

We'll go with that Right. Right In the bridge. We'll just call it right now, from this moment forward.

Rissa Miller: 40:21

There you news, yep, yep. So now we're going to head to new orleans.

Rissa Miller: 40:22

What is a series of ghost stories, without one from new orleans right, absolutely, you gotta, you gotta love a new orleans ghost story, especially when it starts at the first legal brothel. Okay, so the year is 1821 and we're going to be heading to the dauphine orleans hotel. It is still a real place. You can absolutely go there and get a drink in the bar or spend the night if you, you know, feel up to it. I suppose, and I have indeed been there. I did not spend the night, but I also didn't have any other worldly experiences and disappointing, but true um.

Rissa Miller: 41:00

This particular hotel is also known for its signature cocktail, which is called a pim cup. Now, most people are gonna be like rissa, that's from england. Well, new orleans has its own variation on the pims cup. Yes, it did start in england. It came from london in the 18. A hundred years later it landed in the French Quarter and they changed it. They added lemonade, 7-up which was a real thing in 1940, because 7-Up started in the 1920s and cucumber. So it is considered to be a refreshing cocktail. It's gin-based and if you go to this particular place, it's supposedly one of the best spots in New Orleans to get one, and maybe you can sip on it and look for Millie Bailey.

Rissa Miller: 41:45

So May and Millie Bailey were Irish sisters. They immigrated with their parents in the 1850s and unfortunately their parents died. So they had to sort of rapidly come up with a plan B, and May decided the best way to make a lot of money was to open a brothel and to employ other women as sex workers. So this is a lot to take in and historically this was definitely a way a lot of women chose to go, because this was a more viable living than most things that unmarried women could do, and I'm sure that maybe somebody will have something to say about that, but historically this is unfortunately a reality history is history you were never going to make a living as a maid or um a cook the way you could as a sex worker.

Nicole: 42:38

End of story.

Rissa Miller: 42:40

So, and also in the 1800s, if you didn't have a husband, well, that was a whole other thing. Now, millie was not as excited to open a brothel as her sister, but she kind of had to help anyway, and she wanted to do something different. And so, as Storyville became a very famous part of New Orleans, which is, it's a tourist district now, but back then it was also known as, I think, the Scarlet Thread, because that was the part of New Orleans, storyville, that was where all the brothels were.

Logan: 43:16

Okay ville.

Rissa Miller: 43:16

That was where all the brothels were. Okay, this was legally sanctioned prostitution. I'm going to let you know. Uh, it was a true red light district. They had the red lanterns hung out in the windows and sometimes the girls were in the windows like live girls in the windows and uh may, bailey's place was probably one of the most famous brothels in the history of New Orleans. Wow, so, yeah. So if Millie, her sister, wasn't crazy about it, well, she got drag, kicking and screaming.

Logan: 43:45

Yeah.

Rissa Miller: 43:46

Right, yeah. So the Dolphine New Orleans Hotel is still there. It's really well known because it is where James I'm sorry, John Audubon painted the Birds of America, I mean if you're going to paint somewhere.

Logan: 44:01

I went there on tour. Did you go there?

Nicole: 44:03

Yeah, I've only been to New Orleans?

Logan: 44:06

Yeah, possibly I feel like I didn't mean to cut you off, but I swear that sounds really familiar yeah.

Rissa Miller: 44:13

Well, if you go there today, the portraits by the Storyville photographer, ej Balak, show different madams that worked in New Orleans over time and some of the girls. There is still a framed copy of the original first brothel license in New Orleans, which was issued to May Bailey, on display in the bar and they still have red lights burning in the courtyard.

Nicole: 44:35

So interesting.

Rissa Miller: 44:36

Yeah, there are a number of famous ghosts there. There are Civil War ghosts because it also served as a Civil War hospital. There is a girl named Jewel who was one of the sex workers, and they say that you can still see her dancing in the window sometimes and that she has a cat companion that shows up as an orb. But Millie Bailey turned out to be the most famous ghost. Unfortunately, they call her the lost bride of the Dolphine Orleans Hotel, and she did in fact find a man to marry, and there's two ways the story can go. Some people say he was a military officer with a gambling habit. Others say his actual profession was gambling. Either way, this doesn't sound good, right? No?

Logan: 45:25

right, it's gambling.

Rissa Miller: 45:26

It's already a recipe for disaster yes, so the very day of their wedding he died due to a huge gambling debt. Oh my gosh and um. Some tellings of the stories say that he was killed, which I mean historically, you know. The stories say that he was killed, which I mean historically, you know, the gambling debt. That's something that happened. Others say that he ran this huge gambling debt up and he didn't want her to marry into it, so that he killed himself, so that they would not marry Either way this is like the worst setup ever for being left at the altar Right.

Rissa Miller: 45:59

Yeah, the legend goes that Millie lost touch with reality. She became very, very ill and that she died extremely young. Her spirit still wanders in her wedding dress and veil, which her fiance never got to see her wear, and witnesses report that she goes to be as if she's expecting him. She keeps, keeps watching out the window. She's pacing anxiously like where is he? Where is he? And they say that whenever she walks by there's like a gust of cold air. Even in the heat of the New Orleans summer, when Millie walks by, the place goes cold.

Logan: 46:34

So could she be a residual?

Rissa Miller: 46:37

Maybe yeah maybe but, you know I didn't see any accounts of people interacting with her, but it is a tragic love story yet again.

Logan: 46:48

Yeah it does sound residual it does sound residual, but still, I mean, that's you know with, with New Orleans having so much paranormal, I guess incidences and activity.

Nicole: 47:01

Yes, oh yes.

Logan: 47:03

I could see where you know there would be several entities there. But yeah, I would imagine she's got to be residual, yeah.

Nicole: 47:10

I guess that's one place to go if you need to cool off.

Nicole: 47:13

Yeah no kidding.

Nicole: 47:14

Right.

Logan: 47:14

Because it's hot in New Orleans.

Rissa Miller: 47:17

My goodness, you can sip a Pimms cup and get cooled off by the ghosts. Yeah, there you go, cup and get cooled off by the ghosts.

Logan: 47:23

Yep, there you go. Call it a date.

Rissa Miller: 47:25

We'll head there. That sounds like a great Halloween activity really. Yeah, actually it's really good.

Logan: 47:30

So if you're in New Orleans and you want to do some celebration on this wonderful holiday, head on down there, get yourself a drink.

Rissa Miller: 47:38

And maybe LA's place is still there, yep.

Nicole: 47:39

Yeah, yeah, that's really cool though that's awesome. Yeah.

Rissa Miller: 47:43

Another place full of fascinating history. Yeah for sure, we're going to stay in the South and we're going to head to the old Charleston jail in South Carolina for a story of a couple that is together forever.

Rissa Miller: 47:56

The year is 1891. Lavinia I'm going to say her name wrong every time. Lavinia and John Fisher lived in Charleston, south Carolina. This was a major port city at the time. I mean, it's still a port city, of course, but back then commerce coming in through the ocean was a huge part of the economy. Now, inns in that part of the country were named by their mile, so there was like a four milemile house, six-mile house, eight-mile house, depending on how many miles out you were from the main town. The Fishers operated the six-mile Wayfarer house and it was kind of like a rest stop, a bar and a place where you could sleep. Now, around this time there had gotten to be word that there might be gambling taking place inside the inn. Probably Other kinds of extracurriculars, maybe the kind that May Bailey offered in New Orleans, and you know. Things like that started to generate around the Charleston community, but there weren't really a lot of people willing to come forward as witnesses probably because the people traveling wanted those activities to continue.

Nicole: 49:05

Right.

Rissa Miller: 49:05

And when they, when the six mile wayfire house came up, the word was that Lavinia was so beautiful that people said she was enchanting and beguilingly beautiful. So that's that's pretty charming and a powerful way to convince people that you're right, I'm sure. So there got to be issues with what historically were called highwaymen. Basically, like I mentioned, we were talking about the Springfield story. These were people that robbed you on the road, especially in the days of a horse-drawn carriage. If you had a couple of dudes on horses that could run up besides a carriage, it was pretty easy to rob people. And unfortunately that started happening outside of Charleston. Now a mob got word that at the Five Mile House, right down the way from the Fishers, that's where the highwayman was. So this wild, crazed mob went and burned down the five mile house wow it's not the best solution, but it's what they know.

Logan: 50:07

So then what does that do? Yeah, I don't know I'm not sure.

Rissa Miller: 50:11

I'm not sure what the good in that is either. But then they were. They were like super excited, I suppose, and they went on down the road to the six mile way for our house, where the fishers were. Now, at the six mile house, they could see the fire, smell the smoke, they heard the ruckus. They knew that things were not going well and a lot of the folks sort of deserted the premises. But the fishers this is their house they were like we don't really want to go. So they left reluctantly, and the mob left a watchman, a watchman, a watchman. Now the next thing I'm going to tell you is the story of lavinia. Fisher is possibly the story of america's first female serial killer. Wow, do you know this one?

Rissa Miller: 50:56

now that I say no, no, I do not okay so, um, the mob left this guy, David, at the house. The Fishers came back. The Fishers came back and somehow David got away, ran back into Charleston and he was like it was never the Five Mile House people, these Six Mile Wayfarer House people are the villains. It is actually Lavinia Fisher and her husband, John's just like, okay, we'll do it. Um, they said that Lavinia Fisher this was, um, his own testimony that she violently laid hands upon him, choked him, boxed his head with a pan, uh, broke glass over him and somehow he's still got away. And apparently she also had whips and had men holding him down so that she could beat him jeez yeah right.

Rissa Miller: 51:53

So, um, you know, eventually the authorities do catch up and the sheriff comes out to the six mile wafer house. They surround the property, they have guns, but Lavinia and John just kind of like walk out. They're like, ok, we give up. Now here's where the story starts to get cloudier. No-transcript Historians cannot verify whether that is true or not. It could be that her legend has gotten bigger over time.

Logan: 52:39

Right yeah, that could be, and you see that happen from time to time. Absolutely, potentially, yeah, over time.

Rissa Miller: 52:43

Right yeah, that could be, and if you see that happen from time to time, so yeah, potentially yeah. And then there's, of course, the expected stories that she was so beautiful that she could lure anybody in to her end. Was she greedy and unscrupulous, robbing people? Yes, history says yes, was she?

Nicole: 52:57

a murderer?

Rissa Miller: 52:58

Possibly Was she. You know, was she like Bonnie and Clyde with her husband? We'll actually probably never know, right, we'll never know.

Nicole: 53:08

It also sounds very vampire-ish.

Rissa Miller: 53:10

Yeah, it does sound.

Nicole: 53:12

Well, Charleston is a. Lures them in with her beauty.

Rissa Miller: 53:15

Yeah, it does, doesn't it? It is a fascinating story. I mean, if you just examine the historical know, the historical context and the fact that they had an end so that they were in a position of trust, you know, and somewhere you want to go, you feel safe while you sleep and like you water your horse, you know.

Logan: 53:34

Yeah, you're extremely vulnerable at that point. So, yeah, that is be easier to do.

Rissa Miller: 53:39

I mean so they were convicted of highway robbery and they were condemned to be hanged in February of 1820. So when the day arrives, the Fishers go to their execution and they say that John Fisher was extremely upset and pale and tremoring uncontrollably inside of the carriage and tremoring uncontrollably inside of the carriage, and that he was clinging to Lavinia and holding her close, and that they walked to the gallows arm in arm. And now this sounds like a story too, I don't know. They say that he basically repented before he was hanged, but she refused to. They say that her exact words were hang hang on here I. I want to read them. Um, I will have none of it. Save your words for others that want them. But if you have a message you want sent to hell, give it to me. I'll carry it there.

Nicole: 54:36

Wow, no regrets.

Logan: 54:38

No kidding Geez.

Rissa Miller: 54:40

No regrets. Yeah, she definitely seemed to embrace who she was, and they were both hanged and they died on February 18th 1820. Now there's some mystery about what happened to her afterwards. Allegedly they were both placed in a potter's field, which you probably know is a cemetery where the graves are not marked.

Logan: 55:04

Right, a pauper's cemetery.

Rissa Miller: 55:06

Exactly, or a criminal's cemetery.

Logan: 55:09

Or a criminal's cemetery.

Rissa Miller: 55:10

yes, the funny thing is they say that somebody possibly kept her body. Her bones were confiscated. Now, is this an urban legend? We'll probably never know, but many people say that she still haunts the city of Charleston and the old jail because she wants her bones put back.

Logan: 55:35

Hmm.

Nicole: 55:35

That's possible.

Logan: 55:37

Well, she didn't exactly seem to lay down very easily. If so, that'd be the person I think would'd be definitely trying to do it.

Nicole: 55:45

It feels like she drug him into all this too. He was that scared.

Rissa Miller: 55:49

It does feel that way when you read the more in-depth accounts of what was going on. She was definitely the leader.

Nicole: 55:59

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4: 56:01

But indeed they were hanging together, together, together, forever, except that she's the haunt he's like I'll have none of it.

Logan: 56:08

I'm good I'm out. Yeah, thanks for thanks for the memories.

Nicole: 56:12

We're gone and she was like in charleston, is it down near the?

Logan: 56:17

river. We've seen it, yeah, yeah, we've seen it, we've seen it, oh yeah, they do, tours they've seen it?

Rissa Miller: 56:21

We've seen it. Oh yeah, they do tours. They have, like just you know, regular history tours and also, of course, spooky tours. She was the first woman hanged in South Carolina as a criminal, so it sounds like she was definitely a character.

Nicole: 56:34

Oh yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4: 56:35

Yeah, I would say so Very colorful, yeah, yeah.

Logan: 56:37

Yeah and yeah, and it's such a that town, with its history, and just again kind of like New Orleans, has that same pedigree of just vibe about it. Yeah, just wild stuff. That's happened there.

Rissa Miller: 56:51

It does. So I have one more story for you before we run too late. I want to tell you a happy together forever, ghost story.

Nicole: 56:59

We'll end it on a positive note.

Rissa Miller: 57:03

Yeah, I definitely planned it this way I I had my most shocking story and then I'm gonna have my sweet happy ending okay, so in florida there is a place called the don cesar hotel and I have a friend who stayed there and I asked her I was like what was your impression? And she's like well, it was definitely haunted. She goes just saying and I was like excellent, that's what I really wanted to hear you say when I asked your impression. So it's also called the Pink Palace.

Rissa Miller: 57:30

It is a huge pink hotel, surprising no one in Florida, and it's built to honor a lover, so it is at St Pete's Beach and it is a Moorish architecture style. There are other things like that in Florida, but the woman that it was built for was Spanish, so it was also built to honor her Spanish Mediterranean lineage.

Rissa Miller: 57:57

It is considered the most haunted hotel in northern Florida and according to legend, it harbors a pair of star-crossed lovers. So Thomas Rowell was born in Massachusetts in the 1890s and he was educated in England, in London. So he went to see an opera called Martina. No, I'm sorry, martina, anna, I'm not a huge expert expert on opera, so forgive me if I'm saying that nor us.

Rissa Miller: 58:25

So, martinana is not the opera and that is also the name of the leading character. The male character was don cesar, the name of the hotel. He loved this opera so much. And the leading lady, the actress, oh my goodness, he was just smitten with her. This is the Spanish beauty. Her real name was Lucinda. He went to see this opera night after night and he finally got to meet her and of course they fell in love. They used to meet after the curtain at a fountain in London and they decided that at the end of the run of Martina they were going to run away together. I guess she mentioned this to her folks and they were not too keen on the idea and they were waiting at the curtain of the last opera performance and they whisked her back to Spain.

Rissa Miller: 59:16

He tried and tried and tried to find Lucinda and he was never able to find her again. He eventually married a woman named Mary. That marriage failed. He moved to Florida, decided to get into real estate and then a few years later he got a letter. It said Thomas, my beloved. My father promised to deliver this message. This life is an intermediate and I am not without pain. I will wait for you by our fountain. Our destiny is time. So she died. She died, but it gave him a vision. He was going to build the perfect place for them to spend eternity together.

Rissa Miller: 59:58

He bought 80 beautiful acres along the beach in Florida. He was three times over budget. The hotel today is worth more than $24 million and he completely recreated the fountain from England exactly as it was. It is the centerpiece. When you walk into the hotel, it is the first thing you see and they say that this is where you see them most frequently together. He did stay forever in the hotel. He lived there the rest of his life and he died there as well.

Rissa Miller: 1:00:30

When you see him, they say that he appears in his signature white suit and hat and that he's accompanied by a beautiful dark haired lady in historic clothing from what would look like, you know, the turn of the last century. So she has long skirts. Her skirts rustle. People hear her shoes clicking around the hotel to this day and her skirts rustling, so they still walk around together. They, he, she had evidently did find him at the don cesar hotel, um, but lots of other famous, like very famous people have stayed there uh al capone, luke eric, uh franklin d roosevelt, uh f scott, fitzgerald and zelda stayed there. Some people say that, um, it was their last happy time together, f? Scott and zelda, and then occasionally there is a residual of them dancing in the ballroom oh yeah, because right after that she was institutionalized for her mental health challenges and that was kind of their downfall.

Rissa Miller: 1:01:33

then they they're right, their lives sort of changed forever at that point. Um, so the don cesar hotel is now a hotel and spa and it's still there. You can still visit it today. It's gone through a lot of iterations. It was also, interestingly enough, a World War II hospital, but it's had a lot of lives. It's sort of a staple in Florida and they say that even to this day you can see James and Lucinda walking around.

Logan: 1:02:02

It's cool and that's that is pretty gripping, because you know, obviously they they weren't together in this life. I mean, he created this entire palace for her. Basically, wow, that's awesome that is heartwarming. That's a lot better to end on.

Rissa Miller: 1:02:22

I thought that was a lovely way to end on. I thought that was a lovely way to end.

Logan: 1:02:24

Yeah, that's great, yeah, um, yeah, thank you so much for bringing these stories to us. You know it, it is. It is always, of course, when you run a paranormal podcast show, you know there's always the. You know the really, really scary stuff and we got plenty of that. You know all the cryptids and everything, but you tend to forget there's a very human element behind all of this. So, when it comes to a holiday like this, you know where people obviously have married and my, my spouse does everything with me, literally everything with me.

Nicole: 1:02:57

Yes.

Logan: 1:02:58

So no, it's great, it's always nice to have this sort of story. But yeah, it's great, it's always nice to have this sort of story. But uh, yeah it's awesome.

Rissa Miller: 1:03:03

You know, I think the ghost stories ultimately are reminders both of our history and our humanity. So you know, uh, hauntings can be scary, so can people and hauntings can be very true Hauntings can be beautiful, and so can people.

Logan: 1:03:20

Absolutely Well. I can't think of any other better way to end it than that I mean that's perfect.

Nicole: 1:03:24

Yeah, it's a perfect story.

Logan: 1:03:25

Yeah, marissa, thanks again for coming on, and we'll look forward to the next time we can find another wonderful holiday to celebrate.

Rissa Miller: 1:03:34

I'm sure we'll come up with something. I love being a guest on your show, so thanks for having me again. We love having you, yeah, so thanks for having me again.

Logan: 1:03:40

We love having you.

Nicole: 1:03:40

Yeah, we always enjoy your stories, so we'll see you.

Rissa Miller: 1:03:44

Take care. Happy Halloween.

Logan: 1:03:47

Happy Halloween. It's always great having her on, isn't? It no, I love having her on that was fun. Yeah, she's always a blast. You know she has got to be one of the best storytellers out there.

Nicole: 1:03:58

Honestly, she's so knowledgeable and yeah out there, Honestly she's so knowledgeable. She's always so much fun.

Logan: 1:04:03

She actually is a tour guide, so I would love to actually go be a part of that crowd and listen to her. Yeah, arisa, we may head out your way, but again, no, seriously. Thank you, arisa, for showing us, or telling us, these stories. Some were a bit sad, sure, but it goes with the holiday.

Nicole: 1:04:22

Yeah, but when they're ghost stories they gotta be a little sad. Yeah, that's true, they're not here that's a good point, I guess.

Logan: 1:04:28

I guess I kind of showed me on that one, but well, I mean, it was a good episode. Um, we've had some fun. We've had some really good episodes of recent uh, today was no different. Gosh, thank you so much for all the growth lately. Guys, you know it's been great. You know we always say it on our show, but we do have a Facebook Generation X Paranormal Podcast. Please, please, please, follow us there. If you're listening on the podcast, please follow us there as well. And, of course, on YouTube. I always feel like you see this on every YouTube video, but please like and subscribe, or Ann, was it in the thumbs up button?

Logan: 1:05:07

Ring the bell yeah ring the bell, smash that thumbs up button. Anyway, yeah, honestly, we joke about it. But, guys, if you could, that'd be great, because that really does help us out quite a bit.

Nicole: 1:05:24

And if you're watching and want to be a guest on the show, just email us at info at gxparanormalcom, and we can discuss doing that. I mean, if you're going, you know an author that's going to be releasing a book or whatever, you've had an experience that you would like to share. It doesn't have to necessarily be video, it can just be audio. So if that's something that you're looking to do, just contact us.

Logan: 1:05:38

Yeah. So on that note, get your Galentine's Day out the door, you know. Celebrate your Galentine's Day, or forgot how that even goes. Galentine's right, galentine's. What a great Parks and Rec episode, I know. Or if you're single, or however you do it. However, you're celebrating this holiday. Grab some chocolates, have a good one, and we'll catch you next week. Happy Valoween. Happy Valoween.

Nicole: 1:06:02

Thanks for tuning in to Generation X Paranormal. Remember, all editing is done in-house and we're a self-funded podcast, so your support truly makes a difference. Like, subscribe and follow us on all socials to stay connected. Special thanks to Eric Cooley for creating our music, and don't forget to check out our Patreon for exclusive content and ways to help us keep the show going Until next time. Stay curious and keep exploring the unexplained.