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Victor Santana doesn't have an ordinary job, but that doesn't seem to stop him from having a good time.
"I have fun with my job," Santana said. This statement might not strike anyone as out of the ordinary except for one tiny detail: Santana works at the historic Whaley House in Old Town San Diego. Most people wouldn't regard working at an old and supposedly haunted house as fun.
As a docent, Santana had to learn a lot of history about the Whaley family and its house. He explained before the house was even built, the grounds were supposedly cursed and haunted by "Yankee" Jim Robinson, a famous thief who lived in the house and was hanged at the gallows. According to Santana, Yankee Jim was accused of stealing a rowboat to be used in the theft of a bigger ship, but was caught in the act and failed to get away with any boat.
Jim was sentenced to be hanged in August of 1852, but because he was 6 feet 4 inches tall and well above average height for the time, the rope did not break Jim's neck. The gallows were too short, causing Jim's toes to dangle just inches off the ground and leaving him to strangle to death. He stopped moving after 15 minutes but wanting to make sure he was dead, town members left him hanging for an additional 45 minutes.
Thomas Whaley bought the property in September of 1855. Since he was not a superstitious man and did not believe in curses, Whaley saw no problem with purchasing the property Yankee Jim was hanged on. According to Santana, Whaley reported in his journal that he felt a presence while building the house and heard noises in its rooms after it was built. Today, some people report feeling a strangling sensation while standing on the stairs, and Santana verified that after a long period of time, some visitors develop a red line around their neck resembling where a noose might go.
"I've never been really scared in the house," Santana said, though he admits to being a little nervous on one occasion while changing into his costume in a room behind the theater. Before the tours started, he heard someone clearing his throat and walking around in the theater, but when he went to investigate there was no one there.
Other stories of porcelain dolls blinking their eyes, windows opening and shutting by themselves and phantom dogs playing with child visitors have also been reported at the Whaley House.
Though infamous, Yankee Jim's death is not the only one associated with the haunting of the house; several unnatural deaths have occurred inside. One of them was the death of Violet Whaley, who proved to be the "special" child of the Whaley family. She was mentally unstable, and eventually shot herself in the outhouse with her father's gun. She did not die instantly, but was taken into the downstairs bedroom where she died minutes later. The Whaley's son Thomas - named after his father - died at just 18 months old from scarlet fever. Some a baby can sometimes be hard crying.
Candlelight tours of the house are offered during the Halloween season, which is the Whaley House's busiest time of the year. These tours allow you to experience the house as it would look in a typical Victorian mourning with a black wreath on the door and all the docents dressed in black. A re-enactment of Yankee Jim's trial takes place in the courtroom, and afterward a docent recites ghost stories of the Whaleys' past by candlelight. Once the performance is over, guests are free to roam around the house and take pictures.
"We get pictures from people everyday that have something weird in them," Santana said. He explains that the most common pictures have orbs in them. Guides rarely see pictures with full apparitions or figures in them, but just because nothing is seen, it does not mean nothing is there.
For more information about the Whaley House, visit www.whaleyhouse.org or call (619) 297-7511. There will be three late nights at the Whaley House on Oct. 28, 29, and 30. On Halloween, the house will be open from 8 p.m. to midnight. Admission is $15 dollars a person.
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