Haunted happenings: Spirited inhabitants

Janice Oberding helps Nevada homeowners where other professionals and the law can't. Her client base, which has included nearly 200 Clark County residents, comprises families who are having "difficulties" with former residents of their home -- the kind that are there in spirit only.

The longtime Reno resident and director of the Nevada Ghost and Hauntings Research Society responds to inquiries from people throughout the state.

"I get letters from people saying they think their home is haunted," Oberding said. "I get a lot of them from Las Vegas. There are a lot (of ghosts) in private residences in Las Vegas," although she warns, "You can't believe all of them."

Occasionally, she and her colleagues will investigate a claim. When they do, a team "with the equipment and know-how to capture the phenomena and study it" is assembled. Equipment is pretty common stuff, like cameras and tape recorders. Know-how is supplied by Paranormal Investigators of Nevada. They aren't state-certified, but those who call upon them never ask for a business license.

Oberding points out that just because a home isn't old doesn't mean it won't have ghosts. the ghost may be attached to the place or to an object, rather than the home itself. One of the more recent investigations started with a family who recently moved into a fairly new home.

"They heard a voice saying, `Get out. You'll be killed if you don't get out.' The story was so compelling because the voice seemed so evil," Oberding said.

Other clients get cold feet after they make their initial request for an investigation. As Oberding explains: "Sometimes you mention ghosts and people think, `You're a kook.'"

Not all ghosts are mere visions. Some are also smells, or sounds. E-mails to Oberding indicate ghosts have a lot of tools at their disposal.

"People e-mail me asking: `Can you help me? I think my house is haunted.' Or, `I smell pancakes cooking at 3 o'clock in the morning.' Or, `I smell coffee and we don't drink coffee.'"

Often, it begins with a frightened child, according to Oberding.

"The kid will say the room is cold or there's an old woman in there, or there's an old man on the bed," she said.

Plenty of adults see ghosts, too. One woman claimed to see a showgirl in costume in her apartment. She said it looked just like a real person.

Oberding claims to have captured ghosts on film, citing photos with small, luminescent orbs on them, what other photographers might dismiss as "glare."

Haunted houses have been in Las Vegas since before there was a Las Vegas. The first and scariest haunted house is also one of the first home's ever built in the valley. Kiel Ranch, located on Carey Avenue just west of Losee Road in North Las Vegas, was the site of the valley's first recorded murder. The story is part of Las Vegas history.

In the 1880s, there were two permanent homes in the entire Las Vegas Valley, a ranch owned by the Stewarts and another owned by the Kiels. One day while Archibald Stewart was out delivering supplies to miners in nearby Eldorado Canyon, one of his ranch hands, Hank Parrish, quit and demanded that Stewart's wife, Helen, produce his final pay. After she told him to wait for her husband's return, Parrish allegedly insulted her and fled to Kiel Ranch.

Upon his return home, Archibald Stewart heard what happened and pursued Parrish, but was shot dead in an ambush at Kiel Ranch. Whether Parrish actually killed Stewart or was part of a conspiracy hatched by the Kiels was never proved conclusively, but Parrish met his demise shortly afterward for another crime at the gallows in Ely.

Years later, Ed and William Kiel suffered violent deaths at the same site, which for years were thought to be a murder-suicide. Only in recent years have forensic studies demonstrated that neither death could have been a suicide, but perhaps revenge.

All three murder victims are said to haunt the ranch, which is now the fenced-off property of the Parks and Recreation Department for the city of North Las Vegas. Generations of nearby residents have attributed strange noises, unexplained sightings and eerie feelings to those ghosts.

"When a story persists like that, there's got to be some truth to it," Oberding said.

Violent deaths are frequently behind hauntings, she added.

Other personal accounts confirm this notion as well. One area resident, who did not wish to be identified, claims while living in a former home in the valley, she saw the ghost of a child. Seeking to find out about the history of the home, she discovered a murder/suicide supposedly once took place at the property.

More mundane things can keep a ghost around as well. Entertainer Redd Foxx (real name: John Sanford) is said to haunt the site of his home at Eastern Avenue and Patrick Lane. He suffered from heavy debt and tax troubles when he died in 1991.

Not surprisingly, many hotels throughout the city are said to be haunted by departed employees, guests and Las Vegas icons.

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel's ghost has been reported at several sites at the Flamingo Hilton, including the rose garden and wedding chapel, despite the fact that he didn't die there. Ditto for Elvis Presley.

Generally, the major hotels are less than enthusiastic to confirm ghost stories. Smaller hotels are another story.

Many quaint inns throughout the state are all too happy to lure customers with tantalizing stories of ghosts in the hallways. One favorite local haunt for the deceased is the Boulder Dam Hotel, which was the subject of a book, "Midnight on Arizona Street: The Secret Life of the Boulder Dam Hotel," by Boulder City historian Dennis McBride. Strange sights and sounds are said to have been witnessed by guests and employees.

McBride claims one of the more active ghosts, known as the Cigar Man, haunts his work space within the hotel.

"You can tell when he's around because you can smell cigar smoke," said McBride, who also claims to see the opaque spirit "from the waist up."

"He's not threatening. He seems to be interested in the work I'm doing down here."

Although no one can identify the Cigar Man, another frequently seen ghost at the hotel is known. He was an employee from 1933 to 1962.

"The man who was the night clerk, Tommy Thompson, a big, fat guy who sort of looked like (Alfred) Hitchcock, is seen watching the desk where he worked. I guess he didn't want to give it up even after he died," McBride said.

McBride believes one home in Boulder City may be haunted, a house at the corner of Fifth Street and Avenue G. It's said that a woman hanged herself in the back yard many years ago and, ever since, the home has changed hands many times.

"That home has remarkable turnover. It keeps selling and selling. Maybe there's a reason," he said.

Although homeowners were too shy to come forward with their encounters with spirits, local ghost hunters can try out these publicly accessible areas:

--Luxor is reputed to be haunted by the spirit of a young woman who leapt to her death from high above the casino floor shortly after the hotel's completion. Another legend has the pyramid-shaped casino haunted by two workers who died during its construction.

--Other hotels in Las Vegas have been the sites of endless claims by witnesses reporting to have seen the ghost of Elvis. He has been seen elsewhere in the valley as well, including many places he probably never visited while alive.

--Whiskey Pete's Casino in Primm on the California state line is home to the ghost of none other than the casino's namesake, who will watch gamblers play in "his" casino.

--Personnel at Nellis Air Force Base may recall the story of the "gray man," a shadowy figure whose footsteps are heard at various points on the post.

--Rumors surrounding Moapa Valley High School, located northeast of Las Vegas, claim that houses built near the school have had corpses unearthed from beneath their foundations. The corpses are alleged to be Paiutes who were buried beneath their own homes many years ago. A shadowy figure often is said to appear on otherwise uneventful nights, sometimes following people around before suddenly disappearing.

--Downtown, the Las Vegas Academy (the old Las Vegas High School) is said to have an apparition in its theater. Since the opening of the theater, students have reported hearing strange sounds and seeing an elderly man named "Mr. Petre," who is believed to have lived on the property before the school was built in the 1930s.

--Also downtown, a lighting technician who worked at the former Union Plaza (now Jackie Gaughan's Plaza) is said to be seen in the hotel's showroom. The man supposedly killed himself many years ago.

--Another urban legend reports a rather bizarre ghost at the corner of Sahara Avenue and Sandhill Road: "If you drive down the dirt roads in that area you may be chased by an elderly woman in a car. If you leave the street she won't follow."

The dirt roads in the area are gone, long since paved over by development, leaving potential ghost hunters to rely upon their imaginations.

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