Eerie News with M.P. Pellicer | Stories: The Sea Tiger and More! - Eerie News

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, everybody, This is Marlene with eerie news and today
we are going to go into mysterious place here in
the United States. Well, it's mysterious and not mysterious. How's that.
It's the Hearst Castle out in San Simeon, California, right,

(00:27):
And of course you know what's that saying of Waltz
could talk. But anyway, it's out of strangers and fiction
stories and this is titled the Mystery of the Moving Rug.
Hearst Castle, once known as Lacoista and Cantada, hosted the
most lavish parties during Prohibition and into the thirties. Famous actors, politicians,

(00:47):
and notables of the day all vied for an invitation
from William Randolph Hurst and his mistress Marion Davies. In short,
it was the center of California society. By nineteen sixty three,
the parties had finished and the Hearst family had given
the property to the State of California. Stories circulated at
the sound of clinking glass, music and conversation drifted in

(01:10):
the night as if the festivities were still being carried on. However,
the celebrities were gone, and only tourists filed through the
rooms filled with beautiful objects mister Hurst had collected throughout
his lifetime. Among them were rugs, hundreds of them that
covered the floors of the castle and the guest houses.
But there was one rug that was different. It was

(01:32):
in the bedroom of an upper story in the south tower.
Tourists were not allowed there. The staff noticed that, mysteriously,
this one rug would curl up against a bedpost no
matter how often they straightened it out. One of the
guides said, we straightened it out, and then the next
time someone enters the room, the rug is out of place.
No one goes in there except the staff. None of

(01:54):
us will admit, at least to curling up a corner
of the rugs. So how does it get disarranged? The
staff described an eerie sensation, and at the hairs on
the back of their neck seemed to prickle. The castle
had opened in nineteen fifty eight, and the public wanted
to see more of it. Plans are made to open
up that section to the public. Was a newspaper article

(02:15):
just deployed to entice the public to visit the soon
to open rooms in the Hurst Castle. Once the tours ended,
fifty five employees roamed among the lonely quarters could have
been just their imagination that made them look over their
shoulder because they felt the presence of an unseen someone
watching them. Perhaps it was mister Hurst or Marion Davies.

(02:35):
Even in those years, the guides never mentioned her name,
despite her thirty four year relationship with Hurst. Hurst Castle
was constructed between nineteen nineteen and nineteen forty seven. The
apparition of Hurst himself is seen wandering around or sitting
at his desk in the study. A woman in white
is believed to be Marion Davies. A child has been

(02:56):
seen playing in the garden, and a ghostly butler still
follows the routine performed many years before. There is also
the mysterious death of film producer Thomas Ince when he
was forty four years old. The official cause of death
was listed as heart failure, but rumors quickly spread that
Innce had been murdered. On November fifth, nineteen twenty four, W. R.

(03:20):
Hurst visited Ince's Diaz Doralo's estate at one zero five
to one Benedict Canyon Drive and invited Innes to celebrate
his birthday on his yacht Oneida. The men were also
to continue ongoing negotiations to lease inces studio. At dinner
Sunday night, In suffered from severe indigestion after consuming salted

(03:43):
almonds and champagne, which aggravated his peptic ulcers. Ince was
taken to Delmar, where he was joined by his wife
Nell and his eldest son William. From there, he was
taken to his home in Los Angeles, where he died.
Doctor Ida Glasgow. Ince's personal physicians signed the death certificate,
c and Gina Pictoris as the cause of death. William Ince,

(04:06):
who became a doctor, said his father's symptoms resembled Thrombos's.
The Los Angeles Times ran a front page story that
read movie producers shot on Hirsch yacht. By evening, the
headline had disappeared. Ince's obituary and the San Diego District
Attorney cited his death as a result of heart disease.

(04:30):
His body was cremated since he and his wife's were
a theosophists. Despite the official story, others circulated, which described
Werehearst shot ins in the head after mistaking him for
Charlie Chaplin. Ta Rici Kono. Chaplain's valet said he saw
an Ince was brought ashore on a stretcher in San Diego,
and he was bleeding from a bullet wound to the head.

(04:52):
The stories spread like wildfire among the Japanese domestic workers
in Beverly Hills. In nineteen thirty four, Kono had a
falling out with Chaplain before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In nineteen forty one, Kono was arrested by the ABI
for connections to Japanese spies. It was suspected he was
helping gather intelligence on US battleships. He was in the

(05:13):
process of being deported when the attack on Pearl Harbor
took place. He was sent to an interment camp until
nineteen forty eight. He returned to Japan in the nineteen
fifties and died in nineteen seventy one. He was the
only person who admitted to being an actual witness of
what happened to Inns based on the story that Hirst
wanted to shoot Chaplain because he believed Marion Davies was

(05:35):
having an affair with Chaplain. Marion Davies's nephew, Charles Lederer,
told a similar story to Orson Wells, who then told
Peter Boganovich, who directed the film The Cat's meaw Eleanor Glynn,
who was on board the Oneida, told Eleanor boardman that
everyone on the ship had been sworn to secrecy. The

(05:56):
La Times described her Ince's casket remained open one hour
prior to his cremation, and no witnesses described a bullet
wound on his skull. There are also stories whispered that
Luella Parson Hurst's movie Calmnist was on the Oneida when
Innce took ill. After this, she had a lifetime contract
and an expanded syndication with the newspaper. Was this hush money?

(06:21):
Another stories that Hurst set up a trust fund for
nell Innce and he paid off the mortgage on Ince's
Chateau Elisse apartment building. These were only rumors and never
verified one way or another, whether Hurst himself was involved
in Ince's death or it was an accident or natural causes.
Many believed that Ince's death left the lingering presence at

(06:42):
the Hurst Castle. Another scandal attached to Marion Davies and
William Randolph Hurst was Patricia van Cleeve born in nineteen
twenty four. It was speculated she was really the daughter
of Hurst and Davies. Originally it was stated her parents
were Maryon's sister Rosemary and her first husband, George van Cleeve.
After Patricia's death in nineteen ninety three, the Lake family

(07:05):
claimed the baby was born during a trip Hurst and
Davies took to France. In nineteen twenty three, the infant
was given to her maternal aunt, Rosemary, whose own child
had died, and the birth certificate was altered with a
new identity, changing her birth year to nineteen nineteen. In
nineteen twenty eight, a divorce decree was granted to Rose
van cleeff from her husband George, who was twenty three

(07:28):
years older than her. She based her complaint on infidelity
and allegations of cruelty. She said that he once took
their daughter away for three months without explanation and where
she was. Rumors were that Hurst was the one who
hired detectives to find where he was staying with a girl.
Patricia van Cleeve married Arthur Lake in nineteen thirty seven,

(07:49):
when she was fourteen years old and Lake was thirty two.
The marriage was celebrated at Hurst Castle, and supposedly Hurst
told her the truth of her parentage on this day. Remember,
she might have appeared older by four years on her
birth certificate, but in reality, based on this story, she
was fourteen years old. Patricia Vancleeve Lake performed in theater

(08:12):
during the nineteen thirties and nineteen forties. When Davies died
in nineteen sixty one, half of her twenty million dollar
estate was left to Lake as an inheritance. Before the
famous Hurst Castle was built in San Simeon, there was
another castle, and eighteen ninety five the newspapers made note
that the Hearst Castle was nearly complete. It was built

(08:33):
in the Spanish style and the architect was Ac swine Firth.
It was made of Holland brick and Mount Shasta lava rock.
In the eighteen eighties, Justin Hinckley Sisson, a hunter and outdoorsman,
established a hotel, tavern and restaurant at the foot of
Mount Shasta. A railroad was completed in eighteen eighty seven,

(08:54):
which brought miners, fishermen, hunters, loggers and tours to the spot. He,
along with his by Flydia, operated the inn, and he
acquired large parcels of land through the years. He established
the town of Sisson, which was renamed to Mount Shastan
nineteen twenty four. Justin Sisson died in eighteen ninety three.

(09:22):
The structure was built on the famous stock Ranch near Pleasanton,
near Pleasanton Mount Diablo Lake, twenty five miles to the northeast.
Hearst gave strict orders that the house should not be
pictured or described in the Examiner. The architect and builders
had the same instructions. Visitors are strictly prohibited, especially if

(09:43):
they looked like newspaper people. The railroad was less than
a mile away, in Hearst would travel there on his
private railroad car railroad station. It was constructed in the
same style as the house, tile covered, posted with stucco
outside and laked and plastered inside. Hurst's own apartments took
up the entire third floor. In June eighteen ninety six,

(10:07):
most of the furniture and paintings for the Hurst Castle
arrived and were noted to be superior to anything ever
seen in this country. An automobile road was constructed through
several years to connect the castle to McLeod and Mott.
In July nineteen oh three, Phoebe Hurst, wr Hurst's mother,
took up residence and renamed the summer home the Windtun

(10:28):
after a local tribe. The construction was not completed yet,
but far enough along, which allowed the family to take
up residence. In April nineteen oh five, Missus Attley, a
friend of the family, came for a summer visit and
it was still referred to as Hurst Castle. Her child
disappeared from the house, which fronted the river, and a

(10:48):
search found the dead body lodged against some bushes fifty
yards below in the water. The coroner refused to come
and examine the body, claiming the child met death by accident,
despite no one having witnessed what happened. In October nineteen
oh seven, Luisa Desistui married Frank Hamilton at the castle.
This was one of many society events that were celebrated

(11:10):
at the estate throughout the years, and January nineteen thirty
Wintoon Castle, as it was now known, was gutted by fire.
The defective wiring was blamed for the fire. Hurst and
Marion Davies visited the house often and lived there during
World War Two due to blackout conditions at Hurst Castle
in San Simeon. The estate was included in the Hurst

(11:33):
holdings when he was forced to sign them over to
a group of trustees in nineteen thirty seven. Due to bankruptcy.
It was maintained by a skeleton crew and today remains
privately owned by the Horst Corporation. So yeah, if you
look at the newspapers from that time, of course this
house predated the San Simeon, but it was being referred

(11:53):
to even then as the Hurst Castle. And eventually the
one that was really living there was his mother. And
this was like the place to be at, just like
the Hurst Castle in s sim was a place to
be at. And this was the you know, people, very famous,
influential people that had weddings, they would summer there. Think

(12:15):
that thing. It was like the place to be seen.
You know, if Missus Hurst, you were her guests, it
was like noted in the newspapers, that kind of thing.
So yes, And by the way, for any of you
seeing the video the audio, the video version of this,
you could see how fast that river. It's right, this
house is right on the river, so I can see

(12:36):
how easily that child might have fallen in and it's
it's it's like like a fast moving river. So yes,
Hurst Castle. Like al if you look at a lot
of these really large houses or states that they were
built maybe turn of the century or sometimes earlier they

(12:59):
end up being donated to the state or the county
or whoever, because later on they've just become so what's
the word expensive, expensive to upkeep? All right? That the
family turns them over in a lot of cases like oh,
make it a park, a museum of this or that.
You believe, be surprised. A lot of times the local

(13:21):
government won't take it over because of the cost. So yeah,
but I believe Herst Castle is still under the It's
still owned by the company or by the corporation, something
like that. Okay. Next story, also out of stranger and
fiction stories is the Omec mystery. Let's go into strange archaeology,

(13:45):
shall we. All lands have their secrets, some more ancient
than others, and at times all that's left our stories. However,
in the jungles of Guatemala, there are vestiges of an
ancient civilization that pose a mystery, especially one which is
apart from all the others. It was discovered in the
nineteen thirties. The earliest settlements in Guatemala date back to

(14:05):
eighteen thousand BC. The people of in the area settled
into an agrarian existence, cultivating mais maize along the Pacific
coast that gradually moved inland. Guatemala once was the epicenter
of the Mayan Empire. The Omic people drifted down from
southwest Mexico and pioneered the construction of monumental statues, temples,

(14:26):
and pyramids. During the last century, several large stone heads
were discovered hidden in the Guatemalan Jungles. There is a
collection of seventeen balsalt heads that depict male faces with
flat noses, slightly cross eyed, and puff cheeks. This appearance
coincides with the descendants of the Omics. It is believed

(14:48):
the heads were quarried from basalt found in the Sierra
de Las Tuslas mountain of Vera Gruz and were moved
about ninety miles, something that could only have been done
for an individual high standing within the Omic society. Most
of these heads were buried around nine hundred BC. Like
many unexpected historical discoveries, they occurred to those who are

(15:11):
intent on completing a mundane task. So is a story
of a farmer working on a sugar cane producing hacienda
close to Tresapoltis or Huyepang, who tripped on a buried object.
He removed some of the dirt and saw that it
was the top of a large head. Enter Jose Maria
Melgar Iserano, who lived in Mexico during the mid eighteen hundreds.

(15:33):
He died in eighteen eighty six. He'd been described by
different sources as a traveler, journalist, explorer, adventurer, mercenary, antiques finer,
and ultimately an amateur archaeologist. The farmer's discovery came to
the attention of Melgar, who decided to visit the place
in eighteen sixty two, and he finished unearthing it. He
even wrote an article about it in eighteen sixty nine.

(15:56):
It wasn't until the nineteen thirties that archaeologist Matthew Sterling
undertook an excavation at Trisapoltis, which is considered the third
omic capital, located in the Gulf Lowlands of Mexico. Sterling
was chief of the Smothsonian's Bureau of American Ethnology. In
nineteen forty three, omic heads were on earth in an

(16:16):
area known as Lavina. Archaeological did dig into Basco, Mexico.
In nineteen sixty nine, the National Geographic Society announced the
discovery of one of the heads. The expedition was headed
by doctor Lee A. Parson of the Peabody Museum of
Archaeology at Harvard University. The head was found near four

(16:37):
others discovered in the past year. It was five feet
in height and described as having a huge bald head
with sloping brow, frowning lips, and sagging jowls. There is
one head supposedly discovering Guatemala from the nineteen thirties to
the nineteen fifties that is quite different from the rest.
Its origins, as well as the head itself, have proven
to be elusive. Eight eighty seven, excuse me, Doctor Oscar

(17:03):
Rafael Pardi Jaalara, a lawyer, philosopher and vice president and
founder of Orihones Guatemala, received a picture from the Beeni
Biner Pienur Biener family, who owned the property with a
statue was discovered. It was about six miles from the
small village of La Democracia and southern Guatemala. It's not

(17:25):
specified if that Piener family is connected to Adolpho Biener,
a German born photographer and postcard publisher working in Guatemala
who around nineteen fifteen until the nineteen thirties. He is
best known for his color cards and photographs. After taking
an undeveloped black and white image, he would hand color
a master copy. He would hand color then print the

(17:48):
colored photograph, giving a vivid colored image to those to
these romantic photographs. Many photos depict archaeological sites, earthquakes, and
portraits which by the way of looking at them, and
they're very nice. In the Guatemalan Civil War, raged from
nineteen sixty to nineteen ninety six between the Government of

(18:08):
Guatemala and various leftist rebel groups, doctor Padilla relate to
David Hatcher Childress, author and explorer, that when he reached
the place where the head had been discovered, he felt
it had been destroyed by anti government rebels, which disfigured
it by using it as target practice. It measured over
thirteen feet tall with a head resting on a neck.

(18:30):
Doctor Padilla could not return to the location due to
skirmishes being fought in the area. Childress suggested that Padilla's
colossal had its evidence that European faces were known to
pre Hispanic cultures.

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