Kevin Pharris - The Haunted Heart of Denver

Published by Haunted America

A Division of The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2011 by Kevin Pharris

All rights reserved

First published 2011

e-book edition 2012

ISBN 978.1.61423.393.0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pharris, Kevin.

The haunted heart of Denver / Kevin Pharris.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

print edition ISBN 978-1-60949-293-9

1. Ghosts--Colorado--Denver. I. Title.

BF1472.U6P465 2011

133.10978883--dc23

2011030024

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

This little bit of my tale is entitled The Accidental Ghost Hunter.

The only thing you really need to know about me is that I do not like to be scared. I dont watch scary movies, and I hope never to see a ghost. I didnt see my first horror movie until my English teacher in tenth grade showed the class two such films. To this day, I wonder what she was thinking. The movies traumatized me, and I had nightmares for weeks. Why would anyone do that to a kid?

Yet, for all that, here I am writing a haunted book, a book based on years of giving tours based on the scary stories of Denver. If you feel there is some kind of big disconnect between that fact and what I have just told you about myself, then you would be right on target. There is a big disconnect, and it is one of those weird twists in life that are utterly unpredictable.

You see, I started out as an English teacher, specifically English as a Second Language, known as ESL. I taught immigrants to Denver from all over the world, especially Russia, Sudan and Ethiopia. These folks were never going to be going home; they had immigrated for good. They all lived in the suburbs and thought downtown Denver, where I live, must surely be a dangerous place. Downtowns in movies are very dangerous places, so they assumed that what was depicted on film must be reality. This opinion of Denver offended me, so I started giving tours of Denver just to set folks straight, showing them the history of the city as well as its modern amenities. Thus, I started out as an accidental tour guide, based on history, a subject I really enjoy.

Then, my family and I took a little vacation to the New England states, and while we were there, we stayed at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast in Fall River, Massachusetts. I knew the rhyme concerning Miss Borden, but that was about it. While staying at the bed-and-breakfast, I learned a great deal about the story. I was particularly interested in the historical piece of the experience; my family was largely interested in the spooky piece.

Just in case you dont know it, here is the poem:

Lizzie Borden took an axe

Gave her mother forty whacks

When she saw what she had done

Gave her father forty-one

There are several versions with little changes here and there, yet this most common form of the poem actually differs hugely from the truth of the story. The instrument of murder was not an axe but a hatchet. Additionally, there were not forty and forty-one blows but, rather, eleven and nineteen. I guess accuracy was not too important when creating damning rhymes. Other facts, however, were incontrovertible. Mr. Andrew Borden, a relatively wealthy merchant in this thriving industrial town in Victorian New England, and his second wife, Mrs. Abby Borden, were killed on August 4, 1892. The scenes were horrific and caused quite a sensation in this quiet town. The sensation only grew when the second of Mr. Bordens two children, Lizzie, was accused of killing her father and stepmother. It was, in many ways, the crime of the century. Lizzie Borden was found not guilty, and the crime remains unsolvedand hotly debatedtoday.

I enjoyed my time at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast, learning about much of the historical and cultural minutiae that surrounded the case. My family reveled in the scary parts, which I tried to ignore. The tour guide that we had there that day was very interested in the world of the supernatural and how such things work. It was from this woman that I learned that there are three kinds of people when it comes to ghostly experiences. She called them ones, twos and threes. I know, not the most creative names, but she was pretty supernatural herself and didnt need creative names. Anyway, the ones are people who dont believe any of this stuff and are firm in their convictions that there are no such things as ghosts. The twos have had some interesting experiences, things that seem to defy coincidence, but have yet to out and out see a ghost. The threes are those in full contact with the other side, like mediums or those cursed with such awareness (as you will see later in this book). Little did I know at that time that this information about ones, twos and threes would one day become very pertinent to my daily life.

After our visit to New England and the wonderful Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast (which I encourage you all to visit, because it is a thrilling place with numerous compelling stories and fascinating historical tidbits, like the part about the flea bites), we came home and I returned to the world of ESL. Eventually, my orientation tours of Denver for the students became standard offerings for many classes, not just my own students, and my colleagues would say things like, Wow, you are really good at that! You should do that for a living. I would laugh and not think anything about it, until one day I had to think about my future. Yes, the private adult school where I had so happily taught was closing. I needed a new situation.

In a moment of sheer, profound insanity, I decided to go into business for myself with Denver History Tours and became a tour guide full time. I offered a number of walking and bus tours, set up a website, printed brochures and got myself a phone number so I could welcome all the people to Denver who were beyond eager to learn the citys history. I got some of those phone calls, sure, but the majority of the phone calls were for haunted tours.

Haunted tours! Why would anyone want a haunted tour? I wondered. It seemed to defy belief that folks would actually seek out something so unpleasant. Nevertheless, the folks were asking, so I asked my colleagues to provide. For two whole years, I managed to avoid giving every single one of those haunted tours, and there were a lot of them. Finally, it became evident that schedule considerations and demand would force me to learn the tour. I did so reluctantly and probably with ill grace, but I did so.

We had versions of the tour for LoDo and Capitol Hill. As I recounted the stories and led people on the hunt for haunts, I ended up learning many new things by being taken into the buildings, hearing more tales and learning more nuances and background. Thus, quite against my will, I ended up participating in the whole process of hunting for ghostsI, the man who does not like to be scared and hopes never to see a ghost at all. So it was: I had become the accidental ghost hunter.