Halloween is my favourite unofficial holiday of the year, so it was especially rewarding to end Season 2 of Cold Case Canada with a Halloween Special. I reached out to five fabulous story tellers to tell me their favourite ghost stories—stories that take place in some of Metro Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods.
Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck by Eve Lazarus, coming April 2025. Preorder through Arsenal Pulp Press, or your favourite indie bookstore
The Chinatown Ghost:
Will Woods, founder and chief storyteller at Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours tells us about his encounter with the Chinatown ghost. He also tell us what to expect on the Lost Souls of Gastown Tour including the unsolved murder of John Bray.
East Georgia Street Murder:
Bill Allman is president of the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame, owner of Famous Artist Limited and a recovering Vancouver lawyer. He tells us about the ghost that haunted an East Georgia Street house after a violent shooting and murder of Vancouver police chief in 1917.
Haunted Piano:
Tom Carter is a Vancouver artist, historian and musician who shares his Vancouver loft with a haunted piano.
Chinatown Nightclub:
When Tom was researching the Mandarin Garden (1936-1952) for his gorgeous painting, he found that the Chinatown nightclub was once owned by Chan See Wong Fong. After he died on the premises, staff began experiencing strange things. They heard voices, taps turned on by themselves, electrical devices became unplugged and there was a disembodied hand.
Fort Langley Cemetery:
Aman Johal is a heritage interpreter at Fort Langley National Historic Site and he’s a storyteller for Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours. You can catch Aman live guiding the Grave Tale Walking tour between October 15 and November 7 and visit William Henry Emptage’s and his wife Louisa’s gravesites.
Riverview Hospital for the criminally insane:
Greg Mansfield is the author of Ghosts of Vancouver, the website and book. He takes us to Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, a now abandoned former asylum for the criminally insane.
For more ghostly stories check out these podcast episodes:
S1 E9 Three Ghost Stories and a Murder
SHOW NOTES
Sponsored by Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours.
Music: October 31st by Myuu darkpiano.com (shortened version)
Buy me a coffee promo: McBride Communications and Media
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13 comments on “Halloween Special 2021”
Does Greg Mansfield do tours of Riverview? I live near there, drive by it quite frequently, and am fascinated by the place!
Greg says that you can’t get inside Riverview anymore but I believe you can still go on the grounds. You can contact Greg directly through his website https://www.ghostsofvancouver.com/
I’m not surprised that it’s haunted, I worked there and I seen alot of messed up stuff that went down there
Hello from Avenue Victor Hugo in,no guesses Paris.
The last pix of the CTV staff was taken where please?
Spooks, goblins and ghosts oh my.
Halloween as a child in Shaughnessy was scary enough with some pulling out all the stops to scare. Hiring actors and such to pop out of seemingly nowhere to scare. Screams and dropping of candy bags to run common. The smell of gunpowder the next morning pungent with the foggy boulevards seemingly cloaked in perpetual gloom.
Fireworks free this year? Hah nice try but not a chance. The West End like Beirut with explosions galore.
Thats all from Paris
I can remember going to Riverview Sanitorium with my mom by bus to visit her sister in-law. I had to stay in the lobby while my mom had the visit. Was a very scary place I think the oversize of the building was very daunting to a child of my age. I am thinking early to mid 50’s. Place still scares me when I drive by. Too bad we didn’t upgrade the facilities instead of closing. Too many sad people out on the streets with no care.
Some parts of riverview are still open and have patients. My aunt works there
My paternal grandfather lived in this building I believe; it was called Essondale before Riverview, but I’m not too sure. He was attacked outside his home with a 2×4 by his landlord who thought he was someone else breaking in (my grandpa was crouched down trying to jimmy the window because he left his key inside so was locked out); he suffered major brain damage and was admitted to VGH on May 14, 1962. It all went downhill from here….brought into Riverview June 22, 1962 because he couldn’t look after himself. Transferred from Ward A4 to C2 in July, 1970 where he lived until his death in May, 1979.
It would be nice if one one who’s family member worked there during this time and maybe remembered him (I know, it’s a long shot). I used to go visit him with my dad and mom – we travelled from the Cariboo area and would stay with him for awhile. I was a little girl and I remember the clinical smell.
Dettol!
I have never forgotten this and even when I smell pinesol, I’m brought back to visiting my dear grampa 🥺
essondale was for women only I think as my mom used to say you kids behave or you will put me in essondale.
@Gwen, You have a good reason to feel threatened by that OMINOUS building bc there will still be some VERY negative energies captured there! I was ‘lucky’ to have had a few negative experiences in places like Okalla Prison, just to see how the BUREAUCRACIES operate in our Province. That spurred me to research MK Ultra mind control, etc., since 1996. The reason these ATROCITIES happened and STILL happen, is because most SHEEPLE do NOT want to know about it!
Painful to think of all those who lived in those buildings.
My own mom was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. During the Christmas break of 2006, her Vancouver care home sent her there, as they were short staffed. My mom was tied to a lazy boy, shoved in the corner facing the wall in a room no larger than a walk in closet with no windows. No one even knew of her daily whereabouts. My father and I came to tend to her, had to search the halls to find her, help toilet and feed her. I have no fond memories of this institution, and feel sad when those glorify “haunted” stories of its past, and all those who were housed there during difficult unfortunate times.
In 1957 my Uncle who was 18 was in a DTES bar and while in the bathroom a Frenchman stole his beer. He ended up stabbing him once & he died & was sent to B.C.Pen for 10 yrs. Later Colony Farm for 15, then East & West Lawn and spent the last 8 yrs of his life at Langley Lodge. My Grandparents were too old to care for him but we visited at all places & was never told why he was there and was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. He dissed in 2015 and was called Big Ron or Gentle Giant as he was known. 😥
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