Every Place Has a Story

Halloween Special 2021

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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

Will Woods, courtesy Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours
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.

Bill Allman is the former theatre manager at the Vogue, one of Vancouver’s most haunted venues. Tom Carter photo.
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.

Michael Kluckner’s 1984 painting from his book Vancouver: The Way it Was depicts the shooting and murder of Police Chief Malcolm MacLennan and George Robb, 9 in 1917.
Haunted Piano:

Tom Carter is a Vancouver artist, historian and musician who shares his Vancouver loft with a haunted piano.

Tom Carter with his haunted 1865 Steinway piano. Dan Chambers photo.
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.

Mandarin Garden ca.1950s, Tom Carter painting 2021
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.

Aman Johan, courtesy Langley Advance Times
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.

CTV’s St. John Alexander and Greg Mansfield, October 2021. Eve Lazarus photo

For more ghostly stories check out these podcast episodes:

S1 E9 Three Ghost Stories and a Murder

Victoria’s Ghost

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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