Published 1996. Art by Rick Ewing.
ABOUT THE BOOK: Discover the “ghostly” side of one of America’s finest cities — haunted houses, phantom airplanes and ghosts of the Queen Mary come alive in these true stories of eerie happenings in Long Beach, California. Gathered from historical files and personal experiences, these tales are sure to entertain both visitors and residents alike.
WHAT THE AUTHOR SAYS: In the fall of 1995 I was on the Publications Committee of the Historical Society of Long Beach. After much discussion about what our next publication should be, I jokingly remarked that we could do a “ghost” book. I had just been to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and was amazed at the many books about supernatural goings on at the Civil War battlefield—and the books were really selling! I mentioned to the committee that I had gathered several local ghost stories from indexing Long Beach newspapers and we could do a different type of oral history project by asking folks in town for stories of their own. After much laughter, we actually decided it was a good idea! We put out flyers, developed forms and had numerous stories about our project printed in the local newspapers. We tried to be as “scientific” as possible. There were two rules: first, the story had to have a Long Beach connection and second, it had to be a first person account. However, in the many talks I gave around town I came across “secondary” accounts of ghostly sightings which we put under a section entitled “Rumored Hauntings.” The book was so popular all 5000 copies quickly sold out. Over the years I was asked when it was going to be reprinted, the result was the 2010 book Haunted Long Beach 2 which includes the original stories updated, and about 75% all new stories.
This is long out of print. The author still has a few copies left for $75 each. You can contact her and get an autographed copy.