Ghost Stories
Stories About Ghosts

by Josh Jones

It is a common myth that the Villa Montezuma is haunted, although where it originated is not so common. There have been stories told ever since its first inhabitant Jesse Shepard, a famous musician, moved into the home in 1887. I had a chat with a Site Interpreter at the Villa Montezuma. He assured me that it wasnít haunted and even shared with me that when he started out working at the Villa, he was the person who switched the lights off and on during a Haunted San Diego tour. He explained to me that while he has worked there nothing odd has happened besides people demanding to photograph the house every once in a while.

They want to photograph the house because they believe they could find the elusive ìspirit photoî. A spirit photo is supposedly when a ghost or apparition appears not to the naked eye, but in pictures. In fact the first picture you see is supposedly a spirit photo. There are odd looking splotches on the picture that people could claim are ghosts. I was assured though that those were a result of faulty photography technology.

One famous reason that the Villa is said to be haunted is that Jesse Shepard held sÈances while he was performing music. He would claim to have one famous historical composer control one of his hands, while another composer controlled his other hand. If that wasnít good enough he would be playing the piano and be joined by other instruments out of nowhere. He would also sing with two different voices during his performance.

The house ended up trading hands a lot after Jesse Shepard moved away. Almost everybody ended up moving away and selling the house, or dying. This led to the assumption that there was a curse upon the house. On a different note, one of my favorite stories about an owner of the Villa Montezuma was that of Edward Campbell, who searched the basement of the Villa for treasure that he assumed Jesse Shepard had buried there before he left.

Things were going moderately well until the final residents move into the Villa. Mr. and Mrs. Yeager bought the house in 1950. Mr. Yeager was a retired engineer, and Mrs. Yeager was a retired silent films actress. By this time the house was sadly deteriorated, enhancing its image of being a haunted house. Sadly in 1958 Mr. Yeager dies, leaving Mrs. Yeager as the sole caretaker for the Villa. She went into denial about her husbandís death and began asking for him. She would ask people on the street in front of her house. There were rumors of her waving a gun around and threatening people on the sidewalk unless they told her where her husband was. Her haggard look combined with her madness caused people to believe she was a witch, which solidified the rumors of the Villa Montezuma as being a haunted den of the occult.

Now for the story of the butler, who hung himself and still haunts the Villa. The only problem with that story is that there hasnít been a butler in the Villa Montezuma. So, since there hasnít been a butler in the house, the butler that doesnít exist couldnít have possibly killed himself. The house probably doesnít have a curse on it, it has just been bought and sold by some swindlers over the years and has been followed by misfortune because of this. The second owner, D.D. Dare, was a banker and a swindler; he bought the house for twenty nine thousand dollars, and sold it the next year at thirty thousand dollars to H.P. Palmerston. He faced financial ruin and had to foreclose the property. This is just the first of many bad transactions connected to the Villa Montezuma. So no, the Villa is not cursed, although it certainly seems unlucky.

So letís take a tally: We have one spiritualist piano player, one suicidal butler, one curse upon the house, and one witch. In my opinion we have one eccentric performer, one butler that never existed, one series of unfortunate events, and one old woman that missed her husband. Most of these stories are debunked with some simple facts. Jesse Shepard was a showman at heart and so during his performances he would have associates of his hide in secret compartments in his house where performers could be heard but not seen, one above the music room, and one behind the fireplace. He was quite the musician and could perform with a wide vocal range, which explains the different voices. He also had incredibly big hands so he couple play a duet by himself. Unfortunately he ended up quitting the piano in order to work on a literary career. He moved to England to work on his writing. After years of trying to make ends meet he came back to San Diego and stayed at friends and acquaintances houses. He had a farewell concert organized for him as a charity concert. After playing the last song he laid his head on the piano as if to sleep and died on the spot.

So really, at least in what I have seen, there is nothing particularly supernatural about the Villa Montezuma. There have certainly been odd things about the Villa, and I can see how people may have interpreted them as the occult. But, as the friends of the Villa Montezuma say, ìItís not haunted, itís enchanted!î

Works Cited

Wahnon, Johann. Tour of the Villa Montezuma. Villa Montezuma Museum, San Diego,CA. 12 January 2008.

Weird California Villa Montezuma Mansion. 7 September 2006. Weird California. 23 March. 2008.

Crane, Clare. Jesse Shepard and the Villa Montezuma. Summer 1970. San Diego Historical Society. 24 March 2008.

Eddy, Lucinda. Chronology of Events. Spring-Summer 1987. San Diego Historical Society. 24 March 2008.

The San Diego Historical Society assumes no responsibility for the statements or opinions of the authors. All research for this article was compiled by members of the Teen Advisory Council.

Above image:
San Diego Union Tribune article, July 20, 1913