Breakout at Hoptown
As the shadows cast by sunrise faded from Tombstone, the darkness lingered longest in the Chinese quarter. Of the town’s population of approximately 5,000 people, 300–500 were Chinese. They were, for the most part, a hard-working group of people who kept to themselves and maintained their cultural traditions. Like many towns in the Old West, Tombstone suffered from the malady of racism. The Chinese were welcome to work, but they weren’t generally welcome in the parts of town occupied by whites. They traveled through town underground in a series of tunnels. Because they hopped in and out of those tunnels, their community became known as Hoptown.
A panoramic view of the Hoptown area of Tombstone,
Arizona, circa 1940. Courtesy Library of Congress.
The community was connected to the rest of Tombstone, but was at the same time mostly a self-contained unit. The small community included groceries, gambling halls, restaurants, laundries, and even a temple that was used for worship and as a meeting place.
Many in the community were known by their nicknames. For example, a Chinese male might be known as John and a female as Mary. These names often appear in the official US Census.
Hoptown’s most prominent resident was one of those named Mary. Nee Sing, sometimes called Ah Chum, was known as Chinese Mary and she was the “queen bee” of Hoptown. She was a plump woman who favored brocaded silks and jade jewelry in the Chinese fashion. She bridged the gap between two communities, providing reliable laborers for the families and businesses on the white side of town. Her motto was “Them steal, me pay.”
If the work performed wasn’t up to the employer’s standards, China Mary redid it for free. She also ran a general store stocked with goods for each community. She ran a gambling hall in the back of the store, one of the few places where whites and Chinese mixed openly. The character of China Mary even made it into a 1960 episode of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. She was portrayed by actress Anna May Wong.
Wyatt’s Hotel and Coffee House and the Saloon Theater now sit on a site once occupied by a general store operating during China Mary’s heyday. Town records show that 225 Allen Street was the site of a store owned by Quong on Chong, who featured Chinese goods. We couldn’t find a record of any murders or killings at that location. Considering how most people felt about the status of the Celestials, events in Hoptown probably weren’t “above the fold” reading in the local newspapers, assuming they even made the newspapers at all. It’s impossible to know what unrecorded events occurred in the back rooms of many local establishments in all quarters of Tombstone. The Chinese, like the rest of the people in town, were a tough bunch. They had to be.
The theater is historic in the sense of what happened here in the past, but the building is new. Reenactors dressed in period costumes recreate famous Arizona gunfights on a regular schedule, making the facility a prime tourist attraction.
As we discovered in an emotionally charged moment, the theater was also an attraction for those old enough to remember China Mary, Wyatt, Doc, Curly Bill, Ringo, and the good times and bad times in Hoptown. One poor soul, in fact, refused to leave and preferred to be a spirit trapped in Hoptown rather than move on to a better life on the other side.
In an unplanned session watched by dozens of people and recorded in audio and video, we helped this spirit end his time in a self-imposed prison. Virtually everyone in attendance was emotionally affected. As the expression goes, by the end of the session “there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”
A Haunting in the Desert
Dwight and Rhonda’s A Haunting in the Desert is a three-day event that includes presentations and demonstrations by premier psychics and paranormal investigators, tours of historic sites in the Tombstone area, and direct participation in paranormal investigations of haunted sites.
As with any series of events dealing with those who have crossed over, the results of contact vary considerably. Sometimes very little or nothing at all occurs. Other times genuine contact is made. Sounds and voices can sometimes be heard clearly and even recorded as EVPs. And sometimes, sometimes, the experience can become so emotionally powerful that it is overwhelming. That is precisely what happened during A Haunting in the Desert II at the Saloon Theater in Tombstone’s Hoptown.
Saturday (May, 21, 2016) had been a full day—a long day, but an exciting one. Dwight, Rhonda, I, and guest presenter Brian Cano of television’s Haunted Collector led two groups through the abandoned mining community of Gleeson. Later the group was given a tour of Tombstone’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, which was established in 1882. Dwight and Rhonda had also arranged for a tour of a unique feature of this boomtown’s first church—a brothel, which had been located just behind the church on church property. There is a reason it was called the Wild West. The last event of the day was a paranormal investigation of the Saloon Theater in which the attendees could participate.
Dwight and Rhonda were the organizers and managers of the event. I considered myself “grunt labor” and helped whenever and wherever I could. We were tired and had planned on taking it easy during the event. Brian was the scheduled director of the evening’s activities, so management and labor had few responsibilities that night. The front half of the theater was set up with rows of chairs. The back end featured a simulated 1880s bar. About half of the group took to the chairs with the other half “bellying up to the bar” to conduct the research.
As planned, the evening was to be a low-key event. The attendees would spend some time directly with Brian. They would hang out with a television personality and at the same time directly experience a simulated paranormal investigation. I found a place to sit down at the far corner in the front of the building, leaned back, lowered my hat and pretended to listen with my eyes closed. Rhonda took a seat on a staircase about halfway down the room. Dwight stood at the rear of the building. All three looked forward to an easy evening of observing Brian and the others try to make contact.
Dwight said, “The expectations were really low as to whether we were going to connect with any spirits and that kind of thing. The energy was palpable even then, but I think that was more from the attendees than it was anything else.”
The documentation of paranormal activity in the building was sparse. There were reports of a photo that showed a ghostly apparition on the stairs midway through the building. Still, the site (if not the building) was located in an historic part of a well-haunted city and the investigation was worth the effort. Even if no one from the other side made an appearance the experience of conducting an actual investigation would be rewarding for the attendees. Again, Dwight, Rhonda, and I stepped back, anticipating minimal participation. This was Brian’s show.
Rhonda was confident of the possibility of a successful investigation. The moment she stepped into the theater she psychically saw two men standing on the stairs—two spirits. She sat down not too far from them. To her, they seemed to be observing the event with some interest.
When a site has been occupied by more than one building throughout the years the spirits often inhabit the site as it was when they passed. Sometimes they are able to observe and interact in the current facility. In our work we have encountered some who expressed surprise or confusion at the new faces and unfamiliar scene of the current property.
The attendees began by using triggers to stimulate paranormal activity. Triggers are physical objects familiar to those who have crossed over that might enhance contact. For example, in the simulated bar at the theater, liquor bottles, shot glasses, beer mugs, cards, and poker chips were used. They were recreating a typical night at a Tombstone saloon, hoping the familiarity would bring about a response.
Early on they received a couple of legitimate EVPs of two spirits—one of them a murder victim. They were encouraged and continued in their efforts to make more contact.
I had given my pendulum dowsing lecture earlier so one of the participants was encouraged to try that technique. She was new to dowsing and was using a pendulum she had purchased that day. This was her first effort and she was making a valiant effort for a first-timer. In addition to her lack of practical experience she was working in a strange environment and surrounded by people she didn’t know. On top of that the evening was being documented by a production crew out of New York. That was a lot of pressure. She struggled and was doing as well as could be expected.
Brian asked Dwight to come up to the bar to help out with the session. He worked with the young woman with the new pendulum. After a few moments Brian looked my way and asked if I had brought my pendulum. “No.”
Dwight said of what happened next, “We were on the wavelength of just staying as far out of it as we could, but one-by-one Brian asked me and he asked you (Dan) to come over. It was interesting to me that you didn’t even have your pendulum. You kinda’ improvised, adapted, and overcame. There was a girl right next to you who had a long silver necklace with a cross on. You asked to borrow it and said, ‘Okay, we have a pendulum. Let’s do this.’ That’s when you and I started working the questions. You and I have worked together before so we knew each other’s energy and were working the questions and ‘bringing in the box’ a little bit further.” Bringing in the box referred to the technique of asking questions in which each one narrows the field of focus until the answers become more and more specific and related to the given situation.
It’s important to note how I held the pendulum that night. There are two basic techniques. One is to hold the chain or string between the thumb and forefinger. The other is to wrap the chain once or twice around the index finger. I was using the second technique.
Dwight and I discovered that two spirits were present. One had been murdered and one was the murderer who apparently died in or near the location at a later date. Rhonda said, “I think the people were under the impression that they were talking to the victim. But they were actually talking to the person who did the killing.”
She also said that the spirits were present and not just residual energy. They were curious about the simulated activity at the simulated bar. In their time the place had been a general store and they wondered about all the fake gambling and drinking going on.
Paranormal research is serious business, but that doesn’t mean the researchers lack a sense of humor or are afraid of expressing that humor even in public, and in this case, on camera. Dwight took charge of the session and began asking questions. I used the improvised pendulum as a means to get the answers.
Dwight said, “Is there someone here who can help you?”
“I’m getting a yes,” I said.
“Is this person a male?”
“No.”
“Is this person a female?”
“ … well … duh, Dwight!”
The room burst out with laughter.
“I don’t think Brian or the production crew was expecting that,” Rhonda said.
A moment and a few barbs later it was back to business. The tension had been broken, but the energy was rapidly ramping back up. Dwight honed in on finding the person who could help the spirit of this murderer, although each man knew what the answer had to be.
“Does this person’s name begin with the letter R?”
“Yes.”
We continued to shrink the box to make sure the person with the R name really was Rhonda, Dwight asked the spirit if he was trapped.
I was immediately hit and overcome with a wave of profound sadness. It was sudden, without warning, and overpowering. Someone in the group snapped a photograph at that very moment. It’s somewhat of an embarrassing photograph because my mouth was wide open as if I was clowning around. In fact, the photo shows my initial reaction and my desperate efforts to control my emotions.
“We need Rhonda up here,” I said.
So much for coasting through the evening.
I motioned her to the bar and she came up immediately. She later said other than the initial impression of two spirits she felt upon entering the theater, she had received no further psychic messages until the paranormal research intensified. As she approached the bar those powerful emotions washed over her.
I could see the change as it happened. The closer to the bar she got the more emotional she got. By the time she made it to the bar she was crying and could barely speak. She said, “It was as if I were there and I knew these two persons and they were my relatives. It was grief. That’s the way to explain it.”
Instead of sitting back and zoning out of the session, Dwight, Rhonda, and I were now center stage of a dramatic and emotional drama. Brian was right in the middle of it, but the spirits had reversed the roles. He was now more of an observer experiencing something quite unexpected. As Rhonda arrived, Dwight felt the energy immediately ramp up. From that moment on, the movements of the pendulum were stronger and more pronounced. The energy could be felt, and by that time most if not all of the attendees were feeling it.
Rhonda said, “I was in a zone. I don’t remember anybody. I don’t remember questions. I don’t remember seeing anybody. All I remember is seeing the tunnel and seeing these two men. And I knew there was a helper there. It was like both of them were trapped and, like we’ve experienced before, like a caseworker, a helper, or whatever you want to call it. Somebody to help them move on. But more so the murderer. That’s what I thought.”
The three who had planned on “sitting this one out” continued asking questions and seeking to discover the needs of the spirit and to see if there was a way to help fill that need. At some point Rhonda took control of the session, although at the time she didn’t realize it. The team was so focused on their efforts that the attendees, the production crew, and even Brian faded into the background. The psychics were unaware of anyone else in the room and were absorbed in what we were experiencing.
The questions became affirmations. Rhonda discovered that the spirit of the killer was afraid to cross over—fearing judgment and eternal suffering.
She said, “You don’t have to be afraid. You can go. You have permission now. You can go. It is safe.” This comforting and reassuring process continued for a couple of minutes. Many of the attendees were also affected by the emotion in the room and were sniffling and crying. Some were scratching their heads. No one was unaffected.
Dwight described what happened next. “And the pendulum pretty much snapped tight.” There was an audible sound and that’s what got Brian’s attention. He even mentioned to us later that it was an actual sound and an actual tactile feeling. He said he even felt it. Brian has had experiences in possessions and that kind of thing. He likened it to when a priest does an exorcism and the priest is successful: it doesn’t happen over a graduated amount of time; it happens right now. He said it was the same type of situation. “When they leave they leave immediately. (Snaps fingers.) It wasn’t like they’re going … they’re going … they’re going … they’re gone. It was like ‘boom’ and that’s when you said, ‘They’re gone.’ And just before you said that the pendulum dropped. The wrap that was over your finger actually came over your finger to drop.”
After the release there was a collective “ahhhhh … ” from the attendees. Some of them wanted to continue the questioning, to get more answers, but that was impossible. The paranormal investigation part of the evening was over. The trapped spirit had been freed and had moved on. Twenty-four attendees, Dwight, Rhonda, Brian, and I felt something powerful. Many of the attendees were crying and others were fighting back tears. They had experienced something truly rare and wonderful. Emotionally, it was draining.
Brian had an interesting take on what had happened. He said, “This time because Dan was there and you guys were there and I figured okay I’ve done my EVP session, we got an interesting EVP about a murder. Someone asked the question, ‘Did you murder anyone? Did you kill anyone?’ And the response was immediate: ‘Yes I killed someone.’ And everybody heard it—in front of the recorder as well as across the room …
“I figured this would be interesting since we were on Dan’s turf and Dwight and Rhonda’s turf, let’s get them to do the next round. I wanted to see the pendulum in action. And from there, having you guys focus and ‘construct the box’ to get more specific with the information. By the time you guys called Rhonda in we had identified that there were a couple of spirits. One of them had been murdered. He was unsure what to do. He didn’t know if he could move on or what would happen.
“A bunch of the other attendees started to get very emotional. When Rhonda was pulled in I knew she was emotional too. And I was thinking, ‘Wow! Something is going on.’
“Then by the time it all came to a head and the energy dissipated and you (Rhonda) said, ‘It’s okay. You have to cross over. You’ve gotta’ move. And the pendulum … I don’t know if I was imagining it, but there was a snap, a tiny sound, and the pendulum jerked and stopped. And Dan just put his head down and said, ‘He’s gone.’
“At that point I wasn’t really sure how to react. What to do. In Hollywood this type of occurrence would be accompanied by shafts of light and harp music and a chorus. But here this was amazing and quiet and I’ve seen exorcism videos of the same thing and they’re very jarring given how little is going on.
“I remember afterwards, not that I was skeptical, but I wanted to follow. You guys are used to this. You do this all the time, so I needed more info. And my main thought was, ‘How do we know we’re doing good? How do we know we’re doing the right thing?’ But I was super, super gratified to be a part of this and the mean take away of this, beyond just do good work, was look at the overlapping of disciplines here. We had technology, an EVP that got the response for us to pull in the dowser to say, ‘Okay, let’s get some more information,’ followed by the energy work … it was teamwork in different disciplines. And it was great because all of the attendees saw that you don’t have to choose one or the other. It’s all part of the teamwork.”
Someone might ask, “How do you know what happened was real?” Believe what you want, but we were in a legitimate ‘lights-camera-action’ scenario, but I’m just not that good an actor. The emotion I felt, and what the others felt, was overwhelming. We didn’t manufacture that emotion. It was brought to us by the spirits we helped.
It’s food for thought, but perhaps one of the reasons Tombstone is “the town too tough to die” is because so many of the dead and gone haven’t really gone. Others in Tombstone and other locations will surely find a release as we continue to convince them that it’s okay to at last cross over—that their time served is over.
The EVPs
“Yeah, I killed somebody.”
(EVP courtesy of Brian Cano)
To listen to the EVPs go to:
www.beelieveparanormal.com/our-book.html