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I grew up in San Diego, and have visited the Whaley House many times. On a table in the entrance to the historic home, there sits a photo album of various grainy tourist shots of orbs and shadows and such. Although most of the photos this album contains require a very vivid imagination in order to see a figure of any sort, a few are quite chilling. On my last visit to the Whaley House, in April of 2002, I decided it would be fun to snap a few pics of the place myself, just to see what would turn up. I took a 35mm Pentax loaded with Kodak 400 film, and walked through the entire house, shooting randomly as I went. It was a typical spring day in San Diego...drab, overcast, and drizzling, so the house didn't have many visitors that day. Because of this, I was able to wait until I was alone before I snapped each photo. Although I had already taken many pictures with it that trip, once inside the Whaley House, my camera began malfunctioning. For example, my camera has a "too close" feature that lets you know when your subject is too near the lens to produce a clear picture. If an object is too close to your lens when you attempt to push the shutter button, the camera will beep, flash, and won't take the picture. Each and every shot I attempted inside the Whaley House that day resulted in my camera telling me I was "too close," regardless of how far I was from the objects in each room. It was really creeping me out because it was as though something I could not see was right in front of me, obstructing my shot. The really chilling moment, though, was when I had the film developed later that day. Nearly every picture featured white orbs and/or translucent white shading. As creepy as those were, though, they didn't hold a candle to the one I'm sending you now. I took this picture in the Whaley master bedroom. I was completely alone in the top story of the house, and nothing seemed amiss except my camera's weird behavior and a general sense of creepiness on my part. Clearly visible on the right side of the photo is a man's upper half. He's dark-haired and pale-skinned with a mustache. He appears to be in period dress. His right hand is on his hip, and even the buttons on the jacket on his right arm and a white shirt cuff are visible. I am sending you the original, unadulterated photograph. Decide for yourselves whether you think it is a real ghost. I would really appreciate any feedback. Thank you!
Christine Pagels
Wichita, KS
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