Subject: [ParanormalCalifornia] Our Fall Oakland & San Francisco Expeditions Nov. 13th -17th 2015......
Date: 11/20/2015 8:32:45 P.M. Pacific Standard Time
From:LordOfThyNight@aol.com
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Mountain View Cemetery
 
I am not even sure where to begin when it comes to this cemetery so ill keep my report brief because you can spend days hiking through and still not see every single stone. This is not just Oakland's finest cemeteries and burial grounds but perhaps one of the most beautiful garden cemeteries in the state of California.
 
The cemetery was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted who also designed central park in NYC along with Stanford and many other sites. When you enter Mountain View if you veer left you can visit Temple Sinai Cemetery which we did do first.
 
At the entrance is a giant fountain back dropped by the gothic chapel its pretty beautiful. Beyond that are hillsides of crypts and graves as far as the eye can see. As the cemetery sits in the Piedmont Hills. As a matter in fact the cemetery is erected on the entire mountain which overlooks Oakland and on a clear day you can also see San Francisco. I did not see San Fran hardly because it was extremely hazy that morning. It was warming up fast it was nice to just be in a T-shirt this time of year.
 
Near the chapel is this old historic bell and just further up the road is a the Civil War section of the cemetery which has actually cannons and an American flag within. I do not have a map of the cemetery so I am not sure which sections are which but I also seen an entire hillside designed into a Zen garden for the Chinese.
 
As a matter in fact the cemetery was designed into a Victorian like park full of flowers and lush gardens. Its a place where nature meets man really because there is so much to be found here. There were squirrels, birds and flowers growing everywhere it was a little slice of paradise.
 
As a matter in fact I seen a stellar jay which generally is a bird species only found near Lake Tahoe and the sierras. This is a very diverse cemetery there are statues, crypts, monuments, flat stones, pioneers, mausoleums and every type of gravestone you can imagine.
 
One can grab a backpack hike through the hills check out historical gravesites and have a picnic under a tree overlooking the city of Oakland. Our main focus of our first visit would be on the hillside just below the summit of a place often called the Millionaires Row.
 
The row contains many wealthy residents and prominent individuals. I seen governors, politicians, mayors, industrial leaders and wealthy businessman. I also seen J.A. Folger the founder of Folgers Coffee and the crypt of Domingo Ghiradelli which his last name took on the Ghiradelli Chocolate Company that still operates today. You have one of the first senators of Ca buried here and first time sheriffs for San Fran. Allot of historical figures buried among the hillsides something I can get into more when we add this location to our website.
 
In the center of the cemetery is a monument that nearly stands 50' there is another one I found hidden in the woods. As a matter in fact there are quite a few interesting monuments including at least two to three pyramid crypts, sphinx and even Greek Goddess like looking statues. Some of the crypts to the most prominent are the size of some of the homes I found driving throughout Oakland so these people had prestige, power and money no doubt. Other people buried here are celebrities including a few wrappers.
 
Many of the crypts the stained glass is broken or as if someone threw a rock through the window. You can see into some of them including this one that had four different types of stained glass within. I am not sure why people do this the work that goes into making such glass is a skill and art.
 
There is a variety of graves found here you might have an angel next to a crypt and that crypt might be next to a tall monument. There really is no end in site while some had tombstones that did not stand out compared to the crypts on the hillsides there is no in between. No matter where you hike there are just so many stones. Some may have founded other towns nearby while others may have owned at one time a restaurant its just a massive cemetery.
 
With the leaves starting to change, flowers everywhere and hillsides of graves it was obvious I was in my element. Some of the wealthiest have crypts that look like small temples and castles. Most of them sit up on the hill overlooking the city its pretty nice trust me you wont see anything like this. Some grave sites you have to walk up allot of steps to get to.
 
You really need allot of time to explore this place but the gates only stay up till sundown or till 5 pm. To be honest with you I definitely would need more time to wander this location. Between the beautiful of the San Gabriel Mountains, Piedmont Hills, Leaves changing colors and the thousands of beautiful engraves gravestones this place is a diamond in the rough. I can see why it closes there are a few statues that are missing arms I think I seen one without a head. I also seen a few broken graves not to many but the Pacific Coast Pioneer section on the south side was not looking to well.
 
One of the stones was a giant broken what appeared to look like Roman Italian Column. If you decided to take some of the roads higher up you can drive to the summit although the higher you go the less historic it gets and most of the graves are flat stones. But the view of the city of Oakland by far is one of the best in the city.
 
Also if you drive above the Millionaires Row the view of most of the entire cemetery is unveiled and you can see Temple Sinai and St. Mary's Cemetery on the hillside. You begin to feel small because your standing above a cemetery that has thousands of graves all were people at one time that today are now part of the regions history.
 
If you drive between the hills you will also find hidden parts to the cemetery. I found this one area that had fountains everywhere and another area that had angel statues. There is allot of cemetery hidden on the hillsides. One can hike up over a hill and come across an entirely different part of this burial ground. Like when I was exploring I found this small temple with two Sphinxes. On a hill sitting on a rock was a monument with an elk with virtuous words written on each side. Near some crypts a huge volcanic rock was someone's burial monuments just as I found a small stone tower.
 
Its a unique place I can talk about it all day or I could just show you so when it gets up on our site I am sure some folks will want to fly out to Oakland just to see this place. I cant say if it is or it is not haunted but I know they give tours I seen one going on because honestly the history of the people buried here runs deep with Oakland's heritage. There are some creepy statues even like this one angel whose cross someone broke off of her.
 
You cant see this place in one day but what I can do is share my experiences, photos and videos with everyone along with a more in depth history. That way if others want to visit or investigate it they can learn a little first and admire this beautiful place. Between the Gothic Chapel, Gardens, Nature and thousands of beautiful gravestones from the 1800's you could spend days here doing paranormal research seriously! But I did take some great photos and I seen many of the most prominent during my exploration it was amazing.
 
We would then head on off to St. Mary's which is on the next adjacent hill near Mountain View. St. Mary's is the city of Oakland's Catholic burial grounds. Lets just say there is rolling hills filled with crosses, saints and angels everywhere. Its a really beautiful burial ground  that you can see from the top of Mountain View Cemetery.

Lord Rick

Suspects

The Black Dahlia murder investigation was conducted by the LAPD. The Department also enlisted the help of hundreds of officers borrowed from other law enforcement agencies. Owing to the nature of the crime, sensational and sometimes inaccurate press coverage focused intense public attention on the case.

About sixty people confessed to the murder, mostly men. Of those, twenty-five were considered viable suspects by the Los Angeles District Attorney. In the course of the investigation, some of the original twenty-five were eliminated, and several new suspects were proposed. Suspects remaining under discussion by various authors and experts include Walter Bayley,^[15] Norman Chandler, Leslie Dillon, Joseph A. Dumais, Mark Hansen, Dr. Francis E. Sweeney, George Hill Hodel, Hodel's friend Fred Sexton,^[16] George Knowlton, Robert M. "Red" Manley, Patrick S. O'Reilly, and Jack Anderson Wilson.^[17]

Theories and possibly related murders

Some crime story authors have speculated on a link between the Short murder and the Cleveland Torso Murders, which took place in Cleveland between 1934 and 1938.^[18] As with a large number of killings that took place before and after the Short murder, the original LAPD investigators looked into the Cleveland murders in 1947 and later discounted any relationship between the two cases. Nevertheless, new evidence implicating a former Cleveland torso murder suspect, Jack Anderson Wilson (a.k.a. Arnold Smith), was investigated by Detective John P. St. John in 1980 in connection with Short's death. St. John claimed he was close to arresting Wilson for the murder of Short, but Wilson died in a fire on February 4, 1982.^[19]

Crime story authors such as Steve Hodel (son of George Hill Hodel) and William Rasmussen have suggested a link between the Short murder and the 1946 murder and dismemberment of six-year-old Suzanne Degnan in Chicago.^[20] Captain Donahoe of the Los Angeles police stated publicly that he believed the Black Dahlia and the Lipstick Murders were "likely connected".^[21] Among the evidence cited is the fact that Elizabeth Short's body was found on Norton Avenue three blocks west of Degnan Boulevard, Degnan being the last name of the girl from Chicago. There were also striking similarities between the Degnan ransom note and that of "the Black Dahlia Avenger". Both texts used a combination of capitals and small letters (the Degnan note read in part "BuRN This FoR heR SAfTY" [sic]), and both notes contain a similar misshapen letter P and have one word that matches exactly.^[22] Convicted serial killer William Heirens served life in prison for Degnan's murder. Initially arrested at age 17 for breaking into a residence close to that of Suzanne Degnan, Heirens claimed he was tortured by police, forced to confess, and made a scapegoat for the Degnan murder.^[23] After being taken from the medical infirmary at the Dixon Correctional Center on February 26, 2012, due to health problems, Heirens died at the University of Illinois Medical Center on March 5, 2012, at the age of 83.

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