Paranormal and Supernatural

Preety_India · August 15, 2020

The strange happenings of Skin Walker ranch.

Edited August 16, 2020 by Preety_India

Preety_India · August 15, 2020

Civil War Gettysburg ghosts and apparitions

Disneyland ghosts and apparitions.

The mysterious Rosenheim Poltergeist 1960s caused by Annemarie Schaberl.

Discussed in this video

Edited August 16, 2020 by Preety_India

Preety_India · August 15, 2020

Paranormal borderline CCTV

The case of the Toxic Lady Gloria Ramirez.

La Llorona mystery

Edited August 16, 2020 by Preety_India

Preety_India · August 15, 2020

The strange death of Peter Gibbs

Annabelle news

Edited August 16, 2020 by Preety_India

Preety_India · August 16, 2020

Cases of time travel

Edited August 16, 2020 by Preety_India

Preety_India · August 16, 2020

San Pedro Haunting

The Somerton Man mystery

Edited August 16, 2020 by Preety_India

Preety_India · August 16, 2020

James Dean story part 1

Edited August 16, 2020 by Preety_India

Preety_India · August 16, 2020

CURSED CARS: JAMES DEAN’S HAUNTED “LITTLE BASTARD” PORSCHE 550

Halloween’s a good time to tell some scary stories. The scariest car story out there is the story of James Dean’s Little Bastard, the Porsche 550 in which his ticket was eternally punched on September 30th, 1955. It leaves behind a trail of wreckage much longer than just Dean himself.

The story begins on September 23, 1955, just a week before Dean’s fatal crash. He’d purchased a Porsche 550 Spyder and brought it to customizer and legendary flimflammer George Barris to have it personalized. He chose tartan seats, the number 130 emblazoned on the hood, and the name “Little Bastard” painted just under the Porsche emblem on the engine cover. Monkeemobile builder Dean Jeffries did the lettering.

On September 23, 1955, while driving the car around Los Angeles, he met up with British actor Alec Guinness outside a restaurant. He showed the deeply superstitious Guinness the new Porsche.

In Guinness’s unpublished diaries and letters, he wrote:

‘The sports car looked sinister to me. . .[E]xhausted, hungry, feeling a little ill- tempered in spite of Dean’s kindness, I heard myself saying in a voice I could hardly recognise as my own: ‘Please never get in it. . . if you get in that car you will be found dead in it by this time next week.'”

Dean laughed.

A week later, on September 30th, Dean and Rolf Wütherich — a former Luftwaffe pilot and factory-trained Porsche mechanic — were at Competition Motors in Hollywood preparing The Little Bastard for racing that weekend at Salinas.

The intent was for Dean to trailer the car to Salinas behind his 1955 Ford Country Squire, along with a photographer and stuntman Bill Hickman, stunt coordinator on the movie Bullitt, most famously. (You can watch the video below to learn more about Hickman and the stunts in that movie.)

But the car needed some break-in miles on it, and Wütherich suggested driving the car to Salinas to not only break in the engine, but so that Dean could familiarize himself with the car he just purchased. Wütherich went along for the ride.

The group left a coffee shop across from Competition Motors at 1:15pm. At 3:30pm, California Highway Patrolman O.V. Hunter stopped Dean and wrote him a ticket just south of Bakersfield for driving 65 mph in a 55 zone. Hickman got a ticket for 20 mph over the limit, because he was towing a trailer, which meant his maximum speed should’ve been 45 mph.

At Blackwells Corner on Route 466, the caravan stopped for drinks, and met up with Lance Reventlow and Bruce Kessler, also competing in the Salinas road races in Reventlow’s Mercedes-Benz 300 SL coupe.

At approximately 5:15 pm, Dean and Hickman drove west toward Paso Robles. A half hour later, a black-and-white 1950 Ford Tudor coupe was headed east on 466, driven by a 23-year-old Cal Poly student with unlikely name of Donald Turnupseed.

Turnupseed made a left on Route 41. As he crossed the centerline, Dean, who was estimated to be traveling at 85 mph, tried to avoid the Ford, and the two cars met head-on. The Ford coupe slid 39 feet down Route 466 in the westbound lane.

Soon afterward, an unconscious and dying Dean was placed into an ambulance. Wütherich, who had been thrown from the Spyder, and was lying on the shoulder of the road next to the Little Bastard, was transported in the same ambulance to the Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital almost 30 miles away. Dean was pronounced dead on arrival at 6:20 pm. Turnupseed walked away with a scratch on his nose.

George Barris purchased the wrecked Porsche for $2,500 (with the likely intent to sell tickets to look at it) and transported the car back to his shop. The car slipped off at trailer and broke the leg of a mechanic.

Barris sold the engine and drivetrain to Troy McHenry and William Eschrid. The two used parts to build cars of their own, and were racing against each other with those parts in place.

Henry lost control and slammed into a tree, the impact killing him instantly.

Eschrid was driving his car, and the wheels suddenly locked up for no apparent reason, sending the car rolling over in a turn. Eschrid was seriously injured in the crash.

Two tires from the Little Bastard were in Barris’s garage, untouched since the accident that claimed Dean’s life. He sold the tires, and both of them exploded simultaneously, causing the driver to run off the road.

In a piece that appeared in Jalopnik, the curse apparently continued even further:

“Due to all the incidents involving “Little Bastard,” Barris decided to hide the car but was convinced by the California Highway Patrol to lend the cursed heap to a highway safety exhibit. The first exhibit was unsuccessful as the garage that housed the car caught fire and burned to the ground. Mysteriously the car suffered virtually no damage from the fire. The next exhibition at a local high school ended abruptly when the car fell off its display and broke a nearby student’s hip.”

Later, George Barkuis, was hauling the wreckage of the Spyder on a flatbed truck and was killed instantly when the Porsche fell on him after he was thrown from his truck in an accident.

Mishap after mishap continued until 1960, when the twisted debris was on loan to a safety exhibit in Miami. Following the exhibit, the wreckage and the truck that was hauling it mysteriously vanished on the way back to Los Angeles.

Neither have ever been seen since

Edited August 16, 2020 by Preety_India

Preety_India · August 16, 2020

James Dean ghost story

Before there were cell phones with cameras and paranormal pop-culture upsurge cable television shows, there were actual ghost stories floating about the globe. A man named Tom Angeloni simply shares his true and simple ghost story on his possible encounter with the ghost of James Dean.

“My ghost story (for lack of a better term) happened back in 1991. In May of that year my friend Mike and I were invited to play an acoustic guitar set at a party that our high school friend Kevin was having to celebrate the annual Paso Robles wine festival. At the time Kevin had just recently moved to the area from southern California and was just getting into the budding wine industry up there. He now owns his own winery but back then he was just a winery employee learning the trade.”

Tom continues on with his backstory of how he potentially met up with James Dean’s rather curious ghost.

How It Began

“The day after his party the three of us had gone out to a local bar and grill to have dinner and a few drinks. We were chatting about the weekend of fun we had when the conversation turned to the long drive up from Los Angeles when I mentioned seeing a sign on highway 46 that said James Dean Memorial Highway. I recall that I asked Kevin about this and he informed us that that was the road where James Dean had died in a car accident many, many years ago. I had no idea that it happened up here. I had thought for some reason that it happened in L.A. somewhere.”

Tom says that he was very surprised to have learned about the actual location because he recalls, “I remember as he was telling us the story our waitress was at the table next to ours and kept looking back at us. When she finished she came over to our table to take our order. When she returned with our drinks, she told us that she had overheard our conversation and we all started chatting about the crash. And as we were all young guys in our mid-twenties we did some flirting with her too. I don’t remember how it came up, but I believe she then told us that there were stories around town that the crash site was haunted.”

“I recall we all laughed at this as we didn’t exactly believe in ghosts…well everybody except me! The waitress then said “well if you’re not afraid of ghosts why don’t you guys go out there and check it out.” Mike and Kevin said that’s exactly what we’re gonna do!”

“We left in Mike’s truck and drove the 25 or so miles outside of town to where the waitress told us the crash took place, near the intersection of highway 46 and highway 41. It took about 45 minutes, as I remember, through the rolling countryside of California’s central coast. The area was covered in high grass with small clusters of oak trees here and there. When we got there we parked the truck on the side of the road and got out to survey the area. We were there for a few minutes listening to the sounds of the night.”

Tom recounts the most vivid moment of that evening. “We walked around acting like idiots smoking cigarettes and laughing at the idea that the place could actually be haunted. Kevin being the macho guy he was, started daring any ghost to show itself. I had a bad feeling about this but didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to look like a wimp in front of my two friends. He continued to try to antagonize, poking insults at James Dean calling him a horrible driver and a two bit actor. Not a smart move. This is where it got kinda weird. At this point I got mad and told Kevin to knock it off but he continued telling me not to be scared and that he would protect me.”

Precognitive Warnings

There have been many claimed “warnings” mentioned to the actor after purchasing his Porsche Spyder as many mechanics and owners have said that this model car was very unstable due to its design. Then came the premonitions in the time leading up to James Dean’s death while the actor was excited to show off his new race car. There were friends of James that included Eartha Kitt and a former girlfriend, Ursula Andress who felt that the vehicle had a malevolent presence. Many people today still believe an object can hold negative vibes or even an evil spirit and so perhaps here, this was at play. “James, I don’t like this car; it’s going to kill you,” Kitt is reported to have said to James while the two were out for a drive the week before his crash.

Around the same time, James Dean met Alec Guinness and asked the actor’s opinion of the car. Guinness stated that the car was sinister, and said that if James got in it, he would be dead within the week. Is it possible that James Dean knew of his pending doom and demise by his friends opinions of his newest purchase? There were signs that could lead one to think or even believe James somehow also felt, his car would be his last moment in time spent on earth. Would he be back to somehow claim vengeance, or state how angry he is for the whole incident?

While filming a commercial for the National Safety Council, a paradox occurred where James ad-libbed the words of the script from “Please Drive Safely. The life you save may your own,” to “The life you save may be mine.” Perhaps he is a bit angered in the after-life as to his decision in keeping and using this vehicle knowing somewhere in the back of his mind, it was not going to end well therefore creating a still, lingering resentment on the highway he perished on in 1955?

The Ghost Of James Dean

Tom continues with his ghost story, “The next thing that happened was that the air became completely still. All the regular night time sounds, crickets, leaves rustling, just stopped. It was completely still and quiet. We looked at each other uneasily and then Mike pointed out a small patch of fog, or what looked like fog, forming about 20 yards away near a cluster of canyon oaks. Tule fog was not uncommon this time of year but this was not the kind of fog I had seen many times before. It had a bit of a greenish- blue haze about it, and it began to move, slowly at first but then a bit faster. It rose up from the ground where it formed and began moving in a slow whirlwind shape. We just stood there staring at it in disbelief for what seemed like an eternity.”

“In actuality it was more like 2 or 3 minutes. Mike leaned over at me and said “Tom what is that?” I didn’t say a word, I was scared. The hair on my arm was standing on end and I had goosebumps. As we watched the fog swirling, it slowly formed a small ball of greenish-blue light, not very bright, about the size of a quarter. It moved back and forth in front of the oak trees slowly getting bigger and bigger until it was the size of cantaloupe, maybe 8 inches in diameter though it was hard to tell at that distance. At this point Kevin was as quiet as a church mouse. I glanced over at him and his eyes where as wide as saucers. Needless to say he was not laughing anymore. The ball of light started coming closer to us. When it was about 10 yards away from us, Mike blurted out, “let’s get the outta here!” Nobody had to tell me twice, I was running at a full sprint toward the truck. All three of us jumped in the truck and peeled out heading back to town as fast as his truck would take us.”

Is James Dean Stuck?

In conclusion Tom recalls that when they got about 4 or 5 miles from the area, he thought his heart beat finally got back to normal! “I think Kevin was the first to speak. He was talking a mile a minute asking what the heck was it that we had just seen. Was it a lightning bug? A hive of lightning bugs? Well I know it wasn’t. I know it was right near where James Dean died. And I have never experienced anything like it. To this day we still tell the story to new friends (although Kevin has come up with a million “logical” explanations of what we saw) and I’ve told it to my nieces and nephews along with other paranormal experiences I’ve had. Was it James Dean? Maybe, maybe not. Was it paranormal? Yes.”

Is he haunting the place of his death and does he have more to say? James Dean sadly collided his Porsche Spyder race car with another car while on the road near Cholame, California on September 30th, 1955. He had received a speeding ticket just two hours prior. He was killed almost immediately from the impact from a broken neck. He was 24. His short career, violent death and highly publicized funeral catapulted him into a cult-like and iconic object of timeless fascination.