Tales from da crypt

October 26, 2007
By Kerry Miller

A group of 24 brave souls -including a MidWeek writer and photographer -set out on a mission one recent Saturday evening to search Oahu for the spirits of those who came before us. Led by the fearless "Uncle Joe" Espinda of Oahu Ghost Tours, we went from Iolani Palace to Nuuanu Pali, and from Morgan's Corner to Manoa Valley. Spirits of night-marchers, a murdered woman and even children crossed our path, momentarily intertwining the living with the dead. "This is not a tour where somebody gonna come out and go 'Boo!'" says Espinda. "This is not a tour where you think you see something and go 'What is that? I cannot explain that.' "Folks, it's not when we feel the spirits, it's where we see the spirits. Protect your heart, protect your mind at all times.Your young ones, keep them close, 'cuz this tour is not for the weak of heart. This tour where we going on is to another dimension.We are now going into the paranormal." Uncle Joe gave each of his fellow explorers bags of Hawaiian salt and large ti leaves to keep them protected during this ghostly journey. The first stop: Iolani Palace. "The history of this place," he says,"you guys don't even want to know what this place was before. This place was called Pokaka, and it's an unspoken thing, what the locals talk about. "This is a sacrificial heiau," Espinda continues. "When Kalanikupule left this island, there were 2,000 people killed by the hand of Kamehameha -he took their heads off, stuffed a mule stick through their heads and a thorn. With that blood he draped the heiau. This man Kamehameha, 7-foot-2, 600 pounds able to rip a man's body in half, was the most vicious man throughout Hawaii." This "most vicious man"chased Kalanikupule and his men all the way from Iolani to Nuuanu Pali (Pali Lookout), the next stop for Uncle Joe's group. Nuuanu Pali is where Kamehameha drove Kalanikupule's men over the edge, letting them fall hundreds of feet below to their death. At night the Pali Lookout is mysteriously serene -no wind,no cold air, as most daytime visitors encounter. "We going to the wall to look for Pohaku Maka Nui (rock of big eyes)," Uncle Joe says. "His face is the watcher of this area -it protects all the spirits. If you guys find orbs, let me know. If you hear the conch shell,let me know.If you hear drumming, let me know, because those are warriors." Espinda chants in Hawaiian, allowing for the group's safe passage down the Old Pali Road to where the rock is. He points out the infamous face in the rock, the face that sometimes is "looking right at you." "I have learned,being on the tour for 31 times now, every time when I get hot air, always it gets wild," Espinda continues. "Every time I get the cold air, it's all good. When I get like right now, the stillness of Nuuanu Pali, I know the next stop, when I go to Morgan's Corner, it's gonna be outta control. I gotta really protect this group." And onward to Morgan's Corner we went ... The story of Morgan's Corner is quite a gruesome one. While several variations of this tale exist, telling why this spot -located just mauka of the intersection of Pali and Kamehameha highways -is such a spooky place, the most popular one, will send shivers up your spine. According to an article written by Burl Burlingame in the May 1, 2005, edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, prison escapees John Palakiko and James Majors broke into the home of 68-year-old Therese Wilder in 1948, tortured and assaulted her, gagged her and left her to die outside. Her nearest neighbor, Dr. James Morgan, lived too far away to hear any of her screams. The men were sentenced to be hanged, but at the last minute the governor at the time stayed the execution. Both were paroled in 1963. Get this: Palakiko died mysteriously and as for Majors, nobody knows what became of him. Uncle Joe tells the group of spirit seekers that Wilder was actually hanged from a mango tree at one of the hairpin turns at Morgan's Corner. "Sometimes you can hear her screams in this place of unrest,"he says. "We're going up just to the other hairpin turn, and if we can make it to the other turn without any other encounters of any other type of spirits, we're gonna go farther. If we encounter anything I don't like,we're gonna turn around." Something real and terrifying occurred at Morgan's Corner, which alone gives the site a creepy feeling, but when Espinda reminds his tour group that many accidents happened here and to please walk on left side of the road because there's a 20-foot ravine to the right, well, that'll give you a jolt of "chickenskin." Suddenly, during the short trek up the road, Espinda stops. He begins shaking his ti leaf violently and then chanting in Hawaiian, telling the evil spirit he senses to leave the area. Slightly startled, the group is instructed to head back to the Oahu Ghost Tour vans, away from this dark and still spooky corner. Breathing a sigh of relief, the group traveled on to Ulupo Heiau near the Windward YMCA in Kailua, hallowed ground on the Windward side. "This place has more than 80,000 dead remains of ancient Hawaiian people,"says Espinda."It is an area of peace, a healing heiau. Do not remove the stones, do not take home the stones, do not even sit on the stones because the stones, they don't want to go home with you. They are Pele's off-spring." The rocks at this site came from 40 miles away. How? Espinda recalls the story of two chiefs — one on the Leeward side and another on the Windward side. On the Leeward side, people were living in desert conditions, starving, while in Windward Oahu there was an abundance of water and food. "These two chiefs wanted to come together in the spirit of lokahi (sharing). One chief says we want to build a place where we can worship, where we can bury our dead, a place for all times to remember us by," Espinda says. The people of both villages (100,000 in total) traveled along a trail to the eventual heiau site. The duty of everybody from Waianae all the way to the Windward side was to carry rocks, which would have to be passed on to others, through whole families, to keep peace. Espinda says that whatever spirits that may have followed the group from Morgan's Corner to this site will remain at the heiau and be dealt with by good spirits. My fellow travelers and I are growing weary as the hour gets late, but Uncle Joe only has two more stops in store for his nighttime adventure. At Manoa Children's Cemetery, Espinda asks the two young girls on the tour to offer candy to the spirits of the children residing inside as a peace offering of sorts to allow the group safe passage. He reminds the girls that the ti leaves they carry are used to ward off evil spirits, to keep spirits in the graveyard. He tells everyone that some tombstones have rocks on top of them to keep the evil spirits in. The group hears the story of a tall tree at the cemetery. The tree is more than 150 years old and the Chinese believe it to be a portal between this life and the afterlife. The tree has been known to suddenly burst into flames, as is evidenced by its charred inside, in which you can stand. "Sometimes you will find orbs — most of the spirits up here are pretty rested. Most orbs will be of the bright white color. We do have floating spirits float across the graveyard — usually a boy praying, sometimes a woman floating across on the top of all the headstones.You can take a good photo of Waikiki right through there. They got two-legged paranormal," Espinda jokes. At last the group goes in search of the legendary nightmarcher at the entrance to Manoa Falls. During the daylight hours, hikers encounter only bugs, perhaps, and warm tropical air. At night, small sounds in the woods are spooky, and Espinda lets everyone know that the warm air that is harmless during the day could mean nightmarchers are nearby. "Nightmarchers, I don't like to deal with. Never did, never like them. They are an evil spirit. When they died the only thing in their mind was to kill you. Please take warning, protect yourself at all times." Legend says that nightmarchers are the spirits of ancient warriors who roam various sections of the island, particularly those that were once battlefields.If you look a night-marcher in the eye, you could disappear and never be seen again, so Hawaiians say you should lie down and avoid face contact. About 20 minutes go by. The group waits for a sign of the night-marchers. We spot a few orbs and Espinda repeats his Hawaiian chant to keep everyone safe. Suddenly, someone says they smell something funny, like rotting flesh, a sign which Espinda mentioned earlier could mean the nightmarchers are around. With the help of his "ghost meter" — a glowing, buzzing device that senses energy — Espinda says "we're starting to get activity more than usual" and decides it is time for the group to leave. Back to the Oahu Ghost Tour vans we went, all 24 safely intact, having survived the "Orbs of Oahu" tour. None of us looked behind as we drove away ... who knows what we would have seen? Oahu Ghost Tours is a subsidiary of The Real Hawaii Eco-Cultural Excursions and offers tours during the day and night, both driving and walking, including the "Sacred Spirits" driving tour, "Honolulu City Haunts" walking tour and the "Orbs of Oahu" driving tour. For more information, visit them online at http://www.oahughosttours.com or call 524-4944 for reservations and information.