Fintech Meetup: The Vegas Hack

(Buzzer) One iced coffee? 99 cents please. For real? No way. (Buzzer) Hmm. (Buzzer) (Buzzer) Hmm. One iced coffee? 99 cents please. For real? No way. Hmm. (Buzzer) What a deal! Your new morning groove. Ice coffee from McDonald's any size for just 99 cents to 11 a.m. Pricing participation may vary. Can I be combined with any other offer? (Buzzer) Today on the Grave Talks, the haunted Dean House. (Buzzer) (Buzzer) (Buzzer) (Buzzer) (Buzzer) (Buzzer) (Buzzer) The haunted Dean House in Calgary, Alberta, Canada has a long and storied history. Originally built in 1906 by Captain Richard Dean, tragedy would strike as his wife died during construction. Bad luck and trouble times would revisit the property in 1971 in the form of a husband and wife, murder suicide. After this, many would begin to report ghostly activity on the property, signings to full bodydafferations, strange noises, and feelings would be experienced by many who visited and investigate the property. As the Dean House still haunted to this day, what do the spirits want that haunt the Dean House? Today, we talk with historian Carl Santos about this mystery. The history of the Dean House really begins with history of Canada. I mean, I don't know how many people, it is in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and I know you've got a wide list of ships, don't know how many people know about Canada. But it's funny, we share a border with America, but culturally quite different in some ways. We still have Miley Cyrus and some of the downsides of American culture here. Because America was forged out of revolution, you guys separated from the Brits violently, that really does checker and work on the psyche of Americans. Whereas Canada, typical to our reputation, we separated under peaceful terms. We negotiated separation from the Brits in 1867, so about 100 years after you guys. As a result, when that happened, Canada was really focused in the east. This is Ontario and Quebec area, north of New York and east coast like you guys. The problem was they had all this massive territory. Canada is ginormous, but only has about 40 million people in it. It's 10% of the American population, but larger space. Canada was having trouble with shipping. We had railroads that ran across the country, but because all these territories were independent, it was costly to move things across borders and such. So it was very practical. The Canadians decided for practical reasons we need to become a federation, and they separated along these lines in 1867 and became Canada. But what happened then was we have this massive country that pushes out west towards British Columbia, Alaska and so on, out there. But no sovereignty. So the government owned the land, but it was kind of like the Wild West. There was no police. There was no army presence. There were a lot of settlements. So what happens in around 1875 is the Canadian government decides to start pushing, start planting forts throughout the country, which is a typical way of establishing sovereignty and authority in areas that are kind of wild. So they start doing this. And what happens eventually is in 1875 they get to Alberta, Calgary, where we are now. And although today, Calgary is dominated by the oil industry. People often refer to Alberta as the Texas of Canada because it is very, we have a stampede that they run up here as the biggest tourist attraction. In fact, the hockey stadium is called the Saddle Dome. It looks like a saddle, shaped as a saddle. So we are quite frontier like out here. And now it's oil dominated. And at the time it wasn't. It was just this wilderness by the mountains freezing cold, but a lot of native tribes, first peoples, as they call them up here. And so they send the Northwest Mounted Police, which later became the Mounties, to establish a fork in Calgary called for Calgary very uniquely. And that's what happens in 1975. The idea, sorry, 1875, in the hope is that by doing that, they will be able to stamp out the whiskey trade to bring some lawn order to the area and prepare the wafer settlements of the land. And that works, but it starts there. So the Dean House is built on for Calgary land, but it isn't built until 1906. But in 1875, the guy that they send out here to create this fort is a guy named Griswold. And let me just make sure I'm getting the full name here for him. So this Griswold has sent out here to create this incredible fork. But the problem is it's really cold. It's really cold out here. And the guys who are set tasked with building it have to work their tails off. And every Griswold is a taskmaster. He puts them to work on a very tight schedule, but it's so cold that, you know, as an example for you guys, because Madison, Wisconsin, is that cold? That's pretty cold, isn't it? Yeah, I grew up in Wisconsin about an hour from there. It's cold. It's not Canada cold, but it's cold. It's, you know, we're pretty harsh winters. So I did a quick check. And as an example, we're about four degrees colder on average throughout the year in Calgary versus Madison and 40% more of us know. So it's just cold. And you know, poor white Europeans weren't prepared for this. So they end up having to work about an hour at a time with two hours off in the warmth to try to try to survive building this place because F.R.M. Griswold, the commander of the police at the time in the area, was just a taskmaster. And they get quite tired of it. So they eventually form a very, you know, Canadian mutiny, which is they start asking him to leave nicely. And he eventually, he eventually does force to retire. But in the process of that, the fort is completed and not just that the Canadian sign 11 treaties with the native peoples in the area and all around Canada, from 1871 to 1921 to allow them to do to own this land and so on. But so the fort is settled. Relations are quite good at the time with the natives. There are some skirmishes. There is a raid on the fort at one point by the Blackfoot tribes that kills people and you know, that will come up in the haunted history later on of the, of the, of the, the, the city, the house. But in general, it's actually a lot of reports of the first, the native people helping the Europeans get through the winters. So, you know, all in all, pretty Canadian, pretty, pretty kosher up here. But there are at this point as well. It is a fort. And the fort is a place where there is executions, executions are held. So the first murder happens in Calgary in 1884 and it's actually of an American, or by an American, American man named Jess Williams in February 8th of 1884. He was a man who was born to slaves, but by 1884, obviously he's not a slave anymore, he's, he's come up to Canada looking for some freedom in life. And it's a bit, a bit dodgy about what happens to him, but at that point of one night, three men walk into a store in Calgary and find a guy named James Adams dead on the floor from blunt trauma to his head. And he's had his throat cut by a razor blade. They panic. They call the police. The police come in. They kind of look around and they follow footprints because it's a snowy day in February. And the footprints lead to this, this X slave, Jess Williams tent, a settler's tent. So he was up there looking up here, looking for work or what have you. It's kind of murky. It looks like a lot of racism does play into it, but he is eventually convicted of the crime and he is hung at Fort Calgary for this crime. And from what I can tell in the history, three different times, there's three different executions that happen on the premises of the fort where the deanhouse is about to be built. Another one is a guy named Ernest Cashel who shoots a man named Isaac Rufus and in 1904 and he is hung and then William Jasper Collins beats, shoots and burns another man named John Benson on May 1, 1913 and is executed the following year. So it's a fort. So the fort is used for executions. It is the jail. It is a colonial type fort. So there is some, just the natural hostility and violence and such that occurs in it in those early years. So that takes us to the turn of the century around 1900 and this is where we get the deanhouse itself. Up until that point on the premises of the fort, there is the house that the commander of the forces lived. But by 1906, when dean comes, his name is Richard Burton Dean, he arrives to take over the command of the northwestern mountain police at Fort Calgary. But by that time, the house that was originally built on the property was deemed to be uninhabitable, probably because 30 years of living in this climate and so on. So he has given $5,000. to build a new house. And that's what happened. So in August of 1906, they start building this house and Richard Burton Dean, by all accounts, is a good guy. Good man, nothing too harsh, sorry, no harsh history about him. His wife is ill when he starts building the house and she dies before they take up residence. But the house is actually done by the end of the year in December of 1906. And it is built a bit over budget, but everybody seems to be content with that. All the histories seems to suggest that it was a great house, not just livable, but actually was made to be able to host dignitaries and such. So it's quite nice, Richard Dean himself and his memoirs would later say that it was, and I quote, "certainly the best house in mounted police occupancy to that date." So it's quite nice. And it's great reading these old historical documents as it tells you that the house was completed by, it was being built by prisoners, so that can kind of help into the lore, but also local tradesmen. And the architect and the foreman who built it survives in documentation, officially only as Carpenter Joseph, no last name, or anything. But it's built, it's built slightly over budget because there was a strike that caused them to renegotiate wages for some of the workers. And so the house gets built in December and he moves right in. And it was, so let me describe the house. It's basically just a square. It's a square red brick home. It's got what they call a hip roof. And hip roofs are basically pointed roofs. It's a square building. So it looks like a pyramid stuck on the top of a house. And it's got large verandas around it. And at one point, they actually hosted a Japanese Prince Fushimi in 1907 there. And they used the verandas to have a band playing on it with silk drapes blowing in the wind. And it apparently is quite beautiful in its day. It still is, actually, it's still quite great to walk around in. But it's a great, big beautiful house. And nothing at this point has, you know, up until 1910 or so, there's really nothing too dark in the history of the Dean House. I think you mentioned earlier and it's, it's not until later in the 70s that you start getting reports of any sort of paranormal activity. But up until then, there is lots of stuff that happens between Richard Burton, Richard Burton Dean, him taking up residence through to when you see the big turn, which is a murder that happens in the 70s, which is very well documented. But any questions up until this point? Now, keep going. I'm very curious as to hear what happens as the murder takes place. - Yeah, so it's, and yeah, you said you wanted stories. I'm gonna keep, let's keep going with the story. So Dean lives there for quite happily by all accounts for a while. But by 1914, things change. Obviously the war, the first world war, but for the Dean House and for Calgary specifically, the Grand Trump Rail Pacific Railway, so big railway comes in and buys the land that the Ford is on. And even to this day, there's railway tracks that run through the city just across the street from the Dean House and the Ford. So they buy up the land and they move the Dean House to a different part of the land to allow the station master to live in. And the Deans are forced to leave. So he, and he still commands for a while the forces, but he lives in the town itself in Calgary, which has now built up around it. And today, by the way, Calgary is about 1.5 million people, so it's not a small city by any stretch, but it was slowly starting to build up. And he lives in the town in April 1st of 1914. And the railway, the Grand Trump Railway, if you know anything of the history of the Grand Trump, does well for a short time, but by 1919, so five years later, has to declare bankruptcy. And then the land is then bought by the Canadian National Railway, CNR, and the Dean House is purchased along with it, and continues to be the home for the station managers. And it's at this point in 1920 that the first story comes up of anything sinister happening at the Dean House. And what you're going to see up until about 1971, there's, well, there are some murders and things that happened beforehand that are in deaths that are documented. But a lot of it, like a lot of these homes, a lot of lore really builds up around them. And what we find in 1920 is the story rises that a man was visiting and staying at the Dean House. And he fell down the stairs. And if you ever happen to go to the stairs are pretty solid. I don't even know what kind of wood, probably oak. And it is rock hard. So I can imagine, you fall down those stairs, it's going to hurt. And he dies. But the sinister part is people start whispering that he was pushed down, because apparently, witness is it's seen it. And it wasn't like he just tripped. It looks like he was shoved down. But that's kind of all you hear about that story. So it's difficult to corroborate, because there's no documentation of it. There's no evidence of it happening. But what there is evidence of happening-- and this is where history can be interesting-- is a guy named Frank Spencer, who didn't live at the Dean House, but was on the property. He apparently died similarly in the area of the Dean House by falling down as a drive-leave-use drunk. And he fell down and died falling down some stairs. So it almost looks like this story may have been co-opted. And brought into the lore of the Dean House, even though it happened just outside it. But nonetheless, that's the first story you hear of anything sinister happening. And the place is owned until 1929 by the Railway. And then it is sold or purchased, actually, by a guy named CL Jacques, good French name. And he has plans to turn it into a boarding house, because it's a big house. It's got lots of rooms, and he figures he's going to convert it into numerous apartments that he can rent out. So Jacques then contracts a firm by Charles Riddick, and owned by Charles Riddick, to move the Dean House. So again, if you were to see it from the sky, Fort Calgary is kind of-- there's an L of the bow river and an L of the elbow river, like an offshoot of it. And it sits in this little corner of it. So what Jacques wants to do is he wants to move the Dean House over the elbow river, so just on the other side of the shore, so only probably 100, 200 meters away, but it's over a river. So he contracts his firm to do it, and they set up quite an elaborate system of criss-cross logs across the river, and they drag it over by tractor on skids. And such a feat was it that it was actually featured in the July 1930 issue of popular mechanics. Now featured might be exaggerating. I've said I've read it. It's about a short blurb. It's not much bigger than a Charlie Brown comic strip, but it's mentioned because it was quite a feat for 1930 and '29. So it's moved over to its present location where it is now on a cement foundation. And that's where it sits at the moment, just across the river from the Fort. Now, once it's over the river, Jacques has his vision come to fruition where he makes it into a boarding house with apartments, and he calls it the Jasper Lodge. And it gets and it's opened. And it runs as a boarding house from 1929 until 1973. Now, in these early years of the Jasper House, you see a second strange incident pop up. And most sources say that it's in 1933. And again, this is one of these strange stories that doesn't have a lot of corroboration, but not just lingers into the present lore, but is probably the most prominent story told because you'll hear what happens. So the story goes like this. There's this young boy who lives in the Jasper Lodge, but he's an epileptic. And as a result, he kind of mocked and he's awkward socially. So he's mocked and ridiculed by his classmates, becomes quite depressed, and eventually kills himself in the house. And reports about how he kills himself, there's two different stories here. The one that feeds into the lore better is that he kills himself in a closet in the attic. And you'll see why in a minute that feeds into the lore. And that's possible. But if he was to hang himself, which is how they say he did it, it looks far more likely that the second story is true, that he did it in the-- from the staircase on the top stairs. He kind of tied himself to the banister and jumped off, which seems more likely. But the reason that this-- the attic one has stuck is because there is a stain in the attic closet floor. And apparently it's blood, so they say. And the dean houses it even to this day doesn't let people really wander around the attic, though some paranormal groups have gone in and tried to capture pictures of this stain. But apparently, they claim the stain is-- they have trouble getting it on camera because camera's malfunction. But the statement from the staff, even to this day, is you just can't get the stain out. The people have stopped trying. Because when you try to take it out, it'll go away. But it'll come back in a different shape. So it's an interesting story. But that's the second story that happens, probably around 1933, in the dean house at that time. Now, we can talk later about it. But it really feeds much more. There's some folks who go as far as to say, this is actually-- This attic is a portal to vortex that kind of is keeping people in the house and in the area because we don't have time on this show. But the area of the Dean House, there's other historic homes in and around it that have similar stories. And everyone seems as though, according to the folks who are in the know of this, that the activity seems to be spreading from the Dean House outward. So there's a lot of concern and question about, is this addict the cause of the problem? But that's 1933. So it continues to operate as a lodge until 1945 under this guy's ownership, CL Jacques, when he eventually sells it to a guy named Alphonse Goin and to his wife, Rose Brotherton. And he renames it, the gas bay lodge. Gas Bay is an area in Quebec in Canada here. So they're from Quebec and they decide to name it that. And they take, they undertake some renovations of the house. They keep it as a boarding house, but they renovate the home specifically. They tear down wide verandas that are around it. And shortly after they move in, Rose, the wife dies under seemingly normal circumstances, nothing suspicious. But Alphonse does continue to operate it for a while. But he reportedly, he was quite vocal about, it's funny, he's very vocal about feeling very uncomfortable in the house after she died, saying he felt an evil presence. That's a quote. He wouldn't go into details to what that meant. So he eventually sold it because he didn't, he didn't like the feeling in that was in the house. So in 1949, he sells it to Rose's, his wife's brother, Alex, brotherton. And he would end up owning it until his own death in the house in 1966. And again, it continues to operate as a boarding house. And it's in 1952 where another story happens. And this one is, again, not very well verified or anything, but really creepy and is interesting. So the story goes that is one of the young woman living in the house. And she is distraught over an unattainable love interest. And in her anguish, she climbs up the stairs, makes her way into a west facing window, which faces the river. And after staring out for a brief moment, she jumps through her death onto the rocky banks of the Elbow River below. And people, this is, I mean, even just walking by it, I've never been walking by with my daughter and she doesn't know anything of the history of it, but I do tell her a little bit. And you look up at the window and you can just imagine a face peering out at you. And that's what people claim they still see, including staff. Staff will claim they see it when they're outside. They'll claim they see a woman up there when they're working and having to get things out of the upstairs. So a bit creepy. And hats there as a story again, not super well verified, but it's become part of the lore as well of all this. So a lot of the themes seems to trace back to as far as what the lore is, is to that murder suicide in 1971, correct? Correct. Yeah. So we'll jump there. So the house again stays in ownership until by this guy Alex until 66. And he ends up dying there in the house as well in the front room, which is now the bar. And that's relevant because he tends to show up later according to the workers. And he was a big cigar and pipe smoker and that'll come in relevant to. But it's, but only two years before the Dean House is bought by the city of Calgary in 1973, there is this big incident. And this, this is the very well documented. I've read the newspaper reports. I went to the Calgary Police Department and found the reports about it as well. So what happens is this. March 25, 1971. It's a cold, typically cold day March. It was minus 11 degrees Celsius. I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit, but cold. And the sun goes down late because it were so far north up here, the sun in the spring and summer and the summer doesn't go. It's dark and it's not dark until about 11 o'clock at night. So about seven o'clock the sun goes down, snow is falling. And in the house, one of the rooms is occupied by a family, a small family called the Umberville. And this is Roderick and Irma Umberville. Irma is 40 years old. Roderick is 37 and they have two young daughters. And it was not a happy marriage from all accounts. Roderick and Irma would often argue sometimes their arguments would get quite violent with Irma taking the brunt of the violence. Roderick was a bitter paranoid, angry kind of a man. Seems to have been quite unhappy with his life. And this one night they put the kids to bed and they start arguing. Now we don't know what they argued about, but we do know it turned physical. And at some point in the argument, Roderick strikes Irma and she scrambles to get away from him, but she's easily caught by her wild and angry husband and their apartment seems to have been the basement of the dean house and the lower level. So she scrambles, he gets on top of her and he starts to choke her. And we don't know if she proved too strong or if he got tired of the fight, but he eventually stopped choking her, grabbed the knife and stabbed her repeatedly. So he kills her and then he commits suicide. And it's blurry here, but it seems he took the knife to himself. It was a messy suicide and he kills himself and the two daughters and it's quite shocking here that nobody hears anything. This is a house that is, you know, it's a good size house. It's an old house, so it's not cheaply made. So there is some soundproofing, I guess that goes in. But the fact that nobody hears the overturning furniture or scream or a struggle, including the two daughters who sleep through it apparently. And they're the ones who discovered the body at 1030 the next morning. So terrible situation there. And this seems to be the catalyst. Most people would say that this is where the paranormal activity starts in earnest. Because up until this point, although there's been some sinister things happening or questionable things, really it's only the one guy who had said he felt a little uneasy, an evil presence. He's the only one who has spoken about it that I can tell. It's now though at this point that we start to see people hearing, seeing things, experiencing things a lot in the house. So after this murder, suicide happens, take us into how other people get into this house. I mean, what's going on is that the soul does it become a residence again? What occurs after the murder, suicide happens that it's very well documented that then other people begin to start experiencing things. Yeah. So what happens very shortly after is the house is purchased by the city of Calgary. And it becomes in 1975 an art gallery and a workshop for artists, local artists called the Damby Lion Workshop. So it, and in 1978 is referred to as the Clareta Registered Historic Site as well because of its past and the part of plays in the history of settling Western Canada. But it serves as a space for local artists to come, to create, to collaborate, to show their art and so on. And it does that for quite a while, right up until into the 90s. But here's where you start to see people seeing, hearing things. So you hear of the artists and the people that are visiting, starting, for instance, the smell, smoke, tobacco smoke pipe and that sort of thing, which is odd since it's a non-smoking place. So they start smelling that, which again was Alex Brotherton. He's the, he died in the, in the front room, which is now the bar. And he would sit out there and look at the window and kind of smoke his pipe. It was his, his place to be. So people start smelling things, which is a little strange. Then it gets even more bizarre. They start hearing things. There's a lot of laughter reported. The blood stain in the attic starts to be an issue. People start seeing this, the jumper in the window. More fascinating. At one point they host a, and actually I've got a story about John Qsac who visits it as well. I'll get there in a minute. Okay. And so there's, they host a murder mystery night there in the 90s as well. And during the time of the, these parties when they kind of let all the guests go and search for clues around the house, a woman goes into the basement and is just looking around. Not in any way scared. Because at this point, the house isn't super well known for being haunted, though it's getting there. And she apparently sees a guy, a native American. And he's haulers at her. And this is some of the people who have claimed to have seen repeatedly haulers at her to get out, get off, get off his land, get off his sacred land. So she, of course, is terrified. And around the same time during the same murder mysteries run of the show. Her woman went on a break to the washroom and the faucets all turned on in the washroom by itself. And she got locked in. So she had the pound on the door until somebody came and she was quite terrified. And I think, I think she wrote that review on like TripAdvisor or something. But so this, these things start to pop up. And it gets the point where people are a little concerned because rocking chairs are moving by themselves. They're hitting footsteps. So they bring in a local television station, CFN, let me make sure I get a CFN's CFCN, which I don't think it even exists anymore. But in 1991, they bring in a local psychic, a woman named Norma Cowie, who I reached out to and I didn't get to chat with her that much. But She goes in and on camera her job is to kind of go in and identify what's there and do what she can to exercise these spirits and Nothing comes of it because she's unable to I mean the activity continues according to those who who who are there But she she claims that she that there are two spirits in the area One is on the front porch and hangs around the front porch She figures this is the she thinks this man was gunned down on the porch at some point in the history of the house and then another one is Of us a spirit that she assumes is Alex brotherton because this guy is Refusing to leave the front porch the front area where the bar was where he used to like look out the window So it's quite sensational that begins in the 90s really the the point at which it becomes known as being a haunted place And here's the story about the the celebrities so in 1998 a movie I don't know how well you I mean I didn't even know this movie so I read the report, but it's called Jack Bull and it's a Western Actually, it's rated 6.9 out of 10 on IMDB, which is a little surprising and it's got John Q Second and it is filmed here in Calgary because we have a little historical place called Heritage Park that is you know Old tiny and a lot of movie crews will come and film Westerns and things there So they filmed this movie there and one of the the stars of it is a guy named Drake Bell and He hears about the Dean House so he So he comes to the Dean House even though at this point The the artists stop using it and the city is kind of letting it sit vacant because they don't know what to do with it But they can't tear it down So there's a caretaker who oversees it to make sure that you know pipes aren't freezing and all that kind of thing But it's vacant so Drake Bell contacts them and he wants to go see it So the first night he goes by but nobody's there. So he just brings a camera with him and he claims that he has on camera as he walked up to the Dean House up in the top the top floor a window opens and The the current the drapes of the curtains push out as if somebody is kind of leaning out the window and they state Pointing outward for a good long time before they fall back and he takes off because he's terrified He claims he's got this on video this is actor But then the interesting part is he'd start he goes back to the sets and he tells John Q sack about it And and if John's listening then he can verify or not, but this is all the evidence I've seen So John and him decide they want to check it out because now they're their curiosity is peaked So they reach out to the guy who is the landlord of the Dean House and the guy says yeah, I'll show you around So he meet they meet outside the house and the man the landlord is brought his little dog with him But when it comes to going in the dog will just refuse he just won't go in the house So he says you guys go ahead and I'll wait out here if you need anything just holler So it's dark obviously the house is vacant so there's no electricity running through the house or plumbing And so they're walking through their flashlights and It seems they go straight upstairs To to because Drake Bell this first actor wants to see the room that he thinks he saw somebody leaning out of So he goes up there and he says he says you know right away. He felt uneasy about it and was quite quite afraid And his he claims all of a sudden the lights in the room and including gas lamps light up And illuminate the whole room which is strange since there is no electricity in house And then Bell says that he saw an old woman in quote old-fashioned clothing what I'm not sure what that means But old-fashioned clothing And he's obviously terrified so he runs out of the room screaming let's go Let's go and he and John Qsac run from the place to meet the caretaker who was waiting for a motorcycle who was apparently not surprised that they saw something Um, so that's the John Qsac story Which is strange that wraps up part one of our interview with Carl Santos about the haunted Dean house in part two of our interview will ask Carl what kind of evidence have paranormal investigators found who have investigated the Dean house What was Carl expecting to find when he began researching this historic home Was he surprised by anything when he began to dig into the ghosts of the Dean house Is a Dean house haunted by residual energy or more conscious energy to this day Was Carl surprised by any of the facts that he found About the Dean house versus the lore that surrounds the property as he did his research All that and more in part two of our interview until next time for the grave talks of Tony Bruceke. Thanks for listening