Six creepy Bay Area stories to start off Halloween weekend

As Halloween weekend kicks off, it’s a great time to appreciate the creepier qualities of the world around you. 

The Bay Area is no stranger to tales of the ghoulish variety. Millions of people from all walks of life have called the region home over the years, and many of them have left behind some eerie stories along the way. 

From a haunted Toys R Us store in Sunnyvale to a cursed apartment on San Francisco’s Lombard Street to a Santa Clara County mountain rife with tormented spirits who met their gruesome fates among its redwoods, here are some of the spookiest tales the region has to offer. 

Sunnyvale’s Toys R Us came with more than just toys

“The store was originally built in 1970 as part of Toys R Us’s expansion to California. Almost immediately, employees reported strange happenings. Toys would fly off shelves, people felt phantom touches, and faucets turned on and off by themselves. It became legendary among paranormal investigators in the late ’70s, when it played host to several seances by psychic Sylvia Browne. One of those seances was shown on the popular program ‘That’s Incredible,’ launching the store to international fame.” — Katie Dowd, read more

The curse of 1000 Lombard Street

“In the following months, a literal chill fell over the house. Pat Montandon and Mary Louise Ward took to wearing coats inside and set the thermostat to 90 throughout the day. They couldn’t escape an acrid odor that crept through the entire building, save the bedroom. Montandon’s beloved Lhasa apso pup, Dog, who had appeared on television with her, started acting strangely, waking at 2 a.m every night to bark incessantly. His nightly episodes grew worse and worse. Dog would whimper in desperation and gnaw at his own fur. Montandon says Dog was ‘terrorized’ by the aura of malevolence that fell over the house, and she was forced to give him away. Montandon was sent into an emotional and physical tailspin, each morning being woken to the sound of the song ‘Mockin’ Bird Hill’ and cackling from an unidentified source. 

“The women became convinced something or someone was in the 6,000-square-foot apartment with them at night. ‘I’ve never been a fearful person,’ Montandon wrote. ‘I’ve always been critical of people who are fearful.’ But during those months, she was scared. The duo installed triple locks on the door from the foyer into the house and bolted the French doors ‘even though there was a 15-foot drop.'” — Andrew Chamings, read more

The Church of Satan’s little-known San Francisco rally

“Signs plastered outside of the Strand Theater in San Francisco, a film house and alternative gathering space that’s now the American Conservatory Theater, branded the sold-out, tightly packed show as ‘A Bitter Message of Hopeless Grief,’  ‘A Nightmare of TERROR!’ and ‘An Evening of Apocalyptic Delight!’

“Little documentation of it exists online relative to the mass anxieties it stirred when the event took place. What we do know, definitively, from the event comes from a recording made available in corners of the internet, seemingly taken by a crew recording for a special hosted by then-talk show host Geraldo Rivera that would go on to be the most-viewed TV documentary in history up to that point.” — Joshua Bote, read more

What it’s like to camp at one of California’s most haunted parks

“In 1875, Henry Miller built a summer retreat on 13,000 acres of land he purchased that includes where the park is now. That’s where 8-year-old Sarah died after falling off her horse in 1879. Some legends say she broke her neck, others say that the horse fell on her and crushed her — but all versions of the tale agree that her ghost hasn’t left the mountain. 

“‘People say that her ghost appears up by the Miller area,’ said Scott Christopher, referring to a part of the park where ruins of the Miller’s summer estate sit beneath the redwoods. Sarah is said to show up there sometimes, either on horseback or standing in a frilly white dress. 

“‘A lot of eyewitness accounts have heard screams and cries for help. Many people have seen apparitions on the road,’ said Maryanne Porter, who has researched paranormal happenings in the Santa Cruz area for over a decade. ‘I’ve interviewed quite a few different people, including some rangers, and they all seem to say the same thing: that they hear a voice screaming for help, and they’ve seen a girl in white, or a woman in white.’

“But Porter, along with others who are familiar with the park, doesn’t think Sarah’s ghost is haunting the mountain alone.” — Sam Moore, read more

The story of the Bay Area’s most famous ghost

“She is the perfect ghost. She’s said to glide through rooms, gently sway chandeliers, murmur and laugh, and sometimes touch unsuspecting visitors. She is beautiful and wistful, forever gazing out to the Pacific Ocean in her glistening blue dress.

“The Blue Lady of the Moss Beach Distillery is perhaps Northern California’s single most famous ghost. She’s featured constantly in ‘most haunted’ lists and is an attraction unto herself at the restaurant 20 miles south of San Francisco. And although the lore around her might lead you to believe she’s been a fixture at the restaurant for 100 years, there’s little to prove she didn’t suddenly appear in the 1980s, fully formed and ready to haunt.

“To tell the story of the Blue Lady, you must first know the history of the restaurant, which begins with Frank Torres, a Peruvian immigrant with a penchant for trouble.” — Katie Dowd, read more

The creepiest cult film to come out of Watsonville

“Watsonville, just south of Santa Cruz, is known for its sprawling orchards, annual strawberry festival and tranquil beaches. But it’s increasingly becoming recognized as the fictional town of Crescent Cove, where a band of bloodthirsty aliens resembling circus clowns once staged their cotton candy-coated takeover. Today, ‘Killer Klowns From Outer Space’ is widely perceived as a low-budget masterpiece and cult phenomenon that changed the way people looked at clowns forever.

“The film follows two teenagers, Mike Tobacco (Grant Cramer) and Debbie Stone (Suzanne Snyder), who find a meteor soaring across the sky and follow it to discover that it’s a spaceship disguised as a circus tent. Once they narrowly escape the Klown inside, they race back to town to warn the police. One cop — Debbie’s ex-boyfriend — believes the couple and joins them to investigate, while the chief of police (played by John Vernon from ‘Dirty Harry’) rebuffs them, assuming it’s their idea of a twisted prank. Think ‘The Blob,’ with a carnival twist.” — Amanda Bartlett, read more