Tag Archives: celebrity hauntings

269 – The Haunting of David Oman: Sharon Tate and The House At The End of Cielo Drive

When David Oman woke up in 1999 to his Los Angeles real estate developer father finding a lot in the newspaper for $40,000, he thought it was a typo. Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, on the edge of Beverly Hills. It was the former address of Hollywood royalty like like Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, and Candice Bergen. But it also was the same street where Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski lived in 1969 and the site of the most infamous of the Manson Family murders. But that house was torn down after Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails famously recorded The Downward Spiral there and called his studio Le Pig, a kind of disgusting homage to Sharon Tate’s blood being used to scrawl the words “Pig” on the front door. He later regretted treating the murders with that kind of levity. But still, there’s no way a lot in that neighborhood would go for that kind of money.

However, it wasn’t a typo, it was a zoning issue. The city had zoned the street incorrectly and that meant that the owners of the lot weren’t able to develop it. They started building a house into the side of the hill and had to quit after laying the foundation. Oman’s father realized the mistake, so they bought the lot and petitioned the city to rezone the street. It worked and they were cleared to develop the house. Originally David Oman’s father wanted to sell the place, but David knew that it was his dream home.

David Oman with Lance Henriksen

Not long after moving in, Oman started having haunted experiences, including a full-bodied apparition of Jay Sebring, the famous Hollywood hairdresser who was murdered right down the street in th Sharon Tate home. He invited a ghosthunting team to investigate and they started to get strange readings, particularly their EMF and magnetic readings (we covered this earlier in our episode about the Manson Family as well, so you can get a little background there.)

Dr. Barry Taff of The Entity fame investigated and has seen some amazing things there, SyFy’s Ghost Hunters and of course, Zak Bagans and the Ghost Adventures team have been there as well.

Zak Bagans talking to Dr. Barry Taff about his experiences at the Oman House

Oman also had flashes of movie scenes come to him. Scenes that he believes were shown to him by the ghost of Sharon Tate. These would eventually culminate in the film, House at The End of the Drive, produced in 2015.

In October of 2019, David Oman released a book, The Ghosts of Cielo Drive where he talks about his experiences and we talked to him extensively about the book and the paranormal encounters including:

  • Oman’s encounter with Lindsay Lohan when she showed up wanting “to see a ghost”
  • Why David Oman isn’t scared of the paranormal phenomena in his home
  • Why he feels the place called to him to build there and reveal its secrets
  • More of the electromagnetic anomalies people have experienced

For the song this week, we were inspired by the cult of celebrity around Sharon Tate, Charles Manson, and true crime. We just can’t get enough of real life drama with these entertainers we’ve elevated to princes and princesses. But fame has its price and sometimes it’s a “Pound of Flesh”.

A map to the stars
and a map to graveyards
I want to know where the bodies are buried
Where history comes alive
like on Cielo Drive
I want to be as seen on TV

Lifestyles of the rich and famous
this appetite is heinous
hey now they’re just like us
when they’re all blood and guts

Another piece of me
another piece of meat
another pound of Flesh
for the paparazzi
You know the bourgeoisie
love their crime scenes bloody
And we’ll dance on the graves
of dead celebrities

10 – Celebrity Hauntings: Ghosts of Rock Stars

We’re talking ghost stories! Specifically, stories about rock star ghosts and celebrity hauntings.

Ghosts aren’t often reported of people who died peacefully. Many rock stars’ lives have ended tragically and suddenly, in the type of untimely ending often resulting in restless souls with unfinished business. Many witnesses purport to have seen those souls in the form of ghosts, and when those ghosts are famous people, it makes for interesting ghost stories.

The first celebrity ghost we discuss is the infamous Elvis Presley. Although many people believe that Elvis faked his own death, many also claim to have seen his ghost and/or communicated with his spirit in places as obvious as Graceland and as odd as Burger King.

Next, we talk about a dead celebrity, Mama Cass, who visits a living celebrity, Dan Aykroyd! He lives in her former dwelling, which he believes her spirit continues to inhabit. Did Cass’s ghostly visits to Aykroyd’s boudoir inspire a scene in Ghostbusters?

Many recording studios host ghosts: Jim Morrison haunts the Sunset Sound studios and his band mates’ dreams. The Cave, another recording studio and former speakeasy, is haunted by the ghost of Warren Zevon, singer of the song Werewolves of London. Axis Studios, a Wisconsin recording studio where Sunspot recorded parts of their “Cynical” album, has ghosts who get bored and leave if you don’t show fear. A mysterious heartbeat was once discovered on a recording made there.

Given the untimely/tragic nature of their deaths, it’s not surprising that many members of the 27 Club haunt us. Vibes of Kurt Cobain have been uncovered by a psychic in the wood of a park bench in Viretta Park in Seattle, Washington. Others have reported seeing/feeling his spirit there. A woman also claimed that Cobain haunted her laptop until she kissed it on his ghostly request, upon which it stopped working.

Whitney Houston is another, more recently departed, celebrity whose spirit visits her mother, Sissy Houston, by ringing her doorbell.

Pete Doherty (co-frontman of The Libertines), the close friend of Amy Winehouse (who passed away in 2011), is convinced that she haunts his flat. He has gone so far as to flee from the UK escape her ghost, which appears in the form of images and reflects in the night.

Musician Gram Parsons liked Joshua Tree National Park in California, where he and his friends would spend time UFO-sighting, so much that he wished to be cremated there after he died. He ended his own life with a drug overdose at the Joshua Tree Inn, where to this day his apparition appears in haunted Room 8. In a bold move of loyalty, against Parsons’ family’s wishes, his best friend Phil Kaufman stole his ashes from the airport and scattered them in the park he so adored.

Legendary John Lennon’s spirit has been witnessed near the Dakota Hotel where he was killed. When his surviving band mates released a new song for the Anthology, a white peacock wandered into one of the photos, which the bandmates believed was a sign from Lennon. They also claim that their deceased band member’s name can be clearly heard in a backwards section of the recording they made.

Finally, one of our favorite concert venues, First Avenue in Minneapolis, hosts several specters. One is a blond woman in a green jacket, who legend has it hanged herself in the bathroom, and who on occasion reportedly reveals herself hanging in the bathroom. The other one, named Slippy, makes a balloon appear that rises and falls in the staircase. In addition to these apparitions, staff claim that the sound and lighting equipment is susceptible to eery signals from beyond.

Links on Celebrity Hauntings

Bubba Ho-Tep – Movie in which Bruce Campbell portrays Elvis at an old folks’ home plagued by a mummy
Joe R. Landale – Author of Bubba Ho-Tep and other horror/supernatural stories
James “The Amazing” Randi – Writer for The Skeptical Inquirer and creator of the One Million Dollar Challenge
Grand Theft Parsons – Movie about the theft of Gram Parsons’ corpse
Haunted Rock & Roll: Ghostly Tales of Musical Legends by Matthew L. Swayne – Book about rock star ghosts and venue hauntings

Featured Song: Skeleton Key (The Secret Lives of Ghosts)

I was a ghost without a story,
A specter looking for a past.
Waiting and just watching,
All these lives pass by so fast.
I wrote a tale without a hero,
I wrote a song without a tune,
But all stories need an ending,
And I hope that ending is you.

So hear my prayer,
And let me know that you can see me there.
Exorcise,
Take my hand and let’s go towards the light,
For you’re the Skeleton Key to set my spirit free tonight.

I was a grave without a headstone,
Wandering the earth for rest,
Alone in a crowd,
as a soul that’s dispossessed.
I was a murder without a body,
I was a crime without a scene.
But this dunit needs a who,
And I hope you’ll take my plea.

So hear my prayer,
And let me know that you can see me there.
Exorcise,
Take my hand and let’s go towards the light,
For you’re the Skeleton Key to set my spirit free tonight.

I was a ghost without a story,
A specter looking for a past.
Waiting and just watching,
All these lives pass by so fast.
I wrote a tale without a hero,
I wrote a song without a tune,
But all stories need an ending,
And I hope that ending is you.

So hear my prayer,
And let me know that you can see me there.
Exorcise,
Take my hand and let’s go towards the light,
For you’re the Skeleton Key to set my spirit free tonight.

I was a ghost without a story,
A specter looking for a past.
Waiting and just watching,
All these lives pass by so fast.
I wrote a tale without a hero,
I wrote a song without a tune,
But all stories need an ending,
And I hope that ending is you.

So hear my prayer,
And let me know that you can see me there.
Exorcise,
Take my hand and let’s go towards the light,
For you’re the Skeleton Key to set my spirit free tonight.

I was a grave without a headstone,
Wandering the earth for rest,
Alone in a crowd,
as a soul that’s dispossessed.
I was a murder without a body,
I was a crime without a scene.
But this dunit needs a who,
And I hope you’ll take my plea.

So hear my prayer,
And let me know that you can see me there.
Exorcise,
Take my hand and let’s go towards the light,
For you’re the Skeleton Key to set my spirit free tonight.

I was a ghost without a story,
A specter looking for a past.
Waiting and just watching,
All these lives pass by so fast.
I wrote a tale without a hero,
I wrote a song without a tune,
But all stories need an ending,
And I hope that ending is you.

So hear my prayer,
And let me know that you can see me there.
Exorcise,
Take my hand and let’s go towards the light,
For you’re the Skeleton Key to set my spirit free tonight.