Ryde Hotel and the Ghost of Bok Bok Man

Ryde Hotel and the Ghost of Bok Bok Man
By Paul Dale Roberts, HPI General Manager aka The Demon Warrior

To see pictures of this preliminary scouting mission, go to:
https://s643.photobucket.com/albums/uu157/PaulDaleRoberts_2009/Alese/

Date: August 7, 2009, Friday. Location: Locke: Today I have a preliminary scouting mission on Furlough Friday. This means that the investigators attending this preliminary are the first ones in, nothing is planned and we don’t know what we might discover. 10am and paranormal investigative scouts Judy Hu and Christopher Hu show up at my home and we take off in my vehicle The Ghost Tracker to the town of Locke. I meet up with paranormal investigators: Shirley Hasselbrink – Psychic; Rick Shackley, Helen Henkel and Takota – a rottie/yellow lab mixed dog in the town of Locke. While in Locke we stop at the Chinese Cultural Shop www.locketown.com.

A quick history of Locke is that it was established in 1915. Locke was exclusively built by the Chinese. Some of the key sites of Locke are Locke Boarding House Visitor’s Center, Locke Chinese School, Locke Memorial Park and Monument, Star Restaurant, Dai Loy Museum, Lockeport Hotel, Locke Garden Restaurant, Connie’s
Toilet Garden and Locke Community Garden. I established interviews with Richard Wall – co-owner of Al’s Place, Chris Spencer – a regular of Al’s Place. Chris tells me how on one night he heard a bunch of click clicks. He believes he heard the ghostly presence of the Bok Bok Man. The Bok Bok Man’s purpose in real life, before becoming a ghost was to walk around with a mahogany box and hit it lightly with a stick, to alarm the people of the town on what the time was. He was also a walking fire alarm. Late at night, you can still hear the click clicks of The Bok Bok Man. Martha Esch – Artist of the Tourist Trap has assisted ‘paranormals’ as she calls them. Paranormals are people who study the paranormal. Martha gave me a tour of the Star Theater. Inside the Star Theater a strange orange liquid will form for no apparent cause. One night at the front entrance a chair appeared in the green doorway. The chair has always been on the streets. The green door is always closed, but not on this night. No one in town can figure out how the chair got up there and everyone denies placing the chair in the open green door entry way. Martha tells me that she draws motorcycles and I must admit her artwork is spectacular. After I finish looking at her drawings, she tells me that every day she picks up rusty nails. The very next day, the rusty nails are back on the ground. Some people think the Rusty Nail Ghost places the nails on the ground, so they can be picked up the next day. If you kiss the leaning building known as the Star Hotel, you will have good luck. Yep, you guessed it; I kissed the building, just like I kissed the Blarney Stone in Ireland! I met an old Chinese woman who made claim that she saw many ghosts one night walking around the town of Locke. This old Chinese lady liked us so much; she gave us some delicious pears to take home.

Location: Walnut Grove. While at Walnut Grove, we stop at Al’s Place – Al the Wop – owners Richard Wall and Kristina Giannetti-Mabalot. Walnut Grove is the home of the Chinese Free Masons. We meet Richard Fonbuena and he gives us a lead. He tells us that Ryde Hotel, a few miles down the road is very haunted! We head over to the Ryde Hotel.

Location: Ryde Hotel in the town of Ryde. Interviewed Daniel Villanueva - Handyman. Ryde Hotel was once a speakeasy, casino and had a bordello. Lon Chaney Jr.’s family once owned the Ryde Hotel. Celebrities like Judy Garland, Al Jolsen, President Herbert Hoover, President Reagan, Clark Gable, Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe, Rolling Stones (when they played Altamont), Doors, Eagles, Eddy Money have stayed in this hotel. In fact Ryde Hotel is the inspiration for the song Hotel California. Richard tells me that once a male ghost peeked out a window and moved the drapes. Richard tells me that a long time ago, a man was waiting for the barber to cut his hair; his lover’s husband snuck up behind him and slit his throat. His throat was so deeply cut, that his head fell off. I learn that President Obama is considering staying at this hotel, if he comes to Sacramento. Chef David Nielsen tells me that this hotel was built in 1927 and gives me bullet points on the activity of this hotel. Here they are in a nutshell:

1. Glasses on shelves will shift around or move around.
2. Guests have heard ghostly laughter and partying. Perhaps residual haunting activity?
3. He has seen door knobs rattle on their own.
4. He saw a man looking out one of the hotel windows, moving the blinds, when he went up there to investigate, the room was extremely cold.
5. A male ghost looks over a sleeping female employee and when the female employee awakens the male ghost sits on her lap.
6. At this hotel, a maid hung herself.
7. Martin Stanley – painter committed suicide at this hotel.
8. A waitress ghost runs through the body of Chef David Nielsen and he feels a shivery vibration when this incident occurred.
9. David gives us a tour of the former bordello and shows us the secret underground tunnel that goes from former speakeasy to bordello.
10. David opens up active paranormal rooms 312, 212, 216 and 216A.
11. We investigate the ballroom, dance floor and find odd orb activity in our photographs.

Quick and dirty history of the Ryde Hotel. Ryde Hotel was built in the peak of the Prohibition Era. It was an opulent establishment complete with beauty salon and barbershop. It served as a riverboat way station. It was also rumored to be a bordello. The lower level was a speakeasy, offering bootleg and jazz to clientele looking for a good time. There was a trap door (which we got to see) that has a tunnel running under the road to a hidden doorway at the river’s edge. Mobsters, Presidents, movie stars and politicians found the Ryde Hotel to be a perfect getaway. Rumor has it that Al Capone and even Pretty Boy Floyd once visited this gorgeous hotel.

If you ever head over to the town of Ryde, you must stop at the Ryde Hotel and check out there Sunday Champagne Buffet Brunch. Feast on eggs benedict, buttermilk biscuits, chilled prawns with cocktail sauce and a zillion other selections! The Ryde Hotel and the town of Locke still has the gusto to attract tourists, I even discovered that TV Producer Zig of Cartoon Network’s The Othersiders has scouted this area out for a possible filming shoot. Shannon ‘Ms. Macabre’ McCabe and I know Zig quite well. I must admit he has good taste and should film at the location of these two historic areas. To learn more about the Ryde Hotel, stop off at www.rydehotel.com

We conducted an investigation in Locke, Walnut Grove and Ryde Hotel. We got some unusual orb activity in our photographs at the Ryde Hotel. I definitely want to go back!

Sources for this article: Chef David Nielsen – rydehotel@hotmail.com ; chefdavid@mail.com ; Martha Esch – Artist www.marthaesch.blogspot.com ; artworksinprogress.com; Email: aeroplane88@hotmail.com

Paul Dale Roberts, HPI General Manager, Paranormal Investigator & Ghostwriter
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