A & E Television, the producers of “Paranormal State”, now features an online map displaying haunted locations across the United States.

The page directs viewers to “Click the symbols on the map to explore paranormal experiences, stories and phenomena from across the United States.”

Yesterday I was at Borders at Oakridge Mall, in San Jose, and under the “local interest” section found a book written in 2008 by David Lee on local haunts in Santa Clara County.  I recall being phoned a year or two ago by someone putting together a book along these lines and wish I could remember if it was the same person - I suspect so but am not positive.

“Haunts of San Jose” is a paperback book and runs just about $15.  Although it’s titled,”Haunts of San Jose”, the area covered is more extensive than that, including places in Los Gatos, Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Felton and others.

This is the first book I’ve seen that’s focused on ghost stories in the San Jose area in particular. One of the best things about the book is the collection of photographs - clearly this author spent some time visiting sites personally and not just going off of hearsay. It is well organized too, by either geographical area or topic (as in “haunted schools”).  At under 200 pages, the book is a very manageable length, too.

While “Haunts of San Jose” has good breadth, it does not have a lot of depth and the writing itself is poorly done (stylistically) - this is one book that should have had a co-author to make it a more enjoyable read.  Many stories are glossed over and some of the more interesting aspects of some places are not mentioned at all.  For example, Trials Pub in San Jose has a fascinating history (there’s a holding cell or two in the basement that used to be called into use when the jail was at overflow levels, and executions happened behind the building). 

Several haunted spots were not mentioned at all, such as Bella Saratoga, formerly the site of the Saratoga News, which is very well known locally as a haunted place. Another location said to be haunted is the Mountain Winery - no mention of this either.  At the same time, though, the book sleuthed out a few places that I did not know about - and I appreciated the new (to me) info. 

On the whole, Haunts of San Jose is a good, general overview of haunted places in and close to San Jose, and I would suggest that local ghosthunters get a copy and read it as it is a very good starting point for doing more exploration on your own.

Today I received a comment on my Live in Los Gatos blog regarding the Cats, Leo and Leona, which guard the entrance to Poet’s Canyon in Los Gatos. Is the area haunted? The writer, Kenny, heard rumors about it and is wondering if there’s more information about this available. Below are his comments. If you know anything, please leave your comment here!

Posted by: Kenny Date: Nov. 2, 2008 My English teacher told us a story about the “Stone Cats of Los Gatos”.  Back in college, he took folklore, and as part of that class, he, in a group of 5 other people, had to find a local story or legend and make a presentation.   Well, they heard the story of these stone cats of Los gatos.  They’re on either side of a gate off highway 17 just before the Los Gatos exit headed towards Santa Cruz.  They decided to take a trip up there one night to see the cats and head up the road beyond them.  The local legend had it that in the forest beyond the cats lived a troupe of albino cannibals.  So, these 6 idiot college kids found the gate, popped it open, and headed up the road beyond.  about a mile in, they start to see a shitload of red eyes in the forest around them.  Everybody starts freaking out.  Then suddenly, their truck dies.  So the three guys in the group (my teacher included) decide to head up the road (not back the way they came, remember: idiot college kids) to find a house to call for help.  Sure enough, they find a house.  My professor insists that he remembers this house vividly, and the other two guys say they saw exactly the same thing.  They get 50 feet away from the house, and it vanishes.  The three run back to the truck down the road, scaring the heck out of the girls in the truck.  They eventually get the truck started, and haul back down to the highway.  As they exit the gate, they look back at the stone cats.  The eyes of the cats are glowing red. Whats the scoop on stuff like this?

I thought this was really interesting and wanted to share it with all of you!