Ep. 92 - The DARK History of Griffith Park & The Queen’s 8 Assassins

Summary

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My Victorian Nightmare

Ep. 92 - The DARK History of Griffith Park & The Queen’s 8 Assassins

Host: Genevieve Manion
Date: April 27, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of My Victorian Nightmare uncovers two enthralling tales:

• The disturbing, supposedly cursed, and truly tragic history of Los Angeles' Griffith Park; and
• The unbelievable eight assassination attempts on Queen Victoria, each accompanied by wild characters, close calls, and even a little royal trolling.

Host Genevieve Manion blends morbid curiosity with research tenacity, debunking myths while drawing attention to haunting truths. Every grave tale is joined with dark wit, historical recall, and deep appreciation for Victorian weirdness.

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Main Topics & Key Insights

1. The Haunted and Cursed History of Griffith Park

[05:51–32:19]

Griffith Park Origins & The Legend of the Curse

• Griffith J. Griffith: Wealthy, eccentric, and violent. Donated the land in 1896, but notoriously shot and disfigured his wife, serving only two years (07:04).
  • “Only thing is, he shot his wife in the face in 1903 at the Arcadia Hotel… She lost an eye. He served only two years in prison for this.” (07:05, Genevieve)
• Legend of the Curse:
  • Land originally owned by Don Antonio Feliz, allegedly swindled from his niece (Petronia) by Antonio Coronel as Feliz died of smallpox (10:01–13:13).
  • Petronia curses Coronel and all involved:
    • “May God curse you and all of your descendants. First forever may he curse the judge and the lawyer who aided you in this monstrous injustice…” (12:07, Genevieve quoting Southland Magazine, 1950s)
  • Crop blight, animal death, fire, and storms follow.
  • Research doesn’t confirm much of the curse’s legend and Petronia may not have existed (15:02). But natural disasters and misfortune lend enduring mythos.

Griffith Park’s Notorious Tragedies

• Real Confirmed Horrors:
  • 1933 Wildfire: At least 29 (up to 100) men, mostly poor workers, die in a fire while clearing brush (17:07).
    • “‘Get down there and get down there quick if you want any more work.’ Men rushed down to try to stop the flames...at least 29 men died.” (17:11, Genevieve)
  • Hillside Strangler Murders (1970s): Several victims’ bodies found in or near the park—including Jane King and Yolanda Washington (18:10).
  • “Hollywood Severed Head” Case (2012): Decapitated head of Hervey Medellin found by dog walker; murderer was his roommate/boyfriend Gabriel Campos Martinez, caught after searching “how to butcher a human carcass for human consumption” online (19:23).
• Picnic Table 29 Urban Myth Debunked:
  • No truth to story of couple dying mid-tryst when squashed by a tree; originated as a Halloween hoax (21:14).
    • “It was made up. So luckily these folks did not lose their lives by a falling tree in 1976. No one died of a heart attack. No trees vibrated.” (21:39, Genevieve)
  • Nevertheless, that area remains a locus for paranormal discomfort—people report chills and anxieties still unexplained (22:05–23:14).

Phantom Sightings and Eerie Landmarks

• Ghosts Attributed to the Curse:
  • Don Antonio Feliz: Spectral sightings of him on horseback; Petronia (possibly apocryphal), described in floating white dress riding a white horse (15:34).
• Haunted Picnic Table, Sad Spirits:
  • Even though urban legend is false, visitors feel sudden sadness, chills, the sense of being watched, and other unexplained sensations (22:05–23:14).
• The Haunted Merry-go-round:
  • Carousel built in 1926, with some horses dating to 1887; claimed to attract the dead as well as kids (25:12–25:25).
  • Witness Account: Twice, Louis Alvarado (Sierra Club) claims to have seen a ghostly man descend the adjoining steps and vanish at the last step (25:25–25:39).
  • Real tragedy: In 2022, a woman’s burning body was found by the carousel, believed to be self-immolation (27:10).
• The Tragic Ghost of Peg Entwistle:
  • Actress who leapt from the Hollywood sign (“H”) in 1932 at just 24.
  • Her death became emblematic of Hollywood’s dark side.
  • Her spirit reputedly lingers, the scent of gardenias (her signature perfume) sometimes suffusing the air (30:13–32:19).
  • “This will break your heart, her note read: ‘I am afraid I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. – P.E.’” (29:36, Genevieve)

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2. Eight Wild Attempts on Queen Victoria’s Life

[32:19–43:39]

Quick Overview

• Eight separate, almost incredible assassination attempts from 1840–1882.
• Queen Victoria survives each with a mixture of poise, royal indifference, and sometimes active danger-baiting.

Attempt 1:

• Edward Oxford (June 10, 1840); shoots twice while Victoria is four months pregnant, both shots miss.
  • “She thought the shot came from someone hunting birds in the park. Pretty wild that there were no rules about shooting guns in recreational areas in those days... The guy shot again. But by now she realized I’m being shot at.” (33:34, Genevieve)
  • Victoria and Albert simply continue their carriage ride to show confidence. Oxford sent to an insane asylum, then banished to Australia (33:52–34:26).

Attempt 2:

• John Francis: Attempts to shoot Victoria outside St. James’s Palace; gun misfires. Queen sets herself up as bait the next day and he tries again—caught by police (35:02–36:25).
  • “She said the best way to find him would be for she and Albert to go out again the very next day… that way he’ll probably try to shoot me again and we’ll nab him.” (35:46, Genevieve)
  • Sentenced to be hanged and quartered, but Victoria commutes sentence to exile in Tasmania (36:31–36:44).

Attempt 3:

• John William Bean: Only 17, pulls out a pistol (loaded with tobacco, not gunpowder); fails to fire (36:44–38:06).
  • Arrested and sentenced to 18 months hard labor.

Attempt 4:

• William Hamilton (June 19, 1849): Fires at Victoria in Hyde Park. Motive: wants to be imprisoned to avoid unemployment (38:18–39:13).
  • Sentenced to seven years in Gibraltar prison, returns to England afterward.

Attempt 5:

• Robert Pate: Known lunatic, cracks Victoria on the head with a cane, giving her a black eye (39:13–40:16).
  • Serves seven years in Tasmania, also returns home after.

Attempt 6:

• Arthur O’Connell (1872): Climbs palace fence, tries to make Victoria sign a document freeing Irish political prisoners, pistol broken (40:24–41:11).
  • Tackled by John Brown (Queen’s servant); receives a year in prison, 20 strokes with a birch rod, and exile.
  • Fun side fact: Brown was also reputed to be a medium able to communicate with the dead Prince Albert (41:42).

Attempt 7:

• Roderick Maclean (1882): Shoots as Queen departs Windsor Station; tackled by Eton boys wielding umbrellas (42:10–42:48).
  • Found guilty by reason of insanity and committed to asylum.

Other Monarchs’ Close Calls (asides)

• Briefly recounts similar failed attacks on George III and Edward VIII (37:18–37:38), highlighting the seeming danger of riding in royal carriages.

Final Reflection:

• Despite proximity to death, Victoria lives to 81, dying of natural causes (42:54–43:39).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the curse of Griffith Park:
  “It’s funny. Not funny. None of this is funny. But I’ve developed a research skill where if I read something that sounds like simply lovely that happened in this era, I just need to dig one layer deeper and I’m going to find something horrifying.” (08:01, Genevieve)

• On Victorians’ relationship with death:
  “This was a time full of lace corsetry, romantic poetry, and a deep reverence and affection for the dead. It was a culture of shared sorrow, ornament and elegance, prudishness and scandal, bone chilling children’s stories, and for whatever reason, I just feel at home there.” (00:55, Genevieve)

• On Queen Victoria’s calm after a shooting:
  “We took a short drive through the park. Partly to give Victoria a little air, partly also to show the public that we had not, on account of what had happened, lost all confidence in them.” (34:02, Albert, quoted)

• On Peg Entwistle’s suicide note:
  “I am afraid I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E.” (29:36, Peg, quoted by Genevieve)

• On facing down paranormal rumors:
  “Let’s do some confirming and debunking. I did some serious digging to see if these cursed events were true…” (13:39, Genevieve)

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Timestamps for Major Sections

• Griffith J. Griffith’s dark legacy and donation: 06:45–07:47
• Petronia’s curse legend & debunking: 09:33–15:34
• Real tragedies: wildfires, murders, the Hillside Strangler: 17:05–18:27
• Hollywood Severed Head case: 18:27–19:55
• Picnic Table #29 legend & hauntings (debunked and real effects): 19:55–23:14
• Merry-go-round hauntings and real tragedies: 24:15–27:10
• Peg Entwistle’s story and ghost: 27:10–32:19
• Queen Victoria’s 8 attempted assassinations overview: 32:19–34:15
  • Edward Oxford: 33:09
  • John Francis (#2): 35:02
  • John William Bean: 36:44
  • William Hamilton: 38:18
  • Robert Pate: 39:13
  • Arthur O’Connell: 40:24
  • Roderick Maclean: 42:04

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Episode Tone & Takeaway

Genevieve delivers the content in her signature blend of gothic fascination and skeptical research, balancing Victorian tragedy with pointed debunking and empathy. The episode moves fluidly between dark humor (“train crawl, climb or squiggle,” 09:03), somber history (“I hope ghost sightings aren’t real,” 30:13), and spirited myth-busting.

If you're drawn to the elegant yet eerie, where lawn picnics brush against curses and where even royalty can’t escape the absurd unpredictability of fate, My Victorian Nightmare offers you both chills and perspective.

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For more...
Ad-free episodes, Victorian poetry, and dark true crime extras: myvictoriannightmare.com
Also: Send in your own spooky Victorian content requests via podcast comments!

Transcript

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[Genevieve Manion]

What they did to your family. You're lucky to make it out alive.

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Streaming on Peacock.

[Genevieve Manion]

These men are going to come after me. Taking them out. Oh, it's my only chance.

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Put a bullet in her head. From the co creator of Ozark. Looks like a family was running drugs execution style killing.

[Genevieve Manion]

It's rare for the keys.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Any leads on who they might have been running for?

[Genevieve Manion]

The cartel killed my family.

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I'm gonna kill them.

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All of them.

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[Genevieve Manion]

Hello and welcome to my Victorian Nightmare. I'm your host, Genevieve Manion, and I'm here to talk about mysterious deaths, morbid fascinations, disturbing stories and otherwise spooky events from the Victorian era. Because to me, there's just something especially

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

intriguing, creepy and oddly comforting about horror

[Genevieve Manion]

and mayhem from the 19th century. So listener discretion is advised. Hello friends, and welcome to this, my 92nd episode.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

And heavens, do I have a particularly

[Genevieve Manion]

creepy and thrilling episode for you today. Queen Victoria, a symbol of power, stability and the namesake of an entire era, did not just live in royal luxury. She lived in constant fear for her life. Life. Not once, not twice, but eight times. She narrowly avoided assassination. Backfiring pistols, weaponized canes and bullets that missed her head by mere inches. All could have changed history. But she lived to tell each thrilling tale. And by day, Griffith park in Los Angeles, California is a sun drenched oasis where families began picnic and runners trace the many dusty trails. But those sunny Hollywood hills have a haunting past marked with disaster, mystery and murder. As the park's chief ranger once said, he didn't believe in many of the ghost stories and cursed history of the park, but quote, if you knew even a quarter of the stuff we find within the park's perimeter, you would never set foot in it again.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

For you today, dear listener, I will

[Genevieve Manion]

be discussing the numerous failed assassination attempts made on Queen Victoria's life and the simply horrifying history of Griffith park in Los Angeles, California. But first, I need to say thank you to Katie, Brittany, Stein, Kelsey, Charlotte, Jessica, Troy and Nanette for joining the Patreon. It's easier now to see who has officially joined and who has joined the free trial, which you too can do by going to myvictoriannightmare.com so thank you. Everyone who has joined and everyone that joins between today and May 25th will receive a special gift in the mail from Toby, my little fluffy Pomeranian. He wants to send you a little token of his appreciation because those of you who join are responsible for making sure that he has all of his tasty treats and it could be any of the tiers as cheap as the $5 one. If you would like to listen to the show ad free, get it a day early. You would like to receive bloody Victorian true crime extras or witchy content? Again, just go to myvictorynightmare.com to support my work and receive a token of mine and Toby's appreciation until May 25.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

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[Genevieve Manion]

adding Biologica to my morning routine. Biologica is a beautifully packaged, drinkable daily supplement with all of the vitamins, minerals, probiotics, electrolytes and clinically researched botanicals that my perimenopausal body has been begging me for. That actually tastes lovely. I was afraid that it would taste like synthetic sugar, but it does not. It's lightly effervescent, I'd say, and simply delicious. And they have three different formulas to suit ladies in each Hormonal Life Stage. I am currently enjoying their midlife essentials, but they also offer primary essentials for women between 18 and 45 and postmenopausal essentials for women or over 50. I have been enjoying it for about a month now and I'm already seeing differences in my mood, energy and bloating,

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

which was a very unwelcome addition to my mid-40s.

[Genevieve Manion]

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[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

health, which I have been informed by my doctor is something I need to start doing. I haven't been particularly kind to my skeleton. It is high time that we make friends.

[Genevieve Manion]

Biologica comes in these perfect little pouches so you don't even have to measure anything out. It dissolves in water and I think of it as like a little morning treat for myself. So head to biologica.com Victorian to get started. Take their quick Hormonal Life Stage quiz to find the formula that's right for you. And right now, subscribers can receive up to 32% off their purchase. Again, make sure to go to Biologica.com Victorian and get up to 32% off your first subscription order today. Okay, let us now discuss the allegedly haunted, cursed and murderous history of Griffith park in Los Angeles, California.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Folks seemed to Enjoy my deep dive

[Genevieve Manion]

into the spookiness of Cheeseman park in

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Colorado the week before and I've definitely been in the mood to cover unsuspectingly spooky places, parks, subway stations, hot dog carts. If you know any unsuspectedly spooky Victorian

[Genevieve Manion]

adjacent persons places or things, let me know or just let me know of anything creepy and Victorian that you want me to talk about in the comments. I love all of this stuff. Griffith park, that spans a massive 4210 acres, was a very large ranch that belonged to Griffith J. Griffith. What a name. And on Christmas Day in 1896, he gifted the park to the state. He was a very wealthy Welsh immigrant with an even wealthier wife. He built a fortune on mining stocks and real estate using his wife's massive inheritance. And he made some very wise investments.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

So wise that he had so much property all over the place that he

[Genevieve Manion]

gifted this massive area to the state

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

of California, envisioning Griffith park as a

[Genevieve Manion]

sanctuary and as he put it, open space, rustic and available to all. He also said, give nature a chance to do her good work and nature will give every person a greater opportunity in health, strength and mental power indeed. Sounds lovely. Only thing is, he shot his wife in the face in 1903 at the Arcadia Hotel in Santa Monica, permanently disfiguring her. She lost an eye. He served only two years in prison for this. He was famously vain, volatile, clearly, and paranoid. He believed that his wife was conspiring

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

with the Pope to have him killed.

[Genevieve Manion]

During a drunken paranoid delusion, she escaped out the window with her life after being shot. His donation of the land was considered less a beautiful gesture than a way

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

of rehabilitating his image, and still is. She divorced him, by the way.

[Genevieve Manion]

She got full custody of their son, thank God, and a massive settlement.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

So that's good. The size of the park is four

[Genevieve Manion]

times the size of San Francisco's Golden

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Gate park and almost five times the size of Central park in New York. Okay, sorry.

[Genevieve Manion]

Ugh.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

It's funny. Not funny. None of this is funny. But I've developed a research skill where if I read something that sounds like simply lovely that happened in this era, I just need to dig one layer deeper and I'm going to find something horrifying. The source where I read that bit about the guy dedicating the park said only that he gave away the land

[Genevieve Manion]

of the state and isn't that nice?

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

But I was like a guy that rich in any time. But no doubt in that time was probably up to some horrible things. And there it was.

[Genevieve Manion]

Never fails. The park is the largest natural wilderness within city limits in the United States and hosts a dizzying array of native plants and wildlife is protected. It isn't just a nature preserve, though. It contains some of LA's most famous landmarks, the Greek Theater, the Hollywood sign, and the Griffith Observatory. It even has some rail cars from the 1800s. The Travel Town Museum has a large collection of rail cars and trains from the late 1800s and you can actually crawl all over them if you want to.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

If you're in the mood for a train crawl, climb or squiggle, you can

[Genevieve Manion]

crawl all over these for free. You can also enjoy Shakespeare in the park, hiking, biking, picnicking and concerts. But be forewarned, you may be biking on cursed trails, you may catch specters

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

of murder victims roaming through the hills, and before you chomp into a sandwich at a picnic table, you may want

[Genevieve Manion]

to make sure you're not sitting next to a picnic table ghost.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Or just enjoy your sandwich and hang out with some picnic table ghosts. There's allegedly a haunted picnic table. We'll get to it. Let's just discuss all of this now.

[Genevieve Manion]

Many years before Griffith bought the property himself, the land allegedly was believed to be cursed by a young woman named Donna Petronia.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Now, like in most things related to ghosts or curses, it's not easy to verify all of the information. But I found an article called the Curse of Petronia in the Southland Magazine from around the 1950s that ever so flowerily describes the cursed history of the

[Genevieve Manion]

land where the park now exists. Allegedly, in 1860, a man named Don Antonio Feliz inherited 8,000 acres from ancestors who stayed loyal to the Spanish king and were so granted the land. In 1777 he built a beautiful ranch house. He had hundreds of cattle and sheep, and for three years years he lived happily with his widowed sister and her now 17 year old niece, Donna Petronia, until the day when the dreaded smallpox ravaged communities all over California and found his ranch. He got sick and as the article states, he calmly awaited death.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Then a slippery snake named Antonio Coronel,

[Genevieve Manion]

who was a real guy I checked, convinced one of the ranch hands to allow him to meet with Don Antonio to drop a will just before he died. He hadn't yet officially left the land to anyone, and he offered to ensure that all of his wishes would be fulfilled. But in his smallpox stupor, he didn't realize that the will had left the land not to his niece and sister, but to Antonio Cornel. The article says Don Antonio's thoughts were far from this earth. When they put the quill between his fingers and moved his hand, he was already unconscious. But the will was signed. The two witnesses, well coached, were ready to testify that Don Antonio had nodded his head to everything Don Coronel had said. And then, quote. Don Antonio gave a little sigh. A serene peace settled over his aristocratic features. Women who knelt in the background shadows burst into loud wailing. Don Antonio was dead. End quote. Allegedly, this man then told his sister and niece that they inherited only some furniture and they needed to vacate immediately. And then, quote. Petronia stepped back as if struck. In a voice cackling with vengeful fire, she uttered a terrible curse. May God curse you and all of your descendants. First forever may he curse the judge and the lawyer who aided you in this monstrous injustice. May God curse everyone connected with this evil work. This curse will remain with you till the day you die and forever afterward in hell.

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End quote. She then fainted, and a few months

[Genevieve Manion]

later she was dead of smallpox herself. And within a few weeks, a strange blight killed all of the crops and the garden.

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The grapevines died, the catt.

[Genevieve Manion]

Several, one by one, died on the range. The dairy was closed and a fire destroyed the entire ranch house. Antonio Coronel realized that the curse had taken hold. So he decided to sell the land to Mr. Griffith, J. Griffith, wife disfigurer

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

and did not tell him about the curse.

[Genevieve Manion]

Then, shortly after, a storm washed half of the land away into the sea, leaving only 4,000 acres. Griffith was then told about the curse

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

by Mexican woodchoppers who refused to come and work on the ranch. And to quote the article, no, no. They cried, eyes wide with terror.

[Genevieve Manion]

We have seen the ghost of Don Antonio and he does not want that we chop wood. And the rest of the article says that it wasn't to rehabilitate his attempted

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

wife murdering image that he gave the

[Genevieve Manion]

land to the state. But he truly was offloading the still cursed land.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

And this is great. It says, quote, he invited the city

[Genevieve Manion]

council to his ranch house for the deed passing ceremony that same night, March 5, 1896.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

It is said that the ghost of Don Antonio appeared to the councilmen who fled in terror. Okay, let's do some confirming and debunking. I did some serious digging to see if these cursed events were true. The floods, the earthquakes that washed half

[Genevieve Manion]

the land out to the sea, or any other natural disasters that happened after the ranch was willed over to Antonio Cornell, which that is true. The ranch was willed over to this man he did inherit the property. The ranch did experience catastrophic flooding in the great flood of 1862.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

But this was one year before the ranch was willed to Coronel, a year before Senor Feliz died.

[Genevieve Manion]

But there were a number of natural disasters that did occur in the 1880s. They did a great deal of damage to the land, but that would have

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

been about 15 years after the ranch was handed over. The story makes it sound like these events happened right after the land was transferred. All that being said, there were still

[Genevieve Manion]

a whole lot of other natural disasters between the 1860s and 1900s. Floods, droughts and economic decline.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

So it sounds like we have the makings of cursed lore, but packed into like a 15, 20 year period of

[Genevieve Manion]

disasters that weren't uncommon in that area.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Although I can definitely confirm that 4,000 acres of land were not swept out to sea. Also, Petronia may not have even been a real person. She isn't listed in any records of the Feliz family. So she may have been fabricated altogether.

[Genevieve Manion]

Or she is real and I just

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

can't find the records of her. And she did curse the land. And no one wanted to chop wood on the land for real. It's all possible. People have claimed to see her ghost roaming around the park. How they can tell her from any other ghost is unclear. But she is said to wear a

[Genevieve Manion]

white gown and ride a white horse through the park. She has also allegedly been seen staring from the second story window of the Paco Feliz Adobe, which is the oldest remaining structure in the park.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

I did of course, also check to see if I could find any official documents stating that the city council ran out in terror after seeing the ghost of Don Antonio Feliz. I could not find the minutes taken of that event. But that being said, not only alleged Mexican woodchoppers and councilmen claimed to see the ghost.

[Genevieve Manion]

Ghost of Don Feliz.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

It has been said, not in newspapers, but it has been said that the

[Genevieve Manion]

ghost of Don Feliz has shown up numerous times over the years. Some have claimed to see him in spectral form on horseback, riding the trails of the park. Some have claimed to see him sitting on rocks and hillsides, sometimes laughing or observing passersby. Some say that he has been seen during natural disaster disasters that have taken place in the park ever since. That he has appeared after floods especially.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

How folks are able to tell what he looks like exactly is unclear.

[Genevieve Manion]

I wasn't able to find a photograph or painting of him anywhere.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

All that being said, that is the

[Genevieve Manion]

source of the alleged curse of Griffith Park.

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Now again, much of this spooky curse is alleged. But there are a number of other

[Genevieve Manion]

truly horrible and haunting things that have happened in that park that can very much be substantiated. There are of course all of the

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

dead bodies that have been found in

[Genevieve Manion]

the park or people who tragically died there. In 1933 during the Great Depression, men making 40 cents an hour who were hired to clear brush were caught in a wildfire with many forced to fight it without any experience. In a terrible article called Mass Murder in Griffith park from October 16, 1933, it says a man in command told workers to quote, get down there and get down there quick if you want any more work. Men rushed down to try to stop the flames from spreading, but they got caught and at least 29 men died. But some reports claimed that it was as high as 100 men that were later found. There are also of course the murders of the Hillside strangler, which were two men, Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono Jr. Who were found in and around the park. 28 year old aspiring actress Jane King's body was found near the park in 1977, as was the 19 year old Yolanda Washington, one of the first believed victims of the Hillside Stranglers. More victims of theirs, Judith Miller, Lissa Kasten and Christina Weckler were found within and near Griffith Park. They murdered at least 10 women and girls between 1977 and 1978.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

There was the decapitated head found near

[Genevieve Manion]

the Hollywood sign in January of 2012. A dog walker found it in a remote canyon area. The dog found it while roaming around off leash. This event triggered a large scale police response. Helicopters circled the hills. More dogs were sent in to search the brush. Within 24 hours, more body parts were found scattered around the hillside. The victim was identified as Hervey Medelin. He was a 66 year old man who had been missing for several days. This became officially known as the Hollywood Severed Head case. They found his killer. It was his roommate and boyfriend, a man named Gabriel Campos Martinez. It was determined that Medellin was first strangled and then dismembered with a saw. His killer was arrested after the same plastic bags that were used to dispose of the body parts were found in

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

the home and it was found that Gabriel searched.

[Genevieve Manion]

This is insane.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

How to butcher a human carcass for human consumption on his computer the day

[Genevieve Manion]

after his boyfriend was last seen. The motive was believed that Hervey intended to break up with Gabriel, who depended on him financially. He was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in the state prison. There have been so many bodies found in that park. And we will talk at length about the most famous one to be found there. Peg and whistle a bit later.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

But we need to talk about those who allegedly haunt that picnic table. Specifically, picnic table 29.

[Genevieve Manion]

As the story goes, on October 31st of 1976, two folks named Rand Garrett and aspiring actress Nancy Jansen were getting

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

it on on a picnic table. Picnic table 29. When a gust of wind sent a

[Genevieve Manion]

tree crashing down on the two of them and they were killed instantly. They were both cremated and their ashes were sprinkled upon the table where they died in each other's arms. And there's more.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

A tree trimmer named Morris Carle was

[Genevieve Manion]

sent to cut the rest of the tree down. But when he turned, tried, it started shaking. He was so creeped out that he ran back to his office to say that he was too scared to cut it down.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

So another guy went out there. But this guy died of a heart

[Genevieve Manion]

attack as soon as he arrived. And ever since, people have experienced spooky,

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

ooky ghostly events around that picnic table. Now, there's a reason why I'm not telling this terribly tragic story with the same kind of reverence that I pay

[Genevieve Manion]

to other tragic stories.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

It's because it isn't true. This never happened. None of it. There was an article in the LA Times published in 2006 that mentioned this

[Genevieve Manion]

tragic event that happened 15 years earlier.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Only the article was entirely a Halloween hoax. The names cited in the article cannot be found anywhere as having died in the park. There was no news coverage of something that would absolutely have gotten some news coverage if it actually happened in the 1970s, two people killed by a falling tree while having sex on a picnic table would absolutely have been mentioned somewhere. It was made up. So luckily these folks did not lose

[Genevieve Manion]

their lives by a falling tree. In 1976. No one died of a heart attack.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

No trees vibrated.

[Genevieve Manion]

That being said, people still have experienced spooky, spooky things around there. Some people claim to see the 70s style ghosts of these two people that

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

didn't exist roaming around in the bushes. But a lot of people did die the there in the 70s, so they could be any number of folks.

[Genevieve Manion]

But visitors have also said that approaching the table gives them a feeling of heavy, inexplicable anxiety. They have an impression that someone is nearby watching them and they get a stubborn urge to leave quickly. People also reported extreme temperature drops around the table. The air has been described as thick and frozen even when table temperatures are in the 70s or above. Some have experienced sudden emotional shifts and overwhelming sadness will come upon them out of nowhere. I actually did check to see how close Hillside Strangler murder victims were found to this spot, thinking maybe people are feeling some residual energy from those tragedies. But those victims were not found in that area. They were primarily found near the freeway edge which borders the park, and others were found along roads, ramps and br marshy slopes that weren't close to the picnic areas at all.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

So suggestion may be playing a part

[Genevieve Manion]

in the ghostly sightings and experiences in that area, but I haven't been there myself. I cannot personally attest to any spooky experiences.

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[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Okay, now we need to talk about

[Genevieve Manion]

the haunted merry go round.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Now you're talking. I love haunted carnival devil rides and this one is a little creepy in and of itself. It has these goat heads that look

[Genevieve Manion]

like devil heads in the kiosk outside.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

I'll put a picture on the Instagram link in the show notes.

[Genevieve Manion]

They also sell pinwheels there for $1.75.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

I want to ride a haunted merry go round with a pinwheel?

[Genevieve Manion]

What a whimsical way to get the willies.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

The carousel was built in 19. Sorry, in 1926.

[Genevieve Manion]

But some of the horses were built in 1887 and still remain. They were brought to the park in 1937. In 1976, a fire gutted the carousel, destroying a number of the beautifully carved horses. Some were saved though, thank goodness, and still remain. But the pipes of the old merry Go round organ have not only attracted

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

sticky candy handed children to the carousel, they have also attracted the spirits of the dead. Louis Alvarado, Griffith park chairperson with the

[Genevieve Manion]

Sierra Club of Southern California, has claimed to see a very spooky ghost around the merry go round. He has claimed that on two occasions. At the sunset closing time for the carousel, he watched a man descend a staircase close to it and disappeared as soon as he took the last step. He figured he must have have been seeing things. But then a few nights later, he saw exactly the same man in the same clothes walking down the steps again and disappear into thin air at the last step. Now, I don't know when this man made this claim, but a horrible suicide or believed suicide occurred very close to that carousel. In August of 2022, a burning dead body was found hanging from a tree right next to the carousel. It's believed to have been a self immolation death. So at least one tragic, horrifying death did occur right there. Heavens. But the most perhaps famous of the tragic events to occur in the park happened in 1932. On the night of September 18, an actress named Peg and Whistle told a friend that she was heading out to a drugstore. But instead she climbed a workman's ladder to the top of the 50 foot H of the Hollywood sign and jumped to her death at the age of only 24. Often her story is told only as a struggling actress overcome with feelings of mediocrity and broken dreams. But there was more to the story of this sweet lady. So I want to more thoroughly introduce you to her. Peg Entwistle was born in February of 1908 in Wales. She migrated with her family to America in 1916 and settled in New York City. Her life included a good amount of tragedy. Her father was killed when she was only 14 years old by a hit and run driver on Park Avenue and 72nd Street. She and her young brother were taken in by an uncle who would later become her manager when she got into acting. At the time of her suicide, she had recently divorced a man named Robert Keith who lied to her that he had no children. She discovered that he indeed had been married and even had a six year old son. She divorced him officially for cruelty and was granted divorce on those grounds. That six year old son, by the way, grew up to be a very famous actor in his day. Brian Keith. He was the father in the original Parent Trap movie. She is often described as an actress that was struggling to find work, which in the very end, yes, but she had appeared in several Broadway productions. She also appeared in one film called called 13 Women. A few months before she leapt from the H, she was in a play called the Mad Hopes in Los Angeles

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

which starred my grandfather's first cousin Glenda.

[Genevieve Manion]

The Good Witch of the north herself, Billy Burke.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

It was kind of wild to see

[Genevieve Manion]

how I'm connected to this woman's story. Obviously not directly, but through family. She didn't star in the film 13 Women. She had a supporting role, but it was a high budget thriller. She did have some work, but friends and family claimed that she had been suffering terribly from depression for a while. She was going through what sounded like a brutal divorce after suffering in an abusive marriage and was now trying to support herself and simply not making enough. On 18 September, a woman was hiking below the Hollywood sign and came upon a woman's shoe, purse and jacket. She opened the purse and inside found a suicide note. That's when she looked a little further down the mountain and saw Peg's body in a ravine. She quickly reported what she found to the police and her body was recovered. She remained identified until her uncle came to identify her remains. Her suicide note had been published in the newspapers. That's how he knew how to come in.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

How absolutely terrible.

[Genevieve Manion]

This will break your heart, her note read. I am afraid I am a coward.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

I am sorry for everything.

[Genevieve Manion]

If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

oh, honey. Okay, I'm gonna take a second. Okay, I'm back.

[Genevieve Manion]

Her story is often framed as symbolic of Hollywood's darker side. The boulevards of broken dreams, the cutthroats backstabbing the tragic reality behind the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. But she was clearly very talented. She would often get rave reviews for her show performances. And although her one and only film part was a small one, she was making her way despite the abuse and stress in her personal life.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

It is not usually that I hope ghost sightings aren't real.

[Genevieve Manion]

But numerous folks have claimed to see a young, transparent woman dressed in 1930s clothing whose footsteps make no sound walking toward the Hollywood sign, appearing disoriented. No one has claimed to see a jumping ghost, but they do report that the trail often fills with a strong scent of gardenias. Though there are no flowers there, Peg was known to wear a strong gardenia perfume. I actually take a bit of peace in that incarnation. Perhaps she just visits and wants to make her presence known. In 2014, 100 people marked the anniversary of Entwhistle's death by gathering in a parking lot of Beechwood Market in Hollywood to watch 13 women on an outdoor screen. And proceeds from a raffle and for food that was sold at the event were donated to the American foundation for Suicide Prevention in her name. And I'm so glad that I found this poem written about Peg and whistle. It is called Flowers for Peg by Ed Bargirena. I pick flowers for Peg under the Hollywood sign the day after the deluge the dust and dirt from LA washed from the stolid I icon I pick flowers for Peg where angels sprinkle the seeds of forgiveness every spring Violets and humbled lilies golden stars I pick flowers for Peg as she makes her way slowly up along the switchbacks and chaparral on that sorrowful day in 1932 I pick flowers for Peg where the curtain fell too soon, too hard, too fast. Then handing her my bouquet as she glides past this time, this time she almost smiles.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Okay, let's talk about the eight times that Queen Elizabeth was narrowly, almost assassinated.

[Genevieve Manion]

A listener recommended that I cover this topic.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

And at first I was like, like sounds thrilling, but like, did people just try to shoot her? And then they got foiled? End of story. No, my lord. The Queen baiting herself to be assassinated just to catch a guy. The ever so British insults her husband threw at the assassins. The mania, the lunatics. It's a wild ride. So we'll begin with her.

[Genevieve Manion]

First would be assassin Edward Oxford. On June 10, 1840, only four months after the royal wedding, Victoria and and her husband Albert went for their regular ride at Hyde park in an open carriage. And about 100 yards outside Buckingham Palace,

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Albert noticed, quote, a little man holding something toward us. Edward Oxford is a very standardly sized man. I wouldn't describe him as little per se. Edward had lifted a pistol and pointed

[Genevieve Manion]

it at the Queen, who was four months pregnant at the time. He was very close. Close to them too, maybe about 6 to 10ft away. He shot and missed just as she

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

turned her head to look at a horse.

[Genevieve Manion]

She thought the shot came from someone

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

hunting birds in the park. Pretty wild that there were no rules about shooting guns in recreational areas in those days. The guy shot again. But by now she realized I'm being shot at.

[Genevieve Manion]

So she ducked and he missed a crowd. Then overpowered him and took him to the ground.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

And then get the this. Albert and Victoria didn't pay no mind. They just kept on with their lovely carriage ride. To quote Albert, we took a short drive through the park. Partly to give Victoria a little air, partly also to show the public that we had not, on account of what had happened, lost all confidence in them. Oxford's motive was notoriety.

[Genevieve Manion]

He wanted to be famous for murdering the Queen. He was found guilty of attempted murder. Murder. But sentenced to spend 24 years in an insane asylum as opposed to simply prison.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Once he was released, he was shipped off to Australia. So he never saw the Queen again after that. Zootopia 2 has come home to Disney. Let's go get ready for a new case.

[Genevieve Manion]

We're gonna crack this case and prove we're the greatest partners of all time. New friends you are Gary Destnake. And your last name? Desnake.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Dream Team Hidden New habitats Zootopia has

[Genevieve Manion]

a secret reptile population.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

You can watch the record breaking phenomenon at home. You're clearly working at Zootopia 2. Now available on Disney. Rated PG.

[Genevieve Manion]

The second gentleman to attempt to murder the Queen was a man named John Francis.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

You'd think that perhaps they would take better precautions after this. Perhaps not regularly ride around in their open carriage.

[Genevieve Manion]

But after a Sunday service at the royal chapel at St. James's palace, again,

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Albert saw, quote, a little swarthy, ill looking rascal standing next to the Mall, pointing a gun at them.

[Genevieve Manion]

He could actually see him pull the trigger.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

But the gun failed.

[Genevieve Manion]

He then put the gun in his coat and ran into a nearby park and got away. While Albert was informing the security guards what happened and giving them a description

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

of the guy, the Queen herself got a sneaky idea about how to catch the guy. She said the best way to find him would be for she and Albert to go out again the very next day. Again in their open carriage. That way he'll probably try to shoot me again and we'll nab him. To quote Albert, you may imagine that our minds were not very easy. We looked behind every tree and I cast my eyes round in search of the rascal's face. Plainclothes officers were everywhere though, scoping out

[Genevieve Manion]

every corner that they passed.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

And then another bullet rang out and whizzed past the carriage.

[Genevieve Manion]

Police quickly tackled the guy and off he went to prison. He was found guilty and not only

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

sentenced to hang, but also to be quartered first, which means that his body

[Genevieve Manion]

would be cut into four parts parts before hanging.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Christ the Queen commuted his sentence though to banishment for life in Tasmania.

[Genevieve Manion]

The next assassin was a man named John William Bean. Only five weeks later, 17 year old John Bean, who suffered from a spinal deformity that left him only about 4ft tall, pushed his way through a crowd watching the Queen go by on her way to church and pulled out a pistol. It was said that he was unhappy with his life and preferred that he go to prison. But I don't have the source of that motive. Confession. He lifted his gun but the pistol failed to fire.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

This did not by the way.

[Genevieve Manion]

A little side note also happened to

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Queen Elizabeth I in the movie Elizabeth the Sequel. There's a scene where she's shot, but

[Genevieve Manion]

the gun misfires and she faints. But that did not happen.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

George III was shot at in a

[Genevieve Manion]

theater, but the assassin purposely aimed high. He intended to be captured.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

And Edward VIII was was also shot at while riding in a carriage in

[Genevieve Manion]

Hyde park by George McMahan in 1936. These monarchs and their park rides a doom. As for John William Bean, after his gun failed to fire, a bystander saw him and grabbed his wrist. But he was able to run off very unfortunately that night. Every known person with the same kind of handicap was arrested and held until they eventually found Bean at his family's home. He claimed that the Queen wasn't ever in danger and that he loaded his

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

gun with tobacco instead of gunpowder and

[Genevieve Manion]

he pointed it to the ground. He was sentenced to 18 months hard labor in prison. The fifth individual to attempt an assassination was William Hamilton on June 19, 1849.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Again the Queen in the carriage of doom in Hyde Park. I would have gotten a bulletproof one by now. On her birthday, she rode through both

[Genevieve Manion]

Hyde park and Regent's park with three of her children and standing almost in

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

the exact same place that Edward Oxford

[Genevieve Manion]

tried to kill her nine years earlier.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

He pulled out a gun and just

[Genevieve Manion]

as he fired at the Queen, the headkeeper of the park snapped to life and pulled him down. He was a 24 year old man who was forced to immigrate to England during the great hunger in Ireland. He told police that he only fired the Queen, quote, for the purpose of getting into prison. Prison because he was tired of being out of work. He pled guilty and was sent to a prison in Gibraltar for only seven years. Interestingly, he returned to England. After those seven years he was allowed to return. There aren't any records of what became of him after that, but there are records that he did return.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

The sixth gentleman to attempt to murder the Queen of England, albeit likely not an attack that would have been fatal,

[Genevieve Manion]

was Robert Pate, a man described at the time as a lunatic. Someone with a fairly serious psychological disorder. He was already known all over London and even by the Queen herself for his manic behavior. He was known especially for goose stepping around Hyde park. In the 19th century, this term was

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

used for an exaggerated showy parade like strut. Only his was very exaggerated and made people very nervous.

[Genevieve Manion]

A crowd was gathered outside of Cambridge House, the home of Victoria's uncle who was dying. She took her three children to visit him and as her carriage stopped outside of the home's gate, while she was

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

still in the carriage, this man ran

[Genevieve Manion]

up and cracked her over the head with his cane. She got a massive bruise on the right side of her head and a

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

really bad black eye.

[Genevieve Manion]

People in the crowd wrestled Robert to the ground. He was also sentenced to seven years prison in Tasmania.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

He was also allowed to return to

[Genevieve Manion]

England after that and he did. He died in 1895, 45 years after he attacked the crime queen.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

And in 1872, while the queen was taking a spin around Hyde park, although

[Genevieve Manion]

this didn't actually happen in the park, while she was taking a spin, 17 year old Arthur O' Connell managed to scale the fence at Buckingham palace and ran across the courtyard without catching any attention from the guards. And just as her carriage returned, he ran right up to her and from only a foot away he raised a pistol to her head. But just in time. Time. John Brown, the Queen's personal servant and alleged medium, threw his arms around his neck and tackled him to the ground while the Queen was rushed off to safety. Luckily for the Queen, apart from the

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

fact that she did not get shot

[Genevieve Manion]

in the head, the gun was broken. So even if he was able to get a shot out, it would not have worked.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

He said that it was not his

[Genevieve Manion]

intention to kill the Queen, but to scare her into signing a document that would release Irish political prisoners being held in English jail jails. She did not sign it. John Brown received a medal for his heroism. I wonder if any of the other folks who wrestled the assailants to the ground did as well. Arthur o' Connell was sentenced only to a year in prison, but also 20 strokes with a birch rod, which must have been horrible.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

And he was exiled to Australia. Incidentally, I mentioned that John Brown was

[Genevieve Manion]

the Queen's alleged personal medium.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Allegedly when Albert died, a young, very

[Genevieve Manion]

popular medium named Robert James Lees, who the Queen was seeking out to become her personal medium, told her that he

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

didn't want to be, which was bold, but he told her that her dead

[Genevieve Manion]

husband said that John Brown could communicate with her on his behalf.

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

Although there is no evidence that John Brown ever attempted to make contact with the late prince, claims have been made

[Genevieve Manion]

that this is what Lys said to the Queen. Finally, the last individual to attempt to murder the Queen of England was Roderick Maclean in 181882 not in the park this man shot at her while she was riding in her carriage away from Windsor Station after she arrived by train from London. A number of boys and school children from Eton College were there to cheer her as she set out for Windsor Castle, and as the carriage pulled away and the boys cheered, a shot rang

[Co-host or Guest Narrator]

out from the pistol of another severely mentally ill man. The boys pounced on him and began pummeling him with their umbrellas before he

[Genevieve Manion]

was taken into custody. He was found guilty, but for reasons of insanity and spent the rest of his life in an asylum. Queen Victoria lived to be 81 years old. She died in 1901, not from the bullet of a successful assassin, but shortly after a stroke. Her family was present at the time of her death. If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more, please rate the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Please leave me comments because I love them so much and for free listening, true crime extras and witchy content. Join the fan [e-mail] until next time, be kind to yourselves and I will see you in your nightmares.

[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Genevieve Manion]

Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra fee full [e-mail].