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Community Corner

Local Ghosts Get a Haunting from Paranormal Experts

Researchers in the paranormal came out to Los Alamitos Museum to discuss the ghosts at the Liberty Theater.

Year in and year out, there are two regulars who never miss a show at the Liberty Theater in Los Alamitos. She’s a nurse and he’s a sailor, and the pair has been known to haunt the theater.

Literally.

On Sunday, believers and skeptics alike gathered to discuss the ghosts of the Liberty Theater.

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Researchers in the field of paranormal investigation, William Jimenez and Peaches Veatch, came out to Los Alamitos Museum Sunday to discuss the paranormal activity at the storied theater. The Liberty Theater, at the Joint Forces Training Base, holds at least five musical productions a year and houses at least two permanent ghosts, according to Jimenez and Veatch as well as actors in local plays. Some locals attended Sunday’s lecture for a better understanding of the theater’s resident ghosts.

“Several ghosts need help and are there for a reason. Some of them are just not ready to leave,” said Jimenez.

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Liberty Theater is a theater rich with World War II history, and much of the ghost lore associated with the theater has to do with people involved someway in the war.

Jimenez and Veatch discussed the special case of Edna Alcorn, a woman who has been haunting the theater for decades, they believe. Edna was a head nurse from 1943-1948 at the former military hospital adjacent to Liberty Theater. She has allegedly shut lights on and off and closed and locked doors. Veatch even admitted that, in order for her to get on Edna’s good side, she had to play 40s era music.

Edna, explained Veatch, was left by her lover for a woman with red hair. Since Veatch’s hair was red as well, Edna associated Veatch with the woman who stole her love, said Veatch.

“These entities have feelings. When they die and haven’t yet crossed over, their personalities are still the same,” said Jimenez. Edna’s ghost needed to be placated before accepting Veatch, he explained.

When paranormal entities cross over, according to Jimenez, they have made peace with the world they once lived in and are ready to move on. Some reasons for entities to stick around are attachments to a place or person, deaths that came too soon, or occurrences in life that the apparitions could not accept.

In 1942, the Joint Forces Training Base was a naval air station housing American forces waiting to go overseas. The theater was a source of entertainment for these men. Another supposed entity that visits Liberty Theater is a sailor who is always seen in the same seat among the audience in his sailor attire from the 1940’s.

“Every time I walk the 130 feet from the entrance of the theater to where the light switch is, I feel someone walking with me. I feel palpitations,” said Jeff Hathcock, the president of the Theatre Guild, who has also seen the sailor apparition.

The experts and local attendees of the paranormal discussion said they understand that many people are skeptical of ghosts and spirits. One such Los Alamitos resident, Sandi Romero, said:

“I have never even seen anything paranormal,” said Los Alamitos resident, Sandi Romero. “But I accept that different things are possible. That’s what makes believers different from skeptics. Some have seen it and believe it. Some just accept it.”

And some do not accept the paranormal at all.

What do you think? Are there really ghosts in Los Alamitos? Are they haunting the Liberty Theater? Tell us in the comments.

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