Victoria's Haunted past

The Hanging Judge

Under a pale October moon his ghostly victims have been seen wandering through the mist in Victoria’s Bastion Square, their bluish faces and swollen necks still wearing the hangman’s necktie; a gruesome collection of rogues and murderers still paying penance for their crimes, a hundred years hence.

While that may be more ghost writers’ imagination than fact, it is true that over the years, Bastion Square’s Maritime Museum has been the location of many unexplained sights and sounds.

The old Provincial Courthouse building that houses the Maritime Museum was erected on the site of Victoria’s original gallows; very creepy. The bodies of executed men are purportedly still buried under the building; very morbid. No one knows for sure how many men perished, only to be cast into an unmarked grave, but their restless souls undoubtedly desire a tombstone to mark their interment and thus release them from their eternal torment.

Tragically, 135 souls were lost to Vancouver Island’s violent seas when the steamship Valencia wrecked in 1908, (for the full story of the Valencia, see the summer issue of IT). A few years later a fisherman reportedly found a lifeboat with skeletons aboard but by the time authorities arrived, it had vanished; but then, incredibly, the Valencia’s #6 lifeboat was found floating empty some 27 years after the wreck; very eerie. That lifeboat is now exhibited at; you guessed it, The Maritime Museum!

Victoria’s Bastion Square also contained the old jail, where guards allegedly beat a prisoner to death. Startled pedestrians have heard the sound of rattling leg irons and feet shuffling along behind them when no one was there, an explainable echo perhaps, but very likely something far more sinister; I’m getting goose bumps.

Add to all of that, the courtroom’s unyielding judge, Sir Mathew Begbie, whom history has labelled ‘The Hanging Judge’ and it, is certainly no surprise that the museum is a (super) natural location for ghost stories and a hot zone for apparitions anxious for attention.

In the Wild West atmosphere of British Columbia’s Cariboo gold rush, Judge Begbie dispensed justice firmly but fairly, and of the 52 murder cases he heard, juries found 27 men guilty. At that time hanging was the mandatory punishment for a capital crime, therefore Judge Begbie had no choice in carrying out the letter of the law. Unlike other British Colonial judges of his era, he championed the rights of Chinese immigrants and Aboriginals. He was known for defending the common man, and was more likely to harangue than hang those who stood before his bench.

So if you find yourself strolling through Bastion Square on a misty October night and hear the crack of a judges gavel, it could very well be a ghost; the ghost of ‘hanging judge’ Mathew Begbie wandering the old court house halls, eternally angry at history’s maligning of his good name.

The Empress Hotel

This famous hotel has played host to a number of ghostly guests; a ghoulish little girl, a chilly chambermaid and even the spooky spectre of a worker swinging by his neck from the rafters; local lore claims the carpenter hung himself in the west tower circa 1906 during hotel construction. These examples however, pale in comparison to the sightings of a young and dapper Sir Francis Rattenbury, who was none other than the accomplished architect credited with designing the Empress Hotel.

Francis Rattenbury’s life reads like the stuff of a murder mystery novel, but as we all know; sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

A successful architect becomes the toast of the town only to fall from grace by partaking in a scandalous public affair with a woman more than half his age. The 56-year-old Rattenbury leaves his wife and children to quickly marry his 24-year-old lover. Bad investments and scandal put an incredible strain on his resources as well as his second marriage and he is forced to return to England with his young wife. Soon thereafter he meets an untimely death.

Rattenbury was murdered in his drawing room, in fact, bludgeoned to death with a carpenter’s mallet (some reports site a croquet mallet), while he sat in a drunken stupor. The perpetrator of this heinous crime was none other than Mr Rattenbury’s chauffer, 18-year-old George Stoner.

It would seem that young George and Rattenbury’s wife Alma had been having an affair for quite some time and George apparently killed Francis in a jealous rage. Alma then tried to protect George, telling police that it was she who had, while under the influence of pills and alcohol, attacked Francis in self defence. The truth came out and both were charged with the murder.

Quite literally, this was the biggest story since the sinking of the Titanic, it had it all; sex, drugs and alcohol, murder and intrigue. The deliciously upper crust love triangle served with a side dish of scandal proved irresistible and a ravenous British public ate it up.

Charges against Alma were eventually dropped while George was sentenced to death. She was unable to cope with the shame or the scandal and upon hearing of her lover’s death sentence she was pushed over the edge. Tragically, she committed suicide a few days later, plunging a knife into her already broken heart.

The male dominated court of public opinion was outraged at George’s death sentence, believing the young man had been seduced by the beautiful older woman and her sexual charms. A petition led to the commuting of the death sentence to that of life in prison, but George ultimately spent only seven years behind bars.

Little wonder that the ghost of Sir Francis Rattenbury left his homeland where he met such a violent end, to return to Victoria, the place of his glory days. And how, you may ask, does a ghost travel between the continents?

Perhaps he booked passage on the ghost ship Valencia.

Happy Halloween!

If you are interested in exploring Victoria’s scary past, just boogle ‘Victoria Ghost Tours’ for a selection of knowledgeable entrepreneurs who lead fascinating tours of the city’s colourful past.

Ghosts Tours in Victoria

Victoria is BC’s most haunted city and there are many ways to find out more about who the ghosts are and why there are so many of them. John Adams and his company called Discover the Past are experts in the field. Their Ghostly Walks are 90-minute walking tours that take place year-round in the Old Town district. Their Ghost Bus-tours (in conjunction with the Old Cemeteries Society) are 2-hour coach tours from October 22-31 that cover ghost stories in the entire Greater Victoria region. Find out more about these activities online at www.discoverthepast.com or by calling 250.384.6698.