- [Ryan] All the way down to sunny San Diego for Via Montezuma. - Architecturally
speaking, this looks like it was built in the classic
haunted house style. - [Ryan] It does, it does
look like a spooky funhouse. - You think we'll have fun in there? - No. - [Shane] I think we'll have fun. - [Ryan] Well you think we're
gonna have fun everywhere. You could go into a
building that's on fire and you'd be like, this is a blast. - [Shane] I would not say that. - [Ryan] After you, sir. - [Shane] All right. Ooh that's, okay. (wolf howl) (thunder) - This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved, we investigate Via Montezuma
in San Diego, California as part of our ongoing investigation into the question, are ghosts real? This house has had many
owners and residents, two of which were known to
perform seances in this house. So there's no telling how many
spirits reside here today. - It was a party house. - It was a party house at one point. - I like that. - And you know what? Some say the party's still going. So cowabunga baby. - Oh, I think the party's
about to get taken up a notch, you know what I'm saying? - No, I don't. - Now that the Ghoul Boys are here. - We usually bring it down,
and then the party leaves. - We're gonna bring it up. - Okay, today's different then. - I got my party boots on. You know what I'm talking about? - The same boots you always wear. - They're my party boots,
I'm a partying guy. - All right, well, let's get into it. - Okay. - [Ryan] Built in 1887 by spiritualists William and John High, Via Montezuma is two stories high with dark
wood walls, silvery ceilings, and bright stained-glass
windows by artist John Mallon. The house sits mostly undisturbed, except for the occasional quarterly tour. In fact, we are the first paranormal investigators to ever shoot a paranormal investigation inside the building. Weird occurrences are said
to happen in the home, such as a corner where
plants refuse to grow, and a stained-glass window
of Peter Paul Rubens, whose beard is supposedly graying slowly. This is the guy whose
beard is said to gray more and more each year. Looking at it now, it
definitely looks like - It does looks like it's wearing away. - A very old picture. - That's like saying, well this photograph gets more and more yellow over time. - That's true, I guess. Via Montezuma was constructed
for a man named Jesse Shepard. Shepard was a famous musician
with spiritualist ties. Prominent musicians can be found depicted in beautiful stained-glass
windows around the home. Jesse incorporated spiritualism
into his performances, claiming he could connect with spirits, and that he could channel these
spirits through his music. His vocal range allowed him
to sing "in two voices." - [Shane] That's
ventriloquism 101, I think. - [Ryan] I didn't realize you
were so into ventriloquism. - [Shane] I did have a dummy for a while. - [Ryan] That kind of explains a lot. I could just picture your mom, like, walking down the hallway in high school, like, Shane, it's time
to get up for school, and then she starts to hear voices. - [Shane] She's coming, don't talk to her! But I want to talk to her. Shane doesn't want to go to school! Sorry mom, he makes the
decisions around here. - Jesse would give performances and allegedly hold
seances within the home, but eventually, would steer
away from spiritualism and leave for Europe to
pursue a writing career. Ultimately, like may
future owners of the home, Jesse would fall into financial ruin, and would actually die while playing the piano in Los Angeles. - [Shane] Huh? - [Ryan] So he gave his last performance, he was performing at a benefit. - [Shane] Yeah. - [Ryan] He would get
really into his music, and then he did this one note like this, and everyone was like, oh,
he's really letting it sizzle. Okay, he's really letting it sizzle. Okay, this is maybe too much sizzle. Wait a second. - He's dead? - Is he dead? And the answer was yes. I don't know how I'd react to that. Like, was everyone just like? - They applauded for him! - They start to look at each
other concerned, like, okay. - Another round starts back up. Let's stand up for this one, maybe that'll - What does this guy want from us? - You think he pooped himself? - Jesus Christ man. - Wow, this performance
is very avant-garde. - This is embarrassing that
I think that's so funny. - It's very disrespectful. But it's a human, it's
gonna happen to all of us, depending on what you ate. - I'm sorry. Sorry, this is so disrespectful. - Sorry. Oh boy. Look, we know it's disrespectful. You don't have to say it in the comments. We're sticking with this one. - [Ryan] It's said that Jesse's
spirit haunts this home. One room where we might find him is the ballroom, or the music room where Jesse would put on
elaborate performances, where he would channel the spirits of the great musicians
on display in the house. - [Shane] Is he a knight? - [Ryan] It looks like he's a knight, he's got like a big-ass ax. - Oh yeah, he does. That's actually pretty cool. And yet, he's got a big ax,
but he's doing the chill pose. - Yeah, that's kind like the, I got an ax, not that
big of a deal though. If he had Tinder, that'd
probably be the third picture. This is where Jesse Shepard would actually put on the performances for the guests he would have at his house. And as you can see, there's
a bunch of different musicians in stained glass, all around. - Who's around here? - You got like, Beethoven
and, the classics. - The classics. - Anyway, so he thought he could channel them, channel
Mozart, all these people, in this house while he performed, because that's what he believed. - Was he actually, was he good? - He was very good, he was
world-renowned, he was famous. - Okay. - Should we try and each
out to some people here? - Absolutely. - Let me put in my little headphones. - [Shane] Your ghost stethoscope. - Are you here right now, Jesse? - This is a good house, it's very quiet. - Yes. I heard you were pretty
damn good at the piano. I wish I could've heard it. How many performances did you have here? - I'm just imagining
that piano in this room, the way it's just, imagine that sound bouncing off the hardwood. - This is a very intimate room, too, for that kind of performance. - If I was in this room listening to someone just, you said
he was very passionate, really pounded away on those things. - And he said he could sing in two voices. - I'd be losing my mind. - Yeah. - It's like Beyonce at Coachella. People just losing their minds. - I don't know if it would be that good. Beychella was supposed
to be pretty damn good. - I know. - Would you like to sing for us, Jesse? I know that you're not a jukebox, and I'm sure you probably
got that most of your life. But we do hear you had
the voice of an angel. - Voice of two angels. - Apparently. We're gonna give you the floor now. So if there is anything here that actually has something to say, the floor is now yours,
we're gonna be silent. Anybody can speak to us right here. - [Shane] Anybody. - And you better hurry, because I'm about to bring out something. - Ghouls, I beg of you, sing! Sing with your two voices, Jesse! Please, play the piano! You're gonna regret this. - You leave me no choice. - Jesse! - All right, this is gonna help you, maybe, to communicate. You can use this energy to speak to us, 'cause I know it's a little tough. And also, more importantly, Shane hates this, so I
also love doing this. Here we go. (loud static) All right, let's try this again. My name's Ryan, that's Shane. My name's Ryan, that's - Meat balls? - He said you would know! - A lot of chatter here today. All right, we're off to a fine start here. Grilled cheese, what? - Hold on, hold on here. My name's Ryan, that's Shane. My name's Ryan, that's Shane. Can you say either of our names back? - Year? It's 2018. - What color shoes am I wearing? - What if it was like,
those sneaks are weak, dawg. - [Ryan] A little girl
on a tour of the house claimed to hear a chorus and old organ music while
in Jesse's bathroom. His bathroom is located
in Jesse's bedroom. So right now we're
entering Jesse's bedroom. And there's the bathroom. Someone apparently heard music
coming out of there once. Granted, it was a child who heard that. - Yeah. - You know. Children can be more receptive. - Can they? - I think they can. - What are we doing in here? - We're reaching out to Jesse. - No spirit box, though? - No spirit box. - Cool. - Jesse, if you're here,
we are in your bedroom now. In your private space. I'm sorry, but we only just want to talk. You could say anything to us right now. And if you don't wanna talk, you could swing this chandelier into the side of Shane's
head and concuss him. - You could. It's sharp, its' definitely sharp. - Sharp enough to get the job done. Or you could just talk to us. - Should we turn the lights out? - Oh yeah. We haven't done that yet. That always does make it
so much worse, doesn't it? All right Jesse. I don't know if this is gonna make it easier for you to talk to us, but it definitely makes me more scared. - We are understanding and friendly. Just two nice guys. - We're gonna go into
your bathroom now, Jesse. - Are we? - [Ryan] Yeah. - Okay. Well I mean, that's where they
heard the music come from. - Oh, true. - Could you imagine getting up at night, taking a whiz right here, and
having that staring at you? - You close the door. What are you, an animal? - Well I mean, if you live alone. You close the door when you pee alone? - I think I, yeah I do, generally. - Oh, it's just like a habit? You could be taking a dump
and looking down the hallway. - [Shane] That's actually kinda fun. - Unless some kinda specter
starts walking towards you. - [Shane] It's be cool to put, like, a little skee-ball thing
at the end of the hallway. Well, off to a good start in here. We're going to be quiet now so we can listen to the
things that a child heard. - [Ryan] Is there anybody
in here with us right now? Anybody down that hallway that wants to come walk towards us? - What if you stand in the bathroom alone? - Sure. - Maybe? - Yeah, why not? - Good luck. - [Ryan] Cowabunga? I don't know. - Cowabunga? - [Ryan] Oh I hate this. Is there anybody in here with me? Can any of you, if there's anybody here, can you show me a sign? Can you say something? Can you move something, make some noise? Bang on the wall? - I just think it's funny to make Ryan lock himself in a bathroom in the dark and go, okay, sure, that was good. - [Ryan] Alrighty, I'm leaving. You had your chance. Oh shit, you fucking - Just opening it up for you. - So loud. Some believe that the house is cursed, possible explaining why
several of the house's many owners ended up in financial ruin. Eventually, the house sat uninhabited and in disrepair until it was saved by the San Diego History Center in 1970. One of the house's inhabitants, a woman named Mrs. Montgomery, was also a medium who would
host seances in the home, which make two former residents of a house built by spiritualism
practicers of seances. Because of this, there's
no telling how many spirits walked through that door. And more importantly, how many stayed. So now we're actually
entering the seance room, and this is where, at least
Jesse conducted his seances. I don't know about the next owner. - Look, they've actually
captured a ghost in this box. They've got it on display. - Lazy. That's really all I have
to say about that one. - It's not lazy, very funny. - Pretty lazy. Here we go. - Now we're ready for you. If you didn't hear us in the other room, my name's Shane and that's Ryan. - Yeah, that's me. - And we're here to get to
know you, be your friend. - Yeah. - We wanna listen, really. - We're just here to talk to you, to figure out what you
felt about this house when you were living in it. - How funny is it that you were trying to talk to dead folks in here, and now - It's kind of ironic, right? Yeah. - We're trying to talk to you. - I was also gonna say, what if he doesn't know he's dead? He's conducting a seance, and he thinks - Oh, he thinks we're ghosts? - And he thinks we're the ghosts. - A classic Sixth Sense scenario. - Or The Others, spoiler alert. - Or that one Goosebumps
book, The Ghost Next Door. - Yeah, that's a good book too. - Anyway, if you're hearing us right now. We're not the ghosts, you're the ghost. Unless? - You know, I guess I did get into that car accident a while ago, and it was a pretty close call. It is possible that I'm dead right now. - One time I cut up an avocado, and there was a lot of
meat left on the pit, and I put the avocado pit in my mouth. - The entire pit? You put the entire - Yeah, and I started to just
kinda take the meat off of it. And at that moment I was
like, if I sneezed right now, this thing would lodge into my throat. And ever since then, I've kinda
been terrified of avocados. But, the other thing is, I always thought, what if I did die then? - Fuck dude. - I mean, we tweet all the time, so, - That's true, yeah, people, this would be a pretty
elaborate shared delusion. Anyways, this is actually
a secret passageway. - Excuse me? - Well it doesn't work anymore, so I guess what I'm getting at - That was a false candle? - Yeah, and it would pull,
this thing would open up, and it would go to the upstairs. We'll actually see where it goes to later. But I don't know why that exists. - Yeah, I suppose you'd want
it to go to a secret room and not just another floor. - Yeah, that's why it seems
kind of just pointless. - If you pull this book out of the shelf, you'll get to the kitchen! - Or, you could take the stairs. In the 1940s, Edward Campbell purchased Via Montezuma in search of buried treasure located in the basement, only to find nothing over a four month search, resulting in Campbell selling the home. Rumor has it that there is
treasure buried under here. Now that treasure must be pretty damn old, because that means it predates the house, which was built in the late 1800s. - Gotta be worth a
lotta moolah these days. Imagine how many queens that's worth? - That's probably worth
at least 100,000 bones. - Yeah, probably. - So how about it? Whose treasure is here? What was that? Was that you? - [Shane] Last chance. We're gonna take the treasure if you don't tell us where it is. - So you're threatening
to take the treasure if he doesn't tell you
where the treasure is? - That's right, don't poke holes in it. - Okay, I'm just making sure. It just doesn't seem like a very - I'm just trying to spook 'em. - Okay. - I'll come back here
with some new technology. That thing where they
put some dynamite in the, like in Jurassic Parl, when they - He's gonna come back
with some new technology, that thing that they put the
dynamite in like Jurassic Park. - To find the raptor bones! You remember! - You remember that, right? Person who doesn't know what a movie is. - Whatever man, fuck you. - [Ryan] It's said that a
majority of the activity occurs on the second floor of the house. And just above us is where, perhaps, a butler hanged himself. Very unfortunate. I don't know if that's a legend or if that actually
happened, but who's up here? We can't go up there
because it's condemned. But is there somebody that
walks around up here now? These were old living quarters. It could be anybody. Could you show us you're here
by making your presence known? Could you move something? Make a noise, bang on something? Could you move this blue ball
that's sitting on this chair? Nope. Okay, we're gonna walk to
the other room over there. The final room we'll investigate is a room where the spirit of an old man is often seen sitting in a chair. The man's identity is unknown. Some speculate that it may be the spirit of the servant who hanged
himself in the home. This is a room in the house where people claim to see an old
man sitting in a chair. Which, frankly, is a horrifying thought. - That's spooky. - It's very scary, I don't like it. - Yeah, I'm not into that. What if you woke up in
the middle of the night and there was an old man sitting in the chair in the corner of your room? That's a lot, right? - Yeah, I don't like that.
- [Shane] A lot to imagine. - Why haven't you moved on? You're obviously an elderly man. Seems like you could
move to a better place. Did you do something? - [Shane] Maybe he just likes to relax. - In this room? - I mean, you put down a throw
rug or something, it's fine. - I guess. - Nice view of the skyline. Let's close our eyes, maybe
you'll feel him in the chair. What about that? Is that a thing? - We're gonna close our eyes now. We're gonna give you some time, and if we open our eyes and
you're sitting in that chair, we really just wanna talk. - Yeah, that's all we'll
do, we'll just talk. - Yeah. - Okay, here we go. - [Ryan] All right, we're
gonna open in three, two, one. Yeah, I didn't think you had it in you. - [Shane] He's not there. - Nah. Well I can't say that I'm not
disappointed, 'cause I am. - You can't say that
you're not disappointed? - Is that a double negative? - It's a triple negative. - Wait, I can't say that I'm not - Dis-appointed. - What would you say? - I'm not disappointed, I can't say that. I am disappointed. Okay, yeah. - [Ryan] Well, here is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna get back up,
he's gonna get back up, we're gonna pick up our
gear, and we're gonna leave. And that's it, you're
never gonna see us again. So, if you want the chance
to speak to somebody who actually will take
the time to speak to you, I suggest you appear in that chair. Last chance, here comes 30 seconds. That's it then. - [Shane] We're gonna leave. - We're gonna leave the house, so, - Unless you appear in that
chair in the next two seconds, all right, well see you later. - Okay, well I guess that's it. Season finale, oh you're leaving me. And now I'm in a room talking to not even the old man,
I'm now talking to myself. You're not gonna even help
me carry this tripod out? - [Shane] No! - Unbelievable. Well, you would've made
a good season finale if you appeared in that chair. I know that doesn't mean anything to you, but it's not always about you. Just saying. After years of trading hands, the hauntingly beautiful Via
Montezuma sits uninhabited. A house built by
spiritualism would definitely seem to be ripe with activity, but whether or not Via Montezuma
is definitively haunted will remain unsolved. We could also look at where
that secret passageway leads to. - Oh, cool! Wow, so there's the door. - [Ryan] That's the door. I don't wanna open it, but yeah. Like I said, if it were me, I would make a hidden passageway go to a
panic room or a hidden room. - Not dad's den. - You know, where I log
on and check the stocks. - Yeah. And apparently take a shit on your desk. - I guess so. Actually, I think I
know a different reason why that would be there. - Oh I see what you're saying.
