TACOMA, Wash. — It was an inky black night on Tacoma's antique row. I had come to Brandy's Attic --a cluttered shop that never makes you feel like you're the only visitor-- to meet a man about some ghosts.
Andrew Hansen has gathered a gob of ghost stories which he shares on his Tacoma Ghost Tours.
There's the one about 19th century city leader Allen Mason and Ankh-Wennefer, the Egyptian mummy now residing at the Washington State Historical Society.
“Some people claimed Mason would bring the mummy out at parties, serve it drinks, talk to it like it was still alive,” says Hansen.
Mason invited his best friends for an “unwrapping party”. Did Ankh-Wennefer curse Tacoma in return?
“It's a spooky town. That's all I'll say,” laughs Hansen.
Then there's the story of hotel mascot, Jack the Bear.
“He'd break out and then roam the streets of Tacoma, break into various hotels, lay on their beds, eat their food, belly up to the bar, start drinking like a man,” says Hansen. “Famous for never spilling a drop.”
A rookie cop shot and killed the bear. Yet some say he still roams his old stomping grounds.
“But not as a living bear,” says Hansen. “ But as a ghost.”
Many claim the old city hall is the most haunted building in Tacoma. Especially the jail cells that once held serial killer Jake Bird, infamous for placing a hex on the people who convicted him.
“All of you who had anything to do with this trial are gonna die before I do,” repeats Hansen.
The judge and five others involved in the case died within the year.
If any place might be more haunted than city hall, it's Brandy's Attic. Owner Jason Brinar never believed in ghosts until he moved in.
“I thought you had to be off to believe in the spirits and the afterlife,” says Brinar.
But one night while setting up displays Brinar felt a force shove him from behind.
“I almost knocked over the table I was putting a display on I turn around and I yell ‘What!’,” says Brinar. “And I'm scared.”
Another spooky episode to add to Andrew Hansen's creepy collection of stories he can share on his Tacoma Ghost Tour.
Tacoma Ghost Tours is a year-round operation.
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