Going Behind the Paranormal Television Shows– The Red Garter in Williams, Arizona, Part II
[image error]
In this the second part of my blog on the Red Garter in Williams, Arizona, I’m going to focus in on one of the more colorful owners of the former saloon/bordello. If you recall the photo from part I was taken circa 1934 (above), and it had the ghost of a former “working girl” on the far left side (some believe her name is Eve) with no reflection in the nearby mirror. The man standing next to the pool table in that old photo is Longino Mora, who made out quite well selling bootleg liquor from his saloon during the Prohibition years of 1920 to 1933. I know, the condition of the place in the photo doesn’t look like Mora was flourishing, but I think he was spending his money on other things: It seems that Mora had quite the libido–he was married five times and fathered twenty-five children, fathering his last child when he was eighty! In addition to selling illegal liquor, Mora also broke Arizona’s gambling laws, hiding his gaming tables behind a partition in the saloon. Likewise Arizona had laws against prostitution, but local laws in Williams allowed for the licensing and taxing of the working girls. So out of his three illegal activities, Mora only had to worry about the gambling and selling the bootlegger’s brew, because prostitution was a fixture and a source of income for the town of Williams. At the age of ninety, and in poor health, Longino Mora decided to end it all by plunging a knife into his chest in 1938, just four years after the photo was taken.
Here is the cropped photo of Longino Mora, the owner of the Red Garter, captured in 1934. Compare the following faces that I captured to this one–is there a match?
[image error]
As soon as I heard that Mora committed suicide, I began to study the male faces that I captured in the windows of the Red Garter, because I have seen evidence that the ghosts of those who commit suicide often stay behind in the house or building where they chose to end it all (and I have to wonder if that is their punishment). The Peyton Randolph House is a good example of a place that is haunted by the angry wraith of a man that committed suicide; does his never-ending despair drive him to intimidate and scare people? So I began my search for the former owner of the Red Garter, and I came up with three faces that may qualify. So I’m going to post the 1934 photo of the former owner and the faces that I captured in the windows. I believe that one looks like a pretty good match–tell me what you think! Does the ghost of the former owner haunt the Red Garter?
This first face was captured in the early afternoon right before I ate lunch at the Canyon Cafe–the business that now occupies the space of the former Red Garter Saloon.
[image error]
These next 2 faces were taken in the early evening at the Red Garter. Do any of these faces match the photo of Longino Mora?
[image error]
[image error]
On another note, I just turned in the final edit for my second book, which is now on its way to its first printing. So stay tuned for my second release on the ghosts of the world’s largest living museum, Williamsburg, which I affectionately renamed the world’s largest active ghost museum. The book will be released in August (2018), with the title Breakthrough Ghost Photography of Haunted Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia, Part 2. There are some intriguing surprises in this book, including perhaps the largest group of ghosts ever captured on camera!
______________________
After 2 years of research, a lot of experimentation, and over 10,000 photographs, check out the world’s first groundbreaking photographic study of ghosts: Haunted, Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography available at both Schiffer Publishing and at Amazon, nominated for consideration in the nonfiction category for the 19th annual Library of Virginia Literary Awards:
[image error]
Amazon: http://amzn.com/0764350609
Tim Scullion is a published author, photographer, and musician. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree Cum Laude. In addition to the book mentioned above, Tim has written a novel, a series of instruction books on the guitar, a children’s book (all available on Amazon) and has a photo-essay published by the University of Virginia in the book Troubled Times Companion, Vol. III.
Join me on these social media sites:
Please help support these free blogs: https://www.patreon.com/timscullion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timscullionauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tim_scullion
