Friday, April 10, 2009

Abandoned Downey Asylum Rumors

Here is a picture of the Rancho Los Amigos abandoned asylum. Image provided: here

In the Los Angeles County area sits a town called Downey, which is renowned for its expensive real estate value, but also for its rumored ghostly presence at the Rancho Los Amigos Asylum, a hospital used previously for the mentally ill. It has not been occupied for years.

It is a destination for many curious teenagers to visit when they feel the need to be scared or just to hang around and see if any ghostly sightings could be found. The asylum is located behind the local courthouse and next to a private Catholic school for girls called Saint Joseph's, which is also well-known locally for claims of paranormal activity from students around the neighborhood. "There are many girls that have problems at Saint Joseph's when it comes to the paranormal, "said Victor Gonzalez, 17, a senior at Downey High School. "My twin sister Valerie goes there and strange things happened in the classrooms like dry erase pens thrown across the room, but they've had bigger problems in the bathrooms with loud, unknown footsteps and fingerprints materializing on the mirrors before their eyes."

Though no paranormal activity has been proven at either location, it does not stop teenagers and even some adults from trespassing on the property. There are dozens of homemade videos of footage of the Downey asylum that can be found on Youtube.com, but many have posted pictures and horror stories of visits to the abandoned asylum on various websites and chatrooms online. 

"It was really scary when we went there to the asylum, we took our two daughters and went inside and experienced a lot, plus we got some creepy footage too so something was definitely in there," said Lolita Salazar, 30, a resident of Downey. "The cops did stop us but they saw that we had our kids with us so they let us stay as long as we didn't go inside and that was the wrong idea because we continued all over inside and across the street; it was crazy and it is definitely haunted."

Downey residents Marvin Del Cid, 19, and Gilbert Aleman, 19,  were recently given warnings by police officers for eating burgers in the asylum's forbidden parking lot. The men did not think they were breaking any rules since they were eating silently and privately. 

"The police treated us horribly," said Del Cid. "The cop made us get out of the car and shoved my friend and I on the top of the car violently and said he would arrest us next time he saw us there again."

These visits to the asylum are illegal and if a person is caught, it leads to issues with the police department because they currently occupy the open space to use as a target practice range for new cops in training and each Downey officer takes turns patrolling the area.

 Regardless of the arrest threats and expensive fines many teenagers receive when caught on the premises, they continue to return to the asylum in hopes of catching a glimpse of a ghost of one of the many past residents that used to live behind the currently boarded-up walls.

34 comments:

  1. WoW, I would never go there.

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  2. Me and my brother went there a couple of weeks ago. We went inside a biulding near the auditorium. While inside the building had cabinets and droors. My brother and I opened a droor. We found a bunch of patient files. The oldest we found was from 1934. People definatly need to check it out

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  3. it is located behind ST. MATTHIAS HIGHSCHOOL

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  4. My Dumbass Sis went There for her 17thBirthDay.
    3Couples.
    One Flashlight.
    She Said as soon as they entered, one of their brand new flashlights went out.

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  5. I wish I lived closer. I'm out in Michigan but wouldlove to go in and check this out. We have a few large Asylums around the Michigan area. You might try looking up the Northville State Hospital near Novi Michigan. 442 acres of land there and a tremendous feeling of being watched. Also the United Community Hospital at 20th and Michigan Avenue, I've felt peope step down on the landing in the center stairway but there was no one there when I turned my light on.

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  6. i wil b goin 2 st.matthias soon nd i live a couple bloks down from there its freaky!!!

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    1. My mom went there to use it as a short cut to go somewhere

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  7. The scarriest place in downey used to be the vacants...between imperial and foster road. Hundreds of vacant houses just behind the string of apartments on the left side of lakewood between those two streets. William bonnin aka " the freeway killer " lived in the last house before the vacants. We used to ride our bikes in there before the kids started dissapearing. this was 1977 - 1981. He was executed and he was seen there afterword.

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  8. it sucks for people that go to st mathias hs

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  10. Is the other rancho amigo thats still open! haunted? cause idk but my grandma used to go there and she would come home and say she sees people that arnt really there but idk if it was cause she had Alzheimer's or maybe she really did see ghost!!! what do you think??

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  11. That stuff about the school is mostly made-up. I go there and nothing is ever out of the norm.

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  12. THIS PLACE IS CRAZY. Even passing by during the day gives you creepy chills. And even worse at night like you can just feel this crazy energy. I've almost had a panick attack by just driving by in a car before ha.

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  13. I am Lolita... the one and only listed above.... yup its scary and be careful because you will get caught...

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  14. but this place is so real i went with a few girlfriends and homies and we had a few flash walkie talkies and a few carmeras only thing i saw was a shadow but the other people saw diffrent things but its all real

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  15. Gone there before live like 3 blocks away...always hear growling

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  16. any tips on how not to get caught? go through a specific way or something?

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    1. @Bittersweet wear dark clothes and do not go with a lot of loud people, IF you are on the side walks they cannot really do anything the side walks are public...I tried to get permission IF you get permission from someone who works in an office you would be OK, good luck with that...

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  17. I have gone here alone and with friends, In one building it was totally boarded up all the way around and had barbed wire fencing, NO WAY IN. But I saw one tall stove pipe chimney with smoke coming out ! HOW the heck does smoke come out if there is no one inside? it was just around midnight! IT is better to go alone, my friends were totally nutty and freaked out! I LOVE IT! Also I heard music coming from a hall way! NOT modern something very old on a piano! In some places there was a smell of electricity and the sound of screaming and the zapping of electricity!

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  18. My grandma died in it! in the 1920's She had a brain tumor ! that is why I want to go visit it again, and again! Also it had a Polio unit and my mom was there for a while too late 20's !

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  19. I live right down from there a 5 min walk. Me my 2 sisters and 2 friends drove by it because I asked her to and when we did we seen nothing but when we turned around the door on the top floor the the balcony slowly opened no one was there my sister speed off we were all scared. I walked by in the daytime not that long ago it's not scary just odd that everything around it including a small church is abandoned I could see papers and supplies through the window...I didn't see any cops the whole time (an hour) that I was there... in the daytime it's not scary... but at night you get chills up your arm, you feel uneasy, as if something is watching you...one night i woke up at like 3:10 I could se through my bedroom window the school and the street going towards the hospital... I'm not sure what I saw but it was like a man frantically running away from the hospital his arms and legs moved as if they were broken.. out of place and before it reached the street it just vanished I could not go back to sleep after that... I was 15 when I saw that...I'm 20 now and just thinking about it scares me ....but my question is....what happened there at that that hospital for it to be left as is.....

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  20. This place is definitely creepy and haunted. I went there back in 04'with a bunch a friends. The first time we drove by, we were pulled over by a patrol car, by then we were all shocked at how hold school it looked. It looked like it was from the 1950's with the one bulb on its roof. When it passed us up and drove around the corner, it mysteriously disappeared. The second time we walked the premises and heard screams coming from the last floor of one the buildings. That scared me to the bone!

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  21. I've only been there during the day and I honestly don't get that heavy feeling that everyone says they do. I like it. I interesting to see this abandoned place in the middle of a city. My mom, sister, and I love to drive by there. It's also the place where I learned to drive and where many kids in Downey learn to drive so it can't be that creepy. Then again it usually is during the day.

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  22. My brothers been there they said , that there's alot of screaming coming from some rooms .Im curious to go down there my self .

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  23. http://parinormalresearch.blogspot.com/2009/04/abandoned-downey-asylum-rumors.html?m=1

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  24. When I was a younger we would drive there, lights off and check it out. It was definitely creepy but nothing paranormal happened. I used to work on Erickson off of Imperial and the old buildings behind the courthouse there was, what looked like a house and an arched driveway. We would drive through it and would scare the crap out of us because the side door to the 'house' was right next to the driver side door, which is where I was. Ooo forget it, pretty crazy but exciting too. Even in the daytime, driving through there is creepy. Don't live in Downey anymore but I do remember that place. Also The Island, The Island can br creepy too. If know about Downey, you know about The Island...just weird, Midgetville my dad called it when he lived on The Island.

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  25. My name is Tom. I was a patient there in 55. The orderlies used to have rituals there. Weird rituals. Evil rituals. Satanic rituals. One night my self and some of the others observed what can only be described as a demonic ritualistic sacrifice. The orderlies had tied up one of our brothers. He was mast and gagged. He was taken and brought before the center of the fire. They cut him, drain some of his blood, painted his four head with his own blood, reached into some type of a container, and painted his face with what appeared to be some type of black oil. My brothers and I looked on in shock all and terror. We knew we had to act. At the opportune time we made our move. We cut loose our brother we put one of the orderlies in his place. We then beat him, abused him, and cut him. We were going to offer him as a sacrifice! All of a sudden the fire grew in intensity. Out of the flames a rose what I can only describe as pure evil! What we saw with terrorize us for many years to come! When I saw I can only describe as demonic. What I saw was not of this world. What I saw was the face of evil. What I saw was a figure what a shit head but with the face of a man! Once my brothers and I saw this, we knew we must leave. We ran. And ran. And continue running. Never have I ever set foot back on that evil evil land. To this day I will never go back to that wicked place. My friends, if you are thinking of going there do not! It is evil. Demons lurk there. To go there is to go to hell! Be warned!!

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    1. Are you being serious? You remember all that? Did you mean sheep head with a mans face.. Cuz u said shit head? Your story seems a bit much.

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  26. I went there and as i was leaving from inside i felt something grabing my leg really hard and it hurt so much. So by the time i got home there was a buirse on my leg... Later on that week (today) i was reading that some people saw cut off legs in a freezer... Creepiest place ever

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