In August 1858, an arson attack destroyed some of their businesses. Crushed by this loss and the death of Thomas at the beginning of that year, the family moved to San Francisco where Whaley worked as curator of the US Army.UU.
After the tragic divorce from violet one of the daughters of Thomas Whaley, which caused a tremendous humiliation in this in 1884 and a period of great depression, supervised by the local doctor, violet ended up committing suicide in house skyrocketing a bullet in the heart on August 18, 1885.
The first ghost documented in the Whaley House is James Robinson nicknamed "Yankee Jim". James Robinson was charged with attempted robbery in San Diego in 1852, and hung on a gallows on the back of a pickup truck at the place where House is now. Although Thomas Whaley had been a spectator of the execution, don't let that deter you from buying the property a few years later and the construction there itself a House for his family.
The ghost of Anna Whaley has also been, usually in the rooms on the ground floor or in the garden. In 1964 a researcher could see the ghost of Mrs. Whaley: "suddenly I realized something in the wall", said Philbin, "there was something airy white, seemed an apparition of some sort, no doubt was the silhouette of Anna Whaley"
The Whaley House continues to live quietly on the Avenida San Diego as it has done for a century and a half. Every day visitors come from all over the world to visit the historical Museum. It contains so much history within its walls, that even skeptics will enjoy the tour. For believers and skeptics alike, the House brings them back again and again, in search of those elusive ghosts.
