Spirits of San Antonio: Ghost hunter leads haunting tour

by Amelia Gonzales, co-associate editor

Many people associate the city of San Antonio as a city of tourism and romance. Where many have traveled, many also have died.

The streets of downtown San Antonio is the resting place of 189 Texan defenders and 1,600 Mexican troops who lost their lives in The Battle of the Alamo, one of the most famous battles in United States history.

What is left of the mission of San Antonio de Valera, better known as “the Alamo,” is now one of the biggest tourist attractions in the nation. Since the Alamo is considered a national shrine, it has its own police force and is guarded 24 hours a day year around. Vandalism of the Alamo such as writing on the walls or even touching is walls treated as felony and taken extremely seriously. In 1983, Ozzy Osborne was banned from the state of Texas for 10 years because he relieved himself on the Alamo.

Ghost hunter and guide of the live haunting tour of the Alamo, Martin Leal, explains that the walls of the Alamo once stretched for miles on either side. What now stands in the center of Alamo Road is part original and part a reproduction of limestone wall that once existed.

Much of the Alamo was destroyed during the battle, and Santa Ana sent Mexican troops to go back and destroy what was left standing in order to prevent it from becoming a shrine. While the flames began raging, the Mexican troops saw an apparition come forth from the flames reaching out toward them. The terrified troops backed off and failed in destroying what tourists see today.

Pompeo Coppini, an Italian-Texan sculptor built a statue of the apparition that saved the shrine from burning down completely. At the feet of the apparition, the burning bodies of the defenders of the Alamo are seen reaching up for help. On the side of the statue is a memorial for all those who fought and lost their lives during the battle. 

Members of the police force who defend the Alamo, along with several eyewitnesses, claim that many of the past defenders still roam the area that once was a bloody battlefield. The ghost hunter explains that one of the apparitions that has been sighted most is that of a young man dressed in a cowboy hat and a long trench coat. Even more unusual, witnesses say, is that his clothing is soaked with water dripping from the brim of his hat.

The ghost hunter explains that the significance of the water comes from the rain that poured down heavily during the week of 1836, the same week of the battle of the Alamo. His face always appears to be gloomy, and he vanishes when people try to get close.

The tour takes approximately an hour and a half, during which time Leal teaches tourists how to capture the images of apparitions on film and what to look for when searching for the paranormal. The tour takes tourists through the grounds of the Alamo and throughout the streets of San Antonio, visiting the final resting place of many. Leal shares his experiences, along with equipment that he personally uses to assist him in seeing what the naked eye cannot see.

The Emily Morgan Hotel, which sits directly across from the Alamo, was once the San Antonio Medical Arts Building. Up until 1976, the hospital was in full service. The room that has had the most paranormal sightings sits on the eighth floor in room 811. Guests have reported apparitions that run through the rooms turning over bed sheets and making appearances in the mirror as guests look at their own reflections.

“Hotel management has been know to offer discounts to those who stay on the cardiac floor, as well as the morgue,” says Leal.

One of the reasons that Leal gives for the lingering dead is that they tend to have unfinished business. Many of the apparitions that have been identified are said to have died without fulfilling promises while alive, or they are simply content with where they are and have made it a point to remain there.

Leal said he has been fortunate enough to capture images that come in different forms. The majority of the images appear to be nothing more than wisps of smoke and streaks of light. Other images show full-formed human figures that can be identified as individuals who have passed away.

Many tourists have been able to see different colors of auras around the heads of other tourists using special goggles that Leal provides during the tour. Different colors have different meanings for different people. He said that those who are able to see auras are able to see them for about 30 minutes.

“Only a select few will be able to see these auras,” says Leal. “Just as only a select few will ever see an apparition.”

Leal mentions that many people who travel through San Antonio become wrapped up in the entertainment, never realizing that the entertainment strip of the River Walk is also the home to many un-rested spirits. Reports have been made on things mysteriously flying across rooms and people disappearing through the walls of the River Walk Mall, as well as those of some widely known night clubs.

While most visitors never run across a single ghost or feel the haunting spirits that lay under the beauty of the city of San Antonio, it is the history of those from its past that keep the city an intriguing place that draws millions of tourists each year.