MKE: Dead Men Talking

A mysterious conversation between Michael Kissinger and Charles “Freddie” Kohl the Ghost of the Kohl Mansion.

According to CBS News pollsters, nearly half of the U.S. adult population believes in ghosts. Certainly, there are many noted incidents of famous U.S. ghost sightings which include: Abraham Lincoln, John and Abigail Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross, Al Capone, Rudolph Valentino, and the ghosts of Gettysburg.

Every house has a story to tell.

Almost all of the good ones involve ghosts. Gothic narratives are almost inseparable from the places or dwellings it chooses to fictionalize- whether it is a crumbling manor house or a decadent mansion or an abandoned apartment building- the house is always sentient, always watching and listening to the lives of those who live and once lived in them …

Included among the San Francisco Bay Area’s most reported Phantom Zones and haunted spots are:

• The Kohl Mansion (Burlingame),
• The abandoned prison on Alcatraz Island,
• Winchester Mystery House (San Jose),
• Stow Lake (San Francisco),
• The Rose Hill Cemetery (Antioch) and possibly
• The 1908-built Sam Mazza Castle right in Pacifica.

The Kohl Mansion (Burlingame)

Are you asking, “Can dead talk with the living?

• Answer: Possibly. Some people believe the dead cannot talk with the living, nor does the dead know what the living are doing (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6). However, almost half the people on earth believe in reincarnation, a teaching that the soul never dies …

We’ll also focus on Clayton Kissinger, “Michael’s” youngest son who died on February 28, 2003 and returned to life on March 1, 2003. It took 18 years to bring him back from a Traumatic Brain Injury, stroke, coma, loss of, etc. eyesight

Why this message?

• One of the biggest reasons is “Freddie” committed suicide.  Who else would be better to discuss death with? “Freddie” has been roaming the Kohl Mansion for over 100 years.

• Another is suicide is the tenth leading cause of death overall in the United States. More years of life are lost to suicide than to any other single cause except heart disease and cancer [5] 44,000 Americans die by suicide each year.The Veterans Administration admitted that as many as 20 American veterans commit suicide every single day. This may help as a prevention. The rate of suicide is highest in middle-aged white men . On average, there are 132 suicides per day. Worldwide an estimated one million people per year die by suicide. [“a death every 40 seconds or about 3,000 every day”].

A GHOSTLY EXPERIENCE

“Michael” says the conversation with “Freddie” remains in his memory from years ago. At the time he was working as a night security guard at the Kohl Mansion.

Every night he would walk multiple times through the Mansion and around the grounds surrounding the Mansion.  He discovered many unusual things.   Strange noises, lights on the 4^th floor in a locked room, and strange feelings as he walked in the Mansion and around the grounds.

He says it was like he was being followed all through the Mansion. He worked there for months every night until 7:00 am the next morning.

As he worked there strange feelings would occasionally come over him.  It was not something that caused him to get scarred and uncomfortable.  It was strange feelings that are hard to describe.

Months went by but every evening he felt these feelings with “Freddie“.

One evening while “Michael” was in the Grand Ball Room something came over him. It caused him to talk out loud.  This started many conversations between “Freddie” and “Michael”.

“Freddie” spoke softly and told “Michael” not to worry he was “Freddie” the owner of the Mansion.

As the evenings went by “Michael” would call out for “Freddie“.  “Michael” started receiving short responses.

In “Michael” mind he thought he was talking out loud. As “Michael” thinks about it could have been a mental conversation.

More time passed.

The conversations first started the were very short.  General greetings.  Then as the evenings passed and as time went on the conversations lasted longer. Then they became longer and more serious.

“Michael” heard before starting to work in the evenings at the Mansion that it had a ghost.  He was interested in knowing more and more.  

“Freddie” said he wanted to know more about “Michael”. 

“Michael” fold him about his youngest son Clayton who had been attacked by 21 guys with baseball bats. He died that night and was brought back to life. Clayton had a traumatic brain injury, a coma, a stroke. Clayton was in a coma for a very long time.

“Michael” told “Freddie” on the night of the attack he was on the floor in the San Francisco General Hospital ICU praying that if God kept Clayton alive, he would do whatever God asked him to do. Ever since that night “Michael” has done whatever God asked him to do.

The hospital doctors told “Michael” many things that night.

The doctors told him: Traumatic brain injury (TBI), a condition to the head which disrupts normal brain function. It is a major cause of death and disability in the United States. In the U.S., every year, about 2.6 million people have some type of brain injury.

A TBI impaired concentration, limited attention span, and short-term memory. Clayton’s traumatic brain injury will cause him to experience many challenges in learning new material and completing assignments or just functioning normally in his life. God kept Clayton alive. He was in a coma.

Clayton was in a coma for months. Every day “Michael” would go to the ICU hospital unit and play a subliminal program Sound Health, Sound Wealth to heal Clayton. This is a one-of-a-kind program that synthesizes ancient wisdom, post-quantum physics, vibration, color therapies, and the very latest scientific research and technology into an unprecedented new sound frequency treatment for better health.

These powerful biochemical messengers enabled Clayton to literally access his DNA codes, increasing their ability to heal him psychologically, physically, and spiritually.

Clayton was able to reap all the amazing benefits of this cutting-edge technology. It tapped into Clayton’s internal subconscious mind at the deepest core of his being!

“Michael” knew from his training that people in a coma are not brain dead or totally out of it. He knew that Clayton could hear everything in his state of unconsciousness.

Everyday Clayton was in his coma 24/7 “Michael” played the program to heal Clayton.

Clayton had been a star high school football player. He was very physical. His doctors told “Michael” Clayton may not survive from his coma or if he did wake up, he may never walk again, complete high school or ever function as a normal child or adult.

As Clayton improved, “Michael” observed Clayton had many challenges. Things like:

• Changes in physical and mental habits
• Change in eating habits
• Unusual or easy irritability
• Persistent crying and inability to be consoled
• Change in ability to pay attention
• Change in sleep habits
• Seizures
• Sad or depressed moods
• Drowsiness
• Loss of interest in favorite activities
• Many more

“Michael” said to “Freddie” he worried more and more about Clayton committing suicide because the doctors told “Michael” Clayton may never recover. He was only 14 years old at the time.

Kissinger said to “Freddie” since he committed suicide, he had questions. “Michael” wanted to know all that “Freddie” knew about life and suicide.

“Freddie” agreed to tell “Michael” all that he knew.

“Michael” want to know why a man as rich as “Freddie” would take his life since he was one of the richest men in the Bay Area. “Freddie” committed suicide in 1921. He owned the Kohl Mansion and had assets in excess of $5.5 million.

• “Freddie” wanted to know why Kissinger was in his Mansion.  “Michael” told “Freddie“ he was a guard walking the Mansion every evening.  “Michael” told “Freddie” his son Clayton was attacked by a gang and died but was brought back from death.  “Michael” told “Freddie” he spent years bringing Clayton back from the dead at a cost in excess of $3.5 million.  “Michael” told “Freddie” he had to give up his previous life in order to take care of Clayton.

• “Michael said he wanted to know more about death and suicide. What it was like to die.  “Michael” told “Freddie” that Clayton told him that when you die you go to a place where there is a brilliant light.  You float in that zone until you live or die.

Over time “Freddie” talked to “Michael” on many occasions.

They had conversations about the Kohl family, its lifestyle, home, events of the time, life, and death. “Freddie” told “Michael” his father was William Kohl. That he had made his fortunes as a founding partner of the Alaska Commercial Company. 

“Freddie” told “Michael” he grew up accustomed to an opulent and fashionable lifestyle and that he married Mary Elizabeth Godey (Bessie) in 1904. “Freddie” told “Michael” that:

• Bessie and “Freddie” had traveled to extensively throughout Europe
• They built the Kohl Mansion between 1912 and 1914.

The Kohl Mansion was originally known as “The Oaks.” It was red-brick, 63-room Tudor mansion that still stands on forty acres along Adeline Drive in north Burlingame.

“Freddie” told “Michael” the estate included beautiful, rolling landscapes, a sunken English rose garden, tennis courts, green houses, large carriage house, and a 150,000-gallon reservoir. That its value stood at $525,000 in those early days.

“Freddie” said the Mansion was nothing short of magical. There were sprawling lawns, an incredible rose garden, and a wonderful terrace.  There was the distinctive wood-paneled Great Hall and the grand staircase.  There were lavish parties he gave for the “smart set.”

“Frederick” said he and Bessie were central members of the “Smart Set” in San Francisco during the first years of the century. They entertained at the Mansion and also at their summer home they had purchased from the Crockers. It is now called Idlewild and on their yacht there.

“Freddie” said had the Mansion designed by local architects Howard and White to resemble Somerset House, seat of the Duke of Surrey in England.

The first floor was made for entertaining in its light filled dining room and in the Great Hall patterned after Arlington Hall in Essex, England– a perfect setting for Bessie’s singing.

“Freddie” said the mansion’s 63 rooms included, beside the public rooms and the bedrooms, a billiard room, organ, and echo organ rooms; a china room, a scullery; cold room and storeroom; two steel-lined fireproof vaults; sewing, linen, cedar and brushing rooms; a wine cellar; a trunk room and a laundry. A chapel was built off the master bedroom on the second floor for Bessie, who was a Catholic.

The impressive Great Hall (27’x60’x40’H) took the visitor’s breath away with the height of its ceiling and the elegance of its dark oak walls. Sunlight poured in through the wall of mullioned windows.

The Hall housed both an Aeolian organ and a small echo organ installed hidden behind the oak walls. The mantle of its imposing Belgian marble fireplace large enough to stand in is decorated with choir boys holding music sheets.

The large painting of a knight on horseback above the fireplace was by artist Emile Mazy. Kohl included a portrait of his daughter Lucia.

In the main stairwell of the mansion hung a charming oil painting of Freddie at about the age of three (app. 1866). His face and his haircut are all boy, however his off the shoulder gown, usual for a fashionable young child at that time, surprises our modern eyes.

The house had many careful architectural details. The ancient oak trees surrounding the house were reflected in the oak leaves and acorns carved into the wood, especially in the entry and the library.

“Freddie” said he brought artisans from Europe to do plaster detailing. They created Pompeiian “grotesque” panels in the Library, Robert Adam-style relief work in the dining room, and also ram’s heads in the corners of the billiard room ceiling.

The Sad Tale of “Freddie” Continues

“Freddie” said his ghostly tale involving a fatal attraction with his mother’s maid, Adele. It had gone too far. “Freddie” said problems developed when Adele argued with a chauffeur, slapped him, and spat in his face.

“Freddie” said he thought she belonged in an asylum and called the police. The court disagreed. Adele was a bit on the temperamental side, but surely not deranged. She went free.

“Freddie” said he discharged Adele, offering to pay her way to France. She refused, followed his family home, and filed suit against him.

A well-publicized trial took place in 1911, at the Grant Building at 7th and Market in San Francisco. The court dismissed the charges in his favor. Adele rushed from the room. She was waiting near the elevator when he emerged.

The outraged Adele Verge found him outside the courthouse. Drawing a nickel-plated derringer from her handbag. She fired point blank. “Freddie” said he slumping to the floor. Adele turned and fled.

“Freddie” said the bullet lodged in his chest, too close to his heart to risk surgery.

He recovered, but the wound caused him great physical and mental suffering the rest of his life. “Freddie” said refused to press charges, so no trial was held.

Adele was deported to France and confined to an asylum. She vowed vengeance upon him.

“Freddie” said he put his troubles behind him and began work on an elaborate Tudor style Kohl Mansion.

“Freddie” said on Christmas 1914, he opened the mansion, entertaining lavishly for two years. The rose brick mansion towered over his 40-acre estate. It included a tennis court, greenhouses, rose gardens and a carriage house.

It was not enough to dispel memories of Adele.

“Freddie” said he and Bessie separated. Bessie was a talented singer. Bessie went to Europe to entertain the troops. “Freddie” said he consoled himself with socialite Marion Lord, but their happiness was short-lived.

The bullet in his chest was a constant source of pain, added to this growing anxiety.  

Adele was released from the asylum and threatened to finish the job of killing him.

In 1920, Adele wrote first from Quebec, then British Columbia. She was coming closer and closer. He said he was certain Adele was on her way to kill him.

By 1921, “Freddie” said his mental instability reached a deadly peak. He feared her revenge. It terrified him.

On the morning of November 23, 1921, at the Del Montel Lodge near Pebble Beach, California “Freddie” breakfasted alone in his suite. At 10 a.m. a single shot was heard. “Freddie” was found, still seated at the table, with a .38 caliber revolver clutched in his hand. The bullet had passed through his skull, lodging in the wall.

LIFE AND DEATH CONVERSATIONS

“Michael” asked Freddie” why he chose to die? Why die when you had a huge estate of $5.5 million in assets including the Mansion and the love of his life. What was it like to die? Should anyone commit suicide? Was worth it to die? What being dead like?

“Freddie” said the moment he fired the gun he knew he made a mistake but there was no way to change it. “Freddie” said even with all the pain he was suffering at the time it was not worth giving up his life. It was not worth it to give up the love of his life, to give up $5.5 million in assets and his beautiful Mansion and the love for life.

“Freddie” said his estate went to Marion Lord his mistress Marion Lord.  That she received the bulk of his estate and sold his house in 1924 to the Sisters of Mercy for $230,000. He said his ex-wife Bessie received only $250,000 from his estate. What a sad state of affairs.

• What is it like to die?

Freddie” said was it is pretty scary. He said death is a peaceful journey down a dark tunnel towards a light. He said death includes experiences of fear, and memories which seem to correspond to real events. Your life passes before your eyes. Consciousness does not appear to stop for 20 to 30 seconds after death.

He said his experience in relation to death was like hallucinations or illusions. He said, the brain ceases functioning within 20-30 seconds of death.  

• Kissinger’s asked “Freddie” should anyone commit suicide?

“Freddie” said absolutely not. Suicide often involves severe emotional or physical pain that a person finds unbearable.

This was what was he was feeling when he committed suicide. He said there are many reasons a person considers suicide. Often, it is the result of long-term difficulties with thoughts, feelings, or experiences that the individual feels that they cannot bear any longer.  This is what he was feeling when he committed suicide. He said, among other things, he was feeling:

• sadness or grief
• shame
• worthlessness
• intense guilt
• rage, or a desire to seek revenge
• a burden to others
• had no worth or value
• life was not worth living
• trapped, either physically or emotionally
• things would never get better
• intense physical or emotional pain

“Freddie” said this was how he felt at the time of his suicide.

Summary

“Freddie” told Kissinger in his case he suffered many of the challenges of life and that was why he committed suicide. His wife left him and the couple separated.

• The bullet in his chest was a constant source of pain, added to this growing anxiety.  Adele, the woman who shot him was released from the asylum, now threatened to finish the job. By 1921, his mental instability reached a deadly peak. On the morning of November 23, 1921, “Freddie” could not take any more.

• “Michael” asked Freddy if it was worth it to commit suicide.

Freddie” said the Roman Catholic Church has long argued that one’s life is the property of God, and thus that to commit suicide is to deride God’s prerogatives. The reality is that suicide is seldom the product of cool-headed deliberation. He said, killing himself was not worth it in light of all the medical improvements available to him had he not committed suicide.

• “Michael” asked “Freddy” how it feels to be dead

“Freddie” said whatever you imagine your final living seconds. You are an impartial observer. Death is like the darkest dark and silent silence. There is always a white noise. You are a spectator. you have reached the end.

Something in me snapped, and I remembered I had a life, and people I left behind. And my first thought when I pulled the trigger was, I can’t leave my life. Then I decided to leave my body. Once I decided I could leave, it was my physical end.

• “Michael” asked “Freddy” what it felt like to die.

Freddie” said even though death is a universal experience, death feels like many things. Death is like the darkest dark and silent silence. You Lose Your Senses. You Feel Like You’re Dreaming. You See Life Flash Before Your Eyes. Your Still Be Aware of What’s Going on Around You for A Time. It is Painful. You Get Dizzy. Then You Feel Nothing at All.

• “Michael” asked “Freddy” How he felt to Die?

Freddie” told Kissinger it was the worst mistake of his life.

“Michael” asked “Freddie” if he had ever considered Prevention.

“Michael” said he used books like the Master Key System to help Clayton and himself as a way to eliminate feelings of depression, life isn’t worth living, soon I won’t be a burden anymore, I’d be better off dead, there is no way out, or the world would be better off without me.

“Freddie” said he had thought about it but at that time in his life there was not a lot of suicide or depression prevention help available.

A Way of Prevention

“Freddie” said the number one reason for his suicide was untreated his health, depression, and etc.

“Michael” said in order to not have “Freddie’s” death not a total loss, that he would write “Dead Men Talking“ the “Freddie” Kohl story and offer the Master Key System as a possible solution to people considering hurting themselves or committing suicide. Solutions are not simple or linear, but the Master Key System can help.

“Freddie” said he understands why suicide was not the best solution for him.  He said how sorry he was he committed suicide.  That the very minute he pulled the trigger he knew he made a mistake.

“Michael” told “Freddie” about Charles F. Haanel wrote the Master Key System.

Charles F. Haanel was a noted American author and businessman who belonged to the American Scientific League, The Author’s League of America, The American Society of Psychical Research, the St. Louis Humane Society, and the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce.

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Charles F. Haanel began his business career in St. Louis. He resigned his position in order to start his own company and eventually founded one of the largest conglomerates of his time. He wrote several books which were published in St. Louis by Psychology Publishing and by his Master Key Institute in New York. Mr. Haanel put into books the ideas and methods he used to gain his success.

Besides the “Master Key System,” which he wrote in 1912, he also wrote “Mental Chemistry” and “The New Psychology”

By 1933 The Master Key System had sold over 200,000 copies and then seemingly disappeared. The Master Key System is one of the finest studies in self-improvement and higher consciousness ever written. Covering everything from how to get wealthy to how to get healthy, Mr. Haanel leaves no stone unturned. With precision, he elucidates on each topic with logic and rigor that not only leaves you feeling good, but also thinking good. The book was banned by the Church in 1933 and has been hidden away for seventy years.

Rumor has it that while he was attending Harvard University, Bill Gates discovered and read The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel. It was this book that inspired Bill Gates to drop out of the University and pursue his dream of “a computer on every desktop.” You probably know the results. . .

It is Silicon Valley’s secret that almost every entrepreneur who made a fortune in
recent years did so by studying the words Mr. Haanel penned over eighty years ago! Almost every millionaire and billionaire in the Valley read The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel. Since this book was no longer in print until recently, copies of The Master Key System became a hot commodity in the Valley.

The Master Key System is a system that teaches the ultimate principles, causes,
effects, and laws that underlie all attainment and success. When you want to attain
something, The Master Key System will show you how to get it. The results you will
attain from using this system are so startling as to appear incredible. For this reason, more and more people are becoming students of The Master Key System than ever before.

In 24 parts, The Master Key sets out the fundamental principles of life and creative
living, as Haanel came to understand and apply them. Basic to his teaching is the correct development and use of mental power — the key to truly creative power and action, harmony and health, love and happiness, and abundant possibilities. Each part is meant to be studied like a correspondence course lesson, but this is also a book that can be opened at random for whatever gem of advice your eyes happen to fall upon.

This age-old wisdom was written by someone who could perceive and tap into
Universal Mind but who seems to have no particular allegiance to any specific system of knowledge. Haanel’s numbered common-sense messages still have a freshness 89 years after they were first assembled.

Mr. Haanel died in 1949 and is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis. Walter
B. Stevens described Mr. Haanel as “a man of mature judgement, capable of taking a calm survey of life and correctly valuing its opportunities, its possibilities, its demands and obligation.

Conclusion

Freddie” told Kissinger over the years the nuns reported unexplainable occurrences including visions, eerie sounds, and an empty elevator going up and down and the sound of a limping figure in his locked billiard room.  That was him walking through his Mansion.

The Priests were summoned to exorcise his ghost. They were unsuccessful. He still haunts his Mansion to this day. People continue to report seeing “Freddie” in the parlor as well as on the stairs. “Freddie” has become like the friendly “Ghost of the Kohl Mansion.”

Let us talk….

Do you feel like you are having challenges in your life that may led to suicide or that you do not have the life what?   We would love to hear from you. Where Do You See Yourself in 1-5-10 Years? If you do not know contact us.

Suggested Listening: Outwitting the Devil is a work of fiction that was written in 1938 by Napoleon Hill, which was considered too controversial to be published in its era. The book is written as an interview between Hill (Mr. Earthbound) and the devil (our inner dark self), wherein Hill attempts to uncover the secrets to freedom and success by evaluating the greatest obstacles that humans face in order to attain whatever they want. (1) Napoleon Hill’s Audiobook Outwitting the Devil – YouTube

Michael Kissinger

Phone 415-678-9965

Email: mjkkissinger@yahoo.com

References

C. Frederick Kohl is Shot. (1911, June 9). The San Francisco Call. Retrieved from
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1911-06-09/ed-1/seq-1.pdf

Charles F. Kohl Weds Miss Godey. (1903, October 8). The San Francisco Call. Retrieved from http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19031008.2.24

Dossa, L., Gouailhardou, M., and Wilkinson, C. (2013). Freddie Facts. Retrieved from  http://kohlmansion.com/wordpress1/freddie-facts/

Mrs. Wm. Kohl dies in Santa Barbara. (1912, February 28). The San Francisco Call. Retrieved from http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19120228.2.23

Richter, J. (1999, October 15). Kohl Mansion has its roots in The Oaks. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved from http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Kohl-Mansion-has-its-roots-in-The-Oaks-3062547.php