The Mystery of the Moving Rug

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Hearst Castle, once known as La Cuesta Encantada hosted the most lavish parties during Prohibition and into the 30's. Famous actors, politicians and notables of the day all vied for an invitation from William Randolph Hearst and his mistress Marion Davies. In short it was the center of California society.

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Hearst & Davies playing croquet c.1935 (Source-LIFE Magazine)

By 1963, the parties had finished and the Hearst family had given the property to the State of California. Stories circulated that the sound of clinking glass, music and conversation drifted in the night, as if the festivities were still being carried on. However, the celebrities were gone, and only tourists filed through the rooms filled with beautiful objects Mr. Hearst had collected throughout his lifetime.

Among them were rugs, hundreds of them that covered the floors of the castle and the guesthouses. But there was one rug that was different. It was in a bedroom of an upper story in the south tower. Tourists were not allowed there. The staff noticed that mysteriously this one rug would curl up against a bedpost, no matter how often they straightened it out.

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Study with Heart's portrait (Hearst Castle, San Simeon)

One of the guides said, "We straighten it out, then the next time someone enters the room, the rug is out of place. No one goes in there, except the staff. None of us will admit, at least to curling up a corner of the rug so how does it get disarranged?" The staff described an "eerie sensation" and that the hairs on the back of the neck seem to prickle.

The castle had opened in 1958, and the public wanted to see more of it. Plans were made to open up that section to the public. Was the newspaper article just a ploy to entice the public to visit the soon-to-open rooms in the Hearst Castle?

​Once the tours ended, fifty-five employees roamed among the lonely corridors. Could it have been just their imagination that made them look over their shoulder, because they felt the presence of an unseen someone watching them? Perhaps it was Mr. Hearst, or Marion Davies, even though in those years the guides never mentioned her name, despite her 34-year relationship with Hearst. ​

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Thomas Ince—Jesse Lasky—Cecil B de Mille c.1920

Hearst Castle was constructed between 1919 and 1947. The apparition of Hearst himself is seen wandering around or sitting at his desk in the study. A woman in white is believed to be Marion Davies. A child has been seen playing in the garden, and a ghostly butler still follows the routine he performed many years before.

​There is also the mysterious death of film producer Thomas Ince when he was 44 years old. The official cause of death was listed as heart failure, but rumors quickly spread that Ince had been murdered. 

On November 15, 1924 W.R. Hearst visited Ince's "Dias Dorados" estate at 1051 Benedict Canyon Drive and invited Ince to celebrate his birthday on his yacht Oneida. The men were also to continue ongoing negotiations to lease Ince's studio. At dinner Sunday night Ince suffered from severe indigestion after consuming salted almonds and champagne which aggravated his peptic ulcers. Ince was taken to Del Mar where he was joined by his wife Nell and his eldest son William. From there he was taken to his home in Los Angeles where he died. Dr. Ida Glasgow, Ince's personal physician signed the death certificate citing Angina pectoris as the cause of death. Willam Ince who became a doctor said his father's symptoms resembled thrombosis.

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Toraichi Kono c.1917

The Los Angeles Times ran a front page story  that read Movie Producer Shot on Hearst Yacht!--by evening the headline had disappeared.

Ince's obituary and the San Diego district attorney cited his death as a result of heart disease. His body was cremated since he and his wife were Theosophists.

Despite the official story, others circulated which described where Hearst shot Ince in the head after mistaking him for Charlie Chaplin. Toraichi Kono, Chaplin's valet said he saw when Ince was brought ashore on a stretcher in San Diego, and he was bleeding from a bullet wound to the head. The story spread like wildfire among the Japanese domestic workers in Beverly Hills.

In 1934, Kono had a falling out with Chaplin. Before the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Kono was arrested by the FBI for connections to Japanese spies. It was suspected he was helping gather intelligence on U.S. battleships. He was in the process of being deported when the attack on Pearl Harbor took place. He was sent to an internment camp until 1948. He returned to Japan in the 1950s and died in 1971.

He was the only person who admitted to being an actual witness of what happened to Ince, based on the story that Hearst wanted to shoot Chaplin because he believed Marion Davies was having an affair with Chaplin.

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Patricia Lake was allegedly the true daughter of Hearst and Davies (1924-1993)

Marion Davies' nephew Charles Lederer told a similar story to Orson Welles, who then told Peter Boganovich who directed the film The Cat's Meow.

Elinor Glyn who was on board the Oneida told Eleanor Boardman that everyone on the ship had been sworn to secrecy.

The LA Times described where Ince's casket remained open for one hour prior to his cremation, and no witnesses described a bullet wound on his skull. 

There were also stories whispered that Louella Parson, Hearst's movie columnist was on the Oneida when Ince took ill. After this she got a lifetime contract and an expanded syndication with the newspaper. Was this hush money? Another story is that Hearst set up a trust fund for Nell Ince and he paid off the mortgage on Ince's Chateau Elysee apartment building. These were only rumors, and never verified one way or another.

Whether Hearst himself was involved in Ince’s death, or it was an accident or natural causes, many believe that Ince’s death left a lingering presence at the Hearst Castle.

​Another scandal attached to Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst was Patricia Van Cleve born in 1924. It was speculated she was really the daughter of Hearst and Davies.

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Marriage of Patricia Van Cleve and Arthur Lake at Hearst Castle c.1937

Originally it was stated her parents were Marion's sister Rosemary and her first husband George Van Cleve. After Patricia's death in 1993, the Lake family claimed the baby was born during a trip Hearst and Davies took to France in 1923. The infant was given to her maternal aunt Rosemary, whose own child had died, and the birth certificate was altered with the new identity, changing her birth year to 1919.

In 1928, a divorce decree was granted to Rose Van Cleve from her husband George who was 23 years older than her. She based her complaint on infidelity and allegations of cruelty. She said that he once took their daughter away for 3 months without explanation and where she was. Rumors were that Hearst was the one who hired detectives to find where he was staying with the girl.

Patricia Van Cleve married Arthur Lake in 1937, when she was 14 years old and Lake was 32. The marriage was celebrated at Hearst Castle, and supposedly Hearst told her the truth of her parentage on this day.

Patricia Van Cleve Lake performed in theater during the 1930s and 1940s.

 When Davies died in 1961, half of her 20 million dollar estate was left to Lake as an inheritance.

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Hearst Castle as it was known then built near Mt. Shasta c.1895

Before the famous Hearst Castle was built in San Simeon, there was another castle. In 1895, the newspapers made note that the Hearst castle was nearly complete. It was built in the Spanish style and the architect was A.C. Schweinfurth. It was made of Holland brick and Mount Shasta lava rock.

In the 1880s, Justin Hinckley Sisson, a hunter and outdoorsman established a hotel, tavern and restaurant at the foot of Mount Shasta. A railroad was completed in 1887 which brought miners, fishermen, hunters, loggers and tourists to the spot. He along with his wife Lydia operated the inn and he acquired large parcel of land through the years. He established the town of Sisson, which was renamed to Mount Shasta in 1924. Justin Sisson died in 1893.

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Marriage of Luisa de Cistui and Frank Hamilton at the castle c.1907

The structure was built on the famous Stock Ranch near Pleasanton. Mt. Diablo lay 25 miles to the northeast. Hearst gave strict orders that the house should not be pictured or described in The Examiner. The architect and builders had the same instructions. Visitors were strictly prohibited especially if they looked like newspaper people.

The railroad was less than a mile away and Hearst would travel there on his private railway car. It was constructed in the same style as the house—"tile covered, plastered with stucco outside and lathed and plastered inside."

Hearst's own apartment took up the entire third floor.

In June, 1896, most of the furniture and paintings for the Hearst Castle arrived, and were noted to be "superior to anything ever seen in this country."

An "automobile road" was constructed through several years to connect the castle to McCloud and Mott.

In July 1903, Phoebe Hearst, W.R. Hearst's mother took up residence and renamed the summer home "The Wintoon" after a local tribe. The construction was not completed yet, but far enough along which allowed the family to take up residence.

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The McCloud River flows between the Bridge House and River House at Wyntoon, circa 1970s,

In April 1905, Mrs. Atley a friend of the family came for a summer visit, at what was still referred to as Hearst Castle. Her child disappeared from the house which fronted the river, and a search found the dead body lodged against some bushes 50 yards below in the water. The coroner refused to come and examine the body, claiming the child met death by accident, despite no one having witnessed what happened.

In October, 1907 Luisa de Cistui married Frank Hamilton at the castle. This was one of many society events that were celebrated at the estate throughout the years.

In January, 1930 Wyntoon Castle as it was now known was gutted by fire. Defective wiring was blamed for the blaze.

Hearst and Marion Davies visited the house often, and lived there during WWII due to blackout conditions at Hearst Castle in San Simeon. The estate was included in Hearst's holdings when he was forced to sign them over to a group of trustees in 1937 due to bankruptcy. It was maintained by a skeleton crew and today remains privately owned by the Hearst Corp.

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