Another "Extra" at the Express News

I wrote briefly about the ghost at the San Antonio Express News in Spirits of San Antonio and South Texas. Helen Lampkin, a sales representative, had told me about her only encounter with the ghost at the newspaper which occurred in 1990. During a smoking break, as she stood in the hallway near the freight elevators, she glimpsed a gentleman in an old-fashioned black wool suit standing just behind her. He was there one minute, and had totally disappeared the next! The encounter was so upsetting to Lampkin she still will not go near the spot where she saw the man.

The apparition of the gentleman dressed all in black, in clothing reminiscent of the last century, has also appeared on a fairly regular basis to occupants of the pressroom at the San Antonio Express News. Sometimes he appears quite often, and it’s usually in the late afternoon. It has gotten to where he sometimes acknowledges the people there; and at other times he totally ignores them, walking straight at, or even through, the startled employees! A friend of mine who is employed at the newspaper, telemarketer Jerry Salazar, told me about the strange visitor to the newspaper offices. He said they’ve gotten so used to him they more or less just ignore him now!

Salazar first noticed the ghost on the fourth floor of the main building. He has also felt it from time to time on the third floor. Although he has only seen the apparition twice, he has experienced the presence of the spirit in other ways. Jerry, who is quite sensitive, says "It passes right through you, and gives you a chill."

In the basement of the building, where the old presses are located, there was a period of several years when the ghost was quite active. Frank Solis, who is often referred to as "Pancho," has worked in the pressroom for twenty-eight years. He says every once in awhile when he was by himself down in the pressroom, cleaning up, he would feel something watching him, and he would get chills and goosebumps. Sometimes Solis saw the apparition of a man who seemed to be playing hide-and-go-seek behind the presses. He said that he had only seen the specter in the afternoons, never at night, and always it came to the same area.

The San Antonio Express News recently ran an article about their resident ghost in the October 1996 issue of Enside Source, the employee publication. This article mentioned the occasion when Solis was in the basement area trying to move a heavy roll of paper. As he struggled, a man’s arm appeared next to him and helped him push the cumbersome roll away. Solis said he was so frightened he ran off so fast he forgot to thank the mysterious "helping hand."

Robert Jones, an employee in the pressroom for thirteen years, said he has heard the old cars that used to carry the paper rolls running on their little tracks, and he knew no one was around. More recently, as Jones was cleaning up the area around the new presses, he saw a white shadow pass by.

I mentioned these strange appearances to my psychic friend Sam Nesmith. He went down and walked all around the Express News building, covering the whole block where it is located. He came up with some fascinating tidbits. In fact, Sam told me he had been in contact with the old gentleman, and he seemed to know a great deal about him. How psychics communicate with the dead I do not even begin to comprehend. But Sam has been right on the money so many times before, I just listen to what he tells me and then pass it on to my readers to, as Robert Ripley said, "believe it or not."