“The spook would grab his victim by the throat, and all but strangle him.”
A 1926 article in the Honolulu Advertiser quotes an officer who claimed that the basement holding cells in the Honolulu Police Station on Merchant Street were haunted.
The officer was quoted as saying that the middle cell was often used for post-mortem examinations, and after a while, that cell became known for being a rendezvous for violent ghosts. Apparently, the ghosts would hover in the cell until someone came along, then launch an attack on the unsuspecting attendant.
“The place would turn as cold as ice,” the officer stated, “The wind would whistle through the bars, and there would be terrible whispers.”
The specter was said to seize its victim by the throat and nearly strangle him. Many nights, the officers claimed, they could hear the howls of these dreadful struggles.
Completed in 1886, the original police station was a two-story brick building. The ground floor housed police offices, the courtroom was on the second floor, and the cell block was in the basement. But after nearly 40 years, it was clear that Honolulu was in need of a larger police headquarters. The original station was demolished in 1930, and the new Honolulu Police Station was built on the same site.
This new three-story building, dubbed the Walter Murray Gibson Building, was praised as one of the city’s most attractive public buildings, featuring notable architectural details, including arches on the upper levels and marble countertops. Architect Louis E. Davis designed it in a Spanish Revival style.
During World War II, the Honolulu Police Station became part of the broader wartime changes taking place across Hawai‘i. In the months after Pearl Harbor, an unknown number of Japanese prisoners were reportedly held at the station before being transferred to the U.S. Immigration Station Administration Building, which was used as a temporary detention center. The police headquarters also housed the office of the Alien Property Custodian. This department oversaw the wartime control and seizure of property classified as “enemy-owned” or “enemy-controlled.” These measures affected many local families and business owners, particularly within Hawai‘i’s Japanese community, and added to the uncertainty felt during those difficult years.
During the war, the U.S. Army military police occupied the basement of the building, later vacating and returning the space to the police department in 1946. There, the department remained until moving to a larger space in the 1960s. But as we know from past experience, although the building’s function changes, the hauntings often remain.
Today, the Walter Murray Gibson Building houses city and county government offices, and in 2017, it served as the Honolulu Police Department in the Marvel series The Inhumans. I was fortunate to be cast as a police sergeant in the pilot. While awaiting my part and during downtime on the set, people who worked in the building told me it is still haunted. Items move on their own accord, and people hear whispers when working alone. Sadly, I didn’t have much time to talk in depth about what was happening in the building.
However, a member of my lodge did share an interesting story. My friend’s son, Tom, was part of a two-man team sent to the Walter Murray Gibson Building to replace outdated wiring. For some reason, Tom’s workmate brought his son to work that day, which didn’t seem to be a problem.
As Tom was standing on a ladder tending to a light fixture, his partner was working on some outlets behind him. Every few minutes, the workmate would ask his son to hand him a screwdriver, and Tom could hear the frustration in his partner’s voice because the boy kept handing his father the wrong tool. The two began bickering back and forth until Tom finally became irritated and turned to tell them both to stop. But… no one was there.
An eerie quiet hung in the air as Tom just stood on his ladder, looking around. Then, at the far end of the room, the father and son walked in with coffee and snacks from a nearby 7-Eleven.
He never found out who the disembodied voices belonged to, but he still swears it sounded like his coworker and his kid.
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