Ghosts of Old Honolulu Walking Tour.
I invite you to take part in a journey with me through Aokuewa, the realms of restless spirits, that inhabit our Downtown community. We walk the paths once traveled by Hawaii’s Royalty.
This was Glen Grant’s first Honolulu ghost tour that began in the late 1980s. These days, you may see many Honolulu ghost tours that bring you through the Downtown area, and for good reason, but this is the tour that started them all. Join us as we follow the paths once walked by Royalty as we visit the eeriest of Honolulu’s haunts.
Ghosts of Old Honolulu Walking Tour - Thursday or Saturday Nights
WE MEET IN FRONT OF THE KAMEHAMEHA STATUE at Ali‘iolani Hale, 417 S King Street, Honolulu. Parking on S. King and Punchbowl Streets is free after 6pm.
Tour length, 90 minutes
Tour begins promptly at 7pm
$40 per person
View Dates and book your experience through the link below
Ghost of Postal Worker Haunts Downtown Post Office
On January 29th, 1925, dedicated Postal Assistant, Benedict L. Westkaemper, was arrested and suspended from work on the charge of sending banned matter in the mail.
The complaint was filed by the Post-Office Inspector. Westkaemper was charged with (and admitted to) sending an obscene letter through the US mail to a woman in San Francisco. Bail was set at $1500, which was posted and Westkaemper was released awaiting trial.
It is said that Westkaemper stopped outside the federal building a few moments, then made his way to the corner of Richards and King streets where he boarded a Waikiki car. He went to his room at the Elks club in Waikiki where he remained alone almost an hour.
The police received a mysterious phone call at 3pm by a woman who said, “Watch Westkaemper, he said he’s going to shoot himself.”
He slipped out of the Elks club without a word to anyone, walking directly toward Diamond Head.
A few minutes later, after the sharp report of a pistol, a dairyman found Westkaemper in a gulch on his back with a revolver in his hand and a bullet wound through his heart.
Westkaemper’s boss, Postmaster MacAdam said, “He was a very efficient postal man, one of the best men we have ever had here. He was a hard worker, intensely interested in his work, and accomplished real results in any task he tackled. The letter, which ultimately led to his suicide, was a distinct surprise to me. It was hard to believe he would do such a thing. It was not like him. Perhaps it was strain from work that was responsible but I at least feel confident that something unusual prompted it, probably the first time in his life that it happened, and it might have been the last if nothing had come of the letter.”
Barely a month later, postal laborer, Adam Wong, along with the foreman of carriers, was in the basement of the federal building getting supplies.
Supplies procured, Wong was stepping from the supply room into the corridor, when he glanced up. Approaching him, he says, was the tall brooding figure of Westkaemper.
The ghost did not speak - nor did it raise its eyes. It came forward toward the door.
Belief was rampant in the federal building that Westkaemper was back, watching the postal supplies to see that there is no waste of them.
Postal workers today have told Lopaka and Mysteries of Hawaii that the building is still haunted by the ghost of the old postal worker, Benedict Westkaemper... and so much more...
You can read more about Benedict Westkaemper HERE.