History is more fun when told with soap-based fake blood and scenes of crazed violence. Both were present Oct. 30 when Whatcom Museum hosted a ghostly tour through Old City Hall — home to the museum since 1941.
Our tour group, some in costumes, gathered at the formidable black-doored entrance to the old jail cells. Drew Whatley, the museum’s education manager, warned us of the gruesome content that was to come — possibly unsuitable for young ears.
Whatley’s shirt was stained with fake blood and he opened the thick door, leading us down cobwebbed -stairs to a small white room, its walls lined with doors. He told us he would be sharing the stories of five local murderers.
Whatley pulled these stories from the book “Murder in the Fourth Corner,” written by Whatcom Museum historian Todd A. Warger. The book tells true stories of early homicides in the county, from 1880 to 1933.
Whatley led us into one of the doors lining the room. This white room held blueprints of the jail cells and more doors. He prompted the guests to look through the peepholes of a door, and our curiosity was met with a portrait of murderer Ben Worstell, the Barber of Bellingham.
Worstell had previously been committed to a mental hospital, and when his mother threatened to send him back for not living up to her moral standards, he strangled her to death. Worstell was held in the old jail in 1933 and was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
A curiously red-lit room with a bed and drapes on the wall was our next stop. Whatley told us a tale of Russian soldier August Friedberg and his day off looking for entertainment in a red-light district in 1907. When Friedburg’s entertainment, dancer Odie Briscoe, known as Snowball Wallace, decided to take a break, Friedburg turned into an angry drunk. He shot Briscoe twice in the abdomen and she died shortly after.
Two rooms we walked through housed bloody props; vignettes of the murder scenes we were learning about.
“Vignette adds that extra element to tell the story; you can kind of see it come alive,” Whatley said.
The first was a kitchen table with an ax on it, splattered in blood. This scene told the story of Guisseppe Stumpo, who murdered his wife at the breakfast table in 1914.
The second vignette showed a card game splayed out on a saloon table, a rusty knife drowning in fake blood. Lumbermen Hugh Finnian and George Shoemaker got into a fight over a card game in 1909, resulting in the death of Shoemaker and a not-guilty verdict for Finnian, on account of self-defense.
While murder was being recounted downstairs, the museum also hosted a craft event for their younger, costumed patrons. Glue sticks, glitter, coloring pages and more were laid out on two tables, little hands scribbling and gluing as their guardians watched on. Kids were treated to a monster-themed story time with museum educator Bridget Girnus.
The haunted Old City Hall jail tour happened once before in 2019, but COVID-19 prevented it again until 2022. The museum hopes to host the event again next October.
For more information on Whatcom Museum, Old City Hall, Bellingham’s haunted history and other tours, visit whatcommuseum.org.
