Haunted Spokane: Gonzaga music building carries a spooky tune

SPOKANE, Wash. – Gonzaga University is known for its impressive sports teams and world-class education. There is also a music building that some students said has a unique feature: It's haunted.

Students said they have seen and heard some unexplainable things, like mysterious noises in the middle of the night and pianos playing by themselves.

It turns out there was actually an exorcism performed in the 1970s.

The building itself is majestic, but ask GU's music students how they feel about it and they will swear there is more to the story.

"It's just a creepy feeling," one student said.

Another said you would hear somebody walking down the stairs, and when you go to check no one is there.

Trace the music back to its roots and Chet Caskey, a ghostologist, says it turns out the students are right.

"Monoghan Mansion is probably, from the 1970s, our most famous ghost sight in the United States," he said.

Caskey said this year's students are not the first to witness the unexplainable.

"Some 40 events, Father Leedale said, some of which were too horrible to describe."

Father Leedale was a professor at the university. In the 1970s he told media he had heard growling in the basement.

Father Leedale said he had seen doors flinging themselves open, and said someone tried to strangle the guards.

"The only solution was to have a series of exorcisms that are authorized even to this day in the Roman Catholic Church," Caskey said.

"And that's what they did."

On February 28, 1975, Father Leedale announced the spirits had been chased out of the mansion. But today, students like Danielle Delbene said the exorcism was not enough.

"All of the sudden, they see piano keys moving," Delbene said. "No one is there, they're like 'are you serious?!"

"The ghost just stayed there," said Jimmy McGinley, another music major on campus. "You may see me in five years and I could be completely possessed."