“The general analysis is that the electrical systems on the prime suspect, whom the sheriff’s office had were faulty,” Roddy said. “That’s significant because identified as a 19-year-old ward of the school named safer working conditions were a recurring aim for most Eugene Monroe. Monroe was tried three separate times of the strikes that happened.” for the crime. He hung two juries and was fully acquit- Amador County would see another major strike in ted on all charges during his third trial in October of 1935 that involved acts of violence and caravans of sup- 1950. Monroe was released from the school a free man. port from unions in San Francisco. A year later, he was arrested for – and openly con- On Feb. 27, 2011, Roddy published the first install- fessed to – raping and murdering a pregnant woman in ment in a 16-part blog series on his research called, “The Tulsa, Okla. Sentenced to life in prison for the slaying, Ground We Walk On.” Monroe refused to admit to having anything to do “The songs of the mines permeated Jackson, a steady with Corbin’s death. percussion of turning gears and cranking levers while Nearly six decades later, Rubio agrees with several whistling boilers and gushing water provided the journalists that the Corbin case was, as a murder accompanying chorus. The melody had no end,” he investigation, startlingly problematic. On one hand, wrote. Read more at motherlodeleft.blogspot.com. the original suspect was later proven to be a vicious Roddy said he now hopes to broaden the scope of his and predatory killer; on the other, the legal case research for more information about miners’ unions in against him was so flimsy that newspapers at the time Calaveras, Tuolumne, Nevada and El Dorado counties. implied it was a sham and dozens of jurors in two He also hopes to capture the various pitfalls and power counties were unconvinced. Rubio felt compelled to struggles of labor battles in a non-fiction book. learn more about what had happened. “At this point, I’m interested in knowing more about “Obviously, I didn’t know Anna, but I feel such a the overall community, like the role of women and/or strong connection to her,” Rubio said. “I wanted to the dynamics between the Italian and Serb miners,” know more, just like I wanted to understand the whole Roddy said. “In terms of the research, it’s been a very story of the castle.” personal exploration.” A short time into her research, Rubio observed what Keeper of the walls she felt was a disturbing trend on television regarding the Corbin case. Cable TV shows “Ghost Adventures” There’s a difference between relating emotionally to and “Ghost Hunters” both aired programs featuring the dead and believing you speak for them. There’s a Preston Castle. Producers from each show claimed difference between empathizing with bygone souls Anna Corbin’s tortured, disembodied spirit was roam- and claiming to be their arbitrator and a chasm ing aimlessly through the old prison’s corridors. Zak that separates the use of real evidence to probe Bagins, the host of “Ghost Adventures,” even ended his mysteries and reliance on faint inclinations show by stumbling around the castle on infrared vision, from the unknown. J’aime Rubio, the grand- claiming to be “possessed” by Corbin’s ghost. daughter of a steely newspaper reporter, may Overnight, psychic investigators around the United Preston Castle stands as a reminder of a different time in Califor- be alone in her quest to investigate the darker nia’s juvenile justice system. States posted online, claiming they were in communi- riddles of Preston Castle without the help of cation with Corbin from beyond the grave, naming their psychics – and she may also be the only detec- own suspects in her killing. For Rubio, the reduction of tive of history who is close to breaching the a real cold case into a form of paranormal entertainment truths hidden within its Gothic grandeur. was pointless and disrespectful. When Rubio was a teenager, her father moved “I think the ghost shows really upset me,” Rubio onto Sutter Lane in Ione, directly under the loom- admits. “I decided maybe it was time to set the record ing altar of Romanesque brickwork. At the time, straight. Anna was a wife and a mother. That’s how Preston Castle was shuttered and abandoned. It she should be remembered. The problem was, there was a testament to cracked windows, crumbling were only little snippets about her life and death out gargoyles and webbed vaults of forgotten memo- there, but nothing that would tell you who she was or ries. For a teenage girl, the castle was a powerful where she was coming from as a person. I thought pathfinder for the imagination, a location that maybe if I could make her real to the public, she teens would dare each other to approach at night would stop being seen as a ghost.” in simultaneous fear and wonder that such a Rubio has a talent for tracing family genealogies and building could exist in the Gold Country. used her skills to unearth Corbin’s life. In short order, “I would walk up the street and stare at it,” Rubio documented more factual details about Corbin Rubio remembers. “I just developed a fascina- than any of the premier psychic investigators wrote tion with it because it was so awe inspiring.” about the case. Rubio, a wife and mother herself, found Rubio’s interest with the former school for the details of Corbin’s final years leading up to the mur- boys stayed with her as she matured. She began der more tearful than she had expected. According to reading history books and searching through Rubio’s research, Corbin’s son, Harold, was a fighter volumes of microfilm at the Amador County pilot who was shot down over France during World War Library to learn more about how the Preston II. It was years before his remains were recovered. In School of Industry had come into existence. the wake of this heartache, her husband, Robert, died in In 2007, a new, revitalized Preston Castle 1947, just four years after Harold. Foundation began major preservation work on The last detail Rubio uncovered about Corbin’s family the 100-year-old building, which had decayed life was the most touching. since the late 1960s. What for decades had “One of the main things I eventually learned about been a hauntingly unreachable icon was now, at times, open to the public. The access to Preston Anna was that her murder happened at a very tragic time Castle triggered a series of newspaper investigations in her life,” Rubio observed. “Her son’s body had finally into an unsolved murder that happened within its been returned to the United States five years after the war walls 57 years before. ended. Preparations were underway for his services. Rubio carefully followed the details of the case: On the Ultimately, Anna’s son was buried in San Bruno a month afternoon of Feb. 23, 1950, guards at the Preston School after she was buried in Sacramento. That’s maybe one of Upon release, wards at the Preston School of Industry had of Industry rushed to the castle’s basement to see the the saddest things about the case. She never got that clo- skills and usually found meaningful employment. body of the head housekeeper, Anna Corbin, brutally sure; she never lived to bury her own son.” murdered. Over the next few weeks, state investigators Rubio began writing about Preston Castle on her blog and Amador County law enforcement openly disagreed Continued on page 8 6 November 7 - 13, 2012 Sierra Lodestar