Mission Inn National Historic Landmark · Riverside Municipal Auditorium WWI memorial · Cheri Jo Bates unsolved 1966 case
The Mission Inn, built in stages beginning in 1876 and expanded into a Mission Revival landmark by the early 20th century, has hosted numerous U.S. presidents and remains one of Riverside's best-known historic hotels. The Riverside Municipal Auditorium, completed in 1928 as a memorial to local WWI veterans, continues to operate as a performance venue. Riverside City College, home to the Riverside Community College culinary program, has been linked in local true-crime accounts to the unsolved October 1966 murder of 18-year-old student Cheri Jo Bates, a case some investigators have connected to the still-unidentified Zodiac Killer.
US Ghost Adventures is a multi-city ghost-walk operator described on its own materials as USMC disabled-combat-veteran-owned and identified in some listings as veteran- and LGBTQ+-owned. Independent listings for the Riverside program, branded 'Riverside Reaper Ghost Tours: The Raven's Revenge & Ruin,' appear on GetYourGuide with verified guest reviews.
Sources
- https://usghostadventures.com/riverside-ghost-tour/
- https://www.getyourguide.com/riverside-california-l207490/riverside-reaper-ghost-tours-the-raven-s-revenge-ruin-t1323768/
ApparitionsUnexplained soundsA sense of being watched
At the Mission Inn, the operator describes a resident spirit associated with the hotel's 'Alice Room,' said to watch over the property she helped build. At the Riverside Municipal Auditorium, the operator describes a patron who reportedly never left the stage, a stoic apparition described as standing guard outside the building, and reports of a faint, mournful moan from within. At Riverside City College, the operator recounts the unsolved 1966 murder of Cheri Jo Bates, sometimes linked to the Zodiac Killer, alongside reported sightings the operator describes as tied to another student's death the same year.
All of this is the tour operator's own marketing and narrative material, not documented history verified independently for this listing; it is included here as a description of what the tour covers, not as an endorsement of any specific claim.
