When Someone Famous Steals Your Research: My Preston Castle Story

 

I want to start by telling you a story.......

I was driving in my car when I first heard it — a podcast episode about Preston Castle. Specifically about the deaths that occurred there. And then, somewhere in the middle of it, I heard my name, "Historian J'aime Rubio," she said. I remember smiling. It always means a lot when someone acknowledges your work, especially in the paranormal and history world where so many people take information without giving any credit at all.

I even sent her an email. Something simple — a thank you for the mention. I never got a response. I didn't think much of it at the time. People are busy. Inboxes get full. I let it go.

But a few weeks later, I sat down and listened to the entire episode from beginning to end. And as I listened, something started to feel off. There was a familiarity to it that I couldn't quite place at first — a strange déjà vu. And then it hit me.

I was hearing her speak, and I felt it was all too familiar — because it was my own words.

 The Research Behind "Deaths at Preston Castle"

I want to give you some context before I show you the evidence, because it matters.

In December of 2019, I published a blog post titled "Deaths at Preston Castle" right here on this blog. That post was not something I threw together in an afternoon. It was the result of years of primary source research — death records, California State Archives, county newspapers, the Preston School of Industry's official Biennial Reports, and more. I tracked down documents that most people don't even know exist. I dug into cases where the records conflicted with each other and I found the truth buried in documents no one had ever bothered to look at.

I do this work because I believe these people deserve to be remembered accurately. Every ward, every employee, every soul who passed through those doors — they are real people. They are not props for ghost stories. And it is my mission to be a voice for the voiceless and to honor the forgotten ones so they will be forgotten no more.

That blog post — the original, the documented, the cited one — is still right here on this blog where I published it in 2019.

 A Famous Name in the Paranormal World

I am not going to name this person in this post. That is an intentional choice, and I want to be clear about why: this post is about the evidence, not about creating a spectacle.

But I do want you to understand who we are talking about, because it matters to the story. This is not a small or unknown content creator. This is a well-known, nationally recognized paranormal celebrity with a very large and dedicated following. She has appeared on television and has had her own paranormal television series. Her name carries significant weight in the paranormal community. She has a platform that most independent historians and researchers could only dream of.

And she used that platform to present my research as her own.

The one time she did credit me — specifically when she mentioned that "historian J'aime Rubio dug further" and found a conflicting death record for Grant Walker — proved that she knew exactly where her information was coming from. She acknowledged me once, for one finding, and then went on to use the rest of my research without a single additional credit. That single mention is not a courtesy. In context, it is evidence.

 The Evidence — My Words vs. Her Podcast

Below is a comparison of my original blog text (published December 30, 2019) alongside excerpts from her 2021 podcast transcript. I will let you read it and draw your own conclusions.

 

Case	My Blog — December 2019	Her Podcast — 2021
Grant Walker	"you will notice he is listed as one of the boys who died from illness...typhoid fever. However, the 1896 Biennial report lists two deaths that year and one of the deaths was from accidental burns, intestinal ulceration. It is as if he ingested something toxic which burned his insides."	"At first, it seems like he may have died from typhoid fever. However, historian Jamie Rubio dug further and found a conflicting death register that suggests Walker may have died from severe internal burns after ingesting something toxic."  Note: This is the one case where she credited me.
Herman Huber & John Kirrane — Escape & Shooting	"Herman and another friend, John Kirrane, attempted to escape the school...The night watchman J.D. French went after them. Although French claimed he only meant to shoot a warning shot...another ward claimed that he watched French shoot Herman in cold blood."	"Herman Hubert and fellow Ward and friend John Karaine made an escape just as the dinner bell rang...night guard J. D. French pursued the two escapees and fired his weapon...French claimed he tried to fire a warning shot, but Karaine maintained that French shot Herman in cold blood."
Tahema Vann — Drowning	"Tehama claimed that he could swim 'dog fashion'...Two boys, Robert Rains and Albert Rubidoux tried to dive in after him, to no avail. It wasn't until the next morning that they were able to retrieve his lifeless body that had sunk to the bottom of the pond. He is buried at the Preston Cemetery."	"Tahama Van, confident about his doggy paddle, dove in...Robert Raines and Albert Rubideaux tried to save Van...It wasn't until the next morning that they were able to retrieve his lifeless body that had sunk to the bottom of the pond. He is buried at the Preston Cemetery."  The final two sentences are nearly word-for-word identical.
Frank Cardarella — Epilepsy & Suicide	"Frank was found in his cell...He had ripped his sleeping shirt into pieces, fashioning for himself a makeshift noose...the day before, he had been suffering from seizures due to epilepsy. Instead of the staff sending him to the infirmary...they took him back to his cell and left him there." (my original post had his date of death listed as Valentine's Day, February 14th, however this was a typo.)	"Frank Cardarella had epilepsy and experienced seizures because of it. Instead of receiving treatment, Frank was kept in his cell...Frank died by suicide after making a noose from his shredded night shirt." She also repeated the typo I had made on my blog, as Frank did not actually die on Valentine's day as she stated. I later corrected my mistake to reflect the correct date, but since she didn't actually research the story, she repeated the error.
Sam Goins — Fatal Escape	"J.E. Kelly, who had gone after Sam, shot aiming at Sam's leg to stop him...he tripped. As he fell, the bullet hit him in the back and this wound proved to be fatal...He was twenty years old and only two months away from being released."	"John Kelly of Preston Guard accidentally shot Samuel in the back. Samuel died from the wound. He was twenty years old and only two months from being released from Preston."
Edgar Hough & Leland Price — Football Fight	"During the middle of a Saturday night football game at Preston, a fight between wards Edgar Hough and Leland Price broke out. As a punishment the two were locked in the basement alone...Price was knocked down...fracturing his skull on the concrete floor. He fell into a coma from which he never recovered. He died the following morning."	"Wards Edgar Howe and Leland Price got into a fight during a Saturday night football game...they were locked together in Preston's basement...Price's skull was fractured after hitting the ground and he fell into a coma. Leland Price died the next morning."
William Reppert & Henry Herstein — Buried Alive	"While digging a sewer ditch on the school property, six boys were buried alive when the trench...caved in. Four of the boys were saved, but both William and Henry perished in the ground."	"nine wards were digging a ditch on the property for sewage...the ditch caved in and trapped six boys. Four were extracted, but two remained buried. William Reppert and Henry Herstein both died after being buried alive."
Cemetery Closing Detail	"In total, there are 18 boys buried in the Preston Cemetery."	"There are eighteen boys buried in a small cemetery on the property."

 

Every single one of the cases above — the names, the dates, the specific details, the narrative structure — came from my original research that took years to compile. There is no way this podcaster miraculously came up with the same exact, nearly word-for-word chronological list of deaths.  

Why I'm Writing This

I have a responsibility — to myself, to my readers, and to the people whose stories I have spent years protecting. The wards of Preston Castle were voiceless in life. They deserve to have their stories told truthfully and with credit given where it is due. It isn't right when people go around taking the research of others to profit off of it and don't bother to cite their sources, nor is it right to blatantly read another person's work verbatim.

My research belongs to me. It is documented. It is dated. And if you are going to share it with the world — which I genuinely encourage — please do so with a link, a name, and an acknowledgment that someone spent years making it possible for you to tell that story. 

These are not ghost stories. These are real people. And their histories deserve to be handled with care, and respect given to the keeper of the histories, the ones who actually do the research to honor these forgotten souls.  --

Copyright © J'aime Rubio 2026  |  www.jaimerubiowriter.com

 

© J'aime Rubio  |  prestoncastlehistory.blogspot.com  |  www.jaimerubiowriter.com
 Original blog post: "Deaths at Preston Castle" — Published December 30, 2019
 All research is the intellectual property of J'aime Rubio.