The White House’s Basement Demon Cat That Foretells Disaster

When I was researching stories for “11 U.S. Presidents, Their Paranormal Connections and the Dreamland Wax Museum in Boston,” one of the articles I used was from HuffPost. In addition to the writer recalling a White House ghost story Ronald Reagan had told her, she listed other paranormal presidential encounters, including a mention of a demon cat.

There is even reportedly a Demon Cat in the White House basement that is rarely seen. When it does appear, it is foretelling a national disaster. While the Demon Cat may at first look like a harmless kitten, it grows in size and evil the closer one gets. A White House guard saw it a week before the stock market crash of 1929 and it was also reportedly seen before Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.

D.C.

Coincidence or cheek that Demon Cat’s nickname is D.C.?

And that is the name people call the cat. Demon Cat. I didn’t notice the capitalization in the HuffPost article at first. I thought they just meant, in general, a demon cat was thought to haunt the White House.

If there is such a cat, how did it get there?

The Demon Cat’s Legend

Is D.C. the ghost of one of the cats they used to bring into the basement tunnels as part of the rodent control initiative back in the 1800s?

Or did the legend grow bigger (like the cat is said to do when seen) because security guards discovered they could get a day off upon claiming to have seen it?

Atlas Obscura included information from a chief tour guide of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society who shared that once upon a time, post-Civil War, nepotism ran rampant in the White House. Statesmen would find jobs for family members who had trouble holding ones elsewhere because of drinking problems or whatnot. They’d get jobs as watchmen, drink on the job, and as the tour guide put it, probably passed out, maybe got licked by one of the White House cats, and imagined more was happening than was.

I can almost buy that, except I’d need to know more about the cats as a whole. Were they friendly and sociable? Did the guards befriend them?

Because unlike some of these night watchmen, cats can hold their lickers. (Of course, in the case of the watchmen, that would be spelled “liquor.”)

Dogs might go around licking random people’s faces, but cats? If you’re a cat person, you understand why that’s not as plausible an explanation.

D.C. Sightings

Demon Cat witnesses report the cat appears as a small cat, often said to be black, but if they approached it or vice versa it would grow into an enormous tiger-sized entity. It’s said to be seen preceding tragedies and elections (although none in recent history).

Here are a few of the times D.C. has said to be spotted:

1. The night before Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
2. The night before John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
3. At the end of World War II, which is also the last time anybody has claimed to have seen Demon Cat.

Although, today you can perhaps see evidence of D.C. by way of pawprints that are often accredited to the legend.

In the Small Senate Rotunda, there’s a group of pawprints in the concrete, which replaced the original stone after a gas explosion damaged the area in 1898.

 

White House Explosion November 1898 Mon, Nov 7, 1898 – 5 · Fall River Daily Evening News (Fall River, Massachusetts) · Newspapers.com

Since it’s been 70+ years since anyone reported a Demon Cat sighting, there’s no telling whether Demon Cat still prowls the White House or not. But the legend remains.

I wonder if there is a new sighting if Zak Bagans could finagle an investigation? Sounds like the makings of a Ghost Adventures episode, doesn’t it?

Check-In

Are you sort of disappointed and/or surprised to learn there haven’t been any recent Demon Cat sightings too?

I think of all the history that’s happened between the end of World War II in 1945 and now and it surprises me.

Or are they just not telling us? Suppressing reports of Demon Cat sightings would make an interesting conspiracy theory.

Then again, this is a cat we’re talking about. As any cat owner can attest, they do what they want, when they want, how they want. So maybe D.C. is still around but has just not felt like making its presence known.

Test Yourself: What’s Wrong Here?

This section added July 9, 2020.

Something’s not right with the above. I could’ve fixed it and just noted that I updated this post, but I thought it’d be better to leave it to show how easy it is to spread misinformation.

Yep. I did it.

I realized it the next day, and when someone on Instagram pointed something else out, I decided it would make a great follow-up post explaining the two inconsistencies with the Demon Cat story and how I arrived at them.

Did you catch them?

See if you can, then Check-In and let me know.

If you’re stumped, see for the answers: https://www.hauntjaunts.net/did-you-spot-these-two-inconsistencies-about-the-demon-cat-story/.

Sources

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-house-ghosts_b_4175961. I had used it to reference Ronald Reagan’s paranormal connection but it had other White House ghost stories, including one about a demon cat living in the basement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_Cat

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/is-there-a-demon-cat-in-the-us-capitol

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2018/10/31/feline-spook-capitol-how-demon-cat-became-washingtons-best-ghost-story/