It was early 1974 when the self-described "secular exorcist" Frank R. Nocerino entered the old Rose Hill coal miners' cemetery at the Black Diamond Mines near Mount Diablo.

Leaning over each grave with holy water from Lourdes, he reached out to the tortured spirits that had haunted the area for years, like the infamous White Witch, said to be the ghost of the town midwife who died in 1879 in a carriage accident on a stormy night out for a house call.

One report described an entire funeral procession of children was seen being led by an old horse and a hearse decorated in ostrich feathers.

"Psychic Prober" Nocerino told the Concord Transcript in their March 15, 1974 edition that he had helped calm the angry Rose Hill cemetery spirits by letting them know their graves were going to be part of the East Bay Regional Park District, and they would get some care and respect now, and stop people from partying on them and stealing their tombstones.

The Black Diamond Mines are a day trip from San Francisco, located not far from Clayton, and offer hiking, mine tours, and a ghost town. The White Witch exorcising is a forgotten bit of history recently dug up in an old newspaper by my good friend who recalls the story from growing up nearby.