19th Century Ghost Hunting
With it being spooky season and all, I thought I would add to the festivities by posting some spooky stories in the buildup to Halloween. A version of this story first appeared in FATE (Issue 736).
Herman Kepler had an idea. Not a good idea. It wasn't a smart one. It was the kind of stupid idea that is particularly unique to young guys. Early one morning in July of 1893 he was camping on the banks of Fall Creek outside of Indianapolis with his buddies. Kepler thought it would be fun to scare them by dressing up as a ghost. So he donned a white sheet crept up on them and went boo! It had the desired effect on most of his friends. Most jumped. Most screamed. Most felt foolish for doing both. One of them pulled his gun and fired, striking Kepler in the breast. The bullet ricocheted off one of his ribs saving him from a fatal wound. (Evening World. 7.4. 1893. Pg 6)
The crazy thing is though that this same scene played out time and time again over the 19th Century. A ghost shows up and someone realizing it as a ghost and thinking it is a ghost decides their best course of action is to pull their gun and shoot. It seems to be a particularly specific example of the American sentiment of shooting first and asking questions later.
Pranks gone wrong
People, well it seems to be young men, had the brilliant idea to keep dressing up as ghosts to scare their friends. Dumb shit that all young people do. But all it takes is one person, one gun, and a ghost. The funny/tragic aspect of this phenomenon is that it kept happening again and again and again.
In Englishtown, NJ in 1899, Charles Faust was busting on his friend, Herman Carman, because he walked home through a cemetery every night. “Don't you get scared? Afraid to see a ghost?” “Nah, not at all. In fact, I'd love to see a ghost. I'd be so nice to it.” Faust thought that was too irresistible to pass up, so one night soon after he dressed up in white and lay in waiting perched on a tombstone. When Carmen walked by, Faust pointed a finger at him and groaned, securing from his friend, you guessed it, a bullet to the shoulder. Carmen took him home. (NYT. 2.5.1899. Pg 4)
The town of Massillon, Ohio was being harassed by a ghost for many nights in the fall of 1895. This prompted two local yucksters, Frank Webb and William Conrad, to dress up and scare some of the townspeople. The townspeople responded by shooting at the two with one receiving a flesh wound to the arm and the other a ball lodged in his heel. (Topeka State Journal. 9.9.1895. Pg. 1)
A similar scene played out in Egg Harbor, NJ in 1893. Harry Menzle wanted to prank his friend, Augustus Faust. So he dressed up in a white sheet, doused himself in sulfur to give himself that good ghost smell. Upon revealing himself his friend repaid him by shooting him in the lung. (Indianapolis Journal. 10.27.1893. Pg. 1)
Next in Silver Lake, Iowa people saw a ghost in and around the town. This, of course, got many bullets flung his way, enough for the ghost to cry out, “My God doesn't shoot anymore.” People around town speculated that the “ghost” was a land seeker looking to depreciate the value of land by haunting it in order for him to swoop in to buy it up. Or the plot to every episode of Scooby-Doo. A local doctor patched up the ghost and he soon took off without giving his name. (Hamilton County Ledger. 3.8.1889. Pg. 2)
Yet, that is not the end of this story. Other reports came out that the mysterious stranger was none other than Frank James. The same Frank James who was Jesse's brother and a member of the infamous James-Younger Gang. The Gang had robbed a train in the area years earlier, but the haul proved to be cumbersome to getaway fast enough. So they buried it around the lake and planned to come back later. Later never came as Jesse James took a fatal shot in the back and the law caught up with the Younger boys leaving Frank the only one free. The story goes that Frank knowing the loot was still there decided to go and retrieve it. He thought that by donning a sheet and pretending to be a ghost it would mean people would leave him be. Little did he know that one of America's favorite pastimes is shooting at ghosts. (Ft. Scott Daily Monitor. 3.21.1889. Pg. 1)
Mistaken Identity
While some people were bringing about their misery with their games, others got caught up by a simple mistaken identity. Unfortunate people whose only crime was to be out at night in white. For instance, a man in Milwaukee on a hot summer night in 1883 went out searching in his backyard for a nice cool spot to beat the heat. Wearing his white nightgown and slippers he was outside when a neighbor mistook him for a ghost and fired five times at him. Luckily he was not hit. (Boston Weekly Globe. 8.7.1883. Pg. 4)
For whatever reason, a farmhand, William Walker, known as an “innocent sort”, decided to go out and fix the farm’s water tank at night wearing a white robe. As Walker was making his way back another farmhand, Walter was getting back from town (Dixon, Illinois). That’s when the confusion started. Known as being “exciteable”, Walter mistakes William for a ghost and starts firing at him. Again, luckily no one sustained injuries. (Dixon Evening Telegraph. 10.21.1897. Pg. 1)
A gambler in Carson, NV in the winter of 1877 had not yet learned when to fold them or when to walk away. Throughout the night, he gambled away his boots and overcoat. The prideful gambler refused a loan of warm clothes and shoes and instead wrapped himself in a linen duster and walked home on bare feet. He walked through the streets singing, “too proud to beg, too honest to steal”. Of course many saw and heard this white-clad singing apparition, thinking it a ghost decided to fire upon it. While his luck had not shown up at the table it held out there on the street and none of the 15 rounds shot at him hit. (San Francisco Examiner. 2.9.1877. Pg. 3)
A white suit at night. Or a bag of meal slung over a shoulder were also mistaken for ghosts and fired upon. Creatures wondering about at night received the same shoot first treatment. In the town of Lafayette, IN in August of 1872, the “ghosts were about”. It was the talk of the town and had much of the town on edge with stories of a roving ghost patrolling the town at night. George Southworth, a young farmhand, was so scared he slept with a loaded gun by his side. Lying there awake. Eyes weary. Ears poised to pick out any unusual sound. Out of the corner of George’s eye, he saw a ghost pass by his window. He reached for his gun and fired. He ran out of his sleeping quarters and instead of hitting a ghost he had shot a young calf. The farm owner fired him in the morning and made him pay $9 for the dead calf. (Manhattan Nationalist. 8.2.1872. Pg. 1)
In 1883 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, a young man and the girl he was courting were walking home from church. When a ghost white as a sheet and as big as a horse jumps out from the trees beside them. It runs past the couple making a terrible, strange noise. It startled them both. The girl fell and almost fainted. The boy went to tell his boss, Mr. G. F. Jones, who lived nearby. His boss grabbed his fowling-piece and went off to see what this thing could be. More and more people upon hearing the excitement out in the road joined in. Jones crept to the brush. Everyone crowded behind him. He came to a thicket and spot a whitish shape amidst the brambles. A gurgling, grunting noise arose from there. He raised his shotgun and fired. He claimed to have hit it, but no one, not even himself, ventured in to verify the kill. Cut to the next morning, when a local farmer, P.T. Hambleton complained of having lost his valuable white hog, which Jones had to pay for. (Boston Globe. 11.22.1883. Pg. 4)
Someone mistook a tea kettle rattling in the wind like a ghost and pumped it full of holes and a poor dog with a stove pot on its head received the same treatment. (The Inter Ocean. 2.20.1873. Pg. 2; San Marcos Free Press. 5.18.1882. Pg. 4)
One cold winter night in the year of 1889, there were reports of a ghost sighting in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. The police responded and went looking for the thing. Soon one officer saw the white figure and shot at it. Thinking his duty done he did not follow up to see what he shot or if he shot it at all, which seems to be a reoccurring theme. It wasn’t until the next day when someone ran into the police station to say there was a corpse on the street. So the police went back out to the scene to discover a black bear wrapped in a white sheet. The bear had gotten loose and entangled itself in a sheet that was hanging on someone’s clothesline.* (Lincoln Evening Call. 2.5.1889. Pg. 2)
*The bear belonged to the City Treasurer, Herman Plautz, who had won the bear as part of some raffle, winning at the same time a monkey. It was a contentious relationship. Shortly after bringing the bear and monkey back to his home, they assaulted him and ripped all his clothes off. The two kept escaping and attacking him all the time. The monkey shortly thereafter caught pneumonia and passed away. (Philadelphia Inquirer. 2.2.1889. Pg. 8)
Women and Ghosts
Women too had their fair share of incidents of shootings and woundings. A Mrs. George Moore in Locust Gap, PA tried to shoot a ghost that had startled her. She missed and ended up shooting herself succumbing to the bullet wound. (Leroy Reporter. 2.16.1884. Pg. 1)
July 1866. Mobile, AL. A guy decided it would be hilarious to scare some girls by wrapping a white cloth around himself and impersonating a ghost. For the most part, it worked. Most of the girls ran. There was one cool customer though. She eyed the thing up as she slid her revolver out. Six shots rang out. The first shot felled the ghost. This allowed her to walk up to it and pump five more shots into the downed spectre. Four shots to the back and two to the head, killing the prankster. (Democrat and Sentinel. 7.26.1866. Pg. 1)
Then there is the interesting case of Dr. Conda Beck and his shooting of his fiance, Grace Cohee. After returning home from a picnic, Dr. Beck fell asleep in a chair. Grace slipped out onto the porch and began singing. Dr. Beck startled awake. Seeing the ethereal figure on the porch through the drapes, he called out to it. When Grace turned around, Beck shot twice with the second bullet hitting her. She did not die right away though. She lingered, and in that time, she even wrote an affidavit absolving Dr. Beck of any wrongdoing. Still, they arrested, charged and tried him nonetheless. The trial was a sensation with many witnesses and rousing closing arguments. The jury acquitted Dr. Beck. (The Republic. 12.14,15, & 18.1894. Pgs. 4,3,2.)
Dr. Beck’s story does not end there though. Five years after his acquittal, he shot and killed someone else. He had managed to find love again. But the father of Beck’s affections was none too keen on having his daughter engaged to a known woman killer. The two exchanged words and shots that left William Barton dead on the streets of Waynesburg, IN. The tragedy followed tragedy when a woman who saw this shooting became so distraught that she ended up committing suicide. Dr. Beck did not get off without punishment this time. (The Republic. 10.18.1900. Pg. 4; Indianapolis News. 3.29.1901. Pg. 10)
Ghost Hunts
So far the focus has been on people or animals being mistaken for a ghost or impersonating a ghost. There were also real encounters with ghosts where people tried to take it down with guns. Close to the turn of the 19th century in Bippus, Indiana, two guys went hunting for a well-known ghost at the Bippus Cemetery late one night. When they were about ready to pack it in, the ghost appeared hovering six feet off the ground. They drew their guns and shot at it. The ghost, described as a ball of fire, began to waft up to the height of a telephone pole. It stopped to morph into the figure of a woman. When asked what she was doing in the cemetery and back on Earth, she told the two that her husband had been untrue to his promise. That she came back to haunt him. Then, she disappeared. (Daily New-Democrat. 9.13.1899. Pg. 4)
In Waits Station, Ohio, one young man when confronted by a ghost began shooting at it with his shotgun then revolver. But to no avail. The ghost scoffed as it sped away. (Jackson Standard. 6.4.1885. Pg. 1)
It was January of 1883 in Patterson, NJ. For some time, every Friday night, an apparition visited the town. Between the hours of 9-9:30 pm it would appear near Temple and N. Fifth Street. Locals called it the Temple Street Hill Ghost. Locals became fed up. They formed a posse of about 500 strong one Friday evening to hunt down this ghost. They armed themselves with guns, pistols, and clubs. Men and women. Young and old. In the snow, they made their way towards the ghost’s favorite haunt. Soon they got lost in the snowdrifts and wandered around for a bit. In time they managed to convene on the lot of the ghost’s spot. Fanning out, they had the ghost surrounded. Then, they started taunting it, shouting insults at it, in only a way a New Jerseyan could. No one knows if it was the sheer number of people or the viciousness of the taunts, but the ghost never showed. (Boston Globe. 1.22.1883. Pg. 4)
So what does this all mean? Can some larger meaning be inferred from our predilection to want to shoot any and everything that pops up in front of us? Ghostly or otherwise. Is this something that makes us American? It is intriguing to think that person's first reaction to witnessing the paranormal is to fire away at it. It seems though that fear trumps curiosity.
Maybe these are just outliers, the extreme, bizarre exceptions that happened to be reported upon and make it into the newspapers of the time. Ghosts have always been seen and have been around. Guns have always been a part of American culture since the beginnings of European colonization. Two constants that rarely intermingle but when they did it was news.
As always, go and pre-order my upcoming book, Lemuria: A True Story of a Fake Place (Feral House) coming to you in January 2024. And as an appetizer you can check out my upcoming (Oct. 21st) virtual lecture on Lemuria over at the Philosophical Research Society.
And if you really, really are wanting more, listen to my recent appearances on the American Hysteria and Conspirinormal podcasts.