Things That Go in the NIGHT

things that go BUMP in the NIGHT A Sampling of Missouri Haunts There is apparently something in our chemical composition that derives a perverse pleasure from being frightened by the supernatural. Belief in ghosts and the undead goes as far back as man himself, and Missourians are no exceptions. The colorful history of the Show-Me State—from the time of the ﬁ rst Native Americans and the days when the fur trade was king to the bitter conﬂ ict of the Civil War and the advent of the automobile—is rich with tales of otherworldly visitors, prominent and obscure, benign … and otherwise. BY RON SOODALTER Many people, including the Travel Channel, consider Lemp Mansion in St. Louis to be one of the most haunted places in the United States. It operates today as an inn and restaurant. KATZ HARRY [38] MissouriLife ML1015_Ghost3.indd 38 9/3/15 5:22 PM ML1015_Ghost3.indd 39 9/4/15 6:26 PM owner of a sawmill. All was bliss In January 1875, a posse of the yard before being reinterred at moves around on its own. A former between them until the mill failed, Pinkerton detectives and local law- Kearney’s Mount Olivet Cemetery. historical interpreter at the farm and Albert took to drinking. He lost men staged a raid on the house, According to the Haunted Missouri once said that there is sometimes their house and moved Laurie to a based on the faulty intelligence that website, unexplained sights and such a strong presence in the house ramshackle log cabin in the foot- the brothers were home. The attack sounds still emanate from the house that the guides themselves refuse to hills, where she delivered a baby culminated in an explosion that and the neighboring woods. Re- stay inside. She recalls walking into girl. One day, a drunken Albert crippled the boys’ mother and killed portedly, hoof beats ring out in the the house alone, and on entering threatened the child if Laurie didn’t their young half-brother, Archie. night, accompanied by pistol shots Frank James’s bedroom, being fol- quell her crying, and in trying to Jesse and Frank would take their and the muffled rumblings of men. lowed by heavy, booted footsteps. yank her from her mother’s arms, bloody revenge, but seven years The ghost of Jesse James has been When her tour group later entered dropped the baby to the floor. later, Jesse met his fate when gang reported as far afield as Selma, Ala- the house, they heard the disem- Brokenhearted, Laurie took to member Robert Ford shot his leader bama, and Bardstown, Kentucky, bodied steps, too. wandering the hills, sobbing for her in the back of the head. but he and Frank appear most fre- In the words of Shakespeare’s lost child. Albert disappeared from The homestead still stands as quently in the old James farmhouse. Mark Antony: “The evil that men the region, seeking to escape the the Jesse James Farm and Mu- Doors slam on their own, and lights do lives after them.” If so, perhaps shame of his unpardonable actions. seum, where tourists can roam the sometimes seem to move about the James brothers still owe a debt Since then, many have reported grounds and tour the house. For when the house is locked. Faces that goes beyond time and the tem- seeing the ghost of Laurie May twenty years, Jesse lay buried in appear in windows, and furniture poral concerns of the living. Maumsey or hearing her inconsol- able weeping, as she walks along the According to Missouri legend, the ghost of Laurie May ridges of Ozark and Taney Counties, Maumsey walks barefoot through the hills of the Ozarks, grieving the loss of her only child. carrying her child in her arms. As the years passed, locals took to call- ing her the Ozark Madonna, and so she has been known to this day. As Bud Steed, author of Ozark Ghosts The Hornet Spook Light—a ghostly light apparition that can be seen south of Joplin—has several skeptics who explain the light and Hauntings, advises: “If you away as the reflection of headlights from nearby Route 66. are hiking the old ridge top trails through the Ozarks, you might pos- sibly come upon the grieving ghost The Hornet Spook Light a decapitated Confederate soldier, Others have claimed that it is lent alcoholic, who took to beating of Laurie May Maumsey and if you Some spirits reveal themselves as searching for his head; the spirits merely the refracted light from cars his hapless wife. Laurie May suf- do, simply walk on by and leave her formless manifestations: a sudden of a couple, whose forbidden love on nearby Route 66—an impossibil- fered several miscarriages because to her grieving in peace.” chill in a closed room, an invisible drove them to leap to their deaths. ity because neither the road nor the of the beatings, but she finally pressure on one’s hand, or an eerie According to one local legend, Na- cars existed when the light was first managed to bring forth a healthy Jesse James and Friends moan. Near the tiny community tive Americans first saw the light as reported. For the present, at least, child—a son, whom she named Perhaps no outlaw is as notorious of Hornet, about six miles south of they traveled the Trail of Tears from the Hornet Spook Light, which has Luke. During that time, John was as Jesse Woodson James of Clay Joplin, a ghostly presence takes the Florida to exile in Missouri and been analyzed, photographed, and serving a brief jail term. County. After the Civil War, Jesse form of an amorphous light that is Oklahoma. The first written record in at least one instance, shot at by When home once again, and and his brother, Frank, cut a bloody capable of hurtling down a narrow dates to a publication, Ozark Spook a local farmer, must be categorized uncontrollably drunk, John threat- swath from Missouri to Minnesota. stretch of road called the Devil’s Light, printed in 1881. as an unexplained phenomenon ened to hurt or, in some versions, And when Jesse’s career was abrupt- Promenade. Witnesses testify that No one, however, has yet been that—thus far—has done no harm. kill the child if Laurie didn’t give ly curtailed, stories arose of his pres- it can change color, size, and shape able to provide a scientific explana- him money for liquor. In the ensu- ence after death. and divide itself into several smaller tion for the light. Reportedly, the The Ozark Madonna ing struggle, the baby was knocked Considerable violence occurred lights. Over the decades, it has gone Army Corps of Engineers, unable By nature, ghost stories are gener- from her arms. Falling to the stone both in and around the farmhouse by many names. To Missourians, it to determine the source, logged it ally tragic, and so is the tale of the floor, he suffered a fatal head injury. of Jesse and Frank’s mother and has come to be called the Hornet as a “mysterious light of unknown Ozark Madonna. A shattered Laurie May buried her stepfather. In the early days of the Spook Light. origin.” Some have attempted to at- According to some accounts, son behind their cabin, and the next Civil War, Union troops beat and Folklore accounts for most of the tribute it to swamp gas or the glow in the 1930s, a teenage girl named day, she hanged herself. hanged Jesse’s stepfather nearly to light’s origin stories: the spirit of an given off by decaying wood. The er- Laurie May Comshaw married an Another version of the story has death in their search for Frank, who old miner ranging the area with a ratic behavior of the light has ruled older ne’er-do-well named John Laurie May marrying Albert Maum- was riding with Quantrill’s Confed- HARRY KATZ HARRY lantern, seeking his lost children; out both explanations. Maumsey. John proved to be a vio- sey, ten years her senior and the KATZ HARRY erate guerrillas at the time. [40] MissouriLife [41] October 2015 ML1015_Ghost3.indd 40 9/3/15 5:23 PM ML1015_Ghost3.indd 41 9/3/15 5:23 PM Overton Landing is near present-day Boonville and the Warm Springs Ranch, where the Budweiser Clydesdales live. Tragedy, however, struck early increasingly morose with each Footsteps have been reported The Black Carriage of Overton and unexpectedly. In 1901, Wil- passing year, and in May, 1949, he running up the stairs, followed by Overton Landing was once a small liam’s favorite son and chosen loaded a .38 pistol, shot his dog, loud kicking on what had once community of farms scattered along heir, Frederick, died of mysterious and then himself. The mansion been the Lemp office door. This, the Missouri River, just south of to- causes at age twenty-eight. It was was sold as a boarding house and apparently, is the ghost of Billy, day’s Interstate 70. In his time, folk- a blow from which William never began to rapidly deteriorate. who—upon hearing the pistol shot lorist Bob Dyer, who died in 2007, recovered, and three years later, he Apparently, this is when the first that killed his father—ran upstairs was known to tell the tale of a cur- shot himself. His presence has been reported sightings of the ghosts and attempted to kick in the locked mudgeonly old couple who kept known to roam the labyrinthine occurred. Phantom footsteps and door.

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