50 Real American Ghost Stories by MJ Wayland

Author:MJ Wayland [Wayland, MJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ghost Stories
Publisher: Hob Hills Books
Published: 2013-10-10T07:00:00+00:00

The Ghost of Henry Smith

In early August 1891, the North College area of Lawrence, Kansas, had a very peculiar ghost. Louisiana Street was believed to be haunted by a ghost standing between six and seven feet tall, dressed in black and minus a head! The appearance of this fearful ghost coincided with the death of Henry Smith, a janitor at the city clerk’s office.

Appearing sometime before midnight near Smith’s former residence, the ghost roamed the streets for over a half a mile. Wandering down the street with no head, the ghost would follow the superstitious folk to their doors before promptly disappearing!

Jim Walker, a young man who knew Henry Smith, told a local newspaper his story. A few nights earlier he had almost been frightened to death when the ghost had followed him to the door of his home. He was exhausted when he reached his home and fell against the door with such force that he broke the lock and literally fell into the room.

Another boy, Jim King, had a similar experience ‒ chased from a nearby high school to his house on Louisiana Street.

With multiple sightings and newspapers regularly reporting on the activities of the ghost, a policeman called Sam James spent four nights on the street and did not witness this elusive ghost. However, on August 6th, twelve to fifteen pistol shots were heard in the neigborhood and the police could not find who had fired the shots.

Very soon, the whole community began to congregate on the streets with the hope of either seeing or capturing the ghost. Several times the ghost was witnessed and the crowd began to take potshots at it; however, the crowd merely frightened several women instead!

As with many ghost cases of the time, it took only one person to fathom who or what was responsible. Louis Erickson explained to the Weekly Record that during the height of the ghost scare he met the ghost in black. He ran and the ghost followed him home. He could not open the door to his home and as the black figure was pressing him hard he fired two shots at it with a revolver he had in his pocket. It was then that he discovered who was impersonating the ghost – he could see it was a boy called Will Cook who lived on nearby Warren Street. Will had dressed in a long, black garment that covered his head and had something attached resembling arms. When the boy was enveloped in his black robe, he carried in his hands a stick by which he could raise the garment up from his head as he met his victim.

We know little about what happened next to the ghost or Will Cook. Who knows? Maybe he took notice of what the Weekly Record printed as few days later: “The Cook boy, or whoever it is, has played the game quite successfully, but it is a dangerous thing to continue and he is likely to receive a dose of cold lead if he keeps it up.

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