A fake ghost alarms and creates a decided sensation in an entire county.
Armed men turn out in force to protect a lonely woman who declared her house was haunted.
Hair-raising tales of a supernatural visitor.
The deception was discovered at last by a lynx-eyed neighbour, who was struck in the head with a stone.
The staid and sedate citizens of Shelbyville, Ind., have had enough sensation to last them for the rest of their lives, and the occurrences of the past few weeks have set all Shelby county on edge. It was all about a ghost which wasn’t a ghost at all, but it frightened them half to death, and they are not over it yet, even though the whole thing has been explained.
A woman caused it all, and she tricked the entire county and scared the townspeople out of their shoes. The tricked ones are angry over what they are pleased to call criminal deception. She worked it very cleverly. She conjured up a spook out of emptiness and nothing; she paralysed an entire community; she hoodwinked a county with amazing statements, and finally caused an armed force of men to be sent out. This lively and ingenious lady lives by herself in a two-storey farm-house on a crossroad near Shelbyville, Ind. Barns and sheds adjoin the house, and near by is the cottage of a coloured man who runs the farm for its owner. He was the first to hear of the ghost’s nightly visit to the farm.
He proved a receptive listener. The story of a triple rap on the door that was heard only after nightfall, and that was immediately followed by a hard slam on the sideboarding, almost curdled the blood in the poor man’s veins. It was useless to open the door, the woman told him. There was no visitor outside, only a breath of cold air. Again and again this had occurred. And the solitary woman was ill from terror and loss of sleep.
The coloured man lost no time in spreading his tale about the county. And soon there was a supplement to it. On opening the door to surprise the spirit who so mischievously annoyed her, the woman was struck squarely on the forehead, she said, by a stone and knocked senseless. A startling evidence of ghostly villainy! Frightened as he was, the helper offered to sleep in the big house and take his turn at matching himself against the spirits. His experience was similar to that of the woman.
By this time the excitement in the county ran high. Laggard husbands were urged by their wives to hurry to the poor woman’s support and to probe the mystery of the haunted farm. So they went, bands of them, and watched night long in the farm house. Only the expected happened. Those who stayed within heard the rappings. Those who volunteered out were struck with stones and were glad to return. The next night armed men began to watch outside of the dwelling while their wives stayed within to comfort and quiet the lone inhabitant. While the house was surrounded by determined farmers the noises still occurred. They were increased by the sound of a chain apparently dragged over the roof of the house. One night the watchers rigged up a wire all around the premises and connected it with a bell. No one was seen to enter the farmyard and no one was seen to leave, but the wire was mysteriously removed without ringing the bell, and the rapping occurred as usual. It was always the same triple rap, followed by a hard slam.
After this the “Bugaboo House,” as it became to be called, was pretty thoroughly avoided. Men dared not choose at night the road that led past the house. Women became hysterical from the continued excitement. Little children had nightmares in which the “Bugaboo House” figured. So tense did the atmosphere become that the woman offered a reward for an explanation of the mystery. Although the watching had been constant, on one night something over a week ago the woman was left alone. In the morning she was found with a bruised head lying on the veranda with her hands bound together. She said that having gone to the door when the rapping came she had been struck on the head by an unseen assailant and immediately seized and bound – by hands she could not see.
The sensation that this caused converted the most sceptical. And overcome by her experience she took to her bed and physicians were called. And at this point th eworker of mysteries quite outdid herself.
While one of the neighbours was doing some chores for her about the premises he was struck by a rock which came from an unseen source. He told this to the coloured man, who watched, and a little later saw the woman open a second-storey window and throw another stone at the man. He told the man, and they determined to keep an eye on the woman. Two men, then admitted to the secret, feigned the following night to retire, while secretly watching her. At midnight she suddenly arose, and, springing out of bed, ran to a cupboard and rapped hard three times and then slammed a board against it. In another minute she was in bed again, and when the young men ran in she was feigning sleep. They aroused her, but she declared she had not heard the rapping.
They had seen enough, however, and the next morning the neighbourhood heard the story. Now the men who spent their nights watching are convinced that the whole thing was a fake, very cleverly arranged, undoubtedly, by a very clever woman who wanted excitement and who stirred up a county. They don’t like to hear anyone talk about ghosts in Shelby county now. The subject is an unpopular one.
The National Police Gazette, 8th September 1900.