The Mummy of Bessemer Hall

Hazel Farris was a beautiful woman in life.   She was beautiful and notorious.   Hazel was born in Bessemer Alabama, but she was a fast living woman and ended up in Kentucky with a hard drinking husband by the time she was twenty-five.   Hazel and her husband both drank heavily and they were known to exchange blows from time to time.   One night,  one of their fights got out of hand.   Hazel grabbed the pistol and shot her husband three times.   The neighbors called the police and three police officers entered the house.   Three more gunshots pierced the night.   Reinforcements were sent and before the night was over five officers had been killed and Hazel had fled into the night.

Hazel ran home to Bessemer where she managed to avoid arrest despite a reward being posted for her capture.  In Bessemer,  Hazel got a job and went on with life.  She fell in love and in the heat of her passion,  she confessed her crimes to her lover.  Her lover was terrified by her confession and immediately turned Hazel in.  Hazel was mortified and heart broken.   She could take no more so she got completely intoxicated and took as much arsenic as she could get her hands on.   Hazel died in 1906.

Hazel's corpse was taken to Adams Vermillion's furniture store and funeral parlor.   Since no one claimed Hazel's body,  Adams placed her corpse in storage.   After a few months,  Adams noticed that Hazel's body was beginning to mummify.  It is believed that she began to mummify because of the combination of arsenic and alcohol she used to end her life.    Always one to make the best of situation,  Adams began showing the  modern mummy for money and eventually her body was sold.   After changing hats and going across the country in various sideshows as an oddity,  Hazel's body eventually came to the Bessemer Hall of History.  The mummy was displayed there from 1974-2004 and many believe that this is where Hazel's ghost lives on today. There have been reports of lights going on and off in the building and strange whistling noises.   Visitors have also reported feeling ill at ease at this building.   Even thought Hazel's corpse has finally been laid to rest,  her spirit walks on giving visitors a new nightmare to keep them up at night.

The Breathtaking, Haunted Beauty of The Linn-Henley Library

Halloween is over.  It was an amazing Halloween this year.   For one, I got to speak at The Birmingham Public Library Archives or the Linn-Henley Research Library.   I have been fascinated by this old building and its hauntings and history for years so telling ghost stories in this library was like achieving a big goal for me.   The Birmingham Archives is a building of uncommon beauty.   When you step in, you are greeted by some of the most striking murals ever to grace the walls of an old building.   These murals were done by Ezra Winter and each scene represents the amazing literature of the world.  One mural shows a scene from A Thousand and One Arabian Nights.  Another mural shows a picture of Krishna for the Bhagavata Purana.   Walking through the library is like walking through a living, breathing work of art.

The beauty of the library is amplified by the uncanny quiet that fills the building like a tangible presence.  The silence makes the building feel haunted and this feeling is not false.  The staff at the library are happy to tell tales of Fant Thornly, a former librarian who wanders the halls of the old building at quiet moments.  Many have seen Fant wandering the archives.  The have smelled his cigar smoke lingering in quiet corners and heard him riding up and down on the elevators.  One electrician described seeing him standing in the very doorway of the room that I told my ghost stories in.   One librarian picked a picture of Fant out of a stack of old photos she was given and named him as the ghost she saw in the room I spoke in.

The Linn-Henley Research Library was built in 1927 and was the Birmingham Public Library until 1984. At this time the primary library was moved across the street into a modern building of glass and harsh angles. The two buildings are attached by a catwalk and the architectural differences between these two buildings that are connected like Siamese twins are so vast that they should be in different countries. But the two buildings are bound together by their common purpose.

In 1984 when the old building was partially abandoned it took on a new purpose and became the archives where the old books were stored and the history was kept. There are no stories of bizarre deaths here. There are no horror tales of Indian burial grounds or murdered children, but the ghosts that have been described in this building are so terrifying that some of the librarians have refused to go back into the stacks alone and without every light on. Many staff members know about the haunting in a general sort of way. They know that doors open and close on their own and phantom noises fill the building when it is empty, but a few report an even more active haunting. They describe seeing Fant in the shadows.

As I told my ghost stories on Halloween day, it was wicked fun to be able to share the tales of the ghost that haunted the very room we were standing in.   Some of the staff believe many of the tales told of Fant are fancy, but even the skeptics believe that there has been to much activity in the library to be able to explain it all away.   Fant still wanders the Linn-Henley building and I hope he was listening when I told my ghost stories.  That would be a real honor!

   

Exploring The Ghosts of Fort Morgan

Fort Morgan is a lonely structure on the end of a very long, thin stretch of land.  It is surrounded by water on all sides and you can hear the constant crashing of the waves as you wander through its seemingly endless arched hallways.  The fort is made of brick and shaped like a star.   Its long tunnels dip underground and water drips constantly from the brick.  The water has dripped so much that stalactites have started to grow from the ceiling of the fort.  Even during the day,  their are portions of the fort that are completely isolated and dark.  Although hoards of tourists fill the main portions of the fort, there are portions of the fort that are utterly empty.  The tourists avoid the darkened, moist corners of the fort that have been left to the ghosts.
Even during the day,  even filled with people,  there are portions of the fort that seem haunted and are creepy enough for people to completely avoid.

I have written about the fort's history and ghosts before and I will attach a copy of my prior post below this post.  Here are the photographs from my journey to this haunting fort.

The Fort Morgan area has become a vacation spot. Its beaches sit overlooking the Gulf of Mexico and tourists come from all over to watch the Dolphins and dip their toes in the sand. The sands of Fort Morgan carry an older, forgotten history, however. Most tourists will never know that the sands they play in were once soaked in blood.


Fort Morgan began construction in 1812 and was finished in 1834 and was widely regarded as the "finest example f military architecture in the New World." The fort was constructed in a unique star shape that made it easier to defend. Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines sat on opposing sides of Mobile Bay and acted together to close the Bay off and defend the waters.

Fort Morgan saw heavy fire during the Civil War. I was used defensively by the Confederates and was also a starting point for blockade running ships. The Union took the Fort during the Battle of Mobile Bay. After Fort Gaines fell, Union soldiers laid siege to the fort an set the wooden parts of the fort on fire. Many men died in this battle and the Confederate soldiers did not meet happy ends

It is not surprising that this old Fort has more than its fair share of ghosts. It has a long history filled with war and fire. The old barracks are said to be one of he most haunted portions of the fort.. In 1916 or 1917 a prisoner hung himself in the barracks. According to local lore, you can still hear the hanging man cry late at night. He is not alone in his sorrow. During the Civil War, a bomb went off in the fort and several men met a horrible fiery death. The bomb went off in a room with a big fireplace and they say you can still hear the men screaming at night.

The final ghost comes from an unconfirmed story of woe and sorrow. They say that some time in 19th a young woman was drug into the fort by unknown men. The woman was beaten, raped and murdered. According to legend, she still wanders the Fort looking for justice.

The Athens/Limestone County Courthouse

The Drive to Athens, Alabama was petulant today.  Tornadoes are expected and a vicious storm is heading our way.   It is preceded by shadow and wind so strong I had to cling to the steering wheel to keep the car on the road.   It was worth the drive.   Athens, Alabama is that kind of quiet, small, Southern town that belongs in old movies and books.   The old courthouse sits surrounded by a square of historic buildings and old churches.  Even in the shadow, it is alive and is the hub of life in Athens, Alabama.

I couldn't find much on the history of the old courthouse.   Athens was one of the first counties in Alabama to get a courthouse and claims to be the oldest county in Alabama.  The land for Limestone county was ceded from the Cherokee Nation in 1806 and from the Chickasaw in 1816.  For obvious reasons, for many years settlers had to fight off the Natives of the area.   Athens was made county seat in 1818 and during the civil war it was the first county in Alabama to be occupied by union forces.   Athens and the courthouse were sacked and burned.   The Col. responsible for the sacking was court marshaled the behavior in Athens was so terrible.

According to courthouse staff, there used to be a prison on the third floor of the Athens/ Limestone County courthouse.  This is where all the haunting activity is usually said to take place.   Locals say that one of the prisoners hung himself in his jail cell many years ago.  They don't know if he was sorry for what he did or just sorry to be paying the price for it, but he couldn't see the point in living any longer.  He hung himself on the third floor of the county courthouse and his ghost has never left.   Employees didn't have any specific stories for me.  They just knew the story and knew the third floor was haunted.

Searcy State Mental Hospital

Circe was the first book I ever wrote and I got a publishing deal for the book.  However, the publisher forgot about Circe and it was shuffled around and buried and I had gotten to the point where I thought it would never see the light of day.  Circe is a dark book and I thought maybe that was for the best.  However, yesterday my editor contacted me and said they were planning on publishing it soon.  Yay!  So in order to celebrate, I thought I'd bring back an old post on the hospital that inspired me to write Circe.

Searcy is one of my favorite haunted places. I did my internship here a very long time ago and I fell in love with it's history and it's white chipped walls. Everything about this old hospital spoke to me. It was even more remarkable because most of those who worked there and lived there every day were oblivious to it's history. I found this hospital so fascinating that I wrote I book about it which will be coming out this April.

Searcy State Hospital is located in Mt. Vernon Alabama. Prior to being a state hospital the old hospital has along and dark history that is very difficult to find, but easy to see upon casual observation. The hospital is encased in long, chipped, white walls that seem as old as anything in the United States. From outside these walls, you can see a battered watchtower that gives testament to the fact that the hospital is in the same location as a 300 year old fort. The fort bears witness to American history and was originally a Spanish fort. It switched hands during the Louisiana Purchase and became a US fort. After the US took possession of the fort it was converted to a military arsenal and became known as the Mount Vernon Arsenal.

The Arsenal switched hands again several times and was taken by the Confederates during the civil war only to be passed back over the United States again in 1862. From 1887 to 1894, The Arsenal became a Barracks and was used as a prison for the captured Apache people. The most famous of the Apache people to be held in these barracks was Geronimo. The infamous Aaron Burr was also held at this secluded prison at some point.

In 1900 the Barracks were transformed once again and the prison became a mental hospital. Searcy hospital was built as the African American mental hospital in Alabama. Conditions in the hospital were beyond questionable and at one time there were over 2000 patients in the crowded hospital and all were seen by one psychiatrist. All patients were expected to work in the fields.

The hospital was desegregated in 1969, but it’s history is all around it. The hospital is still in used today, and although the residents live in new buildings, many tell stories of ghosts and devils that linger in the white walls and abandoned buildings that surround the new facilities. These stories are usually ignored, because the patients are crazy, but I’m not the only sane person who saw a few ghosts while they were working there.