Deena West Budd

On vacation in the late 1990s, Joe and Karan Noonan visited Vicksburg, Mississippi. They pulled into town late one evening and found the only Bed & Breakfast with the lights on - The Duff Green Mansion on First East Street.

Reported apparitions of a banker-type fellow, an elderly man wearing a trench coat, a young girl in a white dress and a “somber woman wearing period clothing, who has been seen staring down the street with a sad look on her face,” have all been observed by witnesses in Edina and Baring.

Investigations conducted at the abandoned Prairie View Rest Home over the past few years by several paranormal groups in the area have revealed the sounds of footsteps on the second and third floors, old-fashioned music playing and a variety of other noises. The stairwells are reported to be especially creepy. One investigator stated that staff members were often reluctant to use the stairs.

When Amos Stillwell was viciously murdered with an axe on the morning of December 30, 1888, his two young sons were in the same room. Erle Gulick Stillwell, only three years old on the morning of the murder, grew up to design a theater in which paranormal activity began to occur years later during a renovation process. Could it be Erle G. Stillwell expressing his opinion of the project?

On April 15, 1890, 24-year-old John King a/k/a Mansfield King was arrested in St. Louis for horse stealing. Upon his capture, King seemed relieved and told the officers he was also a murderer and that the spirit of the man he had killed near Perry, Missouri appeared to him nightly.

Did a ghost boat once haunt the waters of the Mississippi River near Hannibal in the early 1890’s? According to Bruce Carlson, author of “Ghosts of the Mississippi River,” many of Hannibal’s inhabitants claimed to see a large ghostly rowboat roam the waters at night from the early 1890s through the turn of the century.

According to the 16 Sept 1923 edition of the Oakland Tribune, the Swisher house was “bombarded with rocks, potatoes, tomatoes and chunks of coal” each night. They also heard “weird music” and other “strange noises.”

On the night of April 28, 1902, a well-respected Rensselaer, Missouri citizen, husband and father of two was murdered on the doorstep of his store by Jesse Johnson. Johnson, a 24-year-old young black man from Monroe City, worked on a farm near Rensselaer and traded at McRae’s store frequently...

The historic Elmwood Farm located on Route C a few miles outside of Palmyra is said by the current owner to be haunted by numerous spirits. Fortunately, owner Janice Dyer has conducted extensive research on the history of her property and has been able to identify several of the ghosts.

According to the 29 November 1934 issue of the Jefferson City Post-Tribune, the “Ghost of Paris” had been “stalking” the little town every October beginning in 1864. However, in 1934, the ghost didn’t make its annual visit until November, and it had acquired the trait of peeping in windows...