Happy October! It's time for spooky stories and frightening photographs, and I hope to share a selection over the next month. These will be in a slightly shorter format to allow for a few more posts during the spooky season. Here's the first in the series! From the Suffolk News-Herald, June 20, 1934 is a fine "ghost photograph" of the old courthouse in Cynthiana, Kentucky. The pioneer-era structure is where David Sheely was wrongfully sentenced to death. (Content warning for the link, as the original source includes an uncensored photograph of a lynching.) Not being familiar with this story as it's a bit outside my usual local history sphere, I looked into the case for more details. The tale begins when David was accused of murdering his wife Nancy in June of 1847. After a day of fishing, David and some friends returned to his cabin on Beaver Creek (or sometimes Crooked Creek) and demanded Nancy clean and prepare the fish they caught at 2 AM. She refused, and all...
Forgotten history fished from the river of forgetfulness