The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales

7. Headless Ghosts

7 Headless Ghosts THE HEADLESS ghost is undoubtedly one of the most popular figures in ghost stories, judging by the number of times he appears. In almost every collection of tales there will be one or more headless ghosts. This particular kind of ghost also illustrates the problem of arrangement that faces the collector. Actually, there are thirteen headless ghosts in this book-nine more than the four included in this section-but most of them seemed to go more naturally in some other category. Perhaps the best known literary example is the headless horseman of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." West Virginia has a number of these riders, but they have been omitted here, as other tales were more dramatically told. "The Headless Hant," in The Book of Negro Folklore (pp. 164-65) by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps, is an excellent example of a headless ghost. 57 39. Return of the Headless Man ONE DAY AS the men were trying to clear a certain area of timber in the backwoods of Barbour County, a worker got too close to a circular saw. He saw his danger too late, and before he could move, the blade tore into his neck. Blood flew everywhere, spraying the surrounding trees and ground with a red blanket. The man's head dropped to the ground like a coconut from a tree. His body whirled three times and then fell against a hollow log. No one could move, because everyone was stunned by the accident. After the men finally recovered from the shock, they made arrangements to have the mangled body removed to a funeral home. It was several months before the memory of the accident faded from their minds. One night in the quiet logging camp, as a night watchman made the rounds, checking the equipment and watching for thieves, he saw the figure of a man standing in the exact spot of the accident. Caught by surprise, he froze for a few minutes. As soon as he had recovered sufficiently, he started walking toward the figure. He was shocked to see the same person that had been killed' a few months before. Just then the figure disappeared, and the watchman turned and ran to town to report the headless man's return. Night after night the same thing would happen. One night the watchman shot at the figure to see if that would stop him, but it didn't. The man would just vanish into the night. Then, about a month later, a forest fire burned down all the woods, including the logging camp. So the loggers moved on to another location. Just for curiosity the loggers came back to see if the man was still there. He wasn't. The general opinion of the woodsmen was that the dead man had gotten his revenge and now he was happy. 58 4Q The Headless RIder MANY YEARS ago, at a place called Pleasant Hill, a sparsely settled section of Doddridge County, there was a church and graveyard. At that time the church was new, and only a very few people had been buried there. But just over the edge of the hill was a dense clump of bushes, and in the center of this was a mound that looked much like a grave, a lonely grave. It was said that a traveler had been murdered and buried there, by whom, no one knew. But at a certain time each month, when the moon was full, the ghost haunted the road in the form of a headless man. My great-uncle, though, had never believed any of these stories, as he had ridden this road all hours of the night and had seen no sign of this headless ghost. But one night as my great-uncle was coming home very late, his mare seemed to be weighted down with such a heavy load, she could hardly take a step. My uncle put his hand behind him, and felt a man's leg; then a heavy hand was placed on his leg. Looking around, he saw the headless man sitting behind him. The mare took fright but could only struggle along slowly until they came opposite the mysterious grave; then the man disappeared. The mare ran all the way home, and from that time on it was almost impossible to ride her past that spot after dusk. 41. The...