Kentucky Ghosts

Bloodstains on Top of the Well

Bloodstains on Top of the Well Hollis Thompson told me an interesting story. It was about a bloodstain on the water well at this old house his family moved into back in 1943. That was right in the middle of World War II. Hollis said that he was just a 5-year-old boy at the time. The house into which the Thompsons moved was very old. As a matter of fact, the house was so rundown that it had to have a lot of repair work done before they moved in. I've heard Hollis say that there was no overhead ceiling upstairs. The ceiling rafters had been handmade. The axe marks made in them many years ago were still visible. He told me many other things about that house and all the old outbuildings around it. Let me tell you right now, a lot of his stories were scary. But there was one story about the old plank-covered well that really scared me. It made my blood turn cold every time I thought of it, especially after dark. The story had its beginnings around 1900. Back then, a Russell family owned the farm there and lived in the house. They liked to have parties and always invited their friends and neighbors in to have a good time with them. One night the Russell family held a corn shucking party in the house. That's a party people had back then as a way of 39 getting their corn shucked. They could have a barrel of fun doing it. Fellows always liked these parties. Every time one of them found a red ear of corn, he got to kiss the girl of his choice. Well, it just so happens that the Russells were also the parents of the prettiest girl for miles around. Her name was Katy. She was engaged to the toughest, meanest bully in three counties. Why she chose him I'll never know. His name was Wayne Babbit. People claimed that he stole chickens and hams of meat from his neighbors. If they said anything about it, he always pulled a gun out of his pocket and flashed it at them. Babbit wouldn't work on his own farm. As a matter of fact, he mainly just rode his horse up and down the road. People always said that he was just a troublemaker. Later in the evening the corn shucking was about over. The young, single people began playing a game called "Pleased or Displeased." One of the men asked Josh Cook, a younger brother of Jim Cook, if he was pleased or displeased. Josh told him that he was displeased. "What would it take to please you?" the man asked. Josh answered, "To see Katy kiss my brother Jim." 40 That statement tells me how much Josh wanted to see Katy marry Jim. He didn't like Babbit at all. And, too, Jim and Katy had been sweethearts at one time. Jim had no choice in the matter but to do what Josh asked him to do. He took Katy in his arms and kissed her for what must have been a long time. This broke the game up, and in a few minutes people began to go home. Wayne Babbit was very angry. When Jim and Josh Cook left the Russell house, he followed them outside. So did Katy. Jim and Babbit began to fight. The jealous Babbit took out his pocket knife. It was the kind they always called a razor knife. He opened the long shiny blade and made a dive for Jim Cook. Suddenly, a woman's scream was heard by the people inside the house. The men all ran in the direction from which the scream had come. They found Katy standing by Jim Cook's body, which lay stretched out across the top of the old well. His head was gone. It had been totally cut off. There it was on the ground, eyes open and staring into the stillness of the cold, dark sky. Cook's blood had gushed out of his body and was all over the wooden planks that covered the well. It was an awful thing to see. After the killing, Babbit ran and hid in the barn. The others found him there still holding the long, 41 bloody knife blade in his hand. He denied killing Cook, but was soon...