Post by Joanna on Nov 28, 2013 0:34:37 GMT -5
Ghosts of Stuckey's Bridge Haunt Lauderdale County
MERIDIAN, Miss. – In Lauderdale County, no one knows “Stuckey’s” first name, but people know where to find his bridge over the Chunky River. Now it’s mostly used for a Halloween party spot, but local legend holds it’s also the location of Stuckey’s lynching and haunting.
Wayne Smith claims to live on the property Stuckey is said to have owned in the mid-1800s. “Everyone that comes here that does see something, they’re frightened by it. And they’ll tell you that they’re frightened,” he says. “Murdering people, disposing of their bodies, gold buried along the banks of the river,” Smith adds – shortly summing up the story. “We have found through the years of talking to people that he was probably a serial killer.”
According to legend, Stuckey operated an inn where he killed as many as 20 people who were waiting to ferry across the Chunky River. After the bridge was constructed and his crimes discovered, locals held court – actually a kangaroo court – and made an example of the former Dalton Gang member, according to the story. “They hung the man and his helper from the bridge. Left him and come back after three or four days to cut the bodies down. And they splashed into the water of the river,” Smith explains.
Some people say they can still hear that splash nightly (although beavers are the suspected noise-producers). But it’s the other sounds – and sightings – that are more disturbing. “It’s more mist-like with a silhouette of a human being or you’ll see a mist with a face in it,” Smith claims. “There have been people who have heard women screaming. And it normally occurs at night.”
Paranormal investigations have shared what they call evidence of violent spirits online, but some neighbors dismiss the videos as staged.
Then there is also the fact the bridge was built after that story would have taken place. At this point, the legend begins to fall apart, but the myth lives on. “People come here and they see, well, we have had some sightings here. One as recent as this weekend,” Smith insists. “You have to live here to see what we see and hear what we hear because when we first come here, we were skeptical. There’s something here that people are seeing and feeling and when we come to the bridge, We feel it. “I haven’t seen anything, but we feel it.”
Other neighbors tell Channel 12 they have actually met some of Stuckey’s descendants, who claim their ancestor was accused of murder after a dispute over a hog. But, again, there is no evidence.
Source: Jacob Kittilstad, WJTV News, November 25, 2013.