Ghost make Bobby Mackey's Nightclub Famous
Horror Stories - Ghost make Bobby Mackey's Nightclub Famous
An unassuming yet historic building on the banks of the Licking River in
Wilder, Kentucky has become a nationally famous story because of the
tragic, strange and paranormal occurrences that have taken place there
over the years. The "haunted house" currently is home to Bobby Mackey's
Music World, a local country music hot spot that is owned by the club's
featured performer, Bobby Mackey.
Author Douglas Hensley wrote a popular book on the subject ("Hell's Gate: Terror at Bobby Mackey's Music World,").
Hensley spent five years researching the bizarre background of the
nightclub and the building itself, which has a sordid history that dates
back to the 1800s. In the back of the book are copies of 29 sworn and
signed affidavits from club employees, patrons, Wilder Policemen and
others including Bobby Mackey's wife, Janet Mackey, who writes in her
affidavit that an unseen force threw her down a flight of stairs and
tried to harm her in other ways.
Hensley summed up his observations in the book's introduction: "The
phenomena within and about Bobby Mackey's Music World have yet to be
satisfactorily defined by any explanation other than: it's haunted."
The old building that now houses Bobby Mackey's was a slaughterhouse for
over 40 years during the 1800s. The ample spilled blood from the
slaughterhouse and its location on the banks of the Licking River -- on
of two rivers in the world that flow north -- attracted a hoard of
satanic worshippers who used the site for sacrificial grounds.
In 1896, the building became entangled in a sensational and grizzly
murder when Pearl Bryan's headless body was found nearby. The young
lady's head was never found, but speculation abounded that it was likely
disposed of in the slaughterhouse's basement well that was used to
drain blood into the river when two local men who were active in the
occult confessed to the murder. Alonzo Walling and Scott Jackson became
the last two people hanged in Campbell County when they were sent to the
gallows on March 21, 1897 for the murder of Pearl Bryan. With his last
words on the gallows behind the Campbell County Courthouse -- located
near the slaughterhouse -- Walling vowed to return to torment his
executioners.
According to the KENTUCKY POST articles at the time, Walling and Jackson
were offered life in prison instead of death if they told authorities
where Bryan's head was located. People familiar with the two murderers
claim that they refused because they were terrified they would spark the
wrath of Satan if they exposed the site of his sacrifical grounds.
Reportedly, they offered Bryan's head as a sacrifice to Satan, most
likely in the slaughterhouse well. Local believers claim the well is a
"gateway to hell" of sorts, a gruesome legend that lives on to the
present day.
Bryan (often a headless figure), Walling and Jackson reportedly have
been seen on numerous occasions at Bobby Mackey's over the years, along
with other spirits whose lives were entangled with the building in some
way. In fact, several people have died unnatural deaths inside the
building, which was accused of several murders at the casino. During the
1950s, it became the Latin Quarter, another popular nightclub whose
owners were arrested several times on gambling charges.
Later, the building became yet another rough-and-tumble nightclub, The
Hard Rock Cafe (no relation to the restaurant chain), which was closed
in 1978 by police request after several fatal shootings on the premises.
Bobby Mackey purchased the building in 1978 and opened his Music World
shortly thereafter.
One of the most frequently seen spirits is a young girl named Johana, a
cabaret dancer during the club's casino days who reportedly poisoned
herself and her mobster father inside the building after he murdered her
boyfriend, club singer Robert Randall. Other spirits who have appeared
at the club regularly are Johana, and gangster Albert "Red" Masterson.
According to sworn affidavits, other witnesses and local legend,
paranormal activity in the club is often preceded by the strong smell of
rose perfume. The juke box at Bobby Mackey's also has come on suddenly
and played old tunes from the 1930s and 1940s -- songs that were not
loaded into the juke box. "The Anniversary Waltz" is a particular
favorite, heard numerous times by many people. Chairs have moved
unexplicably, rooms have gone cold and people have heard their names
called, only to turn around and have no one there in the club.
Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of the Bobby Mackey's saga are the
claims by several people that they have had spirits enter their bodies
while in the club. Some of the sworn affidavits claim they felt cold
chills run through their bodies while others claimed to have taken on
different personalities and even facial features while inside.
The most celebrated case of possession at Bobby Mackey's is Carl Lawson,
who lived upstairs above the nightclub as a caretaker for the club.
Lawson, one of the main subjects of Hensley's book, claims to have been
attacked by several of the resident spirits and actually possessed by
some of them as well, including Alonzo Walling. A supposedly successful
exorcism of Lawson and the entire building took place at Bobby Mackey's
on August 8, 1991. It was performed by the Reverend Glenn Coe and
witnessed by Hensley, who also caught it all on videotape.
For a time, it appeared that the exorcism was successful, but in recent
years, strange occurrences have begun once again at the old building.
Bobby Mackey, who has refused to believe the paranormal activity was
true from the beginning, nevertheless made plans to tear down the
building and construct a new club on adjacent property after viewing the
videotape of the Carl Lawson exorcism. However, a piece of the ceiling
fell on him one day when he was discussing the demolition, and the
adjacent property he purchased for the new club was rendered useless by
the sudden appearance of a fissure about six inches wide and 60 feet
deep that runs from the old slaughterhouse well to the middle of the
adjacent property. Mackey has never built the new club, and he continues
to operate at his original club where he regularly performs a special
song he wrote, "The Ballad of Johana."