Halloween: Ghosts in Alabama

     Cemeteries are a dime a dozen when it comes to haunting, no? Sure, there are bodies there, that's why they exist. But with a few rare exceptions, those people were already dead when they took up residence.
     Even Montgomery's oldest and most remote burial grounds are, well, really dead.

Dexter Plaza, A Slave Market.

     For a real haunting location, I would head to the places where people actually died, or where they were horribly mistreated on their way to death. Like Dexter Plaza, location of the 1880's fountain in downtown, but also the site of a slave market*.

Old Yellow Mama.

     Certainly Death Row in Holman Prison should be fertile ground...it's the reason the place exists! The state uses lethal injection now, but because they worry about legal challenges from some of the 194 inmates awaiting execution, the electric chair is kept in nominal working order in case an inmate chooses that method of execution.

Chairs in the old balcony, before renovation.

      Nobody actually died in the old Municipal Auditorium in Montgomery City Hall, but there was no shortage of calls for blood. The White Citizens Council and other 1960s's racist groups held meeting there, seeking ways to block integration.

A Pre-renovation view from the balcony.

     The folks proposing the end of segregation had to meet in churches, since city code limited the use of the city owned facility.
     The building has been completely renovated and looks fabulous, but still...
     Hank Williams' funeral was held there.

The old Brice Hospital, opened in 1861

 Or how about the old Brice Mental Hospital in Tuscaloosa? It was opened on the eve of The Civil War, and surely was the scene of enough cruelty and madness to harbor unhappy spirits.

     Montgomery is an old enough city that century old homes are common...how many of them were the scenes of deaths, natural or otherwise? How much do you know about the place where you live?

     You don't have to hangout in a burial ground to find a haunting. Just look around!

[P.S. An article about Thomas Jefferson and Monticello in the current issue of Smithsonian Magazine discloses the hidden fact that he allowed children as young as ten to be punished with a whip to encourage them to work in his nail factory. Talk about haunted?]

[*P.P.S.: Speaking of spirits and slavery, CBS 8's Stefanie Hicks visits slave quarters in old Cahawba, the first capitol of Alabama for a Halloween night special. Watch her haunted report Wednesday night at 10:00pm on CBS 8 in Montgomery.]