Published by Haunted America
A Division of The History Press
Charleston, SC 29403
www.historypress.net
Copyright 2013 by Dan Smith
All rights reserved
First published 2013
e-book edition 2013
Manufactured in the United States
ISBN 978.1.62584.698.3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, Dan, 1980-
Ghosts of Bobby Mackeys Music World / Dan Smith.
pages cm. -- (Haunted America)
print edition ISBN 978-1-62619-222-5 (pbk.)
1. Bobby Mackeys Music World (Nightclub)--Miscellanea. 2. Haunted places--Kentucky--Wilders. 3. Ghosts--Kentucky--Wilders. I. Title.
BF1472.U6S653 2013
133.12976934--dc23
2013034747
Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This book is dedicated to those who have experienced paranormal encounters so frightening, so completely overwhelming to the senses, that there is no doubt in their minds that the existence of the spirit world is true.
For those who have been ridiculed or outcast for sharing their terrifying stories with the world, rest assured that there are others out there who fully understand and appreciate the weight that a paranormal matter can place upon your shoulders. There are others like you who go through life with a new perspective about what is real and what is important.
This book, although dark, reminds me that life after death is most certainly real, and I will one day be reunited with those who I have lost during this journey we call life.
This book is also dedicated to the late Carl Lawson, who endured unimaginable horror yet was strong enough to tell the world his story.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is the work of a great many individuals. This project has been the toughest but most rewarding literary experience I have ever undertaken. Thank you to my dear friends who share the same paranormal passion that I do. You show support for a form of legitimate study that is often met with ridicule and disparaging comments. Your encouragement gives me hope for the future studies of paranormal phenomena.
Special thanks to Becca Wilson, whose help and support continually drove me forward toward the finish line. Without your help, compiling historical data alone would have been a monstrous undertaking. Your assistance was priceless when I was faced with a mountain of information to sift through.
To my daughters, Nevaeh and Fallon, thank you for inspiring me every day. I share this book with the hopes that your generation will have a much more complete understanding of the paranormal world.
Thank you to those who were willing to share their experiences with the world in the hopes that others will gain a healthy respect for just how real and life changing paranormal encounters can be.
Thank you to the many people, places, museums, libraries and historical societies that helped discover important historical information. Uncovering these many untold stories has created a clearer picture regarding a location steeped in mystery.
PREFACE
During the summer of 1995, I lived in Ferndale, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Strange things started happening around me that no one had an explanation for. Lights would suddenly turn on by themselves. Water faucets would unexpectedly come on in other rooms. By this time in my life, my parents had divorced, and I essentially had two homes. When these strange things began happening, I began to notice that they seemed to happen around me, no matter which house I was at.
Nothing seemed too frightening, but the odd happenings began to occur more frequently over the summer. I would watch as streetlights burned out when the car I was riding in drove underneath them. Not just one here and there. No, there were many streetlights that were rendered inoperable simply from my passing by. Lights and water faucets began to turn on by themselves. I was given lectures about the cost of energy and advised to turn off these things when I left a room.
As the weird events continued, my father took notice and didnt like what was happening. Are you channeling? he would ask me. The answer was no. I had no idea what was causing the bizarre and increasingly regular events. My father believed me to be involved in some sort of black magic or other unhealthy practices. While this was not the case, as time went on and things kept occurring, I began to have a precognitive feeling about them. I began to know when something would occur. To this day, I cant fully explain what the feeling was like. It was unlike any other sense Ive ever experienced. Perhaps it was a sixth sense, but if it was, I had no control over it.
One evening, I was suddenly engulfed in this feeling and immediately alerted my father. Not an entire minute later, the television began changing channels while we looked frantically back and forth between the television and the remote control, which sat quietly on the coffee table in front of us. No sooner did the shock set in than we began hearing sporadic pounding sounds on the interior walls of the house. And then all at once, our eyes turned to an old chair sitting empty only a few feet away from us. What I saw that night changed my life forever.
The aged recliner was a hideous orange color that beckoned thoughts of pale pastels worn during the 1970s. Over time, the footrest became progressively difficult to open. One had to sit in the chair and physically pull as hard as possible on the lever in order to open the footrest. But as my father stood in the living room and I sat on the couch, we both watched as this empty recliner began to violently open the footrest and slam it closed. Not before and not since have I seen my fathers face lose so much color so quickly. We were stunned. We bounded out the front door and gathered outside, not really sure of what had just occurred. We were visibly shaken, having no idea what the cause could be for what we just witnessed.
After that terrifying incident, the strange things became more and more infrequent and eventually stopped altogether. Following the incident, my father reported that he had to replace the paneling above his fireplace. He said that demonic faces began appearing in the grain, more and more each day. His wife beseeched him to have it removed from the home because it frightened her. The episode for me had a life-altering effect. I grew curious of what exactly had happened and began delving into the world of paranormal investigation and research.
Looking back with the knowledge I have today, it seems quite clear that what I experienced was a poltergeist haunting. The popular belief in todays paranormal research community is that a poltergeist haunting doesnt involve any actual ghosts at all. It is widely believed that poltergeist events are caused by a human agent who unknowingly affects his or her surroundings through what is known as psychokinesis. In essence, a person is haunting himself or herself without knowing it. This type of phenomena usually occurs during big life changes, such as divorce, women going through menopause or in adolescents, such as myself.
