Lexington, KY - It's a question often asked by visitors to the Lexington History Museum located in the former Fayette County Courthouse building. The Richardson Romanesque structure, built in 1900, has a certain imposing look that suggests it might be quite comfortable to spirits with one foot still in the temporal world. The dome, in particular, seems right out of the central casting of a gothic novel.
To answer whether or not the Old Courthouse is haunted begs another question: if it is haunted, who haunts it -- and why? While there is no apparent record of any actual deaths inside the 1900 Courthouse, there is a story about a hanging that took place at the 1809 Courthouse, which was torn down to make way for the 1885 building that burned in 1898. That undated story concerns a defendant who, having been found guilty of a capital crime, was hanged out of a second floor window. The rope broke, and the unfortunate victim fell to the ground, only to be taken back to the second floor and hanged again -- this time for good.
Perhaps the most famous trial was that of Will Lockett, an African American who had pleaded guilty to the assault and murder of 10-year-old Geneva Hardman near South Elkhorn on Harrodsburg Road. Tensions over the racially-charged trial were so high in Lexington that Lockett was held in the state penitentiary at Frankfort for five days until his trial on Monday, Feb. 9, 1920. When he was brought back to Lexington, a large mob had assembled outside the courthouse. Anticipating trouble, Gov. Edwin Morrow had called out the Kentucky National Guard, which set up a machine gun nest in front of the courthouse. A newspaper photographer asked a group of men to wave their fists in the air so he could take their picture. Others, misunderstanding what was happening, began to rush the courthouse, prompting the guard to open fire, killing six.
Lockett was found guilty after only 30 minutes, and taken to Eddyville, where he died in the electric chair a month later. Punishment was unmercifully swift at that time.
Others may have been tried and put to death in the years 1900 -
1920, after which local hangings were eliminated for all but crimes involving rape. The last hanging took place in Lexington on March 5, 1926, when one Ed Harris swung from the gallows at the old jail on Short and North Limestone streets.
Any of those justly or unjustly sentenced to death would have good cause to haunt the Old Courthouse. Even a lawyer or judge or two -- to say nothing of those six who died in the Lockett riot -- might be the source of restless spirits not yet ready to pass through the veil.
In the summer and fall of 2010, the Lexington History Museum was the site of two separate paranormal investigations to determine if there is any evidence of wandering souls in the building. AfterLife Kentucky, based in London, Ky., spent the night of June 18 -
19 in the building. Lexington-based Ghost Hunter International conducted its search on the evening of Oct. 22.
Both groups employed teams to cover all four floors, plus the basement and dome, detecting any activity with hand-held electromagnetic sensors. In addition, AfterLife Kentucky set up infrared video cameras set to record at a very slow speed. One person in each team was selected to serve as a sort of "spirit guide" to verbally invite any force present to reveal itself in some manner, with the detection equipment designed to record and display evidence of any related activity.
In both cases, unfortunately (or, perhaps fortunately, for those of us who work here), no definitive activity was observed.
Truth be told, my wife, Madelyn, and I live in a restored 1830 Kentucky hemp plantation house that is haunted -- by one Otho Offutt, brother of Denton Offutt, who operated a general store in New Salem, Ill., and employed a young Abraham Lincoln (that's another story begging to be told in a future issue). So, we know what it's like to live in the presence of spirits. Never, in four years working in the Lexington History Museum, frequently late at night, has there ever been a feeling of spirits in the building. Even at Halloween.
Note: On Saturday, Oct. 22, the Lexington History Museum will conduct its annual Halloween event, "Scary Night at the Museum," from 6 -
8 p.m. The family-friendly, though mildly frightful, event is free and open to the public.