Spring Travels: Dining with Ghosts

In planning the trip to Natchez, Kirby had researched a few spots that made claims to be haunted.  Now, I think it must be good for business if a restaurant makes a paranormal claim, and it seems that if the lights once flickered in the kitchen in 1993, then the place advertises a ghost on the premises.  I lean towards skepticism for most of these specific ghost claims, but - through recorded history, people say they have seen ghosts, so maybe their is something universal and true to the existence of spirit apparitions. Just maybe.

With an appetite for haunting possibilities and not to mention, dinner; we had King's Tavern on our list in hopes of good food and just maybe a few see-through guests passing by our table, chilling our spine and our water glasses.  King's Tavern is the oldest standing building in the Mississippi Territory, dating back to at least the 1780's (possibly older).  Adding some credence to the hauntings of this place is the documented excavation of three human skeletons in the 1930's when the tavern's fireplace was being repaired.  Bricked into the back of the chimney were the bones of a woman and two men, replete with a mysterious jewel encrusted dagger, the presumed instrument of their demise.

Long before the gruesome discovery behind the bricked-up back of the chimney, reports of ghosts within King's Tavern had been made.  Richard King, the tavern's early owner had hired a young bar maid named Madeline. the employer/employee relationship was rumor to quickly become one of a lovers affair.  Soon, Madeline disappeared and it was rumored that King's wife is said to have gotten suspicious and hired two henchmen to murder young Madeline.  Other visitors have reported the sounds of a crying infant coming from a vacant upstairs room.  This is said to be the ghost of a fussy baby that was taken from the arms of its mother by 'Big Harpe', a notoriously cruel bully in these parts, and slammed the baby into the wall and killing it, then Big Harpe returned to the bar to drink in quiet.

Donna and Sue look as if they'd seen a ghost while
waiting for dinner at the purportedly haunted King's Tavern

The ghost of Madeline (the missing bar maid and lover of the Tavern's proprietor) is said to be haunting the tavern along with the murdered infant who some say its cries can still be heard.

We selected a table in the corner, but the ladies suggested we move out to the back patio to dine in the pleasant twilight.  When I asked the our waiter about the spirits of the place, he mentioned that the three skeleton were discovered in the chimney wall, in the very corner that we had just vacated. Ooooh, creepy.

 The sun had now set and we found ourselves in the dark awaiting our dinner, mine was a crawfish pot pie - recommended.

As we completed our meal, Donna and I, each carrying cameras, left the table to pay off the tab, when Ricky, the wise-cracking proprietor, stopped us; "Hey you guys with the cameras [obviously tourist], where are you from?"  I mentioned "Dallas-area".  He repeated, "Dallas-area - fess up, where in the 'Dallas area'? You know I ran a couple of clubs in Plano and in Dallas..." and he named them off.  He filled us in on the story of his professional club and restaurant career, never giving a straight answer to any of my questions.

Then looking at our camera, he asked in a disappointing tone, have you been upstairs?  We allowed as to how we had not even known it was open to the public.  Oh he said, you get your butts up there right now.  We climbed the stairs lined with portraits, culminating with a portrait of Madeline herself on the landing on the 3rd floor.

Madeline watches all who ascend the stairs
and enter the upper room that is frequently cited as
Madeline's favorite haunt

 In the up-most chamber, the wall was lined with newspaper accounts of the discovery of the bodies embedded in the brick wall and the jeweled dagger plunged into the ribs of the lady's hidden bones. Another framed clipping was an eye witness story published by a newspaper reporter who was run out of the upper chamber by the mysterious swing of of Madeline's portrait hanging on the wall and the gyrations of a dangling chain that changed it direction of rotation when Madeline's ghost was challenged to make it do so, the trembling reporter.  The reporter and her photographer husband flew down the stairs and informed the proprietor that they would not be spending the night there after all.

I took photo of Madeline's portrait too, hoping that upon viewing I would notice a disembodied diaphanous woman hovering inside the room.  But, I saw nothing, I heard nothing and I felt nothing.

Once we descended the stairs, Ricky said he had something to show us.  He had his bartender pull up a video on his phone that was down-loaded from the tavern's security camera.  The backstory was that this video was from a Monday when the place was closed, and with nobody around.  There is a video recording of the refrigerator door opening by itself.  The bar tender demonstrated the good vacuum seal around the door and the high unlikelihood that it would just fall open.  Ricky added his opinion, "I am basically a skeptic of the paranormal stories I hear, but I am not so arrogant as to say it definitely could not happen to be true.  There has been some strange shit  happening around here."

Madeline keeps an eerie eye on those who come and go

 Having seen the video and heard the and read the stories, we bade Madeline and all of the ethereal tenants of King's Tavern good-bye.