Spirits of the Sinyard House - Hawkinsville, Georgia

In the small Georgia town of Hawkinsville, located halfway between Atlanta and Savannah, there is a home that for a while seemed most ordinary.  That is until work some work was done on it and extensive changes were made.  The changes in the house seemed to awaken something... spirits who dwelled within.

Spirits from the post Civil War era haunt the Sinyard House in Hawkinsville, Georgia - Image courtesy of Photostock freedigitalphotos.net

After the Sinyard home was remodeled, strange things started to happen with in the home.  A huge amount of poltergeist activity accompanied by sightings of the paranormal kind.  It is believed that this poltergeist has moved things around, pulled items out of kitchen cabinets and slammed the doors shut.  Folks have been taking showers and the curtain would suddenly open by an unseen hand. Also the sounds of a child playing upstairs, laughing and giggling has been heard by some witnesses who claim that no child was present in the home. Poltergeist activities have been long thought to be caused by the spirits of dead children, the life taken away from them in their youth, so they like to play in the afterlife.

Other things happen in the house that would suggest that this poltergeist is not alone.  Heavy footsteps have been heard going up the stairs when no one was there.  Clothing left in rumpled piles have been found neatly folded and placed in a stack on the foot of the bed.  Occasionally the smell of perfume can be detected with in certain areas of the house.  A kind not worn by any occupant.  There has been instances where a woman's voice has been heard singing upstairs as if singing a lullaby to a child.  And on a rare occasion the actually full bodied apparition of an unrecognized woman has been seen in the windows of the upper floors by people passing by.

The ghostly image of a woman has been seen in the upper floors of The Sinyard House in Hawkinsville, Georgia - Image courtesy of thephotoholic freedigitalphotos.net

After the owners did some research on the property, it was discovered that sometime shortly after the Civil War, a live-in maid stayed in the household and she had a child.  The reason that is known is because records indicated that one day the woman and her child were found dead.  The life needlessly taken away from them.

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The Curse of Bobby Mackey's (aka Hell's Gate) - Wilder, Kentucky

As history goes in 1896 a young woman named Pearl Bryan, a country girl from Greencastle, Indiana, came to the Cincinnati area after sharing some news with her lover Scott Jackson, who she met in Greencastle.  The news she give him is that she was five months pregnant with his child and was hoping he would marry her.  A few days later she was found murdered and decapitated in a field near Ft. Thomas.  The murderers, who it was believed were Scott Jackson and his accomplice Alonzo Walling, were brought to justice.  However, her head was never found.  On the day that they were to be hanged for the crime, Alonzo, claiming that he was not the one who killed Pearl, declared a curse as he stood next to the hangman's noose.  His curse stated that all who set foot on this land and all who were participants in the trial would be tormented by him as he would return from the grave to haunt them.

As it turns out, all participants in the murder trial of Alonzo met an violent, untimely death.  On the he sight of the gallows where Alonzo was put to death a roadhouse was built in the 1920s. Then the turbulent history of the property began. It became a hot bed of mob activity from the Cincinnati area as this was during the prohibition era.  There were rumors of many murders taking place in the establishment but went relatively unknown until later as the mobsters would remove the bodies and deposit them elsewhere.  After prohibition was lifted, the establishment was purchased and turned into a bar called "The Primrose".  Again, the mobsters came into the picture and tried to threaten the owner for a piece of the action.  In a gunfight, one of the gangsters was almost killed and the owner of the bar was charged with attempted murder.  He gave up and sold the bar to the mob.

An artist rendition of "The Primrose"

After being closed for a while, the establishment re-opened again in the 1950's as a casino.  The daughter of the owner who's name was Johanna, fell for one of the singers who performed at the club.  The owner being very unhappy about the relationship, had the singer murdered by the mob.  Angered and distraught over the incident, Johanna made an attempt to poison her father but failed.  She then took her own life or so the story goes.  Her body was found in the basement of the casino and after an investigation it was found that she was 5 months pregnant, just like Peal Bryan when her remains were found.  There was another attempt to open the establishment as a Hard Rock Cafe in the mid 1970's, but that ended when there was a shooting incident at the restaurant and many people were killed.  The cafe closed a short time afterward as no one wanted to go there after the murders.

Country music singer Bobby Mackey purchased the property in 1978 and turned it into a Country-Western club.  This business is thriving today and it remains "Bobby Mackey's Music World". There have been many occurrences of lights turning themselves on and off and shadow figures have been seen behind the bar.  The jukebox will turn itself on and start playing music, even if it is unplugged! Some folks claim to have seen and talked to a young girl in the club, that after being described to others is believed to be the ghost of Johanna.  However, there have been many reports over the years of violent spirits with disembodied voices demanding that those in the establishment should leave.  Some victims claim to have been bounced off of walls or thrown down stairs by an unseen force.

Bobby Mackey's Music World

It is because of this property's torrid past that it has been nicknamed "Hell's Gate". Maybe also because there is a well hidden inside that some believe is a gateway to Hell. A book was written by the title "Hell's Gate, The terror at Bobby Mackey's Music World" by, Douglas Hensley.  Bobby Mackey himself has written and recorded a song based on the ghost of the girl that has been spotted in the club titled "Johanna".

Bobby Mackey

Book published about the Bobby Mackey Music Word hauntings