From ghosties and ghoulies
And long-legged beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord Preserve us!
An ancient belief about
ghosts is that if they were murdered they return to avenge their deaths. In
today’s world this notion is often rejected.
 |
| Adirondacks |
One ghost legend that has
been told in the Adirondacks for years is about a murdered hunter who returns
to do exactly this.
Two hunters kept a camp not
far from St. Regis Falls in the North Woods. Every fall season they returned to
hunt for several days. Everyone assumed these two men Sandburg and Barry were
good friends.
One season Sandburg came down
from the mountain alone stating Barry had gotten lost. A search party was sent
to look but an early snow hampered their efforts. They returned without finding
any trace of the missing hunter.
The State Police felt that
Sandburg wasn’t telling the whole story. They questioned him several times,
each time he became more agitated to the point where he wouldn’t answer anymore
of their questions. They had no corpse or other concrete evidence so they
couldn’t prove foul play. The case was dismissed.
 |
| Hunting Camp |
The following spring hikers
found Barry’s body lying at the base of a tree. His skull was cracked. Still the
police could not prove anything and the coroner determined the injury was due
to “an accidental death.”
A rusted rife was found near Barry’s
body. His hunting knife that he always kept strapped to his leg was missing.
No one found this odd at the time.
The next fall Sandburg
returned to the camp with a new companion. The first night this hunter turned
in early. It had been a long trip and he was tired. In the middle of the night
he was jarred awake by Sandburg’s shouts. The man in the tent heard him scream,
“Don’t do it…stop!”
Scrambling for his flashlight
he left the tent. He found Sandburg sitting in a camp chair dead. A hunting
knife was stuck through his heart.
Later only one set of prints
was found on the knife handle. They belonged to Barry.
Louis C. Jones, Things That Go Bump in the Night, 1959,
Aeonian Press, Inc., New York
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