This railroad depot built in Kansas City in 1914, spans 850,000 square feet. It is the third-largest railroad station in the world. At its peak, it welcomed over 200 trains a day.
The Kansas City Massacre
In 1933, a violent gun battle between federal agents, local police, and three high profile gangsters occurred. This violence it is believed resulted in the Union Station being haunted by one very tormented soul.
It was a warm summer morning in June when Frank Nash stepped off a train wearing handcuffs. Federal Agent Lackey, Chief Reed, and Agent Smith accompanied Nash off the train.
Frank "Jelly" Nash
Nash had a lengthy criminal record that had landed him in prison three times. In 1913, he was sentenced to a life term in Oklahoma. He spent five years at the state penitentiary at McAlester. He then was pardoned.
Five years later, in 1920, he was given a 25-year sentence for burglary and the use of explosives. Again he was pardoned.
Shortly after being released he was arrested and charged with assault. He again was sentenced to a 25-year term. This time he was sent to the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas.
In 1930 Nash escaped. The FBI launched an investigation and Nash was captured in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Three friends of Nash's Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd, Vernon Miller, and Adam Richetti, were waiting outside Union Station in a stolen car the morning of June 17th when Nash arrived at 7:15 a.m. They intended to help him escape once more.
Click to enlarge.
Special Agent Vetterli met Agent Lackey at the station along with Agent Caffrey and two police officers, Grooms and Hermanson. These seven armed men then escorted Nash through the station’s lobby.
Once outside, none of the officers noticed a green Plymouth parked close by.
Caffrey unlocked the right side back passenger door of his Chevrolet Sedan, but Lackey placed Nash in the front passenger seat instead. Lackey then climbed in and sat in the backseat behind the driver.
Agent Smith sat in the center front seat next to Nash, and Chief Reed took the seat behind Nash. Vetterli, Grooms, and Hermanson stood outside the car as Caffrey moved toward the driver’s seat.
The officers barely had time to react as Miller and Floyd approached the car and opened fire using revolvers and a machine gun.
Vetterli outside the car managed to shout, “Let them have it” as the two gangsters shot and killed Grooms and Hermanson. Vetterli was wounded in the left arm.
Before he could reach the driver’s seat, Caffrey was shot in the head and fell to the ground. Vetterli managed to move out of the line of fire.
In the car, both Chief Reed and Nash seated on the left passenger sides were shot by flying bullets and died.
Four law enforcement officers killed.
Click to enlarge.
This photo was taken moments after the attack.
Caffrey is on the ground lying between
the two cars.
Miller and Floyd made their way to the car only to find their friend dead. Moment’s later officers inside the station rushed out. They fired at the two men. Floyd was shot but managed to make it back to the Plymouth. The three gangsters then fled the scene.
The entire attack lasted less than a minute.
Agents Vetterli, Smith, and Lackey all survived the attack. Lackey had been shot three times while sitting in the car.
Three that survived.
Click to enlarge.
The FBI launched a major manhunt for the three killers. Miller’s body was found mutilated in a ditch outside Newark, New Jersey. He had been strangled and beaten by the gangster Longie Zwillman, who was connected to the crime syndicate Murder Incorporated.
The law caught up to Floyd and Richetti in Ohio in 1934. The two men had crashed their car and were sitting in a garage waiting for it to be repaired, when the local police chief, J.H. Fultz become suspicious.
A gunfight ensued, and Richettic was apprehended. Floyd escaped despite being wounded. Richettic was tried, convicted and executed for the Kansas City Massacre in 1938.
Pretty Boy Floyd was captured in Clarkson, Ohio but not before he put up a fight. He died of a gunshot wound on the way to the hospital.
After the Massacre, the atmosphere in the Union Station changed. People began to report feelings of agony overwhelming them. Many visitors and employees started to notice a strange form.
These witnesses saw a faceless male figure in various places around the building. Many feel this must be the restless spirit of Frank Nash.
Another sighting is that of old male shoes that are polished. When witnesses look up, there is no form attached to them. Others report seeing these shoes just vanish into thin air.
Numerous people over the years have seen a male figure that just disappears.
Today Union Station’s west wing is used by the U.S. Postal service. Other areas of this historic building are used for high-end cafes, shops and for art displays.
Wedding receptions are often held at the old station. Several of the guests at these receptions have witnessed the male form that just fades away.
On the morning of November
29, 1864, 150 women, children, and elderly Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians were
slaughtered along the Sand Creek located 180 miles south of Denver in
Colorado. I tell the story of this massacre in my post The Spirits of Sand Creek Part I. This massacre left behind the
spirits of many of these victims.
Location of massacre
Not long after this slaughter
a buffalo hunter, Kipling Brightwater who was camped on the Sand Creek awoke one
morning in December of 1865 to see a Cheyenne camp nearby.
He immediately went to the
closest outpost Fort Lyon to report that over 100 Indians were camped close to
the fort. Scouts were sent out, but there was no trace of this Cheyenne camp found.
People started to say
Brightwater was delusional or “hung over.” But the following November
Brightwater once more saw this Cheyenne camp in the same place. This time he
saw teepees, animals, fires, and people, so he rode to the field but as he drew
near, this mist-shrouded the camp just disappeared. He then heard a woman
crying.
He again was not
believed--that is until other buffalo hunters started to report seeing what
Brightwater had described.
These hunters often went for their rifles but stopped when they noticed the camp was eerily quiet.
They found it unusual that
the large camp appeared to have no movement. They stated the Cheyenne stood
very still by their teepees--as if frozen in time. But not all the activity
seems to be just "residual" in nature for these same men reported these Indians
stared at them in an “accusatory manner.”
Hunters, trappers and
eventually travelers all continued to report sightings of this camp. Many
said that as they stood and watched the entire camp would just disappear.
In 1896, and then in 1902 attempts were even made to photograph this camp but
with no success.
In 1911, a woman heard a baby
crying along the Sand Creek, but when she searched, she found no one. Many others
reported hearing babies crying in the area. Some have reported hearing dogs
barking and children shouting when neither was around. Voices and chanting are
often heard, but these sounds stop as quickly as they start.
Sand Creek Memorial
The area around where the
massacre occurred also evokes some pretty intense emotions. People come away
with feelings of dread and cold chills. Others report feelings of being
watched.
As recently as 1958, and 1997
people who have entered the area report feelings of acute pain and anguish.
One archeological team who
were digging in the area reported that several of their members had to leave
because they were overwhelmed with feelings of grief and sadness. Here is the link to the first part of this post The Spirits of Sand Creek Part I.
On a bitterly cold snowy
November morning in 1864 the Colorado 3rd and 1st Cavalry, more a militia than a military unit, committed murder.
The victims of this atrocity were mostly Cheyenne woman and children who were
slaughtered for greed, revenge and shallow political aspirations.
Native peoples in American
especially during the westward expansion were considered less than
human--“savages.”
The true story of the
massacre at Sand Creek makes one wonder-- Who were the real savages?
Chief Black Kettle
Black Kettle one chief of
the Cheyenne people at first like many warriors resisted and
fought the white mans' invasion. But with experience came wisdom--he was a true
leader who realized that to make peace was best-- for the survival of his people was
paramount.
His compromise to attain this
goal found his people confined to a small patch of land that bordered Kansas and Colorado where there
was no game to hunt and where more and more white people encroached. The
Cheyenne starving were forced to beg food from white settlers.
To make matters worse several
unscrupulous and corrupt Indian Agents who were entrusted to dole out supplies
and provisions that the U.S. Government sent as part of the 1861 Treaty of Fort
Wise, instead sold these goods for their own profit.
The Cheyenne’s way of
life--their very survival--depended upon their ability to hunt. Their tradition
was to follow the buffalo. The Cheyenne now desperate started to send hunting
parties into territory the white men had claimed as their own.
The stage was set for a
series of events that caused the massacre at Sand Creek.
In the spring of 1864, a band
of Indians, not connected to Black Kettle, murdered and scalped a farmer, by the name of Hungate, his wife, and
their two young children. Their mutilated bodies were brought to Denver
City--now Denver-- where everyone looked upon them in horror. The people of
Denver City now wanted revenge.
Territorial Governor of Colorado
John Evans
In the summer of 1864
Colorado’s Territorial Governor, John Evans issued an order that all Indians
should report to the nearest fort and surrender their weapons. He stated in
exchange for this they would receive provisions and supplies and they would be shown how to grow crops.
In another twist of fate, the
Cheyenne did not hear about this demand until 3 months after it was issued. By
the time they reported to Fort Lyon they were already viewed with suspicion.
The Cheyenne were then sent
to Sand Creek 40 miles from this fort and told to wait for provisions and
supplies.
More fuel was added to the
fire when John Evans received information that the Sioux and Cheyenne were
gathering at Smoky Hill. It was reported they were going to attack Denver City,
which at the time had a population of 15,000 people.
Evans twice requested that
the U.S. Government send 10,000 troops--he was convinced that an attack on Denver City
was imminent. But the Civil War still raged and the U.S. had no troops to send.
Evans had major political
ambitions--he ran for Congress but when Colorado Territory residents voted down a
bid to become a state he removed his name from the ballot. After the U.S.
refusal to send troops, Evans sent out a request for civilian volunteers.
Hundreds of men stepped forward. *
Colonel Chivington
The man who became this
civilian militia’s leader was a Methodist minister, Colonel John M. Chivington
** who also had major political ambitions--he had run for Congress as well.
In response to the question, "Should the children be spared?" Chivington an Indian hater, once said to a group of people “nits make lice” nits according to Chivington
were Indian children.
At the end of November,
Governor Evans ordered the militia attack. Chivington led 700 men
to a place on the "Big Sandy" called Dawson’s Bend. It was here the Cheyenne and
Arapaho camped--waiting for the provisions promised.
At dawn on the morning of the
29th a member of Black Kettle's group saw the white men riding in-- he alerted Black Kettle who then raised both the
U.S. Flag and a white flag of truce--Chivington and his men saw these flags but
ignored them.
The camp contained mostly
women, children and the elderly for the able-bodied men were out hunting or at
the larger camp further north. For six hours the militia proceeded to rape, slaughter and mutilate the bodies of 150 Indians. They then plundered the camp.
Nine of Chivington’s men were
killed, another three dozen were wounded. A few Indians did escape including Black Kettle who managed to go back and rescue his wife.
Twelve days later Chivington's men returned to Denver City to a “heroes” welcome. They paraded decapitated Indian
heads and other dismembered body parts up and down the streets proudly. These "souvenirs" were then displayed in a Denver City saloon for months afterward. ***
Later, Major Scott Anthony
among many others openly “distained” the fact that Chivington and his men had
not pursued the Cheyenne further north to the larger encampment where most of
the Indian men were.
The U.S. Government investigated
the massacre at Sand Creek. The hearings were widely covered leading to a national outcry of shock and outrage. Governor Evans who had ordered the bloody attack
found his political career in ruins--he was forced to resign as Governor. But he recovered and played a major role in bringing the railroad to Colorado. Chivington who pointed fingers and
misrepresented the facts found his reputation ruined. After this he attempted several new ventures--most were unsuccessful. This betrayal of promises and slaughter resulted in the Cheyenne and Arapaho banding together with the Sioux in1865. They spent years killing the Vehos (whites) in an attempt to drive these emigrant settlers off their land. Black Kettle continued to counsel peace even as other Cheyenne sought revenge. Tragically, four years after Sand Creek in November of 1868 Black Kettle and his wife were killed by Custer's troops. They were camped on the reservation living peacefully at the time.
The story of the Sand Creek massacre is one more historical
reminder of the sorrow inflicted on America’s native people.
Ever since the massacre at
Sand Creek spirits have haunted the area. In The Spirits of Sand Creek Part ll, I share some of these stories. * These volunteers were called "100-daysers" because they signed up to fight the Indians for just 100 days.
** Before Sand Creek, in 1862 Chivington had led the
Colorado volunteers into New Mexico Territory and defeated the Confederate
soldiers at Glorieta Pass. I wrote about this battle in another post entitled, New Mexico: The Ghosts of Glorieta Pass. I didn’t
mention Chivington's name--for good reason. *** Today several of these souvenirs are at the Smithsonian. Here is a short version of an award-winning documentary about the Sand Creek Massacre where descendants of these Indians discuss this tragedy.
