Supply: GREENVILLE POLICE DEPT / GREENVILLE POLICE DEPT
There’s a ghost roaming the halls of Pickens County Museum in South Carolina and his title is Willie Earle. His intriguing story could be very a lot a tragic American horror story crammed with racism, tragedy, homicide, and injustice. We created Black folklore to inform fascinating tales from American historical past that aren’t advised within the historical past books.
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Right here is the story of the ghost of Willie Earle and the haunting of the Pickens County Museum.
The Haunting Of Pickens County Museum
About 20 miles west of Greenville, South Carolina is the house of the Pickens County Museum. What was as soon as the county’s solely jail, is now an artwork and historical past museum devoted to, “preserving the wealthy creative and historic heritage of Pickens County in order that it could be loved by future generations.”
However what if I advised you that for 75 years a ghost has been wandering the halls of the jail, calling out from the cells, pleading his innocence? There have even been accounts of horrible manly moans coming from the partitions that may be heard saying, “I didn’t do it!”
The ghost of Willie Earle has been a well-liked matter amongst paranormal investigators. For many years ghost hunters have flocked to Pickens County looking for proof of Willie’s haunting. Some have stated they’ll hear Willie pleading for his innocence by the partitions. Others have stated they’ve seen shadowy figures at night time peering by the home windows. Ghost hunters from all around the nation have tried to make contact with the ghost of Willie.
Raven Investigations of the Paranormal lately headed to the outdated brick museum to stay stream their try at discovering and making contact with the ghost of Willie. However how did this 24-year-old black man find yourself crushed to a bloody pulp with a bullet gap in his head?
The Lynching Willie Earle
On February 15, 1947, a Black man hailed a cab in Greenville headed to Pickens County, South Carolina.
The Black man was ultimately picked up by a white cabbie named Thomas Watson Brown and the 2 made their method in the direction of Pickens.
As they drove in the direction of their vacation spot, Brown started to berate his passenger making an attempt to get an increase out of him, utilizing racial slurs and profanity, however the man stayed calm. Once they arrived in Pickens, the passenger calmly exited the cab and commenced to stroll away from the cabbie. Brown was infuriated that the person didn’t pay. Brown jumped from the cab yelling on the Black man that he didn’t pay, the 2 started to scuffle and Thomas Watson Brown was crushed and stabbed to loss of life.
Within the Forties, if a Black man killed a white man and received away with it, one other harmless Black individual was doomed to pay the worth.
Willie Earle would find yourself being that Black individual.
Nobody is aware of if Willie Earle was the Black man who killed the cabbie, however the white males in Pickens and Greenville actually didn’t care.
He was charged in Brown’s assault, arrested at his mom’s home the subsequent day, and brought to Pickens Nation Jail. The subsequent night time a white mob of cabbie drivers stormed the jailhouse, dragged Earle from his cell, kidnapping the younger Black man. Earle was taken to a distant location the place the boys beat him, lower him up, then shot him within the face with a shotgun.
Lynching Trial Of Willie Earle
In what is called the nation’s largest lynching case, over 150 suspects had been questioned within the days after Earle’s homicide, and 31 white males had been charged with the homicide of Willie Earle. Most of the males signed confessions and a few even named the one who shot Earle within the face. One testimony from the court docket stated, “The tissue of Willie Earle’s mind was left hanging on the bushes,” and that after the homicide, “The lynchers went again to Greenville and drank espresso.”
Finally the justice system and the courts failed Earle and his household.
An all-white jury returned a verdict of not responsible on all counts in lower than 5 1/2 hours of deliberations. In accordance with some accounts, the decision disgusted the Decide a lot in order that he refused to thank the jury for his or her service after the trial.
Whether or not you consider in ghosts or not, Willie Earle’s injustice deserves to be heard. They are saying a ghost is only a soul that may not discover relaxation. As we share his story an increasing number of, hopefully, this can assist the ghost of Willie discover the closure he so rightfully deserves.
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