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Untitled,
undated article; original source unknown.
Extracted from the newspaper article collection
started in 1879 by Mrs. Nannie Brown of Madison, Missouri.
“(Unable
to read first lines of article…) of Judge Smock, circuit
(clerk) and recorder, and confessed by himself as true.
Witherup’s body lay in the county court room all
day and was visited by scores of people possessed with a
morbid curiosity to see it.
That night Judge Smock, who had been in his office
reading, came out just as Dr. Johnson, coroner, was locking
the door, and both men supposing, of course, that no one was
left in the darkened room with the murderer’s body, went
outside and sat down on the historic bench just in front of
the middle window, the blinds of which were closed.
Directly they heard a noise at the catches and before
they realized it, a human head, set on a gaunt, tall body,
appeared between them.
‘Good God, Doc,’ exclaimed Judge Smock, jumping
to his feet, ‘he’s coming out.’
Dr. Johnson, displayed some little commotion, but his
medical education making him a little materialistic in
regard to ghosts after a man was as dead as he knew Witherup
to be, he investigated.
The head belonged to Wils Greenup, tall and angular,
who had been accidentally locked in the room.
It was a scarry time.” |
