Robert Bailey: Mysterious Death at Thurmond

Thurmond 2025
Picture by Theresa

Last weekend, I investigated West Virginia's most infamous and well-known ghost town---Thurmond. I had been to visit a handful of times, but this was the first opportunity I had to actually do a little ghost hunting (a big thank you to Appalachian Ghost Tours for hosting!) Therefore, I had to do a little digging into some of the history of this fascinating town. 

One thing I noticed is that a lot of people were found deceased in Thurmond. Like, a LOT. And, the majority of them were found in or just outside of Thurmond on the banks (or in some cases IN) the New River. Some went into the water on their own accord, either by accident or by suicide. The bridge pictured in this blog, which connected Thurmond proper to where the Dunglen Hotel was located, was a favorite spot. Others were theorized to have been tossed in, the victims of foul play. A great number of the deceased turned out to be Italian immigrants, which I've addressed in my last blog post (The Mayor Who Fined a Dead Man) and I'll surely address in future blogs. But, there was at least one man who was born and raised here in West Virginia who met his tragic end in 1937. It is unknown just how he ended up in the New River, but his official cause of death was listed as drowning. Here's his story:

Robert Dow Bailey was a thirty year old man from Price Hill, WV. He worked as an electrician for a local mine. On April 17, 1937 (Saturday), he left his wife, Flora, at Mt. Hope, saying that he had $100 and was going to Thurmond. That was the last she ever saw of him. On April 23rd, his body was found along a shallow edge of the New River, across from the C&O Depot, down by the roundhouse. An unnamed African American woman who was out at the river picking greens found the body and alerted authorities. 

Thurmond Bridge, near Round House
Turntable visible to the left
Circa 1900 
Source: WV History on View

The county coroner, E.R. Daniels, ruled the cause of death to be drowning. Local physician, Dr. G.W. Grafton, noted a bruise on Bailey's right side, but pointed out it couldn't have been the cause of death. And, the mortician, C.B. Collins, stated his opinion that the body had been in the water all six days he'd been missing. So what happened to Robert Bailey?

Sam Pugh, the proprietor of a local beer garden, claimed Bailey came into his establishment around 9pm Saturday night. Bailey was drunk and wanting to order beer, but Pugh refused him. Pugh also refused Bailey's request to leave some money with him at the establishment. Bailey then left. 

Others came forward to say they had also seen Bailey Saturday evening as he arrived from Mt. Hope. They said he told several people that he had "been picked in a poker game." Somewhere along the way, Bailey certainly did seem to lose quite a bit of money. He wife claimed he left with $100, but his body was found with only $16---a $10 check and $6 in various other forms of currency. 

During my research, the number one reason given for why so many took their own lives near the Thurmond bridge was cited as losing all their money gambling. It's possible that this is what happened to Bailey, but we also have to take into consideration that he was robbed and tossed into the river, or that he was simply drunk and stumbled and fell. Whichever way he left this mortal world, his memory lives on as one of the many victims of the New River at Thurmond. 

Robert Bailey Death Certificate
WV State Archives

 

Beckley Post-Herald
24 April 1937

The Mayor Who Fined a Dead Man

Illustration by Estelle Lilly
depicting the drowned Italian. 
From Melody Bragg's Window to the Past

As Appalachian Ghost Tours gears up for our public investigation of Thurmond, WV this weekend, I thought I'd share some interesting stories from the Mountain State's most infamous 'ghost town. One of my favorite legends from the town is the tale of the dead man who was fined by the mayor.  

In the story, made popular by the book, Window to the Past, by Melody Bragg, when the body of a foreigner washed up on the shore near Thurmond, there was one detail that made it distinct from the many other bodies that would wash up. The majority of the bodies that washed ashore usually had empty pockets---it was assumed that a lack of money meant that the person, depressed by gambling losses, committed suicide by jumping from the bridge, or that they were robbed and killed and tossed into the rapids to hide evidence of the crime. 

Therefore, it was VERY strange that this person not only had quite a bit of cash on their person, but also a pistol. Leo Schaffer, the mayor of Glen Jean (which extended to include the southside area where the Dunglen Hotel once stood) decided to fine the dead man for illegally carrying a pistol. The amount of the fine---the exact amount of money found in the dead man's pockets. Afterwards, the man was given a pauper's funeral by the county. 

Like all good legends, when you start to examine the documentation surrounding the event, details begin to become even more muddled! 

According to various newspaper articles, linked below, here's a slightly different perspective on what happened:

On Tuesday, May 31st, 1904, two Italian brothers were visiting Thurmond during a work break from their job at nearby Dun Loop on the Loop Creek railway branch. They were drinking heavily and decided to head down toward the river to take a rest. It was about 2 o'clock (am or pm not given). One of the brothers, named J.M. Sariti, told the other he was "going to fly" and then plunged into the swift moving, swollen river. 

Thurmond Bridge
Photo by Theresa

There seems to be some confusion about what happened next. Onlookers may have tried to rescue Sariti, but it appears that his brother either didn't realize what was going on or considered rendering aid a lost cause. At one point, he walked off to get more beer. He did return later but made no effort to recover his brother's body. In fact, he seemed pretty unbothered by the whole affair and went back to work. The brother's attitude has led to speculation that this may have been more than just a drunk man doing drunk man things. Some say the Italian intended to commit suicide, while others threw suspicion on foul play.

A reward of $50 was offered up (some say by the brother, but one newspaper said by officers) to recover the body. That reward was indeed collected that Friday when Captain A.A. Hartford/Harford was coming east on his train through Thurmond and spotted the body floating in the river. Hartford alerted authorities, who were in no rush to do anything. The body was tied to the shore to prevent it from washing away but wasn't removed until Saturday evening.

That's when it was discovered that the dead man had a staggering $130.50 in his pockets! No pistol was mentioned, however, in contemporary news reports. 

$50 of the dead man's cash was used to pay Hartford his reward and the remaining $80.50 WAS used to pay a fine...not for carrying a pistol, but for 'suiciding.' Mayor Schaffer definitely wasn't playing around. Sariti was then buried shortly after in Thurmond. 

However, the next day, either a friend or the father of Sariti showed up in town from Pittsburgh, bringing with him a metal coffin in which to bring the body back home. By this time, the body was much too, uh, bloated, to even fit in the metal coffin and had to be reburied in Thurmond. This caused even further legal trouble. The cost of reburial was charged to the friend/father of the victim, and when a disagreement over payment was had with Mayor Schaffer, the friend/father was locked up by Marshall Harrison Ash until an agreement could be made. 

Pardon my language, but fining the dead man the amount he had in his pockets for allegedly committing suicide (many sources say he didn't) THEN locking up a relative over a pauper's burial payment is quite frankly, a dick move. And, I'm not the only one who thought that. In the June 18th, 1904 edition of the Hinton Daily News, there was an editorial letter ran, written by J.S. Thurmond, who was the mayor of Thurmond proper. (Due to some disagreements over the selling of alcohol, the depot side of the river was actually the town of Thurmond, and right across the river, while generally considered a part of Thurmond, was actually annexed into the town of Glen Jean so that alcohol could be served at the Dunglen Hotel.)

Mayor Thurmond wrote about how Mayor Schaffer's actions in fining a dead man did not reflect the views of those in Thurmond, and that Schaffer was in no way affiliated with that town. Further, as the body was found outside of either city's limits, Schaffer had no right in doing what he did. Mayor Thurmond was pretty upset that local newspapers kept attributing the bad stuff happening on the south side (in Glen Jean), including criminal behavior and the misdeeds of the mayor, to the dry town of Thurmond. 

Sources and Further Reading:

Window to the Past, by Melody Bragg. Edited and Designed by George Bragg. Illustrations by Estelle Lilly. Published 1990 by Gem Publications. 

Hinton Daily News
01 June 1904

Hinton Daily News
06 June 1904

Hinton Daily News
18 June 1904

The Spirit Who Made a Man Give up Spirits

ChatGPT Image

What would it take for you to give up one of your biggest vices...or even addictions? For some, giving up such indulgences is no easy feat. However, for one man in Mercer County, WV all it would take is some strong encouragement from a ghost. 

Back in 1937, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph delighted its readers with regular ghost stories, submitted by locals and often featuring local haunts. In one such article, a woman from Nemours confirmed a previous story that happened to a man who lived out on what is now known as Brush Fork. 

This man had a bad habit. Despite having a family and not enough money to support them properly, he made it a regular occurrence to go out to Flat Top yard where there was a still. The man would purchase a jug of whisky, or sometimes even some good ol' 'shine...and place it in a sack for the walk back home.

On one particularly clear night, the man was walking back home with his sack of whisky when he heard what he described as a woman's voice coming from the clouds. Curious, he stopped to listen. Suddenly, from right over his head he heard the voice say, 'Drop that liquor!' At the same time, a loud thud, almost like a lightning bolt, hit the ground near him. 

The man dropped his sack of whisky and ran home. He got down on his knees and told his wife the whole story before swearing off liquor for good. And, according to the source telling this tale, that promise was kept and the man stayed sober for the rest of his days. 

Whether or not it was really a ghost, a drunken hallucination, or someone using the opportunity to teach this man a lesson...it doesn't really matter. What matters is that a man was able to give up a particular vice that was detrimental not only to himself, but his family. And, if it turns out that it WAS a spirit that led to him giving up the spirits, then that's just icing on the cake! 

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
21 February 1937

The Summit Snake

AI Image using ChatGPT

This strange story comes to us courtesy of one of my favorite Fortean Historians, Historian of the Strange. Back in July of 1914, Mr. and Mrs. A.W. Brooks of Summit (Wood County), WV were sitting on their porch. They had settled in to enjoy the evening air, when they heard a rustle in the nearby brush. Suddenly, a yellow hoop came shooting out of the brush and began rolling down the hill. Faster and faster it rolled, until it built up enough speed to straighten itself out and FLY through the air. It flew across the valley and landed in a tree about 400 feet away.

This strange creature was dark yellow. It was five inches across at the head, tapering to 1/2 an inch at the tail. Its length measured 30 inches. Instead of wings, it used its tail as a propeller. When questioned by skeptics, the Brooks swore that what they saw was NOT a bird carrying a snake. Others theorized that the creature may have been a dragon. Some rationalized it as a type of lizard with gliding abilities. The Brooks, however, were adamant that they had seen a flying snake and nothing more. 

Ophidiophobia is the official term for fear of snakes, and it's not an uncommon phobia for many. Luckily, that's not something I personally suffer from, but I will say that I'd absolutely be more than a little unnerved to see a yellow hoop roll down the hill, then spread its serpentine body and fly across the valley. The Brooks seemed rather unfazed by the whole incident, and it doesn't seem like the rest of the town cared much, either. As far as I can tell, this incident didn't make it into the local papers. The clipping below, provided by Historian of the Strange, comes from the Tampa Tribune in Florida! 

I can only imagine why a Florida newspaper would be interested in a weird, but not too weird story from a tiny town in West Virginia. It wouldn't have anything to do with the idea that it wasn't likely to be fact-checked would it?  Stay spooky, ya'll---and keep your eyes to the skies in search of flying snakes!

The Tampa Tribune
12 July 1914
Source: Historian of the Strange FB

Happy Independence Day from the Haunted Lake Shawnee

Lake Shawnee Amusement Park
Photo by Theresa

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY FROM THERESA'S HAUNTED HISTORY!

Although it is known today as one of the most infamous haunted places in the country, at one point, the former Lake Shawnee Amusement Park was the hottest vacation spot in southern West Virginia. Between 1926 and 1966, visitors came from all over southern West Virginia and parts of Virginia to experience dancing, swimming, amusement rides, and plenty of lake activities. The Fourth of July holiday was a HUGE deal at Lake Shawnee, often featuring 24+ hour celebrations. 

I thought I'd do something a little different with today's blog and share some of the newspaper advertisements from the park's heyday, along with a few other anecdotes found in the local papers! Please enjoy this sneak peek back in time. 

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
3 July 1928

In 1928, the town of Princeton decided to hold its annual Independence Day celebration on-site at Lake Shawnee, where FREE admission was being offered to all. The swimming pool was cleaned and chlorinated, ready for the influx in visitors, and the local Boy Scouts were put on parking duty. Baseball games, horse riding, drag races, and airplane rides were all part of the festivities. 

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
3 July 1931

This first advertisement is from 1931. For $2, one could dance from 10pm to 5am. Even by today's standards, that's pretty wild. Those are rave hours. And I'm not even going to speculate on the park hours listed for the actual Fourth of July. But, in addition to swimming, boating, and dancing, you could also watch the fireworks, enjoy a motorcycle race, and take a scenic airplane ride (Lake Shawnee actually operated a small airstrip on property at the time).

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
3 July 1935

The ad above from the 1935 celebration was followed up on July 5th with a blurb about how the festivities actually went. It unfortunately rained throughout most of the day on the 4th, and when there was no sign of it slowing by 4pm, most of the visitors decided to leave. However, one guy must have been fired up about the disappointing weather, and was arrested for assaulting Lake Shawnee owner, C.T. Snidow. T.A. Mills of nearby Lashmeet was arrested by the state police but was out on bail by 7pm that evening. 

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
5 July 1935

The war years were a little less joyous when it came to Independence Day festivities, understandably. But, as the country entered the more prosperous (and arguably calmer) family-centric 1950s, Lake Shawnee continued its 24 hour Fourth of July celebrations. In 1952, one reveler REALLY got into the spirit. Willard Howard of Pocahontas, Virginia, was arrested for walking around the crowded lake, haphazardly tossing lighted firecrackers at people. Luckily, it doesn't appear that anyone was hurt. The state police just happened to be there during the incident and Howard was arrested. He was fined $10, plus $5.50 in court costs. 

The Raleigh Register
1 July 1951

Beckley-Post Herald
9 July 1952

And finally, one last Independence Day related news article needs attention. The 1966 season would be the last for Lake Shawnee, and during the week of the Fourth of July, tragedy marred that final holiday celebration. On July 3, 1966 12 year old John Talley drowned in the pool, just one day after his birthday. He was at the park celebrating with family, and when they couldn't find him at the end of the day, assumed he had left already. But, when they got home and he wasn't there, they became worried. They went back to the park that evening to look for him. Sadly, he was found at the bottom of the pool. John would become the final victim of the Lake Shawnee swimming pool, following a drowning incident in 1961 and a head injury in 1930. You can read about those incidents in my article Lake Shawnee Swimming Pool Deaths. 

Once again, I want to wish everyone a happy Fourth of July weekend! Please stay safe, whatever your plans may be, but be especially careful if you're going swimming, traveling, or setting off your own fireworks---I don't want to have to do a haunted holiday about YOU. 

The Charleston Daily Mail
04 July 1966

Ada's Apparitions: Railroad Ghosts in Mercer County

 

Ada, WV
Photo by JP Mueller: Source

Ada, WV is a small town located in Mercer County...but it's a small town with a BIG ghost story. Well, BIG might not be the right word, but it is an extremely weird tale of the supernatural. According to an article in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, this ghostly encounter happened some years before it was published in the August 22, 1937 edition. 

The exact date is not mentioned, but it was a crisp and clear night. Well after dark, Reverend G.W. Lucado was taking a stroll along the railroad tracks (now part of the Norfolk Southern Railway Christianburg District line) between the towns of Pembroke and Ripplemead. Along the way, Rev. Lucado ran into two men, one of whom he didn't know, and another by the name of Bal Thompson. 

Rev. Lucado struck up a conversation with the two men, and as he was speaking, the two men literally vanished right before his eyes. They didn't wander off into the darkness or disappear around the bend while walking ahead. They simply poofed out of existence right in front of the reverend. 

What's interesting is that at least one of these men wasn't your average spirit from beyond the grave. At the time of the encounter, Bal Thompson was alive and well and claimed that he had been nowhere near that area on the night in question and he certainly didn't stop to have a conversation with Rev. Lucado. 

In ghost lore, apparitions of the living are not uncommon. In many cases, however, the apparition of a living person is seen as bad luck, or even as a death omen. So, being the curious person I am, I wondered if Bal Thompson had come to an early demise shortly after his apparition was seen. The problem with this quest was a lack of information in the original article, lol. 

Doing a simple search for "Bal Thompson" in the newspaper archives, the WV State Vital Statistics website, and Find-a-Grave, I found some interesting stuff on at least two different men named Bal Thompson...the Bal being short for Ballard. I have no idea whether or not any of these men mentioned are the Bal Thompson of Rev. Lucado's story, but I thought I'd include them here, just in case. 

The first mention of a Bal Thompson I found was from a Bluefield Daily Telegraph article dated March 15, 1912. This article states that a B.P. (Bal) Thompson, a merchant policeman and former police chief, had shot and killed Edward Young near Charleston. Young was the superintendent of the Kanawha County Infirmary and it is said that Thompson, who had previously worked at the infirmary, had 'differences' with Young. To take a tragic tale even further, Thompson committed suicide and passed on April 30th. His Find-a-Grave entry has further information on his suicide. 

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
15 March 1912

There was another Bal Thompson mentioned in a 1921 article of the Hinton Daily News. This Thompson, a constable at Cedar Grove, was suspected of killing Edward Dawes, a watchman for the Paint Creek Collier Company. Obviously, this cannot be the same Bal Thompson who killed Edward Young, but we do have a bit of synchronicity happening here. Two men named 'Bal' Thompson, both members of law enforcement, unlawfully murdered men named Edward. There's also a Find-a-Grave entry for a Ballard P. Thompson, buried in Kanawha County, who died in August of 1921, a month after Dawes' death. Was this another case where a Bal Thompson took the life of another...and then his own?

Hinton Daily News
21 July 1921

There's also a Bal Thompson who was killed in a mine accident in Stotesbury in 1925. His death certificate is available on the WV Vital Statistics website.

So that's 2-3 Bal Thompsons making the news prior to the ghost story article being published. I honestly wasn't aware that Bal was such a popular name/nickname. But, even if it was popular, it doesn't seem to be a very LUCKY name, as at least two Bal Thompsons made the news for murder. Given this scenario, is it possible that Reverend Lucado ran into the living apparition of Bal Thompson, doomed to walk the tracks with his future victim? Is it even imaginable that the unidentified man was one of the murdered Edwards, 'haunting' his murderer even before the act even occurred? Stranger things have happened out on the railways of West Virginia and beyond...

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
22 August 1937

1973 UFO Flap Hits Kanawha County

West Virginia State Police Headquarters
South Charleston

Happy World UFO Day! As we celebrate flying saucers, UFOs, and little green men across the globe, let's take a second to shout out another story (or stories) from right here in the Mountain State!

 In October of 1973, UFOs dominated the skies over much of the eastern United States. West Virginia had its fair share of reports that month, with a large concentration of sightings in the southern part of the state, namely around Beckley surrounding areas. But, although less talked about, Kanawha County got it's fair share of weird reports, too. The West Virginia State Police detachment in South Charleston took calls on two separate incidents of a potential UFO CRASH! The reports came in from the Coal Mountain area of St. Albans and from the Alum Creek area. 

The St. Albans call came first, and the caller was reported as being a 'sober-sounding' male saying that he had seen a strange craft covered with lights and making weird noises descending from the heavens. Bob Gunnoe, state police dispatcher, rather dryly comments that it must have ascended just as quickly, because the only thing matching that description (lights and weird sounds, I guess) was a jukebox in the local beer joint.

The second call came in around 10pm on October 17th. This time, a lady caller from Alum Creek reported an oddly colored and illuminated object falling from the sky. When troopers arrived on scene, they didn't find any spacecraft---just a drunk guy who they arrested for public intoxication. Before the article cuts off and is continued on the next page (which is conveniently missing from the archive service I've used), one last dig at the UFO sightings is given. A story about a married Clendenin man experiencing a "flying saucer", along with a flying ash tray and cup at breakfast that morning was shared, because in 1973 domestic violence was hilarious. 

Anyway, I'm kinda bummed that the second part of the article is missing. I'll have to head out to the library to see if I can find the second page, and see whether or not it has additional information. St. Albans is no stranger to UFO sightings, and in fact, local UFO researcher, Ralph Jarrett, developed his interest in the phenomenon when he saw not one, but THREE separate UFOs over his St. Albans home between 1966 and 1967. I'd be interested to see if those sightings were cited, or if any mention was made about the weirdness over the skies of Beckley, which you can read about HERE and HERE and HERE.

Keep your eyes to the skies! 

The Charleston Daily Mail
18 October 1973