The Haunting of Mose (Old Hospital on College Hill)

Photo from The Old Hospital on College Hill Facebook

Recently, Spectral Research and Investigation (SRI) traveled to Williamson, WV to investigate the haunted and historic Old Hospital on College Hill. Formerly known as Williamson Memorial, the hospital opened to patients on March 3, 1928 after a devastating fire destroyed the town's previous hospital. Built as a state of the art facility, Williamson Memorial served patients throughout southwestern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky for 60 years before being converted into doctors' offices, and then later used as storage. In 2020, the hospital was purchased by private investors, with the intent of saving the historic building and sharing that history with the public...as well as offering a really awesome spooky tourism opportunity. Public and private ghost hunts began earlier this year, and lemme tell you---if you get the chance to participate in an investigation or attend some other spooky event hosted by the Old Hospital on College Hill, DO IT! You won't be disappointed.

SRI had an extremely eventful evening, and I'll definitely be sharing all that in the upcoming weeks (also follow us on Facebook for updates!), but I wanted to start breaking down some of the most well-known ghost stories from the hospital. Let's get started with the haunting of Mose Blackburn. 

In the early hours of Saturday, July 21, 1962, a man named Mose Blackburn and his wife Ora had gotten into a pretty heated fight outside of the restaurant they owned on Pike Street. The police were called, and Lt. Garnet Richmond, accompanied by Patrolman Howard Hatfield arrived in their cruiser. When they arrived at the restaurant, they found Mose sitting in one car, and Ora in another. Hatfield got out of his vehicle and began to approach Mose’s car. At that time, Mose drew his .22 pistol. Richmond got out and circled Mose’s vehicle from the other side. Mose fired a shot through his windshield, and struck Lt. Richmond below the left eye. A gun battle ensued, and with 20 bullets fired, Mose ended up being struck in the right arm before being subdued when additional officers arrived.

 Both Richmond and Blackburn were taken to Williamson Memorial for the treatment of their injuries. Unfortunately, Lt. Richmond did not survive. According to his death certificate, he was shot around midnight, and was declared deceased 25 minutes later. In truth, he probably was dead long before he even made it to the hospital.

 Lt. Garnet Richmond was a 43 year old veteran of WWII. He left behind a wife, Ola Mae, a daughter Marcia, a step-daughter Janice, and…according to the Officer Down website, a daughter named Garnet Elaine who he never met. It seems as if Ola Mae had been pregnant at the time of the shooting. He was buried in Mt. View Memory Gardens in Huddy, Kentucky.

Hinton Daily News, 30 July 1962

Blackburn’s arm wound must have been fairly serious, because he was still in the hospital on Tuesday, July 24^th. A newspaper article from that day states that his arraignment was to be held upon his release from the hospital and had been scheduled for Monday (presumably the following Monday-July 30^th?). However, Mose would never make it to his arraignment.

While under the care of hospital staff, Mose was guarded by two sheriff’s deputies, who took turns watching him. These deputies were Enoch Fillinger and Morrie Blair. On Sunday night, July 29^th, it is reported that Mose asked Fillinger to go to the nurse’s station and get him a drink of water. When Fillinger had stepped out of the room, Mose took off running out of his third floor room into the hallway, and leapt out a window. It is surmised that Mose had tried to commit suicide ahead of his Monday arraignment, but the fall left him in critical condition---for awhile at least.

 Mose survived and was being treated at Williamson Memorial up until his death at 2:15 am on Friday morning, August 24, 1962.  In a newspaper article from the next day, the Mingo County coroner, Tabor Ball, declared the cause of death to be an abscess on the lung. The death certificate backs this finding up, stating that the immediate cause of death was a condition called ‘empyema,’ which is when pus builds up in the area between the lungs and inner chest wall. This condition arose from having fractured his rib in his jump from the hospital window. In that leap, he also managed to suffer a broken femur, a fractured mandible, and multiple contusions, on top of the injuries sustained to his right arm in the gun battle. Mose was buried in Davis Memorial Gardens in Stone, Kentucky.  These are the facts as are backed up by newspaper articles and death certificates. What is left to speculation is whether or not Mose REALLY jumped out that 3^rd story window or not, and if he did, why.

Mose's Death Certificate (Source)

Various sources have speculated that Mose did not jump on his own accord. Rather, he was thrown/pushed out the window by one of the police officers in retaliation for killing one of their own. This is plausible if the window Mose jumped from was the window in his own room. If he was thrown out the hallway window, surely a nurse or another patient would have seen what was going on.  Maybe they did, but chose not to say anything about it.  

This is the short-form county-issued death certificate for Mose Blackburn, which
can be found hanging beside the window Mose is said to have leapt from. 
Note that cause of death is listed as emphysema, NOT empyema. I
believe this is a transcription error and that the true cause of death
is actually empyema, not emphysema. 
Photo by Bree Fitzpatrick, SRI

Either way, let’s say that Mose DID jump out the window on his own. It makes perfectly good sense that a man in his mid-50’s would choose suicide over spending the rest of his life in the state penitentiary, or more likely, facing the electric chair (WV didn’t abolish the death penalty until 1965).  However, there might be a darker reason. There are stories that leading up to the suicide attempt, Mose was plagued with nightmares about someone coming to get him, and had commented that he feared for his life. Was he afraid of the living, breathing police officers that were constantly watching his every move, or were his fears a little more…supernatural?  Could the spirit of Lt. Garnet Richmond, who suffered a terrible death at the hands of Mose Blackburn, have been haunting him? Both men were taken to the same hospital and treated by the same doctors, yet one of them was dead within the hour, never again to see his expanding family. Did Lt. Richmond get his revenge by scaring Mose so badly that he tried to escape that hospital through any means necessary? Did Richmond’s spirit actually physically push him?  These are the questions that paranormal investigators are trying to answer, as it is believed that Mose is one of the ghosts that haunt the Old Hospital on College Hill.

When Paranormal Quest investigated the building in Spring of 2021, they actually gathered some data in that area. One member felt something breeze by him several times, taking the route that Mose would have taken when fleeing towards the window. Various sensors designed to pick up energy also were activated along the route that Mose would have taken, but could also be interpreted as being along the route that the officer or a nurse would have taken if they had rushed from the nurse's station to the window.  Other claims include sightings of a man standing in a third story window, seen from the outside by neighbors and visitors, which may or may not be the spirit of Mose Blackburn.

SRI spent a portion of our evening attempting contact with Mose and actually had some rather intriguing words pop up on the Ovilus, as well as being spoken through a 'ghost box' device. Obviously, the Ovilus isn't a super scientific, fool-proof tool of paranormal investigation, but I will say that we were almost able to have a conversation with whatever or whomever may have been present, with little to no outlier words popping up. Communication was brief, and abruptly stopped after only a short time, but not before we were able to establish that Mose seemed to feel at least some level of remorse for what he had done, but also felt that he was a victim too. Again, there is absolutely no scientific proof that we contacted anyone, let alone Mose, but it was intriguing. 

If you're interesting in booking a private investigation at the Old Hospital on College Hill, or wish to stay up to date on all the public hunts and other spooky events held throughout the year, be sure to check out the official Old Hospital on College Hill website, as well as their Facebook page. Stay spooky, ya'll! 

Information for this blog post came from the following newspaper articles:

"Cop Killer Critical." The Raleigh Register. 30 July 1962

"Police Lt. Killed in Gun Battle at Williamson." Beckley Post Herald. 22 July 1962

"Cop Killer to be Arraigned." The Weirton Daily Times. 24 July 1962

"Death Cause Fixed." Beckley Post Herald. 25 August 1962

"Williamson Man Jumps Hospital." Hinton Daily News. 30 July 1962

"Slayer of Williamson Cop Dies in Hospital." The Raleigh Register. 24 August 1962