Page 63 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Ghosts and Phantoms 43

judge and Sara Matilda, listening for any men- ing a green headscarf wrapped turban-style
tion of her name and what she feared would around her head with an earring pinned over
be her dreaded fate, Woodruffe grew annoyed her missing ear. Her spirit is also held respon-
with her presence and accused her of eaves- sible for stealing earrings from many guests
dropping on a private family conversation over the nearly 200 years since her hanging.
with his wife. Angrily, the judge ordered his John and Teeta Moss, the current owners of
overseers to cut off one of Chloe’s ears as pun- the Myrtles Plantation, have converted the
ishment. From that time on, Chloe wore a place into a bed and breakfast, and Hester Eby,
green headscarf with an earring pinned to it to who manages house tours of the mansion and
hide her missing ear. grounds, states that the haunting phenomena
Wise in the ways of herbs and potions, continue unabated. Teeta Moss even pho-
Chloe came up with what she believed might tographed a shadowy image of Chloe standing
be the perfect means that would guarantee her near the house. According to Eby and members
status of house slave and keep her out of the of the staff, resident ghosts frequently reported
fields. She baked a birthday cake for the include those of the two poisoned Woodruffe
Woodruffes’ oldest daughter and placed olean- girls, who are often heard playing and running
der, a poison, into the mix, scheming that the in the halls. Many guests have heard babies cry-
family would become ill and her services ing when there are no infants present in the
would be required to nurse them back to mansion, and a floating candle moving slowly
health. Tragically, Chloe inadvertently sprin- up the stairs has been often reported.
kled too much oleander into the cake mix and
Sara Matilda and two of her daughters became
extremely ill and died within hours after the
birthday party. Neither the judge nor the baby MYRTLES Plantation is the most haunted
ate any of the poisoned cake.
house in the United States.
Grief-stricken and ashamed of what she
had done, Chloe confided in another slave
that she had only intended to make the moth- Other ghosts include those of a woman in a
er and her daughters ill so that she would be black skirt who floats about a foot off the floor
the one to take care of them. Chloe’s choice of and who is seen dancing to music that cannot
a confidante proved to be her undoing, for be heard by the living; a man who was stabbed
rather than keeping the secret, the woman to death in a hallway over an argument con-
loudly proclaimed to her fellow slaves that the cerning a gambling debt; an overseer who was
death of the mistress of the house and her two robbed and killed in 1927 and who angrily
daughters had not been due to some mysteri- demands that guests leave the place and return
ous sudden illness. A mob made up of both the to their own homes; an unseen pianist who
Woodruffes’ slaves and their white neighbors plays the grand piano but who ceases at once if
chased Chloe into the surrounding woods someone enters the room. There is another
where they caught her and hanged her. Later ghost of a young girl that seems to appear only
her body was cut down, weighted with rocks, when a thunderstorm approaches the planta-
and thrown into the river. Judge Woodruffe tion. The spectral image has long curly hair,
closed off the room where the birthday party wears an ankle-length dress, and is seen cup-
had been held and never allowed it to be used ping her hands and trying to peer inside the
again while he lived. This decree was relative- window of the game room.
ly short-lived, for Clark Woodruffe was mur-
dered a few years later. Many guests have heard the sounds of foot-
steps on the stairs and have seen the image of a
Since that scene of mob violence in ante- man staggering to reach the hallway at the top.
bellum Louisiana, the ghost of Chloe has been Hester Eby says that it is commonly believed
often sighted both inside and outside of the that the ghost is that of William Winter, an
plantation house. She is most often seen wear- attorney who owned the Myrtles Plantation in

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