Haunted Pub in Jefferson City, Mo.

The three-story brick building on West Main Street in Jefferson City hasn’t changed much in the past 138 years – it’s a bar. Although the building was constructed in 1863 to house a tack and saddle shop, it became the West End Saloon in 1870.

“It’s been a tavern since that time,” said Allen Tatman, owner of what is now Paddy Malone’s Irish Pub. Tatman and his wife Marilee bought the building in 2000 and moved into the top floor apartment in 2003, knowing the tales that the building was haunted.

“We’d heard stories about a lot of them before we came here,” Marilee said. “Doors would shut and things like that.”

The first night they moved in with their dogs and cats, Marilee and Allen found those tales were true.

“We heard someone running and playing,” Marilee said. “Somebody (was) running across the floor and we knew it wasn’t the dogs.”

The dogs were in bed with them. Allen slid out of bed to find out who was running through their apartment. No one was there, but something was still wrong.

“Allen got up and stepped on a squeaky toy,” Marilee said. “It wasn’t there when he went to bed or he would have stepped on it.”

The resident spirits of Paddy Malone’s were, as Marilee said, “pretty positive” … until they started talking back.

Marilee bought a Ouija board from a local toy store and one night she and some friends tried to contact the unseen residents in the Tatman apartment.

“When we first moved in we had a couple of séances,” Marilee said. “The main one that talked to us was like a 13-year-old boy, so we figured he was playing with the dogs.”

The spirit spelled the initials FAZ through the board, “So we just call him Faz,” Marilee said.

A week later they conducted another séance downstairs in the pub. A different spirit tried to finish spelling the boy’s name.

“It was Frederick Andrew, and the last name started with a Z,” Marilee said. “We got freaked out.”


But that wasn’t all. The Tatmans found their building had more residents than the unseen boy. One spirit was a prostitute from the early days when the third floor was used as a brothel – she referred to herself as “bitch.”

“Some of the older people said that’s what they called the women who worked upstairs,” Marilee said. “I was going to do the research on the building but I’ve never had the courage to go do it. I don’t want to know too much.”

The Tatmans have found their personal objects places impossible for their dogs to have put them, a man’s greasy handprints appearing high on their apartment wall and water faucets turning on by themselves. But none of that compares to what a cleaning lady experienced.

“A woman was cleaning upstairs and she felt someone was behind her,” Marilee said. “She turned around and didn’t see anything, but she walked into the living room and saw a man sitting on the couch. He wore an old-time white shirt. It freaked her out.”

The woman simply turned and left the room and that was the only time Marilee knows the apparition has shown up.

“When she told me that, I was a little bit jealous,” she said. “Why didn’t they show themselves to us?”

Patrons haven’t reported anything ghostly, and employee reports are minor, like doors slamming. But if someone doesn’t ask about the ghosts, the Tatmans don’t bring it up.

“Allen doesn’t really like to talk about it,” Marilee said. “It really freaks him out. He tries to ignore it.”

You can find more about Paddy Malone’s at www.paddymalonespub.com.

Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Include your name, address and telephone number. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.

Attacked By Spirits

From the author: This is the second of two parts about Linda Jessogne, who found the doorway to the other side opens, it doesn’t shut.

Linda Jessogne’s father visited her the night he died. Since that evening, as then-five-year-old Linda lie in bed listening to her dead father’s footsteps echo up the steps, she’s been able to sense the presence of the departed.

About six months after her father’s death, he mother and eight of Linda’s 10 older brothers and sisters, moved to a home in a different part of town. But Linda knew they weren’t alone in the house.

“From the day we moved there until the day I moved out, I could sense at least five spirits that lived in the house,” she said. “At least three of them were bad spirits, only one was out to harm … There is one at the top of the stairs; that one I know well.”

As Linda grew older, she became determined to find out who was haunting her family’s home.

“From doing research about the house; about 10 years before we moved there, there was a family that lived there with two kids,” she said. “One night a robber broke in and held the family hostage for about 12 hours until he was shot by a sniper.”

The thief died at the top of the stairs, where he remains today.

“The second one lives in my bedroom; I also know his story,” she said. “He was addicted to drugs and one night he thought he could fly and went through the bedroom window, landing on his head and breaking his neck.”

That’s where Linda’s knowledge about these homebound spirits ends. She wished she had more information – especially about the one she calls evil.

“I've never found anything out about it except for one thing,” she said. “He, or it, lives near the pantry.”

The only information she could glean from the previous owners was about a water heater.

“The previous owners had always said the floor was weak by the water heater, and one day the man was going into the pantry and he felt like something pushed him and he fell into the water heater and fell through the floor,” she said. “That one, I believe, is very evil and dangerous.”

So much so she grew to hate going into the room.

“Every time I had to go back into the pantry I was always afraid of what it would do,” she said. “Granted, nothing ever happened except the light would go out on occasion when I was back there, then it would come right back on.”

Since Linda moved from the house, spirits continue to haunt her.

“When I met my boyfriend about two years ago, the first time I went into his house I felt them,” she said. “I walked into the room and was immediately met with the spirit. It seemed to be a younger man, probably in his early 20s. He was a curious spirit and he was very much into the electronics in the house.”

Her boyfriend and his roommate experienced many unexplainable electronic problems in the house.

“The spirits were so active at that house that they sometimes scared me,” she said. “A few months later, my son and I moved into the house. One night, while we were laying in bed, I felt something different enter the room.”

This spirit was angry – and visible.

“For the first time, I actually saw it,” she said. “It was a shadow, yet it had glowing green eyes and was watching us. It really scared me, and my boyfriend told it that it wasn't welcome there and to go away, which it did.”

But not for long. Unlike the spirits she had experienced before, this spirit wandered the home inside and out. But there was something else in the house, something darker, more malevolent, and it didn’t like Linda.

“One night my boyfriend was out with some friends,” she said. “My son was asleep and I had to do some laundry, which was in the basement. Normally basements really freak me out, and this one was no different. When I went down, I could tell something was wrong. “I could see my own breath.”

Linda started the laundry and turned toward the stairs when she saw the black figure near a wall.

“Thinking that it was the wander(ing spirit), I stopped and began to tell it to go away, and suddenly, it's eyes glowed red and it charged me,” she said. “It almost looked like an enormous black dog with huge white teeth. In my head, I kept thinking to run, yet I was frozen to the spot. I kept telling it in my head to go away. When it reached me it jumped up, teeth barred, it disappeared right before it bit me.”

Linda ran upstairs and turned on every light in the house, woke up her son, and barricaded them in her bedroom until her boyfriend got home. He didn’t believe her encounter until the next morning.

“When he went to change loads and found the pipes frozen,” she said. “It was warm in the house, yet the pipes had frozen.”

Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Include your name, address and telephone number. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.

The Door to the Spirit World is Hard to Shut

From the author: This is the first of two-parts about Linda Jessogne, who discovered that once the doorway to the other side is opened, it won’t shut.

Footsteps thumped slowly up the stairs as Linda, then five years old, lie in bed. She knew the sound was her father coming home, so she slid from under her covers and walked into the hallway to see Daddy.

But Daddy had died that night.

“I could hear what I thought were his footsteps on the stairs, and when I went to greet him, he wasn't there,” she said. “I could feel him there, smell him, but couldn't see him.”

Linda, now Linda Jessogne, of Sleepy Hollow, Ill., told her family about her encounter and immediately regretted it.

“They all told me it was my imagination,” Linda said. “After that, I vowed never to tell anyone, including my family, about this. I kept feeling my father, along with others, and never said anything to anyone.”

Feeling the presence of her father was Linda’s first paranormal experience, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last time she felt someone – or some thing – she couldn’t see. While in junior high school, Linda discovered the entities she was sensing could be dangerous.

“I had spent the night at my best friend's house where I played the Ouija board for the first time,” she said. “It scared me – a lot.”

Linda and her friend sat on the girl’s bedroom floor, laughing as they moved the plastic, triangle planchette across the board. Then things changed – spirits were answering the girls’ call.

“Suddenly, I felt all these spirits crowding into the room wanting to talk and becoming very annoyed when they had to wait their turn,” she said. “My friend took her hands off of the triangle and mine were almost glued to it.”

The planchette began to move faster and faster, Linda’s arms thrashing as she tried to pull her hands from the plastic triangle. Then everything stopped.

“My friend jumped up and turned on the lights, and just like it never happened, it all stopped,” she said. “It freaked us out and we hid it under her bed.”

But later that night, as the girls were playing a game, something slammed into the bedroom door from the hallway.

“We both thought it was her little sister trying to scare us, but when we went to the door, there was no one there and her sister was fast asleep and snoring in the next room,” Linda said. “I had a really bad feeling, like whatever did this was not a good spirit, and we went back into the room and locked the door.”

The girls eventually fell asleep, but whatever slammed into the door wasn’t finished with them.

“The next morning when we woke up, the door was wide open,” Linda said. “I didn't tell her, but I had marks all over my arms, almost like claw marks, yet I don't remember a thing. They weren’t very deep, but they were there.”

Linda never used a Ouija board again, but she found that when the gateway from the spirit world into her life was opened, it is difficult to shut.

“I've been visited by several of those bad spirits, yet none had ever bothered me quite like that,” she said. “I've always thought of myself as being weird, not as a medium or anything. I feel them, I can't hear them or see them, however I can tell what kind of spirit they are, and what kind of mood they are in.”

And the mood is usually bad.

Next week: Linda discovers who’s been haunting her house.

Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Include your name, address and telephone number. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.

Shadow Man Attacks in Australia

Anne Williams of Sydney, Australia, was roused at about 3 a.m. in 2005 by something in her room. It was not friendly.

“One early morning I felt so strongly that there was a presence standing next to my left as my bed was right in the corner of the wall,” Anne said. “I felt as though I was blocked, like something was standing over me or wanted to scare me.”

She didn’t understand what she saw.

“As I opened my eyes to see what the hell it was, there stood on my left side of the bed a black cloaked hooded figure,” she said.

The thing leaned over Anne, it’s face gray and snowy “like a TV screen when it’s all fuzzy,” Ann said. Its eyes were black and sunken in the snowy face.

“I screamed and instantly I was pinned to the bed, the only body part I could move was my neck area, everything else was locked to the bed,” she said.

Anne lie on her back, trying to scream as the figure leaned into her.

“I felt that it shoved its arm down my neck and was choking me as nothing came out of my mouth,” she said. “Like no noise. I could not even hear myself scream, but I was.”

Tears ran down her face, soaking into her pillow as she tried to scream … but couldn’t.

“I was trying to get up which I could not,” she said. “I felt that it was trying to scare me to death.”

Then the black, cloaked figure increased the terror.

“After a while all of these horrible things are happening, I got more strength in myself,” she said. “The figure decided to scare me more. It half went inside me and was cold like ice. As it went in me I felt so sick.”

Anger began to rage through Anne as the shadow figure pushed itself into her.

“I started to get pissed off as this piece of shit was trying to hurt me,” she said. “So I thought, that’s it I’m going to pray to God.”

She lie there, still pinned to the bed, choking, crying and trying to scream.

“I really felt that I was going to have a heart attack as this thing was so powerful,” she said. “I had the strength in my soul to pray to God and ask for it to leave me alone.”

Then she opened her eyes to look into the snowy, cloaked face of her attacker.

“I said angrily in my soul, ‘leave me alone, whatever you are … Leave me alone, you are not welcome to be in my body,’” Anne said. “It’s mine … you don’t belong here.”

She lie still, locked to the bed, face awash with tears. And, eventually, the cloaked shadow man just let her go.

“I got up all in a sweat and … I was like, ‘I saw a ghost.’ I felt victimized, and felt like no one could help me,” she said. “Well, I know that God helped me.”

Anne still can’t figure what happened. Her mother told her it was the spirit of a rapist.

“I don’t know what it was but I feel that it was evil and wanted to kill me,” Anne said. “I wonder why this happened to me? It’s all a mystery.”

The shadow being returned the next day, but Anne said prayer drove the black, cloaked thing from her.

“I flew out of bed and prayed to God to take it away,” she said. “I opened my eyes and it was gone. Thank God for his help.”

But the thing wasn’t gone forever. A year later, Anne was living in another house when the thing came back.

“Again, it was early in the morning,” she said. “I was sleeping on my right side and in my ear someone whispered in a male voice ‘I’m here.’ I was so tired I just said in a mumble, ‘Go away, I want to sleep.’

“I felt a chill when it was next to me,” she continued. “And I felt sick when it spoke to me.”

Anne doesn’t know if her attacker was a demon, or a ghost, but as of January 2008, she hasn’t been visited again.

Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Include your name, address and telephone number. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.