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.