THE STORY
Reported Haunting
The 1911 courthouse is rumored to be haunted by Ernze Mabel Orr, aka “Mabel.” Mabel and her husband John Orr were a husband and wife comedy- and opera-performing duo and, so the stories tell, John had a bad temper and often would beat Mabel quite badly.
The 1911 courthouse is rumored to be haunted by Ernze Mabel Orr, aka “Mabel.” Mabel and her husband John Orr were a husband and wife comedy- and opera-performing duo and, so the stories tell, John had a bad temper and often would beat Mabel quite badly. Feeling sorry for Mabel, one of their servants made a hoodoo potion to kill John, but it didn’t work, so Mabel and 4 slaves evolved a plan to murder John by gunshot. Soon John was found shot to death under unknown circumstances. When word of the plot got out, Mabel and her conspiring servants were sentenced to hang. But the sheriff took pity on Mabel and offered her another option: a poison made of morphine; she died in her basement cell the night before the hanging. The 4 slaves were hanged on the courthouse lawn the next morning. Witnesses say they have heard Mabel’s dying moans coming from the courthouse basement, and strange lights are said to appear near the levee, where the slaves’ bodies were carried for burial.