Haunted Greenville, South Carolina

By Jason Profit

A psychic and paranormalist takes readers on a ghostly tour of the historic city filled with southern charm—and southern spirits.
 
Rumor has it that water—still or flowing—is a medium for paranormal activity. Residents of Greenville, South Carolina, have gathered at Falls Park on the river for generations, so it is no coincidence that this upstate city is teeming with spirits whose stories have yet to be told. From the aggressive spirits trapped in the 1920s grandeur of the Westin Poinsett Hotel to the moans of the wrongly accused Willie Earle, these ghosts have unfinished business. Watch as phantoms of children drift through the rows of Springwood Cemetery and discover what lurks behind the Tiffany stained-glass hallways of the Gassaway Mansion, as paranormalist and owner of Greenville Ghost Tours, Jason Profit, guides readers through the chilling past of this historic city with an entertaining collection of tales.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Aug 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9781625841568

Jason Profit

Jason Profit is an internationally trusted psychic and paranormalist based in Greenville, South Carolina. Most people recognize him locally as the guy who created the Greenville Ghost Tour. When he is not chasing ghosts and researching history, he spends his time reading palms and tarot cards and helping his clients make the most out of their own lives. Jason is also a public speaker and educator on numerous spiritual and metaphysical topics. His life has been one paranormal adventure after another. As detailed in this book, Jason�s mother was thrown into helping people get rid of troubling spirits when Jason was only two years old, and from there a lifetime of ghostly experience has been earned.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

GHOSTS, GHOST STORIES AND REAL LIFE ADVENTURES

You are about to explore a collection of haunted tales, grisly crimes and ghostly encounters. This book contains my personal research into some of the most haunted locations in Greenville, South Carolina. As explained in the acknowledgements, I was raised around the paranormal. My research over the past ten years led me to realize that this beautiful slice of the South is rife with ghosts. So many hauntings turned up that I created the Greenville Ghost Tour, which has become a trusted year-round tourist attraction. This book contains many of the same stories covered on the tour but also includes even more tales we simply cannot cover on the tour due to time constraints.

In some instances, the stories you are reading have been my own personal experiences with the other side. Other stories delve into the ghosts seen and experienced by many different people. In gathering the haunted tales I collect, I do not go to the books that may have been written about southern ghosts. Instead, I spend time getting to know people who live and work in the places where the hauntings are occurring. Many of the stories I have uncovered have never before been published in any books on the subject. Other stories include updated information about previously documented local haunts.

I am honestly a bit biased to believe in ghosts. When my mother was cleansing a home of spirits many years ago, I was bitten on the thighs by something not natural. I was two years old, and that was my first encounter with how real spirits can be. Since then, I have sought to research many areas of the paranormal, beyond just ghosts. Using modern technology, I have documented, in many instances, what I consider to be significant evidence of paranormal activity. In order to further study the rift between this world and the other side, I often use devices such as K2 electromagnetic field meters, digital cameras, ghost box devices and my own spirit communication software called CrossTalk EVP. As you read, you will notice that I reference these and other devices used during field research.

What are ghosts? Well, often the types of ghosts people report seeing or experiencing are more like an imprint of past events. These are called residual hauntings and are often reported to play a similar scene or event over and over again. The other kind of haunting is known as an intelligent haunt because it is able to interact with the living. Sometimes these spirits will touch, pull, talk or even bite and scratch. Other times these intelligent spirits will play with lights and even communicate in real time using technology. The stories in this book have a nice mix of residual-type ghosts and more serious intelligent-type haunts.

Most of the places I am going to write about are publicly available to visit. A few of the stories happened at private residences, and therefore, those locations will not be disclosed for privacy. Should you decide to embark on your own adventure to check out these haunts, always make sure you are not trespassing on private property.

To hear the stories told as they were intended, you can look up the Greenville Ghost Tour and experience storytelling at its best. Since the ghostly events are constantly evolving, I always get word when something new and creepy happens. You may find that when you come for a visit and take the tour, there have been some chilling updates. Whether in print or in person, allow me to be your guide as we take a journey into the darkness and briefly brush cheeks with the other side.

GREENVILLE ARMY STORE AND THE GHOST WITHIN

Sometime around 1946, Harry Zaglin opened the Greenville Army-Navy Store on Main Street downtown. Located at 660 South Main Street, it is one of the longest-running businesses downtown. The warehouse used to be located at 702–708 South Main Street and is rumored to have been one of the oldest commercial buildings in the city. There seems to be some controversy as to exactly when the warehouse was built, but it is thought to have been built in either 1869 or 1872. Sometime prior to the end of the Civil War, it is said that General Wade Hampton was the speaker at an upstairs meeting of the South Carolina Democratic Party. This historic building used to be located directly across the street from the current Army-Navy Store. As of this writing, there is an open field of grass where the building once stood. As far as the Army-Navy building itself, it was constructed around 1890.

Three generations of Greenvillians have shopped at the Army-Navy Store, and little has changed in that time. Harry Zaglin was a big proponent of preserving the historic heritage of Greenville, so the store has always been a blend of retail space, odd museum and all-around meeting place. Many passersby have seen the now chipped oversize painting on the side of the Army Store that encourages the preservation of the historic West End district. It was this connection to the preservation of Greenville history that led me to begin the Greenville Ghost Tour at this very location years before writing this book.

Jeff Zaglin is now the owner of the Army-Navy Store and has been running the show since his dad passed away. After the Halloween tour season of 2009, Jeff had some interesting things to share with me. He explains that very little has changed since his father passed away and left him in charge of the shop. When you walk inside the store, you will see the old-style cash register on the counter, along with the old dusty war memorabilia, and you will feel like you have stepped into the past. Jeff went on to explain that the office is still pretty much the same as his dad left it. He still uses the same file cabinet and even his dad’s old desk.

Greenville Army-Navy Store is a landmark on Main Street and one of the oldest family businesses downtown.

Since Jeff is the one who usually closes and opens the store, when things are out of order he is the first to notice. Well, one drawer on this desk was apparently his father’s favorite drawer. Over time, it had begun to fall apart and was pretty much useless. One day, Jeff decided to tack the face of the drawer back on the desk to cover the hole. All was well until he came into work one morning and found the drawer face lying on the floor. Not thinking much of it, he tacked the face back over the hole. Yet again, he found the face of the drawer on the floor a few weeks later.

It struck him that maybe there was a reason this drawer face kept ending up on the floor. Maybe someone was trying to tell him something. Other strange happenings had been noticed around the store as well. Every once in a while, boots have been found lying on the floor opposite from the side of the store where they are kept. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put two and two together and assume who may want to get some attention, now does it?

Could it be Harry still lingering around the store he founded so many years ago? I would consider it likely. Over the years, several folks who knew Harry personally have told me that he would have probably loved the Greenville Ghost Tour. On several occasions while starting the dialogue about the odd happenings in the Army-Navy store, there have been random power outages and flashing lights in the store. No one was in the store at the times these anomalies occurred. So make sure when you go shopping at the Greenville Army-Navy store that you say hello to everyone there, including Harry!

YELLOW CABS AND WILLIE EARLE’S GHOST

No tale of Greenville ghosts could be complete without delving briefly into history for the story of Willie Earle. Time magazine reported that on the night of February 15, 1947, a cabdriver by the name of Thomas Watson Brown was robbed and stabbed to death by a passenger. At the time, police thought that a young black man by the name of Willie Earle was the culprit, so he was picked up and held at the jailhouse in Pickens County. This led to a tragic event that would scar two counties with the memory of the largest lynching trial in the history of the United States.

Willie had arrived by bus and was staying at his mother’s home when he was picked up and transported to jail. When the police showed up at his mother’s work to tell her the news, she insisted that her boy hadn’t taken a cab and could not have done such a thing. Yet the police claimed that the cabdriver had identified Willie in a brief moment of consciousness. With that, the police arrested him and took him to the Pickens County jail for holding.

News got to the cabdrivers in Greenville County of Willie being held in Pickens. That night at the Rainbow Café, more and more booze was consumed, and the rage intensified as the cabdrivers decided to take matters into their own hands. Ed Gilstrap was watching after the jail that night when the angry mob descended on Pickens. They demanded Willie Earle and held the jailer at gunpoint; fearing for his life, he complied. Off into the night the raging cabdrivers rode, Willie Earle in their grasp.

Grisly and unspeakable things later happened to Willie Earle. The cabdrivers took him to the old slaughter yard near the Saluda Dam area and beat the young man severely. The actual location is now called Old Bramlett Road, right off Highway 124, halfway between Greenville and Pickens County. Willie was dragged out of the car by his belt, and the cabdrivers began to beat him. One of the cabdrivers pulled