Evil Lurks Below : Bobby Mackeys Music World
From the outside, Bobby Mackey’s Music World is not unlike any other country nightclub in Wilder, Kentucky. Live music, cold drinks and some real country music. However, Bobby Mackey has his secrets and he’d rather they were kept below.
Image via – Haunted Haven
Bobby Mackey’s Music World
Bobby Mackey’s Music World today is a small country nightclub unique amongst the others in the Kentucky. Owned by Bobby Mackey, a local singer whose career never quite took off. So he opened his very own country house nightclub, the grand opening was in September 1978.
From the moment Bobby Mackey opened the doors strange things began to happen and carried on happening. Bobby Mackey’s Music World was becoming famous for something other than its music.
” Come for the Music, Stay for the Ghosts” is the slogan Bobby Mackey’s patrons have given this haunted honkey tonk.
Image via – City Ghost Tours
Perhaps he would have chosen a different location to build Bobby Mackey’s Music World if he’d of known that this building came with a darker history than most. A history of murder, sacrifice, satanic worship and a foundation built upon the bones of Native Americans.
Bobby Mackey’s Music World – The History
Bobby Mackey’s Music World sits on the edge of the old Licking River which today is just a river, but many years ago it was a rich and fertile land fought over by the local Native American tribes. At one time this river would have flown red with blood, the skeleton’s of these ancient warriors may still line the riverbed today.
Then the white settlers came in the 1700’s, claimed the land and renamed it ‘Leitch’s Station’ slaughtering the Native American population in the meantime.
Image via – Land Leader
By the 1800’s the area was renamed Wilder and became a part of a large railway that ran throughout America. Wilder became densely populated and flourished.
In the 1850’s a small slaughterhouse was built. This building slaughtered thousand’s of animals in its time. All of the blood flowed through small channels on the basement’s floor and down through a deep well into the Licking River. It ran smoothly for 40 years before falling into disrepair and was abandoned. It was only then it caught the attention of a more sinister folk.
The Blood Well. Image via – Pinterest
Shortly after the slaughterhouse was abandoned rumours quickly spread of the occults occupation of the old building. In that time the occult was quite a popular gossip topic, especially in small towns. However, these rumours quickly came to life for the inhabitants of this small town.
In 1896 the headless body of Pearl Bryan was found in a field adjacent to the slaughterhouse. Pearl Bryan had gone missing from the town a few days before and the police quickly drew their conclusions.
They stormed the slaughterhouse and found the culprits in the basement. Scott Jackson & Alonzo Wailing. Scott Jackson had been Pearl’s boyfriend at the time and had learned of her secret pregnancy.
He enlisted the help of his dential classmate Alonzo to sedate and perform an abortion on Pearl. They botched the procedure was Pearl Bryan was dead.
The two men in a storm of panic, cut off her head, threw it down the well and dumped her body in a field.
Well, this was the official story left to us by the police. What the official report did not share was the fact that the walls in the basement were spattered with blood and the majority of that blood lay in the centre of a pentagram-like symbol.
Scott Jackson and Alonzo wailing were both sentenced to hang. As Alonzo’s last words he chose to exclaim ” I will forever haunt this land as revenge for my unjust death”. He did just that.
It is believed that this ritual combined with all of the flowing blood that fell into the well opened a portal, a portal that Bobby Mackey now refers to as ” The Portal to Hell”.
Bobby Mackey’s Music World: Johanna Johanna
famous poem left by Johanna. Image via – Creepy Cincinatti
Eventually, in the 1920’s the old slaughterhouse was demolished and a brand new roadhouse was built in its place. It was built with all the good intention in the world but the 1920’s was the time of the American prohibition, and when Gangsters ran wild. The roadhouse was taken over and turned into an underground bar and casino known as The Primrose.
The establishment attracted mobsters and bootleggers from all over the Kentucky area, violence and murder were soon to follow. The owner of the Primrose fled to Florida after an attempt on his life in the 1950’s. It was purchased and renamed the Latin Quarter. Its purpose was still very much illegal and it was from this establishment that Bobby Mackey’s Music World gained its most famous resident ghost, Johanna.
Image via Paranormal Warehouse
The story goes that Johanna fell in love with a local musician who frequented the Latin Quarter, Robert Randall.Johanna shortly fell pregnant and her gangster father found out. He killed Robert Randall and Johanna was left heartbroken.
She left a famous poem on the wall on the upper floors, ( Which can be seen above ) attempted to poison her father and then killed herself. Her lifeless body was found by Bobby Mackey’s portal to hell…
Johanna has been seen around Bobby Mackey’s Music World for a long time and she remains very active.
Then fate played its hand. 30 years later a young musician came to the old run down Latin Quarter and saw his dream of a country music club coming to life. He fell in love with the building. His name was Robert Randall Mackey ( Bob Mackey for short ). Stranger still was Mackey’s mother changing his name at the last minute to Robert Randall. The name meant nothing to the family until 1978 when Bobby Mackey’s Music World was opened.
What Bob Mackey didn’t know was that something else owned the building.
Bobby Mackey’s Music World: The Evil Within.
Bobby Mackey’s is absolutely haunted, each visitor has some kind of paranormal experience. However, it is not just your average ghost that residents at this Honkey Tonk.
Some of the Paranormal Images captured at Bobby Mackey’s Music World
Shortly after the grand opening of Bobby Mackey’s Music World, Bob Mackey’s wife was attacked by something unseen. She was clawed at and then pushed down the stairs. Contractors hired to fix the old place up were slapped in the face or scratched. Grown men have been seen flying across the room, picked up and thrown as if they were rag dolls.
Heavy furniture, if not seen, can be heard being dragged across the floor when there is nobody in the building but a single member of staff. Many apparitions are seen here, as well as blood-curdling screams that seem loudest in the night.
The majority of this activity seems to come from the basement, always in the room were Bob Mackey’s ‘ Portal to Hell’ can be found.
Bobby Mackey’s Music World Portal to Hell – Image via City Tours
The Basement is the central hub of all the dark activity in Bobby Mackey’s Music World. The majority of possessions and violent attacks take place down here. Experts claim that this is due to the satanic rituals that took place down here with Pearl Bryan, not to mention to blood and deaths of 1000s of animals.
These evil creatures use negative emotions to manifest. Fear of death is just about the most negative emotion you can feel and those emotions linger, as do the things that feed on them.
Few investigations last long down in the basement. Zak Bagans and the Ghost Adventures crew investigated there twice and its safe to say the experience has stuck with them for life. Zak himself was scratched, followed home and even exorcised.
‘The Room of Faces’ in the basement of Bob Mackeys. Image via – Haunted Travels
During the second investigation, Zaks voice rung clear through the room shouting ” Guys Help Me!”. The voice was coming from the spirit box and it was not Zak who asked for help. This is evidence of mimicry and that is proof of the darker entities that haunt Bobby Mackey’s Music world.
The Possession of Carl Lawson
Carl Lawson was a recent caretaker at Bobby Mackey’s Music World. He invested a large part of his life to this place and shortly became attached. It wasn’t long before the darker spirits began to target him.
Carl lived in a small room on the top floor of Bob Mackey’s with a large sign posted on his door go away. The entities tormented him, both night and day. Until one day the torment turned into something else completely.
You can be the judge of what happened above. Carl Died a few years later.
It is clear to all who visit that Bobby Mackey’s Music World is amongst the most dangerously haunted locations in the world. The causes are clearly the rituals, slaughter, native American deaths, murders and other evil acts.
Whatever the case there is no denying that Bobby Mackey’s got a lot more than he bargained for.
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