The Face in the Window

[TessaNoel]

This story is about Alabama's most notable contribution to spooky tales and concerns a ghost face that appears on a window pane of the Pickens County Courthouse in Carrollton, Alabama.  The face on the window pane has attracted thousands of visitors and it is plainly visible about 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

 

The legend* concerning this tale is supported in some parts by fact.  Carrollton was a new town back in the early 1800's when the courthouse was burned and many valuable records were destroyed with it.  The courthouse was rebuilt and eventually a black man name Burkhalter was charged with the crime.

Although he was given an immediate trial and sentenced to prison, he never made it to the penitentiary.  While officers were escorting him through a densely wooded swamp they were set upon by a mob that took the prisoner off their hands.  These vigilantes looped a rope about his neck and led him to a tree.

Burkhalter was asked if there was anything he wanted to say before he died and he told them yes, that he was innocent and had no part in burning the courthouse.  He also told them that they would always have his face to haunt them!

The mob chose to ignore his protests of innocence and threw the rope over a limb and hung the man.  Just as his feet cleared the ground there was a blindingly bright flash of lightning and the mob could clearly see the man's face contorted in pain.

The vigilantes scattered to their homes and left Burkhalter dangling limply from the tree.  The next afternoon, a member of the mob was passing the new courthouse and happened to glance up at one of the windows only to be terrified by what he saw there.

There in the windowpane clearly outlined was Burkhalter's face, exactly as it had looked when the strange lightning had illuminated the darkness of the swamp!

Burkhalter's face has been in the Pickens County Courthouse window ever since.  It doesn't matter how many times the windowpanes have been removed and replaced or the repeated efforts to clean the pane with steel wool and turpentine, the outline of his face and the stark terror he experienced that night in the swamp are clearly outlined in the windowpane.

*There are a number of different versions to this legend.

[chudyschick1251]

Oct. 27, 2008 at 4:38 PM

that was awsome, good story

[TessaNoel]

Oct. 27, 2008 at 4:44 PM

Thank you!

(Original Poster)