The Suicide Ghost in OUR Building
Joshua P. Warren features the story on his Speaking of Strange radio show with witnesses. For more, see the Jan. 29, 2011 podcast, by clicking HERE.
Less than three hours later, Museum historian Vance Pollock, completely unaware of Cat's encounter, made a startling discovery:
A Buncombe County Sheriff (and former Chief of Police), named John Lyerly, shot himself to death inside our building on Wednesday, January 23, 1924--EXACTLY 87 years before Cat's sighting. According to newspaper reports, Lyerly, a man who participated in many hangings, who had actually beaten people to death with his club, was depressed over the death of his wife five months before.
Of all the ghostly energy in our Museum's old jail and gallows structure, the dark spirit of Sheriff John Lyerly is perhaps the strongest.
Here is a photo of Lyerly: