I know what you are thinking – “What in the world?” How can a place called Bobby Mackey’s Music World be haunted? Well, I was thinking the same thing, but then the name kept appearing in research. The other night, I was scanning the channels and ran across a listing for it on one of the many ghost series that are being shown on television this week. Well, that was enough to convince me to further investigate this nightclub that is known as “Hell’s Gate.”
The nightclub, which is located in Wilder, Kentucky, reportedly stands on land that used to be an old slaughterhouse. Some people believe that the slaughterhouse was used for satanic rituals in the late 1800s. The only remaining part of the original slaughterhouse is the basement.
The nightclub was purchased by Bobby Mackey and his wife Janet in 1978. Mackey has seen a run of success as a singer in northern Kentucky, but gave that up to renovate his bar. While it is said that Mackey fell in love with the building the minute he saw it, Janet felt a general uneasiness about the building.
Legend has it that the basement contains the head of murder victim Pearl Bryan. Pearl was found headless in Fort Thomas, Kentucky in 1896. She was reportedly five months pregnant and it is believed she was killed by her boyfriend Scott Jackson and his friend Alonzo Walling, who were said to have poisoned her to terminate the unwanted pregnancy. While Walling proclaimed he was innocent, both men were hanged.
So, now we have a murdered pregnant woman and a possibly innocent man who was hanged. But what of the grisly remains? Well, Bryan’s head was never found, but it is said it is buried somewhere in the basement of the nightclub.
Carl Lawson was the first employee Mackey hired and he lived in an apartment above the nightclub. He said he would double check each night to make sure everything was turned off and the doors secured, but when he would go back later, lights would be on, the jukebox would be playing (even after he had unplugged it), and the doors would be unlocked. Lawson reportedly was once possessed by someone claiming to be Alonzo – could it have been Alonzo Walling still trying to claim his innocence?
As if the ghost of Pearl haunting the basement wasn’t enough, Lawson said he found the diary of a woman named Johanna in the basement as well. Johanna was believed to have been a cabaret dancer there during the ‘50s when the nightclub was called the Latin Quarter. Rumors are that Johanna killed both herself and her father after he killed her boyfriend, Robert Randall. Johanna also haunts the basement and Janet said she was once pushed down the stairs by an unseen force.
Douglas Hensley has written the book “Hell’s Gate” about the haunted nightclub. The nightclub has been featured on such shows as “Sightings,” “Current Affair,” and “Hard Copy.”
I don’t know about you, but if I am ever in Wilder, Kentucky, I think I will avoid the nightclub…just in case.
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