Post by MoMo on Mar 8, 2012 20:20:57 GMT -6
PICTURE FROM MY PERSONAL INVESTIGATION OF SCREAMING JOHNNY"S CHURCH 2007
On the Northwest side of Hannibal Missouri stands the ruins of an old country church, the church has a cemetary behind it that is still in use, but the church itself is just a hollow stone shell with a charred roof still intact.
It was said that in the late 50's and early 60's cars would be lined up every weekend on the dirt road that ran in front of this ruin and listen.
What was it that they were hoping to hear?
Oral legends are many and widespread, but most say it was the cries from a ghost of a young boy who burned alive in the church. Some say that this was during a picnic in a pasture nearby and the boy had returned to the church knocking over a candle on his way to retrieve one article or another.
A more onimous (and less plausable as there are no records of it) story says that this was a black church and was burned by the KKK who didn't want a black church in the Hannibal area... The stories go on.
What is remembered, and was heard by hundreds, is that blood curtling screams resonated through the area. It was concluded by some that the screams came from a cougar that had taken up residence or somehow become trapped in the nearby White Bear Caves, but that is only speculation.
Teenagers still venture out to Screaming Johnny's for the thrill, hoping to hear those terrible screams in the night, I myself have never had the pleasure, but I will atest that this place, on occasion, has an eerie feel to it. Some do claim that the screams can still be heard, but in my opinion the screams that gave the church it's name, may never be heard again.
