Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

In which we learn that you can be haunted by stranger things than ghosts. The “Des Moines Register,” July 21, 1935:

Davenport, IA.--Maybe one of these nights George Billingsley will catch that “ghost” that has been bothering him and his family.

If he does he’ll have the laugh on many people in Moline, Ill., across the river from here.

But more than likely, say many citizens here and in Moline, he won’t, and as long as that’s the way it sets, they’ll still hear the stories about the “ghost” of Moline and mutter to one another:

“Baloney.”

George Billingsley doesn’t believe in ghosts, but he is convinced heart and soul, he says, that there’s a mortal being--a mean and cunning human--who’s doing first one thing and then the other until Mr. Billingsley has had just about enough of it.

Chances are you saw those items in the papers about the Billingsley ghost, how it’s been appearing night after night at the Billingsley farm down a lonely land south of Moline--first in a white robe and black face; then vice versa. How he’s milked the cow, choked the dog, “swiped” the rocking chair, wheezed at the window--and so forth.

Most of the people in Moline and nearby communities refuse to believe in the ghost. One opinion is that a prowler or possibly a peeping Tom has made appearances at or near the Billingsley farm and that the Billingsleys have let it bother them to the extent they think he does things he actually doesn’t do at all.

But Sheriff Rudolph W. Kropp of Rock Island, Ill, who’s been trying to trap the “ghost” for nearly two months is disgusted.

“The darn thing’s been driving me nuts,” he said. “I’ve washed my hands of it. There may have been a prowler out there and there may not. I’ve been out there nights and so have my men and we’ve never seen a thing.

“The first night we don’t go out there, Billingsley says the man’s appeared again. The other day I asked the Billingsleys to come down here and talk the situation over with the county attorney but they didn’t show up and I’ll not be bothered with it any more.”

Sheriff Kropp also thinks the Billingsleys may be susceptible to spiritualism. He had been told, he reported, that a close relative of Mrs. Billingsley had advised getting a piece of flesh from a corpse and walking around the room with it.

“The relative’s idea was that if they did that the ghost or whatever it was would get caught by the spell, stop in his tracks and own up to what he was doing.”

Incidentally, Mr. Billingsley is furious at Sheriff Knopp and his men, calls them “ignorant and cowardly.”

“Why, they are afraid to look this fellow in the face. That’s why they haven’t caught him. The other night they were out here,” the farmer said, “and they were all dressed up in white pants and white shirts and white ties. Well, sir, I saw this fiend, but I was so mad at those sheriffs I just wouldn’t tell ‘em.”

That version was in direct contrast with what Sheriff Kropp had to say about the ghost hunt that night. Mrs. Billingsley had a different story, too.

According to the sheriff, he and his men were at the farm during the lunar eclipse last Monday night and Billingsley shouted he had seen the ghost. Immediately floodlights were thrown down on the fields and the officers searched the grounds, all of which disclosed nothing. Mrs. Billingsley said the sheriff’s men were notified that the man had been seen “but they wouldn’t be serious and look for him.”

The Billingsleys have suddenly decided there should be no more news stories about the case. There’s a lot that’s never been told and won’t be until the fellow is caught, they said, and Mr. Billingsley added “there’s a lot we haven’t told anyone yet.”

Neighbors of the Billingsleys, as far as this writer could learn, have never seen the “ghost,” nor do they appear to be greatly alarmed. A few said they thought they had heard unusual noises on occasions and that their dogs had seemed to act mean.

“But you can’t tell,” one of them said. “We may be imagining that.”

The queer thing about the entire situation is that it has aroused as much interest as it has.

What entertaining neighbors the Billingsleys must have been.

A week later, newspapers reported that the “ghost” had returned, wearing a straw hat and whistling “Let Me Call You Sweetheart.” He tore the laundry from the Billingsley clothesline and vanished into the darkness. The news item added that Billingsley “can’t stand the strain of chasing a half-witted ghost all night and working on the farm all day.” As far as I can tell, that was the last published update regarding the Billingsley Ghost.