Episode 11 – Haunted Boozy Places Pt. 1: King’s Tavern + the Hat Man

If you can’t tell from the title, this is the first episode in a two-part series about haunted establishments that serve booze.

This mini-series came about accidentally. Zoey texted me a couple weeks ago that she was doing an episode on a haunted brewery. At the time, I wanted to do my next episode on a haunted house, but all my searches drummed up hokey stories and/or places where people jump out at you. So I expanded my search a little and came across King’s Tavern of Natchez, Mississippi.

It’s the kind of business that loves its dark past—and the past they boast about really is dark:

The first owner, Richard King, had an affair with a 16-year-old waitress named Madeline.
His wife, shockingly, was not a fan of said affair and hired hitmen to kill Madeline with a Spanish dagger.
To cover up Madeline’s murder, Mrs. King bricked the dagger, the body, and two male bodies (either the hitmen or two people she found annoying) into the fireplace.
The Harpe Brothers of Episode 8 frequented the tavern & Micajah Harpe murdered a baby there before continuing his night of drinking.

The thing is: almost none of that happened.

My research on King’s Tavern gave me major Lavinia Fisher (Episode 7) vibes. In her story, there was a centuries-old tale that she was a serial killer with a hundred bodies in her basement, when in reality there’s no reason to believe she killed anyone. Folklore tends to spin out fantastical stories that build over time, but these stories usually begin with a grain of truth.

For Lavinia, it’s the words she shouted at her execution: “If you have a message you want to send to Hell, give it to me; I’ll carry it.”

For King’s Tavern, it’s the Spanish dagger bricked into the fireplace.

The truth is, there were no bodies in the wall. There’s no reason to believe Madeline actually existed. I suspected this for a long time when I was researching, just because if something sounds outrageous, it’s probably not real.

I came across an article by the Natchez Area Paranormal Society that confirmed my suspicions. They conducted a paranormal investigation of the tavern (confirmed: haunted) as well as a months-long investigation where they searched through primary documents for any sign of Madeline or the three bodies—and, nope. Nothing.

So, if there’s no Madeline, then what the hell are people seeing? Because a whole bunch of people see the ghost of a young woman at the tavern & there’s LOTS of weird stuff going on. Ex: vibrating tables, hot spots, objects flinging across the room, figures in photos that weren’t visible when the photo was taken, figures on the stairs, figures in mirrors.

Many of these occurrences are attributed to Madeline, who—and I can’t stress this enough—didn’t exist. So who’s haunting King’s Tavern?

Looking through all the experiences people had at the tavern, one thing kept cropping up again and again: a large man wearing a top hat. When people see him, they feel a pressure in their chests and a sinister energy emanating from him.

Which brings us to the second part of this episode: the Hat Man, a figure that appears to people all across the world, sometimes as a Shadow Person & other times where they can see his wide, creepy smile.

I first learned about him from listening to Real Life Ghost Stories’ episodes “The Man in the Hat,” “Freddie and the Hat Man,” and “The Stanley Hotel.” There’s so many theories about who the Hat Man is, but no matter which is true: King’s Tavern is dealing with something far more sinister than they realize.

Listen to this episode for a deep-dive into King’s Tavern and who—or what—is haunting it.

King’s Tavern sources:

“King’s Tavern in Natchez Named Mississippi’s Most Haunted Place,” The Clinton Courier, Dec. 20, 2019.

“King’s Tavern, Natchez, Mississippi,” Haunted Bar Guide

http://hauntedhouses.com/mississippi/kings-tavern/

“Pirates, ghosts and pot pies with biscuit crust: Welcome to King’s Tavern in Natchez” by Kara Kimbrough, Clarion Ledger, Oct. 15, 2019.

King’s Tavern Fact Sheet, MDAH

“King’s Tavern, Natchez, Mississippi,” Really Haunted

“Madeline a different kind of spirit at King’s Tavern in Natchez,” Haunted Deep South, Nov. 10, 2015.

“Haunted History – The King’s Tavern” by Lyn Gibson

“King’s Tavern” by Scott A. Johnson, Dread Central, Oct. 14, 2007.

“Stanley Nelson: King’s Tavern: ‘The Stopping Place’,” Concordia Sentinel, May 20, 2020.