Saturday, December 22, 2012

Ellen Flannery, Letcher County's Lady in White


The first (legal) hanging here in Letcher County was connected to one of it’s most famous murder cases which also happens to be one of our most famous hauntings.  Floyd Frazier was hanged on the gallows where the old Whitesburg High School now stands on May 19, 1910 for the murder of Ellen Flannery.  For the last century Ellen is said to be spotted occasionally near where she was killed, seeming to try and get back home.

On May 21, 1907 Ellen Flannery, the widowed mother of five children, sent her two eldest children to town on errands and went out to pick greens for supper.  The children returned from town to find that their mother had not returned.  When night fell, they were still alone.  They spent the night by themselves and the next morning neighbors learned of Ellen missing and a search party sat out to look for her. 

Among the search party was 21 year old Floyd Frazier.  Frazier was said to have been mildly mentally handicapped and had been sweet on Ellen.  Taking the lead, he led the party to a creek bank, then announced their was no need to check down in the creek, she wasn’t there.  Other party members insisted on checking, and there they found the body of Ellen Flannery.

Several large stones, some weighing up to 65 pounds, were piled on top of her in an effort to conceal her body.  Her throat had been slashed and their was bruising on her head.  Also her skirt had been torn off and placed beneath her body.

Nearby lay the mess of greens she had collected along with a blood trail leading away from the scene.  A fence close by had bloody handprints on it from someone climbing over it.  Following the trail, large footprints were found in the mud with an unusual number of tacks in the heel. Following the footprints they found a knife, and under another pile of rocks, Ellen’s bonnet.

Suspicious of Frazier who had led them straight to the body, police went to his home where a shirt was found with blood on the sleeve that had been scrubbed.  He had several scratches on him as well. When a pair of shoes belonging to him were found that contained an unusual number of tacks in the heel that matched the footprints, Frazier was arrested for the murder.  


Floyd Frazier




Sentenced to be hanged, his mother and several others testified at the trial that Floyd didn’t have the mind of an average person and was known to fly off in a rage for no apparent reason.  Word spread around town that Frazier’s mother disapproved and was even jealous of his love for Flannery, and some said she even told him to kill her.

Ellen Flannery’s ghost has been seen walking in the head of Pert Creek and along Pine Mountain that joins the hollow.  Witnesses have seen her apparition walking near the spot where she was killed, perhaps trying to get back home to her children.  I’ve visited the site where Ellen was killed, as well as her gravesite on ghost hunting trips.  While we didn’t capture any concrete evidence, we did hear strange sounds like gravel crunching but there were no cars. Was Ellen or Floyd walking down the road by us?  There are many stories of drivers seeing a woman in white while crossing Pine Mountain.  Maybe this is the spirit of Ellen Flannery, eternally searching for her way back home.


To view the lyrics to an old mountain ballad about Floyd and Ellen, hit this jump.

For an old Mountain Eagle article on the hanging, check out this link.

23 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing, I found this very interesting. Growing up on Little Cowan, I always heard my grandmother talk about this event. The only thing that I wondered about is that she had always told me that Floyd Frazier was buried at The Hop Gibson Cemetery...?

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  2. My grandfather, Hop Gibson built the coffin for Floyd Frazier.He built it a few weeks prior to his death
    because the hanging kept being delayed.

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    1. That's right... I remember mom telling me about Hop.

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    2. That's right... I remember mom telling me about Hop.

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  3. I know the song about this.

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  4. I don't remember a song. What's the title of it?

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  5. ellen flannery was my great grandmother

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  6. Ellen was my great great grandfathers sister. Her maiden name was Mullins. Would anyone have a picture of her.

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  7. I am also a descendent of Ellen, and no I don't have a picture of her. I grew up hearing this story and a song was recorded about this She was my GGG Grandfather' s Sister,actually two of them both Mullins ( first cousins married )and the daughter of Washington Mullins. Her husband was killed when a load of cut logs rolled off a wagon pulled by mules crushed him.

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    1. Correction: She was my GG Grandfathers sister.

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  8. Ellen's son George is my great,great,grandfather

    Robert Flanary

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  9. If anyone wants to know the truth I’ll be happy to share it with you as long as you can conduct your self respectfully. I am a Frazier my family had their Letcher County homes on Smoot & Downtown W.B.. I inherited my family papers photos diaries and letters that date back to The Frazier’s coming to Kentucky from Virginia. Also please remember Floyd was mentally handicapped in such a time he was lucky to have made it to the age he did . Another “tale” people like to exaggerate the story of my great aunt Verna Frazier’s Murder on Smoot Creek by her one time fiancé Dewey, Her and Floyd’s story get muddled. It’s funny how things that happened so long ago and to people you didn’t get to know can be so painful still.

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    1. I've never heard the story on verna. Care to share

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    2. I’d like to know the real story I’ve heard that Floyd didn’t do it and was framed

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    3. floyd done it but the story is his mom put him up to it because she and Ellen were after the same man. My grandma Ellens daughter was only 4 or 5 years old when her mother was murdered

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  10. I am also related to Ellen, wht most people don't know is there are a lot of us out there. My kids started asking questions recently so i told them to ask their great grandma which was Ellen's grand-daughter. They were almost in shock about the story wanting to know if she was famous,(only my kids) i wish there was more info out there so more could learn about wht happened instead of stories getting twisted.

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  11. ellen flannery is my great grandma i have only seen one picture of her but i know what was told by my side id enjoy hearing your version

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  12. A current photo of the lady in white was taken a few nights ago by a lady and her dad as they were traveling pine mountain. The photo shows a vivid shot of her walking by the road. Ut is on facebook. I have a screen shot of the photo but couldn't figure out how to get it in the comment section.

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  13. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=5036064476431904&id=100000852043763

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    1. Here is the link to the photo of the lady in white.

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  14. I heard that Floyd was framed.

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