HAUNTED LAWRENCE

In researching stories for this book, I came across several about which
not much has been written. While these tales are somewhat wanting, I
feel they at least warrant a mention in a book dedicated to the ghosts and
specters of Lawrence.
Over the years, it has been claimed that several of the fraternities (aside
from Sigma Nu) at KU are haunted. In 1972, University Daily Kansan writer
Joyce Neerman recounted how some believed the Delta Chi house to be
haunted by a mischievous specter that is fond of stealing keys. Later, in 1995,
a University Daily Kansan article written by Craig Lang asserted that there was
a certain room in the Beta Theta Pi house that was believed by some to be
possessed by a rather benign ghost. The paper quoted Brian Heck, a senior
at the time, who said, “Nothing particularly unusual has happened, just stuff
like lights flickering on and off.” However, unlike the story of Virginia, all
of these stories seem to have fizzled out after a few years; for instance, when
Beta Theta Pi was contacted for a statement, representatives claimed to have
never heard of the story.
In a 1973 University Daily Kansas article by Bill Gibson titled “Folklore
Reflects Kansas Tradition,” an anonymous student rather hyperbolically
claimed that on August 21 (the anniversary of Quantrill’s Raid), “one or
more of the corpses [of those buried after the raid] rises and walks about
the” Oak Hill Cemetery, located in the eastern part of the city. While the Oak
Hill Cemetery is a popular haunt for ghost hunters (in 2005, for instance,
local paranormal investigator Justin Bergen noted that several people have
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reported sensing something when they walk past one of the cemetery’s large
mausoleums), no paranormal events of the magnitude recounted in the
University Daily Kansas have transpired there.
Finally, several websites claim that the former Wakarusa Elementary
School building (now the home to the Lawrence Virtual School), located
slightly to the south of Lawrence, is home to a ghost. This assertion (which
seems to have originated at the Shadowlands, a popular online directory
of haunted locations) states that the ghost is a “darkly clad individual” who
wanders the school’s halls “in a…cape and hat.” Unfortunately, evidence
corroborating this tale is hard to come by. E-mails to the principal of the
Virtual School went unanswered, and Cathy Ramirez told me, “[I’ve] never
heard of [the supposed haunting at the school] and no one on my tours has
ever asked or mentioned it.”
Maybe one day more about these stories will emerge, but for right now,
they remain dead ends