The Screaming Bitch
The Death Story
EudoraKSHistory.com says that the ghost that haunts Weaver Bottom was a woman who committed suicide jumping in front of a train after learning that her boyfriend had been killed during WWII (called the “ghost of Eudora”)
“The Screaming Bitch” is another ghost killed by a train. Version 1 - two lovers were parked on the tracks when the train came, the woman screamed hysterically and her boyfriend told her to “Quit screaming, you bitch!” Version 2 (more likely rooted in historical evidence) - A mother’s daughter was hit and killed by a train and every night, the ghost of the mother goes screaming for her daughter. She is known for chasing cars. (The real story is that two young twin boys were struck by a train, one died, and their mother died in her thirties due to illness)
Behavior and Manifestations
Screaming can be heard in the dead night
Full Story Excerpt
Isolated in the northeasternmost corner of Douglas County and cut off from
the rest of the world by a mighty loop in the Kaw River, Weaver Bottom was
once home to a small hamlet known as Weaver.
Although a branch of the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railroad
ran through this area, the settlement never grew to be more than a quiet
country town. Throughout the early to mid-twentieth century, the settlement
declined in terms of what importance it had had, and in the 1990s,
consistent flooding finally resulted in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
closing off the area to all except farmers. Today, hardly anything remains in
this remote section of the county. But in the years since the abandonment of
the settlement, Weaver Bottom has gained a somewhat ominous reputation
for being haunted by the spirits of those killed on the railroad tracks that run
through the area.
As with many ghost stories, there are several variant legends. The
first of these (and the one most often spread online) revolves around
a suicide spurred on by the death of a romantic partner. According to
EudoraKSHistory.com, it is said that a specter known as the “ghost of
Eudora” haunts the Weaver Bottom area. It is claimed that this entity is
that of a woman who killed herself by jumping in front of a train after
she learned that her boyfriend had been killed during World War II.
This story, however, may very well be a tall one, as a browsing of area
newspaper archives turns up a few reports of people being killed by trains
in the Eudora area but not a single mention of train-assisted suicide.
Another variant of the death-by-train ghost story concerns that of “The
Screaming Bitch.” According to urban legend, two young teenagers were
parked in Weaver Bottom. Alas, they were parked on the railroad tracks that
run through the area, and their car was hit by an oncoming train. As they
lay dying, the young girl screamed hysterically, prompting her boyfriend to
cry, “Quit screaming, you bitch!” This spooky tale claims that, if one were to
drive out to Weaver Bottom in the dead of night and listen, one might still
be able to hear the screams of this unhappy ghost.
There exists a second variation of “The Screaming Bitch” legend. It
differs from the first in that the titular ghost was not someone’s sweetheart
but rather a mother whose daughter was hit and killed by a train. Every
night, the story goes, her spirit screams throughout Weaver Bottom, calling
in vain for her daughter. Rumor has it that if you go down to the railroad
tracks in the middle of the night and drive north, you will be able to see the
ghostly mother in your rearview mirror, chasing after your car.
This variant of the legend may very well be the one most rooted in
historical fact. On August 4, 1889, two young children, Adam * and Oscar
Toyne, were struck by a train east of Eudora. According to the Lawrence
Daily Journal:
Sunday afternoon a heart-rending accident occurred on the Santa Fe
railroad, about four miles east of the city. Mr. [C.P.] Toyne, a farmer
residing in that vicinity had occasion to go across the track, which passes
in close proximity to his residence, and his twin babies attempted to follow
him.…The 4:08 p.m., train on the Santa Fe…went flying along, striking
the children on the forehead and hurling them into the air.…One of the
children was killed outright. The other, when found, was still alive.
It was young Adam who succumbed to his injuries. Naturally, his parents
were devastated.
The boys’ father, C.P. Toyne, died in 1915 at the age of fifty-six, but
a newspaper article published in the Leavenworth Weekly at the time of his
death reveals that his wife had passed away several years earlier, most likely
from to an illness that she caught in her thirties. ** The death of a young, sad
and sick person is the perfect recipe for a ghost story. Could it be that if
there really is some sort of wailing ghost that haunts Weaver Bottom, it is
the unhappy spirit of Adam Toyne’s mother, doomed to call out for her son,
whose life was snatched away far too early?
Weaver Bottom is located around North 1600 Road, just south of a bend
in the Kaw River. The train tracks that run through this area can be crossed
by driving along County Line Road.
📚 This story appears in the book *Haunted Lawrence* on pages 113–115.