The Headless Hobo is a ghostly tale in Bristol, Tennessee, and Virginia that has been passed down through generations. The Great Depression hit every family extremely hard, but areas of Appalachia were hit the hardest, which meant living without, and in some cases, starving to death. It was indeed a time when people had to do what needed to be done to survive.
Times were so bad that a bridge under construction, near Savannah, Georgia, offered work to men. It was such a dangerous job that every day, the young men would gather under the bridge early in the morning, keeping their eyes glued to the top of the structure. When one man fell off, it provided a job opportunity to the next man in line.
Others during the Great Depression decided to grab the few belongings they had and hopped trains, choosing to live life on the rails as hobos. After all, hopping a freight train was a lot better than falling from a bridge, with no fall protection.
During this time, railyards became infested with drifters, aka hobos, who would stop in towns for quick work and often knocked on doors asking for food. Bristol was no different, and one day, a young widower with three small children heard a knock on her door. When she answered, a man stood before her, dressed in ragged clothing, and asked her for food and work. The young lady lived on Upper Spencer Street, which is now Martin Luther King Boulevard.
The woman explained that she barely had enough to feed her family, but wished him luck. Later that night, she took the trash to the road. As she turned to go back inside, a rustling noise was heard up the street as the moon cleared the clouds.
She could see the man walking towards her, stating, “I’m hungry! Please feed me!” The young woman looked again and recognized the hobo from his old, ragged clothing as the man who had stopped by earlier that day.
As she continued to stare in his direction, she could see that he had no head. The headless man was carrying his severed head by the hair, dangling in his right hand.
She panicked and ran inside, grabbed her children, and went to stay with her father up the street. The family left in such a hurry that they forgot the children’s clothing. Later that night, she asked her father to walk back to the house with her to gather the items. This time, they took the railroad tracks, hoping not to encounter the man.
On their return trip back to his house, down the same railroad tracks, they heard rustling again. As they turned, the headless man, holding his head in his hand, screamed from behind them, “I’m hungry! Please feed me!”
The headless man chased them back to the father’s house before disappearing into the deadness of night.
Several sightings have been reported of the ghost over the years. The most recent was in 1992 by a jogger as he made his way in front of the house, where the young widower had once lived. All he heard and saw was a headless hobo, with his head dangling by the hair from his hand, screaming, “I’m hungry! Please feed me!”
Written By: John G. Clark Jr.