History and hauntings draw people to two of northern Kentucky’s spookiest places

Northern Kentucky has multiple different unexplainable places, and according to local sources and sources like Travel Channel, these places are rumored to be haunted. These legends range from demonic possession, murder, mobsters and a bloody well.

For people who don’t believe in ghosts or demons, these places still offer history and atmosphere that makes them fun to visit.

Bridge, train, and ghosts draw people to Cody Road

Cody Road in Independence, Ky. is a popular location for locals who are in for a spooky thrill. When approaching Cody Road, locals will see a long winding

road with a large train track bridge overhead.

The road is often closed due to flooding, and reports of ghost hunters say that they see a woman dressed in white with a mangled face according to NewsNKY.com. These reports claim to see her walking the bridge back and for and to hear her crying for help.

 The way that she was reportedly killed varies from legend to legend.

 One rumor is that she jumped in front of an oncoming train or jumped to her death off of the bridge. Another legend is she was running from her burning house and met her fate while running into a train head on.

Some locals refer to her as “pig face” and have sworn that she is there often, according to NewsNKY.com.

The reported paranormal experiences from Cody Road may have reasons behind them. During prohibition, Cody Road was used for moonshiners to walk across the road and cross the hills to the railroad tracks and make their product illegally according to Travel Channel.

The woman that supposedly haunts the tracks died peacefully in the 1980’s of old age according to Travel Channel, but this still doesn’t debunk the fact that weird things have happened on Cody Road but most of these legends are just legends.

Demonic well, mobsters, murder lure people to Bobby Mackey’s

Locals refer to Bobby Mackey’s–a bar located in Wilder, Ky.–as a “gateway to hell” which earns its name from a gory past.

In 1850, a large slaughterhouse was built right next to the train tracks near the future site of the bar. In the lowest part of the building, a well was dug to hold blood, guts and waste from the slaughtered animals.

A rumor is when the slaughterhouse closed in 1890, satanic cult activity happened around the building.

In 1896, 22-year-old Pearl Bryan was pregnant and dating Scott Johnson who was a student at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery. Johnson was trying to urge Bryan to come to Cincinnati to get an affordable abortion.

Jackson and his roommate, Alonzo Walling, attempted to do the abortion themselves, but something went wrong. Instead of turning themselves into the police, they covered their tracks by putting Bryan’s body in an empty field and surgically removing her head.  According to  Travel Channel her body was found two miles from Bobby Mackey’s.

The slaughterhouse was eventually torn down, and the lot sat empty until the 1920’s when a new building was made and served as a casino, nightclub and speakeasy during Prohibition.  In 1933, a new owner bought the building and renamed it the “Primrose”  

The casino attracted a lot of attention from Cincinnati mobsters, who tried to steal the casino. When the owner wouldn’t sell them the building; the violence escalated and led to a shoot out in the parking lot.

The building eventually reopened as a nightclub called the “Latin Quarter” in the 1950’s. Johanna, the daughter of the owner and a dance hall girl, fell in love with a Robert Randall who performed at her father’s nightclub.

She and her younger sister planned to run away due to Johanna being pregnant and her father forbidding the relationship. Johanna’s father killed her lover through his criminal connections, and when she found out, she poisoned her father and took her own life downstairs, according to Travel Channel.

They eventually closed down the nightclub in 1978 due to multiple fatal shootings, according to Travel Channel.

Places like Bobby Mackey’s and Cody Road are full of history and atmosphere that make them interesting spots to visit.

That the land is considered haunted and may have lingering ghosts and demons is a spooky bonus.