A carload of four young people — two guys and two girls — were driving home from a dance on a dark and stormy Halloween night in 1930.
They were on a dark road going through the woods between the small towns of Richibucto and Rexton on New Brunswick’s East Coast when they had a bizarre close encounter with a ghost…
- This story is included in the book Backyard History: Forgotten Stories From Atlantic Canada's Past
They wrote the following very dramatic letter about what happened that night to a Moncton newspaper:
“The night was pitch-black and the rain was coming down in torrents … the wind on that All Saints Day was blowing a living gale.
Along a lonely stretch of road between Richibucto and Rexton, all at once, the figure of a woman, clad in white, appeared in front of the car. I brought the car to an abrupt stop, opened the door, and called out.
In the very utterance, my voice stuck in my throat in a gulp of horror: the woman had vanished!
I again started the car. In a second, the figure reappeared and sprang on the running board. By this time, the young ladies were screaming with terror. Whether to stop and throw the thing off or to yield to the entreaty of the girls to keep going was past resolving.
As we left the bridge, it left the car and floated into a grove near the creek.
Both of the girls fainted, and one of them required the attention of a physician when we reached Shediac.”
It was the Great Depression, when unemployment had hit 40% and people couldn't even take solace in a drink – at least legally – because alcohol was prohibited at the time.
Back then, ghost stories were rather popular in newspapers, and spooky hauntings in a small local paper could end up becoming well-known far and wide.
This fascination with ghost stories explains why that one anonymous Halloween letter by four teenagers to a local newspaper in the tiny village of Rexton effectively — in a modern sense — went viral.
The letter was reprinted in newspapers all over Canada and the United States.
Also, in a very modern sense, their ghost story invited a flurry of comment on the articles, and the sighting kicked off a series of ghost sightings near the little town of Rexton.
Though commenting on a news article required hand-writing a letter, buying a stamp, and mailing it to a newspaper, the types of comments –and arguments among commenters about news articles– would be very familiar to today's social media users.
Like now, they even signed their letters with anonymous names.
The Moncton Daily Times published a series of letters from someone calling themselves “Octogenarian,” who wrote that there had been another, earlier, series of sightings of what he called the Kings County Ghost some 45 years before.
“I might mention many instances of [the ghost] being seen, [for] I am a loquacious octogenarian; however, I must confine myself to one instance and make it concise enough to meet editorial requirements.”
His story was also reprinted in newspapers across the continent, adding further interest to what was being called “The Spectre of Rexton”:
“This story of the Kent County Ghost has awakened within me memories of childhood days spent with my uncle in Kingston (which is now called Rexton, re-named for the simple and practical reason that there were too many towns named Kingston already) more than seventy years ago. Even in that far-off day, this white-robed woman with the streaming white hair was a frequent visitor.”
“I have known reliable men who have met this Kent County ghost.”
"About 45 years ago, the late Dr. R. L. Botsford was a resident of this city. Early one morning, late in October, the doctor and William Black were returning from a hunting trip. They had nearly reached the road between Kingston and Richibucto when a woman dressed in a white dress, her long blonde hair fluttering in the winds, “glided from the woods and kept pace with the gyrations of the covered coach in which they were riding.” She extended her arms invitingly towards them."
"Startled, they lashed their horse to escape. Much to their horror, the woman floated along next to their fast-moving wagon, “for two or three minutes, her white hair streaming in the wind, and with both hands held out in supplication, and a breathless agony of struggle and entreaty on her haggard features.”
"The two men drew their guns, but found themselves overcome by something on her face that made them feel overcome by a wave of …. Pity…"
The ghostly woman in white floated off into the woods.
Perhaps sensibly, the drivers decided to take another road home instead.
The curious part was that they later learned that the bridge on the road they had planned on taking was heavily damaged, and had they attempted to cross it in their carriage, they surely would have fallen to their deaths.
Not everyone was a believer in ghosts, though.
Another newspaper reader wrote in declaring:
“This gentleman should be on the stage, or at least have the wisdom and better judgment that comes with old age to not unearth this old story.”
The reader was annoyed at how many people were coming and disturbing quiet little Rexton to look for the ghost:
“People have come from afar to view this … midnight visitor. This is the fear of the unknown. The darkness of the night holds for us mysterious and unknown dangers. This is part of a heritage transmitted through the ages when the world was in infancy and man roamed the wooded plains fighting for daily sustenance against beasts of prey. Strange noises and terrifying screeches in the night still drive us to fear what is not there.”
Undeterred, the “Octogenarian” wrote in again, offering an origin story he’d heard in his youth of the spectre that was haunting the woods around Rexton:
“For those who might be interested in the origin of the ghost, I relate the following, as told me by my uncle, when, as a small child, I visited him in Kingston (which is now Rexton) more than seventy years ago.”
“In the early part of the nineteenth century, there was a hotel on that road, occupied by a man and his wife named Irwin. The man was of a quarrelsome nature when intoxicated and passionately jealous of his wife, who was very beautiful. Kingston was at the time a great shipping port, and the ship crews that frequented the Irwin hotel caused many a fight and gave the place an unsavoury reputation.”
“One morning, the Irwin home was found reduced to smouldering ashes, and without any visible sign of life about the place except for Mrs Irwin’s pet dog, which was whining piteously. Dan Irwin, his young wife Emma Irwin, and a boarder named Frank Brown could not be found, and a search of the ashes showed that they had not perished in the flames.”
“About a week afterwards, the peculiar actions of the little dog aroused suspicions that Emma Irwin had been murdered, and her body was being guarded by the dog. Led by the dog, searchers found the woman’s body buried in the Autumn leaves.
Her head was not found.
Does this woman’s ghost still roam the woods? Who can say?”
Rather dramatically, he ended his letter by quoting Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Between the octogenarian's widely reprinted ghost stories and the youths seeing the ghost on the road that Halloween, stories of the Spectre of Rexton spread, attracting even more attention…
Longtime Rexton resident J. Donald Fraser later recalled what he called simply "The Famous Ghost," who made Rexton famous in 1930 and 1931.
“The media must have been in quite the slump at the time, as this ghost was given wide coverage. The media picked up on the story, which was considered front-page news. The story was soon picked up and printed all over Canada and the United States.”
This caused an influx of would-be ghost hunters, some of whom came to Rexton from as far away as the United States.
Fraser recalled: “For quite a long period, sightings were seen by hundreds, and people would drive to this area between Rexton and Richibucto to see the ghost.”
This was actually rather dangerous: “Some of the ghost seekers carried guns in their car to take a potshot if they saw the ghost.”
Although Fraser didn’t consider himself to be superstitious, he got caught up in the uproar and remembered worrying about the ghost while walking along a dark road one moonless night.
“There was a bit of moon that night, and the Rexton lights, all three of them, were burning merrily. All went well until I passed the last street and headed into the darkness. The thought of the ghost struck me. As I got further along the road, I began to feel my hair beginning to stand on end. It was a gravel road, and I found myself starting to tippy-toe along to cut down on any noise."
"Suddenly, on my right, there was a loud noise in the bushes. I just took off as fast as I could. I must have broke the four-minute mile that night. I remember outrunning a number of rabbits.”
As he was running, he heard a sound behind him.
It turned out it was a police car with The Provincials, and the constable offered him a ride.
“When I made it back to Kathleen’s and told her, “I damn well saw a ghost!” She just smiled that the noise in the bushes was probably just a cow. Maybe – but I didn’t stop to look!”
Ghost fever swept the whole region, and just like Donald Fraser, everyone was now seeing ghosts – or what they thought were ghosts.
Ghost-sighting hysteria hit its peak on November 23rd, 1931, when the New Brunswick Provincial Police -who everyone called The Provincials- had to make what is surely one of the more unusual public announcements in The Maritimes’ history, releasing an official statement explaining to the public that they had not, in fact, shot a ghost.
The strange story began earlier that day when an officer at The Provincials’ Moncton headquarters spilled a cup of coffee on himself.
He changed out of his coffee-stained white shirt and hung it in his window to dry.
Passerbys decided the shirt looked like the robe of a ghost, stained with blood.
The rumour spread fast, and, according to the Moncton Daily Times: “many people made for The Provincials headquarters to see the garb and guns taken from “The Ghost,” while the police, as well as this newspaper, were besieged with telephone calls from the curious seeking information, only to be told that no capture of the fantastic creature had been effected.”
Everyone knows that you can’t shoot a ghost, though, right?
So why were people so quick to assume that the ghost had been shot by The Provincials?
Despite the newspaper coverage and the visitors from far away coming to search for the ghost, from the very beginning, there was suspicion among the locals that the ghost story was fake and was a mere cover for something else which was happening in the woods along the coastal road linking Rexton and Richibucto…
As more and more people sighted the ghostly figure appearing on the road between Richibucto and Rexton, people who actually saw it began to notice that this particular ghost was displaying some awfully curious traits…
Aside from its white dress and robe, it appeared the ghost wore quite masculine clothes. The ghost also dressed seasonally appropriately for the cold late autumn weather, sporting warm clothes and heavy boots. This didn’t exactly fit with the original ghost story of a flying, floating, beautiful woman inviting people to join her in the woods.
The very day after the rather embarrassing mix-up between a coffee-stained shirt and a ghost that was shot in a police station, a group of five young teenagers departed Moncton. Their names were Lloyd King, Clyde Perry and siblings Frank, Lois, and Lena Cusak, and they drove to the dark and wooded road between Rexton and Richibucto, where the ghost had been frequently spotted.
The teens later recounted what happened that evening to the Moncton Daily Times newspaper:
“We were motoring to Kent County for the express purpose of getting a glimpse of ~the Ghost~ which had been ~alleged~ to have been seen flitting through the woods considerably of late.”
It was a clear and bright, crisp, cold autumn moonlit night: perfect weather to catch a ghost.
And that was exactly what the teenagers planned to do.
“We arrived at the place, between Richibucto and Rexton, where ~Mr. Ghost~ often appeared.”
There, they found 30 other people milling about, hoping to catch a sight of the famous ghost.
Lena, the youngest of the teenagers, first spotted the ghost:
"We had not long to wait. A shadowy figure robed in white appeared near the edge of the bushes, quite close to the car and hobbled, or hopped along.”
“The ghost had walked once too often and displayed the poor judgment of choosing a moonlit night for his wanderings. I gave the alarm, and our raiding party immediately gave chase!”
“The spooky visitor skipped into the woods, with us pursuers close at his heels.”
The ghost was tall and very athletic; fast, exceedingly agile, and a great jumper. It began to escape the young girl chasing it. However, her older friend Lloyd King, who was a well-known local athlete and baseball player, caught up and continued the chase.
“Probably sensing imminent danger, the white robe fluttered to the ground as a dark object disappeared into the thicket.”
“We conducted a brief search for the ghost, but failed to find any trace of him, although we swear that we could hear someone breathing hard.”
“We confiscated the robe, or whatever the garment of a ghost is called. The robe was of flannel with a large hole in it. The hole was pinned with a safety pin in the centre to give a two-eyed effect.”
That seems to have been the end of The Spectre of Rexton.
As time passed, a more complete story began to emerge.
And it was stranger than any ghost story.
During the hard times of the Great Depression, many desperate unemployed farmers and fishermen turned to an illegal way of making money: smuggling illegal liquor off of European ships waiting offshore through New Brunswick to be sold in the United States for astronomical profits.
Kent County was an epicentre for the importing of this booze.
To distract the police while they were unloading the illegal booze from the ships and bringing it to shore, the bootleggers revived an old, mostly forgotten ghost story.
It was quite an elaborate hoax — at one point, there were wires running between trees and an effigy of the ghost being pulled along it beside the road.
And they had a particularly athletic member dressed up running around the woods pretending to be a ghost.
The bootleggers themselves would call in the ghost sightings to the police to lure them to the scene and away from their booze smuggling operations.
The story spiralled out of control by becoming so popular and attracting international attention. That part was an accident. But even that helped them — all the people ghost-hunting in Rexton only further distracted the police.
And they would have gotten away with it, too, if not for those meddling kids.
The Backyard History Halloween Adjacent Story Collection
Old Ned, The Lake Utopia Monster (Appears in Book One)
The Ghostly Fire Ship of the Baie des Chaleurs (Appears in Book Two)
The Spectre of Rexton (Appears in Book One)
The Ghost of Binstead Manor (Appears in Rebellious Women In The Maritimes)
