Part of our growing Mysteries and Legends series, Mysteries and Legends of Texas explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in Texas’s history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in Texas history.

Here are a round dozen fascinating and suspenseful tales about the unexplained side of Texas. The stories inform, arouse, and even move the reader, allowing a view of the state from a different perspective at each turn. As varied as the stories may be, they all share the theme of mystery. The reader will discover ghosts, spirits, and apparitions; eerie sounds, strange lights, and baffling discoveries; buried treasure, a lost ship, and inexplicable events; a monster, a natural miracle, and an enigmatic assassination. Amazingly, the reader will also learn about places in Texas where some of these mysteries can still be experienced first-hand.

Hauntings lurk and spirits linger in the Lone Star State Reader, beware! Turn these pages and enter the world of the paranormal, where ghosts and ghouls alike creep just out of sight. Author Alan Brown shines a light in the dark corners of Texas and scares those spirits out of hiding in this thrilling collection. From tales of haunted hotels like the Von Minden and The Beckham, to a creek where a woman’s screams can still be heard to this day, and the shadowy figures still stalking the Alamo, these stories of strange occurrences will keep you glued to the edge of your seat. Around the campfire or tucked away on a dark and stormy night, this big book of ghost stories is a hauntingly good read.

A New York Times bestseller, The Midnight Assassin is a sweeping narrative history of a terrifying serial killer--America's first--who stalked Austin, Texas in 1885. In the late 1800s, the city of Austin, Texas was on the cusp of emerging from an isolated western outpost into a truly cosmopolitan metropolis. But beginning in December 1884, Austin was terrorized by someone equally as vicious and, in some ways, far more diabolical than London's infamous Jack the Ripper. For almost exactly one year, the Midnight Assassin crisscrossed the entire city, striking on moonlit nights, using axes, knives, and long steel rods to rip apart women from every race and class. At the time the concept of a serial killer was unthinkable, but the murders continued, the killer became more brazen, and the citizens' panic reached a fever pitch. Before it was all over, at least a dozen men would be arrested in connection with the murders, and the crimes would expose what a newspaper described as "the most extensive and profound scandal ever known in Austin." And yes, when Jack the Ripper began his attacks in 1888, London police investigators did wonder if the killer from Austin had crossed the ocean to terrorize their own city. With vivid historical detail and novelistic flair, Texas Monthly journalist Skip Hollandsworth brings this terrifying saga to life.

In the South, mystery comes heaped with added richness. And in this collection of comfort food for the curious mind, author Alan Brown guides readers into the most delightful medley of mystery the South has on offer. Witches in Tennessee. The devil's hoofprints in North Carolina. Voodoo in New Orleans. In this South, meat rains from the sky in Bath, Kentucky. A professor's thigh makes the case for spontaneous combustion in Nashville. UFO-induced radiation sickness befalls Huffman, Texas. From bluesman Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil in Arkansas to the oak tree that defends the innocence of a man executed in Mobile, sometimes the inexplicable is truly the most satisfying.

Strange, Unusual, & Bizarre Newspaper Stories 1860 - 1910

Ghosts can be encountered anywhere at any time by any person. Why do some people see ghosts more than others? Who knows? Perhaps as some suggest a few people are more psychic or more tuned in than others.