Bobby Mackey's Music World

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This night club is sometimes called “the most haunted night club in America.” The building was once a slaughterhouse, but it has an even darker link. Alleged Satan worshippers Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling were said to have killed Pearl Bryan in 1897; her headless body was found near the building. They promised to haunt the area after they were hanged for their crime, and it is said they have made good on their promise. Both men are said to haunt the well room, perhaps bringing other demonic friends with them, since some say the well is a doorway to Hell. The club is also said to be haunted by a dance hall girl named Joanna who committed suicide. Ghost Adventures has featured the place on several of their TV shows, and in one episode one of the hosts is shown to be possessed. The caretaker Carl was also been taken over by a spirit.

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    Geographic Information

    Address:
    44 Licking Pike
    Wilder, Kentucky
    United States

    Get Directions »
    GPS:
    39.073354, -84.49284979999999
    County:
    Campbell County, Kentucky
    Nearest Towns:
    Southgate, KY (1.1 mi.)
    Covington, KY (1.1 mi.)
    Wilder, KY (1.2 mi.)
    Newport, KY (1.3 mi.)
    Woodlawn, KY (1.6 mi.)
    Kenton Vale, KY (2.1 mi.)
    Park Hills, KY (2.1 mi.)
    Bellevue, KY (2.4 mi.)
    Fort Thomas, KY (2.5 mi.)
    Fort Wright, KY (2.7 mi.)

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    Comments (9)

    1. I wish we could have spent the night here instead of the Golden Lamb Inn. This place is definitely worth visiting, and you can take a tour to the Satanic Ritual room (+ where pregnant Pearl Bryan’s head was supposedly dumped, the (mob) torture room, Johanna’s dressing room/ basement for only $10. They have longer, (5 hours?) paranormal tours offered but unfortunately we did not have the time for this since traveling cross country, but the number is on the Bobby Mackey website. It was very crowded after the tour upstairs while Bobby Mackey was playing.

      According to the tour guide, Johanna was the daughter of someone in the mob associated with the Latin Quarters during her time (this was during the time after the murder of Pearl Bryan by her Satanist boyfriend/his friend); she fell in love with a man out of wedlock and her father murdered (hung) her love. In retaliation she attempted to poison/murder her father before committing suicide the same day via poisoning herself; unfortunately, her father survived and she did not, hence her “unfinished business”/regret/reason to stay. Lastly, according to the guide, the skull fragments found in the well were actually of Native American origin, which is very interesting….This place has some heavy energy, you should go here if you haven’t and find these things interesting.

    2. I was at this location with a small group of people in October of 2015. While going though the basement portion of the tour, I stepped into a small shop that was used to store equipment and furniture. When I stepped back out to re-join the group, I looked back at the doorway of the room I had just stepped out of, and saw a shadow figure peering around the corner at me. The feeling in the air when I saw this was very heavy, very negative, and not welcoming at all.

    3. I’ve gotten to go here once for a friends bday for drinks. I didnt realize they had tours. I’m going to have to go on 1. All I experienced was a heavy feeling but it was filled with people and music.

    4. My aunt worked here for many, many years and she used to be one of the very few people that would always close, she has never had any paranormal experience here. She thinks that people see and hear things that they want to see and hear, and after being here a a couple dozen times I would have to agree.

    5. I don’t live far from this place and I have been their, fun to go bar is cool great people and yes it’s neat to take a tour to the basement, however never saw or heard anything. Ghost hunters will tell you diff. but anyway a cool place and on America’s top haunted list. Youll love the trip and experience if anything to say you have been here.

    6. i found this on the real ghostadventures website Today Bobby Mackey’s Music World is a popular nightclub full of dancing and good times, but this cheerful setting holds a much more sinister past.

      The Slaughterhouse
      On this same site in 1850, a large slaughterhouse and meat-packing facility was constructed to serve northwestern Kentucky and nearby Cincinnati, Ohio. In the lowest part of the building, a well was dug and used to hold the blood, guts and waste from the slaughtered animals.

      Some researchers have speculated that after the slaughterhouse closed in the 1890s, Satanic cult activity took place in the building around the well. Animals, and possibly humans, were being slaughtered here for ritualistic purposes during secret meetings.

      Headless Pearl Bryan
      In 1896, the murder of 22-year-old Pearl Bryan, a small-town girl from Greencastle, Indiana, made headlines in the region. Pearl’s headless corpse was discovered in a field less than two miles from the slaughterhouse.

      Pearl was pregnant, and her boyfriend, Scott Jackson, a student at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, urged her to come to Cincinnati where he could arrange an abortion. Jackson and his roommate, Alonzo Walling, attempted the abortion themselves, but something went horribly wrong. To cover their tracks, they put Pearl’s body in an empty field and surgically removed her head so her body couldn’t be identified. They would have gotten away with the cover up, if they hadn’t left Pearl’s shoes on her feet. While on the gallows waiting to die, Alonzo Walling vowed to haunt the area forever.

      Pearl’s severed head was never discovered. Some have speculated that Jackson had ties to a Satanic cult, so the head may have been used in one of the dark rituals held in the basement of the slaughterhouse.

      Prohibition and the Mobster Years
      The slaughterhouse was demolished in the early part of the 20th century, and the lot sat empty until the 1920s when a new building was erected that served as a casino, nightclub and speakeasy during prohibition.

      When prohibition ended in 1933, E.A. “Buck” Brady bought the building and named it the “Primrose.” After more than a decade of successful operation, his casino caught the attention of Cincinnati mobsters who tried to muscle their way into the operation. When Brady refused to sell, the violence escalated with fighting and threats to customers in the parking lot, until Buck drew a gun on a mobster named Albert “Red” Masterson, was charged with attempted murder, and left the casino business in 1946.

      Forbidden Love and Tragic Suicide
      The building reopened as a nightclub called the “Latin Quarter” in the 1950s. Johanna (whose was said to wear rose-scented perfume), a dance hall girl and the daughter of the nightclub’s owner, fell in love with a singer, Robert Randall, who performed there. She got pregnant and intended to run off with the young singer, but her father forbade the romance and used his criminal connections to have the singer killed. When Johanna discovered what had happened, she poisoned her father, then took her own life in the basement of the building. (Note: Bobby Mackey’s full name is Robert Randall Mackey.)

      In 1978, after a series of fatal shootings at the rough-and-tumble nightclub, the local authorities were forced to close the establishment.

      Bobby Mackey
      Later that same year (1978), a young country singer named Bobby Mackey purchased the building and turned it into the music hall and tavern that still stands today. Paranormal phenomena have been present since day one. Though Bobby himself is skeptical, he’ll admit that he doesn’t doubt the word of family members, employees, police officers, and patrons who have experienced strange activity. Both the clergy and psychics have tried to help, but a dark force still seems to linger.

      Paranormal Activity and Speculation
      ~ Some still believe the building’s basement holds the gateway or portal to Hell itself — a reference to the long-abandoned slaughterhouse well.

      ~ Stairs near the well in the old slaughterhouse have been deemed “the stairs that lead to nowhere.” Phantom footsteps can often be heard on these stairs.

      ~ Some believe that spirits can’t cross flowing water, so the rare northern current of the Licking River may be keeping the dark forces trapped inside the building.

      ~ A former caretaker, that lived in the apartment upstairs, claims to have been demonically possessed by the spirits. His exorcism was performed in the club by a minister.

      ~ A patron claims to have experienced suffocating heat, a flying trash can, and a man with a handlebar mustache repeating, “Die game, die game” (Latin for dying well/dying good) in the men’s restroom.

      ~ Bobby’s wife claims to have been overcome by the scent of roses in the basement, grabbed around the waist, picked up, thrown down, and pushed down stairs by a force, that resembled sketches of Alonzo Walling, screaming, “Get out! Get out!” She refuses to set foot in the club again.

      ~ Bobby Mackey claims not to be a believer, but he did write a song entitled “Johanna” about the young girl who committed suicide in the basement in the 1950s.

      ~ Bobby Mackey’s friend Doug Hensley wrote the book “Hell’s Gate,” which connects the events of the past with the hauntings of the present.

      ~ Historic photos of Pearl Bryan match witnesses’ descriptions of a headless ghost dressed in turn-of-the-century clothing, and photos of Buck Brady also match descriptions of often seen ghosts.

      ~ “Hot spots” in the club include: the spotlight room and catwalk over the stage, the well in the basement, the old china room, and the platform area near the kitchen. People have also claimed to see ghosts in the big pitted mirror in the main room.

      ~ The club manager claims that on several occasions she would go through the club and make sure everything was turned off and closed down for the night. Then hours later she’d find that the bar lights were on, the front doors were unlocked, and the juke box would be playing “The Anniversary Waltz,” even though the juke box was still unplugged and did contain that song.

      ~ Another club employee has seen a dark, very angry man behind the bar and a spirit who called herself “Johanna.” She would often speak to him and leave the scent of roses in her wake

    7. My boyfriend and I went on the 10 dollar tour they do nighly , I have a Jesus tattoo on my back , I got scratches across it in the room with the well

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