Oct 9, 2026 · 39 min · 11 segments
The episode is dedicated to Master Storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham - who wrote the classic 13 Alabama Ghosts & Jeffrey that has enthralled readers of all ages. Hosts Melissa Ford Thornton and…
Melissa Ford ThorntonHost
Karen KirkpatrickGuest
Justin NewmanHost[eerie music] Frankly, until we saw the photograph of Jeffrey, we were skeptical about ghosts.
If anyone besides our reliable and reputable author, Catherine Tucker Windham, had brought us this photograph, our skepticism would have continued to be spirited, shall we say.
They performed a series of actual experiments to see if darkroom shenanigans in the first place could have transposed Jeffrey's photograph onto the negative, all to no avail.
They could not conjure up an artificial Jeffrey, no matter how many photographic tricks they tried.
From a small farming community in Mississippi, she too has a reputation for integrity.
She was photographed with Jeffrey because she, along with several friends, was visiting her newspaper coworker, Catherine Windham, one evening when they decided to make photographs in Catherine's house.
Catherine Windham and her former English teacher, Margaret Gillis Fye of Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama, have gone out of their way to be neutral concerning Jeffrey and the 13 other ghosts in this book.
So we went, and she handed us a notebook containing an original and carbon of this ghost chronicle.
We suggested Catherine jot down her own explanation of Jeffrey and this book project to be included with the forward.
This she did later that night in longhand on motel stationery, which she mailed to us the next morning.
This is that letter from the beloved, masterful storyteller, Catherine Tucker Windham.
Jeffrey took up residence at the Windham home in Selma about three years ago.
The family first became aware of his presence when they could hear someone moving around the living room or clomping down the hall.
They might have decided sound waves were playing tricks on them had it not been for the reaction of their cat, an old and respected feline known as Hornblower.
Whenever the family heard the footsteps, Hornblower would jump up, even rousing from sound sleep, arch his back, and flex his claws.
The hair around his neck would stand in a stiff ruff as he prepared to spring at an unseen but disturbing presence.
[eerie music] Frankly, until we saw the photograph of Jeffrey, we were skeptical about ghosts.
If anyone besides our reliable and reputable author, Catherine Tucker Windham, had brought us this photograph, our skepticism would have continued to be spirited, shall we say.
They performed a series of actual experiments to see if darkroom shenanigans in the first place could have transposed Jeffrey's photograph onto the negative, all to no avail.
They could not conjure up an artificial Jeffrey, no matter how many photographic tricks they tried.
From a small farming community in Mississippi, she too has a reputation for integrity.
She was photographed with Jeffrey because she, along with several friends, was visiting her newspaper coworker, Catherine Windham, one evening when they decided to make photographs in Catherine's house.
Catherine Windham and her former English teacher, Margaret Gillis Fye of Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama, have gone out of their way to be neutral concerning Jeffrey and the 13 other ghosts in this book.
So we went, and she handed us a notebook containing an original and carbon of this ghost chronicle.
We suggested Catherine jot down her own explanation of Jeffrey and this book project to be included with the forward.
This she did later that night in longhand on motel stationery, which she mailed to us the next morning.
This is that letter from the beloved, masterful storyteller, Catherine Tucker Windham.
Jeffrey took up residence at the Windham home in Selma about three years ago.
The family first became aware of his presence when they could hear someone moving around the living room or clomping down the hall.
They might have decided sound waves were playing tricks on them had it not been for the reaction of their cat, an old and respected feline known as Hornblower.
Whenever the family heard the footsteps, Hornblower would jump up, even rousing from sound sleep, arch his back, and flex his claws.
The hair around his neck would stand in a stiff ruff as he prepared to spring at an unseen but disturbing presence.
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