Christmas Eve with a Ghost – or Murdered Thirty Years Ago…
Here’s a strange Christmas ghost story that was supposed to have occurred in Halifax in 1875. Unfortunately, it’s not at all clear which Halifax is meant. It was reported in the notorious true crime tabloid the Illustrated Police News on 1 January 1876.
On Christmas Eve 1875, Mr Bristow, a farmer living near Halifax, was walking past his barn with his two labourers when they were greeted by a bizarre sight. A grey headed old man in frock coat and breeches fell to his knees outside the barn and began to wail piteously.
On being asked what was wrong with him, the crazed old man said that he could see the ghost of his dead master urging him implacably toward the barn to reveal a dreadful secret.
Inside the barn, the old man pointed to a spot on the ground and asked the labourers to dig down a few feet. Within quarter of an hour they discovered a human skeleton.
The old man then confessed that the remains belonged to his former master whom he had murdered and buried there over thirty years ago. After confessing, the old man sank into a stupor from which he never recovered.
He died in the early hours of Christmas Day.
The Mystery
I can’t find any other references to this story in the local or national press of the time. The Illustrated Police News account – which comes with the gloomy illustration at the top of this article – says the report originates from Langstown’s New Letter, though I can find no reference to this either.
Although Mr Bristow is named in the report, the murderer and his victim are not. I can’t find any reference to the disappearance of a Halifax (Yorkshire) farmer from 30 years or so prior to 1876. Nor can I find any reference to the story elsewhere, such as in Halifax, Canada. The newspaper report said that the story ‘reaches’ us from Halifax, perhaps suggesting it’s come from a distant Halifax. If so, why wouldn’t the report specify Halifax, Canada? On the other hand, it would be fair to assume that in a British newspaper, ‘Halifax’ would refer to the Yorkshire town.
This festive tale of a murderer tormented by his guilty conscience, the melodramatic confession, the skeletal reveal and convenient death on Christmas day, not to mention the supernatural trimmings, all seems a bit too good to be true.
The tone of the article in the Illustrated Police News is fairly sceptical, noting that the events could form the basis of an ‘admirable little story’ and hedges the report by introducing it with ‘it appears that…’
So here’s the Christmas mystery. Did the events take place as described, and if so who was the murderer and who was the victim? And did it take place in our Halifax (the Yorkshire one) or elsewhere?
Answers on a Christmas card, please!
Paul Weatherhead 