The Gangsters Ghost

The sleepy community of Seven Springs in Wayne County is quite an unassuming place. You would never suspect that this was one of the many destinations of the mafia villains of the prohibition era. But in this small town of about 90 people was home to some of the best illegally made whiskey. And to this day, the ghosts of those who ran into "southern justice" keep reminding those around the area that they are still there.

Alan was a teenager living near Seven Springs. Vaguely aware of the history of the area he never gave it much thought as hardly anyone his age did. He was too busy being a teenager and doing his own thing. One of his favorite activities was to go camping with friends at the Falls of the Neuse. One night while camping he and his friends saw something that would change how they saw their community.

About 11 O'Clock that night everything was quiet. The fire had died down and they were getting ready to sleep when they heard a strange but familiar noise. Alan immediately recognized the sound of the vehicle as a Packard. His uncle collected old cars and had a few Packards. That wasn't what bothered Alan. What bothered him was that there was no way a car of ANY size could come down that path.

But there it was. The dim glow of the headlights slowly coming toward the campers. It stopped about 30 feet from where they sat. From the drivers side stepped a big man well dressed in clothing from the 20's. A chill went through the spines of Alan and his friend when they saw that they could look straight through the man at the trees behind him.

The man began to talk to someone the boys couldn't see and suddenly jerked two times and fell to the ground. As he fell both he and the ghostly car vanished into thin air. While during all of this the campers were more or less frozen with fear, this quickly passed as they gathered their gear and headed for home.

The next day Alan told his father what had happened and his father told him a story that he'd heard as a child. It seems a man from the city had came to do business with a moonshiner from Seven Springs. As gangsters are prone to do, he tried to lean on the moonshiner hard and lost his life in the process. No one was quite sure where near the Falls the city fellow was buried, and even if they did know they weren't saying as no one had seen the gangster or his car since that night.

Strange things have been reported by campers at Falls of the Neuse ever since. Strange noises that any experienced outdoors man will tell you is NOT from an animal. Personal belongings disappear without a trace and the sound of footsteps walking towards your tent only no one is there. Alan's grandfather told him he heard a ghostly voice calling his name near the same cove Alan was at the night he saw the ghost.

Falls of the Neuse is a state park now and camping sites are numbered. In case you want to risk it and see what you experience, the cove Alan stayed is lot #7. If you do go, keep an eye open for the gangster's ghost and his phantom Packard.