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I was a security guard at the Lawton Federal Courthouse in Lawton, Oklahoma, for nearly ten years. The building, erected in 1917, is a neoclassical relic named after Henry W. Lawton, an Army officer killed in 1899 during the Philippine-American War. Its halls have echoed with trials tied to the Comanche and Kiowa tribes' land disputes and Prohibition-era bootlegging cases. By day, it's just a courthouse. At night, it's something else.
One night in October, on a frigid 2 a. M. Shift, I was patrolling the second floor near the old courtroom, where they sentenced moonshiners in the 1920s. A rhythmic tapping-sharp, like a gavel-stopped me cold. It came from inside the courtroom. I pushed open the oak doors, my flashlight cutting through the dark. Nothing but empty pews and the judge's bench. Then, for a split second, my beam caught a figure in the jury box-pale, still, gone before I could blink. The tapping returned, faster, insistent. Sweeping my light across the room, I saw fresh scratches on the witness stand's railing, spelling ''GUILTY. '' I'd checked that room the previous night; those marks didn't exist.
I reported it, but my boss blamed vandals. The cameras showed no one. Digging into the courthouse's past, I found a 1932 case: Elias Blackwood, convicted of murdering a Comanche elder over a land deal. The trial was rushed, evidence shaky. Blackwood hanged, proclaiming his innocence.
A month later, in the basement file room-where dust clings to records from the 1900s-the air grew heavy, like breathing through damp cloth. Whispers filled the room, low and garbled, a crowd just out of reach. I spun around, flashlight shaking. A single file, labeled ''Blackwood, E. , 1932,'' lay open on the floor. I hadn't touched it. The whispers stopped, replaced by a cold laugh that crawled up my spine.
Now, I dread the night shift. The courthouse doesn't sleep. Something watches, waits, and scratches its verdict in the dark
2025 May 28.
- Ghost picture submitted by Jason
Comment by Heather:
This is right downtown by the central mall and post office. I have heard many people say that it is haunted and sometimes you can see a person walking around the outside after dark.
2025 May 30.
Categories: war, laugh, basement, tapping, courthouse
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