Railroad Bill

An Alabama widow lives in fear of the terrifying murderer Railroad Bill.  But is he really what the townsfolk say he is?  

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"Railroad Bill" was written by told by Christine Horn.  As told at the Tour of Southern Ghosts, ART Station, Stone Mountain, Georgia.

Audio Production: Henry Howard

The Moonlit Road Podcast is a production of The Moonlit Road, LLC.

 

 

 

 

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) I'd like to share a story with you
if you've got a minute or two.
Now, I don't know if it's true or
not.
I'll let you make that up for your
own mind.
I guess this story is about a lot
of things, but mostly it's about keeping the
faith.
There weren't any window screens on Miss Ellie's

(00:22):
little white ramshackle house.
Every night as the sun went down and
the night chill settled in, she shuffled over
to each window and hooked the wooden shutters
and then she locked the front door.
Not just to keep out the night air,
mind you, but mostly to keep out whatever
was lurking in the shadow.
Miss Ellie was a widow woman whose husband

(00:44):
passed on 30 years ago.
Her children were all grown and moved away
to the city to live their own lives.
And she'd gotten too old and too crippled
by arthritis to work anymore and had to
survive on the meager pension check her husband
had left her.
Now, even though Miss Ellie was poor, she
was a proud woman and didn't take kindly

(01:05):
to charity.
Seems her faith always got her through the
hard times and she always trusted the Lord
to take care of her.
But Miss Ellie's pension check was a week
overdue and the only food left in the
pantry was a jar of stewed tomatoes.
Times had to be much worse and Miss
Ellie was in bad need of a miracle.

(01:27):
And as if Miss Ellie didn't have enough
troubles, the stories about Railroad Bill started.
Seems he was on the loose again and
she'd been terrified of him nearly all of
her life.
Miss Ellie couldn't keep him off her mind,
not since her neighbor Miss Rose Cooper claimed
she saw him walking down the tracks late

(01:47):
one Saturday week.
Folks said he was the most dangerous man
who ever lived and he didn't have respect
for anyone.
Rumor was he murdered a man in cold
blood just because he didn't like the way
he looked at him.
Fact was no one knew for sure if
he was flesh and blood, man or ghost.

(02:08):
Odd thing was Railroad Bill always seemed to
show up when folks was going through tough
times, but no one ever seemed to put
two and two together, if you know what
I mean.
Now Miss Rose claimed that Railroad Bill was
a giant of a man from South Alabama
who liked to rob freight trains along the
Louisville and Nashville line just for fun.

(02:29):
She was proud of the fact that she'd
actually seen him, but most folks didn't pay
Miss Rose no never mind.
Story was that if the police were hot
on his trail, he'd drop his stolen loot
on some needy person's porch and then disappear
into the night.
He usually left cans of food and fresh
vegetables and sometimes even a little money.

(02:51):
Poor Miss Ellie didn't know what to believe,
but she wasn't taking any chances when it
came to Railroad Bill, so she pushed a
chair in front of the door just in
case.
After she thanked the Lord for allowing her
to spend another day on earth, she crawled
into bed.
Now she was just nodding off to sleep
and she was startled awake by the sound

(03:12):
of gunshots from close by.
It sounded like somebody had come a running
and taken a big jump and landed right
on her back porch.
Next came a rattling and a clatter.
She opened the door just in time to
see the biggest black man she'd ever seen
in her life standing on her back porch.
He turned around and grinned at her before
he ran down the railroad tracks.

(03:35):
Miss Ellie stood in the doorway with her
mouth wide open.
Now Miss Ellie's eyesight wasn't too good anymore,
but she swear she saw this man vanish
right before her eyes.
Was it possible?
Had she just seen Railroad Bill?
She looked at the cans of food and
fresh vegetables scattered all over her porch.

(03:58):
She didn't know whether to be frightened or
relieved.
When Miss Ellie went back to bed that
night, she listened to the mournful sound of
the train whistle as it disappeared into the
Alabama night.
She thought about Railroad Bill for a long,
long time.
Was it possible he robbed freight trains so

(04:18):
he could give food to the poor?
Maybe he'd been poor too and knew what
it was like to go hungry.
Miss Ellie knew one thing for sure.
Railroad Bill was an answer to her prayers.
Bright and early the next morning, Miss Rose
stopped by Miss Ellie's for her usual morning

(04:38):
gossip and to show her newspaper clippings she'd
found in an old trunk.
The article was over 40 years old and
said the police had captured the notorious bandit
Railroad Bill.
It went on to say that Railroad Bill
had been killed trying to escape.
One thing was certain.
The Lord certainly works in mysterious ways.