Chaffin Ghost Will on Travel Channel Program.pdf
Chaffin Ghost Will Story to Air on Travel Channel
About 25 people turned out to watch the Travel Channel’s “Mysteries at the
Museum” segment on the Chaffin ghost story Friday night at the Tanglewood
Pizza Company, located at 5539 Highway 158.
Among them were Davie County Public Library Director Jane McAllister, whose
interview with the film crew was interspersed throughout the eight-minute
segment; several members of her staff; and Davie County Clerk of Court Ellen
Drechsler, who recruited her friend, Alice Hanes, to help her search for James L.
Chaffin’s wills in the courthouse basement one Saturday morning (it took two
hours) and later arranged with the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) in
Raleigh to take them to the library for filming by the Mysteries at the Museum
film crew.
The AOC required the Travel Channel to sign a License Use and Agreement with
Drechsler before filming the wills.
Others in attendance at the Tanglewood Pizza Company included members of the
newly-formed Renegade Writers Guild, which had just finished its monthly open
mic at the nearby Corners Coffee and included two Chaffins, cousins Kathy and
Sharon; and others interested in seeing a Davie County ghost story featured on
national TV.
The closest living relatives of alleged ghost James L. Chaffin were interviewed by
Mary Roach, a California author who visited Davie County in 2004 to research her
book. She talked with Lester Blackwelder and his younger brother, Lloyd, who is
now deceased, for her chapter on the Chaffin ghost in her 2005 book, “SPOOK:
Science Tackles the Afterlife.”
Estelle Chaffin Blackwelder, the mother of Lester and Lloyd, was the daughter of
James Pinkney Chaffin and granddaughter of the alleged ghost. A copy
of Roach’s book is in the History Room of the Davie County Library.
Her chapter on the Chaffin ghost story – titled “In which the law finds for a ghost,
and the author calls in an expert witness” – includes details not in other accounts.
The eight-minute segment on “Mysteries at the Museum” included film footage
of the Davie County Courthouse, segments of an interview with McAllister and
actors portraying the ghost of James L. Chaffin and his three sons settling in the
courtroom scene at the end.
When McAllister was shown in a promo for the segment on one of several
large-screen TVs at the Tanglewood Pizza Company earlier in the evening,
Deborah Colbert screamed in excitement, pointing to the library director.
Even though McAllister pronounced Chaffin correctly with a long “a,” Host Don
Wildman pronounced it Chaffin with a short “a” as in chap.
To summarize the Chaffin ghost story, the family of James L. Chaffin, upon his
death in 1921, was shocked to find that his will left all of his property to Marshall,
the third of his four sons, without even any provision for his widow.
Though shocked by this unexpected turn of events, she and their other three sons
decided not to contest the will.
In June of 1925, James Pinkney Chaffin told his wife that his father had been
appearing to him in dreams during which he stood at his bedside with “a
sorrowful expression” on his face. The previous night, however, he said his father
had appeared in a black overcoat like one he used to wear.
In the dream, James Pinkney said his father opened up one side of the overcoat,
pointed to an inside pocket and said, “You will find something about my last will
in my overcoat pocket.”
After some searching, James Pinkney finally located his father’s overcoat in the
attic of the house belonging to his older brother, John, and found a roll of paper
with his father’s handwriting on it and tied with a ribbon saying, “Read the 27th
Chapter of Genesis in my daddy’s old Bible.”
With his daughter, Estelle, and his neighbor, Thom Blackwelder, as witnesses, Pink
went to his mother’s house and found the old Bible in the attic.
There they found a second will, dated 1919, which divided the land equally
among his four sons. At that point, the three brothers left out of the first will
immediately contested it in a trial that gained widespread attention when James
Pinkney testified to seeing his father’s ghost at his bedside.
The Chaffin ghost story is also included in North Caroline author John Harden’s
book, “Tar Heel Ghosts,” in a chapter titled “Ghost with a Mission.” The late
James W. Wall, a respected Davie County historian and Davie High School history
teacher dedicated three pages in his “History of Davie County,” first published in
1969.
Roach’s story of the account is quite an interesting read, offering the opinions of
Grant Speery, a questioned document examiner and forensic handwriting expert
based in Tennessee. It’s worth a visit to the Davie County Library History Room to
read the rest of the story.
By Kathy Chaffin
Mysteries at the Museum aired the Chaffin Will segment on Friday, June 3, 2016