The Bathtub of Bones: The Phantom Monk of Tennessee

Are you familiar with the Phantom Monk of Charleston, Tennessee? Welcome to the Homespun Haints podcast, where we interview guests who’ve seen ghosts! In this interview, we sit down with a paranormal investigator who rides to sites on her motorcycle and investigates places with deep ties to local legends and folklore. And today, we lean about the infamous bath tub—still in-use in a home bathroom today!—that was purportedly used to clean the unclaimed skeleton of a lonely traveler for display. Curious?!

Listen now:

Summary of this Episode about The Phantom Monk of Tennessee

In this episode, we speak with Ghost Biker, Miranda Young. Miranda is founder of Ghost Biker Explorations, which produces video episodes, and focuses on investigations that have strong ties to regional folklore. She is based near the Chattanooga area but has worked on investigations throughout the entire Southeast U.S.

About Miranda Young, Ghost Biker

Be sure to check out the Ghost Biker Explorations site to watch her investigations—or go directly to her YouTube channel. The investigation discussed at length in this episode can be seen in several episodes of Season 1.

You can also follow Miranda’s Facebook page @ghostbikerexplorations and her Instagram @runaway_vixen

Automatic drawing

Our guest Miranda possesses an interesting talent—she sometimes finds herself drawing images of people while on investigations, and sometimes those drawings have a striking resemblance to people who have passed in the sites she’s investigating. Yes, she’s drawing ghosts.

One time, however, she drew someone she had never met who was still living and working on the site where she was investigating. She sent us these images of her drawing, and the man she met the next morning.

The Bathtub of Bones

Shortly after the Civil War, the small town of Cleveland in East Tennessee saw a terrible train wreck. One of the victims of the accident, a monk, disappeared completely after the calamity. What actually happened to his body is the stuff of nightmares.

Our guest, Miranda, investigated the site of the Tennessee wreck that took the monk’s life (where a phantom train is still said to be seen from time to time). Afterward, she received the opportunity to study the bathtub that held the monk’s remains as his flesh was stripped from his bones. The home bathroom that contained the antique claw footed bath tub, however, had so much paranormal activity that she began to realize more spirits were around than just those of the monk.

The Phantom Monk of Charleston, Tennessee

The story of the Phantom Monk is not well known outside of East Tennessee. But it is one of the more gruesome ghost stories that exist in that area. Because people in Tennessee have seen this ghost for decades.

What ghostly activities do people attribute to the haunting of the phantom monk?

The Phantom Monk’s telltale signs:

• People report sightings of a monk’s cowl, disappearing through a doorway.
• People hear the clicking of a rosary, when nobody else is around.

Do you want to learn more about this spooky legend from paranormal Appalachia? Check out this local article in the Cleveland Daily Banner. The Museum Center of 5ive Points, in Cleveland, also has a nice article about the monk. This one goes into details of the train wreck as well. But the best place to read about this grisly ghost story is from the 13 Ghost Stories author herself, Kathryn Tucker Windham. I first learned this story from her book Thirteen Tennessee Ghosts and Jeffrey.

Until next time, have a spooky day!