Listener discretion is advised.

True crime can be strangely fascinating.

This true crime is odd, macab, and haunted. I'm Diane, your guide into the shadows. Welcome to

fantastical crime. This episode was suggested by Boyd Wright. Many a murder case has been won in court on just circumstantial evidence.

This is true of present-day cases, and it was true back in the 1840s, when a man named David

Shealy lost his life at the end of a hangman's rope. Many believe he was an innocent man,

and perhaps that is why his ghost haunted people for decades after his hanging.

Shealy certainly isn't unique. Through the centuries, many wrongly convicted people have been put to

death. It's one of the reasons why many people don't support the death penalty. There are many stories

of murder victims coming back as spirits to find justice. Is it possible that wrongfully executed

people have ghosts that return as well? And what of the truly guilty? Do they not make the

transition out of fear? Do their spirits stay as they seek penance? Or were they just so evil,

even hell won't have them?

No. Or were they just so evil, even hell won't have them? The city of Cynthia is slightly northeast of Lexington in the state of Kentucky. It was here that David Shealy would come to his end, at least for his mortal body. His spirit would return.

David Shealy was a man who liked his drink.

If not for the whiskey, he would have just been known as a kind-hearted man. He was born to William

and Lydia Shealy in 1822. David married a woman named Nancy Ann Mayner, and the couple built

themselves a true room cabin on a farm along Crooked Creek. They had

three sons together, William, Jonathan, and Warren. David liked to fish, and on the afternoon of

June 5, 1847, he joined a group of friends on a fishing party to Beaver Creek. The men had success

with catching fish and decided to celebrate with whiskey, which obviously

pleased David very much since he enjoyed drinking. The men drank until late into the night,

...