Mamie Thurman

Ghost of 22 Mountain

Mamie Thurman may not be nationally renown, but her name is recognized in and around the southern part of West Virginia and Kentucky. Who was Mamie? Mamie was a young woman living in the city of Logan is the 1930's.

On June 22, 1932, her slain body was found and recovered on 22 Mountain near Holden. Holden is about ten miles from Logan.

R. B. Harris, undertaker for Harris Funeral Home, who embalmed the body reached the murder scene at two-thirty in the afternoon. She was wearing a dark blue dress with white polka dots. One shoe was on the body, and the other shoe was found nearby. Her purse containing about ten-dollars in change and a pack of cigarettes was located six to eight feet from her body. Mamie was wearing a watch, a white gold wedding ring, and a white gold diamond ring valued at two-hundred dollars which ruled out robbery as a motive.

TOP OF 22 MOUNTAIN NEAR WHERE MAMIE'S BODY WAS DISCOVERED

Mamie's neck was broken, and she had been shot twice with a .38 caliber gun on the left side of her head with both bullets passing through her brain. There were severe powder burns on her face indicating she was shot at close range. Her throat had been cut from ear to ear almost in a surgical-like fashion. Mamie was last seen June twenty-first at nine o'clock in the evening. Mr. Harris said she had been dead for several hours. Mamie Thurman's body was taken to the Harris Funeral Home at 200 Main Street which is now the Honaker Funeral Home.

After the trial for her murder, her burial status was upset by problems. Records at the funeral home stated she was buried in Bradfordsville, Ky. A visit to that town proved that wrong. A copy of the death certificate in the county courthouse states she was placed in the Logan Memorial Park at McConnell. A visit to that cemetery also failed to show a gravesite.

Searchers failed to locate her grave. The questions surrounding the mystery of her murder have followed her to her grave.

According to Logan County folklore, many claim that Mamie Thurman's ghost wanders the hills, searching for the person who took her life. Others say that her spirit is still there, waiting for justice. Some claim to have seen her while passing by the Holden 22 Mountain mine road. Folklore even tells that certain coal truck drivers would pick up a woman wearing outdated clothing, only to see her vanish from the cab moments later. It is also known that if you put your car in neutral on 22 Mountain, it will roll backward up the hill. This is believed to be the spirit of Mamie Thurman pulling you up the hill.

Pat Maynard, resident of Huntington, recounted his personal story of an encounter with Mamie Thurman.

He told of himself and a friend by the name of Danny Vance were around 22 Mountain one night in 1986. They were returning from a party and drove past the area when they say a young woman on the side of the road hitchhiking. As they pulled off to giver her a ride she abruptly disappeared. They looked for her but could find no trace. As they were searching their truck, left parked, began moving but instead of rolling down the hill, Pat says he saw the truck going backward up the hill with no one exerting any kind of force on it. After seeing this, both men returned to their vehicle and promptly left the area.

Pat also told of stories he had heard of many bus drivers through the area picking up a young girl who would match the description of Mamie Thurman and she would ask them to take her to 5&6 Holden. Upon arrival the woman would no longer be on the bus and her purse would be the only evidence of her ever existing.

This picture was taken by Debra Dennison at 22 Mine Road and is said to show a face in the middle of a phenomenon known as an “orb”. It was taken during an investigation on Mamie Thurman.

This is a picture taken by a group known as West Virginia Ghost Hunters. It is of a brown house on 22 Road which used to be near the discovery location of Mamie’s Body and there is supposedly an apparition in the window.

The story of Mamie Thurman is one of the most well known pieces of lore in West Virginia. Weather her ghost walks the hills or if its just imaginative talk on the part of the inhabitants is up for you to decide.