Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Murder in a Mill Village

Murder in a Mill Village
Haunted Manchester, Georgia

Manchester, Georgia is a quiet and small southern town much like any other. Established in 1909, in the Appalachian foothills, it was initially a railroad town but grew into a busy mill community. Today, the majority of this small town remains in much the same state it did in its infancy. The bustling Mill Village that once employed hundreds of workers is now silent but the occasional train still makes its way through Manchester. Residents in the old mill village are hospitable folks and enjoy the solitude and nature of the location, but even in solitude, lurks dark and malevolent forces.

While most of this community comes and goes without cause for concern, many are unaware of a brutal and hostile crime that took place here in 1977. The body of Francis Coe was discovered in her Manchester home on January 31 of that year. She had been a victim of a brutal rape and murder. According to documentation, her body was found in a nearly dismembered state. Crime scene reports stated that inside the home, blood was literally splattered all over the home, so much in fact, the area in the home where Francis’s body was found had been soaked right down to the floorboards and foundation of the house.  This was by far, the worst crime scene Meriwether Sheriff’s deputies had ever encountered.

An arrest was made some time after the murder and Eddie Spraggins was indicted and sent to trial. Although he pled insanity, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. For many years after the murder, the house where Francis Coe lived was for sale or rent. Many people lived in the home but none stayed for more than a year. Families came and went and the For Sale sign resided longer than the actual tenants. People didn’t talk much about the murder but, the paranormal activity in the home was widely whispered and it fueled the rumor mill that the house was haunted.

About a year after the murder, the house was rented and the gentleman living there with his wife and young son started hearing strange noises almost immediately after moving in. The sounds of dragging, footsteps, banging and knocking could be heard day and night. The family was familiar with the murder but not superstitious enough to be bothered by any suggestion of paranormal activity. After six months of living there the family moved abruptly. According to neighbors, they basically packed up and left overnight.

Other rumors started to emerge over the years about the unusual activity of the home. They included the ghost of a walking corpse, so hideous and grotesque that the few that actually reported seeing it became physically ill. in 1982, a woman living in the home was rushed to the hospital due to a heart attack after seeing the manifestation. She made plans to move from the home while she was still being treated in the hospital. Upon her release, she rented an apartment in a nearby town and refused to go back, even to gather her belongings.

Later, attempts were made to update and renovate the home with the hopes that a new image would persuade would-be tenants to take advantage of cheap rent. However, a contractor who was helping appraise the home, said he had an experience that he would never forget. While under the crawl space of the house, looking over the stability of the foundation, he came upon the spot in the floor where Francis Coe’s body had been lying. That spot was still stained with blood and in the outline of a human figure. As he lay on the cold ground, under the house glaring at the blood stained floor boards, he started to feel as if he wasn’t alone. He quickly rolled over onto his belly and flashed his light around, calling out to see if anyone else was there but to his surprise, no one answered. He turned over again in the tiny crawl space and looked at the bloody imprint once more and to his amazement the stain began to move. A dark mass formed inside the stain and morphed into the face of a woman. He was so horrified that he scrambled out from underneath the house and left without even telling the appraiser what he had seen.

For many years after the home sat empty and eventually even neighboring homes would be abandoned due to the rumors. The home is still standing, but just barely, only a few blocks from the old mill. It’s not been lived in for many years and has all but disappeared under heavy vines of Kudzu and rapidly growing Mimosa trees. Nature seems to be slowly devouring the house like a snake digesting its prey. It’s speculation whether or not the old murder house has some how imprinted itself into the ground, much like the blood stained floorboards of the home, but those who believe know that the house is best left alone. Left to be forgotten and left to be forsaken, and left to the angry decaying spirits that resides in it. 

35 comments:

  1. Francis was my neighbor. I left on Jefferson Street until I grew up and left home. I remember Francis Coe as a wonderful woman! She loved God with all her heart and soul! She was a very dear friend of mine and I pray that she rest in heaven in peace.

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    1. i also remember her as a true southern lady!i Believe she is trying to tell us something,so she can rest

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  2. I remember this well. This is well written but please change quite to quiet in the first sentence as I believe that is what is meant.

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  3. I remember this well. This is well written but please change quite to quiet in the first sentence as I believe that is what is meant.

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  4. Wow.....my dad has owned this house since the 80's. I've been there countless times and have never seen or felt anything. And there weren't any bloodstains on the underside of the floorboards either. I know that there are such things as evils spirits etc. because I have seen and felt them on numerous occasions and in numerous different places, but never in this house.

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  5. Great story and well told. Constructive criticism: maybe get an editor to help with some of the awkward sentence construction and to help with any typos. Otherwise, great job.

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  6. I was born in 1958 and lived in Manchester until I finished 7 th grade,my mom and dad both worked at the mill. My memories of Manchester are all wonderful if we had more towns today like it was back then we wouldn't have all the problems. I don't believe in ghost except for the holy ghost.

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  7. Frances Tindell, does your father still own it? Does he want to sell it?

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    1. Yes he does. He probably would sell it. You can contact me at ftindell@icloud.com

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    2. Can you go in and look around or is it locked up

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  8. I used to spend a lot of time in Manchester when I was young,I have never heard this story though. I will have to investigate as I am only 30 miles away...

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  9. Wasn't a second boy/man convicted of this murder? Fred someone

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  10. Wasn't a second boy/man convicted of this murder? Fred someone

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  11. Eddie Spraggins and Freddie Davis were both convicted of this murder.

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  12. When I was a child my family lived behind mrs Coe.i knew the two that killed her mr.eddie sagging and Mr Davis I went to school with Mr Davis and Mr sagging lived across the street from us. It was so awful what they did to this sweet lady.as for the house being haunted I can't say that this it true if any thing should be haunted it should be the two that did this awful thing to her.l will never forget the day I here this happen.

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  13. When I was a child my family lived behind mrs Coe.i knew the two that killed her mr.eddie sagging and Mr Davis I went to school with Mr Davis and Mr sagging lived across the street from us. It was so awful what they did to this sweet lady.as for the house being haunted I can't say that this it true if any thing should be haunted it should be the two that did this awful thing to her.l will never forget the day I here this happen.

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  14. I grew up on Maple St. Ms. Coe was good friends with our neighbor Bob Kersey. She had been to visit earlier that day. Her murder changed the community.

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  15. Never heard this and I lived there my whole life. But doesn't mean its not true.

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  16. Never heard this and I lived there my whole life. But doesn't mean its not true.

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    1. It is a true story we lived on Hill Street and she lived on Jackson Street I went to school with Freddie and Eddie lived in front of us they were sent up for execution but the governor stop the execution I don't know if they still alive or not but they did Kill the lady and I don't believe the house is haunted it is just a tragic story

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  18. Are people allowed to go inside and look. My aunt used to live there and saw things but Francis never bothered her..

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  19. Are people allowed to go inside and look. My aunt used to live there and saw things but Francis never bothered her..

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    1. I would love to go inside and just look around

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  20. It was not this one it still looks the same

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  21. What's the address? I want to look at it!!

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  22. Eddie is living an out of prison

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  23. Yes Eddie is out of prison. But he is not a free man. He was paroled to a mental institution. Eddie is and has always been mentally retarded. This was a horrific crime and I am very sorry for miss coe and her family. Since I am Eddie Spraggins great nephew I had to grow up listening to the stories of this horrific crime.

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    1. Eddie was always crazy and mean as hell but this surprised me about Freddy he always acted like he had some sense..

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  24. Oh wow.. this story still makes me cringe.. Eddie used to hang with my dad and one time when I was little he thru a beer can at my mama n daddy's car and the window was halfway up I was standing there ..if the window had not been up it would have hit me I was only like 2 yrs old ..my dad wanted to kill him

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  25. When I look at the picture of the house the weeds make a face at the top of the steps. Just a little strange to see a face in it. Thanks for the story.

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  26. Freddy died in Prison a few years ago and Smith steel meadows handled the funeral but it was quick and hush hush he's buried at Macedonia church cemetery. He has one brother left James "Orkin" Davis and a few cousins their about all gone.

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  27. so has anybody bought this house yet i am really interested

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  28. My grandparents lived across the street from her and lived there until they died. 2012/2013.I was there playing in the snow in her side yard when my great Aunt found her. I never heard anything about it being haunted. At the time of this article my grandparents still lived there.

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