Tennessee Ghosts and Legends

Send us Fan MailWelcome to the Tennessee Ghosts and Legends Podcast. My name is Lyle Russell. I am your host, and I love a good ghost story. Today, have I got a ghost story for you. However, this episode is a little different from what you're used to hearing on this podcast. There are no plantation spirits, no cryptids in the tree line, no UFOs landing in Nashville, and no lights floating over haunted railroad tracks. The story you are about to hear is stranger than any of those things because this ghost story is true. Every word of it. And it started right here, in the woods east of Tullahoma, Tennessee, in the winter of 1944. Welcome to the Ghost Army.Before we get into the story, I want to tell you something about how this episode came to be. Over the 2026 Memorial Day Weekend, I had the privilege of bringing author and documentary filmmaker Rick Beyer to Tullahoma to kick off our city’s America 250 celebration, Along with his wife, Marilyn, and his sister, Catherine, Rick presented his research on this amazing story he has spent over 20 years documenting and bringing to public attention. Rick is the author of The Ghost Army of World War II, co-written with Elizabeth Sayles, and the producer of the 2013 PBS documentary of the same name. He is the foremost authority on this story, and he was gracious enough to share it with our community and to allow me to draw on his research for this episode. What I'm about to tell you is deeply informed by Rick's work, and I am grateful to him for keeping this story alive so others could hear it.

Send us Fan MailIn this episode, we’ll combine a good ghost story with a treasure hunt. Today we are going to chase three of Tennessee's most compelling treasure legends. We begin at a time before before America existed, with Spanish gold and the Cherokee warriors who guarded it along the Elk River. Then we head east to the misty hollows of Greenbrier Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains, where a blacksmith found something in a hillside that he spent the rest of his life hiding, and possibly never told a single living soul about. Finally, we’ll end in the chaos and desperation of the Civil War, with a Confederate paymaster riding hard through the night to bury sixty thousand dollars in gold coins before the Yankees could take it. Today’s episode is about Gold, Ghosts, and Greed. Let’s explore the Lost Treasures of Tennessee

Send us Fan MailOn today’s Thanksgiving holiday episode, we’ll explore some Tennessee Native American legends about spurned love, why black bears do not have tails, a strange creature said to eat the livers of kidnapped children, and two trees that grew from an act of great betrayal and from great love. Join me for the stories of the Black Bear and the Fox, Reelfoot Lake, a shapeshifter known as Spearfinger, and the Legend of Nocatula.

Send us Fan MailToday, we’ll discuss a local legend from Putnam County, Tennessee about the ghost of a jealous woman dressed in all black that haunted Margaret Buckner until the day she died. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Polly Brewington, the Buckner Witch of Standing Stone.

Send us Fan MailToday’s episode takes us once again to the home of the Delta Blues and a famous theater site haunted by no less than a reported seven spirits. The most mischievous one has her very own seat that is forever reserved as a place for her to watch performances despite becoming a ghost over 100 years ago. Welcome to Memphis’s Orpheum Theater.

Send us Fan MailIn this episode, we’ll visit the rural town of Flintville, Tennessee and the surrounding area in Lincoln County. But hiding somewhere in the surrounding hills and forests of the area is supposedly an elusive, mysterious, and aggressive beast, said to stand around eight feet tall and have a terrible skunk-like odor, along with a propensity for violent encounters with the local residents. Today, it is my pleasure to introduce you to the legend of the Flintville Monster. 

Send us Fan MailUpdate: The audio quality is fixed! After a mic upgrade and a re-record, the audio is much better now. Sorry for the delay. Enjoy the episode!In this episode, we’ll explore the history and some of the terrifying stories centered around one of Tennessee’s most famous and recognizable abandoned landmarks. It began as one of the most modern and humane prison compounds in the country but ended as a maximum security nightmare for the inmates within. Welcome to the haunted halls of the Tennessee State Prison.

Send us Fan MailToday’s episode is part legend and part ghost story. In the Appalachians just east of Mountain City, Tennessee stands the Stone Mountains. Legend has it that on calm nights, the sound of a ghostly fiddle as well as painful screams can be heard coming from a formation there known as Fiddler’s Rock. There are multiple local tales about this remote site and the melancholy ghost who haunts it. Join me as we explore the ghostly legend of the Snake Charmer of Fiddler’s Rock. 

Send us Fan MailOn today's episode, Tennessee Ghosts and Legends will boldly go where no man has gone before. We'll explore some of the strange occurrences from around the volunteer state attributed to visitors from other worlds. From strange lights in the sky to an up close and personal alien encounter, we'll try to ascertain if we are alone in the universe, or if aliens walk among us.

Send us Fan MailIn this episode, I'll share with you some of my personal stories of my experiences with the paranormal when I was a child in Florida, and then as an adult in Tennessee. These personal experiences are the foundations of why I do this podcast and why I believe in the paranormal. Enjoy!

Send us Fan MailIn this episode, we’ll explore a folk tale that has endured in Tennessee history since the early 1800s, where farmers in White County discovered hundreds of graves under their crop fields. Allow me to introduce you to the archeological mystery of the Tennessee Pygmy tribe.

Send us Fan MailCleveland, Tennessee is home to a strange legend of the tragedy of young Nina Craigmiles and the white mausoleum her father built for her. The legend says the white marble stones bleed red. 

Send us Fan MailIn the early 1800's John Bell and his family were tormented by a witch that took up residence at their cabin in Red River, Tennessee. Why did the witch hate John Bell so much? And what about his young daughter, Betsy? Join me for a jaunt through Tennessee's most famous haunting, The Bell Witch.

Send us Fan MailWhat is haunting the bridge on Shakerag Road to the west of Millington, Tennessee? An old abandoned munitions factory from World War II my hold the answer to the bizarre tale of the Shelby Forest Pigman.

Send us Fan MailOn today’s episode, we’ll travel to the Home of the Blues and the Birthplace of Rock-n-Roll to explore a peculiar, haunted tale that includes a startling apparition, seances, an untimely robbery, and an old musty jar full of treasure. The event took the entire city by storm, giving everyone "ghost fever" as the odd circumstances unfolded. Allow me to introduce you to one of Memphis’s most famous ghost stories, Pink Lizzie and the Mystery Jar.

Send us Fan MailTake a stroll through the haunted, sordid, and violent history of Tennessee's long-time maximum security prison, Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary! Learn about the strange happenings and recorded paranormal encounters in one of Tennessee's most haunted sites. 

Send us Fan MailListen in as we explore the bizarre circumstances surrounding one half of the most famous American exploration duo in history, Meriwether Lewis. What happened to him at Grinder's Stand on the Natchez Trace? Did he commit suicide, as the popular theories say? Was it an illness or overdose? Or was Governor Lewis murdered? Listen in and decide what you think happened.

Send us Fan MailWhat is hiding within the 276 square miles of The Land Between the Lakes National Park? Many cryptid investigators believe that beautiful wilderness is home to a Bigfoot or werewolf type creature with a murderous appetite. Join me as we explore three supposed eyewitness accounts of the terrifying creature known as the Beast of the Land Between the Lakes. 

Send us Fan MailIn this episode, we'll explore two of the hardest-fought battles in the southern theater of the American Civil War: Shiloh, with it's random wandering spirits, and the entity that haunts Chickamauga known to the locals as, 'Old Green Eyes'.This episode as well as myself will be featured on an episode of "The UnXplained with William Shatner" on the History Channel in the Fall of 2025.

Send us Fan MailJust what are people seeing and hearing in the woods around Montgomery Bell State Park near White Bluff? Eyewitness accounts have reported seeing and hearing the eerie wailing of the White Bluff Screamer. Join me as we discuss the legends from Dickson County.

Send us Fan MailChapel Hill, Tennessee is home to one of the most haunted tales in the state. The strange lights that haunt the train tracks have been seen by hundreds of people, but where do they come from? Listen in on this episode to hear the story of the Headless Signalman and the Chapel Hill Ghost Light.

Send us Fan MailThis unique Coffee County, Tennessee legend features the sad tale of a young girl accused of witchcraft, and becomes a local story that is still told, and feared, over 150 years later. Allow me introduce you to the strange legend of Sadie Baker.