Image from Wikimedia Commons.

If the ghost of George Smiley does indeed haunt the old Navajo County Courthouse building, he may have good reason to be rankled. Smiley had been sentenced to death for the murder of a railroad foreman.

In a fit of humor, Sheriff Frank Wattron sent off jaunty gilded invitations for Smiley’s hanging, to take place on Nov. 11, 1899, according to Ghosts of the Prairie and Legends of America. This was a little too dark for President McKinley and Gov. Nathan Murphy, who reprimanded Wattron and delayed Smiley’s hanging. Wattron promptly sent out another set of invites, this time with mournful language and a black border, and Smiley was finally executed on Jan. 8, 1900.

According to a column in the Examiner, Smiley may be spending eternity as spectral roommates with Wattron himself, along with several other ghosts. The old courthouse is now the home of the local historical society, and workers say that strange noises are heard throughout the building, and objects move inexplicably.