10 SET 2026 · In December 1897, Pike County, Pennsylvania, carried out its very first hanging behind the Milford courthouse, sending German immigrant Herman Paul Schultz to the gallows for the gunshot murder of his estranged wife, Lizzie. Yet the hanging itself was only the prelude to a far stranger nightmare: Schultz’s dying request to be buried alongside his wife’s severed skull was ignored, his body was sold to medical students for fifteen dollars, and severed scraps of the noose were hawked across town as macabre souvenirs. Exactly one year later, a stonecutter locked overnight inside Schultz’s old cell awoke to an icy draft, a shadowy presence, and a chilling voice whispering from the darkness that it was Herman Schultz himself—not seeking vengeance or proclaiming innocence, but simply “looking after things.” In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy untangles the tragic tale of domestic abuse, arson, and murder that birthed a haunting, exploring how a convicted killer became the eternal, spectral turnkey of the Pike County jail. Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!
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