Having done a general sweep of ghosts last week, I decided to get a little more specific this week and search for headless ghosts. Headlessness is something that is quite common amongst ghosts and one wonders why. There is a mass of “headless ghost” links on the web, even when you discount those that refer to works of fiction. (Headless ghosts are very common in fiction too.)

Do I believe in ghosts?

I probably do. I’ve never seen one per se, but I have had one or two odd experiences. Anyway, I have no real direct evidence. Nevertheless, reports of ghosts seem to occur in all cultures and are so common that I’m inclined to believe that there’s some real phenomenon involved. I have no idea what.

I’m a little less convinced about headless ghosts, though. Consider the case of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry 8th and mother of Elizabeth 1st. Her headless ghost reportedly haunts the White Tower in the Tower of London. She’s not the only ghost that troubles The Tower. Also there’s Catherine Howard (another failed marriage by Henry). There’s also the ghosts of Lady Jane Grey, the Countess of Salisbury, Robert Devereux (Earl of Sussex), Walter Raleigh and other assorted nobles. It’s pretty much ghost central as far as the UK’s concerned.

But only Anne Boleyn is reported as being a headless ghost. Actually her headless ghost is also said to haunt Hampton Court, so she’s clearly a commuting headless ghost. But here’s what troubles me; if so many other people were beheaded in the Tower, how come there aren’t more headless ghosts mooching around? Her headlessness, Anne Boleyn, is the only one thus reported. And also, if her ghost is actually headless how does anyone know that its Anne Boleyn and not some other sad female decapitee. How would you recognise her?

We can’t ask the same question about the headless ghost of St. Osyth at St Osyth’s Priory. In the 12th century, they say that Osyth, an East Anglian Queen, was beheaded by Danish invaders in “Nuns Wood” because she refused to renounce her faith. Consequently, her head was removed. She surprised her executioners, by picking up her head and walking with it to the church - a feat that she occasionally repeats, when she’s showing off as a ghost.

I’m a little jealous of this as I once lived in St Albans where St. Alban was similarly separated from his thinking apparatus an account of his faith, but never got in the least bit ghostly about it.

Headless ghosts are not confined to the UK by any means. They are pretty much everywhere. The ghost of a headless ship’s captain is said to haunt a house in St. John’s, Newfoundland. They say he was killed with a single sweep of the cutlass by a jealous rival, some time around 1745. He appears headless outside the house of his one time lady fair.

In Pax, West Virginia, you are advised not to walk from Weirwood towards Pax City hall on the railroad tracks at night. If you do you may meet the local headless ghost who strolls the tracks in that direction carrying his head in his hands. It looks like a lantern from a distance, but don’t be fooled. They say his head was whisked off by a passing train.

Azailia, Indiana plays host to the headless ghost of a farmer’s wife, whose husband caught her and her lover in the act. He shot the man and beheaded the wife. And to add spice to this tale there is a superstition that if you see this ghost, you too will meet your maker in a headless state.

Of course, none of these accounts tell us much about how ghosts get to be ghosts and whether losing your head makes ghost formation more likely. What is clear from surveying horror fiction is that headless ghosts are downright popular, probably because they are interesting to the average reader. Maybe headless ghost reports just get more press too.