The Ghostly "Johnny Handsome"

Taken from an article in the Daily Post by Mike Chapple
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There have been numerous sightings here at the Excelsior of an imposing man dressed in ceremonial black with a large hat. He walks through walls and terrified at least one customer into a dead faint. Landlord Jimmy and his wife Barbara say he goes by the name of Johnny Handsome.

In the part of the front room sectioned off for us Billy and Carl - despite knowing nothing of this tale - hit on Johnny almost immediately.

Billy says: "There's a guy here who's Edwardian or from even further back who is connected with a funereal situation such as an undertakers. He's tall dressed in black, with a hat with a prominent shirt collar. I saw him just appear through the wall and when I looked again he was standing just over to the left looking at me."

He adds that there are quite a few presences here including a near blind woman who once delivered coal and that of a dwarf with a strange face - possibly a street entertainer- from the early part of the last century.

Then a strange thing happens. As we sit in the twilight of the unoccupied section of the bar and Billy and Dolly are told of the man in black, just as the name "Johnny Handsome" is used there is a loud crack from the section of wall from which the ghost is supposed to appear. This followed by a second crack as his appearance is described.

Billy remains calm. "There's no malevolence here, Mike," says Billy reassuringly before adding more darkly: "Hold on. He's over there now. I'm talking to him."

He pauses as if listening: "Mike? Mike? What about him?" he asks before exclaiming to me "Aw no! He knows your name. Oh s---! He's interested in you now."

A shocked silence is broken by everyone bursting into guffaws as the wind-up sinks in.

It marks an appropriately high note to end on and we call it a night.