Case file · Haunting
Diamond Bessie, Jefferson
In January 1877 the body of 'Diamond Bessie' Moore was found in the woods outside Jefferson, Texas; her companion Abe Rothschild was tried for her murder in one of the state's most famous trials.
1877 CE · 32.76, -94.35 · status: legend
The account
Rothschild was acquitted in 1880. Jefferson stages a play about the case each spring, and Bessie's ghost is said to walk near her grave and in the town's old hotels.
The sceptical view
The murder and trial are documented; the haunting is local lore.