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MALAD, Idaho – Edna Palmer says her house is haunted.
The 81-year-old Malad woman owns the Big Bend Ranch, an 80-acre spread about 5 miles west of town that she believes is frequently visited by a ghost.
"I'm a widow now and a lot of times, I'm alone in the evenings. I just get this feeling there's this presence with me," Palmer tells EastIdahoNews.com.
She's never seen it, so she isn't certain who it is. After numerous encounters over the years, she says it's possible it could be the spirit of Michael Mooney, a man who was convicted of murder and lynched in her hometown 141 years ago.
"We found his headstone underneath my house," Palmer says.
Mooney's story dates back to January 1882. He and his friend, Frank Barnes, were a pair of cattle and horse rustlers passing through the area. They were on the run and stopped at the Franklin Railroad depot intending to rob it.
Joel Hinckley was on duty that day. One of the men (it's not clear which one) held Hinckley at gunpoint, and Hinckley accidentally caused the gun to go off.
"I guess he got scared and he threw his hands up. He hit the gun, which made it go off and it shot him," Palmer says.
Hinckley was killed in the scuffle.
Oneida County Sheriff William Homer, who had taken office a year earlier, took Mooney and Barnes into custody on Jan. 4, according to a historical fact on Oneida County's website. He brought them back to Malad to stand trial.
Both men were tried and convicted of murder 10 months later.
Barnes went to prison for the next 15 years, according to Palmer. She isn't sure what happened to him after that. Mooney was lynched four days after Christmas, on Dec. 29, 1882.
Photos of Mooney and Barnes are not available, but the Idaho State Archives provided a letter from Idaho Supreme Court Justice John Morgan of Blackfoot petitioning Governor John Neil to reconsider Mooney's execution. He requested Mooney's sentence be changed to life imprisonment, but it was denied.
"The good saints here in Malad … did not want (Mooney) buried in their cemetery. The sheriff told (a group of people) to bury him somewhere outside the cemetery. No one had any idea where he was actually buried," Palmer explains.
While installing a new water line during a renovation project in 2007, Palmer's son discovered a tombstone underneath her house with the initials M.A.M. They took it to a local historian, who said it was the initials of Michael A. Mooney.
Once the tombstone was discovered, one family member suggested they dig deeper to see if there were human remains. Ultimately, they opted not to do that.
So far, the only other person who's encountered the spirit is Palmer's granddaughter. Unlike Edna, she claims to have seen it and is also convinced that it's Mooney.
"We were at the kitchen table having coffee after dinner. She came out of the living room. Her eyes got really big and she said, 'I just saw (a family member who recently passed) walk across the living room to see Mooney,'" Palmer explains.
Whether it's Mooney's ghost or someone else's, Palmer says it doesn't frighten her.
She takes comfort in the thought that someone is there watching over her.
"I'm not alone. There's someone else here, but I can't see them or hear them," Palmer says. "There are ghosts and angels among us. I really am comfortable with it. It doesn't scare me."
