From the Carbondale Times, an article I wrote for it earlier this month on Hundley House. Since they do not publish online editions, I got their permission to post my copy here:
Located at 601 West Main Street, Hundley House has attracted
national attention for its reported hauntings and for the double murder that
took place there the night of Dec. 12th
1928. That night, someone shot banker and former Carbondale mayor J. C. Hundley
and his wife Luella. The murder remains unsolved and the ghosts still active.
Quite active socially, the Hundleys had returned from an
evening out and were finalizing plans to close up the house for the Christmas
holidays and decamp for Florida until the New Year. According to the Hundley’s butler, the last
person to see the couple alive, Hundley had gone upstairs to prepare for bed
while Mrs. Hundley went over last minute details with him before the couple
left by train the following day. He said
later that both appeared in good spirits and were anticipating the trip.
Sometime after midnight, a neighbor across the street up
nursing a sick baby heard a gunshot and saw the light go out in Hundley’s
bedroom. She called the police but, due to the late hour, the authorities from
Murphysboro responded (Carbondale was significantly smaller than Murphysboro at
the time and the Hundley property was located at what at the time was the edge
of Carbondale) but, due to the rain and muddy roads, took well over an hour to
arrive. When they arrived, no one answered at the house and the front door was
locked. Entering through the kitchen door, which was shut but unlocked, they
found Luella Hundley dead at the foot of the servant’s staircase at the back of
the house, while J. C. Hundley lay on his bed, barely alive, but did not
survive the trip to the hospital. Both had been shot with what the police later
determined was a .45 caliber Colt army revolver.
Suspicion immediately fell on Hundley’s son from his first
marriage, Victor, who, while well liked in the community, had a reputation as a
bad businessman continually in need of money. Reportedly, the elder Hundley had
just cut his son out of his will but Virgil testified, during his later trial
for the murder, that the two men had patched up their differences before the
murder. No changed will was ever found and Virgil’s wife testified that he was
at home at their house next door the night of the murder. Acquitted of the
murders, Virgil and the other principals
in the murder, his wife and his sister Dora left Carbondale. Reportedly working
for the railroad for several years, Virgil divorced his wife and eventually
returned to Carbondale, purchasing a house on the south side of town where he
died in the 1960s. He, his father and
stepmother are all buried near each other in Carbondale’s Oakland Cemetery .
The case still remains open and a reward offered.
Since the 1990s, at least, Hundley House has been reportedly
haunted by the spirits of J. C. and Luella. Passersby have reported hearing a
gunshot and seeing the porch swing moving without a breeze. Past owners of the house have reported
televisions and CD players turning on and off by themselves, doors slamming and
groans as if someone in pain, especially around the back staircase. The
Ghost Lab paranormal investigators investigated Hundley House in 2010
with their investigation appearing on the Discovery Channel on Jan 8th 2011. Hundley House
recently sold and is in private hands with no indication the new owner welcomes
visitors, so best to view Carbondale’s best known haunted house from the
sidewalk.
