Garland, Texas is Haunted

Growing up in Garland the Smiley family grave is well-known. In fact, it was used by our high school athletes and band to haze the incoming freshmen. I know because I was one of them.

A family of five shares this headstone. A mother, father, and three daughters all died on the same day May 9, 1927.

The story we were told was that Charles Smiley invested heavily with a local businessman from Dallas. That man skipped town with Smiley’s life savings. Soon afterward, his girls were found in the nearby woods as they were afraid to go home because of the beatings he inflicted on their mother. A concerned neighbor took them home and spoke with Charles about how he was treating his family. Deke Skelton was the last person to speak with anyone in the Smiley family.

Belle was determined to take the girls and leave him. As she packed her case, he snuck up behind her with an axe handle. He ended his girls in the same way.

Now, almost a hundred years later, you can visit Garland (Mills) Cemetary to see the headstone.

In my experience, we were taken out there just about midnight and told to lay on the grave one at a time with our hands folded over our chests to see what would happen. Old man Smiley has abandonment issues to this day. Because if you’re the unlucky one that lays down at midnight, (like me) his cold dead arms reach up from the ground and hold you tight.

The sensation only lasts a few moments, but it is something I never forgot.