Ghost of U.J. Puckett haunts Texas Pool Hall

The King

The King

Here's Jimbo....
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I ran across this article while searching for info on Fast Eddie ... I thought it was a great read, kind of humorus and something I thought some of you might enjoy reading ... Have any of you ever heard this story or know of stories that are similar. I would'nt mind visiting this pool hall just to check it out then again maybe that is the reason for the story. To get people to come to this pool hall. Anyway it was a interesting read and one I thought y'all might enjoy ...


Ghost haunts Texas Pool Hall ...

There?s a pock-marked patch of wooden floor out back at Fast Freddy?s poolhall in Fort Worth, Texas. The flooring is small, maybe 12-foot square, and leads to the bathrooms. It looks like boards stripped from the deck of an old sailing ship.

Carl Raithel taps it with the heel of his shoe. ?Hear that?? he says. The wood creaks and groans. Thud. Thud. THUD. ?Hear that? It sounds just like that.?

That?s the sound, says the grizzled old handyman, of pool players crossing over those planks. That?s the sound heard over and over each night and every night at Fast Freddy?s when the working class poolroom is filled wall to wall, and the beer-drinking Southside customers are making their way to the head.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

But that?s also the sound, Carl adds darkly, that you sometimes hear very late at night at Fast Freddy?s. The thudding begins after the front doors have been locked and after all the pool shooters have gone home and when there?s not another living soul there with you. Thud. Thud. Thud. And sometimes, says Carl, the pool cues start tumbling from the wall, one right after another, as if hurled by an invisible hand.

I stumbled across these strange stories a few months back after making a random call out to Fast Freddy?s, which I knew to be an old haunt of the great one-pocket player U.J. Puckett. The barmaids all told me of the mysterious sounds, as did the managers. A few regulars described apparitions and even a ghostly image supposedly captured on the security camera.

The regulars told other stories as well ? none of which could be easily explained ? and yet most of the regulars had explanations nonetheless.

They said that Utley J. Puckett, now dead 16 years, has returned from the grave.

Welcome back to Untold Stories. This month?s installment is a spooky one ? perhaps one better left for Halloween. It got its start a few months back, after I pitched a story about Puckett for the local newspaper. I knew that Fast Freddy?s had been a favorite haunt of Puckett?s during his lifetime, and I figured the old-timers there might tell me a story or two that I could write up for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Imagine my surprise when about a dozen patrons absolutely swore to me, unsolicited, that Puckett was haunting Fast Freddy?s still.

?People talk about Puckett?s ghost, and it?s pretty serious,? said one of the regulars with deadly earnestness.

I asked him if he was putting me on.

?No, really,? he said. ?It?s true. It?s absolutely true.?

This column is based almost entirely on interviews with patrons, employees, former staffers and managers. Nearly all of them described the same manifestations or similar ones. Besides interviewing about a dozen regulars, I also went back through some newspaper archives and resurrected some of my previous research from my first book, ?Hustler Days.? Some of the information here also appeared in a story I wrote about Puckett?s ghost for the Star-Telegram, which is a newspaper where I work as a daily reporter.

Now, before I write another line, I want to make it clear that I don?t necessarily believe any of these stories. I mean, I believe everyone was truthful to me in their descriptions of what they saw, or what they thought they saw. But I don?t necessarily believe that this means that Puckett?s ghost is stomping around Fast Freddy?s and terrorizing the pretty girls. In fact, a few of those who knew Puckett said the old white-haired hustler would have been far, far too lazy to have returned from the grave. Also, Puckett?s widow is having none of it. ?I don?t believe in spirits,? she told me flatly.

But then again, you never know ?

(story continues in next post )
 
LEt?s begin with a quick biography.

Puckett was born on April 17, 1911, in Prattsville, Ark., but moved to Fort Worth at about age 5 after his father died in a logging-train accident. He attended Fort Worth?s Vocational High School, where he excelled at basketball. And he was a regular at Fort Worth?s Panther?s Boys Club, where he excelled at 9-ball. After dropping out of school, Puckett went on to Hollywood, where he got hired on as a body double for actor Wayne Morris in the original version of ?Kid Galahad.? That was in 1936. Puckett also spent some time in the boxing ring.

Although mostly known for one-pocket, Puckett was also skilled at other forms of pool. He won the national 9-ball title in 1960, and was a longtime road partner with Ronnie Allen. He competed regularly in the Johnston City events, although he never won there. In 1979, Puckett was interviewed by Mike Wallace for the ?60 Minutes? news program. Texas Monthly magazine published a fawning profile of Puckett not long afterwards.

Puckett became a fixture at Fast Freddy?s in his later years, where the regulars still speak about him with an agitated enthusiasm that borders on worship. He was known during these years for his love of fishing, pretty women and pool ? all of which he pursued with equal vigor. In 1990 Puckett suffered a stroke. In 1992, at the age of 81, he died. He was buried out at Fort Worth?s Laurel Land Memorial Park. Not long after that, the regulars at Fast Freddy?s started reporting very odd things at the Southside poolhall.

?I sat here at 4 in the morning and heard the door open and close and nobody was there, and I said, ?Damn it, Puckett is walking around here again.??

Richard McElroy, a longtime regular at the smoke-filled poolroom, gets quite agitated as he tells the story. He?s a skinny fellow, all arms and elbows, and everything about him appears to move at random when he speaks of Puckett?s ghost.

?A couple of girls have been right by him, and they get a cold feeling, like he?s standing over their neck,? continued McElroy. ?It?s happened a couple of times. I?ve been here when the bartender was doing her liquor count and she was holding up a bottle and looking at it, and he came breathing down her neck. Puckett is definitely running around here.?

Fast Freddy?s is laid out in two main sections. The portion to the north holds nine tables, and there?s a big green neon sign that identifies it as the ?Utley J. Puckett Room.? To the south there?s another 10 tables, plus two smaller barboxes. Dividing the north and south is an age-worn wooden bar. The bar is in the shape of a horseshoe.

McElroy and the others say that the weird occurrences start most noticeably when somebody moves Puckett?s ripped-up brown leather chair, which on most days stays near the bar. The chair is pushed up against table 19, Puckett?s favorite table, and ?he just doesn?t like it when you move it from that spot,? said McElroy.

One former manager became so unnerved that he actually brought in a clairvoyant. This would have been three or four years ago. The psychic sat at the horseshoe bar for an hour or two, explaining that she was attempting to make contact with the spirits. It?s this woman who first claimed to feel Puckett?s presence around the old chair, and it?s this woman who warned patrons against moving it.

?They had a girl who could channel dead people ? they wanted me to get in there, but I didn?t want to get into it,? remembered Raithel, who was one of several witnesses. ?I was sitting right here, and they were doing what they were doing, and she was going into a meditative state to have Puckett speak to her. I don?t know how successful they were ? I am a believer in God, but I also believe that stuff is possible if God wants it to happen.?

I interviewed other witnesses, as well as the manager who brought in the supposed clairvoyant. Several expressed a bit of discomfort when recalling the events of that day. This is, after all, the heart of Southern Baptist country. But many said they nonetheless understood the logic of inviting her in. That?s because many agree that there?s something not quite right at Fast Freddy?s.

?For instance, there?s been this really weird stuff happening in the office,? volunteers one longtime employee, who didn?t want to be quoted by name. ?Sometimes there will be the money put away, and then you come back and it?s sitting in stacks. And I remember one waitress moving the chair, and she wasn?t supposed to, and every time she walked over, the cues would fall and hit her on the head. It?s always like 3:30 or 4 in the morning when this stuff happens.?


(continued in post below)
 
Others report unexplained banging in the beer cooler ? Puckett, after all, was fond of his beers ? and the feeling of a stranger?s touch on their necks. Regulars say they have actually spotted an old white-haired man brushing tables. But when they look again, the stranger is gone.

Jackie Reagor, for one, doesn?t take much stock in the stories. ?I think all of ya?ll have lost your minds,? Reagor said one afternoon, speaking to others gathered around the bar. He was like a single Dana Scully in a roomful of Fox Mulders. ?The last thing he would want to be remembered for is haunting this damn place,? he said with a firmness bordering on scorn. ?There are a lot of other places he?d rather be ? like Lake Worth or Eagle Mountain Lake. Fishing.?

Helen Puckett also shares Reagor?s deep skepticism. Contacted at home, the pool hustler?s widow said that her late husband was a terribly lazy man, and so she found it hard to believe that he would suddenly start making such a big effort now. And besides, Utley did plenty of living when he was, well, living.

?He loved life and he lived it like he wanted to,? said Helen Puckett. ?He partied, he went with all the girls, he went fishing, and he played pool.

?I worked.?

Helen Puckett doesn?t believe in spirits, and yet others do. And so the stories persist. Take, for instance, the testimony of Rick Myers, the former manager who brought in the clairvoyant. Myers said the poolroom television set would sometimes come on by itself, and that he got so spooked by it that he drew a pistol. There was also the very startling matter of ?the ghosts on the security tape.? Myers saw these supposed ghosts, as did the Fast Freddy?s owner, Mike Lynch. The tape apparently portrayed an image of a man and woman floating through the room.

?It was after closing time and there wasn?t anybody there and we saw his image ? it was like a shadow,? said Lynch, who unfortunately taped over the recording. ?We kept running it back and running it back, and wondering if our imaginations were getting the best of us. But it looked exactly like a man in a hat and a woman talking through the poolroom. It was very weird.?

Lynch said the silhouette perfectly fit the description of U.J. Puckett. After all, U.J. wore a big Stetson when he used to come around Fast Freddy?s, and he also had that shock of white hair.

Others also insist that it?s U.J. Puckett?s big thick fingers that run down the backs of pretty girls at Fast Freddy?s. Puckett, after all, loved the girls. And they say it?s his size 13 shoes clomping around on the boards by the restrooms, and it?s U.J. grabbing beers out of the cooler.

?He?s here,? said one longtime employee flatly. ?He?s definitely here. So you better watch where you?re going.?

I know it is rather long but I did enjoy reading it and wanted to share ....
thanks ...
 
Time to call "Ghost Hunters".....

I wonder how a ghost plays against 'the ghost'? :D :D :D

Wouldn't that be a great episode for "ghost hunter"? Leave a rack of balls on the table with a cue and see..............

td
 
the story is also in aprils issue of Billiards digest.

I hope when i go i haunt a good pool hall. Haunting a bad one would suck.
 
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