![\"Where](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brad-Ford-Smith-photo.jpeg\")
Brad Ford Smith in his studio. Photo and drawings courtesy of Brad Ford Smith.<\/p>\nBrad Ford Smith in his studio. Photo and drawings courtesy of Brad Ford Smith.<\/p>\n
Do you know where to find a ghost in Dallas? We\u2019ve all heard the most popular tales like the Lady of White Rock Lake and the Jilted Bride of the Adolphus Hotel. However, artist and art conservator, Brad Ford Smith, has taken us a step further on the ghost hunting path. His new book Where to Find a Ghost, Murder, Mayhem, And Plain Air Drawing With Brad Ford Smith launches at the RO2 Art Gallery on October 25, with 38 drawings of places you can find a ghost. What a way to kick off Halloween!<\/p>\n
![\"Where](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Petrified-man.jpeg\")
Andrew McCrew\u2019s final resting place at Lincoln Memorial Park 8100 Fireside Dr.<\/p>\n
Ford has been drawing historic places around Dallas for about six years. \u201cWhen I say historic it\u2019s not necessarily where great things happen,\u201d Ford said. \u201cIt\u2019s more like Elvis Presley played at this location and it\u2019s now an empty field.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the pandemic hit and everyone was stuck at home, Ford got out and walked every day and began drawing what he saw on his walks. He\u2019d participated in a Facebook group called INKTOBER. Every year at the beginning of the month\u00a0they do a drawing each day that has to do with Halloween.\u00a0Ford decided to give the concept a twist and focused on posting a daily drawing of a Dallas location where something had happened that could generate a ghost.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo sudden death at an unexpected site,\u201d Ford said. In other words, just because it has not been reported does not mean a ghost is not hanging around.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you believe in ghosts, it\u2019s the scenario that would set up a ghost,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n
Of course, Ford does a significant amount of research, reading books on Dallas history and digging into the Dallas Library archives. <\/p>\n \u201cI have gotten really curious about the history that is all around us that we don\u2019t know about,\u201d Ford said. <\/p>\n There are events that have faded from public memory so the events have become ghosts as well.<\/p>\n The project operates as both memorial and investigation, asking what it means to witness places that bear no visible trace of their past, and whether attention itself might constitute a form of remembrance.<\/p>\n RO2 Gallery<\/p><\/blockquote>\n One of the odder stories Ford relayed in his Where to Find a Ghost series was about Anderson McCrew, who was born in 1867. He was a one-legged vagabond who fell off of a freight train in 1913, lost his other leg and died. A local funeral parlor received his body and embalmed him with experimental concentrated preservations solutions over several days to ensure he\u2019d last until claimed by a family member. That never happened so the funeral home hung onto poor old \u2014 but well-preserved Anderson.<\/p>\n Apparently a traveling circus heard about him, bought him, and he went on display in a brown tuexdo and as \u201cThe Petrified Man \u2014The Eighth Wonder of the World\u201d for at least 40 years. When the circus folded, apparently a Houston collector of circus memorabilia bought him. McCrew ended up in a warehouse for years. When the collector died, his wife and his sister-in-law, Elgie Pace, who was a nurse, came to help clear things out. Pace was determined to give McCrew a Christian burial. However without the funds to do so the mummified body sat in her basement for another five years. When word got out about the petrified man in her basement, Frank Lott, the proprietor of Lott\u2019s Mortuary in Dallas, stepped in and offered to bury him free of charge in Dallas\u2019 Lincoln Memorial Cemetery.<\/p>\n The story gets better. Don McLean, who wrote \u201cAmerican Pie\u201d heard about McCrew\u2019s story and wrote a song about it. He changed McCrews first name from Anderson to Andrew to better rhyme with his last name, according to reports. \u201cThe Legend of Andrew McCrew\u201d appeard on his 1974 album \u201cHomeless Brother.\u201d It proved so popular on Chicago\u2019s radio station WGN, that host Roy Leonard invited Pace to appear on his show with McLean. <\/p>\n One of several stories about how his headstone was funded claims that Bob Williams of the Jenson Corp. paid for it, while another says it was crowdfunded through the local radio station. Regardless, in December 1974, Anderson McCrew\u2019s headstone was laid with lyrics from McClean\u2019s song about him inscribed upon it.<\/p>\n Well, what a way to live a life, You can hear more of Ford\u2019s ghostly tales and see his drawings\u00a0on October 25 at the launch of\u00a0\u201cWhere to Find a Ghost, Murder, Mayhem, And Plain Air Drawing.\u201d The event will also feature Ford\u2019s \u201dHouse of Giller\u201d and \u201cNine Days with LiHua\u201d. <\/p>\n Tim Cloward, author of\u00a0The City That Killed the President;<\/a>\u00a0Mark and Cari Wineburg, of I See Dallas Tour Company\u2019s\u00a0Dallas Ghost Tours;<\/a>\u00a0and Stephanie Khattak publisher of\u00a0K.Co<\/a>. Press will also be on hand to talk about the history and culture of Dallas and small press publishing.<\/p>\n If You Go<\/p>\n![\"Where](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brad-Ford-Smith-6293088_Secatary.jpeg\")
The Unsolved Murder of Florence Brown\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 On July 28, 1912 Florence, a 34 year old stenographer at Robinson & Styron Real Estate was catching up on paperwork. When her co-worker left and returned 40 minutes later Florence was found laying dead in a pool of blood. Her neck cut to the bone. Her arms and hands slashed multiple times. Her right arm had bite marks. Despite making national headlines no suspects or motives were found for her killing. 110 N. Field St. Dallas, TX.<\/p>\n\n
![\"Where](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brad-Ford-Smith-Joes-Pawn-Shop6293075_Pawn-02.jpeg\")
Mr. Jackson Takes A Fall\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 On a hot summer night in 1915, Mr. Oliver Jackson fell from the roof of his boarding house and broke his neck. When police interviewed Mrs. Jackson, she claimed she pushed him over the edge in self-defense. 4501 Columbia Ave. Dallas TX.<\/p>\n![\"Where](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Brad-Ford-Smith-Noble.jpeg\")
Mildred knew her husband Herbert and rival Benny Binion were not getting along. What she didn\u2019t know when she climbed into the family car to do the shopping was the caliber the argument had taken. When Mildred turned the ignition key, it set off a cache of nitroglycerin under the hood that blew the car and Mildred into pieces.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Andrew-McCrew-Dallas-history-guild-photo-of-headstone.jpeg\")
Image courtesy Dallas History Guild<\/a><\/p>\n
And what a way to die.
Left to live a living death
With no one left to cry
A petrified amazement.
A wonder beyond worth.
A man who found more life in death,
Then life gave him at birth.<\/p>\n