The news came by e-mail: “Hi Mathias. I may have an interesting story brewing for you,” Jordan resident Kathy Machowski, a ghost hunter a founding member of Beyond the Veil, wrote earlier this fall. “I was in a graveyard not to far from Jordan, and I was doing my ghostie thing. Well, I got an EVP of a man saying, ‘William Bonney.’”

Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) are sound recordings believed to be the voice of a spirit. Often, EVP’s are not heard at first, but after an investigation, ghost hunters analyze recordings to catch signs of a ghost. Cemeteries are very active with EVP’s, Machowski said.

One of Machowski’s recent EVP’s was distinct and quizzical. Someone had mentioned William Bonney, an alias used by Billy the Kid.

“I thought, Wow ... William Bonney has never been known to have been in Minnesota,” the e-mail from Machowski continued. “I am going to be going back to see if I can get more EVP’s and to check the headstones.”

The ghost hunter returned twice to the Lydia Zion United Methodist Church cemetery in Spring Lake Township, talking and recording. The first time, her EVP’s turned up a woman who did not mention the frontier outlaw, who according to legend, killed 21 men, one for each year of his life.

The number is disputed.

As was his death, Machowski said.

The man who claimed to have killed Billy the Kid never received the bounty placed on the head of his notorious prize, Machowski said. The gravesite of Billy the Kid, born Henry McCarty, is unknown.

“With all this information, could he have survived?” Machowski said in an interview. “Maybe. Can’t say.”

Machowski’s suspicion had been that he was buried in Lydia, but her search – even for aliases, including his dearest friend’s names – ended empty handed.

But after a short ghost hunt last week with the Jordan Independent staff, she analyzed her recordings and wrote another e-mail:

“There was a man and a woman there at the graveyard when we were there. Some of the voices are very faint and hard to hear. … When I asked about dropping the name of William Bonney, I got a woman saying, ‘Fame.’”

Then, in the same location as she had recorded the first mention of William Bonney, she recorded a man saying, “He’s dead.”

A friend of hers searched the gravestones for Billy the Kid’s aliases, as well. He did not find any, but he searched for the birth certificates of the deceased. One of them could not be found, raising further suspicion with Machowski.

“That place isn’t that big,” Machowski said in an interview. “And a lot of them have the same name, because you know, a family-oriented town.”

Machowski, who plans to return for more recordings, said it’s just another mystery worth pursuing.

SHADOWS ON 169

For the past three years, she has been working on a book about true Minnesota ghost stories. She has investigated dozens of potential hauntings with Beyond the Veil, a group of paranormal investigators that she founded.

Another recent hunt about which Machowski has written in her popular blog at www.jordannews.com/community/blog/kathy-ghost-hunter is what she calls the Highway 169 shadow man.

Three times, while driving near Belle Plaine, she has seen a shadow in the form of a person walking across the highway. Before her eyes, its legs melted into nothingness, she said. “It wasn’t a human being that I’m seeing.”

She’s received reports of up to three shadow men in a field near there, as well, and she has a couple of theories.

One thought is that the deadly 1863 Native American walk from St. Paul to Mankato left spirits behind. During the Dakota Conflict, 38 Dakota warriors were taken in the middle of the night, forced to walk some 90 miles, and hung in Mankato.

Machowski has heard of a car fire accident near the stretch of highway where the sightings occur. There were four victims.

She said an overgrown cemetery is located between Jordan and Belle Plaine, near the location, as well.

For now, they are merely theories. Machowski plans to investigate her theories further.

“I was really pushing for it was the Indians who were killed needlessly,” Machowski said.

Machowski is always looking for new locations to investigate. There is no cost for Beyond the Veil’s services. Machowski can be reached at 612-605-5362 or kathy@michael-rennie.com.

Mathias Baden is the editor of the Jordan Independent. He can be reached at editor@jordannews.com.