By Shawn Sellers | Hoodoo Paranormal Spooky
Some say he was a folk hero. Others say he was a menace. But down here in Alabama, Railroad Bill is something else entirely—a ghost that still haunts the piney woods and forgotten tracks of the South.
It started in the winter of 1895, along the Louisville and Nashville (L&N) Railroad. An African American man—maybe named Morris Slater, or maybe not—was thrown off a moving train for hitching a ride without a ticket. That act of cruelty, they say, sparked a personal war against the railroads. The man came back, not with a ticket—but with a gun.
From that moment on, Railroad Bill was born, a phantom outlaw who rode the rails, dodged the law, and turned freight trains into his personal buffet line. They said he could leap from car to car like a shadow. That he robbed trains, not for riches, but for food and supplies. He didn’t just vanish into thin air—he melted into the swamp.
The newspapers couldn’t get enough. Some said he was a Robin Hood of the Deep South. Others painted him as a dangerous fugitive. Rumors grew wilder with every sighting: Railroad Bill could shapeshift into a fox, or disappear into a cloud of mist. Dogs wouldn’t track him. Bullets didn’t touch him. And no matter how many times lawmen swore they had him cornered—he slipped away, leaving only the sound of a ghostly train whistle behind.
They finally got him—or thought they did—in 1896, gunning him down in Atmore, Alabama, at a general store. But here’s the thing: nobody really knows if they killed the right man. Some folks claimed the body was just a decoy. Others whispered that Railroad Bill still rides, haunting the South’s rail lines, especially near Bay Minette, Flomaton, and Pine Barren Creek.
And even today, conductors and train workers tell stories. A sudden chill in the cab. Shadows darting along empty tracks. The sound of boots walking on metal—when there’s no one there. Some even claim to see a figure riding the top of the train, coat flapping, rifle slung over his shoulder, grinning.
He’s become a ghost, a song, a legend:
🎵 Railroad Bill, Railroad Bill
He never worked and he never will… 🎵
But don’t let that lull you into comfort.
If you’re out near the old L&N line on a foggy night, and you hear something on the wind—like a train that’s not supposed to be there?
You might want to step off the tracks.
Because Railroad Bill don’t ride with passengers.
Stay Spooky,