HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
Where two men were hanged on circumstantial evidence in 1904, and the sheriff who carried it out soon followed them
200 S. Main St., St. Charles, MO 63301
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Accessible as part of Main Street ghost tours; standalone exterior viewing is free
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat downtown sidewalk; gallows footprint is in the alley behind the former post office building
Equipment
Photos OK
1904 Public Execution of Charles May and John Taylor · Sheriff Ebenezer Curtis's Death by Suicide · St. Charles County Courthouse Historical Site · Contested Capital Punishment Case
The St. Charles County Courthouse once stood at the south end of Main Street, and in 1904 it was the site of a double public execution that left a lasting mark on the town's civic memory. Charles May and John Taylor were convicted and sentenced to death, but the evidentiary case against them was thin enough that contemporaries raised doubts about whether the right men were being hanged. The executions went forward.
Sheriff Ebenezer Curtis was the man who carried out the sentence — a role that, in Missouri in 1904, meant standing on the gallows platform and pulling the lever. In the months after the execution, Curtis's state of mind deteriorated. He was found dead in his apartment of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a fact that local accounts have long connected to his role in the May-Taylor hanging.
The courthouse itself is gone; the building that now occupies the site was used as a post office. The alley behind it — where the gallows stood — remains accessible from Main Street. Ghost tour operators have made this site a standard stop, and the story of Curtis's guilt-driven death has become the spine of the location's reputation for paranormal activity.
Sources
The paranormal reports at this site are tied directly to the documented history: two men hanged on thin evidence, and the sheriff who killed himself over it. That combination — wrongful-execution suspicion plus official guilt — has given the location unusual staying power on St. Charles ghost tours.
The most consistently reported experience is olfactory: visitors standing in the alley behind the former post office describe the smell of funeral flowers with no apparent source. The scent is reported particularly near the area where the courthouse gallows once stood. UV lights deployed by tour guides have reportedly revealed stains in the alley pavement that are invisible under normal lighting, though no forensic analysis has been performed or published.
Sheriff Curtis is sometimes named as a second presence at the site — a figure who appears and then recedes — but the primary focus of guides and visitors remains the May-Taylor execution and the broader question of whether the right men died here in 1904.
Notable Entities
The footprint of the former St. Charles County Courthouse gallows is accessible via the alley behind the old Post Office building on S. Main St. This is a public outdoor site with no formal admission.
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This St. Charles tour includes Sheriff Curtis Gallows Site — Former St. Charles County Courthouse on its route.
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