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Bobby Mackey's Music World is a nightclub and honky tonk that is currently owned by country singer Bobby Mackey and located on 44 Licking Pike in Wilder, Kentucky. Situated about 8 miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio, and near the north-flowing Licking River and a railroad, the building is self-proclaimed as "the most haunted nightclub in the USA." The site was originally used as a slaughterhouse in the early 1800s and later torn down for construction of a roadhouse that took on various names and ownership until Bobby Mackey purchased it in 1978. The headless corpse of Pearl Bryan was found in a field near the club in Fort Thomas, Kentucky.

Folklore

According to urban legends and modern folklore, the location allegedly houses a "gateway to hell" and is haunted by Pearl Bryan and others.^[1][2][3] Stories include Bryan's murderers being Satanic worshippers who cursed the location and vowed to haunt everyone involved in prosecuting the case.^[4]

On television

• In the early 1990s, on his show, Jerry Springer had interviewed Bobby Mackey, his wife Janet, his employee and the building's caretaker Carl Lawson, and Reverend Glenn Cole about their experiences at the place.^[5] Lawson and Cole claim that Lawson had been possessed and later exorcized by Cole for six hours on the site; moreover, Lawsons's videotaped exorcism performed by Cole was aired on the talk show.^[6]
• On October 30, 1992, on his show, Geraldo Rivera had also interviewed the four aforementioned guests, along with Hell's Gate author Douglas Hensley and others.^[7]

The nightclub has been featured on the following paranormal television programs:

• A 2006 episode of the National Geographic Channel's documentary series Is It Real? features the reportedly haunted location.^[8]
• The 2006 episode "Gateway to Hell" of the Discovery Channel's docudrama series A Haunting features interviews with and re-enactments of the reported experiences of Bobby and Janet Mackey and Carl Lawson.^[9][10]
• The 2008 premiere episode of the Travel Channel's ghost-hunting series Ghost Adventures features interviews with the owner himself, Carl Lawson, author Douglas Hensley, and some customers and staff of the club, as well as a paranormal investigation at the location.^[11] Later, the program also conducted a 3-night investigation with enthusiasts in a 3-part web series called Return to Bobby Mackey's.^[12][13]

See also

• Bobby Mackey
• Pearl Bryan

Further reading

• Hensley, Douglas (2005). Hell's Gate: Terror at Bobby Mackey's Music World. Outskirts Press. ISBN 159800011X. 

References

External links

• Official website of Bobby Mackey
• CinciPulse at OurTown.com
• Live Sci Fi's Bobby Mackey's investigation broadcast archive 2008
• Hell's Gate at the Internet Movie Database

Coordinates: 39°2′50″N 84°28′39″W / 39.04722°N 84.4775°W / 39.04722; -84.4775