The Love Gone Wrong Ghost Tour

The Ghost of Dr. John

let's play doctor

Dr. J. Herman Feist. The original “Dirty John.” He was a physician operating in Nashville and he had a real way with women. The lovely ladies under his care fell hard for him, melting under his smoldering gaze.

One such enamored patient was Sadie Goldstein, just 23 years old - back in 1903. She had loaned Dr. Feist a considerable amount of money and was having a passionate affair with him.

A rule of thumb: a doctor who has to take out a loan from a lover/patient is probably a candidate for a malpractice lawsuit.

One day in mid-May, Sadie decided to pay her lover a visit at his office. What she discovered there was that Dr. Feist’s bedside manner wasn’t limited to just her bedroom.

The doctor screamed at her to leave. Poor Sadie was heartbroken, despondent. She grabbed a handful of morphine tablets and swallowed them.

When she started suffering the effects of the overdose, Dr. Feist said she was faking it, and refused to treat her. What did I say? Malpractice? Dirty Dr. Feist has a few skeletons in his closet; not just Sadie’s.

Fortunately for you, our Valentine’s Day Exclusive Love Gone Wrong Tour has all the obscene details of the shocking Dr. Feist chronicles.

Suicides, Cemeteries, and Ghosts

you'll find both on this ghost tour

If that’s not tragic enough for you, let’s talk about the Suicide Rock at Nashville City Cemetery.

No, it’s not a rock that makes people kill themselves, it’s a very peculiar headstone. More accurately, it’s a giant slab of limestone in the middle of a cemetery.

But I suppose a story is more interesting than a rock, so here you go - the slab is said to mark the resting place of Ann Rawlins Sanders. Local legend says that she had a fight with her husband one night and decided to take a walk to cool down.

This was in 1836, so nights were dark. Really dark. So dark that if you lose your way, you might just fall off a cliff and die. That’s precisely what they say happened to poor Ann Sanders.

So, why the massive limestone boulder for a headstone? Well, they say Ann’s husband had it cut from the cliff that she jumped off of. That’s...really something, isn’t it?

Go ahead and visit it. You can’t miss it. Just be aware that the Suicide Rock attracts more than tourists. It’s a favorite meeting place for specters, spirits, and those who are still lingering between worlds.

These apparitions gather around the rock, even lighting the lantern on top of it on occasion. Visitors also report hearing sounds of an argument, or even a forlorn spirit sobbing.

Plus it’s in a graveyard! Those places are always creepy and fun, especially one as old as Nashville City Cemetery. There are tons of old headstones with amusing epitaphs and beautiful carvings.

And we can’t forget about the people! Charles Dickinson, famed for meeting his end in a duel with Andrew Jackson was moved there from his original resting place in 2010.

There’s also William Driver, but you can read more about those gentlemen at our article on the cemetery here.

Don't go falling for those Prositutes

they'll 'love' you for the right price

But love, romance, and heartbreak are only part of the story for Nashville. We can’t forget about nasty ol’ lust - a problem for any self-respecting city.

Music City has a long and deep history with prostitutes. Ladies of the night, call girls, working girls, harlots, strumpets, la grande horizontale - whatever you call ‘em, Nashville had plenty.

In any city on a river, they tended to set up shop at ports and wharves - easy access for lusty sailors. Nashville was no exception, and Smoky Row sprung up just off the banks of the Cumberland River.

Houses of ill repute peppered the landscape, saloons mostly filled the spaces between. Some locations had everything, such as the aptly named Climax Saloon, one of the stops on our tour.

But sailors weren’t the only customers - local men frequented these establishments as well. When the Civil War came to town, Union soldiers poured in from the Cumberland.

All three types were susceptible to confusing lust and love. There was jealousy, bar brawls, not to mention broken marriages aplenty. Where there’s increased demand, there’s increased supply.

The number of prostitutes in Nashville skyrocketed. To say the visiting Union soldiers were distracted would be an understatement.

The problem got so bad that a Union general rounded a bunch of working girls up, packed them into a boat, and sent them upriver to find a new town to scandalize.

I wonder if any men managed to sneak aboard. How’s that for a wild ride?