They Say This Chest Brings Tragedy to Anyone Who Uses It

On April 5, 1946, a Kentucky man named Herbert “Sonny” Moore was killed in a gun accident at a neighbor’s house. It was a terrible tragedy, but one woman who knew him was especially frightened. Sonny had recently placed his hunting clothes inside an old wooden dresser belonging to her family.

The woman, Virginia Cary Hudson Cleveland, had heard warnings about that furniture since childhood. According to the stories passed down through her family, putting clothes inside its drawers could bring terrible misfortune.

Now, after another frightening accident involving her own son, Virginia decided she couldn’t ignore those warnings any longer.

The Man Who Built the Chest

The story began around 1830 in Kentucky, where a man named Jeremiah Graham was preparing for the birth of his first child. Jeremiah wanted a beautiful chest of drawers for the baby’s nursery. He ordered an enslaved craftsman named Remus to make it, and Remus spent his time carving an elaborate piece of mahogany furniture.

When the chest was finished, Jeremiah reportedly decided the work wasn’t good enough. According to the family account, he beat Remus so severely that the man died from his injuries.

The other enslaved people on the property wanted revenge, but they had little power over the man responsible. Instead, the story says, they turned their attention to the dresser.

They collected dried owl’s blood, sprinkled it inside the drawers and placed a conjure on the furniture. Anyone whose clothing was stored inside would supposedly suffer terrible misfortune.

Jeremiah apparently knew nothing about what had happened. He moved the dresser into the nursery as planned, but his baby died in infancy.

More Tragedies Followed

The dresser eventually passed to other members of the Graham family. According to the family account, the son of Jeremiah’s twin brother had clothing placed inside the chest. On his twenty-first birthday, he was stabbed to death by a servant.

Later, the furniture passed to relatives named John and Catherine Ryan. John died in an accident while looking for work, and Catherine eventually died as well.

The chest continued moving through the extended family, sometimes sitting unused for years before another relative brought it into a bedroom. In 1895, Stella Stonecipher married Ernest Gregory. She stored her wedding clothes inside the dresser and died less than two years later.

Another family member, Mabel Harlan, placed her infant son’s clothing in the drawers. The baby, named Chester, died when he was only two weeks old.

By the early twentieth century, relatives had collected a frightening number of accounts involving people who had used the chest. Not everyone who came into contact with it suffered, but enough incidents had occurred for the family to become deeply suspicious of the furniture.

Virginia Inherited the Dresser

In December 1909, a young railroad worker named Emmett Gregory received a knitted scarf and gloves from his mother. She had hidden the Christmas presents inside the chest before giving them to him.

That month, Emmett got off a train and fell about thirty feet through a railroad trestle. A few years later, the dresser came into Virginia Cary Hudson Cleveland’s home, where she was raising a family of her own.

Virginia placed her first baby’s clothing inside. The child was born prematurely and died on August 8, 1915, the same day it was born.

Her daughter Ann later had clothes stored in the chest and contracted polio around 1929. Ann survived but continued experiencing problems related to the illness.

Another daughter married Wilbur Brister in 1943. Her wedding clothes had also been placed inside the dresser.

In December 1944, Wilbur needed emergency surgery to remove his appendix. He died after receiving an overdose of ether during the procedure.

Virginia had known about the chest’s reputation for years, but keeping it in the house had become increasingly difficult. When Sonny Moore was killed in 1946, the old warnings suddenly felt much closer to home. And something else happened that finally pushed her into action.

One More Accident Was Enough

Virginia’s son Richard had placed some of his clothing inside the dresser. Less than a week later, he suffered a serious accident at school.

According to the family’s account, his hand was stabbed through, leaving him badly injured. Richard survived, but Virginia was terrified by how closely the incident resembled the old stories.

She decided the chest couldn’t continue being used for clothing and personal belongings. Virginia turned to a longtime household worker named Sallie, who was believed to understand how to deal with conjures. She asked whether there was any way to break the curse.

Sallie said there was, but the instructions she gave were anything but ordinary.

Sallie’s Ritual Came With a Warning

First, Virginia needed a dead owl. But she couldn’t simply find one herself. The bird had to arrive unexpectedly as a gift from a friend.

She also needed leaves from a willow tree that had been planted by a friend. When everything was ready, Sallie instructed Virginia to boil the willow leaves for an entire day while keeping the dead owl in sight.

The liquid was then poured into a jug and buried beneath a flowering bush. The handle had to face east, toward the rising sun.

Sallie also gave Virginia a frightening warning about what would happen afterward. If the conjure had truly been broken, either Sallie or Virginia would die before all the leaves fell from the bush that autumn.

Virginia followed the instructions, hoping the ritual would finally put an end to the family’s troubles. Sallie died the following September. For Virginia, her death was a terrifying confirmation of what Sallie had predicted.

The Family Finally Put the Chest Away

After Sallie’s death, the dresser was no longer treated like ordinary household furniture. It remained in the family, but relatives were warned not to store clothing inside. The chest was eventually donated to the Kentucky Historical Society in 1976 by Virginia Cary Hudson Mayne.

Her reasoning was straightforward. She didn’t want the furniture discarded where somebody who knew nothing about its history might find it and start using the drawers. A museum could preserve the chest without putting it back into everyday use.

In 2015, the dresser attracted renewed attention when it appeared on the television series Deadly Possessions. Mayne’s daughter, Beverly Mayne Kienzle, later researched the family’s records and published a book in 2017 identifying many of the people involved in the old accounts.

The Kentucky Historical Society preserves the chest as part of its collection. The family associated sixteen episodes of death or serious misfortune with people who had used its drawers, while Remus and Sallie were also included in the wider legend.

The furniture also carries a darker piece of Kentucky history. Its story began with an enslaved craftsman who, according to the family’s account, was killed by the man who ordered him to make it.

The Owl Feathers Are Still Inside

The dresser itself looks like an elegant antique, with four drawers, carved decoration and small wheels beneath its feet. But one detail sets it apart from the other furniture in the historical society’s collection.

Inside the top drawer are owl feathers associated with Sallie’s curse-breaking ritual.

They have remained with the chest long after the family stopped using it.