Lydia's Chocolate Suicide For Two

I spent last week in the mountains outside of Gatlinburg, Tn.   While I was travelling,  I had very few ways to keep in touch with the outside world.  The one thing that seemed to work for me was the twitter application on my iphone.   Thanks to this application and Chris Love, otherwise known as smokies_r_great on twitter,  I was able to find a wonderful haunted restaurant just off the main drag in Gatlinburg.  The Greenbriar Restaurant is on the top of a hill. The road to the restaurant creeps and curves through dark woods.   I almost thought I was lost and gave up.  GPS was no help in guiding me through the forest.  The restaurant was obscured by the mountain.  It was hidden from view  behind trees and nature.  I never would have found this secluded gem without help.  

The restaurant itself is in what looks like an old cabin and has an atmosphere that lends itself to ghost stories.  A mist hangs about the front door and clings to the old brown building.  The cabin was originally built in 1939 and then converted to a restaurant.  The restaurant doesn't hide from its ghostly history.  It wears it proudly.    In fact, one of its most popular deserts is Lydia's Chocolate Suicide for Two.   The staff all say the restaurant is haunted.  The haunting is as much a part of this extravagant dining experience as the logs that make up the building.

The story of Lydia, the ghost that haunts The Greenbriar, is a sad one.   According to legend,   Lydia was left at the altar on her wedding day by her one true love.  At the time,  Lydia was a resident of the cabin and ran home weeping.   She hung herself from the rafters of the old cabin.   A few days later the body of Lydia's true love was found mangled in the forest.  He hadn't left her at the altar.  He had been killed by a cougar.   The story grew and spread and the staff insists that Lydia's lonely ghost is still a frequent visitor.   Of course,  with deserts like Lydia's Chocolate Suicide for Two,  I may be a frequent visitor as well.

The Greenbriar Ghost

In the movies and on television, ghosts often have a mission. They want the living to avenge their death or find their murderer or bring some sort of closure to their life on earth. In movies such as A Stir of Echoes and The Sixth Sense, the spirits of the living that were murdered assist the living in finding their killer. In life, this is not a common thing. In fact, this has only happened once that has been recorded and documented. The only known case in the US where the ghost of a victim is thought to have helped expose and convict the murderer is the case of the Greenbriar Ghost.


Elva Zona Heaster Shue was married to a man named Erasmus Trout Shue in 1886. Shortly after, a young boy found Zona’ body on the floor of the house. A doctor was called, but couldn’t investigate her death because Erasmus had moved the body and redressed her in her best dress. He also wouldn’t let the body go and clung to her sobbing and wailing like a child. The doctor said that Zona died of an “everlasting faint” and left well enough alone.

Zona’s mother, Mary Heaster, wasn’t happy to leave well enough alone. She prayed for God to help her avenge her daughter’s death. God did help her. He sent Zona’s ghost. Zona came to her mother at night and described in detail how her husband had been violent and abusive and how he had killed her in the heat of one of his blind furies when she had failed to prepare the dinner he wanted. Zona told her mother that he had broken her neck. Mrs. Heaster urged the prosecutor to investigate based on the information her daughter had given her. Zona’s body was exhumed and autopsy revealed that Zona had died of a broken neck. Shue was convicted and imprisoned for life. The ghost’s testimony was used as evidence in court.

So in this case, the movies are right. Ghosts can come back and work with the living to convict their murderer. I wish there were more cases like this. People might be more reluctant to beat their wives if they knew that their wives would come back for them in the afterlife.

On a side note,  Zona's sad story has become so popular it is now being made into a musical.