The most common pop culture depiction of a ghost is a floating apparition that appears to be covered in a white sheet. That is a lasting image from Britain over the past few centuries, when poor people were often buried in a bedsheet, wrapped up as they were laying on their deathbed, instead of being buried in a coffin. It only made sense that they'd be wearing that sheet when they reappeared to haunt us. But it was also cemented in the popular image because of those who put bedsheets over their heads to impersonate ghosts and cause their own mischief, ranging from pranks to serious crimes, such a rape and murder. These "bedsheet ghosts" frightened the more superstitious, and even those who weren't superstitious knew the fellows in the bedsheets were up to no good.
In 1804, a spate of ghost sightings in Hammersmith, on the west end of London, had everyone on edge. Was it a real supernatural ghost, or an impersonator in a bedsheet meaning to cause harm? The only real difference was how much fear each identity would cause in the potential victims. When Francis Smith took his gun out in the night to look for the Hammersmith ghost, he was on edge, but did not expect to shoot a man who was merely trying to protect his wife from the same ghost. The strange part of the case was that there was neither a ghost nor a criminal wearing a bedsheet involved in that night's crime, but merely the fear of those things. Read about the case of the Hammersmith ghost and the consequences of Smith's trial, at Mental Floss.
(Image credit: Phiz)
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