Peace Church Cemetery

A cemetery dating to the mid-19th century in Joplin, serving as the resting place of infamous serial killer Billy Cook, who murdered six people in the early 1950s before being executed in the gas chamber.

Peace Church Cemetery, established in 1855 on a secluded hilltop south of Joplin, Missouri, has been largely abandoned for over three decades, its weathered headstones tilting at odd angles among overgrown grass and encroaching trees. The isolation and neglect have created an atmosphere that is unsettling even in broad daylight, but it is after dark that the cemetery earns its reputation as one of the most actively haunted burial grounds in the Ozarks.

The cemetery's most infamous resident arrived without ceremony or marker. William Edward Cook Jr. was a drifter from Joplin who, in December 1950 and January 1951, embarked on a twenty-two-day killing spree that left six people dead across Missouri and California. Cook abducted the Mosser family -- Carl, Thelma, and their three children -- from their car near Joplin, murdered all five of them, and dumped their bodies in an abandoned mine shaft in Oklahoma. He then kidnapped and killed a deputy sheriff in California before being captured. Cook was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin Prison on December 12, 1952, and his body was shipped back to Joplin. But his crimes had so horrified the community that no cemetery would accept his remains. He was ultimately buried in an unmarked grave just outside the boundary of Peace Church Cemetery -- denied consecrated ground even in death.

Whether Billy Cook's spirit contributes to the paranormal activity is a matter of debate, but the phenomena reported at Peace Church Cemetery are varied and intense. Paranormal researcher Lisa Martin of the Southwest Missouri Paranormal Society has documented numerous accounts: shadow figures standing against the trees along the cemetery's drive, visible even on moonless nights as darker shapes against the darkness. Visitors report a profound feeling of being watched, as if unseen eyes are tracking their movements among the graves.

The physical manifestations are particularly aggressive. Unlike many haunted cemeteries where activity is limited to sightings and sounds, Peace Church Cemetery produces reports of items being thrown at visitors -- stones and sticks that fly from no apparent source -- and some unlucky visitors return home to discover unexplained scratches on their skin. Disembodied voices and eerie laughter have been recorded by investigators, and unexplained floating lights drift among the headstones after nightfall.

The combination of abandonment, violent history, and persistent paranormal activity has made Peace Church Cemetery a destination for ghost hunters and thrill-seekers, though the cemetery's remote location and the intensity of the reported phenomena give pause to even experienced investigators. The spirit of Billy Cook, forever denied a proper burial, and the forgotten dead of a neglected cemetery seem to share a restless energy that makes this one of the most unsettling locations in the Missouri Ozarks.