"This is the photo that changed my opinion about ghost photos," says Terry Ike Clanton, who runs the
TombstoneArizona.comwebsite. Clanton is an actor, recording artist and cowboy poet, and is
also a cousin of the legendary Clanton Gang who clashed with the Earps
and Doc Holliday at the famous gunfight at OK Corral. Clanton took this
photo of his friend at
Boothill Graveyard.
The photo was taken in black and white because he wanted Old
West-looking pictures of himself dressed in Clanton's 1880-period
clothes. Clanton took the film for developing to the local Thrifty Drug
Store, and when he got it back was startled at what he saw. Among the
gravestones, just to the right of his friend, is the image of what
appears to be a thin man in a dark hat. By height, the man appears to
be either legless, kneeling... or rising up out of the ground.
"I know there was no other person in this photograph when I shot
it," Clanton insists. And he believes the small figure in the
background is holding a knife. "We thought this was a tie at first, but
after further review, it appears to be a knife," Clanton says. "The
knife is in a vertical position; the tip is located just below the
figure's right collar. If you're not convinced that something is weird
here, look at my friend's shadow in the photo. It appears to be going
back slightly to the right of him. The figure in the back should have
the same shadow, but it doesn't!"