A trip to the Gun Hole to talk about misinformation and urban myths.
October means two things: it’s Halloween season and election season. The 2024 election has spread campaigns of misinformation, with panics about controlled hurricanes in Florida, Haitians eating dogs in Ohio, and even widespread voter fraud in Henrico—none of which are true.
On Tuesday, the official Henrico government Twitter account responded to Elon Musk retweeting false claims that voter turnout surpassed voter registration. The tweet, which falsely claimed that more votes were cast than registered voters in Henrico, received over 29 million views, while the government official’s post proving it was just a fairytale got 100,000 views—less than 1% of the visibility. The explanation is simple: early voters were not properly tabulated by the “data aggregators,” but were counted in the election, creating a different vote total. The man behind the claim is election denier Seth Keshel, who has appeared in the QAnon-linked ReAwaken America tour.
Getting burnt out on election season is real. I asked Richmond City Councilor and mayoral candidate Andreas Addison to meet me at the Richmond Gun Hole so we could tackle disinformation campaigns that spread fear and hatred. We all need a change of scenery to escape the nightmarish monotony and nonsensical conspiracies.
I asked Addison about the types of misinformation he has encountered in his campaign for mayor. In the spirit of Halloween, Addison referred to some mysterious figures who took credit for achievements they were not part of. Addison has served on Richmond City Council for the past eight years and is proud of securing fare-free public transportation for the area.
Traveling about a mile away to Hollywood Cemetery, armed with garlic and a wooden stake, we find the story of the Richmond Vampire—one of the city’s oldest and most prevalent urban myths.
The story of the Richmond Vampire has been retold on CBS 6 and through the book Haunted Richmond: Shadows of Shockoe. The short version is that the Church Hill Tunnel collapsed in 1925, killing many of the rail workers, while one worker, Benjamin Mosby, was able to walk out with his skin badly burned and his teeth shattered. Mosby later died from his injuries, but rumors spread that a man made it out of the tunnel, was chased by a mob all the way to Hollywood Cemetery, and went into the mausoleum of William Wortham Pool, who had passed away three years prior. The mausoleum was originally constructed in 1913 with the passing of Pool’s wife.
The rumors of Pool being the Richmond Vampire were so great that all the bodies inside the mausoleum were moved to an undisclosed location—the effects of harassment from an unfounded rumor.
Don’t be scared by the ghost stories concerning elections, but there are some things going bump in the night. In October 2020, Henrico County had mailboxes tampered with while absentee ballots were sent out. Henrico also had to deal with accidentally sending out duplicate ballots. A little advice: make a plan to ensure your vote is counted.
But this election season has some real jeepers creepers, like Roger Stone, who, in a recently leaked video, suggested sending armed guards for election disputes—not too far from when two Trump supporters from Virginia were armed and traveled to Philadelphia. Those two men, who were connected to State Senator Amanda Chase, were arrested and eventually convicted of illegal firearms charges when they wanted to get involved in the 2020 Presidential Election while at the vote-counting site.
No matter what, don’t be frightened to cast your vote. And for all other politicians, my offer to meet up at the Gun Hole still stands.
