The Haunted Lady’s Muff of Grosse Ile: Detroit, 1700s

A haunted muff...and no, I’m not kidding.

This weird tale takes place on Grosse Ile way back in the 1700s. At the time, the island was a French settlement in the area that would become Detroit. One of the colonists on the island was unhappy in his marriage; his wife had gained weight and gotten frumpy, much to his dismay. So what did he do? He started up having an affair with a much younger, single girl.

Why didn’t this guy just get a divorce? Money, for one; his wife had lots of it and he didn’t want to be disconnected from it. Secondly, divorce was not an option back then. What to do? Why get rid of his wife somehow, that’s what. He figured if she died, he would keep the money and marry his young hussy.

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One day, the man and his wife were taking a walk and he took the direction toward a swamp. Once there, he murdered her and proceeded to sink her body in the dismal, mucky mire. During their struggle, her large, expensive hand muff came off and got lost. This didn’t register until later, when he realized he better go back and find the muff so it can’t be used as evidence.

When he returned to the swamp, he saw the muff lying there. He bent down to pick it up, but before he could, it rolled away. Following, he tried again, but again it rolled away from his reach. This happened quite a few times until the unexpected happened: the muff began chasing him. Scared and psychologically changed, he left the island and once on the mainland, he confessed to the murder. Was it a shift in the wind that made it seem like the muff was chasing him?

Since then, the muff continued rolling around Grosse Ile for years. Those who were unfortunate enough to come across it ended up smelling like a rotting corpse. The last known encounter with the Rolling Muff was during Prohibition when two liquor smugglers were forced off the island by the rotting smell of the muff.

No reports or experiences now for about 100 years, maybe because the island is largely inhabited...or maybe the legend of being able to drive it away with a cross is taken seriously.