Heffron Hall

The Ghost of Heffron Hall

In 1989, USA Today named the Heffron Hall Dormitory "Minnesota's Most Legendary Haunted Place." The story of the Heffron Hall ghost is layered with anecdotal urban legends, though there are two incidents at the heart of the tale that are historically accurate. The legend was born on the morning of August 27, 1915, when Father Louis Lesches attempted to assassinate Bishop Patrick Heffron while the Bishop was celebrating Mass in his private chapel on the second floor of St. Mary’s Hall. The tale transformed into the "ghost of Heffron Hall."

On May 15, 1931, an incident happened on the third floor in Heffron Hall. A nun entered the room of Rev. Edward Lynch and found the reverend dead and sprawled across his bed. His body was burned beyond recognition, but the sheets and bed underneath him reportedly did not show any signs of scorch marks.

Reverend Lynch's Bible was also said to have been scorched except for a single passage: "And the Lord shall come at the sound of the trumpets." This was a passage that Lesches had often shouted to Lynch in their heated arguments.

The official records of Lynch's death said it was caused by an electrical accident. The incident supposedly happened when Lynch reached over to shut off a reading lamp attached to his metal headboard and accidentally touched a steam radiator at the same time. Winona County coroner P.A. Mattison determined that the lamp was the source of the current that sent the fatal surge of electricity coursing through Father Lynch's body.

However, the records of the Mississippi Valley Power & Light Company showed that the lamp fed off a charge of 110 volts. Experts say that this was not enough to kill someone, let alone char a body beyond recognition.

Lesches died at the hospital in 1943. He was 84 years old and had spent 29 years incarcerated. A new dormitory was named Heffron Hall in honor of Bishop Heffron, but it soon gained a reputation for being haunted by his attempted murderer. The frightening ghost of Father Lesches was claimed to have been seen several times on the third floor of the building.

Since the 1940s, legend says that students living on the third story of the Heffron Hall have been awakened at night from the sounds of footsteps and the tapping of a cane in the hallway. Unexplained cold winds can be felt, and the notices on bulletin boards have been seen flapping as if moved by a breeze when there is no breeze. More than one student has been prevented from entering the floor by some sort of invisible force.

The first written report of eerie activity at Heffron Hall came in 1945, when the dorm was for seminary students.

Seminarian Mike O'Malley was in his dorm late one night when he heard footsteps coming down the hallway. The footsteps stopped at his door and were followed by a knock on his door. When O'Malley opened the door, he was greeted by a cloaked figure standing there in silence. The figure's face was covered in the shadow of his hood. Thinking it was one of the priests, O'Malley asked, "What do you want, father?"

The figure reportedly let out a deep, garbled, otherworldly moan. A startled O'Malley repeated his question. The figure let out the answer, "I...want...YOU!" This frightened O'Malley, and he wound up and punched the figure, breaking his hand in the process.

This commotion woke up O'Malley's roommate, who caught a glimpse of the figure's face, which was reported to be that of a claylike complexion. As with all following incidents, the letters 'A', 'C', and 'M' were later found scrawled near the doorstep. The meaning behind these letters remains unknown.

Discipline records showed that a student broke his hand in a fight in the cafeteria, but there were no reports of someone on campus with a broken jaw.

Another legend of the campus was said to take place a short time after the O'Malley incident where a group of students who lived in the dormitory had the unique talent of going into a trance and communicating with students. After an evening of being in a trance, a normally cheerful student, a marketing major, came out shaken and anxious.

The student's uneasy feelings were verified by an incident that happened a short time after coming out of the trance. After finishing up in the bathroom, the young man who had been uneasy flushed the urinal only to see a thick, red, blood-like fluid running down the side of the opposite urinal. This sent the student into a panic, and he ran to wash his hands, but when he turned on the faucet, the same liquid poured out of the tap. He then ran out of the bathroom to hear an invisible figure chase him. The reports say that he heard the bathroom door close behind him, open again as if someone passed through it, and close again. He also heard footsteps running behind him when he turned around and saw no one behind him.

The student then told his story to his neighbor after running from the spirit. This is the last time that the young man was seen alive. He was later found in his room sprawled across his bed with an agonizing look on his face, frozen forever. The impression of a cross was burned onto his chest.

Stories circulated the campus for years, and finally in 1969, the staff members of the college's monthly student publication decided to try to verify the happenings. Armed with ghost-hunting equipment, the team spent two nights on the third floor of the dormitory.

The group detected consistent drops in temperature in the long corridor at precisely 1:45 AM each evening. This was about the same time that Lesches was known to have died. These cold spots were confined to only a few locations rather than the whole corridor. At the time of investigation, there were no drafts present.

The temperature drops were recorded traveling down the hallway from east to west at a rate of 100 feet every 30 seconds. Cameras that were used in filming the cold spots showed blurred spots.

The investigation was deemed inconclusive, but many students at St. Mary's have formed their own opinions on the phenomena and unusual experiences at the facility.

In 1995, Saint Mary's College was renamed to Saint Mary's University of Minnesota.

Winona is on the Mississippi River in the southeastern corner of Minnesota, at the junction of Highways 43 and 54.

Father Lesches died in 1943 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Peter, Minnesota.