What’s a flivver? A quick Google search produced this definition: “a cheap car or aircraft, especially one in bad condition.”
It was also the nickname for Henry Ford’s mass-produced Model T in the early 20th century.
The famed Ozarks folklorist Vance Randolph documents the story of the “Phantom Flivver” in his magnum opus, Ozark Magic and Folklore, which provides a good number of Ozarks ghost stories and spooky tales around Halloween.
Randolph noted that in 1932, Sheriff Frank Jones was forced off the road and killed along (Highway 14) between Nixa and Ozark by the phantom car.
Randolph reported that “several prominent citizens” narrowly avoided Sheriff Jones’ fate in similar encounters with the Flivver.
Other sources point to Sheriff Jones’ death in 1934.
