Hi. This page is for information and links about Chicago and it's Suburbs ghost stories. Many of the stories here are paraphrased from the book " Chicago Haunts: Ghostly Lore of the Windy City," by Ursula Bielski. The book can be obtained from Lake Claremont Press LakeClarPr@aol.com Some of these links lead to information on other sites. Two other sources for my material are Ghost of the Prarie Web Page Graveyards of Chicago and some of the places can be found in Dennis Hauck's "Haunted Places." Lots of the places listed below are open to the public. Please check back for updates. You can email me your own stories to ghostlly@yahoo.com

Chicago's Gangsterland Ghost Stories Page:

---Letter from a witness who saw Ress mary-----

--- GAIL A DRISH  wrote:
> Subject: Re: re:resurrection cemetary
> Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 07:07:45 -0600
> 
> all the time but only once have i seen mary..we
> lived in summit at that
> time, it was the end of october and my friend
> was driving i saw a movement
> to my right..looked and mary was floating along
> even with the car..it only
> lasted a few seconds but she was there.stories
> go that she was seen once in
> chet's melody lounge across archer from the
> cemetary..also has been seen
> hitch-hiking on archer..the thing i experience
> are "family".
> grandparents on dad's side lived in a haunted
> house in wales before coming
> to america..we were raised with those stories
> instead of fairietales..my
> brother visits regularly..he died in 1970 at
> age 29..we know when its
> tommy..he takes things and won't give them back
> until we ask him..if we just
> ask and don't ask tom we don't get the things
> back..have to say "okey,tom,i
> know you've got it,now PLEASE give it back"and
> he does..he also called me on
> the phone a year after he was gone..wanted the
> family to get his widow and
> their kids back to chicago..we had no idea
> where they were ..one week later
> she called me and wanted to come back..she
> stayed with me for a month or so
> and stayed in the area for over a year..the
> kids learned that tom loved them
> enough to CALL us even death can't stop love..
> thanks and happy hunting!!
> gaill evans-drish

From: "GAIL A DRISH"  | 
To: "Jamie" 
Subject: Re: re:resurrection cemetary
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 07:15:05 -0600


jamie ,
     did you know that mary has been picked up
for hitch hiking by the justice police?  over the years the police have
tried to arrest a girl hitching and put her in the back of a squad car
any when the officer got to the station just down the street,looked in the
back she was gone. 
i just LOVE the contact..and stories.  Happy New
Year and 
happy hunting!!
gail

This stone mansion with 20 rooms was unoccupied for half a century after the man who owned it committed suicide. He was mourning the loss of his wife Laura Schweppe. The halls are haunted by the ghost of servant. The ghost of the former owners is seen in the bedrooms. There is one window in the master bedroom that despite all the other windows being filthy never needs cleaning. It is located in Lake Forest Il.

The Calumet river in south chicago also has a version of the vanishing hitchiker like the mexican version of Llorona this vanishing lady hitches a ride and says she is searching for her children then she vanishes. She is a mexican woman with long black hair and long fingernails. She wanders the streets looking for her children. She hitches a ride to Calumet harbor and when they arrive she is no longer in the car. She is often seen along Cline and Fifth Avenue in Chudahey.

A woman in white haunts this mansion and its grounds. She is sometimes seen putting on her hat and gloves and walking in the garden. Anyone staying overnight in a certain room reports hearing footsteps outside the door pacing. If they investigate they find no one is there.

The Indiana dunes near Gary are haunted by the naked ghost of Diana of the Dunes. She had been reported many times here. She is the ghost of an excentric artist who lived in a shack near Lake Michigan. She died from blows inflicted by her boy friend Paul Wilson. Alice is buried in Oak Lawn Cemetery in Gary in a potter's plot.

A phantom flapper begs a ride from the local ballroom to Jewish Waldheim Cemetery located in Forest Park. There she disappears. She is said to be a brunette with a bob style hair-do.

The Moline House is haunted by a dark shadow figure. Objects end up missing or moving on their own. The Moline House is a private residence. It is located in Berwyn west of Cicero on Wesley Ave.

The ghost of a little brunette girl buried in Evergreen Cemetery sometimes tries to hitch a ride on various freeways in the western suburbs to see the sights in Chicago. When she fails she takes a ride on the bus. If asked for her fare, she simply vanishes. The cemetery is on 87th street and Kedzie Avenue.

At the Vennum House a thirteen year old girl named Lurancy Vennum fell into a catatonic state. She began to speak in several different languages and spoke to spirits. The attacks happened up to 12 times a day in 1877. She was commited to the Peoria Insane Asylum for mental illness. Then the Vennums got a visit from Asa Roff who told them a strange story. He claimed that his daughter had suffered the same condition. His own daughter had died in the same mental health facility. He convinced them to let spirtualist talk to the girl. After treatment from the spiritualist Mary Roff, Asa's daughter began to speak through Lurrancy. She pleaded to be allowed to go home to visit her family. Lurancy went to live with Asa for a while behaving as if she was their dead daughter returned to life. She knew intimate details about the family without ever having been told. She stayed for a while and then returned home as Lurancy cured of her catatonic states. Mary's spirit occasionally spoke through her for a while after she was cured. After she was married and moved away the spirit stoped speaking through her.

This college is haunted by the ghost of the former headmistress. Harriet Haskell has been responsible for haunting footsteps, elevators operating by itself, and a mysterious smell of perfume filling the hallways for the last twenty years.

A rough looking figure of wandering thin man with a distinctive sneer is seen in the headlights of cars near the Lithuanian Cemetery. Then he vanishes. It is now a Catholic Cemetery.

Sometimes a shadowy blue figure is seen in the alley south of the Biograph Theater. He slips and falls then vanishes. John Dillinger met his end here. He was spotted by policemen entering the theater. As he was leaving he was chased by four of them and shot down as he tried to reach his gun. There are reports of cold spots and feelings of uneasiness in the alleyway beside the theater. Some claim that it was not Dillinger at all shot down in that alley. Some say it was Jimmy Lawrence, a small time hood. The FBI claimed that Dillinger had undergone plastic surgery before he was killed accounting for the appearance of the body. It is locate on lincoln ave. in North Chicago.

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