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:
After having a heart attack while fox hunting Francis Stuyvesant Peabody was buried on the grounds of Mayslake in Oak Brook. Her widow built a small chapel over the site of his grave. Local teens started a legend that it was Peabody's tomb and that it was haunted. They legend said he was buried in a suspended glass box filled with oil to prevent decomposition. Because of repeated vandalism, the little Portiuncula Chapel almoast was torn down. It was saved by the forest preserve district during conservation and restoration efforts at Mayslake. Mayslake is located on Rt83 and 31st street in Oak Brook.
Members of this church reported faces appearing on the walls behind a statue where the paper had peeled of the plaster. There were also reports of the spirits of two drowned boys warning parish members of the great fire of chicago. The ghost of a former Friar Arnold Damen is reported in the church or the adjacent, St. Ignatius College and Prepratory High School.
A shadow like ghost is seen near the altar.This church is located at 56th and Karlov Avenue in Chicago.
15 people reported a strange event. They were gathered for an all saints day service. Ghostly shrill music started to come from the organ even though there was no one playing it. The clock started to spin wildly. Then as they watched six hooded robed figures appeared. Three in white and three in black. The figures began to glide down to the front of the church. As the congregation tried to escape from the unyeilding doors they said "pray for us" then disapeared. Then things returned to normal.
Because of fighting breaking out on the northwestern frontier the fort was ordered abandoned by General Hull. The settelers led by Kinzie, set out for Fort wane over a flat open landscape. They were sitting ducks to the british and indians. In 1812 the 148 settlers were reduced to 50 slaves when they were massacred on the dunes of lake Michigan. Their bodies lay where they fell for many years until disturbed by routine roadwork near the site. Somewhere near 16th and Indiana. After the bodies were disturbed, Settlers were reportedly seen by many people in the area.
John Lalime lived more or less peacefully many years on a section of land on the banks of the chicago river. Near where Ft. Dearborn would be built. Kinzie (see above) came and disputed Lalime's land claim and had Lalime murdered. Lalime's ghost is sometimes said to be responsible for haunting the Excalibur and it's bar the Dome Room. Lalime's remains were stashed at the site of the Excalibur for may years before it was the Excalibur when it was the site of the historical society. A bluish form is sometimes seen moving up and down the stairs and poultergeist phenomena are sometimes reported. A lawyer also commited suicide on the site. It is said that his spirit may be haunting the place. The site is sometimes mistakenly linked to ghost of the eastland disaster. It is located at 632 North Dearborn.
A legend surounds this now demolished brickyard in Lake Bluff. Catherine Cloe and Henry Ostrander built a large brickyard together on Birch Road making bricks for a factory. During it's expansion a worker was killed accidentally during a fight with another worker. The killer hid the body in part of the factory by bricking it up inside a wall. For decades Catherine Cloe was puzzled by the sobbing that seemed to come from the walls of the factory.
2500 pasengers on the way to a picnic boarded the Eastland steamer on the Chicago River. Too many people were crowded on one side of the ship and the ship capsized. 835 were drowned in the accident. 22 whole families were killed. The accident took place between the Clarke and Lasalle Street bridges. Shortly after the accident pedestrians reported hearing cries of horror near the banks of the river. The Reid Murdoch Building (now a traffic cout) and the Oprah Winfrey's Studios were used as a temporary morgue during the disaster. People in these buildings report unusual occurrences and sensations.
86 circus performers were killed during a train wreck/accident in which a empty troop train ran full speed into a stoped circus train. Their bodies were interred at Forest Park's Woodlawn Cemetery. Five stone elephants mark the plots boundaries. Neighbors began to report hearing the cries of amimals emanating from the cemetery. Legend states that elephants helped pull away the burning wreckage from the train wreck to save lives. Many level-headed listeners admit in spite of evidence that there were no animals on board the train that the sounds seemed real.
In 1924 a fireman named Frank Leavy had a bad feeling that he was going to die. He told a coworker as he was cleaning a window and rested his hand against the glass. He died that same day fighting a tremendous fire at Curan Hall an old office building. A brick wall fell killing 8 firemen. The next day the window had a hand print etched into the glass. The firemen could not remove it. They tried chemicals and even scraping it with a razor blade. Nothing worked. City officials checked the fingerprints of the handprint and found that they matched Leavy's fingerprints. The prints remained there for 20 years to the day till the window was broken by a careless paperboy delivering the morning paper.
Engine Company 107 is located at 13th and Oakley, Chicago.
In 1929 Al Capone ordered Bugs Moran and his men killed. He nearly succeded. Half a dozen of Moran's men were in a warehouse waiting for a shipment of illegal whiskey. Johnny May, George Moran, a dog named Highball, Frank and Pete Gusenberg, James Clark, Adam Heyer, Al Weinshank and Reinhardt Schwimmer were inside. A police car pulled up outside. Bugs Moran himself was late for the meeting escorted by Ted Nuwberry. When he saw the police car he turned around and left. Four people got out of the police car witnessed by a landlady across the street. Two of the men were in police uniform, and the other two were in civilian clothing. Tremendous gunfire was heard followed by the men exiting the warehouse and departing in the car. Moran's men had been gunned down against the back brick wall. May , and Clark survived the attack as well as Frank. Frank died a short while later refusing to name his assailants. His infamous reply was "I ain't no copper." A canadian buisness man bought the bricks from the back wall when the warehouse was torn down to be sold as souvenirs. Legend has it that anyone who bought the bricks were beseiged by bad luck, and ruin. An occasional pedestrian in the area where the warehouse once stood reports hearing violent screams. Pets behave strangely in the area growling or barking furiously at nothing or wimpering. The warehouse once stood at 2122 North Clark Street. The lot is now the front lawn of a nursing home.
A young actress commited suicide here on the turn of the century. Reports of Elvira throwing herself from the belfry 6 floors to the sidewalk are often heard. She is also said to comment on rehearsals. She sits in seat DD-113 and either gives a thumbs up or down. Sometimes she is heard banging her seat or booing. She is a tall beautiful blonde woman. Honda once did a comercial about this ghost. The Woodstock Opera House is in Woodstock Il. at 121 Van Buren Street.
This theater located in Joliet is also haunted by a famous female spirit.
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