St. James Sag.
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:
The story I heard about Tivoli was that in Downers Grove a tragic fire trapped the cuplrit in a room backstage, yet his remains were never found. Employees hear ghostly footsteps and see a eerie mist late at night after the last show. I visited this theatre myself and also had correspondence with the manager via email. He says the fire occured in the 60's there are no rooms backstage just an open area. There are some small rooms in the basement, but the fire did not reach that area. A small portion of the stage was damaged by the fire and the arsonist who set the fire were caught. There was nobody killed in the fire according to the management. There are some rooms in the basement but none backstage. My conclusion is that perhaps someone was trying to connect some unexplained events caused by a resident theatre ghost to things that had happened in the past, or perhaps its just an urban legend.
Haunted by prohibition-era spirits in the old ballroom.
This school was the scene of a very tragic fire which claimed the life of 92 children and 3 nuns. The reason the death tool was so high was the lax fire codes in 1958 and the overcrowded conditions. A young woman attending the school reported hearing screaming and sensing a pressence in the hallway when she was alone there. Later she drew faces of victims she saw in her dreams. A mother saw her dead son come to console her. A sibling was also consoled by her dead sister. At the Fire Memorial in Queen of Heavan Cemetery where 25 children are buried you can sometimes smell the smoke from the fire and at the school is always a feeling of aprehension.
In the 50's two young girls, the Grimes sisters, were missing for 27 days. When their bodies were found it was determined that they had died of exposure, and shock but were otherwise unharmed. The area they were found along Devils creek on German Church Road is haunted. People have reported the sound of a car stopping and a door slaming when no car was around. A report of the bodies of 2 girls was reported one day 40 years later, but no bodies were found. Their murderer has never been found.
Clarence Darrow was opposed to the death penalty. In a famous trial in 1924 he defended Nathan Leopold, Jr. and Richard Loeb of the murder of Bobby Franks. His ultimate goal was not to free the defendants, but to keep them from the death penalty. He was succesful in that goal. After he died Darrow's ashes were scattered near his Hyde Park home. Witnesses ever since then have reported seeing a figure of a man in a top hat with a suit and fedora standing on the steps of the Museum of Science and Industry looking over the water. People who knew him identified the ghost as him. Others who had never seen Darrow identified him later from pictures after they saw the ghost.
The Hull house is famous for the legend of the devil baby. The child of a devout woman and an atheist husband. The baby was said to have horns, a tail, scaley skin, and pointed ears. It was said to be the child of Jane Adams. She denied the babies existance. Some say she was just trying to protect a deformed infant. Others Claim the devil child was real. He was reportedly kept locked upstairs. Sometimes people still think they see something peering at them from the upstairs window. A lady commited suicide there. Four monk figures have been reported on the stairway. People sometimes see a misty apparition on the stairs or in a room upstairs.
Just west of loomis Street is an old ballroom. There is a legend that a strange man came to dance there. He was mysterious and handsome. He was dancing with a lady and the girl looked at his feet and screamed. The men in the dance hall came to her aid. The stranger fled to an upstairs room. They followed him and he jumped from the upper floor of the ballroom to the street below landing on his feet. The men followed, but were amazed at what they saw. In the spot where he landed were hoofprints imbeded in the pavement. Was this the devil baby grown up? Or was this satan himself? They almoast caught up to the stranger and then he vanished with a puff of sulferous smoke.
This cemetery has reports of haunting going back to the mid 1800's. Many have witnessed Spectral Robed figures chanting. A cook county deputy chased 8 spectral monks who floated across from the woods to the church where they vanished. Ghost lights are also reported here as well as a phantom carriage and a young woman in white. The cemetery is located in Lemont on Lemont Avenue South.
The top floor of Simpkins Hall has been haunted for a number of years. Windows and doors open and close by themselves. Lights flicker and go on and off by themselves. Typewritters type out ghostly messages at night with no one at the keyboards. The poultergeist type spirit has been dubed Harold by students and staff. It is located in Macomb Il. at 900 West Adams.
Dr. Roberts was an excentric oral surgeon. He once reportedly kept a woman sitting in the dentist chair from 10am to 5pm while doing various chores around the house and only stopping occasionally to do a little dental work on the patient. The house was kept by a caretaker after the dentist death. The caretaker Leonard Vukadin beleived the house to be haunted. He lived on the first floor and was afraid of other parts of the house. He kept a radio blaring to drown out the strange sounds he heard there. Visitors would often report a glimpse of a shadows or a presence. He refused to go into the attic at all. While hanging plastic over the windows on the third floor with his son they both saw an apparition. They saw a brunette nurse staring at them for about half a minuite. Then she vanished. Unfortunately the house was torn down after the third floor was damaged by a fire. It once stood at the corner of Washington and Sheridan.
This childrens home was the site of a poulterguist attack which seemed to be centered on a disturbed child.
The Gallo family was terrorized by small fires and other poultergeist attacks happening in their home on Willey Farm. Flames shot from wall sockets and brown burned spots appeared on their wallpaper. The attacks were linked somehow to a disturbed teenage girl living at the home. The house was built on the site of an ancient native american burial ground. After Wanet Willey came to live with her father fires erupted in diffferent parts of the house simultaneously. Many people witnessed the bizzare event. The events were never explained This case is similar to a more recent case in Orland Hills with similar events.
James Mikulecky was harrased by objects flying around in his home in Willmington Il. in 1957. The attacks continued after he took refuge in another home.
From sunday to the following friday 1995 Robert experienced strange events in his apartment. After a trip to Elmwood Cemetery where he was videotaping landscape and visiting a deceased friend's garve. He returned home and noticed the leaves of a plant moving in the corner of the room. He checked and found no draft or open windows. The next evening it happend again. Then the next evening it happened a third time each time around 6pm. Then on good friday he began to hear knocking. It seemed to be coming from his bedroom. Each time he went to check the knocking would stop only to happen again when he left the bedroom returning through a short hall to the living room. Then he noticed in the hall a closet folding door began to move. Then the door unfolded itself. He closed it several times only to watch it happen again. Then he went to get his video camera. He was able to capture 10min of the bedroom door and the closet door opening and closing. He also captured on film the knocking and the clothing in the closet moving ever more violently until he had enough and slamed the closet door closed with his foot. He then went to call a friend. As he was telling his friend that he was afraid to stay there that night he felt someone grab his arm and droped the phone. His friend let him spend the night and went with him the next day to sprinkle holy water in the apartment and say a prayer. The poultergeist activity never returned. It is known that the prevoius tennant died in that apartment.
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