If you have had an experience with the paranormal or want to, this is the place for you. You will find ghost stories,unexplained pics, inexpensive ways to investigate a haunting, ghost hunting tools and equipment for your everyday Ghost Hunter. No fancy equipment required. Spirits and the whole "after life" has been questioned for centuries. Lets see if together, we can't come up with some answers. Take a haunted ghost tour with me to Goatman's Bridge! Evil never was so kind.
Behind Every Cloud is a Kindred Spirit (BECKS)I lost my grandfather when I was 17. I had a VERY difficult time getting over it. How could I still communicate with him? I loved him so much I didn't think I could live without him. I read everything I could get my hands on to do with the "afterlife" and that started it all...the love of Ghost Hunting and the Paranormal. I have been researching the paranormal for over 37 years!! It is my way of staying in touch with my grandfather. Being a Ghost Hunter is not always as exciting as it seems on TV. Many nights I have sat in the dark and not a thing happened. BUT it is those times you DO get that one voice, that one explainable picture or have an experience that sends chills down your back that makes it sooo worth it all!!! My purpose of this blog is not to make people believe in ghosts but maybe to open their minds just a little bit... I LOVE this crazy thing called Ghost Hunting. It is as much a part of me as breathing. I am just a girl that refuses to accept we can't still contact our loved ones after they die. My grandfather won't let me.
If you have not stayed at the Congress Hotel in Chicago....you should!!! It is reportedly the most haunted hotel in the city. I was lucky enough to get a room at this hotel to do an investigation as a Christmas Present from my boyfriend and I loved every minute of it!!! I was also lucky enough to have one of my FAVORITE paranormal groups White Dog Paranormal to meet me there. We had a great time!
Ok....I know, you guys don't care about all that....you just want to know if we saw any GHOSTS!!!
First here is a little bit about this wonderful place. It was built to help house visitors of the World Fair in 1893. It was also owned at one point by the one and only Al Capone. Supposedly the most haunted floors are the 4th and the 12th(I stayed on the 12th). Some of the spirits roaming this place is none other than Al himself along with a mother and two sons, whom supposedly was waiting for the arrival of her husband and when she found out he wasn't coming, she through her two boys over the 12th floor balcony and then jumped herself. Then there's Peg Leg Johnny, a hobo that was murdered in the hotel. And the MOST HAUNTED ROOM OF ALL #441. YES, I did request to stay in that room but was told the whole 4th floor was closed! Of course, we had to go check it out ourselves and found that the 4th floor was completely dark! Did we leave......of course not!!! We just sat down in the floor, in the dark and started conducting an EVP Session.
The very top of the creepy stairwell
Creepy stairway
Stairwell
When you start asking questions about the spirits that haunt the hotel you will find out quickly that some of the people DON'T want to talk about it, but a couple of the bell hops were willing to share their stories. We were lucky enough to meet Johnny the late night security guard who has worked at the Congress for about 18 years. At first, he wasn't willing to talk, but he couldn't resist my Texas accent!!! LOL He eventually warmed up to us and took us on a tour all around the hotel and to places we normally wouldn't have access to. THANK YOU JOHNNY!!!! He told us story after story of paranormal activity. Even as recent as the week before we were there, of people leaving their rooms claiming things were moving, they were touched, etc.
After we left Johnny, we investigated on our own. Yep...you guessed it, we went places not many people could or WOULD not go. We had a lot of activity in a little stairwell we found behind an unmarked door. Be sure and watch the video I am posting of that session. You DON'T want to miss it!!!
Jane Addams’ Hull House was meant to be a place of refuge for new immigrants. Built in 1856 by Charles Hull, it served many new arrivals and grew to a campus of 13 buildings by the mid-1910s. Jane Addams was a very good person and she tried her best to help those adjusting to life in America.
Then, an Italian woman and her husband abandoned their devil baby on her doorstep in 1913.
In about six weeks, the news got out and hundreds of people would flock to Hull House to see the little monster. Jane always denied the existence of the child and it’s one of the most common apparitions found in Hull House today.
Hull House was haunted before Jane Addams bought it. It was a poor house from 1860 – 1900(?). Many people died on campus, including the wife of Charles Hull. She’s thought to be one of the many spirits still roaming the halls of the main building. Jane often commented on the spirits, but she seem amused, not frightened, by them.
Hull House Today
Hull House is a museum located on the University of Illinois campus at Halsted and Polk. It now has a very strict code for visiting hours, so you won’t be able to openly ghost hunt for ghostly activities. It remains a popular stop on Chicago’s ghost tours.
What kind of ghostly activities can you expect?
Hull House is still very active and witnesses regularly note the following activity:
Devil Baby in upper-left attic window – The little guy looks out on the street below. He’s been reported during the day and night.
Apparition on the stairs – A glowing, somewhat human-sized entity is seen ascending the stairs at night.
Four monks at the top of the stairs – On the second floor, near the Apparition mentioned above, a group of four monks have been seen.
Woman in White – This spirit is the most active of all the ghosts. She is said to drive anyone staying in the room at night. Reportedly, she appears as a semi-transparent, white-light figure near the bed. Some witnesses said it causes poltergeist activity, but this has never been documented in full. Many people have seen her from the street.
Girls playing by fountain – At night, you can hear the sounds of a group of girls playing by the fountain. Sometimes, you can feel a cool gust of wind flow by you as the ghostly girls run around the area. The fountain is located just to the south of Hull House.
Remember, Hull House is a public museum and you can go in by day for a small admission charge. Keep your ghost hunting activity on the downlow and turn your cameras to infrared scanning. You might just catch something.
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She has it all!!! Including ghosts!!! That's right...Oprah's Winfrey doesn't talk about it much these days but when she had her show, she and her staff experienced MANY paranormal events.
Here's the story...
On July 24th, 1915, Chicago-based company, Western Electric Company, chartered four ships to take employees and their families to the annual company picnic in Michigan City, Indiana. The ships, including the rusting steamship The Eastland, were docked along the Chicago River as employees and their families boarded for a day of fun on the company's dime. At the time, Western Electric employed more than 10,000 people.
The Eastland was docked by the Clark Street bridge and had a history of balance problems. On more than once occasion since its christening in 1903, it nearly capsized on Lake Michigan. And when new rules and regulations were implemented in the wake of the Titanic's sinking in 1912, rows of life boats and preservers on the upper deck made the Eastland even more top-heavy. Unbeknownst to the passengers, the crew had emptied the ballast compartments which are designed to keep the ship stable to help accommodate more than the 2,500 capacity--the reason why is still a mystery.
It is documented that more than 3,200 people boarded that July morning--breaking capacity--and when the Eastland pushed off from the dock, it immediately started to list due to the uneven weight of the passengers on board. Many were on the already top-heavy upper deck so they could view the city as they pulled out of port. When the vessel listed, water quickly rushed in through windows and doors creating mass chaos on board. In seconds, The Eastland was on its side with hundreds trapped with no way out.
Individuals were pulled to safety through portholes as mothers screamed for their children. By-passers jumped into the river to help pull passengers to the shore. At the time, women wore long dresses, so many were pulled underwater from the sheer weight of their clothes. Others were trapped inside the cabin with no means of escape. Those who had been able to break away from the confines of the ship were met with the challenges of fighting for air as they were forced below the waterline and continually pushed down by the people above them. The horrific site was described as a "moving sea of bodies."
In less than fifteen minutes, The Eastland came to rest on its port side in no more than 20 feet of water, entombing hundreds of people inside.
Keep reading after the jump to learn about the rescue efforts and how this tragedy on the river haunts Harpo Studios...
Rescuers immediately began looking for survivors in the water and worked well into the night recovering the deceased. The sheer volume of bodies was more than the city could handle and thieves began rummaging through the pockets of the dead. Local stores loaned their wagons to help cart bodies away from the scene; so rescuers transported the corpses to one of the only places in the city equipped to handle the aftermath of that magnitude--the 2nd Regiment Armory on West Washington Avenue.
There, a makeshift morgue was set up with countless blocks of ice where they laid the fallen until they could be identified by family members.
In the 1980's, the 2nd Regiment Armory facilities were renovated and reopened as Harpo Studios. Since the production studio opened, Oprah and team have been haunted by the restless spirits of those who perished on that fateful day. Workers claim to have seen an affable shadowy figure, aka "The Grey Lady" presumed to be one of the mothers who lost her life on the Chicago River--and it has been reported that she has even been caught on the security cameras. There have also been confirmations of doors slamming without reason, phantom old-time music, unexplained footsteps and disembodies voices like children laughing, people sobbing and screaming for help.
But that's not all...
Today, a memorial plaque marks the spot of The Eastland tragedy on Chicago River between Clark and LaSalle Streets. And to this day, claims have been made of hearing moans and blood curling screams from the Clark Street bridge. Is it the helpless cries of the spirits still trying to escape the Eastland? That's for you to decide.
In the end, The Eastland disaster took 844 lives, including more than 20 entire families. What you may not realize, is that the tragedy claimed three times the lives than the historic Chicago Fire, making it one of our country's worst maritime accidents on record...and one of the least talked about.
Here Oprah's encounter with a GHOST of her own.
Heart breaking photos of this tragic event:
Below is some of the first known video of this heartbreaking day. I had never heard about this before I saw somewhere that Oprah's building was haunted. But now, I understand why.
FUN HALLOWEEN NOTE: Be sure to check out the October schedule for Goatman's Bridge Ghost Tour and a SPECIAL EVENT CALLED FRIDADY BOO BASH at the very haunted Hill House Manor. More information on BOO BASH under EVENTS!!!
If you have not stayed at the Congress Hotel in Chicago....you should!!! It is reportedly the most haunted hotel in the city. I was lucky enough to get a room at this hotel to do an investigation as a Christmas Present from my boyfriend and I loved every minute of it!!! I was also lucky enough to have one of my FAVORITE paranormal groups White Dog Paranormal to meet me there. We had a great time!
Ok....I know, you guys don't care about all that....you just want to know if we saw any GHOSTS!!!
First here is a little bit about this wonderful place. It was built to help house visitors of the World Fair in 1893. It was also owned at one point by the one and only Al Capone. Supposedly the most haunted floors are the 4th and the 12th(I stayed on the 12th). Some of the spirits roaming this place is none other than Al himself along with a mother and two sons, whom supposedly was waiting for the arrival of her husband and when she found out he wasn't coming, she through her two boys over the 12th floor balcony and then jumped herself. Then there's Peg Leg Johnny, a hobo that was murdered in the hotel. And the MOST HAUNTED ROOM OF ALL #441. YES, I did request to stay in that room but was told the whole 4th floor was closed! Of course, we had to go check it out ourselves and found that the 4th floor was completely dark! Did we leave......of course not!!! We just sat down in the floor, in the dark and started conducting an EVP Session.
The very top of the creepy stairwell
Creepy stairway
Stairwell
When you start asking questions about the spirits that haunt the hotel you will find out quickly that some of the people DON'T want to talk about it, but a couple of the bell hops were willing to share their stories. We were lucky enough to meet Johnny the late night security guard who has worked at the Congress for about 18 years. At first, he wasn't willing to talk, but he couldn't resist my Texas accent!!! LOL He eventually warmed up to us and took us on a tour all around the hotel and to places we normally wouldn't have access to. THANK YOU JOHNNY!!!! He told us story after story of paranormal activity. Even as recent as the week before we were there, of people leaving their rooms claiming things were moving, they were touched, etc.
After we left Johnny, we investigated on our own. Yep...you guessed it, we went places not many people could or WOULD not go. We had a lot of activity in a little stairwell we found behind an unmarked door. Be sure and watch the video I am posting of that session. You DON'T want to miss it!!!
In front of room #441
Room #441
Creepy stairs leading from the 12th floor.
Where's Al??? The little room where Al Capone
played cards.
Room all boarded up. hhuuummm??? Wonder why?
Everybody
Room #666 Completely covered over!
Room #666 you can run your hand over where
the door was and can see the outline of the room!
Dan, Michele, Me, Anthony, Tony and taking
the picture Deak.
Keeping in the spirit of Valentine's Day, I thought I would write about the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago.
LOCATION:
Street Address of the site of the 1929 Massacre:
2212 North Clark Street
Chicago, Illinois
On February 14th, 1929 the S-M-C Cartage Company, a red brick building and garage stood at this North Clark Street address, on the North side of Chicago. The garage was also used as a warehouse for illegal, black market liquor for the North side Bugs Moran gang, a mob of thugs who were in direct competition with Al Capone's gang in selling illicit bootleg booze to a very thirsty Chicago population during the Prohibition years.
HISTORY OF THIS LOCATION:
After the bloody killing of 7 of the Moran gang, the garage became an unofficial memorial, and the brick wall where the 7 were executed was riddled with machine gun bullets. It became a popular tourist attraction for a time.
Twenty years later, In 1949, the front half of the garage was converted into an antique furniture storage business by people new to Chicago and didn't know what had happened there. Unfortunately more tourists than customers came and they eventually gave up and moved on. In 1967, the old building was torn down, but the infamous wall of bricks was saved and used in another night club, built into a wall of the men's rest room. Other bricks were smuggled out by workmen tearing down the building.
A fenced off lawn, which belongs to a nearby nursing home, was put in where the garage once stood, with 5 trees planted on site. The tree in the middle of the lawn marks the place where the infamous brick wall once stood.
Chicago policemen re-enact the
St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1929)
St. Valentine's Day Massacre
HISTORY OF AL CAPONE
Al Capone, Chicago's most powerful, ruthless gangster in the 1920s era, was really a Brooklyn transplant who migrated to Chicago with his best buddy and future cohort in Chicago crime, Johnny Torrio who was originally hired by his Chicago mobster uncle, Big Jim Collisimo. Johnny Torrio and Al Capone made ambitious plans to take over the black market booze market, but not by fair market competition. (They missed taking economics in school because they dropped out at the 6th grade).
After knocking off Uncle Big Jim Collisimo, Al and Johnny waged a bloody war against other mobs in Chicago, resulting in 500 deaths by the time Capone was through in 1930. When Johnny was nearly killed in 1925, he retired, leaving a 30 million dollar empire in the capable hands of Al Capone at the age of 26! Al Capone had 1000 gunmen, half the police department on his payroll, as well as local politicians, state attorneys, and law makers. So whenever he had to conduct business, many just looked the other way; that is until he crossed the line on February, 14th, 1929 with the St. Valentines Day Massacre.
While Capone was far away enjoying life in Florida, he put this job in the capable, murderous hands of "Machine Gun" McGurn, who was given complete control of the hit. He planned it but stayed away from the event himself, with an air-tight alibi. "Talented out of towners" were recruited for this hit; Fred "Killer" Burke, James Ray, John Scalise and Albert Anselmi, Joseph Lolordo and Harry and Phil Keywell from Detroit's Purple Gang.
DESCRIPTION OF INCIDENT
On the morning of February 14, 1929, a group of Bugs Moran's gangsters were waiting in this garage, for a truck full of stolen liquor from Detroit to arrive. Johnny May, Frank and Pete Gusenburg, Bugs Moran's brother-in-law, James Clark, Adam Heyer, Al Weinshank and a gangster wanna-be, optometrist Reinhardt Schwimmer, who learned too late that it was dangerous hanging with men on the wrong side of the law.
As they waited, a police car pulled up outside. (Uh oh, this wasn't good!) Five men, three dressed as policemen exited and walked into the garage with machine guns ready. All seven men were lined up against the brick wall and shot many times from the machine guns. While Capon's gunmen wiped out the Northern Chicago gang, they missed Bugs Moran, who was late to the party. Bugs Moran later accused Al Capone of this vicious hit. Though there wasn't any evidence to directly link Al Capone to this event, people believed Bugs.
MANIFESTATIONS:
The location of this brutal mass killing has been haunted for years, the bricks are said to bring bad luck, and Al Capone himself saw his reign come to an end and was haunted by an entity until he died in Florida.
1) The location of this brutal mass killing has been haunted for years
a) Unusual light and mists have been reported.
b) Male voices are heard when no one else is around.
c) Sounds of screaming men and machine-gun fire are still heard by the living passing by this place
d) Sensitive people who stand in front of the fenced lawn, or walk by it, develop a sense of real fear and so do animals.
2) The bricks are said to bring bad luck.
a) The theory is that the bricks soaked in all this powerful negative energy from the killings. Legend has it that after the nightclub outlived its purpose, the bricks were taken out and sold individually for 1000 dollars each. But many of the bricks that were sold were given back because the new owners suffered a rash of bad luck, so the story goes.
b) Others say that the bricks were never sold individually but were kept together in a packed box, numbered, with a diagram as to how to put the wall back together, with the hopes that a single buyer would buy the whole wall of bricks. It never sold; not yet anyway.
3) Capone himself got his just desserts. Unfortunately for Al Capone, consequences resulted as a result of this planned massacre, carried out by hired gunmen.
a) People were repulsed with this bloody mass killing, and a lot of political pressure resulted in nailing Capone for tax evasion, landing him in prison, sentenced to 11 years of hard time, winding up on the rock, Alcatraz. Though he only stayed in until 1939, he didn't always have both oars in the water, which forced him into retirement.
b) The entity of Moran's brother-in-law, James Clark immediately started to haunt Capone who was living in his Florida house at the time of the massacres. He tried to send the entity to the other side via a medium in 1931, but it didn't work. After Capone, broken in spirit and mind, returned to Florida after being released from prison, the entity reappeared and haunted Al until he died.
c) Al Capone was buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery. It is said that he sometimes appears to the disrespectful visitors who come to visit his family's plot.
The video below is one we took in the creepest stairway of the Congress Hotel in Chicago where Al Capone is said to have lived part time and stayed. You really have to look hard to this stairway we were in below! The bricks inside were burned and it was obviously a place where not many people go! Very old and very dark!
