Kirjahaku

Slumbering beneath a shroud of deep forest and deliberate secrecy, Bachelors Grove Cemetery still exerts a powerful pull on paranormal pilgrims and curiosity-seekers around the world.Shielding the orphaned burial ground from ritual an

From Chicago Public Library Foundation Award-winning author, historian and paranormal researcher Ursula Bielski comes the first-ever expose of the history and hauntings of one of the world's most notorious penitentiaries: Old Joliet Prison, the second of Illinois' notorious maximum security prisons. Opened just before the American Civil War Old Joliet Prison housed some of the most abominable offenders of the modern age, from "thrill killers" Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb to Chicago's notorious gangsters like Bugs Moran and Baby Face Nelson, to mass murderer Richard Speck and serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who spent time at Old Joliet after their world-shattering arrests. From shootings and stabbings to suicides, death was a common occurrence at Old Joliet, which was built on a limestone cache along the fabled DesPlaines River. Step inside the storied walls with Bielski and the Joliet Hauntings Paranormal Crew, who led dozens of nighttime investigations and ghost tours at the prison in the fall and winter of 2018: the first authorized investigations at this unmatched haunted location.

Slumbering beneath a shroud of deep forest and deliberate secrecy, Bachelors Grove Cemetery still exerts a powerful pull on paranormal pilgrims and curiosity-seekers around the world. Shielding the orphaned burial ground from ritual and idle vandalism has also buried the rich history of this magical place. Still, its eerie presence has dominated the folklore of the southwest side of Chicago for every generation since 1838. Brave the woods with Ursula Bielski to unearth decades of mysteries and myriad ghost stories, from the Magic House to the Madonna of Bachelors Grove.

At the close of the nineteenth century, Chicago offered the world a glimpse of humanity's most breathtaking possibilities and its most jaw-dropping horrors. Even as the White City emerged from the ashes of the Great Fire, serial killers like H.H. Holmes stalked the sparkling new boulevards and tragic accidents plagued the factories, slums and railroads that powered the churn of industrial innovation. Demons, mesmerists and birds of ill omen preyed on the unwary from the shadows. Ship captains spoke to the dead, while undertakers discovered reanimated corpses no longer requiring services. From posh mansions built on massacre grounds to the drowned quarries of a forest preserve, Ursula Bielski follows the dark undercurrents beneath the electric lights of the World's Fair.