Chicago Ghosts

by Rachel Brooks

Chicago has quite a harrowing history, and not all of it has stayed in the past. Meet the ghosts at Oprah's studios, the strange hitchhikers along Archer Avenue, the frightened souls from the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and the feared La Llorona, who just may steal your children! The devil baby and the haunted Hull house will chill you to the bone, as will Resurrection Mary. By the time you're through, you'll know all of Chi-town's greatest supernatural secrets, and you might never look at the city the same way again.

Genres: Paranormal, Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2007

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Jeanette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointed in that some of the exact outlines of time, date are here for the historical events (like the Eastland or the Iroquois Theatre)but little else. Chicago has Ghost Tours at this time and has for decades which although jocular give you better context. Several active areas of over 160 years history of witnessed appearances could have been explored here to documentation and factual connection with more depth. This telling was flat- didn't contain the nuance of character at all, in most cases, IMHO.

Knowing at least 4 people who claim to have seen Resurrection Mary that I have had a hard time disbelieving. And probably twice that for Bachelor's Grove! Well, those sections didn't get the more than a century, decades of sustained events and changes to the properties and surroundings. Not at all.

They closed the road that goes through/by Bachelors Grove Cemetery in 1965 because it was being used by/for Devil Worship rites ceremonies, drinking, drugs- those are just some of the activities I remember. Now you have to park in Rubio Woods and walk back to Bachelors Grove Woods and the small cemetery. The white lady looking for her baby, the house, the wagon coming up to drop off boarders- many witnesses have seen all of them. And photographed, as well. This book only holds pictures of the path, pond, and some of the tombstones.

This (Bachelor's Grove) is an area that stands within logistics of 10 or 12 blocks in each directions to dense housing, shopping, urban and suburban development, and has for my entire lifetime. That's what is so amazing to me- more than the haunting. That that particular area has been left as it was. Not completely, as there were foundations from a couple of houses, a little bridge, creek running through that has dwindled now, when I was a girl. Those are all gone under forest floors. But still standing are most of the vandalized tombstones and the woods themselves have altered little. Those stretches in every direction for all roads and purposes have NOT been developed. Volunteers go there to clean and inspect because of past dead animal bodies, destruction, and other garbage related reasons to try to maintain the connection to the forest preserves and their bike trails. But you can't drive there now, you have to walk in.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun ghost stories to read aloud. You can learn a lot about history through ghost stories. These weren't bone-chilling, spine-tingling stories though. Some were scarier than others, and I like the variety of scary stories and lighter legends. There were also a lot of typos.
It's a fun read with great insights to Chicago's rich history! Just lacks in the flair. You need extra flair for ghost stories.

[Adrianne Rosal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you like ghost stories? Well this book has it all!!

[Kate Murray · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has lots of ghost stories that are regional to Chicago, which is something that interests me a lot, but it's missing something. Throughout the book are multiple typos that should have been caught, and none of it is substantiated beyond "this is what people say that they've heard other people say." This is generally how ghost stories are told, of course, but it would have been a much much more interesting book if there had been any facts to back up the stories or interviews of people who had experienced the hauntings. Another thing that would have made it more effective would be an attempt at explaining the hauntings before heading straight to "it's a ghost."
For example the story about the priest and the mischievous ghost seems to me as easily explained through the priest being the mischievous one and convincing the people there was a ghost. If there had been more evidence to show that could not possibly have been the case the story would have been more convincing.
If you are interested in ghost stories purely for the stories themselves and not for the history and sociology behind them this is a fairly good read but don't waste your $15.

[Crystal Melloh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know the book is about Chicago Ghosts, but I have to agree with some of the other reviews. The author did not do her homework. I have read several ghost books, set in different cities, and most leave chills running down my spine and jumping at every little noise. This book was hard for me to read and I nearly put it down without finishing it. Something I've never done. The book felt like she was retelling what she has been told. Ghost stories, whether you believe them or not, are always better with some fact thrown in. The story of the St. Valentine Massacre, ordered by Capone, is a story in itself. If seven men were gunned down in cold blood, you can bet there will be one or two ghosts around. I think the story would have been better if the author would have given some background into what was going on and led up the massacre. I think the book could have been much better.

[Laren · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can learn a lot of history through ghost stories. This one though, is a mix of actual history and a lot of folk tales not researched for their truthfulness. The stories are entertaining, but I kept getting distracted by numerous grammatical errors ("scaring her and I" instead of "scaring her and me" hits you in the preface) and punctuation errors (ex: plural, non-possessive is "girls" not "girl's"). Considering the author claims 3 college degrees, one of which is English, I found this appalling. If you can pretend that isn't happening through, and you enjoy a good ghost story regardless of the origins, you might like this book.

[Kelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rachel Brooks offers nothing new on the subject of Chicago ghosts that hasn't already been well covered in Troy Taylor, Richard Crowe, and Ursula Bieski books. She seems to speculate rather than include real facts, this makes for a good chilling story, but leaves much to be desired when studying the subject matter from a scientific point of view.

[Abby Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

My absolute favorite part of the book was when they started talking about H. H. Holmes because in my favorite show "American Horror Story" James Patrick March is based off of Holmes and James has to be my favorite character, because of how interesting his character is and i found it so amazing to actually find out his real background story.

[Jeremy Stephens · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about the dark history and hauntings of Chicago. In fact, I find myself wanting to visit some of the places discussed in this book. The only thing I didn't like about this book was that I found it rather boring in places. Some points were so boring I found myself falling asleep.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved Bachelor's Grove and Ressurrection Mary the best. Towards the end I felt like the stories were more about murder/folklore than ghosts though.

[David Allegretti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book! Most of the subjects have been covered and are well known, but the author offers a different spin on those well known stories. Nothing like a good ghost tale to make your day!