There are plenty of ghost stories from Illinois to choose from - some involve vanishing apparitions while others appear in the form of spooky sounds and otherworldly footsteps. These creepy Illinois tales cover everything from ghost stories to things that do a whole lot more than go bump in the night. Some Illinois urban legends are even rooted in historical fact, making them all the more creepy. Do you dare read these tales at night with the lights off?
Henry H. Holmes, also known as H.H. Holmes, owned a successful pharmacy in Chicago in the late 1800s. The building across the street from his pharmacy - a multi-storied structure with 60 rooms, hidden passages, and secret staircases - also served as a place for him to explore his favorite hobby - murder.
Holmes reportedly rented out rooms to visitors who were in town for the Columbia Exposition, except none of those renters ever returned home. Once the exposition was over, he then placed help wanted ads in the paper in order to lure in unsuspecting young women whom he killed upon their arrival, most likely in his basement chamber of horrors.
When police finally caught on and investigated Holmes, they found body parts in vats and jars throughout the basement, along with quicklime pits and corrosive acids. Although the murder house has long been torn down, workers at the post office that now sits at that same location claim to hear disembodied screams, see orbs, and witness other creepy phenomena.
Forest Park is home to a unique set of spirits - former circus performers. The Showman's Rest section of Woodlawn Cemetery holds the bodies of a number of circus sideshow performers who died in a tragic 1918 train crash. As the story goes, the train conductor fell asleep and the train went off the tracks, killing almost 100 circus workers.
They are apparently still performing today, as ghostly elephants and creepy circus music can still be heard coming from the cemetery late at night.
Haunted Bricks From The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
February 14, 1929, will live on forever in infamy as the day that Al Capone and his goons gunned down a rival gang in cold blood. The site of the St. Valentine's Day massacre retains the violence of that day, even though the building has long been torn down. Before the building was completely demolished, a night club took over the space, and the bullet riddled bricks from the massacre were placed on display in the men's restroom.
After the club closed, its owner took those bricks and sold them, but received most of them back, as their recipients complained of streaks of bad luck that followed them. Now, that space is a vacant corner belonging to a nursing home, and people who walk past complain of a negative energy, haunting gunshots, and floating orbs in the area where the bloody wall once stood.
Phantom vehicles, a devilish dog with red eyes, a vanishing barn, and the disembodied laughter of school children are just a few of the many paranormal occurrences that have been reported by visitors to Blood's Point Road located in Illinois's Flora Township.
This unlikely combination of horror stems from a nearby cemetery and the bridge at Sweeny Road where, legend says, a school bus once crashed killing numerous children. This bridge is also rumored to have been the location of numerous hangings - both events adding to this being one of the creepiest places in the state.
Egypt, IL, has its very own prized ghost legend. Some years back, a man suddenly died while waiting at a bus stop in the city, and now his spirit is trapped riding that same bus line into eternity as the vanishing man. He has been known to get on the bus only to disappear from plain sight as soon as the bus passes over a particular bridge. There's no way of knowing it's him, that is until he vanishes into thin air right before your eyes.
Moon Point Cemetery in the town of Streator predates the Civil War - and so does one of its scariest ghosts. Dubbed the Hatchet Lady, she has (as one might guess) been seen carrying a hatchet while keeping watch over her son's grave, and has been known to shout menacingly at visitors to "get out" when they come too close to his resting place.
Other phenomena in the cemetery include the ghostly spirit of a young boy, multi-colored orbs of light, and even the haunting sounds of sarcophagus lids opening and closing.
