In late November of 1941, Myrna Mitchell finished feeding her 8 month old son, Laurel, breakfast. She left him in his high chair with an arrowroot teething biscuit and a spoon “to keep him occupied” while she went into the kitchen to wash up from breakfast. Halfway through her last load, she heard a small [...]
One of the most well known ghosts in Chicago, or the world, the apparition known as “Resurrection Mary” has frequently been seen in dance halls and along road sides. People, primarily men, have reported dancing with her, speaking with her, and giving her a lift “home,” although she invariably vanishes from the car before any [...]
There is a ring that floats from thrift store to resale shop to antique store, made of iron, with an amethyst intaglio about the size of a quarter. The intaglio, or cameo, is not a crisp carving. The edges are soft, blurred. However, it seems to depict a woman from the bust up. She has [...]
There is a bakery in Albany Park, nestled between a linen store and a children’s clothing store. It has a closed sign hanging in the door, but the lights are on. If you try the door, you’ll find it unlocked and will be able to enter.
The baked goods are reason enough to visit this particular [...]
There is a man with shoulder-length tangled hair who dresses in a white robe and a red sash, bearing a large wooden cross over his shoulder, who rides the CTA. He is most active during the morning commute, transferring at various stations down town, being visible. Most people ignore him, or surreptitiously take photographs to [...]
In 1996, four students at Chicago University who were working together on a paper for a European History class, discovered that they had all been having the same recurring dream since childhood.
In the dream, they all have various jobs (cook, stable boy, ale wench) at a Medieval-feeling inn. Each disclosed details the others remembered, vivid [...]
There is a vacant lot in Jefferson Park within easy walking distance of the train station. The area around it is entirely built up, but the lot is empty save for a large boulder near the middle.
Efforts, of course, were made to clear the lot and build there. When workers returned to the job site [...]
Congestion of the head and chest is a common complaint in the Mid West, in the winter. There is a little known but very effective, if slightly difficult, cure.
One must catch a fish from the River and bring it, still alive, to the afflicted person. At this point, the afflicted person must exhale three times [...]
Chicago is a city of large, old buildings. Large, old buildings attract various vermin.
To rid your pantry of cockroaches, the following are effective:
1) lay a fine, powdery coating of boric acid along cracks, corners, and crevices
2) crumble several dried bay leaves in a bit of nylon to create a sachet, and leave them scattered in [...]
At the same time the White City glittered and glimmered along the Lakefront, promising a bright future of electric lights, clean water, and a police force that prevented crime instead of chasing it after the fact, the man known as H H Holmes was firmly ensconced in his “castle,” murdering women with whom he’d had [...]