Haunted & Paranormal

Every city has its odd and scary side, and Dayton is no exception.

The ghost of Paul Sorg still sits in his favorite seat in the Sorg Opera House more than a hundred years after his death. The so-called phantom terrorized truck drivers crossing the Englewood Dam before disappearing for good. The famed Butter Street Monster roams Germantown. Magee Park is home to numerous bigfoot and ghost sightings--and even a unicorn sighting. A building of many names, the tower on Patterson Boulevard in Kettering near Hills and Dales Park has been the source of many stories for generations, but only now is its true story finally told.

Dayton native, author, and host of the Dayton Unknown blog Sara Kaushal leads a chilling tour of Gem City's strange and unusual history.

In the early 1790s, a Lutheran family in Appalachia fell victim to a menacing spirit that Lutheran, Methodist and Episcopal clergy as well as Folk magic practitioners failed to remove. The entity, which came to be known as the Wizard Clip, was said to cut or slice anything made of cloth or leather. Was it a ghost or a demon? After years of torment, the deeply Protestant family finally found respite from a seemingly impossible ally, a Catholic exorcist. This legend has eerie parallels to lore of ghosts and witches from the Old World as well as the early American Republic. As American religious leaders sought to find a place for their congregations in a post-Revolutionary time of enlightened secularism, tales like these helped churches define themselves, and this particular story was used to distinguish Catholic supernaturalism from later spiritualism.

Author Michael Kishbucher tells a spooky and incredibly compelling story that shines a light on the region's religious history.

Strange and unusual things lurk behind the calm façade of Dearborn County.

Several legends surround Hillforest Mansion, the home of one of Aurora's founding families. Many have seen the ghost of a farmer and his mule at Carnegie Hall in Moores Hill. The glowing grave at Riverview Cemetery may connect to the 1941 Agrue family massacre. St. Mary's Church rectory is said to be haunted by the former priest, and the spirits at Whisky's in Lawrenceburg are not just in the drinks. Several schools in the area echo with the sounds of former students and staff, and numerous local residences house the spirits of former owners who never left.

Join Mary Ellen Quigley and Rebecca Wilhelm on a chilling tour from Lawrenceburg to Lawrenceville and beyond.

Explore the origins of Wood County lore.

Ghostly tales abound from fallen war heroes of Bowling Green State University to the darkened woods of Holcomb Road. The spirit of Frank Simonds, a venerated World War I veteran who nearly got away with murder, may linger around Main Street in Bowling Green. A soldier who died in a desperate attempt to save hundreds still guards Fort Meigs. Though nothing stands there now, the spot of the infamous Woodbury House remains a terror--just as it was for the earliest settlers in the area.

Wonder-seeker and amateur folklorist Melissa Davies reveals the stranger side of local history.

Discover school spirits and downtown haunts of Bloomington, Indiana

For many, the most terrifying sight in Bloomington is the bathroom in a freshman dorm, but even more disturbing things lurk in the dark corners of this college town. Two haunted portraits hang in the Indiana Memorial Union Building, and the ghosts of suicides roam the stairwell in Ballantine Hall. At the end of every night, bartenders at a downtown pub pour a shot of whiskey for a not-so-dearly-departed spirit. At a nearby old manor, two ghost children stir up trouble. Farther out of town, in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest lies Stepp Cemetery, a remote and desolate graveyard that is one of the most haunted locations in Indiana.

Join Bloomington native Klara Lee Sweet on a spine-tingling tour of the city's spectral history.

Residents of Kernersville have spent lifetimes looking after each other--and sometimes they continue after death.

Nestled between Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point, Kernersville transformed from a sleepy little village stop on the Great Wagon Road into a thriving community in the nineteenth century--one with its share of ghost tales. Does a young soldier haunt the Kernersville Museum, flirting with the women who work there? Learn the truth of the ghost of the old McCuiston House. Local institutions like the P&N Store and Snow's Diner also claim their share of spooky stories.

Kernersville Museum director Kelly Hargett and local theater founder Scott Icenhower tell ghost tales that are sometimes comical, sometimes heartwarming, and sometimes a little hair raising.

What unknown spirits lurk among the living in the Gateway to Wisconsin?

oin Candice Shatkins, a founding member of the Paranormal Investigators of Kenosha, as she uncovers the spooky secrets and unlikely legends of Kenosha County. From a secret burial chamber under a library to Wisconsin's very own Wolfman, a shipwreck on Black Tuesday to the haunted observatory tower of a former seminary and boarding school, Kenosha's ghosts are sure to delight visitors and residents alike in this stirring account of the area's historic haunts.

Beyond the sunny shores and emerald waters of Panama City, restless spirits lurk.

The ghosts that haunt this lovely city are reminders of Florida's past: the battles, murders, and destructive acts of nature that took the lives of countless men and women. Staff at the City Center for the Arts can still hear the footsteps of inmates pacing the cells of the Old County Jail that once occupied the grounds, and a phantom known as Virginia still frequents the elevators of the historic Bay County Courthouse. Not all spirits bring doom and gloom, however--one local family learned how to befriend the resident ghost of their new home that was fond of whistling at night. Using extensive research and interviews, author Beverly Nield details the ghastly history of haunted Panama City.

The long history of San Jose has accumulated a remarkable amount of ghostly tales, from things that go bump in the night to its most famous haunt, the Winchester Mystery House.

A ghostly bride stalks the corridors of the Sainte Claire Hotel, and a spectral janitor still carries out his duties at Overfelt High. At the La Forêt Restaurant, long-dead miners from New Almaden are rumored to appear in rooms they once called home. The ancestral land of the Ohlone people might now be the home of high tech, but its haunted past remains.

Author, educator and lifelong resident Elizabeth Kile brings to life the memories of those who came before -- and those who never left.

Among the rolling hills, picturesque farms and lush highlands of Northwestern New Jersey lurk haunting mysteries and unexplained apparitions.

A historic recluse who practiced witchcraft generations ago is said to be still spinning misdeeds as the Sussex Sorcerer on Sunrise Mountain. The ghost of Reverend O'Malley walks the woods around Mount Allamuchy as the Purple Bishop, seeking vengeance against those who betrayed him. The sinisterly named Shades of Death Road along the sod farms and meadows of the Pequest River Valley has a bloody reputation of bandit killings, Lenape massacres and supernatural encounters.

Author Robert Oakes leads readers on a spirited journey through the historic ghost lore of Northwestern New Jersey.

The spirits of the Old West are alive and kicking in Flagstaff.

Once home to outlaws and pioneers, many former residents of this small mountain town never left. Read about the ghosts of the Weatherford Hotel, where strange sightings and disturbing events aren't just confined to the Zane Grey Ballroom. Step inside the Hotel Monte Vista, where locals swear that the Grizzly Meat Man still roams the hallways. Discover the historic train depot, an eternal home to those departed souls that once worked the rails, including a ghostly former train conductor.

Join author Susan Johnson as she uncovers the supernatural side of Flagstaff's fascinating history.

Many things go bump in the night in Licking County, and not all of them are rowdy undergraduates. Some are the restless spirits of the dead.

With specters plaguing the chapel, the library, and a dorm room, Granville's Denison University is one of the most haunted campuses in the country. Nearby at the historic Buxton Inn, previous owners look after the property in death as they did in life. The grave of a Johnstown witch is said to emit an eerie green mist every Halloween night. A young boy's ghost floats on the water of Hell Lake, and a mysterious woman in white haunts the bridge on Swamp Road.

Author and paranormal investigator with the Tri-C Ghost Hunters Nova Stiles leads a bone-chilling tour through the haunted history of Licking County.

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. 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.

These stories and more are wrenched from the gravest parts of America's past--real lives of people on plantations from Savannah and the coast of the Carolinas.

A shackled West African tribe drags themselves off aslave ship while singing, drowning in a Georgia creek to avoid being sold. Mysterious letters from a long-ruined church near Mepkin Abbey solicit a man to join faith. A French teacher disappears from a school after marking final exams in blood. An Egyptian mummy triggers a heart attack in a city museum. Most of these stories deal with the hub of the East Coast slave trade, Charleston, South Carolina. All are richly illustrated with both historic and contemporary images. Dwelling in the affairs of plantation life is to tread the fires of emotionally raw history. Sifting through the folklore and legends, the old hushed embers of the south ignite once again in this collection. While these stories relate encounters with the supernatural, readers will find that what actually happened here doesn'talways need a ghost to be disquieting.

For the first time in print, Michael Kleen presents the full story of the Prairie State's dalliance with the dark arts.

Although Illinois saw no dramatic witch trials, witchcraft has been a part of Illinois history and culture from French exploration to the present day. On the Illinois frontier, pioneers pressed silver dimes into musket balls to ward off witches, while farmers dutifully erected fence posts according to phases of the moon. In 1904, the quiet town of Quincy was shocked to learn of Bessie Bement's suicide, after the young woman sought help from a witch doctor to break a hex. In turn-of-the-century Chicago, Lauron William de Laurence's occult publishing house churned out manuals for performing bizarre rituals intended to attract love and exact revenge.

Beyond the façade of stately Louisiana platations are stories of hope and subjugation, tragedy and suffering, shame and perseverance and war and conquest.

After sixteen workers chopped down most of the Houmas House's ancient oak trees, referred to as "the Gentlemen," eight of the surviving trees eerily twisted overnight in grief over the losses wrought by a great Mississippi River flood. An illegal duel to reclaim lost honor left the grounds of Natchez's Cherokee Plantation bloodstained, but the victim's spirit may still wander there today. A mutilated slave girl named Chloe still haunts the halls of the Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville. Cheryl H. White and W. Ryan Smith reveal the dark history, folklore and lasting human cost of Louisiana plantation life.

New Orleans has a reputation as a home for creatures of the night. Popular books, movies and television shows have cemented the city's connection to vampires in public imagination.

Rumors swirled about the fate of the Casket Girls, a group of mysterious maidens traveling to the New World from France with peculiar casket-shaped boxes. A charismatic man who moved to the French Quarter in the early 1900s eerily resembled a European aristocrat of one hundred years prior bearing the same name. A pair of brothers terrorized the town with their desire to feed on living human blood during the Great Depression. Marita Woywod Crandle investigates the origins of these legends so intricately woven through New Orleans's rich history.

Along Indiana's northern border, Elkhart County is a rich mixture of industry and agriculture, tradition and innovation--and it has a reputation for paranormal activity.

The Winchester Mansion is haunted by the eccentric Nellie Knickerbocker, who, rumor says, slept in her own coffin. The spirits of three former workers roam the Old Bag Factory. A scowling spirit in a nurse's uniform once stalked the Clark Street Hospital while the Wilt House is home to a ghostly girl. A basketball player and mysterious organ music both play on at the Washington Township High School, and a former stagehand stalks the Bristol Opera House.

Join author Mark P. Doddington for a tour of all things spooky in Elkhart County.

Listen to the unrestful dead of the Buckeye State's many graveyards

Throughout Ohio, chilling tales abound of places where the dead do not rest in their peaceful earthen beds. In a field east of Cleveland, the ghost of a missing farmhand returned to expose his murder. The violin music of a Cincinnati-area abolitionist continues to linger at a small burial ground in the hills west of the city, and a grave in Central Ohio is haunted by the spirit of a young girl with an ancestral connection to a dark chapter of America's past.

E.R. Cutright, founder of Columbus Ghost Tours in Columbus, explores the sundry Ohio cemeteries and graveyards where the dead demand their stories be told.