Plano's old homes and businesses are rife with haunted history. Explore eerie urban legends like the Goat Man, the Clown Threat, and Ranch 111, where devil worshipers performed their rituals. The Evaporating Apparition spooked the staff at the Art Centre Theatre, while the grumpy spirit of an old rancher stalks the Masonic Lodge. Some specters are harmless, such as the Giggling Ghost, a little girl in the Cox Building with a penchant for peanut butter and pranks. Other figures own a more sinister reputation. The Witch Lady of Plano was feared by city youth and monitored by the FBI. Mary Jacobs examines the ghostly fallout of Plano's darkest moments, from the smallpox epidemic to the gruesome Muncey family murders.
Mary Jacobs is producer of Plano podcast and a freelance writer specializing in health and fitness, spirituality and issues relating to older adults. She writes regularly for the Dallas Morning News, the Silver Century, Religion News Service, United Methodist News Service and other outlets. Mary was the founding organizer of TEDxPlano in 2014 and served as a speaker in 2017. Mary and her husband, Steve Lavine, have four grown children and live in Plano, Texas, in a home ruled by a five-pound Yorkie.