Midwest

Northern Ohio’s past is rich and deep, but it also has a darker and odder side.

A police chase for a UFO began in Portage County and stretched eighty-five miles from Ohio into Pennsylvania. Gangster Pretty Boy Floyd met his end in East Liverpool, and infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer began his murderous career in Medina County. The region is also home to peculiar beings such as Orange Eyes, the Melonheads and the armless Charles Mill Lake Monster.

Join author James A. Willis as he forges a trail across Northern Ohio in search of all things eerie, inexplicable and just plain weird.

Scary, mysterious & just plain weird stories from Southern Ohio

The southern portion of the Buckeye State has long attracted its fair share of colorful characters and odd occurrences. Infamous bootlegger George Remus rose to power shortly after moving to Cincinnati. Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys, was born and raised in southern Ohio. Some even say creatures not of this planet are drawn to the area, which has had numerous UFO sightings. In the same region, an unassuming university professor got away with murder, an eccentric built his version of a European castle using nearby river rocks, and a headless motorcycle ghost roams a rural roadway.

Ride along with author James A. Willis as he ventures into Southern Ohio in search of all things strange and spooky.

The true story of a woman who abandoned Chicago for a secluded life in a remote shack—and became an early twentieth-century sensation.

In the fall of 1915, an educated woman named Alice Gray traded her life in bustling Chicago for a solitary journey in the remote sand hills of northwest Indiana along Lake Michigan. Living in a fisherman’s shack, she measured herself against nature rather than society’s rigid conventions. Her audacity so bewitched reporters and a curious public that she became a legend in her own time—she became “Diana of the Dunes.”

Over a century later, the story is still a popular folktale, but questions remain. Who was Alice Gray? Why did this Phi Beta Kappa scholar leave Chicago? What happened to her soul mate, Paul Wilson? In this first-ever book about Diana of the Dunes, the mystery of Alice Gray is revealed by those who knew her and through new research. Excerpts from her dunes diary are published here for the first time since 1918. In these pages, rediscover the legend of Diana of the Dunes—and learn the truth.

Springfield has launched a lot of history, from the career of Abraham Lincoln to the wagon train that bore the doomed Donner party. But some pieces of that history stubbornly linger to haunt the present. Meet the Gibson Girl who introduced her society circle to séances and the vengeful actor who held down a leading role as mischief maker after death. From the shadows in Oak Ridge Cemetery’s Receiving Vault to specters at the Vinegar Hill Mall, Garret Moffett offers an expanded tour of the eerie corners of Springfield’s past.

Ghouls of the Glacial Lakes and Prairie Region

Buried in the annals of the region are torrid tales, disasters and the unexplained. At historic Fort Sisseton, the old hanging tree and a phantom buffalo soldier are just a few of its spectral stories. Partygoers from over a century ago still linger at Aberdeen’s Easton Castle. De Smet’s historic Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead attracts thousands of visitors annually, many unaware of its familial spirts. Locals in Watertown still debate whether the apparition at the Goss Opera House is that of a traveling performer named Annie or murder victim Maud Alexander, who was set on fire by her own son. Victims of a 1940 train wreck between Milbank and Marvin seemingly never left the scene of the accident. And Captain Luff of The Muskegon disaster can be seen mourning on the banks of Big Stone Lake. Author Deborah Cuyle chronicles the area’s most fascinating and perplexing lore. 

Historic, haunted, chilling tales of the town of Naperville, Illinois as told by America's Ghost Storyteller. A must-read for fans of the paranormal.

Established in 1831, Naperville is one of the oldest settlements in the Greater Chicago area. The city's rich and fascinating heritage has been carefully passed down from one proud generation to the next; however, nowhere has Naperville's ghostly oral tradition and haunted history been preserved until now.

Most of Naperville's unique legends--compiled for the first time ever in these pages--arose from accounts of actual historic events and from the lives of notable personages in the city's long history. As the tragic events and persons faded from living memory, all that might remain of them would be ghost stories whispered by firelight and, later, by flashlight tucked under a teenager's chin at slumber parties.

Some eerie legends in these pages have origins that are lost in time, and still other hair-raising ghost stories included in this work are chilling contemporary, firsthand accounts of paranormal encounters within Naperville's sprawling boundaries . . . perhaps from even just down the street.

From the jail cell that once held John Dillinger to quaint shops with dark beginnings, the restless spirits of Crown Point purportedly result from a century-old hex.

Legend had it that a caravan of gypsies found themselves unfairly exiled from town. Forced to leave their beloved dead behind in unmarked graves, they invoked a venomous curse on the townspeople and vowed that no ancestor would be allowed eternal peace. Paranormal researcher Judith Tometczak exposes evidence of this deceptively quiet town's dark side.

Stroll along silent corridors of an abandoned asylum and linger among graves of Civil War dead—and discover the eerie ends of Stark County's departed souls.

Ghostly diners, violent crimes of passion, phantoms peering from theatre balconies, canal workers who still walk the towpaths—the haunted history of Stark County includes characters and legends as bizarre as they are terrifying. Take a bone-chilling journey with Sherri Brake, owner of Haunted Heartland Tours, as she recounts tales of superstitious pioneers and the horrors of the great influenza epidemic of 1918.

Make sure the flashlight is on for these historic, haunted, chilling tales of the town of Willoughby as told by one of Northeast Ohio's most respected paranormal investigators.

Willoughby, a historic town located 20-miles east of Cleveland, has a chilling history sure to engage everyone from the most casual reader of ghost stories to the most dedicated paranormal researcher. Welcome to Willoughby Cemetery, where the Girl in Blue's restless spirit lingers near her grave, waiting to engage even the most skeptical visitors. Enter Willoughby Coal & Supply Company at your own risk and delve into the mysterious death of owner Don Norris in 1947. Meet Zip, whose spirit continues to watch over the building and, according to local legend, guards a hidden treasure to this day. Face the menacing apparitions that peer from the building's darkened windows at night for all of the locals to see. From ancient Whittlesey legends, and echoes of events that have shaped the course of the town, to tales of the tragic and bizarre, Haunted Willoughby, Ohio combines folklore, local legends and mysteries, first-person accounts, historical facts, and archival and contemporary images to capture the city's supernatural past and present.

A must for any ghost hunter or lover of tales of historic haunts, join local expert Cathi Weber, who has led countless investigations around Lake County and is the founder of Willoughby Area Paranormal Education and Research Society, as she explores the traditions, spooky heritage and true stories that are part of Willoughby's high-spirited history.

Northern Ohio’s past is rich and deep, but it also has a darker and odder side.

A police chase for a UFO began in Portage County and stretched eighty-five miles from Ohio into Pennsylvania. Gangster Pretty Boy Floyd met his end in East Liverpool, and infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer began his murderous career in Medina County. The region is also home to peculiar beings such as Orange Eyes, the Melonheads and the armless Charles Mill Lake Monster.

Join author James A. Willis as he forges a trail across Northern Ohio in search of all things eerie, inexplicable and just plain weird.