The History Press [New Releases]

Cursed awards, haunted estates, and deadly sets.   Hollywood is supposed to be the place where dreams come true, but it's also where nightmares come to life. Spirits haunt the halls of renowned studios, legendary cafes, and lavish estates, while rumors of curses lurk in the shadows of the rich and famous. It's said that stars like James Dean, Carrie Fisher, and Prince once predicted their own deaths, while slain screenwriter Paul Bern tried in vain to warn Sharon Tate about her own fate. Ghosts reportedly linger in the corners of the El Coyote Café and the Falcon Lair boasts sightings of Rudolph Valentino long after his death./ Join author and paranormal historian Brian Clune for a star-studded tour of the dark side of Hollywood.

Chilling Tales of the Hudson Valley

Nestled on the banks of the Hudson River, Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown are steeped in history and ghost lore. Famous for Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” the storied Westchester region also has a dark history of witches, spies, and pirates. Rumors of Headless Horseman sightings surge during spooky season while visitors flock to the Valley’s haunted hot spots like the Old Dutch Church and the famed writer’s Sunnyside home. Join author and journalist Sam Baltrusis on a bone-chilling journey through the streets of Sleepy Hollow as he breathes new life into the legendary village’s long-departed souls.

Gear up for a frightful jaunt into the darkest reaches of the ancient Appalachians.

Folk deep within Appalachian hollers lean close to share stories of the inexplicable with hushed awe. Monsters rumbling in the hills. Strange lights darting through the pitch-black night sky. Horrible occurrences, almost ineffable in their bizarre tragedy. "Tall tales," you might say. But tell that to the Flatwoods monster in Braxton County, West Virginia. Or the Goat Man of Louisville--look into his humanoid eyes and let him know you don't believe. And what of those apparitions in Mammoth Cave's Corpse Rock, or the Satan-spawn known as the Jersey Devil? How do you respond when those mysteries confront? From metaphysical energy that swirls near the Serpent Mound in Ohio to Point Pleasant's Mothman legacy, Mark Muncy and Kari Schultz explore the dark history lurking in the shadows of Appalachia..

Tales of fairies and bewitching Little People have amazed and horrified New Englanders for over four hundred years. 

In the nineteenth century, residents of Marblehead, Massachusetts, reported malicious pixies leading them in circles at dusk. In Aroostook County, Maine, elves called lutins exasperated farmers with their mischievous tricks and games. In Uncasville, Connecticut, beguiling creatures emerged for centuries at twilight to collect corn-filled baskets from members of the Mohegan Tribe. And in Harrisville, Rhode Island, a vision of fearful banshees augured death to an Irish seer.

From the ancient tales of Algonquian elders to the fireside stories of European immigrants, Andrew Warburton scours New England folklore to uncover the secrets of the region's Fair Folk and the storytellers who've encountered them through the years.

A Fabulous Fable of the Supernatural Kind

The saga of the Morristown ghost has been told around campfires and dinner tables in Morris County for generations. Local legend claimed British Loyalists secretly buried stolen Patriot treasure on Schooley Mountain as they fled the oncoming forces of George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Years later in 1788, a former school teacher from Connecticut, Ransford Rodgers, convinced local prominent Morristown families that a ghost was protecting the true location of the treasure and he alone could exercise it. Little did the victims know, Rodgers was perpetuating an elaborate hoax and eventually extorted large sums of money from the embarrassed local elite. The tale has been recounted in various sensational pamphlets and publications ever since, leaving behind a mystery of what is true or myth.

Author Peter Zablocki separates fact from fiction in the story of the great Morristown ghost hoax.

U.S. Route 44 stretches across New England from Massachusetts to Connecticut before completing its circuit in New York State, 237 miles later. Along the way, travelers may encounter the infamous Bridgewater Triangle, take a haunted tour of Plymouth, or see the ghosts of Chepachet.

Follow in the footsteps of famous science fiction horror writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft from Providence to Glocester, Rhode Island. Follow the road through small towns and dark forests where sightings of UFOs and cryptids have surprised travelers for years.

Join authors Tom D’Agostino and Arlene Nicholson as they explore the dark corners of New England’s most haunted highway.

Edgar Allan Poe has had a busy afterlife.

The author of “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” might have died back in 1849, but some claim that did not stop him from composing poetry for another four decades. Others say he still makes appearances in no fewer than five cities, and that his ghost is a regular at a couple of different taverns, one of which saves a seat for him. Like a character from one of his short stories, Poe refuses to stay buried.

Author Christopher Semtner explores the ghost stories and hauntings associated with his life—from the supernatural legends that inspired his writing to the alleged paranormal activity inspired by those terror tales.

Enigmatic mediums, murders, monsters, and more are all part of Michigan's mysterious and sometimes supernatural history.

The will of Detroit's first millionaire, Eber B. Ward, was hotly contested because he took the financial advice of spirits. Marian Spore Bush, Bay City's first female dentist, moved to New York City, where she became a psychic wonder--and a secret philanthropist. Old witchcraft superstitions drove a Mount Morris family insane and caused another man to murder his godmother in Trenton.

Researcher Amberrose Hammond brings to light strange and unusual tales from Michigan's colorful and exciting past.

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.

The sweltering heat of the Florida sun breaks as a chill runs down your spine. A dark shadow looms from a nearby tourist trap - you didn't expect to find this kind of shade in Florida.

If only there was some sort of travel guide to steer you through the spookier locales. Well, you're in luck. Check in at The Biltmore in Coral Gables to spot the ghost of slain Fatty Walsh roaming the thirteenth floor. Sit down for a meal with the spirit of Ethel Allen at Ashley's Restaurant in Rockledge. Visit haunted graveyards, museums, parks and battlefields. Hear macabre stories of spectral pirates, gangsters, witches and madmen. From phantasmagoric packs of Madam McCoy's girls on Pensacola streets down to the ghostly clacking of Hemingway's typewriter in the Keys, Mark Muncy and Kari Schultz lead brave readers through the darkest locations in the Sunshine State.

More than four decades after the great aircraft carrier U.S.S. Yorktown last served her country, the ghosts of battle are still heard and felt onboard.

Staff members and visitors claim to have experienced disembodied voices, uniformed apparitions, shadowy masses and other unexplainable occurrences since the ""Fighting Lady"" first docked at Patriots Point. Join local author, investigator and "ghostorian'? Bruce Orr as he examines the history, haunting and heritage of the National Historic Landmark and home of Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum.

Discover the spirits that still walk the banks of the Rappahannock River.

Though the streets of Fredericksburg are peaceful today, the ghosts of the past still lurk in the shadows. From the colonial era to the Civil War, the region witnessed some of the most dramatic and bloody events in American history. A woman in white is seen walking the grounds of Chatham Manor every seven years. At the Rising Sun Tavern, a rowdy tavern keeper continues to make his presence known two hundred years after his death. The spirit of Mary Washington, the mother of the first president, has been seen tending her beloved garden.

Join historian Michelle L. Hamilton on a spirited tour of haunted Fredericksburg.   

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.

Bucolic Door County has a rich haunted history of spooky shipwrecks, bizarre tales and ghost stories.

Because Door County received its name from Death's Door, the perilous strait with more freshwater shipwrecks than anywhere else in the world, it should be no surprise that the idyllic county has plenty of ghostly history. In the company of storyteller Gayle Soucek, meet lighthouse keepers whose sense of duty extends beyond the grave. Catch a glimpse of the phantom ship Le Griffon, never seen for more than a moment since it sailed through a crack in the ice in 1679. And it is not just the waters of Door County that carry the freight of haunted tales--Country Road T has its share of spooks, bizarre beasts have caused disturbances in the woods and there are whispered rumors that infamous gangster Al Capone added to the county's stock of ghosts through a handful of brutal murders, including an ex-girlfriend and two unacknowledged children.

In this comprehensive compilation of ghost stories and local legends, Shelley Wygant explores the history and horrors of a village that somehow lives on.

Beginning with its founding in 1772, Ellicott City endured an endless procession of tragic deaths. As a result, this eighteenth-century mill town is packed with restless spirits and unexplained supernatural occurrences. A mysterious artist haunts Castle Angelo and threatens to throw residents into the river below. Many of the temporary occupants of the former Easton and Sons Funeral Home seem to have remained, and the ghost of Annie Van Derlot still inhabits the ruins of the Patapsco Female Institute.

Across the state of Michigan, uneasy spirits stir in what should be their final resting places.

At Reynolds Cemetery in Jackson, the ghost of Eunice White, traveling from nearby Woodlawn Cemetery, can be seen visiting her father's grave. A mysterious lady in white roams the center of Lovejoy Cemetery in Durand. An apparition of the pacing man appears at Mount Joy in St. Johns. And only the bravest dare visit the Upper Peninsula's Mission Hill Cemetery, where a Native American spirit might appear to point them in the right direction.

Author and paranormal investigator Bradley P. Mikulka leads a tour of some of the Wolverine State's many haunted cemeteries.

The Ohio State Reformatory has a century long history of housing thousands of the most dangerous criminals, and the angry ghosts of the past still roam the corridors.

First opened in 1896, the Ohio State Reformatory intended to do what their name implied, to reform young offenders, but eventually came to house the most dangerous criminals in society. Built on a former Civil War camp ravaged by disease, one can only imagine the unease creeping through the cells and down the dark corridors, made famous as the backdrop for the The Shawshank Redemption. The prison grew to hold more than a thousand prisoners, suffering what were described as brutalizing and inhumane conditions. Ghost tour guide Sherri Brake escorts the reader on a tour of the dark and violent history of one of America's most notorious prisons, the spirits of these men still haunting these halls, forever searching for justice... or revenge.

Ghostly travelers are said to wander the lonely roads of western Pennsylvania. Is it the angry spirit of a jealous husband or a gypsy king who stalks Erie County's Axe Murder Hollow?

A creeping fog rises from Blue Mist Road, and stories of car crashes, lynchings and even strange beasts haunt this isolated stretch outside Pittsburgh. Shades of Death Road in Washington County may be host to phantom coal miners killed during a deadly labor dispute. With firsthand accounts and historical research, authors Thomas White and Tony Lavorgne travel the backcountry roads and byways of western Pennsylvania to discover their ghost tales and mysterious legends.

Trace the haunted heritage of America's Mother Road across Oklahoma.

Route 66 may seem like a quieter thoroughfare than it was in its heyday, but the ghosts of Oklahoma's past bustle along unabated. When the sun sets on the Road of Dreams, the shadows of its roadside attractions take on a nightmarish cast. British airmen disappear into the mist above Miami. Phantoms stir in the Dust Bowl's shallow grave. A westbound Frisco train hops the rails outside Kellyville. Author Tanya McCoy expertly weaves amongst the spirits still traveling along Oklahoma's historic Route 66

Wandering spirits, vengeful ghosts, and unexplained sightings in Tucson, Arizona.

The benign, candle-carrying ghost of Mayor Levi Manning is reported to roam the halls of Manning House, while a frightening presence is said to lurk in the projectionist room at the Fox Theatre. In Room 242 of the Hotel Congress, guests have described a woman in white sitting at the end of the bed, while other spirits have been spotted in the halls. From the Mission San Xavier del Bac, built in 1700, to the grounds of the University of Arizona, stories of paranormal encounters abound. 

Join author Daryl F. Mallett and discover the thrilling and bone-chilling history of the Old Pueblo.

Rediscover Cleveland’s Forgotten Hauntings/

Hiding in obscure corners and in plain sight, chilling tales from Cleveland’s paranormal past await reawakening. A tale from 1840 places the city’s first haunted house on the windswept commons south of town. Hanged murderers were said to roam the corridors of the Old County Jail, and the 1885 disinterment of the old Cleveland Medical College graveyard led to reports of nocturnal phantoms throughout the excavation. With the construction of Bulkley Boulevard in 1912, many West Side homes were demolished. Also destroyed was the entrance to what neighbors menacingly called The Cave of Apparitions.

Take a step back in time with author and investigative historian William G. Krejci on this journey through Cleveland’s long lost ghostly past.

"Show me your cemeteries, and I will tell you what kind of people you have.'?- Benjamin Franklin

Discover the historic haunts and frightful specters that make the city of brotherly love a haven for unexplained phenomena.

Author Josh Hitchens details the spooky stories of Philadelphia's past and present.