Lists of military graves in Chicago tend to list two Revolutionary War vets – but neither are verifiable. In fact, they’re quite dubious. Lincoln Park hosts a memorial boulder to David Kennison, who claimed to be a 115 year old veteran of the Boston Tea Party. A note in his pension file says not to Read More…
Category: podcast
Was John Stone Chicago’s First Serial Killer? (podcast)
John Stone was the first murderer hanged in Chicago – and suggested the murder wasn’t his first. An “oral history” of his Chicago crime.
Burnham’s “Make No Little Plans” Quote: Apocryphal No More!
Locating and reprinting the original speech in which Daniel Burnham told city planners to “make no little plans.” Reprinted for the first time since 1910!
The Devil and Daniel Elston
Did the devil stalk the north branch of the river in the 1850s, tempting boys to steal apples? And was Knud Iverson drowned for refusing, or was his death a tragic accident? A controversy from 1853.
The Cop Who Cried Wolf
Listen above, on archive.org, or iTunes. Or see more podcasts! Pictured above is Officer Curran. In 1925, he was working the desk at the County Building, where gangsters John Scalisi and Albert Anselmi had just been brought in . They’d been arrested after a chaotic day in which they’d gone out with Mike Genna to Read More…
Podcast: A Suicide Bridge Ghost Story
See more podcasts This year, I had the distinct honor of running the “Haunted History” tours at the Lincoln Park Zoo, which gave me a good opportunity to research some interesting aspects of the Zoo that I didn’t know about, search as zoo director Marlin Perkins’ search for the Yeti. And, of course, the ghost Read More…
Finding The Very Punny Civil War Dispatches of Irving W. Carson
The life and works of Irving Carson, the first journalist killed in the Civil War (and a bit of Han Solo-type).
HH Holmes and Jack the Ripper: The Chicago Evidence (with podcast)
Listen to the audio above; or check out the podcast on archive.org or iTunes! Or check out the video version on youtube. My massive new book, HH HOLMES: THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE WHITE CITY DEVIL is out now from Skyhorse Publishing, on the heels of starred reviews in Booklist and Library Journal! In Read More…