Forest Preserve crews in suburban Oak Forest have run into a problem – some of the land the county bought to expand the forest preserve district overlaps with the old potter’s field (cemetery for unclaimed bodies), which was in use mainly from 1912-1940, when the county had stopped using Dunning as the main Potter’s field…
Tag: news
Chicago-made 1916 Sherlock Holmes Film Recovered!
As some of you know, this spring I’ll have new book out on silent film production in Chicago. Co-written with Michael Glover Smith, Flickering Empire will be published by Wallflower, the film studies imprint of Columbia University Press. In the draft, we talk a bit about the Sherlock Holmes film that Chicago’s Essanay studios made in…
JUST KILL ME announced
Just a quick break from our regularly scheduled program of death, disease and destruction for a little announcement: In 2015, Simon and Schuster will be publishing my new novel, Just Kill Me, a black comedy about a teenage intern at a Chicago ghost tour company who is accused of murder after rumors spread that the…
Human Heads at O’Hare
A package of more than a dozen severed human heads is currently being holed up at O’Hare. Officials are acting like this is no big deal, but I would have loved to see the TSA agent’s face when the coolers containing them went through the x-ray. See more from the Chicago Tribune. What can I…
A new look, a new name. CHICAGO UNBELIEVABLE!
It’s probably been long overdue that I disassociate this site from Weird Chicago, since I haven’t actually worked with them in a long time now. So I’m pleased to announce the launch of CHICAGO UNBELIEVABLE! Watch for a rebirth of this blog in coming weeks, with more podcasts, more ebooks, and other cool stuff! As…
Last Minute Radio Show
I’ll be on the Coast to Coast AM radio show tonight at 3am Central. Podcast to follow!
Old Town Tatu on Ghost Lab (long post)
The Weird Chicago Team started investigating Odin Tatu (formerly the Klemundt Funeral Home, currently Old Town Tatu ) before Weird Chicago even existed – we were all still working for another company at the time. And the first investigation (June, 2006) of the tattoo shop was different than the more recent ones have been; back…
Ghosts at the Congress Theatre?
We’ve covered the Congress Hotel, its fascinating history, and its supposed ghosts, frequently here. But the Congress Theatre? The one that was on Ghost Hunters lately? We’ve never mentioned that. That’s because it’s never really been thought of as a haunted location around the city before. None of the other ghost tour guides in the…