Hi, everybody! Just a quick plug here – today, Jan 20th, Flickering Empire, my new book on Chicago silent film, is available through the film studies branch Columbia University Press. Though I try to cite my sources and hold myself up to reasonable academic standards in even my most down-to-earth work, this is my first…
Tag: Uncategorized
The Strange Tale of the Cardinella Gang
(This is a somewhat revised repost of an old four-part series published here when FATAL DROP: TRUE TALES OF THE CHICAGO GALLOWS first came out. Since I told the story of James Tracy’s near-revival after his 1882 hanging the other day, I thought I’d make one big post out of this one). Viana In December, 1920, Nicholas…
Pardon our Dust – the new Mysterious Chicago blog!
Hi, folks! Rebranding a bit here. I won’t be changing the URL for some time (switching between custom URLs is a real trick), but we’re changing CHICAGO UNBELIEVABLE to the new MYSTERIOUS CHICAGO blog, part of a broad rebranding of my work over the next few months. Eventually this will extend to the podcast and…
New Podcast: Graceland Cemetery Safari
In today’s episode, Adam and Erin wander through Graceland Cemetery on a hot, hot Chicago day. Will we be attacked by the green-eyed ghoul said to haunt the Wolff tomb? Followed back by Inez Briggs? Beaten up by the ghost of Jack Johnson? Or will Adam succeed in his lifetime goal of punching Marshall Field?…
Podcast: Hector and the Lump of Coal
Hector, our podcast co-host, took a lump of coal home from Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery on the far south side in 2010. Since then, he says, he’s had nothing but bad luck. So we return the coal from whence it came, and discuss some new information and stories about the cemetery while we’re at it. You…
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Tree
The SMC cartage company garage, where seven guys associated with the Bugs Moran gang were lined up and shot on St. Valentine’s Day, 1929, has been gone for years, replaced by a little field and parking lot next to a senior apartment complex. For years, we tour guides have pointed to the tree in the…
“Murder Castle” on H2’s “Haunted History”
The “murder castle” in the early 20th century, when it had a stylish turret. This week, the episode of Haunted History I filmed about H.H. Holmes and his Murder Castle aired on H2. I was worried that they’d edit me to look like a nut, but I was reasonably happy with how it came out. Some brief notes:…
Could Chicago have a Sharknado?
A 1902 Trib article on an alligator found in the river.Right near where the Target is now! It was nice to come from the tour last night and find that from Twitter that we had reached a rare state of national unity, as the whole of America bonded together to live tweet about Sharknado, the…