The Complete Chicago Haunts: 200 Years of True Ghost Stories (Paperback or Softback)

FROM CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION AWARD-WINNER URSULA BIELSKI comes this enormous, authoritative and definitive work on the ghosts of Chicago.

A Lifetime Investigation Into America’s Most Haunted City

From the shadowed roads of Archer Avenue to the forgotten corridors of abandoned hospitals, from haunted taverns and theaters to phantom hitchhikers, gangland ghosts, cursed cemeteries, and supernatural folklore passed through generations of Chicagoans, Chicago Haunts is the most comprehensive exploration ever written of Chicago’s haunted history.

For more than forty years, historian and folklorist Ursula Bielski has investigated the city’s ghost stories, legends, crimes, paranormal encounters, and hidden histories. In this landmark volume, she combines archival research, newspaper accounts, eyewitness testimony, folklore, oral tradition, and paranormal investigation to uncover the strange forces that continue to haunt Chicago and the surrounding Midwest.

Inside This Huge, more than 800-page Volume You’ll Discover:

• The complete history and legends of Resurrection Mary
• The hauntings of Archer Avenue and the haunted Chicago preserves
• Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery and the ghosts of Rubio Woods
• Haunted hospitals, funeral homes, churches, and old asylums
• Gangster ghosts, crime scenes, and forgotten tragedies
• Haunted theaters, bars, hotels, stadiums, and amusement parks
• Phantom hitchhikers, disappearing figures, and urban legends
• Supernatural folklore tied to immigrant communities and old neighborhoods
• Ghost stories connected to famous Chicago crimes and disasters
• Paranormal investigators, psychics, séances, and occult history
• Chicago’s strangest unexplained phenomena and supernatural traditions

So Much More than a Ghosts and Hauntings Ghost Book

Part cultural history, part folklore collection, part paranormal chronicle, and part love letter to Chicago itself, Chicago Haunts explores how memory, tragedy, belief, and storytelling shape the identity of a city. These are not merely ghost stories, but stories about Chicagoans—their fears, hopes, neighborhoods, institutions, and enduring legends.

Written in a richly atmospheric style grounded in decades of firsthand research, Chicago Haunts is ideal for readers interested in:

• Chicago history
• Haunted America
• Paranormal investigation
• Urban legends and folklore
• Midwest ghost stories
• Haunted places
• True crime history
• Cemetery history
• Local legends and supernatural lore

Perfect For Fans Of:

• Haunted Chicago
• Ghost stories and paranormal books
• Dark history and urban exploration
• Midwest folklore and supernatural history
• Historic mysteries and unexplained phenomena

Whether you are a lifelong Chicagoan, paranormal enthusiast, historian, ghost hunter, or lover of forgotten history, Chicago Haunts offers an unforgettable journey into the city’s darkest legends and most haunted places.

Some cities preserve their history in monuments.
Chicago preserves it in ghosts.