What is Death Alley in Chicago?

Death Alley is Couch Place, the loading alley behind the Nederlander Theatre on Randolph Street, on the site of the 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire that killed 602 people.

Is there a haunted hotel in Chicago?

Two. The Congress Plaza Hotel, which Chicago Hauntings' Tony Szabelski calls the city's most haunted, centers its stories on Room 441, and the Drake's Lady in Red is said to haunt its 10th floor.

Where was the St. Valentine's Day Massacre?

At 2122 N. Clark St. in Lincoln Park, where seven men were machine-gunned in a garage on February 14, 1929. The garage came down in 1967, and the site is a fenced lawn with no marker.

Where was H. H. Holmes' murder castle?

At 63rd and Wallace streets in Englewood. The building was torn down in the 1930s, and a U.S. Post Office stands on the site.

Which Chicago ghost tour should I take?

It depends on what you want to see. Windy City Ghosts, the US Ghost Adventures brand, walks Lincoln Park's ghost stories. Chicago Hauntings' ghost bus covers the whole city without the walking. Most Loop tours, like Empire Tours' and Magnifico Tours', mix ghosts with gangster history.

Who is Resurrection Mary?

Resurrection Mary is the ghost of a young woman said to ask for a ride home along Archer Avenue and vanish at the gates of Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, a story told since 1936.

Haunted Chicago: 16 Places to See, Stay and Tour

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History

Chicago grew faster than it could bury, house, or protect its people. It had 109,000 residents in 1860 and more than a million by 1890.

Wild Onions

The name is older than the city. Several Native languages named the marshy river mouth for the wild onions and leeks that grew there. Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable was the first permanent non-Native settler. In 1812, the Army ordered Fort Dearborn evacuated, and the battle that followed left more than 50 soldiers and settlers dead, women and children among them.

Cholera and the Lakefront Graves

Cholera came with the crowds. It killed 678 people in 1849, about one Chicagoan in 35, and more than 1,400 in 1854. The dead went to the City Cemetery on the lakefront until doctors worried about graves so close to the lake, and in 1864, the council ordered the bodies moved to cemeteries like Graceland and Rosehill. The ground became Lincoln Park.

Fire and the Fair

Then the city burned. The fire of October 1871 killed an estimated 300 people and left 100,000 homeless.

Chicago rebuilt in time to host the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, which drew more than 150,000 people a day. Its dark twin was H. H. Holmes, whom WTTW calls Chicago’s first documented serial killer and Erik Larson set beside the fair in The Devil in the White City.

Disasters and Gangsters

The new city kept losing people by the hundred: 602 at the Iroquois Theatre in 1903, 844 when the Eastland sank in the river in 1915. Prohibition handed the streets to Al Capone and his rivals. Seven men from Bugs Moran’s gang were machine-gunned against a garage wall on Clark Street on February 14, 1929, and FBI agents killed John Dillinger outside the Biograph in 1934.

Why Is Chicago Haunted?

Where the Dead Came in Crowds

Chicago’s ghosts gather where its dead came in crowds. The Iroquois fire killed 602 people inside one theater on Randolph Street, the deadliest single-building fire in US history, as WTTW puts it. The Eastland killed 844 in the river between the Clark and LaSalle Street bridges. The stories stayed with the places. Windy City Ghosts says locals still call the alley behind the theater Death Alley. Tony Szabelski of Chicago Hauntings told CBS that people on the Clark Street Bridge still report faces in the water.

The Ground Under Lincoln Park

Then there’s the ground. The cholera years filled the City Cemetery, the city ordered it emptied in 1864, and the land became Lincoln Park. WTTW says as many as 12,000 of the dead may still be under the park. One family tomb was never moved at all.

Crimes With Street Addresses

Chicago’s crimes also came with street addresses. Holmes’ so-called murder castle stood at 63rd and Wallace. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre happened in a garage at 2122 N. Clark. Dillinger was shot beside the Biograph. Each spot has its ghost story now, and many of the city’s ghost tours double as gangster tours.

Past the City Limits

The stories don’t stop at the city limits. The ghost a Chicago Public Library librarian called the city’s most famous, Resurrection Mary, hitches her rides out on Archer Avenue in suburban Justice.

Another Reading

Chicago magazine wrote in 2017 that the city “often ranks among the most haunted cities in the United States.” Northwestern’s Bill Savage, quoted in the same piece, offered the other reading: “Chicago is haunted not by ghosts, but by the city’s neglect of the working class.”