Explore the chilling SS Eastland disaster in Chicago, where 844 lives were lost on July 24, 1915. Uncover survivor stories, hauntings, and paranormal events.

Shakers Cigar Bar, once a prohibition-era speakeasy in Milwaukee's historic Walker's Point, is where Molly's remains were tragically discovered in.

American Ghost Walks T-Shirts

Between 1968 and 1984, the University of Wisconsin in Madison was the site of a series of brutal murders that left eight young women dead. The killer was never caught, and the crimes remain unsolved. Decades later, a few more murders that might not be the same killer, but rekindled the memories that had terrified the Wisconsin campus as well as much of the state in the late 1960s. Jeff Finup from Badgerland Legends and I explore these unsolved mysteries in an episode of Wisconsin Legends Podcast and you can think of this article as a primer. The First Victim

The Tormented Existence of Elizabeth Short Elizabeth Short, infamously known as The Black Dahlia, was a woman whose life was marred with tragedy and despair. Born in Boston in 1924, she tasted the bitterness of heartbreak early on when her father committed suicide after losing his business in the Great Depression, leaving her mother to shoulder the burden of raising Betty and her siblings.  In her teen years, Betty was plagued by severe bronchitis and asthma, conditions so debilitating that they required a lung surgery. Then in 1942, Short’s life was once again turned upside down when her mother received a letter from her supposedly deceased father. He wasn’t dead after all but had instead chosen to abandon his family and start a new life in California. A Harrowing Journey to California When Betty turns 18 she moves out to the West Coast to join her father’s new life, but once she leaves home, bad luck seems to follow right behind. She moves out of her father’s home just a few weeks after moving in because of their constant fighting. You can imagine there’s some tension there between the young woman and the father who pretended to die so he didn’t have to raise her. Once she leaves him, she gets a job at Camp Cooke, now Vandenberg Air Force Base. There she soon meets an officer and moves in with him. But that doesn’t last and before too long she moves out, claiming he abused her. Right after leaving him, she gets arrested in Santa Barbara for underage drinking and then escapes to Miami, Florida. Things seem to be looking up for her there when she meets another Air Force officer and this one proposes to her.

Only one building remains standing on the old 1893 Fairgrounds in Chicago’s Jackson Park today: the former Palace of Fine Arts which now houses the spectacular Museum of Science and Industry. After the Fair ended the building first became the Field Columbian Museum, today’s Field Museum of Natural History. While most of the Fair buildings—some of them much larger—were built of something called staff--a medium comprised of concrete, woven jute and plaster--,the Palace of Fine Arts had been built with a base of stone to protect the priceless masterpieces inside, which had come from collections around the world.

At the southern end of Ali'i Drive, at Keauhou Bay, on the Big Island's Kona Coast, is an idyllic stretch of shore once home to the infamous Kona Lagoon Hotel. Opened in 1974, as a posh beachside resort, the hotel, according to all observers, never realized its full potential. Many locals believed the property was cursed from the beginning, for the land upon which the Kona Lagoon Hotel once stood is not just any land. It's a place marked by its former life as a ceremonial center. Construction of the hotel obliterated the legendary Keawehala Pond, once thought to be inhabited by twin sisters who wielded extraordinary powers. These superwomen were the fierce protectors of local fresh water, who could transform themselves into formidable 30-foot lizards known as mo'o. The giant edifice of concrete and glass also infringed on nearby heiaus, sacred Hawaiian temples. An extensive map of the site as it appeared before colonization illustrates the area in astounding detail.  One of these sacred Hawaiian temples, called a luakini, was specifically dedicated to human sacrifice. This ancient walled structure, built from native volcanic rocks, was 7-feet high. Providing a platform for carved wooden idols called ki'i, which represent Hawaiian gods, the fortress-like enclosure protected thatched huts that held drums and offerings. This luakini was named Ke'eku Heiau .

The World's Shortest Railway A funicular, also known as an inclined railway or cliff railway, is a cable railway in which a cable attached to a pair of passenger vehicles moves them up and down a steep slope. The vehicles are specially designed to remain horizontal, despite the incline, ensuring passenger comfort. The operation of a funicular relies on the principle of counterbalancing. The two cars are connected by a cable, which runs through a pulley at the upper end of the track. As one car goes up, the other comes down, and vice versa, with the weight of the descending car helping to pull the ascending car up the slope. This means that the engine at the top only needs to compensate for the difference in weight between the two cars and passengers, making the system more energy efficient than other types of transit systems. Funiculars are used in various parts of the world to transport people along steep hillsides, including urban settings and tourist locations. They have been particularly useful in mountainous regions and in cities built on steep hills. Opens New Year's Eve 1901 The history of the Angels Flight funicular railway in Los Angeles dates back to New Year's Eve 1901, when it was inaugurated to provide transportation for the residents of the Bunker Hill neighborhood. Colonel James Ward Eddy was a Civil War hero and a friend of President Abraham Lincoln. He lived in downtown Los Angeles with his teenage grandson. Noticing the difficulty of climbing Bunker Hill, he brought the idea of Angels Flight to L.A. Eddy was an entrepreneur who had practiced many professions, including railroad construction and engineering. In May 1901, he was granted permission by the city to build the railway, which was completed by the end of the year. Eddy also built a 100-foot tower behind the Olive Street railway terminal, called Angels Rest, to attract tourists to Bunker Hill. And the plan worked. In its first 50 years, Angels Flight carried over 100,000,000 passengers on its two cars, Olivet and Sinai (named after the Biblical mountains). These millions took the 315-feet journey for just a penny and Angels Flight became the railway with the most passengers per mile in the world. Its charm and uniqueness have been featured in movies as early as Fatty Arbuckle's 1918 silent comedy "Goodnight Nurse" and as recently as 2016's Best Picture winner "La La Land". It seems that detective fiction in particular loves to get hard boiled at Angels Flight. Raymond Chandler's hard-drinking private dick Phillip Marlowe (of "The Big Sleep" fame) visits it in the book, "The High Window". It features in the first movie that showcases Mickey Spillane's two-fisted private eye Mike Hammer in 1955's "Kiss Me Deadly". Michael Connelly's no-nonsense Hollywood Homicide cop, Harry Bosch was there in his 6th book, named "Angels Flight" after the funicular, as well as Season 4 of the TV show that bears his name. It's a mysterious murder on the "world's shortest railway" that gets the whole thing started. And America's most famous fictional criminal defense lawyer Perry Mason has been there at least twice, once in 1966 for the classic series (the only episode shot in color) and again in the 2021 HBO series.

The building of the Drake Hotel in Chicago was a monumental endeavor. The hotel, which is located at 140 E. Walton Place, was conceived by architect Benjamin Marshall and financed by John and Tracy Drake. Construction began in the early 20th century and the hotel finally opened its doors on New Year's Eve in 1920. The building's architecture reflects the grandeur and elegance of the Jazz Age, making it a prominent landmark on Chicago's Magnificent Mile. Since its opening, the Drake Hotel has hosted numerous distinguished guests, from celebrities to royalty, adding to its rich history and reputation.  A Pink Neon Beacon on Michigan Avenue