Chicago Ghost Stories/ Open Lines

Hosted byDave Schrader

Chicago Ghost Stories/ Open Lines

About the show

In the first half of the program, host Dave Schrader (email) welcomed author and parapsychology expert, Ursula Bielski, who shared ghost stories from the city of Chicago. In recounting the tale of an entity known as 'Resurrection Mary,' Bielski marveled that the case is "without a doubt, the most famous vanishing hitchhiker story in the world." A typical encounter with the ghost, she said, happens when men are traveling near Resurrection Cemetery in the south side of Chicago and offer a ride to a woman seen wandering along the road. Upon resuming their journey, the spirit will either swiftly disappear or scream for the driver to stop at the front of Resurrection Cemetery, where she then jumps out of the car, runs through the gate, and vanishes. Bielski stressed that, unlike similar urban legends, numerous known witnesses have had Resurrection Mary experiences, including a police officer who encountered her last summer.

Another case discussed by Bielski was the Congress Hotel, which she noted was less known nationally but, amongst Chicago ghost investigators, the building is seen as the most active and unsettling haunted location in the city. Built for tourists visiting Chicago for the 1893's World's Fair, the hotel boasts a whopping 800 rooms spread over two towers. According to Bielski, during a two day investigation of the hotel, her team found a stunning seventeen haunted rooms as well as two haunted ballrooms. Beyond the hauntings, she also revealed that the hotel has a sealed off room which contains of its furniture. Bielski theorized that the room may have been used for an exorcism and, in keeping with spiritual beliefs surrounding the rite, the furniture would have been seen as potentially dangerous since it could have absorbed the demonic energy that had been released during the event.

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During Open Lines, Kevin in Texas told the story of a breathtaking spiritual encounter experienced by his ex-wife. He explained that she had traveled to Galveston in order to hide from a man who had been stalking her, but he found her at a hotel and shot her five times. After she fell to the floor, he left the room to get a hacksaw and finish his nefarious attack. During this time, Kevin's ex-wife looked up and saw two children who exhorted her to get up of the floor and escape, however she was too weak to do so. Miraculously, when the man returned, the ethereal children picked her up and the three of them transported through the door to the outside. When the stalker caught up with the wounded woman, the children vanished, but witnesses saw the gruesome scene, which caused him to flee.

Later in the program, Dave from Maryland recounted incidents from his time working as a corrections officer at a haunted prison. He recalled one evening when he and his fellow officers were watching the security camera monitors and saw people in a workshop that should have been empty. After rushing down to the room, they were dumbfounded when no one was there. As they were leaving the vacant workshop, a disembodied voice screamed out, "pigs, get out!" Other odd events at the prison included doors that required a key being seemingly being opened by themselves and an eerie mist appearing in security footage. As to why these events took place, Dave surmised that they were the work of deceased prisoners who relished at the chance to harass the forces that had kept them confined when they were alive.

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A remarkable new study on the brains of sleeping rats has revealed surprising insights into the subject of the slumbering rodents' dreams. After researchers showed them an inaccessible location containing food and then recorded the very specific cerebral activity surrounding their perception of how to reach the elusive treat, a subsequent reading of their brains, while asleep, showed that the rats were seemingly dreaming of making that heretofore impossible journey. More on the story at NewScientist.

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