Bachelor's Grove Cemetery

So growing up in Illinois, were there any local ghost stories or legends or creepy places that influenced your imagination?

There's a few places, like allegedly haunted cemeteries, like Bachelor's Grove is supposed to be, I guess, notable even nationwide.

And then there's the old Statesville Penitentiary that they turned into a haunted house series or attraction, I guess, rather.

But I've never actually been to any of the local really good haunted stuff.

Some families even relocated their loved ones' remains to cemeteries nearer to those growing towns.

By the mid-nineteen hundreds, Bachelor's Grove Cemetery had fallen into severe decline, and the last official burial took place in nineteen eighty-nine, and afterwards, the site was largely abandoned.

With no regular caretakers, the graveyard became overgrown and neglected.

Isolated in the woods, it drew the attention of local youth as a hidden hangout spot for late-night parties away from watchful eyes.

By the nineteen seventies, Bachelor's Grove had become famous among ghost hunters and curiosity seekers as one of the most haunted places in America.

More than one hundred different paranormal incidents have since been documented, a staggering number for a one-acre graveyard.

Over the decades, Bachelor's Grove Cemetery has become a hotbed of ghostly lore.

Among the most enduring legends is the phantom farmhouse.

Yes, because Lisa, who, of course, is played by Catherine Newton.

Spends time at Bachelors Grove Cemetery.

It's not the grave of her mother, but of course it's the grave of a cute young Victorian man named Frankenstein, played by Cole Sprouse, doing engravings and admiring his gorgeous stone bust.

So, of course, we must ask, was that inspired by Mary Shelley?

But yeah, I've also worked with the Ghost Research Society as well.

They're the ones who have that famous picture of the lady on the gravestone at Batchelor's Grove.

So how did you get interested in the paranormal and the world of ghosts, so to speak?

Oh, I've always been into it.

Like, for instance, DMS readers, they, you know, go high during these kind of locations.

But in my personal experience, because not every place is going to be haunted every night, you know.

But in my experience, when I visited the ones that were definitely interesting were Liars Club as well as Bachelors Grove on the south side.

So when you say when we're talking about haunting a place, are we then this is going to sound so simple and so juvenile.

Um, there's a few places, like allegedly haunted, uh, cemeteries.

Like, uh, Bachelor's Grove is supposed to be, like-

Okay

...

I, I get ya.

I get ya.

I've been to Bachelor's Grove myself.

Yeah?

I've been in a few cemeteries.

I was in Bachelor's Grove by myself.

And that's the most haunted cemetery, allegedly, in the United States.

And I was in there.

And I saw a lady in a gown when I was in there.

And that was one of the reports of Bachelor's Grove.

There's a lady that sits in a gown that you'll see.

And I saw her.

So I haven't been to this spot.

My colleague, Katie Moriarty, grew up in the region, and she told me Bachelors Grove is known for.

It's this kind of haunted area.

And on the 29th, you don't have to go to the site.

For example, Resurrection Mary is not the only lady in white even within the city of Chicago.

A few miles south in a small abandoned pioneer cemetery in the woods near Midlothian, people report another woman in white, the Madonna of Bachelor's Grove.

Mm.

Mm.

Oh.

So there is a, a specific stone for basically deceased children, but she's supposed to hang out around this stone.

Now, what makes the Madonna of Bachelor's Grove most fascinating is that we have photographic evidence, or at least we think we do.

Oh.

A small number achieved wider attention.

One of the best-known examples emerged from Bachelors Grove Cemetery in Illinois during the early 1990s.

Investigators photographing the cemetery produced an image which appeared to show a woman seated upon a gravestone.

Some observers claimed she appeared translucent.