It is often hard to believe that I did live across the street from one of the most haunted cemeteries in the Midwest. More so being a horror writer well the kind of horror writer I am since I wrote many stories in the supernatural, some would ask me if I find inspiration from these places. Coming from a person who writes about things that scare other people and sometimes gets paid to do so; I found myself looking at this from two angles.
      One angle being the Christian who was not supposed to believe in ghosts, and the other being the skeptic who read everything there was about the occult and ghost stories researching subject matter to write about. Things like this are not to be written about by a Christian; especially one who is a Pentecostal from The Assemblies of God Church for a good number of years (I actually was intrigued with ghosts openly while I was involved – ghost stories are fun to write of the horror genre and the easiest of them), but coming from that background –– I was always intrigued by it (various ghost stories,) in some shape, way, or form.
      An idea that comes from a point of view who spent most of their life writing about Gothic ideals, it comes from this I study the story of Resurrection Mary of Archer Avenue (not just talking Archer Avenue, but the whole triangle of West Seveny-Ninth Street and Roberts Avenue.) I lived about five blocks from the cemetery, I often wonder if she would find her way into my apartment. Perhaps that was one of the reasons I end up very ill, because I find myself asking if she visits us at times. The ghostly neighbor, looking for a ride back to her home from a prom night she never came home from. No one knew the reason of her death, namely because it was a well documented mystery – a mystery that finds its way into horror folklore from authors who live in the Chicago area.
      "Why do you read about this kind of thing?" one person asking me, especially coming from the faith community. In the eyes of a small community the idea of ghosts haunting a particular area, may seem remotely obscure to some. Living around the area, I found myself seeing some odd things such as items disappearing within the apartment or doors opening without warning. The kind of things one can only expect in the writings of Algernon Blackwood or in the pages of other old horror authors. That is how the story goes when it comes to the question of Justice, Illinois, or the surrounding areas around the actual cemetery.
      "It just intrigues me as a writer," would be my answer, "just something about the ghost story intrigues me. More so, since it was documented in a friend's book."
      The reason the stories are around this being since this was part of the Old Route 66. The idea of a ghostly hitchhiker looking for a ride is there; even though it is said to be an urban legend. Even with all the documented accounts and coverage from Unsolved Mysteries about Resurrection Mary, no one really knows where and when she will appear. Just that they know travelers along IL Highway 171 would sometimes see a young woman vanishing in the cemetery after asking for a ride or pick up the vanishing hitchhiker. Driving her where she needed to go but disappearing after leaving the car without a trace. I often find myself looking from the balcony of my second floor apartment wondering if she was wandering around 79th Street on a foggy night. It comes to mind often when the room mates are out for the night, and when I have the place to myself –- writing I would imagine her standing there, watching the apartment. Waiting for that ride home she will never receive in her life, but gets it in death.
      So many questions and so many answers, but yet sometimes who ever asked the question about the wandering ghost. The question is never answered directly, but the question would often be answered by only things written in the Bible while others will read the documented accounts as a skeptic. Looking at Archer Avenue at times late at night, I cannot help but think knowing the young woman might end up standing there then vanishing into the darkness. Could this be a figment of someone's travel weary imagination, or is it a legitimate story that is from someone's solid testimony. It could be taken one of two ways there. As a writer of weird fiction stories, could be one conclusion or another.
      Wondering if the ghostly neighbor is there, or some other area of the cemetery –- as some would say, the dead either go to heaven or hell but others will say they will wander the earth if they were murdered or died in an untimely matter. It just seems when it would appear unreal, in some ways it would be as real as someone being slain in the Holy Ghost or speaking in tongues. But the question of ghosts are asked to someone from this background, they would shrug it off as being either angels or demons. I always ask if there is something more. Especially since accounts of vanishing travelers are mentioned in the bible. This is a variation of the vanishing hitch hiker urban legend, but there is something more.
      Seeing or knowing a ghost is around will be something that captures the imagination. Even in the eyes of someone; who spent most of their life writing fiction stories about the specters. Within the skeptics and the believers of an unseen faith, there are two things that are in common –- the supernatural and unexplained. Just that some people are more sensitive around things that are of the supernatural nature. Almost as what Richard Matheson mentioned some in his novel, A Stir of Echoes or the movie version in 1999. About those being a receiver. It takes a lot for someone to actually believe in something that wasn't always there – it comes to one thing, fear.
      That fear knowing that it is in the circumstances beyond their human control. If it seems like I am describing the plot of a Gothic horror novel, a true ghost story does share the kinship with a well told Gothic tale. Even as I walked around in the Cemetery, there are stories of the headstones of the ghost being kept as macabre souvenirs.
      Things like this I wonder about when I wandered the cemetery, is there a possibility that she's watching. Knowing that I was there. If she around and was able to speak, what would she say? Wondering if it is all hearsay, and that is something I found myself asking when I spoke with the grounds keeper who was driving the tractor looking for a relative of mine who was buried at Resurrection. It becomes the question as it wanders within the small hours, the question of seeing her is a matter who asks. The things that wander among the unknown and unexplained becomes the subject of debate on a number of levels.
      Just as it seems, I am just the outside observer who writes stories about ghosts in works of fiction. Sometimes I would pick up a book or two about true haunted places – the story of Resurrection Mary was one of the most famous along Route 66. It was the thing that comes to mind often as I moved into the apartment along the road across the street from the cemetery. This is one of those kind of nights, typical of the horror films – dark and rainy night or sometimes fog covered when she will appear hitching for a ride back to the home she will never return to in life. Some of things my uncle watched late at night about ghostly haunting, and this location was mentioned on a number of occasions. 8 The kind of thing a few in the apartment are extremely sensitive to, and that being the supernatural. Especially when I watched a ton of horror film on nights when I wasn't able to sleep, I find myself thinking if the ghostly neighbor is wandering the streets of Archer Road. Just everything about the area I am living at now has the set up for a Gothic novel or short story, the ghostly visitor and disappears without a trace.
      "Have you've seen anything around here?" I ask the cemetery worker. It was in the mid afternoon, I learned from an uncle that I have two relatives buried in Resurrection Cemetery – so I used the visiting their graves as a scapegoat to try to find the ghost.
      "It is hard to say," he answered.
      "The stories are different from time to time, I found myself sneaking into this very cemetery at night when I was younger," he adds to the statement he made. He was an older guy with long hair driving a blue tractor wearing an Al Capone shirt.
      "Everyone tries to snag up her headstone for a memento from the ghost hunts they went on. Hell, one made off with her actual prom dress," he laughs.
      "No fucking way!" I said back in shock. This was recent as this afternoon when I had the conversation. I am honestly in shock when it comes to the stories I hear about the ghost, but knowing that a cousin's friend has a direct connection to the story -– I found that even more shocking than anything. That some people would take things from a cemetery to show that they've been there, it was similar to the eerie white fog coming off the ground of a certain grave that my best friend snapped a picture of with a 110 mm camera at Bachelor's Grove.
      There are a few angles one can take this question, especially if they've seen the one end of the faith community as they speak in tongues and slain in the Holy Ghost. Then there is the other with the angle coming from the science end of things, is it possible for a place to be haunted? That is a question I can answer on more than one level –– I acknowledge the believe of God, but I also understand the idea of places being haunted. I don't know much about the history of the ghost story, but I knew it was a ghost story everyone told when I was in high school and sometimes in college. The interest in the story peaked after reading what a correspondent wrote in the pages of her book about the ghost story, now this is coming from someone who never been to Chicago and for someone who is a native to the Chicagoland area –– it is a heavy thing to think about. One thing I learned about living in the area, everyone has a ghost story to tell. Much as the people of New Orleans, as Phil Alsomo of Pantera stated on a heavy metal magazine when every metal band was asked about the supernatural.
      I think if an author such as Edgar Allan Poe or Algernon Blackwood were still alive and writing in the 1990's or the 2000's. IF they were both alive, they would both would be visiting Justice, Illinois, just so they can get some inspiration from the ghost story that resides here. It comes to mind how some people end up making contact with the elusive ghost, and living near the cemetery it is often a question that pops up. Does she actually visit the houses or apartments in the area too? With the all the things mentioned here, I am leaving it up to the reader to draw upon their own opinions and conclusions.
      So in conclusion of this, I will say that I've been to the cemetery recently and still look at it through the eyes of a skeptic. I ask myself at times if the ghostly neighbor exits, deep down I know the answer but sometimes it is takes someone pretending they are from Missouri.
      Something that is said on the movie version of Stephen King’s The Stand, "You have to show me before I believe you. I need proof positive before I believe something exists or not. I believe you if I pretend if I am from Missouri."
      I find myself saying this a lot lately because where I live at. Living on the second floor apartment in Justice, Illinois, watching all the funerals go by. Sometimes it is clear as day, while other times it is foggy as the climate in London, England. Some people have an easier time believing in aliens and UFO sightings than believing in ghosts. Both are things I eventually wrote about.
      Details of such might be read like fiction, but I am telling this because it is true. Sometimes as a writer you have to show the reader, but being in the true sense of the word it is hard to show someone the things that are true. The truth being there about the ghostly neighbor, does she exist –– many arguments sparked about the subject, and as the reader, leave it up to your own damned conclusion.
      Since writing this particular piece, I've been moved out of my old apartment (forced out by the female room mate like a Native American being pushed out of their land to a reservation) and the sound equipment the former room mate had picked up an EVP. I've even seen the lady in the prom dress walking around in my dining room out of the corner of my eye while watching horror films with the then room mate. The bar that the room mates did karaoke at also said to have strange things happen in the basement.

nickolauspacione@vampirefreaks.com
© 1990-2010 All Written Content By The Author

This was written in one sitting at the old apartment in Justice. I wrote this about the time when I wrote the short story "The Typewriter" and "Flying Cigars" -- I made this one a free read on Darklines.com. It's been received very well over there being it was the true ghost story while the other stories on the site were fictional horror. I took the background from a site for Gothic Wallpapers and from the haunted places page on The Shadowlands.