Welcome back everyone, today, Ill be visiting Illinois.
The land of Lincoln, the Praire state - home to Chicago and also - some really creepy stories.
In todays video, well be visiting cities and towns, cemeteries and swamps, beasts and ghosts
- Illinois has it all.
Lets look at its best stories - my name is Danny Burke and this is the Top 10 Scary Illinois
Urban Legends …
Starting off at number 10 now we have the Clown Graveyard.
With a name like that, you probably think it's a metaphor for something - but the name
is literal, and the story behind it is tragic.
In Forest Park Illinois lies Woodlawn Cemetery.
Some of the graves are marked by elephant statues - an engraving at the base of one
large elephant is inscribed the words -Showmens League of America- … all of the graves are
marked with the same death date - June 22nd 1918.
On that fateful night, members of the Hagenbeck-Wallace circus were asleep in the rear cars of a train
that was passing through the area.
At 4 AM, they stopped in the town of Hammond Indiana to cool an overheated axle box.
Little did they know that behind them, a train driver had fallen asleep at the helm if his
empty military train.
He missed all the automatic signals and flares that warned him of the stalled train.
He smashed into the wooden circus cars.
The survivors tried to scramble out but soon the trains lanterns had ignited the wreckage.
Its thought up to 110 circus employees were killed.
They were buried in the mass grave - many of the victims names were not known, so some
of the markers have engravings like -Baldy- -4 Horse Driver- or -Unidentified Male- …. They
say their restless spirits haunt the graveyard.
Apparently they are also joined with the spirits of some of the circus elephants that died.
Locals say that to this day, the sound of phantom elephants can be heard at night …
Moving on to number 9 we have The Thunderbirds.
I wish this was the nice puppet show I used to watch as a kid - but its not.
The Thunderbirds are creatures that many people have seen in Illinois - giant birds with wingspans
of up to 20ft.
One famous local legend near the town of Alton is that of Piasa bird, a name given by the
Illini Indians meaning -bird that devours a man- … that gives you a clue as to why
people fear them.
Although the legend has existed for hundreds of years, things took a turn in the 1970s.
In 1973, Ruth Lowe was cleaning up after her family dinner in Lawndale Illinois.
The kids were playing outside when she heard a piercing scream and knew it was her son.
When she ran outside, she saw two massive birds flying in formation and chasing her
son, pecking and clawing at his shoulders.
The larger one sunk its claws into his shirt and lifted him off the ground.
Ruth managed to fight them off and release her son but only after they carried him a
distance of over 35ft.
Locals believed that this was a modern day sightning of some Thunderbirds - mythical
creatures who have been mentioned in Native American stories for hundreds of years and
now scaring a lot of people in the area …
Next up at number 8 we have Bloods Point Road[a].
Drive about an hour and a half north west of Chicago and you can find Bloodspoint Road.
Its been the focus of a number of Paranormal Investigations over the years - and not just
because of its creepy name.
Locals say that as you drive along it, trees begin to look like humans standing guard.
They say they stretch out in an effort to grab you - you might think that sounds creepy
but they say that the trees are just attempting to warn you of things to come if you continue
down the road.
Others say that the trees themselves are haunted, that ghosts congregate there.
They say that if youre hidden, you can watch the ghosts moving between the trees.
All of this isnt helped by the fact that the road is home to the Bloods Point Cemetery.
Legend says that Hellhounds guard the cemetery - these evil dogs appear out of nowhere and
attack visitors before instantly disappearing.
On dark nights with a full moon, theyve even been known to wander out of the cemetery and
down Bloods Point road - perhaps thats what the trees were warning against …
Moving on to number 7 we have The Mad Gasser of Mattoon.[b] For two weeks in 1934, the
residents of Mattoon Illinois were terrorised by a killer known only as the Mad Gasser.
On August 31, a man called Urban Raef awoke to a strange smell in his bedroom that made
him physically ill.
He woke his wife who wondered if there might be a problem with the gas downstairs - when
she tried to get up though, she found she couldn't move her legs.
The symtoms went away after a while though and she found there was nothing wrong with
their gas.
Nearby, that same night, a woman went to check on her daughter but found that she too was
paralyzed from the waist down.
The next night, a similar thing happened to another woman.
The police began investigating but found no clues.
The local newspapers suggested that there was a madman out in the dark, creeping around
and pumping paralyzing gas into peoples homes - he became known as The Mad Gasser.
The panic in the town reached such levels that even the FBI got involved, but they too
were unable to find a culprit.
Reports have died down in the decades since, but some residents are on alert for a copycat
Mad Gasser …
Coming in at number 6 now we have The Enfield Horror.
In April 1973, residents of Enfield Illinois were all talking about a creature known as
the Enfield Horror.
On April 25th, a boy was attacked in his backyard by a creature with T rex like arms, short
claws, pink eyes, gray slimy skin and 3 legs.
Later, the creature tried breaking into a neighbors home where it was shot by a man
named Henry McDaniel with a 22 caliber pistol.
As the media picked up on the story, a news director for WWKI Radio claimed to have taped
the monsters screams as it ran off.
He said he saw the creature cover 50 - 85ft with just 3 leaps and then vanish out of sight.
The police dismissed the reports and discouraged hunters from trying to find the creature.
Others ignore the warnings and began investigating.
Some parallels were found between the creatures description and some similar reports from
the nearby town of Mt Vernon.
Those reports came from the 1940s, leading some people to believe that this creature
appears every 40 - 50 years … which would mean we are due for the return of the Enfield
Horror right about now …
Moving on to number 5 we have The Murphysboro Mud Monster.[c] In 1973, a young couple was
parked by a desolate river in Murphysboro Illinois for a romantic night.
Suddenly, a huge wet hairy beast climbed out of the water.
It was covered in mud.
It let out a piercing roat which they would later say sounded like an eagle shrieking
into a microphone.
The couple fled without waiting to find out what it would do to them.
For the next 2 weeks, the town was in a panic as more people had encounters with the huge,
albino beast which came to be known as the Big Muddy Monster.
When Police investigated, they found huge prints which seemed to match the size that
others had described.
When an officer leant down to inspect a brint, he heard a horrifyingly shrill screech nearby.
The Police Chief said in an interview -A lot of things in life are unexplained, and this
is another one.
We don't know what the creature is, but we do believe what these people saw was real-
Moving on to number 4 we have The Chesterfield Witch.
Near the town of Arcola, in what is known as Amish country, lies the small town of Chesterfield.
Its cemetery is said to be home to a witch.
Legend says that in life, she stood up for the women who were being mistreated in the
Amish community.
In retaliation, they labeled her a witch and accused her of worshipping the devil.
The community elders banished her.
After that, nobody heard from her - she vanished completely.
A while later, her body was found in a nearby field - they labelled her death as down to
natural causes and took her to a local funeral home.
They put her body on display as an attraction for locals to come and see a -real witch-
… Eventually, after they had their fun, the woman was eventually buried and a tree
planted near her grave.
In the years since, a deep superstition has grown around that tree.
They say that it has bound her spirit to the grave.
Legend says that if the tree ever dies, her spirit will be free to seek revenge upon the
Amish people who banished her and displayed her body for entertainment.
Some say that theyve seen her spirit standing over her grave, patiently waiting for the
tree to die.
Next up at number 3 we have the St Valentines Day Massacre.
On Valentines day 1929, 6 gang members in Chicago were lined up and shot by four unknown
assailants.
Its thought that famous mobster Al Capone ordered the killings in an attempt to control
organized crime in the city.
Two of the killers opened fire with Tommy guns, spraying the victims left and right
and even continuing to fire after all seven had hit the floor.
They even went round with a shotgun and blew off two of the victims faces.
They were brutal murders and for decades after, dark tourists could go and visit the site
and see the bullet holes in the brick wall which the men were lined up along and shot.
When the building was demolished in 1967, the bricks with the bullet holes in were sold
to various people - and some claim they were haunted.
The various owners complained of bad luck from the day they first bought the bricks
- it got so bad that some of them even returned the bricks to the site, hoping to break the
curse.
Even today, some Chicago residents describe a neagative energy when they walk past the
parking lot where the building once stood.
They hear gunshots and see floating orbs, a reminder of the massacre from years ago
…
Next up at number 2 we have The Farmer City Monster.[d] In the spring of 1970, 3 sheep
were killed near the town of Farmer City Illinois.
Officials put it down to wild dogs.
Soon after, 4 teens parked up in a nearby area of woods.
They got the fright of their life when a huge, hairy humanoid with piercing yellow eyes approached
the vehicle.
Somehow, their flashlights were enough to scare the creature away and the teens quickly
fled the scene.
The two boys of the group returned later to investigate and again they encountered the
creature.
This time, they noticed the smell - it was nauseating and forced them to retreat.
The police found an area of flattened foliage which they thought was the creatures nest.
Over the next 2 weeks, a number of sightings occurred, including one by a police officer
and another time bt some construction workers.
They said the creature sprinted out of the woods and crossed the road in front of their
van.
When the sightings were looked at on a map, some thought it showed the creature was on
the move, heading north west.
If this was true, perhaps it has moved on, perhaps it reached its destination, because
it hasnt been seen since - but locals say they are ready for its return …
And finally at number 1 we have Moon Point Cemetery.
This is an old civil war cemetery which has become an obsession of ghost hunters all over
illinois.
It began as a family cemetery for a settler called Jacob Moon but over the centuries it
was eventually used by everyone.
Of all the spirits said to haunt this place - one of them is the most famous - the Hatchet
Lady.
Shes been seem carrying a hatchet while watching over her sons grave.
Shes also been known to shout at visitors to -get out- whenever they step too close
to the area.
On top of that, the graveyard is also said to be home to the ghostly spirit of a young
boy - perhaps her son.
Theres even been sightings of multi colored orbs of light and also the sounds of coffin
lids opening and closing in the dark …
Alright thanks for watching guys, are any of you from Illinois?
How did I do?
Would you like more?
We can do a part 2 or we can do to a whole new state - although Ive been doing these
videos for a while - there are still so many more states to choose from - thanks for watching
as always guys, my name is Danny Burke and Ill see you all in the next video!