By Tim Moran
Villager Editor
Chicago’s Southland is home to one of the world’s most famous ghost stories. Resurrection Mary is a tale that has long been told time and again. A woman dressed in white has regularly been spotted for decades along Archer Avenue, sometimes hitching a ride before mysteriously vanishing into the dark night.
Paranormal experts have long debated on the true identity of Resurrection Mary. One of the strong possibilities, Graveside Paranormal founder Neal Gibbons said, is Ona Marie Norkus, whose name has also been published as Anna “Marija” Norkus. Norkus died young in the late 1920s by a hit-and-run driver along Archer Avenue near the Willowbrook Ballroom, then called the Oh Henry Ballroom.
In the wake of her death, many in the community blamed her father, Augustus Norkus, for allowing her to be out so late.
“He was shunned,” Gibbons said. “He went to his grave knowing that he was possibly responsible for his daughter’s death.”
When Augustus died some years later, he was buried at St. Casimir Cemetery which is just a little over a mile from West Morgan Park. Gibbons said they’re been sightings of a “disheveled creeper” spirit who walks the outside perimeter fence of the cemetery leering at cars along Pulaski Road and 111th Street.
Could this be the spirit of Augustus Norkus? Gibbons said that’s a possibility considering Ona was originally going to be buried at St. Casimir’s as well, but a gravedigger strike moved her burial spot to Resurrection Cemetery, hence the legendary Resurrection Mary name. Gibbons said the “disheveled creeper” could very well be Augustus looking out to see if his daughter will ever be moved to St. Casimir.
St. Casimir Cemetery and the Augustus Norkus story will be prominently featured on Gibbons’ Graveside Paranormal “The Nightlife” bus tours that depart from 115 Bourbon Street on six weekend nights in October. The four-and-a-half hour tours will include many of the other famous haunted spots in Chicagoland, including the infamous Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery in the nearby Oak Forest/Midlothian area.
Bachelor’s Grove is an area that’s been visited so often that rather than an actual spirit, it’s the land itself that has become haunted, Gibbons said.
“Instead of a human host, it’s the land,” he said. “Blue orbs of light go around it. When more people start investigating, including people with psychic abilities, they start getting attachments to other people’s characteristics. People have gotten so obsessed with that one acre of land at Bachelor’s Grove that it’s not the actual cemetery but the land that surrounds it.”
Gibbons, a Beverly/Morgan Park native and graduate of St. Cajetan Elementary School and Morgan Park High School, has been keenly interested in the paranormal world since an encounter he had at his childhood home near 114th and Washtenaw at the age of six.
“My parents were going through an awful divorce at the time, and my mom, like clockwork, would wake up every night at 3 a.m. and scream,” Gibbons said. “I would wake up too, and this one time I saw a short troll-like creature that moved from my room to my mom’s room.
“I was scared. I put the blankets over my head and didn’t know what I was looking at. But when my mom woke up, she had no memory of it.”
“I’ve always had that memory,” he said. “I started reading about angels and demons and have been infatuated since.”
Resurrection, Bachelor’s Grove and St. Casimir are only a few of the graveyards that will be covered on Gibbons’ Graveside Paranormal “The Nightlife” bus tours. See sidebar on Residual Hauntings. The tours, now in their 11th year, are planned for Friday, Oct. 16; Saturday, Oct. 17; Friday, Oct. 23; Saturday, Oct. 24; Friday, Oct. 30 and Saturday, Oct. 31. Gibbons describes the tour atmosphere as upbeat and entertaining throughout with music and videos frequently playing.
“I’ve researched all the stories that will be shared on the tours,” Gibbons said. “I find it very important to research these things. All the places on tours are places I’ve been inside and have investigated on my own.”
The Lyric Theater in Blue Island is another confirmed haunted location, Gibbons said.
“I’m not exactly sure what it is, but there is an intelligent haunting going on at The Lyric,” Gibbons said. “It does interact with you. You’ll get replies on your recording devices.”
Gibbons said previous recordings from The Lyric have included electronic voice phenomenon and “a shadow that went passed one of the employees that we caught on film.”
Graveside Paranormal will return to The Lyric on Thursday, Oct. 29 to present “Spookeasy 3: Sam-Hain Circus” featuring paranormal investigators Archbishop Kristina Rake, Jacob Mayfield and AJ True Crime.
“We’re going to have a circus mentality that night,” Gibbons said. “I will act like a ringmaster introducing all the acts. We’ll have a haunted museum, tarot card readers, psychics and we’ll commemorate the 100th anniversary of Harry Houdini’s death.”
Haunted Beverly/Morgan Park
Gibbons said he would love the chance to check out The Castle near 103rd and Longwood, which has been by far the most documented haunted location within the geographical limits of Beverly/Morgan Park.
A number of ghost tales from The Castle are outlined in a chapter of Errol Magidson’s book “Chicago’s Only Castle,” which is available in the local reads section at Bookie’s. Marlene Schultz, one of the custodians at the iconic landmark during the 1960s “had several encounters with ghosts,” according to the book. A story about a woman showing up out of nowhere looking for a minister was repeated by another one-time Castle custodian Rudy Visser several years later, and other reports have indicated drivers around 103rd and Longwood have reported a “flickering ghostly light” that moves from window to window even when no one is in the building.
An entire series called “The Paranormal Ridge” was released by the Ridge Historical Society and historian Carol Flynn in 2020. In addition to the well-documented hauntings from The Castle, it included other stories at old homes in the neighborhood. Most locations were kept private, but the numerous stories from The Castle were researched extensively in the series.
For Gibbons, getting inside the actual building will be key to evaluating some of these tales.
“I’d love to get into The Castle,” Gibbons said. “It’s part of Beverly history.”
