Ghosts in Springfield, IL
...ing out must be fully equipped with a tape recorder, blank tapes, batteries, a flashlight, a notebook and pens. For those more experienced and more serious, an electro-magnetic field meter is very useful. A ghost uses a certain type of energy, and when a ghost is present, it causes a disruption in the energy field. An electro-magnetic field meter detects the disruption and also the size of the disruption. Also, an almost basic necessity for ghost hunters is a camera and film. Cameras can see ghosts when people cannot, because a camera has the ability to freeze a moment of time and space in a way the human eye cannot (Taylor Ghosts of Springfield 33). The Lake Club, located at 2840 Fox Bridge Road in Springfield, opened in 1940 and immediately became one of the hottest spots in Illinois. Stars such as Bob Hope, Ella Fitzgerald, Guy Lombardo and Mickey Rooney frequently visited. In the 1950s, when the club was at its peak, Albert “Rudy” Cranor was taken on as an employee at the club. As time passed, the club fell onto hard times, as did Rudy. His coworkers noticed that he began to drink heavily on the job, and they saw additional agitation and signs of depression. One day Rudy passed out at work, and his fellow employees to him to the hospital where he stayed for two weeks. A short while after he returned to work, he shot himself with a high-powered rifle in a back room of the club on June 27, 1963. Although, it was not until 1974 that reports of hauntings began to surface. Bill Carmean, the business owner, was the first to notice strange happenings in the club, such as pianos playing in empty rooms, glasses suddenly filled with chocolate and footsteps in empty hallways. By 1976, the haunting had grown to extremes, with glasses raising up and smashing against the wall. Carmean also was the first to put the person with the ghost. He began calling the ghost “Rudy” as the ghastly antics kept coming. In 1979, employee Barbara Lard came face to face with the ghost. She later told coworkers that it was an old man with snow-white hair, and after being shown a picture of Rudy, she confirmed that indeed, it was the same person. She said that Rudy warned her that one of the owners would die in upcoming weeks. Two weeks after the warning, co-owner Harold Henderson died at the age of 69. The other owners and employees alike felt the ghost needed to go. Co-owner Tom Blasko contacted many Catholic priests and tried to convince them to come and check out the club, but no one wanted to get involved. Then, at a class reunion in 1979, Blasko met an old classmate, Reverend Gary Dilley. Blasko explained the events and asked Dilley if he could take a look around the club. Once he arrived at the club, he noticed that he got a strange feeling, and he felt as though someone was watching him. He investigated all of the haunting reports, and later returned with two other priests. They blessed and prayed in each room of the club; concentrating especially hard in the room in which Rudy had committed suicide. Apparently, the holy works succeeded, because there were no reports of haunting after that day. The club closed down in 1988, and had become extremely run down. It burnt down three years after its abandonment, probably by arson. The home of Abraham Lincoln is rumored to be haunted by the spirits of former staff and visitors for a long time. There have been reports from visitors such as an attorney from Virginia who claimed he saw Mary Lincoln while he was visiting the home. The Lincoln family has always been connected to the supernatural. Abe Lincoln had a vision the night after being elected to the United States Presidency, that he would not live for more than one term. At his home in Springfield, visitors claim to hear sobbing noises and footsteps, and some have claimed to have seen a tall, thin apparition with a small boy. Former employee Shirlee Laughlin claimed that she saw Lincoln’s rocking chair move all by itself, and she also said that she felt “phantom touches” when she was in the house. After the President’s assassination, he was kept in a receiving vault in Oak Ridge Cemetery while his tomb’s construction was completed. Residents reported sightings of Lincoln’s ghost walking in the cemetery near the crypt. The Dana Thomas House is a famous tourist site and magnificent piece of American architectural history. Designed by the great Frank Lloyd Wright, it underwent construction in 1902. Susan Lawerence Dana had encountered many tragic deaths in her family, including her father R.D. Lawerence, who died on February 17, 1901. Around the time the house was completed, Dana turned to the occult. It was common for séances to be held at the Dana home. Once, she even contacted her father and he expressed his delight with her new house. Currently, the house is maintained by the state of Illinois, and local newspapers have noted “strange occurrences”. The State Journal-Register has been quoted saying that on the anniversary of Susan Dana’s death, a strange incident occurred, but the extent was not shared. The Springfield Theater Center, located at 101 E Lawrence Street, is rumored as haunted by the ghost of a former actor, Joe. During his life, Joe was a very unfriendly actor, who was found in the closet in which he killed himself in after a dress rehearsal in 1950 (Taylor Springfield Theater Center 1). Those at the Theater Center had realized a large sum of money had come up missing, and all fingers somehow pointed at Joe. Actors at the center report lights turning on and off, stepladders being pulled out from underneath people, and some have even ...