One o’clock on a Saturday afternoon seemed an unlikely time to encounter ghosts. Wouldn’t such chills be more likely after midnight, when the moon is full and a mist might hover mysteriously near a gravestone?
Instead, it was sunny, hot and humid the day Dale Kaczmarek of Oak Lawn took to his Chevy Caprice, with its GHOSTS license plates and an “I Love Ghosts” bumper sticker, to visit Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Worth.
His caravan included a half-dozen Ghost Research Society members who visited that graveyard, then moved on to Bachelor Grove cemetery on 143rd Street in the Cook County Forest Preserve’s Tinley Creek Division. At both locales there were stories to tell, each a mixture of folklore and historical facts.
The members of the society Kaczmarek heads were seriously prepared to meet an apparition, toting compasses to chart changes in magnetic fields and tape recorders to capture unusual sounds. Their camcorders and 35mm cameras were at the ready, with infrared film to capture the slightest mist.
“Did you smell it? I think I smelled roses. Just for a second. Right here,” said member Lucy Solis, 36. The Alsip resident leaned over the headstone of Mary Alice Quinn and touched the evergreens beside the headstone, amid numerous religious artifacts left by pilgrims.
Other members joined her by the Quinn/Reilly family grave, which was decorated with lush begonias but no roses. Though Kaczmarek hadn’t told members in advance of the trip, the scent of roses around the grave has been detected by many, even in the winter, and is a popular story, he said. The gifts have been left by those who believe the spirit of Mary Alice Quinn, who died in 1935, can cure their ills or fulfill a request. Some have been known to take dirt from the grave, believing in its curative powers.
Then there was a quick stop by the graves of the Grimes sisters, Barbara and Patricia, who were murdered in 1956 after seeing an Elvis Presley movie in the Brighton Park neighborhood. Though nothing unusual has been reported about the grave site, Kaczmarek noted that strange phenomena have been known to occur at the site where the bodies were found.
“Some say that a screech of car brakes, a dumping sound, and then the sounds of screeching off in the distance can still be heard around Devil’s Creek by the Des Plaines River” near Willow Springs, where the bodies were found, Kaczmarek said.
At the cemetery itself, according to Louis Santos, superintendent of Holy Sepulchre, no reports have reached his office regarding the Quinn and Grimes graves.
Said Santos, “People do visit these graves, but there are not droves of people coming out here in any given year.
“We do have people asking the location of the graves and we tell them, but we don’t keep track of how many,” Santos noted.
Some stories of the paranormal just don’t seem to die. That’s why such tales have been chronicled by Kaczmarek, who explores that world with the Ghost Research Society as well as with his Excursions into the Unknown bus tours (708-425-5163), which embark on similar journeys.
At Bachelor Grove, the group walked down the silent back road (appropriately named Bachelor Grove Road) until they reached the small cemetery, which is no longer used for new burials. Amid overturned tombstones, a somewhat fresh campfire displayed empty beer cans left by previous visitors.
Here, Kaczmarek talked about sightings of a spectral farmer leading a horse and wagon and a phantom farmhouse that appears in the distance, then vanishes. He also relates stories of blue lights and eerie sounds following unwanted visitors. The cemetery was once part of an 1830 settlement where young Germans, mostly unmarried men, bought land for $1.25 an acre, Kaczmarek noted, hence the name Bachelor Grove. But in the 1920s and ’30s, he added, bodies from mob killings were dumped there, and satanic worship services were held there in the 1970s.
Steven Castans, chief of the Cook County Forest Preserve Police, could not verify the stories that circulate about Bachelor Grove.
“It’s actually been very quiet there over the last few years. I only remember that back in the 1980s, it was an absolute madhouse,” said Castans, who has been chief for 12 years. “At that time, there were about 500 kids there every night, just walking through the cemetery and trying to scare the hell out of each other. (The legends) make these areas thrive.”
Arguably the most famous local legend is that of roadside wanderer Resurrection Mary, the young woman who is said to appear on Archer Road near Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, hitchhiking and then vaporizing. But she’s not the only ghostly traveler. Kaczmarek also told of a scruffy man who appears near the gates of St. Casimir’s Cemetery on 111th Street in Chicago. The pale-faced apparition, very tall and thin, is said to sneer and disappear whenever a driver encounters him in the headlights, Kaczmarek said.
Another hobo-type ghost (possibly the same one from St. Casimir’s, Kaczmarek said) also has been spotted in nearby yards, even during the day. When he vanishes, he supposedly leaves dogs yelping at the strange phenomenon.
That’s news to Ed Goralski, director of operations at St. Casimir’s, who said the cemetery office hasn’t received any reports of the hobo-like ghost.
“We have no knowledge and have not received any such reports. In fact, very little goes on here. It’s usually very quiet,” Goralski said.
Though cemeteries may be a popular place for ghost stories, other locations seem to be just as appealing to those existing in another dimension.
“Ghosts appear in a particular spot because they had experienced a great trauma there. They have had to die a violent death, very suddenly. Certainly not everyone who has died has become a ghost. It happens that some people are alive one moment, then gone the next and don’t realize that they had died, so they become earthbound,” explained the 40-year-old Kaczmarek, who has given another south suburbanite, Oak Lawn’s Richard Crowe, a run for his money as an expert on the paranormal. Crowe, who operates Supernatural Tours by Richard Crowe, a full-time business dealing with the paranormal, declined to comment on Kaczmarek and his group.
Nothing is off limits to ghosts.
“They could appear in Indian burial grounds, bowling alleys, churches, murder sites, intersections or just about anywhere,” Kaczmarek said.
Whenever someone contacts Kaczmarek to investigate a possible haunting, he often brings a Ghost Research Society member, a psychic or another specialist in the paranormal to help investigate.
“I try to look at the logical point first,” Kaczmarek said. “I look into the background of the individual (through interviews and checks with police) to see if they have had a problem themselves, such as alcoholism, mental illness or addictions of some sort. Sometimes, that in itself can make people think they see a ghost.”
If the individual checks out, the Ghost Research Society checks in, often camping overnight at the site to record whatever may happen. It’s the thrill of the hunt that seems to enliven Kaczmarek, who admits he’s always enjoyed a good scare, even as a child in Cicero.
“It was basically through my parents that I began to hear ghost stories, especially at bedtime. I also enjoyed listening to `Lights Out’ and `Inner Sanctum’ on the radio. While a lot of children would cringe in corners, I always wanted more,” he recalled.
Kaczmarek’s sister, Donna, and brother, Wayne, both of whom live in Bolingbrook and have an interest in the paranormal, he noted, but “they are not as dedicated.”
His father, Louis, committed suicide in 1962, and his mother, Stephanie, moved to Bolingbrook after raising the children. Kaczmarek remembers his family moving around quite a bit before his 1971 graduation from Stagg High School in Palos Hills.
From 1972 to 1974 Kaczmarek was a chaplain’s assistant during his stint with the U.S. Army at Ft. Polk, La. For the past 17 years, he has worked full time on the loading dock for Certified Grocers in Hodgkins.
Last year, Kaczmarek married. His wife, Ruth, and her two sons from a previous marriage joined Kaczmarek and his parrot Casper (as in the Friendly Ghost) in his Oak Lawn home.
The Ghost Research Society, headquartered at Kaczmarek’s home, began as the Ghost Tracker’s Club in 1978, founded by Martin V. Riccardo of Berwyn. Kaczmarek embarked on his own research into the supernatural in 1975 when he started collecting news articles and talking with anyone and everyone about their supernatural experiences, absorbing their knowledge. He joined the Ghost Tracker’s Club at its inception and continued his research for Riccardo. When Riccardo decided in 1982 to branch off with another organization, the Vampire’s Study Society (now Vampire Studies) in Berwyn, Kaczmarek became president of the Ghost Research Society, which changed its name to more accurately reflect the interest in research.
Riccardo, a 41-year-old hypnotherapist, said Kaczmarek had always been one of the most active members and had the most interesting ghost research. “He was always looking for new information and examining curious sites. He was a natural choice to take over the Ghost Research Society.”
Before then, Kaczmarek said, the society was a “private club with few close associates.” Kaczmarek opened it up to the general public, started a newsletter with articles and personal accounts from members and developed correspondents throughout the United States and England. Membership has since grown to nearly 150 and includes members from Japan, France, Germany and elsewhere.
On average, members are between 30 and 40, with jobs that range from lawyers and nurses to blue-collar workers. Many gather for the bimonthly meetings at the Oak Lawn Public Library, 9427 S. Raymond Ave., Oak Lawn, where they discuss their previous excursion and any recent discoveries.
Kaczmarek’s most noteworthy investigation in Chicago has been at That Steak Joynt, a North Side restaurant. His crew’s overnight stay in January resulted in some photographic images (whitish blurs and misty images), and the experience of cold spots in specific areas on a staircase, just below two Victorian portraits.
“They did come and took pictures and later showed them to me,” said restaurant manager Raudel Perez.
He explained that the Ghost Research Society members had heard rumors of ghostly behavior and asked the restaurant’s approval to investigate. Perez verified that patrons have told him of seeing shadows and feeling the cold spots on the staircase. He noted that these customers were clearly concerned, not intoxicated, and adamant about their discoveries. Perez also claims that there is no explanation for the cold spots on the staircase. No vents, no fans and no windows are nearby.
“I have seen these things myself, but it is hard to explain,” Perez added.
Whether the cemetery legends and other stories are entertainment or fact, Kaczmarek still attempts to check them out.
“I work with people who are very knowledgeable and are very good at character judgments. I’ve been doing this for quite a while now and believe I can tell when someone is trying to pull some hoax.”
Another investigation involved a woman, originally from Kansas, who had been plagued by hauntings in her home-spirits that seemed to follow her through six moves. Unexplained lights and sounds were frequent. Because the woman had lived in an area over an Indian burial ground at one time, Kaczmarek, society members and psychics concluded that ghosts had infiltrated some of her furniture as revenge for desecrating their resting place.
The woman now lives in Schaumburg with her three children. Asking not to be identified, she said the strange occurrences continue. She said she and her daughter have felt their hair mysteriously tugged, seen remote-control toys without batteries run on their own, witnessed shadows racing through the home and felt blankets pulled off them at night.
“I have done everything to get rid of this thing,” the woman said, though she has kept her furniture because it includes family heirlooms. “I’ve had the house blessed with holy water, we’ve had an Indian religious ceremony performed and other things. Nothing’s worked. I even thought the Ghost Research Society could get rid of this thing, but they didn’t.”
Eradicating a ghost or performing an exorcism is not part of the work of the Ghost Research Society-just collecting data through investigations and excursions. Kaczmarek contends that some ghosts make noise or move things, as in the Schaumburg case, because “they are saying, `I’m going to let you know I’m here.’ They’re actually reaching out for help because they found out they’re earthbound and can’t make the transition over. They can’t communicate well with the living and are in a limbo state.”
Ghost Research Society members Fran and Lisa Pizano, a mother and daughter from Cicero, have accompanied Kaczmarek on several excursions, including the trip to the Schaumburg home.
Society members were given an outline of the home and were free to roam around. “We would go through one by one to see if we would feel anything different and to use a compass to see if any movement was out of the ordinary,” said Fran, 40, who processes applications for a Chicago insurance company. She added that she experienced a tingling sensation and saw her compass fluctuate in one room.
“You just try to go in to these things with an open mind,” Fran said. “You have to go through each room and see if you pick up anything. I just say a few prayers myself when I go in. I’m not a professional investigator, but I do pick up a few things.”
Her husband, Lewis, is skeptical, Fran said. “He sort of makes fun of it and calls us the `Ghostbusters.’ He’s just afraid we’ll bring something home,” she laughed.
Fran’s daughter Lisa, 20, a service cashier at a car dealer, joined Kaczmarek’s team about two years ago (she talked her mother into joining last year) and admitted she’s not as sensitive as her mother when it comes to sensing the paranormal. But the Schaumburg home was an exception.
“I remember seeing a shadow that passed us very quickly, from the front room to the kitchen, real fast. We all looked at it, and at each other, to see if we all saw the same thing,” she said. Then in one bedroom, she “began smelling a sweet smell, like from a pipe. But no one was smoking,” Lisa explained. “I suppose we’re just basically curious and want to see things, and perhaps we’re trying too hard sometimes. You just have to go into these things with an open mind.”
Keeping an open mind aboiut the paranormal, ghostly happenings and psychic experiences is the eternal quest of the Ghost Research Society.
