from american hauntings ink
haunted decatur
25th anniversary edition
TWO CENTURIES OF DECATUR’S SPIRITS, SCANDALS AND SINS
BY TROY TAYLOR (2020)
AUTOGRAPHED COPIES AVAILABLE!
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SPECIAL OFFER ON TWO BOOKS — THE HAUNTED DECATUR SALE PACKAGE! Get both HAUNTED DECATUR: 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION and Troy’s GHOSTS OF THE PRAIRIE for the sale price of $32!
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On the 25th anniversary of the publication of his first book, author Troy Taylor returns once more to reveal two centuries of spirits, scandals, and sins in Decatur, Illinois – the most haunted town in the Midwest! He takes you behind the scenes of the most spirited places in the city and reveals a collection of favorite hauntings, new stories you’ve never heard before, and offers new secrets about old stories that everyone only thinks they know!
Journey back in time to the days of the first settlers and discover how the city came to be so haunted. Then, hold on for a wild ride to the most ghost-infested spots in Decatur from Greenwood Cemetery to the Common Burial Grounds, the Lincoln and Avon Theaters, Hell Hollow, Millikin University, Wabash Train Station, and many more. If you dare, take a walk into haunted houses, eerie hotels, ghostly graveyards, and find out why the entire city of Decatur was sent into a panic over a phantom in 1903.
You’ll be terrified by historic tales of crime, murder, bootlegging, and corruption and learn how Decatur earned the nickname of the “second most corrupt city in Illinois.” You’ll find lurid stories of gangsters, graverobbers, killers, thieves, prostitutes, and cold-blooded murders and scandalous suicides that left lingering ghosts in their wake.
This is not a book for the faint of heart, but it is a celebration of a city that has worked hard to earn its reputation for bloodshed, murder, death – and ghosts. Decatur is a place that is haunted by its past in more ways than one. So, turn off the lights, lock the doors, and let this book take you back to where the history and hauntings in Decatur began.
AMONG THE DARK TALES IN THIS BOOK ARE:
* Legends, Lore and the Making of Decatur’s History and Hauntings
* The Bones Left Behind
* Legends of the Early Settlers
* Spirits of the Civil War
* Decatur’s Lost Tunnels
* Haunted Hotels
* Haunted Businesses and Funeral Homes
* Haunted Firehouse No. 2
* The Shellabarger Grain Co. Fire and its Lingering Spirits
* “Engine of Steam and Horror” - Death, Disaster and Decatur’s Railroad Ghosts
* Ghosts of the Wabash Shops
* The Ghost of Joe Ricketts and the Haunted Train Station
* Omer Davenport and the Spirit he Left Behind
* Ghosts of Millikin - School Spirits of the Most Haunted College in the Midwest
* Three Pieces of Candy at the Albert Taylor Theater
* Haunting of Aston Hall
* Flickering Images - Decatur’s Historic and Haunted Theaters
* Ghosts of the Avon Theater
* The Haunted Lincoln Theater
* Where the Dead Walk - Hauntings of Decatur’s Burial Grounds
* The Common Burial Grounds
* Ghosts of Greenwood Cemetery
* Decatur’s Ghosts and Haunted House - Famous and Little-Known Spots
* The Decatur Ghost Panic of 1903
* The Culver House
* The Powers Mansion
* The Judge Race Mansion
* The James Millikin Home
* The Linn House
* The A.E. Staley Mansion and Many Others!
* No Rest for the Wicked - Decatur Murder, Crime, Corruption and Some Lingering Ghosts
* Prohibition, Gambling, and Vice Districts in Decatur
* Opium Dens on Merchant Street and Bordellos on the East Side
* The Levee and other Decatur Vice Districts
* History, Hauntings and Horror of Hell Hollow
* Lynching of Samuel Bush
* Charles “Pacer” Smith and the Spirits of his Victims
* Decatur’s Female Serial Killer
* The “Hatchet House” Murders
* The Halloween Murders
* And much, much More!