COLD SIGHTINGSGhosts, cryptids & UFOs · place by place 
Ten Chicago ghost legends, counted down from #10 to #1, from a Prohibition-era pub to a hotel built for the 1893 World's Fair. Start with a woman in a red flapper dress said to haunt a pub restroom. End where a ghost hunter says, "If anywhere is haunted in Chicago, it's the Congress Hotel."
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The pub, a former Prohibition-era speakeasy, is said to be home to several spirits, including a woman in a red 1920s flapper dress who appears most often in the second-floor women's restroom.
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Local lore says the ghosts of Sears founder Richard Warren Sears and Aaron Montgomery Ward, who are both entombed in the Community Mausoleum, still haunt it, with Sears stalking the halls in anger at sharing the space with his old rival.
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Legend says a ghostly blue figure runs down the alley beside the theater where the FBI shot John Dillinger on July 22, 1934, then stumbles, collapses and vanishes.
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On opening night, New Year's Eve 1920, a newly engaged woman reportedly found her fiancé with another woman and fled to the rooftop, and a Woman in Red is now said to drift through the hotel.
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Legend says the statue of a young girl, Inez Clarke, sits in a glass case over her grave, and her spirit is said to haunt it, while the Eternal Silence statue is said to show a vision of your own death to anyone who stares into its eyes.
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After the SS Eastland capsized in the Chicago River on July 24, 1915, the Second Regiment Armory served as a makeshift morgue, and the building, later home to Harpo Studios, is said to echo with the sounds of the dead.
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Hull-House was said to be haunted by the ghost of Charles Hull's late wife, and a persistent rumor claimed Jane Addams kept a horned, tailed Devil Baby locked in the attic.
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After the Iroquois Theatre fire of December 30, 1903, the alley behind it served as a morgue and became known as the Alley of Death, where the victims are said to still be heard.
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Since the 1930s, drivers on Archer Avenue have told of a young woman in a white party dress, Resurrection Mary, who hitches a ride and vanishes near the cemetery.
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Built for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the hotel is said to be haunted by many spirits, including Peg Leg Johnny, a boy named Karl Langer and the stranger who stands beside beds in Room 411.
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/home/dale/rubric/storyboards/projects/1015-a-countdown-video-of-the-5e44/research.json Thumbnail: official Cold Sightings channel artwork. Header still: a frame from this episode's own production render. AI overlays are not photographic evidence.
Credits: (CC BY / CC BY-SA) Alley Where John Dillinger Was Shot And Killed, photo by Stephen Hogan (2017), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr Bedroom, Jane Addams-Hull House, photo by w_lemay (Warren LeMay) (2024), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Biographtheater, photo by Marc Heiden, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Chicago 20110913 04 Harpo Studios (6963117367), photo by David Wilson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Chicago, Illinois (2026) - 033, photo by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Chicago, Illinois Eternal Silence1, photo by IvoShandor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Congress Plaza Hotel, Chicago, photo by IvoShandor (2012), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Death Alley, photo by Marlin Keesler (2019), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Drake Hotel (Chicago), photo by Gregory Ford Henderson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Drake Hotel, Michigan Avenue, Streeterville, Chicago, IL, photo by w_lemay (Warren LeMay), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Etsilence, photo by Staticshakedown, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Frances Pearce Stone Rosehill Cemetery Chicago 2019-9780, photo by James Conkis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Graceland Cemetery Chicago Entrance Plaque 2019-1542, photo by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Inez Clark in Her Plexiglass Case, photo by Richie Diesterheft (2007), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr Inez Clarke, photo by Allison Meier (2018), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr Jane Addams-Hull House, University of Illinois Chicago, Halsted Street, Near West Side, Chicago, IL, photo by w_lemay (Warren LeMay), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons John G. Shedd Memorial Chapel at Rosehill Mausoleum, photo by Nick Number (2024), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Resurrection Cemetery Entrance, photo by Richie Diesterheft (2007), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr Resurrection Cemetery Gates of Mary's Hands, photo by Richie Diesterheft (2007), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr Resurrection Cemetery, Justice, IL, photo by MrHarman (2006), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Rosehill Cemetery Administration Building and Entry Gate 1, photo by Thshriver, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Second Regiment Armory, July 24, 1915. Independent Photo and Art Postal Card Co. Newberry Library, Eastland Disaster Historical Society records. (No copyright, United States; courtesy line) The Drake, Chicago, Illinois, photo by Ken Lund (2018), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons The Red Lion Pub sign, photo by Marc Heiden (2007), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Tomb of Frances M. Pearce 2018-0429, photo by James Conkis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Thumbnail photo: Chicago, Illinois Eternal Silence1, photo by IvoShandor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Edited image; the ghost overlay is AI-generated artwork. Also used: a CC0 skyline photo and public domain archival photos, via Wikimedia Commons. Some scenes and the host are AI-generated.