Haunted Irvington Walking Tour
By: Kevin Friedly
Approximately 50 people wound their way through the streets of Irvington on Friday night, October 30. The night was warm with gusty winds, quick moving clouds and an almost completely full moon. With the winds rapidly changing from silent stillness to noisy moaning, the night was perfect for a ghost hunt. And the participants were not disappointed. Paranormal researcher Alan E. Hunter led the virgin ghost busters on a 2 1/2 hour walk past 14 of Irvington's most famous haunted locations.
Friday night's walk was just one of several conducted on friday night followed by several on saturday afternoon and evening after the Irvington Halloween Festival. In addition to the walk, participants were treated to a copy of the new book, Irvington Haunts by tour guide Alan Hunter and Irvington writer/publisher Russ Simnick. Hunter's knowledge of the details of each of the haunting sites was deep and his presentation was lively and reflected his love of the subject. Hunter is a member of the Indiana Ghost Trackers group which reportedly meets once a month at the Glendale library. Several other members of the Indiana Ghost Trackers were present on the walk as well and provided support to Hunter. The sites included the infamous D.C. Stephenson home plus the home of Madge Oberholtzer, one of the victims of the vicious Stephenson's terror. In addition, the tour included the Briggs/Johnson home, the George Julian home, the site of the last murder of mass murder Dr. H.H. Holmes plus the home of Thomas Carr Howe (Irvington Methodist church). No treatment of the hauntings of Irvington would be complete without a disucssion of Dillinger and his continued haunting of the location which is now DuFour's restaurant. One strange event occured during the walk. After hearing the story of the young ghost Joey at the Briggs/Johnson house one of the participants, trying to be funny, said "By Joey!" Seconds later a young lady became greatly upset and began crying. She claimed to have felt "something" pass by her. In addition, the gentleman who kiddingly bade Joey a good day admitted that he was generally a non-believer when it came to ghosts but that, in spite of that, he too felt something. If you didn't get to participate in the Irvington Haunts tour this year (and even if you did), you should definitely plan to participate next year. Check with Jeff at Lazy Daze for information on how to buy a copy of the Irvington Haunts book by Hunter and Simnick. |
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