Resurrection Mary is a well-known Chicago area ghost story, of the "vanishing hitchhiker" type, a type of folklore that is known in many cultures. According to the story, the ghost resides in Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, Illinois, a few miles southwest of Chicago. Resurrection Mary is considered to be Chicago's most famous ghost.[1][2][3]
Since the 1930s, several men driving northeast along Archer Avenue between the Willowbrook Ballroom and Resurrection Cemetery have reported picking up a young female hitchhiker. This young woman is dressed somewhat formally in a white party dress and is said to have light blond hair and blue eyes. There are other reports that she wears a thin shawl, dancing shoes, carries a small clutch purse, and possibly that she is very quiet. As the driver nears Resurrection Cemetery, she disappears into it. According to the Chicago Tribune, "full-time ghost hunter" Richard Crowe has collected "three dozen … substantiated" reports of Mary from the 1930s to the present.[4]
- ^ Heise, Kenan (1990). Resurrection Mary: A Ghost Story. Chicago Historical Bookworks. ISBN 0-924772-09-3.
- ^ Bielski, Ursula (1997). Chicago Haunts: Ghostlore of the Windy City. Chicago: Lake Claremont Press.
- ^ Chicago Quirk (October 17, 2011). "Meet Chicago's Most Famous Ghost: Resurrection Mary". Chicago Now. Archived from the original on October 19, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2017.
- ^ "Hunting a Ghost Named Mary". Chicago Tribune. October 31, 1985.