"Encyclopedia of Haunted Places:
Ghostly Locales from Around the World" by Jeff Belanger
New Encyclopedia
Details Haunted Places
“Ghosts
are everywhere. Every town has its buildings, houses, and cemeteries
about which locals whisper and which school children hurry past when
walking by. Ghost legends are powerful—they’re one of the few events
today that still survive mainly by oral tradition. The tales of ghost
encounters get retold, and soon certain locations get a ‘haunted’
reputation.”
So writes Jeff Belanger, who has compiled and
edited the Encyclopedia of Haunted Places: Ghostly Locales from
Around the World. (New Page Books, ISBN 1564147991, 360 pages,
$19.99.)
"To truly understand a haunted location, you need
to get local," said Belanger. "What makes this book unique is that the
entries are written by people who have done the haunted field work to
back up each ghostly claim—hearsay and urban legends weren't enough.
Each entry combines the history, the tragedies, and eyewitness accounts
of each haunted locale." There are numerous black-and-white photographs
of haunted places and even some pictures of alleged paranormal
phenomena.
The directory reports on more than 250 haunted
locations in the US and Canada, as well as several sites in the UK, Asia
and Australia. The research was done by dozens of real-life ghostbusters
who investigated haunted houses, hotels, restaurants, theaters, parks,
battlefields, graveyards and other places in their areas that are
visited by spirits.
Haunted places in the book range from the
world-famous, such as the Ford Theater in Washington DC, haunted by
Abraham Lincoln’s ghost, to obscure Midwestern farmhouses with their own
histories of personal tragedy.
For example, one of the listings in the "Great
Lakes" region is a pizza restaurant in the Willow Springs section on the
South Side of Chicago. Rico D's Pizza Ristorante was once owned by Al
Capone, who used the first floor for illegal gambling and the second
floor as a brothel. Employees of the restaurant reported seeing a female
specter dressed in 1920s wardrobe and walking toward the stairway
leading to the second floor. She is even said to have spoken to the
employees before vanishing from sight.
The book also includes a region-by-region directory
of contact information for the various paranormal investigators whose
work was featured in the book. The encyclopedia is a haunted travel
guide, a ghost hunter directory, and a repository of ghostly legends.
Jeff Belanger is the founder of Ghostvillage.com,
the largest paranormal community on the Web receiving more than five
million hits per month. Belanger is also the author of: The World's
Most Haunted Places: From the Secret Files of Ghostvillage.com and
Communicating With the Dead: Reach Beyond the Grave. He has been
a guest on more than 50 radio and television programs across North
America.
