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Baltimore Ghosts: History, Mystery, Legends and Lore [Paperback]

Ed Okonowicz (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)


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Paperback, August 2004 --  

Book Description

August 2004
Take a tour of Baltimore's haunted historic sites in this book based on more than a dozen personal interviews with park rangers, graveyard workers, saloon keepers and museum curators. The book includes more than 60 photographs of graveyards, tombstones, forts, ships, haunted restaurants and historic locations.

The book's highlights include the city's colorful history as explained through ghost tales and legends, featuring: unexplained activities at the Edgar Allan Poe House and Poe gravesite; 19th century grave robbing practices at the University of Maryland Medical College; spirits in the "catacombs" graveyard beneath Westminster Church; the "Gallows Ghost" and many other active spirits at Fort McHenry; graves and stories in Green Mount Cemetery (including the burial plot of John Wilkes Booth); sailor spirits on the USS Constellation in the Inner Harbor tourist area; several saloon ghosts and sightings in Fells Point; the Legend of "Black Aggie," an active tombstone statue; secret tunnels under Federal Hill; the story of the mysterious Phantom of O'Donnel Heights... and more.

In addition a special 1-to-5 "tombstone rating," which was provided by the Baltimore Society for Paranormal Research, is included at the end of each chapter. These tombstone symbols indicate the level of hauntings at each of these public sites.

To help teachers use this book in the classroom, a special teacher's guide is available separately. The book is entitled "Baltimore Ghosts and History Teacher's Guide" and was prepared by Cassandra Cogan, a middle school special education teacher in Cecil County, Md.



Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ed Okonowicz is the author of more than 20 books on mid-Atlantic folklore, legends and oral history. A former Baltimore resident, he now lives in Cecil County, Maryland. He teaches folklore and journalism courses at the University of Delaware, and he presents programs on writing and folklore in schools, libraries and colleges in the region.

He also presents storytelling programs at historic sites, conferences and conventions. He is a member of the Delaware Humanites Visiting Scholar Program and Speakers Bureau. He served on the Maryland State Arts Council Traditional Folk Advisory Panel. He has appeared on The Learning Channel and has spoken at paranormal conferences in the mid-Atlantic region.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 136 pages
  • Publisher: Myst and Lace Publishers, Inc.; First edition. edition (August 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1890690139
  • ISBN-13: 978-1890690137
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,450,300 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Day in the Po' House, October 24, 2005
This review is from: Baltimore Ghosts: History, Mystery, Legends and Lore (Paperback)
Over and over again I run across ghost books that contain mostly old unsubstantiated legends and very few real ghost stories. Legends and folklore are fine but I strenuously object to buying a book that purports to be about ghosts only to find that the title was meant to deceive. This book contains several old legends and some chapters don't deal with ghosts at all. For example, the chapter that deals with grave robbers has not one ghost, it is certainly a creepy story but there aren't any ghosts. There is also a chapter concerning the legend of Black Aggie and another chapter basically deals with the who's who of Baltimore history that can be found buried in Green Mount Cemetery, including the grave of John Wilkes Booth. All of these chapters are highly interesting but they contain nothing about ghosts. The difference between this book and others that contain several non-ghostly tales is that this author is entirely honest and has included the words legend and lore in the subtitle. Honesty, that's all I ask.

The stories mentioned above, while containing no ghosts are extremely creepy and informative. After reading the chapter about grave robbers I now know where the term "rot-gut whiskey" comes from and I also now know where to find the infamous Black Aggie statue. Ed Okonowicz is quickly becoming one of my favorite "ghost" authors, not only because his writing is so informative but also because the stories that do contain ghosts are very well written and witty. One absolutely hilarious anecdote that Okonowicz includes in this book concerns the curator of the Edgar Allen Poe house. It seems that after he first started his new job the curator, when asked what he did for a living, would tell people that he worked at the Poe house. Many people responded by commending him on his generous spirit and at first he was simply dumbfounded by these responses. After a while though the curator figured out that many people understood him to say that he worked at the po' (poor) house. Baltimore is still a very Southern city it seems.

As I mentioned earlier, the ghost stories in this book are superb and each and every one of them is backed up by recent eyewitness testimony. As an added bonus a group of ghost hunters have rated each haunt discussed based on the activity at the location. The rating is called the Haunt And Unexplained Reports rating, HAUR (pronounced horror) for short and is based on one to five tombstones.

In the introduction the author says that he collected far more stories than he could squeeze into one book. I hope this means that there will be a sequel out very soon.

REVIEWER'S NOTE - In the second edition of this book Mr. Okonowicz has added an award-winning story about a very strange performance given by someone just like himself to a very appreciative audience. This added bit of fiction is a very imaginative and spooky way for the author to end this superb book. It is a fictitious story isn't it Ed?
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1.0 out of 5 stars An amazing...disappointment, October 19, 2011
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This review is from: Baltimore Ghosts: History, Mystery, Legends and Lore (Paperback)
When I purchase a book titled "Baltimore Ghosts" I expect it to be largely about GHOSTS...stories sitings, etc. This book however felt as though the "ghosts" were an after thought. Sprinkled throughout the authors telling of his ventures and the people he spoke with he mentions a ghost story or 2...many not more than a few sentences long. And with all the spice of a stock report.

For example: "More than once the figure of a man has been seen in the gift shop, after hours, wandering among the aisles. And then suddenly disappears. Books have fallen off the shelves without any logical cause. And one women said she saw a hazy or foggy figure moving in the corner of her eye."

Yawn.

And as the other reviewer mentions, there are chapters that are not about hauntings at all. The John Wilkes Booth grave site/cemetary...While very interesting, I choose a book about GHOSTS not historical cemetaries. If I wanted to read JUST history I would have gotten a book titled as such.

He did mention in the forward that he wanted to ad some history in the book - and why not when you are focusing on hauntings of historical landmarks and buildings. However, considering the book is only 131 pages, it was far too heavy on everything BUT the actual hauntings...and heavy on redundancy. There were several chapters that had even whole paragraphs repeated verbatim. And these chapters are short, 2-4 pages on adverage.

I really wanted to like this book, but I'm sorry. I've read baking instructions for Halloween cookies that had more pizzazz and "spook" than this book.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, November 24, 2007
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ken "Ken2002" (Germantown, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Baltimore Ghosts: History, Mystery, Legends and Lore (Paperback)
The copy I received was in great condition, and was even autographed by the author. The information is very helpful when going through Baltimore.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
As we all know, there's haunted and there's HAUNTED!!!! Spooky sites can range from electrical malfunctions and creaking floorboards to apparitions captured on film and electronic voice phenomena (EVP) preserved on a tape or digital recorder. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
vanishing hitchhiker, historic shrine, ghost tales
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Fells Point, Black Aggie, Poe House, Edgar Allan Poe, Civil War, Green Mount, Federal Hill, Davidge Hall, Burying Ground, Westminster Hall, Whistling Oyster, Druid Ridge Cemetery, Vincent Price, Haunted Baltimore, Jeff Jerome, John Wilkes Booth, Revolutionary War, Theatre Project, United States, Westminster Cemetery, Cat's Eye Pub, John Drew, World War, Francis Scott Key, Patapsco River
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