Customer Reviews

Baltimore Ghosts: History, Mystery, Legends and Lore

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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?

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.

The copy I received was in great condition, and was even autographed by the author. The information is very helpful when going through Baltimore.

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?

Buy one of Mr. Okonowicz's books and you will buy them ALL!!! They are charming, witty, interesting and spooky. You will not be able to put his book down once you open it.
If you get the chance to see him give a presenation--DO NOT PASS IT UP! He's even more charming and entertaining in person!