Chicago Street Guide to the Supernatural: A Guide to the Haunted and Legendary Places In and Near the Windy City (Paperback)

~ (Author), Carol Mercado (Author), Joseph E. Troiani (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Chicago's Street Guide to the Supernatural by Richard T. Crowe is a personally guided tour to local haunts and mysterious sites. All areas of Chicagoland and suburbs are covered and exact directions and field notes compliment the history of each location.

From the Publisher

Finally, Richard T. Crowe's much asked for book is here.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 275 pages
• Publisher: Carolando Press; 1st edition (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0940542064
• ISBN-13: 978-0940542068
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #804,670 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chicago Ghost Tours: The Print Version, April 6, 2004

By	Melissa Niksic (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The person who buys this book should be someone who has been on one of Richard Crowe's ghost tours and is purchasing the book as a kind of souvenir. Crowe isn't much of a writer: the text of "Chicago Street Guide to the Supernatural" is mostly a word-by-word duplication of the speeches he gives on his tours. That being said, Crowe really knows his stuff. He's been giving ghost tours in Chicago for years and could talk to you for hours about any of the haunted locations mentioned in his book. He's not a scientist and not exactly a historian, but Crowe specializes in legends, and that's what ghost stories are made of. This book contains summaries of Chicago's most famous ghost stories, including Resurrection Mary and John Dillinger. Crowe includes information that he obtained from interviews as well as many interesting photographs. It's an interesting and entertaining read, and anyone interested in learning more about Supernatural Chicago will enjoy it immensely.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Get the Book - Skip the Tour, December 3, 2003

By A Customer

This book is written in a concise and easy to read format. As a chicago suburb native, I enjoyed reading tales about places and areas that I am familiar with and have been to. AS FOR THE TOUR, I was completely disappointed. Imagine sitting on a bus for four hours listening to the "micro-machine guy" rattle through places where people have seen ghosts. Very little story telling actually took place on the tour. Basically, we'd drive past a store stuck between a subway and dunkin donuts and he'd say, "so and so died here...now it's haunted," and that would be it. He even had to nerve to tell us that his last bus driver quit because he saw a ghost, and that was the end of that story. Instead of hearing stories about China Town we stopped at a chinese grocery store and he tried to get us to buy knock-off Guchi bags. Anyways, get the book if you are local to Chicago, forget the tour.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Like the other books, November 2, 2003

By A Customer

This book does nothing more than reprint most common "folklore" of the Chicago area. With the exception of a handful of comments in the book, it sounds the same as any other books out there on Chicago haunted sites. After attending one or two tours on Chicago's haunted sites, you would have the same information as this book offers. This book is nothing special. The Author's Chicago Ghost tours are nothing more than a shopping trip with stops at stores, pubs and resturants to spend money. No information about hauntings is give off the bus only shopping. I would recommend Dale Kacmarek's books on Chicago Ghosts because he is a noted researcher and investigator and not a "folklorist" who collects stories to retell. In fact most of the stories have already appeared in local newspapers for decades, and the folklore is famous before the author began his tours--example is Resurrection Mary. We went on his tours back in the 1990's through a Community College and it was the same then as it is now. The author is rude on his tours to people who pay high prices. We saw him get the kickback too at the Chinatown store and the free drinks at the bars as well. Rather read Windy City Ghosts by Dale Kaczmarek, he is president of the Ghost Research Society and has visited every site and interviewed people. Considering the author tells people on his tour that he has a Masters Degree in English, I am surprised he didn't write the book alone.