Spooky Hoosier Books, Part BOO --er-- Two

We continue with our recommendations for ghostly tales from Hoosierland.  (See our previous post, too.)

Hoosier folklorist Tom Baker has published several haunted books, including the ever-popular Indiana Ghost Folklore (Arglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2009).  Baker includes stories from across the state, and besides ghosts and haunted placed, he includes werewolves and other monsters, lucid dreams, spirit possession, witches, and other supernatural offerings.  This is folklore, so the cases aren't presented as factual events; rather, they are legends that have grown over time in particular places or surrounding specific circumstances.  Did they actually happen?  That's beside the point.  In folklore, the legend is everything.  Baker deftly delivers riveting yarns that will fascinate readers.  Check it out from an Evergreen Indiana (E.I.) library near you (if you're a cardholder, that is).

 

When I was a student at Indiana University, its folklore department was recognized as the best in the world, or so I was informed by a folklore major who had travelled from Israel to study there.  I had (and have) no reason to doubt the academic strength of the I.U. folklore department, as I discovered first-hand when I read Linda Dégh's classic treatise, Indiana Folklore:  A Reader (Bloomington, IN:  Indiana University Press, 1980), available to checkout from Evergreen Indiana.  It is a scholastic masterpiece.  The book includes a superb cross-section of Hoosier folklore, but for our purposes, its accounts of magic, horror, ghosts, and haunted places make this an essential read for anyone interested in the supernatural.  After reading it, I regretted not having taken any undergraduate folklore courses at I.U.  I even reflected that it would have been a more interesting major for me than the one in which I earned my bachelor degree (I won't tell tales out-of-school, so to speak, which means I won't divulge what my major was.  Anyway, I'm old now, and it's possible I've forgotten.  Since my B.A., or, as I.U. shows it, my A.B., theoretically helped me gain admission to a top I.U. graduate program, from which I earned a doctorate, I don't have too many regrets.)

 

 

Speaking of Indiana University (Bloomington), Kat Klockow compiled a collection of ghost stories from Monroe County (and elsewhere in Indiana) that focuses upon I.U.  Like most good folklore, the tales include horror (the "McNutt hatchet man," for instance) as well as more traditional supernatural activities, ghosts, or haunted places.  A few of these I had heard as a student over forty years ago, but most were new to me.  They'll raise the hair on your neck, I'll wager.  Evergreen Indiana cardholders can checkout a copy.

Mark Marimen is a prolific writer of Hoosier hauntings, and his books explore the gamut of Indiana-related supernatural stories.  They remain some of the most popular books on the subject at Mooresville Public Library.  If you're an Evergreen Indiana cardholder, you'll have a field day checking them out and reading them.

 

Nicole R. Kobrowski has written several haunted Indiana books, of which her Encyclopedia of Haunted Indiana (Westfield, Indiana : Unseenpress, 1st edition, 2008--see also the updated 2017 edition) gathers statewide stories of the macabre, organized by location.   See the Evergreen Indiana catalog for a listing of Kobrowski's titles available to checkout.

 

Another popular author of Indiana hauntings is Wanda Lou Willis, whose Haunted Hoosier Trails (Cincinnati, Ohio : Clerisy Press, 2002) and More Haunted Hoosier Trails (Cincinnati, Ohio : Emmis Books, 2004) are perennial favorites for ghost aficionados.  Find these titles here in Evergreen Indiana.

Edrick Thay's Ghost Stories of Indiana (Edmonton, AB, Canada : Ghost House Books, 2001) includes a wide range of haunted places (houses, public places, universities, historical landmarks, bridges and tunnels, cemeteries, and legendary ghouls).  Evergreen Indiana cardholders can check it out here.

Tom Baker and Jonathan Tichenal teamed-up to present hauntings from Indianapolis (and other Hoosier locales) in another excellent survey of the supernatural.  E. I. Cardholders can  check it out.

I was born and raised in Lafayette, Indiana, but I hadn't heard of most of these haunted tales compiled by Dorothy Salvo Davis and W. C. Madden in Haunted Lafayette (Charleston, SC : Haunted America, 2009).  Recognizing the locations helped bring to life the scary stories from Tippecanoe County (and nearby).  Find it here in E.I.

 

 

  

S. E. Schlosser retells several supernatural stories in Spooky Indiana (Guilford, CT : Globe Pequot Press, 2012).  Schlosser garnishes these folklore favorites with some spine-tingling spice.  Find it here in E.I.

 

 

K. T. MacRorie's Hoosier Hauntings (Grand Rapids, MI : Thunder Bay Press, 1997) is an earlier compilation of supernatural and paranormal tales that will send shivers down readers' backs.  It's here in E.I.

 

There are many, many more spooky Indiana books out there, but these will get you started.  Others are easily found in your libraries' catalogs or local (or online) booksellers.  Let's end on a terrible pun:  Put the BOO in books this Halloween season.  There's nothing quite as invigorating as a good ghost story, especially when so many may be found in your own state.

 

Spooky Hoosier Books, Part One

October is nearly here, so we've got Halloween on the horizon.  That means it's time to read some spooky books.  Mooresville Public Library has plenty available to checkout, both fiction (call numbers FIC and the first three letters of the author's last name) and nonfiction (call numbers 133 and 398, generally, although there are other places to find them, too).  Since this blog focuses upon Indiana-related (or, more precisely, Morgan County-related) subjects, I'll share the works of a few Hoosier paranormal writers.

Let's begin with Morgan County authors.

The Feeders at Night, by Aldo G. Gonzalez

(MPL Book Trailer #307)

Following a divorce, Aldo Gonzalez needed a new start and a new home.  The house he found offered features not included in the real estate multiple listings.  First, there were barely discernible footsteps and voices when no one else was present.  Then, the horror escalated.  Supernatural forces seemed to be feeding off the author.  You'll want to read this real-life terror with the lights on.  Check it out from the library's Evergreen Indiana catalog.

 

Haunting at Sycamore Lake, by Karl C. B. Muilliwey

(MPL Book Trailer #14)

Attorney Karl C. B. Muilliwey (a pseudonym) investigated a haunted house near Union City, Randolph County, Indiana, in 1992-1993.  The author, who now lives near Mooresville, presents the evidence that an unseen spirit entity, who committed suicide in the barn on the property, lingered on the premises, wreaking havoc but causing little actual harm to the buildings or inhabitants.  Muilliwey began as an open-minded skeptic but was finally convinced of the reality of the paranormal phenomena and their apparent spirit-source.  Checkout the book with your Evergreen Indiana library card.  Here's the catalog listing.  Or you can buy a copy (Kindle eBook or paperback) from Amazon online.

Shelf Doll & Other True Paranormal Tales, by Karl C. B. Muilliwey

(MPL Book Trailer #110)

Muilliwey's son was the primary investigator in a poltergeist case near Centerton, Morgan County, Indiana.  Muilliwey intended to write a short book about the case (hence the book trailer above), but publication fell through, and so we are forced to settle with this article we included in this blog.  The purported spirit entity lived inside a doll on the shelf of a teenager's bedroom, and it was considerably more malevolent than Muilliwey's Sycamore Lake discarnate.  We're hoping that someday this case will appear in book form.

 

The People in the Attic, by Doretta Johnson with Jim Henderson

(MPL Book Trailer #691)

Beginning in 1987, Doretta Johnson and her family experienced a truly horrifying house haunting in Madison, Indiana.  Her 1995 book (written with Jim Henderson) will chill your bones.  From the safety of your armchair, it makes a marvelously spooky read.  Learn more here.  Evergreen Indiana cardholders may place a hold on the book here.

 

Looking for Carroll Beckwith, by Captain Robert L. Snow

(MPL Book Trailer #3)

Of course, most of the spooky Hoosier books available to checkout from Mooresville Public Library were written by Indiana authors living outside Morgan County.  Here are a few popular titles.

Captain Robert L. Snow, a retired Indianapolis police homicide commander, made a surprising discovery:  He remembered details from a previous life as painter James Carroll Beckwith (1852-1917) that he could not reasonably have learned through ordinary means.  As a police detective, Snow was highly skeptical, but he was also open-minded in his investigations.  He chronicles his journey from extreme doubt to eventual conviction (in the truth of the matter, not in the criminal sense).  The book is available in the library's Evergreen Indiana catalog.

 

Four Books About Precipitated Spirit Portraits, by Various Authors

(MPL Book Trailer #355)

In a previous blog post, we discussed the Bangs sisters of Chicago, psychic mediums who specialized in precipitated spirit portraits.  These were purported portraits of deceased individuals that "painted themselves" without apparent human intervention.  Camp Chesterfield, a spiritualist camp near Anderson, Indiana, displays several of these portraits in their Hett Memorial Art Gallery and Museum.  (Read a PDF copy of the book, or, if  you prefer paper, drop by the MPL Indiana Room and peruse one of its copies.)  Many psychical researchers investigated the Bangs sisters and determined that their phenomena were genuine.

We featured Indianapolis resident May Wright Sewall's Neither Dead Nor Sleeping in a previous blog post.  Sewall (1844-1920) was best known as an advocate of women's suffrage, education, and world peace.  Few of her contemporaries knew that she was also interested in survival of bodily death, and she researched the subject for many years.  She reported her findings in this 1920 book, published posthumously and reprinted in 2008 by Cather Press.  It's available to checkout from the library's Evergreen Indiana catalog.

In my next blog post, we'll continue showcasing further haunted Indiana books by Hoosier writers.   There will be plenty of scares to go around!