Tag Archive: urban legend


School bus accident ghosts at Cuba Road crossing?

Filed Under: 4. Cuba Road, Cuba Road, Illinois — scottlmarkus — 2 Comments
June 20, 2011

From John: (originally a comment on the 4/6/09 post) My friends all have been talking about Cuba road and all of the ghost stories for awhile. I live in Deerfield not that fa away from Barrington. Some of the stories I’ve heard are about putting baby powder on your car on the railroad tracks. If you wait long enough (which is incredibly stupid because you are waiting in the middle of the road let alone middle of the tracks) you can feel your car shaking. When you go out and look at your car, you will see small handprints on the back and big handprints on the front. The reason for the handprints are because a school bus got stopped on the tracks and a train hit it. The little handprints are the kids that died in the bus when the train hit it. It is said that they are trying to warn you and push you off the tracks while an evil spirit is trying to keep you onthe tracks. Pretty spooky. Any comments on the story if it is true or false? Also, where is the best place to get a guarantee of the ghost car sighting?

Also, I have heard other stories that if you roll down the windows on your car and stop the old rickety wooden bridge not that far away from Cuba road and you turn your car off you can hear the sounds of a little boy choking himself and a bike chain rattling with the leaves rustling when there is no wind. Also some have actually seen a little boy fishing, taking the fishing line, cutting part of it off, wrapping it around his neck, choking himself, then falling into the water. When they go down to the river underneath the bridge, the fishing pole is gone!

Response by Scott Markus:  The story about the Cuba Road bridge involves a man in black appearing in front of your car on foggy nights.  In the area there are tales about the ghost of a small boy, but the exact location is related to the site of the “House on Rainbow Road.”  The best place to see a ghost car?  Well, nothing is predictible of course, but I would guess that along the stretch of road that goes past White Cemetery is probably your best bet.  Vanishing cars and trucks have been seen all over Cuba Road including an entire funeral procession that ends at White Cemetery itself.

As for your railroad tale, there indeed is a story of a phantom train seen crossing Cuba Road, not far from the bridge, however, the story you’ve been told is a a version of a very famous ghost story that’s around 80 years old.  Read more about that here: http://voicesfromthegrave.blog.com/famous-legends/

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A Haunted House on Cuba Road

Filed Under: 15. More Illinois, 4. Cuba Road, 5. Haunted Homes, Barrington, Cuba Road, Illinois, Rainbow Road — scottlmarkus — 4 Comments
March 4, 2008

Comment: I lived on Cuba Road for about 25 years. My family moved there from Chicago in 1970. The whole time I lived there, I never heard about a haunted house on Rainbow Road. It was always the haunted house on Cuba Road. The house was located off of Cuba Road, west of Rainbow road. The first and only time I went up there was in the summer of 1980. I was about 17. The house was still standing then and the drive way was still connected to Cuba Road. It was a big house on a small hill. It had the swamp on two sides and field and forest on the other sides. No neighbors lived close to it. The house was set on fire several times and was abandoned. No windows were left in it. I remember cutting across a field to get to it. I didn’t want to park my car on Cuba Road and have the cops tow it away. Nor did I want to drive it up the hill and get stuck. If I needed to leave quickly, I planned on running for my life. I didn’t want to be fumbling for my car keys.

As I was walking up to the house, I suddenly noticed a man standing out in front of it. Just standing there smiling at me. It scared the crap out me. He was up there checking things out like I was. He just said good bye and took off down the drive way. I gave him a wide berth and checked out the house. There was a small pond in front of the house, where a car had been pushed into it. All you could see was the roof of the car sticking out of the water. The rest of the house was empty. But very creepy.

During the 70′s, Cuba Road was not yet developed. Some days you would only see one car drive up or down it. But every Halloween, there would be cars bumper to bumper, filled with high school kids, driving from the Haunted house on one end to the haunted graveyard, White Cemetery, on the other.

I didn’t know Cuba Road was haunted till I went to high school. I was sitting in class one day, when someone mentioned how scary Cuba Road was. I asked him what did he mean and he told name all the scary stories he had heard. I told him I lived on Cuba Road and no one believed me, until I showed them my drivers license. That impressed the hell out of them. Then, they wanted me to tell them scary stories.

At first, I told them that they were just stories, but they wouldn’t believe me, so then I started repeating the stories my older brothers had told me. About the drug dealing son and his “Mason” like gang he hung out with. The father had passed away and the Mom tried to keep the son in line, but eventually had a nervous breakdown and was taken away to a mental institution. Once the Mom was gone, the son ran wild with his hippie friends and started having black masses in the house. Late at night they would run through the fields and swamps with torches. One party got out of hand and they started the house on fire. The house was totaled, but the son and his friends would sneak back there at times for their secret get-togethers and bon fires. All the druggies and burnouts in Barringtion would flock to the house for parties. Finally, the Village had enough and decided to remove the drive way to the house. It was dug up and removed. A berm was made to stop cars from trying to four wheel up to the house. I don’t know if they razed the house at the same time, but I bet they did. The Fire and the Police Departments were getting tired of driving out there every Saturday night.

Things seemed to have settled down. People still drove up and down Cuba Road on Halloween. Over time, people wanted to go to the haunted house. So suddenly, the haunted house was now on Rainbow Road. A house where people could still drive up to and get out of there cars and look around. This happened over the last 15 years, because I never heard of a Rainbow Road haunted house till after I left Barrington and started reading books about haunted places. I was confused why they would talk about the haunted house on Rainbow Road Road, they never got the story right. I guess I should call it the original haunted house on Cuba Road. If you ask anyone in Barrington over 40 where the Haunted house is, they would not say Rainbow Road. They would tell you it was off of Cuba Road.

That is all for now. I do have other stories, about the animals getting killed in the Langendorf Park petting zoo.

About the memorial plaque that is located behind the McDonalds Restaurant, in the Langendorf Park parking lot, where Baby Face Nelson had a shoot out with two FBI agents. –Martin

Response from Slim Pictures: Martin, the most exciting part of your eMail is your mention of Baby Face Nelson. Just recently I decided to look into possible hauntings surrounding the infamous gangster, especially considering his violent life and death. PLEASE do tell me everything you’ve heard!

I am very fascinated by your accounts of a hunted house on Cuba Rd. If you were to look on google Earth or Google Maps today, do you think you’d be able to locate where this ‘original’ haunted house was. It seems like some of the tales of this house have migrated to the Krilich house on Rainbow Rd. I have heard plenty of what I consider legitimate stories about a haunted house on Rainbow Road, so I’m inclined to think that both of these locations are haunted though there have definitely been some blurring between the locations over the years.  It’s a very astute observation to presume that when the ‘original’ haunted house of the area went away, they needed a new base to call home.  I love hearing how the original stories morph into urban legends over time and I thank you for informing all of us Cuba Road ‘newbies’ about where some of these tales might have started.

Are there ghost stories related the the petting zoo? Thanks a million, Scott

Do any readers out there know anything about an abandoned haunted home on Cuba Road (not Rainbow Road) in the ’80s and before?

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Criticism of Ghost Hunters on Rainbow Road

Filed Under: 4. Cuba Road, Illinois, Rainbow Road — scottlmarkus — Comments Off
December 14, 2006

Comment: Ok the person who wrote the whole thing about the asylum on rainbow road has obviously been lied too. My best friend lives right off of middlefork and his property backs up to the supposed insane asylum. I have been in there and it was never an asylum. The were no electric chairs in there. Yes there is graffiti. And as far as the screams go. It was probably us messing around at my friends house where we constantly had parties. The actual house that was there is gone and a new subdivision of really nice houses is being built. The old house was rumored to be a mob hideout. No one has ever died there. It sounds to me like older brothers and sisters have either lied to you or been lied to themselves. But to the person who said their brother saw electric chairs. No he hasn’t. It was an old house that had been torn down over a year ago. –Andrew J. Kay

Response from Scott Markus: Andrew, I was going to post your message in its entiriety on the site, until it got unreasonably abrasive (some of his comments were deleted). For some reason there are urban legends about the site being an institution – obviously it was not. Part of the goals of this site is to set the record straight on the various haunted locations across Chicagoland. Keeping with the goal of setting the record straight is that there actually was a death at the house. A 7 year-old boy died there in 1968. The article, republished from the Chicago Tribune, is posted on the site – look at the 12/29/04 submission further down this page.
Regardless of your feelings of the validity of the paranormal (do ghosts exist or not), it is definately facinating to observe how many people are interested in learning about this specific plot of land, and it’s interesting to see how urban legends spread and transform over time. However, I have spoken with too many credible people who claim to have had first-hand accounts to fully discount every possibility that there is something going on.
To end in agreement of your main point – the location on Rainbow Road was never an asylum, and, yes, whoever claimed that they found electric chairs there was either lying or mistaken.

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Another telling of an urban legend at “The Gate”

Filed Under: 1. Legends & Lore, Illinois, The Gate, Libertyville — scottlmarkus — Comments Off
July 15, 2005

Story: All my life I have been scared of everything! From bugs, to storms, and I will never get over that fear. I have to many stories to tell. But all i have to say now is that I love ghosts! So I purchased a book about Chicago ghost. There I found a story that was very close by to me. Once I read it I had to tell my mom, because we can never hear too many stories. After I told her, we did research on it, and went to a place called “Hells Gate.”After some research we learned:
In the 1940′s this gate had led it’s way to an all-girls Catholic school, St.Frances. During a usual day at the school the girls would play outside for recess. While playing recess, as the story goes, the principal took four of the girls. During that same night, the principal chopped off the heads of the girls. That same day the parents found out that their girls didn’t come home. So they went to the police to have an all night search. Early the next morning the principal stuck the heads on the stakes of the gate. That same morning, as the story goes, a little boy was walking to school to see the heads on the gate, and the their blood dripping. Then, a couple hours later the police found the girls, but only their heads. As the story goes the book said that every Halloween night or/and midnight, the the heads of the missing girls return to the gate, with only the heads on the stakes. There is also blood on the gate. People also say that when they go there they find the little boy standing by that very gate.
Now this story sounded awesome! So my mom, and I went to the gate and took pictures, but when we got the pictures back it was too dark, but what we did catch was over a million orbs. A couple days later my friend slept over, and we went there with my mom, and my sister. When we got there, there was a family. They say they go there every night on halloween, and say they they got pictures of the girls on the gate. So this same night me, and my friend were walking up to my mom, and the family by the gate. While standing there all of a sudden there is this huge manly scream. My friend, and I looked at each other and screamed, and everyone ran back to the cars. I say that it could have been the crazyed principal. To make this long story short, we kept going back there, and we got a picture of red light, and a face. We also got more orbs, but when we zoomed up closer it looked like a clear face that was smiling, but had very long fangs. On these other pictures there was a little boy. SO SCARY! When we went back a couple weeks later we turned off the car, and all of sudden it was dead silence until it was sound of children laughing as if it was recess time, and then after that we herd whispering! I WAS SO FRICKEN SCARED! All I know is that there was something out there, and I don’t think it wanted us there!

Response by Scott Markus: First off, I would love to see your pictures!  Please send them to Scott@slimpictures.com!  Your tales of phantom sounds are becoming more and more common lately, though this seems to be a newer occurrence.

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More questions about The Gate

Filed Under: 1. Legends & Lore, Illinois, The Gate, Libertyville — scottlmarkus — Comments Off
April 15, 2005

Hello Scott; My name is Jocelyn I was just wondering if you could tell me a little bit about “The Gate”
I seem to have a lot of information on it, yet I lack the information about what happened to the Katherine Kriegh Budd Memorial Home for Children. Did it burn down and if so why and how many died in it? The stories always mention that something happened and that they think it was burned down but yet they’re just not sure. I am trying to do a paper on what happened there I read from your site that there was a school built there after the memorial home incident. I found that most intresting to find out that there was 4 boys heads that were placed on the gate itself. I had never heard anything about that part of it. I am going to have to make sure to put that into my paper.
Please if you can help me out it would mean so much to me. Thanks in advance for all your help. — Jocelyn

Response from Scott Markus: Jocelyn, there is a lot more urban legend than fact going around in regards to this property, especially when it comes to the horror and ghost stories.  Though I can’t speak as an eyewitness, I’m sure there were never really severed heads on the gate posts.  The orphanage didn’t close down due to some atrocity.  According to http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/csm/mhilary/chapter11.html

“From 1925 to 1930 the children of St. Mary’s Home spent their summers at Doddridge Farm, Libertyville, Illinois, at the Katherine Kreigh Budd Memorial Home. In 1934 the trustees of Racine College, Racine, Wisconsin, invited the Home to use its forty-acre campus on Lake Michigan for summer camping. In 1935 the Sisters purchased the campus as a summer home, thus preserving to the use of the Church the property representing the lifetime labor of the great Dr. James DeKoven.”

In other words, they simply moved after 1930.  To read up a bit more on Dr. James DeKoven, who is of regional interest in Racine, WI, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_DeKoven

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A new legend for White Cemetery

Filed Under: 4. Cuba Road, Illinois, White Cemetery — scottlmarkus — Comments Off
February 15, 2005

Question: This is regards to White Cemetery. Have you ever herd of not being able to see the cemetery ’till midnite?

Response from Slim Pictures: No, but that is an interesting tale. Places as notoriously haunted as White Cemetery and really the entire Cuba Road area tend to spawn countless urban legends. If you have anymore details about this legend, or have heard other interesting stories, please do let us know!

Response from Marshmello831 (a fellow reader): Me and some friends where driving down Cuba Road looking for the cemetery, and we where driving up and down Cuba Road for about an hour. We could not find it. Then we took one pass down Cuba Road and it was approximately 12:05 and out of nowhere everybody in the car saw the cemetery at the same time. It just happened to be after 12 when everyone saw it.

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The Finer Points of Rainbow Road

Filed Under: 4. Cuba Road, Illinois, Rainbow Road — scottlmarkus — Comments Off
July 20, 2004

Story: I have a questionon on the gated entrance off Rainbow Road to the abandoned property: did this property ever have an insane asylum on it? Everyone keeps saying yes there was, and its really starting to annoy me because I cant find anything on it anywhere. They usually have records of places like this built in IL or the US, but there was none in that area. The place is certainly big enough for a building like that and I know the whole entire property is barb wired. The gated entrance could also throw off the looks of a building such as an insane asylum, because not many in that area has gates such as those. I read next to the gate there is a camera in one of the trees and there is a fuse box with wires ripped out of it. Maybe those are the police’s camera, because of the high amount of people that go back there. Also, if the place was owned in the 1930s there certainly wouldn’t be cameras. If there was an insane asylum back there recently I could see a camera at the entrance. But when I was back there (I know its trespassing) there was things that could be part of an insane asylum such as tennis courts and shuffleboard courts. Are you sure the place was owned by the mob? The items in the barn did not look that old, I would say they were from the ’80s at the oldest. That picture of the barn or stables on your website on the second page wasn’t there. We looked for it didn’t see it, all we saw was the barn, silo, and doghouse. That part was probably directly across from the silo if I would guess a spot for it. We did not go far enough into the property to see more buildings but I believe thats all thats there. The house’s foundation is viewable but we didn’t feel like walking through weeds to get to the pool/deck. I also found that the name of the doctor at this supposed insane asylum is Dr. Tibol. You somewhere can see his name sketched into the driveway of a house in that area. And finally I read in a forum where a resident of 22 years in that area expressed that the house was owned by a mobster who went to jail and his property went up for grabs. He had a high security home which explains the barbed wire and gate. This place is so confusing, I’m getting so frustrated on the truth of this property, but I am sure there is a true story behind it and I know someone knows it.  –Greg Bock

Response from Scott Markus: You had a lot of good questions, and very good observations.  The frustration and attention to detail really does show that you’re giving this search your ‘all,’ so my hat is off to you.  Unfortunately, no, we do not know for certain that a mobster owned the property, but we felt confident to extrapolate that information based on hearsay added the the current and former Mafia presence in the area (under the radar, but still VERY present).  I am living in Hawaii now, so I haven’t been back to that property for a few years.  I heard that somewhat recently the barn that is pictured on my web site did also burn down.  You made a great observation that most don’t – the location was ‘lived in’ somewhat recently.  In the area near the swimming pool, there is a satellite dish that does date back to the 1980s.  So, obviously people have lived there since the 1930s.  Abandoned properties deterrorate faster than you’d think.  It’s like a place can age 50 years in the span of 5 years when people aren’t taking care of it.  I too have heard many of the allegations that the property was an asylum.  My only guess is that people were getting it confused with the Sunnybrook Asylum in Fox Lake, which, after a tip off from our web site, it turned out to be a utopian society, not an asylum after all.  If you want to see a cool haunted asylum, check out this web link:  theunexplainedworld.com/manteno/index.htm.  So, the tales of Dr. Tibol (whom I haven’t heard of until now) are more likely just a colorful detail in one of the many urban legends.  However, it is still a lead to check up on.  I’ll surf around and see what I can come up with.  Please do keep me informed if you find the real story behind the property.  Thanks!

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Questions & Picture of the House on Rainbow Road

Filed Under: 4. Cuba Road, Illinois, Rainbow Road — scottlmarkus — Comments Off
July 3, 2004

Story: First of all to get a good view of the property we got a arial picture of the property.  One picture was from 1998 which totally you could see the house in.  But in 2002 the house was definitely gone.  So in that 4 years someone burned it down, I have heard so many stories on the way it burned was training for police/fire/swat or that Cuba Township burned it down because of all the controversy on it.  We went to Rainbow Road where the gates are at the bend of the road.  We parked a couple blocks away and went down the road.  We know it is trespassing, but early we saw a group of kids leaving the property and we asked them and they said the police had unlocked the gates and went in there but they had left 10 mins ago.  So we checked and the gate was locked so we figured the police wouldn’t be back.  We went down the road and you see the spot where the house was burned.  Its all tall grasses, we didn’t go look for the pool.  To the right you see the barn, silo, and doghouse.  We never went in to the barn we were too scared.  We got some pictures and left the property.

My questions are that why does everyone express that there was an insane asylum on this property?  Was there really a mental facility on the property like everyone says.  We didn’t see any place for one, although we didn’t search the property on the northwest side.  Could have the house been an asylum?  I looked closely into the pictures from space of the property and it looks like there is another building with a brownish roof directly to the left of the silo and the road.  Also if you look closely again in the back upper left corner theres like tennis courts or some sort of leisure area and a field.  Heres a space picture from 2002 of the property:

PhotobucketI’m pretty freaked about this place, but I’m still not sure why people are saying there was an insane asylum back there.  Is it because the gates look like it leads to an old building?  Im still just going to go with my instincts, its just an old property which was abandoned.  People say a family was murdered during Christmastime and there, well were still Christmas decorations in that house (not anymore) and the place they were murdered was in the barn.  The only reason it is still there and there is a no trespassing sign is because someone has to own it, either an old family member or even the government.  If they did fire practice in there, they had to get permission from someone. — Gregory Bock

Response from Scott Markus: Well, first off, the house was burned during a Firemen’s training exercise closer to ’98 than ’02.  The truth is, it has to be the nature of urban legends.  The “cold hard facts” history of the property is not widely known, so stories are invented to provide explanations.  I’m sure there are still people around today that know the full true story, but I haven’t run across them unfortunately, and if you happen to, do have them eMail me.  In the book I wrote I have a whole chapter on urban legends and I have a big section on the House on Rainbow Road with a lot of first hand accounts from people.  I’ve said it at least a dozen times since I started taking eMails through my web site – stay clear of the House on Rainbow Road.  As you know and mentioned, it’s illegal to tread there, in addition it would be very easy to get hurt back there and it would be very tough and time consuming if you were to need medical help to arrive.  Don’t forget most of ghost research is the research, it’s not going out to create the new stories.  In the end the decision comes down to you – be safe and keep me posted on what’s up.  Also, if you send me your pictures in an eMail I will publish them on my web site for you.  Good Luck!

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