5 Places in Illinois With an Extremely Haunted and Tragic Story to Tell

If you want to read some stories that may give you nightmares, here are 5 of the most notoriously haunted murder scenes in Illinois.

Hello, I Am a True Crime Junkie

Do you ever fall down a rabbit hole of things on the internet and wonder, how the heck did I get started on this? I had one of those instances today, and this article about the most haunted murder scenes in Illinois is the result.

For the record, I'm a huge scaredy-cat and the thought of experiencing anything haunted gives me an extreme case of the heebie-jeebies, BUT I sure do love reading and watching true crime stories.

Today I stumbled across this article from Mysterious Heartland about the most haunted murder scenes in Illinois, and I was completely fascinated. Here are five of those stories that I had never heard before...

5 Notoriously Haunted Murder Scenes in Illinois

If you love haunted stories, I'm assuming you've probably heard stories about these haunted places in Illinois, but do you know the murderous tale behind each of them? Let's find out...

1. Coliseum Ballroom Antique Mall in Benld, Illinois 

Mysterious Heartland says after Dominic Tarro's body was found in the Sangamon River they discovered he had been tied in wire and shot in the head before being dumped in the water. Later owners of the building often reported "seeing figures from the 1920s and ‘30s. The ghost of a young woman with dark hair was also seen, and visitors felt unexplainable cold spots."

2. Bloody Gultch Road in Dixon, Illinois

Legend says that in the late 1800s, a young man beat a Bible salesman named Frank Theil to death on this road and buried his body in a ditch. In time rain washed away some of the dirt in the ditch which exposed Thiel's hand. Mysterious Heartland says; "a bloody hand can be seen there on dark and stormy nights. Nearby, an abandoned house is also thought to be haunted by the ghost of a murdered girl, and at least one homeowner along Bloody Gulch Road has reported strange activity in his residence".

3. Lakey's Creek Bridge in McLeansboro, Illinois

Did you know Illinois has its own Headless Horseman and that it's one of our state's oldest ghost stories? Me neither! According to legend, a man named Lakey was attempting to build a home by the creek, and someone cut his head off with his own ax. His head was discovered by another traveler, but Lakey's murderer, and body, were never found. Mysterious Homestead's article says; "For decades after the murder, travelers reported being chased by a headless horseman that rode out of the woods along Lakey’s Creek. “Always the rider, on a large black horse, joined travelers approaching the stream from the east, and always on the downstream side."

4. Airtight Bridge in Coles County, Illinois

I think what intrigues me the most about the above story is that the tragedy actually occurred during my lifetime and that the bridge got its name, Airtight Bridge, due to "the unnatural stillness encountered while crossing it, or because early automobiles would stall on the steep hill leading to the bridge if there was more air than gas in their fuel tank" according to Mysterious Homestead's article.

5. "Death Curve" in Cambridge, Illinois

According to Mysterious Heartland, on September 30, 1905 a woman named Julia Markham murdered all seven of her children with an ax and attempted to commit suicide after that with a knife that was too dull. She then lit the home and the bodies of her children on fire, fully intending to die in the fire too, but the heat was too much and she fled to safety. People say they have seen a white figure along this curve in the road near where the house once stood, and Cambridge locals say it is Julia who is still haunted by the guilt of killing her children.

If you would like to learn more about other haunted murder scenes in Illinois, go to mysteriousheartland.com.