July 11, 2025 • 13 mins
Dive deep into the haunted heart of Illinois with Amy as she explores the spine-tingling true history of Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery. From ghostly ladies in white and vanishing houses to mobster murder ponds and paranormal photo bombs, this eerie episode of The Strange History Podcast uncovers every chilling corner of America’s most haunted graveyard.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Strange History podcast, where we explore
the weird, the haunted, and the historically WTF. I'm your host, Amy,
and today we're stepping into a crumbling cemetery tucked deep
in the woods of Illinois that has more ghosts per
square foot than a season of Ghost Adventures. That's right,
(00:22):
We're talking about Bachelor's Grove Cemetery, located just outside of Chicago.
Bachelor's Grove isn't just your average abandoned graveyard. It's a
vortex of ghost sightings, gangster lore, mysterious lights, vanishing houses,
and one very spectral woman who really needs to stop
loitering on that damn bench. So grab your EMF detectors,
(00:44):
hold onto your ectoplasm, and let's dig into the strange
history of Bachelor's Grove.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
How to bury a mystery?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
So where is this place exactly? Bachelor's Grove Cemetery is
nestled inside the Rubio Woods Forest Preserve in Midlothian, Illinois,
a sleepy little spot with a not so sleepy supernatural reputation.
The land was first settled in the eighteen thirties by
German immigrants, and the cemetery was established shortly after, around
(01:14):
eighteen forty four. Back then it was known as Everden Cemetery,
but over time the name morphed into Bachelor's Grove, likely
a nod to a group of unmarried men who were
said to have lived nearby, Either that or early tender
users who took things way too literally. The cemetery was
(01:35):
active through the late nineteenth century, but by the nineteen
sixties it had fallen into disrepair, overgrown, forgotten, and eventually
closed to burials altogether. But while the living stopped coming,
the dead apparently never left.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
The ghost hit parade.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Let's start with the star of the spectral show, the
Lady in White, sometimes called the Madonna of Bachelor's Grove.
She's been spotted countless time since the nineteen seventies, often
sitting on a crumbling bench near the edge of the cemetery.
She wears a white dress because of course she does,
and she's often carrying a baby. Who is she? No
(02:16):
one knows. There are no records of a woman buried
there with a baby, but she appears often enough to
make local ghost hunters consider her a regular.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Peekaboo Stephen King's style.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Then there's the Phantom House no joke. This isn't just
some shadow or flickering light. Multiple people have reported seeing
an entire Victorian style farmhouse in the woods just off
the trail. Visitors say it appears suddenly, fully intact with
lights on, and then poof, it vanishes, like a weird
game of haunted peekaboo. Some folks even claimed they tried
(02:52):
to approach it, only for it to get smaller the
closer they got. One guy in the nineties described it
as like walking toward a mirage that didn't want you there.
There was a local teacher named Marie from Oak Forest, Illinois,
who had her own encounter with the phantom house in
nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
I was walking the trail just before dusk with my sister.
We weren't ghost hunters, We just liked exploring old cemeteries.
As we got closer to the edge of the woods
near the lagoon, I saw what looked like a two
story white farmhouse. It had a wrap around porch and
a flickering light in the window. I remember thinking it
looked weirdly out of place, too well kept for the area.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Marie and her sister were so intrigued they decided to
try and get a closer look.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
But as we walked toward it, it didn't stay the same.
It shimmered like heat rising off pavement, and then it
started to shrink, like it was getting smaller and smaller
the closer we got. I turned to my sister and said,
do you see that? And she said, it's getting smaller,
isn't it. We were both frozen. Then it just vanished,
(04:00):
like blinked out. I still get goosebumps when I talk
about it. This type of story isn't unique. Similar phantom
house sightings have been reported for over seventy years by
dozens of unrelated people.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Lights orbs action.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
But wait, there's more. Bachelor's Grove has become infamous for
its floating lights and mysterious blue orbs. People have reported
seeing glowing balls of light darting between trees, floating near tombstones,
or sometimes hovering inches above the pond, which we'll talk
about in a second, because who boy, it has stories.
(04:36):
Ghost hunters have caught them on film. Skeptics have tried
to explain them away as swamp gas, headlights or fireflies
on steroids, but no natural explanation really covers the fact
that some of these orbs seem to react to people.
In nineteen ninety seven, Rosa m, a hiker and nurse,
met one of those orbs.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
It was just before sundown. I wasn't there for ghosts,
just wh fucking off stress. After a long shift, I
saw a bluish light hovering above one of the tombstones.
I thought it was someone with a flashlight, but it
wasn't moving like one. It was bobbing, drifting, like it
was scanning the area.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Rosa said the light floated toward her paused a few
feet in front of her face, then made a sharp
ninety degree turn and shot straight into the woods.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
I was frozen. I couldn't breathe. It didn't make a sound,
and it moved like nothing I've ever seen. I told
my brother about it later, and he said, congratulations, you
just met the orb.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
This blue orb or will of the wisp phenomenon has
been reported consistently since the nineteen seventies. No known atmospheric
condition explains the directional intelligence these orbs seemed to display.
One woman claimed an orb followed her for twenty minutes.
Another swore the light winked at her. Is it a ghost,
(05:55):
an alien or just the most flirty orb in the
Midwest murder pond. Now, let's wade into the creepiest corner
of the grove, the lagoon or pond just off the
cemetery trail. This body of water has long been associated
with death, possibly murder. According to legend, the mob used
(06:15):
this pond as a dumping ground during Prohibition yep, Chicago
gangsters like al Capone were rumored to have used the
area to dispose of enemies who'd outlive their usefulness. And
the creepy part. Divers have actually reported finding cars, bones,
and even concrete shoes at the bottom of the pond.
(06:35):
It's basically a watery mob graveyard. Add to that ghost
sightings of a phantom horse and plow emerging from the
water linked to a tragic accident where a farmer and
his horse drowned in the eighteen seventies, and you've got
a recipe for spectral chaos. In two thousand and five,
Alvin R. Ghost hunter and veteran, had his very own
(06:56):
encounter with what might have been one of those murderous gangsters.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
We were investigating the cemetery at night, me, my wife
and two others. I had a digital recorder thermal camera
an EMF reader. Around midnight, I walked near the lagoon
alone to get audio without contamination. That's when it happened.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Alvin reported that something unseen grabbed his arm and yanked
him backward.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
It wasn't subtle. It felt like someone bigger than me, strong, angry.
I hit the ground hard. My wife heard me yell
and came running. There was no one around, but I
had a red mark like a handprint on my forearm.
Stayed there for two days.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
His EMF detector, which had been silent all night, spiked
off the charts right before the incident. His recording captured
a male voice whispering get out.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Desecration and vandalism.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Now a big part of why Bachelor's Grove is so
active might have to do with how terribly it's been
treated over the years. During the nineteen sixties through the nineties,
the cemetery became a hangout for vandals, thrill seekers, and
people with zero respect for the dead. Headstones were smashed
or stolen, graves were opened, Satanic symbols were spray painted
(08:19):
across the site. One guy even took home a stolen headstone.
That teenager was none other than a man named Jerry,
who was a former skeptic turned believer.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
When I was a dumb seventeen year old in nineteen
seventy eight, me and my friend stole a small headstone
from the cemetery. We thought it'd be funny to use
it as a table for our weed sessions. Big mistake.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
What followed was a string of unexplained occurrences.
Speaker 6 (08:45):
We started hearing knocking sounds on the walls of the
basement where we kept the stone, then cold spots, and
the feeling like we were being watched. One night, the
stereo turned on by itself, loud, and the stone had
moved three feet across the room.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
They returned the headstone within a week.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
As soon as we put it back, everything stopped. Not
a single weird thing After that, I learned a hard lesson.
Never screw with the dead man. They have a long memory.
The most famous photo.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
In nineteen ninety one, the Ghost Research Society captured what
is still considered one of the most famous paranormal photos
ever taken. They were photographing an empty bench at the
cemetery using infrared film, but when the photos were developed, bam.
There it was a translucent figure of a woman in
period clothing sitting casually on the bench, looking sad but
(09:39):
oddly photogenic. There was no one in the area at
the time, no one in costume, no double exposure. Just
one ghost making her editorial debut. Someone get her an agent.
In nineteen ninety one, Tom Navarro, an amateur photographer, had
his own special meeting with Madonna. Tom was photographing the
(10:02):
cemetery for a local college art project. He brought along
infrared film to experiment with contrast in overgrown environments.
Speaker 7 (10:11):
It was late afternoon, kind of overcast. I was taking
a shot of this empty bench near the west edge
of the cemetery. I swear on my mother's grave there
was no one there. I even waited for a few
people to walk by so I could get a clean shot.
I took the photo, didn't think twice about it.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
When Tom developed his film days later, something strange showed up.
Speaker 7 (10:35):
On the bench sat this woman, pale, wearing this long
dress that looked like it belonged in a dageratype. You
could see the ribs of her corset. Her hands were
folded like she was waiting for someone. But the kicker
you could see through her her legs faded into nothing
below the knees. My professor thought I doctored it, but
(10:56):
this was film, not digital. I had no way to
fake that.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
This aligns eerily with the famous nineteen ninety one photo
captured by the Ghost Research Society, also showing a transparent
woman in old fashioned clothing seated on a headstone. Other
creepy encounters include Elaine K, a park ranger in the
area whose job it was to lock the gates at dusk.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
It was twenty ten.
Speaker 8 (11:21):
I was locking up the forest preserved trail gates for
the night when I saw a black nineteen forties style
car parked near the entrance to the cemetery path. It
wasn't there earlier, and no one should have been on
the trail after dark.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Elaine walked over to tell the driver they needed to leave.
Speaker 8 (11:38):
As I approached, the car simply vanished, not sped off,
not turned away. It was just gone. No tire marks,
no noise, like it blinked out of existence. I radioed
it in, but what do you even say, Hey, dispatch?
A ghost buick just pieced out on me.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
This phantom car are often described as a black or
dark green nineteen forties era vehicle has been spotted dozens
of times by both casual visitors and law enforcement officers alike.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Theories and final thoughts.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
So what's the deal with Bachelor's Grove? Is it a
paranormal hot spot, a psychic sponge soaked with grief and violence?
Or is it simply a case of overactive imaginations in
a spooky setting. Maybe it's a little of everything, history, tragedy, desecration,
urban legends, all stirred together in a moss covered cocktail
(12:36):
of creepiness. But one thing's for sure if you ever visit,
be respectful, don't take anything, don't knock over gravestones, and
for the love of all things spectral, don't follow any
ghostly women into the woods. That's it for today's tour
through the haunted hedges of Bachelor's Grove Cemetery. If you
(12:56):
enjoyed this episode, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe
so you never miss a drop of Strange history. I'm Amy,
and this was the Strange History Podcast. Until next time,
stay strange, and stay respectful of the dead. They're watching
Welcome back to the Strange History podcast, where we explore
the weird, the haunted, and the historically WTF. I'm your host, Amy,
and today we're stepping into a crumbling cemetery tucked deep
in the woods of Illinois that has more ghosts per
square foot than a season of Ghost Adventures. That's right,
(00:22):
We're talking about Bachelor's Grove Cemetery, located just outside of Chicago.
Bachelor's Grove isn't just your average abandoned graveyard. It's a
vortex of ghost sightings, gangster lore, mysterious lights, vanishing houses,
and one very spectral woman who really needs to stop
loitering on that damn bench. So grab your EMF detectors,
(00:44):
hold onto your ectoplasm, and let's dig into the strange
history of Bachelor's Grove.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
How to bury a mystery?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
So where is this place exactly? Bachelor's Grove Cemetery is
nestled inside the Rubio Woods Forest Preserve in Midlothian, Illinois,
a sleepy little spot with a not so sleepy supernatural reputation.
The land was first settled in the eighteen thirties by
German immigrants, and the cemetery was established shortly after, around
(01:14):
eighteen forty four. Back then it was known as Everden Cemetery,
but over time the name morphed into Bachelor's Grove, likely
a nod to a group of unmarried men who were
said to have lived nearby, Either that or early tender
users who took things way too literally. The cemetery was
(01:35):
active through the late nineteenth century, but by the nineteen
sixties it had fallen into disrepair, overgrown, forgotten, and eventually
closed to burials altogether. But while the living stopped coming,
the dead apparently never left.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
The ghost hit parade.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Let's start with the star of the spectral show, the
Lady in White, sometimes called the Madonna of Bachelor's Grove.
She's been spotted countless time since the nineteen seventies, often
sitting on a crumbling bench near the edge of the cemetery.
She wears a white dress because of course she does,
and she's often carrying a baby. Who is she? No
(02:16):
one knows. There are no records of a woman buried
there with a baby, but she appears often enough to
make local ghost hunters consider her a regular.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Peekaboo Stephen King's style.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Then there's the Phantom House no joke. This isn't just
some shadow or flickering light. Multiple people have reported seeing
an entire Victorian style farmhouse in the woods just off
the trail. Visitors say it appears suddenly, fully intact with
lights on, and then poof, it vanishes, like a weird
game of haunted peekaboo. Some folks even claimed they tried
(02:52):
to approach it, only for it to get smaller the
closer they got. One guy in the nineties described it
as like walking toward a mirage that didn't want you there.
There was a local teacher named Marie from Oak Forest, Illinois,
who had her own encounter with the phantom house in
nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
I was walking the trail just before dusk with my sister.
We weren't ghost hunters, We just liked exploring old cemeteries.
As we got closer to the edge of the woods
near the lagoon, I saw what looked like a two
story white farmhouse. It had a wrap around porch and
a flickering light in the window. I remember thinking it
looked weirdly out of place, too well kept for the area.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Marie and her sister were so intrigued they decided to
try and get a closer look.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
But as we walked toward it, it didn't stay the same.
It shimmered like heat rising off pavement, and then it
started to shrink, like it was getting smaller and smaller
the closer we got. I turned to my sister and said,
do you see that? And she said, it's getting smaller,
isn't it. We were both frozen. Then it just vanished,
(04:00):
like blinked out. I still get goosebumps when I talk
about it. This type of story isn't unique. Similar phantom
house sightings have been reported for over seventy years by
dozens of unrelated people.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Lights orbs action.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
But wait, there's more. Bachelor's Grove has become infamous for
its floating lights and mysterious blue orbs. People have reported
seeing glowing balls of light darting between trees, floating near tombstones,
or sometimes hovering inches above the pond, which we'll talk
about in a second, because who boy, it has stories.
(04:36):
Ghost hunters have caught them on film. Skeptics have tried
to explain them away as swamp gas, headlights or fireflies
on steroids, but no natural explanation really covers the fact
that some of these orbs seem to react to people.
In nineteen ninety seven, Rosa m, a hiker and nurse,
met one of those orbs.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
It was just before sundown. I wasn't there for ghosts,
just wh fucking off stress. After a long shift, I
saw a bluish light hovering above one of the tombstones.
I thought it was someone with a flashlight, but it
wasn't moving like one. It was bobbing, drifting, like it
was scanning the area.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Rosa said the light floated toward her paused a few
feet in front of her face, then made a sharp
ninety degree turn and shot straight into the woods.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
I was frozen. I couldn't breathe. It didn't make a sound,
and it moved like nothing I've ever seen. I told
my brother about it later, and he said, congratulations, you
just met the orb.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
This blue orb or will of the wisp phenomenon has
been reported consistently since the nineteen seventies. No known atmospheric
condition explains the directional intelligence these orbs seemed to display.
One woman claimed an orb followed her for twenty minutes.
Another swore the light winked at her. Is it a ghost,
(05:55):
an alien or just the most flirty orb in the
Midwest murder pond. Now, let's wade into the creepiest corner
of the grove, the lagoon or pond just off the
cemetery trail. This body of water has long been associated
with death, possibly murder. According to legend, the mob used
(06:15):
this pond as a dumping ground during Prohibition yep, Chicago
gangsters like al Capone were rumored to have used the
area to dispose of enemies who'd outlive their usefulness. And
the creepy part. Divers have actually reported finding cars, bones,
and even concrete shoes at the bottom of the pond.
(06:35):
It's basically a watery mob graveyard. Add to that ghost
sightings of a phantom horse and plow emerging from the
water linked to a tragic accident where a farmer and
his horse drowned in the eighteen seventies, and you've got
a recipe for spectral chaos. In two thousand and five,
Alvin R. Ghost hunter and veteran, had his very own
(06:56):
encounter with what might have been one of those murderous gangsters.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
We were investigating the cemetery at night, me, my wife
and two others. I had a digital recorder thermal camera
an EMF reader. Around midnight, I walked near the lagoon
alone to get audio without contamination. That's when it happened.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Alvin reported that something unseen grabbed his arm and yanked
him backward.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
It wasn't subtle. It felt like someone bigger than me, strong, angry.
I hit the ground hard. My wife heard me yell
and came running. There was no one around, but I
had a red mark like a handprint on my forearm.
Stayed there for two days.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
His EMF detector, which had been silent all night, spiked
off the charts right before the incident. His recording captured
a male voice whispering get out.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Desecration and vandalism.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Now a big part of why Bachelor's Grove is so
active might have to do with how terribly it's been
treated over the years. During the nineteen sixties through the nineties,
the cemetery became a hangout for vandals, thrill seekers, and
people with zero respect for the dead. Headstones were smashed
or stolen, graves were opened, Satanic symbols were spray painted
(08:19):
across the site. One guy even took home a stolen headstone.
That teenager was none other than a man named Jerry,
who was a former skeptic turned believer.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
When I was a dumb seventeen year old in nineteen
seventy eight, me and my friend stole a small headstone
from the cemetery. We thought it'd be funny to use
it as a table for our weed sessions. Big mistake.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
What followed was a string of unexplained occurrences.
Speaker 6 (08:45):
We started hearing knocking sounds on the walls of the
basement where we kept the stone, then cold spots, and
the feeling like we were being watched. One night, the
stereo turned on by itself, loud, and the stone had
moved three feet across the room.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
They returned the headstone within a week.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
As soon as we put it back, everything stopped. Not
a single weird thing After that, I learned a hard lesson.
Never screw with the dead man. They have a long memory.
The most famous photo.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
In nineteen ninety one, the Ghost Research Society captured what
is still considered one of the most famous paranormal photos
ever taken. They were photographing an empty bench at the
cemetery using infrared film, but when the photos were developed, bam.
There it was a translucent figure of a woman in
period clothing sitting casually on the bench, looking sad but
(09:39):
oddly photogenic. There was no one in the area at
the time, no one in costume, no double exposure. Just
one ghost making her editorial debut. Someone get her an agent.
In nineteen ninety one, Tom Navarro, an amateur photographer, had
his own special meeting with Madonna. Tom was photographing the
(10:02):
cemetery for a local college art project. He brought along
infrared film to experiment with contrast in overgrown environments.
Speaker 7 (10:11):
It was late afternoon, kind of overcast. I was taking
a shot of this empty bench near the west edge
of the cemetery. I swear on my mother's grave there
was no one there. I even waited for a few
people to walk by so I could get a clean shot.
I took the photo, didn't think twice about it.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
When Tom developed his film days later, something strange showed up.
Speaker 7 (10:35):
On the bench sat this woman, pale, wearing this long
dress that looked like it belonged in a dageratype. You
could see the ribs of her corset. Her hands were
folded like she was waiting for someone. But the kicker
you could see through her her legs faded into nothing
below the knees. My professor thought I doctored it, but
(10:56):
this was film, not digital. I had no way to
fake that.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
This aligns eerily with the famous nineteen ninety one photo
captured by the Ghost Research Society, also showing a transparent
woman in old fashioned clothing seated on a headstone. Other
creepy encounters include Elaine K, a park ranger in the
area whose job it was to lock the gates at dusk.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
It was twenty ten.
Speaker 8 (11:21):
I was locking up the forest preserved trail gates for
the night when I saw a black nineteen forties style
car parked near the entrance to the cemetery path. It
wasn't there earlier, and no one should have been on
the trail after dark.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Elaine walked over to tell the driver they needed to leave.
Speaker 8 (11:38):
As I approached, the car simply vanished, not sped off,
not turned away. It was just gone. No tire marks,
no noise, like it blinked out of existence. I radioed
it in, but what do you even say, Hey, dispatch?
A ghost buick just pieced out on me.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
This phantom car are often described as a black or
dark green nineteen forties era vehicle has been spotted dozens
of times by both casual visitors and law enforcement officers alike.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Theories and final thoughts.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
So what's the deal with Bachelor's Grove? Is it a
paranormal hot spot, a psychic sponge soaked with grief and violence?
Or is it simply a case of overactive imaginations in
a spooky setting. Maybe it's a little of everything, history, tragedy, desecration,
urban legends, all stirred together in a moss covered cocktail
(12:36):
of creepiness. But one thing's for sure if you ever visit,
be respectful, don't take anything, don't knock over gravestones, and
for the love of all things spectral, don't follow any
ghostly women into the woods. That's it for today's tour
through the haunted hedges of Bachelor's Grove Cemetery. If you
(12:56):
enjoyed this episode, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe
so you never miss a drop of Strange history. I'm Amy,
and this was the Strange History Podcast. Until next time,
stay strange, and stay respectful of the dead. They're watching
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