St. Charles is the second-oldest city in Missouri and one of the oldest cities in the United States. For most of its history, it could have been featured in any bad western movie, with a legacy of street shootings and lynch mobs. When you sit on the banks of the Missouri River, it does not take much of an imagination to see, feel and perhaps even smell the ghosts lingering there. The scoundrels, the criminals and the victims of traumatic events are the spirits that cannot rest. Join Michael Henry for some of their stories as he keeps vigil with representatives of the city's restless past, from the lost dogs of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the mysterious Lady in White.

Hauntings lurk and spirits linger in the Show Me State Reader, beware! Turn these pages and enter the world of the paranormal, where ghosts and ghouls alike creep just out of sight. Author Troy Taylor shines a light in the dark corners of Missouri and scares those spirits out of hiding in this thrilling collection. From a headless ghost who stalks the aptly named “Murder Rocks”, to a large hairy monster that roams the banks of the Missouri River, there’s no shortage of bone-chilling tales to keep you up at night. It’s even rumored that the devil himself came to St. Louis in 1949, but nobody knows for sure if he ever left. Around the campfire or tucked away on a dark and stormy night, this big book of ghost stories is a hauntingly good read.

“He struck a match to look at his watch. In the flare of the light they saw a young woman just at Pitot’s elbow—a young woman dressed all in black, with pale gold hair, and a baby sleeping on her shoulder. She glided to the edge of the bridge and stepped noiselessly off into the black waters.”—from Ghost Stories of Old New Orleans Ghosts are said to wander along the rooftops above New Orleans’ Royal Street, the dead allegedly sing sacred songs in St. Louis Cathedral, and the graveyard tomb of a wealthy madam reportedly glows bright red at night. Local lore about such supernatural sightings, as curated by Jeanne deLavigne in her classic Ghost Stories of Old New Orleans, finds the phantoms of bitter lovers, vengeful slaves, and menacing gypsies haunting nearly every corner of the city, from the streets of the French Quarter to Garden District mansions. Originally printed in 1944, all forty ghost stories and the macabre etchings of New Orleans artist Charles Richards appear in this new edition. Drawing largely on popular legend dating back to the 1800s, deLavigne provides vivid details of old New Orleans with a cast of spirits that represent the ethnic mélange of the city set amid period homes, historic neighborhoods, and forgotten taverns. Combining folklore, newspaper accounts, and deLavigne’s own voice, these phantasmal tales range from the tragic—brothers, lost at sea as children, haunt a chapel on Thomas Street in search of their mother—to graphic depictions of torture, mutilation, and death. Folklorist and foreword contributor Frank A. de Caro places the writer and her work in context for modern readers. He uncovers new information about deLavigne’s life and describes her book’s pervasive lingering influence on the Crescent City’s culture today.

Former NYPD officer and current ghost hunter Jason Medina travels up the Hudson River to a hotbed of paranormal activity. The quiet New York suburb of Yonkers hides a history of hauntings. Now converted into apartments, old Public School 13 is the site of strange apparitions that may be ghosts of former students and teachers who died in a tragic fire. The Boyce Thompson Institute’s lofty goal of solving world hunger was never met, and unfulfilled spirits are said to lurk in its abandoned laboratory. Wealthy colonial landowners still watch over stately historic homes like Philipse Manor Hall. Even the iconic Untermyer Park is a playground for the otherworldly. Local ghost investigator Jason Medina reveals these and other ghosts of Yonkers.

"Missouri is a place of great diversity and amazing beauty, stretching from the Mississippi River to the forests and rolling hills of the Ozarks, with caves, rives, and rugged woodland in between. Out of this land comes scores of ghostly tales, from documented haunting to folk stories that have been passed along from one generation to the next."--Page 4 of cover

The object of this book is to collect instances of ghosts, apparitions, and messages from the other twilight world which have come under Catholic cognizance or suggest Catholic interpretations. This small collection is intended to illustrate occasions between the Catholic Church and the ghostly. They are not necessarily spiritual and even less spiritualistic. Religion colours most of these stories, but some merely have occurred to Catholics or in Catholic surroundings. Whatever prohibitions mark Catholic life, the faithful are not forbidden to see ghosts or to believe in them "Shane Leslie's Ghost Book provides what so many of us for so long have been looking for: a book of true ghost stories and supernatural experiences in accord with Catholic orthodoxy." - T.F. Sloan, CatholicReads.com "This is a fantastic book to read... just don't read it at night " - Christine Niles, Church Militant

From the mediums of Spiritualism's golden age to the ghost hunters of the modern era, Taylor shines a light on the phantasms and frauds of the past, the first researchers who dared to investigate the unknown, and the stories and events that galvanized the pubic and created the paranormal field that we know today.