View Full Version : Resurrection Mary Deserves Her Own Thread!


Cori aka ChrisSCrush
11-08-2014, 05:09 AM
There is one on the movie but not on the spirit herself.

RESURRECTION MARY MYTHS AND REASONS THEY’RE MYTHS:

MYTH: Resurrection Mary has been identified as Mary Bregovy.
FACT: She hasn’t been positively identified as anybody! There are at least five good candidates, well-profiled here: http://psiresearcher.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/chicagos-most-famous-ghost-resurrection-mary/ The best candidate was actually named Anna, history here: http://www.ghostvillage.com/resources/2007/features_03232007.shtml

Resurrection Cemetery staff will hang up the phone in a second if you call mentioning this subject. None of the reenactments on Unsolved Mysteries or other programs were filmed there—they will stop the making of even amateur videos by paid-up members, telling them to leave. (As far as I know, this much is true.)

MYTH: They do this because the Catholic Church accepts only three destinations for souls of the deceased, Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory. Therefore, there are no ghosts and none of these events happened. These prejudiced people reject the many allegations regarding Mary because they don’t fit into their own narrow beliefs system. They are so opinionated they are not worth bothering with.
FACT: They don’t like talking about it because every time the subject comes up, the neighborhood is flooded with curiosity-seekers, yahoos, and hooligans, and the cemetery is subject to a lot of vandalism. Don’t ask me where I got this—it was on some message board, not one of my regular ones, from someone claiming to be a local resident—but it had a ring of truth to it. The first part can be verified through online searches—the police department clamps down with such strict surveillance, you can’t get near the place on Halloween! As for whether they believe it or not, there is excellent evidence that the best piece of physical evidence in this case, the cemetery gate bars featured in the article referenced above, were in fact removed, preserved in secret, and replaced with duplicates installed upside down and loose along with a truly pathetic story of how they got that way.

MYTH: Mary appears only late at night to people who are lost, disoriented, and unfamiliar with the neighborhood—locals don’t see her.
FACT: In pursuing this subject, I contacted longtime local resident Frank Andrejasich, the researcher who has identified Mary as Anna Norkus. He was kind enough to call and write me at his own expense. What I was able to infer from what he and others said, or declined to say, was that plenty of local residents have seen Mary. They don’t avoid discussing this because other locals will consider them crazy, as probably everyone around there has either seen her, or knows someone who has. They don’t discuss it for pretty much the reason cemetery staff don’t—it brings a lot of unwanted traffic into the neighborhood and creates disruption in general, so is considered a troublemaking thing to do. (The couple who appeared on Unsolved Mysteries were locals.)

There is at least something to these stories, as many people who reported sightings did see things late at night, and often when they were lost and disoriented. The nearest open business is a bar named Chet’s Melody Lounge, where terrified witnesses would stagger in saying they just saw something strange, yet as far as anyone seems to know, no one who works at Chet’s has seen her—now, how frustrating would that be?

MYTH: Only drunks see Resurrection Mary.
FACT: Well, the nearest business open at the times of night she usually appears is a bar where people go for a drink to steady their nerves after having seen her, so you do the math.

MYTH: Mary appears only to men.
FACT: Estimates put sightings at around 70% male witnesses. It helps if they are young and attractive, but Mary doesn’t confine herself to any age or gender. It would be interesting to see statistics on how many people saw her after hearing there was a ghost and how many were unfamiliar with the story, but since not all sightings are reported, there are no reliable figures on that.

Frank Andrejasich let me in on the distinct possibility that the best-known and most exciting story about Mary, which had her spending an evening dancing with, and even kissing, Jerry Palus, was an exaggeration if not an outright fabrication. What’s believed to have actually happened is that some relatives of his picked Mary up one night, and he embellished the story. Inquiries regarding the address he claimed she gave him never panned out, and I found myself that he incorporated many elements of another well-known phantom hitchhiker tale, that of Lavender, which originated in the Ramapo region of New York. A good version is found here: http://jackmblogs.wordpress.com/lavender-a-ghost-story-from-ramapo-new-york/ This is said to have actually happened to someone at some point in time, but unlike Resurrection Mary, it’s never been successfully traced back to determine who. It’s of interest in indicating that the story had at least made it to Chicago by 1939.

MYTH: There are phantom hitchhiker stories from all over the world, some of them with similarities to the Resurrection Mary events. For some examples, see the headings "Vila" and "Western European References" in this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatural_beings_in_Slavic_folklore Many such stories are obviously myths. Therefore, every phantom hitchhiker story ever told by anyone at any time anywhere in the world is an urban legend, by definition false, despite numerous witnesses, including credible individuals such as police officers, reporting the exact same figures and occurrences in the exact same locations for decades.
FACT: HA! If you believe this one, just remove all paper currency currently in your possession and throw it in the trash, or, better yet, send it to me--because currency of all kinds have been known to be counterfeited, and bills are far easier to fake than coins. Therefore, if you don’t want to be caught with the goods or exposed to unsavory elements, from now on, you’d better pay for everything with either plastic, or better, coins. Preferably pennies. Bills are unsanitary and covered with drug traces and microbes, so you’d better just send all that filthy lucre to me so I can dispose of it properly! Just PM me for my address and I’ll wait for the cash to come rolling in! :lol:

wiseguy182
11-08-2014, 05:36 AM
There is one on the movie but not on the spirit herself.

There are numerous threads about Resurrection Mary on here. Here is just one of them:


http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=296919&highlight=resurrection+mary

Cori aka ChrisSCrush
11-08-2014, 06:05 AM
There are numerous threads about Resurrection Mary on here. Here is just one of them:


http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=296919&highlight=resurrection+mary

Well, silly me! I searched it but not under the wrong spelling! :lol:

dynoguy88
11-08-2014, 12:32 PM
There are numerous threads about Resurrection Mary on here. Here is just one of them:


http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=296919&highlight=resurrection+mary

The majority of those threads are us complaining about Lifetime airing Resurrection Mary too often, as they did constantly around 2002-2003ish.

Then someone from this forum, I forget who, actually emailed Lifetime in 2004 and asked them to air the early classic segments from the first five seasons. Amazingly, they agreed and started airing them.

Cori aka ChrisSCrush
11-08-2014, 03:30 PM
The majority of those threads are us complaining about Lifetime airing Resurrection Mary too often, as they did constantly around 2002-2003ish.

Then someone from this forum, I forget who, actually emailed Lifetime in 2004 and asked them to air the early classic segments from the first five seasons. Amazingly, they agreed and started airing them.

Thanks for posting such a nice answer and setting my mind at ease, and that's great that they listened! I realized after posting last night, the mistake that I made. Before posting the above, I wanted to check what I'd said on the subject here before, to make sure I didn't repeat myself, so I did a search with a filter, looking for only threads with posts by me--I usually never use a filter. Then, I forgot I used it, thought I'd seen all the threads on the subject, and made this one. After realizing my mistake (easy to make late at night) I felt bad, thinking I'd somehow missed a lot of posts on one of my favorite subjects--which you have now saved me the trouble of checking one by one--so thanks!

As for where the "myths" came from, if anyone asks--some were repeated on Unsolved Mysteries, some on other programs, most on the internet. Frank A. (forgive me for not retyping his full name) told me the one about the drunks. I remember one program, don't recall what it was, but the girl in the reenactment was so wrong--Mary is always described as having long "spooly" curls, and bare hands, so she could leave the prints on the gate bars. Their "Mary" had her hair up and was wearing long gloves! :rolleyes:

Nickolas086
11-08-2014, 03:38 PM
The majority of those threads are us complaining about Lifetime airing Resurrection Mary too often, as they did constantly around 2002-2003ish.

Then someone from this forum, I forget who, actually emailed Lifetime in 2004 and asked them to air the early classic segments from the first five seasons. Amazingly, they agreed and started airing them.

OMG I remember when they use to air that case to many times to point I had to stop watching the show because of it. I wonder why they aired Resurrection Mary so many times on Lifetime.

wiseguy182
11-09-2014, 01:03 AM
The majority of those threads are us complaining about Lifetime airing Resurrection Mary too often, as they did constantly around 2002-2003ish.

Then someone from this forum, I forget who, actually emailed Lifetime in 2004 and asked them to air the early classic segments from the first five seasons. Amazingly, they agreed and started airing them.

That's not what I found. Most of the threads I saw had to do with posters driving in that area, that sort of thing. Just sayin'

The one segment I remember being played ALL THE TIME was that Cokeville school bombing attempt. Every time I saw that opening with the couple wheeling that cart down the hall, it was an instant channel-changer.

Awsi Dooger
11-09-2014, 02:12 PM
I wouldn't have cared if Unsolved Mysteries in its heyday ran a Resurrection Mary segment every week. I still want to spend several hours walking around that cemetery, in the wee hours amidst bitter cold.

Two weeks ago I visited Colonial Williamsburg. What a joke. Their so-called ghost tours are held between 6 and 8:30 PM, not a proper hour like 3 AM. Scary tales like, "An employee swore she turned the lights out, then when she got outside she turned around and they were on." I nearly feinted on that one.

Besides, Resurrection Mary is one of the few babes I've ever honored with my avatar around here. I might do it again other than I have such a fondness for sandwiches. I can't find a clip of Mary chowing down on a Whopper, or the equivalent during her era. I would want to die early myself if I realized I came along before the Whopper.

Cori aka ChrisSCrush
11-09-2014, 09:12 PM
What a great reply, and I love your avatar!

Yes, Resurrection Cemetery is probably #1 on my list of haunted places to visit.

One story I found hard to believe when I first read it (years before UM was on) was the one about Mary damaging the cemetery gate bars. I noticed UM omitted that from their segment and assumed at the time it was because it was just too unbelievable. After reading all the evidence indicating it really happened, and how said evidence was covered up, I assume that UM didn't feature it either due to time constraints, cemetery staff being difficult when confronted about the issue, or the fact that the evidence disappeared and couldn't be photographed for the show. Also, they had witnesses who had seen the ghost, which was maybe considered more exciting than witnesses who had seen the damaged gate.

It's interesting that although Oprah had her show right there in Chicago for years, she doesn't seem to have done an episode on Mary or famous Chicago ghosts in general--she just did a few with people who had seen ghosts or had haunted houses.

wiseguy182
11-10-2014, 04:17 AM
We debunked the myth that the kid is holding a burger a long time ago. Look at it closely and it's clearly a pail or bucket. Note the handle, which is clearly visible.

SheRaaa
11-14-2014, 04:06 PM
I grew up in the Chicago 'burbs and have been looking for Resurrection Mary on two occasions (aka driving past Resurrection Cemetery, lol.)

I never saw her, but I must say the area is genuinely on the eerie side. The road past the cemetery is very narrow and very thick with trees and I can't imagine seeing HER float by in that type of environment.

I find the story fascinating because, unlike a lot of other ghost stories/urban legends, this one seems to have REAL witnesses, several REAL deceased women who would be good candidates for the ghost, as well as lots of mainstream media coverage.

There are lots of articles over the years from Chicago newspapers about Mary and I've read in several different books about the infamous cemetery gate bars -- a few even included photos. The books say that the bars were supposedly backed-into by a truck or something, but I don't know....looked pretty darn creepy to me!

*I went on a Chicago ghost tour once and it was AMAZING. The tour guide was Ursula Bielski's husband; Ursula is a well-known Chicago author who has written several interesting books on local ghostly legends. Our tour was fantastic and full of fascinating historical information, although sadly we didn't go past Resurrection Cemetery. We did, however, stop at an intersection in Chicago where there had been a real automobile accident in the 1930s, and the young woman killed is buried in Resurrection Cemetery, so our guide touched-on the story quite a bit and gave us a potential candidate for the haunting. Very, very interesting!

**Random: the scariest place, I felt, on our tour was Hull House on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago, once supposedly home to the legendary "devil baby (http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/_museum/ghoststories.html)". We didn't go inside but honest to God that place had an evil vibe. I wouldn't go in there if you paid me!

Cori aka ChrisSCrush
11-14-2014, 06:09 PM
I grew up in the Chicago 'burbs and have been looking for Resurrection Mary on two occasions (aka driving past Resurrection Cemetery, lol.)

The books say that the bars were supposedly backed-into by a truck or something, but I don't know....looked pretty darn creepy to me!
**Random: the scariest place, I felt, on our tour was Hull House on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago, once supposedly home to the legendary "devil baby (http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/_museum/ghoststories.html)". We didn't go inside but honest to God that place had an evil vibe. I wouldn't go in there if you paid me!

I wasn't going to go into detail about the bars until someone else expressed interest, but the incredible thing about them was they were not just damaged--there were clear bare handprints in the melted metal, in which palm and finger ridges were plainly visible! Something a prankster would be hard-put to do. Yes, the cover story, after the bars were removed and replaced, was a truck backed into them, bending them, and a worker with an acetylene torch or some such device tried to straighten them using asbestos gloves. :rolleyes: Gimme a break! ohno: It was implied that the powers that be merely covered up the evidence on the original bars, but I've heard a theory that the original bars were replaced with duplicates. A man was going to test with a magnet, whether there was a difference in the type of metal used in other bars in the gate and the two bent ones, showing they were replaced with different material. Regardless of material used, I tend to hope/believe this theory--the REAL bars are locked up in some secret vault--but, they had to replace them with similar bars bent in the same places, or everyone would KNOW the ones there now were really replacements, and clamor to see the originals!

Regarding Hull House, I would have liked to see it even before reading about the haunting phenomena, as I'd read several stories and books about Jane Addams's work. I also saw the place featured, though, on Most Terrifying Places in America, which featured Resurrection Cemetery and other Chicago sites, all very interesting.

TracyLynnS
11-15-2014, 01:34 PM
Here are some pictures from the UM wikia and findagrave.

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110919001714/unsolvedmysteries/images/thumb/b/b2/500px-Resurrection_Cemetery_Justice_IL_1.jpg/400px-500px-Resurrection_Cemetery_Justice_IL_1.jpg


http://image1.findagrave.com/photos250/photos/2009/269/CEM47094096_125409882175.jpg


http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110919001915/unsolvedmysteries/images/8/87/Resurrection_mary1.jpg

SheRaaa
11-15-2014, 05:53 PM
Here is an interesting link regarding the young woman killed in the 1934 downtown Chicago auto accident (the spot where we stopped on our ghost tour):

http://www.prairieghosts.com/whomary.html

A very thorough link w/ photos of the bars and a newspaper clipping:

http://www.ghostresearch.org/sites/resurrection.html

Cori aka ChrisSCrush
12-17-2014, 05:24 AM
If anyone is able to find information on the hitchhiking ghost in the Ramapo region of New York or any others, please share! From what I have found it's unclear as to how many may have witnessed the Ramapo apparition or when it was last seen.

Here is one in Maine with very similar characteristics--the exact same figure seen under the same atmospheric conditions in the same place by many witnesses over the years. The traveling salesman tale is questionable as presumably he died before being able to tell what he saw--but plenty of others lived and related various encounters! http://seeksghosts.blogspot.com/2014/01/maine-catherine-hill-legend.html

Very similar stories from rural Pennsylvania: http://www.pennsylvania-mountains-of-attractions.com/whiteladyofwopsy.html

Related reports from England: http://www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/news/blue-bell-hill-ghost-film-25048/

Investigators conducting a vigil at the site were disappointed: http://www.assap.ac.uk/newsite/articles/Bluebell.html

Many others from various locations. Here are some from Australia: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central-coast/paranormal-activity-ghostly-brides-and-a-vanishing-hitchhiker-haunting-tales-from-the-central-coast/story-fngr8h0p-1226924306201?nk=ddd45ee1e3f1441d84bbe132c9e865de

Necco
12-19-2014, 10:22 PM
Cori asked me to come share my ghost story. I'm not sure there's much to say. There was a ghost in a cemetery in the county I grew up in. One night a bunch of us went to look. I saw her. She was glowy.

Cori aka ChrisSCrush
12-20-2014, 04:40 AM
Kewl, thanks! Could you make out human-like features, or was it that clear?

Cori aka ChrisSCrush
10-31-2016, 12:06 AM
Now, this is just sad! Where's Mary gonna dance, huh? http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/western-springs/news/ct-dbr-willowbrook-ballroom-fire-tl-1103-20161028-story.html

Cori aka ChrisSCrush
01-10-2019, 01:18 AM
Mysteries at the Museum ran a Rez Mary segment tonight. They basically repeated and reenacted the Jerry Palus yarn, but without including his filmed narrative or any more credible reports. His story is one of the most popular and least credible, but still good to see Mary getting attention.

Cori aka ChrisSCrush
05-16-2019, 06:36 AM
Mysteries at the Museum has been cancelled and replaced with a nearly identical program, same format, same host, called Beyond the Unknown, and they were up to 12 episodes before I noticed. The Rez Mary episode is #12.

SheRaaa
08-14-2020, 12:11 AM
I've been listening to a great set of podcast episodes on Resurrection Mary over the past few days: "Astonishing Legends" did a four-part series on RM and it's awesome!

Interestingly, in episode 2 of their series they include an interview with the guy on the UM segment (Ludnicki I think is his last name). He said the UM segment was overall pretty accurate and he said that when he and his girlfriend and sister witnessed RM back in 1979, that another car also seemed to have witnessed her because both cars turned around and went back to the area where they saw her (she had vanished by that point).

Cori aka ChrisSCrush
08-16-2020, 07:07 AM
She was seen a lot around that time. I wonder what the most recent sighting has been.

SheRaaa
08-25-2020, 12:48 AM
Good question! Most of the sightings seemed to happen in the 1970s (bad acid trips?)

TJ
11-26-2022, 12:03 PM
grimmlifecollective traveled to Justice, Illinois to search for Resurrection Mary, Chicago's most famous ghost. They visit some of the locations and graves.

GNDWnCSmLBM

Here's some related videos:

Resurrection Mary - Justice Illinois (Travel Channel)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXrEWc-Lh4E

Resurrection Mary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98v5Ya2kP8Y

The Hauntings of Chicago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dwQBtCKpdA

The Hauntings of Chicago Part 2 of 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3C4Beq3ywE

CBS 2 Vault: A little ghost hunting from the 1980s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbdqD4DE--E

"RESURRECTION MARY" - Resurrection Cem., Justice, ILL. Those Forgotten, & some Famous and Infamous - Mary Bregovy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg6SrpRBUDM

Ghost hunter and folklorist Richard T. Crowe, who was interviewed in the UM segment, is buried in Resurrection Cemetery.

Richard Crowe's Grave - Resurrection Cemetery - Justice, Illinois
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=371ENix-eME

bigted12
05-30-2023, 11:47 AM
I've always been fascinated by this case although i don't really believe in ghosts! The segment was so well done by UM too, I lived for a while in that part of Chicago and it's full of strange things. If i'm not mistaken the UM segment was filmed on another Arthur Ave which is also famous because it's the last place where the Grimes Sisters were seen alive.

Does anyone know if there have been any sightings of her recently?

EighthStreet
06-06-2023, 01:15 PM
Spooky ghosts never scared me