CHICAGO HAUNTINGS GHOST TOURS: Our Guides

"One of the Top Ten Ghost Tours in America."
-Haunted America

"The Best Ghost Tour in Chicago"
-Time Out Chicago Magazine

â€œThis is not . . . some ridiculous spook show â€¦. Chicago Hauntings is the real deal.â€
-Rick Kogan, WGN Radio.

â€œA Best Bet!â€
-Red Eye/Metromix

â€œA Great Choice for Everyone!â€
-Better Homes & Gardens

â€œOne of the most important web sites for local history.â€
-Chicago Magazine

"Startling . . . Informed . . . Intriguing . . . Creepy! . . . The very best tour in Chicago. Period."
-Chicago Hauntings Tour Guests

About the Tours Schedule Reservations Guides Pictures from Tours Private Tours Facebook

Ursula Bielski

Ursula Bielski Chicago Ghost

Ursula Bielski is the founder of Chicago Hauntings, Inc. and the host of PBS' "The Hauntings of Chicago" (WYCC).

An historian, author, and parapsychology enthusiast, she has been writing and lecturing about Chicago's supernatural folklore and the paranormal for nearly 20 years, and is recognized as a leading authority on the Chicago region's ghostlore and cemetery history. She is the author of five popular and critically acclaimed books on the same subjects, all published by Lake Claremont Press.

Ursula's interests in Chicago ghost hunting began at a young age. She grew up in a haunted house on Chicago's north side and received an early education in Chicago history from her father, a Chicago police officer, who introduced Ursula to the ghosts at Graceland Cemetery, Montrose Point and the old lockup at the storied Maxwell Street Police Station. Since that time Ursula has been involved in countless investigations of haunted sites in and around Chicago, including such notorious locales as Wrigley Field, the Congress Hotel, the Indiana Dunes, the Red Lion Pub, Hull House, Bachelors Grove Cemetery, Rose Hill Cemetery, haunted Archer Avenue, Chinatown, the Eastland disaster site, Death Alley, Dillinger's Alley and the St. Valentine's Day Massacre site. Her paranormal travels have also led her to investigate sites as diverse and infamous as the Bell Witch Cave in Tennessee; the Oshkosh, Wisconsin Opera House; New Orleans' House of the Rising Sun; the City Cemetery in Key West, Florida; and the Civil War Battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Aside from her writing, Ursula has been featured on numerous television documentaries, including productions by the A&E Network, The History Channel, The Learning Channel, SyFy, The Travel Channel, and PBS. She's been a judge on "Paranormal Challenge" and a regular guest on "Ghost Adventures" and the "Maury Show," as well as a favorite lecturer at Darkness Events. She also appears regularly on local Chicago television and radio and lectures throughout the year at various libraries, historical and professional societies. In addition to her books, Ursula is the author of numerous scholarly articles exploring the links between history and the paranormal, including articles published in the International Journal of Parapsychology. Ursula is a past editor of PA News, the quarterly newsletter of the Parapsychological Association, a past president and board member of the Pi Gamma Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honor society, and holds membership in the Society of Midland Authors.

A graduate of St. Benedict High School in Chicago, Ursula holds a B.A. degree in history from Benedictine University and an M.A. in American cultural and intellectual history from Northeastern Illinois University. Her academic explorations include the Spiritualist movement of the 19th century and its transformation into psychical research and parapsychology, and the relationships among belief, experience, science, and religion.

For Ursula's upcoming appearances, click here!

Adam Selzer

Adam Selzer is an author by day, primarily of young adult novels, including the acclaimed How To Get Suspended and Influence People (Random House 07) and I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It (Random House 2010) along with his Smart Aleck's Guide to American History and several other books that are avaiable in six languages. A full-time researcher into Chicago history and ghostlore, he practically lives in the newspaper archives, and his knowledge of grave robbing makes his neighbors reluctant to attend his barbecues.

Adam's expertise is regularly sought out by producers for shows on The History Channel, SyFy, PBS, NPR, and others - he's appeared on Coast To Coast AM with George Noory, NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the Mancow Show, and countless other programs and podcasts, and sometimes works as a location scout for SyFy's Ghost Hunters. On a shoot with the History Channel in 2012, he became the first person to capture tangible ghost evidence in the H.H. Holmes "Murder Castle" location - and yet he claims to be a skeptic! A historian and comedian by trade, Adam's ghost books take a down-to-earth, humorous approach; his new Ghosts of Chicago book will be published by Llewellyn in 2013.

Find him at AdamSelzer.com and follow his research at Chicago Unbelievable.com. Check out the podcasts, in which he and his crew go out exploring old buildings and looking for ghosts!

David Cowan

Dave and one of the Osmond Brothers!
Dave with Merrill Osmond in 2012 David Cowan is a native Chicagoan and hails originally from the city's West Side. He is the co-owner of Chicago Hauntings.

An accomplished journalist and writer, David is co-author (with John Kuenster) of the best-selling and critically acclaimed book To Sleep With the Angels: The Story of a Fire (Ivan R. Dee, Inc.), considered the seminal and authoritative work on the 1958 Our Lady of the Angels school fire in Chicago. After its 1996 publication, the book was made into an Emmy-award winning television documentary entitled Angels Too Soon by PBS station WTTW in Chicago, and is now used as a text for courses taught at the National Fire Academy in Maryland, and in collegiate fire science programs throughout the United States.

David also authored Great Chicago Fires, Historic Blazes That Shaped a City (Lake Claremont Press), a non-fiction anthology documenting Chicago's unique and legendary fire history, focusing on fires that resulted in important changes to national fire safety laws and others of significant social and historical importance. David's writings and reviews have also been published by major newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Magazine, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Reader's Digest, U.S. Catholic, the Associated Press, and a host of smaller publications. He also contributed to the Encyclopedia of Chicago History, published in 2004 by the Newberry Library of Chicago.

Aside from his print journalism, David has appeared on several network television documentaries about historic fires, including productions by the A&E Network, History Channel, The Learning Channel, the Discovery Channel, England's Channel 4, The Travel Channel, PBS, and the U.S. Fire Administration / Federal Emergency Management Agency. He's also been featured on local Chicago television and radio stations, including National Public Radio, WGN radio, the Steve Dahl Show, and WTTW's Chicago Tonight and Chicago Stories. He holds membership in a number of writers associations, including the prestigious Society of Midland Authors, for whom he served as membership secretary from 2001-2002. As a public speaker, he has lectured before numerous Chicago area historical, professional and business societies and various school and library groups.

And don't forget our drivers, Wendy Weaver and Ken Scholes! We use some of the best drivers in the city to navigate the mean streets of the city. They fear neither ghosts nor maniacal cabbies!

Email Us: ursulabielski@sbcglobal.net

Reservations

Ursula Bielski

Adam Selzer

David Cowan

Email Us:
ursulabielski@sbcglobal.net