Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery is a small, one-acre plot near the Rubio Woods Forest Preserve, a southwestern suburb of Midlothian also famous as one of the Chicago area’s most haunted sites, with a long history of more than 100 reports of paranormal phenomena occurring there.
The cemetery is fenced in, with a single gate on the south side and a single path winding through the plot. Just outside the northwest corner is a still pond. The cemetery is untidy and overgrown, and it frequently experiences vandalism, maybe as a result of the widespread belief in haunting folklore. Coffins have been opened and disinterred, and graves and memorials have been vandalized. There may have been occult rites performed there, according to evidence of animal sacrifices found next to a lagoon in one of the cemetery’s corners.
The first interment took place in 1844, and the cemetery was initially named as Everdon’s Cemetery. The reason the cemetery adopted the name Bachelor’s Grove in 1864 is unknown. One well-known legend is that the name was given by unmarried males who were among the original settlers. Perhaps more likely, it was derived from a German family name such as Batchelder. Bodies of gang war victims are said to have been dumped in the lagoon during the gangster era of the 1920s and 1930s.
The hauntings
In the 1960s, reports of haunting phenomena became more common. After 1965, there were fewer burials, and the area gained notoriety as a lover’s lane and gathering spot for youths—many of whom were eager to be spooked. Youngsters started breaking into the cemetery, tossing over gravestones, desecrating and opening them, and scattering bones everywhere. The 1970s and 1980s saw a spike in the number of haunting reports. The last recorded burial was in 1989.
A vanishing house or floating house is the type of apparition that is most frequently reported at Bachelor’s Grove. A pleasant light shines inside the two-story Victorian farmhouse, which has a white picket fence, a colonnaded porch, and a swing. The house is always visible from a distance and appears to be real. But as people get close to it, they see that it gets smaller or suddenly vanishes. Anyone who manages to get there and enter will supposedly never return. Numerous witnesses have called attention to the disappearing house since the 1960s, yet there is no historical evidence of such a house ever existed in the area.
Numerous sightings of hooded Phantom Monks and a woman known as either the “White Lady” or the “Madonna of Bachelor’s Grove” are among the human ghosts that have been reported. Since there has never been a monastery in the area, the existence of phantom monks is perplexing. On nights of the full Moon, the White Lady wanders aimlessly about the cemetery while holding a baby in her arms. According to a common story, she is the specter of a lady who is interred there near to the tomb of her child. The tale is unrecorded in the past.
Apparitions
A two-headed man, a child, a black carriage, and a luminous yellow man are among the other ghosts that appear. Many reports have been made of a ghostly farmer with his horse and plow. According to legend, a farmer was plowing land close to the pond in the 1870s when his horse suddenly raced into the water, both man and animal were drowned.
Additionally, reports of phantom vehicles have been made on the Midlothian Turnpike along the cemetery’s route. When individuals get close to the vehicles, they disappear. Some claim to have witnessed or been involved in phantom accidents.
Flashing and dancing lights have been reported in the cemetery, especially a blue light that resembles that of a police car. Flashing white lights also have been seen in both daytime and at night, as well as a red light that streaks across the sky over the path in the cemetery. (The Midlothian Turnpike can be seen through the trees on the northwestern side of the cemetery.) The lights do not exhibit quite the same behavior as Ghost Lights. Sightings of these lights were especially frequent during the 1970s. In December 1971, a young woman said she succeeded in putting her hand through one of the flashing lights but felt nothing.
Other phenomena include sensations of unusual cold, the awareness of an invisible presence that causes discomfort and the tactile sensation of sweaty but invisible hands upon the skin.
This amazing photograph was taken at Bachelor’s Grove in 1991 on an investigation by the Ghost Research Society using infrared film.
No living person, other than the photographer, was visible at the time, but the photograph clearly shows a human figure seated on the checkered monument near the south entrance.
The woman’s face seems flat, with only a hint of a nose visible. Her feet blend into the grass (which appears white under infrared light), giving an appearance of translucence.
Since this photo was taken, the checkered monument has been photographed hundreds of times without producing anything nearly as spectacular.
