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Chapter 1: Urban Legends & The Gate - Libertyville
by Scott Markus
Go back to the main ghost page or read the introduction to the Cuba Road Chapter
Chapter 1 - Urban Legends
On December 3, 1818, the State of Illinois was admitted to the Union, thus making it part of the United States of America. The land where Chicago is now was considered by England to be a part of Virginia. However, the French, who were the first to discover the Great Lakes, set up posts all through the Midwest, including Illinois, as early as the mid 1500s. As Frederick M. Binder and David M. Reimers noted in their publication, The Way We Lived, "Before the white man set foot on American soil, Indian natives used the land effectively and flourished." Most of Illinois' past is unwritten. This is both unfortunate and unique. Many events from the past are simply passed on verbally from one generation to the next. From this, much of Chicago's past exists as a "talk story." In other words, most of the unrecorded stories are part true, while embellishment is used to tie up the loose ends. On occasion, stories of a macabre nature are repeated at a higher frequency. Therefore, the embellishment used to tie up the loose ends grows exponentially between generations. At the same time, these stories become so well known that - for the residents neighboring the location where the event took place - the story doesn't even need to be told. It is simply part of that community's collective unconscious. The "collective unconscious," first noted by Swedish psychologist Carl Jung, usually refers to archetypes, but can easily cross over into other situations where a group of people can share a knowing that doesn't necessarily have to be stated in order to be fully understood. When the collective unconscious is based on a talk story that is more embellishment than truth, and if the topic is of a darker nature, then an urban legend is born. Urban legends in Northern Illinois are plentiful and immensely entertaining. In recent years the story of "Bloody Mary" (mentioned in this chapter) was even altered but used, in essence, as the basis for Candyman, a movie based at the Cabrini Green housing project, famously known as being one of Chicago’s most violent areas. An interesting aspect of urban legends is that they are based on some evidence of truth. As the people are being drawn into these stories, most of what is heard is taken in with a cautious ear. Knowing that the truth can often be spotty at best, the listener is often confronted with a dismaying decision to make: How much of this is real? Even one of the most popular urban legends in America is based on truth. It involves a bloody hook found by a couple who made a quick exit from a lover's lane necking session after hearing a radio report about an escaped killer who had a hook for a hand. The hook was left hanging on a car door. This is actually based on real life lover's lane killings that occurred in Texarkana just after the Second World War. The fact that the media nicknamed this elusive menace the "Phantom Killer" only added to the mystique.
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There is a comforting feeling knowing that the horrific story being told is padded with fiction, but the fact that it is based on an undisclosed amount of reality leaves an unsettling feeling that breathes life into the urban legend for yet another round.
The tales contained in this chapter are not all urban legends. Some are merely unique stories that seem so "out there" that they could easily be dismissed as campfire banter of grade school children. The only problem with easy dismissal is that the stories are true. Other stories in this chapter are urban legends unique to Northern Illinois, with mentions of a slave catcher, a family massacre, and an escaped criminally insane convict who stumbled across a sleep-away camp. It will be your task to mentally decipher how much of this actually happened.
“The Gate,” Libertyville Enter the North suburban town of Libertyville. Traveling down the four-lane highway of Route 137 an exit is made onto the desolate River Road. River Road can often be an experience of its own, especially at night. The road is long and narrow. The left side is bordered by the Independence Grove Forest Preserve while the right side is dotted with houses. The car's headlights provide the only illumination, as there are no streetlights to speak of along this thoroughfare. Often the experience is even more heightened as ponds to the left of the street mix with summer air and massive banks of fog occupy the many low points of this hilly street. After a journey of about two miles down this road, it makes an abrupt 90-degree right turn. Directly ahead sits a horse ranch; to the left of that, set back further from the road, sits a menacing vision. This is what local residents commonly refer to as "The Gate." According to the widely known legend, the gate marked the entrance to an all-girls school in the 1950s. All was well in the area until the fateful day when the principal snapped and killed four of his students. As the legend goes, it was at this very gate, on the posts, that the heads of four young students were placed after they were removed from their bodies. |
The stories vary depending on where the story is being told. According to some, instead of a school, it was once a sleep-away camp, or even an asylum. The killer isn't always the same either. Some versions of the story claim that a madman who escaped from an institution stumbled across this location and went to work. Others talk of an escaped convict who caused the mayhem, and those who believe it was an asylum state that it was a counselor who ended up losing his own sanity. As would be expected from a sensationalized story, the final death toll is often inflated.
The sheer predictability of the tale is the first clue that this is an urban legend. More than one location covered in this guide of the haunted Northeastern corner of Illinois also share this or a strikingly similar story.
The type of residue left behind also differs depending on the story. Libertyville and Vernon Hills versions often contain people visiting the gate at night only to find blood still running down the wrought iron supports of the gate. Other versions state that on the anniversary of the slaying and on Halloween, at the bewitching hour of midnight, the phantom heads of the fallen girls reappear on the fence posts. The legend about the fence, when told by a resident of Wauconda, claims that a small boy has been seen on numerous occasions walking or staring out from behind the fence.
Sorting out the truth from the speculation is frequently a difficult challenge when forced to rely on eyewitness accounts rather than printed documents. Most towns across the country have their fair share of skeletons in their respective closets. It is customary for a verbal history of a neighborhood to get edited in order to preserve a peaceful illusion of reality.
Libertyville is already the home of the "Murder Mansion." In 1980, Bruce and Darlene Rouse were brutally murdered by their son. By the mid 1980s the same home was purchased by the Ferriola street crew, which operated a casino in the house for the Chicago Mafia. Modern era gangsters like Salvatore DeLaurentis, Rocco Infelise, BJ Jahoda, and Harry Ferriola brought in a reported $800,000 every month just from gambling at this location. In September of 1984, the Murder Mansion was also the location of another slaying. Independent bookmaker, and competition, Bobby Plummer was killed on the second floor. In 2003 the house was demolished.
This being said, in recent years Libertyville has shown its resiliency in being able to bounce back from negative press. Though a number of very famous murders have happened, catching wind of it is often a difficult task. Usually the only time these events are mentioned anymore in the press is on an MSNBC look back in time, but hardly ever in a local newspaper.
Libertyville has been mostly successful in hiding unnatural deaths from just twenty years ago. If alleged events happened in 1950, then there's more than half a century for people to forget.
It is also possible that a horrific event did in fact happen at "The Gate," but over the years it simply grew out of proportion due to overactive imaginations. If this were the case, then there could very well be a legitimate haunting at this location. What can be said for sure, however, is that a trip to "The Gate" can be quite a harrowing experience. On humid summer nights a fog actually forms in the distant fields, rolls in, and hovers just beyond the entrance. The mere presence of the structure leaves some to keep the door of possibility open. Obviously there is some reason for such a massive structure to stand.
What can be said of the legend that is true is that at one point in time the land behind the gate did serve as a camp. The St. Francis Boys Camp opened for operation sometime after the year 1950. Before that it was used as the Kathrine Dodridge Kreigh Budd Memorial Home for Children. This orphanage for over 100 children opened in 1925.
What caused this orphanage to close may be the answer to why this gate has such a famous reputation. Unfortunately, it is also this answer that is lost in the past. One thing that is for sure though is that for years to come it will lure area high schoolers, curiosity-seekers, and hikers alike to ponder the possibilities. Currently the Des Plaines River Trail, which is part of the forest preserve, passes through the opening.
The stories don't end there either. There are additional stories regarding the houses that stand across the street from this north side landmark. An easily dismissible, but strangely well-known fallacy, is that the neighborhood is full of devil worshipers. However wild and random these claims are, several more reputable stories have been told about the area.
Several people in the area have made the statement that they are sharing their homes with past residents who move about in shadowy forms. Hunters in the area have come across nearby farms only to see the phantoms of long deceased gangsters from the 1930s. It seems that Lake County has gotten rid of a Mafia presence today, but there are several other made men who have yet to find out they are no longer welcome.
Go back to the main ghost page or read the introduction to the Cuba Road Chapter
