BACHELOR'S GROVE

BACHELOR'S GROVE

PHOTO COURTESY OF DALE KACZMAREK

Although inactive, Bachelors Grove cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in south Cook County. It is across from what is now called the Rubio Woods Forest Preserve, down a trail that was originally a section of the old Midlothian Turnpike that has been closed to vehicle traffic since the 1960s. Once the cemetery became further isolated with the closing of the road, vandalism of the cemetery accelerated. There has been evidence of satanic rituals and attempts at grave openings and robbings from time to time, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. Desecration and vandalism of the cemetery reached a peak in the 1970s. Many stones were maliciously broken, defaced, spray painted, and stolen. It is believed that many of the missing stones have ended up at the bottom of the nearby quarry pond.

There have been many stories of strange floating lights, a brilliant zooming red light, a mysterious ghost house, phantom cars that appear and disappear, human ghostly apparitions, and other paranormal activities. Including one of the most controversial pieces of paranormal photography ever taken, "The Madonna of Bachelor's Grove".

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE GHOST RESEARCH SOCIETY

"The Madonna of Bachelor's Grove"

BACHELOR'S GROVE MAP

MAP COURTESY OF JOHN CACHEL

Investigation

May 21, 2005 5:00pm - 11:30pm

July 23 & 24, 2005 midnight - 2:30am

September 10 & 11, 2005 7:00pm - 3:00am

October 18, 2005 10:30am - noon

January 29, 2006 4:00pm - 6:00pm

Equipment:

TriField emf meter, Trifield Natural em meter, noncontact infrared thermometer, Nikon digital camera, Olympus digital camera, 2 digital voice recorders, 2 mini Dv video cameras, Hi8 video camera. All video cameras equipped with night shot.

Investigators:

Jim, Holly, Trevor

Baseline readings:

Emf: 0mg

temp: varied by season

Bachelor's Grove Cemetery is one of our ongoing investigations, based on the level of paranormal activity we have experienced there. We have captured anomalous activity on various pieces of equipment, that we believe verify our personal experiences.

On May 21, 2005, we saw floating lights appearing and disapearing amongst the woods surrounding the cemetery. We captured various anomalies on the digital camera. Both the camera and video batteries were instantly drained, only to be recharged when we left the cemetery. A portion of the video footage we recorded show only a blank screen, while the audio is still intact. A cold spot was experienced on the trail between the Newman stone (map #20) and the Fulton stone (#1). In the same vicinity an emf spike up to 7 mg was recorded with the Trifield meter.

On July 23, 2005, we stopped at Bachelor's Grove late at night, after concluding our investigation of Archer Woods Cemetery. All of the investigators had an uneasy feeling the entire time we were there. Our video camera malfunctioned, destroying the tape containing footage from both investigations. A shadowy figure was seen by Jim and Holly. It was moving back and forth in front of the Mckee (#12) and the Moss (#13) stones. Strange sounds of muffled voices could be heard coming from the woods on several occaisions. A large group of unsavory characters arrived, realizing any evidence we were to collect would be compromised, we decided to leave with what we had.

September 10, 2005, was our longest investigation of the cemetery. Unfortunately, it was an uneventful night. Nothing was captured on video, or audio recorders. We did record emf spikes on two seperate occaisions, along with corresponding photos of anomalies. The majority of the action that night came from the large number of ghost hunters coming and going.

October 18, 2005, While in the Chicago area for an interview with channel 7 ABC news, we decided to do a daytime investigation of Bachelor's Grove. Though no video or camera evidence was captured, we did record emf spikes up to 11mg at the Newman stone (#20), which we were able to track as it moved around the area. Also, a cold spot was experienced by Holly at the same time as the emf spikes were recorded. This is an ongoing investigation.

January 28, 2006 Trevor and Jim returned to try and capture more evidence. Upon arriving at the cemetery, we noticed a group of about 5 people and 2 dogs on the other side of the pond. Also, there were periods throughout the investigation where other people entered and exited the cemetery, so we decided to not make this a long investigation. We made numerous sweeps of the cemetery with our EMF meter, with no abnormal readings. We also were unable to record any temperature fluctuations. Our attempts to record EVP's were also unsuccessful.

DARTING ORB

ORB

EMF SPIKE BY NEWMAN STONE

NEWMAN STONE

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