MEET
CHICAGO HAUNTINGS
Ursula
Bielski
 Ursula
Bielski is the founder of Chicago Hauntings, Inc. 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, The Travel Channel, and PBS. 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!
Christopher
Thieme
 Christopher
(C.T.) Thieme was born and raised in Chicago until his family
moved to
LaSalle, IL, near Starved Rock. His father, Art Thieme, a collector and
performer of traditional American songs and stories and a contemporary
of Arlo Guthrie, was highly
influential in Chris' young life, nurturing a passion for the tales and
history of
Illinois.
After
graduating high school in LaSalle, Christopher spent the next six
summers working on the
Mississippi River aboard the excursion boat Julia Belle Swain, one of
the last true steamboats on the continental inland
waterways.
In
1989, he traveled through Morocco and parts of
Europe, searching for traces of
the mystical. However, it was in Illinois where he found himself most
likely
to "fall into" paranormal adventures. After finishing at Illinois
Valley Community College with an A.S. in Psychology, he enrolled at
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where in 1993 he graduated
with
honors, earning a B.A. in English Literature. The two years
spent in Southern Illinois added to his superntural
experiences and
collection of stories.
After
returning to Chicago in
1995, he started the web site Heathens
Haven,
which includes
samples of this work, an online speaking board and a section
devoted to his own personal paranormal experiences and
investigative work in the Chicagoland area. He has written articles
for Supernatural
Occurrences Studies magazine
and has given lectures at
area bookstores on our haunted history.
Christopher
has completed the novel Perpetual
Care,
along with a cache
of short stories and collected essays. He continues
to write and lecture, and is currently at work on a
second
novel, Boiling
Boy: An
Occidental Journey through the Between, another collection
of short stories entitled, Sins
of the Father, and a
collection of his own first-hand accounts of the supernatural entitled,
Me
and
My
Shadow.
Most recently he has been developing a personlized and
multi-faceted approach to paranormal investigation, ranging
from
scientific practices to less mundane
methodology. Christopher brings a full dossier of experience
and
research to the Chicago Hauntings team.
Elizabeth
Rintoul
 Elizabeth was born and
raised in Chicago until leaving to attend college at Illinois
State University.
Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts
degree in English, Beth went on to complete a Master of Arts degree in
English at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, then traveled to Ireland
to continue her studies in folklore, mythology
and literary history.
Returning to Chicago, Elizabeth went on to earn a
Master of Education degree, and now teaches high school
English.
Elizabeth specializes in British literature, particularly Celtic
mythology and ghostlore. In the summer months, she explores
the ghostlore of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland with her
students, and trains other international tour guides for similar
adventures
Wayne
Galasek
 An avid
history buff, Wayne is a Docent with the Chicago Architectural Foundation (CAF) and leads a number of
their tours, including the world famous CAF River Cruise and
several of their children’s tours. He
is
a member of Chicago Tour Professional
Association (CTPA) and one
of only a handful of Chicago Certified Tour Guides (CTG) in
the city, providing a wide range of
recreational and educational tours
and escort/guide services. Wayne specializes in the Prohibition/Gangster/Al
Capone era, and his tours have been
showcased on Channel 5
(WMAQ), Channel 7 (WLS), Globetrekker (Ian Wright),
The
Travel
Channel and soon to be seen on The
History Channel and Stanley
Siegel on the Go (Los Angeles). In
late
2008 Wayne started Wayne's Rain Barrels, a
“green company” providing residential
and commercial water collection programs.
Wayne
graduated from Bradley University in 1975 with a BS in Business and
Music
(double major). Prior, in 1974 he earned an Associate Degree from
Triton
College in Restaurant/Hotel Management.
Wayne
and his wife, Judy, live in Oak Park with their youngest daughter,
Gretchen, who is
attending Lake Forest College. In his
spare time, he coaches girls/womens fastpitch softball, reads
voraciously, plays
a number of musical instruments, tunes pianos and loves to cook!
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