WEIRD ILLINOIS EXCERPT
Interested in WEIRD ILLINOIS? Here's an except from the book that you might enjoy. And don't forget to order your copy directly from us to get a special AUTOGRAPHED edition from author Troy Taylor! Here's a short piece from the "Local Legends" chapter:
THE GATE
If you are looking for a harrowing experience some summer evening, I suggest a trip out to the Gate, one of the most famous and bone-chilling locations on the north side of Chicago. Located near Libertyville, the Gate can be found off the desolate and secluded River Road, which borders the Independence Grove Forest Preserve. Even the trip to the Gate can be unnerving. The trees of the forest preserve press close on either side of the roadway and as there are no streetlights here, only your headlights offer illumination of the path ahead. On humid nights in the summer, the fog rolls in from the nearby ponds and then obscures the lowest sections of the long and narrow River Road and then lingers at the massive entrance to the Gate.
Those who seek this spot travel about two miles down the River Road before it makes a sharp and abrupt turn, delves further into the darkness and then offers a menacing view of what locals refer to as simply “The Gate�?
According to the legend, the Gate marked the entrance to a girl’s finishing school back in the early 1950’s. It was a peaceful and refined place for young women of wealthy Chicago families to go and receive a proper education. The stillness of the school was shattered one night when the principal suffered a nervous breakdown and killed four of his young students. It was said to be on the metal posts of The Gate that the heads of the four girls were placed after the principal had severed them from the young women’s bodies.
That is one version of the story but there are other similar ones. According to some, the gate did not mark the entrance to a school but to a summer camp, or even an asylum. The killer is not always the person who was in charge of the place either. In some variations, he was a camp counselor or a madman who escaped from an asylum, found the summer camp and slaughtered four of the children who were in their beds sleeping. For those who believe that an asylum once stood here, the killer is usually a ward attendant who went insane and murdered four of his charges. No matter what the version of the story though, the end result is a tale of bloodshed, violence and horrific murder.
Each of the stories ends with local residents and officials razing the school, camp or hospital and trying to obliterate the remnants of the buildings. The murders, and even the very existence of the place, are erased from public record and when asked about it in the future, it is denied that the events ever occurred.
And each of the stories also ends with The Gate being haunted.
In spite of the similar theme though, few can agree on what ghostly happenings take place at the decaying structure. There are those who claim to have visited the gate during the early hours of the morning, only to find fresh blood dripping from the iron supports. Others say that on the anniversary of the murders, at the stroke of midnight, that the phantom heads of the murdered girls appear on the fence posts, their mouths gaping in a silent scream. There are also those who claim to have seen a small boy staring out from behind the bars in the fence and countless tales of apparitions, phantom screams and mysterious sounds that cannot be explained.
As the reader can imagine, sorting the truth from the fiction at locations like this can be a difficult challenge. According to the legend, the real story of what occurred behind this gate was obliterated many years ago, leaving the place open to all manner of speculation. Those who dismiss such stories would say that the cover up of such brutal murders would be impossible in this modern day and age. However, even a casual observer would agree that it’s customary for the verbal history of a community to be edited in order to present a version of the truth that might not reflect what has actually occurred behind closed doors. Most towns across the country have more than their share of skeletons in the closet and it’s possible that Libertyville just might have more than its share.
In the 1920’s and 1930’s, the Lake County area and Libertyville attracted Chicago gangsters who were looking for secluded locations to operate speakeasys and gambling parlors. Not surprisingly, such forays into the region left a trail of death and murder in their wake.
Libertyville also became the home of the “Murder Mansion�?in 1980. Wealthy businessman Bruce Rouse and his wife, Darlene, were brutally murdered in their beds and the case went unsolved until 1996, when their son, Billy, confessed to shooting them. In the middle 1980’s, the Rouse Mansion was purchased by the Chicago Outfit and they spent more than $50,000 turning the second floor into a casino and massage parlor. At that time, the Lake County area was awash in prostitution, illegal card and dice games and betting on sports and horse racing. Libertyville was one of the biggest moneymaking towns the mob owned. Of course, their hold on the town could not have been maintained if not for the rampant corruption of the local Sheriff’s department. The malfeasance only came to an end after the execution of Bobby Plumber, a bookmaker turned revenue collector for the mob. He was beaten to death in the “Murder House�?and his body later turned up in the trunk of his car, which was parked at a nearby Holiday Inn. The investigation into the murder turned up the heat on the mobsters and after the corrupt sheriff was voted out of office, the Rouse Mansion was abandoned. It was demolished in 2003.
In spite of all this, Libertyville has shown remarkable resiliency and has gracefully weathered all of its bad press. In fact, most researchers are hard pressed to find any local information about the murders that occurred in town or even about the corruption of law enforcement officials. Libertyville has been successful at glossing over the unnatural deaths of just a few decades ago, which leads some to wonder if officials might be even more skilled at covering up deaths that occurred more than a half century before�? Did something terrifying really take place beyond the confines of “The Gate�?
Perhaps, but history of the site is hard to find. A little sketchy information has turned up and it does verify some of the elements of the legend. The Gate was once a part of an orphanage, the Katherine Dodridge Kreigh Budd Memorial Home for Children, which opened in 1925. It was shut down for unspecified reasons at an unknown date but at some point in the late 1950’s, the area was turned into the St. Francis Boys Camp. The camp also ceased operations and faded into oblivion some time ago.
It has been surmised that perhaps whatever caused the orphanage to be shut down may have been what spawned the blood-soaked legends of the Gate but unfortunately, we are likely to never know one way or another. What we do know is that the Gate will continue to entice night riders and curiosity-seekers to consider the mystery for many years to come.
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