When it comes to the morbid, eerie, and downright horrific, St. Louisans aren't scared. In fact, there are several websites dedicated to locating and compiling all the alleged shriek-inducing places in St. Louis and metro Illinois. A cursory Google search turns up a cast of regular haunts, along with some unexpected ones. The Lemp Mansion—a sort of royalty among the macabre—is likely at the top of anyone's list of places that share space with apparitions. After all, three members of the Lemp family met their demise at the home, all by their own hand. 

Lemp Family Mansion on S. Thirteenth Street in St. Louis. Photo by William Swekosky, 1945. Missouri History Museum.

And I'm sure many of you are aware that William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist was based on a real, month-long exorcism performed in 1949 on a 13-year-old boy, allegedly at a psychiatric ward in south St. Louis. Perhaps you've visited "Zombie Road," McPike Mansion, and Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, hoping to catch sight of something ghastly or ghostly. But for the unexpected places, be sure to check out the Missouri History Museum's next Discovery Tour, aptly titled Haunted River City.

Alexian Brothers Hospital in south St. Louis, rumored to be where an exorcism took place in 1949. Photograph, ca. 1872. Missouri History Museum.

Haunted River City is scheduled for November 10. The tour will start at the Museum with a sneak peek at some of the artifacts that will be displayed in the upcoming exhibition, Little Black Dress: From Mourning to Night. Then the tour group will head to Bellefontaine Cemetery and such haunted sites as a former hospital, police station, and hotel. Along the way, tour leader Johnny Rabbitt will reveal psychic twisted tales of hauntings and paranormal oddities.

Make your reservation now for a frightfully fun time!

 —Keri O'Brien, Editor