September 20, 2005

The Witchcraft Connection: Metaphysical Investigations into the Paranormal

Resurrection Mary: Part Three
By Marcus Foxglove Griffin

We once again drove through the gates of Resurrection Cemetery, but this time we were on the hunt for the living, not the dead. At last sighting, the caretaker’s dark-green Ford pickup truck was parked alongside the road near Resurrection's eastern fence line, deep in one of the older sections of the cemetery. The roads in this part of the cemetery were narrow and difficult to navigate, so I maneuvered the van as fast as I dared to the spot where we had last spied the caretaker’s truck. Naturally, the caretaker and his transportation had vanished before we had arrived at our destination. Undaunted, I somehow managed to get the van turned around in a small mausoleum encircled cul-de-sac and headed back the way we came in. After several minutes of searching, we spotted the caretaker’s truck cruising away from us toward the west end of the cemetery, so I hit the gas and we resumed our hot pursuit. To the unwitting onlooker, what happened next probably looked like a bad chase scene from a live-action episode of a Scooby-Doo Mystery. The only things missing were gaudy psychedelic flowers painted on the side of the van and a talking Great Dane! 

Resurrection Cemetery boasts a seemingly endless number of twisting and turning roads, and I was having a hard time catching up with our quarry. It seemed that every time I would turn left, he would turn right. Every time we thought he was in front of us, he would appear behind us. It almost seemed as though he was aware that we were attempting to track him down and that he was doing his very best to evade us. After almost fifteen minutes of our comical cartoon-esque chase scene, we finally caught up to him at the front of the administration building near Resurrection's main gate. As we exited the van and approached him with cameras and digital recorders in-hand, the caretaker had quite an apprehensive look on his face. The caretaker was young, appearing to be in his late twenties at the oldest, and was dressed in the usual caretaker work garb. He was also sporting one of the largest gold crucifixes I had ever seen. Resurrection is a Catholic cemetery after all, and I didn’t want to offend him or scare him off, so I reached into my shirt and hid my pentagram necklace under my collar. 

We immediately introduced ourselves to the young caretaker as team of ghost-hunters researching the legend of Resurrection Mary. An amused grin came over his face almost immediately, and he said that although he didn’t know very much, he would be happy to share with us what little information he had. What follows are my questions and his responses to them in his own words. What can you tell us about Resurrection Mary?

To be honest with ya, everybody’s been askin about that, and believe me they’ve been movin her grave left and right, and they’ve been doin a lot of other crazy things around here too. 

They’ve actually been physically moving her grave?

I... you know... physically -- I have no idea because [nervous laughter] I don’t want to carry her around or anyway you know what I mean? Believe me, there’s been a lot of ghostly things goin on around here. Believe me, especially for Halloween, you know, so its been nuts around here. But uh, some of the guys have been telling me there that she’s in section Double-M over by 79th over there by that road. So that’s where she’s buried, but I don’t know if that’s really true though, I have no idea, you know? Because the guys around here that are seasonal -- like to spook ya a little bit, and believe me, there’s something about the bars sitting in the front gate, somethin about that she’s been bendin the gates, that she’s been doin that, so that’s what’s been goin on there. Believe me, before I got here I was readin on the computer about it, and stuff about this stuff, and believe me I really don’t care. The ghosts here have never done anything to me so…

So you have never seen anything strange or unusual happening around here then? 

I haven’t seen no ghosties spinning around their graves or none of that kind of crap so…

Is there anyone else working here that has?

Some of the guys that been here longer than I have, they’ll probably tell you more about it.

After giving us the names of some of the older, more seasoned caretakers that might be willing to talk to us about Mary (all of whom had already left for the day), the young caretaker politely excused himself stating that it was almost closing time and that he had to go and “kick out” the lingering visitors and mourners who were rude enough to ignore the cemeteries hours of operation. Seeing that we had obviously overstayed our welcome, I suggested to the team that we should go down and check out the Willowbrook Ballroom (known as the O’Henry Ballroom in Mary’s day) and possibly Rico D’s for some food and a few drinks. It was still very warm and muggy outside, so the team agreed to this course of action without debate. We left Resurrection Cemetery for the second time, turned onto Archer Avenue, and managed the short jaunt to the Willowbrook Ballroom. Well, we almost made it to the Willowbrook Ballroom. As we neared the turn-in for the Willowbrook, a long white limousine pulled out of the Willowbrook’s parking lot in front of us and forced us onto the shoulder of the road. After a few angry shouts and rude gestures directed at the limousine driver by team WISP, I edged the van back onto the road and approached the Willowbrook. We quickly deduced by the handy evidence of the limousine, a full parking lot, tuxedos, and the bright blue taffeta of Bridesmaids gowns, that the Willowbrook was hosting a wedding reception this evening, and that getting inside to investigate without an invitation was probably going to be out of the question. Directly across the street from the Willowbrook Ballroom however, was an old and inviting red brick building that housed Rico D’s Italian Restaurant. Rico D’s appeared to be far less busy than the Willowbrook did that evening, so I pulled into the parking lot and brought the van to rest in a shady spot near the back of the building. Our hot and hungry team of paranormal investigators exited the van and entered into the relative comfort of Rico D’s Italian Restaurant. Not surprisingly, we were to discover that the building that housed Rico D’s; a building that was once owned by infamous gangster Al Capone, had a legend and ghosts of its own…

Next month: Resurrection Mary: The Conclusion 

Marcus Foxglove Griffin has been a student and teacher of the occult for over twenty years and is the creator and lead investigator for Witches In Search of the Paranormal (WISP). He is High Priest for the Temple of Aradia located in northern Indiana and teacher in the temple’s school. Under the penname Lord Foxglove, he is the author of Advancing the Witches’ Craft (New Page Books, 2005) and numerous articles in the areas of Witchcraft and metaphysics. "The Witchcraft Connection" is Marcus Foxglove Griffin's monthly column on the metaphysical and paranormal.