Local History & Genealogy

The coldest cases from Middletown, USA

With dozens of unsolved murders spanning decades, Muncie and surrounding Delaware County might have more killings without justice than any American community like it. In 1962, Maggie Mae Fleming was shot to death as she sat in her living room. Paula Garrett was bludgeoned in her home in 1979, and her son, who survived the attack, wants justice. Garth Rector, killed in 2008, could have been murdered by any number of people he knew--or dated.

Journalists and award-winning true crime authors Douglas Walker and Keith Roysdon shine a spotlight on the victims, and on their loved ones and the investigators still hoping for resolution to long-cold murders.

Jeanne B. Hardendorff adapts and retells eighteen tales of supernatural beings and events.

1. FROM THE LOOM OF THE DEAD adapted story from The Shape of Fear by Elia Wilkinson Peattie, 1898

2. THE WITCH IN THE STONE BOAT retold story from The Legends of Iceland by George E. J. Powell and Eirikr Magnusson, 1866

3. ON THE RIVER adapted story from Modern Ghosts by Guy de Maupassant, 1890

4. VENGEANCE WILL COME retold story from Syfaddon Lake from The Welsh Fairy Book by W. Jenkyn Thomas, 1908

5. THE QUESTIONING GHOST retold story from The Deserterer from Tales of Wonder by Kate Douglas Wiggin, 1909

6. STRIKING A CORPSE CANDLE retold story from The Welsh Fairy Book by W. Jenkyn Thomas, 1908

7. THE STRANGLING WOMAN created from an anecdote found in Lord Halifax’s Ghost Book, 1944

8. AN IMPERFECT CONFLAGRATION story from Collected Works by Ambrose Bierce, 1909

9. THE LITTLE TOE BONE retold story from Hindu Tales by Terese Peirce Williston, 1917

10.FEAR adapted story from The Works of Guy de Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant, 1908

11.THE GRAMMATICAL GHOST adapted story from The Shape of Fear by Elia Wilkinson Peattie, 1898

12.THE POWER OF ST. TEGLA’S WELL retold story from The Welsh Fairy Book by W. Jenkyn Thomas, 1908

13.THE WITCH AT FRADDAM retold story from The Lord of Pengerswick from Popular Romances of the West of England by Robert Hunt, 1871

14.A WEREWOLF OR A THIEF? retold story from The Thief and the Innkeeper by Aesop

15.CAPTAIN MURDERER story from The Uncommercial Traveler by Charles Dickens, 1861

16.RAP! RAP! RAP! based on a story heard at Camp Conoy, Lusby, Maryland, United States by Eric Hardendorff, source unknown

17.THE BLOOD-DRAWING GHOST retold story from Tales of the Fairies and The Ghost World by Jeremiah Curtin, 1895

18.THE THREE SHEEP story from The Spider’s Palace by Richard Hughes, 1932

Read about the Ghosts, Mysteries and Legends of Henry County and nearby counties, including: Delaware, Madison, Randolph, Rush, Hancock, Fayette, Grant, Boone and Wayne.

Thirty-seven true ghost stories and mysteries including:

• Mysterious occurrences at the New Castle house once occupied by a long missing child.
• A mother telephones her son fifteen years after her death.
• The ghostly couple that haunted Mt.Lawn Mansion.
• "Miss Emma", resident spirit at Camp Chesterfield.
• The still unsolved Henry County Murder of Miss F-32.
• Portrait of man dead fifteen years mysteriously appears on canvas while relatives watch.

Enduring mysteries from the Hoosier State

Crime and tragedy have all too often disturbed the peace and stained the memory of Indiana's bucolic countryside. The small town of Dupont was thrust into the nation's spotlight in 1947 after a series of suspicious deaths were blamed on a well-known local housekeeper--suspected serial killer Lottie "Tot" Lockman. On a fall day in 1976, a Benton County farmer found an unusual package in his cornfield--a corpse. Dubbed "The Box Lady of Benton County," her identity remains a mystery. On September 13, 1989, Joseph Bova was killed outside of his Merrillville home when a pipe bomb rigged to his truck's ignition exploded. With no witnesses, suspects, or motive, his case remains unsolved.

Author Autumn Bones explores some of Indiana's least-known unsolved cases.

Muncie epitomizes the small-town America of squeaky-clean 1950s sitcoms, but its wholesome veneer conceals a violent past. Public scandals and personal tragedy dogged the long, notorious life of Dr. Jules LaDuron.

Baseball ace Obie McCracken met a tragic and violent end after joining the police force. A mother's love could not stop James Hedges from committing murder. The paranoid delusions of Leonard Redden hounded him until one day he carried a shotgun into a quiet classroom. And newsman George Dale's showdown with the Klan prepared him for the political fight of his life. Douglas Walker and Keith Roysdon, authors of Wicked Muncie, introduce a new cast of characters from the city's notorious past.

First printed in 1970, Elmer Sulzer's study of the abandoned railroads of Indiana quickly proved itself invaluable to both the serious student of railroading and the railroad ""buff."" In conjunction with Ghost Railroads of Kentucky (1967) and Ghost Railroads of Tennessee (1975), this volume details the history of railroad closings and their impact on the railroad traffic running from the industrial North and East to the agricultural South and West. Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee provided the essential route for much of the nation's rail traffic.

Indiana folklorist Wanda Lou Willis is back with all-new ghostly tales in this hair-raising companion to Haunted Hoosier Trails. Wanda explores Indiana's hidden history in spooky locations around the state. Local history buffs will relish the informative county histories that begin each chapter, while thrill-seekers will eagerly search out these frightening spots. More Haunted Hoosier Trails is perfect year-round for raising goose-bumps around the campfire or reading under the covers with a flashlight.

Read this chilling collection of 78 ghost stories from throughout Indiana.

When settlers first came to Indiana before 1800, the Miami, Delaware, and Potawatomi tribes who already inhabited the region had a long tradition of stories about tragic death and haunting spirits. Pioneers, the builders of Indiana canals, villagers, and city dwellers added their own tales of mansions where sad deaths occurred and where spirits walked, and of murderers and kidnappers whose foul crimes seemed to be punished from beyond the grave. These traditions have been passed on to us today, joined by modern folk tales that raise the hair on the head and startle the imagination.

Journey to Hazelcot, the deserted dream mansion in Whitley County; to the forsaken and frightening tomb of riverboat captain Francis McHarry along the Ohio, where ships to this day toot out their homage to avoid the ghost's curse; and to the bridges near Avon, Indiana, where who-knows-what will occur during Halloween. These carefully researched and truly frightening tales by Wanda Lou Wilis, one of Indiana's most popular folklorists, will provoke and amuse even the most skeptical reader.

Inside you'll find: 
 

• 78 ghostly tales about folklore and spooky sites
• Stories arranged by county

• Maps and directions to the haunted locations
• Historical information about the counties

Do ghosts still walk the roads and trails of the Hoosier heartland? Find out for yourself with Haunted Hoosier Trails.

Indiana, Crossroads of America, is known as a place rich in folklore, where spirits and ghosts intermingle with the lives of ordinary Hoosiers, often with strange and frightening consequences. Shrunken heads, a peculiar hidden altar and chilling screams in the night in an Indiana University residence lead the tenants to hold a séance. The mischievous ghost of former football hero George Gipp spooks students at University of Notre Dame's Washington Hall. Amelia Earhart's spirit returns to spend time at her old haunt, Purdue University.

From Muncie's past come weird tales of supernatural encounters, creepy ghostlights, haunted houses, and eerie hoaxes.

In the years before the Civil War, wraiths routinely harassed travelers on turnpikes southeast of the city. A poltergeist once terrorized a family farm in northeast Center Township in 1890. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, ghosts appeared frequently at local businesses, theaters, office buildings, factories, and turnpikes.

Delaware County historian Chris Flook delves deep into local historical archives to reveal dozens of uncanny encounters, ghostly pranks, and strange paranormal phenomena of the Magic City.