Adam Selzer, author of THE GHOSTS OF CHICAGO, currently runs regular tours for Chicago Hauntings. He is available as a step-on guide for student groups, or for private tours. Email for info!
If you're bringing students to Chicago, Adam can do tours based on just about any theme (just ask!) Teddy Roosevelt in Chicago? Sure, he can put one of those together. Just plain Chicago history and landmarks? Of course. But here are his most popular tours - email him for more info.
GHOSTS OF CHICAGO
A two hour trip through some of this city’s most haunted and historical spots, with stories of deadly disasters, antique serial killers, famous mob hits, abandoned graveyards, and a whole lot more. Students are taken off the bus to explore 3-5 times per tour. Adam has been running 200-300 ghost tours per year for the last decade, and speaks about them regularly on TV and the radio. His ghost tours are historically based and not “new agey” at all. Even science teachers love them! He can’t guarantee that a ghost will show up, but weird things HAVE happened on his tours in the past.
HH HOLMES and THE WHITE CITY: MYTH AND MYSTERY
Adam is one of the world’s leading experts on HH Holmes, the murderer whose story was popularized by Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City. Adam can trace him to about 100 Chicago addresses, though only half a dozen are still standing. The 2.5 hour Devil in the White City tour goes past most of them, as well as some of the highlights of Victorian Chicago, the 1893 World’s Fair, and the site of Holmes’s famous “Murder Castle.” Not recommended as a night-time tour; consult with Adam before scheduling..
BANG BANG BANG: GANGSTERS OF CHICAGO
A two hour crash course in Chicago’s gangland history - Adam recently wrote “American Mafia: Chicago” for Globe Press under the name William Griffith. He is less theatrical than some gangster tour guides (he doesn’t speak in a mobster voice), but just as entertaining, and a lot more informative. Tales of Al Capone, Bugs Moran, and more obscure (but just as fascinating) gangsters like Sam “Il Diavolo” Cardinella, Vinnie “The Schemer” Drucci, and more.
CEMETERY SAFARI
A two-hour walking tour of Graceland Cemetery, featuring stories of Chicago’s famous and infamous who lie at rest below the ground at the landmark cemetery (Well, we think they do - some of them were never actually moved from the old City Cemetery), with a few ghost stories, tales of grave robbers, criminals, kooks, and more! 300 (afternoon only; the cemetery closes at 4).
THE BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM
A Civil War tour in Chicago? We didn’t have any battles here, and the whole city burned down six years after the war, but Chicago’s impact on the War Between the States can’t be overstated, and 2 hours isn’t nearly enough time to cover it all. Though most of the buildings are long gone, the stories remain. In addition to the lengthy Civil War section in Smart Aleck’s Guide to American History, Adam is the author of the upcoming Ghosts of Lincoln (Llewelyn 2015), and has uncovered dozens of fascinating Civil War era stories from Chicago, from the day Senator Douglas was pelted with eggs over the Kansas Nebraska Act to the Chicago stop on Lincoln’s cross-country funeral.
