She Cries by the Light of the Moon

In honor of the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11 touching down on the lunar surface, we thought we would throw together our own little tribute to the Moon.

Our first stop is on the Earth's surface and at just one of many legends that the Moon is said to play a role. The story behind the lake and a small falls at Creve Coeur County Park in Missouri (just outside St. Louis) involves a Native American princess whose love of a French fur trader went unrequited. With a shattered heart, she took her own life by jumping from the cliff near the lake and her agony was suddenly reflected by the lake itself, which morphed to resemble a broken heart, while a small spring began to run over the cliff to represent her tears. Today, the ghost of the young maiden is said to be seen crying at the top of the cliff on Dripping Springs, but only by the light of the full Moon. On other nights, she is seen and heard in other ways.

Read more about the Native American Princess at Creve Coeur County Park.

We'll leave our own atmosphere for our next stop. As many of you are aware, Dark Destinations incorporates Google Maps into our site to make navigating your travels all the more easier. While Google Maps, and its offshoot Google Earth, are extremely popular, not everyone is aware that Google's reach extends beyond our own planet. In fact, Google has launched similar service that maps out and give you a satellite's view of the Moon (a similar interface is also available for the planet Mars). On Google Moon, they have even added an interface that allows you to see the landing spots of the Apollo missions and learn even more about what each mission entailed. Unfortunately, some features like Street View are not yet an option for obvious reasons. However, it probably won't be long knowing Google. Why else do you think NASA has future plans to send unmanned craft back to the lunar surface?

We do not yet have any Dark Destinations on the Moon, but maybe someday. After all, as Pink Floyd put it, “There is no dark side of the Moon, really. As a matter of fact, it's all dark."

-Casey H.

St. Louis Exorcism: 60 Years Later

Today marks 60 years since the third and final exorcism of a young boy from Washington D.C. The exorcism of this unnamed child would later serve as the inspiration for William Peter Blatty's novel The Exorcist which in turn led to the 1973 movie starring Linda Blair. The real life exorcism case had three separate key locations where events took place; the boy's house (see The Saint Louis Exorcist House), a rectory in St. Louis (see The Old Rectory at St. Louis Xavier College Church) and the hospital where the final exorcism took place (see Old Alexian Brothers Hospital). While the final location was torn down in the 1970s, the pavement of the parking lot that took its place is said to constantly crack in the spot where the exorcism took place.

Pay a visit to the site of the Old Alexian Brothers Hospital.

-Tom G

The Lemp Family Curse

On December 29, 1922, 55-year-old William J. Lemp Jr. held a revolver to his chest and fired two shots in his office (and family home) of the Lemp Brewery in St. Louis, Missouri. He had been recently in ill health and was in the process of slowly liquidating his family's brewery business after prohibition had been instituted. Billy was not the first member of the family to die tragically, nor was he the first to take his own life.

Prior to Billy's suicide, the family had already suffered the loss of a son who had died from health issues, as well as two additional suicides in the forms of Billy's father and sister. In fact, after his sister's suicide at a property elsewhere in St. Louis, Billy was said to have commented, "That's the Lemp family for you." Tragically, the deaths did not end with Billy. In the 1940s, his only son (though there are unsubstantiated rumors that Billy had also sired an illegitimate child) died of a heart attack and another brother also took his own life.

Today, the Lemp Mansion operates as a bed and breakfast/restaurant in the city of St. Louis. While not all of the deaths occurred inside its walls, the building saw its fair share of death over the years. In fact, the room that Billy shot himself is the front dining room (see photo above), while the site of his father's suicide is now the William Lemp Suite. If you believe the tales, the Lemp family left their mark on the site, which is often regarded as one of the most haunted sites in America with countless tales of ghostly activity.

Pay a visit to the reportedly haunted Lemp Mansion of St. Louis.

-Casey H.

Stagger Lee Shot Billy

The night was clear and the moon was yellow,
And the leaves came tumbling down.
I was standing on the corner, when I heard my bulldog bark.
He was barking at the two men, who were gambling in the dark.
It was Stagger Lee and Billy, two men who gambled late.

The song is Stagger Lee by Lloyd Price - the first commercially successful version of a folk murder ballad that had long been a mainstay in nightclubs throughout the South. It may have also been one of the first versions of the tune (also known as Stagolee, Stack Lee, etc.) that was also commercially viable, as early renditions were often more graphic with more than a few of those words that George Carlin warned us all about. It was also not entirely accurate.

The weather at the time is not known, but it most definitely was not the fall. In fact (and perhaps ironically), the legend of Stagger Lee was born on Christmas Night, 1895 in the Bill Curtis Saloon in an area of St. Louis, Missouri that at the time was the red light district. The two men were Lee "Stack Lee" Shelton (an area pimp with political connections) and William "Billy" Lyons. And despite the song's portrayal of a night of gambling gone bad, the conflict really began over an argument of politics after an otherwise innocent night of drinks and laughs.

Stagger Lee shot Billy.
Oh, he shot that poor boy so bad.
'Till the bullet came through Billy
And broke the bartender's glass.

That much is true, though the fate of the bartender's glass is unclear. In fact, the bartender was one of the few witnesses left in the saloon after Shelton had pulled out his .44 and took aim. Like the song suggests, he was after his white Stetson hat; though not because he lost it in a bet but rather because Lyons had snagged it after Shelton had broken his Derby in the heat of the argument. The end result was the same though - Shelton shot once and calmly walked out of the bar, while Lyons was rushed to the hospital where he later died.

So how did a known pimp and a murder in an area that was infamous for crime transform into one of the most well-known murder ballads of all time? It is not entirely known, though it is worth pointing out that Duncan killed Brady (Duncan and Brady) quite literally across the street just five years earlier, while Frankie shot Johnny (actually Allan Britt - of Frankie and Johnny fame) four years later a couple blocks away. It is safe to say that some balladeer was kept busy.

At any rate, Stagger Lee has come to represent the baddest of the bad in musical form; not unlike Mack the Knife or Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, though if you listen to some renditions of Stagger Lee, he could take them out without breaking a sweat too. And it all started on Christmas Day.

The Bill Curtis Saloon may no longer exist, but a few blocks away is a historic home (photo above) that looks somewhat out-of-place in a primarily industrial area and was once the home of Lee Shelton - complete with the "crib houses" for Shelton's working girls. Also in town is the St. Peters Cemetery where Billy was buried in an unmarked grave. Ironically, Shelton is buried only a block or so away at the Greenwood Cemetery (also in an unmarked grave), where he was laid to rest after succumbing to tuberculosis while serving time at the Missouri State Penitentiary for a separate crime. And though it has since been closed town, the story even inspired a local bar and grill to take on the name of the city's local legend for awhile - Stagger Lee's.

So I leave you with this often overlooked Christmas legend and wish you and your family a very happy and safe holiday.

-Casey H.

The Resurrected (and Haunted) Landers Theatre

The Landers Theatre today is a historic landmark in the city of Springfield, Missouri, but an incident in its early years almost sealed its fate. The theater was constructed in 1909 and hosted a variety of vaudeville acts. Then, on December 17, 1920, a major fire broke out that almost entirely destroyed the facility and closed it down. Rather than scrap the project, Ensley Barbour stepped forward and put up the money for the repairs and reconstruction. Two years later the Landers Theatre was once again opened and has hosted such personalities as Lon Chaney, Kathleen Turner, Lillian Russel, and Springfield-native Brad Pitt (some sources say he got his start at the Landers) in the years since.

If you believe the stories, some of the people who have passed through its doors have never left, even in death. The Landers Theatre is home to a variety of accounts of paranormal activity throughout its four stories. Ghosts are said to include a janitor that is believed to have perished in the tragic 1920 fire, a baby that was said to have fallen from the balcony and its grieving mother, former actors and actresses, and even a strange entity that stands in the middle of the auditorium that brings audience participation to a whole new level.

Read the ghostly tales of the Landers Theatre at Dark Destinations.

-Casey H.

A Trip Into The Darkness

For today, we are going to head to the Gateway City itself, Saint Louis, Missouri, and one of the world's most famous Halloween haunted attractions. The Darkness is the brainchild of Larry Kirchner and Jim Kelly of Halloween Productions, Inc. It got its start in 1993 and has been wooing critics and guests alike ever since. Television shows, magazines, and more have lauded their technical expertise and design. In fact, the latest addition to the haunt is a full-fledged simulated swamp on the second floor that is so convincing and cutting edge, it was prominently featured on an episode of History's Modern Marvels.

Halloween Productions, Inc. is a full-time business for the partners. Aside from The Darkness, the duo consult, design, and construct spooky sets for countless other haunted attractions around the world. They even run an outdoor Halloween haunt in nearby Fenton called Creepyworld, but the duo still consider The Darkness their signature haunt. The attraction features a wide array of sophisticated animated monsters, computer effects, special effects, and live actors to keep their guests on their toes. With the notoriety they have received, the haunt attracts around 30,000 of those guests each season.

So come on and head on in to The Darkness.

-Casey H.