True Ghost Stories and Eerie Legends from America's Most Haunted Neighborhood

by David Domine

Overview

The most haunted neighborhood in America? That's what many are calling Old Louisville, an extensive preservation district with hundreds of old mansions and beautiful homes in Kentucky's largest city. Wherever you go in this eye-popping neighborhood, it seems that a haunted house is not far away. Or a haunted church, a haunted street corner, or a haunted park. Over the last decade, so many stories of paranormal activity have surfaced that Old Louisville has gained the reputation as being one of the spookiest locations in the country. David Dominé discovered this for himself after purchasing an old home on Old Louisville's famed Millionaires Row in 1999. A self-proclaimed skeptic, the food writer dismissed rumors of a mischievous resident poltergeist named Lucy when he moved in, but he quickly found himself at a loss to explain the disembodied footsteps and mysterious odors that seemed to plague the old house. Soon, he was talking to neighbors and fellow homeowners, and it seemed that everyone had stories of strange events and supernatural occurrences in their own dwellings. As a result, David set out to document and research these reports and began writing about the neighborhood; in the process he uncovered a wealth of fascinating history and ghostly tales that convinced him this historic neighborhood is like no other in the country. If you liked David Dominé's Ghosts of Old Louisville series, you'll love True Ghost Stories and Eerie Legends from America's Most Haunted Neighborhood. Edited and updated, this collection brings together the most popular and chilling tales from his previous books about one of the most fascinating neighborhoods in the country.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781494289010
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	03/14/2014
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	312
Sales rank:	696,946
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

A native of Wisconsin, David Dominé has called Kentucky home since moving to Louisville in 1993. Over the years, his adopted state has provided him an unending supply of artistic inspiration, so it's not surprising that - from local hauntings to bourbon recipes - Kentucky spirits frequently come alive in his narratives. In addition to writing travel pieces for local and national publications, he has also published books on Victorian architecture, regional cooking, folklore, and haunted history. David has an MA in German Literature from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an MA in Spanish Literature from the University of Louisville. He also completed studies in literary translation at the Karl-Franzens Universität in Graz, Austria, and received an MFA in Writing from Spalding University. When he's not writing, he teaches language and literature classes at the university. When he's not writing or teaching, he's usually cooking or eating. His most recent projects include the novel Peter Paul's Kitchen and a true-crime book about the bizarre 2009 murder of drag queen Jamie Carroll and the subsequent trials of accused killers Jeffery Mundt and Joseph Banis.

Editorial Reviews

2014-10-08
Dominé (Old Louisville, 2014) returns to Louisville's local haunts in this smooth cocktail of history, architecture and the macabre."Who says you have to believe in ghosts to enjoy a good ghost story?" asks the author, a self-identified skeptic, as he opens the floor to more than just stories of urban legends and creaky floorboards. He introduces readers to the city of Louisville, home of the Kentucky Derby and Colonel Sanders' universally recognized chicken. Since its founding in 1778, it's become a "Victorian time capsule"—home to Millionaires Row, brooding Gothic churches and lavish mansions boasting Art Nouveau interior design. (It's also home to once-controversial modern high-rises.) But for every humbling structure, Dominé notes, there's an equally sinister accompanying tale. In one such story, a woman is tormented by loud knocks on her second-floor window and heavy footfalls on her staircase; after hearing them, she finds fireplace pokers laid out in the shape of a cross. In another particularly tantalizing fusion of history and legend, he tells a story of a hairless creature with massive wings who's alleged to dwell on the spires of the Walnut Street Baptist Church. Those eager to dismiss the stories as flights of fancy may be surprised by the fact that an overwhelming number of levelheaded, sensible folks have allegedly had these encounters, making them lifelong, if reluctant, believers in supernatural phenomena. Likewise, Dominé's skepticism adds an intriguing dimension to this collection. He occasionally relays stories whose historic origins can't be traced, but he supports his most enticing tales with centuries-old images and newspaper headlines. In one impressive display of investigative journalism, he links Louisville's Demon Leaper to a string of similar incidents reaching as far back as London's legendary Spring-Heeled Jack. "Like so many of the legends and unsubstantiated stories in Old Louisville," he says, "reports of these ghostly encounters suggest at least a tenuous connection with the past, a correlation borne out in neighborhood folklore and modern oral traditions." His own unnerving experience at a séance at the city's Spalding University provides a fitting endnote.A well-researched, spooky slice of Southern American history.

Kirkus Reviews