Rockford

"First Published in 1939, 'The WPA Guide to Illinois' captures more vividly than any other guide both Chicago's quick pulse and the richly varied character of the rest of the state. Thirties Chicago, birthplace of the skyscraper, had just played host to the dazzling Century of Progress Exposition; the Board of Trade was the city's tallest building; and State Street was said to be the most brilliantly lighted street in the world. The stunning residences of the Gold Coast along Lake Shore Drive offered the city's most concentrated display of wealth, while on the South Side hundreds of freight cars rattled into the stock yards each night with their noisy cargo of livestock."

"Muldoon: A True Chicago Ghost Story" dives into Father Rocco's four-year saga at Saint Charles, where his spiritual undertaking becomes a worldly adventure. His supporting cast includes a housekeeper inappropriately involved in her pastor's affairs, and a genius-priest who carries a gun, thwarts neighborhood crime, and teaches Rocco about "loving the poor." And there's the pastor himself. He padlocks the refrigerator, guides young priests only in the weekly ritual of Bingo, and entangles Rocco in the dirty work of a fraudulent shrine. As a backdrop to this chaos, the rectory experiences a host of supernatural manifestations, and Rocco discovers the legend of Bishop Peter J. Muldoon. Are there clues in this story of early stardom and great achievement, clerical competition and revenge, accusations and scandal, a missing ring, excommunication, and possibly murder that explain why the unexplainable is happening all around him? Upon delving into the church history, clerical politics, local folklore, neighborhood sociology, and paranormal activity of Muldoon, you, like Rocco, may be left wondering: Has he been kept alive to tell the story of Muldoon, clear the man's name, and memorialize the bishop's beloved and forgotten parish of St. Charles?