Riverwest's Ghost District

p. 3 .........Editorial p. 4 .........Bits and Pieces p. 5 .........RW Elders p. 6 .........Spotlight: Ric hard Moheban p. 7 .........Puff Puff Pass p. 8 & 9 ....Roverwest p. 11 .........Ço-op Month p. 12-13 .... Calendar p. 14 ........Classified p.15 ..........Comix FREE! News You Can Use • Riverwest, Harambee and The East Side Vol 13 Issue 10 October 2014 Riverwest’s Ghost District by Tea Krulos So that’s about the extent of that. Author’s Note: My upcoming book, Monster (Jeff tells me about other unearthly experiences Hunters: On the Trail with Ghost Hunters, he’s had at other residences before he moved to Bigfooters, UFOlogists, and Other Paranormal Milwaukee.) Investigators (June 1, 2015, Chicago Review She swears that they followed me here. Press) saw me travel through nine states to meet (Laughs) people who study and track unknown entities. Curious as to what I might be missing in my own Did you have experiences before he moved in? backyard, I put out a call on social media for tips. GIRLFRIEND: No. Mm-mm. It’ll just be I found out that Riverwest has more ghost stories interesting if you notice any sort of spirits in than I expected! our new place. But do ghosts actually exist? That is an age JEFF: Yeah, not again! Then we’ll know for old debate between believers and skeptics. My sure. We’ll see what happens. goal here is not to endorse ghosts as being real nor to debunk these claims, but merely to share Not Alone Dino’s Tavern, 808 E. Chambers Street these interesting stories from the good people of Jeff Kerr told me that he had also seen an Riverwest. apparition of an old man one night while he One of the fascinating things that I found is that was at Dino’s Tavern. “He was leaning forward almost all of the ghost reports came from a small like he wanted to say something, then he portion of the neighborhood, centered in the disappeared,” he told me. area of the 700-800 blocks of Chambers. This At Dino’s, I found my friend Jules behind the proximity led Currents editor Jan Christensen to bar. dub this zone “Riverwest’s Ghost District.” “You got to talk to Jane,” she said, wiping A special thanks to Riverwest Currents summer down the countertop. “Before she left, she intern Greta Jochem, who assisted by researching told me it’s going to get me!” Jules gave me a properties to dig up some interesting facts. business card for Jane Pankowski, 37, a former They Followed Me Here Dino’s bartender who works as an advertising 2900 block, N. Fratney Street account manager. I called her up. Jeff Kerr is a 49-year-old writer. His home is Jane’s Story classic Riverwest—an upper Polish flat, where First, I’ll preface this by saying I don’t he lives with his girlfriend (she’d rather remain necessarily believe in ghosts, but I do believe in anonymous), and his dog, Griff. Records show energies. And when I’d be at Dino’s by myself the house was built in 1905. Jeff is standing in closing down at night, I never felt like I was the living room, showing me where he spotted by myself. I always felt there was something a full body apparition who took a few steps there with me. It was spooky to the point that I toward the porch door before disappearing into would talk out loud to this non-existent thing thin air. Behind him are a wall of shelves filled and would be like, “don’t mess with me, I’m with books and balls of yarn. Jeff’s girlfriend sits stick, but is also wearing jogging pants and a we’ve seen him. just going in the basement to get more ice.” I felt in a chair and knits a scarf while he talks. Griff flannel shirt. that if I just acknowledged it was there, nothing Claudine’s wizard-like neighbor joins in the walks over and sticks his head on my lap. They would bother me. Claudine’s Story conversation and tells of a nearby house with are preparing to move at the end of the month We moved into the house 21 years ago this mysterious activity and an evil force released and might be leaving something strange behind. Outside of feelings and seeing things out of summer. We had tenants the first while that when nearby St. Mary’s was remodeled. the corner of my eye…I was there one night, Jeff’s Story we lived here. I didn’t notice anything when we as a customer, with my boyfriend. Anthony WIZARD: There was something really bad when I look up and right here, I saw a woman. A first moved into the house. But then when our was behind the bar, it was just the three of us they started tearing up to rebuild the school and young woman, nice clothes, dark hair, as real as second son was born in ‘97 we moved into the there. We were sitting there, chatting, and in the church and there were some really bad vibes her or yourself (gesturing to us), she walked this whole house. the corner of my eye, I saw a woman sitting at coming out of there. A witch, a Nordic, and I far (he stops at the porch door) and disappeared. the bar. I didn’t think anything of it, but I didn’t I would see this man walking through the did a ritual and apparently sealed it up pretty It didn’t scare me or freak me out, I was just like, remember the door opening. It was like a quiet kitchen upstairs, while I was up there. I’d be in effectively. But we never did determine exactly “what was that all about?” It was in the day time. person sitting at the end of the bar that wanted the hallway into the kitchen and he’d be walking what it was. I did a little research to try and see if something to keep to themselves. A couple minutes went past, out towards the stairs. That happened happened here, I couldn’t find anything. This Julia’s Helping Hands by. I turned around, and there was no one there. frequently. As my older son got older, he started person looked like they lived here turn of the Milwaukee School of Massage, 830 E. Chambers St. I didn’t see the ladies room door open or the seeing him also. My son would be like “Did you century maybe, judging by her look. I’m sitting in the school’s waiting room when door to the bar. I looked at Anthony and my see the man?” And I was like, “Oh, okay, you the school’s owner and chief administrator, (He walks into the kitchen.) Other than that, this boyfriend and I said, “Wasn’t there a lady sitting can see him, too.” (Laughs) 66-year-old Wanda Beals, walks in. She’s is not really in chronological order, this picture there? Where did she go?” Both of them were We were trying to find more history of the wearing sunglasses and a floppy pink sunhat. – I was at a dinner – and I won that in a raffle. like, “What are you talking about?” I was like, house and it turns out it was a rooming house She leads me through a corridor downstairs (The picture is a print of a stoic looking Scottish “I’m not crazy, there was a woman down at the for a while, so it’s been hard to track down who to the main classroom and into a reception man in a kilt, carrying bagpipes.) This dog, a lot end of the bar!” They were both kinda freaking the individual is. We’ve never figured out who area near her office. Beals was looking for a of times he wouldn’t come in the kitchen, he’d out, like, “Oh, I can’t believe you saw someone.” this guy could have been, always wearing dark building that spoke to her when she found the just stand here and bark at it. Bark at it, bark That was the only time I saw what I guess you clothes, like a dark baggy jacket, long black Chambers Street location, which was drastically at it. could say was an apparition or whatever, but pants, sometimes a hat, like a bowler hat. I never Continued on Page 10 - See Ghost District (We walk upstairs.) to me, it was a hundred percent real. But the really saw features on him, just a side view as he walked across my What happens up here is the bed starts shaking. spookiest thing was feeling like I wasn’t alone path. Just looking I was laying on my side and I felt a finger poke when I was alone there. Riverwest Currents straight ahead me like that (he pokes the air) in my back. And PO Box 716 The Boarder like he was going she (his girlfriend) had the same thing happen Milwaukee, WI 53201-0716 700 block, E. Chambers St. somewhere, not to her. The dog was downstairs, I was outside Real estate agent Claudine Lineau, 46, is wearing noticing anyone doing something and she was in bed and she a spandex cycling uniform and sitting in a lawn around him. I heard something move around in here and then chair in her garage. This is the headquarters haven’t seen hide knock against the bed.

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