From the author

If you love the Legends and Lore of Illinois, you

need to buy our new book, Legends and Lore of Illinois:

Case Files Volume 1. It is a collection of the first two

years of the Legends and Lore of Illinois, with a few

surprises thrown in. For the first time, you can read

two stories from the early days of The Fallen, or get an

exclusive preview of their next adventure: Black

Willow Grove.

Legends and Lore of Illinois: Case Files is available

at Amazon.com. Buy it new from Black Oak Media

and get a small discount. Go here to buy it new:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0979040132/

ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&qid=1235326323&sr=1-

1&condition=new

I would like to thank Angie Faller of the Eff-

ingham Daily News for her wonderful article on me and

Ramsey Cemetery. Welcome to the Legends and Lore of

Illinois all you new readers! I hope you stick around

because we have a lot of great issues to come. g

Your letters

Thanks for the info on Hartford Castle.. i'll put it

on the list of places to go. just was on the legends and

lore site and went to check out the info on the newest

place ...Ramsey cemetery. Saw that you talked about it

being misnamed as the Kazbar Cemetery in another

publication. I grew up and ran around that area for

years before i knew it was called Ramsey cemetery.. as

kids if we went out there it was called the Kazbar... like

..Where ya want to meet up?... let's go out to the Kazbar.

never was clear on where that name came from just

thought i would let ya know that its been called that in

the area for 20 plus years by some folks.

not sure where i first heard it called that..just at a

party or a gathering of other kids as an area to go hang

out and party and ride four wheelers in the woods

around it. let me know if ya know why it was called the

Kazbar... little info i never picked up.. wierd.. lol thanks

again for the info on Hartford.

S. Lewis

Send us a letter! E-mail your questions or

comments to: thefallen2@gmail.com

http://www.myspace.com/legendsandloreofillinois

http://www.youtube.com/illinoisghosts

http://trueillinoisghosts.com

Contents From the Author 1 Your Letters 1 A Quick and Dirty Guide 2 The Fallen Investigate 3 Fan Support Page 6 Adventures Log 7 Paranormal 101 8 Trivia 8

I

One of the few abandoned buildings left at Manteno.

A Quick and Dirty Guide to

Manteno State Hospital

Manteno State Hospital, one of two such

facilities in Kankakee County, opened its doors in the

early 1930s. It took several years after the purchase of

the property in 1927 for the sprawling mental hospital

to be completed. Like Peoria (Bartonville) State

Hospital, Manteno was laid out in a cottage plan,

which meant that the patients were housed in a series of

separate buildings, rather than in one single institution.

When it first opened, Manteno accommodated 5,500

patients and 760 staff.

It didnt take long for tragedy to strike the

hospital. In an incident that Time magazine referred to

as the Manteno Madness, 384 patients and staff came

down with typhoid fever (47 died) in 1939. At first,

Ralph Hinton, the director of Manteno State, believed

the affliction to be nothing more than a common case of

diarrhea, but state welfare agents stepped in as the

number of ill dramatically increased. Panic gripped the

hospital.

Patients lay moaning in bed, Time reported.

Others, whipped by mad fear, beat against the

screened windows, grappled with attendants Every

night kitchen boys and orderlies disappeared. Over 45

ran away in all. (Manteno Madness, Time, 23

October 1939)

Kankakee County States Attorney Sam Shapiro,

who would go on to become the governor of Illinois,

dragged the director of the states Public Welfare

Department, Archie Bowen, to court over the incident

in

in 1940 even though Bowen had sent a truckload of

typhoid vaccine to Manteno at the onset of the

outbreak. At first, Bowen was convicted, but the State

Supreme Court overturned the conviction because, as

the Kankakee Daily Journal reported, Shapiro had

failed to show that the epidemic was caused by

polluted drinking water. (Daily Journal, 31 March

2007).

The Manteno State Hospital was later renamed

the Manteno Mental Health Center, and closed in 1985

along with many of the other such mental health

facilities in Illinois. Its campus was divided up and

sold off. The north side of campus became a veterans

home. Other buildings were consolidated into the

Illinois Diversatech Campus and rented to businesses.

The main administration building became a bank.

Despite public health concerns, a housing project

called Fairway Oaks Estates was recently built at the

location.

Manteno has attracted many curiosity seekers

since its closure, including its share of ghost hunters.

Over the years I have had many reports of people

who entered the old buildings and saw nurses and

doctors and even patients still dressed in their gowns,

Chad Lewis recently told the Daily Journal. (Daily

Journal, 31 October 2008) Amateur investigators have

taken dozens of strange photographs in the old

buildings.

Only a small handful of abandoned buildings

remain, and it is doubtful they will exist for much

longer. The quiet town of Manteno has done its best to

erase the memory of this place, but there will always

be stories. g An exterior courtyard outside of one of the cottages.

The front porch Visitors are few and far between.

II

The Fallen

Investigation File 027

Aurelia parked her battered old Buick LeSabre

across from the last dilapidated structure of the dozens

that once made up Manteno State Hospital. Originally

laid out in cottages, each building had been either

converted into a business, boarded up, or torn down

all except for this one. Aurelia had agreed to meet the

rest of The Fallen there, having been delayed for about

thirty minutes by a previous commitment.

The Fallens dark blue, Toyota Corolla sat along

the curb, empty. Jerks, Aurelia grumbled. Her

friends had apparently decided to begin the

investigation without her. She slammed the door of her

LeSabre and scanned the area with a hawkish gaze.

Down the block, children laughed and played in the

subdivision that had sprung up around the old hospital.

The air was still chilly, but the sun warmed anyone who

was under its rays.

Disregarding any concern for stealth, she yelled,

Hello? Im here! Where are you?

There was no reply.

Aurelia sighed and strolled toward the H

shaped building. The front of the one-story building

was enhanced with a wide porch. The porchs roof was

held up by a row of white pillars, and a plywood board

covered every window.

If they arent going to come out here, Aurelia

reasoned, Ill just have to go in after them.

It was no use trying the main entrance; the

doors were heavily chained, but Aurelias curiosity led

her onto the porch anyway. With a uniquely sensitive

mind, she could imagine the more docile patients

waiting for visitors. A profound sadness permeated the

air, and the building itself seemed to exhale with the

breeze. Aurelia couldnt sense how many souls

wandered the grounds, but she could feel their

presence.

She worked her way around the side of the

building until it opened up into a small courtyard. A

corridor, which connected the two sections, sat about

fifteen yards ahead of her. The doors on either section

were chained shut and large blocks of cement had been

placed in front of them, but most of the windows along

the corridor were damaged, allowing for easy access.

There was no sign of Mike, Greg, Emmer, or Davin

anywhere.

Cursing under her breath, Aurelia stomped over

to the corridor, intending to enter the building there,

but as she gained a foothold on the windowsill with her

boot, she noticed some movement out of the corner of

her eye. The motion came from a window located at

ground level on the section to her left. A railing

surrounded the window, which allowed light to spill

into the hospitals basement. Aura paused and her eyes

other window. When she was halfway across the

A hallway inside Manteno Hospital.

III

focused on the spot. Nothing stirred, but she felt a

tingle run up her spine.

Hesitating, she turned and walked toward the

other window. When she was halfway across the

courtyard, she thought she saw a flash of light in the

basement through the pealing window frame. Hah!

Aurelia cried. There you are, bastards! She rushed

over and used the railing to swing down into the

window sill. A thick grease came off on her hands, and

she frowned.

Gross, Aurelia said. She wiped her hands on

some old, dried leaves and peered through the window

into the basement of the hospital. Hello? she yelled.

The echo of her own voice was the only reply. She

wrinkled her brow and slid, feet first, through the

window. It was about a yard drop to the floor.

Landing without any difficulty, she dug into the pocket

of her hooded sweatshirt and produced a small

flashlight.

The beam revealed an empty, rectangular room.

Small piles of debris littered the floor, but there were no

furniture or markings to indicate for what the room was

once used. Aurelia remembered that Mike had rambled

on and on about tunnels that linked all of the buildings

as her flashlight fell on a narrow hallway.

A heavy thud suddenly echoed from

somewhere beyond the range of the beam, and Aurelia

jumped despite having been steeled by years of

encounters with the unusual. She quickly looked

around to make sure that no one had seen. In the back

of her mind, she was beginning to believe that her

friends were playing some kind of joke.

Or, at least, she hoped. She was still shaken up

Or, at least, she hoped. She was still shaken up

by her encounter outside of Ramsey Cemetery, and by

her feelings about Black Willow Grove, the code name

for The Fallens most recent assignment. Mike had

forbidden the group from using the towns real name.

The feelings she got there were odd and ominous. She

felt that nowa gnawing sense that something other

than the spirits of the departed stalked these corridors.

Even the dead seemed to flee from this unknown

presence.

A musty smell like that of old newspapers

wafted past Aurelias aquiline nose. She sniffed

defiantly and marched down the dark hallway, deep

into the bowels of Manteno. Condensation dripped

from the pipes overhead, and old bulbs sat lifeless in

their sockets in the ceiling.

She was getting close to the source of her

gnawing dread, but her flashlight revealed nothing but

dirt and cobwebs. Curiosity drove her forward. If her

friends jumped out at the last moment, she thought

with amusement, she would quickly make them very

sorry.

Before she could finish her thought, she felt a

rush of ice cold air that almost knocked her down. She

took a wide stance and braced herself as if she was

entering a storm without an umbrella. Her flashlight

flickered and threatened to be extinguished, but the

battery held. Not that its narrow beam did any good

the shadows in the corridor seemed to congeal and

absorb what precious little light the device emitted.

Wasting no time, Aurelia thrust out her hands

and cried out, Eko, eko, Azarak! Eko, eko, Zomelak!

An old security light has been dark for decades.

Most of the windows in this building have been boarded up.

IV

Bazabi lacha bachabe! Lamac cahi achababe!

The shadows retreated for a moment, but

returned in full force. A gust of wind burst through the

tunnel and Aurelia fell to the ground. Her rear end

planted itself amongst the grime and broken bits of

cement. Suddenly, a bright light illuminated the

hallway directly in the path of the shadows. The

luminescent glow burned away the darkness, and the

howling wind fell to a whisper. Just like that, the light

was gone, and the corridor returned to normal. The

whole incident lasted only a few seconds.

Thats twice Ive been saved by something, Aurelia

thought. Once might have been a coincidence, but twice is a

pattern. She grudgingly thanked whatever it was,

pulled herself up, and dusted herself off. Just then, she

heard footsteps coming from around the bend in the

hallway and she readied herself for another encounter.

This time she would not be caught off guard.

Moments later, Mike, Greg, Emmer, and Davin

appeared around the corner. They made a collective

sigh of relief when they saw Aurelia, but it was short

lived.

Aurelia marched over to the group, pushed

Davin out of the way, and punched Mike in the face.

Mike swore while Greg and Emmer laughed. Their

laughter quickly died when Aurelia spun toward them

with a menacing glare.

Where the hell have you been? she yelled. I

almost got killed down here.

We didnt know where you were, Mike

protested while checking his nose for blood. We

waited forever and you never showed up.

I told you I was going to be late, Aurelia hissed.

What happened? Davin asked. What do you

mean you were almost killed?

There was something down here, Aurelia

explained. It attacked me. Luckily I was able to fight

it off.

What attacked you? Greg asked with a grin.

A rat? A gaggle of goblins?

Some kind of dark spirit, Aurelia replied. I

cant quite explain it.

Emmer snorted. So this thing just happened to

disappear before we got here? Where did it go? What

did it look like?

I dont know.

Wait a minute, Mike said while bending his

glasses back into their proper shape. Tell us exactly

what happened.

Aurelia explained everything that happened

since she arrived, leaving out the part about being

saved by a mysterious light.

We should be more careful, Mike said. I

dont have a good feeling about this. Luckily Aura was

able to fight this thing off, but next time either her or

any of us might not be so lucky.

Speak for yourself, Emmer replied. Im not

afraid of the invisible. Weve been through all of this

before. Nothing Ive seen or heard has been very

convincing. Im not going to jump at shadows.

Mike sighed. Well, lets finish up here, but lets

stick together, shall we? he said as he pulled a camera

out of the pocket of his trench coat. I want to explore

these tunnels. I know a lot of the buildings have been

torn down, but maybe well find something down

here.

Or something will find us, Greg chuckled.

Aurelia grit her teeth and joined her friends as

the five disappeared into the darkness. g

An old, broken window in Manteno.

V

FFaann SSuuppppoorrtt PPaaggee!!

I am new to the Legends and Lore of

Illinois and so far I love it! It's

fascinating to read about all the different

factual stories that make up Illinois lore.

Keep up the good work!

Jessica Meagher

Fort Polk, Louisiana

I have got the chance to travel and cemetery

walk with Michael on a couple of occasions. I

really enjoy reading the places he has gone and

all the stories that goes with them. It was great

to see the story of Peck Cemetery, it is a

beautiful place. Keep up the good work and

fans keep up the support.

Angie Johnson

Bement Illinois

Good job demystifying the legends

and urban myths in Illinois. I love

seeing someone dig into the actual

history of these fascinating places.

Looking forward to reading more...

Jan

Mattoon, IL

VI

Adventurers log

What do Shoe Factory Road, Cuba Road, and

Manteno State Hospital have in common? All of them

have fallen victim to sprawl in one way or another.

Sprawl is the building of tasteless subdivisions, big box

retailers, and oceans of parking lots. It is the soft glow

of mall lights instead of your favorite playgroundsthe

abandoned places where your imagination used to run

wild, or the farms and forests of yesteryear.

The former grounds of Manteno State Hospital,

as it exists today, is a Frankenstein of reclamation. Part

of the hospital has been converted into a veterans

home, the weed-choked roads and dilapidated

buildings of which provide the perfect counter

argument to government-run anything. The rest has

been divided up into business and residential areas.

The existence of a housing project on the

grounds of a former mental hospital, with houses yards

away from some of the abandoned structures, is

something only Alfred Hitchcock or Stephen King

could dream up.

When I first went to Manteno last spring, I

couldn

couldnt believe my eyes. Firstly because I mistook the

veterans home for the abandoned hospital, and

secondly because I had to drive through a subdivision

to find the one building left to explore. It was surreal to

see homes across the street from this gutted and

decaying building. Most of the places I visit on these

adventures are along the back roads.

Places like Manteno really make us understand

the transitory nature of the world. Fifty years ago, what

visitor would have thought that someones house

would be located right where they stood, or that a bank

would occupy the main administration building of the

hospital? Yet here we are today. Institutions that seem

so solid now will all inevitably sit empty and in ruins.

Its the way of things.

Yet I cant help feeling a sadness that the ruins

of Manteno hospital will also cease to exist at some

point in the near future. As many times as I drove up

and down I-57 on my way to and from Eastern Illinois

University, as many times as I stopped off at the

Manteno exit for gas or dinner, I never realized until

recently that the ruins of this hospital were right there,

waiting to be explored. I consider myself lucky to have

learned about it when I did, and not when it was too

late.

As long as the stories remain, people will want

to know what really went on at Manteno State Hospital.

These stories may be all thats left one day. Or maybe

the residents of Fairway Oaks will create new stories for

future generations. Only time will tell. g

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VII

Paranormal 101

UFOUnidentified Flying Objects

Bennett, Jeffrey. Beyond UFOs: The Search for

Extraterrestrial Life and Its Astonishing Implications for Our

Future. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.

Friedman, Stanton T. Flying Saucers and Science: A

Scientist Investigates the Mysteries of UFOs. Franklin Lakes:

Career Press, 2008.

Fuller, John G. The Interrupted Journey. New York:

Berkley Medallion Books, 1966, 1974.

Steiger, Brad, et al. Philadelphia Experiment and Other

UFO Conspiracies. Inner Light, 1990.

Von Dniken, Erich. Chariots of the Gods?: Unsolved

Mysteries of the Past. New York: Bantam Books, 1970, 1973.

I grew up reading those old paperbacks like The

Interrupted Journey filled with stories of regression

hypnosis and alien abductions. The possibility that we

werent alone in the universe fascinated me. Never the

less, my interest in the subject declined over the years, and

I had no idea just how many books there were on UFOs

until I looked on Amazon.com for some ideas to round out

the list above.

UFO research is probably the most legitimately

scientific of the paranormal fields, although aliens seem

just as fantastical as ghosts. Sightings of UFOs are still all

over the news, and TV shows like UFO Hunters keeps the

interest alive. In our bibliography this month Ive tried to

list some books to get anyone started on the road to UFO

study. Youll find a few brand new books and a few

classics, but all promise to be interesting. g

Trivia

Tough questions will be asked in this section. It is up to

you to uncover the clues and determine the solutions.

Sometimes you will find the answers buried in the current

issue; other times you will need to go to the location itself.

The answers to this months questions will be posted in next

months issue.

1. What was the name of the other mental hospital

in Kankakee County?

2. In what year was Manteno State Hospital

closed?

3. How many patents did Manteno house at its

height?

4. Who was the director of the hospital at the time

of the Manteno Madness?

5. Sam Shapiro went on to hold what prominent

public office in Illinois?

6. What was the name of the only remaining

derelict building on the hospital grounds?

7. What is the name of the housing project/

subdivision being built on the grounds of

Manteno State Hospital?

Go out and explore, and good luck!

Answers to last months questions:

1. Rock shelters. 2. The Lonely Lurker. 3. Serial Killers. 4.

Little Wabash River. 5. 1863. 6. 1850sEffingham grew into

a town. 7. Effingham County.

Small courtyards are located inside each building.

The doors of this particular building have been heavily damaged.

VIII