In the
early morning hours of March 10, 1934, a young woman who died in an
automobile accident went on to become the original source for Chicago’s most
famous ghost – Resurrection Mary. Her name was Mary Bregovy and she was a young
Polish factory worker from the Back of the Yards neighborhood, but her death
created a legend that is still being told today. There is no ghost in Chicago
history that is as famous as “Resurrection Mary,” the beautiful spirit who
hitches rides along Archer Avenue on the Southwest Side, but for many years,
her origins remained a mystery.
After more than a decade and a half of research, however, I have come to believe there are actually two different young women (and perhaps more!) whose
combined deaths created the legend that we know of as “Resurrection Mary.” One
of them was Mary Bregovy…
Many
would dismiss this story as nothing more than an urban legend gone awry, a
bedtime story that has taken on a life of its own over the years. Others would
argue this and recount the most widely told version of the tale, never wavering
from the idea that they believe the story to be true. Unfortunately though, the
story of Resurrection Mary is filled with mystery --- and myth --- and nothing
about it is simple. It’s a complicated tale of two young women and a single legend
that became, without question, American’s greatest ghost story.
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The
legend of Resurrection Mary began at the Oh Henry Ballroom (now known as the
Willowbrook Ballroom), a popular place for swing and big-band dancing during
the middle 1930s. The ballroom is still located today on the south stretch of
Archer Avenue in Willow Springs. Many years ago, this was a somewhat secluded
place, nestled among the trees in a small town with a “wide open” reputation
for booze, gambling and prostitution. Young people from all over the south side
came to the Oh Henry Ballroom for music and dancing and owner John Verderbar
was known for booking the hottest bands in the Chicago area and the biggest
acts that traveled around the country.
The
story goes that Mary came to the Oh Henry one night with a boyfriend and they
spent the evening dancing and drinking. At some point, they got into an
argument and Mary stormed out of the place. Even though it was a cold winter’s
night, she decided that she would rather face a cold walk home than another
minute with her obnoxious boyfriend. She left the ballroom and started walking
up Archer Avenue. She had not gotten very far when she was struck and killed by
a passing automobile. The driver fled the scene and Mary was left there to die.
But is
there any truth to this legend? Did a young woman actually die after leaving
the Oh Henry Ballroom and then begin haunting Archer Avenue? Many say that none
of this ever happened. They speculate that “Mary” never existed at all. They
dismiss the idea of bothering to search for her identity and believe she is nothing
more than an “urban legend” and a piece of fascinating folklore. She is, they
say, nothing more than Chicago’s own “vanishing hitchhiker”.
While
the story of Resurrection Mary does bear some resemblance to the classic bit of
American highway lore that we call the “vanishing hitchhiker”, the folklorists
have forgotten an important thing about Mary’s story that other versions of the
don’t have --- credible eyewitness accounts, places, times and dates. Many of
these reports are not just stories that have been passed from person to person
and rely on a "friend of a friend" for authenticity. In fact, some of
the encounters with Mary have been chillingly up close and personal and remain
unexplained to this day.
In
addition, the story of Mary includes something that the urban legends leave out
--- actually physical evidence of her presence. I’m not referring to the
mythical coats and lettermen’s jackets that have been found neatly folded over
gravesites but actual physical happenings that have been attributed to her
ghost, as well as handprints that have been left behind, scorched into the bars
of an iron gate.
And
Mary, unlike our highway legends, springs from real-life counterparts for which
evidence remains about their lives --- and deaths.
Historically
speaking, the first reports of Resurrection Mary came from the late spring of
1934. It was at this time that motorists on Archer Avenue, passing in front of
Resurrection Cemetery, began telling of a young woman who would appear on the
roadway, as if trying to hitch a ride. On some occasions, she became frantic as
cars passed her by and many times, actually desperate. Motorists told of the
woman running toward them across the road, trying to climb onto the running
boards of their automobiles and sometimes, even trying to climb into the open
back windows! They all described her in the same way, wearing a light-colored
dress and having curly, light brown hair that reached to her shoulders.
What
made matters worse is that many of the people in these automobiles, who were
residents of the southwest side, actually recognized this young woman. Her name
was Mary Bregovy and some of these motorists were her friends. They laughed
with her, drank with her and often danced with her at their favorite spot, the
Oh Henry Ballroom. Of course, that had been in the past because when they began
seeing Mary trying to flag them down on Archer Avenue --- she had been dead for
several weeks!
Newspaper images of Mary Bregovy from the 1930s
Mary
Bregovy was 21 years-old in March 1934. She had been born on April 7, 1912 and
attended St. Michael’s Grammar School, a short distance from her home. She
lived in a small home at 4611 South Damen Avenue, which was in the stockyards
neighborhood of Bridgeport. She was of Polish descent and was employed at a
local factory, where she worked hard to help support her mother, father and two
younger brothers, Steve and Joseph, during the early days of the Great
Depression.
Friends
would later remember her as an extremely fun-loving girl who loved to go to
parties and loved to go out dancing, especially to the Oh Henry Ballroom, which
was her favorite place. Her friend LaVern Rutkowski, who grew up with Mary on
the southwest side and lived just two houses away from her, recalled in a 1984
interview: “She was personality plus. She always had a smile and you never saw
her unhappy.”
Mrs.
Rutkowski, or “Vern” as she was commonly known, spent Mary’s final day with her
on March 10, 1934. The two of them spent a lot of time together and years
later, Vern would vividly recall going out with Mary to dance halls all over
the southwest side. Ironically, Mary’s parents had forbidden her to go out on
the night of March 10 and Mary might have listened to them if she and Vern had
not met a couple of young men earlier that day. These two men, who are believed
to have been John Reiker and John Thoel, were in the car that night when Mary
was killed.
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The former Goldblatt’s store at 47th
and Ashland, where Mary and Vern spent their final day together.
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Mary
and Vern spent that Saturday afternoon shopping at 47th Street and Ashland Avenue
and it was in one of the stores located here that they met the two boys. After
getting into their car to go for a ride, Vern took an instant dislike to them.
She said: “They looked like wild boys and for some reason I just didn’t like
them.” Vern added that they drove recklessly, turning corners on two wheels and
speeding down narrow streets. Finally, Vern demanded to be let out of the car a
few blocks from home. She asked Mary if she planned to go out with the young
men that night and Mary said that she did. Vern urged her to reconsider, not
only because she didn’t like the boys but also because Mary’s parents had
already told her that she couldn’t. Mary shrugged off her friend’s warnings.
She simply replied: “You never like anyone I introduce you to.”
Vern
stood watching on the street corner as Mary and the young men roared away in
the car. It was the last time that she would ever see her friend alive.
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The Bregovy home was located here in this
row of modest homes in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.
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No one
knows how Mary Bregovy spent the rest of the day but a few clues have emerged
from family members over the years. The wife of Mary’s younger brother, Steve,
reported in 1985 that she had received a letter from a friend of Mary’s years
before that stated Mary planned to attend a novena at church before she went
out dancing that night. The Bregovy’s were devout Catholics and this would not
have been out of the ordinary for Mary to do. She also said that she believed
Mary had been going to the Oh Henry Ballroom that night.
But
did she ever arrive there? No one knows for sure but tradition holds that Mary
and her new friends, which now included a young woman named Virginia Rozanski,
did go dancing at the Oh Henry Ballroom that night. After the ballroom closed,
it is believed that they drove into the city, where most of the clubs stayed
open much later. In the early morning hours, they were leaving downtown,
traveling along Wacker Drive, likely headed for Archer Avenue, which would take
Mary home to Bridgeport, when the deadly accident occurred. One has to wonder
if alcohol, combined with the reckless driving described by Vern Rutkowski,
combined to cause the crash.
A
short piece in the March 11 edition of the Chicago
Tribune described the accident:
Girl Killed in Crash
Miss Marie Bregovy, 21 years old, of 4611
South Damen Avenue, was killed last night when the automobile in which she was
riding cracked up at Lake Street and Wacker Drive. John Reiker, 23, of 15 North
Knight Street, Park Ridge, suffered a possible skull fracture and is in the
county hospital. John Thoel, 25, 5216 Loomis Street, driver of the car, and
Miss Virginia Rozanski, 22, of 4849 South Lincoln Street, were shaken up and
scratched. The scene of the accident is known to police as a danger spot. Thoel
told police he did not see the “L” substructure.
The
accident occurred along Wacker Drive, just as it curves to the south and away
from the Chicago River. At the point where Wacker crosses Lake Street, there is
a large, metal support for the elevated tracks overhead. If a driver was coming
along Wacker too quickly, it could be easy to not make a complete turn and
collide with the support column, which is almost in a straight line around the
curve. This is apparently what happened to John Thoel that night.
When
the automobile collided with the metal column, Mary was thrown through the
windshield and instantly killed. She was also badly cut up by the glass. Before
her funeral, the undertaker had to sew up a gash that extended all of the way
across the front of her throat and up to her right ear. Tragically, Mary was
not even supposed to be sitting in the front seat when the accident occurred.
Her parents would later learn that she had switched places with Virginia
Rozanski because she didn’t like John Thoel, who she had been sitting next to
in the passenger’s seat. She had asked Mary to sit in front with Thoel and Mary
had agreed. Unfortunately, her good-natured personality would turn out to be
fatal for her.
Vern
Rutkowski accompanied Mary’s mother and her brother, Joseph, to the morgue to
identify the body. Mary was taken to the Satala Funeral Home, located just a
couple of blocks from the Bregovy home, to be prepared for burial. The owner at
the time, John Satala, easily remembered Mary. In 1985, he recalled: “She was a
hell of a nice girl. Very pretty. She was buried in an orchid dress. I remember
having to sew up the side of her face.”
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The Satala Funeral Home, where Mary Bregovy was prepared for burial
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Mary
was buried in Resurrection Cemetery and this is where some of the confusion
about her story comes along. According to records, Mary was buried in Section
MM, Site 9819. There was a Mary Bregovy buried here, but it was not the young
woman who was killed in March 1934. A search for this gravesite revealed that
the Mary Bregovy laid to rest here was a 34 year-old mother who was born in
1888 and died in 1922. This is a different Mary Bregovy altogether! Family
members of Mary Bregovy said that Mary was actually buried in a term grave and
never moved. After World War II, when space was needed for more burial sites at
Resurrection Cemetery, some of the term graves were moved but others, like
Mary’s, were simply covered over. For this reason, according to Mrs. Steve
Bregovy, the location of Mary’s grave is unknown. Could this be one of the
reasons that her spirit is so restless?
The
stories of Mary Bregovy’s ghost began a very short time after her death. In
April 1934, a caretaker at Resurrection Cemetery telephoned funeral home
director John Satala and told him that he had seen the barefooted ghost of a
young girl walking around the cemetery. She was a lovely girl with light brown
hair and she was wearing a pale, orchid-colored dress. The caretaker was
positive that the ghost was the woman that Satala had recently buried. Satala
later said that he recognized the description of the girl as Mary Bregovy.
Soon
after, other reports began to appear, like the earlier mentioned accounts of a
woman matching Mary’s description who was trying to hitch rides in front of the
cemetery. These Archer Avenue sightings also included reports from people who
actually recognized the ghost as Mary Bregovy.
I’m
convinced that these reports were the beginning of the Resurrection Mary
legend. These were the first stories of a young woman hitching rides on Archer
Avenue and thanks to the destination of many of these motorists, combined with
the fact that the Oh Henry Ballroom was Mary’s favorite dance spot, the story
began to grow. I believe that many of the reports of a ghostly woman being seen
around Resurrection Cemetery can be traced to Mary Bregovy --- the “original
Resurrection Mary”.
But
Mary Bregovy does not haunt this stretch of Archer Avenue alone…
As you
may have noticed from Mary’s description, she doesn’t fit the description of a
pretty blond, which is standard in the Resurrection Mary legend. However, the
other girl who haunts Archer Avenue does…
The rest of the story of Mary – and the
solution to the mystery of the two ghosts – can be found in THE GIRL BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, available as a new Kindle title in the "Hell Hath No Fury Series."
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