During the month of October, pictures of ghosts and other ghoulish figures disguise youngsters, are hung in store windows and department stores, but are ghosts actually real? Richard T. Crowe, a ghost hunter for 11 years, seems to think so.

Crowe spoke Monday night to a packed and inquisitive Sandburg Aunditorium crowd.

Crowe is from the South Side of Chicago. “I was always interested in history and majoired in English literature at DePaul University and I minored in geography.”

“On October 27, 1973 I took my geography professor on a bus tour of different haunted areas. I did this part-time from from 1973 to 1979,” he said.

Crowe said, “Chicago is is full of good ghostly potential.”

There were many examples of supposedly haunted areas that Crowe mentioned during his lecture.

He said that the Water Tower that is located on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. Crowe said there were rumors that the Water Tower was haunted by the ghost of a hanged man. He said that the Water Tower resebles the tower on the terot cards and the hanged man can also resembles a particular terot card.

Another site Crowe said may be haunted is the old site of the Saint Valentines Day massacre. He said tourist who walk over the site, which was once a garage and has since been torn down, can hear moaning and sobbing.

He also mentioned that sometimes dogs feel uneasy around that particular area.

Although it is speculative that something may be going on, he said, “It doesn’t alter the psychic side of things. Something is going on there.”

In Clearden Hills, in Dupage County, Crowe said there is a house that is the most haunted house in Dupage County. He said the owner of the house on one night saw a blonde figure upstairs beckoning him to come in. When he entered his home and went upstairs to the room the woman was gone.

Crowe said that there have been unexplained sounds and footsteps that are heard in the houses upstairs when noone was upstairs.

During his lecture he presented slide films of photos that were taken of regular scenes and when they were developed strange shadows appeared on them, which Crowe referred to as “ectoplasm.”

Crowe said that he doesn’t get rid olf the ghost once he finds it. “I don’t like people to tell me what to do so who am I to mess with them.”