Post by Joanna on Sept 5, 2014 23:39:45 GMT -5
BOOK REVIEW: America's Most Haunted Neighborhood
A sledgehammer. A body in the basement. A bizarre love triangle. Kinky sex, illicit drugs, counterfeit money, female impersonators – and a spooky old house. You couldn't make up this stuff.
On June 17, 2010, at 9:30 p.m., police were called to break up a domestic dispute at 1435 South 4th Street (above) in the historic Old Louisville neighborhood. Patrol officers responded within minutes and found the caller, Jeffery Mundt, unharmed, in a locked bedroom. They arrested his boyfriend, Joseph Banis, and took him to the station. On the way, however, Banis made a startling claim. A man, he said, had been murdered the year before, sometime in mid-December, and was buried in the basement of the 8000-square-foot house.
When officers returned later that night, they found a large plastic storage container under several feet of dirt in the basement. In it was the body of James Carroll, who had been shot and stabbed. Known as “Jamie” to many of his friends, Carroll was a hairdresser from eastern Kentucky who also performed as “Ronicka Reed,” the drag queen.
Banis and Mundt were charged with the murder of James Carroll, but both insisted the other was responsible. They stood trial in 2013 and the result was one of the Derby City’s most bizarre cases. In the end, Banis was convicted of the murder and Mundt was acquitted, although he was found guilty of several lesser charges. Today, they are both in prison, but people are still wondering about what really happened that night in The House in Old Louisville.
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The most haunted neighborhood in America? That’s what many are calling Old Louisville, an extensive preservation district with hundreds of old mansions and beautiful homes in Kentucky’s largest city. Wherever you go in this neighborhood, it seems a haunted house is not far away. Or a haunted church, a haunted street corner, or a haunted park. Over the last decade, so many stories of paranormal activity have surfaced that Old Louisville has gained the reputation as one of the spookiest locations in the country.
David Dominé discovered this for himself after purchasing an old home on Old Louisville’s famed Millionaires Row in 1999. A self-proclaimed skeptic, the food writer dismissed rumors of a mischievous resident poltergeist named Lucy, but he quickly found himself at a loss to explain the disembodied footsteps and mysterious odors that seemed to plague the old house. Soon, he was talking to neighbors and fellow homeowners and it seemed everyone had stories of strange events and supernatural occurrences in their own dwellings.
As a result, Dominé set out to document and research these reports and began writing about the neighborhood. In the process, he uncovered a wealth of fascinating history and ghostly tales that convinced him this neighborhood is like no other in the country.
If you liked David Dominé’s Ghosts of Old Louisville series, you’ll love True Ghost Stories and Eerie Legends from America’s Most Haunted Neighborhood. Edited and updated, this collection includes the most popular and chilling tales from his previous books about one of the most fascinating neighborhoods in the country.
Sources: David Williams, The Courier-Journal; and Haunted Louisville