Buther

daughter

hadbeen

deadfor

years...

Tales

of

the

U

e

plained

Isthestunningyoungwomaninwhite

stilldancing– longafterherdemise..?

J

erryPaluswasat

a localdanceatthe

LibertyGroveHalland

BallroominChicago,

whenhespottedthe

beautifulyoungblonde.

It was 1939 – a timeof

speakeasies,gangstersplus

BluesandJazz.

Jerryhadseenthewomanat

thehallbefore.Thefirsttime,

he’dbeentoonervousto ask

herto dance.

Butthisnightwasdifferent.

Standingbythewall,ina

whitepartydress,herbeauty

tookJerry’sbreathaway.So

hefinallyworkedupthe

courageto speakto her.

Tohisdelight,sheagreed

to a dance,andthepair

partneredeachotherallnight.

Jerrynoticedherskin

seemedcoldto thetouch.And,

whentheykissedlaterthat

evening,hecouldn’thelp

noticingherlipswereclammy.

Almosticy.

Nonetheless,

Jerrycouldn’t

believehisluck

–and,asthe

eveningdrewto

a close,heoffered

hera lifthome.

Afterleaving

thehall,the

womandirected

Jerryto a street

namedArcher

Avenue,muchto

hisconfusion.

She’dtoldhimwhere

shelivedearlierinthe

evening– andArcher

Avenuewaswellout

of theway.

Buttheyoung

womaninsistedthat

Jerrytakethisroute.

Shrugginghis

shoulders,heagreedand

continueddrivingdown

theroad,untilsheasked

himto pulloverby

ResurrectionCemetery.

‘Thisis whereI have

to getout,’shetoldhim,

‘butwhereI’mgoing,

youcannotfollow.’

Perplexed– and

wonderingwhyshe’d

wantto getoutatsuch

a spot– Jerrywatched

ashismysterious

date got out of his car.

But, as she walked towards

the cemetery gates, his

beautiful dance partner

vanished into thin air, right

before Jerry’s eyes.

Spooked, the next day

Jerry drove to the

address the girl

had given him,

determined to

find out what

was going on.

But, when he

told his tale to

the woman who

answered the door,

she stared at him

in disbelief.

Even though

Jerry was able to correctly

identify the girl from a family

portrait inside the house, the

woman told Jerry he couldn’t

have danced with her daughter

the night before.

She’d been dead for years...

Apparently, the tragic girl

had decided to hitchhike

home after arguing with her

boyfriend at a dance hall.

Somewhere down Archer

Avenue, she’d been the victim

of a hit-and-run, left to die at

the side of the road.

Over the next few decades,

several more encounters of a

similar nature were reported.

A beautiful, blonde-haired,

blue-eyed young woman,

taking a lift with a stranger,

only to vanish once the driver

reached the cemetery.

As more such incidents

werereported,thevanishing

hitchhikerwas dubbed

‘Resurrection Mary’.

In 1979, a local newspaper

columnist detailed the

experience of a taxi driver

known only as Ralph.

He’d supplied just his first

name because he didn’t want

people thinking he was ‘crazy’.

Ralph was 52, a Forces

veteran, baseball coach and

practising Christian. Not a

man prone to flights of fancy.

But one night, he’d collected

a pretty young blonde woman.

‘She was a looker,’ recalled

Ralph. ‘Her mind was a million

miles away...’

He described her as wearing

a fancy, white dress and

dancing shoes – and he

assumed she’d had a lot to

drink, due to her odd behaviour.

As with Jerry Palus, she’d

directed him down Archer

Avenue and abruptly told

him to stop the taxi outside

Resurrection Cemetery.

When Ralph turned around,

the girl was gone. Yet the car

T

Offered a lift,

the passenger

would vanish

Herdance

partnerfound

hercold

tothetouch

Vanishing

56

WHO’S THAT GIRL?