“Naperville is one of the most haunted cities in America. No doubt in my mind,” says Kevin France of Naperville ghost tours. France is a paranormal investigator who has traveled the country with others like him searching for ghosts. After settling down in Naperville to raise a family. He discovered this town ranks high when it comes to paranormal activity.
“Hundreds of accounts the people have shared with me, and that’s a lot for one town. And those are just the ones I know about. But, any investigations we’ve done here have yielded not just, simple sort of mists and orbs and things like that, where we get full body apparitions. We’ve got really active spirits here,” says France.
Discover Naperville haunts with Naperville Ghost Tours
It’s only fitting that France would start leading the Naperville Ghost tours, something he’s now done every weekend for the past 13 years, combining ghost stories with history.
“Makes a ghost story much more terrifying,” says France. “If you can back it up with facts and show you that the ghost that’s haunting this place actually lived. Here’s what he looked like when he was alive. Here’s what he did. Here’s the reason why he’s haunting this spot.”
So what are some haunted spots around town? France says Central Park is absolutely haunted.
“Oh, yeah. It’s haunted,” says France. “In fact,a woman who’s been on my tour several times called me to tell me she had had an experience in this park. The spot right behind me.She claims she and her husband were having a picnic in front of the playground when a man dressed as an old time police officer approached them and said, ‘What are you doing in this park?’ We played along and said, ‘well, we’re just having a little picnic.’ He said, ‘don’t you know the park is a dangerous place?’ She said he got halfway to the gazebo and vanished into thin air.”
Ghost stories make Naperville unique
“What other town has its own grave robber whose bones are missing. What other town has a story about a bride who’s been stood up at the altar and now haunts a church, or a train crash that haunts the streets?” says France.
It was April 25th, 1946, when one of the worst train accidents to ever occur in U.S. history happened in Naperville, killing nearly 50 people on impact and more soon after.
“People have told me that they’ll take pictures on Christmas morning,” adds France. “and there’s someone sitting on the couch who’s not part of their family. They tell me they see people walking the streets that just vanish right into thin air.”
France warns that the tourist targeted for mature audiences only at last, about an hour and a half, sometimes longer, and includes eight different stops at the end of it all. He hopes that whether you’re a believer or a skeptic, that you realize how much more there is to this world than meets the eye.
This year’s theme is the Grave Robber Ghost Tour. It features a so-called true, spine chilling story of a Naperville man who, in 1912, dug up his deceased wife at the Naperville Cemetery and brought her back home. Do you dare visit the place they currently haunt?
This story originally aired in 2018.
630 Naperville Guest: Kevin France – Naperville Ghost Tours
