Gray-Haired Werewolf Baby Of Palos Featured On Parapalooza Ghost Tours

BRIDGEVIEW, IL — Long before Eddie Munster and child safety seats, there was the Gray-Haired Baby of Palos Woods, leaping out in front of cars and scaring the crap out of people motoring down Kean Avenue.

The hairy baby is just one of the weird and unexplained topics to be explored this Saturday at Graveside Paranormal’s Parapolozza II, a day-long event showcasing paranormal investigators, palm readers, psychics, vendors, ghost tours and live entertainment. The festival will be scaring up good times from noon to 11:30 p.m., at The Pavilion (behind the Branding Iron Restaurant), 7038 S. Harlem Ave., Bridgeview.

According to legend, a young couple driving along Kean Avenue during the 1950s when they got into a head-on crash. The couple died. Their baby, sleeping unsecured in the back seat, was ejected into the woods. Fortunately, the baby was rescued and raised by the local wildlife. The baby became a feral wild child and grew a protective coat of gray hair. When the Gray-Haired Baby died, it was reportedly buried in an unmarked grave toward the back of Sacred Heart Cemetery, tucked into the forest preserve at 101st Street and Kean Avenue.

“The story is probably just a legend, but there have been sightings,” said Chicago-area ghost hunter Tony Szabelski, who will be leading the mini-ghost tours during Paraplozza. “Supposedly it’s a werewolf boy.”

The late, great ghost hunter, Richard T. Crowe, interviewed several people in the 1970s, who described their encounters with the hairy baby. A Lyons woman told Crowe of seeing a humanoid figure covered with hair leaping in front of her new truck while driving down Kean Avenue near Sacred Heart Cemetery. The truck almost cleared the beast-like creature, but clipped the passenger mirror, Crowe wrote in his book, “Chicago’s Street Guide To The Supernatural.”

Others have caught the wild child in the headlights of passing cars on certain nights, or spotted by picnickers foraging for food. In the late 1970s, the Gray Haired Baby was also said to have upset horses ridden by equestrians along the bridle trails.

Sacred Heart Cemetery and the hairy baby is just one of the stops explored on the mini-ghost tour of the haunted Archer Avenue Triangle, bordered by Kean, Roberts Road and Archer Avenue. The mini-ghost tours, leave the Paviilion between 12:30 to 7 p.m. The legend of the Gray-Haired Baby will is one of the stops along a mini-ghost tour exploring the Archer Avenue Triangle, including the haunted Chet’s Melody Lounge, Resurrection Cemetery and the Wailing Woman of Archer Woods Cemetery.

“Crowe got to interview so many of the people who saw Resurrection Mary,” Szabelski said.

Parapalooza offers a special day of supernatural fun, entertainment and a chance to escape from your troubles and woes, including:

• Access to the area's best horror/paranormal themed vendors
• Psychic readings, Tarot readings and Reiki healings (noon – 6 p.m.)
• "LIVE" recording of the "Ghostly Podcast" with Pat and Rebecca (1 to 2 p.m.)
• "LIVE" recording of the "Bad Taste Crime Podcast" with Janelle and Vicky who will be covering spine-chilling Chicago-area crime stories (2 to 3 p.m.)
• Dr. Wax Comedy and Magic Show (3 to 4 p.m.)
• "Deal With The Devil Game Show" with the Devil himself. Randomly selected audience members will be offered a chance to "Lose their Soul" or "Win a Prize" (4 to 5 p.m.)
• "Lil Horror Girl's Scream Queen Contest!" Contestants have a chance to win a $100 gift card for the best spine-curling scream (5 to 6 p.m.)
• "LIVE" visit from the Windy City Ghostbusters and 30-foot tall Stay Puft Marshmallow Man / Raffle Drawing – raffle tickets will be sold at the door for $5 each, with proceeds going to La Rabida Children's Hospital in Chicago (6 to 7 p.m.)
• Performance by Rob Zombie cover band, "Hellbilly Deluxe" (7:30 p.m.)
• Performance by "Absolution" (Ghost cover band) (9 p.m.)

General admission tickets to Parapolozza are $25 and can be purchased in advance on EventBrite, or at the gate. The mini-ghost tours are an extra $25.