Ghost Guides

Holy Sepulchre Cemetery

Holy Sepulchre Cemetery is a large Catholic cemetery established on July 4, 1923 by the late Cardinal Mundelein. From about 1901 to 1910/11 this was the location of the Worth Race Track. Since it's consecration, well over 90,000 interments have been made in the cemetery and approximately 1800 are buried annually.

The late Mayor Richard J. Daley is buried in a section near the cemetery entrance on 111thStreet. The same section also contains the burial place of Dan Ryan, long-time Cook County Board President.

Within Section 7, visitors will find the highly decorated grave of Mary Alice Quinn sometimes referred to as "Chicago's Miracle Child". Mary was born on December 28, 1920 to an Irish family. She was very mystically inclined; almost the Chicago version of Saint Theresa, to whom Mary was very devoted. She claimed to have seen a religious image on her wall and since that day became very devoted to religion. Before she died, Mary told her parents that she wanted to come back to help people after death. She died on November 8, 1935 at the tender age of fourteen.

Many incidents have been related, especially in the late 1930's and during the early 1940's of Mary's apparition appearing to people throughout Chicago's southside. In fact, she has appeared to people around the world! They come to the cemetery and leave candles at her grave and also pray for favors. Some take away handfuls of dirt while others leave behind prayer books, rosaries, crucifixes, religious medallions and notes requesting divine intervention.

The current manifestation that is most often reported at the gravesite is the overwhelming scent of roses even in the dead of winter when there are no trees or flowers in bloom. The odor is definitely not somebody's perfume or stray smell as it is concentrated within a few feet of the grave and nowhere else. Even though there may be stiff breeze blowing, the psychic odor does not drift away with the wind!

There is also an alleged recent medical cure attributed to Mary Alice Quinn. A young couple gave birth to an infant that doctors diagnosed as terminal and would not live out the year. The couple refused to give up hope for the child. They had heard about the stories of Mary Alice Quinn and decided to pray to her for help. They brought their baby to the site, laid her on the grave and began to pray. All at once there was an overpowering scent of roses in the air. From that day the baby's health took a turn for the better and lived, mystifying the puzzled doctors and specialists.

Holy Sepulchre Cemetery is located at: 6001 W. 111th Street in Worth, Illinois. Mary Alice Quinn's grave is located in Section 7 and just a few graves away from a large upright monument with the name Capone. The Quinn house is located in the Grand Crossing area.