Like Ghosts? Here's a Book for You

It is probably in extremely bad taste to write a book review of your own book. I understand that and can appreciate that. Of course, I am going to say that this is the greatest book about haunted houses in the St. Louis area you are ever likely to find. I wrote it, right?

This may be true, but at the same time, I am a guy who is being published through a small publisher. This means I have to do a lot of the promoting myself. What other way can I be sure that something I write about this book will get published on Associated Content? Yeah, so, when the promotion gets tough, the tough get self-promoting.

I wrote this book as a kind of delirious dream project just over a year ago. I have had an interest in ghosts and spirits and haunted houses for a long time. Schiffer Publishing was looking for people to write about ghosts and hauntings in specific cities. I suggested Chicago first, but they already had someone writing about Chicago, so I suggested St. Louis next.

Why St. Louis? Well, I lived there for three years. I went to school there for four years. In that time, I learned that, for a city its size, there were sure a heckuva lot of haunted houses and reports of haunted houses. I also had a couple of friends who did a morning radio show. Every year they would broadcast from another haunted location (Hell Steve and DC). They were the ones who first broadcast that they felt St. Louis was one of the most haunted places around. I suppose they got that information and detail from someone else, but I no longer remember who.

I soon fell in love with the place known as the Lemp Mansion. I fell in love with the story of the Lemps. I once published a whole article on Associated Content about my night spent at the Lemp Mansion (A Night with the Orbs). The Lemps were a family that reached the highest heights of wealth and power in this country. They had it all at their fingertips, but mental illness caused them to lose it all. The fact that most of you out there who drink beer, probably don't know the name of Lemp, is some indication of how far they fell.

They were the first to bring lager beer to the midwest. They were the first to have nationwide distribution for a beer. They helped the Anheuser and Busch families get their brewery started. They helped the Pabst family get their start in Milwaukee. If you drink American beer today, you have the Lemps to thank or curse for it.

When Johann Lemp, the family patriarch, died of old age and natural causes, he probably thought his family was set for life. He may even have imagined that his family would be remembered down through time for the great beer and beverages they had brought to the world. Sadly, if anyone knows the Lemps at all, they know only of scandal, suicide and ghosts.

William Lemp Senior was a powerful man prone to mood swings. When his favorite son, Frederick, died and then his very good friend Frederick Pabst, died in close succession, he seemed to lose all interest in life. One morning he woke up late, ate breakfast, decided he would go back to bed, went up to his room and shot himself in the head with a revolver. His son, Billy, the wild child, ran up the stairs and kicked down the door to find his father dying of the head wound.

Billy took over. He was definitely what we would today call bi-polar. He would go through streaks of intense energy, partying, building on to the mansion and the brewery, and then have profound downturns where he didn't want to talk to anyone. He married Lillian and she became known as the "Lavender Lady." Billy also slept with dozens of women, liked to carry a gun and staged animal fights in the limestone caverns beneath the mansion.

The divorce between Billy and Lillian made national news at the time. She nearly lost custody of their son when a picture turned up showing her smoking. She won custody and vanished from Billy's life.

Prohibition closed down the brewery. Billy gave up and sold the assets for a paltry sum compared to what they had been at the turn of the century. He was talking of starting over, perhaps selling the mansion, and moving out to the country with his new wife. Then, one day, he walked into his office, pulled out a gun and shot himself twice in the chest.

His sister had had a bumpy marriage. She and her husband had separated, then got back together. Then, one morning, her husband arose, walked into the bathroom, heard a noise, came back into the bedroom and found that Elsa had shot herself in the side of the head. When Billy arrived at the house and was told her sister appeared to have killed herself he retorted, "Well, that's the Lemp family for you."

Finally, there was Charles Lemp. He had gotten away from the family business. He was successful on his own. His brother, Edwin, pleaded with him just to sell the mansion, and not to live there. Charles decided to live in the mansion. He lived there with a few close servants and his beloved Doberman pinscher. He got old. He got a little crazy. He actually left a note saying, "If I am found dead, blame no one but me." Then he shot is beloved dog and then himself.

Three Lemps died in that mansion. Billy's mother also died there, but of cancer. Then there was the deformed boy, known as "The Monkey-Faced Boy" who lived in the attic and was either Billy's illegitimate son or his brother, born to a woman nearly 50 years old. A young man who spent his life peering out of an upstairs attic window and died in the house and was buried beneath a nameless tombstone.

I spent the night in that place. I saw things I could not explain. It was the strangest night I have ever spent anywhere. But the Lemp Mansion is not the only haunted place in St. Louis.

There's the Gehm house, the orphanage, Webster University, the MacDowell Medical College, the McPike House and others. All of them wait within the pages of "Ghosts of St. Louis: the Lemp Mansion and other eerie Tales."

I go to great lengths to take a journalistic approach to the subject matter. I report what others have told. I make no judgments on their validity. I leave it open for you to decide.

Do ghosts haunt St. Louis? If so, why?

You can find the book in any bookstore, if you happen to live in St. Louis. If you do not, you can find it at Amazon.com or Schifferbooks.com.

I hope you enjoy it. I know it was sure fun writing it.

Thanks for the indulgence.