Life and Death in St. Louis

A true, short ghost story for Halloween. Up now.

Instead of seeing through these trees, foliage thinned by the season, a smoke or fog looms, unnoticed by most patrons of but caught on film by some alert enthusiasts… Dave Tognoni explains in part 2 of his interview for The Spirits of Shaw’s Garden episode- up now!

Can the ghost of Henry Shaw still be spotted at the Missouri Botanical Gardens? Find out on our latest episode: The Spirits of Shaw’s Garden Part 1
Abvailable now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!

Here, Henry poses for his own mausoleum’s statue- which you can still see at MOBOT!

1. Rebecca Edom poses next to Henry Shaw’s mausoleum on the grounds of what is now the Missouri Botanical Garden.
2. & 3. From the personal file of Dave Tagnoni, an enhanced view showing Henry’s ghost smiling at her.

Check out the new episode, “The Spirits of Shaw’s Garden Part 1” featuring special guest Dave Tagnoni and cohost from AJ - up now!

Big news! A new episode- “The Spirits of Shaw’s Garden Pt. 1” is coming tomorrow! It’s our first interview episode and we’re pumped!

Photo: Henry Shaw (1800-1889) - founder of the Missouri Botanical Garden- lays in state in “The Museum Building,” a stone’s throw from the Tower Grove House and his mausoleum located on the garden grounds.

An illustration of a co**se escaping a coffin, marked as a Cholera death, from the May 3rd, 1908 St. Louis Post Dispatch. It was estimated by experts at the time that some 3,500 people a year were accidentally buried alive in the U.S. We know now that these estimates were likely on the high end... but how can we be certain?
@ St. Louis, Missouri

Rule #2 for surviving April Fool’s Day: Don’t immediately overreact.

April Fool’s Day Ep is now up on Apple and Spotify!

Better call Dr. Pepper...

Edna B. Phillips brought the high heat and became an absolute St. Louis April Fool’s Day LEGEND in 1915. Hear her story in our special April Fools Day ep- up now!

Spotted in

This doll head looks like it has been quarantining and working from home all Winter, and is peeking out on a potentially nice Spring weekend. Hope you have a great one!

Tower Grove House in the Missouri Botanical Garden on a Winter evening.

The first episode is up!

Pictured is Annie Beatrice Henry, convicted of hitchhiking with a traveling salesman in Louisiana then robbing and killing him. The first picture of her in the dress was taken in her cell after she signed the confession. She seems eerily calm. Listen to hear how I think she may be linked to our local legend - the ghost of Hitchhike Annie, who lurks around Calvary and Bellefontaine Cemeteries.

@ St. Louis, Missouri

Funeral Procession of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, Dowtown St. Louis to Calvary Cemetery in 1891.

Family cemetery from the 1800s, once located on a well-known family farm, now surrounded by suburban neighborhoods. The cemetery remains tucked into a wooded area, largely forgotten except by the family, the neighbors and the cemetery’s residents, rumored to still be busybodies... @ St. Louis County, Missouri

Family plot of Adolph Moll, 1834-1898. “The Grocery King of St. Louis” operated a large grocery store on Franklin Ave. and a corresponding warehouse on 7th street where he stored goods and produced his own liquors (both located on the current site of The Dome at America’s Center). His sale of liquor alongside groceries is what helped drive his success. He can be seen here in his store, where liquor bottles were neatly displayed around support beams. He once drew in crowds by displaying a 2,000+ pound wheel of cheese. The store reminds me of - he was a skilled advertiser, and gave promotional items to local taverns to use for his products, the list pictured shot glass.
His funeral was one of the largest of the time. The Post Dispatch wrote of it, “Bankers, business men, turners, workingmen — in fact people representing every walk of life...Those who mourned were legion.”
@ Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum

Grave of explorer William Clark (1770-1838), Bellefontaine Cemetery

Grave of J.G. Lindell, St. Louis businessman and namesake of Lindell Blvd., 1799-1852, interred in Bellefontaine Cemetery in 1858.

Mausoleum of Lily and Adolphus Busch, Bellefontaine Cemetery, January 2021.

Rendering of a planned and then-partially constructed All Saints Catholic Church in an 1875 almanac. Perched on a hill overlooking the farm land, river flats and old Main Street near Brown Road, the steeple was a recognizable local landmark and visible for miles. The first mass in this current building was held in 1876.

Cave Springs circa 1901. During a drought, all wagons in the area were ordered to help carry water from the man made cave entrance, which had exposed an underground spring and steady water source for the farming community of St. Peters, MO.

@ St. Peters, MO

Brown Road in St. Peters, MO, facing East, February 2021.
Check out our introductory episode and hear the story of the Ghost of Brown Road- available now on Spotify!