Saturday, September 30th

Free talks (with suggested donations & Mystericon registrations) will be given in the Congress Meeting Room of the Congress Hotel between 10AM and 7:30PM. All talks are first come, first serve for seating. Each talk will be around an hour long, with time for Q&A afterwards.

Walking tours are ticketed events & cost between $22-$60.

Schedule of Events

Time	Congress Hotel Meeting Room	Walking Tour
8:00-6:00	Registration and Check In Check in with the Mystericon planners & get your name tag! Registration will be available in the meeting room all day.
9:00-10:15 AM		Behind the Scenes of the Chicago Theatre w/Leyla Royale! Leyla Royale, $30, Tix here It’s the best tour I can give! Join Leyla Royale on an insider’s tour of the best theatre in the world, the Chicago Theatre! We’ll be able to look in depth at the French Baroque detailing on this 1921 movie palace. You’ll learn what it took to work here 100 years ago, how the strength of the 60 ton unsupported balcony was tested, and see the small nuances that many people overlook. You’ll also get to look behind the scenes as well as find out where Leyla’s favorite bit of plaster decor, the Shrimpman, lives. Barring unforeseen events, we will also aim to hear a demo of the 1921 Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ.
10:00-11:00 AM	Adam Selzer, Man of Mystery What will he discuss? Even HE doesn’t know!
10:00-11:30 AM		Graceland Cemetery: Symbology and Architecture w/Mandy Crypt Mandy Crypt, $22, Tix here Graceland Cemetery is one of Chicago’s most intriguing tourist spots. A true arboretum, a sculpture garden, a wildlife sanctuary, and a home for Chicago’s departed residents – there is much to be said about this stunning place. Let Mandy Crypt lead you through the headstones and mausoleums of the angels and demons of Chicago’s storied past buried under the majestic trees and haunting sculptures of Graceland Cemetery. While learning the stories of the eternal residents, you’ll also decode some of the secret language of symbols used in many monuments and memorials around the country, not just here in Chicago. Highlights include: the Pullman tomb, the Schoenhofer tomb, the Palmer tomb, and the Getty tomb.
11:30-12:30	Ladies of the Lakes, Pioneers of the Wild Midwest Patti Swanson Discover the stories of lighthouse keepers & lifesaving heroines, savvy shipwreck salvagers, sailors, captains, cooks, and the many other daring and brave women who spent their lives working and living on the Great Lakes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
12:30-1:30	Lunch Break
12:00-1:30		Shenanigans of Prairie Avenue Adam Selzer, $22, Tix Here The old Prairie Avenue Millionaire District was the jewel of gilded age Chicago, where industrialists threw parties that cost more than their employees would make in three lifetimes. But strange history permeates the area, and scandal was always lurking below the surface. ..
1:30-2:30	Victoriana Halloween Traditions Mandy Crypt This panel, conducted by Mandy Crypt, will help you kick off spooky season right by exploring some of the quirks of those wacky Victorians! Have you ever wondered where some of our party games come from? Did you know that people used to send Halloween cards? We have so much to thank/blame the Victorians for in how we celebrate this fantastic holiday!
2:00 – 3:30		A Printer’s Tour of Printers Row Patti Swanson, $22, Tix Here You can probably guess what industry once dominated Chicago’s Printer’s Row, but do you know what they printed there — or how they did it? Drawing equally from her printmaking experience and years of studying Chicago architecture, Patti Swanson will lead you on a tour that explores the important history of this inky pocket neighborhood. We’ll learn how printing works, and how the printing press revolutionized the world! Discover what we printed here, and how the needs of Chicago printers fueled the invention of the world’s first skyscraper! And don’t forget the juicy bits: this area was also once part of our notorious Vice District, with plenty of salacious stories in its sordid past.
3:00-4:00	The Best (Worst?) Dead in Chicago Stories Leyla Royale From 2014-2017, Leyla Royale did daily dives into the terrible ways Chicagoans have met their ends. In this talk, she’ll share some of the most memorable stories she came across while digging through newspaper archives. Not for the faint of heart, this talk will discuss accidents, deaths, murders, and maybe even a ghost or two, all based on stories from Chicago newspapers ca. 1850-1930. It’s sure to be a lighthearted way to end a day of talks!
4:30-5:30	Patti Vasquez Live! Patti Vasquez of Whiskey & a Cookie fame joins us to wrap up the day with some live comedy.
5:30-6:30	Dinner Break
6:00-8:30		Haunted History Bus Tour with Mysterious Chicago Adam Selzer, $35, Tix Here For MYSTERICON 2023, he’s taking a chance on renting a bus for a new outing aboard a bus – his first bus tour in four years! A rare chance to see Adam run the classic tour that launched his career. Since his first tours, he’s been the author of THE GHOSTS OF CHICAGO (2023 anniversary edition will be out in time for the tour!), MYSTERIOUS CHICAGO, HH HOLMES: THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE WHITE CITY DEVIL, GHOSTS OF LINCOLN, and GRACELAND CEMETERY: CHICAGO STORIES, SYMBOLS, and SECRETS. He’s a regular on cable TV ghost shows and history channel shows, and just filmed a new show for PBS, so you KNOW he’s rich.
8:30-10:00		Haunted History EFFING CHICAGO Bus Tour and Party! Adam Selzer & Effing Crew, $40, Tix Here Adam hasn’t run a haunted pub crawl since about 2015… how do we do it nowadays? OKay, earlybirds. We don’t know quite what the shape of this bus tour will be. It’ll feature historical stops and haunted stops. It may be BYOB and may include a pub stop (it’s hard to do those for 50+) people. We’re planning to open with a trip down to the MURDER CASTLE site. Waiting for the bus to confirm we can BYOB, which’ll determine a lot of how we proceed. In any case, it’ll be a tour with more of an informal party atmosphere, led by Adam and featuring a bunch of Mysterious and Effing Chicago regulars. You can see Adam swear in front of his parents! Hear stories we normally don’t tell on the tours because they’re kinda naughty! You must be this tall to ride this ride.