Historic Halloween, Return of the Dead

For one dark and stormy night only, several of McHenry County’s tragically departed returned Oct. 9 to Union to describe the dramatic details of their – or other’s – demise.

The McHenry County Historical Society presented its popular Historic Halloween, Return of the Dead,” starting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9. This year’s quartet of quietus includes the case of a young child who drowned in the icy Kishwaukee River, the 1939 killing of a Riley Township farmer by a 14-year-old parolee from the St. Charles School for Boys, a fatal farming accident in 1922 and the infamous Billy Hamilton murder the subsequent, painstaking investigation by Sheriff Lester Edinger that dominated the headlines in 1939.

This year's cast included: Ed O'Brien of Harvard, Laura Frumett and Rich Tobiaz of Spring Grove, and Ann Bormett of Cherry Valley.

Special thanks to Mary Ellen "Tickle Them Bones" Heelan of Cary, who will be providing mood-appropriate music, and to makeup artist Kathie Comella of Woodstock.