In the wee morning hours of April 6, 1991, eleven members of the Ghost Research Society decided to spend the overnight at Billy Siegel’s That Steak Joynt in an attempt to document some of the strange paranormal events that have been attested to in the past.
On the fateful evening in question, the press release goes on, the investigative team was made up of Kaczmarek, Heim, a psychic named Jan, and eight GRS members. They were joined by Celeste Busk of the Sun-Times. The psychic–and Busk–were allowed to “roam free” to obtain the information they needed.
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Several eight-by-ten photographs are mounted on tripods between the cocktail lounge and the main dining room. Two color photos of the white Carrara marble bust over the back bar stand out. The bust is a rendering of an old peasant, or possibly a sailor, wearing a stocking cap. Both the photos and the bust itself are creepily lifelike. The shots were taken within seconds of each other but from slightly different angles; viewing them together, the effect is of the old man twisting his head to one side. Heim points out that in the first photo, an electrical cord on the bar is draped over a stapler and an address book. In the second photo, the cord seems to have been moved off the stapler, and the pages of the address book are lifting as if in a slight breeze; behind the Carrara bust is a smear of white smoky light.
“Nothing was seen when it was taken,” Heim contributes. The press are circling the steam tables, piling chicken and calamari onto plates, nodding, chewing, looking interested.
Kaczmarek looks at her as if to ask, You saw a cold spot smile? He opens his mouth to continue but turns his head to Gold and says, “Oh–the paintings.” She’s still nodding. He continues: “Yeah, uh, there was the incident of the waitress cited in the release. She was grabbed by someone, had her heel broken, and of course quit the next day.”
“Billy’s kind of teased me with this story,” Kaczmarek says. “He’s told me there has been a murder here, but he’s never really told me about it exactly. He says it was back when this place was Piper’s Bakery.”
“What about good ghosts?” asks Gold.
