Coffin Conversations - by dementia

Donald Stephens spent more than half a century at the helm of this Chicago suburb. Now, less than two months after his death, some say an eerie likeness of the late mayor’s face has appeared in the peeling bark of a 50-foot sycamore.

The image is fueling speculation and wonder in the village of 4,200 residents — the town Stephens is credited with transforming from a tiny enclave of just a few dozen people to a bustling community with one of the nation’s largest convention centers.

“He told me, you screw things up, I’m gonna haunt you,” said Bradley Stephens, the mayor’s 44-year-old son who was appointed to complete his father’s term. “When it starts talking, we’re all in trouble.”


The tree, outside a health club, was twice slated to be torn down. It was saved each time because Stephens intervened.

Now, it’s guarded by a barricade, and a single candle placed by well-wishers stands nearby.

But not everyone is convinced it looks like Stephens.

“I see Jesus,” said Cathy Sansone, the membership director at the health club who says any resemblance to the late mayor is simply the “power of suggestion.”

A group of paranormal investigators think the legends of Teackle Mansion ghosts could be true, particularly in a part of the house where their equipment batteries died and they felt a cold spot.


"There's enough evidence to be suspicious," Christine Power, co-director of Eastern Shore Paranormal, said at a recent meeting of the Somerset County Historical Society.

Power, along with her husband, James, and two other volunteer investigators, spent nine hours in the mansion just before Christmas armed with audio and video recorders, electromagnetic field meters and infrared thermometers.

Although their equipment picked up suspicious sights and sounds all over the building, much of it could be explained by equipment problems or the wind and rain outside that night. However, investigators in a second-floor room couldn't explain why the batteries suddenly went dead in a two-way radio, a digital camera and a video camera at the same time, Power said.

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