Haunted Pittsburgh LLC

10/15/2026

10/15/2026

𝐇𝐀𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐒𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐆𝐇--𝐈𝐍 𝐈𝐓𝐒 𝟏𝟖𝐭𝐡 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑

The streets downtown are shrouded in an eerie stillness, and the glow of a flickering streetlamp casts long, twisted shadows across the damp cobblestones of Grant Street. A chilling mist creeps along the ground, and the air is heavy with the weight of a thousand untold stories--dark whispers of bygone times from the Steel City’s sinister past. Those glistening cobblestones speak to us, if only we listen. This is the Haunted Pittsburgh Ghost Tour, where the city’s ghostly tales come to life under the cover of night--now in our 18th year.

10/15/2026

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐬𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐡!

𝙊𝙉 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙂𝙀: The Haunted Pittsburgh Players reenact Pittsburgh’s greatest tales of the unexplained in a spooky, hilarious Halloween mash-up—it’s 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙖𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙋𝙞𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙞 at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater. Pittsburgh has a North Side and a South Side--but on October 17, we’ll take you to 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒. We know where all the bodies are buried!

𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑯𝑨𝑼𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑫 𝑷𝑰𝑬𝑹𝑶𝑮𝑰
𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟕 -- 𝐊𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫,
5941 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206

𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐄: https://kelly-strayhorn.org/events/the-haunted-pierogi/

10/13/2026

𝐎𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝟏𝟗𝟔𝟎 — 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟑 — 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐠𝐨𝐝𝐬 (𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫) 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐛𝐞𝐬 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝.

Bottom of the eighth, Game 7. The heavily favored Yankees led 7–4 and were six outs from another championship. Gino Cimoli had just singled, and Bill Virdon followed with a hard grounder right at shortstop Tony Kubek. It looked like a routine double play — the kind that would have left the Pirates with two outs and nobody on, still trailing by three, the rally all but dead.

Instead, the ball struck something on the notoriously hard, uneven Forbes Field infield (a pebble, a spike mark, a divot — no one ever quite agreed). It leaped up and smashed into Kubek’s throat. He went down coughing blood, unable to speak or stay in the game. Everyone was safe.

What should have been two outs and an empty infield became runners on first and second with nobody out. Dick Groat followed with an RBI single. The inning kept going. Hal Smith eventually launched a three-run homer to put Pittsburgh ahead 9–7. The Yankees tied it in the ninth, and then Bill Mazeroski, leading off the bottom of the ninth, hit the only walk-off home run ever to end a Game 7 — the shot that gave the Pirates their first championship in 35 years.

Yankees outscored the Pirates 55–27 in the Series. They dominated the box scores. And yet a single bad hop on the Forbes dirt, in the eighth inning of the seventh game, opened the door for the most improbable title run in Pittsburgh sports history. Kubek later called the infield “like the beach at Normandy.” The play haunted him for the rest of his career.

Some call it a fluke. Some call it fate. On the anniversary of that wild afternoon, it still feels a little otherworldly — the kind of moment that makes you realize that sometimes the most unlikely thing can happen to change everything.

10/13/2026

𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐓 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐘’𝐒 “𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐓” 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇

On this date in 1968, one of the most famous judges in Pennsylvania history, Justice Michael Musmanno, died. Some people at Point Park University believe that he haunts Room 1917 of Lawrence Hall on the campus of the university in downtown Pittsburgh. They’ve even nicknamed this ghost “The Shuffler.”

Musmanno lived in the building when it was the Sherwyn Hotel in the 1960s. That much is true. When Point Park acquired the hotel in 1967, the hotel had one condition–to allow Musmanno to continue residing at the hotel.

As noted, it is widely cited that Musmanno resided in room 1917. There are a lot of stories about this purported ghost. The sound of “shuffling” has been reported by a lot of students—it sounds like someone is sweeping the floors, the walls, or even the ceiling. Objects move around, or end up in drawers, on their own. Electrical objects turn on by themselves. Sometimes there’s light tapping on doors but no one is there—at least, no one alive. And there are noises—plenty of noises: bumping sounds, even talking--from inside the closet. One student reported that the closet door suddenly burst open on its own. (I don’t know about you, but I don’t care for my closet doors bursting open on their own.)

But if there is a ghost at Lawrence Hall, is it Musmanno? It's doubtful. For starters, if you believe the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Musmanno almost certainly didn’t reside in room 1917. In its September 29, 1967, edition, the P-G wrote that Musmanno resided in suite 1625.

In any event, it seems most unlikely that Musmanno would spend his time in the great beyond scaring the bejabbers out of students. Aside from being one of the most fascinating characters ever to grace Western Pennsylvania--he constantly filed dissenting opinions written with a flamboyance that was well-known in legal circles throughout America--he was a rabid champion of the underdog and the downtrodden. And as one of the judges at the Nuremberg Trials of N**i war criminals, he denounced the monstrous and unprecedented evil of the N**is. Whatever is haunting Lawrence Hall, my bet is that it's not Musmanno. But that's not the end of the story.

The more interesting—and stranger—facts about Musmanno are these. In between his duties for the court, Musmanno devoted the last several years of his life to writing and lecturing to prove that his hero, Christopher Columbus, was the first European to discover the New World.

On October 11, 1968, an opinion Musmanno wrote was published, and it ended by talking about how he was ready to answer for himself at the gates of Saint Peter. Then he added: “Miserere nobis Omnipotens Deus!”—“May Almighty God have mercy on us!” That very day, Justice Michael Musmanno had a stroke at Lawrence Hall.

The great Justice Musmanno died the next day—yes, believe it or not, he died on Columbus Day.

10/11/2026

𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐍--𝐉𝐎𝐈𝐍 𝐔𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀 𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐑
Order here: http://www.hauntedpittsburghtours.com/

10/01/2026

𝙄𝙏'𝙎 𝙊𝘾𝙏𝙊𝘽𝙀𝙍! 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐬𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐡!

𝙊𝙉 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙂𝙀: The Haunted Pittsburgh Players reenact Pittsburgh’s greatest tales of the unexplained in a spooky, hilarious Halloween mash-up—it’s 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙖𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙋𝙞𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙞 at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater. Pittsburgh has a North Side and a South Side--but on October 17, we’ll take you to 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒. We know where all the bodies are buried!

𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑯𝑨𝑼𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑫 𝑷𝑰𝑬𝑹𝑶𝑮𝑰
𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟕 -- 𝐊𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫,
5941 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206
𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐄: https://kelly-strayhorn.org/events/the-haunted-pierogi/

10/01/2026

𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘, 𝙉𝑰𝙂𝑯𝙏 𝙊𝑭 𝑻𝙃𝑬 𝑳𝙄𝑽𝙄𝑵𝙂 𝘿𝑬𝘼𝑫 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘

The modern zombie genre was born on October 1,1968 at the Fulton Theater (now the Byham) on Sixth Street downtown Pittsburgh. That’s the night that 𝑁𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑑 premiered. It was made by a local company called Latent Image, which had its offices on the fifth floor of 247 Fort Pitt Boulevard downtown. Latent Image made industrial films and local television commercials for companies like Iron City B**r, Duke B**r, and Calgon. It was run by wannabe filmmakers George Romero, the great Russ Streiner, and the wonderful John Russo who decided to use their skills to make a real movie.

“Night of the Living Dead” was produced on a shoestring budget, but the finished product raised "gruesome" to a stark, brutal art form and became one of the most influential horror films ever produced. Fans of “The Walking Dead” and every other zombie incarnation owe the Latent Image boys a debt of gratitude.

Everyone knows that the iconic opening graveyard scene was shot at the Evans City Cemetery. But the scenes set in the basement of the farmhouse that was overrun by zombies--including the grotesque moment when a little girl zombie devoured her father--were shot in the basement of 247 Fort Pitt Boulevard, in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh. Who’d have thought it?

Romero, of course, became an iconic director in the horror genre. Sadly, he died in July of 2017 (as he passed away, he was listening to the soundtrack of one of his favorite films, John Ford's beloved "The Quiet Man"--about as far removed from NOTLD as you can get).

But Streiner (the film's producer and "Johnny," the film's first victim) and Russo (co-writer) are still going strong. In the decades following 𝑁𝑂𝑇𝐿𝐷, Streiner played a critical role in making Pittsburgh a bona fide destination for filmmakers, something unimaginable before 𝑁𝑂𝑇𝐿𝐷.

As for Russo--it needs to be noted that the modern zombie that we all know was his brainchild. He, too, has remained active, spreading the gospel of the living dead in books and films.

The day after 𝑁𝑂𝑇𝐿𝐷 premiered, the Pittsburgh Press, the city's leading newspaper back then, said it was “so grisly” that “it even shook up the hardiest of chiller-thriller fans.” The paper hailed it as "a rouser for the strong-stomached, horror film addict." A chorus of critics agreed: "...one of the best horror films ever made." (Andrew Sarris, The Village Voice) "One of the most gruesomely terrifying movies ever made . . . ." (Pauline Kael) "If you do like horror films, this may well be the most horrifying ever made." (Elliott Stein, Sight and Sound).

But, of course, some critics just didn't get it. Irritable Vincent Canby of the New York Times wrote: "Night of the Living Dead is a grainy little movie acted by what appear to be nonprofessional actors, who are besieged in a farm house by some other nonprofessional actors who stagger around, stiff-legged, pretending to be flesh-eating ghouls." Canby couldn't even bring himself to mention the Latent Image boys by name, saying only that the film "was made by some people in Pittsburgh." Read it again: “some people in Pittsburgh.” History proved Canby's churlish remarks a notable misfire.

The Latent Image boys made commercials for a living and knew something about marketing. A newspaper ad announced that anyone frightened to death by the film would be insured for $50,000, a la shock-meister William Castle (John Goodman's character in the film "Matinee" was based on Castle).

Aside from Romero, Streiner, and Russo, there was also Karl Hardman, co-producer who played angry “Harry Cooper” (he was the one who got eaten by his daughter). Hardman was an alumnus of Cordic & Company, Pittsburgh's most-popular-ever radio show. And there was Charles Craig, the chillingly realistic newscaster. And dignified Judith O'Dea coming unglued while the film's star, Duane Jones—a fine actor—tried to inject rationality into madness. And there was Bill Hinzman, who killed "Johnny" in the opening scene and is still the best zombie ever to stagger through a cemetery.
And we can't forget everyone's favorite snippet of dialogue--between the field reporter, played by late Pittsburgh broadcasting icon “Chilly” Billy Cardille, and the sheriff, played by the late, great George Kosana (also the film's production manager):

CARDILLE: Are they slow-moving, chief?
KOSANA: Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up.

Kosana also delivered the film’s greatest line, at the end of the film: “That’s another one for the fire.” (In context, it packs a wallop—we won’t give it away here for anyone who hasn’t seen it.)

The film should have made everyone who owned a piece of it rich, but it didn't--the distributor forgot to put the copyright notice on the theatrical prints, and the film ended up in the public domain.

One time, I took a group to the Evans City Cemetery and showed them the spots where the action occurred in the film’s memorable first scene. Despite some notable changes, overall, the grand old burying ground looks a lot like it did on that day in 1967 when Pittsburgh’s first-ever film crew arrived and, in his best Boris Karloff, Russ Streiner snarled, "They're coming to get you, Barbara!" On our visit, I explained to our group that 𝑁𝑂𝑇𝐿𝐷's devotees from around the world make pilgrimages to the beloved cemetery. Then, as if on cue, a car pulled up and a man from the Philippines got out. He told me that he, too, had come to traverse hallowed horror film ground, though his journey was a lot longer than ours.

On that October evening when 𝑁𝑂𝑇𝐿𝐷premiered at the Fulton way back in turbulent 1968, a few blocks away, the mammoth Warner Theater on Fifth Avenue was showing Stanley Kubrick's landmark “2001: A Space Odyssey” on its 70 mm screen. Oakland’s King’s Court Theater had Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder in Mel Brooks’ original “The Producers.” And, of course, there were far more serious things going on, too. Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey were in a heated battle for the presidency, and the question of whether to halt the bombing in North Vietnam had become a campaign issue--proving that real life can be more frightening than anything conjured up by either Hollywood or “Hollywood on the Mon.”

_______________________

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐬𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐡!

𝙊𝙉 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙂𝙀: The Haunted Pittsburgh Players reenact Pittsburgh’s greatest tales of the unexplained in a spooky, hilarious Halloween mash-up—it’s 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙖𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙋𝙞𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙞 at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater. Pittsburgh has a North Side and a South Side--but on October 17, we’ll take you to 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒. We know where all the bodies are buried!

𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑯𝑨𝑼𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑫 𝑷𝑰𝑬𝑹𝑶𝑮𝑰
𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟕 -- 𝐊𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫,
5941 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206
𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐄: https://kelly-strayhorn.org/events/the-haunted-pierogi/

09/26/2026

𝐂𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐬𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐡:
𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑯𝑨𝑼𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑫 𝑷𝑰𝑬𝑹𝑶𝑮𝑰
October 17 -- Kelly Strayhorn Theater, 5941 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
TICKETS NOW ON SALE: https://kelly-strayhorn.org/events/the-haunted-pierogi/