Tour reveals nothing is spookier than Ithaca’s real-life haunts

“It’s more of a living history experience,” said Zoë Van Nostrand, marketing and community engagement director for The History Center in Tompkins County, of the haunted tours hosted by the History Center each year. 

It’s immersive. The guides dress up, and the guests can expect to be spooked by the details of some of Ithaca’s most notorious true crime cases.

The tours begin at 6 and 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 13 and 14, Oct. 19 to 21, and Oct. 26 to 28, and are for those 16 years of age and older. Late night tours starting at 9 p.m. are being offered for the first time this year on Oct. 21 and 28. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased on the Haunted October website, https://thehistorycenter.net/October. 

All tours start at the atrium of the Tompkins Center for History and Culture on the Ithaca Commons.

“Dive into true stories of murder, jealousy, and insanity…” the History Center website states.

Tour-goers will find themselves face to face with the most haunted archival items in the History Center’s collections, including original “murder masks” and items from unsolved crimes that date back to the 1920s.  

The tour is led by Heritage Ambassadors Sherri La Torre and Ben Sandberg, both of whom will be dressed in period costumes.

For those who are unable to attend a tour, there is still an opportunity to view some of the History Center’s “most haunted and disturbing items in our collections,” states the website. They will be on display at the History Center in a limited time exhibit running from now through Oct. 31.

One case discussed during the tour is that of 1800s murderer Edward C. Rulloff, the namesake of the well known (now closed) Collegetown bar, Rulloff’s. 

Having been found guilty of multiple murders, Rulloff was the last person to be publicly hanged in the State of New York.

While in jail, Rulloff wrote a thesis on linguistics. He had a charming personality and intellect  so compelling it led Mark Twain and others to advocate that his case be forgiven. 

“They thought he was going to have more brilliance to share, but his thesis did not end up being a huge, game changing thing,” Van Nostrand said. “He was very charismatic and very effective when it came to gaining support for his cause.”

Though the tour is based on the true crime stories of the area, it sticks to old cases from the 1930s and earlier.

“We try to do a very conscientious job at being engaging with the storytelling aspects of the tour without disregarding the fact that these are situations that affected our community and the people who lived here and walked the same streets,” Van Nostrand said.

For families with children or those who would prefer a spooky history experience they can have on their own schedule, the History Center is offering a cemetery scavenger hunt, a self-guided field trip activity kit that can be completed at any cemetery in Tompkins County. The kit includes pre and post-visit reflection questions, a vocabulary guide, a three-page cemetery scavenger hunt, and a short history of local cemeteries.

“The experience is an opportunity to remember and reflect on the different lives of people who lived in Tompkins County,” Van Nostrand said, “and to explore the shapes of the headstones, find hidden clues, and think more about the design of these places that preserve our community members’ memories.”

For more information about Haunted October at the History Center, visit https://thehistorycenter.net/October.