The Golden Dagger

A bar with a dark and seedy past, making it one of the top haunting hotspots in Illinois. Tales of human sacrifice and murder swirl around this establishment. The name comes from a literal ceremonial skull-handled dagger found in a basement window well, now displayed in a glass box above the counter.

The Golden Dagger on North Lincoln Avenue occupies a building with a violent history spanning over a century. Formerly known as the Tonic Room, this biker bar sits atop unmarked graves and has witnessed murders, suicides, and mysterious deaths. The basement, which connects to old Chicago tunnels, is considered one of the most paranormally active spaces in the city.

During Prohibition, the North Side Gang—mostly Irish mobsters who dominated North Chicago from 1919 to 1935—used the tavern on North Halsted as a main hangout. They sat at the bar planning schemes over freshly bootlegged beer and whiskey, archrivals of Al Capone's mostly-Italian South Side Gang.

Tales of human sacrifice and murder continue to swirl through the establishment. Specters have been seen sitting at the bar and gliding through the basement, while many patrons report an eerie, creepy sensation just walking through the door.

One older Chicago woman claimed that as a child, she accompanied her father to a meeting at the building where she witnessed a secretive order kill a woman in a human sacrifice ritual. This may explain the ghost of a young lady seen in the basement—she wanders with a thousand-yard stare, visible primarily to staff since customers rarely venture below.

One night in the early 2010s, a bouncer went into the basement during renovations. Suddenly he felt paralyzed, fell to the floor, and was unable to move or speak. Rushed to the hospital, doctors found nothing wrong with him. He recovered—but later learned that the spot where he'd seized up had previously been marked with a pentagram.

The building's proximity to Lincoln Park, which was built over a 19th-century cemetery, and its location across from the Biograph Theater where John Dillinger was killed, contribute to the area's supernatural reputation. The Golden Dagger continues to serve customers who may encounter spirits from Chicago's most violent eras.