HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Troy Taylor's Bus Tours Through Decatur, Illinois' Documented Crime and Vice History
411 East William Street, Decatur, IL 62523
Research updated August 2026
Age
Recommended for older kids and up; content covers crime and death history
Cost
$$
Haunted History Bus Tour $38 per person. Wicked & Haunted Decatur Tour (extended) $48 per person. Pricing per the operator's own site.
Access
Wheelchair OK
A bus tour with stops on and off the bus at sites around Decatur; some stops involve short walking on sidewalks.
Equipment
Photos OK
Downstate Illinois' original ghost tour (est. 1994) · Decatur's early-20th-century vice-district history
Haunted Decatur was created in 1994 by Skip Huston and author Troy Taylor, making it downstate Illinois' original ghost tour and one of the longest-running programs of its kind in the state. The Decatur Herald & Review covered the tour's 20th anniversary in 2013, when tour host John Winterbauer had already been leading groups for roughly a dozen years. The program is now operated as part of Troy Taylor's American Hauntings Ink, which also runs tours in Alton and Springfield, Illinois.
The tour is bus-based, taking guests on and off the bus at sites tied to Decatur's documented history of unsolved murders, historic death sites, and the city's early-20th-century gambling and vice districts. The tour departs from the Decatur Civic Center at 411 East William Street.
Sources
The tour presents Decatur's history of unsolved murders, historic death sites, and early-20th-century gambling and vice districts, framing them as the roots of the city's haunted reputation. Guides draw on research Troy Taylor and his collaborators have compiled since the tour's 1994 founding.
All of this is the tour operator's own marketing material, not documented history independently verified for this listing; it is included here as a description of what the tour covers, not as an endorsement of any specific claim.
A 3-hour bus tour, downstate Illinois' original ghost tour, running since 1994 and covering Decatur's documented dark history -- death sites, unsolved murders, and historic gambling and vice districts -- alongside reported hauntings. Departs from the Decatur Civic Center, 411 East William Street.
A 4-hour extended version of the operator's bus tour, covering a wider set of Decatur crime and haunting sites.
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