Chicago dive bar in a building where an axe murder in 1986 left a ghost the staff recognizes by name
1665 W. Fullerton Ave, Chicago, IL 60614
Research updated June 2026
Age
21+
Cost
Free
Bar cover charge varies by event; most nights free entry
Access
Limited Access
Two-story bar with stairs; basement not publicly accessible
Equipment
Photos OK
Murder Site · Former Funeral Home · Chicago Music History
The structure on West Fullerton Avenue spent several decades as a funeral home — the basement served as a morgue and embalming area, the main floor hosted services. That history predates the bar by at least a generation, though exactly when the building was built is not precisely documented.
In 1968, the second floor operated as a homeless shelter. On an undocumented date that year, Samuel Castell Jr., 27, attacked John Parlea, approximately 70, during a dispute over a pair of used pants. Castell beat Parlea with a glass soda bottle and pushed him from the second-floor window. Parlea died of his injuries in the hospital.
The building's most thoroughly documented violent incident came in April 1986. Frank Hansen, who co-owned the bar with his wife Julia, killed her with an axe in the third-floor bedroom. Julia was pregnant at the time. Frank struck her in the head, chest, and back; he later claimed she had choked and pushed him during a money dispute. Her body remained in the apartment for six days before police were called. Frank Hansen was convicted of the murder in 1988.
The bar in its current form opened in 1995 under owner Herb Rosen. It became a fixture of Chicago's alternative music scene, known for KISS memorabilia, live shows, and DJ nights. The Travel Channel included it on a list of the most terrifying places in America. Ghost City Tours features the location on Chicago haunted bar itineraries.
Sources
The most consistently reported figure at Liar's Club is a woman in 1950s dress sitting at the far end of the bar, staring silently at the wall. Witnesses describe her as mournful, occasionally weeping. She appears solid and lifelike before fading. Some accounts connect her to Julia Hansen, killed upstairs in 1986; others point to the building's funeral home era and the women whose bodies passed through the room.
Musicians who have played the stage describe dark, humanoid figures moving near the back of the room during performances — not reflections, but shapes with apparent depth. Several staff members have refused to enter the basement alone after reporting being grabbed or shoved by something unseen. EVP recordings made during investigations include voices saying 'get out' and 'leave' in the lower level.
Other reported phenomena: doors locking and unlocking without human contact, the jukebox activating on its own, glasses and bottles falling from surfaces, and dramatic temperature drops in specific spots near the stage and in the stairwell. Owner Herb Rosen has described a persistent sense of being watched in the basement that he cannot explain away as the building settling.
Notable Entities
The bar operates on the floor where a 1986 axe murder took place in a third-floor apartment. The main bar area was once the embalming room when the building served as a funeral home. Staff and regulars report the apparition of a 1950s-era woman sitting silently at the end of the bar. Open nightly.
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