This is not your typical tour of haunted houses and ghosts that roam the streets of Cleveland. Instead,  Tours of Cleveland founder Scott O’Con wanted to illustrate a more macabre side of our city—a side rooted in historic events that shock and sadden Cleveland residents to this day.

This month, O’Con is running his annual Tales of Terror Walking Tour starting this Saturday, Oct. 14, and running through Halloween, Tuesday, Oct. 31.

“It's not a ghost story tour—it is seven stories that involve the death of 312 Clevelanders,” says O’Con. “These are all actual events that happened here in the city of Cleveland—fires, explosions, a serial killer, a streetcar that plummets into the Cuyahoga River.”

The historic events took place between 1895 to 1944, ranging from a streetcar plunging into the Cuyahoga River on a foggy night in 1895, killing 17 people, to two men who were buried alive during the construction of the Terminal Tower in the 1920s, to the October 1944 East Ohio Gas Company explosion.

Tales of TerrorOther stories include the 1908 Kresge store fire, the 1916 explosion in one of the water intake tunnels for Cleveland's water system, the Torso Murders, and the 1929 Cleveland Clinic Fire that ultimately led to the enforcement of safety regulations in hospitals.  

“Each one is kind of unique, and I kind of joke when we do the tour that we kind of keep track of a death count as we go along,” says O’Con. “Usually there is someone who’s adding up [the deaths] in their head…. By our fifth story, we're only at 59 people who have died, and there are only two stories left of the 312 people. So I always say, ‘All right, buckle up, because these are the big ones.’”

O’Con has thoroughly researched these historic horror stories of Cleveland, and he incorporates plenty of dramatic effects into his tales.

In fact, he ends the tour with the 1944 explosion.

“The one I like to tell is the East Ohio Gas Company—that's the one that we end the tour on because it's, I think, the most dramatic—with one square mile of the city being wiped out, 130 people dying, and 79 homes just obliterated,” he says. “It's pretty wild, it's a pretty crazy story. I get a little animated when I go through that story, talking about the explosions and then I go, ‘BOOM,’ and try to scare people a bit. And sometimes I do. That's probably my favorite.”

This will be the fourth year O’Con has done the Tales of Terror tour in October. He says he included the 1908 Collinwood School fire that killed 172 students and two teachers the first year he held the Tales of Terror, “but that one was just more sad and tragic,” he says.

Torso Murders 1935As far as the notorious Torso Murders that occurred between 1935 and 1938, O’Con acknowledges this is one of Cleveland’s most well-known terror tales. In fact, O’Con adds the Cleveland Police Museum has an entire exhibit on the Torso Murders

“I do the torso murders because, of course, that's the one that a lot of people know or at least have heard of,” he says. “And I always say when we start, ‘this is the most gruesome one.’ I use the 12 confirmed deaths and I make a comment, “Are there more? Probably, but we just go with the 12 confirmed.”

The brutality of this particular tale is one of the reasons O’Con deters guests from bringing children on Tales of Terror.

“With my other tours, I have a children's rate, but on this one I say it’s not recommended for young kids. So I just don't even offer that rate to try to discourage [children] because we talk about the Torso Murders, and we're talking about decapitation and dismemberment and all of that, and I’m not going to alter it.”

For adults who can handle the horror and terror, however, tickets are $21. Tales of Terror tours run Tuesdays through Thursdays at 6 p.m., starting on Tuesday, Oct. 17. Tours on Fridays and Saturdays run at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., starting this Saturday, Oct. 14, which is already sold out. The Tales of Terror tours run through Halloween, Tuesday, Oct. 31, at 2 p.m. Reservations are required.

The tour lasts about 90 minutes. O’Con reminds guests that this is a walking tour, rain or shine (or snow), so wear comfortable shoes and attire.

Guest should meet in Public Square in front of the statue of Mayor Tom Johnson (a man sitting in a chair on the north side of the Square, across the street from Old Stone Church. Please arrive five minutes prior to the start of the tour. The tour ends two blocks east of Public Square.

For those looking for a less terrifying walking tour, O’Con suggests his Downtown Highlights, Cleveland from the Inside (tours of the interiors of historic buildings), or the monthly Downtown Public Art Tour. Special packages and private tours are also available.