Troy Taylor

Troy Taylor is a supernatural historian, murder buff and the author of almost 90 books on ghosts, hauntings, history, crime and the unexplained in America. He is also the founder of the American Hauntings Ghost Tour Company. Taylor shares a birthday with one of his favorite authors, F. Scott Fitzgerald, but instead of living in New York and Paris like Fitzgerald, Taylor grew up in Illinois. Raised on the prairies of the state, he developed an interest in "things that go bump in the night" at an early age and as a young man, developing ghost tours and writing about haunts in Chicago and Central Illinois. He began his first book in 1989, which delved into the history and hauntings of Decatur, Illinois, and in 1994, it spawned the Haunted Decatur Tour -- and eventually led to the founding of his American Hauntings Tours, with current tours in Alton, Chicago, Decatur, Lebanon and ghost excursions that travel all over the country in search of haunted places. In 1997, Taylor launched the Haunted America Conference, regarded as "America's Original Ghost Conference" in Decatur, Illinois. After a number of years in Alton, Illinois, the conference has returned to its original site at the Lincoln Theater in Decatur. The Haunted America Conference remains the most imitated conference in the country and in 2013, will hold the 17th annual events in Illinois. In addition to the tour companies and Haunted America Conference, Taylor is also the founder of Whitechapel Press, a publishing company for books about the supernatural that he started in 1993, and Apartment #42 Productions. Along with writing about the unusual and hosting tours, Taylor is also a public speaker on the subject of ghosts and hauntings. has appeared in scores of newspaper and magazine articles about the subject and in hundreds of radio and television broadcasts about the supernatural. Troy has appeared in documentary productions for TLC, The History Channel, A & E, Discovery Channel, PBS, CMT and in various network programs and syndicated news shows. These programs have included America's Ghost Hunters, Ghost Waters, Night Visitors, Beyond Human Senses, Scariest Places on Earth, Children of the Grave, and others. He has also appeared in one feature film about the paranormal. Troy currently resides in Illinois.