The “Creepiest Bar In America” Is In Illinois

An unassuming bar in Chicago has a spooky past.

Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood is home to L&L Tavern, at 3207 North Clark Street. According to CBS, it was named for it's former owners who bought the bar in the 80's: Lefty Miller and Lauretta Magidson. Before then, it was Columbia Tavern & Liquors owned by Joan Gillon.

The Story

L&L Tavern might have been home to bars in the past but it's not the possibility of ghosts haunting the bar that makes it spooky.

Jeffrey Dahmer was a regular at the bar. Customers and the owner at the time recognized him when he was arrested. Dahmer, who admitted to killing 17 young men, often liked to sit at the window at L&L and watch the young men at Dunkin Donuts across the street.

Dahmer picked up 2 known victims in Chicago but neither came from L&L.

Back in the 70's, John Wayne Gacy visited the bar that would become the L&L a few years later. He is reported to have shown up to the bar in full clown costume.

But crimes have plagued the bar's owners too. In the 50's, the then-owner Marshall Tallaksen was hit in the eye in a drive-by shooting. In the 60's, then-owner Paul Gillon was the victim of a robbery at the bar, in which he was bound and gagged and had lit matches held to his back.

Remember, as CBS  points out, the crimes of Gacy and Dahmer shouldn't be trivialized. Between them, 50 boys were killed and what they did is atrocious. In Gacy's case, 5 of his victims remain unidentified.