James Willis | SpeakerHub

Personal Details

Bio

Not since the Headless Horseman went charging through Sleepy Hollow has something come out of the Hudson Highlands of upstate New York as thrilling and chilling as author and paranormal researcher James A. Willis.

Fueled by a steady childhood diet of Boo Berry cereal, Creepy magazine, and late-night Vincent Price movies, Weird Willis soon developed a taste for the unexplained and quickly began

seeking out all things strange and spooky.

In 1999, after spending more than 15 years chasing after ghosts and visiting crybaby bridges, Willis moved to Ohio and founded The Ghosts of Ohio (ghostsofohio.org), a nationally recognized paranormal research organization. Willis has grown the organization to more than 35 members across three divisions in Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati.

In 2004, in what seemed to be destiny, Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman, the brainchilds of the Weird US series of books, approached Willis and asked him to contribute to their latest

volume, Weird US. To date, Willis has been involved with 6 books in the Weird US series: Weird Ohio (2005), Weird Indiana (2008) Weird US (2004), Weird Hauntings (2006), Weird US II: The ODDyssey Continues (2008), and Weird Encounters (2010).

In addition, Willis has been a contributing author to several books in the Armchair Reader series, including Weird, Scary &

Unusual (2008), Armchair Reader Goes Hollywood (2010), and Haunted America (2011).

In 2012, Willis struck out on his own with the publication of Haunted Indiana. For 2013’s The Big Book Of Ohio Ghost Stories, Willis crisscrossed Ohio to bring readers over

75 of the Buckeye state’s most famous (and infamous) ghosts.

In 2015, Willis released Ohio’s Historic Haunts: Investigating the Paranormal in the Buckeye

State. A joint effort with Kent State University Press, the book approached hauntings and ghost

stories from a historical perspective and chronicled Willis’ personal experiences when locked

inside of some of Ohio’s most haunted locations.

2017’s Central Ohio Legends & Lore, had Willis chasing down some of the Buckeye State’s most

legendary characters, including Johnny Appleseed, Annie Oakley, and Chief Leatherlips. 2022 saw the release of the second book in Willis’ Legends & Lore series, Southern Ohio Legends & Lore, with late 2025 bringing the release of Northern Ohio Legends & Lore.

A sought-after public speaker, Willis has given presentations throughout the United States, during which he has educated and entertained tens of thousands of people of all ages in crowd sizes ranging from 10 to well over 600. He has also been featured in over 100 media sources, including CNN, USA Today, Columbus Business First, Midwest Living, The Canadian Press, the Astonishing Legends podcast, and even the Kuwait Times.

Willis currently resides in Galena, Ohio, with his wife and daughter and two narcoleptic cats.

Current position (1)

Founder/Director

The Ghosts Of Ohio

Degrees (1)

English

Kennesaw State University

1992 to 1996

Presentations

Presentations (7)

Ohio's Historic Haunts: Investigating the Paranormal in the Buckeye State

Focusing mainly on my 2015 book with Kent State University Press, this presentation will delve into the connection between actual history and ghost stories, proving once and for all that even if a haunting can’t be validated, ghost stories are part of history.
This presentation will also show what happened when I got to spend the night, sometimes alone, inside over 20 historic buildings in Ohio that some believe are haunted.

Meet The Ghosts Of Ohio

In 1999, after spending the past 15 years chasing after ghosts, I moved to Ohio and founded The Ghosts Of Ohio, a paranormal research organization dedicated to investigating and researching reported hauntings in the state of Ohio. Today, The Ghosts Of Ohio includes members in three divisions across Ohio, making us one of the oldest and most-active organizations in the state.
So, have we found any ghosts in our travels during our decades-long search? This presentation will give audience members a chance to answer that very question as it gives everyone a glimpse inside a ghost-hunting group. That is, if all the ghostly audio, video, and photographs they see and hear don’t frighten them off first!

My Strangest & Spookiest Ghost Investigations

Since I have been investigating the paranormal since 1985, my research often takes me across the US to some of the most haunted locations in the country. And since no one ever tells me that the corner grocery store is haunted, my travel plans often include my spending the night inside abandoned prisons, hospitals, longforgotten cemeteries, and even a lighthouse or two.
For this presentation, I share audio, video, and photographs from some of my most hair-raising investigations, in Ohio and beyond!

The Mothman Cometh

It the late fall of 1966, the city of Pt. Pleasant, West Virginia, seemed to come under attack from a giant winged creature with glowing red eyes: Mothman. Over the course of the next year, dozens of people reported seeing Mothman, often accompanied by strange lights in the sky. Some witnesses even claimed to be visited by strange men, dressed all in black, who warned the witnesses to never make their sightings public. The Mothman sightings seemed to stop in December of 1967, right around the time of the Silver Bridge collapse, which led many to whisper that perhaps the tragedy was Mothman’s doing. But was Mothman really to blame?
For this presentation, Willis walks guests through the entire timeline of the Mothman sightings in Pt. Pleasant, as well as a discussion about the rumors that Mothman never really left us and continues to be spotted around the world, even today. Also included is a collection of theories about what this mysterious creature could be.

Hangar 18: Ohio's Connection to Some of the Most Infamous UFO Cases

In July of 1947, newspapers and even the US military stated that a “Flying Saucer” had crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, and that wreckage had been recovered. Mysteriously, the story suddenly changed, and the “Flying Saucer” became a “weather balloon”. The result was what has now become known as the Roswell Incident—one of the most fascinating and well-known stories in UFO lore today.
But what many don’t know is that Ohio played (and some say continues to play) a huge role in the Roswell Incident. According to legend, not only did the US military recover a downed alien saucer but also alien bodies. Some claim they ever recovered a living, breathing alien! And guess what? Everything they recovered is said to have been secretly flown to Wright Field (now Wright- Patterson Air Force Base) near Dayton and hidden away in a mysterious Hangar 18.
So are the stories true? Does Hangar 18 even exist? And if it does, what secrets does it hold? Come hear this presentation to find out.

Weird Events In Ohio History

Did you know the 1884 mine fire started in New Straitsville, Ohio is still burning? Or that a well-liked Miami University student walked out of his campus dorm room in 1953 and vanished without a trace? How about Cleveland, Ohio being home to a string of unsolved murders in the 1930s that even Eliot Ness couldn’t solve?
Oh yeah, and then there’s the case of a Southern Ohio man who spent years trying to convince the US government that he’d found the entrance to the Hollow Earth. And let’s not forget that there were several unsuccessful attempts to create a literal Utopia in Ohio.
If you’re interested in learning about all the historical events your Ohio History teacher never told you about, then this presentation is for you!

Ohio Legends & Lore

Based on Willis’ Legends & Lore series of books from History Press, this presentation takes the best of the best from all 3 books, covering a wide range of topics including Legendary Characters, Legendary Places, Legendary Events, and even Ghostly Legends.
Want to follow along the trail the real Johnny Appleseed took through Ohio? Care to relive the events of the Night The Ghost Got In author James Thurber's House? Ever wonder what Ohio's connection to making John Dillinger Public Enemy #1 was? Then this is the presentation for you!

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Expertise (9)

Other

ghosts Paranormal paranormal research Ghost Hunting Folklore UFOs Cryptids Weird History