The Ghostly Handprint of Francis Leavy

Stock Image, not actually Francis Leavy's Hand

Francis Leavy & The Tragic Fire

Ghostly handprints are something that is quite regularly referred to when talking about paranormal mysteries and ghosts overall. This specific mystery is of that sort but adds on an interesting and confusing twist to that. It is about a firefighter who was able to predict his own death as well as leave a handprint that was never removed for many years after his death.

The mystery starts off on April 18th, 1924 when Francis Leavy, a firefighter ranked 'pipeman' from Chicago, Illinois was in his department going through quite a normal day. As the day progressed his colleagues started to notice that he was behaving strangely and seemed to be depressed but it wasn't very alarming at the time. That changed when Francis went to clean a window and while doing so stopped while leaning his hand against it. He suddenly turned to his colleagues garnishing a serious expression and said either “this is my last day with the fire department,” or “I’m dying tonight,” but they still just assumed that he was having some sort of mental breakdown. Shortly after this, the firefighters along with Francis had to attend an emergency call from a four-storey tall building known as 'Curran's Hall that had caught on fire.  An off duty conductor was the one who had noticed flames several blocks away from the station and pulled the fire alarm switch, 

Many firefighters responded to the call and Francis and his team were one of the first to arrive with engine 107, sometime after 7pm and set to work. The flame was very intense and firefighters had to work from both inside the building as well as outside using unconventional methods such as ladders to reach the root of the flames. As there was no proper breathing apparatus at that time, the firefighters inside the building had to run to windows to get breaths of fresh air before going back into the smoke. As the fire went on, many firefighters noticed that the flame was acting strangely as in the fire was flowing downwards instead of going up and it seemed to be able to stretch larger distances than a usual fire would be able to. The fire soon became too much for the building to withstand and it collapsed injuring 20 firefighters and killing 9 of them. Sadly, and quite creepily considering his earlier statement, Francis Leavy was also killed in this accident just as he had proclaimed that he would that night. After an investigation, it was discovered that the fire was arson and deliberately started by the owners of a sporting goods shop on the lower floors of the building in an attempt to cash in on the insurance settlement. They had splashed wood alcohol across the building which would explain the strange behaviour and intensity of the fire.

The Ghostly Handprint

The day after his tragic demise, the real mystery of Francis Leavy began. A few people working at the Fire station noticed a strange stain on a window and tried to clean it off but the stain didn't go away. They eventually ignored it but then in the next few days, the stain seemed to grow in size and eventually became large enough to be properly seen and was in the shape of a handprint. What was especially eerie about this was the fact that this was the exact place that Francis had rested his hand when he supposedly predicted his own demise. Everyone quickly became disturbed by it and they decided to remove it but they tried everything from normal washing to scraping it with a knife and even calling in a professional cleaning crew but the handprint didn't go away. The firefighters eventually came to the conclusion that the handprint was some sort of message from Francis and they decided to let it remain as it was. Just like that, the handprint stayed there for 2 decades until April 1944 when an unknowing newspaper boy threw a newspaper into the window, breaking it and ending the tale of Francis Leavy's handprint.

Evidence

Now, when this theory became well known the first question to arise in people's minds was its authenticity as this may just be a totally made-up story. With this particular case, there are a few things I found that support the existence of this mystery that are

1. There is a single photograph on the internet that shows a man in some sort of uniform staring at a window with a darkened handprint on it. The photo is in black and white and not in amazing quality which is obvious due to it being from the early 1900s but it clearly shows the existence of the handprint which is a large authenticating factor for this mystery. You can check out the photo by clicking here.                                                                                                                            
2. There is a statement of the incident from 1924 as well as a Firefighter Record Page for Francis Leavy on the Illinois Fire Service Institute Page. It provides a whole summary of the events of that night as well as the names of those who passed away. There is also a photo of Francis alone at the end of the report. Click here to be sent to that page.                                                                                                                                                                                                            
3. The last thing I could find is a comment from an anonymous user on an article about this by mysteriouschicago.com which states that the user's great grandfather was killed in the same incident as Francis. The comment goes on to state that there is a photo of Francis Leavy in the Chicago Tribune (page 2, April 19, 1924 issue), and that he is recognized on the Chicago Fireman's Memorial. The only problem with this is that I couldn't find the article as it isn't online so this may or may not be true.                                                                                                                                                                          

Conclusion

Personally, I believe this story exists and that the whole incident as well as Francis saying that he would die was somehow true but the paranormal aspect of this story is what I'm not so sure about. The story says that there was a stain that gradually turned into a handprint but this is where I think the firefighters were either mistaken or they didn't notice it. This would make this theory much more believable as everything other than the handprint suddenly appearing is either explainable and has evidence to back it up or can possibly be a coincidence. Although this is just my personal Point of view and we probably won't ever know if the handprint was actually supernatural or not but nonetheless this will be an amazing and intriguing mystery that will baffle people for many years to come

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