Helltown Horrors and Pirates: A Ghost Tour of Provincetown

Provincetown’s charming seaside facades hide a sinister past soaked in blood, betrayal, and supernatural terror.

On this chilling walking tour, you’ll discover the dark underbelly of Provincetown’s history, from bloodthirsty pirates and treacherous mooncussers who lured ships to their doom. I’ll also tell you about the restless spirits that continue to haunt the town’s historic buildings and picturesque streets.

Starting at the infamous American Horror Story house, you’ll journey through Provincetown’s most haunted locations. You’ll explore historic cemeteries where smallpox victims lie in unmarked graves, and pass by former funeral homes that now operate as quaint inns. Along the way, you’ll discover how this seaside paradise earned its ominous nickname “Helltown” after centuries of maritime tragedy and malevolence.

You’ll shiver at accounts of spectral sailors still seeking revenge, encounter the ghosts of dismembered victims, and hear about the “Cape Cod Vampire” who once walked these streets. The tour ends just beyond the Provincetown Cemetery, final resting place of artists, writers, pirates, and murderers – where visitors frequently report shadowy figures, unexplained whispers, and the unsettling sensation of being watched as you walk among the ancient headstones.

During this 90-minute walking tour, you’ll:

• Hear the gruesome story of the Lady of the Dunes, whose mutilated body remained unidentified for decades
• Visit the historic Gifford House, where phantom screams and spectral footsteps are regularly reported
• Explore the Winthrop Street Cemetery, Provincetown’s oldest burial ground, where pirate ghosts and smallpox victims are said to reach from their graves
• Learn about Eliza Kane, the “Silent Singer” whose spirit is said to haunt the Atlantic House since her mysterious disappearance
• Stand before the Lancy Mansion, where a son kept his mother’s corpse seated in a chair for months, her dead eyes staring out over Commercial Street
• Discover the tale of the Black Flash, a supernatural entity with glowing eyes that terrorized Provincetown in the 1930s
• Hear how mooncussers would use false lights to lure ships onto deadly rocks, then plunder the corpses of drowned sailors
• Visit sites associated with Tony “Chop Chop” Costa, the serial killer who dismembered his victims and buried them in shallow graves

Prepare yourself for a spine-tingling journey where history meets the supernatural in one of America’s oldest and most haunted seaside towns. Some say these entities are merely stories, but locals know better – the ghosts of Provincetown’s bloody past are always watching.