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A headless prostitute. The ghost of a boy crushed under a bridge. The memory of a thousand Irish wakes.

Donovan King has plenty of material to draw on for his new Haunted Griffintown walking tours.

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The Montreal actor, teacher and history buff takes full advantage of the Halloween season to host a series of spooky walking tours of historic sites around Montreal. No neighbourhood provides more shadowy corners than Griffintown, the neighbourhood south of Notre Dame St. W. Though it is now one of the city’s trendiest neighbourhoods, it was once Canada’s biggest shantytown, without paved roads or sewers, King says.

“Floods, fires, accidents, grizzly murders, a typhus epidemic. This part of the city almost seems cursed,” says King as he lingers over a coffee at Griffintown Café on a rainy fall afternoon. “For a long time, it was ramshackle and rundown. But when you delve in, you also find a community of caring people who looked out for each other despite all the misery.