What Does Lizzie Borden Have to Do With Asbury Park?
The answer is simple: nothing.
Lizzie Borden lived in Fall River, Massachusetts. Her story has no meaningful connection to Asbury Park, New Jersey. Using her name—and the brutal double murder associated with it—as a marketing gimmick for an unrelated ghost tour is not clever. It is exploitative, tasteless and frankly gross.
Yet a national ghost-tour company is using her name to advertise tours here while presenting itself as a local Asbury Park business.
The company claims an address directly across the street from Paranormal Books & Curiosities™ and The Paranormal Museum®. It is not registered as a business in Asbury Park, and there is no actual location at that address for the company to occupy. To our knowledge, its operators have never lived here, worked here or even visited the city.
This is not an isolated mistake. This particular national company is well known for entering communities, creating local-looking websites and presenting its tours as if they are established local operations.
The use of an address across the street from our businesses is particularly troubling because it can confuse customers and create the impression that the company is connected to, located beside or somehow associated with us. After 19 years of service, historical research and community involvement, Asbury Park Ghost Tours™ and The Paranormal Museum® have earned a stellar reputation. Presenting a national company in a way that may cause customers to mistake it for a longstanding local business allows that company to trade on the reputation we spent years building.
It seems strange. Some might call it unethical.
A genuine local ghost tour should be based on local history, local records and relationships with the community. It should be created by people who know the buildings, understand the neighborhoods and have taken the time to separate documented history from recycled internet stories.
Asbury Park Ghost Tours™ has operated in this city for 19 years. Our stories come from historical research, local archives, firsthand investigations and conversations with the people who live and work here. Kathy Kelly is a local historian, longtime Asbury Park business owner and storyteller who has spent decades researching, investigating and promoting the city’s history.
National companies may be very good at advertising. They can purchase local-looking websites, use familiar landmarks, import unrelated names such as Lizzie Borden and publish addresses that make them appear to be based in town.
That does not make them local.
Before booking a tour, ask a few basic questions: Who owns the company? Where is it actually located? Who researched the stories? Is it registered to operate in the city? How long has it been part of the community?
Asbury Park has real history, real ghost stories and real local tour guides. It does not need Lizzie Borden imported from Massachusetts—or a real double murder turned into a cheap advertising hook—to make it interesting.
Buyer beware.
