For Press & Producers
Press Kit
Everything a journalist, producer, or event host needs, in one place: bios at three lengths, an approved headshot, hi-res covers with ISBNs, a fact sheet, and quotes with attribution. You may reproduce all of it in coverage of Susan Johnson.
Short bio · about 50 words
Susan Johnson is a Flagstaff, Arizona author, historian, and paranormal researcher. She wrote Haunted Flagstaff, Wicked Flagstaff, and Flagstaff’s Walkup Family Murders for The History Press, curates the weekly Flagstaff History column in the Arizona Daily Sun, and co-founded Freaky Foot Tours with her son, Nick Jones.
Standard bio · about 125 words
Susan Johnson is a Flagstaff, Arizona author, historian, and paranormal researcher. She wrote Haunted Flagstaff, Wicked Flagstaff, and Flagstaff’s Walkup Family Murders for The History Press, curates the weekly Flagstaff History column in the Arizona Daily Sun, and co-founded Freaky Foot Tours with her son, Nick Jones. A Flagstaff resident since 1989, she has spent more than thirty-five years researching the town’s haunted, wicked, and tragic history. She was featured on Travel Channel’s The Dead Files (2022) and is a two-time Viola Awards finalist. Freaky Foot Tours grew out of her research into the town’s forgotten stories and now walks Flagstaff, Tucson, and Prescott. 1,000+ five-star reviews. Best of Flagstaff three years running.
Long bio · about 300 words
Susan Johnson is a Flagstaff, Arizona author, historian, and paranormal researcher: author of Haunted Flagstaff, Wicked Flagstaff, and Flagstaff’s Walkup Family Murders from The History Press, curator of the weekly Flagstaff History column in the Arizona Daily Sun, and co-founder of Freaky Foot Tours.
She came to Flagstaff in 1989. The research began with a question: whether the ghost stories written about her own town could survive a check against the record. Years in the archives, the cemeteries, and the newspaper morgue turned that question into a research library of the town’s forgotten stories.
In 2015 she co-founded Freaky Foot Tours with her son, Nick Jones, turning those files into a nightly walking tour of downtown Flagstaff; the company now operates in Flagstaff, Tucson, and Prescott. The History Press published her three books in quick succession: Flagstaff’s Walkup Family Murders: A Shocking 1937 Tragedy (2021), Haunted Flagstaff (2022), and Wicked Flagstaff (2024). Haunted Flagstaff made her a 2023 Viola Awards finalist for Written Storytelling, and Wicked Flagstaff followed as a 2025 finalist for Excellence in Storytelling.
In 2022 she was featured on Travel Channel’s The Dead Files, bringing the 1937 Walkup family case to the program’s two-hour season finale. In August 2026, Arcadia Children’s Books publishes The Ghostly Tales of Flagstaff, her Haunted Flagstaff adapted for readers ages 8 to 12 by Julie Rathsack. Every Sunday, her Flagstaff History column runs in the Arizona Daily Sun and is carried across the region by the Navajo-Hopi Observer.
Headshot
Susan Johnson in the ponderosa pines outside Flagstaff. Photo courtesy of Susan Johnson and Freaky Foot Tours. Approved for editorial use alongside coverage of Susan Johnson, her books, or Freaky Foot Tours; please retain the credit.
Book covers, hi-res
Fact sheet
Susan Johnson is a Flagstaff, Arizona author, historian, and paranormal researcher: author of Haunted Flagstaff, Wicked Flagstaff, and Flagstaff’s Walkup Family Murders from The History Press, curator of the weekly Flagstaff History column in the Arizona Daily Sun, and co-founder of Freaky Foot Tours.
- Flagstaff, Arizona resident since 1989.
- Featured on Travel Channel's The Dead Files (2022).
- Interviewed on Ghost Adventures (2023): Fear in Flagstaff, Season 26 Episode 3, Discovery.
- Weekly Flagstaff History column, Arizona Daily Sun, also carried by the Navajo-Hopi Observer.
- Two-time Viola Awards finalist: Written Storytelling 2023 (Haunted Flagstaff); Excellence in Storytelling 2025 (Wicked Flagstaff).
- Co-founder, Freaky Foot Tours (2015, with her son Nick Jones): Flagstaff, Tucson, and Prescott. 1,000+ five-star reviews. Best of Flagstaff three years running.
Pull-quotes, with attribution
I loved the history of the places they investigated and the romantic idea of spirits who lingered, unable or unwilling, to leave. The question that arose in my mind was, ‘Why?’
At first, I was just curious if what was written was true, but I began to collect a lot of freaky stories about paranormal events and ghost sightings.
Co-founder Susan Johnson is the author of Wicked Flagstaff, Haunted Flagstaff, and The Walkup Family Murders.
She has written two books for the History Press, Haunted Flagstaff and Flagstaff’s Walkup Family Murders, and, with her son Nick, manages Freaky Foot Tours.
Suggested topics and questions
- Flagstaff’s haunted history: the Weatherford, the Hotel Monte Vista, the depot, the library
- The Walkup case and 1937 Flagstaff
- Wicked early Flagstaff: saloons, blue laws, and the red-light district
- Researching local history: how a historian checks a ghost story against the record
- Which Flagstaff ghost story survived your fact-checking best, and which one fell apart in the archives?
- What did The Dead Files (2022) get right about how a historian works a case, and what surprised you about television?
- The Walkup case is a real family tragedy. How do you tell it without turning it into a campfire story?
- What do people get wrong about Flagstaff’s early days that Wicked Flagstaff sets straight?
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