[ZombieFAQ brought this story to you in July 2009, but here is more info and finally *gasp*, a photo!]

But a closer look will reveal the name of Haverhill native Rob Zombie, whose movies have filled theaters with a bounty of blood and gore.

For author Jason Ocker, that ghoulish connection led him to include a picture of the sign along with a biography of Robert Cummings (Zombie) in his new book, "The New England Grimpendium: A Guide to Macabre and Ghastly Sites."

Cummings was born in Haverhill in 1965, graduated from Haverhill High School in 1983 and went on to achieve fame with his heavy metal band White Zombie. He then began producing horror films such as "House of 1000 Corpses" and "The Devil's Rejects."

He is the focus of two pages in Ocker's guide to the dark side of New England, which he refers to in his book's introduction as "the spooky attic at the top of the country."

He also mentions the city's other welcome signs, all of which boast the names of famous Haverhill residents, including TV personality Tom Bergeron. Ocker has a little fun with the city's name, noting that it is pronounced in two syllables as "Havrill."

"I'm not a ghost hunter, but I love ghost stories and I'm a big horror fan," said Ocker, a Maryland native now living in Nashua, N.H.

He revisited Haverhill recently and met Pentucket and Haverhill Kiwanis member Peter Carbone, who coordinated the changeover in celebrity names on six welcome signs in conjunction with Exchange, Rotary, Lions and Soroptimist International. These service clubs erected the signs at Haverhill's gateways years ago and maintain them.

"He could have included a photo of Rob Zombie's house (in Connecticut), or Haverhill High School, or even his photo, but he didn't," Carbone said. "He used a photo of one of our welcome signs. I'm going to share the news with the other service clubs."

Carbone said the signs previously listed other famous Haverhill residents such as Archie comics creator Bob Montana, movie mogul Louis B. Mayer, retail giant Rowland Macy and poet John Greenleaf Whittier.

They now gloat of the city's ties to Zombie, along with Bergeron, Major League Baseball player Carlos Pena, Colonial heroine Hannah Duston, TV weatherman Matt Noyes and Sharon Poole, who is credited with being the first female Little Leaguer.

When in search of people, places and things that go bump in the night, Ocker was looking for physical evidence of Zombie's ties to Haverhill. That search led him to The Eagle-Tribune, which last year had published a story about the new names on Haverhill's welcome signs.

"At first I was looking for one of those blue state signs like you see on the highway," Ocker said. "I drove by the lake multiple times until I got a closer look at the sign."