On the morning of June 10th, 1912, Mary Peckham noticed that her neighbors hadn’t been doing their chores in the yard as was their norm and in fact, the house was unusually quiet. Villisca Ax Murder House, Villisca, IowaĪs the name suggests, this unassuming house in small-town Iowa was once the site of a shocking crime.
For almost 200 years there have been reports of paranormal activity in the mansion, including phantom footsteps and reports of moaning in the rooms where Mrs. When LaLaurie’s crimes became public, she disappeared and was never heard from again-but the same can’t be said of her victims. In 1834 a fire broke out, and the firefighters discovered a horrific scene in the attic: seven slaves, starved, chained to the walls, and in various positions indicating heinous torture. She kept her cook chained to the kitchen fireplace, and neighbors noticed a constant stream of new slaves entering the home with no explanation about what happened to their predecessors. The family’s lifestyle was kept up by many slaves-and Mrs. But while their friends knew them as the very model of society’s finest and most genteel, the couple had a dark and twisted secret life. They were known for their extravagant dinner parties and impressive social circle. Louis LaLaurie and his wife Daphne moved into their Creole mansion in New Orleans’s French quarter in 1832. The LaLaurie House, New Orleans, Louisianaĭr. An explanation or perpetrator were never found, and the house remains vacant to this day.ģ. → Want to sell your house without fears? Learn how we make selling your home easier.Īnd to make an already gruesome discovery even more chilling: each body’s torso was said to have been marked with what appeared to be a perfect circle. According to local urban legend, several dead bodies were found in the house’s cellar. Years later, the mansion sat vacant-to living occupants, that is. In the mid-20th century, this imposing brick building was a house of ill-repute, hosting a brothel for wealthy gentlemen looking for companionship. There’s so much speculation around its haunted status that the museum hosts regular paranormal investigation tours. Visitors report hearing footsteps and rustlings, and some have seen a mysterious woman shushing passersby-who they’ve identified as Eliza from her portrait inside. Her husband died under mysterious circumstances-which some suspect Jumel may have had something to do with-and though Eliza died more than 150 years ago, her spirit is said to haunt the mansion still. Eliza Jumel, Morris’s wife, was one of New York’s richest women through her marriage and prosperous real estate business. Some visitors to the estate-turned-museum go to see the site where George Washington once lived-while others hope to catch a glimpse of the ghost of one of its original residents. Morris-Jumel Mansion, New York Cityīuilt in 1765 by British military officer Roger Morris, this 9-bedroom villa is the oldest house in Manhattan. From haunted fortresses to grisly tales of suffering and death, we’ve pulled together a list of some of the spookiest spots. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, there are countless towns in the US that are filled with scary stories passed down through time. Our goal at Opendoor is to make buying and selling your home less scary-but some houses are downright terrifying.