So you say that a horrible murder occurred in your house. . . [Archive]

Siddhartha Vicious

05-04-2004, 10:45 AM

Before we moved into our last rental house (which we just moved out of this weekend to move to our own house. With a pool!), our landlord told us that the previous tenants, a husband and wife, were arguing when the husband grabbed a .22, shot his wife, and then himself. Fortunately, they both survived, though their marriage likely didn't. Neither did their lease.

We were fascinated. We had no qualms about moving into an attempted murder house.

We got a perverted pleasure out of telling people what had happened in our house. My parents were horrified. My buddies laughed, and said that only a white guy would willingly move into a house where someone had tried to kill someone else. Then, since no one had actually died, interest waned.

But, if someone had actually died, it likely would've been more disturbing.

Would you move into a house where a grisly murder had occurred? How about just an attempted murder?

EnginNerd

05-04-2004, 10:57 AM

If I knew the circumstances and it wasn't just a random murderer that might come back some day, I'd have no problem living in a house like that.

AskNott

05-04-2004, 10:59 AM

In 1992, a grisly murder happened in my house. We weren't home when it happened. The insurance paid for the cleanup and the new carpets. We still live here, and the guy who did it is in the State Prison.

FairyChatMom

05-04-2004, 11:00 AM

I think it would depend upon who did the killing. If it was a resident of the house or a relative of a resident, I don't think it would bother me - more of an oddity about the house.

If it was random or perhaps a disgurntled neighbor, I might think twice.

Interesting situation to consider...

ftg

05-04-2004, 11:00 AM

The closest I can come wrt personal experience on this.

Some family members bought a condo in a very nice area. A creepy neighborhood boy started stalking their daughter. One day he came over, got in, and ... she wasn't home. But a friend of hers was. The friend was murdered instead. Oooh boy.

The family never set foot inside again. They just turned it over to a real estate agent to get rid of it. Movers packed up and took their stuff out. Someone bought it. They had to have known about the case.

So this issue has been discussed within the family: "Would you ..."

Some people have different standards. After all, the creepy boy is spending the rest of his life in jail. No problem there. You can be like Garp and believe that the house has already had one disaster and what are the chances of second one happening? I'm not Garp.

Siddhartha Vicious

05-04-2004, 11:05 AM

Call me Frank

05-04-2004, 11:23 AM

I wouldn't move into a house where a murder occurred.... and I think it would depend on the facts surrounding the attempted murder, if I'd move into that house.

Related anecdote:
My dad lived in Germany for about 9 years in an appartment in which a man had hung himself in the garage, IIRC.

He moved back to the States for 2 years and then returned to Germany. This time he and his wife wanted to buy a house and one of the houses had a grisly tale. Apparently, the former owner had drowned his children in the bath tub which may or may not have been subsequently replaced.

They didn't move into that one.

Eve

05-04-2004, 11:31 AM

My house was built in 1829 (and was a low-rent speakeasy during Prohibition), so I'm betting several ghastly things have happened there.

AskNott

05-04-2004, 12:26 PM

Crap.

What happened? Was it someone you knew?

An old friend of mine was getting divorced, and I let him stay in the guest room for a few weeks. One night, while my wife and I were at a meeting 35 miles away, his estranged wife came over. They got into an argument, which turned very bad when one of them picked up a chef's knife. He ended up slashing her throat and stabbing her in the heart. He was cut, too, and he wandered, bleeding, up and down the hall before calling 911. A very ugly business, which is mostly behind us.

Who_me?

05-04-2004, 01:33 PM

What happened at a house that I'm moving in to makes no difference to me at all.

Well, actually... if someone planted a bomb set to go off after I move in or kept plutonium in the basement, I probably would mind.

Kalhoun

05-04-2004, 01:50 PM

Scumpup

05-04-2004, 02:13 PM

hajario

05-04-2004, 02:23 PM

I would have no problem renting the place unless it were an extremely notorious murder and you had to deal with idiot lookey-loos driving by and taking pictures at all hours.

I would think twice about buying the place though. When it is time to sell, you'd have to disclose the fact to all potential buyers. This would probably put off a significant percentage of them and make it harder to sell the place and therefore negatively affect the property values.

Haj

VunderBob

05-04-2004, 02:28 PM

Would it freak you out to know someone simply died in the house? My sister sleeps in the bedroom where my Mother died of cancer...

I also happen to own a gun that was rumored to have been used in a suicide.

Revtim

05-04-2004, 02:28 PM

I don't think I'd have a problem living in a house where a murder took place, but I'd likely not buy it, only because it might be more difficult to sell. It's my understanding you must mention things like that to potential buyers, by law. At least my last real estate agent claimed so.

Fretful Porpentine

05-04-2004, 04:10 PM

I have lived in a house where a horrible murder took place. Granted, it happened after I lived there, but I'm not at all perturbed by the idea of moving back (if I were going to move back to my hometown at all, which I do not ever plan to do). A house is a house, as far as I'm concerned.

Abbie Carmichael

05-04-2004, 04:32 PM

It depends.

Is this the house I've been waiting for my whole life? Do I love everything else about it? Am I getting it for a killer (no pun intended) price? If yes, then I probably would but only after having the house anointed and prayed over.

How bad was the murder is another thing I'd want to know. About 30 years ago there was a murder in Lexington, KY so gruesome that the cops were running out of the house throwing up. I don't think I'd live in any house that had a Very Bad Murder happen in it, no matter what. A simple shooting, though, I could probably deal with. I can't articulate why I feel this way but I think there are some houses that should just be knocked down after a murder takes place. OJ's house would be a good example. Call it negative energy, call it demonic or whatever you want, but I think sometimes you'll never get "IT" to leave if something particularly bad happened there.

If there were other things about the house that I didn't like, finding out a murder had taken place would probably be a dealbreaker for me, though.

I've slept in a chair that somebody died in, though, and it didn't bother me. And plus the first place me and the Mr. lived in had a kitchen that somebody had dropped dead in and we never had any "visitors" or anything.

Khadaji

05-04-2004, 04:37 PM

How about after... oh wait, I may have said too much! Just don't look in the basement.

alphaFemale

05-04-2004, 04:41 PM

Under California State Real Estate Law, it is required to disclose if someone died in a home that is on the market.

I used to work in real estate. Our office got the listing of a home in Whittier off the 605 freeway. Richard Ramirez (http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Richard-Ramirez) had killed the former occupant and it went up for sale. The agent said that when she got there, she hadn't been told of what happened. There were sheets laying everywhere, covering stuff up. She thought that there were doing remodelling.

Geez, I have a ton of these stories.

kittenlm

05-04-2004, 05:13 PM

I work for a local home inspection company. A few months back my boss did an inspection at a very beautiful home in Freehold, NJ. When he got to the master bedroom, he noticed one of the closets had been sheetrocked over. He asked the buyer if they knew why it was like that and the guy replied "yeah, the man that lived here shot his wife w/ a 20 gauge shotgun in that closet, then went outside and killed himself". Turns out, the family that was selling the house was the dead womans mother and the dead couples 3 children. They were still living there years later!!! I almost fell over when I heard that. That's creepy.

Oh, and the buyer thought it was one of the coolest things that this (http://www.th-record.com/1998/01/01-16-98/suksmu.htm) happened in the house he was buying - weirdo :p

MaxTheVool

05-04-2004, 05:47 PM

[Rod or Todd]
Look, I'm a Torso Heap!
[/Rod or Todd]

hajario

05-04-2004, 05:48 PM

OJ's house would be a good example. Call it negative energy, call it demonic or whatever you want, but I think sometimes you'll never get "IT" to leave if something particularly bad happened there.

Nothing happened in OJ's house. The murder happened at his ex-wife's condo in Brentwood. It was torn down.

That property is around the corner from the house of one of my mother's oldest friends (since before I was born). She was aquainted with the victim. The endless parade of fucking morons driving by to take their picture in front of that house essentially ruined the neighborhood. What kind of braindead tool would make a special trip to look at a fence and hedge around a condo and then pose for a snapshot?

Haj

Krisfer the Cat

05-04-2004, 07:04 PM

Wouldn't bother me... In fact it would give the house character.

But then I want to live in another haunted house.. only haunted by people this time..

Like Eve, my house is over a hundred years old.. so suspect SOMEONE has died here at some point..

*rolls eyes* Oh yeah thats toooooooooooo scary! I'll hurry and move to a cookie cutter piece of characterless crap in a subdivision 40 minutes awya from the nearest grocery store. *eyes rolled*

pepperlandgirl

05-04-2004, 07:24 PM

If it's a good price (especially down here in So Cal!) I wouldn't give it a second thought.

Tenar

05-04-2004, 07:49 PM

Oh, and the buyer thought it was one of the coolest things that this (http://www.th-record.com/1998/01/01-16-98/suksmu.htm) happened in the house he was buying - weirdo :p

What I always wonder about stories like this one (guy kills wife, gets remarried, kills other wife) is not "Gee, who'd want to live in that house?" It's "What in the world POSSESSED the guy's third wife (and second murder victim) to make her decide to marry him in the first place?" :smack:

(Of course, I work in a place where we constantly run into women who decided to hook up with--and get impregnated by--men who have already begotten six or eight other children by four or five other women. And, no, I'm not talking about movie stars or renegade Mormon polygamists. So nothing should surprise me.)

Miss Purl McKnittington

05-04-2004, 07:49 PM

You can be like Garp and believe that the house has already had one disaster and what are the chances of second one happening? I'm not Garp.

I think that kind of backfired on Garp -- don't you? The whole car accident thing definitely qualifies as a disaster for me. Houses don't have just one disaster. I mean, look at Taliesin. That thing's been the site of a multiple homicide and subsequent fire and then two more fires.

As for me, I definitely could not live in a house where a murder took place. Growing up, there was an abandoned house on the bus route where a young man and one of his "friends", who had both deserted from the army, holed up for a few days. His friend apparently had second thoughts about it and was talking about turning himself in, which would result in the first guy being turned in as well. The friend was shot several times -- it was reported to be quite gruesome. Every time the bus went by that old farmhouse, I got the creeps. Shivers all over. I'm getting weirded out right now just thinking about how close to our house it was. It gets even worse when I realize that my grandparents knew his parents and grandparents pretty well. He was a nice kid -- and then he shot somebody.

Abbie Carmichael

05-04-2004, 07:58 PM

Nothing happened in OJ's house. The murder happened at his ex-wife's condo in Brentwood. It was torn down.

Thanks for the info :)

Does this mean we can't tear down OJ's house now? Doggoneit ...

flamingbananas

05-04-2004, 08:09 PM

Not my house, but my friends old house. A mass murder suicide happened in the house (The husband killed wife + kids, then killed self). When his family bought the house, his mom really didn't know about it until right before she moved in. My friend was about 7 at the time, so she didn't tell him. Until the first day on the bus all the kids said "YOU LIVE AT THE MURDER HOUSE!" He was freaked out, needless to say. He and his mom were always freaked out, but it was great to give directions to people. All they had to say was "You know that house were the mass murder suicide happened?" The people always knew!

Contrabass

05-04-2004, 08:26 PM

A man burned to death in the house in which I live right now. Coincidentally, a woman died in the daybed I keep on the sunporch and occasionally use for naps. Haven't had any particular problems from either of the deceased.
Interesting. A woman burned to death in the kitchen of the home I grew up in. It was two owners previous to my family. The story goes, she was an alcoholic. One time she was drunk and decided to cook. Somehow, she caught fire and, well, died. The sub flooring in the kitchen supposedly is still charred from it.

We moved into the house when I was a year and a half old. I didn't find out about this until I was in college. I was convinced that my parents weren't lying to me because it was my mother who started telling the story, and my father, of all people, said "I thought we agreed we'd never tell him." My dad, the jokester who once told the (complete lie) story to my cousin that our back yard had a revolutionary war-era Indian burial ground, didn't even want to tell me. And my mom doesn't make stuff like that up...

Anyway, to get back on topic, there were certainly never any "problems" with supernatural visits. Though passing through the kitchen when returning home late at night went from "whatever" to completely creepy overnight for me...

I think I'd avoid moving into a house where I knew that something grisly happened. Not a big fan of the agonizing death thing. I can understand people not being terribly comfortable with it. Though I'm firmly of the opinion that this is one of those cases where "what I don't know can't hurt me", since I never felt in the least bit spooked by the house till I knew the story.

Agent Cooper

05-04-2004, 09:11 PM

Does a battlefield count? I lived in Fredericksburg, VA for 2 years or so, on Willis St. Willis St. lies smack in the middle of a field where a very nasty slaughter took place. The street runs parallel to the stone wall below Marye's Heights about 100' shy of the wall. During the battle Federal troops repeatedly attempted to rush the wall, but never got a man to it. They all got mowed down, wave after wave. There is a grisly depiction of it in the book/movie "Gods and Generals" (or any Civil War history book for that matter). I'm sure there are plenty of neighborhoods throughout the south on battlegrounds... I wonder how the number of people living there adds up against the number in 'murder houses'.

For what its worth, I never witnesssed anything odd about it. I am not inclined to believe...

racinchikki

05-04-2004, 09:24 PM

If you have a house that was occupied at any point during the 19th century, chances are somebody died in it. Everybody died at home back then (I mean, if they died of disease or natural causes). I'm not sure when people started dying in hospitals or nursing homes instead, but it was some time during the 20th century. Death used to be a pretty normal thing, and not nearly so distant. (Literally and figuratively, in days of shortened lifespans.)

A guy who used to work at the same store that I work at now committed suicide in one of the apartments in my complex. One of the same floorplan apartments, too. But I have no idea whether it was the one I'm occupying now.

InternetLegend

05-05-2004, 01:05 AM

One of the previous tenants of my house killed himself in what is now our office/guest bedroom. I didn't know about it until last year, when I noticed a woman driving by the house slowly and then stopping across the street to look intently at it. Being the curious type, I went out to ask what she needed, and she turned out to be his sister. I let her come in and sit in the room a while (thank God it's the one room in the house that's almost always clean and neat), and she eventually told me that he'd shot himself there three years before we'd bought the house. She and her kids lived here too, and she was the one who found him. She was wondering if I'd noticed any kind of disturbance in that room, or anything strange at all. I reassured her that not only did guests sleep there peacefully, I'd slept in the room myself on occasion, and it's the cats favorite place to take a nap.

One of the renters who was here just before we bought the house was a spiritualist/psychic/New Age practitioner of some sort. When I first came to look at the place, she wouldn't let me go into that room, although I could see she had some sort of altar set up in there with candles burning on it. In retrospect, I imagine she was trying to do some sort of "cleansing." Depending on your perspective, it either was unnecessary or it worked. In either case, the house is still the same house it was before I knew about this. However, now I know why there's a big thin sheet of plywood over the subfloor in that room - I was going to take it up before we put in permanent flooring, just to see what was wrong with the subfloor, but I believe I'll leave it alone now.

I didn't tell my kids that someone had committed suicide in that room. They were here when the sister came by, so they knew she was upset about something, but I just told them her brother died here and left it at that.

calm kiwi

05-05-2004, 06:17 AM

My husband gassed himself in the car in the driveway. I went back to the house once for 5 minutes.

We were friendly with our landlords, not friends but friendly. They would pop in for coffee sometimes but that was it. They sold the house 2 weeks after I had all my stuff removed from it. Mrs landlord sent me a sweet note saying she hoped I wasn't offended but they felt they couldn't own the house anymore.

The neighbours (cross leased section) put their house on the market 3 weeks later because the teenage children were very disturbed by the event.

People who kill themselves have no idea how much impact their decision has on others.

I hope whoever lives there know doesn't know what happens. Though I have sat in the car across the road a few times.

calm kiwi

05-05-2004, 06:19 AM

I hope whoever lives there know doesn't know what happens. Though I have sat in the car across the road a few times.

What happened that should be. And i hope i din't frweak anyone out by sitting across the road.

plnnr

05-05-2004, 07:42 AM

A story about a truck, not a house.

On Christmas morning in 1983, my cousin, who was despondent over a failed relationship, drove to his ex-girlfriend's house and shot himself in the head with a shotgun. Needless to say, it made quite the mess.

My brother was in need of a truck at the time and bought it from my aunt and uncle. He had to replace the seat (naturally), and had a bit of a time cleaning up some of the...stuff...but never had any problem owning or driving the truck. I rode in it, but was always a little creeped out.

He called it the "Death Mobile" (but not in my aunt or uncle's prescence).

Scumpup

05-05-2004, 07:54 AM

Interesting. A woman burned to death in the kitchen of the home I grew up in. It was two owners previous to my family. The story goes, she was an alcoholic. One time she was drunk and decided to cook. Somehow, she caught fire and, well, died.

That's exactly how the fellow who died in my house met his end. The woman who died in the bed expired from heart failure.

Johnny L.A.

05-05-2004, 08:15 AM

My dad lived in Germany for about 9 years in an appartment in which a man had hung himself in the garage, IIRC.

A former co-worker and her husband bought a house where a man hung himself in the garage. She's not a Jeezoid, but she's still a devout Catholic. For a long time, she crossed herself whenever it was mentioned. She'd rather not live there, and has not told her kid about it; but the house was affordable (hard to find in the L.A. area) and the neighbour kids spilled the beans to her son. The neighbour kids always want to look in the garage to see where the guy killed himself.

Sublight

05-05-2004, 08:22 AM

When my wife told me that apartments that have had murders in them are usually a lot cheaper because nobody wants to live in them, I suggested we start scanning the newspapers for potential deals on a new home. I guess I'd have to say it wouldn't bother me.

Eve

05-05-2004, 08:28 AM

Like Eve, my house is over a hundred years old..

—Hey! Despite the Reagan-Neck, I'm not a day over 50!

Siddhartha Vicious

05-05-2004, 10:19 AM

Like Eve, my house is over a hundred years old.. so suspect SOMEONE has died here at some point..

*rolls eyes* Oh yeah thats toooooooooooo scary! I'll hurry and move to a cookie cutter piece of characterless crap in a subdivision 40 minutes awya from the nearest grocery store. *eyes rolled*

But this isn't about if someone merely died in your house. I was curious if someone was horribly murdered in your house if you would find it disturbing.

FriarTed

05-05-2004, 10:19 AM

Krisfer the Cat

05-05-2004, 10:20 AM

Oh hush Eve...

You all know I meant your house...
though being built in 1899 its a young'un next to your house. :D

calm kiwi

05-05-2004, 10:24 AM

I'm with your Dad. A simple suicide or one-on-one murder I might be able to take. Something like a mass slaughter or especially child-murder would creep me out too much.

A simple suicide? Here is hoping you never get to find out how "simple" they are.

FriarTed

05-05-2004, 10:29 AM

Nothing happened in OJ's house. The murder happened at his ex-wife's condo in Brentwood. It was torn down.

That property is around the corner from the house of one of my mother's oldest friends (since before I was born). She was aquainted with the victim. The endless parade of fucking morons driving by to take their picture in front of that house essentially ruined the neighborhood. What kind of braindead tool would make a special trip to look at a fence and hedge around a condo and then pose for a snapshot?

Haj

We just drove around & around taking photos from the car. We didn't actually get out & pose! (This was I think a year fter the murder.)

FriarTed

05-05-2004, 10:32 AM

A simple suicide? Here is hoping you never get to find out how "simple" they are.

ARRGH! *bangs head on keyboard!* That's not what I meant but I am not gonna remotely try to defend myself! I'm sorry.

Marconi & Schmeese

05-05-2004, 03:03 PM

No one died, per se, but a man was caught raping his stepdaughter at my parent's lake house (before they bought it). In the master bedroom. I try to not think about it too much. :(

DMark

05-05-2004, 06:51 PM

I lived in an old apartment building in Berlin and one of the elderly neighbors who lived there during WWII told me quite a few people from the apartment building died in the cellar under the front of the apartment complex when a bomb hit across the street and knocked the basement foundation wall on top of them.

It happened in the cellar - exactly at the location I was assigned for storage of old books and stuff. Every time I went down there, I felt more sad that creeped out.

AntaresJB

05-05-2004, 07:04 PM

A rather grisly murder took place in the house I lived in until I was 11. I don't recall the details, but it was 3 people, I believe a man killed his wife and two kids. Someting about playing tic-tac-toe with a knife on their chests.. yeah, it was pretty bad. I dind't know about it for years, until a kid in elementary school was like, "You know you live in the Kepner Hill Murder house!" So I went home and asked my parents about it.

Mariemarie

05-05-2004, 09:41 PM

A man died from an overdose in the house where we now live. At least 2 other families have lived here in the intervening time. I don't get any creepy feelings about it, but I feel some sadness for him when I think about it, which isn't often. It would probably bother me more if it were a violent murder that happened recently.

Bites When Provoked

05-06-2004, 12:16 AM

Oh, and the buyer thought it was one of the coolest things that this (http://www.th-record.com/1998/01/01-16-98/suksmu.htm) happened in the house he was buying - weirdo :p

I read this bit:

A bartender at Bum and Kel's Restaurant yesterday had mixed emotions. "Thank God that son of a bitch is dead," said bartender Big Red, who knew Kelly for years. "It's just too bad he took someone else with him."

at least 3 or 4 times (including once again from the top of the story) before realizing that the bartender is talking about Nolan. I was trying to find out why he hated Kelly so much. :smack:

That's one heck of a misleading sentence.