Would you live in a "Murder House"?

[Tarantula]

There is a vacant house in a suburb of Dublin where a young homeless girl was battered to death a few months ago. The guy who owns this house it aparently is waiting to sell it because of the "murder house" stigma. I know - it sounds like something from a Stephen King novel.

Anyway - I'd buy it in the morning and live in it : no bother. Would this freak anyone else out ? And since I'm sure the answer will be "yes" (at least from some Dopers) - Why ?

Thanks.

PS - Mods, if this is in the wrong Forum - I apologise, but I posted it hear becuase I need a serious answer.

[Mangetout]

I saw a TV prog about this recently and it can be a good way to get a bargain, if you're not worried about reselling.
If the murdered had been caught and was to spend the rest of his life behind bars, and if the house had no discerible evidence (bloodstains on the floorboards etc), then I'd consider it, but only if it was the house I wanted in every other respect.

[Mangetout]

Murderer (obviously the murdered got caught).

Another condition would be that there was no evidence left to find - i.e. if only 70% of the dismembered body had been recovered on the property, I think I would pass.

[Tarantula]

The property is in the centre of the most expensive area in Dublin, and as far as I know there is no evidence of the murder left. Even if there was, you could get a trauma cleaner to come in and do his business.

Anyway, I'm glad someone that makes as much sense as you usually do agrees with me.

Thanks

[Mangetout]

I think I would also probably choose to do something that would honour the victim in some small way, perhaps planting a tree in the garden as a lasting (but unmarked) memorial, but that's just me.

[A Monkey With a Gun]

Originally posted by Mangetout
if only 70% of the dismembered body had been recovered on the property, I think I would pass.

But think of all the fun easter egg hunts you'd miss out on!

[Shodan]

Our first house went onto the market after the owner's husband died in the main bedroom. I imagine a lot of houses have had people die in them. I can't see why murder would make any difference, unless it was taken as evidence that the house was in a dangerous part of town.

Is this included in the list of stuff you must disclose when you sell?

Regards,
Shodan

[Fretful Porpentine]

Heck, I have lived in a murder house. OK, the murder occurred after my family moved out, but I certainly wouldn't be creeped out by the idea of moving back to the place, except that it's in a town I don't want to move back to.

Don't see why it would be a big deal, but some people are funny.

[keithnmick]

I knew some friends who bought the house from this case:
http://www.news-star.com/stories/101..._slaying.shtml

They got a really good deal on a great house - I was over there for a party and someone told me the creepy truth.

I think I would, if the price was right. Don't think my wife would go for it though.

[Gaudere]

[Moderator Hat ON]

This is more of a survey, so I am sending it to IMHO.

[Moderator Hat OFF]

[lisacurl]

I wouldn't have a problem with it, especially if it was a bargain. That check I write every month to my mortgage company is a helluva lot more real than any horror movie conditioning.

[WILLASS]

I couldn't care less if someone had been murdered in the house I was looking to buy unless it was a direct result of the area i.e cracksville or something. I mean if some one else has already been randomley murdered by a homicidal maniac in your house you are probabley statistically less likley to be the victim yourself, plus it would make a good talking point. 'Here we go Sue, Bob, this is the guestroom where you will be sleeping and funnily enough was where the last family was dismembered prior to being put through the wood chipper in the garden, sleep tight - just scream if you need anything.....night'

[Shrinking Violet]

No, I wouldn't buy it. I have always been particularly sensitive to the "feel" of a house, including the house I grew up in. I always hated that house and later discovered it was built on the site of an isolation hospital where many died. It still gives me the creeps today when I go back to visit my family.

Whereas the house I live in is great - as soon as I walked in I just knew I had to live here - it kinda "welcomed" me and feels like a "happy" house. Unlike one we visited when we were viewing to buy. It felt "all wrong" to me .... didn't get the chance to turn it down though. One week later the husband murdered the wife, and the house was taken off the market .....!

Julie

[gwendee]

It depends for me on the degree of notoriety of the case. If it were just a matter of a domestic dispute gone horribly out of hand and I could spackle over the bullet hole in the bedroom wall then fine no problem.

If it were a highly publicized case, particularly involving a child or children that rallied a community together the house might be a focal point for some folks.The fact of the murder itself wouldn't prevent me buying a house but I wouldn't want to continually find flowers jammed in my fence and teddy bears with notes saying "She's in heaven now" and votive candles on my driveway.

[TWDuke]

I don't know. I have no belief in ghosts, psychic residue or anything like that, but I imagine if I knew someone had been recently murdered in the house I might think about it a lot, and that wouldn't be pleasant. Plus, my neighbors would have unpleasant associations with it that might transfer on to me. ("He's the weirdo who just moved into the murder house" sounds somehow worse than "He's the weirdo who just moved into the craftsman bungalow with the detached garage.") That said, if it were a real bargain I wouldn't rule it out, but I can see downsides.

I mean if some one else has already been randomley murdered by a homicidal maniac in your house you are probabley statistically less likley to be the victim yourself

If murder's were truly random, you'd be just as likely.

[handy]

Oh, I thought this was some sort of new reality show. Bunch of real people in a house together & one by one they disappear.

I think I might stay in one if I didn't know. Alot of people don't know the history of the place they are in. ...

[Indygrrl]

I could absolutely never live in a murder house. I am plagued by nightmares and bizarre worries as it is, that would just make me crazier.

[Ca3799]

I thought about this alot a couple of years ago.

I wouldn't have a problem myself, but would probably not buy a 'murder house' if I had kids (which I do).

There is a house in the neighborhood where I now live where a particularly well covered crime happened. When we were house shopping/moving (and while the crime was still in the news) we talked about 'what if' the house was available, would we look at it?, etc. It had a good location and size suitable for our needs. We were sure the price would be good due to the noteriety and obviously the area prices suited us anyway. We decided not to look at it because the kids are so young and we wouldn't want them to have to deal with any stigma from other kids in the neighborhood, although I certainly felt up to dealing with the attached stigma, myself.


We bought a few blocks away for the 'murder house'.

If it were just me, I wouldn't care too much.

[DreadCthulhu]

Living in a "Murder House" wouldn't bother me at all. Heck, it would be perfect for the "Ceremonies" I would do anyways . . .

[Peach]

Originally posted by Tarantula
The property is in the centre of the most expensive area in Dublin, and as far as I know there is no evidence of the murder left. Even if there was, you could get a trauma cleaner to come in and do his business.

Thanks

This sounds exactly what i am going thru right now. My S/O has discovered a little gem of a house located in a VERY affluent neighborhood for a very affordable price.
The problem? Its a murder house!
A couple of years again an older lady murdered her husband while he slept and now she is in the loony bin.
The weird thing is, i've been to the house, and it still has all her stuff there! Piles and piles of trash, dishes still in the sink, all the funiture, clothes, toys - EVERYTHING. Its so creepy. its like the people who were living there just got up a left.
We are so close to getting the house but at the same time i never want to live there!

[Palo Verde]

No way.

I once lived in a duplex that I just hated for no particular reason. I always felt like I couldn't breathe there, especially in the kitchen.

I later found out that the previous tennants were very violent and the wife was always getting beat up. She was actually stabbed in the kitchen.

Too creepy.

[oceans_11]

What a great question- I've always wondered how people felt about this. Personally, I would have a weird, illogical feeling that some sort of "bad mana" would be attached to the house.

At the risk of hijacking the thread - for those of you who would buy the house, is there a line you wouldn't cross? Would you sit in or sleep in a recliner or bed that someone died (or was killed)in?

Or use (normally) a tool or implement that caused a death ("...oh, by the way, that knife you're using to cut your steak with? Well...")?

[Lamar Mundane]

It's no bargain at $1.6M, but this one's for sale.

Photo

Nice place

[Trigonal Planar]

If I could get a good deal on it, absolutely.

[Mr. Excellent]

I wonder if there's a logical explanation for the people in this thread who say they get bad feels from houses they later learn had violent pasts? Maybe pheremones from the previous owners? Or maybe just slight hints of damage to counters, walls, whatever, which we don't really notice but subliminally give the impression that bad things went down here. I don't know, just a thought.

[Ethilrist]

Sure. I currently live in an insanity house. A guy who lived here in the 60's went insane and moved into the basement and lived like a troglodyte until the guys in the white suits came and took him away...

[Peach]

Originally posted by Mr. Excellent
I wonder if there's a logical explanation for the people in this thread who say they get bad feels from houses they later learn had violent pasts? Maybe pheremones from the previous owners? Or maybe just slight hints of damage to counters, walls, whatever, which we don't really notice but subliminally give the impression that bad things went down here. I don't know, just a thought.

This lady friend of mine says she could never live in a murder house because she "is really sensitive to the vibrations in a house"

ghost vibrations??? i have no idea

[lieu]

I had a hard enough time just convincing my wife to go for a house in which a divorce had occured.

[insomnia4AM]

Originally posted by Peach
This lady friend of mine says she could never live in a murder house because she "is really sensitive to the vibrations in a house"

ghost vibrations??? i have no idea

I think it's the energy a person feels. For instance, if you go and visit a place you used to go when you were young, and every experience you had there was positive, other people might pick up on that energy, and feel happy. Same goes for the negative experiences. If someone was murdered in a house, the memories there are horrible, and a heavy, depressing feeling might come over people.

I personally would feel weird living in a "murder house". Just knowing that would be enough for my overactive imagination to run wild.

[Q.N. Jones]

This is probably an indication that I'm a sicko, but I think it would be a selling point for me. I like the idea of owning a house with interesting history. I like old houses for this very reason. That a murder happened there would add to the allure. I'm attracted to the idea that exciting things have happened in the place where I live/work/whatever, good or bad. (If I could buy a house where George Washington slept, for example, that would be cool also--it's not just "murder houses" I'm attracted to.)

Although I think a house with a creepy story attached to it--a murder story, a death story, a ghost story, whatever--would be the coolest kind. I too have an active imagination, but I think I would enjoy occasionally being a little freaked out when I heard something go bump in the night. It would be fun to scare kids with ghost stories about Miss Jones's scary murder house.

I'm not saying I'd want to exploit it for the notoriety, but I do think it would be cool to be known as the crazy lady who lives in the haunted house.

[malkavia]

I don't think I could do it. If I didn't know what had happened in the house, I doubt I'd have any problems with it, but as soon as someone mentions that Baby Jane was raised in the basement and dismembered with a rusty spoon, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. My head would run with it and pretty soon I'd be convinced I'm hearing things in the basement and every hallway feels creepy and OH MY GOD, IS THAT BLOOD SEEPING OUT OF THE WALLS AGAIN!?!?!

Yeah, no good. My imagination is far too impressionable.

[Eirik]

In my case, like some others, it would depend on the situation. If it was a murder 15 years ago, the killer was caught and punished and it's not a particulally well known crime, I probebly would barely think twice about it. If it happened recently, probebly not. I think if the killer was uncaught and the crime unsolved, I also wouldn't. I'm *just* parinoid enough to have trouble sleeping in a house like that.

A freind of a freind owns a famous murder house, the Lizzy Bordon house in Rhode Island. She has a B&B I guess, and gives tours. I've never been there myself, but I guess owning a famous murder house can be a way to make a few bucks.

On a related note, my mother was once a real estate agent in southern California. A home came on the market in which all three previous owners had committed suicide in the house (one just days before escrow closed on selling it). She never even showed the house, and refused to enter it.

[Baker]

Back in the late 40's and early 50's, here in Topeka, there was a woman, a nurse, who took in and cared for young women who were having "spontaneous early miscarriages" or "unexplained bleeding". As you might have guessed the young women needed abortions. Sometimes these were initiated by the doctor and the girl was sent to HBM(her initials. She may also have performed abortions, not sure.

My mother, a highschooler in that period, told me there were whispers amongst the girls at school about HBM

I got a look at the house about twenty years ago, when it was on the market. The agent said "Well, this was the HBM house you know." I'd never heard the tale, but even when I did I would have jumped at the place if I could have afforded it. Big rooms, hardwood floors, brick, big fireplace, and so on. A big room upstairs, which may have been a "ward" had windows on all four sides, the better to look out for the cops we were told. And originally, before remodelling, a car could be driven into a lowere level garage, and the occupants could go all the way upstairs, without being seen by outsiders. There were rumors that the reason HBM spent only one night ever in jail was because she had "assisted" the daughters of people who were local movers and shakers.

Whatever had once gone on there, it was a great house that had been well kept up by subsequent owners.

[AskNott]

I do live in a murder house. I owned it when it happened. The condensed version: A friend was going through a divorce, and I let him stay with us "for a few weeks." One night, when my wife and I were out of town for a meeting, the friend's estranged wife came over, got into an argument, and was rather messily stabbed to death. The insurance company brought in a cleanup crew, painters, and carpet people. There's no physical trace of the murder, and no evidence of a ghost. I still think about it occasionally, 11 years later, but I would if I didn't live here. It's a great house, and I didn't want to move.

[Padeye]

With TheLadyLion's love of The Rotting Corpse Channel, AKA Court TV, I think she's be eager to get a bargain on a murder house.

[FisherQueen]

I grew up in a 'murder house.' My parents got a good price for it, both because of the stigma of being the site of a crime and because the place itself needed a lot of repair. The actual murder had been in a decaying mobile home in the back yard, and my parents had that removed and planted a vegetable garden where it had been.

I was never bothered by the murder/suicide that had taken place there, and in fact it gave the place a certain cachet. I enjoyed telling the story of the crime in grisly detail whenever I would host a slumber party.

No sign whatsover of ghosts, negative energies, or anything else, although there were quite a few mice.

[Alto]

It wasn't exactly a murder, but...

I looked at an apartment share once--it was a beautiful place, large, on a park, nice roomates, and very cheap. And then they proudly showed me their "other roommate." The previous tenant, an old man, had died of a heart attack in August and not been discovered for several days. By that time there was a man-shaped stain on the floor that was not removable (except by replacing the floor, which the landlord didn't want to be bothered with). The most unnerving thing was that he had been trying to get to the telephone when he died, so the shape on the floor was reaching toward the phone.

I was surprised to discover that I just couldn't live there. I think it's silly of me, since there's no good reason, but that shadow stretching toward the phone was just too much.

[fruitbat]

Slight Hijack

I know a fellow who was down on his luck. He had spent a decade after leaving the army doing handy work and light carpentry. He got the idea to open a cleaning business that only did crime scenes and dead body cleanups. He started in the mid 80s in Washington DC. He charges outrageous prices for the cleanings, but has become very wealthy.

That job epitomizes the occupation one would never know existed. Apparently though when you call a regular cleaning service they won't touch the crime scene clean ups.

[Trigonal Planar]

[b]fruitbat[/i]

Actually, there are quite a few such crime scene clean-up companies now a days. The "secret" (aka: huge profit) is sort of out in the open now.

[Freudian Slit]

I would, and I wouldn't just tolerate it because of a low price like some of you. I'd go out of my way to do so, too...It's a murder house, man. You know, murder. I can't explain it, but I know that I would want to. Perhaps I'm eerie, morbid, strange. Let's just say...some people need that white picket fence with a golden retriever and an SUV. I'd like the thought of torsos and blood stained knives possibly being hidden behind the fireplace.

[bytheway]

When my wife and I were house-hunting a couple years ago, we found what seemed to be the perfect house. The house was in a nice area and had a very nice view. We made an offer which was accepted, and entered into escrow.

When we got the disclosure statement a week later, we found out the brother of the owner had committed suicide (slashed his wrists?) in a bedroom some 15 years ago. He was described as emotionally disturbed from his wife having left him, and had been hearing voices.

At first, I thought it was no big deal. Then my wife said she wouldn't want to be home alone in the house. And I started to worry about how my kids would feel later...so we chickened out and cancelled the deal.

I didn't get any bad vibes or anything, but as I told my wife, I wouldn't have watched any spooky movies in the house if we had bought it.

By the way, in Hawaii you are apparently required to disclose any violent deaths in the house you are selling. In other houses we looked at, we also had disclosed to us some natural deaths.

[MaddyStrut]

As others have said, as long as it wasn't a problem with the neighborhood (e.g. next to a crack den), I'd have no issues--of course, I didn't even think of hidden body parts till I read Mangetout's post (icky!) And I'm assuming the house is all cleaned up (a chalk outline still on the living room floor would not be a selling point).

Personally, I don't believe houses have energy or retained negativity or anything. I'd be more concerned with leaky basements and termites.

Of course, if the murder were well-known in the neighborhood you could really do some outrageous stuff on Halloween to freak out trick-or-treaters!

[SnoopyFan]

No, I wouldn't buy the house because I believe said house would have evil spirits still hanging out in it.

Plus I have vowed never to buy someone else's house again. I'd rather build my own problems than buy somebody else's.

[Audrey Levins]

Alto, that is immensely disturbing. I'm not sure why.

I couldn't live there either. Ugh.

bytheway, I believe that "full disclosure" requires the seller of any house to disclose any and all information on that house, including deaths/crimes/murders that took place there. If the seller doesn't, and the buyer finds out, it can void the entire contract. Even if the house is just supposedly haunted--things go bump in the night--this must also be disclosed. (Of course, full disclosure doesn't just apply to grisly incidents; it also includes foundation repair and mundane things like that.)

I would probably buy a Murder House, if I liked it, but it would probably be on a case-by-case basis. If someone had gone slowly crazy and slaughtered their whole family, I'd probably pass on the house....but if someone got into a shouting match with their spouse and shot him/her, that would be different. The age of the house would probably be a variable, too; new construction is just not as potentially creepy as an older home.

This makes no sense, I am well aware.

A friend of mine rented an older home in a historical district, and was so creeped out by the house that she hated being left alone in it, and couldn't go to sleep upstairs if she was by herself. Apparently several spinster sisters had lived out their lives in the house, and died, one by one, of natural causes....and then when the last sister died, the house was sold and rented out.

My friend won't discuss, to this day, precisely what creeped her out--she said she'd think about it too much if she talked about it, particularly in the house, because she said somebody "might be listening"--but she was ecstatic to leave the house and says she'll never buy anything but a brand new home now.

[Ranchoth]

For me, it would depend on who got murdered, and how.

If it was a house used by a serial killer who had abducted, sexually assaulted, then ritually cannibalized children, then no, I wouldn't want to live there.

If, on the other hand, it was just a house where a bunch of upper-class frat boys had accidently killed a "pledge" during a drunken hazing, I might consider living there.

[Tir Tinuviel]

I'm with Q.N. Jones.

It'd add interest to the house. A bit of history, especially a nice grusome one is a huge bonus!

I'd be evil to my "sensitive" friends though... "right where you're standing is where he stabbed her to death - repeatedly... hacking away at her still twitching body.... Mwhahahahahaaaaaa!"


Mind you, I do that anyway. heh!


Don't some of these Murder Houses actually increase in value because of what happened there?
I'm sure I read something about The Tate/Polanski
House on Cielo Drive being sold for more because of the Manson Family killing, or am I getting myself confused?

[Edward The Head]

Originally posted by lieu
I had a hard enough time just convincing my wife to go for a house in which a divorce had occured.

I did buy a house that the people went through a nasty divorce, they took everything out of the house before the left too. I ended up leaving my wife a year later.

[malkavia]

Originally posted by Edward The Head
I did buy a house that the people went through a nasty divorce, they took everything out of the house before the left too. I ended up leaving my wife a year later.

Did you give her the "It's not you, hunny.. it's this house" line?

[Zebra]

One murder OK I'll live there.

One person kills entire family and the postman because the cat told him to do it

Probably not.

One person kills his whole family and this has happend to each owner of the house.

No way.

[Isabelle]

If it was one person and there wern't any blood and guts left behind I probably would if the house was a steal.

I knew a kid who accidently shot himself in the head and blew his brains out in the house. There were brain fragments on the wall, the floor, even the paddle fan. The family repainted the walls but the blood kept showing through. Finally they wallpapered. The same thing with the carpet. They ketp cleaning the carpet but the body fluid stains kept coming through so they had to replace the carpet.