# Buying a house where a murder occurred
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [April 16, 2022, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917 "2022-04-16T13:19:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Danger\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danger_Man)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/1 "2022-04-16T13:19:21Z")
Just watched a movie where a foreign couple got fooled into buying a house that was the scene of several murders.
What are your feelings on the subject? Would you buy a house where a murder occurred?
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/2 "2022-04-16T13:38:31Z")
To be honest it would depend on the kind of murders. If someone snapped and killed their family or guests at the home owners’ house, I’d consider it. The house would have a tragic past, but there’s no reason to think said tragedy was unfinished in any way. The exception being if the media had made the case notorious rather than just this week’s sad story.
If the murders involved a drug deal gone wrong, organized crime, or something like the Manson family murders, absolutely not because I would worry about continued danger, be it someone looking for stuff they thought might be in the house or attracting wackos who found the murder scene enticing.
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### Author:  [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/3 "2022-04-16T13:57:55Z")
Agreed, if the circumstances were such that there’s a chance of continued criminal activity involving the property or busloads of “murder tourists” showing up at my doorstep, I’d think twice. If the only concern is “ghooooooosts!” then I wouldn’t hesitate.
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### Author:  [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/4 "2022-04-16T14:04:20Z")
I would agree on steering clear of something involving criminal activity.
I don’t have much patience with the idea of haunted houses, although I do enjoy a good (or bad, doesn’t matter) haunted-house movie. And I would say that if the murder was a matter of someone coming home and finding their spouse in bed with someone else and popping off a few rounds into them, I could overlook that.
But if the murders were like one of those movies where the nut case kidnaps women and keeps them in cages in the basement until he decides to . . . well, do whatever, that’s going to be too creepy for me. I’ll continue my search elsewhere, thankyouverymuch.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/5 "2022-04-16T14:10:18Z")
I don’t see much difference a “murder house” and a house where the occupant was sad.
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/6 "2022-04-16T14:19:01Z")
> [@dirtball](#):
>
> I don’t have much patience with the idea of haunted houses…
I’m very anti-superstitious, so what I’d do is spread the word around town, playing up every little detail of the murder. Maybe even put up a sign in the front lawn, and post details online (hhmm, maybe I’d hack Zillow…). I’d play recordings of screams at night, _and maybe during open houses,_ and spray painting MURDER HOUSE wouldn’t be out of the question.
Point is, by the time I offer half the listing price, the realtor would jump on my offer.
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### Author:  [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/7 "2022-04-16T16:08:43Z")
Several years ago there was a horrendous domestic murder spree at a house just off the freeway. A teenaged boy savagely murdered his mom and sister and chased his little sister who was waiting for her bus outside and killed her in the yard. Just an unspeakably violent episode. The boy was captured and put away for a long time.
The Dad was a long distance trucker so not at home. He was a broken man afterwards.
The house remained in the hands of the extended family maybe on the Moms side. This past Halloween the woman who lived there put up macabre decorations with crime scene tape and murder house written on the plate glass window. Mock gravestones in the yard with the names of the deceased. The neighbors were horrified and demanded she take down her display. She resisted, with lame excuses, the matter was reported on in the news and finally she backed down and took down the gross display.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/8 "2022-04-16T16:27:47Z")
> [@digs](#):
>
> I’m very anti-superstitious, so what I’d do is spread the word around town, playing up every little detail of the murder. Maybe even put up a sign in the front lawn, and post details online (hhmm, maybe I’d hack Zillow…). I’d play recordings of screams at night, _and maybe during open houses,_ and spray painting MURDER HOUSE wouldn’t be out of the question.
>
> Point is, by the time I offer half the listing price, the realtor would jump on my offer.
I can think of a couple ways that could backfire.
One, there are probably a few weirdos out there who _like_ the idea of owning a “murder house” and who would snap it up.
Two, even if you’re “anti-superstitious,” what if there’s someone whom you might want to visit you or live with you in that house who would be frightened away by the house’s reputation?
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/9 "2022-04-16T16:32:58Z")
> [@flurb](#):
>
> Agreed, if the circumstances were such that there’s a chance of continued criminal activity involving the property or busloads of “murder tourists” showing up at my doorstep, I’d think twice. If the only concern is “ghooooooosts!” then I wouldn’t hesitate.
> [@dirtball](#):
>
> I don’t have much patience with the idea of haunted houses, although I do enjoy a good (or bad, doesn’t matter) haunted-house movie.
Mostly this. If I were a fictional character in a novel or movie, I’d certainly think twice about buying a murder house, because ghosts and evil residues and things like that are real in quite a few fictional universes, and I could be in for all kinds of trouble.
In the real world, I don’t believe in such things. But my disbelief is more like agnosticism: I’m open to the possibility that I could be wrong, and I’d be willing to entertain belief if faced with reliable evidence.
What I’d probably do is visit the house and make sure I didn’t get any “bad vibes” or bad feelings from the place. Even if such feelings were all in my head, they could make living there uncomfortable.
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### Author:  [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/10 "2022-04-16T16:33:36Z")
In case of continued criminal activity there is also the possibility that the police could show up **AGAIN** and started digging on your property to search for dead bodies might have left there by the **previous** owners.
(It did **NOT** happen to me but it did occur to someone in my area.)
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/11 "2022-04-16T16:41:30Z")
I suspect that this is something that only Americans would worry about. When you’re living in a house that’s 500 years old, there’s a pretty good chance that there was a horrific crime committed there at some point in its history.
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### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/12 "2022-04-16T16:58:27Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> Mostly this. If I were a fictional character in a novel or movie, I’d certainly think twice about buying a murder house, because ghosts and evil residues and things like that are real in quite a few fictional universes, and I could be in for all kinds of trouble.
Depending on the universe, you might be surrounded by folk who poo-poo the idea and insist you stay despite the history of the house. The Crystal Lake problem, as it were.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/13 "2022-04-16T17:16:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> When you’re living in a house that’s 500 years old, there’s a pretty good chance that there was a horrific crime committed there at some point in its history.
How good a chance? (Maybe this would be a good [Fermi problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_problem).)
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### Author:  [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/14 "2022-04-16T17:34:45Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I suspect that this is something that only Americans would worry about. When you’re living in a house that’s 500 years old, there’s a pretty good chance that there was a horrific crime committed there at some point in its history.
To be fair, relatively few Europeans are living in 16th century houses. After all, they spent a good chunk of the 20th century clearing out their existing housing stocks via artillery and carpet bombing.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/15 "2022-04-16T17:45:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I suspect that this is something that only Americans would worry about. When you’re living in a house that’s 500 years old, there’s a pretty good chance that there was a horrific crime committed there at some point in its history.
[“Dark tourism”](https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/creepy-fates-murder-homes-fred-24158499) is a thing in many places. There was relief in Gloucester, England when the home of a couple who committed horrific serial murders was torn down, but the site has held [a continuing fascination for lots of people](http://gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/thousands-visit-site-fred-wests-39204) (it now consists of a walking path lined by trees).
“Notorious killer [Dennis Nilsen’s](https://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/dennis-nilsen) attic flat in Muswell Hill, north London, was bought by a couple for the cut price of £493,000 in 2016.”
“The buyers were untroubled that the monster had stashed 12 corpses in the home 30 years previously and clogged the drains with body parts.”
Even if the plumbing was fixed, I wouldn’t want to live there (at that price it’s difficult to think of any flats I’d want to buy). Like others have suggested, a routine murder wouldn’t dissuade me from buying a property; a well-publicized one that likely would draw a continuing parade of slack-jawed rubberneckers, no thanks.
There was an Ann Rule story about members of a family murdered by a deranged individual who believed that they had committed evil deeds. It turned out that the supposed malefactor(s) had actually been previous residents of the house.
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### Author:  [@epbrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/16 "2022-04-16T19:05:37Z")
^This. I was just watching an old Philosphy Tube episode about capital punishment and this was mentioned obliquely. An innocent man was convicted and executed for killing his family, all the while claiming his downstairs neighbor (a former policeman) had done it. Years later, it was discovered the neighbor _was_ a serial killer, and they found more bodies in the walls of the house and buried out back where the innocent man’s victims were buried (notable because the police still insisted the first guy had done it, and it was all a coincidence). The property was the scene of investigations years after the initial incident.
So yeah, my concern would be that issues surrounding the event weren’t over.
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/17 "2022-04-16T19:22:55Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> One, there are probably a few weirdos out there who _like_ the idea of owning a “murder house” and who would snap it up.
>
> Two, even if you’re “anti-superstitious,” what if there’s someone whom you might want to visit you or live with you in that house who would be frightened away by the house’s reputation?
Your first point is terrifying.
Your second one makes for an interesting follow up question:
**If you bought the house, would you feel obligated to reveal that to anyone who came over?** Would you announce it before you invited people for Thanksgiving, or make an announcement as you were about to carve the turkey with a huge serrated knife?
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/18 "2022-04-16T19:26:49Z")
I think you’re describing [the Christie murders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Christie_(serial_killer)).
Authorities remained the street in an attempt to remove the stigma of the killings, finally demolishing the building 25 years later.
> **[Chilling pictures of the real 10 Rillington Place before it was demolished](https://metro.co.uk/2016/11/30/chilling-pictures-of-the-real-10-rillington-place-before-it-was-demolished-to-erase-its-gruesome-past-6292178/)**
>
> Chilling pictures show Rillington Place before it was demolished.
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### Author:  [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/19 "2022-04-16T19:32:50Z")
I have done so in my neighborhood. I knew the man, who made rough choices in romantic partners, shall we say, and one of them killed him at home and bolted. After his murder was discovered [not me, praise be!] the house went through probate and a series of less and less involved owners, and I finally bought it at foreclosure auction. I’ve gutted it for renovation, and have occasionally verbalized to my late acquaintance my thanks that he’s moved on to haunt the murderer, and not the scene of the crime.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2022, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-a-house-where-a-murder-occurred/962917/20 "2022-04-16T19:40:02Z")
> [@digs](#):
>
> **If you bought the house, would you feel obligated to reveal that to anyone who came over?** Would you announce it before you invited people for Thanksgiving, or make an announcement as you were about to carve the turkey with a huge serrated knife?
Hell, I’d brag about it. Knowing my friends they’d want the whole story and I’d share the file I was keeping documenting the sick shit that had gone on.
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