The Stories Behind Three of America's Most Haunted Houses
Step inside some of the country's most haunted properties—if you dare.
By Hunter Harris and Stephanie Parra
Photo: Denver Public Library
Location: Denver
Spirits in Residence: The "Unsinkable Molly Brown," famous for successfully escaping the Titanic, and her husband, J.J.
Spook Sightings: Visitors to the home, which is now a museum, have reportedly spotted a woman in Victorian dress rearranging chairs at the dining room table and caught whiffs of J.J.'s pipe and cigar smoke. And every October, the security system goes on the fritz.
Photo: Paul Iverson/Corpus Christi Caller-Times/AP Photo
Location: Berclair, Texas
Spirits in Residence: At least one of the five Wilkinson sisters (who all lived in the home) and "a man hiding in the attic"; caretakers think he may be a Confederate Civil War deserter.
Spook Sightings: In 1999, after standing empty for some 30 years, the 22-room home opened as a museum, where repairmen say they've seen female figures sleeping in beds and waving from windows and heard doors closing in empty rooms.
Photo: Brian F. Call Photography
Location: Miami
Spirits in Residence: The inhabitants of the tribal burial ground lying beneath part of this 444-acre estate, once home to farm-machinery magnate Charles Deering and now a cultural center.
Spook Sightings: One ghost hunter claims she recorded 60 paranormal voices on the property; other visitors say they've heard drums, glimpsed a woman motioning for help at the boat basin and seen furniture shift. And a visitor wrote a poem here, with phrases that mirrored those in Deering's personal journals.
Published 09/17/2014