![]() The Mystery House designation was given to the house in a newspaper article after a visit by famed illusionist, Harry Houdini. John Brown had a history of working in carnivals and he knew how to sell a good story. In 1923, the house itself was sold at auction and eventually wound up in the hands of a John Brown who saw the possibilities in opening it up as a tourist attraction. Without a 160 room mansion, the furniture contained within those 160 rooms would be a little hard to store! She left all the furniture in the house to her niece who put it up for auction. Clearly she had done a good job of outrunning malevolent spirits. In any event, Sarah Winchester died in 1922 at the ripe old age of 82. The Pardee side of the family were wealthy in their own right so it wasn’t like she was going to be poor if she got rid of the Winchester money. She neither got rid of her shares in the evil Winchester money nor the money that came from it. ![]() Without the money, the spirits had no reason to haunt her. I wondered why Sarah Winchester would not have just given away her inheritance to charity. The construction foreman had a house on-site. All those Native Americans, civil war soldiers, outlaws, sheriffs etc who had been killed using the Winchester rifles did not go gently into that good night. Is the Winchester Mystery House Haunted?Īccording to the legend, when Sarah was living on the East Coast, she consulted a famous medium who told her that she was a victim of the blood money of her inheritance. Even in today’s money, Sarah’s inheritance would be considered a nice chunk of change but back in the late 19th century, it made her an enormously wealthy woman. She had about a $1000 a day to spend as she wished. Upon William’s death, Sarah inherited $20 million dollars in cash and shares in the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. She traveled the world for 3 years and then eventually settled in California where she had relatives from the Pardee side of her family. When William died in 1881 at the age of 43, Sarah was devastated. Unfortunately, they lost an infant daughter to a rare disease in 1886. The couple were happy, young socialites living a charmed life in New England. Advertisements for the Winchester Rifles which played a major part in US history.
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