quote:Originally posted by Logoboros: I was just watching the wretched remake of The Amityville Horror and this set me wondering about the stigma attached to the sites of murders or other horrors.
My question: would you buy or live in a house in which you knew people had been murdered (especially if it's a great bargain)?
Given that most people (especially on this site -- or so recent topics would indicate) don't really believe in ghosts, one would expect that there's not much of a reason why the answer should be no. Is there another reason to justify the sense of hesitation or discomfort or general ickiness that the idea of a "murder house" seems to inspire even in the non-superstitious?
--Logoboros
Stephen King once pointed out that the original movie worked well on the level that the house was forcing this couple into financial ruin -- that this was the true horror.
I suppose that's the level where it would concern me. Beyond the squick of knowing someone came to a bad end in my house, this is a major investment. I mean, even if you could resell the house, could you morally bring yourself to do so? (On the presumption the house went all Amity.)
In (hopefully not related)other news, one of my dogs is freaked out by my new house. Perhaps he's pretending in order to get treats, but I don't think so -- he doesn't have a poker tail or ears.
ETA: This reminds me that I took a tour on St. Paul recently, and the tour guide said that Forepaugh's Restaurant was haunted by a ghost of a chambermaid who killed herself in the 1800s. Legend has it that Mr. Forebaugh got her pregnant, and then broke off the relationship, so she hung herself outside the window -- possibly to bring shame to the family. Anyhow, people who work there claim weird occurences, and the occasional sighting. (As an added noted, Forepaugh also committed suicide later on, but in a different home.)
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About 15 years ago a serial killer brutally murdered 5 college students here in Gainesville. The case has gotten a lot of press recently because the killer is set to be executed in the next week or so.
The murders occurred in three different apartment complexes here in town. The most high-profile one completely shut down in 2004 and is currently being used as a law enforcement training site. Those buildings are being torn down to make way for new housing. In another complex, one of the apartments in which a girl was murdered was rented for a while, but the owners had trouble renting it after that, so they turned it into the "model" apartment they use for showing to new residents. I don't know about the third apartment. I do know that one of the places changed names due to bad publicity.
For me it would depend on several factors. Would I want to live in a "murder house"? No. But if I really loved the house and/or location, I probably wouldn't care. When I move into a new place I do a "cleansing" with sage incense in which I symbolicly get rid of any memories or residue of previous residents. Even though I know I'm not actually doing anything, it helps clear my mind and helps me really think of the place as "all mine".
I've been in rooms where people have recently died (like old people who died in their beds) and although the room was uncomfortable for me to be in for a few days, I got over it.
I wouldn't want to live in a high profile place that would attract lots of sightseers. If the occasional person pulled into the drive or took a photo from the street I'd probably be able to live with that.
A "suicide house" would not bother me because I understand the mind of a suicidal person and have been there myself.
Knowing gruesome details of a murder might not deter me from living in a place. I've no idea what's happened in my apartment before I lived here. Someone could have been raped or tortured as far as I know (although it wouldn't have been a high profile case). I'd be more bothered imagining all the icky sexual things that have probably occurred here over the years. It's another reason I do both the symbolic and actual Lysol cleansing once I move in.
-------------------- "There is no constitutional right to sleep with endangered reptiles." -- Carl Hiaasen Won't somebody please think of the adults! Posts: 8254 | From: Florida | Registered: Oct 2002
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Earlier in this thread I said it would be an unpleasant association (in my case knowing the victim) that would put me off a house with a history of murder in it rather than any scare about the ghost of a murder victim. I am, however, very sensitive to how a place feels irrespective of it's history.
The house I live in now originates from around 1650 so I dare say all manner of deaths have happened here. It's situated beside a fairly recently discovered iron age burial site too so plenty of opportunity for spookiness but I've never felt anything but comfortable and secure here.
By way of contrast the last house I lived in was built in 1972 on the site of a farmyard. It has no history of untoward events associated with it but I was forever getting spooked there. The place never had a good feeling about it and I often slept with the light on all night. It was a happy day for me when I handed over the keys.
Some people are very uncomfortable about houses with an association with death. My neighbours discovered a tunnel leading to a crypt during recent renovations and freaked. They had it cement filled before the week was out which I think is a bit of a shame. I would have been fascinated by that and at least have let the local archaeology group take a gander at it first. Tragic waste of a potentially excellent wine cellar if you ask me.
Posts: 589 | From: Oxfordshire, UK | Registered: Jun 2005
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I would have no problem living in a murder house, unless:
The killer was never caught, and vowed to kill everyone that moves in.
Everyone that has ever lived in the house was murdered.
The body is still there.
It's next to the prison where the murderer is housed.
I do know, that in the last house I lived in, whoever it was that wallpapered the kitchen should have been murdered in the house.
-------------------- On the crusade to eliminate Moral Asshattery wherever it exists Member: AAMAH Posts: 2940 | From: Michigan | Registered: Feb 2004
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I lived in a house where a murder took place, and yes it was haunted so I dont see any reason why I couldnt do it again.
-------------------- I looked at my sleeping husband and longed to plunge my elbow through his peaceful face. ~ Annissa Posts: 381 | From: Nashville | Registered: Mar 2005
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On a related note, would you live in a house that was next door to a cemetary? I've asked a few people this, and they were squicked out at the idea. I personally wouldn't have a problem with it- quiet neighbors!
-------------------- "Seize the day! Make your lives extraordinary!" -John Keating, "Dead Poets Society" Posts: 2861 | From: New Jersey | Registered: May 2004
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I rent a house (upstairs apartment) that I'm told there was a murder in, in the 30s. Never verified it... someone at my Nana's funeral brought it up. Uncle didn't want me to know, because, even though he knew I wouldn't care, he thought Mom would freak out.
Mom has always talked about getting the creeps in the house, even before they told her that, but then she thinks the house is gonna sink in the ground with the rest of the town. The upstairs is really falling apart... can't wait to move soon.
-------------------- Stand up, slip on the bathtub floor, fling a hand up to balance yourself, and happen to have your mouth open on the downswing. Voila, a new hole in your face.
-Tabby, on how she cut her lip while shaving her legs. Posts: 5097 | From: Nova Scotia, Canada | Registered: Sep 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Zorro: On a related note, would you live in a house that was next door to a cemetary? I've asked a few people this, and they were squicked out at the idea. I personally wouldn't have a problem with it- quiet neighbors!
As my dear departed Dad would say. You have nothing to fear from the dead. It's the living you have to worry about.
Posts: 589 | From: Oxfordshire, UK | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
I live in a suicide house (which wasn't disclosed when we bought it, since the previous owners had gone bankrupt and the bank had seized it) and I've never had any sort of supernatural experiences despite having spent the night in same room as the suicide (an add-on flat) many times.
So I'd have to say that unless it had a history of haunting I would have no qualms about buying a murder house. Not because I believe in ghosts, but because I know I would creep myself out over the slightest noise, and because I have a bit of a fear of nightmares which I'm sure it would induce.
Posts: 417 | From: Escondido, California | Registered: Jun 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Zorro: On a related note, would you live in a house that was next door to a cemetary? I've asked a few people this, and they were squicked out at the idea. I personally wouldn't have a problem with it- quiet neighbors!
Exactly. The older the cemetery, the more I enjoy it because it has character.
Have you seen the commercial where the couple's cheap hotel room turns out to be cheap because it's located next to a cemetery? They immediately pack up their bags and search for a better hotel with a more scenic view. (The ad is for an online hotel finder.) I keep wondering why it would be so bad to stay at a place overlooking a cemetery. At least it would be quiet! (Which I think was the selling point of the fictional hotel in the commercial.)
-------------------- "There is no constitutional right to sleep with endangered reptiles." -- Carl Hiaasen Won't somebody please think of the adults! Posts: 8254 | From: Florida | Registered: Oct 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Zorro: On a related note, would you live in a house that was next door to a cemetary? I've asked a few people this, and they were squicked out at the idea. I personally wouldn't have a problem with it- quiet neighbors!
A knew a family who lived across the street from a cemetery. They lived on a corner and the view from 3/4s of the windows was the vast cemetery. It never bothered them. They had an amazing backyard- it was a double lot in Los Angeles with a cool hill at the back of the property. Us kids would stand on top of the hill and jump, trying to catch the wheels of planes departing from LAX so we could travel the world. In my childish mind that was the coolest house in the world.
I was surprised to learn later that it took them over a year to sell the house. Even with the rare gigantic backyard, spacious house, quiet neighborhood and incredibly low price, no one wanted to live across the street from the cemetery.
-------------------- This used to be the life, but I don't need another one. MyBandwagon Posts: 3254 | From: small town Texas | Registered: Jan 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Zorro: On a related note, would you live in a house that was next door to a cemetary? I've asked a few people this, and they were squicked out at the idea. I personally wouldn't have a problem with it- quiet neighbors!
My husband vetoed a house that was across the street from a cemetary. The house had a well, and he was concerned about seepage. Thinking back on it though, I think the house was uphill from the graveyard.
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Yes, yes I would, especially if the house went for well below market value as a result of the taboo. Mooommmeee's Grandfather bought a "murder" dumptruck a while back (one used to transport a bloodied corpse after a murder.) He simply parked it in a garage and hung onto it long enough for everyone to forget about the case and resold it for a pretty hefty profit after a year or so.
-------------------- "If I didn't see it and didn't know it was a real news report, I wouldn't believe it. I mean, how nutty can you get?"-Pat Robertson Oct 26, 2006. Posts: 2936 | From: Mean Streets of West Virginia | Registered: Feb 2003
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I also wouldn't have a problem living across the street from a cemetery. Hell, growing up where I did? I lived within walking distance of a rather large cemetery, and several of my friends lived close to cemeteries.
It wasn't a big deal to us. We used to wander around and read headstones, because it was interesting. Heck, we used to look for our distant relatives!
It's not the dead who bother me. The living are annoying, though, as in the people who would be constantly, constantly, CONSTANTLY asking, "Doesn't it BOTHER you, to live so CLOSE to a CEMETERY?"
Hell, we live down the street from the local cemetery now. Doesn't seem to have any effect on our house and whether or not it's haunted!
-------------------- Beware corporate zombies! They will purchase your brain on E-Bay! Posts: 2310 | From: California | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Zorro: On a related note, would you live in a house that was next door to a cemetary? I've asked a few people this, and they were squicked out at the idea. I personally wouldn't have a problem with it- quiet neighbors!
Exactly. The older the cemetery, the more I enjoy it because it has character.
Have you seen the commercial where the couple's cheap hotel room turns out to be cheap because it's located next to a cemetery? They immediately pack up their bags and search for a better hotel with a more scenic view. (The ad is for an online hotel finder.) I keep wondering why it would be so bad to stay at a place overlooking a cemetery. At least it would be quiet! (Which I think was the selling point of the fictional hotel in the commercial.)
I love walking around in old old cemetaries and seeing what the old gravestones say!
And, yes, I've seen that commercial, which is what brought my question to mind. I mentioned it to hubby and commented, "I don't see what the big deal is." Hubby said he thought that the two men in the cemetary grinning creepily at the couple would freak him out, but not the cemetary itself.
-------------------- "Seize the day! Make your lives extraordinary!" -John Keating, "Dead Poets Society" Posts: 2861 | From: New Jersey | Registered: May 2004
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I probably wouldn't but I can't totally promise. I don't believe in ghosts but I don't not believe in ghosts so I don't want to tempt fate! A simple death OTOH, would probably be OK. If an 85YO man died in his sleep & that's why the wife is selling the house, that would probably be OK. AFA creepy houses, I graduated H.S. with the local funeral directors son & the funeral home was a part of the family house. That use to creep me out a bit when I was little but apparently neither he or his siblings had a problem with it. I believe there was a pretty good locked door between the 'family' part & the 'funeral' part so it was unlikely the kids would accidentally walk into a room & see a dead body or something.
-------------------- I cannot live without books-Thomas Jefferson *~* A child educated only at school is an uneducated child - George Santayana I'm going to pummel you with such zeal, Buddha will explode! *~* Never miss a good chance to shut up - Will Rogers Posts: 6585 | From: Dallas/Fort Worth, TX | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Logoboros: Building off of what Victoria said about the degree of grisliness being an issue:
How much of a difference would knowing the details make? Say you were given the Alfred-Hitchcock-trailer-of-Psycho tour of the place? "This is the very shower stall where she was stabbed fourteen times!" or "On this staircase she beat his head in with a baseball bat!" or "Here is the small room in the basement where he imprisoned the girl for six months, slowly starving her to death! You could store your winter linens in it!"
It wouldn't make any difference to me whatsoever. Things like that just don't bother me.
-------------------- Silence should never under any circumstances be construed as agreement. A lot of the time, it's simply a reflection that someone just said something so stupid that no response could possibly do it justice. - Ramblin' Dave Posts: 8528 | From: Nottingham, England | Registered: Feb 2000
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I think a cemetery would bother me more than a murder house. I'm oddly gifted in my ability to suddenly develop a complete lack of imagination in most cases of "Think about that! Isn't it awful?", but cemeteries -- like the upper floors of the university library -- always strike me as oppressively quiet. Like if you made any noise it wouldn't so much break the quiet as hang unpleasantly in the air and make the quiet glare disapprovingly at you. I'd feel like I wasn't allowed to let loose and live a little (no pun intended) if I was in sight of one at all times.
-Tabby the princess with claws
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"Sappiness and medieval violence: it's a wonderful combination. Like chocolate and peanut butter for the mind." -me on my fantasy novel-in-progress Posts: 2281 | From: Arizona | Registered: Apr 2002
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Living next to a graveyard wouldn't bother me in the slightest. I've always liked graveyards, especially really old ones - they're so peaceful and serene.
I wouldn't like to live next to a crematorium, mind you. You'd feel really tasteless having a barbecue on summer days when there were a few bookings next door. Mourners would be confused about the smell of your sizzling pork chops. It could lead to unpleasantness.
I don't think I'd buy a house where a murder had been committed because I'd be worried about getting possessed by the malevolent spirit that persuaded the last occupant to become a rampaging murderer. Or the ghost of the murdered coming back to exact revenge on the nearest living person. Or just showing up with a torn-up face and bloody hands to spook me. My imagination would run riot and I'd never get a wink of sleep.
-------------------- Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. Posts: 2372 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jul 2002
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I don't mind cemeteries at all either. There is a very tiny family one in the woods behind the house where my mother lived - so old you can't read the inscriptions on the gravestones. I always wondered who the people were.
The [URL=Rose Hill Cemetery]Rose Hill Cemetery[/URL] in Macon, Ga is a beautiful and fascinating place to visit if you like old cemeteries. It has quite a few Civil War gravesites as well as a couple of the Allman brothers buried there, and a lot of local urban legends have sprung up about the cemetery - vampires, witch covens and lightning striking and breaking a large obelisk into 3 pieces, to name a few I've heard.
I recall a gravestone fashioned as an open book. The wife's side was inscripted when I saw it but the husband apparently was still alive at the time. I thought it was a really cool headstone.
-------------------- So many books, so little time. Posts: 1192 | From: McDonough, Georgia | Registered: Nov 2005
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Oddly enough, although I don't think I'd want to live in a murder house, living near a cemetary wouldn't bother me at all, and in fact, I think I'd find it interesting. Probably because people don't typically meet violent deaths in a cemetary, a cemetary is just a place for the dead to rest. I love the history to be found in cemetaries. Cemetaries to me are peaceful, a house where someone was murdered isn't peaceful at all.
-------------------- "That would be really dangerous, you know. Indiscriminately extricating someone from the petrified corpse of a supernatural creature." - My Husband Posts: 4308 | From: Massachusetts | Registered: Jun 2003
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The house I recently, I bought from my brother-in-law. It was his mother's house and she died in the house. It was never determined if she fell down the stairs or was pushed down the stairs. There's nothing strange going on in my house.
My brother-in-law's father died quite a few years ago and he used to work at a resort about a mile from my house. His ghost has been seen there when my brother-in-law's mother passed away.
Posts: 13 | From: East Stroudsburg, PA | Registered: Sep 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Phaedra: My neighbours discovered a tunnel leading to a crypt during recent renovations and freaked. They had it cement filled before the week was out which I think is a bit of a shame. I would have been fascinated by that and at least have let the local archaeology group take a gander at it first. Tragic waste of a potentially excellent wine cellar if you ask me.
Oh that makes me so sad. I would love to have a house with a weird feature like that.
quote:Originally posted by Ms. K: I also wouldn't have a problem living across the street from a cemetery. Hell, growing up where I did? I lived within walking distance of a rather large cemetery, and several of my friends lived close to cemeteries.
Did you grow up in Colma by any chance?
-------------------- Officially Heartless Posts: 3065 | From: The Montgomery County of the West Coast- Berkeley, CA | Registered: Nov 2005
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My mom lives directly in between a school on one side and a cemetary on the other, she likes the quiet neighbots a lot better. It's a newer cemetary though with cookie cutter grave markers and cookie cutter flowers etc. No character at all.
-------------------- I looked at my sleeping husband and longed to plunge my elbow through his peaceful face. ~ Annissa Posts: 381 | From: Nashville | Registered: Mar 2005
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I wouldn't buy a murder house. I believe somewhat in ghosts, and more in "bad vibes." I don't know how to define that term, but the pit of my stomach and back of my neck know it when they feel it!
The other problem I'd have with it is that not all murderers are sent away for life. I sure as hell would not want to be living in a murder house when the murderer got out and wanted to check out his old stomping grounds.
ETA clarity, I hope.
-------------------- "No Biblical hell could ever be worse than the state of perpetual inconsequence." Beatrice in Dangerous Beauty Posts: 1816 | From: Cayuga County, NY | Registered: Nov 2005
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ThistleS, no, I grew up in Madisonville, KY.
Now, I live in Wildomar, CA, just down the street from the Wildomar Cemetery.
And yet, oddly enough, the dead STILL don't bother me, just the living!
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Hell, I get freaked out in my own house if I'm all alone in it, and it's not even a murder house! I always think that the ice-maker's noises are zombies coming to get me from the kitchen.
I obviously read too much Stephen King.
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quote:Originally posted by Ms. K: ThistleS, no, I grew up in Madisonville, KY.
Now, I live in Wildomar, CA, just down the street from the Wildomar Cemetery.
And yet, oddly enough, the dead STILL don't bother me, just the living!
Oh, neat. Colma as you may know is the city where the dead outnumber the living.
-------------------- Officially Heartless Posts: 3065 | From: The Montgomery County of the West Coast- Berkeley, CA | Registered: Nov 2005
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I almost do. When we moved in here in September 2005, after about a week we were getting to know our neighbours when they asked... "So, you don't mind about the murder, then?" swiftly followed by "Oh, no, you haven't heard have you..." when they saw the look on my face.
Seems a young man was stabbed at a party about 10 years ago. It happened in the bathroom.
I asked the neighbours whether he died from his injuries. "Not in the house," came the grim answer...
Anyway we've lived here for over a year now and nothing has gone bump in the night, although I do confess to making very speedy bathroom trips for a few weeks last year. I could probably get the facts by looking through newspaper archives and such, but we're not living here forever so I think I'll save that until weve moved. Other neighbours have backed the story up and that's really all I want to know about it for now.
ETA I used to live in a 600 year old thatched cottage. One entire downstairs wall was made from bits of boat washed up on the local beach after a barney with the Spanish Armada. It had also been a blacksmiths and soup kitchen over the centuries. Many residents claimed it was haunted, and things certainly went bump in the night an awful lot, but it was a creaky old place. Dad was "visited" by a man in Quaker dress from time to time, but then Dad couldn't remember the 60's either. Posts: 1157 | From: Westcountry UK "It's Bootiful" | Registered: Jul 2005
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Hmm, if I liked a house, wasn't creeped out by it and the price was good, I'd live there. I have an overactive imagination myself, but if I felt ok there, it probably wouldn't be a problem. New or old, if I felt wierded out in any way (whatever the story was), then no sale.
Cemetaries would probably be the same thing. We have some pretty cool ones in this state, so I probably wouldn't mind living near one.
-------------------- The important thing is not to stop questioning- Einstein Posts: 290 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Mar 2005
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My brother bought a house that had witnessed a double murder. The auctioneer told him of the history at the time, because although he was aware of the murders in the locality, he would not have known exactly which house.
The stigma attached meant he got the house devalued by about 20%. He sold it on three years later, and the house's history did not have to be disclosed to the new buyers, who in any case, were only interested in "buying to let" .
I'm not superstitous and stayed in the house a few times.
-------------------- On my old guitar sell tickets, so someone can finally pick it. Posts: 799 | From: Dublin, Ireland | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Ms. K: ThistleS, no, I grew up in Madisonville, KY.
Now, I live in Wildomar, CA, just down the street from the Wildomar Cemetery.
And yet, oddly enough, the dead STILL don't bother me, just the living!
Oh, neat. Colma as you may know is the city where the dead outnumber the living.
Ahh, yes! I've heard of Colma!
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