It’s almost Halloween and what better way to get in the spirit than to read about these creepy houses and the terrifying things that happened there. Even better, many of these houses are reportedly haunted and have their own ghost stories.
1. The Chop-Chop House in Boise, Idaho
The “Chop-Chop” house is located at 805 W Linden Street in Boise, Idaho. It got it’s nickname from the horrible murder that took place there on June 30, 1987.
On this summer night, Daron Cox, Daniel Rodgers, and Preston Murr had been hanging out together. Recently, someone had stolen guns from Rodgers. The three men were out driving around looking for the person they believed had taken them.
Around midnight, the three of them returned to the house at 805 W Linden Street. An argument broke out between them, though it’s unclear what the disagreement had been about. Murr ended up being shot in the shoulder, but was able to escape. He ran to a neighboring house for help. He banged on the neighbor’s door, but no one answered.
The next morning, the neighbor called the police when he noticed blood on his front door. When the police arrived, they also noticed a trail of blood on the street leading to house 805. This was enough for them to be able to obtain a search warrant for the house.
A bloody scene awaited them as they entered the house, but there was no body. It would later be discovered that Rodgers and Cox had dragged Murr away from the neighbor’s house back into house 805. He was shot again, this time killing him. The two men then dismembered the body so it would be easier to get rid of it.
Rodgers and Cox disposed of the chopped up body in Brownlee Reservoir, near the Oregon border. It didn’t take long for Rodgers and Cox to be found and charged with murder. The body was found a week later.
Daron Cox was given a light sentence because he cooperated with police, giving them details about the murder. He spent six years in prison and was released.
Daniel Rodgers is serving a life sentence at Idaho Correctional Center.
2. Mercer-Williams House in Savannah, Georgia
Construction of the Mercer-Williams House was started in 1860, but because of a delay due to the Civil War, wasn’t finished until 1868. The house is located at 429 Bull Street in Savannah, Georgia.
The house changed ownership several times through the years, even being the home of the Savannah’s Shriners Alee Temple. After the Shriners’ ownership, the house sat abandoned for close to ten years.
In 1969, an eleven-year-old boy named Tommy Downs was inside the abandoned property, reportedly chasing pigeons. Some accounts claim that he was on the roof of the building, while others say he was on a second-story balcony when he fell to his death.
However, Tommy’s death wasn’t as simple as a fall off a building. It was much more gruesome. There was a low iron fence surround the property, featuring dull decorative spikes on top. The boy landed on this fence, with one of the spikes impaling his head.
That’s not the end of the Mercer-Williams House horrors. Later that year, the property was bought by Jim Williams. Williams was an antique dealer and preservationist. He spent two years restoring the house and was so pleased with how it turned out that he would throw elaborate parties to show it off to everyone.
Unfortunately, the good times came to a deadly end. In 1981, Jim Williams shot and killed his assistant and lover, Danny Hansford. Williams was charged in the murder and was finally found guilty after multiple trials. After the first trial, he was sentenced to life in prison, but many thought he was only convicted because he was a gay man. This sentence was ultimately overturned because of contradicting police reports.
The next trial ended with a hung jury. The final trial found Williams not guilty and he went back to his home on Bull Street. Six months later, he came down with pneumonia and died of heart failure. It is rumored that he died in the same room where he killed Danny Hansford.
Some say that Jim Williams still walks the halls of the Mercer-Williams House.
3. Lizzie Borden House in Fall River, Massachusetts
The Lizzie Borden House is located at 230 Second Street in the city of Fall River, Massachusetts. It is the site of the August 4, 1892 double axe murders of Andrew and Abby Borden. Though the murders are still unsolved, most people believe the murderer was Lizzie Borden. Lizzie was Andrew’s daughter and Abby’s step-daughter.
“Lizzie Borden took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks; When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one.”
Though this rhyme is based on the Borden murders, it’s not exactly accurate. Andrew had 10 or 11 axe wounds and his body was found on the sofa. Abby was bludgeoned 19 times and found in a guest bedroom of the house.
Lizzie was tried for the murder, but was acquitted. She lived out the rest of her life as a free woman. She died in 1927 at the age of 66.
4. The Sallie House in Atchison, Kansas
The Sallie House, built in the mid-1800s is located at 508 N 2nd Street in Atchison, Kansas.
It was once owned by a doctor who allegedly had an affair with his African-American housemaid. This affair resulted in the birth of a little girl named Sallie. When Sallie was about six years old, she became very ill and it was determined that she needed her appendix taken out. The doctor refused to take her to the hospital for the surgery because he didn’t want anyone to find out about her existence. As a result, the girl died. Her mother was furious and attacked the doctor, resulting in her death.
It is said that both Sallie and her mother haunt the house. Sallie is a friendly spirit who likes to play with children. Her mother, however, has been known to attack people, especially men.
5. Kaimuki House in Honolulu, Hawaii
The Kaimuki House is located at 8th Ave & Harding Ave. in Honolulu, Hawaii. This house has many terrifying stories of residents being attacked by unseen forces. These stories may seem farfetched to some, but there are newspaper articles to support the claims.
The stories begin when a concerned neighbor calls police when she hears loud bangs and crashing sounds coming from the house. Her first thought was that the young couple who lived there were having a violent domestic dispute. When police arrived, the couple told them that they were being attacked by an unseen force.
In 1942, a resident called police, repeatedly screaming into the phone, “She’s trying to kill my children.” When police got there, they watched in horror as the woman’s children were hit and thrown across the room by something they couldn’t see.
Thirty years later, there were three young women living together in the Kaimuki House. One night the women started hearing strange noises that sounded like someone was walking around the house. They also heard voices and one of the ladies claimed that she felt a hand on her arm.
The frightened women decided they would leave the house and go stay at one of their parents’ houses for the night. Unfortunately, the unseen force followed them to the car where it tried to strangle one of them. Even the police officer who came up to the car felt the touch of the invisible being. The whole story is described in the newspaper article below:
So what happened in this house’s history to cause such a violent entity to linger there? There are a couple of unproven rumors. The first is that a man killed his wife and two children in the home. It’s said that the bodies of the wife and son were buried in the backyard, but no signs of the daughter were ever found.
Another story is that a lesbian couple lived there and one of the women started an affair with a man. This man found out about his girlfriend’s other relationship and killed both the women, then himself inside the Kaimuki house. Keep in mind that both these stories are just rumors and there’s nothing to prove either of them actually happened.
The Kaimuki House was demolished in 2016.
Historic Horrors 