William Wirt Winchester was a wealthy gun factory owner (Winchester Repeating Arms Company) who lived in the Victorian era. He had a wife named Sarah Winchester and a baby girl named Annie. A picture perfect little family...so far... Not long after, baby Annie died and fifteen years later, in 1881, Mr. Winchester followed suit.
Sarah was left heartbroken and lonely but she was also left much of everything else. After her husband's death, she inherited around $20 million and 50% ownership of the company which means that she received around $ 1,000 a day (non-taxable until 1913). By today's standard, she received around $21,000 a day. She was a very wealthy widow.
She turned to her friend, who was a popular medium, for solace. She told Sarah that the Winchester family might be cursed by the angry spirits killed by the Winchester rifles. She also told her to move out from her home at New Haven and to move to the West and to build a house for her and the spirits. Allegedly, she said, "Continue building, you will live. Stop building, you will die".
Thanks to her enormous fortune, Sarah was able to build a sprawling mansion in San Jose, California. That mansion defies every architectural principles. There are doors that lead to nowhere, staircases that lead to ceilings,etc. Sarah was also obsessed with number 13. There are thirteen candle holders in the chandeliers, thirteen Tiffany windows, etc.
I shared her fascination with the supernatural but I think that Sarah Winchester was a heartbroken, turned crazy woman more than anything else. And her friend the medium was a nut job. Why would the spirits curse her family and seek vengeance from her? That doesn't make much sense to me.
Take the tour of the Winchester Mystery House....if you dare....
6 comments:
I remember hearing something about that home before. It's crazy to know that a mansion like that exists. Cool!
i agree, i have read her story before. i think she was heartbroken and had too much money and her medium friend in your words was a nut job she probably got a sick pleasure out of seeing her doing this all the building etc., and i just have a hard time believing the spirit would haunt the winchester family why wouldn't they haunt or have a little fun with the guilty parties family ? who knows ??
I never heard that story before and i think it's interesting, and I would have like to visit that place. I think it was coo coo to be building a house for 38 years, wasting all that time money.
i'm glad you got a chuckle out of that joke on my blog, sometimes i put them on there if i get a decent one in my email you know ?
I agree with you...that medium was a nut job. I mean, from the moment i read that she told sarah to keep building I was like..."hmm...maybe she wants some the money". I don't know much about the story, but it seems pretty obvious to me that both of them had issues
I think I heard this story before but can't remember...I also think she was heart broken and the so called medium friend was taking advantage of her and her money. Poor woman building stuff over and over to go nowhere.
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