Some places become haunted because of legend. Others become haunted because something terrible actually happened there.
A family is murdered in the night. A lighthouse keeper is shot by the man working beside him. Two women are killed on an isolated island. A hotel becomes the setting for fraud, suffering, and death. Years pass, the crime becomes history, and then the stories begin: footsteps in empty rooms, voices where no one is standing, apparitions tied to the dead, and visitors who insist something remains.
That is where true crime and ghost lore begin to overlap.
The cases in this collection all start with real violence, but none of them ended neatly when the investigation was over. The places connected to them developed second lives as haunted locations, with the original crime becoming part of the paranormal story told decades later. And in two extraordinary bonus cases, the alleged paranormal activity did more than follow the crime: it may actually have helped bring the truth to light.
Whether the ghosts are real is another question entirely. The crimes were.
Villisca Axe Murder House, Iowa
On the night of June 9, 1912, Josiah and Sarah Moore returned to their quiet Villisca home after a children’s program at their church with their four children and two young sisters, Lena and Ina Stillinger, who were staying the night. By morning, all eight were dead. Sometime during the night, someone had moved through the small house with an axe belonging to Josiah Moore, killing the family and their guests as they slept. Six of the victims were children. Even stranger details waited inside: mirrors and windows had been covered with clothing and fabric, and the murder weapon was left behind. Suspects emerged, including a traveling minister who was tried twice, but no one was ever convicted. More than a century later, one of Iowa’s most horrifying crimes remains unsolved.
Today, the little white farmhouse is open to the public for daytime tours, paranormal investigations, and overnight stays, and hundreds of visitors have reported unexplained experiences inside. Accounts include footsteps in empty rooms, doors opening and closing on their own, strange voices, shadowy figures, and an oppressive sense of dread or sadness. Some of the eeriest stories center on the room where Lena and Ina Stillinger were killed, where visitors have reported hearing children or sensing a presence nearby. Restored to resemble its 1912 appearance, the Villisca Axe Murder House now exists as both a preserved crime scene and one of the country’s best-known haunted houses.
Case Twist: In the 2017 book The Man from the Train, Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James make the provocative case that Villisca may not have been an isolated crime at all. They connect it to a string of eerily similar family axe murders across the United States between the late 1890s and 1912, many occurring within walking distance of railroad tracks. The authors argue that the killer traveled by train and identify a German immigrant named Paul Mueller as their leading suspect. The theory has never been proven, but the similarities they uncover make for one of the most compelling explanations ever proposed for what happened in Villisca.
Smuttynose Island, Maine
On a moonlit night in March 1873, three Norwegian immigrant women were alone in the only occupied house on tiny Smuttynose Island, part of the Isles of Shoals about six miles off the coasts of Maine and New Hampshire. Sometime after midnight, an intruder entered the house. Anethe Christensen was struck down with an axe, while her sister-in-law Karen Christensen was beaten and strangled. The third woman, Maren Hontvet, escaped through a window and fled across the island in her nightclothes, hiding among the rocks until morning while the killer searched for her. Maren immediately identified Louis Wagner, a fisherman who had once lived with the family, and evidence soon placed him away from Portsmouth during the crucial hours and returning the next morning wet, disheveled, and suddenly in possession of money. Wagner insisted he was innocent, but a jury convicted him, and he was hanged in 1875.
The murders never quite released their hold on Smuttynose. Island lore came to include ghosts of Karen and Anethe, while another legend has Wagner himself wandering the rocks, still searching for the woman who escaped him. People who have stayed on the otherwise uninhabited island as seasonal stewards have described doors rattling when no one was outside, unexplained pounding, and other strange incidents in the night. The Hontvet house where the murders occurred burned in 1908, but its foundation can still be found near the surviving Haley Cottage. Smuttynose remains visitable today: travelers staying on nearby Star Island can row across Gosport Harbor and follow a marked path through the quiet 25-acre island where the crime unfolded more than 150 years ago.
1886 Crescent Hotel, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
High above Eureka Springs in the Ozark Mountains, the grand Crescent Hotel took a sinister turn in 1937, when Norman Baker transformed the Victorian resort into a hospital for cancer patients. Baker had no medical training, but he advertised that he could cure cancer without surgery, drawing desperately ill people from across the country to Arkansas and charging them for treatments that had no power to cure their disease. Patients entrusted him with their money and, in many cases, their last hope. Some died inside the hospital; many others died soon after returning home. A federal investigator later concluded that Baker’s treatments had likely hastened death in many cases by keeping patients from effective medical care. Behind the Crescent’s grand stone façade, what had once been a luxury hotel became a place filled with terminal illness, false hope, suffering, and death.
Today, the Crescent operates once again as a hotel, but its years as Baker’s hospital have become central to its reputation as one of America’s best-known haunted hotels. Guests and staff have reported apparitions, unexplained footsteps, strange sounds, and encounters with figures believed to be former patients. One recurring story involves Theodora, said to have been a cancer patient who appears near Room 419, while other reports center on the old basement morgue and sightings of a nurse pushing a gurney through the halls. The history became even more unsettling in 2019, when an archaeological excavation uncovered hundreds of bottles from the Baker era along with jars containing preserved medical specimens. Visitors can stay overnight in the historic hotel today, take nightly ghost tours, and descend into the surviving morgue that once served Baker’s hospital.
St. Simons Lighthouse, Georgia
In 1880, lighthouse keeper Frederick Osborne and his assistant, John Stephens, lived with their families beside the St. Simons Lighthouse on Georgia’s coast, sharing both the work of keeping the beacon burning and the keeper’s dwelling below it. On February 29, an argument between the two men turned deadly. According to U.S. Lighthouse Service records, Osborne drew a pistol and Stephens reached for a shotgun, firing from nearly 100 feet away and striking Osborne several times. Osborne later died from his wounds. Stephens summoned medical help, surrendered to authorities, and was ultimately acquitted, apparently convincing a jury that he had acted in self-defense. Whatever the legal outcome, the violent death of the lighthouse keeper left behind a story that would become almost as enduring as the light itself. U.S. Coast Guard History.
Stories that Osborne had never really left the lighthouse began circulating within decades. Later keepers and their families reported hearing heavy footsteps climbing the tower stairs when no one was there, sometimes accompanied by the smell of kerosene. One story published in the early 1900s told of a keeper’s wife struggling with the lighthouse mechanism while her husband was away. Remembering that Osborne had once joked that he could be called upon even after death, she reportedly called out for his help, only to see his figure appear near the machinery before the light began working again. The ghostly keeper has remained part of St. Simons lore ever since. Today, the 1872 lighthouse is still an active navigational beacon, while the keeper’s dwelling operates as the St. Simons Lighthouse Museum, where visitors can tour the historic home and climb the tower overlooking the Georgia coast.
Amityville House, Amityville, New York
On November 13, 1974, 23-year-old Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. shot and killed six members of his family inside their large Dutch Colonial home at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island. His parents, Ronald Sr. and Louise, and his four younger siblings, Dawn, Allison, Marc, and John, were found shot in their beds with a .35-caliber rifle. Investigators were puzzled by the apparent lack of struggle and by the fact that neighbors had not reported hearing the gunfire. DeFeo initially blamed the murders on a mob hit, but soon confessed. He was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder in 1975 and spent the rest of his life in prison, although he repeatedly changed his account of what happened that night.
Just over a year after the murders, George and Kathy Lutz moved into the house with their three children. They lasted 28 days. The Lutzes later described a barrage of disturbing experiences, including unexplained cold, swarms of flies, strange voices, apparitions, and family members levitating from their beds. Their claims became the basis for Jay Anson’s 1977 bestseller The Amityville Horror and the enormously successful film that followed, transforming a real family murder into one of the most famous haunted-house stories in American culture. Whether anything supernatural actually occurred remains deeply disputed. DeFeo’s former attorney William Weber later claimed that he and the Lutzes had concocted the haunting story together, while George Lutz continued to insist that the family’s experiences were real. Subsequent owners have reported no paranormal activity, but by then the story had escaped the house entirely: Amityville had become a modern American ghost legend.
The Myrtles, St. Francisville, Louisiana
Violent stories have followed The Myrtles for generations. One of the most famous tells of Chloe, an enslaved woman who supposedly poisoned a cake with oleander, killing Sara Woodruff and two of her children before Chloe herself was hanged. Another legend claims that Union soldiers were shot inside the house during the Civil War, while still another tells of a caretaker murdered during a robbery in the 1920s. The strongest historical evidence surrounds the death of William Drew Winter. In 1871, Winter was called outside the house by a visitor and shot. He died from his wounds, leaving behind his wife and children, and his killer was never definitively brought to justice. The murder became the foundation for one of the house’s most enduring ghost stories.
The Myrtles eventually became famous as one of America’s most haunted historic homes, with reports of apparitions, disembodied voices, moving objects, children’s spirits, and a mysterious woman often identified as Chloe. Winter’s ghost is said to announce itself through footsteps slowly climbing the staircase before abruptly stopping at the seventeenth step. According to the legend, the mortally wounded Winter staggered inside after being shot and died on that very step in his wife’s arms. Whatever happened in the house over its long history, its collection of violent tales and ghost stories has become inseparable from its identity. Today, The Myrtles operates as an inn, with overnight accommodations and both historical and evening mystery tours.
Lizzie Borden House, Fall River, Massachusetts
On the morning of August 4, 1892, Andrew Borden was found dead on the sitting-room sofa inside his Fall River home, his face and head struck repeatedly with a hatchet. Upstairs, his wife Abby had already been killed in the guest room, suffering nineteen blows. Their daughter Lizzie was home at the time and quickly became the focus of suspicion. She was arrested a week later and tried for both murders, but a jury acquitted her in June 1893. No one else was ever charged, leaving behind one of the most famous unsolved murder cases in American history and a question that has never stopped following the house: if Lizzie did not kill Andrew and Abby Borden, who did?
The house eventually became almost as famous for its ghosts as for the murders themselves. Overnight guests and investigators have reported footsteps in empty hallways, disembodied voices, doors and drawers moving on their own, strange odors, shadow figures, unexplained touches, and occasional apparitions. Some visitors believe they have encountered Andrew or Abby, while others report activity connected to Lizzie herself. Today, the murder house operates as both a historic attraction and overnight lodging, with daytime history tours, nightly ghost tours, paranormal investigations, and even overnight ghost hunts that allow visitors to spend hours inside after midnight.
Old City Jail, Charleston, South Carolina
In 1819, John and Lavinia Fisher were operating the Six Mile House along the road leading north from Charleston when they became caught up in a violent band of highway robbers preying on travelers. The legend that grew around the couple is far darker: Lavinia supposedly charmed wealthy male guests, questioned them over dinner, drugged them with poisoned tea, and helped John murder them for their money. She would eventually be remembered as America’s first female serial killer, although the historical record does not prove those murders occurred. What it does establish is that the Fishers were arrested, tried, and convicted of highway robbery, then a capital crime. After months of appeals, John and Lavinia were hanged together on February 18, 1820.
Before their executions, the Fishers were held inside Charleston’s Old City Jail, and Lavinia eventually became the most famous spirit associated with the grim old building. Visitors have reported disembodied voices, heavy footsteps, doors slamming, objects moving without explanation, and apparitions in the former cells and corridors. Some accounts specifically identify a female presence as Lavinia, whose violent legend seems to have followed her into the afterlife just as stubbornly as it followed her through history. The Old City Jail operated from 1802 until 1939 and held pirates, Civil War prisoners, thieves, and countless other inmates during its long history. Today, visitors can enter the jail after dark on guided haunted tours through its surviving cells and hallways.
Bonus: When the Ghost May Have Helped Solve the Crime
Most of the stories above follow the same path: a crime happens first, and the ghost story comes later. But a few cases are stranger still. In these, the paranormal did not simply grow out of the crime. Claims of ghostly encounters became part of the investigation itself, with the dead seemingly pointing back toward what happened to them.
The Greenbrier Ghost, Greenbrier County, West Virginia
In January 1897, Zona Heaster Shue was found dead inside the West Virginia home she shared with her new husband, Edward Shue. Her death was initially treated as natural, and she was buried, but Zona’s mother, Mary Jane Heaster, remained deeply suspicious. Then she said her daughter came back. According to Mary Jane, Zona appeared to her on four occasions and finally revealed that Edward had killed her, describing how he had broken her neck. Mary Jane continued pressing for answers, and Zona’s body was eventually exhumed. The autopsy revealed that her neck had indeed been violently dislocated, with torn ligaments and a crushed windpipe. Edward Shue was arrested and put on trial for murder.
The ghost followed the case all the way into the courtroom. During the trial, Shue’s own defense attorney questioned Mary Jane about the supposed visits, apparently hoping to portray her as superstitious or unreliable. Instead, she steadfastly insisted that she had been awake and that Zona had appeared to her. The prosecution’s case ultimately rested on physical and circumstantial evidence, not supernatural testimony, and the jury convicted Shue of first-degree murder after deliberating for just over an hour. Still, Zona’s alleged return had become inseparable from the case. A West Virginia historical marker now commemorates the Greenbrier Ghost as the extraordinary case in which a murdered woman seemingly returned from the grave to help expose her own killer.
Dorothy Lou Thompson and the Pet Cemetery Murder, Louisiana
In April 1985, 61-year-old Dorothy Lou Thompson disappeared from the 14-acre pet cemetery she owned in rural St. Bernard Parish, just outside New Orleans. She vanished only days before she was due in court over a bitter property dispute with her groundskeeper, Brandon Nodier, whom Thompson accused of fraudulently obtaining her land. On May 2, fishermen found her body in the Mississippi River. She had been suffocated, a plastic bag secured around her head, and her body weighted with steel chains. Investigators suspected Nodier almost immediately, but without enough evidence to charge him, the case went cold for more than two decades.
Then Dorothy seemingly began troubling the living. In 2009, a witness came forward saying Nodier had confessed to killing Thompson and dumping her body in the river, claiming that Dorothy’s ghost had been haunting his dreams. The cold case was reopened. Three years later, former assistant groundskeeper James Tregler told investigators that he had actually witnessed the murder and had remained silent out of fear; he, too, said Dorothy had begun haunting his dreams. His testimony provided the break investigators needed. Nodier was indicted for second-degree murder in 2012 and eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2014, nearly thirty years after Thompson’s death. Whether Dorothy truly returned to demand justice is impossible to know, but according to the men whose information finally broke the case open, the dead woman had no intention of letting her murder remain buried.
The case is the subject of HBO’s new three-part documentary series The Pet Cemetery Murders: A Ghost Story, premiering October 11, 2026. The series revisits both Thompson’s murder and the extraordinary claims that her ghost helped bring the truth to light.