Haunted Houses Home Haunt Famous Winchester Sarah Wife

There are many "supposedly" (said to be true, but not proven) haunted houses in the United States and some are "stranger" (weirder; more unusual) than others. One of the strangest haunted houses is the Winchester House in San Jose, California. Sarah Winchester, the wife of the man who created Winchester "rifles" (guns), built a home to "ward off" (keep away) "evil" (bad) "spirits" (what remains of a person after death). Construction "ensued" (happened afterward) in 1884 and continued for 30 years until her death. The home is like a "maze" (labyrinth, many routes that make it difficult to find the right way out) with "dead ends" (routes that stop without connecting) and staircases to nowhere. The ghost of Sarah is "said to" (people say it happens, but it may not really happen) haunt the house.

The Lizzie Borden House in Fall River, Massachusetts is another famous haunted home. Lizzie's father and "step-mother" (the wife of one's father, but not one's mother) were "murdered" (killed) with an "ax" (a tool used for cutting wood), and Lizzie was the "prime" (most likely) "suspect" (a person believed to have committed a crime). We talked about this in English Café 265. Today, people say that Andrew and Abby Borden haunt the home where they were murdered.

Another "notable" (worth mentioning) haunted house is the LaLaurie Mansion in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was a beautiful "mansion" (a very luxurious, expensive, and large home), but Madame Delphine LaLaurie used it to "torture" (treat very badly and cause pain) and kill her "slaves" (people who are owned and forced to work without pay). After a large fire, firefighters and police found "horrific" (terrible; awful) "scenes" (what one can see) of what the slaves "endured" (lived through). For years, people have said that the spirits of the tortured slaves haunt the home.