Episode 492: The Haunted S.K. Pierce Mansion

I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast. What's the answer, and what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

Hysterical, a new podcast from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Hey Weirdos, I'm Ash and I'm Alayna.

And this is morbid.

It's funny because you did that last time, too. We had to end up re-recording the intro for a second because our fucking computer like pooped its butt. But I don't know. And I made sure I stayed right on, right on cue by being distracted when we said, hello, you did.

In the original opening of this, we were talking about TikTok. Because I said, Right now, Ash is wearing a sweatshirt with various pickle jars on it. And it's majestic and I think it's great. I also got you one as well, so that's very exciting.

I appreciate that, and I was talking about how wonderful, but also how dangerous the TikTok shop is. Because I've gotten a pickle sweatshirt, I got a Lizzie McGuire shirt that you never told me you liked until now, yeah.

You know what I need to tell you things about this? tell me. So I saw that Lizzie McGuire shirt. the second you walked in, I said, Holy shit, that's Lizzie McGuire's inner Lizzie McGuire.

Yeah, like her, like her brain. her, like cartoon version, right? her brain. Lizzie. I was so excited to walk in here with that, too.

I was like, Oh, she gonna love this shirt. And I feel terrible that I disappointed you because in my head when you walked in, I go, Oh, shit, that's an awesome shirt. And I didn't vocalize that, and I don't know why sometimes I do that.

It's okay, I do that a lot, like I don't express things like that enough, and sometimes I have to, like, remind myself to like, don't just say it in here.

Say it out there. I do it with text messages, too, I'll read a text message and I'll go, fuck, that's funny. And then I don't express it in text message form to that person, that's because you and I don't answer text messages.

Yeah, and I'm trying to be better at all that, so, but the entire day. Every once in a while. I'd look over at Ash and I'd see that shirt and I'd be like, Fuck, that's a cool shirt, and I would never say it, that's okay.

I knew that you felt that because I know you, I see you and I know you though, but you see me. But yeah, I wore that shirt to the Savannah Bananas and then I posted about it and everybody was wilding out about that shirt. And I was like, Oh, TikTok shop, So the Lizzie McGuire shirt, which is fucking awesome, is from the TikTok shop Elaine Sage Boutique.

It's e-l-a-i-n-e-s-a-i-g-e boutique Hell yeah, and then the pickle sweatshirt that I got is from Bad Addiction Boutique Ooh, or boutique if you're nasty.

And then I also got an electric spin scrubber. I mean, might as well just shout her out because my shower floor has never looked so lovely and I got that. Where the fuck did I get that hold on?

Where the fuck did you get that? Well, there's like 55 of them, apparently. Where the fuck did you get that? Wait, are these all from the same store? Like live updates with me?

Okay, so you're going to have to just decide where you want to get that from, cause it's not telling me where I got mine from, that's okay. Um, and you can get it from many outlets on TikTok shop, but yeah, I fucking love the TikTok shop.

I mean, the TikTok shop is pretty fucking great, and it's like supporting small business, it is. But I still love Etsy in my heart too, because I went over to Etsy and bought so much. Um, Halloween stuff the other day and so much Disney stuff the other day. Look at you.

Yeah, we're talking about a haunted mansion today. And then, like, while I was talking, while I was like, doing this case, I was like, Oh, I want to watch the Haunted Mansion and I want to go to Disney and ride the Haunted Mansion. She said. I want to go to there, I want to go to there.

And I also want to go to this place, to this haunted Massachusetts mansion. I didn't even mean to say Massachusetts.

I was going to say mansion, but then my brain was like, tell them where it is, it's in Massachusetts. So yeah, today we're going to talk about the S..k Pierce Haunted Mansion. I'm very excited about this because we wanted to go to this mansion and we still want to, and we will at some point.

And now this is going to scare me even more. Oh, it is me thinks that it's haunted as fuck. I'm pretty sure you can stay the night there if you want to, and I want to.

I want to do that. We stayed at Lizzie Lizzie Borden's house. So yeah, I feel honestly, weirdly. I feel like this one would be less scary, even though Lizzie Borden had a vibe to it that I just think is unmatched. I have never felt that way in a haunted location before. I got almost like, physically ill in one of the rooms.

It was heavy as fuck. And I'm, oh, and actually tonight, this is a very good oh, fuck yeah tonight, you know, who knows when this comes out? But at this moment I get to go to the Conjuring House with John because John bought it for me. Like a visit and tour of the Conjuring House for our anniversary.

That is the cutest thing ever. He I, he like, I always pester him into telling me, like, what he's going to get you for? Like Christmas and like anniversaries and birthdays and stuff. Yup, and he was like, nervous about this? He was like, Do you think she'll like it?

And I was like, I think she'll fucking love that, like, I think you're so smart. And he was like, Is that like a good anniversary gift? I was like, that is the anniversary gift for your wife, truly the anniversary gift.

We get to go there, we get to have a tour, and then there's a medium coming. There's a 5,000 page waiver that tells you all the terrible shit that can happen to you in this house, which I'm pretty excited to sign. So I don't like that. See, I'm not down to sign a waiver.

I'm down to sign, cause I also think that it's like pretty brilliant marketing, like it gets you real, real school, real. I almost said, scared and spookied at the same time, and it's, and it went spookied.

Spoo, I'm going to be real spoo tonight. I'm going to be so spoo John, I'm going to be so spoo. Say that to John, he'll be like, What the fuck are you talking about?

I'm going to be so spoo tonight, I'm going to be so spoo, but I'm very excited about it. I'm excited to be spooky. It's kicking off spooky season.

Yes, bitch, and this episode just feels right. Yeah, I also love the differences in our nights. You're going to the conjuring house and I have a dress fitting.

Hell yeah, me trying on my wedding dress while you're getting like, haunted, it's true, all right, but yeah, we're going haunted bitches.

I'm bringing us to a haunted location in Massachusetts, like I said, and we're going to start in the spring of 2009 and then we're going to travel back. Let's start there, let's start there. Kid. So, oh, also, sorry if my voice annoys you, I'm sick, but you'll live.

I love you, it's sultry. Ah um, wow, sultry. That was a great response.

Literally, she put her eyeballs up to the sky and she said, Ah, yeah, I don't know. So I don't know what that was, but it was great. It was like, haunted, sexy, like I said, do sultry.

And you went, Ah.

I don't know you're in the spirit. It was great. Well, in the spring of 2009, Edwin Gonzalez and his girlfriend Lilian Otero, which like, also they should be in a Disney movie. I was like, damn those names, Edwin and Lilian, gorgeous names. But they fled their house in Gardner, Massachusetts, after less than a year of living there. Now, when they originally moved into this place, the escapist mansion, they thought that it was their dream house. But once they were safely away from this old Victorian mansion, they told their friends and family what really happened.

And it was far from a dream house experience what happened in Gardner? They had been driven out by angry ghosts who had done everything, including possessing Lilian, in order to torment them. And it left them with no other option than to just abandon ship. They were like, we got to get the fuck out of here.

Now, obviously, they didn't know it when they moved in, but their home, the escapist mansion, had long been considered by locals to be haunted. And in its more than 100 year history, the home had seen its fair. Probably more than its fair share of tragedies. Several people died there, somebody actually died as recently as the 1960s, and aside from the deaths, there were countless other unsavory myths and legends about the house.

Now, in 2015, Lilian and Edwin sold the Pierce mansion to a man from New Jersey who runs it now as a haunted attraction. But and the fact that they sold it to a guy that, like, runs it as a haunted attraction? Raised some questions about their claims and raised some questions about the extent to which the rumors of the haunts were true. So is the S..k. Pierce Mansion truly one of the nation's most haunted houses, or is it nothing more than legends? And a very clever marketing scheme? To figure it out, we're going back to the beginning.

I think it's haunted, it's haunted as fuck. So over the last 50 years or so, we're going over to Western Massachusetts, so I'm going to give you a little rundown on Western Mass. Let's go.

Yeah, so over the last 50 years or so, Western Mass has gone through some pretty big changes. Now, the economy there is mostly fueled by, you know, tourism, education, the arts. I love Western Mass. It's beautiful.

It is, but back in the day, it was mostly fueled by manufacturing, and Western Mass was one of the biggest manufacturing hubs in the Northeast. It was famous for its production of hats, shoes and furniture, all things I love.

Who doesn't love furniture? All things that are good? Yeah, all things that are good. who doesn't love hats and shoes?

Especially if you can drink Bailey's out of them. Oh my God, look at her, pick it up where I left off. But among the cities and towns that make up the area, the small community of Gardner became known in the mid 19th century as Chair City.

Chair City not their chair, not their problem. I say that literally daily, daily, that's what I'm saying.

Not my chair, not my problem, not my chair, not my problem, but it was always Gardner's chair, because they're Chair City. At one point, Gardner was home to 12 furniture companies, which was a pretty high number back then. Given the fact that the town only had a population of a few thousand people at the time. Damn.

So fierce competition. If you were in the furniture business, I would say so now. Gardner was settled in the late 18th century, and it quickly became one of Massachusetts main sources of lumber.

And because of that, a pretty robust manufacturing industry was built. And that provided jobs for thousands of young men across the area, including one of Gardner's most famous residents, Sylvester K. Pierce. Oh, he sounds important, I was just going to say, I feel like he was born to be important.

Sylvester K. Pierce and he's from Massachusetts. So I don't know why I keep putting like, a weird, uh, why not? accent on it, but I'm gonna.

It's like a little bit of a transatlantic accent that we're throwing in there. The way that I was just thinking that exact thing in my brain, crazy. So yeah, he was a pretty important guy. I hope you can see where we're going here.

Cause Sylvester K. Pierce s-k-l-o-l, Yeah, l-o-l.

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So, Sylvester was the seventh child of Jonas Pearce in I Believe It's Oxaw Fairbanks, born in Westminster, Massachusetts, on April 11th, 1820.

So quite some time ago, we love an 1800s moment we do, and this moment was Sylvester.

So his life was marked by tragedy, very sadly, at an early age. His father actually died when he was only three years old. And his mom did her best to keep the family together, and she was successful at that for a lot of years. But probably because there were so many children, some eventually did have to be sent off to live with different relatives.

So when Sylvester was 11, he moved to live with, um, relatives. I'm not quite sure who he went to live with at first. But then, three years after he originally moved, he moved again, this time to live with his uncle Abraham. Now, when he turned 15, Sylvester went to work for one of Gardner's earliest furniture makers, Elijah Putnam, Elijah Putnam. You say, I feel like that man had to make furniture.

Yeah, I mean, when you, when your last name is Putnam in Massachusetts, it's like, hmm, hmm, hmm. It is a little Sus. I know he probably was like some kind of descendant, or like, uh, ancestor of the Putnams.

One of those maybe not, though maybe not, maybe common. We won't, we won't slander his name, I guess.

No, he was a good furniture maker, so there you go, great, you know what one might say, legendary.

Fucking awesome, truly one of the earliest, so. But as Putnam's assistant, Sylvester learned the basics of furniture making and the specifics on the budding industry. And then he moved on to work under a man named Joel Fairbanks, another furniture manufacturer in nearby Ashburnham.

I've never heard of that, so I don't even know if I'm saying it right, but I'm from Massachusetts. So fuck off, so fuck off, no. He stayed there for a few more years and then eventually found a new job, working with Steven Taylor. A, Uh, you guessed it, furniture maker in South Gardner, now after five years with Taylor and now 10 years experience in the Furnister Furnister.

In the furnister furniture industry, Sylvester ended up buying the company from Steven Taylor. And with his own, or with his own brother Jonas, he opened what would eventually come. S.K. Pearson Sun, one of the area's largest and most profitable furniture manufacturers. Wow, so. In 1845, this was the year that Sylvester and Jonas opened their furniture company in Gardner. Sylvester also happened to meet and quickly married 25 year old Susan Jackson.

And five years later, in 1951, the company had grown quite considerably. It was making a nice profit, a nice profit, you say, I said it, a nice profit. And that allowed Sylvester to build a new home for himself and his new bride.

And he built this, uh home across from the factory in Gardner. A few years later, in June of 1856, Susan gave birth to their only child, a boy that they named Frank, Frank, Frank. Or Fronk. If you're nasty.

Now by or a fan of Father of the Bride? Yes, part two, literally in one.

In my head, I was going to say, I was like, he's in one too, he's part one. So, by 1875, S.K. Pearson Sun had become actually one of the biggest employers in the region. Damn.

They were making that big money. So Sylvester wanted a home that was more befitting for a man of his wealth and status, of that big money and that big, big money. So he already had his original house across from the factory.

But he was like, Nah, it needs to be better. SK Pierce, I'm fucking sk yeah, at like, hello.

Your name's initials like, that's you gotta make a palace, you do. It's just the rules.

So he contracted um a Worcester-based architectural firm, e. Boyden, Worcester. Um, to my friend Marissa, What's Poppin Worcester?

And she will only get that. So, he contacted E. Bodden, E. Boyden and sons to design a mansion in the Victorian style that they had become known for throughout New England. Which I wrote a little note here that said, our personal fave.

Oh, I love a Victorian style house, as do I. It's like, literally my favorite, my favorite. Do I have one?

No, do I want one? Yes, oh, now. The three-story mansion, located at 4 West Broadway, was actually constructed on the site of Pierce's previous home. What happened to the earlier house is actually unknown.

According to S.

K. Pierce historian Kenneth Watson The original house was either destroyed or moved further down the street. But I guess that there is evidence of the old home's foundation that can actually still be seen in the basement of the Pierce mansion. Oh, that's interesting, I know.

That would be really cool to see, I know, and I'm pretty sure you can go in the basement, so that'd be pretty fun. I feel like if you can go in the basement of the Lizzie Borden house, you should go in the basement anywhere.

I agree. Wasn't there, like, some rule, where we, like, weren't supposed to go back in the basement after people left? But I think we did anyway. We definitely went in there, uh, in the middle of the night, yeah.

I think we could, they told us we could. They were just like, at your own peril. Yeah, I think they like, advised against it, but we were like, we're going to do that.

Cause they were like, here's a fucking lantern from the 1800s, so if you want to go down there, by all means, yeah. We were also there in like a giant storm, which was fucking terrifying, yeah.

Honestly, that was like, truly, something truly. But anyway, back to our guy, SK, let's go Sk. The home took a year to complete, which is not, honestly, that's like, not that long I feel.

To make a whole ass home? I don't think so, but like a mansion, a mansion, you know, in the Victorian style.

Yeah, I feel like you see like a new place going up lately, and it's like three years later it's finished. It's true, but anyways, it took a year to complete, and once it was done, it was a gorgeous monument of luxury and wealth.

Everything I aspire to be myself.

You aspire to be a gorgeous monument of luxury and wealth? Yes, I do. I love that, like when I'm old, I want to be a monument of luxury and wealth and gorgeousness. I'm going to make sure that's on your tombstone.

Please do, except I'm not going to be buried. She was a gorgeous monument of luxury. Are you going to do that from beyond the grave? Hell yeah.

No, I'm going to live forever. Oh, okay, cool.

I'd rather not do that as the undead. Oh, there you go. Okay, I'll do that.

All right now. At more than 6,500 square feet, which like Whoa, the house contained 26 rooms, four bathrooms, 70 doors and at least as many windows. Damn. It also featured many modern luxuries that you would not find in most homes at the time, including gas lighting. Oh, shit.

In every room, every fucking room, running water get out of here and a winthrop furnace to heat the house.

Oh shit, no. Unfortunately, just weeks after the couple moved into their new home, Susan contracted. Um, erysipelas, I believe, is how you say it. It is a bacterial infection of the skin that causes inflammation and if left untreated, it can be fatal. Oh.

Nowadays, they can treat it with antibiotics, but um, those medications didn't exist in 1876.

Damn so. Susan sadly died in the home four weeks later, on January 6th, 1876. Oh, that's terrible.

Like, so sad, sorry, I was taking a sip of water. Now. Two years later, Pierce S.K. Our guy, married Ellen West, a woman 30 years younger than him. Oh, shit.

S.K. as scandalo, as Jessica would say.

I thought that you just stopped saying scandalous, but you were like, Sk, sk, cause SK, sk now Ellen and Sk when he does something taboo, you go sk, my goodness sk.

They had two boys together, Stuart.

Pierce held these super gorge, wonderful, lavish parties. Oh, hell yeah, they did, with guest lists that included the likes of Norman Rockwell, Oh, Betty Davis.

Oh, P.t Burnham, and even President Calvin Coolidge, Oh shit.

Now, that being said, Ken Walton, the caretaker of the mansion, points out. There's no documentation to say for certain whether those rumors are true. But you know, who does say that for certain? You, me and me?

And I wasn't there, nope, but I know it to be fact, I say it, I say it.

It reminds me of Allison's party in Hocus Pocus, Oh Allison. I bet they were all dressed like that, and I bet someone liked someone else's Yabos a hundred percent.

There was great Yabos there, in fact, they loved them. I love Halloween. So life in the Pierce Mansion continued on being all kinds of fabulous until Sylvester died at the home from natural causes on January 28th, 1888. RIPSK.

RIPSk. His funeral was held in the home a few days later, on February 2nd. Which that always scares me, but it happened, you know, it always happened. Oh yeah, that's for sure.

Hey, hey hey, that's what was happening. It certainly is so. In the months after Sylvester's death, a heated debate, of course, erupted between his wife, Ellen, and Frank Pierce, his son from his first marriage. Ooh, this is going to get ugly. It always does.

As Sylvester's first born son, Frank believed that he should have inherited the entire estate. And, according to Eric, Stanway, was appalled when Ellen took all of the property, including the factory. Ooh, Ellen, Ellen, uh-uh, come on.

That's a that's a meredith blake thing to do. It really is, it's giving meredith, and not in a good way, no.

Now, Ellen claimed that Frank was charging her unreasonable service fees as the executor of the estate. And argued that she was, quote, entirely capable of doing all the work herself for much less a sum. Okay, so they were just arguing, Yeah, I mean, that's what happens.

Somebody dies and everyone turns into a raging asshole. Yeah, it's pretty awful. It's fun. So the legal battles between Frank and Ellen continued until Ellen actually died in 1902, so they went on the rest of her life.

And at that point, the remains of the estate were actually divided up between the three Pierce sons, who would also spend years arguing, both in court and amongst themselves. Stuart, Edward and Frank Frank. Yep, I almost said, Francis.

Yeah, but they would constantly argue over who had the most rights to the mansion. But in the meantime, Frank had taken over the furniture business. Stuart himself had taken an interest in automobiles, and he would actually go on to open his own dealership someday in 1908, to be exact. And eventually, Ellen and Ska's youngest son, Edward, took control of the Pierce Mansion.

Oh, wow. However, what should have been a happy occasion, or at least a relief of, you know, ending. All these years of arguing quickly turned into tragedy when Edward's youngest, or, excuse me, Edward's daughter Rachel, died in the house from a bacterial infection. Oh, no, now. Some sources say that she was two years old and others say she was five, so either way, she was like a baby.

Oh, either way, that's horrific it is. And her death marked the beginning of a string of tragedies for the Pierce family, now as the U..S.

Entered World War I, a lot of non-war related industries went through significant decreases in revenue, obviously, and that was only exacerbated then by the Great Depression. So the financial collapse hit the Pierce family really, really hard, especially Edward and his wife. Their fortune was almost completely depleted by back-to-back crises and this economy that they were living through. There were rumors, actually, that in order to make ends meet, they used the house as a brothel for a short time.

Oh, damn, in the early decades of the 20th century. And to add to those rumors, some people even claim that a young sex worker was murdered in one of the upstairs rooms. Excuse me, and that her body was hidden in a closet. Oh shit, mm-hmm.

The brothel claims are among the more popular legends that surround the house. But again, according to Ken Walton, there's no evidence to suggest that it's even remotely true. All right, Ken, I know Ken's like, No, it's not true.

I know you're being real right now, you're telling truth, you're harshing the vibe, you're just spitting facts. But like, you're saying, there's a chance.

You're saying there's not. We can't be sure, We could never be sure, We can't be sure that it wasn't either. That's the thing.

That's that's what I'm hanging on to. But instead, he says, Ken, he's letting us know what truly happened. Quote. The address had served as a bed and breakfast until 1951, when it was converted into a boarding house called the Victorian, which remained in business until 1969. That's fun.

Yeah, but you know what, I've seen? Peaky Blinders. I am currently finishing it after taking a break because it was really intense.

I don't know where this leads and it's the same kind of time period going on. And even when they say something's a bed and breakfast, never she was going down back then, there's beds.

Everybody was doing shady shit back then. Of course they were. And even if peaky blunders taught me anything, and even if it wasn't like a legit brothel, like, yeah.

It's a bed and breakfast, you don't know what's going on behind closed doors, shit's going down. Yeah, I mean, hopefully nobody was murdered and stuck in a closet.

I'm not hoping for that, but I also I, you know, Ken Ken's just doing his job. Yeah, he's, he's, he's doing his job, He's telling us what he knows.

Exactly, and he can't say what he doesn't know. And I understand that we get it, Ken, you know what?

We're with you Ken, we love you, we stand with you. we do we love Ken.

But tragedy would strike again in 1963, when the fifth and final documented death to occur in the Pierce mansion took place, according to the legend, a 49-year-old World War II veteran, Eno Sari had been in bed on the evening of April 9th when his mattress quote mysteriously caught fire, causing him to burn to death in the blaze. Oh, now. Many residents of Gardner, still to this day, actually blame his death on spontaneous combustion or some kind of paranormal activity. But I will say I'm pulling a ken here.

The coroner's reports Coroner's report notes Non-threatening, non-life-threatening burns, excuse me. Which could likely have come from him falling asleep while smoking in bed, and the coroner did attribute his cause of death to smoke inhalation. Okay, but regardless of the cause. Multiple visitors to the house in the months and years after Sari's death have reported. Catching quote a fleeting sense of something burning in his former bedroom. Oh.

And some people also report a feeling of being in the presence of an unknown entity in the room. Oh so, that room is like a hotspot for some paranormal activity. No matter what, I want to go to this place.

So fucking bad right now we're going. I want to go during like, well, I'm going to be a little busy, but I want to go. What are you talking about?

You don't have time for a scuh, let's go to Scuh, let's go. So, according to Legend, two years after Sari's death, Edward, who was now financially desperate, actually put the mansion up as a wager in a poker game. Oh, no.

That he ultimately lost, oh no, and he was forced to sign over the deed to the winner. Is he, and he's the youngest.

He is the youngest. Yeah, it was frank, out here in these streets, being like.

Were you just waiting for that? How long have you had that queued up? Yes, yes, I was she.

Just the answer is yes. I queued it up. I am the eldest boy, I queued it up long ago and I've been waiting.

Also, Succession forever.

That's what Frank was doing here. I think Frank might've been dead at this point from beyond, but from beyond, he was saying.

Cause, you know, when Kendall goes to his grave, he's going to be spitting that shit. Well, you know that, you know, Frank was saying that before he died, that like, why is this even a question? I'm the eldest boy he had spits.

And he spit, and I mean, like, that was a big fucking thing back then. Like, the fact that Kendall pulled that out of his asshole is pretty ridiculous. That is one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen in my life.

It made me squirm in a horrible way. Such a good show. I was like, you are so yucky, but but honestly, back then, it was like, the eldest boy way, yeah.

That was some, that was some big shit, yeah, but okay, here's the truth. It's actually much less exciting and also less scandalous. The fire in Ina Osari's room caused more damage to the already crumbling manor.

And it was going to cost a lot of money that neither Edward or the family members could afford. So, with no other options, Edward actually transferred ownership of the mansion to a friend, traveling musician Jay Stemmerman, who paid $35,000 for the house and property. Which was actually more than it was worth at the time. Damn today, that would be around $340,000 for a fucking Victorian mansion.

Like, that's a steal. yeah, that's a fucking steal. Highway robbery it is.

But apparently it was more than it was worth because of all the damage done to the property. And the sale actually marked the first time in history that the home would be owned by somebody outside of the Pierce family since its construction almost a century earlier. That's why Frank was 100 dead. That's why Frank was also being like, I'm the oldest boy. What is happening?

And then she was just like laughing in the corner, yeah, but Stemmerman had actually only. He's a fucking good friend. He only purchased the home in order to help Edward out of a desperate situation. And Edward actually kept living in the mansion with his wife until he died in 1967..

Damn, that's a friend, that's a friend. Because on paper, somebody outside of the family owned the home. But always, like, for the over a century, it was in family control. All right, but after Edward died, that was the end of it, really.

Because in the years that followed, the Pierce mansion sat empty and slipped further and further into a state of disrepair until it was finally slated to be demolished in 1996.

They were going to tear this place down. What the fuck? Luckily, the old Victorian was spared in 2000. Oh wow.

When it was purchased by Suzanne and Mark, I believe it's Vaux, it's V-e-a-u, but when I looked it up, it said Vaux. Um, they bought it for $155,000, which was about $30,000 less than the average home price at the time. Damn.

And they got in a mansion, but also they're getting like a decrepit mansion, so you could see why it's a fixer upper, yeah. So the couple had purchased the home with the intention of actually restoring it to its former glory. But they quickly learned that getting into that and kind of like, refurbishing it was going to be way more difficult than they had originally anticipated. Because in addition to the damage sustained by the fire and just straight up neglect over the previous 40 years.

And on top of that, most of the home's luxurious decorations and furnishings had been stripped. Like, like, I don't know if people just like, went in there. I was just going to say, I'm sure people went in there and just kind of took what they wanted a little bit. This included a goddess stairway lamp, a crystal chandelier with over a hundred crystals in it. Damn.

A built-in walnut staircase, which, how the fuck are you taking a whole staircase out of there? Somebody took a built-in staircase, I guess, or it just like collapsed, I don't really know.

What the fuck like? don't be suspicious, don't be suspicious with it, just like hoisted up taking the stairway, like the fuck.

What me thinks is that because it's like a walnut staircase, they probably like, like, Uh, demolished it and took the walnut pieces? I guess no. I think they took the entire thing. I'm just like, let me take this stairway, holy shit.

But they also took a pool table. Wow, okay, even that's heavy, that's also heavy, correct?

But so, yeah, all of that was not great. And just as much of a problem, at least for the Vos, was the sense that something inhuman was residing in the house with them. That's a problem. Which, like, you bought an old Victorian mansion that is decrepit and been neglected for the last 40 years and that many people have died in.

I think you probably, like, should have known that, but I'm not going to judge you, you know now? As luck would have it, though. During a 2003 promotional event for the radio station that Mark worked for, Um WXLO, he met a psychic medium who simply went by the name Sid, Sid, Sid.

Sid, Vicious, Sid, the kid now. Sid was intrigued by what she heard about the old Victorian mansion. And after being invited over for a tour, she made her way through all the rooms. When she got to the third floor, she encountered what she said was the spirit of a teenage girl.

And according to Sid, the girl had, quote come to the city from a great distance away, fallen in love with the house and didn't want to leave. Oh, it was me, I'm the girl I was just going to say.

I'm just kidding now. Then there was another spirit on the lower floors, Sid said. It was the spirit of a young woman who used to work in the mansion and had loved a man who lived in the house. Presumably Pierce, but could never do anything because of the class difference between the two, and also because Pierce was married.

Classic but classy, I like that. She didn't do anything about it, yeah.

She was like, Do I think you're hot? Yeah, yeah, are you married? bummer?

Yeah, are you above my station? Even more of a bummer. Am I fucked? She was like, I guess I'll just haunt you later.

I guess I'll just stick around. Yeah, I'll just I'll just live in your house for all eternity. I wonder what S.K looked like?

I forgot to look it up, check him out, I'm going to check him out, see if he's hot, see if s.k.

Is a zaddy? Sid met a couple more spirits during her trip. Feel free to interrupt me once you find out I will. She met a few more spirits during her trip.

That included a man in his late forties or early fifties who had died in a fire at the home. Oh, he thinks this is Eno. And that of a young boy, around five years old, who had just come to the house to visit and decided to stick around. Oh, good for that kid.

So the experience Sid reported not only confirmed what the Vos had suspected, but also, Oh, is he not the zaddiest of zaddies? It's hard to tell because of the style of the day as well. Like that beard, the beard really throws me for a loop. I feel like without the beard, he's a handsome guy.

He seems like he has pretty good bone structure. That's the thing. I think the beard is kind of throwing it off a little bit, and I love a big schnoz, so.

I do, too. Yeah, so so I'm into, I'm in, you know, s..k. He has a nice haircut.

S.

K I mean, I get it, I get it, I get it. I can see why a gal would be.

Absolutely, and he's fucking got that zaddie money, you know, so, you know, you know, so. The experience, SID reported not only confirmed what the VOS had suspected, but also what they had been told by other psychics who had come to the home before.

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According to Suzanne, every one of the mediums who had visited the home had felt the presence of the younger woman that Sid had talked about. And they believed this to be the spirit of Maddie Cornwell, a 19-year-old Nova Scotian woman who had worked for the Pierce family shortly after their mansion was built in the late 19th century. I believe she was a nanny. According to Sid, though, it was Maddie's spirit who had protected the house when it caught fire in 1963. And she was still watching over it. Oh my god, which, like that, is a fucking employee.

I love that, right? Three years later, the VOS welcomed a second set of paranormal investigators into the home, this time the Atlantic Paranormal Society. Which you might also know as TAPs. Hell yeah, and you might also know them from the show Ghost Hunters.

I fucked so hard with ghost adventures, ah, so heavy, or Ghost hunters. Excuse me, ghost hunters and ghost adventures, both and ghost adventures, but taps.

Taps, taps was my shit. Yeah. JP also loves taps. Oh my God, we used to watch that all the time, truly.

I loved to watch it during Spooky season, yeah. But while previous investigators welcomed to the house, they had all been psychic mediums, the members of TAPs. They claim to approach each case from a more scientific perspective, and using technology, they try to rule out alternative explanations explanations. Goodbye for the disturbances. That's why I like them.

Exactly, they're doing the scientific method exactly now. Ultimately, the results of the TAPS investigation were inconclusive, but the team was still pretty impressed with the Vaux's attitude toward their very potentially haunted home. Yeah.

TAPs founder Grant Wilson said Oh yeah, Grant, Grant. yeah, we love Grant. Yeah. A lot of people are terrified in their homes, so it's nice to meet somebody who's embracing it. Yeah, there you go.

You know, I feel you Grant. Yeah, yeah, Grant Wilson for the win.

Grant, grant, grant, grant, grant, grant, grant, grant, grant.

Okay, I was going to go further, but then you stopped, I never know when to stop now. The Vaux's were definitely enthusiastic about growing the haunted reputation of the home, so they started giving guided tours and they eventually even opened a gift shop in the house. Wow. Now. Whether or not the Vaux's had bigger ambitions for the Pierce Mansion, like, you know, making it a legit haunted attraction, is unclear. But if they did have plans for something more formal, those plans were abandoned in the summer of 2007, when I don't know why. But they decided to move out of the house and put it on the market at $375,000..

Wow, in 2007, Yeah, damn, which I feel like, What do you think?

That's a fucking huge house, that's the thing, $375,000, and it's like, historical. It feels like, I mean, yeah, absolutely, it's super....

I mean, we worked for one of the biggest furniture companies and then made one of the biggest furniture companies. So it's super historical, I wonder if the historical society didn't recognize it yet at that point or something. Probably. Well, and you, yeah, and then also they bought it for like, nothing, yeah, and then they like, so it's like, they, that's a big markup.

That's true, but they had, like, done a lot to it to add back to it, so that makes sense why the markup was so high. Yeah, now. Suzanne and Mark Vaux had really leaned into the haunted aspect of their home. And that built quite the reputation around the Pierce mansion, even though they had done a lot of beautiful renovations to the property. Word had gotten around about the hauntings, and so no one was really willing to pay that much for a super haunted house.

So it seems like the Vaux's may have done themselves a little bit of a disservice by being so open about their discoveries. So, the house sat on the market with minimal interest from buyers for over a year, and the asking price reduced dramatically. Not once, but three times before any buyers expressed serious interest. It's so funny to see like that house is gorgeous. Oh, it's fucking beautiful, fucking huge, and it's a historical Victorian mansion.

I love it for $375,000, and if you're in the market for a home at that price point, that would be a fucking dream, literally. But that people we still like, that's why when people are like, I don't believe in ghosts, I'm like, I don't know. I think we all do, because none of you were buying that house, that's the thing.

For no one to bite at that just because it might be haunted. You know what's funny? That's why I was going to be like, Well, would you buy it? But I know the answer, you definitely would.

Yeah, hell yeah. Would you, though, with kids, buy a haunted home? With kids? probably not. So that's a good point, that's the thing.

I'd put myself through it, I wouldn't put my kids through. I don't know, just in case they were scary. I don't want scary.

Yeah, or like, yeah, like, dangerous or anything like that. I'm willing to put myself through whatever, but this home is beautiful. And if I had the money to pay for it, I would like to think that I would buy it. But I actually don't know if I would buy a haunted house, like if I knew it was haunted, I don't know.

Yeah, I mean, I guess I'm out because I have kids. Yeah, exactly, so if it was just me and John. But it's like, if we were going into it, being like, we want to start a family, I wouldn't start a family. In a haunted house that I knew was potentially haunted.

Yeah, exactly, I guess. yeah, I don't know. That's a tough thing because you like, you're like, Oh my God, $375,000 for a fucking 20. However, many bedroom house or room house well, and it tells you how deep your belief in ghosts really is.

Oh, totally. And I mean, in Massachusetts, come on, if you don't believe in ghosts, what's wrong with you? That's true, what the fuck is wrong with you? you listen, and what's wrong with you?

I'm just kidding, I love you, I said that so like, So interestingly, you did, I love you.

I love you gotta go.

You made me cough, don't copy me, So when Edwin Gonzalez, I'm just kidding, you are copying me, that's because you got me sick.

You stole my cold, okay, I did that intentionally. So, when Edwin Gonzalez and his girlfriend Lillian saw the Pierce mansion online, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to fulfill their dream. Edwin said Lillian has always wanted to own a Victorian house, me too.

We were coming in from Boston at the time. I had the opportunity to work from home for the first time. So we had the luxury of living wherever we wanted in Massachusetts. Damn, which, like, what a fucking luxury.

Yeah, that's awesome. Massachusetts has so many beautiful, like, quaint and historical towns. Yep, love Massachusetts, I'm never leaving.

I fucking love Massachusetts. I fuck so heavy with Massachusetts. hell yeah, Massachusetts, hell yeah. So by the time they found the listing for the mansion in 2008, the price had dropped even more considerably.

First from $375k to $225k Whoa, then from a second time from $225k to $180k. What which seemed like a fucking steal for a grandiose suburban mansion.

Yeah, Edwin later recalled. Well, we were shocked at the price, which was significantly lower than what we would have paid in Boston. Yeah, you should be able to buy like a billion different things in Boston for that. But you would literally be able to buy like a closet legit in Boston, you'd be able to rent.

I think you would literally be able to buy a closet. Like you'd be able to rent a studio apartment, potentially maybe like you could have, like the corner of a studio apartment. Yeah, exactly.

But, he said, I immediately called the realtor and told her I was interested in the property at Number four, West Broadway. There was some hesitation on the other end of the line, so I repeated the address. I thought that's somewhat odd and assumed there must be some structural issues with the place, but there was more than that. So a few days later, Edwin and Lillian drove out to Gardner and they immediately fell in love with the s.k.

Pierce Mansion, me too, same. But as much as they loved the house, Edwin couldn't help but feel like there was something strange about it. He later said As I toured the house, I remember that in certain rooms I had different emotions.

Certain rooms I felt very comfortable in, in other rooms I had a bad feeling. I was very nauseous and I thought maybe it was something I'd eaten. So he brushed the feeling off, knowing how much Lillian had already fallen in love with the house. Which, like, great man, that is a nice man.

And so they decided to put in an offer, which was quickly accepted. Yeah, I bet it was because it also had been on the market for a while at that point and it was 2008. So, like, not the best time to buy a house now. By January 2009, Edwin and Lillian had closed on their property completely moved into their new home. And the strange occurrences began pretty much immediately. Just a few weeks later. Well, this one fucked me up.

Just a few weeks later, they were meeting with a neighbor and the man asked Edwin if the couple had any children. And when Edwin was like, No, we don't have kids, the man was like, Wait, what? Like you don't have any kids? Like, who was the kid I saw earlier in your house today? oh?

And Edwin was like, What do you mean? And the man said he'd seen a young boy, about five or six years old, looking out one of the windows on the third floor. And then, just a few seconds later, saw him at another window on the opposite end of the house. So he was like, I saw this fucker twice, like, you have kids, I know you do.

Oh, that's a no from me. And Edwin was like, you are definitely mistaken. Because not only do we not have children. But it would be impossible for anyone to move that quickly from that window to the other one on the third floor. Because, quote, he said, he would literally have to go through two walls and a staircase.

So you're saying, it's possible you've got yourself a ghost boy? Yeah, that's a ghost child, my friend. Oof, scary.

So the signing of the boy was just the first in what would be a long line of unusual and unexplicable experiences that Lillian and Edwin would have in their new home. Just a few nights later, Edwin and Lillian were woken up in the night by the sound of one of the large doors on the lower floor slamming shut. Oh no, mm-mm. oh, fuck me up.

I hate the sound of slamming doors, Edwin said. These are big doors that don't slam on their own. They usually take a lot of force to just swing them open. Oof now. Noises continued on early into the next morning when the couple was woken up by the sound of the doorbell and a series of loud, banging knocks at the front door.

But when Edwin ran down to see who the fuck was pounding on their door that early in the morning, no one was there. No, I don't like that, that I'd be like, I gotta go, that seems like fucking with you.

I don't like it. Yeah, it's definitely fucking with you, which also is kind of funny when you think about it, but also pretty terrible. But scary if you're in the position. Exactly funny for me because I'm not in it.

Funny for me because I'm afar, but not funny for you. Mm-mm. Now. In the first few months at the Pierce Mansion, the strange occurrences seemed limited to these kind of strange disruptions and misplaced objects. Some weird fucking noises, and also the occasional feeling of being watched. But in April, things took a rather dramatic turn.

Edwin said I was sitting in my office, which had originally been the nursery. It was about five in the afternoon and I was sitting at my desk when I had the image of a man appear right in front of my face, oh, and then, he said, without any kind of warning. The figure rushed toward him, so he threw his hands up to protect himself and probably turned his face. I'm imagining.

But a few seconds later, everything was back to normal. And when he looked around the room, there was nobody there. Oh wow, and no evidence that anybody had been there. That would scare the shit out of me, I would shit myself.

And that's unusual. Mm-hmm. like that feels like an unusual, because, you know, people are gonna want to debunk. Oh, of course. And it's like, when people tell these kind of stories, usually they're like, either over the top or they're like, nothing.

And this is like, right in the middle, and this is just like a strange one. Like, they just showed up in front of your face and then were gone. And you've heard that before, too. Yeah, it feels realer.

Yeah, it definitely does. It really freaks me out now. When Edwin and Lillian had purchased the house several months earlier, they dealt almost entirely with their real estate agent, not the previous owners. And so they hadn't been given any information about the home's supposed supernatural past. But now Edwin wanted to look into the history of the home, kind of find out what he'd gotten himself into.

So he looked up the names of the owners and he called them. And they summarized the paranormal claims about the home, and they also suggested that he look up the history of the house. In a book titled Haunted Massachusetts, Hey, I think I have that book, I do have that book. And it's hilarious that they bought this home and didn't realize that it was listed in a haunted publication.

So, after reading all about the home and all of its paranormal history, Edward believed that the man he saw in his office that day was the spirit of Inosari. Oh, shit, creepy. So he decided to call a local husband and wife team of paranormal investigators WHO.

It was not Ed and Lorraine Warren, I almost put that joke in, but no, it was not them. I decided to take a break from them for a minute. But they agreed to come to the house and investigate all these different disturbances. So the investigators, they set up cameras throughout the house, just trying to record anything.

But they said they weren't able to document anything because the spirits in the home kept knocking the cameras over. I feel like that's documenting something, so do I personally I also. That was actually my first thought.

He's like, It's so weird. We weren't able to catch anything crazy because ghosts kept kicking the cameras over and it's like, I don't know, I feel like that's it. He's like, It's weird. One ghost just punted the camera across the room.

And then we didn't get anything. I think that's the tweet, my guys, that's the tweet, that's actually the ex. Oh, no.

So before leaving, they cleansed the house with sage, and they recommend, which I was like, y'all just cleanse the house with sage. You thought that was gonna do the trick? At this point? They're like, this will be fun. I think we're a little past that.

But they recommended that Edwin and Lillian perform a cleansing ritual nightly, for several nights in a row. So that they could assert their ownership of the house, assert their dominance over the house, I don't think you should assert your dominance over a haunted house. So, after the cleansing ritual, all was quiet in the house for a few nights because the ghosts got together. And they said, let them think they have the upper hand and then strike when no one's looking. They were like, that was cute.

They got in the huddle, then they slapped each other's butts, and they went on with the haunt. They all said, You sure about that?

So things were quiet for a few nights, and Edwin and Lillian became hopeful that their ordeal might finally be over. But they quickly learned that their hope was misplaced. When, about a week or so later, they heard the sound of smashing glass coming from the kitchen, they said it sounded like somebody was down there, just breaking all of their dishes. Which I would have been pissed. Yeah, I wouldn't have been happy.

So they ran downstairs to the kitchen, but when they got there, there was no evidence of anything being broken. Okay, this is very reminiscent of at my house growing up, because one day me and my brother were the only ones home. Wait this, I don't know this story. No, you do.

This is the one when we heard like shattering glass, and we heard like a slam upstairs, and we were like, Oh my God. So we run upstairs into his room, which was the original main bedroom in the house. And he had all these like framed, post like pictures, like cigar photos inside. I don't know he was weird, of course.

Love you JP, just kidding. But one of his big framed, heavy cigar pictures almost like shadow box. Yeah, like it wasn't shadow boxy.

It was just like a very thick frame, like, very heavy, okay, okay, and it was leaned up. It was on one wall before, and it was leaned over on the opposite wall, on the floor, like it had been leaned against the wall on the opposite wall. And it wasn't broken at all. But we heard shattering glass.

That's so weird. I do know that story. It was shocking and hadn't that. It had fallen down multiple times and he kept putting it back up. I remember him saying it was like someone didn't want that picture.

Yeah, so he was like, I'm not gonna hang that again. That's so creepy. That room, that all the that was an active room, that's the most active room. I've had shit happen to me in there.

You've had shit happen to me in there. I fucking hate that room. Yeah, that room has some like something dark happened in that room. I think it comes from the closet.

Yeah, it's weird, there's two closets in that room and I get a bad feeling from one of them. But this isn't about our house, we should fucking talk about some of the haunts, like just make an episode of our house, like listed at Da da, da, da, da.

So yeah, they heard that, but then again, there was no evidence that anything was broken. And then, a few days later, they got a weird, unexpected visit from a stranger at their door. A man named Bill Wallace had knocked on the door and claimed that he had some experience with this house. Just out of the blue, that's unsettling. Yeah, I don't like it, but he was fine.

Okay, cool. He told the couple that justice for Bill, it's just Bill, it's just bill, my guys. So he told the couple that he was actually a spiritual empath and a friend of the former owners, Mark and Suzanne.

And he said they invited him to investigate the home multiple times, and while he did his different investigations, he'd learned a lot about the house. So he wants to tell you all about it. Yeah, my dog would like to tell you about it, ready?

Oh, she stops the second I do it, she stops the second you're like, ready, you got nothing to say, Sid?

That's so Sid, that is so Sid, that's so Sid, that's so Sidney. It's the future she can see.

I don't know sure. So in 2013, Bill told the Discovery Channel I knew there was something nasty in the cellar, I knew there was something nasty on the second floor, and Bill also knew nasty.

That really worked out. Oh my god, it did you nasty, no. Bill also knew about the young boy that the neighbors had seen in the window a few months earlier, he said I knew there was a child who had. This is sad, who had been abused terribly in life and was still being abused by somebody in the house as a spirit.

Oh, let's fuck that spirit up, fuck that spirit, fuck that spirit, like, show them.

Oh, that poor little boy, you can't even escape it in the afterlife. Fuck that person who did that. I know it makes me so sad. Ooh, I wanna kick their ass, their spirit ass.

I'm gonna kick your ass, I'm gonna kick your ass. Do you remember that video of the little girl that was like, I'm gonna kick his ass? Yes, that's me right now, I love it.

He said, He's gonna kick my ass, he's gonna kick my ass. I loved that video, that's me right now. I'm like, I'm gonna kick his ass.

I don't want him to kick my ass, but I'm gonna kick his ass, oh man. So after 10 months in the home. The once minor disturbances at this point had escalated exponentially, and now they seem to contain an element of menace that hadn't been there previously. According to Bill Wallace, the spirit of the Pierce's former nanny, Maggie, he called her Maggie, but her name was Maddie.

But Bill said that Maddie had been trying to protect Edwin and Lillian from the others he referred to them as the others in the house. But there was only so much that she could do to prevent a more serious situation. But out of options, and now very concerned for their own safety, Edwin and Lillian decided to hold kind of a paranormal open house, thinking that this would solve their problems.

Okay, these are choices, they're choices. I don't know what I would do in this situation. I think what they were thinking was that this group of people that they invited was going to help them, but I think they did more hurt than help.

Yeah, I mean, a paranormal open house sounds fucking awesome. Like I'd go, I would go. I don't know if I would hold one in my home, I know for a fact that I would not hold one in my home.

Or teach their own Yeah, live your life. So they invited a bunch of paranormal investigators to the home in hopes that one might have a solution to the huge problems that they were going through. So, the open house was organized by local paranormal investigator John Brightman, and it attracted psychic mediums and other kinds of paranormal investigators, who eventually broke off into separate teams. This is awesome.

It's fucking cool, this is awesome. Each team separated and took up a quadrant of the floor. Now, John's only stipulation to this whole thing was that nobody bring in a Ouija board or any other item into the home that could invite negative entities in the house. John is actually Ash.

John and me are one in the same. But he would later learn, and he was probably so pissed because I know I would be that not everybody had taken his request seriously. So, while John and other teams explored the upper floors of the house, a duo of supposed paranormal investigators in the basement began performing what John believes was a satanic ritual. Using a hand-drawn spirit board. Okay, yeah.

So upstairs, I don't know if he just thinks like, using a spirit board is like satanic in and of itself. I don't, I don't know. I wasn't there, me either.

Who am I? But I would be pissed if I was John. I mean, yeah, that's the when you said, don't, when you, you know what, I'll give it to John.

If you, if you make it very clear no satanic rituals and they come in and do a satanic ritual, that's fucked up. Yeah, and you really shouldn't have to make it clear, like, not to do satanic rituals. I feel like that should just be like, that should be one of those things that you you should at least ask before you do a satanic ritual. I feel, you know, like.

Just check May I use your bathroom? May I do a satanic ritual? Do you mind if I do a satanic ritual in the basement? Really quick?

Just like, what do you think, just is that all right? And it's like, also these? I want to be a good house guest. You guys were supposed to be helping, not performing rituals of the satanic nature. But upstairs, on the second floor, John and his group were investigating the former bedroom of Ino Sari, one of the most active locations for paranormal occurrences.

Now, they weren't able to make contact with contact with Ino's spirit through asking questions out loud. So John decided to take a more aggressive approach. And he sat down on the bed, which he figured would agitate the spirit and prompt some kind of response.

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Now, after a minute or two of an antagonistic questioning. John felt a burning sensation on his side and he pulled up his shirt to reveal three large scratches across his stomach. Damn. And at the same time, other investigators in the room heard a voice say, Squeeze every throat in this house, whoa, that is chilling as fuck like that escalated so quickly.

Holy shit, squeeze every throat in this house. Damn how fuck look at that. I need to take a deep breath. That was, that's chilling.

That is chilling. squeeze every throat in this house. mm-hmm. that was definitely the person abusing somebody in this house. Oh yeah, oh fuck.

So this experience sent John fleeing the room into the hallway, where he claims he was assaulted again, this time by an unseen fist. Damn, yeah, he later recalled. In 10 years, the most I've had happen to me is maybe the tug of a shirt or a door slam on me. Hear a voice, that's normal occurrences, but to be physically attacked like this and then have something touch you the way it did, it's scary, yeah.

Which, like, I speak from experience, because I got poked on the U.S.S salem when we went with our boys, Sam and Colby, and that was scary. Yeah, like that poke, I felt on my body for the rest of the night. Yeah, so to be scratched by a spirit and like, punched, it sounds like.

A ghosty blue in my ear. Yeah, I didn't like that either. That wasn't awesome, and then they chased us out of a room that was also scary, that also was not awesome.

Yeah, you can go watch the video on Sam and Colby's channel or the Explore page. Kim, you can do that so. The attack in Inosari's former bedroom shook John Brightman to the point where he actually concluded the paranormal open house. He was like, y'all need to get out.

He rounded everybody up and ushered them personally out of the house and left Edwin and Lillian alone to deal with whatever the event had just stirred up at that point. I love how he's like, everyone out. Sorry guys, sorry about that bye. It's like a frat party and then your parents get home.

Yeah, Edwin said. They came in, they got some evidence and then they left us with no answers. That's when I realized the groups weren't trying to help us out, they were just trying to conjure up as much action as they can. Damn.

It's like, That's shitty, yeah, that sucks. So in the days that followed the paranormal investigation, things shockingly seemed to get worse in the house. I don't know why. Wow, I wonder why.

And things especially seemed to get worse surrounding Lillian, Edwin told reporters One night, Lillian went down into the basement, apparently sleepwalking, and began digging in the cellar. A lot of people pick up something negative, very negative. In the cellar. There are shadows and the sound of children laughing down in the cistern.

Ooh, now. During one of her sleepwalking events, Edwin claimed that Lillian was digging through the ashes and the remnants of an old kiln in the basement. What the fuck? And she discovered a scrap of an early 20th century newspaper article about several children who had drowned on the property shut up.

Now, eventually, he and Lillian came to believe that the drowning was the reason for the presence of the spirit of the young boy on the second and third floors. And actually, this wasn't the first time that Edwin had heard about drownings on the property. Others had informed him of the supposed death of a young girl who drowned in a pond behind the mansion in the early 1900s. Now, while these deaths may have occurred at one point or another, it should be said that there is no pond on the Pierce Mansion property. Well, that puts a wrench in things, you know?

But that doesn't mean that there never was, there's not currently. That makes me think twice, that makes you think twice, but maybe there was. And then somebody drowned there and they filled it up, we don't know.

Maybe, and actually. Unfortunately, there are multiple bodies of water in Gardner, but none are close enough to the mansion. That the drowning deaths would be even remotely related to activity in the house. I have to give you both sides. I was literally, I don't know if Mikey just saw. I immediately started googling. I was like drownings, like going for it.

And then you were like, there's no body of water on the property, and I was like, whirr, whirr, yeah, yeah.

That's true. Someone can dry drown, somebody can drown in a bathtub. dry drowning is kind of like a, but somebody can drown in a bathtub, okay?

That is for sure, that's definite. Or they could drown in a man-made pond. Yeah, you know.

Maybe there was a little frog pond on the property that was filled in. We don't know, I don't know, you don't know, you don't know.

Nobody knows. But either way, Edwin was growing more and more concerned about Lillian because she was sleepwalking a lot and being kind of strange. I do, however, sorry to interrupt you. I do, however, wonder, because Edwin said she found scraps of a newspaper that listed these drownings. Yeah.

Like, Does Edwin have that newspaper?

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I haven't talked to him recently. I was about to say, you haven't talked to Edwin recently.

No, I think, give him a call, that's good, I'll text him, let him know.

Yeah, text Edwin, messenger him later. Yeah, I don't know. maybe he'll listen to this and say, Yeah, bitches, I do.

Because I would love to see it, I mean, I hope he says it nicer. I know I would also love to. Well, you have Newspapers.com.

I do have newspapers.

Com Go on it quickly and I'll keep talking. Okay, cool. I should have done that myself, but I didn't, but I'll do it because I love Newspapers..com.

I do, too. I don't know why I didn't, so let's go. But I didn't do it because I was like, Oh my God, I have to keep learning about Lillian here because Lillian started to get worse and worse.

Edwin told the Discovery Channel I was starting to lose her, she was slipping away, I didn't have any answers and I had no one to turn to. She was becoming more and more exhausted, sitting on the couch all day long. I thought, this is really the house that's affecting her.

Damn so, with nowhere else to turn. Edwin contacted a man who claimed to be an exorcist. Ooh, and the man came to the house and did perform an exorcism, which he said would end the haunting. But a few nights later, Edwin woke up in the middle of the night to find that Lillian had again wandered down into the basement and was again digging in the ashes of the old kiln.

And when he tried to bring her back upstairs, she began shouting at him until he agreed to leave her alone down there, she didn't. She was like, get the fuck away from me, I wanna dig now. The night after that weird altercation interaction, Bill Wallace showed up at the couple's front door again.

And this time, he said he had a feeling that Lillian was in danger, and he believed that Edwin and Lillian were no longer safe in the home. He said he couldn't explain it, but everything became much clearer when Edwin told him about the exorcism, Bill said from what he thought, that the ritual performed by the exorcist had actually only succeeded in driving out the spirit of Maddie. And she was the only thing standing between them and the malevolent spirits in the house who wished them harm.

Damn now, Bill recalled that moment and said For the very first time ever, I was afraid to be alone in that house. Whoa, yeah, this is chilling.

It truly is anything on newspapers over there. I'm looking, okay, keep looking now. Bill's genuine concern for Edwin and Lillian and his insistence that they stay and fight for the House was all the proof that Edwin needed. That. They might be in real danger.

And so they decided that they get the fuck out of the Pierce Mansion, Edwin said. It's one thing when you try to fight it, but when it's affecting the person you love more. I don't want to see anything like that happen to her. We had so many hopes and dreams. We envisioned the house being brought back to the way it used to be, but unfortunately we kind of lost our dreams.

Oh, that's sad, it is sad now. Not too long after Bill's visit, Edwin and Lillian did move out of the mansion. And they actually didn't have anywhere to go quite yet, so they stayed with Lillian's sister temporarily. So that kind of tells you, like, how scared they were.

Yeah, that they didn't have anywhere to even go, they didn't have anywhere to go other than to her sister's house. And in the meantime, they were just trying to figure out what to do about the house. And almost immediately after leaving the house, it was said that Lillian returned to normal like nothing had ever happened. So, while moving out of the house may have dramatically improved Edwin and Lillian's mental health. They still had invested almost everything they had into the home and some of the renovations that they made after moving in.

Like, they had invested a lot of money into this place, yeah. And because of that, there was no way that they could sell the home and break even, nevermind even make a profit. Oh, damn. And just like the Vos before them. Edwin and Lillian's time in the Pierce mansion had only increased the home's haunted reputation, which made it even harder to sell for a realtor.

Oh, no, so. Rather than struggle to sell a haunted house, Edwin decided to use the mansion's reputation to his advantage. And he started hosting paranormal investigators, television programs and ghost tours, doing what he could to make the most of a bad situation. And it turned out. While most people weren't interested in buying a haunted house, many people were willing to pay a small price, or, like a regular price, to visit one. So the proceeds from the tours and the events not only helped Edwin and Lillian stay afloat after moving out, but they also were able to fund some restoration projects and covered the cost of badly needed repairs to the roof and some other various parts of the home.

So for years, Edwin returned to the house regularly to host new tour groups or production companies, filming paranormal shows about the house. And in some cases, he would even participate in the investigations. But there was one incident where he claims that he communicated directly with a disembodied voice of a spirit in the house. And he decided at that point that he didn't wanna be a part of the events anymore. This, like, really freaked him out. Oh damn.

He said about the voice It was coming from all around the room, like it was in stereo. From that point on, I never wanted to participate in investigations again. Ooh, funnily, right shit.

So, in the years after Edwin and Lillian's departure from the house, the Pierce Mansion became a pretty popular destination for paranormal enthusiasts and groups like East Coast Paranormal Research Team. They became frequent visitors to the estate, and they were actually even able to lead ghost tours of their own after a certain point. So for Edwin and Lillian, who initially felt like pretty heartbroken and sad after having to leave the house. The unexpected turn of events really couldn't have been more beneficial. Edwin told a reporter in 2013 I'm still amazed by what I encountered in that house.

We just can't move back in, damn, yeah. So they lived in the house for a little under a year, but they continued renting out the property until April 2015. And that's when they put it back on the market, with an asking price of nearly twice what they paid for it in 2008..

Shit, but again, remember, 2008 was a really shitty time to buy a house and they had done a lot of restoration projects. So while their attempt to sell what was then a notoriously haunted house was pretty risky, given what we know from even this story alone. They got lucky, and within three months, they had found a buyer who was willing to pay almost full asking price for the house. Wow.

No, I didn't see that coming, nor did I. But unlike all the previous owners of the house, the Pierce Mansion's newest owner, Robert Conte, had no intention of moving in, which is why he bought it. Instead, he wanted to turn the estate into a full-time haunted attraction.

There it is. Robert Conte is actually a periodontist by trade. Oh my god, I'm obsessed with that. But also owns a traveling haunted circus. What?

Yup, a traveling, haunted circus, you heard, I need to know more about that same.

So when he came across the listing online, he had been looking for opportunities to expand his haunted empire. And he was like, perfect, let's buy this, hell yeah. So he learned about the history of the home and learned even more about the recent stories of paranormal activity. Took a tour of the property and he was convinced that the Pierce mansion was exactly what he and his wife had been looking for. Damn.

He told ABC News I didn't really come into this believing in ghosts. But the minute I walked into this house, I was overwhelmed and had to excuse myself. And get a piece of candy because I thought I was gonna pass out, Oh my god. So he went into this not even believing in ghosts, and was like, Oh, this place is fucked, Oh, I'm doing this now. Once the sale was finalized, the Contes got to work, restoring the house to its former glory.

They were able to finish all the restoration projects that had been started by previous owners, and actually, these projects were overseen by local historian and caretaker Kenneth Watson. Oh shit, it's our Ken, Ken, he's just Ken.

Oh my god, I haven't even seen that movie and he's great at doing stuff. I fucking loved the Barbie movie, you should see it.

But yes, so. Watson had become very friendly with Edwin and Lillian, and they recommended him to Conte after the sale in 2015.

So he got to stick around, oh shit. And since the restoration's completion in 2020, Kenneth Watson has remained as kind of a caretaker and manager of the estate, Kenneth.

He's just Ken I've come around to. I wasn't trying to be mean to Ken in the beginning when I was like, Don't you ruin my fun? Ken? No, but now team, Ken, team.

Ken, he's just like, Listen, I know about this house, I know it all, I trust Ken, I do too.

And you should, too. And we might meet him. Oh, hell yeah, I'm about to meet Ken. Because he leads tours and sees to the overnight guests who book a stay at the mansion.

See Ken, we've been through a journey here today and I'm excited to meet you. can't wait to see you. And within a year, there were more than 3,000 people on the waiting list to stay at the house overnight. Well, shit, so we should get on that list.

I was like, Okay, maybe I won't see you soon, excuse me. I wonder if there still is a waiting list, so I would assume there could be rambling. It's a pretty popular location.

Now Covid womp, womp, womp, womp, womp. It interrupted business for a bit, but they are back in business and business has been strong at the newly renovated and fully operational S.k Pierce Mansion.

Hell yeah. And when the call went out for applications, actually for a number of different positions at the House. Conti and his team got hundreds of applications and actually had to turn most of them away. Quote When all available job interview slots were filled within hours. Holy shit, look at Massachusetts being spooky as fuck. Hell yeah. They were like, we are not gonna buy this house, but we will work there.

But I will work there. Dream job, Fuck yeah. Now. These days, customers can book everything from tours and events to overnight or extended stays at the fully restored mansion. But the owners are quick to remind any interested parties of one crucial fact.

Quote This attraction is not for the faint of heart whoa.

I love it, and that is the S..k. Pierce Mansion. Holy shit, what a tale. It's a fun tale.

And thank you to Dave for looking into it for me, regardless of what actually happened there. Some people died in that house and some fuck shit went down there either way, and some fuck shit went down.

I mean, for all those paranormal investigators to be like, Yeah, fuck that we're out, like, I trust my Massachusetts paranormal investigators, okay, so if they're saying, fuck that shit, then fuck that shit, fuck that shit, but I'm gonna go there.

I can't wait to go there. We should see if there's still a wait list, we absolutely should. I'm gonna actually go look into that now. So we hope you keep listening.

And we hope you keep it weird. But that's weird that you don't get your ass on the wait list. To the S.k Pierce Mansion, because what the fuck are you doing if you're not going to the S.k Pierce Mansion? I'll see you there. Love you bye.

Get with it, mwah.

You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com Slash Survey. I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

I was like, at my locker and she came up to me and she was like, stuttering, super bad. I'm like, stop around, she's like, I can't. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast, like doubling and tripling, and it's all these girls.

With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low. Everybody thought I was holding something back. Well, you were holding something back intentionally. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, no, it's hysteria, it's all in your head.

It's not physical. Oh my gosh, you're exaggerating. Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem, or is it something else entirely? Something's wrong here, something's not right. Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.