A Haunting- S05E04 - House of Horrors
Mark and Rebecca Spencer knew the historic Allen House was haunted when they bought it. When they investigate the cause of the haunting, they learn about its secret past including a previous owner who committed suicide.
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00:00what does it take to turn a skeptic into a believer I couldn't control my own
00:13body Mark and Rebecca Spencer are about to
00:17learn the hard way it was about five or six seconds of sheer terror their dream
00:24house turns into a nightmare when they discover it's horrific past hearing all
00:33those voices just really changed my life
00:37in America there is real evil it lurks in the darkest shadows in our most
00:43ordinary towns between the worlds we see and the things we fear there are doors
00:51when they are opened nightmares become reality
00:59Oh
01:15what's wrong
01:29Monticello Arkansas 2005 for the past 18 years Mark Spencer has been a
01:45department chairman at a University in Oklahoma but he's interviewing for a
01:50new position at the University of Arkansas and coming out here for the
01:54interview Rebecca and the boys came with me and we found the town charming
01:58and I was really drawn to the sense of history here look at that one while
02:04out walking one afternoon a large mansion catches Rebecca's attention we
02:10just looked at it in almost disbelief that a house like that existed because
02:16it was so unique if we're gonna move here I want that house I was rather
02:21drawn to Monticello in a somewhat mysterious way I suppose I could have
02:25stayed where I was which would have been safe I would have made more money but I
02:30just really felt drawn to the town the following day Mark accepts the job
02:40Rebecca is thrilled she can now pursue her dream house that afternoon they pay
02:49a visit to the owner
02:57I wanted that house short of the devil walking out the front door I was gonna
03:01buy it it was all kind of gloomy and eerie what am I supposed to say well
03:12just telling you the new Dean of the University and you love the house she
03:16doesn't slam the door in your face tell her you want to buy it
03:26after getting a close look at the house I was having some serious second
03:31thoughts about trying to buy it because it seemed to be in such a dilapidated
03:35state but what Mark doesn't realize is that this house is not dead it's very
03:51much alive
04:05I think the idea that frightened me was that whoever owned this house would be
04:11listening to such a radio program in the middle of the afternoon I was a little
04:15bit afraid of what the owner was going to be like I was glad that nobody
04:34answered the door this place looks like a money pit to me although the house is
04:43in disrepair there's something about it that still fascinates Rebecca I think he
04:49was trying to discourage me but it didn't it didn't work I still wanted the
04:53house it didn't matter it didn't really matter what he said the Spencers ask
04:59everyone they know about the house on North Main Street hoping someone can
05:04lead them to the owner we thought maybe we could go to a real estate agent and
05:10the real estate agent could approach the owner and see whether the owner might be
05:14interested in an offer we are interested in a particular house great it's the one
05:20on the corner of North Main and Oakland you mean the Allen house hasn't anyone
05:27told you it's haunted I just figured you know it's a small town every small
05:33town has a haunted house and she just said well you know that that's not the
05:39kind of house you want to talk about it's not this not for sale or anything
05:42and the woman that owns it would never sell it anyways I'm sorry but I can't
05:46help you with that house I didn't immediately assume that there was
05:51something weird about the house no I was more inclined to think there was
05:54something weird about the real estate agent in the meantime Mark investigates
06:02the haunted history of the Allen house he wonders if the rumors are true I did
06:08an internet search one day just you know typed in Allen house Monticello Arkansas
06:12and a whole bunch of websites came up and they were all about paranormal
06:17activity associated with the house and apparently the house had had a reputation
06:21for paranormal activity for over half a century the house was built in 1906 for
06:26Joe Lee Allen one of the wealthiest businessmen in Arkansas Allen had three
06:32daughters Liddell the middle child was apparently his favorite Liddell Allen
06:39got married when she was 19 the marriage didn't last Liddell moved back to her
06:45childhood home where she lived with her mother it was there that she committed
06:50suicide on Christmas night 1948 no one knew why
07:04hello I got a call from the owner of the house and she said that she understood
07:12that I wanted to buy her house she said that she would have to meet us and after
07:18she met us she would decide whether she would consider talking about selling the
07:22house Mark and Rebecca will need to wait several weeks until the owner returns
07:28from an out-of-town trip but in the meantime they often visit the Allen
07:33house anticipating the day they can finally go inside maybe definitely that
07:44must be Miss Marilyn I saw a woman sitting in the window and she looked
07:50like she was sitting at a desk maybe reading or writing a letter come on guys
07:54let's go we don't want to activate the neighborhood watch I didn't want her to
08:00look and see us and then recognize us later and think oh well they were
08:03stalking the house but finally the day comes Mark and Rebecca will step into
08:12the Allen house for the first time welcome to Allen house I'm Mark we spoke
08:23on the phone I definitely anticipated some sort of magic when I walked in the
08:27front door and and it felt that way it felt like I was walking into something
08:31that was even better than I had imagined the lady who owned the house had a lot
08:36of nice things so it looked good but it also felt good I had a good feeling
08:41about the house it felt warm the second floor isn't in such good shape this is
08:49the master bedroom
08:54is this the room that overlooks the street yes I immediately could see that
09:00this was the second story room in which we had seen the woman in the window and
09:09what was surprising was that we couldn't get into the room because the
09:13room was packed full of furniture and boxes you must have done a lot of heavy
09:18lifting to get these boxes on here we saw you sitting at the front window just
09:22a few days ago I haven't been in this room for months I figured that my wife
09:29and the kids and I had all experienced some sort of common optical illusion
09:35maybe it was a ghost I'm sure you've heard by now that this house is haunted
09:41we don't believe in that sort of thing oh but it's true this house is haunted
09:49she told Mark that he would hear lots of stories about it but not to worry
09:54because she had had the house exercised when I first moved in here I could hear
10:02the ghost talking constantly they don't talk as much now my response to that was
10:08that well she was just probably a little crazy and I you know I wanted to be a
10:14polite and after all I was trying to buy her house so I just kind of went along
10:17oh that's really interesting well we've got to be going we've got to pick our son
10:23up from school but thank you so much for showing us your beautiful home glad you
10:27like it I think the house likes you too that's when she first came out and said
10:34that she was thinking of selling her palace and that God must have brought us
10:38to her because we were the types of people that she would want to sell her
10:42palace to but yes I think I'm supposed to do this she said that she was
10:48surprised to find herself saying that because she never thought she would sell
10:51the house but she had a feeling about me and Rebecca she said that for some
10:56reason she felt that we were meant to own it but little do they know they're
11:05moving into a house with a very dark past we felt that the house needed to be
11:11saved and that we were the ones to save it perhaps Mark and Rebecca were chosen
11:18to own the house but just what were they chosen for
11:33soon after the Spencer family moves in Monticello residents start showing up
11:39hoping to get a first-hand look at the infamous haunted house
11:42we heard that you were letting people come in to see the haunted house they
11:51would show up at the door and they would say hey we want to come and see inside
11:54and I'm like well I don't know who told you you could come inside my house but
11:58you can't what you have a stranger come into your house and look around no sorry
12:03I just knew right from the start when the kids started showing up at the door
12:08and then later adults showing up at the door that the house was of interest to
12:12everybody and there was no way I was going to be able to just say go away and
12:16don't come back in the following months the Spencers concentrate on renovating
12:22the historic house we've been at this long I just started actually I convinced
12:28Lauren to take the kids we did most of the work ourselves because we enjoy
12:31hands-on projects but also for the financial reasons taking on the project
12:35and hiring someone to do every little part of it would have just been too
12:40costly you run up to the attic real quick and grab a screwdriver no problem
12:44I was working 50 to 60 hours a week at the University and then every spare
12:48moment I had I was at home working on the house I don't think that I could
12:54have worked as hard as I did on the house if I wasn't so much in love with
12:59the house well Mark loves the house he's also mystified by it the attic in
13:08particular holds great mystery
13:18I was fascinated with the attic in a way I I love the attic but also was afraid
13:23of it and I can't give you a rational explanation as to why I was afraid of it
13:27but but right from the start right after we moved into the house I was somewhat
13:34afraid of it
14:04Mark's uneasiness grows someone or something is watching him
14:34one of the little things that I found in the attic was half of a photograph of an
14:39infant and on the back of it was enough of an inscription to determine that it
14:44said miss Liddell I wondered why would anybody tear a photograph of a baby in
14:49half but then something unusual catches his eye
15:05I stood there kind of mesmerized because it was such an interesting play of light
15:12and shadow I thought I was trying to figure out where the light was coming
15:17from and how the my shadow was getting cast all the way around the other side
15:22of the attic and then what was really strange was that when I moved my shadow
15:32didn't move
15:42and I thought oh okay well I've been I've been working too much
15:51at the time I was just determined really not not to think much about it I figure
15:57well there must be some explanation I just don't have it at the moment but who
16:07was this mysterious Liddell the next day Rebecca follows up and discovers that
16:15this woman grew up in the house and later died of an overdose at the age of
16:2154 the only thing I really understood about Liddell from the newspaper was her
16:26obituary that said the most about her it really said that she was a very well
16:31loved woman who cared for everyone but herself
16:35I heard four very heavy footsteps above me in the attic
17:06I was absolutely certain that someone had snuck in the house and was hiding
17:10out up there
17:13after hearing footsteps in the attic Rebecca believes an intruder has broken
17:37in but shortly after the sounds of footsteps disappear it made me pause it
18:01made me go back and think about some of the stories people had said about the
18:04house things I had disregarded things I thought were silly now became a reality
18:10to me those became real stories because now they were my stories in the
18:16following days the Spencers discuss a more concrete problem with their new
18:20house we have got to hire someone to come in and insulate the walls the
18:25electric bills getting higher and higher every month we were quickly going broke
18:29doing these renovations paint and wallpaper and lumber all these things
18:35are pretty expensive oh we got a letter from those ghost hunter people I'll take
18:42a letter any day over people just showing up on the front porch I had to
18:46turn another one away today she must have been 90 and she was pushier than
18:50the kids as if she expects us to give guided tours well why don't we I mean
18:58Halloween is coming up we could charge five bucks ahead it would help pay for
19:01the renovations when Rebecca came up with the idea of giving some tours at
19:05Halloween I thought well it can't hurt on Halloween night the Allen house opens
19:16its doors to the public for the first time you're not gonna believe this the
19:22line stretches all the way around the block I thought it'd be great if 50
19:27people showed up and paid to tour the house and we had 600
19:35welcome to Allen house some of the people when they came up on the porch to
19:41wait for their turn to go in the house were so scared that they were shaking
19:44they thought something was going to just jump out and get them and they were
19:48gonna have a real true haunted experience the Spencers have hired a
19:53group of local students to lead the tours all right first group follow me
19:57please one of those students is Shane Curry that first group was really more
20:02interested in like the ghost stories that's what they really came for you've
20:05all heard about Liddell Allen who supposedly haunts this house this is the
20:10room where she killed herself right over there
20:16it was Christmas Eve 1948
20:26caddy Allen Liddell's mother was hosting her annual Christmas party Liddell was
20:32of course in attendance we'd heard some accounts of the Christmas party of Liddell
20:41seeming a lot more somber than she usually was by the end of the party
20:45Liddell appeared disheartened but no one could understand why an otherwise
20:50cheerful woman seemed so depressed at one point late in the evening she
20:56prepared herself a plate of hors d'oeuvres and a glass of punch and she
21:00went upstairs
21:11late that very same night Liddell decided to end her own life
21:18she suffered for about a week before she finally passed away her mother came
21:41home and sealed up this room no one came in here for the next 37 years until the
21:47Allen family sold the house that's when the ghost stories began you don't
21:54actually believe those stories do you
22:07in the middle of the story the lights flickered and a shirt flew out of the
22:12closet I didn't do that everyone looked at me like you know how did you do that
22:19that was cool I'm like that I don't know how that just happened
22:24yeah right see for yourself and I'm freaking out because I don't know why
22:30that just happened he goes and he looks and there's nothing in there but a pal
22:33clothes I don't want to be in here anymore people were definitely freaked
22:37out once they realized that that was not you know a gimmick that we hadn't planned
22:42for a shirt to fly out the closet some of them wanted to go ahead and leave
22:46some of them wanted to hurry up and finish the tour it is obvious that
22:49Liddell does not care for the idea of strangers touring her home and she'll
22:56make sure they'll never come back
23:12for more a haunting go to destination america.com a simple tour of the haunted
23:21Allen house has turned into much more than anyone planned
23:30thank you for coming thank you for coming I saw her she's still here who
23:37Liddell we had an older lady on the tour who came up to me as she was leaving
23:44the house and told me that when she was on the second floor she saw a lady in a
23:50Victorian dress she was saying she thought she had seen Liddell why is she
24:00so sad I don't know people who came on the tour they all wanted to know what
24:08our ideas were what we knew about Liddell suicide and the fact is nobody
24:14knew why she'd committed suicide thank you so much for opening your house to us
24:18I'll never forget this
24:30after the excitement of Halloween the Spencers returned to their routines
24:36still working hard to make the house their own but someone is intent on
24:45distracting them
25:00I put the needle down and stopped instantly and what's odd about that is
25:21that it's it's wound up with a spring so if someone had actually wound it up and
25:27you were to put the needle down it would either play or it would just
25:29slowly wind itself out but it stopped instantly so it wasn't wound at all
25:35Rebecca goes upstairs to tell her husband what she saw but something
25:41stops her dead in her tracks
25:45it was controlling me I had to feel what it wanted me to feel it was about
26:00five or six seconds of almost sheer terror what's wrong
26:07I saw something, a ghost
26:12it's as if Liddell is trying to tell her something but what I still wasn't really
26:21convinced I guess for myself it wasn't that I thought that she was crazy but I
26:28suppose I just wanted to see it for myself
26:36I think maybe it's time we let one of those paranormal groups come and
26:43investigate I wanted concrete evidence of paranormal activity before I was
26:50going to be able to say yeah this house is haunted the Spencers invited team of
26:58paranormal experts from Louisiana spirits to conduct an investigation of
27:03the Allen house among the investigators is Bess Maxwell you could feel the
27:11history of that house and you could feel the feel the house I don't know that
27:15I've ever been any other place that you could just feel the spirit of the house
27:20like the Allen house
27:25we really didn't understand what the protocol was for having paranormal
27:31investigators and one's home so we sent the kids off to friends houses for the
27:38night and Rebecca and I decided that we would go out and leave the house to the
27:44investigators we've never left anyone alone in the house before don't worry
27:48we do this kind of thing all the time we'll be fine
27:51Rebecca Spencer's concerns were she always felt that the Allen house had its
27:56own distinct personality she elected the house as being almost a person in
28:01and of itself and she was just kind of worried that the house strange as it
28:07sounds the house would not like us being there you ready I guess so that night I
28:15felt that something was a little off Mark felt something was a little off we
28:20just weren't sure what to do so we chose to leave but I think we both knew right
28:24from the start that we shouldn't do that
28:37I felt a little dizzy coming down the stairs I didn't think too much of it at
28:44the time I thought well maybe I need to eat or something but I did I felt like
28:50the air was suddenly charged in some way
28:54ok but Mark is far from ok perhaps it's a warning of events yet to come
29:07after Mark and Rebecca leave for the evening the investigators continue their
29:13attempt to solve the Allen house mystery
29:16attic has always been the focal point of a lot of the activity in the house
29:23Bess uses an EMF meter to pick up on electronic frequencies when it lights up
29:30it suggests the presence of spiritual activity
29:33I thought that one of the other investigators was coming up behind me
29:53and it just said her name
29:57she had not been behind me so where the voice came from I don't know
30:04meanwhile Rachel Ellis sets up a camera in the master bedroom
30:21I could hear a lady singing really softly but there was nobody in there
30:24with me
30:28maybe nobody inside
30:34it was like lightning all around the house
30:47what happened I don't know everything is dead except the audio recorders
30:52all electricity went out there was no electricity whatsoever but our recorders
30:57were still up I saw sparks outside just before the lights went out must have been a
31:00transformer
31:04the neighbors still have power and we realized that well it could have been the
31:07transformer because we were the only house with no electricity the house is
31:11next door on either side the house across the street their lights were on
31:15so it's just us
31:18I better call Rebecca
31:25we were just a few blocks from the house when my phone rang it was one of the
31:28investigators my immediate feeling was I knew it I knew we shouldn't have left
31:33the house
31:37what happened come on follow me I want to show you something
31:43here to be careful and watch the wire
31:47without any probable explanation a branch has fallen on the power lines
31:53I'm not a big believer in coincidences so it just seemed too odd to just say
31:58well it's just a limb just happened to fall off the tree just as we were about
32:03to begin our investigation it was just too strange
32:07it's perfectly still there's no breeze
32:10it's not raining the tree limb is a big leafy limb or what appears to be a
32:15perfectly healthy tree since most of the equipment that the investigators use is
32:20electrical the blackout effectively ends the investigation
32:26a few days later
32:30best Maxwell returns with surprising news
32:33we take this a few seconds after the power went out during their
32:38investigation they record several disembodied voices known as electronic
32:43voice phenomena
32:48everything is dead except the audio recorders I saw sparks outside just before the lights went out
32:52it must have been a transformer
33:00hearing all those voices just really freaked me out
33:03the neighbor is still off power
33:05I better call Rebecca
33:07I've never heard anything like this and there are more
33:12hearing all the EVPs that LA Spirits had recorded during the investigation really
33:17changed my life I think
33:20for me the truly amazing thing about this is that the voice seems to be
33:24responding to us in the moment as if it hears what we're saying and it's trying
33:29to talk to us a lot of the things that we do deal with residual hauntings which
33:34are not intelligent hauntings it's just like something playing all over and over
33:38and over on a tape recorder you can get EVPs from that too but this was not that
33:43this was an intelligent haunting this was a spirit in the house that had an
33:48agenda the spirit wants something from us
33:53what does it want
33:55well that's what we have to find out
34:00we thought of maybe if we could reveal why Liddell killed herself and what was
34:06going on with her maybe then she would be done with her earthly business
34:12the Spencers continue to be haunted by unanswered questions about the suicide
34:18of Liddell Allen Bonner
34:21it's a mystery they cannot ignore
34:26Marcus tried to understand things rationally but now his instincts take
34:31over
34:48one Saturday morning I woke up and I immediately felt the compulsion to go to
34:55the attic I was arguing with myself that there wasn't any reason to go to the
35:00attic because I had scoured the attic many times and I was convinced that I
35:05had found everything that there was to be found but this voice in my head just
35:12was nagging me you've got to go to the attic
35:18I looked down at that opening and at first I didn't see anything
35:41still there's you know like this voice in my head Tommy look closer it was
35:56almost like a hand was on my shoulder pushing me down
36:11I opened up their large brown envelope and it was full of smaller white
36:22envelopes and these are all letters they were all postmarked in 1948 and they're
36:27all addressed to Liddell Allen Bonner they're all written to her obviously in
36:33the last year of her life I thought that I was dreaming I really was waiting to
36:39wake up mark is one step closer to solving the mystery as he's about to
36:46discover the shocking truth of miss Liddell Allen
36:53after trying to decipher the paranormal disturbances in the house mark is led to
37:12the attic and discovers a stash of hidden letters the truth behind Liddell
37:19suicide is finally before him
37:38mark I literally blinked fast several times and it was Rebecca coming toward
37:46me what's wrong I think that the transition between seeing Liddell and
37:54then seeing Rebecca I think that it was meant that way I think that Liddell was
38:00probably using Rebecca's energy to show herself to me I know why Liddell killed
38:10herself later that afternoon mark and Rebecca reads through all 82 letters
38:22hoping to unveil the mystery behind Liddell's secret past obviously these
38:29were letters from a man who was madly in love with Liddell you certainly are as
38:34near the Dell I knew years ago as you could possibly be Liddell's admirer was a
38:40gentleman named Prentice Hemingway Savage Prentice was vice president of
38:46Texaco oil in 1948 he lived in Minneapolis Minnesota but he had grown
38:51up here in Monticello Liddell and Prentice dated as teenagers years later
39:00as adults they rekindled their love but this time something was different
39:07Prentice was married in July 1948 Liddell arranged to meet Prentice in
39:15Milwaukee it ended on a promise to spend the rest of their lives together Liddell
39:23returned home and they began making plans through a series of letters but
39:30then Prentice stopped writing reality just got in the way and this man
39:37couldn't leave his wife because he couldn't accept the scandal that his
39:40wife would stir up in the newspapers because he was vice president of Texaco
39:44oil and on Christmas night 1948 Liddell finally sealed her fate I think that she
39:53hoped that Prentice would arrive would would show up would surprise her
39:58the man she loved never arrived her dreams were broken and she gave up hope
40:07of ever being happy again
40:10I'm reading these letters for these wild promises and declarations of love but I
40:27know how it ends she knew he wasn't coming back I felt sad for her and at
40:36the same time I felt a sort of happiness that now we knew and obviously
40:42she wanted us to know we would not have discovered those letters any other way
40:46she had to wanted us to know the story she had nothing left and she couldn't
40:51pretend anymore we'll make sure everybody knows that from the first
40:57moment we saw the house till now all of it has felt like it was destiny or some
41:04sort of fate that brought us to this town I really feel like like we are
41:10where we're supposed to be
41:15what I think I've experienced following my discovery of the letters is a greater
41:22awareness of Liddell's presence I think that connection she made with me the day
41:33that I discovered the letters has you know open the sort of door and and there
41:40is a connection between me and her mark has no doubt that Liddell has chosen him
41:47to tell her story he decides to write a book about his experiences the house and
41:54the truth behind the untimely death of Liddell Allen Bonner