Killers’ ghosts are unwelcome guests
Q. Now that Charles Manson has died in prison, have there been any reports that his former jail cell is haunted?
A. None that have been verified by experts on the paranormal. But with Oct. 31 almost here, I’ll give you an update on some rumors.
Manson was convicted of seven firstdegree murder charges and one count of conspiracy to commit murder at two different houses during the summer of 1969. Both of the luxurious homes were in the Benedict Canyon area of pricey Beverly Hills, California.
One of those homes was co-owned by rising movie star Sharon Tate, who was a little more than eight months’ pregnant at the time. She and her unborn baby were among the six who were brutally slain on the first night of the murders.
Some Benedict Canyon residents and tourists to the area have recently reported seeing a misty figure that seems to match Manson’s description walking or even floating about Tate’s former home. A few even claim that the apparition was clear enough to see the crude swastika that the killer had carved into his forehead.
If Manson’s evil spirit is indeed cruising around the Tate home to bring back “fond memories,” it’s likely to be disappointed.
Tate’s French Normandy-style house had been bought and sold several times since the 1969 murders. One owner finally razed it and replaced it with an 18,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style mansion in 1993, but its moniker as “the Sharon Tate House” still sticks.
Even the grass and dirt were removed and replaced in the owner’s efforts to distance the property from its lurid past.
The address was also changed from 10050 Cielo Drive to 10066, in an unsuccessful attempt to discourage lookie-loos. The current manse remains a popular stop on several of those kitschy homes-of-the-stars bus tours.
According to statistics provided by home-research website Zillow.com, the current home — with its seven bedrooms and 12 baths — is now worth about $27.6 million. But that was down more than $2.72 million from just 30 days earlier.
Perhaps the value is down so sharply because the property now has an unwanted “visitor.”
Q. Is it true that Jeffrey Dahmer’s former apartment in Wisconsin is haunted?
A. No. That’s because the apartment he rented in the 900 block of North 25th Street in Milwaukee was demolished in 1992 and remains a vacant lot.
Known as “the Milwaukee Cannibal” or “the Milwaukee Monster,” Dahmer pleaded guilty in 1992 to having killed at least 17 boys and young men over a 13-year span that started in 1978. Dahmer admitted that he was fond of eating various body parts of his victims or storing their organs and skulls in his freezer to snack on later.
Dahmer was beaten to death by another inmate in a Wisconsin prison in 1994.
Though the vacant lot where Dahmer’s rental apartment once stood hasn’t had many reports of “hauntings,” the dormitory building where he rented a room while he briefly attended Ohio State University has.
Current students and university alumni tell tales of a ghostly figure — looking much like the handsome young man that Dahmer was in college — lurking about OSU’s Morrill Tower dorms where Dahmer once lived.
One student even swore that he saw Dahmer’s ghost walking down the dorm’s hallway, “eating a pumping, bleeding heart in his hand, just like he was eating a slice of pizza.”
Send questions to David Myers, P.O. Box 4405, Culver City, CA 90231-2960; and we’ll try to respond in a future column.