Category: Murder Houses

Five of the Worst 2022 – Murder Houses Currently For Sale

‘The Steeple Times’ selects five houses currently for sale that were decked out with “police line do not cross” tape after murders occurred there; would you want to live in a ‘murder house’?

Since September 2020, when we featured ‘Five of the Worst – Undesirable Homes Currently For Sale’ – amongst them Jeffrey Epstein’s since sold New York “paedo pad” and a Gothic villa in Cheshire where a lawyer stabbed his Sotheby’s auctioneer wife to death in March 2005 – we were inundated with additional suggestions.

In September, the New York Post’s Katie Jackson penned an article on ‘murder houses’ in which she quoted a YouGov poll that found 30% of Americans “wouldn’t hesitate to buy and live in a house where a previous owner was murdered.” The study also found that “only 32% of Americans would deem murder a dealbreaker.”

Going further, Jackson quoted Tony Mariotti, a California listing agent. He shared: “Only California, South Dakota, Alaska and Vermont have laws requiring sellers to disclose a recent death in a home, including murders or suicides.” In Britain, where shockingly estate agents aren’t even regulated, no such declaration has even been on the statute.

Now, following up two years after our previous feature, we today showcase five properties that even the most gung-ho realtor or estate agent would find hard to flog on. “Why?” we hear you ask; the answer: All of them have been the scenes of murders most horrid.

A Double Glazed, Double Murder – Pingle House, The Pingle, Upwell, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, PE14 9BN, United Kingdom

Pingle House as presented in the current marketing brochure from Purple Bricks. No mention is made of the gruesome events that occurred there in January 1999 and instead the agents laud a “spacious home within a rural setting with views over open countryside.”

The reasoning for the brutal slayings of Janice Sheridan (left) and her mother Constance Sheridan (centre) has never been revealed as the man convicted of killing them, Kevin Cottrell (right), put in a guilty plea and thus never explained himself. Some still claim him not to be the killer and suggest that the Sheridans had upset travelers in the locality. Whatever the case, they clearly did not deserve to be subjected to multiple stabbings and torture before their untimely deaths.

The detached property – which pictures show to have dramatically altered overs the years – was sold at a bargain basement price after the 1999 killings for just £30,000 in 2000. The then purchaser, builder Patrick Withers later told Channel 4: “One person’s misfortune is another person’s gain” of the ‘bargain’ he believed he’d got himself whilst bizarrely his wife, Eileen, recalled having known the Sheridans as she, like them, was also a dog breeder.

In the Channel 4 programme ‘Blood Under The Carpet’ – broadcast in 2003 – the Withers showed viewers around the ‘murder house’ they’d purchased. They noted all the changes they’d made, but it seems the original sink present from the time of the killings still remains in the property’s bathroom.

For sale for £200,000 ($230,000, €233,000 or درهم845,000) through Purple Bricks.

Whilst the property valuation site The Move Market suggests Pingle House should be worth around £251,000 today, it is currently on the market for a sum 20% lower. Sold previously in 2001 for just £30,000, for a remarkable profit at £155,000 in August 2006 and £191,000 in April 2017, here is a 3-bedroom detached house that was the scene of two killings sometime in the days between the 7^th and 10^th January 1999.

Lived in at that time by Constance Sheridan, 70, and her “successful dog breeder” daughter, Janice, 45, this is an isolated home on the border of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire where both ladies were viciously stabbed to death in what was termed a killing “ruthless and determined.” The case subsequently featured in a Channel 4 programme, Blood Under The Carpet.

A then 33-year-old double glazing salesman with two juvenile convictions for burglary and “indecent acts” in 1983, Kevin Cottrell – who “claimed to be ‘the friendly face of home shopping’” according to The Guardian and who had sold the Sheridans a single UPVC window in 1998 – was convicted and jailed for life for the apparently “motiveless” double murder in April 2000.

Cottrell’s decision to enter switch his not guilty plea to guilty at the last minute left the Sheridans family “devastated.” Though, at the time, Miss Sheridan’s half-sister, Diana Penfold, remarked: “We just want to know why. We were hoping that we might get some answers during the trial, but still we won’t,” bizarrely the website JustJustice.org continues to suggest that “the wrong man is [in] jail.”

Purple Bricks make no mention of the since totally reconfigured property’s past in its sale brochure, but if it does achieve asking price, the current owners will achieve a sum 567% higher than when it was sold after the gruesome slayings that occurred there.

An Evidence Hideway – 2827 Aquetong Road, Solebury Township, New Hope, Pennsylvania, PA 18938, United States of America

2827 Aquetong Road in New Hope, Pennsylvania was where Cosmo DiNardo and Sean Michael Kratz hid “key evidence” that connected them to the 2017 killings. The car of Thomas Meo was found in a shed at the property along with title documents, keys and a diabetes kit that the victim needed to survive. It has been renovated by Cosmo DiNardo’s aunt – who purchased it from his mother in December last year for just $1.

Serial killer Cosmo DiNardo (left); victims Thomas C. Meo, 21, and Dean A. Finocchiaro, 19 (top row centre) and Jimi T. Patrick, 21 and Mark R. Sturgis, 22 (bottom row centre) and serial killer Sean Michael Kratz (right). Both DiNardo and and Kratz were 20 at the time of the murders.

For sale for £624,000 ($700,000, €716,000 or درهم2.6 million) through Tony Esposito of REMAX Aspire.

Sold previously for £285,000 in May 2005, £401,000 in August 2006 and for just £1 in December 2021, this 1,528 square foot detached house stands on a plot of 0.89 acres. Built in 1821 and fully renovated, this 3-bedroom property is being marketed as a place to “just unpack your bags and move right in,” but no mention is made of its connections to the murders of four young men between 5^th and 7^th July 2017.

Bought in 2006 and sold to her sister for a nominal sum in 2021 by Sandra Affatato DiNardo – who still owns the 90-acre farm nearby where her deranged drug dealer son Cosmo DiNardo slaughtered Dean A. Finnochiaro, Thomas C. Meo, Jimi T. Patrick and Mark R. Sturgis with the assistance of his cousin Sean Michael Kratz – a shed at 2827 Aquetong Road was where much of the evidence connected to the slayings was subsequently hidden.

DiNardo, who tried to burn the bodies of the four men in a pig roaster on his family’s farm, subsequently said he had “wanted to set the victims up when they came to the farm to buy marijuana.” He claimed he killed them simply because he “felt cheated and threatened.”

Featured in a two-hour 2020 Investigation Discovery Channel special titled The Lost Boys of Bucks County, DiNardo was sentenced to life in prison without parole in May 2018 whilst Kratz received the same in November that year. DiNardo’s claims that he was “responsible” for at least two other killings in the previous five years remain to this day unverified.

Of her spawn of the devil child, in 2017, Sandra DiNardo pathetically bleated: “My son wasn’t this horrible animal that everybody says he was. He lost his life a year before those kids. He’s a prisoner in his own brain. He’s lost forever.” A neighbour responded: “He was pretty nutty. He used to walk around here in camouflage with a gun hunting squirrels. He’s a scary kid” whilst Cosmo DiNardo himself somewhat more accurately concluded: “I threw my life away for nothing… My life’s done… For nothing.”

The Manson Murder Mansion Site – The Cielo Estate, 10066 Cielo Drive, Beverly Hills, California, CA 90210, United States of America

‘The Cielo Estate’ currently for sale extends to 3.6 acres and has everything from a hair salon to a 75-yard pool with 3 waterfalls, 2 Jacuzzis, a 35-foot water slide, a swim-up bar, a private grotto, a koi pond and a lazy river. It is described as “an entertainer’s dream” and “the epitome of world class Beverly Hills luxury living.” There is no mention made in the sales listing of whether there is any memorial to Sharon Tate and her friends being situated on the property.

Sharon Tate Polanski (left) was just 26 years old and nearly 9 months pregnant when she was murdered. She had been stabbed 16 times by Charles Manson (centre) and his followers. Screenwriter Jeff Franklin (right) has been trying, without any signs of success, to sell ‘The Cielo Estate’ for quite some time.

Before demolition in 1992, the building at 10066 Cielo Drive was a very much more modest affair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcgFq50ll2E

For sale for £53.519 million ($59.995 million, €61.415 million or درهم220.332 million) through The Altman Brothers Team and offered for rent for £223,000 per month ($250,000, €256,000 or درهم918,000 per month) also.

A “lazy river” that winds through the 3.6-acre grounds of ‘The Cielo Estate’ is just one of its many unusual features, but what agents Joshua and Matthew Altman fail to mention is that the vast 21,000 square foot crib they’re flogging was built in the exact location where the most infamous Manson murders occurred.

Remodeled most recently by ABC’s Full House sitcom creator Jeff Franklin and listed for £76 million last year, the “mega mansion” offered stands on the rubble of a building where 1960s ‘It Girl’ Sharon Tate was slayed along with three friends on 8^th August 1969 by the Californian cult commune gang, the ‘Manson Family.’

Now featuring 9 bedrooms, 18 bathrooms and a garage for 16 cars, the original house – which had been rented by Tate with her film director husband Roman Polanski – was demolished in 1994 after being sold for £5.4 million to a realtor-developer named Alvin Weintraub. He redeveloped and created what he termed an “Andalusian-style estate, in a league of its own” and added to the property by purchasing additional land.

Others to have lived in the various structures that have stood at 10066 Cielo Drive include the French actress Michèle Morgan, the talent manager Rudolph Altobelli and the musician Trent Reznor of the rock band Nine Inch Nails. The latter rented the house in 1992 and set up a recording studio which he dubbed ‘Pig’ in reference to murderer Susan Atkins writing “Pig” in Tate’s blood on the front door.

Reznor stayed in the house less than one year and subsequently explained: “There was too much history in that house for me to handle” whilst in 1998, Weintraub remarked: “We went to great pains to get rid of everything. There’s no house, no dirt, no blade of grass remotely connected to Sharon Tate.”

The Master Bedroom Dismembering – ‘The Castle House’ or ‘The Klindt Castle,’ 1220 Royal Oaks Drive, Davenport, Iowa, IA 52806, United States of America

Current owner Nancy Townsend Klemme states that she has “remodeled the entire house, including the area where the murder took place.” She adds: “[We] didn’t get a discount on the property because of its past.”

Mrs Klemme (left) and her family have lived in ‘The Klindt Castle’ for 26 years; Dr James Klindt with his wife Joyce and son Bart (centre) and at his 1984 trial (right).

For sale for £329,000 ($369,000, €377,000 or درهم1.4 million) directly through its current owner, Nancy Townsend Klemme.

Sold to its current owner for £101,000 in October 1996, this is the house where Dr Jim Klindt, a chiropractor, killed his wife Joyce on 18^th March 1983 by lobbing a pool ball at her head in their bedroom. He subsequently dismembered her body with a chainsaw, dumped the pieces into the Mississippi river and was sentenced to the maximum 50 years in prison in 1984 for his crimes.

Of why she bought the 3,150 square foot 3-bedroom property, Nancy Townsend Klemme – whose own mother was murdered also – told the New York Post in September: “We bought the house due to the beauty of it and the uniqueness. We were 100% aware of what happened there but it didn’t bother us… I like unique houses.” She is selling up to move to a former monastery she has purchased.

Dr Klindt was released from prison for good behaviour in 2004 and opened a taco stand named Eats and Sweets in 2006 after working for eight out of the twenty years he spent in prison as a cook. He was arrested repeatedly after his release – for drug possession, traffic offences and interfering with officers amongst other things – but later turned to charity work.

Of attempting to do good deeds, the “strong as a bull” doctor – who died in November 2010 after suffering a “bad fall” – remarked: “I figured if you can make something good out of something that wasn’t so good, that’s good. I told them they should use my notoriety to get a few bucks for the kids.”

Turning to whether he felt any remorse for killing his wife – who’d planned to divorce him – Dr Klindt added: “I apologised for the act, I apologised for the lies.” A letter he sent to Joyce Klindt’s family, Criminal revealed, was never answered and supposedly his son “doesn’t like it much when reporters write stories about his dad’s crime.”

A Coffee and Concrete Bather, Horror in Honolulu – 357 Lelekepue Place, Hawaii Loa Ridge, Diamond Head, East Honolulu, Hawaii, HI 96821, United States of America

357 Lelekepue Place looks like a dream home by the ocean; it proved the ultimate nightmare for Gary Ruby.

34-year-old Scott Hannon was arrested along with his boyfriend in March 2022, but freed the next day as the police realised he “played no part in the murder” (left); victim Gary Ruby (centre) and 23-year-old Juan Tejedor Baron, confessed to the killing after being tracked down by cops in California, trying to flee on a bus to Mexico (right).

The Corcoran Pacific Properties listing for the property lauds that it was “completely remodeled by a European designer in 2015” yet makes no mention of the gruesome attempt to dispose of the body of Gary Ruby in the bathroom there in Febraury 2022 (left); the agent included also a photograph of a “welcome” door mat but did not include any of the “police line do not cross” tape that was likely there previously (unsurprisingly).

Recently sold for £2.296 million ($2.575 million, €2.630 million or درهم9.457 million) by Heidi Bertucci of Corcoran Pacific Properties.

Just sold for a sum 13.7% higher than the £1.957 million it was knocked down to Gary Ruby for in November 2020, this 2,327 square foot gated community 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom residence was marketed as an “entertainer’s dream” by selling agents Corcoran Pacific Properties.

Sadly for 73-year-old Mr Ruby, the ‘entertainment’ didn’t last long at this seaside address as he was strangled to death there by his 23-year-old male lover Juan Tejedor Baron on 8^th February 2022 after he had revealed to him that he had HIV.

Baron subsequently entombed Ruby’s body in concrete – to which he somewhat ludicrously added coffee beans believing they would help “better mask the smell of the decomposing body” – before stealing his victim’s Audi A6. He then fled with his other lover, 34-year-old Scott Hannon, to California.

Subsequently arrested and charged in March, Juan Tejedor Baron’s trial has now been delayed until January 2023. Whether the new owners of this murder house will serve their guests coffee remains unknown, but the Beat of Hawaii website confirmed in August that listing agent Heidi Bertucci “said the property received a true Hawaiian blessing before being listed for sale.” She graciously also added that the “bathtub has, of course, since been replaced.”

November 4, 2022
Monckton Murder House For Sale – ‘666 Devil Child’ Killing

Chelsea townhouse where financier John Monckton was tragically murdered by “666 Devil’s Child” Damien Hanson in 2004 for sale for sum 18% lower than it was offered for in 2013; it is situated opposite a church where a bomb in 1940 killed 19 people

Situated opposite the Roman Catholic Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More – which was itself damaged by a bomb which killed 19 people in September 1940 – 30 Upper Cheyne Row could easily be passed off as just another ritzy London townhouse.

Sadly, however, behind the gate of this Old Chelsea residence, on Monday 29^th November 2004 at 7.30pm in the evening, a “well-respected” 49-year-old financier named John Monckton was murdered and his wife, Homeyra, severely assaulted also in front of their nine-year-old daughter.

Attacked by two clearly deranged thugs, Damien Hanson – who was tellingly nicknamed “666 Devil’s Child” – and Elliot White, posed as postmen to “trick” their way into the house, the Downside and Oxford educated managing director of bonds at Legal and General Investment Management was repeatedly stabbed whilst his wife sustained injuries that “partly paralysed” her.

Saved by the quick-thinking actions of her daughter Isobel, who had hidden on an upper floor of the residence and who then called 999, Old Bailey judge The Hon. Mr Justice Calvert-Smith later told Hanson: “Without her prompt action Mrs Monckton would have died and you would have faced two charges of murder.”

In a statement subsequently, the Monckton family remarked of “an incredibly gentle and thoughtful man” whom “apart from his outstanding career in the City, also devoted a great deal of his time to charitable works.” Speaking to The Guardian, the now 12^th Duke of Marlborough added: “It’s very out of character. SW3, and especially this area, is a very good address. It’s quiet, which I suppose is its worst offence.”

At trial in February 2006, where Hanson’s lawyer Michael Wolkind QC “said he could offer no mitigation except that some murderers were even greater monsters,” it was revealed that the killer had “kept an arsenal of knives under his bed at a children’s care home and funded his lifestyle through muggings and drug dealing.” Shockingly, he had been given early release from jail despite a parole board assessment that he had a 91% chance of reoffending whilst White was on bail on drug charges at the time of the killing.

Of him, an “ex-friend” added: “Damien was never an angel but he found an identity through hip-hop and gangsta culture. It corrupted him and fuelled an obsession with violence, guns, knives, gold and diamonds – anything luxury.”

In another development, in November 2006, Hanson’s sister, Laura Campbell, was sent down for four years for giving him a false alibi in which she claimed he had been watching EastEnders with her at a friend’s flat on the night of the murder. The clearly equally deviant then 20-year-old had even penned notes that “had the appearance of prompt cards, which would remind her of the story she would have to tell,” shared prosecutor Parmjit Cheema.

Mrs Monckton understandably subsequently placed the house for sale in 2013 for £5.5 million and it is now for sale for a significantly lower sum of £4.5 million. The four floor, Grade II listed property, which extends to 2,196 square foot, has 2 reception rooms, 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.

There is off-street parking for one car and a courtyard garden and since the brutal events there in November 2004, the property has had significant security measures installed.

The Names & Numbers – 30 Upper Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London, SW3 5JN

April 2022 – Offered for sale for £4.5 million ($5.8 million, €5.4 million or درهم21.2 million) by agents The London Broker, a sum % lower than its April 2013 marketing price.

April 2013 – Offered for sale for £5.5 million ($7.1 million, €6.5 million or درهم25.9 million) by W. A. Ellis.

29^th November 2004 – John Monckton (born 13^th October 1955) murdered at the house. His killer Damien Hanson was subsequently sentenced to serve three life sentences for killing him and the attempted murder of his Homeyra Monckton.

His associate, Elliot White, received a sentence of 18 years for manslaughter, wounding with intent and robbery whilst the trial judge recommended that Hanson should serve a minimum of 36 years before being considered for parole.

Victim John Monckton (right), the scene in the aftermath of the murder (centre) and widow Homeyra Monckton (right). The podcast ‘Murder Mile’ – which reported on the tragic events of 29th November 2004 in May 2021 – “With two violent and dangerous men in his home, who would stop at nothing to get what they wanted, although he wasn’t a fighter, John would do anything to protect them… even if it meant his life. With his face beaten, as Elliot gripped him from behind in an immovable bear-hug, John’s fight to force both men out of his home and away from his family was failing. And yet it was then – without warning – that the Devil’s Child lashed out in a volley of frenzied stabs against an unarmed outnumbered man. John’s hands were slashed and bloodied as he valiantly fought off his attacker; as the stained six-inch blade sunk into his shoulder, his right arm and his pelvis. So ferocious was this assault, that having mistakenly stabbed Elliot, with the full length of the blade he buried the knife deep in John’s chest, as one wound ripped through his right lung, and the last, fatally skewered though this good man’s heart. John slumped to the floor in the doorway of his lounge, and as the robbers fled up Glebe Place, Elliot whooped ‘ah man, you’re the business’ and Damian giddily fingered his haul of a few hundred pounds and some inexpensive costume jewellery, as the two cowards left John and Homeyra to die… which they would have done, had it not been for Isobel, who was only nine-years-old. Doing as her mother said, Isobel locked the door, called the police and set off the panic alarm, alerting the street. Sat amongst the blood-spattered room, with Homeyra feeling weak, pale and partially paralysed, there was no denying that the quick-thinking of this little girl had saved her mother’s life. But with John lying motionless, his eyes closed and his moans barely a whisper, even the paramedics couldn’t save him.”

Convicted criminals Damien Hanson and Elliot White. The former has now been in jail for 16 years whilst the current situation of the latter – who was sentenced to 18 years – is unknown. Of the murderer’s term, Wikipedia remark: “This is one of the lengthiest minimum terms ever handed out in British legal history, and is expected to keep Hanson behind bars until at least 2041 and the age of 61.”

In May 2021, ‘Murder Mile’ featured the case in a two-part podcast. They described the “brutal murder” in detail and aside from referencing the victim’s “humanity” and “goodness in his blood,” commented on his having been “a moral man who was old-fashioned but effective.” In a clearly well researched feature they referenced how the family had moved to 30 Upper Cheyne Row in 1994 and that they and their two children, Isobel and Sabrina, had lived an “idyllic” life there prior to the tragic events on Monday 29^th November 2004. The podcast revealed that the killer knew the name of his victim and had tracked his wife in the days prior to the slaying and had appeared at the door to the house with a postal sack over his shoulders. Hanson and his cowardly accomplice had brought with them both a gun and six-inch blades and left the couple to die after having stolen items and money valued at just £4,000.

A photograph of the house taken in 1949 and shared on the blog ‘A London Inheritance’ shows it to then be painted white and lacking the “ornate ironwork” entrance gates now installed (left) whilst today it has exposed brickwork (right).

The drawing room of the property measures 24’6” by 15’4” and is the main entertaining area in a property that the selling agent lauds as having 25 windows.

The dining room is located on the ground floor and has doors onto a courtyard garden.

The dining kitchen is perfectly functional, but clearly any buyer will likely rip it out and replace it with something a little more modern.

One of five bedrooms in the four-floor house.

The courtyard garden is enclosed and private. Note the security measures which includes bars on the windows and spikes on the entrance gates to the parking area above.

The Catholic Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer and Saint Thomas More stands opposite the house where a murder most horrid occurred on 29th November 2004. The church was used as an air raid shelter during the Second World War and on the night of Saturday 14th September 1940, when 100 people were sheltering in the crypt, a high explosive bomb hit the building. It killed 19 people, but amazingly “the overall fabric of the church did not suffer major damage.”

A floor plan of the 2,196 square foot property currently offered for sale for £4.5 million by The London Broker.

April 23, 2022
Five of the Worst – Undesirable Homes Currently For Sale

‘The Steeple Times’ selects five undesirable homes currently for sale that many would say would remain best avoided; they’ve all been in the news and they’re all connected to infamous names

Destined most certainly not to feature in Penny Churchill’s Downton Abbey-esque country house porn Country Life column or as an Evening Standard chi-chi ‘Homes & Property’ ‘House of the Week,’ we have selected five undesirable homes currently for sale.

In spite of the fact that one has a link to a recently deceased paedophile, two have been the scene of murders, one is supposedly haunted and the final was the setting for a bizarre nine year sleep, their prices seem somewhat crazy – but maybe some people will just love the idea of living with notoriety. Whether any of these undesirable homes sell for their asking prices, however, seems as likely as the case of Jack the Ripper ever being solved.

Paedo Palace – 9 East 71^st Street, Lenox Hill, New York, NY 10021, USA

For sale for £69 million ($88 million, €74 million or درهم121 million) through Modlin Group.

Known as the ‘Herbert Straus House’ in polite circles, but now forever more likely to be remembered as ‘Jeffrey Epstein’s Paedo Mansion,’ this 28,000 square foot, 7-floor, 40 room mansion was home to the deceased bestie of Prince Andrew from 1996 until his incarceration and suicide in 2019.

Few details are shared on the listing other than to declare it of “gargantuan size and opulence” and “the largest single-family home in New York City.” Though the late Alberto Pinto’s design work at the property is lauded, there’s no mention of what Ghislaine Maxwell got up to there or the bizarre birthday parties with Christopher Mason.

Murder Mansion – Devisdale House, Dunham Road, Bowdon, Cheshire, WA14 4QG, UK

For sale for £3.25 million ($4.16 million, €3.51 million or درهم15.28 million) through Jackson-Stops.

Originally called ‘Oakleigh,’ this “striking Gothic Victorian villa” subsequently became known as ‘The House of Horror’ but has now been renamed ‘Devisdale House’ in an attempt to relieve it of a position in the ranks of undesirable homes.

In March 2005, Christopher Lumsden, a partner in the international law firm Pinsent Masons, killed his former Sotheby’s auctioneer wife Alison in the house in a “frenzied domestic attack in the master bedroom” according to The Sun. He stabbed her 30 times after she announced she was leaving him for another man and was amazingly jailed for just five years “after he was found guilty of manslaughter on the ground of diminished responsibility, claiming he had a depressive illness.”

‘Oakleigh’ subsequently “fell into rack and ruin” in spite of reports suggesting Lumsden may have inherited his wife’s fortune, but more recently it was purchased by a property developer. They have added an especially ghastly underground swimming pool, sauna, cinema room and triple garage and now pompous selling agents Jackson-Stops pretentiously laud the property as “incredible,” “striking” and “meticulously remodelled.” Christopher Lumsden, meanwhile, was released from prison after serving just two years of his jail sentence.

A Killer Castle – Pencoed Castle, Pencoed Lane, Llanmartin, Newport, Gwent, Wales, NP18 2ED, UK

For sale with a guide price of £950,000 ($1.2 million, €1 million or درهم1.7 million) by auction on 17^th September 2020 through Allsop.

Pencoed Castle dates to the 13^th century and in the time since one can imagine all sorts has gone on there. Most recently, in 2016, a then 56-year-old businessman Peter Morgan strangled his girlfriend of three years, a 25-year-old personal escort named Georgina Symonds, in a bungalow in the castle grounds. The married multi-millionaire was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 25 years in prison and with that the estate found itself joining the ranks of undesirable homes.

Wales Online report that “it is not known if Mr Morgan still owns the property,” but for less than a million pounds, a buyer could get themselves not only the castle (which could be turned into 12 dwellings and offices also), but also a former farmhouse, two bungalows and 64.8 acres of land. Previous plans to turn the site into a Disneyland-style theme park called Legend Court came to nothing and of the property a local cryptically remarked: “This place’s recent history is very dark.”

Axing a Ghost – Maplecroft, 306 French Street, Fall River, Massachusetts, MA 02720, USA

For sale for £696,000 ($890,000, €751,000 or درهم1.2 million) through Century 21 The Seyboth Team.

Sold last for £469,000 in February 2018 and £386,000 in November 2014, Maplecroft is described by realtor Suzanne St. John as “a Queen Anne Victorian Mansion,” but many would consider it fitting instead of a listing on a roster of undesirable homes. It was built in 1887, extends to 3,935 square foot and includes 7 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.

The allegedly haunted residence, which stands on a plot of 0.31 acres, is notable as the post-prison home of one Lizzie Borden (1860 – 1927) – a woman who was the main suspect in the 1892 axe murders of her father and step-mother. Accused, tried and acquitted, Miss Borden inherited a fortune, bought Maplecroft and when she died of pneumonia her wake was held in the parlour.

The current owner also owns the house where the murders were committed and runs it as a ‘murder house B&B.’ He had intended to convert Maplecroft into something similar, but COVID-19 (and perhaps the spirit of Lizzie Borden) got in the way.

A Nine Year Sleep – Sleepy Cottage, 1 School Lane, Turville, Henley-On-Thames, Buckinghamshire, RG9 6QX, UK

For sale for £750,000 ($960,000, €810,000 or درهم1.3 million) through Savills.

Strictly speaking, our final choice in our roster of undesirable homes, has had only a gruesome past in a fictional sense given that it sits in a village used in Midsomer Murders. Nobody in their right minds – if such a place did really exist – would want to reside in any of Midsomer’s locations given the risk of ending up brown bread would be so high, but the innocent sounding name of this cottage makes it worthy of mention.

Used also in the perfectly harmless series Goodnight Uncle Tom and the BBC sitcom The Vicar of Dibley, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom Sleepy Cottage is also noteworthy as it was most famously home to ‘The Sleeping Girl of Turville.’

Of this enigma, selling agents Savills remark:

“Ellen Sadler, who lived in the cottage with her family when in 1871, aged eleven she purportedly fell into a deep sleep from which she could not be roused for nine years. The case attracted international attention from newspapers, medical professionals and the public. She became a tourist attraction for the village, and her family made considerable money from visitors’ donations.”

“Rumours exist that among the elder Turville residents that Royalty even took an interest in her. The Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, visited her and laid his hands on her which people in those days believed would cure the sick.”

“As the years went on and with no sign of Ellen waking, speculation grew that her illness was caused by her mother, an issue that was never resolved. In late 1880, soon after her mother’s death, Ellen awoke. She later married and had at least five children.”

Undesirable Homes Currently For Sale – Pictured top: Jeffrey Epstein’s initials were prominently displayed at the entrance to 9 East 71^st Street whilst the entrance hallway beyond aimed to impress with its classical grandeur. Goodness knows how many unfortunates passed through this space on their way on their way to be abused by the late Mr Epstein and his mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell.

September 12, 2020