The Haunted S.K. Pierce Mansion | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is morbid [Music] it's already because you said that last
time we had to end up re-recording the intro for a second because our [ __ ] computer like pooped its butt but I
don't know and I and I made sure I stayed right on right on cue by being distracted when we said hello you did
um in the original opening of this we were talking about Tick Tock because I said right now oh yeah 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 um and I was talking about how wonderful but also how dangerous The Tick Tock
shop is because I've gotten a pickle sweatshirt I got a Lizzie McGuire shirt told me you liked until now yeah you
know what I need to tell you things about this tell me so I saw that Elizabeth McGuire shirt the second you
walked in I said holy [ __ ] that's Lizzie McGuire's inner Lizzie McGuire yeah like
her like her brain her like cartoon version right her brain Lizzy I was so excited to walk in here with that too I
was like oh she's gonna love this shirt and I feel terrible that I disappointed you because in my head when you walked
in I go oh [ __ ] that's an awesome shirt and I didn't vocalize that and I don't
know why sometimes I do that 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 [ __ ] 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 [ __ ] 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
yeah I wore that shirt to the Savannah banana and then I posted about it and everybody was wild and out about that
shirt and I was like oh Tick Tock shop so the Lizzie McGuire shirt which is [ __ ] awesome is from The Tick Tock
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 a boutique if you're nasty and then I also got an electric spin
scrubber I mean might as well just shout her out because yeah my shower floor has
never looked so lovely and I got that where the [ __ ] did I get that hold on where the [ __ ] did you get that well
there's like 55 of them apparently [ __ ] did you get that wait are these all from
the same store like live updates with me okay so you're gonna have to just decide
where you want to get that from because it's not telling me where I got mine from that's okay um and you can get it
from many outlets on Tick Tock shop but yeah I [ __ ] love The Tick Tock shop I mean The Tick Tock shop is pretty
[ __ ] 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 talk 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 Mass the shoe sits
Mansion I didn't even mean to say Massachusetts I was gonna 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 SK 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 gonna scur me even more oh it is me thinks that it's haunted as [ __ ] I'm pretty sure you
can stay the night there if you want to and uh I want to I want to do that we stayed at Lizzy Lizzie Borden's house so
yeah I feel honestly weirdly I feel like this one would be less scary I mean Lizzie Borden had a vibe to it that I
just think is unmatched never felt that way in a haunted location before I got almost like
physically ill in one of the rooms it was heavy as [ __ ] and I'm oh and actually tonight this is a
very good oh [ __ ] yeah tonight you know who knows when this comes out but and 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 gonna get you for like Christmas and like anniversaries and
birthdays and stuff yep 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 [ __ ] love that like I think you're so smart music 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 this 5 000 page waiver that tells you all the terrible [ __ ] that can happen to you in
this house which I'm pretty excited to sign so I don't like that see let's go see I'm not down to sign a waiver I'm
down to sign because I also think that it's like pretty brilliant like it gets you real real school real I almost said
scared and spookied at the same time but I'm very excited about it I'm excited to be spooky it's kicking off
spooky season yes [ __ ] 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 I got my wedding dress while you're getting like haunted
it's true all right but yeah we're going haunted [ __ ] 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 gonna 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 oh um wow 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 uh it was great well in the spring of 2009 Edwin Gonzalez and his girlfriend
Lillian Otero which like also they should be in a Disney movie it was because I was like damn those names
Edwin and Lillian 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 SK Pierce 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 Lillian oops in order to torment them and it left them
with no other option than to just Abandon Ship they were like the [ __ ] out of here
now obviously they didn't know it when they moved in but their home the skps Mansion had long been considered by
locals to be haunted and and it's 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 Lillian 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 SK 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 [ __ ] I agree 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 Weston 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 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 got that chair not their problem I say that literally daily daily it's not my
chin on my problems not my chin on my problem but it was always God in this chair because they're chased always 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 I would say so now Gardner was settled in the late 18th century and it
quickly became one of massachusetts's 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 gonna say I feel like he was born to be important
Sylvester cape and he's from Massachusetts so I don't know why I keep putting like a weird uh why not Accent
on it but it's like a little bit of a Transatlantic accent that we're thrown in there the way that I was just
thinking that exact thing in my brain crazy so yeah he's a pretty important guy I hope you can see where we're going
here because Sylvester K Pierce s k LOL yeah LOL so Sylvester was the seventh child of
Jonas Pierce and I believe it's oxoff Fairbanks born in Westminster Massachusetts on April 11 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
I know he probably sounds like some kind of descendant or like ancestor of the Putnams yeah one of
those maybe not though so maybe not maybe common we won't slander his name I guess no he's a good Furniture maker so
great again great you know what one might say legendary [ __ ] 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 and 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 [ __ ] off so [ __ ] off
no he stayed there for a few more years and then eventually found a new job working with Stephen Taylor a uh you
guessed it Furniture maker hey the South Gardener now after five years with Taylor and now 10 years experience in
the furnace furniture and the furniture industry Sylvester ended up buying the company from Stephen Taylor and with his
own bro or with his own brother Jonas he opened what would eventually come SK Pearson's son one of the area's largest
and most profitable Furniture manufacturers so in 1845 this was the year that Sylvester and Jonas opened
their furniture company and Gardener 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 graphic and that allowed Sylvester to build a new home
for himself and his new bride and he built this 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 or Frank if you're nasty now by a fan of
Father of the Bride yes part two literally so by 1875 SK Pearson son 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 not 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 [ __ ] SK yeah I'd like your name 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
to my friend Marissa what's popping Worcester she will only get that so he contacted e Boden
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 I love it 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 SK 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 Holmes Foundation
that can actually still be seen in the basement of the Pierce mansion oh so 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 yeah that would 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 against it but we were like we're gonna do because they
were like here's a [ __ ] 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 [ __ ] a monster terrifying yeah 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 not honestly that's like
not that long I feel to make a whole last home I don't think so but like a mansion a man Sean 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 luxury and wealth yes I do that I love that like when I'm old I want to be
a monument of luxury and wealth and gorgeousness I'm gonna make sure that's on your Tombstone please do except I'm
not gonna be married she was a gorgeous Monument of luxury are you gonna do that
from Beyond to the green hell yeah no I'm gonna live forever oh okay cool that's something I'd rather not do that
as the undead oh there you go okay I'll do that yeah right no at more than 6 500
square feet which like whoa that has 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 [ __ ]
in every room every [ __ ] room running water get out of here and a Winthrop furnace to heat the house oh [ __ ] no
well unfortunately just weeks after the couple moved into their new home Susan contracted
um aerosyphilis I believe is how you say it it is a bacterial infection of the skin that causes inflammation and if
left and 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 6
1876. oh that's terrible like so sad sorry I was taking a sip of water now two years later Pierce SK
Argyle married Ellen West a woman fit he is younger than him oh [ __ ] is okay escandalo was just like I would say
when he does something taboo you go my goodness they had two boys together Stuart
were Stuart Little born in 1879 and Edward born in 1882. according to Legends the new Mr and Mrs 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 PT Burnham and even President Calvin Coolidge oh [ __ ] 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 I say it I say it it
reminds me of Allison's party in Hocus Pocus I bet they were all dressed like that and I bet someone liked someone
else's yabos a hundred percent there was great yavos there in fact they loved him
I love Halloween so life in the Pierce Mansion continued on being all kinds of fabulous until
Sylvester died in the home from natural causes on January 28 1888. risk 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 oh it would happen oh
yeah that's for sure 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 that was gonna 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 Ellen come on that's a that's a Meredith Blake thing to do it really is it's
getting Meredith and not in a good way no no 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're just arguing yeah I mean that's what happens somebody dies
and everyone turns into a raging [ __ ] 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 peer sons who would also spend years arguing both in court
and amongst themselves Stuart Edward and Fran Frank Frank yep I almost said Francis
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 Stewart 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 Scott 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 no 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 One 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
making 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 room rooms excuse me and that her body was hidden in a closet oh
[ __ ] 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 I know you're being real right now you're telling truth that you're pushing you're just
spitting facts but like you're saying there's a chance you're saying they're 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 about a breakfast never [ __ ] was going down back
then there's beds everybody was doing shady [ __ ] back there and even if these blenders 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 clothes yeah I mean hopefully nobody was murdered and stuck in a closet I'm not but exactly
but I also I you know can kenz is doing this job yeah he's he's you know he's doing this 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 so
you know what we're with you Ken we love you we stand with you we do we love him
but tragedy would strike again in 1963 when the fifth and final documented death to occur in the Pierce Mansion
took place damn according to the legend a 49 year old World War II veteran inosari 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 uh recorders
report notes non-threatening non-life-threatening Burns excuse me which could likely have come from him
falling asleep while smoking 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 so that room is like a hot spot for some paranormal activity
no matter what I want to go to this place so [ __ ] bad we're going I want to go during like October well I'm going
to be a little busy but why what are you talking about you don't have time for school let's go to school let's go so
according to Legend two years after sari's death Edward who was now financially desperate actually put them
a 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's the youngest yeah was Frank out here in these streets being like
how did you just have that kid is he out there doing this boy and then he spits were you just waiting for that
how long have you had that queued up yes yes I was she just the answer is yeah I queued it up long ago
also succession forever is what Frank was doing here I think Frank might have been dead at this point
from Beyond but from Beyond he was saying because you know when Kendall goes to his grave he's going to be
spitting that [ __ ] well and 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 [ __ ] thing back then
like the fact that Kendall pulled that out of his [ __ ] is pretty ridiculous that is one of the funniest scenes it
made me squirm it's great the horrible way such a good thing 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 [ __ ] yeah but
okay here's the truth it's actually much less exciting and also less scandalous the fire in enosari's room caused more
damage to the already crumbling Manner and it was gonna 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 uh Jay stemmerman okay 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 three hundred and forty thousand dollars
for a [ __ ] Victorian Mansion damn like that's a steal yeah also [ __ ] 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 wow 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
[ __ ] 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 essential control 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 no
until it was finally slated to be demolished in 1996. they were going to tear this place down what what
luckily the old Victorian was spared in 2000 oh wow when it was purchased by Suzanne and Mark I believe it's Beau
it's v-e-a-u but when I looked it up it said Bo 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 no Mansion but also they're getting like a
decrepit Mansion so you can 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 gonna 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 [ __ ] are
you taking a whole sorry staircase out of there somebody took a built-in staircase I guess or it just like
collapsed I don't really knows like the [ __ ] what me thinks is that because it's like a walnut staircase
they probably like like uh demolished it and took the Walnut I guess no I think they took these wires I'm just like let
me take this [ __ ] but they also took a pool table wow okay even That's Heavy correct but so yeah all of that was not
great and just as much of a problem at least for the bows was the sense that something in human 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 so and that many people have died in I think you probably like should have known that but yeah I'm
not gonna 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 said 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
gonna 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 are you married
bummer yeah are you above my station she was like yeah I guess I'll just haunt you later I guess I'll just stick
around and yeah I'll just live in your house I wonder what SK looked like I forgot to
look it up check him out check him out see if he's hot cfsk is his daddy Sid met a couple more Spirits during her
trip feel free to interrupt me once you find out I will so you met a few more Spirits during her trip that included a
man in his late 40s or early 50s who had died in a fire of 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 looking for that kid so the experience had reported not only confirmed what the Vose had suspected
but also oh is he not the zadiest of zadius it's hard to tell because of the style of the
day as well like that beer the beard really throws me for a loop so I feel like without the beard he's a handful he
has pretty good bone structure that's the thing I think the beard is kind of throwing it off and I love a big schnage
so I do too yeah so so I'm into I'm in you know he has a nice haircut money you know so you know you know so the
experience had reported not only confirmed what the Vose had suspected but also what they had been told by
other psychics who had come to the home before according to Suzanne every one of
the mediums who had visited the home had felt the presence of the younger woman that uh 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
gosh like that is a [ __ ] 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 tap hell yeah and
you might also know them from the show Ghost Hunters I [ __ ] so hard with Ghost Adventures ah so heavy for Ghost
Hunters Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures Ghost Adventures but Taps Taps Taps was my [ __ ] yeah JP also loves
talking oh my God we used to watch that all the time truly um I love to watch it during spooky
season yeah but while previous investigators welcome 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 yeah 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 vo's attitude toward their very potentially haunted home yeah Taps
founder Grant Wilson said oh yeah grant grant yeah we love Grant yeah awesome 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 I never know when to stop now the bows 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 votes 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 I am which I feel like what do you think that's a [ __ ] huge
house that's the thing 375 and it's like how historical it feels like so it's like absolutely it's super I mean you
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 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 it but they had like um done a lot of course yeah so that makes sense why the markup was
so high yeah now Suzanne and Mark vo 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 Vos 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 wow and the asking price reduced dramatically not once but three times
before any buyers expressed serious interest so funny to see like that house is gorgeous oh it's looking beautiful
[ __ ] 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 [ __ ] 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 but
no one to bite at that just because it might be haunted you know what's funny that's why I was gonna be like well
would you buy it but I know the answer you definitely yeah hell yeah would you go with kids
probably not that's a good point that's the thing I put myself through it I wouldn't put my kids through I don't
just in case they were scary I don't want scary yeah or like yeah I'd like a dangerous or anything like that like 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 yeah
I know yeah I mean I guess I'm I'm out because I have kids yeah exactly so if it was just
me and John but but it's 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 but I knew was potentially haunted yeah exactly I guess
yeah I don't know that's a that's a tough thing because you like you're like oh my God 375 000 for a [ __ ] 20
however many bedroom house or room house well and it tells you how uh how deep your belief in ghosts really is totally
and I mean a Massachusetts come on if you don't believe in ghosts what's wrong with you it's true what the [ __ ] is
wrong with you you listen and what's wrong with you I'm just kidding I love you I said that's so like so
interestingly I was like 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 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 yeah which like what a
[ __ ] luxury yeah that's awesome Massachusetts has so many beautiful oh my God yeah quaint and historical towns
love Massachusetts I'm never leaving I [ __ ] love messages I [ __ ] so heavy with Massachusetts hell yeah I'm out of
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 then from second time from 225k to 180k what which seems like a [ __ ]
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 uh 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 I think
you would literally be able to buy a closet like you'd be able to rent a studio apartment maybe
you could have like the corner 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 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 SK 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 love 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 help yeah 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 this one [ __ ] 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 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 [ __ ] twice like you have kids I know you do oh that's a no from me and Edwin
was like um you are definitely mistaken because not only do we not have children but um
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 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 and it [ __ ] me up I hate the sound of slamming nurse 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 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 [ __ ] 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 [ __ ] with
you I don't like it yeah it's definitely [ __ ] with you which also is like 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 but not funny for you 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 [ __ ] 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 on imagining but a few seconds later everything was back to normal and when he looked around the
room there was nobody there and no evidence that anybody had them that would scare me [ __ ] out of me I would
[ __ ] myself and that's unusual like that feels like an unusual because like 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 and this is just like a strange one like they just showed up in front of
your face and then we're gone and you've heard you know like 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 supposed Supernatural past but now Edwin wanted to look into the
history of the homework kind of find out what he'd gotten himself into yeah 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
book 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 [ __ ] creepy so he decided to call a local
husband and wife team of paranormal investigators and they I decided to take a break from them for
a minute but he they agreed to come to the house and investigate all these different disturbances so the
investigators they set up cameras throughout the house to start 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 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 yeah like I didn't get anything I think
that's the tweet my phone that's actually the X 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 they were a little past
that but they recommended that Edwin and Lillian Prof form a cleansing ritual nightly for several nights in a row so
that they could assert their ownership of the house which their dominance 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 exactly and then strike when no one's looking they were like that was cute they got you then they slapped each
other's butts and they went on with the halt they all said you sure about them I love that guy
so I buy it for a few nights and Edwin and Lillian became hopeful that their ordeal
might finally be over but uh 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 we this I went upstairs no you do this is the one when we heard like shattering glass and we heard like a
slam upstairs and we're like oh my God so we ran 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 or put photos inside I don't know he was weird
kidding but one of his big framed heavy cigar pictures almost like Shadow Boxing
yeah like big 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 it was on one wall what 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 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 yeah that room active room I've had [ __ ] happen to me
in there you've had [ __ ] happening oh yeah I [ __ ] hate that room yeah that room has some like
I think it comes from the closet yeah it's because there's two closets in that room and I get a bad feeling from one of
them yep but this isn't about our house we should [ __ ] talk about it like just making an episode of our house
so yeah they 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 saw the couples it's just built by 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 and wants to tell you all about it yeah my New York would
like to tell you about it ready you got nothing to say Sid that's so sad that is so sad that's so sad that's so
Sydney 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 nice that
really worked out yeah 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 would 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 [ __ ] that Spirit up
[ __ ] that Spirit [ __ ] that Spirit like show them oh that poor little boy you
can't even Escape it in the afterlife [ __ ] that person who did that I know it makes me so sad oh I want to kick their
ass kick your ass I'm gonna kick your ass do you remember that video little girl that
was like I'm going to kick his ass yes that's me right now 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 uh-oh 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 uh protect Edwin and Lillian from the others he referred to as them to them as the others in the house but
there was only so much that she could do to prevent a more serious situation damn
but out of options and now very concerned for their own safety Edward and Lillian decided to hold kind of a
paranormal open house thinking that this would solve their problems all right 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 hell
yeah a paranormal open house sounds [ __ ] awesome like I'd go I would go I don't know if I would hold one in my
home I wouldn't I know for a fact that I would not hold one of them to each 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 the huge problems that they were going through so the open house was organized by local paranormal
investigator John breitman and it attracted psychic mediums and other kinds of paranormal investigators who
eventually broke off into separate teams this is awesome it's [ __ ] 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 oh my but I would be pissed if I was John I mean yeah that's not when he when you
said don't when 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 [ __ ] 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 you know like just Chuck may I use your
bathroom may I do a satanic do you mind if I do a Satanic ritual in the basement
just like what do you think just is that all right and it's like also 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 inosari one of the most active locations for paranormal occurrences now they weren't able to
make contact with contact with Eno'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 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 like that escalated so quickly
shoot in this house damn how far look at that I need to take a deep breath that was that's chilling that is chilling
squeeze every throat in this house that was definitely the person abusing somebody in this oh yeah oh [ __ ] 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 happened to me is maybe the tug of a shirt or a door
slam on me hear a voice that's normal 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
USS Salem when we went with our 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 his spirit and like punched it sounds like a ghosty blue in my ear
yeah but 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 enosari's former bedroom shook John breitman 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 that wow and left uh Edwin and Lillian alone to deal with whatever the event had just stirred up at that point
I love how he's like everyone else 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
it's like that 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 seem 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 in the remnants of an old Kiln in the
basement the [ __ ] 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 the pot 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 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 maybe around 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 so 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 where where yeah someone can drive 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 maybe a property that was filled in we don't know I don't know I wasn't there 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 frownings yeah
like does that does that one have that newspaper yeah I don't know we maybe he'll listen
to this and say yeah [ __ ] I do because I would love to see it I mean I hope he says it nicer but I know I would
also love him I do have to go on it quickly and I'll keep talking okay cool oh I should have done that myself but I
didn't but I'll do it because I love newspapers.com let's go but I I didn't do it because I
was like oh my God I have to keep learning about Lily in 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 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 did like she was like get the [ __ ] away from me I
want to dig damn no the night after that like 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
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 [ __ ] 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 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 yeah and almost immediately after leaving the house it was said that
Lillian returned to normal like nothing had ever happened wow 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 never mind 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 I don't know 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 stores 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 people were
willing to pay a small price or a norm 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 want to 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 the right [ __ ] 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 a 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 marking
Price Market with an asking price of nearly twice what they paid for it in 2008. [ __ ] but again I 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 Pierces 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 Robert Conti 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 the 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 oh yeah so
he learned about the history of the home and learned uh 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 gosh so he went into this not even believing in ghosts and was like oh this
place is [ __ ] no I'm doing this no once the sale was finalized the Conte's 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 [ __ ] 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 [ __ ] loved the Barbie movie you
should see it but um yeah so Watson had become very friendly with Edwin and Lillian and they recommended him to
Conti after the sale in 2015 so we got to stick around oh [ __ ] and since the restoration is completed completion in
2020 Kenneth Watson has remained as kind of a caretaker and manager of the estate
Kenneth I'm you know Ken I've come around to I I wasn't trying to be mean to Ken in the beginning when I was like
you ruined my fun Ken but now team can Team can he's just like Ken listen I know about this house I trust him I do
too and you should too and we might meet him because 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 sure so we should get on that I was like okay maybe
I won't see you soon excuse me I wonder if there still is a waiting list yeah I would assume there
could be rambling it's pretty pretty popular location now kovid an interrupted business for a bit but
they are back in business and business has been strong at the newly renovated and fully operational SK Pierce Mansion
hell yeah and when the call went out for applications actually for like 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 holy [ __ ] quote when all available job interview slots were filled within hours holy [ __ ] look at
Massachusetts being spooky as [ __ ] hell yeah they were like we are not gonna buy
this house but we will work but I will work there [ __ ] 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
interesting interested parties of one crucial fact quote this attraction is not for the faint of heart
[Laughter] holy [ __ ] what a tail it's a fun tale and um thank you to Dave for looking
into it for me regardless of what actually happened there some people died in that house and some [ __ ] [ __ ] went
down there [ __ ] [ __ ] went down I mean for all those paranormal investigators
to be like yeah [ __ ] that yeah like like I trust my Massachusetts paranormal investigators okay so if they're saying
[ __ ] that [ __ ] then [ __ ] that [ __ ] [ __ ] that [ __ ] but I'm gonna go there I can't
wait we should see if they're still awake we absolutely should and I actually go look into that now so we
hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it but it's worthy you don't get your ass on the waitlist to the Escape
here's Mansion because what the [ __ ] are you doing if you're not going to the ski
Pierce Mansion I'll see you there love you bye get with it [Music] laughs [Music]

In the spring of 2009, Edwin Gonzalez and his girlfriend, Lillian Otero, fled their house in Gardner, MA, less than one year after moving into what they believed was their dream home. Later, once they were safely away from the old Victorian, Gonzalez and Otero would explain to friends and family that they had been driven out by angry ghosts who had done everything—including possessing Lillian—in order to torment them, leaving them no other options than to abandon the house that had once held such promise.

Although they didn’t know it when they moved in, Gonzalez and Otero’s home, the S.K. Pierce Mansion, had long been considered by locals to be haunted. Indeed, in its more than one-hundred-year history, the Victorian home had seen more than its fair share of tragedies, including several deaths in the house as recent as the 1960s, as well as countless other unsavory myths and legends.

Thank you to Dave White for research assistance.

References

City of Gardner. n.d. History. Accessed August 1, 2023. https://www.gardner-ma.gov/316/History.

Discovery Channel. 2013. "Haunted Victorian." A Haunting. New York, NY: Discovery Channel, October 19.

Farragher, Thomas. 2022. "Want to be a ghost host? Come to Gardner." Boston Globe, August 20: B1.

Fiorentino, Alyssa. 2021. How the S.K. Pierce Mansion became one of the most haunted homes in Massachusetts. October 27. Accessed July 31, 2023. https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/a38046654/sk-pierce-haunted-victorian-mansion/.

Fitchburg Sentinel. 1963. "Gardner man, 47, dies in room fire." Fitchburg Sentinel, April 9: 11.

—. 1891. "Notes." Fitchburg Sentinel, December 8: 2.

Gelinas, Brian. 2012. "Group of ghost hunting enthusiasts converge on Gardner mansion." Athol News, October 6: 1.

Gershon, Livia. 2006. Ghost hunters. July 28. Accessed August 1, 2023. https://www.thegardnernews.com/story/news/2006/07/28/ghost-hunters/11341583007/.

Ilinitch, Shawn. 2003. Psychic profiler detects spirits in South Gardner home. October 31. Accessed August 1, 2023. https://www.thegardnernews.com/story/news/2003/11/01/psychic-profiler-detects-spirits-in/11284159007/.

Landry, Stephen. 2021. "Debunking rumors about the S.K. Pierce Mansion." Gardner News, September 22.

—. 2020. "New book details history of S.K. Pierce Mansion." Gardner News, September 25.

Pelletiere, Nicole. 2016. Homeowner to turn 'haunted' mansion into scary attraction. September 2. Accessed August 1, 2023. https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/homeowner-turn-haunted-mansion-scary-attraction/story?id=41769810.SK Haunted Victorian Mansion. 2023. The Mansion. Accessed August 2, 2023. https://www.skhauntedvictorianmansion.com/index.html.

Stanway, Eric. 2013. The Victorian. September: Independent.—. 2013. "Gardner mansion shelters ghostly past." Worcester Telegram and Gazette, July 10.

Zillow. 2023. 4 West Broadway, Gardner, MA. Accessed August 1, 2023. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4-West-Broadway-Gardner-MA-01440/57587523_zpid/

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Brief Summary

The SK Pierce Mansion's haunted history is explored through the experiences of its owners and its transformation into a haunted attraction.

Key points

A Wedding Dress Fitting vs. Haunted House. Elena shares her wedding dress fitting while Ash prepares for a haunted house visit.
The Haunted Mansion Experience. Ash and Elena discuss the haunted SK Pierce Mansion and their spooky plans.
The Tragedy of Rachel. Rachel, Edward's daughter, tragically died in the mansion, marking a dark turn for the family.
The Mansion's Sale. After years of disrepair, the mansion was sold outside the Pierce family for the first time.
The Haunted Reputation. The Vos embraced the haunted reputation of the Pierce Mansion, leading to guided tours and a gift shop.
Moving to Massachusetts. The couple enjoys the freedom of working from home and falls in love with Massachusetts.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I think it's haunted as [ __ ]!

Expressing excitement about the haunted mansion.

8:53WatchSep 5, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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