How Much Would You Pay For A Murder House?

There is a four bedroom, three bathroom, more than 5,000 square feet home sitting on a 0.6-acre lot in Los Angeles with an asking price of only $2.75 million. What more could a buyer want? But wait, there is a catch with this house. It is a murder house.

The Murder House

The house at 2475 Glendower Place was built in 1925 and was the scene of a murder and suicide in 1959. Harold Perelson, a cardiologist and medical device inventor, murdered his wife with a hammer while she slept in bed, then attempted to murder his teen daughter as she slept in her bed. The daughter escaped and the doctor committed suicide after telling his two youngest children to go back to bed.

In the years since the murder the house has been abandoned. It was bought by a new owner the year after the murder, but the new owner never moved into the house.

Paranormal activity has also been reported at this house in recent years by neighbors and those brave souls who have tried to explore the house.

Famous Murder Houses

The house at Glendower Place is far from the only murder house with a weird history. In fact, many people believe that houses where people have been murdered are often haunted or cursed. This idea, whether truth or fiction, often results in murder houses being sold frequently for below-market value or abandoned altogether.

The Tate House, also in Los Angeles, was demolished following the murder of actress Sharon Tate and four other people in 1969. The murders were committed by members of the infamous Manson family. Tate and her husband, Roman Polanski, had started renting the house six months before the murders. After the murders the home’s owner lived there for 20 years before selling the house that he had bought for $86,000 in the early 1960s for $1.6 million in 1989. The house became something of a sad tourist attraction following the murders before eventually being demolished and the address changed in 1994.

The Amityville House is another well-known murder house. This house on Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York was the site of a mass murder in 1974. Ronald DeFeo, Jr. shot to death all six family members. One year after the murders, the Lutz family bought the Amityville house at a discounted price of $80,000. The Lutz’s made it less than one month before they were so terrified by reported paranormal activity at the house that they moved away. The house eventually sold for $55,000.

The Cleveland Strangler murder house was the site of numerous murders by Anthony Sowell. Sowell, who had already served time in prison for rape, was later found to have assaulted and murdered a number of women. Police found two bodies in the house and another 11 around the house and yard when they went to the house to follow up on another rape accusation. The house on Imperial Avenue was demolished by the city.

 


Would you buy a house that was the scene of a murder? Do you think murder houses may really be haunted or are people just superstitious?


Additional Image: eBaum’s World

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Robert Witham
Robert Witham
A freelance writer and journalist, I am also a wandering minimalist. I never sit still for too long in one place. When I am not writing I can be found reading, enjoying a good cup of coffee, hiking, fishing, installing a new OS on my laptop, or building a website.