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