The Tape Library - Archive of the Paranormal & the Unexplained - The Most Haunted House In America | True Story of The Sallie House

Episode Date: February 3, 2023

Welcome to The Sallie House, the most haunted house in America! In this true ghost story, you'll learn about the Pickman Family and their terrifying experiences inside the walls of the horrifying Sallie house. This is one of the most terrifying ghost stories you'll ever hear, and it's all true. If you're interested in the paranormal, then you need to watch this video to learn about the The Sallie House and its macabre history. From paranormal investigations to terrifying ghost encounters, possession and demonic entities. This house has it all. 00:00 Intro 2:39 Chapter 1 - The Heartland Ghost 09:08 Chapter 2 - The Unexplainable Fires 10:25 Chapter 3 - Meeting Sallie 15:54 Chapter 4 - Night Time Visits 17:36 Chapter 5 - Dark Intentions 20:46 Chapter 6 - The Final Straw 23:37 Chapter 7 - Investigating The Sallie House Sightings: The Heartland Ghost - https://youtu.be/yyQL9aMn9eU Astonishing Legends EVP - https://youtu.be/cBYCzUCMVRo Astonishing Legends Sallie House Part 1 - https://youtu.be/WLsPTh9Y9pU Check us out on Youtube at www.youtube.com/thetapelibrary   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I got just a glimpse of that upper window of the face of a little girl. I don't know who lives here. It's a boy, right? But I saw the face of a little girl in that window just now. The exact date appears to be lost to time. But at some point in the mid-1800s, in the dead of night, Dr. Charles Finney, a medical practitioner, living in Atchison, Kansas, Kansas, heard a loud knock on his door. He cautiously opened it to find a woman, clearly distressed and holding her six-year-old daughter in her arms. The young girl was an incredible amount of pain. Dr. Thinney realized that the girl's appendix was about to rupture

and quickly took her to his operating room that was located in the basement of his home. Unfortunately, in his haste to help the girl, he incorrectly administered the wrong amount of anesthetic. The girl died on his operating table, screaming in pain, as he cut into her. This is the widely spread origin story of one of the most infamous haunted houses in all of America, the Sally House. But while it makes for a creepy tale, it most likely isn't true. or at least there's no evidence that it's true. There are some elements that are, though.

Charles Finney was a medical practitioner that lives in the house. In fact, the house was built some years before the story is said to take place by a MC Finney. The house remained in the possession of the Finney family for years, and the number of them passed away within its walls. But there are no records that suggest a small girl named Sally was ever treated there or lived there. But maybe these encounters with spirits that so many people claim to experience aren't the lost souls of the dead at all. Maybe they are manifestations of something else. In this episode of the tape library we're going to be visiting the sally house and going over the terrifying experiences of the pickman family and their shocking violent encounters with something that appear to be

sharing their home with them. In the early 90s, Tony and Deborah Pickman moved into 508 North Second Street. What followed was one of the most well-documented hauntings of all time. A big part of this was due to the TV series sightings. You carried out numerous investigations into what they referred to as the Heartland Ghost. Because of this, there are visual examples of many of the phenomena, the family encounters. The family encounter. during their two years living in the Sally House. I'll link to the sightings episode in the description if you want to watch these clips in full. I'm going to go over some of the most notable incidents in Deborah and Tony's time in the home. There are so many encounters they describe.

I strongly recommend delving into some interviews with a couple if you want to learn even more. But here we go. Deborah was from Buffalo originally. She's always had an interest in the paranormal, but she's always had an interest in the paranormal, but never experienced anything personally in her younger years. The two met in Kansas and bought the house in Atchison together when they were expecting their first child. Tony did not have any interest in the paranormal,

though he was raised as a Catholic. It all started fairly innocently. Everything seemed fine when they moved in. But within a month of being in the property, they started to hear odd noises. lights would flicker or dim. There were strange occurrences, but nothing that jumped out of them as specifically paranormal. Lights were dim while they were sat there watching TV multiple times a night.

The chains on their ceiling fans would spin, even when the fan wasn't on, or it would look like someone was almost flicking them. Again, nothing that they felt couldn't be explained of the wind or electrical issues. They contacted the landlord, but could never find any electrical problems in the house. The baby would wake up often in the night. Every time he'd fall asleep in his nursery, he'd almost immediately wake up again crying. Obviously not an uncommon thing for a young child, but the lack of sleep quickly started to become a drain on the pickments.

Deborah's sister came to visit to help with the sleeping pattern. She took the baby downstairs and the baby slept through the night with no issues. The sleep disruptions only seemed to happen when the baby was alone in the nursery. One night Tony walked past the nursery and noticed the light was on, which was strange as the couple had only just gotten home. Sat in the centre of the floor were three of their baby stuffed animals. Position sat up and in the circle. Tony went back down to talk to Deborah and her sister, who said they hadn't moved any toys. So they went back up and looked for any explanation.

but couldn't find anything. They carefully put the toys back on the shelves, turned the lights out, and went back downstairs. By the time they'd reached the bottom, they had heard the light, flick back on, they walked back up.

The teddy bears were back on the floor, with the lights on. This was the first time that something had happened in the house that the couple could not explain. Again, they turned out the lights and went back down. This time the light didn't come back on. When Deborah went back upstairs 15 minutes later, the teddy bears were on the floor again in the darkened nursery. They all stayed in the master bedroom together that night with the family dog standing guard and the door tightly closed.

Speaking of their dog, it did not like entering the nursery and was often found standing in the doorway, barking at seemingly nothing. From this point on, things started to escalate. Tony would hear footsteps running up and down the stairs at night. This happened often, and he was sure it was just their cats running around. One night after being kept awake by the running, he went to the stairs to catch the cats and stopped them. But they weren't there.

Tony looked down the dark stairwell and heard the running quixing approaching him. He then described what he felt was like a cold wind, run through his body, and then the unmistakable laughter of children. One day Tony was lying there, having an afternoon nap, and suddenly he sat up. Looked Deborah in the eye and said, He's mine. And then laid back down straight away. This happened early in the haunting, and at the time Deborah assumed Tony was having some sort of dream. Another morning the family photos that were on the walls down the stairs were found placed upside down on the wall, with the glass cracked on one of them. Candles would randomly be melted. In one case the candle hadn't even been unwrapped.

It was still coated in what was now a melted plastic wrapper. On the candle they saw what appeared to be a small handprint in the wax. What was interesting, was that the wick was not burned. It was just as if something hot had been pressed against the wax of the candle. It wasn't long before the couple started to reach out for help, which ultimately led to the crew at sightings, visiting the property.

While they appeared to be sceptical about the whole thing to begin with, the team became so fascinated by the family stories and captured such compelling evidence that they would return time after time to get updates on the case. Initially, during the sighting's investigations, the family's identity was kept hidden, particularly Tonys,

who didn't want anyone to know it was him who was experiencing this. It was only after numerous investigations by the team that they were willing to disclose their identity. There would be random small isolated fires that would appear throughout the house, like sudden shots of flames that would appear and disappear in an instance. One time during a family party, a doll was found on the stairs in flames. The way it had been burned, it appeared that the fire only affected specific areas of the doll,

almost like the flame had come from the inside to the out. The damage done to the Pickman's belongings through these fires were really bizarre. They weren't seen uncontrollable fire. The damage appeared to be extremely targeted and somehow only able to do that. damaged specific parts of an object. This phenomenon was even captured by the sighting's team during their investigations. Tony became convinced that whatever was doing this could potentially create a fire that if unnoticed could burn down the house, or even more unsettling, that if whatever this was that was waking up their baby could set the cot on fire. The family that

lived there before the Pickmans also reported unexplainable fires in the home, including seeing the window frame of their nursery on fire. Deborah became convinced they were dealing with the spirit of a little girl, who was desperately trying to get their attention. A suggestion that was backed up by the mediums the sightings team brought, who claimed they could see a little girl. Girl that's standing on the stairs. Hello? Can you speak to me? Sally? Is that your name Sally? Sally? Okay. The family and our sightings investigative team were amazed that Peter James had correctly named the entity.

They brought in a psychic to the home, who said that there was in fact the spirit of a little girl in the house, and that she just wanted to be passed at the family. More specifically, she said she wanted to protect the Pickman's baby son. If you've been listening to the tape library for a while, you might notice the unsettling similarity to another famous person. paranormal case we've covered here. This is almost exactly what the entity wanted to do in the Annabel case. They wanted permission to be part of their lives. Deborah felt comforted by this and felt the urge to nurture the spirit that would later become known as Sally. But for Tony,

something about it didn't feel right to him. He felt uneasy. in his own home. But it seems Sally was much more interested in getting Tony's attention, and not in a positive way. One night Deborah came out of the shower to find Tony complaining, she bit me. Sure enough, on Tony's leg was a bite mark. This was the first incident of whatever was in that house,

causing physical harm towards Tony. But it certainly wouldn't be the last. It wasn't long after this that the scratches would start. Tony would often find deep red scratch marks on his body. Some would bleed. Others would be accompanied by sharp pain. Some would appear without any pain at all. Whatever was in their home

had certainly appeared to take a dislike him to Tony Pickman. Tony came home from his night shift one morning and got a glass of juice from the kitchen. He turned around to see a little girl standing at the entrance to the basement door. She wore what he described as an old white outfit. The sort of thing a little girl might have worn the church in the previous century. She stared at him. She looked terrified.

Tony froze. It was only the realization that he could partially see through her that snapped Tony out of his almost trance-like state. He dropped his glass and ran upstairs to find Deborah. Tony later drew an image of the girl. Interestingly, a previous resident of the Sally house claimed they had an imaginary friend while living in the house as a child. When they saw Tony's picture, they immediately recognised the girl as their imaginary friend. She called her Sally. Other times Tony saw what he thought was Deborah walking past him in the hall. He looked exactly like her, except she appeared to be wearing an old housemaid's outfit with her

hair in a bun. But Tony is adamant that whoever this was had Deborah's face. He'd follow her into a room, only for the apparition to disappear. As we've already discussed, there is no evidence suggest that there was a child named Sally who died in that house. Tony saw more than one apparition in this house. Could whatever is residing in that house be taken on the form of others, a small child, Tony's loved ones, to lower their guard, to seem innocent, harmless, but deep down its intentions were much more nefarious. The possibility of this is potentially backed up by the next encounter Tony had. Tony was now hearing scratching in the walls when he laid in bed.

He said it often sounded like six or seven people were inside the walls, whispering, but he could never make out what was being said. One night he said he was laying in bed, and the foot of the bed was a window. He saw what looked like dust particles, blowing past the window, but gradually the particles grew darker and larger. It drifted towards the bed and slowly took the form of what appeared to be a woman, an older lady, all dressed in black. She floated towards Tony. The drawers on either side of the bed were slamming open and shut.

The waterbed that Tony was laying on was flopping around like crazy. He couldn't scream. The woman got closer and closer Her arm shot out and reached for Tony's throat The woman yells I'm gonna As she reaches for his neck Then suddenly Tony saw what looked like a giant black bird The woman was gone

All the furniture stopped rocking instantly Tony started screaming for Deborah Desperately trying and failing to open the door Deborah was across the hall with the baby. She didn't hear a thing except for Tony yelling. A case of sleep paralysis? As an individual incident, it certainly seems to be the case. But when combined with all the other phenomena taking place in the house,

it becomes a little harder to discount. Tony was beginning to fear for his sanity. This wasn't the only nighttime visit of a shape-shifting creature that Tony would experience. Tony also saw something that appeared to be the little girl, approaching his bed again in the dead of night. The girl reached out for him a number of times, but Tony kept resisting. Suddenly the girl let out what sounded like a growl. Then it began to transform into something else, something on all fours, hunched over, with worms hanging off its melted flesh.

Each time the sightings crew would come to visit, the phenomena Tony was experiencing would get worse. The scratches, the visions, the sounds. Each visit from the crew would make things worse for Tony. The crew would check Tony for scratches any time he was going to be left alone, like if he went to the bathroom. Just to make sure he wasn't doing them to himself. Many members of the sightings team were skeptical of the whole thing, but then saw scratches appearing. on Tony right before their eyes.

New Welts began to form on Jeff's stomach. Then I was shocked to see mysterious welts forming on his forehead. The initials MC were scratched onto Tony's body on camera while the sightings crew were filming. We're in control here, so don't, don't... A strange coincidence, since the house itself was built by a Michael C. Finney. They apparently have a nine-minute clip of a scratch slow. appearing on Tony's torso. Just as a warning before we get into the next section, there are some descriptions of violent impulses, and more specifically animal cruelty.

If you want to skip this part, then please do so. Tony said he turned into a different person. He would hear voices saying horrible things, such as telling him to kill Deborah. In the final months, when Deborah would walk past him, he'd be overcome with an intense urge to harm her in some way, an urge to get her out of the way, as he said. If he left the house, he felt fine. A dark anger was overtaking him in this house. He would have vivid dreams of cutting her throat with a butcher's knife when she would come home from work. One morning he woke up full of hateful thoughts. He went into the kitchen, took out of butcher's knife, saw their pet cat in the kitchen, and blacked out.

Later that day he was at his parents' house. He returned back to the family home to find the cat stabbed with a knife and pinned to the kitchen counter. Tony says he has no memory of harm in the cat, but is sure he must have done it, a fact that still haunts him to this day. This alongside his dark thoughts towards Deborah, are something that he is obviously deeply ashamed of, but he says he speaks about it to make people aware

just how disturbing hauntings like this can be. There was a darkness in their home, whether literally the result of a ghost or something more psychological that was transforming Tony into someone he didn't recognise. Tony did seek out psychological help, but nothing clinical appeared to be wrong with him.

The only way he could be free, of these violent impulses was to get out of this house. Probably every one of your television viewers ask is, why do you stay here? Why don't you just get out? What hold you there? Um, curiosity. There needs to be more data so that we can know what exactly this is, what causes it. Why does, why do these things happen to certain people, certain places, certain times?

Tony tried to talk to Deborah about how bad things were getting, but she was so excited and fascinated about the entire thing. She wasn't experiencing any of the negative aspects of the haunting. She says that her reactions now don't make any sense to her, but at the time she was so wrapped up in the entire thing that she was almost blind to the effects it was having on her husband. She was completely naive to the very real danger. It appears she was in.

One day Tony was thrown into the rungs at the top of the stairs, breaking several of them, as if something was attempting to throw him over the banister and down the stairs. For some reason this was the incident that made Deborah realise that things weren't right and they needed to leave. Within three weeks, they were out of the house. People would ask them how they stayed so long, but they said they would eat. experience this phenomena and then it would stop. Months would go past without anything happening. They'd begin to doubt themselves, thinking maybe it was all in their heads, or whatever was there

had left, and then it would start up again. Little waves of paranormal activity that gradually became more and more dark and violence. The basement is said to be a focal point of something within the sally house. There is an area in the back where a number of bricks have been removed, leaving a dark hole. Tony said he never felt any urge to go down into the basement, and would avoid it as much as possible. After the pickman's left, a woman moved into the sally house. After some time the landlord was called, and she had apparently been trashing the house. The landlord evicted the woman. After that, he visited the property. and discovered in the basement a number of strange markings and names on the walls.

In the middle of the floor, the woman had painted a pentagram. Apparently the woman was very solitary, had few belongings in the house, and it appears was primarily using the property for whatever ritual she was attempting to conduct. Many paranormal researchers and TV shows have investigated the Sally House, including the popular show Ghost Adventures, in which the host brought Deborah and Tony Pickman back with them to the house. Tony claimed that he had heard so many EVPs people had recorded over the years of the voices of little children that he began to feel guilty.

Like maybe there wasn't something demonic in this house. Maybe they had just lost children trying to communicate. This led to him returning to the home. Yet again, Tony experienced the whole host. of violent interactions. With welts appearing on his neck, other guests experienced scratches and witnessed odd phenomena.

Tony isn't alone here. Many who have visited the Sally House report no matter how terrifying their experiences might be inside its walls. A draw to come back, just something in the back of their minds that tells them they need to return.

But for what reason? There are countless examples of video, photographic and audio evidence from the Sally House. The Sally House has become one of the major tourist destinations for ghost hunters all across the world, and because of this, there are so many investigations that have taken place within the property. What is remarkable is that so many others appear to have had experiences that back up some of what the pickmans have been talking about. I'm going to leave you with one specific piece of evidence that was recorded during the investigation into the Sally House. I try not to talk about my own personal beliefs on this channel.

I like to see myself as an optimistic skeptic. I have no evidence for the existence of ghosts or anything paranormal. But a part of me really hopes it's true. Additionally, this is a horror channel. I'll never knowingly include any false information in the video. but I do take things as much as I can at face value, because I'm telling the stories in the way they were originally reported. As far as evidence of the supernatural goes,

I have never heard or seen anything that made me go beyond a, hmm, that's strange. EVPs in particular. While I've heard some really creepy ones, part of me always thinks this could be easily faked or could just be a strange sound happening in the distance from a very mundane source. I heard this clip I'm about to play you two years ago, and it has never left my mind. The moment I heard it, I froze in my seat, re-listen to it, and then played it to anyone I knew who would be interested.

The podcast, astonishing legends, carried out an investigation into the Sally House back in 2018. Now it's worth pointing out this podcast if you're not familiar generally doesn't do this sort of in-person investigating. They do deep dives into all sorts of unexplained stories and try to prove or disprove it as best they can in their usually grounded and level-headed manner. They are not a ghost hunting show, nor do they overly dramatize their stories.

I strongly recommend their series on The Sally House if you are interested. It goes for hours. Covering the history, interviews with the Pickmans and others involved in the house, as well as breaking down their own investigation and even attempting to debunk the evidence they themselves collected. On July 20th 2018, they placed an audio recorder, a Panasonic RR-D-R-60 in the nursery room at the Sally House. The recorder is set up so it only records when it hears a noise. They placed a recorder in the room, quietly left, and then returned a few moments later.

No audio effects have been added to this file beyond an increase in volume. Many who have listened to this recording have experienced traumatic sensations, so please do so at your own risk. Okay, I'm turning it down. If there's anything you want to say, leave it on this recorder and we will hear it. Leaving the output...