Tormented in Our Apartment

Witness: Jane H.
Location: Sackett Street, Brooklyn, New York
Date of Encounter: April 1, 1999 – April 2000

From the first moment we moved into our new duplex in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, we all had an eerie feeling that something was weird about the place. It was a dark, damp, and dingy place with an incredibly cold feeling about it. No matter how hard we tried to make the place warmer, it never seemed inviting or comfortable at all. We were never able to get a phone connected, so to add to the sense of foreboding we were also isolated from the outside world. Within 2 weeks of living there, I was raped in my own bedroom. Our next door-neighbor, a 60-something woman who had lived next door, informed us that our house had never been occupied for more than a year. Every tenant prior to us also had incredible tragedies occur within the first few weeks of moving in and they soon left. My brother and I both heard children playing one night and when we went to open our bedroom door, it would not open for nearly an hour. Thumpings on the wall, strange cold spots, and peculiar noises were all common place. No one in my family felt comfortable being there alone, nor did any guests who stayed over. It felt as if you were being watched by someone who hated you every moment. My mother (not to mention everyone else) especially hated the basement. There were weird marks and handprints on the walls. One day she was going downstairs and came screaming back up them saying that some cold, clammy hand had grabbed her upon reaching the washing machine. Lights went on and off and the odd occurrences became so serious that we left for fear we would all die in that hell hole. The ceiling toppled in above my brother's bed, an unexplained fire (whose cause was never determined) almost killed me, my mom developed cancer, and we all were going crazy from all of these things occurring within a year. Upon moving out, we found out that two people had been whacked by the mob during the 1960s, a young boy had died in a fire in the 40s, and they had uncovered the bodies of two young children buried in the basement walls sometime during the 80s. No one has stayed in that apartment since, and with good reason, everyone who has lived there befell huge tragedies that followed them until they moved out.