The scariest haunted houses in America to give you the creeps

American Horror Story: Coven reignited interest in this famous French Quarter haunt. In the series, Kathy Bates plays Madame Delphine LaLaurie, a real-life socialite and serial killer who orchestrated a torture chamber for enslaved people at the Royal Street mansion in the early 1830s (before responders to a fire uncovered her dark secret). LaLaurie's victims are said to haunt the property to this day—from the street, pedestrians have heard shouts, moans and weeping, while some even claim to have seen ghostly faces in the upstairs windows. Even still, the house's ghastly history hasn't stopped wealthy buyers. Before losing the home to foreclosure in 2009, actor Nicolas Cage owned it, and as of this writing, it’s for sale for $10 million and change –are you the new owner?

Beaufort's most recognizable antebellum mansion is also one of South Carolina's most haunted. Though construction began in the 1850s, the house was only partially finished when it was commandeered in 1861 as a Civil War military hospital. An outbuilding behind the house served as the hospital's morgue, and bodies are rumored to be interred on the home's extensive grounds. After the house finished construction following the war's end, supernatural sightings began; among the spirits occupying the property is Gauche, a French dwarf jester who came to the area in the 16th century. In the past, he reportedly joined a young girl who lived in the home for tea parties and wandered the grounds in full sight of gardeners and visitors. The castle is privately owned but occasionally opens for tours and events if you want to see it for yourself.

Some say that at the Lizzie Borden House, a ghostly face appears in the cellar over the sink where bloody clothing may have been washed right after the 1892 hatchet murders of Andrew and Abby Borden. The possible perp? Andrew's daughter, Lizzie, who was acquitted at the trial of the century, perhaps by the jury's error. She, Andrew and her stepmother Abby are said to linger in the house, along with children who roll marbles on the attic floor, victims of a drowning by their mother in the basement well next door. Aim for the anniversary reenactments every Aug 4 if you’re dying to see the Lizzie Borden House. Don’t forget to stop next door at Miss Lizzie’s, the most haunted coffee shop in the world!

The city that never sleeps is probably just too afraid to close its eyes—the House of Death, a famous brownstone off Fifth Avenue, is reportedly terrorized by a whopping 22 ghosts. Are any of them paying rent? Unlikely. In any case, the most famous ghoul among them is none other than Mark Twain, who lived here 1900-1901, while the most heartbreaking is the ghost of a six-year-old girl who was beaten to death in 1987 by her father, criminal prosecutor Joel Steinberg. In addition to sightings of Twain and the young girl, some claim to have seen visions of a lady in white and a gray cat.

Margaret Brown championed workers' rights, fought for suffrage and won the French Legion of Honor award for her help in France during WWI. But she is best remembered for surviving the Titanic's sinking, dubbed posthumously the "Unsinkable Molly Brown." It's said that she (along with her husband and mother) still haunts her prized Victorian home, now a museum. Visitors say they’ve seen apparitions in the dining room, smelled mysterious pipe smoke from Margaret's husband and noticed rearranged furniture and unscrewed lightbulbs. (How many ghosts does it take to...?)

At one of the most haunted houses in America, the Sallie House's bad energy allegedly stems from a botched appendectomy—the six-year-old girl who haunts the house died during a desperate procedure without anesthesia at the turn of the century. In the 1990s, a family who lived in the Sallie House documented their experience on the TV show Sightings, which spoke of flying objects, frequent apparitions and a mix of scratching, gouging and shoving (all mainly directed at the male owner). The home is now vacant, but a popular pick for paranormal researchers, and even regular folks can book the house to stay the night. Prices start at $125 per person with a two-person minimum.

It's the age-old tale of neighbors at war: Kate Batts believed her neighbor, John Bell, cheated her out of some land. Lying on her deathbed in the early 19th century, she swore she would haunt him forever. The result was mayhem for the Bell family, who said they experienced physical attacks and heard chains dragged across floors and noises in the walls. They even saw odd-looking animals on their farm, like a dog with a rabbit's head. You can now tour the Bell Witch Cave and the replica of John Bell's log cabin from May through early November.

All the beer in the world won't lead to happiness. So is the case with the Lemp family, purveyors of Lemp Brewing Company, a stalwart in St. Louis before Prohibition hit. Four family members killed themselves between 1904 and 1949, three inside the 33-room Victorian mansion where they allegedly still reside and haunt guests. It has since been turned into a restaurant and inn where you can explore the Gothic arched underground tunnels and even partake in a ghost tour—just go a little easy on the beer during your stay, okay?

This brick mansion, built in 1784 for prominent merchant Joshua Ward, sits where High Sheriff George Corwin (a significant figure in the Salem Witch Trials) once lived. Corwin was the man who used his cane to poke back in the tongue of a dying Giles Corey, one of the 'witches' executed by piling stones upon his body. Three ghosts are now associated with the house: Giles Corey himself, "the strangler" who chokes visitors and "the witch," who was famously captured in all her disheveled glory by a realtor taking photos at a Christmas party at the property. Is it Photoshop, or is it Poltergeist? We’ll let you decide. Today it’s a boutique hotel called The Merchant.

Sarah Winchester's husband developed the "gun that won the West," a decision that would come back to haunt her: literally. After losing her husband and young daughter, the widow consulted a spiritualist who alleged the family was haunted by Native Americans, Civil War soldiers and anyone killed by her husband’s famous Winchester rifle. She was recommended to use her $20 million inheritance to build a home to appease the spirits. What began as an eight-room farmhouse was added onto for 26 years between 1886 and 1922, becoming a 160-room mansion with 2,000 doors, all to confuse pursuing spirits. If you take a tour, bring your compass.

Built on Native American hunting grounds, this home's got a raft of ghosts, from passengers of a shipwrecked ferry to a boy who fell from a window. Docents have watched the ghost of an enslaved man walk across the room and tend a long-boarded-up fireplace. Another paranormal presence is Grace Sherwood, accused of witchcraft in the 1700s and found guilty by 'ducking' (a process in which she was bound and dropped in deep water; drowning would mean she was innocent). Thankfully, after seven years in prison, she was released, and in 2006 she was officially exonerated. Book a $20 tour to explore the spot.

The waiters at the Farnsworth House Inn won't be the only ones dressed up in Civil War-era clothes—keep an eye out for long-dead Confederate soldiers clad in similar outfits. During the Battle of Gettysburg, many of the South's soldiers died while hiding in this home, which explains the one-hundred-plus bullet pocks in the brick walls. After the fighting in the area was over, the house became a hospital for soldiers. You can learn about the weird supernatural occurrences that continue to take place on the property by booking a ghost tour or an overnight stay.

On June 10, 1912, Josiah and Sarah Moore, their four children and two visiting children, were murdered by ax in their beds inside what is now called the Villisca Ax Murder House. The crime remains unsolved. The home has been stripped of plumbing and electricity to give a more realistic experience to visitors who pay $428 to book the house overnight. But stay at your own risk: In 2014, a paranormal investigator stabbed himself (non-fatally) by morning. He still won't talk about what happened. You can spend $489 to book the whole house or $160 for a single room overnight.

The Franklin Castle mansion was built 1881-83 by German immigrant Hannes Tiedemann, who tragically lost his four children. It was later called Eintracht Hall and used for German culture clubs. It wasn't until the 1960s that the then-owners began to say it was haunted by Tiedemann's wife (and one daughter who died before the house was even built!) and declared it 'evil.' There are hidden rooms and ugly rumors about Tiedemann as a murderer, crying babies, organ music and ghosts who snatch blankets off you at night. One owner of this "most haunted house in Ohio" was Judy Garland's last husband.

Paranormal experts say this Colonial-era property is haunted to the gills. In the 1970s, the Perron parents and five daughters experienced a demon or poltergeist that physically harmed the family in a plethora of ways, including a scythe falling from a barn beam to nearly decapitate the mother. Ed and Lorraine Warren showed up to tackle the malevolence—events loosely portrayed in the movie The Conjuring. Today, you can book a day tour. Better yet, stay overnight by GHamping (ghost + camping) in one of eight tents in those terrifying woods, available June through October.

The Amityville Horror House is the site of a grim murder where in 1974 a son killed his parents and four siblings by gun. The next tenants, the Lutz Family, stayed 28 days before fleeing. These events—including the chilling utterance of the words ‘get out’—were immortalized in the book and movie franchise, The Amityville Horror. The home with its distinctive quarter-moon windows (since replaced) in the attic has long been said to be haunted, including by a pig with red glowing eyes who would stare into the windows. The home sold to a private owner in 2017 for $605k.

A Gilded Age manor with a Titanic connection? That looks like a state capitol meets Jane Austen’s boyfriend’s house? Check and check. At 70,000 square feet, this home has a lot of floor space for ghosts to ramble (its ballroom can hold 1,000 people). Although the house is abandoned, it’s in fairly intact shape, despite peeling paint, thanks to a caretaker and guard dogs. So who haunts this ‘last American Versailles’ which once held literal furniture from the Parisian palace? Apparently, tycoon Peter A. B. Widener, who built it, and his son and grandson, who sank with the famous ship. The home is currently fundraising to preserve it and its 34 acres.

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This ski club exists in a farmhouse that hosted some of the turn of the century’s most convincing Spiritualist happenings. In 1874, siblings Horatio, William and Mary Eddy (descendants of a Salem ‘witch’) saw so many supernatural beings that Chittenden earned the nickname ‘Spirit Capital of the Universe.’ Mysterious poundings, children vanishing from their cribs and a giant Native American ghost were just some of the phenomena (more tragic is hearing how the family abused its young trance-prone sons). A convinced skeptic wrote People from the Other World, a book about the 400 beings witnessed there during séances.

Do you love 1,000 Island salad dressing? If so, you will love Boldt Castle on its heart-shaped island in St. Lawrence Seaway’s 1,000 Islands. Underway as a summer home for a millionaire’s wife, the castle’s construction was not yet complete in 1904 when she died of heart failure. The heartbroken Mr. Boldt walked away, and the castle was abandoned until its 1977 rescue. Strange lights are said to come on in the castle, and some have even seen Mrs. Boldt haunting the home that death robbed from her. (Bonus for salad lovers? Mr. Boldt was the proprietor of New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, where Waldorf salad was invented).

Immortalized in the novel of the same name by Nathaniel Hawthorne (who changed his surname from Hathorne to avoid connection to his ancestor who had served as a Salem witch trials judge), this 1668 seaside house was built for a hat and shoe merchant. Check out the bonus eighth gable and the secret staircase replete with stair-climbing ghosts, the giggling ghost boy in the attic and a woman who peers out the windows, said to be Hawthorne’s cousin Susannah.

The Welty House was originally a Civil War era home where a family on the Union side sheltered, hidden, in the cellar while fire from both sides riddled the home (“Our house was under fire of boath [sic] armies from Thursday morning until Saturday morning,” wrote neighbor John Rupp, who had joined the Welty family in hiding, in an 1863 letter.) Later, the home was converted and added on to the nearby Brickhouse Inn. But is it haunted? You can go into the cellar on a ghost tour and find out—or better yet, stay the night in one of 15 guestrooms.

On land won in a card game, Colonel Ebenezer Crafts built his residence in the late 18th century, deliberately converting part of the home to operate as a roadside inn with 13 guestrooms upstairs. Cool fact: Crafts later moved to Vermont, founding the town of Craftsbury. Another cool fact: Lafayette slept here! Later, another card game made the then-dilapidated structure change hands again. But you’re here for ghost talk, and sure enough a ghost in Colonial attire has been spotted here, possibly Crafts himself doing paranormal arts & crafts, ha ha. Best of all, the inn is right next door to one of those ancient New England cemeteries with the tall, narrow stones so old you can’t read the writing anymore.