The Screaming House

The great paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren gave Helen (the house's current owner) and I (the house's former owner) a piece of advice right after the doors to the Union Screaming House were closed to us. She said, "It is far from over."

I remember when she said this; I didn't understand what she was trying to say to us. Of course we were no longer subjected to the house and the horrors that happened within its walls. How could it possibly continue for us, now that we had closed the doors?

What I did not understand at that particular moment was that a violent haunting is somewhat like an earthquake. The initial haunting is horrible and horrendous and turns your life completely upside down. Everything you ever knew to be true—along with any sense of security—is absolutely diminished to rubble. However, the aftershocks are often more dangerous and damaging than the initial earthquake itself. Just because the doors to a particular house close does not mean the damage ceases. There are many roads and many choices that lead you to be one of the haunted.

What does the word haunting actually mean? According to Miriam-Webster Online Dictionary, the word as an adjective means:

a : lingering in the consciousness : not readily forgotten
b : having a disquieting effect : DISTURBING

A haunting is something that lives and grows within the consciousness of an individual, which has a disturbing and disquieting effect upon them. The initial haunting may indeed be a thing in substance, but that thing plants within the human psyche something that grows and changes the individual and the world around them. Lorraine Warren was precisely right: the initial haunting is just the beginning. She understood the seeds of the aftershocks had been planted and had just begun to grow.

In this case, the disturbing effects of the initial haunting happened to myself and those I love; those effects were far reaching and even deadly in form and action.

But how do you kill something planted within your psyche and development that is continually growing and hurting you? I think back to those first days when my children were locked in a bedroom and I could not get through the door to them. I could hear my daughter screaming for me to help her from behind the closed door, which for some reason would not open even as I slammed my body against it. As a parent, an event like this has a haunting and never-ending effect upon them. My inability to save my child at that one single moment has had lingering effects upon the person I am today and how I relate to the world around me. In my mind, I am waiting for that door to slam at any moment separating me from the ones I love again. Whether or not it makes sense, the mind is always waiting for that moment when the unseen will once again happen. It is this type of instability and negativity that feeds the paranormal haunting and allows it to continue without relief. A parent is supposed to be able to care for their children and keep them safe. The haunting begins to play upon those negative feelings, and as the negativity continues it is able not only continue but to morph and grow.

It is impossible for the haunting to be over unless a person heals those feelings that were planted by an entity for the sole purpose of its survival. In many ways, the haunting itself becomes a parasite, feeding upon the negative emotions that it caused in the beginning. That is why it is so easy for a negative entity to step in when the family is experiencing some type of turmoil or dysfunction. As a matter of fact, in the majority of severe and negative paranormal cases you will find some type of familial dysfunction occurring before the actual haunting assault. It may even seem that the negative entity attracts these scenarios to it—this has been one of the most common factors between each of the most well-known cases.

In an unprecedented step, the Roman Catholic Church, in a 156-page report, classified the Union Screaming House Haunting as a demonic infestation, oppression, obsession, and possession. I have always found the Church's use of the word "infestation" interesting because, in fact, a haunting infests around and upon a person or group of people and then spiders outward—infecting all with which it comes in contact. (1)

The Story:

Do you believe in ghosts? I use to be like many of you. I was a true skeptic. A true disbeliever. That was me until three years ago. Now I do believe. I wish I didn’t. It would be easier for me to sleep at night. Even now, three years later, I am still woke up in the night by the memory of the screaming man, the child in pain, and the dark ghostly image that turned my world upside down and changed my beliefs forever. I do believe in ghosts.

It was in May 2001. I needed desperately to find a place for myself and three children to live in Union, Missouri. Our lease was up at the apartment where we had lived for two years. I was a single father, and I was about to find myself and my children homeless. Like many, I had answered just about every ad in the newspaper for rentals. One evening I received a call from this woman telling me about this house. She said it was a rather large old house that was in very good shape. She invited me to an open house which was to be held that coming Sunday. Sunday rolled around. You can’t imagine the surprise when my daughter and I rolled up in front of this large old white house. We walked in. The smell of cookies baking hit us immediately upon entering through the front door. To our surprise we were standing in a living room with cherubs surrounding the top of the walls all the way around the room. All of the original wood work was intact and a large wooden pole ran to the ceiling creating a divider which separated the living room from the family room. The house had two floors with three bedrooms, and a large family kitchen with a mud room that lead to the back door. The upstairs bedrooms had a breezeway that could be accessed from all rooms.

The basement had an old butcher’s shower and a fruit cellar. It was more house than we ever imagined for the price and immediately made up our minds that we had to have it. Anyone who has lived in an apartment for two years with three children would understand our desperation. We had to have this house.

We spoke with the landlady and she gave me an application to fill out. There were many people there looking at the house so we knew we would have to compete to be its tenants. I handed my application to the landlady. "You understand the responsibility that comes with living in an old house such as this?” she asked. "Oh, yes I understand . It’s beautiful.”, I quickly replied, not really understanding to what I was agreeing to. "Well then I will get back to you,” she quickly retorted and was off to peddle her wares to another of the visiting house hunters. She was a strange old lady and the way she showed the house wasn’t in a real estate type manner. She showed the house as if she were showing a museum. We felt like we were on one of the house tours often given each year for charity.

A week went by before the phone rang one evening. It was the strange landlady overly excited to tell me that she had selected me, my daughter and two sons to live in the old house. I was to meet her that following day at a restaurant to settle all of the paperwork and payment. I thought this was a little strange and I was a little disappointed because I couldn’t wait to see the house that would now become our home.  The papers were signed on the following day. That weekend was Memorial weekend and we were all set to move in.
 

It seemed like years before Friday came that week, but we were finally there. Moving day. The move was a normal one and before we knew it all of our belongings were hidden safely inside the old white house. I was removing the last few items from the moving truck when a car slowed down, almost stopping in front of our new home. From the window of the slow moving car, the passenger said, "Hope you get along okay here,” and then sped up and drove away. "What do you think of that dad,” my puzzled daughter asked. "Friendly neighbors I suppose,” I replied as I shut the sliding door to the truck.

The first night in the house went by without fanfare. Maybe because we were so tired from the move or perhaps, because the house wanted to draw us in a little closer before beginning its series of attacks and assaults upon me and my family. The next morning started like most any other day. Except I did notice one strange thing about the house. Each of the houses’ interior doors had an old fashioned hook and eye latch, but not on the inside of each rooms doors to keep someone out. The latches were on the outside of the rooms doors, as if to keep something in. "What is it dad?” my youngest son asked from behind. "Oh nothing,” I replied and went about the business of unpacking our things.

The first incident happened in the living room when I was hanging a large picture of two angels. My daughter thought that this would complement the cherubs that surrounded the room. I hung the picture and turned to walk away. Crash! I turned to see that the picture had fallen to the floor. Re-hanging the picture once again, I turned away. Crash! The picture was once again on the floor. Hanging it for a third time, when I started walking away I felt a rush of air and something hit the back of my ankles. "What the hell…?” I turned to see the picture lying at my feet. More determined than ever, I hung the picture again and stated loudly, "Stay there dammit.” I had to laugh because I was alone. Who did I think I was talking to? The kids were playing on the front porch.

"Dad come and see this,” my daughter’s voice rang through the front door. I stepped out onto the porch. "Sit down and watch this,” she said excitedly. "Watch what?” I replied. No sooner were the words out of my mouth when my daughter pointed to an old man walking down the sidewalk toward our house. However, when he reached our property line he quickly crossed the street and continued his walk on the opposite sidewalk. "They don’t like walking in front of our house dad. Isn’t that weird?” my daughter, breathless with excitement stated. And right she was. I sat on that porch for a good three hours watching our neighbors cross the street away from our house any time they walked along our street. A couple of times I motioned, as if to say hello, but they just dropped their heads and continued on their way at a brisker pace.  "Maybe they are uncomfortable with new neighbors?” I rationalized trying to make sense out of the senseless situation. We went inside for dinner and the rest of the night went normally without incident.

Sunday. The kids came home from church excited because we had set aside the whole day to work on our yard. This was a big deal for us because the only outside area our apartment provided was a front balcony. We mowed the grass and cleaned out the leaves from under the porch and in the front yard. Strangely enough, the trees seemed to be shedding their leaves as if it were fall. Strange tree behavior, I thought, and made a mental note to mention it to the landlady when I talked with her next. I asked my youngest son to go inside and bring out the garden hose from the basement so we could clean off the walkways and wash down the weathered white of the house.

A few moments passed when I heard him screaming from inside the house. Running frantically into the house, I found him standing in the kitchen shaking, in the middle of a puddle of urine. "What’s wrong? What happened?” Looking at me with the scared eyes of a child, he said, "Something chased me up the basement steps.” "What chased you?” I asked, already thinking the over active imagination of a little boy was at play here. "I don’t know daddy, but it was big.” Me and my other two children checked the basement, but found nothing except for the garden hose that had been dropped during his frightened escape. "Let’s get you cleaned up,” I said. Naturally, there was teasing from my other two children about the proverbial basement monster. "Better watch out when you go into the basement because…” The glare of my eye finished my middle boy’s sentence. The rest of Sunday and Monday went without any other incidents and we were so happy those first few days in the house. My daughter was making plans about gardens, decorating, and my boys thought it would be easy to walk to their baseball games because the park was very close. It was a normal, happy time which, unfortunately, did not last for long.

Monday came. The last week of school for my kids and a long week of work for me. Each day we would leave the house and return each evening to find every light in the house turned on. I blamed the children for leaving the lights on in the morning. However, on Friday, my daughter and I sent the boys to the car while we toured the house making sure that every light was off. That night we returned home to again find every light burning. When I walked into the house I was a little shaken – there being no logical reason for all of the lights being on other than there was someone in our house. Searching the house in a panic, I found nothing. 

"Daddy, it’s cold in here,” my daughter stated from the living room. What was she talking about? Sweat was pouring down my back and across my brow. However, when I stepped into the living room, the temperature dropped a good thirty degrees. That was the first time I felt its presence. I can’t describe it to any better than it felt like an electrical current running through my body, bringing tears to my eyes and bumps to my arms. It passed quickly. I remember thinking, "What the hell was that?”  Soon, my daughter stated, "Daddy it’s getting warm in here,” and sure enough the temperature was rising as I watched the thermostat climb. That night my children slept with me - what little sleep I got.

Sunday night.  We were sitting in the living room talking. I was getting ready to take a trip the following morning to Indianapolis for work and we were discussing their plans for a stay at Grandma's.

The kids had their backs to the living room, for which I am still thankful for because the memory of what happened next still haunts my dreams to this day. I noticed it first out of the corner of my eye. A quick glance. Something moving, standing at the kitchen doorway that led into the family room. Not something - someone. I looked toward it again. It was a dark figure of a man, even though there was full light. He was solid in form except there was a moving, churning, dark gray, black smoke or mist that made up his form.

I looked down because I was sure I wasn’t seeing this and that my eyes were playing tricks on me. One or two good rationalizations and we could go on with our lives without incident. A few moments passed and I was sure that when I looked up again that it would be gone. But, he was still there and he began to move.

Moving into the family room and pausing in the center of the room, his form was still a mass of churning, turning blackness. He stood there for what seemed an eternity, but in actuality it was only a few moments and then he melted into the air. Gone. I remember the thoughts that were racing through my head. " I have two choices. We could run out of the house screaming into the night like those crazies you always see in the movies. You know the ones that are always based on fact. Or, the other choice, we could get up quietly, leave the house and figure all of this out.” My hands were shaking uncontrollably. "That’s what we’ll do. We will go quietly, orderly, as if nothing was wrong”

Standing up on shaky legs, I said in my calmest daddy voice,  "Let’s go get a soda and see grandma." My youngest was instantly excited at the prospect of a soda before bed and the older two looked at me as if I lost my mind. "Come on guys it will be fun.” Thank God, my car keys were on the coffee table in front of us. We moved orderly out the front door and I turned to lock the door,  when a loud painful scream of a man came from inside the house. It sounded as if he was screaming in pain, so loud that it could be heard throughout the neighborhood and the dogs began to bark. To hell with orderly, "Get in the car!” I screamed at my children. 

At a dead run we headed to the car and to drive to my Mom’s house, which is still a blur to this day. I was in a panic and I knew that we had to get away from the old white house. But before we were away from the neighborhood, my youngest son, in a very scared voice, said, "Daddy the basement monster is standing in the upstairs window.” I looked back and sure enough the black form was standing in the window watching us leave.

That night we stayed at my parents’ house. Early the next day, I gathered my things and left for my business trip. I had a whole week of rationalizations by the time I returned home to pick up my children. Where else were we to go? I had put everything I had saved, and then some, into the move. We had no other choice but to go back to the big old white house. Besides, after a week of talking myself out of the events of that night I was ready to return, so on Friday night we returned to the house. The weekend went by without incident, though we got very little sleep.

I was taking another extended weekend to make up to my kids for my week away. On Saturday we explored the big shed at the back of the yard and in it, we found a number of personal belongings that appeared to belong to different people. My parents convinced me that maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to call the strange old landlady and ask her some straight forward questions about the house.

It was to be one of most awkward and strangest phone calls of my life. Once I was able to reach her, I carefully chose my words and asked in a normal voice if any of the previous tenants had ever mentioned a ghost. Well of course, she said at first, that she could not remember. However, she went on to say that one female tenant had claimed that her dead father came to visit her, but the old woman always thought she was crazy. The landlady said that some of the stuff in the shed had been left behind by the girl, but she couldn’t get her to come pick it up.

The other stuff in the shed evidently belonged to a man who had lived there but left in the middle of the night, leaving behind his things. But, no she had never heard of anyone talking about the house being haunted. I asked her how long ago did these people live there? And she said, "Not much more than a year honey, why do you ask?” The phone call wasn’t of much help. And it didn’t calm my fears much, but what else could I do?

The rest of the long weekend came and went. I actually had convinced myself that it was just a one time ordeal because nothing more was happening. That was until Monday night. I was on the phone with my mom. The kids were off playing in my bedroom which was located on the first floor. While on the phone, I began to hear the inside doors rattling. Listening closely, they rattled again and I yelled at the kids to quit playing games. I told my Mom that everything was okay, just the kids playing tricks. The rattled again, this time harder. So , I scolded the children this time louder to behave and stop playing tricks. At this time they rattled louder, but before I could scold my daughter’s scared voice cut me off., "Daddy, I’m in here reading and my brothers are asleep.” Now I will try to recreate what happens next to the best of memory. Some of it I remember clearly. Other parts are a blur to this day. Just as soon as I heard my daughter the temperature in the house instantly dropped a good thirty degrees. With it came the feeling of the electrical charge running through my body. Along with its energy a horrible stench that I cannot describe permeated the room. And then, the screaming started - softly at first, but building in momentum. I yelled through the phone to my mother to come help - we were getting out. Then the whole house began to shake and come alive. From the above I could hear something large coming down the stairs. Boom. Boom! BOOM! The screaming of the man over and over. The screaming of my daughter, "Daddy what is happening!” Along with this came the thought that one of my two bedroom doors connected to the stairs. BOOM! BOOM! It was coming down those stairs! I had to get to my children! The whole house was alive with noise. The floor beneath me was shaking as I made my way to the bedroom door.  I felt something behind me and I knew I didn’t want to turnaround to see it! . BOOM! SCREAMING!  A new scream mixed into the man’s scream - this one from a child. BOOM! SCREAMS! BOOM! I made it to my bedroom door but it wouldn’t open. By this time I, too, am screaming. Throwing myself against the door it still wouldn’t budge. I continued to throw myself against the door again and again until it finally slammed open.

My daughter was in shock by this point. I instructed my middle son to grab his brother and run out the front door and head for the car. BOOM! BOOM! SCREAMS! My daughter won’t move and I finally had to slap her to bring her to life. Finally responding, I grab her and head for the door as I hear the other bedroom door slam open behind us. It was on our trail and I knew I couldn’t let it reach us. The whole house still shaking and alive with noise and something big on our heels. When we reached the front door and out onto the porch, I slammed the front door behind us. As we got into the car we could still hear the noise coming from the house. I drove away and parked at the top of the street where I could still see the house and wait for my parents to arrive. We could see "it” searching through the house. Searching! Searching for us! It’s blackness moving from room to room methodically.

That was our last night in the house. My children never returned. When I returned to get a few of our things on several occasions I never went alone. Everyone I brought into that house with me would also witness something happen. A scream. Whispers. Pounding from the floor above. It was not selective anymore at who it let hear its fury. I remember what the old lady said to me as I turned over the key.  Standing there, the whole side of my arm and torso still bruised from throwing myself against that bedroom door, she said, "Some people are meant to live in an old house like that. And some people aren’t. I never thought you were the old house type.” And I guess she was right.

About a month after moving out of the old house a friend sent me a web site address that she wanted me desperately to see. "Put John T. Crowe, Union, Missouri into your search engine,” she said. When I did, the face of a man came onto my screen. The same face that showed up in a picture my brother took in the fruit cellar one afternoon while I was packing for the move. The man was famous. The land itself famous, with a history dating back to the civil war.

About a year ago, someone I know saw a police car race up to that house one night and witnessed a family running out of its front door in their night clothes.

As for the house today - the old lady turned it into a dog kennel this past fall. I guess she ran out of people that could live in an old white house like that one.

You see I do believe in ghosts. I still drive past that house every once in a while and when I get enough nerve I look up at the upstairs window and it’s there. Watching. Waiting. Angry. Sometimes its screams still wake me from my sleep, its infectious scream creeping into my dreams, turning them into nightmares. I still don’t sleep very well. In my dreams I see a faceless man standing in that basement washing away blood from his naked blood covered body. Grunting. Panting. Breathing.

The breathing you’d hear when you were alone with it in a room. The breathing you would hear when you knew it was there. Heavy. Labored. Breathing. Yes, I do believe in ghosts. I do believe in ghosts. And maybe you should too? (2)

By Stephen LaChance

(1) https://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/2461

(2) http://www.legendsofamerica.com/mo-unionhaunting.html

Updated: March, 2015

About the Author:  Steven LaChance started a forum after having lived through this story and its effects.  However, as of October, 2007, it is no longer active. He authored the book "The Uninvited: The True Story of the Union Screaming House" in September 2008.