The state of Ohio is well known for harboring some of the most haunted houses and areas in the USA.

Strange voices coming from empty rooms and behind the walls, sounds of crying children, faces that suddenly materialize in the woodwork, spinning chandeliers, cold spots, and mysterious ectoplasm...these are but a few of the bizarre occurrences witnessed by those who have entered Franklin Castle, one of Ohio's most notorious haunted places. – deadohio.com

Cleveland's Franklin Castle has the distinction of being known as Ohio's most haunted house. It is a big, dark building with stone walls, a turret, and a six-foot wrought iron fence. Hans Tiedemann, a German immigrant who got rich from his barrel-making business and later the banking industry, built the house in the mid-1800's. The count varies, but it was supposed to have 21 rooms. It also featured a fourth floor ballroom accessible by its own staircase, marble fireplaces, dumbwaiters, wine cellars, and numerous hidden passageways.

A newspaper boy claimed that when he knocked on the door, a voice told him to "come in."  Once inside the foyer, he saw an apparition of a woman in white, who glided down the staircase and disappeared through a closed door. – deadohio.com

The house has been a clubhouse for a German Singing Society, home to a German Socialist organization, a doctor's office, apartments, a party house, and even a home to bootleggers.

The wildest rumor involves the mass political assassination of about 20 members.

The party later rented out rooms of the castle to boarders.  One of those persons was believed to be a doctor who performed "strange" experiments using human specimens. –deadohio.com

The ghosts here are numerous. In a small room at the rear of the house a pile of baby skeletons was found, supposedly the victims of some inept doctor; today, babies can be heard crying the walls. There was a mass murder when some of the Nazis were machine gunned to death in a political dispute; their discussions can be heard throughout the house. There are rumors of an axe murder in the front tower room, the victim of which is occasionally seen standing in the window. The secret passageways around the ballroom are said to be where Tiedemann hung his illegitimate daughter Karen. Karen's ghost is the main one seen in the castle, usually in a third floor room known as "the cold room" because it stays ten degrees colder than the rest of the house at all times. Karen may have lost her life in a fight between her father and her boyfriend and then been hung from a rafter to make the death appear self-inflicted. She was just thirteen, but her ghost is often described as a woman, garbed in black, tall and thin and eerie, and often seen by people in the neighborhood.

Karen's ghost was often encountered by staff of the Universal Christian Church, which made an attempt to occupy the building after buying it in September of 1975. A UPI news story which ran a year later details the church's efforts to turn it into a soup kitchen by charging for ghost tours and overnight stays in the haunted castle, as well as Rev. Tim Swope's own brushes with the paranormal there. Famed parapsychologist Hans Holzer also relates his thoughts about the ghosts that reside there--particularly the thin lady in black, the erstwhile Karen Tiedemann.

There's more: Tiedemann's three babies died mysteriously in the house, as did his fifteen-year-old daughter Emma, of diabetes. His wife died from liver trouble here. A servant girl was supposedly killed in the servants' quarters on her wedding day for refusing Tiedemann's advances. He is said to have shot his mistress Rachel for wanting to marry another man; the choking sounds of her death can be heard in one of the rooms.

According to legend, Hans also murdered his young niece by hanging her from the rafters of a secret tunnel.  He is also said to have killed a young servant girl on her wedding day in a fit of jealous rage, and strangled one of his mistresses. – deadohio.com

The owners of Franklin Castle have been subject to its many hauntings. The children of a couple who lived in the house for a while asked for a cookie to give to their friend, a little girl who wouldn't stop crying. Mrs. Tiedemann is said to have possessed the wife of one of the owners for a period. No one stays long.

HISTORICAL TIMELINE

Franklin Castle is built by Hans Tiedemann.

Tiedemanns' 15 year-old daughter, Emma, dies.  A few weeks later, Wiebeka, Hannes Tiedemann's elderly mother, dies.

Hans Tiedemann becomes Founder and Vice-President of Euclid Avenue Savings and Trust.

The Tiedemanns lose another three children.  Hans Tiedemann then expands the castle by adding a ballroom, hidden rooms and secret passages.

Luise Tiedemann dies from liver disease at the age of 56.  Later that same year, Hans Tiedemann sells the castle to the Mullhauser family.

Hans Tiedemann marries a young waitress, but divorces her soon thereafter.

Tiedemann's son, August, dies at the age of 42.

Hans Tiedemann dies suddenly from a stroke while on a walk in a park at the age of 75.  He has no surviving children.

The Mullhausers sell the castle to the German Socialist Party

The German Socialist Party sells the castle to the Romano Family.

The Romanos sell the castle to Sam Muscatello. $34,300.  Within the same year, Muscatello sells the house to Maryon W.  Ruchelman  for $38,000

Ruchelman sells the house to George Mircata for $85,000

The house goes into foreclosure, and the house is sold by Sheriff's sale to the bank.

Richard & Virginia Perez purchase the house from the bank for $73,500

Mr. & Mrs. Perez sell the house to Michael DeVinko for $93,000.

Michelle Heimburger  purchases the house for $350,000.  Later that year, the house is nearly destroyed by a fire set by homeless vandal.  It has been undergoing  renovation ever since.

Real Estate investor Charles Milsaps announces the launch of the Franklin Castle Club, to be opened in Spring 2004

(... a fake renovation - not a single membership has been sold. Milsaps has, however, found time to use the carriage house--and possibly the Castle itself--to make amateur pornography.- Hendersen)

By Andy Hendersen http://www.forgottenoh.com/haunted.html

(Interjected quotes in italics  from http://deadohio.com)