Llanada Villa was like a fairy-tale castle. The inspiration for my home was so magnificent that such an edifice had virtually no precedent in America; it can from Old World and supernatural sources. As I went up the beautiful stairs and passed along the gallery, looking down on a hall such as few palaces contained, it put me in mind of a scene I well-remembered at the Hotel de Ville, in Paris, at a ball given by Emperor Napoleon III to the King of Sardinia. The recently renovations looked royal, everything was grand and on a generous scale. The principal expansion of the mansion took two years and one hundred men to complete, even though my home was always under constant construction. The clayey soil held on to a kind of forest magic. Stands of palms, cedar, and tulip trees marched along the crest of the estate. Orchards proliferated, heave with fruit. There were apricots with the girth of plumbs. It was most impressive. The sprawling Queen Anne Victorian mansion gave off a sober air of prime and proper prosperity. This was the beginning of a new phenomenon, towering mansions and manicured lawns. Llanada Villa had everything to commend it: a lawn for tournaments of badminton or cricket, formal gardens, greenhouses, a cow barn, horse stables, and a pasture. I found myself brooding about diamonds. In the past few social seasons, as the precious stones flooded onto the market from new mines in South Africa, the prices of diamonds had dropped. They were at once everywhere. Many of my housemaids owned brilliants—small ones, but diamonds nonetheless. They studded not only jewelry but belt buckles, headdresses and hat pins. Infants wore gold buttons set with diamond chips. For any proper ball gown, diamonds were an essential grace note. However, there were invisible trails through this pastoral prettiness. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7

Twilight was beginning to turn Llanada Villa to a red bronze. I gaped at the interior. Skylights of stained glass transformed the brilliant sun outside into a kaleidoscope of softly coloured lights, illuminating mahogany paneled walls. Comfortable armchairs covered in a rich, floral brocade were arranged around low tables, and a beautifully pattern carpet stretched across the vast room’s floor, punctuated by the occasional potted palm tree. As I brushed past a pair of maids, bustling down the passageway with their arms full of linens and whispering furiously, everything felt so unsettled at present; the winter was shaping up to be a rather odd, disjointed season. A chill swept over me despite the warm air wafting in from the fireplaces. Since the deaths of William and Annie, darkness lurked just on the border of holiday celebrations. Their deaths could not be explained on natural grounds. To make matters worse, ghost from different eras and life situations seemed to intermingle down in the basement. As the moon waxed full—a strange restlessness took over. It began with insomnia, which rocketed me out of a deep sleep into a strange wakefulness. I became aware of an urge to go for long moonlit walks. I began a downward ascent from the fourth floor. Darkness was embracing the mansion. Grotesque silhouettes hung like dark ominous clouds all about me. It crept into my nostrils and throat until it became painful to breathe or swallow. I watched the shadows rolling and tumbling, until they finally disappeared from sight. Immediately after I sat down…and did see a black thing jump into the window. And it came and stood just before my face. The body of it looked like a monkey, only the feet had claws, and the face somewhat more like a man. And I being greatly affrighted, not being able to speak or help myself by reason of fear. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7

I shut my eyes. Darn it to hades. I saw those old trivial and horrible things, and turned slightly to the side. Someone or something beside me touched my hand as if in sympathy. My eyes opened. It was dark, but not as dark as before. A little moonlight was seeping through the skylight. However, there was no one beside me. I began to walk in silence. Passing through the sumptuous halls, stretched out like a never-ending arrow shaft, in the distance, mirages—like dreams—sprang into life, shimmered and silently dissolved at my approach. Suddenly there was a high, thin voice, and it seemed dry, as if from long disuse. Of words or tune there was no question. It went sailing up to a surprising height, and was carried down with a despairing moan as of a winter wind in a hollow chimney, or an organ whose wind fails suddenly. It was a really horrible sound. Light shone from under the door of one of the parlors. I approached it. Turned the handle, and gave a sudden vigorous push. No use. The door stood fast. The darkness that came in around me now was a tangible thing, warm, disquieting, fearful as the interior of a locked coffin. With my back to the door, in that moment it opened, and an arm came out and clawed at my shoulder. It was clad in ragged, yellowish linen, and the bare skin, where it could be seen, had long grey hair upon it. I gasped with a cry of disgust and fright, as the door shut again, and a low laugh was heard. Hurring off, I was glad to be away from the scene of action. However, the darkness had been too dark; it seemed to m that there were other things—unseen, unheard, unreal—in my home. These forbidden horrors—something of the age-old horrors were festering in corners with monstrous spirits to keep them alive. That night I slept in one of the guest-chambers, and in the morning everything seemed calmer. I talked to Mr. Hansen as little as possible about the strange and unpleasant things, but discussed the renovation. I was queerly enslaved by my home. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7

All day, I racked my brain over the problem. I could think of nothing but this terrible enigma, and gave up all efforts to perform my usual work. Perhaps the oppressiveness of the house came from its construction, more like a tomb or a prison, than a mansion. There are walls in the house that are two feet thick, and there are room boarded up by brick walls a foot thick. Yet, for al that anyone knows, the mysterious darkness of Llanada Villa came from the very wood purchased from the Schwartzwald Forest in Germany. At the time, unbeknownst to me, legend has it that the forest is actually haunted by werewolves, witches, and the devil himself. When the dark curtain of mist rolls slowly over the forest, the werewolves and other supernatural beings may sometimes be seen to sweep across the moors, rough, swarthy and of huge size, with fiery sparks shooting from their eyes and nostrils. They have been said to devour sleeping children in the absence of the household. A person who was passing at night heard them sweep through the forest with a great cry and shouting; and when he reached the highest point of the forest, he saw them pass by, with the “Master” behind—a dark gigantic figure, carrying a long hunting pole at his back, and with a horn slung around his neck. When they reached the ancient redwood tree—the Master blew a great blast upon his horn, and the whole company sank into the Earth. In any case, to discover the source of my redwood made me aware that these trees were the poor creatures of the Devil. The wildest and most remarkable of the supernatural beings still linger within the bounds of the forest and haunt the wood. Their souls cry for vengeance. The Spectre Hounds of the Schwartzwald Forest, are believed to pass, at close of day, in one great army. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7

I first noticed the curved bank of cloud edged by faint auroral light at about half-past seven. As the sun dropped below the horizon line, I began climbing the magnificent stairs. When the sun came back into sight once more, it looked like the malevolent inflamed eye of an angry god at being awakened again. The wind started howling, and Llanada Villa make an awful creaking sound like a cry from a giant infant. I knew there was spiritual warfare going on in my home with terrifying entities, which put my life in mortal danger. Suddenly, utter horror burst over me and weighted my spirit with a black, clutching panic from which I could not shake free. The moment was too hurtful, too awful. I could hear the voices of whispering children, as I was walking down the far side of the mansion. A horribly oppressive darkness of the claustrophobic closed in menacingly…it seemed to billow like impenetrable black smoke. A large group of children appeared, they passed through the walls, and suddenly blood rained—and pieces of dead bodies fell to the floor, which were torn from the graves of powerful witches buried in the haunted forest. That same night, one of the servants incautiously left the door to the kitchen open. I could hear the far-off drumbeat of a horse’s hooves. I made my way to the kitchen and looking before me, there was only a shadow moving across the room at first, but as the sound came nearer, I could see the animal, its mane and tail rippling like black flags. It was a magnificent beast, like a great dog (one of the dogs of hell) coming toward me; being within four or five yards of me, it stopped and sat down, and set up such a scream, so horrible so loud and strong, that I though the Earth moved under me, with which I fainted and fell down. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7

I opened my eyes and screamed when I saw an apparition. In the semi-darkness, it cast a shadow…a black elongated shadow of the cross. It was a scream wrenched involuntarily from my soul, for there, in the faint light of an approaching dawn, I could see that I was holding in my arms the rotting cadaver of a woman—a body from which the flesh was peeling in great huge strips like rotten liver, from which the death grimace revealed crooked brown teeth, and eyeless sockets. I whimpered and jumped to my feet. My heart was hammering as though it were an overtaxed runaway machine about to explode into pieces. My breath came in deep pants of fright. My eyes darted frantically around like lose of one tormented by phantoms. Running down the stairs, I fell twice, painfully ripping open my legs and hands, and the words I wanted most to say came spewing out, “Help me…someone! Help me!” The cold undulating horror closed in around me. Awaken…wake up…wake up I mentally shouted. However, the nightmare, more real than life itself, remained. There are horrors beyond life’s edge that we do not suspect, and once in a while evil’s preying calls them just within our range. The devil called me in, and engulfed me. My mind leaped into turmoil. I could make out nothing in the dim half-light, so I edged back into the hall, the dog of hell clumping mechanically after but pausing on the inner door’s threshold. I felt my knees give under me and my vision go black. I was lying on the floor when I came to. I found myself choked in the dark. Weeping and knowing now the desperate futility of hope, I had reached the edge of night…and the everlasting darkness of the dead and the damned reached out to embrace me. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7

ADONAY, DALMAY, LAUDAY, TETRAGRAMMATON, ANERETON, and all ye holy angels of God, be ye here and deign to impart virtue onto this skin, that it may be properly conserved, and that all thing there written may attain their perfection. I am one that is looking with gladness upon thee, O thou spirit Berith—the twenty-eight Spirit in Order. I call upon thee Berith and your 26 Legions of Spirits, as thou are beautiful and praiseworthy! With gladness I say, because thou art called in him who is creator of Heaven and Earth and the dwelling of darkness, and all things that are in their palaces, and because thou art the servant of obedience In these the power by which thou art obedient to the living breath, I bind three to remain visible to our eyes in power and presence as the servant of fealty before the circle until I say “Descend unto thy dwelling” until the living breath of the voice of the Lord is according to the law which shall be given unto thee. By the seal of the secret wisdom of Solomon thou art called! I conjure thee, creature of parchment, by all the names of God, that nothing which shall be written within thee may ever be blotted from truth. Do thou manifest before this circle, fulfil our will in all things that may seem good to us. I invoke, conjure, and command thee, O Spirit Berith and your 26 Legions of Spirits, to appear and show thyself before this circle, in fair and comely shape, without deformity or guile, by the Name of ON; by the Name Y and V, which Adam heard and spake; by the Name of JOTH, which Jacob learned from the Angel on the night of his wrestling, and was delivered from the hands of his brother Esau. The spiritual weapon has been made manifest in this corporeal World through our will and counter creative power so you may fill it with your essence and might. Empower it so that it may serve us here upon the corporeal plane! May it serve as a key to the realms above and below unlocking power and wisdom for our glory and ascent! Fill this spiritual weapon with your powers of wrath and fury that it may seek out spiritual attacks made toward us rendering them useless and impotent! #RandolphHarris 7 of 7

The Winchester Mystery House

The phenomena of death, the mystery of disease and sickness, and all the other events of common occurrence in daily life gave rise to speculations about the unseen World, which gradually led to a distinction, although slight at times, between good and evil spirits. It is a World of ghost, ghouls, and demons that have the capabilities of silently entering lives and wreaking havoc. There are generally three distinct classes of evil spirits, many ready to torment the hapless wanderer.  First came the disembodied human soul which could find no rest, and so wandered up and down the face of the Earth; second, the gruesome spirits which were half human and half demon; and thirdly, the fiends and devils who were of the same nature as the gods, who rode on the noxious winds, or brought storms and pestilence. Demons are actually disembodied spirits who existed before the World was a paradise and never were in human form. Some people believe The Winchester Mystery House to be haunted. Many have had pleasant experiences, while others account of fearful tales of ghosts. Whatever your opinion may be, it is a beautiful place thousands of people come to enjoy year after year. You can tour the mansion, and stroll the beautiful gardens and may feel more at peace than you have anywhere else on Earth.

For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Please visit the online giftshop, and purchase a gift for friends and relatives as well as a special memento of The Winchester Mystery House. A variety of souvenirs and gifts are available to purchase.  https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/