Actually, this article should have appeared somewhere where they write about mysticism or miracles, or about how aliens from the constellation of the Dragon took our appearance and live among us. But since its topic is directly related to weapons, then, in my opinion, it belongs here. The fact is that there are many people inventing or trying to invent and design weapons. And some are good at it. But then what? How do the curses of people killed with this weapon affect us and our children (if they are reflected ?!), and what do they sometimes think about how these curses … affect their fate? A thought, having materialized, is a terrible force, even if it is completely delusional. And here is just one such example and the story will go here.
Sarah Winchester's house.
“It seems, what else does a person need from fate if you, in general, have become the most famous person in the country from the poor and the beggars? When you worked on farms from your youth, then you counted coppers, being a bellboy in a hotel, worked as a construction worker, but then you had so much money that you can count them not even tens, and not even hundreds of thousands, but millions of dollars ! However, at first there was at least some wealth. His company, his own company, Winchester & Davis, is simple and solid. And it was only later that he invested part of the money in a block of shares in Volcanic Reiting Arms and, as it turned out, he made the right decision. Because in this country, producing men's shirts is, of course, a good thing, but still making guns and pistols is much more profitable.
Henry's rifle (above) and Winchester musket (below).
And Henry's gun, this "devil's rifle", also came in handy, although he, Oliver, set the price for it at $ 42, plus money for the cartridges! In a word, the three-month salary of a soldier during the Civil War in the United States had to be paid in order to buy it for yourself, and after all, they bought it, no matter what, and even whole regiments. Well, and then, when the war ended, he was lucky again that Nelson King came up with his "royal innovation", and most importantly, agreed to sell him a patent for it!
The carbine of 1873.
Because the old Henry carbine was good for everyone, but it was only painfully inconvenient to load it. As long as you are pushing all fifteen cartridges into it - again, it was best to do it while standing, because they had to be shoved into the magazine from the barrel - so then you, you see, have already been killed. Well, now in his new carbines, thanks to King's patent, everything has become completely different. On the side is a small lid with a spring, you press on it and, cartridge by cartridge, you fill the magazine. And at the same time, even if you lie in a ditch, or even sit on horseback, it makes no difference to you. And nevertheless, for some reason, everything goes wrong, some inexplicable misfortunes happen around … No, not a single person can be truly happy, not even me, although, to tell the truth, everything is much better with me than many!"
Oliver Fisher Winchester, the head and founder of Winchester Repeting Arms, thought so or not, now you probably can't even tell. But he had to think about something like that, because in old age he could not help looking back at his past and not thinking about his life path. However, in 1880, the year of his death, he, of course, did not yet know that his son William, who was to inherit his father's fortune, William, married the most beautiful girl from Connecticut, Sarah Pardee, who knew four languages, played on violin and piano, in 1881 he suddenly fell ill with tuberculosis and died. However, already in 1866, immediately after Sarah gave birth to her daughter Annie, numerous misfortunes began to haunt his family. So, little Annie fell seriously ill and died two weeks later. And the mother's grief was so great that for seven days she could neither eat nor sleep, did not talk to anyone, and kept sitting over the body of her dead girl.
Sarah Purdy, colorized photo 1865
Of course, they still managed to bury her, but Sarah ended up in the hospital, where she spent several years, and all this time she remained stubbornly silent. But before she had time to return to normal life, William fell ill and died, and Sarah became the heiress of a fortune of $ 20 million, at that time just fabulous. In addition, she owned 50 percent of the shares of the company, which her father-in-law left her, and which gave her an income of about a thousand dollars a day!
But there is wealth - there is no happiness! Sarah Winchester was very bad, and one of her friends advised her to go to a medium, about whom they said that he could communicate with the other world and call the souls of the dead. What if, they say, he will be able to evoke the spirit of her husband and he will be able to cheer her up and calm her down ?! Since Sarah was very devout, at first she flatly refused to do such things, considering it a sin, however, in the end, she nevertheless decided. And during the session, the medium said - "Your husband is here" and described her William's appearance to her very accurately, although he had never seen him before and could not, of course, know what he looked like during his lifetime. Sarah believed him unconditionally. And the medium told her that the spirit told him that a curse lay on their whole family, and it caused both the death of Annie and her husband. The curse is the result of Oliver Winchester being a manufacturer of deadly weapons that killed thousands of people whose souls yearn for vengeance. Then the spirit of her husband told Sarah in the state of Connecticut to sell all the real estate and go to the West. The husband said that he would guide her on this journey, and as soon as she found a suitable refuge for herself, he would let her know. There she will need to build a house where she and the spirit of her husband William will live. The Spirit also warned her that the construction of this house should never be completed. If this happens, then she, Sarah will die right there!
Photo of the Winchester house of the early twentieth century.
What would you do if you were in her place? Ten to one, which would have done everything like her: sold everything and went to California. In 1884, she settled in Santa Clara, where she bought a small six-room house on a 166-acre lot owned by Dr. Caldwell. He was not going to sell anything, but Sarah offered him such an amount that the doctor could not refuse it. Then she hired workers, ordered the old house to be demolished and start building a new one. And although the construction did not stop for a single minute, and the twenty-two carpenters hired by her worked all year round from morning to night, this house was never built, as she was told!
Every day, Sarah gave instructions to the engineer who was in charge of the construction, and said what would need to be done in a day. Moreover, there was no trace of any plan for the construction of a house, as is usually the case. All work was carried out in a completely chaotic manner. One room was attached to another, a staircase led from it to the third, then all this was connected to other parts of the house, which was replete with doors, behind which there were often blank walls, and countless stairs simply led "nowhere." In addition, there were long, curving corridors and endless enfilades of rooms, one after the other. Some of the bedrooms had fireplaces (and some for some reason did not?!), And there were 47 of them in total. Hatches also opened onto the roof of the house, which opened directly from the rooms, and there were also a great many false chimneys. Sarah, you see, believed that in this way she could deceive the ghosts if, according to the beliefs, it was through the pipes that they decided to enter her house. Outside, dozens of fire escapes were attached to the walls to escape the fire in the event of a fire.
This is how the construction went on, one floor was built on top of another, one wing was attached to another, and in different parts of the house the number of floors was also different, from one to seven. At the same time, the poor woman was simply obsessed with the number 13. There were 13 glasses in the colored windows, 13 sections in the parquet floors, the rooms had 13 panels on the walls, the stairs had 13 steps, and there were 13 domes on the roof of the building. The widow believed that in this way she could scare away the spirits of evil and deprive the strength of those people who intend to harm her. All day long she wandered completely alone in her strange house, where it was easy to get lost, and at night she played the piano. It seemed that in all this she found peace again, even if the construction of this ridiculous house became the meaning of her life. However, in 1906, a strong earthquake struck San Francisco, and Winchester House was almost completely destroyed. The top three floors in the seven-story wing collapsed and were never rebuilt.
The door to nowhere
And… work on the construction started again! Sarah got down to business as if nothing had happened. Now in the house and even outside, many mirrors were installed, since the hostess decided that the ghosts and spirits of evil for some reason were afraid of their reflection. Secret passages were built from one room to another, one could disappear in one room and suddenly suddenly appear in another. Sarah herself has gotten into the habit of putting on several dresses at once, one on top of the other, in order to change her appearance in a matter of moments. All this was to deceive the forces of evil, which, as Sarah believed, constantly persecuted her.
Sarah Winchester's house: top view.
However, not all Sarah was as crazy as she seemed. For example, she donated two million dollars to a hospital in Connecticut, and with this money a tuberculosis unit was built there, which is still working there. On her 40-hectare plot, she began to grow plums and apricots, which she then dried and sent to Europe (in the Santa Clara telephone directory, she was listed as "fruit trader Sarah Winchester" # M15). She brought gas to her house, then electricity, installed steam heating and sewerage in it, and even three elevators, and, moreover, the only one in the United States that has a horizontal drive. Although Sarah invested five and a half million dollars in this house, after the death of the mistress, he went under the hammer for only 135 thousand dollars and not one cent more. But the furniture was taken out of it for six whole weeks, and six trucks every day!
The interior of one of the rooms.
Sarah died on September 4, 1922, at the age of 83. She left all her property to her niece Francis Marriott, and she believed that a safe with the gold of the Winchester family was hidden in the house, but this safe was never found. The money was also less than expected, as Sarah spent a lot on the construction and improvement of her mansion.
Staircase against the ceiling.
Over time, the heirs of the Winchester family sold the house to a group of entrepreneurs who turned it into a tourist attraction. When they decided to draw up a plan for the house, it turned out that it was not so easy. At first, 148 rooms were counted in it, but each time they were counted, their number turned out to be different. They say that the location of the stairs and rooms is so confusing that even the people who participated in the construction sometimes got lost in them, as if in a labyrinth, and only with difficulty could find a way out.
The interior of one of the bedrooms.
Now the Winchester manor is a historical relic, and in the brochures it is reported that the exact number of rooms in it is unknown. Many believe, or pretend to believe, that ghosts live in it. Well, many people saw the ghost of Sarah there more than once. Two ministers who worked in this house swore that they saw in it and a ghost of a man in a suit in the fashion of the 19th century. Naturally, tourists come to this house in a stream, so that the estate brings a good income. Now Winchester House is a three-story mansion with about 160 rooms, 13 bathrooms, 6 kitchens, 40 staircases, as well as 2,000 doors, 450 doorways, 10,000 windows, and as many as 47 fireplaces.
There is only one photo of Sarah Winchester, as she has always diligently avoided photography, which, in her opinion, only attracts the forces of evil. A servant hiding in the bushes took a photo of her as she went for a walk in her carriage. Whether Mrs. Winchester herself saw this picture is unknown.
Sarah Winchester in a stroller.
One way or another, but she was completely sure of the existence of a curse that struck her family, and this is undoubtedly. But whether it was really revenge on the creator of a deadly weapon, or whether it ricocheted at the innocent, it is completely impossible to say. How, however, and find out who imposed this conspiracy or the result of what it became? Was it the action of many or of one person? Well, who, pray tell, is able to know the truth that is never known for certain ?! But the hard drives are very similar to those, because of which once it all started, are produced in the United States today, and their old models are extremely highly valued by collectors as a memory …
