What would you say is the worst sign of a haunted house? Flickering lights? Moving objects? A spooky ghost? How about when the walls begin to bleed? It’s at that point, myself, I’d probably consider moving.
Now, you may think bleeding walls are a bit too out there, something that exists only in fiction. 1979’s The Amityville Horror, for example, features such a phenomenon, but even that movie embellished the allegedly “real” events to make things more dramatic. In the actual account from 1975, the walls reportedly oozed a green goo, not blood.
However, as with most ventures into the strange and unusual, you’d be surprised at what you find. If these stories are to be believed, bleeding walls do exist. And some of them are completely confirmed, though perhaps not paranormal in nature.
Oozing from the Other Side
Let’s be honest, though: the paranormal is what we’re here for. Look and you shall find tales of bleeding buildings associated with paranormal activity. Buildings like:
The Tallmann House
In the case of the haunted Tallmann House, residents of an ordinary home in Horicon, Wisconsin found themselves the victims of a very strange thing indeed: a haunted bunk bed. According to Cult of Weird, in 1988, this family suffered through nine months of intense paranormal activity after purchasing a used bunk bed, including spectral apparitions. They ultimately fled their home, but not before rumors of even stranger things – including bleeding walls – spread throughout their neighborhood.
Maryknoll Seminary
Since knocked down, legend has it the Maryknoll Seminary in Illinois was once haunted by the spirit of a monk. According to The Shadowlands, he hung himself in the bell tower. After his death, along with unexplained noises, there were reports of fresh blood oozing down the tower’s exterior.
The House on Brownsville Road
A Pittsburgh family was allegedly tormented by a demonic entity, known as the Demon of Brownsville Road. They reported bleeding walls, among other things.
The San Pedro Haunting
A family in San Pedro, California experienced what they believed to be a particularly violent poltergeist. Physical attacks, and even an attempted hanging, are just two of the more extreme phenomena they suffered back in the late 1980s. Relevant to our interests here, they also encountered a mysterious red ooze that seemed to drip down from their cupboards and other places. It was later reportedly confirmed to be human blood plasma.
Horror at the Winston House
Perhaps the strangest incident involving bleeding walls occurred at the Winston House, also in the late 1980s (it was a time for bleeding walls, I guess).
In the September 11, 1987 issue of The Register-Guard newspaper, there appeared the curious headline ‘Bleeding’ house besieged.
It told the story of William and Minnie Winston, aged 79 and 77 respectively, who contacted police after discovering blood throughout their home. According to the Register-Guard, they “reported finding blood on the floors and walls of the house they [had] rented for 22 years. Lab tests…confirmed it was human blood.”
However, it was type O blood. The Winstons were type A.
Millie Winston made first contact with the mysterious pools of blood after stepping out of her bathtub on September 8, 1987. After investigating, police would later find blood in “the bathroom, kitchen, living room, bedroom, and halls.” Nearly everywhere. And yet no explanation for its existence could be found.
The story would also appear in the New York Times. And, believe it or not, it remains a mystery.
Macabre Matters
These cases are all interesting, but the truth is, paranormal or not, having anything ooze out of your wall is troubling, to say the least.
Sometimes, a mysterious goo has an ordinary explanation: surfactant leaching. This happens when humidity causes paint ingredients to drip down your wall. Fairly normal. But other times, the cause is far more grisly. Say, a decomposing body.
As the Daily News reported in 2015, an Oklahoma man discovered his kitchen wall bleeding, much to his dismay. When police arrived to investigate, they discovered the terrible truth: his upstairs neighbor had died of natural causes, hit their head, and their blood had oozed down to the apartment below.
