On Laurel Canyon Blvd, in the Hollywood Hills above Los Angeles, stands the ruins of a very large house built in the early 1900s. I first learned of it in high school in the 1980s, and was told that it was "Houdini's Castle"
My story begins on one dark and stormy October night, after playing in a football game at our Catholic high school. Like all Friday Nights, the question on everyone's mind was where was the post-game party. After I don't know how many beers later, the decision was made to head somewhere else, and since were already in the Hollywood Hills, I asked my friend Paul if he had ever heard of Houdini's Castle. He hadn't, so off we went.
I drove the windy Laurel Canyon road, with rain coming down and patches of fog along where it crosses Mulholland Highway. We descended the hill toward Hollywood, until we came to the fenced in property where the estate ruins lay. I always wondered what the point of a chain link fence around the property line served, when there was always a hole cut where the narow driveway up the hill used to be.
I stopped and looked at Paul, who was drinking a Bud Light, if he wanted to go up the driveway, and he said, go right ahead. We started to proceed up the driveway, which was covered in leaves and twigs, when he noticed some of the grottos and staircases appearing in the headlights as we drove up. As we eased up to the main drive...the wind and rain were blowing the trees all around -- it was definitely spooky, when all of a sudden...
I looked in the rear view mirror, and saw someone dressed in old clothes walking up the drive behind us, carrying what appeared to be a World War I trench gun. I thought "Oh Sh**", put the truck in reverse and backed through the person, and down the hill.
When I got to the bottom of the hill I did j turn and sped the heck out of there. My buddy said, "What the heck was that? It went through the cab of the truck!"
The next day at Saturday practice, we told some of our teammates, who laughed at us saying we were full of it, but we both know what we saw, and both never went back.
I am told that the 5 acre property was finally sold for $4 million in early 2004, and that an 11,000 square foot house was built on it, but that the owners have left, because they think it is haunted....