The Demon of Brownsville Road

Bob Cranmer, a former Allegheny County Commissioner, bought in 1988, what he thought would be his family’s dream home . . .

Grand Oaks Manor

This house, just outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was huge, in good shape for its age, and the right price.

But the family quickly regretted this purchase.

During the walk-through as Bob, his wife, Lesa, and their four children inspected their new home they found their youngest son sitting on the staircase crying hysterically.

They never discovered why.

Bob Cranmer

At first, unusual activities like faucets, radios, and lights turning off and on, didn’t bother Bob. He brushed it off--it must be just old plumbing and wiring.

But then other strange things began to happen.

Members of the family began to wake up with unexplained scratch and bite marks on their legs. At night they heard loud pounding on the walls.

Mysterious footsteps where heard in the hallway and members of the family were either tripped or pushed by invisible hands.

The family began to avoid one room in the house, known as the Blue Room, because of a shadowy, dark figure that they had seen and sensed was evil. This figure was always accompanied by a “rotting smell.”

The home's living room.

Members of the family began to wear crosses for protection. These often would be found bent, broken in two, and some were flung across the room.

Bob did research about the history of the home and discovered it had a violent past.

The property it sat upon was the site of a 1700 massacre. Native Americans had killed a group of white settlers.

In 1909, the builder of the home had become so disturbed by what he felt was haunting the area that he “cursed the house.”

In the 1920s and 30s, a doctor rented a room in the home. It was believed he performed hundreds of abortions in this space.

By 2003, this evil presence drove Bob’s wife and two of his sons into temporary insanity. All three spent time in psychiatric wards.

After living in the home for 18 years, in 2006, the family decided to fight back.

Bob spent months reading Bible verses out loud each night despite the fact bite and scratch marks continued to appear on his body.

He brought in a demonologist, who felt the activity centered in one closet in the home. When a wall was torn down in this area, items belonging to previous owners, plus Bob’s family, were discovered.

The items all had scribbling on the back, with hateful, mean things written about each object’s owner.

Cranmer's Book

A local priest then performed an exorcism.

Bob, who still lives at Grand Oaks, feels this worked, for there has been no further demonic activity in the home.

In his book, The Demon of Brownsville Road, Bob shares more details about this story.

Culp’s Ghost: Haunted Death Row

The old Allegheny County Prison in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania became famous in 1907 when the New York Times published a short article entitled, Murderers Saw A Ghost.

According to this piece prisoners housed in the jail’s “Murderers Row” or Death Row, were complaining that a prisoner that had committed suicide was keeping them awake at night.

Old Allegheny Jail

The Allegheny County Jail, like many of its counterparts of the time, is an impressive structure. Henry Richardson, a Boston architect, designed the prison in the 1880s. It took five years to complete, and cost 2 million dollars.

This fortress is a mixture of Syrian arches, French Gothic dormer windows, French Renaissance roofs, and Byzantine columns. Turrets and arches rise 300 feet above the prison’s massive walls. Today it is a National Historic Landmark.

A centerpiece of this design is a Courthouse tower, that is connected to the jail by a Renaissance footbridge dubbed the “Bridge of Sighs.”

This old-world atmosphere is the perfect setting for a haunting.

According to the Times article W. A. Culp was awaiting trial for the murder of his brother, in a cell on Death Row, in 1907, when guilt overcame him, and he took his own life.

At this time, there were 14 other men being held on Death Row in the Allegheny jail. Shortly after Culp’s death, these men began to complain that they were being kept awake all night.

They stated the cause for this was Culp’s ghost. He was visiting them in the row each night and keeping them awake until daybreak when his spirit would then disappear.

At first, their complaints were ignored but these men were so vehement about this ghostly harassment, that the warden at the time—a man by the name of Lewis was forced to move all 14 prisoners to another part of the jail.

This evidently worked for Culp’s ghost then left these men alone.

The article relaying this information was published in the New York Times newspaper on September 15, 1907, as an exclusive. It can be read here.

Another article published in the Times also focuses upon a haunting. This ghostly activity happened in Sag Harbor in 1895—it can be read here.