The Sallie House: A Terrifying American Haunting

Debra and Tony Pickman were newlyweds, when they settled into their first home.

It seemed ideal, especially since Tony's brother Greg lived right next door.  But their idyll soon turned into a nightmare.

The strange happenings started gently enough.  The television and other electrical appliances would turn themselves on when no-one was in the room.  They blamed each other or faulty wiring.

Debra became pregnant and gave birth to a son, Taylor, and that was when things really flipped out of control.

While her sister was at the house for a visit, Tony ran upstairs to get something. Glancing into the baby's nursery, he spied a bizarre sight. Each of the teddy-bears had been taken from the shelves and placed into circles on the carpet. 

He called his wife and sister-in-law upstairs to see.  They were confused, but thought that maybe Greg had sneaked in to play a prank.  The teddies were put back onto the shelves and the trio started back downstairs.

They were halfway down, when Tony recalled that he still hadn't picked up the item that he had gone to fetch in the first place.  He dashed back up and stopped, stunned, outside the open nursery door.  The teddy-bears were back in their circles on the floor.

Still convinced that this was all somehow Greg's idea of a joke, Tony confronted his brother the following day.  Greg assured the couple that he had been out all night and that he would not just sneak into their home, not even for a brilliant prank.

Utterly skeptical of the notion of ghosts (which seemed the only other explanation), Greg grabbed Tony's camera.  He trained it upon a teddy bear sitting on a chair and challenged the spirits to move it.

They did.  The bear span on the spot, then fell from the chair.  Greg captured the movement on a still photograph.

Now spooked, Tony picked up his baby son and yelled at his wife and brother to get out.  They fled to the car, but were delayed by fastening Taylor into his car-seat.  While Greg stood white-faced and Debra started the engine rolling, Tony suddenly hissed in pain. He felt like he'd been stung.

It wasn't until the Pickman family had reached Tony's parents' home that the source of his discomfort was revealed. Three deep scratches had been gouged into his back.

This was all still child's play compared to what would happen over the next year. 

In June 1993, Barbara Connor became the first psychic invited into the home of Debra and Tony Pickman.  She was chosen because, as a Californian, she lived far away. The couple hadn't wanted to become the talk of their small Kansas town.

Barbara recounted an horrific tale, gleaned from what she saw and felt in the Pickman family home.

In 1906, the house had been both the living quarters and offices of Dr Charles Finney. (His father Michael had built it in 1871.)  One night, he was awoken by a desperate banging on the front door.

A young mother carried her small girl and one glance told the doctor that something was badly wrong.  He invited them in and rushed the child onto his consulting couch.  A short medical exploration revealed that she was suffering from appendicitis and she was close to death.

Dr Finney performed urgent surgery there and then, cutting into the girl with his scalpel.  The intervention was in vain and she died. So far so tragic, but the true horror came in the fact that he had used no anesthetic.

The little girl Sallie died in terror and in agony.  She is the ghost, who Barbara saw haunting the house.  She's carried her fear of officialdom into the spirit world; and she's coupled it with an hatred of men.

The Pickman family were stunned when a second psychic, Peter James, also spoke to a spirit girl named Sallie in their home. He stated that she was about seven years old.

Canadian medium Robbie Thomas wasn't convinced.  He was certain that there were child ghosts, including young girls, but he picked up different names.  His conclusion was that Sallie was the name of a doll belonging to one of them.

That there is a little girl in the house is not in doubt.  Every psychic passing through the door has picked up on her, while Tony Pickman actually saw her standing in his kitchen.

She is dressed in Edwardian clothes with a bow in her hair.  She can appear anywhere in the house.  Debra Pickman bought toys especially for this ghost to play with, in the hope that it would make the ghostly girl less possessive over the couple's baby son.

While most psychics refer to her as Sallie, Robbie Thomas believes that there are actually two girls.  They are Anna and Emily, and one of them owns a doll called Sallie. 

He also discerned a teenage boy, aged about 13 or 14, who had been locked in the walk-in closet in the master bedroom.  This boy's distress was obvious and there was a perceptible air of abuse around him.

More menacing is the presence of one or two adults.  Tony Pickman was lying in bed one morning, when the figure of a woman formed in the room. She charged towards him, one arm reaching out and seemed to say, 'I will hurt you!'  But disappeared before she could do any harm on that occasion.

During his time in the house, Tony was frequently attacked.  Sightings cameras caught deep scratches appearing all over his body. Some of them required stitches.

While some psychics attribute this to the malicious woman, others aren't so sure. They have sensed the cold presence of Dr Finney, who never flinched from cutting open a living and conscious child with his scalpel.  

Is he the source of the real evil that's been repeatedly sensed in the Sallie House?

Occasionally members of the public are allowed into the Sallie House, though some rooms may be viewed only from the threshold for the safety of those involved.  It may seem like over-caution, but for those who have experienced attacks in this house, the danger is very real.

Tony Pickman has received numerous lacerations there.  On another occasion, he was lifted bodily and thrown against a door.  It happened with so much force that his laced boots were left where he'd been standing.

A party of visitors in the house were once assaulted by flying house bricks, though none were missing from the walls.

Psychics have been slammed against the stairwell walls, as they've attempted to follow an adult ghost up the stairs.

The phenomena isn't even confined to the house.  A neighbor heard her three year old son screaming in utter panic. His window faced the Sallie House and he could see 'monsters'.  The same woman once peered through the windows of the deserted house, only to feel something unseen grab her from behind and turn her away.

508 North Second Street never belonged to the Pickman family.  They just rented it from a local policeman named Les Smith.  Skeptical of the stories now coming from it, he nevertheless signed a contract allowing the Sightings team to film in there.

Later on, he and fellow police officer Joe Butner drove past the house just to see what was going on. Three times they did that, and three times something killed their headlights or switched on the interior light of their truck.

A psychic later told them that the ghost just doesn't like the uniform, nor the fact that they are men.

Knowing all of this, would you dare visit?