Burning Down the House WINCHESTER AND THE TRUTH ABOUT GHOSTS
How can you tell a true story about ghosts when no-one knows for sure whether ghosts are real?
Winchester (The Spierig Brothers, 2018) is a film based on the true story of Sarah Winchester, the eccentric millionaire who spent a large part of both her life and her fortune constructing what is supposedly one of the most haunted properties in the world. According to legend, in addition to inheriting her fortune and a 50 per cent shareholding in the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, Sarah believed that she was also heir to the ghosts of anyone ever killed by a Winchester gun. Building the California house and endlessly renovating it until it became a sprawling maze, then, was said to be her way of offering amends – giving the lost souls somewhere to settle.
It’s hard now, over 100 years later, to separate fact from fiction. The truth is, no-one knows what Winchester’s true motivation was. Did supernatural belief guide her hand, or was she simply a wealthy woman interested in architecture? All that remains is the property she built – a sprawling mansion filled with strange details. Construction on the house took place continuously over almost four decades: rooms were demolished and rebuilt, wings shut off, and the turnover of staff and lack of a grand plan
