Tags
cater house, hooley haunted mansion, made up ghost stories, milan witch, nova house, oliver family missing, seph lawless
Nova House
Missing: A Haunted House or 2 or 3 or …
Self-proclaimed “Artivist” Seph Lawless, a pseudonym, has pulled the wool over the paranormal community’s eyes this month. Surprisingly, mainstream media took the bait and fell for it too. Most of the “haunted” houses Lawless photographed and published in his recent book 13: An American Horror Story (Artivist Publishing) are made up. False. Non-existent. “Take that, all you American paranormal suckers!” Seems the joke’s on us, my friends.
- Nova House, Youngstown, Ohio.
“Nova House Mystery” posted on Friday, November 7th, https://thehauntedlibrarian.com/2014/11/07/nova-house-mystery/, discusses the made-up story about a house in Youngstown, Ohio. Lawless claims that Benjamin Albright accidently shot and killed his son. Bereft with grief, Albright supposedly turned the gun on his wife and then himself. This tragic murder/suicide supposedly occurred in 1958. Problem is no one named Benjamin Albright died in Ohio in 1958. Nor was this person the father of a boy dying in 1958. Research pays off!
Since posting this blog, I received numerous comments and emails from people from the area who had never heard this story. Some even did some legwork and visited archives only to leave empty handed.
- Cater House Estates, Buffalo, New York.
Lawless penned a brief blurb for this photograph claiming that Sheriff Donald Caters shot himself to death in this house. In 1968 the home went into foreclosure and has been vacant since.
Several people have called this story false. Further, I cannot locate any information substantiating this story. Another piece of fiction.
- Oliver Family Mansion, Chester, Pennsylvania.
Lawless claims that the Oliver family went missing in 1898 and was never heard from again.
Nothing turned up on this story. Zilch.
- Milan Mansion, Milan, Ohio.
Lawless states that a known witch lived in this house and is possibly buried underneath the front door.
Again, I cannot locate any information supporting this story. Further, it is easy to prove with radar. However, the address for this home, like the others, is not available.
- Hooley Haunted Mansion, Texas.
Again, I located an electronic bulletin board asking for any information since no one has ever heard of this. My, my, my.
By now, I’m exhausted and disgusted at this juvenile attempt to fool the paranormal community.
I did not pay $99 for the book to see whether Lawless has a tightly drafted clause stating that the stories are for entertainment purposes only. However, he has portrayed these stories as true, when in fact, they are not. This is false advertising. Lawless is attempting to deceive readers and the media. This must stop. Poking fun at the paranormal community is abhorrent. Taking advantage of believers by misrepresenting the truth in order for financial gain is unlawful. The paranormal community should stand up and boycott this interloper. We should also ask those who regurgitated his press release if they actually viewed the book and conducted a little research. Just a little research would have caused a journalist to pause.
Shame on you, all you copy-and-paste “writers”! Do some research next time.
The Haunted Librarian 
Amen!
Thank you for this. I was intrigued by the Oliver Family reference. I went to Google to get a first-cut confirmation and was surprised to find exactly what you did … nothing. (Except a ton of links to variations of articles about the book and a link to THIS article.)
I was so disappointed when I found out that the stories were fabricated. With a little effort he could have had real stories. Thanks for commenting!
Unfortunately, Lawless, aka Joe Melendez, has a history of fabrication and outright lying when it suits his purpose. Many people have been taken in by his claims. And then he threatens people when they expose him.
I sure hope he doesn’t threaten people. That’s unprofessional and has legal ramifications. Sad.
Sadly, he does threaten people. The following is what happened when someone tried to correct something on his wiki page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents#Legal_Threat_at_Seph_Lawless
Given the massacre in Paris this week, I would hope that people understand the true impact of threats, especially those directed toward journalists, cartoonists, and bloggers. I take them very seriously. After these posts, I received a threat from someone attached to Seph Lawless. I did not approve the posting but have retained for legal purposes. Free speech is a foundation of discourse. I think it is immature, juvenile, and unprofessional that he would threaten people. Thanks for sharing.
I completely agree with you. And good call keeping it around.
(The person “attached” to Seph was probably Seph himself.)
It’s pretty well known that Lawless (aka Joseph Melendez) is a fraud. A lot of the houses in “13” actually appear in his first self-published book “Autopsy of America” under different names and locations.
The Brush Park house is actually called the Glover House and is located at 229 Edmund Place Detroit, MI. There have never been any bodies found in the building.
The Milan House is called the Mule House and is in Milan, Ohio. There’s no reports of a witch or witchcraft associated with the house.
The house that inspired the television show “American Horror Story” is the Rosenheim Mansion in California, not one in Hartford, CT.
I could keep going, but basically he made up a bunch of ghost stories to sell books, and if you say that he’ll threaten you.
Thank you for the comments and details on other houses. There are so many real stories out there. It’s a shame he continues to do this.
Thanks for clarifying! True and spot on about the media.
Note that you have to buy the book to learn that it is “fiction”. He misrepresents it everywhere.
I wanted to know more about some of the houses but every single page I found (besides this one) had the exact same pictures and same text, nothing more. I’m really sad about it, especially because I’m art student with an special interest in photography. It’s not like it would be impossible to find real creepy houses with great history, there was no need to make it up, not matter how great of a photographer he is.
Made me sad, too. Just another person trying to cash in on the popularity of the paranormal.
Looks like Seph Lawless/Joe Melendez is going to sue you guys for damages relating to this post. I’m not sure he understands how the law works.
“Seph Lawless Liz Walker Yea there was a small group of unqualified paranormal explorers that created a blog stating none of it was true because it wasn’t on google. It’s amazing that these people would be so close minded in a field of the paranormal…unfortunate. When the BBC News airs we are suing this blog for damages though. On principle and principle alone.”
Nor does he understand that I’m a lawyer who actually knows the law.
Having listened to numerous ghost tour guides in New Orleans tell tall tales that are supposedly true, I’m pretty sure the paranormal community is not going to stand up and say “no more lies about ghosts!” This would, I suspect, bring many paranormal publications and television shows to an abrupt end.
What an interesting comment! I hadn’t thought of it that way. I think that is why I rarely go on ghost tours. I don’t like the theatrics and exaggerations. I think the paranormal community should stand up against the scammers and con artists. Truth is stranger than fiction. Some of the real stories associated with historic locations are more terrifying than ghosts. Thanks for sharing!!
I know I’m late, but here’s another Lawless lie. He says this is serial killer Anthony Sowell’s house:
A quick Google Image search shows this house:
Just outright wrong.
I stumbled across slide show of the An American Horror Story and was super excited to find out more about these haunted stories I’d never heard of. Like many others, I started trying to research and came up empty handed. Very disappointing. Can’t believe his book of lies is still being publicized on what I thought was a credible news website.
Incredibly disappointing.
I grew up in Milan Ohio. The house used to be owned by a local judge. No stories of witchcraft. The house is on the corner of St Rt 113 and Berlin Street. It is starting to fall down