As Halloween approaches, tourists visit a home with a gruesome past and tunnels said to be haunted

FALL RIVER, Mass. — FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — “Lizzie Borden grabbed an ax and gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.”

That rhyme has been passed down from generation to generation to describe the horror that took place in the Borden household in 1892. While not entirely accurate, the rhyme does reflect the enduring fascination some people have with the double murder in Fall River, Massachusetts, as they line up for a tour or even spend the night at the crime scene now known as Lizzie Borden House.

October has long been considered the spookiest month, and as Halloween approaches, many tourists find this the ideal time to visit a house with a gruesome past or descend into a darkened basement with a lantern in hand. Although there is no scientific evidence that houses are haunted or that ghosts exist, polls indicate that a third or more of Americans believe in such phenomena. For many others, the tours represent nothing more than a bit of hair-raising fun.

And there are plenty of smart entrepreneurs who know how to capitalize on the fear, mystery and wonder that has surrounded death since the dawn of humanity.

“I believe Lizzie did this,” tour guide Richard Sheridan tells a group of mesmerized tourists as he shows them on the floor of a bedroom a mannequin, splattered with fake blood, placed there to represent Borden’s murdered stepmother.

Borden was even tried and acquitted of the murders of her father, a wealthy investor, and her stepmother, despite the strong evidence against her. As a result, the murders remained officially unsolved, and the outcome only increased the fascination with the case.

Sheridan said he thinks the murders left behind an eeriness that still exists today.

“I’m convinced they left an imprint on the house. I guess it’s what you would call terrifying,” he said.

On the other side of the US, in Portland, Oregon, tourists walk down steep stairs to a cavernous basement in Old Town Chinatown. Once the site of a hotel, today it is home to a pizzeria and a brewery. The tourists are promised a lesson in Portland’s dark history and told stories about Nina, who is supposedly the underground ghost.

Portland’s history is certainly disturbing: men were kidnapped to work on ships, or tricked into working as sailors by unscrupulous operators who got them drunk or got them into debt. The practice became known as ‘Shanghaiing’, named after the Chinese port city where some ships went. Women were also trafficked for prostitution, and criminals smuggled opium and alcohol.

But whether these activities actually took place in the underground ‘Shanghai Tunnels’ that are the focus of the tour is less clear.

A local history buff, Joe Streckert, said no one has found any artifacts to support the theory. Even more mundanely, he said, some of the interconnecting cellars were used for storing merchandise.

“We don’t have any evidence that underground structures were part of Shanghai’s entire infrastructure,” said Streckert, who wrote a book on Portland’s history and once gave tours of Old Town.

But that doesn’t stop the excitement of tourists.

“I kept getting chills down my spine,” said tourist Kate Nelson, who added it was not the temperature. “You go down stairs, you go through tunnels, you go through places where other energies have been. .”

Tourist Drew Smith said he thought he saw something strange in a hole, and his camera kept going out of focus.

“It was trying to pick up something random in places where there was nothing,” he said.

And the mind? In a hushed voice, guide Natasha Cimmiyotti said in the dark basement, surrounded by tourists holding their lanterns, that Nina died there after falling down an elevator shaft.

“Whatever you think ghosts or spirits are, it is not for me to tell you,” Cimmiyotti said, adding with a sly smile, “There have been experiences here that, even as a healthy skeptic, I cannot tangibly explain.’

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Rush reported from Portland, Oregon, and Perry from Meredith, New Hampshire.