AMERICAN MURDER HOUSES

Across America stand houses where horrible things have happened. Houses where crimes were committed, people were tortured, and bodies were stashed. Some were home to killers, others just the setting for their dastardly deeds. All have taken on a life beyond the crimes they are associated with to become tourist attractions, and destinations and stories in their own right. They are known as Murder Houses.

Murder Houses come in all shapes and sizes. From a Beverly Hills mansion to colonial houses in New England to a simple farmhouse in Kansas, these houses have stories to tell and secrets to reveal about what happened within their walls. In American Murder Houses, Steve Lehto recounts the dreadful true crimes that made these locations go down in infamy. He tells the stories behind the houses where Lizzie Borden, Ronald DeFeo Jr., and Lyle and Erik Menendez murdered their families and the now-demolished house where the Manson Family murdered Sharon Tate.

Lehto delves into the strange and twisted histories of The LaLaurie and Gardette-LaPrete Houses in New Orleans and the terrible events that transpired at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin. Lehto tells us the story that prompts people to pay to spend the night in the so-called Villisca Axe Murder House and the story of the murders at the Clutter farmhouse that so fascinated Truman Capote and inspired In Cold Blood. Including more than 20 different locations with photographs, American Murder Houses is a tour through the real estate of some of the most grisly and fascinating crimes in American history.

Steve Lehto is a writer and attorney. He has written several books, including Death’s Door: The Truth Behind Michigan’s Largest Mass Murder, Chrysler’s Turbine Car, and most recently, Drawn to Injustice with Timothy Masters.