America's Scariest Homes, Hotels and Haunted Places

After the 1881 death of the owner of the Winchester firearms company, his widow, Sarah, used her huge inheritance to complete a home in San Jose. Until her death in 1922, she installed doors that went nowhere, stairs that led to the ceiling, secret rooms and other oddities, perhaps trying to escape the ghosts of those killed by Winchester guns. The Winchester Mystery House, as seen on Ghost Adventures, now features 160 rooms in a puzzling maze.

An entire family was murdered at a home in Amityville, now considered America's most haunted house. Later, another family bought the property but fled just 28 days later, claiming their children levitated from their beds and a sickly slime poured from the walls. A book and later a movie recounted these strange occurrences. This house in New Jersy served as a stand-in for the original, a private home that has been re-sold several times.

Who killed wealthy Andrew Borden and his wife with an axe in 1892? A jury set free the suspected murderer, their daughter, Lizzie. Still, an old rhyme pins the gruesome double homicide on her. After her trial, Lizzie sold the Victorian home, which is now a bed and breakfast and museum. Guests sometimes flee in the middle of the night after seeing doors open and close by themselves and watching shadowy figures climb the stairs.

Established in 1789, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is Louisiana's oldest and most haunted graveyard. Over 100,000 dead are buried in decaying crypts that lie in a confusing maze. Many report being pinched, scratched or shoved by the ghost of Marie Laveau, the city's Voodoo Queen during the 1800s. Others encounter ghosts from the Civil War and yellow fever epidemics. A licensed guide must accompany you if you tour the cemetery. Going alone wouldn't be a good idea, anyway.