![]() High brick walls and thick grottoes make it easy to get lost. The maze of walkways often lead to nowhere, or to cold stone meditation areas draped with poison oak. “It looks like seances go on pretty regularly around here,” Snyder said. High up on the hill was a large wooden cross with half-burned candles and strands of beads. Deeper into the gardens, mounds of candles were melted over a broken stone bench. In one cave, pentagrams and triangles were drawn on pillars in orange crayon. ![]() On a recent stroll through the labyrinth of stone bridges and pagodas, workers were cleaning up the three flights of stairs and empty waterfalls. “When I was a kid, I climbed around this place and heard it was haunted by Houdini-it was just something everyone knew,” said Rod Snyder, 42, who is now the real estate listing agent for the 3 1/2 acres for sale at $2.5 million. The spirit of the victim is said to frequent the grounds. Sightings of the lady in green lingerie stopped years ago, but some say they still see the tall dark man with suit and bow tie.Īnother legend about the grounds involves the son of a large department store magnate accused of throwing his lover off the balcony of the house in an argument. Tenants in the servants’ quarters in the back told Pearson how Houdini’s ghost wanders the grounds quietly. My experiences Across the Pond.a slightly skewed version of life by an American in the UK.Although there is little evidence that Houdini lived in the house, legends and believers abound. Here are some links with a bit more of the story: There was an acid casualty who called himself Robin Hood, who lived in a cave at the foot of the property. Deer, coyotes and owls lived safely in the middle of the city. Stone archways stood alone in a virtual jungle. It was a wonderful, atmospheric place: stone staircases swept up into nothing, choked with vines and hidden by trees. We met at an Iggy Pop concert in Florida, he took me to Peru for our honeymoon, and I left him a year after we married.Īnyway, we lived in this thirteen-acre estate in the Canyon, in what was the guesthouse/chauffeur’s quarters for Houdini’s mansion, which had burned down. He introduced me to Timothy Leary and many other people. Stephan was my first husband: twelve years older than I, very charismatic with a thousand and one fascinating stories to tell about famous people…Jim Morrison, Salvador Dali, you name it. ![]() Laurel Canyon, specifically, that high hilly backbone of greenery, old hippies, bikers and rich moviestars that sits high between Hollywood and the Valley on the other side. Lol…this, believe it or not, is the house that I use to live in, several lifetimes ago, in Los Angeles. Perhaps too… he is unsure as to just how to get back?” Haunted Hollywood. The magician always said that if it would be possible for him to come back, he would do so, and perhaps he has. Many believe that this shape is that of Houdini himself. Those who have come to the remains of the house, as many do on Halloween nights, claim to have seen a dark figure standing on the staircases or walking in the garden grotto. It stands abandoned, but perhaps not empty…you see, some say that the ghost of Houdini does not rest in peace and that he still walks where his beloved castle once stood. Silent stone staircases still led to grassy ledges on what is now private property. What remained of the place was only the walls of the old building, the chauffeur’s quarters and a portion of the garage. ![]() “On a dry day in 1959, a brush fire swept through Laurel Canyon and destroyed a number of the houses in the Hollywood hills.
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