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Heavily Investigated

Stand in the front rooms of the Sallie House long enough and something notices you back. Locals tell it this way: a little girl named Sallie died on a makeshift operating table here, the anesthesia not yet taking hold, fear the last thing she felt — and she never quite left. But investigators who've come away scratched and shaken warn that whatever moves through these rooms may be wearing a child's face like a costume. Objects fly. Flames kindle without cause. Tony Pickman, who rented the house in the '90s, left with bloody marks raked across his skin by something unseen.

Built between 1867 and 1871 by the Finney family of Atchison, the modest two-story home at 508 N. 2nd Street served, by some accounts, as a residence and medical practice for Dr. Charles Finney. The official record is spare; the legend fills the rest. The Pickman family moved in during 1992 and moved out not long after — rattled enough to go on television and tell anyone who'd listen. The house has sat largely vacant since, content, it seems, to let its reputation do the haunting.