The Sallie House
Eighteen Months of Documented Assault at 508 North Second Street, Atchison, Kansas
The house at 508 North Second Street in Atchison, Kansas was built between 1867 and 1871 for Michael C. Finney. The Finney family occupied the basement whilst the house was under construction. Michael Finney died in the house on 27 September 1872 at ten o’clock in the evening. He left behind his wife Kate, two sons named James and Charles, a daughter named Agnes, and an unborn son.
Dr. Charles C. Finney, Michael’s son, lived in the house. Charles graduated from Beaumont Medical College in 1894 with his medical degree and established his practice at the Martin Building at Fifth and Commercial Streets in Atchison. He worked as a surgeon for the Missouri Pacific Railway from 1894 to 1908. Charles Finney later served as mayor of Atchison from 1913 to 1916. Agnes Finney married William True in 1915. William True suffered a stroke whilst vacationing in Wyoming. Agnes brought him back to 508 North Second Street, where he died on 4 May 1918 at seven o’clock in the morning after three days of unconsciousness. Kate Finney died on 14 June 1918 at half past nine in the evening. Agnes Finney True lived in the house until her death on 28 November 1939 at midnight. Charles Finney died in Topeka in 1947.
From 1958 to 1990, Ethel Anderson lived at 508 North Second Street. Anderson maintained until her death in 2000 that she experienced no unusual phenomena during her thirty-two years of occupancy.
Tony and Debra Pickman moved into 508 North Second Street on 31 December 1992. The couple had recently married. Debra was pregnant. They rented the property on a month-to-month lease. According to Debra Pickman’s book Sallie House Haunting: A True Story, published by Llewellyn Publications in 2009, the first month or two passed without significant incident. Tony Pickman reported in later interviews that activity began gradually. The couple noticed lights dimming and flickering. Their dog barked and growled at the entrance to the nursery room repeatedly. The dog appeared to bark at empty air.
Their son Taylor was born in June 1993. Debra Pickman reported that Taylor woke every hour. She stated it was “as if someone was playing with him.” Neighbours began asking the Pickmans why they left the nursery lights on all night. Debra Pickman reported she turned the lights off each evening. The lights operated independently.
On 14 July 1993, Debra Pickman, Tony Pickman and Debra’s sister Karen went upstairs to the nursery. They found all the stuffed animals arranged in a perfect circle in the centre of the room. Tony Pickman accused Debra of playing a prank. She denied moving the toys. The Pickmans conducted an experiment. They returned the toys to their original positions and left the room. When they returned, a stuffed bear that had sat undisturbed on a chair for months had fallen to the floor. The circle formation repeated.
The couple would come downstairs in the morning to find photographs on the walls turned upside down. Tony Pickman reported this in a television interview. In at least one instance, the glass in a picture frame shattered.
Tony Pickman began receiving scratches on his body in July 1993. The scratches appeared on his arms, abdomen, chest and back. Many of the injuries drew blood. Debra Pickman photographed the wounds extensively. The scratches appeared whilst Tony slept and whilst he was awake. Tony Pickman reported the scratches produced a burning sensation. During one interview, Tony Pickman told a friend about the phenomena. As he spoke, a large bloody scratch appeared on his forehead whilst the friend watched. Debra Pickman and Taylor Pickman were never physically attacked.
On Halloween morning 1993, Tony Pickman reported seeing the apparition of a young girl in the kitchen. The sighting was vivid enough that Tony drew a sketch of what he saw.
Whilst napping on the sofa, Tony Pickman heard a woman’s voice say “Here’s your remote.” He opened his eyes to see an unseen force placing the television remote control on his chest.
Small fires began breaking out in the house. Debra attempted to address the entity directly, telling Sallie she had to stop as she could burn the house down. The fires continued. An oil lamp caught fire. A teddy bear ignited.
Tony’s brother George visited the house. George did not believe in ghosts. Tony showed him a stuffed bear that had reportedly turned on by itself. George suggested taking a photograph with it. Tony said “Sallie, if you’re here, say cheese” as he pressed the shutter button. George saw the bear turn around with his own eyes. George screamed. Tony ran upstairs to tell Debra. George attempted to follow but found he could not move. He reported feeling frozen in place. He attempted with all his will to move his muscles. Finally he regained control and ran upstairs. The couple decided to leave immediately with Taylor. As Tony tried to buckle Taylor into the car seat, he felt sudden pain on his back. At the family’s house, Tony inspected the source of the pain. He found three deep scratches that had drawn blood.
Objects moved without physical contact. Items were misplaced and later reappeared in strange locations. Tony Pickman’s work tools vanished and turned up days later in impossible places. Loud noises occurred. Objects were thrown. Furniture appeared to move or be dragged, though no one saw it happen. Unexplained thumps, thuds, knocks and scratches were heard. The couple experienced sudden temperature drops. Rooms grew icy cold. Electronic equipment malfunctioned. Batteries drained completely within minutes of installation. Cordless phones would go dead then suddenly work again. Candles lit themselves. Candles showed strange melting patterns and burnt finger marks. Debra and Tony reported seeing shadows. They reported feeling electrical shocks.
Tony Pickman reported experiencing dreams of being pulled out of bed by his wrist by a little girl. He woke to find red burn marks on his hand that appeared to be from a human hand. Tony Pickman reported that at one point he heard sounds like an animal scratching through walls, as if something was digging its way out.
The Pickmans contacted previous tenants to ask about their experiences. One former tenant reported that her five-year-old daughter had claimed to have an imaginary friend named Sallie. When the mother scolded her daughter for leaving toys scattered on the nursery floor, the child would respond “I didn’t do it, Sallie did it” or “Sallie told me to do it.” The former tenant also reported occasionally detecting a sour smell in the house that she could never identify the source of.
A psychic medium named Barbara Connor visited the house. Connor reported communicating with a spirit who identified herself as Sallie. Connor stated Sallie was approximately six years old. Sallie complained of stomach pain, pain in her hands and a toothache. Connor told the Pickmans that Sallie was harmless. She said Sallie did not like men and may have been abused by a man. Connor claimed Sallie had scratched Tony by accident out of anxiety about the family leaving. She advised the Pickmans to acknowledge and include Sallie rather than ignoring her.
Debra Pickman embraced this advice. She began talking to Sallie. She purchased a doll as a gift for Sallie and wrapped it specially. She placed the wrapped gift on a chair. She later found the doll unwrapped in Taylor’s cot. The wrapping paper and box remained undisturbed on the chair.
Tony Pickman reported experiencing periods of extreme negative thoughts whilst living in the house. He stated there was a time when he could not think of anything positive. He experienced homicidal urges directed at Debra. Tony reported hearing constant voices. The sleep deprivation and psychological pressure caused him to experience extreme emotions of anger and paranoia. He would black out completely. After one blackout session, Tony discovered he had killed a stray cat that had wandered into the home. He had used a butcher knife.
Word of the Pickmans’ experiences spread through paranormal research communities. The television programme Sightings, which aired on Fox, contacted the Pickmans requesting permission to document the phenomena. Tony Pickman, desperate for help, agreed. The programme visited the house four times in 1994. The crew brought expensive equipment. Sources report they used half a million dollars worth of investigative equipment. The investigation team included parapsychologist Kerry Gaynor and psychic medium Peter James.
Within minutes of setting up equipment to interview Tony, the camera crew observed scratches appearing on his body. The attacks occurred whilst cameras were recording. During one interview, Tony Pickman was holding Taylor. Debra was being interviewed. Tony suddenly screamed. Crew members examined him and found three bloody scratches on his arm. When Tony removed his shirt, fresh scratches were visible on his chest and back. The Sightings crew filmed scratches forming on Tony Pickman’s body in real time. Live cameras captured these incidents, showing the marks’ progression from faint redness to noticeable scratches resembling welts. Multiple witnesses present during filming signed statements attesting they observed the attacks occur with no physical contact from any person. During one Sightings visit, Tony Pickman’s shirt caught fire whilst crew members were present.
In Sightings episode number 50, which aired on 6 November 1994, psychic Peter James asked “Who is here in this house?” Tony Pickman felt a rush of cold air. He stepped back. He later lifted his shirt, which revealed scratched initials “MC” on his back. Investigators identified these as the initials of Michael Croman Finney, the house’s original owner who died there in 1872. The programme documented eleven separate attacks on Tony Pickman during their investigation. The lead investigator stated he had never witnessed anything comparable in his career.
After the Sightings crew left, a medium offered to cleanse the home of spirits. The Pickmans agreed to the cleansing. However, Debra requested that the medium allow Sallie’s spirit to remain. During the cleansing, Tony was attacked. He received eight of the deepest scratches he had experienced. The spirits appeared upset by the cleansing attempt. The voices Tony heard increased in frequency and intensity.
Tony Pickman reported seeing the spirit of Sallie morph into a demonic creature before his eyes. He also reported seeing a woman dressed in 1800s clothing multiple times in the house.
Taylor Pickman, still an infant, displayed unusual behaviour. Debra reported Taylor would laugh and babble when alone, as if playing with someone. He would track movement across empty rooms with his eyes, following something his parents could not see. Years after the family moved out, when Taylor was approximately eleven years old, Tony showed his daughter the sketch he had drawn of the girl he saw in the kitchen. Taylor identified the figure as her childhood friend from when the family lived in the house.
The Pickmans remained in the house despite escalating violence because they could not afford to leave. The month-to-month lease that had seemed advantageous created a financial trap. They could not afford to pay deposit on a new property whilst maintaining rent at 508 North Second Street.
Tony Pickman reported being lifted and pushed by an unseen force near the stairs. He later stated he feared for his safety after the entity tried to push him off an upstairs balcony.
The Pickmans left 508 North Second Street in October 1994. They had lived there for approximately twenty-two months. Tony Pickman experienced no further scratches after leaving the property.
The Sightings episodes about the house aired in the mid-1990s. The programme produced a series of episodes entitled “Haunted Heartland” over a period of one year. Paramount Pictures produced a made-for-television film in 2002 called Sightings: Heartland Ghost starring Beau Bridges, Nia Long and Miguel Ferrer. The house has subsequently been featured on numerous paranormal investigation programmes. A Haunting produced an episode about the case in 2006. Paranormal Witness aired an episode titled “The Harpy” in 2013. Ghost Adventures filmed at the location in 2015. BuzzFeed Unsolved: Supernatural featured the house twice, in 2016 and 2021. Television crews from The Travel Channel, Discovery Channel, SyFy and A&E have all filmed episodes documenting equipment failures, objects moving independently and unexplained cold spots at the property.
In 2015, during filming of Ghost Adventures, host Zak Bagans convinced Debra and Tony Pickman to return to the house. In the basement, Tony Pickman was burned on the back of his neck. He and Debra left the property immediately afterwards.
After the Pickmans moved out, subsequent owners discovered a pentagram painted on the basement floor. The pentagram has since been covered with black paint. Some sources report that a practitioner of Satanism lived in the house after the Pickmans and practiced animal sacrifice on the pentagram.
Since the Pickmans’ departure, visitors and investigators continue to report phenomena at 508 North Second Street. Andrea Clements from the Chamber of Commerce reported in October 2021 that she always gets a headache when in the house and a scratchy feeling in the back of her throat. Multiple trained guide dogs have refused to enter the nursery despite handlers’ commands. Rescue dogs have refused outright to enter certain rooms, particularly the nursery. Unexplained knocking sounds have been reported. Footsteps are heard from the basement when no one is present. Toys in the upstairs nursery turn on and make noises. Electronic Voice Phenomena have been captured on recording devices. The website thesalliehouse.com contains extensive EVP recordings. Cold spots and sudden temperature drops occur. Equipment malfunctions and battery drainage happen regularly. Visitors report being watched, touched or pushed by unseen hands. Visitors report being overcome with sudden waves of dread or debilitating energy. Shadow figures and full-bodied apparitions have been observed. Paranormal investigators filmed what appeared to be a full-body apparition of a woman descending stairs and vanishing near the bottom. Objects move independently. Items fly through the air. Objects disappear and reappear in different locations. Reports of ghost cats in the house that rub against visitors in the hallway have been made. One investigator suffered spontaneous burns on his legs whilst taking holy water down to the basement. Multiple investigators have stated they refuse to ever set foot in the house again. Male visitors report significantly more physical attacks than female visitors.
No historical evidence supports the existence of a child named Sallie who died at 508 North Second Street. Atchison death records from the relevant period contain no entry for a child named Sallie dying at the address or under Dr. Charles C. Finney’s care. Newspaper archives from the era contain no reports of such a death. The only documented person named Sallie in Atchison records from the relevant period is Sallie Isabel Hall. Hall was a thirty-four-year-old woman who died in 1905. She had been married for sixteen years and had given birth to fourteen children.
The legend claims that in the early 1900s, a mother brought her six-year-old daughter Sallie to Dr. Finney with severe abdominal pain. The legend states Finney diagnosed appendicitis and began emergency surgery, starting the procedure before anesthesia took full effect. According to the legend, Sallie died on the operating table. Her last conscious thought was that the doctor was torturing her. Historical research has found no substantial evidence that Dr. Charles C. Finney operated his medical practice from 508 North Second Street. By 1905, Atchison County had opened a hospital, reducing the likelihood of physicians performing emergency surgeries in private homes. Some researchers suggest the mayor of Atchison fabricated the Sallie story as a publicity stunt to attract visitors to the city.
Multiple psychics and sensitives who visited the property since the 1990s have independently reported sensing the presence of an angry young girl in the house.
The house at 508 North Second Street is now owned by the city of Atchison and operated as a paranormal tourism destination managed by the Atchison Chamber of Commerce. Visitors must sign liability waivers acknowledging the risk of personal injury before entering. Daytime self-guided tours cost twenty dollars per person for one hour. Overnight paranormal investigations are available, ranging from one hundred twenty-five dollars per person in November through August to one hundred fifty dollars per person in September and October. Overnight investigations run from three o’clock in the afternoon to nine o’clock in the morning with a two-person minimum. Visitors must bring sleeping bags as the house provides only utilities. No personal injuries have been officially reported since 1993. Hundreds of people visit the house each year.
Debra and Tony Pickman became paranormal researchers after their experience. They have appeared as featured speakers at various paranormal conferences throughout the Midwest. Debra Pickman blogged for the Topeka Capital-Journal. The couple continued to investigate the house until 2007. Debra Pickman kept journals documenting the chronology of events. These journals formed the basis of her 2009 book published by Llewellyn Publications. The Sightings programme captured footage of scratches forming in real time. Multiple crew members signed statements attesting to witnessing attacks with no physical contact from any person present.
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