Welcome to West Palm Beach, Florida, where sits the old Riddle house, an Edwardian house that dates back to 1905.
Originally, this house was a funeral parlor – a creepy start, to be sure.
Photo credit left: flickr/paranormalpage right: flickr/andregovia
Updated 2/10/2020 – But if that weren’t creepy enough (and let’s face it, we can stand a little more creepy than that, right?) an employee of the man who originally owned the house – a fellow by the name of Joseph – is reputed to have hanged himself in the attic, the result of financial difficulties that finally came to a head.
The ghost of Joseph is said to haunt the house, and he is known to be violent, especially toward men.
The place is so creepy that it was once featured on the television show “Ghost Adventures.”
As with many houses which are reputedly haunted, the Riddle House has its fair share of strange vibes.
Cold spots appear and disappear throughout the house, there are lights which will sometimes go on and off, seemingly at random.
At times, some visitors to the historical house have claimed to hear music off in some other room, although in each case it always turns out that no music is being played.
And although there have been numerous reports of other ghosts – those who belonged, no doubt, to bodies which found themselves being dressed for the final time in the funereal rooms of the house before it was a house – it is the ghostly and ghastly figure of Joseph which most people fear.
“I’ve been attacked by ghosts before,” says Will G. – a ghost hunter with an impressive set of credentials.
He has, by his own account at least, stayed in over two hundred haunted locations overnight, and has conversed with over five hundred distinct spirits to his knowledge.
“The thing you always have to remember is that they can hurt you sometimes.
“That’s one reason why I don’t encourage the lay person to mess with them.” He laughs ruefully.
“People get this idea in their head that they can just grab up some digital gear and go ghost hunting, and that nothing bad could possibly happen to them.
“Well let me tell you, my encounter with Joseph alone is enough to prove that idea wrong.”
The Most Haunted House in West Palm Beach
Will continues, “We – that is, me and my little crew of experts – set up in the Riddle House one evening about three years ago.
Photo credit: flickr/andregovia
“We did all the usual stuff, took all the usual precautions, and we were there to have a good time, you know.
“Communicate with some folks.
“About halfway through, it was starting to look like we weren’t going to make any contact that night.
“All the dead folks were silent, you know?
“When all of a sudden, and I mean out of freakin’ nowhere man, this guy Joseph comes screaming from literally out of the woodwork.
“I could see through him, but he grabbed me just the same; I felt his hands around my throat as he screamed in my face to get out of here.
“I can tell you we left right that minute.”
Would you go back?
“Maybe,” he says. “but not without a priest.”