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There are many stories about the Hacker House and its location, but this part of the legend involves a quiet family who were simply looking for a better place to live...
For many years, Silas and Bess Hacker
operated a respectable funeral service for the community from his grandfather's
old mansion. With the help of Mr. and Mrs. Grimm, their butler and housekeeper,
they all lived together in the old family home for many years. But the
old family home was quite small, and showing a great deal of wear. Silas
remembered old tales from his grandmother about odd things that would happen
around the house and property, but dismissed them as just children's stories.
With growing prosperity and the imminent birth of their new baby, Silas and
Bess decided to build a new family home suitable to their position in the community.
They hired William Anderson, the respected architect, who had built many of
the finest homes in the area. Little did they know by that time, success
had taken a toll on William. In his travels, he had become obsessed with
the dark forces, and had begun experimenting with building designs that focused
the dark energies causing spirits to 'cross over' into our dimension.
He had become quite mad - and had found the perfect place.
Incidentally, in recent years,
Anderson's designs had become infamous throughout the psychic world - including
such residences now known as the haunting in Amityville and the case of Hill
House. Now, added to this notable list is
The Hacker House.
Until the birth of their son, Silas Jr., the Hacker's lives in their new home were pretty much uneventful. Thomas's birth changed all that. (Note: Silas Thomas Hacker was called Thomas growing up) As he grew up, old Silas began finding small animals, tortured, killed and dismembered. They began suspecting Thomas after they found their old house cat Maize, under his bed, mutilated and displayed as some sort of a trophy. Had the house begun to affect the family, or was Thomas himself the problem? Silas began obsessing about his son. He paced the parlor, night after night, wringing his hands. As time went on, Bess would find him talking to himself, fists clenched, wildly gesturing, a man possessed. She couldn't stop his behavior, even as it deteriorated.
Then one day, to their horror, the family's butler, Edward Grimm, reported finding most of little Tommy Jobe floating in the Hacker's fountain. To hide their shame and the crime, Grimm offered to bury little Tommy in the family cemetery beside the old homeplace, and keep Thomas out of sight. Knowing he had no choice, Silas sadly agreed. Grimm immediately chained Thomas in the basement - and never let him out again. Fed through a hole in the door, Thomas never saw the light of day or his family for many years. Silas and Bess were tormented by his screaming, moans and thrashing at the chains that kept him a prisoner. Who knows what terrors he saw in that basement as the house drew out the dark spirits in the madhouse known as Hacker House.
Silas and Bess tried to maintain an outwardly normal appearance, but as the years went by, the strain of those living at Hacker House began to be too much to bear. This place had taken a toll on Silas. He began researching obscure texts, searching for the dark powers that could resurrect little Tommy and put right the terrible things that had been happening. His interest led to tests, then to experimentation on his hapless clients. His horrendous experiments on the dead would have put him in the asylum - or the gallows - had be been caught, but Silas maintained a respectable demeanor with his customers even though he had lost his sanity some time earlier. He was nearly found out on one occasion, when one of his 'successful' experiments refused to remain quiet during the service. The family was quite distressed as the casket began to shake about. Silas was quick to remedy the situation, passing off the disturbance as an earth tremor, and the remainder of the service and the burial went as normal. But some claim to heard pitiful cries beneath the ground in the cemetery to this day.
One day while looking for a yard tool, old Silas found Grimm dismembering a stray dog in the tool shed. It was Grimm all along! He had been hiding this terrible secret from the Hackers for years - lying about it - while he kept their only son chained in the basement! Silas choked a scream, and picking up an ax handle, knocked Grimm unconscious and dragged him to the mortuary. He had completely snapped. He was muttering about justice, revenge and a new experimentation opportunity...
Wondering where he had gone, Bess found Silas sometime later that night working feverishly on a strange chair contraption. Refusing to speak to her, he was ranting about Thomas's torture. As much as she tried, he couldn't stop him. Then, among the tubes and wires she saw Grimm, strapped in the chair, connected to jars of fluid through tubes protruding out of bloody sutures in his arms, chest and legs - a gag muffling his screams. Frightened at what she saw, Bess went looking for Mrs. Grimm to help her. Bess found her in the kitchen preparing their dinner...
Unfortunately, Bess was the only sane person left in this madhouse. Liza Grimm had been twisted by the house for several years. She had become quite convinced the spirits were controlling herself and Edward, and anyone who took exception their will would surely suffer a terrible demise, and worse, a torturous afterlife. Apparently, she had been helping her husband with his "problem" all along, helping to hide his terrible secret. Knowing she had to do the spirits bidding, Liza quickly turned and dispatched Bess with a butcher knife - slowly - very slowly, methodically removing Bess's hands, feet, arms and legs. Then she took kitchen thread to sew the stumps closed slow the loss of blood and keep her alive a bit longer. It took sometime for Bess to finally expire from shock and loss of blood. Then, to follow the bidding of the spirits, Mrs. Grimm went looking for her husband - and Silas.
When Liza found her husband, he
was strapped in the chair Silas had built. He had several tubes pumping strange
fluids into his body, and through his heart that was in a jar beside the chair.
Silas, too, had succumbed to the will of the house. His knowledge of embalming
had taken an inventive twist. He had devised a most creative punishment for
Edward. Partially embalmed, yet still alive, Grimm was doomed to live
for hundreds of years, strapped to the chair, enduring an endless electrocution.
The batteries will last for a very long time, thought Silas. As Liza entered
the tool shed, Silas threw the switch! Grimm began screaming and writhing as
several hundred volts of electricity pulsed through his body. Silas watched
with a crazed grin as Edward was jolted time and again. Crazed with
fear, Liza struggled to free her husband with the still dripping knife - a big
mistake. Both of the Grimm's sizzled. It is hard to tell who was luckier. Mrs.
Grimm was quickly reduced to a smoking corpse as Edward watched, his eyelids
sewn open for all eternity. Exhausted and pleased
with himself, Silas locked the door to the Mortuary, and stumbled back
into kitchen - only to find the
dismembered remains
of his beautiful wife on the floor. He carefully carried his loving wife's torso
back into the Mortuary and placed her into a waiting coffin. Working his skill
one last time, he restored his wife's beauty as best he could. After locking
the Mortuary door for the last time, his last grip on reason left him, and he
ran screaming through the house.
Days days later, the Sheriff Ben Wolford and his deputies found the grisly scene in the kitchen. Blood spattered everywhere, and several body parts which appeared as if they were being prepared for a meal. While looking for the Hacker family and their caretakers, they found the basement door chopped open with an axe! Inside, the stench was unbearable. They found no one, just an old soiled mattress and blankets, some animal bones and shredded clothes and chains scattered about. The deputy searching the attic found old Silas hanging from one of the roof beams. He still had a terrible glare in his eyes. Bess, the Grimm's nor Thomas were never found. They had slipped away from our dimension, pulled into the world the house had created for them.
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