The Sallie House Haunting (The Heartland Ghost)

508 N. 2nd St., Atchison, Kansas. The house went up between 1867 and 1871, built by Michael C. Finney, probably for his son, Dr. Charles C. Finney. Tony and Debra Pickman moved in at the end of 1992 or in 1993. The sources disagree. Debra was pregnant.

It started within weeks. Lights dimmed. Electronics failed. Appliances switched on and off by themselves. Pictures turned upside down. Toys were scattered across the nursery. The dog growled at the nursery door, and the temperature dropped without warning. In summer 1993 Tony walked into the nursery and found stuffed bears arranged in a circle on the floor.

Then it grew darker. Candles ignited on their own. Objects seemed to float. Fires broke out more than once. Tony became the main target. A red welt rose on his stomach and began to bleed. Long, bloody scratches followed, building from faint redness to raised welts.

Halloween 1993. Tony saw a little girl staring at him from the kitchen. He drew her afterwards. A small girl, three or four years old, with a bow in her curly hair.

A psychic consulted by the family described two presences. Sallie, a child who played harmless pranks. And an older woman of about 30, who drove the malevolent events and set the couple against each other. The end came on the upper floor. Tony said an unseen force tried to push him off an upstairs balcony. The family left in 1994.

Fox's Sightings, hosted by Tim White, came to the house with psychic Peter James and parapsychologist Kerry Gaynor. During the 1994 filming, Tony's shirt caught fire and deep scratches appeared on his arms, back and stomach. The crew is said to have filmed a welt forming. The case aired as the "Heartland Ghost" from 11 September 1994, across at least seven segments through 1997.

In 2004 and 2005 Legends of America visited with Jerry Talbert. His 60-hour session recorded children singing, voices, footsteps, growls and whispers. He concluded the malevolent presence had left with the Pickmans. In July 2019 Dale Kaczmarek and the Ghost Research Society logged stick figures on an X-Cam device moving toward the stairs, and voice recordings including "Sallie" and "Atchison". Overall, a very quiet night.

No record shows a girl named Sallie living or dying on the property. The legend says Dr. Finney operated on a six-year-old with appendicitis around 1905, before the anaesthesia took effect. But he practised at Fifth and Commercial, and the floor plan does not suggest a medical practice. Debra Pickman rejects the backstories. The name came from an earlier tenant's daughter and her imaginary friend. Ethel Anderson, owner from 1958 to 1990, insisted the home was not haunted. One unconfirmed suggestion holds that a mayor invented the story for publicity. No source offers an explanation for Tony's scratches or the fires.

Showtime dramatised the case in 2002 as Sightings: Heartland Ghost. Debra Lyn Pickman published The Sallie House Haunting: A True Story in 2010. A Haunting, Paranormal Witness, Ghost Adventures and BuzzFeed Unsolved followed. Today the City of Atchison owns the Sallie House. Visitors sign a waiver and stay the night.