Sarah

Sarah Pardee Winchester grew up in New Haven, Connecticut where she married William W. Winchester, son of the entrepreneur who founded the Winchester rifle company, which became the largest gun company in the world. At its peak, many members of the Winchester family started dying: Sarahs sister-in-law, her only child, her father-in-law, and finally, her husband. Because of the succession, Sarah found herself heir to the Winchester fortune. And because her lifespan exactly coincided with the popularity of Spiritualism, Sarah went to a medium in Boston who told her that evil spirits, killed by Winchester rifles, were murdering her family in revenge. Given advice to thwart them, she moved to San Jose, California becoming an early feminist and creating a new life for herself: one of eccentricity, romance, and intrigue, while overcoming powerful forces against her. Because of her beliefs, she truly felt that evil spirits surrounded her. Her fame drew a Victorian version of paparazzi, one of which nearly killed her. She battled behind the scenes with Theodore Roosevelt and local hypocrites; and was buried alive in the 1906 San Andreas Earthquake. Even with all of this, she remained kind-hearted and sane. Her home remains today as one of the largest Victorian mansions ever built.