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Being a new resident to Columbus Ohio, I was intrigued by a local legend surrounding the happenings and hauntings at Mooney Mansion. Where did this legend come from? Who were the Mooney's? Were they really murdered? I had to find out; I needed to know more.
Legend has it that in the 1950's Dr. Charles M. Mooney, a well known local ear nose and throat doctor, went mad in his older age and killed his wife and three children with an axe in the attic. Realizing what had happened and what he had done he took his own life by hanging himself from the bridge near his house.
At night a blue light glows in the window of the attic where Dr. Mooney killed his family, and if you drive under the bridge you can catch a glimpse of Dr. Mooney’s ghost hanging above. The ghosts of his children try to stop you from getting to close to the bridge so their Mad father does not get you!
As with many legends there are numerous variations of the Mooney story. Another story says that Dr. Mooney kills his family and buries them under a statue of his wife in the backyard where some say the statue bleeds on a full moon night. One in 1929 has a destitute Dr. Mooney who lost all of his money in the stock market, sinks into a deep depression and murdering his family and then taking his own life.
A particularly grizzly tale has him chopping off his wife’s head with an axe. This too causes the statue of Mrs. Mooney in the garden to bleed from the neck. I have also heard that Dr. Mooney hung his entire family from the nearby bridge ending with himself. They were found hanging days later by a passing car traveling under the bridge.
Walhalla Road is not typical of the roads found throughout the city of Columbus. You would think you were on a deprived country road winding through thick dark woods. There is a ravine running along one side of this one way road. Near the mansion the road passes under the Calumet Bridge. This is a dark and eerie place one would not want to be caught alone at night. The 3624 square foot Mansion was built in 1913 atop a hill above the Walhalla Ravine. Due to the thickness of the surrounding woods and despite the address it is not accessible from Walhalla Road.
Derrie L. Simpson-Mooney, Wife of Charles M. Mooney, purchased the Mansion from Elizabeth M. Sullivan on the 10th of September, 1944. This is all documented in public record. The family is real. The house is real. The time is right. Fortunately this is where the similarities of this horror story end.
The Mooney Mansion, a beautiful historic home and a vast
foreboding structure, is just another home which has fallen victim to years of twisting tales and local legends. The Mooney family to has been subjected to this terrifying tale which labeled their father as a maddened murderer. Still large old houses set within the woods atop a hill will always make for a good ghost story wont they?
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