and this info people are giving is false.

I have never been to this house,but have met Maggie as she goes by now.She was just arrested in Arizona where she now lives.

I visited Glensheen just yesterday (March 25, 2007) during a weekend stay in Duluth. The weather was cold and damp with a thick, heavy fog – which added to the mysteriousness of the visit. I’ve toured the grounds before, but had never been inside the mansion. The house is beautiful, but the atmosphere is sad and empty.

I took the standard tour (which includes everything but the 3rd floor). The tour guide never mentioned the murders, but I was well aware of the tragedy. It’s a facinating story that seems to never end (you’ll see why below).

Here are the details: Elisabeth Congdon was murdered during the early morning of June 27, 1977; she was 83 and partly paralyzed. Also killed was nurse Velma Pietila, who had tried to defend her helpless charge. Officials charged that Marjorie Hagen (the adopted daughter of Elisabeth Congdon) and her then-husband, Roger Caldwell, planned the murders to speed up their inheritance. Elisabeth Congdon was the last surviving child of Duluth mining magnate Chester Congdon. Elisabeth never married, but she raised two adopted daughters in the 39-room Glensheen mansion on the shores of Lake Superior.

Roger Caldwell was convicted of the crimes. Hagen was charged but acquitted. She then married Wally Hagen, apparently without divorcing Caldwell. Bigamy charges were filed in North Dakota, but she was never tried.

In 1984 she was convicted of arson for burning down a house in Mound. After her release from a Minnesota prison, she and Hagen moved to Arizona.

In 1991, suspicious fires broke out in her neighborhood in Ajo, Ariz., and she was convicted again of arson.

On the day she was to be sent to prison for the Arizona arson, Wally Hagen mysteriously died in their home. Marjorie Hagen was charged with murder, but the charges were dropped because there was evidence that the couple may have comtemplated an abortive double suicide.

Ironically (and unbenownst to me during my tour), Marjorie was arrested on Friday (3/23/07) in Tucson, Ariz., on suspicion of theft, forgery, fraud and computer tampering. She has been living in Tucson since her release from an Arizona prison in 2004 after serving an 11-year term for arson.

During my tour of Glensheen, we stood on the landing of the staircase where the night nurse (Velma) was bludgeoned to death by Roger Caldwell with a brass candlestick. We also saw Elisabeth’s bedroom (where she lived as an adult — it’s the first room to the right of the staircase), where Roger smothered her with a pink satin pillow. No trace of the murders exist, and it was hard to imagine that it actually happened.

We also went into the billard room, where Caldwell said he entered the home through a window. The room smelled musty, just as he had described to investigators.

I didn’t experience anything paranormal until we were in the kitchen, when a closed door that leads to the basement opened on its own. We had been standing in the kitchen for a few minutes before the door mysteriously opened. The tour guide quickly shut the door and blew off the incident saying something like, “That door must not have been completely shut.”

Regardless of whether or not you believe in hauntings, the incident I experienced yesterday was odd to say the least. And the fact that it was so foggy outside added to the creepiness of the tour. And how ironic that Marjorie is now in trouble with the law again.

Despite all of this, I try to imagine Glensheen back in its hey day before the tragedy struck, when the halls were full of life and laughter. If only those walls could talk.

I think all these postings are really interesting. I was a tour guide at Glensheen about a year ago and worked there for a couple years. I have been in the house hundreds of times, in the dark, during thunderstorms, and with only one other person there. It is a creepy house, but just because it is dark and old not because it is haunted. Some people have stories to tell. But anytime someone hears about a murder, stories will start.

Check out the movie “you’ll like my mother” . This was filmed at Glennsheen a couple of years before the murders. It’s a creepy movie about a woman (Patty Duke) who shows up at the Mansion to meet her deceased
husbands mother and let her know she is pregnant with the sole heir to the mansions fortune. Every thing goes downhill for Ms. Duke from there. It is quit Eerie a film considering what happened just a couple years after it’s filming. It is also amazing how they make the mansion appear to be so far from civilization.

i loved this place it was very cool and when you go in when you are going up the stairs to the second level it feels like you are going to fall down the stairs but you will not and the glass that is right on the stair in the window and it will turn colors and it is very cool so i would like veryone to go to the place.

I thought the nurse and old lady were killed by the daughter, not a lover?

Okay this story isnt right trust me and you cant go on the 3rd floor b/c to many weird things happen up there….a butler or tour guide i think it was was thrown from the top of the stairs early one morning a couple years ago and like if you go up there weird happenings just get to you! so its gated off and no one that works there even goes up there….the place is cary always has fog around it….it seems always in winter you get chills going up your spine as you pass by in the car….atleast thats wut everyone on our class trip thought as we passed by the house theres more then meets the eye

‘you cant go on the 3rd floor b/c to many weird things happen up there….’

WRONG! I’m a docent there and take people on the “expanded” tour all the time. We go to the third floor and attic. Only ten people can be on those floors at one time due to lack of fire escapes. If and when we get more escapes, we’ll have even more tours on those floors.

I discuss the murders briefly, and will go into detail after my tour (on an informal basis). I don’t like to say much if there are children on my tour.

See you at the mansion–it’s fantastic!

“I thought the nurse and old lady were killed by the daughter, not a lover?”

They were killed by the daughter’s son-in-law. There is much more to this story. If anyone is interested, get to your library and check out “Will to Murder.” It is fantastic and unbelievable–except that it’s all true.

I do believe that Glensheen is haunted.I took a tour in the summer of 2007 with my mom and step dad and tour guide said that we couldnt go up to the 3rd floor because it wasnt safe. and in the basement there were a lot of cold spots.also when we were going up and down the stairs in the house, i was the last one going up, and i did hear footsteps behind me but there was no one there.

once i went to this mansion called the glensheen mansion and i had to go to the bathroom and i walked in there was this woman in a white dress and she said my name i was so freaked out by it that i peed in my pants.the tour guide thought i was a freak.

Dude’s this sounds like a load of bullshit.

Being in a haunted house is nothing like you people describe it.

My best friend who is 30 years old has actually been in a real haunted house.
When he was about my age of 19, his friend knwe a man who owned this old house. He was a strongly religious person. Anyway my mate and his buddy Thought that this was a load of bullshit and they went to check it out. My friend said he walked through the house, in a very skeptical manner experienced nothing weird until his friend phoned him on the moblie and told him to check on the bathroom. My friend insisted on how skeptical he is of these things. After he recieved the call he thought it was **** and charged in to the bathroom like he was going to knock some ******* out. He said he got about one step into their and he could not go futher, as if something really didnt want him there. He described it like walking into a heavy curtain and no matter how hard he tried he could not walk fully into the room. He phoned his buddy afterwards and said “lets get out of this ****** house, this place is fucked up!”. He got on his bike with his mate and rode like nutters.

I visited the Glensheen home on 07/09/07
and found it to be very interesting and beautiful
alot of history was learned on it’s construction
I personally brought up the murder to our guide
in the room were elizabeth was killed in her bed
(smuthered with a pillow) and my guide was very
open about it and explained the the story about
the double homocide with no problems.
I felt no cold feelings in the home at all, the
stairways weren’t cold, the all white tile masterbath was a little freaky,third floor is open for viewing
it had to be repaired due to water damage from roof
I highly recommend it!

My boyfriend and I visited the mansion on 7/8/07 and loved it. Yes,I have been very interested about the murders since I can remember. I grew up going on family vacations to Two Harbors,MN since I was weeks old.We would pass the mansion on London Road even before the murders took place. Ive felt a sadness when I have visited the estate (only twice). However, it was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen in my life. I would highly recommend to anyone.I think their souls have moved on. BUT I GUESS THATS UP TO YOU!

I was at the glensheen mansion last tuesday, and it was the scariest place i have ever been to in my entire life. there were dolls in the girls room that were following me with their eyes and i left that room kinda creeped out because i didn’t know that the place was haunted at the time. But when i turned the corner a lady that looked like a maid or a housekeeper looked at me and just stared, she had the look of being scared in her eyes, but i don’t know what reason she would have to be afraid of me, i was absolutely terrifed. i went downstairs to tell my parents and they didn’t beleive me because i pull a lot of practical jokes. I then went to my sister to see if she would beleive me and she actually did. she wanted to leave the place right away after i told her my story. We left soon after that, but it was still the most terrifying experience i have ever had.

You should really stop saying a bunch of **** that place isnt hunted and there deffinitly isnt cold spots all over the place, maybe there is because its an old house. And Brad ur story was so made up dolls follow your eyes everywhere, or your just cyco. But i went there and all there was to see was just a regular mansion. I thought it was so cool!!!

And i have a thought why dont you guys actully read the book behind the murders insted of hearing rumors about that place. Because its all a load of ****.

I am a docent at the mansion. In fact, maybe some of you have been on my tours!

First, there are two paintings in the house which were painted in the style where the “eyes follow you.” That’s not unique to Glensheen and it doesn’t mean there is a ghost there. It means the artists did a good job.

Second, the third floor and attic are not “unsafe.” We only allow ten people per tour on those floors simply because we only have one staircase as a fire exit. If we can get another fire escape somehow, then we’ll open the floor up for more people.

Third, if you feel cold spots it’s probably from the fans around the house or maybe drafty 100-year-old windows. The basement is probably 10º colder than the rest of the house, which is typical in Duluth.

Four, if you saw a ghost in the public bathroom, I will be surprised. There is nothing remotely scary about the bathroom. And the other bathrooms on the grounds are portable “Sani-huts”–so if you see ghosts in them, that’s definitely weird.

I was about 8-9 years old when my family and my parents friends (family) went to the Glensheen mansion. The whole time I was walking through I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching us. There was definatly a feeling of a unseen precense there. Then when we were out in the Garden I still had the feeling someone was watching and when I looked back and up in the room over looking the garden I could swear there was someone looking out. I even saw the curtin move and I know no one was in there for we were all outside. But the lady I saw was a younger lady dressed in clothes from like the 1800’s and she had her hair all up in alose bun as they would back then. Just was very creepy though I never told anyone about this until recently for I knew no one would believe me.

when i visited the mansion nothing happened. so i think you are all making it up.