William G. Krejci - Haunted Franklin Castle

Published by Haunted America

A Division of The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2017 by William G. Krejci and John W. Myers

All rights reserved

First published 2017

e-book edition 2017

ISBN 978.1.43966.274.8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017940928

print edition ISBN 978.1.46713.743.0

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the authors or The History Press. The authors and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to thank their families and friends for the support they received while undertaking this lengthy project. A special debt of gratitude is extended to the following for their priceless contributions:

Kitty and Pascal with Oh Dear! Productions, LLC; Tim and Cori Walkden; Dora L. Wiebenson; Carl and Kari Tiedemann; Laurel Stanley; Anne Hammond; Carla and Art Branscomb; Krista Slavicek, Ben Gibson and Abigail Fleming with The History Press; Jim Dubelko; Ingo Brockmann; Cristine Bayly; Duncan B. Gardener; Michael Gaines; P. James Weideman; Mark Benbow; Elsie Ruhrkraut; Bob Ward; Gary Krueger; Elizabeth Horn; the Romano and Ocheltree families; Rachel Cisar; Doreen Lazarus; Lois Carelli; Connie Fleming; Elizabeth Colton; Helen Mirceta and family; Rick Perez; Kimberly Grimm; Robert Kokai and Allen Christopher; Louise Viola; Michelle Heimburger; Charles Cassady; Toni Geib; Michael OMalley; Chuck Gove and Beth Richards with Haunted Cleveland Tours; Tim Barrett; Bill Byler and Cherokee Construction; Mary Levtzow; George and Mary Krejci; the Riverside Cemetery Association; the Cuyahoga County Archives; the Brooklyn Historical Society; the Western Reserve Historical Society; and the Ohio Historical Society.

ONCE UPON A TIME

Many of us have read this story before, either while browsing the newspapers around Halloween or looking through books on local hauntings. Perhaps weve found ourselves driving through the Ohio City neighborhood on Clevelands west side and have caught ourselves admiring the many Victorian-era structures. Suddenly, we see a large and ominous sandstone home at the intersection of West 44th Street and Franklin Boulevard. It strikes us as very odd and out of place. We suddenly realize that this is the house weve read so much about. This is the legendary Franklin Castle.

Every time the story of the Franklin Castle has been told, it seems something new has been added to the legend. Still, the base tale is the same. When hearing the story, one conjures images of Shirley Jacksons The Haunting of Hill House. All the great gothic elements are in place for the perfect ghost story: a monstrous patriarch, incest, suicide, insanity, infanticide and murder. Later stories tell of Nazi spying and mass executions. For those unfamiliar with the legend of the Franklin Castle, it goes like this:

Back in 1860, a rich German immigrant named Hannes Tiedemann and his wife, Louise, built a large home on Franklin Boulevard in Cleveland. The Tiedemanns spared no expense building their home. Mr. Tiedemann, a bank executive, presided over his business with an iron fist. It was rumored that he governed his family in much the same way. In 1881, his daughter Emma died from diabetes, though it was whispered she was actually murdered by her abusive father. Stories also say that Emma was possibly insane or promiscuoussometimes one in the same back in those days. Two months later, Hannes Tiedemanns aged mother, Wiebeka, died at the Franklin Castle, likely of a broken heart.

In 1883, tragedy struck the family again with the deaths of three more children. All died within a week of one another and were buried at the family plot at Riverside Cemetery. It was whispered that Hannes had a hand in their demise. To deal with the grief, Louise busied herself by remodeling their homeadding secret passages, a turret and a ballroom on the fourth floorand even had her childrens faces carved in stone and placed as guardians to watch over the front entrance. The house now resembled a castle.

During that time, Hannes Tiedemann took a mistress. Rachel, a servant girl in the house, became the object of Mr. Tiedemanns affections. She remained so until another beau entered the picture. She and her new gentleman suitor were soon engaged, and on the day of her wedding, Rachel made the mistake of refusing Tiedemanns advances. This she paid for with her life. Legend says that Hannes Tiedemann strangled her in a secret passage that surrounds the ballroom but made it look like a suicidal hanging.

Another story relates that Hannes Tiedemann caught his niece, a girl named Karen, in bed with his grandson. In a fit of rage, he drew a gun and shot the girl dead. This, too, he made to look like a suicide.

In 1895, Louise Tiedemann drank herself to death. Within the year, Hannes Tiedemann returned to Germany, became reacquainted with a waitress named Henriette and returned with her as his new bride. He abruptly sold the Franklin Castle and moved with Henriette to an identical home hed built in Lakewood. The new marriage was a disaster, and Henriette divorced the overbearing man, leaving him to spend his remaining years alone. Shed inherit nothing from his estate.

In 1906, Hannes Tiedemanns last surviving child, a son named August, died, leaving him without any heirs. Two years later, while walking in the park one Sunday morning in January, Hannes Tiedemann suddenly dropped dead. His death was from a stroke, but many suspected it was the hand of God himself that stuck down Hannes Tiedemann for the wicked deeds hed committed in his long, horrible life.

The next owner of the Franklin Castle was a brewer from Buffalo named Muehlhauser. He rented the house to his widowed sister and her children, who lived there until 1921, when they sold it to the German Socialist Party.

During this next period, many wild stories emerged. Tales were told of Nazi spying during World War II and a giant radio antenna being placed atop the turret. Other stories told of illegal liquor production, rumrunning during Prohibition and a mass execution, with dozens gunned down in a secret room. Word also began to spread about hidden tunnels being discovered in the house. It was believed these tunnels were remnants of the Underground Railroad and were being used for smuggling liquor. The socialists owned the house until 1967, when it was sold to the Romano family.

Mrs. Romano and her husband purchased the house with the intention of turning it into a restaurantthough these hopes were soon dashed. On the day they moved in, two of the Romano children came down from the third floor and asked their mother if they could have a cookie for their friend, the little girl in white, who was crying upstairs. When Mrs. Romano investigated, she found nobody there.

Within a few weeks, the Romanos began noticing many more unusual events in the house. Objects moved around on their own, voices echoed from empty rooms and footsteps were heard running back and forth across the ballroom floor. Just two weeks after moving in, Mrs. Romanos two grown sons from a previous marriage awoke one night when the blankets were ripped from their beds. They moved out the following day.