Home is where the heart is, as they say, and if you happen to be one of the people living within the house formerly used as American Horror Story's Season 1 "Murder House," then home is also where endless fan trespassing takes place. In fact, things are so bad for the current homeowners that they recently filed a lawsuit against the former owner and the brokerage company for not disclosing just how much attention the TV abode attracts.
Back in 2015, D. Ernst von Schwarz and Angela Oakenfold first bought the Rosenheim Mansion, located at 1120 Westchester Place, from seller Elizabeth Axelrod, with Coldwell Banker as the deal broker. According to The Real Deal, the fan mayhem started happening at the house soon after the home's purchase. (It was presumably happening regularly before that as well.) The lawsuit refers to the house as a "macabre tourist attraction," and notes that people are constantly trespassing, trying to break into the house, and being nuisances in other ways. The break-ins apparently happen on a weekly basis, and had von Schwarz and Oakenfold known about all these problems, they claim they would never gone through with buying the house.
It's claimed that neither the seller nor the brokers imparted any information about how much attention the house got from American Horror Story fans, and that they actually claimed the opposite, that there were zero neighborhood nuisances to bring up. As well, Ernst von Schwarz and Angela Oakenfold say that Elizabeth Axelrod failed to keep current with repairs needed to keep the Rosenheim Mansion's historic home status within Olympic Park, though she allegedly reaped the tax breaks provided by the status. (It's brought up that the seller and brokers also failed to report that the house actually is haunted by two ghosts, but it wasn't part of the lawsuit.)
For a bit of background, American Horror Story entered our lives in 2011 with the haunted Murder House and its myriad mysteries, with Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott caught in the fun. Lots of memorable franchise moments happened in that house, from the Infantata's introduction to all that rubber-suit mayhem, so it's relatively understandable why diehard American Horror Story fans would be overzealous about wanting to get an up-close look at the actual location where those moments were filmed. Of course, common sense and decency and respecting the law are all understandable reasons why those fans should mind their own business.
As the owners of the famed Breaking Bad house can attest, TV fans can be the worst people ever sometimes, especially if they have a pizza handy. The current Murder House owners, who recently had their first child together, are not planning to sell the mansion, though. They are, however, looking to get compensatory and punitive damages.
We'll hopefully see the grand Murder House returning in the future for the planned crossover season with Coven, but until then, we're waiting to find out more about the sci-fi-leaning Season 8. And until that happens, you can head to our midseason premiere schedule to see all the new and returning shows on the way.
