Haunted Inn in Stottsville

The same article that mentioned the bodies buried on the Cult House property also talked briefly about an earlier murder, that of another thief named Gary Crouch. Apparently, Mr. Crouch upset someone connected to the Johnston gang back in 1977 and ended up planted near the Stottsville Inn in western Chester County. Since the Stottsville Inn already has its share of ghost stories, he may not have been noticed.

Sitting along the Strasburg Road in Pomeroy, the Inn enjoys a fine reputation as a country restaurant and it doesn't appear to have been harmed any for having a few ghosts. As the story goes, a young woman named Josephine was murdered in her room by her husband Horace, who then killed himself. Near the front entrance there is a picture frame on a wall with a reproduction of Horace's suicide note which reads cryptically, "I love, love, love you. You are the dream of my life. Come with me to the shoe store and I will make love to you. Love, Horace."

Below that is a post-script in which Horace revealed his rather unorthodox form of suicide. It read: "P.S., I can't live without you so I will commit suicide in the barn. I will bite a cow's leg and he will kick me in the head and kill me. For without you, life is nothing."

The Cult House

I came across the reference to this place while searching for something else, so of course I had to learn more about it. Isn't that the way it always is? The Cult House sits back on top of a hillside off of Cossart Road near Chadds Ford and has been known for years as a spooky place. At one point , the property belonged to the DuPont family, not really a big surprise since they owned an enormous amount of property int his area at one point. There have been tales of trucks chasing people down the road, which is barely wide enough for two cars to pass and graffiti adorns many of the trees and signs along the way. A few years ago, the area served as the backdrop for the Movie The Village, but it also has a bit more of a bizarre history.

On December 30, 1978, police uncovered the bodies of three boys, Jimmy Johnston, Duane Lincoln and Wayne Sampson, who had been part of a very active crime ring that has threatened the Chester County areas for years, operated by the Johnston brothers, a trio originally from Tennessee. A fourth young man, Jimmy Sampson, was also killed by the gang, but his body was never found. The Johnston brothers, Bruce, Sr., David and Norman, were responsible for the deaths of 4 young men and a 15-year old female and had eluded police for months. Finally, Ricky Mitchell, another young man who had been involved in the crime gang, led police to the bizarre mass grave where the three bodies were found, no doubt fearing that he would be the next victim of the Johnston brothers. More details of the crime and its effects can be read in this article from 1999.