Laura Wright 
Haunted Houses of Yesteryear
There was once an unassuming little house in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Surrounded by lush vines and flowers, the cottage appeared peaceful and inviting. Nothing about its appearance suggested that it was dangerous, cursed, or somehow capable of bringing disaster upon the people associated with it.
Yet over the years, an extraordinary succession of owners and residents experienced illness, financial ruin, insanity, accidents, and death.
Eventually, the pretty little house acquired a far more sinister reputation.
It became known as the Killer Cottage.
The Early History of the Cottage
The history of the property extends farther into the past than surviving documentation.
The first known owner was Brigham Young, who held the property during the 1850s.
Young experienced considerable misfortune and disaster during the period in which he owned it, but no one apparently suspected the cottage itself.
At the time, there was no reason to.
Misfortune was simply misfortune.
That interpretation became increasingly difficult to maintain as the property passed from one owner to another.
The Magician Called Dante
A traveling magician eventually acquired the property.
He is remembered only by his stage name:
Dante.
Soon after purchasing the cottage, Dante traveled to Australia on a hunting expedition.
During the trip, his gun accidentally discharged.
Dante was killed.
Once again, there was no obvious reason to connect the tragedy with a small cottage thousands of miles away in Salt Lake City.
But Dante would not be the last owner to meet with disaster.
E. M. Onion
Many people apparently owned the house for relatively short periods.
The property seemed to return to the market almost as quickly as it was purchased.
Eventually, E. M. Onion, a noted Salt Lake City auctioneer, bought the cottage.
Soon afterward, his wife became seriously ill.
Her condition was terminal.
She suffered for months before finally dying.
The cottage changed hands again.
C. S. Williamson
The next owner was C. S. Williamson, a foreman for the Salt Lake Herald.
Williamson was reportedly in excellent health when he purchased the property.
Within a few months of moving into the house, however, he developed a severe case of tuberculosis.
For two years, Williamson struggled against the disease.
Eventually, it killed him.
Another owner of the cottage was dead.
William and Mary Mickle
By the 1890s, William and Mary Mickle attempted to make a life in the house.
Their experience would be no happier than those of the people who had come before them.
Soon after acquiring the property, William lost his sanity.
He squandered every penny the couple possessed and eventually left.
William wandered throughout the western states until he was killed in a railroad accident somewhere between Salt Lake City and Omaha.
Mary was left with the cottage.
And a problem.
Mary Couldn’t Sell the House
Mary’s money was tied up in the property, but by this point the cottage had developed such an unfortunate reputation that she couldn’t sell it.
Her only practical option was to rent it.
Mary moved into a smaller apartment while leasing the cottage to tenants.
Then tragedy found her there as well.
One evening, Mary suspected there was a small gas leak in her apartment kitchen.
The room was dimly lit, so she struck a match to see.
The kitchen exploded.
Mary Mickle was killed.
She wasn’t even living in the cottage anymore.
S. O. Synder
One renter, S. O. Synder, eventually moved out of the house.
The cottage then came into the possession of J. M. Stone, who also used the name J. M. Stout.
Stone was a regular real estate buyer in the region, although he originally came from West Virginia.
There, he had met a woman named Mattie Reeves.
Their story would add another tragedy to the cottage’s history.
J. M. Stone and Mattie Reeves
Stone and Mattie eventually purchased the Salt Lake City cottage as a rental property.
They themselves lived in an apartment nearby.
One day, the couple quarreled.
Stone left.
Neighbors had heard the argument and watched him depart. Concerned about Mattie, they went to check on her.
They discovered that she had swallowed an ounce of carbolic acid.
Mattie was taken to the hospital, where she made a dying statement several hours later.
Her story revealed a troubled relationship.
She said that she and Stone had married five years earlier in Columbus, Ohio. Her mother lived in Richmond, Virginia.
Stone had sold the cottage and left with the money.
Mattie was destitute.
Stone’s Other Family
Stone had problems of his own.
Despite having several children with his actual wife, he had abandoned them in 1903 and traveled west with Mattie.
Stone was associated with the Stone & Gates Firm, and his family had accumulated wealth through timber and coal interests.
Eventually, he returned home.
His wealthy relatives wanted nothing to do with him.
Stone had borrowed money from nearly everyone around him and had nothing left.
His wife and children had been left penniless. Stock and produce from their farm had to be used to satisfy his debts.
Then news of Mattie’s suicide reached the region.
The consequences continued.
The Lawsuit Against Stone
Frank Clark of Salt Lake City was appointed to oversee Mattie Reeves’ estate.
Clark brought a lawsuit against Stone.
The suit sought to prevent Stone from making any claim against Mattie’s estate and demanded the return of $9,000 that Stone was accused of taking from her.
In 1903, John M. Stout, alias Stone, filed for bankruptcy.
Another person associated with the cottage had ended in financial and personal ruin.
And the house still wasn’t finished.
Frank Gattung
The last known information about the cottage concerns Frank Gattung.
Gattung was manager of the Salt Lake Tent and Awning Company in 1904 and was the property’s current lessee.
Then he fell from a ladder.
It was a fall of approximately 15 feet.
Gattung survived, but something apparently happened to him as a result of the accident.
Afterward, he required a straitjacket.
And there the surviving story of the Killer Cottage abruptly ends.
What Happened to the Killer Cottage?
The ultimate fate of the house is unknown.
Perhaps it was demolished.
Perhaps it survived under another address or changed so extensively that its identity disappeared.
Whatever happened to the building, its historical reputation was extraordinary.
Brigham Young experienced misfortune while owning the property.
The magician Dante accidentally shot and killed himself.
E. M. Onion’s wife developed a terminal illness and died.
C. S. Williamson developed tuberculosis and died.
William Mickle lost his sanity, squandered his fortune, wandered away, and eventually died in a railroad accident.
Mary Mickle was killed in a gas explosion.
Mattie Reeves committed suicide after becoming destitute.
J. M. Stone ended in disgrace and bankruptcy.
Frank Gattung fell from a ladder and afterward reportedly required a straitjacket.
Any one of those events could easily be dismissed as misfortune.
Even several might be coincidence.
But as owner followed owner, the pattern became difficult for people to ignore.
The cottage itself never needed to do anything dramatic.
There were no phantom footsteps.
No mysterious voices.
No spectral figures wandering its rooms.
Just a succession of people who became associated with a pleasant little house in Salt Lake City…
and suffered terribly afterward.
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