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Tallman House

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Tallman House

Tallman House

Case File: Tallman House
Location: Horicon, Wisconsin
Date: April 13, 1986 to January 11, 1988
Description: Horicon, Wisconsin, is a small farming town of 3,800 people. It is about 40 miles from Madison, Wisconsin. It is described as a safe and prosperous place. It is known for being a stopover on the "Mississippi Flyway," a migratory route for birds.

Actual photos of the Tallmans' bunk bed

Actual photos of the Tallmans' bunk bed

Case[]

History: Thirty-two-year-old Allen Tallman and his thirty-year-old wife, Deborah "Debbie," had two children, seven-year-old Danny and one-year-old Maryann. On April 13, 1986, they moved into a house on South Larabee Street in Horicon, Wisconsin. Debbie was pregnant at the time. She felt it was their dream home and that they would be there for a long time. But, according to them, they were later run out of the house by spirits that terrorized them.
The Tallmans' house had no known history of hauntings, and they had previously never given ghosts a second thought. They are regular churchgoers. Debbie is a housewife and mother, and Allen is a shift supervisor in a manufacturing plant. They are credible and responsible citizens. But their paranormal experiences have left them deeply scarred. They feel they were in a battle with forces they do not understand – a battle they were destined to lose.
Within weeks of moving into their new house, Danny and Maryann, who had rarely been sick, fell ill. According to Debbie, they were in the doctor's office between one and three times a week. Maryann was hospitalized twice, once for chicken pox and once for an ear infection. Allen got sick as well. At first, they thought their illnesses were due to the house's building materials. However, building inspectors found no trace of asbestos or other toxic substances.
The Tallmans' pet kitten started acting "crazy." She would run around the house and climb the walls and doors. One night, she ran into Allen and Debbie's bedroom, jumped onto a dresser, and attached herself to a plaster wall. Another time, she crashed into a wall. They found a new home for her a short time later. On another night, Danny and his babysitter saw a kitchen chair bounce around and rock back and forth.
In the fall of 1986, Debbie was diagnosed with placenta previa and was told by doctors not to perform housework. Her mother and sister came over to help. However, both had negative feelings about the house. They felt it was "suffocating" the family. Her mother could not wait to leave. Her sister would get headaches and feel sick.
In November, Debbie gave birth to their second daughter, Sarah. Around that time, Allen's personality changed. At night, he became short-tempered and easily irritated. He often argued with Debbie over trivial matters. One night, he threatened to leave the family and went on a drinking binge.
In early February 1987, Allen and Debbie purchased a bunk bed at a second-hand furniture shop and stored it in their basement. In May, they moved it into Danny's old bedroom so Maryann and Sarah could share a room. He moved into the bedroom next door. He also inherited his parents' old clock radio.
That night, the radio took on a life of its own, moving back and forth between stations. Danny ran to the living room and told Allen and Debbie what had happened. They did not believe him, so they sent him back to bed. A few minutes later, he saw the radio dial move by itself. The indicator went from one side to the other. He again told his parents what had happened. Thinking he was having a "fit" with the radio, they took it out of his room.
Afterwards, Danny had trouble sleeping in his room. He would kick and scream when it was time for bed, and he would rarely sleep through the night. He would hear someone walk across his carpet and bang on the basement water pipes. One night, he saw a suitcase slide from under his bed, zoom across the floor, and then slide back under it. He came out crying to Allen and Debbie. They did not believe him, so they took him back to bed. A few minutes later, it happened again. Allen took the suitcase out of the room. They thought he was making up stories for attention.
That summer, Maryann and Sarah had trouble sleeping. They would wake up in the middle of the night crying and could not fall back asleep. Maryann started having nightmares. She told Allen and Debbie about a voice in her room that "shushed" her. They also heard her giggling and talking to "someone."
Allen sometimes stayed in the children's bedrooms to help them fall asleep. While in Danny's room one night, he heard what he thought were mice or rats crawling around. He and Debbie searched the house extensively but found no trace of animal activity. According to them, it was well insulated.
In September, Debbie heard the garage door open and close by itself. She started suffering from violent nightmares, which she rarely had before moving into the house. In one nightmare, intruders came up from the basement, lined the family up against the wall, and shot them. She also had nightmares of the children being kidnapped or drowning in a river. She felt she was going "mad." But for months, they rarely discussed the strange occurrences.
One evening in late September, Allen was painting the basement walls when Debbie called him for dinner. He laid the brush on the paint tray and went upstairs. About a half hour later, he went back down to continue painting. He found the brush on the other side of the table, its handle "jammed" into the paint bucket with the bristles sticking upright. A few minutes later, he saw a shadow dart across the basement. He figured something strange was happening in the house, but he could not accept that it was haunted.
One morning, Allen found the basement window removed and neatly propped up against the wall. No valuables had been taken. Debbie noted that a chair would be needed to exit through the window, but nothing had been moved. After that, she rarely went into the basement alone. She felt she was being watched. The Tallmans got a dog for protection, but he acted strangely. He barked at the house when he was outside. Once inside, he scratched at the door to go out. Other neighborhood dogs would bark at their home for no apparent reason.
Allen felt uneasy whenever he came into the house. He felt like something was waiting for him in the garage, watching his every movement. When he closed the garage door, he felt like he was "shutting himself in a tomb." While walking from the garage into the house one night, he felt a sharp tug on his lunch pail.
In late October, Allen began suffering from a severe sinus infection. A few nights later, his condition worsened. He was coughing, throwing up, and having trouble breathing. Debbie took him to the hospital, and his mother came over to watch the children. She had a bad feeling about the house and could not wait to leave it. After the children went to bed, she fell asleep on the living room couch. In the middle of the night, she woke up and saw glowing red eyes staring at her through the window.
One night in late November, Maryann told Debbie she saw a fire in her room. She also said someone was watching her. She was so scared that Debbie had to sit with her until she fell asleep. Over the next few days, she talked about fire on the door and windows. She also said something was hiding behind her door and waiting until the lights went out to attack her.
Once again, Debbie heard Maryann giggling, laughing, and talking in the middle of the night. She joined her parents in bed and said, "It's coming…It's here." When they asked who was coming, she became upset and asked why they could not see or hear "it."
Allen and Debbie thought Maryann was making up stories. They did not mention what she had seen to Danny. But one night a month later, he told Debbie he had seen a four-foot-tall, "hideous" old woman with long black hair standing by his door. He said the woman "glowed like fire." Debbie told him it was his imagination and that he should go back to sleep. But a few minutes later, the woman returned. Debbie stayed with him the rest of the night.
By that point, Allen and Debbie believed their house was haunted. Desperate, they turned to their pastor, Reverend Wayne Dobratz of St. Stephen's Lutheran Church. He felt the presence of evil in the home and thought they might be the victims of the Devil. He blessed the house and gave them religious music tapes. He also asked them to pray, read Bible passages, and attend church every Sunday.
The Tallmans claim they never had a moment's peace. Doors banged open and shut. Strange voices called to them from empty rooms. The visions persisted. The children were terrorized. They followed Debbie around the house because they did not want to be alone. For her, the nights were "chaos."
The week before Christmas, Danny started sleeping on the living room couch because he was too afraid to sleep in his room. At around 3:30am one night, he saw the old woman standing by the Christmas tree. He asked her what she wanted, but she did not answer. Instead, she stared intently at him. She appeared to him three times that night, getting "bigger" each time. When Debbie came to comfort him, she noticed he was paralyzed with fear.
Allen became afraid for his and his family's lives. He had visions of coming home from work and finding them brutally murdered. By Christmas, he had reached his breaking point. He felt he could not control what was happening in the house. He challenged the entity and yelled, "Whatever is in our house, would you please leave my children alone, and if you want to fight, fight with me!" The next night, he had a nightmare in which a tornado was heading for the house, and he could not find his family.
Two weeks later, on Thursday, January 7, 1988, at around 2am, Allen returned home from working the late shift. As he approached the front door, he heard an eerie howling sound and felt a strong gust of wind coming from the direction of the garage. As he was about to open the door, the wind became stronger and louder. It reminded him of his nightmare. Then, a voice came out of the wind and said, "Come here." He ran around the side of the house, thinking someone was pranking him. However, no one was there.
After looking around for a few minutes, Allen returned to the front door. The howling and the wind started up again. The voice loudly and repeatedly said, "Come here!" When he looked at the garage, he saw orange-red flames coming out of it. Two shimmering green eyes with blood-red pupils looked at him through the garage door's windows. Scared, he ran inside, set his lunch pail on the floor, slammed the door shut, and locked it. He stood there for a few seconds and then said, "Oh my God, my garage is on fire!"
Allen ran back outside. When he looked at the garage, the flames were gone, and there was no evidence that a fire had even occurred. The wind was also gone. He quickly ran back inside and closed and dead bolted the door. He reached down and picked up his lunch pail. The entity then threw the pail across the living room and into the kitchen.
Allen ran into the bedroom and jumped into bed with Debbie. He asked if she had heard howling, but she had not. However, he could still hear it from the bedroom. He was terrified. She had never seen him like that before. They were so scared they stayed awake all night.
Allen believed the entity was focusing on him. Although he did not see it, he could feel its presence. He had trouble sleeping at night, as it kept waking him up. Every night, he and Debbie kept all the lights on and locked all the doors and windows. If they did not lock the basement and garage doors, the doors would "rattle" all night.
On the afternoon of Saturday, January 9, Allen's sixteen-year-old brother, Jonathan, was outside the house when he saw a floating red light in the garage. When he and Allen entered the garage, the light had vanished. That night, Allen slept on the floor in Maryann and Sarah's room. The girls were traumatized and needed help falling asleep.
While lying on the floor, Allen heard a howling sound, similar to the one he had heard outside a few nights earlier. A fog rose from the floor and surrounded him. It reached the ceiling and turned into a human-like figure with red eyes and green pupils. It raised its arm, pointed at him, and said, "You're dead." It then disappeared in a burst of light.
When Allen staggered out of the bedroom, he would not talk to Debbie. His lips were blue and his skin was white. She first thought he was having a heart attack. She tried to get him to tell her what happened, but all he did was stand there with tears running out of his eyes, saying, "Leave me alone!" She called Reverend Dobratz and asked him to come over right away.
When Reverend Dobratz arrived a few minutes later, he noticed Allen was frightened and shaking. He urged them to leave the house and stay with family. As they left, Debbie saw a small, intense flame at the top of the garage door that quickly disappeared. The next night, they returned home. Reverend Dobratz blessed the house, led them in prayers and communion, and told them to play religious music all night. That night, they did not have any issues. But the following night would be different.
On Monday, January 11, Allen was working late, so he asked Jonathan to watch over Maryann and Sarah until they fell asleep. Jonathan was a complete skeptic. That night, he changed his mind. At around 8pm, while lying on the floor, he heard Sarah say, "Hi there!" When he turned towards her, he saw the same figure Allen had seen two nights earlier. As it moved towards him, it said, "Now, you're involved!" It then melted into the floor.
Jonathan screamed and yelled for Debbie, but she was too frightened to enter the bedroom. She asked Danny to see what was happening. He said, "It's there. I can see it!" Maryann came out and said she saw it too. Finally, Jonathan came out, and Debbie asked him what happened. He said "it" was in the bedroom. She asked where Sarah was, and he said she was still in the room. She told him to get Sarah and that they were leaving. She could not handle it anymore.
As they pulled out of the driveway, Danny yelled, "Mom! It's looking out the window at us!" Debbie took his word and did not look back. They went to Allen's work. She told him what had happened. She refused to return to the house. Later that night, he drove past the house. All the lights were on, even though only the light in Danny's room and the living room were on when they left.
The Tallmans spent the night with Allen's mother. The next morning, he returned to the house to get some of their belongings. Only the living room light was on, and the light in Danny's room was off. He found no problem with the lights. A few days later, they picked up the rest of their belongings and moved in with relatives. Reverend Dobratz and another pastor then conducted a house-cleansing ritual of prayers and scripture readings.
Shortly afterward, rumors about the hauntings spread. Some claimed there was a portal to hell in the basement, blood dripped from the walls, and a snowblower cleared the driveway on its own. Dozens drove by or walked to the house. The police briefly barricaded the street to keep people away.
On January 21, Horicon Police Chief Doug Glamann contacted Allen. He and his family were still frightened and had trouble sleeping. He was unwilling to discuss it because he did not want to seem crazy. However, Chief Glamann convinced the Tallmans to come to the police station and discuss their experiences.
After Chief Glamann met with the Tallmans, he believed they were sincere and had been through an "emotionally draining" experience. He promised them confidentiality and tried to protect them from the press and bystanders. He also convinced them to meet with Milwaukee Sentinel journalist James Nelson to dispel the rumors about the hauntings.
On January 25, Chief Glamann and two officers visited the house. While there, the phone rang a few times. When they answered it, the line was dead. They disabled the receiver, but the phone rang again. Once again, the line was dead.
A few weeks later, on February 13, the Tallmans had the bunk bed destroyed and buried in a private landfill. They also put their house up for sale. Since then, they have moved into a new home in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. So far, they have experienced no paranormal phenomena. However, Debbie believes it will take time for things to return to normal. She is still afraid of the dark and being alone at night.
After the Tallmans left their old house, people asked, "Can this follow you?" Debbie never thought it could happen in the first place. So, she does not know if this is the end of the story. In April, a new family moved into the Tallmans' house. So far, they have reported no problems.
Background: The Tallmans' house is a three-bedroom ranch built in 1984. Its previous owners lived there for eighteen months. It had a market value of $50,400. It is in a subdivision of ten homes on South Larabee Street on the south side of Horicon, Wisconsin.
Investigations: Reverend Wayne Dobratz visited the house months after the hauntings began. He felt an evil presence and believed they were victims of the Devil. He theorized that an entity from the spiritual, occult, or demonic realm was in the home. He wondered if the Tallmans or their house had been cursed.
Reverend Dobratz had known the Tallmans for over a year when he first visited them. He did not think they were fabricating their story. When he visited them after Allen's encounter with the entity, he noted that Allen's fear and terror were similar to what he had seen in other paranormal cases.
Reverend Dobratz and the Tallmans theorized that the bunk bed had something to do with the hauntings. Reverend Dobratz wondered if the bed had been used for seances or Ouija board sessions. He theorized that someone introduced "occult" forces to the house or put a spell on it. The Tallmans wondered if someone had a grudge against them and used black magic or witchcraft to torment them.
After the Tallmans fled their house, the police investigated their claims. Chief Glamann believed they were telling the truth. He found no issues in their backgrounds. On January 25, 1988, Reverend Dobratz returned to the house to incite the entity. Chief Glamann and two officers accompanied him. They spent three hours looking for recorders, projection devices, or any other evidence that the Tallmans had been the victim of a prank. Nothing was found.
Chief Glamann had an outside investigator and an electrical engineer search the house. They also found nothing. Chief Glamann then asked social welfare professor Dr. Don Mueller, parapsychologist Carl Schuldt, and retired parapsychology professor Walter Uphoff to investigate.
On January 31, Dr. Mueller, Schuldt, and Uphoff visited the house. Schuldt felt psychic "hot spots" in several parts of the home, including the basement and near the bunk bed. Uphoff theorized that a spirit was attached to the house, the land, or some furniture. He noted that changing living arrangements, such as when the children switched rooms, could have upset the spirit. The group found no evidence of fraud. They believed the Tallmans' experiences were genuine and supernatural.
There was speculation that the Tallmans' house was built on a Native American burial ground. However, Chief Glamann searched records and found no evidence to support this theory. The area was marshland before houses were built there. He later ended the police investigation after he found no evidence of a prank or criminal activity. He also found no explanation for the reported phenomena.
Skeptics speculated that black mold, trapped marsh or methane gas seeping into the house, or a natural gas leak had caused the Tallmans' experiences. A year after they moved out, Wisconsin Power and Light Company replaced faulty gas fittings at some Horicon houses. However, no faulty fittings were found at their house or any others on their street. The company noted that they did not check for gas leaks at the home at the time of the hauntings.
Paranormal investigator Paul Kurtz noted that the Tallmans' story was similar to other cases in which people misinterpreted normal events as supernatural and were then offered money by book publishers and television producers.
It was theorized that Maryann's experiences were influenced by a "horror TV show" she had seen. The show included fire and a man wearing a "pig's hat." After watching the show, she repeatedly saw fires and men wearing animal hats in her room.
Several neighbors did not believe the Tallmans' story. The couple across the street often stayed up late but saw nothing unusual. The Tallmans had mentioned "weird events" happening at the house to one neighbor, but no one saw anything.
Skeptics theorized the Tallmans made up their story for money. They were allegedly having financial difficulties. However, journalist James Nelson noted they lost $3,000 when they allowed their mortgage holder to assume the house's title. They also turned down $5,000 offered by the National Enquirer, as they did not want to make money off of their children's misfortune.
Extra Notes:

  • This case first aired on the October 26, 1988 Halloween episode of Unsolved Mysteries along with The Queen Mary, The General Wayne Inn and Tatum House.
  • It was excluded from the FilmRise release of Robert Stack episodes. However, it was included on the show's "Ghosts" DVD.
  • It is considered one of the most frightening and well-known paranormal cases of the series.
  • It was described in greater detail in the book, Haunted America by Michael Norman and Beth Scott. It was also featured on A Current Affair.
  • It is not to be confused with the Lincoln–Tallman House.
  • The Tallmans requested that they be filmed in silhouette, that actors portray them, and that their children's real names not be used.
  • The reenactments were filmed in the Tallmans' former house with the new owners' permission.
  • Horicon's mayor did not allow Chief Glamann to be interviewed for the broadcast.
  • Some sources spell the Tallmans' last name as "Tallmann" and Debbie's name as "Debi", and state that: the Tallmans bought the house in November 1986; Debbie witnessed the radio dial move on its own; Allen was putting the children to bed when the paintbrush ended up in the paint bucket; the "fire" happened the day after Allen challenged the entity; the fire occurred at 1am; the entity had red eyes; and Jonathan was Allen's nephew.

Results: Unsolved. In January 1989, Chief Glamann stated he became somewhat skeptical of the Tallmans' story after they allowed "Unsolved Mysteries" to feature it. He believed they received money for appearing on the show. He also heard that they had sold their story to Michael Norman, who later wrote Haunted America, which featured their story.
In 1994, the Tallmans reported that their lives had improved after leaving Horicon and that they had experienced no hauntings since then.
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