The Montandon House

Located on the crookedest street in the world is a house with a eerie and dark past. In the mid 1960's the house was home to Pat Montandon, the queen of the SF jet-set. So extravagant were her parties that Esquire magazine voted her one of the top hostesses in the nation. It's not surprising then that her first book was entitled How To Be A Party Girl. It was at one of her famous theme parties that Montandon was to meet destiny in the form of a vindictive tarot card reader. It was a zodiac theme party and Montandon had invited a number of palmists, astrologers, crystal gazers, and card readers to entertain and mystify her guests. The trouble began when she forgot to bring the tarot card reader the drink she had promised him. Montandon writes of the incident in her book The Intruders: 

 "I"m sorry. I'll get you one--" But he didn't allow her to finish. He bolted to his feet with his curious retinue following suit, and explaining loudly that he'd never been so insulted in his life. Quivering with rage he directed a stream of abuse at me: He had never been treated so rudely... I was an insufferable, ungracious hostess...he was leaving, but not before he made certain I would never have any happy moments in that house again. He fixed me with a glare, his face puffed and distorted : "I lay a curse upon you and this house. I do not forget, and I do not forgive. Remember that!" 

The Manifestations

It was shortly after that curse was uttered that the strange and horrifying occurrences began. An unnatural chill pervaded the house even though the thermostat was permanently set to 90°. Even with this chill there would be spots of deathly cold that would cause her dog to bark and growl as though there was somebody in the room. Montandon would find doors mysteriously locked from the inside of empty rooms. Blood curdling screams would echo through the empty house. Mysterious blood stains would appear and grow on the ceilings.

The curse turned deadly on June 20th, 1969. Montandon's close friend and secretary, Mary Louise Ward, was staying at the house while Montandon was promoting her book, How to be a Party Girl. A mysterious fire broke out in the master bedroom. The fire department quickly arrived on the scene but were slowed by the locked from the inside front door and master bedroom door. Inside they found the lifeless body of Mary Louise. Investigations were inconclusive as to the cause of the fire and the cause of death. Mary Louise was not burned, nor had she succumb to smoke inhalation. Her internal organs were undamaged, she did not suffocate, there were no signs of injury, and most suspicious of all it was determined that she had actually died before the fire. Marie Louise would not be the last victim of the curse. Two of Montandon's close friends would commit suicide in the house before the year was up.

Montandon, now desperate to remove the curse sent in psychics Gerri Patton and Nick Nocerino (of crystal skull fame) to perform an exorcism. Nocerino supposedly managed to snap some photos of the ghosts. The house was declared clean but Montandon could not bare to live in the house that destroyed the lives of her closest friends and nearly her own.

Since then the house has been quiet except for the throngs of tourists who constantly travel the crookedest street in the world most oblivious to the terror experienced just a few feet from where they snap their holiday photos in the Montandon House.