Winchester Mystery House: Inside the California mansion 'built to confuse spirits'

More than a century after American philanthropist Sarah Winchester died, the sprawling mansion she spent nearly four decades building continues to stand as one of America's most unusual properties and often belived to be 'haunted'.Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, was once the private residence of Winchester heiress Sarah Lockwood Pardee Winchester. She died exactly 104 years ago on September 5, 1922, bringing an end to the construction that had transformed an eight-room farmhouse into a sprawling architectural labyrinth.The story behind the unusual construction is rooted in tragedy. Winchester lost her infant daughter to illness and, a few years later, her husband, William Wirt Winchester, to tuberculosis. Following her husband’s death, she left their home in New Haven, Connecticut, and moved to San Jose.According to popular legend, Winchester consulted a medium who told her that the spirits of people killed by Winchester rifles were seeking revenge.