By Mark McConville
PEEK INSIDE the haunted manor house where two girls were once kidnapped and where a DECAPITATED HEAD was also buried in the garden.
Eerie images show the large property looming over the photographer, a vintage car left forgotten in the garage and a piano that remains in the living room alongside a sofa and extremely old television.
Other striking shots show what’s left of a large kitchen, a jacket still hanging on a bedroom door and mattresses strewn across the bedroom floor.
The stunning pictures were taken at the Dr Horace Drew Manor in Jacksonville, Florida, USA by a photographer known as Bullet.
“An interesting part of this happened when it was abandoned between 1967 and 1973,” he said.
“Kids used to visit here as they called it the ‘haunted house.’ In March 1970, eleven students from Ribault High School ventured into the decrepit mansion on the evening of Friday the 13th.
“Two African-American men barged into the home, one wielding a knife and the other with a sawed-off shotgun. They wanted to know if the teenagers had any ‘reefers.’ When they were told no, a hat was passed around demanding the teens put their money in it.
“They picked out two girls out of the group and herded the other teens into a bathroom, taking the keys of one of the boys with them. Using the boy’s car, they drove the girls to another abandoned home where they were joined by three other men.
“The girls’ sweaters were pulled over their heads and then they were sexually assaulted multiple times. The girls were then driven away a short distance and released, and the car was returned to the Drew mansion.”
This home was built in 1909 by Dr. Horace Drew, owner of the H. & W. B. Drew Company. It was abandoned for a short while in the late-60s and early-70s before being bought, repaired, and then abandoned again in the 21st century.
The kidnapping was not the only unusual thing to happen at this house, as Bullet explained.
“Unbeknownst to most people at the time, there was also a human head buried in the backyard of the mansion around this time,” he said.
“The head was discovered by two young kids who ran out to the street and notified two teenagers, who then called the police. The head was buried in a hole 18-inches deep. It belonged to a man, around 50 years old, and was packed in a germicidal bag which prevented decomposition.
“It was reported that the head belonged to a body stolen from Duval Medical Center back in November. An informant told investigators that the head was taken by an orderly who worked there and would occasionally take their friends back there to go see it. On July 12th, 18-year-old Michael Tiliakos was arrested just before clocking in for his hospital shift and was charged with ‘Dealing in Parts of Dead Bodies.’
“Tiliakos had apparently known the man who had given his body to become a teaching cadaver and wanted to keep a part of his friend as the body would be cremated. He apparently slept with the head the first night before burying it behind the Drew mansion out of fear of getting caught.”
For more information see www.abandonedfl.com
