July 23-29, 2003
Cleveland ghostbuster Mary Ann has never faced off against Cleveland's most haunted house. But that may change now that the Franklin Castle in Ohio City has a new owner.
Charles Milsaps of Lakewood is purchasing the 123-year-old edifice from Michelle Heimburger, its owner since 1999. Heimburger's plan was to renovate and turn it into a bed-and-breakfast. The ghosts were supposed to help business.
But in Mary Ann's experience, the presence of ghosts almost always curses a business. And that seemed to be the case in the Franklin Castle. Six months after Heimburger bought the castle, a homeless man started a fire there. Then she burned her own money trying to renovate the building and keep the city from demolishing it.
All the while, Heimburger refused to let Mary Ann take a tour. Had the ghostbuster found spirits, she could either have shown them to the afterlife or brokered a cohabitation with the living occupant.
Now, it's up to Milsaps, who also plans a facelift. "If there are ghosts there, he's going to have terrible problems renovating the place," says Mary Ann. She says she can't comment definitively about the presence of spirits at the castle, but "with as many owners as have been there, there probably is something [supernatural] there."
Mary Ann's policy, however, is to go only where she's invited, and so far, Milsaps hasn't called. Milsaps, reached at his Lakewood home, did not return calls from Scene.
