Let me tell you about Sarah. She was rich. Very, very rich. Not only was her income a thousand dollars a day, but she had inherited twenty million. That's not bad…especially in the late 1800s. By today's standards, she could have been a billionaire. She was well known in high society. Just mention her name and everyone knew her. She was invited to every social event or party. And she had power. Her name opened doors and opportunities. She was sought after by boards, lenders, politicians. They wanted her support and money.

Sarah had it all…including misery. Her only child died at five weeks, and then her husband. Two losses, two potential crises. She was alone. She had her name, her memories, and her money. There was something else she had as well—quiet. To get away, she moved from Connecticut to San Jose, California.

She purchased an eight-room farmhouse as well as the adjoining 160 acres. But then a strange thing happened. She hired sixteen carpenters to work on her house, 24 hours a day, every day, for the next 38 years. The layout of the house, to put it in today's vernacular, was weird. Each window had 13 panes, each wall 13 panels, each closet 13 hooks and each chandelier 13 globes.

The floor plan was bizarre. Corridors were put in at random. Some led nowhere. A set of stairs led to a ceiling that had no door, and one door opened to a blank wall. There were tunnels, trap-doors and secret passageways. The work on this mysterious mansion finally came to a halt when it covered six acres and had the following features: 6 kitchens, 13 bathrooms, 40 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 52 skylights, 467 doors, 10,000 windows, 160 rooms, and 1 bell tower.

What would drive a wealthy woman to become so eccentric, so driven, so compulsive? After all, she didn't need what she built. She lived alone. Or did she? A legend evolved that said Sarah Winchester had "visitors" every night. The story goes that a servant would go to the bell tower at night via a secret passage and ring the bell. Sarah would then go into the "blue room," which was reserved for her and her guests, and stay there until 2:00 A.M. Then the bell would once again ring and the visitors would depart, and Sarah Winchester would go to her room.

The visitors? They were United States soldiers killed on the United States frontier. They were slain Indians torn apart by the bullets that struck them. Both soldiers and Indians were killed by that new invention, the repeating Winchester rifle. It brought millions of dollars to the Winchester family but death to thousands of others. It also brought haunting experiences to Sarah Winchester prompted by guilt that went unresolved. To atone for what had occurred, she tried to provide a home for the dead.