03 February 2024 , 07:53
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A peak behind the doors of Coca Cola heir's abandoned mansion has been given and it's said to be 'haunted by a bloodstained ghost'
Asa 'Buddy' Griggs Candler Jr once owned Briarcliff mansion and turned the fizzy drinks brand into a worldwide phenomenon after his father's death. But it is also reportedly to haunted by former hospital patients including a 'bloodstained ghost'. Charlie Paine, head of the preservation effort behind the mansion in the United States, told The Southerner he witnessed an elderly woman, a former nurse, wandering round the eerie property many years ago.
The mansion later became an alcoholics treatment centre (Jeff Hagerman / mediadrumworld.c)
A spooky wooden-panelled room with ornate fireplace (Jeff Hagerman / mediadrumworld.c)He said: “I remember looking at her hands as she was talking and seeing blood where she had scratched and picked at her skin. Whatever happened had obviously taken some toll on her." Asa Griggs Candler Sr. bought the property from inventor John Pemberton for $2,300 (£1,850) in 1891. He decided to sell Coca-Cola again in 1919 bringing the family millions in real estate. Cash from the sale went into Briarcliff mansion in Atlanta, Georgia, which had two swimming pools, a golf course, a ballroom, and a solarium.
He also had many of magician Houdini's props on the walls of his mansion and claimed they were 'close friends'. The massive home, which was finished in 1922, had huge gardens in where elephants, lions, and a gorilla were kept.
Love Property reports the gorilla who lived in the private zoo once escaped and bit a house guest who then sued Candler $10,000 (£8,150) in damages. But Briarcliff became a scandal in the 1930s, because of the state of the property. It was thrown into the spotlight in 1931 after Candler Jr's butler and personal magic assistant, José Cruz, shot his girlfriend and took his own life on Briarcliff grounds.
Spooky abandoned house in woods left full of creepy dolls and forgotten dentures
The eerie images if the mansion which is said to be haunted by a 'bloodstained ghost' (Jeff Hagerman / mediadrumworld.c)
A once-grand room with chandelier in the spooky mansion (Jeff Hagerman / mediadrumworld.c)While Candler Jr struggled to shake off the negative attention from local people and the press despite not being directly involved. His fortune began to decline in the 1930s due to poor investments and expensive hobbies. He was then declared bankrupt and was forced to sell the mansion to the General Services Administration (GSA) in 1948.
The Mirror previously reported Candler Jr. fought alcoholism for most of his life and passed away from liver cancer in 1953. It was transformed into 141-bed psychiatric hospital from 1965 to 1997. But images of the mansion show it home became a creepy house of horrors . And in addition to its 'bloodstained ghost' the property had a chilling message written in graffiti on an indoor fountain which read: “It ran with blood."
The mansion now sits on the Briarcliff Campus of Emory University, which purchased the property in 1998. The university had plans to turn the grounds into a 54-room boutique hotel. But it is still in a state of disrepair and still has chilling stories of its ghostly inhabitants.