Constance Hatchaway was a beautiful woman born in Money County, California supposedly in the year 1851. By 1869, an 18-year-old Constance had moved to Secret County, California where she became engaged to a young farming-heir named Ambrose Harper. Not long into their marriage, the teenage Constance murdered Ambrose with a hatchet via decapitation. Being Harper's wife, she inherited much of his estate while also keeping his severed head within a hatbox as a twisted souvenir. The murder of Ambrose Harper was the first instance of Constance's modus operandi as a serial killer. Constance would target wealthy men and murder them with her hatchet before stuffing their heads inside of hatboxes as trophies. Through this habit, Constance would garner more and more wealth and status. An apparent affiliate of hers, at some point in her criminal career, was a man of unknown identity who came into possession of her hatboxes at some point in time. Constance's next victim came in 1872 in the form of Frank Banks, an eastern banker, and community pillar. Two years later, Constance married the foreign diplomat and Chinese military officer the Marquis de Doome and in doing so presumably became the Marchioness de Doome herself. A year later she married celebrated railroad baron, gambler, and world-renowned gourmand, Reginald Caine. All of these husbands would fall to her blade and have their belongings and heads become part of Hatchaway's collection. in 1877, the now 26-year-old Constance married one George Hightower of the wealthy Hightower family. By this time, Constance had left California and went on to move into a grand manor which George came into possession of. This manor was however haunted by many spirits and deemed, "The Haunted Mansion" by locals. Regardless, Constance used the mansion's attic to hide away her many incriminating belongings.
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Each year, Jack Skellington gives the Haunted Mansion a holiday makeover, complete with jack-o-lanterns and wreaths, a real gingerbread house and kooky characters from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Haunted Mansion Holiday is open throughout the Halloween and holiday seasons at Disneyland Park. Take a look inside the mansion, click on any image in the gallery to enlarge. Have you ever noticed the portrait of Elvis in the attic scene before???
This is basically a reprint of 2003's "The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies", completely scrubbed of any references to the underwhelming Eddie Murphy film, and with a new chapter on Hong Kong Disneyland's Mystic Manor (informative with lots of illustrations and photos) and a few new spreads on recent additions to the Anaheim and Orlando attractions (the attic bride and hatbox ghost for Disneyland, the new elaborate queue and gift shop at WDW).
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Growing up in Los Angeles in the 70s/80s we visited Disneyland on a regular basis and often after school, before "Annual Passes". Visit our sister blog LADL for MORE Disney in the links below:
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