4 True Scary Stories about Families with Dark Pasts

The narrator's family wealth, initially attributed to a successful merchant, was actually founded on the brutal exploitation and subsequent massacre of Pomo Indians in 1840s California by ancestors Andrew and Benjamin Kelsey. Andrew's extreme cruelty led to his death by the Pomo, prompting Benjamin to instigate a retaliatory massacre by the US Army, killing hundreds of defenseless natives.

The family received graffiti messages like 'Blood money pigs' and 'Kelsey scum, leave town'. The father later revealed the history of Andrew and Benjamin Kelsey's mistreatment of Pomo Indians, leading to Andrew's death and Benjamin's instigation of the Bloody Island Massacre where the army killed around 400 Pomo.

Marie's genealogical research uncovered her direct ancestor, Madame Marie Deline LaLaurie, a prominent New Orleans socialite. Despite a polite public demeanor, LaLaurie subjected her enslaved people to horrific torture and murder in her mansion. A fire, started by a chained cook, exposed these atrocities, leading to public outrage and LaLaurie's flight to France.

Marie's mother tried to dissuade her from research. Records showed LaLaurie's slaves were 'singularly haggarded and wretched'. A fire in 1834, started by a chained cook, revealed seven slaves hanging, with limbs stretched and torn, and other severely injured individuals, leading to a mob destroying the mansion.

A family's sudden escape from extreme poverty during the Great Depression coincided with the suspicious murders of a local farmer and his son. Both victims had refused to sell their land to a powerful baron. The grandfather and his brother were implicated through their sudden wealth and subsequent guilt-ridden behavior, leading to the grandfather's disappearance and the uncle's violent death.

Grandpa returned with large sums of cash after the farmer's murder and again after his son's 'accident'. The grandmother suspected 'blood money'. The grandfather broke down when confronted, and both he and the uncle displayed deep distress and conflict, culminating in the grandfather's permanent disappearance.

John Stratton, a Puritan patriarch in a colonial American village, murdered his rebellious teenage son, Thomas. After public humiliation failed to curb Thomas's defiance, and he announced plans to leave, Stratton, with loyal villagers, ambushed, beat, and buried Thomas up to his chest. Citing Deuteronomy, Stratton then had his son stoned to death for disobedience.

John spanked Thomas publicly while quoting Proverbs. When Thomas announced his departure, John and other men beat him, buried him to his chest, and then stoned him to death, quoting Deuteronomy 21:18-21. The truth of the murder eventually came out, and Stratton's village was later destroyed by a native uprising.