https://www.thecut.com/2018/11/the-haunting-of-657-boulevard-in-westfield-new-jersey.html ^^^That is an excellent article about it. Anyway, have any of you guys ever heard this story or do you have any theories about who is/was behind those creepy letters?!! It is crazy to think about buying a dream home like that, and then never being able to move into it because of some random nut job doing this to you. Also amazing to think that whoever was doing this, is basically going to get away with it.
It's the second best creepy house story in Westfield - see John List, that one's real. I have a family member who lives nearby who has told me all about it and pointed out the house to me. I've also read a couple of stories about it, maybe even the one you link. If I had to guess, I'd go along with the buyer's remorse theory and possibly profit as well. There are a lot of parallels with a story about people named Lutz, I believe, who bought a house that had been the site of multiple grisly murders and created a similar scary story about another classic house of the same era - you may recall it as the inspiration for the book and movie The Amityville Horror which would have been quite familiar to all the players in Westfield.
Ralebird, thanks for responding. hopefully a few more guys respond, since it is a pretty damn interesting story. So you honestly think that the letters were a hoax, Ralebird? I know the Lutzes in Amityville were obviously liars and a hoax, but I don't think the Broadduses wrote those letters themselves. They went through hell over this and it wound up costing them a shit ton of money to boot!!!
Self inflicted hell? Maybe it cost them, maybe it didn't; if they've been collecting rent for most of the time since they're doing okay. Does anyone know if they could really afford the house in the beginning? They were from Westfield so may have been a little familiar with the area and that there were a few sets neighbors who could have been set up to take the heat. But I'd guess it started when they got cold feet about the purchase and created the whole scenario to try to get out of the deal but once that little snowball started rolling downhill they couldn't stop it. The most telling thing is the husband admitted he sent letters two years later but didn't tell his wife? The whole story revolved around letters and similar ones came, maybe from him, maybe from a crackpot wife he was trying to cover for. Conspicuously absent in the story is if Broadus's wife ever got her DNA tested.
She did have her DNA tested (no match). It's in the article that was linked. According to Zillow.com, they rented the house for 5,000 a month (that was the listing at least.) Taxes were $22,000 a year. I have no idea how much of the purchase was financed. The husband wrote anonymous letters to the neighbors that were calling them scam artists on social media. He also spent a ton of money on private detectives, security systems, handwriting experts, etc. If this was a scam to get out of the sale it was very poorly planned and implemented.
I must have missed that; the only female I saw that tested negative was the sister of the Langford guy next door. And I'd agree that it was poorly planned because they were making it up as they went along. They got cold feet, buyer's remorse or decided they couldn't afford the house just before the closing so they sent the first letter to the sellers and the next to themselves to delay or make an excuse for them to back out of the deal that they were contracted to make. It didn't work and then they were in the position of having made false police reports as well as the shame they put on themselves - just as he did later when he sent the letters to those neighbors that he admitted to. I don't think it's just coincidence that the style and tenor of those letters was like the originals. That's when they fell down the rabbit hole and they weren't as slick as they thought; they essentially buried themselves. I noticed that a lot of that "expert help" he used was friends or friends of friends or relatives that may have cost him nothing. I think at least one of the Broadus couple have some problems just as Lutz did at the Amityville Horror house but at least he had a plan from the get go.
all excellent points, bicketybam. thanks for reading the article. what did you think of the entire situation, bickety???
wow ralebird, so it sounds like you have pretty much made up your mind that it was the Broadusses all along who did this this themselves. I know you said you have kin in Westfield, so can you tell me...is that their opinion as well??? that the Broadusses were hoaxsters???
Actually my family is about a mile and a half away, just over the line in Scotch Plains. I think the term "something shady" was used to describe the Broadduses but we never got into a lot of detail.
oh okay, I got you Ralebird. Thanks for the input. The article I linked definitely implies that most of Westfield agrees with you and your family member regarding the Broadduses, so maybe they did do it to themselves??!!!
That's a good question. I'm really not sure. I'm having a hard time that they had so much buyers remorse that they went through these lengths to get out of the sale. It would have been a lot easier to walk away and eat whatever earnest money they put down. I'm not sure they couldn't afford the home either as they were able to obtain a mortgage for it. Someone thought they could afford it. The article presents a number of theories and any of them sound plausible. I also think that the theory they were behind it is a plausible explanation, but I don't thinks it's likely. They could have probably flipped the house and walked away close to even. That's certainly a better outcome than perpetuating a hoax.
Bickety, do u think it was the weirdo family that lived next door, or do u think they were just a red herring in all of this??!!!
I don't think it was the people next door. If I had to guess I would say it was someone who had a hardon for either the husband or the wife.
Something like that. Or just some creepy fucker that gets off on that shit I'm a licensed gun owner in CT but that's not so easy in NJ. If I had this happen to me in CT there is no way I would give up my dream home.
yeah I hear you Bickety, but the thing with them is that they had small kids, u know? and god forbid, but if it was a legit psycho and something happened to the kids, as a parent, u could never forgive yourself, u know?!
