When Sarah Winchester’s husband died, she inherited millions from the family business: the manufacture of the famous Winchester Rifle. A medium reportedly told Sarah that she would be haunted by the victims of that rifle unless she used her fortune to build a house, and never stop building. That’s exactly what she did.

Pamela Haag’s book is The Gunning of America: Business and the Making of American Gun Culture.

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Artwork by Julienne Alexander.

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