All it tells you that a fairly low quality amateur artist lived there....probably a 10-year old. There are no bad omens.

LOL. Maybe that you should have started demo sooner?

I agree...probably some goofy 10-yr-old, but, just in case, good luck with the demo. Hope we don't hear about you on the six o'clock news.

Better thsn finding termite damage!

It's not a Monet so sorry the bad news is that it isn't worth anything. Hope you sleep well tonight..

the first one was mildly amusing. this one is disturbing.

Even a ten year old would have to be seriously disturbed. And tall.

Is this your home? And how spiritual are the owners? I would need new walls and that burned to feel comfortable, but some people don't care.

I think somebody *seriously* hated that wallpaper.

Peel it all off before you paint.

Dude!!! call in a priest!

Interestingly, I find the demon/pitchfork less disturbing than the murder scene.

Lots of kids would think it funny to paint the devil on their wall. A knife to the neck is just...wrong...

I can also see a certain macabre humour though: "Wouldn't it be hilarious to see the face of the next person who renos this house, hardy har har..."

All jokes aside; homes always have a "residual energy" from all history of previous occupants. You obviously have a sense/reaction to this discovery and are less than easy about it or you would not be asking the question. Whatever yours or anyone's spiritual beliefs or lack thereof I recommend that you do engage an energy clearing. You can e-mail me for recommendations in your area.

@Katie Anderson Interior Design I agree with *most* of what you said, except the part about the religious beliefs. If the owners are dead set against it (as my own deeply religious parents are, to their own detriment in this exact regard) those wishes have to be respected.

Omg I am dying. As an atheist, I have at least one boy who would have relished this opportunity (ironically, because he doesn't believe in it, not to scare anyone). As it is, we have one time capsule we put in our walls (I will have to ask the kids to remind me what they put in there-probably nothing creepy as it was a wholesome family activity but wo knows?), and my 8 year old daughter stuffed a note in a crack at a crappy rental house we had advising the unknown future reader to "quit smoking, lose weight, and be happy!" (We don't smoke but based on the ineradicable smell many before us had)

Again, the murder part is just too much for me. greenfish1234 please, please tell me you wouldn't let your kids make a joke of hurting others. Please!!!!

Get some oil based Kilz, works on stains, graffiti, and demons! Don't give these marks a thought, some people are just weird!

wow with all the varied reactions I almost hesitate to mention the numerous animal skulls, like this one, we found under the floor. makes me wonder if the Manson family didn't own it.
the"crime" is that they ruined 100 year old wall paper.

Ok, now I think you're hoaxing us.

all probably explainable coincidences. I've just never seen so many in one house. with two bedrooms to go, if we find "Helter skelter" or "redrum" scrawled on any of the walls Im calling "Father Dyer".

Well obviously the skulls predate the paint by decades. And lots of people bury their pets--our dog is in our backyard. Of course, she's wrapped in her blanket with a board explaining who she is written on it, but still...

I'm sure they took their bad mojo with them. Putting your mark on the house will make it happy!

Is this your own future home, or a client's? Are these clients the new owners, or have they lived there for thirty years and now you're looking over your shoulder waiting for Gramma to ax you?!?!

I'm laughing so hard. This is awesome.

We've written on subfloors and inside walls. We've used our old business signs for shelves in attics. It's fun.

Only semi-OT - In the days before we put up my Mother's headstone, when the cement base was still wet, I told my nephew to write a note in the cement. He wrote, "See you later, Grandma." Loved it.

I am loving every update on this.

Well that devil is much better drawn than the murder one. But still no Picasso, no money. Must be making it an interesting day for demo..

Poor cat :/

:o I WOULD NEVER LIVE THERE ...

It's quite possible that at some point this house was vacant and home to squatters or broken into and vandalized. That would be my guess.

no the house has not been vacant in its 115 year life, until recently when the lady who lived there at least sixty years passed away. the artwork was done sometime prior to an early 1970's remodel to this Victorian famehouse, that we are currently restoring/renovating. could have been fueled by the doctor who built the house on 1902, or a bad trip in the 60's.

Wow...crazy! Keep the updates coming!

In our first home my hubby tore up the crappy carpet to install a floating laminate floor over the concrete slab. We got a wild hair and decided to trace the body outlines of our entire family in the front room onto the concrete floor. That's 7 of us... and our 5 kiddos were all under the age of 5, with our twins only being a couple of months old. (Actually, one of the twins was fussy while we were doing it, so since they're identical we traced the other one twice, LOL!)
After we were done tracing everyone and putting their names by the figures we realized it looked like a mass murder scene... OOPS! LOL!!!
We figured that whoever would come down the line and rip up the floor would have quite a surprise, we hoped they would think it was funny! And we hoped they hadn't planned to stain the concrete because we'd done it in permanent marker... we didn't know about staining concrete when we had done that.

Lindsey, I can't say I would "let" my son paint a murder scene on my wall, but does that look like some of his 10-year-old handiwork? I can see it happening...anything to shock, but usually tiny stick figures with guns, tanks, trapdoors, flame-throwers...

I've just been reminded that I put a jar of my honey and some dead bees in our time capsule-is that as creepy as dead pets??

I just read an article in the New York Times today about a journalist who found an old photo album in the trash and began a quest to find its owners. I could really see this turning into that. Start with who was living there in the 1970s. There is a middle-aged man out there somewhere who has all but forgotten the delight with which he painted those walls 40 years ago. Wouldn't it be great to find him and close the loop on this story? Maybe repatriate his dead dog to him??

Bad ju ju. Creepy.

skmom, we actually found "crime scene" outlines under a floor a few years ago. I just labeled them,"the last contractor" and left them as a warning to the next guy.

greenfish1234 I like the search idea. I do know of one of the"children" who grew up in the house. in their 60's now, it might be interesting to find out who did it and why. of I find out anything I'll let you know.

Maybe the house is trying to tell you that the devil is in the details..

An "energy clearing"! Bwahahaha!!!

Suckers born every minute.

I murdered my brother-in-law, but I had a really good reason.

I want to thank everyone for the interesting comments and conversations about my post. the answer may seem anticlimactic. no there we no there in the house. it seems the late brother of the current owner once lived in the house with their elderly mother. He was, by all recollection a mild mannered lineman for the power company, who liked to come home and listen to heavy metal.
For forty-five years no one knew the "artwork's" we're on the walls
Today the walls are covered with new drywall and fresh paint, do the paintings will remain or little secret.

Idk, it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for... ;-D

Someone hoping it would be unveiled someday and they could mess with your head!

That's not anticlimactic at all!! It is super creepy, more so than I expected! So, he painted them at night while head banging and no one knew he did it until he died and they found it?? PS he killed animals in the basement too?!

Thanks for the update!!

How interesting! Thanks for sharing!

Plans by Marcy

As long as you don't find any human skeletons, I think you'll be okay. It looks to me like someone had a warped sense of humor, or perhaps a devilish outlook on life? Kind of creepy, but nothing a good coat of paint can't take care of. It is sad that you found animal skeletons, though. Hopefully, some kid didn't have a fetish with animal sacrifices in your basement.

You should link your experience to the comments on this story! https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/realestate/home-inspectors-on-their-weirdest-discoveries.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&smvar=wkndbau?src=twr&referer=https://m.facebook.com/