The Deane House

The Case of the Unhappy Landing

In 1920, a man walking down the stairs was hit by an unseen force. He fell to his death. There is no factual proof of this happening. No witness reports, obituaries or newspaper articles. CAPI searched the historical records of CN Rail, newspaper archives and police records. This is an urban myth.

Bullet to the Face

Apparently a man had debts with a local loan shark with mobster ties. One day while the man sat on the front porch with his gal a car drove by mowing them down using tommy guns. Once again there is no actual evidence of this happening. In addition the story changes from a mob hit to a jealous ex-boyfriend. Some say it was a tommy gun, others say it was a pistol while certain versions say it was a drive by while others say the killer walked up to his victim shooting him point blank.

Secret Window

According to legend you can see a ghost of a young girl in the attic window. It is said she jumped from the attic window into the Elbow River shore when the Deane House was on the opposite side of the river. Others claim it was during the 40's and she fell face first into the garden. There are no records to evidence to support this.

Jack the One Time Ripper

Some say a prostitute was murdered sometime in the past at the Deane House. Never happened.

House of Death?

Several suicides were said to have happened at the Dean House. The first was in 1933 of a fourteen year old boy who suffered from epilepsy. This was reported by the Fort Calgary Quarterly a magazine that ran from 1979-1988.

In 2000 the Calgary Herald reported of a suicide on Valentine’s day in 1952. The suicide was the result of unrequited love. Sad eh? Well both never happened. No proof could be found in any newspapers, obituaries or records.

The third case was a murder/suicide. This however did happen. A Mrs. Umperville had fled with her children to escape her abusive husband. He had found a way to track her down to the Deane House where he snuck in and murdered Mrs. Umperville before killing himself. The children were the first to find their bodies. This was recorded in the Calgary Herald on March 25th and 26th 1971. This is a tragic heartbreaking event and are two the only factual deaths to ever happen at the Deane House.

There is a record of a man dying of natural causes in the main parlour. It is believed that the man was Alex Brotherton who owned the house from 1954 until his death February 21, 1961

Black Friday

A local documentary The Mystery Of: The Deane House Vortex claimed that the Inglewood area was cursed by a mystical vortex located on the second floor of the Deane House. The documentary claims it has a connection to Albert Dick survivor of the Titanic as well as other “murders” in the area. The director of the film credits CAPI for its information and has been shown to make up their facts and witnesses. The original director of CAPI at the time states:

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"The person who made that film never asked CAPI for permission to use anything, including the name or logo, and the person claiming to be from CAPI is completely unknown to me or anyone at CAPI. I actually had YouTube remove that video years ago."

The documentary synopsis reads as follows:

“On the second floor of the one hundred year old Deane House in the community of Inglewood, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, lives an energy force that defies explanation. The existence of the energy force or more accurately the "vortex" in the Deane House has been confirmed by paranormal organizations and psychics. It is responsible for at least three murders, one suicide, and several mysterious deaths. It also keeps the dead from crossing over and as a result the quaint neighborhood is teeming with ghosts. The vortex is connected to incredible historic incidences such as the sinking of the Titanic and the World War Two prison break known as the "Great Escape". Murderers have complained of being possessed by an evil force they had no control over. Most intriguingly, the ghosts the Vortex keeps chained to Inglewood have been seen, heard, and photographed. Written by James Woodland”

Source imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1391103/

They also claim this vortex was responsible for a man named Philippe Laurier Gagnon to be driven insane. He would apparently commune with spirits haunting the bushes and fields of Fort Calgary and the Deane House. Gagnon spent some times in these areas communing with them. These spirits apparently convinced him to end his life which led to a shootout with police across the street from the Dean house. A tank was eventually driven through his house and Gagnon was killed.