This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories.

Sarah Winchester was a woman of independence, drive, and courage, who lives on in legend.

And the mansion she built is world-renowned, as much for the many design curiosities and innovation

as it is for the reported paranormal activity. Here to separate fact from fiction is Ashley Lubinsky. Ashley is the former

co-host of the Discovery Channel's Master of Arms, the former curator in charge of the Cody

Firearms Museum, and president of the Gun Code LLC. Here's Ashley.

Today I want to talk about a brilliant, charitable woman, but most people don't know her actual history because her name is Sarah Winchester.

If you're not familiar with that name, it is kind of an ominous history because a lot of people associate

her with her house out of San Jose, California. And it's been featured in pretty much every

ghost show that's ever happened. And it was also in a movie that Helen Mirren did by the

Winchester name, which is a loosely based, not historically accurate horror movie,

although I did like the horror movie.

Mrs. Winchester.

Why over in construction?

The spirit killed by the rifle.

We lock them away.

This spirit has a power we've not seen before.

But it's not, it doesn't do justice to who Sarah Winchester was.

So I'm not going to focus on that right now.

Let's just talk about who she was and where she came from and how she got to have this crazy rumor about her life.

Sarah was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and she actually came from a family of engineers

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