Petition to close McKamey Manor

I had already talked about McKamey Manor 4 years ago and how even then it was considered something more than just a “haunted house”.

The idea of its creator was to build an extreme haunted house, where participants could –voluntarily- experience some more thrills than the classic haunted houses that can be found in amusement parks. Soon, however, criticism arrived from people who claim that McKamey Manor is a home for torture in all respects.

Petition to close McKamey Manor

That’s why Frankie Towery opened a petition at change.org. Towery says it’s not an attraction, it’s a legalized torture house.

In order to enter McKamey Manor, in fact, you don’t go to an amusement park and pay the ticket. After filling in the forms, the Manor staff will choose the customers. And it is on this modality that one of Towery’s accusations is based, claiming that McKamey Manor’s staff choose the most emotionally fragile and manipulable people, so that the “tortures” will have more effect. According to Towery, the Manor’s interior would be subjected to torture in full swing, such as forced feeding or even waterboarding. And for this reason, many of the participants had to avail themselves of psychological help after this horror adventure.

Russ McKamey on the other hand, the creator of the disturbing horror attraction, claims that there’s no torture in his Manor and there are videos to prove it. Each “session” is recorded and can be viewed by the client who, as the creator of the house claims, often claims that he has been given too much cruel treatment.

40-page waiver

What’s certain is that , McKamey doesn’t want to be reported, and that’s why he protects himself with a 40-page waiver that aspiring competitors must sign before participating in the attraction. Moreover, only those who have reached the age of 21 (actually the age of majority in the United States is 18: 21 is the minimum drinking age) and have valid medical insurance can participate. And, of course, they must be willing to be “tortured” for about 10 hours.

But is this enough not to be considered a torturer?

If a person agreed to be tortured to the death, signing a release, would this cancel the crime? According to this reasoning, then, the German cannibal Armin Meiwes should not even be in prison. Or the tormentor of Sharon Lopatka. The petition has almost reached the required signatures (50,000). All that remains is to wait for the outcome of this request.

Update: what happened next

The petition went far beyond those 50,000 signatures (today it has almost 200,000), but McKamey Manor was not shut down. In 2023 Hulu devoted the documentary Monster Inside: America’s Most Extreme Haunted House to the case, with testimonies from former participants and collaborators, and soon afterwards the Tennessee Attorney General, Jonathan Skrmetti, opened an investigation, requesting documents and information from McKamey.

In July 2024 Russ McKamey was arrested at his home in Summertown on charges of attempted murder and rape of his girlfriend, but the charges were later dropped. He has always rejected all criticism. To date it is unclear whether, and in what form, the attraction is still running.

Sources

• McKamey Manor, Wikipedia
• WKRN, Attempted murder, rape charges against McKamey Manor owner dropped, 2024
• Law&Crime, Owner of terrifying Halloween attraction featured in Hulu documentary charged with attempted murder and rape, July 2024