McKamey Manor Arrest: Did Extreme Haunted House Owner Go Too Far?

Written By Kaelyn Moore

This past July, Russ McKamey (owner of the World's Most Intense Haunted Attraction, McKamey Manor) was arrested for attempted murder.

McKamey Manor is known for being an attraction where guests are physically and verbally abused. They can have teeth extracted without novocain, be buried alive, have their worst fears preyed upon amongst other things. Though guests are given a safe word to quit the experience, it is rarely respected.

Let's talk about what the charges were, why they were ultimately dropped, and look into the history of how McKamey Manor became the horror show it is.

TW: mention of domestic violence, descriptions of torture.

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SOURCES

https://www.countryliving.com/life/entertainment/a45460509/russ-mckamey-manor-history-controversy/

12. McKamey Manor- As one haunted era ends, another begins – San Diego Union-Tribune.pdf

TRANSCRIPT

On July 24th of this year, I saw an article that severely disturbed me. It did not surprise me, but it disturbed me nonetheless. 


It was an article about how a man, named Russ McKamey had been arrested for the attempted murder of his girlfriend, and was being held on a 100,000 dollar bond. Apparently, in the past week, he had tried to kill the woman who remained unnamed, twice.


Immediately, the story started spreading around the internet like wildfire, and it seemed like everyone had the same reaction that I did. They were horrified, but anyone who knew who Russ was always feared that he would one day try to kill someone. Some had even tried to alert the authorities prior to this. 


See, Russ was known to be a dark guy. For over a decade, he owned and operated an interactive haunted house, called McKamey Manor. But calling it a haunted house is the understatement of the century. 


McKamey manor was known to torture those who signed up for it. This was not your typical haunted attraction. People could have their teeth extracted without novocaine, or be waterboarded. People would leave with broken bones and PTSD as they tried to finish Russ’s haunted experience in 10 hours. And all of this was the dark creation of Russ, who would live stream the participant as they suffered on Facebook. People had been saying for ages that Russ did this because he enjoyed torture, while others said that the people who participated in this experience were consenting adults and Russ did nothing wrong. And now, someone close to him is claiming he tried to kill them.


Maybe you’re familiar with McKamey Manor, it’s been talked about for a while now, there’s even been documentaries about it, but not much else has come out since Russ’s arrest. So today, I want to go through the charges against Russ and revisit stories of the horror people have experienced in the house, because I promise you, it makes the house seem that much darker. 

This is Heart Starts Pounding, a podcast of Horrors, hauntings and mysteries. I’m your host in this grim adventure, Kaelyn Moore.


We release episodes every Wednesday at 10pm if you live in the appalachian mountains, that’s XXXX if you live by the beach in Australia where you can see the ghost ship of the XXX off the shore.


If you’re watching on youtube, remember to like the video and subscribe to this channel, and if you’re listening to the audio only version, ratings and reviews really help the show. And also they let me hear from you guys a bit more so I love when I get them.

Before we dive in today, let’s go through a few trigger warnings, I need to inform you what you’re getting yourself into. We’re going to talk about domestic violence as it pertains to the charges against Russ that were filed in July, there will be descriptions of torture, as well as other very gross stuff that happens inside of McKamey manor that still makes my stomach churn so, be warned.


I also want to say thank you to everyone who listens to the ad supported version of the show. I love podcasting because there are so many free options for people to listen. Our wonderful advertisers ensure that there will continue to be a free version for you all to enjoy, so a special thank you to them as well. You may also be watching the ad supported version of the show–that’s right, we are a few weeks into filming episodes. You can watch those on the Heart Starts Pounding YouTube channel which is also where I post a lot of shorter content so make sure you’re subscribed. And of course Patreon members can listen and watch Ad Free with their subscription. There’s a free trial if you want to test it out. I’ll drop the link to everything in the show notes. But no matter how you listen or watch– you’re supporting Heart Starts Pounding more than you know and I’m thankful for you. 


And with that, we’re going to take a short break, and then I want to tell you about what Russ was recently charged with. 

On a sunny day in southern california, Amy Mulligan sat near a hottub in the backyard of a two story home wearing a tweety bird onesie. 


In the front of the house, away from where Amy can see, a red van pulls up and two men in ski masks pop out. With them is a man dressed in what I can only describe as a spirit halloween doctor costume. He’s carrying a camera, and he records what happens next.


The men storm the backyard and force amy down on the concrete patio, where one of them ties her hands behind her back and  covers her eyes in duct tape. The men taunt her, slapping her in the face and asking why she’s laughing. For what is happening, Amy’s demeanor is calm.


She’s thrown into the back of the red van, and as she is, one of the masked men tells her, this is going to be the worst 7 hours of your life.


Amy doesn’t scream, she doesn’t plead for her life. She calmly sits there as the men slap her head and face and make snide jokes to one another. And that’s because this is an experience that Amy signed up for. This is part of McKamey Manor a quote “horror attraction” run by Russ McKamey.


Russ describes himself as an entertainer, a showman. I would describe him as Willy Wonka if he made traps from Saw alt: Willy Wonka with a personality disorder, Jigsaw if he was 


Because to him, it might LOOK bad, but he and his employees were totally in control of this performance, and Amy was completely safe the whole time. According to Russ, he had no bad intentions.


But On Friday, July 19th of this year, Russ McKamey was arrested on charges of attempted murder, rape and domestic assault. 


People Magazine reported that over the course of a week McKamey allegedly tried to kill a woman believed to be his girlfriend on Wednesday via strangulation, and assaulted her again on Thursday. He allegedly attempted to kill her again via strangulation and sexually assaulted her on Friday, per online records filed in Lawrence County in Tennessee.


Russ was originally held on a 1000 dollar  bond which he posted, but his bond was later set to one hundred thousand dollars after police learned the full extent of his abuse towards the woman. 


These charges are hard to read, and anyone who does that should be held accountable to the full extent of the law. But it becomes even harder to hear when you realize that as this was happening, Russ was already under investigation for his Manor 


Back in November of 2023, Russ received a letter from the Attorney General of Tennessee which starts off,


“Dear Mr. McKamey, This office is responsible for protecting the public interest, including enforcing consumer protection laws in Tennessee. I am writing to express serious concerns about McKamey Manor, the “extreme haunted attraction” you operate in Summertown, Tennessee”


Over the last few years, local police had received numerous concerning phone calls about the “extreme haunted attraction” Russ was running referenced in the letter, the same one Amy was participating in. Neighbors had called authorities after hearing a woman screaming so loudly from inside of the attraction, they thought she was being murdered. One neighbor witnessed a woman at the manor being dragged behind a truck with chains attached to her neck. They knew that this was supposed to be a haunted house, but from the outside it seemed like something out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre.


Each time police arrived, they were greeted by Russ, the graying man with pockmarked skin and wicked smile, who would assure them that the women were there consensually. Eventually, the woman who had been screaming so loudly she alerted neighbors who was found by police tied up in Russ’s storm cellar. 


But as I stayed up late one night, watching the video of Amy participating in Russ’s experience, back in 2015 I wondered if  she actually knew what she was getting herself into. 

In the video, the van bounces back and forth with Amy in the back and one of the masked assailants screams at her to stand up. They force her to spin around in a circle before pushing her against the door of the van. Stop Smiling, he yells. He then dumps some sort of red liquid all over her.

Eventually, the van stops, and the footage cuts to Amy inside a dark house somewhere. The assailant stands over her asking if she’s having second thoughts. “A little bit” she says, the duct tape is still covering her eyes so she has no idea where she is. 


But then, the masked man says something horrifying. Las Vegas is watching, do you understand that? (16:04)


Next, Russ can be heard off screen telling Amy that the brothers are going to come see her, and then the footage cuts out. A text screen appears saying that this next part couldn’t be shown, and when we cut back to Amy, she’s laying in a chest freezer, the kind my grandmother used to have in her basement. Except this one has a chain wrapped around it. Amy is inside, her hands zip tied together, laying in a small pool of black liquid. Her onesie is soaked and one of the assailants dumps the black liquid on her face, some of it gets into her mouth. 


We cut again, and this time, Amy is inside a coffin full of cockroaches. 


The video ends with Amy, sobbing, eyes covered. We can’t see who is above her, but Russ’s voice can be heard as well as a few other men. Amy is begging to stop, she says she wants to quit the experience, but Russ can be heard telling her they’re going to bring her back into the house. 32:30 Finally, as she shakes and cries, they let her quit


I could not believe what I was watching as the video ended. I love horror, I love haunted houses, but you can not tell me that this is a haunted house, this is something entirely different.


 The video had been posted 9 years ago and was never taken down, no one ever went to jail for what happened, and Russ was allowed to continue McKamey manor, even though I felt like I had just watched someone get tortured. 


Other videos I watched of other peoples experiences were similar. Participants, many of them women, were put through torture. Some were buried alive, some were held under water, and itonly ended when they were in a full state of panic, begging for Russ to stop. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euy_71_nvCw&rco=1 (1:25:16 - 1:25:39)


I looked up Amy afterwards, and though she had agreed to go through the Manor she had nothing but horrible things to say about her timethere. And some of what she revealed afterwards made it seem even worse than it looked. She claimed that after the brothers showed up, when the video cut out, that’s when the worst of the abuse happened. Her head was held under water and she begged for them to stop, but they wouldn’t, they pressured her to keep going. 


It turns out, Russ had been doing Version of McKamey Manor for a long time, and the way he got away with it is a little complicated. 

Russ claims he opened his first haunted house in 1989, when he was in the US navy stationed in California. According to Russ, he was a normal, straight edge conservative guy with a penchant for horror. He loved to go above and beyond for halloween, making attractions that were bigger than anything anyone had seen. 


At this time, his haunted houses were pretty standard and fun for the family, and in 2000, he started to share content from a his kid friendly haunted house he ran in his backyard on Youtube. Kids were allowed to work there, but Russ started to quickly push the envelope on what the house was offering. Eventually, word started spreading that it was the most intense haunted house in america and the wait list to enter grew exponentially. Russ then stopped allowing kids in the house, and he required people have medical clearance 


By 2012, Russ ran the small operation with his long term girlfriend Carol. The tour lasted anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and Only 3-4 groups of four people max were let in per night. the tour also only happened during the Halloween season. There was a mildly alarming waiver to enter, however, and Carol warned guests may be touched, bumped, bruised over even cut during this experience.


But when you entered, it became apparent that this was no ordinary Haunted House. It was a dark dungeon-like labyrinthine, and Russ would be there recording your every step so he could put it on his youtube channel. The sets were covered in gorey animatronics, fake severed body parts. Actors would shove guests' heads into dirty toilets, and lock them in empty freezers and coffins. It was extremely physical, you could expect to get pushed, shoved, have your hair pulled, and even have your head covered with a burlap sack. 


Guests were pushed to the point of crying and screaming for their mothers from the mental exhaustion and physical torment. 


IN 2013, Russ moved McKamey Manor out of his backyard, and got a bigger space in San Diego, and this is when the media really caught wind of his operation. 


It’s featured on the Travel Channel as one of the most outrageous amateur haunted house in the country. Russ claims that the wait list to get in is as long as 27,000 people, and that he only accepts reservations now. He also wont accept groups larger than 2 people because he wants to make sure that the experience can be personalized. He also starts to claim that there is a 20,000 dollar prize for whoever can make it through the entire experience. 


The price of admission, just a bag of dog food. His girlfriend, Carol, fostered dogs. 


Two men that worked at the attraction at this time were Andrew Sweeney and Ryan lawrence, and everything they had to say about working there makes me feel exponentially worse. Both men said that they enjoyed having the authority to inflict force upon innocent strangers. They called it a stress reliever without lines. Andrew Sweeney even said that brutalizing guests was how he got out his aggression. 


That was the type of person who worked there when Amy found the manor, and decided to sign up. But she didn’t know that. 


And you can’t really blame her, because publicly, Russ was severely downplaying the extremeness of the house. He’d say things like 


“This is a game. This [experience] is solely for entertainment so we don’t ever want to hurt somebody physically or mentally. If there was really a hospital or police involved, there would be lawsuits and I would be in jail”


Amy said that she had expected an “unpleasant and scary tour”. She didn’t realize that the people who worked there all got off on abusing people. 


But there was a reason people felt like they couldn’t leave once they signed up. Even when It got really, really dangerous. See, Russ required each person who entered the house to sign a contract, but they weren’t allowed to see that contract until they arrived. Some participants admitted to being shocked by the contents of this contract, but they felt like they had to sign it because they had made it all the way out to Russ’s property


I read through this whole contract, and let me tell you, it’s shocking. So shocking I had to share it with someone, so here I am explaining it to my sibling, Leo.

So I've been suffering all day trying to read this contract and I decided if I have to suffer through it, uh, someone else needs to also. So Leo, I felt like you were the person I needed to call.


Thank you, thank you. 

I'm not a lawyer, I've never practiced law, but I truly do not think that this is legally binding.


 You know what, Leo, you're probably right in that sense. So let me, , read through some of it for you. So it starts with, , by signing this contract, I state your name. Do herein voluntarily agree to participate in the below listed activities that will take place at McKinney Manor,  participant fully understands that McKamey Manor is an extremely physical and then doesn't say extremely physical what that's a typo. And that participant may. Leave McKamey Manor with bumps, bruises, cuts, and or possible injuries, including possible broken bones.


Participant understands that injuries are never on purpose at McKamey Manor and participant is fully aware of the risks and takes full responsibility.  Participant agrees and understands that your life is In reality, not in danger and that this is just a game.


Okay,  okay,


said they might accidentally break your bones, but you're not really in danger, even though they might accidentally do something that would result in a broken bone.


They might accidentally injure you for life.  


Participant understands and agrees that they are not being beat up, kicked, slugged, or actually physically harmed. So you're just crazy if your bone gets broken. 


 And then you have point 28 where it's, Participant fully understands that by signing this waiver, they are giving McKamey Manor permission to keep nothing off the table, except sexual or inappropriate situations. Everything else imaginable can and will happen inside of McKamey Manor. for your time.


You are aware of this and are giving full permission for any action that may happen inside of McKamey Manor.


But If they are stating that, like, none of things A, B, and C are you actually getting beat up,  they can also claim, like, well, that also wasn't inappropriate, that also wasn't sexual, like,


Right. Yeah, they said nothing inappropriate, but you didn't define that term.


but inappropriate is so vague, what inappropriate is to you is different to someone else, it's just like, disgusting.


Participant acknowledges and agrees that it is 100 percent of the participant's responsibility to use the safe phrase if they feel they are suffering from any bodily injury, from any mental impairment, or if the tour becomes too much for the participant in any way.


 Participant agrees to and understands they might come into contact with electrical stimulation. Participant understands and agrees that they will absolutely get cuts, severe bruising, and or swelling due to open handed striking on their face and other physical content, which could result in a black eye and possible rope burns to the face, neck, arms, hands, legs, or feet.


But this isn't torture.  That's what


Okay,


not torture.


previously they were like you might get bruises, you might get bumps and scrapes, like, that's a possibility, and then this is saying you absolutely will. It's like, girl, pick one. 


This is 23 pages by the way, and I'm on six.


Yeah, and how many spelling errors have there been? 


 Participant fully understands and agrees that if they are selected to visit the dentist, they may have a tooth extracted without Novocaine and will not hold McKamey Manor liable.


Be so for real right now.


Oh, you're not even, let me just fire off these next few.


This is like stressing me out. 


Participant fully understands and agrees that MK Ultra, parentheses, mind control may be used. Participant fully understands and agrees that water torture, they use the word torture after not calling it torture, that water torture may be used.


Participant fully understands and agrees that a nail may pierce their hand. That their hands may be smashed with tools. That their nails may be removed From their nail beds.  Medication may be given that induces hallucinations or sedatives given in pill form or by hypodermic needle at McKamey Manor's discretion.


But it's not torture and it's not meant to harm you, according to them at the beginning of what we read. Participant fully understands and agrees that they may have a plastic bag or plastic wrap on their face, which could possibly cause suffocation. blackouts, and participant will not hold McKamey Manor responsible or liable.


We're gonna drug you, give you stigmata, remove your teeth, smash your hands, and we also might inject you with God knows what. Are those needles. Being reused. I wouldn't doubt it.


So this is where it gets really scary, because it's the rules about quitting.


It hasn't gotten scary yet? Oh my god.


No, it gets worse, believe me. Participant fully understands and agrees that there is no quitting until the staff of McKamey Manor stops the show due to completion or because Participant is at a physical or psychological level that it is best that the tour be stopped.


 Time out, time out, time out. But they said that participants can stop the Torah any time with the safe word, so which is it? Either participants can stop it with, with the safe word, or they can't until It's either complete or they're at their limit. Also, how are you gonna know their limit? I'm sorry I'm getting like so riled up about this.


Participant fully agrees and demands that they want to push themselves as hard as possible while inside the McKamey Manor tour, no matter how many times the participant may say that they want out of the tour, participant is being clear that no matter what they say, participant wants the tour to continue. 


This sucks. This place is dumb. 


Dumb is putting it likely. Dangerous is more accurate. According to this contract, Russ wouldn’t have to respect your safe word, and could continue the tour if he wanted to.


I know what you may be thinking, because it was the first thought I had as well. How the hell is any of this legal, and also, what kind of lawyer would write a contract like that? One that graphically describes torture and admits that use of a safeword is null. Well, I asked my friend Paul, who happens to be a lawyer, for some insight. 

Is this even a legally binding document if you sign it?


I just want to be upfront that nothing I'm saying should be construed as, like, legal advice, but at least as a thought experiment, I certainly think there's, like, enough wrong here that, uh, you could, like, make a strong case that this contract's not enforceable.


I mean, for starters, like, A judge can't enforce a contract to do something illegal, and, you know, I'm not familiar with every state's laws, and I kind of wasn't super clear on if this was California or Tennessee, but, like, a quick Google search suggests that torture is illegal in both states, so, you know.


I would hope, yeah, yeah. And it's funny, like at the beginning of the contract, it says this, you are acknowledging that this is not torture. And then it goes on to use torture like six more times in the document.


you like nailed something that I like highlighted a thousand times. I mean like  there's a sentence in here that says, you know, I'll this is not torture. You're not torturing, but then like five sentences later it says you agree that we can use medieval torture devices on you and we can use like. 


That's just, it contradicts itself left and right.


you know, in one breath, it says like,


 We're going to give you a safe word and you can use the safe word at any time and we'll stop. But then there's also like 10 other instances in here where it says we're not stopping under any circumstances.


And you agree that , we're going to keep going no matter what. So it's like, you don't really know what you're standing up for in that sense. There's like some misrepresentation.


a big thing that stood out to me too, was how, uh, The sections where it says you understand we won't stop under any circumstance and it doesn't make an exception for the safe word.


Yeah. And so it's like, that could be. I don't know, that's like misrep, maybe misrepresentation, it's like how could a person understand the rules of the own contract that they're signing 


Does it feel like it was drafted by a lawyer? I


 It seems like a Frankenstein's monster. Like I kind of think that I can see when it turned into someone's just like coming up with every scenario under the sun because there's like,  there's like 16 sections here that have, like, headings.


, and they're just normal contract headings. , and then there's like an additional  130 sections that are just like, you agree that we can bury you alive.


Look, I wouldn't be crazy surprised if, , this guy, I don't know, maybe he had a lawyer help him for at least the first part and then took Microsoft Word and went to town 


Would you ever advise a client to sign this contract?


I wouldn't advise, like, my worst enemy to sign this. 

In 2017, public outcry became so overwhelming, that Russ was forced to move McKamey Manor out of San Diego. He first tried to move to Illinois, but locals blocked the property, slashed tires, and harassed Russ until they had to abandon the property. Eventually, he moved his attraction to Summerville, Tennessee, and claimed that a second part of the property was in Alabama for guests who make it to the second round. However, no one has ever been able to make it that far. 


It’s in Tennessee where Russ turns the tour into a one person at a time, 36 hour event. Already at this point there are issues with the use of the safe word, using it doesn’t do anything unless Russ DECIDES you’re ready to stop, and now that the tours are just one person at a time, the tour becomes far more dangerous. No one is there to stand up for the participants. 


The tour also changes a bit. In tennessee, it starts with a physical orientation led by Holly, Russ’s Girlfriend at the time on the property, which is at least four hours. These activities could be swimming through a 200 yard muddy trench or swimming in a tank of eels. 


Those who passed are moved onto something called Caedis Silvis (which translates roughly to murder in the woods) That part was psychological torture and it’s been said that most people couldn’t last more than four to five hours. Then guests would be transported to the Hunstville final destination, but no one has ever made it that far11. But it promised to be a three-hour one-on-one experience with Russ based on psychological terrorism. 


Russ has a series of girlfriends during this time, one of them was a woman named Susan Kaplan, and she had some really disturbing things to say.


Susan gave an audio only recount of her time with Russ, where she details how Russ encouraged her to go through the experience multiple times. Russ would cover her head with a hood and spray her with water to simulate being waterboarded. During one activity she expressed she was afraid she was going to die, and his response was that at least it would happen on camera.


Other girlfriends of Russ’s as well as people close to Russ and McKamey manor have come forward and said that Russ enjoyed watching his girlfriends suffer during the experience. He allegedly made one that was a vegetarian eat meat, another girlfriend said she was basically beat up for six hours. 


Eventually, in 2023, Hulu releases a documentary about McKamey Manor called, Monster Inside, and that really brings a lot of negative attention to Russ and his house of horrors. He sued Hulu for over 8 million dollars, but a lot of the damage had been done, and that’s when the attorney general in Lawrence County started investigating Russ.   

I watched a few of Russ’s youtube videos of people being tortured during the experience, and while I feel like I have watched basically snuff films, there is one thing that really spooks me, that I haven’t been able to find any answers on. When one of the guys in Russ’s house told Amy “Las Vegas is watching”. In Russ’s contract, there is a section that reads


“Participant agrees that their entire Tour will be viewed by a live audience in Las Vegas, the Philippines, and/or Thailand and that they will act appropriately”


I haven’t been able to figure out if this is true or not, but if it is true it might clear up one question I have which is, How was Russ making any money if he only required Dog Food from guests. Was he selling this footage on a live stream? There have been rumors that people in Vegas and or the Phillippines were making bets on contestants, but I haven’t been able to find any concrete evidence about that. 

The most plausible theory I can think of, is like with a lot of things, Russ was just a liar. He had no problem lying to guests about safety and safewords and whatever else to get them inside. Maybe he was lying about this too. 


But Russ insists that he’s a good man, and that the charges against him are part of a larger smear campaign against McKamey Manor. And as I write this episode, all of the charges against Russ have actually been dropped against him, the attempted murder, the kidnapping, all of it. The attorney general decided that there wasn’t enough to there to prosecute Russ.

Here’s what I’ll say about all of this. I’m a very “To each their own” kind of person. If you want to pay someone to slap you around, go for it. I actually think that would do some people a lot of good. 


But the problem with all of this is that Russ seems to have taken away participants ability to consent. In Tennessee, you can revoke your consent at any time. If you consent to getting slapped three times and after the first one you think, huh that was dumb maybe I shouldnt have agreed to this, you can revoke that consent. ALSO, in the united states, you can’t legally consent to serious bodily injury. Russ was having people sign up to get seriously hurt and not allowing them to withdraw that consent. JAIL! JAIL I SAY!


As of Today, McKamey manor is still open. Russ is a free man. He posts on facebook, kind of a lot. His attorney put out a statement about the dropped charges that read “there is a prominent trend in our culture for exploiting victim status for attention and relevance, which makes dedicating resources to justice for real victims more difficult than it should be.” Which, take that for what you will


Regardless of what the truth behind those charges are, we know that Russ has a hard time respecting boundaries, and has a penchant for inflicting torture. So if you’re thinking of going to MacKamey manor, maybe reconsider, especially if you’re a woman. 


And If you’re considering doing any extreme haunts this halloween season, please be careful. And if you’re hosting any extreme haunts because you see that as a way to let off steam, maybe try something else. I’ve heard people like mindful meditation. Maybe go for a jog and have a snack and see how you feel. I don’t know guys,

Kaelyn Moore
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