Ryder’s Mansion. A building with a wealth of history shrouded in mystery, with rumors ranging from it being a hideout for mobsters in the 70’s to the mansion being the location of several murders and deaths. These rumors are so incredulous that it’s almost hard to believe any of it could be true.

Ryder’s Mansion was built and owned by Joan and Ed Ryder.

“I worked at the Tower, and that’s the only place [Joan Ryder, the owner of the mansion,] would eat and I was the only waitress. She didn’t want anybody else waiting on her. That was quite the place to be when you’re a teenager. But I ended up being engaged to one of her sons,” former employee at Ryder’s Mansion Sheilah Vice said.

Both of the Ryders had children of their own before they married. One of these children, the son of Ed Ryder, was a boy named Jimmy.

“The hauntings never started until Jimmy Ryder died in a car accident. I was 18 and Jimmy was probably a year younger than me when he died. He got killed in a car accident right [in front of] the mansion. I went to his funeral, and after that day, things were happening,” Vice said.

“After Jimmy died, we would hear him in his room. And Mike and I would get up but there would be nobody in there. It sounded like it was coming from the closet. It was like he was trying to get dressed,” Vice said.

After Jimmy’s death, there were several other incidents of mysterious or strange events happening at the mansion.

“The stereo would change radio stations. I would have it on a rock station and it would change. I would get a Rolla radio station really good and I would be cleaning house, rocking out and it would change and all of a sudden, it would go from rock and roll all the way to the other end to country western. That was Jimmy’s music,” Vice said.

Sheilah Vice wasn’t the only one who noticed strange or unexplainable events ,such as this occurring, either.

“[One time] my son was laying on the couch in the living room and my boyfriend and I were down at the lake. It was only the three of us at the house. We had locked and shut the doors, and we went to the lake. My boyfriend and I, we came back from fishing and my son was like ‘ha ha you guys are really funny,’ and [my boyfriend] Pat said ‘well I think it’s pretty funny that we got you dinner,’ because we had caught some bass and we were going to clean it up. And he said ‘No, I’m talking about you walking around the couch while I’m trying to sleep, just keep walking in circles, walking in circles.’ Pat said, ‘We haven’t been up here at all,’ and he said, ‘oh let me see your shoes,’ and he looked at Patrick’s shoes and saw that he had tennis shoes on. My son said, ‘Where are those cowboy boots? It was cowboy boots I heard,’ And Pat said, ‘Son you’ve known me for years, have you ever seen me in a pair of cowboy boots?’ [However,] that’s all Jimmy Ryder wore. Cowboy boots,” Vice said.

The possible ghost of Jimmy Ryder isn’t the end of all the unnerving events which took place at Ryder’s Mansion, either. After Jimmy died, Joan and Ed Ryder divorced. After they were divorced, the mansion was sold to a man named Alan Malowksi.

“Ed Ryder traded the mansion and the thousand acres and the other two houses [on the property] for an empty warehouse in St. Louis. everybody thought he was crazy,” Vice said.

Following the departure of both Joan and Ed, Sheilah Vice and her family also moved out of the mansion for a time. During the time while Vice was away from the mansion, more unsettling events occurred. The mansion was left more or less alone, with no occupant to take care of things and watch over everything.

“Later in life, I got a call from a guy who bought the mansion, and the man asked if me I would like to live in his home. Kids were vandalizing it and he wanted to know if I wanted to move back in, and I did. I moved back in after Judy Spencer got
murdered there,” Vice said.

Judy Spencer was a Salem resident and the victim of a murder that took place at Ryder’s Mansion

“[Judy] was very beautiful. She worked in the hospital and was a nurse and she was dating a lot of the doctors there. Her car was found on FF bridge and the lights and the car was running. It was someone she knew and they attacked her and took her into the mansion. They actually convicted someone, Doc Nash. Judy had his skin under her fingernails,” Vice said.

“Jimmy, I don’t think he realized he was dead because it happened so quickly. And he was so young and when you’re young, you don’t even think about death. [After Judy] the vibe was a little different because she was mad and Jimmy wasn’t mad, he was on his way home. He was happy, so it was good spirit, and I would not say Judy was a bad spirit, but I would say that she was really upset,” Vice said.

“When you go downstairs, there’s a whole room full of doors and when my kids and I lived there, we kept every door closed and you could still hear these doors slamming all night long. And they’re big doors, they’re mansion doors. So I guess the owners thought if they took the doors off, they would stop slamming the doors. But that didn’t help. I think when [Judy Spencer tried to] get away from [her killer], she ran through the house. But the house is so big, and I think when she got upstairs, she knew she was trapped,” Vice said.

While Ryder’s Mansion has many mysteries to it, and there are many inexplicable and haunting events which took place at and around the mansion with uncertain details, there is at least one thing about the mansion that Sheilah Vice is sure of.

“The spirit does not want you all there. It took a while for the spirit to accept my daughter and my
son and I. Jimmy knew me for years before he died in that car wreck and he’s one of the spirits. They took it easy on my family, but the other people that have lived there after that…” Vice said.