"The Shack"

Worklab and torture chamber for one of Rhode Island's most famous serial killers, Theodore Romone Marsden. "Uncle Ted" killed at least nineteen boys between the ages of 9 and 17 between 1992 and 2000, when he turned himself in to police. Neighbors in the area have famously been compared to those Germans living outside of concentration camps for their baffled and genuine-seeming reports to police that they had no idea what was going on, despite what every one interviewed later admitted to be a penetrating smell of "just death" (Leonora Hoolbrooke, 64, neighbor) around the site, along with pounding and screaming that could be heard for many blocks.

Uncle Ted turned himself in to police in May of 2000. The police, at the time, had no leads and no suspects. Uncle Ted walked into the Washington Street police station carrying a curved claw hammer encrusted in dried body fluids and calmly asked to be put to death. The most oft-repeated line from his confession is actually a misquote. He did not say that "They're coming back," but instead, "They've come back."

Screams, knocking, and smell from within the shack are thought to be constant, but in reality only manifest themselves whenever a witness is present within hearing- or smelling-distance. Mechanical recording devices do not trigger the smells or sounds.