Inside Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum: Cursed Objects, Ghost Stories & Dark Tourism in Las Vegas

Hello, spooky cats!

Las Vegas has casinos, giant hotels, elaborate shows, neon lights, questionable decisions made at 2:00 in the morning...

And one enormous mansion filled with supposedly cursed objects.

Obviously, we had to go.

Zak Bagans’ The Haunted Museum has been on my dark-tourism list for a long time. If you watch paranormal television, you know Zak Bagans. He is the host and executive producer of Ghost Adventures, where he and his crew travel to reportedly haunted locations and attempt to communicate with whatever might still be hanging around. Discovery still describes the series as following Bagans and his team into supposedly haunted locations for overnight paranormal investigations.

Now, I should probably explain my position on Zak before we go any farther.

I enjoy Ghost Adventures.

I have watched plenty of it.

I also don't personally put what happens on Ghost Adventures into the same category as a controlled scientific paranormal investigation. To me, Zak is an entertainment-first ghost hunter. Television has to be dramatic. People need to keep watching after the commercial break.

That does not mean I don't enjoy the show.

And love him or hate him, Zak Bagans has become one of the most recognizable people in modern paranormal entertainment.

So when he filled a historic Las Vegas mansion with allegedly haunted dolls, cursed paintings, murder memorabilia, pieces of infamous haunted houses, serial-killer artifacts and something called the Dybbuk Box...

Yes.

Take my money.

Who Is Zak Bagans?

According to Bagans' official museum biography, his fascination with creepy objects started when he was young. He says he searched garage sales for unusual collectibles and spent time around his mother's antique shop. He credits a paranormal experience in a Michigan apartment in 2002 with pushing him toward investigating ghosts more seriously. That eventually led to the original Ghost Adventures documentary in 2006.

The Ghost Adventures television series followed in 2008 and turned Bagans, Aaron Goodwin and eventually the larger crew into paranormal-TV celebrities. The show is still airing on Discovery.

Over the years, Bagans also started collecting objects with macabre histories or alleged paranormal attachments.

Eventually, he needed somewhere to put all of them.

Apparently a normal display cabinet wasn't going to cut it.

So he bought a mansion.

The Museum Is Inside a Historic Las Vegas Mansion

The building is almost as interesting as the collection.

The Haunted Museum occupies the historic Wengert Mansion at 600 East Charleston Boulevard, near downtown Las Vegas.

The Tudor Revival home was built in 1938 for Cyril S. and Lottie Wengert and was designed by architect H. Clifford Nordstrom. At the time, it was one of the largest residences in Las Vegas. The Wengerts were prominent in the city's business and civic life; Cyril Wengert was involved in the development of the utility company that eventually became NV Energy, and both he and Lottie participated in numerous local organizations. The mansion was placed on the City of Las Vegas Historic Property Register in 2016.

The Wengert family owned the house until 1972. Afterward, the property was used by businesses including law offices and title companies before Bagans transformed it into the Haunted Museum.

The museum officially opened to the public in October 2017.

So even without the paranormal collection, you are walking through an actual piece of old Las Vegas history.

Is the Wengert Mansion Haunted Too?

Naturally.

It wouldn't be Zak Bagans' museum if the building were described as completely normal.

The museum says previous occupants reported spirits inside the mansion and that former owners confirmed stories of unusual rituals taking place in the basement during the 1970s. Those claims are part of the museum's own history and presentation, rather than independently established evidence of paranormal activity.

The basement becomes especially important if you buy the upgraded ticket.

More on that in a minute.

Entering the Haunted Museum

The outside of the museum doesn't fully prepare you for how large the experience is once you get inside.

The museum currently advertises more than 30 themed rooms, connected through twisting hallways and passages.

Unfortunately, there is a catch for anyone making a YouTube video.

You generally cannot film inside.

During our visit, there was one early area where we were allowed to record, but after that the cameras had to go away.

That is why this is one of those places where I can show you the outside and tell you what happened afterward, but if you really want to see everything...

You have to go inside yourself.

Which I suspect is exactly the point.

The Haunted Fortune Teller

Near the beginning of our visit, we encountered a fortune-telling machine.

We were asked for a dollar.

My advice?

Have the dollar.

We did it and received a little printed fortune as an extra souvenir.

Did my fortune reveal the secrets of my future?

Not particularly.

Do I still have the creepy little piece of paper?

Of course I do.

Paranormal investigators collect data.

Spooky Cat Ladies collect haunted fortune-teller receipts.

General Admission or RIP All Access?

We chose the upgraded RIP All Access ticket.

At the time we visited, our tickets were $79 and included a Haunted Museum T-shirt, RIP lanyard and access to additional areas.

Those prices have changed since our trip.

As of August 2026, the museum's official website lists regular admission at $54 and RIP All Access at $88. The RIP ticket currently includes the badge and lanyard, a T-shirt and access to restricted portions of the tour. The museum is open Wednesday through Monday and closed Tuesday, so the schedule has also changed since the information in our original video. Always check before going.

The museum estimates the regular experience at around two hours, although depending on your tour and the extras you choose, you can spend longer inside.

We were in there for quite a while.

There is a LOT to see.

Should You Get the RIP Ticket?

If you like scary attractions and aren't bothered by tight spaces or darkness, I would.

The upgraded experience gave us access to additional areas that general admission didn't include.

Some sections were extremely dark.

And when I say dark, I mean dark.

If you are claustrophobic or become uncomfortable in pitch-black environments, you may want to skip certain optional portions. We were given opportunities not to enter some of the more intense spaces.

But I paid extra.

I was going in.

If something was going to drag me into the darkness, at least I was going to get my money's worth.

This Is Part Museum, Part Haunted Attraction

One thing you should understand before visiting is that this isn't a traditional museum where you silently wander from glass display case to glass display case reading little plaques.

The atmosphere is intentionally theatrical.

Lighting, darkness, sound, narrow passages, creepy displays and storytelling are all part of the experience.

That is another reason I consider Zak an entertainment paranormal investigator.

He understands presentation.

The building is designed to make you uncomfortable before anyone even tells you that the object in front of you might be haunted.

From a paranormal-testing perspective, that creates a problem.

From a dark-tourism perspective?

It's extremely fun.

The Crying Boy Paintings

One of the objects I find most fascinating isn't a doll or a demon box.

It's a painting of a sad little kid.

Because apparently even wall décor can decide to kill you.

Welcome to The Crying Boy.

Versions of the Crying Boy paintings became enormously popular in Europe. The best-known images are associated with artist Bruno Amadio, who worked under the name Giovanni Bragolin. Researchers believe he created roughly 20 to 30 different crying-child portraits, and inexpensive reproductions became extremely common during the 1960s and 1970s.

Then something very strange happened.

People started blaming them for house fires.

The Curse of the Crying Boy

In 1985, British tabloid The Sun published a story claiming that firefighters repeatedly found Crying Boy pictures surviving inside homes that had been badly damaged by fire.

One heavily publicized case involved Ron and May Hall in South Yorkshire. Their home was devastated, yet their Crying Boy print reportedly survived.

Soon other people began coming forward with similar stories.

House burns.

Crying Boy survives.

Another house burns.

Another creepy child is still staring sadly at everyone from the wall.

And suddenly Britain had a cursed-painting panic.

Eventually The Sun encouraged readers to send in their paintings so they could be destroyed.

People did.

Lots of them.

The newspaper held a giant Halloween bonfire and burned piles of Crying Boy pictures.

That is one way to handle interior decorating.

But Did the Crying Boy Paintings Really Cause Fires?

Probably not.

Researchers who later examined the legend found ordinary causes for many of the fires, including cigarettes and cooking accidents. An experiment conducted with one of the prints also found that the picture was surprisingly difficult to burn. Researchers suggested the hard compressed board and fire-resistant coating could explain why some prints survived fires better than surrounding furniture, curtains and other household items.

That makes this one of my favorite kinds of paranormal stories.

Something genuinely strange happened:

The paintings sometimes survived fires.

People then added another conclusion:

Therefore the paintings caused the fires.

Those are two very different claims.

The legend is creepy.

The evidence for a supernatural fire-starting painting is considerably less impressive.

Examples of the Crying Boy paintings have been part of Bagans' collection, and a skeptical investigator who toured the museum reported seeing two of them displayed there.

I still wouldn't hang one directly above my stove.

Just in case.

The Dybbuk Box

Then we come to one of the museum's biggest celebrities.

The Dybbuk Box.

The museum promotes it as one of the world's most haunted objects and displays the little wooden cabinet behind layers of protection.

During our visit, there were religious objects and other protective measures surrounding it.

The message was basically:

Do not mess with this box.

Fine by me.

I'm skeptical.

I'm not stupid.

The Legend of the Dybbuk Box

The popular story says the cabinet contains a malicious spirit known as a dybbuk and was originally connected to a Holocaust survivor.

Previous owners allegedly experienced nightmares, illness, strange smells, shadow figures and terrible luck.

The object became so famous that its legend helped inspire the 2012 horror movie The Possession.

That sounds fantastic.

But this is where things get VERY interesting for skeptical paranormal investigators.

The Dybbuk Box Has a Major Problem

The documented Dybbuk Box story appears to begin with Kevin Mannis, who placed the cabinet on eBay in 2003 with an elaborate supernatural backstory.

Years later, Mannis publicly said that he had created the Dybbuk Box story himself. Skeptical investigator Kenny Biddle documented Mannis describing himself as the original creator of the story and challenging anyone to find historical references to “Dybbuk Boxes” predating his eBay listing.

Mannis later told a journalist even more directly that the Dybbuk Box was a story he created and described it as an interactive horror story that developed in real time.

That changes things.

A dybbuk is a genuine concept from Jewish folklore—a possessing or restless spirit.

But the idea that there was a long-established Jewish tradition involving haunted “Dybbuk Boxes” does not appear to have existed before the modern story surrounding this particular cabinet.

So is the box haunted anyway?

That's a different question.

But its famous origin story should not be presented as established historical fact.

And to me, that actually makes the object fascinating for a completely different reason.

It is a perfect example of modern paranormal folklore being created in real time.

Peggy the Doll

Then there is Peggy.

No thank you, Peggy.

Peggy is one of the museum's most famous allegedly haunted dolls. The museum warns visitors that people have claimed to experience nosebleeds, fainting and other physical reactions around her, and visitors are traditionally told to treat her politely.

During our visit, the rule was basically:

Say hello.

Be respectful.

And make sure you say goodbye before leaving.

Otherwise Peggy might follow you home.

Did I believe a doll was going to get on the plane with us?

Probably not.

Did I say goodbye?

Absolutely.

Scientific skepticism does not prevent manners.

Why Haunted Dolls Work So Well

Haunted dolls are almost perfect paranormal objects psychologically.

They have faces.

They have eyes.

They look human without being human.

Our brains are already programmed to pay attention to faces and eyes, which makes an old doll sitting motionless in a dark room incredibly effective at generating discomfort.

Then someone tells you:

“She doesn't like when people stare at her.”

Congratulations.

You will now spend the next five minutes monitoring every sensation in your body.

Did I just get a headache?

Why is my arm tingling?

Was I dizzy before?

Did her eyes move?

Expectation is extremely powerful.

That doesn't prove Peggy isn't haunted.

It means any serious test of Peggy would need to control for suggestion.

I would LOVE to do that experiment.

Put Peggy and several supposedly non-haunted creepy dolls behind identical covers.

Don't tell the participants which one is Peggy.

Measure reported physical sensations.

Now we're ghost hunting.

The Demon House Staircase

Another major exhibit comes from the infamous Demon House in Gary, Indiana.

This one has a genuinely bizarre documented history.

In 2011, Latoya Ammons moved into a rental house on Carolina Street in Gary with her mother and three children. The family later reported an escalating series of disturbing events, including strange noises, swarms of flies, alleged possession and bizarre behavior from the children.

The case eventually involved police, medical personnel, Indiana's Department of Child Services and a Catholic priest who performed exorcisms. A case manager and hospital nurse reported seeing one of the children move backward up a wall.

There were also skeptical explanations and serious questions surrounding the family's claims, so I would not call the case proof of demons. Skeptical investigators have challenged parts of the story and noted similarities to earlier possession narratives.

But unlike a random internet ghost story, there really were police officers, social workers, medical professionals and clergy involved.

That makes the case fascinating whether you believe the paranormal explanation or not.

Zak Bought the Demon House

After the story became famous, Bagans bought the Gary property in 2014 for a reported $35,000 and began investigating it for what eventually became his documentary Demon House.

He later demolished the house.

But he kept the staircase.

Because of course he did.

Today, the Haunted Museum displays the original staircase and material from the property as part of its Demon House exhibit.

There is something undeniably creepy about seeing an actual physical piece of a location connected to such a strange case.

Whether demons ever climbed those stairs is another matter.

Jack Kevorkian's Van

One of the darkest exhibits isn't paranormal at all.

It is Dr. Jack Kevorkian's van.

Kevorkian became internationally famous—and extremely controversial—for helping terminally ill people end their lives. He was associated with more than 130 assisted deaths and was ultimately convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 after personally administering a lethal injection to Thomas Youk, a man with advanced ALS.

One of Kevorkian's earliest assisted deaths took place inside a Volkswagen van after other locations had refused him space.

The Haunted Museum now displays Kevorkian's van and presents reports of paranormal activity associated with it.

This was one of those exhibits that made the museum feel less like a haunted attraction and more like true dark tourism.

Whatever you believe about ghosts, the van's connection to death is real.

Dark Tourism and Real Human Tragedy

This is where museums like this become complicated.

There are entertaining haunted dolls.

There are creepy paintings.

There are ghost stories.

Then suddenly you are looking at objects connected to real deaths.

The museum also contains true-crime and serial-killer material, including items associated with Charles Manson and other notorious criminals. The collection has included Manson's false teeth, artwork and other unusual artifacts connected to him.

Those displays can be fascinating from a historical and psychological perspective.

But I think dark tourism works best when we remember that the killers weren't movie villains.

Real people were harmed.

The victims are the important part of the story.

The Supposed Bela Lugosi Mirror

Another object I remembered from the museum was a mirror connected to Bela Lugosi, the legendary actor who played Dracula in the 1931 Universal film.

The museum's story has connected the mirror to Lugosi and to occult practices such as scrying.

It is a fantastic story.

Unfortunately, it also has some serious historical problems.

Was It Really Bela Lugosi's Mirror?

Skeptical investigator Kenny Biddle researched the object's provenance and contacted representatives of the Lugosi family.

He found no documentation establishing that Lugosi owned the mirror. He also found problems with claims connecting Lugosi to the house where the mirror supposedly hung. The Lugosi family told him they had no records linking the actor to the mirror and no evidence supporting stories that Lugosi practiced occult scrying.

The mirror does appear to have been associated with the family of film producer and attorney Frank Saletri, who was murdered in his Hollywood home in 1982, but the leap from that history to “Bela Lugosi's cursed occult mirror” is far less secure.

Again, this is exactly why I like researching paranormal objects.

The museum gives you the legend.

Then you go home and start pulling at the threads.

Sometimes the story gets stronger.

Sometimes it completely falls apart.

The Devil's Rocking Chair

The museum also displays what it calls the Devil's Rocking Chair, which it connects to Ed and Lorraine Warren and the possession case that eventually inspired The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. The museum describes the chair as an object associated with the alleged entity involved in that case.

The Warrens remain among the most famous—and controversial—figures in paranormal history.

So whether you accept their claims or not, seeing objects associated with their cases is interesting for anyone who follows paranormal culture.

It is almost like visiting a museum devoted to the mythology of modern ghost hunting.

Which may actually be the best way to describe this place.

The Museum Doesn't Need Every Object to Actually Be Haunted

This is the part I kept thinking about after we left.

I don't believe you need to accept every paranormal claim in the building to enjoy Zak Bagans' Haunted Museum.

Some objects have real macabre historical connections.

Some have fascinating folklore.

Some are associated with famous paranormal cases.

Some have stories that collapse when you research them.

And some are just extremely creepy things sitting in dark rooms.

That combination is what makes the museum interesting.

I would actually love to see even MORE skepticism incorporated into exhibits.

Imagine a display that said:

THE LEGEND

Here is what people claim.

THE HISTORY

Here is what we can document.

THE PARANORMAL EVIDENCE

Here is what investigators recorded.

THE SKEPTICAL EXPLANATION

Here is what else could account for it.

Give me that museum and I will never leave.

Did I Feel Anything Paranormal?

Not really.

We walked past objects that were supposedly cursed.

We stood near haunted dolls.

We entered very dark areas.

We went through rooms containing items associated with death.

I did not suddenly feel possessed.

No demon followed me around Las Vegas.

Nothing attacked me.

And I didn't experience anything that I could confidently label paranormal.

That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy myself.

I loved it.

This is an important distinction I make all the time:

Scary does not equal paranormal.

Interesting does not equal evidence.

A place can be incredibly creepy without containing a single ghost.

The Atmosphere Does a Lot of Work

The museum is intentionally dark.

Rooms are designed to make you uncomfortable.

Stories prepare you to expect something strange.

Some objects are hidden or dramatically revealed.

You move through small spaces.

You hear disturbing histories.

By the time someone asks whether you feel anything...

You are already primed.

From a scientific standpoint, that makes subjective sensations very difficult to use as evidence.

From an entertainment standpoint, it works beautifully.

And That Is Where Zak Bagans Is Very Good

This is why I call Zak the king of entertainment ghost hunting.

He understands the experience.

He understands suspense.

He understands how much scarier an old chair becomes when you put it alone beneath a dim light and spend five minutes explaining how a demon supposedly sat in it.

He understands horror.

That is one of the reasons Ghost Adventures has remained popular for so long.

I may approach paranormal evidence differently, but I can still appreciate what he has built.

Is Zak Bagans' Haunted Museum Worth Visiting?

For horror fans, paranormal fans and dark tourists?

Yes.

Definitely.

Especially if you already watch Ghost Adventures.

You are going to recognize objects and cases you've seen on television, and there is far more inside than I could possibly cover here without spoiling the entire experience.

The museum currently says the standard tour lasts about two hours and contains more than 30 rooms.

I would give yourself plenty of extra time rather than planning something immediately afterward.

Current Visitor Information

One important update from our original video: the schedule and ticket prices have changed.

As of August 2026, the museum lists General Admission at $54 and RIP All Access at $88. It is currently open Wednesday through Monday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and closed Tuesdays. Visitors must be at least 12 years old, and the museum recommends reservations because tours may sell out.

Photography and video are generally prohibited inside, so don't expect to vlog your way through the entire museum. The museum also warns about fog, strobe effects and flickering lights.

If you want something even stranger, the museum now offers a separate late-night flashlight experience where guests navigate parts of the property in darkness and are allowed to bring limited paranormal equipment such as audio recorders and EMF meters.

Okay.

Now THAT I want to do.

After the Haunted Museum: Excalibur and Giant Meatballs

After spending hours surrounded by demons, murder memorabilia and haunted dolls, we did what any responsible paranormal investigators would do.

We went to eat spaghetti.

We headed to Excalibur and ate at Buca di Beppo.

If you've never eaten there, the portions are family style.

That means when two people order food, apparently the restaurant assumes you are actually feeding a small medieval army.

We ordered spaghetti with an enormous meatball and a heroic amount of garlic bread.

We could barely put a dent in it.

I wanted cannoli.

There was no physical space remaining inside my body for cannoli.

A true Las Vegas tragedy.

Then We Lost Money in the Casino

After dinner, we spent the rest of the night gambling.

My husband did considerably better than I did.

At one point, $50 had turned into several hundred dollars.

Meanwhile, I found a Halloween-themed slot machine.

Naturally I played it.

Naturally it betrayed me.

You would think a spooky slot machine would recognize one of its own.

It did not.

Final Thoughts on Zak Bagans' Haunted Museum

Zak Bagans' Haunted Museum is one of the strangest dark-tourism attractions in Las Vegas.

And I mean that as a compliment.

The building has genuine Las Vegas history.

Some of the objects have genuine connections to death, crime or famous paranormal cases.

Others are surrounded by legends that become considerably shakier once you start researching them.

The Crying Boy paintings probably weren't setting houses on fire.

The Dybbuk Box has an originator who openly described creating its story.

The supposed Bela Lugosi mirror has serious provenance problems.

Peggy may or may not care whether you say goodbye.

And I still have not seen scientific evidence proving that any of them contain ghosts, demons or mysterious paranormal energy.

But I absolutely enjoyed seeing them.

That's the strange thing about skeptical paranormal investigation.

Finding out that a story isn't true doesn't necessarily make it boring.

Sometimes discovering how the legend was created is even more fascinating.

Zak has basically assembled a giant physical museum of paranormal pop culture.

Ghost stories.

Curses.

True crime.

Horror history.

Urban legends.

Television paranormal investigation.

Modern folklore.

And a bunch of creepy things I definitely don't want sitting beside my bed.

So even though Zak Bagans and I probably approach the question “Is this paranormal?” very differently...

I'll keep watching Ghost Adventures.

And I would absolutely go back to his museum.

Especially for that flashlight ghost hunt.

Stay spooky, cats!