The Owners of the American Horror Story "Murder House" Are Suing the Sellers for Their Unwanted Tourist Problem

The Rosenheim Mansion, an iconic Los Angeles home featured in the first season of Ryan Murphy’s hit FX series American Horror Story, has now become the subject of an unusual legal battle. Ernst Von Schwarz and Angela Oakenfold, the married couple who currently reside in the mansion, recently filed a lawsuit against their Realtor and against the home’s former owner for not alerting them of the show’s rabid fans, who have tried to climb over the property's fence, frequently stop by to take selfies or videos, and have even broken into the home. “We feel like they cheated us,” Oakenfold told CBS News. Added Von Schwarz, “We want to live here, of course. But it is very difficult because we don’t feel safe.” The couple have reported several break-ins and have had to call the police on “three or four occasions.”

The Rosenheim Mansion has also previously been used for such films and TV shows as Spiderman, Seabiscuit, The X-Files, The Twilight Zone, Six Feet Under, Bones, Dexter, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. “We Googled the house, of course, like everybody would,” Von Schwarz said of how much they knew about the history of the home prior to moving in. “But if you Google the house you find a lot of movies have been filmed here," and it did not seem particularly remarkable that the American Horror Story episodes, which he says he has never seen, were set there. The first season of the show, which co-starred Jessica Lange, Dylan McDermott, and Connie Britton, aired seven years ago. According to Apartment Therapy, a similar problem arose for the owners of an Oregon house featured in the Goonies. The owners of that home took matters into their own hands as well, but in a very different way: They draped their house with blue tarps to discourage tourists from stopping by to snap photos.