The Summertown, Tennessee, home of Russ Alan McKamey (WKRN/YouTube). Inset: Russ Alan McKamey (Facebook).
Russ Alan McKamey, the owner of a terrifying and controversial Halloween attraction in Tennessee that was the focus of a 2023 documentary on Hulu, has been arrested and charged with the attempted murder and rape of his girlfriend.
McKamey also faces a domestic assault charge, according to court records reviewed Tuesday by Law&Crime.
McKamey’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The alleged crimes occurred in Summertown, Tennessee, at McKamey’s home — deputies with the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office said they received a report about an alleged assault that took place on July 17, according to local ABC affiliate WKRN.
McKamey had allegedly strangled his girlfriend during a “domestic altercation.” She nearly lost consciousness during this attack, police said.
McKamey was booked on a domestic assault charge and detained on a $1,000 bond. He was also ordered to have no contact with the woman.
But on July 19, the sheriff’s office said they learned that a second altercation had allegedly taken place on the same day McKamey had been booked. McKamey allegedly raped and strangled his girlfriend to the point that she nearly lost consciousness not once that day, but twice. Charges of attempted second-degree murder and rape were then added to the domestic assault charge and his bond was increased to $100,000.
Records show that his next court appearance is slated for Aug. 6 at 9 a.m. before Lawrence County General Sessions Judge William Harris.
McKamey is the proprietor of McKamey Manor, a Halloween attraction that became the focus of a 2023 documentary on Hulu, “Monster Inside: America’s Most Extreme Haunted House.”
The documentary featured commentary from several individuals who visited McKamey Manor, were friends with McKamey, or had volunteered to work at the attraction. One former Army veteran, Brandon Vance, who considered himself a thrill seeker acknowledged that he had willingly signed himself up for the extreme horror experience but said McKamey went too far, The Tennessean reported.
“(I would keep) telling them to do worse, worse stuff. Deep down I know they aren’t going to kill me. Trust was broken with Russ McKamey,” Vance told the Tennessean.
Vance claimed his experiences at McKamey Manor usually revolved around a nightmare scenario involving water, including one where he was locked in a cage as a deluge of water poured over him until he nearly lost all room to breathe.
This was captured on film by McKamey and this sort of recording was his practice for guests, who agreed to sign a multi-question waiver before entering, the Nashville Scene reported in 2018.
That extensive local report detailed the experiences of guests as well as how the manor drew the attention of local police on multiple occasions, particularly when McKamey first opened the attraction in Summertown.
Lawrence County District Attorney Brent Cooper said in 2018 that police had responded repeatedly to McKamey’s property for calls of possible hostage situations. Cooper recalled one episode where McKamey allegedly described to authorities how he had held a woman in a storm shelter though it was consensual.
Cooper said the way McKamey described the scene, deputies would not have thought this was staged.
“If the deputies had gone down there to see what he had done to this woman, the deputies would have shot Mr. McKamey,” Cooper said.
Before the 2023 Hulu documentary, change.org petitions circulated to close McKamey Manor and after the documentary aired, the Tennessee attorney general sent a letter to McKamey citing its numerous concerns including that participants were experiencing such wildly high levels of adrenaline before entering the attraction that they could not be in a reasonable state of mind to sign off on a lengthy legal waiver.
The state’s attorney general highlighted how one participant in the Hulu documentary had made that clear, saying: “I had too much excitement going through my veins at the time. If [the waiver] would have said that a man is going to come out of the woods and murder you during this event, I would’ve signed it.”
McKamey responded to a request for his business records from the Tennessee Attorney General by suing in April and alleging that any such production of records tied to the manor would be a violation of his constitutional rights.
McKamey has also filed a lawsuit against Hulu and a participant at the manor seeking $8.4 million in damages, the Tennessean reported.
The Lawrence County District Attorney’s Office, who brought charges against McKamey for attempted second-degree murder, rape and domestic assault, did not immediately return a request for comment to Law&Crime on Tuesday.
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