Republican candidate and loyal Amercian Mitt Romney is having held a fundraiser last night at this insane historic chateau on the San Francisco Peninsula, and you better believe it's owned by Republicans! Also, a couple of teenage girls were abducted there and later tortured (one of them murdered) in 1985.

The house, the Carolands Chateau in Hillsborough, was built by a Francophile rich lady by the name of Harriet Pullman Carolan in 1914 at the highest elevation in the vicinity so that she could "look down on the Hearsts and surpass the Crockers." The place went through various owners before becoming vacant and spooky in the 70s and 80s, at which point local teenagers liked to traipse around the property calling it a haunted house. In February 1985, two such teenagers, Laurie McKenna and Jeanine Grinsell, were romping around when a security guard for the property abducted them, proceeding to sexually assault and torture them, ultimately binding them and leaving them for dead in a ravine. McKenna managed to survive while Grinsell succumbed to her wounds in a hospital at a later date. David Allen Raley was convicted for the crimes and sentenced to death in 1988 and he still awaits execution.

Anyway! As ABC 7 reminds us, Carolands is now owned by Charles Bartlett Johnson and Dr. Ann Johnson, who purchased it in 1998 in a state of considerable disrepair for just under $6 million. They proceeded to renovate it at a cost of about $30 million, and they're hoping to raise millions for Mitt, who may really need it now that his campaign went ahead and misspelled the name of the country.

ALSO, Romney will be making a stop in Fremont to twist the knife in the Solyndra wound and try to convince people that solar energy is a waste of money.

Update: Here's a rundown of how it all went down, including remarks by Condoleezza Rice. [SF Gate]


[ABC 7]