Mental Floss

You Can Buy Buffalo Bill's House from The Silence of the Lambs

Erin McCarthy|
The Preferred Realty
The Preferred Realty | The Preferred Realty

Are you a fan of creepy fictional serial killers? Are you also in the market for a new home? Then you’re in luck: The house that served as the residence of The Silence of the Lambs’ skin-suit-making murderer Buffalo Bill is up for sale. It's the perfect place to have an old friend for dinner.

The home, which was built in 1910, is located on 1.76 acres in Fayette County, Penn., about an hour outside of Pittsburgh. It has four bedrooms, one bath, a detached 4-car garage, and an in-ground swimming pool. And it can all be yours for $300,000.  

Scott and Barbara Lloyd bought the house in 1976 and moved in the next year. According to The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the couple was eating dinner one night in 1989 when a producer knocked, told them she was location scouting for a film, and asked to shoot photos of their home. The producer was working on The Silence of the Lambs, which starred Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins and was being filmed in numerous locations around the Pittsburgh area.

“They were looking for a home in which you entered the front door and had a straight line through,” Barbara told the Tribune-Review. “They wanted it to look like a spider web, with Buffalo Bill drawing Jodie Foster into the foyer, into the kitchen, then into the basement.”

The production prepped the house for the shoot over the course of six weeks; actual filming, which occurred in 1990, took just three days.

Prospective buyers should know (and will probably be relieved) that they won’t be getting the basement from the film, where Buffalo Bill stashes and starves his female victims in a pit. Those scenes were shot on a soundstage.

The Lloyds, who are retired, plan to move to a ranch home not far away; Scott told the Tribune-Review that he’s “too old to take care of anymore.” Barbara said she wouldn’t be surprised if the eventual buyer turns the home into something a little spooky—maybe a horror-themed B&B. “People love to be scared,” she said. “I could see somebody doing something fun with this.” Here's hoping that whatever it is, it doesn't involved putting lotion on the skin ... or getting the hose.