Russ Alan McKamey, the owner of a horrific and infamous Halloween attraction in Tennessee that was featured in a Hulu documentary in 2023, has been arrested and accused of attempted murder and rape of his fiancée.
McKamey is also facing a domestic assault charge, according to court documents reviewed by Law&Crime on Tuesday.
McKamey’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment. The alleged assaults took place at McKamey’s house in Summertown, Tennessee, where officers from the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office said they received a report of an alleged assault on July 17, according to local ABC station WKRN.
McKamey allegedly strangled his partner following a “domestic altercation.” According to investigators, she nearly lost consciousness during the attack.
McKamey was booked on a domestic assault charge and held on a $1,000 bond. He was also instructed not to communicate with the woman.
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However, on July 19, the sheriff’s office reported that a second confrontation had allegedly occurred on the same day McKamey was jailed. McKamey allegedly raped and strangled his girlfriend twice that day, nearly causing her to lose consciousness. The charges of attempted second-degree murder and rape were added to the domestic assault allegation, and his bond was raised to $100,000.
According to records, his next court appearance is scheduled for August 6 at 9 a.m. before Lawrence County General Sessions Judge William Harris.
McKamey owns McKamey Manor, a Halloween attraction that was the subject of a 2023 Hulu documentary titled “Monster Inside: America’s Most Extreme Haunted House.”
The documentary included interviews with numerous people who had visited McKamey Manor, were friends with McKamey, or had volunteered to work at the attraction. Brandon Vance, a former Army veteran who considered himself a thrill seeker, admitted to knowingly signing up for the extreme terror encounter but claimed McKamey went too far, according to The Tennessean.
“I would keep telling them to do ever harsher things. Deep down, I know they won’t murder me. Vance told the Tennessean that trust was shattered with Russ McKamey.
Vance stated that his experiences at McKamey Manor were mainly centered on a nightmare scenario involving water, including one in which he was trapped in a cage and a deluge of water poured over him until he nearly lost all ability to breathe.
McKamey got this on film, and it was standard practice for guests who consented to sign a multi-question agreement before entering, according to the Nashville Scene in 2018.
That lengthy local report described customers’ experiences as well as how the house garnered the notice of local police on several occasions, particularly when McKamey first launched the attraction in Summertown.
Lawrence County District Attorney Brent Cooper stated in 2018 that police had come to McKamey’s residence several times for reports of possible hostage situations. Cooper recalled one incident in which McKamey allegedly told authorities that he had detained a woman in a storm shelter even though it was consensual.
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Cooper stated that the way McKamey described the scene would not have led deputies to believe it was manufactured.
“If the deputies had gone down there to see what he had done to this woman, the deputies would have shot Mr. McKamey,” Deputy Cooper stated.
Before the 2023 Hulu documentary, change.org petitions were circulated to close McKamey Manor, and after the documentary aired, the Tennessee attorney general sent a letter to McKamey citing numerous concerns, including the fact 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 a lengthy legal waiver.
The state’s attorney general emphasized how one participant in the Hulu documentary made this obvious, saying, “I had too much excitement coursing through my veins at the time. If the waiver had stated that a man would come out of the woods and murder you during this event, I would have signed it.”
McKamey filed a lawsuit in April in response to the Tennessee Attorney General’s request for his business documents, arguing that any production of records related to the mansion would violate his constitutional rights.
McKamey has also sued Hulu and a participant at the manor for $8.4 million in damages, according to the Tennessean.
The Lawrence County District Attorney’s Office, which charged McKamey with attempted second-degree murder, rape, and domestic abuse, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Law&Crime on Tuesday.