The mirrors are covered to mimic what the killer did that night. This was possibly due to a common superstition back then about evil spirits and mirrors while mourning. Also, YES, you can touch things in the house. This is a "set", essentially, and not their personal belongings. I would ask them personally before uncovering the mirrors though.
Why would he care if their souls got trapped in a mirror if he was so insane as to kill them with an ax? Don't make sense really? Yeah, let's ax murder the family and take their lives but let's cover the mirrors to free their souls. Ummm, yeah. No. More likely he didn't or couldn't see himself. Possibly an identity disorder...?
The mirrors being covered is odd because I thought it was something done while mourning to protect the souls. It sounds spiritual and if the killer did it it all fits in an odd way because the person who was actually arrested and put on trial was a minister he was not convicted but he was heard talking about the murders on a train heading out of town at 5 am and the bodies were not found until 7 am.
Misiti is right the killer did cover the mirrors but because in the 1800 there was a superstition that the souls can be trapped in mirrors unless they where covered. If you like to learn more there are a few podcast like unsolved murders, or a part in last podcast on the left... also many TV shows like ghost hunters and books for more info on the house and the history... now on touching them or taking off the cover I don't recommend it out of respect for the house, when we went this summer one fell off while we were in the house up in the parents room... so things sometimes happen but I don't think touching it yourself is OK. Hope this helped in anyway.
No the mirrors are haunted so they cover them and you can not touch dolls and you can sit on the bed but not the parents don't touch the peonieo
The mirrors are covered because the killer did it before he left the house...it's unclear why. During the tour they did not say if you can or cannot touch anything but nobody did out of respect for keeping everything in its condition.
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