The San Mateo County History Museum, at 2200 Broadway in Redwood City, will present author Mary Jo Ignoffo, who will speak about her book Captive of the Labyrinth, a study of Sarah L. Winchester and her famous San Jose “Mystery House” on Saturday, September 10, 2022 at 1 p.m. 

Captive in the Labyrinth holds particular interest this year as this is the 100^th anniversary of the death of the rifle heiress in 1922.  After inheriting a vast fortune upon the death of her husband in 1881, Winchester purchased a simple farmhouse in San José, California. She built additions to the house and continued construction for the next twenty years. When neighbors and the local press could not imagine her motivations, they invented fanciful ones of their own. She was accused of being a ghost-obsessed spiritualist, and to this day it is largely believed that the extensive construction she executed on her San José house was done to thwart death and appease the spirits of those killed by the Winchester rifle.

Ignoffo’s biography unearths new information about this reclusive eccentric, revealing that she was not a maddened spiritualist driven by remorse but an intelligent, articulate woman who sought to protect her private life amidst the chaos of her public existence and the social mores of the time. The author takes readers through Winchester’s several homes, explores her private life, and, by excerpting from personal correspondence, shows the widow’s true priority was not dissipating her fortune on the mansion in San José but endowing a hospital to eradicate a dread disease.

Ignoffo feels Sarah Winchester has been exploited for profit for over a century, and her Captive of the Labyrinth is meant to put to rest the myths about this American heiress, and, in the process, uncover her true legacy.

About Mary Jo Ignoffo:

Mary Jo Ignoffo is an author and historian specializing in California and the West. She has curated historical museum exhibits, has been interviewed for documentary films and for podcasts airing in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. She is the author of Captive of the Labyrinth, La Verdad A Witness to the Salvadoran Martyrs and Gold Rush Politics. Ignoffo holds degrees from Santa Clara University and San Jose State University.

This program is part of the Museum’s “Courthouse Docket Series,” which is sponsored by Cypress Lawn Heritage Foundation.  Ignoffo’s presentation is free with admission to the Museum, $6 for adults, $4 for seniors and students.

The San Mateo County History Museum is located within the transformed 112-year-old “Old County Courthouse.”  It features exhibits focused on the use of natural resources, suburban development, ethnic experience and entrepreneurial achievement on the Peninsula from the time of the Ohlone Indian through today.

For more information on the Museum and the Ignoffo presentation, go to www.historysmc.org/courthouse-docket.