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This Comedy Legend Once Thought J.P. Morgan’s Niece Was Haunting Them

A voodoo priestess was even brought in to help rid her apartment of the supposed spirit.

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The late 1980s were not a great time for Joan Rivers. To begin with, that was when the comedy icon was fired from her short-lived late-night talk show, which had already caused a permanent rift between her and her long-time friend, Johnny Carson, for existing in the first place (Carson had boosted her career significantly by frequently booking her on The Tonight Show). As if that all wasn’t bad enough, Rivers’s husband, Edgar Rosenberg, committed suicide in 1987. Eager to leave Los Angeles behind, Rivers decided to go apartment hunting in New York.

At the suggestion of a friend, Rivers went to check out a triplex penthouse on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The place had seen better days, and........

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