I think the mysterious nature of The House of the Rising Sun suggested by this fragmentary but very intense view, is part of the song's magic....that hint of pleasures and sins and suffering almost beyond imagination.

I think if you track down the literal truth and the enigma was dissipated, it would perhaps lose some of its power.
Of course, it difficult for us nowadays to imagine just how Eric Burden's sneer an snarl rocked to the foundations the cosy little world of the Brits in 1963. Nowadays its been heard everywhere and it seems terribly old hat.

Don't see the current lot of folkrockers producing anything as confrontational to society as that.