Mystery of Murder Castle

Secret passages, sliding walls, trapdoors in the floors, oddly angled hallways, stairways to nowhere, windowless rooms, doors which opened only from the outside...

A fun house?

No. This was no fun house. This was a torture-chamber of horrors in real life, built in Chicago 1893. At this time the World's Columbian Exposition (World's Fair) was held in Chicago, and many people were drawn to the fair. Holmes Castle seemed to be exactly the place to stay. Large, it took up a whole block and was three stories tall. Built by a man by the name of H.H. Holmes.

Sound-proof sleeping chambers with peepholes, asbestos-padded walls, gas pipes leading into some, and sliding walls, or vents that Holmes controlled from some other place in his huge “castle”, which he himself only knew the actual lay out, as he would change builders during the construction.

You would definitely not want to spend a night here. Your sleep would be permanent. After being asphyxiated. Or worse. It was believed that Holmes would place his victims into these special chambers, and then pumped lethal gas into them, controlled from his own bedroom where he would watch what happened.

In some cases he might ignite the gas to incinerate them, or sometimes a stretching rack he had devised.

Holmes had trapdoors in the floors with greased shoots, leading down into a two-level cellar. There he had installed a large furnace. In some cases it is thought that he would take twisted pleasure in dissecting the corpses, strip the flesh from the bones, and sell the skeletons to a medical school. (Later on, it was said that parts of bodies found were so dismembered and decomposed that it was difficult to tell how many bodies there actually were.)

His alias was Dr. Henry Howard Holmes. Aside from being a psychopathic serial killer, he was a swindler. He liked to swindle insurance companies. In many cases having a ready made corpse for the body of someone so as to collect on the insurance. He was also married to two women at the same time in two different states. He also liked to marry rich widows and then get them to leave him their wealth and then kill them.

His undoing was his last swindle. He found a lawyer who would go in on a plan to swindle an insurance company out of $10,000 by taking a policy out on himself, and faking his own death. He promised a man he went in on with $500 commission for the name of the lawyer who he could trust his plan to. The insurance company became suspicious and refused to pay. He decided to try a similar plan with his associate, Benjamin Pitezel. Pitezel had agreed to fake his own death, arranging that his wife would collect. Holmes was to find an appropriate cadaver to play the role of Pitezel. Instead, Holmes killed Pitezel. Evidence in the case against him was that he had administered chloroform to Pitezel after he died, trying—presumably--to fake a suicide.

The only thing that foiled Holmes was that he forgot to pay off a man who helped supply him with the name of the lawyer to help him with this scheme, and he tipped off the police.

As far as “the Castle” Holmes built in Chicago, a custodian for the place informed the police that he was never allowed to clean the upper floors, and so the police began a thorough investigation over the next few months. There are conflicting numbers as to Holmes' victims, but it has been said that anywhere from 20 to 100, and as many as 200, based upon the missing persons reports of the time, and testimony of his neighbors who saw him escorting young women to his hotel. Yep. A real life “Hotel California” where nobody leaves. He apparently liked blondes.

Holmes was convicted of murdering Pitezel and he confessed soon after, to 30 murders in Chicago, Indianapolis and Toronto. Some of these people were actually still alive. Apparently the man was such a good liar, even he couldn't keep track of his lies. At one point he even said he was possessed by Satan. You think?

On May 7, 1897, Holmes was hanged. It's really too bad we can't hang them a second and maybe a third time. However, he didn't die right away. It took him approximately 20 minutes to die.

Lorelei Bell's author's blog: http://loreleismuse-lorelei.blogspot.com

Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch ~ a Review

There I was in the coffee and candy aisle and edged over to the books and magazine section (of course), of my local grocery store.

There it was. I saw the title: Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch by Lara Parker.

Well, I had to have it. I needed something to read in the evenings during my vacation, and so I bought it. I was hopeful for an enjoyable read and I was not disappointed.

Description from book back cover:
Freed from his vampire curse, Barnabas Collins is ready to embark on a new life and marriage with his savior, the virtuous Dr. Julia Hoffman. But when Antoinette, a beautiful flower child with a shocking resemblance to the immortal witch, Angelique, rebuilds the Old House, his past returns to haunt him. Discovering a grisly corpse in the basement—where is old casket once lay—Barnabas realizes another vampire has invaded his domain. His fight to protect his family from this new threat will take Barnabas back through time to an evil moment in America's history: the corrupt witch trials of old Salem.

I enjoyed the history told from an innocent girl, Meranda du Val, who is accused of witchcraft by girls of the village. Although she is innocent of all their accusations, she is magical. And—I loved this part—she could fly, and she had been raised by the Indians during her childhood. This all ties in with the ending so well!

I loved the story told from both her voice, and Barnabas' through out the story. Meranda's story takes place in 1692 from Salem, Massachusetts, while Barnabas' takes place in 1971. The time lines were well depicted, well organized when she went back in time too. Laura must have done some vast research on how people spoke, and lived back then. And also what it must have been like to live in Salem during the witch-hating craze where all it took was someone saying your looking at them cause them to feel as though you were on fire, or that you caused a cow to die, etc. And the corrupt judges—wanting to take over land which you owned pretended to believe them.

Meanwhile, Barnabas is trying to decide if this woman (Antoinette), who looks just like the evil Angelique is really her reincarnation, after she has bought the Old House, and began decorating it just as it was before a fire took it. Meanwhile he suffers from the daily injections that Julia gives him in order to make him human again. He's finding out how it is to be human and aging. But at the same time enjoying certain delights he never could before—such as going out into the sunlight. I felt Parker really captured Barnabas in this story.

And what of Antoinette's daughter who she rescues from an insane asylum? And there is something attacking the hippies who are camped out on her property. Is it a vampire, werewolf, or zombie? Barnabas needs to find it and stop them before it's too late!

Parker's beautiful prose paints the surroundings wonderfully, dutifully adhering to the diction of the times—which ever story we are in at the moment, from the 1600's to the 1970's. It is spellbinding suspense and the storytelling does pull you in. I wanted to read it all in a matter of nights, but held back so as to enjoy it for an hour or so each night.

I enjoyed this read, and want to get the next book as soon as I can find it. I think anyone who loves the darkness of the series, or someone who is looking for a great read could really get into this book. I highly recommend it!

Confessions of Lorelei, The Vampire Writer

When I was young, I was called the “artist”. I drew on everything, including walls and sidewalks. The walls I got in trouble with—especially when I used my sister's favorite red lipstick. And I probably was in trouble for the school's sidewalks too, only they had no proof it was me that had done it!

I did not discover writing was so much doggone fun until I got into my senior year in high school and took a creative writing class, taught by our English teacher. Once I realized that writing a scene was much easier than doing the cartoons I had been drawing, I traded the colored pencils for a lead one.

When I expressed my desire to become an author to my English teacher, she merely looked down her nose at me and told me to choose some other profession because my spelling sucked, and my grammar was even worse—not in those words, exactly.

Did that devastate me? Well, it did, but it did not dampen my spirit. I worked on both areas. But that was rather hard because we didn't have spell check back then. But I wrote and wrote and wrote—and read a number of vampire and horror novels. I gave up social life. I hated when people called asking me to go do something with them. Damn pesky people anyway!

At some point in my early teens I became interested in vampires. I think I can give the original soap opera Dark Shadows the burden of blame, because I absolutely loved it. I ran home from school to watch it, or came in on the summer day from playing to watch it. I also watched horror flicks on late night TV too, and was considered “weird”. Anything that had to do with vampires, I had to watch, read or look at it. Back then people were NOT into vampires, and if you were you were definitely among the 1% who were—which included a lot of writers, actors and directors. So, I was in good company!

Another reason I became interested in vampires/the undead, may have been because death touched me when young. My mother died of lung cancer the summer before I turned 12. My younger brother and I did not have closure—we did not go to the funeral. I don't know if it would have been better, or made a difference, but I do know that I spent a year believing she would walk through the back door looking fine.

This one moment in my life is part of the reason I included in my Sabrina Strong Series that her mother also was dying of cancer when she was 11. It was my little secret revision of my own personal history.

These books are vastly different from my very first attempts at a vampire novel many decades ago when first I decided to pen one. Suffice it to say, it took me 5 years to develop and then write the first one, Vampire Ascending. Not one vampire is a cardboard character. Nor are the elves, shiftchanger, or my villain(s). I'm going to surprise you, give you cliff hangers and change the rules. Although there is romance in this book I will not hook Sabrina up with the most likely candidate. There's more than one guy who is likely to be her love interest. This is basically urban fantasy but with a blend of mystery, adventure and romance.

Also, I did not want to write about a kick-ass heroine, because I can't really relate to them. Seems that there are a lot of books written which have a woman being turned into a vampire, too. Sabrina doesn't get turned. But she does get bitten by a werewolf. And that is only the beginning of Sabrina's strange, and at times dangerous initiations into the paranormal world. This becomes her challenge, too, as the series progresses, as well as dealing with vampires and all the other paranormal stuff that goes on around her—which brings her into more danger—while she tries to hide it from her “normal” brother. The general public doesn't know that vampires, werewolves, elves and so forth live right under their noses. But Sabrina was already aware of it. She remembered the beautiful man with large eyes, long black hair who visited her one night... and bit her. She hopes to find him through Tremayne's underground world.

Art may have been my first love, but writing has become my everlasting love.

Real Vampires: The Need For Bad Science by Horror Author Neil Benson

Undead Vampires, ranging from Dracula, created by Bram Stoker, to the more urbane Lestat, created by Anne Rice, all share two basic characteristics. They are dead, and they need to ingest blood from mortals to continue to exist. They also share common traits with mortals. They stand, talk, move, run, and carry out all usual physical activities done by mortals.

How do vampires carry out their active physical existences? Humans, mortals, have complex biological systems that provide energy to the muscles, tendons, bones, etc. that enable us to carry out activities. Vampires are dead: their hearts don't beat; their lungs don't breathe; and their former biological energy producing systems are no longer functioning. What is the source of energy for their muscles? Dr. Katherine Ramsland wrote an entire book, The Science of Vampires, speculating about how vampires function and think. Dr. Ramsland could only speculate, because neither she nor anyone else has examined a "real undead vampire."

In the movies and in novels, vampires share blood with humans to turn them into vampires. How is this possible? Without hearts that beat, what keeps vampire blood flowing? Vampires are always depicted as being cold to the touch, quite logical since they are dead. Vampires are also depicted as being impervious to the cold. However, if they are cold-blooded creatures and they are outside, or even inside, in freezing temperatures their blood would thicken. That issue has never been addressed to the best of my knowledge. It's not a matter of unanswerable questions as much as it is illogical possibilities.

We've also seen, or read about, vampires turning into some kind of dust or smoke. The transformation of matter from one form, a solid, into another form, gaseous, requires heat or a chemical process. Modern science has no means by which it can instantaneously turn a solid object into a gaseous one with the exception of a nuclear explosion. There's a lot of bad science going on when it comes to the undead vampire. The stories of these creatures arise from folklore and are given life not by some magical process, but by the creative imagination of writers. The reader also has to participate, because more than a little suspension of disbelief is required to go along with the idea. However, judging by the current popularity of vampire books, movies, and now television shows, science and logic are the furthest things from the minds of readers and viewers. A link to my vampire novel is provided below. I can write about vampires even if I don't think they exist.

http://www.amazon.com/Unholy-Embrace-book/dp/B003O2SE0O/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1339627753&sr=1-1

 About Neil:

Neil Benson: Retired early after working thirty-seven years as a psychologist in mental health and behavioral managed-care healthcare to become a full-time writer. Unholy Embrace is his first published novel.

His short story, "A Problem with Werewolves", appeared in the October, 2010, issue of Night to Dawn magazine.

Neil lives with his life partner just outside north of Atlanta, Georgia.

He has a great website that he founded on the strong recommendations from several writers. Hope you visit it:


http://neilbenson-horrorandfantasyauthor.blogspot.com

Guest Post by Author Rebeka Harrington Asking: Vampires vs. Humans: Which is More Evil?

When asked that question a lot of folks would likely respond “vampires”. This is a knee-jerk reaction to the fact vampires drink blood and kill humans. Labelling vampires evil purely on the basis of their predatory nature is damn unfair in my opinion. Keep in mind we humans hunt and farm animals for our survival.

Let’s face facts, vampires need blood to survive. Do we condemn predators in the animal kingdom as evil because they hunt and kill? The way I see it, vampires are another step up in the food chain, no more inherently evil than a lion or tiger. It just so happens they feed on humans, and humanity likes to view itself as the Numero Uno species on the planet.

For a moment let’s ignore the fact vampires drink blood, subsequently killing humans, and take a closer look at human behaviour.

Throughout history, humanity has committed a litany of atrocities against itself and we continue to do so.  Think about it people; slavery, wars, religious and minority persecution, discrimination, murder, theft, assault, corruption amid governments and law enforcement. The list of humanities crimes is a mile long. Worst of all, we do this to each other, our own species! How can that not be described as evil?

What I like to do with my writing is explore humanity. Why do we not learn from our past? Why do we repeatedly commit the same crimes against each other? Is humanity incapable of learning from past mistakes?

Using vampires allows me to scrutinise human behaviour and make judgements or declarations human beings cannot. (Without coming across as sanctimonious prigs.) Vampires see straight through us, they see our strengths and weakness; they see where we went wrong.

In my latest book I look at relationships and sexuality. Now some of you may be offended with the notion of same-sex relationships, and that’s okay. But ask yourself, why? Why do we feel we have to label everything? Man or woman? Young or old? Black or white? When we label people and behaviour it bestows certain expectations, a lot of which are unfair and unjust.

Remember when it was assumed and expected that all women were good for was to marry and have children? That’s because women were lumped in together as the weaker sex. Roll forward in time and we now accept as fact, that women and men should be treated as equals. After all, they are free-thinking human beings.

Never would I like my writing to be described as a social lecture. This is why I use vampires. I want people to enjoy the story, and if they take something away from it that maybe makes them think a little; well that’s just a bonus.

About Rebeka Harrington

Raised in country Victoria, Rebeka started her writing career working for the local newspaper as a teenager. While she decided not to pursue this as a career, she has always enjoyed writing and being creative

With so many varied interests and eccletic taste in most things, Rebeka enjoys incorporating all of them in her writing. She particularly enjoys writing about vampires.

Rebeka seeks to define and explain vampires in a way not done before. This was achieved with her debut title "Vampires Revealed". Following titles revolve around exploring the world and characters created in her first release.

Currently Rebeka lives in Melbourne with her “demented” but lovable cat, dividing her time between writing and managing a small boutique entertainment agency.

Rebeka’s latest release Desires Revealed is available for purchase at:

Smashwords


Amazon

Cosy up with her characters – www.vampiresrevealed.com

 Keep in touch and visit her blog – www.rebekaharrington.com