O-Bits: Houses of Horror Edition

“Location, Location, Location” might be a mantra among real estate agents, but no one thought it could mean “used as a location” for a TV show. Especially for a show as popular as “American Horror Story.” Apparently, Dr. Ernst von Schwarz and Angela Oakenfold were no fans of the show, because they had no idea the Los Angeles house they purchased was the “Murder House” on the first season of the FX hit. And, boy, were they surprised when fans of the show showed up, some just to see it in the flesh (so to speak), others who were interested in a more intimate experience, and would break in. Instead of answering the door wearing bloody fangs (which would be our choice) or buying one of those security systems that are supposed to scare people off,  Dr. von Schwarz and Oakenfold (whose names sound like they belong to characters from a horror movie) decided to sue their realtors for not alerting them to the house’s notoriety. And hired an attorney with the equally horror-movie ready name of Doug Vanderpol to press their case. In addition to the corporal visitations, Vanderpol claims the house is haunted by not one, but two—count ’em! two—ghosts, although they are not party to the lawsuit.

On the other hand, there are people who can’t get to Los Angeles, but decide to turn locations in their home town into their very own “Murder Houses.” Take Hallie Pate and Jordan Ruiz. These two North Carolina teens broke into a house, killed the owners pet birds, smeared the blood everywhere, then set a car parked in the driveway ablaze. They also stole an Xbox and a couple of medical inhalers, and were caught while trying to sell them (we’re willing to bet they kept a few of the inhalers for themselves).

Jordan Ruiz and Hallie Pate (Facebook)

From our “Live Dead!” file comes this BBC story where the dead really do live on. Scientists have discovered that certain genes become more active after we die. “You would expect that with the death of the individual, there would be a decay in the activity of the genes,” Prof. Roderic Guigó, leader of the team of scientists at the Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology, who made the discovery. Instead, they found “there is a reaction by the cells to the death of the individual. We see some genes that are activated and this means that sometime after death there is still some activity.” They’re still not sure why this happens and what it means but believe their discovery could aid in forensic biology.

Steven Mirkin

Steven Mirkin’s diverse career has taken him from politics to pop culture to high art, offering him a front row seat to some of the most fascinating events and personalities of our time: writing speeches, fundraising appeals and campaign materials for Ed Koch, John Heinz and independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson; chronicling the punk/new wave scenes in New York and London; interviewing musicians such as Elton John, John Lydon and Buck Owens; profiling modern masters Julian Schnabel, Paul Schrader and Jonathan Safran Foer; and writing for TV shows including 21, The Chamber, Let's Make A Deal, and Rock Star: INXS.

Leave a Reply

Notify of
avatar
1000
wpDiscuz