Lined In Chalk

The Amityville House Ronald DeFeo Sr. was born and raised in Brooklyn. A life of hard work seemed to finally pay off for him, and he and his family moved out of the city to Long Island. The house they bought had two stories plus an attic, as well as a boathouse on the Amityville River. DeFeo had a wife and four children. Things seemed perfect on the surface. However, it seemed that there were deeper issues at root. Ronald DeFeo Sr. was described as being hot-tempered. The person who seemed to bear the brunt of his anger was his eldest son, Ronald "Butch" DeFeo Jr. For the sake of ease, I am going to refer to him as Butch from here on out. Butch was described as being overweight and sullen. He was often picked by his classmates. Ronald would tell Butch to stick up for himself at school. At home seemed to be another matter altogether.  The DeFeo family Ronald had no tolerance for talking back and allegedly liked to keep his son on a leash. But, it appeared that things were begi...

A Little Bit About Tyler Clementi:  Tyler Clementi Tyler Clementi was, by all accounts, an accomplished young man. He was reportedly a talented violinist. Many of the people he played with would say Tyler never played played for the applause. They would say that he played because he loved to play. He was also said to have inspired others to start playing. However, he was also described as being shy. Events Leading Up to Tyler's Suicide:  Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei According to one of my sources, Tyler had allegedly confided with a friend that he had met a 25-year-old man he wanted to bring back to his Rutgers dorm room. Tyler was reportedly worried that his roommate Dharun Ravi might walk in on them. Ravi did not walk in on them. Instead he had allegedly spied on the two men kissing with their shirts off. Ravi had allegedly hacked into a webcam in his and Clementi's dorm room. Now, the webcam incident may not have been the only factor in Tyler's committing suicide. There wer...

A Brief Introduction:  July 26th, 1974. Thirteen-year-old Leslie Metcalfe (another source claimed the lady of the dunes was discovered by a girl who was nine) walked her dog along Race Point Beach in Provincetown, Massachusetts and found a decomposing body.  A reconstruction of what the lady of the dunes may have looked like The Murder:  The victim appeared as though she was sunbathing. A pair of blue jeans and a bandana were folded underneath her head and she was laying face down. The killer had severed her hands, and attempted to sever her head in an attempt to keep her identity hidden. Part of her head had also appeared to have been crushed. It was determined that blunt force trauma was mostly likely the cause of death. The sand around her body was undisturbed, and there appeared to be no sign of a struggle. What makes this even stranger is that at least one source mentioned that she had been sexually assaulted after her death. However, it was also suggested that she m...

Introduction:  Until about a week ago, I had honestly never heard of this case, and yet, I found the story around to be sort of crazy, and I knew it was something I had to cover.  Jimmy McClain's Passion for Basketball: The Murder Victim, Jimmy McClain Jimmy McClain was a former University of Central Arkansas Basketball star and a Benton preacher. Another source also cited McClain as a school teacher. One of McClain's friends, Ronnie Martin said that McClain was a genuinely good person. The other person I was able to find quotes from was one of McClain's former teammates and friends, Dennis Moore. Moore had mentioned that McClain had actually tried out for the NBA, but found more luck playing Basketball overseas. Moore had also said that McClain would often return to support University of Central Arkansas's players. I mention his passion for Basketball because when he was murdered, he was a high school basketball coach in Memphis. The Ivestigation: 49-year-old Jimmy McC...

Warning: This case involves the murder of a child. It also involves abuse. Read further at your own risk.  Who Was Judith Barsi:  Judith Barsi Jusith Barsi was a child actress during the 1980s. She was probably best known for voicing the character Ducky in The Land Before Time. Some of her other credits included Jaws: The Revenge and All Dogs Go to Heaven. Perhaps, her most unfortunate (and somewhat ironic) role was in a movie called Fatal Vision. It was about a doctor who murdered his wife and two kids.  Judith's family: The Barsi Family Jozsef Barsi and his wife Maria Virovacz fled Hungary in 1956 when it was occupied by the Soviet Union. They had done so separately. On the surface, the two seemed to have very different upbringings. Maria lived in a rural university town. Jozsef came from a rough industrial part of Hungary. However, looking a little deeper, they both had problems. Maria was abused by her father, and Jozsef was bullied by his peers. He had also allegedly...

The Shooting:    The 12 people who lost their lives during the mass shooting July 20, 2012. 24-year-old James Holmes entered theater 9 at the Century 16 multiplex in Aurora, Colorado, dressed in a gas mask and black combat gear. He had actually bought a ticket to the movie prior.  Holmes threw gas canisters into the theater. Initially, this was written off as a stunt for the movie The Dark Knight Rises. When he began to open fire, the audience members realized it wasn't a stunt. It was real. Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 70 others. 10 of the 12 people killed died at the scene. The other two died at local hospitals. Most of the injuries were received by way of gunshots. However, some of the injuries were obtained during the initial chaos. I also learned through my research that Holmes had actually left the theater at one point, and started shooting people outside the theater while they were attempting to flee. Police arrived quickly, and Holmes was arrested behind th...

Introduction:  July 23rd, 1969. Six young women have been murdered and dumped in remote spots around Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Michigan. Before too long, 18-year-old Karen Sue Beineman accepted a ride from a man on a motorcycle. She would be the final victim of the Ypsilanti Ripper. Three days later, Beineman's body turned up. It was almost exactly two years after the discovery of the first victim. The Victims:  The Victims of the Ypsilanti Ripper The first victim was 19-year-old Mary Fleszar, a sophomore at Eastern Michigan University. On July 8, 1967, Fleszar went out for a walk alone. Two teenage boys discovered her body on August 7. She was so badly decomposed that apparently, it was hard to tell if she was even human at first. Her face was gone. Her feet, one hand, and her fingers had all been cut off. She was identified through dental records. A year would go by before another victim turned up. This second victim was 20-year-old Eastern Michigan University student Joan Sc...