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AN ICON IS GONE ... FOR NOW
Waterbury’s Holy Land cross will be replaced
BY MICHAEL PUFFER
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
WATERBURY — After shining over Waterbury for 40 years, the 56-foot-tall
cross atop Pine Hill was dismantled Tuesday morning. The cross had become unstable after many years of weathering
and repeated attacks by vandals, according to the Religious Teachers Filippini, a Catholic order of nuns that has long maintained
the giant cross . They plan to replace it with one of about equal size before the end of June. “It’s sad,
but just think, a new one is going up,” Sister Frances Stavalo told Anthony Porto Jr., a 53-year-old carpenter who was
among a handful of spectators Tuesday. Throughout the day, the site was visited by several dozen locals who had read about
the project, or had seen cranes from the top of the hill. Most, like Porto, felt a connection. Porto
said he watched the cross go up when he was a teenager. It was part of Holy Land USA, a 17-acre religious theme park
built in the 1950s and 1960s by teams of volunteers under the direction of John Greco, a deeply devout attorney from Waterbury. Their work can
still be seen, though greatly marred by the passing of time and the work of vandals. Religious statues throughout the grounds
have been chipped away, and some are missing limbs. Greco’s group pieced together an intricate replica of Jerusalem from sheet metal, wire mesh, stucco
and other scrap material. Some of the models stand, others are smashed. The grounds have become overgrown, and oncemanicured
bushes have grown wild. Porto grew up in the tightly packed neighborhood below the park. He remembers skating on Duck Pond
in the park, picking blueberries and helping Greco with maintenance.
“It was busloads and busloads (of tourists)
every weekend,” said Porto, who brought his teenage son, Anthony III, to see the cross come down. “This
whole mountain is about the life and death of Jesus Christ.”
The park closed to the public in 1984, but the curious
and the devout still visit, as do vandals. Even with Holy Land closed, the cross on the hill has remained an important
landmark. Interior lights, shining through fiberglass panels, turned it into a nighttime beacon for motorists passing on Interstate
84 below. On Tuesday, a harness was fitted around the cross and welders cut the base. It was lowered gently to the
ground, and will be disassembled for scrap. Edward Mikenas, owner of Ironman Iron Works of Watertown, did the cutting. He
will use pieces of the scrap steel to fashion a small cross for the Holy Land Chapel, located at the top of Slocum
Street. Normally, this job would cost about $2,400, but Mikenas said he is receiving $500, or just a bit beyond cost. “It
seemed the right thing to do,” said Mikenas, whose son, Frank, was assisting. The Religious Teachers Filippini can use
all the help they can get. The project is estimated to cost $250,000, and the order had to receive special permission from
Rome to dip deep
into its reserves, Sister Stavalo said. They are hoping a local fundraising effort will defray costs. “We don’t
have the money for that, but we are not going to let that fall,” Sister Angela Bulla said of
the cross . So far, the order has received two big donations. Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont, who challenged Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman
for his seat two years ago, pledged to match up to $25,000 worth of donations. The Archdiocese of Hartford has answered that
challenge with a $25,000 pledge. “It’s a symbol of hope and peace,” said Lamont, who visited Holy Land Tuesday.
“During the campaign, it also reminded me I was halfway home. This is such a symbol for Waterbury, it has to be here.” Locals have pledged a
few thousand dollars, mostly in small checks of $20 or $30, Sister Stavalo said. A 7-year-old girl
sent $1.
In the years since the park fell into disrepair, several revival schemes have surfaced.
One developed in the mid-1980s envisioned an extensive rehab at a $6 million cost. Now, the nuns have a more humble plan,
Stavalo said. They hope to replace the broken statuary and create a safe path through the park, allowing it to reopen to the
public. That would cost about another $250,000, according to one estimate from OR&L Construction, the Branford-based company
handling the cross project. Sister Stavalo could not guess when that additional work will go forward. She said the
group is just trying to keep Greco’s vision alive. “I’m sure John’s watching from heaven, and is pleased,”
Sister Bulla said of Tuesday’s work.
Replacement of Cross that overlooks Waterbury delayed
WATERBURY — The 50-foot-tall crucifix that overlooks downtown Waterbury from the peak of Pine Hill will see another Easter Sunday due to a delay in the project to replace it. Organizers of the $250,000 replacement
project had expected to dismantle the cross’ steel-beams and fiberglass panels in February, but cost overruns have caused
a brief delay. O,R&L Construction is handling the project for the Religious Teachers Filippini, the order of nuns that
owns the 17-acre property that once hosted Holy Land USA, a
religious theme park. The cross has weathered the past half-century, and more recently has been attacked by vandals. O,R&L
project manager Clifford Lennox said there are fears it might become unstable. The plan is to replace it with one about equal
size made of tube steel and metal sheathing. Organizers had planed to mount lights directly to the cross to illuminate it,
but those turned out to be about $50,000 too expensive, Lennox said. So the design has been altered to use floodlights from
the ground. The design delay prevented organizers from presenting plans to city officials in February as planned. Lennox said
he now hopes to approach city officials in April, with construction possibly beginning later that month.
SUBMITTED BY: Lenny J.
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| Monroe Ghost Hunter, Ed Warren |
Ghost Hunter Ed Warren Dies
Monroe Resident Investigated N.Y. Case That `The Amityville Horror' Film Was Based On
CONNECTICUT NEWS August 24, 2006
By CAROLYN MOREAU,
Courant Staff Writer
Ed Warren, who along with his wife pursued the unusual career of ghost hunter and whose cases included what
would become the basis for “The Amityville Horror,” died Wednesday at his home in Monroe. He was 79.
Warren firmly believed in ghosts, demons and other unworldly creatures - and in helping people deal with these
unwanted visitations. He would answer the phone at all hours to counsel panicked homeowners from across the country,
who couldn't find anyone else to advise them when their furniture started flying.
Most
people snicker," said Tony Spera of New Milford, who is the Warrens'
son-in-law. "But if it happens to you and you know it is real, it is frightening to have your bed shaking in the middle of
the night, or have the covers suddenly pulled off you."
Warren is also survived
by his wife, Lorraine; a daughter, Judy Spera; two grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
During
their 61-year marriage and partnership, the Warrens investigated more than 10,000 suspected hauntings in the U.S. and abroad in Japan, Australia and Europe.
They believed they were expelling ghosts who stubbornly remained earthbound and evil spirits from another world who had never
been alive. In return, all the Warrens asked was for their expenses to be covered, Spera said.
While
the Warrens didn't ask for compensation for their ghost busting, they made a living on
the college lecture circuit talking about the supernatural. Their most famous investigation - and most requested lecture -
was the reported psychic disturbances at a house in Amityville, N.Y., where
a family was brutally murdered in 1974. The Warrens were consultants for the movie "The Amityville Horror."
The Warrens wrote 10 books on the supernatural. Two of the books were
made into TV movies, "The Demon Murder Case" and "The Haunted."
Ed Warren grew up in Bridgeport in a house he believed was haunted.
While he regularly confronted dark forces, he considered
it a duty to warn the public about the dangers of playing with the occult, Spera said.
"Seven out of eight of their
cases would start with people playing with a Ouija board," Spera said. "The spirit does not have to come right away. It can
come after dark to get you."
Warren was also a religious demonologist and an expert on satanic
cults, Spera said.
When he wasn't investigating the paranormal, Warren liked
visiting forests and other natural places and collecting rocks and gems. He was a great lover of animals and at one time kept
a fox as a pet. The fox proved to be a difficult character. Warren once had to call his wife
for help when he took the fox on a ride and the animal wouldn't let him back into the car after Warren stopped at some shops, Spera said.
In the past five years, poor health kept Warren housebound. In March 2001, he had gotten up at 2 a.m.
to let the cat in and collapsed on the floor. Paramedics restarted his heart. He was in a coma for 11 weeks and never regained
speech.
"They said at the hospital he wouldn't make it through 24 hours," Spera said. "He had such a strong will. He
wanted to stay."
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Dudleytown: The Movie
SOURCE: VARIETY MAGAZINE, JULY 7, 2006
Good News Holdings, a Christian publishing house, and Red
Barn Productions have formed a partnership to begin shooting a movie about the Dudleytown legend. The movie, due to be released in late 2007, will be based upon soon-to-be-published novels
by author Bodie Ingelvie.
The novels are to be a series of teen-oriented books regarding the
reputedly haunted settlement of Dudleytown, Connecticut and will be written from the point of view of a 17-year-old girl through
her journal entries. Bodie Ingelvie will also be writing the screenplay for the film.
It is not clear whether the novels will depict the girl in modern times,
interacting with the ruins of Dudleytown in Cornwall, Connecticut, or will depict her in the 1700s at the time of the existing
settlement.
The film is slated to start filming late this year or early 2007.
UPDATE: (October 28th, 2006) According to the
newest accounts, Good News Holdings and Red Barn Productions have scrapped their partnership on the new "Dudleytown"
movie over "creative differences". According to most reports, the partners could not agree on the "spiritual direction"
of the movie, therefore, the partnership was subsequently dissolved. Creepy Connecticut has
spoken with sources close to the project and has discovered that the movie will still be completed, but the details on a new
partnership are still up in the air. We will keep you apprised of any new developments.
UPDATE: (March 17, 2007) It has been learned
that the Dudleytown movie has now been officially entitled, "Dudleytown Curse: The 49th Key". Red Barn Productions has
already completed preliminary work on the film's script and research. To view the trailer, click on this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GybjGVRs7s4
UPDATE: (July 10th, 2007) It has recently been
discovered through an anonymous source that the author of the non-existent novels about Dudleytown is not actually an author
at all. In fact, the name Bodie Inglevie isn't even a name. Bodie Inglevie is an acronym for "I BELIEVE IN GOD"!
According to the source, Good News Holdings, headed by a former Paramount Studios executive (and the brother of Douglas Kirkpatrick
who runs Red Barn Films) has been attempting to get in on the Christian film market boom by trying to produce horror movies
aimed at the teen demographic. It's their hope that if they can produce movies that will interest the teen market, they
will be able to influence their relationship with religion and religious issues. The writers of the film being produced
by Good News Holdings (a wholly separate film project from the Red Barn Films project) are creating a film with an anti-religious
hero who, through the course of the events in the film, will come to accept and embrace Christianity and, eventually, use
his faith to defeat the great evil in the film. Dudleytown has been set as this film's demonic locale.
The writers of this film are working in conjunction with
each other to produce this work. Our source says that they're actually being referred to as "Inklings" (a reference
to the group of professors and writers, including Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, who used to meet each month to discuss their
written works in progress).
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Mass. Cemetery's Graves Sliding Down Hill
By Adam Gorlick, Associated Press Writer
MON JUL 24, 3:55 PM
GREENFIELD, Mass. - The eternal slumbers of about 50 people, including
a former Massachusetts governor, are about to be interrupted, either by nature or man.
Directors of the Green River Cemetery are rushing against gravity
in an attempt to exhume and rebury the remains before they slide down a steep slope into the cemetery's namesake.
"We need to move as fast as we can," said Alan Blanker, president
of the Green River Cemetery Co., the nonprofit group that runs the public burial ground. "The last thing we want is
for any remains to slip away."
For a final resting place, the Green River Cemetery seems about as
quiet and peaceful as they come. Well-manicured paths wind through the 25-acre site, passing tree-shaded headstones
and a monument carved by the sculptor Daniel Chester French.
But the tranquility was shattered in March, when strong storms knocked
down trees and washed away several yards of soil on the cemetery's northern side. With more rain came more erosion,
until the ground retreated up to about a foot away from one grave.
About 50 other graves, most dating to the 1800s, are now just feet
away from the steep precipice and a 200-foot slide toward the Green River.
Under state law, exhuming a body requires a copy of a death certificate
and approval from the family of the deceased.
Because most of the bodies are so old, and meeting those mandates
may be nearly impossible, a Probate Court Judge waived those requirements. If there are no objections registered with
the court by July 31, the bodies will be able to be reburied.
Cemetery officials just have to figure out exactly how to do it.
"It's such a sensitive topic, you hate to even talk about it." said
Ed Snow, the cemetery's superintendent. "It's a doable project. We just need to make sure we do it right."
The cemetery caretakers are enlisting the help of surveyors and contractors
to determine the best way to uncover the graves. Because the plots are so close to an unstable drop-off, Blanker said
he's not sure whether it will be safe to have people shovel them out. Cranes may have to be called in for the job.
"The life and safety of the workers is more important than the remains
of somebody who's been deceased for over 100 years," Blanker said.
Because nobody can tell when, or even if, a landslide would occur,
headstones have been moved several yards from the sites they're supposed to mark.
A 40-foot obelisk that towered over the grave of William Washburn,
a Republican governor from 1872 to 1874, now lies on its side on terra firma. Dozens of headstones for more
Washburns and members of other families lost in the 19th century to ailments like fever, consumption and ulcers are lined
up nearby.
Blanker said surviving members of the Washburns have given their permission
to relocate the remains of their relatives to a new spot in the cemetery. Cemetery officials declined to give the names
or contact information for the relatives, citing privacy concerns.
Of the 50 or so people buried in the 10,000-square-foot spot, only
15 were interred in the past century. The most recent, a Washburn descendant, was laid to rest last year. Prior
to that, the last burial in the area was in 1994, according to cemetery documents.
The oldest known age of any of the deceased was 88; the youngest was
one day.
When the unearthing begins, Blanker says nobody is sure exactly how
much of anyone's remains will be found because of antiquated burial techniques.
"We've never done anything like this before," he said. "So we'll
just have to see what we find."
SUBMITTED BY: Steve Kleszcz
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