The Monster Mash

(Author's note: "Trick or Treat?")

As always, just plain old unedited. 

Well, today I was obviously thinking about the monsters. And no, I haven't been binging on a bunch of Snickers and Red Bulls while doing so. But given the date, I wanted to find something genealogically scary, ya know, to find something creepy or unusual that would maybe knock your socks off. 

Now we've been over the usual classical subjects before. Heck, I even have correspondence regarding my look back at the wives of her father, Boris Karloff, from Sara, daughter of that oh so original Frankenstein. Indeed, I have followed the connections from here to there, and to Bela Lugosi, and to Lon Cheney, and beyond. Still, it always feels like I needed to get us closer, closer to whatever that madness or evil it is that makes us remember that none of us are not so far removed from the dark side.

That all of us are just like Frankenstein. Both doctors and monsters.

And something that makes us remember to be frickin grateful that we aren't.

In the past, I've gone "neo-classical" to do so. I've shown my family connection to "the Boogeyman" Albert Fish and played the games of genealogical clues with the New England Historic and Genealogical Society connecting the dots to Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy. I even went modern, and showed my common Mayflower ancestry shared with the murderous Alex Murdaugh.  

Um, gross. 

I thought about Janet. 

Yes, Dear Cousin Janet, pictured above in her scream heard round the world and how she help portray a generation of scintillating horror femmes fatales in right on dow through her daughter Jamie. Yes, actress Janet Leigh is certainly a lady worth celebrating today - I think. I share a commoner Gateway Ancestor with the lovely Ms. Leigh. 

Still...it didn't touch that dead nerve aI was looking for. Lol?

However, the other day, I was exposed (for lack of a better word) to one of the archetypes of such evil madness on screen and definitely off. I was exposed via Netflix to the world of serial killer Ed Gein. Ed's horrible and unspeakable crimes are what (and please forgive me for saying so) inspired a new generation of insanity.  Indeed, his story brought us to a simulation of the Bates Motel, and yes, even round to cousin Janet Leigh and her shriek in the shower serenade. 😵‍💫

Now I have by the grace of God no connection to Ed Gein. His ancestry was Wisconsin German, which is an area I don't easily connect genetically too. However, there was a character in Ed's life who seemed to know the serial killer better than anyone else did. I rather think that her insanity surely rivaled his. 

She looked the other way. She, in effect, excused him. 

She was Adeline Watkins. A monster all her own, and a ninth cousin quite easily traceable on my mother's side. 

Yeah, look at them eyeballs.   

So today as we celebrate all things monstrous and or trick or treatable, as we remember the nefarious ways of Count Dracula, and celebrate the career of Cousin Janet Leigh, let's give thanks for whatever genetic mercy keeps us safe from the likes of so much other evil, and remember that we are all damaged goods. 

I sure as heck didn't need to find another monster in the old family tree. 

Mind your manners, Adeline. 

And no biting. 

☮️