The Nightmare House

Fair Lawn is a borough of about 32,900 people in Bergen County, in north-eastern New Jersey, roughly 35 minutes from New York City. James describes it as an affluent commuter town that began as Lenape land sold to Dutch and Irish settlers, was farmed in small lots, and eventually took its name from a grand estate. By the 1980s it was a quiet, largely Catholic, heavily Italian-American town where the volunteer fire chief was a local celebrity.

The story begins with that fire chief. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed His wife was Phyllis Ruth Jacobus, 37, who had recently been diagnosed with diabetes and had come home from hospital after serious injuries in several car crashes.

On 14 March 1973, in the house at Pomona Avenue, the couple argued. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Then he telephoned the police and said he had just killed his wife and was going to kill himself. this part of the story is covered for now He was taken to hospital in a critical condition, had emergency surgery and was arraigned at his bedside. A note said his wife had told him she was going to leave him, though friends blamed stress over her medical condition.

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The episode stresses that the town did not shun him. He went back to work, and in 1982 he married Ruth Jacobus, a deaf and mute woman he met at the Easter Seal Community Center in Hackensack, where he worked as maintenance foreman. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it He said she then stabbed her mother in the back, handed him a larger knife and said that if he loved her he would do it. this part of the story is covered for now She asked him to kick in the back door so it looked like a burglary. They drove to Teaneck to meet friends and establish an alibi, came back, and then went to the neighbour's house to report the death.

The neighbour was James W. McCauley, a retired police officer. The two teenagers pounded on his door at about 9.45 p.m. saying Ruth was dead. He went next door, saw the ransacked house and the broken back door, and told the children to call the police. Officers found Ruth between the kitchen and living room, her skull bashed in about five times with a hammer and two knives, a butcher knife and a paring knife, left in her back. She had bled to death from a severed pulmonary artery; one blade had sliced her liver. The scene looked staged, because the mess was not the kind a burglar makes.

A neighbour told police it had happened again, that it was a house of tragedy, and the 1973 killing came back.

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it She said the argument was over telephone bills, that her mother threw things at her and followed her into the bedroom, and that she turned around to see Eddie's hand and her mother falling. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed The judge kept her bail at $25,000 and let her live with her father. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Her bank balance had fallen from $49,500 to $16,000.

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it