Exorcism, Greenwich-Style

Your scribe had occasion to drive past 10 Dairy Road yesterday. As local readers may recall, this is the house in which Andrew Kissel was murdered in a most foul and grisly manner. The Greenwich Gestapo is on the case, of course, which means that whoever did it will undoubtedly get away with it - just as every other murderer in this town has done. Only when the State took over was Michael Skakel brought to justice, and of course A. D. Wilson drove to the station after shooting Jack Peters and turned himself in, so the GG can hardly take credit for that. Other local murderers, like the person who killed young Matthew Margolies, continue to walk around scot-free.

Well, the Dairy Road house was sold recently, albeit for rather less than it might have fetched without the gory history. The new owner, obviously aware of its past, has apparently decided to exorcise all traces of the Kissel episode. How? Not by bell, book, and candle, but by stripping the house down to the bare exterior walls. It's a skeleton of its former self; you can see right through it.

Your scribe had been wondering how a new owner might deal with the house, and, while surprised at what he saw, thinks that this procedure makes sense. Presumably when the work is completed it will be a completely different house, with different rooms and a different layout. It seems mildly curious that the new owner has kept the outside walls, but maybe that was easier than trying to get a demolition permit for the whole thing.

In any case, although Andrew Kissel's shade may walk unquietly while his murderer continues to walk free, it will not be able to haunt the house in which he was killed. The house in which he lived and died has simply ceased to exist. And that, gentle reader, is how to perform an exorcism here in Greenwich.