CHRISTOF GREGOR JENNINGS

(A Biography)

In the fall of 1775, Edward and Katharina Jennings moved to the town of Shadow Rock, an area now commonly known as West Palm Beach. It is not known exactly from where they came or why it is that they moved to Shadow Rock, but immediately upon laying stake to a small parcel of land just outside of the town proper, they were believed evil. There was no evidence of this, just the fact that they looked different and were not Spanish, this being a time of Spanish rule.

Some people believed them to be practitioners of the occult, demon worshippers, come to convert the children to the church of Satan. Others believed the Jennings’ to be of Native American descent, Seminole or Tequesta, emerging from the swamp to render vengeance for the injustices wrought by the Spanish colonization. Rumors abound but no one ever confronted the Jennings family much less associated with them in any other manner than a passing "Hello". This lack of contact with the family only fueled the rumor mill.

To make matters worse, the conception of their son, Christof Gregor Jennings was surrounded with tales of incest and bestiality. He was born on October 31, 1776, All Hollow’s Eve, and, with the superstitious nature of the time, the townsfolk immediately labeled the boy as an outcast, as "Satan’s Son." Several incidents during the time of his birth also helped validate this notion in the eyes of the townsfolk…many heads of cattle were found brutally slaughtered, the full moon appeared red for several days, and many people reported seeing shadowy figures appear in the woods outside of town. Soon after, the townsfolk completely ostracized the family.

As a young boy Christof spent all of his time at home, working on chores or in his room. He did not attend public school, his parents taught him the best that they could. As a result, the socialization of Christof was severely deficient during these critical younger years…he did not learn how to communicate with other human beings, he did not learn how to express his feelings.

In his early teens, Christof began to take interest in the surrounding countryside. He would venture out, going in a different direction each time. Each exploration would take him further from home. Strangely, he would also take long walks in the forest…alone…at night. Sometimes, during these nighttime outings and to his parent’s dismay, he would not return until morning. Such actions only helped to confirm the suspicions of the townsfolk.

In late September 1799, these odd disappearances, coupled with the corpses of slaughtered animals placed on the doorsteps of the people that had supposedly crossed him, elevated the hysteria of the town. Soon, it was clear that the Jennings family could not remain in the town of Shadow Rock. This was true even though it was later discovered that the animals corpses were placed by a town council member in an attempt to frighten the townspeople into forcing the family out. The seed had been sown.

One evening, about a month later, just after dark, Christof returned home from a walk in the forest. He immediately knew something was amiss as the house was dark; no candlelight burned in the windows. He approached the house, and the sight of his disemboweled father hanging from the porch rafters caused him to stumble back, trip on some firewood, and hit his head on a rock.

Christof was not sure how long he had been unconscious, but it was still dark when he awoke. The sting of blood running down his forehead into his eyes did not soften the sight of his father swinging in the wind. He proceeded to enter the house, praying his mother had escaped whatever evil had visited that day, only to find her dismembered torso in a pool of blood. He let out a hellish wail of mourning when he realized that his unborn baby sister had been ripped from her womb.

After a period, he regained his composure enough to decide to build a funeral pyre. In retrieving a knife from the shed to cut the rope that held his father, he was greeted with another scene of horror. He realized now that he’d only seen his mother’s torso in the house. Here he was confronted with her limbs hanging from hooks in the ceiling, like meat at a butcher’s shop. As if this were not traumatizing enough, her crudely decapitated head was placed on the workbench, facing the door. Her final expression was one of excruciating pain and terror, her eyes staring blankly at her son. He dropped to his knees and sobbed with his head in his hands. This was the single greatest emotional event in Christof’s life; something that had never happened before and would never happen again. His first emotional feeling was a complete breakdown.

Several hours passed. Christof stood up, blood and tears on his face and clothes. He was not shedding tears any longer though. He was smiling.

The townspeople awoke to the sight of a large fire, which they quickly knew to be the Jennings house. The flames licked the trees and bushes surrounding the home, but luckily did not set them ablaze. Some people swore that they could hear Christof laughing maniacally from within the flaming abode, but no one dared approach the house. When the site was searched later that day, none of the bodies were found among the ashes and no family member was seen nor heard from again.

Then, in the fall of 1800, strange things started to happen all over the town of Shadow Rock. Reports of shadowy figures in the woods began again along with mysterious fires being set all around town. As no clear reason for these occurrences could be found, the townsfolk continued their lives relatively unaffected. Then, one night, several children disappeared from their beds. The town quickly became panicked. Search parties were dispatched and curfews were put into effect. Over the course of three nights, a total of ten children went missing. The search parties failed to turn up any of the children. After several anguishing weeks, the children reappeared as ghostly images floating above the town and in the surrounding woods. Some say whispering could be heard coming from the children, but the words were too faint to understand. To this day, the children’s bodies have never been found.

Slowly the town’s original population either moved or passed away along with the memories of the Jennings family.

Then, in October 1965, a string of unusual murders took place in the town of Lantana. The only pattern to these murders was that all of the victims were found hanged and gutted, their organs completely scooped out of the body cavity. These organs were never located and the killer was not found. The following October, the murders began again.

The local police mounted a highly publicized task force. They called in the state police and the F.B.I. to put an end to this reign of terror. Joseph Franklin Jennings was captured in an old warehouse after ending seventeen lives. The missing body parts were kept in this warehouse…stored within crude, homemade body bags. No one made the connection between these murders and the strange occurrences of 1800. Joseph was the one to point out that, being a descendent of Christof Gregor Jennings, he was continuing the Jennings family pact of vengeance. His goal was to "take" twenty victims…he only fell three short.

Joseph was found mentally incompetent to stand trial and was placed in the A.G. Holley Hospital for the criminally insane. Fifteen years later, A.G. Holley was transformed into a tuberculosis hospital and Joseph was transferred to the maximum security wing of the Florida State Mental Health Institute (FSMHI) in Hialeah. In 1989, Joseph’s doctors insisted that he had been making great progress and was no longer considered a threat to society. As such, he was put in the care of the minimum security, South County Mental Health Center in Delray Beach. Since this latest transfer, family members of the victims have been fighting to send him back to FSMHI.

Yesterday the bad news broke. Joseph had escaped. No one knows how or why he escaped, but he left two guards dead on his way out. The only thing left in Joseph’s room, next to the mutilated bodies of the guards, was a note. It sent chills through everyone that read it. These words, written in blood, will forever haunt the walls of this establishment, and forever terrorize the town of West Palm Beach.

The note said:

It’s time again. Vengeance will be mine. I will finish what Christof started. I will avenge the deaths of my ancestors. Halloween night. All Hallow’s Eve. The People of Shadow Rock beware.

JFJ

Joseph has returned, on this eve, to finish what he started. Here, in this house, you will see all of the greatest fears on display. You will be witness to all of the evil that has surrounded the Jennings family for centuries.

Prepare for the unimaginable.

Welcome to Hell.

Welcome to:

THE JENNINGS HOUSE