Category Archives: Lapara^

Rocky’s novel begins in the Magill House on The Hill, or the Magill Hill House or just the Magill House or Hill House. Yes, a woman named Lil lived there, who everyone knew as Nancy. Piggies were at bay in those times. Marshmallow men had yet to appear. Confetti always in the air. Parades galore. God Bless America.

Despite being prime real estate, the place is curiously empty these days. Just look at the view from the top porch!

Spectacular waterfalls can be seen tumbling down mountains towering above the town to the north, some of the highest peaks in Second Life I’ve been told. It’s a grand setting.

Yet within the house Buster Damm senses sorrow still. In the mid 20’s, a young lad named Daniel or Danny courted the tall, fetching Magill girl, the only child of Steve and Richard. Danny was shot 3 times and killed during a 1926 4th of July party at a local gay saloon owned by Nancy’s fathers. He managed to crawl to the dry-goods store next door to die at 1 minute past midnight on the 5th, a legal threshold. The shooter, Gideon “Spider” Murphy, former lover of Danny and leader of the notorious Purple Gang, was in turn, shot to death by Nancy while incarcerated at what was then the Lapara jailhouse, now designated as the primary landing point within Olde Lapara Towne itself. Completing the triangle of tragedy, Gideon was turned into the city’s first vampire the following week, with his original human victim being none other than our fair Nancy.

It goes without saying that Rocky’s novel has everything to do with this tragedy and then some. Including the fact that Buster Damm certainly isn’t a stranger to this town. He stares up at the place of the killing. Not the first or third but second.

His own.