Imaginary Worlds - True Vampires of New Haven

Episode Date: May 6, 2015

A few years ago, I reported a story about a safe house program for vampires in New Haven, CT. The city supplied the vampires with blood if they agreed to live under police supervision. But the funding for the program got cut and the vampires were sent to live with relatives or descendants. I revisit Trudy Manetti, who is under the care of her old childhood friend Frances O'Connor as they take stock of their past, present and future together. (This is a radio drama featuring actors Jean Richards, Nicole Greevy and Dan Truman.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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you're listening to imaginary worlds Worlds. I'm Eric Malinsky. So I'm talking to you outside today because I'm shaking the format up a bit. Usually on this show I examine Imaginary Worlds from the outside. But sometimes I need to go there because I want to hear directly from the characters. So this week's episode is a radio drama. And it's actually a sequel to another radio drama that I produced a few years ago. Which may sound confusing, but I'm going to let imaginary Eric in the studio explain what's going on. Just don't believe a word he says.

A couple years ago, I did a story for Studio 360 about vampires. Now, when you see vampires on TV or in the movies, they're always, like, really fast or strong. They can fly or hypnotize you. They're dressed in the latest fashions, you know, very sexy, lots of black and leather. I wanted to show that in the real world, being a vampire is not glamorous. They usually don't keep up with the times. It can be kind of disorienting to live forever. And if they're low on blood, they're pretty weak. That's why New Haven, Connecticut created a safe house program in the 1960s, which was copied by Oakland, Austin, and a

couple other cities. New Haven provided vampires with a regular supply of blood, and in turn, the vampires agreed to live in safe houses guarded by police. So in 2011, I went to one of these safe houses, and here's a little bit of that story. New Haven has plenty of spooky gothic mansions, but Alicia Rubenstein and over a dozen vampires are living at a hardware store called Grossman's Lumber that went out of business 20 years ago. It's now a safe house guarded by police. The police let us inside a holding area. They won't allow us to go any further. Even they don't go beyond the double doors. Officially, they stay in the safe house.

Even they don't go beyond the double doors. Officially, they stay in the safe house. Unofficially, I'm sure they get out. Officer Gil Lopez does five night shifts here a week, but he's skeptical about the program, especially when the vampire population increases. They're hungry. They need blood. One way or another, they go find their way to get it.

So a lot's happened since that story aired. To catch up, I talked with Jonah Lipsky. He's the director of health for New Haven. We had our funding deaccelerated. It was reapportioned and prioritized elsewhere, but it wasn't completely cut. We had enough to continue the administration of the program, if not the actual physical plant part of the program. In other words, the recession took a big toll on the budget, and the safe house program got cut.

The vampires were transferred to the care of living relatives or descendants. But getting the families on board was a tough sell. It's a classic case of not in my backyard for the first several months. People didn't want people crawling up out of their backyard. But we found homes for them, and the populace generally became accustomed to it. So the police are saying that the number of vampire murders has gone up a lot since this whole transition started. Does that concern— Not proportionally. Not proportionally.

Does that concern you? Not proportionally. Not proportionally. The entire city population has increased drastically, and therefore the 2% to 6% homicide rate has increased proportionally, but not disproportionately. I mean, you have more people living here, whether they're living or dead, and you have a similar number of murders. But there definitely has been a sizable increase of vampires in the jails.

Well, only because the number of people that are able to go to jail has increased You have criminals that were dead and then came back And they're still criminals The vampirism didn't make them criminals They were criminals before they came back Just as the bakers who died, who were bitten and then came back They're still bakers It doesn't stop them baking bread or cookies or other things we like to eat.

They just do their thing. And in many unfortunate cases, or a few, I should say, it's criminals. So talking to Jonah Lipsky was a little frustrating. I was heading up to Boston anyway to see my family, and so I thought I'd stop in New Haven just to see how this is working out. Some of the families there are having a tough time and didn't want any media coverage. But the last time I was there, I did meet these two amazing women, Trudy Minetti and Frances O'Connor.

Trudy and Frances went to high school and college together. And they both admit when they were about 27, 28, they're already starting to drift. Frances had gotten engaged. Trudy was very single. But then Trudy got bit. And Frances felt a huge amount of responsibility for her. Don't think it was easy. No, no, no.

No, no, no. To keep her eating, you know, drinking. We had to do that every day. Every day. Couldn't go on vacations. Somebody said that the dead should not be a burden on the living. What do you think about that? She's not dead. She's alive. She's here.

You're sweet. That's very nice. Yeah. You were a good egg. So when the safe houses were dismantled, and there were no living relatives or descendants who wanted to claim Trudy, Frances took her in. Coming. Okay. Hi, how are you? Good to see you. Nice to see you. I stopped by just after sunset. Trudy was waking up. She's been taking drugs that are supposed to lessen her cravings, but

they make her sleepy. Come on in, honey. The apartment is small. Trudy's bedroom used to be Frances's walk-in closet. I want to start by you guys just sort of saying each saying your name, and I want you to say how old you are, which I don't usually ask, but in your case, it's interesting. Yeah, okay. Well, my name is Frances O'Connor. I'm 74 years old. And I'm Trudy Minetti, and I am 73 and a half. Having Trudy home has really caused a rift in Frances' family. Her adult children totally disapprove. They won't come over with the grandkids.

And then there's her husband. It still is very difficult for him, yeah, because... What's your husband's name? Tom. Tom. He never liked me. When they got married they had they had an evening wedding and I thought that was so considerate so that I could go but

then I wasn't allowed to go to the wedding he totally stopped it well he was worried you know what he did was let me explain what he did the he was afraid that she might come anyway and crash the wedding you know so to prepare he made sure that everybody at the wedding all all the guests, had a buddy. Like the buddy system, you know, like when you're in grade school, you have a buddy system. When you go out on a trip. And before they went home, everyone had to check that their buddy was okay and was safe in the car. I just wanted to see your dress.

Yeah, well, he was worried and I understand that. Well, the pictures are in black and white. It just wasn't the same. Trudy feels really out of sync with the rest of us. Why does it matter who's president or what laws are getting passed? Because it's not really going to affect me because I'm not ever going to get old. It doesn't matter to me whether there's Medicare or what's the new one that you said? Obamacare. Obamacare.

It doesn't matter to me. I don't get sick. This stuff isn't important. As long as I have blood, I'm not hungry. If things get polluted and dirty and whatever, it doesn't matter to me. I don't really breathe air. Yeah. But how do you get your blood now?

I get it for her. I go to the blood bank. I like AB best. Positive or negative, doesn't matter. But she loves going out at night. And without the safe houses, she's allowed to roam free. I, you know, I just, I walk around. I mean, it's, you know, I see what's happening.

I mean, if there's a midnight movie on the weekend, sometimes I go to that. And, I mean, I don't talk to anybody. I just watch the movie. I thought you go out with your friends. Your girlfriends. I mean, sometimes one or two, you know, we'll get together and, you know, talk about the safe house and, you know. I'm very worried when she goes out at night. You can imagine.

But, I mean, it's just the dumb ones that get caught, and they were always going to get caught. Are you so smart? Well, I mean, I'm not doing anything bad. Well, that's good. I'm glad to hear it. Because you know something? If you were doing something really bad, I would call the cops. Really?

Yeah, I certainly would. I mean, come on. And given that age is such a big factor here, Frances worries what's going to happen to Trudy after she's gone. Well, yeah, of course I worry. There's nobody going to take care of her. Yeah. I don't know, and I's nobody going to take care of her. Yeah. I don't know, and I'm not going to be around to know. And there's nobody.

Nobody's going to take care of her without me. I'm going to try very hard not to get in trouble because I know Frances wouldn't like it. So, like, right now you feel like you would never do anything to get in trouble because you know you would lose her respect, but after she's gone you're even still thinking about what would Frances think? I hope so.

I'm really going to miss you and I just wish you would have let me turn you when I asked. Please, come on. Let's not talk about that again. Because it's Frances is the only person left who remembers what I was like when I was still human. Because sometimes I forget.

And without her, I think that it becomes too easy to be a vampire, to think this is normal. Because I'm a witness to her youth, too. Right. And because you still think I'm a good person. Of course you are. But I just, I want to remember that I'm not normal, that I'm different. And I think Frances is the one who helps me remember that. And when she's gone, I don't know if I'm going to remember it anymore.

The whole debate about vampires really comes down to the issue of free will. If they have free will, it's terrible. They were locked up in the safe houses. And if they don't have free will, it's scary to think about them being let out. Well, how much free will do people have? I mean, let's be honest. What everybody's worried about is, oh, is a vampire going to come and kill me? Like, that's what it comes down to. That's what everybody is scared of. Oh, I'm going to get bitten by a vampire. So for a human to sit there and say, is this person, I'm important.

Is this vampire going to bite me and end my life? Well, do you think a cow or a chicken or a carrot or a tomato feels the same way about a person? I'm sure, though, nobody listening would want to know that they've been compared to a carrot or a cow. Well, that's, you know, for them to take personally or not as they want. But do they feel guilty when they eat a cow or they eat a carrot? Do they think that carrot or that cow had a life?

Well, not like the life of a human. Not like the, you know... How is it different? It's totally different. Oh, honey. Because you're saying that because you're human. It's because you're human that you say that. But somebody, you know, another vampire could see Francis that way, you know? Well, honey. Because you're saying that because you're human. It's because you're human that you say that. But somebody, you know, another vampire could see Francis that way, you know?

Well, sure. How would you feel about that? I mean, I would beat them up because that's not okay because Francis is important to me. I mean, Francis, I love you. I don't mean this the way it's going to sound, so please don't get upset. But if you had a pet dog and somebody attacked your dog, you probably would go after that person for attacking your dog. Right. If you were that dog and somebody attacked your dog, you probably would go after that person for attacking your dog.

Right. It's just, it's, you know, you were the most important living being in the world to me, but we're not the same. I know. In Hollywood, the vampire trend is very passe. True blood is off the air. Twilight, so yesterday. But the hot-blooded attraction of vampires is just too tempting. I mean, they'll be back in some cultural form or another.

I think we just see too much of ourselves in them, especially when people lose control and give in to their worst urges. And we wonder, could they have controlled themselves? Or was it our responsibility to try and control them? Well, that's it for today's show. Thanks for listening. So, is there a way, I mean, I love doing radio. Is this being recorded?

Will I be able to hear it? We don't show up on film, so radio is the only way I can, yeah. No, it's going to be, do you know what a podcast is? No. Do you know what a download is? Do I know it? You can, from the internet, it's you download be, do you know what a podcast is? No. Do you know what a download is? Do I know it? You can, from the internet, it's, you download the show to your phone. Yeah, yeah, you remember. I usually do it for her.

And then you, so you can listen to it on your phone, basically. But not like rock and roll, just listening to people talking. Yeah. You could have music or talking. Right. And this is talking. I mean, music I can see, but listening to people talk, I mean, maybe if you're old, that's fun, but okay.

Thanks to Dan Truman, Gene Richards, and Nicole Grevy, who were not actors playing Jonah Lipsky, Francis O'Connor, and Trudy Minetti. They just helped me get in touch with them. You can like the show on Facebook or leave a comment in iTunes. I tweet at emolinski. The show's website is imaginaryworldspodcast.org, where you can hear the original story I did for Studio 360 that many people thought was real,

because, as they told me, they believe everything they hear on public radio, even on Halloween.