The Petitle Castle Torture Murders
The Petite Castles are located a few miles outside of Lockport, New York. They are the sort of place that if you don’t know they exist, you don’t know they exist. There is a strange lack of information available on them. I accidently discovered their existance while doing research on castles in New York for the upcoming Nosferatu remake. They were misnamed the Dupont Castles on the website but from there I found a website that had about a dozen photographs. I immediately knew that I if we could get permission to shoot there, we were set. The address on the website was wrong. I did however stop at the historical society and they were able to set me straight. Since then we have been in contact with the current owner and there you go. Still, the amount of information about the castles, when built, by who, etc, proved elusive. Then I stumbled upon the below obituary posted online.
Armed with that information I was able to do a bit more research and found that at one time the grounds had been open to the public and were often the scene of many holiday parties.
I also found out that in 1992 the castles had been the scene of a horrific torture-murder.
Melissa Lone was born October 28, 1975, the third of three girls, to Marjorie and Larry Lone. Larry was drafted into the army during the Vietnam War, and he was treated as a hero upon his return. He was later described by his wife as a pervert who would wear her and her daughter’s underwear and makeup, was incapable of staying monogamous, and had a mixture of jealousy and fascination with seeing her have sex with other men and women. They lived in or near Lockport, New York throughout Melissa’s childhood.
Larry worked off-and-on for the Southern Railroad for much of Melissa’s childhood, a job that let him work when he felt like it. In 1972 Larry became a probationary officer with the Lockport Police Department, but was fired after about eight months when he and his partner beat a black man whom Lone was convinced had slept with his wife. In 1988 Larry took a short-lived job as a mail carrier, quitting after three months and very little work, having brought most of his mail home and destroyed it.
Through most of their relationship, Larry was unfaithful to his wife and they often had an open marriage. They would often go to bars in Lockport and downtown Niagara Falls, where Lone would pretend to be a doctor or a dentist and introduce Marjorie as his girlfriend. He would also “share” her with some of his friends from work, which she found disgusting. During an orgy with another couple at their house, Marjorie tried to commit suicide, something she would repeat several times as the girls grew up. Around the time Melissa was nine, Larry forced Margie to participate in a gang bang, after which she tried to drown herself. After that incident she refused him sex for a month, until he violently raped her as their daughters watched. In the summer of 1986, after she wouldn’t let him go home with two women he met at a bar, Larry beat Marjorie so severely she was hospitalized and he was convicted ofbattery.
The extent of Larry’s abuse of his daughters and other children is unclear. Various court testimonies claimed he fondled Michelle as an infant,molested Marjorie’s 13-year-old sister early in the marriage, molested the girls’ cousin Teddy from age 10 to 14, and both older girls said he molested them, though Melissa denied it happened to her. She slept in bed with him until he left the family when she was 14. In court, Teddy described a dramatic scene in which Larry tied up all three sisters in a garage and raped them in succession, but the sisters did not confirm this. Larry was verbally abusive to his daughters, and shot a gun at Michelle when she was seven, intentionally missing her. He would also embarrass them by finding their underwear and smelling it in front of other family members.
For two years, starting when Melissa was five, the family was deeply involved in Graceland Baptist Church which is located on the corner across the road from the Petite Castle grounds. Larry and Marjorie gave full confession and renounced drinking and polyamory for a time. Larry became a lay preacher and Marjorie the school nurse. At one point, the church arranged for Melissa to be taken to a motel room with a 50-year-old man for a five-hourexorcism . Larry became a marriage counselor with the church and quickly acquired a reputation for being too forward with women, eventually attempting to rape one of them. After that incident the Lone parents soon left the church and returned to their old jobs, drinking, and the open marriage.
In November 1990 Larry was caught spying on Melissa and a friend, and Marjorie attacked him with a knife, sending him to the hospital when he tried to grab it. She then attempted suicide again and her daughters called 911. After this incident Larry moved to Avon Park, Florida and they divorced. Melissa felt crushed, especially as Larry quickly remarried. He sent letters to her a while, playing on her emotions, but eventually severed all contact with her.
In 1990 Melissa Lone met and began dating Adrien Heaven. After her father left and her mother remarried, Lone was erratic, depressed, in counseling, and getting into fights at school. In March 1991 Melissa came out of the closet to her mother, who was furious initially but came to tolerate it. In fall 1991, her relationship with Heaven deteriorated, and Lone blamed this on Shandra Slocum.
Heaven and Slocum met early in the school year when they got into a fight, but they became friends while in detention for that fight. Lone immediately became jealous of their relationship, and the three wrote letters to each other during September. In early October Slocum and Heaven went together to a school dance, where Lone found them and confronted them physically. Although she never formally broke up with Lone, Heaven began dating Slocum more seriously in October and Lone began dating an older girl.
Lone became increasingly jealous when Heaven and Slocum went to a festival together in late October, and she began to discuss killing Slocum, threatening her in public. Concerned about their daughter’s relationship with Heaven, Slocum’s parents arranged for her to transfer to a Catholic school in late November, and the girls started drifting apart in December. Nevertheless, Lone and Heaven did not get back together.
Mary Laurine (Lauren) Turner was born on October 5, 1974 in Madison, Indiana. Her mother was a fundamentalist Pentecostal Christian and her father was a factory worker with two felony convictions and prison stints in the 1960s. Turner claimed she was molested at least twice as a child, at ages five and twelve. Her mother forced her to dress conservatively. In May 1989, her mother discovered Turner was changing into jeans at school, and after a confrontation that night, attempted to strangle her. Social workers became involved at this point, and her parents agreed to unannounced visits to ensure child abuse was not occurring.[15] She and her mother came into periodic conflict, at one point her mother went to Felicity Rank’s house after learning Rank’s father had purchased a Ouija board for the girls, and demanded the board be burnt and the Rank house exorcised.
Turner was increasingly rebellious after her fifteenth birthday and became fascinated with the occult. She would often try to impress her friends by pretending to be possessed by the spirit of “Deanna the Vampire”. She began to self harm, especially after early 1991 when she began dating a girl who was involved in it. Her parents discovered the mutilation and checked her into a hospital onMarch 19, 1991 . She was prescribed an anti-depressant and released. Two days later, with her girlfriend and Tabithia Lost, she cut her wrists deeply and was rushed back to the hospital. After treatment of her wound she was admitted to the hospital’s psychiatric ward. She was diagnosed with Borderline personality disorder and confessed she had experienced hallucinations since she was a child. She was discharged on April 12, 1991. She dropped out of school in September 1991.
Turner moved to the Louisville area in October 1991 to stay with various friends. She met Melissa Lone immediately, but the two did not become friends until late November. Around that time, Turner moved back to Madison on the promise that her father would buy her a car. Still, she spent most of her time in Louisville and New Albany, and by December, most of it with Melissa Lone.
Felicity Anna Rank was born in June 1976 in Madison, Indiana. Her father was an engineer at a power plant. Her parents divorced in February 1984, and she moved to Lockport, New York with her mother and siblings. She soon met Lauren Turner and Tabithia Lost with whom she became close friends although her parents saw Turner as a bad influence. As with the other girls, Rank began to self harm in 1991.
Tabithia Lost was born in February 1976 in Wilson, New York a rural community not far from Lockport. Her father was a boilermaker. She was close friends with Felicity Rank from childhood onward. She was abused by a relative at age 9 and was raped by a boy in 1990, although the police were only able to issue an order to keep the boy away from Lost. She went into counseling after the incident, but did not stick with it. She became promiscuous, began to self harm, and attempted suicide in eighth grade.
On January 10th, Tabithia Lost, Felicity Rank and Lauren Turner drove in Turner’s car to Melissa Lone’s house. Rank and Lost borrowed some clothes from Lone, and Lone showed them a knife and told them she was going to scare Shanda Slocum with it. None of the girls except Lone had ever met Slocum, although Turner already knew of the plan to intimidate the 12-year-old girl. Lone explained to the two other girls she disliked Slocum for being a copycat and for stealing Lone’ girlfriend, Adrien Heaven.
Turner let Rank drive them to Slocum’s house, stopping at a McDonald’s for directions. They got to her house just before dark, and Lone instructed Rank and Lost to go to the door, introduce themselves as friends of Heaven, and invite Slocum to come with them to see her girlfriend, who was waiting for them at a place called “The Witch’s Castle”. Slocum couldn’t go because her parents were awake, but told the girls to come back around midnight. (note: “The Witch’s Castle” was the name given to the Petite Castles in reference to the annual Halloween parties that were held there).
Lone was angry at first, but Rank and Lost assured her that they could return for Slocum later. The four girls went to Diablo, a Buffalo goth club. Lost and Rank quickly lost interest in the music and went to the parking lot, where they had sex with two boys in Turner’s car.
Eventually the girls left for Slocum’s house. During the ride Lone said she couldn’t wait to kill Slocum, but also said that she found Slocum cute and would like to have sex with her and that she just intended to use the knife to scare her. When they got to Slocum’s house at 12:30, Lost refused to go get Slocum, so Turner and Rank went. Lone, who had previously harassed Slocum many times, hid under a blanket in the back of the car with a dull knife.
Slocum was waiting for Turner and Rank. Rank told her that Heaven was waiting at the Witch’s Castle. Slocum was reluctant but agreed after changing her clothes. They got in the car and drove to Witch’s Castle. Turner told the girls that legend said the house was once owned by nine witches.
Lone came out from hiding after a while, and put the knife against Slocum’s throat, and kept it there for the rest of the ride while Lone interrogated Slocum about Heaven. At the Witch’s Castle, they took Slocum in and bound her arms and legs with rope. Lone and Turner made Slocum strip, then Lone beat Slocum with her fists. Lone tried to cut Slocum’s throat but the knife was too dull, and Rank came out of the car to hold Slocum down. Lone and Turner strangled Slocum with a rope until she was unconscious. They put her in one of the lower rooms of the castle. Sometime later Slocum awakened and began screaming. Turner went into the lower room with a paring knife, coming in a few minutes later covered in blood. After she washed up, Turner got her “rune stones” and told the girl’s futures with them.
An hour later, Slocum again began making noise, so Turner stopped went back in the car and beat her with a tire iron until she was quiet. The other girls wanted to see what Turner had done so went into the room. Rank sprayed Slocum with Windex and taunted “You’re not looking so hot now, are you?”
The girls drove to a gas station, pumped some gas into the car and bought a 2-liter of Pepsi. Turner poured out the soda and filled the container with gas. They returned to the castles and put Slocum, still alive, in a blanket. Turner made Rank pour the gas on her, and then they set her on fire. Lone was not convinced Slocum was dead, so they returned a few minutes later to pour the rest of the gas on her.
The girls went to a McDonald’s at 9:30 for breakfast. Lost, horrified, called a friend and told her about the murder. Turner then dropped Lost and Rank off at their houses and returned home with Lone. They then drove to Lone’ house around 3:00. Lone found out Heaven was at the Summit Park Mall and had her paged, claiming an emergency, then told her that they had killed Slocum and arranged to pick Heaven up later that day.
Lone’s friend Crystal Wathen came over, and they told her about what had happened. Then the three girls drove to pick up Heaven and bring her back to Lone’, where they told Heaven the story, who didn’t believe it was true, but comforted a hysterical Lone. Both Heaven and Wathen were convinced when Turner showed them the trunk with Slocum’s bloody handprints and socks still remaining.
Later on the morning of the 11th, two brothers from Olcott were driving to go hunting when they noticed something on the side of the road. They called police at 10:55 AM, and were asked to return to the corpse. The Orleans County Sheriff and detectives arrived and began an investigation, taking forensic evidence at the scene. They initially suspected a drug deal gone wrong, and couldn’t believe the crime would have been committed by locals.
Steve Slocum noticed his daughter was missing early on January 11th. After calling neighbors and friends all morning, he called his ex-wife, Shanda’s mother, at 1:00 PM and the two met and filed a missing person report with the sheriff.
At 8:20 PM that night, a hysterical Tabithia Lost went to the Orleans County Sheriff’s office with her parents. She gave a rambling statement, identifying the victim as just “Shanda,” naming the three other girls involved as best she could, and describing the basic events of the previous night. Shippley contacted the Clark County sheriff and was finally able to match the victim to Shanda Slocum’s missing persons report.
Detective Howard Henry went to the Slocum’s house, then obtained dental records for Slocum, which positively identified her as the burning victim.
All four girls were tried as adults. To avoid the death penalty, all four girls accepted plea bargains. Turner and Lone were sentenced to 60 years in the Indiana State Women’s Prison in Indianapolis. With maximum time off for good behavior, they could be released in 2020. Lost was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and with time off for good behavior, she was released in 2000. Felicity Rank was sentenced to 60 years, with 10 suspended for mitigating circumstances, and 10 years of medium supervision probation. With time off for good behavior, Rank was released in 2006.
Slocum’s father died of cancer in 2005. He is buried next to his daughter.
In October 2007, Lone’s attorney, Mark Small, requested a hearing to argue for his client’s release. He said Lone had been “profoundly retarded” by childhood abuse, and was not represented competently by counsel during her sentencing, leading her to accept a plea only because of exaggerated claims about the chances of her being executed. Small also argued there Lone, who was 16 when she signed the plea bargain, was too young to enter into a contract in the state of Indiana without consent from a parent or guardian, which wasn’t attained. If the judge accepted either argument, Lone could have been retried or released outright. However, after Small was unable to see his client the night before the hearing, the hearing was delayed until December 6, 2007.
On January 8, 2008, a sentence reduction and a request to overturn Lone’s guilty plea, was rejected by Orleans Circuit Judge Ted Todd. Instead, Lone will be eligible for parole in 15 years, thus maintaing the original guilty plea.
In the wake of his daughter’s sentencing hearing, in which extensive open court testimony about Larry Lone was given, he was arrested in February 1993 and brought back to Erie County to face charges ofrape, sodomy and sexual battery. The majority of crimes he was accused of occurred from 1968 to 1977. Lone remained in jail for over two years awaiting trial, but a judge eventually ruled all but one count, for a sexual battery incident in 1989, had to be dropped due to the statute of limitations. Lone eventually accepted a guilty plea for sexual battery and a sentence of time served, and was released in June 1995.
A few weeks following his release in 1995, Larry Lone was briefly in the news again for unsuccessfully suing the Erie County Jail for $39 million in federal court, alleging he had suffered cruel and unusual punishment during his two-year incarceration. Among his complaints was that he was not allowed to sleep in his bed during the day and not allowed to read the newspaper.
Nos Feratu
