Real-Life Christine

By RodneyHatfieldJr for Creepy

I was watching Youtube while scanning my news headlines looking for something to write about when a classic trailer came on. It was the 1983 horror novel and movie, Christine, authored by famed writer Stephen King and directed by John Carpenter. It is a supernatural cult classic. Unless you are new to horror or live as a hermit, Christine is a story about supernatural possession, a shy teen buys a 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine from an elderly man. After some hooligans vandalize the car, it seeks revenge. Christine begins hunting those who have wronged it, killing them off one by one as it seeks otherworldly justice. It is a classic, a tale of possession, mystery, and horror.



That reminded me of an article I had read probably 15 years ago. In it, it talks about how Christine is based on a true story. I agree it sounds like an utterly made-up, but the truth is that the car in Christine is based on a real-life killer car. And spoiler, the real Christine is not a Plymouth but a 64 Dodge. And it has accumulated a body count of fourteen people (possibly more). 


The story goes like this. In Old Orchard Beach, Maine, the police department purchased a new cruiser—nicknamed the “Golden Eagle,” a 1964 Dodge 330 LE. But it didn’t last long—it seems there was something strange about the car. Three officers who regularly used the Golden Eagle on patrol ended up committing murder-suicides. After the third police officer dispatched his family and himself, the Old Orchard Beach police department decided to get rid of the car. They sold it at auction to a local man. Eventually, the car made its way into the hands of a local Wendy Allen, a self-proclaimed sea witch. While many owners might take caution at inheriting a cursed vehicle, Ms. Allen fully embraced the car for its gruesome history. Perhaps sensing her good intentions, the car never caused her any harm. Local vandals, on the other hand, have fared much worse.


A local church got word that the cursed car had been bought and was in their area. Concerned that the killer car may be possessed by a demon or otherwise possessed by dark forces, many of the more youthful and spiteful congregation members took it upon themselves to vandalize Golden Eagle over the years. I’m guessing a witch is fine, but the community draws the line at a cursed car. The vandals of 64 Dodge invariably seem to meet unpleasant and gruesome fates, often poetically or at the demise of another car. One vandal was struck by an 18-wheeler and decapitated, a gruesome fate indeed; several other vandals were also subsequently killed in collisions with semi-trucks. Death by a large truck is horrifying enough, but real-life Christine seems to be able to reach into the meteorological realm as well. One vandal decided that it would be funny to deface the car, only to be struck and killed by lightning after the act.


In late 2008, a local teenager went to visit Golden Eagle, evidently fascinated by the history of this cursed car; he later stabbed his family to death and set their house on fire. Whether Golden Eagle placed dark notions into the young man’s mind, or it unearthed simmering intentions, it seems clear that Golden Eagle has again reverted to driving people to murder. While the real-life Christine seems to have killed those who wronged it, there have also been unrelated deaths. Two children have been struck by other cars, only to be thrown into Golden Eagle and killed. 


With the body count getting high, Old Orchard Beach Church was fed up with the presence of what they believed to be a demonic object in their town. They decided to take action against the car one night. Without permission, they stole and dismantled Golden Eagle, selling the various parts off to different junkyards and chop shops in an effort to dispatch the presence once and for all. But that didn’t stop Wendy Allen. She tracked the missing parts and bought the car back piece by piece until it was restored. Why they didn’t throw the pieces in the fire or cut them up with a torch, and then spread them across junkyards if they were so scared. 


After Ms. Allen’s restoration of the car, it seems to have ceased its homicidal activities. In recent years there haven’t been any deaths associated with the car. However, it is also possible that local vandals have simply taken the hint and moved on to greener pastures that are less likely to end in a sudden encounter with death. The car does still seem to enjoy causing minor mischief; Ms. Allen has reported that it sometimes likes to open its doors at random while in motion, but as yet, it has refrained from killing again. Golden Eagle seems to have been fairly quiet since her rebuild, but we’d recommend that any young mischief-makers steer clear of this killer car.

It seems that this killer car might indeed have a possessed, or perhaps it’s all just a coincidence.

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