Fairy rings are the subject of much folklore and myth worldwide—particularly in Western Europe. They are often seen as hazardous or dangerous places, and linked with witches or the Devil in folklore. Conversely, they can sometimes be linked with good fortune.

Euphemisms such as “hill folk,” “the gentry,” “wee folk,” “good folk,” “blessed folk,” “good neighbors,” or “fair folk” abounded, and “fair folk” was shortened to “fairies.” Other names worth noting in the Irish fairy lore are Banshee, Leprechaun, and Puca.

“A human child might be taken due to many factors: to act as a servant, the love of a human child, or malice. Most often it was thought that fairies exchanged the children. Often when an adult was taken instead of a child an object such as a log was left in place of the stolen human, enchanted to look like the person.

The Fairies as Fallen Angels The islanders, like all the Irish, believe that the fairies are the fallen angels who were cast down by the Lord God out of heaven for their sinful pride.

Changeling, in European folklore, a deformed or imbecilic offspring of fairies or elves substituted by them surreptitiously for a human infant. According to legend, the abducted human children are given to the devil or used to strengthen fairy stock.

Fairies are generally described as human in appearance and having magical powers. Diminutive fairies of various kinds have been reported through centuries, ranging from quite tiny to the size of a human. These small sizes could be magically assumed, rather than constant.

The Seelie Court were described as those fairies who would seek help from humans, warn those who have accidentally offended them, and return human kindness with favors of their own. The Unseelie Court, conversely, was used to describe the darkly-inclined fairies.

DAVID EDELSTEIN: Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” is billed as a true story, and at least some of the facts are accurate. Christine Collins, played by Angelina Jolie, was a single mother whose young son disappeared in 1928 and was found six months later, at least the L.A. Police said it was her son.

On March 10, 1928, Christine Collins gave her nine-year-old son Walter money for the cinema. He never returned from the show. His mother reported him missing, but, despite the police’s best efforts, they turned up no trace of him for five months.

Northcott’s jury finds him guilty of murder and the judge sentences him to death by hanging. Two years later, Christine has still not given up her search for Walter. Northcott sends her a message saying he is willing to admit to killing Walter on condition that Christine meets him before his execution.

Gordon Stewart Northcott

Mira Loma, now officially part of Jurupa Valley, was a census-designated place (CDP) in Riverside County, California, United States. Mira Loma was known as Wineville prior to 1930. The name was changed that year to help disassociate the community from the Wineville Chicken Coop murders.

Deceased (1888–1964)

Northcott abducted boys to rape them and when he got bored, he would lead them into the incubator room to see hatching chicks and kill them with an ax. To destroy the evidence, Northcott covered their bodies in quicklime. Sanford also said Northcott had killed a Latino boy in La Puente.

Wineville changed its name to Mira Loma on November 1, 1930, due in large part to the negative publicity surrounding the murders. The new cities of Eastvale and Jurupa Valley took different parts of the area of Mira Loma in 2010 and 2011.

Dece

It was founded in 1998 and was most recently owned by truTV, a cable TV network that is part of Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting System. In August 2014, Crime Library was no longer being updated. In February 2015 the site was taken offline.

Northcott was hanged on October 2, 1930 at San Quentin. It’s said that he had to be supported during his climb up the thirteen steps, and then collapsed on the gallows.

Santa Fe Depot

British Columbia’s Hatley Castle served as the location of Senator Carmichael’s mansion in “The Changeling,” a 1980 movie starring George C. Scott about a composer who encounters a murdered child and a lot of eerie secrets.

March 28, 1980 (USA)

It’s a baby, abandoned in the cold. Or rather, according to Geillis, it’s a changeling. The superstition goes that when a fairy steals a human child, it leaves a fairy child in its place—one that doesn’t grow. But if that child (the changeling) is left out over night, the fairies will return the human child.

R

In 1928 Los Angeles, single mother Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) arrives home to find her son, Walter, gone. Five months later her prayers are answered when Walter is found in Illinois. But to Christine’s horror, the boy who steps off the train is not her son. Authorities vehemently dispute Christine’s claim, and her one ally is a clergyman (John Malkovich) who sees the case as his chance to expose corruption in the Los Angeles Police Department and government.

Jolie does have something, that above-the-title star quality, and she expertly shows it off in this true-life crime melodrama directed by Clint Eastwood, boasting massive emotional scenes, colossal performances, gigantic courtroom climaxes and a pretty hefty running time of two hours and 20 minutes.