This article contains references to suicide.
Warning: This article contains spoilers from Salem’s Lot.
Despite dying long before Salem’s place start Hubert “Hubie” Marsten is integral to Stephen King’s vampire story. Hubby lived in the Marsten house, which is where the Salem’s place The characters Kurt Barlow and Richard Straker take up residence after arriving in the city of Jerusalem Lot. As an ancient vampire and his human acquaintance, Barlow and Straker should be the most evil people to have stepped foot in the Marsten House, but it already has a dark history due to Hubie’s previous presence and the terrible deeds he committed there.
The origins of the Marsten House are further developed in the source material By including important revelations about Hubie and his past. The backstory was almost completely cut from the 2024 movie adaptation and is among the biggest changes of the Salem’s place book. The movie only has a brief mention of Hubie once owning the Marsten House, worshiping Satan and killing his wife, but there is much more to him, including a basic connection to Barlow.
Hubert Marsten was a hitman during the Great Depression living in Jerusalem’s court
He first gained a dangerous reputation in Boston
Hobi had a criminal past before he started living in Jerusalem Lot. He was the president of a prominent New England trucking company in the 1920s, With this business being a front for the Boston Mafia, and later enabled him to retire as a rich man. His criminal activity was more extensive than the business front, though, as he was also a contract killer in the Boston area, and committed many murders for the mafia. He also killed an eleven-year-old boy whose body was recovered when it was discovered, but he was not charged with the murder.
Related
In 1927, even the mafia was wary of Hubie, who began to be questioned by the police. The mafia used their connections to prevent Hubie from being caught, not wanting the secrets of their organization to be revealed to the authorities, but they also didn’t want to deal with Hubie because he became a liability. Hubie then left Boston and retired with his wife Birdie to Jerusalem Lot in 1928.And they lived out their lives in the Morsten house, which was the most beautiful house at that time.
Hubert Marsten killed his wife and himself in their home in Salem’s lot in 1939
The Marsten House is believed to be haunted for a reason
Hubby and his wife lived a secluded life in Jerusalem Lot, and were only seen leaving the Marsten house once a week to do their grocery shopping. In their eleven years in the town, four children went missing and were never found. Based on Hubie’s story as a professional killer who made the personal decision to brutally kill an eleven-year-old boy, Author Ben Mears suspected that Hubie killed the four children And is the reason why their bodies were never found.
Later, a nine-year-old son sneaked into the Marsten house and allegedly saw Hubie’s body dangling from where he had been hanging, an image that would of course haunt the rest of his life and contribute to He returned to Jerusalem to write his new book.
Birdie also became a victim of her husband’s cruelty, with Stephen King’s book stating that before Hubie killed his wife, “They don’t know what he made you do first” And – That she asked him to do it. Hobe shot Birdie in the head And then went to hang out. Later, a nine-year-old son sneaked into the Marsten house and allegedly saw Hubie’s body dangling from where he had been hanging, an image that would of course haunt the rest of his life and contribute to He returned to Jerusalem to write his new book.
How Hubert Marsten was connected to Kurt Barlow
They corresponded for years
Although Barlow did not arrive in Jerusalem Lot until decades later, he had an earlier connection to the city through Hubie. The former mobster began to correspond by letter with an Austrian nobleman named Kurt Breichen.What was the alias Barlow used then. Their correspondence began through a Boston book dealer who died in 1933. This correspondence apparently paved the way for Barlow’s eventual arrival at Jerusalem Lot.
Before Hubby hung up, he burned all the letters between himself and Barlow, and smiled as he did it. If Hubby had not taken his own life and brought Barlow to Jerusalem’s court, He would probably be Barlow’s human acquaintance instead of Straker. Barlow and Straker’s business dealings have been recorded since 1945, six years after Hubie’s death, with Straker being the one to fulfill Barlow’s mission. The backstory adds vital context to the Marsten house and to Barlow’s villainy Salem’s placeAnd the 2024 adaptation would likely have benefited from including more of those details.