Voorhees family

The Voorhees family can at best be described as "dysfunctional". Information about the Voorhees family is sparse and some details concerning their history is a matter of conjecture and interpretation. The one thing that is unequivacably true is that this fractured and enigmatic bloodline was responsible for producing one of the most notorious mass murderers ever known - Jason Voorhees.

The earliest known record of a Voorhees family member dates back to the time of the Salem Witch Trials during the late 17th century. Legend has it that a man named Jebediah Voorhees, was a powerful warlock who at one point came into possession of a powerful mystic tome - the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis - "The Book of the Dead". Nothing else is known of this man, but it is known that the Voorhees family were still in possession of the Necronomicon as late as the early 21st century.

In the year 1930, a woman named Pamela was born. As a teenager, Pamela was living in Cadiz, Ohio where she married a miner named Elias Voorhees. Elias was a cruel and abusive man and would often come home from work at the mines and take his frustrations out on Pamela physically. When Pamela discovered that she was pregnant with Elias' child, she began to fear for her life and for the life of her baby. Knowing that the child would be male, she secretly gave him the name Jason during the early stages of her pregnancy. She imagined herself hearing Jason's voice, as if the disembodied spirit of her son was somehow trying to protect her.

One account posits that in early 1946, after suffering one of her regular beatings at the hands of Elias, Pamela decided that she could take no more. Spurned on by the spirit of Jason, Pamela took up an axe and hacked Elias Voorhees to pieces. She burned down the trailer they were living in and buried her husband's remains in a nearby swamp.

Another account however, indicates that Elias was still alive well after the birth of his son. Jason was born with severe physical deformities and was also considered mentally handicapped. Jason's appearance repulsed Elias and he visited upon him the same violent treatment that he casually dispensed to his mother. During one of these beatings, Elias' wife took a machete to him, splitting his head open. [Details of this account are unreliable as Elias' wife was referred to as "Doris", not Pamela during this incident]. Whether Elias truly died at this time is unclear, though it is believed that he survived and was still active as late as the early 1960s.

By 1957, Pamela Voorhees had moved East with her son and had secured enough money to purchase a home in Cunningham County, New Jersey. To supplement her income, she began working as a waitress at a diner in the town of Crystal Lake. She met David and Louise Christy who had been the benefactors of a nearby campground called Camp Crystal Lake. They offered her a job as a cook, serving meals to seventy-five kids, three times a day for five weeks.

It was around this time that Jason's psychopathic tendencies began to manifest themselves. While at work, Pamela received a telephone call from her babysitter Mrs. Cunningham, telling her to hurry home. When she arrived, she found that eleven-year-old Jason had mutilated several cats in their back yard. With the permission of David and Louise Christy, Pamela was allowed to bring Jason to work with her so she could keep an eye on him.

It is known that around 1961, Elias Voorhees had an affair with another woman and produced a daughter named Diana Kimble. Diana would grow up, marry and have a daughter named Jessica.

Notes & Trivia

 * The name Voorhees is likely taken from the town of Voorhees, New Jersey.


 * One of the actresses from Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is Debi Sue Voorhees, though obviously she has no real connection to the fictional Voorhees family.