May the power of Christ compel you – to pay me my rent!
An Astoria landlady was allegedly strangled by her unhinged tenant who performed an “exorcism” on her for over 10 terrifying minutes, she told The Post this week.
The horror show unfolded around 2 a.m. on July 21, when tenant Marc Lynch knocked on his landlord Josephine Ingoglia’s door with blood on his head.
“He had taken a picture frame and broken it over his head; it was just hanging around his neck,” she explained.
“He was saying that I was a witch and I knew what I did. He had a gallon of water in his hand with rose petals and he poured it over my head. In his mind, I guess he was going to get the devil out of me.”
He then tried to lure her into his apartment, but she proceeded to run down the stairs and outside to the front of the house, where she “figured somebody would help me,” she said.
There, he threw her to the ground and got on top of her, she said.
“He was trying to strangle me. He’s speaking in tongues. He literally grabbed my mouth and pulled it open and put his mouth over mine and was blowing into my mouth. And he was suffocating me and I kept saying, ‘You’re killing me.’ And he said, ‘No, I’m putting the demon into another host,’” Ingoglia recalled of the horrifying encounter.
Lynch, 47, was arrested and charged with assault in the third degree, menacing in the second degree, criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation and harassment in the second degree after the July 21 incident, according to a court document.
Despite her screams for help, none of her neighbors came to rescue her and Lynch continued his vicious attack.
Ingoglia said the lack of response reminded her of the infamous 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese outside of her apartment building in Kew Gardens, which made headlines for what is known as the bystander effect, since none of her neighbors intervened.
“I screamed for 10 minutes at the top of my lungs, ‘Help me, Help me.’ And all I could think of was Kitty Genovese,” she recalled. “Somebody heard me and called the police, but nobody actually came to help.”
Although Ingoglia got an order of protection against Lynch, six days later, he was back in the building.
“I look towards the front door, and there’s a tiny bathroom garbage pail with a note on it that said, ‘Just let me stay here in secret. I’m tired of sleeping on the street.’ He had broken in through the window downstairs,” she recalled.
She called the police and they came and arrested him for violating the order of protection, which lasts for a year. He was released Monday and returned to the house that day with a police escort to pick up clothes.
Ingoglia said she was told by the Assistant District Attorney that Lynch is free until Sept. 24, his next court date, and will most likely be admitted into an outpatient rehab facility. Lynch’s charge is not bail-eligible, so the judge decided to put him on supervised release, said the Queens DA’s office.
“Judge Jeffrey Gershuny ordered the highest level of supervised release for the defendant,” the DA spokeswoman said.
Ingoglia said prior to the incident, she was friends with Lynch and his wife. “The morning before he told me he had been in a rehab, and he was clean and said, ‘I feel all of a sudden that I have these healing powers.’”
Ingoglia, who bought the house, which was originally her Sicilian grandfather’s, in 2012, after her parents’ died, is fearful for her safety and those of the other women who reside in the building.
“I have tenants that I need to protect also,” she said. “I need to know where is he going to be.”
The Post reached out to Lynch’s lawyer, who did not reply.
The Post reached Lynch’s wife, who said “no comment.”
The number listed for Lynch goes straight to a recorded message that says, “The person you are calling cannot accept calls at this time.”
