Six Cops With Itchy Trigger Fingers

by Bill Russo

I know the terror of facing six police officers with their drawn weapons pointed directly at me. Back in the very early 1970s I was taking a few courses at a local college while holding down my full time job and raising a young family. 

As I was walking home from a class, I was suddenly surrounded by police cars, with officers streaming out of them with their guns at the ready. "Hands up," they shouted in unison. "Drop that briefcase you're holding and open it up. If we see a flash of metal, you're dead." 

There was nothing in the case but books and school materials, but as I saw the nervous police officers with their fingers poised on the triggers of their weapons, I felt sure that the sun bouncing off my ball point pen, would literally trigger the triggers. 

"It's just books, pens, and paper. I'm a student," I told them. After a moment they saw that I was telling the truth about the contents of my case, and they holstered their weapons but continued to grill me for several minutes. 

When I asked them why they stopped me they said I resembled the description of a man who just robbed a store at gunpoint. Finally after some 15 or 20 minutes I was given permission to leave and go back home. 

The next day, the local newspaper had a front page story about the robbery. A clear description of the suspect from several witnesses said that the robber was well over six feet tall (at the time I was claiming to be 5 foot nine - really about 5-8), 

The paper also reported that the suspect was African American - again another shoe I did not fit into. To this day I am convinced that if I were 'black', those nervous officers would have murdered me without bothering to investigate anything other than the color of my skin. REMEMBER Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd. They were not as lucky as I.

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Bill Russo is a retired journalist and broadcaster who divides his time between South Florida and Cape Cod.  He is perhaps best known for his appearances on Destination America, Monsters and Mysteries; and in the Bridgewater Triangle Documentary.  He writes both fiction and fact stories and books.  His work is available on Amazon, Apple and all major online retailers.  More than 40 of his books and short stories are free on Smashwords. 

The Road King - A Short Story

The Road King - A Short Story

by Bill Russo

It is just a two thousand word short story,

without a hidden meaning and no allegory.

Random thoughts on a spool in my mind,

which, under compulsion, I must unwind.

Warren Chambers went missing on the fifth of March.  The Florida state and local police arrived at that conclusion, because that was the day he instructed the post office to hold his mail for a month. 

After six months, he still hadn’t returned home.  The authorities were aware of this, but there was no ongoing investigation into the matter. 

“He was 75 years old,” said a senior detective, in answer to a question from a West Palm Beach television reporter.  “He might have had beginning Alzheimer’s and took off on vacation and forgot where he lives.  We don’t believe this is a homicide.  He’s probably in a retirement home somewhere listed as a John Doe because he can’t remember his name.”


“That doesn’t wash detective,” said Jim Swopes of WFLA-TV.  “His doctor said that he didn’t smoke or drink and was in excellent health.  His health was closer to a man of 55 than 75.  So why aren’t you looking for him?”

“We investigated the case.  That doctor you spoke of contacted us after he missed an appointment.  We checked his apartment and found it empty.  The Postmaster at West Palm Beach told us that Chambers put a hold on his mail on March 5, so we figure that’s when he left.  All his bills are paid by automatic deductions from his checking account.  But there has been no other activity.  No bank transactions of any kind by Chambers.  He hasn’t used his ATM.  No phone calls. There are simply no clues for us to follow. He’s disappeared. His body hasn’t turned up, so I think I’m right about the Alzheimer’s thing. “

Jim Swopes, a roving reporter for the TV station began looking into the case after receiving a message about it on his tip line.  He did a few broadcasts from in front of the missing man’s apartment house and stirred up enough interest so that police were goaded into to launching a full scale investigation into the matter.  In August there was a new and puzzling development.  He filed the following report on the 7 p.m. nightly newscast on WFLA-TV.

“An elderly man who disappeared without a trace a half a year ago returned to his house this morning, giving no explanation as to where he was, and what he has been doing.  Warren Chambers was the subject of a state wide search beginning last month after this station told his story. What’s remarkable about his abrupt departure and surprise return is that there was absolutely no trace of him during his absence.  No bank withdrawals no plane tickets, not a single clue of where he had been.”
  
“Police floated a number of theories,” continued the TV reporter. “One school of thought was that he had been kidnapped.  There was little support for that because no ransom demands had been made and Mr. Chambers had little more than a thousand dollars in the bank when he went missing.

“Another possibility, according to the authorities was, that like a lot of old people, he was getting senile and perhaps had wandered into an institution where he was listed as a ‘John Doe’.   But according to his doctor that theory doesn’t hold up because Mr. Chambers is in excellent health and the doctor reports that although his calendar age is 75 he’s in better condition than most 50 year olds."

The next afternoon WFLA-TV sent Jim Swopes and a camera crew to the beautiful old villa where Mr. Chambers had a rented apartment, and the old gentleman made a brief statement that was broadcast on the nightly news.

“I was in a quiet and peaceful place, but I don’t know where it was.  I walked for a long time after I left my house.  I found a road.  It was wide with four lanes and had the smell of freshly laid asphalt. There was an unbroken yellow line painted in the middle of the road and on either side of the solid line, there were broken lines.  Though the road was built to handle four cars across, I never saw even one vehicle. 

“The long black highway with its bright yellow lines stretched along as far as I could see.  It was twisty and had a lot of turns. Though I never seemed to get anywhere and everything looked alike for mile upon mile, I began to feel wonderful. 

“I felt like the road was mine.  There was nobody else on my road.  No cars, no people, no four footed or winged creatures.  I felt like I was the ruler of the road.”

Though his name was Chambers, social media dubbed him ‘Road King’.  Every day brought fresh stories and speculation on where the old man had been and how he managed to completely hide himself from the world.

Gradually the disappearance of ‘Road King’ became old news and probably would have been forgotten forever, except that one year after he mysteriously returned to his home, Chambers vanished once more.

Radio, TV, newspapers and social media were all over it.  “Road King  Gone Again, Leaves No Trace!”  That headline or one very similar to it was in every blog, Facebook post, Twitter tweet, magazine article, and news report. 

For more than a year there was not a single shred of evidence that he was even alive, yet there was no proof he was dead.  He stopped at the Post Office the day before he vanished.  He told them to hold his mail, expecting to be gone for six months.  All of his bills were paid as they fell due, by pre-authorized bank drafts, so his household ran smoothly without interruption of electricity, telephone, and other things.

Over the next few months, other old men and women as well, were similarly absent from their home and community for extended periods.  Uniformly, when they returned home they gave few details as to where they had gone.  A common factor was that all were in excellent health.  Not one was able or willing to share the details of where they actually lived during their absence.
  
Jim Swopes interviewed more than a dozen of the missing ‘Road Kings’ including 88 year old Marsha Gareen who was absent from her apartment for four months.

“I don’t know exactly where I was, but it was a wonderful place and I was with friends.  I’m not sure how I got there.  There was a road.  The tar was so fresh that you could smell it. It seemed like the road had just been made.  It wasn’t hot and didn’t burn my feet but it had a brand new look, feel, and smell.  

“The road stretched ahead of me as far as I could see.  It was a wide road.  A solid yellow line was painted in the middle, dividing the road in half.  Each divided half had a broken yellow line painted down the middle, making four lanes. 

“I walked for a long time and never saw anyone else.  No cars, no people walking, no dogs, cats, birds, or any other living thing.”

“Mrs. Gareen,” asked the TV reporter, “You must have known that you were going away for a while because you went to the Post Office and told them to hold your mail, how do you explain that?”

“Easily.  If you’re not going to be picking up your mail for a while, you should have them hold it.  That’s what I did.”

“Then you knew you were going away and you planned it.  Is that correct?”

“I have already answered the question Mr Swopes,” that is all I have to say,”  Mrs. Gareen responded.

The reporter tried to ask her a few more questions but she maintained her silence so he reluctantly ended the interview.

Each man and woman he questioned gave answers which were nearly identical to the responses of Mrs. Gareen.  They all said that while they were away they were in a warm, safe place but they could not or would not say where it was.

The first missing person, Warren Chambers, dubbed ‘Road King’ by the media, became a symbol and a defacto leader of what appeared to be, a cult of old people with the ability to disappear and reappear at irregular intervals, leaving no tracks for the authorities to follow.  

In addition to the State and the local police, the FBI eventually got involved.  One high level FBI agent, approaching retirement age, began to suspect that something metaphysical was happening.  He believed that perhaps the old people never really disappeared at all, that they were in their homes the whole time but became spirits.

He was derided by the other people in the various law enforcement bodies.  But his conclusion was based on interviews with dozens of the 48 people in three states identified as Road Kings. He became convinced that somehow through meditation they were not only  able to transport their bodies to distant locations, but also to fabricate a system to enable them to talk to each other from remote locations by thought transmissions.

The agent, Samuel Ardley, told one of the Road Kings he wanted to join their group.  The Road King suspected that Ardley was merely trying to infiltrate the organization and refused to help him other than saying “if you really desire to be one of us, then ‘think it so’ and it can happen. “

Ardley puzzled about this until one night he had a life changing dream - a dream in which he was on a train.  A dream so real that even when he woke up, he believed he really was on an actual, moving train.  

He told the other FBI people about what happened and delivered his theory which is that the Road Kings never depart their homes.  Their spirit remains in their dwelling but the body travels thousands of miles in a split- second to a pre designated meeting place where the other Road Kings have gathered.

"They have no agenda," he told the FBI agents. "They live simply.  They never commit crimes.  They don’t own guns.  In a sense they are a ‘new’ human race.  By self-evolution, they have become a super race."  

"Doctor’s reports uniformly confirm that these men and women, ranging in age from 65 to 95 are in far better condition than most people at the age of 50," he continued.  "They have no heart problems, no failed eyesight or hearing, and no illnesses.  They may live 150 years or more in perfect health."  

“They are a threat,” replied his boss.  “We have to round up the whole bunch of them and put them in a camp.”

“How can they be a threat?” asked Ardley, “They have never committed crimes and are peaceable citizens.  You’ve interviewed them just like I have.  They are always respectful, meek, and mild mannered, even if they don’t give us many details.”

“They’re different” the boss responded.  “They have to be removed from society.”

A massive raid involving state and local police, the FBI, and the National Guard, was orchestrated to pick up and confine all of the old men and women in a facility in Southwest Texas.
  
After a final meeting at night in Washington D.C. to review the operation, the boss told his people to go home and get some sleep.

“The round-up will start at 0900 Eastern time, with the capture of some 50 Road Kings in 17 different states from Massachusetts to California.” 

Ardley went home and fell into a deep sleep.  He dreamed he was talking with the original Road King.  He told him what the FBI planned to do.  

 “Come to us,” advised the Road King. “You are now a member of our group.  There is nothing to worry about.”

In the morning at 8:30, a black sedan pulled up to Ardley’s house.  A man in a black suit hammered on his front door.  After a few minutes with no response from inside the house, he reported back to the car.  Two more vehicles pulled up.  Eight angry looking men in black suits broke down Ardley’s entry way.  A quick search confirmed that he was not in the house.

His dining room table was clear but for one thing, a sheet of paper.  The FBI boss picked it up and read a printed message.

“Keep looking for me boss.  I am here.  I’m always going to be here. But you’ll never see me, hear me, or touch me.  Blow up the house.  Burn it down.  Do whatever you wish.  I’ll still be here and yet at the same time I’ll be with the Road Kings.  

“I’ll be with them long after you and all your kind are gone. We’re no direct threat to you, but we are taking over the planet.  We are going to let you live out your meager lives, as society careens toward self-destruction.  We may be meek and we may be mild, but make no mistake, we are going to inherit the Earth. We are the Road Kings – soon to be Earth Kings.”

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'They' say the future, and the world, belongs to the young.  As our 77 year old author Bill Russo sees it - 'They' may be wrong!

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Bill Russo, best known for his appearance on Monsters and Mysteries in America on Destination America, and in the Bridgewater Triangle Documentary; is the author of more than four dozen books and shorts stories, available on all major bookselling sites such as Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble and more.  Much of his work is FREE on Smashwords.  He also is the producer, writer, and director of the FREE podcast, Short Story Theater.  Season One, with dramatizations of 39 of his short tales, is now playing on all Audio/Video sites.  

'And Now I Am Free' - For Eternity

The Bridgewater Triangle Casebook - The Puckwudgie

The Bridgewater Triangle Casebook:

 The Puckwudgie

by Bill Russo

What is the Bridgewater Triangle?

A group of 17 towns and cities in Southeastern Massachusetts in the New England region of the United States. The area has seen massive amounts of hauntings, UFO sightings, ghastly creatures, and satanic cult activity dating back to colonial times.

When the Europeans first came to America, they killed off many thousands of Native Americans with two things they carried with them: muskets and diseases.  The indigenous people had few defenses for either one.  With his dying breath one of the Wampanoag chiefs cast a perpetual curse on both the people and the land of the Bridgewater Triangle.  Some researchers believe that might be the reason for the spate of problems that have plagued the region for the last four hundred years!

The Puckwudgie

It’s said that there are many weird and dangerous things in the Triangle, but I can only vouch for one, the Puckwudgie. It was only half my size and kind of looked like a living, oddly shaped stuffed animal – but I ran from it.  In doing so, I believe I saved my life.  

Before I tell you about it, let me set the stage.  In the 1990s I lived in Raynham, a quiet residential community of Southern Massachusetts. The village was so peaceful the Police Department didn’t even have a second shift.  The occasional call for the authorities was relayed to the neighboring city of Taunton.  The Taunton cops handled any overnight summons from Raynham and most nights there weren’t any.

I was working a second shift job from 3:30 to midnight.  As soon as I got home after work the first thing I did was to take a walk with my best pal Samantha; a gentle 80-pound mix of Rottweiler and Shepherd who thought she was a lap dog.
   

Sammy and I ventured out every night summer and winter. My home was at the edge of the Hockomock Swamp, an especially active part of the triangle with a great many paranormal sightings and reports. At the time, I had never heard of the Bridgewater Triangle and certainly had no idea there were ghastly, fearsome creatures in it until I met one.

On the night that singular incident happened, the walk had been pleasant and uneventful.  We traipsed through woods near an old ironworks that operated continuously from the 1700s up to the early 1900s.  Skirting around a small pond where an ominous, towering pile of fishbones was mounded five feet high at the water’s edge, we left the Forest and got back on the sidewalk, about a half mile from home.

Not a single light shone in any house, the hard-working people of Raynham were usually fast asleep before Johnny Carson began entertaining the rest of America with his ‘Tonight Show’.  The tree lined streets were empty.  No cars would be on the asphalt until about 5:30 in the morning when the newspaper delivery people began their rounds distributing fresh copies of the morning newspaper. 

Sammy started whimpering and pulling on her leash when we were only a few hundred feet from my house.  Acting terrified she strained and struggled to get loose.  I never knew that canine to be afraid of anything, but suddenly she was petrified.

“What’s wrong Sam?  What’s the matter baby?”

I finally heard what her sharper ears had caught several moments before mine were able to.

“Keer.  Keer. Ee wan chu,” came the high-pitched cry of some unseen thing.  “Keer. Keer.  Ee wan chu,” it repeated.  Over and over, it whined the same unintelligible garble.  Keer, keer. Ee wan Chu.”

A street lamp just in front of us broke the darkness by casting a bright circle of light on the street.  Suddenly the creature strode into it, walking upright.   About three feet tall, it was covered in fur about one inch in length with bright eyes a little bit too big for its face.  The thing stopped in the middle of the illuminated area. Raising its arm in a beckoning motion, it began waving a paw/hand. Looking directly at me, more intensely it implored; “Keer. Keer.  Ee wan chu. Chu.  Ee wan chu!” 

It didn’t look especially frightening.  It was short, had the beginnings of a pot belly, had no fangs or visible claws and certainly weighed less than a hundred pounds. It made no threatening gestures.  The beast stood its ground. but made no move towards us. It kept motioning for me to come closer. I would have.  I’m pretty sure I would have – except for Sammy.  Dogs have some kind of a sixth sense and Samantha sensed that this furry little thing was evil.  After a minute or so I bowed to her judgement and retreated in a hasty walk, that nearly became a full-bore run.

Back at home, I made a pot of coffee and sat in my dining room drinking cup after cup.  Occasionally, I’d snuff out the lights and peer through the windows to see if the thing was outside, trying to get in.  It wasn’t.  I didn’t see it again that night, nor have I seen it since. 

“Keer, Keer.  Ee wan chu.”

That’s what the furry little thing said.  It almost looked half human when it spoke and as I considered it, the words seemed to change.  Keer – near - mere – here .  Come here!  Keer could have been a jumbled version of ‘come here’. As I put more thought into it, I suspected that the thing was trying to speak English.

What about Ee wan chu?  Could it have meant ‘We want you’.  Was the little creature some sort of a scout for a humanoid tribe? Was it saying “Come here. Come here, we want you”.  I now believe exactly that.  The creature from the Bridgewater Triangle was trying to summon me to him.  But was it merely for the chance to talk with a ‘human’ or did it have a far more evil idea in its shaggy head?

After speaking with some experts in the paranormal community, in particular, the well known researcher Andrew Lake, of Rehoboth, Mass., I became convinced that what I saw was indeed a Puckwudgie.    According to those who believe, Pukwudgies have the ability to appear and disappear at will, lure people to tragic deaths, use evil magic, launch poison arrows, and create fire from their fingertips.

When Destination America featured me in a segment of Monsters and Mysteries in America, they used a heavily made up actor in an elaborate costume to portray the creature that I saw.

The people of the Wampanoag and other Native American groups say that Pukwudgies were once friendly with the ‘people’ (The Native American groups), but then turned against them and are now sworn enemies of all human beings. If they succeed in luring a person into coming within arm’s reach they can pitch sand into the person’s eyes causing blindness.  They can grasp the hapless victims and carry them to the edge of a cliff where they gleefully push them over the side. With tiny spears or knives, they can torture their prey, or maim and even kill their captives.

I told my wife and a few other people about what happened and then pretty much forgot about it for years.  In 2010, after I retired I wrote about the eerie adventure in my blog and movie producer Aaron Cadieux read it and contacted me.  He explained that he and co-producer Manny Famolare were doing a documentary on the Bridgewater Triangle and asked if I would appear on camera and tell my story.

The talented Boston artist John Geig was one of the illustrators of the Bridgewater Triangle Documentary.  The producers showed me a number of pictures that were drawn based on my description of what I saw.  John Geig nailed it 100 per cent.  Magically, he drew what I saw as if he had seen it himself.  This photo is used with the kind permission of Mr. Geig. 

The film, the Bridgewater Triangle Documentary was released in 2013 and won a number of awards. It had success in a limited theatrical run followed by showings on national TV and on Amazon Prime, where it is currently available.   The film continues to be a success on prime, five years after its release, with many millions of viewing minutes being streamed every month or so.

My part in the movie lasts about five minutes and has been well received.  It led to other appearances including one episode of Monsters and Mysteries in America on Discovery’s Destination American channel. My story was also featured in Season One, Episode 7 of Aaron Mahnke’s award winning series Lore – a podcast and a TV series on Amazon.  

Look for more unusual stories from the strange area of the Hockomock Swamp in The Bridgewater Triangle Casebook in Bill Russo's blog, Adventures in Type and Space.

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Bill Russo is the author of both non-fiction and fiction books.  His work is available on all major online retailers.  Many of his books and short stories are free on Smashwords.  Bill is the producer of Short Story Theater, which has produced 39 of his stories as dramatic audio productions.  They are all free on Spreaker, and all other podcast sites.  

The LGBT Group is Running Out of Letters!

The LGBT Group is Running Out of Letters!

by Bill Russo

Just a few years ago we had the LGB community, and then I woke up from a nap that must have rivaled Rip Van Winkle’s, because I found that we now have an LGBTQ community!


I’m all for inclusion and have always supported people’s personal choices about things, but let’s be sensible folks.  At this rate it’s not going to be long before we run out of alphabet. 

Nature's palette has an infinite number of choices.

You are very disingenuous if you think it’s going to stop at Q.  Over the next year or so the name of the community will probably evolve into

The LGBTTQQAEU

That’s quite a mouthful so let’s break it down.  I think we all know the first three letters. They stand for Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Gays. I’m not sure when ‘T’, the fourth letter was added. It stands for Transgender, although I wonder why Transvestites don’t have their own letter.  Shouldn’t it be LGBTT?  


The most recent addition is the letter ‘Q’.  There seems to be some debate whether this is for ‘queer’ or ‘questioning’.  Let’s put in two Qs and cover both bases.  Shouldn’t it be LGBTTQQ?


So pretty soon, I’m sure the leaders of the LGBTTQQ community are going to be approached by a scout group from the Asexual community and then the new name will have to be The LGBTTQQA.


After that, I expect that an advance party from the Eunuch community will ask for inclusion.  Shouldn’t it be the LGBTTQQAEU community?

STOP!!!

I have a better idea.  Why don’t we simply call all these individuals, human beings?  Shouldn’t it be the PEOPLE community? Let’s stop putting labels on everybody and stand up for PEOPLE.

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Lose Weight For Free - Do This One Simple Thing

Lose Weight For Free - Do This One Simple Thing

by Bill Russo

Here’s the one diet plan that really works - but actually has no plan.  No forbidden foods.  No payments of hundreds of dollars for special meals and shakes.  No exercise and no sweat. No fasting and no starvation.  And yes, it really, really works and you can have it for free!



This is the only diet where you don’t have to make a major commitment.  You don’t need to get on a scale, weigh your food, spend a fortune on a giant horde of special pre-prepared food, ride a bike, walk a mile, swim the English Channel or do anything out of the ordinary. 


A friend of mine bought one of those diet plans they advertise on TV.  He spent hundreds of dollars and got a shipment of 30 days worth of pre-packaged diet food.  When I saw him two weeks after he got his products, I asked him how he liked the diet plan.  He turned red, bowed his head and sheepishly admitted, “I ate it all in five days.”  


In less than a week he ate the whole 30 days worth of 'diet' food!  Those expensive diet programs advertised on television may work for some, but if you follow this little diet plan that doesn’t really have a plan, you can lose weight without paying a cent.  You’ll actually be saving cash, because you will be buying less food and liking it!


The secret to this wondrous scheme is simple – eat less, lose weight.  Diet by the letters.  E-L-L-W.  Eat Less, Lose Weight!


“But how?” you ask.  


The answer is amazingly simple – small plates.  Throw out those King Kong plates you’re loading up with your 3-egg scramble, two pieces of toast, a mountain of hash browns, and a side of bacon.  Don’t give up your usual foods, just put them on to a smaller plate.  It really works. 

 Here's me in 2015 and five years later in 2020.  In the photo on the left I was 210 and in the one on the right side I am 175.  Same Shirt - 35 pounds lighter. At age 76, I guarantee you it's hard to lose weight.  At this age it seems like even a glass of water puts on a pound or two.  

But you can lose weight even in your 70s and beyond using the small plate method.

Try cooking reduced portions and pile ‘em on the smaller plate.  Heap up the smaller plate to capacity.  If you do it faithfully, your mind will re-program itself to see the small plate as a big meal and your stomach will go along because ultimately the brain is in charge of the tummy, even if that does not seem to be the case.


After a month of small plates and dieting by the letters, E-L-L-W, you will be eating less and healthier without even trying.  Your fully satisfying morning breakfast may well be one egg, one slice of toast, a few potatoes and a single slice of bacon. 


The plan works equally well for lunches and dinners.  Small plates guys.  It really, really works.  As you have seen from my pictures, I did it for five months and went from 210 to 170.  After five years I have maintained my weight between 175 and 180, depending on whether I'm in the mood for ice cream and pie - or not!


Good luck.  At the risk of repeating myself I’ll leave with two words of advice:  Small Plates. 

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You don't need a book to lose weight, but if you want to read my book, you can read it for free on Smashwords.  It's called Diet by the Letters: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/643576

The Bridgewater Triangle Casebook - the UFO Sightings

The Bridgewater Triangle Casebook - the UFO Sightings

by Bill Russo

What is the Bridgewater Triangle? 

It is a name given to a group of 17 towns and cities in Southeastern Massachusetts, in the New England region of the United States. The roughly 200 square mile area has been host to an enormous number of paranormal happenings from the present day and dating back to colonial times.

Though the parameters of the strange area are not fixed like a stone wall, the Triangle starts near the city of Brockton, home to the late Rocky Marciano, the only unbeaten heavyweight champion in the history of the sport of Boxing.  

Spreading out on one side it veers down towards Providence, Rhode Island, stopping at the town of Rehoboth.  The other side of the Triangle heads towards Fall River, the home of the infamous axe murderer suspect, Lizzie Borden.

Though she was found innocent by a jury, most people still think that Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks, and when she was done, she gave her father 41.

While awaiting for the start of her trial and during the course of it, Lizzie was housed for about a year in the old Taunton jail on Hodges Street.  Curiously, for the rest of her life she would never admit that she was in the jail.  She claimed instead, that she was detained in the eerie Taunton State Hospital.  (for more information, see Bill Russo's book and podcast of Hauntin' Taunton, the Asylum)

The Triangle has been the site of massive amounts of hauntings, UFO sightings, ghastly creatures, satanic cult activity and many other oddities.

A number of researchers say that the abnormalities trace their beginnings to colonial days.  When the Europeans came to the land now called America, they killed off enormous numbers of Native Americans with two things that they carried with them: Muskets and Diseases. The people living in the 'New World' had few defenses against either one.

With his dying breath one of the Wampanoag chiefs cast a perpetual curse on both the people and the land of the Bridgewater Triangle. Whether we believe in such things or not, it is one possible explanation for the spate of problems that have plagued the region for some four hundred years.

The UFO Sightings

Though much about the Triangle is frightening and sometimes dangerous, the UFO sightings have never hurt anyone, as far as we know.  They are more interesting than scary. 

Appropriately the very first recorded UFO sighting in the Bridgewater Triangle was in Bridgewater itself.  If you look on the map you'll see that Bridgewater is almost at the apex of the the diagram. 

One morning the whole town got excited when a strange vibrating noise was heard in the sky.  Bewilderment from that racket was soon forgotten when something even more astounding happened.

A hulking, glowing white sphere floated between the clouds.  From the phantom orb, a great light shined down upon the village.  The rays emitted by the sphere were so strong that they actually cast shadows on the street.  

No, this was not an airplane or a satellite for such things had not been invented (at least on earth) when this sighting took place.  It was more than 300 years ago, in 1710.

The object was viewed by many people and the event was duly recorded in the Boston Newsletter, the first newspaper in the British Colonies of the 'New' World. The broadsheet was first published in 1704.  

The most famous and credible recent sightings were in the sky above the town of Raynham (pronounced Rain-ham) which shares a border with Bridgewater.  

Hundreds of people near the Raynham Dog Racing track reported seeing a bright light high above them, moving across the night sky, in 1979.  What further boosts the credibility of this encounter is that two of the observers were respected, veteran newsmen from a major Boston radio station, WHDH. 

Both men still work in broadcasting. Steve Sbraccia is currently with CBS television, at a major outlet in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Jerry Lopes is president of a radio network.  Back in 1979 they covered all of Massachusetts and Rhode Island for WHDH which was at the time one of the top-rated Boston stations. 

One night Steve and Jerry were driving back from an assignment to their studio in Boston.  Shortly after they entered Raynham, about 35 miles from the city, they noticed something in the sky near the race track.  The track is very close to the Hockomock Swamp, one of the major hotspots of the Triangle.

They pulled over to the side of the road and got out of the car.  Other vehicles also had stopped and people were looking up at the strange light in the sky. 

In the award winning Bridgewater Triangle Documentary, now showing on Amazon Prime, Steve Sbraccia said:

"We saw this this thing coming at us with this very bright light.  It passed directly overhead. It was as big as three Boeing 707s, wingtip to wingtip.  It hovered for a couple of minutes, and then it took off."  

Steve said the object was shaped like home plate on a baseball field.  He saw it two more times in two other locations.  Over the next few days, newspaper reports in the Brockton Enterprise and other publications confirmed that many people had seen the UFOs and their descriptions matched that provided by Steve and Jerry. 

For me, the UFO report by the two veteran journalists, was one of the major highlights of the Bridgewater Triangle Documentary.  Though I saw a creature that may have been a Puckwudgie in the same area (my house was less than three miles from the race track)

I have never seen a UFO.  

One of my sons, has not seen a UFO either, but he spends a lot of time in the area of the Hockomock Swamp and he has been witness to some unusual, almost ghostly, lighting of trees in the middle of the night.  

In the woods surrounding a pond at the edge of the swamp, he has seen, on three separate occasions, whole sections of the trees in the forest, glowing with an eerie white light.  Not bright, the illumination was faint.  He described the trees as looking like giant glow sticks using up the last of their energy.  They had a dim, but discernable light.  

One tree, he said, might not have been noticeable, but when 75 or a hundred trees have the same dim glow, it's somewhat unsettling.  The next morning, in the daylight, he examined the trees to see if they had moss or lichen that could have been the reason for the illumination.  There was however, no moss on the trees and no rational explanation for the glowing effect - except for the fact that they are growing in, and glowing in, "The Bridgewater Triangle".

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Watch for the upcoming film 'Wonderland' on Netflix - if it actually gets filmed.  Due for release this year (2020) the movie starring Mark Wahlberg is using the now shuttered, Raynham Dog Track as the location for much of the production.   The script was created from the book, Wonderland, by Robert B. Parker.  It features Mark Wahlberg as Spenser the Boston Detective.  

Live dog racing was banned in Boston, Raynham and Taunton, the only three tracks in Massachusetts, about 15 years ago.  So the track has become run down and overgrown as you can see.  

This is what it used to look like:

This is what it looks like in the film Wonderland:

So they're trying to make a movie in a run down race track that's right in the beating heart of the Bridgewater Triangle.  Will the Puckwudiges allow this?  What about the snakes the size of stovepipes?  And the Thunderbirds, are they going to be okay with this?  Well Wonderland is scheduled to be on Netflix this year.  We'll see. Or we won't!

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Look for more unusual stories from the strange area of the Hockomock Swamp in The Bridgewater Triangle Casebook in Bill Russo's blog, Adventures in Type and Space.

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Bill Russo is the author of both non-fiction and fiction books.  His work is available on all major online retailers.  Many of his books and short stories are free on Smashwords.  Bill is the producer of Short Story Theater, which has produced 39 of his stories as dramatic audio productions.  They are all free on Spreaker, and all other podcast sites.