Good morning and happy Sunday …for most of us our weekend plans are to go out hiking or squatching….today I challenge you to stop and take a second while you’re out there to think about how truly wonderful it is to be able to do this.
We get fresh air, scenery, wildlife, maybe even evidence of a bigfoot all while making memories with some of our closest friends. That is priceless, the relationships we’ve made because of our love ❤️ of bigfoot. Those people that you feel safe to be weird around and trust enough to go get potentially lost in the woods with, that what it’s all about, that’s the most important part.
The Bridgewater Triangle has many strange tales to tell and this is just one of them…
While scrolling away looking for something to watch I stumbled on a true crime mini series titled Fall River. Fall River is a town within the high strangeness area code of the Bridgewater Triangle. Fall River, mostly known from Lizzie Borden fame but it also has other grisly crimes its known for and the Satanic Panic murder case of Carl Drew is just one of them…
In 1980 there were two horrible vicious murders that took place around the infamous Freetown Forest area; known for anything from Bigfoot to UFOs. But this area also had another secret underworld to deal with, drugs and prostitution.
Carl Drew, known by the local police as a pimp and drug dealer at the top of the food chain in the Fall River area now became a number one suspect for the brutal murders of two females that worked on the streets for him.
But was Drew actually the murderer? Fall River seems to point to the possibilities that other suspects also had their reasons for murder.
Something wicked this way comes…
Carl Drew was said to be a satanic cult leader that believed he needed to have a blood sacrifice every 30 days on the full moon, he’d follow a ritual where victims are offered up as a sacrifice to Satan, who’ll then rise from the center of the pentagram. (not sure that really worked right) These rituals also allegedly included orgies and rituals where they wood replace the wine and the host of Catholic ceremonies with bodily fluids. Yeah I know my stomach flip flopped too while I watched this.
Drugs, prostitution and satan oh my…
In October 1979 the body of 17 year old Doreen Levesque was discovered at Diman Vocational High School. Her wrists were tied, she had been stabbed in the head and sustained multiple skull fractures, the medical examiners even suggested she may have been killed by stoning.
Witnesses stated that she was their sacrifice to satan and that Drew had ordered her throat to be slashed after her skull was fractured and began chanting an incoherent chant. It was said that Carl used his Satanic worship to scare and control all the prostitutes that worked on the street for him.
The second murdered girl, Karen Marsden was murdered because she was present at the first murder and was heard to be cutting a deal with the prosecution as a witness. Her throat was also cut and was said that Drew tore her head from her body and kicked the head like a ball. They finished up making by making Xs on her body using her blood. The documentary went into more detail so I’ll leave some of that information for later for you to see.
The documentary was suggesting maybe Carl Drew wasn’t the murderer and perhaps it was a different previous suspect. They are trying to appeal to get Drew a new trial, I will definitely follow this story and see what shakes out in the end after all this time. I recommend the watching the limited series for yourself to get the whole story, and see what you think…
I warn you the details of the murder are tough to see so maybe you need to hold the remote, ready to fast forward. I’m not sure who I think actually ordered these killings. I’m not sure I care which one. To me they were all a bad crew and should definitely be in jail forever…for something…
I thought it would be fun to go back and watch some of the old In Search Of episodes and highlight a few of the best here. Here is everyone’s favorite and the reason most of us decided to search for the elusive creature ourselves…
Mount Hood Oregon in 1974
A logger, Jack Cochran who was working in an area of fallen timber, explains what he saw…”I looked off towards the woods and saw was two long legs moving at the edge of the timber and as this thing walked, it walked with a glide and then it reached an arm out and kind of touched the tree as it walked by and I saw these wide shoulders then it just moved off down the hill.”
Cochran was an amateur artist and tried to sketch what he saw…”he was tall creature, long legged and hairy very broad shoulders and his head seemed to just spring up out of his shoulders, no neck. The arms were long and more in proportion than a human.”
From In Search Of…Bigfoot 1976
Here’s Cochran giving Bigfoot some amazing Glitte…
What a sight that must have been. I’m not sure I could go back up there. It has to be a life altering event seeing one and no one to tell because they wouldn’t believe you anyhow. I give him credit for coming on tv and sharing his encounter with the public masses. He too, like the show and the creature are a legend…
“When we got out to the woods I wouldn’t roll my window too far down because I didn’t feel comfortable being on the side of the woods. We had a full moon that night and had good visual of the area. Especially ahead of us. We were at least 200 yards, maybe more, from a trailer house. XXXXX mentioned that we would be able to see something if it crossed the road. The vehicle was turned off so we can hear. We were having a quiet conversation when all of a sudden we heard some dogs barking, then we heard a lone dog barking in the area past the sand bar where it is wooded. I asked XXXXX does someone live over there and she said no.
Not long after that we heard a bird chirping sound that came from that same area which we thought was odd since it was night time. The time we were there I would look to my side and straight ahead where the woods were and XXXXX would be looking on her side where the pond, sand bar was. Not too long after hearing the bird chirp I was looking ahead and I saw something cross the road ahead of us. It came from the wooded area where we heard the lone dog. It crossed in front of the trailer to the wooded area that is on my side. It looked low to the ground and bigger than your average size dog. Soon after it crossed. XXXXX was looking ahead too and she saw something cross. So 2 different things had crossed shortly after one another. At this time XXXXX said, “Watch it it’s coming around to get you!”… and I told her, “Don’t say that! ” We continued to observe the areas and 15 minutes later something caught my attention. I saw something like an eye shine on my side (wooded area). I kept thinking to myself what is that? It wasn’t there before. I looked to see if xxxxx had her vehicle on that maybe the lights from inside was reflecting. The vehicle was not on. I was thinking maybe there’s
a small animal up on a limb or something, but from my angle I couldn’t see a limb. What I saw was oval shaped, bigger than a humans eye.
I decided to roll down my window to get a better look. When i did this XXXXX looked to see what I was doing and she looked where I was looking and said, “Do you see that?” I said, “What do you see?”, and she said, “It looks like an eye,” and I said, “Yes, it’s been there for about 15 minutes and it wasn’t there before.” From where she was sitting she had a better view of the tree and she scanned the tree for limbs and couldn’t find any. About that time, the eye shine started to blink. Well, we both got the chills. Something was definitely there watching us and it was 8 foot up from the ground. I mentioned to her about the 2 things we saw cross the road ahead of us. That something is right there beside us but where is the other one? All this time we kept looking at the eye and it kept blinking at us. I will admit I felt scared and I told xxxxx let’s get out of here and she wanted to stay and I said no lets go. So we left..”
I recently sat down to watch a new documentary titled Working Together. The documentary features a few different bigfoot researchers Matt from Central Florida Bigfoo, Mike from Tactical Bigfoot Research, Tim T. from Florida and Bigfoot Dave coming together to investigate an area in the Florida swamps. I had seen some sneak peeks of it on Instagram so I was looking forward to catching it and I’m happy to say I was not disappointed.
The title of the documentary, (Working Together) says it all. And it was just that, it was four teams coming together to search for evidence of the skunk ape led by Matt Larson of Central Florida Bigfoot. They hit the woods and swamps of Florida searching for bigfoot, or the skunk ape as he’s referred to in those parts.
Matt out in the field ready to work…
They picked an amazing area to explore, and if it wasn’t so tropical in Florida at that time, I may have smuggled myself into one of their bags, but the area had me picturing many many mosquito bites. And a loss of 20 pounds water weight.
I love the whole concept of Working Together. Everyone has something unique and interesting to bring to the table, you should take advantage of that whenever you can, and you will probably learn a few new tricks of the trade along the way. Different fresh perspectives can really make a difference out there in the field looking at evidence. I have noticed lately that there have been more collaborations than before, lets keep it up, after all, we do have a common goal here, find evidence that bigfoot exists and is possibly roaming in our neck of the woods.
Breaking out the measuring tape to document the print…Tim T documenting on film
Although the group headed out with all the equipment you’d ever want to bring out researching, which is great, I really enjoyed their personal attention to the evidence and interactions the most. They were focused on the evidence around them, they found some interesting things too, but I’m not going to give away the good stuff, you have to watch it for yourself. I loved that they took a very forensic crime scene approach to what they were seeing , it is how we all should be documenting our evidence.
Mike from Tacticle Bigfoot Research working with 3D photo app
While they were examining everything before them they were also offering good suggestions on the latest equipment and apps out there that could help assist you in your search. I personally have already taken advantage of two of the apps mentioned. The Cornell Library Bird call identifier and a 3D photo app that actually saved me in the field last summer when I came up on an interesting print and nothing to cast it with me.
I appreciated that Matt didn’t over produce this documentary with all the dramatic bells and whistles. There was no soundtrack playing which allowed us to hear nature’s chorus instead. The only thing I would have wanted differently was that I wasn’t able to hear some of the conversations happening and it left me wondering if maybe I missed some good tips etc. but he may have done that intentionally for privacy.
I’m recommending this documentary highly. It’s what bigfoot research should be, you can click the link to watch, it’s streaming free on YouTube…
I was going through and editing a few pictures yesterday, and it dawned on me I never share them here on the blog. So going forward I’ll try to share a pics of the week. These pics are from an area I call Ames Corner. In this one little corner of Easton Massachusetts the very wealthy Ames family built a few of their lavish homes.
They are now a library, a museum and a town hall etc. I am always overwhelmed by the architecture of these former mansions. There first and biggest homes was the Ames Mansion which resides inside the Borderland State a park just around the corner from these buildings.
I wrote a short blog on the ladder home so I’ll attach that link to the bottom here if you would like to know a bit about their history. And if you’re ever in the area I absolutely recommend at least a drive by…
“Has Murphysboro’s “Big Muddy Monster” of mid-1973 returned? No one knows for sure, but four truckers on Illinois 3 near the Illinois 149 junction west of Murphysboro said they saw something Sunday night that they can’t explain. Jackson County officials said radio reports from Randolph County show the four northbound truckers called into Randolph County on citizens ‘ band radios and reported seeing what they described as a “bear like animal on Illinois 3, about three miles south of Il linois 149. Jackson County does not have equipment to receive citizen’s band messages. The equipment is to be installed within a few weeks. One of the truckers said the large dark animal at the side of the road “looked like a gorilla.” The sightings apparently occurred just south of a United States Forest Service rest area near thick woods. ‘ Police said descriptions by the truckers are similar to several “monster” descriptions supplied by eyewitnesses in the Murphysboro area in June 1973. The “Big Muddy Monster, which took its name from two sightings close to the Big Muddy River, first was reported by a couple parked in a lot near a boat dock on South 24th Street in Riverside Park. The second sighting was by a young couple at a home in Westwood Hills Subdivision, on high ground above the river and Riverside Park. Descriptins from both sightings wrere of a “seven-foot tall light-haired muddy monster.”
News stories on the sighting brought inquires from all parts of the nation including official inquires from scientists studying reports of similar in stances. Scientific investigation identifies many of the sightings as a Sasquatch, more commonly known as “Big Foot,” and usually associated with Northern California and Oregon. Interest in the Big Muddy Monster is still high though. Murphysboro Police reported today they have been advised a team is en route to Murphysboro from the Kansas City Star newspaper. A similar team camped out several days in the river bottoms in 1973 seeking factual evidence connected to the June sightings.
One evening, about 100 people saw a huge craft, “seven stories high,” emerging from the waters of the Ohio River. “It drifted slowly high above the river, then from the craft sped a dozen smaller vessels. They hovered motionless for half an hour, then moved away and disappeared. We called it the mother-ship and its scouts. “At least one person had a Polaroid camera and used it. But every picture turned out completely black.” The strange craft, with lights blazing, were seen patrolling the skies for months. Staring eyes “The lives of everyone who saw it were changed in some way,” said Linda. “I was divorced. The Malletes who first saw it with us refuse to even discuss it and live strictly on their own. A leading businessman turned to drink. A woman had a miscarriage. People who had never been ill in their lives began to pick up every ailment going.”
It was when the UFO eyewitnesses began to get together to talk about it that the strange things began to happen. I got the stories of people, who now refuse to give their names or to be interviewed, who were stalked by the men in black and white, and red and white, checkered shirts. These strangers, singly or in pairs, would be seen emerging from a garage just as the owners returned home.
Chidren who knew nothing about the UFOs or Mothman, reported walking during the night and finding the strangers in the room, just staring at them. i All our lives changed in some way Lonnie McDaniel told of his own experience. “I was in a friend’s house, both of us watching TV. Suddenly the set went black and a voice said, “We’re not finished with you yet.”
Then the film came back on again.” On December 15,1967, a year after the first arrival of Mothman, tragedy and horror struck Point Pleasant. The 700-foot long Silver Bridge spanning the Ohio River collapsed without warning, taking 31 vehicles and carrying 46 people to death in the icy waters. Author Keel is of the opinion that the tragedy was somehow connected to the UFO presence, and so are many of the townspeople.
It was when Mrs. McDaniel tried to contact a woman who had seen Mothman that I experienced for myself the eerie phenomenom of the telephone interference. Clicking The dialing tone had gone for several rings. Then there was silence, then a loud clicking began. Mrs. McDaniel, from the other end of the room, held up the phone. I could distinctly hear the sounds — loud pings and clicks. They continued for five minutes, then the phone went dead. It was not until the next day that I was able to get in touch with the woman, Mrs. Marcella Bennet, 34. Mrs. Bennet was visiting her sister when she met Mothman. “I walked to the back of the car and suddenly it was in front of me. It was about six feet tall, and in the little light there was, I could see its body covered in gray feathers. It was hunched over, looking at me, but I saw no red eyes.” But somehow she got inside the house, and Mothman went after her. Her nephew Ricky slammed the glass door shut and pushed a table against it while the creature battered against the door. Then he grabbed a flashlight and shone it on the thing. Mothman turned and vanished.
Mrs. Bennet had a miscarriage. One woman who kept on delving into the mysterious UFOs was Mary Hyre, a local journalist. One day she told friends of a phone call and a strange male voice telling her: “Soon you’ll be in some other place.” A few weeks later, on February 15,1970, she died suddenly, aged 54. WHATEVER the truth about the Mothman, it has the whole area worried. A few hours after our investigation started Reporter Scott and Photographer Ranns were stopped by police and told to leave the State.
