November 14, 2025 • 39 mins
When thinking of something spooky or creepy in New England, most people’s mind might go either right to Salem, MA during Halloween or the Lizzie Borden House in Fall River, but there’s a good handful of other equally creepy places around Massachusetts and New England that you might not have heard of…Boston Globe reporter Emily Sweeney checked in with Bradley to shine a light on those uniquely creepy locations!
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hey he's WBZ, he's Radio ten thirty, so winters upon us.
Finally it's Chile and I don't mind it. I'm one
of those people who like it. And speaking of winter,
one thing I like to do is go up in
the White Mountains and get a cabin and just light
(00:26):
a fire and stare at it.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
It's a caveman TV, they call it.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And you know, I've traveled a lot, but somehow now
the thing that really makes me feel good is going
up there and watching that, watching that fire. Sometimes it's
good to go alone too, I do miss. I'm in
the country, you know, and we could have a fire
(00:52):
anytime you want it. And New Hampshire away in the Gothic,
rural New Hampshire that I'm from. And by the way,
did you know that up in say, Breton Woods where
the ski area is Franconia area, that they already have.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Eight inches of snow?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, I got like four inches, they got four inches
they got they already have eight inches. I'm going up,
I'm actually going up on Monday and just light a
fire man when I go up.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
That's all I do.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I get a chair even in the winter, even when
it's snowing, and I'll sit in front of that fire
for eight hours. And if the somebody didn't talk to
that's cool. If not, that's cool too. And you know what,
when you come back in the city, it's like a restart.
You come over the Tobin Bridge or you come over
the you know, up down ninety three, and you see
(01:51):
the city. It's like a brand new city and it's
kind of exciting and invigorating. So New England a place
that's rich with creepy places. I mean, you know, we
have this long history going way back to witches and all.
There's a whole lot more creepiness going on than that.
(02:13):
And we have with us a guest to address that.
She's done a piece on it. Emily's Swingey is a
Boston Globe reporter whom I have known, I think since
the nineties.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Met her at some big.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Giant festival at what was then Great Woods, and I
still think of it as Great Woods and Kevin dutchwether
on and off professionally and personally. So it's fun when
she's got something that I really want to talk about
on the radio.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
And here we are.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Emily's not only got this piece about the creepy places,
and I'm hoping we can delve into the one that
happened up in the White Mountains. There's a big one
up there. But also Emily's written books that I'd like
to remind you about that are very interesting. So first
let's introduce Emily Sweeney, Boston Globe Journalists.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
How do you do? Emily?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Hey, Bradley, thanks for having me on the show. I
appreciate it, of course.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Long time.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Did you have a particular niche over there at the Globe?
You're a survivor for one thing. A lot of people
didn't survive. Emily Sweeney survived. That's really cool. You must
be pretty good and you kind of have a niche
over there. Besides doing I don't want to say regular stories.
There are certain kinds of stories that when they pop
(03:31):
up or features, they go to you, right, what will
those be? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Well, you know, I write the Globes Cold Case File series,
so I cover a lot of unsolved murders. I also
write the Globes Blot of Tales column, so I cover
a lot of like funny police log things. But I
also love history and so Ryan Huddle, who did the
illustrations for this Creepy Places. He was the one that
(04:01):
came up with the idea of, like, you know, let's
find like thirteen of the creepiest places in New England.
And he approached me and he was like, Sweeney, you
probably know something about the hell.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, okay, so thirteen, because that is a creepy number.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Yeah, yeah, you know, we thought it was a good
good number, you know, we I mean, there's so many
to choose from. That's the thing, like you were saying
about New England. There's a lot of history here and
a lot of like weird stuff has happened, so you know,
there's a lot to choose from. But we figured thirteen
would be a good amount.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So I think it'd be fun just to kind of
go through them because it's it's something to do. And
these aren't just summer things, right, most of them are
a year round I'm guessing.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Yeah, well, you know, it depends, like you know, you
have some places up in New Hampshire, Vermont you get
to you know, snow falls in the winter, you know.
So yeah, but you know, I tried to make it
like a varied you know, like a variety of places
and places you could visit and go for a walk
or check it out, maybe take some photos. Yeah, one
(05:07):
of my favorites is actually in Grotten And you know,
Gratton isn't too far from Boston.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Right before we start, before we get into the anybody
have a creepy experience in any place we want to
hear about it, maybe that will be added to the.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Creepy places list of the future. But you know, every
once in a while, everybody has something that so coincidentally
the coincidental.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It's how can that be a coincidence that something's going
on here? Like for example, just a quick example, back
back in college, no high school, I had a friend
named Billy g we'll call him because that was his name.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
And he drove a Carmen Gia and he.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Lived in Rochester where he went to high school for
a while, but then he moved out to Lee, New Hampshire,
and he would have to drive down this really long
rural country road to get home and it's kind of
near you and h And he told the story. And
he's a very down to earth guy. Of all the guys,
(06:12):
I knew he was mister button down. He was nice
to his parents. He was straight laced, button down guy.
But he he said, I gotta tell you a story,
and I don't know if I should tell you the
story because I don't know if you believe it, and
you might think I'm weird. But he said he was
driving home from to Lead on this dark, dark, no
(06:35):
street light road and a UFO came down and hovered
directly over his car, like right on top of his car,
and followed it and followed it so that there was
no mistaken like this is a plane or a helicopter
or something.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
It wow.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And then he said, like most people say, it split
in like an instant, just and I think, what was it?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
A reflection?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
You know, you think all these things it could be,
but who it was and the way he told the story,
he was petrified.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
And I don't believe that. I don't believe.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
You know, one half of me doesn't believe any aliens
have come here, because wouldn't we really know about it more?
Why doesn't somebody get a good picture? Why are they
all these horrible pictures? You think that with everybody having
an iPhone that somebody would get like a killer picture,
undeniable UFO little humanoid people looking up peeking out the window.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
But no, So that makes me makes me doubt.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
And of course the distance they'd have to travel would
be so huge, and why would they just kind of
fly around and not stop? Why would they not visit?
So I have all these questions. I mean, so let's
take a break and we can dive into your stories
(08:08):
in the thirteen Creepy Places thirteen thirteen.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Of the creepy places in New England. There are more.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
And if there's anything that you folks know of, like
a creepy place that's known in your community as a
creepy place, it may not be on Emily's Emily's creepy
list different from Emily's regular list. And we'd like to
hear from you two six, one, seven, two five, four,
ten thirty, and we will. We will continue with Emily
(08:39):
Sweeney from the Boston the Great Boston Globe after this
on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Let's continue with Emily Sweeney, Boston Globe journalist. And she's
talking about she did on thirteen places, thirteen creepy Places
in dear Old chilea New England.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Now, so where do you want to start Emily.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Well, you know, one of my favorites is in Gratton,
which isn't too far from Boston, and it's called Bancroft
Castle and it's right on Gibbet Hill and it's a
really cool, very short little hike up the hill and
it's a cool spot to catch it. But you're surrounded
by these ruins of like what looks like a castle
(09:28):
and it used to be part of a wealthy guy's
estate that unfortunately caught on fire. And that that's a
really cool one. And you know, when you're up there,
I think I get creepy vibes and I'd be curious
to hear what other people think.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
You know, you know, it's it's a haunted looking kind
of place.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Yeah, it's the vibe like you can like kind of
you can still walk through like the doorways and you
can like you're standing there and you can see the
fireplace still there, the second floor fireplace and the chimney,
and you're surrounded by the walls. It's just it's it's interesting,
you know, it's definitely a vibe.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Any weird stuff happened there?
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Uh, well, you know, there's like a lot of like
local legends and things. I couldn't find, like any evidence
of any you know, bad things going on up there
other than you know, the obviously there was the fire
that happened. But you know, it's it's a really cool
place to check out.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I looked it up.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
It says it was used for sanitarium for soldiers during
World War One.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Yes, indeed, and.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You and the fire you talk about, I think was
caused by a fireworks accident in nineteen thirty two.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Yeah, yeah, some in the thirties. So it's you know,
but it's a really really excellent place to check out.
Like it, you know, it remniscance of like a medieval
castle in the middle of the grotten and you're on
this hill and it's a great view from up there too, Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
And so now it's something else creepy about it.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
It's called it's on a hill called Gibbett Hill. Do
you know what? Yes, do you know what Gibbeting is?
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Gibbeting is like the stuff of Nightmare's Bradley. I honestly,
I didn't know what it was until I wrote the story.
And uh, you know, basically, you know, back in the
olden times, you know, alert.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Here, what you're about to hear maybe upsetting and I
don't know as as PC, not PC, but as g
rated as you can.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Oh, I write for the globes. It'll be PG all
the way. Don't worry.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
That's right, That's how you survived.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Yeah. So you know, when criminals would, you know, in
certain places, when criminals would get executed, like they'd you know,
get hanged from gallows, some you know, government leaders you know,
decided to like keep their bodies up there, you know,
kind of to teach the public a lesson like don't
commit crimes. Look at what happened to him, you know,
(12:15):
type of thing. And so yeah, and they would often
have a either like chains or like a little cage
to keep the body up there. And that that is
a gibbit and uh yeah, a pretty scary name for
a you know, a really nice hill.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
In the words of my father, times were tough back then.
I actually heard I've read more than one time, but
I can't find it now that there was one poor
soul who was hung and remained in Boston Common for
four years. And so, you know, a whole generation of
school high school kids or I would walk go to
school or wherever, and part of daily life is to
(12:58):
walk by this body that had been hanging there for years. Okay,
we got through that pretty well. Let's get to New
England creepy spot number two.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Let's see, I'm kind of going at random here, but
you know, some of the interesting graves that you can
visit involve vampires of sorts. There are some cemeteries in
Rhode Island and Connecticut where the people who are buried
there were exhumed at one point because back in like
(13:38):
seventeen hundreds eighteen hundreds, some people believe that vampires were
causing people to get six. They were, you know, causing consumption,
causing you know, tuberculosis, and for some reason, people thought
if you dug up the body of a family member
who died from the disease, and you really made sure
(13:59):
they were dead by you know, you know, burning their
organs and things that you know, they would like cure
the rest of the family, you know, and keep them safe.
Really bizarre chapter of New England history. But there's a
lot of these, some of these.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Graves.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
Yeah, well there's one in Exeter, New not in Hampshire, sorry, Exeter,
Rhode Island, and the Chestnut Hill Cemetery it's on ten
Rod Road in Exeter and Mercy Brown. She's kind of
known as Rhode Island's kind of quote unquote last vampire
(14:43):
because you know, again she was exhumed and all that
her grave is still there, you can see it. And yeah,
so very interesting, very scary.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Part about history.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Noticing that there was a thing called the Great New
England Vampire Panic two hundred years after the Salem Witch Trials,
farmers became convincer relatives were returning from the grave to
feed on the living. Is that the same thing or
is that a different thing.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
That's the same thing, that's the exact same thing.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, great vampire, Great New England Vampire Panic. I did
not know that.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Yeah, right, Okay, so you can take a little tour
there and you know, your native New Hampshire has some
interesting places also to visit. Your friend's story really struck
a nerve with me because I don't know if people
(15:48):
have heard of Beddy and Bonnie Hill.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
This is this is Oh yeah, I want details from
you on this one. And if if you don't, okay,
I'll fill them in too, because it's so this is
so weird.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Go ahead, It is very weird, very weird. So Betty
and Bonnie Hill are a couple who live in New Hampshire.
They live in Portsmouth. It's nineteen sixty one and they
were just coming back from a little vacation in Canada
and now they're both very upstanding citizens activists. Actually yes, absolutely,
(16:28):
yes they were. And it's nineteen sixty one and they
they're driving along the driving home. They stop in Colebrook
to get a little bite to eat at a restaurant.
It's getting late and they're driving. They're driving and they
see something out of the window. Betty notices like this, like,
(16:51):
you know, strange, like she can't tell it was like
a you know, a satellite or you know, couldn't figure
out what it was. And Bonnie's like, it's got to
be a plane, you know, like what else could it be.
They keep, you know, they're driving along. They go by
like the old Man in the Mountain when that was
still there, and they stop and they're looking at this
(17:14):
thing like through binoculars and they look and it like
it is not like any aircraft that they'd ever seen before.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
To give you an idea of folks, if you've been
been to the Franconian Notch you know where Cannon Mountain
is and the Cannon Mountain Lift, and there's a tower
up on top, and there is a restaurant now, and
there was a restaurant then, and it was kind of
right in there between there and the Old Man on
the mountain, which is only maybe like three quarters of
(17:46):
a mile, and it's very narrow. So if you're going
to see anything, it got to look straight up because
there's no real horizon because the mountains are on either side.
And it's got to be nineteen, you know, nighttime, nineteen
sixty one, it's got to be really creepy. Probably not
a lot of people on the road. Okay, pick up
the story there.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Yeah, so they see like this gigantic you know, they
were describing as like this glowing pancake, almost glow, you know,
and with Betty said she saw like multi colored lights,
and through the binoculars they saw like, you know, windows
with like living creatures behind the windows apparently driving this.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
They said, eight to eleven humanoid figures peeking out the window.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Yes, yes, and it's wild because you know, obviously they're
scared and the craft comes down. The last thing that
Bonnie recalls is seeing maybe like some type of like
ladder or something coming down from the craft and they
(19:02):
and this is where they lose time, right, So they're
seeing this crazy spacecraft and then suddenly it's like they're
on the road thirty five miles down the road and
they freeze.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Out and hit the gas and they when they say
they went into this kind of zone out thing and
didn't really wake up until they were almost a portsmouth.
This is what what I gathered from it. And they
didn't really know what happened.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Yeah, yeah, and they started having strange dreams and they
both talk to each other, but like what what really happened?
And that's when they went on there I'm sure you
heard Bradley hypnosis and started you know, recalling some of
the memories of their memories of what took place during
that two like you know, a couple hours span when
(19:58):
when they got down the highway.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
You know, do all kinds of controversy or whether they
made it up or not? What do you think?
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Yeah, so, you know, during the hypnosis sessions, they talked
about being like experimented on, kind of like tests being
done on them. You know, they described like the you know,
the humanoids and you know, I believe that they were
telling the truth right, because they had everything to lose,
(20:28):
really nothing to gain, you know, by by coming out
with the story. And from what I understand, like, you
know that the story kind of eats out to the press,
and that's when they eventually came forward, and you know,
we're open about, like, you know, what happens with the
public that they were abducted by aliens, you know, And yeah,
(20:50):
the only thing I can think of, right, Bradley, like.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Is.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Imagine if they stopped at that diner in Colebrook and
somebody slipped them some type of crazy drug.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah, I didn't think. I didn't think of that.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
That's the only thing I can think of other than
that they seem very very they stuck by this story.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Somebody somebody dosed them with LSD. It was nineteen sixty one.
Maybe I have to break, but one observation before I break.
One thing that we do is assume that aliens are
going to kind of have humanoid shapes. There's no reason
to believe that at all. The notion that some creatures
(21:27):
from some fire away place with a whole different makeup,
different oxygen levels or maybe no oxygen, maybe cyanide in
the air would would look like we look because they
I feel like they would have evolved differently. And there's
no reason, you know, a spaceship could be one foot across.
This is just as likely as it would be a normal,
normal human side. It could be a mini many.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
It's your little thing. You don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
So when people see humanoids, that gives me a little
bit of a pause. So we want to continue with
Emily Sweeney of the Boston Globe right after this on b.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
We continue with Globe journalist Emily Sweeney, who just related
one of the stories from she did about thirteen creepy
places in New England, and the most recent one was the.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Story of Betty and Barney Hill.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
As they say, they were, well, they had a very
close encounter and maybe they feel like maybe they got
experimented on. I shouldn't laugh. I mean, maybe they did maybe,
so I shouldn't. I shouldn't belittle them. What I want
to just relate a story that's related to creepy things
in that exact area. One thing that I like hiking,
(22:40):
but I don't like hiking in the summer because it's
too hot and there are too many rocks, so snowshoeing
is good.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
And right in.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
The Franconia is a trail called Lonesome Lake Trail. But
I was never able to get up there early enough
in the wintertime to have it be light, so I
would hike up with my brother at night into the
White mountains. In this trail, you just got your headlamp.
You each have a headlamp, and that's it and the
whole thing. The whole time, it looks exactly like Blair
(23:06):
Witch trials, and you see because of your headlamp moving everything,
it looks like there are animals jumping out of the forest.
But once you get up there, there's a cabin at top.
This is something you can all do. That's why I
bring it up. If you're looking for an adventure, you
can stay overnight. It's cheap, but you stay overnight in
unheated cabins, so bundle up and bring a sleeping bag.
(23:27):
And at the top there right now, it's not that
cold twenty six degrees, but.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
It does get cold up there.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Okay, how about another creepy place from your piece Thirteen
Creepy Places in New England.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Yeah, well, you know, one is done in Connecticut at Yale.
It's kind of a cool story that I just like,
back in the nineties, medical students at Yale kind of
word spread that there were some brains stored in the
basement of one of the dormitories there, and yeah, so
the medical students would go down and like, you know,
(23:59):
peak it like all these like brains stored in jazz
and the brains were actually the personal collection of a
guy named doctor Havevey Cushing, and he's a pioneering neurosurgeon
and he actually you know, kind of collected these from
from various patients. And those actual brains are now on display,
(24:21):
not in the basement of the dorm anymore, but in
a nice like exhibit area that they call the Cushing
Center and which is open to the public and people
can check out and you know, to see lots of brains.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Just just regular folk brains are really smart people or
criminal brains or who knows.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
Right, you know, I think that I think there's a
variety of like, you know, he treated patients that had
you know, different types of uh, you know, neuro disorders,
and you know, so I think and there's a lot
of them. So yeah, I'm not really sure, but it
looks I I've seen the photos. I want to get
down there in person because it sounds really interesting.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
I bet they have a similar thing at Harvard. They must, right,
Harvard Medical School, they must.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
Yeah, that's a good question. Maybe yeah ad verse Yale,
who's got more brains?
Speaker 3 (25:13):
I don't know, that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Maybe you don't have to drive all the way down
to Princeton. Maybe you can just take the tea over
that had and what else you got place.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Okay, let's see this is here's it this. I was
kind of shocked about this one. Back in nineteen sixty three,
UH Air Force B fifty two bomber crashed in Maine.
It crashed like on the slopes of Elephants Mountain and
only a couple of people on board of the crew survived.
(25:48):
So people died and the crash wreckage from the plane
is still there, and you can hike up there and
and see it, and you know, it's kind of a
hike from Boston. It's like a five hour drives. It's
like up by Moussaid Lake. But if you have it
in that area, you know, it's a really you know,
(26:08):
it's a really you know, interesting thing to see. I mean,
you don't get to see a P fifty two plane
wreck Boston. And I also thought that was quite creepy.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Yeah, not every day.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
I wonder if the wreckage is such that you can
sleep in.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
It, you know, I'm not sure that they definitely treat
it like as a like kind of a like somber memorial.
You know, I don't know how much. I don't know
if you can actually like curl up in it. But
you'd have to be really brave man too, because you know.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Emily, have you seen a ghost?
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Have you know what I have to say? I confess
I have tell me that story. Oh man, Well, I've
had a couple encounters, and you know one of the
first ones was, you know, I grew up in Dorchester
and next door to my house was a old barn
(27:08):
that was built in like the eighteen hundreds. And this
is in Dorchester right with the red line going through backyards,
and you know there was you can, I don't know
the place was haunted, you.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Know, and uh.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Did you know it was from hearsay or from your.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Experience experience because we would be in the barn hanging
out on the first floor and hearing like footsteps you
know on the second floor. Really and yeah, yeah, and
then yeah, we had some other you know, interesting things happened,
like when we were up on the second floor, I
(27:47):
definitely saw like something like an abbolition of some sort
and and yeah, and then I actually got very brave
because I was like started, you know again, I'm like
ten years old. I'm like, I'm gonna mess with this ghost,
like this is our clubhouse, you know. And we had
(28:08):
like you know interactions where like old tools and stuff
would be doing strange things.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
It was so you did see a ghost.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
I know someone who went went to a hotel in Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia and stayed unknowingly in a haunted hotel, did not
know it, did not know it was haunted, but in
the night a ghost came and sat on her chest
and she couldn't breathe, and the ghost wouldn't leave until
(28:40):
she screamed at it to get up. And then when
she checked out the next morning, she started to ask
a question that kind of hinted at her experience, and
the checkout person goes, oh, you saw the ghost.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Huh. So it was a well known thing.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
That's that's you know, I have real hesitation about aliens
because it's just the logistics of it seemed difficult. But ghosts,
I'm not going to discount that because so many people
see him. I'll say that my mind is open on
on both, but more on ghosts.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Okay, have you ever seen one or encountered one?
Speaker 3 (29:22):
No?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
No, I don't know if I want to, I don't
know how I would be. I don't know if I
would take it, take it in stride and say, oh, I'm.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
So that's a ghost. Hey, hello, ghosty ghost, or I
might doubt my entire sanity. I don't. It might be
the end for me. I don't. I don't know how
it would go. Can I can you squeeze one more
in before? Oh?
Speaker 2 (29:50):
What about the Danvers State Hospital? For a while, that
was a creepy place. Did they make that a condo
or something?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (29:58):
God? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:58):
So, you know, I didn't include any state hospitals on
the list because I was trying to think of just
really quirky places. But ye know, the state hospitals, you know,
Massachusetts has a whole bunch of them, you know, And
I'm not sure what the situation is with Danvers, but
you know, the ones I used to visit in Waltham.
(30:20):
You know, I also covered the close like you know
Fernald when that was closing for the Globe and those places.
It's a real heavy feeling in the.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Air, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I mean all the horror and the pain and the screaming,
and the insanity and the and the brutality and the
abuse that took place in these gothic looking buildings. I
have a little bit of information here before we go on.
The Danvers State Hospital its, as most folks know, psychiatric
(30:55):
hospital in Danver's Mass up on a hill.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
I remember driving by it all the time.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Open in nineteen excuse me, eighteen seventy eight, closed down
in ninety two, so it was open for more than
one hundred years.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
And this was the check out. The name of it
when they opened.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
It it was the State Lunatic Asylum.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
No euphemism there, it's straight up.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Oh so you are in the lunatic Welcome to the
lunatic asylum, or you know, friends would say, oh, you
were up at the lunatic Asylum.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
And that was.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
The birthplace of the prefrontal lobotomy and the subject a
lot of allegations of neglect and abuse, but it's brutal.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
In places like that.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Okay, for the lot final segment, Emily, let's talk after
this break about the books, because you have done some
cool books, and one is about Boston crime, but it's
not the Boston crime that you see in most of
the books.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
It's different. And did you finish that You finished the
drop Kick Murphy's book too, right? Yep?
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Okay, so that's not about the band. That's about something else,
and we'll find out what else after this.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
On the wold BZ It's Night Side with Dan Ray
on w B Boston's news radio on Cooked Denum.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
To the story about we were talking about the dan
Verus Asylum. I don't I don't know what to call
it now. They called it the lunatic Asylum. What the
deal is with it now? And it is actually a
place that you you can.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Sort of visit.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
But first a little bit about the the Loure. It
was a location for filming of a two thousand and
one horror movie, Session nine, and it's believed to be
the inspiration for Batman's Akham Asylum. And uh, as far
(32:57):
as what's there now, I see that it's been turned
into an apartment complex, but there's a historic patient cemetery
marked by numbered stones for unclaimed bodies, and it's maintained
on the property, and there's a walking path at least
the area. I don't know if it's strangers can go
(33:20):
walk around there, but if so, that'd be a pretty
creepy place.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
And thanks.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
We're with Emily Sweeney, journalists for the Boston Globe, talking
about prape. She did on thirteen Creepy Places and this
just popped up as an aside. It wasn't on that list,
but pretty creepy indeed. Now let's take the rest of
the time talking about your other books and anything you're
working on now that you would like to plug.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Yeah, well, you know, I write the Globes Cold Case
Files series, and if anybody wants to sign up the
newsletter that about, you can do that online at Globe
dot com slash Cold Case Files.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
And don't you do it?
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Don't you do every once in a while the thing
here on night Side about the Cold case every other Thursday? Okay,
I do, yeah, yeah, would be fat, yeah, beautiful, yep. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
And you're very good on the radio, so I can
understand why that's a hit.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Yeah, I'm a huge fan of you guys and Nightside.
So and then you know, I have I have three
books out. Anybody is interested in checking them out. One's
called Boston Organized Crime, another is called Gangland to Boston,
and both of those kind of chronicle the history of
organized crime in the Boston area, going all the way.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Back, going all the way back into the twenties and thirties.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Yeah, yeah, and actually even before then too.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
So one thing that was pretty fun is that you,
Emily Sweeney, took me on a tour of some of
those some of the buildings, some of the addresses that
are in those books in the North End.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
There's one in the South End. And that was pretty cool.
I know that.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Yeah, it was cool.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
You don't have the time to do that, but that
kind of that kind of tour makes money for people.
Maybe you could, you could start up the organization and
hire somebody else to do the tour.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Okay, oh yeah, no, I would. I would love to.
I love, you know, going to historical places and showing
people that those things.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
All right, So, what are those books called? Where can
people get them?
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Yeah? So Boston Organized Crime, Gangland Boston and my dropkick
Murphy book our available wherever books are sold. Okay, you
can find them in Bond and Nobles everywhere.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
You must tell them more about the Dropkick Murphy's book,
because it's not what people think.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Yeah. So I wrote the first ever biography of Dropkick
Murphy and he is the guy who inspired the band's name.
Dropkick Murphy was a professional wrestler who started wrestling in
the nineteen thirties and the Great Depression. He put himself
through medical school, wrestling professionally at night, going to med
(36:05):
school in the day, became a doctor, kept wrestling, and
then he opened a rehab center, a detoc center for alcoholics,
and it's kind of like a Betty Ford clinic, you know,
of its time, you know, a pioneering one. And yeah,
(36:27):
and so he treated some thousands of you know, people
you know for alcoholism would go there and dry out,
and also professional athletes would go there and train because
he also had a state of the art gymnasium with
ring and even in the nineteen forties he was advertising
you know people, the general public. You know, I'm absolutely
(36:52):
about Soup the book. I was really happy because case
Care of the band.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
I believe was starting to lose your but we did
get we did get mostly in there. Just yeah, we
can't can't hear you anymore, started to go, it started
to get wonky.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
So we got we got what we.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Needed to get done done, So that's good. So uh,
drop kick Murphy had his place out in a kind
of like acting area. Right, Yeah, no, not really, but
luckily we're almost done anyway, and so uh we get
these books wherever, fine, wherever they sell books that you
(37:38):
go find find booksellers everywhere. So thank you so much
as always, and hope you keep in touch. I know
you got you're always working on something. And uh we
should go on another big long walk at some point.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
Yes, definitely, thank you for having men.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Of course, it's it's always a pleasure. He loves you,
all right. Thank you very much. Emily.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
I guess it's a good idea to that. You know
what's coming up next. This is a whole nightwoo. No, well,
actually Emily's a guest. Sorry, I take it back. I
was thinking for some reason, no guests, but that's because
there was none in the beginning. But Emily was a
guest and a great one to Jay, I was I
(38:27):
was thinking, you know, nobody's parents are perfect, and I
was thinking about things that I wish my parents had
told me. And it's good that I get a chance
to set this up because you can be thinking through
the break. There are certain things that I wish my
parents had taught me, and that I wish my teachers
had taught me, and they didn't. There's also certain things
(38:51):
that were forced upon me, as that with every kid
kind of wish they weren't. And in school too, there
were certain subjects forced upon me.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
That I never used.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
So tell me what do you wish your parents at
Tiger they didn't, or school they're Tiger they didn't, and
maybe stuff that they tired.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
You didn't need to know what's coming up.
It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hey he's WBZ, he's Radio ten thirty, so winters upon us.
Finally it's Chile and I don't mind it. I'm one
of those people who like it. And speaking of winter,
one thing I like to do is go up in
the White Mountains and get a cabin and just light
(00:26):
a fire and stare at it.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
It's a caveman TV, they call it.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And you know, I've traveled a lot, but somehow now
the thing that really makes me feel good is going
up there and watching that, watching that fire. Sometimes it's
good to go alone too, I do miss. I'm in
the country, you know, and we could have a fire
(00:52):
anytime you want it. And New Hampshire away in the Gothic,
rural New Hampshire that I'm from. And by the way,
did you know that up in say, Breton Woods where
the ski area is Franconia area, that they already have.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Eight inches of snow?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, I got like four inches, they got four inches
they got they already have eight inches. I'm going up,
I'm actually going up on Monday and just light a
fire man when I go up.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
That's all I do.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I get a chair even in the winter, even when
it's snowing, and I'll sit in front of that fire
for eight hours. And if the somebody didn't talk to
that's cool. If not, that's cool too. And you know what,
when you come back in the city, it's like a restart.
You come over the Tobin Bridge or you come over
the you know, up down ninety three, and you see
(01:51):
the city. It's like a brand new city and it's
kind of exciting and invigorating. So New England a place
that's rich with creepy places. I mean, you know, we
have this long history going way back to witches and all.
There's a whole lot more creepiness going on than that.
(02:13):
And we have with us a guest to address that.
She's done a piece on it. Emily's Swingey is a
Boston Globe reporter whom I have known, I think since
the nineties.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Met her at some big.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Giant festival at what was then Great Woods, and I
still think of it as Great Woods and Kevin dutchwether
on and off professionally and personally. So it's fun when
she's got something that I really want to talk about
on the radio.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
And here we are.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Emily's not only got this piece about the creepy places,
and I'm hoping we can delve into the one that
happened up in the White Mountains. There's a big one
up there. But also Emily's written books that I'd like
to remind you about that are very interesting. So first
let's introduce Emily Sweeney, Boston Globe Journalists.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
How do you do? Emily?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Hey, Bradley, thanks for having me on the show. I
appreciate it, of course.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Long time.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Did you have a particular niche over there at the Globe?
You're a survivor for one thing. A lot of people
didn't survive. Emily Sweeney survived. That's really cool. You must
be pretty good and you kind of have a niche
over there. Besides doing I don't want to say regular stories.
There are certain kinds of stories that when they pop
(03:31):
up or features, they go to you, right, what will
those be? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Well, you know, I write the Globes Cold Case File series,
so I cover a lot of unsolved murders. I also
write the Globes Blot of Tales column, so I cover
a lot of like funny police log things. But I
also love history and so Ryan Huddle, who did the
illustrations for this Creepy Places. He was the one that
(04:01):
came up with the idea of, like, you know, let's
find like thirteen of the creepiest places in New England.
And he approached me and he was like, Sweeney, you
probably know something about the hell.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, okay, so thirteen, because that is a creepy number.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Yeah, yeah, you know, we thought it was a good
good number, you know, we I mean, there's so many
to choose from. That's the thing, like you were saying
about New England. There's a lot of history here and
a lot of like weird stuff has happened, so you know,
there's a lot to choose from. But we figured thirteen
would be a good amount.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So I think it'd be fun just to kind of
go through them because it's it's something to do. And
these aren't just summer things, right, most of them are
a year round I'm guessing.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Yeah, well, you know, it depends, like you know, you
have some places up in New Hampshire, Vermont you get
to you know, snow falls in the winter, you know.
So yeah, but you know, I tried to make it
like a varied you know, like a variety of places
and places you could visit and go for a walk
or check it out, maybe take some photos. Yeah, one
(05:07):
of my favorites is actually in Grotten And you know,
Gratton isn't too far from Boston.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Right before we start, before we get into the anybody
have a creepy experience in any place we want to
hear about it, maybe that will be added to the.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Creepy places list of the future. But you know, every
once in a while, everybody has something that so coincidentally
the coincidental.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It's how can that be a coincidence that something's going
on here? Like for example, just a quick example, back
back in college, no high school, I had a friend
named Billy g we'll call him because that was his name.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
And he drove a Carmen Gia and he.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Lived in Rochester where he went to high school for
a while, but then he moved out to Lee, New Hampshire,
and he would have to drive down this really long
rural country road to get home and it's kind of
near you and h And he told the story. And
he's a very down to earth guy. Of all the guys,
(06:12):
I knew he was mister button down. He was nice
to his parents. He was straight laced, button down guy.
But he he said, I gotta tell you a story,
and I don't know if I should tell you the
story because I don't know if you believe it, and
you might think I'm weird. But he said he was
driving home from to Lead on this dark, dark, no
(06:35):
street light road and a UFO came down and hovered
directly over his car, like right on top of his car,
and followed it and followed it so that there was
no mistaken like this is a plane or a helicopter
or something.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
It wow.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And then he said, like most people say, it split
in like an instant, just and I think, what was it?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
A reflection?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
You know, you think all these things it could be,
but who it was and the way he told the story,
he was petrified.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
And I don't believe that. I don't believe.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
You know, one half of me doesn't believe any aliens
have come here, because wouldn't we really know about it more?
Why doesn't somebody get a good picture? Why are they
all these horrible pictures? You think that with everybody having
an iPhone that somebody would get like a killer picture,
undeniable UFO little humanoid people looking up peeking out the window.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
But no, So that makes me makes me doubt.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
And of course the distance they'd have to travel would
be so huge, and why would they just kind of
fly around and not stop? Why would they not visit?
So I have all these questions. I mean, so let's
take a break and we can dive into your stories
(08:08):
in the thirteen Creepy Places thirteen thirteen.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Of the creepy places in New England. There are more.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
And if there's anything that you folks know of, like
a creepy place that's known in your community as a
creepy place, it may not be on Emily's Emily's creepy
list different from Emily's regular list. And we'd like to
hear from you two six, one, seven, two five, four,
ten thirty, and we will. We will continue with Emily
(08:39):
Sweeney from the Boston the Great Boston Globe after this
on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Let's continue with Emily Sweeney, Boston Globe journalist. And she's
talking about she did on thirteen places, thirteen creepy Places
in dear Old chilea New England.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Now, so where do you want to start Emily.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Well, you know, one of my favorites is in Gratton,
which isn't too far from Boston, and it's called Bancroft
Castle and it's right on Gibbet Hill and it's a
really cool, very short little hike up the hill and
it's a cool spot to catch it. But you're surrounded
by these ruins of like what looks like a castle
(09:28):
and it used to be part of a wealthy guy's
estate that unfortunately caught on fire. And that that's a
really cool one. And you know, when you're up there,
I think I get creepy vibes and I'd be curious
to hear what other people think.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
You know, you know, it's it's a haunted looking kind
of place.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Yeah, it's the vibe like you can like kind of
you can still walk through like the doorways and you
can like you're standing there and you can see the
fireplace still there, the second floor fireplace and the chimney,
and you're surrounded by the walls. It's just it's it's interesting,
you know, it's definitely a vibe.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Any weird stuff happened there?
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Uh, well, you know, there's like a lot of like
local legends and things. I couldn't find, like any evidence
of any you know, bad things going on up there
other than you know, the obviously there was the fire
that happened. But you know, it's it's a really cool
place to check out.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I looked it up.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
It says it was used for sanitarium for soldiers during
World War One.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Yes, indeed, and.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You and the fire you talk about, I think was
caused by a fireworks accident in nineteen thirty two.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Yeah, yeah, some in the thirties. So it's you know,
but it's a really really excellent place to check out.
Like it, you know, it remniscance of like a medieval
castle in the middle of the grotten and you're on
this hill and it's a great view from up there too, Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
And so now it's something else creepy about it.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
It's called it's on a hill called Gibbett Hill. Do
you know what? Yes, do you know what Gibbeting is?
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Gibbeting is like the stuff of Nightmare's Bradley. I honestly,
I didn't know what it was until I wrote the story.
And uh, you know, basically, you know, back in the
olden times, you know, alert.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Here, what you're about to hear maybe upsetting and I
don't know as as PC, not PC, but as g
rated as you can.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Oh, I write for the globes. It'll be PG all
the way. Don't worry.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
That's right, That's how you survived.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Yeah. So you know, when criminals would, you know, in
certain places, when criminals would get executed, like they'd you know,
get hanged from gallows, some you know, government leaders you know,
decided to like keep their bodies up there, you know,
kind of to teach the public a lesson like don't
commit crimes. Look at what happened to him, you know,
(12:15):
type of thing. And so yeah, and they would often
have a either like chains or like a little cage
to keep the body up there. And that that is
a gibbit and uh yeah, a pretty scary name for
a you know, a really nice hill.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
In the words of my father, times were tough back then.
I actually heard I've read more than one time, but
I can't find it now that there was one poor
soul who was hung and remained in Boston Common for
four years. And so, you know, a whole generation of
school high school kids or I would walk go to
school or wherever, and part of daily life is to
(12:58):
walk by this body that had been hanging there for years. Okay,
we got through that pretty well. Let's get to New
England creepy spot number two.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Let's see, I'm kind of going at random here, but
you know, some of the interesting graves that you can
visit involve vampires of sorts. There are some cemeteries in
Rhode Island and Connecticut where the people who are buried
there were exhumed at one point because back in like
(13:38):
seventeen hundreds eighteen hundreds, some people believe that vampires were
causing people to get six. They were, you know, causing consumption,
causing you know, tuberculosis, and for some reason, people thought
if you dug up the body of a family member
who died from the disease, and you really made sure
(13:59):
they were dead by you know, you know, burning their
organs and things that you know, they would like cure
the rest of the family, you know, and keep them safe.
Really bizarre chapter of New England history. But there's a
lot of these, some of these.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Graves.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
Yeah, well there's one in Exeter, New not in Hampshire, sorry, Exeter,
Rhode Island, and the Chestnut Hill Cemetery it's on ten
Rod Road in Exeter and Mercy Brown. She's kind of
known as Rhode Island's kind of quote unquote last vampire
(14:43):
because you know, again she was exhumed and all that
her grave is still there, you can see it. And yeah,
so very interesting, very scary.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Part about history.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Noticing that there was a thing called the Great New
England Vampire Panic two hundred years after the Salem Witch Trials,
farmers became convincer relatives were returning from the grave to
feed on the living. Is that the same thing or
is that a different thing.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
That's the same thing, that's the exact same thing.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, great vampire, Great New England Vampire Panic. I did
not know that.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Yeah, right, Okay, so you can take a little tour
there and you know, your native New Hampshire has some
interesting places also to visit. Your friend's story really struck
a nerve with me because I don't know if people
(15:48):
have heard of Beddy and Bonnie Hill.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
This is this is Oh yeah, I want details from
you on this one. And if if you don't, okay,
I'll fill them in too, because it's so this is
so weird.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Go ahead, It is very weird, very weird. So Betty
and Bonnie Hill are a couple who live in New Hampshire.
They live in Portsmouth. It's nineteen sixty one and they
were just coming back from a little vacation in Canada
and now they're both very upstanding citizens activists. Actually yes, absolutely,
(16:28):
yes they were. And it's nineteen sixty one and they
they're driving along the driving home. They stop in Colebrook
to get a little bite to eat at a restaurant.
It's getting late and they're driving. They're driving and they
see something out of the window. Betty notices like this, like,
(16:51):
you know, strange, like she can't tell it was like
a you know, a satellite or you know, couldn't figure
out what it was. And Bonnie's like, it's got to
be a plane, you know, like what else could it be.
They keep, you know, they're driving along. They go by
like the old Man in the Mountain when that was
still there, and they stop and they're looking at this
(17:14):
thing like through binoculars and they look and it like
it is not like any aircraft that they'd ever seen before.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
To give you an idea of folks, if you've been
been to the Franconian Notch you know where Cannon Mountain
is and the Cannon Mountain Lift, and there's a tower
up on top, and there is a restaurant now, and
there was a restaurant then, and it was kind of
right in there between there and the Old Man on
the mountain, which is only maybe like three quarters of
(17:46):
a mile, and it's very narrow. So if you're going
to see anything, it got to look straight up because
there's no real horizon because the mountains are on either side.
And it's got to be nineteen, you know, nighttime, nineteen
sixty one, it's got to be really creepy. Probably not
a lot of people on the road. Okay, pick up
the story there.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Yeah, so they see like this gigantic you know, they
were describing as like this glowing pancake, almost glow, you know,
and with Betty said she saw like multi colored lights,
and through the binoculars they saw like, you know, windows
with like living creatures behind the windows apparently driving this.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
They said, eight to eleven humanoid figures peeking out the window.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Yes, yes, and it's wild because you know, obviously they're
scared and the craft comes down. The last thing that
Bonnie recalls is seeing maybe like some type of like
ladder or something coming down from the craft and they
(19:02):
and this is where they lose time, right, So they're
seeing this crazy spacecraft and then suddenly it's like they're
on the road thirty five miles down the road and
they freeze.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Out and hit the gas and they when they say
they went into this kind of zone out thing and
didn't really wake up until they were almost a portsmouth.
This is what what I gathered from it. And they
didn't really know what happened.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Yeah, yeah, and they started having strange dreams and they
both talk to each other, but like what what really happened?
And that's when they went on there I'm sure you
heard Bradley hypnosis and started you know, recalling some of
the memories of their memories of what took place during
that two like you know, a couple hours span when
(19:58):
when they got down the highway.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
You know, do all kinds of controversy or whether they
made it up or not? What do you think?
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Yeah, so, you know, during the hypnosis sessions, they talked
about being like experimented on, kind of like tests being
done on them. You know, they described like the you know,
the humanoids and you know, I believe that they were
telling the truth right, because they had everything to lose,
(20:28):
really nothing to gain, you know, by by coming out
with the story. And from what I understand, like, you
know that the story kind of eats out to the press,
and that's when they eventually came forward, and you know,
we're open about, like, you know, what happens with the
public that they were abducted by aliens, you know, And yeah,
(20:50):
the only thing I can think of, right, Bradley, like.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Is.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Imagine if they stopped at that diner in Colebrook and
somebody slipped them some type of crazy drug.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah, I didn't think. I didn't think of that.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
That's the only thing I can think of other than
that they seem very very they stuck by this story.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Somebody somebody dosed them with LSD. It was nineteen sixty one.
Maybe I have to break, but one observation before I break.
One thing that we do is assume that aliens are
going to kind of have humanoid shapes. There's no reason
to believe that at all. The notion that some creatures
(21:27):
from some fire away place with a whole different makeup,
different oxygen levels or maybe no oxygen, maybe cyanide in
the air would would look like we look because they
I feel like they would have evolved differently. And there's
no reason, you know, a spaceship could be one foot across.
This is just as likely as it would be a normal,
normal human side. It could be a mini many.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
It's your little thing. You don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
So when people see humanoids, that gives me a little
bit of a pause. So we want to continue with
Emily Sweeney of the Boston Globe right after this on b.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
We continue with Globe journalist Emily Sweeney, who just related
one of the stories from she did about thirteen creepy
places in New England, and the most recent one was the.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Story of Betty and Barney Hill.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
As they say, they were, well, they had a very
close encounter and maybe they feel like maybe they got
experimented on. I shouldn't laugh. I mean, maybe they did maybe,
so I shouldn't. I shouldn't belittle them. What I want
to just relate a story that's related to creepy things
in that exact area. One thing that I like hiking,
(22:40):
but I don't like hiking in the summer because it's
too hot and there are too many rocks, so snowshoeing
is good.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
And right in.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
The Franconia is a trail called Lonesome Lake Trail. But
I was never able to get up there early enough
in the wintertime to have it be light, so I
would hike up with my brother at night into the
White mountains. In this trail, you just got your headlamp.
You each have a headlamp, and that's it and the
whole thing. The whole time, it looks exactly like Blair
(23:06):
Witch trials, and you see because of your headlamp moving everything,
it looks like there are animals jumping out of the forest.
But once you get up there, there's a cabin at top.
This is something you can all do. That's why I
bring it up. If you're looking for an adventure, you
can stay overnight. It's cheap, but you stay overnight in
unheated cabins, so bundle up and bring a sleeping bag.
(23:27):
And at the top there right now, it's not that
cold twenty six degrees, but.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
It does get cold up there.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Okay, how about another creepy place from your piece Thirteen
Creepy Places in New England.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Yeah, well, you know, one is done in Connecticut at Yale.
It's kind of a cool story that I just like,
back in the nineties, medical students at Yale kind of
word spread that there were some brains stored in the
basement of one of the dormitories there, and yeah, so
the medical students would go down and like, you know,
(23:59):
peak it like all these like brains stored in jazz
and the brains were actually the personal collection of a
guy named doctor Havevey Cushing, and he's a pioneering neurosurgeon
and he actually you know, kind of collected these from
from various patients. And those actual brains are now on display,
(24:21):
not in the basement of the dorm anymore, but in
a nice like exhibit area that they call the Cushing
Center and which is open to the public and people
can check out and you know, to see lots of brains.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Just just regular folk brains are really smart people or
criminal brains or who knows.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
Right, you know, I think that I think there's a
variety of like, you know, he treated patients that had
you know, different types of uh, you know, neuro disorders,
and you know, so I think and there's a lot
of them. So yeah, I'm not really sure, but it
looks I I've seen the photos. I want to get
down there in person because it sounds really interesting.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
I bet they have a similar thing at Harvard. They must, right,
Harvard Medical School, they must.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
Yeah, that's a good question. Maybe yeah ad verse Yale,
who's got more brains?
Speaker 3 (25:13):
I don't know, that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Maybe you don't have to drive all the way down
to Princeton. Maybe you can just take the tea over
that had and what else you got place.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Okay, let's see this is here's it this. I was
kind of shocked about this one. Back in nineteen sixty three,
UH Air Force B fifty two bomber crashed in Maine.
It crashed like on the slopes of Elephants Mountain and
only a couple of people on board of the crew survived.
(25:48):
So people died and the crash wreckage from the plane
is still there, and you can hike up there and
and see it, and you know, it's kind of a
hike from Boston. It's like a five hour drives. It's
like up by Moussaid Lake. But if you have it
in that area, you know, it's a really you know,
(26:08):
it's a really you know, interesting thing to see. I mean,
you don't get to see a P fifty two plane
wreck Boston. And I also thought that was quite creepy.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Yeah, not every day.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
I wonder if the wreckage is such that you can
sleep in.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
It, you know, I'm not sure that they definitely treat
it like as a like kind of a like somber memorial.
You know, I don't know how much. I don't know
if you can actually like curl up in it. But
you'd have to be really brave man too, because you know.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Emily, have you seen a ghost?
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Have you know what I have to say? I confess
I have tell me that story. Oh man, Well, I've
had a couple encounters, and you know one of the
first ones was, you know, I grew up in Dorchester
and next door to my house was a old barn
(27:08):
that was built in like the eighteen hundreds. And this
is in Dorchester right with the red line going through backyards,
and you know there was you can, I don't know
the place was haunted, you.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Know, and uh.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Did you know it was from hearsay or from your.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Experience experience because we would be in the barn hanging
out on the first floor and hearing like footsteps you
know on the second floor. Really and yeah, yeah, and
then yeah, we had some other you know, interesting things happened,
like when we were up on the second floor, I
(27:47):
definitely saw like something like an abbolition of some sort
and and yeah, and then I actually got very brave
because I was like started, you know again, I'm like
ten years old. I'm like, I'm gonna mess with this ghost,
like this is our clubhouse, you know. And we had
(28:08):
like you know interactions where like old tools and stuff
would be doing strange things.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
It was so you did see a ghost.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
I know someone who went went to a hotel in Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia and stayed unknowingly in a haunted hotel, did not
know it, did not know it was haunted, but in
the night a ghost came and sat on her chest
and she couldn't breathe, and the ghost wouldn't leave until
(28:40):
she screamed at it to get up. And then when
she checked out the next morning, she started to ask
a question that kind of hinted at her experience, and
the checkout person goes, oh, you saw the ghost.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Huh. So it was a well known thing.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
That's that's you know, I have real hesitation about aliens
because it's just the logistics of it seemed difficult. But ghosts,
I'm not going to discount that because so many people
see him. I'll say that my mind is open on
on both, but more on ghosts.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Okay, have you ever seen one or encountered one?
Speaker 3 (29:22):
No?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
No, I don't know if I want to, I don't
know how I would be. I don't know if I
would take it, take it in stride and say, oh, I'm.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
So that's a ghost. Hey, hello, ghosty ghost, or I
might doubt my entire sanity. I don't. It might be
the end for me. I don't. I don't know how
it would go. Can I can you squeeze one more
in before? Oh?
Speaker 2 (29:50):
What about the Danvers State Hospital? For a while, that
was a creepy place. Did they make that a condo
or something?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (29:58):
God? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:58):
So, you know, I didn't include any state hospitals on
the list because I was trying to think of just
really quirky places. But ye know, the state hospitals, you know,
Massachusetts has a whole bunch of them, you know, And
I'm not sure what the situation is with Danvers, but
you know, the ones I used to visit in Waltham.
(30:20):
You know, I also covered the close like you know
Fernald when that was closing for the Globe and those places.
It's a real heavy feeling in the.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Air, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I mean all the horror and the pain and the screaming,
and the insanity and the and the brutality and the
abuse that took place in these gothic looking buildings. I
have a little bit of information here before we go on.
The Danvers State Hospital its, as most folks know, psychiatric
(30:55):
hospital in Danver's Mass up on a hill.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
I remember driving by it all the time.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Open in nineteen excuse me, eighteen seventy eight, closed down
in ninety two, so it was open for more than
one hundred years.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
And this was the check out. The name of it
when they opened.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
It it was the State Lunatic Asylum.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
No euphemism there, it's straight up.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Oh so you are in the lunatic Welcome to the
lunatic asylum, or you know, friends would say, oh, you
were up at the lunatic Asylum.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
And that was.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
The birthplace of the prefrontal lobotomy and the subject a
lot of allegations of neglect and abuse, but it's brutal.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
In places like that.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Okay, for the lot final segment, Emily, let's talk after
this break about the books, because you have done some
cool books, and one is about Boston crime, but it's
not the Boston crime that you see in most of
the books.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
It's different. And did you finish that You finished the
drop Kick Murphy's book too, right? Yep?
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Okay, so that's not about the band. That's about something else,
and we'll find out what else after this.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
On the wold BZ It's Night Side with Dan Ray
on w B Boston's news radio on Cooked Denum.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
To the story about we were talking about the dan
Verus Asylum. I don't I don't know what to call
it now. They called it the lunatic Asylum. What the
deal is with it now? And it is actually a
place that you you can.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Sort of visit.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
But first a little bit about the the Loure. It
was a location for filming of a two thousand and
one horror movie, Session nine, and it's believed to be
the inspiration for Batman's Akham Asylum. And uh, as far
(32:57):
as what's there now, I see that it's been turned
into an apartment complex, but there's a historic patient cemetery
marked by numbered stones for unclaimed bodies, and it's maintained
on the property, and there's a walking path at least
the area. I don't know if it's strangers can go
(33:20):
walk around there, but if so, that'd be a pretty
creepy place.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
And thanks.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
We're with Emily Sweeney, journalists for the Boston Globe, talking
about prape. She did on thirteen Creepy Places and this
just popped up as an aside. It wasn't on that list,
but pretty creepy indeed. Now let's take the rest of
the time talking about your other books and anything you're
working on now that you would like to plug.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Yeah, well, you know, I write the Globes Cold Case
Files series, and if anybody wants to sign up the
newsletter that about, you can do that online at Globe
dot com slash Cold Case Files.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
And don't you do it?
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Don't you do every once in a while the thing
here on night Side about the Cold case every other Thursday? Okay,
I do, yeah, yeah, would be fat, yeah, beautiful, yep. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
And you're very good on the radio, so I can
understand why that's a hit.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Yeah, I'm a huge fan of you guys and Nightside.
So and then you know, I have I have three
books out. Anybody is interested in checking them out. One's
called Boston Organized Crime, another is called Gangland to Boston,
and both of those kind of chronicle the history of
organized crime in the Boston area, going all the way.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Back, going all the way back into the twenties and thirties.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Yeah, yeah, and actually even before then too.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
So one thing that was pretty fun is that you,
Emily Sweeney, took me on a tour of some of
those some of the buildings, some of the addresses that
are in those books in the North End.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
There's one in the South End. And that was pretty cool.
I know that.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Yeah, it was cool.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
You don't have the time to do that, but that
kind of that kind of tour makes money for people.
Maybe you could, you could start up the organization and
hire somebody else to do the tour.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Okay, oh yeah, no, I would. I would love to.
I love, you know, going to historical places and showing
people that those things.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
All right, So, what are those books called? Where can
people get them?
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Yeah? So Boston Organized Crime, Gangland Boston and my dropkick
Murphy book our available wherever books are sold. Okay, you
can find them in Bond and Nobles everywhere.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
You must tell them more about the Dropkick Murphy's book,
because it's not what people think.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Yeah. So I wrote the first ever biography of Dropkick
Murphy and he is the guy who inspired the band's name.
Dropkick Murphy was a professional wrestler who started wrestling in
the nineteen thirties and the Great Depression. He put himself
through medical school, wrestling professionally at night, going to med
(36:05):
school in the day, became a doctor, kept wrestling, and
then he opened a rehab center, a detoc center for alcoholics,
and it's kind of like a Betty Ford clinic, you know,
of its time, you know, a pioneering one. And yeah,
(36:27):
and so he treated some thousands of you know, people
you know for alcoholism would go there and dry out,
and also professional athletes would go there and train because
he also had a state of the art gymnasium with
ring and even in the nineteen forties he was advertising
you know people, the general public. You know, I'm absolutely
(36:52):
about Soup the book. I was really happy because case
Care of the band.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
I believe was starting to lose your but we did
get we did get mostly in there. Just yeah, we
can't can't hear you anymore, started to go, it started
to get wonky.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
So we got we got what we.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Needed to get done done, So that's good. So uh,
drop kick Murphy had his place out in a kind
of like acting area. Right, Yeah, no, not really, but
luckily we're almost done anyway, and so uh we get
these books wherever, fine, wherever they sell books that you
(37:38):
go find find booksellers everywhere. So thank you so much
as always, and hope you keep in touch. I know
you got you're always working on something. And uh we
should go on another big long walk at some point.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
Yes, definitely, thank you for having men.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Of course, it's it's always a pleasure. He loves you,
all right. Thank you very much. Emily.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
I guess it's a good idea to that. You know
what's coming up next. This is a whole nightwoo. No, well,
actually Emily's a guest. Sorry, I take it back. I
was thinking for some reason, no guests, but that's because
there was none in the beginning. But Emily was a
guest and a great one to Jay, I was I
(38:27):
was thinking, you know, nobody's parents are perfect, and I
was thinking about things that I wish my parents had
told me. And it's good that I get a chance
to set this up because you can be thinking through
the break. There are certain things that I wish my
parents had taught me, and that I wish my teachers
had taught me, and they didn't. There's also certain things
(38:51):
that were forced upon me, as that with every kid
kind of wish they weren't. And in school too, there
were certain subjects forced upon me.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
That I never used.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
So tell me what do you wish your parents at
Tiger they didn't, or school they're Tiger they didn't, and
maybe stuff that they tired.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
You didn't need to know what's coming up.
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