November 17, 2025 • 29 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:32):
In southeastern Massachusetts,there's a 200 square mile triangle
where every paranormal phenomenayou've ever heard of has been documented.
Police reports of officers being attacked.
News reporters witnessing UFOs.
Video from 2024.
Bigfoot. Ghosts who know your name.
Ancient beings hunting in daylight.
(00:53):
This isn't folklore.
It's an active casefile spanning centuries.
I'm Carol Ann.
Welcome to the Bridgewater Triangle.
This Starbucks
starved ghost, captured by David Eatonearlier this year in Freetown,
(01:14):
Massachusetts, is just the startof the weirdness packed into this episode.
You name it,the Bridgewater Triangle has it.
Much like our sister videoon the Bennington Triangle,
the sheer variety of strange thingsgoing on in this area boggles the mind.
If you haven't seen that one yet,feel free to hit the link
(01:34):
in the descriptionwhen you're done with this one.
The Bridgewater Triangle is 200mi²,with Abington as the northern point,
Freetown as the southeastern point,and Rehoboth as the southwestern point.
This one seems to be a pretty messy
triangle, with two big hotspots.
(01:55):
The first of these is the Hockomock Swamp,
which is 17,000 acres of denselywooded, sludgy wetlands
that gets its name from an old Algonquinword meaning “place where spirits dwell.”
There is a multitude of graves in the areadating back thousands of years,
so it's not a big surprisethat this land has been sacred
(02:17):
to the local tribes for a long time.
The Bridgewater Trianglename comes from a renowned author
and cryptozoologist, Loren Coleman,who started investigating the area
in the late 70s, and made the titleofficial with the publication
of his 1983 book “Mysterious America.”
But obviously that's just the name.
(02:39):
The weird history of the area goes backfarther than anyone can remember,
And as we start going throughall of the weird encounters that run
the entire paranormal gamut from Bigfoot
to ghosts and from UFOs to the pukwudgie,
I want you to keep in mindone fundamental question.
Is it the individual energies
(03:00):
and memories of all of thesedisparate encounters with the unknown
that combined to collectivelymake this place a symphony of strangeness?
Or is it an energy older than time,
acting like a beacon, callingthe unexplainable events to its domain?
The experts don't have any better cluethan we do, but
(03:23):
all agree that something weird livesin that triangle.
So let's start at the beginningof the history that we know.
That is eitherthe first answer to the weird energy
siren song, or the first cause event
to start the energy chain reaction- King Philip's War.
(03:45):
Back in the 1670s,the local Wampanoag tribe is not getting
along with the English settlersthat make up the Plymouth Colony.
Long story short, a violent andvicious war between the two sides erupts
and goes on for almost three years,with the Wampanoag chief named Metacomet,
also known to the English as King Philip,at the helm for the natives.
(04:09):
Neither side is even close
to cornering the market on virtuein this fight.
And King Philip is eventually captured,drawn and quartered, and his head
put on a pikefor all to see for like 25 years.
And the war goes on for another two yearsafter King Philip is executed.
(04:29):
That horrific conflict is the reasonmany people believed that
the very ground under their feet,including places like Taunton,
Middleboro and Rehoboth,just to name a few, became cursed.
Whatever happened between the nativesand the English sure
has had a powerful influenceon what we see today.
On the northern tip of the Freetown
(04:51):
Fall River State Forest,the second of the two big triangle
hotspots, sitssomething called Profile Rock.
The Freetown Fall River State Forestis over 10,000 acres of dense forest,
which includes the city of Freetownin the southeast portion of the triangle.
Profile Rock was a 50fthigh rock formation that, from the side,
(05:14):
bore a striking resemblanceto a Native American.
Legend has it that during King Philip'sWar, colonists
stole a sacred wampumbelt from the Wampanoag.
It is believed that Profile Rockis where Philip returned the lost belt
to Anawan, top right handman to both King Philip and his father.
(05:36):
Unfortunately, in 2019, a huge
chunk of the face fell off, so it doesn'treally look like a profile anymore.
However, the strange sightingsthat used to happen in the area,
such as a ghostly figure of a man,believed to be Anawan,
sitting on the rock with his legscrossed and arms outstretched,
(05:56):
as well as the phantom flamesof a spectral campfire,
happened as much today as they didwhen the face was still intact.
Another famous rock just a couple of milesto the west called Dighton Rock.
It's not famousfor any kind of haunted lore,
as for just the absolute weirdness of it.
This huge 40 ton sandstoneboulder is covered with petroglyphs.
(06:21):
The funky thing is thatthe carvings are not in any known language
and seem to have markings from AmericanIndians,
the Portuguese, Viking runes,and even Phoenician symbols
all combined into one unreadable language.
I don't know, maybe it'sjust the world's first
tagging wall from each culturethat came through.
(06:43):
But the Phoenicians?
But moving on, just a couple of milessouth of that,
right on the westernedge of the forest, is the Assonet Ledge.
Also known as just The Ledge, it'sa rocky outcrop overlooking a large pond
known for people jumping off the edge90ft to their deaths in the water below.
(07:05):
Legend says the area is hauntedby the Lady of the Ledge,
the ghost of a Wampanoag princesswho leapt to her death
there, after colonist killed herwhite lover.
She appears as a spectral womanin white to lure hikers off the ledge.
Paranormal investigator Matthew Moniz
had his own encounter with the lady.
(07:27):
“And I saw this woman in whitestanding out on the prominence,
and I turned around to the peopleI was with to say, hey, we're not alone.
I turned around and she wasgone.” Sightings date back centuries,
with modern reports of cold spotsand whispers, and a high number of people
who report an overwhelming desire to jumpfrom the ledge when they're at the top.
(07:51):
Now, let's talk about thislore for a moment.
This is the hate part of my love/haterelationship.
The legend says it's hauntedby the ghost of an Indian princess.
But in reality, that ledgeand the pond below it was created
by 19th century granite quarryingfrom the Fall River Granite Company.
(08:12):
The Wampanoag princessstory is a total fabrication.
But with that being said, it doesn'tchange the fact that many people feel
that unnatural urge to jumpwhen they get too close to the edge.
Supposedly, in 2004,a man with no known mental
health issues, visiting from out of statewith his girlfriend,
(08:34):
suddenly jumps to his deathright in front of his girlfriend.
However, the lady of the ledgeis not the only regular apparition
to haunt this area, and this onecan't be debunked quite so easily.
Instead of a lady in white,this is a man in
red - as in red hair.
(08:54):
The ginger hitchhiker.
This redheaded specter is known to show upalong route 44,
usually along this stretch of roadbetween Rehoboth and Seekonk,
as a hitchhikerwearing denim and flannel like a farmer
or a lumberjack, with a thick head of redcurly hair and beard.
Sounds kind of cuddly in a way.
(09:15):
I tell you,you're looking at a mighty humble bumble.
But reports of his empty, soulless
eyes might convince you otherwise.
Sometimes he appears as just an imagein front of your windshield
as you're driving, or outside a sidewindow, like he's riding in a sidecar.
Witnesses say they've seen himwalking along the road,
(09:38):
sometimes with this thumb out for a ride,sometimes not.
If you do stop and he gets in your car,he'll always sit in the backseat.
Sometimes he'll chat,sometimes he doesn't.
But the ride always seems to endwith the ginger apparition
breaking out in a maniacal laughbefore vanishing from the car.
(09:58):
One witness said that after the hitchhikervanished from her car,
the music on the radio cut out,replaced by the phantom’s crazed laughter
pouring through her speakers, this timetaunting her by name.
The origins of this redheadedwraith are unknown,
with some people sayingthat he's a ghost of a motorcyclist
(10:19):
who was killed alongthe stretch of road decades ago.
But some seem to think he might be older,that he
the time loop of an areafarmer who lived centuries ago.
Whatever the case,
the residents of the trianglehave embraced him as one of their own.
Another avenue of weirdnessthat's kind of a given in the area
is the frequent UFO sightings.
(10:41):
One well-documented sightingoccurred in 1908, when two undertakers
are out with their horseand carriage on Halloween night,
when they see an unusually bright lanternin the night sky.
But the real UFO fun starts in the 1970s,with the spring of 1979 being
the craziest, with the highest numberof documented sightings in the area.
(11:05):
The most famous sighting is famousnot because of what they saw,
but because of who it is that saw it.
Two reporters from WHDH,
Jerry Lopes and SteveSbraccia, are on their way to the Raynham
Taunton dog trackwhen they see something bright in the sky.
Jerry pulls the car overand the two of them watch as a huge
(11:26):
object shapedlike a slightly elongated home plate
with lights on the front and on the sidesblots out the stars in the night sky.
Jerry's an Air Force veteran who'sbeen around a lot of different stuff,
but his first thought is, “That'snot one of ours.” The two men
watch it slowly move overhead until itfinally just takes off.
(11:48):
And they're not the only onesto have seen it.
Other witnesses call either policeor the media with descriptions
that match Jerry and Steve's to a tee.
Another witness, Derek Holt,actually managed to capture footage
of his multiple sightingsin March of 2011.
Of course, the footage is shakybecause they're so far away,
(12:11):
but the part that shows a brightlight in the sky with other smaller lights
zipping around it is pretty compelling.
I took a look at the sightings mapfrom the National UFO Reporting Center,
or NUFORC, and was really surprisedto see that the area of the triangle
doesn't really show any more reportsthan the rest of the surrounding area.
(12:35):
However, imagine my surpriseas I was looking at the details
of this little cluster in the Freetownforest to find this little gem.
This video from October 21st, 2024 comesfrom a woman who managed to get footage
of actual beings on the ground,
and this is the second timeshe's seen them.
(12:57):
And she has a witness with her in the car.
“Now pay attention.
Something is coming up right now.
It's about to pass the car.
And then it's tall, bright and. Okay.
And then you will see another one
look smallerright there. And it's passing.
It's running.” I know I wishthe video was better as well,
(13:18):
but you can definitely hearthe astonishment of the passenger
in the car as they passwhatever these things are.
But let's get back to moreterrestrial terrors.
The Bridgewater Triangleis host to just about
every type of nightmare fuelyou can think of.
Snakes as big around as stovepipes,
(13:40):
largecats, vicious dogs with glowing eyes.
Although these dogs seem to be differentthan your typical dogman encounter.
Curiously enough, I can't find any dogmanencounters in the area.
One creature we
don't hear about a whole lotin the shadow of Bigfoot and UFOs
(14:04):
is the Thunderbirdor any ginormous bird like creatures.
Well, not so in Bridgewater.
They are well representedin this triangle,
mostly around the Hockomock Swamp area.
In 1971, in Norton,which is the western edge of the swamp,
police Sergeant Thomas Downeyis passing through an area ironically
(14:27):
known as Bird Hill when he sees a birdlike creature standing over six feet tall
with an 8 to 12ft wingspan.
It starts to approach his car, but
stops and flystraight up into the air, out of sight.
He calls in his sightingand is joined by more officers,
who look around on the groundand find three toed footprints.
(14:51):
In 1987, a hiker on a dirttrail spots a flying creature
with a six foot wingspan,a wrinkled black face,
dark feathers, and danglingbrown legs, kind of pterodactyl like.
Doesn't sound all that huge, except
it looks like a pterodactyl.
And just a year later, in 1988,two boys track
(15:14):
giantthree toed footprints into the swamp,
which basically leads them rightto a massive
half man, half bird creature
that flies off as soon as it's spotted.
I don't think there isa single triangle out there
that doesn't have Bigfootinvolved somewhere.
Okay, maybe not the Bermuda Triangle.
(15:37):
For the Bridgewater Triangle,most of those sightings
also center around the HockomockSwamp area.
Not a surpriseconsidering the low number of visitors
it has, but as paranormal investigatorCarlton
Wood will tell you,winter is a different story.
In the winter of 1970,when he was just a kid,
(15:58):
he and some of the neighbor kidswould go out exploring the swamp areas
when they were frozen over, letting themwalk in as far as the ice would allow.
One afternoon,there's a few of them about a mile
do a mile and a half into the swamp,when someone screams, “There's
a huge, hairy man.” They all look up.
They all see the huge hairy man,
(16:20):
and they all run away as fast as they can.
Something large and hairy has madethat swamp its home.
Just a couple of months later,in the spring of 1970,
a bunch of calls came in to policeabout people seeing something seven feet
tall, hairy and sometimes bipedalsneaking around in their backyards.
(16:43):
Some of those people actuallycalled it a bear, because what else
are you going to call it without laughteron the other end of the phone?
So the police startedchecking out the area, looking for a bear.
On the night of April 8th, 1970,an officer is parked in his car
near the edge of the swamp, on bear watch,and something lifts
(17:05):
the back of his cruiserabout two feet off the ground,
before dropping it with a loud crash
that shakes the whole carand the officer inside.
Looking in the rearview mirror,all the officer can see is dark
fur lit up in red from the brakelights, filling the entire mirror.
(17:25):
The officer whips a u-ey,
flipping on his spotlight just in timeto catch a glimpse of a hulking,
shaggy figure, dark fur with broadshoulders, loping away on two legs
behind a nearby house,vanishing into the brush.
That little incident sparksa two day hunt by state and local police,
(17:46):
along with their dogsfor what they say is a bear.
However, in 1970
there were only about a hundred bearsin all of Massachusetts,
and they were all on the westernhalf of the state.
They hadn't been seen in the swamparea for over 100 years.
So I would think that if these peoplewho were calling in to report a bear
(18:09):
sighting, the last thing the authoritieswould want to do is shoot it.
Just in case you're still thinkingthe bear thing might be the more plausible
explanation, you might be interestedto know that during a screening
of the 2013 documentary “TheBridgewater Triangle,”
the movie's creator,Aaron Cadieux, was approached
(18:30):
by the daughter of the officerin the squad car lifted up by the Bigfoot.
She tells him, “That was my dad,
and that absolutely happened.”
But the swamp doesn't have all the fun.
According to the BFRO databaseof sightings, in June of 2013,
someone almost hit a Bigfootwith their car as it was crossing
(18:54):
the road outside of Hanson,on the northeastern edge of the triangle.
And in April of 2015, people in Lakeville,
which is directly north of the FreetownFall River State Forest,
who were investigatinga sighting there, found,
what they believedto be Sasquatch structures.
But it shouldn't be a surprise to anyonethat Bigfoot
(19:16):
is not the only creaturethat calls the triangle home.
In 1990, Bill Russo, who lives in Raynham,which is the south side of the Hockomock
Swamp, is out late walking his GermanShepherd/Rottweiler mix, Samantha.
And if her breed mix didn't alreadygive it away,
Sam is afraid of nothing.
(19:39):
Well, this particular night, Billand Sam are walking through this open
stretch of land where high tensionelectrical wire runs through.
When they come out to the next crossstreet, Sam starts to try and pull away.
That cross street has a street lightright where they came out
that lit the road with the circle of lightabout ten feet wide.
Bill looks down to see what the scoop iswith Sam and sees
(20:01):
Sam just shaking and cowering.
Not the Sam that he knows.
But then he hears what's makingSam freak out.
He hears a high pitched voice,almost like that of a child.
Ewanchoo,
Ewanchoo, Kia, Kia!
(20:22):
Ewanchoo!
Then into the pool of light walksthis little 3 or 4ft
tall being covered in brownfur around 3 or 4in long, with a -
as Billputs it - chipmunkey face and a potbelly.
The creature is beckoning to Bill, waving
with his hand like it wants Billto follow it, all the time,
(20:44):
repeating those same vocalizations,with a growing sense of insistence.
Ewanchoo, Ewanchoo, Kia, Kia!
Wow. Needless to say, Billdoes not follow this creature and instead
makes a beeline for home, with Samnot needing to be told twice.
(21:04):
Bill has a hard timefalling asleep that night,
continually replaying the encounterin his head over and over.
By morning, he comes to a realizationthat he believes to this day.
The gibberish the creature was vocalizingwasn't gibberish.
It was English.
Together with the beckoning handgestures, Bill is now convinced
(21:27):
it was telling him, we want you,we want you.
Come here, come here.
Even though he
initially referred to this little creatureas Littlefoot,
he now thinks what he sawthat night was a Pukwudgie.
Although, I gotta say,
I think I'm more inclined to believe thatwhat he saw was a Littlefoot.
(21:47):
Because, according to legend,Pukwudgies are nowhere near that cute.
And they hang out in the other
Bridgewater hotspot, the FreetownFall River State Forest.
Pukwudgies are typically about 2 to 3fttall,
gray skinned, hairy,and troll like with elongated noses,
fingers, and ears like a pintsized goblin.
(22:10):
They smell of decay and kind of look likea porcupine/human hybrid from behind.
They are masters of illusionand have the ability to shapeshift
and make most of their decisionsbased on spite and vengeance.
Oh, and when they do decideto have some fun, it seems their favorite
pastime is to either lureor push people off of cliffs.
(22:33):
How adorable!
According to more Algonquinlore, the Algonquin
and the Pukwudgies used to be buds,but they had a falling out somewhere
along the line.
Now the pukwudgie seesall humans as the enemy,
And it is said that very few peoplesurvive a pukwudgie encounter.
But obviously some people do becausethere are sightings happening to this day.
(22:58):
On a Saturday morningin April of 1995, Joan
and her dog Sidwere out for a walk in the state forest
and were just walking down the path,when Sid starts acting kind of
funny and wanders a few feet off the pathand into the forest.
After a couple of minutes,when Sid doesn't come back out,
Joan follows him in and stops on a dime.
(23:21):
There is Sid lying downon a pile of leaves,
and not ten feet in front of himis, what Joan describes as, a troll
looking being about two feet tall,sitting on a rock.
It has pale gray skin,hair on its head and arms,
and a big old belly covering its waist,hanging down almost to its knees.
(23:41):
All three of them are kind of in shock,and seeing each other.
Sid is actually the one who comesto his senses first and takes off
out of the woods,dragging Joan along with him.
Creepier still is the factthat Joan says that three times
in the ten years that follow,she wakes up to see this thing
(24:01):
staring at herthrough the windows of her house.
But the Freetown State Forest isn't
just known for its otherworldlyinhabitants.
Much of its infamy comes from events
of an all too worldly nature.
The forest,as well as the triangle as a whole, seems
(24:22):
to be the location of a disproportionatelyhigh number of crimes,
ranging from murder to apparent ongoingcult activity.
Rituals were conducted in the forestin the late 70s by members
of a Satanic cult, who were laterconvicted of murdering three prostitutes
from the Fall River area just southof the triangle’s southern border.
(24:44):
And if the name Fall River rings a bell,it should.
Fall River is the home of Lizzie Borden.
But even after the arrest of the cultmembers responsible
for the murders,the Satanic activity didn't stop.
In the late 80s, a rash of grave robberiestook place, with the perpetrators
digging up remains insome of the old cemeteries
(25:06):
locatedwithin the boundaries of the forest.
Sometimes just the heads were taken,sometimes the whole body.
In one case, some kids brokeinto a mausoleum in the Freetown Cemetery,
broke into a crypt,pulled the body out and stole the skull.
However, as they were driving away,the smell from
the skull was so bad, the kids pulled overand left the skull in a bush.
(25:31):
Obviously, they were caught.
When they're asked why they did it, somesaid they were just along for the ride.
A really warped sense of fun.
But at least one person believed he couldgain power by drinking from the skull.
But that's not even the worst of it.
Remains of apparent animal sacrificeswere routinely discovered
(25:53):
all the way from the 70s to the late 90s.
In 1999, the remains of 12 slaughtered
calves were discovered,all of them drained of their blood.
Thankfully, that kind of activity
seems to have dissipatedwith no new discoveries in recent years.
But it's not just cult activity.
(26:14):
The forest seems to attractcrimes of all kinds.
Take the murder of 15 year oldMary Lou Arruda.
In September of 1978,
Mary Lou was riding her bike in Raynham,
where she lived with her familywhen she was kidnaped,
taken to the forest,tied to a tree, and murdered.
Retired Lieutenant Detective Alan Alvez,
(26:36):
who spent decades of his law enforcementcareer in Freetown
investigating the cult activityin the forest, was actually
the first responder when her headless bodywas located in the forest
by some dirt bike riders two months later.
“That one really affected meand I was the first officer on the scene,
(26:57):
and I had to stay there and rope it offand wait for everybody else to show up.
So I was all alone in the, in the forestwith a dead body...” A 32 year old man
named James Kater was eventually arrestedand convicted of the murder.
Now, to be clear, Mary Lou's murderhad nothing to do with the cult activity
in the forest, but that forestjust seems to attract the worst of us.
(27:23):
Several either body dumps or actualmurders have taken place in those woods.
And it seems to be a popular placefor people to abandon their pets.
There are even reports of an emuhiding in there somewhere.
So back to our original question.
Is the bad area attracting the bad things
(27:45):
or are the badthings creating the bad vibe?
I don't
think we'll ever be ableto answer that question, but one thing I'm
sure of is that we haven't heard the last
from the Bridgewater Triangle.
Wow. Maybe this is the next placewe need to go explore.
(28:06):
There'sso much going on in this little space
that it seems likesomething would show its face.
Now, I know you guys seem to reallylike these triangle episodes,
so if that is the case, don't forget to gocheck out the Bennington
Triangle, the Alaska Triangle,and the Bermuda Triangle.
If you've been inspired by thislocal conglomeration of strangeness
(28:28):
and want to exploreanother anomalous area, click right here.
Be careful out there
and I will see youhere again on The InBetween.
In southeastern Massachusetts,there's a 200 square mile triangle
where every paranormal phenomenayou've ever heard of has been documented.
Police reports of officers being attacked.
News reporters witnessing UFOs.
Video from 2024.
Bigfoot. Ghosts who know your name.
Ancient beings hunting in daylight.
(00:53):
This isn't folklore.
It's an active casefile spanning centuries.
I'm Carol Ann.
Welcome to the Bridgewater Triangle.
This Starbucks
starved ghost, captured by David Eatonearlier this year in Freetown,
(01:14):
Massachusetts, is just the startof the weirdness packed into this episode.
You name it,the Bridgewater Triangle has it.
Much like our sister videoon the Bennington Triangle,
the sheer variety of strange thingsgoing on in this area boggles the mind.
If you haven't seen that one yet,feel free to hit the link
(01:34):
in the descriptionwhen you're done with this one.
The Bridgewater Triangle is 200mi²,with Abington as the northern point,
Freetown as the southeastern point,and Rehoboth as the southwestern point.
This one seems to be a pretty messy
triangle, with two big hotspots.
(01:55):
The first of these is the Hockomock Swamp,
which is 17,000 acres of denselywooded, sludgy wetlands
that gets its name from an old Algonquinword meaning “place where spirits dwell.”
There is a multitude of graves in the areadating back thousands of years,
so it's not a big surprisethat this land has been sacred
(02:17):
to the local tribes for a long time.
The Bridgewater Trianglename comes from a renowned author
and cryptozoologist, Loren Coleman,who started investigating the area
in the late 70s, and made the titleofficial with the publication
of his 1983 book “Mysterious America.”
But obviously that's just the name.
(02:39):
The weird history of the area goes backfarther than anyone can remember,
And as we start going throughall of the weird encounters that run
the entire paranormal gamut from Bigfoot
to ghosts and from UFOs to the pukwudgie,
I want you to keep in mindone fundamental question.
Is it the individual energies
(03:00):
and memories of all of thesedisparate encounters with the unknown
that combined to collectivelymake this place a symphony of strangeness?
Or is it an energy older than time,
acting like a beacon, callingthe unexplainable events to its domain?
The experts don't have any better cluethan we do, but
(03:23):
all agree that something weird livesin that triangle.
So let's start at the beginningof the history that we know.
That is eitherthe first answer to the weird energy
siren song, or the first cause event
to start the energy chain reaction- King Philip's War.
(03:45):
Back in the 1670s,the local Wampanoag tribe is not getting
along with the English settlersthat make up the Plymouth Colony.
Long story short, a violent andvicious war between the two sides erupts
and goes on for almost three years,with the Wampanoag chief named Metacomet,
also known to the English as King Philip,at the helm for the natives.
(04:09):
Neither side is even close
to cornering the market on virtuein this fight.
And King Philip is eventually captured,drawn and quartered, and his head
put on a pikefor all to see for like 25 years.
And the war goes on for another two yearsafter King Philip is executed.
(04:29):
That horrific conflict is the reasonmany people believed that
the very ground under their feet,including places like Taunton,
Middleboro and Rehoboth,just to name a few, became cursed.
Whatever happened between the nativesand the English sure
has had a powerful influenceon what we see today.
On the northern tip of the Freetown
(04:51):
Fall River State Forest,the second of the two big triangle
hotspots, sitssomething called Profile Rock.
The Freetown Fall River State Forestis over 10,000 acres of dense forest,
which includes the city of Freetownin the southeast portion of the triangle.
Profile Rock was a 50fthigh rock formation that, from the side,
(05:14):
bore a striking resemblanceto a Native American.
Legend has it that during King Philip'sWar, colonists
stole a sacred wampumbelt from the Wampanoag.
It is believed that Profile Rockis where Philip returned the lost belt
to Anawan, top right handman to both King Philip and his father.
(05:36):
Unfortunately, in 2019, a huge
chunk of the face fell off, so it doesn'treally look like a profile anymore.
However, the strange sightingsthat used to happen in the area,
such as a ghostly figure of a man,believed to be Anawan,
sitting on the rock with his legscrossed and arms outstretched,
(05:56):
as well as the phantom flamesof a spectral campfire,
happened as much today as they didwhen the face was still intact.
Another famous rock just a couple of milesto the west called Dighton Rock.
It's not famousfor any kind of haunted lore,
as for just the absolute weirdness of it.
This huge 40 ton sandstoneboulder is covered with petroglyphs.
(06:21):
The funky thing is thatthe carvings are not in any known language
and seem to have markings from AmericanIndians,
the Portuguese, Viking runes,and even Phoenician symbols
all combined into one unreadable language.
I don't know, maybe it'sjust the world's first
tagging wall from each culturethat came through.
(06:43):
But the Phoenicians?
But moving on, just a couple of milessouth of that,
right on the westernedge of the forest, is the Assonet Ledge.
Also known as just The Ledge, it'sa rocky outcrop overlooking a large pond
known for people jumping off the edge90ft to their deaths in the water below.
(07:05):
Legend says the area is hauntedby the Lady of the Ledge,
the ghost of a Wampanoag princesswho leapt to her death
there, after colonist killed herwhite lover.
She appears as a spectral womanin white to lure hikers off the ledge.
Paranormal investigator Matthew Moniz
had his own encounter with the lady.
(07:27):
“And I saw this woman in whitestanding out on the prominence,
and I turned around to the peopleI was with to say, hey, we're not alone.
I turned around and she wasgone.” Sightings date back centuries,
with modern reports of cold spotsand whispers, and a high number of people
who report an overwhelming desire to jumpfrom the ledge when they're at the top.
(07:51):
Now, let's talk about thislore for a moment.
This is the hate part of my love/haterelationship.
The legend says it's hauntedby the ghost of an Indian princess.
But in reality, that ledgeand the pond below it was created
by 19th century granite quarryingfrom the Fall River Granite Company.
(08:12):
The Wampanoag princessstory is a total fabrication.
But with that being said, it doesn'tchange the fact that many people feel
that unnatural urge to jumpwhen they get too close to the edge.
Supposedly, in 2004,a man with no known mental
health issues, visiting from out of statewith his girlfriend,
(08:34):
suddenly jumps to his deathright in front of his girlfriend.
However, the lady of the ledgeis not the only regular apparition
to haunt this area, and this onecan't be debunked quite so easily.
Instead of a lady in white,this is a man in
red - as in red hair.
(08:54):
The ginger hitchhiker.
This redheaded specter is known to show upalong route 44,
usually along this stretch of roadbetween Rehoboth and Seekonk,
as a hitchhikerwearing denim and flannel like a farmer
or a lumberjack, with a thick head of redcurly hair and beard.
Sounds kind of cuddly in a way.
(09:15):
I tell you,you're looking at a mighty humble bumble.
But reports of his empty, soulless
eyes might convince you otherwise.
Sometimes he appears as just an imagein front of your windshield
as you're driving, or outside a sidewindow, like he's riding in a sidecar.
Witnesses say they've seen himwalking along the road,
(09:38):
sometimes with this thumb out for a ride,sometimes not.
If you do stop and he gets in your car,he'll always sit in the backseat.
Sometimes he'll chat,sometimes he doesn't.
But the ride always seems to endwith the ginger apparition
breaking out in a maniacal laughbefore vanishing from the car.
(09:58):
One witness said that after the hitchhikervanished from her car,
the music on the radio cut out,replaced by the phantom’s crazed laughter
pouring through her speakers, this timetaunting her by name.
The origins of this redheadedwraith are unknown,
with some people sayingthat he's a ghost of a motorcyclist
(10:19):
who was killed alongthe stretch of road decades ago.
But some seem to think he might be older,that he
the time loop of an areafarmer who lived centuries ago.
Whatever the case,
the residents of the trianglehave embraced him as one of their own.
Another avenue of weirdnessthat's kind of a given in the area
is the frequent UFO sightings.
(10:41):
One well-documented sightingoccurred in 1908, when two undertakers
are out with their horseand carriage on Halloween night,
when they see an unusually bright lanternin the night sky.
But the real UFO fun starts in the 1970s,with the spring of 1979 being
the craziest, with the highest numberof documented sightings in the area.
(11:05):
The most famous sighting is famousnot because of what they saw,
but because of who it is that saw it.
Two reporters from WHDH,
Jerry Lopes and SteveSbraccia, are on their way to the Raynham
Taunton dog trackwhen they see something bright in the sky.
Jerry pulls the car overand the two of them watch as a huge
(11:26):
object shapedlike a slightly elongated home plate
with lights on the front and on the sidesblots out the stars in the night sky.
Jerry's an Air Force veteran who'sbeen around a lot of different stuff,
but his first thought is, “That'snot one of ours.” The two men
watch it slowly move overhead until itfinally just takes off.
(11:48):
And they're not the only onesto have seen it.
Other witnesses call either policeor the media with descriptions
that match Jerry and Steve's to a tee.
Another witness, Derek Holt,actually managed to capture footage
of his multiple sightingsin March of 2011.
Of course, the footage is shakybecause they're so far away,
(12:11):
but the part that shows a brightlight in the sky with other smaller lights
zipping around it is pretty compelling.
I took a look at the sightings mapfrom the National UFO Reporting Center,
or NUFORC, and was really surprisedto see that the area of the triangle
doesn't really show any more reportsthan the rest of the surrounding area.
(12:35):
However, imagine my surpriseas I was looking at the details
of this little cluster in the Freetownforest to find this little gem.
This video from October 21st, 2024 comesfrom a woman who managed to get footage
of actual beings on the ground,
and this is the second timeshe's seen them.
(12:57):
And she has a witness with her in the car.
“Now pay attention.
Something is coming up right now.
It's about to pass the car.
And then it's tall, bright and. Okay.
And then you will see another one
look smallerright there. And it's passing.
It's running.” I know I wishthe video was better as well,
(13:18):
but you can definitely hearthe astonishment of the passenger
in the car as they passwhatever these things are.
But let's get back to moreterrestrial terrors.
The Bridgewater Triangleis host to just about
every type of nightmare fuelyou can think of.
Snakes as big around as stovepipes,
(13:40):
largecats, vicious dogs with glowing eyes.
Although these dogs seem to be differentthan your typical dogman encounter.
Curiously enough, I can't find any dogmanencounters in the area.
One creature we
don't hear about a whole lotin the shadow of Bigfoot and UFOs
(14:04):
is the Thunderbirdor any ginormous bird like creatures.
Well, not so in Bridgewater.
They are well representedin this triangle,
mostly around the Hockomock Swamp area.
In 1971, in Norton,which is the western edge of the swamp,
police Sergeant Thomas Downeyis passing through an area ironically
(14:27):
known as Bird Hill when he sees a birdlike creature standing over six feet tall
with an 8 to 12ft wingspan.
It starts to approach his car, but
stops and flystraight up into the air, out of sight.
He calls in his sightingand is joined by more officers,
who look around on the groundand find three toed footprints.
(14:51):
In 1987, a hiker on a dirttrail spots a flying creature
with a six foot wingspan,a wrinkled black face,
dark feathers, and danglingbrown legs, kind of pterodactyl like.
Doesn't sound all that huge, except
it looks like a pterodactyl.
And just a year later, in 1988,two boys track
(15:14):
giantthree toed footprints into the swamp,
which basically leads them rightto a massive
half man, half bird creature
that flies off as soon as it's spotted.
I don't think there isa single triangle out there
that doesn't have Bigfootinvolved somewhere.
Okay, maybe not the Bermuda Triangle.
(15:37):
For the Bridgewater Triangle,most of those sightings
also center around the HockomockSwamp area.
Not a surpriseconsidering the low number of visitors
it has, but as paranormal investigatorCarlton
Wood will tell you,winter is a different story.
In the winter of 1970,when he was just a kid,
(15:58):
he and some of the neighbor kidswould go out exploring the swamp areas
when they were frozen over, letting themwalk in as far as the ice would allow.
One afternoon,there's a few of them about a mile
do a mile and a half into the swamp,when someone screams, “There's
a huge, hairy man.” They all look up.
They all see the huge hairy man,
(16:20):
and they all run away as fast as they can.
Something large and hairy has madethat swamp its home.
Just a couple of months later,in the spring of 1970,
a bunch of calls came in to policeabout people seeing something seven feet
tall, hairy and sometimes bipedalsneaking around in their backyards.
(16:43):
Some of those people actuallycalled it a bear, because what else
are you going to call it without laughteron the other end of the phone?
So the police startedchecking out the area, looking for a bear.
On the night of April 8th, 1970,an officer is parked in his car
near the edge of the swamp, on bear watch,and something lifts
(17:05):
the back of his cruiserabout two feet off the ground,
before dropping it with a loud crash
that shakes the whole carand the officer inside.
Looking in the rearview mirror,all the officer can see is dark
fur lit up in red from the brakelights, filling the entire mirror.
(17:25):
The officer whips a u-ey,
flipping on his spotlight just in timeto catch a glimpse of a hulking,
shaggy figure, dark fur with broadshoulders, loping away on two legs
behind a nearby house,vanishing into the brush.
That little incident sparksa two day hunt by state and local police,
(17:46):
along with their dogsfor what they say is a bear.
However, in 1970
there were only about a hundred bearsin all of Massachusetts,
and they were all on the westernhalf of the state.
They hadn't been seen in the swamparea for over 100 years.
So I would think that if these peoplewho were calling in to report a bear
(18:09):
sighting, the last thing the authoritieswould want to do is shoot it.
Just in case you're still thinkingthe bear thing might be the more plausible
explanation, you might be interestedto know that during a screening
of the 2013 documentary “TheBridgewater Triangle,”
the movie's creator,Aaron Cadieux, was approached
(18:30):
by the daughter of the officerin the squad car lifted up by the Bigfoot.
She tells him, “That was my dad,
and that absolutely happened.”
But the swamp doesn't have all the fun.
According to the BFRO databaseof sightings, in June of 2013,
someone almost hit a Bigfootwith their car as it was crossing
(18:54):
the road outside of Hanson,on the northeastern edge of the triangle.
And in April of 2015, people in Lakeville,
which is directly north of the FreetownFall River State Forest,
who were investigatinga sighting there, found,
what they believedto be Sasquatch structures.
But it shouldn't be a surprise to anyonethat Bigfoot
(19:16):
is not the only creaturethat calls the triangle home.
In 1990, Bill Russo, who lives in Raynham,which is the south side of the Hockomock
Swamp, is out late walking his GermanShepherd/Rottweiler mix, Samantha.
And if her breed mix didn't alreadygive it away,
Sam is afraid of nothing.
(19:39):
Well, this particular night, Billand Sam are walking through this open
stretch of land where high tensionelectrical wire runs through.
When they come out to the next crossstreet, Sam starts to try and pull away.
That cross street has a street lightright where they came out
that lit the road with the circle of lightabout ten feet wide.
Bill looks down to see what the scoop iswith Sam and sees
(20:01):
Sam just shaking and cowering.
Not the Sam that he knows.
But then he hears what's makingSam freak out.
He hears a high pitched voice,almost like that of a child.
Ewanchoo,
Ewanchoo, Kia, Kia!
(20:22):
Ewanchoo!
Then into the pool of light walksthis little 3 or 4ft
tall being covered in brownfur around 3 or 4in long, with a -
as Billputs it - chipmunkey face and a potbelly.
The creature is beckoning to Bill, waving
with his hand like it wants Billto follow it, all the time,
(20:44):
repeating those same vocalizations,with a growing sense of insistence.
Ewanchoo, Ewanchoo, Kia, Kia!
Wow. Needless to say, Billdoes not follow this creature and instead
makes a beeline for home, with Samnot needing to be told twice.
(21:04):
Bill has a hard timefalling asleep that night,
continually replaying the encounterin his head over and over.
By morning, he comes to a realizationthat he believes to this day.
The gibberish the creature was vocalizingwasn't gibberish.
It was English.
Together with the beckoning handgestures, Bill is now convinced
(21:27):
it was telling him, we want you,we want you.
Come here, come here.
Even though he
initially referred to this little creatureas Littlefoot,
he now thinks what he sawthat night was a Pukwudgie.
Although, I gotta say,
I think I'm more inclined to believe thatwhat he saw was a Littlefoot.
(21:47):
Because, according to legend,Pukwudgies are nowhere near that cute.
And they hang out in the other
Bridgewater hotspot, the FreetownFall River State Forest.
Pukwudgies are typically about 2 to 3fttall,
gray skinned, hairy,and troll like with elongated noses,
fingers, and ears like a pintsized goblin.
(22:10):
They smell of decay and kind of look likea porcupine/human hybrid from behind.
They are masters of illusionand have the ability to shapeshift
and make most of their decisionsbased on spite and vengeance.
Oh, and when they do decideto have some fun, it seems their favorite
pastime is to either lureor push people off of cliffs.
(22:33):
How adorable!
According to more Algonquinlore, the Algonquin
and the Pukwudgies used to be buds,but they had a falling out somewhere
along the line.
Now the pukwudgie seesall humans as the enemy,
And it is said that very few peoplesurvive a pukwudgie encounter.
But obviously some people do becausethere are sightings happening to this day.
(22:58):
On a Saturday morningin April of 1995, Joan
and her dog Sidwere out for a walk in the state forest
and were just walking down the path,when Sid starts acting kind of
funny and wanders a few feet off the pathand into the forest.
After a couple of minutes,when Sid doesn't come back out,
Joan follows him in and stops on a dime.
(23:21):
There is Sid lying downon a pile of leaves,
and not ten feet in front of himis, what Joan describes as, a troll
looking being about two feet tall,sitting on a rock.
It has pale gray skin,hair on its head and arms,
and a big old belly covering its waist,hanging down almost to its knees.
(23:41):
All three of them are kind of in shock,and seeing each other.
Sid is actually the one who comesto his senses first and takes off
out of the woods,dragging Joan along with him.
Creepier still is the factthat Joan says that three times
in the ten years that follow,she wakes up to see this thing
(24:01):
staring at herthrough the windows of her house.
But the Freetown State Forest isn't
just known for its otherworldlyinhabitants.
Much of its infamy comes from events
of an all too worldly nature.
The forest,as well as the triangle as a whole, seems
(24:22):
to be the location of a disproportionatelyhigh number of crimes,
ranging from murder to apparent ongoingcult activity.
Rituals were conducted in the forestin the late 70s by members
of a Satanic cult, who were laterconvicted of murdering three prostitutes
from the Fall River area just southof the triangle’s southern border.
(24:44):
And if the name Fall River rings a bell,it should.
Fall River is the home of Lizzie Borden.
But even after the arrest of the cultmembers responsible
for the murders,the Satanic activity didn't stop.
In the late 80s, a rash of grave robberiestook place, with the perpetrators
digging up remains insome of the old cemeteries
(25:06):
locatedwithin the boundaries of the forest.
Sometimes just the heads were taken,sometimes the whole body.
In one case, some kids brokeinto a mausoleum in the Freetown Cemetery,
broke into a crypt,pulled the body out and stole the skull.
However, as they were driving away,the smell from
the skull was so bad, the kids pulled overand left the skull in a bush.
(25:31):
Obviously, they were caught.
When they're asked why they did it, somesaid they were just along for the ride.
A really warped sense of fun.
But at least one person believed he couldgain power by drinking from the skull.
But that's not even the worst of it.
Remains of apparent animal sacrificeswere routinely discovered
(25:53):
all the way from the 70s to the late 90s.
In 1999, the remains of 12 slaughtered
calves were discovered,all of them drained of their blood.
Thankfully, that kind of activity
seems to have dissipatedwith no new discoveries in recent years.
But it's not just cult activity.
(26:14):
The forest seems to attractcrimes of all kinds.
Take the murder of 15 year oldMary Lou Arruda.
In September of 1978,
Mary Lou was riding her bike in Raynham,
where she lived with her familywhen she was kidnaped,
taken to the forest,tied to a tree, and murdered.
Retired Lieutenant Detective Alan Alvez,
(26:36):
who spent decades of his law enforcementcareer in Freetown
investigating the cult activityin the forest, was actually
the first responder when her headless bodywas located in the forest
by some dirt bike riders two months later.
“That one really affected meand I was the first officer on the scene,
(26:57):
and I had to stay there and rope it offand wait for everybody else to show up.
So I was all alone in the, in the forestwith a dead body...” A 32 year old man
named James Kater was eventually arrestedand convicted of the murder.
Now, to be clear, Mary Lou's murderhad nothing to do with the cult activity
in the forest, but that forestjust seems to attract the worst of us.
(27:23):
Several either body dumps or actualmurders have taken place in those woods.
And it seems to be a popular placefor people to abandon their pets.
There are even reports of an emuhiding in there somewhere.
So back to our original question.
Is the bad area attracting the bad things
(27:45):
or are the badthings creating the bad vibe?
I don't
think we'll ever be ableto answer that question, but one thing I'm
sure of is that we haven't heard the last
from the Bridgewater Triangle.
Wow. Maybe this is the next placewe need to go explore.
(28:06):
There'sso much going on in this little space
that it seems likesomething would show its face.
Now, I know you guys seem to reallylike these triangle episodes,
so if that is the case, don't forget to gocheck out the Bennington
Triangle, the Alaska Triangle,and the Bermuda Triangle.
If you've been inspired by thislocal conglomeration of strangeness
(28:28):
and want to exploreanother anomalous area, click right here.
Be careful out there
and I will see youhere again on The InBetween.
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