Ghosts of the SouthCoast (11 page)

The descendents of Massasoit are buried in the Royal Wampanoag Cemetery in Lakeville.

Most of the graves are simple Wampanoag markers that descendents of the tribe still decorate and care for today. There are only a few graves with actual markers, including the grave of Lydia Tuspaquin (as the Tispaquin name was sometimes spelled), the last person buried in the cemetery back in 1812.

The most commonly reported phenomena here are phantom lights that dart about the graves. But a few travelers down Route 105 have also reported seeing a Wampanoag in traditional garb walking forlornly down the road, vanishing when he gets within site of the cemetery.

An example of an Indian grave at the Royal Wampanoag Cemetery.

A simple but effective crossing of faiths.

Paranormal investigators have also captured EVPs at the burial ground containing what sounds like Wampanoag words, although no translations could be found.

Simply put, the level of paranormal activity that occurs within the borders of the Freetown State Forest is astounding. It was enough for Balzano to write an entire book on the topic, called
Dark Woods: Cults, Crime and the Paranormal in the Freetown State Forest.
The title says it all.

In Balzano's expanded definition of the Bridgewater Triangle, the center of the vortex is not the Hockomock Swamp, but rather the nearly fifty-five hundred acres that comprise what is formally known as the Freetown–Fall River State Forest. Every type of paranormal activity imaginable has been reported there, from ghosts to UFOs to Bigfoot sightings. Balzano has even tracked stories about zombies, a witch who lives in the woods and haunts the dreams of young boys and, of course, the elusive Pukwudgies.

Yet as scary as the paranormal might be in the Freetown State Forest, what man has done there is far more heinous.

Because of its proximity to two cities and three major highways, the Freetown State Forest is used as both playground and dumping ground for the criminally minded.

In November 1978, fifteen-year-old Mary Lou Arruda was kidnapped and murdered, her body found tied to a tree in the Freetown State Forest. The main suspect was thirty-two-year-old James Kater, who was tried and convicted in 1979, but it took three subsequent retrials to make the verdict stick.

Part of the reason why doubt remained about Kater's guilt had to do with the high level of cult activity that takes place in the forest. While mutilated animals, altars, disfigured dolls and other such disturbing things had been found in the forest over the years, the cults remained mostly benign until the late 1970s and early 1980s.

That's when Carl Drew, a pimp working in the nearby city of Fall River, allegedly murdered several of his prostitutes and dumped their bodies in the forest. According to witnesses, Drew kept the women addicted to drugs and eventually lured them to his shack in the forest, where they would become human sacrifices for his cult. The case remains controversial to this day.

There have been other murders and attacks within the forest as well, and not all of it is cult related. In recent years, drug addicts have been a problem as well, using the isolation of the forest to ride out their high in peace. A Wampanoag ceremonial camp and cultural center was the victim of arson in 2009.

It's a chicken-and-the-egg argument when trying to figure out whether these dark events are influencing the paranormal aspects of the forest, or vice versa. But make no mistake, the negative energy there is extremely high and concentrated throughout its fifteen square miles.

The Assonet Ledge is one of the forest's most haunted spots. The predominant tale involves the Lady of the Ledge, who is said to be a Wampanoag princess who threw herself from atop the ledge when her father would not allow her to marry the white man she loved. That story, however, seems to be a modern concoction from those who don't know the history of the site. Although there may be spirits there that predate it, the ledge was part of a quarry that was operational in the early 1900s and provided much of the granite that was used to construct buildings in Fall River and even for work on some of the famed mansions in Newport, Rhode Island. What's interesting is that a number of the structures that have used this granite have hauntings attached to them as well.

The Assonet Ledge in the Freetown State Forest, where legends run as deep as the waters.

Still, numerous reports of the lady have filtered in over the years, including a sighting by
Spooky Southcoast
's Matt Moniz during his early adulthood. While out researching a flap of UFO sightings in the area of the ledge, he walked out from the road to the top of it and saw a woman in white standing near the edge. He turned to tell his companions about it, and when he turned around, she was gone.

Thinking she had jumped, he rushed to the edge but saw nothing in the water below. When recounting the incident to locals, they informed him he had seen the Lady of the Ledge. Prior to that, he had never heard of the legend.

According to Balzano's research, there have been at least eighteen confirmed suicides from the top of the ledge, as well as numerous others who have reported feeling suicidal with a strong desire to jump when at the top. There are also reports of ghostly figures plummeting from the top of it as well.

Mysterious lights have also been seen rising from the depths of the water below, yet unable to break the surface of it. There is speculation that these may be some type of alien craft—what's known as a USO, or unidentified submerged object—or they could be a form of the Pukwudgies of Wampanoag mythology.

Another site closely associated with the tribe is Profile Rock, which is formally known as Joshua's Mountain. The Wampanoags believed the natural formation jutting out of the side of the fifty-foot mound of granite resembled the face of Massasoit, and they revered the site. In subsequent years, however, it was privately owned until it was sold to the commonwealth and made into a state park in the early 1900s.

It is said that, from the top of Profile Rock, Wampanoag warriors could send smoke signals to Metacom back on his rocky “throne” on Mount Hope in Bristol, Rhode Island. Those same warriors are still reported atop the rock today, even in the daylight hours, and those traveling about the area often glimpse smoke coming from its quartz-covered peak.

It is also a reported hotbed for Bigfoot sightings as well, being the outermost portion of the Freetown State Forest before reaching the civilization of Assonet.

A 1963 image of Profile Rock clearly shows the face of Massasoit before erosion and graffiti took its toll.
Courtesy of Frank Wing.

The forest itself is bisected by Copicut Road, which has its own ghostly legend, albeit one that is more story than substance. As the story goes, when driving down the road late at night, you'll see headlights in your rearview mirror and hear the blaring of a truck's air horn as the swerving vehicle tries to pass you. Once you finally do find a safe spot to pull over and let him pass, the truck vanishes.

The Mad Trucker of Copicut Road, as he's come to be known, is actually reported by very few people, yet the legend continues to grow. In what's
become known as “legend tripping” (as featured in Jeff Belanger's books
Picture Yourself Legend Tripping
and
Weird Massachusetts
), sometimes it's more about the possibility of what might happen on a desolate dirt road than what actually does.

Not far from the Freetown State Forest, in nearby Berkley, is Dighton Rock State Park. It is the site where a forty-ton boulder was discovered in colonial times, covered in strange writing and symbols that has yet to be determined. Some have speculated that it is an unknown Indian language, while others have deemed to it be of Norse or Portuguese origins. A few have even suggested that Phoenicians or Egyptians visited the area well before Christopher Columbus discovered the New World.

One of the legends of Assonet that has gained legs in the paranormal community is that of the Old Village House. Whenever paranormal investigators come to this area and conduct online research of what they should check out, the story that always pops up about the Old Village House and how it is the site of one of Assonet's most heinous crimes.

As the story goes, it was in the early days of the town's existence, and the town's first selectman lived in the house with his family. He became angry with his teenage daughter for some reason, and a scuffle ensued in her second-story bedroom. The selectman inadvertently pushed his daughter out the bedroom window and she died when she struck the ground. In the years following her murder, her spirit has come to haunt the Old Village House, walking up and down its staircase with heavy footsteps, slamming doors closed and leaving scratch marks on the window of her bedroom.

It's a great story, and one that would certainly make an interesting investigation—if it existed.

The house in question may be what was known as the Old Homestead, which at one time was the oldest house in Assonet. There is no record, however, of any selectman pushing his daughter out a window. Believers of the tale will point out that in those days, such a story would be kept quiet for posterity, but you should be wary of this one.