Happy Halloween from Strange Maine!

Photo by Michelle Y. Souliere

Hi everyone! I hope you are enjoying Halloween week in spite of the blustery weather. It really feels like October now! This past week I spoke with Courtney Lanning of WCSH, and the results appear in a fun article about all things spooky, alongside Loren Coleman and Jamie Kingman-Rice from the Maine Historical Society, so I'm in great company. 

 You can read the article here: https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/community/spooky-maine-stories-to-know-in-time-for-halloween-bigfoot-mythology-folklore-scary/97-42bd9339-3b17-405d-869e-19230b09b49e

I'm also excited to announce that there's a new Lewiston-based podcast, The Dirty Lew Podcast, which is available on YouTube.  Duke, the host, interviewed me a few months ago, and now the episode is live to kick off their Halloween season, so... have fun listening to it, and do check out their other episodes.  They're trying to make something awesome happen right where they are, and they're doing a great job!

You can check out the episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCg4JvSy9w8 

Happy Halloween everyone!!!  🎃

Halloween 2013: Round #1!

WHAT: The Ghosts of Smuttynose, haunted-house-style performance
WHEN: Friday, October 18, 2013 from 5:30-8:00pm
WHERE: Jeffereds Tavern, Museums of Olde York, 3 Lindsay Road, York, ME
COST: $5 per person
FMI: Call (207)363-1040 or visit http://www.oldyork.org

York Parks and Recreation present "The Ghosts of Smuttynose," featuring witches, a haunted schoolhouse, folklore and the infamous Smuttynose murders!

Returning for a second year "The Ghosts of Smuttynose" has added new thrills and an expanded site to thrill and scare people of all ages. The haunted-house style performance of Maine's most famous murder will return in Jefferds Tavern alongside an expanded site that includes a haunted schoolhouse, scary true stories told in the town cemetery, a smoking witches cauldron complete with hags of yore and ghost stories, ghouls, folklore and the truth behind some of the witch's secrets.

Presented by the York Park and Recreation Department in conjunction with the Museums of Olde York, this event will kick off the haunting season in grand style.

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WHAT: Tales of Terror at Victoria Mansion!
WHEN: Friday, October 18, 2013 - two shows: 6:00pm and 8:00pm (both for teens and adults), and Saturday, October 19 at 6:00pm (for kids 10 & under) & 8:00pm (teens and adults).
WHERE: Victoria Mansion, 109 Danforth Street, Portland, Maine
COST: Adults $22, Museum Members $15, 17 years old & younger $10. Please purchase tickets at link below:
FMI: http://victoriamansion.org/events_rentals/events.aspx or call (207)772-4841

Storyteller Lynne Cullen will tell two unsettling stories by two great writers of Victorian horror fiction: 'The Cask of Amontillado' by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) and 'The Judge's House' by Bram Stoker (1847-1912). To link the tales, she will play haunting airs on the concertina. This is Lynne's seventh 'Tales of Terror' at Victoria Mansion.
Having been thoroughly horrified, visitors can then take a self-guided tour of the Mansion, with lights dimmed to gaslight levels. Ghostly guides will materialize to answer any questions about the house.

Space is limited. Reserving your ticket is strongly recommended (by calling phone number or via link given above).

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WHAT: "Nightmares," an evening of terrifying tales
WHEN: Monday, October 21, 7:00-9:00pm
WHERE: Bull Feeney's Irish Pub & Restaurant, 375 Fore Street, Portland, Maine
FMI: www.lynnecullen.com

To celebrate Halloween, Seanachie Nights regulars (Lynne Cullen and Kurt Kish) and three storytellers from MOOSE (Maine Organization of Storytelling Enthusiasts: Jean Armstrong, Susan Dries, and Bill Hinderer) bring you frightening tales of the supernatural from around the world.

Bill Hinderer is a father, husband, professional cook, veteran, and storyteller who was raised in a family full of tales. He also tells stories based on his experiences in the Vietnam War.

Jean Armstrong is a speech pathologist, storyteller, and founding member of MOOSE, who knows a lot of spooky folktales. For more information, please visit www.jeanarmstrong.com

Susan Dries has been telling ghost stories for over 30 years. Her dry wit and laconic style make the unbelievable believable.

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If you don't want to drive to Massachusetts or New Hampshire for a haunt attraction, Maine has its own haunts that will scare your socks off!

WHAT: Destination Haunt outdoor haunt attraction
WHEN: Evenings, Thursday-Sunday, through Nov. 2nd, 2013
WHERE: 249 Lord Rd, Lebanon, Maine
COST: Varies. See http://www.destinationhaunt.com/pricing.htm
FMI: (207)351-5171 or email destinationhaunt[at]gmail.com or visit http://www.destinationhaunt.com/

4 Attractions In One!!!

1) Twilight Trail
2) Buried Alive Cemetery
3) Execution Center
4) Lebanon Laboratory

If we told you more, you'd be too scared to go. :D

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WHAT: Fright at the Fort!
WHEN: October 19th & 20th and 26th & 27th, (Fridays and Saturdays), 5:30 to 9:00pm,
NOTE: THIS EVENT ENDS AT 9:00 EACH NIGHT, PLEASE ARRIVE NO LATER THAN 8:30 P.M.
WHERE: 711 Fort Knox Road, Prospect, ME
COST: $10 per person
FMI: (207)469-6553

Visitors are led through the dark passageways of Fort Knox where indescribable things lurk in the shadows, creating screams of fright.

October 18th, Crew Night (begins at 5:30 PM), groups of four or more will receive a free pumpkin (while they last). Be the first this century to experience the black plague!

On October 19th, Ghostport activities will be going on all day across the river in Bucksport. A radio simulcast fireworks display (rain date 10/26) can be viewed from Bucksport at 9:30pm. The display will be sponsored by the Friends of Fort Knox, Atlas Fireworks and radio station WKIT. WKIT will be broadcasting and Atlas will be timing the fireworks to music. Top off the evening with a showing of American Werewolf in London at Bucksport's Alamo Theatre at 10:00pm.

October 25th, Beat the last night crowds night...

October 26th, Come in costume and get a jump on Halloween. Random prizes will be awarded...for no better reason than...we like your outfit!!

The event takes place, rain or shine! Proceeds from Fright support Friends of Fort Knox preservation efforts.

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WHAT: The Gauntlet Haunted Night Ride
WHEN: 7:00-11:00pm Fridays and Saturdays through October 2013, plus Thurs 10/31 -- Halloween Night!!!
WHERE: Rte. 26, 125 Pigeon Hill Rd, Mechanic Falls, ME
COST: $15 per person
FMI: http://www.harvesthillfarms.com/Gauntlet.html or call (207)998-3259

If you are fortunate enough to survive the new twists and turns of the Gauntlet, don't be looking forward to end the Nightride with a well lit walk back to the safety of the farm...not a chance...just when you think its over..it's not. The end of the ride is the beginning of the next nightmare as you find yourself abandoned in the dark of the night and have to find your way through THE HAUNTED NIGHT MAZE!

Don't confuse the Haunted Night Maze with our Big Corn Maze Adventure...they are two separate and definitely not equal mazes. One is for fun and adventure and one is for gut wrenching fear.

If your looking for an evening of haunting fun and adventure,then reserve your spot any Friday or Saturday night through the end of October online at www.harvesthillfarms.com and click on the ticket icon on our Gauntlet web page. May the spirits be with you!

Children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult.

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WHAT: 7th Annual Haunting at ParSem! "A Grim Night at Par Sem"
WHEN: Fridays and Saturdays, Oct 18-19th, & Oct 25-26th 6:30-9:30pm
WHERE: Parsonsfield Seminary, 504 North Road, Parsonsfield, ME
COST: $10 per person, 12 years old & under $5.00 each
FMI: (603)539-7910 or (603)539-5233 or (207)793-8825 http://www.parsonsfieldseminary.org/

Visit and partake in our version of Grimm's Fairy Tales, Aesops's Fables, and Mother Goose's Evening School in our 42-room building and historic campus! The only question is -- are the haunters actors, or are they... the usual unearthly evening residents of the campus...? You'll have to decide for yourself!

EVENT: Radio Horror on Halloween!

Longtime readers of the blog may remember in past years mention has been made of the excellent Halloween radio drama specials done by the local group at FinalRune Productions, featured at Radio Drama Revival's website. This year brings fresh fodder from their imaginations!!!

They've been running special spooky stuff all month, but on Halloween night the new masterpiece of modern sci-fi suspense known as The Cleansed is going to air for the first time. To see some great action photos of all the crazy location segments they recorded over the last little while in prep for the show, check out their website: http://www.finalrune.com/this-halloween-tune-into-the-cleansed/

It's going out at 7pm EST at WKIT in Bangor and then again 9pm on WMPG here in Portland. The story is one that has run through the minds of Americans a lot in the last few years...

Some time in the not so distant future, the world as we know it is starting to unravel. The United States is mired in unwinnable wars, gas is scarce and the transportation system grinds to a halt. Homegrown terrorists take out the electric grid. Food is strictly rationed and distributed by the military. As citizens grow increasingly angry with the government, martial law is called in to maintain peace.

And then things really start to get bad.

You can listen to the promo here: http://finalrune.com/mp3/cleansed-halloween-promo.mp3

And a 5 minute sample here: http://finalrune.com/mp3/cleansed-sample.mp3

This Halloween! Tune into THE CLEANSED

FinalRune's newest piece of work, the pilot episode of our new sci-fi serial The Cleansed, will be debuting on Sunday, October 31st - that's Halloween, my friends!

How to Hear:

* 7:00PM EST on WKIT 100.3 "The Rock" of Bangor - Stephen King's radio station! Hit "Listen Now" on http://zoneradio.com/wkit/index.shtml
* 7:00PM EST on Transcontinental Terror, the international audio festival featuring 6 hours of original horror programming for Halloween. Streams online: http://transcontinentalterror.com/
* 9:00PM EST on WMPG, Greater Portland Maine's Community Radio: http://wmpg.org/ Links to "Listen to WMPG" on the right
* Miss these dates? Stay tuned for a live stream to be embedded on the Radio Drama Revival site.

There will NOT be a free podcast version of this show due to licensing restrictions of music used in it. So be sure to tune in when you can!

Happy Halloween !

A photo for the season, from the Archives !
This was taken by a Portland Press-Herald photographer in 1939.

The long arms of the law were strong enough to bag 'dem bones!

EVENT: Live Halloween Radio Horror!

Well, in the midst of getting ready for the opening of my bookstore, The Green Hand, it has also been brought to my attention that this is that most wonderful time of the year -- the Halloween season! With this comes a veritable flood of delectable events to tempt you with. One of these comes with my highest recommendation -- the live on-air performance of spooky stories by FinalRune Productions!

Fred Greenhalgh writes, "As you can imagine, I've been furiously trying to prepare for the Halloween show, collecting a ghastly array of sound effects gear from squishy balls to honking horns and boiling mounds of spaghetti to simulate the sound of gnawing on brains. It's going to be a ghoulishly awesome night!"

By gum and by golly, you better believe it! The past Halloween productions by FinalRune have been well worth the listen, but this year brings a new crop of tales including one by our friend, Lewiston horror writer and crime reporter Mark LaFlamme, and a host of other dainties with which to shiver your pretty little spines.

This Halloween, FinalRune Productions teams up with WMPG and members from the Mad Horse Theater Company for a live spooktravanganza at the University of Southern Maine, benefiting the WMPG PowerUp! campaign.

This event is rare in that it will be performed live, in front of an audience, as it is being broadcast on October, 31, 2009 from 7:00 to 9:00PM. (Buy tickets to the event here: www.finalrune.com/live-halloween-show-2009)

The 2-hr live radio event will feature original work from writers Fred Greenhalgh, Mark LaFlamme, Kevin Anderson, and Roger Gregg.

Stories Include:

The Ghost Behind the Black Door by Roger Gregg
A couple from the city moves to a mansion in the countryside only to find that things are not all as they expect... a spoof on the classic horror meme.

Leaving You is Hell by Fred Greenhalgh
A dark retelling of the myth of Orpheus inspired by the classic jazz tune "St James Infirmary." A man in New Orleans is doomed to keep falling in love with the same woman and seducing her to her death.

Bone Lake by Mark LaFlamme
The ice fishing is going well on Bone Lake, until a man comes from the winter's night looking for a very strange catch.

Third Shift by Kevin Anderson
A company will sell you very efficient workers at a bargain price. Just don't send the living to check out their work.

You can also tune in from anywhere around the world. The show will be broadcast locally on 90.9/104.1 FM in Greater Portland, Maine, and streamed online -- just click here to listen along: www.wmpg.org.

There's also a Facebook Event page for this show.

And if you REALLY can't make it out, you'll be able to hear it podcast on Radio Drama Revival.

Can't wait until then?? Whet your appetite with some precursors... of doom! ... by visiting the Radio Drama Revival website for podcasts of more October treats.

October 22 – “Sorry, Wrong Number” by FinalRune Productions
FinalRune Productions and The Mad Horse Theater Company team up for their second collaboration tale, a production of the radio classic by Lucille Fletcher. A woman overhears two men plotting a murder over the telephone, and very quickly her whole world starts to unravel.

October 29 – “Listening in the Dark” by the Icebox Radio Theater
Three tales from Northern Minnesota to chill you to the bone. A writer’s notes from a haunted house turn against. A man gets haunted in his fishing shack. Santa Claus may not be who you thought he was. Jeff Adams shows off his incredible skill in the darker arts in this haunting hour-long special.

What is PowerUp? WMPG's PowerUP! Campaign seeks to raise $250,000 to upgrade the signal strength of the station's main transmitter and move it to a better location.

Regarding Pauline Young

Some of you may remember the story of the 1940 Rockland murder that I covered back in 2007, in The Headless Halloween of 1940. Since that time, I have been contacted, through email and via comments on the original post, by relatives of the family of Pauline Young.

One of these relatives is very interested in speaking to other folks who are related to the family of Thelma Young, Pauline's mother. She is interested in getting together to do some genealogy. Her mother was Thelma's sister, Pauline her cousin.

Anyone interested in getting in touch with her can email me at michelle.souliere [at] gmail.com, or write to me via my P.O. Box:

Michelle Souliere, Editor
Strange Maine Gazette
P.O. Box 8203
Portland, ME 04104

Anyone else interested in sharing their recollections or urban legends about this happening is also welcome to contact me -- I'd be more than happy to hear from you.

The Headless Halloween of 1940

This story made its debut in the October 2007 issue of the Strange Maine Gazette. I'm still hoping to do further research on the story, and would be very pleased to hear anything from folks who have any information or recollections about the events of that Halloween.

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Halloween, while the haven of horror movies, pranks, and thrilling, terrifying darkness filled with unknown things, is still viewed as a mostly harmless occasion to indulge in the shadow world that is forbidden territory the rest of the year.

On Halloween night in 1940, however, events in Rockland, Maine, took a turn for the worse, and over the next week or so a story emerged in the Rockland Courier-Gazette that was as grim and grisly as today’s worst Hollywood imaginings.

John B. Phelps, 54, got in an argument with his 16-year-old stepdaughter Pauline Young yet again. Only this time, things went horribly, horribly wrong for Pauline.

Nine days later, police found Phelps wandering the streets near the police station around 2 o’clock in the morning, “bleeding profusely” from a suicide attempt, and ready to confess to his step-daughter’s murder.

The details of his hospital bed confession to Sheriff C. Earle Ludwick shocked an already wary town. A good number of the details created further questions in people’s minds.

For a week or so before the incident, Pauline had been avoiding her home at 28 Crescent Street, staying with a friend. On Halloween she returned home, planning to leave shortly thereafter. She never had the chance.

Phelps locked the doors of the house to prevent her leaving before her mother could get home from her job at the almshouse, although later he would tell Thelma Phelps that Pauline “ran out the back door.”

“She cursed me,” said Phelps, “and came at me with a butcher knife. I threw a hammer at her and it struck her on the forehead. [...] I didn’t know what to do with the body, but finally removed the head with an axe and a knife. The body I dragged down the cellar stairs, and wrapping it in burlap bags put it out through a cellar window under the piazza.”

Neighbors reported hearing four screams followed by a “dull thud” at the time of the incident. This did not necessarily agree with Phelps’ version of the events. Both of Pauline’s younger siblings were at play in the home’s dooryard during the time of their sister’s murder.

In the week after Phelps’ confession, neighbors spoke freely to the press, revealing that Phelps had acted “wild” the day after the killing, and did such peculiar things as asking Mrs. Alice Rich if she “noticed an awful smell,” and offering police the use of his pickaxe and shovel during the early days of their search.

The police search following Phelps’ confession uncovered five of the six burlap bags that he claimed to have placed Pauline’s body in. Although his story on when exactly the dismemberment occurred differed from telling to telling, the location in which the bags had been left was accurate. It must have been unnerving to realize that when they had come by earlier in the week to look for clues to the girl’s disappearance at the request of her mother, those grisly packages had been there the whole time.

The question that remained uppermost in local authorities’ minds was where had Pauline’s head gone? Taking the police to the northeast corner of the Maine Central wharf on the afternoon of his confession, John Phelps pointed into the murky depths of the Atlantic and cried, “There’s where I threw it; down there!”

Days passed, divers were called in, the harbor was dragged thoroughly, but no head was found. Stories circulated among local kids about where it could be. Adults pondered whether Phelps was cunning enough to have hidden it somewhere undiscoverable in order to hide “marks which would prove that more than a single blow was administered.”

Arraignment of Phelps occurred a week after his confession, at which time he pled “not guilty.” He spoke no other words during the court session. By the time of this turn of events, efforts to uncover the head were being abandoned, as the diver engaged to pursue the missing appendage had continued to stay away, and authorities decided that “the head has either become embedded in the soft bottom, or has drifted away from the wharf…”

The following Wednesday, Thelma Phelps announced plans to retire to her husband’s hometown of Danforth, Maine, with their two youngest children. Presumably Pauline’s younger sister, 13-year-old Evangeline, remained in the Pownal State School (later to become known as Pineland) where she resided at the time of the murder. Here ends the paper trail as it exists in the Rockland Public Library’s collected file.

I picked up the trail again in Home Front on Penobscot Bay: Rockland During the War Years 1940-1945 by Merriam, Molloy, and Sylvester. In the chapter titled “Crime of the Forties,” the story continues with Phelps’ indictment on February 13, 1941.

According to Home Front, Phelps pleaded guilty to murder, and two other charges, of mutilation and disposing of a human body, were filed. He served a life sentence at Maine State Prison, only released on parole “some thirty years later … to an out-of-state nursing home, where he died.”

Home Front co-author Theodore W. Sylvester, Jr., grew up playing on the streets of his neighborhood, which included Crescent Street, home of the unhappy Phelps family. He speaks of it in the chapter “Youthful Recollections”:

They never found the girl’s head. There was a lot of speculation and stories going around. The one that impressed us most was that the Phelps home was forever haunted, and that the head was buried under the porch. It was literally years before any of us would walk past the house – day or night. Sometimes we would race past the house on our bicycles, but that was the extent of our courage.

The book’s information about the case isn’t limited to dates and anecdotes. Among the interviews in Home Front is that of Cecile “Cis” Moore and her husband James A. Moore. Jim came to Rockland in 1940 as a Portland Press Herald correspondent. That first year he found himself present at Pauline Young’s autopsy at the Burpee Funeral Home.

The reporters didn’t actually get to watch the autopsy – the view was blocked by a screen. However, they “could hear the doctor describe the wounds to a nurse, who recorded the findings.” The doctor borrowed the knife of one of the reporters, Ray Sherman of the Bangor Daily News, part way through the operation, though after washing it off before returning it to Ray he remarked on its dullness.

By this point the newsmen must have been thankful they were spared the raw imagery. The stench alone was described as “nearly unbearable.” Cis recalled that it was months before Jim could eat a hamburger again.

To this day, the folks of Rockland who grew up with these events still wonder about what happened. The few who have tried to do research have come up with very little information. The story seems to have hidden itself away with Pauline’s missing head.
- - -
Special thanks to K. Gordon, who tipped me off to this tale, and to Dan O’Connor at the Rockland Public Library, who helped get copies of relevant newspaper clippings to me.

All material in this article (including photos), unless otherwise cited, can be found in issues of the Rockland Courier-Gazette from November 1940. I’ll be digging into this more, but so far it’s been a bit of a boggy march with lots of dead ends.

As a side note, I would highly recommend the book Home Front on Penobscot Bay: Rockland During the War Years 1940-1945 by Merriam, Molloy, and Sylvester to anyone interested in what coastal Maine life was like during World War II.

TONIGHT! Horror Stalks the Airwaves!

Radio drama rises from the dead this Halloween as WMPG unleashes a triple set of tales of terror. From 8:30-10PM on October 31st all manners of ghouls, gods, and ghosts will infiltrate the eardrums of listeners with tales by Mind's Eye Productions/William Dufris, The Grist Mill, and an original by Portland's own FinalRune Productions.

A demon may be loose in the world, but no one believes him. A god forgotten since ancient days confronts an awestruck human. Two friends head to a haunted house and awaken an ancient evil. The terror is non-stop Halloween night as we hear H.P. Lovecraft's "The Statement of Randolph Carter," Joe Lansdale's "God of the Razor" (winner of the 2007 Ogle Award), and Frederick Greenhalgh's "Dark Passenger."

This live audio event is a collaboration of WMPG DJs Eric Poulin and Frederick Greenhalgh, the latter of whom runs a weekly show dedicated to audio theater called Radio Drama Revival! Listeners can tune in to WMPG at 90.9/104.1 FM, stream online at www.wmpg.org, or hear the podcast of the presentation after the fact at www.radiodramarevival.com.

Photo features Chris Reiling butchering a pumpkin while Philip Hobby screams in terror (see on YouTube )...

Curious? You can also hear the promo for the whole thing online.

Who is this William Dufris, and why is he trying to scare the pants off of you? He is a Maine native, hailing from Houlton. After a 13 year residency in the UK, where he had the distinct pleasure of regularly performing in a number of BBC Radio Plays, as well as producing for The Story Circle, he returned Stateside in 2001, only to discover a lamentable lack of audio theatre in the area. He immediately sought out a number of theater friends and acquaintances from his pre-UK days, with the intention of producing a localized War Of The Worlds, a la Orson Welles. However, the events of 9/11 put that idea to rest, and thus was born the series Nightmares On Congress Street (with its obvious allusion to Nightmare on Elm Street). His original plan to produce a 'live' horror disaster set in Maine finally came to fruition with "The Horror Of Walker Point." But don't rest easy... he still intends to realize his original plans for A War Of The Worlds, but for now...).

Thanks to Mr. Dufris for pointing out that tonight WKIT 100.3 FM in Bangor (Stephen King's radio station) will be doing a Halloween broadcast of some old Nightmare favorites, as well as a new piece from The Tales From The Crypt series.