The Creature From the Bridgewater Triangle: and other Odd Tales from New England.

By Bill Russo

Bill Russo's riveting story, as seen on National Television on 'Monsters and Mysteries in America', and on 'America's Bermuda Triangle'; as well as in the award winning documentary film, 'The Bridgewater Triangle'. Bill Russo's story, as seen on National Television on 'Monsters and Mysteries in America', and on 'America's Bermuda Triangle'; as well as in the award winning documentary film, 'The Bridgewater Triangle'.

Bill Russo had lived for over 20 years in Southeastern Massachusetts and had no idea of the strange beings that lurked in the nearby swamp, until he met one on a dark night. Three feet tall, covered in hair, it walked to a circle of light cast by an overhead street-lamp. Raising a furry paw, it beckoned him to come closer; then the pot bellied, big eyed thing spoke: - "Keer, Keer. Eeee Wan chu."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bill Russo
• Release date: Sep 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370962679

Bill Russo

Bill Russo had lived in an area of Massachusetts called the Bridgewater Triangle for many years and never knew that it was said to be inhabited by scary swamp creatures until he met one. It happened on a midnight walk. Years later, two film producers read his blog about it and featured him and his story in their documentary, The Bridgewater Triangle. He also was approached by Discovery channel producers and was featured in the opening segment of Monsters and Mysteries in America - Season two, Episode two. Among his work, are two anthologies featuring the Bridgewater Triangle Universe. One is strictly fiction and the other contains his account of meeting the swamp creature - plus other stories from New England. As a disc jockey, he was the first person to play and promote the trucking classic "Tombstone Every Mile". He counted as a friend, the first man to cross the musical color line, in a 1940s Jazz Band. The "Human Jukebox", who opened for both Elvis and Roy Orbison, was a neighbor of his. Stories of these and other artists are included in "Crossing the Musical Color Line". Bill's background for writing comes from a Boston education at the venerable white shirt & tie, Huntington School for Boys. He followed that up with a study of journalism, music, and broadcasting at the famed Kenmore Square institution, Grahm Jr. College, where he said he learned more about music from an African American gentleman who was the school's janitor, than he ever could in a classroom. He introduced me to Gloria Lynne, Bill said. Years after he learned of her, she had a mega hit with I Wish You Love. One of Grahm's well known graduates was performance artist Andy Kaufman who created his Taxi TV character Latka while at Grahm. Andy also claimed he learned Transcendental Meditation at Grahm, although it was not taught there. But who knows? It could be true. Bill Russo learned music from the Janitor. Maybe someone in bookkeeping was a guru and gave Andy the secrets of TM. At various times during his career, Russo was a New England Newspaper Editor, a Disc Jockey, and a Radio newswriter and newscaster for a number of stations. He also has had stints as an iron worker, and a low level manager for a major mail order clothing retailer. One of his favorite jobs was partnering with Bill Barry, the inventor of a jewelry polish called Clear Bright n Shiny. The 'Bills' as they called themselves toured New England selling...

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The Creature from the Bridgewater Triangle

And Other Odd Tales from New England

By Bill Russo

Smashwords Edition

Bill Russo in a still from the 2013 award winning documentary film – The Bridgewater Triangle

Copyright© 2016 Bill Russo

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the permission in writing from the author. Reviewers may quote brief passages for use in reviews.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This little book has more than a dozen stories of strange and unusual events in Massachusetts, spread through nine chapters. Some are fact and some are legend.

I hope you will find all of them, interesting.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Creature, the Glowing forest, and the Asylum

Chapter 2: The Joseph Boat –or- Reverend Metcalfe Gets Two Wishes

Chapter 3: Ghosts, Witches, Pirates, and Buried Treasure

Chapter 4: ‘Massachusetts Rocks!’

Chapter 5: The Legend of Princess Scargo

Chapter 6: The Lady In Black

Chapter 7: Solving the Coldest Case in the United States

Chapter 8: Cape Cod Murders: Real and Imagined

Chapter 9: The Right Whales

Chapter one:

The Creature, The Glowing Forest, & the Asylum

In 2010, I blogged about a strange incident that happened to me, close to my house near what was a hunting grounds of the Wampanoag Tribe in the 1600s.

Something hairy and inhuman came from a nearby swamp and confronted me just a few hundred yards away from my home.

I had no idea that others had also seen weird things in the area that has come to be known as The Bridgewater Triangle.

A feature documentary on this 'haunted' area of about 200 square miles in the Southern part of Massachusetts was released in late 2013.

America’s Bermuda Triangle – an abbreviated version of the film airs regularly on the Discovery Channel’s Destination America.

The producers of the movie contacted me after reading my report. They filmed my account of what I saw and it is a featured segment that has received critical acclaim from a number of review sites, including three that are listed on the Internet Movie Data Base’s Bridgewater Triangle page.

The documentary premiered at the University of Massachusetts' main auditorium and drew the largest crowd ever to attend an event at the venue. A sold out audience of about 800 turned out for the showing. This was followed by many screenings at colleges, theaters, fan conventions, and film festivals.

The film has garnered five awards at film festivals in New England and as far West as Chicago.

The Blu-ray & DVD versions of the film were released in mid June 2014. It contains the full documentary plus three hours of bonus material not seen in the original production. You can get more information on the film on line by visiting the Bridgewater Triangle Documentary website. There is an online store for those wishing to purchase the DVD of the film as well as related merchandise.

About the same time the movie was scheduled for release, Destination America interviewed me for their program Monsters and Mysteries in America. That 20 minute segment led off the second season of the series and was run weekly for two years. The program is still available for purchase from Amazon and other sites.

As written for the Hubpages website, here's my original report of what I saw:

"It is not my intention in this report, to recount or verify any of the events and happenings in the area known as the Bridgewater Triangle, I am only going to detail what happened to me one starless night long, long ago. (The actual date was the autumn of 1990.)

Over the last few hundred years, much of the Hockomock Swamp in Southeastern Massachusetts, has been filled in and whole towns have sprung up where formerly, the murky waters were home to many thousands of varieties of fish, birds and other unusual creatures - some unknown to the rest of the continent.

My home in the Bridgewater Triangle was built in the town of Raynham on a knoll just a few hundred yards from an entrance to a large tract of the Hockomock that has not been filled and was never fully explored.

Buffering my backyard from the entrance to the swamp, is a several mile long swath of undeveloped land, occupied only by high tension power lines running from Providence up towards Boston. Even in daylight, walking this overgrown tract that we called ‘the High Tees’, is somewhat disconcerting because it is used as a main highway for a kaleidoscope of animals including coyotes and the occasional wildcat and mountain lion. At night those relatively harmless mammals are reportedly joined by a plethora of bizarre creatures - some beyond description.

Two photos representing the vast & still uncharted Hockomock Swamp

For six years, I worked a three to midnight shift and when I got home my custom was to walk my dog - an 80 pound female Rotweiller-Shepherd mix. ‘Samantha’ and I loved our exercise and we walked every single night Summer and Winter.

We usually walked on the sidewalks towards the center of town and stayed away from the Hockomock Swamp. But one night, we varied our routine and walked through the woods toward an old dam that once provided water power for an early iron works.

‘Sam, why do you want to walk the High Tees?’ I asked her as she pulled me towards the tall wires that were shrouded by even loftier trees. Sammy just looked at me with her bright eyes. She did not bark or get excited like she did when we went for hamburgers at McDonalds or swimming at ‘The Nip’. But I could tell she wanted to walk the different route.

I went along with Sam’s wishes because we were best friends. My grandchildren had often joked that I treated Sam better than them. I treat Sam like a person because she acts like one, while you guys act like animals! I joked.

As Sam and I cut through the backyard and entered the High Tees, darkness was instant and total. No streetlights or star lights can penetrate the canopy of the rangy hundred year old pines that dwarf the power lines.

About a half mile into the walk we arrived at a break where a road cuts through the swath. Sam pulled hard on her leash and looked up at me. Her hair stood on end. She made not a noise, but trembled and looked at me for protection.

What’s wrong Samantha? I don’t see anything. It’s okay baby. We’ll go home now. Come on.

I tugged on her leash but she did not budge. It wasn’t obstinacy. It was fear. My big Rot-Shep mix who would tackle a one ton bison or a wild mountain lion, was scared stiff.

I heard what frightened her before I saw it.

Eee wah chu. Eee wah chu. Keer. Keer. Eee wah chu. an eerie call floated to my ears in the still night.

‘Eee WAH CHU. EE WAN CHEW. EEE WAH CHU. KEER, keer EEEEEE WAHHHHHN CHEW.", the unearthly high pitched voice was closer and louder.

There was a street lamp about 20 feet in front of me and it cast a bluish circle of light on the pavement.

Into the circle walked a hairy creature about three to four feet tall which weighed probably a hundred pounds

EEEE WAH CHU EEEEE WAH CHEW CHEW … Chew Chew. Eee wah chu., it repeated over and over again.

The creature stood very straight on two feet and looked at me with eyes that were too large for its head - like the eyes of an owl. Sammy and I were frozen as we watched the hairy thing. It did not advance further and did not appear to be threatening us - but we were still scared. Sam did not bark, nor whine. She trembled slightly and kept looking at me as if to say, What is it?

It’s okay Sam, I said unconvincingly.

The creature kept talking and began motioning with its arms. It wore no clothes and was completely covered with coarse, unkempt hair that was about five or six inches long. It seemed to have a pot belly and I took it to be in the young stages of old age.

(Author’s note: During the making of the film, the producers of the ‘Bridgewater Triangle’ sent me a few artists’ depictions of the creature and I told them that the illustrations looked nothing like what I saw.

Later, they contacted Boston artist John Geig and he read my description of the ‘Littlefoot’ and nailed it! As soon as I saw his work, I exclaimed, That’s it! That’s what it looked like.

In the flesh, the creatures eyes were a bit bigger than in the drawing. They were not huge, but were somewhat like the eyes of a cat, which are large in proportion to the animal’s overall size.

Note the forlorn, sad eyed look on the face of the creature in Mr. Geig’s work. The illustration captured the child-like quality it possessed which would seem to be completely at odds with what we think we know about Puckwudgies and other swamp creatures.

(Seeing the cute little drawing It might be hard for you to imagine such a pitiful looking thing being frightening - but it was.)

We stood watching the thing for not more than a minute but it felt like hours. It kept speaking to us, but made no further movement toward us. I summoned enough courage to ask it a few questions but got no answer other than EEE WAH CHEW repeated again and again.

If I had been Darwin, or Dr. Livingston, I would have walked to the thing and would have made a great discovery and would have written a new chapter in human history. But I was just a weak, frightened man who slinked away and lost a chance to catalog an entirely new species.

I am ashamed to admit that I walked away. Sam and I turned and went home as fast as we could.

In my living room, I stayed up all night analyzing the encounter.

I tried to figure out what the hairy thing was saying and my best guess at a translation is this: It was speaking English and saying, We want you. We want you. Come here. Come here. Eee wah chu. Eee wah chu. Keer. Keer.

To this day, I do not know what they wanted me for. Or maybe it was Sam they wanted. If I had the grit to meet with the creature, I could probably write a good ending to this story. Or maybe Sam and