Keene Retribution: Book four of the New England Series

By Gloria H. Giroux

1979. As the turbulent decade wound down Disco was still ruling the airwaves, but more complex music was rushing towards the scene. Boiling anti-American sentiments were fermenting in the Middle East, culminating in the hostage-taking of American embassy personnel and others in Tehran after the Shah fled to Egypt. The United States established full diplomatic relations with China. Using the “Twinkie” defense Dan White is only convicted of manslaughter in the murders of George Moscone and Harvey Milk. Michael Jackson broke through as a single artist with his album Off the Wall. Worldwide per capita oil production reached an historic peak. The Soviet Union launched its invasion of Afghanistan. With all the turmoil in the world people were still excited about reaching a new decade with all the promise underlying the negativity bubbling at the end of the 1970s. Big hair and shoulder pads were on the horizon.
In the small city of Keene in southern New Hampshire strange murders have begun, starting with the decapitations of hitchhikers by a man who pays an ironic price. They continue in different manners with different victims, slowly revealing a dark pattern that intensifies the elusiveness of the perpetrator.
People from different walks of life band together to uncover the truth and bring the killer to justice: a crime novelist; a young police detective and his associates; a diligent, determined reporter; and a reclusive Asian man with a mysterious past who isn’t all he seems and might be something no one would suspect.
As they pursue sharing investigations, theories, and clues, the twisted killer is stalking the city with a focused ruthlessness that is stacking up bodies and keeping his pursuers at bay. The climax of the hunt rushes towards an unexpected and heart-pounding conclusion in the wild White Mountains of New Hampshire.
But that climax is far from the end of the story, a twist no one would have imagined, or prepared for …

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9781663258632

Gloria H. Giroux

Gloria H. Giroux was born in North Adams, MA. Raised in Hartford, CT, she graduated from Bulkeley High School, the University of Connecticut and the Computer Processing Institute subsequently embarking on a double career of IT and writing. The author of nineteen fiction novels, Keene Retribution is homage to a special place in her life in New England. She currently lives in Arizona where she is working on her next book.

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Copyright © 2024 Gloria H. Giroux.

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except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-5859-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-5864-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-5863-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023924161

iUniverse rev. date:  01/10/2024

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Epilogue

Endnotes

By the author

Fireheart, Volume One of the Chay Trilogy

Whitefire, Volume Two of the Chay Trilogy

Firesoul, Volume Three of the Chay Trilogy

Bloodfire, Prequel to the Chay Trilogy

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Copper Snake, Volume One of the San Francisco Trilogy

Voices of Angels, Volume Two of the San Francisco Trilogy

Out of the Ash, Volume Three of the San Francisco Trilogy

Bloodline in Chiaroscuro, Prequel to the San Francisco Trilogy

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Saguaro, Volume One of the Arizona Trilogy

Crucifixion Thorn, Volume Two of the Arizona Trilogy

Devil Cholla, Volume Three of the Arizona Trilogy

Ironwood, Sequel to the Arizona Trilogy

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Santa Fe Blood, Volume One of the New Mexico Trilogy

Santa Fe Bones, Volume Two of the New Mexico Trilogy

Santa Fe Heat, Volume Three of the New Mexico Trilogy

Santa Fe Secrets, Sequel to the New Mexico Trilogy

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Hartford Wicked, Book One of the New England Series

Salem Sinners, Book Two of the New England Series

Providence Perdition, Book Three of the New England Series

Keene Retribution, Book Four of the New England Series

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This book is dedicated to Marnie, Tucker, and Tansee

Marnie – How can I count the ways you’ve been such a great

friend to me? I’m not that good at math … Love ya, girl!

A cartoon of a yellow bird giving a thumbs up Description automatically generated with medium confidence

Tucker & Tansee – You chewed on my furniture, ruined

my floors, shattered my eardrums with your barking,

ate me out of house & home, left your fur all over my

bed, clawed my tender flesh with your talons of death,

and … I wouldn’t trade you for a million bucks.

Maybe two million …

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"When the cold comes to New England it arrives in sheets of sleet and

ice. In December, the wind wraps itself around bare trees and twists in

between husbands and wives asleep in their beds. It shakes the shingles

from the roofs and sifts through cracks in the plaster. The only green

things left are the holly bushes and the old boxwood hedges in the

village, and these are often painted white with snow. Chipmunks and

weasels come to nest in basements and barns; owls find their way into

attics. At night, the dark is blue and bluer still, as sapphire of night."

—Alice Hoffman, Here on Earth

New England is comprised of six states in the farthest northeastern region of the United States: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. In terms of size, they range in the lower 25% of percentages, and include the smallest state in the Union:

In terms of proportional size, four New Englands could fit into the state of Texas. The region borders the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island Sound, Canada, and New York.

The earliest inhabitants of New England were not the European colonists but the Native Americans that lived there for many hundreds of years. The region was populated with many diverse tribes including the Abenakis, Mi’kmag, Penobscot, Pequots, Mohegans, Narragansetts, Pocumtucks, Androscoggin, and Wampanoag.

Population-wise, New England began burgeoning in the 17th century. The regional economy grew rapidly in the 17th century, thanks to heavy immigration, high birth rates, low death rates, and an abundance of inexpensive farmland. The population grew from 3,000 in 1630 to 14,000 in 1640; 33,000 in 1660; 68,000 in 1680; and 91,000 in 1700. Between 1630 and 1643, about 20,000 Puritans arrived, settling mostly near Boston; after 1643, fewer than 50 immigrants arrived per year. The average size of a family between 1660-1700 was 7.1 children; the birth rate was 49 babies per year per thousand people; and the death rate was about 22 deaths per year per thousand people. About 27% of the population was composed of men between 16 and 60 years old. Currently, New England boasts a population of over fifteen million.

The etymology of each state’s name found its source either in names associated with the first colonists or the Native American tribes already occupying the land that someday soon would no longer be theirs. This stands true of many towns, which share their etymology with names derived mainly from Great Britain.

The history of New England revolves around the first colonists coming to the new world and settling on what became the Massachusetts coast and spreading out north, west, and south. In 1620 the Pilgrims set anchor at Plymouth, formerly found and named by Captain John Smith. The group of Puritan Separatists was initially known as the Brownist Emigration, who came to be known as the Pilgrims. The colony spread out into a wide range of related towns:

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The Revolutionary War began in the thirteen original colonies and resulted in the creation of an independent country replete with opportunities to actualize manifest destiny. White settlers clashed with tribes in what was called the Indian Wars to solidify their hold on land that never should have belonged to them. Colonists were far from righteous; they held slaves and indentured servants and discriminated against their own race— No Irish Need Apply was a familiar sign in towns. White settlers were separated by class and ethnicity.

By the end of the eighteenth century the boundaries of New England were well-defined.

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1795, John Russell & H.D. Symonds

New England is famous for its rocky coastline; its splendid autumn colors; its crystal-clear lakes, rivers, and streams; its dense forests; its stunning mountain ranges; its magnificent Victorian, Georgian, and Cape Cod houses; its population centers ranging from the large and cosmopolitan (Boston, MA) to its quaint little towns (Troy, NH) to its towns soaked in history and spiritualism (Salem, MA) to its seaside villages (Madison, CT) to its exclusive enclaves reeking of wealth and old money (Newport, RI). People enjoy pumpkins and Halloween and leaf-peeping and skiing and hiking and driving on backroads that seem stuck in time. New England people are often referred to as Yankees and rather than an insult that term is a source of pride. The most plausible theory of that term’s origin comes from the Dutch, where "Jan Kees" was a term used in a derogatory manner by southern Dutch towards northern Dutch, and then adopted as an insult by British colonists.

New England has produced a swarm of famous people who have made their marks in academia, politics, the military, the legal arena, medicine, entertainment, literature, and film.

Connecticut: Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, P.T. Barnum, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nathan Hale, Samuel Colt, Dorothy Hamill, Adam Clayton Powell, Ella Grasso, Charles Ives, Totie Fields, Meg Ryan, Treat Williams, Noah Webster, Brian Dennehy, Paul Giamatti, Christopher Lloyd, Michael Bolton, Glenn Close, and the inimitable Katharine Hepburn.

Massachusetts: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Louisa May Alcott, Elmer Bernstein, Alexander Graham Bell, George H. W. Bush, Bette Davis, James Spader, Kurt Russell, Matt Damon, Emily Dickinson, Dr. Seuss, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Edgar Allen Poe, Paul Revere, Winslow Homer, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Henry David Thoreau.

Rhode Island: Harry Anderson, Ruth Buzzi, Viola Davis, Nelson Eddy, David Hedison, Van Johnson, Ted Knight, George M. Cohan, Julia Ward Howe, H.P. Lovecraft, Mr. Potato Head, Horace Mann, Gilbert Stuart, Henry Giroux, and Roger Williams.

Maine: Dorothea Dix, Dustin Farnum, Hannibal Hamlin, Stephen King, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Margaret Chase Smith, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Patrick Dempsey, Judd Nelson, Linda Lavin, and John Knowles Paine.

New Hampshire: Robert Frost, John Irving, Christa McAuliffe, Franklin Pierce, Alan B. Shepard, Earl Silas Tupper, Samuel Bode Miller, Mandy Moore, Adam Sandler, Seth Meyers, Steven Tyler, and Eleanor Porter.

Vermont: Chester A. Arthur, Orson Bean, William H. Macy, Calvin Coolidge, John Deere, John Dewey, Brigham Young, Rudy Vallee, Elisha Graves Otis, Henry Wells, and Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield (Ben & Jerry).

New England has also had its share of notoriety in both solved and unsolved murder and disappearance cases.

• Lizzie Borden in Fall River, Massachusetts

• The murders on Smuttynose Island off the coast of New Hampshire

• The massacre of colonists in Prouts Neck, Maine

• The woodchipper murder in Connecticut

• A swath of unsolved murders in Vermont such as Lynne Shulze, Annette Maxfield, Leslie Spellman, and the I-91 serial murders of six women

• In Rhode Island, the unsolved murders of Benjamin Bailey, Wendy Lee Madden, and Kathy Perry

New England has a wealth of history and mystery, of the old and new, of wealth and poverty, of a population of every race, ethnicity, and religion. It experiences all four seasons, from brutal winters to mild springs, humid summers, and refreshing autumns. Each state has its own accent, with most Massachusetts people dropping their R’s. As Chief Brody once said, They’re in the yahd not too fah from the cah. There are many instances of slang that relates only to New England. For example, it’s a GRINDER, not a hoagy or a sub! People in New England bang a uey (instead of making a U-Turn), applaud people who are wicked smart, and remote controls are clickers. People from more than one state often tack an R onto the ends of words; for example, they don’t have ideas, they have idears. And when they need to acquire alcohol, they make a packie run.

One can start out driving in the early morning in Hartford and return there after driving through all six states. One can be at a Rhode Island beach in the morning and near the top of Mount Washington later in the day. One can find unique little antique stores where some merchandise could easily be a hundred years old.

Hollywood has used the region for a plethora of films, documentaries, and TV shows including Christmas in Connecticut, The House of the Seven Gables, Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Thomas Crown Affair, Love Story, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Other, The Paper Chase, The Dead Zone, Baby Boom, Judging Amy, Pet Sematary, Boston Legal, Newhart, Murder She Wrote, Breaking Bad, and, of course, the inimitable daytime soap opera Dark Shadows with its loyal fans devoted to the one and only New England vampire, Barnabas Collins.

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New England is a place of creation and dreams, of sturdiness and flexibility, of tradition and acceptance of innovative ideas.

It is a place to proudly call home.

And proudly call oneself a Yankee.

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"Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective

trades; shoe makers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a

monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but

up in the Mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has

hung out a sign to show that there He makes men."

—Daniel Webster

The Granite State.

            The White Mountain State.

                        Mother of River.

                                    Switzerland of America.

Most states in the country have more than one nickname and New Hampshire is no exception. The ninth state to be admitted to the union on June 21, 1788, it holds the distinction of being the fifth smallest (#46) of the country’s fifty states.

The state borders Vermont on the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Massachusetts on the south, and Canada on the north. New Hampshire has over 800 lakes and ponds and approximately 19,000 miles of rivers and streams. The largest lake in New Hampshire at 72 square miles, centrally located Lake Winnipesaukee has a picture-perfect location, wooded shoreline and crystal clear, spring-fed water, making it a popular summer destination for tourists and locals alike. The Connecticut River, running from Canada to Long Island Sound, comprises the border between the state and neighboring Vermont.

New Hampshire is home to a plethora of famous mountain ranges, including the White Mountains and Mount Washington, which, at 6,288 feet, is the tallest mountain in the northeast. In winter, the very top is amongst the coldest places on earth. How cold does it get on Mount Washington? It is not uncommon to experience temperatures as low as -45°F, with winds gusting over 100 mph. Hiking conditions may include drifted snow, glaze ice, sub-zero temperatures, hurricane force winds, and near zero visibility.¹

New Hampshire has 10 counties, 13 cities, 221 towns, and 25 unincorporated places within 234 municipalities. The biggest cities by population are Manchester, Nashua, Concord, Derry, Dover, Rochester, Salem, Merrimack, Hudson, and Londonderry; the ten oldest cities are Dover, Portsmouth, Exeter, Hampton, New Castle, Kingston, Stratham, Greenland, Rochester, and Londonderry. The capital is Concord. Although the first ten mentioned are the largest cities in the state they aren’t very comparable to other large cities in New England such as Hartford, Boston, and Providence: as of 2023 Manchester has only around 115,000 residents. Keene has barely 23,000 residents.

The state’s motto is Live Free or Die. The motto was part of a volunteer toast which General John Stark sent to his wartime comrades in 1809, in which he declined an invitation to head up a 32nd anniversary reunion of the 1777 Battle of Bennington in Vermont because of poor health. The toast said in full: Live Free or Die; Death Is Not the Worst of Evils. By the time Stark wrote this, Vivre Libre ou Mourir (Live free or die) was already a popular motto of the French Revolution. It was officially adopted by the state in 1945. It is possibly the best-known of all state mottos, partly because it conveys an assertive independence historically found in American political philosophy and partly because of its contrast to the milder sentiments found in other state mottos. The motto certainly does relate to the hardy men and women that first settled into the colony.

The land now called New Hampshire has been inhabited for approximately 12,000 years. For centuries, bands of prehistoric Native American Indians migrated on a seasonal basis along New Hampshire’s rivers and lake shores, variously fishing, hunting, gathering wild nuts and berries, and planting crops. Having no written language, these early inhabitants are known today primarily through archaeological investigations.

European interest in New Hampshire dates from the 1500s, when French and English ships explored the coast of North America. By approximately 1600, Englishmen were fishing off the New England coast seasonally, using the Isles of Shoals for temporary shelter and to dry their catch. The colony that became the state of New Hampshire was founded on the division in 1629 of a land grant given in 1622 by the Council for New England to Captain John Mason (former governor of Newfoundland) and Sir Ferdinando Gorges (who founded Maine). The colony was named New Hampshire by Mason after the English county of Hampshire, one of the first Saxon shires. Hampshire was itself named after the port of Southampton, which was known previously as simply Hampton.

New Hampshire’s first permanent European settlement began in 1623. In the wake of native populations, largely decimated by European diseases, English traders and fishermen settled at Odiorne Point in present-day Rye, and on Dover Point. By 1640, New Hampshire’s Seacoast was divided among four towns or plantations, Dover, Portsmouth, Exeter, and Hampton. Inhabitants of these towns, along with settlers in southern Maine, chose to be part of Massachusetts for much of the 1600s, but in 1680, New Hampshire became a separate province.

Throughout the 1600s, people in New Hampshire made their living through a combination of fishing, farming, cutting and sawing timber, shipbuilding, and coastal trade. By the first quarter of the 1700s, the provincial capital of Portsmouth had become a thriving commercial port, exporting timber products and importing everything from food to European finery. As the population grew, the original four towns were subdivided into towns of smaller areas.

The growing English presence in North America, compounded by the long-standing animosity between England and France, led to a series of wars along the American frontier throughout the late 1600s and the 1700s. Native American tribes living in the Merrimack Valley tried at first to remain neutral, but by the 1680s, most had sided with the French. Beginning in 1689, New Hampshire’s English settlements were periodically attacked. The situation worsened in the 1720s, when English settlers pushed out from the seacoast area and started the second tier towns of Rochester, Nottingham, Barrington, and Chester. In addition, Scotch-Irish farmers from Northern Ireland began the prosperous settlement of Londonderry in 1719, and in doing so, joined with farmers from Massachusetts in settling the Merrimack Valley and beyond. By the 1740s, if not somewhat earlier, New Hampshire’s Native American population had been forced out of the province entirely.

New Hampshire was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule during the American Revolution. The Massachusetts Provincial Congress called upon the other New England colonies for assistance in raising an army. In response, on May 22, 1775, the New Hampshire Provincial Congress voted to raise a volunteer force to join the patriot army at Boston. In January 1776, it became the first colony to set up an independent government and the first to establish a constitution, but the latter explicitly stated we never sought to throw off our dependence on Great Britain, meaning that it was not the first to actually declare its independence (that distinction instead belongs to Rhode Island).

The historic attack on Fort William and Mary (now Fort Constitution) helped supply the cannon and ammunition for the Continental Army that was needed for the Battle of Bunker Hill that took place north of Boston a few months later. New Hampshire raised three regiments for the Continental Army, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd New Hampshire regiments. New Hampshire Militia units were called up to fight at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Battle of Bennington, Saratoga Campaign and the Battle of Rhode Island. John Paul Jones’ ship the sloop-of-war USS Ranger and the frigate USS Raleigh were built in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, along with other naval ships for the Continental Navy and privateers to hunt down British merchant shipping.

Although the state certainly retains many of its original professions in one form or another (such as fishing and farming), the disciplines that have made it a vital state have expanded to include technology and world-class educational institutions. Dartmouth College is a private Ivy League research university in Hanover. Founded to educate Native Americans in Christian theology and the English way of life, the university primarily trained Congregationalist ministers during its early history before it gradually secularized. Following a liberal arts curriculum, Dartmouth provides undergraduate instruction in 40 academic department and interdisciplinary programs, including 60 majors in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering, and enables students to design specialized concentrations or engage in dual-degree programs. In addition to the undergraduate faculty of arts and sciences, Dartmouth has four professional and graduate schools: the Geisel School of Medicine, the Thayer School of Engineering, the Tuck School of Business, and the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies. Dartmouth shares educational responsibilities with dozens of other colleges and universities such as the University of New Hampshire and Keene State College.

Like most of the other New England states, New Hampshire doesn’t boast any well-known professional sports teams although the people generally root for the New England Patriots. New Hampshire has two NCAA Division I teams: the Dartmouth Big Green (Ivy League) and the New Hampshire Wildcats (America East Conference), as well as three Division II teams: Franklin Pierce Ravens, Saint Anselm Hawks and Southern New Hampshire Penmen (Northeast-10 Conference). The Seacoast United Phantoms are a soccer team based in Hampton, New Hampshire. Founded in 1996, the team plays in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games at Amesbury Sports Park, where they have played since 2017.

The state may not have the populous recognition of entertainment that Florida or California (or Massachusetts, for that matter) have, but it’s rich in places that tourists can visit:

1: Mount Washington Auto Road

2: Conway Scenic Railroad

3: Castle in the Clouds

4: Hampton Beach

5: Lakes Region

6: Mount Monadnock

7: Polar Caves Park

8: Kancamagus Highway

9: Franconia Notch State Park

10: Lake Winnipesaukee

11: Strawbery Banke Museum (yes, one ‘r’)

12: Story Land

13: Lost River Gorge & Boulder Caves

14: Clark’s Bears

15: Isles of Shoals

16: Prescott Park

17: Currier Museum of Art

18: Santa’s Village

19: Attitash Mountain Resort

20: Bretton Woods Mountain Resort

Despite the many wonderful things to see and do in New Hampshire the state has had its share of dark events.

Nearly two decades before Lizzie Borden wielded her ax, Karen Christensen and her sister-in-law, Anethe, were brutally murdered by ax at just past midnight on March 6, 1873, on a small New Hampshire island known as Smuttynose, off the coast of Portsmouth. Another woman, Maren Hontvet, Karen’s sister, managed to survive the attack and later testified in the trial against the accused killer, Louis Wagner, a drifter who had once been a boarder at the Smuttynose house where the women were killed. At the time of the murders, he was working at the fishing docks in Portsmouth. Maren’s later accounts of the attack both horrified and gripped a nation of newspaper readers. But whether Wagner—who was convicted of the crimes and hanged at the Maine state prison in Thomaston on June 25, 1875—was actually responsible for the murders has been up for debate nearly since his arrest.

New Hampshire in more modern times has had its share of mysteries and murders. In 2001, Dartmouth College professors Half and Susanne Zantop were at home preparing dinner for a dinner guest to arrive that evening. Two high-school students came to the door posing as researchers with the intention of stealing the couple’s pin numbers, then robbing and killing them. They were successful, though the murders happened faster than planned when one of the killers became angry. Later, the Zantops’ dinner guest arrived to find the bodies. Both students were charged with the crimes and are currently serving time in New Hampshire; one is serving life and the other twenty-five years.

Over the years Terry Peder Rasmussen took on five different aliases. He was responsible for the murders of his girlfriend, her two daughters and his own daughter, all of whom were found in two barrels in Allenstown, New Hampshire. He wasn’t connected to this crime until 2017 when DNA clearly linked him. But he was in plenty of trouble before that. He was responsible for the deaths of at least 3 other people connected to him and a string of other crimes. He died in prison in 2010.

In the 1980s women began to go missing in New Hampshire. As bodies were found it became clear that they had been stabbing victims. Most of the murders are believed to have taken place in the Claremont area as well as in the Connecticut River Valley. Over time police began to suspect a serial killer. There are believed to be six victims, as well as one attempt. There were two suspects, but to-date there have been no concrete charges, and the Connecticut River Valley killer remains elusive to the rule of justice.

And no one, of course, can forget the Pamela Smart murder in Derry. Pamela Ann Smart is an American woman who was convicted of being an accomplice to first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and witness tampering in the death of her husband, Greggory Smart, in 1990. She seduced a teenage boy who did the deed; she is still serving life in prison although the teenager, Billy Flynn, was paroled in 2015.

Not precisely a murder or an act of crime, Barney and Betty Hill, who lived in Portsmouth, entered the notoriety of the state’s history books for an unusual reason. They were an interracial couple at a time when it was particularly uncommon in the United States; Barney was black and Betty was white. They claimed they were abducted by extraterrestrials in a rural portion of the state of New Hampshire from September 19 to 20, 1961. The incident came to be called the Hill Abduction and the Zeta Reticuli Incident because two ufologists connected the star map shown to Betty Hill with the Zeta Reticuli system. Their story was adapted into the best-selling 1966 book The Interrupted Journey and the 1975 television film The UFO Incident. In July 2011, the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources marked the site of the alleged alien craft’s first approach with a historical marker.²

On the plus side New Hampshire did give us Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States (1853-1857). He came to office during a period of growing tension between the North and South. A politician of limited ability, Pierce was behind one of the most crucial pieces of legislation in American history. Although he did not author the Kansas-Nebraska Act, he did encourage its passage by Congress and that piece of legislation set the nation on its path to civil war.

The state has also had its share of fiction and nonfiction literature, films, and TV series.

Books include The Hotel New Hampshire, A Separate Peace, Our Town, The Weight of Water, The Hidden History of New Hampshire, The House on Primrose Pond, and Absolutely Truly.

Films set in or filmed in the state include The Hotel New Hampshire, Jumanji, Affliction, The Last Detail, Black Christmas, Lolita, The Devil and Daniel Webster, To Die For, On Golden Pond, What About Bob?, The UFO Incident, Our Town, Return of the Secaucus 7, Murder in New Hampshire, and Lost Boundaries.

TV shows set in the Granite State include Breaking Bad, The Republic of Sarah, North Woods Law, Ichabod and Me, The Brotherhood of Poland New Hampshire, and Jumanji (the series). The 1980s show Newhart took place in Vermont, but the opening exteriors were shot in New Hampshire.

Although the state is virtually land-locked and doesn’t have proximity to great seafood like the other states do (excluding Vermont), it is well-known for food favorites of the residents and visitors. Joyous culinary faves include apple cider donuts; north country hard cider; maple syrup sundaes (perhaps with bacon bits dribbled over it?); fried lake bass; clam chowder (this filling dish dates all the way back to the 1700s and is believed to have been created by French settlers, and although different states have their own version of a local chowder, New Hampshire clam chowder has a sweet, briny, flavorful punch like none other); mead; and exotic meats like venison.

New Hampshire may also seem like a quintessential New England state with few peculiarities or accomplishments to recommend it, but there are quite a few tidbits of which most people are unaware.

1. Not only is New Hampshire’s State House the biggest legislative body in the country with 400 members, its Capitol is the oldest in which members still meet in the original chambers.

2. It’s commonly known as the Granite State for its extensive granite formations and quarries.

3. New Hampshire is home to the nation’s first wind farm, consisting of 20 wind turbines rated at 30 kilowatts each, on the shoulder of Crotched Mountain in southern New Hampshire. It was constructed in December 1980.

4. New Hampshire’s Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6,288 feet and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. The Mount Washington Cog Railway is the world’s first mountain-climbing cog railway.

5. New Hampshire has the shortest ocean coastline (18 miles) of any non-landlocked U.S. state.

6. By dictate of its state constitution, New Hampshire holds the first presidential primary of the season. A common motto was Always First, Always Right until 1992, when for the first time the nation elected a president, Bill Clinton, who had not won the New Hampshire primary.

7. New Hampshire was home to more firsts: the world’s first free, tax-supported library, in Peterborough, in 1833; the first state to declare its independence from England in 1775; the first alarm clock, invented in Concord in 1787; and the nation’s first women’s strike, at the Dover Cotton Factory in 1828.

8. The first American in space, Alan Shepard, was born in Derry, New Hampshire. His historic flight was made in 1961. In 1986, Concord, New Hampshire, teacher Christa McAuliffe became the first private citizen to do space travel. She died in the Challenger space shuttle accident.

9. Each year, the New Hampshire maple industry produces close to 90,000 gallons of maple syrup. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of pure maple syrup.

10. The Old Man in the Mountain, a natural rock formation that looked like a man’s profile, collapsed in 2003. But instead of a man-made remake (which would have undermined the naturalness of the original), New Hampshire has memorialized him with the Old Man in the Mountain Profiler Plaza.

11. Residents of New Hampshire are called either Granite Staters or New Hampshirites.

The famous poet Robert Frost wrote a lengthy poem called New Hampshire. Born in California he moved as a child with his family in 1885 to Lawrence, Massachusetts. In 1900, Frost, in his mid-20s and in the midst of dealing with the still fresh wound of the untimely death of his four-year-old son Elliott from cholera, moved his family from Massachusetts to a farm in Derry, N.H. This property, known today as the Robert Frost Farm, is now a museum. His poetic words are stunning and intimate and lengthy, but perhaps he sums up his subject best as such with minimalism that says nothing yet says it all:

She’s one of the two best states in the Union.

Vermont’s the other. And the two have been

Yokefellows in the sap yoke from of old

In many Marches. And they lie like wedges,

Thick end to thin end and thin end to thick end,

And are a figure of the way the strong

Of mind and strong of arm should fit together,

One thick where one is thin and vice versa.

New Hampshire is a state of vivid contrasts, hardcore traditions, and forward-looking thinking. It respects the old and accepts the new and blends history with the present and future to provide a rich living environment for residents and spectacular natural, educational, and cultural attractions for visitors. It is a state that every American should experience. And, remember: Live Free or Die!

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"If you picture a typical New England downtown district in your

mind, then Central Square in Keene is what you would envision.

You can find almost anything you can think of along Main Street ...

restaurants, coffee shops, clothing (men’s and women’s) stores, bike

shops, hand-made craft shops, etc. all set in a picturesque setting."

—TripAdvisor Review

Unlike towns such as Providence or Salem, whose names have intricate and old meanings, Keene, New Hampshire, was named after a colonial person of note. Before revealing that, let us look back in brief at the establishment of the New Hampshire colony then state.

English and French explorers visited New Hampshire in 1600–1605, and David Thompson settled at Odiorne’s Point Rye in 1623. The first permanent settlement was at Hilton’s Point (present-day Dover). By 1631, the Upper Plantation comprised modern-day Dover, Durham and Stratham; in 1679, it became the Royal Province. Father Rale’s War was fought between the colonists and the Wabanaki Confederacy throughout New Hampshire.

New Hampshire was one of the Thirteen Colonies that rebelled against British rule during the American Revolution. By the time of the American Revolution, New Hampshire was a divided province. The economic and social life of the Seacoast region revolved around sawmills, shipyards, merchants’ warehouses, and established village and town centers. Wealthy merchants built substantial homes, furnished them with the finest luxuries, and invested their capital in trade and land speculation. At the other end of the social scale, there developed a permanent class of day laborers, mariners, indentured servants and even slaves.

In 1735, colonial Governor Jonathan Belcher granted lots in the township of Upper Ashuelot to 63 settlers who paid £5 each. Settled after 1736 on Equivalent Lands, it was intended to be a fort town protecting the Province of Massachusetts Bay from the French and their Native allies during the French and Indian Wars, the North American front of the Seven Years’ War. When the boundary between the Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire colonies was fixed in 1741, Upper Ashuelot became part of New Hampshire, although Massachusetts continued supporting the area for its own protection.

In 1747, during King George’s War, the village was attacked and burned by Natives. Colonists fled to safety, but would return to rebuild in 1749. It was regranted to its inhabitants in 1753 by Governor Benning Wentworth, who renamed it Keene after Sir Benjamin Keene, English minister to Spain and a West Indies trader. Benjamin Keene was born around 1697 in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, eldest son of Charles Keene and Susan Rolfe. His younger brother Edmund was Bishop of Ely and Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge. Keene graduated from Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1718 and completed his legal studies at the Dutch university of Leiden. Family connections brought him to the notice of Secretary of State and Norfolk magnate, Viscount Townshend, who sent him to Madrid in 1723, first as an officer of the South Sea Company, then Consul from 1724. He eventually died in Madrid at the age of 72.

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Located at the center of Cheshire County, the town of Keene was designated as the county seat in 1769. Land was set off for the towns of Sullivan and Roxbury, although Keene would annex 154 acres from Swanzey (formerly Lower Ashuelot).

During the period of the Revolution, Keene performed her part faithfully. In 1773 the foot company of Keene numbered 126, under command of Col. Josiah Willard. The alarm list, numbering forty-five, seems to have been made up of the older men, including many of the original settlers; the selectmen of Keene, David Nims. Eliphalet Briggs, Jr., and Benjamin Hall, reported the following census for Keene:

                        Unmarried men, from sixteen to sixty - 65

                        Married men, from sixteen to sixty - 96

                        Boys, sixteen years and under - 140

                        Men, sixty years and upwards - 1

                        Females, unmarried - 217

                        Females, married - 105

                        Widows - 10

                        Male Slave - 1

Total 645

In 1774 the town made preparations for war by the purchase of 200 lbs. of good gun powder, 400 lbs. of lead, and 1,200 flints, raising twenty-four pounds, lawful money for that purpose. On October 17th of that year, Capt. Isaac Wyman and Lieut. Timothy Ellis were chosen as delegates to the county congress, at Walpole.

The battle of Lexington was fought on the 19th of April 1775. The news reached Keene soon after, and Captain Dorman, in command of the militia, with the advice of Captain Wyman, sent expresses to every part of the town, notifying the inhabitants to meet, forthwith, on the green. Upon their meeting in the afternoon the citizens voted unanimously to raise a body of men to appease the regulars. Captain Wyman, already an old man, was chosen to command, and, under his direction, a troop of thirty volunteers was on hand at sunrise the next morning, fully equipped, and was led towards Concord. On the 27th of April, Timothy Ellis was chosen as a delegate to Exeter and a member of the Provincial Congress. On the 7th of December the town, being without higher law, duly accepted a constitution and code of laws for their own government, which was in force until 1778. Its provisions were simple and to the point. It required no lawyer to elucidate. Thomas Baker, Eliphalet Briggs, and Dan Guild were chosen as the committee to judge and execute under the new law, and Elijah Blake, an officer, with duties like constable or sheriff.

The Declaration of Resistance, sent to the several towns of the state by the committee of safety of the assembly of New Hampshire, was signed in 1776, by 103 citizens of the town; thirteen refused to sign. Col. Isaac Wyman was appointed a justice of the peace that year; and Captain Eliphalet Briggs, one of the committees of safety, dying of small-pox, was replaced by Jeremiah Stiles. In 1777, at the battle of Bennington, Keene was represented by a company of quickly organized militia, among whom were Major Ellis, Josiah Richardson and Joshua Durant. Toward the close of the Revolution, Keene was much exercised by the controversy in regard to the New Hampshire grants, but maintained her allegiance to the old state.

As the war ended and the decades passed, new opportunities opened for Keene, particularly in manufacturing. In 1874 the town of Keene was incorporated as a city. Enterprising individuals took advantage of the power released by the Ashuelot River and a colony of mills sprang up—sawmills, grist mills, potash mills, a stilling mill, and distilleries increased the town’s prosperity and path to the future. The railroad arrived in 1848 and became a transportation lynchpin for southwestern New Hampshire and brought new people, ideas, and urban growth. The population grew steadily.

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Keene has a total area of 37.3 square miles, of which 37.1 square miles are land and 0.3 square miles are water, the latter comprising 0.69% of the town. Keene is drained by the Ashuelot River. The highest point in Keene is the summit of Grays Hill in the city’s northwest corner, at 1,388 feet above sea level. Keene is entirely within the Connecticut River watershed, with all of the city except for the northwest corner draining to the Connecticut via the Ashuelot. The city is bordered by several small towns like Troy, Dublin, Jaffrey, Marlborough, Swanzey, Spofford, Surrey, Winchester, Rindge, and Fitzwilliam. As in all New England towns the city experiences distinct seasons. The summers can be very hot and humid, and the winters occasionally teeter on brutal.

Although the city itself does not have a motto, the motto for Keene State College is quite appropriate for the city: Enter to Learn – Go Forth to Serve. The city also hosts another prestigious center for advanced learning, Antioch University New England, a private graduate school. Almost one-fourth of Keene’s residents are college students.

New Hampshire doesn’t have any professional sports teams, but Keene is home to the Keene Swamp Bats, a collegiate summer baseball team. The team, a member of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, plays their home games at Alumni Field. In the NECBL, they are consistently one of the top teams and have reached the league playoffs in 18 of the past 21 seasons. They have an awfully cute team symbol:

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Besides its educational opportunities and general New England ambience, Keene has a rich suite of places to go and things to do. Here are a few:

➢ Attend the annual Pumpkin Festival

➢ Keene Axe House

➢ Horatio Colony House Museum

➢ Climb Mount Monadnock

➢ Find a New Outfit at Urban Exchange

➢ Explore Keene State College

➢ Thorne Sagendorph Art Gallery

➢ Prime Roast Coffee Company

➢ See a Show at the Colonial Theatre

➢ Cheshire Children’s Museum

➢ Stonewall Farm

➢ Visit Keene’s Breweries

➢ Explore Otter Brook State Park

➢ Walk or Ride the Rail Trails

➢ Ski at Granite Gorge

➢ Go Bowling at Yankee Lanes

➢ Visit Peterborough

➢ Go Antiquing Near Keene

➢ Look for Covered Bridges

➢ Visit Cathedral of the Pines in Rindge

➢ Visit New England Sweetwater Distillery in Winchester

➢ Visit Madame Sherri Forest

➢ Drive Through Idyllic Jaffrey Center

The city has also been the focus of a number of famous people and cultural components. Two movies of note have been filmed there or had the fictional action take place:

➢ The 1949 movie Lost Boundaries, starring Mel Ferrer, tells the true story of a black Keene physician, Dr. Albert Johnston, who passed as white for many years. The film won the 1949 Cannes Film Festival award for best screenplay.

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➢ Much of the 1995 movie Jumanji, starring Robin Williams, was filmed in Keene in November 1994, as the movie’s fictional town of Brantford. Frank’s Barber Shop is a featured setting as well as the Parrish Shoe sign, which was painted for the film. The sign served as a focal point for a temporary Robin Williams memorial in the days following the actor’s death on August 11, 2014.

Although there is a dearth of fiction books about the city, several books provide excellent history and facts about the city. These include Upper Ashuelot: A History of Keene, NH; The History of Keene, New Hampshire; Keene New Hampshire (Images of America); and Keene Through Time.

Keene was honored in April 1945 when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited. She spoke at the Keene Community Forum on the topic Education in the Post War World. Two days later FDR passed away.

Quite a few people of note have been born and/or lived in Keene including Jimmy Cochran, John Bosa, Jonathan Daniels, Eva Fabian, Martha Perry Lowe, Heather Wilson, and Isaac Wyman. One resident of whom Keene would not be proud is Christopher Cantwell, a White Supremacist known as the Crying Nazi. Like any town or city Keene has its share of crime but nothing, really, that sticks out like those perpetrated in neighboring states.

Recently, however, one Nathan Carman was found dead in his cell in the Cheshire County Department of Corrections in Keene of an apparent suicide on June 15, 2023, where he was awaiting trial. The 29-year-old was charged with murdering his mother, Linda Carman, who was from Middletown. The mother and son were on a fishing trip in 2016 off the coast of Rhode Island. Carman damaged the boat to make it sink, prosecutors said. His mother vanished at sea. He was rescued days later floating in a raft. Court documents claim Carman also shot and killed his grandfather, John Chakalos, back in 2013. He has never officially been charged in that death. Federal authorities said the killings were part of a plot to inherit his family’s fortune. Carman was federally indicted in 2022 by prosecutors in Vermont, where he’d been living since the incident.

Keene has, however, had its share of disasters. The blizzard of March 1888 became the storm by which all other New England blizzards are measured even today. The storm left 36 inches of snow that became 15 feet of snowdrifts due to gale force winds. The storm left 400 people dead in the entire northeast and did $20 million in damage.

The fire of October 19, 1865, destroyed the entire east side of the town square. An earlier debate (voted down) of bringing water into the square area became moot and a water system was built in 1869.

On May 22, 1893, a blast at the Beaver Mills industrial complex flattened the boiler house, tore open a 50-foot hole in a nearby factory, and killed three men and injured five others.

The flood of 1936 resulted from rain falling every single day for two weeks in March. The ten inches of rain was supplemented by melting snow. The Ashuelot River rose three feet and the city streets had to be traversed with rowboats.

Topping it all off was the hurricane of 1938 which caused $1 million in damage and destroyed 2,000 shade trees.

Keene is a forward-thinking city with respect for history and tradition, and a glowing enthusiasm for the future. It is a big city with a small-town soul. Visit Keene—you won’t be disappointed.

Elm City

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NOTE: Several descriptive sections are attributed to Wikipedia, which specifies the sources, as well as other researched sites. This includes the sections on New England, New Hampshire, Keene, and other textual components for locations and events.

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Chapter One

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January 15, 1979

Keene, New Hampshire

Winter is a bitch in New England, a raving, relentless, mean-ass bitch that tears at flesh, freezes rivers and lakes, drives the leaves from their trees, rakes the soul with despondency, provides excitement for children, and is something both anticipated and dreaded. A New England winter can make tough men cry.

It is also a season of great beauty characterized by brilliant snow drifts and ice crystals that make trees look like they’ve been decorated by sparkling Swavorski gems. At night, with a full moon and a panorama of stars, icicled trees truly do present as a winter wonderland. Adults can enjoy the splendor but at the same time dread getting up at 5 AM to warm up the car and shovel the driveway before getting on an icy road and heading off to work.

This winter, the last of the 1970s’ decade, was particularly harsh with temperatures frequently dipping below zero. The mountains of New Hampshire defined winter beauty as the giant fir and pine trees bore the clumps of pristine snow on their branches and the floor of the forest had a carpet of snow on the tree roots, bushes, rocks, and dirt. Hiking was a familiar pastime in any season but decreased greatly in the winter. Some hardy—or foolhardy, as some opinions went—hikers braved the frigid, snowy weather to enjoy their experience every bit as much as they enjoyed it in the warm summer. Unless there was a gentle warming or another snowfall tracks froze over and gave witness to those who had recently passed by.

Pisgah State Park is a 13,300-acre public recreation area located in the Cheshire County towns of Winchester, Chesterfield and Hinsdale in New Hampshire. It is the largest state park in New Hampshire and contains a complete watershed north of the Ashuelot River, seven ponds, four highland ridges, numerous wetlands, and a 20-acre parcel of old-growth forest. It is around nine miles from Keene and a place where residents and tourists often frequented. There are hiking trails but also a considerable number of acres where people rarely went. Dense forest patches with tangled undergrowth made passage almost impossible in some places. There are lakes and streams to enjoy along with camping, swimming, biking, hiking, and snowmobiling in the winter.

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Tonight was a marvelous night in the park. The temperature was in the teens and snow had last fallen a few days before. The full moon glowed eerily as strips of clouds passed across it sending intermittent shafts of light down to the forest floor past the immense fir trees. The sky was blanketed with stars, the night cold as it was wont to be in mid-January. There were no human sounds breaking the quiet of the forest yet there were plenty of other sounds to give proof to life; the hooting of owls hunting for prey; the rustling of the branches as a growing wind shook them into a whisper of night cries that were both spiritual and unnerving; small, nocturnal animals threading through the underbrush looking for their next meal.

Dead leaves from oak and elm trees covered the ground and occasionally whipped up into tiny tornados of cracked brown crumbles. Well-worn paths saw leaves and ground stomped smoothly by the passage of feet that sometimes knew where they were going and sometimes were lost. There had been a snowstorm the day before that left clumps of snow hanging from branches and covering rocks and shrubs and the forest floor. Until now there had been no sign of footprints crunching the dry whiteness but as the path wound southeast around several boulders, footprints left the indelible evidence that someone had passed by.

In this case, the footprints were deep indicating the normal girth a full gown man. He was bundled to the nines; the temperature was hovering in the teens. Only his face was partially revealed although the neck and cheeks were swathed