Baked...Brains?

Good Morning, MMers! We had a disturbing report today from Ralph LeBlanc out in Westbrook. Ralph's wife died of brain cancer and his two kids live out west these days. Sitting down for his normal solo dinner, Ralph went into his pantry and grabbed a can of Maine's own B&M Baked Beans. You know, the big plant on the water right off of Interstate 295.

B&M's Factory

Anyways, Ralph was excited to have some beans to go along with his pork loin and mashed potatoes. But, when he opened the can, he didn't smell the normal pleasant scent of bacon and onion he was accustomed to. We reached out to Ralph to get some more information.

B&M's Famous Baked Beans

"When I opened the can, I just...I can't fully describe the scent. I guess it was a metallic smell mixed in with the scent of the beans. And it was mixed with...well, those those chunks certainly weren't bacon..."

Ralph, being a former member of the Westbrook Police Department, reached out to a buddy of his to check it out. Ted Blankenship, Ralph's longtime partner, came by to see it for himself. Here's what he had to say...

"Those beans? No. Those weren't normal beans. Ralph and I poked around, and I'd bet my paycheck that those were brains in there. No doubt about it. The most messed up part about the whole thing is that his wife died of brain cancer, ya know? That's messed up. "

Was this a some sort of gruesome mixup at the factory? Was this someone playing a prank on Ralph? Who's to say? All we know is that the next time you get a can of your favorite beans from Maine, make sure to check what's in that tin can. 

Stay safe out there, Maine!

The Androscroggin River People

Heads up if you're thinking of traveling to the Androscroggin River this summer, MMers. This is an old story, one you probably know if you've been around the bend a time or two here in Maine, but it's a good one, and one worth repeating for the newer generation. We're talking, of course, about the Androscroggin River People.

This story, believe it or not, dates back all the way to 1754, during the French and Indian Wars. British Corporal Eustis H. Gardner was leading a group of soldiers up the river to engage with French troops when he says they encountered a strange creature swimming alongside their boat. This is an excerpt from Corporal Gardner's journal:

T wast the regular size and rough shapeth of a sir though t wast cov'r'd in blue-green scales.  Its hands and feet w're massive, did shape liketh an oar, tipp'd with raz'r sharp claws.  Its eyes, though beneath the wat'r burn'd crimson.  T did swim 'longside our boat f'r five full minutes bef're t did swim off.  I, n'r any of mine own men, has't nev'r seen aught liketh the beast.

A woodcut inspired by Gardner's journal

Famed New England explorer, Bernard Pollack, claimed he encountered a similar creature in 1789, while mapping out the Androscroggin. He claims that while he and his Native American guide, Moxus, were canoeing the river, a fish-man swam up along side them. It leapt out of the water like a fish, before diving back down, hardly making a splash. Pollack claimed that the fish-man seemed to be leading them down a smaller river that branched off from the Androscroggin. Pollack and Moxus followed the fish-man until he lead them to a small village on the shore of the river, where he counted no less than seven of these fish-people. It should be noted, however, that Pollack was a bit of a braggart, known to exaggerate his own exploits to fill his pockets.

Sightings of the Androscroggin River People continued into the modern era. Randy Kramer, a Boy Scout leader, claimed to have encountered one in 1973 while taking a group of boys on an overnight canoeing trip. This is from an interview Kramer gave in 1980 to Boys Life Magazine:

Could this be what Randy Kramer encountered?

"I got up in the middle of the night and left my tent to relieve myself. I took maybe ten steps out towards the riverbank when I heard something I thought might have been a snake, but could have just been the tall grass moving. I looked up and I saw a pair of red eyes staring back at me. I froze, and realized I was in real danger. I could tell the thing was about to pounce, but then the clouds drifted away from the moon. In the moonlight I could see what it was - it was...and I know how crazy this sounds, it was a fishman. I knew right what it was. We'd even told a campfire ghost story about it that night. It was one of the River People. Quick as an eel, it dove back into the river and swam off. I don't think I slept a lick that night."

No one knows quite what the River People are. They appear to be some sort of fish/man hybrid. Whether there is more than one or how long these creatures can live is unknown. Many people believe there could be generations of these fishy creatures living up and down the Androscroggin River. 

One last interesting note is that the word Androscroggin comes from Abenaki tribe and it translates to "deep-dwelling river." Could this name refer not to the depth of the river itself but the name of the creatures that live in it? Noted author of weird and horror fiction, H. P. Lovecraft is known to have often visited this area of Maine. Is it any coincidence his stories are filled with a race of fish-people known as Deep Ones? 

Did Lovecraft know?

Hmmm.

Stay safe out there, Maine!

Announcing Rapid Fire

We just want to take a minute to thank all you MMers out there, without you we wouldn't be able to share the truth about the odd happenings around Maine with the world! Keep those stories coming, and we will keep putting them out. Always remember that WE. BELIEVE. YOU.  

We are running into a good problem to have here at Malevolent Maine, and that is we have too many stories to put out! So starting next month we are going to have a new type of post around here. Get ready for.... THE RAPID FIRE. In these posts we will be FIRING off several stories at once, odd sightings and phenomenon from around the state, shared by everyday Mainers like you! Look for posts with these headers to catch up on all the weird sightings people report from around the state.

Stay safe out there, Maine!

The Wells of Lucifer

Here's a creepy one for you, MMers. Over in Hiram, the locals report a phenomenon that defies explanation. They call it the Wells of Lucifer and the citizens of Hiram will warn you away if you ask about it. 

The Wells themselves are a series of three holes in the ground, arranged in a loose triangular configuration. Each one is about three feet in diameter, about the size of an old well. Hot air seems to rise out of the holes. No one is quite sure how far they go down, but at least three hundred feet is the most current guesstimate. The origin of the wells is unknown, the landowner claims they just appeared one night in 1974. 

One of the Wells of Lucifer

But the appearance of these devil holes isn't what makes them terrifying; it's the sounds that emanate from the wells.

Their screams can be heard on the surface

Multiple visitors to the Wells have noted that screams that rise up from the depths. The stories claim that these are tortured souls, screaming from the bowels of hell. These strange sounds are no mere myth either, they have been reported and recorded  multiple times. However, the twisted screams seem to have physical reactions in the people that hear them. The most common is a feeling of slight nausea and sinus pressure. One visitor claimed it was like his brain had suddenly swelled and was trying to push against his skull. The longer a person stays and listens to the screams, the more adverse the reactions become. To date, the longest a person has stayed, leaning over the wells, hearing the screams has been just under five minutes. That person was hospitalized and later released.

We talked to several people who have visited the Wells of Lucifer and all of them agreed that the area had an eerie aura to it. They felt as if someone were watching them. They all agreed the screams, which start low, seemed to get louder and louder, the longer they stood there. In the end, each one of them stumbled away, feeling disoriented and sick.

We also visited the Wells, and can confirm their supernatural nature. We were able to lower some recording equipment down into the hole, about two hundred and fifty feet down. We were only able to record a few seconds of audio before our equipment broke. We've posted the audio below. Listen at your own risk, MMers, this is pretty scary stuff.

The Wells of Lucifer

Stay safe out there, Maine. 

Desert of Bone

Good evening MMers! We hope you all have sweet dreams tonight, unlike several of our readers have been having lately. Normally weird dreams aren’t something to write to us about, but we have been getting reports from all over the state of people having the same strange dream. 

“It starts with me waking up in a desert,” Katie from Freeport told us. “The sky is grey, the sand is this really deep red and feels really scratchy. All over the sand are these white trees, or at least they look like trees that are this bleached white color. I feel like I walk for hours in this dream and never get to where I am supposed to be, and the whole time I just feel scared.”

The desert and trees have a similar feel to this

Joe from Standish has reported a similar dream, “Its been happening for a few weeks now, I go to sleep and almost immediately wake up in this freaky desert. The sand is coarse and gets everywhere, and there are these white pillars everywhere. At first I thought they were trees, but when I got close they were bleached bone. And not regular bone, it was covered in these tiny spurs almost like there was something wrong with whatever died and left them.”

What does Javier see in the distance?

Javier from York reported that he has had these dreams for months now. “I get a little further towards my goal every time. I have no idea what ‘the goal’ is, but I feel like I’m getting very close. I saw something in the distance last night, but the heat coming off the horizon kept it obscured, whatever it was was dark and huge.”

Whatever this dream is, it seems to be affecting a large amount of people, we can only hope it is something innocent and not a portent of something dark looming on the horizon. If you or anyone you know is experiencing these dreams please write to us. Stay safe out there Maine!

Black Tarot

 Good Morning, MMers! We've got a story for you that spreads out all over the state. Several of our loyal readers have sent us emails about a mysterious envelope they have received in the mail. The envelope itself is black, about 3.5 inches by 5 inches. The recipient's name and address are written in silver ink. There is no return address, and strangely enough, no postage. So far, four different people have contacted us about these envelopes, Larry Gilbert from York, Sharon Messina from Farmington, Dominic Stoddard from Corinth, and Sara Burgess from North Yarmouth. 

Here's, Sara Burgess. 

"This envelope just showed up one morning," she wrote us. "I didn't know what it was, but figured someone sent me a card or something. It felt heavy, like one of those nice cards. It wasn't my birthday or anything, but you never know. So when I opened it I was shocked the find these five cards."

Sara recognized them as tarot cards, but there was something off about them. "I don't know much about tarot cards - just from like movies and stuff, but just looking at them, something didn't feel right."

The cards themselves were slightly larger than playing cards, about four inches long and 2 3/4 inches wide. Their backs were black dull gold designs reminiscent of fancy playing cards, with two eyes staring outwards. 

The back of the cards each received

The other side, the face sides, were terrifying. Here's Dominic Stoddard:

"When I was a kid, I read those Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books. Scared the crap out of me. The art looked like that, but I did some looking on the internet, and it clearly isn't the same guy. I can't find these images anywhere."

For those readers who are unfamiliar, the art of Stephen Gammell is quite terrifying in its simplicity and style. It's given thousands of readers nightmares for decades, but Dominic was right - this wasn't the work of Gammell. His agent even clarified it for us stating, "This is not Mr. Gammell's work, though obviously an inspired imitation." 

Sharon Messina was shocked. "My mailbox is at the post office - a P.O. Box you know - and yet there was this envelope. I asked the postmaster, but he had never seen it. He couldn't explain it either."

Larry Gilbert, fifty-two, recognized what was wrong right away. "The art was unsettling, for sure, but at the end of the day that's just pictures. It was the cards themselves that was all wrong. As a kid I got really hooked on this occult stuff, you know? Aleister Crowley, H. P. Lovecraft, tarot, all that stuff. So I sorta knew the cads, and these were cards of the major arcana that don't exist in any tarot deck I've ever seen."

For those who don't know, a tarot deck is broken into two sections - the minor arcana, consisting of four suits of fourteen cards (1-10 and 4 "face" cards) and the major arcana (22 suitless face cards). Unlike playing cards, the suits of the minor arcana are typically: swords, cups, coins, and batons. The suits of these cards were blades, wands, sigils, and grails, all pretty clear interpretations of the familiar suits. It was the major arcana that differed wildly.

These cards, which we are dubbing the "Black Tarot" contain cards not found in the normal major arcana; cards with titles like, "The Necromancer" or "The Black Sun." It's clear this deck has drawn some sort of twisted inspiration from a traditional deck, but seem to be something of their own.

There seems to be no connection between the recipients. They have little in common. They do not know one another, are separated by locations, ages, jobs, you name it, these four people seem to be randomly selected. So why did each one of them receive five of these Black Tarot cards in the mail. These could be construed as a spread of some kind. Here's one such spread:

What these could mean and who is sending them is still a mystery. We asked all four of the recipients for pictures of their cards, and they were happy to oblige. Without knowing what the cards all mean, what the spread is, and maybe most importantly, what the initial question asked was, it's almost impossible to determine what all of this means. Still, it doesn't stop Sara Burgess from feeling creeped out.

"It's weird, you know?" she said said. "I mean, who has all these creepy cards and why send them to me? How do they even know me? I don't know, it just feels like... like an invasion of privacy or something."

If you have any information about the Black Tarot, their meaning, or sender, please reach out to us at malevolentmaine@gmail.com. 

Sara Burgess' cards

Larry Gilbert's spread

Dominic Stoddard's spread

Sharon Messina's spread

Stay safe out there, Maine.

Tiverton

Heads up, MMers! We've got a real spooky story for you on this Friday the 13th! This one concerns the town of Tiverton in Franklin County. Not many people have heard of Tiverton and that's because there are only 12 full time residents! That's because Tiverton is known a vortex of dark energy. Visitors to the town, which was originally settled by Puritans in 1692, have reported seeing orbs of light, wolf-shaped black shadows, and hearing disembodied voices whispering their names. 

Then there's the mysterious group said to patrol the woods around Tiverton. They're called the Dark Watch and some say they're a cult of descendants of the original inhabitants. Others claim they're a group of black magicians who want to keep people from entering the town.

If you do visit Tiverton, make sure you don't take anything home with you. Reports say that anyone who takes an artifact from the town will be cursed. Dark shadowy figures will follow you around and terrorize you. 

One loyal MMer, Torey from Bath, claims he took a small statue he found in an abandoned building. He said that at first he just had some bad dreams. Soon he began to see shadow people around his house and heard strange noises, like a cross between a growl and some sort of whispering. He said every night the shadow people got closer and closer to his bed.

We haven't heard from Torey in some time, but we're sure he's fine. If anyone hears from him, please let us know. And as always, stay safe out there, Maine.

courtesy of Torey, 2019

courtesy of Torey, 2019