Happy Halloween, neighbors! New England just happens to be home to some of the most haunted places. In the spirit of the holiday we thought we'd share a few of our favorites with you. Stay spooky today and enjoy these stories. The Mercy Brown Vampire Incident, which occurred in 1892, is one of the best documented cases of the exhumation of a corpse in order to perform rituals to banish an undead manifestation. In Exeter, Rhode Island, the family of George and Mary Brown suffered a sequence of tuberculosis infections in the final two decades of the 19th century. Tuberculosis was called "consumption" at the time and was a devastating and much-feared disease. The mother, Mary, was the first to die of the disease, followed in 1888 by their eldest daughter, Mary Olive. Two years later, in 1890, their son Edwin also became sick. In 1891, another daughter, Mercy, contracted the disease and died in January 1892. She was buried in the cemetery of the Baptist Church in Exeter. Friends and neighbors of the family believed that one of the dead family members was a vampire (although they did not use that name) and caused Edwin's illness. This was in accordance with threads of contemporary folklore linking multiple deaths in one family to undead activity. Consumption was a poorly understood condition at the time and the subject of much superstition. George Brown was persuaded to exhume the bodies, which he did with the help of several villagers on March 17, 1892. While the bodies of both Mary and Mary Olive had undergone significant decomposition over the intervening years, the more recently buried body of Mercy was still relatively unchanged and had blood in the heart. This was taken as a sign that the young woman was undead and the agent of young Edwin's condition. The cold New England weather made the soil virtually impenetrable, essentially guaranteeing that Mercy's body was kept in freezer-like conditions in an above-ground crypt during the 2 months following her death. Mercy's heart was removed from her body, burnt, and the remnants mixed with water and given to the sick Edwin to drink. He died two months later. Read more: The Mercy Brown incident was the inspiration for Caitlín R. Kiernan's short story, "So Runs the World Away," which makes explicit reference to the affair. It is also referred to in H. P. Lovecraft's "The Shunned House". Mercy Brown's story was the inspiration for a young adult novel, "Mercy: The Last New England Vampire" by Sarah L. Thomson.
The widowed bride of Mount Washington from the hotel's website. As a part of Italian tradition and superstition, the artisans and laborers who built the Mount Washington Hotel varied the number of steps to the second floor (thirty-three from the registration area and thirty-one in the South Tower) to confuse ghosts in the hotel. The stairs haven’t confused one ghost in particular. Carolyn Stickney, the widowed bride of the Mount Washington Hotel’s owner, played a principal role in the development of the hotel and visited the hotel season every year. She became known as “the Princess” after marrying French royal, Prince Jean Baptiste Marie de Faucigny Lucinge, and often held extravagant parties in her own private dining room, now called the Princess Lounge. After her death in 1936, caretakers and managers prowling the property during the winter hibernation months reported catching glimpses of the Princess descending the stairs for dinner or lights switching on and off in one of the towers. The Princess often returns to a third-floor guest room at the Mount Washington Hotel, where her four poster maple bed still resides. Several guests staying in that room have reported being awakened to find a woman sitting at the end of the bed, brushing her hair. Hotel employees often pose for photos in front of the hotels veranda and one year, employees made a startling discovery in an enhanced photo. When the picture was blown up, viewers could see a woman in the window of the Princess’s room. No one had checked into the room and it was said to be vacant. Bridgewater Triangle and the haunted Freetown State Forest. The Bridgewater Triangle refers to an area of about 200 square miles within southeastern Massachusetts in the United States claimed to be a site of alleged paranormal phenomena, ranging from UFO's to poltergeists and orbs, balls of fire and other spectral phenomena, various "bigfoot" sightings, giant snakes and "thunderbirds", as well as the mutilation of cattle and other livestock. Within the triangle, the Freetown-Fall River State Forest has reportedly been the site of various cult activity including animal sacrifice, ritualistic murders committed by admitted Satanists, as well as a number of gangland murders and a number of suicides. The Hockomock Swamp, which means "Place Where The Spirits Dwell," is another spot for paranormal activity within the triangle. Specific boundaries of the Bridgewater Triangle were first defined by paranormal researcher Loren Coleman in his book Mysterious America. and said to encompass the towns of Abington, Brockton, Rehoboth and Freetown at the points of the triangle, and Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, East Bridgewater, Whitman, Middleboro, Dighton, Berkley, Raynham, Norton, Easton, Lakeville, Seekonk, and Taunton inside the triangle. Similar claims have been made about an area in neighboring Vermont called the Bennington Triangle. UFO sightings: During the 1970s a number of UFO reports originated from the area of the Triangle, including an account by multiple witnesses at Joseph's Restaurant in Rehoboth in 1973, reports from two Boston radio reporters (channel WHDH) on March 23, 1979, and reported in the Sunday Enterprise. Bigfoot sightings: There have been several reported sightings of a bigfoot-like creature in the triangle, usually near the Hockomock swamp. Joseph DeAndrade claimed to see a half man and half ape creature entering the woods near the swamp in 1978. Local resident John Baker also reported seeing a large hairy beast in a river in the swamp while canoeing. Thunderbird sightings: Giant birds or pterodactyl-like flying creature with wingspans 8–12 feet are claimed to have been seen in Hockomock Swamp and neighboring Taunton, including a report by Norton Police Sergeant Thomas Downy. Spooklights: Will-o'-the-wisp, sometimes known as ghost lights, a phenomenon typically seen in boggy or swampy areas, has been reported. These lights are also said to appear along train tracks every January, and foxfire has often been observed within the swamp. Animal mutilations: Various incidents of animal mutilation have been reported, particularly in Freetown and Fall River, where local police were called to investigate mutilated animals believed to be the work of a cult. Two specific incidents in 1998 were reported: one in which a single adult cow was found butchered in the woods; the other in which a group of calves were discovered in a clearing, grotesquely mutilated as if part of a ritual sacrifice. Satanic Rituals: The Freetown-Fall River State Forest (within the Triangle) has been the site of several gruesome murders purported to be committed by Satanists or otherwise consistent with Satanic rituals. Indian curses: According to one tale, the Native Americans had cursed the swamp centuries ago because of the poor treatment they received from the Colonial settlers. 
The Hoosac Tunnel The Hoosac Tunnel is a 4.75-mile-long railroad tunnel in western Massachusetts which passes through the Hoosac Range, an extension of Vermont's Green Mountains. Work began in 1848 and was finally completed in 1875. It's said to be the site of strange ghostly apparitions and noises. Most of the stories come from the horrific tales of the 193 lives that were lost during construction and lead to the nickname "The Bloody Pit." The Hoosac Tunnel was the first commercial use of nitroglycerin in the United States. Some lives were lost due to the unstable nature of nitroglycerin, but many more were lost to the even more unstable black powder, which was used before nitroglycerin was introduced. A number of others were killed by the horrendous Central Shaft accident. The accident was one of the most fatal; it occurred while digging the tunnel's 1,028-foot (313 m) vertical exhaust shaft, called 'Central Shaft.' On October 17, 1867, a lighted candle in the hoist building ignited naphtha fumes which had leaked from a 'Gasometer' lamp, triggering an explosion. The hoist caught fire and collapsed into the shaft. Four men near the top of the shaft escaped, but thirteen men working 538 feet (164 m) below were trapped, killed by falling flaming naphtha and pieces of iron. The pumps were also destroyed, and the shaft began to fill with water. A worker named Mallory was lowered into the shaft by rope the next day; he was overcome by fumes and reported no survivors. Workers assumed that nobody at the bottom survived, so no further rescue attempts were made. However, when the first workers got to the bottom several months later, they found that workers had, indeed, survived and had built a makeshift raft, but had died, suffocated by the fire. On the afternoon of March 20, 1865, three explosive experts named Ned Brinkman, Billy Nash and Ringo Kelley decided to use nitroglycerine to continue their work on the tunnel. They placed a charge and then ran back toward a safety bunker that would shield them from the effects of the blast. Brinkman and Nash never made it there however. For some reason, Ringo Kelley set off the charge before the other men could make it to shelter. The two men were buried alive under tons of rock. Soon after the accident, Kelley vanished without a trace, leading many to believe that the "accident" with the nitro may not have been an accident after all. He was not seen until a year later when his body was discovered inside the tunnel. It was found at almost the exact spot where Brinkman and Nash had been killed. The authorities quickly deduced that Kelley had been strangled to death. The death was thoroughly investigated but no suspects were ever found and the crime went unsolved. On October 16, 1874 a local hunter named Frank Webster vanished near Hoosac Mountain. Three days later, he was found by a search party, stumbling along the banks of the Deerfield River. He was in a state of shock, mumbling incoherently and falling down. He explained to his rescuers that strange voices had ordered him into the Hoosac Tunnel and once he was inside, he saw ghostly figures wandering around. He also said that invisible hands had snatched his hunting rifle away from him and that he had been beaten with it. He couldn’t remember leaving the tunnel. Members of the search party recalled that Webster did not have his rifle when he was found and the cuts and abrasions on his head and body did seem to bear evidence of a beating. Locals in the area still claim that strange winds, ghostly apparitions and eerie voices are experienced around and in the daunting tunnel. Some researches have left tape reorders in the tunnel and have reported hearing what seems to be muffled voices when they play back the tape. There is also rumor of a hidden room in the tunnel. The room is said to be bricked up and house unspeakable horror. Visit HoosacTunnel.net/ghosts for some more Hoosac ghost stories from Marc Howe. 
The Lizzie Borden House in Fall River. Growing up in Southeastern New England, everyone learns the skipping rope rhyme of the Lizzie Borden murders. Lizzie Borden took an axe And gave her mother forty whacks, When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one. Sounds terrible coming from the lips of children. But when you think about that’s sort of what happened. And as they get older, the Borden family murder trial is taught in history class. There is no evidence proving that Andrew and Abby were hit 40 times, but they were murdered by an axe. Although their daughter Lizzie was accused and tried for the murders, she was actually acquitted. 1892 was a different time for the prosperous textile mecca of Fall River, MA. No one knows what really happened on that late Summer morning of August 4. Several theories exist by historians and there still remains a dispute as to who the killer is, but no one has uncovered the truth so far. At the time, the whole city blamed Lizzie however. She even changed her name, but remained in Fall River where she passed away. Today, the Borden house where the murders took place still stands at 92 Second Street in Fall River, MA. It has been preserved by the Historical Preservation Society of Fall River, MA. The new owners have turned it into a Bed & Breakfast Inn and Museum. Guests can stay overnight if they dare and have a nice breakfast the next morning simialar to the final meal of the Bordens. They can also take a tour of the murder scene and purchase books on the murder trial and other goodies in the gift shop. That’s not all. Since such horrific murders took place here, it is considered one of the most haunted places in America. Visit it for yourself and feel the erie chill down your spine. The TAPS crew from Warwick, RI even investigated it on an episode of SyFy’s Ghosthunters. In fact, numerous tours over the years have taken place for television and other paranormal groups. Next time your headed to Cape Cod and drive over the Braga Bridge, you’ll notice the sign that reads, “Lizzie Borden House this exit.” Take it and stop at the house for a short break and see for yourself. Happy Halloween!