The Black Triangle

5/19/2024

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
There is a 200 square-mile area in Eastern Massachusetts known as the Bridgewater Triangle, as well as the more ominous-sounding Black Triangle.

Profile Rock c.1902

This piece of land in Eastern Massachusetts is believed to be the source for sightings of Bigfoot, UFOs, giant black panthers, ghosts and disembodied voices, as well as a weird energy especially at the center which is Hockomock Swamp, the largest swampland in New England. The 3 main points are Abington, Rehoboth and Freetown. It's a hard place to navigate, and many believe this allows unknown creatures to exist there.

According to the Wampanoag tribe that lived in this area, Hockomock translates to the "place where spirits dwell". The American colonists named it "Devil's Swamp", claiming there were ghosts and flying creatures seen there.

Sightings of bigfoot have been reported, the most interesting story dates back to the 1970s, when one went on to kill pigs and sheep. Police responded but nothing was found.

Profile Rock in Freetown State Forest is the site of murders and satanic activity as well.

It's believed the negative energy that encompasses the forest attracts those with evil on their mind, while others believe that since it's just off Route 24 in Assonet, it's a convenient place to dump a body.

Assonet Ledge, which is remote location has a sighting of a ghostly figure that stands atop the ledge before leaping into nothingness. Granite from Assonet Ledge was used to construct Taunton Asylum.

At Copicut Road a phantom truck driver follows drivers, making motions with his arms before disappearing.

Horbine School in Rehoboth, built in the 1840s was used until 1937. The one room school is said to be haunted by its former students. Visitors have reported hearing voices. The school was renovated in 1968 and many believe this work stirred the spirits.

Mary Lou Arruda 1963-1978

In 1978, two days after she turned 15, Mary Lou Arruda was reported missing. She was last seen by a newspaper delivery boy about a quarter mile from her home in Raynham. Her bicycle was found in a wooded area, and police suspected foul play as tire tracks were located close by, as well as a butt from a Benson & Hedges cigarette.

Witnesses later described seeing a bright green car with a black racing stripe. Three days after she disappeared police circulated a poster with the composite likeness of the driver.

His name was James Kater, and on September 19 he came to meet policem with his wife and an attorney. He drove a 1976 Opel that matched the description given by the witnesses, and he smoked Benson & Hedges. He was on probation for an incident in 1969. He had pled guilty to assault with intent to rape, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and kidnapping which stemmed from an attack on a young girl in 1968. Abducted while riding her bike, she was tied to a tree but managed to escape. Kater served 6 and half years for this crime. He denied any knowledge of what happened to Arruda.

Two months after she disappeared a dirt bike rider found the badly decomposed body of Mary Lou Arruda, tied to a tree in Freetown-Fall River State Forest. The M.E. concluded she died due to positional asphyxia caused by a ligature around her neck, after she became unconscious while tied to the tree. It was determined she died the same day she went missing. Her identity was confirmed by dental records.

In 1979 Kater was convicted of 1st degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. His conviction would be overturned two more times until 1996, when he was convicted and sentenced to a federal prison in California where he was moved for his own safety.

Kater died in 2016 while serving his sentence.

Mary Lou's parents outlived him. Her father died in 2022 and her mother the following year.

Lisa Arcudi was found shot to death in a field within the Black Triangle in 1978

The murder of Mary Lou Arruda was not the only violent crime committed within the Bridgewater Triangle.

While a search was being conducted for Arruda, the body of Lisa Arcudi, 17, was found with 4 bullet wounds in an East Bridgewater field. She lived in Martha's Vineyard, and a composite sketch was circulated by police of a driver she hitchhiked with. She had been shot at close range, and one of the bullets entered her heart. She was not raped but was barefoot, and it was believed she lost her shoes while running from her attacker. Her murder remains unsolved.

Taunton State Hospital, c.1970

Taunton State Hospital runs the full gamut of ghostly phenomena, from touches by unseen hands to hair pulling. Parts of the hospital were said to be used by satanic cults in the 1960s and 70s.

Originally known as the State Lunatic Hospital it was built in 1854 on a 154 acre piece of land. In 1975, the main part of the hospital was closed and abandoned. In 1999, the large dome in the administration building collapsed, and in 2008 a fire consumed the theater and administration building. In 2009 it was demolished and architectural features were sold.

One of its patients was Antonio Santoro (AKA Anthony Santo) born in 1894, who had immigrated with his family from Italy. In June 1908, when he was 14 years old he was questioned regarding the theft of a bicycle. He told the startled police that he killed his two cousins James and Frank Marino in Brooklyn, New York in March 1908. He killed James by hitting him on the head with a stone. He killed Frank with a pocket knife and buried him in the woods. He couldn't remember what he had done with James' body.

Louisa Staula (1901-1908) her murder has never been solved, and Antonio Santoro who was mentally ill confessed to the crime but no one believed him.

When the authorities in Norton contacted Brooklyn, this crime had not been reported.

Santoro then went on to confess to the murder of Louisa Staula of Dedham, whose body was discovered in May 1908. The 6-year old was found in the Charles River meadow where she had been stoned to death. He also claimed to have assassinated President McKinley and he was sent to Taunton for an examination. His parents claimed he contracted scarlet fever when he was 7 years old, and had not been right since.

Investigation of his claims by the police showed there were no family named Marino at 461 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, and other tenants confirmed that no one by that name had lived there for at least a year. The doctor determined Santoro was not connected to the Staula death. Strangely though when the child's body was discovered by police, before Santoro's confession, they surmised it was the work of a lunatic. Her killer was never officially identified.

It's unknown what became of Santoro, whether he was committed to Taunton or released back to his family since technically he was not guilty of any crime, just being "feeble-minded" which was the term used in those days.

Honora Kelley aka Jane Toppan an angel of mercy serial killer who claimed 31 victims

Another inmate at Taunton was Honora Kelley a.k.a. Jane Toppan who despite having dispatched at least 31 people, at one time was nicknamed Jolly Jane. She was a serial killer known as an "angel of mercy".

She was born to Irish immigrant parents. Her mother Bridget died when she was young, and her father was an alcoholic who was known as "Kelley the Crack" due to his erratic behavior. After his wife's death Kelley turned his two youngest daughters Delia, 8, and Honora, 6, over to the Boston Female Asylum, which was an orphanage for girls.

Delia became a prostitute, an older sister Nellie was committed to an insane asylum and Honora was placed as an indentured servant in 1862. The Toppans never formally adopted Honora, but she changed her first name to Jane and took on their surname.

In 1885, Jane Toppan as she was known then, trained as a nurse and while she was killing her elderly patients with morphine or atropine, she was so well-liked she earned the moniker of "Jolly Jane". She went on to work at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1889, where she killed more victims and was fired within a year. She returned to her prior employer and was dismissed due to administering opiates recklessly. She worked as a private nurse, and began in earnest to kill others besides patients.

In 1894, she killed her landlord Israel Dunham and his wife. Five years later she killed her foster sister Elizabeth Toppan Brigham with a dose of strychnine.

In 1901, Toppan moved in with Alden Davis, when his family hired her to take care of him. She had already murdered his wife Mattie. Within weeks she poisoned Davis, his sister Edna and his two daughters, Minnie and Genevieve. The family grew suspicious and order a toxicology screening on Minnie and the results came back that she had been poisoned.

Toppan was arrested, and in 1902 confessed to 31 murders. She admitted the murders satisfied a sexual fetish. The Hoosier State Chronicles reported that Toppan would fondle her dying patients as an attempt to the inner workings of their souls through their eyes.

Once she poisoned a housekeeper whose job she wanted in order to make her appear drunk, even though she had plans to kill the housekeeper's family eventually. She also poisoned herself to get sympathy from men who were courting her.

Despite claiming she was sane, the courts found her insane and committed her to Taunton where she lived until 1938 when she died at the age of 84.

The ghostly hitchhiker on Route 44 is well known in the Black Triangle area

Along Route 44 in Seekonk, a red-headed hitchhiker described as a man with long red hair and beard is seen walking along the roadside. He is disheveled and dressed in a work outfit.

His eyes are reported as being normal, or glowing red or yellow, or just empty, dark sockets where his eyeballs would be.

When motorists stop to give him a lift, he disappears. Others have actually driven through him.

Is this bedeviled area a portal to another dimension? Is this why strange creatures, phantoms and unexplained acts of violence concentrate in these 200 miles? Perhaps one day we'll know, but for now the Black Triangle keeps its secrets.

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