Shownotes Transcript
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Welcome, legendary listeners. Thanks for tuning in to From the Vault, a second look at some of our classic episodes. Look for a new episode every week. Now, can you go back and listen on your own at OurNewEnglandLegends.com? You bet. But you won't get the added bonus of an After the Legends segment featuring new commentary about that episode from your old pals Jeff and Ray. So let's open up the New England Legends Vault and revisit another legendary episode.
Welcome to the vault. We're so glad you are here with us in the vault. This was a fun one. The Pitcher Man of Goose River Bridge, first aired October 24th, 2019. Enjoy. Okay, so just up here, we'll take a left onto Pascal Avenue. Yep, I see it. And yeah, there it is. This is the Goose River Bridge. All right. Well, it's pretty enough here by the water in Rockport, Maine.
So what are we looking for? Ray, we're looking for a ghost. Well, that makes sense. It's October. It's a good time for ghosts. Anything special about this ghost that we should know before we start, Jeff? This may turn out to be our single favorite ghost in all of New England. Why's that? Because we're searching for the Pitcher Man of Goose River Bridge. And they say if you see him, he may just offer you a beer.
Hi, I'm Jeff Belanger. And I'm Ray Ogier. Welcome to episode 114 of the New England Legends podcast. If you give us about 10 minutes, we'll give you something strange to talk about today. For 114 weeks in a row, we've been on a mission to chronicle every legend in New England, one story at a time.
We're doing that through this podcast. We are. Through our website, which is OurNewEnglandLegends.com, through our super secret Facebook group, and through the New England Legends television series on PBS and Amazon Prime. And there's a brand new episode of the now seven-part TV series that you can watch right this minute.
on Amazon Prime Video. It's called Legendary Road Trip Exploring Wicked Strange Ghosts, Graves, and Roadside Oddities. So please check it out. And we'd also like to thank our Patreon patrons, of course, who are sponsoring this episode. Thank you. The show takes a lot of time, effort, and expenses. The more we have to work with, the more we can give right back to you. If you'd like to vote with your wallet and help us out, please go to patreon.com slash newenglandlegends
And for as little as three bucks per month, you'll get early access to new episodes plus bonus episodes that nobody else gets to hear. Hey, also, if you enjoy the show, please post a review for us. Yeah. Tell a friend or two. We're building a huge community of legend seekers, and we appreciate you being a part of it. Okay, Ray, we can't exactly pull the car over on Goose River Bridge. We'll have to find a place to park. Right over there. Okay. Turn here on High Street, and we can park right on the corner in Kramer Park.
All right, Jeff, I've never been so focused on finding a ghost since we started doing this show. You said he'll have a beer for us? Yeah, that's what they say. Not just a beer, but a whole pitcher? Yeah, we're looking for a ghost that locals call the Pitcher Man. I love it. From here in Kramer Park, we can easily see Goose River Bridge, maybe 100 feet or so to our right. On the far side of the bridge is Rockport Harbor. The water comes right up to the bridge, and Goose River right behind us is more like a stream running into the harbor.
The beer-drinking ghost we're looking for is William Richardson, and to figure out why he's haunting this bridge, we're going to head back to 1779, back when the town of Rockport was called Goose River. ♪
This is the time of the American Revolution. The colonies are fighting for British independence. Well, not everyone, though. There's plenty of Tories around. These people live in the colonies, but they're still loyal to the British crown. They don't want independence. It's a seriously troubled time. Neighbors don't trust each other depending on their political views.
I can tell you there's one guy in town who's no fan of British rule, and his name is William Richardson. And it turns out he's got good reason. British ships and soldiers are constantly landing in the nearby harbor and taking whatever supplies they may need from the townspeople. And sometimes they've been known to torch crops or buildings they don't need in an effort to hurt the rebellion. When British ships pull into port, some of the folks in town have been known to hide in the woods with their muskets and try and pick off an officer or two.
Some of the more musically inclined and clever Goose River locals would grab a drum and start drumming a march.
While another man called out military attack orders to soldiers who didn't exist. The tactic often worked and spooked the British. William Richardson loves hearing these stories about how his friends and neighbors thwarted the Brits. And then, one day, Richardson has his turn. You see, Richardson pilots a fishing boat in these waters. It's how he earns his living. And one day, he spots a privateer's vessel captained by a man named Samuel Tucker bearing down the coast.
Captain Tucker had recently, let's say, relieved the British of a giant cargo of tea. Okay. And the Brits were, you know, not too happy about it. Well, yeah. I mean, it's already been established back in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773, during the Boston Tea Party. It's already established we know the Brits have no sense of humor when it comes to losing their tea. No, they don't. And a British warship is chasing down Captain Tucker.
William Richardson sees the chase and decides this is his moment to act. Follow my lead, Captain Tucker. Richardson shouts to the privateer. Captain Tucker puts his faith in the stranger who guides his ship through the tricky waters along Maine's coast. Richardson leads Tucker's ship just south of Goose River to a harbor called Harpswell where they hide. But there's a problem. The British ship catches up and blocks the mouth of the harbor to wait for reinforcements.
And when it rains, it pours. A storm moves in, making the waters even more dangerous. Captain Tucker thinks this is the end, but Richardson sees an opportunity. They'd be crazy to follow us in the storm, Tucker. Richardson shouts out to the other boat, and with that, he leads Captain Tucker through the choppy waters, through the storm, along a dangerous coast, sneaking right past the British ship and out into open waters where Captain Tucker sails on to Boston.
By the time the British realize Captain Tucker is gone, it's too late. They never see their tea again. Back in the town of Goose River, William Richardson quickly becomes a local hero as word of his deed starts to spread. At least those on the side of the revolution think he's a hero. The Tories, well, they loathe the man. They view him as a traitor.
From here we jump ahead just two years. It's October 19th, 1781, and British General Charles Cornwallis and 8,000 of his troops are down in Yorktown, Virginia, completely surrounded by American General George Washington and French General Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau, along with 17,000 of their men. Cornwallis has no choice but to surrender to Washington. In effect, he's the only one who can do it.
ending the American Revolution. Now word travels fast up the coast that the war is pretty much over. America just won its independence. And the word travels all the way up to Goose River, Maine, where celebrations break out all over town. And not one to miss a party at the expense of a British surrender, William Richardson hits the tavern for some ale.
Spirits are high. There's so much hope for this new nation. And William Richardson is getting loaded. Though the tavern is packed, he figures there aren't nearly enough people out celebrating. So he takes to the streets of Goose River. We won! Damn the British, we won! Come drink with me! Richardson is carrying two pitchers of beer and stumbling from house to house, yelling for those inside to come on out and join him. And then he stumbles his way toward the wooden bridge that crosses Goose River.
There's more houses on the other side, and he's pretty determined to go rouse those people. In his drunken haze, Richardson sees three men on horseback approaching from the other side of the bridge. Have you heard where one? Here.
Have a drink with me. What Richardson doesn't know is that these men are Tories, and they're furious. Without a word, the lead rider lifts his musket and smashes Richardson in the face, crushing his skull. Richardson drops to the bridge dead, and the men ride off.
No one was ever caught for the murder, and the folks in Goose River are devastated by the loss of old Bill Richardson. Though he was gone in body, he seemed to be very much around in spirit. This bridge has been haunted by him ever since. And that brings us back to today. ♪
Ray, remember where we parked our car next to the bridge? Sure, right here in Kramer Park. Yeah, so for local teens, that's kind of a town spot to, you know, park? Ah, I can see that. It's small, surrounded by trees. So they affectionately refer to this place as the Passion Pit. And it's also home of ghost sightings. So teenagers will be in their dark cars, completely, well, you know, distracted, when some reported man will approach the vehicle. When they open the window to get a better look, a ghost is there.
A ghostly figure holds out a pitcher of beer. Care for a drink? And that sends the teens racing out of the Passion Pit directly towards purer pursuits. That it does. All right, Jeff, so the ghost of Bill Richardson carrying pitchers of beer has not only been seen on the bridge, but also around it? Yeah, right. And those who don't even know the story refer to him as the Pitcher Man of Goose River. Exactly. Okay, I love this ghost. Yeah.
What's not to love? I mean, patriotism, beer, a gregarious drunk who likes to share? Right, all that. But with Ghostly Legends, we always start at the end, right? Yeah, of course. That's how it works. And at the end of this story is a partying drunken ghost offering up the suds to those lucky enough to pass by. Yeah, that's what they say. But, you know, if you actually ask yourself why he's here still celebrating, you get a story that connects you to the earliest days of the country. Yeah. And that's pretty awesome. I'll drink to that.
I'll drink to that as well. If you enjoy listening to us over a beer, tea, or whatever your favorite drink may be, please help spread the word. And if you don't already subscribe, you should because it's free. Find us on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. Also, be sure to check out the limited edition 2020 Haunted New England Wall Calendar featuring stories by Jeff Belanger and the eerie photography of Frank Grace. You can find a link to buy it on our website at OurNewEnglandLegends.com.
We'd like to thank Jim Harreld from the Paranormal Podcast for lending his voice acting talents this week. And our theme music is by John Judd. And did you know you can call our legend line anytime at 617-444-9683 and leave our show closing on our voicemail? That's what Jody did. Hi, it's Jody Maruca from Norwood. Until next time, remember, the bizarre is closer than you think. All right, we'll break it down right after a word from our sponsor.
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This one was fantastic. Not scary at all. I know kids went running from their cars because some guy is outside offering you beer. They must be too young. Might be see-through, but that's okay. Can't actually grab the beer. Is the beer real? Is it ghostly beer? It's amazing. I love it. A happy ghost. I mean, this guy seems pretty happy until the end, obviously. He was murdered. There was that. Sure. Right, yeah. But he's living his best afterlife. Yeah.
So we've always talked about, not always, but like we said, plenty of ghost stories center around a tragedy. This one, no different. The man was murdered. But they seem to replay something tragic, something sad, something awful. Right. And this guy was celebrating. Like, hey, the rebellion's working, right? We're going to break away from England. We're going to be our own country. This is going to be great. Let's drink. Let's party. Right.
And even though some Tories did him in. He gloated to the wrong guys. Right. Which. What side are you on before I start gloating? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But he didn't. Imagine a country so divided. The thing is, we never, we don't talk about the loyalists enough. Yeah.
Right. Because that was the wrong side of history. But there were tons of people that were like, no, I'm a British citizen. I'm loyal to the crown. I want to be British. This is part of Britain. You know, stop it. That's not, this isn't right. I want to be that.
But we never hear those stories because they lost. Right. Right. History is told by the winners. So it was the noble rebellion that fought tooth and nail and broke away from the crown and tyranny. And then, you know, it was probably a little like revisionist history where they're just like, oh, yeah, no, I was never loyalist.
I hated the crown. It sucked. Well, once they lost, I'm sure they switched sides quickly so that they weren't outed. Or you move. Or you move, right? Those are your options. Like, long boat back to England. Yeah. Or just given. Just accept. Like, this is where we live now, and it's going to be a democracy. It's not going to be, you know, a monarchy. So anyway, but no, I think that that's a—it's interesting to tell those tales that that was a really politically divided time. We just assume—
Growing up, you're like, oh, yeah, everyone wanted to be away from England. Everybody. Everybody. I mean, maybe one or two, like, governors or whatever that were appointed by the king and were getting rich. Maybe, but that's not what we learned in the books. No, what you learned in the books is, like, the whole nation rose up as one. Yeah. Well, you didn't rise up as one, but enough did. Yeah. That the majority pushed out, you know, the crown, and we became the United States of America. Yeah.
And then we celebrated like every good red-blooded American does. We drink. We drink. Yeah. I'm sure hot dogs, hamburgers, probably some buffalo wings, right? They probably had some of that going. Sure. Sparklers, all this stuff. I love that the guy had two pitchers in his hand, not just one glass, two glasses, one pitcher. He was double-fisted with pitchers of beer. I think they call that American handcuffs. Yeah.
Duck taped. You're going, no, no, you're going nowhere. Right. But you ever see the, what do they call him? Oh, no.
Edward Beer Hands. Edward Beer Hands. Yeah, you can't put them down. You tape them. So yeah, no, those are American handcuffs because if you've got a beer in each hand, where are you going? Right. Nowhere. How are you going to fight? You're staying right there until these are gone. It's a good tip to only have one hand free to dodge the bullets. No, to punch. Throw your punches. Yeah, yeah. And just remember which hand, like I'm a righty. Yeah. So hold my beer in my right hand.
I mean, my left hand. Right. And I had my right hand free, well, to grab another beer. If you can remember. For the beer nuts. Right, for the beer nuts. One hand for snacking, right? We're going to have to headbutt everybody. Right. Snacks, wings in one hand, beer in the other, and we'll just headbutt. See, that's what they do over in England, right? Yeah. On the other side of the pond, they headbutt. That's a thing, yeah. That's a soccer thing, I think. Excuse me, football. Right. Rugby, all that. What a sign of your prowess. What? That you're known to headbutt? No, they're just like...
I'm so nuts. I'll hit you. And you're like, oh, I don't want to fight you. Right. I could dodge a fist. There's a trick to it, though. If you're applying all the pressure, it doesn't hurt you as much. But if somebody caught you doing that and came back at you and they had a little bit more torque. Yeah. Then you're the one in pain. Let's try it. Yeah.
You stand still. Okay. I'll hit you first. I'll need a beer. And I think you've got to aim for the bridge of the nose too. Oh, well that, that'll just break the nose. Sure. Yeah, no, got it. Blood everywhere. Done. So, so Bill Richardson, I love this. First of all, you know,
the parking area of course is haunted, which that's no surprise. Right. But the idea that he's like, all right, well, that was, that was a rough ending, but I'm still going to celebrate. I'm still going to party. Yeah. You know, and, and still hand out the beer. And if that's a tale that the adults are telling the kids so that they won't park there, it's haunted, you know, why would you tell the story of a friendly ghost? Yeah. That's drinking beer. So we're here under age in a car and someone wants to give us alcohol. Yeah.
Right. And I should stay away. Right. What's better than that? A ghostly female that wants to get in the backseat. Right. You're just like, I don't understand what I should, I should not go here. Right. Cause sounds like a fun place to be to me. I got to clear my schedule. I'm going to be honest. Uh, we're going to do the, we're going to do a year long ghost hunt until Bill Richardson slows, you know, shows up with his beer. Right. Um, but no, it totally a fun story. And, uh, one thing that's interesting whenever we do these, I try to look up for any sort of followup, see if anything news happened. Um,
So we did this story in October of 2019. Boy, a lot of other podcasts covered it after 2019. Oh, did they really? I think people watch us and they're just like, oh, that's a story I hadn't heard. So we've been, well, imitations in serious form of flattery, I guess. But I was like, oh boy, it's coming up a lot. And I'm looking at the dates and I'm just like, oh, yeah. You can redo the stories. You just can't do them like us. That's all. Well, right. And one of the things I love about what we've been doing is that
I can't stress enough that so many leads come from you. You listen, you email us, and you live in a town your whole life and heard some obscure story. Obscure stories are our favorites, right? Because we know the stories we grew up with.
Because we grew up there. But we didn't grow up in every little town. Right. And so when someone shares those stories and you start to dig in and you're like, oh, this is fantastic. Yeah. And they don't all have to be crypted to a paranormal or anything. They could just be like this. Well, this is a ghost story. But weird. But we've covered just weird things. Yeah.
that have nothing to do with the unexplained. Right, right. That's one of my favorite things, like roadside oddities. Yeah, yeah. And roadside oddities don't, they often are modern, but they could also be like, oh, someone put up this pile of rocks because. Right. And then you find out it's the weirdest thing ever. Yeah. And then you're just like, what a great story.
And they're not all based in truth. We don't know sometimes. It's the legend itself that we talk about. Right. And sometimes you pass by a thing every single day and you give it no thought or a building. And I know we've had emails and comments like that. Like, I drive by this every day on the way to work and I've never given it any thought until I heard the podcast. And I went, oh my gosh, there's a story there.
And it was under my nose literally five days a week. I think everything has a story. Absolutely. Everything. Unless it's like a house built in the 70s. I'm looking at my neighbor's house thinking, probably doesn't have much of a story. But 100 years from now. It might, absolutely. Oh, man. Oh, man. Well, we have a story there. Sometimes you just got to play the long game. But yeah. So anyway, if you're ever near Goose River Bridge there in Rockport, Maine, nice area, by the way, fun area. Yeah.
You know, be sure to camp out and look for a ghost that might bring you some beer.