Bad Moon Rising is the tale of the Red Wave and how ordinary people try and take a stand against an impossibly powerful and very dark enemy. Crow, Val, Mike, Dr. Weinstock, Newton and a handful of others are pitted against a true army of darkness. On Halloween night a very bad moon indeed will rise over Pine Deep.
There’s another note at the end of this book, so I’ll see you on the other side.
—JM
From The Black Marsh Sentinel, September 28
AMERICA’S HAUNTED HOLIDAYLAND
By Willard Fowler Newton
For most small towns a reputation for being haunted would turn away tourists and vacationers. But for Pine Deep, Pennsylvania, tucked into the wooded hills of Bucks County, the haunts are what draw the tourists by the tens of thousands. Several years ago Newsweek Magazine published a list of the “Most Haunted Towns in America,” and Pine Deep landed solidly in the top spot. More hauntings and weird happenings per capita than any other town in America, and that includes Salem, Massachusetts.
Since Colonial times Pine Deep has been the scene of strange happenings—murders, disappearances, odd behavior, and poltergeists. The town celebrates this reputation with a variety of spooky events designed to send chills up the spines of even the heartiest trick-or-treater. Pine Deep Authentic Candy Corn is the number-one treat for the little monsters that come around on Halloween; and pumpkin muffins and cakes are made locally and served on tables from Allentown to Philadelphia.
The Pine Deep Haunted Hayride, owned by town mayor Terry Wolfe, is the largest and most elaborate attraction of its kind in the country; and the accompanying Haunted House of Horrors has won the award for the Best Haunted House four years running from Attraction Industry magazine. All during October the Dead-End Drive-In features classic horror films from dusk till dawn, and the movie theaters in town and on the campus of Pinelands College hold continuous monster movie marathons.
The centerpiece of Pine Deep’s creepy celebrations is the Halloween Festival, which kicks off on Mischief Night and rolls on until dawn on November 1. This is a huge event that brings in many thousands of tourists and includes a parade, magic shows, dramatic re-enactments of classic moments from horror film, and much more. Topping the bill this year will be appearances by a number of celebrities from the world of horror entertainment, including special makeup effects master Tom Savini (who created the effects for most of the zombie films by Night of the Living Dead director George A. Romero); Ken Foree (star of the original Dawn of the Dead), James Gunn (screenwriter for the remake of Dawn of the Dead), Stephen Susco (screenwriter of the Grudge films), film critic Joe Bob Briggs, Hollywood stuntman and haunted-attraction consultant Jim O’Rear, and a pair of femme fatale scream queens, Brinke Stevens and Debbie Rochon.
Malcolm Crow, owner of the Crow’s Nest Craft Shop—which sells everything from Halloween costumes to scary novels to DVDs of classic horror films, is the man responsible for much of Pine Deep’s ghoulish fun. “Mayor Wolfe’s an old friend of mine,” he told reporters during a press conference for the Festival, “and he knows I have way too much interest in these spooky kinds of things. So…he hired me to amp up the shocks and frights at the Hayride and I’ve been helping to bring in the coolest horror industry celebrities so that this year’s Festival will be the best ever.”
It promises to be a terrifyingly good time for all!
For more information visit the Festival’s website at www.ghostroadblues.com/pine_deep_halloween.
From CNN, September 29
BUCKS COUNTY MANHUNT FOR COP KILLER
PHILADELPHIA—Three men are being sought by police following a deadly shoot-out in Philadelphia that left several people dead, including one officer. Names of the victims are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Details are still sketchy, but sources close to the commissioner’s office say that a drug buy between members of the Menditto crime family of South Philadelphia and a posse of Jamaicans from West Philly ended in a gun battle that left at least eleven dead. An as yet unnamed Philadelphia undercover narcotics officer was caught in the crossfire and was pronounced dead on arrival at Episcopal Hospital.
Witnesses say that three men were observed fleeing the scene, and at least one of them appeared to be badly injured.
From The Black Marsh Sentinel, September 30
MURDER IN PINE DEEP
By Willard Fowler Newton
Tragedy struck Pine Deep, Pennsylvania, last night as three armed gunmen, fleeing from a shoot-out with police in Philadelphia, brought violence and bloodshed to this sleepy rural town. The suspects have been tentatively identified as Karl Andermann Ruger, Kenneth Boyd and Anthony Macchio—all reputed to be members of the Menditto crime family of South Philly,
Police sources say that the gunmen eluded police roadblocks but were forced to stop in Pine Deep when their car broke down. Macchio’s mutilated body was found by the wrecked car. It is speculated that Karl Ruger, the leader of the crew, killed Macchio after a dispute over the split of money and drugs. A few torn bags of cocaine and bundles of bloodstained money were discovered at the scene.
From here the story took a bizarre and tragic turn as Ruger broke into the farmhouse of Henry Guthrie, one of Pine Deep’s most prominent and important farmers. Ruger took the whole Guthrie family hostage, including Guthrie, 65; daughter Val, 41; son Mark, 38; and daughter-in-law Connie, 37. After brutalizing the captives for several hours, Ruger took Guthrie and Val out into the cornfields on the pretense that he needed their help with Boyd, whom Ruger claimed had broken his leg in a rabbit hole. When they reached the spot where Boyd was supposed to be resting, the other gunman was gone, along with all of the money and cocaine.
Ruger flew into a rage. Guthrie, fearing for his family, tried to lure Ruger into a chase through the cornfields while Val headed back to the farmhouse to free her brother and sister-in-law. However Ruger coldly gunned down Henry Guthrie, leaving him to die in the rainstorm that assaulted the town that night.
“It’s a great tragedy,” said Mayor Terry Wolfe, a close family friend. “Henry Guthrie was the finest man I’ve ever known.”
Ruger got to the farmhouse first and after savagely beating Mark Guthrie, he attempted to sexually assault Connie. Val was able to interrupt the attack and draw Ruger outside, but was unable to elude the killer, who caught her in the yard and attempted to strangle her.
Luckily for her and the others in the town, Val Guthrie’s fiancé, Malcolm Crow, owner of a local craft shop and a former Pine Deep police officer, arrived in the very nick of time. Crow and Ruger fought in the rain and though details of the encounter are sketchy, it seems clear that Crow was able to overcome the killer. Police arrived shortly thereafter and in the confusion Ruger managed to pull a gun. During a brief gun battle Office Rhoda Thomas was shot twice in the chest and shoulder and is listed in stable condition. Crow was grazed by two bullets and was hospitalized from wounds received in the fight. Val, Mark, and Connie Guthrie were also admitted for treatment.
Though Crow and officer Jerry Head, a Philadelphia officer in Pine Deep to participate in the manhunt, both claim to have shot Karl Ruger, the killer escaped.
“We’ll get him,” insists Pine Deep Sheriff Gus Bernhardt. “We have Detectives Frank Ferro and Vince LaMastra from Philadelphia working with us and we’ve put together a big task force to hunt these men down.”