He knows Bay State's real haunts
While growing up in Newtown, Conn., Jeff Belanger said he was continually amazed by the matter-of-fact way in which his friends would say their old homes were haunted. It didn't take much, he said, for sleepovers to evolve into ghost-hunts with flashlights.
"From a young age, it was a 'wow' factor for me as opposed to creepy," said Belanger, who now lives in Bellingham. "I felt so compelled by the stories of their family members who would say, 'Someone else lives here. What are you going to do?' "
Belanger has made a career of his ghost-hunting ways, interviewing eyewitnesses of supernatural occurrences and writing "exclusively about odd subjects" for newspapers, magazines, and television shows. He launched Ghostvillage.com in 1999, and published "Weird Massachusetts: Your Travel Guide to Massachusetts' Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets" last spring.
In place of a traditional book reading, Belanger will instead lead a multimedia presentation about local legends, folklore, mysteries, and historical curiosities at Pollard Memorial Library in Lowell on Thursday at 7 p.m. The event, which is free and open to the public, will include subjects as varied as the Curse of the Bambino and two generations of murders at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast/Museum in Fall River - one of two sites at which Belanger believes he encountered ghosts.
"We all think other places are exotic and interesting, but there's so much worth seeing and experiencing in your own state," Belanger said. "If you look hard enough, maybe you will see something. Other people do. That's why people are so glued to the subject."
"Weird Massachusetts: Your Travel Guide to Massachusetts' Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets" is available at
CINDY CANTRELL 