The Freetown-Fall River State Forest is a forest in Massachusetts, USA and a place where Satanic rituals were happening in 1979 and 1980. It is nicknamed the Cursed Forest of Massachusetts.
One of the earliest known murders in the forest happened in November 1978. The body of a 15-year-old Mary Lou Arruda was found tied to a tree in the woods. The girl was abducted two months prior. James M. Kater was convicted for the kidnapping and murder, but some believe the Satanic cult was responsible as a cross was found near her body. In 1987, a homeless man was accidentally killed in the same forest. In 2001, two men were shot on a road going through the woods. Many other assaults have been reported there as well.
But as I wrote at the beginning of the article, during the 1979 and 1980, this forest was where the murders committed by a Satanic cult were happening. The murders are also known as the Fall River Cult killings. Not only were people killed, animals were ritually sacrificed as well, evidenced by traces of animal blood and found carcasses of cattle.
The body of the first victim was found on 13 October 1979. The victim was a 17-year-old prostitute Doreen Levesque. She was found with wrists bound with fishing line, stabbed in the head several times and sexually tortured. The police suspected one of her clients of committing the murder, but that wasn’t the case. It was the Satanic cult she was a member of. More precisely, it was likely her violent pimp, 26-year-old Carl Drew. However, there were no evidence to link him to the murder. Karen Marsden, Drew’s other prostitute, referred to him as The Devil and told the police she was afraid of him. She was the one who openly said he murdered Doreen.
Another prostitute, 22-year-old Barbara Raposa worked around the same area as Doreen Levesque. She was reported missing by her boyfriend Andy Maltias, a pedophile, rapist, sexual sadist and a devout Christian who used to be a Satanist together with his girlfriend. He believed the cult was responsible for her disappearance. It’s important to point out Andy was also a pimp described as an intelligent and domineering person. He was also shrouded in mystery as prostitutes who talked about their murdered colleagues didn’t know much about him.
Still, he was correct to blame the cult. Karen Marsden said Drew organised the prostitution ring as a Satanic coven. She and another prostitute Carol Fletcher told the police the cult held their nocturnal gatherings in the Freetown State Forest. Marsden was afraid her body will be dumped there after having battery acid injected into her veins and her soul being offered to Satan for talking to the police.
It turned out Drew wasn’t the only dangerous person in the cult. Marsden’s 17-year-old friend and lover Robin Murphy was far from innocent. Even before being introduced to the Fall River’s Cult, she was known to be violent. She was also the one to tell the police it was Andy Maltias who murdered his girlfriend Barbara Raposa because she was cheating on him. She claimed she has been with them on the night of the murder. Maltias and Raposa started arguing. He then pulled over, raped her, beat her with his firsts and a rock and left her to die. Murphy claimed she didn’t report him sooner fearing retribution. Her testimony was full of holes, but Maltias was already known as problematic, so it was enough to put him behind bars.
Murphy also claimed to be present during the Levesque’s murder. She said her killing has been an offering to Satan and Drew was responsible for it. Levesque wanted to start working on her own and leave the cult and Drew couldn’t let that happen. Murphy claimed Levesque was murdered out of her sight, but she let no sound. That testimony wasn’t plausible as her injuries pointed to sexual assault, prolonged torture and a very bloody death.
Eventually, Karen Marsden’s skull was found in the forest. Former prostitute Maureen Sparda contacted the police and told them Robin Murphy was the murderer as she admitted it to her during a phone conversation. During the interrogation, Murphy confessed explaining Marsden had become too much of a liability and was rumoured to have gone to the police after Levesque’s murder. She said Marsden’s death was a result of stoning, a snapped neck and cut throat. Her head was torn off. While she was still alive, Drew cut her finger to get the ring she was wearing. Drew also carved an X into Marsden’s torso and began to speak in tongues, offering her soul to Satan. Murphy also said she has been made to perform oral sex on the headless cadaver before it was dumped in the woods and burned.
To go back to Sparda, she also told the police black mass gatherings indeed took place in the forest. She claimed she didn’t know anything about human sacrifice, but she did say goats and stray cats were used during the ceremonies. Their blood was used in mock baptisms and poured over the heads of attendees.
The trials finally ensued.
Murphy received a life sentence with the possibility of parole. She was released in 2004, but violated the parole and was returned to prison in 2007.
Carl Lewis, a man who also took part in the ritual slaughter of Karen Marsden, never stood trial for it. However, he was arrested few years later for assaulting Sparda with a weapon. He allegedly beat her and stabbed her in the head with a knife. She was three-month pregnant at the time. He served seven years and is free today.
Drew is currently serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole. He filed several appeals seeking a new trial as he claims he was never involved with a cult, but so far they were all denied.
What’s interesting about this case is some people question whether or not the cult really existed or was it all a result of Satanic panic which was widespread at the time.
What do you think?
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Sources:
BEHIND THE VEIL 