Cursed in New England: Stories of Damned Yankees

Vermont native Citro has spent years studying the darker side of New England; in books such as Passing Strange, Curious New England and Green Mountains, Dark Trails he's told stories of hauntings and horrors, of mysteries and superstitions. Here he examines some of the area's most famous curses, from the 1600s through the 1960s, and while his tone is generally impartial (""in the interest of journalistic objectivity""), he admits a fascination that verges on belief. Convicted citizens who knew themselves to be innocent often pronounced final curses on their accusers (Citro reports that in the late 17th century, after being told by a condemned woman that God would give him blood to drink, a dishonest cleric suffered an internal hemorrhage and drowned in his own blood), while desperate people called down evil on those who had refused them help (in the early 19th century, Citro writes, a woman who has been refused passage on a Lake Champlain steamship caused it to burst into flame). In most of these stories, the curses act as the vengeance of the powerless on the powerful. Citro does a fine job of presenting the evidence for curses, but he's not afraid to debunk them either. Creepy b&w illustrations add to the pleasure of this informative and entertaining volume for all students of the supernatural.