These Mysterious Hills

03/06/2026

03/05/2026

On this day (Mar 5), in:
1874- a gang of Pittsfield boys 13-15 are jailed for a series of robberies on North Street

1891- A Pownal VT doctor is arraigned on charges he performed abortions on 2 North Adams women

1924- Louis Mercier is indicted for poisoning his wife Eugenie in Pittsfield

1960- Investigation concludes in the Washington, MA murder-suicide of Donald Love against his wife Elizabeth, 3 days earlier

1970- Lee High School students are using he**in as a new wave of narcotics use sweeps the area, police chief John Boyne tells the select board

1981- Arraignment for a Pittsfield resident arrested for a bank robbery on East Street

1992- Suspects in a North Carolina murder are arrested entering Pittsfield by bus

1994- A Pittsfield man is sentenced to 5-7 years for stabbing someone he said sold him bad coke

2003- Arraignment for attempted murder, after a Pittsfield man stabs an 18 year old girl 7 times in her apartment after her roommate had let him in to use the phone --- On the same day, an intoxicated 19 year old flips her car in New Ashford after leading police on a drunken chase down Route 7

03/04/2026

Protests on this day (3/4) in 1968 and 1932. One against the Vietnam War, and one by Lenox high students opposing the forced resignation of their principal Henry Smith (later reinstated)

03/03/2026

On this day 94 years ago: Michael Allessio had been in Italy all winter when federal agents raided a former slaughterhouse on his farm off Ventura Ave on March 3, 1932, following reports of dead fish in Goodrich Pond.

The raid revealed the largest moonshine distillery in Pittsfield to date, with a capacity for 25,000 gallons.

03/03/2026

What a wonderful bit of local history if it were true! Sadly, records of the medical school graduates don't support this statement, though it has been repeated widely on the internet.

So much of our local history is fabrication and folklore; it is important that we keep returning to primary sources, and teach the younger generation how to do so
[A list of 1848 graduates can be found below, printed by the Pittsfield Sun. A list of all graduates of the Berkshire Medical Institution can be accessed in the local history area at the Berkshire Athenaeum]

03/03/2026

Serene Lake Paran became the site for the worst crime in Bennington area history. Can it help explain a series of attacks in the Berkshires?

Link in comments~

03/02/2026

March 2, 1916. Drug laws work and soon addiction will be a thing of the past!

03/02/2026

David Ferguson was the first local boy from Company M to die, in a war begun based on conspiracy theories and fake news by corrupt media outlets.

Adams, Mass sent more of its sons than any town per capita in the state, to what folks there were calling "the Havana war." Half of Company M was untrained recruits when they fought at Santiago and El Caney.

Of some 80 Berkshire warriors, 12 never came home; more names among the endless acres of teenagers who had to become heroes to make up for the failings of lesser men.

03/01/2026

The red granite in this 1941 house across from Herman Melville's Arrowhead actually comes from an earlier Crane mansion, Willow Brook. So does much of the interior oak and mahogany.

It is fairly common around here for 20th century homes to contain building materials from older homes. Willow Brook was built in 1887 for Zenas Crane, founder of the Berkshire Museum. It was torn down in 1939, and salvage from it was used by contractor Edward Tierney when he built the house for Dr Eugene Brielman. Here Dr Brielman ran the Abby Lodge veterinary clinic until 1973.

03/01/2026

So often we have no idea what people around us have been through. Many people knew the Abby Lodge veterinarian Eugene Brielman, but few if any knew the story of the night his father was shot dead on their Churchill Street farm...
[Link to full story in comments]

03/01/2026

Your body handles mRNA by the boatload everyday.

That's why it's a good platform for vaccines.