Performed by Mad King Sweeney.
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(In which our intrepid hero attempts to join the ranks of amateur paranormal investigators and Internet conspiracy theorists, with predictably mixed results.)

Check out the web site the Rev. Fr. Gary P. Dudley, B.S., M.A. created a website to promote his book, The Legend of Dudley Town. Note the questionable use of ellipses, the excessive CAPS LOCK, the stuck in 1998 design. All this from a man so many times decorated by authorities that one can barely find his name amidst the honorifics? Something doesn’t add up.

He’s trying to sell us on his book, purported to be a refutation of the ghost stories surrounding Connecticut’s very own ghost town: Dudley Town, in Cornwall, deep in the heart of CT’s predominantly rural Quiet Corner. Presumably alerted to the legend by his sharing a name with the town and its accursed founders, Dudley travelled all the way from Texas to get his debunk on. You can read about the curse and why it’s all a bunch of codswallop at the site. He does a reasonably good job of knocking down the origin myth, but his explanation of the subsequent hauntings and the constant shroud of secrecy leaves something to be desired in my mind.

I have more questions, and my own theories as to the truth of Dudley Town. Assuming the town’s connections to the historic Dudleys are not strong enough to pass a curse, couldn’t the curse exist in some other form around the town? Who says the official story has to be the real cause of the supernatural happenings around town? Why does Dudley so glibly categorize the stories of madness, disappearance, and suicide as normal? Why the dogged insistence on the part of the land’s current owners to keep a worthless old ruin secret and off-limits to he public? What are they be hiding?

And why the constant mention of owls on Dudley’s site? Why are the only images owls?

Clearly, the Rev. Fr. is some sort of necromancer or wizard. Owls often choose to live and work with practicioners of the dark arts, and sometimes they are pressed into service as demonic familiars. It is also said that owls are the only creatures that can live in haunted places. One can only become aquatinted with the hidden world of magick by carefully following cryptic clues left behind by forebears. Dudley wants to protect his secrets from the laity, but he can’t resist leaving a trail for potential initiates.

He is in league with the diabolical current owners (nameless, faceless: yes; ageless, formless, soulless: could be!) to keep the curious out of Dudley Town to hide some secret. The supposed curse on the Dudley family is a red herring meant to divert attention away from Gary’s true work in the town. There is a presence in Dudley Town that is not of this world. Perhaps Dudley, et al. are protecting a group of unfortunate souls trapped between the world. Perhaps they are experimenting with contacting creatures from beyond (demons, the dead, the undead, etc.). Perhaps there’s an inter-dimensional portal (or “hellmouth”) patrolled tirelessly by a teenage vampire slayer and her goofy friends.

The trouble is, CT’s brave population of goth teens are kept from researching the area under penalty of arrest. Uh oh. Are the local police in on it too? How high up does this go?? I may have said too much already. I there’s no podcast next week, you’ll know why! Tell my wife and child I love them! Seek the Truth!!

Photo adapted from ABC Open Broken Hill.