In Episode 421 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger head to Burrillville, Rhode Island, to investigate the curious grave of Laura Sherman who was buried in this small family plot back in 1870. Today all of the headstones are gone. They say under a full moon and right conditions, her ghost will appear and talk to you.
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Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Theme Music by: John Judd
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[NIGHT SOUNDS / CRICKETS]
RAY: Jeff, it’s a creepy night to be walking down a dirt road here in this remote section of Burrillville.
JEFF: Yeah it is.
RAY: It’s really dark out here. At least there’s a full moon.
JEFF: Really dark. But yeah, the moon gives us just enough eerie light…
RAY: Still, I can hardly see a thing.
[CLICK]
JEFF: I’m glad I brought a flashlight. Our destination is just up ahead just off the side of the road.
RAY: I see a raised stone wall, and a flat area just beyond that. It’s maybe 30 feet wide and 20 feet deep. And there’s a sign out front that reads Rhode Island Historical Cemetery Town of Burrillville and the number 1.
JEFF: This is the place, Ray.
RAY: I don’t see any headstones. Just a small area within a stone wall…. Wait… there is this one base of a headstone here toward the front.
JEFF: That would be the grave of Laura Sherman. Ray, we’ve come this this old family cemetery under a full moon… to dance with a ghost.
[INTRO]
JEFF: I’m Jeff Belanger and welcome fellow legendarians to Episode 421 of the New England Legends podcast.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger. Thanks for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England one story at a time. Did you know most of our story leads come from you? Please contact us anytime through our website. There you can also find links to buy Jeff’s new book, Wicked Strange New England, the 2026 Haunted New England calendar, plus a calendar of dates to see Jeff’s story tour and my band the Pub Kings.
JEFF: We’ll go dancing with a ghost in Burrillville, Rhode Island, right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
RAY: Okay, Jeff… we’ve been looking for ghosts in Burrillville before.
JEFF: We have.
RAY: We recorded one of our Halloween specials at the famous Conjuring House here in town back in 2019.
JEFF: That’s right! That was a strange night for sure. And an amazing story.
RAY: But that’s an entirely different part of town.
JEFF: Yes, we’re not that close right now.
RAY: We’re literally a stone’s throw from the Connecticut border. I mean less than a football field away from the state line.
JEFF: We are way out here in the woods by a dirt road. And yes, one of these roads would lead us right into Connecticut.
RAY: Here’s a little more background on Burrillville. The town was first settled by colonists back in 1662. Back then it was part of Glocester, Rhode Island. There were some farms here and later some mills, like the Harris mill which would later become its own village of Harrisville within Burrillville. There’s also the villages of Glendale, Mapleville, Nasonville, Oakland, and Pascoag, which is where we are now.
JEFF: This burial ground – formally called Rhode Island Historical Cemetery Town of Burrillville Number 1—was the family plot of the Sherman family. There are only a few graves out here, though as you said earlier, we can only see the base of one grave marker. But there are at least five people buried here that we know for sure. There’s Caroline Sherman, born in 1837. Her death date is unknown. Clark Sherman, born in 1831, his death date is also unknown. Ellen Sherman, we don’t know her birth or death dates. There’s Squire Crandell Sherman, born in 1828 and died in 1879, and then there’s the grave we came to see: Laura Marsh Sherman, born in 1803 and died in 1870.
RAY: There are so many family plots like these around New England, but Rhode Island has done an incredible job cataloging most of them. So I’m guessing this used to be Sherman land.
JEFF: It was. I think it’s safe to say the last burial here was around 1879.
RAY: And today this is all forest. No one has lived here for a very long time. I wonder why only Laura Sherman got a headstone? That’s weird, right? It’s not like she was the last to be buried here.
JEFF: From the legend going around, all of them used to have a headstone, but they were all stolen for dark purposes. Which is what led to the story of dancing with Laura Sherman’s ghost. To find out how we got here, let’s head back to the year 1983.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It’s October of 1983 here in Burrillville, Rhode Island. Ronald Reagan is in the White House, J. Joseph Garrahy is the governor of Rhode Island, and “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler is number one on the radio.
JEFF: Yup, that song is an epic ear worm. And the music video is the strangest I’ve ever seen on MTV.
RAY: Yeah, it’s really weird.
JEFF: However, pop music isn’t currently putting America in a tizzy… but another type of music is.
[HEAVY METAL MUSIC]
JEFF/RAY: Yesss! YES!
RAY: Heavy metal music has taken not just America, but the world, by storm. The energy. The leather. The hair and makeup. People can’t get enough. Quiet Riot’s new album Metal Health is even getting some pop radio rotation. As is Def Leppard’s Pyromania.
JEFF: I love this stuff! But my parents complain it’s just noise that makes their ears bleed.
RAY: Yeah, my parents make the same complaints. It’s one thing to call it noise you don’t like, but there are a lot of people out there saying the music is Satanic, and causing a bad influence on the youth of today.
JEFF: Didn’t they say the same thing about Elvis years ago?
RAY: They did. But this Satanic Panic is now reaching a fever pitch. Congress is getting involved. Church and civic groups are organizing and trying to claim this music is turning kids into the minions of Satan.
JEFF: I just like that it’s loud and fast.
RAY: Me too! A ton of energy.
JEFF: The Satanic Panic has even reached Burrillville, Rhode Island. Folks here are nervous. The youth here like heavy metal music as much as in the next town.
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
[DRIVING IN CAR]
RAY: Where are we headed, Jeff?
JEFF: We’re sneaking out to the old Sherman Family burial ground in Pascoag… I hear it’s going to be a full moon tonight! (BEAT) Let’s park the car over here and walk the rest of the way.
[CAR STOPS]
[DOORS OPEN AND CLOSE]
[NIGHT SOUNDS / OWL]
RAY: We’re walking along an old dirt road here in the woods. The full moon makes the road glow an eerie gray and white color.
JEFF: It’s definitely spooky out here. (BEAT) Hey… what is that ahead?
RAY: It looks like some fire light. Let’s stick close to the trees so they don’t see us.
JEFF: Woah… There’s dudes up there by the cemetery holding torches. They’re dressed in black cloaks!
RAY: This is freaky. What… what are they doing?
JEFF: I’m not sure.
[BREAKING STONES]
JEFF: Oh man… they’re knocking down the headstones in the cemetery!
RAY: I can see one of them placing the broken headstone on the ground like some kind of altar. It looks like he’s pouring some liquid out of a cup… could that be blood?
JEFF: I don’t know. But I don’t think we should get any closer.
RAY: I agree. This is some bad ju ju.
[CHANTING IN DISTANCE]
RAY: What are they saying? It’s some kind of chant?
JEFF: They’re circling the grave marker in the front of the burial ground. They’re going around and around Laura Sherman’s grave.
[CHANTING STOPS]
RAY: (WHISPERING) Why did they stop?
JEFF: (WHISPERING) They’re looking around.
RAY: (WHISPERING) Do you think they see us?
JEFF: Uhhhm…. Are they…
RAY: Yeah, they’re looking this way. Let’s get out of here!
[RUNNING OFF]
[CAR DOORS OPEN/SHUT]
[CAR SPEEDS OFF]
JEFF: What do you think they were doing?
RAY: I don’t know, but it can’t be good.
JEFF: I agree.
[CAR FADES OUT]
JEFF: The next day, the buzz around school is that some kids went to the old Sherman cemetery to raise the ghost of Laura Sherman. They say because of this Satanic ritual, now if you dance around her grave 13 times under a full moon, her ghost will come out and talk with you. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
JEFF: Okay, confession time.
RAY: What’s that?
JEFF: We don’t know of any Satanic ritual that took place here in the 1980s.
RAY: Really? You just made that up?
JEFF: Not exactly.
RAY: Not exactly?
JEFF: This small family plot was indeed vandalized some time ago. It may have been the 1980s.
RAY: I think that part is obvious. There are no headstones left today.
JEFF: Part of the legend is that it was a group of Satanists who came here to steal the headstones for their ritual. But it’s not like they left a Satanic calling card.
RAY: Ohhh I get where you’re going. This may have been regular vandalism and nothing to do with Satanism.
JEFF: Exactly.
RAY: But years later they say it was Satanists to add to the story.
JEFF: Right. We know this cemetery is in a remote spot. And young people would park their cars out here at night and party away from watchful eyes.
RAY: So it could have been just a really mean and awful prank to steal the headstones.
JEFF: Yes. But… the other part of the legend persists no matter the backstory. They say if you dance around Laura Sherman’s grave 13 times under a full moon, her ghost will appear and talk to you.
RAY: That’s really spooky.
JEFF: Given it’s so easy to test, there’s plenty of stories of teenagers who came out here to try it. Stories about a young woman dancing around Sherman’s grave 13 times but not seeing anything. She drives off in her car only to later have her friends ask: who was that woman in your back seat?
RAY: That’s right out of a horror film.
JEFF: I know, right? So what do you think, Ray? It’s night. Under a full moon. Shall we dance?
RAY: I feel a dork doing this.
JEFF: Me too. But ready?
RAY: Ready.
JEFF/RAY: A-one, and a-two, and a-three…
[OUTTRO]
RAY: And you’ve just danced into After the Legend where we take a deeper dive into this week’s story and sometimes veer off course.
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To see some pictures related to this week’s story, click on the link in our episode description, or go to our website and click on Episode 421.
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We’d like to thank our patreon patrons, thank you to our sponsors, and our theme music is by John Judd.
Until next time remember… stay legendary!
We visited this cemetery in 1970 and 1971. All graves had headstones then. Roses from hers. Thorns from his. We were dumb teenagers and were goofy (but not disrespectful) on a back-roads Jeep run. On the way home I was in an accident. Sober. I took it as a lesson. A year later we passed the cemetery again. I stopped and apologized. My friend spun the tires of his jeep and his windshield shattered We have not been back.