Hubbardsville NY Encounter

From the video posted on Youtube (Fava Films).


The Hubbardsville NY Encounter
Testimonial II by Lou Piazza

Hello. My name is Louie Piazza. I’m here to tell about you a story – something that occurred in my life back in July of 1991. It was a Wednesday night. I’d gone fishing with a friend of mine,  Frederick Curie. Pretty significant occurrence. As we were coming downriver at the end of the fishing trip. Lost a paddle on the way, which we can’t explain! There was – what preceded the thing that wound up occurring, as we were coming down, I don’t know, we were probably a couple hundred yards from where we have to get out of the water, to put the canoe back on the truck -  Freddie was standing up because he had to take my paddle. I’m sitting down enjoying the nice warm summer night, it was a balmy summer night. July in upstate New York is a beautiful time. All of a sudden, Freddie started – I don’t know, we were about 150-200 yards away from our site, and Freddy was getting very excited. And he’s asking me, Louie, you see that?! Louie you see that?! And I’m wondering – you know at first, what’s he seeing that’s getting him so excited? I could see a fog on the left side of me. And there was no fog anywhere around us. There was no fog behind me, no fog in front of me, no fog to the right of me. Just to the left of me, because that’s the way I was facing. And Freddy’s ‘Do you see that?” And I’m getting a little nervous because I see the fog and I don’t see anything else. He had a better vantage point because I had taller grass in front of me, from sitting down low in the canoe and he’s in the standing position. We’re in a big 17 ft [c?] canoe. And when you’re on a stretch it’s very easy to stand. 

All of a sudden we start coming around, and as we’re coming closer I could see the fog plain as day now. Er, and more foliage. And at this point I don’t know again what Freddy was seeing, because of my vantage point. And as we start pulling up, I could see this tripod-like thing. It wasn’t a tripod, no bars or anything. But it was kind of tripod shape. And it had amber lights. I don’t remember if they were vertical or horizontal, I don’t know which way they went but I remember seeing amber lights on this thing. As we were approaching, coming around – from the top of this thing, a light wound up coming round. And it started shining on Freddy and then it came around to me. Now the weird thing is, that the light came around but there’s no light on him and there’s no light on me. Which was unexplainable. Now here’s the damn canoe paddle’s gone. And now I’ve got a light shining on the both of us and there’s no light shining on him or me. How could something come around and there’s no light on you?

So now I’m becoming nervous, and Freddy’s like ‘Louie, you see that? What is that?’ and he starts yelling ‘Hello! Hello! Hello!’ and he’s trying to make contact with the… with something that he had seen. And after the light got on the both of us I got pretty nervous, as I said, and we wound up coming down closer, and we start inching closer and closer to an old beaver dam. And at that point, I wind up seeing these two beings. And as plain as day, they – were human form, humanoid form, human form. Just like us, I’d say 5’6, 5’6 and a half, no taller than that. They were human figures. And the figures that I wound up seeing, uh, one was bent over and there was another one standing behind it. And I’m looking at these.. uh figures, and I’m quite nervous. How could you not be? You know, they looked like naked bodies. Very very white. I don’t want to say translucent, because I could make out appendages, I could make out arms, I could make out legs, a head. I don’t recall any ears. The one in the back, I don’t know if it was foliage or what, it looked like there was a l ittle bit of hair. But the weird anomaly that I recall, uh most of all, was when this thing was behind the other one, I looked and – there’s no genitalia. And that kinda really freaked me out. You see two beings, they look human. Human like. There’s no sleeves, it didn’t look like it was any type of clothing on them at all, no pant leg, no cuffs. Yet, I could plainly make out these two figures.

Frank’s sitting here, ‘Hello, Hello!’, he’s still trying to make contact with these two individuals, or whatever they was. And I kind of freaked out. To be honest, I grabbed hold of the front of my canoe and I started jumping in the water, and I nearly knocked Freddy out of the canoe. And I uh proceeded to pull the canoe out of the water, off the dam actually, because we were stuck on the dam. But while we were on the dam I could see everything plain as day. I could see the… the tripod-like thing with the amber lights, and these beings over here. I was pretty freaked out, I’m not going to lie about it. I had a daughter that was just born, and I wanted to get out of there. So as we pulled out --- gotten out of the water, pulled the canoe out, wound up throwing the canoe on the truck, driving down the road. And as we’re driving down the road, about a mile, a mile and a half, Freddy asked me to pull over. We pull over, he wanted to go back. And I didn’t want to go back. I wanted to alert the authorities, because I believed something like this the authorities should know about, because it was an unexplained phenomenon that had wound up occurring. And, uh, Freddy was a little insistent on going back, and I was a little more stubborn, and I was behind the wheel! Because it freaked me out quite a bit, you know I’m not going to lie about it. You know because I don’t know what the hell I saw. Because all I know, it was something that I’ve never… (shakes head) never came in contact with before. Been all over the place – I was in the military, I travelled all over, and I’ve never seen anything like it. And, uh, we wound up going home. 

And a few days later, which was a Saturday, we decided to go back. And we wound up going back down, to the site. We’re walking up to the spot and lo and behold here’s 30, 40 foot round, I’d say, uh, section of woods. Now it’s July, you’ve got foliage all over the place. Here’s this spot that’s just coffee ground dirt. It’s the best way of explaining it. It was so fine it was like coffee grounds. How that could have occurred in such a short period of time is beyond my imagination. I’ve tilled my garden, I’ve done a lot of different things, and I’ve never – I’ve worked landscaping, and I’ve seen screeded soil, and I‘ve never seen it that fine in my life. Here’s this fine like coffee grounds. Not a… not an ant, not a, not a footprint from a deer, nothing. And there’s all these big mature trees, and everywhere else you look there’s nothing but foliage. And I kind of found that to be pretty freaky.

A few days later, and I wish I’d took a camera, which I didn’t. I mean I’m called the camera man any time we go fishing I always take a camera, and I didn’t have the darn camera with me! I was pretty shook up from it, and excited to get back and look at it. And I.. I guess with the excitement of what I might see, I just forgot to bring the damn thing, and I wish I did. And there was like three mounds in the dirt, they wound up coming across which was pretty cool. But, you go in the mounds, it’s like maybe there’s something buried here – reached right down, Freddy was reaching right down in the soil , I’m reaching right down in the soil and it’s there it is coffee grounds. You know, just a strange anomaly that occurred in my life. And it’s something I’ll never forget, and something I just never wanted to tell too many people about, because I figured they’d think I was crazy. It was something that we talked about from time to time, and it’s something that does need to get out because it is a true story. And there are those things that happen in our lives that are worth mentioning. And I wish I’d mentioned it years ago to the authorities so we could have actually known exactly what we saw. But we didn’t, and you know maybe we should have gone back there like Freddy wanted. And investigated it further. But I decided I didn’t want to. And I was driving and if it was today I would definitely extended my hand. And tried to make contact, better contact with these individuals! I do remember at one point them waving… just came to the side this wave, and down. And I don’t remember exactly when that wound up occurring, but I do remember the wave. And like I said I was, I don’t want to say frightened… it was just a pretty weird thing that wound up occurring, and I had a daughter that was just born, and I wanted to get home to her. But it er, let’s just say Spooked. It spooked me enough not to investigate it further... I wish I’d turned around. You know. And we didn’t. And it’s an actual event that did happen. And I’ve got no real, no reason to make this stuff up. I am glad that I was able to partake in and see an anomaly such as this. And I think it was a pretty fascinating thing, and a blessing to see it.

 Lou I have a question for you about the beings you saw. Do you recall anything about the facial features? The eyes, the nose, the mouth, the ears  - anything that really stood out?

Yes, their eyes. Their eyes were bigger than our eyes. If you were to … take out the eyeball of a human being and look at a skeleton, the orbital, large, the way it is, that was about the size of eye was. I would say about this, it was … they were larger than our eyes, and they were dark black, the eyes. I don’t really recall ears or anything like that. There was no genitalia!! None whatsoever. I’m looking at these things plain as day. They were.. god almighty.. thirty yards at the most away from me. And I’m looking at these things plain as day. I hunt, I fish… These, these – there was no genitalia, and that – you can’t explain that. And like I said, no clothing. If they were naked... And I don’t know, maybe they were, something was wrapped around them (shakes head). I don’t know. -

When you saw them, when you actually got the best look at them, were they parallel with the boat, behind you, or in front of you in the boat. What vantage point were they at?

  I was at the front and they were literally as we were coming by directly right at the side of me. Literally I could have shaken hands with them.

 - So the closest you were to either of these entities was, in feet, how close were you?

 … The closest point was probably when they waved, you know, uh, I don’t know – 20 feet. 30 feet at the most. At that point. And then we wound up at the beaver dam and when we came closer, here we’re stuck on this beaver dam. And that’s when I wound up seeing –plain as day, they’re standing there. And Like I said, one was bent over, the other was standing straight up behind it. You know, they were as apprehensive as we were, I would say. But then there was… I never felt threatened to the point where I felt like I was in danger. I think it was more spooked by the fact that I’ve never encountered anything like this before. It was unexplainable. I never seen anything like it. How do you explain a human being without genitalia? Be it a male or a female. I don’t care if you haven’t… you know, it’s just spooked. That’s the part that spooked me out, I knew they wasn’t of human form at that point.
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Scottish witch bottle... what's a fairy bottle?

At the anniversary meeting of the Folklore Society, held to-night, it was stated that the committee have in hand a quantity of Aberdeenshire folklore collected by Dr Gregor, which they hoped to send to press shortly. In Scotland the Society's work in the collection of folklore from printed sources is in progress in Morayshire, Banffshire, Aberdeenshire, Kincardine, and Forfarshire. Some especially interesting examples of folklore objects from Aberdeenshire and Galloway, including a herd's club, a slamp used in farm kitchens, a fairy bottle, a witch bottle, and an old-fashioned reel for winding yarn, collected by Dr Gregor, and recently presented by him to the society, have now been added to the exhibits in the Society's case in the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Cambridge.
The Scotsman, 20th January 1897.

Otley church witch bottle

This quaint fact is recorded in [a booklet on the history of Otley Parish Church]: that in 1869, during alterations, an earthenware bottle, called a "witch bottle," was dug up in the church. It had contained some liquid, human hair, and a number of iron nails. It was stated at the time of the discovery that there was formerly a superstition that if something of the kind were buried in the church or within its precincts, the spell of the witch would be removed. Which accounts for that and a number of similar bottles that have at various times been turned up in the churchyard.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 29th June 1931.

Sad end for witch bottle maker

Suicide of a Hadleigh Celebrity."Cunning Murrell's" Blacksmith Dies By His Own Hand.
The Story of the Witch-Bottles.

Steve Choppen, of Hadleigh, who had nearly completed the Psalmist's allotted span of life, has died by his own hand. A martyr for many years to rheumatic gout, which caused pains in his head and hands, he has at last succumbed to them, and went out and hanged himself in a wood shed at the rear of his cottage. He had been sleeping in the same room as his little grandson on Friday night and rose at seven and went outside. Some time afterwards the boy followed his grandfather and found him hanging by a rope from the rafter, with a chair beside him, he having evidently fastened the noose first round his neck, then round the rafter, and finally swung from the chair.

The old man was a well-known character some fifty years ago, chiefly for his trade connection with "Cunning Murrell," a man whose wizard headquarters were at Hadleigh and whose influence reigned supreme through South-East Essex. Choppen, who was a blacksmith, made the iron witch-bottles for Murrell, in which were placed blood, water, fingernails, hair and pins; which bottles, screwed up airtight, were set on fire by way of process against witches, and frequently burst with great devastation, thus signalising the destruction of the diabolical influence. Murrell is still remembered with awe by many of the agricultural labourers in the country districts.

Mr. Arthur Morrison, in the October "Strand," contributes an article entitled "A Wizard of Yesterday," in which, in the course of a sketch of Murrell's life, the following reference occurs to Choppen:

On our way to discover the wizard's son we called on Mr. Stephen Choppen, the smith who made the witch-bottles. He was long retired from the smithy, and was living in his own little house on the village outskirts. The smithy wherein he made the bottles is gone, and one of the terrible new shops stands on the site. Steve Choppen had no witch-bottle to show us, for the last had been exploded long ago, but he had the cunning man's spectacles - a quaint and clumsy instrument, with circular glasses and ponderously thick iron rims. The narrowness of the space between the sides showed the wizard's head to have been a small one, and, indeed, he was an extremely small man in every way, by the descriptions of a dozen people.

Steve Choppen had his anecdotes, also, told with a terse humour of his own. He was not a superstitious man, but he admitted that the first of the witch-bottles gave gave him trouble in the forging, for which he could not account. The iron wholly refused to be welded - till Cunning Murrell arrived and blew the fire, when all went well. The last vanished in a way that Steven Choppen described somewhat thus:

"Old Buck Murrell - that's the son you're going to see; his name's Edward, but every one calls him Buck - old Buck Murrell, though he can't as much as read, after his father died he got an idea to do a bit of hocus pocus on his own account, just to keep up the family reputation. So he finds a chap as suspects a witch, an' he gets the last o' the bottles tha old man had left an' he makes it ready and fills it up just as his father used to do. 'You mustn't speak a word,' says he to the chap, 'else you'll spoil the charm,,' an' with that he shoves the bottle on the fire. Now this bottle must ha' been one o' my best, an' it holds the bilin' stuff an' steam in for a long time, they two a'sittin' either side the grate a'waitin'. Presently the other chap gets impatient, and says he, 'I don't believe this 'ere bottle's a good 'un.' 'Danged!' shouts Buck, 'You've spiled the charm!" An' at that 'Bang!' goes the bottle, an' bundles the pair of 'em over neck and crop on the floor, down comes all the pots and kettles with a run, and when they gets enough sense in 'em to look round they finds the whole chimney-breast blowed up, mantelpiece, grate, an' all, an' pretty nigh one side o' the house fetched out. That was the end o' the last bottle, an' old Buck Murrell, he aren't been in the witchcraft line since."

The bottle that ended in this ignominious devastation nevertheless had provided, soon after its making, a striking example of the overpowering influence of superstitious fear. Soon after it had cooled Steve Choppen and some of his friends disrespectfully christened it in beer. One after another took a pull from it, till it came to the turn of the bellows-boy. When he had drunk, some wag began solemnly to "chaff" the lad, and others took it up. "Nobody wouldn't give much for your chance o' bein' an old man, Jim," they said, "a-helpin' to make the thing first, an' now a-drinking bewitched beer out of it." It was an empty enough piece of chaff, but it is a fact that it terrified the wretched boy, who went home, sickened, and never came to the smithy again; for in a little while he died."

Grays and Tilbury Gazette, and Southend Telegraph. 10th November 1900.

Essex Witch Bottle

Suffolk. Superstitions in 1849.
A case has just occurred (says the Ipswich Express), at a village a few miles from Rayleigh, which shows that if witches and their familiars have fled from the land in a fright at the rough handling of science, the mental cobwebs beneath which they flourished have not been yet quite brushed away. A girl in the village had been long subject to fits, and as family consultations and councils traced the mysterious malady to witchcraft, "a cunning man," celebrated thereabouts, was called in to counterplot the mischievous old hag, who was supposed to be squatted in some dark corner, muttering her spells and enjoying the writhings of her victim.

The conjuror, of course, undertook the job for a consideration, and immediately set the village blacksmith blowing and beating away to manufacture an air-tight iron bottle. After a sharp struggle with the arts of the doomed witch, who kept maliciously poking flaws and fissures in the hissing metal; this was completed, and being filled with the parings of the patient's toe-nails, locks of her hair, and fluid, was placed over a roaring fire, chained fast to the grate as additional security against the tricks of the imps who were believed to be hovering in dozens and in terror around it.
This charm was to blow the offending witch through the air at a quicker rate than she ever travelled upon her own broom-stick, or bring her to the hearth-stone pleading for forgiveness; but of course we can understand without being very deeply read in the occult science, that the spirit of steam would begin to grow rather fidgetty at being shut up in an air-tight iron bottle; so at last, without waiting for the appearance of the expected old lady, he jumped out with a loud explosion, blowing away the grate-bars and the fire. This was expected to do the girl good.
Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser, 31st March 1849.

Saffron Walden Witch Bottle

During some alterations which are in progress at Messrs. Hart's, in King-street, workmen came upon an old "Witch Bottle," embedded about 18 inches below the floor of the shop, and about 12 inches from the fireplace. It contained some water, about 40 horsenails, and 20 thorns. It is supposed to be 200 years old. Some quaint old carvings on stone and oak were also discovered, supposed by antiquarians to date from the time of Elizabeth.
Chelmsford Chronicle, 22nd July 1870.

Towards the end of the last century, at Saffron Walden, Essex, there were discovered during alterations to buildings both a "witch jug" and a "witch bottle." The latter was buried in the floor of a house. It contained some water, about forty horse-shoe nails, and twenty thorns. It was supposed to be about two centuries old. It was customary in England in the early years of the seventeenth century to place under the entrance of a house a jug or bottle filled with horse-shoe nails to prevent the entrance of witches.
Framlingham Weekly News, 15th November 1930.