On August 30, 2024, we finally reached our goal to replace Bathsheba Sherman's headstone by seeing it all the way through, and having it finally replaced. I have to thank Betty and Carlo Mencucci for making this possible with their efforts throughout the last 4 years as well as Ocean State Monuments for doing a phenomenal job of replicating Bathsheba's headstone to the best of their ability given the type of stone and size.
I posted the following post below on both Facebook and Instagram the day it was revealed, which quickly went viral. In fact, when Jason Hawes shared it, that led to over 200,000 views on that one post alone, so that was pretty amazing!
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| Photo: Elise Giammarco Carlson |
"Yesterday, on August 30th, 2024, the Burrillville Historical and Preservation Society, c/o Betty and Carlo Mencucci, gave Bathsheba Sherman back the dignity she's so much deserved. A new headstone was finally placed a few feet behind the original base of her original headstone.
The innocent woman who was posthumously slandered by many people, some living still and some who have already passed on, has now been truly vindicated by having her headstone restored. This has been a long time coming. It's taken a lot of work and I'm so grateful to everyone who helped in this effort.
Thank you to everyone who donated, shared the links to the fundraiser, and who raised awareness of the truth about Bathsheba. That she was an innocent victim in all of this, and that "The Conjuring" film, and the book "House of Darkness, House of Light," made her out to be someone she was not.
For many years, her headstone lay there in the cemetery, broken, because of ignorant people who believed the fabricated lies about her that were literally conjured up in the 1970's.
There have been many people ( para celebrities) who claimed that they wanted to help, but yet during the time that we were raising the funds they were MIA. I will not be forgetting that. However, there were some people who stepped up to the plate and helped and I won't be forgetting them either.
In the end, it was the average person like you and I that made the difference. And now Bathsheba will have the final resting place and peace she so much deserves. (Photo Credit: Elise Carlson)"
@followers
#justiceforBathsheba #BathshebaShermansVindication #BurrillvilleHistory #TheConjuringWasALie #storiesoftheforgotten #jaimerubiowriter #newheadstoneforBathsheba
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Fundraising Efforts Met
Several years ago, I had reached out to Betty at the Burrillville Historical & Preservation Society and asked if there was anything I could do to help Bathsheba get her headstone repaired. It was determined that the stone was damaged beyond repair and the original remaining pieces of the stone had to be put in permanent storage for its own preservation. I had reached out to some of the people who I had spoken to over the years who happened to be related in one way or another to Bathsheba or her husband, Judson, and I had hoped to get her family involved to replace her headstone.
Unfortunately, that met a dead end and even though I had reached out to various relatives, the historical society never heard from them to initiate a replacement. So then I started thinking about raising the funds myself, but I wanted to make sure it was done the right way. I wanted to make sure that everyone knew it was on the level and so I started a GoFundMe with the Burrillville Historical and Preservation Society listed as the beneficiaries, so that the public would see that I would not be the one collecting any money, it would all go directly to the historical society for Bathsheba.
Once Betty was on board, I got it started, and eventually Kerry Hopkins joined the team and the three of us managed the GoFundMe fundraiser online.
I went and made a list of people within the paranormal field and reached out to them one by one individually. I contacted so many people asking for any help they could give be it a monetary contribution or even just sharing the link on their social media platforms since I know they all have a lot of followers, and we could get the word out much easier that we were doing something positive within the historical and paranormal community.
What was the outcome?
Out of all of the para-celebrities that I contacted, only a handful made a donation: Richard Estep, Penny Griffiths Morgan and Troy Taylor. Kenny Biddle, who is also part of the paranormal field but also on the skeptical side of things, also contributed to the fundraiser by sharing our link multiple times and reaching out to his followers. Biddle's added research and articles on the Skeptical Inquirer, as well as youtube live streams involving information regarding Bathsheba and the Conjuring House has also proved invaluable over the years.
Thankfully there were quite a bit of people within the paranormal community and historical community who kindly shared the link, regardless of whether or not they donated. For that, I am very appreciative. I also just learned yesterday evening that paranormal content creator, Amanda Millette, who goes by the pseudonym @spooky.new.england had also contributed to the fundraiser.
There were others who donated such as Marcee Brightenstine, an author and historical investigative writer, Peter Meyerhoff, an experienced historian, and of course Tina Spottswood, the widow of the late, great Kent Spottswood. Without his invaluable research we would not know as much as we do about Bathsheba, as he was the first to debunk the "fakelore" as my friend Shannon Bradley Byers would put it. The world owes Kent a debt of gratitude for scouring through the archives years before the average person had a real clue of just who Bathsheba Sherman was.
When it came to the "paranormal celebrities" I had contacted, very few replied to my message, most of them ignored me all together, and one had an excuse why he couldn't share the post -- not even bringing up the donation side of things. I was thankful for any reply but obviously disappointed that he couldn't even take the time to share the post.
Sadly, there were several who had actually made money off of filming at the farmhouse, by doing television programs or having events there for one reason or another, who never reached out to us, and never donated or shared the link -- yet on film or in social media posts they claim that they cared so much about Bathsheba and wanted her to get a new headstone. Really? Then why didn't you help us?
Again, money or not, the post could have been shared if they truly wanted to help our cause, but they ignored it. One perfect example was when I had reached out to a producer of a hit television paranormal series (that is now cancelled), and he had told me he would share my link to his two stars of his show, and I also reached out to both of them individually as well. Neither one replied, neither one shared the link, and neither one donated in any way.
Again, I learned a lot during this time --- who actually cares about the dead, and who pretend to care on camera or social media so they can stay relevant and keep making money. That is a lesson a lot of you might want to pay attention to. Just because these paranormal people go on television and profess to care so much about helping share the truth about the dead, when it comes down to it, some of them are not really willing to go that extra mile to actually right those wrongs when given an opportunity to do so.
I also wanted to touch on another habit that I noticed with a lot of fundraisers once they have reached their goal. A lot of times people will come out of the woodwork claiming they raised money for the cause, to make themselves look like they were involved when they weren't.
In an interview recently with Dave Schrader, Andrea Perron mentioned the replacement of the stone and although she doesn't outright claim to have been involved, it's the way she mentioned it, even mentioning the costs to complete the job, that would leave the average person believing or assuming she was involved in some way.
She wasn't.
Besides the GoFundMe fundraiser I started, the Burrillville Historical and Preservation Society had one cemetery history tour event back in 2022, where they had asked for donations towards replacing Bathsheba's headstone, but that was the only time to my knowledge that donations towards her headstone were accepted outside of the Gofundme fundraiser online.
Did they? Or Didn't They?
After a filming of an episode of "Kindred Spirits" at the farmhouse for The Travel Channel; (Season 4; Episode 2; "Hell House"; Air Date: January 10, 2020), which I had previously provided producer James Gagliano my historical research on not only Bathsheba Sherman but also the history of the home prior to their filming, I had learned there had been a screening of that episode there at the farmhouse with the owners, the stars of the show Amy Bruni and Adam Berry, and some members of the Historical Society.
In a post going way back to 2020, after learning that I was planning a fundraiser to replace Bathsheba's headstone, Adam Berry had mentioned he was happy that "more than one group of people are raising funds for the historical society!!"
Then one of the former owners, Jennifer Heinzen, made a comment on social media this year, just after Bathsheba's headstone was finally replaced, claiming they had raised $550.00 for Bathsheba's headstone in 2020, which I believe was the same time of the screening the Kindred Spirits episode, given the photograph below.
However, according to Betty Mencucci at the Burrillville Historical and Preservation Society when we spoke back on February 2, 2022, there were no funds raised for Bathsheba Sherman's headstone at that time. That was why I had started a fundraiser to begin with, because no one else had. I had been thinking about it for years.
In fact, Betty stated to me by correspondance: "When Kindred Spirits did their filming they said they would be happy to come back and do a fundraiser. Then Covid happened and everything stopped."
If any money was raised that evening in 2020, it became a donation towards the historical society itself, not any one specific cause. That must be clarified to the public.
For the record, the listed people below are the ONLY people to donate to replace Bathsheba Sherman's headstone via the GoFundMe fundraiser. These people below are the ones who made it happen, and they all deserve to be thanked publicly.
THANK YOU FOR HELPING US, HELP BATHSHEBA SHERMAN!
LIST OF DONORS:
- Tina Spottswood (widow of Kent Spottswood, the original historian to debunk Bathsheba Sherman's false history) $25.00
- Penny Griffiths Morgan $5.00
- Andy Dimitras $5.00
- Peter Meyerhof $50.00
- Troy Taylor $40.00
- Donna Wolk $20.00
- James David $20.00
- Richard Estep $40.00
- Jennifer Sprague $10.00
- Karen Carothers $10.00
- Angela Haklar $ 10.00
- Patricia Austin $10.00
- Shari Cain $10.00
- Jennifer Campbell $20.00
- Lisa Krick $ 20.00
- Leanna Tallet Leanna $20.00
- Anonymous * 20.00
- Christina Quentin $25.00
- Ileata Kenley $25.00
- J'aime Rubio $100.00
- Dora Huber $ 25.00
- Kandy Sumpter $25.00
- Chelsea Hartupee $25.00
- Judy Lucas $40.00
- Anonymous *$10.00
- Rikki Suen $10.00
- Dayle Dooley $ 20.00
- Anonymous *$5.00
- Daniel Echt $25.00
- Susan Doughty $10.00
- Amanda Millette $20.00
- Jessi K $5.00
- Johnelle Bergeron $ 20.00
- Anonymous * 20.00
- Marcee Brightenstine $25.00
- Anonymous * $10.00
- Jillian Auffinger $10.00
- Mikayla McKivergan $ 50.00
- Gregory Duhamel $20.00
- Anonymous* $15.00
- Rebecca Bonin $20.00
- Crystal Pesaturo $50.00
- Jacqueline Nunez $1,200.00
- Summer Paradis $50.00
- Tanya Gilroy $10.00
- Brooke Coen $5.00
- Bonnie Pulver $ 25.00
- Donald LaCroix $50.00
- William Bryan $ 10.00
- Ashley Dupont $ 5.00
- Anonymous * $10.00
- Elizabeth Thornton $ 20.00
- Ken Krippeler $ 35.00
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