October 22 - 30, 2010
© 2010 The Greater Hatboro Chamber of Commerce - Web Site Donated By Pennypack Entertainment, Inc.
THE TERRIFYING TALE OF DAMIEN LESTER,
THE MAD HATTER OF MILLER MEADOW
THE MAD HATTER OF MILLER MEADOW
Many years ago in the small town of Hatboro, there lived a boy named Damien Lester. Damien's father, Jonah, owned a hat factory which was located near Miller Meadow, and his beautiful mother, Sarah, worked as secretary for the local machine company. Jonah and Sarah loved their son dearly and were able to provide him with every opportunity. They were a happy, prosperous family living a seemingly perfect life. Damien had everything a boy could want - a pleasant and care-free boyhood.
So, how could it happen that this young, sweet, talented boy, who grew up to be an extraordinarily gifted hatter, would become an unmentionable name in the town of Hatboro?
Well, as the story goes, when Damien was a young man, he inherited the family hat factory near Miller Meadow following the unexpected death of both Jonah and Sarah in a tragic accident. Grief-stricken and with no other family and no close friends, he began working night and day on his hat designing skills. His desire for solitude helped to turn his passion for hat-making into an obsession, and although he became renowned for his beautiful and unusual hats, he became more and more mentally unstable.
His lonely life and fragile mental state was disastrously disrupted when a friend of the family belatedly revealed to him that murder was the cause of his parents "tragic accident." The same person further revealed that Abner Chillingworth, the owner of the machine company where his mother, Sarah, worked, had stalked and harassed his mother for years. When Damien's father finally found out, he decided that his wife should quit her job to get away from that horrible man. Little did he know, what was coming next.
The next day, a deceptively beautiful October day, Damien's mother and father headed out to the machine company. Just as he had done for the past twelve years, Jonah walked Sarah into the factory. He planned to confront her employer. However, when they walked in, they saw no one, only a note on the front office door stating that this was an off day. As they both turned to go, the jealous Mr. Chillingworth, hit them both about the head with a baseball bat. When they were both unconscious, he started one of the machines and threw them into it one at a time. The machine ground their flesh and bones into a bloody pile of pulp... "I could not let her leave! If I can't have her no one will." he said in a hoarse whisper.
After Damien found out the truth of his parents' deaths, he began to lose touch with reality, and madness set in. Instead of working on his hats, he began to design very large machines that could be used as torture devices. He made hundreds of his evil toys of pain, for the sole purpose of killing his parents' murderer and murdering all those who had worked at the factory for not saving his parents on that fateful day...
His revenge began the following October. Abner Chillingworth was the first to disappear. Then, over the years, one person after another, all former employees of the machine company, started to mysteriously disappear without any trace. Occasionally, a call would come into the police reporting the sounds of distant screaming, but nothing out of order was found.
That is why only the very brave, or the very crazy,
dare to visit Miller Meadow in October!
How about you? Do you dare?
dare to visit Miller Meadow in October!
How about you? Do you dare?
But ever since then, a vague feeling of foreboding tends to come over those who visit Miller Meadow in October. There are frequent reports of strange and terrifying apparitions and the distant sounds of mad screaming. Might it be the Mad Hatter himself haunting the scene of his evil deeds...looking for more victims? Is it the ghosts of Damien's victims looking for revenge? And could it be the unhappy ghosts of Jonah and Sarah who haunt the cemetery crying for their lost boy?
When the murders were done and his revenge complete, Damien hung himself from the rafters in the office of his hat factory. Only then was the mystery revealed. Found on Damien's desk was his journal, which revealed the gory details of his heinous crimes. The shock and horror reverberated throughout the community. The horrifying hat factory, scene of unspeakable deeds, was burned down by the townspeople in an attempt to erase all memory of the tragic events. Eventually, people stopped talking about it and it became a forgotten part of Hatboro's history...few people remembered the Mad Hatter of Miller Meadow.