The Death of Dr. Dean: A Novella

Charles Rich and William Dean were friends for over twenty years. They were intelligent, well-educated men in a small farming community named Jaffrey NH. on the Massachusetts’ border. William was called Doctor, although trained as a doctor, he never practiced. He lived with his wife, Mary, on a hilltop farm two miles out of the village of Jaffrey. Dr. Dean had a spectacular view of Mount Monadnock, and he milked his cows late in the morning, and late at night, and after his body was found stuffed down a well, it was thought he had information about the lights that someone didn’t want him to share with The Department of Justice. People saw lights from the mountain beginning in the summer of 1916, and it was feared there were German spies signaling boats in the ocean sixty miles away about troop movements from Fort Devens. The Department of Justice sent agents to Peterborough NH in April of 1918 to investigate the lights under The Espionage Act of 1917. On the morning of August 14, 1918 Dr. Dean’s body was found in a well at the same time his good friend showed up with a black eye.