On this day in 1973, the Lawnmower Man, after laying low for more than a week, resurfaced in Maine to commit five more murders, this time striking the town of Castle Rock.

Among his victims were author Thad Beaumont, sewing shop proprietress Polly Chalmers, and Castle Rock sheriff George Bannerman; it was the Bannerman murder that particularly enraged the citizens of Castle Rock and prompted the FBI to offer a 500,000 USD reward for information leading to the Lawnmower Man's arrest.

That same day, the mill in Gates Falls where John Hall had once worked was shut down after a massive colony of rats was discovered in the mill's sub-basement; also, Castle Rock resident Johnny Smith woke up in a Portland hospital after a four-year coma and began having premonitions about where the Lawnmower Man would strike next.

The Castle Rock murders, and Smith's visions, would later become the basis for a chapter in The Lawnmower Man titled 'Needful Things' and a documentary film, The Dead Zone.