| abstract | - Burke Devlin was born and raised in Collinsport, Maine in the 1930s (13). His family was very poor and he grew up in a shack by the water, hating Collinsport (4, 11). His father scrounged for work repairing lobster pots or whatever work he could find (11). Burke had a dog who would hide under the bed when it stormed (30). Burke's father was very strict and once beat him so hard for running away, his hands were raw for two weeks. Burke had gotten on a coastal freighter to Boston and on board, he got so sea-sick he thought he was going to die (30). Another time, Burke used his favourite pipe for soap bubbles, infuriating him. He later bought Burke an actual soap pipe to use instead (29). Unable to resist the temptation of a real haunted house in his home-town, Burke went up to the mysterious Collinwood at the age of ten to look for ghosts. He never found any, but wandering the halls of the west wing, he was caught and spanked for snooping around in someone else's house (3, 7). As a schoolboy, Burke never had time for books, a fact which he would later rectify as an adult (38). Burke always loved money. He used to roam the streets of Collinsport looking for empty bottles. He built his first fortune this way; 40¢ in five hours (10). Burke would often pose for Sam Evans for quarters and the two eventually became good friends (3, 11). Bill Malloy gave Burke his first job on or around 1951, paying him a man's wages to work for the Collins family (4, 45).
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