WEBVTT - The Greenbrier Ghost 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:04.000 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:12.760 of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:15.880 to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:18.880 And now we're in the thick of Halloween happenings, which 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:22.440 means it is time for a ghost story. Who doesn't 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:24.840 love a ghost story? Although this one is problematic in 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:27.440 a variety of ways. You may recall an episode that 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:31.200 Sarah and Deblina did in twelve about London's Cocklane ghost 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:33.960 who accused a living person of murder that is also 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:36.320 going to come up as a classic uh in the 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:38.479 not too distant future. So if you didn't listen to 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:40.479 it in twelve and don't feel like looking for it, 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:44.480 you're going to get it automatically in your feed very soon. Uh. 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:46.440 And this one is in a similar vein, but it 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:49.400 is a West Virginia story of a ghost who gave 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.440 details about her murder and uh, we are about to 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:57.160 go on tour, as we've said so, uh, we were 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:01.440 considering this as as possibly one of the topics that 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:04.319 we would cover in one leg of our our upcoming tour, 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:06.520 but as I started doing the research on it, it 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.360 pretty quickly became apparent that this is a little too 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:13.520 unsettling for our no bummer's rule for live shows. Uh. 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:15.840 And there is are some aspects to this story that 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:18.920 just would not be fun bantery things to talk about 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:21.760 in a live show. Uh. That means this is also 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:26.759 your warning that this story features multiple instances of spousal abuse, 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.520 specifically a man abusing his wives. So if that is 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:32.800 something that you would rather not hear about, that is understandable, 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:35.520 and this one might be best to skip over. We 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:39.440 are talking today about the Greenbrier Ghost. It's spousal abuse 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:44.040 up to and potentially including murder. So yeah, it's uh 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:46.640 not to be a spoiler, but there's a lot going on. 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:50.000 There's a plaque which is a state historical marker that 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.880 stands near a West Virginia cemetery and tells an incredible tale. 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:58.600 Here's what it says. Quote Greenbrier Ghost, interred in nearby 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:03.120 cemetery is na houster shoe. Her death in eight was 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:07.280 presumed natural until her spirit appeared to her mother to 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:11.160 describe how she was killed by her husband. Trout autopsy 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:15.840 on the exhumed body verified the apparition's account. Trout found 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:19.120 guilty of murder was sentenced to the state prison. Only 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:23.680 known case in which testimony from ghost helped convict a murderer. 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:27.639 So first we are going to talk about Mr Shoe. 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:32.360 His full name was Erasmus Stribbling Trout Shoe, and he 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:36.080 had a problematic past long before he met Zona. When 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:39.760 he changed his name from Erasmus to Edward is unknown, 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:41.440 although it could have been connected to one of the 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:44.240 times he had some legal trouble, but he went by 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:48.120 Trout to most people. Shoe had a history of abuse, 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.400 Like we alluded to earlier, in the winter of eighteen 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.480 eighty six to eighty seven, there were stories of incidents 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:57.480 in which he had whipped his first wife, Her name 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:01.960 was ali Estelene cut Lip McMillan, and those stories had 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:05.359 spread and become so common that a number of teenagers 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:07.960 and their teacher decided to go do something about it. 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:11.840 According to an account by one of the boys involved, G. S. McKeever, 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:15.239 the group went to the Shoe cabin on Rock Camp Run, 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:18.040 which was an offshoot of Spring Creek, late one night 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:21.000 and they knocked on the door. Obviously, we should say 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:23.560 this account was given many many years after all of 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:25.920 this took place to just keep that in mind. But 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:29.240 when Shoe answered, several of the youths jumped him and 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:31.840 they took him to a watering hole and they dunked 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:34.920 him in the icy water. The temperature that night was 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.720 below freezing, and they told him they were doing it 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:40.360 because he was known to beat his wife. And the 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:43.640 next morning Shoe pressed charges against the three boys who 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:47.080 were his primary attackers. So there was a minor bit 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:49.560 of addressing the charges and bringing the first of the 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:52.720 defendants to court, but there were plenty of people willing 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.760 to serve as witnesses for all the young people involved. 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.960 All three warrants were abandoned by the court. Shoe's wife, 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.920 Ali moved back to her family home and later divorced him, 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:08.680 and she did that while he was incarcerated for horse theft. Yeah, basically, 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:12.120 when the first of the young men, who they were teenagers, 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:14.680 so the boys involved, went before the court, there were 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:16.760 like three people ready to go No, he wasn't, he 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:19.120 wasn't where they're saying he is. And they realized like 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.760 there was never going to be anything to come of it, 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:24.359 So that's why they dismissed all of those others. Um 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:26.680 I think probably also the judge knew what was up 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:28.640 and was like, I'm not going to punish these kids 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:31.320 for trying to do something right. Shoe got married again, 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:35.560 in this time to Lucy and Tritt, and Lucy was 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.279 only sixteen when she and Trout married. She did not 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.600 live to see seventeen. Eight months into the marriage, she 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:44.160 fell and died when she hit her head on a rock. 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:47.679 At least that was trout story. There was some doubt 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.400 in the community about whether that was true, but Trout 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:53.360 was never charged with any wrongdoing in her death, and 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:55.599 her death was written up in the paper as just 0:04:55.680 --> 0:05:00.120 a sudden death. And then in the On of You 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.840 met Elva Zona Heaster, who went by Zona. Before long 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:08.120 they were married. Trout Shoe had only recently started working 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:11.080 in Greenbrier County and he drew a lot of attention. 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.800 He was handsome and cocky, and Zona really fell for him, 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:18.719 and their wedding itself was a peculiarity. When the Methodist 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.400 minister are are Little arrived at the Shoe home for 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:24.599 the ceremony, The bride and the guests were there, but 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.960 trout Shoe was not. He had gone to get the 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:31.000 marriage license, is what the minister was told, and, according 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:34.120 to an account that was given by Reverent Little again 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.760 much later after the fact, they all sat there and 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:40.000 waited a very long time for Trout to return. He 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:44.440 left them waiting from early afternoon until approximately midnight. Then 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.080 when Trout finally did get there, there was a problem 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:50.080 with the marriage license itself. It had been issued in 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:54.719 Greenbrier County, but the shoe home was located in Pocahonas County. 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:58.080 Little refused to perform the ceremony in any other county 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:01.520 than the one where the license had been issued. I 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:03.800 don't know how West Virginia law works, but that is 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:07.479 how the law works some places. She convinced everybody in 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:10.279 attendance to walk a mile down the road so that 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:13.120 they would be in Greenbrier County, and then the ceremony 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:16.960 started there on the road. So here is what happened next, 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.919 according to Reverend Little's account, quote, when I came to 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.400 the part of the ceremony where it says, if anyone 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:27.440 has objections, speak now or forever hold your peace. I waited, 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:32.040 and after some time I said I object I told 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:34.000 him for the reason that the girl he wished to 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:37.599 marry was a mere child. None of her people are present. 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:40.039 It is now one o'clock in the morning, and we 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.719 are all here on a country road. A marriage ceremony 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:46.040 is a sacred rite and should at least be performed 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:50.080 under ordinary circumstances. I cannot help but think there is 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:52.359 something not right in this case, and I will go 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.080 no further. So there will be no wedding, so far 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.479 as I am concerned. The minister said that he later 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:01.679 learned that Zonah was very young, just fifteen years old. 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:05.560 You'll recall that Trout's previous wife, Lucy, had only been sixteen. 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:10.000 It was probably not accurate, though she was probably closer 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:14.360 to twenty. Her exact birthdate is unknown, and different accounts 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.240 of how old she was are really all over the map. Yeah, 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:21.800 there are a lot of question marks surrounding Zona and 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:25.880 her personality and who she was. There are some stories 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:28.240 that will tell you that she had actually had a 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:30.880 child out of wedlock the year before, which would have 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:33.600 been very um scandalous at the time. The year before 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:37.640 she met she, others will paint a completely different picture 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:40.520 of her. And because there are so little records, it's 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:45.160 really hard to know. What is just country community gossip 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:47.760 that has spread versus what is truth, which is part 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:50.640 of why this story is tricky to begin with. But 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:53.600 we know that trout Shoe had gotten this young woman 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:57.040 away from her family and had rushed this wedding. And 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.200 even though Reverend Little refused to perform the ceremony, the 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:02.880 next morning, Trout just took Zona to another town in 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:07.080 Greenbrier County and they got married there. Trout and Zonah 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:09.440 were together only a couple of months, It's between two 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.560 and three months before she died. In early January of 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:16.960 eighteen nine seven, Zona became ill with something that's not 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:21.680 totally clear. The local doctor, doctor George W. Knap, called 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.560 on the Shoes to check on Zonah regularly and to 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:28.840 monitor her health. On January two, Trout paid a visit 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.480 to the home of a woman known as Aunt Martha Jones. 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:34.840 Martha had a son named Anderson who was eleven at 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:37.880 the time, and trout Shoe asked if Anderson could go 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:39.880 to the Shoe home and take care of some chores 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.480 for Zona. Anderson had done this kind of work for 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:45.320 them before, and he was told that Anderson had some 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:47.599 other errands that he needed to do first, but that 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:50.520 he would eventually make his way there, and over the 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:53.240 course of the morning, in the very early afternoon, Trout 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.480 stopped at the Jones home four different times to repeat 0:08:56.520 --> 0:09:00.760 that request. Anderson Jones did. Eventually, I get to Trout 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:03.720 and Zona's home, and we'll get to the particulars of 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:05.920 what he found there. After we paused for a quick 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:16.320 sponsor break. According to an account given by Anderson Jones 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:19.240 decades later, when he was a grown man, he finally 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:22.000 got to the Shoe home a little after one pm, 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.280 and he felt that there was something off about the 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.800 house as he approached it, and as he got to 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:29.960 the porch, he said that he saw blood. He knocked 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:31.679 on the door, but he got no answer, and then 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.400 he tried the door, which was unlocked, and he entered 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:38.000 the house. He followed the trail of blood through the 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.560 kitchen to the door to the dining room, and as 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:43.760 with the exterior door, that dining room door was closed, 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:46.240 and he knocked and got no answer, and then he 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:49.440 opened the door himself. When he did this, Anderson Jones 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:53.160 stumbled over the body of Zona, lying face up on 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.960 the floor with her eyes open. He shook her and 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:00.000 found that she was cold to the touch. Immediately realized 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.040 she was dead. He ran from the house and yelled 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:05.320 to his mother as he made his way home that 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.080 Mrs Shoe was dead, and then he went onto the 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.240 blacksmith shop where Trout she worked to tell him this 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:15.560 terrible news about his wife. According to Anderson Jones, Shoe 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:19.440 ran home and he Anderson went to fetch Dr. Nap, 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:21.440 and by the time they got to the Shoe home 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.720 that meaning Anderson and the doctor, Trout had moved his 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.440 wife from the floor to the bed and dressed her 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.280 in address with a high collar and a scarf, and 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:34.320 was sitting on the bed cradling her body. Trout allegedly 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:37.680 held her head close to his chest and wasn't willing 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.240 to let go of it even as the doctor tried 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:44.400 to examine the body. Nap determined that Zonah had experienced 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:49.600 heart failure and said that her death was quote everlasting faint. 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.720 Zona had died on a Friday, and on Saturday, her 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:56.400 body was taken to her mother's home, which was on 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:58.880 a nearby mountain, where there was a period of visitation 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:04.240 before the burial on Monday, January. During the visitation, Trout 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:07.800 was similarly unwilling to step away from Zona or her coffin, 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:10.400 choosing to stay seated at the head of it rather 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:13.160 than stand to greet visitors, and any time there was 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.559 someone there, Trout was there at the coffin and allegedly 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:20.360 did not allow anyone to approach it. So now we 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:22.480 need to take a moment to talk about Zona's mother. 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:25.720 Her name was Mrs Mary Jane Heister, and she was 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:29.560 not a fan of Trout. That cause of death, recorded 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:33.080 as everlasting feint, did not sit well with her. To 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.880 Mary Heaster, that didn't sound like a valid reason for 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:41.480 her young, previously pretty healthy daughter to have died. And 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:45.040 beginning a few days after Zona was buried, Mrs Heaster 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:49.160 had what is sometimes characterized as four dreams, also sometimes 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:53.440 described as some other event in which her daughter appeared 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:58.640 to her. These became very significant events uh. Mrs Heaster 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:02.000 describes them as her daughter being real and corporeal and 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:05.160 able to be touched. And that first night, Mrs Easter 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:07.480 felt that she had awakened when she heard a noise 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:09.600 in her room, and as her eyes grew accustomed to 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:13.120 the darkness, she made out the shape of her daughter Zona. 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:15.320 But when Mary reached out on that first night, her 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:20.160 daughter disappeared On the second night, after Mary prayed repeatedly 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:22.560 that she wanted to see Zonah again, she said that 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:26.040 the deceased daughter appeared to her again, and this time 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:29.920 the apparition spoke to her, wanting her mother to understand 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:33.840 what had really happened. Zona made a third appearance on 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:36.240 the following night, and then a fourth the night after that, 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:39.520 and it was during that final night that Zona really 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.199 told her mother all of the details of her death. 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.840 The most significant part of Mary Heaster's account of Zonah's 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:51.440 dream communications with her involved details of the murder, specifically 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:55.040 how Trout had broken her neck. Mrs Easter did not 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:58.280 keep these communications from Zona to herself. She told people 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:02.640 all about it. They're initial reaction to Mary telling friends 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:06.440 and neighbors about these dreams and subsequent suspicion of her 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:10.880 son in law's involvement in Zona's death was pretty polite disbelief. 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:14.600 The general opinion seemed to be that grief was leading 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:17.640 Mrs Hoister to come to wild conclusions and to just 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:21.600 cling to some sort of explanation for her daughter's untimely death, 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.120 one that would offer her a chance at some kind 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:28.480 of retribution. But Mary Heister was adamant that her daughter 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.800 was actively communicating with her, so much that she started 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.480 to convince people that that was what was happening. A 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:37.400 few people at a time, and once Mary convinced her 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:41.360 brother in law, Johnson Heister, things really started to change. 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.719 So first the pair actually went to visit Shoe. They 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:47.679 were trying not to tip their hand, but they wanted 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.760 to talk about what had happened when Zona died, and 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:53.600 they came away from that visit believing with certainty that 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:56.920 he had killed his young wife. They also spoke to 0:13:57.000 --> 0:14:00.120 Anderson Jones and several other people in the community d 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:02.319 who had been at the house the day Zona's body 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:06.559 was discovered. With Johnson's involvement and not nearly that of 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.240 a distraught mother who people were happy to kind of 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.439 write off, the Easters were able to move their suspicions 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:16.280 into action. First, they met with John A. Preston, who 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.320 was the Louisbourg prosecutor who had already heard plenty of 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:22.640 rumors going on about Zona's mother trying to have Trout 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:26.800 convicted for murder. As news had spread, various people offered 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:30.000 up examples of what they perceived after the fact. Who 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:33.560 have been strange behavior on Trout's part and the fact 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.359 that he had been unwilling to let Dr Nap examine 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:40.280 Zonah's head started to seem less like a deeply aggrieved 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:43.160 husband who could not bear to let go of his 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.600 last beloved and maybe more like somebody who was trying 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:50.120 to cover something up. After meeting with Mary and Johnson, Heaster, 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:53.240 Preston took things to the next step. He went to 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:56.280 speak with Dr Napp, and Dr Napp admitted that he 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:59.160 might have been wrong in ruling Zona's death a heart failure. 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.920 He mentioned that in the moment, and not thinking with 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.240 any sort of suspicious thoughts, he had seen Trout as 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:08.240 a man in shock, and he didn't want to press 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:12.200 the matter to examine Zona's body more thoroughly. Preston and 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.840 Nap came to the conclusion that the only way to 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.800 truly learn the facts the case was to autopsy Zona's body, 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:21.560 and the two of them gathered Anderson Jones and Aunt 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:25.200 Martha Jones and Trout to the next morning. They informed 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:28.320 to that they intended to exhume Zona, and then the 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.360 entire party made their way to the grave site. Trout 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:35.320 was insistent that they would find nothing. He said that 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.920 over and over throughout the remainder of this story. Uh 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:41.880 When they reached the grave, several men who lived nearby 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.680 were ordered by the prosecutor to assist and dig up 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.400 the coffin, and once it had been removed from the ground, 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.640 it was taken to a nearby schoolhouse for examination. And 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:54.360 Shoe and Anderson Jones both witnessed the autopsy. So we 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.880 should have a quick sidebar here about Anderson Jones, because 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:01.400 he was eleven and watching an auto popsy. It also 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:03.920 seems like he was used as kind of a pawn 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:08.240 to discover Zona's body, and this is because of an 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:11.320 element of racism that was here Trout Shoe was white 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:14.880 and Anderson was black. And back in tween, the American 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:19.880 Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology featured a 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:22.680 study from U. C. L A that stated, quote, children 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.440 in most societies are considered to be in a distinct 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:29.000 group with characteristics such is innocence and the need for protection. 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:32.280 Our research found that black boys can be seen as 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.240 responsible for their actions at an age when white boys 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:38.560 still benefit from the assumption that children are essentially innocent. 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:41.120 That is, of course, not a new thing, even though 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:45.400 that research was conducted five years ago, and I think 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:48.480 it's fair to assume that Anderson was probably not treated 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.080 with the care and concern for his well being that 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.440 a white child probably would have received. Um. That is 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:56.720 something that does not come up very often when you 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:00.240 hear about this story. People will mention that the ownes 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:02.960 as were black, but they will not really nobody really 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:05.320 addresses the fact that, like, this child was in the 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:09.679 middle of all of this potentially very disturbing stuff. And 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:11.960 even when he talks about finding the body, which he 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:14.520 did many years later, he sort of says like, I 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.040 don't I don't know how I did it. I don't 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.720 know how I reached down and shook her because it 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:22.600 was clear she was dead, And he doesn't really speak 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:25.800 at length about his experience with the autopsy. It's almost 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:29.359 like he compartmentalizes. Tracy and I talked about this beforehand, 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.679 and it's like there is that thing where like in 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.040 in country communities, kids that grow up in the country 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:37.320 or in rural areas around farms are often exposed to 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:39.480 things that city kids would not be, some of which 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:43.760 might uh seem a little bit gruesome. I grew up 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:47.960 on a farm. I watched animals get slaughtered. I think 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.320 my Again, it's a different time period, obviously, but I 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:52.040 think my parents would not have been cool with me 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:57.400 seeing a human person be autopsied or dissected. But it's 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:00.280 one of those things that um is not just gust 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:01.920 as we said, but it just seems like it would 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:04.800 be remiss not to call attention to that particular angle 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:07.399 of the whole thing, at least briefly, and just make 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:09.879 it something that people think about. We'll get back to 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:13.399 what happened after Zona's body was autopsy, but first we 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:23.040 will take a breather for a little sponsor break. Over 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:25.360 the course of the next three days, Dr Nap carefully 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:29.000 examined the body and eventually found that Zona's neck had 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.240 been snapped, and in fact, it was broken in exactly 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:34.879 the place that Mary Heaster had described. That was the 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:38.040 place that Zonah told her it had been broken. Trout 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.080 was arrested, charged with murder, and put on trial. The 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:44.520 pocahon Iss Times reported the story of the exlimation and 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:47.879 the horrific findings of the autopsy. Quote on the throat 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:51.280 were marks of fingers, indicating that she had been choken. 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:55.280 That the neck was dislocated between the first and second vertebrae. 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:59.200 The ligaments were torn and ruptured. The wind pipe had 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:01.480 been crushed at a point in front of the neck. 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:06.160 Trout's defense, led by William Parks Rucker and James P. D. Gardner, 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.000 actually decided that in the midst of the trial they 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:11.520 would call Mary Heaster to the stand. They thought it 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.679 was going to help their case. Their strategy was to 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:17.560 show that she was clearly a grieving mother, out of 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:20.199 touch with reality due to the shock and sorrow of 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:23.920 losing her daughter. But she was very steadfast in her testimony, 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:28.199 and that approach failed miserably. When the defense asked her, quote, 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.080 I have heard that you had some dream or vision 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:35.000 which led to this post mortem examination, she replied, quote, 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:38.080 they saw enough their selves without me telling them. It 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:41.200 was no dream. She came back and told me that 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:43.639 he was mad that she didn't have no meat cooked 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:47.320 for supper. But she said she had plenty, and said 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.639 that she had butter and apple butter apples, and named 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.560 over two or three kinds of jellies, pears and cherries 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:57.160 and raspberry jelly. And she says, I had plenty. She says, 0:19:57.520 --> 0:19:59.960 don't you think that he was mad and just took 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:02.320 down all my nice things and packed them away and 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:04.680 just ruined them. And she told me where I could 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:07.239 look down back of Aunt Martha Jones, is in the 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:09.720 meadow in a rocky place that I could look in 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.680 a cellar behind some loose plank and see it was 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:15.440 a square log house. It was hued up to the square. 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:17.919 And she said for me to go look right at 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:19.800 the right hand side, at the door as you go in, 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:22.439 and at the right hand corner as you go in. Well, 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:24.679 I saw the place just exactly as she told me, 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:26.720 and I saw blood right there where she told me, 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:30.720 And she told me something about that meat. Every night 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:33.760 she came just as she did the first night. She 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:37.280 came four times and four nights. But the second night 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:39.679 she told me that her neck was squeezed off at 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:43.840 the first joint, and it was just as she told me. So, Um, 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:46.399 that is a little bit different than the version of 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.200 progression that we mentioned earlier, in terms of like her 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:52.720 coming the first night in disappearing and then coming the 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:54.840 second night in the fourth night being the one. I 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.159 included both of those, and part of that is is 0:20:57.200 --> 0:20:58.760 something we're going to talk about at the very end 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:02.119 of the episode about how much this story has become 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:04.440 a legend and it has shifted, and even when you're 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:09.159 looking at historians documents and accounts of people there in 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:11.639 the midst of it, because there's a book written about 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:14.159 forty years after all of this took place, and and 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:18.040 accounts of the surviving people involved were interviewed. It's just 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:21.280 very interesting to me to hear how even though Mrs 0:21:21.320 --> 0:21:24.080 Heaster was was pretty adamant about the whole thing throughout 0:21:24.840 --> 0:21:26.920 those facts, and I have to use the air quotes 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:29.560 there change a little bit in the telling, even by 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:31.760 people who were first hand witnesses to the whole thing. 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:35.240 The questioning of Mrs Heaster went on to ask her 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:39.280 repeatedly if she really saw her daughter, eventually posing the 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:42.320 possibility that these visions may have been quote nothing more 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:46.119 or less than four dreams founded upon your distress. But 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:49.440