Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
Speaker 1: And now we're in the thick of Halloween happenings, which
Speaker 1: means it is time for a ghost story. Who doesn't
Speaker 1: love a ghost story? Although this one is problematic in
Speaker 1: a variety of ways. You may recall an episode that
Speaker 1: Sarah and Deblina did in twelve about London's Cocklane ghost
Speaker 1: who accused a living person of murder that is also
Speaker 1: going to come up as a classic uh in the
Speaker 1: not too distant future. So if you didn't listen to
Speaker 1: it in twelve and don't feel like looking for it,
Speaker 1: you're going to get it automatically in your feed very soon. Uh.
Speaker 1: And this one is in a similar vein, but it
Speaker 1: is a West Virginia story of a ghost who gave
Speaker 1: details about her murder and uh, we are about to
Speaker 1: go on tour, as we've said so, uh, we were
Speaker 1: considering this as as possibly one of the topics that
Speaker 1: we would cover in one leg of our our upcoming tour,
Speaker 1: but as I started doing the research on it, it
Speaker 1: pretty quickly became apparent that this is a little too
Speaker 1: unsettling for our no bummer's rule for live shows. Uh.
Speaker 1: And there is are some aspects to this story that
Speaker 1: just would not be fun bantery things to talk about
Speaker 1: in a live show. Uh. That means this is also
Speaker 1: your warning that this story features multiple instances of spousal abuse,
Speaker 1: specifically a man abusing his wives. So if that is
Speaker 1: something that you would rather not hear about, that is understandable,
Speaker 1: and this one might be best to skip over. We
Speaker 1: are talking today about the Greenbrier Ghost. It's spousal abuse
Speaker 1: up to and potentially including murder. So yeah, it's uh
Speaker 1: not to be a spoiler, but there's a lot going on.
Speaker 1: There's a plaque which is a state historical marker that
Speaker 1: stands near a West Virginia cemetery and tells an incredible tale.
Speaker 1: Here's what it says. Quote Greenbrier Ghost, interred in nearby
Speaker 1: cemetery is na houster shoe. Her death in eight was
Speaker 1: presumed natural until her spirit appeared to her mother to
Speaker 1: describe how she was killed by her husband. Trout autopsy
Speaker 1: on the exhumed body verified the apparition's account. Trout found
Speaker 1: guilty of murder was sentenced to the state prison. Only
Speaker 1: known case in which testimony from ghost helped convict a murderer.
Speaker 1: So first we are going to talk about Mr Shoe.
Speaker 1: His full name was Erasmus Stribbling Trout Shoe, and he
Speaker 1: had a problematic past long before he met Zona. When
Speaker 1: he changed his name from Erasmus to Edward is unknown,
Speaker 1: although it could have been connected to one of the
Speaker 1: times he had some legal trouble, but he went by
Speaker 1: Trout to most people. Shoe had a history of abuse,
Speaker 1: Like we alluded to earlier, in the winter of eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty six to eighty seven, there were stories of incidents
Speaker 1: in which he had whipped his first wife, Her name
Speaker 1: was ali Estelene cut Lip McMillan, and those stories had
Speaker 1: spread and become so common that a number of teenagers
Speaker 1: and their teacher decided to go do something about it.
Speaker 1: According to an account by one of the boys involved, G. S. McKeever,
Speaker 1: the group went to the Shoe cabin on Rock Camp Run,
Speaker 1: which was an offshoot of Spring Creek, late one night
Speaker 1: and they knocked on the door. Obviously, we should say
Speaker 1: this account was given many many years after all of
Speaker 1: this took place to just keep that in mind. But
Speaker 1: when Shoe answered, several of the youths jumped him and
Speaker 1: they took him to a watering hole and they dunked
Speaker 1: him in the icy water. The temperature that night was
Speaker 1: below freezing, and they told him they were doing it
Speaker 1: because he was known to beat his wife. And the
Speaker 1: next morning Shoe pressed charges against the three boys who
Speaker 1: were his primary attackers. So there was a minor bit
Speaker 1: of addressing the charges and bringing the first of the
Speaker 1: defendants to court, but there were plenty of people willing
Speaker 1: to serve as witnesses for all the young people involved.
Speaker 1: All three warrants were abandoned by the court. Shoe's wife,
Speaker 1: Ali moved back to her family home and later divorced him,
Speaker 1: and she did that while he was incarcerated for horse theft. Yeah, basically,
Speaker 1: when the first of the young men, who they were teenagers,
Speaker 1: so the boys involved, went before the court, there were
Speaker 1: like three people ready to go No, he wasn't, he
Speaker 1: wasn't where they're saying he is. And they realized like
Speaker 1: there was never going to be anything to come of it,
Speaker 1: So that's why they dismissed all of those others. Um
Speaker 1: I think probably also the judge knew what was up
Speaker 1: and was like, I'm not going to punish these kids
Speaker 1: for trying to do something right. Shoe got married again,
Speaker 1: in this time to Lucy and Tritt, and Lucy was
Speaker 1: only sixteen when she and Trout married. She did not
Speaker 1: live to see seventeen. Eight months into the marriage, she
Speaker 1: fell and died when she hit her head on a rock.
Speaker 1: At least that was trout story. There was some doubt
Speaker 1: in the community about whether that was true, but Trout
Speaker 1: was never charged with any wrongdoing in her death, and
Speaker 1: her death was written up in the paper as just
Speaker 1: a sudden death. And then in the On of You
Speaker 1: met Elva Zona Heaster, who went by Zona. Before long
Speaker 1: they were married. Trout Shoe had only recently started working
Speaker 1: in Greenbrier County and he drew a lot of attention.
Speaker 1: He was handsome and cocky, and Zona really fell for him,
Speaker 1: and their wedding itself was a peculiarity. When the Methodist
Speaker 1: minister are are Little arrived at the Shoe home for
Speaker 1: the ceremony, The bride and the guests were there, but
Speaker 1: trout Shoe was not. He had gone to get the
Speaker 1: marriage license, is what the minister was told, and, according
Speaker 1: to an account that was given by Reverent Little again
Speaker 1: much later after the fact, they all sat there and
Speaker 1: waited a very long time for Trout to return. He
Speaker 1: left them waiting from early afternoon until approximately midnight. Then
Speaker 1: when Trout finally did get there, there was a problem
Speaker 1: with the marriage license itself. It had been issued in
Speaker 1: Greenbrier County, but the shoe home was located in Pocahonas County.
Speaker 1: Little refused to perform the ceremony in any other county
Speaker 1: than the one where the license had been issued. I
Speaker 1: don't know how West Virginia law works, but that is
Speaker 1: how the law works some places. She convinced everybody in
Speaker 1: attendance to walk a mile down the road so that
Speaker 1: they would be in Greenbrier County, and then the ceremony
Speaker 1: started there on the road. So here is what happened next,
Speaker 1: according to Reverend Little's account, quote, when I came to
Speaker 1: the part of the ceremony where it says, if anyone
Speaker 1: has objections, speak now or forever hold your peace. I waited,
Speaker 1: and after some time I said I object I told
Speaker 1: him for the reason that the girl he wished to
Speaker 1: marry was a mere child. None of her people are present.
Speaker 1: It is now one o'clock in the morning, and we
Speaker 1: are all here on a country road. A marriage ceremony
Speaker 1: is a sacred rite and should at least be performed
Speaker 1: under ordinary circumstances. I cannot help but think there is
Speaker 1: something not right in this case, and I will go
Speaker 1: no further. So there will be no wedding, so far
Speaker 1: as I am concerned. The minister said that he later
Speaker 1: learned that Zonah was very young, just fifteen years old.
Speaker 1: You'll recall that Trout's previous wife, Lucy, had only been sixteen.
Speaker 1: It was probably not accurate, though she was probably closer
Speaker 1: to twenty. Her exact birthdate is unknown, and different accounts
Speaker 1: of how old she was are really all over the map. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of question marks surrounding Zona and
Speaker 1: her personality and who she was. There are some stories
Speaker 1: that will tell you that she had actually had a
Speaker 1: child out of wedlock the year before, which would have
Speaker 1: been very um scandalous at the time. The year before
Speaker 1: she met she, others will paint a completely different picture
Speaker 1: of her. And because there are so little records, it's
Speaker 1: really hard to know. What is just country community gossip
Speaker 1: that has spread versus what is truth, which is part
Speaker 1: of why this story is tricky to begin with. But
Speaker 1: we know that trout Shoe had gotten this young woman
Speaker 1: away from her family and had rushed this wedding. And
Speaker 1: even though Reverend Little refused to perform the ceremony, the
Speaker 1: next morning, Trout just took Zona to another town in
Speaker 1: Greenbrier County and they got married there. Trout and Zonah
Speaker 1: were together only a couple of months, It's between two
Speaker 1: and three months before she died. In early January of
Speaker 1: eighteen nine seven, Zona became ill with something that's not
Speaker 1: totally clear. The local doctor, doctor George W. Knap, called
Speaker 1: on the Shoes to check on Zonah regularly and to
Speaker 1: monitor her health. On January two, Trout paid a visit
Speaker 1: to the home of a woman known as Aunt Martha Jones.
Speaker 1: Martha had a son named Anderson who was eleven at
Speaker 1: the time, and trout Shoe asked if Anderson could go
Speaker 1: to the Shoe home and take care of some chores
Speaker 1: for Zona. Anderson had done this kind of work for
Speaker 1: them before, and he was told that Anderson had some
Speaker 1: other errands that he needed to do first, but that
Speaker 1: he would eventually make his way there, and over the
Speaker 1: course of the morning, in the very early afternoon, Trout
Speaker 1: stopped at the Jones home four different times to repeat
Speaker 1: that request. Anderson Jones did. Eventually, I get to Trout
Speaker 1: and Zona's home, and we'll get to the particulars of
Speaker 1: what he found there. After we paused for a quick
Speaker 1: sponsor break. According to an account given by Anderson Jones
Speaker 1: decades later, when he was a grown man, he finally
Speaker 1: got to the Shoe home a little after one pm,
Speaker 1: and he felt that there was something off about the
Speaker 1: house as he approached it, and as he got to
Speaker 1: the porch, he said that he saw blood. He knocked
Speaker 1: on the door, but he got no answer, and then
Speaker 1: he tried the door, which was unlocked, and he entered
Speaker 1: the house. He followed the trail of blood through the
Speaker 1: kitchen to the door to the dining room, and as
Speaker 1: with the exterior door, that dining room door was closed,
Speaker 1: and he knocked and got no answer, and then he
Speaker 1: opened the door himself. When he did this, Anderson Jones
Speaker 1: stumbled over the body of Zona, lying face up on
Speaker 1: the floor with her eyes open. He shook her and
Speaker 1: found that she was cold to the touch. Immediately realized
Speaker 1: she was dead. He ran from the house and yelled
Speaker 1: to his mother as he made his way home that
Speaker 1: Mrs Shoe was dead, and then he went onto the
Speaker 1: blacksmith shop where Trout she worked to tell him this
Speaker 1: terrible news about his wife. According to Anderson Jones, Shoe
Speaker 1: ran home and he Anderson went to fetch Dr. Nap,
Speaker 1: and by the time they got to the Shoe home
Speaker 1: that meaning Anderson and the doctor, Trout had moved his
Speaker 1: wife from the floor to the bed and dressed her
Speaker 1: in address with a high collar and a scarf, and
Speaker 1: was sitting on the bed cradling her body. Trout allegedly
Speaker 1: held her head close to his chest and wasn't willing
Speaker 1: to let go of it even as the doctor tried
Speaker 1: to examine the body. Nap determined that Zonah had experienced
Speaker 1: heart failure and said that her death was quote everlasting faint.
Speaker 1: Zona had died on a Friday, and on Saturday, her
Speaker 1: body was taken to her mother's home, which was on
Speaker 1: a nearby mountain, where there was a period of visitation
Speaker 1: before the burial on Monday, January. During the visitation, Trout
Speaker 1: was similarly unwilling to step away from Zona or her coffin,
Speaker 1: choosing to stay seated at the head of it rather
Speaker 1: than stand to greet visitors, and any time there was
Speaker 1: someone there, Trout was there at the coffin and allegedly
Speaker 1: did not allow anyone to approach it. So now we
Speaker 1: need to take a moment to talk about Zona's mother.
Speaker 1: Her name was Mrs Mary Jane Heister, and she was
Speaker 1: not a fan of Trout. That cause of death, recorded
Speaker 1: as everlasting feint, did not sit well with her. To
Speaker 1: Mary Heaster, that didn't sound like a valid reason for
Speaker 1: her young, previously pretty healthy daughter to have died. And
Speaker 1: beginning a few days after Zona was buried, Mrs Heaster
Speaker 1: had what is sometimes characterized as four dreams, also sometimes
Speaker 1: described as some other event in which her daughter appeared
Speaker 1: to her. These became very significant events uh. Mrs Heaster
Speaker 1: describes them as her daughter being real and corporeal and
Speaker 1: able to be touched. And that first night, Mrs Easter
Speaker 1: felt that she had awakened when she heard a noise
Speaker 1: in her room, and as her eyes grew accustomed to
Speaker 1: the darkness, she made out the shape of her daughter Zona.
Speaker 1: But when Mary reached out on that first night, her
Speaker 1: daughter disappeared On the second night, after Mary prayed repeatedly
Speaker 1: that she wanted to see Zonah again, she said that
Speaker 1: the deceased daughter appeared to her again, and this time
Speaker 1: the apparition spoke to her, wanting her mother to understand
Speaker 1: what had really happened. Zona made a third appearance on
Speaker 1: the following night, and then a fourth the night after that,
Speaker 1: and it was during that final night that Zona really
Speaker 1: told her mother all of the details of her death.
Speaker 1: The most significant part of Mary Heaster's account of Zonah's
Speaker 1: dream communications with her involved details of the murder, specifically
Speaker 1: how Trout had broken her neck. Mrs Easter did not
Speaker 1: keep these communications from Zona to herself. She told people
Speaker 1: all about it. They're initial reaction to Mary telling friends
Speaker 1: and neighbors about these dreams and subsequent suspicion of her
Speaker 1: son in law's involvement in Zona's death was pretty polite disbelief.
Speaker 1: The general opinion seemed to be that grief was leading
Speaker 1: Mrs Hoister to come to wild conclusions and to just
Speaker 1: cling to some sort of explanation for her daughter's untimely death,
Speaker 1: one that would offer her a chance at some kind
Speaker 1: of retribution. But Mary Heister was adamant that her daughter
Speaker 1: was actively communicating with her, so much that she started
Speaker 1: to convince people that that was what was happening. A
Speaker 1: few people at a time, and once Mary convinced her
Speaker 1: brother in law, Johnson Heister, things really started to change.
Speaker 1: So first the pair actually went to visit Shoe. They
Speaker 1: were trying not to tip their hand, but they wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about what had happened when Zona died, and
Speaker 1: they came away from that visit believing with certainty that
Speaker 1: he had killed his young wife. They also spoke to
Speaker 1: Anderson Jones and several other people in the community d
Speaker 1: who had been at the house the day Zona's body
Speaker 1: was discovered. With Johnson's involvement and not nearly that of
Speaker 1: a distraught mother who people were happy to kind of
Speaker 1: write off, the Easters were able to move their suspicions
Speaker 1: into action. First, they met with John A. Preston, who
Speaker 1: was the Louisbourg prosecutor who had already heard plenty of
Speaker 1: rumors going on about Zona's mother trying to have Trout
Speaker 1: convicted for murder. As news had spread, various people offered
Speaker 1: up examples of what they perceived after the fact. Who
Speaker 1: have been strange behavior on Trout's part and the fact
Speaker 1: that he had been unwilling to let Dr Nap examine
Speaker 1: Zonah's head started to seem less like a deeply aggrieved
Speaker 1: husband who could not bear to let go of his
Speaker 1: last beloved and maybe more like somebody who was trying
Speaker 1: to cover something up. After meeting with Mary and Johnson, Heaster,
Speaker 1: Preston took things to the next step. He went to
Speaker 1: speak with Dr Napp, and Dr Napp admitted that he
Speaker 1: might have been wrong in ruling Zona's death a heart failure.
Speaker 1: He mentioned that in the moment, and not thinking with
Speaker 1: any sort of suspicious thoughts, he had seen Trout as
Speaker 1: a man in shock, and he didn't want to press
Speaker 1: the matter to examine Zona's body more thoroughly. Preston and
Speaker 1: Nap came to the conclusion that the only way to
Speaker 1: truly learn the facts the case was to autopsy Zona's body,
Speaker 1: and the two of them gathered Anderson Jones and Aunt
Speaker 1: Martha Jones and Trout to the next morning. They informed
Speaker 1: to that they intended to exhume Zona, and then the
Speaker 1: entire party made their way to the grave site. Trout
Speaker 1: was insistent that they would find nothing. He said that
Speaker 1: over and over throughout the remainder of this story. Uh
Speaker 1: When they reached the grave, several men who lived nearby
Speaker 1: were ordered by the prosecutor to assist and dig up
Speaker 1: the coffin, and once it had been removed from the ground,
Speaker 1: it was taken to a nearby schoolhouse for examination. And
Speaker 1: Shoe and Anderson Jones both witnessed the autopsy. So we
Speaker 1: should have a quick sidebar here about Anderson Jones, because
Speaker 1: he was eleven and watching an auto popsy. It also
Speaker 1: seems like he was used as kind of a pawn
Speaker 1: to discover Zona's body, and this is because of an
Speaker 1: element of racism that was here Trout Shoe was white
Speaker 1: and Anderson was black. And back in tween, the American
Speaker 1: Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology featured a
Speaker 1: study from U. C. L A that stated, quote, children
Speaker 1: in most societies are considered to be in a distinct
Speaker 1: group with characteristics such is innocence and the need for protection.
Speaker 1: Our research found that black boys can be seen as
Speaker 1: responsible for their actions at an age when white boys
Speaker 1: still benefit from the assumption that children are essentially innocent.
Speaker 1: That is, of course, not a new thing, even though
Speaker 1: that research was conducted five years ago, and I think
Speaker 1: it's fair to assume that Anderson was probably not treated
Speaker 1: with the care and concern for his well being that
Speaker 1: a white child probably would have received. Um. That is
Speaker 1: something that does not come up very often when you
Speaker 1: hear about this story. People will mention that the ownes
Speaker 1: as were black, but they will not really nobody really
Speaker 1: addresses the fact that, like, this child was in the
Speaker 1: middle of all of this potentially very disturbing stuff. And
Speaker 1: even when he talks about finding the body, which he
Speaker 1: did many years later, he sort of says like, I
Speaker 1: don't I don't know how I did it. I don't
Speaker 1: know how I reached down and shook her because it
Speaker 1: was clear she was dead, And he doesn't really speak
Speaker 1: at length about his experience with the autopsy. It's almost
Speaker 1: like he compartmentalizes. Tracy and I talked about this beforehand,
Speaker 1: and it's like there is that thing where like in
Speaker 1: in country communities, kids that grow up in the country
Speaker 1: or in rural areas around farms are often exposed to
Speaker 1: things that city kids would not be, some of which
Speaker 1: might uh seem a little bit gruesome. I grew up
Speaker 1: on a farm. I watched animals get slaughtered. I think
Speaker 1: my Again, it's a different time period, obviously, but I
Speaker 1: think my parents would not have been cool with me
Speaker 1: seeing a human person be autopsied or dissected. But it's
Speaker 1: one of those things that um is not just gust
Speaker 1: as we said, but it just seems like it would
Speaker 1: be remiss not to call attention to that particular angle
Speaker 1: of the whole thing, at least briefly, and just make
Speaker 1: it something that people think about. We'll get back to
Speaker 1: what happened after Zona's body was autopsy, but first we
Speaker 1: will take a breather for a little sponsor break. Over
Speaker 1: the course of the next three days, Dr Nap carefully
Speaker 1: examined the body and eventually found that Zona's neck had
Speaker 1: been snapped, and in fact, it was broken in exactly
Speaker 1: the place that Mary Heaster had described. That was the
Speaker 1: place that Zonah told her it had been broken. Trout
Speaker 1: was arrested, charged with murder, and put on trial. The
Speaker 1: pocahon Iss Times reported the story of the exlimation and
Speaker 1: the horrific findings of the autopsy. Quote on the throat
Speaker 1: were marks of fingers, indicating that she had been choken.
Speaker 1: That the neck was dislocated between the first and second vertebrae.
Speaker 1: The ligaments were torn and ruptured. The wind pipe had
Speaker 1: been crushed at a point in front of the neck.
Speaker 1: Trout's defense, led by William Parks Rucker and James P. D. Gardner,
Speaker 1: actually decided that in the midst of the trial they
Speaker 1: would call Mary Heaster to the stand. They thought it
Speaker 1: was going to help their case. Their strategy was to
Speaker 1: show that she was clearly a grieving mother, out of
Speaker 1: touch with reality due to the shock and sorrow of
Speaker 1: losing her daughter. But she was very steadfast in her testimony,
Speaker 1: and that approach failed miserably. When the defense asked her, quote,
Speaker 1: I have heard that you had some dream or vision
Speaker 1: which led to this post mortem examination, she replied, quote,
Speaker 1: they saw enough their selves without me telling them. It
Speaker 1: was no dream. She came back and told me that
Speaker 1: he was mad that she didn't have no meat cooked
Speaker 1: for supper. But she said she had plenty, and said
Speaker 1: that she had butter and apple butter apples, and named
Speaker 1: over two or three kinds of jellies, pears and cherries
Speaker 1: and raspberry jelly. And she says, I had plenty. She says,
Speaker 1: don't you think that he was mad and just took
Speaker 1: down all my nice things and packed them away and
Speaker 1: just ruined them. And she told me where I could
Speaker 1: look down back of Aunt Martha Jones, is in the
Speaker 1: meadow in a rocky place that I could look in
Speaker 1: a cellar behind some loose plank and see it was
Speaker 1: a square log house. It was hued up to the square.
Speaker 1: And she said for me to go look right at
Speaker 1: the right hand side, at the door as you go in,
Speaker 1: and at the right hand corner as you go in. Well,
Speaker 1: I saw the place just exactly as she told me,
Speaker 1: and I saw blood right there where she told me,
Speaker 1: And she told me something about that meat. Every night
Speaker 1: she came just as she did the first night. She
Speaker 1: came four times and four nights. But the second night
Speaker 1: she told me that her neck was squeezed off at
Speaker 1: the first joint, and it was just as she told me. So, Um,
Speaker 1: that is a little bit different than the version of
Speaker 1: progression that we mentioned earlier, in terms of like her
Speaker 1: coming the first night in disappearing and then coming the
Speaker 1: second night in the fourth night being the one. I
Speaker 1: included both of those, and part of that is is
Speaker 1: something we're going to talk about at the very end
Speaker 1: of the episode about how much this story has become
Speaker 1: a legend and it has shifted, and even when you're
Speaker 1: looking at historians documents and accounts of people there in
Speaker 1: the midst of it, because there's a book written about
Speaker 1: forty years after all of this took place, and and
Speaker 1: accounts of the surviving people involved were interviewed. It's just
Speaker 1: very interesting to me to hear how even though Mrs
Speaker 1: Heaster was was pretty adamant about the whole thing throughout
Speaker 1: those facts, and I have to use the air quotes
Speaker 1: there change a little bit in the telling, even by
Speaker 1: people who were first hand witnesses to the whole thing.
Speaker 1: The questioning of Mrs Heaster went on to ask her
Speaker 1: repeatedly if she really saw her daughter, eventually posing the
Speaker 1: possibility that these visions may have been quote nothing more
Speaker 1: or less than four dreams founded upon your distress. But
Speaker 1: Mary Jane Heaster replied confidently and repeatedly that these were
Speaker 1: not mere dreams, but true visitations from her daughter's ownA.
Speaker 1: When trout she took the stand, he stayed there for
Speaker 1: almost an entire day. He denied everything any witness had
Speaker 1: said it against him. He rambled on in a lot
Speaker 1: of detail about odd particulars of his life that weren't
Speaker 1: really directly related to the case, and told the jury
Speaker 1: that he truly loved his wife. He asked them to
Speaker 1: look into his eyes and then decide if he was guilty,
Speaker 1: and he came off very poorly, so much so that
Speaker 1: when the Greenbrier Independent reported on his testimony, the article
Speaker 1: insisted that the jury had to find him guilty. Yeah
Speaker 1: that that peace came out very quickly. They were essentially
Speaker 1: running like real time extras to cover the case because
Speaker 1: the jury only had a pretty short deliberation. They came
Speaker 1: back that same day and they returned a guilty verdict
Speaker 1: with a recommendation of life imprisonment. And while most of
Speaker 1: the community agreed that he was guilty, imprisonment rather than
Speaker 1: the death penalty was seen as a miscarriage of justice
Speaker 1: by many. A vigilante mob formed to storm the county
Speaker 1: jail and hang Shoe before he could be transferred to
Speaker 1: the penitentiary, but the sheriff interceded and talked them out
Speaker 1: of their plan. Edward Trout Shoe was moved by train
Speaker 1: to the Mounds Built Penitentiary and he died there in
Speaker 1: March of nineteen dred. So again, this is one of
Speaker 1: those historical stories whereas I was just saying, the details
Speaker 1: get fudged or shifted around pretty frequently. Some of that
Speaker 1: is simply because original records of things like births and
Speaker 1: deaths from that time are not always available, and also
Speaker 1: because some records have simply been lost, and as I said,
Speaker 1: firsthand accounts shift. We talked about this on the show
Speaker 1: all the time that, especially four decades later, people are
Speaker 1: going to tell the story maybe a little differently than
Speaker 1: they were telling it at the time that it was
Speaker 1: actually going on. But the inaccuracy of reporting on this
Speaker 1: case was actually happening from the very beginning. So here's
Speaker 1: the brief ride up of the murder and the trial,
Speaker 1: as reported by the Baltimore American on July under the
Speaker 1: headline mother in Law's visions as evidence quote. Some time ago,
Speaker 1: the wife of E. S. Shoe was found dead in
Speaker 1: her home. A coroner's jury rendered a verdict death by
Speaker 1: heart disease. Neighbors were not satisfied, and the woman's body
Speaker 1: was exhumed at her was found broken. She was indicted, convicted,
Speaker 1: and sentenced to the penitentiary for life. The principal evidence
Speaker 1: was that if she was mother in law who testified
Speaker 1: that her daughter's spirit had come to her at a
Speaker 1: seance and said she had killed her by breaking her neck,
Speaker 1: all other evidence was purely circumstantial. So while the broad
Speaker 1: strokes of that account are correct, uh, the mention of
Speaker 1: the neighbors initiating the investigation and the appearance of Zona
Speaker 1: at a seance stand out as problematic and incorrect, And
Speaker 1: even the framing of the case as an instance of
Speaker 1: a ghost's account convicting a murderer isn't really accurate. The
Speaker 1: markings and damage to Zona's neck and shoes odd behavior
Speaker 1: probably went farther in the jury's decision than Mrs heasters testimony,
Speaker 1: even though it was her insistence that catalyzed the re
Speaker 1: examination of the case. This is one that I love
Speaker 1: this story because even though it is not pleasant, UH,
Speaker 1: it's a good example of of where factual history and
Speaker 1: mytho g start to become a very blurry space together.
Speaker 1: Because it is one of those things that's like a
Speaker 1: classic ghost story of West Virginia, and it gets told
Speaker 1: in a lot of different ways. One thing that also
Speaker 1: comes up all the time when you're reading it is
Speaker 1: that Sho died eight years later in prison, but his
Speaker 1: death is reported as nineteen hundred, which is only three
Speaker 1: years later. I don't know if that's just a record
Speaker 1: where three looked like an eight. Someone ran with it
Speaker 1: and everybody else picked it up. That kind of stuff
Speaker 1: happens all the time. Yeah, it's it's why we always
Speaker 1: encourage everybody to, you know, really look at any account
Speaker 1: of any event in history. Uh, just with a sense
Speaker 1: of knowing that you know, primary sources are your best.
Speaker 1: But even then, like we said, interviews with with people
Speaker 1: who were there at the time aren't always accurate and
Speaker 1: they don't always reflect the exact same details, especially when
Speaker 1: they're conducted a lot later, as was the case some
Speaker 1: of the ones in this story. Uh So that is
Speaker 1: the Greenbrier ghost, who's fascinating uh and a good a
Speaker 1: good ghost story for Halloween, but also a good example of, uh,
Speaker 1: the scariness of how information can get cloudy and change
Speaker 1: pretty rapidly in the historical record. Uh So, hopefully that
Speaker 1: was an enjoyable ride. Um, I have a listener mail
Speaker 1: that I love from our listener and uh Chris Deer,
Speaker 1: Holly and Tracy. I was delighted by your double podcast
Speaker 1: on the history of commercial aviation in the United States.
Speaker 1: Is a huge fan of John Hodgment and an aviatrix
Speaker 1: I was. It was a double whammy for me. I
Speaker 1: am a pilot at a major US airline headquartered in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: and I especially appreciated your nod to the female pioneers. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: female pilots still only make up less than five percent
Speaker 1: of pilots holding an Airline Transport Certificate a t P.
Speaker 1: That's the certificate needed to fly large transport jets. Hopefully
Speaker 1: the statistic will continue to improve. Besides having the ultimate
Speaker 1: office with a view, my favorite part of my job
Speaker 1: is the unique benefit of being able to see the
Speaker 1: world with my family. Every time we set out on
Speaker 1: a new adventure, I check your archives to see if
Speaker 1: I can find any podcast relevant to where we are
Speaker 1: in the world. We decided to check out the Alhambra
Speaker 1: because of stuff you missed in history class, and Ephesus
Speaker 1: is on the top of our list. Your overview with
Speaker 1: John about the medallion points structure was especially helpful to me,
Speaker 1: as most of US pilots are completely oblivious to how
Speaker 1: it works. This was disappointing to my next door neighbor
Speaker 1: who has gold medallion status who regularly brates me about
Speaker 1: changes to his medallion status, that I should probably say
Speaker 1: something to someone at headquarters about the medallion policy. I
Speaker 1: will get right on that. Thanks for all you do.
Speaker 1: She also sent us a video about Delta's annual what's
Speaker 1: called wing. It's women Inspiring the Next Generation flight and
Speaker 1: that was just featured on the Today Show, which is
Speaker 1: really cool. Um, it is interesting. It's one of those
Speaker 1: things that I know. I still when I am on
Speaker 1: a flight, which is frequent, if the captain comes on
Speaker 1: to make an announcement and it's a woman, I'm like, hey,
Speaker 1: it's a woman. Like it's still notable enough that it
Speaker 1: pretty clearly illustrates exactly what she's saying. It is a
Speaker 1: very very tiny portion of the pilots in the year
Speaker 1: that are women, so and is one of those people
Speaker 1: still changing it. Uh. That sounds like a job that
Speaker 1: I would be terrified to do, but I'm sure glad
Speaker 1: people do. If you would write to us, you could
Speaker 1: do so at History Podcast at house works dot com.
Speaker 1: You can also find us everywhere on social media as
Speaker 1: Missed in History and Missed in History dot Com is
Speaker 1: the website you r l if you want to come
Speaker 1: and visit us there. If you would like to subscribe
Speaker 1: to the show, you can do that on Apple podcast
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radios How stuff Works. For more podcasts For
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.