Speaker 1: Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: Previously on Murder on Songbird Road.
Speaker 2: She found out she was pregnant in jail.
Speaker 1: It was rough, the best possible blessing at the worst
Speaker 1: possible time.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly, two million dollar bond and we went in
Speaker 3: for a reduction and Judge Green denied it. So we
Speaker 3: tried again when she was around eight months pregnant, and
Speaker 3: he denied it again. There were no presumptions of innocence
Speaker 3: while we were awaiting child.
Speaker 2: There was none of that.
Speaker 1: None of it, especially it would seem when it came
Speaker 1: to Beverly's labor and delivery.
Speaker 4: Malon Reynolds tells me that the judge ordered Thomas would
Speaker 4: be taken as soon as the umbilical cord was cut.
Speaker 2: I wanted to scream at that moment. I said, no
Speaker 2: one told me this.
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco, and this is Murder on Songbird Road.
Speaker 1: Jade Beasley's murder left the blended family she was a
Speaker 1: part of splintered with grief, anger, and confusion. That ripple
Speaker 1: effect has reverberated throughout the extended family of her father,
Speaker 1: Mike Beasley. But Bob and I were very hopeful the
Speaker 1: family would eventually respond to our ongoing offers to sit
Speaker 1: down for an interview.
Speaker 5: I am Jade's great aunt. I am the sister of
Speaker 5: her grandmother, Sheila.
Speaker 1: That's Brenda, the sister of Sheila Beasley, who is Mike's
Speaker 1: mother and Jade's paternal grandmother.
Speaker 6: My name is Bailey, and Jade's father, Michael is my
Speaker 6: first cousin.
Speaker 1: And that's Bailey, the niece of Brenda. Sheila. Bailey and
Speaker 1: Brenda work together to craft the victim impact statement that
Speaker 1: Brenda delivered in court while addressing Julia Beverly before her sentencing.
Speaker 1: For both Bob and me, it was incredibly important to
Speaker 1: connect with them.
Speaker 7: I'm so grateful that y'all have allowed us to speak
Speaker 7: to you. I want to know every side of this tragedy,
Speaker 7: and I'm half blind if I don't have these conversations
Speaker 7: with you too, so I'm sure I'm sharing for Lauren
Speaker 7: as well.
Speaker 1: I am so appreciative that you've agreed to speak with us.
Speaker 7: I'm very grateful that y'all are willing to do this
Speaker 7: and kind enough to do this. But I can imagine
Speaker 7: how difficult it is to rehash this stuff.
Speaker 1: I noticed both of you ladies are wearing pink intentional.
Speaker 5: This is Jay's favorite color. It's Jay's color. She just
Speaker 5: absolutely loved pink, and it is the color we have
Speaker 5: chosen for the foundation for Jake. Marie Beasley Speak Live
Speaker 5: founding that spreads kindness in the community and helps children
Speaker 5: express themselves. She expressed herself in her own unique way,
Speaker 5: hence the Speak Life Foundation. She loved music, she loved
Speaker 5: the arts, and she didn't get an opportunity to grow
Speaker 5: and learn, so we are hoping to carry that on
Speaker 5: for Jade.
Speaker 1: Wearing pink became a symbol of solidarity with the Justice
Speaker 1: for Jade movement, particularly during the lead up to and
Speaker 1: throughout Beverly's trial. We'll explore the significance of this color,
Speaker 1: especially its presence from the courtroom bench in future episodes.
Speaker 1: Beyond wearing pink, both women share not only a familial
Speaker 1: resemblance to Jade, but a profound grief over her tragic murder.
Speaker 8: It's just it's never something you would think to experience.
Speaker 6: I know for me, I'll never forget when I found
Speaker 6: out and getting that phone call and how quickly it
Speaker 6: changes your lives.
Speaker 1: I know that this is a difficult topic for both
Speaker 1: of you. If you could just tell me a little
Speaker 1: bit about Jade and Bailey, I'll let you go first.
Speaker 8: I would say.
Speaker 6: The first thing I have to say about her was
Speaker 6: that she was very eccentric and individualistic in the best way,
Speaker 6: even for a child. If you look at pictures, you know,
Speaker 6: you'll notice there may be a one pattern and a
Speaker 6: headband and a completely different pattern and a shirt. She
Speaker 6: loved to play with her own style and dress herself
Speaker 6: and be expressive in that way.
Speaker 8: Jade was very kind.
Speaker 6: She loved all of her siblings and all of her
Speaker 6: cousins very deeply.
Speaker 8: Brenda, I think i'll let you go ahead.
Speaker 5: From my perspective, Jade was just as sassy as she
Speaker 5: was sweet. She was very kind. She loved animals. She'd
Speaker 5: loved butterflies. She would come visit me, either at the lake,
Speaker 5: then we would go boating, or her favorite place was
Speaker 5: to go to the beach, to Orange Beach and golf shores,
Speaker 5: and she would just love to get up and walk
Speaker 5: on the beach and look at the tiniest little shell
Speaker 5: or creature.
Speaker 9: She just loved life period.
Speaker 5: She was always kind, no matter if somebody was mean
Speaker 5: to her.
Speaker 9: She was kind, that was just her nature.
Speaker 1: We are all used to reading awful stories in the
Speaker 1: headlines and hearing them on the radio and television, But
Speaker 1: could anything have prepared you, guys for experiencing this within
Speaker 1: your family.
Speaker 5: Absolutely not never, Never that happens to other families.
Speaker 6: I was in shock and disbelief. Something you can't wrap
Speaker 6: your head around. It's just it's something you can never
Speaker 6: prepare for, and it's something you would never expect to
Speaker 6: happen to your family, or do you or do your
Speaker 6: loved one.
Speaker 8: It's hard for somebody to say that Jade's dead or
Speaker 8: that this person died. It's they're gone, and it's what
Speaker 8: do you mean they're gone? Are they missing?
Speaker 1: Gone?
Speaker 8: You know what is gone?
Speaker 7: I just first wanted to say, I'm I can't even
Speaker 7: imagine the loss that your entire family has experienced and
Speaker 7: will always experience. I can't even imagine it what that
Speaker 7: feels like unless you're in it. You just can't, Like,
Speaker 7: I could try to contemplate what it might be like,
Speaker 7: but I could never know what you guys have experienced.
Speaker 7: This is so valuable to us to hear from you, guys,
Speaker 7: to learn about who Jade was as a human being,
Speaker 7: who she was to you guys, what she meant to you,
Speaker 7: and to give us your impressions of Julie. Because we
Speaker 7: came into this not knowing anybody.
Speaker 5: I felt strongly that Jade needed to have representation because
Speaker 5: I'm sure you guys could go on with or without us,
Speaker 5: And I get it. The biological mother and her father
Speaker 5: they want at this point no part of a podcast
Speaker 5: because they just specifically they can't even think about it anymore.
Speaker 9: It's just too overwhelming.
Speaker 1: A quick note that dynamic would eventually change. We are
Speaker 1: deeply grateful for the ongoing conversations we've had with Jade's
Speaker 1: family and are continually impressed by their openness and willingness
Speaker 1: to engage. When we first spoke with Bailey and her
Speaker 1: aunt Brenda, it was August of twenty twenty four. By then,
Speaker 1: they had spent nearly four years processing the murder and
Speaker 1: everything that had unfolded since, including Julia Beverly's arrest, trial,
Speaker 1: and ultimate conviction.
Speaker 7: When you first heard that it was Julie, was there
Speaker 7: part of your mind that was like, no way, or
Speaker 7: was there part of your mind where you're like that
Speaker 7: totally makes sense for me.
Speaker 8: I think I was somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 6: I would say it was more of shock there because
Speaker 6: it's somebody so close, somebody that had been around the family, obviously,
Speaker 6: that had children with Michael.
Speaker 8: There is a.
Speaker 6: Shot there in that aspect, I would say. At the
Speaker 6: same time, though, when I did hear that, it kind
Speaker 6: of makes your brain start working backwards and thinking of
Speaker 6: the times when she was so withdrawn from everybody else
Speaker 6: around her, and that makes you start thinking, did she
Speaker 6: have an issue that she didn't say, Was it suppressing
Speaker 6: these emotions? Were you enjoying being around everybody or were
Speaker 6: you not?
Speaker 1: Happen pretty quickly after the murder five days later, and
Speaker 1: at the time they had no confession, no murder weapon,
Speaker 1: no DNA evidence. But the thing that Bob and I
Speaker 1: have spoken about multiple times is that there's always a motive.
Speaker 1: There's a motive that unless you're dealing with somebody like
Speaker 1: a serial killer, where it's just irrational or driven by
Speaker 1: things that we can't even imagine. But you mentioned something
Speaker 1: in the victim impact statement that stuck with me, which
Speaker 1: is why I wanted to ask you you'd use the
Speaker 1: word jealousy. I believe, if I'm not mistaken and I
Speaker 1: was wondering if you could expand upon that.
Speaker 5: The limited times that the family came here collectively together,
Speaker 5: Jade and I had had conversations, and so my perspective
Speaker 5: of jealousy was Jade was the princess. She was her
Speaker 5: daddy's little girl. She was from a different marriage. She
Speaker 5: was loved dearly by both sides of her family. Her
Speaker 5: biological mother, her biological father. They got along very well.
Speaker 5: It was a textbook seven day on, seven day off,
Speaker 5: joint custody situation. There was a lot for that child
Speaker 5: since she was born and they divorced at quite a
Speaker 5: young age, and they were young when they had Jay.
Speaker 5: But you can be nice to someone but not really
Speaker 5: care for them.
Speaker 1: That duality stuck out to both Bob and myself immediately
Speaker 1: because we'd not heard any examples of conflict or abuse
Speaker 1: between Beverly and her stepdaughter. I know that Julie did
Speaker 1: come down with Mike and the kids twice, not mistaken
Speaker 1: to visit you in Alabama. Looking back, did you observe
Speaker 1: anything about that dynamic that sticks out?
Speaker 5: But I didn't really talk that much to her. And
Speaker 5: then when she came with the family in any family event,
Speaker 5: Julie never interacted with the family. She was very withdrawn
Speaker 5: and she would withdraw herself from family situations.
Speaker 9: So yes, over.
Speaker 5: Seven and a half years, I guess they were together.
Speaker 5: The family came to Alabama at least four times a year,
Speaker 5: but not Michael and Julie and that family. Jade would come,
Speaker 5: but she maintain So I mean, anything that I say
Speaker 5: is clearly from my limited perspective with her and from
Speaker 5: my conversations like I said, with Jade, and I do
Speaker 5: know that Jay did not feel totally inclusive in the
Speaker 5: Michael Julie pod, but she would not speak about things
Speaker 5: that would make other people look better feel bad at all.
Speaker 5: I wasn't there day to day with the family, but
Speaker 5: I do know that the night that she spent the
Speaker 5: night there with Michael and Julie at their home. On
Speaker 5: Songbird wrote, the other children were with my sister, and
Speaker 5: my sister did say, why don't you stay, Why do
Speaker 5: you want to go?
Speaker 9: Why do you want to go so bad?
Speaker 5: The other kids are here, there's nobody home, you know,
Speaker 5: And she says, well, I want to see my dad
Speaker 5: because I have my sister's birthday party to go to
Speaker 5: this week, so I.
Speaker 9: Want to see my dad before I go.
Speaker 5: And that's how she she says, not just because I'm
Speaker 5: not going to be able to be with him that week,
Speaker 5: because there was a lot going on and she wanted
Speaker 5: to see her dad that eden.
Speaker 1: It is of note that by all accounts, the before
Speaker 1: the murder, Jade asked to come back to Songbird Road
Speaker 1: and Julia Beverly willingly volunteered to stay home with her
Speaker 1: that night while Mike went out back to Bailey.
Speaker 6: Brenda mentioned with being with John, you know, we are
Speaker 6: a big family. We are a pretty loud family. On
Speaker 6: our side, there's a whole bunch of us. There's a
Speaker 6: lot of kids. When you get everybody together, it is
Speaker 6: loud and it is crazy. There was a year specifically
Speaker 6: that sticks out to me now that everything's happened, And
Speaker 6: it was around Christmas time and some of the kids
Speaker 6: were opening up gifts and Kim and Michael were there,
Speaker 6: and Julie and everybody was kind of in the living
Speaker 6: room met Shea's house at Michael some others and some
Speaker 6: people were kind of in the.
Speaker 8: Kitchen and there's this chair that sits.
Speaker 6: If you're looking at the fireplace and the TV to
Speaker 6: the left of it, and Julie was sitting in that chair,
Speaker 6: and when everybody else around her is engaged in opening
Speaker 6: gifts and talking, she's very quiet, very reserved, and kind
Speaker 6: of just sitting there and observing. And that is just
Speaker 6: something that stuck with me from that one interaction.
Speaker 1: What immediately struck Bob and me was the specific critique
Speaker 1: Julia's family had of Mike was his quiet and somewhat
Speaker 1: introverted demeanor at their family gatherings. Back to Brenda and Bailey.
Speaker 6: I am awarees you all are that in court the
Speaker 6: state did not go for a motive. Jennifer never presented
Speaker 6: a motive or at least directly stated one that she thought.
Speaker 1: Jennifer is Special Prosecutor Jennifer Mudge, who tried the case
Speaker 1: against Julia Beverly.
Speaker 6: My personal opinion is that sometimes people snap, and that
Speaker 6: is what.
Speaker 8: I believe happened in this case.
Speaker 6: As Brenda said, you know, Jade was from a previous marriage.
Speaker 6: She was the only child in their immediate family from
Speaker 6: a different marriage, and that is where we believe the
Speaker 6: jealousy came in and where we believe she.
Speaker 1: Said murder on Songbird Road. We'll return after the break
Speaker 1: here again is murder on Songbird Road.
Speaker 7: I'm always trying to go through the psychology of it.
Speaker 7: But in terms of Julie's version of what she claims happened,
Speaker 7: when did you guys hear that, like how soon after
Speaker 7: they say okay, Julie's the suspect. Was that right away?
Speaker 7: Where you heard this story? Or is it a trial
Speaker 7: or is the prosecutor? Let you know, we had.
Speaker 5: Heard bits and pieces prior to the trial that she
Speaker 5: had left the house, somebody was there or somebody ran out.
Speaker 5: We of course had heard some pieces of it, but
Speaker 5: we actually heart the full version.
Speaker 9: At the trial.
Speaker 5: We followed the information of which, by the way, was
Speaker 5: Julie's statement as to where she went. And from my
Speaker 5: perspective on jumping straight to it being Julie, I had
Speaker 5: already told my sister and unlessened the shut the social
Speaker 5: media off, shut the noise up. Let's find the facts first,
Speaker 5: And I said, you will hear the facts, so you
Speaker 5: follow the facts here Julie's story and verify.
Speaker 9: So I trust, but verify.
Speaker 5: And when the evidence was presented at the trial is
Speaker 5: exactly when I made my mind up, because I've followed
Speaker 5: the evidence. She told her story, she placed herself as
Speaker 5: having her own cell phone with her, and they follow
Speaker 5: the cell phone data. She told them she went to Hawks.
Speaker 5: I never knew they dug up a dump, a garbage
Speaker 5: dump and found what they found until the trial.
Speaker 1: But in all fairness, what they found had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with the case.
Speaker 5: The coordinates were exactly where the dumpster had been and
Speaker 5: exactly what they had dumped in.
Speaker 9: There was two dumpsters she went to.
Speaker 7: So anyway, wait, wait, tell me.
Speaker 1: Explain that to us, because that's not something that we've
Speaker 1: come up.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we did not hear that. Like, the only thing
Speaker 7: that we've heard was that she had stopped in the Hawks.
Speaker 7: Her story was that she had made her way all
Speaker 7: the way down to Carbondell to go to Walmart. Right,
Speaker 7: so we have that lie that's in place. And now
Speaker 7: when this video from Hawks.
Speaker 1: Surfaces, a quick aside after Julie remembered making the stock,
Speaker 1: Renee actually called in the Hucks tip before the video surfaced.
Speaker 7: And so she says, okay, well, I'm at the light.
Speaker 7: My gaslight pops on, I pull into the Hawks. I'm
Speaker 7: going to get gas. I realize I don't have my cards.
Speaker 7: So then that's when we see the thing which to
Speaker 7: me sounds like it was a rather small package, like
Speaker 7: and this is the stuff that I look at critically.
Speaker 7: I wasn't at the trial, you guys, especially you Brenda,
Speaker 7: because I'm assuming Billy, as you said, you were trying
Speaker 7: to deal with your college life. You know, probably didn't attend.
Speaker 9: He did not miss the so.
Speaker 8: Like so.
Speaker 7: But I have not heard anything about a second dumpster
Speaker 7: at all.
Speaker 5: Around the back of Hucks as a dumpster. So there
Speaker 5: was something dumped here and then pulled to the I
Speaker 5: believe I could be mispeaken, but there's a dumpster at.
Speaker 9: The back that I had heard.
Speaker 5: Something was put in, and there was the dumpster here,
Speaker 5: and the only place I could have heard that was
Speaker 5: at the try.
Speaker 1: I only have that video of look at her throwing away.
Speaker 5: Yeah, see where she drove, Which direction she drove first,
Speaker 5: because to the backside of HUWKS as another dumpster, and
Speaker 5: then she threw something in that package and there's an
Speaker 5: additional dumpster.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Remember this understanding or misunderstanding of what was discarded
Speaker 1: at Hucks and that dumpster and what was discovered at
Speaker 1: the landfill. It is crucial and will be clarified in
Speaker 1: the court transcripts which we would soon possess back to Brenda.
Speaker 5: I could be misspeaking, but honestly, the dumpster not even
Speaker 5: that's I just had never seen so much law enforcement
Speaker 5: come through garbage like that in my whole life. I
Speaker 5: never knew they would even do that. I didn't even
Speaker 5: realize they had the core in some new trash that
Speaker 5: they did.
Speaker 6: I would say for me with that, and during the trial,
Speaker 6: you know, we know it was in a landfill, so
Speaker 6: it was not tested for DNA. In my opinion, no
Speaker 6: matter what, it would have been contaminated, and clearly that's
Speaker 6: what they thought as well. However, if you kind of
Speaker 6: go back to the mindset and kind of the talk
Speaker 6: throughout the pre trials and leading up to the jury trial,
Speaker 6: and what we knew that Julie's family and friends were
Speaker 6: saying was that the police were not making an effort,
Speaker 6: or they were not doing everything that they.
Speaker 8: Could, or this or that, and it was.
Speaker 6: All negative to how there wasn't a thorough investigation, or
Speaker 6: this was not done or that was not done.
Speaker 8: And for me.
Speaker 6: Personally, and what I took from that moment during the
Speaker 6: trial was.
Speaker 8: The was thorough.
Speaker 1: Again digging through the landfill for anything they could possibly
Speaker 1: infer could be linked to the murder could also be
Speaker 1: seen as desperation, not dedication back to Bailey.
Speaker 6: And they did try to do everything that they could
Speaker 6: do throughout this case.
Speaker 8: And I think that's.
Speaker 6: Spoken to in other ways as well, when they're going
Speaker 6: through blood evidence and they're talking about all the different
Speaker 6: people that worked.
Speaker 8: On this case and how many hours went into it.
Speaker 6: We've lived this for almost four years at this point,
Speaker 6: obviously December fifth will be four years, and.
Speaker 8: Going throughout the past.
Speaker 6: Four years and attending pre trials and that week of
Speaker 6: jury trial, and I where I sit today, I am
Speaker 6: confident that Julie Beverley is guilty of this crime.
Speaker 5: So I have two hundred percent convinced Julie is guilty.
Speaker 9: I will go to my grave thank you that.
Speaker 5: But on the other side, I believe in right and
Speaker 5: I believe in forgiveness, and if somebody missed something and
Speaker 5: somebody can show me the proof, I will be the
Speaker 5: first one in line to say I am so sorry.
Speaker 9: I would, I would and forgive.
Speaker 5: Me for thinking what I've thought or and I just
Speaker 5: took the only evidence that I have been presented with.
Speaker 6: I am in the same Jesus, Brenda that if something
Speaker 6: were to change in the case and she was to
Speaker 6: be proven innocent or not guilty, we will apologize to her.
Speaker 6: I can't say we would have a relationship with her necessarily.
Speaker 6: I think everybody's a little too far gone for that
Speaker 6: being realistic. But you know, we would apologize if that
Speaker 6: was to be the case. I do not believe that
Speaker 6: to be so, but I don't want it to come
Speaker 6: across as blind animosity or just an ignorant will to
Speaker 6: believe whatever is put in front of you, because I
Speaker 6: do not believe that that was the case for any
Speaker 6: of us.
Speaker 1: The willingness of Jade Beasley's family to extend grace and
Speaker 1: remain open minded even to the slightest possibility that the
Speaker 1: investigation might have been flawed, speaks volumes about their integrity
Speaker 1: and character, which aligns deeply with the Christian principles they referenced.
Speaker 1: During our conversation, Bailey, you did mention that you're religious,
Speaker 1: and I know Brenda that you are as well, and
Speaker 1: that you worked on that victim impact statement together. One
Speaker 1: thing that I remember was the children will be raised Christian. Yes,
Speaker 1: if you could just explain that to me and why
Speaker 1: that was of solace to you after all of this.
Speaker 9: The family has a I know that a.
Speaker 5: Family member owns a pagan store in Salem or whatever,
Speaker 5: but they believe in witchery or witchcraft. I view that
Speaker 5: as an occult. There ain't no good witch. There's not
Speaker 5: a good witch in mind, although I did like the
Speaker 5: witch growing up. But I would just say that, you know,
Speaker 5: in the mother Renee, I mean, we hear rumors of
Speaker 5: all this, okay, but out of the mouths of babes.
Speaker 5: I will tell you that her own daughter said, I
Speaker 5: don't like witches. I don't like witches. I don't want
Speaker 5: to go back there. I don't like a witch. I
Speaker 5: don't know what they were practicing or not practicing, but
Speaker 5: Julie didn't really want them to.
Speaker 9: Go to church.
Speaker 1: That pagan relative of Julie's Brenda is referencing is actually
Speaker 1: her cousin, Nicki. Nicki owns a metaphysical shop in Salem,
Speaker 1: Massachusetts with her mother, Michelle Renee's sister. Their shop gained
Speaker 1: attention on social media more than a full year before
Speaker 1: the trial even began, when Mike Beasley's new girlfriend, Brooke,
Speaker 1: shared a screenshot from the website of the Salem shop
Speaker 1: Nicki and her mother own, showing several ceremonial daggers for sale,
Speaker 1: with the caption quote, I know I've got a few
Speaker 1: knife collectors on my page. I came across a website
Speaker 1: that has some interesting blades if you're looking for a
Speaker 1: new one.
Speaker 2: Unquote.
Speaker 1: Here's Beverly's cousin, Nicki.
Speaker 10: She is the person who decided to go on to
Speaker 10: our store website, take the picture out and share that picture.
Speaker 10: I think is one incredibly in boord A.
Speaker 2: Something doesn't stay right with me on that.
Speaker 1: This was especially striking to Nicki, as Brooks post would
Speaker 1: increasingly reveal she was raising Julia Beverly's three youngest children
Speaker 1: as her own.
Speaker 10: It's just it was a little too too weird that
Speaker 10: she just wants to be involved in the drama. She
Speaker 10: posts that Fisher from our site 'uring this time to
Speaker 10: rehashing all these emotions and things that happened.
Speaker 9: Your primary goal should.
Speaker 10: Be there and you should be there for your partner,
Speaker 10: rather than boeing online and making such tasteless hope. Because
Speaker 10: of the way that she was marked in trying to
Speaker 10: make that insinuation just to stir the pot.
Speaker 4: It's disgusting and it's imperienced me that somebody like that
Speaker 4: is a key role in both his life. I don't
Speaker 4: know what's worriesome.
Speaker 1: At the time this episode was recorded, I'd made multiple
Speaker 1: unsuccessful attempts to connect with Brooke dating back to February
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four. She finally responded in January of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, declining comment. But the link to witchcraft
Speaker 1: also surfaced during the trial when Nikki testified as a
Speaker 1: character witness on Julie's behalf. Special Prosecutor Jennifer or Mudge
Speaker 1: made a point of bringing up the topic in her
Speaker 1: cross examination.
Speaker 11: She started focusing on my spiritual faith in my line
Speaker 11: of employment, which I don't understand how has anything to
Speaker 11: do with the trial. Me and my mom run a
Speaker 11: witchcraft shop in Salem, Massachusetts. We are both practicing Pagans,
Speaker 11: and that was the main focus on my line of
Speaker 11: questioning from her was just the way to try to immediately,
Speaker 11: I guess, shed a negative light on me.
Speaker 10: Like I said, the community is very Christian, very very religious,
Speaker 10: and a little hate these words, but a little dumb.
Speaker 2: To other religions or spiritualities that.
Speaker 10: Are not Christian They have the painted picture of what
Speaker 10: they think witchcraft is and paganisms, and it seems like
Speaker 10: they've watched a lot of Disney movies or regimeny grim
Speaker 10: fairy tale. I mean, if they did any sort of
Speaker 10: research into.
Speaker 9: The city where we are, they put a witch on everything.
Speaker 10: It's on the side of the police car, it's on
Speaker 10: their badges, it's everywhere.
Speaker 9: It's been turned into an entire fame of the city.
Speaker 9: So it's really kind of normal here for us.
Speaker 4: It was a just kind of odd that that was
Speaker 4: level focus with me.
Speaker 1: The vilification of pagans and witchcraft and the sensationalizing of Salem,
Speaker 1: Massachusetts isn't overly odd to this woman though.
Speaker 12: My name is Tricia Pione. I'm the project director for
Speaker 12: New England Hidden Histories at the Congregational Library and Archive
Speaker 12: in Boston, and I have a PhD in Early American
Speaker 12: history and I specialize in the history of witchcraft in
Speaker 12: New England.
Speaker 1: If you could just give me an idea in terms
Speaker 1: of historical, social, political, religious context, what the environment was
Speaker 1: at the onset of the Salem witch trials.
Speaker 12: Sure, so, in general, Massachusetts was in a real period
Speaker 12: of turmoil in sixteen ninety two, they were in the
Speaker 12: middle of war, they had overthrown their governor. So when
Speaker 12: the crisis started, they did not have a legal system
Speaker 12: that was functioning or a political system that was functioning,
Speaker 12: and that meant that during the first few months of
Speaker 12: the crisis, accusations were spreading quickly. They were able to
Speaker 12: issue arrest warrants and put people in jail, but they
Speaker 12: could not try them. They could not establish a court
Speaker 12: until the new royal governor returned to Salem, and so
Speaker 12: that meant they couldn't hold trials. So they just held
Speaker 12: people in jail and started collecting evidence and witness statements,
Speaker 12: which really kind of spiraled things.
Speaker 1: Now. I know that there were witch hunts in other areas,
Speaker 1: particularly in New England, and you know obviously throughout Europe
Speaker 1: at the time as well, but in terms of the
Speaker 1: scope of it in Salem, how many people are we
Speaker 1: actually talking about in terms of being accused and actually
Speaker 1: being executed.
Speaker 12: So in Salem, about two hundred people are accused of witchcraft,
Speaker 12: fifty people about fifty people actually can and said that
Speaker 12: they had practiced witchcraft, they had signed a covenant with
Speaker 12: the devil, and then nineteen people were convicted and executed,
Speaker 12: and then there were several other people who died in
Speaker 12: jail during the trials.
Speaker 9: Five people died in jail, and one man.
Speaker 12: Giles Corey, was pressed to death not as a sentence,
Speaker 12: not as an execution, but as part of a fascinating
Speaker 12: old timey legal system in which because he didn't enter
Speaker 12: a plea, they tried to force his plea of guilty
Speaker 12: or not guilty out of.
Speaker 1: Him by stacking rocks on.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's so horrible.
Speaker 2: And though, yeah, you know, it is.
Speaker 1: Interesting because you said the number of people who confessed,
Speaker 1: is it safe to say that these were coerced confessions?
Speaker 12: Yeah, I think what we know now about false confessions,
Speaker 12: I think is really interesting to consider how that might
Speaker 12: have played out in Salem today. It would be illegal
Speaker 12: to torture someone to get a confession. It's technically illegal
Speaker 12: to do that, but there are all sorts of version
Speaker 12: that can happen, and actually torture to produce a confession
Speaker 12: was also illegal under law at the time in sixteen
Speaker 12: ninety two, but their idea of torture and version.
Speaker 9: Was different from ours.
Speaker 12: So we do have some evidence that some people were
Speaker 12: beaten and things that we would consider to be physical
Speaker 12: torture as well as mental torture, and then confessed.
Speaker 1: I tracked doctor Pone down after being struck by a
Speaker 1: quote she'd given. You said, the seventeenth century is a
Speaker 1: lot different than today, but people are essentially the same.
Speaker 1: It tells us what could happen in a community where
Speaker 1: someone is hated and seen as a target for frustration
Speaker 1: and anger.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I still think that's true. I agree with myself,
Speaker 12: but it is. It's very difficult to understand the past.
Speaker 12: I think it might actually be impossible for us to
Speaker 12: ever truly know or understand why people did the things
Speaker 12: they did. I think that's a tough question, and so
Speaker 12: because of that, people often prefer a very simple explanation
Speaker 12: for Salem. They'll often blame teenage girls, and they'll often
Speaker 12: try to create these heroes or these villains in the story.
Speaker 12: But it's not that easy. I think all that we
Speaker 12: can really do is try to interpret the evidence. Those
Speaker 12: interpretations can change. But what we can also do is
Speaker 12: just consider that people are still essentially the same. People
Speaker 12: often have the same motivations, people experience grief, people still
Speaker 12: like to scapegoat each other. So we can look to
Speaker 12: the past for clues about things that are happening today,
Speaker 12: and I think we can look at Salem as an
Speaker 12: example that can tell us some things about what happens
Speaker 12: when someone becomes a target or a group of people
Speaker 12: become a target for community frustration or anger. We still
Speaker 12: have a dominant culture that values some people's lives more
Speaker 12: than others. We still live in a patriarchal society. Some
Speaker 12: people today still believe pretty similar ideas about women as
Speaker 12: they did in the seventeenth century, and they express it.
Speaker 12: So I think we can kind of look at some
Speaker 12: of those parallel It's hard to draw exact parallels. Actually,
Speaker 12: In some of the writing from the time, people like
Speaker 12: Cotton Mather had this kind of tendency towards conspiratorial thinking,
Speaker 12: which I think we can also see today and makes
Speaker 12: this still relevant today.
Speaker 1: For those not familiar, Cotton Mather was a somewhat controversial
Speaker 1: purit enclergyman and author in colonial New England who wrote
Speaker 1: extensively on theological, historical, and scientific subjects.
Speaker 12: Cotton either talked about witchcraft as a conspiracy, and I
Speaker 12: think sometimes today still like people would rather believe in
Speaker 12: a conspiracy than try to actually solve issues or make
Speaker 12: changes in.
Speaker 1: Terms of Salem, Massachusetts. However, there have been profound changes
Speaker 1: in terms of the way in which witchcraft and the
Speaker 1: Salem witch Trials are framed.
Speaker 12: Since the late nineteenth century, Salem has started to dip
Speaker 12: their toe into using this history as a way to
Speaker 12: promote tourism.
Speaker 1: When did that start? Because you know, Salem, Massachusetts is
Speaker 1: to witchcraft and witch hunts what colonial Williamsburg is to colonization.
Speaker 9: Yep.
Speaker 12: Yeah, So I think really the efforts kicked off starting
Speaker 12: in the nineteen seventies to make it really a big business.
Speaker 12: And that's had a little bit to do with Salem
Speaker 12: constantly being portrayed in movies. There's movies from the nineteen
Speaker 12: thirties that talk about sit the Salem witch Trials. But
Speaker 12: by the nineteen seventies in the early eighties is when
Speaker 12: the first museums start to open up in Salem dedicated
Speaker 12: to the history of witchcraft and the witch trials. I
Speaker 12: think it's nineteen eighty two where the Salem Chamber of
Speaker 12: Commerce starts this Haunted Happenings, which is tourists come to
Speaker 12: Salem for Halloween. I know that last year Salem tourism
Speaker 12: hit a new record, and over a million people visited
Speaker 12: Salem in the month of October. So it's big business today.
Speaker 2: Really.
Speaker 12: Since the eighties, maybe the late seventies too, people who
Speaker 12: practice modern witchcraft, whether they're wickan or pagan or some
Speaker 12: other form of modern witchcraft, have been drawn to Salem
Speaker 12: and have set up there.
Speaker 9: Nineteen ninety two was probably a watershed.
Speaker 12: Year for Salem in terms of this because that's the
Speaker 12: year it was the three hundred anniversary of the witch Trials.
Speaker 12: A lot of historians were unpublishing books, new books, new
Speaker 12: histories of what happened, so changing our understanding of what happened.
Speaker 12: That's the year that they dedicated Witch Trials Memorial Park
Speaker 12: in downtown Salem. Some of the modern witches, modern practicing,
Speaker 12: which is who had come to Salem and started living there,
Speaker 12: protested this new memorial because they felt like it was
Speaker 12: giving this idea of witchcraft as sinful and wicked and
Speaker 12: demonic this historical ideas. So they objected to some of
Speaker 12: the language that it was unfairly stereotyping their beliefs.
Speaker 1: Murder on Songbird Road will continue after this. Now back
Speaker 1: to Murder on Songbird Road. Curious I made the road
Speaker 1: trip to Salem to visit the Covens Cottage. The shop,
Speaker 1: Nikki shares with her mother, Michelle, who is Renee high
Speaker 1: Tower's younger sister.
Speaker 9: Hi, how are you nice to meet you?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, she looked like your sister. Sorry for
Speaker 2: my freezing Cohn.
Speaker 1: Michelle shares a strong resemblance to her older sister Renee,
Speaker 1: though a bit more fair in terms of her coloring
Speaker 1: and clothing, but their voices and intonations are similar.
Speaker 9: This is beautiful.
Speaker 1: What a magical shop? No unintended in person, The family
Speaker 1: owned shop resembles the sort of English apothecary you'd imagine
Speaker 1: spotting in a scene from Bridgerton or Harry Potter. Dried flowers,
Speaker 1: organic herbs, and artisanal trinkets adorn the walls and ceilings,
Speaker 1: creating an enchanting atmosphere.
Speaker 9: Oh it's awesome, listen to you too. I don't know
Speaker 9: what anyone use.
Speaker 1: According to the store's website, they offer a range of Norse, Germanic,
Speaker 1: Celtic and nature based traditions, with items handcrafted by the owners,
Speaker 1: local artisans and practitioners. Selections include all natural teas, oils, balms,
Speaker 1: soaps and salves in addition to themed gifts, de core,
Speaker 1: and books, the shop exudes a magical vibe that's more whimsical,
Speaker 1: fairy like charm than ominous. I was going to teach
Speaker 1: you when we first met. I was going to say, so,
Speaker 1: are you a good witch or a bad witch?
Speaker 2: You must get that all the time sometimes. Yeah.
Speaker 13: I think the best way to respond to that is,
Speaker 13: witches are people. So it's just like you have good
Speaker 13: people and bad people. It's not black magic, white magic.
Speaker 13: That kind of thing is just magic. Whatever the person
Speaker 13: decides to do with it is that person. Under those guidelines,
Speaker 13: I would be a good witch.
Speaker 2: I suppose.
Speaker 1: The shop is nestled on Essex Street, a historic retail
Speaker 1: stretch in downtown Salem. If you've never visited the small
Speaker 1: Massachusetts city, as Nikki described, it's thoroughly steeped in witchcraft
Speaker 1: themed tourism. It's no exaggeration to say you'd be hard
Speaker 1: pressed to cast a stone without hitting a broomstick or
Speaker 1: a pointy black hat. That said, you'd also be hard
Speaker 1: pressed to find anything overly touristy or cheesy in this shop.
Speaker 1: That's a choice. According to Michelle, we.
Speaker 2: Always wanted to own a shop with my daughter.
Speaker 13: So our ideal would be to be a nice, peaceful
Speaker 13: store and help you each person that comes in.
Speaker 2: But in October it can be really chaotic. It's it's
Speaker 2: I mean, it's beautiful.
Speaker 8: There's there's something.
Speaker 2: This is our brand of witchcraft.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's very earthy, very kind of organic feeling.
Speaker 1: It has absolutely a magical feel to it, but in
Speaker 1: a very artisan way. And it has a timelessness to it.
Speaker 1: You feel like you've walked back in time when you
Speaker 1: walk it.
Speaker 13: Yeah, it's like walking into another world, is how people
Speaker 13: describe it.
Speaker 1: And it's very very much feels like a celebration of nature.
Speaker 2: Which is what basically what paganism is. That's my side.
Speaker 2: If people read a book, they.
Speaker 13: Would see it has nothing to do with worshiping the
Speaker 13: devil and all that. It's very much nature based and
Speaker 13: agricultural based.
Speaker 1: As for the association of witchcraft and Salem being used
Speaker 1: against her niece Julia Beverly and in relay to Jade
Speaker 1: Beasley's murder, Michelle believes it comes with the territory.
Speaker 13: Literally, we moved to southern Illinois when I was eleven.
Speaker 13: My husband is born and raised in southern Illinois, and
Speaker 13: then We lived there until two thousand and nine, so
Speaker 13: our kids went to school.
Speaker 2: There, grew up there. So yeah, we have known the
Speaker 2: whole area.
Speaker 1: For someone who hasn't been there or not familiar with
Speaker 1: the area, how would you categorize it in terms of
Speaker 1: just the overall mindset of the community. Is it liberal?
Speaker 1: Is it conservative?
Speaker 13: Political wise? Tends to lean more conservative. It is very
Speaker 13: much a Bible belt area when it comes to religion.
Speaker 13: I think they're very closed minded, extremely closed minded, and
Speaker 13: that is.
Speaker 2: Part of why we moved away.
Speaker 13: I'm a practicing which I have been since I was sixteen,
Speaker 13: and it's misunderstood by a lot of people. Not just
Speaker 13: people in that area, but a lot of people in
Speaker 13: that area. Won't say all, but a lot of them
Speaker 13: are unwilling to educate themselves otherwise they are set.
Speaker 2: In their ways.
Speaker 13: You know, it's Satanic, even though the whole concept of
Speaker 13: Satan is a Christian belief. It's not pagan in any way,
Speaker 13: So that guy belongs to them.
Speaker 2: Not us.
Speaker 1: Religious debate aside, Michelle's emotions became authentically overwhelming for her
Speaker 1: when the topic turned to Jade. How do you describe
Speaker 1: your emotion and where does it come from? What is
Speaker 1: the feeling that you have about all of this.
Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah, I would say it's.
Speaker 13: Absolute horror and sympathy for Jade.
Speaker 5: I was not.
Speaker 13: I wasn't super close to Jade because of the distance
Speaker 13: we live, but she's an eleven year old girl.
Speaker 2: And that is absolutely horrible.
Speaker 1: During the trial, Michelle stayed back in Salem to watch
Speaker 1: Nicki's three children while her daughter traveled to testify on
Speaker 1: behalf of her cousin, Julia Beverley's character. They didn't realize
Speaker 1: their efforts would backfire and be used against Beverly.
Speaker 13: It all hinged on the shop that we own, where
Speaker 13: the shop is, what kind of shop it is.
Speaker 2: I don't know how a shop.
Speaker 13: In Salem, Massachusetts has anything to do with a trial
Speaker 13: in southern Illinois that Nicki is not a part of
Speaker 13: other than being a character witness. Our shop and her profession,
Speaker 13: her occupation has nothing to do with that. But they
Speaker 13: seem to harp on that, and that struck Nicki as
Speaker 13: very odd.
Speaker 2: But she knew what was going on. What do you
Speaker 2: think was going on?
Speaker 13: I think that they were trying to another swaying of opinions.
Speaker 13: They're trying to make people believe that Julie is associated
Speaker 13: with witchcraft in some way, but their idea of what
Speaker 13: witchcraft is. The people down there associate witchcraft with something evil,
Speaker 13: So they're trying to associate evil with Julie.
Speaker 1: And negate Nikki's character reference because she's a witch. And
Speaker 1: then when you hear witchcraft murdered eleven year.
Speaker 13: Old, right, well, she had to have done it because
Speaker 13: she's an evil witch. I mean, I think that was
Speaker 13: their goal there. She's been raised in this. Look, her
Speaker 13: cousin is a witch. They own a shop and sale
Speaker 13: on that kind of thing. They don't realize that on
Speaker 13: a grander scale, this isn't a big thing to people.
Speaker 13: It's another religion. It's protected in.
Speaker 1: The absence of actual evidence.
Speaker 9: It's in you and.
Speaker 1: Could have been used to railroad a potentially innocent woman.
Speaker 2: Right, which a lot of people seem to be okay with.
Speaker 1: On the next murder on Songbird Road, access to the
Speaker 1: dispatch records from the day of the murder raises new questions.
Speaker 14: It's important if we can find out if, in fact,
Speaker 14: they had sent officers out to that area based on
Speaker 14: the other fall saying dude just ran through my backyard
Speaker 14: and all black.
Speaker 1: As does another description of an alleged intruder given to authorities.
Speaker 10: Well it struck me is this description of whoever called in.
Speaker 7: They were looking for a person in a dark hoodie
Speaker 7: and dark ants.
Speaker 1: And Julia Beverly lands on the radar of a formidable activist.
Speaker 1: Jason Flom Bob, Bob, Jason, Nice to meet you. Man.
Speaker 1: Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: Our executive producers are Taylor Chackoine and Lauren Bright Pacheco.
Speaker 1: Research writing and hosting by Lauren Bright Pacheco. Investigative reporting
Speaker 1: by Bob Matta and Lauren Bright Pacheco. Editing, sound design
Speaker 1: and original music by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chaqoine. Additional
Speaker 1: music by Asher Kurtz. Please like, subscribe, and leave us
Speaker 1: a review. Wherever you're listening, You can follow me on
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Speaker 1: with thought, suggestions or tips at Investigating Murder at iHeartMedia
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Speaker 1: for listening.