1
00:00:02,520 --> 00:00:06,840
Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. It is our last Saturday before Halloween, so

2
00:00:06,880 --> 00:00:09,719
Speaker 1: we have picked a ghost story for today's Saturday Classic,

3
00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:13,160
Speaker 1: at least kind of a ghost story. It's the Greenbriar

4
00:00:13,240 --> 00:00:16,040
Speaker 1: Ghost And this episode came out on October twenty eighth,

5
00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:24,040
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. Happy Early Halloween, everybody. Yeah, welcome to Stuff

6
00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:34,120
Speaker 1: You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello,

7
00:00:34,159 --> 00:00:36,760
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frye and I'm

8
00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:39,479
Speaker 1: Tracy V. Wilson. And now we're in the think of

9
00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:42,560
Speaker 1: Halloween happenings, which means it is time for a ghost story.

10
00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:45,920
Speaker 1: Who doesn't love a ghost story? Although this one is

11
00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:48,760
Speaker 1: problematic in a variety of ways. You may recall an

12
00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:51,520
Speaker 1: episode that Sarah and Deblina did in twenty twelve about

13
00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:55,280
Speaker 1: London's Cockleen ghost who accused a living person of murder.

14
00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:57,200
Speaker 1: That is also going to come up as a classic

15
00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:00,000
Speaker 1: in the not too distant future. So if you didn't

16
00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:01,800
Speaker 1: listen to it in twenty twelve and don't feel like

17
00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:03,600
Speaker 1: looking for it, you're going to get it automatically in

18
00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:07,280
Speaker 1: your feed very soon. And this one is in a

19
00:01:07,319 --> 00:01:10,120
Speaker 1: similar vein, but it is a West Virginia story of

20
00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:14,720
Speaker 1: a ghost who gave details about her murder, and we

21
00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:16,800
Speaker 1: are about to go on tour, as we've said, so

22
00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:23,200
Speaker 1: we were considering this as possibly one of the topics

23
00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:26,200
Speaker 1: that we would cover in one leg of our upcoming tour.

24
00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:28,360
Speaker 1: But as I started doing the research on it, it

25
00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:30,800
Speaker 1: pretty quickly became apparent that this is a little too

26
00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:35,480
Speaker 1: unsettling for our no bummer's rule for live shows. And

27
00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:37,800
Speaker 1: there is are some aspects to this story that just

28
00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:40,840
Speaker 1: would not be fun, bantery things to talk about in

29
00:01:40,880 --> 00:01:44,240
Speaker 1: a live show. That means this is also your warning

30
00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:49,120
Speaker 1: that this story features multiple instances of spousal abuse, specifically

31
00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:51,640
Speaker 1: a man abusing his wives. So if that is something

32
00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:54,640
Speaker 1: that you would rather not hear about, that is understandable,

33
00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:57,360
Speaker 1: and this one might be best to skip over. We

34
00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:01,320
Speaker 1: are talking today about the Greenbrier Ghost. It's spousal abuse

35
00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:06,200
Speaker 1: up to and potentially including murder. So yeah, it's not

36
00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:08,480
Speaker 1: to be a spoiler, but there's a lot going on.

37
00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:11,840
Speaker 1: There's a plaque, which is a state historical marker that

38
00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:15,680
Speaker 1: stands near a West Virginia cemetery and tells an incredible tale.

39
00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:20,440
Speaker 1: Here's what it says. Quote Greenbrier Ghost interred in nearby

40
00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:24,520
Speaker 1: cemetery is Zona Heuster Shoe. Her death in eighteen ninety

41
00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:28,320
Speaker 1: seven was presumed natural until her spirit appeared to her

42
00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:31,320
Speaker 1: mother to describe how she was killed by her husband.

43
00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:36,280
Speaker 1: Trout autopsy on the exhumed body verified the apparition's account.

44
00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:40,240
Speaker 1: Trout found guilty of murder was sentenced to the state prison.

45
00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:44,800
Speaker 1: Only known case in which testimony from ghost helped convict

46
00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:48,160
Speaker 1: a murderer. So first we are going to talk about

47
00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:53,640
Speaker 1: mister Shoe. His full name was Erasmus Stribbling Trout Shoe,

48
00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:57,239
Speaker 1: and he had a problematic past long before he met Zona.

49
00:02:57,720 --> 00:03:01,560
Speaker 1: When he changed his name from Erasmus to Edward is unknown,

50
00:03:01,639 --> 00:03:03,320
Speaker 1: although it could have been connected to one of the

51
00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:06,119
Speaker 1: times he had some legal trouble, but he went by

52
00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:10,000
Speaker 1: Trout to most people. Shoe had a history of abuse,

53
00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:13,280
Speaker 1: Like we alluded to earlier, in the winter of eighteen

54
00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:16,320
Speaker 1: eighty six to eighty seven, there were stories of incidents

55
00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:19,280
Speaker 1: in which he had whipped his first wife. Her name

56
00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:24,160
Speaker 1: was ali Estelene Cutlip McMillan, and those stories had spread

57
00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:27,280
Speaker 1: and become so common that a number of teenagers and

58
00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:30,720
Speaker 1: their teacher decided to go do something about it. According

59
00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:33,680
Speaker 1: to an account by one of the boys involved, GS McKeever,

60
00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:37,160
Speaker 1: the group went to the Shoe cabin on Rock Camp Run,

61
00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:39,880
Speaker 1: which was an offshoot of Spring Creek, late one night

62
00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:42,840
Speaker 1: and they knocked on the door. Obviously, we should say

63
00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:45,360
Speaker 1: this account was given many many years after all of

64
00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:47,800
Speaker 1: this took place, so just keep that in mind. But

65
00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:51,080
Speaker 1: when Shoe answered, several of the youths jumped him and

66
00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:53,680
Speaker 1: they took him to a watering hole and they dunked

67
00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:56,800
Speaker 1: him in the icy water. The temperature that night was

68
00:03:56,840 --> 00:03:59,560
Speaker 1: below freezing, and they told him they were doing it

69
00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:02,200
Speaker 1: because he was known to beat his wife. And the

70
00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:05,520
Speaker 1: next morning Shoe pressed charges against the three boys who

71
00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:08,920
Speaker 1: were his primary attackers. So there was a minor bit

72
00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:11,400
Speaker 1: of addressing the charges and bringing the first of the

73
00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:14,600
Speaker 1: defendants to court, but there were plenty of people willing

74
00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:17,599
Speaker 1: to serve as witnesses for all the young people involved.

75
00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:21,760
Speaker 1: All three warrants were abandoned by the court. Shoe's wife,

76
00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:25,200
Speaker 1: Ali moved back to her family home and later divorced him,

77
00:04:25,839 --> 00:04:30,520
Speaker 1: and she did that while he was incarcerated for horse theft. Yeah, basically,

78
00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:33,960
Speaker 1: when the first of the young men, who they were teenagers,

79
00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:36,640
Speaker 1: so boys involved went before the court. There were like

80
00:04:36,680 --> 00:04:38,880
Speaker 1: three people ready to go No, he wasn't. He wasn't

81
00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:41,240
Speaker 1: where they're saying he is. And they realized like there

82
00:04:41,279 --> 00:04:43,599
Speaker 1: was never going to be anything to come of it.

83
00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:46,320
Speaker 1: So that's why they dismissed all of those others. I

84
00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:48,640
Speaker 1: think probably also the judge knew what was up and

85
00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:50,560
Speaker 1: was like, I'm not going to punish these kids for

86
00:04:50,600 --> 00:04:53,359
Speaker 1: trying to do something right. Shoe got married again in

87
00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:56,880
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety four, this time to Lucy and Tritt, and

88
00:04:56,960 --> 00:04:59,719
Speaker 1: Lucy was only sixteen when she and Trout married. She

89
00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:03,320
Speaker 1: did live to see seventeen. Eight months into the marriage,

90
00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:05,599
Speaker 1: she fell and died when she hit her head on

91
00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:09,000
Speaker 1: a rock. At least that was Trout's story. There was

92
00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:11,560
Speaker 1: some doubt in the community about whether that was true,

93
00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:14,640
Speaker 1: but Trout was never charged with any wrongdoing in her death,

94
00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:17,320
Speaker 1: and her death was written up in the paper as

95
00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:20,520
Speaker 1: just a sudden death. And then, in the autumn of

96
00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:24,080
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety six, Shoe met Elva Zona Heaster, who went

97
00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:28,080
Speaker 1: by Zona. Before long, they were married. Trout Shoe had

98
00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:32,080
Speaker 1: only recently started working in Greenbrier County, and he drew

99
00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:34,960
Speaker 1: a lot of attention. He was handsome, and cocky, and

100
00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:38,120
Speaker 1: Zona really fell for him, and their wedding itself was

101
00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:42,400
Speaker 1: a peculiarity. When the Methodist minister R. R. Little arrived

102
00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:45,240
Speaker 1: at the Shoe Home for the ceremony, the bride and

103
00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:49,160
Speaker 1: the guests were there, but Troutshoe was not. He had

104
00:05:49,200 --> 00:05:51,600
Speaker 1: gone to get the marriage license. Is what the minister

105
00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:54,119
Speaker 1: was told, And according to an account that was given

106
00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:57,680
Speaker 1: by Reverend Little again much later after the fact, they

107
00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:00,159
Speaker 1: all sat there and waited a very long time for

108
00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:03,920
Speaker 1: Trout to return. He left them waiting from early afternoon

109
00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:08,080
Speaker 1: until approximately midnight. Then when Trout finally did get there,

110
00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:11,039
Speaker 1: there was a problem with the marriage license itself. It

111
00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:14,360
Speaker 1: had been issued in Greenbrier County, but the Shoe Home

112
00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:18,159
Speaker 1: was located in Pocahontas County. Little refused to perform the

113
00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:21,000
Speaker 1: ceremony in any other county than the one where the

114
00:06:21,080 --> 00:06:24,560
Speaker 1: license had been issued. I don't know how West Virginia

115
00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:27,240
Speaker 1: law works, but that is how the law works someplaces.

116
00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:31,400
Speaker 1: Shoe convienced everybody in attendance to walk a mile down

117
00:06:31,400 --> 00:06:33,640
Speaker 1: the road so that they would be in Greenbrier County,

118
00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:37,479
Speaker 1: and then the ceremony started there on the road. So

119
00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:41,640
Speaker 1: here is what happened next. According to Reverend Little's account, quote,

120
00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:44,159
Speaker 1: when I came to the part of the ceremony where

121
00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:47,360
Speaker 1: it says, if anyone has objections, speak now or forever

122
00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:51,159
Speaker 1: hold your peace. I waited, and after some time I

123
00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:54,880
Speaker 1: said I object I told him for the reason that

124
00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:57,600
Speaker 1: the girl he wished to marry was a mere child.

125
00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:00,560
Speaker 1: None of her people are present. It is now one

126
00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:02,800
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, and we are all here on

127
00:07:02,839 --> 00:07:06,520
Speaker 1: a country road. A marriage ceremony is a sacred rite

128
00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:10,440
Speaker 1: and should at least be performed under ordinary circumstances. I

129
00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:12,960
Speaker 1: cannot help but think there is something not right in

130
00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:15,640
Speaker 1: this case, and I will go no further. So there

131
00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:17,960
Speaker 1: will be no wedding, so far as I am concerned.

132
00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:21,520
Speaker 1: The minister said that he later learned that Zona was

133
00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:25,200
Speaker 1: very young, just fifteen years old. You'll recall that Trout's

134
00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:29,360
Speaker 1: previous wife, Lucy, had only been sixteen. It was probably

135
00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:33,000
Speaker 1: not accurate, though she was probably closer to twenty. Her

136
00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:36,560
Speaker 1: exact birth date is unknown, and different accounts of how

137
00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:39,080
Speaker 1: old she was are really all over the map. Yeah,

138
00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:43,560
Speaker 1: there are a lot of question marks surrounding Zona and

139
00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:47,720
Speaker 1: her personality and who she was. There are some stories

140
00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:50,120
Speaker 1: that will tell you that she had actually had a

141
00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:52,720
Speaker 1: child out of wedlock the year before, which would have

142
00:07:52,720 --> 00:07:55,520
Speaker 1: been very scandalous at the time. The year before she

143
00:07:55,640 --> 00:07:59,720
Speaker 1: met she, others will paint a completely different picture of her.

144
00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:02,920
Speaker 1: And because there are so little records, it's really hard

145
00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:07,400
Speaker 1: to know what is just country community gossip that has

146
00:08:07,400 --> 00:08:09,880
Speaker 1: spread versus what is truth, which is part of why

147
00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:13,120
Speaker 1: this story is tricky to begin with. But we know

148
00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:16,240
Speaker 1: that Troutshoe had gotten this young woman away from her

149
00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:19,800
Speaker 1: family and had rushed this wedding. And even though Reverend

150
00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:23,160
Speaker 1: Little refused to perform the ceremony the next morning, Trout

151
00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:26,240
Speaker 1: just took Zona to another town in Greenbrier County and

152
00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:29,960
Speaker 1: they got married there. Trout and Zona were together only

153
00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:31,920
Speaker 1: a couple of months. It's between two and three months

154
00:08:31,960 --> 00:08:35,600
Speaker 1: before she died. In early January of eighteen ninety seven,

155
00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:40,360
Speaker 1: Zona became ill with something that's not totally clear. The

156
00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:44,199
Speaker 1: local doctor, doctor George W. Knapp, called on the Shoes

157
00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:47,480
Speaker 1: to check on Zona regularly and to monitor her health.

158
00:08:47,720 --> 00:08:50,920
Speaker 1: On January twenty second, Trout paid a visit to the

159
00:08:50,960 --> 00:08:54,400
Speaker 1: home of a woman known as Aunt Martha Jones. Martha

160
00:08:54,480 --> 00:08:57,079
Speaker 1: had a son named Anderson, who was eleven at the time,

161
00:08:57,200 --> 00:09:00,000
Speaker 1: and Troutshoe asked if Anderson could go to the show

162
00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:02,280
Speaker 1: Shoe home and take care of some chores for Zona.

163
00:09:02,760 --> 00:09:04,880
Speaker 1: Anderson had done this kind of work for them before,

164
00:09:05,559 --> 00:09:07,840
Speaker 1: and he was told that Anderson had some other errands

165
00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:09,840
Speaker 1: that he needed to do first, but that he would

166
00:09:09,880 --> 00:09:12,760
Speaker 1: eventually make his way there, and over the course of

167
00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:15,720
Speaker 1: the morning in the very early afternoon, Trout stopped at

168
00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:19,079
Speaker 1: the Jones home four different times to repeat that request.

169
00:09:19,559 --> 00:09:23,560
Speaker 1: Anderson Jones did eventually make it to Trout and Zona's home,

170
00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:26,160
Speaker 1: and we'll get to the particulars of what he found

171
00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:38,680
Speaker 1: there after we paused for a quick sponsor break. According

172
00:09:38,720 --> 00:09:41,720
Speaker 1: to an account given by Anderson Jones decades later, when

173
00:09:41,760 --> 00:09:44,040
Speaker 1: he was a grown man, he finally got to the

174
00:09:44,080 --> 00:09:47,079
Speaker 1: Shoe home a little after one pm, and he felt

175
00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:49,400
Speaker 1: that there was something off about the house as he

176
00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:52,040
Speaker 1: approached it, and as he got to the porch, he

177
00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:54,800
Speaker 1: said that he saw blood. He knocked on the door,

178
00:09:54,800 --> 00:09:57,080
Speaker 1: but he got no answer, and then he tried the door,

179
00:09:57,080 --> 00:10:00,920
Speaker 1: which was unlocked, and he entered the house. He followed

180
00:10:00,960 --> 00:10:03,680
Speaker 1: the trail of blood through the kitchen to the door

181
00:10:03,720 --> 00:10:06,120
Speaker 1: to the dining room, and as with the exterior door,

182
00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:09,080
Speaker 1: that dining room door was closed, and he knocked and

183
00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:11,840
Speaker 1: got no answer, and then he opened the door himself.

184
00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:15,480
Speaker 1: When he did this, Anderson Jones stumbled over the body

185
00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:18,679
Speaker 1: of Zona, lying face up on the floor with her

186
00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:22,120
Speaker 1: eyes open. He shook her and found that she was

187
00:10:22,160 --> 00:10:25,840
Speaker 1: cold to the touch. Immediately realized she was dead. He

188
00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:28,640
Speaker 1: ran from the house and yelled to his mother as

189
00:10:28,679 --> 00:10:31,000
Speaker 1: he made his way home that missus Shee was dead,

190
00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:34,200
Speaker 1: and then he went onto the blacksmith's shop where Trout

191
00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:37,480
Speaker 1: she worked to tell him this terrible news about his wife.

192
00:10:37,800 --> 00:10:42,319
Speaker 1: According to Anderson Jones, Shoe ran home and he Anderson

193
00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:44,880
Speaker 1: went to fetch doctor Nap, and by the time they

194
00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:47,600
Speaker 1: got to the Shoe home that meaning Anderson and the doctor,

195
00:10:48,120 --> 00:10:50,600
Speaker 1: Trout had moved his wife from the floor to the

196
00:10:50,640 --> 00:10:52,960
Speaker 1: bed and dressed her in a dress with a high

197
00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:55,920
Speaker 1: collar and a scarf and was sitting on the bed

198
00:10:55,960 --> 00:11:00,040
Speaker 1: cradling her body. Trout allegedly held her head close to

199
00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:02,960
Speaker 1: his chest and wasn't willing to let go of it

200
00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:06,760
Speaker 1: even as the doctor tried to examine the body. Napp

201
00:11:06,880 --> 00:11:10,360
Speaker 1: determined that Zona had experienced heart failure and said that

202
00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:15,600
Speaker 1: her death was a quote everlasting faint. Zona had died

203
00:11:15,640 --> 00:11:18,880
Speaker 1: on a Friday, and on Saturday, her body was taken

204
00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:21,640
Speaker 1: to her mother's home, which was on a nearby mountain,

205
00:11:21,679 --> 00:11:24,160
Speaker 1: where there was a period of visitation before the burial

206
00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:28,839
Speaker 1: on Monday, January twenty fifth. During the visitation, Trout was

207
00:11:28,880 --> 00:11:32,199
Speaker 1: similarly unwilling to step away from Zona or her coffin,

208
00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:34,840
Speaker 1: choosing to stay seated at the head of it rather

209
00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:38,160
Speaker 1: than stand to greet visitors. And anytime there was someone there,

210
00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:41,240
Speaker 1: Trout was there at the coffin and allegedly did not

211
00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:45,040
Speaker 1: allow anyone to approach it. So now we need to

212
00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:47,600
Speaker 1: take a moment to talk about Zona's mother. Her name

213
00:11:47,679 --> 00:11:50,760
Speaker 1: was missus Mary Jane Heaster, and she was not a

214
00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:54,920
Speaker 1: fan of Trout. That cause of death recorded as everlasting

215
00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:58,760
Speaker 1: faint did not sit well with her. To Mary Heaster,

216
00:11:58,960 --> 00:12:01,880
Speaker 1: that didn't sound like a valid reason for her young,

217
00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:06,480
Speaker 1: previously pretty healthy daughter to have died. And beginning a

218
00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:10,000
Speaker 1: few days after Zona was buried, missus Heaster had what

219
00:12:10,120 --> 00:12:14,719
Speaker 1: is sometimes characterized as four dreams, also sometimes described as

220
00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:18,200
Speaker 1: some other event in which her daughter appeared to her.

221
00:12:19,440 --> 00:12:23,920
Speaker 1: These became very significant events. Missus Heaster describes them as

222
00:12:23,920 --> 00:12:27,520
Speaker 1: her daughter being real and corporeal and able to be touched,

223
00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:30,520
Speaker 1: and that first night, missus Heaster felt that she had

224
00:12:30,559 --> 00:12:32,600
Speaker 1: awakened when she heard a noise in her room, and

225
00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:35,560
Speaker 1: as her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, she made

226
00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:38,280
Speaker 1: out the shape of her daughter's Zona. But when Mary

227
00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:41,200
Speaker 1: reached out on that first night, her daughter disappeared. On

228
00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:45,199
Speaker 1: the second night, after Mary prayed repeatedly that she wanted

229
00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:47,920
Speaker 1: to see Zona again, she said that the deceased daughter

230
00:12:48,040 --> 00:12:51,720
Speaker 1: appeared to her again, and this time the apparition spoke

231
00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:55,680
Speaker 1: to her, wanting her mother to understand what had really happened.

232
00:12:56,320 --> 00:12:59,280
Speaker 1: Zona made a third appearance on the following night, and

233
00:12:59,280 --> 00:13:01,480
Speaker 1: then a fourth night after that, and it was during

234
00:13:01,520 --> 00:13:05,080
Speaker 1: that final night that Zona really told her mother all

235
00:13:05,160 --> 00:13:08,440
Speaker 1: of the details of her death. The most significant part

236
00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:12,720
Speaker 1: of Mary Heaster's account of Zona's dream communications with her

237
00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:17,280
Speaker 1: involved details of the murder, specifically how Trout had broken

238
00:13:17,320 --> 00:13:20,880
Speaker 1: her neck. Missus Heaster did not keep these communications from

239
00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:24,360
Speaker 1: Zona to herself. She told people all about it. Their

240
00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:28,280
Speaker 1: initial reaction to Mary telling friends and neighbors about these

241
00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:32,240
Speaker 1: dreams and subsequent suspicion of her son in law's involvement

242
00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:36,840
Speaker 1: in Zona's death was pretty polite disbelief. The general opinion

243
00:13:36,920 --> 00:13:40,000
Speaker 1: seemed to be that grief was leading missus Heaster to

244
00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:42,880
Speaker 1: come to wild conclusions and to just cling to some

245
00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:46,679
Speaker 1: sort of explanation for her daughter's untimely death, one that

246
00:13:46,720 --> 00:13:49,280
Speaker 1: would offer her a chance at some kind of retribution.

247
00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:53,800
Speaker 1: But Mary Heaster was adamant that her daughter was actively

248
00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:56,800
Speaker 1: communicating with her, so much that she started to convince

249
00:13:56,880 --> 00:13:59,400
Speaker 1: people that that was what was happening. A few people

250
00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:02,560
Speaker 1: at a time, and once Mary convinced her brother in law,

251
00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:07,160
Speaker 1: Johnson Heaster, things really started to change. So first the

252
00:14:07,240 --> 00:14:09,760
Speaker 1: pair actually went to visit Shoe. They were trying not

253
00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:12,720
Speaker 1: to tip their hand, but they wanted to talk about

254
00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:15,880
Speaker 1: what had happened when Zona died, and they came away

255
00:14:15,880 --> 00:14:18,680
Speaker 1: from that visit believing with certainty that he had killed

256
00:14:18,679 --> 00:14:22,800
Speaker 1: his young wife. They also spoke to Anderson Jones and

257
00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:25,200
Speaker 1: several other people in the community who had been at

258
00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:29,520
Speaker 1: the house the Dayzona's body was discovered. With Johnson's involvement

259
00:14:29,720 --> 00:14:32,760
Speaker 1: and not nearly that of a distraught mother who people

260
00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:35,400
Speaker 1: were happy to kind of write off, the Heasters were

261
00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:39,240
Speaker 1: able to move their suspicions into action. First, they met

262
00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:42,480
Speaker 1: with John A. Preston, who was the Lewisbourg prosecutor who

263
00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:45,680
Speaker 1: had already heard plenty of rumors going on about Zona's

264
00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:49,600
Speaker 1: mother trying to have Trout convicted for murder. As news

265
00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:52,760
Speaker 1: had spread, various people offered up examples of what they

266
00:14:52,920 --> 00:14:56,000
Speaker 1: perceived after the fact to have been strange behavior on

267
00:14:56,080 --> 00:14:59,120
Speaker 1: Trout's part, and the fact that he had been unwilling

268
00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:02,760
Speaker 1: to let doctor now examine Zona's head started to seem

269
00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:06,720
Speaker 1: less like a deeply aggrieved husband who could not bear

270
00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:09,960
Speaker 1: to let go of his lost beloved and maybe more

271
00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:12,600
Speaker 1: like somebody who was trying to cover something up. After

272
00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:16,280
Speaker 1: meeting with Mary and Johnson, Heaster Preston took things to

273
00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:18,800
Speaker 1: the next step. He went to speak with doctor Knapp,

274
00:15:19,080 --> 00:15:21,600
Speaker 1: and doctor Knapp admitted that he might have been wrong

275
00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:25,160
Speaker 1: in ruling Zona's death a heart failure. He mentioned that

276
00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:27,840
Speaker 1: in the moment, and not thinking with any sort of

277
00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:31,520
Speaker 1: suspicious thoughts, he had seen Trout as a man in shock,

278
00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:33,720
Speaker 1: and he didn't want to press the matter to examine

279
00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:37,520
Speaker 1: Zona's body more thoroughly. Preston and Napp came to the

280
00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:40,480
Speaker 1: conclusion that the only way to truly learn the facts.

281
00:15:40,520 --> 00:15:43,720
Speaker 1: The case was to autopsy Zona's body, and the two

282
00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:47,080
Speaker 1: of them gathered Anderson Jones and aunt Martha Jones and

283
00:15:47,160 --> 00:15:50,240
Speaker 1: Trout's Shoe. The next morning, they informed Shoe that they

284
00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:53,840
Speaker 1: intended to exume Zona, and then the entire party made

285
00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:57,240
Speaker 1: their way to the gravesite. Trout was insistent that they

286
00:15:57,280 --> 00:16:01,080
Speaker 1: would find nothing. He said that over and over throughout

287
00:16:01,080 --> 00:16:04,600
Speaker 1: the remainder of this story. When they reached the grave,

288
00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:07,840
Speaker 1: several men who lived nearby were ordered by the prosecutor

289
00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:10,560
Speaker 1: to assist and dig up the coffin, and once it

290
00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:12,440
Speaker 1: had been removed from the ground, it was taken to

291
00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:16,720
Speaker 1: a nearby schoolhouse for examination, and Shoe and Anderson Jones

292
00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:19,480
Speaker 1: both witnessed the autopsy. So we should have a quick

293
00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:23,400
Speaker 1: sidebar here about Anderson Jones, because he was eleven and

294
00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:27,400
Speaker 1: watching an autopsy. It also seems like he was used

295
00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:30,680
Speaker 1: as kind of a pawn to discover Zona's body. And

296
00:16:31,120 --> 00:16:34,200
Speaker 1: this is because of an element of racism that was here.

297
00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:37,760
Speaker 1: Trout Shoe was white and Anderson was black. And back

298
00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:42,080
Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen, the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality

299
00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:46,560
Speaker 1: and Social Psychology featured a study from UCLA that stated quote.

300
00:16:46,680 --> 00:16:49,360
Speaker 1: Children in most societies are considered to be in a

301
00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:52,280
Speaker 1: distinct group with characteristics such as in a sense of

302
00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:55,960
Speaker 1: the need for protection. Our research found that black boys

303
00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,520
Speaker 1: can be seen as responsible for their actions at an

304
00:16:58,560 --> 00:17:01,160
Speaker 1: age when white boys still benefit from the assumption that

305
00:17:01,280 --> 00:17:04,479
Speaker 1: children are essentially innocent. That is, of course, not a

306
00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:08,360
Speaker 1: new thing, even though that research was conducted five years ago.

307
00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:11,520
Speaker 1: And I think it's fair to assume that Anderson was

308
00:17:11,760 --> 00:17:14,760
Speaker 1: probably not treated with the care and concern for his

309
00:17:14,840 --> 00:17:17,480
Speaker 1: well being that a white child probably would have received.

310
00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:20,800
Speaker 1: That is something that does not come up very often

311
00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:23,800
Speaker 1: when you hear about this story. People will mention that

312
00:17:24,160 --> 00:17:27,159
Speaker 1: the Joneses were black, but they will not really nobody

313
00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:29,760
Speaker 1: really addresses the fact that this child was in the

314
00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:34,080
Speaker 1: middle of all of this potentially very disturbing stuff. And

315
00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:36,399
Speaker 1: even when he talks about finding the body, which he

316
00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:38,879
Speaker 1: did many years later, he sort of says like, I

317
00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:41,720
Speaker 1: don't know how I did it. I don't know how

318
00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:44,680
Speaker 1: I reached down and shook her because it was clear

319
00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:47,400
Speaker 1: she was dead. And he doesn't really speak at length

320
00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:51,400
Speaker 1: about his experience with the autopsy. It's almost like he compartmentalizes.

321
00:17:52,119 --> 00:17:54,239
Speaker 1: Tracy and I talked about this beforehand, and it's like

322
00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:57,560
Speaker 1: there is that thing where like in country communities, kids

323
00:17:57,560 --> 00:17:59,399
Speaker 1: that grow up in the country or in rural areas

324
00:17:59,400 --> 00:18:02,720
Speaker 1: around farm are often exposed to things that city kids

325
00:18:02,720 --> 00:18:06,200
Speaker 1: would not be, some of which might seem a little

326
00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:09,639
Speaker 1: bit gruesome. I grew up on a farm. I watched

327
00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:13,639
Speaker 1: animals get slaughtered. I think my Again, it's a different

328
00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:15,679
Speaker 1: time period, obviously, but I think my parents would not

329
00:18:15,680 --> 00:18:18,320
Speaker 1: have been cool with me seeing a human person be

330
00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:22,639
Speaker 1: autopsied or dissected. But it's one of those things that

331
00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:25,919
Speaker 1: is not discussed, as we said, but it just seems

332
00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:28,239
Speaker 1: like it would be remiss not to call attention to

333
00:18:28,280 --> 00:18:31,040
Speaker 1: that particular angle of the whole thing, at least briefly,

334
00:18:31,240 --> 00:18:33,680
Speaker 1: and just make it something that people think about. We'll

335
00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:37,000
Speaker 1: get back to what happened after Zona's body was autopsied,

336
00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:39,320
Speaker 1: but first we will take a breather for a little

337
00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:50,000
Speaker 1: sponsor break. Over the course of the next three days,

338
00:18:50,040 --> 00:18:54,000
Speaker 1: doctor Napp carefully examined the body and eventually found that

339
00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:56,879
Speaker 1: Zona's neck had been snapped, and in fact, it was

340
00:18:56,920 --> 00:19:00,240
Speaker 1: broken in exactly the place that Mary Heaster had described.

341
00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:02,159
Speaker 1: That was the place that Zona told her it had

342
00:19:02,200 --> 00:19:05,800
Speaker 1: been broken Trout was arrested, charged with murder, and put

343
00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:09,399
Speaker 1: on trial. The Pocahontas Times reported the story of the

344
00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:13,080
Speaker 1: exhamation and the horrific findings of the autopsy. Quote on

345
00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:16,440
Speaker 1: the throat were marks of fingers, indicating that she had

346
00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:20,080
Speaker 1: been choken. That the neck was dislocated between the first

347
00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:24,120
Speaker 1: and second vertebrae, the ligaments were torn and ruptured. The

348
00:19:24,160 --> 00:19:26,879
Speaker 1: windpipe had been crushed at a point in front of

349
00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:30,600
Speaker 1: the neck. Trout's defense, led by William Parks Rucker and

350
00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:34,160
Speaker 1: James P. D. Gardner, actually decided that in the midst

351
00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:36,840
Speaker 1: of the trial they would call Mary Heaster to the stand.

352
00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:39,640
Speaker 1: They thought it was going to help their case. Their

353
00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:42,880
Speaker 1: strategy was to show that she was clearly a grieving mother,

354
00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:45,399
Speaker 1: out of touch with reality due to the shock and

355
00:19:45,520 --> 00:19:48,760
Speaker 1: sorrow of losing her daughter. But she was very steadfast

356
00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:52,159
Speaker 1: in her testimony, and that approach failed miserably. When the

357
00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:55,360
Speaker 1: defense asked her, quote, I have heard that you had

358
00:19:55,359 --> 00:19:59,399
Speaker 1: some dream or vision which led to this post mortem examination,

359
00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:03,600
Speaker 1: replied quote, they saw enough theirselves without me telling them.

360
00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:06,639
Speaker 1: It was no dream. She came back and told me

361
00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:09,160
Speaker 1: that he was mad that she didn't have no meat

362
00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:12,600
Speaker 1: cooked for supper. But she said she had plenty, and

363
00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:16,080
Speaker 1: said that she had butter and apple butter apples, and

364
00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:18,800
Speaker 1: named over two or three kinds of jellies, pears and

365
00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:22,240
Speaker 1: cherries and raspberry jelly, and she says, I had plenty.

366
00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:25,320
Speaker 1: She says, don't you think that he was mad and

367
00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:27,720
Speaker 1: just took down all my nice things and packed them

368
00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:30,200
Speaker 1: away and just ruined them. And she told me where

369
00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:32,919
Speaker 1: I could look down back of Aunt Martha Jones's in

370
00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:35,479
Speaker 1: the meadow, in a rocky place, that I could look

371
00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:38,399
Speaker 1: in a cellar behind some loose plank and sea. It

372
00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:40,720
Speaker 1: was a square log house. It was hewed up to

373
00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:42,960
Speaker 1: the square, and she said for me to go look

374
00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:45,160
Speaker 1: right at the right hand side, at the door as

375
00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:47,240
Speaker 1: you go in, and at the right hand corner as

376
00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:49,800
Speaker 1: you go in. Well, I saw the place just exactly

377
00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:51,720
Speaker 1: as she told me, and I saw blood right there

378
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:55,159
Speaker 1: where she told me. And she told me something about

379
00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:58,280
Speaker 1: that meat. Every night she came just as she did.

380
00:20:58,359 --> 00:21:02,280
Speaker 1: The first night, she came four times and four nights.

381
00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:04,359
Speaker 1: But the second night she told me that her neck

382
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:07,119
Speaker 1: was squeezed off at the first joint, and it was

383
00:21:07,359 --> 00:21:10,359
Speaker 1: just as she told me. So that is a little

384
00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:13,920
Speaker 1: bit different than the version of progression that we mentioned earlier,

385
00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:17,440
Speaker 1: in terms of her coming the first night and disappearing

386
00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:19,639
Speaker 1: and then coming the second night and the fourth night

387
00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:22,200
Speaker 1: being the one I included both of those, and part

388
00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:24,159
Speaker 1: of that is something we're going to talk about at

389
00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:26,800
Speaker 1: the very end of the episode, about how much this

390
00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:29,600
Speaker 1: story has become a legend and it has shifted, and

391
00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:33,280
Speaker 1: even when you're looking at historians documents and accounts of

392
00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:36,480
Speaker 1: people there in the midst of it, because there's a

393
00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:39,680
Speaker 1: book written about forty years after all of this took place,

394
00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:43,720
Speaker 1: and accounts of the surviving people involved were interviewed, it's

395
00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:46,680
Speaker 1: just very interesting to me to hear how even though

396
00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:50,400
Speaker 1: missus Heaster was pretty adamant about the whole thing, throughout

397
00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:52,760
Speaker 1: those facts and I have to use the air quotes

398
00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:55,400
Speaker 1: there change a little bit in the telling, even by

399
00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:57,560
Speaker 1: people who were first hand witnesses to the whole thing.

400
00:21:58,359 --> 00:22:01,080
Speaker 1: The questioning of missus Heaster went on to ask her

401
00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:05,080
Speaker 1: repeatedly if she really saw her daughter, eventually posing the

402
00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:08,160
Speaker 1: possibility that these visions may have been quote nothing more

403
00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:11,919
Speaker 1: or less than four dreams founded upon your distress. But

404
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:15,240
Speaker 1: Mary Jane Heister replied confidently and repeatedly that these were

405
00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:18,640
Speaker 1: not mere dreams, but true visitations from her daughter Zona.

406
00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:21,080
Speaker 1: When trout Schu took the stand, he stayed there for

407
00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:25,479
Speaker 1: almost an entire day. He denied everything any witness had

408
00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:27,919
Speaker 1: said against him. He rambled on in a lot of

409
00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:31,520
Speaker 1: detail about odd particulars of his life that weren't really

410
00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:34,159
Speaker 1: directly related to the case, and told the jury that

411
00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:37,240
Speaker 1: he truly loved his wife. He asked them to look

412
00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:39,640
Speaker 1: into his eyes and then decide if he was guilty,

413
00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:43,080
Speaker 1: and he came off very poorly, so much so that

414
00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:47,399
Speaker 1: when the Greenbrier Independent reported on his testimony, the article

415
00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:50,280
Speaker 1: insisted that the jury had to find him guilty. Yeah,

416
00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:53,240
Speaker 1: that piece came out very quickly. They were essentially running

417
00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:57,439
Speaker 1: like real time extras to cover the case because the

418
00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:00,560
Speaker 1: jury only had a pretty short deliberation. They came back

419
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:03,359
Speaker 1: that same day and they returned a guilty verdict with

420
00:23:03,359 --> 00:23:06,359
Speaker 1: a recommendation of life imprisonment. And while most of the

421
00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:09,800
Speaker 1: community agreed that he was guilty, imprisonment rather than the

422
00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:13,200
Speaker 1: death penalty was seen as a miscarriage of justice by many.

423
00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:17,119
Speaker 1: A vigilante mob formed to storm the county jail and

424
00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:20,040
Speaker 1: hang Shoe before he could be transferred to the penitentiary,

425
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:23,680
Speaker 1: but the sheriff interceded and talked them out of their plan.

426
00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:27,399
Speaker 1: Edward Trout's shoe was moved by train to the Mounds

427
00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:30,280
Speaker 1: Built Penitentiary and he died there in March of nineteen hundred.

428
00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:33,280
Speaker 1: So again, this is one of those historical stories where

429
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:35,520
Speaker 1: as I was just saying, the details get fudged or

430
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:38,960
Speaker 1: shifted around pretty frequently. Some of that is simply because

431
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:41,480
Speaker 1: original records of things like births and deaths from that

432
00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:44,680
Speaker 1: time are not always available, and also because some records

433
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:48,040
Speaker 1: have simply been lost, and as I said, first hand

434
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:50,000
Speaker 1: accounts shift. We talk about this on the show all

435
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:52,719
Speaker 1: the time that, especially four decades later, people are going

436
00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:54,639
Speaker 1: to tell the story maybe a little differently than they

437
00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:57,439
Speaker 1: were telling it at the time that it was actually

438
00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:01,040
Speaker 1: going on. But the inaccuracy of reporting on this case

439
00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:04,399
Speaker 1: was actually happening from the very beginning. So here's the

440
00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:07,520
Speaker 1: brief writeup of the murder and the trial as reported

441
00:24:07,520 --> 00:24:10,600
Speaker 1: by the Baltimore American on July fifth, eighteen ninety seven,

442
00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:14,280
Speaker 1: under the headline mother in Law's visions as evidence quote.

443
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:16,720
Speaker 1: Some time ago, the wife of E. S. Schue was

444
00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:19,680
Speaker 1: found dead in her home. A coroner's jury rendered a

445
00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:24,000
Speaker 1: verdict death by heart disease. Neighbors were not satisfied, and

446
00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:26,840
Speaker 1: the woman's body was exhumed that her neck was found broken.

447
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:30,680
Speaker 1: She was indicted, convicted, and sentenced to the penitentiary for life.

448
00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:33,480
Speaker 1: The principal evidence was that Off She's mother in law,

449
00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:36,200
Speaker 1: who testified that her daughter's spirit had come to her

450
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:38,960
Speaker 1: at a seance and said Shoe had killed her by

451
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:43,119
Speaker 1: breaking her neck. All other evidence was purely circumstantial. So

452
00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:46,880
Speaker 1: while the broad strokes of that account are correct, the

453
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:50,680
Speaker 1: mention of the neighbors initiating the investigation and the appearance

454
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:55,080
Speaker 1: of Zona at a seance stand out as problematic and incorrect,

455
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:57,600
Speaker 1: And even the framing of the case as an instance

456
00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 1: of a ghost's account convicting a murderer isn't really accurate.

457
00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:05,520
Speaker 1: The markings and damage to Zona's neck and Shoe's odd

458
00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:09,119
Speaker 1: behavior probably went farther in the jury's decision than missus

459
00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:13,159
Speaker 1: Heaster's testimony, even though it was her insistence that catalyzed

460
00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:16,439
Speaker 1: the re examination of the case. This is one that

461
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 1: I love this story because, even though it is not pleasant,

462
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:26,040
Speaker 1: it's a good example of where factual history and mythology

463
00:25:26,119 --> 00:25:30,760
Speaker 1: start to become a very blurry space together, because it

464
00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:33,879
Speaker 1: is one of those things that's like a classic ghost

465
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:36,000
Speaker 1: story of West Virginia, and it gets told in a

466
00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:38,520
Speaker 1: lot of different ways. One thing that also comes up

467
00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:41,199
Speaker 1: all the time when you're reading it is that Shoe

468
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:44,080
Speaker 1: died eight years later in prison, but his death is

469
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:46,879
Speaker 1: reported as nineteen hundred, which was only three years later.

470
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:48,840
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's just a record where a

471
00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:50,680
Speaker 1: three looked like an eight, someone ran with it and

472
00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:53,280
Speaker 1: everybody else picked it up. That kind of stuff happens

473
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 1: all the time. Yeah, it's why we always encourage everybody

474
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:02,200
Speaker 1: to really look at any account of any event in history,

475
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:07,400
Speaker 1: just with a sense of knowing that you know, primary

476
00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:09,840
Speaker 1: sources are your best. But even then, like we said,

477
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:13,160
Speaker 1: interviews with people who were there at the time aren't

478
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:17,000
Speaker 1: always accurate and they don't always reflect the exact same details. Yeah,

479
00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:20,720
Speaker 1: especially when they're conducted a lot later, as is the

480
00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:23,840
Speaker 1: case some of the ones in the story. So that

481
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:28,760
Speaker 1: is the Greenbrier Ghost, who's fascinating and a good ghost

482
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:33,119
Speaker 1: story for Halloween, but also a good example of the

483
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:36,920
Speaker 1: scariness of how information can get cloudy and change pretty

484
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:41,239
Speaker 1: rapidly in the historical record, so hopefully that was an

485
00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:50,680
Speaker 1: enjoyable ride. Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday.

486
00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 1: If you'd like to send us a note, our email

487
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:57,360
Speaker 1: addresses History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com, and you can

488
00:26:57,359 --> 00:27:00,840
Speaker 1: subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio app, app podcasts,

489
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:09,520
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M