WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: Greenbrier Ghost 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:06.840 Happy Saturday. It is our last Saturday before Halloween, so 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:09.719 we have picked a ghost story for today's Saturday Classic, 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:13.160 at least kind of a ghost story. It's the Greenbriar 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:16.040 Ghost And this episode came out on October twenty eighth, 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:24.040 twenty nineteen. Happy Early Halloween, everybody. Yeah, welcome to Stuff 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:34.120 You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:36.760 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frye and I'm 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:39.479 Tracy V. Wilson. And now we're in the think of 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.560 Halloween happenings, which means it is time for a ghost story. 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:45.920 Who doesn't love a ghost story? Although this one is 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:48.760 problematic in a variety of ways. You may recall an 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:51.520 episode that Sarah and Deblina did in twenty twelve about 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:55.280 London's Cockleen ghost who accused a living person of murder. 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:57.200 That is also going to come up as a classic 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:00.000 in the not too distant future. So if you didn't 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:01.800 listen to it in twenty twelve and don't feel like 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:03.600 looking for it, you're going to get it automatically in 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:07.280 your feed very soon. And this one is in a 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:10.120 similar vein, but it is a West Virginia story of 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:14.720 a ghost who gave details about her murder, and we 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:16.800 are about to go on tour, as we've said, so 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:23.200 we were considering this as possibly one of the topics 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.200 that we would cover in one leg of our upcoming tour. 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:28.360 But as I started doing the research on it, it 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:30.800 pretty quickly became apparent that this is a little too 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:35.480 unsettling for our no bummer's rule for live shows. And 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:37.800 there is are some aspects to this story that just 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:40.840 would not be fun, bantery things to talk about in 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:44.240 a live show. That means this is also your warning 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:49.120 that this story features multiple instances of spousal abuse, specifically 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:51.640 a man abusing his wives. So if that is something 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:54.640 that you would rather not hear about, that is understandable, 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:57.360 and this one might be best to skip over. We 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:01.320 are talking today about the Greenbrier Ghost. It's spousal abuse 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:06.200 up to and potentially including murder. So yeah, it's not 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:08.480 to be a spoiler, but there's a lot going on. 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:11.840 There's a plaque, which is a state historical marker that 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:15.680 stands near a West Virginia cemetery and tells an incredible tale. 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:20.440 Here's what it says. Quote Greenbrier Ghost interred in nearby 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:24.520 cemetery is Zona Heuster Shoe. Her death in eighteen ninety 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:28.320 seven was presumed natural until her spirit appeared to her 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.320 mother to describe how she was killed by her husband. 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:36.280 Trout autopsy on the exhumed body verified the apparition's account. 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:40.240 Trout found guilty of murder was sentenced to the state prison. 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:44.800 Only known case in which testimony from ghost helped convict 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:48.160 a murderer. So first we are going to talk about 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:53.640 mister Shoe. His full name was Erasmus Stribbling Trout Shoe, 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.239 and he had a problematic past long before he met Zona. 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.560 When he changed his name from Erasmus to Edward is unknown, 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:03.320 although it could have been connected to one of the 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:06.119 times he had some legal trouble, but he went by 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:10.000 Trout to most people. Shoe had a history of abuse, 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:13.280 Like we alluded to earlier, in the winter of eighteen 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.320 eighty six to eighty seven, there were stories of incidents 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.280 in which he had whipped his first wife. Her name 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:24.160 was ali Estelene Cutlip McMillan, and those stories had spread 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:27.280 and become so common that a number of teenagers and 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.720 their teacher decided to go do something about it. According 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:33.680 to an account by one of the boys involved, GS McKeever, 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.160 the group went to the Shoe cabin on Rock Camp Run, 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:39.880 which was an offshoot of Spring Creek, late one night 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:42.840 and they knocked on the door. Obviously, we should say 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:45.360 this account was given many many years after all of 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:47.800 this took place, so just keep that in mind. But 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.080 when Shoe answered, several of the youths jumped him and 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:53.680 they took him to a watering hole and they dunked 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.800 him in the icy water. The temperature that night was 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:59.560 below freezing, and they told him they were doing it 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:02.200 because he was known to beat his wife. And the 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:05.520 next morning Shoe pressed charges against the three boys who 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:08.920 were his primary attackers. So there was a minor bit 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:11.400 of addressing the charges and bringing the first of the 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:14.600 defendants to court, but there were plenty of people willing 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.599 to serve as witnesses for all the young people involved. 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:21.760 All three warrants were abandoned by the court. Shoe's wife, 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.200 Ali moved back to her family home and later divorced him, 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:30.520 and she did that while he was incarcerated for horse theft. Yeah, basically, 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:33.960 when the first of the young men, who they were teenagers, 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:36.640 so boys involved went before the court. There were like 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:38.880 three people ready to go No, he wasn't. He wasn't 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.240 where they're saying he is. And they realized like there 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:43.599 was never going to be anything to come of it. 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.320 So that's why they dismissed all of those others. I 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:48.640 think probably also the judge knew what was up and 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:50.560 was like, I'm not going to punish these kids for 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.359 trying to do something right. Shoe got married again in 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.880 eighteen ninety four, this time to Lucy and Tritt, and 0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:59.719 Lucy was only sixteen when she and Trout married. She 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:03.320 did live to see seventeen. Eight months into the marriage, 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:05.599 she fell and died when she hit her head on 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:09.000 a rock. At least that was Trout's story. There was 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:11.560 some doubt in the community about whether that was true, 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.640 but Trout was never charged with any wrongdoing in her death, 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:17.320 and her death was written up in the paper as 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.520 just a sudden death. And then, in the autumn of 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:24.080 eighteen ninety six, Shoe met Elva Zona Heaster, who went 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:28.080 by Zona. Before long, they were married. Trout Shoe had 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:32.080 only recently started working in Greenbrier County, and he drew 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:34.960 a lot of attention. He was handsome, and cocky, and 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:38.120 Zona really fell for him, and their wedding itself was 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:42.400 a peculiarity. When the Methodist minister R. R. Little arrived 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.240 at the Shoe Home for the ceremony, the bride and 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:49.160 the guests were there, but Troutshoe was not. He had 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:51.600 gone to get the marriage license. Is what the minister 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.119 was told, And according to an account that was given 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.680 by Reverend Little again much later after the fact, they 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.159 all sat there and waited a very long time for 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:03.920 Trout to return. He left them waiting from early afternoon 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:08.080 until approximately midnight. Then when Trout finally did get there, 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.039 there was a problem with the marriage license itself. It 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:14.360 had been issued in Greenbrier County, but the Shoe Home 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:18.159 was located in Pocahontas County. Little refused to perform the 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:21.000 ceremony in any other county than the one where the 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.560 license had been issued. I don't know how West Virginia 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.240 law works, but that is how the law works someplaces. 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.400 Shoe convienced everybody in attendance to walk a mile down 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:33.640 the road so that they would be in Greenbrier County, 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:37.479 and then the ceremony started there on the road. So 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:41.640 here is what happened next. According to Reverend Little's account, quote, 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:44.159 when I came to the part of the ceremony where 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:47.360 it says, if anyone has objections, speak now or forever 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:51.159 hold your peace. I waited, and after some time I 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.880 said I object I told him for the reason that 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:57.600 the girl he wished to marry was a mere child. 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:00.560 None of her people are present. It is now one 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:02.800 o'clock in the morning, and we are all here on 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:06.520 a country road. A marriage ceremony is a sacred rite 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:10.440 and should at least be performed under ordinary circumstances. I 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:12.960 cannot help but think there is something not right in 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:15.640 this case, and I will go no further. So there 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:17.960 will be no wedding, so far as I am concerned. 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.520 The minister said that he later learned that Zona was 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:25.200 very young, just fifteen years old. You'll recall that Trout's 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:29.360 previous wife, Lucy, had only been sixteen. It was probably 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:33.000 not accurate, though she was probably closer to twenty. Her 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.560 exact birth date is unknown, and different accounts of how 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:39.080 old she was are really all over the map. Yeah, 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:43.560 there are a lot of question marks surrounding Zona and 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:47.720 her personality and who she was. There are some stories 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.120 that will tell you that she had actually had a 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:52.720 child out of wedlock the year before, which would have 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.520 been very scandalous at the time. The year before she 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.720 met she, others will paint a completely different picture of her. 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.920 And because there are so little records, it's really hard 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:07.400 to know what is just country community gossip that has 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:09.880 spread versus what is truth, which is part of why 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:13.120 this story is tricky to begin with. But we know 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.240 that Troutshoe had gotten this young woman away from her 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:19.800 family and had rushed this wedding. And even though Reverend 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:23.160 Little refused to perform the ceremony the next morning, Trout 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:26.240 just took Zona to another town in Greenbrier County and 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.960 they got married there. Trout and Zona were together only 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:31.920 a couple of months. It's between two and three months 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.600 before she died. In early January of eighteen ninety seven, 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:40.360 Zona became ill with something that's not totally clear. The 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:44.199 local doctor, doctor George W. Knapp, called on the Shoes 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:47.480 to check on Zona regularly and to monitor her health. 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:50.920 On January twenty second, Trout paid a visit to the 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:54.400 home of a woman known as Aunt Martha Jones. Martha 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:57.079 had a son named Anderson, who was eleven at the time, 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:00.000 and Troutshoe asked if Anderson could go to the show 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:02.280 Shoe home and take care of some chores for Zona. 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:04.880 Anderson had done this kind of work for them before, 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:07.840 and he was told that Anderson had some other errands 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:09.840 that he needed to do first, but that he would 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.760 eventually make his way there, and over the course of 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:15.720 the morning in the very early afternoon, Trout stopped at 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:19.079 the Jones home four different times to repeat that request. 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:23.560 Anderson Jones did eventually make it to Trout and Zona's home, 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:26.160 and we'll get to the particulars of what he found 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:38.680 there after we paused for a quick sponsor break. According 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:41.720 to an account given by Anderson Jones decades later, when 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.040 he was a grown man, he finally got to the 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.079 Shoe home a little after one pm, and he felt 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:49.400 that there was something off about the house as he 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:52.040 approached it, and as he got to the porch, he 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:54.800 said that he saw blood. He knocked on the door, 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.080 but he got no answer, and then he tried the door, 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:00.920 which was unlocked, and he entered the house. He followed 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:03.680 the trail of blood through the kitchen to the door 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:06.120 to the dining room, and as with the exterior door, 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.080 that dining room door was closed, and he knocked and 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:11.840 got no answer, and then he opened the door himself. 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.480 When he did this, Anderson Jones stumbled over the body 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.679 of Zona, lying face up on the floor with her 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:22.120 eyes open. He shook her and found that she was 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:25.840 cold to the touch. Immediately realized she was dead. He 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:28.640 ran from the house and yelled to his mother as 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.000 he made his way home that missus Shee was dead, 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:34.200 and then he went onto the blacksmith's shop where Trout 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.480 she worked to tell him this terrible news about his wife. 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:42.319 According to Anderson Jones, Shoe ran home and he Anderson 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:44.880 went to fetch doctor Nap, and by the time they 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:47.600 got to the Shoe home that meaning Anderson and the doctor, 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:50.600 Trout had moved his wife from the floor to the 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:52.960 bed and dressed her in a dress with a high 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:55.920 collar and a scarf and was sitting on the bed 0:10:55.960 --> 0:11:00.040 cradling her body. Trout allegedly held her head close to 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.960 his chest and wasn't willing to let go of it 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.760 even as the doctor tried to examine the body. Napp 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.360 determined that Zona had experienced heart failure and said that 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:15.600 her death was a quote everlasting faint. Zona had died 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.880 on a Friday, and on Saturday, her body was taken 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:21.640 to her mother's home, which was on a nearby mountain, 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.160 where there was a period of visitation before the burial 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:28.839 on Monday, January twenty fifth. During the visitation, Trout was 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:32.199 similarly unwilling to step away from Zona or her coffin, 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:34.840 choosing to stay seated at the head of it rather 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.160 than stand to greet visitors. And anytime there was someone there, 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.240 Trout was there at the coffin and allegedly did not 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:45.040 allow anyone to approach it. So now we need to 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:47.600 take a moment to talk about Zona's mother. Her name 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.760 was missus Mary Jane Heaster, and she was not a 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:54.920 fan of Trout. That cause of death recorded as everlasting 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:58.760 faint did not sit well with her. To Mary Heaster, 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.880 that didn't sound like a valid reason for her young, 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:06.480 previously pretty healthy daughter to have died. And beginning a 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:10.000 few days after Zona was buried, missus Heaster had what 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:14.719 is sometimes characterized as four dreams, also sometimes described as 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:18.200 some other event in which her daughter appeared to her. 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:23.920 These became very significant events. Missus Heaster describes them as 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:27.520 her daughter being real and corporeal and able to be touched, 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:30.520 and that first night, missus Heaster felt that she had 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:32.600 awakened when she heard a noise in her room, and 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:35.560 as her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, she made 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:38.280 out the shape of her daughter's Zona. But when Mary 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.200 reached out on that first night, her daughter disappeared. On 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:45.199 the second night, after Mary prayed repeatedly that she wanted 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:47.920 to see Zona again, she said that the deceased daughter 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.720 appeared to her again, and this time the apparition spoke 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:55.680 to her, wanting her mother to understand what had really happened. 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:59.280 Zona made a third appearance on the following night, and 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:01.480 then a fourth night after that, and it was during 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:05.080 that final night that Zona really told her mother all 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.440 of the details of her death. The most significant part 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:12.720 of Mary Heaster's account of Zona's dream communications with her 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:17.280 involved details of the murder, specifically how Trout had broken 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:20.880 her neck. Missus Heaster did not keep these communications from 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:24.360 Zona to herself. She told people all about it. Their 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:28.280 initial reaction to Mary telling friends and neighbors about these 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:32.240 dreams and subsequent suspicion of her son in law's involvement 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:36.840 in Zona's death was pretty polite disbelief. The general opinion 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:40.000 seemed to be that grief was leading missus Heaster to 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:42.880 come to wild conclusions and to just cling to some 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:46.679 sort of explanation for her daughter's untimely death, one that 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:49.280 would offer her a chance at some kind of retribution. 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:53.800 But Mary Heaster was adamant that her daughter was actively 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.800 communicating with her, so much that she started to convince 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.400 people that that was what was happening. A few people 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:02.560 at a time, and once Mary convinced her brother in law, 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:07.160 Johnson Heaster, things really started to change. So first the 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:09.760 pair actually went to visit Shoe. They were trying not 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:12.720 to tip their hand, but they wanted to talk about 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:15.880 what had happened when Zona died, and they came away 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.680 from that visit believing with certainty that he had killed 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:22.800 his young wife. They also spoke to Anderson Jones and 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:25.200 several other people in the community who had been at 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:29.520 the house the Dayzona's body was discovered. With Johnson's involvement 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:32.760 and not nearly that of a distraught mother who people 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:35.400 were happy to kind of write off, the Heasters were 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.240 able to move their suspicions into action. First, they met 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.480 with John A. Preston, who was the Lewisbourg prosecutor who 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:45.680 had already heard plenty of rumors going on about Zona's 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:49.600 mother trying to have Trout convicted for murder. As news 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.760 had spread, various people offered up examples of what they 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:56.000 perceived after the fact to have been strange behavior on 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.120 Trout's part, and the fact that he had been unwilling 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:02.760 to let doctor now examine Zona's head started to seem 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:06.720 less like a deeply aggrieved husband who could not bear 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:09.960 to let go of his lost beloved and maybe more 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:12.600 like somebody who was trying to cover something up. After 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:16.280 meeting with Mary and Johnson, Heaster Preston took things to 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:18.800 the next step. He went to speak with doctor Knapp, 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:21.600 and doctor Knapp admitted that he might have been wrong 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:25.160 in ruling Zona's death a heart failure. He mentioned that 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:27.840 in the moment, and not thinking with any sort of 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:31.520 suspicious thoughts, he had seen Trout as a man in shock, 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:33.720 and he didn't want to press the matter to examine 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:37.520 Zona's body more thoroughly. Preston and Napp came to the 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.480 conclusion that the only way to truly learn the facts. 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:43.720 The case was to autopsy Zona's body, and the two 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:47.080 of them gathered Anderson Jones and aunt Martha Jones and 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.240 Trout's Shoe. The next morning, they informed Shoe that they 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.840 intended to exume Zona, and then the entire party made 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.240 their way to the gravesite. Trout was insistent that they 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:01.080 would find nothing. He said that over and over throughout 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.600 the remainder of this story. When they reached the grave, 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:07.840 several men who lived nearby were ordered by the prosecutor 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.560 to assist and dig up the coffin, and once it 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:12.440 had been removed from the ground, it was taken to 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:16.720 a nearby schoolhouse for examination, and Shoe and Anderson Jones 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.480 both witnessed the autopsy. So we should have a quick 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:23.400 sidebar here about Anderson Jones, because he was eleven and 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:27.400 watching an autopsy. It also seems like he was used 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:30.680 as kind of a pawn to discover Zona's body. And 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.200 this is because of an element of racism that was here. 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:37.760 Trout Shoe was white and Anderson was black. And back 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:42.080 in twenty fourteen, the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:46.560 and Social Psychology featured a study from UCLA that stated quote. 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:49.360 Children in most societies are considered to be in a 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:52.280 distinct group with characteristics such as in a sense of 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:55.960 the need for protection. Our research found that black boys 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.520 can be seen as responsible for their actions at an 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.160 age when white boys still benefit from the assumption that 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:04.479 children are essentially innocent. That is, of course, not a 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.360 new thing, even though that research was conducted five years ago. 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:11.520 And I think it's fair to assume that Anderson was 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:14.760 probably not treated with the care and concern for his 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:17.480 well being that a white child probably would have received. 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:20.800 That is something that does not come up very often 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:23.800 when you hear about this story. People will mention that 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:27.159 the Joneses were black, but they will not really nobody 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:29.760 really addresses the fact that this child was in the 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:34.080 middle of all of this potentially very disturbing stuff. And 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:36.399 even when he talks about finding the body, which he 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:38.879 did many years later, he sort of says like, I 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:41.720 don't know how I did it. I don't know how 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:44.680 I reached down and shook her because it was clear 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:47.400 she was dead. And he doesn't really speak at length 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:51.400 about his experience with the autopsy. It's almost like he compartmentalizes. 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:54.239 Tracy and I talked about this beforehand, and it's like 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:57.560 there is that thing where like in country communities, kids 0:17:57.560 --> 0:17:59.399 that grow up in the country or in rural areas 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:02.720 around farm are often exposed to things that city kids 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:06.200 would not be, some of which might seem a little 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.639 bit gruesome. I grew up on a farm. I watched 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:13.639 animals get slaughtered. I think my Again, it's a different 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:15.679 time period, obviously, but I think my parents would not 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.320 have been cool with me seeing a human person be 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:22.639 autopsied or dissected. But it's one of those things that 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:25.919 is not discussed, as we said, but it just seems 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:28.239 like it would be remiss not to call attention to 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:31.040 that particular angle of the whole thing, at least briefly, 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:33.680 and just make it something that people think about. We'll 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:37.000 get back to what happened after Zona's body was autopsied, 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:39.320 but first we will take a breather for a little 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:50.000 sponsor break. Over the course of the next three days, 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:54.000 doctor Napp carefully examined the body and eventually found that 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:56.879 Zona's neck had been snapped, and in fact, it was 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:00.240 broken in exactly the place that Mary Heaster had described. 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:02.159 That was the place that Zona told her it had 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:05.800 been broken Trout was arrested, charged with murder, and put 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:09.399 on trial. The Pocahontas Times reported the story of the 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:13.080 exhamation and the horrific findings of the autopsy. Quote on 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:16.440 the throat were marks of fingers, indicating that she had 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:20.080 been choken. That the neck was dislocated between the first 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:24.120 and second vertebrae, the ligaments were torn and ruptured. The 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:26.879 windpipe had been crushed at a point in front of 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:30.600 the neck. Trout's defense, led by William Parks Rucker and 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:34.160 James P. D. Gardner, actually decided that in the midst 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.840 of the trial they would call Mary Heaster to the stand. 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.640 They thought it was going to help their case. Their 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:42.880 strategy was to show that she was clearly a grieving mother, 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:45.399 out of touch with reality due to the shock and 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:48.760 sorrow of losing her daughter. But she was very steadfast 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:52.159 in her testimony, and that approach failed miserably. When the 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:55.360 defense asked her, quote, I have heard that you had 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:59.399 some dream or vision which led to this post mortem examination, 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.600 replied quote, they saw enough theirselves without me telling them. 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.639 It was no dream. She came back and told me 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:09.160 that he was mad that she didn't have no meat 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:12.600 cooked for supper. But she said she had plenty, and 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:16.080 said that she had butter and apple butter apples, and 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:18.800 named over two or three kinds of jellies, pears and 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:22.240 cherries and raspberry jelly, and she says, I had plenty. 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:25.320 She says, don't you think that he was mad and 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:27.720 just took down all my nice things and packed them 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:30.200 away and just ruined them. And she told me where 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:32.919 I could look down back of Aunt Martha Jones's in 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:35.479 the meadow, in a rocky place, that I could look 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:38.399 in a cellar behind some loose plank and sea. It 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:40.720 was a square log house. It was hewed up to 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:42.960 the square, and she said for me to go look 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:45.160 right at the right hand side, at the door as 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:47.240 you go in, and at the right hand corner as 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:49.800 you go in. Well, I saw the place just exactly 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:51.720 as she told me, and I saw blood right there 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:55.159 where she told me. And she told me something about 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:58.280 that meat. Every night she came just as she did. 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:02.280 The first night, she came four times and four nights. 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:04.359 But the second night she told me that her neck 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:07.119 was squeezed off at the first joint, and it was 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.359 just as she told me. So that is a little 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.920 bit different than the version of progression that we mentioned earlier, 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:17.440 in terms of her coming the first night and disappearing 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:19.639 and then coming the second night and the fourth night 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:22.200 being the one I included both of those, and part 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:24.159 of that is something we're going to talk about at 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:26.800 the very end of the episode, about how much this 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:29.600 story has become a legend and it has shifted, and 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:33.280 even when you're looking at historians documents and accounts of 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.480 people there in the midst of it, because there's a 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:39.680 book written about forty years after all of this took place, 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:43.720 and accounts of the surviving people involved were interviewed, it's 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:46.680 just very interesting to me to hear how even though 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:50.400 missus Heaster was pretty adamant about the whole thing, throughout 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:52.760 those facts and I have to use the air quotes 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:55.400 there change a little bit in the telling, even by 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:57.560 people who were first hand witnesses to the whole thing. 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:01.080 The questioning of missus Heaster went on to ask her 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:05.080