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