The Greenbrier Ghost: America's Only Murder Solved by Spirit Testimony

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[SPEAKER_01]: January 1897, a young bride lies dead in a farmhouse in rural as Virginia.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her husband blames her heart.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The doctor agrees.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Case closed.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But the dead woman's mother knows better.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She kneels beside her bed every night for four weeks, praying her daughter will return

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[SPEAKER_01]: and then, the ghost appears, four nights in a row, four visitations, and a message that will change everything.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He broke my neck.

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[SPEAKER_01]: What happens next has never been repeated in American legal history.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The ghost's testimony would be heard in court.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The body would be exhumed, and a murderer would be convicted

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[SPEAKER_01]: Tonight, we descend into the green briar ghost.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Hello, friend.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to the haunted bunker, where mysteries hide.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Shane Waters and Josh's here with me and the bunker tonight.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We're traveling back to 1897 West Virginia, where a murdered bride refused to stay silent, even from beyond the grave.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The Green Breyer Ghost, a mother's prayers, a daughter's return, and justice from the other side.

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[SPEAKER_01]: All right, friend.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's time to descend.

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[SPEAKER_01]: All right, well, let's set the scene.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to be in Greenbrier County, West Virginia.

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[SPEAKER_01]: In 1890s, World Appalachian County.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Appalachian.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We're talking small farms, tight knit communities where everybody knows everybody's business.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Elva Zana Heaster.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Seriously?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, that's the name.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Elza Zana Heaster.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Elva Zana Heaster.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I would make people call me by my full name every time.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, I'm Elvis on a Easter.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I wouldn't go by elder, nothing shorter.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, people are called her Zona.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Zona.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Zona was born around 1873.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She was the daughter of Jacob and Mary Jane Easter.

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[SPEAKER_02]: How come, they get the most basic name.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I know.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Like we go name a Zona.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We're no name or Zona.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Before she ever met the man who would kill her.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Zona had a scandal in November 1895.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She gave birth to an illegitimate son in 1895.

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[SPEAKER_01]: That is scandal.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I was thinking like, got caught and shapper on in the garden.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

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[SPEAKER_02]: But oh, that is a scandal.

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[UNKNOWN]: The birth.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So, Bridgerton, yes, it is.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The birth ledger notes the father was, quote, supposed to be, George.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Bridge.

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[SPEAKER_01]: A deliberate ex appears beside Zona's name in the registry, marking the illegitimacy.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Jesus Christ, not the Reggie's name.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Damn.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The wall-rich family took the child.

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[SPEAKER_01]: In 1890's Appalachian Society, this was a serious stain on a young woman's reputation.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Zona was damaged goods, and that may have made her desperate when opportunity came along.

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[SPEAKER_01]: In October, 1896, Zona accompanied her family to the blacksmith shop at Liv Zay's Mill.

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[SPEAKER_01]: That's where she met him.

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[SPEAKER_02]: See, I think what gets me with pronunciation is even County of Green Breyer.

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[SPEAKER_02]: How are family would say would be Green Breyer?

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[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Like we were Green Breyer.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Green Breyer.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Green Breyer.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Green Breyer.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Green Breyer.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But they're so true.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to say that the time someone says, I feel like our minds say how our family would say it and we're like, have to figure out, okay, now what's the correct green brion green brion man these names.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Erin must stride bling shoe.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody called him trout.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I like that man.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And hair on this.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody called him trout.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He craves.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well trout was a charming drifter with black hair and blue eyes.

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[SPEAKER_01]: 11 to 14 years older than Zona.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like I keep calling her different names.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Zona is on her.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He's standing zone.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And he swept her off her feet.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The courtship lasted only weeks, and they married on October 20th, 1896.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't pay me.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Weeks.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Mary Jane Heaster, Zona's mother, despised trout from the moment she met him.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She sensed what she called dark secrets beneath his charming facade.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She begged her daughter not to marry him.

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[SPEAKER_02]: and really having the other options.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Zona married him anyway.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Three months later, she was dead.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Was not expecting that.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, let's talk about who trout she really was.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I want to know if he got that name because he liked fish or if he had a bad Smith.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Because the charming blacksmith was hiding a lot, born around 1861 in Mount Shalom, Virginia,

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[SPEAKER_01]: or show-on.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's S-O-L-O-N, but I think that's so long.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Show-on, show-on.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Matt, Matt, show-on.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He was born around Virginia.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Described as a big, powerful man who was full of charm.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't married him, too.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Couple weeks out by a ride.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I take back my weak things.

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[SPEAKER_02]: How tall was it?

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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and a blacksmith?

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[SPEAKER_02]: That means he got some arms, rough hands.

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[SPEAKER_01]: His first wife was Ali Esteline Cutlip, poor thing.

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[SPEAKER_01]: They married in 1885 and had a daughter.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Trap beat Ali so severely that local vigilantes dragged him from bed one winter night and threw him through the ice and the green briar river as a warning shit.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The marriage ended with Ali siding great cruelty

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[SPEAKER_02]: I kind of, I'm not, you know, especially for back then.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I'm glad that the town's people up that town did that.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know, most of the time you hear like, old people just look the other way, not my business, but I'm glad that town's like, hey, I don't know when you put an up in that shit around here.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you know, something I've heard about the cells.

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[SPEAKER_01]: They take care of their own.

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[SPEAKER_01]: If you are a white woman, a married white woman, they don't like when you get beaten.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, white lady tears.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, white lady tears.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You black, though.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They don't get that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they would look the other way.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Now between marriages, she was convicted of horse theft and served two years in the state penitentiary.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, her mama was right.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Horse theft, though, you imagine.

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[SPEAKER_02]: That's like stealing a car these days.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, I know.

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[SPEAKER_01]: After his release, he married again.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Wife number two was Lucy and Trent.

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[SPEAKER_01]: They lived together at less than eight months.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She died in February, 1995, under mysterious circumstances.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She was explanation.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She fell and hit her head on a rock.

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[SPEAKER_02]: As you get down.

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[SPEAKER_02]: We were trout fishing.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And that's how I know.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She fell over and there was a rock there and she hit her head and repeatedly.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Bow, she just like I fell into a door knob all the time.

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[SPEAKER_01]: other accounts suggest a brick fell in her head or she fell through eyes or she was poisoned.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Some historical accounts just vary on how she died.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it seems to be just listed every way someone her age could die.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, for sure.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, for sure.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Well, we know it wasn't hard to pack.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, no investigation was conducted.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So when Zona became wife number three, Trout Xu had already established a pattern, charming courtship followed by violence and suspicious death.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her mother sensed it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The neighbors didn't know, and less than three months after the wedding, the pattern repeated.

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[SPEAKER_01]: January 23rd, 1897.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's a Saturday morning.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Trout shoe asked an 11-year-old neighbor boy named Anderson Jones, everyone called him Andy, to go to the shoe house.

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[SPEAKER_01]: collect some eggs, ask Zona if she needed anything from the store, but Xu came back four more times that morning, increasingly impatient repeatedly asking if Andy had gone yet.

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[SPEAKER_01]: When Andy finally made the trip around 11 o'clock, he found Zona dead on the floor.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Andy later testified she was stretched out with her feet together, one hand on her abdomen and the other was lying next to her.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her head was turned slightly to one side and her eyes were wide open and staring.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Or the hell would a rock be in the house?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well that was wife number two.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, okay, yeah.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You're mixing up all the deaths, duh.

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[SPEAKER_02]: All the suspicious mysterious murders.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well the little kid ran home.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Dr. George W. Napp.

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[SPEAKER_01]: like a lost name in the app.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I would take every opportunity to make one.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Dr. George W. Napp was summoned, but he didn't arrive for nearly an hour.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And when he did, something was wrong.

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[SPEAKER_01]: By the time Dr. Napp arrived,

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[SPEAKER_01]: He had washed her wounds highly unusual because women traditionally prepared female bodies.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He addressed her and a high-necked dress with a stiff collar.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Any a tight, a large veil around her neck and a bow under the chin.

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[SPEAKER_02]: He was chelkinner.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, he probably had strangled her and he used that to hide up the wounds.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_01]: When Dr. Nap tried to examine the body, she went into inconsolable grief.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He was crying, clutching zone is head, and shoulders physically preventing the doctor from examining her properly.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Honey, you've been sitting there with her body for an hour, you know?

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[SPEAKER_02]: Get over it.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And up trout.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the thing is, is like I understand grief completely understand that, but clearly,

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[SPEAKER_01]: you're going to have to put that to the side at some point so that someone can do an investigation.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't think you're out of the room.

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[SPEAKER_02]: We need to do this.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like I understand you're going to have that opportunity.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We have to respect what needs to happen now for your loved one.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We need to do it to you out of the room.

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[SPEAKER_02]: That's what the view nurse for honey.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Dr. Nap noticed slight discoloration on Zona's neck and cheek, but out of deferrence to the grieving husband, he conducted only a cursory examination.

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[SPEAKER_01]: His verdict, death by everlasting faint.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Heart failure.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, such a young age.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But they called it everlasting faint.

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[SPEAKER_02]: that does sound magical like a spell.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it sounds very feminine.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I have a last thing.

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[SPEAKER_02]: She fainted and just died.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Now it's our failure of brain injuries.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So now we would call her failure.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Case closed.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well during the wake, Xu stationed himself at the head of the casket for the entire service.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He wouldn't let anyone approach closely.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He placed a pillow on one side of Zonas' head and rolled up the sheet on the other, claiming it helped her rest easier.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Multiple witness noticed something disturbing.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Zonas' head was very loose upon the neck.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, she ain't gone into regular mortars.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, she would have, however, what that is suggesting is that, yeah, that she had been strangled so bad that she had a broken neck, but nobody said anything out loud, but people were watching and remembering.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Mary Jane he start took a sheet from the coffin, when she washed it later, the water reportedly turned red.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her daughter was gone, but Mary Jane knew something the rest of the world didn't.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She knew who had killed her.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Her daughter was buried and no one was asking questions, so Mary Jane prayed.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Every night for four weeks, she prayed that her daughter would return and reveal the truth.

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[SPEAKER_01]: According to her sworn testimony, under oath and in a courtroom, those prayers were answered.

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[SPEAKER_01]: over four consecutive nights in late February 1897, the ghost of Zona Hester Shu appeared to her mother.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The first night, and just keep this in mind, this is what she said happened in a sworn testimony in court.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The first night, a bright light filled the room.

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[SPEAKER_01]: An apparition took form, chilling the air.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The ghost seemed reluctant.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Mary Jane testified that the first time she came, she seemed that she did not want to tell me as much about it as she did afterwards.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The second night, Zona told her the crucial detail, her neck was squeezed off at the first joint.

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[SPEAKER_01]: By the third and fourth nights, the ghost provided a complete account of the murder.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Zona allegedly told her mother, sworn testimony that would later be read in court.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Shu was angry that she hadn't cooked any meat for supper, zona defended herself, listing what she had available, butter, apple butter, apples, jellies, pears, cherries.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But Shu just flew into a rage.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He took down all her nice things, packed them away, and ruined them, that he grabbed her head and broke her neck.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, because she didn't have meat on the stove.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Doesn't that sound like a damn atmosphere?

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[SPEAKER_02]: After he didn't provide meat for the... That sounds like a...

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[SPEAKER_02]: It's your fault for not cooking out, not mine, for not being able to afford it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: That sounds like one of my mom's ex-husband.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We know which one.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The living one.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I almost spit out my cough because I was thinking that exact same thing.

15:15.466 --> 15:23.555
[SPEAKER_01]: Now to demonstrate what happened, the ghost turned her head completely around until it faced backwards.

15:24.696 --> 15:33.807
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary Jane testified when she went to leave me, she turned her head completely around and looked at me like she wanted me to know all about it.

15:33.827 --> 15:38.032
[SPEAKER_01]: And Mary Jane could describe details of Zona's house.

15:38.592 --> 15:43.718
[SPEAKER_01]: It's rooms, it's furniture, even a blood stain spot near a loose floorboard.

15:45.385 --> 15:50.974
[SPEAKER_01]: How she knew these things she said was simple, her daughter's ghost had shown her.

15:52.837 --> 15:58.445
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary Jane traveled to Louisburg to meet with county prosecutor John Alfred Preston.

15:59.287 --> 16:12.507
[SPEAKER_01]: He was skeptical obviously, but Mary Jane spent several hours in his office, her persistence convinced him to investigate.

16:14.123 --> 16:17.128
[SPEAKER_01]: her husband wasn't being looked at suspiciously.

16:17.789 --> 16:17.889
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

16:17.909 --> 16:21.835
[SPEAKER_01]: So what's happening is she feels like something was off.

16:22.236 --> 16:32.032
[SPEAKER_01]: Like she felt like something was off with how her daughter died, but it wasn't being investigated like that, you know, the corner rule that she had her failure.

16:32.152 --> 16:32.452
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

16:33.153 --> 16:39.203
[SPEAKER_01]: But then she said that she was being visited by her ghost and was being told how she had died.

16:39.183 --> 16:45.370
[SPEAKER_01]: And so she felt so strongly that she was being given these clues that she ended up going to this this prosecutor.

16:45.751 --> 16:47.192
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this is like the Christmas Carol.

16:47.553 --> 16:49.255
[SPEAKER_01]: That's exactly what I thought.

16:49.275 --> 16:51.898
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, except this time it's to solve a murder.

16:51.918 --> 16:55.081
[SPEAKER_01]: But you know back then, like that would be so out of the ordinary.

16:55.282 --> 16:57.484
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you know, now there's ghost shows and stuff like that.

16:57.524 --> 17:01.729
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, like, right ghosts are more commonly talked about.

17:01.749 --> 17:04.212
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe the Christmas Carol was written.

17:04.192 --> 17:06.275
[SPEAKER_02]: by then possibly, I'm not sure.

17:06.295 --> 17:06.595
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.

17:06.615 --> 17:06.715
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.

17:06.735 --> 17:14.024
[SPEAKER_01]: When it comes, but can you imagine like showing up to the prosecutors office like you're already a grieving mom, you're trying to get them to take you seriously.

17:14.044 --> 17:14.465
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

17:15.165 --> 17:20.772
[SPEAKER_01]: But also, it would be so easy for the prosecutor to just dismiss you as a grieving mother.

17:20.792 --> 17:20.932
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

17:20.952 --> 17:23.175
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you're grieving you of course.

17:23.195 --> 17:25.098
[SPEAKER_02]: All they could have put her in a. Oh, yeah.

17:25.518 --> 17:26.639
[SPEAKER_00]: You lost your mind.

17:26.659 --> 17:26.860
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

17:26.940 --> 17:27.480
[SPEAKER_00]: Block her.

17:27.541 --> 17:27.881
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.

17:28.041 --> 17:28.782
[SPEAKER_02]: So I mean, she was.

17:28.762 --> 17:32.528
[SPEAKER_02]: But she had a lot to believe her because I mean, she had everything to lose.

17:32.668 --> 17:36.314
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they put women up, locked up for nothing.

17:36.334 --> 17:38.438
[SPEAKER_01]: It was her word verse a man.

17:38.618 --> 17:38.939
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

17:39.179 --> 17:52.140
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you're saying a ghost is telling me that's damning, especially when a doctor has already ruled that it was then incredibly unliked because they're like, sure, anything to do this.

17:52.160 --> 17:53.843
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, it goes.

17:53.923 --> 17:54.364
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

17:54.344 --> 18:00.616
[SPEAKER_01]: That or he was incredibly good looking and all the men who were in power like, yeah, let's put his ass behind bars.

18:00.697 --> 18:01.498
[SPEAKER_01]: He's too party.

18:01.618 --> 18:04.464
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, my wife keeps talking about his ass looking hangings.

18:06.628 --> 18:06.869
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

18:06.889 --> 18:14.985
[SPEAKER_01]: So Mary Jane spent several hours in that prosecutor's office and eventually her persistence convinced him to do an investigation.

18:15.708 --> 18:19.574
[SPEAKER_01]: Preston dispatched deputies to re-interview witnesses.

18:20.455 --> 18:40.905
[SPEAKER_01]: He personally visited Dr. Nab, who admitted he had not made a complete examination, and Preston discovered troubling information about trout shoe, the horse theft conviction, the divorce-siding cruelty, the suspicious death of Lucy and Trit, Preston ordered the body exhumed.

18:42.083 --> 18:51.872
[SPEAKER_01]: On February 22nd, 1897, one month after Zona's death, her body was exhumed and transported to the nickel schoolhouse.

18:52.993 --> 18:55.936
[SPEAKER_01]: Three physicians conducted a three-hour examination.

18:57.017 --> 19:01.561
[SPEAKER_01]: Trout shoe vigorously complained but was required to attend.

19:03.162 --> 19:11.770
[SPEAKER_01]: During the procedure, he whittled nervously, becoming visually agitated when doctors examined

19:12.880 --> 19:13.941
[SPEAKER_01]: and that's when they found it.

19:14.963 --> 19:22.233
[SPEAKER_01]: The discovery was published in the Green Breyer independent and it said, the neck was broken and the wind pipe smashed.

19:22.433 --> 19:22.854
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus.

19:23.815 --> 19:28.081
[SPEAKER_01]: On the throat were the marks of fingers indicating that she had been choked.

19:28.742 --> 19:32.127
[SPEAKER_01]: The neck was dislocated between the first and second vertebrae.

19:32.688 --> 19:34.951
[SPEAKER_01]: The legaments were torn and ruptured.

19:35.892 --> 19:37.795
[SPEAKER_01]: The ghost had told the truth.

19:37.835 --> 19:38.736
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my God.

19:38.716 --> 19:41.341
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank God, it was February and it was, you know, cold.

19:41.361 --> 19:41.922
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, I know.

19:42.703 --> 19:45.789
[SPEAKER_01]: Zona's neck was broken at the first joint, exactly.

19:46.090 --> 19:49.075
[SPEAKER_01]: What her spirit had allegedly revealed to her mother.

19:49.095 --> 19:53.604
[SPEAKER_01]: Trout, she was arrested and charged with murder.

19:55.327 --> 20:01.939
[SPEAKER_01]: The trial began June 22nd, 1897 at the Green Breyer County Courthouse in Louisburg.

20:02.797 --> 20:05.963
[SPEAKER_01]: Judge J. M. McWarter, presided.

20:06.925 --> 20:08.989
[SPEAKER_01]: Prosecutor Preston was brilliant.

20:09.691 --> 20:16.965
[SPEAKER_01]: He made Mary Jane his star witness, but deliberately avoided mentioning the ghost during direct examination.

20:17.687 --> 20:20.212
[SPEAKER_01]: He wanted her to appear sane and reliable.

20:20.793 --> 20:24.400
[SPEAKER_01]: His questions focused entirely on physical evidence.

20:24.700 --> 20:30.466
[SPEAKER_01]: The green-brower ghost was never mentioned by the prosecution and played no part in the case against shoe.

20:31.548 --> 20:34.511
[SPEAKER_01]: So how did the ghost testimony get into the record?

20:35.973 --> 20:39.517
[SPEAKER_01]: The defense made a critical, tactical error.

20:41.779 --> 20:53.172
[SPEAKER_01]: Hoping to discredit Mary Jane, they cross-examined her extensively about the ghost visitations,

20:54.434 --> 20:56.498
[SPEAKER_01]: and it backfired, spectacularly.

20:58.060 --> 21:01.005
[SPEAKER_01]: So these are some exchanges from the trial transcript that I read to you.

21:02.027 --> 21:09.500
[SPEAKER_01]: So the defense attorney asks, I have heard that you have had some dream or vision, which led to this post-mortem examination.

21:10.101 --> 21:11.363
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary Jane replies,

21:12.845 --> 21:15.534
[SPEAKER_01]: They saw enough themselves without me telling them.

21:16.537 --> 21:23.039
[SPEAKER_01]: It was no dream she came back and told me that he was mad, that she didn't have no meat cooked for supper.

21:23.059 --> 21:25.808
[SPEAKER_01]: The attorney pushed.

21:26.142 --> 21:30.407
[SPEAKER_01]: And was this not a dream found it upon your distressed condition of mind?

21:31.409 --> 21:37.056
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary Jane says, no sir, it was no dream, for I was as wide awake as I ever was.

21:38.317 --> 21:49.711
[SPEAKER_01]: The attorney tried again, now I would like if I could to get you to say that these were four dreams and not four visions or appearances of your daughter in flesh and blood.

21:50.532 --> 21:55.238
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary Jane responds, I am not going to say that, I am not going to lie.

21:56.247 --> 22:02.318
[SPEAKER_01]: When asked if the Lord had sent the ghost, she replied, the Lord sent her to me to tell it.

22:03.220 --> 22:07.769
[SPEAKER_01]: I was the only friend that she knew she could tell, and put any confidence in.

22:07.829 --> 22:09.812
[SPEAKER_01]: I was the nearest one to her.

22:09.852 --> 22:18.188
[SPEAKER_01]: Her answers were described as measured, consistent, and unnervingly certain.

22:18.168 --> 22:20.270
[SPEAKER_01]: shoot testified in his own defense.

22:20.931 --> 22:30.882
[SPEAKER_01]: The newspaper noted he was very minute in particular and describing unimportant incidents, yet denied pretty much everything said by any other witnesses.

22:32.163 --> 22:38.610
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is always a tall tell sign that you're not telling the truth when you're like, oh yeah, I remember exactly what I did yesterday.

22:38.670 --> 22:40.232
[SPEAKER_01]: I went here here in at 245.

22:40.392 --> 22:41.012
[SPEAKER_01]: I was there.

22:41.033 --> 22:41.533
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah.

22:41.653 --> 22:43.035
[SPEAKER_01]: What did you do in the afternoon?

22:43.055 --> 22:48.040
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I mean, I think at some point in time,

22:48.020 --> 22:48.621
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

22:48.822 --> 22:49.162
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

22:49.323 --> 22:50.886
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, so I'm just kidding.

22:50.966 --> 22:52.689
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

22:52.709 --> 22:59.442
[SPEAKER_01]: While awaiting trial, he had freely discussed his life longing goal of having seven wives.

23:01.726 --> 23:02.287
[SPEAKER_01]: Disgusting.

23:03.209 --> 23:05.574
[SPEAKER_01]: Zona had only been his third.

23:06.516 --> 23:09.842
[SPEAKER_01]: He had already secured a promise of marriage from another woman.

23:10.733 --> 23:16.865
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the defense, not the prosecution, had introduced the ghost testimony, it remained in the record.

23:17.426 --> 23:20.451
[SPEAKER_01]: The judge couldn't instruct the jury to disregard it.

23:22.555 --> 23:25.321
[SPEAKER_01]: The jury deliberated for one hour in ten minutes.

23:26.723 --> 23:28.867
[SPEAKER_01]: Guilty of murder in the first degree.

23:29.429 --> 23:30.210
[SPEAKER_02]: Good.

23:30.629 --> 23:36.097
[SPEAKER_01]: The jury couldn't agree on the death penalty, so the sentence was life imprisonment.

23:37.499 --> 23:40.663
[SPEAKER_01]: She was transferred to the West Virginia State Penitentiary.

23:41.625 --> 23:47.613
[SPEAKER_01]: In Moundsville, he died there on March 13, 1900, during an epidemic.

23:48.595 --> 23:59.370
[SPEAKER_01]: He was buried in an unmarked grave, and no one attended his funeral.

24:00.042 --> 24:08.917
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, skeptics point out that the same newspaper announcing Zona's death contained another ghost story, possibly providing narrative inspiration.

24:09.999 --> 24:16.330
[SPEAKER_01]: A determined mother might have created those details from what she knew of shoes violence.

24:16.310 --> 24:21.698
[SPEAKER_01]: But Mary Jane did accurately describe a house that she never visited.

24:21.758 --> 24:29.149
[SPEAKER_01]: The ghost account matched the autopsy exactly, which they did not have CSI.

24:29.649 --> 24:29.950
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

24:30.370 --> 24:45.152
[SPEAKER_02]: And I doubt that her mom, a poor woman, would back then know like, it was on the first ligament, you know, like the anatomy of a human neck.

24:46.668 --> 24:57.968
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like most people, even if you are like a two-crime watcher, you may not even know like if you struggle someone where that might show up.

24:59.070 --> 25:02.756
[SPEAKER_01]: So for her to come up with that, highly unlikely.

25:02.777 --> 25:09.889
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and to remain calm while like especially back then, a woman to be testifying was a rare thing.

25:10.290 --> 25:10.971
[SPEAKER_02]: And the

25:10.951 --> 25:19.206
[SPEAKER_02]: first, but secondly, if she were lying, she would have had signs of, you know, nervousness or shaking so much to lose.

25:20.401 --> 25:23.525
[SPEAKER_01]: And if she was lying, good for her, right?

25:23.545 --> 25:26.650
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, so much to lose, want to justice for her daughter.

25:26.690 --> 25:30.155
[SPEAKER_02]: Even if she didn't see the ghost, mother's intuition is never wrong.

25:30.175 --> 25:30.916
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, she's new.

25:30.936 --> 25:31.917
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the thing, right?

25:31.937 --> 25:32.298
[SPEAKER_01]: Builder.

25:32.558 --> 25:43.714
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the thing, like in my mind, if the ghost wasn't real, maybe it was her mind, like drawing the conclusions, you know, like, this doesn't make sense.

25:44.175 --> 25:48.260
[SPEAKER_01]: And like, because when you dream, I don't know if you do this, like you solve problems.

25:48.280 --> 25:49.362
[SPEAKER_01]: I do it.

25:49.342 --> 25:53.129
[SPEAKER_01]: So like her mind could have done it for her, you know, and like solve the problems.

25:53.149 --> 25:57.336
[SPEAKER_01]: Now that does not explain how she miraculously would have known the layout of the house.

25:57.616 --> 25:57.877
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

25:57.937 --> 25:58.878
[SPEAKER_01]: The no meat.

25:59.179 --> 25:59.519
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

25:59.560 --> 26:04.969
[SPEAKER_02]: I wish he, you know, when he did get sentence would have been like, you know, I did because you didn't have any damn meat.

26:05.089 --> 26:09.156
[SPEAKER_01]: But you know, these people they're like, oh,

26:10.874 --> 26:17.177
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, Mary Jane as I mentioned did describe the house exactly, and she had never been there.

26:18.200 --> 26:21.171
[SPEAKER_01]: The ghost account matched the autopsy exactly.

26:22.231 --> 26:30.481
[SPEAKER_01]: In for 20 years until her death in 1916, Mary Jane told the same story, the same way, and never wavered.

26:31.722 --> 26:41.914
[SPEAKER_01]: Today, a state of West Virginia historical marker stands on Route 60, and it reads, in turd, in nearby cemetery, is Zona Heaster's shoe.

26:41.974 --> 26:51.765
[SPEAKER_01]: Her death in 1897 was presumed natural, until her spirit appeared to her mother to describe how she was killed by her husband Edward.

26:52.387 --> 26:56.494
[SPEAKER_01]: autopsy on the exhumed body verified the apparitions account.

26:57.395 --> 27:01.422
[SPEAKER_01]: Edward found guilty of murder was sentenced to the state prison.

27:02.384 --> 27:06.511
[SPEAKER_01]: Only known case in which testimony from ghost helped convict a murderer.

27:06.551 --> 27:07.753
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.

27:09.256 --> 27:13.703
[SPEAKER_01]: Now that's the official state marker and the only known case.

27:14.088 --> 27:15.229
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a really cool case.

27:15.649 --> 27:15.930
[SPEAKER_02]: I know.

27:16.090 --> 27:24.517
[SPEAKER_02]: I've heard that, you know, I've heard the name Green Breyer goes, but I just wasn't aware of a ghost helps solve her own murder.

27:24.978 --> 27:39.091
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, whether you believe Mary Jane truly received those supernatural visitations or whether it was determined mother who used the language of the supernatural to achieve that justice for her daughter, one thing cannot be disputed.

27:39.691 --> 27:44.095
[SPEAKER_01]: She refused to let her daughter die for gotten

27:44.075 --> 27:50.845
[SPEAKER_01]: Trout Shude, the man who wanted seven wives, never claimed his fourth victim.

27:51.027 --> 28:14.807
[SPEAKER_01]: and he died literally for gotten he said no one was at his funeral so I love that and I love like love that for her yes and I include that last but because it's such an important part of the story like I feel like it can be forgotten that if it wasn't for the mom putting herself out there when it's a crazy story and going to court and saying yep

28:15.277 --> 28:18.701
[SPEAKER_01]: My daughter came back to me, please don't lock me out.

28:18.761 --> 28:29.453
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I like of course, you want to get that you know that justice for her daughter But also she prevented other women from being murdered.

28:29.513 --> 28:39.023
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so I mean that's such an important piece like there were other women who survived and now there are descendants from those women who survived too

28:39.003 --> 28:40.405
[SPEAKER_01]: would not walk in this earth.

28:40.585 --> 28:40.786
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

28:40.806 --> 28:41.767
[SPEAKER_02]: It wasn't where this goes.

28:41.847 --> 28:45.133
[SPEAKER_01]: So I mean, that's such an important piece that I was wanted to bring up.

28:45.914 --> 28:51.543
[SPEAKER_02]: That's one thing I like to do is at least just visualize the strings that connect story.

28:51.563 --> 28:52.184
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.

28:52.204 --> 29:01.298
[SPEAKER_02]: Because of that ghost and that mom, you know, those four women that could have died, you know, all their ancestors like hundreds of people live today because of a ghost.

29:01.278 --> 29:11.497
[SPEAKER_02]: I've heard of ghosts having sex with people, but not saving people's lives and actually so heartwarming around this Christmas jam.

29:13.100 --> 29:19.832
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Josh, from my shitfire segment, I have a good, a good story for you.

29:19.972 --> 29:20.473
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you ready?

29:20.613 --> 29:22.577
[SPEAKER_02]: That's how that wanted to be a Christmas tree doper.

29:23.418 --> 29:31.894
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, did you see, you forget how good my eyesight is, I was in a hair like, oh, that sounds like a beautiful story.

29:32.736 --> 29:33.617
[SPEAKER_02]: Have you heard about it?

29:33.657 --> 29:35.220
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I just read the title.

29:37.164 --> 29:38.246
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm psychic.

29:39.007 --> 29:39.368
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

29:39.972 --> 29:43.235
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it goes, it came to me, I don't think he can tell me.

29:43.355 --> 29:44.856
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to be Christmas top per se.

29:45.097 --> 29:48.760
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I've used an owl as a Christmas tree topper in the past too.

29:49.100 --> 29:50.261
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I was like, oh, how cute.

29:50.281 --> 29:51.682
[SPEAKER_02]: I almost bought one this year too.

29:51.843 --> 29:52.363
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that's fine.

29:53.004 --> 29:55.406
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so my shipfire segment.

29:56.767 --> 29:59.750
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, today's story we're traveling to Arlington, Virginia.

30:00.510 --> 30:02.752
[SPEAKER_01]: It's December 2024, so last year.

30:03.253 --> 30:05.194
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just a week before Christmas and all that.

30:05.675 --> 30:07.176
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was literally like this.

30:07.396 --> 30:08.157
[SPEAKER_01]: It was, yes.

30:09.301 --> 30:11.704
[SPEAKER_01]: The Borgon family, probably.

30:12.986 --> 30:15.870
[SPEAKER_01]: We're talking about a mom, a dad, kids, dog, whole deal.

30:16.672 --> 30:21.298
[SPEAKER_01]: They've got their Christmas tree up, star on top, presents underneath.

30:22.079 --> 30:32.895
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a Wednesday evening, moms in the living room taking care of the baby, everything's quiet, everything's normal, but this particular Wednesday night was different.

30:33.483 --> 30:41.013
[SPEAKER_01]: Around seven o'clock, Savannah starts hearing something strange from the fireplace, scratching, rustling.

30:41.493 --> 30:49.123
[SPEAKER_01]: The family dog starts howling, or familiar with that, growing up with fireplace, or does it always fly down that thing?

30:50.245 --> 30:52.608
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Savannah figures is probably the wind.

30:53.148 --> 30:54.891
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe something got stuck in the chimney.

30:55.351 --> 30:57.614
[SPEAKER_01]: She walks into the kitchen to check things out.

30:58.796 --> 30:59.777
[SPEAKER_01]: And there it is.

31:00.432 --> 31:01.976
[SPEAKER_01]: Shit fire.

31:01.996 --> 31:05.665
[SPEAKER_01]: A full-sized owl.

31:05.945 --> 31:06.888
[SPEAKER_02]: I'd be so excited.

31:07.669 --> 31:10.035
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's sitting on her baby's high chair.

31:10.276 --> 31:14.526
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh no, I just- What the dog is- Just staring at her.

31:15.839 --> 31:22.308
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing came down the chimney like a feathered Santa Claus, except instead of presents, it brought chaos.

31:23.190 --> 31:24.992
[SPEAKER_01]: Savannah standing there frozen.

31:25.693 --> 31:32.143
[SPEAKER_01]: The house looking at her with his big yellow eyes, the dog losing its mind.

31:33.304 --> 31:36.589
[SPEAKER_01]: Betty why would be freaking at the F. Oh yeah, what the hell is that?

31:36.609 --> 31:38.091
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's a toy.

31:38.131 --> 31:39.673
[SPEAKER_00]: What kind of dog is that?

31:39.814 --> 31:39.974
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh God.

31:40.094 --> 31:41.055
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you replace him, mate?

31:41.997 --> 31:44.901
[SPEAKER_01]: The kids here, the commotion,

31:45.978 --> 31:48.401
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's when the owl makes its move.

31:49.041 --> 31:49.382
[SPEAKER_01]: God.

31:49.402 --> 31:52.665
[SPEAKER_01]: It takes off from the high chair swoops across the living room.

31:53.046 --> 31:55.328
[SPEAKER_01]: Silent, because owls don't make noise when they fly.

31:55.408 --> 31:55.849
[SPEAKER_01]: You shouldn't know.

31:56.529 --> 31:58.872
[SPEAKER_01]: And lands directly on top of the Christmas tree.

32:00.213 --> 32:02.416
[SPEAKER_01]: The tree already had a star on the tree.

32:02.956 --> 32:05.379
[SPEAKER_01]: By the owl didn't care, knock that star right off.

32:06.019 --> 32:09.183
[SPEAKER_01]: Settle itself down and just set there, like it belonged.

32:09.503 --> 32:15.850
[SPEAKER_01]: So... Well, shitfire and save the matches.

32:16.910 --> 32:17.432
[SPEAKER_01]: The kids?

32:18.095 --> 32:18.998
[SPEAKER_01]: Not scared at all.

32:19.641 --> 32:21.127
[SPEAKER_01]: They were giggling when they arrived.

32:21.268 --> 32:22.553
[SPEAKER_02]: Christmas magic.

32:22.573 --> 32:25.063
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they thought it was the greatest thing that ever happened.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The parents call in a more control.

32:28.975 --> 32:45.161
[SPEAKER_01]: Sergeant Spencer Murray, from the animal welfare league of Arlington gets the call, he's expecting maybe a small bird, a sparrow, maybe a pigeon, he walks in and there's a full owl perched on top of their Christmas tree, like an ornament.

32:46.102 --> 32:49.988
[SPEAKER_01]: He later said it was one of my favorite calls I've ever responded to.

32:51.149 --> 33:03.229
[SPEAKER_01]: The owl had tired itself out from all that flying around so Sergeant Murray waited for the right moment and safely captured it in a net and they released it outside and the owl flew off in the darkness.

33:04.311 --> 33:09.520
[SPEAKER_01]: The animal welfare league later sent the family an house shaped tree topper as a gift.

33:10.442 --> 33:12.465
[SPEAKER_01]: Since the real one flew away.

33:12.445 --> 33:15.391
[SPEAKER_02]: Now I'm going to go buy that one, I'm going to show it.

33:15.411 --> 33:25.553
[SPEAKER_01]: In Savannah, she told the reporters, I'm like very personally sad that there's no hard words enrollment letter that can't wait for it.

33:25.573 --> 33:27.096
[SPEAKER_03]: That would be it.

33:27.835 --> 33:33.545
[SPEAKER_01]: So somewhere in Arlington, Virginia, there's an owl who broke into a family's house through the chimney.

33:33.905 --> 33:39.294
[SPEAKER_01]: Set on a baby's high chair, knock the star off a Christmas tree to clean the spot for itself.

33:40.015 --> 33:44.022
[SPEAKER_01]: Became a viral sensation, and then just flew off into the night.

33:45.487 --> 33:46.729
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought that was such a good story.

33:46.749 --> 33:47.189
[SPEAKER_02]: It's cute.

33:47.330 --> 33:47.730
[SPEAKER_02]: I know.

33:47.770 --> 33:53.198
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the family wouldn't have been able to touch the owl to even... Oh, that's true.

33:53.639 --> 33:54.180
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you can.

33:54.200 --> 33:54.881
[SPEAKER_02]: They're probably set.

33:54.961 --> 33:55.882
[SPEAKER_02]: You can get arrested.

33:55.902 --> 33:56.403
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, my God.

33:56.423 --> 33:56.884
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that.

33:56.904 --> 33:57.825
[SPEAKER_02]: I heard him pray.

33:57.865 --> 34:00.749
[SPEAKER_02]: Owls are, it is creepy how they fly.

34:00.789 --> 34:06.498
[SPEAKER_02]: Other birds, when they fly, you'll hear their feathers rustling, especially when they land or take off.

34:06.958 --> 34:08.761
[SPEAKER_02]: But an owl's feathers make no noise.

34:09.482 --> 34:13.047
[SPEAKER_02]: So when they, like, you never heard that sound.

34:13.027 --> 34:18.535
[SPEAKER_02]: So, if you're walking in the woods, you'll hear it, land on the ground, like a little thud.

34:18.755 --> 34:21.399
[SPEAKER_02]: You'll know what's that, and you turn around, there's big gray, a hell behind you.

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[SPEAKER_02]: It's scared to put this out of you.

34:23.042 --> 34:28.229
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I also think it's funny, because if you see an owl on a tree, they have that real thick neck look.

34:28.630 --> 34:29.010
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.

34:29.150 --> 34:33.437
[SPEAKER_01]: And then it'll like turn its head, it looks like it can turn it head all the way around.

34:34.158 --> 34:35.640
[SPEAKER_02]: They're a little backwards, so funny.

34:35.680 --> 34:39.746
[SPEAKER_02]: It looks like, just a little stick, just a little thick.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Real thick.

34:40.367 --> 34:41.869
[SPEAKER_02]: Under the feathers.

34:42.997 --> 34:49.923
[SPEAKER_02]: I like when I go hiking in the winter when there's snow to look for birds of prey prints in the snow.

34:50.403 --> 35:12.362
[SPEAKER_02]: You'll see like a little small birds foot steps and then you'll see just in the snow a pattern of spread giant wings around the small birds

35:13.338 --> 35:39.261
[SPEAKER_01]: a pretty wings right all right guys we'll don't forget to catch us over on our bonus episode we'll be right there right after this and send us a postcard and if you see something out in the wild that you think that we'll like you can also send that to us just yes not something illegal well you can send us a postcard at PO box six nine zero and wall bash

35:40.321 --> 35:40.782
[SPEAKER_01]: as well.

35:41.323 --> 35:47.295
[SPEAKER_01]: You can send us any non poisonous sealed snacks and we will try them on the air just for you.

35:47.355 --> 35:47.876
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

35:48.197 --> 35:49.680
[SPEAKER_01]: We like to try new things.

35:51.183 --> 35:51.544
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

35:51.624 --> 35:54.930
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we'll see you over on unmasked right after this.

35:56.513 --> 35:56.614
[SPEAKER_01]: Bye.

35:56.674 --> 35:56.794
[SPEAKER_01]: Bye.

35:59.238 --> 36:09.918
[SPEAKER_01]: A young bride murdered over a supper argument, a mother who wouldn't accept the official story, and a ghost who returned to set the record straight.

36:09.938 --> 36:22.461
[SPEAKER_01]: 127 years later, it's written on a highway marker, official state acknowledgment that something unexplainable happened in Green Breyer County.

36:23.723 --> 36:28.367
[SPEAKER_01]: Some mysteries aren't meant to be solved, they're meant to be felt.

36:29.388 --> 36:34.913
[SPEAKER_01]: And some voices, silenced by violence, find a way to speak anyway.

36:37.455 --> 36:43.741
[SPEAKER_01]: The lights are dimming, the bunker door is closing, but the mysteries, they're just getting started.

36:44.842 --> 36:53.410
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Shane Waters, stay curious, stay skeptical, and stay a little bit scared.