Morbid - Nellie May Madison: California’s First Woman on Death Row

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

On the afternoon of March 25, 1934, Belle Bradley found one of her tenants, forty-five-year-old Eric Madison, dead on the floor of the apartment he rented with his wife, Nellie. Madison had been shot in the back four times with a .32 caliber revolver and there was no sign of Nellie Madison, nor was there any evidence of a break-in or a robbery. In the days that followed, investigators quickly determined that Nellie had shot her husband and they tracked her to a remote cabin in northern California, where she was arrested and taken back to Los Angeles and charged with the murder.To the Los Angeles police and press, Nellie Madison was suspicious from the very start; not for any obvious reason or evidence against her, but because she openly defied the categories and characteristics used to define a wife and woman at the time. Although she was only thirty-three years old, she had been married five times and yet had no children. She also had a strong skillset from having worked many jobs, and having been raised on a farm in Montana, she was a skilled survivalist who had never needed the help of a man. Going into the murder trial, it was these facts, more than any physical evidence or witness testimony, that would count against her.After a two-week trial, Nellie Madison was found guilty for the murder of her husband and sentenced to death, making her the first woman to ever sit on death row in the state’s history. However, Nellie’s death sentence was hardly the end of her case; in fact, it was the turning point in the story that would finally bring the truth about Eric’s death into the light.Thank you to the incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research!ReferencesCairns, Kathleen. 2005. "Saved From the Gallows." California Supreme Court Historical Society 5-14.—. 2007. The Enigma Woman: The Death Sentence of Nellie May Madison. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.2015. A Crime to Remember. Television. Directed by Christine Connor. Accessed July 23, 2024.Los Angeles Evening Post-Record. 1934. "Calls woman Lady Macbeth." Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, June 20: 1.—. 1934. "Hint Madison is still alive." Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, June 13: 1.—. 1934. "Mrs. Madison facinc noose; plans appeal." Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, June 23: 1.—. 1934. "Self defense may be argued." Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, June 6: 1.—. 1934. "Widow unmoved by death story." Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, April 12: 7.Los Angeles Times. 1934. "Auditor found slain; wife hunted in inquiry." Los Angeles Times, March 26: 15.—. 1934. "Death clew hunt pushed." Los Angeles Times, April 1: 17.—. 1934. "Death plea hits widow." Los Angeles Times, June 20: 17.—. 1934. "Deatn case widow mum." Los Angeles Times, Marchh 27: 19.—. 1934. "Doubt cast on identity." Los Angeles Times, June 14: 17.—. 1934. "Madison may be exhumed." Los Angeles Times, June 16: 13.—. 1934. "Second pistol bought by Mrs. Madison hunted in mysrtery murder case." Los Angeles Times, March 28: 5.—. 1934. "Slaying of mate denied." Los Angeles Times, June 15: 36.—. 1934. "Widow veils death tale." Los Angeles Times, March 28: 17.Rasmussen, Cecilia. 2007. "Unwitting pioneer of the battered-woman defense." Los Angeles Times, February 4.The People of California v. Nellie May Madison. 1935. 3826 (Supreme Court of the State of California, May 27).Underwood, Agness. 1934. "Widow weeps when held in murder quiz." Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, March 29: 1. Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, weirdos, I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is morbid. You're morbid. It's New Year. That's it. New Year, same us. That's it. Nothing else.

We're not claiming anything. We're not doing anything. Ash is going to moisturize. We're going to organize and that's about it. Moistrize and organized, baby. Not promising anything else. No, just promising. No one's claiming this year.

No one's doing anything like that. We're just going to live it. We're just fiving, okay? We're just taking it day by day, everybody, okay? It's all we can do. That's all we're going to do. Hopefully you're living a better New Year's than the woman who we encountered the other day. Oh, God.

For real. If you follow, this is the best. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that we were out the other day grabbing coffee. When we were in this, like, parking lot drive-thru area. This woman basically just started backing her fucking car into mine. When I say to you that, like, I was looking out the window as Ash was driving. I was like, I'm going to get crushed. She was, I mean, if she had opened her window, she could have tapped on the back of her car easily.

I should have, actually. And she just kept backing up and wasn't stopping. Yeah. And let me preface this by saying, and I'm still not, I have never been in the business of trusting a complete stranger to not hit my car. I have never been in that business. I don't plan to open that business now, especially after what happened now. No, I've never subscribed to that business. So I did a nice little honk of, hey, please don't hit my car.

Thank you. We all know that warning honk. We know the asshole honk and we know the warning honk. The warning honk is a quick little eat. And that's all I did. The asshole honk is we know that. Yeah. So we did a friendly little honk like, hey, please don't hit me, ma'am.

And then I rolled down my window. And after this woman literally tried to hit my car, I gave her the benefit of the doubt. And I yelled out my window, hey, are you trying to get out like I can back up? She did not want to hear that. she started screaming at me, you're in a fucking parking lot. Pay attention. And I was like, I am the one paying attention to you almost backing into my car. It's evidently you that's not paying attention to where I am.

My favorite part of this was she said, I have a backup camera. I wasn't going to hit you. Okay. How do I know that? I don't trust people. I don't know to not hit my car. One. Two, we have heated seats in our car.

What else do you have? Kalino was like, we should have just been like, yeah, well, I have heated seats. And then she could have been like, well, I have four-wheel drives. I got new windshield wipers. Like, are we just doing a tit for tat? What amenities we have in our cars? I don't give a shit that you have a backup camera. What?

So she is literally screaming at me. And I am just looking at this woman befuddled. Like, I don't, I'm not the kind of person who in situations like this just like screams back because I just, my body shuts down. I don't know what to do. I'm like, why are you like this? I don't understand. And also, Ash was very non-conferenceanty.

She literally leaned out her window and said, hey, are you trying to leave? Like, are you just trying to move your car? Like, I can back up. Yeah, like, I was trying to rectify the situation. Very nice. Happy New Year lady. This woman came out guns blazing.

Screaming. In her athleisure outfit. And, yeah, you know, she was not nice. The vibes were not immaculate. I was sitting next to Ash, and I was just watching this whole thing. thing and I was like, feel the heat radiating. And I could just feel my blood pressure. And also like with the end of the year that we had, I was like, don't fuck with me.

Honey, you think you can scare me? Yeah. You think we had COVID. My whole house had Corona. We had COVID. We had a dog who we had for 12 years and was our first baby die. My mom like, you know, almost like broke her whole face open falling. And it's like, you think you can scare me?

Like we've been through this. And you're just not going to yell at Ash. You're just not going to. You are not. If I'm around, you're not going to. Elena yells at this woman. Calm the fuck down. Don't you fucking yell at her?

Like screaming. The lady's yelling back and the lady's going, no, no. So I just rolled up my window, waved at the woman nicely, and just continued upon my day. And my heart was pounding so hard because I was like. She was so red. I was like, I can't. I can't. And then I was like, I was like, no, you're not going to yell at you. Like, it's just not going to have it. You didn't deserve that. No, I didn't. You were being very nice. I was. She almost hit your car.

Yeah. I am not going to trust strangers to not hit my car and I don't know why you think I care that you have a fucking backup camera. And who are you yelling at me from your minivan in the middle of a parking lot? Like, what is wrong with you? And I was so confused because she had just pulled into the spot. So I was like, oh, maybe she's trying to straighten out at first. And because she had backed up twice, actually, in almost her. So I was like, do you need me to move so you can straighten out? Like, I thought that's what it was. But then as she's yelling at me, she points to the car next her and she's like, he's trying to move. And I was like, he should do that then because he has room. And he never moved. And I don't even think they knew each other. No, they definitely did it.

So he's trying to move. How does that okay you backing into my, I don't see the correlation, ma'am? So I was like, you know what? I don't think anybody's going to win here. I think you should have gotten an extra coffee today, ma'am. because I don't know who pissed in your fucking weedies, but it wasn't me. Happy New Year to that, you know, that Becky out there. Yeah. But in what's even crazy, because this is like a weird parking lot. So there's like, and it was busy. Yeah.

So this other guy tried to get out of line. And he came next to us, rolled down his window and we rolled down ours. And he was like, hey, do you mind if when that car in front of he moves, if I just scoot around and out of here? And we said, of course not. Have a great day. Go ahead. Happy New Year. That's how you talk to people.

Yeah. Like if you're trying to move, just be like, hey, I'm. trying to move. All she had to do was lean out her window and like make the motion. Like, can you roll down your way? And we would have. And if she was like, do you mind if I just try to scoot out here? I'd be like absolutely. But no, no. So there's that. There's that. I have a backup camera. I have a backup camera. That's my face. I want like a shirt that says, I have a backup camera. I think every car since like 2010 has had one. So congrats lady. And I just, I literally don't care. I don't. And the way you're acting now, I was supposed to trust that you're a rational person who isn't

wasn't going to hit me. And also, we were getting coffee. She never went in to get coffee. She never got out of her car. And then she just left. I was like, why were you even here? No, she woke up and she chose an electric blue, a flea shirt and violence. Yeah, she did. That's what she chose. Yeah. So I hope she, you know what? I hope you're having a great fucking new year. I hope you're listening to this. But long story shirt, we all need an Elena. And you know what? She loves me, guys. You know what? I do. I love you. Okay. Like, no one's going to yell at you. No, I don't like people. And you know what we also need?

We need a 1930s Arkansas murder case. I'm always saying that. We need to talk about the river people of the White River in Arkansas in 1930s is what we need to do. I woke up this morning and I actually said to myself, you know, today on Morbid, I really need an Arkansas River case. Yeah, I think everybody did. So here I am. I'm here to deliver it for you. I give the people what they ask for it.

And this is the case of the swamp angel. The swamp angel. The swamp angel. Can I identify as a swamp angel from this day forward? I mean, you got to do a lot. And I don't know if after all this, you're still going to want to identify as a swamp angel. Let's find out. They called, this is about Helen Spence, who they called the Swamp Angel.

This gives me already, was it Aunt Julia? On Julia. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It does. You're right. The cabin on the water. You're right.

Now, this takes place in the area of the lower white river in Arkansas. Now, let me give you a brief history on this area because this story not only concerns the area, but it concerns a community of people in that area. All right. And these people are referred to as the river people. And we're going to get into that in a moment. All right. So the White River is over 700 miles long, which is crazy.

That is. It begins in Arkansas and the Boston Mountains, which I was like, Boston Mountains, Ked. But no. But the Boston Mountains kid. And then snakes into Missouri a little bit. and then bends back into Arkansas. So it's like, there's a little like spit of it in Missouri, but then it's basically in Arkansas. Okay.

Now the Osage people, which remember when I did, I believe it was the bloody benders, where I called it Osage. And everybody was like, you made it sound so fancy and I loved it. But it's Osage, I learned. All right. The Osage people and Cherokee and Kwaupah tribes made the banks of this river their homes for a long time and up to like the 17th. hundreds. Then settlers came through and were like, mine, you know how that goes. You know how that goes. So the

lower right river is where the white river proper kind of begins to empty into the Mississippi River. And this is where our story takes place, the lower white river. Okay. So in the 1920s and the 1930s, which is where this whole story is going to happen, you know, before that, after that, even now a little bit, there is a community of people called the river people. Of course, people behind their backs would call them river rats, which is not something you should ever call them. That's like a nasty term for them. It's very rude. And that's basically like you want to start a fight. You call a river person a river rat. Yeah, don't be doing that. Yeah, so don't do that. But they were proud, they were hardworking, and they were a vital part of the culture and the

lives of the so-called drylanders, which were obviously people who lived in the cities and on dry land. All right. They lived on houseboats and they fur trapped. They caught their own food. They dove for fish and muscles in particular in that river. They actually were big button makers and they would make them out of the muscle shells. Oh, cool. Yeah.

And according to the Arkansas Times, over 90% of buttons in U.S. Army uniforms were made from these muscles. That is really cool. Isn't that crazy? I love muscles. Right? And I think they're pretty. You said right? And I was like, you love muscles.

do do, but I love the look. They're like that pretty, like iridescent shell. Yeah, yeah. They made their own diving equipment too. Whoa. Yeah. Like they made diving helmets and shit from car parts and other like refurbished, recycled junk, basically. Fucking crafty guy. Yeah, they would collect muscles on the bottom of the rivers. And this is directly from a book I read about this case, which I highly recommend. Highly. I will obviously post it in the show notes. It's called Daughter of the White River by Denise White Parkes. Amazing book. I like that title, Daughter of the White River. It's amazing. I really want everybody to read it because Denise really goes into like so much detail about the time frame, the area, the river people themselves, the people, characters in this story. She actually spent a ton of time interviewing like a character in this story. I say a character because this really does feel like a movie, but it's real. But I'll tell you who when it comes up to it. But she took a lot of time really talking to people. that were fully involved in this. I love that.

She's like a descendant from like her ancestors were like river people. She was born and raised in Arkansas. Like she's very much a part of this whole thing. Wow. So from that book about the diving helmets that they did, this is a direct quote. It says using a diving helmet crafted from the barrel shaped gas tank of a Model T. The diver set the metal cylinder on his shoulders and commenced to wade in. weighed down by the helmet and some rocks the diver made his descent dumping rocks as needed to surface again

some helmets had a window of glass sometimes the men just moved along blind in the river muck isn't that wild i can't imagine just like diving and just into just blackness it is fascinating like they were just like discarding rocks to float back up they were insanely skilled insanely I mean, the ingenuity and the innovation they had was like out of this world. And like beyond their time. Yeah. And so like, excuse me, ahead of their time. Way beyond their time.

It's true, though. But the person that the author of that book talked to to really get a feel for all this was a guy named Elsie Brown. He was the son of the town sheriff who was Lemuel Cressy Brown Sr. All right. And Elsie was actually Lem Jr. And Helen Spence is the Swamp Angel who we're going to talk about was very good friends with Elsie Brown, like best friends growing up. She actually gave him the nickname Elsie.

She was like, you're not like a Lem Jr. You don't look like a junior to me. Like, can I call you Elsie? I like. And he was like, I love it. So he went by that. He plays a huge role in this because they grew up together. They were like best friends.

He knew this swamp angel from. you know, from the jump, basically. And he told her story and made sure her story got told the right way. So he's very important. Now, these river people used every bit of everything they caught or hunted. They never hunted or killed animals for sport, and they shared what they had and what they caught with each other. If someone got a big fish bouncy, they all enjoyed that big fish bounty.

It's a community. Yeah, like they would enjoy the fruits of each other. labors, basically. It was a very tight-knit community. They also had their own set of rules and laws. They referred to this as river justice, and it was often carried out by their own discretion. Now, that's starting to sound scary. It gets a little scary. I don't want to be served river justice. You do not. It doesn't sound like it already. No, settlements of river people would also look out for each other. They created alarm systems that they all knew how to sound and would take turns looking out at night at vulnerable times.

They were always willing and ready to jump in and help each other if needed. In Arkansas, and possibly elsewhere, but I only researched the river people in this particular river in Arkansas. I'm sure there's different rules for all of them. They would whittle their own alarm whistles and would use them to call out in the middle of the night if someone invaded or there was any cause for concern or harm. That's cool. And there was like a certain, like a certain whistle sound that they would make that you knew was the like the alarm sound basically.

Cool. Almost like a tornado siren. Yeah, yeah. You know. So now we know what the river people are, how they work. Let's talk about Helen Spence or Swamp Angel. Now her birth date is not completely known. Okay.

We do know around this time that this began, she was, you know, that the story really gets going is when she was around 17 years old. But even to this day, we. have no idea what her birthday was. Okay. Her parents were Cicero Spence and Ellen Woods. She had one older sister named Edna, who she referred to as Edie. They were very close. At some point unknown, Ellen, the mother passed away. It was when she was very young, like months old, I think, when Helen was. And Cicero eventually remarried a woman named Ada. And everyone got along. It seemed like it was a very good, solid family who was respected by everybody else, very well. liked. Everything was great. Cool. And they're river people. They're river people. Yeah. Now, Cicero had made their

houseboat himself, like from scratch. Completely from scratch. I want to live on a houseboat for like a period of time. I do not. But I think this seems lovely for anybody who likes the water. I think it'd be so cool. It seems like a pretty rad place. Just for a little bit. Yeah, just for a little bit. A little bit. So he made their houseboat. It was pretty rad all considering this houseboat. It had a tin roof, was over 30 feet long, had a nice patio, a kind of walkway he built around the boat, where they could like hang out on chairs, just hang out there. They had several rooms. There was three bedrooms, one for everybody aboard. There was electricity, running water, everything you needed on this houseboat. Cool. Now, Cicero was super smart, really skilled. He was a master trapper and fisherman. He was a great

hunter. He was able to provide, and he taught his neighbors and friends and his daughters, these skills. And according to Daughter of the White River, people in the river community would also come to him for help with like mediation of fights. Okay. So whenever there was an issue among families or friends on the river, Cicero would always be the one to help talk it out with them and come to an understanding. He was like the river people's therapist. He really was. He would like help them chill out. Cool. And help them like walk away from it without anything happening. Nice. I feel like every community needs thought. Right. I feel like everybody needs a Cicero. Yeah. I don't know. But Helen adored her father. And they spent a ton of time together. After her chores or whatever she needed to get done, she would just hang out with him, learning everything she could learn from him. She just admired him. She would follow him to all his little things that he would do and he would happily take her.

I love that. Like seemed like they had this like crazy bond. Yeah. And he really like, and everything I read about it was like he, And it was definitely a product of the time. He treated her like they would normally treat a son. Sure. Because like father's son. Yeah, yeah. But he really, he taught her everything. He would have taught a son.

So he respected her. And she had a ton of friends. They were like very close friends on the river too, like because they were together all the time. Oh, yeah. The most mentioned ones I heard about in every article or every book I read was a guy named John Black, who she grew up with. then he becomes very important. And the sheriff's son, Elsie Brown, who continually tells her story now.

They were huge fixtures in her life. They spent countless days with her and the other kids from the riverboats. They were fished together, hunted together. They played together. They took trips by boat at night to go watch the stars on a boat. Beautiful. Very wholesome, very sweet friendships. Hell yeah.

And they would literally like, and it was funny because I read a bunch of things that, like, Cicero was very protective of his daughters, too. And this was around the time of the Great Depression. Things were really shitty. The river people really kind of like thrived because they fished and hunted and stuff. So like they were kind of taken care of. But farmers were having terrible times. Everybody else on dry land was like it was a depression.

Yeah. And there was also a very hot summer during all of this in Arkansas. So I guess the heat was making people kind of crazy along with everything that was going on. And there was a lot of times where Cicero. would kind of like pull his daughters close and be like you need to watch out for strangers around here because people are like starting to go crazy with the heat and like with what's going on. I feel like people that's like now like people are going crazy with the pandemic. It's true. So it's like you need to be careful because people are out of their minds.

Yeah. And so like even when John Black would come to be like let's go take a riverboat ride and like watch the stars. He was like, mm-hmm. I hope that's all you're doing. You better keep an eye on those stars. Literally he was like yeah, you look at the stars. He's like what constellations. It seems like a very like, it's just like a. It's just like a. a wholesome friendship thing. Yeah, yeah. Now, she was briefly married to a boy named Buster Eaton. Buster.

Was, and I feel like with a name Buster Eaton, you can kind of guess that he was a moonshiner. I don't know, it just makes sense. Yeah. Like, I feel like he would have either been like, you know, like a speakeasy owner or like, he just makes sense that he was like a moonshiner, you know, what's it called when they were like against prohibition. Yeah. Oh.

Like a bootlegger? Bootlegger. Yeah, that's what it is. I was like, I'm going to look it up because it's going to bother me. A bootlegger, a boon shiner. I just, like, closed my eyes really hard. Like, you did. That was good.

I was like, come to me. It came. A bootlegger, a moonshiner, a speakeasy owner. Like, he just Buster Eaton seems like he's like just up to no good. Yeah, no. His name's Buster. You can't be like, come on, Buster. But they were married briefly.

Not a ton is known about it. I couldn't find a lot about it at all. Yeah. Very brief. She returned to live with her family on the river. quickly. Buster wasn't for me. No, not for her. But they kept using her former married name of Eaton and newspaper articles about her and that annoyed me a lot. Yeah, that is annoying. Because like she didn't have that name anymore. I hate when they'll do that in cases too where like the woman was murdered

by her husband and they continue to like use the married name. Yeah, I'm like, can you not? Probably not now. If any time is the time to use her maiden name, like use that. Right now. Yeah. So that's basically like what life on the river was, a very, very brief overview. I urge you to read that. But to get a very rich and very like full view of this. It sounds like a good read. Some good stories from Elsie are in there, like, firsthand accounts and like conversations. Really good.

I can like picture it. But I wanted to give you a quick brief overview of that because then one morning in December in 1932, I believe it was, when Helen was about 17 years old, she recalled she heard her father speaking to a man. He referred to as Jack when she woke up early that morning. She could hear him outside. He and Jack discussed a. fishing trip and then they left together on a little motorboat. So Helen's stepmother Ada woke her up

and was like, oh, Cicero, I made him some lunch, but he forgot it. So she said, why don't you and I go take a small like little paddle boat and row it out to him? Okay. Because he's probably not that far. Yeah. So she was like, sure thing, girl. I love how cute that is. Like he forgot his lunch. Let's go paddleboard it to him. Let's just go paddle boat that out there too. Right. So as they come up, they start seeing the boat and they see that they're standing up in the boat and they're arguing. Oh, no. And they're like in each other's faces a little bit.

Uh-oh. And then, out of nowhere, Helen said she just heard a shot sound and Cicero fell. No. Jack saw Ada and Helen coming, like looked over and saw them, immediately pushed Cicero right into the water. What? And then pointed the gun at them and said, I was, he was looking for Cicero's money that he knew he had buried and he said he refused to show me where it was.

So then he's holding a gun at them the whole time. I'm an Ada, the stepmother, saved Helen by telling Jack, I know where it is. I'll show you. And she said, she doesn't know anything. She was like, I think she referred to her as like simple-minded. And she said she won't be able to tell you anything. Just leave her alone. Okay.

But I'll tell you. Okay. Wow. What a great stepmother. Apparently they were like very, very close to like she. Well, yeah. I'm sure she was like part of her life for a long time. I think she became her stepmother when she was like one years old or something like.

Cicero. Yeah. So Cicero. It was really sad. To watch your father get shot. Yeah. And Jack grabbed Ada, forced her onto his motorboat, and then stole the oars from Helen and just pushed her downstream without oars.

What the fuck? Like what is even the purpose of that? Just to be an asshole. Put a dick. And he's not a river person. No. He's an outsider. And she just sat in the boat aimlessly floating in absolute shock and terror.

Oh my God. And eventually some nice people found her and saved her. How traumatic. Now, there was no hidden money. There was no buried money. Ada knew there was no buried money. Ada did it purely to save Helen. She knew there was nothing to show Jack, but she was like, I just need to get him away from her. Oh my God. What an amazing human. Yeah. When Jack discovered this, he beat Ada to within an inch of her life and raped her.

Oh, God. She survived initially. And the guy, his name was Jack Wurles, was caught when word spread of what had happened. Now, normally the river people would have dealt out some river justice. Hell yeah. But he was caught by the law and would stand trial for the murder of Cicero Spence. Okay. Now, family from a neighboring city took Helen's sister, Edy, because Edie actually was born with paralysis. Okay. So she was like, she couldn't walk.

She needed help. She needed a lot of help. And care. Without parents on the river, she was not going to do well. So neighboring family took her in in the city. Now, Helen stayed and spent all her time in the hospital in Memphis taking care of Veda. Oh. And just being there in case she woke up and being there to like try to nurse her back to health.

Because was she in a coma? She was in and out of a coma. She was in horrible shape. Wow. Now, January 7th, 1931. So sorry, I said this happened in 1932. It was 1931. That's great.

January 7th, 1931, she died as a result. of her brutal. Oh, I knew you were going to say that, too. Yeah. So on the day of Jack's trial at the DeWitt Courthouse, Helen was seated in the front row. And Helen is all alone now. She's an orphan now. My God.

And how old was she? She was 17. Oh, my God. Yeah. And they described what she was wearing. And there's a ton of, like, old newspaper accounts of this. They described what she was wearing as a red velvet suit and a white fur trimmed, like rabbit fur trimmed muff on her hands.

Yeah. Yes, bitch. You better work. And she sat quietly for hours in that front row just watching this. And it seemed as though this case could honestly go either way, weirdly, because he was claiming it was self-defense. She was 17, so she wasn't able to testify because they wouldn't take her as credible evidence. And now Ada, the only witness was dead.

It's like, hi, I witnessed the whole entire thing. But she's not allowed to even say it. That's so fucked. And they basically, you know, it was wondered whether. this was really being properly tried as well because the victim was a river person. I was going to say where they probably were taking a class thing I think was playing into this and it plays into a lot of this. I was going to ask you that. So there was a real possibility that Jack was going to be acquitted at the end of this. And as Jack stood while the jury,

so Jack stood up, the jury stood up, the jury was about to file out of the room to go deliberate. Helen also stood. And from inside her hand muff, she drew a pearl handled pistol. Bitch, yes, she did. And without hesitation, she shot Jack in the chest four times in the middle of the courthouse. A motherfucking icon. After pulling it out of a rabbit fur trimmed muff. While wearing a fucking red velvet suit we said. Hell yeah.

Be itch. Yeah. I am living. Then she just stood there in the courtroom as it descended into chaos. I was like, what the fuck is that? In the local sheriff. County Sheriff, Lemuel Cressie Brown Sr. Her best friend.

father, who was close to the Spence family, and like we said, whose son was like best friends with Helen, was the first to come up to her. I believe it was a moment of insanity, sorry. And I believe he's described as still smoking a pipe, and he was just walking up to her, like, holding the pipe. Excuse me, girlfriend. Oh, no. She just turned around and was like, oh, hey, what's up?

And, like, had her hands down. Like, after she shot him, she just put her hands down. Yeah. That's what I wanted to do. Vengeance is hers. She went with the sheriff without incident into a whole. holding room and he took the gun from her and she gave it to him a pearl handle and he tried to empty the bullets out that remained in the gun and it was like stuck and he was like very stressed out and was like

shaking I guess according to the book he was like shaking and breaking out and she basically was like let me do it it sticks sometimes and just pulled it back wow and she did it for him and then gave the gun back to him amazing and according to the book uh daughter of the white river every man in the room literally dove for cover thinking she was going to just go ham and shoot everybody she's No, guys, I don't care about you. But she just calmly empty the bullets. She's like, this motherfucker murdered my dad in front of me. Her only response to what the hell she was thinking was, he killed my daddy.

Hell yeah. He did. She said he killed my daddy. I killed him. Now, newspaper and media. She said, that's River Justice. Yeah, she said fuck around and find out. He found out.

She said fuck around and find out. And what's crazy is newspaper and media obviously went nuts about this. Oh, yeah. And of course, there was like sensationalism. Like they said that she had to be tackled and she threw the gun. But the sheriff confirmed she had just chilled there. Yeah. And that she had gone with him easily and calmly handed the gun, no incident.

The Arkansas Gazette reported, quote, she laughed telling of the flight of judge, jurors, lawyers, and spectators from the courtroom where she opened fire. She hopes to obtain her freedom as she does not believe she committed a crime. When the electric chair was mentioned, she laughed again. Amazing. Now, she was dubbed the Swamp Angel. Yeah, she was. A great band name I call it.

Honestly. And she was also quoted as saying, Down where I was raised in the White River bottoms, where we rarely saw the quote-unquote law, we took care of such matters ourselves. No one ever killed anyone unless there was great reason for it. I was born to that kind of law, and it seemed all right to me.

Anyhow, none of the my people or the folks I grew up with trusted officers or the courts. Yeah, clearly that's. why. And it looked like he was about to get acquitted. Right. And he had brutally assaulted and murdered her stepmother as well. Yeah. And raped her. No. She was definitely a hero to a lot of people and a lot of people sympathized with her. I do. And they sympathized with this act of vengeance. A lot of people came out and supported her. That motherfucker murdered her daddy. Obviously there were people who came out and, you know, where like vigilante justice can't be a thing because laws and shit, which like I know that it's a very slippery slope when you allow people to shoot people in the middle of courtroom.

Be very chaotic if we continue to do so. We can look back on this and be like, whoa, that was crazy. But like, it can't happen. No, no. Now, but the support was pretty overwhelming. But, you know, how that goes. So now she was just, so now she's tried on the crime of first degree murder because she did bring that gun into the courthouse.

With a clear plan in mind. She was facing five years in prison if convicted, and technically they had passed that judgment down pretty quickly. Like she was going to go to prison. But there was some technicality which allowed her to appeal this immediately. Now, she was not held in jail or anything for this time. She was released into the custody of another sheriff who offered to have her live in his house. Wow. Sheriff McAllister and his wife. And during that time that she waited her trial, they were trying to, you know, they were going to try to appeal. And there was the possibility that she might even get a pardon from the governor.

Wow. But while she was doing this, she was kind of out on like a promise to appear kind of thing. She had a curfew. She couldn't be out after sundown. And she got a job. She had to get a job. And she got one at the Rothenhofer Cafe and DeWitt. Now, its owner was a man who everyone in town knew to be pretty horrific with women,

especially those he had working for him. No. He assaulted and groped them with reckless abandon. Gross. His name was Jim Bowhots. Fuck him. We'll get back to him. But Helen was doing well there and actually had, you know, her reputation was actually

bringing people in from everywhere because they wanted to be served by the swamp angel. Sure. Which like same. Like you're welcome, Jim? Yeah. So a judge granted her permission to move from the sheriff's home eventually into an apartment above the cafe where she worked. Okay.

And she was moving in with another waitress at the cafe whose name was Ina Mayberry. Oh, I love the name Ina. It's just like pretty. Yeah, it is. Ina. I like I names. Right? It's just Ina.

I don't know. It's flowy. Anybody named Ina? You just feel like it's just like, woo. Yeah, like Ina Garden. So I feel like I know was probably great. For months, it was kind of the same, nothing moving forward with her case, but she gets kind of worked and worked and worked.

Jim Bowhots got more and more belligerent and would go into drunken rages and try to assault the girls that worked for him. Great. He was also getting very angry whenever reporters would show up at the cast. Why? It's like you're getting a lot of press here. Yeah. And when men would try to talk to Helen. So he was getting, yeah. Now, he kept asking her out and trying to get her to go places with him and she, and would not accept no for an answer. Gross. So in February, finally he came up to Helen and he was like, listen, will you take a drive with me? No. I feel bad about how I've been acting. I just want to

show you that I'm not a predator. So she was like, fine. This is giving me Chris and the craft vibes. Yes. And so she's like fine. I like, I'm just sick of this. Yeah. Like, she's probably just like, I got to have. And part of her whole thing is she has to have employment. She's like, I don't want to get fired. She's like, I'm doing well here. Yeah. I'm like, I'm trying to get this part and like just let's just do this. Now they went. Don't know what happened. But the following day, news broke that Jim Bohatz was found murdered at a popular place for couples to hang out and bang out. I don't know. I made that up. Did you just say hang out in? bang out.

I did it rhyme. And you just did it so casually. You just said they hanged out and banged out. Wow. No, just couples did. Just couples hang out and bang out. That's just a place where they go, it rhymed. I felt like I had to say.

That's hilarious. That was like bumping and uglies but better. Thank you. Do you want to go hang out, bang out? Hang out and bang out at this cool like Arkansas overlooked place. Cute. So Jim had been shot by the gun he actually owned and he was found in his car with it parked in a space there.

Well, you don't. They immediately went. and brought in Helen for questioning that morning because she is a known murderer who worked for him and he was a predatory mess around her and everyone do it. So she denied everything. There was no evidence to say that she was lying. So the case just kind of went cold. All right.

And everyone basically said there were so many people who hated this guy. It could have been anybody. That it would kind of be hard to nail it down to one person who did it, which is like way harsh tie. But like I think it's, I watched Clueless last night. Get it. I did. Look at that. We're on the same wavelength.

But I think it's like they knew Helen went out with him or someone said they did, but they were like, there's no evidence that she did it. And he's gross to a lot of people and a lot of people could have done this. So we can't just say it's her. Now, not long after that, the five-year sentence that they originally gave her was overturned. Yes. And her conviction was downgraded to manslaughter. She didn't get the pardon, but it was downgraded. So she was now sentenced to two years in prison to be served.

starting October 11th, 1932. She was going to serve it out at a women's facility in Jacksonville. And this place was called the P-Farm. The P-Farm. A real share wife. By all accounts, her stay in that prison was completely fine. She had really no complaints, was not really forced, or she wasn't at all forced into hard labor because her name recognition at the time, they didn't want, like, fights breaking out or anything.

So she was kept inside, which she was fine with. everyone according to Helen was nice the inmates took care of each other cool weird but okay she was actually paroled early because of an appeal for parole by the arkansas prosecution attorney george i think it's like heart heart hay i believe it's how you say it okay we'll just say George so she was released early like pretty early in june 1933 wow but the only thing was she got that you know she got that appeal for parole she got a out early, but she couldn't return to DeWitt or the White River and had to stay away from any of the counties so that she kind of knew her whole life.

She can't go home? Yeah, she can't go home. It was just part of the parole like you got to be out of here. That's stupid. Where the fuck am I supposed to go? She went to Little Rock. Okay. And basically stayed there for a couple of weeks and then kind of had enough.

Wasn't into it. She was like, I'm going to the river. So she was out June, June 1333. Only a couple of weeks later on June 15th, 1933, she got dressed in a place. polka-dotted dress, did her hair, gave herself that fingergun wink fake in the mirror. I don't know if she did that. Of course she did like she did. Duh. Then she walked to the Little Rock Police Department, asked for Chief James Pitcock. And when she got him, she said, hey, I actually did kill Jim Bo Hotson do it. And here's the full confession. So do you think

that she wanted to go back to prison because she didn't have anywhere else to go? That's the big question on everyone's mind, because she had, literally been out for like two weeks. Yeah. She, there was really nothing that set this off. She just walked in there. Right. People think either she had clear conscience. And she said it had been weighing on her mind. Okay. So maybe it was just a guilty conscience, but maybe a combination of a guilty conscience in a word of combo. Like this isn't really the life I want to live anyways. And this is weighing on me. So I'm just going to tell them. So she's going to go to prison. So she makes the full confession. Okay. Now the newspaper commercial appeal said this about it, which I was like, of course, this is how they described it.

I love that she got dressed up to go to prison. Of course. The quote, attractive, tastefully dressed young brunette calmly told of circumstances surrounding the killing. So she told them he was basically a lech and he had consistently and aggressively come after her. She said he threatened those close to her and her own safety and would say like if you don't go out with me, I'm going to hurt someone close to you. Yeah. And wouldn't take no for him. an answer. And in the paper, she said, quote, her companion then started making overtures to her when they were out in the car. Ew. And quote, pawing her. So she wrote, you got a dog, sir. She attempted to get him out of the car by asking him to see if he could repair the motor trouble

because he parked there and then was like, oops, the motor died. Oh, what a sleaze. Fuck you guys. But he remained in the automobile. When he declared he could not start the motor and did not try. The young woman said she reached into a car pocket where she knew he kept a pistol, drew the weapon, and fired one shot. The shot struck him in the chest, Bohaut's remaining upright on the seat, but making no sound. Then the young woman opened the car door and standing with one foot on the running board, she fired two more shots. And she said, quote, I thought he might not die. Okay. So basically, put her hands up and was like, sorry. I did it. I plead guilty. I did it. All right. And she was sentenced to 10 years at the same prison for second degree murder.

Now this time, she wasn't lucky enough to be kept inside. No. She was on hard labor. She was working in the fields in the stifling heat. And it's called like working the line, basically. She seemed to adjust and made some friends. Well, she's a hard worker anyway. She grew up on the river.

Exactly. She knows hard work. But this sucks. But she made a ton of friends. They were all like pretty, you know, this is a women's prison. I guess they were very close in there. They'd like looked out for each other for the most part. And one night, an inmate and close friend of hers named Catherine, told the group that

she had heard the guards planning a seriously fucked up scheme. And she said, because Catherine, I guess, was like in there for a while. She was older. She had some more privileges than they did. So she was in various areas and heard more than they probably would. Yeah. She said they were basically planning to full. some of the younger inmates into sex slavery.

What? They were going to buss them nightly to Memphis and basically traffic them. What the fuck? Now, obviously, that was terrifying. And Helen immediately was like, oh, well, fuck, that is not going to be me. No. And so the next day, September 13th, 1933, she was in the fields digging up sweet potatoes. Yum.

And she said she just noticed how shitty the fencing was around the perimeter. Yeah, she did. So she just walked away. Bye. She just shot her shot and walked the fuck away through a shitty fence. Like, just bye. I love that she was like one of the first people to think of that. Like, hey, that fence is really shitty.

Yeah. Well, there was like an armed guard near her and she was just like, hmm, got to go. See you. Unfortunately for her, she was caught and returned back to the prison in only three hours. Like, bold move though. Yeah. But now I'm really nervous for her. But then it was announced that she would receive a punishment.

And that punishment was going to be. 10 lashes. Oh, yeah. 10 lashes with something they called a black snake. A whip that was horrifically huge and dangerous, and this was used commonly in prisons, and they would strip the prisoner naked, make them spread eagle over a barrel, and whip them. Oh, my God. This is where the phrase, like, have me over a barrel came from, which I had no idea.

They referred to what they did to Helen as, quote, correcting her. And they kept records of every punishment. So they kept a record saying like, this is what we did. Her record says, and it's signed by the warden. Yeah. It says, I have today corrected Helen Spence. Register number one to seven. Crime, murder in the second degree.

Term 10. County, Arkansas. For what offense corrected? For escaping. How corrected? Ten lashes. Now remember, and also she was five foot one. Oh.

And she weighed like 130 pounds. She was like tiny. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess when all the inmates heard that this was going to happen, they were like terrified for her because they were like, can she even handle 10? Like I was like, Jesus. She could die.

Now remember, this was on September 13th. She rested for a couple days and then on September 18th, right back in the fields to work again. Wow. She escaped again. Yeah, she did. Through another hole in the fence, she ran with fresh lash marks still healing. Wow.

She was recaptured the next day. Come on, Helen. Run faster. Now, this is where things get really dark. She was corrected again, but there is no record of how she was corrected. I'm sure there's not. They took her into the warden's basement. And then when she came out, she had a high fever and suffered a kidney infection and could barely walk and couldn't speak.

She was almost septic in a matter of days and they believed she would die. What do you think happened to make her become septic? Well, they tried to treat her in the prison medical facility and sent word to her friends and family, basically saying like she's probably going to die, sorry. Records indicate that she was treated with high levels of sodium benzate, which is used to treat high levels of ammonia in your system because it aids in the breaking the ammonia down. Now, high ammonia levels can happen often from liver failure, kidney failure, basically systemic. breakdown organ failure. So Helen being treated with this meant her organs were literally failing. Now aside from that, she was also being treated with digitalis, which is a heart medication that's given to patients with congestive heart failure or with rhythmic heart issues.

She had no history of that. It increases the blood flow and reduces swelling in extremities. So it reduces fluid retention, so edema. Now, if it was used to treat the fluid retention, that could have been because of heart issues or because of something like tuberculosis, epilepsy, migraines, spasms. So I'm like, what did they do to work that made these things possibly happen? Weird little side note about Digitalis, too. Digitalis is made from the plant Foxglove, and it's highly poisonous. But Foxglove is also one of the major ingredients in DeJackson, which is the medicine that

Dorothea Puente used to try to kill some of her patients. Wow, weird little connection there. Isn't that a weird little connection? That is. Now, records also say on September 30th between 4 to 6 p.m., Helen was given at least five enemas between those a couple of hours. Now, this makes me wonder if the digitalist was partially to try to induce vomiting, because it can be used for that. Were they trying to get something out of her system? What do you think was in her system, though? I don't know what they could have done to her down there, but they did something down there. What the fuck? And something else further makes me think that that happens later. So she went through even more enemas. Like, one would definitely say way too many enemas.

Yeah. In the end. That is not good. She was completely filled to the brim with morphine. In October 2nd, she went into a coma. They kept to add it, though. After this, they just added sweet milk to her enimas. Why?

Don't know. October 3rd was a full day of almost constant enemas and morphine. That night, she was finally transported to an actual hospital because her fever was at 103, and she was literally dying. Almost immediately, she was treated with something called aluminal. Or, excuse me, alumnol, and this is used to induce vomiting as well. They used this at the hospital. So they must have, like, poisoned her.

So that's, I'm like, they're trying to get something out of her. Right. Clearly. Right. Now, on October 7th, she was just transported back to the prison in good condition according to records. So when she got to the hospital, she was immediately. Fined.

Yeah. But they couldn't. They just kept doing all that shit they were doing to her at the prison. That was like torture. I was just going to say that was pure torture. So she sent back to the prison. And at this point, she wasn't allowed in the fields anymore because, duh. So now they made her work in the prison laundry.

Okay. Which she was like, that's fine. Now, within weeks, that scheme that Catherine was saying about they were going to bring them to Memphis, that was happening. Oh, no. So she kept warning. Catherine was warning everybody and some people weren't really listening. Some people were. Why would you not listen to that?

Helen took it seriously. Yeah. And then she found herself on that bus to Memphis. No, I knew you were going to say that, but I'm still shocked. Only a few nights later. No. When the bus arrived at a rest stop in West Memphis, she actually. to use the ladies room.

Hell, yeah, she did. And they let her. And what they didn't know was that all these weeks she had been in the laundry working, she had been systematically and slowly stealing gingham cloth napkins from the laundry, one by one. And at night, she was sewing them to the inside lining of her prison dress. So when she went to the ladies' room, she turned her dress inside out, and it looked like she was wearing a red and white gingham dress.

Then she just walked the fuck away. Yes, bitch. They caught her again. No! They caught her again. But she had fucked up this whole Memphis scheme. Yeah. They didn't get to go to Memphis.

But what the fuck are they going to do to her for that? She was corrected with another 10 lashes. No. Now, this is when the wardens were like, get her the fuck away from us. And they had her transferred to a state hospital. Okay. That was on December 5th, 1933. And they basically did this by stating that she was,

suffering from homicidal mania. No, she's suffering from your prison is disgusting to get me out of here. She's smarter than us and we can't deal with it. That's what she's suffering from. She was transferred to the hospital and examined there, said to be completely sane. Yeah, of course she is. But suffering from what they called constitutional psychopathic inferiority, which is now actually antisocial personality disorder.

Oh, okay. Gee, I wonder why. She was returned to the prison again because they were like, yeah, we're overrun. here and she's not insane. So she went back and this time the wardens were not taking any chances. So they literally, are you ready? No. Built a wooden cage to keep her in.

What? This wooden cage was so small she couldn't move. What? They built a wooden cage around her and put her in it. What the fuck is wrong with people? They also place this cage in its own barracks away from everybody at the end of a room under a window so that all day she would be unable to get out of the full unfiltered sun. Oh, God.

That would make the cage temperatures reach well above 100 degrees. Oh my God. She was being literally burned to death, essentially. Where are the people that are supposed to make sure the prison conditions are okay? Yeah, not sure. There's a lot of reform after this, but... Yeah, I'm sure. Also, she began to be sent outside to work again and then locked up in the cage for the rest of the day.

Wow. So no one was allowed to speak to her. She had to eat alone. And out in the fields, no one could look or speak to her. What the fuck? Now, on July 10th, she's out in the fields working, middle of the summer, obviously July 10th in Arkansas. Did she say bye again? She fainted in the fields and asked when she came to, she asked to go get her medication because she was still on medication from that whole ordeal.

Yeah. They allowed her to do it. She did. She came back out to the field and just kept walking. Uh-huh. Didn't stop. Okay. She walked right by the assistant warden and a guard, an armed guard named Frank Martin, who was actually called a trustee guard. And he was actually an inmate who was serving 21 years in prison for murder. But his little job in the prison was to carry a gun and watch over the women. Are you guys okay? Are you guys all right? What the fuck?

Like, how did that seem like a smart job? She walked right by them. She climbed, she climbed a barbed wire fence. And they said she did it like it was nothing. Yes, she did. And then just ran into the woods. At this point, it's like, guys, let her go. Because she's going to keep doing this.

Well, somehow she got out of the woods and ended up walking down a dirt road. She slept under an oak tree that night. No one found her. Good. But then somehow. No, stop. I don't want you to keep talking. me that she got caught.

Well, there's various reports how she was spotted by someone and someone reported her. Well, fuck that person. Now, so she gets up the next morning. She starts walking again down this dirt field, this dirt road. The authorities are on their way now because she's been spotted. Damn it. They showed up and ordered her to stop, but she didn't. She just kept walking.

She's like, fuck off. That's when Frank Martin shot her in the back of the head, killing her instantly. when they searched her they found lipstick in her that one of the other inmates had given her and a gun belonging to Frank Martin the guard because she had snuck into his room beforehand and stole it while he slept because oh my god who is she whoa she had it hidden in her clothing it was his gun what the warden mrs brockman was informed of this and she said that is a great burden off my shoulders. Yeah, that's a coont move. She was set up to die. Inmates at the field that day said even though the assistant warden and Frank Martin watched her walk away the day she escaped,

they didn't make much of an attempt to stop her. And it was like they were letting her go. And there was nothing she had on her that would have allowed her to break into Frank's room. That door was unlocked, they found. It was left unlocked. Also, there was a note left in her little cage and it said, to whom it may concern, I'll never be taken alive. And they think it was forged. Nay, nay, they don't think it. They know it now. Of course. And part of the setup, her signatures did not match. In fact, her sister Eadie later brought hundreds of letters she had sent her when they were apart from each other. And they compared the handwriting and the signatures. And she brought them specifically to be like, fuck you guys. That's not her handwriting. Right. None of it matched up.

And the coroner actually changed her cause of death from justifiable homicide to undetermined. And the coroner asked for a grand jury investigation into her murder. Good. Now, it was determined. It was indeed a set up. It sounds just like it. Everyone got fucked. The grand jury charged the assistant superintendent, who was the warden's husband, by the way,

with basically every single accessory to murder charge you could. Good. They charged Frank Martin with another murder. And the warden, Mrs. Brockman, resigned and was subject to her own grand jury investigation, now into her prison and how her prison was being run. And the superintendent, A.G. Stedman, who actually wrote that she needed to be kept in that cage. And he actually wrote a thing saying, do not let her out of that cage. Don't let her speak to anyone. Do not let her escape again. He was a piece of shit. He resigned as well. And he should go to prison for that alone. Exactly. And they found out that Frank had done it. He said, he said, he. He shot her because they said if you shoot her, we'll get you out of your sentence. Wow. Yep.

Now, Helen again became a very sympathetic character to everyone. Of course. Reading this. They kept her in a fucking cage. Oh, the mistreatment was outrageous. Not even a word for it. Donations for flowers, funeral arrangements, everything came in from everywhere. People were donating everything for her and her family.

people even donated funeral plots for her wow uh newspapers were running full pages about her story and an anonymous person took out a full page to write a huge thing about her uh and this is just a little excerpt from the daughter of the white river book it says helen was loyal and true to all who were straight with her the girls on the farm were all fond of her she never gossiped or said mean things about them so this is somebody she was in prison with in the room at night when the girls would gather around a gossip, Helen would be in her bed fixing her face and singing old-time songs. I have gotten in bed with her many a night to listen to her singing songs that my mother used to sing. All the time I knew her, I never heard her curse. Wow. So more and more and more came out about the reality of her situation in prison after

her death. One of the doctors that had seen her actually testified to the grand jury that he told prison officials, you cannot put her in that cage. They literally were like, duh, you can't put her back in there. Like, this is not something you can do. And they were like, she's literally burning to death in there. Like, you're killing her slowly. Yeah, it's like being in a hot car. Yeah.

Like they were like, she's literally burning from the inside of. Like her organs are cooking. And, yeah, and they said it was literally medieval torture. Yep. It was also mentioned he said in that grand jury testimony that she had had a hard attack. I'm sure she did. And no one knew about it. I'm sure she.

That makes sense. Whatever they did to her, she had a heart attack from it. Wow. And when they put her in that cage, she was like, you can't put her in. They said, in fact, the doctor said that he told them, if you're going to put her in the fields, that's fine. But you can't have her overworked. She's going to have another heart attack. And they were also like, he said, if you want to put a ball and chain on her to keep her from running, that's fine.

But they were like, you can't, like, she can't try to escape again. you can't try to like run after her anything, she will have another heart attack. Right. Which nobody knew she even had one. Wow. They just kept that all under wraps. Now, unfortunately, by a technicality, Frank Martin was acquitted. Well, that's fucked.

The technicality was a section 9-691, and it basically said that a guard can murder a convict to stop them from escaping. He's not a guard. He's a murderer. A convicted murderer. And that whole program of having inmates be guards for the women prison. was taken care of after this. You really think that was going to end up. That was unbelievably. We have murderous humans guarding other humans. Oh, okay. And this like murderous man watching over a bunch of women. Like, are you kidding me? Like that's safe. No. So her body was actually, so the funeral

home, it was all paid for by like donations. Yeah. But they put her body on display at the funeral home for everyone to come by and see. It's real weird. The river people, their community were not pleased with of course not. That's weird. She was, she ended up buried. in an unmarked grave in St. Charles next to the grave of her father, Cicero Spence. Why did they not mark her grave? Well, here's the thing. So one of her best friends in life, the man named John Black, who I mentioned earlier, they grew up together.

Yeah. He planted a cedar tree at her grave that he removed as like a little baby tree from the banks of the white river to mark her grave. My whole body just said. And it's still there today. Whom. Now you asked, why was she buried in an unmarked grave? I did.

she get to this burial place? Well, in the middle of the night, John Black and others from the river broke into the funeral home and carried her body there. Hell, yes. To bury her where they knew she would have wanted to be buried next to her dad. They didn't want her to be in the window of the funeral home. No, that's so weird. She had already spent a day and a night being on display, and they said they were sick of everyone looking at her. They wanted her to have dignity and not be the show she was forced to be in life. Yeah. They were like, this is it. Like this guy murdered her father and this was the rest of her life. Yeah.

Now, it's so sad. That is tragic. Yeah. And actually, so I told you that the author of that book, daughter of the Wright River, talked to Elsie Brown, the sheriff's son who she grew up with. There was an article called Avenging Angel, and it was in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

And this article was written by Sean Clancy. And it said in the late 70s, Elsie Brown was working as a policeman in Hot Springs. so he became a policeman dude. Following in the lawman footsteps of his Arkansas County deputy sheriff father, it was around this time that John Black got in touch with Brown again. And they had been friends as like boys. Yeah.

Asking him to come over to DeWitt for a visit. The riverfolk aren't a real talkative lot, and it took more than two visits before Black finally got around to telling Brown what he wanted. Black had quietly tended the St. Charles Cemetery for years, and he knew where Helen's unmarked grave wall. was in the cemetery because he'd planted that old cedar tree there. He loved her. He said, I helped bury her.

Brown 87 says of the conversation he had with Black. He said, promise me that you'll tell this story, the true story about Helen. After I die, I want the story told. Brown was reluctant, but Black assured him, you'll figure it out. I'm ruined. Now, John Black died in 1979, and he made Elsie Brown promise to wait until his death to reveal the location of where he buried Helen. And Elsie did wait until 1979.

A lot of people thought John and Helen were in love. They were like, were they like love of. Maybe they were just best friends. But Elsie said in the book, quote, John and Helen were not lovers. They're just buddies is all. Ain't you ever had a buddy? Yes.

Which I was like, fuck yeah. Yeah, because like not everything has to be a love story. No, they were just best fucking friends. Like he loved her. He just loved her. Right. And she loved him. Yeah.

Like they were, it sounds like they were like almost like, brother and sister. They were like soulmates in that way. So Elsie Brown told Helen's story everywhere and helped create that book, Daughter of the White River, and he was helping to create like documentaries about it. He kept her memory and legacy alive and told of how, you know, she was in life. He passed away January 26, 2015 in his recliner in Arkansas. His obituary says Elsie Brown 88 of Hot Springs peacefully passed in his sleep in his recliner. in his home on January 26, 2015. What a way to go.

He was born April 17, 1926 in Arkansas County near his beloved White River. He was preceded in death by his parents, Lemuel, and Estella Brown. By the love of his life, his wife, Anna Frank Brown, his brother, John Homer and sister-in-law, Charlesee Brown. He hunted and trapped in the woods he cherished. He served in the Army during World War II and a purple heart medal recipient. Wow. He was a wonderful father, mechanic extraordinaire, Hot Springs Police Detective,

long-distance truck driver, and small business owner. He was a contributor to a documentary film on the people of the White River and book A Daughter of the White River. Now, the author Denise White Parkinson of that book, is still fighting Elsie's fight to get a posthumous pardon for Helen Spence from the governor of Arkansas. Oh, they should. Obviously. Yeah, it hasn't happened yet that I could see. I dug, dug, dug.

I couldn't find anything that says it happened. but I want to see it happen. I absolutely want to see it happen. Are you kidding me? She was done real dirty. She was put in a fucking cage. That alone should be enough to get her a part of. Her mother, her grandmother, when they went back to talk to her after her death, her grandmother said she didn't believe that Helen had killed Jim Bohatz.

Really? She said she thought there was some misguided way, like you said, that she believed she didn't want to be where she was. She couldn't go home. So she was like, just put me back in prison because this is basically prison. I just don't understand why they wouldn't let her go back to the river. Like, she didn't do anything wrong on the river. That's the thing. Like, why couldn't she go back there?

Yeah. I don't know. I just was part of the whole parole, I guess. But it's interesting. It's an interesting story. Obviously, vigilante justice isn't like, woo, kill someone in a courtroom. No, for it's a very intense story.

There's so many layers to it. Wow, where did you end up finding this? I was looking for, I forget what other case, I was like peeking at. I was looking at like a case, another case in Arkansas, I believe. And I was, and it just happened to pop up as like a book. Oh, okay. And I was like, oh, daughter of the white river. And I just kind of like popped it open. And I was like, oh, that looks interesting. I'll give it a look. I started reading it. Could not stop. And was like, yep, this is my case. I cannot stop. That was such an interesting case. It was like different than anything you've really

ever done. That's, it felt like, I was like, I have to tell this story. Oh, that was like gut wrenching. And there was just so many like moments that you're just like, what the fuck? Like, you don't see the shots in the courtroom happening. You don't see, you know, that punish, whatever punishment they gave her, I still want to know this day what the fuck they did to her. I know. And then, I can't even imagine. They probably just did like multiple horrific horrific things. Oh, I'm sure they did horrible things because Denise White Parkinson who wrote the, uh, the book, she said, you know, there's a lot written about prisons at that time because it was so horrific at that time.

But they said not a lot is written about women's prisons in particular. I was thinking that, actually. Yeah, and we didn't know that the same shit was happening in those prisons. You have no idea even worse sometimes. So she wanted to make sure that was known too. But I can't tell you how much, I don't think there's any other books written on this case, but read that book about this case. There's tons of articles too.

I'll see if I can link a few of the articles too because they're very very, fascinating. The ones with Elsie Brown are really, really fascinating. Yeah, I just love that, like, the sense of community. Well, just that, like, and like that John Black, like, just like kept her, like was like, like, he kept tending that, that spot where they put her. And just thinking about, like, it reminded me of, um, the Fear Street 1666. I was just fucking thinking that. When they, they get her body and they bury her themselves under the tree because that's the, that's what you do when, like, want someone to have dignity and they're wronged in death. Well, I'm so happy that, like, he was able to do that for her and she was laid to rest

next to her family. That's what I was like. She had nobody. And she was with her dad, who she loved, obviously. Who everything was for. You know, like this whole thing was for him. I hope eventually they marked her grave. They did.

There's a mark there now. And there's a mark for Cicero's grave, too. And there's the tree there too. And the tree is there. Is it in a cemetery? Do you know? I think it is, yeah, but it's like off to the side. So he had put it in like a place where.

it wouldn't be disturbed. I would really love to go there someday. I would love to see it. Yeah. Because I want to see that tree. And I just love that he uprooted, like, I think it was like a year old little cedar tree from the banks of the White River. That's amazing. Where she spent her whole life. Like, what a beautiful tribute to her. Right? I just feel it. I'm like, because I know she, like, maybe people make up bad because, like, she killed people. But I know. It's, it's, it's a tough one. It's a very different kind of case. It's a weird case. It's for sure as... I personally was rooting for Helen the whole time. Well, and it's a sad...

What happened to her later was just outrageous. Yeah. I mean, it was completely outrageous. And again, her grandmother doesn't think she killed Jim Bowhawts, so... What do you think? And there was no actual evidence that she did. There was no physical evidence that pointed to it. I don't...

I think she definitely could have done it for sure. Yeah. And I'm not saying you should, you know, murder anyone, but... Of course not. If she was, you know, doing anything in self-defense for us. I was just going to... I say realistically, it sounded like it very well could have been. But it was so long ago and there's so little to go on that you can't really say here or there.

And obviously, you can't shoot people in the middle of a courtroom. No. But, you know, the whole story is just a really fascinating look. Sounds like a movie. It felt like, that's why I kept saying characters. Yeah. It really felt like a movie. Yeah, like an old time.

I was like movie or book. Like how? Wow, that was a really great case. Thanks. I thought it was a crazy one. And, you know, like I. The whole thing is just really tragic. Yeah.

But that was really sad. I hate that that was the ending. I know. He shot her. I was like, no. I feel like I was like on the last page like crying. And that they like set her up and everything.

Yeah, that's fucked. It was so, it was so gnarly. They put a note in her cage as if she would have had fucking any room to write in there. In her cage. I love that. Disgusting. Yeah. So that is the story of Helen Spence, the swamp angel.

And we hope that you keep listening. And we hope you. Keep it. Weird. But that's the way that you. do this to anybody ever. Yeah. Not so weird that you do vigilante justice because that's not good. No, and it doesn't end up well clearly. And not weird that you murder anyone anyways. And that's weird that you ever put anybody in a cage. No. I don't put baby in a corner either. Yeah. Like,

I don't even want to put like a dog at a crate. Never mind like a fucking human in a cage. No, none of this is okay. What the fuck.