The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 147 - The Greenbrier Ghost

Episode Date: January 21, 2016

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine the Greenbrier Ghost. SOURCESTOUR DATESREDBUBBLE MERCH  

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bi-weekly American History podcast each week. I tell a story to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. But he knows where to go to get an SD card when he zooms suddenly doesn't recognize your old one. It is the first dollop field trip. Do you want to look who to do? I'll do one bottle. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gareth. Stay okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not going to come to Tickly podcast. You are queen fakie of made up town. All hail Queen Shit of Liesville. A bunch of religious virgins go to mingle and do a thing. Hi Gary. No. Has he done my friend? No. This podcast is brought to you by our sponsors on Patreon. We thank each and

every one of you. You guys are awesome for helping. We like to call it Patrionits. Patrionits. Patrionites. Patrionits. 1873. The smell is already bad. Elva Zona Hester. What? That's a name. Someone had a baby and they named it that. With a middle name like Zona. You're like how do we out crazy Zona? I mean it's like name her Elvis. It's like straight out of a Scientology book. She was born on 1873 and grew up in the Richlands Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Okay. Not much is known about her childhood but we do know Elva was born out of wedlock and was lacking one of those daddy things. Oh well I'm sure that'll

end up fine. She apparently continued the cycle having her own child out of wedlock when she was 22 years old in November 1895. Feels like by choice. Yeah I would imagine. I mean you know you know how the shit goes. I do believe me. Girl. Girl. But you know obviously it's gonna be hard at that time 1873 when you've had a kid at a wedlock to find a dude. Yeah or to not get glared at on the street. But she did. She found a dude. She fell in love. That's good. The next October Elva was working in the shop of James Crookshanks in Greenbrier. His name was Crookshanks. What's happening? She wanted to be Elva Crookshanks real

bad? No it's not him. She didn't fall in love with him. But I just had to put his name in there. Well that just sounds like a prison gang. Crookshanks. Don't you cross the Crookshanks. So she's working in the shop and she met. Okay here we go. What is happening? Erasmus. What the fuck? I'm not even close to done. Erasmus stripping trout shoe. Dave Dave Dave Dave. Remember when I thought Erasmus was crazy? That's before I found out trout shoe was the end. Stripping trout shoe. Erasmus stripping trout shoe. People call them Edward. Why? How did that happen? What Edward? No. The name? I think he just came out and everyone was like well

fuck this one let's ruin him. But is that really? I mean it's so just back. I just I guess you just made up the craziest things you could. But would other people on the street be like that name's crazy or would they be like good to see you Erasmus. Well Erasmus stripping trout shoe. Have you met Salmon Slipper. So pretty normal names. So now she was 23 and he was 35. Older man. Which is gonna happen when you don't have a daddy. Right. That's true. It was lightning bolt stuff. Instant love and what wasn't to love. At this point Edward shoe as I'm gonna call him. Oh good. Was working as a blacksmith in town trying to start over. He was a

drifter, widowed and divorced. Different women. 19th century trifecta. He didn't just like say to his dead wife like that's it. That's a deal breaker for me. When you die I have had enough. I'd like to file for divorce. My wife died. Excuse me. I'd like to leave my dead wife. You don't have to she is. Listen you don't understand there's tension. Okay fair. You don't communicate anymore. She's dead. Exactly that's what I'm saying. It feels like that a lot of the time. Just give him the and the sex. Don't even get me started on the sex. We approve the divorce. We don't want to hear any more. Sex is just it's talk about a cold fish. I don't want to be here. It's

disgusting. I'm putting a gun in my mouth. Listen you sound just like her. In 1985 Edward married Ellen Cutlip. I'm not even gonna do it. Nope. I mean it to be fair though when your last name is Cutlip you're like trout shoes so fancy. They had a daughter two years later named pumpkin maze. No Gerta. I mean it's too it's honestly too easy. It's insane. I don't want to just make this this is West Virginia. This is West Virginia. There are no rules. Mount Mama. In 1888 they divorced. This happened while Edward was in jail for two years for stealing a horse. I really hope she kept his name too. Oh god I

would hope so. Just the crazy. Gerta would be raised by Ellen's parents so there's something that's off right. They get a divorce and the kid is not even raised by either one of them. Sorry. Okay. Just because this is insane. Now Gerta is his first wife. His kid from his first marriage. Right. Okay. And neither of them raised the Gerta. Yeah. Okay. Got you. Then in 1894 Edward married Lucy Tritt. She didn't last the year dying of unknown causes after just eight months of matrimony. There is no record of how she died. Naturally Elva came back to the black ship small black ship black Smith shop. There we go. Later that day after

meeting him because he was such an awesome dude. Right. And she told them she was interested. Wow. Very forward. Yeah. Her mom was not pleased. Oh. His background may have been the reason Elva's mother Mary Jane Heaster was so opposed to their relationship. But it didn't matter. Love is love and Edward Mary Elva two weeks later. Two weeks after meeting. It's I mean to be fair the lifespan is so much shorter time. I mean but come on. No that's crazy. That's crazy. Yeah. So what can go wrong. All went well until a lot. Oh no. It's going to be good. This is one of the good ones. All went well until January 23rd 1987.

Edwards working Edwards working in town. 18. Oh yeah. It actually corrected itself in 1987. I love how it wants to be 1987. Yeah. A hundred years later. Things were still fine. That can't even be. It can't even wait. Yeah. OK. 1897. Edwards working in town and he asked a young boy who was a neighbor of the couple to run to their home and ask Elva if she wanted anything from the market. OK. This is before texting. Yep. The lad did. And when he entered the home he found Elva laying at the bottom of the stairs stretched out with her feet together and one hand on her stomach. Naturally young Andy assumed Elva was taking

the world's weirdest nap at the bottom of the stairs. He yelled to her but she wasn't moving. She didn't wake up. So she's right. OK. He thought she was napping at the bottom of the stairs. Well I mean listen he's a boy. You know there's a bunch of if there's blood around her he's like fruit pun. She's leaking fruit punch from her long nap. Mr. She wouldn't wake up and then he ran home to tell his mom what he had seen. The mom sent for the local doctor George nap. When Dr. Knapp got there about an hour later Edward Trout shoe was already there and he had moved Elva's body upstairs to the bedroom and he had washed it. What. Look

I've watched forensic files and that's a big old riff leg. What are you talking about. Well washing a dead body is strange. Grief does really weird things. I don't know. If I maybe I'll just wash the death off of her. Wake up baby. And she was already prepared for burial. Whoa whoa whoa. This is an hour in. This is an hour in. That's not up to him to do. Edward had placed her in a high neck dress with a stiff collar and put a veil over her face. This was a bit odd because the duty of preparing the body for burial was usually done by women in the community. Well not the whole. Yeah. I mean honestly how fast are you over

it. Gotta get it ready man. Gotta get it ready. Oh my god my sweet Elva. This would really look nice underground. How about this veil. This will really tie it all together. Dr. Knapp got to work and he tried to examine Elva around around the head and neck he noticed a little bruising. Edward flipped out. He kept cradling her head crying and throwing a fit whenever Dr. Knapp moved toward her neck area. Okay. None of these are red flags by the way. No. No. The doctor finally gave up and cut the examination short. But anytime he's getting near the neck he just starts wailing. Yeah he starts flipping out. Yeah. And he's probably

pawing out. No wait I just realized she's gone. No. Not my sweet Elva. Oh I'm moving over there. Anyway do you like this dress. Oh my god no. No. She's gone. Anyway you guys hungry. Look at the feet. He officially said that Elva died of everlasting faint. What the fuck. I mean this wasn't that long. Well back then. It's not 1530. Back then that was a nice way to say a heart attack. Oh okay. But he later changed the diagnosis to complications from pregnancy because Dr. Knapp had seen Elva just a couple weeks before her death for female trouble and thought that seemed a more probable cause of death. It sounds like maybe the baby was trying to come out of the mouth. Yeah. Yeah I think

that babies will do. Also sounds like a good doctor. Great doctor. In truth he had no idea how she died. Right. Well in truth I think we all know that. Mary Jane Easter was told of her daughter's death and is reported to have said quote the devil has killed her. Interesting. Lots of good theories being floated. I mean it's hard to pick a winner here. There's so many ponies to like. On January 24th Elva was buried in the local cemetery. Edward was very protective of his dead wife. Always sitting at the head of the open coffin no matter where it went. Her body was laid out at Mary's house and people started to notice Edward was acting a bit odd. Now

they're noticing. Okay. So he's okay. It was said he would switch from being overwhelmed by grief to suddenly having incredible energy. What? Oh no. We should go hiking. Anyone want to go to the park? Maybe throw the ball around for Elva. She's gone. She's gone. Push ups. Push ups. Yet the whole time he didn't let anyone near her and would become very animated if anyone tried to get close. He just sat above her holding a pillow to one side of her head and a rolled up sheet on the other side. Honestly. Like somebody has to do something. This is the worst case of CSI that has ever. What is. Ever been. A pillow? This is the most terrible episode. And a sheet? Why not two pillows if I'm going

to devil's advocate this shit? I don't know if they had two pillows. We're a one pillow household. Two pillows, fancy pants. He told everyone that these two things would help her rest easier. I think the deaf did that. Then Edward put a large scarf around her neck and cried as he told all those present that it was her favorite. She loved this scarf. This big giant. Skyline. Wrapping around a few times just right over the neck area, right over that bruise. She loved it. She loved it. My Elva. We should go running. Anyone want to go to the beach for a run? I would love to see that. This guy. Come on, huh? Come on. Hey, let's sing. Let's sit around and sing some songs. I can play the tuba. I want

to see a tuba playing. But when the body was moved from the house to the cemetery, more than one purpose person noticed Elva's head was a bit more loose than it should have been. Sweet mother of God. Her head is off. You right? It's a bit loose. It's off. It's just a bit loose. This woman has been decapitated. Then she was buried. Okay. You realize what you've created over here. I'm like, no, no. It's so sad you go to the worst case scenario no matter what I'm talking about. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry that I've done that. Told me stories about people eating other people's hearts. Did I break you? Yeah. Oh, I'm broken, baby. Mary Jane was not buying the official cause of her daughter's death.

She never liked Edward and she thought he had killed her. But because there wasn't any actual direct evidence, which there's if you just look at the fucking body, there might be a lot of evidence, a lot of evidence. I think there's only evidence. There's seems like there's a lot of evidence. Just just look at her neck. I think just someone take a look at the neck. Look at him the way he's acting. I think there's how about how about a wobbly neck wobbly neck crazy husband doing burpees over the funeral. Elva was put into the ground and the matter was considered closed. Just like the casket. Well done. Thank you. But Mary Jane wasn't done. And she was given some pretty serious signs of foul play. First,

she said she took the sheet from inside the coffin and tried to give it back to Edward. Now, I just assume that this is a time when there weren't a lot of sheets. She tried to come by. So you didn't leave it in the coffin. Sure. You could go donate it to the local Grand Wizard. So now I have I have like a blanket in my house and if my dog gets on it, it smells pretty bad. Right. I think we all understand what I'm saying. So you're saying that this sheet is I'm saying it's not a fresh sheet. Right. Got the odor of death upon it. Edward decided to pass on taking the sheet. Well, finally, something that I understand. So Mary Jane took it and she noticed it had an odd odor. That's the odor. That's

the odor of her daughter's body. Right. Yeah. She washed it. And when she did, the water in the basin turned red. Then it turned pink. Then it cleared. But a stain in the sheet would not go away. Mary Jane took this as evidence that her daughter had indeed been murdered. I am very confused. You should be because that sounds like a bunch of fucking horseshit. But I don't I mean how like a sheet. Well, we're taking her word for it. All right. Right. That's that that helps. She then decided to pray and pray and pray. Smart. She prayed for her daughter to appear as a ghost and tell her how she had died. You might want to make I think baby steps. Uh huh. Maybe you know, try for maybe like blow that candle

out. Start there. Don't just go with the home run right away. No, come straight up here and tell me who killed you. Don't talk to me. Hurry. She prayed for a month and then lo and behold, the ghost of Elva shoe did appear. Elva shoe. Elva shoe. Elva trout shoe. Worse. The ghost appeared for four nights in a row. Well, I mean, you know, so she's in weekend. Yeah. I mean, if you got a gig. Oh yeah, you're gigging. You're gigging. I'm doing four nights at Mary's house. I'll actually this weekend. I'll be appearing at my mother's house a whole weekend, four nights in a row. I'm going to be doing the blood sheet stuff. Each time ghost Elva told Mary Jane that Edward had killed her by choking her and breaking

her neck. This happened because she hadn't cooked any meat for dinner. Oh my god. Okay, now I'm on his side. Yeah, of course you are. Okay, so well, you know, I mean, context. Yep, something. Now we have some. We have we have we have a meat if we have a clear meat if we have our meat motive. She also said Edward was cruel and beat her often. When ghost Elva left, she would turn her head around. So was facing backwards. Well, it's a great thing to do to your mom. And also, I think that's a little unfair because she is a ghost at this point. True. I think you can do things like that. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Yeah, that doesn't go like look, look how broken it is. Look at that. But again,

watch again. Look, I'm gonna do like a siren. Can you? It's not it's not as you actually it's not as scary as that when you're doing the siren. Worst ghost ever. I'm here. Have you seen worst ghosts ever on sci fi on sci fi? It was behind me. Whoa, which way's forward? Mama. I just want to sleep. All right, I'll come back tomorrow. But Mary took the head turning around as proof of a broken neck. Right. Well, not that ghosts don't have bones or anything. For sure. I mean, look, logic is really in play here. I guess it took four nights in a row of questioning the ghost before Mary Jane was satisfied that she had the story straight because that's when she went to see the local prosecutor like do I need to keep

doing mom how many how many mom how many go fucking tell him you fucking ask me to come I'm a ghost. I'm here. I told you everything. I will see you tomorrow. God damn it. So Mary Jane goes to the local prosecutor John Alfred. He was naturally a little bit skeptical. Does he know about the head thing or the bloody sheet? Yeah, I think we've got some stuff. But Mary Jane sat in his office for hours, trying to convince him and tell he was like fuck, okay, lady, fuck, I will check into it if you just shut your fucking mouth. Okay. So he started questioning people around town. He heard about the head being a bit wobbly at the funeral at the wake he and Edward strange behavior. Sure. And he found out that Edward

had kept Dr. Knapp from fully examining the body after seeing bruises on the neck. So the prosecutor Alfred decided to reopen the case. Reopening the case meant reopening the casket. Yep, exhumant. Alfred ordered the body exhumed. Edward trout shoe was very against this. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I don't see why you would do that. Why would you do it? I'm gonna climb this tree. Why can't climb this tree? I'm gonna get to the top. Okay, one thing you can do it but I get to cradle her head with a pillow and a rolled up sheet. You can examine her as long as I can put two sheets between her head. I get to be in her the head, you can examine the rest. Okay. Against his strong objections,

the body was dug up and an autopsy was performed. Upon first inspection, everything looked pretty normal until they got to the neck. What the fuck were they doing on other spots? They look at the whole thing over. All right, well, it doesn't look like her feet are broken. Her bottom looks good. Oh, right, the neck. The doctor made a cut along the back of her neck, the back of her head and neck and discovered her neck was broken and the first and second vertebrae. Also her windpipe was crushed and there were fingerprints on her neck. I mean, this seems pretty obvious that someone killed her at this point. I'm waiting for some evidence. How did we miss this? Oh, we forgot to look at her. Oh, that's right. We just gave up

because he was being a prick. It was declared that she had been the victim of murder and it seemed pretty obvious who the murderer was. But Alfred was still lacking evidence to connect Edward to the actual crime. But he did arrest him so he wouldn't flee. Okay. Alfred went to talk to Edward's shoe's first wife, Ellen Cutlip. Cutlip told Alfred that she had been beaten by Edward and he was extremely violent. This is all piling up pretty poorly. Her name is Cutlip. Yep, that's right. Yep. Okay. Wasn't before she met him, though. His second wife, black eye Sally. And I just fell down some stairs, Eleanor. Alfred also looked into Edward's second marriage, which ended in a mysterious death. Meanwhile, Eddie in prison,

Edward was bragging to his fellow prisoners that he was going to get married seven times during his life. And told reporters there wasn't any evidence against him, so he wouldn't be convicted. Maybe a little too complex. A little bit. I said, bring down the cocky a little bit. Yeah, I think go back to those emotional swings. I think that erratic behavior says grieving more than, man, when I get out of here, I'm going to fucking marry five more women. No, four. Four more women. Three more whip pointers. I ain't done. The trial began, but it was going to be a rough one with the lack of direct evidence. The prosecutor knew it would be pretty hard to bring up a finger pointing ghost because the courts didn't allow

ghost testimony as admissible. Well, this was before Ghostbusters obviously won. So he decided the prosecutor decided not to bring up the ghost stuff. The trial went on for eight days. The prosecutors made the case to the jury with circumstantial evidence. Edward took the stand in his defense, and he did not do himself any favors. He rambled through cross examination. The Greenbrier Independent said, quote, his testimony manner and so forth made an unfavorable impression on the spectators. It feels like making a murder a little bit, but the defense was still keen to have a go at this ghost. No, what's what are you talking about? I don't understand. I thought that was like a

footnote. What is what? What do you mean? They're like, are they there? Somebody is trying to call a ghost to the stand. The defense attorney, William Rucker, questioned Mary Jane when he crossing examiner on the stand about the ghost. He wanted to make her seem crazy and therefore invalidate all of her testimony. Well, that's not going to be too hard. But that's not the way it went down. Oh, boy. Mary Jane totally held her own. She told her ghost story with such confidence that the jury completely bought it. Oh my God. Rucker quickly stopped questioning her as he realized she wasn't looking crazy at all. How is she not looking crazy at all? It's the 18 fucking 90s. People are like, yeah, of course she talked to a ghost. Interesting. Well, it sounds like this

ghost was pretty consistent on those four nights, really stuck to what the ghost was saying. I mean, the ghost came four times. You know, I was skeptical until I heard about the rotating head. I didn't believe it until the third ghost visit. And then I was like, well, this ghost is serious. This is serious ghost. I agree. Anytime a ghost shows up three times, you know, it's real. Right. Yeah. Now, since the defense had brought up the ghost instead of the prosecutor, the judge ruled to allow the ghost testimony as it were. Can you can you imagine? So so the jury got to deliberate on a conversation between an old woman and a ghost. This this does sound like how they handled it in a manner to walk Wisconsin. I mean, the judge like any I mean, you must as a say,

like, you must be sitting there going like, well, the good news is the judge isn't out of his mind. I'm sorry, did he just say that that was admissible? The prosecutor had zero objections to using the ghost testimony. Oh my God. Edward shoe was convicted of murdering Elva Hester shoe and sentenced to life in prison. Based on the testimony of a ghost. That wasn't enough for the townsfolk a lynch mob farmed and prepared to break into the jail and hang Edward. But a snitch told the sheriff what was happening and he hurried Edward out and hit him in the forest. Oh, Jesus, that part I don't get at all. I don't understand what I mean. He must have locked him to a tree must have handcuffed him to a Frank him or something. But you just can't just okay,

stay here buddy. All right, say here. I'll remember this tree. We'll be back tomorrow. I'll be back. Oh, shit. Someone ate the breadcrumb. All right. Look, good luck, man. And then the sheriff went back in front of the mob and talked them into putting down their weapons and going home. Everything that's happening is opposite of what I would think would happen. An angry mob ready to murder being like, no, that's not you make a good. Okay, that's fine. You know, honest to God, we got fired up back there. We really did. Yeah, I lost our cool. But I gotta be honest, we weren't you make a good point. We weren't thinking about ghost justice. Yeah, that's true. We hadn't actually thought about the ghost justice. So he's gonna get his on the

other side. Yeah, for sure. When he goes to ghost court. Yeah. And then I'll go to ghost jail. On July 13, 1897, Edward shoe entered the state penitentiary in Moundsville, West Virginia. He died there. Just under three years later, when an unknown epidemic swept through the prison. The ghost of Elvra Zona Haster was never seen again. Is the tape tape. It is the only known case in US law in which a ghost testimony was used to help convict a criminal. Oh my God. Well, you're again, you're forgetting about Ghostbusters too. But I love how the ghost was never seen again. Yeah, because I think I know why Dave. Why I don't think the ghost was seen. Oh, come on, four times. Well, I think four times is a case for insanity. I don't know. You see ghosts all

the time in the sci fi channel. Do you think that I mean, the like, doesn't our jury system is pretty flawed. I don't see how it's any different today that it was back then. I see I think today you could have someone say that they talked to a ghost and people can victim in the right state. In the right state. Wisconsin we're talking about. Oh boy. Well, well, you know, you think making a murder is a fucked up trial. Then you hear about hell of a trout shoes testimony. All right, well, ghost out. Yeah, that is. That's a normal thing that just happened. We sign cars. Yeah, we do sign cars.