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When Darkness Calls Part One
3.8k Plays2 years ago
This Halloween, thirteen true crime podcasts (including Coffee and Cases) come together to share dark and disturbing stories. From haunted houses to serial killers, these tales will send chills down your spine and keep you up at night. Join us for this special 2-part Halloween episode entitled "When Darkness Calls" as we explore the darkest corners of humanity. But be warned: these stories are not for the faint of heart. When darkness calls, how will YOU respond?
Listener discretion is advised.
Podcasts are listed here in order of appearance:
Part 1:
- True Crime South Africa https://linktr.ee/truecrimesouthafrica
- True Crime Cat Lawyer https://linktr.ee/truecrimecatlawyer
- Private Dicks https://linktr.ee/privatedicks
- Coffee and Cases https://linktr.ee/coffeeandcases
- Teachers Talk Crime: https://linktr.ee/teacherstalkcrime
- Excuse Me, That’s Illegal https://linktr.ee/excusemethatsillegal.pod
- Fresh Hell Podcast https://freshhellpodcast.com
Part 2:
- Twisted Travel and True Crime https://linktr.ee/twistedtraveltruecrimepodcast
- Body to Burial https://linktr.ee/bodytoburial
- Till Death Do Us Part https://linktr.ee/tilldeathdouspartpodcast
- Unethical Podcast https://linktr.ee/unethicalpodcast
- PNW Haunts & Homicides https://www.pnwhauntsandhomicides.com/
- True CrimeCast (https://linktr.ee/truecrimecast)
Please also consider supporting Coffee and Cases by joining us over on our Patreon page! Get access to monthly mini-episodes as well as one full solved case per month by joining today! Go to https://www.patreon.com/coffeeandcases to register!
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Try Cure today and feel the difference for yourself! Use my special link (https://zen.ai/coffeeandcasespod20) for 20% off your order, coupon activated at checkout!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'When Darkness Calls' Halloween Collaboration
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to When Darkness Calls, the Halloween collaboration podcast that will leave you trembling in your seat. This year we have 13 participating podcasts, each covering a different topic related to the dark and the dreadful. Join us on a journey through the forest where the trees whisper secrets and the shadows dance.
00:00:25
Speaker
As we walk, we will introduce each podcast host and share a taste of the terrors that await you.
Nicole Engelbrecht and the Fake Pediatrician of Kenton Park
00:00:33
Speaker
First, we come to the clearing where Nicole from True Crime South Africa sits, her eyes glowing in the moonlight. Nicole is a master of weaving tales of murder and mayhem, and the tales on this podcast will chill you to the bone.
00:00:52
Speaker
I'm Nicole Engelbrecht from True Crime South Africa, and this is the fake pediatrician and the abandoned hospital.
00:01:01
Speaker
In the 1980s, Kenton Park Hospital was a hub of state health care for local residents. I was actually born in this hospital in September 1980. I could not be happier that I was born in that year, because just two years later, a man would appear on the doorstep of Kenton Park Hospital, who would leave a very deep scar on its history, and sadly, even ensure that many parents went home without their newborn babies.
00:01:31
Speaker
Just a warning before I get into this, this case does include instances of injury and death to children due to inadequate medical care. Andre Esterhazen had already built up a good reputation as a paediatrician in private practice in Kenssen Park for two years before he started working at Kenssen Park Hospital in 1982. Parents of his patients had nothing but good things to say about him.
00:01:59
Speaker
It emerged that the privacy of working in his own rooms had hidden quite a lot about Esterhazen though. One fellow doctor at the hospital immediately noticed that Esterhazen couldn't perform even the simplest of tasks. He would often ask others to do things like insert an insulation tube, something he should have been able to do in his sleep with his amount of experience.
00:02:25
Speaker
This colleague and others would witness multiple examples of this over the years that Esther Hazen worked at Kempton Park Hospital. Sadly, nothing was done about this with deadly consequences. In 1988, a premature baby seemed to be coping just fine and was breathing on his own after being delivered. The child was placed in a high care unit under Dr. Esther Hazen's care.
00:02:53
Speaker
The child's parents were called later that night, though, and told that the baby had passed away. Esther hasn't claimed he'd only administered drugs to help with what he claimed were underdeveloped lungs. The child had bruising all over its body from failed injection sites.
00:03:13
Speaker
The following year, he misdiagnosed a 10-month-old baby with pneumonia, when she in fact had a severe kidney infection, which ended up claiming her life 11 days later. Case after case presented itself in Kamsen Park Hospital.
00:03:30
Speaker
Esterhazen had attempted a lumbar puncture on a child he'd claimed had meningitis. He was clearly unable to perform the procedure but continued to attempt it until one doctor remarked it looked as though surgery was being performed on the child with the amount of blood that was present.
00:03:50
Speaker
Another woman woke up from a sedated cesarean section performed by Dr. Esther Hazen to be told that her baby was in an incubator because he was struggling to breathe. Esther Hazen failed to mention that the reason the child was struggling to breathe was because he had stabbed the child with a scalpel while performing the cesarean section. Her child did not survive and she never saw Esther Hazen again.
00:04:20
Speaker
Another two babies were given medication by Esterhazen that was intended for use in adults only. Even after the first child passed away and a nurse mentioned to Esterhazen that she'd never seen that medication used on babies before, he insisted he had used it successfully on many occasions and proceeded to use it with another child. Both children died shortly after from bleeding on the brain.
00:04:50
Speaker
Kempton Park Hospital had been so taken, hook, line and sinker by Andre Esterhazen, that they promoted him in 1989 to head of the emergency care unit. Most doctors at the hospital didn't understand what a paediatrician could possibly have to add to emergency medicine, and the raised eyebrows soon turned into whispers.
00:05:15
Speaker
Esterhazen did not take the criticism well and in an attempt to drum up some sympathy, told a colleague he'd dealt with this kind of jealousy before. He claimed someone else had reported him to the Health Professionals Council. This comment got that doctor thinking and he contacted the council himself. The council though, who has records of every registered health professional in South Africa, had never heard of Andre Esterhazen.
00:05:47
Speaker
Soon, the entire sordid tale unraveled and hospital administrators realised that they had a scammer working on their staff for almost a decade. In that time, Esther Hazen had earned close to three million rand and seen over four and a half thousand patients. But the man himself was not sticking around to face the consequences.
00:06:12
Speaker
Within just a few days of his suspension for investigation, he skipped the country and fled to the US. Soon, though, he had no choice but to come back to South Africa, and he was arrested and tried for a huge number of fraud charges, culpable homicide and related charges. Esther Hazen hadn't even finished high school.
00:06:36
Speaker
Everything he knew about medicine was from textbooks he'd read and time he'd spent working in laboratories where he'd also faked a PhD in microbiology. In 1992, Esterhasm was eventually found guilty of
Kenton Park Hospital's Haunting Legacy
00:06:52
Speaker
three charges of culpable homicide and several fraud charges, including impersonating a doctor. He was handed down an 18-year sentence.
00:07:04
Speaker
The parents of the children who died or who were permanently injured under his care did not feel that this was nearly enough time for what he'd done. And to be honest, I don't think so either. The staff at Kempton Park Hospital tried to move on from what had happened, but nothing was the same ever again.
00:07:26
Speaker
Whether or not the fake doctor's deeds left a dark cloud over the hospital is debatable, but certainly the memory of the babies who likely would have lived had they not encountered a fake doctor would never ever fade.
00:07:43
Speaker
In 1996, the hospital stopped accepting patients. And on the day after Christmas that same year, residents of Kempton Park read in newspapers that the hospital had quite suddenly been closed. Various reasons were bandied about from a shortage of staff to a shortage of patients. But one day, the hospital was filled with a buzz of people, and the next, it was empty.
00:08:12
Speaker
Bizarrely, all of the medical equipment remained behind. 10 million randsworth at that time. Medicine stayed in the fridges, in cupboards. Clipboards lay exactly where they were placed the last time they were set down by nurses. It was as though the hospital had just gone into a time vacuum.
00:08:34
Speaker
Over the years, although local governments had promised time and again that the hospital would be reopened, it never has been. Instead, it's become a place for ghost hunters to seek thrills. Security guards are passed a few rand to look the other way, and those with an interest in the supernatural pick through the dark hallways.
00:08:58
Speaker
At one point, the high-tech equipment was removed and sent to another hospital but the beds, incubators and much of the bulkier equipment remains. As one person put it, you could still perform surgery in that hospital. All you would need is a body.
00:09:18
Speaker
People have found a wide range of bizarre and creepy things at the hospital, from organ specimens in jars to autopsy tables, still stained with blood.
00:09:30
Speaker
In 1999, Andre Esterhazen was released from prison on parole after serving just seven years. He had qualified, with actual proof thereof this time, as an IT technician while he was in prison and moved to a town in the Free State.
00:09:50
Speaker
In 2022, local governments announced that Kamsen Park Hospital is to be demolished and a new medical facility will be built on its grounds. Perhaps then, the ghosts of its sad and tragic past will finally be put to rest.
00:10:12
Speaker
Next, we pass by the old oak tree where Elise from True Crime Cat Lawyer stands.
Elise's Pacific Northwest Unsolved Murders
00:10:18
Speaker
Her voice as cold as ice. She specializes in unsolved murders from the Pacific Northwest, and the investigations on her podcast will lead you down dark and twisted paths. Welcome to True Crime Cat Lawyer. I'm your host Elise, and sometimes my cat Winston joins me.
00:10:44
Speaker
This podcast contains content of a graphic nature that might not be suitable for all listeners, including descriptions of violence, sexual assault, and crimes against animals and children. Listener discretion is advised.
00:10:58
Speaker
This episode is part spooky, part true crime. And I say that because there's definitely some spooky-ish vibes to the story, but it's also at its core a true crime story. So this is the Lady of the Lake. So the lake that we're talking about is Lake Crescent, which is the second largest lake in the state of Washington, and it's located on the Olympic Peninsula.
00:11:25
Speaker
The lake is about 1,600 feet deep and about 12 miles wide. And the lake itself is the source of a lot of haunting talk and death talk and true crime talk. Supposedly, there's a lot of bodies buried here. For example, it's thought that Israel keys dumped a lot of bodies in the lake. It's definitely a well-known lake in the true crime world.
00:11:51
Speaker
Our story starts with Hallie Illingworth. She was a young woman who was originally born in Kentucky, but she lived all over the United States. In 1936, she started waitressing at the Lake Crescent Lodge, which was about 30 minutes from her apartment in Port Angeles. By 1936, she was 35 and she'd been divorced twice.
00:12:13
Speaker
Most of the articles I read called her, quote unquote, unlucky in love. It seemed like she definitely attracted the wrong kind of guy and she tended to fall in love with the wrong kind of person. Unfortunately, that was no different when she met Montgomery Elaine Worth, who goes by Monty. They fell in love. He was a local beer truck driver who frequented her major scene establishment, the Lake Crescent Lodge.
00:12:38
Speaker
he was charming and he sort of swept her off her feet so they quickly got married like within weeks or just a few months of meaning they're already tied in the knot.
00:12:50
Speaker
After they get married, Monty becomes really abusive to Hallie. She shows up in work covered in bruises. She has broken teeth and black eyes. Basically, it's a really bad relationship. Police were actually called to break up a fight between the two. One night, it was like the early morning hours while they were both at the lodge and it got so bad that the police were called. They had to break up the fight.
00:13:14
Speaker
But the two still stayed together despite this. So about five months after Hallie and Monty got married, Hallie went missing right before Christmas. By all accounts, when the reports started coming in, police narrowed it down to Hallie last being seen on December 21st or December 22nd. Monty told everyone that she left with another man, although there was no real evidence of that. That's just kind of what he told people.
00:13:45
Speaker
Police thought it was really odd and suspicious that he didn't report Hallie missing. And of course, because of their tumultuous and abusive relationship, police really kind of zeroed in on Monty as a suspect in his wife's disappearance. Police try to track down Hallie's family, they're trying to track down her friends, and they couldn't come up with anybody that had any kind of contact with her after December 22nd.
00:14:11
Speaker
So when police interview Monty, he says he attended a party in Port Townsend and he said they got into a fight after he came back from the party. Monty then left for a little while and when he came back, Hallie was gone. And then he says he never saw her again after that. Police asked him about their relationship. Monty's trying to tell them she went off with this Alaskan sailor.
00:14:36
Speaker
Unfortunately, there was no real evidence to connect Monty to doing anything and Halley just seemed to have disappeared. They had no body, no witnesses, no crime scene, nothing to point them in the direction of where Halley was or that Monty had anything to do with it.
00:14:55
Speaker
But of course Monty wasn't doing himself any favors because he left Port Angeles with a woman named Eleanor Pearson who was a timber heiress and they went to California.
00:15:08
Speaker
Supposedly, there were rumors that Monty and Eleanor were actually together before Halley disappeared, but of course, that couldn't be confirmed. Halley's case just sat for a while, unfortunately. Police had no leads. They had no idea where Halley could have gone. They didn't believe the story about her running off with a man, but at the same time, they didn't have any other theories to go off of.
00:15:33
Speaker
and Monty had gone to California and he was no longer cooperating with the investigation. So everything just kind of went cold and went silent. That is until July 6th, 1940. A body was found floating on the surface of Lake Crescent by two fishermen. The upper part of the face, upper lip and nose were gone and the tips of the fingers were gone so they couldn't get any fingerprints.
00:16:03
Speaker
but there was something really unusual about this body. Quote, the lake's near freezing temperatures had virtually refrigerated the corpse for years, end quote. So everything I read describes this process as saponification. And this is a soap-like condition that results from minerals in the lake interacting with the fats in the body. The skin was extremely well preserved and it was kind of waxy,
00:16:30
Speaker
the body was similar to soap rather than decomposition that you would normally see. According to experts, saponification occurred because the cold prevented decomposition as the salt in the water penetrated the tissue.
00:16:46
Speaker
So now police have this body, but at first they had no idea who it was. They have no fingerprints and the body is missing parts of it. So eventually they are able to track down who this is because of a bridge in the body. Halle had a distinctive dental bridge and that was used to identify her. They were able to track down her dentist who identified her through that means, and they were able to confirm that this body was in fact Halle Illingworth.
00:17:16
Speaker
So now that they know that it's Halley, they want to figure out, okay, how did she die? How did she end up in the lake? Halley's body was wrapped in blankets and it was tied with a rope. It was pretty much perfectly preserved other than the tips of body parts that were missing. A medical student named Harlan McNutt was brought in to examine Halley's body and basically performed the autopsy.
00:17:41
Speaker
Harlan McNutt, as he's performing this autopsy, says that Holly had been strangled and beaten. She had been strangled and beaten. Her neck was bruised and discolored. The chest showed evidence of extensive hemorrhaging. When police find this out, they immediately suspect foul play because these don't seem like the kinds of injuries that are self-inflicted. These don't seem like the kind of injuries someone would get if they fell overboard off of a boat or drowned.
00:18:09
Speaker
When Halley's body was identified, Monty was living in Long Beach, California. In October of 1941, police arrest Monty, they charge him with murder, and they bring him back to Port Angeles to stand trial for Halley's murder.
00:18:23
Speaker
Monte's trial began on February 24th, 1942. The courtroom was packed with spectators. People attended this trial all nine days that it was held. Monte's defense was essentially that this woman's body that they found wasn't Halley. Halley was alive the last time he saw her. There was no evidence to suggest otherwise. That was his whole defense.
00:18:48
Speaker
Monty also testified at trial in his own defense, and he claims that him and Halle would get into striking matches, but he denied ever beating her and he denied killing her.
00:19:01
Speaker
Well, the prosecution obviously thought they had a pretty good case against him. So they had the dentist testify about the ID and he came across as a very credible witness. They had Halley's friends identify the clothing found on the body as Halley's. And they also presented key evidence, which was the rope that was used to bind Halley.
00:19:24
Speaker
Monty had borrowed about 50 feet of rope from a storekeeper at the lake, and the fibers from that rope matched the fibers found on Halley's body. Another point that the prosecution brought up is that Monty had asked for a divorce shortly after Halley went missing, which again the police thought was really odd. So in March of 1942, jurors deliberate for about four hours before handing down their verdict.
00:19:52
Speaker
The jury finds Monty guilty of second degree murder and sentences him to life in prison at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. Unfortunately, Monty only served nine years before he was paroled. He later died in November 1974 in Los Alamitos, California.
00:20:14
Speaker
Halle's body was the first ever to be found floating in Lake Crescent. Her story gets so much attention because of the saponification process that occurred and essentially preserved her body and turned it into wax. It's just something that's not seen very often and it definitely gives this case a little bit of that spooky vibe on top of the true crime.
00:20:38
Speaker
Quote, it was said that Lake Crescent never gave up its dead until the Lady of the Lake surfaced in 1940. End quote. As we move further into the darkness, we hear the sound of laughter echoing through the trees. It is the laughter of Richard.
00:20:56
Speaker
from Private Dick's podcast, who, along with some friends, delights in telling tales of the unsolved and the supernatural, was a twist of that wicked laughter thrown in. Hi, my name's Richard from Private Dick's podcast. Today, we're going to solve a mystery from my favorite holiday, Halloween. And I'll pepper in some true crime that I feel is relevant to the mystery.
Richard on Trick-or-Treating: History and Risks
00:21:21
Speaker
Now, I love Halloween. I love the spooky movies, the candy, just the pageantry of the whole thing. I think it's a wonderful time of the year. I love trick-or-treating as a kid. What an odd thing we send our kids out to do at Halloween. Go from door to door asking strangers for candy, using that saying, trick or treat. Now, why do we say trick or treat? That's the mini mystery we're gonna solve today.
00:21:47
Speaker
Believe it or not, originally, trick or treat was meant as a threat. Europeans in medieval times celebrated Samhain, which was on October 31st. Samhain marked the end of harvest season and the beginning of the darker half of the year.
00:22:03
Speaker
The veil between this world and the other world thinned, meaning ghosts or fairies could enter this world more easily. And it just generally got spookier during this time of year, being darker, colder, you know, just scarier. So with the season change, this time of year has always been associated with the supernatural.
00:22:21
Speaker
Now by the year 993, the Christian Church implemented All Souls Day, a day to celebrate and honor their dead ancestors. With All Souls Day came the practice of soul-ing. On All Souls Day, people would bake these little cakes that they called soul cakes, or souls for short.
00:22:40
Speaker
The souls were then given to kids and the poor who would go door to door begging for souls. Now in exchange for these souls, the recipient would promise to sing prayers for the dead whom they thought were still stuck in purgatory. This was called souling. Then the tradition of guising was invented in 16th century Scotland. Much like souling, kids would go door to door asking for food from their neighbors.
00:23:05
Speaker
The reason it was called guising is because the kids would be wearing a disguise while doing it. As the kids approached each house in their masks, they would be reciting rhymes and often threatening to do mischief if they are not welcomed. With the large influx of Irish and Scottish escaping the potato famine to America in the 1800s, they brought their traditions with them.
00:23:26
Speaker
In America, kids were already doing pranks on Halloween night. This time of year is when the spirits were out and the kids could get away with more pranks. Just blame the spirits for your fence door being stolen, or the fact that the barn door opened up in the middle of the night. I don't know why all the pranks I could think of involved doors, but
00:23:42
Speaker
Here we are. Adults started to notice that if they gave kids candy in the evening, there would be less and less harassment and vandalism at night. And eventually, the kids knew the adults plan and were cool with it. To a kid, candy is as good as cash, if not better. So slowly throughout Halloween in the 1900s, kids started going door to door, not asking for soul cakes anymore, but asking for candy. But like guising, it was like a threat. They'd say, treat up or tricks.
00:24:12
Speaker
Meaning, if you don't give us treats, expect some tricks. Tricks could have been anything nefarious. Like I said earlier, any door type crime where you steal a door, take a door off of hinges, open doors, I'm just kidding. It could have been anything. Nowadays, it's kind of the same rule. When I was a kid, if you didn't give us candy on Halloween, we probably would have toilet paper to your yard.
00:24:32
Speaker
or maybe even egged your house or your car or something. We couldn't do the egging too much because it was hard to get eggs in my small town. So many people used to get egged that the grocery stores wouldn't sell eggs to kids for the two weeks leading up to Halloween. And from there, trick or treating became mainstream and less menacing and tell what it is today.
00:24:54
Speaker
Now it seems as you get older, the treats become less fun, and the tricks become the fun on Halloween. I stopped egging stuff around the age of 13, but I knew guys when I was 16 or 17 that didn't even trick or treat anymore, they just went around midnight and egged their enemy's house. It's better than fist fighting your enemy, I guess. Or shooting them.
00:25:13
Speaker
All I know is that, as an adult, if my house was egged, I'd be extra pissed and I'd try to find the little ******* that did it. And if I caught the little ******* in the act, I'd probably chase them. Probably with a bat. And that seems like a reasonable response. But sometimes reasonable responses aren't the correct response.
00:25:32
Speaker
And that's not fair, but neither is trick or treat. Why do I have to do anything, you little extortionist? Sometimes you just got to let it go. And I think that's what the parents did when trick or treating first kind of started. They said, well, just give them candies. It's better than getting all of our stuff broken, all of our doors taken off their hinges. So now let me introduce you to a guy named Carl Jackson. He went to school at our savior Lutheran in the Bronx in the 90s.
00:26:01
Speaker
As a teenager, Carl hated Halloween because his neighborhood was dangerous. It was the Bronx in the 90s and I'm sure there's a bunch of gang activity. So Carl grows up, gets through high school. And by the time he is 21, he is a computer programmer at Morgan Stanley, the giant investment firm. Now, some of the articles say computer programmer, others say he was a data entry clerk. And I'm going to say at 21, he might've been a computer programmer,
00:26:28
Speaker
But it's more likely a nicer way of saying data entry clerk because data entry clerk is a boring job. Less interesting sounding. Anyway, on October 31st, 1998.
00:26:39
Speaker
The 21-year-old Carl, his 29-year-old girlfriend Darlene, are in the car driving to go pick up her 9-year-old son Clyde. Clyde was at a Halloween party near Gun Hill Road in the Bronx. Now, I feel like if you want safer streets, you rename the street Gun Hill Road, but that's just me. Clyde and his pals were having a great time bopping for apples, eating candy, and listening to spooky music.
00:27:05
Speaker
Carl and Darlene were actually just picking up Clyde to drop him off at his babysitter's house for the night. Darlene was excited that her and Carl could go out to a Halloween party with their adult friends this year. Carl didn't really like Halloween like I'd said earlier but Darlene wanted to go out so Carl figured why not. And as they're driving all of a sudden BAM! An egg hits the windshield of his car as he's driving.
00:27:30
Speaker
Kids, Carl exclaims as he slams the brakes while pulling over the side of the road. Carl gets out of his car and walks quickly towards the kids, yelling and shouting. Darlene is sitting in the passenger seat. Don't do anything, Carl. They're just stupid kids. Get back in the car. Carl still walks, all while inside her head thinking, yeah, Carl, talk about sexy. You tell those teenagers where to go. Carl yells at them, silence for a few seconds, and door opens. Carl gets back in the car.
00:28:00
Speaker
Carl, you didn't have to do that. Now there's two ways the story is reported, both ways and the same. The first one is, as reported by the New York Times in 1998, also exaggerated for color by me. Let's just get that in there. Here's how it's first reported. After the thigh grab,
00:28:23
Speaker
The thigh grab is a Richard exaggeration, not the New York Times, just so everyone knows. Carl, you didn't have to do that. As her hands grab his thigh. F*** those kids. He thinks as he drives away, even though he was their age not that long ago. When he drives away, Curtis Sterling, one of the cool Halloween Egger tricksters,
00:28:43
Speaker
Gets in a car, pursues, and then shoots it in the head. That's the info. Like, did he pull up beside them? Were they getting run off the road? What happened here? Stop light? Anyways, that's, that's all the reporting I get on that. So that's story number one. And the second way it's reported, it's another New York Times article, but this time from 2010 and it's reported a little differently. So after the thigh grab, remember that's a Richard exaggeration for color. Carl, you didn't have to do that as her hand grabs his thigh.
00:29:13
Speaker
Curtis Sterling followed Carl to the car. Then Sterling runs up to the car, places the barrel of the gun to Carl's temple, and pulls the trigger, killing Carl instantly. Either way, ends the same. Carl was dead, family traumatized. Curtis Sterling ran. He was terrified. He just killed a man.
00:29:33
Speaker
Curtis decides that if the cops don't have a murder weapon, they can't charge him with murder. So Curtis decides to sell the gun. Turns out the guy that he found to sell the weapon to was an undercover police officer. Sterling was arrested and charged with murder. Curtis Sterling got 20 years in jail.
00:29:48
Speaker
Carl's family was and still is devastated, I'm sure. Each Halloween they go to Carl's grave at the Woodland Cemetery in the Bronx for a visit. Various members of Carl's family leave him messages painted on stones they leave at his grave. Another tradition Gloria, Carl's mother, has for Halloween is sending Curtis Sterling a Halloween card in jail.
00:30:11
Speaker
Inside it always reads, I'm glad you're still there. Now assuming that Sterling's court case was finished by 2000 and he did his entire sentence without getting any extra time added for doing dumb **** in jail, Sterling would be out now. And that's the tale of Carl Jackson. Sometimes you just got to let it go. Doing the right thing or doing the reasonable thing sometimes isn't the reasonable answer.
00:30:35
Speaker
So I say on Halloween this year to avoid getting egged, give the kids all the best candy in town, full size chocolate bars, pops, stuff like that. Keep your house from getting egged. And if you do get egg because you decide not to participate, just let it go. Cause there could be a Curtis Sterling waiting for you. Happy Halloween, everyone.
00:31:00
Speaker
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00:32:05
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00:35:01
Speaker
We continue our journey deeper into the forest where the air is thick with the scent of decay.
Allison's Mystery of Sylvia Salinas
00:35:07
Speaker
Here we find Allison from Coffee and Cases podcast huddled around a campfire. She is a connoisseur of all things creepy, unsolved murder, mysterious disappearances, and the paranormal. And the stories shared on her podcast will often have you looking over your shoulder as you should be right now.
00:35:31
Speaker
Hello from Coffee and Cases True Crime podcast, where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. Allison here. I'm by myself this go round as my co-host is on maternity leave. But even though I'm temporarily a one woman show, you can still check out new episodes of our podcast every Thursday on your favorite podcasting app to hear coverage of many lesser known cases that are screaming for justice.
00:35:59
Speaker
just like this one that I have for you today. Now, let's dive into this case. Sylvia Salinas, born January 7, 1959, was one of the four children of Durlis Salinas Sr. and Maria Elena Salinas. Her parents from La Hacienda de Guadalupe, Mexico, decided to move to Galveston, Texas to raise their children.
00:36:24
Speaker
The religious Catholic family attended regular mass and became an integral part of their local community when Sylvia's brother, Durlus Jr., purchased the small grocery store at the corner of 31st Street and Avenue Q. Her brother ran the store for nearly two decades before making the decision to open another grocery store, but this one in Hawaii. He transferred ownership of the store in Galveston to his parents.
00:36:53
Speaker
From there, in 1988, Sylvia officially purchased the store.
00:36:59
Speaker
Everyone in the neighborhood already knew her from working at the store for years prior, and they loved her, calling her Aunt Sil or T.S. Sil. An old roommate of Sylvia's, Cynthia Marsh, noted how kind Sylvia Salinas was to any and all in the neighborhood, and that she would listen to people's problems. Though she was close to, she would even invite behind the counter to keep her company there.
00:37:24
Speaker
She would advance store credit against future paychecks for those who needed food before they were paid. She had their backs. But she was also on alert at all times. Marsh said in an article for Galveston Daily News, quote, that store was her life. She was a very alert person in running her business. She'd been doing it for 10 years and she was a person who was alert to danger. She could tell when people who came into her store were a threat, end quote.
00:37:53
Speaker
You see, while Sylvia was a person who believed in the good in people, she was also perceptive and knew that even though she trusted others, it was possible that she may need to protect herself and her profits in the store. So she kept both a pistol and a machete at the register.
00:38:14
Speaker
Despite the joy that Sylvia got from interacting with others in the neighborhood, courtesy of her position in the store, running it was a lot of work, and Sylvia had already made the hard decision to not renew the store's lease of the building it was in when it came due in 1990. Instead, she decided that she would like to follow in her brother Durlis Jr.'s footsteps and move to Hawaii.
00:38:38
Speaker
who could blame her, but she never got the opportunity to share memories in the sand and surf with her brother.
00:38:46
Speaker
On October 31st, 1989, 30-year-old Sylvia Salinas' parents had just left her to go home for lunch. Sylvia was staying behind at the store to restock the shelves. At 1.23 p.m., the Galveston Police Department received notification that a silent alarm had been triggered as Salinas' food store, meaning there was a robbery in progress since the silent alarm was linked to the cash register.
00:39:13
Speaker
Within four minutes, by 1.27 p.m., two officers, John Lopez and Carol Ivey, arrived on scene to find Sylvia Salinas murdered, and the cash register pried open.
00:39:28
Speaker
In a police report, officers wrote, quote, The victim was obviously dead. No defensive type wounds are present on the decedent's forearms, wrists, or hands. There is one stab wound above the left breast, end quote. The knife had pierced her heart and a lung.
00:39:50
Speaker
Officers knew what had caused the wound as there on the counter near Sylvia's body was the murder weapon, described as a 9 to 10 inch butcher knife.
00:40:01
Speaker
To me, however, it looks like the curvature of a filleting knife. And I know this because in the hours after law enforcement first arrived, Sergeant James Kitchen got to the store equipped with a video camera to take the scene. He captured Sylvia's body by the stool on which she had been seated. He honed in on the knife on the counter. He focused on the bloody shoe prints on the floor of the store.
00:40:29
Speaker
While there, police collected fingerprints and also noted blood on the pried open cash register, leading them to believe that the perpetrator had killed Sylvia and then used the same knife to pry open the cash register. While coins and food stamps remained in the register, all of the paper money had been taken.
00:40:51
Speaker
Everyone in the community was in shock at Sylvia's untimely death. Hers was a loss felt by all. Cynthia Marsh said of Sylvia's death, quote, whoever killed her didn't just kill her. They killed a part of everyone who knew her, end quote.
00:41:09
Speaker
but also causing shockwaves was the fact that it didn't seem as though anyone saw anything suspicious, or at least if they did, they weren't talking about it. In total, 20 people were interviewed by police, but no suspects were named. Witnesses reported four different men at or around the time Sylvia had been murdered being around the Salinas food store.
00:41:35
Speaker
Some witnesses reported seeing two men enter the store around the time of the murder. Other witnesses reported an African American man in dark clothing using a pay phone outside the store, who if not involved himself may have seen something.
00:41:51
Speaker
Still, other witnesses reported a Caucasian man with sandy blonde or brown hair running down the alley beside the food store, again who, if not involved himself, may have seen something. None of the four men have ever been identified.
00:42:08
Speaker
But that fact didn't jive with friend Cynthia Marsh, who told Galveston reporters for an article on November 6th, 1989, quote, when this happened, it was a busy time. It was lunchtime. People are always going in and out. There was always activity around Selena's grocery. People are always going in and out. The neighborhood is a kind of open neighborhood. Someone is always watching. People sit on their porches.
00:42:34
Speaker
It's hard for me to believe at that time of day that no one saw anything. There has to be someone out there who saw something." She went on to note later in that same article that Sylvia had developed many new friendships of late with individuals who lived in Houston. The fact that Cynthia Marsh gives a call to action for them to come forward to provide information to detectives on who may have killed Sylvia
00:43:04
Speaker
leads me to believe that it's Marsha's opinion that the perpetrator might not be a Galveston native. What most close to Sylvia do agree on, including law enforcement, is that Sylvia Salinas knew her killer. You see, based on the crime scene, it was clear that Sylvia had been seated on a stool behind the counter when she had been stabbed.
00:43:26
Speaker
This meant that the killer wasn't someone she was on alert about as a threat, or else she wouldn't have been seated. It was someone standing close to her. This was a knife wound, after all, and not a gunshot, and recall that she only invited those very close to her and those she trusted behind the counter with her. There were no defensive wounds, which shows that there was no struggle and that she likely didn't see the attack coming.
00:43:54
Speaker
Couple all of that with the fact that Sylvia had not triggered the store's alarm system, nor had she reached for her machete, nor her pistol. The only reason the alarm had gone off was because after the perpetrator killed Sylvia, they pried open the cash register and had tripped the silent alarm themselves. Over the years, police have wondered whether the motive were robbery, and Sylvia was a casualty of that theft,
00:44:21
Speaker
or whether the motive was murder and the robbery were an afterthought. I know with money gone, it may seem more logical to believe that robbery was the motive, but I'm not so convinced.
00:44:34
Speaker
You see, I would imagine that if robbery were the motive, a very different crime from murder, they would have first demanded the money or for the drawer to be opened. And if either of those had happened, Sylvia would have been aware of entering into a dangerous situation, would have fought with a person, would have attempted to trigger the alarm, or would have at least attempted to grab for a weapon. But none of those things happened. The murder happened first.
00:45:03
Speaker
Then, and only then, was the bloodied knife used to pry open the register for the money. Sadly, much of the evidence in Sylvia's case was destroyed during Hurricane Ike. However, just recently it was discovered that the videotape of the crime scene, the murder weapon itself, and the fingerprints collected from the scene are still available.
00:45:26
Speaker
That much, at least, gives us hope that answers are still possible. That in time, the Salinas family may believe in goodness again, if someone were to come forward with information. You see, on November 5th, 1989, Brother Durlist Jr. told the Galveston Daily News, quote, Sylvia was a very loving girl and a naive girl, too. She wanted to believe in people. She died believing that people are basically good.
00:45:56
Speaker
She would never suspect anyone would hurt her." We need to push for answers in Sylvia's case, tell her story, and show her brother that there are still good people out there willing to help fight for justice.
00:46:12
Speaker
Recently, Sylvia's niece, Christine Taylor, has taken up the fight in finding answers by contacting local news stations to keep her aunt's story alive. You see, even if we don't have information to share, we can all do our small part by sharing stories like this one. Maybe that'll be what it takes for someone who does have information to know that there are still people who won't rest until Sylvia's case is solved.
00:46:42
Speaker
Anyone with information is asked to call Galveston Crime Stoppers at 409-763-8477. You may remain anonymous.
00:46:56
Speaker
We reach a fork in the path and to our left we see the ruins of an abandoned castle.
Brooke and Ashley on Adolescent Crime Inspired by 'Scream'
00:47:01
Speaker
Within its walls, Brooke and Ashley dwell, their voices raspy and otherworldly. They are masters of true crime horrors from the podcast, Teachers Talk Crime, and their stories will take you to places where nightmares are born to show that evil exists everywhere, even in schools.
00:47:25
Speaker
I'm Ashley. And I'm Brooke. And you're here with us on a Teachers Talk Crime Podcast. Hey, everyone. Welcome. Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween. If you don't know us, we are Teachers Talk Crime. We are a podcast that focus on crimes committed by adolescents. And when necessary, we include our teacher backgrounds and give you our takes on some things.
00:47:53
Speaker
Yeah, about the education system and maybe some things that we've experienced in the classrooms, maybe some suggestions on how the system could be better, what is the system doing right, et cetera, et cetera. So if you would like to hear more, you can stream us on all platforms, Teachers Talk Crime. And we're also on social media. We're on YouTube under Teachers Talk Crime. And we're also on Instagram at Teachers Talk Crime.
00:48:17
Speaker
Yep. So everything's just teachers taught crime. Yeah. So we hope you enjoy this and we're going to get straight into the case and we hope you are a new listener slash follower by the end of it. Sit down, shut up. The murder is about to begin.
00:48:32
Speaker
Please note that this lesson contains disturbing content primarily involving murder. Previously on Teacher's Talk Crime, we delve into the chilling and tragic event that occurred on January 13, 1998 in Linwood, California. The participants of this story are 37-year-old Gina Castillo, her 16-year-old son Mario Padilla, and her 14-year-old nephew Samuel Ramirez.
00:48:58
Speaker
The chain of events leading to this horrific incident began with a simple request from Gina to her son Mario. She asked him to complete some household chores and it seems that Mario had been grounded as a form of punishment, likely for failing to complete these tasks. This grounding did not sit well with Mario and he began increasingly resentful.
00:49:18
Speaker
As tensions escalated, Mario confided in Samuel and together they reached a shocking agreement. They decided to murder Gina. This swift and drastic decision is deeply unsettling and it begs the question of what drove them to such a horrifying choice. The answer lies in their obsession with the Scream movies, particularly Scream and Scream 2.
00:49:40
Speaker
So if you wanted to know how this was going to relate to Halloween, we all love some spooky movies, but these two took it a little too far using the Scream franchise as their inspiration. And no, no. Thank you. No, thank you. Nope. Just watch it. Don't do it. OK.
00:50:00
Speaker
Both boys were captivated by these films, considering them cool. However, their fascination went far beyond mere admiration. They began discussing these movies as if they were a blueprint for real-life killings. One of them even expressed that the movie's murders were the perfect way to kill somebody. Unfortunately, no one took their words seriously enough to report them, emphasizing the importance of speaking up when someone talks about harming others.
00:50:28
Speaker
Their obsession with the Scream movies ran so deep that they planned to buy the ghostface costumes and voice distortion devices to emulate the movie while committing real murders. Witnesses would later recall hearing the boys referring to their fantasies as doing a scream or busting a scream, using disturbing terminology that should have raised alarm bells.
00:50:49
Speaker
And as we know now, the Scream franchise, when it got brought up in court, they don't take any accountability for this. None whatsoever, because like it should not be known that a movie should have a disclaimer. Hey, don't actually go do these things. It's like common courtesy.
00:51:08
Speaker
Yeah. Returning to that fateful day of January 13, 1998, Mario and Samuel brutally attacked Gina. Mario approached her from behind while Samuel held her down. The attack resulted in Gina being stabbed a horrifying 45 times using at least four different knives.
00:51:28
Speaker
Lacking the funds for the Scream costumes, the boys resorted to pulling their shirts over their heads as disguises while committing this heinous act. Remarkably, even after sustaining 45 stab wounds, Gina managed to call 911 for help and reached out to her husband, Pedro Castillo, who was Mario's stepfather.
00:51:46
Speaker
Mario and Samuel also stole money, either $140 or $150, from Gina, funds originally intended as a baptism gift for Gina's one-month-old daughter. After the assault, the boys callously watched Gina die from outside her apartment, likely through a window.
00:52:06
Speaker
Tragically, Gina was found dead in her two-bedroom apartment on the same day she was murdered. While it is not clear how the boys were apprehended, they were arrested immediately and confessed to stabbing and robbing Gina. Their confessions revealed that they were influenced by the screen movies and intended to make threatening calls to their fellow high school students.
00:52:26
Speaker
However, during the trial, Compton Superior Court Judge John Cherosky made a controversial decision to ban any mention of the Scream movies. He also prohibited the case from being referred to as the Scream murder case. This decision worried Deputy District Attorney Carol Rose, who believed that the removal of all references to the movie would weaken her case, even though the films played a pivotal role in the boy's motivations.
00:52:54
Speaker
Despite Mario's public defender, Paul Golub, claiming that Mario suffered from mental illness and was unfit for trial, Judge Cheraski refused to place him in a psychiatric clinic. Cheraski argued that the murder displayed careful planning and sophistication, making Mario a threat to society.
00:53:12
Speaker
During the trial, it was revealed that Mario and Samuel had not only planned to kill Gina but also Mario's stepfather Pedro Castillo, as well as two other girls from the area who received threatening letters and phone calls. Fortunately, Pedro was spared because he was at work during the murder. The boys even invited a friend named Aaron Hernandez to join in the killing, but he declined their horrifying invitation.
00:53:37
Speaker
Pedro Castillo, despite raising Mario for 10 years, did not attend his stepson's week-long trial. He wanted no further contact with Mario and Carol Rose later delivered the verdict to him. Mario Padillo was found guilty as an adult and received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Samuel was sentenced to 25 years to life because he was 14 at the time of the murder and therefore could not receive a life sentence without parole.
00:54:04
Speaker
As of May 2022, there was a significant update regarding Mario's case. The California Supreme Court ruled that his case would be sent back for a transfer hearing, where a juvenile court judge would assess various factors, including Mario's maturity, criminal history, and potential rehabilitation. To hear the full episode of this cage, search Teachers Talk Crime on your favorite podcast platform and listen to episode 61 titled, The Screen Murder.
00:54:33
Speaker
Thank you and happy Halloween.
Leroy's Amusing and Ominous Halloween Tales
00:54:35
Speaker
Bye. Bye.
00:54:39
Speaker
We continue our walk and the forest grows darker and more ominous. We can hear the sound of something moving in the bushes, but we cannot see what it is. Suddenly we come up on a clearing and in the center of the clearing stands Leroy Luna. His eyes are black as night and a smile is wicked. Leroy is the host of Excuse Me That's Illegal and he invites you to join him on a journey into the heart of the ominous
00:55:09
Speaker
and the hysterical.
00:55:22
Speaker
And while I don't dive into the worst of the worst, week in and week out, like you're probably accustomed to, that doesn't mean I don't come across my fair share of creeps, peeps you need to be wary of, that the youngins, our children, our nieces, our nephews, our neighbors need to be wary of, especially around the holidays.
00:55:41
Speaker
It really is true when they say, crime doesn't take a vacation. That is a saying, right? Is Halloween even considered a holiday? Aw man, now you got me overthinking it. Anyway, I've assembled a few short cautionary tales for you that I've come across in my travels so you know the potential dangers to look out for as the Halloween season approaches.
00:56:02
Speaker
Our first incident takes place in Maryland, specifically Ann Arundel County. This was last year back in 2022. It's Halloween night around 7 30 p.m. So, you know, the festivities are in full swing when police receive a call about a 45 year old woman displaying some disturbing behavior at her home. Wendy Kachorik. My apologies, Wendy, if I just butchered your last name there, is handing out candy and wait for it.
00:56:31
Speaker
whilst screaming obscenities and exposing herself to the children who come to her door. Talk about getting a trick and a treat. Wow. Inappropriate to say the least. And this is why I don't let my sons go trick or treating alone. I'd hate to miss out on something like this. I can't help but think if there were some teens out there, they'd be slapping each other high fives, being all like, yo!
00:56:55
Speaker
You gotta go to that lady's place on the corner, man. Why is she like handing out kinds of pop or full size chocolate bars or something? Nah, man, it's even better than that. Trust me, bro. All kidding aside, this is some predatory behavior, or at the very least, this lady is severely mentally unstable.
00:57:13
Speaker
Wendy was hit with disorderly conduct and indecent exposure charges. Unreal. Moving on to incident number two. I told you these would be shorties. I don't have much time over here. Let's travel back to 2012 for this one and go across the pond to the town of Oldham.
00:57:30
Speaker
which is in Greater Manchester, England. We got police constable Simon Fowl, and he's taking his kids trick or treating. The off-duty officer has three children with him. They are eight, six, and five years of age, so quite the handful. The rambunctious kiddos excitedly ring their last doorbell of the evening. It's been a long night for Officer Simon, no doubt, and he wants to get him home, maybe fix himself a drink.
00:57:56
Speaker
They probably should have ended their evening a little earlier, as they could have avoided some trouble here. 23-year-old Donald Junior Green stumbles to the door. This man likes to PARTY! And he's at his girlfriend's home. They've been handing out little packages of those Haribo sweets. Delicious candies. I love the gummy bears or those little SOTY pops.
00:58:18
Speaker
Anyway, Donald, who is already pretty high, while he reaches into his pocket, grabs a few packets and gives them to the trick-or-treaters. They say they're thank yous and leave. A couple minutes later, Donald thinks to himself, time to get high. He grabbed himself 200 pounds worth of cocaine earlier that day. 200 pounds as in $200 worth. We're in England here. I'm not talking about the weight. 200 pounds of cocaine would be worth millions on the streets.
00:58:47
Speaker
Donald doesn't work for the cartel. He just uses the coke recreationally. He likes the smell. So he reaches back into his pocket and pulls out. Oh, all he's got are these parabo candies. Wait a minute. Nah, he couldn't be that stupid. Yep, he is. Our boy just accidentally distributed three little baggies of cocaine into the baggies of those sweet little children instead of the sweets.
00:59:14
Speaker
Crap. He panics and rushes outside to try and find the kids to fix his mistake. But they are nowhere to be found. Remember, I said this was their last house of the evening. So let's check in on the Fowl family who are already in their home. They have scattered their candy on the floor. They're checking out their hall from the evening, as kids do. Officer Simon is with them looking for potential dangers.
00:59:37
Speaker
Razor blades and the like when he spots a little baggie of what looks to be cocaine. He's a cop after all. He knows a baggie of drugs when he sees him. He yoinks all three baggies off the floor and asks his eldest child, do you remember who gave you this? She goes, yeah, mate. We got those over at the very last house. Strange, isn't it?
00:59:57
Speaker
The officer calls his on-duty buddies, informs them of the situation, and they pay Donald a visit. When they get to his door, poor Donny answers and says, quote, I know exactly why you're here. I knew you were coming, end quote. The officers promptly arrested him.
01:00:12
Speaker
Donald's lawyer, Steve Sullivan, had this to say in court. This was an accidental act. It was grossly foolhardy. It took him only a matter of minutes to realize his error. This is clearly a highly unusual and unfortunate case. Not surprisingly, it has attracted a good deal of adverse publicity. Donald has been embarrassed by the publicity, but does not seek to feel sorry for himself. Right on. I like his attitude.
01:00:37
Speaker
and he was just hit with a single charge of possessing a Class A drug. His mistake could have had some disastrous consequences, but thankfully it didn't. Hey, at least Donnie didn't flash anybody like our girl Wendy did. It's not like he answered the door dressed like Tony Montana, handing the kids some coke, flashing them, and saying, Say hello to my little friend. Missed opportunity, I suppose.
01:01:01
Speaker
We've got time for one more quickie. Story number three takes place in Texas back in 2021, and it involves a firearm. I'll give you a moment to pick your jaws up off the floor. It's shocking, I know. This idiot, 35-year-old Monica Bradford, well, she isn't taking part in the Halloween festivities, which is just fine. But if you're not going to hand out candy, turn off your lights.
01:01:24
Speaker
close the curtains, and if anyone rings your doorbell, just ignore it. I've done it plenty of times. No big deal. But no, Monica has her front porch light on, and her house is visited several times by kiddies, and each time, knit with Monica, screams at the children to get off her property.
01:01:43
Speaker
Finally around 7pm she's had enough. Her doorbell rings once again. There's a 7 year old child eagerly awaiting her to answer. And she does. With a loaded shotgun in her hands. Pointing it right at the child. Of course this frightens them and they go running back to their parents. Who stood at the edge of the driveway in shock and horror. Thankfully the child wasn't harmed. At least not physically. Mentally that may be another story.
01:02:10
Speaker
Monica's neighbor was questioned about the events leading up to this incident, and she said, she just asked me, who's in my driveway? And I was like, I don't know. She said, fine. Since you can't tell me, I'm going to get my shot done. I was in shock. It's Halloween. There are kids everywhere. How can somebody just come out with a weapon and scare these kids?
01:02:30
Speaker
End quote. Police were called to the scene and Moronica Bradford was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Crazy stuff. And yeah, there you have it. A few cautionary tales heading into Halloween. These incidents are few and far between, but they do happen. So be ready. Keep your head on a swivel. But above all else, I hope you all have a safe and happy Halloween. Peace.
01:02:57
Speaker
We turn to our right and find ourselves in a graveyard. Among the tombstones, we see Johanna and Annie from Fresh Hell podcast, their faces illuminated by the flickering light of a candle.
Annie and Johanna's Historical True Crime with Ghostly Testimonies
01:03:10
Speaker
They are historians of the dark arts and their stories will reveal the hidden horrors of the past.
01:03:19
Speaker
I'm Annie in America. And I'm Johanna from Austria, and we're the hosts of Fresh Hell podcast, bringing you international true stories of murder, mystery, and the macabre events in history. Today, we're very excited to share one of our favorite cases in a much more condensed version from our usual program. This is the story of the Greenbrier ghost. The only case in the United States where a ghost helped to convict a cold-blooded murderer.
01:03:47
Speaker
Our story takes place in the late 1800s, when West Virginia was still a fairly new state, having split from Confederate Virginia during the American Civil War, becoming a state in 1863. Erasmus's dribbling trout shoe didn't much like his name. He was one of at least seven children born to parents Elizabeth and Jacob in Mount Solon, Virginia, around 1861.
01:04:11
Speaker
His siblings, Susan, James, John, and so forth, had all been given names one might find on a souvenir keychain, but not Erasmus, who was clearly salty about it and hated his name. So we're gonna keep on using it. Erasmus was a tall, dark, and handsome man who, like his father, worked as a blacksmith. His first marriage was to Ellie Estlin Cutlip, known as Esty. They married in 1885 when she was 18 years old and not long after their marriage, he began to hit her.
01:04:41
Speaker
He allegedly beat Estes so badly, a group of men in town got together and beat the hell out of him, then threw him into a frozen river, but he survived. And of course he kept on hitting her. They had a daughter in 1887 and in 1889, when Erasmus went to prison for stealing horses, she divorced him on grounds of abuse and she and her daughter got out of that marriage alive.
01:05:05
Speaker
It wasn't long after he was released from prison that he met his second wife, Lucy N. Trit. Lucy was born around 1870 in Greenbrier County near Alderson, West Virginia, to parents Isaac and Elizabeth. They were married in June 1894 and lived on Droop Mountain in Pocahontas County, West Virginia with his family.
01:05:26
Speaker
Eight months later, on 11 February 1895, Lucy was dead. She was 24 years old and the death was not investigated. According to Erasmus, she had a bad fall and struck her head on a rock. And the locals, you know, the man who had already tried and failed to kill him, did not believe him. Fearing for his own life, Erasmus moves over the mountain to Greenbrier, where he opens a forge and he changes his name to Edward, but everyone calls him Trout.
01:05:54
Speaker
Okay, it's now 127 years ago, October of 1896. Erasmus meets the beautiful 23-year-old Elva Sona Hester when her family visited the forge and she was immediately infatuated with this handsome stranger.
01:06:10
Speaker
Her parents, Jacob Hetches Hester, a farmer and Mary Jane Robinson Hester, did not approve. But despite their protests, on 20th October 1896 Erasmus' scribbling trout Shu married Elva Sona Hester at the local church. Mary Jane is even more upset when after the wedding Sona starts to look pale and tired. She's suddenly clumsy with bruises all over her body to show for it.
01:06:36
Speaker
Acting the concerned husband, Trout makes a big show of repeatedly summoning the doctor, and the doctor of course can't find a clear cause for her symptoms. Three months after Sona was married, on 22nd January 1897, she is found dead at the bottom of the stairs. Her body is found by an errant boy who lived nearby.
01:06:56
Speaker
Erasmus had hired him the day before to come check on his sick wife and a traumatized boy runs home to his mother and then to the forge to tell Trout the terrible news. And Trout sends the boy to get the doctor. When the doctor arrives, Zona has been carried upstairs by her husband who has also changed his wife's clothing.
01:07:15
Speaker
Zona now wears a dress with a very high collar. He's holding her, cradling her head and sobbing uncontrollably. And if there's one thing this doctor cannot cope with, it's another man's tears. So ultimately, Dr. Knapp can't really get that close and doesn't examine her at all. Her cause of death is reported as everlasting faint, but he later changed it to complications from pregnancy.
01:07:40
Speaker
And if this sounds bizarre, let us remind you that when things like fast cars and trains first became common, doctors thought it would be unsafe for women because the uterus might fly out of a woman if she tried to stop when traveling at speed. Now, it is possible that she was pregnant, which maybe made her unusually clumsy, but there's really no reason to think that her injuries were anything other than his abusing her and setting himself up as the concerned husband with a clumsy wife. And it almost works.
01:08:10
Speaker
The grieving widower helps to prepare the body for vacant burial. Erasmus was very attentive to his dead wife, placing her in her casket himself, always cradling her head. He folded a sheet and put it on one side of her head and then put a folded dress on the other side and then he tied a large scarf around her neck. And when family members remarked that it didn't really go with the dress she was wearing for burial, he began again to sob, saying it was her favorite scarf and she would want it with her.
01:08:39
Speaker
She was waked at her parents' home with Trout staying at the head of his wife's casket until she was buried at the cemetery at Soule Chapel Methodist Cemetery in Meadow Glove.
01:08:49
Speaker
And that probably would have been it. Just another tragic and untimely death of a clumsy young bride if it weren't for the intervention of her ghost. That's right. Her ghost appeared to her mother four nights in a row and told her mother what had really happened. She didn't fall down the stairs. She had been murdered. Less than a month after her beloved daughter's death, Mary Jane was telling everyone everything. So let's talk about the supernatural events following Zona's death.
01:09:18
Speaker
First, when washing the white sheet that had been placed in the coffin to stabilize Zona's head, it turned the water blood red and then left the cloth permanently discolored pink. Then, more shockingly, she said that she had seen Zona's spirit not once, but four times.
01:09:35
Speaker
According to Mary Jane, she had prayed for her daughter to come to her, and to explain what had happened to her, and Zona had obliged. Each time she appeared, she was able to give a little more information, until finally she disclosed to her mother that Trout had been increasingly violent, and the night she died, he became enraged when she made a dinner he wasn't happy with, and that she was murdered when during the beating, he broke her neck at quote, the first joint, end quote.
01:10:02
Speaker
To show exactly what she meant by this, as she turned for the last time and began to walk away from her mother, Xona paused, turned her head around 180 degrees, made eye contact with her mother, and then vanished.
01:10:17
Speaker
Obviously, this was all the proof Mary Jane needed, and she began telling everyone that Trout had murdered her daughter. His response was chilling, positively cold, simply saying dismissively that no one would ever prove it. Mary Jane's description was so disturbing that she got Dr. Knapp, who had signed the death certificate, to agree that he might have been mistaken in his cause of death determination, which in turn convinced the local prosecutor, John Preston, to reopen the case.
01:10:45
Speaker
Thanks to Mary Jane's tenacity and Dr. Knapp's honesty, an exhumation was ordered and an inquest jury assembled. Trout was furious about the exhumation. The flouncy scarf had almost worked. Fortunately, because she died in winter, Zona's body was perfectly preserved. Exactly one month after her death,
01:11:03
Speaker
Not one, but three medical doctors performed a new autopsy on Zona, and the new cause of death was anoxia by manual strangulation compounded by a broken neck. Anoxia means a lack of oxygen to the brain. She had been strangled to death.
01:11:18
Speaker
Bruises in the shape of fingers were noted on Zona's neck, hidden by the high collar of her dress. Her windpipe was crushed, ligaments in her neck were torn, and her first and second cervical vertebrae were both fractured. That is to say, just as she had told her mother, her neck was broken at the first joint. At the inquest, Trout denied everything but had no alibi. Zona's death was reclassified as a homicide, and he was charged with her murder.
01:11:46
Speaker
While awaiting trial, people started to talk about Trout's other marriages, his second wife's mysterious death, now the subject of wild speculation, as was the cause of Sona's illness before death. Trout himself, locked up in Lewisburg, wasn't worried because they couldn't prove anything and besides, he always knew he'd have seven wives
01:12:05
Speaker
And he wasn't even halfway yet. Prosecutor John Press knew that Mary Jane's ghost story would never be considered proof and he had no plans to bring it up during the trial. He had plenty of evidence to convict Trout without it. William Rucker, the defense attorney, did bring it up when he cross-examined Mary Jane. He planned to discredit her by making her look like she had lost her mind in her grief over her daughter. It backfired.
01:12:30
Speaker
She calmly explained what she had seen. She stuck to her story and in the end jurors believed her. Trout testified on his own behalf which was a mistake. He rambled and no one believed him or found him even a little bit likable. The thing I just can't stop thinking about was the specificity of her mother knowing it was the first joint of the neck that was broken and it was. That is hard to discount.
01:12:55
Speaker
After an hour and ten minutes, the jury came back with a guilty verdict. They made a note to say that they convicted on circumstantial evidence and not the ghost story, because of course they had to say that. In June of 1897, trout was sentenced to life in prison, but again, the locals were furious and quickly formed a lynch mob. The sheriff had to hide trout in the woods so he wouldn't be hanged, and then he had to convince the mob to lay down weapons and go home. Four of those men would later be indicted for attempted lynching.
01:13:24
Speaker
At last Erasmus Trout was taken to the now infamous West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville with its tiny cold haunted cells and that's where he died not three years later on March 1st 1900 of the measles. He was 37 years old. Today there's a marker on Route 60 which reads
01:13:44
Speaker
Quote, interred in nearby cemetery is Zona Hestershoe. Her death in 1897 was presumed natural until her spirit appeared to her mother to describe how she was killed by her husband, Edward. Autopsy on the exhumed body verified the apparitions account. Edward, found guilty of murder, was sentenced to the state prison, only known case in which testimony from a ghost helped convict a murderer. End quote.
01:14:11
Speaker
And that is the story of the Greenbrier ghost. Did Zona's spirit return to her mother? Or did her mother do what was needed to be done in order to convict a dangerous man? Tell us what you think.
01:14:27
Speaker
The final six podcast hosts are waiting for us in the depths of the forest. They are the ones who will lead us into the darkest corners of the human psyche and the supernatural realm. But before we go any further, I must warn you, the forest is a dangerous place, and the creatures that dwell within are not to be trifled with. If you are not brave, turn back now.
01:14:52
Speaker
But if you dare to venture deeper, be prepared for anything and join us again for part two. Be sure to look at the show notes and subscribe to all 13 participating podcasts so you don't miss a single episode or tale of terror. What's that I hear? Oh, the darkness is calling my name again. And remember, when darkness calls, answer at your own peril.
01:15:25
Speaker
If you've been listening to our show for more than one episode, then you probably know about my love for animals. What I don't often talk about is the difficulty of meeting all their nutritional needs. Trust me, not all dog food is created equal, but we're about to solve that problem for you. It's called Nom Nom.
01:15:41
Speaker
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01:15:59
Speaker
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