Latest / Crime and Horror / They found his hat, and then the rest of him - MrBallen

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They found his hat, and then the rest of him - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: One morning in early November of 1888, a conductor drove
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: a steam train through the woods outside of Chantilly, France.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: And everything was business as usual, until the conductor noticed,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: way up ahead, just next to the tracks, there were
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: these two men, two maintenance workers, waving frantically at him
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and pointing at something that was on the ground on
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the tracks. The conductor couldn't really tell what they were doing,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: but he squinted and looked ahead, trying to figure out
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: what was on the ground. When he saw what it was.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: He lunged for the brakes.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: But before we get into that story, if you're a
• 0:33
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• 0:36
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• 0:59
  Speaker 1: let's get into today's story. On the evening of November 2nd, 1888...
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: A 45-year-old man named Ippolita Hoyos got dressed in a
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: three-piece suit in the bedroom of his very cramped apartment
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: in Paris, France. In the next room, he could hear
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: his wife, Alphonseine, cooking dinner while their three young kids
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: ran around playing. And even though this really should have
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: felt like a happy, idyllic moment, Ippolita instead felt this
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: pang of worry because keeping this family afloat was his responsibility. Recently,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: he'd had a very hard time doing that. So Ippolita
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: had grown up on a farm in Belgium, and when
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: he was younger, he'd gotten into some trouble with the
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: law and basically had a really tough time kind of
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: finding his way in life. But about 10 years ago,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: he had moved to France and he had met Alphonsine,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: and he also found a steady job running a farm
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: for a wealthy French noble in the countryside.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Now, Ippolita knew a lot about agriculture.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: He'd grown up on a farm. So in theory, this
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: job really should have been perfect for him. But the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: problem was no one on the farm really liked him.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: And it was true. He'd been very strict with the farmhands.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: But a lot of them had taken that sternness and
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: they had gone to their boss and complained about him,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: saying that he was overbearing and very difficult to work with.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: So last month, when Ippolito's contract was up and he
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: was expecting his boss would renew it, his boss didn't.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: And so now, Ippolita's, you know, perfect life.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: This amazing life he had built for himself here in
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: France with Alphonsine, felt like it was falling apart. And
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: so following not getting his contract renewed, Ippolita and his
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: wife and their kids had moved to Paris so he
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: could look for other work. But luckily, they'd also found
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: this very cheap but luckily furnished apartment just the week before,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: so they at least had a place to live.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: But Ippolita still needed work.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Now, this new neighborhood they were in, you know, understandably,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: because it was so cheap, it was largely full of,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: you know, working class people. And there were lots of
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: factories and lots of warehouses. So it was sort of
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: a little bit rough and tumble compared to what Ippolita
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: had become accustomed to working for this nobleman out in
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: the countryside. I mean, Ippolita, you know, he wasn't crazy
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: about the area. He had expensive tastes, even though he
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: didn't have an expensive budget. However, Ippolita knew that this
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: whole situation was just temporary. Because, after all, he was
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: about to come into a huge windfall. And he actually
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: had to travel outside of Paris right now to actually
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: get the money, which was what he was currently getting
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: dressed for. And so on this trip, his friend, 52-year-old
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Louis Barone, would be accompanying.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Him, at least for a portion of the trip.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Because he was going the same way for a job
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: interview that Ippolita had actually helped set up for him. Now,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Louis was also from Belgium, and so he had known
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Ippolita for a long time.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: But things were tense between them at the moment.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Ippolita had arranged for Louis to work on the farm
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: that he used to manage, but when Ippolita was fired,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: it had also cost Louis his job there as well.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: The reality was, Louis was quite furious.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, he was really upset about it, to the
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: point where Ippolita had actually helped pay for a room
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: at a hotel just a few blocks away from his
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: apartment in Paris for Louis. And he'd even let Louis
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: borrow one of his suits to wear to this job interview.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: And so really, Ippolita was hopeful that by the end
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: of this trip he was going on, his buddy Louis
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: would finally just stop.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Being mad at him. That was causing lots of problems.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: So now, after getting dressed in his fancy suit, Ippolita
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: packed up a bag with some extra clothes and some cash,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: and he put on a hat. Then he went into
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: the kitchen to kiss Alphonsine goodbye. She kissed him back,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: but she definitely seemed a little bit anxious, and Ippolita
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: figured she was just thinking about being left alone with
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: their three small kids. So he just reassured her that,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: you know, this trip, this was all going to be
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: worth it. Like, don't worry about a thing.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: I'll be back soon. Then he said goodbye to the
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: kids and then left for the train station.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Just after dark that night, Ippolita stepped off a train
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: at the station in Chantilly, which is about 30 miles
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: north of Paris. Louis was with him and already dressed
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: for his interview in the suit that Ippolita had given him.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: And as the two men walked across the platform... Ippolita
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: noticed that Louis was moving sort of slowly and awkwardly,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: like he was uncomfortable in the suit, like he wasn't
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: used to dressing that way. The men left the station
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: on foot and continued walking down the road towards Senlis,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: the little town where they were both spending the night.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: It was about a six-mile walk to get there, and
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: once they got outside of Chantilly, the road was surrounded.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Almost entirely by woods. It was dark and it was late,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: so there weren't many people that were out and about,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: and And the two men didn't talk much. So the
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: walk was very quiet.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Eventually, as they were approaching Senla's, they came to this
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: narrow stone bridge with metal railings on either side that
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: passed over a railroad track. And as they reached it,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Ippolita heard this rustling in the trees. He stopped and
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: he listened. And as he did, he felt his heart
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: start to pound because this whole walk has been just
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: like eerily quiet. And so to hear anything was just
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: sort of alarming. But as he stood there listening, he
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: couldn't hear it anymore, so he decided.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: He must be imagining things.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Now, Louis did not appear to hear the sounds at all,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: and he was still walking ahead across the bridge. So, Ippolita,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: he took a deep breath and then hurried onto the
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: bridge to catch up with him. The next morning, two
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: road maintenance workers were hauling a gravel-filled cart down that
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: same wooded road that connected Chantilly and St. Louis, the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: road that Louis and Ippolita had been on the night before.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: And so these workers were looking for potholes that they
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: would fill in with this gravel.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: And so they're moving along, they're.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Filling in potholes, and then eventually they got to that
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: narrow bridge by Sendless. And when they did, one of
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: them noticed a man's hat lying near the bridge's railing.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: And as they got near the hat, they looked on
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: the pavement and saw these dark splatters of blood.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: Now, the workers were immediately on edge. They're looking around.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: They don't see anybody. But at some point, one of
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: them looked over the railing.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: When he saw what was down below, he immediately shouted
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: that they had to go tell the police. Later that morning,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: a judge named Jean Aubertin walked down a small hill
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: by some railroad tracks. At the bottom, a police officer
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: and two road maintenance workers stood next to the tracks,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: staring down at a dead body. So in France at
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the time, judges were responsible for leading investigations instead of police.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: So Oberton would essentially function as the lead detective on
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: this case. And all he'd been told so far was
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: that a body had been found on this stretch of
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: train tracks, and he really didn't know what to expect
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: beyond that. When Oberton reached the group down below, the
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: police officer explained that the two workers, the road maintenance workers,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: had found the body that morning. They'd flagged down a
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: train conductor who would stop just in time and then
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: waited for them to move the body off the tracks.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: And then the conductor kept going in his train and
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: notified the police at the next station. And so Oberton,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: he knelt down to get a better look at the body. And,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: you know, right away he could tell that it was
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: clearly a man with blonde hair and that he was
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: wearing a nice three-piece suit. But that was really about
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: all he could conclude because his face was just completely mangled.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: and his head was almost completely severed from his body.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Many of his teeth were also broken, and there was
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: also a deep gash on his left foot near his ankle. Now,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: at first glance, Oberton wondered if he had just jumped
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: off the bridge and got hit by a train. But
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: when he looked closer, the pattern of the wounds on
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: his face just did not look like they'd been caused
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: by a train. These were long, distinct gashes going in
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: multiple different directions. It looked more like this man was
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: had been attacked with a sharp weapon, like an axe
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: or something. And Oberton's best guess was that whatever happened
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: to this guy very likely happened the night before. There
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: wasn't much decomposition and this railroad line got a lot
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: of traffic. So the body couldn't have been here for
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: very long or another train conductor would have seen him
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: earlier or maybe wouldn't have seen him and then run
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: him over. And then, you know, his body would be
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: completely mangled. As Oberton stood up, one of the workers
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: told him that they had seen blood up on the bridge.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: So Oberton, he climbed up the small hill onto the
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: bridge and he saw that hat that was lying by
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: the railing and then just a ton of blood all
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: around the hat on the ground. And to Oberton, I mean,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: there was so much blood up here that he figured
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: his theory that this guy was attacked had to have
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: been right here.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: I mean, he very... likely was attacked right here on
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: the bridge.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: And he either fell over the edge during the assault
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: or maybe after the assault, his killer threw his body,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: maybe to make it look like a suicide or perhaps
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: to dispose of evidence. And so at this point, Overton
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: felt pretty much certain that this was a homicide, and
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: he knew he would have to identify this victim as
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: soon as possible.
• 10:29
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• 10:30
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  Speaker 1: an official partner of the MLB. On the afternoon of
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: November 4th, 1888, the day after a man's body was
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: found mangled in the woods near Saint-Laz France, Judge Olberton
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: walked down a busy street in a working class part
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: of Paris. Now, by this point, he'd already gotten the
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: autopsy results back, but they didn't really tell him much
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: that he didn't already know, which was that the victim
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: had been killed by multiple strikes from a sharp weapon
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: like a hatchet. Now, even though the body itself had
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: not given Olberton too much to go on for this investigation,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: the clothes that the victim had on had given him something.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Overton had spent the past day piecing together clues that
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: he had found in the victim's pockets, including a piece
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: of paper with an address to a location in Paris
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: and the initials H.H. embroidered on a handkerchief. And at
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: this point, Overton knew what H.H.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Meant. It was the initials for the victim, Ippolita Hoyos.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Oberton had gone to that address in Paris from that
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: piece of paper, and he found it belonged to an
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: acquaintance of Ippolita's. And this person had not only identified Ippolita,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: but also he gave Oberton Ippolita's last known address, where
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: he had lived with his family. And Oberton was right
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: outside of that address now. But as he looked up
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: at the building that matched the address he'd been given,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: he wondered if he had the wrong place. The man
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: whose body had been found was wearing this really nice suit.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: and looked like he was upper class, based on the suit.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: And this was definitely not an upper class place to live.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: This was not a nice area. But Oberton went inside anyways,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: and he walked up a flight of stairs, and then
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: he knocked on the door of the apartment number that
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: he'd been given. Seconds later, a very tired-looking woman answered
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: the door, bouncing a toddler on her hip, and Oberton
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: asked her if this.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: Was the home of Ippolita Hoyos.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: The woman just kind of frowned and said, yes, she
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: was actually his wife, Alphonsine. Oberton kept it simple and
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: just said that he was a judge and he was
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: conducting an investigation and asked if he couldn't come in.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Alphonsine got this uneasy look on her face, but she
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: nodded and said, come on in.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Once they'd both sat down.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: At the dining room table, Oberton told her that the
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: investigation he was doing was for a homicide, that a
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: body had been found in the And he believed, unfortunately,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: the body belonged to her husband, Ippolita. And to Oberton's surprise,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Alfonsine just didn't seem very upset at all. She just
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: sat there expressionless as Oberton went on to explain.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: A little bit further, you know, what actually happened.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: That, you know, the body had been found on some
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: train tracks and it appeared like that he had been attacked.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Someone had clearly killed him.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: And as Oberton did this, he kept waiting for Alfonsine
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: to cry or gasp or really show any emotion, but
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: she just didn't. And Oberton couldn't decide whether this was
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: suspicious or if, you know, this woman was just in shock.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: So after, you know, laying out why he was here,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: he began just asking her questions to get a better
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: read on her. So he asked her, you know, when
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: was the last time you saw your husband? And she
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: just began to speak. She said it was the evening
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: he had left for the train station. He was going
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: to Belgium to collect the inheritance from a relative who
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: had died recently. She said that she'd been staying home
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: and taking care of their three kids since then and
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: hadn't heard anything from him since he had left. To Oberton,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: this explained why Ippolita was found in Senlis, because Senlis
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: was about halfway between Paris and Belgium, so clearly he
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: was on his way to Belgium. However, as he was
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: internalizing this new information, he was interrupted by a very
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: loud gasp. And he looked at Alfonsine to see that
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: she had sort of broken out of her muted state.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: and was staring at him with really wide eyes like
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: something huge had just occurred to her. And she told him,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe her husband had been on his way
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: back with all the money he got from the inheritance.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: And she said, you know, maybe he was killed by
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: a robber. Now, Olberton, he considered this, and a robbery did.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Make sense to him.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Ippolito was very well dressed, and there hadn't been any
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: money in any of his pockets.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: But this whole interview with his wife just felt really off.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Alphonsine didn't seem at all confused or rattled or upset
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: in any way. And now, just literally moments after finding
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: out that potentially your husband has been brutally murdered, like
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: he's dead, she's begun pitching theories of how he was killed,
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: like she was trying to point the finger at someone
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: else right away. It just felt off. Now, to Oberton.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Alfonsine did not really seem like she could have been
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: the one to actually kill Ippolita herself. She's clearly here
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: alone with three young kids. And, you know, this took
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: place in Senlis. And more than that is Ippolita was
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: a pretty big guy. And he clearly had been overpowered
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: by somebody or maybe multiple people.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: And, you know, Alfonsine was quite small.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: However, if she was involved and maybe hired someone to
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: carry out a hit on her husband.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: well, that would cost, presumably, quite a bit of money.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: And considering, you know, the low-quality nature of where they lived,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: it just seemed unlikely to Overton that she would be
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: able to afford paying a hitman. And so at this point,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Overton didn't think that Alfonsine was a particularly strong suspect,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: but at the same time, he couldn't completely rule her out. However,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: one thing he was definitely sure about, just based on
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: a gut feeling here, was that Alfonsine knew something.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: More than she was telling him.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: That night, when Judge Oberton got back to the courthouse
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: in Senlis, he walked down the hallway toward his office
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: and saw a police.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: Officer waiting at his door.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: And this officer told him that they'd arrested a man
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: that afternoon whose name was Etienne Bouillot for the murder
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: of Ippolita Hoyos.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: Oberton's heart began to race, and when he heard Etienne
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: was in.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: A holding cell in the jail right next door, he
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: told the officer to take him there right away. As
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: they hurried down the hallway and out of the courthouse,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: the officer explained to Oberton that that a group of
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: police had been out at the crime scene near Senlis
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: collecting evidence.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: And at some point, they'd passed Etienne sitting in the
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: woods nearby.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: And as soon as he saw the police approaching, Etienne
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: had just started running.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: And so the officers had chased him down and they
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: had caught him. And when they did, they noticed he had.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Blood on his pants and on his jacket. They also
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: found a bloody handkerchief that was in one of his pockets. Now,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: the officer said that Etienne had claimed he was hit
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: by a cart the night before, and that was why
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: he was covered in so much blood.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: But the police were just not convinced.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Especially because Etienne refused to give them an alibi for
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: where he had been the night Ippolito was actually killed.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: And so the officer and Oberton, they get to the
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: jail and they go inside. And when they reach the
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: holding cell, Oberton saw Etienne sitting inside. And he was
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: wearing very shabby clothes and looked like he might be homeless.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: And so Oberton, he goes inside the cell, and Etienne,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: he's just sitting there, he's not saying anything. And Oberton,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: he just sits down and begins going over all the
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: evidence that they had.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: And a lot of it made it seem like Etienne
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: was their guy.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: And at some point, when Oberton was done sort of
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: going over what they had, he told Etienne that you're
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: basically our only suspect at this point. So unless he
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: could give Oberton an alibi for the night of November 2nd,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: the night that Ippolita was killed, then unfortunately... Etienne was
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: very likely going to be charged with murder. At this point,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Etienne just sort of looked down for a moment and
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: then let out this long, defeated sigh, like the reality
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: of his situation was really settling in. Eventually, he looked
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: back up at Oberton, and he mumbled that he did
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: have an alibi. He said he had spent the whole
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: night sleeping at an inn in Chantilly. He said the
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: reason he hadn't told the police this is because he
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: actually left the inn without paying. And that's also why
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: he had run from the police when he was seen
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: in the woods. He thought they were there to arrest
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: him for theft. Overton looked hard at Etienne. He wasn't
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: sure if he believed him, but he wrote down the
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: name of the inn and planned to go out there
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: and verify Etienne's alibi first thing in the morning. A
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: week later, Judge Oberton walked down a street in Paris,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: in the same working-class neighborhood where Ippolita and his family lived.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: He was on his way to check out a lead
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: that he really hoped would reinvigorate his investigation. because over
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: the last week, the case had completely stalled. Etienne's alibi
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: had checked out. The inn's owner verified that Etienne had
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: stayed there that night, and at some point he had
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: left without paying. Now, this did not completely rule Etienne out,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: because he could have left his room without anyone noticing
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: to go commit this murder, but it did make it
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: seem much more likely that Etienne was just in the
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: wrong place at the wrong time. And since Etienne, Overton
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: hadn't gotten any more tips about this case. until that morning,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: when he'd gotten word that one of Ippolita's friends was missing.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: This friend was a Belgian farmer named Louis Barone, who
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: had come to France to work with Ippolita. And this friend, Louis,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: hadn't been seen in over a week. Basically, since the murder,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: he's been missing. And so to Oberton, the timing here
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: was just too perfect to be a coincidence. And so
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: now the judge was looking into Louis as a possible
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: suspect who maybe skipped town after killing Ippolito. Olberton came
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: to a stop outside of the hotel where he had
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: heard Louis was most recently living, which happened to be
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: just a few blocks from Ippolito's apartment. The judge went
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: inside and approached the front desk and asked the manager
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: if a guest named Louis Barone had been around recently.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: And the manager said that yes, they definitely knew who
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Louis Barone was, but he hadn't been here in about
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: a week. The manager said that the last time he
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: had seen him, he was leaving the hotel on the
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: night of November 2nd. And when he said that, Oberton
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: perked up, because that was the same night that Ippolito
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: was killed. Like, again, the coincidence was just too much here.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: And so the judge quickly asked the manager, like, what
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: else can you tell me about Louis? What kind of
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: person was he? Who did he hang out with? Like,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: give me anything you got. And the manager clearly didn't
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: know Louis particularly well, but he did say that there
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: was one person he saw Louis with all the time.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: And often, these two people were arguing in the lobby. Now,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: the manager said he didn't know who this person was,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: but this other person that Louis fought with appeared to
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: be a middle-aged man with blonde hair. Now, to Overton,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: he's thinking, clearly, you're referencing Ippolita. Like, that sounds like Ippolita,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: this guy. And so he asked the manager, like, did
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: you ever overhear what these guys were fighting about? What
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: were the arguments about? But the manager said he really
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: didn't know. He said that, you know, he couldn't ever
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: hear what they were saying. It just always seemed like
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: when they were talking, it was like kind of heated.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: And he could really tell that Louie appeared to despise
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: this other guy. Like it was much more Louie hating
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: this guy than the other way around. The manager did
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: tell Overton that occasionally their arguments did get so bad
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: that it almost became violent. And in fact, the manager
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: at one point or another, it had to break them up,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: like physically separate Even still, he didn't know what they
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: were fighting about. As Overton is hearing all this new information,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: his mind just raced. And as he looked around at
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: this pretty shabby hotel in a rough part of town,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: he realized that the robbery theory might be partly right.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: But instead of it being some random thief, Ippolita might
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: have been targeted by someone he knew, like Louis. And
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: so if this blonde-haired guy that Louis was fighting with
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: was Ippolita... Then, based on what the manager was saying,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: it seemed pretty reasonable to assume that Louis and Ippolita
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: didn't get along. And if Louis was an out-of-work farmhand
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: living in a shabby hotel, it wasn't unreasonable to think
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: that he needed money desperately. And if Louis had known
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: that Ippolita was traveling alone to go collect this inheritance,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: maybe he could have made plans to meet up with
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: him on the way back and then lured him out
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: to the woods and killed him and taken his money,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: and then, you know, after ditching his body on the tracks,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: fled to avoid being caught.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: And if Louis really did have.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: All that inheritance money on him, I mean, with all
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: that cash, he could be anywhere by now. And so
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Oberton realized he might never find him. BetterHelp is the
• 24:10
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• 24:13
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• 24:16
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• 24:20
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• 24:24
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• 24:27
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  Speaker 2: But it doesn't feel natural. It doesn't feel effortless like
• 24:58
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• 24:59
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• 25:01
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• 25:05
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• 25:38
  Speaker 1: month of therapy. A couple of weeks later, in late
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: November of 1888, Judge Olberton sat in his office at
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: the Senlis Courthouse reading a telegram from a police sergeant
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: in Belgium. Police all over France and Belgium had been
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: searching for Louis Barone for weeks now, but this telegram
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: was bad news just like all the others. This one
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: said that no one in Louis' hometown had heard from
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: him since before Ippolita's murder, and there was still no
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: sign of him anywhere in Belgium. Olberton sighed and began
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: flipping through a stack of notes from the investigation.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: Louis was the strongest suspect.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Because he'd completely skipped town on the same day Ippolita
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: was killed.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: But he also hadn't ruled out Alfonsine.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: She'd acted incredibly suspicious when Oberton spoke to her, and
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: now Oberton.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Had discovered that she actually might have lied to him.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: He'd looked into the inheritance Ippolita had supposedly gone to
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: collect in Belgium, and he couldn't corroborate any of the
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: details that Alfonsine had given him. So the judge had
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: looked into this inheritance that Ippolita had supposedly gone to
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Belgium to collect... And so far anyways, he hadn't been
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: able to corroborate any of the details that Alfonsine had
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: given him. Like, they hadn't found any record of this
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: relative who supposedly died recently and was the one passing
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: the inheritance to Ippolita and his family.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Like, this person just didn't seem to exist.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: And then there was Etienne, who'd been found at the
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: literal crime scene, covered in blood. But he'd had an alibi.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: And since this was 1888... DNA analysis didn't exist, so
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Oberton had no way of proving that that blood was
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Ippolita's or his own or somebody else's. And so as
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Oberton was racking his brain, trying to figure out what
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: he was missing, there was an ocarina store. So Oberton
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: got up and he opened the door and he saw
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: a man in a nice suit standing there. And the
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: man asked if Oberton had a few minutes to chat.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: He said it was about Ippolita's murder. Now, Oberton didn't
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: recognize him, so he was a little confused, but... He
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: needs some leads here. He needs progress on this case.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: So he said, yeah, come on in.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Let's chat.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: And so they sat down and this well-dressed man explained
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: who he was. And then he launched into this incredibly
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: wild story that at first didn't seem to have anything
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: to do with the murder case. Then it was like
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: all at once, Oberton realized that what this man was
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: saying was the.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Key to his entire case.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Based on all the evidence, which included letters and witness interviews,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: this is what police believe happened to Ippolita Hoyos on
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: the night of November 2nd, 1888. Once it was totally
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: dark out, the killer walked down a quiet, deserted road
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: in the forest between Shanty Lee and Senlis, and as
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: they walked along, they were absolutely buzzing with anticipation. The
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: plan they'd been working on for weeks was about to
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: be completed, and their victim had no idea what was coming.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Up ahead, there was this bridge, this narrow bridge that
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: went over some railroad tracks, and on the bridge was
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: a man in a three-piece suit, and he was the target.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: The killer knew this man was worth a fortune to them,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: and so all they had to do now was just
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: kill him, and they, the killer, would be set for life.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: And so carefully, trying not to make a sound, the
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: killer began hustling toward the bridge.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: And as they did, they reached into their jacket and
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: they pulled out a hatchet.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: And so finally they got to the bridge and they
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: crept up right behind their victim. And without the man
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: even noticing, the killer raised the hatchet and brought it
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: down on.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: The back of this guy's head.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: And then after that, they hit him over and over
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: again with the hatchet until the man stopped moving. After that,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: the killer put away their hatchet and then lifted this
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: man's body up and dumped it over the railing and
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: it fell down below. And then the killer, they walked
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: off the bridge and turned around and went down the hill,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: down to those railroad tracks, and they grabbed the body
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: of their victim and dragged it and placed the body
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: on the tracks. They were hoping that by doing this,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: it would look like, you know, this guy was hit
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: by a train, not murdered. But before the killer could
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: actually flee the scene... They first had to do one
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: more thing just to make sure they wouldn't get caught.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: And so they reached into their own pocket and they
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: pulled out two items, a handkerchief and a piece of
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: paper with an address on it. And they stuffed both
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: of these items in the jacket pocket of their victim.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Then the killer fled. The victim was not Ippolito Hoyos.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: He was the killer.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: But turn out the body that the investigators thought belonged
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: to Ippolita was actually Ippolita's own friend, Louis Barone. So
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: Ippolita and his wife Alphonsine, they conspired to murder Louis
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: and make it appear like his body was actually Ippolita's body.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Because just a few months before the murder, Ippolita had
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: taken out a life insurance claim on himself that in
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: the event of his death, Alphonsine would be paid a
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: huge sum of money. But Ippolita had no intention of dying.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: They needed somebody else to die on his behalf. And
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: it just so happened that Louie actually already looked an
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: awful lot like Ippolita, like strikingly similar. And so Ippolita
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: lured Louie out to that deserted stretch of road in
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: the woods on the way to a job interview, which
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: was just pretext to lure his friend out there to
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: be isolated. And there Ippolita butchers his friend with the hatchet,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: kills him. And after hitting him over the head a
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: He flipped him over and hacked his face apart with
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: the hatchet as well, just to ensure his face would
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: be so badly mauled, nobody.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: Could recognize him.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Ippolita also put that handkerchief and that note with the
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: address in his pockets, which, by the way, he's literally
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: wearing one of Ippolita's suits that he so, you know,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: kindly allowed his friend to use for the job interview.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: It was a setup.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: He put those items inside of the suit and he's like, boom,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: now the police are going to find this body. They're
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: going to think it's me. Here's all this evidence that
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: will suggest it's me. And I'm going to get off scot-free.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: But Ippolita and his wife, Alfonsine, had left one.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: Big loose end. And that loose end was the.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Well-dressed man who had walked into Judge Oberton's office and
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: basically cracked the case wide open. The well-dressed man at
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Oberton's door was the president of an insurance company. And
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: he told the judge that Ippolita had been shopping around
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: for a life insurance policy just two months before his
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: sudden murder, and that his insurance company had actually flagged
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: Ippolita's application as possible fraud.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: And so they had not given him the policy.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: But he would tell Overton that apparently after this failed attempt,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Ippolita just reached out to another insurer who did take
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: the bait. And as soon as that contract was signed
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: and suddenly Ippolita had this policy, Ippolita supposedly died. And
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: so after hearing these details from the president of this company,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Olberton ordered the body to be exhumed and re-examined. And
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: this time, when the body was compared against photos, investigators
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: confirmed it was in fact Louis.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: The real Ippolita was.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Tracked down in the north of France, where he was
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: living under Louis' identity. He was charged with murder, and
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: on June 15, 1889, he was sentenced to death.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: you thought of today's episode in the comments.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of true crime
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: So click here and give them a watch. All right,
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: until next time, see ya.