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A Little Less Mess: The Ghostly Trial of Rebecca Cornell [Rhode Island] · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Hey everyone, welcome to Bless This Mess and the True
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Crime Podcast.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: I'm Kara, just Kara. Welcome to A Little Less Mess.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: These are our Monday mini episodes where I am solo
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: and I tell you a story outside the South. So
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: today we're heading all the way up to coastal Rhode Island,
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: back to the bitter cold winter of 1673. A widow
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: died inside her own house in front of a bedroom hearth.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: At first, everyone called it a tragic accident. But when
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: her brother claimed she came back from the grave to
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: point to her burns, the whole town started looking at
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: her son. Before we get into it, let's go over
• 0:57
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• 1:02
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• 1:04
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• 1:08
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• 1:42
  Speaker 2: All right, let's go ahead and get into today's episode. Now,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: back in 1673, out on the edge of Portsmouth, Rhode Island,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: there was a 100-acre homestead overlooking Narragansett Bay. I'm probably
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: going to mess that one up. Now, it belonged to
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  Speaker 2: 73-year-old Rebecca Cornell. She was a widow well-known in the colony,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: and she shared that house with her grown son Thomas,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: his wife Sarah, their children, and hired farmhands. On February 8th,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: late in the afternoon, Thomas came in from doing chores
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: before dark. He walked past the kitchen and went straight
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: into his mother's bedroom. Rebecca was sitting in there talking
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  Speaker 2: with one of her grandsons, an 18-year-old also named Thomas.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: The teenager stepped out, but Thomas stayed inside with her.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: The two of them were behind that closed door for
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: about an hour and a half. Nobody in the kitchen
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: paid it much mind, and nobody could hear what they
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: were saying. Around dusk, Thomas finally walked out into the
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: main room. sat down, and started winding yarn. A little
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: while later, Sarah called everyone together for supper. Two of
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: their hired men, Henry Straight and James Moyles, had just
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: come back from running errands in town and sat down
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: at the table. Straight looked around the room and noticed
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: an empty seat. He asked why Mrs. Cornell wasn't joining them.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Thomas told him they were having salted mackerel for dinner
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  Speaker 2: and his mother wasn't coming out because salted fish made
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: her too thirsty at night. Strait thought that was a
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: little odd because he'd seen Rebecca eat mackerel plenty of
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: times before, but he didn't argue. He just kept eating.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Sarah decided to send her 15-year-old son, Edward, back to
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: the bedroom to ask his grandmother if she'd like some
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: warm milk instead. The boy walked down the hall, pushed
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: open the door, and called out to her.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Nothing.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: He stepped into the dark room, turned right back around,
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  Speaker 2: and ran out to the table asking for a candle.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: He told them there was a fire on the floor.
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  Speaker 2: As soon as they heard that, everybody jumped up from
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  Speaker 2: the table. Henry Strait ran in first. He saw glowing
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: embers on the floorboards and swept them away with his hands.
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  Speaker 2: Then Thomas came in with the candle. When the light
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: hit the floor, Thomas looked down at the shoes sticking
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  Speaker 2: out of the ashes and cried out, Oh Lord, it
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  Speaker 2: is my mother. Rebecca was dead. Her clothes had burned
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  Speaker 2: off and her body was badly charred around her face, chest,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: and shoulders. The window curtains had caught fire and so
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: had the fabric at the foot of the bed, but
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: the rest of the bedding hadn't touched a flame. Thomas
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: told everyone right then what he thought happened. He said
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: his mother had probably been sitting near the fireplace, smoking
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  Speaker 2: her pipe, dropped a hot coal into her lap, caught
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  Speaker 2: her clothes on fire, and fell trying to reach the door.
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  Speaker 2: The very next morning, the local coroner, William Ballston, brought
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  Speaker 2: in a 12-man inquest jury. They looked over the bedroom,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: looked at the ashes, and agreed with Thomas. Their official
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  Speaker 2: report ruled that Rebecca died from an unhappy accident of fire.
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  Speaker 2: They held a funeral, buried her on the property, And
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  Speaker 2: that seemed to be the end of it. Except people
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: in town started talking. Rebecca was a wealthy widow, but
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: life under that roof had been tense for years. When
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  Speaker 2: her husband died, he left all the property to Rebecca
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  Speaker 2: to control as she saw fit. Thomas was the oldest son,
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: pushing 50, but he still didn't own the land he worked.
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  Speaker 2: When Rebecca finally agreed to pass the homestead to him,
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  Speaker 2: she tied heavy strings to it. He had to pay
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  Speaker 2: her yearly rent, pay her taxes, pay £ 100 out to
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  Speaker 2: his siblings, and hire a maid to look after her.
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  Speaker 2: Thomas resented those demands and refused to pay for the help,
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  Speaker 2: while Rebecca went around to neighbors complaining that her own
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: son treated her like a burden in her own home.
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  Speaker 2: Four nights after the funeral, Rebecca's 64-year-old brother, John Briggs,
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  Speaker 2: was asleep in his bed in Portsmouth. Briggs later swore
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: under oath that in the middle of the night, he
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: felt something pull the bed covers off him twice. He
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: woke up, saw a strange light in the room, and
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  Speaker 2: saw the figure of a woman standing at the foot
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  Speaker 2: of his bed. He called out, In the name of God,
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  Speaker 2: what art thou? The figure answered, I am your sister, Cornell.
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  Speaker 2: See how I was burnt with fire? Now back in
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: the late 1600s, people didn't brush off stories like that.
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  Speaker 2: They believed ghosts didn't show up unless there was foul
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  Speaker 2: play crying for justice. Briggs went straight to the town
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  Speaker 2: magistrates and told them his dead sister was wandering around
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  Speaker 2: because her death was no accident. Right around that same time,
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  Speaker 2: another man came forward. He told the council that a
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  Speaker 2: local constable had spoken to Rebecca months before, and Rebecca
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  Speaker 2: had claimed she was planning to move out in the
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: springtime because she was terrified that something was going to
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  Speaker 2: happen to her. With the ghost story and the rumors spreading,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: the town ordered Rebecca's body to be dug up. Two surgeons,
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Henry Greenland and Simon Cooper, performed a second autopsy right
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: in front of the inquest jury. This time, they scraped
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  Speaker 2: away the burns and noticed something the first jury missed,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: a suspicious deep wound right at the top of her stomach.
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  Speaker 2: That second jury threw out the accident ruling. They said
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Rebecca had been killed by that wound and then set
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  Speaker 2: on fire. Suddenly this was a murder case and the
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: last person alone with her was Thomas. Authorities arrested Thomas
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  Speaker 2: and started bringing in witnesses. Over the next few months,
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: more than 20 people gave sworn statements. The testimony was
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  Speaker 2: all over the place. Some witnesses remember Rebecca being deeply depressed.
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  Speaker 2: Her own daughter, Rebecca Woolsey, told the court her mother
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  Speaker 2: had spells where she would talk about taking her own life.
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  Speaker 2: Another relative testified that Rebecca once talked about stabbing herself
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  Speaker 2: with a penknife after chasing runaway pigs because she felt
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  Speaker 2: so tired and disregarded. Other neighbors painted Thomas as heartless.
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  Speaker 2: A neighbor who rushed over the night of the fire
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  Speaker 2: testified that the ashes looked like Rebecca's body had been
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: dragged across the floorboards. Another man, John Pierce, testified that
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  Speaker 2: he ran into Thomas after the funeral and and Thomas
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  Speaker 2: told him that his mother had spent her whole life
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  Speaker 2: complaining about wanting a good fire, and God finally answered
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  Speaker 2: her and gave her one. Now when you add those
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: cold remarks, the money disputes, and John Briggs swearing his
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: sister's ghost visited his bedroom, the town turned on Thomas completely.
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  Speaker 2: The Attorney General charged Thomas with murdering his mother or
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: helping someone else do it. Thomas pleaded not guilty and
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: insisted he had nothing to do with it. The trial
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  Speaker 2: didn't take long. In May 1673, the jury came back
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  Speaker 2: with a guilty verdict. Thomas was sentenced to hang. They
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  Speaker 2: chained him up in the Portsmouth Jail under heavy guard
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  Speaker 2: day and night. And on May 23rd, 1673, 46-year-old Thomas
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  Speaker 2: Cornell was taken to the gallows and executed. His family
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  Speaker 2: asked to bury him beside his mother in the family plot,
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  Speaker 2: but the town said no. They allowed him on the property,
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  Speaker 2: but forced them to bury him out near the edge
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  Speaker 2: of the road. Sarah was pregnant with their child when
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Thomas was hanged. When the baby girl was born a
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: few months later, Sarah named her innocent. What makes this
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  Speaker 2: case linger, even centuries later, is what happened next. A
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: year after they hung Thomas, the town indicted a servant
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  Speaker 2: named wickapash for helping murder rebecca he pleaded not guilty
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  Speaker 2: and a jury acquitted him a year after that thomas's
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  Speaker 2: brother turned around and accused sarah of helping kill rebecca
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  Speaker 2: too she was put on trial and she was acquitted
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  Speaker 2: as well so out of everybody living under that roof
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  Speaker 2: Thomas was the only one who died for it. The
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: first jury said accident. The second jury said murder. And
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: in between, you had a brother's dream, bitter family fights
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  Speaker 2: over inheritance, and an elderly woman who never got to
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  Speaker 2: tell anyone what really happened in that bedroom before supper.
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  Speaker 2: And that's our Little Less Mess for this week. If
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: you want to hear other true crime cases out of
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: the South with me and my husband, Stu, you can
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: check out our main podcast, thursday episodes and then again
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: join us over on patreon for our friday night sitting
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: sipping and bullshitting until then stay safe lock your doors
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  Speaker 2: and keep that porch light on bye everyone don't you
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: know it's bad luck.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: To be superstitious but nothing else is working and my
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: head is really hurting I'm sick of all this worrying
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  Speaker 1: about things I can't control. These things I can't control.