Latest / PNW Haunts & Homicides / When Darkness Calls Part One

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When Darkness Calls Part One · PNW Haunts & Homicides

• 0:00
  Welcome to Wind Darkness Calls, the Halloween collaboration podcast that will leave you trembling in your seat.
• 0:08
  This year we have 13 participating podcasts, each covering a different topic related to the dark and the dreadful.
• 0:18
  Join us on a journey through the forest where the trees whisper secrets and the shadows dance.
• 0:25
  As we walk, we will introduce each podcast host and share a taste of the terrors that await you.
• 0:33
  First, we come to the clearing where Nicole from True Crime South Africa sits, her eyes glowing in the moonlight.
• 0:41
  Nicole is a master of weaving tales of murder and mayhem and the tales on this podcast will chill you to the bone.
• 0:53
  Nicole Engelbracht from True Crime South Africa and this is the fake pediatrician and the abandoned hospital.
• 1:02
  In the 1980s, Kenson Park Hospital was a hub of state health care for local residents.
• 1:08
  I was actually born in this hospital in September 1980.
• 1:12
  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 Kenson Park Hospital
• 1:21
  who would leave a very deep scar on its history and sadly even insure that many parents went home without their newborn babies.
• 1:32
  Just a warning before I get into this, this case does include instances of injury and death to children due to inadequate medical care.
• 1:44
  Andre Esther Hason had already built up a good reputation as a pediatrician in private practice in Kenson Park for two years before he started working at Kenson Park Hospital in 1982.
• 1:57
  Parents of his patients had nothing but good things to say about him.
• 2:02
  It emerged that the privacy of working in his own rooms had hidden quite a lot about Esther Hason though.
• 2:10
  One fellow doctor at the hospital immediately noticed that Esther Hason couldn't perform even the simplest of tasks.
• 2:18
  He would often ask others to do things like inserts in an incubation tube, something he should have been able to do in his sleep with his amount of experience.
• 2:28
  This colleague and others would witness multiple examples of this over the years that Esther Hason worked at Kenson Park Hospital.
• 2:36
  Sadly nothing was done about this with deadly consequences.
• 2:42
  In 1988 a premature baby seemed to be coping just fine and was breathing on his own after being delivered.
• 2:51
  The child was placed in a high-care unit under Dr Esther Hason's care.
• 2:56
  The child's parents were called later that night though and told that the baby had passed away.
• 3:02
  Esther Hason claimed he'd only administered drugs to help with what he claimed were underdeveloped lungs.
• 3:10
  The child had bruising all over its body from failed injection sites.
• 3:16
  The following year he must diagnose the 10-month-old baby with pneumonia when she in fact had a severe kidney infection which ended up claiming her life 11 days later.
• 3:28
  Case after case presented itself in Kenson Park Hospital.
• 3:34
  Esther Hason had attempted a lumbar puncture on a child he'd claimed had men in gyrtus.
• 3:40
  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.
• 3:54
  Another woman woke up from a sedated Caesarian section performed by Dr Esther Hason to be told that her baby was in an incubator because he was struggling to breathe.
• 4:06
  Esther Hason 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 Caesarian section.
• 4:17
  Her child did not survive and she never saw Esther Hason again.
• 4:23
  Another two babies were given medication by Esther Hason that was intended for use in adults only.
• 4:30
  Even after the first child passed away and a nurse mentioned to Esther Hason 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.
• 4:47
  Both children died shortly after from bleeding on the brain.
• 4:53
  Kempton Park Hospital had been so taken, hook, line and sinker by Andre Esther Hason that they promoted him in 1989 to head of the Emergency Care Unit.
• 5:06
  Most doctors at the hospital didn't understand what a pediatrician could possibly have to add to emergency medicine and the raised eyebrows soon turned into whispers.
• 5:18
  Esther Hason did not take the criticism well and in an attempt to drum up some sympathy told a colleague he dealt with this kind of jealousy before he claimed someone else had reported him to the Health Professionals Council.
• 5:33
  This comment got that doctor thinking and he contacted the council himself.
• 5:39
  The council though who has records of every registered health professional in South Africa had ever heard of Andre Esther Hason.
• 5:50
  Soon the entire sorted, tale unraveled and hospital administrators realised that they had a scammer working on their staff for almost a decade.
• 6:02
  In that time Esther Hason had earned close to 3 million rand and seen over 4 and a half thousand patients.
• 6:10
  But the man himself was not sticking around to face the consequences.
• 6:15
  Within just a few days of his suspension for investigation he skipped the country and fled to the US.
• 6:22
  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,
• 6:31
  culpable homicide and related charges.
• 6:35
  Esther Hason hadn't even finished high school.
• 6:39
  Everything he knew about medicine was from textbooks he dread and time he'd spent working in laboratories where he'd also affect a PhD in microbiology.
• 6:51
  In 1992 Esther Hason was eventually found guilty of 3 charges of culpable homicide and several fraud charges including impersonating a doctor.
• 7:03
  He was handed down an 18 year sentence.
• 7:07
  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.
• 7:17
  And to be honest I don't think so either.
• 7:21
  The staff at Kenton Park Hospital tried to move on from what had happened but nothing was the same ever again.
• 7:29
  Where the ornots the fake doctors deeds left a dark cloud over the hospital is debatable but certainly the memory of the babies who likely would have loathed had they not encountered a fake doctor would never ever fade.
• 7:46
  In 1996 the hospital stopped accepting patients and on the day after Christmas that same year residents of Kenton Park read in newspapers that the hospital had quite suddenly been closed.
• 8:01
  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.
• 8:15
  Bazaali all of the medical equipment remained behind 10 million ranz worth at that time.
• 8:22
  Medicine stayed in the fridges and cupboards, clipboards lay exactly where they were placed the last time they were set down by nurses.
• 8:31
  It was as though the hospital had just gone into a time vacuum.
• 8:37
  Over the years although local governments had promised time and again that the hospital would be reopened it never has been.
• 8:46
  Instead it's become a place for ghost hunters to seek thrills.
• 8:51
  Security guards are passed a few ranz to look the other way and those with an interest in the supernatural pick through the dark hallways.
• 9:01
  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.
• 9:13
  As one person put it you could still perform surgery in that hospital all you would need is a body.
• 9:21
  People have found a wide range of bizarre and creepy things at the hospital from organs, specimens in jars to autopsy tables still stained with blood.
• 9:33
  In 1999 Andre Esteisen was released from prison on parole after serving just seven years.
• 9:41
  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.
• 9:53
  In 2022 local governments announced that Kempseln Park Hospital is to be demolished and a new medical facility will be built on its grounds.
• 10:04
  Perhaps then the ghosts of its sad and tragic past will finally be put to rest.
• 10:14
  Next we pass by the old oak tree where Elise from True Crime Cat lawyer stands. Her voice as cold as ice.
• 10:23
  She specializes in unsolved murders from the Pacific Northwest and the investigations on her podcast will lead you down dark and twisted paths.
• 10:35
  Welcome to True Crime Cat lawyer. I'm your host Elise and sometimes my cat Winston joins me.
• 10:47
  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.
• 10:58
  Listener discretion is advised.
• 11:01
  This episode is part spooky part true crime.
• 11:05
  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.
• 11:15
  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.
• 11:27
  The lake is about 1600 feet deep and about 12 miles wide.
• 11:32
  And the lake itself is the source of a lot of haunting talk and death talk and true crime talk.
• 11:40
  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.
• 11:48
  It's definitely a well known lake in the true crime world.
• 11:53
  Our story starts with how Lee Eileen worth she was a young woman who was originally born in Kentucky, but she lived all over the United States.
• 12:01
  In 1936 she started weathe her scene at the Lake Crescent lodge, which was about 30 minutes from her apartment in Port Angeles.
• 12:11
  By 1936 she was 35 and she'd been divorced twice.
• 12:16
  Most of the articles I read called her quote unquote unlucky in love.
• 12:20
  It seemed like she definitely attracted the wrong kind of guy and she tended to fall in love with the wrong kind of person.
• 12:27
  Unfortunately that was no different when she met Montgomery Eileen worth who goes by Monty.
• 12:33
  They fell in love. He was a local beer truck driver who frequented her major scene establishment the Lake Crescent lodge.
• 12:41
  He was charming and he sort of swept her off her feet.
• 12:45
  So they quickly got married like within weeks or just a few months of meaning they're already tied in the knot.
• 12:52
  After they get married Monty becomes a really abusive to how she shows up and work covered in bruises.
• 12:58
  She has broken teeth and black eyes. Basically it's a really bad relationship.
• 13:04
  Police were actually called to break up a fight between the two one night.
• 13:08
  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.
• 13:17
  But the two still stayed together despite this.
• 13:21
  So about five months after how he and Monty got married how he went missing right before Christmas.
• 13:28
  I all accounts when the reports started coming in police narrowed it down to how he last being seen on December 21 or December 22.
• 13:39
  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.
• 13:47
  Police thought it was really odd and suspicious that he didn't report how he 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.
• 14:03
  Police try to track down how he's family they're trying to track down her friends and they couldn't come up with anybody had had any kind of contact with her after December 22.
• 14:14
  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.
• 14:24
  Monty then left for a little while and when he came back how he was gone and then he says he never saw her again after that.
• 14:32
  Police asked him about their relationship Monty's trying to tell them she went off with this Alaskan sailor.
• 14:39
  Unfortunately there was no real evidence to connect Monty to doing anything and Halle just seemed to have disappeared.
• 14:48
  They had nobody no witnesses no crime scene nothing to point them in the direction of where Halle was or that Monty had anything to do with it.
• 14:58
  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 ares and they went to California.
• 15:10
  Supposedly there were rumors that Monty and Eleanor were actually together before Halle disappeared but of course that couldn't be confirmed.
• 15:20
  Halle's case just sat for a while unfortunately police had no leads they had no idea where Halle 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.
• 15:35
  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.
• 15:46
  That is until July 6 1940. A body was found floating on the surface of Lake Cresson by two fishermen.
• 15:56
  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.
• 16:05
  But there was something really unusual about this body quote the lakes near freezing temperatures had virtually refrigerated the corpse for years and quote so everything I read describes this process as a supponification and this is a so polite condition that results from minerals in the lake interacting with the fats in the body.
• 16:29
  The skin was extremely well preserved and it was kind of waxy the body was similar to soap rather than decomposition that you would normally see.
• 16:39
  According to experts supponification occurred because the cold prevented decomposition as the salt in the water penetrated the tissue.
• 16:48
  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 this is because of a bridge in the body.
• 17:05
  Howie 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 howie elling worth.
• 17:18
  So now that they know that it's howie they want to figure out okay how did she die how did she end up in the lake.
• 17:25
  Howie'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 harland mcnut was brought in to examine howie's body and basically performed the autopsy.
• 17:43
  Harland mcnut as he's performing this autopsy says that howie had been strangled and beaten she had been strangled and beaten her neck was bruised and discolored the chest should 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-inflated these don't seem like the kind of injuries someone would get if they fell overboard off of a boat or drowned.
• 18:11
  When howie's body was identified money was living in Long Beach, California in October of 1941 police arrest mcnut they charge him with murder and they bring him back to poor andalus to stand trial for howie's murder.
• 18:26
  Mcnut's trial began on February 24th 1942.
• 18:31
  The courtroom was packed with spectators people attended this trial all nine days that it was held mcnut's defense was essentially that this woman's body that they found wasn't howie howie was alive the last time he saw her there was no evidence to suggest otherwise that was his whole defense.
• 18:51
  Monti also testified at trial in his own defense and he claims that him and howie would get into striking matches but he denied ever beating her and he denied killing her.
• 19:04
  Well the prosecution obviously thought they had a pretty good case against him so they have the dentist testify about the ID and he came across as a very credible witness.
• 19:15
  They had howie's friends identified the clothing found on the body as howie's and they also presented key evidence which was the rope that was used to bind howie.
• 19:26
  Monti had borrowed about 50 feet of rope from a storekeeper at the lake and the fibers from that rope match the fibers found on howie's body.
• 19:35
  Another point that the prosecution brought up is that Monti had asked for a divorce shortly after howie 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.
• 19:55
  The jury finds Monti guilty of second degree murder and sentences him to life in prison at the Washington State penitentiary in Walla Walla.
• 20:04
  Unfortunately Monti only served nine years before he was perroled he later died in November 1974 in Los Alamedos California.
• 20:16
  Howie's body was the first ever to be found floating in Lake Crescent her story gets so much attention because of the sub-ponification process that occurred and essentially preserved her body and turned it into wax.
• 20:31
  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.
• 20:40
  Quote it was said that Lake Crescent never gave up its dead until the lady of the lake surfaced in 1940 and quote.
• 20:51
  As we move further into the darkness we hear the sound of laughter echoing through the trees it is the laughter of Richard from private Dicks podcast who along with some friends delights and telling tales of the unsolved and the supernatural was a twist of that wicked laughter thrown in.
• 21:12
  Hi my name is Richard from private Dicks podcast today we're going to solve a mystery from my favorite holiday Halloween.
• 21:20
  And I'll pepper in some true crime that I feel is relevant to the mystery.
• 21:24
  I love Halloween I love the spooky movies 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 when 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.
• 21:45
  Now why do we say trick or treat that's the mini mystery we're going to solve today believe it or not originally trick or treat was meant as a threat Europeans in medieval times celebrated so in which was on October 31st.
• 22:00
  So in mark the end of harvest season and the beginning of the darker half of the year the veil between this world and the other world thinned meaning ghosts or fairies could enter this world more easily.
• 22:12
  And it just generally got spookier during this time of year being darker colder you know just scare here.
• 22:20
  So with the season change this time of year has always been associated with the supernatural now by the year 993 the Christian church implemented all souls day a date of celebrate and honor their dead ancestors with all souls day came the practice of souling on all souls day people would bake these little cakes that they called soul cakes.
• 22:41
  Or souls for short the souls were then given to kids and the poor who would go door to door begging for souls now 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 soling then the tradition of guising was invented in 16th century Scotland much like soling kids would go door to door asking for food from their neighbors.
• 23:08
  The reason 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're 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 in America kids were already doing pranks on Halloween night this time years when the spirits were out the kids could get away with more pranks.
• 23:36
  Just playing the spirits for your fence door being stolen or the fact that the barn door open up in the middle of the night I don't know why all the pranks I could think of involved doors but here we are adults started to notice that if they gave kids candy in the evening there will 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.
• 24:01
  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 was like a threat they'd say treat up or tricks meaning if you don't give a streets expect some tricks tricks could have been anything the fariest like I said earlier any door type crime where you steal a door take a door for hinges open doors I'm just kidding could be anything now it is it's kind of the same rule when I was a kid
• 24:30
  if you didn't give us candy on Halloween we probably would have toilet paper your yard or maybe even egg your house or your car or something we couldn't do it 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
• 24:51
  I know egging someone's house is an asshole move to do whatever we were thirteen we're assholes is just what it is it was just the spirit's making us do it anyway so cares and from there trick or treating became mainstream and less menacing until what it is today.
• 25:06
  Now it's you get older the treats become less fun and the tricks become the fun on Halloween I stopped egging stuff around the age of thirteen but I knew guys when I was sixteen or seventeen that didn't even trick or treat anymore they just went around midnight and egg their enemies house it's better than fist fighting your enemy I guess or shooting them all I know is that as an adult if my house was egged I'd be extra pissed and I try to find a little bastards that did it and if I caught the little bastards in the act I probably chase them
• 25:35
  probably with a bat and that seems like a reasonable response but sometimes reasonable responses aren't the correct response and that's not fair but neither is trick or treat why do I have to do anything you little extortionist sometimes you just gotta let it go and I think that's what the parents did when trick or treating first kind of started they said we'll just give him candies it's better than getting all of our stuff broken all of our doors taken off their hinges
• 26:03
  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 nineties as a teenager Carl hated Halloween because his neighborhood was dangerous was the Bronx in the nineties and I'm sure there's a bunch of gang activity
• 26:21
  so Carl grows up gets through high school and by the time he is twenty one he is a computer programmer at Morgan Stanley the giant investment firm some of the articles say computer programmer others say he was a data entry clerk and I'm gonna say at twenty one he might have been a computer programmer but it's more likely a nicer way of saying data entry clerk cuz data entry clerk is a boring job less interesting sounding anyway on October 31st 1998
• 26:50
  the twenty one year old Carl is twenty nine year old girlfriend Darleen are in the car driving to go pick up her nine year old son Clyde Clyde was at a Halloween party near Gun Hill Road in the Bronx
• 27:06
  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 revving a great time bopping for apples eating candy and listening to spooky music
• 27:18
  Carl and Darleen were actually just picking up Clyde to drop him off at his babysitter's house for the night Darleen was excited that her and Carl could go out to a Halloween party with her adult friends this year Carl didn't really like Halloween like it said earlier but Darleen wanted to go out so Carl figured why not and as they're driving all of a sudden bam
• 27:39
  and egg hits the windshield of this car is he's driving mother fucking kids Carl exclaims is 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 Darleen 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 were to go Carl yells at them silence for
• 28:08
  a few seconds and door opens call gets back in the car Carl you didn't have to do that ask her hand grabs the style 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 exaggerating for color by me let's let's just get that in there here's how's first reported after the thigh grab
• 28:34
  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 a thigh fuck 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
• 28:53
  Eger tricksters gets in a car pursues them then shoots 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 story number one.
• 29:08
  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.
• 29:20
  Carl you didn't have to do that as her hand grabs his thigh 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 and the same Carl was dead family traumatized
• 29:40
  Curtis sterling ran he was terrified he just killed a man 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
• 29:55
  sterling was arrested and charged with murder Curtis sterling up 20 years in jail 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.
• 30:09
  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.
• 30:22
  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 at it for doing dumb shit in jail.
• 30:34
  Sterling will be out now 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.
• 30:45
  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 because there could be a Curtis sterling waiting for you.
• 31:03
  Happy Halloween everyone.
• 31:08
  As indie podcasters we love to show our support of other awesome shows so stay tuned for the promo we've got to share with you this week.
• 31:20
  Let's show them some love you can find their info in our show notes.
• 31:26
  And I hear them call me by my name so I run into the kitchen to check and there's nobody there and I start to like hear like my closet door start to open.
• 31:40
  All of a sudden for no reason I woke up in the middle of the night my eyes just snapped open and it's that strange feeling that you have when something wakes you up.
• 31:49
  You and you don't know what has woken you up until you either see what it was or you hear whatever it was.
• 31:55
  If you like all things spooky check out as book details we Christina and MJ talk about all things spooky like haunted places myths and legends with the focus on Latin America new episodes every Friday.
• 32:07
  Listen in your favorite podcast apps as well as spooky tells calm.
• 32:14
  We continue our journey deeper into the forest where the air is thick with the scent of decay here we find Allison from coffee and cases podcast.
• 32:23
  Huddled around a campfire she is a connoisseur of all things creepy unsolved murder mysterious disappearances and the paranormal and the story shared on her podcast will often have you looking over your shoulder as you should be right now.
• 32:44
  Hello from coffee and cases true crime podcast where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold.
• 32:51
  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 your coverage of many lesser known cases that are screaming for justice.
• 33:12
  Just like this one that I have for you today now let's dive into this case.
• 33:18
  Sylvia Salinas born January 7th 1959 was one of the four children of Dirlis Salinas senior and Maria Elena Salinas.
• 33:29
  Her parents from LaJazzy and did I go out of loop a Mexico decided to move to Galveston Texas to raise their children.
• 33:38
  The religious Catholic family attended regular mass and became an integral part of their local community when Sylvia's brother Dirlis junior purchased the small grocery store at the corner of 31st Street and Avenue Q.
• 33:53
  Her brother in the store for nearly two decades before making the decision to open another grocery store but this one in Hawaii.
• 34:02
  He transferred ownership of the store in Galveston to his parents from there in 1988 Sylvia officially purchased the store.
• 34:12
  Everyone in the neighborhood already knew her from working of the store for years prior and they loved her calling her aunt sill or T. S.
• 34:21
  and old roommate of Sylvia sent the a marsh noted how kind Sylvia Salinas was to any and all in the neighborhood and that she would listen to people's problems.
• 34:33
  Though she was close to she would even invite behind the counter to keep her company there.
• 34:38
  She would advance store credit against future paychecks for those who needed food before they were paid. She had their backs.
• 34:46
  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 and running her business she'd been doing it for 10 years and she was a person who was alert to danger.
• 35:02
  She could tell when people who came into her store were a threat and quote you see while Sylvia was a person who believed in the good in people she was also perceptive.
• 35:13
  And knew that even though she trusted others it was possible that she may need to protect herself and her profits in the store.
• 35:22
  So she kept both a pistol and a machete at the register.
• 35:27
  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.
• 35:35
  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.
• 35:44
  Instead she decided that she would like to follow in her brother Dirlis Jr's footsteps and move to Hawaii who could blame her.
• 35:53
  But she never got the opportunity to share memories in the sand and surf with her brother.
• 35:59
  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.
• 36:11
  At 123 p.m. the Galveston Police Department received notification that a silent alarm had been triggered as Salinas food store.
• 36:20
  Meaning there was a robbery in progress since the silent alarm was linked to the cash register.
• 36:26
  Within four minutes by 127 p.m. two officers John Lopez and Carol Ivye arrived on scene to find Sylvia Salinas murdered.
• 36:38
  And the cash register pride open.
• 36:41
  In the police report officers wrote quote, "The victim was obviously dead. No defensive type wounds are present on the decedents for arms, wrists or hands.
• 36:53
  There is one stab wound above the left breast." The knife had pierced her heart and a lung.
• 37:03
  Officers knew what had caused the wound as they're on the counter near Sylvia's body was the murder weapon.
• 37:11
  Described as a 9-10-inch butcher knife.
• 37:14
  To me however it looks like the curvature of a filet-ing 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 tape the scene.
• 37:29
  He captured Sylvia's body by the stool on which she had been seated. He honed in on the knife on the counter.
• 37:37
  He focused on the bloody chuprints on the floor of the store.
• 37:42
  While they are police-collected fingerprints and also noted blood on the pride open cash register.
• 37:49
  Leading them to believe that the perpetrator had killed Sylvia and then used the same knife to pry open the cash register.
• 37:58
  While coins and food stamps remained in the register all of the paper money had been taken.
• 38:04
  Everyone in the community was in shock at Sylvia's untimely death. Her's was a loss felt by all.
• 38:12
  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."
• 38:21
  But also causing shock waves was the fact that it didn't seem as though anyone saw anything suspicious.
• 38:29
  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.
• 38:39
  Witnesses reported four different men at or around the time Sylvia had been murdered being around the Seleness food store.
• 38:48
  Some witnesses reported seeing two men enter the store around the time of the murder.
• 38:54
  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.
• 39:04
  Still, other witnesses reported a Caucasian man with sandy blonde or brown hair running down the alley beside the food store.
• 39:12
  Again, who, if not involved himself, may have seen something. None of the four men have ever been identified.
• 39:21
  But that fact didn't jive with friends Cynthia Marsh, who told Galveston reporters for an article on November 6, 1989 quote, "When this happened, it was a busy time. It was lunchtime. People were always going in and out. There was always activity around Seleness grocery. People were always going in and out.
• 39:40
  The neighborhood is a kind of open neighborhood. Someone is always watching. People sit on their porches. 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."
• 39:58
  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.
• 40:07
  The fact that Cynthia Marsh gives a call to action for them to come forward to provide information to detectives on whom they have killed Sylvia, leads me to believe that it's Marsh's opinion that the perpetrator might not be a Galveston native.
• 40:24
  What most close to Sylvia do agree on, including law enforcement, is that Sylvia Seleness 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.
• 40:39
  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.
• 40:49
  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.
• 41:00
  There were no defensive wounds, which shows that there was no struggle, and that she likely didn't see the attack coming.
• 41:08
  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.
• 41:17
  The only reason the alarm had gone off was because after the perpetrator killed Sylvia, they pride-opened the cash register, and had tripped the silent alarm themselves.
• 41:28
  Over the years, police have wondered whether the motive were robbery, and Sylvia was a casualty of that theft, or whether the motive was murder, and the robbery were an afterthought.
• 41:40
  I know with money gone, it may seem more logical to believe that robbery was the motive, but I'm not so convinced.
• 41:47
  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,
• 42:05
  would have fought with a person, would have attempted to trigger the alarm, or would have at least attempted to grab for a weapon.
• 42:12
  But none of those things happened. The murder happened first. Then, and only then, was the bloodied knife used to pry open the register for the money.
• 42:23
  Sadly, much of the evidence in Sylvia's case was destroyed during Hurricane Ike.
• 42:28
  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.
• 42:39
  Not much at least gives us hope that answers are still possible, that in time, the Selenis family may believe in goodness again, if someone were to come forward with information.
• 42:53
  You see, on November 5, 1989, brother Durilis Jr. told the Galveston Daily News, "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."
• 43:09
  She would never suspect anyone would hurt her, end quote.
• 43:14
  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.
• 43:25
  Recently, Sylvia's niece, Christine Taylor, has taken up the fight in finding answers by contacting local news stations, to keep her and story alive.
• 43:35
  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.
• 43:55
  Anyone with information is asked to call Galveston Crime Stoppers at 409-763-8477-You may remain anonymous.
• 44:09
  We reach a fork in the path and to our left we see the ruins of an abandoned castle. Within its walls, brook and Ashley dwell.
• 44:18
  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.
• 44:38
  I'm Ashley. And I'm brook.
• 44:42
  And you're here with us on a Teachers Talk Crime podcast.
• 44:47
  Hey everyone, welcome.
• 44:50
  Happy Halloween.
• 44:52
  Happy Halloween. If you don't know us, we are Teachers Talk Crime. We are a podcast that focused on crimes committed by adolescents.
• 44:59
  And when necessary, we include our teacher backgrounds and give you our takes on some things.
• 45:06
  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?
• 45:16
  Etc. Etc. Etc. So if you would like to hear more, you can stream us on all platforms, Teachers Talk Crime.
• 45:23
  And we're also on social media. We're on YouTube under Teachers Talk Crime. And we're also on Instagram @TeachersTalkCrime.
• 45:31
  Yeah, so everything's just Teachers Talk Crime.
• 45:33
  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/follower by the end of it.
• 45:40
  Sit down, shut up, the murder is about to begin.
• 45:44
  Aura.
• 45:46
  Please note that this lesson contains disturbing content primarily involving murder.
• 45:51
  Previously on Teachers Talk Crime, we delve into the chilling and tragic event that occurred on January 13, 1998 in Linwood, California.
• 46:00
  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.
• 46:11
  The chain of events leading to this horrific incident began with a simple request from Gina to her son, Mario.
• 46:17
  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.
• 46:26
  This grounding did not sit well with Mario and he began increasingly resentful.
• 46:31
  As tensions escalated, Mario confided in Samuel and together they reached a shocking agreement. They decided to murder Gina.
• 46:39
  This swift and drastic decision is deeply unsettling and it begs the question of what drove them to such a horrifying choice.
• 46:47
  The answer lies in their obsession with the scream movies, particularly scream and scream too.
• 46:53
  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 to our.
• 47:03
  Using the scream franchise as their inspiration. And no, no, thank you. No, thank you.
• 47:11
  No, just watch it. Don't do it.
• 47:13
  Both boys were captivated by these films, considering them cool. However, their fascination went far beyond mere admiration.
• 47:21
  They began discussing these movies as if they were a blueprint for real life killings.
• 47:27
  One of them even expressed that the movies, 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.
• 47:41
  Their obsession with the scream movies ran so deep that they planned to buy the ghost face costumes and voice distortion devices to emulate the movie while committing real murders.
• 47:52
  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.
• 48:03
  And as we know now, the scream franchise, when it got brought up in court, they don't take any accountability for this.
• 48:12
  None whatsoever, because like, it should not be known that a movie should have a disclaimer. Hey, don't actually go do these things.
• 48:19
  It's like comic or something. Yeah.
• 48:23
  Returning to that fateful day of January 13th, 1998, Mario and Samuel brutally attacked Gina. Mario approached her from behind while Samuel held her down.
• 48:34
  The attack resulted in Gina being stabbed a horrifying 45 times using at least four different knives.
• 48:41
  Lacking the funds for the scream costumes, the boys resorted to pulling their shirts over their heads as disguises while committing this heinous act.
• 48:49
  Remarkably, even after sustaining 45 stab wounds, Gina managed to call 911 for help and reached out to her husband, Pedro Castillo, who is Mario's stepfather.
• 49:00
  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.
• 49:12
  After the assault, the boys callously watched Gina die from outside her apartment, likely through a window.
• 49:19
  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.
• 49:31
  Their confessions revealed that they were influenced by the scream movies and intended to make threatening calls to their fellow high school students.
• 49:39
  However, during the trial, Compton Superior Court judge John Cherosky made a controversial decision to ban any mention of the scream movies.
• 49:49
  He also prohibited the case from being referred to as the scream murder case.
• 49:53
  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 boys' motivations.
• 50:06
  Despite Mario's public defender Paul Gullib claiming that Mario suffered from mental illness and was unfit for trial, judge Cherosky refused to place him in a psychiatric clinic.
• 50:18
  Cherosky argued that the murder displayed careful planning and sophistication, making Mario a threat to society.
• 50:25
  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.
• 50:39
  Fortunately, Pedro was spared because he was at work during the murder.
• 50:43
  The boys even invited a friend named Aaron Hernandez to join in the killing, but he declined their horrifying invitation.
• 50:50
  Pedro Castillo, despite raising Mario for 10 years, did not attend his stepson's weeklong trial.
• 50:56
  He wanted no further contact with Mario and Carol Rose later delivered the verdict to him.
• 51:02
  Mario Padillo was found guilty as an adult and received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
• 51:08
  Samuel sent him 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.
• 51:17
  As of May 2022, there was a significant update regarding Mario's case.
• 51:23
  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.
• 51:37
  To hear the full episode of this case, search Teeters Talk Crime on your favorite podcast platform and listen to episode 61 titled The Scream Murder.
• 51:46
  Thank you and happy Halloween!
• 51:48
  Bye!
• 51:50
  Bye!
• 51:52
  We continue our walk and the forest grows darker and more ominous.
• 51:57
  We can hear the sound of something moving in the bushes, but we cannot see what it is.
• 52:02
  Suddenly we come up on a clearing and in the center of the clearing stands Leroy Luna.
• 52:08
  His eyes are black as night and a smile is wicked.
• 52:13
  Leroy is the host of Excuse Me, that's a legal, and he invites you to join him on a journey into the heart of the ominous and the hysterical.
• 52:25
  What's up everybody?
• 52:27
  Leroy here.
• 52:29
  I specialize in telling tales of what I like to call "softcore crime."
• 52:34
  You know, petty criminal shit.
• 52:36
  And while I don't dive into the worst of the worst, weekend, and week out, like you're probably accustomed to, that doesn't mean I don't come across my fair share of creeps.
• 52:45
  Peeps you need to be wary of.
• 52:47
  That the young inns, our children, our nieces, our nephews, our neighbors need to be wary of.
• 52:53
  Especially around the holidays.
• 52:55
  It really is true when they say "Crime doesn't take a vacation."
• 52:59
  That is a saying, right?
• 53:00
  Is Halloween even considered a holiday?
• 53:02
  Oh man, now you got me overthinking it.
• 53:04
  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.
• 53:15
  Our first incident takes place in Maryland, specifically in Aarondole County.
• 53:21
  This was last year back in 2022.
• 53:23
  It's Halloween night, around 7.30 pm.
• 53:26
  So you know, the festivities are in full swing.
• 53:29
  When police receive a call, about a 45-year-old woman displaying some disturbing behavior at her home.
• 53:36
  Wendy Cachoric, my apologies Wendy if I just butchered your last name there, is Hany O'Candy.
• 53:43
  And wait for it.
• 53:44
  Whilst screaming obscenities and exposing herself to the children who come to her door, talk about getting a trick and a treat.
• 53:53
  Wow, inappropriate to say the least.
• 53:56
  And this is why I don't let my sons go trick or treating alone.
• 53:59
  I'd hate to miss out on something like this.
• 54:01
  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! You gotta go to that lady's place on the corner, man."
• 54:11
  Why, a shellac, hunting out cons of pop or full-sized chocolate bars or something?
• 54:16
  Nah, man, it's even better than that. Trust me, bro.
• 54:20
  All kidding aside, this is some predatory behavior, or at the very least this lady is severely mentally unstable.
• 54:27
  Wendy was hit with disorderly conduct and indecent exposure charges. Unreal.
• 54:32
  Moving on to incident number two, I told you these would be shorties. I don't have much time over here.
• 54:38
  Let's travel back to 2012 for this one.
• 54:41
  And go across the pond to the town of Oldham, which is in Greater Montchester, England.
• 54:47
  We got police constipol Simon Fowell, and he's taking his kids trick or treating.
• 54:52
  The off-duty officer has three children with him. They are eight, six, and five years of age, so quite the handful.
• 54:59
  The ramp bunches kiddos excitedly ring their last doorbell of the evening.
• 55:04
  It's been a long night for officers Simon no doubt, and he wants to get him home, maybe fix himself a drink.
• 55:09
  They probably should have ended their evening a little earlier, as they could have avoided some trouble here.
• 55:15
  23-year-old Donald Jr. Greens stumbles to the door. This man likes to party.
• 55:22
  And he's at his girlfriend's home.
• 55:24
  They've been handing out little packages of those hairibos sweets. Delicious candies.
• 55:29
  I love the gummy bears or those little soda pops.
• 55:32
  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.
• 55:40
  They say their thank yous and leave.
• 55:42
  A couple minutes later, Donald thinks to himself, "Tam, to get high."
• 55:47
  He grabbed himself 200 pounds worth of cocaine earlier that day.
• 55:51
  200 pounds as in 200 dollars worth.
• 55:54
  We're in England here. I'm not talking about the weight.
• 55:57
  200 pounds of cocaine would be worth millions on the streets.
• 56:00
  Donald doesn't work for the cartel. He just uses the coke recreationally. He likes to smell.
• 56:06
  So he reaches back into his pocket and pulls out, "Ah shit."
• 56:11
  Well, he's got all these damn hairibos candies.
• 56:14
  Wait a minute. No. He couldn't be that stupid.
• 56:17
  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.
• 56:28
  Crap. He panics and rushes outside to try and find the kids to fix his mistake.
• 56:33
  But they are nowhere to be found.
• 56:35
  Remember, I said this was their last house of the evening.
• 56:38
  So let's check in on the foul family who are already in their home.
• 56:42
  They have scattered their candy on the floor. They're checking out their hall from the evening as kids do.
• 56:47
  Officer Simon is with them looking for potential dangers.
• 56:51
  Razor blades and the like when he spots a little baggie of what looks to be cocaine.
• 56:56
  He's a cop after all. He knows a baggie of drugs when he sees them.
• 57:00
  He yonks all three baggies off the floor and asks his eldest child, "Do you remember who gave you this?"
• 57:06
  She goes, "Yeah, mate. We got those over at the very last house. Strange, isn't it?"
• 57:11
  The officer calls his on-duty buddies, informs them of the situation and they pay Donald the visit.
• 57:16
  When they get to his door, poor Donnie answers and says, "I know exactly why you're here. I knew you were coming."
• 57:23
  The officer promptly arrested him.
• 57:26
  Donald's lawyer, Steve Sullivan, had this to say in court. This was an accidental act. It was grossly foolhardy.
• 57:34
  It took him only a matter of minutes to realize his error. This is clearly a highly unusual and unfortunate case.
• 57:40
  Not surprisingly, it has attracted a good deal of adverse publicity.
• 57:44
  Donald has been embarrassed by the publicity, but does not seek to feel sorry for himself.
• 57:49
  Right on. I like his attitude. And he was just hit with a single charge of possessing a class A drug.
• 57:56
  His mistake could have had some disastrous consequences, but thankfully it didn't.
• 58:00
  Hey, at least Donnie didn't flash anybody like our girl Wendy did. It's not like he answered the door just like Tony Montana, handing the kid some coke, flashing them and saying,
• 58:11
  "Say hello, to my little friend!"
• 58:13
  Missed opportunity, I suppose.
• 58:15
  I've got time for one more quickie. Story number three, he takes place in Texas back in 2021.
• 58:21
  And it involves a firearm. I'll give you a moment to pick your jaws up off the floor. It's shocking, I know.
• 58:27
  This idiot, 35-year-old Monica Bradford, well, she isn't taking part in the Halloween festivities.
• 58:35
  Which is just fine, but if you're not gonna hand out candy, turn off your lights.
• 58:39
  Close the curtains and if anyone rings your doorbell, just ignore it. I've done it plenty of times. No big deal.
• 58:45
  But no, Monica has her front porch light on, and her house has visited several times by kiddies.
• 58:52
  And each time, knit with Monica screams at the children, "To get off her property!"
• 58:58
  Finally around 7pm, she's had enough. Her doorbell rings once again. There's a seven-year-old child eagerly awaiting her to answer, and she does.
• 59:07
  With a loaded shotgun in her hands, pointing it right at the child.
• 59:11
  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.
• 59:19
  Thankfully, the child wasn't harmed, at least not physically. Mentally, that may be another story.
• 59:24
  Monica's neighbor was questioned about the event leading up to this incident, and she said, "She just asked me, "Who's in my driveway?"
• 59:31
  And I was like, "I don't know." She said, "Fine. Since you can't tell me, I'm going to get my shotgun."
• 59:37
  I was in shock. It's Halloween. There are kids everywhere. How can somebody just come out with a weapon and scare these kids?"
• 59:44
  And, "Please, we're called to the scene, and Moronica Bradford was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon."
• 59:51
  Crazy stuff. And, yeah, there you have it.
• 59:54
  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.
• 1:00:03
  But above all else, I hope you all have a safe and happy Halloween.
• 1:00:07
  Peace!
• 1:00:09
  We turn to our right and find ourselves in a graveyard. Among the tombstones we see Johanna and Annie from Fresh Hell podcast.
• 1:00:21
  Their faces illuminated by the flickering light of a candle. They are historians of the dark arts, and their stories will reveal the hidden horrors of the past.
• 1:00:34
  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.
• 1:00:46
  Today, we're very excited to share one of our favorite cases in a much more condensed version from our usual program.
• 1:00:53
  This is the story of the Greenbrier Ghost. The only case in the United States were a ghost helped to convict a cold-blooded murderer.
• 1:01:01
  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.
• 1:01:14
  Erasmus Stribling Trout Shoe didn't much like his name. He was one of at least seven children born to parents Elizabeth and Jacob and Mount Solon, Virginia, around 1861.
• 1:01:26
  His siblings, Susan, James, John, and so forth had all been given names one might find on a souvenir keychain, but not arasmas who was clearly salty about it and hated his name, so we're gonna keep on using it.
• 1:01:39
  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 SD.
• 1:01:49
  They married in 1885 when she was 18 years old and not long after the marriage, he began to hit her.
• 1:01:56
  He allegedly beat Estlin 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.
• 1:02:05
  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.
• 1:02:18
  It wasn't long after he was released from prison that he met his second wife, Lucy and Trit.
• 1:02:25
  Lucy was born around 1870 in Greenbriar County near Elderson, West Virginia, to parents Isaac and Elizabeth.
• 1:02:32
  They were married in June 1894 and lived on Drup Mountain in Pocahontas County, West Virginia with his family.
• 1:02:40
  Eight months later, on 11th of February 1895, Lucy was dead. She was 24 years old and the death was not investigated.
• 1:02:49
  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.
• 1:02:59
  Fearing for his own life, Erasmus moves over the mountain to Greenbriar where he opens a forge and he changes his name to Edward, but everyone calls him Trout.
• 1:03:08
  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.
• 1:03:24
  Her parents, Jacob Hester, a farmer and married Jane Robinson Hester, did not approve.
• 1:03:31
  But despite their protests on 20th of October 1896, Erasmus, dribbling Trout, Shu, married Elva Sona Hester at the local church.
• 1:03:41
  Mary Jane is even more upset when after the wedding, Sona starts to look pale and tired. She suddenly clumsy with bruises all over her body to show for it.
• 1:03:51
  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.
• 1:04:00
  Three months after Sona was married, on 22nd of January 1897, she's found dead at the bottom of the stairs. Her body is found by an errand boy who lived nearby.
• 1:04:11
  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.
• 1:04:23
  When the doctor arrives, Sona has been carried upstairs by her husband, who has also changed his wife's clothing. Sona now wears a dress with a very high collar.
• 1:04:33
  He's holding her, cradling her head and sobbing uncontrollably. And if there's one thing this doctor cannot cope with, it's an other man's tears.
• 1:04:41
  So ultimately, Dr. Napp can't really get that close and doesn't examine her at all. Her cause of death is reported as, "Everlasting faint."
• 1:04:52
  He later changed it to "complications from pregnancy." And if this sounds bizarre, let us remind you that when things like fast cars and trains first became common, Dr. Sona 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.
• 1:05:08
  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.
• 1:05:19
  And setting himself up as the concerned husband with a clumsy wife, and it almost works.
• 1:05:24
  The grieving video helps to prepare the body for Waken Burial. Erasmus was very attentive to his dead wife, placing her in her casket himself, always cradling her head.
• 1:05:35
  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.
• 1:05:43
  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.
• 1:05:54
  She was waked at her parents' home, with proud staying at the head of his wife's casket until she was buried at the cemetery at Soul Chapel Methodist Cemetery in metal glove.
• 1:06:04
  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.
• 1:06:13
  That's right, her ghost appeared to her mother, fornights in a row, and told her mother what had really happened.
• 1:06:20
  She didn't fall down the stairs, she had been murdered.
• 1:06:23
  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.
• 1:06:33
  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.
• 1:06:44
  Then, more shockingly, she said that she had seen Zona's spirit not once, but four times.
• 1:06:50
  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.
• 1:06:58
  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 "the first joint"
• 1:07:16
  to show exactly what she meant by this as she turned for the last time and began to walk away from her mother, Zona paused, turned her head around 180 degrees, made eye contact with her mother, and then vanished.
• 1:07:31
  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.
• 1:07:44
  Mary Jane's description was so disturbing that she got Dr. Napp, 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.
• 1:07:59
  Thanks to Mary Jane's tenacity and Dr. Napp's honesty, an exhumation was ordered and an inquest jury assembled, Trout was furious about the exhumation, the flouncy scarf had almost worked.
• 1:08:11
  Fortunately, because she died in winter, Zona's body was perfectly preserved. Exactly one month after her death, 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.
• 1:08:28
  Anoxia means a lack of oxygen to the brain. She had been strangled to death.
• 1:08:32
  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.
• 1:08:45
  That is to say, just as she had told her mother, her neck was broken, at the first joint.
• 1:08:51
  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.
• 1:09:00
  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 Zona's illness before death.
• 1:09:11
  Trout himself, locked up in Louisburg, wasn't worried because they couldn't prove anything, and besides, he always knew he'd have seven wives, and he wasn't even halfway yet.
• 1:09:22
  Prosecutor John Preston knew that Mary Jane's ghost story would never be considered proof, and he had no plans to bring it up during the trial.
• 1:09:29
  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.
• 1:09:37
  He planned to discredit her by making her look like she had lost her mind in her grief over her daughter. It backfired.
• 1:09:44
  She calmly explained what she had seen. She stuck to her story, and in the end, Jura's believed her.
• 1:09:51
  Trout testified on his own behalf, which was a mistake. He rambled and no one believed him, or found him even a little bit likeable.
• 1:09:58
  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.
• 1:10:09
  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.
• 1:10:20
  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.
• 1:10:35
  Four of those men would later be indicted for attempted lynching.
• 1:10:38
  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.
• 1:10:48
  Not three years later, on March 1, 1900, of the measles, he was 37 years old.
• 1:10:55
  Today there's a marker on Route 60 which reads, quote, "In turn in nearby cemetery is Zona Hester's shoe. Her death in 1897 was presumed natural until her spirit appeared to her mother to describe how she was killed by her husband Edward.
• 1:11:11
  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."
• 1:11:25
  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.
• 1:11:37
  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.
• 1:11:53
  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.
• 1:12:03
  If you are not brave, turn back now, but if you dare to venture deeper, be prepared for anything, and join us again for part two.
• 1:12:13
  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.
• 1:12:24
  What's that I hear? Oh, the darkness is calling my name again, and remember, when darkness calls, answer at your own peril.
• 1:12:36
  [MUSIC]