American Monsters: Greencastle Guillotine
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Sources: https://ia601502.us.archive.org/9/items/true-detective-march-1929/TrueDetectiveMarch1929.pdf
https://www.nkytribune.com/2020/08/our-rich-history-shoe-dealer-solves-ghastly-murder-of-pearl-bryan-found-missing-her-head-in-1893/
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Speaker 3: kind of murderies. Greencastle guillotine Pearl Brian's mysteriously missing head starts. Now.
Speaker 3: Who was the inhuman fiend who brutally murdered pretty Pearl
Speaker 3: Brian of Greencastle, Indiana and hacked off her head? Was
Speaker 3: it walling Wood or Jackson? One of these three young
Speaker 3: men was guilty? Which one? Early on the morning of
Speaker 3: February first, in eighteen ninety three, John Howling, a young
Speaker 3: black teen, started off to work at a farm which
Speaker 3: lay a mile from his home down the road to
Speaker 3: Fort Thomas, Kentucky. His path lay through a field belonging
Speaker 3: to John Locke, and because there was no snow, he
Speaker 3: decided to cross Locke's farm and shorten his journey. The
Speaker 3: air was crisp, and he walked along with no sense
Speaker 3: of impending horror, when suddenly he stopped short and drew
Speaker 3: back an alarm, gaping at an object that had caught
Speaker 3: his eye and the grass just off the pathway. A
Speaker 3: girl lay there, clad in a thin cotton crape kimono,
Speaker 3: cheap material, and from its edge her bare legs and
Speaker 3: feet protruded. Half hidden in the grass, she lay on
Speaker 3: her side in an odd position, her arms with hands together,
Speaker 3: flung in front of her. He could not see her
Speaker 3: face or understand, for a brief moment how she'd managed
Speaker 3: to hide it. Why had she fallen there? Was she
Speaker 3: sleeping or his flesh crept as he wondered, had she
Speaker 3: died in the bitter cold. Perhaps she'd walked in her
Speaker 3: sleep and the cold had overcome her, letting her fall
Speaker 3: to freeze and perish. The young man walked gingerly around
Speaker 3: the body of the girl and laid a red mitten
Speaker 3: hand gently on her shoulder to awaken her. As he
Speaker 3: did so, he drew back sharply, let out a fearful yell,
Speaker 3: and ran back through the fields, terror stricken, as fast
Speaker 3: as his stumbling legs could take him. The body was
Speaker 3: missing ahead, and even young John Howling, ignorant in the
Speaker 3: art of decapitation, knew that it had been cut off
Speaker 3: with a dull knife, and very quickly the ground about
Speaker 3: was stained dark red. Even in the moment of horror,
Speaker 3: he noticed that the bushes nearby, rising to a height
Speaker 3: of six feet or more, were splashed with blood to
Speaker 3: their very topmost branches. Shrieking and sobbing, Howling stumbled along
Speaker 3: to the the nearest house and tremblingly blurted out his
Speaker 3: story to the woman who came to the doors. He
Speaker 3: begged admittance, a girl with her head cut off lying
Speaker 3: in a thicket. The woman repeated, indulgently, Johnny, somebody's trying
Speaker 3: to play a joke on you. You are seeing things.
Speaker 3: But Johnny insisted, and he was quaking so violently that
Speaker 3: the woman realized he had received a terrible shock. She
Speaker 3: called her husband, who listened to the story. She lay
Speaker 3: there like she was dead or sleeping, said Johnny. Then
Speaker 3: I saw she wasn't sleeping because she didn't have a head.
Speaker 3: Johnny means what he says. The farmer told his wife, Finally,
Speaker 3: I'm going to go along and see about this. You
Speaker 3: wait here while I call some of the hands to
Speaker 3: go with me. By this time a curious head or
Speaker 3: two had protruded from the barn, and calling these men
Speaker 3: to accompany him, the farmer set out to the place
Speaker 3: where the body lay. Johnny Howling flatly refused to go
Speaker 3: back to the dreadful spot. There, as Howling had said,
Speaker 3: lay a woman headless about twenty, they judged from the
Speaker 3: condition of her hands, which were very young in appearance
Speaker 3: and too well kept to belong to any of the
Speaker 3: farm girls in the neighborhood. Although her clothing was cheap,
Speaker 3: it was apparent that it had been hastily placed on
Speaker 3: her body after decapitation, for while it was hardly stained,
Speaker 3: the flesh beneath was covered with dry blood. Her fingers
Speaker 3: had been stripped of rings, which marks on the flesh
Speaker 3: indicated she had worn. For some reason, the men's sensed
Speaker 3: that the motive behind the deed had not been robbery.
Speaker 3: Why then, had the murderers taken off the rings? Why
Speaker 3: had they cut the head off? Was it for the
Speaker 3: same reason to hinder identification of the girl. A careful
Speaker 3: examination of her clothing gave no hint of who the
Speaker 3: girl might be. But the first search of the ground
Speaker 3: toward the road which ran through the thicket on the
Speaker 3: way to Fort Thomas, caused the men to shout in triumph. Here,
Speaker 3: evidently dropped by the fleeing murderers in the darkness, were
Speaker 3: bits of clothing of a very different type, which proclaimed
Speaker 3: the wearer a woman of means and refinement. Here were
Speaker 3: a pair of gloves of delicate kind, hardly worn twice,
Speaker 3: a new pair of expensive corsets, and a single shoe
Speaker 3: of far from cheap material. And in that shoe was
Speaker 3: a dealer's name with his address Lewis and Hayes. Greencastle,
Speaker 3: a little town in Indiana. The murderers have had their
Speaker 3: pains for nothing. The men remarked, the body can without
Speaker 3: a doubt be identified in half an hour. Greencastle is
Speaker 3: a small place, poor little girl. Leaving the body covered
Speaker 3: with a coat. The men hurried to report their find
Speaker 3: to the police, who came, looked the body over and
Speaker 3: examined the articles of clothing found without delay. The police
Speaker 3: sent detectives to Greencastle to identify the dead girl. Yes,
Speaker 3: said the shoe dealer in Greencastle, after he'd turned the
Speaker 3: shoe over in his hands thoughtfully for a moment. I
Speaker 3: remember selling those shoes to a miss Pearlbrian, not more
Speaker 3: than three weeks ago. As you can see, they haven't
Speaker 3: been worn much. She was going to visit some friends
Speaker 3: out of town, and she told me she was getting
Speaker 3: some pretty clothes. But then she was always buying shoes.
Speaker 3: She was one of our best customers. Where was she
Speaker 3: going to visit, asked the detectives. But the man, after
Speaker 3: a moment, shook his head. I didn't ask her, and
Speaker 3: if she mentioned it, it slipped my memory. But Pearl
Speaker 3: was always traveling. She had a lot of well to
Speaker 3: do relatives. Who is Pearl Brian? The police asked, Well,
Speaker 3: she is the daughter of one of our most well
Speaker 3: to do so citizens, A fine pretty girl, moving in
Speaker 3: the very best social circles in town. How'd you get
Speaker 3: the shoe? I would be sorry to hear that anything
Speaker 3: had happened to her. Evading this question, the men asked
Speaker 3: to be directed to Pearl's parents' home, a fine structure
Speaker 3: on the best residential street in Greencastle, mister Brian was
Speaker 3: at home when the detectives reached there. Yes, he had
Speaker 3: a daughter named Pearl. She was not at home just now.
Speaker 3: She was visiting friends in Indianapolis. No, he'd not heard
Speaker 3: from her in several days, possibly a week. Why did
Speaker 3: they ask? Was anything wrong? Then they laid the clothes
Speaker 3: before him, and he identified everything, even a handful of
Speaker 3: hairpins scooped up by the detectives from the path leading
Speaker 3: to the Fort Thomas Road by which the girl had
Speaker 3: evidently come to the spot where, as seemed likely, she
Speaker 3: had met her terrible fate. God, that's heartbreaking. Yes, these
Speaker 3: belonged to my girl, mister Brian said, what is the trouble?
Speaker 3: As gently as they could, and I'd say gently is
Speaker 3: an impossible adjective in this situation, But as gently as
Speaker 3: they could, they broke the news of Pearl's death, intimating
Speaker 3: an accident and refraining from telling the sorrowing men the
Speaker 3: true facts that she had not only been murdered, but
Speaker 3: had also been decapitated. When they told Pearl's father that
Speaker 3: her body had been found in Kentucky, the broken hearted
Speaker 3: man was as mystified as they Kentucky. She knew no
Speaker 3: one there, What was his girl doing in Kentucky. This
Speaker 3: interview occurred on February fourth, less than four days had passed.
Speaker 3: This was record speed and filled the local police with pride.
Speaker 3: For many a body whose head had remained intact had
Speaker 3: lain in the morgue, unclaimed and unidentified for more than
Speaker 3: twice that time. The Kentuckians were also proud of their
Speaker 3: efficient police. But in solving the mystery of why Pearl,
Speaker 3: who had never reached Indianapolis at all, had changed her
Speaker 3: plans and gone to Kentucky, or, as seemed more probable,
Speaker 3: to Cincinnati, just over the river from the Kentucky county
Speaker 3: in which Fort Thomas is located, the police were completely
Speaker 3: at sea. Pearls father, mister Bryan, said that as far
Speaker 3: as he knew, Pearl knew no one in Cincinnati. The
Speaker 3: police began a careful questioning of the girl's father, who
Speaker 3: they felt might be holding something back, But they soon
Speaker 3: found out that they knew more of the daughter's past
Speaker 3: life than the poor man ever dreamed of. As in
Speaker 3: similar cases, they sought a man, one in whom Pearl
Speaker 3: might have placed her trust, a sweetheart, perhaps to whom
Speaker 3: she was openly or secretly engaged. But Pearl, though vastly
Speaker 3: charming and popular, had no such sweetheart. It seemed. She
Speaker 3: went to the little balls and parties of the neighborhood
Speaker 3: in the safe company of her mother, where, to be sure,
Speaker 3: her partners flocked about her, but she had no sweetheart.
Speaker 3: Her father said, was it possible that Pearl might have
Speaker 3: developed a secret love for one of those young men
Speaker 3: at one of those parties and eloped, using the visit
Speaker 3: to Indianapolis as a blind until it was time to
Speaker 3: announce the wedding to her father? Was there any young
Speaker 3: man who'd paid attention to Pearl and who was now
Speaker 3: absence from Greencastle? But no such young man could be
Speaker 3: discovered who was absent, either then or at any time
Speaker 3: prior to the discovery of the girl's body. Mister Bryan
Speaker 3: flinched at the implication that his daughter might have deceived him,
Speaker 3: and stoutly denied that it could be true. He had
Speaker 3: always been in his daughter's confidence. He said, she was
Speaker 3: studious and quiet, and would do nothing of her own initiative.
Speaker 3: She had no secret fancy for any young man, of
Speaker 3: that I am sure, asserted mister Bryan. HM. The detectives
Speaker 3: remarked and kept to themselves certain information which had been
Speaker 3: given them by the coroner. For at the time of
Speaker 3: her death, this delicately reared, carefully nurtured girl was shortly
Speaker 3: to have become a mother. Pearl was pregnant, yet apparently
Speaker 3: her father had not the slightest idea in the world
Speaker 3: that this might be. So Without divulging this side of
Speaker 3: the case, for no one had the heart to add
Speaker 3: to the poor father's sorrow, the detectives looked about the
Speaker 3: neighborhood in hopes of uncovering who Pearl's secret suitor might be.
Speaker 3: But no one had ever seen her alone with a
Speaker 3: young man, so carefully had she been guarded. No one
Speaker 3: could aid the detectives in any way. And then when
Speaker 3: everything looked hopeless, there came a bit of information which
Speaker 3: set them on a track that promised to lead directly
Speaker 3: to the murderers. The detectives were seated in one of
Speaker 3: the hotel rooms discussing the futility of remaining any longer
Speaker 3: in Greencastle. I'll run up to the station and wire
Speaker 3: the chief that the case is dead here, said one
Speaker 3: of the men, rising from his chair as the discussion abated.
Speaker 3: Then we can get out of this burg. In less
Speaker 3: than fifteen minutes, he returned, his eyes blazing. Every trace
Speaker 3: of lethargy had been swept from his countenance. Boys, he cried,
Speaker 3: come down and hear what the wire operator has to say.
Speaker 3: The men rose, knowing that their companion had found the trail.
Speaker 3: Every nerve alert as they clattered down the stairs after him.
Speaker 3: Aw Early, the telegraph operator took them into the inner
Speaker 3: office and closed the door before he told his amazing story.
Speaker 3: He is a young friend of mine, the telegraph operator
Speaker 3: began slowly, and I suspect I'm telling tales out of school.
Speaker 3: But the wires you fellows have been sending as made
Speaker 3: me realize that I have no right to keep my
Speaker 3: mouth shut. I will tell you all that I know.
Speaker 3: This boy, William Wood is the son of the Methodist
Speaker 3: minister here in Greencastle, great friend of Pearls. I don't
Speaker 3: care what her father says about that they were always
Speaker 3: meeting when the folks thought that they were at home
Speaker 3: in their beds now. He didn't say he was responsible mine,
Speaker 3: but I put two and two together. A little while
Speaker 3: ago Wood came to me with a tale that Pearl
Speaker 3: had gotten into difficulties. He was near crazy. The girl
Speaker 3: had a fine reputation, and he wanted to help her
Speaker 3: keep it well. Last summer and a few other summers back,
Speaker 3: there was a young man about Bill's age who used
Speaker 3: to visit his grandmother on his vacations here in Greencastle.
Speaker 3: He and Bill were chummy, and so of course he
Speaker 3: knew Pearl saw her at parties and picnics like the
Speaker 3: other boys of the neighborhood. Bill told me that this
Speaker 3: young fellow, Scott Jackson, was taking a medical course in Cincinnati,
Speaker 3: and that he knew was someone who would help Pearl.
Speaker 3: So the girl got ready to go to Cincinnati. Her
Speaker 3: father gave her a lot of money to buy clothes with,
Speaker 3: thinking she was going to Indianapolis. And the next thing
Speaker 3: I knew, I saw her on the platform there being
Speaker 3: kissed by her dad. Well, well that's the last time
Speaker 3: he ever kissed her. And you know the rest. Now,
Speaker 3: that might explain, of course, how Pearl had come to Kentucky,
Speaker 3: for Cincinnati is just across the bridge from Newport, Kentucky,
Speaker 3: the city closest to Fort Thomas, but it did not
Speaker 3: explain many other things. Still, it was probable that young
Speaker 3: Jackson could throw light on many phases of the mystery,
Speaker 3: and the police determined to give him the opportunity to
Speaker 3: do so. Hot on the trail. Now, the detectives wired
Speaker 3: the authorities at Cincinnati to arrest Jackson at the medical
Speaker 3: school and hold him for questioning. Then they took young
Speaker 3: Bill Wood, the minister's son, into custody, but Wood merely
Speaker 3: repeated this story that had been told them by aw Early,
Speaker 3: the telegraph operator, that Pearl had been badly in need
Speaker 3: of help, and that he'd arranged with his friend Scott
Speaker 3: Jackson to see that she was cared for in Cincinnati,
Speaker 3: both young men wishing to help the girl preserve her
Speaker 3: excellent reputation. Right, that's very noble, of course, But which
Speaker 3: one of their babies, is it? Right? I mean, I
Speaker 3: believe what's being implied here is that Pearl is on
Speaker 3: her way to Cincinnati to get an abortion. Now, I
Speaker 3: would never presume to know, but I can imagine that
Speaker 3: getting an abortion is pretty damn scary anytime. Now, imagine
Speaker 3: how utterly terrifying it is when you consider that this
Speaker 3: happened in eighteen ninety three. Yikes, that was a point
Speaker 3: in history when surgery was about as advanced as I
Speaker 3: don't know, medieval dentistry, something, something extremely unadvanced. Anyway, these
Speaker 3: two genteel knights in shining armor, Wood and Jackson, they
Speaker 3: nobly wanted to help this girl, though apparently neither of
Speaker 3: them had a personal interest in the matter beyond their
Speaker 3: friendship with the girl. Man, this all sounds like boloney
Speaker 3: to me. Ah, here we go. Wood was vague as
Speaker 3: to who was responsible for Pearl's condition, and the detectives
Speaker 3: in the moment did not press him. This they thought
Speaker 3: could wait, and they went to Cincinnati. Jackson, the medical student, however,
Speaker 3: was not so affable as Wood, and far more wary
Speaker 3: in his answers. His attitude shifted from indifference to the
Speaker 3: fast forming suspicion against him to amusement that the detectives
Speaker 3: would waste valuable time by barking up the wrong tree.
Speaker 3: Jackson denied that he'd ever laid eyes on Pearl Brian
Speaker 3: outside of the little town in which he'd met her
Speaker 3: casually as a visitor will meet all the prettiest girls
Speaker 3: in the social set. Nor had he heard from Wood,
Speaker 3: he said, on this or any other subject. Certainly he
Speaker 3: had not arranged for an illegal, as well as dangerous
Speaker 3: operation for the girl, whom he claimed he barely knew,
Speaker 3: and that was that he admitted to being a buddy
Speaker 3: of Woods in Greencastle, and he admitted too that were
Speaker 3: Wood to write to him if caught in a difficulty
Speaker 3: would not be strange, as they had been close friends.
Speaker 3: Were not quite satisfied with Jackson's answers or his attitude,
Speaker 3: and they declined to free him. Then one day, as
Speaker 3: they'd hoped, he weakened angrily, he declared that while he
Speaker 3: knew nothing about the case, the authorities would do well
Speaker 3: to see what was known by his roommate, Alonzo Walling,
Speaker 3: also a student at the medical school. Walling was younger
Speaker 3: than Jackson, twenty one years old to the latter's twenty
Speaker 3: eight years, and seemed a man of far less initiative.
Speaker 3: He was also far more easily handled. After declaring at
Speaker 3: first they had never heard of Pearl Brian beyond what
Speaker 3: the newspapers were saying, he admitted that he had heard
Speaker 3: Jackson speak of her. Now, as Walling had not fled
Speaker 3: when Jackson was taken into custody, it seemed to the
Speaker 3: police logical to infer that he was not seriously involved
Speaker 3: or afraid of being questioned, so after a little more questioning,
Speaker 3: they let him go free. He left and stated his
Speaker 3: contempt for what he called a practical joke on the
Speaker 3: part of Jackson in getting him into the affair, but
Speaker 3: his triumph was short lived. His overall calmness had convinced
Speaker 3: them all of his innocence, except one veteran detective who
Speaker 3: said little, and who within an hour swore out a
Speaker 3: warrant for Walling's arrest and brought him back to the station.
Speaker 3: Mark my words, said the grizzled detective. That boy knows
Speaker 3: what is what in this case. I don't know whether
Speaker 3: he's guilty, but I do believe that he knows all
Speaker 3: that we want to know. Keep him here a while,
Speaker 3: he'll tell us what it's about. Next. William Wood was
Speaker 3: brought from Greencastle and lodged in the same jail with
Speaker 3: the other two, who were loud in their denouncements of
Speaker 3: him for getting them into this mess, as they called it.
Speaker 3: For some time, sulky and silent, all three languished in
Speaker 3: jail while the police began to wonder if they were
Speaker 3: on the right track. After all. Wood stoutly insisted on
Speaker 3: his own innocence and said that he knew nothing about
Speaker 3: the whole affair beyond sending Pearl to Cincinnati to meet Scott,
Speaker 3: and he was released finally on five thousand dollars bail,
Speaker 3: which would be about one hundred and seventy thousand dollars today.
Speaker 3: Wood's release infuriated the other two, but did not have
Speaker 3: the for effect of ringing either accusations or confessions of
Speaker 3: value out of them. The case rested. Every clue the
Speaker 3: police followed led into blind alleys, and the detectives, who
Speaker 3: had distinguished themselves by a swift identification, now were completely flummixed.
Speaker 3: Nothing more developed. The prisoners turned sarcastic and made cutting
Speaker 3: remarks regarding the efficiency of those responsible for their incarceration. Then,
Speaker 3: just when it looked like the prisoners would go free
Speaker 3: after all, there occurred a startling development that served to
Speaker 3: strengthen the frail thread of evidence against them. An African
Speaker 3: American waiter in a Cincinnati saloon of ill repute dropped
Speaker 3: into headquarters. He recalled that the two men in custody,
Speaker 3: Walling and Jackson, who identified by their pictures in the newspaper,
Speaker 3: had been in his saloon the night before Pearl Bryan's
Speaker 3: body was discovered a young girl closely resembling the published
Speaker 3: pictures of the dead Pearl had been with them, and
Speaker 3: the party had been served in a private room. The
Speaker 3: owner of the cafe was summoned and he corroboreated, did
Speaker 3: the waiter's story did anything occur? Did you overhear anything
Speaker 3: that served to fix the trio in your mind? The
Speaker 3: proprietor was asked. Beads of perspiration stood out on the
Speaker 3: man's forehead as he answered, yes. The girl looked nervous
Speaker 3: and out of place in her surroundings, but more than that. Once,
Speaker 3: when I entered the room myself, I saw her get
Speaker 3: up and leave the table to go to the retiring
Speaker 3: room in the back, And just then I overheard one
Speaker 3: of the men say, gee, I'd like a woman's head
Speaker 3: to dissect. Holy Moly. I saw the girl turn a
Speaker 3: look of fear on her face, but just then she
Speaker 3: saw me and kept on going. I knew the men
Speaker 3: were medical students, and I put down the remark to
Speaker 3: youthful enthusiasm and forgot all about it until the next day. Then,
Speaker 3: with the newspapers full of stories of a headless body
Speaker 3: found just across the river, the proprietor speculated that that
Speaker 3: body might be the girl. Only after he'd convinced himself
Speaker 3: that it was his duty to tell all he knew,
Speaker 3: had he allowed his waiter to talk without hesitation, Both
Speaker 3: men identified Jackson and Walling as the men in the
Speaker 3: cafe that evening. Jackson are argued angrily that anyone could
Speaker 3: so identify him if they chose to, as his picture
Speaker 3: had been public property in all the papers, and he
Speaker 3: scornfully denied ever having set foot in the cafe. He
Speaker 3: faced his accusers with an insolent air of boredom and
Speaker 3: refused to allow their accusations to shake his testimony. Walling, however,
Speaker 3: did not quite bear his former roommate out now in
Speaker 3: all his statements. Yes, he admitted he'd been to the
Speaker 3: saloon that particular night. He placed the date because it
Speaker 3: had been the night before his first read of the
Speaker 3: frightful discovery of the girl's headless body. He had not
Speaker 3: quite sensed the story in all its horror, he said,
Speaker 3: because of the morning afterhead meaning the hangover with which
Speaker 3: he'd read the news. But he said there was no
Speaker 3: girl with us. And as for the remark about dissection,
Speaker 3: well that's pure fabrication. Walling, obviously the weaker, was then
Speaker 3: treated as several hours of relentless questioning. Finally, he begged
Speaker 3: his inquisitors to cease, and, breaking down, told the most
Speaker 3: complete story he'd given so far. They were right. Walling
Speaker 3: sobbed aloud as he spoke. He had known Pearlbrian, but
Speaker 3: it was Jackson, with either an injection of cocaine or
Speaker 3: one of Prussick acid that had caused her death in
Speaker 3: his rooms that night, while Walling looked on in helpless horror.
Speaker 3: But that was all he knew. How she got to
Speaker 3: Fort Thomas was as big a mystery to him as
Speaker 3: it was to his tormentors. This put another spin on things,
Speaker 3: and the police encouraged the boy to talk a little further,
Speaker 3: for although it had not been made public, the coroner's
Speaker 3: investigation had resulted in the discovery of cocaine in the body,
Speaker 3: just as Walling had said, the boy could not have
Speaker 3: guessed this. He must, therefore, to some extent, be telling
Speaker 3: the truth. Jackson refused to add to the story and
Speaker 3: swore that Walling was lying. Then he began to add
Speaker 3: a few accusations of his own. Walling had killed the
Speaker 3: girl and was shielding himself by throwing the blame on
Speaker 3: his friend and roommate Walling, he said had killed Pearl.
Speaker 3: Walling had agreed to perform the operation, it had been unsuccessful,
Speaker 3: and she had died. To cover his crime, Walling had
Speaker 3: caused her to be placed in the thicket near Fort Thomas.
Speaker 3: Jackson had no idea who'd cut off her head, he said,
Speaker 3: but he hardly believed that Walling would commit an atrocity
Speaker 3: like that. And if you don't believe me, Jackson told
Speaker 3: the police, just look over Walling's effects back at the school.
Speaker 3: The police followed his suggestion promptly with gratifying results. Wow,
Speaker 3: this is awful. If you believe this version of the story,
Speaker 3: Jackson and Walling were actually well meaning, and Pearl died
Speaker 3: as the result of a botched abortion, and in eighteen
Speaker 3: ninety three, tragically. I imagine that botched abortions were at least
Speaker 3: as common, if not more common, than successful ones. But
Speaker 3: I'm not sure I buy it. And also, I, like
Speaker 3: many of you, I'm sure want to know who's the
Speaker 3: cad who got her pregnant? All right, back to the story.
Speaker 3: Following Jackson's suggestion, the police went to search Walling's room
Speaker 3: and personal effects. In a locker belonging to Walling, they
Speaker 3: found an old pair of trousers caked with MUDs such
Speaker 3: as might be found out for Thomas Way, and darkly
Speaker 3: stained with blood. When he was confronted with them, Walling
Speaker 3: broke down completely. He said that if they look in
Speaker 3: the sewer at the corner of John and Richmond Streets,
Speaker 3: they would find clothing in similar condition belonging to Jackson. Moreover,
Speaker 3: the pockets were filled with the belongings of the dead girl.
Speaker 3: Guided by Walling, the police found the bloodstained trousers in
Speaker 3: the sewer. The pockets contained a blood covered shirt and
Speaker 3: six little handkerchiefs marked PB. Later, the handkerchiefs were identified
Speaker 3: by Pearl's father. Now, although it seemed an easy case,
Speaker 3: there was, and the boys knew it an amazingly delicate situation.
Speaker 3: The police believed that they had proof of Jackson and
Speaker 3: Walling's guilt, but it was practically useless without certain important additions,
Speaker 3: For it entangled the legal machinery of two states, Kentucky
Speaker 3: and Ohio. Where had the girl died in Cincinnati or
Speaker 3: near Fort Thomas? Had she been dead when the body
Speaker 3: was taken to the thicket where it was found, Or
Speaker 3: had she gone there alive and come to her end
Speaker 3: at that fateful spot? And where was her head? Now?
Speaker 3: No one could or would an answer these questions, and
Speaker 3: at the advice of lawyers, the two young men, now
Speaker 3: staunch enemies and bitterly accusing each other, maintained a dignified silence,
Speaker 3: hoping against hope that the mysterious elements of the case
Speaker 3: would work to set them free. For a man can
Speaker 3: only stand once in jeopardy for his life before the
Speaker 3: law for a particular crime. Try him in the wrong
Speaker 3: state and let the defense prove this, and he would
Speaker 3: go free. He could not then be brought back to
Speaker 3: go to trial for the same crime in the other state.
Speaker 3: That's double jeopardy for you. Now, every bit of mystery
Speaker 3: was to the advantage of the prisoners, and they made
Speaker 3: the most of it. Although there was no doubt of
Speaker 3: their guilt, there were many flaws in the proof of it,
Speaker 3: and detectives scouring the city for missing links in the
Speaker 3: chain found it hard sledding. Nothing they turned up served
Speaker 3: to draw the net any closer about their catch. In Vain,
Speaker 3: the detectives tried to account for the week, which they
Speaker 3: believed Pearl had spent in Cincinnati, for she left home
Speaker 3: on January twenty sixth, and thereafter until she was seen
Speaker 3: that night in the cafe, there was no trace of her.
Speaker 3: Then they found that on Thursday morning, the day before
Speaker 3: she was found dead in Kentucky, she had been in
Speaker 3: a Cincinnati railway station, apparently about to start for home,
Speaker 3: but she had not bought a ticket, and a dark
Speaker 3: young man who later proved to be Walling, had accompanied
Speaker 3: her out of the station. Again, why had she changed
Speaker 3: her mind about leaving? Why had she changed her mind
Speaker 3: about leaving? Was murder at that moment in the mind
Speaker 3: of the one who dealt the mortal blow? If Jackson
Speaker 3: had dealt it, why had Walling prevailed upon her to remain?
Speaker 3: And for what purpose had he knowingly taken her back
Speaker 3: to her subsequent death? But Walling was weak, It seemed
Speaker 3: unlikely that he alone had instigated the foul deed. Yet
Speaker 3: why should he have taken this terrible risk for Jackson?
Speaker 3: Another bit of news, gruesome in its implications, drifted in
Speaker 3: from the college. For the few days between the finding
Speaker 3: of the body and his arrest. Jackson had carried a
Speaker 3: suitcase with him everywhere he went to his classrooms or
Speaker 3: to the dining hall, which was so conspicuous that the
Speaker 3: boys had joked about it. He would not let it
Speaker 3: out of his sight. Upon investigation, the police found the suitcase.
Speaker 3: It was empty, but had bloodstains on the inner lining.
Speaker 3: Had it contained Pearl Bryan's head? If so, where was
Speaker 3: the head now? Then the case rested Again. The authorities
Speaker 3: dared not risk a trial, even with the evidence they had.
Speaker 3: Popular opinion was with them, to be sure. Nevertheless, controversies
Speaker 3: centered about the jurisdictional difficulties presented by the two and
Speaker 3: again I think its three potentially states. Everything had to
Speaker 3: be done carefully. Little by little, additional evidence came to hand.
Speaker 3: A man from Covington, Kentucky dropped in to say that
Speaker 3: he'd seen two men haggling with an African American man
Speaker 3: on the corner of George and Elm Streets in Cincinnati
Speaker 3: on the night of the murder. They were arguing over
Speaker 3: a price concerning a closed carriage, which had later driven
Speaker 3: off in the direction of a bridge leading to Kentucky.
Speaker 3: The men, the man from Covington felt sure, were Walling
Speaker 3: and Jackson, whom he subsequently identified the Africa an American
Speaker 3: man he could not describe. The police offered not only immunity,
Speaker 3: but a reward if the cab driver would come forward.
Speaker 3: News of this was circulated through every black neighborhood and organization,
Speaker 3: but met with no response. Remember we're talking eighteen ninety
Speaker 3: three here. At this point, a Miss Lulu Hollingsworth stepped
Speaker 3: into the fray. She came, she said, all the way
Speaker 3: from Knox City to help the police in their baffling problem.
Speaker 3: She'd been a friend of the dead Brian girl. She
Speaker 3: knew Pearl had come to Cincinnati for an illegal operation.
Speaker 3: Pearl had in fact asked Lulu to meet her at
Speaker 3: the train, She said. It was obvious that Pearl had
Speaker 3: died instead of returning home to Greencastle. She had died
Speaker 3: in Jackson's rooms, said Miss Hollingsworth, and the young man
Speaker 3: had written to Lulu in great agitation, telling her everything.
Speaker 3: Decapitation had taken place in Kentucky after the death of
Speaker 3: the girl. A black man hired in Kentucky had driven
Speaker 3: the body to Cincinnati, cut off the head, and then
Speaker 3: cast it from the bridge. On his way back from Newport,
Speaker 3: the black cab driver decapitated the body. Why the world
Speaker 3: would that be except just blaming the black guy for
Speaker 3: the gross thing. So Lulu's story made hardly a ripple
Speaker 3: in official circles. In the first place, it told nothing
Speaker 3: save what had been published in the papers, or that
Speaker 3: could not be proved. Miss Hollingsworth unfortunately could not produce
Speaker 3: the letter, saying that in her agitation she had destroyed
Speaker 3: it immediately. Also, the police felt that a young man
Speaker 3: as astute as Jackson, were he to commit murder, would
Speaker 3: hardly put his guilt in writing, particularly when that writing
Speaker 3: was to be entrusted to Lulu's hands. Moreover, the authorities
Speaker 3: were inclined to believe that she did not even know
Speaker 3: the trio involved in the affair. She could give only
Speaker 3: a hazy description of Pearl or of the young men,
Speaker 3: and when they hotly declared that they'd never before laid
Speaker 3: eyes on her, the police believed them, probably for the
Speaker 3: first time. On February twelve, twelve days after the discovery
Speaker 3: of Pearlbrian's body, so rapidly did the case move that
Speaker 3: the coroner's jury met and found number one that the
Speaker 3: headless body found on February first, on the road near
Speaker 3: Fort Thomas was that of Pearl Bryan of Greencastle, Indiana,
Speaker 3: that cocaine had been administered, and that decapitation had taken
Speaker 3: place while the girl was still living, and at the
Speaker 3: place where the body was found. Okay, then I think
Speaker 3: that settles jurisdiction number two. The coroner's jury found that
Speaker 3: Pearl Brian, Scott Jackson, and Alonzo Walling had been seen
Speaker 3: entering a cab together at one am on February first,
Speaker 3: at the corner of Georgian Oak Street, Cincinnati, an intersection
Speaker 3: not far from George and Elm Streets. Then they had
Speaker 3: driven off in the direction that would take them over
Speaker 3: the bridge leading into Kentucky. They based the finding that
Speaker 3: Pearl Brian had been alive when her head was removed
Speaker 3: on an important and remarkable point. The blood had spurted
Speaker 3: at a height of six feet on the surrounding bushes
Speaker 3: and was found only on the underside of the leaves,
Speaker 3: which proved that it had not been spattered after death,
Speaker 3: as only blood from a living body spurts. Formal charges
Speaker 3: were brought at once against the two men in Ohio
Speaker 3: following these revelations, but they were indicted in Kentucky and
Speaker 3: the governor of Ohio finally released them and sent them
Speaker 3: across the state line for trial. While they remained in
Speaker 3: a jail at Newport, the prosecution went ahead with unusual care.
Speaker 3: If the defense could still show that the trial was
Speaker 3: being held in the wrong state, the young men would
Speaker 3: go free, and by a fluke of technicalities, the prosecution
Speaker 3: would be helpless. Accordingly, the prosecution delayed the trial as
Speaker 3: long as they could, hoping for more evidence to drop
Speaker 3: like manna from heaven into their hands. And then the
Speaker 3: star witness for the state walked into the police station
Speaker 3: arm in arm with Patrolman Swain. Swain's beat lay past
Speaker 3: the grounds belonging to a Major Whittikind at Mount Auburn,
Speaker 3: and he had often seen the major's coachman, an old
Speaker 3: African American man, pottering about the stables and the lawns. Therefore,
Speaker 3: he was not surprised when the old fellow hailed him
Speaker 3: one day. They discussed a few topics of local interest,
Speaker 3: and then, as did everyone, touched upon the Pearl Brian case.
Speaker 3: Have they found the girl's head? The coachman asked Swain.
Speaker 3: Swain replied that they'd practically given up any hope of
Speaker 3: recovering it was to move along. When the man stepped
Speaker 3: closer to the fence and dropped his voice. You know
Speaker 3: that coach when they say drove those fellers to Fort Thomas.
Speaker 3: If they catch him, would they hang him to Swain
Speaker 3: explained that unless the driver had been party to the
Speaker 3: murder or the plans concerning the murder, he would be blameless.
Speaker 3: Then the coachman, his name too was Jackson, clutched Swain
Speaker 3: by the sleeve and told him, trembling that he was
Speaker 3: the long sought driver who'd driven the surrey across the
Speaker 3: bridge into Kentucky the night of the murder. He told
Speaker 3: a straightforward story. It was the night of the drill
Speaker 3: for the Caldwell Colored Guards, a military organization of Cincinnati
Speaker 3: that he Jackson was drill master. After the meeting, he'd
Speaker 3: stood on the corner of George and Elm Streets talking
Speaker 3: with some of the men. A closed carriage had driven up, stopped,
Speaker 3: and the man driving had asked if anyone there on
Speaker 3: the curb wished to make five dollars before going to bed.
Speaker 3: There's a sick lady in the carriage who needs to
Speaker 3: be taken home by her doctor. The man had explained,
Speaker 3: she lives across the bridge, and we don't know the
Speaker 3: exact way from Newport. Now, that was his business handling horses,
Speaker 3: I mean, and so Jackson the coach, offered to do
Speaker 3: the driving. Accordingly, He climbed up in the box, took
Speaker 3: the reins, and started off. The man who had been
Speaker 3: driving remained beside him. He was a tall, dark man,
Speaker 3: and he wore a corduroy cap. Jackson remembered. As we
Speaker 3: drove along, I could hear strange sounds inside the carriage.
Speaker 3: I thought at first that it was just the lady
Speaker 3: being sick, and then I thought one doctor was hurting her.
Speaker 3: She kept moaning and crying. Finally I got scared. I
Speaker 3: didn't think that everything was right, and I didn't want
Speaker 3: to be mixed up in things. I was just about
Speaker 3: to drop up and leave and let them do their
Speaker 3: own driving, when the man beside me pulled out a
Speaker 3: gun and stuck it into my ribs. I'll make an
Speaker 3: interview right here if you don't do as I tell you,
Speaker 3: he said, keep your seat and take those reins. When
Speaker 3: he asked me my name an address, I was so
Speaker 3: scared that I told him the truth, and he said
Speaker 3: that if I ever breathed the word of what went
Speaker 3: on that night. If I ever told a soul, they
Speaker 3: would find me and kill me. He said that if
Speaker 3: they got in any trouble, and if they were put
Speaker 3: where they couldn't get at me, they would have friends
Speaker 3: on the outside who would finish the job. The poor
Speaker 3: man had lived in mortal terror of his life since
Speaker 3: that evening, for he knew that what he could tell
Speaker 3: would be fatal to the case of Jackson and Walling,
Speaker 3: and at every moment he expected to be killed. In
Speaker 3: order to silence his tongue, he'd driven the carriage, with
Speaker 3: the pistol at his side, across the suspension bridge and
Speaker 3: threw Newport out to the Fort Thomas Road. Finally, the
Speaker 3: man beside him pointed to a dark patch of thicket
Speaker 3: at one side of the road and said, stop. The
Speaker 3: lady's houses down there. Away. They told him to wait
Speaker 3: there to take them back to Cincinnati, explaining that they
Speaker 3: would accompany her to the door coming back in a
Speaker 3: few moments. The man in the carriage got out and
Speaker 3: carefully helped the woman to alight. She was wrapped in
Speaker 3: a long, dark cloak, and she was heavily veiled. She
Speaker 3: seemed weak, as though she could hardly stand without leaning
Speaker 3: against someone. The man on the box took hold of
Speaker 3: her other arm, and together the two men walked away,
Speaker 3: with the sick woman between them. It seemed as though
Speaker 3: she were being carried, her feet dragged along the path,
Speaker 3: but she had not been dead. The coachman was certain
Speaker 3: of that, telling his story to the police. As the
Speaker 3: trio disappeared, the driver thought he heard a scuffle, then
Speaker 3: a screa, unquestionably a woman's scream. Something was terribly wrong,
Speaker 3: he knew, and he decided to get out of there
Speaker 3: as speedily as possible. Five dollars or no, five dollars.
Speaker 3: I got off the seat and ran like the devil
Speaker 3: was after me. Threw the woods over the bridge and
Speaker 3: back to Cincinnati. The carriage did not pass on the way.
Speaker 3: I got home at four o'clock in the morning, went
Speaker 3: straight to bed, and never breathed a word to anybody. However,
Speaker 3: when Jackson Jackson, the coach driver and sergeant in the guard,
Speaker 3: heard the next day that a headless body had been
Speaker 3: discovered on the same road, he thought at once of
Speaker 3: the poor girl, And when Jackson and Walling were taken
Speaker 3: into custody, he knew that these were the two he'd
Speaker 3: driven on that terrible night. Later, when he was certain
Speaker 3: that he was not being followed by their friends, he
Speaker 3: determined to tell everything he knew. The police were at
Speaker 3: once inclined to believe the coachman's story, for he told
Speaker 3: it in a straightforward manner and showed no signs of
Speaker 3: breaking down under questioning. He added a significant remark when
Speaker 3: he told it a second time, which practically convinced them.
Speaker 3: I tied the horse to a railway iron I saw
Speaker 3: on the ground while I was waiting, He said. Now
Speaker 3: that added up perfectly with the findings of the police,
Speaker 3: for the clothes found in the sewer had been weighted
Speaker 3: down with a railway iron, which presumably the men had
Speaker 3: taken along from the spot on the Fort Thomas Road
Speaker 3: for this very purpose. Jackson, the carriage driver, identified Walling
Speaker 3: immediately as the dark man who'd sat beside him, and
Speaker 3: directed his movements on the hair raising drive. He hesitated
Speaker 3: as to Scott Jackson, who stood in the lineup, for
Speaker 3: he had not seen him as closely. Finally, he selected
Speaker 3: with great indecision a man about the same height as Jackson,
Speaker 3: and then changed to another and then admitted he was
Speaker 3: not sure, but if I hear them all talk, I
Speaker 3: can pick out the voice of the man in the carriage,
Speaker 3: he assured the examiners. Sure enough, when the men repeated
Speaker 3: the threats that he declared had been made at once,
Speaker 3: carriage driver Jackson selected Scott Jackson from the group by
Speaker 3: his voice, though he could not see him at the time.
Speaker 3: His story was supplemented by the Walnut Hill Cab Company,
Speaker 3: which reluctantly admitted that a closed carriage hired from that
Speaker 3: evening by men whose description tallied with those of the
Speaker 3: men in custody, had not been returned until a hostler
Speaker 3: the next day found it on a side street and
Speaker 3: drove it back to the stable. The toll collector at
Speaker 3: the bridge recalled a closed carriage driven by a black
Speaker 3: man early in the morning of February first, but to
Speaker 3: verify the story beyond a doubt, the authorities asked carriage
Speaker 3: driver Jackson to point out the spot on the Fort
Speaker 3: Thomas Road where he had driven that night. They set
Speaker 3: forth police, detectives, reporters, everybody more than a little pleased
Speaker 3: with the sensation he was making. Carriage driver Jackson drove
Speaker 3: with them, stopping the horse not twenty yards away from
Speaker 3: where the body had been found, and he pointed, without hesitation,
Speaker 3: in the right direction. The two men took the poor
Speaker 3: lady there that way, he said. One more important bit
Speaker 3: of evidence was added to this already overwhelming pile. A
Speaker 3: keeper of a house of ill repute came into the
Speaker 3: police station with a pair of men's overshoes, stained with
Speaker 3: blood and still muddy, which she said had been left
Speaker 3: under a sofa in her her establishment shortly after the
Speaker 3: murder by a man that she believed to be Walling.
Speaker 3: The shoes fit Walling perfectly. He denied owning them naturally enough,
Speaker 3: and said they probably could fit half the men in Cincinnati.
Speaker 3: He also insisted that he would rather claim them than
Speaker 3: admit that he'd ever been in her house. Now William Wood,
Speaker 3: the Greencastle minister's son, begged to talk, and while they
Speaker 3: were not admitted into the evidence, he repeated verbatim two
Speaker 3: letters which he said Jackson had written him about Pearl Bryan.
Speaker 3: The first letter, according to Wood, ran as follows, Hello, Bill.
Speaker 3: I expect you think I've forgotten you, but I haven't.
Speaker 3: I've been awfully busy this week. I haven't been over
Speaker 3: to Kentucky yet, so you may know that I've been
Speaker 3: awfully busy. I work all day in the college and
Speaker 3: then in the dissecting room, so you see I am
Speaker 3: busy for sure. Well to business. Tell Bert a nickname
Speaker 3: would explain for Pearl to come on. I have a
Speaker 3: very nice room with a nice old lady. A friend
Speaker 3: of Walling's will do the work, an old hand at
Speaker 3: the biz. We go to his house tonight for supper.
Speaker 3: He is a chemist. I think I will have money enough,
Speaker 3: But tell Bert to bring all she can, as it
Speaker 3: may come in handy. Tell her to leave so as
Speaker 3: to get here Monday night. Tell her she can go
Speaker 3: home for four or five days. Push it along. Don't
Speaker 3: go back on me now, as I am near out
Speaker 3: of my trouble. Be sure and burn this when you
Speaker 3: have read it. Signed D. D. Wood explained was merely
Speaker 3: a fictitious initial to prevent discovery in case of loss
Speaker 3: of the letter. The other letter was said by Wood
Speaker 3: to have been written after Pearl's death. It ran, Hello, Bill,
Speaker 3: be awfully careful what you say. I'm expecting trouble. Oh Lord,
Speaker 3: stand by me. Do you think the doc will write him?
Speaker 3: I made a big mistake and it's going to get
Speaker 3: me into trouble. Don't forsake me now. Now is when
Speaker 3: I need you most, write Doc, he will stand up
Speaker 3: for us. Wony, say Bill, I wish I'd never seen
Speaker 3: that girl and never seen Greencastle my tough luck. Anyway,
Speaker 3: be sure and burn this. Don't let anyone see it now, Bill,
Speaker 3: stand by your old chum, signed d. Was Wood merely
Speaker 3: trying to fix the blame for Pearl's condition on Jackson.
Speaker 3: If not to blame, why had Jackson been so easy
Speaker 3: eager to assist in the matter. It was all very strange.
Speaker 3: But Wood had burned the letters, and the oral renditions
Speaker 3: of them were worthless. The two men, Jackson and Walling,
Speaker 3: were tried separately. Jackson's trial began in Newport, Kentucky, on
Speaker 3: April twenty second, eighteen ninety six, and lasted nearly a month.
Speaker 3: Alonzo Walling was tried in an adjoining county. Both were
Speaker 3: found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. Counsel for the
Speaker 3: defense had tried to show that Pearl Brian had met
Speaker 3: her death in Ohio and that she had been taken
Speaker 3: dead to Kentucky. They poo pooed the story that carriage
Speaker 3: driver Jackson had told and said that black men were
Speaker 3: not to be relied upon in the witness stand. They
Speaker 3: then turned around and brought in another African American to
Speaker 3: swear that he had been with the coachman that night
Speaker 3: until early in the morning, and that Jackson therefore could
Speaker 3: not have driven the carriage. Yikes. The defense lawyer for
Speaker 3: Scott Jackson, Colonel L. J. Crawford, had been so able
Speaker 3: that mister Bryan, in alarm lest his daughter's death should
Speaker 3: go unavenged, had thrown all his resources in on behalf
Speaker 3: of the state, and himself paid for an eminent lawyer
Speaker 3: to aid in the prosecution of the case. Their trials
Speaker 3: over and both convicted. The prisoners were lodged in the
Speaker 3: same jail to await execution. Few gave Scott Jackson any sympathy,
Speaker 3: but the younger man, Alonzo Walling, arounds much pity through
Speaker 3: the press. The Governor's desk was flooded with appeals for
Speaker 3: his life on the grounds that he had been but
Speaker 3: a tool for the older man, But nothing moved the governor,
Speaker 3: who refused to interfere in the punishing of the perpetrators
Speaker 3: of what was considered the most dastardly crime of that decade.
Speaker 3: The law was allowed to take its course up to
Speaker 3: the last moment. However, nobody thought the governor would let
Speaker 3: Walling die. This belief was shared by the sheriff, who
Speaker 3: delayed the hanging from the unusual hour of seven in
Speaker 3: the morning until nearly noon to give a message of
Speaker 3: sentence commutation time to arrive from the Capitol. No such
Speaker 3: message came, and the two men were led forth to
Speaker 3: pay the supreme penalty for the murder of Pearl Bryan.
Speaker 3: With them died Much of what might have been interesting
Speaker 3: to know in connection to the case. Who was Pearlbrian's betrayer?
Speaker 3: Did Jackson intend murdering her when he lured her to
Speaker 3: Cincinnati under the pretense of helping her. Was she murdered
Speaker 3: to conceal her condition, or was she murdered for her head?
Speaker 3: Where was her head? Now? Large rewards were offered for
Speaker 3: the recovery of the head, but it was never traced.
Speaker 3: To this day, the location of Pearl Brian's missing head
Speaker 3: remains a mystery. The poor girl's body lies under stone
Speaker 3: minus its head. A tragic end for a life meant
Speaker 3: for happiness, and we never found out who got Pearl pregnant,
Speaker 3: although the local Greencastle reverend's son, William Wood, the only
Speaker 3: local boy involved in this story, seems the likely candidate.
Speaker 3: I'm z Evan Oldelberg and this has been kind of
Speaker 3: murdery
Speaker 2: S
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