The Murder of Anna Nosko

0:00 Warning. Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and descriptions of

0:04 violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and we recommend you stop listening

0:09 now. I'm Zevan Odelberg, and this is kind of murdery. Please join

0:24 me as we uncover what truths we can and solve what mysteries we may.

0:30 The murder of Anna and Nosco starts now. Anna Nosco collected the family mail

0:48 on her way home from school every day. Then, on March eighth,

0:53 nineteen twenty three, the eleven year old girl was late returning to her family's

0:57 farm. When Anna was late getting home, missus Nosco, Anna's mother,

1:02 revealed to her husband that she had had a terrifying dream about her daughter.

1:07 Just the night before. Missus Nosco had dreamt that Anna, just four days

1:11 short of twelve years old, had been coming up the railroad tracks to her

1:17 home when an evil looking man had stepped out to attack her. He had

1:22 struck Anna with a crushing fist, then taken out a blackjack or a sap

1:26 from his pocket and struck her a deadly blow on the head. At this

1:30 point in her dream, missus Nosco told her husband that she'd rose in affright

1:36 wide awake, Anna had still not returned home. In the town of Battleground,

1:41 Clark County, Washington, Paul Nosco told his story to his friends and

1:46 neighbors that his daughter Anna had not returned home, that her mother had had

1:51 a terrible dream just the night before. Men began to gather. Their faces

1:56 were grim, and they carried weapons. Some had shotgun and slung under their

2:00 arms. Others carried rifles. A few had armed themselves with stout clubs.

2:06 It was an eerie scene as men prepared for a man hunt. The snow

2:09 still fell, The wind howled here and there through the white waste. Lantern

2:15 lights flickered. The countryside was desperately searching for the beloved little girl who'd so

2:21 strangely dropped from sight. I know she's dead, Anna's mother wailed. When

2:25 she went to school this morning, she skipped down the walk, then she

2:30 paused, and she came back. She ran to me, and she kissed

2:32 me again and said, mother, dear, I may never see you again.

2:38 How did a little girl, a mere child? Since the disaster was

2:43 soon to befall her. As missus Nosco shared her story of Anna's premonition,

2:49 Bert Anna's younger brother, sensing that something was vitally wrong, said to his

2:53 mother, I saw a man dash out of the bushes along the railroad track

2:57 this afternoon. He picked up an umbrella, I think it was Anna's,

3:00 and then he ran for cover again. When asked what else he had seen,

3:04 the boy replied that there was nothing else except that nearby the railroad track

3:08 where he'd seen the man with the umbrella, there was a dog, Eddie

3:12 Whitfield's dog. Now, the testimony of a small boy under stress and excitement

3:16 may not be reliable, and Eddie Whitfield's dog being on the railroad track did

3:23 not actually signify a thing. It was natural for Eddie Whitfield's dog to be

3:28 around that spot, after all. The john took homestead, where Eddie Whitfield

3:32 lived, was adjacent to the track and the nearest house to the Noscos.

3:38 Through the gloom, every inch of the railroad track was covered with a fine

3:42 tooth comb. Still, the search was unrewarded. Then one man ahead of

3:46 the others cried out wildly and pointed Stuck to the barbed wire fence on the

3:52 side of the railroad was a piece of cloth. It looked like it might

3:55 have been torn from Anna's coat as she was dragged through the fence. The

4:00 searchers followed through tensions, mounted conversation. Dwindled men cradled their rifles and shot

4:06 guns and swore quietly. The temper of the crowd was beginning to turn ugly.

4:13 If murder had been committed, swift and arbitrary mob justice might be dealt.

4:18 An umbrella lay in the path. There was no doubt it was Anna's.

4:23 The posse steps quickened and they went on, undoubtedly the sort of general

4:28 who leads from the front. Sheriff Bill Thompson set the pace for the posse,

4:33 and as they searched, hoping to run down an arrest the perpetrator of

4:38 one of the foulest crimes that ever stained the record of southwestern Washington, the

4:44 sheriff was thinking back, pulling out all the odd bits of information that he'd

4:47 gathered through the years. Who, he wondered, fits this beastly crime?

4:53 Who could have done it? A man of abnormal instincts? Of course?

4:57 Was there anyone in the community. He racked his b who showed evidence of

5:00 sufficiently abnormal psychology. Suddenly the sheriff stopped in his tracks. Come on,

5:06 he commanded, I have a lead. The posse walked rapidly toward the Old

5:11 two homestead while Sheriff Thompson explained that he wanted to question George Edward Whitfield.

5:17 The sheriff graphically reconstructed a scene and acted. On July twenty fourth, nineteen

5:23 twenty two, a little less than a year before Anna had disappeared. At

5:28 that time, Sheriff Thompson, armed with a search warrant, had rated the

5:31 two house in quest of liquor, this being prohibition years. Of course,

5:35 he secured the liquor, although that is irrelevant to this story. In executing

5:42 his search warrant, he searched the trunk of Eddie Whitfield and pulled from that

5:46 trunk many things of questionable character. There were articles of intimate women's apparel,

5:53 garters, underwear there by the dozen silk stockings also numerous, and was more,

6:00 much more, but enough has been described. Along with the women's undergarments

6:04 were poems written by George Edward Whitfield. They were not poems which a man

6:09 would want to read aloud in the family circle. They were not poems for

6:13 children. They were, for the most part vile sexual and violent. Sheriff

6:17 Thompson also revealed that Eddie was a bit of an artist. In his room

6:21 were many pictures, all of one subject, a naked woman, Eddie Whitfields.

6:27 Our abnormality, Sheriff Thompson declared emphatically. Suddenly, the leaders of the

6:31 posse paused and drew back. In the presence of death. Anna Nosco's little

6:36 body lay beside a big rock upon a natural couch of fur needles. One

6:43 small, slim arm was thrown out from her side, the other arm was

6:46 drawn across her chest, the hand resting on her throat. Guards were left

6:50 with Anna's body and they built a bonfire against the chill of the night.

6:56 The rest of the posse arrived at the took place, along with battleground officer

7:00 James Holland, but Eddie Whitfield was not at home. Sheriff Thompson noted that

7:05 it was peculiar that Eddie Whitfield didn't join in the search for the missing girl.

7:10 He was, after all, the nearest neighbor to the Nosco's, yet

7:14 he made no effort to aid the Nosco family as they were facing dire tragedy.

7:18 What manner of man was he? Could he feel no concern, could

7:21 he manifest no grief? Of course, if Eddie Whitfield had done this awful

7:28 thing, he likely would not show up at all. He might in fact

7:31 be on his way out of the country. But no movement caught Sheriff Thompson's

7:35 eye. Eddie Whitfield was there. He was leaning over a bit one hand,

7:41 supporting himself on a big rock, straining to see the dead girl where

7:45 she lay. He was in his shirt sleeves. He wore no hat.

7:47 His hair was white with snow particles. The night was bitter cold, but

7:51 Eddie seemed not to feel the cruel bite of the wind. He did not

7:56 remain long looking at the little girl who lay so still and death. The

8:00 sight may have unnerved him. He could not stand still. He jiggled back

8:05 and forth where he stood. He moved from place to place. His mouth

8:09 was twisted into a leering grin. Quick as a flash, Sheriff Thompson closed

8:15 the distance between himself and Whitfield, drew his gun and stuck it in Whitfield's

8:20 gut. Put your hands up, Whitfield, You're under arrest for the murder

8:24 of Anna Nosco. The sheriff growled, Now a word on the state of

8:28 Anna's body when it was discovered Anne who did the discovering. The search party

8:35 that found Anna's body was made up of around thirty neighbors, including a man

8:39 named Frederick Vandermast. They were all volunteers. It was Vandermast who discovered Anna's

8:45 umbrella and the postal letters scattered on the ground, the first troubling indications of

8:50 a crime. Later, as I've mentioned, a searcher came across Anna's body

8:56 away from a road in the brush just over the border of the two farm.

9:00 Someone had ripped the clothes from her body, cut her throat, and

9:03 bashed in her face. When Sheriff Thompson arrested Whitfield as he leered over Little

9:09 Anna's corpse, Whitfield immediately protested his innocence, but there were scratches on the

9:16 back of his hand and traces of blood on his underwear. Whitfield claimed this

9:20 was because he'd butchered a chicken, but Thompson charged him with first degree murder,

9:26 assuming a rape. Sheriff Thompson collected bits of foreign matter from Whitfield's groin,

9:31 placing each in a cigarette paper. He followed an evidence technique. He'd

9:35 learned it a lecture by Luke May, an early Seattle forensic pioneer. The

9:41 brutality of Anna's murder shocked and angered the entire county. Just a few days

9:46 after Whitfield's arrest, the Tuke family farmhouse burned as flame shot skyward. A

9:52 large group watched, making no attempt to extinguish the blaze. Reportedly, two

9:56 men were seen skulking around the place with torch, but no arrests were made.

10:01 Hearing rumors of a plan to break Eddie Whitfield out of jail to lynch

10:05 him, Sheriff Thompson moved Whitfield to Pierce County and then returned him six days

10:11 later. Whitfield's brother, John, a material witness in the case, refused

10:15 to return to Battleground fearing his own quote necktie party. During the trial before

10:22 Judge George Simpson, the defense attorneys, Charles Lane and W. E.

10:26 Yates first used an insanity plea, then they dropped it. They petitioned to

10:31 change the venue but failed. Next, they tried to create doubt with the

10:35 jurors by implicating Vandermast in the murder. Remember, Vandermast was the community member

10:41 who found her umbrella and mail strewn about before they discovered Anna's body. Attorney

10:48 Lane claimed that Vandermast could not look at the body, while Whitfield walked up

10:52 to view the body and was not shaken, implying that Vandermast's anxiety showed guilt

10:58 while the defendant's nonchalance showed innocence. That's the opposite of the conclusion that I

11:05 would likely draw, which is that Vandermath's anxiety showed empathy while the defendant's nonchalance

11:13 showed sociopathy. But then, I'm not a defense attorney, am I?

11:18 Meanwhile, working behind the scenes, the forensic scientist Luke May was scientifically saw

11:26 in the case. He told the press he'd uncovered highly damaging evidence, but

11:31 would not reveal it except in court. At trial, May present that his

11:37 forensic evidence he confirmed the blood on Whitfield's clothing was human and not belonging to

11:43 a chicken, as Whitfield had claimed. May found half a fur needle near

11:48 Anna's pelvis when he examined the girl. Sheriff Thompson had also collected half a

11:52 fur needle, which he'd sealed in the cigarette papers. After the arrest of

11:58 Eddie Whitfield may microscopically match the needle's two broken ends, that the half a

12:05 needle the sheriff had taken from Whitfield's underwear was a perfect match for the half

12:11 a needle may found in Anna Nosco's pelvic area, thereby proving the prosecution's case.

12:20 The jury found the defendant guilty of first degree murder, and Judge Simpson

12:26 sentenced him to hang. Lawyers Yates and Lane filed an appeal and lost,

12:31 and on June thirteenth, nineteen twenty four, a calm and collected Eddie Whitfield

12:39 mounted the walla walla prison gallows stairs. After the trapdoor dropped, two prison

12:46 doctors declared him dead at four forty four am, and finally the rape and

12:54 murder of little Anna Nosca had been avenged. Although vengeance is nothing but the

13:01 coldest of comforts when the life of a child has been taken. Thank you

13:07 for joining me on this trek through the darkness. Please do return this Sunday

13:11 evening for a brand new episode. I'm Zevan Odelberg, and this has been

13:20 kind of murdering