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Buying a car in Carvana was so easy, I was able to finance it through them. I just. Whoa, wait. You mean finance? Yeah, finance. Got pre qualified for a Carvana auto loan, entered my terms and shot from thousands of great car options, all within my budget. That's cool. But financing through Carvana was so easy. Financed, done. And I get to pick up my car from their Carvana vending machine tomorrow. Financed, right? That's what they said. You can spend time trying to pronounce financing, or you can actually finance and buy your car. Today on Carvana financing, subject to credit approval. Additional terms and conditions may apply. It's Wednesday. Adams. I see you're trying to distract yourself from your own banal thoughts. Let me help. Here's a recording thing made of my latest root Canal. Wednesday. Season 2 is now playing only on Netflix. Hello and welcome to my Victorian Nightmare. I'm your host, Genevieve Mannion, and I'm here to talk about mysterious deaths, morbid fascinations, disturbing stories, and otherwise spooky events from the Victorian era. Because to me, there's just something especially intriguing, creepy, and oddly comforting about horror and mayhem from the 19th century. So listener discretion is advised. Hello, friends, and welcome to this, my 57th episode. I hope that you had a wonderful week. Mine was so full of dumplings. It's been a glorious 67 degrees in New York all week, and this is precisely dumpling weather. I can't afford the sheer amount of dumplings that have been delivered to my home over the past few days. I am going to dumpling dip myself into the poor house at this rate. I can't stop myself. 68 is dumplings, 78 tacos, 88 sushi, 58 German food, 48 French onion soup exclusively for like every meal. I don't make the rules. I just eat my feelings. And today I feel like a dumpling. And now, a little haunted housekeeping. Thank you everyone who has joined the fan coven. Everyone who joined before the 18th and on the 18th, your presents may still take another week or so to get to you if you haven't already gotten them. If you haven't gotten your presents by the first week ish of September, email me and I will send you another. A few have actually been returned and the addresses were covered in return to sender stickers that I couldn't get off. So please let me know and I will ship them right out to you. You can still, of course, join the fan coven@myvictorianightmare.com to hear the show ad free among other witchy perks and thank you for rating the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. And thank you as always for your lovely comments, which you know I adore. Tell me what your rules are for foods at which templ temperatures. I'd be interested to know how opinions vary on the subject. I think my rules are the best rules, but that doesn't mean I'm not open to a spirited debate. I'm also open to bending the rules from time to time. Say, 58 degrees clam chowder? If it's a good clam chowder with the little oyster crackers, obviously, yeah. Thoughts? Comments section I'll see you there. Oh, and I have a random question for you. If I were to create, say, another show, not stopping the show, but if I were to dumpling dip my toe into another spooky history podcast, what interests you in that vein? I've been percolating some ideas lately, but I want to hear your thoughts on the matter. What other creepy historically information floats your boat? Let me know in the comments I've mentioned on my show that I do not smoke weed. I can't. A good friend once said Genevieve on drugs would be like drugs doing drugs. But here's the thing. I am also an insomniac and when I heard that Lumi's gummies don't make you feel high, they just take the edge off and help you get a great night's sleep, I was a little skeptical. I had never heard of an edible that didn't make you high, but not only did I get the best night's sleep of my life, they were also really yummy. I tried the hybrid strawberry cookies gummy and I like sunk into my bed. For me, the hardest part is staying asleep. Sometimes I can take one of those over the counter medications that they're saying can cause dementia. But apart from turning my brain to Swiss cheese, they don't keep me asleep. Lumi's gummies do all night and I don't wake up groggy or woozy either. Just wobbly, well rested. And if you're looking for an energizing pick me up that actually makes you feel focused, creative and present and not high. They have Sativa strain gummies for that too. Lumi gummies are available nationwide. Go to lumigummies.com that's L U M I gummies.com and use code victorian for 30% off your order. Again, that's L U M I Gummies.com code victorian lumigummies.com code victorian today for you Dear listener I will be discussing the Greenbrier ghost, the only ghost supposedly who ever helped to solve her own murder. It is a truly fascinating story with some very creepy details. But first it is time for our weekly segment With Their Eyes, where I share with you the personal, haunting accounts of petrified Victorians. And today we return to the Flowery Kingdom of Terror. Last week I read a part of an article written by an American Victorian about Chinese ghosts. And luckily for us, there was another horrifying account of an 1800s Chinese ghost in that article that took a very different form than the spectral species we're commonly familiar with in the West. Even still, and oh God, it is horrifying. It starts quite eerily heartwarming, but heavens, does it take a bone chilling turn. Once again, this article coming to us from the St. Louis Globe Democrat from May 28, 1876, and it is called Mongolian Ghosts. All sorts of strange apparitions, legends from the Flowery Kingdom, and it reads, At Nanchang in Kyang Si lived two literary men who were close friends and read together. One was elderly, the other young. The elder went home and suddenly died. The younger did not know of it, but continued studying. One night when he was in bed, his old friend opened the bed curtains and put his hand on his shoulder, saying, brother, I left you but 10 days since. A sudden sickness, however, carried me off. I am a ghost, but remembering our friendship, I have come to bid you adieu. The young man was astounded and could not speak, but the old man reassured him and bade him not fear, adding that he desired to ask a favor. The young man grew calmer and at length agreed to do what the ghost might ask, who then requested him to undertake arranging some matters concerning his visit, mother, wife, and literary works. The young man assenting to all this, the dead man stood up and said, as you have been kind enough to grant my requests, I will depart. He was turning to go when the young man, who had observed, and no wonder that there was a great deal of human feeling in him, and also that his appearance was much as usual, lost all fear of the ghost and desired him to stay awhile and talk over their old friendship ship. The dead man wept, came back and sat on the bed and conversed some time, then again stood up and said, I must go now. He stood up, but did not move. His eyes stared and his features began to change horribly. The young scholar became frightened and said, now you had better go. But the dead thing stood still and did not depart. The young man shivered and burst into a cold sweat still the ghostly guest went not, but stood glaring by the bed. In horror, the young man sprang out and ran away. The ghost ran with him, and the faster he ran, the faster ran the ghost. After a mile or so of this fearful race, they came to a wall over which the young man vanished, vaulted and fell to the ground. The dead man could not get over the wall, but leaned across with his head hanging over. At daybreak, some passersby saw and revived the young man. Meanwhile, the family of the dead man had lost the corpse and sought vainly for it. But when they heard the news of the corpse leaning over a wall, they went there, recognized it is belonging to them, took it home and buried it. End quote. Okay, let's talk about what this living man was potentially dealing with. It sounds like he encountered a particular kind of ghost called jiangshi, a hopping vampire, a type of reanimated corpse. In the Qing Dynasty, the dynasty that this article was written in, Chinese scholar Jing Xiaolan described the causes for how corpses can be reanimated and become this particular kind of ghost. Quick note. In the west, we tend to differentiate between monsters and ghosts. Like vampires are not ghosts for us. But there appears to be like a merging of those two concepts and a number of references that I've seen in Chinese folklore. Not all, but a number of them. It's interesting. So this scholar said that the dead can become this kind of ghost if supernatural arts are used to resurrect them. A dead body can become possessed by an evil spirit. This can turn them into a hopping vampire. It can also happen if the bottom third of a person's soul remains in the body to assume control after death. Traditional Chinese soul philosophy posits that the human body has different sections of the soul. Three sections are called the Hun and seven sections are called Po. Po is evil. If the Han leaves the body after death, but the Po remains, the person will become a jiangsh if they are not buried right after the funeral. If a corpse is struck by lightning or when a pregnant cat or black cat leaps across a coffin, they may become a reanimated corpse. Much like Western vampires, the jiangshi can create more living dead corpses by infecting the living with what is called Jiangshi poison, which gradually changes a person into this vampire ghost. So it sounds like this man's family had lost his corpse perhaps after the funeral and he was not buried, so he became a jiangshi. The hopping aspect to this ghost, again, they're described as hopping vampires is more a pop culture representation in more ancient folklore. They are more capable of vigorously running and chasing. They can even become capable of leaping into flight. It's always so fascinating to me to hear how we have so much crossover between cultures of our living dead. Even in the small details like these vampiric ghosts don't turn instantly. It takes a bit of time for them to succumb to a dark spirit like our vampire folklore. Okay, three more quick interesting things about that article. Not ghost related. I mentioned that this article is called Mongolian Ghosts. Mongolia isn't part of China, but it was when this article was written until 1924. Mongolia declared independence in 1911, but it wasn't fully realized until 1921. With Soviet support, the Mongolian People's Republic was officially proclaimed in 1924. Another interesting detail. This article states that this happened in Nanchang in Kiangxi. Kyangzi is what folks in the west called Jiangzi, which is a province within the city of Nanchang. Another interesting note, speaking of Mongolia, did you know that Genghis Khan is actually pronounced Genghis Han by Mongolians? I think I've mentioned. I used to live with a Mongolian gal named Uyanga and she asked me, she's like, is it really that hard for Americans to pronounce Genghis Khan? And I was like, no, it's just what Americans do to other languages. Deutschland is Germany, a croissant is a croissant and capicola delicious spicy Italian sliced meat is gabagool. We're the worst. I think I've also mentioned we had a monster kitty cat named Snowy Thunderpaw. His nickname was Genghis due to his head, hair and neck attacking conquests across the apartment. Oh, he was such a beast. Anyway, before we get to the Greenbriar Ghost, won't you follow me into the seance room where I share with you the goings on in the Spiritualist society of the 1800s? And oh, would you care to learn about what a dark seance entails? I'm sorry, the closer we get to October, the more I'm going to be hamming out my spooky voice. I can't help it. This particularly dark article from the spiritualist newspaper from 1869 reads as follows. There are in England several very interesting circles for physical manifestations where the spirits speak with audible voices, but unfortunately, total darkness is a necessary condition. Non spiritualists who are inquiring into the subject should have nothing to do with dark seances, which should be held only by those who know each other since they offer so many facilities for frost when Any circle regularly obtains powerful physical manifestations. They may find greater power in the dark seance to manifest fully audible voices. The very slightest glimmer of light must be excluded from the room. While the members of the circle sit round the table in the ordinary way, one or two paper tubes, each 12 or 18 inches long, with an orifice about an inch and a half in diameter, should be placed on the table. They may be readily made by rolling up a piece of music and tying a few pieces of cotton round the rough tube. Thus formed in the early stages of a voice circle, these tubes are necessary for the use of the spirits, but afterwards they may be dispensed with except when the weather and other conditions are unfavorable. When first trying to obtain the voices, the spirits may not be able to lift the tubes from the table. Afterwards, they often get them up in the air a foot or two and let them drop again. When they get full control over them, they can carry them about up to the ceiling and to all parts of the room. And they talk to the members of the circle, often while floating about above their heads. Very beautiful, luminous phenomena are sometimes shown by the spirits at dark circles while sitting for the voices, the spirits will tell by the ordinary table signals how they are progressing in their work of getting control of the tubes. End quote. First of all, yes, I can see how a totally dark seance could easily result in fraud. Someone really good at throwing their voice could probably have a field day. But I do love the idea of how thoroughly creepy it must have been to sit in one of these completely black seances and hear voices speaking through rolled up tubes of paper. Imagine sitting there, it's pitch black, and you first hear the sound of the tubes being picked up and dropped by spectral hands until you hear the voices floating above you. Also, I wonder if this was like early EVP technology. I imagine the tubes were likely for the purpose of amplifying the volume of the disembodied voices. I also love how crafty the Victorians were with all this spirit communication. Rolled music paper tied with cotton. Maybe I'll start leaving some rolled music paper tied with cotton around my apartment just to see if a certain ghost wants to audibly tell me if they were turning my TV off and on a few months ago. An elegant solution for a potentially terrifying ghostly communication. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website to marketing to selling and beyond. Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into Sign up for your $1 per month trial@shopify.com specialoffer okay, let's discuss the fascinating story of the Greenbrier Ghost, the only known ghost to help solve her own murder. My main references today are an American HauntingsInc.com article, a Gothic Stories.com article by Todd Atterberry, and a Greenbrier Historical.org article by Arabeth Belasco. These and all of my other references can be found in the show notes In 1873, a young woman named Elva Zona Hester was born in West Virginia in the county of Greenbrier. Elva went by her middle name, Zona. Not much is known about her life before she met her husband. In October of 1896 she met a man named Erasmus Stribbing Trout Shoe, a drifter, admitted horse thief and widower whose his previous wife died in mysterious circumstances. All the same, Zona was pickled with this gentleman. He had come to the county to work as a blacksmith, a well needed and lucrative trade. He had become quite respected around the county for his work. Horse thievery aside, zona fell for Mr. Hsu upon meeting him and he was equally pickled by all accounts within just a few months sense. Much to the chagrin of Zona's mother who had a bad feeling about this guy from the moment that she met him. Ms. Mary Jane Robinson Hester got a bee in her britches and told Zona straight she didn't trust this man and believed that there was something he was hiding. Interestingly side note, you'll hear a lot about Zona's mother in this episode. She's a pivotal part of of the story. But Zona also had a father who outlived her mother. But in no stories articles is he ever mentioned her father. Joseph Hester, for whatever reason, didn't get involved in any visible part of this situation. Just an interesting thing to me. I digress. Three months after the wedding, Erasmus sent a neighbor boy named Andy Jones to run an errand for him and told him to return to the house. When done, the boy did as he was told. Knocked on the door, but no one answered. The door was already open so he let himself in. He called for Mr. Shue and as he turned around the corner he found Zona lying face down at the bottom of the stairs. She was stretched out on the floor, laying on her back, legs together, one hand on her stomach, the other arm on the floor. Her head was turned to one side, and as young Andy approached to see if she was okay, a chill ran down his spine. She wasn't breathing, but her eyes were wide open, as if staring at him. Andy ran home immediately to tell his mother. She quickly called for the coroner, Dr. George Knapp. Although it took him a full hour to get to the house in that time, Mr. Shue, who Andy couldn't find in the house when he arrived, thought it a good idea to move his wife's body, carry her upstairs, and lay her out on the bed. In that community, there was a custom that when a woman died, local ladies would come wash the body and dress them for burial. But he took this task upon himself. He dressed her in a high, stiff neck, collared dress, and covered her face with a veil. When Dr. Knapp arrived to examine Zona's body, Mr. Shue stayed very close by, cradling his wife's head, sobbing over her. Erasmus grief was so intense and rather dramatic that the doctor didn't do a thorough examination. He did notice some bruising on her neck, which Erasmus quickly concealed with the veil. When he tried to examine the bruising further, Erasmus grief quickly turned to rage, and he began violently protesting against any further examination. The doctor, afraid for his own safety, backed off. While there, he took a note that said he believed the cause of death was something called everlasting faint. Everlasting faint, incidentally, was a 19th century term used for a fairly broad amount of causes of death, like heart attack or essentially any unexplainable sudden cause of death. It wasn't a formal medical term. It was more colloquial. And I searched to find if anyone was else else in history had that listed as their official cause of death on their death certificates. But I couldn't find any other historical figures with this listed. It appears that this was only a working cause of death because her officially written cause of death in his book was childbirth. It's often said that he wrote heart disease, but this isn't true. I found the coroner's register of deaths. It says his childbirth. There isn't any evidence that Zona was pregnant at the time of her death, although the doctor noted that he had been treating Zona within the last few weeks for quote unquote, female trouble. My favorite John Waters movie. It's strange, but I have a feeling Erasmus really scared the daylights out of this man. And he was just trying to wash his hands of the situation as quickly as he could. He did, however, unlike her husband, Send someone to inform her family that she had died. But word was already spreading quickly about the situation, and two sweet friends of Zona had already begun to ride out to meadow bluff, where her family lived, to deliver the news themselves. Her mother lived in an isolated area about 15 miles away. As they approached the home, hats removed, held to their chest, the mother was heard to say, the devil has killed her. The next day, on January 23, Zona's body was taken by carriage to her mother's home For a wake and funeral. A small group of neighbors, along with Erasmus, Took her to the mountain farm. Erasmus was noted to be grief stricken and would not leave his wife's side, or more specifically, her head. Even all along the bumpy carriage ride to the farm, he would not go any anywhere but sit beside his wife's head. Zona's body was displayed in the house for a day, and still Erasmus stayed as close as he could to her body. Folks came and went, paying their respects, Bringing food for her family, and a number of them noticed Mr. Shu's strange, somewhat erratic behavior. He was displaying bizarre mood swings. One moment overcome with gravity, grief, the next filled with anxious, manic energy. He didn't allow anyone to get too close to his wife's body, Keeping guard beside her. He was still paying suspiciously a lot of attention to her neck and head, Pressing pillows and rolled up shrouds beside her head to quote unquote, help her rest easier. He had also tied a thick scarf around her neck, which, he explained was her very favorite. All this attention to her neck and head Was creeping people out. All it did was make people openly question what is up with all the neck stuff, Erasmus? It's almost as if you're trying to hide something, my dude. He was doing a terrible job of keeping prying eyes off of his wife's neck. And in fact, while he was temporarily pulled away, as Zona was being placed back in the carriage on the way to the burial, A neighbor noticed a particular loose to her head. As far as Zona's mother was concerned, she had no doubt from the very moment she heard of her daughter's death that she had been killed by her husband. But she had no proof, no valid reason to request another examination of her daughter's body. Yet during the funeral, Mary Jane took the sheet that was inside the coffin. She intended to return it to Erasmus, but he said she could keep it. It had a particularly foul odor, so she washed it. And something very strange Happened, According to her. When she placed the white sheet in the washing basin, the water turned blood red, then faded back to clear, revealing a large blood stain on the sheet that she could not remove. She considered the this to be an omen of sorts. A message. She already believed that her daughter had been murdered. But now she felt that her daughter was trying to communicate with her from beyond the grave. She began to pray every single night, specifically for God to allow her daughter's spirit to come to her and tell her the truth. How did she really die? And if you would follow me, please, beside this bright winter moonlit barn toward that farmhouse just yonder. I want to show you something. It's February, 1897, in Greenbrier County. Delicate snowflakes are just starting to fall on the frosty earth. And we're walking toward Zona's mother's house. Not too far off in the distance, in fact, you can see the gates. There is the cemetery where her daughter was buried. And I brought something special for us this time. Not hot cider, but mulled wine. It's my special recipe. Just be careful. It stains as easily as a murder omen coffin sheet. Let's nestle over here by this creepy well. Is it just me, or are all old timey wells creepy? Might have something to do with the fact that that I read at least one article a week about bodies being thrown down wells. Oh, did you know that bats. Oh my goodness. Oh, sorry. Sorry about that. I wasn't planning to add a jump scare into this episode because I did that in the bloody Benders episode, but I set that one up. I just had to release the bats. You didn't spill any wine on you, did you? Okay, good. As I was saying, bats tend to live in these old wells, and it's great that they do. Scientists can more easily monitor the little guys in there for spreadable illnesses and more easily treat them than if they were in, say, large caves or old structures that aren't as easily accessible. Just a bad fact to take the edge off that jump scare. Okay, as you can see, there's one single lamp lit in Mary Jane Hester's home. It's her bedroom. Where she is is praying. And just now, if you look toward the gates of the cemetery, a figure is slowly emerging, a lit by the moon. But the snow doesn't appear to be landing on their shoulders. It's falling right through her, and her feet aren't touching the ground as she moves. It's the ghost of Zona returning at her mother's Request. Her face is so white it glows in the moonlight. She's moving toward the. She just stopped and turned her head entirely around. I think she's looking at us. Hello, Zona. Would you like some mulled wine? Damn it. Drop my glass. Oh good. She's floating away toward the house. Ugh, what a mess. Luckily, I only wear black. Okay, come with me. Zona is dissolving through her mother's front door and we can see into her mother's bedroom from here. Sona is here, entering her mother's room and turning her head around again. I. I don't need to see anymore personally. Let's get out of here and I'll tell you what Zona is telling her mother. Incidentally, the head spinning was literally what her mother said Zona did when she came to visit her. According to her mother, Zona told her that her husband did kill her and that he was abusive and cruel. She said he attacked her in a fit of rage because he thought that she didn't prepar any meat with dinner. She said he broke her neck with his bare hands at the foot of the stairs. After this event to her, she had proof that her daughter was murdered and made it her mission to get her daughter exhumed and re examined. She went to visit a local prosecutor named John Alfred Preston with the hopes of convincing him to begin an investigation and get her exhumed. She told him that her daughter came to her as a spirit and told her that she was was murdered. And here's the thing. You'd think that that would not be as good a move as say, making something else up. Anything. Like saying you saw bruises on her neck at the funeral or something. But he by all accounts was like Mary Jane, if your daughter's ghost told you she was murdered. That's all I need to know. I'll have that court ordered exhumation ready before tonight's episode of South Park. He sat with her for a number of hours hearing her out and was genuinely sympathetic. Now, was it the story about her daughter's ghost that really convinced him? As mentioned, she wasn't the only one in town to suspect foul play against this guy. Before the exhumation he brought in doctor died in childbirth Knapp to confirm, he did a thorough examination of Zona's body. And? And he straight up said no. He admitted full throatedly that his examination was incomplete and told why Erasmus was belligerent and frightened him away. Glad he told the truth. Eventually a proper autopsy was rescheduled post exhumation which A judge quickly ordered. A coroner's jury was assembled. And a very strange detail here. The autopsy was performed in the nickel schoolhouse a short distance from the cemetery. The school children were dismissed for the day and the autopsy was performed. It's not clear why they chose an elementary school to open a dead body in. Maybe they had a state of the art junior mortician program at the school. Mr. Xu was told of the exhumation and was incensed that it was taking place. He was actually forced to be there for the examination. And when they told him that he must attend or he'd be forced to attend, his response was, they will not be able to prove I did it. Which if all of his actions weren't already suspicious enough, I'm sure that added a little more kindle to the fire. Zona's body was in a state of near perfect condition. The freezing February temperatures prevented her from decomposing quickly. The little boy who found her was also required to attend the autopsy, along with a jury of five men. A few other court officials and law enforcement were in attendance. Her vital organs were examined first. Then to examine the brain, the coroner went to make an incision on the back of her neck. But it was then that he discovered that her neck was broken. Not only that, but her windpipe had been compressed, showing strangulation. There were finger marks, bruises on her neck. Her spine had been dislocated between the first and second vertebrae. Ligaments torn, ruptured. Her throat had been essentially crushed. The Coroner turned to Mr. Shue, saying, it appears your wife's neck had been broken. To which he replied, once again, they cannot prove that I did it. Not the brightest bulb in the box, this guy. The jury right there concluded that Shue should be tried for murder. He was taken into custody. And just a quick explanation for those of you who perhaps are just joining us, who may not understand what the jury was doing. I've discussed coroner's juries before, but here's a little refresher. In the 1800s, when forensic science was still in its infancy, local folks would be gathered to assist a coroner in deciding the possible cause of death in an autopsy of a potential murder victim. Victim. Moreheads were considered to be better than one in deciding the most likely causes of death. Although with the advent of more accurate forensic science in the 1900s, this practice of calling coroner's juries was phased out in the United States toward the end of the 1800s, about the time that this happened. It's likely that because this was such a rural area, that the coroner's jury was still in use. Coroner's juries were still competing actually up until 1927 in the United Kingdom, but still used if a coroner wanted to have his findings backed up by more people than just himself. Until the 1980s, it may seem strange, like why would a coroner want five randos peering over his shoulder to aid in something that he's probably more than capable of doing, certainly better than anyone there when he when you think about it, coroners specifically in murder cases bear a lot of responsibility to get it right. They are often blamed and sometimes even attacked when their findings don't match public opinion. It's understandable why they would want at least five other people there to confirm at least what they have found to be the facts. Once Mr. Xu was taken into custody, the community was horrified and and angry. The threat of lynching was high, but it didn't appear that a mob was being assembled yet. He entered a plea of not guilty and was confined to a small stone cell in the Washington Street Prison in Lewisburg. While he was in jail, townsfolk began digging up and discussing Shue's mysterious and villainous past. If people didn't already know he was a horse thief they found out about. Also came to light that Zona wasn't his second wife. I mentioned his last one died of mysterious circumstances, but he had another, a woman named Ali Estaline Cutlip. She divorced him in 1889 while he was in prison for stealing that horse. Obtaining a divorce was not easy in these times, especially for women, but it probably helped that her husband was in prison. In court records, she testified that he had been violent and abusive. More details also came to light about his wife, who died mysteriously. It was learned that this woman, Lucy Ann Tritt, died just eight months after their wedding. Shue said she died of falling and hitting her head on a rock. But just like the good townsfolks of Greenbrier, the folks in his last town didn't believe him either. So he quickly packed up and made his way to West Virginia, where he quickly met Zona. Mint is still $15 a month for premium wireless. And if you haven't made the switch yet, here are 15 reasons why you should. 1. It's $15 a month. 2. Seriously, it's $15 a month. 3. No big contracts. 4. I use it. 5, my mom uses it. Are you. Are you playing me off? That's what's happening, right? Okay, give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch up front. Payment a $45 per 3 month plan $15 per month equivalent required. New customer offer first 3 months only then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. C mintmobile.com in jail, Erasmus was cheery. Strangely cheery. He said all of his grief about losing Zona had faded away within the walls of the prison and he was focused on finding his next wife. After all, he had a life goal to marry seven women. Women in his lifetime. And he was still a young man, so he had plenty of time to realize his dream. He also repeatedly told reporters that they can't prove a dang thing about him being guilty with just as stupidly self incriminating confidence as he showed from the very beginning. And to a degree, he was right. The evidence against him was thoroughly circumstantial. She could have fallen down the stairs and broken her neck. She could have been killed by someone else else before he got home. The first autopsy report, after all, said she died in childbirth. A good lawyer would surely put that coroner on the stand and grill him into the ground. All they had was a bruised and broken neck and the firsthand testimony of the deceased herself that she made to her mother. And the lawyer for the prosecution wasn't so sure. Putting Mary Jane Hester on a stand to put forth this evidence was such a great idea. There were plenty of folks in the community that witnessed missed his bizarre behavior at the funeral, how he wouldn't allow anyone near her body, that he was preventing anyone from seeing her neck. But the prosecutor actually did decide to put Zona's mother on the stand just to talk about her own first hand accounts of how suspicious he had been acting at the funeral and other suspicions that she had from the start of the relationship. But on cross examination, in an attempt to make Mrs. Hester look unreliable, the defense attorney asked her directly about how she convinced the prosecutor to secure the exhumation. And she told the whole truth with tears in her eyes. And the defense's plan spectacularly backfired. The jury was keyed in, eyes peeled, riveted by Mary Jane's story. And they did not doubt her for a moment. As soon as the attorney realized the jury was on the edge of their seats, listening intently and empathetically. He dismissed her right away. But it was too late because the defense didn't submit that the ghost story should be struck from evidence as hearsay. The judge didn't tell the jury to exclude it. There was nothing to overrule. She was simply saying her own experience and why she was compelled to seek an exhumation. She just answered the question all admissible. The jury quickly found Shue guilty. Ten of the twelve suggested that he should hang. But in West Virginia at that time, the law was that it must be unanimous that a jury proposed impose the death penalty. So he was given life in prison. This verdict was the last straw for an already simmering public who had already believed Shue to be guilty. Even before the trial, a mob of 15 to 30 men assembled to attempt to lynch Shue. While they were organizing, the police were tipped off by a member of the public that the mob was being formed. The deputy sheriff decided to take Shue to the the most random place to protect his the woods. They took him into the woods about a mile away from the jail. Again, why are they having autopsies in elementary schools? Why is he being smuggled into the woods? These explanations are sadly lost to time. But it worked. In a way, it was an ingenious plan. The mob never found. I would never think to look in the woods for a prisoner I intended to hang. You know what? I take it back. I hope that deputy was given a bonus. Smart move. After camping for an hour or so, Shue was then transferred to the state penitentiary in Moundville. On July 14, only three years into his sentence, he would be killed by a flu epidemic that swept through the penitentiary in March of 1900. He was buried with hundreds of other men in an unmarked grave near the prison. No records were kept of exactly where. Mary Jane Hester swore till her dying day that all she testified about her daughter was true. She died in September of 1916 and was buried close to her daughter in Sewall Chapel Cemetery. From the get go, Mary Jane probably made it clear not just to Zona, but probably others that she did not like Erasmus Christmas. And at first I was like, clearly she probably made up this story just so she could have a second autopsy done. But honestly, after really digging into the details, it doesn't sound like she needed to do that at all. Half the town was already suspicious of her son in law. He was exhibiting enough suspicious behavior himself. And it doesn't seem like they had to twist, twist the arm of that coroner to get him back in to confirm that he didn't do a thorough job of the first examination of Zona's body. Personally, I believe Mary Jane, at least that she believed her daughter came to her and told her what happened. I talk about ghosts because I find them interesting. But deep down. Well, maybe not so deep down. I'm afraid of becoming one. A spirit without the ability to know how to move on stuck here alone, clinging to an injustice that no one can fix. I want to believe that Mary Jane's story is true, that some spirits have the power to sway the living to find the justice they deserve in death. Imagine that homecoming when her mother crossed over and met her on the other side. How grateful Zona must have been. How proud of her mom. At the very least, regardless of the ghost story being true or not, she got him. If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more, please rate the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Please leave me comments. Comments because you know I love them so much and to directly support my show and directly enable it to continue, join the fan coven@myvictorianightmare.com until next time, be kind to yourselves and I will see you in your nightmares.