ÖTZI'S CURSE: The Murder Victim Who Killed 7 People 5,000 Years After His Own Murder

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness.
Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre,
unsolved and unexplained. Coming up. In this episode of Weird Darkness,

(00:31):
Weirdo family member Joyce Smallwood shares a story she calls
dogs They know evil. Clara Phillips and Madeline Openschaine are
mostly forgotten by history today, but in their times they
were the most popular psychopaths in La. She wanders the
road at night, haunting all those who pass. Will take

(00:55):
a look at the Bloody Bride of thirteen Curves Road.
But first, in nineteen ninety one, scientists found a perfectly
preserved corpse of a man encased in ice. And then
one by one those scientists died. Now bulture doors, lock

(01:16):
your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me
into the weird Darkness. The story of Otsey the Ice

(01:45):
Man is more than a little creepy. On September nineteenth,
nineteen ninety one, German tourists Helmet and Erica Simon took
a hike off the beaten path in the Alps on
the Austrian Italian border. There they made a gruesome discovery,
the body of a man frozen in the ice, who

(02:05):
they assumed had recently died. The truth was much more bizarre.
The body that came to be known as Oatze likely
met his demise between thirty two thirty nine and thirty
one oh five BC. The mummified remains were stunningly well preserved,

(02:25):
and the Otzie Iceman discovery led to a legal fight
between Austria and Italy. The valuable find promised to shed
light on human's distant past, and everyone wanted their chance
to spend more time with Oatze. But that was before
mysterious accidents and deaths began befalling those who came into

(02:46):
contact with him. Despite everything that the Iceman offers to
the fields of science and anthropology, people who have fallen
victim to the Otze Iceman curse probably wished he was
still frozen on that mountain. The debate over whether or
not the Otzi Curse is real continues. On the one hand,

(03:08):
there are a lot of odd circumstances surrounding the mummified
remains that seem to support the theory of a real
life curse. However, it's also definitely possible that all of
the strange incidents are nothing more than coincidences. No matter
which side of the argument you fall on, it's fascinating

(03:28):
to consider that an ancient iceman could somehow be linked
to a modern day curse and numerous tragedies. One of
the many debates that Ostsee's mummified remains have sparked is
how he perished. Researchers at the South Tyrol Museum of
Archaeology in Italy found evidence that otse was murdered. If

(03:50):
the museum's staff is correct, he would have bled out
in a matter of minutes after being hit with an
arrow in his subclavian artery. Modern research techniques of a
also made it clear that Otzi had head trauma when
he passed. Could the supposed curse be caused by Otseie's
need for revenge for his untimely end? Otsi was discovered

(04:12):
on September nineteenth, nineteen ninety one, but weather conditions prevented
the excavation team from completing their task until September twenty three.
The ice band had spent thousands of years frozen, so
four extra days weren't exactly major. However, his remains were
no longer at rest. He was poked, prodded, and photographed

(04:34):
before he was finally pride from the ice. If the
Otzie Iceman curse is real, could part of the issue
be that it took so long to uncover his remains,
or would the problem actually have started by removing him
from his final resting place. Rayner hen had the honor
of placing Oatsie's frozen remains into a body bag. Did

(04:57):
this act ultimately cost him his life? In nineteen ninety two,
Rayner was traveling to a convention where he planned to
talk about Oatsie. Tragically, he got into a deadly accident
and never reached his destination. This happened one year after
Oatesy was uncovered, making Rayner the first potential victim of

(05:18):
the Iceman's curse. Kurt Fritz took his place in history
by leading researchers to Oatsie's body. He also organized the
transportation of the ancient man's remains. An avalanche ended up
claiming his life in nineteen ninety three, when he was
fifty two. Fritz was the only member of his expedition

(05:39):
group who died during the avalanche. This could be nothing
more than a mere coincidence, but it definitely seems odd,
especially considering the fact that he was an experienced guide.
Helmut Simon and his wife Erica discovered Oatsey. They received
a lot of media attention and eventually some compensation for

(06:01):
their rare find. Unfortunately, Simon may have also received the
Otze Iceman curse. In October two thousand and four, the
experienced hiker disappeared in the Alps due to snowy conditions.
It took searchers eight days to discover his body. Simon
had fallen more than three hundred feet to his death.

(06:25):
Deeter Warnike wasn't part of the original Oatsey excavation or
research crew, but his potential connection to the curse is
still worth noting. When Helmet Simon disappeared in the Alps
in two thousand and four, warnikey led a search team.
They ultimately recovered Simon's body eight days after he went missing.
Mere hours after Simon's funeral, the forty five year old

(06:47):
Warnike had a heart attack and died. The world's leading
expert on Otsey, Conrad Spindler, didn't believe in the curse.
He even joked about it during an interview, saying I
think it's a low voor rubbish. It's all a media height.
The next thing you'll be saying, I'll be next. Indeed,
Spindler was the next person associated with Otsey to die.

(07:11):
He passed in two thousand and five due to complications
from multiple sclerosis. Reiner Holtz was the only person allowed
to film the recovery of Otsey's body, and he later
turned his footage into an hour long documentary, but showing
Otsee's face to the world may have been a mistake.
Holtz died from a brain tumor shortly after finishing the film.

(07:36):
Tom Loy was the first researcher to discover extremely important
evidence on Otse's clothing. His findings indicated that the ice
ban had died during a violent conflict due to the
presence of multiple types of blood on the fabric and tools. Ironically,
Loy ultimately died due to a hereditary blood disease, one

(07:56):
that was not diagnosed until after Loy began study Otseie's remains.
Lloyd's colleagues resented the talk of a curse, saying it
trivializes his death and does not do justice to his
life and work. As of twenty seventeen, seven deaths have
been linked to the discovery of Otsey. It seems like

(08:18):
a high number until you consider the hundreds of people
who have been involved with Otsee research projects over the years.
Everyone from reconstruction artists and DNA experts to the museum's
ticket booth salespeople has a connection to the ancient iceman.
In other words, if there really is a curse, there
should be many more deaths. Perhaps Oatsy only went after

(08:42):
individuals related to the original discovery of his body, or
perhaps these tragedies are nothing more than deeply unfortunate coincidences.
The fact that Ostseie's discovery has been associated with so
many deaths isn't exactly a new concept for starters. Cultures
have connected to disturbing human remains with curses for centuries,

(09:03):
if not thousands of years. This trend was especially prevalent
in ancient Egypt, where it was considered extremely unlucky to
desecrate the grave of anyone, be they pharaoh or enslaved person,
although the threats tied to disturbing a pharaoh's resting place
tended to be a lot more extreme. Whether or not

(09:23):
Otsey was seeking out revenge on those who disturbed him
or not, his curse is far less famous than that
of King tut. When the tomb of Pharaoh Tutan Common
was uncovered in nineteen twenty two by Howard Carter, it
sparked the beginning of the Age of Egyptology, but it
also sparked a media storm after a number of people

(09:43):
associated with the excavation ended up perishing under bizarre circumstances.
Up next, Weirdo family member Joyce Smallwood shares a story
she called dogs they Know Evil, and she wanders the

(10:04):
road at night, haunting all those who pass. Will take
a look at the bloody bride of thirteen Curves Road.
These stories and more when Weird Darkness returns. I've always

(10:40):
felt like I've been followed by darkness. This is simply
one of many many things I've experienced. I grew up
in a very disturbed neighborhood. Always neighborly drama, fights, and
even death. The cops always showed up in our street
due to the amount of issues. The neighborhoo. It wasn't

(11:00):
very safe, so every house had gates and iron surrounding
the windows, doors and garages. Honestly, Most of everybody in
the neighborhood had dogs, large dogs to ensure protection, so
it wasn't unusual for us to hear barking all day long.
We were used to it. My family and I had
a dog as well, a mutt mixed with German shepherd

(11:23):
and some other breed that I didn't know of. He
was very protective of us, and he was a big,
big dog, and he barked at basically anybody that came
near our house. But at night, when everybody went to
sleep and there was no activity in the streets, the
streets were dead, silent, no noise, no barking, no nothing.

(11:46):
It was the only time we actually had some peace.
My bedroom window faced the garage, in other words, the
front of the house. My dogs lept in the garage
since it was open, only fenced around it, and we
didn't have snowy cold winters, so he was pretty content
out there. But moving on, I remember one night I

(12:07):
woke up to my dog angrily barking outside. It was
very late. I looked at my watch and it was
two am. From my bedroom, I could yell shut up, pee,
be quiet. He was loud, very very loud. I thought
he saw an animal or something on the streets. So
out of curiosity, I looked out my window and I

(12:29):
saw nothing. The street was dead. There wasn't even the
sound of crickets. Very eerie, to be honest, but I
was too tired to make any thinking of it. After
telling him to stop barking, Pee stopped for a couple
of minutes, but then he started again, only this time
he was very, very angry. His barking was protective something

(12:51):
was right in front of him in order to tick
him off that way. I got scared at this point,
I mean, what in hell is someone trying to break in?
And I asked myself. I looked out of my window again,
and yet I couldn't see anybody out there. But when
I looked at p he was barking right at the gate.
He was trying badly to get a hold of whatever

(13:13):
or whoever was in front of him. It felt like
it was taunting him. I'm not gonna lie. An overwhelming
feeling of there's something out there took over. I could
see in PA's eye that he was indeed looking at someone.
It was an uneasy, eerie feeling. I've seen ghosts before,
but this energy was not it. Whatever it is, it

(13:37):
was evil and I could tell it was also watching me.
I tried to brush it off. I did try. I
asked Pee once more to be quiet and said that
there was nothing there here. I am trying to lie
to myself so I can feel at peace again. But
as soon as I talked to Pe, he barked once more,
and then all of a sudden, he started whimpering. I

(14:01):
didn't see anything hitting him, but he cowered himself to
the corner of the garage and started crying like he
was terrified. What in hell did that to Pee? He
was not scared of anything, and there he was, curled
up in a ball, laying on his own submissive way.
I froze. What was that? All I know is that

(14:23):
he and I were not alone that night. Something evil, nasty, eerie,
terrifying was out there looking at me, taunting my dog.
Deep in my heart, I know it wasn't just a
supernatural energy coming from a ghost. It was straight from hell.
Nothing in the world will convince me that what happened
that night wasn't demonic. I could feel it. I picked

(14:48):
up my dog and took him inside. He was never
the same after that night. Trust your dogs. Trust the
animals because they see what we can't, and they know
what's from this world and what isn't. After a long

(15:18):
night the dark, drive home along a backcountry road can
be perilous. Your eyes play tricks on you. But those
who've traveled down Cedar Vale Road, just outside of Syracuse,
New York, No, they can't all be seeing the same trick,
can they. For decades, nighttime travelers of Cedar Vale Road,

(15:40):
perhaps better known as Thirteen Curves Road, have claimed to
see the chilling sight of the young woman, battered and bloody,
still dressed in her white wedding gown, wandering along the
side of the road. This apparition is known as the
Bloody Bride, and it's said that she and her husband
died on the very night of their marriage after losing

(16:02):
control of their vehicle along the winding stretch. Others say
the young bride survived, only to come back in death
to haunt the spot where she lost her new husband
so many years before. Dozens of witnesses have claimed to
see the Bloody Bride gliding along the road. Sometimes she's
described as carrying a small lantern. For some especially unlucky drivers,

(16:28):
the bloody bride appears in the backseat of their car
with a haunting expression on her face before disappearing. As
long as most can remember, the tragic tale of the
Bloody Bride of thirteen Curves Road has been told. Some
locals believe the accident took place over one hundred years ago,

(16:48):
and instead of a car, the bride and her husband
were thrown from a horse and buggy down the steep
curve and into the creek. A local named David de
Ambrosio has been known to string up a spooky decoration
resembling the bloody Bride in the trees that line the road.
The decoration gives motorists quite the shock on the pitch

(17:09):
black stretch, where even the stars are covered by a
dense canopy of trees. One eyewitness claimed as he and
his friend made their way around the sixth curve, a dim,
glowing white shape appeared in the road ahead of us.
It slowly made its way from the left side of
the road to the right. When it got right in
the middle of the road, it stopped and turned towards us.

(17:31):
It was about the height of an average woman, but
it was not very well defined. It was more of
a staticky blur than a clear image. It did have
a red glow up near where the head would approximately
be on a human being. For those brave enough to
venture along the snaking curves, beware the bloody bride is

(17:51):
known to lunge out desperate to catch passing vehicles. Whatever
you do, do not explore the darkness on foot. The
wind road is dangerous and dark. Of course, thirteen Curves
Road is by no means the only haunted or cursed
road to be traversed by those seeking an experience with

(18:12):
the paranormal haunting. Various winding roadways and desolate thoroughfares are
tales of tragic deaths, phantom vehicles, and restless apparitions. Those
brave or foolish enough to venture down them may encounter
the malevolent spirit of a drowned child or a lonely
woman looking for a ride who disappears before your very eyes.

(18:37):
Boy Scout Lane, Stephen's Point, Wisconsin. The legend of boy
Scout Lane begins with a stretch of road running through
a dense wooded area, unpaved and unwelcoming. Legend has it
that a boy Scout troop met a grisly end in
these woods while on a camping trip in the late
nineteen fifties or early nineteen sixties. No one agrees as

(19:00):
to just what caused the deaths. One version suggests the
kids snuck into the woods at night, dropped their lantern,
and sparked a forest fire that wiped them out. Another
claims the boys became lost among the towering trees and
starved to death. Yet another tells of a deranged bus
driver or Scout master who massacred the Scouts in cold blood.

(19:25):
The truth is that the Boy Scouts of America once
owned this track of land. They planned to build a campground,
but it was never constructed. Those who travel down Boy
Scout Lane today report hearing the sound of many footsteps
struggling through the brush. Some have caught sightings of red
lights shining through the trees, fought to be the ghosts

(19:48):
of lost Scouts searching for a way out of the woods.
Prospectors rode Lotus, California. The Rolling Hills alongside californ Cornia's
Prospector Road sit above old mines, most of which have
since caved in. In some cases, the collapse reportedly occurred

(20:09):
with miners still inside, leading to premature burials. As for
the men who worked above ground during the California Gold Rush,
greed and desperation cracked any moral compasses they once possessed.
Several miners struck gold along Prospector Road during the eighteen hundreds,
attracting more men desperate to make it rich. Consequently, the

(20:33):
area became a busy and dangerous place. Territorial arguments were common.
If anyone came in between another man and his potential riches,
they were sure to meet a bloody end. Visitors today
may very well be traveling over the unmarked graves of
lost prospectors. One restless soul is said to still haunt

(20:54):
the road. He appears from the bushes at night, warning
intruders get off my claim. Route two A, Hainesville, Maine,
as the country song by Dick Kurlis says, it's a
stretch of road up north in Maine that's never ever
ever seen a smile. If they buried all the truckers

(21:15):
lost them in the woods, there'd be a tombstone every mile.
Yet what haunts Route to A isn't the ghost of
a burly trucker barreling by at night. Instead, the specter
is of a young girl wandering alone down the roadway.
The legend goes that she was hit by a truck

(21:36):
and killed instantly during a walk along the woods at Hainesville, Maine.
Records do indicate that two ten year old girls died
on August twenty second, nineteen sixty seven, along the road. Today,
motorists say they've seen a ghostly figure walking beside the
Hainesville Woods, appearing lost and confused. Some claim to have

(21:58):
stopped and offered her a ride, only to have the
phantom passenger vanish from her seat shortly after climbing in
Stocksbridge Pass, Sheffield, England, described as Killer Road because of
its many accidents and deaths. Stocksbridge Bypass is the site

(22:18):
of numerous haunting tales. Some have seen children dressed in
outdated clothing playing under the peroid bridge late at night,
startled the drivers swerve to avoid the children, only to
look back and see no one present. Witnesses have also
encountered the eerie figure of a monk wandering the roadway.

(22:39):
It's said that the monk left a nearby priory many
years ago. Now, his disillusioned spirit wanders the road, staring
at drivers as they pass. Carrick Highway, Malaysia. It all
started with a young couple and their newborn baby driving
down the Carrack Highway. All was going well until the

(23:00):
car broke down. The husband pulled over and inspected the car.
He then decided to set out to the nearest phone booth,
leaving his wife a new baby behind. Hours passed and
the wife grew distressed. Not wanting to abandon the car
and search for her husband alone, she waited. Finally, she
decided to step out, only to feel a terrible presence

(23:23):
lurking behind her. Upon turning around, she encountered a severed
head of her husband propped on top of the car. Today,
the wife's spirit is said to haunt the road in
search of her husband. Other ghost stories associated with Carrick
Highway involve a phantom yellow volkswagon that repeatedly appears before

(23:43):
motorists no matter how many times they try to pass it,
and a young boy with bloodied eyes who wanders the roadway.
If approached, the figure says he's looking for his mother.
And of course, what is possibly the most infamous of
all cursed streets, Clinton Road in New Jersey. While I've

(24:03):
covered Clinton Road in the past, here on weird darkness.
It's hard not to include it again when talking about
haunted highways. If you've ever wanted to play a game
of catch with a ghost boy, race a phantom camaro,
or encounter a mythological beast, Clinton Road should be your
next destination. Just climb in your car. Going with a

(24:25):
friend is recommended, and hit the road. Rural New Jerseys
Clinton Road will certainly make your skin crawl. A number
of haunts and strange buildings are reputed to make Clinton
Road their home. Depending on what time of day you
drive through, you may encounter one, two, or all of
these Clinton Road legends. Under one of the bridges crossing

(24:49):
Clinton Brook, also known as dead Man's Curve, you can
find one of the road's most famous haunts. Ruber has
it if you throw a quarter into the water below,
then take a few steps back, the quarter will be
thrown back by the ghost of a boy who drowned
while swimming. In some stories, the ghost shoves the living
visitor into the water if they peek too far over

(25:12):
the side of the bridge. There are first hand accounts
of tourists and locals seeing a ghost camaro driven by
the girl who supposedly died in a tragic crash in
nineteen ninety eight. This appearance is triggered by a mere
mention of the incident. Others claim to have had encounters
with two park rangers near Terrace Pond, who are thought

(25:34):
to be the ghosts of two rangers who died while
on duty in nineteen thirty nine. There are countless accounts
of phantom vehicles. The majority of the sightings are of
pickup trucks, but in some cases there are only floating
headlights not attached to any vehicle. The headlights chase drivers

(25:54):
to the end of Clinton Road, then disappear. From hellhounds
to monkeys, a variety of bizarre creatures have supposedly been
seen on this road at night. In some cases, people
report seeing an unidentifiable hybrid, which vanishes too quickly for
them to get a good look. The more exotic sightings

(26:16):
are blamed on survivors of Jungle Habitat, an attraction which
housed wild and exotic animals before closing its doors in
nineteen seventy six. There is also a strange Druidic temple.
This oddly shaped stone structure is said to be the
place where local druids practiced their rituals. Legends tell of

(26:36):
awful things happening to those who look too closely or
come too close to the ruin at the wrong time.
In more historical terms, the building is actually the remains
of an iron smelter from the Revolutionary War and the
War of eighteen twelve. The site has now been blocked
off to prevent any injury caused by exploring such a
run down building. Another man built struck the Strange off

(27:01):
Clinton Road is Cross Castle. In nineteen oh five, Richard
Cross built this castle near the Clinton Reservoir for his
wife and three children. A few years later, it fell
to ruin after a fire destroyed part of it. It
has since become a popular destination for hikers and local
teenagers looking for secluded places to camp and have parties.

(27:24):
Many visitors have reported strange occurrences near the site. These
include people who've gone into seizures, bruises which randomly appear
after visiting, and strange and disturbing visions after leaving. Satanic
symbols have appeared on the inside of the castle's walls
in areas that were previously thought to be inaccessible. In

(27:46):
nineteen eighty three, a body was found in the woods
near Clinton Road. An autopsy showed the man had been murdered,
as well as something even stranger, ice crystals had formed
in blood vessels near his head heart. His internal organs
had also decayed at a rate far slower than his skin.
After a drawn out investigation, an arrest was made in

(28:09):
nineteen eighty six of Richard Kuklinsky, also known as the Iceman.
Kuklinsky was a New Jersey native and hitman involved in
organized crime with local mafia. When Weird Darkness returns, Clara

(28:31):
Phillips and Madeline Ovinchain are mostly forgotten by history today,
but in their times they were the most popular psychopaths
in Los Angeles. Clara Phillips is a forgotten figure today,

(29:05):
but for one brief but epic period, she was the
most popular psychopath in Los Angeles. Phillips Road stardom began
on a hot July evening in nineteen twenty two, when
the twenty three year old arrived home spattered with blood
and announced to her husband Armour, She's dead. I killed her.

(29:28):
Her was a Moore Phillips mistress, Alberta Meadows. When Phillips
saw that Clara had driven home in Meadows car, which
contained more blood and Alberta's purse. He realized his wife
was a woman of her word. He asked Clara what
she was going to do. Nothing, she replied, I'm going
to bed now and headquarters in the morning. Are Moore,

(29:52):
who actually comes off as the stranger member of this
very strange couple, thought otherwise. He had Clara Meadows car
to Pomona, where she abandoned the vehicle. He picked her
up in his own car and deposited her in a
downtown hotel. Are Moore then spent the rest of the
night frantically raising enough money to send this admitted killer

(30:15):
to Mexico. By morning, he had enough cash to send
Clara off on a train bound for El Paso. Only then,
evidently did magic Little words like accessory to a crime
and perverting the course of justice began to filter into
his brain. He went to see a lawyer friend of his, and,

(30:35):
to the future disgust of Clara's fan club, he told all.
The story he gave to this attorney, and subsequently to
a member of the Los Angeles Police Department, was one
that held Angelino's enthralled for weeks. On the day of
the murder, Clara had brought a friend, Peggy Caffey, along
with her to have a talk with Alberta Meadows. When

(30:59):
they arrived at her rival's home, Clara, after a little
pleasant chit chat, asked Meadows to give them a lift
across town. Meadows, for who knows what reason, agreed. During
the drive, Clara continued amicably chattering away about this and
that until they reached a hilly, remote section of their drive.

(31:20):
She asked Meadows to stop so they could talk more privately.
When the two women got out of the car, Clara
had a couple of questions. For Meadows had armor bought
the new tires that were on her car. No, Meadows replied,
did he buy that gold watch? Meadows was wearing Medos
again said no. Then suddenly Clara went from little bo

(31:42):
peep to Lady Macbeth. He did buy it, she growled.
Unbeknownst to her rival, Clara had with her a hammer
she had recently bought. She pulled it out and beat
Alberta Meadows to death with it. When Clara finished her work,
she told Cathy, who was cringing and wimpering in terror
at the ghastly scene, that she had just witnessed. Don't

(32:04):
you dare tell your husband. Remember you're in this as
much as I am. She then dropped Kathy off at
her home and went to announce the news to Armor.
Once the LAPD got an earful of Armoor's story, they
already it had an eyeful of the mangled corpse that
was once Alberta Meadow's. They wired an alert to the

(32:25):
authorities in Arizona and Texas. Clara was nabbed on a
train in Tucson and hauled back for trial and instant stardom.
The Tiger Woman, as the papers dubbed her, was a
media sensation. Her combination of youth, good looks, and undeniable
savoir faire and can do spirit kept a growing legion

(32:47):
of admirers enthralled. By committing a particularly base, gruesome, shocking
murder with an utter lack of any conscience or remorse,
she became a heroine. While she was awaiting her trial,
one local paper could, in the face of many extreme discomforts,
she has taken everything cheerfully. She is tolerant. She has

(33:10):
never yet uttered a single complaint. She has never asked
for anything, taking all things as they come without a whimper.
Alberta Meadows was unavailable for comment. A large admiring crowd
met the train bringing Clara back to Los Angeles. She
beamed at her fans, posed prettily for photographs, and merrily

(33:32):
flirted with the reporters. When she was installed in the
county jail, she said she was sure she would be
happy up here because everyone was so jolly and happy.
More people were there to cheer her on. They sent
her flowers, candy, love letters. In her cell, she spent
most of her time eagerly reading the many newspaper reports

(33:52):
about her crime. Clara Phillips, the former two bit chorus girl,
had finally become a headliner. Clara's first meeting with her
husband since the day he saw her off to Mexico
was front page news. Clara dulled herself up for the
occasion with a new lace edged dress and held a

(34:13):
little press conference beforehand. A reporter asked if she still
loved her husband, Yes, she replied sweetly. Had their nine
years of marriage been one long honeymoon? Well, I guess, so,
that is guess, and no to those members of the
press tactless enough to mention the reason why they were
all there, she replied demurely that she was not allowed

(34:36):
to comment on the subject. Was it true that she
had once created a scene in her husband's office because
she was jealous of his stenographer? No comment. Was it
true that she had once stabbed a man in a
local theater, Definitely no comment. Armore finally appeared on the scene,
wearing a dapper suit and carrying a box of candy.

(35:00):
As one of the newspapers breathlessly reported, Clara threw her
arms around her husband. She looked up into her husband's
eyes and then buried her fluffy brown head of hair
on his shoulder. She cuddled to him as a dove
would to its mate, and when he kissed her and
whispered to her, she played with the lapel of his coat.
Clara's legions of fans were, of course, expecting to see

(35:22):
her greatest performance to date at her trial, and the
lady did not disappoint. Each day she swept in and
out of the courtroom like a mezzo soprano, coming on
stage for one more encore. A woman covering the trial
for one of the local papers sighed, there really is
some class to Clara if she isn't a gentlewoman born.

(35:44):
She is certainly what eleanor Glynn would call one of
nature's ladies. It was armor Phillips who cut such a
pitiful figure compared to his hammer wielding dynamo of a
wife who bore the brunt of public opprobrium. One journalist
opened expressed his incredulity that mister Phillips could have been
responsible for all this bother As he sat in court

(36:06):
yesterday hearing Peggy Kaffy's sordid testimony, it didn't seem possible
that any woman as bright as Clara could have considered
him worth all that agony. From the contemporary newspaper reports,
one sometimes gets the feeling that the reporters rather wished
that Clara had taken that hammer to her husband as well.
Everyone wondered what Clara's defense would be. Her friend said

(36:30):
she killed Albert Meadows. Her husband said she killed Albert Meadows.
There seemed no possible way for her to squirm out
of this one. Clara showed the naysayers a thing or two.
When she took the stand. She, with a few demure tears,
explained how Alberta died. It was very simple, she said,
it was Peggy Caffey, timid, traumatized mousey little Peggy Caffy,

(36:54):
who had practically turned into a weeping, quivering bowl of
jello on the witness dand and who bludgeoned Alberta Meadows
to death. This would surely be taking sympathizing with the
troubles of a friend a bit too far. Everyone applauded
this magnificent play acting, and everyone realized that it was
utter hogwash. In the end, Clara was convicted of second

(37:18):
degree murder, which earned her ten years to life in
San Quentin, and it seemed that the curtain had at
last fallen on her little show. No one was counting
on Jesse Carson. He was a stranger to Clara, claiming
to be just one of the many men who had
been spellbound by her charms. During the trial, he swore

(37:39):
that he would see to it that she stayed out
of prison, and he meant what he said. His favorite
prisoner somehow acquired a hack saw, which she used to
cut the bars on her window. On the night of
December fourth, nineteen twenty two, she squirmed out that window,
shinnied down e vent pipe, and made her way to
where Carson was waiting in his car. Clara's play had

(38:02):
spawned an unexpected third act. While all of Los Angeles
was working itself into a perfect frenzy over this latest
plot twist, Clara hid out in an empty house in Pomona,
happily reading the newspapers about all the fuss she had created.
On January fourth, the fugitive, heavily disguised, began the journey

(38:24):
to New Orleans, where Carson arranged for her to get
passage on a ship bound from Mexico. Clara, as far
as the authorities could tell, had vanished without a trace,
and they were frankly stumped about what to do next.
It took Morris Levine, an enterprising reporter from the Los
Angeles Examiner, to do a bit of sleuthing. He managed

(38:45):
to uncover financial transactions involving Armour and Jesse Carson, which
enabled him to deduce that Clara was in Mexico. Unfortunately,
by the time the Mexican authorities were contacted, the Tiger
Girl had fled to Honduras. American law enforcement soon learned
that figuring out where Clara was would be much easier

(39:06):
than actually getting their hands on her. There was some
unexpected difficulties with extraditinger. Honduras was in the midst of
one of their periodic revolutions, and the powers that be
were in no mood to cooperate with the despised Yankee government. Besides,
it was rumored that some local official had the hots
for our Clara, the chorus girl turned hammer murderer, was

(39:29):
now an international political hot potato. The American ambassador in
Honduras did a good deal of politicking with the Honduran government.
A special meeting of their cabinet was even called at
one point to discuss the problem of Clara, but the
best they could achieve was a stalemate. The Hondurans were
quite happy to just turn the lady loose and wish

(39:51):
her godspeed. The Americans were desperate to get Clara back
in custody. After all, there were a lot of hammers
in the world, and who I knew what she might
do with them next. In any case, it seems to
have become practically a matter of national honor that Clara
not be allowed to continue making them look like so
many fools. A plan was hatched to get Clara to

(40:14):
return to the United States voluntarily. Morris Levine had a
chummy breakfast with her one morning, where he cleverly played
on her considerable ego. If she was truly innocent, he
asked her, why not prove it? Since the appeal on
her conviction was still pending, she could ask for a
new trial if she could clear her name. What a

(40:35):
triumph that would be. The public would adore her more
than ever. Clara was cunning, but not very bright. She
was so confident of her own ability to fascinate that
she actually fell for this argument. She willingly took a
ship back to America. Armor Phillips was there to greet her.

(40:55):
My darling, said, mister Phillips, My baby, cooed missus Phillips.
The two lovebirds hugged for the cameras as Clara explained
how she had never never wished to flee San Quentin.
She'd been kidnapped against her will, she said sweetly. Armour
told reporters, I would give my life to undo the

(41:16):
wrong I have done this little woman. There was, of course,
no way to undo the wrong done to Alberta Meadows,
but few seemed to care about that. In California, Clara's
new show was given a disastrous review by the Los
Angeles District Attorney. He informed her that as her lawyer,
who had recently dropped dead of a heart attack and

(41:37):
who can blame him, had missed the deadline for filing
an appeal, the law agreed that she be returned to
prison without another trial. It was back to San Quentin
for Clara, with no hope of a repeat performance to
clear her name to do her justice. Clara took this
defeat gallantly. She went back to jail, vowing to be

(41:59):
a model prisoner, and for the most part, she kept
her promise. Her one fall from grace was when she
entered into a clandestine love affair with one of her
fellow prisoners, a handsome young burglar. While behind bars, she
found religion, trained to be a dental technician, learned to
play the saxophone, wrote and directed a play described as

(42:21):
a satire of strange life, and organized a seven piece orchestra.
Clara continued to maintain Peggy Caffey, who was the real
killer of Alberta Meadows. She was released on parole in
nineteen thirty five, saying that she hoped the world would
give her an even break. Upon gaining her freedom, she

(42:41):
told a reporter please let me be forgotten, and so
she was. For a while. She lived quietly in San
Diego with her mother, and then the ex Tiger Woman
changed her name and moved to Texas, where she worked
as a dental assistant. Clara and Armour divorced in nineteen
thirty eight. Armour incidentally had a lively time during his

(43:05):
wife's incarceration. At various times he faced charges for running
a bogus film school, assault at a Christmas party, traffic violations,
and grand theft. Only one man claimed to know this
once world famous woman's subsequent history. A. R. O'Brien, head
of California's state prison Board, kept in touch with his

(43:27):
former prisoner, and in nineteen thirty nine he reported that
Clara was happily remarried and grateful to live in obscurity.
He added the rather startling and as far as I know,
completely uncorroborated claim that Clara belonged to one of the
wealthiest and most powerful families in the country. According to O'Brien,

(43:48):
it was her family connections that allowed her to escape
prison and flee the country. It's nice to know Clara
remained such a resourceful phantasist to the end. A certain
type of woman as a natural gift for enlisting the
support of a certain type of man for doing the
damnedest things, including homicide. Amazingly, Clara Phillips was not the

(44:12):
only notorious example of that breed causing bloody havoc in
Los Angeles in the early nineteen twenties. Before there was
Clara and her Hammer, there was Madeline Obenshane and her Revolver.
In both those cases, a man was at the center
of the case, and in both cases, these extremely lethal
ladies found men willing to move heaven and earth to

(44:34):
literally help them get away with murder. Ovinchain's story opened
in what was then a pleasingly rustic Los Angeles canyon
named Beverly Glen, where a young man named John Belton
Kennedy owned a cabin. On the night of August fifth,
nineteen twenty one, a railroad man, George Dearing was driving

(44:54):
past this cabin on his way to work when a
hysterically sobbing woman ran into the road, begging him to stop.
When he pulled over, she begged him to help an
injured friend. The friend he found lying on the steps
of the cabin was far more than just injured John
Belton Kennedy was dead. The beautiful young damsel in distress,

(45:17):
who was the soon to be famous Madeline Openchane, begged
him to get a doctor, something Deering immediately realized was
pointless as there were no telephones in the area. Neighbors
watched over the body while Deering and Madeleine drove to
the police station. The statement Madeleine made there was essentially
the same story she consistently stuck to through the end.

(45:40):
The dead man, she explained, was her fiance. On their
way to have dinner at the Brentwood Club, they stopped
off at his cabin to search for a lucky penny
she had once hidden there. She heard a stranger's voice
say something she couldn't make out, and then there was
a gunshot. Kennedy cried good night, Madeline. As he was
shot a second time. She saw two men run off

(46:03):
into the brush, and then she fled in horror and
flagged down. Dearing such a simple heart tugging tale told
with such sweet earnestness by a beautiful, grief stricken young woman,
The DA wasn't buying any of it. Six days after
Kennedy's death, she and a man named Arthur Courtney Birch

(46:24):
were invited for first degree murder. Kennedy's death had became
clear had its roots in the very beginning of Madeleine's
lengthy and exceedingly complicated love life. It all began in
nineteen fourteen, when the twenty year old Madeline Connor became
engaged to Ralph Obenshane, a man who later, for good reason,

(46:44):
was to become immortalized by the Los Angeles prosecutors as
the Human Doormat. Before many weeks had passed, however, she
broke the engagement and went off to study drama in
New York and Europe for two years. In nineteen seventeen,
while visiting her mother in California, she met John Belton Kennedy,
son of a wealthy insurance broker. She and Kennedy soon

(47:07):
fell in love, but there was one major obstacle to
their romance, namely Kennedy's mother, Missus Kennedy, was, as an
acquaintance called her, a smothering mother. She did not want
her baby marrying anyone or doing much of anything that
might loosen the apron strings, and she was hell bent

(47:28):
on preventing her son from having any other woman in
his life. This led him to maintain a maddening indecisiveness
with his relations with Madeline that would eventually have fatal consequences.
Throughout nineteen seventeen and nineteen eighteen, Kennedy would sometimes vow
that he loved Madeleine and was determined to marry her,

(47:50):
and at other times, when his courage faltered and the
thought of mother made his blood run cold, he would
back off and urge his sweetheart to be patient. It
was all enough to get on the nerves of the
most saintly girl, and Madeleine was anything but a saint.
In the midst of all of this, Ralph Openshane suddenly

(48:10):
swooped into town to offer her his devoted shoulder to
cry on. The upshot was, as the lady later put it,
she was engaged to Belton Kennedy, but somehow she married
mister Openshine. Her marriage did not prevent Kennedy from pleading
with her to take him back. Within four days of
the wedding, the two of them were again romantically involved.

(48:31):
Within three months of the wedding, Openchane agreed for his
precious Madeline's sake, to go back to Chicago and allow
her to divorce him. Every week he sent her eighty
dollars in alamory and frequently signed blank checks as well.
Madeline relocated to Evanston, Indiana, to await her divorce, not
to mention Kennedy, who had promised to meet her in Chicago.

(48:54):
While there, she became reacquainted with yet another old male admirer,
Arthur Birch. It took her for car rides and did
her grocery shopping. Madeline got her divorce, but her man
failed to materialize. After a few months, she again got
fed up with this male tower of mush and wrote
Kennedy a letter vowing to go back to Obenshane if

(49:16):
he did not immediately come to Evanstone. Kennedy stayed in
Los Angeles, and Madeline again swore that they were through forever. However,
she did not follow through on her threat to give
Obenshane another chance. After several months, she got a letter
rather passed its cell by date from Kennedy announcing that

(49:37):
he was coming to claim her. She sent a frantic reply,
asking if he'd lost his mind entirely, and declaring that
I wouldn't marry you even if I were free to
do so. Ever, in January of nineteen twenty one, she
returned to Los Angeles. Shortly after that, Kennedy was begging
to be allowed to call on her, and by April

(49:58):
those two masochistic lunatic love birds were re engaged. They
planned on May fifth to take the train to San
Francisco and get married missus Kennedy b damned at the station. However,
Madeleine had second thoughts. She went to Chicago instead to
talk the whole situation out with Ralph Openshan. Kennedy promised

(50:19):
to meet her there, he didn't. Madeline consoled herself with
some traveling through Canada down to San Francisco. She was,
she later said, on the point of going to Honolulu
and forgetting about men altogether, when she was bombarded with
letters from Jay Belton Kennedy begging her to come back

(50:40):
to Los Angeles and his waiting arms for reasons that
escaped me. She did return to LA but she held
off on the waiting arms. The two continued their same
old dance routine. Belton begged her to marry him, but
never worked up the courage to actually take steps in
that direction. Madeleine held him off, but never completely severed

(51:01):
contact with him either. In the meantime, back in Chicago,
Arthur Birch was also in regular contact with Madeleine, urging
his goddess to return and settle down with him. On
August third, nineteen twenty one, she wrote in her diary,
I am so tired of trouble. The trouble, of course,
was just beginning. At the end of July, Birch took

(51:24):
the train to Los Angeles. A pullman porter later testified
he was carrying a shotgun with him. Upon his arrival,
he took a hotel room, one that was directly opposite
the offices where Kennedy worked, and rented a car. The
hotel manager was to say that on July twenty sixth,
a woman he identified as Madeleine visited Birch in his room.

(51:46):
A quaint touch of bygone days, City law insisted that
the hotel room door be kept open during her visit
for the sake of public decency. The proprietor testified that
Birch and Madeleine spent their time gazing out the window
in the direction of Kennedy's office. On the afternoon of
August fifth, a woman phoned to the hotel asking for

(52:06):
Birch as he was out, She left a message that
his cousin had called. When Burch got the message, he left,
returned after a while, and soon left again, carrying an
item wrapped a newspaper that the manager thought looked very
like the shape of a shotgun. The next morning, Burch
checked out very unwisely, leaving behind him newspaper stories discussing

(52:29):
Kennedy's mysterious murder and a telegram from Evanstone. Having noted
from the newspapers that Madeline Ovinshane happened to be from
that city, the hotel manager decided to have a chat
with the da. His story, along with the fact that
tire marks found on the murder scene matched those of
the car Birch it rented, was enough to land Birch

(52:50):
and Madeleine under arrest. They were left to reflect on
the odd turns romance can take until their trials began.
The prosecution essentially argued that Ja Belton Kennedy's behavior as
a lover was enough to make any woman reach for
a gun, and to be honest, it's a hard assertion
to argue. Madeline, for her part, maintained that her memory

(53:13):
simply went blank after she heard the first gunshot. Birch,
she stated, was nothing but a dear platonic friend who
was highly supportive of her feelings for her true love,
Jay Belton Kennedy. What one reporter described as Madeline's habitual
maimed look of a dying antelope had an irresistible force
on some men. As soon as she was arrested, she

(53:35):
wired an SOS to Ralph Obenshain, who immediately quit his
job and rushed to Los Angeles, vowing to save her.
He topped it all off by obtaining a marriage license
and asking to remarry her in the county jail. An
unsentimental judge vetoed the idea Openchane went on to make
the most of his new fame by co producing and

(53:58):
starring in A Man in a Million, a film dramatizing
his life and romance with Madeline. It was announced that
he would make personal appearances wherever the film was shown
and donate the profits to his ex wife's defense fund.
But alas most theater owners refused to show his project,
huffing that they wanted pictures that were suitable for public

(54:19):
showing without resorting to sensationalism as a basis Madeleine's dying
antelope look must really have been something from this distance
in time. It's hard to figure what anyone saw in
this woman, But during her incarceration she made many warm
friends among men and women alike. When Clara Phillips joined

(54:40):
her in prison, the two became pals, and oh what
girl talk they must have shared. Even some of the
jurors would later openly fall under her spell. When she
spent her first Christmas in prison, she received over one
hundred gifts, including one thousand dollars bill. The newspapers wrote
about her as if if she'd been Lillian Gish starring

(55:02):
in her latest melodrama, rather than a murderous awaiting trial.
They even published her poetry, Oh darling boy, of my yesterdays,
if you but only knew how even now my hopes
and plans hold no one else but you. I'm sorry
I returned here from my heart will surely break, But

(55:23):
you said if I couldn't forget you to come back dear,
for your sake, It was fortunate for Madeline that bad
verse was not a criminal offense. If it had been,
she could have scarcely avoided the electric chair. Madeline and
Birch were tried separately, with the gentleman going first. Various

(55:44):
people testified to seeing Birch and his car in the
vicinity of the murder scene, but the most startling moment
of the legal proceedings came when Chandler Sprague, a reporter
from the Los Angeles Examiner, announced that in exchange for
forty five hundred dollars, Birch gave him an interview stating
that Madeline had enlisted him to murder Jay Belton Kennedy,

(56:05):
who was an evil influence over her. The lady certainly
had a knack for attracting men who were both weak
in the will and weak in the head. Birch, of course,
denied he had said any such thing, even after Sprague
also revealed that he had cannily secretly made an audio
recording of the defendant, admitting that Sprague's initial story about

(56:26):
him was true. Fortunately for Birch, it was ruled that
his little moment of soul bearing could not be used
as evidence. Burch's defense was simple. He wasn't there at
the time. Even if he had been, he didn't shoot Kennedy,
and none of this mattered anyway, because he was mentally incompetent.

(56:47):
The trial ended with a hung jury. His second trial
had the same inconclusive result. When a third effort to
send Birch to jail ended with yet another dead luck jury,
the DA finally gave up and turned him loose. Madeleine's trials,
Yes I used the plural trials were enlivened by the
revelation that she had spent her time in jail getting

(57:09):
romantically involved with yet another man who saw those antelope
eyes and found them a temptation not to be resisted.
He was Paul Roman, a convicted felon who had made
her acquaintance in the County jail before he was packed
off to Folsom. The two carried on an ardent correspondence, where,
in exchange for Madeleine regularly sending him money, they arranged

(57:33):
that Roman should come forward claiming that he had overheard
two men standing on a street corner plotting the murder
of John Belton Kennedy. Instead, in the hope of getting
a reduced sentence, Roman rad it and Madeleine had the
embarrassing experience of hearing her love letters to him read
aloud in court. Tonight, I have a little pale pink

(57:55):
rose near me. The rose will be your soft, warm lips,
dear Paul. The court also learned the quaint detail that
Roman composed his replies with the aid of a library book,
which he used to copy samples of the standard love letter,
adding poetic flourishes such as what you need is a
lot of attention, and I'm the guide to give it

(58:16):
to you. All this, of course, made Roman the ideal
judas of the story. The newspapers noted with great approval
that his fellow convicts were hanging him in effigy for
his betrayal of the lovely Madeline. The most curious touch
to the Paul Roman interlude is that testimony was given
testimony which was neither confirmed nor refuted, that Roman and

(58:40):
Kennedy had been friends. This witness, the owner of a
costume store where she said that two men often rented
women's clothing, said that Kennedy once remarked that Roman threatened
to beat him up if he ever married. If it
was true, it's unknown what all of this may have
meant in regard to his murder, but it certainly provides

(59:02):
interesting food for thought. Madeleine's juries were no more decisive
than Birch's had been Trial number one hung Jury Trial
number two Diddo, five trials, five panels, hopelessly unable to
agree that these two spectacularly incompetent, stupidly crude, blatantly self

(59:24):
incriminating defendants were guilty. Rumor had it that enough of
the male jurors became enamored of Madeleine to ensure hopeless deadlock.
Never underestimate the power of a dying and elope gaze.
After her release, Madeleine spoke dreamily of serving humanity in
a leper colony in the South Seas. She instead settled

(59:47):
for a bungalow in Eagle Rock, where she studied acting,
hoping to use her undoubted thespian talents for a more
reputable sort of fame. Those hopes were alas unfulfilled. A
few years later, she was back in the news briefly
when Paul Roman, who had been released from Folsom, made
a nuisance of himself by hanging around her house and

(01:00:09):
threatening to kill her. He was sent back to jail,
and her life quieted down again. Early in nineteen twenty seven,
Birch had John Belton Kennedy's father arrested on a charge
of assault and battery. It seems that John D. Kennedy
entered the building where Birch worked and did his best
to choke him. The jurors of Los Angeles may have

(01:00:31):
been uncertain about how John Belton met his death, but
Kennedy's senior wasn't and obviously sympathetic judge gave Kennedy a
suspended sentence of thirty days and the advice that if
he should encounter Birch again, he should simply go to
the other side of the street. Our heroin last made
headlines when Arthur Birch died in nineteen forty four. His

(01:00:54):
will left his entire estate to quote my lifelong friend
quote Madeline Openshaine. Madeline tactfully rejected the bequest, and the
court wound up dividing Birch's money and property between his
mother and his son. If you made it this far,

(01:01:19):
welcome to the Weirdo Family. Please share a link to
this episode in your social media to help spread the
word about the podcast, and if you could, please recommend
Weird Darkness to your friends, family, and coworkers who love
the paranormal, horror stories or true crime. Maybe they'll become
a Weirdo Family member too, and thanks in advance for

(01:01:39):
doing so. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to
be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find source
links or links to the authors in the show notes.
Curse of the Iceman is by April A. Taylor for
Ranker Dogs, They Know Evil is from Weirdo Family member
Joyce Smallwood. Los Angeles's Favorite Murderesses was written by Robert

(01:02:01):
Wilhelm for Murder by Gaslight and The Bloody Bride of
Thirteen Curves Road was written by Jessica Ferry, Audrey Webster
and Jamie Bogert for the lineup. Weird Darkness theme by
Alibi Music Weird Darkness as a registered trademark. And now
that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you
with a little light one Peter four, Verse ten. Each

(01:02:23):
of you should use whatever gift you have received to
serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its
various forms. And a final thought, most of us are
just about as happy as we make up our minds
to be. Abraham Lincoln. I'm Darren Marler. Thanks for joining

(01:02:44):
me in the Weird Darkness.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}ÖTZI'S CURSE: The Murder Victim Who Killed 7 People 5,000 Years After His Own Murder

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Dateline NBC

All Episodes

ÖTZI'S CURSE: The Murder Victim Who Killed 7 People 5,000 Years After His Own Murder

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal