October 24, 2025 • 47 mins
Zona Heaster Shue—a young bride with her whole life ahead—died from heart failure or possibly complications from a miscarriage. Or was it murder? Zona’s heartbroken mother insisted her daughter had been murdered by her newlywed husband. Moreover, she claimed that Zona's ghost appeared to her and shared a story different from what her death certificate indicated.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hey, hey, welcome back to Autumnsodities. I am Autumn. Well
you're getting a special nighttime edition of Autumnsodities after like
two days of waking up at five am and driving
two hours for visits. I'm not complaining. I had a
lovely time. I'm just saying, Uh, I'm a little weird
(00:54):
right like a little extra weird right now. And also
I took a gummy about twenty minutes ago. Again the
kind that are legal where I live Kentucky, that is.
And uh, yeah, we're going to see if it kicks
in while I'm recording. You'll probably be able to tell
the difference. Maybe you won't. Maybe it's Mabeline. Don't sue me. Please,
(01:16):
for the love of God, makeup company got a lot
more money than I do. I am not collectible. I
think it might start be starting to kick in, So
let's get into it. This is an old timey Who
done it? I'm going to say, even though someone was
indeed convicted for it, not sure if it was this
(01:37):
person who who committed this murder? We'll find out. I'll
let you decide. So the Tale of the Greenbriar Ghost
seems like your classic tragedy featuring a lifeless young bride,
her dubious husband, and her bereaved mother. However, this January
eighteen ninety seven murder investigation would end up be anything
(02:00):
but textbook, although it is very famous as the only
instance in history, not the only, it's one of two
I can think of maybe three where testimony from beyond
the grave led to a murder conviction. So clearly there
is more to this story than just the supernatural. There
was also the case of Tarase to Bassa. If I
(02:21):
remember right, I did a case or I did an
episode on her maybe a year or two ago. She
was a nurse in Chicago and one of her coworkers
murdered her in her own apartment and her mother, No,
it wasn't her mother. It was a doctor's wife, like
a cross town I think she worked with the doctor,
but she never met the wife or anything like that.
(02:44):
Overtook the wife's body and said exactly who killed her
to the doctor and told him exactly what he had stolen,
like he'd stolen a really rare piece of jewelry, and
it was indeed him. He was convicted for her murder.
They did. I mean, like, it's not on the books.
As you know, testimony from beyond the grave was spoken
(03:07):
in court, but it did lead to them looking into
the actual man who did kill her, So I'm gonna
count it. I'm gonna count that one. When I began
to review the Tale of the Green Briar Ghost, I
found that there was just a whole lot of contradicting
and conflicting information in the written records, which of course
(03:27):
I found fascinating because I'm a fucking nerd. Each story
had its own spin on how the death of Elva
Zona heaster shoe. It's a lot of names. Everybody in
this has like eighteen names. That's hyperbole, but it's like
a lot of names. She went by Zona, And I
then began to think, with such conflicting information, how is
(03:48):
one to find the facts? The truth? You know, when
all the resources seemed to be recounting a different story.
With the endless conflicting newspaper accounts, the missing primary resources
and crucial documents, and the fact that there are no
longer any survivors from the time this case was tried,
I sadly have not found any real answers, but I
(04:11):
certainly have come up with many new questions, and you know,
isn't that's what life is all about. That's how we
learn before we get into this very strange account which
has been told and retold over the last century. I
wanted to share a little bit about why I wanted
to re examine this case. You know, one hundred and
thirty something years. If I'm bat math a long time,
(04:33):
it's been more than one hundred and twenty five years
after the fact. I'm not going to do math off
the top of my head right now. I've been to
wait for too long, Thank you very much. Archivists, and
you know, nerds like me always enjoy highlighting, you know,
the repositories, unique holdings and collections, and by showcasing these
hidden treasures, archivists aspire to challenge users to think about
(04:54):
where that information comes from. So context, I love context.
I need if I'm telling you a story, as you
well know, I'm sure I need you to know like
the thirty years of history leading up to that moment.
You need to know everything. You need to understand everyone's
frame of mind, their trauma, so on and so forth.
(05:15):
And if I can find that information, I'm going to
give it to you. So where do all of these
materials and resources originate, you know, how have they been
used over the years, how have they been made accessible
for use? How do you find all of this information?
That is a challenge for me. I like finding things,
(05:35):
I like tracking things down. It's a challenge for me.
And by assessing such archival materials, it encourages, you know,
an archivist or just a researcher in general, to reevaluate
what they've heard and begin a search for the facts,
you know, the truth of the matter. And speaking to
getting to the truth of the matter, that was a
(05:57):
flawless segue. Well one ever be able to truly solve
the mystery of what happened to Zona that fateful day
in January eighteen ninety seven, more than a century later.
Here is my attempt at sharing some new insights and
of course questions to ponder, so that you yourself can
reflect and decide what you think happened. In October eighteen
(06:23):
ninety six, in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, in a small
area known as the Richlands, the newly married Elva Zona
Heaster Shoe again referred to as Zona because I'm not
going to say all of those names. Her husband has
even more names here. They are Erasmus Stribbling Edward trout Shoe. Yeah,
(06:49):
it's like a bunch of word salad. Somebody threw like
those magnets with words on them, you know those ones
that you make into poems on your refrigerator. It's just
a bunch of random rectang little magnets, you know what
I'm talking about. It's like somebody threw several of those
out and randomly picked. They're like, I don't know, pick five,
pick six, who cares, And they came up with Erasmus
(07:12):
Stribbling Edward trout Shoe. He is often referred to as
es or Trout, exactly like the fish. So the two
of them set up a life together in a two
story home in Livesay's Mill. And I don't know if
I said that right or not. It looks like Livesay.
Although they apparently had not known each other long before
(07:33):
their marriage, all seemed to be well. He was gainfully
employed and seen as a talented and respected blacksmith, and
she was a homemaker. She was well known locally in
the very small community of the Meadow Bluff and the
Richland's region. It was not until her untimely demise that
winter that rumors began to circulate around town of how
(07:57):
others in the community truly perceived Trout and his marriage
to Zona. While he is often described as a man
who was new to the county, I mean, and I'm
gonna take it exactly how it sounds. I'm going to
take that literally. I don't think it's a turn of phrase.
I think they literally were just like the people in
(08:18):
town were like, that's the man who's new to the county,
and that's how they refer to him, because they're like,
he has too many goddamn names. I'm not saying all
these names. I'd rather say a whole as sentence to
describe him. His family had a homestead that was located
on Droop Mountain. Damn, homie, Droop Mountain after you breastfeed, right, ladies,
(08:38):
you know I'm talking about, which borders both Pocahontas and
Greenbrier Counties. Additionally, before he was married to Zona Old Trout,
he had two other wives, both from well known local families,
because you know, it's very important. Then his first marriage
to Ali E cut Lip in divorce, and his second
(09:02):
marriage to Lucy and Tritt ended with her death. There
are currently no identifiable official death records for Lucy and Tritt. Therefore,
her cause of death is a mystery, you know, unknown
at this time, Uh it was, it was circulating though.
It was a circulating rumor around town that Trout had
(09:25):
somehow been responsible for her death. M was he? I
don't know. Therefore, when Zona ended up dead only three
months after they were married, and of course, Trout was
acting suspicious according to the onlookers, and I'd have to say,
I find his behavior that I'm going to talk about
soon suspicious as well. And this was that Zona's wake,
(09:49):
rumors began to spread all around town that Trout must
have had something to do with it. So what exactly
happened to Zona that ill fated winter day. Here's the
story as it has been told so many times before.
On a Chili Saturday morning, January twenty third, eighteen ninety seven,
(10:11):
A young African American neighbor and that's how this was
said in the newspaper. So you know, at the archives,
I found neighbor of the Shoes, one Anderson Andy Jones
was asked by Trout several times to stop by the
Shoe's house. And when I say Shoe, I don't mean
the ones on your feet. Their last name is spelled Shue.
(10:32):
He Trout asked this neighbor, can you stop on a
house and gather some eggs? And when Andy finally made
it to the Shoes homestead, he just felt like something
was off. The house was dark and quiet, so he
went inside looking for Zona, as Trout had asked him to.
(10:53):
He had apparently asked this boy to go and call
out for his wife in the house. And I'm like, okay, yeah,
that seems strange as well, but he was like, oh yeah,
call out to her and see if she wants anything,
like while i'm while I'm out, see if she wants anything.
The boy apparently called for her, and when she did
(11:13):
not answer, he went inside the house to look for her.
According to one report, he found her lifeless body laying
at the bottom of the stairs. He then ran down
the road to his home and told his mother Martha,
what he'd found. When word finally got to Trout that
(11:34):
something bad had happened to Zna, he supposedly hurried home
and found her dead. Onlookers reported that Trout had acted
inconsolably and just told everyone to leave the house. He's like, everybody,
get out and call for doctor Nap, Like, don the
sweet name doctor Napp, But it's a the k in
you know, the k is silent. Doctor Nap, Doctor naptime
(11:56):
the local doctor to come to his home. It was
then reported that an hour or two had elapsed before
doctor Knapp arrived to the Shoe's home, and during that time,
so an hour or two, Trout had already dressed Zona.
He had clothed her in a dress with what was
described as a quote, high collared neck in a large
(12:18):
veil several times folded and tied in a large bow
under the chin. Hmm. That sounds strange, and also had
placed her body into their bed, And when doctor Nap
came into the house, he's like, Yeah, that's totally normal
that you moved your wife from supposedly where her body
(12:40):
was found and you like put on a super high
neck dress and then you like fold a veil, a
veil of some sort a whole bunch of times and
tie it over this high collared neck line on the
dress and make a big bow under her chin. No,
(13:00):
that's totally normal that it aroused no suspicion from the doctor.
He saw it, and he was like, totally, I get it.
I would do the same thing he did. Try to resuscitate,
and I'm air quoting that one Zona. You know, whatever
resuscitation was back then. He probably like slapped her in
the face or something, and he's like, well, she's dead,
(13:23):
like officially as a doornail. He took a stick, like,
went outside, I got a long stick, without saying a word,
walks out the door of the house's out in the
front yard, kind of rooting around, comes back in with
a pretty thin tree branch that's kind of long, just
pokes at or with it a couple of times, and
he's like, well, she's dead. It's official. I'm calling it.
(13:45):
I think that was about his scientific as it got
back then. So upon his initial examination, doctor Knapp supposedly
stated that Zona's cause of death was heart disease. Wait
till you hear what the heart does the other option?
So it's hard disease or here's the other option, everlasting faint. Yeah,
(14:09):
I think he might have poked her with a stick
to determine that she was indeed dead. Everlasting faint? What
the everlasting fuck? However, in the official Greenbrier County death book.
Her listed cause of death was childbirth. Okay, they didn't
have a child as far as anybody knew. It was
(14:29):
also reported that doctor Napp had been treating Zona for
weeks before for some random ailment, but there are no
records of this, of course, nor was doctor Napp's signature
or comments listed on the official death record for Zona.
Kind of strange for somebody who pronounced her death. In fact,
her name is not even listed in the official record.
(14:52):
She is simply identified as Missus Shoe And I'd be like, well,
wasn't there or weren't there two more missus Shoes before her? Like,
maybe clarify which one not the dead one most likely,
but you know, the previously dead. Oh God. After her
body was fully examined, Zona was taken to her family's
home on Little Sewell Mountain to prepare for a wake
(15:15):
and a prompt burial in the coming days. However, when
her body arrived, it was noted that her mother, Mary
Jane Robinson heaster again, because you know, three names will
not suffice. She expressed that she felt Trout had something
to do with her daughter's untimely demise, and I think
that's a I would look into it as well. In fact,
(15:39):
during the wake, people began to notice how affected, for
lack of a better word, Trout was by Zona's death.
Some thought it was really sweet, you know, They're like, oh,
look how up said he is, and it seemed to
show just how much he had loved his late wife,
and others, like her mother Mary Jane, they felt that
(16:00):
it was unnatural, like it was over the top. He
was just kind of acting overly erratic and theatrical. And
it was even claimed that he had banned anyone from
touching his wife's body. That's again a little strange. You
dressed her, wouldn't really let the doctor look at her
at all. Again, I think there was a stick poke
and he's like, yep, it's the everlasting faint see it
(16:22):
every day. Good God. Like, what did they I can't
wrap my head around what in God's name they could
have Did they mean coma? I don't. I really don't
know what they could have thought they were describing God
in heaven so he would always be really close to
the casket and like folks, you know, they began to
(16:45):
notice that Zona's neck looked strange. It had kind of
an unnatural look. It looked a little loose and wobbly,
and also she had a bruise on her cheek that
seemed to just kind of appear out of nowhere. Though
there was a lot of chatter going around the community
about Trout his bad temper and of course his bizarre
(17:07):
actions around the wake and funeral, it seemed to be
a close case an unfortunate circumstance, and that was all.
But Mary Jane, her mother, was not satisfied with this conclusion.
And I don't feel like any mother would be be like,
did you just say that she died of everlasting faint?
I'd like explain it to me, Please explain it to me,
(17:29):
like I am a small child, because I don't think
you know what the hell you're talking about. So Mary
Jane not satisfied with this conclusion, as most mothers wouldn't be,
and she felt in her bones, in her soul that
something bad had happened to Zona. After Zona died, Mary
Jane went into a state of you know, just severe
(17:50):
grief depression, constant prayer, begging her daughter to appear to
her and tell her what really happened. And she is
quoted as saying, I prayed to the lord that she
might come back and tell me what had happened. And
I prayed that she might come herself and tell on him.
According to Mary Jane, she got her wish. She began
(18:11):
to have visions in which Zona appeared to her and
told her as follows. He was mad that she didn't
have no meat cooked for supper, and she had said
I had plenty. Don't you think that he was mad
and just took down all my nice things and packed
them away and ruined them. She came four times and
(18:32):
four nights, but the second night, second night, she told
me that her neck was squeezed off at the first
joint and it was just as she told me, And
I'm like, damn, that's real. Specific. After her visits from Zona,
Mary Jane went to the courthouse to talk to Greenbrier
County's prosecuting attorney, John Alfred Preston. She informed him that
(18:54):
something was not right. She's like, did anyone actually look
at my daughter's body? You know? I feel like nothing
was done Again. Stick poking. They used the stick poke method,
and not of tattooing, but of literally gathering a stick
from the yard and indeed poking the body of a
(19:15):
dead woman whose husband has fully dressed her and just
a bizarre choice of outfit and moved her from allegedly
the place that he did indeed find her. So you know,
she goes to the attorney. She says, something's wrong, please
look into this, and ultimately an inquest was made and
(19:35):
an exhimation was planned, and when Zona's body was exhumed,
it was discovered that she had in fact suffered a
broken neck, a finding which had been overlooked upon initial
examination because he didn't look. Because he walks in, Doctor
Nap walks in. He's probably like huff an ether. That
(19:58):
was like a thing doctors did back then, and again,
a doctor was not a doctor back then. Probably huffsome
ether came in and Trout's like, hey, guys, she died
of childbirth. And the doctor's like yep, and that's good
enough for me, and they're like her mom's like, oh,
they don't have a child, and doctor NAP's like, oh, okay,
(20:19):
I got that one covered. It's everlasting faint, and everybody's
like totally again, like my cousin, I lost my you know,
I do a five k every year for everlasting faint.
It's a problem, Like we need to spread awareness about it.
So anyway, Trout was present at the exhumation and his
(20:39):
actions were once again labeled suspicious, and as a result
of the new findings, Trout was immediately placed under arrest
for Zona's murder. The next few months were full of
town gossip, more character assassinations and accusations. You know my favorite,
And in May Trout supposedly threatened to himself while he
(21:01):
was in prison awaiting trial. Every few weeks the build
up to the trial was printed in the Green Brier Independent.
I mean, they didn't have anything going on. And finally,
five months after Zona was found dead, her husband Trout
went on trial for her murder. At this trial, Trout
took the stand, but it was apparently met with some moneyase.
(21:24):
It was reported in the Green Brier Independent July first,
eighteen ninety seven that quote, Shoe was on the stand
all Tuesday afternoon. He was given free reign and talked
at great length. Was very minute and particular in describing
unimportant incidences. Said the prosecution was all spite work. I've
never heard that phrase. I love it spite work, that's
(21:46):
spite work. Entered a positive denial of the charge against him,
vehemently protested his innocence, calling God to witness, admitted that
he had served time in the pen, declared that he
loved his wife, and appealed to the jury to look
into his face and then say if he was guilty.
(22:08):
His testimony, Manner, et cetera, made an unfavorable impression on spectators.
I think the trout got into doctor NAP's ether that like,
just the summation of it is batshit crazy. Yeah. I mean,
this guy in acting right, and everything he did leading
(22:30):
up to that sounds a whole lot like he killed
his wife and probably killed the wife before as well.
When Mary Jane Robinson Heaster was called to testify, she
shared the experiences of her daughter contacting her from beyond
the grave to tell her how she had been murdered
by Trout. She also gave detailed descriptions of Zona's house
(22:51):
and the land surrounding the property, despite claiming that she
had never visited her daughter's residence. Her testimony was indeed
powerful and compelling, and since Zona's mother was a well known,
pious Christian woman of the town, her testimony was accepted
as truth, and these powerful accounts became the case's strongest evidence.
(23:16):
After the jury heard both sides of the testimony, they
recessed for one hour and ten minutes exactly, and came
back with a guilty verdict for murder in the first degree.
It's quoted in the Greenbrier Independent July eighth, eighteen ninety
seven edition that quote, though the evidence was entirely circumstantial,
(23:37):
and indeed it was, the verdict meets general approval as
all who heard the evidence are satisfied of the prisoner's guilt,
and they're like, fuck it. The ghost said it. It's true. Yeah,
I mean, I don't think he'd be convicted today even
if he did do it, because no like that, that
would not be that would not be admitted. Trout was
(23:58):
sentenced to life in the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville,
and some local folk felt that justice had not been
entirely served and wanted to take matters into their own hands.
They felt that he should have hanged for what he
did to Zona, and a mob was formed by some
local townfolk including C. J. Martin, J. L. Nairy, Robert Hunter,
(24:23):
and O. T. Arbaugh. The plan was to go to
the county jail where Trout was being held, take him
outside and hang him. A local man, George Harra, who
lived near the Metal Bluff where the mob had formed,
found out about the mob's plans to overtake the jail.
He quickly rode to the local sheriff's house, Sheriff Nicol,
(24:46):
who also lived in Metal Bluff, in an attempt to
stop the mob before they set off for the jail.
In the July fifteenth, eighteen ninety seven edition of the
Greenbrier Independent, the mob incident is reported as follows. Mister
Nickel and mister Hara then started heading for Louisbourg and
had to pass the campground where the lynchers were to assemble.
(25:10):
When they arrived there, which was about nine o'clock, several
of the mob were already there. They had passed by safely,
but were recognized. Several minutes later. Four of the mob pursued, and,
after an exciting chase, overtook them, presented pistols and demanded
they stopped. The sheriff drew his pistol and was in
(25:30):
the act of firing when he recognized his assailant, and,
not desiring to hurt or kill him, concluded to try
moral suasion. He and Hara surrendered and were taken back
to the residence of mister D. A. Dwyer, where after
considerable parleying, the sheriff succeeded in inducing them to disband
(25:53):
and return to their homes. They were provided with a
stout new rope, were armed with Winchester and revolvers, and
numbered from ten to twenty as far as could be seen,
the most of them keeping in the background, in the
shadow of the trees. Yeah, that's a whole lot. And
the irony of this situation is that even if the
(26:15):
mob had succeeded in storming the jail in Louisbourg in
an attempt to lynch Trout, they would have only found
an empty cell. Having gotten word that the mob was forming,
Deputy Sheriff John G. Dwyer was able to take Trout
to a place of safety in the woods a mile
or two outside town. After the foiled lynching, Trout was
(26:38):
escorted to the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville, where
he died in the spring of nineteen hundred from an
outbreak of old timey tuberculosis at the prison. So was
Trout really guilty of murdering his wife's Zna because she
didn't cook meat for supper. Could Zona have died in childbirth,
(27:00):
as the official death record stated. The young boy Andy Jones,
who found Zona had allegedly reported that she was laying
on the floor. Could she have I don't know, somehow
fallen and broken her neck. Did Zona really come back
from the grave and tell her mother that Trout murdered her?
Was the outcome of this case just as from beyond
(27:23):
the grave? Or was it a witch hunt, a quest
to prove that a man known around the community to
be of ill repute was to blame for his wife's
unexpected and untimely demise. Well, the facts as they stand
are very limited regarding Zona. It is known that she
married Trout on Tuesday, October twenty first, eighteen ninety six,
(27:46):
it was a lovely day, and that they were married
only like three months, a little over three months before
she died. It is known that there are conflicting dates
reported for Zona's death on the official death record, which
has her date listed as Saturday, January twenty third, eighteen
ninety seven, and the newspaper accounts which have her death
(28:08):
listed as Sunday, January twenty fourth, eighteen ninety seven, so
difference of a day. It shows on the official record
of her death that her cause of death was childbirth.
And it's also known that Zona had a baby boy
out of wedlock on November twenty ninth, eighteen ninety five,
(28:28):
which was almost a year before she and Trout had
ever met. Regarding Trout, it is known that he never
seemed to conceal or hide the fact that he had
a previous criminal record for stealing a horse, and he
did not hide the fact that he was a deborcee
and a widower before he married Zona. It is also
(28:49):
known that it was not until Mary Jane had her
visions that he was even suspected for murdering Zona, and
you know, of course her body was exhumed. Is known
that he proclaimed his innocence and that he was held
in prison in Louisbourg until his June eighteen ninety seven
trial took place, and that he was sentenced to the
(29:10):
West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville for the rest of
his natural life for the murder of Zona. That's it.
That's all that's officially known. That's all of the official records,
you know, And then there's newspaper clippings and stuff like that,
But as far as official records go, there's not a
whole lot. Two different causes of death, two different days.
(29:35):
The boy that found her said he found her laying
on the floor. The husband moved her and dressed her
and wouldn't let anybody near her, and wouldn't let like.
He kept throwing himself over the body of his wife
every time the doctor tried to touch her. And so
again the doctor was like, I got time for this.
This ether ain't gonna hof itself like again, stick method
(29:58):
everlasting fain, I guess, And everybody's like, yes, everybody's nodding.
They don't want to look like an idiot, like they
don't know what he's talking about. They're like, yes, totally
everlasting faint. I've heard of it again. I attend five
k's to benefit awareness, raise awareness. I need sponsors for
next year's run. Hit me up. Yeah, I don't know,
(30:22):
And so I asked the question, what the fuck happened?
I don't know? I mean, this could go really either
way the story as it's told, you know, it can't.
It's really all hearsay. But really, everything back then was
for the most part, there weren't. There wasn't like terrific
record keeping. There was nothing digital like there was hardly
(30:45):
anything analog. I don't know there wasn't then. Uh yeah,
there was just no no, no good record keeping, no
way to confirm exactly what happened to her if any
of this is true or you know, the speculation turned
into kind of been urban legend, which absolutely could have
happened pretty easily. So as it's told, Trout goes into town.
(31:10):
I guess for some I don't know he's in town
for he goes into town. While he's in town, he
sees this boy that lives next to him, and he says,
go to my house and gather the eggs and then
go in my house and call for my wife and
ask her if she needs anything while I'm out. And
the boy does all that and says he finds Zona
(31:30):
on the floor like at the foot of the stairs. Okay,
And the boy tells his mom. Mom tells Trout. He
goes out there, or he goes home totally alone, doesn't
call anybody, you know, like an authority anything like that.
He has the doctor come out, but it's like an
hour two hours, and by the time the doctor gets there,
(31:53):
Trout has moved his wife's body into their bed, which
I think was pretty typical back then. He moves the
wife to their bed, he's dressed her, which, again that's strange.
I don't know why you wouldn't why you would go
to the trouble to dress your wife. You know, that's
dead and I'm gonna be buried in something else. I
(32:15):
don't know if that's what she was supposed to be
buried in. I'm unclear on that, Like maybe that was
the tradition back then, but either way, why are you
dressing her in the highest collar dress that she has
and then folding a veil like I don't even understand
that concept, Like that's that's a foreign concept to me.
What do you mean fold a veil? A butt like
a large veil. He made it into a scarf and
(32:38):
tied a massive bow up under her neck, so the
entirety of Zona's neck was covered when the doctor got there.
And again if the doctor tried to look at her,
tried to touch her, whatever, Trout just kept flopping over
her body like like fish dew. And the doctor was like, again,
the ether it ain't go off itself, like I have
(33:00):
other patients who have ghosts in their blood, and we
got to treat it with cocaine and it's pretty urgent.
I got shit to do. So that was that, and
they had awake funeral. He was acting really strange, wouldn't
let anybody near her again. Whole neck was covered. But
now she's got this bruise across her face that they
couldn't see before, and her neck looked strange. They said
(33:24):
it looked like off kilter. You know, I don't know
how mortuary science was back then. I don't know if
they did anything to stabilize and neck, and like somebody
had to put her in a coffin right like you
wouldn't notice that her head was flopping around. Maybe they
just straight up didn't care. I don't know. Maybe they
(33:46):
don't ask questions. You know, if someone's paying for the funeral,
could have paid the funeral home. You know, they they
take her, put her in a coffin in her freaking
head is sideways. Like that's a little odd when you're
claiming she died in childbirth. On one death record, what
was the other? Everlasting faint, everlasting gobstop or something like that.
(34:09):
I mean, it's on par it's on the same level. Yeah,
So all that happens, and then Zona's mother says that
she sees the ghost of her daughter, and you know,
Zona's like, Trout strangled me, and everybody's like, yes, that
makes sense. So they get her body out of the ground,
and indeed she had been her neck was indeed broken.
(34:34):
I mean, that was it for that time in that
small town, like Trout was done for he you know,
his wife before died. I cannot remember how she died.
I read it. I swear I think it was like
something fell and hit her in the head. Oh that
was it. And I forgot to put that in there.
My gosh, how silly of me. Uh, his second wife.
(34:55):
I believe he was doing something on the roof and
she was on the ground and something fell off and
hit her in the head and she died and it
was ruled an accident. Ruled I say again, I think
I think they went with a stick poke method. And
they're like, uh, yeah, that brick just it landed, it jumped,
it wanted she wanted it to hit her, and it
was an accident. You know what. They're like, what are
(35:17):
we talking about? Uh, there's ether everywhere and there's ghosts,
some of blood that I got to do cocaine about.
We got shit to do people. That's I think that's
pretty much the whole explanation for the death of Zona
Heaster shoe Ah, just nobody doing any kind of a
decent job, just taking this dude at his word that
(35:40):
you know, he found her. She she just she passed out,
and you know, it's the everlasting faint. Everyone accepted everyone's
word somehow, And that's not hyperbole, like that's a fact.
Mary Jane's stuff was taken as as gospel. You know
that her she was a respected lady about town and
a good pious Christian and all that, and so jury
(36:02):
was like, yes, what you're saying is the truth. It happened.
I will take it as direct evidence of this man's guilt.
Did she see her? Maybe, I don't know. I mean,
it's a it's a it's a good ghost story. She
could have she could have just been having a dream,
like I believe that. You know, if a spirit or
whatever it is wants to talk to you, that a
(36:25):
lot of times it will be done in your dreams.
Like if you've ever lost anybody and you have really
vivid dreams about just like talking to them about pretty
normal things. I think that's like them coming to us
in dreams, you know whatever, dreams. Maybe we don't know.
I should do an episode on that, Like what are dreams?
(36:48):
I know there's all that crap about, like you know,
dream dream studies and all that and meanings and the
symbolism of everything in your dreams. I'm just saying, like,
how how do we do? Like I understand the process.
I'm not gonna get into it. Nope, I can already
see where I'm going with this. I'm spiraling, uh down
a rabbit hole, if that's possible, that's what I'm doing.
(37:09):
I'm not going down the rabbit hole. I am spiraling.
I am spinning down that rabbit hole. And I need
to stop. And as soon as I lay down to
go to sleep, which is gonna be very soon, I'm
gonna try and solve it. What are dreams? Why do
we have them? Why don't some people have them? Why
do I have a whole lot of nightmares? Why do
(37:29):
I have a lot of dreams about being in a
large building sometimes at college, me having a dorm room
that I don't like as an adult in a roommate,
and I never stay in there, and occasionally I go
in there and I'm pissed off when my roommate has
like fucked with any of my stuff even though I'm
never there. Why is that such a frequent isn't that
a weird dream? Bizarre? Right? Okay, back to back to Zona.
(37:55):
I mean, at the end, it might be likely that
I'm gonna say one or two things happened. She fell
down the stairs, she broke her neck or trout was
mad that there was no meat for dinner. She had
big bruise on her face that wasn't there when she died,
so I guess it, you know, formed after her passing,
she had big bruise on her face. She told her
(38:17):
mom that he got mad and hit her because she
didn't have any meat made for dinner. I guess that
was an offense worth killing over. Back then again, batshit
crazy stuff. Really, Yeah, So she was hitting the face.
It looked like, you know, I can't say that definitively,
but that's when they exhumed her again. She's got the
(38:37):
bruise on her face. At the funeral, bruise on her face,
head looks weird, neck looks weird husband, acting cuckoo crazy pants,
throwing himself all over the casket, and you know, gatekeeping
anybody from viewing her at a at a wake, which
is like what you do at a wake, you have
a viewing, you know, wake viewing few I don't know
(39:00):
in what order. I don't remember. I've been to plenty
of them. But all that to say, uh, I think
he I think he did something to her. It sounds
like he hit her over what. I don't know really,
I'm sure it could have been anything. And then I
think he did strangle her. That's I mean, that's what
(39:21):
she died of. Like she had a broken neck. Could
she have fallen down the stairs and broken her neck?
I guess, I don't know. Usually stairfalls involve a good
amount of blood. I know that's not every time, but
they do. Like if you hit your head, and that's
what kills you, you know what I mean, Like if
you fall down fly stairs, the injury that will kill
(39:43):
you most likely would be like severe trauma to your
head right and the head if you've ever cut your
face or your head bleeds like crazy. So if she
had fallen down the stairs and sustained a head injury
that would have killed her or you know, broken her neck.
(40:04):
I feel like there would have been some blood, like
a little bit, wouldn't you think, just you know, skin
is pretty easy to a braid to cause abradasians two,
that is to say, to cut and to bleed. I'm done.
That's that's it. That's like, it's one of two things.
(40:26):
She she fell miraculously she didn't bleed when she hit
her head hard enough to kill her. And you know,
by breaking her neck, you don't just like fall and
land on just your neck unless there's something, you know,
right underneath you. I would think I don't know, or
could old dude have come home been pissy about, you know,
(40:49):
any little thing or another. And then he's like, what
are we having for dinner? And she tells him and
he's pissed that there's no meat, and like that's it
for him. He's like, I'm done. I'm just gonna take
it out on her, starts, you know, hits her, probably
started strangling her, and before he knows it, he has
killed her. And he dips out of the house, put
you know, puts her body at the foot of the stairs,
(41:10):
runs out of the house, goes into town, then sees
his neighbor and it's like, hey, neighbor, I need you
to like go in my house and find my wife.
So it looks like, you know, what's his face. Trout
has an alibi. He was in town and you know,
neighbor boy saw him in town. Neighbor boy went to
his house. He wasn't in his house. Uh, and Zona
(41:31):
was dead. So it sounds like, you know, he sent
someone else to find the body so it wasn't him,
you know what I mean, like just to take the
heat off of him. And then he's like, okay, so
doctor Napp, I've you know, sent word for him. I
don't know how. You know, there weren't phones. He sent
a carrier pigeon to doctor Napp, you know, with a
(41:56):
thing of ether, a ted that's his fee. It was
a little bottle of ether just hanging off the carrier
pigeon and you know, tape to it on the very
front because you know, he had to he had to
look at the note before you know, he got the ether.
He had to look at the note before he got
the ether. You see where I'm going with this. He
(42:18):
knew somehow, you know, He's like, okay, it's gonna take
doctor knapface a couple hours to get here, you know,
hour to two hours. Uh oh shit, Like you can
totally see that her neck is broken. What do I do?
What do I do? Looks around, finds the dress, you know,
puts it on her, finds the highest collier he can,
(42:39):
makes the weird ass scarf and the giant bow up
under her chin, puts her in bed, you know, so
the doctor can't really get a good look at her.
Props her up and everything probably had her like probably
honestly like had secured her neck in some way on
the bed. And then the doctor gets there and again
he's like, we all have things to do, everlasting feint
(43:03):
and that's it. He's like, that's my final ruling. And
then Trout starts acting real strange, and then the ghost
of Zona shows up, says, Mom, Trout did it. He
is a son of a bitch, and the mother pushes
she gets her own daughter's body zoom, she gets an
investigation going, and she gets Trout convicted of her daughter's murder.
(43:26):
Either one could happen. I think it's probably more likely
that old Trout was just a bastard, just a real
son of a bitch, and you know, probably was beating
Zona before that and not a nice guy, and he
finally took it too far and killed her. And I
would assume that a similar thing happened to the wife
(43:46):
that died before and the first wife. People did not
get divorced back then. What do you have to do
to get divorced back you know what I'm saying, Like,
what the fuck did he have to do to her
to get divorced? Seriously, like I didn't even know people
got divorced then, that's crazy. Anyway, Trout died in prison.
I think they got the right guy. I hope, I
(44:08):
really hope that Zona's ghost energy, whatever you want to
call it, did appear to her mother in some form
or another, you know, a dream, an actual vision anything.
I really hope that she did and that she got
that you know, trout fishy husband. I really hope that
(44:29):
she did and that she got to stick it to
Trout because I'm sure, like you know, in life, if
if what I think was going on was going on,
and I don't even think it was like frowned upon
back then, to abuse your wife, hit your wife and
all that for literally anything, you just the wind blows
wrong and smack her in the face. I think that
(44:51):
was like pretty common back then. I'm not saying like
everybody beat their wife, but it was certainly not frowned upon.
People's mind their own business and they're like, yeah, she
probably mouthed off or didn't make meat for dinner, Susan. Yeah,
apparently meat had to be on the table every night something. Yeah,
(45:12):
it's something like real freaking old timy. So, yeah, that's
what I think happened. I do think it is the Trout.
I think the trout did it. Uh. I don't think
that was accidental. Again, and a little too clean of
a scene for a fall down fly of stairs that
breaks the neck of a woman and kills her. Yeah,
(45:33):
a little too neat and tidy, I don't think so.
I think that bastard Trout. I think he killed his wife.
And that's it. I'm gonna stop. It has indeed kicked
in and I need to go to bed. If you
like what you hear, you could hear more episodes, hopefully
every Friday, released on all podcast platforms. On social media,
(45:53):
you can find me at Autumn Podcast on Look. On
social media, you can find me on Instagram and threads
at Autumn Podcast, Facebook at Autumnzodities, and Patreon for ad
free episodes and for showing me love and support and
you know, just being a real cool person. Any level
(46:16):
of membership, like I think even a dollar there's like
a dollar or three dollars tier. I think I think
it's a three dollars tier. You get AD free episodes
and you know, some bonus episodes. There's a little treasure
trove of them in there. I'm gonna do Christmas cards
or holiday cards again. I get a little like sticker,
a little note, little little something something. I'll probably ramp
(46:41):
them up a little bit this year. I think we
all need some good stuff, right, We need some good
stuff in our lives. Anyway, you can, you know, support
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Write me something nice. I'll read it on the show
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(47:03):
Spotify either one. And also you support me just by
listening and you know that I appreciate it. And remember,
if it's creepy and weird, you'll find it here.
Hey, hey, welcome back to Autumnsodities. I am Autumn. Well
you're getting a special nighttime edition of Autumnsodities after like
two days of waking up at five am and driving
two hours for visits. I'm not complaining. I had a
lovely time. I'm just saying, Uh, I'm a little weird
(00:54):
right like a little extra weird right now. And also
I took a gummy about twenty minutes ago. Again the
kind that are legal where I live Kentucky, that is.
And uh, yeah, we're going to see if it kicks
in while I'm recording. You'll probably be able to tell
the difference. Maybe you won't. Maybe it's Mabeline. Don't sue me. Please,
(01:16):
for the love of God, makeup company got a lot
more money than I do. I am not collectible. I
think it might start be starting to kick in, So
let's get into it. This is an old timey Who
done it? I'm going to say, even though someone was
indeed convicted for it, not sure if it was this
(01:37):
person who who committed this murder? We'll find out. I'll
let you decide. So the Tale of the Greenbriar Ghost
seems like your classic tragedy featuring a lifeless young bride,
her dubious husband, and her bereaved mother. However, this January
eighteen ninety seven murder investigation would end up be anything
(02:00):
but textbook, although it is very famous as the only
instance in history, not the only, it's one of two
I can think of maybe three where testimony from beyond
the grave led to a murder conviction. So clearly there
is more to this story than just the supernatural. There
was also the case of Tarase to Bassa. If I
(02:21):
remember right, I did a case or I did an
episode on her maybe a year or two ago. She
was a nurse in Chicago and one of her coworkers
murdered her in her own apartment and her mother, No,
it wasn't her mother. It was a doctor's wife, like
a cross town I think she worked with the doctor,
but she never met the wife or anything like that.
(02:44):
Overtook the wife's body and said exactly who killed her
to the doctor and told him exactly what he had stolen,
like he'd stolen a really rare piece of jewelry, and
it was indeed him. He was convicted for her murder.
They did. I mean, like, it's not on the books.
As you know, testimony from beyond the grave was spoken
(03:07):
in court, but it did lead to them looking into
the actual man who did kill her, So I'm gonna
count it. I'm gonna count that one. When I began
to review the Tale of the Green Briar Ghost, I
found that there was just a whole lot of contradicting
and conflicting information in the written records, which of course
(03:27):
I found fascinating because I'm a fucking nerd. Each story
had its own spin on how the death of Elva
Zona heaster shoe. It's a lot of names. Everybody in
this has like eighteen names. That's hyperbole, but it's like
a lot of names. She went by Zona, And I
then began to think, with such conflicting information, how is
(03:48):
one to find the facts? The truth? You know, when
all the resources seemed to be recounting a different story.
With the endless conflicting newspaper accounts, the missing primary resources
and crucial documents, and the fact that there are no
longer any survivors from the time this case was tried,
I sadly have not found any real answers, but I
(04:11):
certainly have come up with many new questions, and you know,
isn't that's what life is all about. That's how we
learn before we get into this very strange account which
has been told and retold over the last century. I
wanted to share a little bit about why I wanted
to re examine this case. You know, one hundred and
thirty something years. If I'm bat math a long time,
(04:33):
it's been more than one hundred and twenty five years
after the fact. I'm not going to do math off
the top of my head right now. I've been to
wait for too long, Thank you very much. Archivists, and
you know, nerds like me always enjoy highlighting, you know,
the repositories, unique holdings and collections, and by showcasing these
hidden treasures, archivists aspire to challenge users to think about
(04:54):
where that information comes from. So context, I love context.
I need if I'm telling you a story, as you
well know, I'm sure I need you to know like
the thirty years of history leading up to that moment.
You need to know everything. You need to understand everyone's
frame of mind, their trauma, so on and so forth.
(05:15):
And if I can find that information, I'm going to
give it to you. So where do all of these
materials and resources originate, you know, how have they been
used over the years, how have they been made accessible
for use? How do you find all of this information?
That is a challenge for me. I like finding things,
(05:35):
I like tracking things down. It's a challenge for me.
And by assessing such archival materials, it encourages, you know,
an archivist or just a researcher in general, to reevaluate
what they've heard and begin a search for the facts,
you know, the truth of the matter. And speaking to
getting to the truth of the matter, that was a
(05:57):
flawless segue. Well one ever be able to truly solve
the mystery of what happened to Zona that fateful day
in January eighteen ninety seven, more than a century later.
Here is my attempt at sharing some new insights and
of course questions to ponder, so that you yourself can
reflect and decide what you think happened. In October eighteen
(06:23):
ninety six, in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, in a small
area known as the Richlands, the newly married Elva Zona
Heaster Shoe again referred to as Zona because I'm not
going to say all of those names. Her husband has
even more names here. They are Erasmus Stribbling Edward trout Shoe. Yeah,
(06:49):
it's like a bunch of word salad. Somebody threw like
those magnets with words on them, you know those ones
that you make into poems on your refrigerator. It's just
a bunch of random rectang little magnets, you know what
I'm talking about. It's like somebody threw several of those
out and randomly picked. They're like, I don't know, pick five,
pick six, who cares, And they came up with Erasmus
(07:12):
Stribbling Edward trout Shoe. He is often referred to as
es or Trout, exactly like the fish. So the two
of them set up a life together in a two
story home in Livesay's Mill. And I don't know if
I said that right or not. It looks like Livesay.
Although they apparently had not known each other long before
(07:33):
their marriage, all seemed to be well. He was gainfully
employed and seen as a talented and respected blacksmith, and
she was a homemaker. She was well known locally in
the very small community of the Meadow Bluff and the
Richland's region. It was not until her untimely demise that
winter that rumors began to circulate around town of how
(07:57):
others in the community truly perceived Trout and his marriage
to Zona. While he is often described as a man
who was new to the county, I mean, and I'm
gonna take it exactly how it sounds. I'm going to
take that literally. I don't think it's a turn of phrase.
I think they literally were just like the people in
(08:18):
town were like, that's the man who's new to the county,
and that's how they refer to him, because they're like,
he has too many goddamn names. I'm not saying all
these names. I'd rather say a whole as sentence to
describe him. His family had a homestead that was located
on Droop Mountain. Damn, homie, Droop Mountain after you breastfeed, right, ladies,
(08:38):
you know I'm talking about, which borders both Pocahontas and
Greenbrier Counties. Additionally, before he was married to Zona Old Trout,
he had two other wives, both from well known local families,
because you know, it's very important. Then his first marriage
to Ali E cut Lip in divorce, and his second
(09:02):
marriage to Lucy and Tritt ended with her death. There
are currently no identifiable official death records for Lucy and Tritt. Therefore,
her cause of death is a mystery, you know, unknown
at this time, Uh it was, it was circulating though.
It was a circulating rumor around town that Trout had
(09:25):
somehow been responsible for her death. M was he? I
don't know. Therefore, when Zona ended up dead only three
months after they were married, and of course, Trout was
acting suspicious according to the onlookers, and I'd have to say,
I find his behavior that I'm going to talk about
soon suspicious as well. And this was that Zona's wake,
(09:49):
rumors began to spread all around town that Trout must
have had something to do with it. So what exactly
happened to Zona that ill fated winter day. Here's the
story as it has been told so many times before.
On a Chili Saturday morning, January twenty third, eighteen ninety seven,
(10:11):
A young African American neighbor and that's how this was
said in the newspaper. So you know, at the archives,
I found neighbor of the Shoes, one Anderson Andy Jones
was asked by Trout several times to stop by the
Shoe's house. And when I say Shoe, I don't mean
the ones on your feet. Their last name is spelled Shue.
(10:32):
He Trout asked this neighbor, can you stop on a
house and gather some eggs? And when Andy finally made
it to the Shoes homestead, he just felt like something
was off. The house was dark and quiet, so he
went inside looking for Zona, as Trout had asked him to.
(10:53):
He had apparently asked this boy to go and call
out for his wife in the house. And I'm like, okay, yeah,
that seems strange as well, but he was like, oh yeah,
call out to her and see if she wants anything,
like while i'm while I'm out, see if she wants anything.
The boy apparently called for her, and when she did
(11:13):
not answer, he went inside the house to look for her.
According to one report, he found her lifeless body laying
at the bottom of the stairs. He then ran down
the road to his home and told his mother Martha,
what he'd found. When word finally got to Trout that
(11:34):
something bad had happened to Zna, he supposedly hurried home
and found her dead. Onlookers reported that Trout had acted
inconsolably and just told everyone to leave the house. He's like, everybody,
get out and call for doctor Nap, Like, don the
sweet name doctor Napp, But it's a the k in
you know, the k is silent. Doctor Nap, Doctor naptime
(11:56):
the local doctor to come to his home. It was
then reported that an hour or two had elapsed before
doctor Knapp arrived to the Shoe's home, and during that time,
so an hour or two, Trout had already dressed Zona.
He had clothed her in a dress with what was
described as a quote, high collared neck in a large
(12:18):
veil several times folded and tied in a large bow
under the chin. Hmm. That sounds strange, and also had
placed her body into their bed, And when doctor Nap
came into the house, he's like, Yeah, that's totally normal
that you moved your wife from supposedly where her body
(12:40):
was found and you like put on a super high
neck dress and then you like fold a veil, a
veil of some sort a whole bunch of times and
tie it over this high collared neck line on the
dress and make a big bow under her chin. No,
(13:00):
that's totally normal that it aroused no suspicion from the doctor.
He saw it, and he was like, totally, I get it.
I would do the same thing he did. Try to resuscitate,
and I'm air quoting that one Zona. You know, whatever
resuscitation was back then. He probably like slapped her in
the face or something, and he's like, well, she's dead,
(13:23):
like officially as a doornail. He took a stick, like,
went outside, I got a long stick, without saying a word,
walks out the door of the house's out in the
front yard, kind of rooting around, comes back in with
a pretty thin tree branch that's kind of long, just
pokes at or with it a couple of times, and
he's like, well, she's dead. It's official. I'm calling it.
(13:45):
I think that was about his scientific as it got
back then. So upon his initial examination, doctor Knapp supposedly
stated that Zona's cause of death was heart disease. Wait
till you hear what the heart does the other option?
So it's hard disease or here's the other option, everlasting faint. Yeah,
(14:09):
I think he might have poked her with a stick
to determine that she was indeed dead. Everlasting faint? What
the everlasting fuck? However, in the official Greenbrier County death book.
Her listed cause of death was childbirth. Okay, they didn't
have a child as far as anybody knew. It was
(14:29):
also reported that doctor Napp had been treating Zona for
weeks before for some random ailment, but there are no
records of this, of course, nor was doctor Napp's signature
or comments listed on the official death record for Zona.
Kind of strange for somebody who pronounced her death. In fact,
her name is not even listed in the official record.
(14:52):
She is simply identified as Missus Shoe And I'd be like, well,
wasn't there or weren't there two more missus Shoes before her? Like,
maybe clarify which one not the dead one most likely,
but you know, the previously dead. Oh God. After her
body was fully examined, Zona was taken to her family's
home on Little Sewell Mountain to prepare for a wake
(15:15):
and a prompt burial in the coming days. However, when
her body arrived, it was noted that her mother, Mary
Jane Robinson heaster again, because you know, three names will
not suffice. She expressed that she felt Trout had something
to do with her daughter's untimely demise, and I think
that's a I would look into it as well. In fact,
(15:39):
during the wake, people began to notice how affected, for
lack of a better word, Trout was by Zona's death.
Some thought it was really sweet, you know, They're like, oh,
look how up said he is, and it seemed to
show just how much he had loved his late wife,
and others, like her mother Mary Jane, they felt that
(16:00):
it was unnatural, like it was over the top. He
was just kind of acting overly erratic and theatrical. And
it was even claimed that he had banned anyone from
touching his wife's body. That's again a little strange. You
dressed her, wouldn't really let the doctor look at her
at all. Again, I think there was a stick poke
and he's like, yep, it's the everlasting faint see it
(16:22):
every day. Good God. Like, what did they I can't
wrap my head around what in God's name they could
have Did they mean coma? I don't. I really don't
know what they could have thought they were describing God
in heaven so he would always be really close to
the casket and like folks, you know, they began to
(16:45):
notice that Zona's neck looked strange. It had kind of
an unnatural look. It looked a little loose and wobbly,
and also she had a bruise on her cheek that
seemed to just kind of appear out of nowhere. Though
there was a lot of chatter going around the community
about Trout his bad temper and of course his bizarre
(17:07):
actions around the wake and funeral, it seemed to be
a close case an unfortunate circumstance, and that was all.
But Mary Jane, her mother, was not satisfied with this conclusion.
And I don't feel like any mother would be be like,
did you just say that she died of everlasting faint?
I'd like explain it to me, Please explain it to me,
(17:29):
like I am a small child, because I don't think
you know what the hell you're talking about. So Mary
Jane not satisfied with this conclusion, as most mothers wouldn't be,
and she felt in her bones, in her soul that
something bad had happened to Zona. After Zona died, Mary
Jane went into a state of you know, just severe
(17:50):
grief depression, constant prayer, begging her daughter to appear to
her and tell her what really happened. And she is
quoted as saying, I prayed to the lord that she
might come back and tell me what had happened. And
I prayed that she might come herself and tell on him.
According to Mary Jane, she got her wish. She began
(18:11):
to have visions in which Zona appeared to her and
told her as follows. He was mad that she didn't
have no meat cooked for supper, and she had said
I had plenty. Don't you think that he was mad
and just took down all my nice things and packed
them away and ruined them. She came four times and
(18:32):
four nights, but the second night, second night, she told
me that her neck was squeezed off at the first
joint and it was just as she told me, And
I'm like, damn, that's real. Specific. After her visits from Zona,
Mary Jane went to the courthouse to talk to Greenbrier
County's prosecuting attorney, John Alfred Preston. She informed him that
(18:54):
something was not right. She's like, did anyone actually look
at my daughter's body? You know? I feel like nothing
was done Again. Stick poking. They used the stick poke method,
and not of tattooing, but of literally gathering a stick
from the yard and indeed poking the body of a
(19:15):
dead woman whose husband has fully dressed her and just
a bizarre choice of outfit and moved her from allegedly
the place that he did indeed find her. So you know,
she goes to the attorney. She says, something's wrong, please
look into this, and ultimately an inquest was made and
(19:35):
an exhimation was planned, and when Zona's body was exhumed,
it was discovered that she had in fact suffered a
broken neck, a finding which had been overlooked upon initial
examination because he didn't look. Because he walks in, Doctor
Nap walks in. He's probably like huff an ether. That
(19:58):
was like a thing doctors did back then, and again,
a doctor was not a doctor back then. Probably huffsome
ether came in and Trout's like, hey, guys, she died
of childbirth. And the doctor's like yep, and that's good
enough for me, and they're like her mom's like, oh,
they don't have a child, and doctor NAP's like, oh, okay,
(20:19):
I got that one covered. It's everlasting faint, and everybody's
like totally again, like my cousin, I lost my you know,
I do a five k every year for everlasting faint.
It's a problem, Like we need to spread awareness about it.
So anyway, Trout was present at the exhumation and his
(20:39):
actions were once again labeled suspicious, and as a result
of the new findings, Trout was immediately placed under arrest
for Zona's murder. The next few months were full of
town gossip, more character assassinations and accusations. You know my favorite,
And in May Trout supposedly threatened to himself while he
(21:01):
was in prison awaiting trial. Every few weeks the build
up to the trial was printed in the Green Brier Independent.
I mean, they didn't have anything going on. And finally,
five months after Zona was found dead, her husband Trout
went on trial for her murder. At this trial, Trout
took the stand, but it was apparently met with some moneyase.
(21:24):
It was reported in the Green Brier Independent July first,
eighteen ninety seven that quote, Shoe was on the stand
all Tuesday afternoon. He was given free reign and talked
at great length. Was very minute and particular in describing
unimportant incidences. Said the prosecution was all spite work. I've
never heard that phrase. I love it spite work, that's
(21:46):
spite work. Entered a positive denial of the charge against him,
vehemently protested his innocence, calling God to witness, admitted that
he had served time in the pen, declared that he
loved his wife, and appealed to the jury to look
into his face and then say if he was guilty.
(22:08):
His testimony, Manner, et cetera, made an unfavorable impression on spectators.
I think the trout got into doctor NAP's ether that like,
just the summation of it is batshit crazy. Yeah. I mean,
this guy in acting right, and everything he did leading
(22:30):
up to that sounds a whole lot like he killed
his wife and probably killed the wife before as well.
When Mary Jane Robinson Heaster was called to testify, she
shared the experiences of her daughter contacting her from beyond
the grave to tell her how she had been murdered
by Trout. She also gave detailed descriptions of Zona's house
(22:51):
and the land surrounding the property, despite claiming that she
had never visited her daughter's residence. Her testimony was indeed
powerful and compelling, and since Zona's mother was a well known,
pious Christian woman of the town, her testimony was accepted
as truth, and these powerful accounts became the case's strongest evidence.
(23:16):
After the jury heard both sides of the testimony, they
recessed for one hour and ten minutes exactly, and came
back with a guilty verdict for murder in the first degree.
It's quoted in the Greenbrier Independent July eighth, eighteen ninety
seven edition that quote, though the evidence was entirely circumstantial,
(23:37):
and indeed it was, the verdict meets general approval as
all who heard the evidence are satisfied of the prisoner's guilt,
and they're like, fuck it. The ghost said it. It's true. Yeah,
I mean, I don't think he'd be convicted today even
if he did do it, because no like that, that
would not be that would not be admitted. Trout was
(23:58):
sentenced to life in the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville,
and some local folk felt that justice had not been
entirely served and wanted to take matters into their own hands.
They felt that he should have hanged for what he
did to Zona, and a mob was formed by some
local townfolk including C. J. Martin, J. L. Nairy, Robert Hunter,
(24:23):
and O. T. Arbaugh. The plan was to go to
the county jail where Trout was being held, take him
outside and hang him. A local man, George Harra, who
lived near the Metal Bluff where the mob had formed,
found out about the mob's plans to overtake the jail.
He quickly rode to the local sheriff's house, Sheriff Nicol,
(24:46):
who also lived in Metal Bluff, in an attempt to
stop the mob before they set off for the jail.
In the July fifteenth, eighteen ninety seven edition of the
Greenbrier Independent, the mob incident is reported as follows. Mister
Nickel and mister Hara then started heading for Louisbourg and
had to pass the campground where the lynchers were to assemble.
(25:10):
When they arrived there, which was about nine o'clock, several
of the mob were already there. They had passed by safely,
but were recognized. Several minutes later. Four of the mob pursued, and,
after an exciting chase, overtook them, presented pistols and demanded
they stopped. The sheriff drew his pistol and was in
(25:30):
the act of firing when he recognized his assailant, and,
not desiring to hurt or kill him, concluded to try
moral suasion. He and Hara surrendered and were taken back
to the residence of mister D. A. Dwyer, where after
considerable parleying, the sheriff succeeded in inducing them to disband
(25:53):
and return to their homes. They were provided with a
stout new rope, were armed with Winchester and revolvers, and
numbered from ten to twenty as far as could be seen,
the most of them keeping in the background, in the
shadow of the trees. Yeah, that's a whole lot. And
the irony of this situation is that even if the
(26:15):
mob had succeeded in storming the jail in Louisbourg in
an attempt to lynch Trout, they would have only found
an empty cell. Having gotten word that the mob was forming,
Deputy Sheriff John G. Dwyer was able to take Trout
to a place of safety in the woods a mile
or two outside town. After the foiled lynching, Trout was
(26:38):
escorted to the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville, where
he died in the spring of nineteen hundred from an
outbreak of old timey tuberculosis at the prison. So was
Trout really guilty of murdering his wife's Zna because she
didn't cook meat for supper. Could Zona have died in childbirth,
(27:00):
as the official death record stated. The young boy Andy Jones,
who found Zona had allegedly reported that she was laying
on the floor. Could she have I don't know, somehow
fallen and broken her neck. Did Zona really come back
from the grave and tell her mother that Trout murdered her?
Was the outcome of this case just as from beyond
(27:23):
the grave? Or was it a witch hunt, a quest
to prove that a man known around the community to
be of ill repute was to blame for his wife's
unexpected and untimely demise. Well, the facts as they stand
are very limited regarding Zona. It is known that she
married Trout on Tuesday, October twenty first, eighteen ninety six,
(27:46):
it was a lovely day, and that they were married
only like three months, a little over three months before
she died. It is known that there are conflicting dates
reported for Zona's death on the official death record, which
has her date listed as Saturday, January twenty third, eighteen
ninety seven, and the newspaper accounts which have her death
(28:08):
listed as Sunday, January twenty fourth, eighteen ninety seven, so
difference of a day. It shows on the official record
of her death that her cause of death was childbirth.
And it's also known that Zona had a baby boy
out of wedlock on November twenty ninth, eighteen ninety five,
(28:28):
which was almost a year before she and Trout had
ever met. Regarding Trout, it is known that he never
seemed to conceal or hide the fact that he had
a previous criminal record for stealing a horse, and he
did not hide the fact that he was a deborcee
and a widower before he married Zona. It is also
(28:49):
known that it was not until Mary Jane had her
visions that he was even suspected for murdering Zona, and
you know, of course her body was exhumed. Is known
that he proclaimed his innocence and that he was held
in prison in Louisbourg until his June eighteen ninety seven
trial took place, and that he was sentenced to the
(29:10):
West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville for the rest of
his natural life for the murder of Zona. That's it.
That's all that's officially known. That's all of the official records,
you know, And then there's newspaper clippings and stuff like that,
But as far as official records go, there's not a
whole lot. Two different causes of death, two different days.
(29:35):
The boy that found her said he found her laying
on the floor. The husband moved her and dressed her
and wouldn't let anybody near her, and wouldn't let like.
He kept throwing himself over the body of his wife
every time the doctor tried to touch her. And so
again the doctor was like, I got time for this.
This ether ain't gonna hof itself like again, stick method
(29:58):
everlasting fain, I guess, And everybody's like, yes, everybody's nodding.
They don't want to look like an idiot, like they
don't know what he's talking about. They're like, yes, totally
everlasting faint. I've heard of it again. I attend five
k's to benefit awareness, raise awareness. I need sponsors for
next year's run. Hit me up. Yeah, I don't know,
(30:22):
And so I asked the question, what the fuck happened?
I don't know? I mean, this could go really either
way the story as it's told, you know, it can't.
It's really all hearsay. But really, everything back then was
for the most part, there weren't. There wasn't like terrific
record keeping. There was nothing digital like there was hardly
(30:45):
anything analog. I don't know there wasn't then. Uh yeah,
there was just no no, no good record keeping, no
way to confirm exactly what happened to her if any
of this is true or you know, the speculation turned
into kind of been urban legend, which absolutely could have
happened pretty easily. So as it's told, Trout goes into town.
(31:10):
I guess for some I don't know he's in town
for he goes into town. While he's in town, he
sees this boy that lives next to him, and he says,
go to my house and gather the eggs and then
go in my house and call for my wife and
ask her if she needs anything while I'm out. And
the boy does all that and says he finds Zona
(31:30):
on the floor like at the foot of the stairs. Okay,
And the boy tells his mom. Mom tells Trout. He
goes out there, or he goes home totally alone, doesn't
call anybody, you know, like an authority anything like that.
He has the doctor come out, but it's like an
hour two hours, and by the time the doctor gets there,
(31:53):
Trout has moved his wife's body into their bed, which
I think was pretty typical back then. He moves the
wife to their bed, he's dressed her, which, again that's strange.
I don't know why you wouldn't why you would go
to the trouble to dress your wife. You know, that's
dead and I'm gonna be buried in something else. I
(32:15):
don't know if that's what she was supposed to be
buried in. I'm unclear on that, Like maybe that was
the tradition back then, but either way, why are you
dressing her in the highest collar dress that she has
and then folding a veil like I don't even understand
that concept, Like that's that's a foreign concept to me.
What do you mean fold a veil? A butt like
a large veil. He made it into a scarf and
(32:38):
tied a massive bow up under her neck, so the
entirety of Zona's neck was covered when the doctor got there.
And again if the doctor tried to look at her,
tried to touch her, whatever, Trout just kept flopping over
her body like like fish dew. And the doctor was like, again,
the ether it ain't go off itself, like I have
(33:00):
other patients who have ghosts in their blood, and we
got to treat it with cocaine and it's pretty urgent.
I got shit to do. So that was that, and
they had awake funeral. He was acting really strange, wouldn't
let anybody near her again. Whole neck was covered. But
now she's got this bruise across her face that they
couldn't see before, and her neck looked strange. They said
(33:24):
it looked like off kilter. You know, I don't know
how mortuary science was back then. I don't know if
they did anything to stabilize and neck, and like somebody
had to put her in a coffin right like you
wouldn't notice that her head was flopping around. Maybe they
just straight up didn't care. I don't know. Maybe they
(33:46):
don't ask questions. You know, if someone's paying for the funeral,
could have paid the funeral home. You know, they they
take her, put her in a coffin in her freaking
head is sideways. Like that's a little odd when you're
claiming she died in childbirth. On one death record, what
was the other? Everlasting faint, everlasting gobstop or something like that.
(34:09):
I mean, it's on par it's on the same level. Yeah,
So all that happens, and then Zona's mother says that
she sees the ghost of her daughter, and you know,
Zona's like, Trout strangled me, and everybody's like, yes, that
makes sense. So they get her body out of the ground,
and indeed she had been her neck was indeed broken.
(34:34):
I mean, that was it for that time in that
small town, like Trout was done for he you know,
his wife before died. I cannot remember how she died.
I read it. I swear I think it was like
something fell and hit her in the head. Oh that
was it. And I forgot to put that in there.
My gosh, how silly of me. Uh, his second wife.
(34:55):
I believe he was doing something on the roof and
she was on the ground and something fell off and
hit her in the head and she died and it
was ruled an accident. Ruled I say again, I think
I think they went with a stick poke method. And
they're like, uh, yeah, that brick just it landed, it jumped,
it wanted she wanted it to hit her, and it
was an accident. You know what. They're like, what are
(35:17):
we talking about? Uh, there's ether everywhere and there's ghosts,
some of blood that I got to do cocaine about.
We got shit to do people. That's I think that's
pretty much the whole explanation for the death of Zona
Heaster shoe Ah, just nobody doing any kind of a
decent job, just taking this dude at his word that
(35:40):
you know, he found her. She she just she passed out,
and you know, it's the everlasting faint. Everyone accepted everyone's
word somehow, And that's not hyperbole, like that's a fact.
Mary Jane's stuff was taken as as gospel. You know
that her she was a respected lady about town and
a good pious Christian and all that, and so jury
(36:02):
was like, yes, what you're saying is the truth. It happened.
I will take it as direct evidence of this man's guilt.
Did she see her? Maybe, I don't know. I mean,
it's a it's a it's a good ghost story. She
could have she could have just been having a dream,
like I believe that. You know, if a spirit or
whatever it is wants to talk to you, that a
(36:25):
lot of times it will be done in your dreams.
Like if you've ever lost anybody and you have really
vivid dreams about just like talking to them about pretty
normal things. I think that's like them coming to us
in dreams, you know whatever, dreams. Maybe we don't know.
I should do an episode on that, Like what are dreams?
(36:48):
I know there's all that crap about, like you know,
dream dream studies and all that and meanings and the
symbolism of everything in your dreams. I'm just saying, like,
how how do we do? Like I understand the process.
I'm not gonna get into it. Nope, I can already
see where I'm going with this. I'm spiraling, uh down
a rabbit hole, if that's possible, that's what I'm doing.
(37:09):
I'm not going down the rabbit hole. I am spiraling.
I am spinning down that rabbit hole. And I need
to stop. And as soon as I lay down to
go to sleep, which is gonna be very soon, I'm
gonna try and solve it. What are dreams? Why do
we have them? Why don't some people have them? Why
do I have a whole lot of nightmares? Why do
(37:29):
I have a lot of dreams about being in a
large building sometimes at college, me having a dorm room
that I don't like as an adult in a roommate,
and I never stay in there, and occasionally I go
in there and I'm pissed off when my roommate has
like fucked with any of my stuff even though I'm
never there. Why is that such a frequent isn't that
a weird dream? Bizarre? Right? Okay, back to back to Zona.
(37:55):
I mean, at the end, it might be likely that
I'm gonna say one or two things happened. She fell
down the stairs, she broke her neck or trout was
mad that there was no meat for dinner. She had
big bruise on her face that wasn't there when she died,
so I guess it, you know, formed after her passing,
she had big bruise on her face. She told her
(38:17):
mom that he got mad and hit her because she
didn't have any meat made for dinner. I guess that
was an offense worth killing over. Back then again, batshit
crazy stuff. Really, Yeah, So she was hitting the face.
It looked like, you know, I can't say that definitively,
but that's when they exhumed her again. She's got the
(38:37):
bruise on her face. At the funeral, bruise on her face,
head looks weird, neck looks weird husband, acting cuckoo crazy pants,
throwing himself all over the casket, and you know, gatekeeping
anybody from viewing her at a at a wake, which
is like what you do at a wake, you have
a viewing, you know, wake viewing few I don't know
(39:00):
in what order. I don't remember. I've been to plenty
of them. But all that to say, uh, I think
he I think he did something to her. It sounds
like he hit her over what. I don't know really,
I'm sure it could have been anything. And then I
think he did strangle her. That's I mean, that's what
(39:21):
she died of. Like she had a broken neck. Could
she have fallen down the stairs and broken her neck?
I guess, I don't know. Usually stairfalls involve a good
amount of blood. I know that's not every time, but
they do. Like if you hit your head, and that's
what kills you, you know what I mean, Like if
you fall down fly stairs, the injury that will kill
(39:43):
you most likely would be like severe trauma to your
head right and the head if you've ever cut your
face or your head bleeds like crazy. So if she
had fallen down the stairs and sustained a head injury
that would have killed her or you know, broken her neck.
(40:04):
I feel like there would have been some blood, like
a little bit, wouldn't you think, just you know, skin
is pretty easy to a braid to cause abradasians two,
that is to say, to cut and to bleed. I'm done.
That's that's it. That's like, it's one of two things.
(40:26):
She she fell miraculously she didn't bleed when she hit
her head hard enough to kill her. And you know,
by breaking her neck, you don't just like fall and
land on just your neck unless there's something, you know,
right underneath you. I would think I don't know, or
could old dude have come home been pissy about, you know,
(40:49):
any little thing or another. And then he's like, what
are we having for dinner? And she tells him and
he's pissed that there's no meat, and like that's it
for him. He's like, I'm done. I'm just gonna take
it out on her, starts, you know, hits her, probably
started strangling her, and before he knows it, he has
killed her. And he dips out of the house, put
you know, puts her body at the foot of the stairs,
(41:10):
runs out of the house, goes into town, then sees
his neighbor and it's like, hey, neighbor, I need you
to like go in my house and find my wife.
So it looks like, you know, what's his face. Trout
has an alibi. He was in town and you know,
neighbor boy saw him in town. Neighbor boy went to
his house. He wasn't in his house. Uh, and Zona
(41:31):
was dead. So it sounds like, you know, he sent
someone else to find the body so it wasn't him,
you know what I mean, like just to take the
heat off of him. And then he's like, okay, so
doctor Napp, I've you know, sent word for him. I
don't know how. You know, there weren't phones. He sent
a carrier pigeon to doctor Napp, you know, with a
(41:56):
thing of ether, a ted that's his fee. It was
a little bottle of ether just hanging off the carrier
pigeon and you know, tape to it on the very
front because you know, he had to he had to
look at the note before you know, he got the ether.
He had to look at the note before he got
the ether. You see where I'm going with this. He
(42:18):
knew somehow, you know, He's like, okay, it's gonna take
doctor knapface a couple hours to get here, you know,
hour to two hours. Uh oh shit, Like you can
totally see that her neck is broken. What do I do?
What do I do? Looks around, finds the dress, you know,
puts it on her, finds the highest collier he can,
(42:39):
makes the weird ass scarf and the giant bow up
under her chin, puts her in bed, you know, so
the doctor can't really get a good look at her.
Props her up and everything probably had her like probably
honestly like had secured her neck in some way on
the bed. And then the doctor gets there and again
he's like, we all have things to do, everlasting feint
(43:03):
and that's it. He's like, that's my final ruling. And
then Trout starts acting real strange, and then the ghost
of Zona shows up, says, Mom, Trout did it. He
is a son of a bitch, and the mother pushes
she gets her own daughter's body zoom, she gets an
investigation going, and she gets Trout convicted of her daughter's murder.
(43:26):
Either one could happen. I think it's probably more likely
that old Trout was just a bastard, just a real
son of a bitch, and you know, probably was beating
Zona before that and not a nice guy, and he
finally took it too far and killed her. And I
would assume that a similar thing happened to the wife
(43:46):
that died before and the first wife. People did not
get divorced back then. What do you have to do
to get divorced back you know what I'm saying, Like,
what the fuck did he have to do to her
to get divorced? Seriously, like I didn't even know people
got divorced then, that's crazy. Anyway, Trout died in prison.
I think they got the right guy. I hope, I
(44:08):
really hope that Zona's ghost energy, whatever you want to
call it, did appear to her mother in some form
or another, you know, a dream, an actual vision anything.
I really hope that she did and that she got
that you know, trout fishy husband. I really hope that
(44:29):
she did and that she got to stick it to
Trout because I'm sure, like you know, in life, if
if what I think was going on was going on,
and I don't even think it was like frowned upon
back then, to abuse your wife, hit your wife and
all that for literally anything, you just the wind blows
wrong and smack her in the face. I think that
(44:51):
was like pretty common back then. I'm not saying like
everybody beat their wife, but it was certainly not frowned upon.
People's mind their own business and they're like, yeah, she
probably mouthed off or didn't make meat for dinner, Susan. Yeah,
apparently meat had to be on the table every night something. Yeah,
(45:12):
it's something like real freaking old timy. So, yeah, that's
what I think happened. I do think it is the Trout.
I think the trout did it. Uh. I don't think
that was accidental. Again, and a little too clean of
a scene for a fall down fly of stairs that
breaks the neck of a woman and kills her. Yeah,
(45:33):
a little too neat and tidy, I don't think so.
I think that bastard Trout. I think he killed his wife.
And that's it. I'm gonna stop. It has indeed kicked
in and I need to go to bed. If you
like what you hear, you could hear more episodes, hopefully
every Friday, released on all podcast platforms. On social media,
(45:53):
you can find me at Autumn Podcast on Look. On
social media, you can find me on Instagram and threads
at Autumn Podcast, Facebook at Autumnzodities, and Patreon for ad
free episodes and for showing me love and support and
you know, just being a real cool person. Any level
(46:16):
of membership, like I think even a dollar there's like
a dollar or three dollars tier. I think I think
it's a three dollars tier. You get AD free episodes
and you know, some bonus episodes. There's a little treasure
trove of them in there. I'm gonna do Christmas cards
or holiday cards again. I get a little like sticker,
a little note, little little something something. I'll probably ramp
(46:41):
them up a little bit this year. I think we
all need some good stuff, right, We need some good
stuff in our lives. Anyway, you can, you know, support
me in any of those ways. You can also support
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(47:03):
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if it's creepy and weird, you'll find it here.
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CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.