Eerie News with M.P. Pellicer | Stories: Murder at the Speedway and More! - Eerie News

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, everybody.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
This is Marlene with Eerie News and today we've got
a lot of weird stuff going on, like always, so
you know how that goes.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
What is it?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
The stranger the better, So we're off to the races.
First story is going to be out a Stranger in
fiction stories and this is titled Murder at the Speedway.
On a warm summer morning, before the sun was up,
two men came across the fully clothed body of a
woman thrown along the Harlem River Speedway. Date is July twentieth,

(00:38):
nineteen thirty seven, New York. The corpse is guarded beside
the Harlem River Speedway. Turned out to be a French
maid named Irma Louis Pradier, aged thirty five. She'd been
thrown from a moving automobile after being shot twice at
close range. One bullet entered the love breast and the
other one under her heart, so close it scorched her.

(01:01):
It was strange and thought inconsequential which later turned out
to be very important, were six lumps of sugar frown
in the pocket of a leather jacket she was wearing.
It was a label inside her clothing which gave police
a clue as to her identity and background. From nineteen
thirty to nineteen thirty two, she worked as domestic at
the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind.

(01:24):
Detectives scoured employment agencies hoping to find the place where
she worked, but they only came across records from immigration
that showed she arrived in the United States in nineteen
twenty seven, coming from Ingain leban near Paris. She went
to live with nuns and immigrant young women at the
Jandi Arc home at two five three West twenty fourth Street, Anon.

(01:46):
From there was the one to definitely identify her. Within
two days of the murder, police were looking for a
pea Green Sedan for questioning in the murder. Gators found
that the attractive frenchwoman had quit her job the previous
Monday to leave on a wedding trip, which turned into

(02:08):
a gangland type execution. She drew three hundred dollars from
the bank and told her friend she was leaving for
California to be married. She worked at the Mount Sinai Hospital.
Her purse, along with the money, was missing. A week later,
the investigators started to look within their ranks for the
mystery fiancee of the dead woman. The reason for this

(02:30):
were the type of bullets removed from her cadaver. They
were analyzed and found to be the type used in
police service revolvers. Secret orders were issued for a number
of mounted patrolmen to appear at headquarters for a lineup.
A friend of the murder victim, whose identity was being
kept secret, said the relationship developed when Irma used to

(02:50):
feed candy to the patrolman's horse during her lunch hour
in Pelham Park. However, she did have a fiance in California,
and perhaps this was just an in this inflirtation. The
last night of her life, she'd been dropped off by
a cab at Grand Central station. The cab driver said
that she was waiting in front of the hospital talking

(03:10):
to a man in civilian clothing inside a late models Chevrolet.
The otto followed them to the train station. The cab
driver said he was surprised to see her get out
of his car and jump into the green sedan and
drive off. After then, no one saw what happened to
Irma Pridier until her body was found on the side
of the speedway between one sixty fifth and one sixty

(03:32):
six streets. Police the arisal killer was someone who got
angered she was leaving and marrying someone else. About three
hundred mounted police for questioned and finally a suspect was identified.
It was the lumps of sugar Irma had in her pocket,
which apparently were meant to feed her sweetheart's horse, that,
coupled with other information, the authorities to look within their ranks.

(03:54):
The police were ready to run ballistic test on all
the guns of the mounted patrolmen. Initially his identity was secret,
but it was revealed he was attached to troops c
which stabled their mounts at the Squadron a armory of
the New York National Guard on ninety four Street and
Madison Avenue. This certain officer was seen with Irma pradier

(04:14):
on three different occasions. The first time was on July fourth,
when she met him at one hundred and twenty fifth
Street and Lenox Avenue and he was dressed in civilian clothes.
Then on July fifth, they met in front of Mount
Sinai Hospital, and then the last time when the cab
picked her up, she told a girlfriend she planned to
marry a quote mounted policeman a month before, when the

(04:37):
police were rehearsing at Madison Square Garden. Irma showed up
there and paid particular attention to a handsome mountee who
sang as well as road. The man answered the description
of the one who she met in front of the
hospital the last day of her life. At this time
all the Mounted police who owned an auto had to
submit a complete description of their cars. Arthur Chalmers evaded

(05:00):
being on the line of because he was on vacation.
Apparently he started on his vacation two days before the murder,
and after he killed the woman, he left for Old
Orchard Beach Main and from there went to Montreal. He
left his wife, Charlotte, and two daughters, Doris and Gladys,
ages eight and eleven, behind at home. In his confession,
he confirmed what the police suspected originally was the motive

(05:23):
excuse me. They had met for a couple of dates,
and at their last meeting she had a trunk and
two handbags and told them she was going away. According
to him, the cab was called because her trunk would
not fit in his car. The confusion lay in whether
she was leaving to be with her fiancee in California.
Her friend said she told him she was leaving to
Elope to California with a hansome mounted patrolmen. One friend

(05:47):
asked her, how do you know he'll marry you? She replied,
even if he doesn't, it'll be a fine trip. An
hour passed and he hadn't shown up. She told a
roommate if he doesn't come, I'm going to the tall
building I can find and jump off. Once at Grand
Central Station, she checked in the trunk, and then they
drove to Kensico Dam in north Castle, New York. They

(06:13):
parked there for a while and then returned to Manhattan
and parked on the Harlem River Speedway. According to him,
she insisted that he accompanied her to California, and he
kept explaining he couldn't leave his family. Then she reached
into a compartment in the dashboard where he kept a pistol.
She pointed the weapon at him and threatened to shoot
him unless he agreed to elope with her. In the

(06:34):
struggle between them, the gun discharged and hit her. The
police pointed out she'd been shot twice and a third
bullet pierced the car. Excuse me, that's incredible. After she died,
he pushed her body from the car, then threw the
two bags and the pistol into the Harlem River. He
admitted they had an intimate relationship, but denied taking her money.

(06:56):
A guard at the hospital was the one who told
police that Irma had a pension for feeing sugar to
an officer's mount and recalled that when she turned in
her uniform, she remarked that the policeman she was going
to wed was quote on vacation. Then a married woman,
Vera Lorden, came to the police and said she started
on an eight day motor trip with Chalmers after seeing

(07:17):
the story in the newspaper at the time. She had
no idea he shot and killed Irma. Pradier Rias said
he had very little money to spend under im promptu excursion.
He also borrowed one hundred and fifty dollars from his
brother just before the trip. This substantiated the accused claim
he didn't kill Pridier in order to use the money
on his vacation with another woman. After the story broke

(07:39):
in the newspapers about chalmers arrest, Missus Lorden confessed to
her husband, John, I have something to tell you. While
you were on your vacation, I went away with Chalmers.
She had known the policeman for a little more than
a year. He would come to the restaurant at fortieth
Street and Madison Avenue where she worked as a waitress.
Eventually he asked her to have a few drinks, then

(08:01):
they would go out every now and then. She told police,
I always knew he was married and had children. That
was why I didn't go out with him very often.
When his vacation came, he suggested that I go with
him on a trip. My husband had gone on his
vacation alone to visit his relative, so I thought it
might be a good idea. We were gone about eight days.

(08:23):
We drove to Bennington, Vermont, an old archard Maine in Montreal.
Arthur Chalmers's wife was near destitution at their home in
Jackson Heights while he vacationed. His two daughters, Lattice and
Doors were in seclusion at the home of relatives. During
the time she was being questioned, missus Chalmers collapsed and
the garage. The police found the pea green car described

(08:44):
by witnesses. They examined the front seat and found the
patch with glue inserted, which indicated a bullet had been
fired into the padding. Patrolman Chalmers was indicted for murder,
and by the end of August they still had not
been able to locate the gun, which he said he
had thrown into the Harlem River. He assisted. The murder

(09:07):
occurred when they wrestled for his revolver IRMA. Pradier was
laid to rest in September nineteen thirty seven on hart Island, Bronx,
in a potter's grave after both Mount Sina Hospital, where
she worked, and the French Councilate failed to provide a
final resting place. While spending time in the tombs awaiting trial,
Patrolman Chalmers was forgiven by his wife, who claimed he

(09:27):
was innocent. He decided to write a play and finished
it in January nineteen thirty eight. It was titled Taken
from Life, which dealt with the fate of two boys,
a good boy and a bad boy. It was scheduled
to be tried out at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
on January twenty fourth and twenty fifth, and well received,

(09:48):
would immediately be brought to Broadway. They were plans to
produce it by the end of the month. It was
a failure. In April nineteen thirty eight, he was found
guilty and sentenced from twenty years to life for the
second degree murder of Irma Pride, year to be served
at Sing Sing. During the trial, the defense tried to
smear the victim and referred to as Frenchy. It didn't work.

(10:12):
The papers did keep track of ex Coop Arthur Chalmers
when he was promoted from porter to sub block clerk
and Sing Sing. In nineteen thirty nine, he appealed his conviction,
but it was unanimously upheld. While serving time, Chalmers decided
to study law, and in nineteen forty six he opened
new legal battles for his friends in prison. This included
filing a petition for a rid of habeas corpus for

(10:33):
his own case. He charged that the late General Session's
Judge Morris Koenig arred him, permitting the District Attorney's office
to change its charge from first degree murder to second
degree in the midst of his trial, after the state
had been unable to prove premeditation, no indictment for second
degree murder had been returned. According to Chalmers, an absence

(10:54):
of such an indictment, he contended, became legally a free man.
When the judge dismissed the first degree charge and that
all subsequent proceedings were invalid. That didn't work. In nineteen fifty,
the former Adonnis of the New York Mounted Policeman wrote
another play titled Idle Tongues. I'm sorry, I'm laughing because

(11:16):
this guy is like it's kind of funny in a way.
It was scheduled to be released that same year, and
several producers expressed interest in it. By nineteen fifty one,
he was still behind bars, but had been promised to
a job with the News Dealer's Association of Greater New
York upon his release. Arthur Chalmers died in nineteen seventy four.

(11:37):
His one time lover, Vera Lorden, died in nineteen seventy
three and apparently meant defences with her husbands since they
shared a tombstone. Mister Lordon died in nineteen ninety four.
So what do you think happened here? Do you think
that that he really killed her, that he like misled

(11:58):
her to kill her? I don't think so. I think
that this guy was married guy, not a nice guy,
because he was going off on vacation from what I understand,
leaving his wife and two kids, like like destitute. Okay,
But he apparently is like he's having all these little
affairs here and there, and I guess he's getting together

(12:22):
with this French made Irma. And I don't either he
picked up on it and didn't care, or he didn't
pick upon it that whether she knew he was married
or not, maybe she didn't that. In other words, he's thinking, oh,
I'm just gonna you know, I have my little fling
here and there, but nothing serious lady. And she's like,

(12:43):
I'm gonna get married one way or another. I'm getting married,
and that thing about she says she had a fiance
in California. When I looked at the story, there's never
no any mention of this fiance coming from California to say, oh,
my beautiful Irma she got killed or nothing. I don't
think she never hat a fiance in California. I think
she was making that up. But I think this lady

(13:05):
she was she had immigrated, she had been working all
this time, and she wanted a husband. She wanted to
marry somebody, and this guy was very good looking, she was.
I think he invited her to take that eighth grade
eight day vacation trip and she showed up with everything

(13:29):
she got, including a trunk, and he was like, what
and I think it, yeah, I got out of control.
Who knows, maybe they did fight for the gun even
though that three shots that's a little bit of nowork.
Or maybe she who knows what she threatened him with, well,
I'm going to tell your wife, I'm going to go here.
I'm gonna do that. I'm going to make a big scandal,

(13:50):
blah blah blah blah. And he was like, maybe he
lost his whatever. He's cool considering as a cop, but
that didn't stop from taking his vacation. And he contacted Verra,
who he apparently had this little relationship with, and she
and he's like, you want to leave for a vacation.
She's like sure, why not telling you? And in the meantime,

(14:17):
you know, they he goes to jail and he's Rice's
plays it. You could tell he kind of feel sorry
for himself kind of deal. So he's kind of you get,
you got this narcissistic flavor about this guy. Poor Irma
immigrated to the United States only just to find herself
buried in Potter's Grave on Hart Island, which is kind

(14:38):
of like, you know, maybe she had all these plans
and you could tell she was a real pretty girl.
She's a really, really pretty woman, which makes you think,
you know what, there was a shortage of guys, I
don't know, whatever the case might be, and talk about
setting your sights on the wrong guy, and there you go.

(14:59):
She I think she he wanted something, whether she misunderstood
and he thinking about it. I'm gonna fling myself off
the roof if he doesn't show up. That kind of that.
That has a lot of desperation. She even quit her job.
And I also think that he didn't take her money.
But people don't understand, even the people. Somebody could have
come across her body on the side of the road,

(15:21):
taken that purse and set them out of here. I
don't know nothing about this and didn't report it. They
just took the money the person they left, which is
what I think happened. But otherwise this guy wouldn't have
been borrowing money. But yeah, I think that she she
wanted to ring on her finger one way or the other,
and instead of ringing, she got a bullet for her troubles.
There you go. That's that's my interpretation of that store. Okay,

(15:46):
next story also out of Poison Dreams, and let's let's
let's go with that thread of women, girls whatever, that
they're so fixated on getting married that they end up
making really stupid choices or about how they go about

(16:10):
getting that. And again I'm gonna emphasize is you're gonna
tell this in this other story and then this one.
I want to talk about the time both of these
women and girls or whatever they're they're good looking, they're pretty.
You would think, Okay, I don't see you having a
problem to land a husband if that's really really what
you want. Which remember this was many many, many many
many years ago, were you know, at some point, you know,

(16:33):
you were what considered old made by the time you
were twenty three or twenty four and were married something
like that. But anyway, here we go. This is titled
Poisoned Dreams. It was a bitterly cold winter day when
the body of Mary and Lambert eighteen, a high school girl,
was found frozen in the snow near a clump of
bushes at the edge of the Sacred Heart Academy grounds
and Highland Park, Illinois. This is February nineteen sixteen. Rumors

(16:57):
lies in in nuendos and in a desolate place known
as helms Wood. Marian's father, Frank Lambert, the caretaker at
the Jonas Kruppenheimer estate, found the body. He told police's
daughter left for school in the morning, saying she would
be home late since she had plans to attend a party.
Police traced her steps. She had been at Lake Forest

(17:20):
in the evening and then made her way down Green
Bay Road toward her home. Though there were no marks
of violence on her body and her clothing was undisturbed,
police suspected it was a homicide. Her bracelet, watch, and
a small amount of money, which had been knotted in
a handkerchief or not taken m The path she took

(17:43):
from the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad station at Sacred Heart
Convent indicated a man was with her and they walked
for a mile before reaching a place where her body
was found. There was no evidence of rape. The police
followed the track left by a man's shoes that circled
the body and then went off in a straight line
to the railway tracks, where they were lost. Despite evidence

(18:04):
she might not have been alone when she died, the
police changed the direction of the investigation towards suicide by poison.
It withheld the determination until the contents of her stomach
could be analyzed. There was also a rumor she met
her sweetheart, William or Pitt, who had come from out
of town to see her. Marian and William were both
children of Gardener's who worked on the estates of the

(18:27):
wealthy on the outskirts of Chicago. William was three years
older than Marian, and the attended school together when they
were younger. He finished high school and went off to
the University of Wisconsin to study journalism. She flirted with
other boys, but William Orpitt held a special place in
her heart. In the spring of nineteen fifteen, he wrote
her a letter that read quote, I'm afraid you'll forget

(18:49):
all about me down there, and that would be the
finish of yours, truly. I want to see you badly, dearest,
and want you badly. If I could get my arm
around you now and get up close to you and
kids the life out of you, I would be happy.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
The previous summer, when William came home to Lake Forest,
the pair started an intimate relationship. When will returned to
the university, she told them she was pregnant. She confessed
this to her friend Josephine Davis as well. That fall,
William's letters became more casual, and soon Marian found out
he was interested in another girl who lived in Madison.

(19:25):
William didn't totally cut communication with Marian since he had
the cloud of an unwonted pregnancy hanging over his head.
There were other circumstances that cast doubt on the suicide theory.
The positioning of her body was described thus quote. She
was found lying upon her left side with her left
hand resting under her head. She was a right handed girl,
yet in the crook of her arm were her school books.

(19:48):
It doesn't seem possible that if she took the poison
herself with her right hand, that she still would have
held the books in that position as she toppled over
in the snow, and the books wouldn't have been in
that position if she first laid down in the snow,
placing her left hand under her head, and then took
the poison. It looked as somebody placed those books in
the crook of her arm after she lay helpless in

(20:11):
the snow, and that they also carefully placed her head
resting upon her left hand. Eventually, it was determined that
Mary and Francis Lambert had taken a subtle but violent poison.
It was cyanide of potassium. However, no container for the
substance was found by her body. Crystals of the poison
were found in her hair and beneath her fingernails. A

(20:34):
schoolmate of Marian describing a young man hiding behind a
tree near where the girl's body was discovered. She said
he had an evil face and staring eyes. She had
seen the same man at the same spot three months before. Eventually,
or Pet was summoned by the police. His father said
that his son was involved with another girl and that
he could account for all of the boy's time. He

(20:56):
had a landlady and the clergyman who could corroborate this.
By February twelfth, William H. Orpet confessed to having knowledge
of Marian's death. He said he met her in the
woods after writing her a letter to meet there. He
said she pleaded with him for two hours to renew
the relationship. He told her no. As he left her,
she swallowed the poison that killed her. He had no

(21:17):
idea where she got the poison or that she had
intentions of using it. He told authorities that he had
fallen in love with Celeste Joker, a chemical instructor in
the Normal College at Del Cab, Illinois, and intended to
marry her. This is when they motive for the murder
materialized for the state. Initially, it was reported that the
relationship between Orped and Lambert was less serious, but there

(21:40):
were hints that she had been ruined by her passion.
In other words, she was driven to suicide because she
had sex with the boy who she thought would marry her,
but eventually he got cold feet. Prosecutors charged that William
Orpitt had given Marian poison to get rid of her
because he believed she was pregnant with his child and
this would prove to be an pediment in marrying his

(22:01):
new love, Celestia Yoker. Within three weeks of the discovery
of the girl's body, William Orpet was held for her murder.
He pled not guilty. Celestia Yoker was called the other woman.
A reporter went down to interview Celestia and discovered that
she was not even engaged to William Orpet and she

(22:23):
had not heard of Marion Lambert until the tragedy of
the girl's death reached the public, her character was slandered
by any windows printed in many newspapers that followed the
story throughout the country. The case became contentious when in
March nineteen sixteen, Judge C. C. Edwards of Wakegan granted
or Pit a change of venue. Soon after, the newspapers

(22:44):
claimed the judge received a death threat. The letter ended
quote if you free him by not letting him stand trial,
you will never have but a few more chances yourself,
for we will get you two. You may laugh now,
but you won't yours and warning end quote. Only initials
were at the end, and the police believed had been
composed by a woman. Amidst the terminal of investigation. Orpet's father,

(23:08):
Edward Owen Orpett, was sued for slander in April by
another gardener named John Chiplady, who claimed that Orbit Senior
had been peddling a story that when he was employed
as gardener by A. B. Dix, he traded a number
of rare and very valuable plants with another lake forest
gardener and then sold the plants which he received in
the trade to a Highland park florist. It was suspected

(23:31):
the suit was brought about because his son was accused
in the murder of Marion Lambert and that public opinion
was against William Orpitt even before the trial had started.
During his last visit to see Marian, will did a
lot of strange things. Before boarding the train, he wrote
a letterature that said if everything is not all right
by the time I see you, it will be then.

(23:52):
He also swore her to secrecy regarding his visit. Then
he wrote two more letters, one to his mother and
the last to an unknown person. He asked the college
friend to send them from Madison on Wednesday morning, which
is when he would be in Lake Forest. In other words,
he was establishing an alibi that would place him somewhere else.
He later explained he did these things because his parents

(24:13):
would have been angered to learn he had left the
university campus. Will sneaked into garage on the McCormick estate
where his father worked, and slept in a little room
upstairs as planned. His family didn't know he had returned
to Forest Lake. The night before Marian was found dead,
her friend Josephine Day was suspending the night with her.
The next morning, Marian told her she had to post

(24:33):
the letter and did not continue to school the trial.
The trial started May fifteenth, nineteen sixteen. It took three
weeks to find jurors. In the process, one thousand, two
hundred and eighty six jurists were called and one thousand,
two hundred and three were examined before eight were chosen.
William Orpett's mother was ordered by the judge to stop

(24:55):
kissing her son when she went into court and when
she left to go home. This, of course, was requested
by the state attorneys. Supposedly, Orbit asked the student friend,
Charles Hassinger, who worked at a drug store, to procure
powerful drug which it was inferred would produce a miscarriage.
He asked the same friend to find a physician with
not too many scruples. Was understood that will wanted someone

(25:18):
to perform an abortion in case the drug didn't work.
But there was one secret that Marian never divulged to
her lover, which was that she was not carrying his child,
and autops of her body confirmed she was not pregnant
and never had been, according to the report issued by
the Cook County Coroner's office. The defense presented a schoolmate

(25:39):
of Mary who said he found her alone in the
chemical laboratory of the school. Just before she died, she
said there was. He said there was cyanide of potassium,
both liquid and solid, on the shelves nearby. Then that
chemistry professor at the high school said he had recently
given a lesson that included a paragraph about cyanide of potassium.
He said the students were not supposed to take some applies,

(26:00):
but the lock to the storeroom didn't work. The state
had two main witnesses, Josephine Davis, Marian's friend, and another
was David James, a deaf and dumb teamster, who said
he saw the couple in the woods the morning of
the murder. He said he saw the boy press a
bottle to the girl's lips. The problem was that neither
the prosecution or the defense knew where the poison had

(26:23):
come from. Either Will or Marian could have obtained it
from the chemical laboratories of their school. Both of their
fathers kept cyanide for their work on the estate grounds.
Then events took a turn for the words for the prosecution. Hassinger,
the drug clerk, vacillated on his testimony as to whether
Orbit had bought the bottle. James, the Teamster could not

(26:45):
positively identify will as the young man he had seen
in the woods. Lastly, Josephine Davids, who had started out
as a witness for the prosecution, ended up a witness
for the defense. She said that Marian had threatened to
commit suicide after a telephone call with Orbit the day before,
as she said, if Bill throws me over and Mary's
that other girl, I'll kill myself. Other witnesses testified that

(27:06):
Josephine was in love with William Orpitt herself. The prosecution
could not provide direct proof that Orpit had poison and
Marian didn't. The defense established that Marian had killed herself
because she knew she'd lost the boy she loved. Orpet's
blossoming romance with Celestia Yauger met with a decisive end
when the prosecution urged it to write Willow letter while

(27:28):
he was in jail awaiting the trials, since she was
denied bail. The contents were dictated by mister Daty or Daddy,
the prosecutor. In a short note, she urged them to
tell all. She wrote, quote, I know you have done
it for love of me. You once said you would
kill anyone who came between us quote. He returned a
note stating your letters all bunk, goodbye, then don't come

(27:51):
near here. All her letters to him were returned as well.
The time breaker went in Orbit's favor when the defense
team verified the poison that killed Marian Lambert was powdered
potassium cyanide and not the type his father kept for
work on the estate, which was sodium cyanide. There were
also allegations that evidence had been tampered with. Two members

(28:12):
of the coroner's jury were called by the defense to
testify that there were no spots on Marian's coat when
it was produced with other clothing at the inquest. Now, however,
now it had three drops of cyanide poison. The crux
of the case rested on the allegations that Marian had
been poisoned when the cyanide had been dissolved in water,
and the defense claimed she had committed suicide by taking

(28:35):
the poison in powder form. Ultimately, William Orpet was found
not guilty. Within a year of the trial, William Orpet's
family had relocated to California. However, William's exact whereabouts were unknown.
There were rumors the men of lake Forest, were planning
to coat his body with tar and feathers if he
appeared on the streets of the city. After the sensational trial,

(28:55):
Orbit changed his name to William Dawson and he faded
from the headlines until nineteen twenty when he applied for
marriage license in San Francisco. He had joined the military
during World War One and met his wife, Olga Sarnowski
in Detroit. Even years after the end of the trial,
whenever similar case presented itself, there was comparisons made with

(29:16):
the death of Marian Lambert the aftermath. If there was
any re wrench from beyond the grave, Marian got hers
when the romance she killed herself over ended, with never
a chance to flower again. By will orb its own admission,
he planned to marry Celestia Yoker, but with the tragedy
of Marian's suicide between them, he was desperate to alienate

(29:37):
himself from anything that existed during that terrible year of
nineteen sixteen. For many months afterwards, Celestia was followed by
newspaper reporters who kept asking her if she had resumed
to romance with Orpe. The three trees growing together in
helms Wood, where Marian's body was found were hacked to
pieces by souvenir hunters. Daty and Jocelyn lost their offices

(29:59):
as stated attorneys due to their inability to get or
Pet convicted. Celestia Yoker married Colonel Lloyd Merrill Boyce and
gave birth to a daughter in nineteen thirty four, named Barbara.
She died in nineteen eighty five at the age of
seventy nine. William Orpet's dream of becoming a journalist died
this summer he went on trial. He joined the Air

(30:19):
Force during World War Won and achieved the rank of sergeant.
After the war, he moved to California to join his parents, and,
like his father, became a gardener. He divorced Olga and
married Catherine Swan Pender, who was a divorcee with two sons.
He lingered the last two years of his life in
the National Military Home in Los Angeles. He suffered from
peptic ulcers and died from a massive left cerebral malaysia.

(30:43):
He was fifty two years old. His wife, Catherine, had
died a year before in nineteen forty seven. The shadow
cast by Marion Lambert's death followed him. His entire life.
This is the alternate ending. If for one moment we
consider Marian as a young young woman who was obsessed
either with William Orpitt or the thought of marriage, it's

(31:03):
possible she could have premeditated months in advance a chain
of events that would end either in her death or
wedding ring on her finger. Perhaps that last summer she
spent with will Orpitt, she realized he had no intentions
of ever marrying her, and she had premarital sex so
she could lie about a pregnancy. But there must have
been some part of her that suspected that she could

(31:26):
not bend him to her will, and she went prepared
to commit the ultimate act of self destruction, which would
tarnish him by association alone. This perhaps was Marian's vengeance
for a requited love. Again, like the other case, what
do you think happened? I think I think that's pretty

(31:47):
much it. That's what I think. I think that. Yeah,
they had they were high school sweetheart. He goes off,
he's he's surprised of these letters because his hormones are raging.
But somewhere along the line, she's, you know, these are
things I've never written about. But somewhere along the line,
maybe she's realizing he's cooling off, you know, like time

(32:08):
and distance kind of deal. So when he comes for
this last visit, she has sex with him and then
lo and behold because she's thinking, I gotta keep him somehow.
She's about to graduate pretty soon. She's another word, she's so's,
she's she's. She gambles that if she has sex with him,
she can lie to him about being pregnant, especially in
other words, somewhere along the line, I think this, And

(32:31):
even then, maybe at one point maybe he didn't want
to marry I don't think, or maybe he just wasn't
ready to have children. He's thinking about being a journalist.
In other words, she played the wrong hand with this guy,
and I think that's what she did. I think that
he showed up to talk to her and straighten it

(32:51):
out or whatever, and when he told her, no, I'm
not gonna be with you again, she took that poison.
Stupid things that teenagers do, and there you go. And
unfortunately this thing followed him around for the rest of
his life that he dies at fifty two by from

(33:11):
peptic ulcers. No one has to wonder if distrust is
caused by this whole thing. You know, I had something
to do with that. But yeah, the district Attorney's lost
their their positions and even the judge is getting that
threat letters because he just all he did was grant

(33:32):
this or pet a change of venue. In other words,
people really thought, you know, hey, you you ruined this
poor girl. Now you're walking away from her, So there
you go. Another another one was like I'm gonna get
my man one way or another. Not a good idea anyway.

(33:58):
This other story, also out of change the stories, This
is titled Strange Setting. It was a scenic spot six
miles north of Las Vegas, New Mexico, situated at Guyina's Canyon.
It would go through many incarnations, including being the set
for the nineteen seventy eight film The Evil. W. W.
Donaldson purchased the land in eighteen forty one, and up

(34:19):
to eighteen fifty four he was advertising for invalids to
come to enjoy the benefit of the Hot springs. In
eighteen forty six, the US Army bought this piece of
land and built a military hospital situated close to Hot Spring.
Soldiers injured in the Mexican American War were brought here
to recuperate during the eighteen eighties, it was run by
Christian Duper. Less than twenty years later it was sold

(34:42):
and converted into the Adobe Hotel. During these years, investors
eyed the scenic beauty and soon built another hotel named
the hot Spring Hotel. It was advertised to cater to
wealthier clientele, and the Springs were described as quote curing
syphilitic and kindred diseases, scrofula, cutaneous diseases, rheumatism, etc. The

(35:05):
going rate in eighteen sixty eight were fifteen dollars per
week for a room without baths and twenty dollars per
week with a bath. Billiard tables with the chises choices,
cigars and liquors, and cigars were available. Even the Governor
visited the Springs in eighteen seventy five. Was being advertised
as a resort for invalids and pleasure seekers. The Montezuma

(35:27):
Hotel promoted its two hundred and seventy rooms to those
who were sick but wanted to enjoy its maanicured parks,
the shops, and even a zoo. It burned down in
eighteen eighty four due to clogged gas lines. In eighteen
eighty five, there were advertising a new hotel and referring
to it as the New Montezuma. Built at the cost
of one hundred thousand dollars, its grand opening was short

(35:48):
lived since it burned down four months later. The hotel
was rebuilt on the same site under the new name
Phoenix Hotel and nineteen ninety one and once more became
the Montezuma Hotel. The castle structure sits on the gateway
to the Gallinas Canyon, which offered great trout fishing. During
that time it was a hotel. It had its own
rail line and train that would bring visitors directly to

(36:10):
the property. There was a stone grandstand horse racetrack named
King Stadium. The hotel was a favorite place of Prince
Albert and Queen Victoria, who visited often. An online blogger
commented on what happened at the Montezuma Hotel at the
turn of the twentieth century quote, my grandfather, Percy Joseph Farmer,
was a medical director of a wellness slash hotel effort

(36:32):
at the Montezuma from nineteen oh four to nineteen oh eight.
He was a married neurologist from Saint Louis whose father
Joseph Bryant Farmer bought the hotels a place where Pearcy
could go and work and also recuperate from his own
heart problems. Piercy's wife, Mabel went with him and his sister,
Jenny Farmer. Sadly, Jenny died in her twenties. Piercy, his father,

(36:54):
his son, and his daughter, which was the blogger's mother,
all died of heart problems. I have one or two
letters written back and forth from his father and him
in about nineteen oh six about various people coming to
stay there, how they were feeling, etc. Appeared to return
to Saint Louis and practice there until his death in
the thirties. Through all these years, the Magnificent Pleasure Resort

(37:17):
failed to make an economic success and was ultimately closed
in nineteen oh three due to bankruptcy. In nineteen oh three,
the YMCA bought it for one dollar. The Southern Baptist
College bought it in nineteen twenty two, and less than
ten years later sold it to the Catholic Church. Its
purpose was to train Mexican Jesuits so they could return
to Mexico and spread the Catholic religion. During the rule

(37:40):
of Mexican President Cayes. In the late nineteen twenties, Mexicans
were imprisoned for wearing religious items and saying abios in
public because it translates to with God. The punishment was
hanging or firing squad. The period from nineteen twenty six
to nineteen twenty nine were known as the Gristateo War.

(38:00):
To register and church property was confiscated. The church went
underground and close to five hundred seminarians came to train
at the Montezuma To outset the persecution of the Catholic religion.
The old gymnasium was turned into the chapel. The seminarians
throughout the years participated in local religious parades and received
priests in training until nineteen seventy two. Then, for some

(38:23):
weird reason, in nineteen seventy seven, the Catholic Church rented
out the empty structure as a set for the horror
film The Evil. The premise of the movies around psychiatrist C. J.
Arnold and his physician wife Carolyn, played by Richard Grenna
and Joanna Pettitt, who purchased an old manner to be
used as a drug rehab clinic. The caretaker who comes

(38:44):
on the property with trepidation issured into the basement, where
he meets a grizly end. The realtor tells the Arnolds
the house was built by Emilio old Man Vargas, but
forgets to mention its history of weird deaths and that
the local tribes called it the Valley of the devils.
Vargas built a hotel as a spa, but the steam
pools and the sulfur's pits dried up to day the

(39:06):
hotel opened. This drove Vargas into seclusion. Doctor Arnold's asks
ex patients and students to come and help him get
the place ready, and it's all downhill from there, especially
after the good doctor releases a demonic force trapped by
a media Vargus many years before. An online blog describes
a following quote. There's a legend. Whether it is true

(39:28):
or not, I do not know, but I have been
told it is so about the time when the monks
lived in the castle. There are six rooms on the
third floor that I've been blocked up and never reopened.
It is in these rooms that several of the monks
were walled up inside these rooms alive and were left
to suffer a certain doom of slow starvation and what
have you. A total of twelve months were walled up

(39:51):
because they were considered a threat to the others living there.
This was before scheisophrenia was well known. I think that
he meant schizophrenia, but this person didn't know how to
spell well. There are also plenty of ghost stories about
the castle. The movie That Evel was filmed here, and
legend has it that the propriety the original hotel walks

(40:14):
around that night, and that an opera singer who died
here can be heard singing. Sometimes. There was a local
legend that you could not take the clear pick of
the fireplace as the place was haunted. In nineteen eighty one,
the church sold the property to armand Hammer. Hammer was
the son of a Russian born communist activist. He trained

(40:34):
as a doctor, but made his fortune in pharmaceuticals and whiskey.
He took over Occidental Petroleum and it became one of
the largest companies in the United States. Called Lenin's chosen
Capitalist by the press. He was also known for his
art collection and his close ties to the Soviet Union.
He converted the hotel into the United World College of
the American West, which describes itself as an independent boarding

(40:57):
school which caters to international students. Approximately seventy five percent
of the students are international. It's headquartered in London. Its
aim is to make education a force to unite people,
nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future. It
offers a two year co educational boarding school that offers

(41:22):
the International Baccalaureate Diploma program, which is ib. The school's
mission is to develop bridge builders and compassionate leaders who
can address human and environmental crisis. During the years it
ran as a hotel, there were rumors of death that
deaths there that resulted in a hunting. One of them

(41:43):
pertains to an opera singer who died in the late
nineteenth century at the hotel, and she s heard singing
at different times and places in the hotel. Her death
has not been verified. However, there have been others who
have met their ann while at the Montezuma. In May
eighteen eighty five, Kinsmartin, a popular headquorter at the hotel,
died very suddenly. He was sick only twenty minutes before

(42:05):
he passed away. He had served in the Ninth Cavalry
and at times served as General Hatch's body servant. He
had been honorably discharged from the military in eighteen eighty.
In nineteen thirteen, Joseph Adra, a Porter died, and in
nineteen twenty two Oscar McCoy twenty seven, former assistant manager
of the Montezuma, died due to illness that most probably

(42:26):
was consumption, since he moved to Santa Fe from Oklahoma's
for his health. There are rumors that guests also died
during your stay, but these deaths were hushed up. Since
the place was supposed to improve a person's health, it
would not have helped their image if a stay at
the Montezuma sped up your death instead of delaying it, which,

(42:48):
by the way I did. I searched, and when it
comes to the deaths of porters or people that work there,
yeah they published them, but strangely nobody. And remember this
place was asking people that were really sick invalids, people
that had all these different diseases to come and use
the hot spring. So this wasn't just that. I mean

(43:10):
a guesska died at any time for unexpected reasons, but they're
catering to people that are sick come to the hot Springs.
You know, that's sick of the better kind of deal.
But yet there's never any mention of any guests dying
while they're at the hotel. And I thought that was like,
you know, the absence of points of finger at that. Yeah,

(43:30):
I have a feeling that people did pass away there,
not because of anything supernatural, but just because they were
maybe very sick. Who knows, they just died. Because the
absence of any of that, somebody must have spoken to
the local newspapers said don't do that, don't deep six us,
because if it gets out that somebody, a guest slash

(43:53):
patient died here, that's it. Remember these hotels for many
years did not turn up profits surprisingly, So yeah, there
you go. And by the way, I did see that
movie The Evil, and if you come to strangers in
fiction stories, you're gonna see there's I put a I
put a link here to the trailer for it. It's

(44:16):
a pretty decent movie. And the guy that plays the devil,
this guy right here, let me tell you something. He's great.
Let me tell you of everybody in there, he was.
He did a really good part. But yeah, typical nineteen
seventies horrorflic it's pretty decent. Again, I don't know if
when they rented this empty thing from the Catholic Church

(44:41):
they told him this is what the movie we're going
to make, or if they just told him we're going
to rent it as a movie set period. But honestly,
he's like, we're going from a seminary to allowing these
types of movies we made there. Maybe they didn't or
maybe they didn't didn't care, who knows, but anyway, there
you go. So oh, let's go now to wait a minute,

(45:06):
let me see before I get ahead of myself, Let's
do one more. Let's do one more out of stranger
than fiction stories. And this is called Susie and Mister Tilden.
In the eighteen sixties, a family of German immigrants moved
to a house on one Sandy Hollow Road in Port Washington,
New York. Had a daughter named Susannah or Susie Bruner.

(45:28):
She lived there for the next seventy five years and
led a very colorful life. In the years after the
Civil War, Susie Bruner served as Port Washington's first postmistress.
She drove a horse drawn buggy that served as the
mail coach from Port Washington to Great Neck, Long Island.
Besides the mail, she also carried passengers and packages from

(45:49):
the Bail's drug store to the Long Island Railroad terminal
in Great Neck. She took the job when she was
only twenty one years old, since her father, Joseph Old
Dutch Joe Bruner, passed away. The route took her on
unpaved roads in snow, rain, and sometimes in darkness, through
desolate areas. Her horse, name William J. Tilden, had been

(46:11):
broken in by her. A traveling photographer once made the
mistake of trying to run her into a ditch for
his troubles. He ended up dead when she killed him
with a butt of her whip. One wonders why she
didn't use the gun she carried with her instead. But
was there any truth to the story or was it
in urban myth about a woman referred to as quote
a devil of a mail carrier. In eighteen eighty one,

(46:34):
George H. Mc clellan, a photographer who had fallen on
hard times, left Syracuse and started to work around Flushing.
He was last seen on September twenty sixth on his wagon,
looking the worse for liquor. The following day, still drunk,
he was found unconscious with an unnatural blackness in his
eyes and bruises on his body, lying in Jamaica Road.

(46:56):
Mister mc clellan was dead forty eight hours later. A
reporter interviewed Susie, who told him that the day previous
to the death, she gave him a thrashing with the
butt of her whip in the face and the eyes
for bad conduct in a state of intoxication. It was
believed he died from delirium tremens because of his alcoholism.
This is a This was printed in the local papers.

(47:20):
Susie carried mill to him from Great Neck to Port Washington.
One day, in the line of duty, she horsewhipped the
man who tried to hold her up. The man died
from the whipping. After her father, Old Dutch Jose died,
Susie was the man of the family. Susie always wore
an apron even to church. Eventually, Susie left her job
as postmistress and went to work. Went on to work

(47:43):
the family farm, plowing fields all over town with her horse,
mister Telden. She also served as a janitor at the
Sand's Point School and opened a store catering to the
children who called her Aunt Susie about her unmarried state,
she commented them, I wanted I couldn't get, and them
that wanted me the devil wouldn't take Along the way.

(48:03):
She bought properties in Washington, and a nineteen oh eight
map showed she owned three properties around Sandy Hollow Road.
When a new school was built, she purchased the old
one and moved it across the street to a piece
of land she owned. It served as a residence from
then on. Susie was known for always wearing a sun
bonnet and a Gingham apron with a big pocket. It

(48:24):
turns out she was a horse whisperer as well, since
she tamed many horses throughout the years with kindness. It
was said when Susi died in nineteen thirty five, she
left her the eleven thousand, five hundred dollars estate to
his sister, Dora J. Bauer. Both her parents were dead,
and a brother named Joseph died in eighteen eighty three
at the age of seventeen. Before Susie Brunner lived in

(48:48):
the house, it was occupied by Samuel Dodge, who arrived
in seventeen eighteen along with his family. He bought a
parcel on the corner of Sandy Hollow Road in seventeen
thirty two and built a house and the barn on
the site. Remember these are colonial times, this is pre
revolutionary times. After Susie's death in nineteen thirty five, the
barn was moved east to its new address of five

(49:09):
Sandy Hollow Road. William Patrick Junior at bought the barn,
added a foundation and brick chimney. He also added rooms
downstairs where the stalls where the animals were, and upstairs
where the hayloft was. It's believed some of the timber
used to construct the barn or most possibly salvage from
an old ship every purpose to build the barn. Two

(49:30):
entrance doors added to the rear of the house were
known to mysteriously open by itself. In nineteen forty one,
mister and Missus Dudley Brown lived there. In nineteen fifty eight,
Daniel and Ida Whedon bought the one time barn, and
in nineteen sixty one news they printed a story about
the strange occurrences at the coach house, which were attributed
to the ghost of Susie Brunner. The Wieden's belief was

(49:52):
still checking on her beloved horses. There were reports of
the back door opening mysteriously, and upon occasion, the face
of a woman seen peering from an upper window. Coincidentally,
the one who had the most sightings of the ghost
was Susie, the Whedon's young daughter, and nineteen eighty two,
the Whedons were still living there, and a second story
was written by Newsday whether he told the experiences they

(50:13):
had since they moved in many years before. It's unknown
if Susie still lingers at what was once her old
barn or back at her proper home on Sandy Hollow Road,
since no further sightings have been reported. More than likely
she's enjoyed the after life with her horses, friends, and
mostly the leisure time. She didn't have one alive at
the beginning. I was a little bit confused. And then

(50:35):
what happened was there was a house and a barn
next to it, and what they moved was the barn
and made it into a house. So even though she
technically lived at one Sandy Hollow Road, she was seen
at the barn turned house businesses where she kept her
horses and this family, the Whedons, they were saying apparently

(50:59):
she she's very good with horses, and she was like,
in other word, she's still checking on her horses. And
that's they're saying, why she uh hung out there. But yeah,
this lady, uh, and you know what she and I
believe I think that that guy died probably from from
a twinch liquor, and she just in case, she gave

(51:21):
him a good uh, she did a number on his face.
But you know, I don't blame her. You're out by
yourself in the middle of nowhere with a carriage and
some guy tries to uh to get you to like
pull over. No. Anyway, I remember at this time, she's

(51:42):
just twenty one years old. She's a young woman. Her
dad's died. Her brother I think he had either died
by then or I was died shortly after. I think
it was like the death of her brother, and so
she had to like, you know, that took a lot
of guts. But anyway, next story out of the US Sun,

(52:04):
and this is titled Inside Lost six thousand year old
underwater city on coast of Cuba with stone structures two
thousand feet below sea surface. Okay, and they're saying, dating
back thousands of years. These ruins could be older than
the Egyptian Pyramids. I wish I could get rid of

(52:26):
this thing. I get rid of this god anyway. A
mysterious lost city line two thousand feet beneath the waves
off Cubas has baffled scientists for more than two decades.
Mariena engineer Paulina Zeletski and her husband Paul Weinswig, stunned
the world when sonar scans revealed huge stone formations on

(52:48):
the seabed near the Guanajaka Vives Peninsula.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
The images showed what looks like pyramids, circular structures, and
massive blocks reminiscent of an urban development. Some of the
stones measured up to ten feet and appear deliberately stacked.
It's a really wonderful structure which really looks like it
could have been a large urban center, Soletski said. In
two thousand and one, the Canadian team from Advanced Digital

(53:17):
Communication estimate the ruins can be more than six thousand
years old, making them older than the Egyptian Pyramids. But
despite the job dropping find, no follow up expedition has
ever been carried out. While social media users today speculate
the ruins are proof of Atlantis, Experts remain cautious. It
will be totally irresponsible to say what it was before

(53:38):
we have evidence Seletski worn back when they were first discovered.
Kiven Geologist Manuel Ittuald Vincent from the Natural History Museum
admitted the structures were extremely peculiar, but stressed that death
posed a major problem. It's strange, it's weird. We've never
seen anything like this before, and we don't have an
explanation for it. Dura. They estimated it would take up

(54:01):
to fifty thousand years for the seabed to sink. That
far far earlier than any known advanced civilization. Michael Fought,
an underwater archaeology expert at Florida State University, agreed. He
said it would be cool if Zieletski and Wine's wig
or write, but it'd be really advanced for anything we
would see in the New World for that timeframe. The
structures are out of time and out of place. Other

(54:24):
scientists have argued that formations are likely natural rock structures
despite skepticism, but discovery continues to fuel conspiracy theories online
civilizations that existed before the Ice Age, perhaps multiple civilizations
that rosen fell the historical knowledge that has been lost
or hidden. Another person claimed, there is so much history,

(54:47):
so much hidden history. Finding it so fascinating. Everything we've
been taught is a lie. Funding problems in Cuba strict
control over foreign expeditions have also been blamed for the
lack of further investigation. A plan dive into one thousand
and two was scrapped, according to US oceanographer Sylvia Earle
Weinzwegg himself once insisted the structures we found on the

(55:09):
side's scanzona simply are not explicable from a geological point
of view. There is too much organization, too much symmetry,
too much repetition of form. Another underwater enigma, often compared
to Cuba's Lost City is the Yunaguni Monument off Japan's coast.
Discovered in the nineteen eighties, the massive stone formation sits
around ninety feet underwater and features sharp angled steps and

(55:33):
terraces that appear man made. Tests of the rock show
it could be more than ten thousand years old. It's
carved by humans, it would date back to a time
before the Last Ice Age, a theory that, like the
Cuban ruins, continues to divide experts over whether it's a
natural formation or evidence of a vanished civilization. All right,

(55:55):
there you go. But you know what, this one off
the coast of Pan ninety feet that's not much dive wise,
that's that's not a difficult thing. I haven't looked at them.
There's a lot of sharp edges there. To be honest
with you, that does that does look man made. But
again you wonder why isn't somebody actually finding out what

(56:19):
is this? Part of it? Also might be that this
is a big tourist draw. So it's like, no, you know,
if we if we give it a real what would
happened with it? That? That's it. The mist will be over.
Now this thing, the one off coast of Cuba, which
obviously maybe the depth. But I will tell you something,
Cuba doesn't even have any infrastructure. They don't even have electricity.

(56:42):
So I'm sure there's no funding as far as whether
they want to give permission or not. There's no funding,
let's say, from within the government to let's say, do
a some type of expedition. But yeah, and I had heard.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
That that rumor that that that is what is that
that's a very good possibility that those ruins are.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
What might be part of Atlantis. In other words, you
know that that story that you hear that Atlantis basically
well imploded, are sunk into the water. That's what it is.
I mean, But there's other there's other theories. I believe
there's another side off. The zories by Portugal which are

(57:30):
also there, say that you know, that's where Atlantis went down,
and or I've also heard that there was more, not
more than one Atlantis. But in other words, they had
like one city over here and one thing over here,
and somehow their technology got away from them and it
all went I mean, it's sunk beneath the waves. I

(57:53):
don't know. I don't know. So I will be back
with you soon with some more eerie stuff. Till next time.

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