July 7, 2023 • 54 mins
Your favorite podcast is back for a new season!
We’ve had some time to recharge and regroup and we are ready to get back into true crime cases from the PNW.
This episode takes us back to the early 1900s in Oregon, where a charismatic religious man was able to start a Holy Roller sect in the small community of Corvallis. Franz Edmund Creffield believed he was the new messiah and it was his job, his responsibility, to find the one lucky lady who would be the mother to the second Christ. His antics caused many issues with the men of the area and the local law enforcement.
Join Brice and Jess for the season 6 opener of the podcast! Let us know your thoughts and send any suggestions you have our way.
Some information from this episode:
A deep dive into Creffield and the newspaper reports of his activity at the turn of the 1900s with news articles included (this is also a review of the book written by T. McCracken and Robert B. Blodgett https://mchumor.com/edmundcreffield.com/index.html
Edmund Creffield and the Brides of Christ Church by Theresa McCracken https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/creffield_edmund_and_the_brides_of_christ_church/#.Y_QxQXbMKUl
An Examination of Franz Edmund Creffield and the Holy Rollers, 1900-1907 by Sophie Koh https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/younghistorians/2017/oralpres/24/
The definition of “Holy Roller” according to Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roller
We’ve had some time to recharge and regroup and we are ready to get back into true crime cases from the PNW.
This episode takes us back to the early 1900s in Oregon, where a charismatic religious man was able to start a Holy Roller sect in the small community of Corvallis. Franz Edmund Creffield believed he was the new messiah and it was his job, his responsibility, to find the one lucky lady who would be the mother to the second Christ. His antics caused many issues with the men of the area and the local law enforcement.
Join Brice and Jess for the season 6 opener of the podcast! Let us know your thoughts and send any suggestions you have our way.
Some information from this episode:
A deep dive into Creffield and the newspaper reports of his activity at the turn of the 1900s with news articles included (this is also a review of the book written by T. McCracken and Robert B. Blodgett https://mchumor.com/edmundcreffield.com/index.html
Edmund Creffield and the Brides of Christ Church by Theresa McCracken https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/creffield_edmund_and_the_brides_of_christ_church/#.Y_QxQXbMKUl
An Examination of Franz Edmund Creffield and the Holy Rollers, 1900-1907 by Sophie Koh https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/younghistorians/2017/oralpres/24/
The definition of “Holy Roller” according to Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roller
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Sukis patois Very Toad podcasts, soLa Criminality, The Discut de Villemontier.
What Happens in the Woods is atrue crime podcast. We discuss events that
are often violent in nature. Listenersdiscretion is advised. Well well, well
(00:44):
look, who's back at it again. Welcome back campers to season six of
What Happens in the Woods Podcast.Rice and I are back in the game,
so to speak, and we're backwith all the regular season cases.
Hey, Bryce, hope you're readyto do this? Yeah, yeah,
yeah, feels brand new. Yes, we're in a different setup again,
(01:11):
testing the waters. Yeah, yeah, it's been good. I know you're
sad. It's not what the fucks. They'll come back, They will come
back. Yeah. There are somechanges on the horizon. We've been kind
of brainstorming and looking at ways tomake changes of how like how we go
(01:34):
about doing things. And we hopethat you guys are going to be excited
with some things that are coming yourway. But for now, we're going
to stick to the familiar things,and that is a crime based in the
Pacific Northwest. Are you ready toget into it? Let's do it,
Let's do it. I have mentionedmaybe just a time or two that I
(01:57):
cannot get enough of old timey crime. So that's what we've got today.
I've got a case that takes usback to the early nineteen hundreds in Oregon,
and I'm excited to finally be talkingabout this religious group that some would
maybe call a cult. Yeah.It's known as the Church of the Brides
of Christ. Okay, And Ithink this might be a first for us.
(02:24):
Have we discussed a cult before?Think so? I don't think so
either. I'm sure that everyone's heardof this term called holy rollers, Yeah,
in relation to like certain religious groups, and I think we mainly use
(02:46):
the term to reference like nowadays,it's like Pentecostal churches where they practice speaking
in tongues and all the it's veryenergetic worship. Yeah, church services can
get very lively if you want to. Yeah, Um, they you know,
(03:07):
they kind of do the rolling inthe aisles and the dancing and and
it it's it's almost hazardous, youknow, you seen, it's dangerous.
It's borderline wash pit kind of.I mean, really, did you always
had that one dude that wants toturn into a mosh pit? Yeah?
No, I've seen, I've I'vewitnessed people like running into each other and
(03:30):
like hitting walls and yeah, I'veI've seen it with my own eyes.
It's it's very enthusiastic. Yeah.Um, they kind of you know,
they get wild for the Holy Spirit. It's it's really just overtakes you.
Yeah, if the spirit moves you. Yeah, yeah, it's there's different
(03:52):
ways of worshiping different things. It's, you know, whatever floats your boat.
It is hard to believe that innineteen oh three, in the wilds
of Oregon there started a religious cultthat had the tiny and tight knit community
of Corvallis ready to take vigilante vigilanteism. That's a hard word, vigilanteism,
(04:15):
and words are hard into their ownhands. This religion was headed by a
man by the name of Franz EdmundCrayfield. Okay, it's it's a name.
Yeah. Crayfield has been described asquote unquote homely, but he was
charismatic. He had a way abouthim that led him to being able to
(04:35):
lead people and particularly women, tofollow him and his views on religion.
Oh yeah, you have to becharismatic, right, Nobody wants a boring
leader, no, obviously, Andthere's you know, there's nothing new in
that, right, that's kind ofthe age old. Even if it's a
(04:58):
woman who's leading a group, thecharisma has to be there. You have
to be able to get people tosee your point of view and follow your
ideas that might be slightly out ofthe norm or different from what is considered
normal. He was described in onearticle I read as magnetic quote unquote having
(05:24):
power over people or putting people undera spell. He was possibly also a
hypnotist, so he I guess hehad taken a class or some courses at
the time and studied mental telepathy,which at this time was very It was
(05:47):
a new Yeah, it was.It was a new study, but it
was kind of looked at with somemysticism, you know, it wasn't it
wasn't just how do you read people? You know, which now he knows
it's not really anything other worldly oryou know, you don't have psychic powers
(06:11):
anything like that. You're really justreading people. That hypnotism can have its
place in time, I think inhelping people with some habits, But it
very much I think has a sciencebehind it. It's not you know,
back where in the nineteen hundreds orthe late eighteen hundreds. That was it
(06:33):
was kind of considered like a sixthsense type of thing. There is a
science behind it. Yeah, it'scalled an LP. Oh you even know
the name of this, Yeah,neuro linguistic programming. It's one of my
favorite magicians, Darren Brown. Hehas that show called Push, and it's
(06:55):
a it's on Netflix. It's avery fascinating look in the human like psychology,
like or social pressures because of socialmedia and you know, I mean,
the groups have always been there,but NLP has always been fascinating to
me. It's like how you canget someone to do it with just social
(07:15):
pressure and the way that you saycertain things. And he has this fascinating
thing where he gives this guy papermoney and he says, no, take
it, it's fine, it's fine, and he buys a watch with it,
or he buys some jewelry with it, and the guy takes it and
even gives him change and he countsit back to him. It's the craziest
(07:39):
thing. But in the show Push, he gets someone to actually push someone
off a ledge. Oh my god. Yeah. It's a very interest and
it's not just like he's a akiller or this person's just a killer,
it's anyway, it's yeah off aledge, were like off of a building.
(08:01):
Yeah, I'm sorry, and thisperson now I will I don't want
to spoil it, but it's ait's an excellent program and like like you
know, social engineering and yeah,yeah, I don't want to spoil the
Okay, you just said somebody gotpushed off the ledge, though the whole
(08:22):
premise of the show was like pushto see if they could get an ordinary
person just to push someone off theledge. Was anyone harmed? No,
no, no, so the personperson is, yeah, I will let
you know that the person if theyeven if they get pushed, they're hooked
to a harness that you can't see. Oh okay, and so if they
do get pushed, they'll fall butnot maybe like twelve feet and they're on
(08:46):
a harness. Oh my god.And it's actually yeah, Darren Brown,
who's on the harness the magician anyway, interesting neuro linguistic programming that is.
Yeah, yeah, okay, Ididn't realize. I knew. I knew
that there was a word. Therewas words, there was a there were
(09:07):
words. I knew that there wasyou know that it had it had some
kind of title. I guess youwould say, yeah, oh yeah,
I also teach it to you inthe Air Force anyway. Okay, well
know when you have to go throughsurvival school and yeah, like if you
get captured. Yeah, anyway,right, I read more about it.
(09:31):
Okay, that's well, there yougo. Do I even need to continue?
I don't know. Yes, allright, Well, and back to
Edmund as he was known as well, that was his first name, Yeah,
he didn't. He went by EdmundCrayfield at this point. He immigrated
(09:52):
from Germany in the eighteen eighties.There's really no backstory to him. There's
really no research that I have found. I'm sure that there's there's a way
to do some research on him,but I have not because some of this
information was a lot There's a lotof detail that I had to condence because
(10:16):
there's a lot of source information togo through. So I don't know when
he was born, how old hewas at this time. I don't really
have any of that information. Andthe accounts are not clear for him,
like the early years that he wasin the US, but at some point
(10:37):
he joined a Christian organization known asthe Salvation Army, which is still around
today. This was around eighteen eighteennineties, and in eighteen ninety nine he
moved to Portland, Oregon. Thathe was going around in that area and
going out with the Salvation Army.He was a soldier in the Salvation an
(11:00):
army. So the Salvation Army isis they fashioned themselves an like a military
hierarchy. So if you are justa member of the church, you are
and they I don't believe at thattime they baptized either, but you are
indoctrinated. Basically, you you youknow, pledge that you're a member of
(11:20):
the church. So you become asoldier if you are you are like a
minister. You start as a alieutenant and then you work your way up
captain, major and all of that. So that would be like the ministers,
the people who are actually doing thepreaching and the coordination of things,
(11:45):
and then just the congregation would bea soldier. So he was a soldier
in the Salvation Army during this time. Soon after though he parted his ways
with the group. He still was, you know, preaching, but at
this time he was just kind ofon his own. He had a little
bit of a clash of viewpoints withregard to some of the things that the
(12:07):
Salvation Army would do. He inparticular had an issue with like soliciting for
money. So at this time,you know, the Salvation Army would go
out and they would do open airmeetings, and they would do things like
ice cream socials. They would doyou know, open things in parks,
(12:28):
and they would you know, ministerto people out in the public. But
then they would take whatever money theyraised and they would help you know,
feed homeless. They would have likesoup kitchens things like that. So he
really didn't feel like soliciting for moneywas the right thing to do, and
he yeah, he had some issueswith that. Just take it. Then.
(12:52):
That's the thing is he really wasn'tfrom nothing that I can see.
Was he ever like, I needmoney only in regard to the well being
of where they could you know,the group that he goes on to form
could could live, they could havea place to live. That's really the
(13:13):
only time that he had a materialisticgoal in mind. In an interview with
a reporter, he is quoted asstating, quote, while in the Salvation
Army, I had the light,but I did not have the power.
I was teaching his works, butwas still in the darkness. I did
(13:33):
not experience the full of his poweruntil I had tarried long before God in
prayer. Then the light came.The Holy Ghost told me that I should
live a life of pure faith.I was told to do everything by faith.
I could no longer work for theArmy because it's people are not entirely
of God. I could not takepart in soliciting for funds. I was
(13:54):
directed by the Holy Ghost not tosolicit from money quote. So he really
felt very convicted that that doing thatfor whatever reason. I mean, I
don't know whether that money was goingto the purpose that it needed to be
or not, you know, buthe just felt convicted that he should not
be doing Now, Okay, Craffieldvisited areas where he administered for the Salvation
(14:20):
Army before, and he began spreadinghis own radical views in the homes of
town members. In one article Iread, after parting ways with the Salvation
Army, he retreated into the woods. He came out a few days later
sporting a long beard, and itwas of the true Moses type quote unquote,
of following, flowing down his chestand spreading to the right and the
(14:43):
left, unruly and wild. Thisis one description given. He was transformed
in the woods and to a prophethe was, quote a spokesman for Jehovah.
Yeah, came out with a boomingvoice and knew ideas. So apparently
he was a very soft spoken,kind of mile mannered man before this transformation
(15:07):
in the woods. So he kindof, you know, became this new
man. While a new man needsa new name, so he decided to
start calling himself Josiah, Josiah theSecond Okay, Yeah, he arrived in
Corvallis not long after that. Sothis is a small town that's south of
(15:30):
Portland, and this is in nineteenoh three where he began to preach that
he was enlightened in the knowledge ofGod and the Holy Spirit. Soon there
were around a dozen followers and thisvery small community mainly all farmers, not
a large, you know, citydwelling. These were hard working people and
(15:54):
they began to attend his Holy Rollermeetings. He claimed that he was shown
visions while deep in prayer, andhe was given messages, and soon he
was conducting in home prayer sessions thatwould last for hours, if not days.
His followers would scream and cry,yelling prayers to God. They would
roll all over the floor and theywould wash away their sins with the rolling.
(16:17):
How would wash I don't know.At the beginning of his new religious
following, his sect included both menand women in the community. At some
point that slowly changed as the menkind of stopped showing up to his prayer
meetings and the followers that stayed weremostly women. And I think this is
mainly not because the men were notfollowing his ideals necessarily. It was that
(16:45):
these meetings became more they got Theywere held at times where the men would
be away working, and I thinkthat was intentional, but who knows.
So in these homes where they wouldhave these meetings, the shades would be
drawn and the meetings would be moreprivate. An account of one such meeting
(17:07):
described Crayfield leading the group to chantquote, swaying with the rhythm, waving
his arms and calling for the fullspirit to descend upon the meeting. And
then they were naked, okay,And that's why the women stayed and the
men probably left, was because itwas engineered that way. Who doesn't want
(17:30):
to be alone in a room fullof naked women? Gay guys? Yeah,
but obviously he's not homosexual. Inanyway. So the group began to
roll around. Crayfield and a manwho stayed a follower by the name of
Brother Brooks, as well as allthe females in the meeting, were all
moaning, screaming, yelling. Thiswent on for hours during this meeting,
(17:52):
and this is an account given ina newspaper. His meetings were so disruptive
to the community that city officials toldhim and the group that they had to
knock this shit off and they hadto move on. They had to get
out of town. They could nothave these meetings. They couldn't prove that
there was anything illegal going on.Yeah, but it was disruptive, so
(18:17):
they left. I doubt that therewas anything that I think that if they
could have made an arrest at thattime, that they would have. But
he and the group relocated to anisland outside of corballis It is referred to
as Smith Island or Robinson's Island.I'm not sure where the confusion is.
I also saw it referred to asKiger Island, and again I really couldn't
(18:45):
ki e g r okay. Themeetings continued day in day out. The
members were commenced that Crayfield was aprophet, and that they were told to
sell their possessions, leave their families, give up their worldly lifestyle, and
lead a life impurity. Again,he didn't take any of that money,
(19:06):
no, I mean they all livedequally, but they were told to give
up their worldly possessions, not thatthe money went for anything other than to
probably feed and house them. Itwas one of these types of meetings that
Crayfield announced that he was to fatherthe Second Messiah, and the Lucky Lady
(19:27):
was one of his followers. Ofcourse. Yeah, these ladies were soon
being called quote the brides of Christ. The group was so disconnected from the
townspeople and their relatives that they solelybegan to rely on each other and close
themselves off to any outsiders. Thegroup seemed a wholeheartedly believe that Josiah was
(19:51):
being directed by God, and theydid not disagree with any of the direction
that he gave, believing that theywould be damned to hell if they did
so. As you may expect,even though Crayfield and his followers were removed
from town life, that didn't meanthat they weren't the topic of discussion and
gossip. If anything, it waseven more talked about especially since the females,
(20:15):
both young and old, were disappearingfrom their homes to go join this
religious group outside of town. Thelocal newspaper began reporting on how Crayfield was
quote leading women, girls, andothers into delusions and unnatural conditions. It
was hot gossip that the women werequote freely running around and abandoning their husbands,
(20:37):
fathers, and brothers. Quote.On one side, I obviously this
guy's just kind of weird. Imean whatever, I think from the descriptions,
we can all agree upon that hehad some interesting ideas. On the
other side of it, you know, these women are trying to it's a
(21:00):
little excitement in their otherwise mundane lifeof you know, farming or town life.
And let's face it, they didn'thave very many rights or any rights,
and little freedom to do what theywanted to do. So here's this
guy saying, come follow me,will worship God, we'll be naked,
(21:21):
and we'll have fun. Yeah whynot? Why not? I don't know
what the fuck not. In thecooler months at the end of nineteen oh
three, life on the island wasless than ideal, so Crayfield and the
brides moved themselves to the home ofCorvalli's local Op Hurt, and I've seen
it in some of the articles.A lot of these articles are very hard
(21:45):
to navigate through because there was nofilter on the media back in the day.
They could basically just say whatever thefuck they wanted and it was just
taken as fact because it was therein the black and white of the paper,
right right, So I've seen itO V's and Victor and O p
as Im Paul. Paul seemed tobe the most like p as Im Paul
(22:11):
used. It seemed to be themost used. So I'm going to stick
with Op Hurt. So his familymembers were caught up in the Brides of
Christ and they they had originated asa family who went to the Salvation Army
whose members of the Salvation Army Church. But the females stuck with Crayfield and
they joined his little sect that hehad going on. So they had run
(22:32):
away from home basically to go jointhis. But then they ended up.
You know, hey, everybody,let's go back. Let's go back to
my house and we'll resume there forthe winter. So there was a sign
promptly posted above the door of theHurt home that stated quote positively. No
admittance except on God's business. Soyeah, very interesting. The religious group
(22:56):
was carrying on as usual, withthe hours of long prayer meetings, rolling
around in the nude, all theother fun they had been having. Eventually,
hurt realized that allowing this into hishome was maybe a little a little
more than he bargained for. Yeah, he's having second thoughts. Oh maybe,
(23:17):
yeah, a little bit. Maybe. The group was told so there
was some rules. Crayfield said,you know, down to everybody. He
took charge of the house, which, you know, if you're used to
be in the man of the houseand being listened to, you're not gonna
you're gonna take too kindly to thislong bearded hippie guy coming in your home
(23:38):
and say nope, I run thehouse now, you know, and and
have everybody listened to you, youknow. So the group slept in one
room on the floor. They wereall nearly naked most of the time.
Hurts possessions were taken from the home, and some of them were even burned.
There was a huge bonfire that wasstarted to burn like belongings, furniture
(24:02):
stuff. People from all over cameto see this bonfire and this spectacle that
was happening at the Hurt home.There were also some orgies that were kind
of getting out of hand, andit was reported, of course, who
knows how likely this is, thatthe noise was heard a quarter of a
mile down the road. That's someorgy. Yeah, you know, you're
(24:23):
not. It's not even like you'vegot a stereo system in some base.
You're you're just making that noise,you know, organically, that noise is
happening. It was just enough,and the men of the town decided to
take matters into their own hands.Oh yeah. At some point, Crayfield
(24:44):
and brother Books were taken in forcompetency hearings at the courthouse. They were
both found to be of sound mine, if not just a little creepy.
Yeah, but there was nothing thatpointed to like insanity or any anything that
was legal. While the courts couldnot bring anything to an illegally, the
law officers advised that the men shouldremove themselves from town. Mister Hurt decided
(25:10):
his patience was at an end withthis group, and he kicked them all
out of his home. A temporaryhome was rented for the group by Hurt's
son, Frank, who was afollower by. You know, he wasn't
as caught up in all this thatthe women were caught up in, and
he managed to secure a house temporarilythat was rented for the group at the
(25:32):
edge of town. It was aboutthis time that a still photo was circulating
around that showed Crayfield and a fieldwith a group of women all in some
sort of undress laying or standing aroundhim. And if you can imagine that,
everybody lost their ship, I meaneverybody lost their ship because here is
(25:53):
black and white proof that somebody's wife, somebody's daughter is hoarding with this dude
out in nature naked. God onlyknows what's happening. And if that's your
wife, you're maybe not so happyabout it. Doesn't matter if it's for
good or not. You might bea little upset. It's for God,
(26:15):
it's for God, But I don'tknow that. Yeah, I don't think
that's a reason. The women andtheir girls were then kind of carted off
from their Messiah. They were sentto live in other parts of the United
States or the State, being sentto institutions and sanitariums to have their behavior
corrected. So these things came toa quick end in this case, and
(26:44):
when we come back from this break, we'll learn how all of this ends
for Edmund Crayfield and his brides ofchrist Ooh. On January fourth, nineteen
oh four, a mob of menshowed up at the rented home where Crayfield
and brother Brooks were lodging. Themen were forced by the mob to the
edge of town of Corvallis, wherethey were promptly tarred and feathered and ran
(27:07):
out of him. Yeah. Brookstook this message to heart and he did
not return. No, And nowEdmund Crayfield didn't didn't pay any heed to
it. Crayfield was found hiding inthe woods by Missus Hurd and her daughter
Maud. The ladies brought the man, still covered in tar feathers, back
(27:33):
to their home, cleaned him up. And what do you think they all
thought would be a good idea todo to get you know, Crayfield back
into the good graces of the community. Make him the mayor. No,
they planned a wedding, so heand Maud were married just days later.
Oh m hmm, Wait wouldn't shemarried? No, she was not.
(27:57):
Maud was Hurt's daughter. Oh yeah. The community was resigned to the fact
that Crayfield wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, but there was hope that he would
calm his shit down and that theorgies would at least stop, since he
was now married to a woman fromyou know, a very respected family.
(28:18):
Apparently Maud was not to be themother of the second Christ, though,
so the search was still on,and Kriyfield left his new wife to seek
out a former member of the Bridesof Christ who was living with her husband
in Portland. The two were caughtin action by her husband, who quickly
filed a complaint of adultery against thetwo. So this is kind of exactly
(28:41):
what you know. The authorities werelooking for, was something legally that they
could take action against him. Crayfield, I teled it out of town,
promptly disappeared. A reward was posted, but I found conflicting amounts in news
articles, so once that it wasfor one hundred and fifty dollars, another
one said three hundred and fifty dollars. This was posted by none other than
(29:04):
his father in law. The formerfather in law, as Maud quickly filed
for divorce. So three months goby, there's no sign of this guy.
Okay, so the town of Corvallisin the surrounding area. Is they
just kind of these people? Theyare thinking, okay, well, we're
finally rid of this guy. TheHoly Rollers, his religious you know things.
(29:25):
It's gone, it's had its day, must be gone. He's not
here, he's not going to showup because he doesn't want to get arrested,
and his wife's divorced him. Sohe's, you know, essentially cut
ties there right, Lo and behold, he is found hiding under the home
of none other than mister Hurt,the Hurt family home. Really, yes,
(29:51):
Authorities are called to the home wherethey find a naked and scraggly Crayfield.
He's too weak to do much.He's completely covered in dirt, ugs,
you name it. He was stillcleaning to the idea that he was
this second Messiah, and he hadbeen surviving below the four floor boats floorboards
(30:11):
of the home, on the scrapsthat Missus Hurt and the other brides of
Christ had been giving him in secret. Oh so they knew. M oh
yeah, the women knew. Thewoman no, please, women know everything,
Okay. Missus Hurt was committed toan asylum about a month before Crayfield
was found under the home. Sohe had been living off of canned goods
(30:32):
and whatever other scraps he could find. So she had not been around to
take care of him for about amonth when he's found. Was it like
a seller or something. I don'tknow. It was like the crawl space
under the house. That's it.That's it. Yeah. The authorities spared
no time in taking him to Portlandto stand before a judge in the matter
(30:52):
of his adultery charges. By thetime he made it to the judge,
yes he was. While on EdmundCrayfield admitted to the crime he had committed,
but he stated that quote in theeyes of God, such things were
not at all improper in a manof God such as he. They found
him guilty after twelve minutes of deliberation. He was asked if he had anything
(31:15):
to say after being convicted of thecrime of adultery and since to two years
in state prison. It was reportedthat he rambled on and on misquoted some
Bible scripture, and then he offeredhis forgiveness to the judge and the jury
members as they quote knew not whatthey did. After serving about fifteen months
of his twenty four months sentence atOregon State penagentry, Criffield went to California.
(31:40):
He spent some time in Los Angeles, and when he realized he couldn't
corner the market on religious zelot's downthere, he moved north to San Francisco,
and he just couldn't let the paststay in the past, and he
began to correspond with a devoted memberfrom his group in Corvallis, and that
was seventeen year old Esther Mitchell.That would have put Esther around like fifteen
(32:05):
when all of this religious stuff wasgoing on in Corvelli's. After he was
incarcerated, she along with many others, were again sent off to insane asylums
the Boys and Girls Society Aid ofOregon they were They were sent off because
(32:27):
it was just, you know,it was hysteria. These women are hysterical,
And it wasn't that this guy wasinciting it. It was these women
are hysterical. He shared with Estherthat she and only she would be the
chosen mother of the Second Messiah whowas coming, but this wasn't good enough.
He also sent some harassing letters tohis ex father in law, quoting
(32:51):
Bible verses and warning him to stayout of his way. But then he
also sent some letters to his exwife, Maud, who had moved to
Seattle at that point to live withher brother and his new wife. And
he asked Maud if they could remarry, and she agreed. She said,
if you come up to Seattle,I'll marry you again, so he did
(33:13):
so. The three months wasn't longenough, no, so he was also
able to convince her brother and hiswife to sell their property in Seattle to
purchase land on the coast of Oregonso that this new Zion could be founded.
So this new Garden of Eden forDare religious group. He claimed that
(33:36):
the new Zion would be the onlysafe place in the world. As he
was about to quote call down thewrath of an angry God on these modern
sodoms of Seattle, Portland, SanFrancisco, and Los Angeles, but especially
his friends in Corvallis, Oregon.He cursed a lot of them. Maud
(33:57):
and Crayfield were once again remarried,this time by an Orthodox minister in Seattle.
Frank Hurt, his wife, andMaud were sent ahead to this New
Garden of Eden while the Second Messiahwould rally the troops so to speak and
gather his remaining faithful and in thehonest, maybe most frequiously well timed of
(34:19):
coincidences, the great earthquake that happenedin San Francisco hit as Crayfield was traveling
to gather his new followers on Aprileighteenth in nineteen o six. And when
the news of this came out inthe newspapers and it was everywhere, he
reportedly smiled, but he showed nosurprise at it, and he said,
(34:39):
quote, I knew that God wouldrespond. And he's quoted as saying that
and using this to prove that histeachings, you, his righteousness was there
in what he was saying. Sohe's claiming that he he's responsible for this
earthquake in San Francisco and that ifeverybody else doesn't fall in line, he's
(35:01):
going to do the same in otherplaces. Words spread that the prophet was
back in town, and his femalefollowers started making their way to flock to
his side. It was reported thatthe train had never seen such an uptake
in Fairs at that up until thattime, those that couldn't afford the train
(35:22):
fair walked miles and miles days ofhazardous paths to this unpopulated area, and
or again where this land was.Women came from all over in groups or
on their own, of all ages, and this included the young esther Mitchell.
There were teenagers, young women whohad run away from home, women
(35:44):
and their children, older women whohad left their husbands. They were all
just leaving in the middle of thenight, some leaving notes before they disappeared
for their family members, just sayingI'm going to the prophet, and you
know, don't try to stop me. This is where I'm going. Crayfield
continued to speak of his prophecy ofthe doom of Corvallis and the other towns
(36:07):
that it proved to be inhospitable tohis followers, and when the group made
their way to the New Zion,a plot of land kneel near Waldport,
Oregon, he declared that the sinfulcity would be destroyed, but it was
time to find the chosen woman tocarry the second Messiah. Now it's time,
all right. Never mind, hehad already told esther Mitchell that it
(36:30):
was her. Yeah, yeah,but you know, he didn't want to
exclude anybody, because what if hemade a wrong decision. So in this
great bonfire, the women burned theirclothes, whatever belongings they brought, and
nakedness again prevailed. There again wasthe moaning and the rolling, and the
praying for hours at all resumed andit was just this height of frenzy before
(36:55):
everything just came tumbling down. OnApril twenty six, a man from Corvallis
was able to find out where Crayfieldand the Brides of Christ were now congregating.
This was Lewis Hartley, whose wifeand daughter had run off to join
the group in Waldport. He decidedto make his way down there. He
was going to get them back.He was going to put a stop to
all this fucking nonsense once and forall. He was just going to handle
(37:19):
business, yes, well in thistomfoolery. Yes, So he stops along
the way to purchase at thirty twocaliber revolver and a box of bullets,
and he arrived in Newport just asthis faery with his wife and daughter on
it was pulling away. And wouldn'tyou know it, of all the luck
who was on that ferry but noneother than the new Prophet himself. So
(37:43):
Hartley quickly took a shot at Crayfieldfive times in rapid succession, nothing happened
but click every time. None ofthe shots were fired correctly, and Crayfield
simply smiled and assured all around himthat God protected him and he could not
be harmed. Hartley later claimed thatthe bullets were not the correct type for
(38:05):
the gun. Quote, it wasthe goddamn fool who sold me the cartridges
and the gun. The gun iscenter fire, the cartridges are rim fire.
That's why the son of a bitchis still alive. Yeah, this
mishap only fueled the flames of angerfor the rest of the men. Back
up in Corballis. It was kindof this rally cry where it was like,
(38:27):
you know what, Hartley's on theright path, let's fucking get this
guy. Yeah, So groups ofmen began gathering supplies, guns, ammo.
They began making their way to thecoast of Oregon to find him.
It's kind of unclear if somehow wordgot to Crayfield or if it had been
the plan all along, but Crayfieldand Maud left not longer after everyone was
(38:52):
gathered in the New Zion. There'sthis report that they stated to the followers
they were going to Canada like BritishColumbia to establish a new colony due to
them not being welcomed in Waltport.One account is that they were forced to
leave the land that Frank Kurt hadpurchased and to camp out on the beach.
(39:15):
I really only read that in oneplace, so I'm not sure if
that's correct or if it was justalways the plan. They were there temporarily
and then they were going to goto British Columbia. I don't know.
The group of men from Corvallis wereon the hunt, and some were thinking
the Crayfield would again hide in thewoods as he had dined in the past,
(39:36):
but not everyone thought that would bethe case. The brother of Esther
Mitchell, so his name is GeorgeMitchell, gathered his revolver and AMMO.
He headed to the train station inAlbany, Oregon, hoping to catch Crayfield
if he was to travel to Portlandor further north. He arrived a day
late, and he learned that Crayfield, along with Maud, had made their
(39:59):
way the train to Seattle already,so he waited and he took the next
train to be able to follow themup to Seattle. On the morning of
May seventh, nineteen oh six,George Mitchell was walking the streets of Seattle
in search of Edmund Crayfield or hiswife Maud. Whether divine intervention or sheer
luck, who knows, but hespotted them outside of a convenience store on
(40:22):
First in Cherry Street. George walkedup behind the couple and he quietly put
a revolver to the back of Crayfield'shead and he pulled the trigger. Edmund
Crayfield died instantly. The bullet quoteentered the back of the neck, breaking
the spinal cord at the base ofthe brain, and then rang around to
(40:43):
the right jaw, which it shattered. There was quite a mass hysteria right
as you would imagine somebody just beingshot casually on the street. Seattle's not
a quiet town. Even at thistime it was probably be pretty populated.
Maud was hysterical. She was claimingthat her husband would rise again like christ
(41:07):
Head on the third day, soshe didn't want his body to be buried.
Mitchell just stood by. He washappy with the end result. He
stayed with his gun in his hand, and he calmly waited for the police
to arrive, and then he handedover the gun. Didn't protest going.
He just matter of factly agreed togo, and he was like, yep,
(41:30):
I did it. Let's go.Get this taken care of. So
he was taken into custody to awaittrial, and while at the police station,
was able to send a telegram toMaud's father in Corvelli's reading quote,
I got my man and am injail. Here am in jail. Well
you know you paid by the letter. Oh yeah, yeah. Franz Edmund
(41:51):
Crayfield was buried in the lake ViewCemetery on May ninth, with only Maud
at the site to mourn him.He did not, in fact rise again
from the dead as the second Christyear I know, but the story doesn't
in there as you would expect.George Mitchell was held on murder charges.
(42:13):
Of course. He was placed ontrial in King County Court. It was
no doubt the most spectacular event ofthe time. At this point, witnesses
were called in on what had takenplace while all of the women were under
Crayfield's control. There was testimony fromseveral people describing the quote unquote free love
that was taken place at the meetings, the mental state of some of the
(42:35):
girls and women who were sent tolive into Asylance or the Oregon Boys and
Girls Aid Society. The details werewell beyond what societal norms would allow anyone's
sensibilities to process in that day andage, but the women were not to
be blamed, as they were toofragile to know what Crayfield was preaching was
wrong. Okay, yeah. GeorgeMitchell was hailed as some sort of hero
(43:00):
for ridding the world of this prophet. Esther Mitchell, who was a devoted
follower of Crayfield and George's sister,reportedly sat stone faced and emotionless throughout the
entire trial. When questioned us tothe crime, reportedly, George said,
quote, I came to Seattle tokill this man who ruined my sister.
I completed my job in quote.On July tenth, the jury deemed that
(43:24):
George Mitchell was not guilty and hewas acquitted of all charges. Huh,
yeah, I think that's quite interesting. There. There in lies the problem
with the judicial system back then.It was based off of morality than not
facts. This man committed murder,yea, he should have been convicted of
(43:47):
murder, and he was like,yep, I did it. Caught with
the gun in his hand freely admittedtons of witnesses. Yeah, so whether
you agree with why he did itor not, there was no reason for
you to do that other than youdidn't agree with his beliefs. I don't
know that it's I don't feel thatthat's justice. You know, whatever what's
(44:14):
done is done. Esther had remainedcalm, motionless, like I said,
while her brother was on trial.When asked you know about this later on,
she just she really has no response, I guess you would say.
So. With all of this excitementcoming to a close, the Mitchell family,
(44:36):
they newly acquitted George and two ofhis brothers and Esther included, made
plans to go home to Corvallis,and by all accounts from her brothers,
she was willingly going with them onthis train to Portland. As the family
made their way to board the train, Esther pulled out a pearl handled revolver,
brought it to the back of George'shead, and pulled the trigger,
(44:59):
killing him in distantly. Just ashe had killed Crayfield, she had killed
him. Her brothers never thought coming, they could not react quick enough to
prevent it, and she was immediatelyplaced in custody and taken to the police
station to be held, and sheagain had no emotion. When asked why
(45:20):
she had done this, she claimedthat she and Maud had planned this in
the eventuality that George would be acquittedof Crayfield's murder. Maud was then brought
in and she was held as wellas an accomplice. She corroborated Esther's story,
stating she had purchased the gun,but that it was agreed upon that
Esther would pull the trigger. Bothwomen were tried on murder charges, both
(45:42):
completely admitting to the crime. Maudwould be found dead in her jail cell
before they end of the trial.She took her own life by way of
strychnine poisoning. How did she getthat? Who knows? Esther was found
to be not guilty by reason ofinsanity and she was sent to stay at
Western State Hospital in Stillacom in Washington. She resided there until her paroled release
(46:08):
in April of nineteen o nine.That's not that long. There were some
very wild accusations about her in thelocal papers after she was released. One
story was that she ran away beforeshe was a like officially paroled, and
the asylum didn't know where she wasso so they didn't get in trouble.
(46:31):
Basically, to keep it all hushhush, they said that she had been
paroled already, but the parole apparentlywas still in the works in this story,
so so they're saying that they werelike, oh, yeah, she
was paroled. She didn't leave beforeshe was paroled. She she was It
was fine. It was all fine. Yah. That was That was one
(46:52):
accounting of it. Another was thatshe was such a loose and wanton woman
that she had run off with Chinesepeople and had a quote love the poppy
flowery, and that's where I'm like, this is just it's so exaggerated.
Yeah, but they there were somany stories of this in local newspapers that
(47:14):
it just was circulated that that's whathappened, and it really it doesn't surprise
me, but it does surprise methat people are just so gullible that they
just believe everything that's in writing.Yea. In reality, she was paroled
officially and she was living with misterand missus Hurt and Corvallis. She had
(47:36):
been given to them in custody whileshe was on parole from the Washington State
Hospital. Esther would go on toget married to a local man by the
name of James Barry in Waldport onApril ninth in nineteen fourteen. Unfortunately,
by August of the same year,she took her own life with strict nine
poisoning, the same way that Maudhad done the years prior. She was
(48:00):
not able to mentally or emotionally recoverfrom being involved with the Brides of Christ
and didn't get over Crayfield's murder byher brother. She was only twenty six
years old at the time of herdeath. Yeah, it's very sad,
I mean, yes, but yougot to think, like fifteen years old,
(48:22):
she's caught up in this huge religiousmovement and just really never recovered from
it. Yea, many of thewomen involved in the religious movement were never
the same. Many of them were, like I said, sent to asylums
multiple times. They had a hardtime resuming their daily lives when they came
out. And I'm completely fascinated bywhole all of this happened. And I
(48:47):
think there's a lot of research thatpeople have put into looking at like the
psychology of this type of case.Yeah, something that I read in all
of this stood out to me,and I found this in an essay written
by I think her name is Sophieco It's hosted. This essay that she
wrote is hosted on the Portland StateUniversity Library website, and I think it
(49:10):
sums up kind of the feeling ofwhat was happening at this time for these
women. So quote, many ofthe young women that joined came from broken
families in tough or boring lives.All of these followers seemed to be looking
for security, a sense of belonging, and perhaps freedom from the structures of
prim and proper Victorian society. Therewere a multitude of circumstances throughout the group
(49:37):
that gave Krefield the opportunity to commencethem of his religion, which is why
he chose Corvallis as his target inthe first place. Along with their specific
pass Corvallis was described as a boringtown with a curfew at nine o'clock,
as a socially restricted gender living ina dull town while their husbands were gone
(49:58):
farming all day. Clear why Craftfield'sfemale followers wanted to break out of their
social confines. Yeah, this groupwas easy to persuade, and they surely
had no hesitation to call Kraftfield,their leader. End quote. I that
was just I mean we could goon and on and on and talk about
why do you think this and whydo you think that? I think that
(50:20):
really summed it up, honestly.Yeah, just the Monday in life and
someone gave him a chance and outbasically, and they took it right.
And and this was a time when, um, you know, females were
held to a very strict standard,you know, and you still you didn't
(50:43):
have opinions that were not your own. You weren't supposed to m you know,
there wasn't there was no progressive thinkinggoing on in a small community like
this. I'm sure no. So, yeah, no, wonder he came
in and just was it was spellbinding for these women and you know,
for even for some of these menwho continued to help him with things.
(51:08):
So definitely, I mean it's Ithink it was both like the boring,
mundane town but also how charismatic hewas. Well, yeah, he wouldn't
have gotten anywhere if he if hedidn't have a presence about him. Yeah.
Well that's the story of the Bridesof Christ corveallis. There's a lot
(51:29):
of local historians that have done researchon this topic. Yeah, and I'm
going to link to a couple ofbooks. And I think there's even like
a movie. I didn't watch themovie. It would be a great lifetime
movie. Oh my god, canyou imagine that is a lifetime afternoon movie?
Oh yeah? Or what are thoseafter school specials? The Brides of
(51:53):
Christ? Yeah, his um ifever, you would look at a picture
and you would be like, yeah, that guy's fucking absolutely bonkers. This
guy's photo at some point when heis at the penitentiary, Yeah, he
looks just wild, like his eyesare just yeah, he he could have
(52:19):
been like I equate that to likelooking at a Manson photo. Yeah,
come at me, Broyes. Hedoes, and he's like smirking. He's
like smirking in this part. It'sit's and you know that took a lot
because the like photography of the time, yeah, is different. It wasn't
(52:40):
like just an instant snapshot, likeyou had to hold still for a couple
of seconds. So the fact thatthis is what his photo looks like from
jail is yeah, he put effortinto that. It was. But that's
definitely the vibe that I would getfrom him, just that sociopathic psychotic.
(53:06):
Oh yeah, most definitely. Yeah, is it's it's something pretty sure.
So yeah, that's a story ofFranz Edmund Crayfield. Just that The Brides
of Christ sound like the next QuentinTarantino movie. Yeah it does, okay,
(53:30):
I could see him doing something withthat. No, just that's what
it sounds like. Yeah, Icould see it. I could All right,
Well, thank you everyone for joiningus on this wild ride today.
We appreciate all of your support.We will be back in two weeks to
bring you another fascinating case. Untilwe meet again, camp first, stay
(53:52):
safe and stay out of the damnwoods, especially if there's a religious fanatic
in there by. Hey,
Sukis patois Very Toad podcasts, soLa Criminality, The Discut de Villemontier.
What Happens in the Woods is atrue crime podcast. We discuss events that
are often violent in nature. Listenersdiscretion is advised. Well well, well
(00:44):
look, who's back at it again. Welcome back campers to season six of
What Happens in the Woods Podcast.Rice and I are back in the game,
so to speak, and we're backwith all the regular season cases.
Hey, Bryce, hope you're readyto do this? Yeah, yeah,
yeah, feels brand new. Yes, we're in a different setup again,
(01:11):
testing the waters. Yeah, yeah, it's been good. I know you're
sad. It's not what the fucks. They'll come back, They will come
back. Yeah. There are somechanges on the horizon. We've been kind
of brainstorming and looking at ways tomake changes of how like how we go
(01:34):
about doing things. And we hopethat you guys are going to be excited
with some things that are coming yourway. But for now, we're going
to stick to the familiar things,and that is a crime based in the
Pacific Northwest. Are you ready toget into it? Let's do it,
Let's do it. I have mentionedmaybe just a time or two that I
(01:57):
cannot get enough of old timey crime. So that's what we've got today.
I've got a case that takes usback to the early nineteen hundreds in Oregon,
and I'm excited to finally be talkingabout this religious group that some would
maybe call a cult. Yeah.It's known as the Church of the Brides
of Christ. Okay, And Ithink this might be a first for us.
(02:24):
Have we discussed a cult before?Think so? I don't think so
either. I'm sure that everyone's heardof this term called holy rollers, Yeah,
in relation to like certain religious groups, and I think we mainly use
(02:46):
the term to reference like nowadays,it's like Pentecostal churches where they practice speaking
in tongues and all the it's veryenergetic worship. Yeah, church services can
get very lively if you want to. Yeah, Um, they you know,
(03:07):
they kind of do the rolling inthe aisles and the dancing and and
it it's it's almost hazardous, youknow, you seen, it's dangerous.
It's borderline wash pit kind of.I mean, really, did you always
had that one dude that wants toturn into a mosh pit? Yeah?
No, I've seen, I've I'vewitnessed people like running into each other and
(03:30):
like hitting walls and yeah, I'veI've seen it with my own eyes.
It's it's very enthusiastic. Yeah.Um, they kind of you know,
they get wild for the Holy Spirit. It's it's really just overtakes you.
Yeah, if the spirit moves you. Yeah, yeah, it's there's different
(03:52):
ways of worshiping different things. It's, you know, whatever floats your boat.
It is hard to believe that innineteen oh three, in the wilds
of Oregon there started a religious cultthat had the tiny and tight knit community
of Corvallis ready to take vigilante vigilanteism. That's a hard word, vigilanteism,
(04:15):
and words are hard into their ownhands. This religion was headed by a
man by the name of Franz EdmundCrayfield. Okay, it's it's a name.
Yeah. Crayfield has been described asquote unquote homely, but he was
charismatic. He had a way abouthim that led him to being able to
(04:35):
lead people and particularly women, tofollow him and his views on religion.
Oh yeah, you have to becharismatic, right, Nobody wants a boring
leader, no, obviously, Andthere's you know, there's nothing new in
that, right, that's kind ofthe age old. Even if it's a
(04:58):
woman who's leading a group, thecharisma has to be there. You have
to be able to get people tosee your point of view and follow your
ideas that might be slightly out ofthe norm or different from what is considered
normal. He was described in onearticle I read as magnetic quote unquote having
(05:24):
power over people or putting people undera spell. He was possibly also a
hypnotist, so he I guess hehad taken a class or some courses at
the time and studied mental telepathy,which at this time was very It was
(05:47):
a new Yeah, it was.It was a new study, but it
was kind of looked at with somemysticism, you know, it wasn't it
wasn't just how do you read people? You know, which now he knows
it's not really anything other worldly oryou know, you don't have psychic powers
(06:11):
anything like that. You're really justreading people. That hypnotism can have its
place in time, I think inhelping people with some habits, But it
very much I think has a sciencebehind it. It's not you know,
back where in the nineteen hundreds orthe late eighteen hundreds. That was it
(06:33):
was kind of considered like a sixthsense type of thing. There is a
science behind it. Yeah, it'scalled an LP. Oh you even know
the name of this, Yeah,neuro linguistic programming. It's one of my
favorite magicians, Darren Brown. Hehas that show called Push, and it's
(06:55):
a it's on Netflix. It's avery fascinating look in the human like psychology,
like or social pressures because of socialmedia and you know, I mean,
the groups have always been there,but NLP has always been fascinating to
me. It's like how you canget someone to do it with just social
(07:15):
pressure and the way that you saycertain things. And he has this fascinating
thing where he gives this guy papermoney and he says, no, take
it, it's fine, it's fine, and he buys a watch with it,
or he buys some jewelry with it, and the guy takes it and
even gives him change and he countsit back to him. It's the craziest
(07:39):
thing. But in the show Push, he gets someone to actually push someone
off a ledge. Oh my god. Yeah. It's a very interest and
it's not just like he's a akiller or this person's just a killer,
it's anyway, it's yeah off aledge, were like off of a building.
(08:01):
Yeah, I'm sorry, and thisperson now I will I don't want
to spoil it, but it's ait's an excellent program and like like you
know, social engineering and yeah,yeah, I don't want to spoil the
Okay, you just said somebody gotpushed off the ledge, though the whole
(08:22):
premise of the show was like pushto see if they could get an ordinary
person just to push someone off theledge. Was anyone harmed? No,
no, no, so the personperson is, yeah, I will let
you know that the person if theyeven if they get pushed, they're hooked
to a harness that you can't see. Oh okay, and so if they
do get pushed, they'll fall butnot maybe like twelve feet and they're on
(08:46):
a harness. Oh my god.And it's actually yeah, Darren Brown,
who's on the harness the magician anyway, interesting neuro linguistic programming that is.
Yeah, yeah, okay, Ididn't realize. I knew. I knew
that there was a word. Therewas words, there was a there were
(09:07):
words. I knew that there wasyou know that it had it had some
kind of title. I guess youwould say, yeah, oh yeah,
I also teach it to you inthe Air Force anyway. Okay, well
know when you have to go throughsurvival school and yeah, like if you
get captured. Yeah, anyway,right, I read more about it.
(09:31):
Okay, that's well, there yougo. Do I even need to continue?
I don't know. Yes, allright, Well, and back to
Edmund as he was known as well, that was his first name, Yeah,
he didn't. He went by EdmundCrayfield at this point. He immigrated
(09:52):
from Germany in the eighteen eighties.There's really no backstory to him. There's
really no research that I have found. I'm sure that there's there's a way
to do some research on him,but I have not because some of this
information was a lot There's a lotof detail that I had to condence because
(10:16):
there's a lot of source information togo through. So I don't know when
he was born, how old hewas at this time. I don't really
have any of that information. Andthe accounts are not clear for him,
like the early years that he wasin the US, but at some point
(10:37):
he joined a Christian organization known asthe Salvation Army, which is still around
today. This was around eighteen eighteennineties, and in eighteen ninety nine he
moved to Portland, Oregon. Thathe was going around in that area and
going out with the Salvation Army.He was a soldier in the Salvation an
(11:00):
army. So the Salvation Army isis they fashioned themselves an like a military
hierarchy. So if you are justa member of the church, you are
and they I don't believe at thattime they baptized either, but you are
indoctrinated. Basically, you you youknow, pledge that you're a member of
(11:20):
the church. So you become asoldier if you are you are like a
minister. You start as a alieutenant and then you work your way up
captain, major and all of that. So that would be like the ministers,
the people who are actually doing thepreaching and the coordination of things,
(11:45):
and then just the congregation would bea soldier. So he was a soldier
in the Salvation Army during this time. Soon after though he parted his ways
with the group. He still was, you know, preaching, but at
this time he was just kind ofon his own. He had a little
bit of a clash of viewpoints withregard to some of the things that the
(12:07):
Salvation Army would do. He inparticular had an issue with like soliciting for
money. So at this time,you know, the Salvation Army would go
out and they would do open airmeetings, and they would do things like
ice cream socials. They would doyou know, open things in parks,
(12:28):
and they would you know, ministerto people out in the public. But
then they would take whatever money theyraised and they would help you know,
feed homeless. They would have likesoup kitchens things like that. So he
really didn't feel like soliciting for moneywas the right thing to do, and
he yeah, he had some issueswith that. Just take it. Then.
(12:52):
That's the thing is he really wasn'tfrom nothing that I can see.
Was he ever like, I needmoney only in regard to the well being
of where they could you know,the group that he goes on to form
could could live, they could havea place to live. That's really the
(13:13):
only time that he had a materialisticgoal in mind. In an interview with
a reporter, he is quoted asstating, quote, while in the Salvation
Army, I had the light,but I did not have the power.
I was teaching his works, butwas still in the darkness. I did
(13:33):
not experience the full of his poweruntil I had tarried long before God in
prayer. Then the light came.The Holy Ghost told me that I should
live a life of pure faith.I was told to do everything by faith.
I could no longer work for theArmy because it's people are not entirely
of God. I could not takepart in soliciting for funds. I was
(13:54):
directed by the Holy Ghost not tosolicit from money quote. So he really
felt very convicted that that doing thatfor whatever reason. I mean, I
don't know whether that money was goingto the purpose that it needed to be
or not, you know, buthe just felt convicted that he should not
be doing Now, Okay, Craffieldvisited areas where he administered for the Salvation
(14:20):
Army before, and he began spreadinghis own radical views in the homes of
town members. In one article Iread, after parting ways with the Salvation
Army, he retreated into the woods. He came out a few days later
sporting a long beard, and itwas of the true Moses type quote unquote,
of following, flowing down his chestand spreading to the right and the
(14:43):
left, unruly and wild. Thisis one description given. He was transformed
in the woods and to a prophethe was, quote a spokesman for Jehovah.
Yeah, came out with a boomingvoice and knew ideas. So apparently
he was a very soft spoken,kind of mile mannered man before this transformation
(15:07):
in the woods. So he kindof, you know, became this new
man. While a new man needsa new name, so he decided to
start calling himself Josiah, Josiah theSecond Okay, Yeah, he arrived in
Corvallis not long after that. Sothis is a small town that's south of
(15:30):
Portland, and this is in nineteenoh three where he began to preach that
he was enlightened in the knowledge ofGod and the Holy Spirit. Soon there
were around a dozen followers and thisvery small community mainly all farmers, not
a large, you know, citydwelling. These were hard working people and
(15:54):
they began to attend his Holy Rollermeetings. He claimed that he was shown
visions while deep in prayer, andhe was given messages, and soon he
was conducting in home prayer sessions thatwould last for hours, if not days.
His followers would scream and cry,yelling prayers to God. They would
roll all over the floor and theywould wash away their sins with the rolling.
(16:17):
How would wash I don't know.At the beginning of his new religious
following, his sect included both menand women in the community. At some
point that slowly changed as the menkind of stopped showing up to his prayer
meetings and the followers that stayed weremostly women. And I think this is
mainly not because the men were notfollowing his ideals necessarily. It was that
(16:45):
these meetings became more they got Theywere held at times where the men would
be away working, and I thinkthat was intentional, but who knows.
So in these homes where they wouldhave these meetings, the shades would be
drawn and the meetings would be moreprivate. An account of one such meeting
(17:07):
described Crayfield leading the group to chantquote, swaying with the rhythm, waving
his arms and calling for the fullspirit to descend upon the meeting. And
then they were naked, okay,And that's why the women stayed and the
men probably left, was because itwas engineered that way. Who doesn't want
(17:30):
to be alone in a room fullof naked women? Gay guys? Yeah,
but obviously he's not homosexual. Inanyway. So the group began to
roll around. Crayfield and a manwho stayed a follower by the name of
Brother Brooks, as well as allthe females in the meeting, were all
moaning, screaming, yelling. Thiswent on for hours during this meeting,
(17:52):
and this is an account given ina newspaper. His meetings were so disruptive
to the community that city officials toldhim and the group that they had to
knock this shit off and they hadto move on. They had to get
out of town. They could nothave these meetings. They couldn't prove that
there was anything illegal going on.Yeah, but it was disruptive, so
(18:17):
they left. I doubt that therewas anything that I think that if they
could have made an arrest at thattime, that they would have. But
he and the group relocated to anisland outside of corballis It is referred to
as Smith Island or Robinson's Island.I'm not sure where the confusion is.
I also saw it referred to asKiger Island, and again I really couldn't
(18:45):
ki e g r okay. Themeetings continued day in day out. The
members were commenced that Crayfield was aprophet, and that they were told to
sell their possessions, leave their families, give up their worldly lifestyle, and
lead a life impurity. Again,he didn't take any of that money,
(19:06):
no, I mean they all livedequally, but they were told to give
up their worldly possessions, not thatthe money went for anything other than to
probably feed and house them. Itwas one of these types of meetings that
Crayfield announced that he was to fatherthe Second Messiah, and the Lucky Lady
(19:27):
was one of his followers. Ofcourse. Yeah, these ladies were soon
being called quote the brides of Christ. The group was so disconnected from the
townspeople and their relatives that they solelybegan to rely on each other and close
themselves off to any outsiders. Thegroup seemed a wholeheartedly believe that Josiah was
(19:51):
being directed by God, and theydid not disagree with any of the direction
that he gave, believing that theywould be damned to hell if they did
so. As you may expect,even though Crayfield and his followers were removed
from town life, that didn't meanthat they weren't the topic of discussion and
gossip. If anything, it waseven more talked about especially since the females,
(20:15):
both young and old, were disappearingfrom their homes to go join this
religious group outside of town. Thelocal newspaper began reporting on how Crayfield was
quote leading women, girls, andothers into delusions and unnatural conditions. It
was hot gossip that the women werequote freely running around and abandoning their husbands,
(20:37):
fathers, and brothers. Quote.On one side, I obviously this
guy's just kind of weird. Imean whatever, I think from the descriptions,
we can all agree upon that hehad some interesting ideas. On the
other side of it, you know, these women are trying to it's a
(21:00):
little excitement in their otherwise mundane lifeof you know, farming or town life.
And let's face it, they didn'thave very many rights or any rights,
and little freedom to do what theywanted to do. So here's this
guy saying, come follow me,will worship God, we'll be naked,
(21:21):
and we'll have fun. Yeah whynot? Why not? I don't know
what the fuck not. In thecooler months at the end of nineteen oh
three, life on the island wasless than ideal, so Crayfield and the
brides moved themselves to the home ofCorvalli's local Op Hurt, and I've seen
it in some of the articles.A lot of these articles are very hard
(21:45):
to navigate through because there was nofilter on the media back in the day.
They could basically just say whatever thefuck they wanted and it was just
taken as fact because it was therein the black and white of the paper,
right right, So I've seen itO V's and Victor and O p
as Im Paul. Paul seemed tobe the most like p as Im Paul
(22:11):
used. It seemed to be themost used. So I'm going to stick
with Op Hurt. So his familymembers were caught up in the Brides of
Christ and they they had originated asa family who went to the Salvation Army
whose members of the Salvation Army Church. But the females stuck with Crayfield and
they joined his little sect that hehad going on. So they had run
(22:32):
away from home basically to go jointhis. But then they ended up.
You know, hey, everybody,let's go back. Let's go back to
my house and we'll resume there forthe winter. So there was a sign
promptly posted above the door of theHurt home that stated quote positively. No
admittance except on God's business. Soyeah, very interesting. The religious group
(22:56):
was carrying on as usual, withthe hours of long prayer meetings, rolling
around in the nude, all theother fun they had been having. Eventually,
hurt realized that allowing this into hishome was maybe a little a little
more than he bargained for. Yeah, he's having second thoughts. Oh maybe,
(23:17):
yeah, a little bit. Maybe. The group was told so there
was some rules. Crayfield said,you know, down to everybody. He
took charge of the house, which, you know, if you're used to
be in the man of the houseand being listened to, you're not gonna
you're gonna take too kindly to thislong bearded hippie guy coming in your home
(23:38):
and say nope, I run thehouse now, you know, and and
have everybody listened to you, youknow. So the group slept in one
room on the floor. They wereall nearly naked most of the time.
Hurts possessions were taken from the home, and some of them were even burned.
There was a huge bonfire that wasstarted to burn like belongings, furniture
(24:02):
stuff. People from all over cameto see this bonfire and this spectacle that
was happening at the Hurt home.There were also some orgies that were kind
of getting out of hand, andit was reported, of course, who
knows how likely this is, thatthe noise was heard a quarter of a
mile down the road. That's someorgy. Yeah, you know, you're
(24:23):
not. It's not even like you'vegot a stereo system in some base.
You're you're just making that noise,you know, organically, that noise is
happening. It was just enough,and the men of the town decided to
take matters into their own hands.Oh yeah. At some point, Crayfield
(24:44):
and brother Books were taken in forcompetency hearings at the courthouse. They were
both found to be of sound mine, if not just a little creepy.
Yeah, but there was nothing thatpointed to like insanity or any anything that
was legal. While the courts couldnot bring anything to an illegally, the
law officers advised that the men shouldremove themselves from town. Mister Hurt decided
(25:10):
his patience was at an end withthis group, and he kicked them all
out of his home. A temporaryhome was rented for the group by Hurt's
son, Frank, who was afollower by. You know, he wasn't
as caught up in all this thatthe women were caught up in, and
he managed to secure a house temporarilythat was rented for the group at the
(25:32):
edge of town. It was aboutthis time that a still photo was circulating
around that showed Crayfield and a fieldwith a group of women all in some
sort of undress laying or standing aroundhim. And if you can imagine that,
everybody lost their ship, I meaneverybody lost their ship because here is
(25:53):
black and white proof that somebody's wife, somebody's daughter is hoarding with this dude
out in nature naked. God onlyknows what's happening. And if that's your
wife, you're maybe not so happyabout it. Doesn't matter if it's for
good or not. You might bea little upset. It's for God,
(26:15):
it's for God, But I don'tknow that. Yeah, I don't think
that's a reason. The women andtheir girls were then kind of carted off
from their Messiah. They were sentto live in other parts of the United
States or the State, being sentto institutions and sanitariums to have their behavior
corrected. So these things came toa quick end in this case, and
(26:44):
when we come back from this break, we'll learn how all of this ends
for Edmund Crayfield and his brides ofchrist Ooh. On January fourth, nineteen
oh four, a mob of menshowed up at the rented home where Crayfield
and brother Brooks were lodging. Themen were forced by the mob to the
edge of town of Corvallis, wherethey were promptly tarred and feathered and ran
(27:07):
out of him. Yeah. Brookstook this message to heart and he did
not return. No, And nowEdmund Crayfield didn't didn't pay any heed to
it. Crayfield was found hiding inthe woods by Missus Hurd and her daughter
Maud. The ladies brought the man, still covered in tar feathers, back
(27:33):
to their home, cleaned him up. And what do you think they all
thought would be a good idea todo to get you know, Crayfield back
into the good graces of the community. Make him the mayor. No,
they planned a wedding, so heand Maud were married just days later.
Oh m hmm, Wait wouldn't shemarried? No, she was not.
(27:57):
Maud was Hurt's daughter. Oh yeah. The community was resigned to the fact
that Crayfield wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, but there was hope that he would
calm his shit down and that theorgies would at least stop, since he
was now married to a woman fromyou know, a very respected family.
(28:18):
Apparently Maud was not to be themother of the second Christ, though,
so the search was still on,and Kriyfield left his new wife to seek
out a former member of the Bridesof Christ who was living with her husband
in Portland. The two were caughtin action by her husband, who quickly
filed a complaint of adultery against thetwo. So this is kind of exactly
(28:41):
what you know. The authorities werelooking for, was something legally that they
could take action against him. Crayfield, I teled it out of town,
promptly disappeared. A reward was posted, but I found conflicting amounts in news
articles, so once that it wasfor one hundred and fifty dollars, another
one said three hundred and fifty dollars. This was posted by none other than
(29:04):
his father in law. The formerfather in law, as Maud quickly filed
for divorce. So three months goby, there's no sign of this guy.
Okay, so the town of Corvallisin the surrounding area. Is they
just kind of these people? Theyare thinking, okay, well, we're
finally rid of this guy. TheHoly Rollers, his religious you know things.
(29:25):
It's gone, it's had its day, must be gone. He's not
here, he's not going to showup because he doesn't want to get arrested,
and his wife's divorced him. Sohe's, you know, essentially cut
ties there right, Lo and behold, he is found hiding under the home
of none other than mister Hurt,the Hurt family home. Really, yes,
(29:51):
Authorities are called to the home wherethey find a naked and scraggly Crayfield.
He's too weak to do much.He's completely covered in dirt, ugs,
you name it. He was stillcleaning to the idea that he was
this second Messiah, and he hadbeen surviving below the four floor boats floorboards
(30:11):
of the home, on the scrapsthat Missus Hurt and the other brides of
Christ had been giving him in secret. Oh so they knew. M oh
yeah, the women knew. Thewoman no, please, women know everything,
Okay. Missus Hurt was committed toan asylum about a month before Crayfield
was found under the home. Sohe had been living off of canned goods
(30:32):
and whatever other scraps he could find. So she had not been around to
take care of him for about amonth when he's found. Was it like
a seller or something. I don'tknow. It was like the crawl space
under the house. That's it.That's it. Yeah. The authorities spared
no time in taking him to Portlandto stand before a judge in the matter
(30:52):
of his adultery charges. By thetime he made it to the judge,
yes he was. While on EdmundCrayfield admitted to the crime he had committed,
but he stated that quote in theeyes of God, such things were
not at all improper in a manof God such as he. They found
him guilty after twelve minutes of deliberation. He was asked if he had anything
(31:15):
to say after being convicted of thecrime of adultery and since to two years
in state prison. It was reportedthat he rambled on and on misquoted some
Bible scripture, and then he offeredhis forgiveness to the judge and the jury
members as they quote knew not whatthey did. After serving about fifteen months
of his twenty four months sentence atOregon State penagentry, Criffield went to California.
(31:40):
He spent some time in Los Angeles, and when he realized he couldn't
corner the market on religious zelot's downthere, he moved north to San Francisco,
and he just couldn't let the paststay in the past, and he
began to correspond with a devoted memberfrom his group in Corvallis, and that
was seventeen year old Esther Mitchell.That would have put Esther around like fifteen
(32:05):
when all of this religious stuff wasgoing on in Corvelli's. After he was
incarcerated, she along with many others, were again sent off to insane asylums
the Boys and Girls Society Aid ofOregon they were They were sent off because
(32:27):
it was just, you know,it was hysteria. These women are hysterical,
And it wasn't that this guy wasinciting it. It was these women
are hysterical. He shared with Estherthat she and only she would be the
chosen mother of the Second Messiah whowas coming, but this wasn't good enough.
He also sent some harassing letters tohis ex father in law, quoting
(32:51):
Bible verses and warning him to stayout of his way. But then he
also sent some letters to his exwife, Maud, who had moved to
Seattle at that point to live withher brother and his new wife. And
he asked Maud if they could remarry, and she agreed. She said,
if you come up to Seattle,I'll marry you again, so he did
(33:13):
so. The three months wasn't longenough, no, so he was also
able to convince her brother and hiswife to sell their property in Seattle to
purchase land on the coast of Oregonso that this new Zion could be founded.
So this new Garden of Eden forDare religious group. He claimed that
(33:36):
the new Zion would be the onlysafe place in the world. As he
was about to quote call down thewrath of an angry God on these modern
sodoms of Seattle, Portland, SanFrancisco, and Los Angeles, but especially
his friends in Corvallis, Oregon.He cursed a lot of them. Maud
(33:57):
and Crayfield were once again remarried,this time by an Orthodox minister in Seattle.
Frank Hurt, his wife, andMaud were sent ahead to this New
Garden of Eden while the Second Messiahwould rally the troops so to speak and
gather his remaining faithful and in thehonest, maybe most frequiously well timed of
(34:19):
coincidences, the great earthquake that happenedin San Francisco hit as Crayfield was traveling
to gather his new followers on Aprileighteenth in nineteen o six. And when
the news of this came out inthe newspapers and it was everywhere, he
reportedly smiled, but he showed nosurprise at it, and he said,
(34:39):
quote, I knew that God wouldrespond. And he's quoted as saying that
and using this to prove that histeachings, you, his righteousness was there
in what he was saying. Sohe's claiming that he he's responsible for this
earthquake in San Francisco and that ifeverybody else doesn't fall in line, he's
(35:01):
going to do the same in otherplaces. Words spread that the prophet was
back in town, and his femalefollowers started making their way to flock to
his side. It was reported thatthe train had never seen such an uptake
in Fairs at that up until thattime, those that couldn't afford the train
(35:22):
fair walked miles and miles days ofhazardous paths to this unpopulated area, and
or again where this land was.Women came from all over in groups or
on their own, of all ages, and this included the young esther Mitchell.
There were teenagers, young women whohad run away from home, women
(35:44):
and their children, older women whohad left their husbands. They were all
just leaving in the middle of thenight, some leaving notes before they disappeared
for their family members, just sayingI'm going to the prophet, and you
know, don't try to stop me. This is where I'm going. Crayfield
continued to speak of his prophecy ofthe doom of Corvallis and the other towns
(36:07):
that it proved to be inhospitable tohis followers, and when the group made
their way to the New Zion,a plot of land kneel near Waldport,
Oregon, he declared that the sinfulcity would be destroyed, but it was
time to find the chosen woman tocarry the second Messiah. Now it's time,
all right. Never mind, hehad already told esther Mitchell that it
(36:30):
was her. Yeah, yeah,but you know, he didn't want to
exclude anybody, because what if hemade a wrong decision. So in this
great bonfire, the women burned theirclothes, whatever belongings they brought, and
nakedness again prevailed. There again wasthe moaning and the rolling, and the
praying for hours at all resumed andit was just this height of frenzy before
(36:55):
everything just came tumbling down. OnApril twenty six, a man from Corvallis
was able to find out where Crayfieldand the Brides of Christ were now congregating.
This was Lewis Hartley, whose wifeand daughter had run off to join
the group in Waldport. He decidedto make his way down there. He
was going to get them back.He was going to put a stop to
all this fucking nonsense once and forall. He was just going to handle
(37:19):
business, yes, well in thistomfoolery. Yes, So he stops along
the way to purchase at thirty twocaliber revolver and a box of bullets,
and he arrived in Newport just asthis faery with his wife and daughter on
it was pulling away. And wouldn'tyou know it, of all the luck
who was on that ferry but noneother than the new Prophet himself. So
(37:43):
Hartley quickly took a shot at Crayfieldfive times in rapid succession, nothing happened
but click every time. None ofthe shots were fired correctly, and Crayfield
simply smiled and assured all around himthat God protected him and he could not
be harmed. Hartley later claimed thatthe bullets were not the correct type for
(38:05):
the gun. Quote, it wasthe goddamn fool who sold me the cartridges
and the gun. The gun iscenter fire, the cartridges are rim fire.
That's why the son of a bitchis still alive. Yeah, this
mishap only fueled the flames of angerfor the rest of the men. Back
up in Corballis. It was kindof this rally cry where it was like,
(38:27):
you know what, Hartley's on theright path, let's fucking get this
guy. Yeah, So groups ofmen began gathering supplies, guns, ammo.
They began making their way to thecoast of Oregon to find him.
It's kind of unclear if somehow wordgot to Crayfield or if it had been
the plan all along, but Crayfieldand Maud left not longer after everyone was
(38:52):
gathered in the New Zion. There'sthis report that they stated to the followers
they were going to Canada like BritishColumbia to establish a new colony due to
them not being welcomed in Waltport.One account is that they were forced to
leave the land that Frank Kurt hadpurchased and to camp out on the beach.
(39:15):
I really only read that in oneplace, so I'm not sure if
that's correct or if it was justalways the plan. They were there temporarily
and then they were going to goto British Columbia. I don't know.
The group of men from Corvallis wereon the hunt, and some were thinking
the Crayfield would again hide in thewoods as he had dined in the past,
(39:36):
but not everyone thought that would bethe case. The brother of Esther
Mitchell, so his name is GeorgeMitchell, gathered his revolver and AMMO.
He headed to the train station inAlbany, Oregon, hoping to catch Crayfield
if he was to travel to Portlandor further north. He arrived a day
late, and he learned that Crayfield, along with Maud, had made their
(39:59):
way the train to Seattle already,so he waited and he took the next
train to be able to follow themup to Seattle. On the morning of
May seventh, nineteen oh six,George Mitchell was walking the streets of Seattle
in search of Edmund Crayfield or hiswife Maud. Whether divine intervention or sheer
luck, who knows, but hespotted them outside of a convenience store on
(40:22):
First in Cherry Street. George walkedup behind the couple and he quietly put
a revolver to the back of Crayfield'shead and he pulled the trigger. Edmund
Crayfield died instantly. The bullet quoteentered the back of the neck, breaking
the spinal cord at the base ofthe brain, and then rang around to
(40:43):
the right jaw, which it shattered. There was quite a mass hysteria right
as you would imagine somebody just beingshot casually on the street. Seattle's not
a quiet town. Even at thistime it was probably be pretty populated.
Maud was hysterical. She was claimingthat her husband would rise again like christ
(41:07):
Head on the third day, soshe didn't want his body to be buried.
Mitchell just stood by. He washappy with the end result. He
stayed with his gun in his hand, and he calmly waited for the police
to arrive, and then he handedover the gun. Didn't protest going.
He just matter of factly agreed togo, and he was like, yep,
(41:30):
I did it. Let's go.Get this taken care of. So
he was taken into custody to awaittrial, and while at the police station,
was able to send a telegram toMaud's father in Corvelli's reading quote,
I got my man and am injail. Here am in jail. Well
you know you paid by the letter. Oh yeah, yeah. Franz Edmund
(41:51):
Crayfield was buried in the lake ViewCemetery on May ninth, with only Maud
at the site to mourn him.He did not, in fact rise again
from the dead as the second Christyear I know, but the story doesn't
in there as you would expect.George Mitchell was held on murder charges.
(42:13):
Of course. He was placed ontrial in King County Court. It was
no doubt the most spectacular event ofthe time. At this point, witnesses
were called in on what had takenplace while all of the women were under
Crayfield's control. There was testimony fromseveral people describing the quote unquote free love
that was taken place at the meetings, the mental state of some of the
(42:35):
girls and women who were sent tolive into Asylance or the Oregon Boys and
Girls Aid Society. The details werewell beyond what societal norms would allow anyone's
sensibilities to process in that day andage, but the women were not to
be blamed, as they were toofragile to know what Crayfield was preaching was
wrong. Okay, yeah. GeorgeMitchell was hailed as some sort of hero
(43:00):
for ridding the world of this prophet. Esther Mitchell, who was a devoted
follower of Crayfield and George's sister,reportedly sat stone faced and emotionless throughout the
entire trial. When questioned us tothe crime, reportedly, George said,
quote, I came to Seattle tokill this man who ruined my sister.
I completed my job in quote.On July tenth, the jury deemed that
(43:24):
George Mitchell was not guilty and hewas acquitted of all charges. Huh,
yeah, I think that's quite interesting. There. There in lies the problem
with the judicial system back then.It was based off of morality than not
facts. This man committed murder,yea, he should have been convicted of
(43:47):
murder, and he was like,yep, I did it. Caught with
the gun in his hand freely admittedtons of witnesses. Yeah, so whether
you agree with why he did itor not, there was no reason for
you to do that other than youdidn't agree with his beliefs. I don't
know that it's I don't feel thatthat's justice. You know, whatever what's
(44:14):
done is done. Esther had remainedcalm, motionless, like I said,
while her brother was on trial.When asked you know about this later on,
she just she really has no response, I guess you would say.
So. With all of this excitementcoming to a close, the Mitchell family,
(44:36):
they newly acquitted George and two ofhis brothers and Esther included, made
plans to go home to Corvallis,and by all accounts from her brothers,
she was willingly going with them onthis train to Portland. As the family
made their way to board the train, Esther pulled out a pearl handled revolver,
brought it to the back of George'shead, and pulled the trigger,
(44:59):
killing him in distantly. Just ashe had killed Crayfield, she had killed
him. Her brothers never thought coming, they could not react quick enough to
prevent it, and she was immediatelyplaced in custody and taken to the police
station to be held, and sheagain had no emotion. When asked why
(45:20):
she had done this, she claimedthat she and Maud had planned this in
the eventuality that George would be acquittedof Crayfield's murder. Maud was then brought
in and she was held as wellas an accomplice. She corroborated Esther's story,
stating she had purchased the gun,but that it was agreed upon that
Esther would pull the trigger. Bothwomen were tried on murder charges, both
(45:42):
completely admitting to the crime. Maudwould be found dead in her jail cell
before they end of the trial.She took her own life by way of
strychnine poisoning. How did she getthat? Who knows? Esther was found
to be not guilty by reason ofinsanity and she was sent to stay at
Western State Hospital in Stillacom in Washington. She resided there until her paroled release
(46:08):
in April of nineteen o nine.That's not that long. There were some
very wild accusations about her in thelocal papers after she was released. One
story was that she ran away beforeshe was a like officially paroled, and
the asylum didn't know where she wasso so they didn't get in trouble.
(46:31):
Basically, to keep it all hushhush, they said that she had been
paroled already, but the parole apparentlywas still in the works in this story,
so so they're saying that they werelike, oh, yeah, she
was paroled. She didn't leave beforeshe was paroled. She she was It
was fine. It was all fine. Yah. That was That was one
(46:52):
accounting of it. Another was thatshe was such a loose and wanton woman
that she had run off with Chinesepeople and had a quote love the poppy
flowery, and that's where I'm like, this is just it's so exaggerated.
Yeah, but they there were somany stories of this in local newspapers that
(47:14):
it just was circulated that that's whathappened, and it really it doesn't surprise
me, but it does surprise methat people are just so gullible that they
just believe everything that's in writing.Yea. In reality, she was paroled
officially and she was living with misterand missus Hurt and Corvallis. She had
(47:36):
been given to them in custody whileshe was on parole from the Washington State
Hospital. Esther would go on toget married to a local man by the
name of James Barry in Waldport onApril ninth in nineteen fourteen. Unfortunately,
by August of the same year,she took her own life with strict nine
poisoning, the same way that Maudhad done the years prior. She was
(48:00):
not able to mentally or emotionally recoverfrom being involved with the Brides of Christ
and didn't get over Crayfield's murder byher brother. She was only twenty six
years old at the time of herdeath. Yeah, it's very sad,
I mean, yes, but yougot to think, like fifteen years old,
(48:22):
she's caught up in this huge religiousmovement and just really never recovered from
it. Yea, many of thewomen involved in the religious movement were never
the same. Many of them were, like I said, sent to asylums
multiple times. They had a hardtime resuming their daily lives when they came
out. And I'm completely fascinated bywhole all of this happened. And I
(48:47):
think there's a lot of research thatpeople have put into looking at like the
psychology of this type of case.Yeah, something that I read in all
of this stood out to me,and I found this in an essay written
by I think her name is Sophieco It's hosted. This essay that she
wrote is hosted on the Portland StateUniversity Library website, and I think it
(49:10):
sums up kind of the feeling ofwhat was happening at this time for these
women. So quote, many ofthe young women that joined came from broken
families in tough or boring lives.All of these followers seemed to be looking
for security, a sense of belonging, and perhaps freedom from the structures of
prim and proper Victorian society. Therewere a multitude of circumstances throughout the group
(49:37):
that gave Krefield the opportunity to commencethem of his religion, which is why
he chose Corvallis as his target inthe first place. Along with their specific
pass Corvallis was described as a boringtown with a curfew at nine o'clock,
as a socially restricted gender living ina dull town while their husbands were gone
(49:58):
farming all day. Clear why Craftfield'sfemale followers wanted to break out of their
social confines. Yeah, this groupwas easy to persuade, and they surely
had no hesitation to call Kraftfield,their leader. End quote. I that
was just I mean we could goon and on and on and talk about
why do you think this and whydo you think that? I think that
(50:20):
really summed it up, honestly.Yeah, just the Monday in life and
someone gave him a chance and outbasically, and they took it right.
And and this was a time when, um, you know, females were
held to a very strict standard,you know, and you still you didn't
(50:43):
have opinions that were not your own. You weren't supposed to m you know,
there wasn't there was no progressive thinkinggoing on in a small community like
this. I'm sure no. So, yeah, no, wonder he came
in and just was it was spellbinding for these women and you know,
for even for some of these menwho continued to help him with things.
(51:08):
So definitely, I mean it's Ithink it was both like the boring,
mundane town but also how charismatic hewas. Well, yeah, he wouldn't
have gotten anywhere if he if hedidn't have a presence about him. Yeah.
Well that's the story of the Bridesof Christ corveallis. There's a lot
(51:29):
of local historians that have done researchon this topic. Yeah, and I'm
going to link to a couple ofbooks. And I think there's even like
a movie. I didn't watch themovie. It would be a great lifetime
movie. Oh my god, canyou imagine that is a lifetime afternoon movie?
Oh yeah? Or what are thoseafter school specials? The Brides of
(51:53):
Christ? Yeah, his um ifever, you would look at a picture
and you would be like, yeah, that guy's fucking absolutely bonkers. This
guy's photo at some point when heis at the penitentiary, Yeah, he
looks just wild, like his eyesare just yeah, he he could have
(52:19):
been like I equate that to likelooking at a Manson photo. Yeah,
come at me, Broyes. Hedoes, and he's like smirking. He's
like smirking in this part. It'sit's and you know that took a lot
because the like photography of the time, yeah, is different. It wasn't
(52:40):
like just an instant snapshot, likeyou had to hold still for a couple
of seconds. So the fact thatthis is what his photo looks like from
jail is yeah, he put effortinto that. It was. But that's
definitely the vibe that I would getfrom him, just that sociopathic psychotic.
(53:06):
Oh yeah, most definitely. Yeah, is it's it's something pretty sure.
So yeah, that's a story ofFranz Edmund Crayfield. Just that The Brides
of Christ sound like the next QuentinTarantino movie. Yeah it does, okay,
(53:30):
I could see him doing something withthat. No, just that's what
it sounds like. Yeah, Icould see it. I could All right,
Well, thank you everyone for joiningus on this wild ride today.
We appreciate all of your support.We will be back in two weeks to
bring you another fascinating case. Untilwe meet again, camp first, stay
(53:52):
safe and stay out of the damnwoods, especially if there's a religious fanatic
in there by. Hey,
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