00:00:04
Sarah Bryan: It's not known whether they themselves
thought they could perform the abortion or
00:00:12
whether they took her to a doctor who was
willing to do it. It was a felony at the time in most states,
including Ohio and Indiana.
00:00:20
Phoebe Judge: Pearl Bryan was a 22-year-old
woman from Greencastle, Indiana. She was five months pregnant and she wasn't
married.
00:00:28
The year was 1896, and so she had a big problem. Sarah Bryan: She's from a fairly well-to-do
family and she had a boyfriend named Scott
00:00:39
Jackson, who was a dental student from Cincinnati. She got pregnant, either by Scott Jackson
or by her cousin Will Wood, who was another
00:00:49
boyfriend of hers. When she found out she was pregnant, she contacted
Jackson and Wood, asking for help.
00:00:56
We don't know what nature of help. Phoebe Judge: We're hearing Pearl Bryan's
story from folklorist Sarah Bryan.
00:01:02
Sarah Bryan: Jackson and his roommate in dental
school, who was a young man named Alonzo Walling,
00:01:10
told Pearl that she was to come to Cincinnati
and they would arrange for her to have an
00:01:14
abortion. Phoebe Judge: She arrived in Cincinnati on
February 1st with a small suitcase, and either
00:01:20
the men did take her to a doctor who botched
the abortion, or they attempted to use their
00:01:24
dental school training to perform the procedure
themselves. Sarah Bryan: But either way, she ended up
dead, and they panicked and carried her body
00:01:34
across the Ohio River to Fort Thomas, Kentucky... Cut off her head so they wouldn't be able
to identify her, they thought, and left her
00:01:43
in a farmer's field. Phoebe Judge: They left her body in the field,
but they took Pearl Bryan's head with them.
00:01:50
Little did they know that even without her
head, her identity would be figured out pretty
00:01:55
easily, and that generations of strangers
would do their best to make certain that Pearl
00:01:59
Bryan's name was not forgotten. I'm Phoebe Judge, this is Criminal. Sarah Bryan: There was blood all over the
ground around the body, but also higher up,
00:02:19
which suggests that she was both standing
and that her heart was still beating. So it does sound like there's a good chance
she was alive when they cut her head off.
00:02:29
Phoebe Judge: And had gone through this horrible
series of events preceding that.
00:02:34
Sarah Bryan: Yeah, an absolutely physically
and emotionally traumatic experience, ended
00:02:41
by realizing that these two men that she thought
she could trust were going to kill her.
00:02:46
Phoebe Judge: Because they were terrified
that they had screwed up. Sarah Bryan: Right, that's the theory is that
they realized that
00:02:54
Phoebe Judge: They were in over their head. Sarah Bryan: Exactly. They're in over their head, panicking, not
just that she was pregnant but that whatever
00:03:00
had happened during the attempted abortion
had injured her so grievously that they would
00:03:07
be blamed for her murder. Phoebe Judge: Pearl Bryan's body was discovered
in the farmer's field by a 9-year-old boy
00:03:12
who ran to get help. Sarah Bryan: And it was apparently an incredibly
nasty, bloody scene, blood on the bushes and
00:03:20
trees around her, blood where the body was
lying, and no head, of course, which would
00:03:26
have been absolutely shocking to everybody
who saw it. Within a fairly short space of time, lots
and lots of people started descending on the
00:03:38
crime scene — thrill seekers, basically. And they collected souvenirs, leaves and twigs,
ideally ones that had blood on them, that
00:03:51
was the most exciting, but they essentially
denuded this place where the body was found,
00:03:58
taking apart all the bushes and trees around
to take back souvenirs of the crime scene.
00:04:03
Phoebe Judge: Pearl had told her parents she
was going to visit friends in Indianapolis,
00:04:07
and so they didn't think it was too strange
that they hadn't heard from her for a few
00:04:10
days. But when they read about a headless young
woman in the newspaper, they traveled to Kentucky
00:04:16
to see the body. Sarah Bryan: She was formally identified when
they found a shopkeeper's tag in one of her
00:04:23
shoes, which they traced back to a shoe store,
I believe, in Greencastle, where she had bought
00:04:29
her shoes. Also, a strange detail that her mother pointed
out, that Pearl apparently had webbed feet,
00:04:37
webbed toes, and so did the body. So that was a fairly positive identification
as well.
00:04:44
Phoebe Judge: Was her head ever found? Sarah Bryan: Her head has never been found.
00:04:50
Phoebe Judge: It's now tradition to leave
a penny heads up on her grave when you visit
00:04:56
in order to "provide Pearl a head." Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling were caught,
and each man accused the other of the murder.
00:05:06
The trial was a total spectacle, huge front
page stories around the country. Sarah Bryan: There was one newspaper that
said it was the greatest tragedy of the 19th
00:05:15
century — evidently somebody who'd forgotten
about the Civil War. It was truly sensational, and the two young
men, despite what they were accused of, became
00:05:26
sort of heartthrobs. There was a problem at the jail because so
many young women were showing up trying to
00:05:33
visit them. They got letters from young women proposing
marriage and, in some cases, at least a couple
00:05:41
of girls invented alibis and tried to float
them to the police, saying that Jackson, or
00:05:48
Walling, or both had been with her and trying
to get them released. Phoebe Judge: The two men were found guilty
and sentenced to death by hanging.
00:05:56
Sarah Bryan: It was a double hanging. It was the last hanging in Newport, Kentucky.
00:06:01
My understanding is that there was word that
Pearl Bryan's family and friends were putting
00:06:08
together a lynch mob, were going to break
the men out of jail to lynch them. Phoebe Judge: In fact, while the men were
in jail awaiting their execution, there was
00:06:17
a big prison break and all of the prisoners
made a run for it. But Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling stayed
behind in their cells just to hide from Pearl
00:06:26
Bryan's family. So the men who killed Pearl Bryan went down
in history basically as heartthrobs, but her
00:06:33
legacy was a little more complicated. She was a murder victim, but because she was
unmarried and pregnant, her story and her
00:06:41
so-called mistakes were made into a song. North Carolina Ramblers: [Singing.] Way down in Yander's Valley, / Where the flowers
fade and bloom, / Our own Pearl Bryan is sleeping,
00:06:55
/ In a cold and silent tomb... Phoebe Judge: This is a recording by the North
Carolina Ramblers.
00:07:00
Back then, a lot of popular music used what
we now call a "ripped from the headlines"
00:07:06
formula. Think Law & Order: SVU, with a fiddle. North Carolina Ramblers: [Singing.]
00:07:13
"What have I done, Scott Jackson, / That you
should take my life? / I've always loved you dearly, / And would
have been your wife"...
00:07:23
Sarah Bryan: Most popular ones by far were
the ones about murders of young women, and
00:07:30
they follow a very predictable structure in
most cases. There's an innocent young woman who's deceived
by an evil lover.
00:07:41
You can sort of read between the lines that
she's pregnant. He decides to do away with her.
00:07:48
She follows him naively to some remote place,
and there's usually a scene where she pleads
00:07:53
for her life and promises to go away without
causing him more trouble. And he usually kills her, either by stabbing
or drowning.
00:08:01
And that's the basic plot of most, you'd call
them murdered girl ballads, basically.
00:08:07
Phoebe Judge: And these are to do, a lot of
times, as you say, with pregnancy, [affirmation]
00:08:12
unwanted pregnancy, [affirmation] inappropriate
pregnancy [affirmation]. So are these rather cautionary tales?
00:08:17
Sarah Bryan: Definitely. And you get that feeling, especially with
the songs that start with an invitation to
00:08:24
the listener, like, "Come and listen to my
story. I'll tell you the sad tale of such and such,"
and they often end, as well, with, "Don't
00:08:34
let this be your fate. Don't trust a false-hearted lover. Stay home with your parents and be virtuous."
00:08:41
Phoebe Judge: Within four years of her death,
there were already several versions of the
00:08:45
ballad of Pearl Bryan, and since then the
song has been recorded dozens of times.
00:08:51
And as it passed from one person to the next,
it changed a bit, different sets of verses
00:08:55
sung to different tunes. Which is your favorite version? Sarah Bryan: My favorite version is the one
recorded by Burnett & Rutherford.
00:09:04
They were very traditional musicians, made
great string band records, square dance music,
00:09:14
and their Pearl Bryan has a real traditional
feel to it, a real folk feel. Burnett & Rutherford: [Singing.]
00:09:18
Way down in Yander's Valley, / Where flowers
fade and bloom, / A-sleeps our own Pearl Bryan,
00:09:24
/ In a cold and silent tomb. / She died not broken-hearted, / Not sick
nor lingering ill, / But in one instant parted,
00:09:40
/ From home she loved so well... Phoebe Judge: Do you find the fact that you're
surrounded by these murder ballads creepy,
00:09:49
or do you hear them more for the song and
not so much the details? I find that I don't really know what they're
saying, but I just like the song.
00:09:58
Sarah Bryan: Well, they're great songs. Just their musical value is part of why they
survived and part of why I like them.
00:10:08
They also are really the best memorials to
these murdered women. If it weren't for the songs, we very likely
wouldn't remember Pearl Bryan today, or Omie
00:10:20
Wise, Mary Fagan, the other women and girls
who were commemorated in these songs.
00:10:30
Phoebe Judge: Because murder ballads transmit
these true crime stories from one generation
00:10:37
to the next, we were interested in what a
2015 arrangement might sound like, so we asked
00:10:44
the band Elephant Micah to create a new version
of the ballad of Pearl Bryan 120 years after
00:10:51
her death. Elephant Micah: [Singing.] People, if you'll listen, / A story I'll relate.
00:10:54
/ It happened near Fort Thomas, / In the old
Kentucky state. / On January the 31st, / The dreadful deed
was done, / By Jackson and by Walling, / How
00:11:10
cold their blood did run. / "What have I done, Scott Jackson, / That
you should take my life?
00:11:12
/ I've always loved you dearly, / And would
have been your wife." / The driver was the only one / To tell of
her sad fate.
00:11:14
/ Now they've murdered poor Pearl Bryan / In
old Kentucky state. / A farmer passing by next day, / Her lifeless
form he found, / Lying on the cold, dark spot
00:12:18
/ Where her blood had stained the ground. / The message was brought to her home: / Poor
Pearl Bryan's dead — / Killed by Walling
00:12:58
and Jackson, / And they took away her head. / [Guitar interlude.] / Then in came Pearl's mother / And to Jackson
she said, / "You have killed my daughter,
00:16:00
/ Please tell me, where's her head?" / Scott Jackson stood there stubborn. / These are the words he said: / "When we
meet Pearl in heaven, / There'll be no missing
00:16:29
head." / Please tell me, where's her head? / Tell me, where's her head? / Pearl Bryan is dead, / Can't find her head.
00:16:35
/ Walling and Jackson hung. Phoebe Judge: Criminal is produced by Lauren
Spohrer and me.
00:16:40
A lot of people helped out on this episode:
Rob Byers, Joseph O'Connell, Matthew O'Connell,
00:16:46
Jason Evans Groth, Emily Hilliard, and Aaron
Smithers. Julienne Alexander creates original illustrations
for each episode of Criminal.
00:16:55
If you'd like to find out more about Elephant
Micah or download this version of the ballad
00:16:59
of Pearl Bryan, you can find out more on our
website, thisiscriminal.com. We're coming to the West Coast to do a little
tour this fall.
00:17:08
We'll be in Seattle, San Francisco, and Los
Angeles, and we're going to start the tour
00:17:13
at Motorco Music Hall here in Durham. Tickets go on sale today. Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from
PRX, a collective of the 13 best podcasts
00:17:23
around. Check out the other shows at radiotopia.fm. Shows like Strangers, made by our friend,
Lea Thau.
00:17:31
She has a new episode out, marking the one-year
anniversary of her Love Hurts series.
00:17:35
Speaker 1: And when we first started dating,
and this was a reality TV moment, I was dating
00:17:41
someone else. And that was why I was trying to
Speaker 2: Hedge your bets? Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:17:48
I mean as unromantic as that is. Speaker 2: I did not know that. Speaker 1: I know.
00:17:54
Phoebe Judge: Go listen. Radiotopia is made possible with support from
the Knight Foundation and Mailchimp, celebrating
00:18:00
creativity, chaos, and teamwork. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. Jingle: Radiotopia from PRX.