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hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is more bad [Music] it's morbid it's morbid in the what time
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is it mid-morning early afternoon yeah yeah so we don't really have a song for that
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um it's morbid on an afternoon well it doesn't slap all right I I mean we can work on it we can we can kind of
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Workshop that I have heartburn so I feel like it's limiting me right now she's living in an Alka-Seltzer world right
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now so you know you're about to turn 27 and then you just can't put hot sauce on
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your eggs anymore everything just falls apart like what the [ __ ] I literally have all the only thing I've eaten today
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is my little breakfast burrito that I made which said but you had hot sauce but I put the tiniest little bit hot
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sauce on it and I can't take it anymore you're living in a angry tummy world you
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know I know unfortunately my tum's fine it's just my my esophagus it's being a little [ __ ] from because of your tongue
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well maybe I need like spurting that acid right back up there yeah I don't like it remember when we looked into
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like what heartburn really is yeah it's a little scary when you really look at what it is we won't get into it right
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now but you guys should look into it yourselves if you look at it too look it up [ __ ] yourselves up and look at it
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it's pretty gross it involves fermentation right yeah there's a lot of really gross things that happen in your
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gut what are you doing over there I'm just fixing a wire because it was in my face and I felt like I was getting
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slapped by a wire that's kind of funny it's like the wire because I'm trying to drink my coffee
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yeah you drink your coffee while I drink my [ __ ] Alka-Seltzer over here I'll drink my tiramisu coffee I feel ooh
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yummy from dead sled yeah from dead sled check that out yummy um I have a flavor to try later I hope
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that my heartburn goes away so that I can try it I hope you can too because I love dead said coffee who doesn't
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[Laughter] like that's our company somebody else only I can love them just me I own the
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love of them you know why not but what's up man uh what's up what's up is that we're going back in time today what what
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two my favorite kinds of things which is old-timey things you love old tiny things where is it in Europe uh no it is
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not American uh it's in America and it's in you know our neck of the woods a little bit oh yeah okay nice a little
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bit okay you could drive there I guess okay it's there so this is a wild one has to do with you know uh how shitty
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the death penalty is and how really shitty it was back then okay it has to do with mental illness and how it was
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handled back then not well [ __ ] and it has to do with whether or not somebody was executed for a crime they
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potentially didn't [Music] so it's a it's a big okay that always stresses me out a little bit this one's
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this is a lot I will say this one's a lot so hang in so where we're gonna be talking about Elroy Kent and the murder
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of Delia Congdon okay now Elroy Kent is our convicted murderer okay here so I want to talk about him first just
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because he's the one that we we're going to talk about Delia of course but I just
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want to bring up Elroy because you should know what we're working with here and why it was such a shock that he
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eventually receives the death penalty okay because whoa like he had a lot going on
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so Elroy Kent was born in Rutland County Vermont in 1878 he was born to George and Caroline Kent according to the 1880
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census he had one sister Bell Kent but later he would end up having six more siblings oh she's a big family that
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sentence really popped off it really did but for back then that was just like normal you know but that's a family yeah
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that was like having two so exactly so Kent himself said that he always hated school when he was younger he was kind
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of a troublemaker he couldn't really focus and he would run away from home a lot and he probably just to get some
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peace and quiet but each time he did this he would either be tracked down by the local constable and just returned
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back to the family or he would just take it upon himself to come home he was like
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I never really ran away for a long time I just did it all the time now exactly now when he did bother to show up at
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Homer school he spent a lot of time like I said getting in trouble he liked to prank people he just liked to cause
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havoc he liked to cause a lot of trouble for people okay once he actually set fire to a neighbor's plow when he was
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younger like a kid that's a dick move uh and it was being stored in the man's barn and he only intended to do it this
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is why like his reasoning skills were not great even from like you know kids reasoning skills are not great anyways
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but like his were shockingly bad because evidently he was like I thought this was
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a joke lighting fire to this plow in a barn yeah but like we should work on this sense of humor yeah like luckily it
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was caught but if it wasn't caught it definitely would have spread very quickly and burned the entire Barn down
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and probably the surrounding structures oh my God and he just like couldn't understand that he was like it's a joke
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guys get over it do you know like roughly how old he was I think when he did this he was somewhere in like the 12
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range okay I feel like he should know yeah yeah you absolutely should now Not only was he a pain in the ass at this
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point getting into trouble running away all the time just causing issues for everybody around him but Kent's actual
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criminal career began way earlier than this he began his criminal career when he was just seven years old
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at seven years old he and his friend from school stole a cooking stove for a hut
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how the [ __ ] did they manage to even move a cooking stove no idea and so they did that they got caught but he was
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seven so they weren't gonna like throw him in prison for that they were just like wow that's really bad don't steal
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things don't steal ovens you little later when he was in his teens he stole a horse from a neighbor in Brookline
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Vermont and wrote it for several miles but then just jumped off it let the horse go and hopped a train Bound for
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Townsend okay I feel like he's running from something yeah and that's the thing you can't really find out a lot about
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that there's just not a lot about his family yeah in the 1800s but once he was in Townsend he found a short he actually
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found work there he found like short-term work chopping wood and while he's there he breaks into the train
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station at night and steals three mileage books that he later gave to friends and people he knew
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okay now mileage books are books that dry like um um train conductors would use to log
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their hours and their mileage I know I just motioned like a car but I motioned a car wheel like I was like steering
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wheel driving well you don't know how to drive a train you know who knows maybe they I don't think they have that but
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probably not but I who Am I who am I that's just my little stuff pantomime for driving something anything even
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though like a plane I'm like yep that's how we do it she's really going going crazy on the 10 and two there and now
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it's like a ship's wheel of like wow but these books were not valuable monetarily
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but like they were just valuable to these drivers into like Administration purposes like for administration
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purposes so it was just a very strange thing to steal and kind of a dick move a very dick move it'll be like now if
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somebody stole your Google calendar yeah it's like they just stole [ __ ] that's
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important to you because you need it to like function just function like do your
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job like it's like that's all and it's like he couldn't sell those he wasn't making any money off of them he just
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stole them to be a dick yeah you know um and they're also very clearly marked as property of the railroad so like I
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don't know a lot of people that are going to want to take those off your hands because like that's bad right um
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so they were quickly recovered okay because people like that he gave them to were like I don't want this and would
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just leave it somewhere like that's not mine because why would you want that it's just such a strange thing to do so
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in because he did this he was quickly arrested and sentenced to 20 months in the House of Corrections dad he stole
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[ __ ] and he broke into a train station yeah so wrong the Casual theft of a horse by which by the way was quickly
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recovered as well yay I ended the theft of completely valueless mileage books these are just like Petty crimes in the
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grand scheme of things yeah like you know like they're not violent you know again he's really not doing anything
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that he's is gaining any kind of value for himself he's just doing it he's just [ __ ] around and this was like stuff
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he did when he was a teenager and it was just kind of like okay he's just he's just Elroy this is Elroy this is who he
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is but in 1896 when he was 18 years old he was brought before a judge for something different he was brought
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before a judge for trying to burglarize a store in Brookline ooh which we're starting to escalate yes as we can see
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that's the thing when you were saying like it's just like petty crime it's like slowly yeah it's getting worse and
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worse and he claimed that he was like I did not try to Rob this man's store that
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wasn't my intent he did admit to the judge that he had destroyed several of the man's beehives that's [ __ ] rude
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which again just rude [ __ ] and like wow you're really you're playing to fire there buddy yeah like that's just really
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rude and he's broken a light in the store he admitted to that so I was just being disruptive as hell that's what
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you're telling me and what happened was his uncle ended up paying a fine and he was free to like to go after this man
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but only two months later he was caught again trying to break into the home of a
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man named Royal Mars yes his name is Royal yes Mars me too that's an awesome name hi I'm Royal Mars
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baby and you don't get away with trying to break into Royal Mars's House Idaho I
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don't know if you thought you would I never did I never thought I never did I don't know why Elroy thought he could I
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was born with the knowledge that you do not attempt to break into Royal's home I
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thought we all were right to be honest that's what maybe that's a more a more modern knowledge that we are born with
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okay they didn't have it then but for this one he was sentenced to jail and I don't know how many months because I
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couldn't find the exact it just said many months many many months many months however you feel is many that's how many
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yeah that could be anything yeah so at this point he's just a pain in the ass he's kind of an [ __ ] yeah but so far
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sure he's escalating but he's not really stealing again anything of value he's not reselling things he's not hurting
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people physically yeah of course it's like the 1800s so nobody's like hey what's going on
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why are you taking random [ __ ] because it did seem at times that the act of stealing was equally or more important
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as the value of items that he was stealing it seemed like he just like like doing it to do the act of breaking
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in somewhere the act of stealing worthless [ __ ] that would just make someone's life like slightly
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inconvenient right like a very strange set of events that is weird but this changed in 1899 when he was 21 years old
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he said it's the brink of the 1900s and what's crazy to me exactly he's like we're entering a new era but what's
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crazy to me is he's getting older and escalating and I'm like so your punishment gets greater the older you
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get yeah so why are you escalating your crimes so that the punishment you get is
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going to be far worse de-escalate so he's 21 years old 1899 and that year he was caught robbing a store in Milton
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Vermont no he just broke a light and just broke a light no he stole seven gold watches a suit of clothes a hat and
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a pair of shoes and he thought he was going to get away with that yeah damn and the thing that's
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a loop well this one's wild to me because during the while he was in the middle of robbing the store
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um a night Watchman saw him and the night Watchman fired his double-barreled shotgun hit him in the leg and the back
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with buckshot what I was like whoa in the back you said yeah holy cow he was left in really
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bad shape and the injury from the shotgun he he had to end up being hospitalized for several weeks from it
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wow but he recovered and once he was finished healing his crimes had earned him three years in the state prison in
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Windsor straight to jail so they were like you feeling good cool you're gone wrong so after his release from Windsor
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in 18 in uh I think it was so the timelines between these ones get a little hairy because this was in 1899
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but they say like after his release in Windsor in early 1900 so they say it was a three-year prison stint I'm not sure
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if he actually served the whole three years because it seems like it's about 1901 9 like somewhere around there that
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this happened okay maybe he got off for like good behavior and maybe like time served in the hospital or something so
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either way he was sentenced to the three years in the state prison in Windsor he
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did serve some time oh yeah now after he was released from there he traveled to Brattleboro where's the Brattleboro and
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um is that a Maine Brattleboro I need to look it up now because I need to know I'll Vamp I just don't go to Maine that
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often so I don't know a lot about it I've been to like I think Portsmouth Vermont it's Vermont we're in Vermont I
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only went to Vermont one time Vermont's cool yeah I liked it yeah we like Vermont anyway Brattleboro Vermont
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okay um so he traveled to Brattleboro and he was traveling there to visit his cousin
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w.g Kent I always love how everyone's name back then was like WG yeah I like it but like I it's nothing really
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goes past Royal Mars no nothing will beat that and I obviously know that like they had real names and that those are
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initials wait what they did yeah like I'm not saying like it was WG like that's I know that but I
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like how they referred to them as that yeah it's like like DW exactly my favorite where my Arthur heads out there
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so while staying with that family his cousin his actual film he learned that his cousin WG had recently got a payment
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of some sort of fifty dollars oh a hot air big money yeah so one evening while everyone was asleep Elroy Kent just goes
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through his cousin's [ __ ] looking for that money and he's you're staying in my
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CD house wg's house and he only ended up finding 12 of it but I'm sure he stole it and he fled the house in the middle
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of the night what a [ __ ] bag I don't know Elroy I don't like I'm saying so the next morning when WG realized my
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cousin has stolen all my money and then he's dollars or twelve dollars he reported it to the chief of police he
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was like feds I'd like to report a crime he said [ __ ] this guy [ __ ] blood like blood is not thicker than water my
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friends blood might be thicker than water but it's harder to clean when it spills oh
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that was her [ __ ] quote this year blood may be thicker than water but it's harder to clean when it spills I was
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like oh okay to that like damn just casual murder reference I was like Andy what wow damn like like Teresa says yeah
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I mean you just felt that she felt that in his heart of hearts 9-1-1 I'd like to
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report a crime yes so the chief of police traced elroy's movements back to his mother's house in Manchester now
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he's getting his mama involved so they call Caroline Kent and they're like hey your son who has been a jackass his
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whole life and has been obtaining all of our asses he was like what we know he's
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there we're like traced him here and Caroline was like no he's not home oh she's aiding and abetting but oops
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because they searched the home and they found him hiding in the basement oh my God it's giving good Fellas right and he
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was taken to Newfane jail so by the time he was sent to Newfane for taking 12 out
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of his cousin's belongings yeah oh wait also I meant blow not good Fellas don't yell at me that's okay I'm sharing
00:16:47
Goodfellas somebody hid in a basement I love that probably but uh but Kent had become kind of a notorious local
00:16:55
criminal but like me mainly due to this like myth he had created around himself like right because like we're saying he
00:17:02
did some [ __ ] but it wasn't like cray cray but it was all more like head scratching [ __ ] I see Mikey Mikey sneeze
00:17:08
it was a cute one it was it's okay you did not God damn it shut up how dare you there's no sneezing in the workplace
00:17:16
unpublish this episode [ __ ] it ruined it like I said he's not all his [ __ ] that
00:17:28
he's doing is more just like chin scratching head scratching I'm confused by him kind of [ __ ] more less than like
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wow he's like physically harming people and like like nobody's afraid of him yeah like it's more just people are like
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oh my God it's that Elroy Kent he's kooky put your fifty dollars away but and according to a news report from
00:17:46
January 1902 it said Kent has a dark record he knows it and does not hesitate to talk about it indeed he relates his
00:17:54
experiences on occasions with considerable Gusto so they're basically like that man loves to talk about his
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[ __ ] like he's just running around being like yes yes Dark Passenger that's me
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but by the time he was in his early twenties he had been arrested and jailed at least six times at this point and had
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spent more than a quarter of his life locked up for petty crimes all of it so he looked at gel stretches as just
00:18:21
like inconvenient at this point and he also just kind of like loved that everybody was like oh that's that that
00:18:28
kooky criminal Elroy Kent like he loved his reputation so he was just like he's he's honestly kind of giving and again
00:18:35
I've never seen it but it's giving peaky blinders like like he like it's giving like he likes that reputation yeah but I
00:18:42
could see that you know he's one of The Outsiders they're definitely more violent I would say Well they're more
00:18:47
violent than him at this point oh no but uh yeah so but I would say like you're right like the kind of like like that
00:18:53
attitude he's walking around like he owns the place yeah you know so yeah the red right hand is playing at all times
00:19:00
when he's walking so he actually said to a reporter in 1902 because they would like press would
00:19:07
ask him and like be like hey What's your deal he's still being kooky all right and he was like I am I mean really what
00:19:12
else happens in Vermont yeah exactly at that point that like nothing so he said the two things I love best are whiskey
00:19:19
and railroad rides let's go baby he's living life now we're right now being like Elroy Kent he's a kooky guy yeah oh
00:19:27
it's Gonna Change okay I'm gonna it's gonna change but I believe there are extenuating
00:19:33
extenuated then you waiting yeah there it is extenuating factors that come into play later that I think were a little
00:19:40
ignored okay I also wonder if he actually committed the crime that he is um was convicted for and I wonder what
00:19:47
you guys will think so the paper said poor poor Elroy Kent finding enjoyment only in whiskey and railroad rides and
00:19:55
seeing nothing before him but prison life okay so everybody just kind of gave up on him too they were like this guy's
00:20:00
a loser and he's just gonna be in prison forever that's odd which again he didn't
00:20:04
really give them much of a choice but to look at him that way truth so the theft
00:20:08
of the money from his cousin actually resulted in him so he went to prison for he was sentenced to the three-year
00:20:15
prison stint he didn't serve the entire thing like I said I don't know exactly how much he served of it but he ended up
00:20:22
having to go back to prison because they had give him given him parole for the cousin stealing and he broke it he broke
00:20:28
the parole because he robbed a store in Milton and actually this was the first example of
00:20:36
someone violating parole in Vermont's history whoa look at that good old Elroy yeah so it was actually Governor William
00:20:43
Stickney who was the one who insisted he be sent back to prison to finish his sentence out because he said he just had
00:20:49
a flagrant disregard for the law truth and he did yeah so 100 I'm on the governor's side no once he was released
00:20:58
finally from Windsor again Kent found Brattleboro so Brattleboro authorities waiting for him with a warrant for his
00:21:05
arrest right away because they said hey you violated parole after we let you out
00:21:10
for stealing your cousins twelve dollars but now you have to go back to jail and
00:21:13
finish that sentence because they were like we got you out we paroled you you broke the parole you
00:21:20
went back to jail for violating the parole and now you've come out we're gonna make you finish off that sentence
00:21:25
it was only a few more months in Newfane at this point but now he had to go back
00:21:29
okay so we just got out and they were like ding ding ding you're going to that one goodbye now on December 6 1902 he
00:21:36
actually escaped from prison of course he did of course I honestly I was waiting for that yeah that was the the
00:21:42
obvious next he has the vibe of somebody that escapes he does now this is where [ __ ] gets wild and this is where his
00:21:49
life changes again from being a petty criminal who we can all go oh my goodness that Elroy he's so kooky that's
00:21:55
funny this is when it turns and this is when something happened that makes it turn in
00:22:02
my opinion at least yeah sure so he escapes from prison and he hops on a train in West dumberston headed away
00:22:09
from the city everything's going according to plan everything's smoothies hanging out on
00:22:14
this railroad car he's thinking about the whiskey he's gonna have he's like my two favorite things I'm excited free and
00:22:19
then someone on the train car looks at him and recognizes him uh-oh and calls him right the [ __ ] out he freaks out
00:22:27
thinking everyone else is going to hear this and everyone else is going to recognize him and he does not want to go
00:22:32
back to prison because now he's thinking like I'm just gonna get away from here and start living my life so he jumped
00:22:37
from the moving train and it was as it was approaching Williamsville station he jumps out and his head hit one of the
00:22:46
railroad ties oh and then according to the Boston Daily Globe In 1902 it hit with great force you would think now
00:22:53
according to reports that were came out later Elroy had sustained a skull fracture
00:22:59
when he hit the tracks holy [ __ ] he hit it he had a skull fracture and he lay unconscious on the tracks for several
00:23:06
hours no one helped him he just woke up and he wandered away to a nearby Farmhouse and
00:23:14
when he got to this Farmhouse the owner of the home called the local doctor Dr PP White
00:23:19
and I know I saw Ash's face now when he arrived when the doctor came he saw that Kent not only had a skull
00:23:27
fracture but he was like um this man has a piece of rotten wood that was driven into his brain when he fell I'm sorry
00:23:37
Hua this man has a skull fracture from diving out of a moving train and when that happened somehow a piece of rotten
00:23:45
wood had been driven into his brain not just his skull his brain he basically had like a a road pick lobotomy
00:23:54
literally holy [ __ ] so the doctor took out as much wood as he was able to and dressed the wounds and just kind of like
00:24:00
was like you're gonna die I hope you're gonna survive this and the next day the doctor saw him again and he was there to
00:24:06
kind of examine the wound to make sure it was make sure nothing was happening like drain everything do what he had to
00:24:12
do during this whole thing he discovers that quote the wood had been driven through the top of the head diagonally
00:24:18
through the brain to the base of the nose what how is he even functioning a piece of wood two and eight seven
00:24:28
eighths inches long and an inch in diameter was removed how is he functioning two and one-fourth ounces of
00:24:35
brain tissue were cut off and a piece of gauze just a yard Square was packed into the opening
00:24:43
they put gauze into his brain so as you can see anything that happens from here on out
00:24:53
likely the result of some mental illness and some severe like cognitive issues I
00:25:01
was just gonna say that's like the most traumatic brain injury I think I've ever
00:25:04
heard of which does not excuse anything that happens later but means that he should have been sent to a hospital for
00:25:13
anything that had happened after this and probably not executed for anything that happened after this so this is it's
00:25:21
honestly what's sad is if they had sent him to a hospital it probably would have
00:25:24
been worse I know it's true it's very true especially back then you know now we it's it obviously it's impossible for
00:25:31
us to sit here and say for sure that any of this that this injury that he got when he jumped out of the train affected
00:25:38
his behavior and like impossible but like impossible for us to like totally sit there and save 100 no we're not
00:25:44
doctors but like come on it seems like that would have a pretty big-ish like effect on what was going on like please
00:25:51
sit there and tell me with two inches of wood stuck into the middle of your [ __ ] Cranium that you'd act normal
00:25:56
feels like this and what we know is that by 1903 his behavior and his thinking was becoming very disordered I'm very
00:26:05
unpredictable enough for officials at the prison where he was brought back to after this oh my God they just threw him
00:26:12
back in prison but the officials actually had him transferred to this up from the state prison in Windsor to the
00:26:20
quote-unquote this is what they called it hospital for the insane in Waterbury sure now that was because the officials
00:26:27
at the prison were like something's wrong he's a different like this is a different Beast like that's got to go
00:26:34
that way was he like violent now I think he was becoming so disordered he was like unpredictable he was bizarre and
00:26:41
he's still I mean he still has rotten wood in his brain and in pieces of his brain were taken out oh my God
00:26:48
that yeah holy [ __ ] this is really insane this case did bring as you'll find out like at the end of it like this
00:26:56
brought up a lot of discussion about one the death penalty as a whole two how you
00:27:02
know executing the like what they referred to as the criminally insane back then and also just like the what
00:27:11
we're gonna see is like there's this was kind of a circumstantial case yeah so it's like and and it's kind of based off
00:27:17
of stuff that it's like you executed this guy yeah and you didn't even really know if this is like oh I don't know
00:27:22
about this one oh no so they did bring up a lot of discussion and it did also lead to like the death penalty in
00:27:30
Vermont like stopping like this really this was at least part of the discussion it was cited many times wow okay while
00:27:36
people were fighting to get the death penalty um abolish abolished that's what I was
00:27:40
looking for thank you no problem and it also gets brought up now as like a way of being like the death penalty is
00:27:45
barbaric like look what happened here wow so this case really did have a lot to do with that which I guess is the
00:27:51
positive that comes out of it because this is what I don't understand when some people don't like old-timey cases
00:27:55
because I'm sitting here right now like holy [ __ ] what it leads to so much it does and it's like this was before the
00:28:02
forensic you know science boom that had happened so it's like it's interesting to see the scrappy way in which cases
00:28:10
had to be solved and what happened when you didn't have the tools to solve it correctly and what comes out of that I
00:28:16
just think that's really interesting don't worry in my case this week has a lot of forensic DNA there you go so you
00:28:22
know we're we're balancing it yeah I like it yeah and once and we haven't even talked about Delia yet we're going
00:28:28
to get to Delia who is the victim in this case and it's like she also like this is there's a lot here there's a lot
00:28:34
here there's a lot of different victims here that I was just gonna say it's sad the whole case is very very sad but
00:28:41
sometime in the evening hours of because he's been transferred to the hospital now in the evening hours of August 12 19
00:28:48
105. he had spent 18 months in confinement at this point in the hospital he escaped from the hospital
00:28:56
disappeared out into the night the Press went wild immediately they're probably terrified pretty terrified again at this
00:29:03
point he hasn't been outwardly violent in his crimes still but I'm sure people were worried but now they're a little
00:29:10
worried but what they really went after was criticizing the hospital and criticizing the state for the
00:29:16
administrative insecurity failure yeah like why was he left alone yeah like what's happening here why was that
00:29:21
allowed to happen now according to reports quote in order to make his escape this was in the Rutland Daily
00:29:26
Herald by the way um or excuse me no it was in the Saint Albans Daily Messenger the next one is
00:29:32
the world excuse me uh it said in order to make his Escape he was obliged to unlock three doors and make his way out
00:29:40
through an attic window which was not barred y'all so they were like why was that
00:29:45
able to happen we got it we gotta fix these things and Hospital staff just checked his cell during the morning
00:29:51
rounds and they he just wasn't there and it's also like why were there not like rounds on rounds on rounds exactly and
00:29:57
they made note of that that they saw that he had procured in some way a new suit of clothes and his old one was
00:30:03
found in its usual place which is just outside the cell door yikes so like how did he even get new clothes like what
00:30:09
was going on there like what do do you believe that possibly he was helped I don't think so I think he just was able
00:30:15
to walk through three doors and up into an unbarred window and was like bye because he still had some you know he he
00:30:21
wasn't like you know unfunctioning you know at this point like he was functioning but his behavior and his
00:30:27
thinking was definitely scattered scattered and might mightily different than what it was before
00:30:33
um so once he had escaped and they had discovered that he escaped Sheriff FH Tracy was sent from Montpelier to
00:30:41
Waterbury to lead the search for him um he told reporters a basic description of Elroy he said his height is five feet
00:30:50
four inches weight 160 pounds he has hazel eyes and brown hair he wore a light mustache when last seen has a deep
00:30:59
scar on the left side of his forehead I bet he does two inches long one inch one
00:31:04
half inch wide and one half inch deep at lower end he also has scars on the back
00:31:10
remember from being shot with a buckshot there's six shot scars on the left leg or on the right leg six yeah oh my God
00:31:17
he was shot in like six times or it's a buck shot so it's like I think those are
00:31:21
the ones and I should probably look it up before I say this but I'll look it up I think that I believe those are the
00:31:26
ones that it like um like several pieces shoot out like it explodes a little bit oof that's I'm
00:31:33
gonna look it up absolutely terrible it does sound pretty terrible um I keep feeling that in my egg
00:31:39
I think yes so it's a um it's a big shock it's like shotgun shells for hunting game I guess
00:31:50
and uh basically it says the most commonly produced Buckshot shell is a 12 gauge which we've heard of yep um and
00:31:58
they hold eight pellets inside of them so when they hit it's like the pellets explode like it's one of those things or
00:32:04
when they shoot it the pellets explode I think yeah the schematics I'm not completely familiar with all that but I
00:32:09
believe that's like a very rudimentary way of saying it I like that word rudiment
00:32:13
um but but basically when you shoot someone with it with a buck shot they're gonna be they're gonna have several
00:32:19
scars they're gonna get [ __ ] up yeah it's not gonna be great so he had they explained his description
00:32:24
but unfortunately investigators lost his Trail pretty quickly and he didn't really come back into their focus until
00:32:30
like two months later oh [ __ ] that's when his brother uh luilin I think it's called Lula it's called I said it's it's
00:32:39
pronounced is what I meant um his brother luolin reported that Elroy had attacked him reported it to a
00:32:46
police now according to news reports on the morning of September 29th both of them the two brothers apparently Elroy
00:32:53
had been home with yeah they had been transported a load of potatoes to the market and nearby Rockingham and had
00:33:01
returned with supplies and some Provisions like flour sugar and apparently Liquid Fire
00:33:07
what is Liquid Fire I looked this up and I cannot find an actual response I think
00:33:13
it's just gonna mean many things like it could be like oil of some kind like I think it's something like that but they
00:33:20
called it Liquid Fire which sounds like it sounds like wildfire from like Game of Thrones like I feel like it's like
00:33:27
this green glowy liquid that they have and I'm like why do you have that for real it just makes me think of baked
00:33:33
Alaska there you go Liquid Fire you know I don't know no later that evening uh I
00:33:38
guess lulin's young son George said he heard shouts and groans outside the house so he went out there to
00:33:44
investigate what was going on and according to him he said about quote 40 rods from his house which thanks to Dave
00:33:51
I now know is 220 yards apparently George Kent the son found the family wagon overturned and he saw a
00:34:05
large pool of blood next to it oh no so a little bit further away he found his father lying beside a creek with his
00:34:12
nose broken a large gas gash in the back of his neck and his face and head badly
00:34:17
cut oh no that's very violent yeah now once he'd regained Consciousness lulin told police that he and Elroy had been
00:34:26
out on the road they got into an argument and the argument scared the horses so the horses ran off when this
00:34:33
happened the wagon overturned according to luolin uh the wagon flipped with him underneath it now when that
00:34:41
happened the force of that drove an iron bar into his neck dude what the [ __ ] yeah and when he asked Elroy he was like
00:34:48
freaking out asking Elroy to pull the metal bar out of his neck can we stop with the impalement of everyone said
00:34:54
that Elroy quote tried to drive it in still farther and then he said he lost Consciousness
00:35:00
and couldn't remember anything after that but when he came to later he said Elroy was gone and he had taken
00:35:06
llewellyn's wallet that's your brother dude so after all this petty theft generally non-violent
00:35:15
crimes everything is turned now if his brother was to be believed Elroy didn't just attack his brother and steal
00:35:24
his wallet he had tried to kill him and it kind of seems like maybe he thought he was dead I think he probably did
00:35:31
now luckily Elroy was arrested about three weeks later in Haddam Connecticut a local Constable actually spotted him
00:35:38
crossing a railroad bridge and just recognized who he was just Elroy still walking out across railroad Bridges
00:35:44
Elroy still just doing whatever the hell he wants to do I would never ever approach another railroad ever again no
00:35:51
he loves railroads he does but like even after that the love is deep you can take
00:35:55
the boy from the railroad but but he literally cannot literally come from the boy but it's still in his head accurate
00:36:02
so the Constable questioned him and during the course of the questioning he determined that Elroy was definitely
00:36:08
responsible for a burglary that it also occurred the day before in town oh another one yeah uh confirmation of this
00:36:16
came quickly when he searched his pockets and discovered all the stolen [ __ ] from the house oh my God elvoy so
00:36:21
he was confirmed to be Elroy Kent and the Constable contacted Sheriff Tracy who traveled to Connecticut and brought
00:36:29
him back to Vermont my goodness so Elroy said that he had managed to escape the hospital by picking the locks with a
00:36:36
piece of metal from his shoe and a length of wire the [ __ ] so he said once he was outside he had just climbed down
00:36:42
the wall wearing only a shirt and then he swam down the Winooski River until he felt like he was far enough away and he
00:36:49
just got away this man has lived a life and he's probably like 25 at this point truly
00:36:54
now the next day he said he stole a new suit of clothes and then he made his way
00:36:58
to his brother's house in Townsend hey broey uh when asked about the assault on his brother Kent said he was like well I
00:37:06
was like I don't really have any explanation for that so he was returned to the hospital in Waterbury pretty
00:37:12
quickly okay now once he was brought back to Vermont by the sheriff he spent several more years
00:37:19
in the hospital in Waterbury and that wasn't until the that wasn't until the early I don't know why I keep can't say
00:37:25
until that was until yeah I haven't had enough coffee and it's tiramisu coffee it's making me excited so I can't speak
00:37:32
two more do more coffee do more coffee it is a drug I will do one do your coffee ready oh my God guys she's doing
00:37:39
coffee right now whoa I just did some coffee okay so that's really yummy no that's what tiramisu yeah this was until
00:37:49
the early morning hour see that worked check it of July 11 1908 when he and a fellow inmate named John Keenan escaped
00:37:58
again they need to close this Hospital right the [ __ ] down if he the same guy like you would think that you'd be
00:38:05
keeping even more tabs on him a little bit like tabs on him anyways but even more so now because he's escaped once
00:38:12
y'all yeah he's escaped again this was years later escaped again and he even told you how he did it the first time
00:38:18
and you're not checking this out oh and this is even worse he escaped using a duplicate key
00:38:23
that was given to them by another inmate who tried to escape the previous week what it was like here's my duplicate key
00:38:30
you can use it how did you get like what they created 3D printer out there in 1908 they created a ladder using pieces
00:38:38
of Keenan's bed sheets and used it to climb over the walls surrounding the hospital he's like right this way just
00:38:45
this way Hospital administrators said they were confident that both men would be recaptured within a few days
00:38:51
confidence is a nice thing to have yeah especially at that point it's a nice thing to have I think that's all you
00:38:57
have that's really all you got because that confidence was pretty unfounded you [ __ ] idiots now let's talk about
00:39:03
Delia congda yeah so Delia's had a lot of struggle in her life as well but she was seemed like she was kind of thriving
00:39:11
out of it which is really cool she was sad though yeah she was born into one of Wallingford Vermont's founding families
00:39:18
oh wow um but she contracted scarlet fever at age eight back then scarlet fever is crazy that she lived and this
00:39:27
rendered her completely deaf at age eight oh wow so until then she had been able to hear and it was like a like just
00:39:35
Boop it happened all at once terrible and it also affected her speech to such a degree that it was difficult for
00:39:41
people to understand what she was saying so she would get frustrated and like it
00:39:45
was tough yeah now several family members also said that Delia had actually been born with a cognitive
00:39:50
impairment okay um and scarlet fever kind of exasperated that whole thing exacerbated excuse me
00:39:57
um by the time she had become an adult Delia's parents and several of her siblings had actually died from various
00:40:04
illnesses and her remaining siblings had just moved away um yeah I think I don't know what the
00:40:12
whole story was but it made me sad too yeah but she she made the best of it though because it because of all this
00:40:18
she inherited the family home which was this large farm on Sugar Hill yeah she said I got this house and she
00:40:26
so she had a little bit of a reputation that people call her like a spinster she
00:40:30
was only like 40. by the way else yeah of course she's 40. but in reality Delia was never alone and she was never lonely
00:40:39
she had mostly was surrounded by friends her neighbors were like all surrounding
00:40:45
her at all times oh yeah they all took care of her looked down for her looked out for her greatly and they didn't look
00:40:51
out for her in a way that like made her feel like they were like pitting like we
00:40:54
have to look out like people genuinely liked her and they were spent time with her a lot she always had friends over
00:41:00
she was just she was like thriving she was like you know what like I'm a cool person and everybody knows that yeah it
00:41:05
sounds like it also she had local school children at her Farm all the time because she would bake them cookies
00:41:10
regularly oh my God shut your [ __ ] face she's just like this nice person that's like I was dealt a tough set of
00:41:17
cards but like but here I am working [ __ ] it like everybody likes me and I'm awesome yeah like I'm gonna be kind and
00:41:22
just like live my life oh she sounds really cool yeah so on the morning of July 23rd 1908 two of Delia's neighbors
00:41:29
named the Sprague Brothers they were working in the field next to the Congdon house because she allowed them to you
00:41:36
farm on her land because they were so close all of her and her neighbors and that's a huge deal back then you don't
00:41:41
just give up your land for fun yeah so while they're working they said they were approached by a small man who said
00:41:47
he was looking for work five four five foot four exactly um according to the Sprague Brothers
00:41:52
they said the man noticed Delia in her yard and they noticed they saw that he noticed this and he said who's that
00:42:00
woman and they were like why do you need to know that yeah who's asking and then
00:42:03
they said he quote proceeded to say what sort of things he would like to do to her oh I don't like that so horrified by
00:42:11
these statements I guess the brothers looked at him and said they would quote shoot full of holes anyone who tried
00:42:17
such a thing [ __ ] yeah and they said you better move along and you better seek
00:42:22
work somewhere else over here like not after saying that which I was like [ __ ] yeah they said we
00:42:27
will make you swiss cheese yeah like these men are like you know they're Brothers don't you dare [ __ ] with Delia
00:42:33
she's our girl I love Community now the next day Delia didn't get the bottle of milk that was left on her front porch by
00:42:41
the Milkman neighbors of course noticed this immediately because like I said they all
00:42:46
love her they're looking out for her so they went right to her home to knock on the door and see if she was okay and I'm
00:42:52
sure even more so those two brothers now yeah of course so when they entered the
00:42:56
home they found Delia lying dead on the pantry floor no they said quote in a condition which indicated she had been
00:43:04
ravished and with several deep Cuts upon the head oh no now a large amount of blood was coming from her head it had
00:43:11
pulled next to her there was uh Blood spattered on the walls in the pantry Sheriff EC fish was immediately called
00:43:19
out to the scene he started talking to anyone who was on the farm around the farm all the Neighbors after a pretty
00:43:25
quick investigation of the scene he actually arrested a man named Frank Rogers who was an occasional farmhand
00:43:31
and was known as a pretty tough character that's a quote tough character sure Rogers had actually served three
00:43:38
sentences at the house of correction damn and people said they saw him on the property the previous evening okay so
00:43:44
that's why he was taken in so they did a little examination of the scene and they determined that Delia had
00:43:50
been probably preparing breakfast for herself in the pantry oh my god when whoever had killed her had approached
00:43:56
her from behind and struck her on the head several times with a wood splitting ax how senseless yeah now according to
00:44:04
State's attorney Robert Lawrence when she was discovered Delia quote was fully dressed and had a toothbrush in her hand
00:44:10
which had been broken into oh my God her false teeth were in the adjoining room and it appears as if she retreated into
00:44:16
the pantry when attacked the killer had then taken the handle of the ax and wrapped it with fabric
00:44:26
and like with her clothing Fabric and had Twisted the fabric around her neck and then used the ax as a grot oh my God
00:44:35
and had literally grotted her with the ax and her own clothing after after realizing her after sexually assaulting
00:44:43
her oh no which they found definitely happened and beating her in the head with the ax they then grotted her God
00:44:49
and she was just making breakfast just making breakfast just woke up oh my God the body also showed signs of bruising
00:44:56
and what they referred to as criminal assaults indicating that she was very likely
00:45:01
raped Lawrence the uh the state's attorney he also told reporters she had evidently
00:45:08
put up a fierce fight for her life but and this is his words not mine remember we're in 1900s here but as she had been
00:45:15
deaf and dumb from an early age it was impossible for her to cry out obviously cognitive impairment was
00:45:22
treated and discussed rather differently back then so we would never say deaf and
00:45:26
dumb no like what but if I haven't anybody ever thought that was well that's it's like why was dumb the word
00:45:34
for cognitive impairment from birth like come on like No And it's like all you have to say is like because she was she
00:45:41
couldn't hear yeah she couldn't hear them coming and because she like like you don't have to like she was just
00:45:47
unable to cry up right right you know like they we know who Delia is like people in the area know her just put it
00:45:53
simply like you don't need to make it sound like that but I it's like you know it's disrespectful stupid times
00:45:57
basically stupid times stupid statements but it's important to say them because that's the time period and it's simple
00:46:04
look at it and go my how far we have come but sort of what he was saying was she put up a fierce fight yeah but that
00:46:12
she was able unable to cry out she couldn't get the words out she obviously probably didn't hear the person coming
00:46:17
up behind her and she attacked her and she's already been struck in the head like immediately maybe she couldn't at
00:46:23
that point even yell out to incapacitate her right and she's in her own [ __ ] house like she's in her own house making
00:46:30
breakfast yeah like what the hell so after killing Delia the killer then went through all the drawers went
00:46:37
through all her stuff and the problem here was that she lived alone so nobody could say whether anything had been
00:46:44
stolen or not right because they didn't know exactly yeah no So based on this they did conclude that the motive was
00:46:50
likely robbery because of the ransacking but again with no evidence that something is stolen that can be staged
00:46:56
yeah and to me it looks like she was raped and brutally murdered that looks like the motive that's what I was gonna
00:47:02
say is like the the rape of the murder of the doll and the way he said it was evidence was found to indicate robbery
00:47:08
as the motive some of the furniture being ransacked and drawers being found open and the contents of the drawers
00:47:13
thrown about which I'm like that to me sounds staged definitely the content of the drawer is thrown about yeah so
00:47:20
the evidence against Frank Rogers the sometimes uh farm hand was not great okay flimsy and circumstantial might be
00:47:28
a better way to put it okay uh he'd been seen in the vicinity the night before there's that couldn't easily account for
00:47:34
like all his movements in the days leading up to the murder but it was really just them going will
00:47:39
you have a reputation for like being a criminal and being violent sometimes so like it's probably you yikes like that's
00:47:46
about it that's really all they had right it was only after examining his body and the clothes he was seen wearing
00:47:53
that day on the day of the murder that he was actually released because there was no evidence of blood there was no
00:47:59
evidence of a fight he had no scratches no Brew there was no blood on his clothes and there would be and that it
00:48:05
would have been next to impossible to achieve coming out of that with no wounds defensive wounds no blood on your
00:48:12
clothing and he would have been covered so two days later on July 27th was the autopsy of Delia Congdon
00:48:21
um and this was to determine the cause of death and hopefully the order of of events that had happened so doctors BH
00:48:28
Stone and William Stickney reported that Delia had been attacked in her home by an estate the assalian who sexually
00:48:35
assaulted her first in the main home of the house then she had run she had fled into the pantry to hide oh my God but
00:48:43
her attacker had followed her and struck her on the head six times with the wood
00:48:48
splitting act this is heartbreak which caused six cuts to her scalp but the doctors determined the cause of death
00:48:53
was actually strangulation caused by the handle of the ax having been wrapped in
00:48:57
her shirt and Cru and grotting her this is horrific yeah so also what's like a really strange
00:49:06
thing here is that and this also worked in Frank rogers's favor of them being like it's probably not him yeah was they
00:49:13
found something in the barn on the Congdon property okay carved into the wall oh I know like two
00:49:21
next to a pile of hay that was clearly recently Disturbed where the initials E K
00:49:30
and you don't know if he did this or not yeah yeah you said wait there's more here's
00:49:35
the thing I'm not saying he didn't do this I'm just I'm saying there it is really circumstantial evidence oh okay
00:49:42
my gut tells me he probably did oh okay but I don't think they had enough to convict him up oh okay and I don't think
00:49:49
they had enough to execute him on for sure gotcha gotcha um now police this was like excuse me I have misunderstood
00:49:56
I think he definitely was sleeping in that Barn for sure yeah but that doesn't say that he murdered everyone okay uh
00:50:05
now police had no luck tracking however I can so like they found those things and they haven't been able to find him
00:50:11
and that was since he escaped the hospital too right before this for the second time yeah but several people in
00:50:17
the area said they had seen him at least in the area of the kangan farm a week earlier I bet they did so residents of
00:50:25
East Wallingford believed he was kind of harmless because up until this point they didn't know like they they didn't
00:50:33
know what the brother thing was like they were kind of you know so in their words they called him quote a
00:50:40
half-witted [ __ ] who had drifted in Jesus Christ they really knew how to insult people but I'm saying a
00:50:45
half-witted a half-witted tram I know what I'm calling the next person that crosses me yeah there you go
00:50:51
but they figured he just drifted in to find work and so they were like eh when they saw him out and about they were
00:50:57
kind of just like yeah I guess he's supposed to be in a hospital but like which I'm like did anyone know what he
00:51:06
put He did to his brother it doesn't sound like did you all that didn't come out apparently he was not widely
00:51:10
reported apparently not um and Elroy can't he definitely matched the description of the man the Sprague
00:51:17
Brothers described seeing the day before Delia's murder and like you said he's looking for work so that's why to me I
00:51:25
most of me believes he did this for sure I think it just I think there when it comes to the execution is where my
00:51:32
problem lies sure yeah it's like there were other things happening here that I think he should have just been put back
00:51:39
in the hospital but do you think maybe and we'll talk about yeah we'll talk about no investigators searched um like
00:51:47
abandoned buildings and other areas that they said they knew that like people who
00:51:51
drifted in and out would kind of hang out and use like unused buildings and there was one on a um an unused
00:51:58
outbuilding on a nearby farm that they looked at and they found an area area of you know Disturbed hay kind of like in
00:52:05
the barn and they said it looked like it had been used as a bed and on the wall near it was carved e Kent oh another one
00:52:13
another one okay another one another one now this is why it's like they so he did
00:52:18
it here he did it there it's clear he's sleeping in these places and then leaving his initial on the side yeah
00:52:23
which also I'm like why are you leaving your initials yeah that's the thing now the carving matched that of the one
00:52:29
found in Dalia congdon's barn and investigators were like Okay so Kent had definitely slept in her bar in
00:52:37
the night before the murder that Barn we can we can see is connected to this next
00:52:41
one we can trace his movements that way but they also noted that from the barn he could probably see into Delia's
00:52:48
bedroom and would have been able to track her movements the next morning from that
00:52:52
Barn freaky so they theorized he probably watched he waited for her to unlock the door to the house and when
00:53:00
she did he snuck in and attacked her and then tore the house apart to search for
00:53:05
any money or anything valuable and it's I mean we have like the account from the
00:53:09
two brothers of him explicitly saying what he wanted to do to her exactly and then she was raped and that's the part
00:53:16
that really stuck in my mind is like you know but again it's based off of somebody's somebody's saying something
00:53:22
and we've never heard that's the only thing so this is a matter of like do I think he did it yeah do I think they had
00:53:27
enough to convict him and execute him probably not yeah but this was a different time
00:53:33
um you didn't need as much yeah exactly now this was definitely not the first time
00:53:38
that he had been leading the police on like a wild goose chase at this point but this time was a little different
00:53:44
because they're not dealing with the petty criminal Elroy Kent they're dealing with a man who is clearly
00:53:49
demonstrated that he does have a capacity for violence when he what he did to his brother was wild terrific
00:53:56
um he also kind of has everything to lose if he's captured at this point which is not good
00:54:01
so the search for Kent began immediately around the area once they found those carvings and it was around the areas of
00:54:09
Wallingford Rutland and Brattleboro so for some extra power and some extra help Sheriff fish gathered deputies from the
00:54:16
area who had known or dealt with Kent in the past like so from outside areas and
00:54:21
they thought maybe they would have like unique insight into who he is like his character so they could kind of
00:54:27
determine where he might be okay and the Sheriff's Office also got some Bloodhounds in oh [ __ ] and they tracked
00:54:34
Ken's trail from the Congdon Farm to a spot in the mountains near his sister's home in Wallingford but they soon they
00:54:41
got like the dogs got super exhausted it was a long way I mean and they needed yeah and they needed to rest yeah and
00:54:47
but and they couldn't even start the search again until the next day so they began again the next day August
00:54:53
1st and the dogs lost his Trail oh [ __ ] handlers tried to get them back on track
00:54:59
they gave him a pair of his old shoes that he wore at the hospital but and they were able to track them again
00:55:04
briefly but they were only able to track him as far as an abandoned building on his sister's property how [ __ ] cool
00:55:11
right is like that kind of bloodhounds [ __ ] wild that is a whole sure like to the whole whole subject
00:55:21
that I could just sit there and read about forever it's a fascinating time I really do think that would actually make
00:55:25
a very cool that'd be cool like how it came about how they are yeah and like that's just really cool I mean because
00:55:32
you could go back to like way long ago they've been using Bloodhounds like Bloodhounds cadaver dogs all that stuff
00:55:38
like dogs are wild even like in Royal times when they would go hunting it is interesting I I think you would do a
00:55:44
really good job at that that would be a fun one put it I would like that one and
00:55:47
then put it in the little little jar of Jar sounds better than bucket so we'll go with that bucket it's a jar but they
00:55:56
did try they gave them the shoes worn at the hospital they only got to that abandoned building
00:56:01
on the sisters property in East Dorset and then they lost the trail again I've never heard of Dorset now luckily
00:56:07
investigators received a tip that afternoon apparently some Berry Pickers were the ones who gave this tip they
00:56:13
were working at a nearby farm and they said a man wearing a bloody shirt and lightly and pretty much according to the
00:56:20
matching Kent's description had been discovered in some bushes on the property and was scared away before
00:56:26
anybody could call the police the dogs managed to pick up a scent where they said
00:56:32
um and it followed they followed it for nearly 10 miles down the highway and then they lost it again damn it and
00:56:38
according to the owners of the dogs really the only reason they would lose the trail was if the scent was too old
00:56:43
okay so that kind of LED investigators to think that Kent was definitely no longer in the area he's long gone now
00:56:50
the dogs losing the trail definitely sucked but a week later they became kind of hopeful because a new clue and a
00:56:58
pattern was starting to emerge wherever Kent was he just couldn't help but leave
00:57:04
his initials somewhere anywhere he stayed overnight he would leave his initials carved into it very
00:57:10
interesting yeah it's wild it began like emerging in different locations around southern Vermont he would do it on trees
00:57:17
are there abandoned buildings that still exist that you know of I don't know that's a good that's a good question we
00:57:23
should look it up because I wonder if there are I'm sure a lot of these buildings are probably gone but they
00:57:28
said on trees and stuff too and in one case this is pretty wild three boys passing by Red Mill Pond in
00:57:37
Woodford on August 8th they stopped at a local barn and they carved their initials into the side of the barn
00:57:42
because remember it's like 1908 yeah what else are you gonna do right and they returned the next day and they saw
00:57:49
that next to their initials someone had carved EK ooh creepy so it's like he saw
00:57:54
those initials and I was like I was here too yeah right creepy creepy now Kent's
00:57:58
family was still in the region so investigators were thinking he might be making his way through the mountains in
00:58:04
the direction of Massachusetts hey uh but they had no idea where he was going to show up next
00:58:10
now as weeks went by and investigators were failing to bring this guy in couldn't find him anywhere the news
00:58:16
started focusing more on them and their failures and less on the murderer on the
00:58:20
loose among other things the Articles were saying that the Wallingford deputy sheriff Alan Leonard and AC Mason uh who
00:58:28
were in charge of the hunt for Kent had been spotted drinking on the job and when they were refused for their alcohol
00:58:35
they produced bottles from their jackets so like like they'd brought their own liquor BYOB baby now in late August
00:58:42
attorneys for Leonard and Mason filed a lawsuit against Olin French who was the publisher of the Vermont Phoenix and
00:58:50
they sued him for five thousand dollars each damn and back then and the basis of
00:58:55
the lawsuit was the Vermont Phoenix had published articles that quote falsely wickedly and maliciously injured the
00:59:01
officers by claiming they quote appeared to be as much a menace to the piece in good order as Elroy Ken oh no yeah so
00:59:08
that's just a little like woof yeah drama now while while these are the lead investigators are just trying to fight
00:59:14
with the Press now over their reputation um sheriff's deputies were just trying to continue the search and trying to
00:59:21
make this happen you know the main focus the job uh then they finally caught a break in late October it was when it was
00:59:30
then that a man matching Kent's description was arrested in Pittsfield Massachusetts hey uh he was trying to
00:59:36
sell a stolen bicycle believe it right so he was arrested and the man said his name was William Allen and he said I've
00:59:44
never heard of Albert I can't tell what you're talking about several hours of questioning later he said you know what
00:59:48
I'm Elver I can't well [ __ ] here I am he said he escaped from the hospital in Waterbury and he vehemently denied
00:59:55
having anything to do with Delia congdon's murder he was like sure I escaped for sure and I just didn't want
01:00:02
to be caught and put back in the hospital but I did not murder that woman okay now in order to be sure it was the
01:00:08
man that they were looking for State's attorney Robert Lawrence was sent to Pittsfield to identify him and bring him
01:00:14
back and he definitely was however I can yeah I figured so on the morning of October 26th he was brought to Rutland
01:00:20
County in the company of deputies Leonard and Wilkins again he admitted to being a fugitive from Justice he was
01:00:27
like for sure I've been outrunning you because I didn't want to go back in the hospital but he continued to deny
01:00:32
anything to do with Delia cognan's murder and he said he wasn't even in the vicinity of East Wallingford at the time
01:00:38
of the murder wow when they reached the train station in Rutland I guess like more than 20 or 200 people had shown up
01:00:45
just to see him holy foot on the train and I guess he was quoted as saying I don't know I didn't know there were so
01:00:50
many fools in all the worlds like damn that's that's funny you're Saucy I don't want to laugh at him though no because
01:00:56
you just don't know I feel like he did it so yeah and no matter what he was like a he was a [ __ ] from beginning
01:01:02
before the drama so it's like he was a bad guy and he heard his brother he did and he hurt his brother like really bad
01:01:08
yeah they could have killed him like hurt his brother and robbed him and robbed his own cousin like I would
01:01:13
low-key call that attempted murder oh that was one they they called it attempted so that's what they looked at
01:01:19
it is that he walked away probably thinking he had killed him yeah no good so Elroy Kent had already been indicted
01:01:26
by a grand jury for the murder of Delia Congdon so he pled guilt not guilty and was held in a cell to a weight trial the
01:01:34
trial began March 30th 1909 and State's Attorney J.C Jones John Sargent and Robert Lawrence announced that they
01:01:42
intended to call more than 30 witnesses to the stand [ __ ] what's funny is that
01:01:46
most of them apparently all the witnesses apparently quote complained of being kept away from their farms at
01:01:52
Sugar making time I mean they were noise hello priorities my priorities I mean especially at that time it's like this
01:01:59
is big [ __ ] deal well now I'm away at a serious time here and I think sugar was expensive back then right yeah so
01:02:05
it's probably like you're really taking money out of my pocket here yeah the trial was a bit over two weeks long and
01:02:10
throughout it the prosecution called several witnesses like the Sprague brothers were called to the stand all
01:02:15
the sugar farmers all the sugar farmers and they claimed to have seen Kent in the area just before the murder and the
01:02:21
motive that they were putting out there was robbery wrong yeah I don't think that was the full motive think it was
01:02:26
rape because remember I think he even before the head injury he seemed to like just doing the the act of robbery yeah
01:02:33
you know what I mean like I think he liked it and I think he escalated into needing more to like what he was doing
01:02:39
yeah yeah but the prosecution introduced several pieces of evidence they had um Delia congdon's bloody clothing they had
01:02:47
section of wood bearing Kent's carved initials that they had taken out of various places where is it now where is
01:02:53
it I couldn't find I just tried to look while you were saying because I feel like there's got to be a tree so I wear
01:02:58
his initials on it well you would think like some random Museum in Vermont would
01:03:01
have it would have them you know just be interesting to see from all those years
01:03:04
ago you know so long ago right and just such a freaky weird thing it's such a weird thing that he did that yeah that's
01:03:11
why it's just really interesting um Dr b.h Stone who was one of the men who completed Delia's autopsy also
01:03:17
testified and said that Delia quote was subject to the most outrageous treatment
01:03:22
before she was killed um Herbert Savory a former inmate testified and he's claimed to have
01:03:29
overheard Kent confess that he killed killed Delia so quote she could couldn't tell um we know how that goes sometimes
01:03:37
because when you listen to like former inmates or like present inmates it stinks because like you want to and you
01:03:45
could help testimony some of the best line of information here and it's like sometimes it works out right it's really
01:03:51
like a 50 50 shot if it's gonna work because at the same time then there's some of the worst because they're just
01:03:55
trying to get out yeah they have something to gain right but the most crucial testimony definitely came from
01:04:00
Deputy Leonard he claimed that Kent had practically made a full confession to him following the arrest oh [ __ ] he said
01:04:07
quote Kent told me that Miss Congdon saw him before he reached her and that he grabbed her and threw her into the milk
01:04:13
room oh now Leonard's testimony was corroborated the following day by Dr W W Townsend who was the physician at the
01:04:21
House of Corrections um that was where Kent was staying and he said he had also discussed the murder
01:04:27
with Kent and according to Dr Townsend Kent knew very specific and intimate details of the crime and had even
01:04:34
corrected the doctor at one point the doctor asked something about the crime happening in the kitchen and he said no
01:04:41
it happened in the milk room oh no so the final bit of damning testimony came from Elgin Taggart who was an employee
01:04:49
of the East Wallingford Cheese Factory oh the cheese tax the cheese tax that's a great song anytime you hear cheese you
01:04:57
have to sing anytime so Taggart told the jury he had spoken to Kent just before the murder and it was when Elroy saw
01:05:03
Delia and made quote an obscene remark about her like the Sprague Brothers Taggart had told Kent that quote he had
01:05:11
better keep away from that house hell yeah I love that our neighbors protected her I love that her neighbors protected
01:05:17
her too and I the shitty thing here is that we're dealing with like Sinister people I feel like it almost made it
01:05:22
more exciting yeah exactly now the evidence and testimony against Elroy Kent was
01:05:33
unfortunately still pretty circumstantial like you were saying you know like that's just the reality of it
01:05:39
but there was a lot of it yeah and each piece seemed to kind of corroborate the one before it you know so rather than
01:05:46
try to disprove the state's claim Kent's defense attorneys knew that you know circumstantial evidence can still be
01:05:53
pretty compelling yeah definitely and Ernest O'Brien and John Spellman his defense attorneys decided to take like a
01:05:59
pretty broad approach to the defense they said Elroy was nowhere near the house at the time of the murder that was
01:06:05
the first one and they said even if he was his Prof he is profoundly mentally ill and could not be held accountable
01:06:12
for what he's done okay at least not held accountable in the sense that he is not sane right and
01:06:18
held accountable in the sense that he's going to go to prison or be executed like he's gonna have to like we're gonna
01:06:24
have to do an insanity defense and he needs like psychiatric treatment yeah so as an alternative they also suggested
01:06:30
that Taggart the guy who said that he had the cheese factory guy yeah he could have been responsible for the murder
01:06:37
okay they claim that by his own admission he knew Congdon and was aware of where she lived and that she lived
01:06:43
alone they also said that he was a known heavy drinker and had actually been fired from the cheese factory due to
01:06:50
um his drinking interfering with his work and they pointed out to the jury that when Taggart was called to the
01:06:55
hospital in Waterbury following Kent's arrest he could not pick Kent out of a lineup and he couldn't in any way
01:07:02
recognize him as the man who'd shown up at the cheese factory before the murder well that's interesting and taggart's
01:07:09
response to this was that he had quote made the apparent error purposely to fool Dr grout the superintendent why
01:07:16
would you want to fool them why he would want to do that unclear to this day but
01:07:21
still don't know why he would want to do that yeah so it didn't look good for him
01:07:24
either it was like survey says no survey says I don't [ __ ] know about that so everybody says
01:07:32
now to kind of bolster their Insanity claim the defense called a bunch of witnesses
01:07:39
to the stand to testify about Kent's like bizarre and unpredictable behavior and his thinking as well as disordered
01:07:47
thinking and the handful of years leading up to the murder um L.D Wright who was a nurse from the
01:07:53
hospital testified and told the court that he had been forced to restrain Kent with a quote leather jacket on occasions
01:07:59
where he had become very violent that's so sad and he said he had also heard Kent curse apparently at an imaginary
01:08:05
woman oh uh Dr grout the superintendent agreed while testifying that Kent was quote of unsound mind yeah obviously but
01:08:14
they're all like we are in the hospital we know and did anybody like I'm like did you guys tell them that he had
01:08:19
[ __ ] railroad spikes in his head yeah that's it I'm like was that introduced into any of it you would think I mean if
01:08:25
you told me that and I was on the jury I'd be like I think we should send him back to the hospital yeah I think so now
01:08:30
on April 8th the defense rested their case and the prosecution had an opportunity to call one final rebuttal
01:08:36
witness um of just to kind of testify a witness to those testifying us to Ken sanity
01:08:42
basically the witness was Dr D.A sharris he was a psychologist from Montreal now this guy told the jury in his
01:08:52
opinion Kent quote was not insane but had been faking the delusions which he appeared to have he said he did not
01:09:00
react to any questions like a man who had hallucinations and he said I don't believe that he is insane
01:09:07
okay but I would like to repeat are we taking into account the wild head injury that he sustained years earlier because
01:09:16
it's crazier to me that he would not be like what they would have said back then
01:09:20
insane yeah after having had that accident to me there's no way in hell that he didn't have any kind of this
01:09:27
repercussion this to me would be like a slam dunk for the insanity defense yeah like that clear like nobody's saying
01:09:36
it's right to what he did or it's justified in any way or like excused but that's we that's a defense like this
01:09:43
because clearly seems to fit here at the very least you know we have to take it into account right but I do guess it
01:09:50
complicates things that he did have a long history of that's the thing that's why this is such a duplicated case it's
01:09:57
a tough case yeah it's very complicated because you can see both sides of that either way if he did it he's got to go
01:10:03
somewhere yeah but execution [Music] let's see about that and this is the question I was going to ask earlier
01:10:10
because obviously we know he's ultimately executed do you think they thought to themselves whoever you know
01:10:16
made the final decision that's what I'm thinking I think I probably am we keep sending him back to the hospital he
01:10:22
keeps escaping whether or not he did this crime are we quote unquote getting rid of a problem that we have here I
01:10:28
think you hit the nail on the hood I think so too I think that's I think that's really what happened here is like
01:10:33
he's been a problem so we let's just eradicate the problem kind of thing and this is a perfect excuse again I don't
01:10:39
think the excuse was let's frame him for this murder I think he probably committed the murder yeah he was a
01:10:46
pretty good suspect something and I think they just looked at it as like well he did this so this is a way to get
01:10:52
rid of the problem I think so too but the jury only deliberated for less than a day only a few hours they came back to
01:10:58
the courtroom on April 10th and they delivered a verdict of guilty yeah uh his sentencing was going to be put off
01:11:04
until the fall that's when he could appeal and every one pretty much assumed he was going to get the death penalty
01:11:11
um and as he was being led out of the courtroom by the deputies he was heard saying I don't care damn anyway
01:11:17
wow so it's like I don't know if it's I don't care what I did or I don't care what happens to me either way
01:11:24
now in October 1909 the Vermont state supreme court came together to hear the courses the cases in their fall session
01:11:32
um Elroy kentz was in this case load and they uh the defense argued that the state's strongest evidence against Kent
01:11:38
was those initials carved in the barn right that was really like the number one thing and they said that was not the
01:11:45
same as handwriting samples and it couldn't be treated or analyzed like that and the court considered the case
01:11:51
as a whole they considered everything and then they came down and said nope the original sentence it's going to stay
01:11:57
in their decision the justices wrote it will be noticed that this is not strictly a comparison of handwriting it
01:12:05
is rather the proof of a habit regarding the use of a character which has ordinarily made and has made in this
01:12:10
case affords no opportunity for the development of individual characteristics capable of detection if
01:12:17
a writer invariably makes the same mistake or always adopts the same two or more legitimate methods which presents
01:12:24
substantial differences his practice therein is a circumstantial circumstance which makes his genuine writings
01:12:31
available to establish the authenticity of a disputed one but the respondent's connection with the carving in the
01:12:37
Congdon Barn does not depend entirely upon the similarity of letters the evidence of the respondents admission
01:12:44
that he passed the night of the 23rds in this Barn the evidence tending to show a
01:12:48
practice of cutting his initials as a Pastime the evidence that the hay was thrown upon upon the barn floor on the
01:12:55
22nd and that fresh whitlings were found on this hay just below the carving their
01:13:00
evidence tending to show that the respondent made the letters so that's a fancy way to say he said he did it yup
01:13:08
so I think he did it denied like that's that's essentially what he did it so bye
01:13:15
bye uh so they rejected his appeal and the court sentence can can quote to be hanged in the yard of the state prison
01:13:21
at Windsor on January 13 1911 between the hour of 1 and 3 P.M wow the court also ordered that Kent be quote employed
01:13:30
at hard labor in the state prison until October 13 1910 after that he was going to be held in solitary confinement until
01:13:38
the day of his execution oh wow that is so [ __ ] up yeah Kent's response to this was I am not guilty
01:13:46
so in Med and mid-December 1910 the Vermont legislature actually broke for their holiday recess and they made a
01:13:55
boo-boo because they didn't complete all of their end of year business and when they didn't do this they unintentionally
01:14:01
granted Kent a brief reprieve state laws stipulated that the legislature much must issue a formal warrant before
01:14:09
anyone can be executed which they did not do before they went out for recess and luckily the problem was fixed in a
01:14:18
new execution date had to be set though for January 5th 1912. so they keep protecting them like a year reprieve
01:14:24
unintentionally but was he still in solitary at that point he was going to be in solitary for that for a year yep
01:14:31
oh my God now after that that's the thing it's like this really God like this is a sad case now all of this and
01:14:39
he's going to be executed and the execution did not go off without a hitch when the day finally came he was taken
01:14:47
from his cell in solitary confinement and let out to the yard by 1 18 PM everything was done and prepared to go
01:14:55
Kent was standing over the trap door on The Gallows he had a noose around his neck this was going to be the first
01:15:02
execution in the state of Vermont to employ an electrical trapdoor this electrical trapdoor was controlled by
01:15:09
one of six switches now this new system required six men to each push one of the buttons wow they
01:15:17
did this so that no one none of them would ever know which button caused the door to open it's almost like a firing
01:15:22
squad like that kind of thing when the warding gave the signal all six men pushed the button the door dropped out
01:15:29
from beneath Kent as planned but when the Rope pulled taut it snapped immediately and he fell to the ground
01:15:39
so they had no other option the Rope was then tied Over The Gallows and Ken's body was hoisted up and left to hang in
01:15:47
the prison yard for more than a half hour so he just slowly was like asphyxiated yeah
01:15:54
oh my I mean yeah what a punishment if he really was responsible that's quite a punishment now when the prison doctor
01:16:02
examined the body he said that he initially said that Kent was most likely killed during the first drop and
01:16:10
suffered no conscious thought after the first tightening of the Noose I don't know about that but many across the
01:16:17
state were horrified by this whole thing because reports came out later that said
01:16:21
after seven minutes of strangulation from The Gallows he still had a pulse also this reminded a lot of people of
01:16:32
the 1905 execution of Mary Rogers which she was a woman who was convicted of killing her husband very similar kind of
01:16:40
rope break situation that happened there very botched I want to cover that case so I'm not going to tell you a lot about
01:16:46
it right now because I looked into it more and I was like that's actually interesting very interesting case say
01:16:50
that because while I was Googling to find out if his initials were anywhere I found that and I was going to suggest
01:16:56
you do it yep I'm gonna do it so the unexpected errors in the execution resulted in people really getting angry
01:17:05
a flood of letters and telephone calls to the governor's office came out mostly by people who were like I don't
01:17:11
know uh maybe this is barbaric do you think um others were just outraged that the
01:17:17
execution had taken place at all like that not even just the way it was done they were like no no because they didn't
01:17:22
think well not even that they said it's very clear he has mental illness like yes it likely influenced his behavior in
01:17:30
some way and in response Governor John Mead addressed a group of press and he said my wish and prayer is that I may
01:17:37
never again be called upon to undergo an experience like that of the last week I
01:17:42
tried in short to do my duty no matter how no matter how unpleasant as I bound myself to do when I took my oath of
01:17:48
office the execution of Elroy Kent like I said earlier really became a became a point
01:17:55
of rallying basically for death penalty opponents and for decades it was one of the cases that was cited as an example
01:18:03
of one like the questionable morality here of executing somebody that is clearly
01:18:10
mentally mentally ill and also just the the barbaric way that the death penalty kind of goes about itself you know like
01:18:18
especially this kind of execution it's like that is yeah and again you know where we all stand here like mine my
01:18:26
view has very much evolved way more towards against us yours really has I'm still way more pretty in the middle and
01:18:33
which I think is what it should do is it should always be evolving yeah um and it didn't help the case that
01:18:40
there were rumors when decades after Kent had been executed another man made a deathbed
01:18:48
confession that said he was the one who'd murdered Delia Congdon and that he had allowed Elroy Kent to take the fall
01:18:55
because he was an easy Fall Guy quite literally it's unclear whether they investigated this further
01:19:05
or if they said listen that's what it is this guy's dying that guy's dead whatever we're just gonna
01:19:12
move on holy [ __ ] but it definitely raises a question of oh [ __ ] was Elroy Kent the one to murder Delia
01:19:22
congda because why confess why like and a deathbed confession to me is always very compelling I know deathbed
01:19:31
confessions are the most compelling because it's like what because I think people are in their most scared State
01:19:36
yeah they just want to release it all something lying at the end of your life is not
01:19:41
you know why do it wow yeah and that is the case of Elroy Kent in the murder of Delia Condon that's wild it's that case
01:19:52
blew my mind poor Delia she did nothing except be the most like brightest light in her community vibrant
01:19:59
just like thriving lady and like had overcome so much throughout her life and that's the end she met like given off
01:20:08
pieces of her farm for people to use because she gets like cookies for making cookies for school children is just
01:20:14
attacked while she's making breakfast well she's just and all because she unlocked her door that's so scary
01:20:20
it's so scary wow but yeah so I'm left very unsettled I have to say that's how I always like to leave
01:20:28
everybody so that's good that's how you usually leave yes wow um well thank you for that you're
01:20:34
welcome thank you guys for listening we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it
01:20:40
weird but not so weird that just not this weird I guess not this weird yeah [Music]