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hey weirdos I am Ash and I'm Elena and this right here is morbid [Music] this is morbid it's a podcast and you
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listen to it it's crime and it's creepy and it's dark and it's weird and it's spooky and I just saw a picture of a
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jackal Lantern on my Instagram and it made me happy that's spooky speaking of spooky Jack only a
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few more weekends until fall everybody more than a few but so many people listening are like shut the [ __ ] up
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Elena and to that I Say Never I am excited about fall Summer's almost over everyone not true almost
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wrap not true we're almost through it just started actually time can move forward for a little
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while what like quicker than normal I me I was like time's always out here doing
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time will always move forward for a little while you're like what you okay over there I was like
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what's happening no I'm excited I'm excited for spooky season I want to go to a farm I want to pick some Jacko
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lanterns I want to carve Jacko lanterns because that's when they become Jacko lanterns before that they're just
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pumpkins that's I'm excited I want to bake I want to bake fall fall pots and pans and I want to make fall soups I'm
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just like really love and guys I know it's summer and it literally just started but that means it's almost over
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so I I'm ready also I don't like summer clothes I don't like summer hotness here's the thing everybody there's not
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summer clothes no they're stupid you heard it here first I don't like summer there's not even real summer
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clothes yeah it just I don't like shorts especially if you're a Bodacious Baddie
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Bodacious baddy if you're a Bodacious batty summer is the clothing is just I mean or if you're a pale ass [ __ ] like
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me like if your legs can blind whole armies of people I'm both of those things that it's like there's nothing
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for us a a Bodacious pale ass baddy there you go God God God what a what a predi what a predi is right I don't know
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what's happening we've been recording a lot so we've been recording a lot silly goofy
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we are I was going to say something you were you were going to talk about the um
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uh donations that was yeah that is it actually that was a that was a really cool thing this is a really cool thing
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so I don't know if you guys remember when I covered um it was a really really sad story it was the murders of um Joel
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and Lisa guy they were murdered by their son and their their dog was there when it happened and luckily the young
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Williams animal shelter in um Knoxville Tennessee was able to like take the the puppy in until like family could come
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get him and in their obituaries they asked like um the family asked for people to make donations in Lisa and
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Joel's name to this animal shelter the young Williams animal shelter and I mentioned that on the episode and it was
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it was like back in 2022 yeah and they have received close to $7,000 in donations because of you guys
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that that's like you guys went hard almost $77,000 you guys killed it so if you're
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able to go ahead and donate to the young Williams animal shelter continue to and
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if you're if you're going to do it definitely do it in um Lisa and Joel guy's name yeah and that's how they know
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they've gotten that many donations in their name like since the since since the episode and they said countless
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animals have been saved or help yeah that's so cool guys keep doing that like that's really cool I know this was that
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was a really a really fun email to receive today yeah it was such a little bright spot and all the the shadiness of
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the world so that that was really and good job guys good job you guys party party party animals out here we love it
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cuz animals most of the time are better than humans so I would say sometimes keep them happy man say good track
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racket animals good track racket animals you sounded like a Bob's Burgers character oh I love Bob and I love Bob
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burgers at Tina I love it at Tina Bel Tina beler I'm more of a Louise yeah I don't know who you are
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you're Bob I'm Bob you're absolutely Bob yeah I was like I don't know oh nope I do like no it hit
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me oh right oh and Mikey is Jean okay anyways so do you watch Bob burgers no e Jean brother I love he's like no and
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you're like you're Jean he's like that was helpful thank you you beta all right we should probably podcast about should
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podcasting things but you know it happens sometimes I got an old timey one for you today oh my
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God it's sad oh okay I was just like it's sad it's sad I'm like oh man let me bring it down yeah we got to bring it
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down and also interesting that you brought up Halloween it happens on Halloween oh yeah that is interesting
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right since Halloween is so close exactly all right so we're going to be talking about Bessie darling today
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Bessie Warren before she became Bessie darling was born on August 4th 18 1985 in Baltimore Maryland she was the oldest
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child to John and Fanny Warren OH John and Fanny forever John was a grosser and Fanny was a homemaker oh I love them
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there aren't really like a lot of records that give insight into Bessie's life before purchasing the Valley View
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Hotel which is like a big thing that she does in her life but there are some historical facts that give us a couple
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of details uh like many families in Baltimore's 15th Ward the Warren were a lower middle- class family of German
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descent they didn't really come from a lot but John Warren owned the family's house with a free title quote unquote
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just like that's so like John Warren a big deal good for him I know and he owned and operated his own grocery
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business which gave the Warren way more stability than other families would have
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had at the time so good for them they didn't have a lot but what they did have was keeping them afloat hell yeah now
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it's safe to assume that Bessie's early life was similar to most children in the
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late 19th century since she was the oldest of four children it's very likely she would have helped her mom with
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domestic responsibilities around the house taking care of the younger ones she had one younger brother and two
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younger sisters and in addition to her chores at home she also attended school at least through the eighth grade as
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record show but by 1920 she was employed as a teacher so it's pretty fair to assume that she got education beyond
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what that documentation implies mhm In 1902 she married Charles Howard darling he was known to his friends and family
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as Howard Howard so many people went by their middle names back then I know perfectly nice name Charles and he's
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like n in fact like nothing's wrong with the name Howard but I prefer Charles yeah yeah I don't know but his family
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owned a large commercial Bakery in Baltimore yum two years later in November of 1904 Beth Bessie gave birth
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to the couple's only child Charles Jr who was known to his friends and family by his middle name also Wesley what is
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wrong with the name Charles everybody I don't know on but Wesley is adorable I like the name Wesley yeah for the first
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few years of Wesley AKA Charles Jr's life the bakery enjoyed continued success and the family was doing pretty
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well financially but in 1907 Howard lost the bakery due to a quote mismanagement
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of resources oh which also meant several steps down on the social ladder as he went from business owner to a clerk in
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somebody else's business so they they took a pretty big fall during this yeah and the loss of the family bakery
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appears to have been a bigger trigger point for tension in the darling's marriage and in 1917 they actually ended
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up divorcing sad yeah it is sad seems like that was like a quick like like yeah yeah well before they had
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divorced around 1914 Bessie had taken a job as a secretary for Baltimore conductor Joseph Posh in order to help H
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uh help support the family so she was able to support herself and her son after the divorce because she kind of
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already had this like side gig and the work not only allowed her to support herself as a single mother but it also
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afforded her a degree of like social cache that she definitely wouldn't have had if it weren't for her association
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with the Posh and Baltimore uh oratorio Society it was a musical Conservatory headed by Posh himself oh okay yeah
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according to Casey clay Bessie's association with Posh and the orchestra lasted until his death in 1926 and it
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would have a huge influence on how she was perceived by her rural neighbors later in life cuz she was even though
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she had like kind of that like fall from like her place in society she never really had like a super high place yeah
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but she her family was making money she married a man who was like owned his own
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business they were doing well and then it all kind of and then she kind of fell but then she had the connection so she
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didn't fall all the way down the ladder kind of she was able to hang on yes it was Bessie's relationship with Joseph
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Pash actually that ultimately led to her purchasing Valley View Manor in November
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of 1917 ah so since the early part of the 20th century there was a state and federal emphasis on building up like
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these rural areas to accommodate the unsustainably large populations in urban areas specifically on the East Coast
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okay so in Maryland the expansion of the Western Maryland railroad had reached kton I looked up how to say that
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mountain uh that region by the end of the 19th century so it made a once remote area a lot more more easily
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accessible to people who were looking to travel okay initially the plan was to develop the area into like a robust
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industrial production Center but by the late 1800s the area's largest employer the kakon furnace company had shut down
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and that discouraged other businesses from moving to the area because they were like why would I bring my business
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there if it's going to fail and it's like I don't know be a Trailblazer be a trail braer I know just cuz they failed
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doesn't mean you will try try try not the point of this but I'm just saying be a Trailblazer I agree with you you can
00:11:02
do it you can we believe in in you but the collapse of the area's industrial manufacturing center was a big setback
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for this like small rural I can never say rural rural juror rural community yeah but it coincided with a rise in
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tourism across the United States it was like one bad thing one good thing starting in the last part of the 19th
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century America's newly formed middle class was very much encouraged by the government to invest some of their
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disposable income in recreational travel particularly to the growing number of national parks that the government had
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started establishing they said go on vacation girls go see the boys everybody just do your thing you know what you
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should do you should commit tourism commit tourism that's what you it's not a crime it's it should be though cuz
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it's so fun so dang fun yeah a disposable income toward that they're like what like what you guys are right
00:12:00
it's disposable no so seeing an opportunity in this new National trend of Tourism tourism Western Maryland
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Railroad President John Hood pivot pivoted away from the industrial plan that he had for the kton mountains and
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started investing heavily in promoting the area as this Premier destination for tourism I just picture him on like a
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billboard being like you come to my place that I have come to this place you know and do some things exactly and and
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the place he wanted people to come was penar he built it in 1877 it was a large resort in the mountains near the
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Pennsylvania border and within a few years the entire tourism industry had developed around it so it was like this
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really cool place to go there was more than a 100 hotels countless boarding houses dance halls gaming parlors oh and
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observation towers oh you can look at the stairs you can observe them oh some Galileo [ __ ] precisely so basically
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they're just building up this area and more and more people are flocking to it and there's more [ __ ] to do making it
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cool cool D out there yeah it's giving like Dave and Busters you know that's exactly what it's giving that's what I
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thought of absolutely tourism giving D Busters I don't know after her divorce from Howard in 1917
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Bessie bought Mount lent which was then named for um former owner Mary lent and she bought this with financial help from
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that guy Posh who was with the music look at that guy I thought she bought her own Mountain for a second and I was
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like she's really moving up in the world that would have been iconic that would have been pretty iconic but this is
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still cool it's still iconic what she does but Posh helped her provide the down payment on the 36 acre property in
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Deerfield uh lent was one of the first Public Health nurses in the country and she had come to Deerfield in 1907 when
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the Maryland tubercular sanatorium opened about 20 mil away from her property by train she retired about 10
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years later and that's when she sold the property to Bessie who opened Valley View Manor which was a boarding house
00:14:08
that she ran in the summer months Valley View Manor Valley View Manor I want to go to there when the weather got cold in
00:14:15
the fall Bessie would go back to Baltimore but she spent all summer and a lot of the spring pretty much just
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working at Valley View Manor hell yeah according to one report when she was back in Baltimore Bessie quote used her
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considerable social context to drum up Summer business for her hotel we love a networking queen I'm saying now the
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three-story 12 room Valley View Manor opened to the public in 1918 with a staff of just two whoa two Bessie cooked
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the meals she entertained the guest she also provided Transportation all of that
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while a seasonal worker acted as a maid and housekeeper damn just two CH that's a lot of work running a three-story 12
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12 room Manor damn so The Boarding House initially was successful but the area experienced a pretty big economic
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downturn during the first world war obviously people weren't spending a lot of extra money they didn't have a lot of
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extra money yeah and Bessie actually almost lost the property two times for failure to pay her property taxes cuz it
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sounds like she just wasn't bringing in enough to pay for it she faced yet another hardship in 1921 when a visitor
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sued darling and Posh for $1,000 about $250,000 today after a bridge in the manners driveway collapsed beneath him
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damn records do indicate that after the lawsuit was resolved Pash actually had nothing to do with valy View Manor
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anymore but I think on paper it still belonged to him yeah so during the summer season of 1929 a man named George
00:15:53
Schultz checked in as a guest at Valley View Manor and he and Bessie really had off oh but like Bessie there's not a lot
00:16:02
that's known about George or his life prior to his relationship with Bessie beginning in 1929 but what we do know is
00:16:10
that he was also born in Baltimore just like Bessie he was born about 1871 and he spent most of his life in
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Baltimore most reports about this case refer to him as an inspector for the Baltimore Health Department uh he did
00:16:24
hold that position for nearly 16 years but he was said to be fired from that job in August of 1916 oo and it was kind
00:16:32
of a big deal because that year he told a reporter I went to see my supervisor and I asked if I was being dismissed for
00:16:39
inefficiency or politics oh he frankly told me it was politics oh the plot thickens it does George claimed that his
00:16:49
friendship and support for local Baltimore politician Frank Kelly was the reason for his being fired and this
00:16:55
explanation was probably accurate because Danny Len who was a leader of the local chapter of the KKK oh had been
00:17:04
making a major push to force all the progressive politicians like Kelly out of Baltimore politics gross according to
00:17:11
the Baltimore Evening Sun just days before Schultz was fired Loden was known to have had a long conference with Dr
00:17:18
John Blake the head of the Department of Health quote at which several places in
00:17:23
the department are said to have been discussed oh my so he just went in there and was like I don't like this
00:17:29
politician anybody who has connections with him get rid of them or like trans them of all of this yeah like this is so
00:17:37
dork sided it is dor and it's clear that the reason for George's change of position was
00:17:43
political but technically he wasn't fired he kind of like took it as being fired yeah but he ended up being
00:17:48
transferred from his position with the Baltimore Health Department to a new role as an inspector for the State
00:17:54
Health Department okay so he kind of just like got switched around yeah it's almost like a ladder move yeah but it's
00:18:00
still [ __ ] up why did I get moved yeah and especially when you know why like that it has to do with politics you're
00:18:06
like so it has nothing to do with my quality of work like that not cool man not cool not cool that's a scary mask
00:18:13
bro it is so the emphasis on George's employment first in Baltimore then with the state might have just been the
00:18:19
result of journalists not really knowing much else about him at the time they were like this sounds good they were
00:18:24
like hey this is a little bit scandalous but so they didn't really know a lot about him at the time that the murder
00:18:31
that we're going to talk about took place but it's also possible that class and social status kind of heavily
00:18:37
influenced the Press at the time it seems like the perspective of the locals in the Deerfield area was that Bessie
00:18:43
and George were Outsiders and one of the ways that status was signaled and reinforced was through the repeated
00:18:49
references to their economic ties to Baltimore that makes sense yeah um according to one local history report
00:18:56
most of the women who ran boarding houses were the wives of local farmers but darling was from Baltimore and thus
00:19:02
appeared somewhat exotic and sophisticated to local residents exotic and sophisticated she's not married to a
00:19:08
farmer that's exotic and sophisticated if you're not married to a farmer it's like who is
00:19:15
she that girl she's from Baltimore she's Beauty and she's Grace and she's not married to
00:19:24
a farmer so damn her social ties to Baltimore and her interest in entertaining her guests was a pretty
00:19:31
frequent topic of discussion in Deer Deerfield particularly as the area was hit by the Great Depression and
00:19:38
discouraged residents were eager for any gossip that was going to distract from the recession I don't blame them I don't
00:19:43
either the Great Depression as the name kind of signals was probably very depressing and it's like you got to have
00:19:50
some tea yeah you need something to hold on have some tea but Bessie's social life was not the only thing that
00:19:56
interested the locals as soon as George Schultz entered the picture he too became a source of gossip and rumor ooh
00:20:05
according to one Thermon resident Schultz was a heavy drinker and would often cause a scene in public on one
00:20:12
occasion Bessie and George got into an argument in front of the post office which eventually escalated to the point
00:20:17
that George assaulted Bessie oh out in like at all but also in front of the post office Jesus uhhuh in later news
00:20:26
reports the Press indicated that other residents around town remembered witnessing similarly abusive situations
00:20:32
oh that's awful so it wasn't like he just did this one time this was something that this was like a regular
00:20:37
occurrence but because a lot of the information relating to Bessie and George's relationship is based on a lot
00:20:42
of speculation gossip and rumor uh and all of that gossip speculation and rumor was kind of entered into the historical
00:20:50
record after a murder it's a little difficult to separate truth from fiction slightly tainted yeah slightly tainted
00:20:58
yeah but the reports of him being drunk in public on numerous occasions and his brandishing a gun on several of those
00:21:05
occasions and his being verbally and physically abusive toward Bessie does suggest that the relationship wasn't
00:21:12
very stable or very good at the very least I would say it suggests that yeah yeah yeah that's very concerning even
00:21:20
though like maybe some things were embellished a little bit Yeah they didn't come out of nowhere though where
00:21:26
there's smoke there's fire exactly like it's not like they were just like wow he's such a sweet kind man that never
00:21:31
does anything and somebody was like I saw him whip out a gun and try to shoot her it's like no it doesn't go from
00:21:36
there to there yeah no it's like there was something in between exactly so Bessie and George carried on their
00:21:42
relationship for almost four years from 1929 to 1933 that must been a long four years but it's actually a little bit
00:21:49
unclear how much of that time was really spent together because from the moment she purchased the property Bessie like I
00:21:56
said she spent her spring and summer months at valy View and Deerfield but then she'd go to Baltimore for a fall
00:22:01
and winter and although George met Bessie while he was staying at Valley View he was also from Baltimore so it's
00:22:09
nobody really knows if their relationship was only ongoing when they were in the same place at the same time
00:22:14
or if they actually went back to Baltimore together during the off season that's interesting just because of the
00:22:20
time I think there's just not a lot of record of them yeah like they couldn't check in on Facebook exactly so nobody
00:22:26
knows if you can't do that nobody knows what's going on that's the thing yeah now whatever the structure of their
00:22:31
relationship by the summer of 1933 Bessie had grown pretty tired of George and was uh pretty done tolerating his
00:22:38
abuse so she was like you know what I think I'm done here like nice and knowing you not really and she broke off
00:22:44
the relationship as if to emphasize the finality of her decision she decided that that winter she was going to
00:22:50
actually stay at Valley View rather than return to Baltimore and probably risk crossing paths with George yeah so to
00:22:57
make matters worse at least from Georgia's perspective after ending their relationship Bessie had been seen around
00:23:03
town in the company of one Charles wolf a widower from nearby foxville a Charles
00:23:09
who goes by Charles exactly she has a thing for Charles according to one article published uh in the kton banner
00:23:16
in 1978 George's murderous jealousy was triggered by Bessie accepting Wolf's invitation to the local Halloween parade
00:23:24
oh no could just be gossip and rumor but who's to say who's to say so unable to accept Bessie's rejection George became
00:23:33
irrationally jealous and angry and didn't really try to hide either of those feelings even when he was in
00:23:39
public awesome on one occasion about a week before a murder before the murder excuse me he was overheard by Maisy
00:23:45
Willard who was the maid of Valley View angrily telling Bessie he would quote unquote get her for her decision to end
00:23:52
things now on Halloween morning 1933 just 2 days after the last guest had checked out a Valley View George boarded
00:24:01
a train in Baltimore Bound for Deerfield during his later trial the train conductor uh Irvin en an I think it is
00:24:09
testified that when George boarded the train that morning he quote showed his Health Department badge and gun and said
00:24:16
there probably will be a shooting match there this morning oh that's ominous yeah and
00:24:22
according to the same conductor George was drinking but not drunk okay but literally is like here's my gun there
00:24:28
might be some shooting later just putting it out there just saying yeah foreshadowing now once he reached the
00:24:33
station in Thurmont George caught a ride in the direction of Deerfield from Clarence uh lied who was both the local
00:24:40
M mail carrier and the taxi operator oh I love when it's like the Dual jobs around town small town like I do the
00:24:48
mail and I drive 1800s of it all is in like early 1900s is always like I am the local surgeon I am also the pet groomer
00:24:57
and the mail like I know I do it all how do I I got to change my hat now lied also testified
00:25:05
that George appeared to have been drinking but he also didn't think the man was drunk just agitated according to
00:25:10
lied once they were about a half a mile from Valley View George took his pistol from his jacket and said I better get
00:25:16
ready we might run into some Bad actors around here o other reports quote him as
00:25:21
having said he didn't know what he might run into so he's just showing his gun to
00:25:27
everybody and being like I might need to use this yeah like what the [ __ ] yeah in
00:25:32
his initial statement to the police lied also stated throughout the drive from the train station George quote
00:25:37
questioned him about several people including Mrs darling and Charles wolf H so he was like oh are they together
00:25:44
interesting now later during her testimony the maid Maisy Willard recalled that morning as being very
00:25:50
Serene she said she and Bessy just worked alongside one another they were closing sections of the house that
00:25:56
wouldn't be in use until the next tour season she said the leaves were beautiful that fall the patunas were
00:26:01
blooming in the yard and we had gathered Bunches of leaves to put all throughout
00:26:05
the house she had been preparing breakfast on the first floor when she heard a knock at the door a little past
00:26:11
7:30 that morning when she opened it she was confronted by George Schultz who demanded to see Bessie
00:26:18
immediately before Maisy could say anything Schultz literally just pushed right past her into the house and
00:26:24
started going up the stairs that led to Bessie's bedroom oh no this is the point where the details kind
00:26:30
of vary depending on where you read the story in the more objective account of what happened uh that appeared in the
00:26:37
papers outside of the kakon mountain area and this account is actually informed by maisy's statement to the
00:26:44
police okay when George got to the second floor of the house he found that the door to Bessie's bedroom was locked
00:26:50
so he broke the door down in order to get inside oh that's horrifying and once he made it through the door he raised
00:26:56
his pistol and fired one round into Bessie's chest severing an artery and killing her instantly oh after killing
00:27:04
Bessie he held Maisy at gunpoint for an hour before sending her out of the house
00:27:09
to go get the authorities holy [ __ ] and when she came back with police he was lying at the top of the stairs bleeding
00:27:16
from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest wow yeah now in the more Sensational version of the story which
00:27:25
was the one circulated by locals George Schultz snuck into the home through the back door and demanded to be led to
00:27:31
Bessie once Maisy led him to the top of the stairs George entered Bessie's room and locked the door behind him making
00:27:38
him the only witness to this version of events ah now according to George so he doesn't die
00:27:46
oh once she saw him lock the door behind him Bessie quote had her own pistol nearby and made a mad Garb for her gun
00:27:54
fearing that she'd kill him he claimed he fired in self to fence hitting Bessie in the chest and nearly killing her
00:28:01
after shooting Bessie he said he emerged from the room and demanded that Maisy make him a cup of
00:28:06
coffee then as he what dis robed in front of the terrified girl what he tossed her the engagement ring that
00:28:13
Bessie had recently returned to him upon their breakup and said you can have that
00:28:17
to remember her by and then he sent Maisy to go get the police and said when you come back you'll find the two of us
00:28:24
dead damn so like part of that story is inform and then part of it is very embellished
00:28:33
and sensationalized upon by just like spreading it through the local Rumor Mill yeah like I don't know about the
00:28:39
engagement ring and him disrobing or anything like that like it could have happened but there's nothing to
00:28:44
substantiate that to confirm that but his his whole thing of like she pulled the gun on me and that's why I fired he
00:28:52
did say that yeah now the differences in the two versions of the story are they might seem kind of small in
00:28:58
insignificant but they do speak to the fundamental differences in how Bessie and George were perceived by yearr round
00:29:04
residents in the area versus in Baltimore because in Baltimore it was a very simple case of domestic violence
00:29:11
brought to a terribly sad conclusion yeah but the local account of the story is scandalous dramatic George sneaks
00:29:19
into the house two lovers are pointing guns at one another he get naked and ask for a cup of coffee afterwards like
00:29:26
exactly yeah it it gets to be a lot but back to the facts Maisie did end up running down the mountain to the nearest
00:29:33
phone and called Sheriff Charles crumb who immediately drove out to the hotel and when he arrived at Valley View he
00:29:39
found all the doors locked and actually had to force his way into the house through the basement and once he made
00:29:45
his way upstairs he found Bessie dead on the floor of her bedroom just wearing only her night gown oh that's so sad I
00:29:51
know just outside the room on the landing at the top of the store the stairs was George Schultz bleeding from
00:29:57
a hole in his chest so crumb sent for the local physician Dr Morris beerley who did his best to stabilize Schultz
00:30:04
and then the two men transported him to the hospital in nearby Frederick about 10 miles away wow so he shot himself in
00:30:11
the chest and then it took a while for the police to even get there and then they have to stabilize him and drive him
00:30:16
10 miles away and this is like this isn't like you're getting in like a a [ __ ] Tesla and going flying down the
00:30:23
highway yeah or even like an ambulance it's like you're in your buggying it basically you know what I mean like
00:30:30
you're going very slow yeah so when Schultz arrived at the hospital obviously he was in critical condition
00:30:36
the bullet had entered his chest and traveled downward quot and this is a quote lodging in the kidney region ooh
00:30:43
yeah also real quick I know it's not a horse and buggy I was saying that as like a you know Silly laugh ha making
00:30:49
sure no I got that and then everybody else did too they told me they told me yeah so fortunately though after a
00:30:56
lengthy surgery the medical staff was able to remove the bullet and save his life ensuring that he would stand trial
00:31:03
for the murder which is crazy that especially after like it hitting like lodging in the kidney yeah eek that's
00:31:11
shocking it's also like how you doing yeah not well [ __ ] no now the next day November 1st an autopsy was performed by
00:31:18
Dr Edward Thomas with assistance from Dr beerley and they concluded that Bessie had most likely been lying down in bed
00:31:25
when she was shot oh and the bullet killed her almost instantly interesting now given that they also had a statement
00:31:31
from Maisy Willard describing what had happened which supported the physical evidence gleaned from the autopsy a
00:31:36
Coroner's inquest was deemed unnecessary yeah while George was recovering from surgery at Frederick Hospital Crum and
00:31:43
States Attorney Walter sin took his formal statement and in the statement he did confess to shooting Bessie telling
00:31:49
the men that after their breakup he was unable to accept her decision and had become extremely quote unquote jealous
00:31:56
of a farmer living near Deerfield and he believed that Bessie had started a new relationship with that farmer wow
00:32:03
so investigators SP spoke with Charles Wolf the man that George believed was dating Bessie and he denied any romantic
00:32:10
relationship telling the detective quote he knew Mrs darling only as a neighbor and Schultz had no reason to be
00:32:17
jealous wow so this was all just rumor in his head and in his head totally in his head like people maybe were like oh
00:32:25
I saw Bessie talking to Charles but it was like a very like acquaintance type of
00:32:30
relationship a good lesson of how talking sh unsubstantiated [ __ ] mhm is not good it's dangerous ruin a person's
00:32:39
life like like talk tea with your friends yeah for sure totally like when it gets serious like that shut up yeah
00:32:48
just quiet quiet down yeah just the fact that he was like yeah he had no reason to be jealous like I knew her as a
00:32:56
neighbor and like not one person like he never thought to just like ask him nope
00:33:01
he just went and he would have heard that like you have no reason to be jealous like very platonic he didn't
00:33:06
even ask Bessie he didn't give her a chance at all he just walked in her room and shot her yeah he didn't ask Bessie
00:33:11
he didn't ask Charles both of them probably would have been like yeah we're just friends we literally just know like
00:33:17
we're barely friends we know each other as neighbors wow we weren't even going to the Halloween parade together damn
00:33:22
now by early December uh George Schulz had recovered from his bullet wound and would be facing murder charges at the
00:33:29
same time he also changed his story from his initial statement where he was jealous and that because the the
00:33:37
official statement he gave was just that he was jealous and that's why he killed
00:33:40
her but this is when he started saying that he shot her in self-defense ah he claimed he quote knew Mrs darling for 4
00:33:46
years and boarded at her home that day he entered her hotel on October 31st and when she threatened to shoot him he shot
00:33:53
in self-defense he also claimed that after he shot Bessie he quote became highly
00:33:58
nervous and used his own weapon on his on himself firing one shot into his chest which then rendered him
00:34:06
unconscious wow so after his initial statement of like we dated I really loved her I got jealous I heard this
00:34:14
whole rumor and I couldn't handle it so I killed her now he just has stayed at her boarding like I've known her for
00:34:20
years I st at her boarding house I know her as like you know the landlord I walked in on Halloween she said she was
00:34:26
going to shoot me so I shot her yeah it's like what it's like you're really going with that what and the evidence uh
00:34:33
strongly indicated that things simply couldn't have happened this way most importantly it was believed that after
00:34:39
pushing his way into the house and up the stairs he shot Bessie like I said immediately after entering the entering
00:34:45
the room which meant she likely wouldn't have had any time to threaten him yeah so on February 27th 1934 a grand jury
00:34:53
IND indicted George Schultz for Bessie's murder and a few days later he was arranged in Frederick's circuit court on
00:34:59
a charge of first-degree murder the trial began on March 12th and the prosecutor walterson laid out a pretty
00:35:05
simple case for the jury he said George Schultz and Bessie darling were in a romantic relationship for a number of
00:35:11
years and when she called it off he got pissed and vowed to get his revenge ultimately shooting her to death on
00:35:17
October 31st it was his belief that when the that the crime was premeditated based on reports of George having made
00:35:24
threats against Bessie in the days before the murder because remember he said I'll
00:35:28
I was going to say yeah he was running his mouth and to support his case sin called a total of 26 Witnesses wow yeah
00:35:35
among them were the two men who reported seeing Schultz on the morning of the shooting and testified that it seemed as
00:35:41
though he had been drinking and of course both said that he showed them his pistol and made pretty vague references
00:35:48
about possibly using it later that day and the state's star witness Maisy Willard also testified that day
00:35:54
providing a very detailed account of what she had witnessed and experienced yeah George Schultz entered a plea of
00:36:01
not guilty and the defense quote went with a tripr approach of self-defense crime of passion and Reasonable Doubt
00:36:09
yeah we're just going to throw it all at the wall and see what sticks yeah it's pasta yeah sticking with the second
00:36:14
story that he'd given investigators George claimed he'd gone to confront Bessie out of the jealousy he was
00:36:19
feeling and had broken into the bedroom believing that he would find her with another man it's like really you killed
00:36:25
her now you just need to paint her like this stop and also even if you did she could have been cuz she broke up with
00:36:31
you yeah she's single she can do what she wants wants now he said when she pointed her gun at him he fired first in
00:36:38
self-defense Bessie did own a gun and it was found in the room with her but when
00:36:43
it was found the safety was still on and it wasn't in her hand so how would she yeah so since there was no denying that
00:36:51
he shot her George's defense team's goal was to create enough Reasonable Doubt and convince a jury that it was a crime
00:36:57
of passion committed by an otherwise sane and very rational man oh yeah okay in order to cast himself as an
00:37:05
upstanding citizen George made a number of strange and unverified claims on the witness stand these got wild he told the
00:37:12
jury that he was a deputy sheriff a veteran of the Great War and a major league baseball
00:37:19
player oh because that instills TR impressive like what very impressive the state's star witness and one of the only
00:37:27
eyewitnesses by contrast was a teenage girl they said with no credibility and that was Maisy yeah it's like meanwhile
00:37:35
I don't know everything she's saying is supported by actual evidence but okay like a teenage girl makes it makes it
00:37:41
that she's not credible yeah she's just a teenage teenage girl cool yeah now the
00:37:46
next day the jury deliberated for 1 hour before returning a verdict although they
00:37:50
didn't believe that the crime had been a premeditated deliberate act they also didn't believe that George had shot
00:37:56
Bessie in self-defense so ultimately they found Mr George Schultz guilty of second degree murder
00:38:02
okay judge Hammond nner wasted no time on passing the sentence and immediately sentenced Schultz to 18 years in prison
00:38:09
he said the jury's verdict indicated that it rejected the self-defense Theory we think it's Justified that the court
00:38:14
has no doubt he returned to carry out his threat when the sentence was read in the courtroom George cried out I didn't
00:38:21
intend to shoot I loved her too dearly it's like but you did I don't know about that you shot her in the chest and
00:38:28
killed her instantly you came with a gun and told people all the going to be using it way yeah you called the TR the
00:38:35
town crier to go run out to the town square and tell everybody exactly come on that afternoon Sheriff crumb
00:38:41
transported Schultz to the state penitentiary in Baltimore where he began serving his sentence now with Joseph
00:38:47
Pash having died many years earlier he was the one who helped Bessie by the uh Valley View Manor ownership of Valley
00:38:55
View Manor defaulted to his heirs in Germany because he was passed away at this point oh and she's passed away and
00:39:03
he I think he provided actually all of the down payment so it was technically his property oh man but they were unable
00:39:10
they were either unable or uninterested in claiming it claiming it so the property was foreclosed on by the bank
00:39:16
in 1934 oh damn but Bessie's son Wesley purchased the property back from the bank for
00:39:24
$3,000 and immediately signed it over to his grandparents John and Fanny Warren and they ran the hotel until John died
00:39:31
the next year a so they like really tried to keep it in the family to say they like ran it in her honor but not
00:39:37
interested in running the hotel without her husband Fanny signed the property over to the state in
00:39:43
1936 and it became including included in what is now the kakon recreational demonstration area it's a part of the
00:39:50
national park system wow yeah interesting huh that's crazy now in March of 1940 Geor Schultz then 70 years
00:39:58
old appied applied for parole but he was denied who and a few months later then Governor Herbert o'conor announced his
00:40:05
administration would be implementing a new and more Humane parole system in which the governor would play an active
00:40:12
role in determining who was going to be paroled oh my among the cases on his agenda was that of the elderly George
00:40:18
Schultz but after reviewing the cases he was again denied whoa o Conor said upon
00:40:25
that coming right he said upon my first consideration of the matters I could not
00:40:29
see my way clear to Grant parols in these cases whoa Schultz was denied parole one more time before finally
00:40:35
winning release in February of 1943 after serving N9 years of his 18year sentence years only served N9
00:40:43
years but he died just one year later from unspecified causes whoa unspecified I know whoo and that is the Halloween
00:40:53
murder of Bessie darling a poor Bessie I know and she just seemed like she was a
00:40:58
Trailblazer she was and she wasn't doing anything wrong no she just broke up with
00:41:03
him she broke up with him after he sounded like he was pretty [ __ ] abusive being abusive it just sounds
00:41:09
like she had a lot to offer the world hell yeah and she was like stepping out do like taking charge of [ __ ] she didn't
00:41:15
come from much and she used her connections to try to make her life better and I'm telling Google Bessie
00:41:21
darling because she's an icon she is an like take a peek at her and she's awesome yeah she's Gorge she just
00:41:27
fabulous yeah it's really sad that it it was just like such a senseless killing it really was but wow an interesting
00:41:34
case very interesting interesting old timey case you know we love it yeah so that's so sad we hope you keep listening
00:41:41
though we hope you keep it weird but not so weird that you listen to the rumor mill in town and think that your girl
00:41:48
who is not even your girl anymore because she broke up with you is seeing a new mans and you get all jealous and
00:41:52
shoot her because cool it brother cool it cool it like cool whip like Cool Whip or like ice cool
00:42:03
things be like ice [Music] [Music] oh my God I'm so tired I hope I can read hello
00:42:57
I'm exhausted I watch too much Telly in the evening it's the most little kid thing I've ever heard you're
00:43:05
like I watch too much TV I'm tired have you ever stayed up until the early morning hours of the evening just
00:43:13
watching your Telly I haven't recently cuz I just can't I fell asleep too early I don't have the stamina I just didn't I
00:43:23
just didn't I think I was up late with the cake the other night and then my body was like oh we do this now we this
00:43:28
is what we do we we we could just relax though watch the telly