WEBVTT FILE

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[music swells in abruptly.]

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[Acoustic instrument playing
a three note repeating pattern]

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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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[zapping noise]

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[music is ominous. synthesizer wind noises

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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and dark sounding notes ring out]

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[music title: the village]

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[deep bass notes can be heard underneath higher

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pitched notes and synth noises]

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[acoustic instrument changes to a four note,

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repeating pattern. same ominous tone]

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[vocalization can be heard. no words]

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[inaudible words and quick phrases
can be heard in background]

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[long vocalization. vowels only. no audible words]

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[high pitched, synthesized female vocalization.

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long vowel sounds. ahhhhhhh]

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[female vocalization continues]

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[thunder or loud noises can be heard periodically]

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[very long vocalization and all
notes end and ring out to fade]

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[voice echos in distance as music fades]

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[new music. slow, electric blues guitar & harmonica]

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[music title: traveling crawford]

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[traditional blues riff in the keys of E and A]

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[music quites a bit as narration begins]

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(Male Narrator)
Southern Illinois, old earth, old forests, old testament.

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This ground holds tales of many ancient civilizations,

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historic events, and fantastic folklore.

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The portion of the state that identifies
itself as “Little Egypt”

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is surrounded by the Mississippi,
Ohio, and Wabash Rivers.

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The rivers not only define its boundaries

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but have shaped the histories and lives of

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all who have lived there.

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These waters encapsulate a land hundreds of

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miles, attitudes and lifestyle away from

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the cosmopolitan cities to the north.

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This countryside has challenged all those

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who have staked their claim here leaving behind

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a place filled with fading stories, histories,

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and lessons from the past.

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[blues music continues in background]

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This is the story of Elizabeth Reed

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who in 1845 became
the first woman to be hanged

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in Illinois.

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She was accused of poisoning her husband Leonard

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with arsenic laced tea then tried and convicted

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by a jury of 12 men.

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Betsy was hanged on May 23rd

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which to most
would be where the story ends.

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However, Elizabeth Reed’s story had just begun.

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The circumstances of her arrest,

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trial,

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conviction, execution, burial, and afterlife

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have been debated ever since.

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The folklore that exists today suggests her

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restless spirit wanders the countryside.

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Does her ghost haunt the site of her execution

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because she was falsely accused

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or due to the very nature of her crime?

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Some may argue it was
because her voice was never heard.

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While these ghostly debates may never end

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what is known is that this

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“murderous witch’s” story

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fascinates to this day.

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To fully appreciate the tale of
Elizabeth “Betsey” Reed

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one must understand the history

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and culture of Southern Illinois.

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[Chris Sutton]
Well terrain wise Southern Illinois is…okay

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you’ve got the rivers.Okay?

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[blue music ends and fades]
So the terrain is Southern Illinois is such that…

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[upbeat acoustic guitar strumming]
they slope down towards the rivers.

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So you’ve got these hilly areas you know

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around the rivers.

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Cause there is a lot of towns around the rivers.

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These river towns have a lot of barge traffic.

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That’s where a lot of these
towns in Illinois start.

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[pleasant synthesizer notes]
But then you get towards the middle of it

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and it's flat. It’s prairie land so to speak.

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So you’ve got rolling hills as you go around

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the rivers as it goes down and you’ve got

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flat terrain in Southern Illinois.

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Normally after that there’s a lot of forest

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and things like that around.

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But there’s lots of agriculture

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and corn and all that kind of stuff.

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[Rob Byrley] Well, we have a lot of farming.

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It’s a really agricultural area.

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And then right out our backdoor

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we have the Wabash River.

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So a lot of recreation there

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and commercial fishing.

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To the south we have the timber.

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It’s just a unique place;

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a lot of agriculture,

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a lot of industry related to the agriculture.

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[music title: a peaceful life]

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[Narrator]
Early settlers in Illinois didn’t view most

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of the land as fertile, advising to build
and farm where trees grow.

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In fact, for Leonard Reed

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the farm ground had proven

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to be a challenge greater than the

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meager farming skills either

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he or Elizabeth possessed.

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It wasn’t until John Deere’s invention

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of the metal plow in 1837 that farmers could

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till Southern Illinois ground.

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Little Egypt’s soil was much richer than

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the eastern United States and therefore more

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difficult to cultivate.

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Up until the metal plow open plains were used

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for a variety of livestock, especially cattle

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and hogs.

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Settlers foraged for
much needed sustenance

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and their options were limited

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to what an area provided.

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(John Winterbauer)
I think it’s a cultural thing because Illinois

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was settled from the south.

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Those people came out of the upper-southern

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region of the United States into an area already

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seeped with the Mississippian culture

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and the French culture.

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And all that combined into a unique blend

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of people

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that have contributed,

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or it’s contributed to the feel of the place.

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It just hangs there.

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There’s a different feeling
in Southern Illinois

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then there is say in Chicago, which

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is bustling and crazy and violent.

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That’s not really like that down there.

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They are…

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[music fades out]

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they keep to themselves

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from time to time.

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But for the most part they are a friendly

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group of salt of the earth people.

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(Narrator) Before Illinois became a state
[birds chirping]

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it was known as the Indiana territory.

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This new frontier presented many obstacles

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to anyone attempting to carve out a life there.

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Indigenous tribes grew increasingly alarmed

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by the growing number of settlers that continued

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to populate their lands.

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In addition to the native tribes,

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early settlers
were met by a variety of forest creatures

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who also laid claim to the territory.

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[deep, rising tones and echoes]

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Yes the land proved to be bountiful

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but it also brought forth hardships

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that not everyone was prepared to handle.

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And this was virgin timber.
(Rick Kelsheimer)

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It was hardwoods.
[birds chirping]

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It hadn’t become Southern Illinois’s fields today.

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But back then

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it was hardwood forest.

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There would be prairies in-between

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that would look like oceans of grass

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but where Betsy lived

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it was old-growth hardwood forest.

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At the time there were bears,

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there were wolves,

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there were panthers,
which are mountain lions,

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other than every other critter out there.

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[Native American flute note echoes]

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(Narrator) When the populations of the settlers

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and Indians initially merged relations were

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peaceful and friendly.

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This proved to be short lived as the natives

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grew to be uncomfortable with the foreign

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incursion which increasingly

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used up the areas resources.

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Shawnee Chief Tecumseh came to the area

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in the early 1800’s to recruit the Illini tribes

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in his efforts against the white settlers.

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[birds chirp in background]

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The growing conflicts

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with the Indian tribes

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continued through the founding of Illinois in 1818

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before culminating in the

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Blackhawk War of 1832.

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The brutalities of their conflicts left scars

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throughout the region.

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(Chris Sutton) The Natives were not, obviously
[birds chirping]

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and I don’t blame them, were not too keen

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about the white settlers moving in

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and taking their land.

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And so yes there were massacres.

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There was fighting.

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Of course, we know who won the war.

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But there were times where the Natives

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fought back just like you and I would do

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if someone was trying to take our land.

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[music swells into new song]

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[acoustic guitar strums as electric guitar notes play]

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[music title: little egypt]

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So traveling down to Crawford County,
(John Winterbauer)

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I hadn’t been there before I didn’t

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get to spend as much time
as I had wanted to.

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I met up with Jason and his team in Palestine

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[harmonica plays]

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and

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explored just a little bit around before

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we went out to the cemetery to visit Elizabeth.

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And I got to tell you,

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like most of Southern Illinois, it’s a

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quaint,

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friendly, welcoming

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place, which most of Southern Illinois is.

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It’s a cultural thing.

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I think they’re nicer (chuckles)

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in Southern Illinois

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than a lot of places in the state.

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And that’s what I found in Palestine and

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down around Crawford County.

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I spent a lot of time on the
dirt roads out there.

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Didn’t see a lot of people

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but those that I did see

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were

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very pleasant people,

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glad to see people, happy to help

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with what we were doing.

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I really enjoyed it.

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[guitar and harmonica continue]

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(Jason Snider) We’re the Crawford County
Ghost Hunters Society

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and we investigate claims

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of paranormal activity and phenomena

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all over the state of Illinois

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and parts of Indiana.

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We investigate anywhere people call us into.

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We’ve investigated businesses,

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houses, any other place

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people call us into that they

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think they have any type of paranormal activity

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or occurrence taking place at their location.

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Crawford County is considered to be one of

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the most haunted counties in Illinois, I would say,

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because we have one of the oldest

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white settlements in the state,

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which is Palestine, Illinois.

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And there’s a lot of activity

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and historical
sites in Palestine.

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They’ve found city upon city of ancient

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civilizations where they’ve dug into them.

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There’s archeological
dig sites in Palestine.

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Crawford County back in the day

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actually stretched its border up into Canada.

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Crawford County is one of the oldest counties

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in Illinois if not the oldest.

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[music fades]

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Crawford County has
a lot of historical locations.

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We had a Hutson massacre that took place

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here in Hutsonville, Illinois.

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[music begins. synthesizer vocals. ominous]

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[periodic tapping noises heard echoing]

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[music title: hutson massacre]

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[notes hold and a deep,
Australian didgeridoo note plays]

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[huanting notes play]

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The location we are currently at is the site

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of the Hutson Massacre

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that took place in 1813.

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And what happened here…

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it was a horrible event that took place

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behind us here at this location

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The cabins that are currently here now

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are reconstructed cabins.

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These aren’t the original cabins

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from the massacre.

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But in 1812

269
00:12:08.460 --> 00:12:11.300
Isaac Hutson came to this area from

270
00:12:11.300 --> 00:12:15.300
Turman Township in Sullivan County, Indiana.

271
00:12:15.310 --> 00:12:17.470
He moved to this area because
he liked the prairie.

272
00:12:17.470 --> 00:12:19.310
He just thought it was a neat area.

273
00:12:19.310 --> 00:12:20.500
He enjoyed this area.

274
00:12:21.020 --> 00:12:23.740
He built a little cabin here with his family.

275
00:12:23.980 --> 00:12:25.860
He had a wife

276
00:12:26.340 --> 00:12:28.420
and I believe it was six kids

277
00:12:28.680 --> 00:12:30.360
and he went to…

278
00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:34.000
he went to Hutsonville…well

279
00:12:34.580 --> 00:12:37.600
the this whole town here was named after

280
00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:39.740
this event you know
Hutsonville you know Isaac Hutson

281
00:12:40.380 --> 00:12:42.740
that's how Hutsonville got its name.

282
00:12:42.930 --> 00:12:45.500
But he went to Palestine one night

283
00:12:45.500 --> 00:12:47.060
to the mill

284
00:12:47.060 --> 00:12:49.200
so when he went to the mill he came back

285
00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:50.520
home it was real late at night

286
00:12:50.520 --> 00:12:52.000
when he got back here.

287
00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:54.260
He saw a glow off in the distance.

288
00:12:54.520 --> 00:12:56.380
When he got closer he
kinda feared the worse,

289
00:12:56.380 --> 00:12:58.480
you know, knowing something
bad had happened.

290
00:12:58.580 --> 00:13:00.400
When he got up here he realized his family

291
00:13:00.400 --> 00:13:02.620
had been massacred by Indians.

292
00:13:03.020 --> 00:13:04.280
When he got up there,

293
00:13:04.280 --> 00:13:06.440
there was a guy by the name of

294
00:13:07.140 --> 00:13:08.020
Dixon,

295
00:13:08.020 --> 00:13:09.540
which was his neighbor.

296
00:13:09.540 --> 00:13:11.310
He lived close to Hutson here too.

297
00:13:11.310 --> 00:13:13.160
When he got up here,
Dixon was laying on the ground

298
00:13:13.160 --> 00:13:15.100
with his chest tore open

299
00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:17.680
and his heart was on a post.

300
00:13:19.380 --> 00:13:21.260
They were pretty brutally massacred.

301
00:13:21.700 --> 00:13:23.960
His baby, they took it…

302
00:13:23.960 --> 00:13:26.220
she was…like when
they raided the cabins,

303
00:13:26.220 --> 00:13:27.200
the Indians came into

304
00:13:27.209 --> 00:13:28.300
the cabins,

305
00:13:28.300 --> 00:13:31.500
Mrs. Hutson was
holding the baby in her arms.

306
00:13:31.500 --> 00:13:32.880
They took the baby and

307
00:13:32.880 --> 00:13:35.280
put it in a boiling kettle of soup

308
00:13:36.120 --> 00:13:38.880
and killed the baby like that

309
00:13:38.889 --> 00:13:40.720
and then killed the rest of the family.

310
00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:42.140
They chopped their heads off

311
00:13:42.620 --> 00:13:44.160
and put them on a post out here…

312
00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:46.380
was what some of the
historical accounts say.

313
00:13:46.380 --> 00:13:47.720
They scattered their heads and

314
00:13:47.720 --> 00:13:49.360
put them on posts out here

315
00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:50.720
by the cabin.

316
00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:52.020
So it was a pretty

317
00:13:52.460 --> 00:13:55.560
brutal murder that took place here.

318
00:13:55.820 --> 00:13:58.360
After that, Hutson swore revenge.

319
00:13:58.360 --> 00:14:01.500
He moved to the, well

320
00:14:01.820 --> 00:14:03.900
what is now current day Terre Haute.

321
00:14:03.910 --> 00:14:05.760
Fort Harrison was located there.

322
00:14:05.760 --> 00:14:06.800
He joined the Army

323
00:14:07.100 --> 00:14:09.020
there at Fort Harrison

324
00:14:09.460 --> 00:14:12.060
which was kind of
his downfall because he

325
00:14:12.069 --> 00:14:14.140
was later killed by Indians, himself,

326
00:14:14.140 --> 00:14:16.779
in a fight about a half a
mile south of the fort

327
00:14:16.780 --> 00:14:18.460
where Terre Haute now stands.

328
00:14:20.580 --> 00:14:24.120
[Music fades out]

329
00:14:25.880 --> 00:14:28.100
We’re currently about seven mile

330
00:14:28.100 --> 00:14:30.120
north of Palestine.

331
00:14:30.660 --> 00:14:33.300
So this massacre ties into the

332
00:14:33.300 --> 00:14:36.750
early settlers in the Palestine area.

333
00:14:36.750 --> 00:14:38.900
And then Heathsville and Baker’s Cemetery

334
00:14:38.900 --> 00:14:41.000
where Elizabeth Betsey Reed was buried is

335
00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:42.380
a little south of Palestine.

336
00:14:43.280 --> 00:14:46.700
There was a lot of stuff and a lot of historical

337
00:14:46.700 --> 00:14:50.340
evidence in this area showing the

338
00:14:50.340 --> 00:14:52.600
hard time a lot of these settlers went through

339
00:14:52.600 --> 00:14:53.660
back in the day.

340
00:14:53.660 --> 00:14:55.820
The pioneers in the early area…

341
00:14:55.820 --> 00:14:57.760
So you know it was a just a lot of

342
00:14:57.760 --> 00:14:59.720
bad happenings.

343
00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:02.140
(Narrator) Throughout history,

344
00:15:02.140 --> 00:15:04.620
it has often been the
tragedies of life that have lead

345
00:15:04.620 --> 00:15:06.180
to the tales that are passed down

346
00:15:06.180 --> 00:15:07.760
from generation to generation.

347
00:15:07.760 --> 00:15:09.100
[deep, droning music]

348
00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:11.080
In the world of the paranormal,

349
00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:13.260
these tales often grow dark.

350
00:15:14.260 --> 00:15:15.580
Hauntings are a lot of times
(Robbin Terry)

351
00:15:15.580 --> 00:15:18.640
caused by traumatic experiences or deaths
[eerie synth tones]

352
00:15:18.640 --> 00:15:19.670
that might have occurred.

353
00:15:19.670 --> 00:15:22.120
It could be just from a hanging.

354
00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:25.100
It could be from violent car crashes,

355
00:15:25.220 --> 00:15:25.860
murders,
[haunting notes]

356
00:15:26.580 --> 00:15:29.259
just about any type of traumatic experiences

357
00:15:29.259 --> 00:15:30.520
someone might encounter

358
00:15:30.520 --> 00:15:32.140
could cause a haunting.

359
00:15:32.300 --> 00:15:33.780
They could also be from

360
00:15:33.780 --> 00:15:36.120
people who are basically staying back

361
00:15:36.120 --> 00:15:37.880
and staying in a location where

362
00:15:38.360 --> 00:15:39.500
they want to stay

363
00:15:39.500 --> 00:15:41.120
just because they are not sure

364
00:15:41.380 --> 00:15:44.400
where to go and how to get there.

365
00:15:44.680 --> 00:15:46.200
And so they stay behind.
[scraping noises in music]

366
00:15:46.300 --> 00:15:47.440
We see different hauntings

367
00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:49.850
that are residual
and intelligent type haunting.

368
00:15:49.850 --> 00:15:50.860
Where residual

369
00:15:50.860 --> 00:15:53.420
is kind of like a tape replayer
...tape recorder

370
00:15:53.420 --> 00:15:54.769
that just keeps repeating

371
00:15:54.769 --> 00:15:56.120
itself, running over in time

372
00:15:56.120 --> 00:15:57.430
over and over and over.

373
00:15:57.430 --> 00:15:58.800
Where intelligent hauntings

374
00:15:58.800 --> 00:16:00.080
are someone that's
[odd noises in music]

375
00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:02.790
stayed behind, left in the building, or a

376
00:16:02.790 --> 00:16:04.010
location, or just in the grounds.

377
00:16:04.010 --> 00:16:06.000
It doesn’t even have to be inside a building.

378
00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:07.780
It could be where

379
00:16:07.780 --> 00:16:10.340
someone… they know they’re there

380
00:16:10.340 --> 00:16:11.440
and they want to communicate

381
00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:12.780
to other people and
[music tension rises]

382
00:16:13.180 --> 00:16:14.439
you can ask them questions.

383
00:16:14.439 --> 00:16:15.760
You can get intelligent,

384
00:16:15.760 --> 00:16:17.060
which is why we call
them intelligent hauntings,

385
00:16:17.060 --> 00:16:17.839
you can get actual

386
00:16:17.839 --> 00:16:19.400
answers back from them

387
00:16:19.400 --> 00:16:21.520
that describe why they’re there,

388
00:16:21.520 --> 00:16:22.580
maybe who they are

389
00:16:22.580 --> 00:16:23.500
and what they’re doing there.

390
00:16:23.500 --> 00:16:25.060
[music continues w/ haunting undertones[

391
00:16:25.140 --> 00:16:26.860
(Narrator)
Crawford County is among the oldest

392
00:16:26.860 --> 00:16:29.360
territories in Illinois
and contains possibly

393
00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:31.420
more cemeteries
than any other county.

394
00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:34.520
Old plots and family
cemeteries are scattered

395
00:16:34.520 --> 00:16:36.520
along Highway 33,

396
00:16:36.880 --> 00:16:39.060
many within mere
minutes from one another.

397
00:16:39.060 --> 00:16:40.220
[dissonant musical notes]

398
00:16:40.300 --> 00:16:41.820
And the more graves there are,

399
00:16:41.820 --> 00:16:44.680
the more folklore
there is attached to them.

400
00:16:44.840 --> 00:16:46.520
[eerie music continues]

401
00:16:46.740 --> 00:16:49.180
So down here
(Jason Dickerson)

402
00:16:49.540 --> 00:16:51.700
or south Palestine

403
00:16:52.500 --> 00:16:54.560
there's been a few stories.

404
00:16:54.960 --> 00:16:56.100
They're kind of

405
00:16:56.900 --> 00:16:58.140
I don't know if they're urban legends

406
00:16:58.140 --> 00:16:59.860
so much but I know a lot of kids used

407
00:16:59.860 --> 00:17:02.300
to come down here to
scare themselves little bit.

408
00:17:02.980 --> 00:17:05.160
There’s a church up here

409
00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:07.220
called Pleasant View

410
00:17:07.220 --> 00:17:08.900
and it's got a bell and there's three

411
00:17:08.900 --> 00:17:10.569
crosses out here.

412
00:17:10.569 --> 00:17:11.680
And supposedly

413
00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:12.960
three witches

414
00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:15.660
were killed here,
buried here, or something.

415
00:17:15.780 --> 00:17:18.520
And so if you ring
the bell at midnight

416
00:17:18.520 --> 00:17:19.360
[sudden, jarring tone]

417
00:17:19.400 --> 00:17:21.320
it's supposed to ring

418
00:17:21.320 --> 00:17:23.600
and if it rings one less

419
00:17:23.600 --> 00:17:25.200
than how many people are in your party

420
00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:26.620
[grating noises in music]

421
00:17:26.760 --> 00:17:27.800
one of you is supposed

422
00:17:27.801 --> 00:17:29.480
to die is supposed to be the story.

423
00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:30.460
[synthesized, haunting vocals]

424
00:17:30.460 --> 00:17:31.200
So

425
00:17:31.660 --> 00:17:32.920
a few years ago i come down here

426
00:17:32.920 --> 00:17:34.040
with my kids and

427
00:17:34.780 --> 00:17:36.560
we rang the bell at midnight like

428
00:17:36.570 --> 00:17:38.459
you're supposed to and

429
00:17:38.460 --> 00:17:40.980
it tolled three times
and as soon as it stopped,

430
00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:42.540
which was weird,

431
00:17:42.540 --> 00:17:43.700
[dissonant notes]

432
00:17:43.800 --> 00:17:46.880
three birds flew out of the bell after it rang.

433
00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:48.840
Well (chuckles) it freaked everybody out.

434
00:17:48.840 --> 00:17:50.240
We took off for the vehicles

435
00:17:50.240 --> 00:17:51.680
and drove away.

436
00:17:52.080 --> 00:17:53.840
[dissonant undertones]

437
00:17:54.140 --> 00:17:55.780
(Narrator) Yet another legend involves

438
00:17:55.780 --> 00:17:58.060
the Bartmess Cemetery
that was once located at

439
00:17:58.060 --> 00:17:59.020
the top of this hill.

440
00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:01.380
Cleared to create more farmland,

441
00:18:01.380 --> 00:18:03.160
the Bartmess family headstones

442
00:18:03.160 --> 00:18:04.220
were moved over to nearby

443
00:18:04.220 --> 00:18:05.900
Greenhill Cemetery

444
00:18:05.900 --> 00:18:07.740
while their remains were left behind.

445
00:18:07.740 --> 00:18:09.320
[droning music continues[

446
00:18:09.480 --> 00:18:11.900
The custom of farming over old graveyards

447
00:18:11.900 --> 00:18:14.260
was a common measure
in the Illinois early years.

448
00:18:15.180 --> 00:18:16.700
The value of Illinois farmland

449
00:18:16.700 --> 00:18:19.000
sometimes supersedes even burial customs.

450
00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:20.040
[higher pitched dissonance]

451
00:18:20.140 --> 00:18:22.320
There are countless reasons
why family plots

452
00:18:22.320 --> 00:18:23.160
are altered,

453
00:18:23.160 --> 00:18:24.860
moved, and sometimes forgotten.

454
00:18:24.860 --> 00:18:26.780
[rising ethereal music begins]

455
00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:28.340
Paranormal traditions

456
00:18:28.340 --> 00:18:29.760
cite the separation of bodies

457
00:18:29.760 --> 00:18:31.000
from their gravestone marker

458
00:18:31.820 --> 00:18:33.280
as a possible contributing factor

459
00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:34.380
to ghost haunts.

460
00:18:35.620 --> 00:18:38.560
[music sounds more angelic]

461
00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:42.940
[soft tones, synthesized notes]

462
00:18:53.940 --> 00:18:58.680
[music swells then fades]

463
00:19:01.660 --> 00:19:06.600
[deep, throaty, synthesized music
with slow eerie keyboard]

464
00:19:07.100 --> 00:19:09.380
[music title: heathsville]

465
00:19:09.620 --> 00:19:11.560
(Narrator) The Reed’s lived and sharecropped

466
00:19:11.560 --> 00:19:13.720
on farmland in Heathsville Illinois.

467
00:19:14.100 --> 00:19:16.140
This nondescript parcel of land lies

468
00:19:16.140 --> 00:19:19.060
off an ordinary curve
next to highway 33.

469
00:19:19.660 --> 00:19:21.760
The doomed pair never made a decent living,

470
00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:24.300
leaving Elizabeth in debt
when her husband

471
00:19:24.300 --> 00:19:25.360
Leonard passed away.

472
00:19:25.620 --> 00:19:29.120
[odd tapping and inaudible female voice]

473
00:19:29.460 --> 00:19:31.920
One of the things about Southern Illinois
(Winterbauer)

474
00:19:32.320 --> 00:19:33.340
is the

475
00:19:34.180 --> 00:19:36.100
multitude of names that have

476
00:19:36.100 --> 00:19:37.770
ominous overtones.
[creepy, breathy noise]

477
00:19:37.770 --> 00:19:39.840
In the Crawford County area there's

478
00:19:39.840 --> 00:19:41.490
Purgatory Swamp,

479
00:19:41.490 --> 00:19:43.040
which of course purgatory

480
00:19:43.160 --> 00:19:45.800
implies you're wandering
in the afterlife,

481
00:19:46.120 --> 00:19:48.340
The Devil's Neck along the river,

482
00:19:48.350 --> 00:19:51.210
Devil's Backbone
is the name of the ridge.

483
00:19:51.210 --> 00:19:53.620
Where those names come from
I’m not exactly sure

484
00:19:54.600 --> 00:19:57.160
but they all imply this ominous vibe.

485
00:19:57.300 --> 00:20:00.300
And the area actually gives that off

486
00:20:00.300 --> 00:20:01.780
in strange ways.

487
00:20:02.200 --> 00:20:03.840
Not that I’m a psychic

488
00:20:03.840 --> 00:20:05.840
or have that ability but the

489
00:20:07.900 --> 00:20:09.600
the air

490
00:20:09.600 --> 00:20:11.460
it just picks up on those names

491
00:20:11.460 --> 00:20:13.540
and it permeates everything around it.

492
00:20:14.140 --> 00:20:15.600
That interests me a lot about

493
00:20:15.600 --> 00:20:17.780
Southern Illinois.
And that feeling's still there

494
00:20:17.780 --> 00:20:19.920
even when you're not looking for it.

495
00:20:21.040 --> 00:20:23.880
Well Heathsville is the closest town
(Teri Nash)

496
00:20:23.880 --> 00:20:27.240
and nowadays it's about six houses.

497
00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:29.580
But it was a little bigger than that

498
00:20:29.600 --> 00:20:31.520
in the early 1800s.

499
00:20:31.900 --> 00:20:33.620
And the center of the community

500
00:20:33.620 --> 00:20:34.600
was the Heath Inn.

501
00:20:34.840 --> 00:20:35.800
[eerie voice]

502
00:20:35.880 --> 00:20:37.140
Which, was

503
00:20:38.080 --> 00:20:40.680
besides being inn it
was a stagecoach stop.

504
00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:42.900
And the mail went there

505
00:20:43.320 --> 00:20:45.360
so everyone gathered there.

506
00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:48.547
And it would have been about
a half a mile from

507
00:20:48.547 --> 00:20:49.480
the Reed cabin.

508
00:20:50.620 --> 00:20:52.440
And the lady that

509
00:20:53.020 --> 00:20:56.200
worked for our family name
was Orma Baker

510
00:20:57.180 --> 00:20:59.059
and her family, on her mother's

511
00:20:59.060 --> 00:21:01.020
side of the family, were the Heaths.

512
00:21:01.820 --> 00:21:03.660
And so they knew the Reeds.

513
00:21:04.460 --> 00:21:05.380
and , um

514
00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:10.220
Then Leonard Reed is buried in the Baker Cemetery,

515
00:21:10.460 --> 00:21:12.140
which sits behind our property.

516
00:21:13.640 --> 00:21:19.840
[music continues. high-pitched swells and clicking]

517
00:21:25.140 --> 00:21:28.360
(Snider) The Betsey Reed story as we know
it goes like this:

518
00:21:28.860 --> 00:21:31.180
Elizabeth Betsey Reed was convicted

519
00:21:31.180 --> 00:21:33.240
and found guilty

520
00:21:33.240 --> 00:21:34.760
of poisoning her husband

521
00:21:34.760 --> 00:21:36.940
with arsenic-laid sassafras tea.

522
00:21:37.320 --> 00:21:39.980
On April 26 1845

523
00:21:39.980 --> 00:21:41.600
she was actually convicted

524
00:21:41.960 --> 00:21:43.840
or they started the trial

525
00:21:44.500 --> 00:21:47.180
and then on April 28th of 1845

526
00:21:47.180 --> 00:21:49.580
that's when she was convicted
and found guilty.

527
00:21:51.400 --> 00:21:54.220
(Narrator)
Elizabeth Reed’s story seemed destined to exist

528
00:21:54.220 --> 00:21:55.700
between generational gossip

529
00:21:55.710 --> 00:21:57.020
and cemetery tales

530
00:21:57.020 --> 00:21:58.440
until attracting the attention

531
00:21:58.440 --> 00:22:00.580
of The Lawrence County Historical society.

532
00:22:01.340 --> 00:22:02.840
Through countless hours of research

533
00:22:02.840 --> 00:22:05.360
led by society treasurer John King

534
00:22:05.660 --> 00:22:06.820
the society compiled

535
00:22:06.820 --> 00:22:07.940
the official record

536
00:22:07.940 --> 00:22:09.360
including newspaper accounts

537
00:22:09.360 --> 00:22:11.460
from as far away as London England.

538
00:22:11.840 --> 00:22:14.680
The local arts council staged the play “Hanging,

539
00:22:14.680 --> 00:22:16.760
The Saga of Betsey Reed”

540
00:22:16.980 --> 00:22:19.600
which Dann Norton wrote
based on the historical societies’

541
00:22:19.700 --> 00:22:21.160
meritorious research.

542
00:22:22.120 --> 00:22:24.600
[ominous music fades away]

543
00:22:25.340 --> 00:22:27.340
There was nothing in the records
(Dann Norton)

544
00:22:27.340 --> 00:22:29.360
that explained how they knew for sure this

545
00:22:29.460 --> 00:22:30.460
was arsenic.

546
00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:32.100
The only reason
(John King)

547
00:22:32.100 --> 00:22:35.000
to suspect arsenic poisoning

548
00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:36.600
was that Evaline Deal

549
00:22:37.180 --> 00:22:38.560
said that she found

550
00:22:38.560 --> 00:22:40.720
this particular piece of paper

551
00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:42.580
between two plates in the cupboard

552
00:22:43.820 --> 00:22:47.040
and and then Mrs. Reed
threw it outdoors.

553
00:22:47.040 --> 00:22:48.440
She retrieved it

554
00:22:48.920 --> 00:22:51.820
and in that traced back to

555
00:22:51.820 --> 00:22:54.900
Dr. Logan at his pharmacy in Russellville

556
00:22:55.240 --> 00:22:56.100
saying ,

557
00:22:56.380 --> 00:22:57.960
"it had to be me.

558
00:22:58.600 --> 00:23:00.919
That had to be bought at my store.

559
00:23:00.919 --> 00:23:03.440
I don't remember selling it to anybody but

560
00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:06.190
only I would have packaged it in this way

561
00:23:06.190 --> 00:23:07.680
in this sort of paper."

562
00:23:09.100 --> 00:23:11.360
(Dickerson) So some of the
[birds heard in background]

563
00:23:11.360 --> 00:23:14.500
accusations the
reason why they accused her of it

564
00:23:14.780 --> 00:23:18.360
was there was a I assume
a salesman in a general store

565
00:23:18.360 --> 00:23:20.600
that swears he sold her the arsenic.

566
00:23:21.260 --> 00:23:23.820
And the only witness that actually saw her

567
00:23:23.820 --> 00:23:26.700
put the powder in
his tea was i believe a

568
00:23:26.700 --> 00:23:29.120
niece or a younger daughter.

569
00:23:29.120 --> 00:23:30.600
That was who testified and

570
00:23:30.600 --> 00:23:32.049
that testimony was enough.

571
00:23:32.049 --> 00:23:33.340
You know, she was a woman.

572
00:23:33.340 --> 00:23:35.620
Back then they really didn't have rights.

573
00:23:35.620 --> 00:23:36.340
That was good enough.

574
00:23:36.440 --> 00:23:37.760
[birds stop[

575
00:23:37.980 --> 00:23:40.240
I got involved with the "Hanging
(Nash)

576
00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:42.000
of Betsey Reed"

577
00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:44.020
book by Rick Kelsheimer

578
00:23:44.780 --> 00:23:47.580
when a mutual friend introduced us

579
00:23:47.580 --> 00:23:49.480
when he was writing the book

580
00:23:51.060 --> 00:23:53.860
and she knew that I had grown up

581
00:23:53.860 --> 00:23:57.460
on the farm where
Leonard and Betsey Reed had lived

582
00:23:57.940 --> 00:23:59.300
in the 1840s.

583
00:23:59.860 --> 00:24:00.960
And that

584
00:24:01.100 --> 00:24:03.660
an elderly woman who
worked for my family

585
00:24:04.380 --> 00:24:06.900
had a close connection to the case

586
00:24:06.900 --> 00:24:07.520
and had

587
00:24:07.900 --> 00:24:10.160
taught me about the case
since i was young.

588
00:24:10.940 --> 00:24:12.500
Then I

589
00:24:12.500 --> 00:24:13.740
started working with Rick

590
00:24:13.740 --> 00:24:15.180
on researching the book.

591
00:24:15.660 --> 00:24:18.040
(Kelsheimer) Leonard her husband had

592
00:24:18.040 --> 00:24:19.500
gotten sick over a period of time.

593
00:24:20.040 --> 00:24:22.660
And then what Evaline Deal said is that

594
00:24:22.660 --> 00:24:25.560
she saw Betsey puts
a white powder

595
00:24:25.900 --> 00:24:27.940
in his squirrel stew
[dark music begins]

596
00:24:28.420 --> 00:24:29.420
And then
[weird chattering]

597
00:24:29.420 --> 00:24:30.640
of course

598
00:24:30.640 --> 00:24:31.860
at the end

599
00:24:31.860 --> 00:24:33.280
supposedly he put it in her…

600
00:24:33.660 --> 00:24:35.540
she put it in his sassafras tea.

601
00:24:35.880 --> 00:24:38.340
But, and there's another neighbor who

602
00:24:38.340 --> 00:24:39.700
[music title: the gift of poison]

603
00:24:39.780 --> 00:24:41.060
the Reeds owed money to

604
00:24:41.060 --> 00:24:43.080
who came over and said

605
00:24:43.280 --> 00:24:44.700
he'd seen her

606
00:24:44.700 --> 00:24:47.160
feed him squirrel stew and he'd get

607
00:24:47.160 --> 00:24:48.100
deathly sick,

608
00:24:48.680 --> 00:24:50.640
and they thought he
was going to die then

609
00:24:50.800 --> 00:24:51.840
but he didn't say anything

610
00:24:51.840 --> 00:24:53.320
'cause he didn't want
to get involved.

611
00:24:53.600 --> 00:24:55.019
But he said it after they hung her.

612
00:24:55.019 --> 00:24:56.635
She was arrested
(Nash)

613
00:24:56.640 --> 00:24:58.060
after the neighbor

614
00:24:58.060 --> 00:25:00.140
girl who would have been Evaline Deal

615
00:25:00.570 --> 00:25:02.880
had went to the neighbors

616
00:25:02.880 --> 00:25:04.420
and reported she saw

617
00:25:05.080 --> 00:25:07.520
Betsey put white powder in his tea.

618
00:25:08.420 --> 00:25:10.340
And supposedly it was sassafras tea

619
00:25:10.340 --> 00:25:12.900
because tea was
very expensive then.

620
00:25:13.780 --> 00:25:15.700
Among the claims against the Reed estate
(Narrator)

621
00:25:15.700 --> 00:25:17.480
following Betsey’s trial were that

622
00:25:17.480 --> 00:25:19.740
from Doctors Boyle, Wynn, and Logan,

623
00:25:19.740 --> 00:25:22.260
who had separately been
treating Leonard for a persistent

624
00:25:22.260 --> 00:25:24.620
stomach aliment over a three-year period.

625
00:25:25.380 --> 00:25:27.320
The claims were for unpaid medical bills

626
00:25:27.500 --> 00:25:30.340
including doctor visits
and antimony treatments,

627
00:25:30.580 --> 00:25:32.860
which were used to purge
inflamed bowels.

628
00:25:33.620 --> 00:25:35.200
The treatments should beckon the question

629
00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:36.940
as to the whether the white powder seen by

630
00:25:37.100 --> 00:25:38.140
Evaline Deal

631
00:25:38.140 --> 00:25:40.700
was prescribed by
one of Leonard’s physicians.

632
00:25:40.700 --> 00:25:42.680
[bubbling sounds heard in music]

633
00:25:42.840 --> 00:25:44.080
Our county at

634
00:25:44.080 --> 00:25:46.400
Charlottesville, which is

635
00:25:46.760 --> 00:25:47.860
west of Birds

636
00:25:48.260 --> 00:25:49.720
between Birds and Chauncey

637
00:25:50.540 --> 00:25:52.880
where the Birds - Chauncey blacktop

638
00:25:52.880 --> 00:25:54.320
crosses the Embarras River,

639
00:25:55.160 --> 00:25:57.820
was a mill operated by the Shakers.

640
00:25:58.900 --> 00:26:01.200
This was the westernmost

641
00:26:02.100 --> 00:26:04.580
Shaker community
in the nation.

642
00:26:04.760 --> 00:26:06.600
[music continues]

643
00:26:06.820 --> 00:26:07.740
The Heaths…

644
00:26:07.740 --> 00:26:09.560
they gave up on the mill

645
00:26:09.560 --> 00:26:12.440
after it had been washed out
and they had rebuilt it

646
00:26:12.440 --> 00:26:14.360
and the Heaths purchased it.

647
00:26:15.040 --> 00:26:16.940
And it's this same family that

648
00:26:17.800 --> 00:26:20.620
has the namesake of Heathsville

649
00:26:20.620 --> 00:26:23.060
in southeastern Crawford County.

650
00:26:23.060 --> 00:26:25.700
And family members
have gone on to form the

651
00:26:25.700 --> 00:26:27.860
Heath Candy Company of Robinson

652
00:26:28.340 --> 00:26:29.340
who is now owned by the

653
00:26:29.340 --> 00:26:31.960
Hershey Candy Company
of Hershey, Pennsylvania.

654
00:26:32.700 --> 00:26:35.340
Then the Harrimans who she reported
(Nash)

655
00:26:35.340 --> 00:26:37.140
seeing the poison to

656
00:26:37.140 --> 00:26:39.620
Mrs. Harriman’s father was

657
00:26:39.880 --> 00:26:40.880
the constable

658
00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:43.480
which was Duane Gaines…

659
00:26:43.480 --> 00:26:46.180
and if you could see this
area it's all within

660
00:26:46.180 --> 00:26:48.540
about a two mile radius…

661
00:26:48.980 --> 00:26:52.060
and so they got her father

662
00:26:52.480 --> 00:26:54.620
who was the constable and they

663
00:26:54.620 --> 00:26:55.440
told him that they thought

664
00:26:55.800 --> 00:26:57.560
Leonard had been poisoned

665
00:26:58.140 --> 00:27:00.240
and the doctors came

666
00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:00.840
[creepy sounds in ambience]

667
00:27:00.920 --> 00:27:03.680
when he had died because
he became very ill suddenly.

668
00:27:03.900 --> 00:27:05.200
But um

669
00:27:06.060 --> 00:27:09.820
he had been having
chronic stomach illness

670
00:27:09.820 --> 00:27:11.520
[music continues. airy and dark]

671
00:27:11.820 --> 00:27:14.560
so they suspected that he was being

672
00:27:14.560 --> 00:27:15.920
slowly poisoned.

673
00:27:16.340 --> 00:27:17.900
And then Betsey

674
00:27:18.940 --> 00:27:21.220
got a little excited or in a hurry and

675
00:27:21.220 --> 00:27:23.580
gave him a bigger dose that day

676
00:27:23.590 --> 00:27:24.680
that killed him.

677
00:27:24.680 --> 00:27:26.820
And i think that's what his autopsy

678
00:27:26.820 --> 00:27:28.460
led them to believe.

679
00:27:30.600 --> 00:27:31.980
She told me

680
00:27:32.840 --> 00:27:34.540
that her grandfather…

681
00:27:34.540 --> 00:27:35.563
might have been great grandfather

682
00:27:35.563 --> 00:27:36.800
I can't remember at the time

683
00:27:37.080 --> 00:27:38.920
right now… what she said but

684
00:27:39.320 --> 00:27:40.740
he was a ten-year-old boy

685
00:27:40.740 --> 00:27:42.060
about the time of the murders

686
00:27:42.620 --> 00:27:43.820
and he knew them,

687
00:27:43.820 --> 00:27:45.240
that they would come down

688
00:27:45.240 --> 00:27:47.160
to do their trading at the store

689
00:27:47.179 --> 00:27:48.160
that was down there and

690
00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:49.500
stop in and get their mail.

691
00:27:50.080 --> 00:27:52.640
And that Betsey was very odd.

692
00:27:52.860 --> 00:27:54.200
She wasn't liked.

693
00:27:54.940 --> 00:27:57.180
That she wore a white bonnet…

694
00:27:57.180 --> 00:27:59.160
she never mentioned a veil which

695
00:27:59.160 --> 00:28:00.200
has been mentioned

696
00:28:00.200 --> 00:28:01.640
in some of our research…

697
00:28:02.040 --> 00:28:05.360
and Rick Kelsheimer’s
book says it was a veil.

698
00:28:05.360 --> 00:28:07.200
It’s a historical novel

699
00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:10.010
but in our research
that's why he said a veil.

700
00:28:10.010 --> 00:28:12.320
But i was told a white bonnet.

701
00:28:12.320 --> 00:28:14.560
And when she would go outdoors

702
00:28:14.560 --> 00:28:16.300
she would put a black bonnet

703
00:28:16.840 --> 00:28:18.680
on top of that and that was odd

704
00:28:19.440 --> 00:28:21.280
is what the neighbors said.

705
00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:24.940
(Kelsheimer) But even the eyewitness

706
00:28:24.940 --> 00:28:26.580
reports that I found

707
00:28:26.580 --> 00:28:28.200
contradicted each other.

708
00:28:28.600 --> 00:28:30.840
Some people said she was horribly ugly

709
00:28:30.840 --> 00:28:31.760
disfigured

710
00:28:32.360 --> 00:28:34.640
and then there are
eyewitness reports from

711
00:28:34.649 --> 00:28:36.520
the hanging that said she was beautiful,

712
00:28:36.520 --> 00:28:38.240
even angelic-like.

713
00:28:39.080 --> 00:28:40.780
So everything was contradicted.

714
00:28:40.790 --> 00:28:42.360
But from reading and all

715
00:28:42.360 --> 00:28:45.920
there a couple things
became perfectly clear;

716
00:28:46.800 --> 00:28:48.560
women hated Betsey Reed,

717
00:28:48.560 --> 00:28:49.600
[ambience continues]

718
00:28:49.700 --> 00:28:51.220
the men, not so much.

719
00:28:51.220 --> 00:28:52.400
I mean so

720
00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:54.920
maybe she was kind of
a gal the men liked

721
00:28:54.920 --> 00:28:56.600
maybe she's easy to look

722
00:28:56.600 --> 00:28:57.220
at or maybe she…

723
00:28:57.400 --> 00:28:59.580
but the women really did.

724
00:28:59.580 --> 00:29:01.560
There was a lot of hatred for her.

725
00:29:03.880 --> 00:29:05.960
(Nash) It kind of creeps you
out to go over where

726
00:29:06.320 --> 00:29:07.740
the house was.

727
00:29:07.740 --> 00:29:08.460
Just…

728
00:29:08.460 --> 00:29:09.180
I don't know

729
00:29:09.180 --> 00:29:11.900
because I guess you know the
murder occurred there.

730
00:29:12.060 --> 00:29:14.251
There's a creepy feeling there.

731
00:29:14.260 --> 00:29:15.280
I’ll say that.

732
00:29:15.280 --> 00:29:19.240
[ambience ends but new music swells in]

733
00:29:19.460 --> 00:29:21.300
[music title: Palestine]

734
00:29:24.120 --> 00:29:26.440
[periodic, rhythmic drums sound]

735
00:29:26.740 --> 00:29:28.380
(Terry) the historical part of the hauntings

736
00:29:28.380 --> 00:29:30.360
is probably some of my favorite part.

737
00:29:30.500 --> 00:29:32.700
Because history is what is really kind

738
00:29:32.700 --> 00:29:34.360
of cool with these
older locations and

739
00:29:34.360 --> 00:29:35.840
the older buildings that are out there

740
00:29:35.840 --> 00:29:38.560
and even the older
grounds like the Gettysburg.

741
00:29:38.570 --> 00:29:39.789
Places like that.

742
00:29:39.789 --> 00:29:41.350
That's the most fascinating part of it.

743
00:29:41.350 --> 00:29:42.140
And it's kind of like

744
00:29:42.140 --> 00:29:43.830
why are why are they still there?

745
00:29:43.830 --> 00:29:45.200
What keeps those spirits

746
00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:47.620
and that energy at
those locations?

747
00:29:47.620 --> 00:29:49.220
And I’ve always tell people

748
00:29:49.220 --> 00:29:50.080
before is like

749
00:29:50.080 --> 00:29:51.370
the only thing we know about the paranormal

750
00:29:51.370 --> 00:29:52.400
is we don't really know anything

751
00:29:52.400 --> 00:29:53.480
about the paranormal

752
00:29:53.760 --> 00:29:56.240
until we've crossed
over to see it ourselves.

753
00:29:56.320 --> 00:29:57.420
But we can still talk

754
00:29:57.420 --> 00:29:58.720
to some of these intelligent spirits

755
00:29:58.720 --> 00:30:00.000
at these locations and probably get

756
00:30:00.010 --> 00:30:01.140
bits and pieces

757
00:30:01.140 --> 00:30:02.860
and put it together and try

758
00:30:02.860 --> 00:30:03.980
to figure out a little bit more all the time

759
00:30:03.980 --> 00:30:05.020
of what's happening

760
00:30:05.020 --> 00:30:07.120
at different locations
and different grounds.

761
00:30:07.120 --> 00:30:09.180
[high pitched, frequency noise in music]

762
00:30:09.400 --> 00:30:11.640
Southern Illinois since it's older
(Sutton)

763
00:30:11.900 --> 00:30:13.780
than our friends up north.

764
00:30:14.740 --> 00:30:15.840
It's older.It's got more ghosts.

765
00:30:15.840 --> 00:30:17.620
Because there's been
more people living here.

766
00:30:17.620 --> 00:30:19.150
It's been around longer.

767
00:30:19.150 --> 00:30:20.750
And some of these river towns…

768
00:30:20.750 --> 00:30:23.040
I have not come across a river town yet

769
00:30:23.040 --> 00:30:24.940
that is not haunted in some way.

770
00:30:25.600 --> 00:30:27.120
Whether you go up to Hannibal

771
00:30:27.120 --> 00:30:28.280
which is up in Missouri

772
00:30:28.280 --> 00:30:29.710
all the way around the Wabash

773
00:30:29.710 --> 00:30:30.920
up and around that area,

774
00:30:30.920 --> 00:30:33.180
there's always some
type of haunt going on.

775
00:30:33.460 --> 00:30:35.780
It's because they've
been here for so long.

776
00:30:36.060 --> 00:30:37.360
And back then you know

777
00:30:37.360 --> 00:30:38.320
when the state started

778
00:30:38.320 --> 00:30:39.900
there was a lot of
frontier type of justice

779
00:30:39.909 --> 00:30:40.909
still going on.

780
00:30:40.909 --> 00:30:41.409
Things like that.

781
00:30:41.680 --> 00:30:43.060
It was settled pretty early

782
00:30:43.060 --> 00:30:45.560
and so lots of
weird things happened

783
00:30:45.560 --> 00:30:47.399
in Southern Illinois

784
00:30:47.400 --> 00:30:49.780
as far as around violence
and things like that.

785
00:30:51.940 --> 00:30:53.840
(Narrator) Downtown Palestine
has all the comforts

786
00:30:53.840 --> 00:30:55.580
one comes to expect from a

787
00:30:55.640 --> 00:30:57.420
Southern Illinois community.

788
00:30:57.429 --> 00:31:00.000
This historic downtown area
is loaded with charm

789
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:02.460
but visitors are most likely never aware

790
00:31:02.460 --> 00:31:04.300
of the circumstances that befell

791
00:31:04.300 --> 00:31:06.420
this small town in 1845.

792
00:31:06.660 --> 00:31:11.800
[Palestine music continues. High frequency ambience]

793
00:31:12.060 --> 00:31:13.240
As far as the main
(Byrley)

794
00:31:13.240 --> 00:31:15.980
towns in Crawford County
we have Robinson which is

795
00:31:16.120 --> 00:31:17.440
the county seat.

796
00:31:17.820 --> 00:31:20.620
Originally the county seat was in Palestine

797
00:31:21.180 --> 00:31:25.180
from I believe 1821 to 1847.

798
00:31:25.400 --> 00:31:28.000
In 1847 it moved to Robinson

799
00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:30.120
and that's our...
our biggest town.

800
00:31:30.220 --> 00:31:31.820
And you have Oblong to the west,

801
00:31:32.500 --> 00:31:34.940
Palestine here to the east,

802
00:31:35.360 --> 00:31:37.380
Flat Rock to the south,

803
00:31:38.060 --> 00:31:41.400
and you have a Hustonville to the north.

804
00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:43.660
And there's been different little towns

805
00:31:43.660 --> 00:31:45.840
that popped up and faded away.

806
00:31:45.840 --> 00:31:48.300
One was Vernon right south of town here.

807
00:31:48.820 --> 00:31:50.960
It got started in about 1830

808
00:31:50.960 --> 00:31:53.020
and by 1883 it was gone.

809
00:31:54.500 --> 00:31:58.180
There's Bolivar a little settlement
north of town here.

810
00:31:58.180 --> 00:31:59.700
It's long gone.

811
00:31:59.700 --> 00:32:02.100
(Narrator)
The early pioneers had entrenched themselves

812
00:32:02.100 --> 00:32:03.120
in Fort Lamotte

813
00:32:03.120 --> 00:32:04.440
and a recreation

814
00:32:04.440 --> 00:32:06.419
can be found along the edge of town.

815
00:32:06.419 --> 00:32:08.760
The standard French fort is a stark reminder

816
00:32:08.760 --> 00:32:11.460
of the hazards the
encroaching settlers faced.

817
00:32:12.560 --> 00:32:14.260
Yes that was the beginning.

818
00:32:14.270 --> 00:32:15.240
And actually

819
00:32:15.240 --> 00:32:18.260
when the people
started arriving here

820
00:32:18.260 --> 00:32:19.260
[ambient music fades]

821
00:32:19.420 --> 00:32:21.300
it wasn't called Palestine.

822
00:32:21.300 --> 00:32:23.080
The first name

823
00:32:23.080 --> 00:32:25.320
that I’ve come across was

824
00:32:25.320 --> 00:32:27.140
a Lamotte settlement,

825
00:32:27.700 --> 00:32:29.460
the settlement of Fort Lamotte.

826
00:32:30.500 --> 00:32:33.460
And then later when the town was laid out.

827
00:32:33.470 --> 00:32:34.940
And actually the first name

828
00:32:34.940 --> 00:32:36.940
of this town wasn't Palestine.

829
00:32:37.660 --> 00:32:39.980
The first name was Mount Pleasant

830
00:32:39.980 --> 00:32:40.800
[music ambience begins]

831
00:32:40.880 --> 00:32:42.600
and for some reason

832
00:32:42.940 --> 00:32:45.040
Cullom and Kitchell you know donated

833
00:32:45.040 --> 00:32:46.440
the ground for Palestine…

834
00:32:46.520 --> 00:32:48.040
[dark, airy ambience]

835
00:32:48.600 --> 00:32:50.040
For some reason they

836
00:32:50.049 --> 00:32:52.160
must have or someone must have told them

837
00:32:52.160 --> 00:32:54.400
you know the lore of Jean Lamotte …

838
00:32:54.620 --> 00:32:56.220
the land of milk and honey…

839
00:32:56.220 --> 00:32:58.020
and they changed
it to Palestine.

840
00:32:58.420 --> 00:33:02.520
[music title: Calling Forth Flame]

841
00:33:02.760 --> 00:33:04.440
[dissonant clanking]

842
00:33:04.760 --> 00:33:05.940
And then they

843
00:33:05.940 --> 00:33:08.280
brought her to Palestine

844
00:33:08.280 --> 00:33:10.620
which was at the time the county seat.

845
00:33:11.020 --> 00:33:13.340
She was held in the jail at Palestine

846
00:33:13.700 --> 00:33:15.520
and this is where the whole

847
00:33:15.520 --> 00:33:18.120
witch story comes in with Betsey Reed.

848
00:33:18.120 --> 00:33:19.880
But some people claim
she was a witch because

849
00:33:20.180 --> 00:33:22.300
while she was being
held at the Palestine jail

850
00:33:22.300 --> 00:33:24.100
she actually burnt the jail down

851
00:33:24.660 --> 00:33:26.980
with no source of ignition, no matches.

852
00:33:26.980 --> 00:33:29.740
You know no way of
actually burning the jail down and

853
00:33:29.740 --> 00:33:32.900
she somehow managed
to set fire to that jail.

854
00:33:33.520 --> 00:33:35.300
So that's still a mystery in a legend
[sounds of fire]

855
00:33:35.300 --> 00:33:38.080
to this day how Betsey
actually burnt the jail down.

856
00:33:40.320 --> 00:33:42.120
But anyway when he had died,

857
00:33:42.120 --> 00:33:44.080
he had obviously been poisoned

858
00:33:45.020 --> 00:33:46.460
and she was arrested.

859
00:33:46.460 --> 00:33:48.660
Because you remember at that time

860
00:33:49.360 --> 00:33:51.840
Palestine was a county seat.

861
00:33:52.980 --> 00:33:55.480
There's a land office up here on the square.

862
00:33:55.480 --> 00:33:56.880
Where the high school now

863
00:33:57.140 --> 00:33:59.360
is now was the town square

864
00:33:59.880 --> 00:34:01.580
land office on the south end.

865
00:34:01.580 --> 00:34:03.280
The jail was on the north end.

866
00:34:04.580 --> 00:34:06.760
She was arrested and brought to jail.

867
00:34:07.800 --> 00:34:11.860
And this jail was a formidable structure.

868
00:34:12.100 --> 00:34:13.100
I mean

869
00:34:13.100 --> 00:34:15.740
it was recessed into
the ground a couple feet.

870
00:34:16.720 --> 00:34:19.220
It had 12 by 12

871
00:34:19.220 --> 00:34:21.080
timbers 12 inch by 12 inch

872
00:34:21.080 --> 00:34:23.080
on the inside and outside

873
00:34:23.720 --> 00:34:25.760
but and then 12
inch gap between them

874
00:34:25.760 --> 00:34:27.720
that vertical boards
were just stuck in.

875
00:34:28.600 --> 00:34:31.160
There wasn't a door
entering the jail. You had...

876
00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:33.680
at first you had to go up a ladder to

877
00:34:33.680 --> 00:34:35.040
the second story.

878
00:34:35.440 --> 00:34:37.220
A two foot by two foot trap

879
00:34:37.220 --> 00:34:38.500
door would be lifted up

880
00:34:38.500 --> 00:34:39.940
and you would go down into it.

881
00:34:40.380 --> 00:34:42.860
And later on they actually put a stairway

882
00:34:42.860 --> 00:34:44.180
up to the second story.

883
00:34:45.180 --> 00:34:46.720
And there's two windows .

884
00:34:46.720 --> 00:34:48.520
I don't recall the size but

885
00:34:48.520 --> 00:34:51.140
they had one inch iron bars i believe

886
00:34:51.149 --> 00:34:52.419
about three inches apart.

887
00:34:52.420 --> 00:34:54.540
So it was pretty well escape proof.

888
00:34:55.400 --> 00:34:58.320
Somehow she had got hold of matches or

889
00:34:58.320 --> 00:35:00.600
a lighting device anyway.

890
00:35:01.200 --> 00:35:02.620
You got to figure if that jail went

891
00:35:02.620 --> 00:35:05.260
up in around 1821

892
00:35:05.260 --> 00:35:08.619
or 1820 by 1844 the timbers

893
00:35:08.619 --> 00:35:10.520
would have been pretty well dried out.

894
00:35:10.520 --> 00:35:12.840
So it may have got started fairly easy.

895
00:35:12.960 --> 00:35:15.120
[dark ambient music continues]

896
00:35:15.280 --> 00:35:17.580
Betsy was held in the Palestine jail

897
00:35:18.960 --> 00:35:20.940
and somehow

898
00:35:21.580 --> 00:35:23.900
they never knew how she did it

899
00:35:24.340 --> 00:35:26.700
but she managed to burn

900
00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:29.800
the wall of the jail
a little bit at a time.

901
00:35:30.160 --> 00:35:31.540
Until one night

902
00:35:32.260 --> 00:35:34.520
the fire got away from her.

903
00:35:35.380 --> 00:35:37.440
And when the fire got away from her

904
00:35:37.440 --> 00:35:38.880
she burned
the jail down.

905
00:35:39.700 --> 00:35:42.020
And she was running down Main Street

906
00:35:42.020 --> 00:35:43.060
in Palestine

907
00:35:43.800 --> 00:35:45.520
because the jail sit where

908
00:35:45.520 --> 00:35:46.500
what is now the

909
00:35:46.500 --> 00:35:48.500
high school sits in Palestine.

910
00:35:49.050 --> 00:35:50.820
And there was a

911
00:35:50.820 --> 00:35:53.520
hotel where the
Fife Opera House sits

912
00:35:53.520 --> 00:35:55.260
and a gentleman was sitting outside

913
00:35:55.270 --> 00:35:56.609
and his last name was Gerard.

914
00:35:56.609 --> 00:35:58.300
And he saw her running
down the street and

915
00:35:58.300 --> 00:35:59.880
I think her clothes were smoking.

916
00:36:00.160 --> 00:36:01.880
And he tackled her and saved her.

917
00:36:03.500 --> 00:36:05.620
And I know one thing that

918
00:36:05.840 --> 00:36:07.880
Orma Baker told me was that

919
00:36:08.300 --> 00:36:09.820
helped lead to the

920
00:36:10.420 --> 00:36:12.220
rumors that she was a witch

921
00:36:12.220 --> 00:36:13.100
because they didn't know

922
00:36:13.100 --> 00:36:14.480
how she started that fire.

923
00:36:14.960 --> 00:36:16.880
[music is very quiet]

924
00:36:17.300 --> 00:36:19.000
(Narrator) One interesting story that we were

925
00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:21.300
told is that of the belief that a secret,

926
00:36:21.310 --> 00:36:23.340
select few practiced the craft of

927
00:36:23.340 --> 00:36:25.120
creating fire from thin air

928
00:36:25.540 --> 00:36:26.740
and that Elizabeth Reed

929
00:36:26.740 --> 00:36:28.360
was gifted with this ability.

930
00:36:29.180 --> 00:36:31.120
It is a hypothetical explanation

931
00:36:31.120 --> 00:36:32.820
as to how she was able to set her

932
00:36:32.820 --> 00:36:34.960
formidable confines ablaze

933
00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:37.180
with no known source to do so.

934
00:36:37.880 --> 00:36:40.560
Whether or not one believes
in this is not important.

935
00:36:40.560 --> 00:36:42.420
but it certainly adds to the belief

936
00:36:42.420 --> 00:36:43.340
in witchcraft

937
00:36:43.340 --> 00:36:45.560
that the people of the time
accused Betsy of.

938
00:36:45.920 --> 00:36:47.520
It is interesting to note

939
00:36:47.520 --> 00:36:48.840
that the jail fire was Betsey’s

940
00:36:48.840 --> 00:36:50.460
only documented attempt at

941
00:36:50.960 --> 00:36:52.120
any type of defense

942
00:36:52.460 --> 00:36:54.140
or desire to escape her fate.

943
00:36:55.040 --> 00:36:56.700
Unfortunately for Mrs. Reed,

944
00:36:56.700 --> 00:36:58.300
the failed plot was further proof

945
00:36:58.300 --> 00:37:00.380
of her guilt in the
eyes of the community.

946
00:37:02.580 --> 00:37:04.300
One thing is for certain:

947
00:37:04.660 --> 00:37:06.100
the townsfolk were relieved

948
00:37:06.100 --> 00:37:08.240
when she was finally removed from Palestine.

949
00:37:09.240 --> 00:37:15.140
[music swells to a crescendo and fades]

950
00:37:19.820 --> 00:37:21.620
Lawrence County, Illinois

951
00:37:21.620 --> 00:37:23.040
is a small county

952
00:37:23.180 --> 00:37:25.520
in rural Southeastern Illinois.

953
00:37:26.620 --> 00:37:29.940
We have a population of
about 15 000 people.

954
00:37:30.700 --> 00:37:31.600
We have...

955
00:37:32.160 --> 00:37:33.920
we are about

956
00:37:33.920 --> 00:37:37.220
back to our population
of the 1880s.

957
00:37:38.640 --> 00:37:41.060
We are a county

958
00:37:41.060 --> 00:37:42.920
that suffers economically.

959
00:37:43.600 --> 00:37:45.300
The oil industry is on a…

960
00:37:45.940 --> 00:37:48.360
it's been the lifeblood of this county

961
00:37:48.360 --> 00:37:50.420
along with farming

962
00:37:50.420 --> 00:37:52.960
and both industries have taken

963
00:37:52.960 --> 00:37:55.150
it on the chin
here in recent years.

964
00:37:55.150 --> 00:37:57.220
We used to have a massive Texaco

965
00:37:57.220 --> 00:37:58.960
refinery in our county

966
00:37:58.960 --> 00:38:00.640
and employed good jobs

967
00:38:00.640 --> 00:38:01.880
for a lot of people.

968
00:38:01.880 --> 00:38:03.100
That is gone.

969
00:38:03.800 --> 00:38:06.900
The Marathon Ohio Oil Company

970
00:38:06.900 --> 00:38:09.120
and the Marathon
Oil Company are gone.

971
00:38:11.140 --> 00:38:13.460
There's very little industry.

972
00:38:13.460 --> 00:38:15.000
There's a huge unemployment

973
00:38:15.880 --> 00:38:18.300
of numbers.

974
00:38:18.310 --> 00:38:20.080
It's a low-income county,

975
00:38:20.080 --> 00:38:22.480
one of the poorest in the state.

976
00:38:24.020 --> 00:38:26.760
But yet it's a fine place to live.

977
00:38:26.760 --> 00:38:30.440
We have all the amenities that one needs.

978
00:38:30.440 --> 00:38:32.740
We are close to metropolitan areas.

979
00:38:35.100 --> 00:38:37.520
It's as good a county as any in our nation

980
00:38:37.520 --> 00:38:38.840
to to reside in.

981
00:38:39.380 --> 00:38:42.320
[music swells in. dark, rhythmic synth.]

982
00:38:43.360 --> 00:38:45.020
And the jail was

983
00:38:45.020 --> 00:38:47.780
pretty much destroyed
so they had to move Betsey to

984
00:38:47.780 --> 00:38:48.820
Lawrenceville.

985
00:38:49.500 --> 00:38:51.180
And when they moved her to Lawrenceville

986
00:38:51.180 --> 00:38:52.540
that's where she was tried.

987
00:38:53.000 --> 00:38:55.080
[music title: Lawrenceville]

988
00:38:55.860 --> 00:38:57.820
[pulsating notes]

989
00:38:58.960 --> 00:39:00.600
Betsey Reed’s two

990
00:39:01.260 --> 00:39:03.220
lawyers defense
lawyers, she had two.

991
00:39:03.520 --> 00:39:06.300
One was Augustus French, who I mentioned

992
00:39:06.640 --> 00:39:08.680
a year and a half after trial became the

993
00:39:08.680 --> 00:39:10.440
ninth governor of the State of Illinois.

994
00:39:11.160 --> 00:39:12.640
But the second lawyer and

995
00:39:12.640 --> 00:39:13.820
the one who actually was the lead

996
00:39:13.820 --> 00:39:15.660
lawyer in the case name was Usher Linder.

997
00:39:16.140 --> 00:39:17.380
Usher Linder

998
00:39:19.100 --> 00:39:21.700
was a famous attorney in Illinois.

999
00:39:21.700 --> 00:39:24.440
He had been Attorney General
of the state.

1000
00:39:24.920 --> 00:39:27.680
He had been involved in Alton, Illinois

1001
00:39:27.680 --> 00:39:31.480
with the with the case
of Elijah Lovejoy

1002
00:39:31.600 --> 00:39:33.260
when he was executed

1003
00:39:34.040 --> 00:39:36.120
and his press destroyed, which

1004
00:39:36.120 --> 00:39:38.840
is the whole basis of
freedom of the press

1005
00:39:38.840 --> 00:39:39.920
in this nation,

1006
00:39:39.920 --> 00:39:42.260
based upon this Lovejoy case.

1007
00:39:42.960 --> 00:39:45.080
In Alton, Illinois

1008
00:39:45.480 --> 00:39:48.160
there was an abolitionist
named Elijah P. Lovejoy

1009
00:39:48.580 --> 00:39:50.273
and he didn't believe in slavery.

1010
00:39:50.280 --> 00:39:52.360
So he printed, he was the newspaper printer.

1011
00:39:52.660 --> 00:39:53.880
He was the editor.

1012
00:39:53.880 --> 00:39:54.880
He owned the paper.

1013
00:39:54.880 --> 00:39:55.760
He kept printing you know

1014
00:39:55.760 --> 00:39:57.320
kept writing his paper…

1015
00:39:57.320 --> 00:39:59.000
not...that we should not have slavery.

1016
00:39:59.400 --> 00:40:01.740
And first they threw his
printing press in the river.

1017
00:40:02.480 --> 00:40:04.340
And so after that he got another one.

1018
00:40:04.600 --> 00:40:06.460
Well then they burned it and they killed him.

1019
00:40:07.120 --> 00:40:08.460
And so they say that his ghost

1020
00:40:08.580 --> 00:40:10.820
haunts part
of Alton, Illinois.

1021
00:40:11.440 --> 00:40:12.960
Now Usher Linder

1022
00:40:13.500 --> 00:40:15.180
was born where Abraham Lincoln

1023
00:40:15.180 --> 00:40:15.980
was born in Kentucky,

1024
00:40:16.100 --> 00:40:17.260
in the same town.

1025
00:40:17.400 --> 00:40:18.800
They grew up together

1026
00:40:18.800 --> 00:40:20.080
and they both came to Illinois.

1027
00:40:20.080 --> 00:40:22.080
Illinois was really if you wanted…

1028
00:40:22.420 --> 00:40:24.220
The political stars were coming out there:

1029
00:40:24.220 --> 00:40:26.660
Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, all that.

1030
00:40:26.760 --> 00:40:28.020
Well, Usher Linder

1031
00:40:28.640 --> 00:40:30.520
was a real good friend
of Lincoln’s.

1032
00:40:30.520 --> 00:40:32.120
But he was also

1033
00:40:32.920 --> 00:40:34.540
kind of a rebel rouser.

1034
00:40:34.540 --> 00:40:36.360
At age 27

1035
00:40:36.860 --> 00:40:39.220
became the youngest

1036
00:40:39.220 --> 00:40:41.000
Attorney General
for the State of Illinois.

1037
00:40:41.560 --> 00:40:43.000
They were having a big

1038
00:40:43.440 --> 00:40:44.880
convention down
there with Lovejoy

1039
00:40:44.880 --> 00:40:46.580
and he's writing his anti-slavery

1040
00:40:46.580 --> 00:40:48.120
paper, and he's a speaker.

1041
00:40:48.440 --> 00:40:48.960
Well,

1042
00:40:49.600 --> 00:40:51.900
Usher Linder got everybody riled up

1043
00:40:51.900 --> 00:40:53.180
there and they actually

1044
00:40:53.660 --> 00:40:54.840
got the mob together.

1045
00:40:55.280 --> 00:40:56.560
And then,

1046
00:40:56.560 --> 00:40:58.540
and this is while he's Attorney General,

1047
00:40:58.860 --> 00:41:01.860
and basically did a speech to get

1048
00:41:01.860 --> 00:41:03.579
them, the mob to go…

1049
00:41:03.579 --> 00:41:05.380
They burned down the newspaper,

1050
00:41:05.380 --> 00:41:06.800
Lovejoy's newspaper

1051
00:41:06.800 --> 00:41:09.030
at the time, pulled him out and

1052
00:41:09.030 --> 00:41:10.020
lynched him.

1053
00:41:10.460 --> 00:41:11.760
One thing that interests me

1054
00:41:11.760 --> 00:41:13.860
is about this story is Usher Linder

1055
00:41:14.100 --> 00:41:15.680
who in 1837

1056
00:41:16.160 --> 00:41:18.680
was a pro-slavery advocate

1057
00:41:18.680 --> 00:41:19.860
who battled

1058
00:41:19.860 --> 00:41:21.360
with Elijah Lovejoy

1059
00:41:21.360 --> 00:41:22.380
whose death in November

1060
00:41:22.380 --> 00:41:24.480
of 1837 in Alton

1061
00:41:24.480 --> 00:41:25.640
not only

1062
00:41:25.640 --> 00:41:27.800
lit the fuse that sparked the civil war

1063
00:41:27.800 --> 00:41:29.140
but left a haunting

1064
00:41:29.140 --> 00:41:31.809
behind where Elijah Lovejoy died.

1065
00:41:31.809 --> 00:41:33.140
There's a vacant lot there now and

1066
00:41:33.140 --> 00:41:35.220
his ghost is said to wander there.

1067
00:41:35.460 --> 00:41:36.640
[music ends]
Later on

1068
00:41:36.640 --> 00:41:37.840
Linder was

1069
00:41:38.400 --> 00:41:40.580
Betsey Reed's attorney

1070
00:41:40.580 --> 00:41:41.360
and then

1071
00:41:42.060 --> 00:41:44.080
her ghost wanders the cemetery.

1072
00:41:44.090 --> 00:41:46.160
So there's this weird
connection between Linder

1073
00:41:46.160 --> 00:41:48.640
and these two historic
vents in Illinois’ history

1074
00:41:48.920 --> 00:41:50.480
that I just find kind of interesting.

1075
00:41:50.780 --> 00:41:53.100
From what I read, hangings were kind of a

1076
00:41:53.100 --> 00:41:55.020
big event back then and people would
[birds in background]

1077
00:41:55.020 --> 00:41:59.020
actually come in and set up like a festival.

1078
00:41:59.020 --> 00:42:02.180
Like, they would sell and trade and barter.

1079
00:42:02.620 --> 00:42:04.840
And the people got mad

1080
00:42:05.160 --> 00:42:06.440
because when they moved her

1081
00:42:06.440 --> 00:42:09.160
everyone was supposedly set up

1082
00:42:09.500 --> 00:42:12.320
had shops set up to to sell things.

1083
00:42:12.320 --> 00:42:13.720
And when they moved to Lawrenceville,

1084
00:42:13.720 --> 00:42:16.100
which is 20 some miles from here,

1085
00:42:16.580 --> 00:42:18.720
that's a long trip by a horse-drawn cart

1086
00:42:18.720 --> 00:42:19.680
or something like that.

1087
00:42:19.680 --> 00:42:21.320
So everyone had to move down there

1088
00:42:21.640 --> 00:42:22.840
for the hanging.

1089
00:42:23.260 --> 00:42:23.860
And

1090
00:42:24.200 --> 00:42:25.700
supposedly when they
got there I think

1091
00:42:25.700 --> 00:42:27.720
the estimate was
20 thousand people, I don't

1092
00:42:27.720 --> 00:42:29.440
know if that's accurate or not, but

1093
00:42:29.820 --> 00:42:31.460
a rather
large crowd.

1094
00:42:32.220 --> 00:42:34.460
When I started writing the play I

1095
00:42:34.460 --> 00:42:36.860
had just kind of assumed that

1096
00:42:36.860 --> 00:42:39.040
Betsey Reed was probably guilty.

1097
00:42:39.040 --> 00:42:40.580
She was probably from a

1098
00:42:40.940 --> 00:42:43.320
hard life and things
just happened.

1099
00:42:43.720 --> 00:42:46.200
But Donna Burton from the society had

1100
00:42:46.200 --> 00:42:48.160
pointed out this antimony.

1101
00:42:48.580 --> 00:42:51.000
So for me the big surprise

1102
00:42:51.000 --> 00:42:51.900
was that

1103
00:42:52.540 --> 00:42:54.520
he…the man is taking antimony

1104
00:42:54.520 --> 00:42:56.400
and she said ,
"You look up antimony."

1105
00:42:57.240 --> 00:42:58.500
So I looked this up

1106
00:42:58.720 --> 00:42:59.680
and of course

1107
00:42:59.680 --> 00:43:00.620
you find out that

1108
00:43:00.620 --> 00:43:03.800
antimony poisoning
mimics arsenic poisoning.

1109
00:43:03.800 --> 00:43:05.900
So very much so his symptoms

1110
00:43:05.900 --> 00:43:07.780
could have been
caused by this antimony.

1111
00:43:08.400 --> 00:43:10.420
The next big surprise for me

1112
00:43:10.760 --> 00:43:13.460
was that he was
sick for three years

1113
00:43:14.260 --> 00:43:15.700
but then all of a sudden

1114
00:43:15.720 --> 00:43:17.320
in 1844

1115
00:43:18.060 --> 00:43:19.680
they think it's arsenic poisoning.

1116
00:43:20.060 --> 00:43:21.420
Nobody thought this

1117
00:43:21.420 --> 00:43:23.640
for the two and a
half years prior to

1118
00:43:23.640 --> 00:43:24.600
his death?

1119
00:43:24.900 --> 00:43:26.740
One of the aspects I appreciate

1120
00:43:26.740 --> 00:43:29.060
about this story is
the fact that she left

1121
00:43:29.070 --> 00:43:30.370
no record of a defense.

1122
00:43:30.370 --> 00:43:32.420
Her attorneys apparently didn't
put her on the stand.

1123
00:43:32.420 --> 00:43:34.020
There are no public statements

1124
00:43:34.160 --> 00:43:36.220
with her defending herself.

1125
00:43:36.640 --> 00:43:38.320
She could have very easily said,

1126
00:43:38.320 --> 00:43:39.680
“my husband had been ill

1127
00:43:39.680 --> 00:43:41.820
with stomach problems
for three or four years”

1128
00:43:42.240 --> 00:43:44.160
which gives credence to the idea

1129
00:43:44.160 --> 00:43:45.620
that she didn't kill him.

1130
00:43:46.980 --> 00:43:49.200
Ghosts hang around places

1131
00:43:49.200 --> 00:43:50.400
for a lot of different reasons.

1132
00:43:50.400 --> 00:43:51.280
In her case,

1133
00:43:51.280 --> 00:43:53.080
even though I believe she was guilty and

1134
00:43:53.080 --> 00:43:54.700
committed the crime,

1135
00:43:56.340 --> 00:43:57.060
maybe she didn't

1136
00:43:57.060 --> 00:43:58.840
and her ghost still wanders

1137
00:43:59.280 --> 00:44:00.800
the cemetery
because she's accused of

1138
00:44:00.800 --> 00:44:02.080
a crime she didn't commit

1139
00:44:02.460 --> 00:44:04.220
in the 1840s

1140
00:44:04.220 --> 00:44:06.200
I don't think they
would have questioned

1141
00:44:06.200 --> 00:44:07.420
the guilt of a woman.

1142
00:44:07.920 --> 00:44:09.480
i mean she was a woman

1143
00:44:09.780 --> 00:44:11.280
everybody could see it was

1144
00:44:11.280 --> 00:44:12.420
a possibility and they just

1145
00:44:12.420 --> 00:44:14.240
moved on with their lives.

1146
00:44:14.780 --> 00:44:16.480
Well and remember she had

1147
00:44:17.640 --> 00:44:18.400
burned

1148
00:44:18.400 --> 00:44:21.400
had had the jail
at Palestine on fire

1149
00:44:21.880 --> 00:44:23.780
whether to commit suicide or

1150
00:44:23.780 --> 00:44:24.980
it's just an
accidental…

1151
00:44:27.060 --> 00:44:28.140
it caught on fire.

1152
00:44:28.420 --> 00:44:30.000
So they were considering her

1153
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:31.480
a witch and a bad lady

1154
00:44:31.880 --> 00:44:34.700
[deep, ominous music]

1155
00:44:35.760 --> 00:44:38.040
[music title: May 23, 1845]

1156
00:44:40.680 --> 00:44:41.980
[loud clang]

1157
00:44:49.140 --> 00:44:50.320
[loud clang]

1158
00:44:55.680 --> 00:44:59.200
[creepy hissing and stretching sounds]

1159
00:45:00.620 --> 00:45:06.240
[inaudible whispers and breathing noises]

1160
00:45:07.740 --> 00:45:09.740
We are in Lawrence County Illinois

1161
00:45:09.740 --> 00:45:12.760
at the location where Elizabeth Betsey Reed

1162
00:45:12.760 --> 00:45:14.420
was taken to be hung.

1163
00:45:14.800 --> 00:45:17.340
Behind me here is
the old football field

1164
00:45:17.540 --> 00:45:19.220
and this is the location

1165
00:45:19.220 --> 00:45:20.380
where they brought her.

1166
00:45:20.800 --> 00:45:24.700
The judge said to
take her to a place within

1167
00:45:24.700 --> 00:45:28.220
one mile of the
courthouse to a convenient place,

1168
00:45:28.400 --> 00:45:30.880
which ended up being
the location where

1169
00:45:30.880 --> 00:45:32.960
this football field is now located at.

1170
00:45:33.480 --> 00:45:35.940
So the crazy thing about all this

1171
00:45:35.940 --> 00:45:37.340
and still a mystery

1172
00:45:37.340 --> 00:45:39.140
is there's no historical marker

1173
00:45:39.140 --> 00:45:41.120
at this location whatsoever

1174
00:45:41.360 --> 00:45:43.320
indicating that
she was hung out here.

1175
00:45:43.920 --> 00:45:45.520
So if you just come
out here and look it's

1176
00:45:45.520 --> 00:45:47.120
just an abandoned
football field that's grown

1177
00:45:47.120 --> 00:45:48.860
up now and it's creepy.

1178
00:45:49.180 --> 00:45:55.860
[music continues. breathy noises over dark ambience]

1179
00:45:56.200 --> 00:46:01.980
[grating noises of tension]

1180
00:46:04.040 --> 00:46:08.340
[sounds like distant wind]

1181
00:46:08.340 --> 00:46:12.500
[creepy deep breath]

1182
00:46:16.580 --> 00:46:18.920
So uh it's still a big mystery

1183
00:46:18.920 --> 00:46:21.580
as to the exact location of where

1184
00:46:22.180 --> 00:46:24.020
the scaffold and the she

1185
00:46:24.020 --> 00:46:26.120
was actually placed to be hung.

1186
00:46:26.380 --> 00:46:28.920
It says that there was
people that watched

1187
00:46:28.920 --> 00:46:29.760
this event from a hill

1188
00:46:29.760 --> 00:46:30.920
and that she was down

1189
00:46:30.920 --> 00:46:32.340
at the bottom of the hill.

1190
00:46:32.700 --> 00:46:34.340
So the location over
here definitely fits

1191
00:46:34.340 --> 00:46:37.400
the description and all
the scholars definitely

1192
00:46:37.400 --> 00:46:39.450
say this is the
location where it was at.

1193
00:46:39.450 --> 00:46:40.780
We just don't have an exact

1194
00:46:40.780 --> 00:46:42.460
you know spot with a marker

1195
00:46:42.460 --> 00:46:43.619
saying you know this is where

1196
00:46:43.620 --> 00:46:45.420
Elizabeth Betsey Reed was hung.

1197
00:46:45.860 --> 00:46:47.660
So that's just weird.

1198
00:46:48.700 --> 00:46:50.280
I think a lot of people today are

1199
00:46:50.280 --> 00:46:52.960
more fascinated with
the afterlife and the

1200
00:46:52.970 --> 00:46:54.320
spirits and ghost stories

1201
00:46:54.320 --> 00:46:56.240
than they ever have
in the past just because

1202
00:46:56.760 --> 00:46:57.780
basically the tvs.

1203
00:46:57.780 --> 00:46:59.620
The tv has put a lot of
people out there and

1204
00:46:59.620 --> 00:47:01.680
they've talked about it,
they've seen it on tv

1205
00:47:01.900 --> 00:47:04.300
and they consider... it's more of

1206
00:47:04.300 --> 00:47:06.080
a way of life now than it used to be.

1207
00:47:06.300 --> 00:47:07.660
it was kind of the old thing was like

1208
00:47:07.660 --> 00:47:09.280
oh no. you don't
talk about the spirits.

1209
00:47:09.280 --> 00:47:10.720
You don't talk
about that type of thing.

1210
00:47:11.080 --> 00:47:12.480
In comparison to what it is today

1211
00:47:12.480 --> 00:47:13.540
it's more accepted.

1212
00:47:13.540 --> 00:47:15.540
And i think people enjoy going out

1213
00:47:15.540 --> 00:47:17.400
and they want to find
more about the paranormal

1214
00:47:17.400 --> 00:47:19.410
and see what's out
there and see what the

1215
00:47:19.410 --> 00:47:20.410
see what's happening.

1216
00:47:20.410 --> 00:47:21.780
Because they've all had experiences

1217
00:47:21.780 --> 00:47:24.490
and they've never wanted
to talk about those experiences

1218
00:47:24.490 --> 00:47:25.490
until now.

1219
00:47:25.490 --> 00:47:27.340
They feel more comfortable
that they can share those

1220
00:47:27.340 --> 00:47:29.040
and everybody's had an experience at

1221
00:47:29.040 --> 00:47:30.320
one time or another probably.

1222
00:47:30.320 --> 00:47:31.600
They just either don't know it

1223
00:47:31.600 --> 00:47:32.720
or didn't want
to talk about it.

1224
00:47:33.580 --> 00:47:39.300
[ambient music still playing but very low key]

1225
00:47:40.280 --> 00:47:42.400
Historical records actually show that

1226
00:47:43.160 --> 00:47:45.620
the county just doubled in size you know

1227
00:47:45.630 --> 00:47:47.200
during her hanging like Dickerson said.

1228
00:47:47.200 --> 00:47:48.420
you know people came in from

1229
00:47:48.420 --> 00:47:49.800
all over the
place to watch that.

1230
00:47:50.320 --> 00:47:52.540
And backing the story up just a little bit

1231
00:47:52.540 --> 00:47:55.480
but before she was
actually hung as she was

1232
00:47:55.480 --> 00:47:57.760
being brought out to her execution site

1233
00:47:57.760 --> 00:48:00.440
she was actually put on her own coffin.

1234
00:48:00.860 --> 00:48:02.220
She was in a white dress

1235
00:48:02.220 --> 00:48:04.180
and she was on her own coffin

1236
00:48:04.680 --> 00:48:07.240
and she got religion you know.

1237
00:48:07.240 --> 00:48:08.620
She became very religious when she

1238
00:48:08.620 --> 00:48:11.060
found out (chuckles) she
was going to get executed.

1239
00:48:11.540 --> 00:48:13.500
There was a guy that actually

1240
00:48:13.500 --> 00:48:15.280
baptized her

1241
00:48:15.280 --> 00:48:18.480
in the river near where the new bridge is

1242
00:48:18.490 --> 00:48:20.480
located at now in Lawrenceville.

1243
00:48:20.480 --> 00:48:23.390
So she got baptized you know found religion.

1244
00:48:23.390 --> 00:48:25.100
She was actually singing gospel songs

1245
00:48:25.100 --> 00:48:27.440
as she was going to her own grave.

1246
00:48:27.440 --> 00:48:29.000
Singing they said she was singing

1247
00:48:29.000 --> 00:48:31.200
all kinds of songs on the way there.

1248
00:48:31.700 --> 00:48:33.800
So that's kind of a weird and eerie side.

1249
00:48:33.800 --> 00:48:35.640
I’m sure too, seeing somebody sing

1250
00:48:35.640 --> 00:48:37.940
as they go to their grave.

1251
00:48:38.400 --> 00:48:40.520
There's a lot of,

1252
00:48:40.940 --> 00:48:43.560
a lot of reports
you know with the haunting too.

1253
00:48:43.570 --> 00:48:45.220
You know people seeing that

1254
00:48:45.220 --> 00:48:46.250
that's what they see.

1255
00:48:46.250 --> 00:48:48.300
They see the residual activity

1256
00:48:48.300 --> 00:48:49.720
and the residual occurrence of

1257
00:48:49.720 --> 00:48:51.680
that event taking place so.

1258
00:48:53.540 --> 00:48:56.960
John Seed was a Baptist preacher who

1259
00:48:57.680 --> 00:49:00.380
did a sermon who was
her minister at the time.

1260
00:49:02.060 --> 00:49:02.560
He

1261
00:49:03.220 --> 00:49:05.320
Once he gets her Betsey rides down the

1262
00:49:05.320 --> 00:49:07.820
hill to the side of the hanging

1263
00:49:08.800 --> 00:49:10.800
riding on her coffin on this robe.

1264
00:49:10.810 --> 00:49:13.520
And she's singing hymns
on the way down there.

1265
00:49:13.520 --> 00:49:15.960
And this John Seed
he's he's from Scotland

1266
00:49:15.960 --> 00:49:17.420
and he's a firebrand,

1267
00:49:17.420 --> 00:49:18.680
hell and brimstone preacher.

1268
00:49:19.260 --> 00:49:20.780
He sees whatever this crowd is

1269
00:49:20.780 --> 00:49:21.560
20,000 people

1270
00:49:21.560 --> 00:49:23.280
and he said he's
going to deliver a sermon.

1271
00:49:23.880 --> 00:49:27.240
So he preaches for over
an hour and it's a hot sun.

1272
00:49:27.660 --> 00:49:28.900
Betsey Reed

1273
00:49:29.540 --> 00:49:31.500
is sitting on her coffin yelling,

1274
00:49:31.500 --> 00:49:34.000
“hallelujah and amen” all the way through

1275
00:49:34.560 --> 00:49:35.560
the sermon.

1276
00:49:35.560 --> 00:49:36.980
And then she gets up,

1277
00:49:37.460 --> 00:49:40.060
Sheriff Samuel Thorn
puts a bag over her head,

1278
00:49:40.060 --> 00:49:42.240
a white or excuse me a black bag,

1279
00:49:42.840 --> 00:49:43.740
and

1280
00:49:43.740 --> 00:49:45.280
then

1281
00:49:46.500 --> 00:49:49.220
pulls the or… chops
the rope.

1282
00:49:49.500 --> 00:49:50.880
She hangs

1283
00:49:50.880 --> 00:49:53.260
and about a half… they let her
hang for about a half hour

1284
00:49:53.260 --> 00:49:53.970
and then they put

1285
00:49:53.970 --> 00:49:55.460
her down into that shallow

1286
00:49:55.800 --> 00:49:58.540
open grave there
underneath the gallows.

1287
00:49:58.660 --> 00:50:02.580
(Male Narrator, southern accent)
Psalms 23: The Lord is my shepherd

1288
00:50:02.740 --> 00:50:04.320
I shall not want.

1289
00:50:04.320 --> 00:50:08.040
He maketh me lie down in green pastures.

1290
00:50:08.040 --> 00:50:11.400
He leadeth me beside the still waters.

1291
00:50:11.460 --> 00:50:14.260
He restoreth my soul.

1292
00:50:14.260 --> 00:50:16.300
He leadeth me in the path

1293
00:50:16.300 --> 00:50:19.080
of righteousness for his name's sake.

1294
00:50:19.080 --> 00:50:21.240
Yea though I walk through the

1295
00:50:21.240 --> 00:50:22.480
valley of shadow of death

1296
00:50:22.480 --> 00:50:25.580
I will fear no evil for Thou art with me.

1297
00:50:25.580 --> 00:50:29.200
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

1298
00:50:29.200 --> 00:50:31.380
[different dark, ambient music begins]

1299
00:50:31.440 --> 00:50:33.360
(Dickerson)
There’s a hill that the high school sits on now

1300
00:50:33.360 --> 00:50:35.440
and i guess a lot of people
were sitting on it watching.

1301
00:50:36.040 --> 00:50:38.020
But some people decided
to climb up in a tree

1302
00:50:38.020 --> 00:50:39.660
and sit on a branch.

1303
00:50:39.900 --> 00:50:40.740
Well

1304
00:50:40.740 --> 00:50:42.700
after they you know they announced the

1305
00:50:42.700 --> 00:50:44.080
conviction this that the other,

1306
00:50:44.200 --> 00:50:46.160
right as they were getting
ready to throw the lever

1307
00:50:46.480 --> 00:50:47.340
to hang her,

1308
00:50:47.700 --> 00:50:49.900
the tree branch those
people were sitting on broke.

1309
00:50:50.240 --> 00:50:52.160
Well when they fell they all screamed

1310
00:50:52.360 --> 00:50:54.192
and it stated that the majority of the crowd

1311
00:50:54.200 --> 00:50:55.540
heard the screams

1312
00:50:55.860 --> 00:50:57.060
and turned to look

1313
00:50:57.060 --> 00:50:58.640
to see what the commotion was about

1314
00:50:58.640 --> 00:51:00.220
and missed the actual hanging.

1315
00:51:00.220 --> 00:51:01.940
[music title: from the rope to the ground]

1316
00:51:02.200 --> 00:51:04.860
Now i don't believe there was any actual

1317
00:51:04.860 --> 00:51:07.560
organized protest at the hanging.

1318
00:51:07.860 --> 00:51:10.260
But I wanted this character to show up

1319
00:51:10.680 --> 00:51:12.640
and explain to

1320
00:51:12.860 --> 00:51:14.980
the audience watching the play

1321
00:51:15.280 --> 00:51:17.780
that this was something
that was controversial.

1322
00:51:18.300 --> 00:51:20.260
Especially that it was a woman

1323
00:51:20.260 --> 00:51:21.660
who was to be hanged.

1324
00:51:22.400 --> 00:51:23.360
Although I think the

1325
00:51:23.360 --> 00:51:25.100
majority of people in this area

1326
00:51:25.260 --> 00:51:27.100
probably were a

1327
00:51:27.620 --> 00:51:29.100
pro death penalty

1328
00:51:29.360 --> 00:51:31.020
and they were excited

1329
00:51:31.020 --> 00:51:32.700
about this execution.

1330
00:51:32.700 --> 00:51:34.160
It was going to be something

1331
00:51:34.260 --> 00:51:35.820
entertaining to watch.

1332
00:51:36.940 --> 00:51:38.740
And we have an eyewitness account

1333
00:51:38.740 --> 00:51:40.620
of Alexander McCarter

1334
00:51:41.140 --> 00:51:43.000
who as a young boy came

1335
00:51:43.000 --> 00:51:44.620
with his grandfather, Hamilton, to

1336
00:51:44.860 --> 00:51:46.880
Lawrenceville to watch this.

1337
00:51:47.340 --> 00:51:50.680
Young McCarter was on
his grandfather's shoulders

1338
00:51:50.680 --> 00:51:51.480
[female vocalization in ambience]

1339
00:51:51.540 --> 00:51:53.740
and at the time when

1340
00:51:54.340 --> 00:51:56.440
Elizabeth Reed dropped

1341
00:51:56.860 --> 00:51:58.240
from the gallows.

1342
00:51:58.620 --> 00:52:00.820
Somebody in a nearby tree

1343
00:52:00.820 --> 00:52:02.200
the limb snapped

1344
00:52:02.200 --> 00:52:04.580
and the boy's attention was given to the to

1345
00:52:05.300 --> 00:52:09.420
that and he missed
the actual instant of death.

1346
00:52:10.420 --> 00:52:11.540
The common thought

1347
00:52:11.540 --> 00:52:14.680
has always been at
the at the football field

1348
00:52:14.680 --> 00:52:16.720
of the old Lawrenceville High School.

1349
00:52:18.500 --> 00:52:19.800
All accounts

1350
00:52:19.800 --> 00:52:21.980
that I can gather suggest that

1351
00:52:21.980 --> 00:52:24.380
it was about a quarter mile to the east.

1352
00:52:25.600 --> 00:52:28.520
Walnut Street is in
front of the high School.

1353
00:52:29.120 --> 00:52:30.880
That extended with

1354
00:52:30.880 --> 00:52:33.060
I believe Fifth or Sixth street.

1355
00:52:33.520 --> 00:52:35.660
Would suggest where the Mills Terrace

1356
00:52:35.660 --> 00:52:38.500
apartments is, which
would have been

1357
00:52:38.500 --> 00:52:39.920
as good of a site

1358
00:52:40.520 --> 00:52:42.740
as could be, b ut the same story.

1359
00:52:44.360 --> 00:52:56.400
[old time projector sounds]

1360
00:52:56.740 --> 00:52:59.440
Some of our night
investigations that we've

1361
00:52:59.440 --> 00:53:00.660
conducted out here

1362
00:53:01.020 --> 00:53:03.080
we've actually recorded strange

1363
00:53:03.080 --> 00:53:05.700
cold spots in the area that
seemed to move.

1364
00:53:06.340 --> 00:53:08.420
And they moved through the football field

1365
00:53:08.420 --> 00:53:09.580
area behind me here.

1366
00:53:10.220 --> 00:53:13.040
We’ve heard what sounded
like a scream at one point.

1367
00:53:13.040 --> 00:53:14.190
But we can't confirm that

1368
00:53:14.190 --> 00:53:16.300
it wasn't locals. You know
we are in an urban area.

1369
00:53:16.300 --> 00:53:17.720
We try to debunk everything.

1370
00:53:17.960 --> 00:53:20.360
but we have heard
mysterious sounds that

1371
00:53:20.600 --> 00:53:22.160
just they don't sound right you know.

1372
00:53:22.380 --> 00:53:23.740
They don't sound
like your typical noises

1373
00:53:23.740 --> 00:53:25.160
you should be hearing out here.

1374
00:53:25.700 --> 00:53:27.520
We've captured
[female vocalization in ambience]

1375
00:53:27.520 --> 00:53:30.820
a couple evps, electronic voice
phenomena, out here.

1376
00:53:31.360 --> 00:53:32.200
But

1377
00:53:32.200 --> 00:53:35.120
not as much as what
we have at Baker Cemetery,

1378
00:53:35.420 --> 00:53:36.420
which is where

1379
00:53:36.420 --> 00:53:38.960
you know we've got a really good evp

1380
00:53:39.240 --> 00:53:41.040
that we captured.

1381
00:53:41.640 --> 00:53:43.780
And we're going to be playing that i think.

1382
00:53:44.180 --> 00:53:46.240
But the the evp is extremely good

1383
00:53:46.240 --> 00:53:47.600
we captured
at the cemetery.

1384
00:53:47.609 --> 00:53:49.160
But out here it's mostly sounds

1385
00:53:49.160 --> 00:53:50.200
just

1386
00:53:50.320 --> 00:53:51.820
things you see out
of the corner of your eye.

1387
00:53:51.820 --> 00:53:53.200
But you're not sure it's there.

1388
00:53:53.460 --> 00:53:55.840
We haven't got a
whole lot of scientific evidence

1389
00:53:55.840 --> 00:53:58.260
of stuff going on in the area

1390
00:53:58.880 --> 00:54:01.360
but we have physically
seen and heard more things

1391
00:54:01.360 --> 00:54:03.680
than what we've
captured on our equipment.

1392
00:54:04.080 --> 00:54:06.040
It’s definitely a location that I believe

1393
00:54:06.040 --> 00:54:07.640
is haunted you know
[faint music fades out]

1394
00:54:07.640 --> 00:54:09.120
especially some type of

1395
00:54:09.130 --> 00:54:10.620
residual activity

1396
00:54:10.620 --> 00:54:12.840
definitely I believe exists here

1397
00:54:12.840 --> 00:54:14.079
due to the hanging that took place on

1398
00:54:14.080 --> 00:54:16.140
May 23rd, 1845.

1399
00:54:16.140 --> 00:54:19.780
[high-pitched note swells in and fades]

1400
00:54:19.780 --> 00:54:22.180
[soft, ominous music begins. new song]

1401
00:54:22.340 --> 00:54:23.820
You know there's
a lot of times people

1402
00:54:23.820 --> 00:54:25.160
will talk at different spirits

1403
00:54:25.160 --> 00:54:26.900
in a location in a different building

1404
00:54:26.900 --> 00:54:28.420
and they always think
they're talking to Charlie

1405
00:54:28.420 --> 00:54:29.380
or John or whoever

1406
00:54:29.380 --> 00:54:31.000
they think the spirit's talking about.

1407
00:54:31.240 --> 00:54:32.760
But I always look
back and say, “you know

1408
00:54:32.760 --> 00:54:34.460
how do you know
you're talking to that person?”

1409
00:54:34.700 --> 00:54:36.560
Because if I was a spirit at a location

1410
00:54:36.560 --> 00:54:38.420
you just want to talk to Susie

1411
00:54:38.760 --> 00:54:41.320
and I said yeah my name's Susie on a

1412
00:54:41.320 --> 00:54:44.820
by tripping an emf detector,
something like that,

1413
00:54:45.520 --> 00:54:47.640
you really wouldn't know
that was Susie or not.

1414
00:54:47.650 --> 00:54:48.780
You wouldn't know who it is.

1415
00:54:48.780 --> 00:54:49.520
It's hard to tell.

1416
00:54:49.840 --> 00:54:51.620
The only way I think
that you can actually

1417
00:54:51.620 --> 00:54:53.780
really talk to spirits in a location is ask

1418
00:54:54.060 --> 00:54:55.500
them questions that

1419
00:54:55.500 --> 00:54:57.040
they may be the only one

1420
00:54:57.040 --> 00:54:59.060
that knows the answer to that question.

1421
00:54:59.160 --> 00:55:02.540
[base heavy synth note with wind instrument]

1422
00:55:02.600 --> 00:55:04.800
(Narrator) The next mystery of the case involves

1423
00:55:04.800 --> 00:55:06.260
the handing of Mrs. Reed’s body

1424
00:55:06.260 --> 00:55:07.480
following the hanging.

1425
00:55:07.980 --> 00:55:09.640
A confusing account states

1426
00:55:09.640 --> 00:55:11.080
that she was laid
into a shallow grave

1427
00:55:11.080 --> 00:55:12.460
next to the gallows.

1428
00:55:13.000 --> 00:55:14.500
But newspaper articles of the time

1429
00:55:14.500 --> 00:55:16.240
confirm documents that reference

1430
00:55:16.240 --> 00:55:18.000
results from her autopsy.

1431
00:55:18.000 --> 00:55:18.820
[subtle, haunting notes]

1432
00:55:18.900 --> 00:55:20.780
Speculation is that it may have been

1433
00:55:20.780 --> 00:55:22.240
a temporary resting spot

1434
00:55:22.240 --> 00:55:24.579
to delay effects of the hot sun

1435
00:55:24.580 --> 00:55:26.640
until the body could
be properly examined,

1436
00:55:27.120 --> 00:55:28.820
the necessity of which is debatable.

1437
00:55:28.820 --> 00:55:30.400
[music title: finding God in broken glass]

1438
00:55:30.400 --> 00:55:33.760
[light chimes throughout ambience]

1439
00:55:33.760 --> 00:55:40.620
[higher synth notes play
slow melody over synth bass]

1440
00:55:41.060 --> 00:55:49.460
[sounds like synth vocalization. no words]

1441
00:55:50.500 --> 00:55:52.820
Well first of all,

1442
00:55:54.380 --> 00:55:58.200
a couple named Richards

1443
00:55:58.840 --> 00:56:01.680
decided to put a newer tombstone

1444
00:56:02.680 --> 00:56:04.420
at Baker Cemetery.

1445
00:56:04.640 --> 00:56:05.660
I think they were trying

1446
00:56:05.660 --> 00:56:07.100
to keep the history
alive.

1447
00:56:07.900 --> 00:56:09.580
I didn't speak to them about it

1448
00:56:09.580 --> 00:56:11.520
I don't know exactly
what their thoughts were.

1449
00:56:11.760 --> 00:56:13.920
And this one included Betsey's name.

1450
00:56:14.780 --> 00:56:15.780
There are…

1451
00:56:15.960 --> 00:56:17.880
So people assume
because the tombstone is

1452
00:56:17.880 --> 00:56:19.940
there with her name
on it that she's buried there

1453
00:56:19.940 --> 00:56:21.760
[music present but in background]

1454
00:56:21.940 --> 00:56:23.620
In all our research

1455
00:56:24.040 --> 00:56:26.320
we found a lot
of different stories.

1456
00:56:26.760 --> 00:56:28.500
And um

1457
00:56:28.500 --> 00:56:29.960
the one that she was buried

1458
00:56:29.960 --> 00:56:31.320
under the scaffolding

1459
00:56:31.320 --> 00:56:33.880
after the hanging, if it's true,

1460
00:56:35.340 --> 00:56:36.800
she couldn't have
been buried very long

1461
00:56:36.800 --> 00:56:39.460
because there was an
article in the New York Times

1462
00:56:39.860 --> 00:56:41.660
in 1845

1463
00:56:41.860 --> 00:56:43.460
that talked about her autopsy.

1464
00:56:43.880 --> 00:56:46.000
And in the autopsy they found

1465
00:56:46.000 --> 00:56:47.380
that her stomach was…

1466
00:56:48.260 --> 00:56:51.120
had pieces of brick and glass

1467
00:56:51.660 --> 00:56:53.680
where she tried to commit suicide like

1468
00:56:53.680 --> 00:56:54.980
that to cheat the hangman.

1469
00:56:56.000 --> 00:56:57.260
And so

1470
00:56:57.260 --> 00:56:58.180
if they'd have buried her

1471
00:56:58.180 --> 00:56:59.300
I don't think
they would have just

1472
00:56:59.640 --> 00:57:01.100
dug her up. I don't.

1473
00:57:01.100 --> 00:57:01.880
It didn't make any sense

1474
00:57:01.880 --> 00:57:03.200
that she was buried underneath

1475
00:57:03.740 --> 00:57:04.700
the scaffolding.

1476
00:57:04.800 --> 00:57:07.040
The other

1477
00:57:07.040 --> 00:57:08.380
things that I read that

1478
00:57:08.640 --> 00:57:10.540
seemed the
most feasible to me

1479
00:57:11.520 --> 00:57:12.780
and the research I did

1480
00:57:12.780 --> 00:57:14.140
showed that this is what they did

1481
00:57:14.140 --> 00:57:15.600
with a lot of murderers

1482
00:57:15.600 --> 00:57:17.819
at the time was they weren't

1483
00:57:17.819 --> 00:57:18.660
to be buried

1484
00:57:18.660 --> 00:57:21.400
on ground that had been blessed
or hollowed ground,

1485
00:57:21.980 --> 00:57:23.640
which were the cemeteries were,

1486
00:57:23.920 --> 00:57:25.780
since they had committed murder.

1487
00:57:25.780 --> 00:57:28.320
So they usually buried
them outside the gates

1488
00:57:28.720 --> 00:57:29.460
or the fence

1489
00:57:29.460 --> 00:57:31.720
instead of inside the cemetery.

1490
00:57:32.040 --> 00:57:33.380
So from what I read

1491
00:57:33.380 --> 00:57:35.840
there's an entrance at the old

1492
00:57:36.040 --> 00:57:37.520
Lawrenceville

1493
00:57:38.800 --> 00:57:39.680
Cemetery

1494
00:57:39.960 --> 00:57:42.320
and that she was
buried outside the gate.

1495
00:57:42.480 --> 00:57:44.960
And there was some kind of depression

1496
00:57:44.960 --> 00:57:46.920
you could see there for years.

1497
00:57:47.100 --> 00:57:49.380
And that supposedly was
where Betsey was buried.

1498
00:57:49.680 --> 00:57:53.220
[haunting ambience continues. chimes]

1499
00:57:53.520 --> 00:57:55.880
Some people they still argue to this day

1500
00:57:55.880 --> 00:57:57.600
what happened after she was hung.

1501
00:57:57.600 --> 00:57:59.820
And this is where
the real mystery comes in.

1502
00:58:00.320 --> 00:58:02.540
Because it doesn't
matter who you talk to

1503
00:58:02.540 --> 00:58:04.520
everybody's got a
different opinion on this.

1504
00:58:04.520 --> 00:58:06.680
There's some historical
accounts that state

1505
00:58:07.080 --> 00:58:08.420
she was hung (buried) right there

1506
00:58:08.420 --> 00:58:10.780
on the old where
the old football field

1507
00:58:10.780 --> 00:58:12.460
at right underneath the gallows.

1508
00:58:13.100 --> 00:58:13.620
And

1509
00:58:14.080 --> 00:58:16.380
the historical records show in some

1510
00:58:16.880 --> 00:58:18.640
of the records that

1511
00:58:18.640 --> 00:58:19.760
the doctors and there was

1512
00:58:19.770 --> 00:58:21.140
a group of medical students

1513
00:58:21.140 --> 00:58:22.460
that dug up her body

1514
00:58:22.680 --> 00:58:24.059
and used it you know

1515
00:58:24.059 --> 00:58:25.059
for examination.

1516
00:58:25.060 --> 00:58:27.080
Used it for medical
purposes ,back in the day.

1517
00:58:27.080 --> 00:58:28.400
That's one story.

1518
00:58:28.760 --> 00:58:30.920
Another story is the family actually

1519
00:58:30.920 --> 00:58:32.580
dug up Elizabeth Reed

1520
00:58:32.580 --> 00:58:34.060
and brought her to where we

1521
00:58:34.060 --> 00:58:35.440
are currently standing today,

1522
00:58:35.440 --> 00:58:36.900
which is Baker Cemetery.

1523
00:58:37.280 --> 00:58:38.580
And that's the whole mystery

1524
00:58:38.580 --> 00:58:39.839
behind this thing too.

1525
00:58:39.839 --> 00:58:41.369
Is she actually buried here?

1526
00:58:41.369 --> 00:58:42.920
Those people that claim she's not.

1527
00:58:43.180 --> 00:58:45.180
There's hardcore skeptics that say

1528
00:58:45.180 --> 00:58:47.020
she is not buried in the cemetery.

1529
00:58:47.560 --> 00:58:50.680
[gentle but ominous ambience continues]

1530
00:58:51.060 --> 00:58:54.500
[sounds like synthesized vocalization. no words]

1531
00:58:55.120 --> 00:58:57.860
(Roger Creed) Okay I lived in this area for
about 40 years,

1532
00:58:58.840 --> 00:59:00.760
about a mile a half up the road here.

1533
00:59:01.080 --> 00:59:03.340
I was on the cemetery board for

1534
00:59:03.860 --> 00:59:06.760
about eight years back in the late 90s

1535
00:59:07.040 --> 00:59:08.160
early 2000's.

1536
00:59:09.260 --> 00:59:12.980
And our duties were to repair stones and

1537
00:59:13.860 --> 00:59:15.000
trim
brush.

1538
00:59:16.920 --> 00:59:19.240
This guy had this dowsing rod that he used

1539
00:59:19.840 --> 00:59:21.560
to find graves.

1540
00:59:22.940 --> 00:59:25.000
When he located the grave

1541
00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:26.260
we would try to find

1542
00:59:26.260 --> 00:59:27.760
to see if there was a missing stone.

1543
00:59:27.780 --> 00:59:28.680
[chimes]

1544
00:59:28.820 --> 00:59:29.320
And

1545
00:59:30.580 --> 00:59:32.000
he went over to Betsey's grave,

1546
00:59:32.000 --> 00:59:33.240
just for the heck of it,

1547
00:59:33.600 --> 00:59:34.140
and

1548
00:59:35.200 --> 00:59:37.400
he found actually two graves there.

1549
00:59:38.520 --> 00:59:40.540
And we were poking around trying to find

1550
00:59:41.400 --> 00:59:42.880
maybe another stone

1551
00:59:42.880 --> 00:59:44.660
and I found a I found that stone

1552
00:59:44.660 --> 00:59:45.980
it's got “ER” on it.

1553
00:59:47.820 --> 00:59:48.640
I dug it up.

1554
00:59:49.720 --> 00:59:51.040
Re-buried it because I didn't

1555
00:59:51.040 --> 00:59:52.620
want somebody to come along steal it.

1556
00:59:52.900 --> 00:59:53.780
But since then

1557
00:59:53.780 --> 00:59:55.580
somebody has placed it in concrete,

1558
00:59:56.080 --> 00:59:58.260
not exactly in the place that I found it but

1559
00:59:58.580 --> 01:00:00.460
somebody has placed it in concrete.

1560
01:00:00.620 --> 01:00:02.140
[music ended]

1561
01:00:02.440 --> 01:00:05.840
[new ambient music slowly fades in]

1562
01:00:06.320 --> 01:00:10.000
[long synth notes with echoes throughout]

1563
01:00:10.420 --> 01:00:13.760
[very eerie and creepy]

1564
01:00:14.420 --> 01:00:17.500
[bell chimes in the distance]

1565
01:00:18.520 --> 01:00:20.900
[deep, base thuds]

1566
01:00:21.720 --> 01:00:25.180
[music title:death by murder death by hanging ]

1567
01:00:25.180 --> 01:00:34.420
[long, synthesizer base note continues to hold]

1568
01:00:35.540 --> 01:00:38.020
[bell in the distance]

1569
01:00:38.980 --> 01:00:45.780
[obscure noises and echoes]

1570
01:00:45.780 --> 01:00:50.900
[possible synth voices, male]

1571
01:00:50.900 --> 01:00:59.100
[sounds like, "ahhhhhhhhhh"]

1572
01:00:59.100 --> 01:01:18.520
[no words, only ambient music]

1573
01:01:18.900 --> 01:01:20.520
(Snider) Some of the paranormal activity

1574
01:01:20.520 --> 01:01:22.240
and claims that we have

1575
01:01:22.240 --> 01:01:23.820
heard about and even experienced

1576
01:01:23.820 --> 01:01:25.500
ourselves in the cemetery:

1577
01:01:26.280 --> 01:01:28.020
people have reported
seeing Elizabeth

1578
01:01:28.020 --> 01:01:30.530
Reed walk around in here in a white dress.

1579
01:01:30.530 --> 01:01:32.340
And if you look at the historical accounts

1580
01:01:32.340 --> 01:01:34.460
that's what they say she was

1581
01:01:35.040 --> 01:01:36.180
buried in because

1582
01:01:36.180 --> 01:01:37.609
she was hung in her white dress.

1583
01:01:37.609 --> 01:01:39.200
She rode to her execution site

1584
01:01:39.200 --> 01:01:40.860
on top of coffin
in a white dress.

1585
01:01:41.440 --> 01:01:43.520
People reported seeing Elizabeth Reed

1586
01:01:43.520 --> 01:01:44.920
walking around here

1587
01:01:44.920 --> 01:01:46.760
at all hours of the night and

1588
01:01:46.770 --> 01:01:48.160
even daytime reports

1589
01:01:48.160 --> 01:01:50.640
of a lady in a white dress here.

1590
01:01:51.120 --> 01:01:52.480
That's one of the ghost stories

1591
01:01:52.480 --> 01:01:54.200
you know behind this cemetery,

1592
01:01:54.200 --> 01:01:56.600
that she still walks the cemetery grounds.

1593
01:01:57.040 --> 01:01:59.040
And people have also reported seeing her go

1594
01:01:59.040 --> 01:02:00.940
up and down the lane of the cemetery.

1595
01:02:01.220 --> 01:02:03.320
That's one of the cool ghost

1596
01:02:03.320 --> 01:02:04.960
stories behind this place.

1597
01:02:05.280 --> 01:02:07.440
And it's got to have some type of

1598
01:02:08.840 --> 01:02:09.733
evidence behind…

1599
01:02:09.733 --> 01:02:11.520
some type of real thing going on

1600
01:02:11.529 --> 01:02:12.900
because there's been so many people

1601
01:02:12.900 --> 01:02:14.480
report this event that

1602
01:02:14.900 --> 01:02:16.320
we can't really discount it

1603
01:02:16.330 --> 01:02:17.580
as people's imaginations

1604
01:02:17.580 --> 01:02:20.620
because there's been
so many people see and experience that.

1605
01:02:21.620 --> 01:02:23.120
People actually told me that they

1606
01:02:23.120 --> 01:02:25.250
see something white move out of the corner

1607
01:02:25.250 --> 01:02:25.940
of their eye

1608
01:02:25.940 --> 01:02:27.260
and they'll turn and
look and it's not there.

1609
01:02:27.440 --> 01:02:28.400
It’s never

1610
01:02:28.400 --> 01:02:31.400
a defined shape, a dress or anything.

1611
01:02:31.410 --> 01:02:33.190
It's just a white blur.

1612
01:02:33.190 --> 01:02:35.040
And multiple people have told stories that

1613
01:02:35.040 --> 01:02:36.770
didn't associate with each other.

1614
01:02:36.770 --> 01:02:38.200
They just came to me and said,

1615
01:02:38.200 --> 01:02:40.700
“hey I was there
and this is what i experienced.”

1616
01:02:40.700 --> 01:02:42.360
It's weird when more
than one person tells you

1617
01:02:42.360 --> 01:02:43.360
(Snider) For sure.

1618
01:02:43.460 --> 01:02:45.040
a story that when they weren't together

1619
01:02:45.040 --> 01:02:46.080
when it happened.

1620
01:02:47.820 --> 01:02:49.220
We have some

1621
01:02:49.220 --> 01:02:51.760
records that state that

1622
01:02:51.760 --> 01:02:53.420
she was buried underneath

1623
01:02:53.420 --> 01:02:54.760
the gallows

1624
01:02:55.780 --> 01:02:57.820
when the doctors did the autopsy.

1625
01:02:57.960 --> 01:02:59.480
[ambience continues)

1626
01:02:59.520 --> 01:03:02.000
But if she was buried there she wasn't

1627
01:03:02.000 --> 01:03:03.660
buried there to stay there.

1628
01:03:04.360 --> 01:03:05.740
Then there was

1629
01:03:06.360 --> 01:03:07.800
the idea that she was going

1630
01:03:07.800 --> 01:03:09.740
to be buried in the city cemetery.

1631
01:03:10.360 --> 01:03:12.480
The upstanding ladies of the town were not

1632
01:03:12.480 --> 01:03:15.680
about to have this “bloodthirsty tigress”

1633
01:03:15.680 --> 01:03:16.940
buried in their cemetery.

1634
01:03:17.640 --> 01:03:18.620
And so

1635
01:03:18.620 --> 01:03:20.940
in the play I had some

1636
01:03:20.940 --> 01:03:23.320
upstanding women of the community

1637
01:03:23.320 --> 01:03:25.020
stop them from

1638
01:03:25.740 --> 01:03:28.260
burying her in the cemetery.

1639
01:03:28.560 --> 01:03:29.820
And those women

1640
01:03:29.820 --> 01:03:32.200
repeated some of the

1641
01:03:32.660 --> 01:03:35.320
items that were supposedly given in

1642
01:03:35.320 --> 01:03:36.980
her confession

1643
01:03:37.620 --> 01:03:39.700
that was to be published.

1644
01:03:39.700 --> 01:03:41.280
And they also gave some other items that I

1645
01:03:41.280 --> 01:03:43.080
found in newspaper reports.

1646
01:03:44.080 --> 01:03:46.520
But then we believe

1647
01:03:46.520 --> 01:03:48.580
that her body was removed.

1648
01:03:48.980 --> 01:03:51.100
If she was buried in the city cemetery

1649
01:03:51.100 --> 01:03:52.860
it
was removed and then buried

1650
01:03:52.860 --> 01:03:54.339
in Crawford County

1651
01:03:54.339 --> 01:03:56.040
or close to that line by

1652
01:03:56.040 --> 01:03:58.720
some relatives of the family.

1653
01:04:01.700 --> 01:04:04.240
I believe that she her body was removed

1654
01:04:04.240 --> 01:04:06.880
from and reinterred at the Baker Cemetery

1655
01:04:06.880 --> 01:04:08.680
in Crawford County.

1656
01:04:08.680 --> 01:04:10.490
I accept that notion.

1657
01:04:11.080 --> 01:04:12.580
Okay there is the mystery

1658
01:04:13.520 --> 01:04:15.500
is she buried here or not.

1659
01:04:16.500 --> 01:04:17.900
My opinion is that she

1660
01:04:18.000 --> 01:04:19.040
that she is.

1661
01:04:19.040 --> 01:04:20.740
Of course I don't know.
Nobody knows.

1662
01:04:21.120 --> 01:04:23.240
But some of the things
I’ve seen and heard

1663
01:04:23.240 --> 01:04:24.900
I believe she is buried here.

1664
01:04:27.400 --> 01:04:29.160
I was talking to an old timer

1665
01:04:29.160 --> 01:04:30.420
up the road here

1666
01:04:31.420 --> 01:04:33.460
and his grandfather, I believe it was

1667
01:04:33.460 --> 01:04:35.600
his grandfather, said that one night

1668
01:04:37.440 --> 01:04:39.860
he looked over here
and saw a bunch of lights.

1669
01:04:40.260 --> 01:04:41.560
So he came over here

1670
01:04:41.560 --> 01:04:42.960
to see what was going on

1671
01:04:43.960 --> 01:04:45.460
and he found

1672
01:04:45.460 --> 01:04:47.860
several men with shovels and lanterns,

1673
01:04:49.480 --> 01:04:51.020
horses and a wagon.

1674
01:04:51.680 --> 01:04:53.160
And he asked them what

1675
01:04:53.160 --> 01:04:54.480
they were doing and they said,

1676
01:04:54.980 --> 01:04:56.360
“This is none of your concern

1677
01:04:56.360 --> 01:04:57.640
you need to leave.”

1678
01:04:58.320 --> 01:04:59.140
So he left.

1679
01:04:59.140 --> 01:05:00.740
And that's the night that we think

1680
01:05:00.740 --> 01:05:01.820
she was reburied

1681
01:05:02.200 --> 01:05:03.440
by family members.

1682
01:05:03.480 --> 01:05:07.940
[bell tolls in distance throughout ambience]

1683
01:05:11.540 --> 01:05:12.740
Yeah i mean

1684
01:05:12.745 --> 01:05:14.100
and you know we've kind of backed up

1685
01:05:14.100 --> 01:05:16.660
a lot of the claims here too

1686
01:05:16.660 --> 01:05:18.460
with scientific evidence.

1687
01:05:18.460 --> 01:05:19.980
We try to rule out

1688
01:05:19.980 --> 01:05:21.680
out all natural explanations before

1689
01:05:21.680 --> 01:05:22.700
we come to the determination

1690
01:05:22.700 --> 01:05:24.380
a location's haunted.

1691
01:05:24.380 --> 01:05:25.840
We've brought a lot of equipment

1692
01:05:25.840 --> 01:05:27.640
out here over the years.

1693
01:05:27.650 --> 01:05:28.680
We've used emf meters,

1694
01:05:28.680 --> 01:05:29.910
thermal imaging cameras.

1695
01:05:29.910 --> 01:05:31.260
We've set up infrared

1696
01:05:31.260 --> 01:05:32.690
camera systems.

1697
01:05:32.690 --> 01:05:33.560
We've been out here

1698
01:05:33.560 --> 01:05:34.920
night after night trying

1699
01:05:34.920 --> 01:05:36.660
to collect evidence of paranormal activity

1700
01:05:36.660 --> 01:05:37.320
out here.

1701
01:05:37.720 --> 01:05:39.400
One of the strange occurrences

1702
01:05:39.400 --> 01:05:40.400
that do take
place out here

1703
01:05:40.400 --> 01:05:42.820
are strange electromagnetic field spikes.

1704
01:05:44.220 --> 01:05:45.600
We've had our tri-field meter

1705
01:05:45.600 --> 01:05:47.820
like just spike
out here.

1706
01:05:47.829 --> 01:05:49.400
We've had emf meters go to like

1707
01:05:49.400 --> 01:05:53.720
anywhere from
3.2 to 7.2 milligauss for no reason.

1708
01:05:53.840 --> 01:05:56.540
We’ve documented and recorded strange

1709
01:05:56.540 --> 01:05:59.240
electromagnetic
field phenomena out here,

1710
01:05:59.580 --> 01:06:01.000
balls of light,

1711
01:06:01.200 --> 01:06:03.860
just everything you can imagine

1712
01:06:03.860 --> 01:06:06.760
from strange feelings

1713
01:06:06.760 --> 01:06:08.320
to people smelling things.

1714
01:06:08.320 --> 01:06:09.280
I mean a lot of people

1715
01:06:09.280 --> 01:06:10.360
will also report the

1716
01:06:10.360 --> 01:06:11.900
smell of chocolate out here,

1717
01:06:12.260 --> 01:06:13.560
which is kind of weird because this is

1718
01:06:13.560 --> 01:06:15.340
another paranormal event

1719
01:06:15.340 --> 01:06:17.520
that's associated with this cemetery

1720
01:06:17.520 --> 01:06:19.220
that's not what really

1721
01:06:19.220 --> 01:06:21.820
related to the Betsey Reed story.

1722
01:06:21.829 --> 01:06:23.560
But over in that part of the

1723
01:06:23.560 --> 01:06:25.040
cemetery, over here,

1724
01:06:25.040 --> 01:06:27.400
there's a Heath buried over there.

1725
01:06:27.400 --> 01:06:28.560
The Heath family.

1726
01:06:28.560 --> 01:06:30.420
And if you look back into Crawford County

1727
01:06:30.420 --> 01:06:32.400
history the Heath bar was actually invented

1728
01:06:32.400 --> 01:06:34.050
in Robinson, I believe.
(Dickerson) Mmmhmmm

1729
01:06:34.050 --> 01:06:36.220
You've got some of the Heaths buried here

1730
01:06:36.220 --> 01:06:39.289
in Baker Cemetery and (chuckles) people report

1731
01:06:39.289 --> 01:06:41.700
the smell of chocolate, which is really strange.

1732
01:06:42.160 --> 01:06:43.800
On one of my haunted tours,

1733
01:06:44.760 --> 01:06:45.920
this is kind of strange,

1734
01:06:45.920 --> 01:06:48.700
I had a psychic come up to me.

1735
01:06:48.700 --> 01:06:50.800
And this psychic,
and this has happened on

1736
01:06:50.800 --> 01:06:53.200
two different occasions,
two different people

1737
01:06:53.200 --> 01:06:54.400
that claim to be psychic

1738
01:06:54.400 --> 01:06:56.920
have told me the
same story.

1739
01:06:57.240 --> 01:06:59.080
They said that Elizabeth

1740
01:06:59.080 --> 01:07:00.280
dances over here

1741
01:07:00.280 --> 01:07:02.079
and she likes it when I bring people here

1742
01:07:02.080 --> 01:07:03.180
on haunted tours.

1743
01:07:03.180 --> 01:07:04.260
And they say that she dances

1744
01:07:04.260 --> 01:07:05.920
around over here in the corner.

1745
01:07:07.120 --> 01:07:13.020
[background ambience very soft]

1746
01:07:13.520 --> 01:07:26.380
[faint echoes and airy sounds]

1747
01:07:29.880 --> 01:07:35.800
[ambient noises fade away]

1748
01:07:38.040 --> 01:07:39.780
Here at Baker,

1749
01:07:40.700 --> 01:07:43.240
over the times
that we've been investigating,

1750
01:07:43.720 --> 01:07:45.040
we'll get one lead

1751
01:07:45.040 --> 01:07:46.600
and we'll think that,

1752
01:07:46.600 --> 01:07:49.120
“Okay this is
the story and this is it.”

1753
01:07:49.120 --> 01:07:50.120
And then…

1754
01:07:50.120 --> 01:07:52.340
I’m a big believer in synchronicity

1755
01:07:52.720 --> 01:07:54.660
and I don't think
anything's a coincidence.

1756
01:07:55.000 --> 01:07:56.820
And it just seems odd that

1757
01:07:56.820 --> 01:07:58.440
when we're looking for something,

1758
01:07:58.440 --> 01:07:59.940
something pops up that has

1759
01:07:59.950 --> 01:08:01.160
something to do with what

1760
01:08:01.160 --> 01:08:02.660
we're looking for.

1761
01:08:02.660 --> 01:08:05.340
So in the process of
investigating this place,

1762
01:08:06.140 --> 01:08:07.980
I mean there's
probably three or four other

1763
01:08:07.980 --> 01:08:10.200
places that we need to investigate

1764
01:08:10.480 --> 01:08:11.980
that's attached to this place.

1765
01:08:12.720 --> 01:08:14.020
No one really knows.

1766
01:08:14.020 --> 01:08:15.800
No one documented the story

1767
01:08:16.160 --> 01:08:18.240
so it's all hand-me-down stuff.

1768
01:08:18.500 --> 01:08:19.940
And one person says

1769
01:08:20.400 --> 01:08:21.440
you know,

1770
01:08:21.440 --> 01:08:24.440
“Well my family
member knows this and said this”…

1771
01:08:24.760 --> 01:08:26.920
None of it's documented so

1772
01:08:26.920 --> 01:08:29.300
there's no written proof. Everything is

1773
01:08:29.800 --> 01:08:30.820
a story.

1774
01:08:31.540 --> 01:08:32.500
There's no

1775
01:08:32.780 --> 01:08:34.200
there's no truth

1776
01:08:34.200 --> 01:08:36.500
that you can actually
read like look it up.

1777
01:08:36.500 --> 01:08:38.380
Cold hard fact this is what happened.

1778
01:08:38.620 --> 01:08:40.460
I think that's part of the
mystery of the place.

1779
01:08:40.460 --> 01:08:42.480
I think that's what draws everybody here.

1780
01:08:42.480 --> 01:08:45.300
[music begins. synthesized female vocalization.]

1781
01:08:45.300 --> 01:08:47.460
[haunting melody]

1782
01:08:48.080 --> 01:08:50.660
[music title: beyond the grave]

1783
01:08:51.020 --> 01:08:53.400
(Narrator)
This is the story of Elizabeth Betsey Reed

1784
01:08:53.400 --> 01:08:56.120
whose alleged crime, attempted escape

1785
01:08:56.120 --> 01:08:59.660
trial, conviction, execution, and burial

1786
01:08:59.660 --> 01:09:00.860
are debated to this day.

1787
01:09:01.660 --> 01:09:03.940
Modern perceptions lead many to look upon

1788
01:09:03.940 --> 01:09:06.940
the settlers of the 1800’s as backwater,

1789
01:09:06.940 --> 01:09:08.160
superstitious hicks

1790
01:09:08.640 --> 01:09:10.200
the Reed case wasn't deliberated

1791
01:09:10.200 --> 01:09:12.400
by the superstitious or the ignorant.

1792
01:09:12.840 --> 01:09:14.860
Rather, it was judged by the Chief Justice

1793
01:09:14.860 --> 01:09:16.400
of the Illinois Supreme Court,

1794
01:09:16.920 --> 01:09:18.960
argued by a former attorney general,

1795
01:09:18.960 --> 01:09:21.020
and a future Illinois governor.

1796
01:09:21.480 --> 01:09:23.260
The challenges the pioneers faced

1797
01:09:23.260 --> 01:09:25.620
and overcame on a daily basis

1798
01:09:25.620 --> 01:09:28.260
would overwhelm the majority of citizens today.

1799
01:09:29.200 --> 01:09:30.960
Modern misconceptions allow us

1800
01:09:30.960 --> 01:09:32.700
to dismiss the fantastic

1801
01:09:32.700 --> 01:09:34.340
in the light of day

1802
01:09:34.340 --> 01:09:36.560
while haunting our dreams at night.

1803
01:09:37.060 --> 01:09:53.700
[haunting angelic vocalization and eerie synth]

1804
01:09:54.000 --> 01:09:55.520
(Narrator) We leave you with one final

1805
01:09:55.520 --> 01:09:56.980
mysterious piece of evidence

1806
01:09:56.980 --> 01:09:58.240
that has been provided by

1807
01:09:58.240 --> 01:10:00.400
the Crawford County Illinois Ghost Hunters:

1808
01:10:01.080 --> 01:10:03.760
an evp recording which they believe is a direct

1809
01:10:03.760 --> 01:10:05.480
answer to the question,

1810
01:10:06.340 --> 01:10:07.060
“Betsey,

1811
01:10:07.060 --> 01:10:08.720
did you kill your husband?”

1812
01:10:08.760 --> 01:10:10.300
[music ends sharply]

1813
01:10:10.540 --> 01:10:12.820
[White noise]

1814
01:10:13.080 --> 01:10:15.480
[difficult to understand female voice]

1815
01:10:17.060 --> 01:10:19.180
[repeats phrase]

1816
01:10:21.260 --> 01:10:23.300
(sounds like, “I’m Innocent”)

1817
01:10:23.440 --> 01:10:26.000
[somber synthesizer music]

1818
01:10:26.340 --> 01:10:30.940
[rhythmic beat and repeating 3 note melody]

1819
01:10:31.140 --> 01:10:33.680
[music title: discovery]

1820
01:12:20.880 --> 01:12:24.480
[music fades to end]