| Address |
| Fort Thomas, Kentucky, United States |
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| Information |
The Location
On February 1, 1896, a headless body was found in this general area that would lead to a trial and execution that sparked a national media frenzy and would serve as the basis for a popular murder ballad of the time. Interestingly enough, it would also later be connected to a legendary haunting in a neighboring city and its history would take on a much darker twist.
A Grisly Discovery
Back in 1896, this surrounding property in Fort Thomas, Kentucky would make up the farm of John B. Lock. An employee of Lock, John Hewing, was cutting the field when he noticed a woman lying in the grass. Unsure if the woman was simply drunk or dead, Hewing informed his boss of the discovery and police were summoned to look into it. When the officers arrived on the scene, they discovered signs of a struggle and large quantities of blood around the body. When the body was turned over, they discovered that the head had been severed from the body and was missing. A subsequent search of the fields failed to turn up any sign of the missing head or any further leads as to the identity of the corpse.
Autopsy and Identification
With little to go on, authorities moved the body to nearby Newport and went to work on identifying the body. An autopsy revealed that the woman had been five months pregnant and her stomach was full of a large quantity of cocaine. The break came when the investigators located a manufacturer's number on her shoes and were able to track the shoes to a family in Greencastle, Indiana. Family members then identified the body as that of 22-year-old Pearl Bryan.
The Murder of Pearl Bryan
Police quickly became aware of a letter that Bryan wrote to her second cousin, William Woods, informing him of her pregnancy from a relationship with Scott Jackson, whom Woods had introduced her to. Apparently the relationship had been on the rocks, so Woods had written Jackson informing him of Bryan's news and Jackson wrote him back to have the girl come to Cincinnati, Ohio and meet up with him. At that point, Bryan informed family that she was heading to visit friends in Indianapolis, but instead arrived in Cincinnati by train on January 28, 1896.
Reportedly, Jackson did not show up for their scheduled meeting, so Bryan checked into a local hotel under an assumed name. Jackson tracked her down and showed up at the hotel the next day with an associate named Alonzo Walling, who attended nearby Ohio College of Dental Surgery with Jackson. The trio left the hotel on January 29 and their movements from that point forward until the headless corpse of Bryan was discovered are not completely known.
Given that Jackson and Walling were the last ones to see her alive, police quickly brought them in for questioning. During separate interviews, Jackson admitted knowing the girl but denied knowing anything about her death and Walling claimed he had never met Bryan. After further interrogation, Jackson would change his story and accuse Walling of committing the crime. Similarly, Walling broke down and admitted that Jackson had recruited him to perform an abortion, but later changed his mind and discussed poisoning Bryan to make it look like a suicide. On February 13, Jackson and Walling were indicted for the murder of Bryan and transported back to Kentucky to face the jury.
After looking at the evidence and interviewing several potential witnesses, the police established what they believed to be the series of events. They believed the trio walked the streets of Cincinnati as Jackson tried to convince Bryan of letting Walling perform an abortion. After she refused and an argument ensued (it also has been suggested that she was frustrated that the promised abortion had not yet taken place), it is believed that the two men took Bryan to a local tavern where they mixed a large portion of cocaine that Walling had recently purchased (still legal at that point) in Bryan's drink. Jackson and Walling then hailed a coach in the late hours of January 31 and transported the now sick girl across the border into Kentucky where they departed around Fort Thomas, near where her body was later found.
Jackson later would return to a local tavern with Bryan's bag and ask the bartender look after it until he returned. He agreed and noted the awkward contents, but did not look inside and handed it back over when Jackson returned. The bag would be located later with a good amount of blood inside, but its contents missing. Officials believe that the bag held Bryan's head and Jackson had taken it to the dental school and disposed of the evidence in the school's incinerator or simply dumped the contents in the Ohio River.
With the case of the prosecution built, separate trials for the two men went ahead at the Campbell County Courthouse in Newport (see Campbell County Courthouse, KY). The duo stuck with their story, but ultimately it was not enough to convince the juries and they were both found guilty of the crime and sentenced to death. Their executions by hanging occurred in the courtyard of the facility on March 20, 1897.
Curiosity Seekers
As the story of the crime and following trial splashed across the papers throughout the United States, this location became something of a tourist attraction for the general region. There were such overwhelming crowds using the streetcars from Cincinnati to John Lock's farm that extra cars had to be added to handle the weekend crowds. Souvenir seekers came to the farm and took pebbles, branches, or anything else they could get their hands on from the scene of the crime. Local merchants opened up stands along the road to sell Pearl Bryan merchandise and Lock joined in on the action as well. Lock even started charging a dime to view his photos of the crime scene and started a guestbook. It is reported that visitors continued to come to the site up to 20 years after the crime and by then Lock had compiled four notebooks with 50,000 signatures, though he noted that only one in 25 visitors actually signed the book.
The Murder Ballad
Given the public notoriety of the crime and trial itself, it should be no surprise that Pearl's story was quickly given the ballad treatment. There are multiple versions of the song and titles range from Pearl Bryan, The Ballad of Pearl Bryan, or The Jealous Lover (in some variations of this traditional tune). Here is a sampling of lyrics from different versions:
And while the birds were singing
So gaily all around,
A stranger found Pearl Bryan,
Cold, headless, on the ground.
Young ladies if you'll listen, a sad story I'll relate
It happened in Fort Thomas in the old Kentucky state.
Twas January the thirty-first this dreadful deed was done
By Jackson and by Walling - how cold Pearl's blood did run!
Next morning the people were excited,
They looked around and said,
"Here lays a murdered woman,
But where, O where is her head?"
Bobby Mackey's Music World
Interestingly enough, the story does not end there. The story of Pearl Bryan, Scott Jackson, and Alonzo Walling has since become connected with a popular nightclub in nearby Wilder that is infamous for its paranormal activity. In fact, the ghosts of the three individuals are said to wander the facility. In 2005, author Douglas Hensley wrote a book about the hauntings, titled Hell's Gate: Terror at Bobby Mackey's Music World. In the book, Hensley suggests that the murder of Pearl Bryan may have actually been part of a satanic ritual performed at the facility (then a slaughterhouse) by members of a local cult that included Jackson and Walling. Her body was then taken to Lock's farm where it was dumped. It is also stated that Bryan's head might actually be inside of an abandoned well that is located in the basement of the facility. Despite these dramatic claims, he presents no evidence to support his findings. In fact, articles from the time of the crime make no mention of occultism, which surely would have been a sensational headline.
The Location Today
The land that made up John Lock's farm has since been developed and now houses multiple facilities. Though the exact location of where Pearl Bryan's body was found (and presumably the murder take place) is not known, it has been suggested that the spot now lies behind the local YMCA. |
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| Related Sites |
The True Story of Pearl Bryan
An article from Associated Content that recounts the infamous murder of Pearl Bryan and the trial and executions of her murders. The crime would later be recalled in several murder ballads. |
Mysterious murder of Pearl Bryan, or, The headless horror
A book from the late 1800s that documents the murder of Pearl Bryan and the subsequent trial and execution of Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling. The crime would later influence several murder ballads. |
Wikipedia: Pearl Bryan
Wikipedia's entry on the murder of Pearl Bryan, which would later be retold in various murder ballads over the years. |
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| Similar Destinations |
| Forest Hill Cemetery, Greencastle, IN |
| Campbell County Courthouse, KY |
| Campbell County Historical Society Museum |
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| See Also on TheCabinet.com |
| Horror on Rhapsody - Track - Burnett : Pearl Bryan |
| Horror on Rhapsody - Track - Bruce Buckley: Pearl |
| Blog: Track of the Week - 11/12/07 (11/13/07) |
| Blog: "But where, O where is her head?" (02/01/09) |
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| Available from Amazon.com |
Kentucky Country: Folk and Country Music of Kentucky |
Hoosier Folk Legends (Midland Bks Series: No. 334) |
Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States (Phoenix Books) |
Hell's Gate: Terror at Bobby Mackey's Music World |
The Cincinnati Crime Book (Ohio) |
Ballads and Songs of Indiana |
Poor Pearl, Poor Girl: the Murdered Girl Stereotype in Ballad and Newspaper |
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