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This Day in History Class is a production of I Heart

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Radio.

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Hello and Welcome to This Day

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in History Class, a show that

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honors the dead by sharing their

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stories with the living. I'm

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Gabe Louzier, and today we're

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looking at a true crime ghost story

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from the heart of Appalachia, the Legend

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of the Greenbrier Ghost. A

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warning though this episode includes

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descriptions of domestic violence, which

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may be upsetting to some listeners. The

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day was January twenty three,

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eighteen nine. The

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lifeless body of Elva Zona

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Heaster Shoe was found inside

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her home in Greenbrier County, West

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Virginia. The discovery

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was made by an eleven year old neighbor

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boy who had been sent to the home to

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collect some eggs at the request of

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Elva's husband. Although she

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had been young and seemingly healthy, the

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doctor who examined Elva's corpse

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ruled that she had died of a heart attack

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or in everlasting feint, as

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he described it in his report. Elva's

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untimely death shocked her small

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community, but most residents

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accepted the official account and soon

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enough moved on from it. Understandably,

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though one woman found the tragedy

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much harder to get over Elva's

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mother. She didn't believe her daughter

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had dropped dead from a weak heart, so

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she launched her own unorthodox investigation

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to prove it. What followed

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was the first and only murder

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case to be solved by the testimony

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of a ghost. At the time

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of her death, Elva was a newly

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wed, having tied the knot just three

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months earlier. She was twenty

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three on her wedding day, and her husband,

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Edward Trout Shu, was thirty

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seven. He had moved from a neighboring

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county to the by a town of live Says

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Mill in Greenbrier County earlier

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that summer. A blacksmith

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by trade, Trout quickly found work

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at the local forge. Not long

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after, he ran into Elva, the

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daughter of a farmer who had been sent to town

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on an errand. Trout and Elva

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hit it off, and the pair were married

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just a few weeks later. Despite

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the objections of her mother, Mary

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Jane, The couple moved into

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a house near the blacksmith shop, the

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same house where Elva would be found dead

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just three months later. On

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the morning of January twenty three, Trout

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took a break from work to visit the nearby

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home of Martha Jones. He

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asked if her son Anderson, could do

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a favor for him. Apparently, Elva

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hadn't been feeling well, so he wanted the

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boy to go collect the eggs from their hens

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and then see if Elva needed anything from the

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store. Anderson obliged,

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but when he entered the Shoes house, he was

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shocked to find Elva crumpled on the ground

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owned at the foot of the stairs. He

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walked toward her, calling Mrs Shoe,

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but there was no response. The young

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boy panicked and ran straight home, where

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his mother immediately called for the local doctor

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and coroner, George W. Nap.

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When doctor Nap arrived at the Shoe

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residence, he didn't find Elva's body

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at the foot of the stairs. It turned

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out Trout had gotten home first and

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had already begun preparing his wife's body

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for burial. Victorian

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mourning custom dictated that a

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friend of the family should wash and dress

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the body of the deceased, but Trout

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had taken on the duty himself and

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wasted no time doing it either. The

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grieving husband led doctor Nap

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upstairs to a bedroom where he had

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laid out Elva's body on the bed. He

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had dressed her in a high necked gown

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with a stiff collar and placed a veil

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over her face. Nap

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proceeded to examine the body while

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Trout sat on the bed, cradling

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his wife's head and sobbing loudly.

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He seemed especially bothered when

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Nap attempted to examine Elva's neck

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and head, so rather than upset

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the distraught husband, the doctor simply

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examined the rest of her body, and, finding

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nothing amiss, he went on his way

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with little to go on. Doctor Napp

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recorded the cause of death as everlasting

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faint, a poetic yet vague

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description generally used to refer

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to a heart attack. Elva's

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funeral was held later that week at

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her childhood home on Little Suell

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Mountain. Trout was said to behave

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strangely at the service, pacing

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next to the casket and making constant

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readjustments to the collar and veil

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he addressed her in. At one point,

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he even wrapped a scarf around Elva's

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neck, insisting that she had always loved

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it and would want to be buried in it. Most

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of the friends and family in attendance assumed

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Trout's behavior was just a bizarre

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show of grief, but Elva's

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mother, Mary Jane, felt differently.

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She had already suspected that Trout

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had something to do with her daughter's death, call

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it mother's intuition, but watching him

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at the funeral, she became convinced

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of his guilt. Mary Jane

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was deeply religious, so that night

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she prayed to God for help. She

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asked that her daughter be allowed to communicate

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from the afterlife, to somehow

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send a message to explain what had really

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happened to her, or, at the very least,

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to say goodbye. Mary Jane

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made the same fervent prayer over

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and over for several restless

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nights, and according to her, those

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prayers were eventually answered. Mary

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Jane Heaster claimed her daughter appeared

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to her four nights in a row, first

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as a bright light and then gradually

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in her own human form.

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Elva's spirit supposedly made

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several revelations about her husband

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and his role in her death. She

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said he had a terrible temper and that

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he had abused her often since their wedding.

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One night, he attacked her for not serving

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meat with their dinner. Elva tried

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to get away, and Trout wound up breaking

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her neck. Specifically, he

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snapped it at the first vertebra, right

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at the base of her skull. According

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to Mary Jane, Elva's ghost

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presented that injury rather ghoulishly,

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by turning her head around backward

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and then walking away into the night while

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staring back at her mother. Disturbed

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by the encounter, Mary Jane paid

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a visit to the local prosecutor, John

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Preston, and spent several hours

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trying to convince him to reopen Elva's

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case. Preston remained skeptical,

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but he was moved enough by Mary Jane's

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request that he began interviewing

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friends and neighbors who had attended Elva's

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funeral. They told him how strangely

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Trouted acted that day and how desperate

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he seemed to keep his wife's neck out of you. There

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was no mention of Elva's neck and doctor

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Knapp's report, so Preston spoke

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with him to see if anything had been left out.

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When press about the missing detail, Nap

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admitted that he had never examined Elva's

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neck or head due to Trout's interference.

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Those testimonies convinced Preston

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of the need for a complete autopsy.

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Within a few days, the body was exhumed

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over Trout's vocal objections,

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and the findings of the autopsy proved

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damning. A local newspaper,

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The Pocahonist Times, covered the

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event, writing quote, the

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discovery was made that the neck was

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broken and the windpipe mashed.

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On the throat were the marks of fingers,

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indicating that she had been choked. The

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windpipe had been crushed at a point in

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front of the neck, which was dislocated

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between the first and second

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vertebrae. The injuries

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matched those reported by Mary Jane,

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who still claimed to have learned about them second

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hand from Elva's ghost. Preston

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briefly considered the possibility that Mary

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Jane herself was behind the murder, but

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he set the notion aside in favor of continuing

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his investigation of Trout. Digging

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into his past, the prosecutor learned

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he had been married twice before and

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had had several run ins with the law. Trout's

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first marriage ended in divorce while

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he was serving time in prison for stealing

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a horse. According to that wife's

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testimony, Trout had a pension for violence

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and had routinely beaten her throughout their time

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together. As for his second

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marriage, it lasted only eight months

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and ended with the mysterious death of the wife.

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Reports of how she died varied,

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but the most common story was that she had been

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struck in the head by a brick while helping

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her husband repair a chimney.

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Supposedly, she had placed several

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bricks and a basket with a rope attached

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to it, and as the basket was hoisted

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upward, one of the bricks fell out by

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mistake and dropped right on her head.

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Although unconfirmed, it was later

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reported that Trout's first wife had

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also suffered a similar accident, in

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her case breaking her neck after

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falling off a haystack. In

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between his first two marriages,

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Trout did another stretch in prison

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where he bragged about a plan to marry seven

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different women in his lifetime. He

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even made some morbid drawings of a husband

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and wife while behind bars, some of

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which featured them lying in caskets.

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All of this new evidence Trout's

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pattern of abuse. The mysterious

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fates of his multiple wives, while

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compelling, was ultimately circumstantial.

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Still, it was enough for Preston to have

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Trout arrested and taken to jail

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and nearby Louisbourg. He

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was held there until his indictment by a

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grand jury, at which point he was taken

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to court to stand trial. The

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trial took place that June, and at

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first it seemed to be going Trout's way,

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because while Preston presented many incriminating

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facts, including the hand marks found

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on Elva's neck, none of it proved

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that Trout was the man behind the murder.

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The prosecution's big break came

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from a decidedly unexpected source.

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The defense called Mary Jane in heaster

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to the stand, likely in an attempt

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to make her look ridiculous, knowing the

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only evidence she would offer was her supposed

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conversation with a ghost. Unfortunately

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for the defense attorney and for Trout,

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Mary Jane didn't play the part of a

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fool. She presented her case

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matter of factly and stuck to her conviction

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that the visits from her daughter were not dreams

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but real, waking encounters. Many

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people in the courtroom, including in the

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jury, seemed to believe Elva's

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mother. Trout tried to win them

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back by taking the stand himself, but

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it didn't do him much good. After

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giving a rambling account of his own good

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character, he concluded by imploring

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the jury to quote, look into my

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face and then say if I'm guilty.

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If the jury members took him up on

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that, they apparently didn't reach the conclusion

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he expected. In the end, they

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deliberated for just over an hour

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before declaring him guilty. Edward

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Trout Shoot was sentenced to life

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in prison for the murder of his third wife.

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He ended up serving only three years,

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though, as he died in custody

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on March thirteenth, nineteen hundred.

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The illness that killed him was likely either

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measles or pneumonia, as epidemics

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of both had racked the Moundsville State

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Prison that spring. When he

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ultimately secained to his illness, no

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one from Trout's family came to claim

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his body. As for Mary

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Jane Heaster, she remained

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in Greenbrier County until her death

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in nineteen sixteen. She

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never recanted her story or

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entertained any other theories about her

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daughter's death. As a result,

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the legend of Elva, the so called

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Greenbrier Ghost, lived on

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today. It's a staple of walking

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tours throughout the region, and there have

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also been several novelizations

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and stage adaptations, including

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a musical. Any retelling

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of the tale must inevitably

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grapple with the question of its reality.

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Was it truly a ghostly visitation

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that uncovered Trout's crime or

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was it just a mother's intuition about her

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shady son in law. If

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we're honest, there's no real way

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to say for certain. Maybe Mary

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Jane did commune with the spirit of her daughter,

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or maybe it was all in her head. A

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third option is that she really was acting

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on mere intuition and then just invented

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the story of the ghost as a way to appeal

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to her superstitious neighbors and to draw

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attention to the case. Whatever

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her motivation for telling it, the

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ghost stories seemed to sway the jury,

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and without it, Elva's murder may

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have never been uncovered at all. So

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true or not, the story of

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the Greenbrier Ghost secured a

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kind of justice for Elva's family

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and potentially spared four more women

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for making the same mistake of marrying

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a man named Trout. I'm

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Gabe Lucier, and hopefully I'll

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know a little more about history today than

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you did yesterday. You can

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learn even more about history by following

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us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

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at t d i HC Show

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and if you have any comments or suggestions, you

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can always send them my way at this

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day at I heeart media dot

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com. Thanks to Chandler May's

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for producing the show, and thank you for listening.

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I'll see you back here again tomorrow for

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another day in History class