April 1917, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. An unrecognized plane was spotted circling the Portsmouth Naval Yard, which was building submarines for use in the First World War. Rumors of German spies were fresh on everyone's mind, which is why soldiers shot at the unidentified plane. But it escaped this is not the only strange sighting in southern New Hampshire during the war that allegedly had to do with German spies. For a while, people reported seeing flashing lights coming from mountaintops.
These sometimes elicited more flashes from other mountaintops, seemingly a series of secret communications traversed the land in New Hampshire. But what do these rumors have to do with a murder in August of 1918? Maybe nothing, maybe everything. Today we explore the murder of Dr. William Deane. This is a study of strange Hello and welcome to the show. I'm Michael May. And today we're studying a very, very strange case of a murder of a Dr. William Dean in New Hampshire in 1918.
And with me a Terry looks very excited is a husband and wife Tara Perry and Jordan Wayne Long they are filmmakers. Tara is also an actress and writer. Jordan is a director and artist and it's so so many other things I can't list but they're both with me today to help so it's my first time having three people including myself on a podcast. Welcome guys. Delighted to be here. Michael May. So this you guys. Every time I laugh, so does the baby. Oh, that's right.
So there's four. People. There. There are four. Your daughter is part of the show, so they have a wee little one. So part of having two of you guys on is actually very helpful in case in case your daughter needs something. So they have a newborn with them today in case anybody hears some baby sounds that don't have anything to do with the show. So you guys, just real quick, we'll just plug a couple of things.
Most recently, you guys work together and Ghosts of the Ozarks that I was fortunate enough to work on, too. So everybody check that out. And they can pretty much watch that almost everywhere, right? Yeah. Yeah. You can rent it on any platform. And it's also on to be with ads. So yeah, you can see it anywhere. Just Google Ghosts of the Ozarks. Also a squirrel reason came out on to be and it's also somewhere else. Yeah. To be in free V what is what is it on?
It's going to be on free V and Roku coming up. It's just going to expand slow. Got it. So it's going to. Be in. Squirrel. I'm so excited to have that film. I know it Squirrel was actually this'll tie in to why I wanted you guys on the show because our story takes place in New Hampshire in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, which is very close. Yeah. We love we've been there. Yeah. So we've cosplay there. Oh, oh, that's interesting. Let's do another episode about that.
We did some, we did some Larping there. It's really. Neat. So Jordan family or I guess Terry's family too, since you guys are married, owns some property there called the Ellsworth Manor in Harris Mill, which is just down the road from Jaffrey, New Hampshire. It's where Squirrel was shot. Also, Jordan's done a ton of work up there. You guys vacation up there, families there. I also was up there recently, which I'll get into in a second.
But that's why I wanted you guys on this episode because you can actually lend some insight into what the little towns are like in the communities and and all of that good stuff. So I'm really excited about this. Oh, so fun. Did you get to see it when you were up there last? Is that what you went up there for? You were just getting the all the answers. Yes. Actually, let me if you don't mind, because I actually think that should be part of the story.
So I'll tell that how I came across this in just a second. Let me just do some housekeeping, some of the like podcast housekeeping stuff, of course, makes me sound cool. So thank you, everybody. That's listen so far and subscribed. If you like this show, if you like these kind of topics, please make sure to subscribe rate and review.
And you can also learn more on a study of strange dot com and not while this recording is happening, but when the show comes out I'm giving a giveaway out on Patriot for anybody that signs up on Patreon for like the next. It's like 60 days. You can read about it on there if you sign up you get a free video message from blah from me you guys, you guys will probably want that. I mean, you don't you don't see me in real life so I'm down. Yeah, right. Yeah, I'm actually very excited about that.
So as of this recording, the show hasn't even been out a week yet. So thank you to everybody who's been listening. It's been really fun. To get some feedback and people seem to be enjoying themselves or everybody's just being. You've done a great job, man. Oh, thank you so much. We love what listen to them. So let me tell you why I wanted to do this episode about Dr. William Dean and his murder. I'll give you the story of how he came across it, because I didn't know this.
This is actually not a super well known story. I came across this story while I was at the old was Maynard Harris Ville, New Hampshire, because I was up there helping you guys with a documentary that you're producing. And I'm potentially writing that potentially myself and our friend Sean. We're writing a script that would actually take place at Aldworth Manor.
So I was doing some research, and while I was there, I procrastinated a little bit one day, and I was like, I'm going to look up it, see if there's any kind of local law local legends, local mysteries of the general area, and sort of southern New Hampshire for my podcast. And I came across an article that I mentioned in the intro so you guys haven't heard it, but there's an article that has this.
It's like a paragraph or two that talks about this plane that was unidentified flying over the Portsmouth Naval Yard in New Hampshire in 1917. And there was a lot of paranoia about German spies. So the local militia actually fired upon the plane and it kind of escaped and landed flying, flying back over land and they never shadow. So that hooked me and then they tied it in to where there was their spies.
There's strange lights that happen that are like signal lights and they tie it into this murder. And so I was like, OK, I'm hooked. I'm going to read more about this and see what I can find out. And it actually took me a while.
There's not a ton there's a lot of information out there, but because it's not super popular, it's kind of buried buried in the waves of the Web when you search the Web and I start reading about it more and I read about Doctor Dean and the stories, talk about these strange lights at the tap at the top of Mount Monadnock I always say the wrong stuff to say it slowly. No, that's perfect. Yeah. So there's lights from the top of Mount Monadnock. They're sort of signal lights. They do various things.
And also the the other mountains in the nearby area as well. There's this other signal light. So it's almost as if people are communicating and no one knows who's doing it. And I'm reading this and I'm like, OK, wait, German spies in New Hampshire like that just seems weird. Yes. Or Go ahead, Jordan. No, but as soon as you say that, it reminds me of Squirrel, because Matt wrote about like the Hessian soldiers that were there during the Revolutionary War, and there were like a lot of regiments.
They're like fighting. And I'm like, that's just really interesting that all those years later, there's still that connection. I wonder if it has anything to do with the people sticking around. Very interesting. You know, it might be I'll talk a little bit about that at a certain point in the part about why this area may have been prominent with some like German sympathizers or German ancestry, like people that are have family from Germany.
But when I was like state wide in New Hampshire, I looked into that. The Portsmouth Naval Yard, which was mentioned in that article they were building submarines for the use of in for the U.S. Army in World War One. So it was actually a very strategic base. Not only that, but from the top of Mount Monadnock, you can see Boston on a clear day. And it's kind of a perfect corridor from all the mountains in sort of upstate New York through Vermont, New Hampshire and to Maine.
It's a perfect place to send messages from England out to sea to German ships or submarines. So yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, I mean, imagine how far that's like a two hour drive now from anybody to. Be able to signal that far. Yet to be able to signal in an instant like, oh my gosh. Also another funny tidbit. Squirrel premiered at New Hampshire Film Festival in Portsmouth. Oh, nice tie. And it's. All coming. Together. We drank at a bar called No. It's true. It makes all the it's so interesting.
Like, even in the Revolutionary War, like, I lived on the South Shore of Boston and it was in Marshfield, and they would like build the ships way inland in the marshes to hide. Oh, interesting. They would, like, create trenches to get the boats out. So. To hide, you know, they're making from the British. So it's really interesting that they're still doing that in World War Two. I also want a quick note. You started that.
You started that little tidbit with back in the Revolutionary War and then cut to when I lived in Boston. So it sounded like you lived in Boston during the Revolutionary. I'm a I'm a great storyteller. Teller is pretty incredible. So one of. The things of your own. Yeah, you're looking great, Jordan. You look you look fantastic for your age. So your birthday that you just had this week, seven days. Yeah. 206. Yeah. Well, congratulations on making it that far and you finally have a
baby took you. Thank you. So anyway, it was while I'm reading about this story, I keep thinking to myself, these lights, they're an embellishment at some sort of local legends. It's I'm going to read about it and find out it's not really anything. This isn't going to be appropriate for the podcast because there won't be enough there. I was wrong. Like, these lights were a very serious matter. So serious that they were federal agents investigating in New Hampshire and and around New England.
That's what it's called. New England. So I was like, holy, holy shit, this is amazing. Yeah. And I hadn't even gotten to the murder mystery yet. So it was just it's very fascinating. And I'm so excited to share this story with somebody or some people. Me, too. And Monadnock, like, what a like that mountain. It's like the second most climb mountain in the world or something. Yeah. Just because it's so easy access. When I was. Wild and.
Yeah, when I was up there working on the documentary for you guys and we were interviewing, viewing this farmer, he actually said it was the most climbed mountain in North America. I don't know. Sure. It's in North America. Yes. Yeah, North America. And then Mount Monadnock. Yeah, oh, nice. Nice. And it's more of a hike. It's not you know, for those interested in climbing just a year where it's not, you know, hanging off a cliff side, it is it is more of a a nice hike, maybe a hard hat.
Indeed. It's it's nice. So this story is it is, I guess you could tell by the way, I'm talking my eyes went crossed researching this because there is so much information. There are now I'm pretty sure thousands of pages of like governmental documents. I read through a grand jury inquest, like the whole transcript of the entire trial, old newspaper articles, all this kind of stuff. So my eyes went a little crazy. So hopefully I do a decent job.
I will have to skip over a lot of information in these episodes, but it just to actually make sure we don't do 20 episodes of it in just a couple. But what I want to ask listeners out there is if you are intrigued by this story today, write in a study of strange at gmail.com and tell me.
And what I'll do is I'll actually reach out to the Historical Society and Jeffrey that put together most of the information I used to research this and I'll see if I can get an interview with somebody, something like that because I the only bit of information or research I haven't done yet is actually talk to people on the ground there.
This is still a very important story to the local residents of Jaffrey and people of you know, you guys know the small towns of New Hampshire, everybody's relatives and grandfather, they all knew each other. The same families are still in town. This is a really important story and they want it solved. And so I think they they want people to know about it. So, yeah, so if there is intrigue in this, this episode, please write and let me know and I will do a follow up of some kind, everybody.
So it's awesome. Yeah. All right, guys, let's let's actually dove into it. There was too much information but I thought it was interesting how I came across it, so I did want to share that. That's really neat. And it's already prompted me like thinking about being on top of Mount Monadnock and thinking about the plane flying. Yeah. Like you can often see planes lower than the mountain when you're like, on top. Oh, really? What? Yeah. Yeah. So, like, it's just fascinating.
Let's dig in. Yeah. Have you. So you've been up there, huh? Yeah, I've climbed did a couple times, and it's, it's wild because there's so much forest all around Mount Monadnock, which you can see each, you can see the towns, you can see like prominent buildings. You can even see Aldworth from up there. Oh, cool. But it really is when you see lots of Cessnas and stuff will fly but they'll be lower because they're kind of like sightseeing and stuff.
And it's really like Jaffrey is just down below, you know, from the bottom of the mountain and then it's really just kind of like small New England towns surrounded by forest. So that's kind of like the vibe of that area. Yeah. And it was fun when I was, when I first read about this, what was so surreal as I was staring at Mount Monadnock out the window and I was like, Wait, that mountain had lights? That was weird. Signal lights during World War One. Holy shit. Like it was it was a bit surreal.
It was really cool. You be able to see that from every. Yeah, yeah. Everyone would see it. And I wonder, there's so many documentations of it. Absolutely. You can see it from everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that was the whole point, I would imagine, as they needed a place that people could actually see. So. All right, let's dove in. And I'll start with William Dean, who is the sad victim of this case. So a little background on him. He was born on February 12th. 1855 in Delaware.
Some accounts you'll come across say he was born in Siam, which is modern day Thailand, but he was actually born in Delaware. And his family, when he was five, moved to Siam because his father was a reverend and like a missionary to China in Asia. And he actually became friends with the Prince of Siam when he was young and living in Siam, which is pretty, pretty cool. He moved back to the States when he was young and he started being educated by his uncle. A who? That's a baby, everybody.
It kind of sounded like a cat. It sounded like a dinosaur. Yeah. So he moved back to the States as a kid. He started being educated by his uncle, Dr. Henry Dean of New York, and Dr. Dean became a medical student and was studying in New York at the Rochester Hospital. And interesting fact of his life is he was actually put in charge of the hospital while he was still a medical student. So he was quite a brilliant, a brilliant young man. Wow. However, he did not actually go into medicine.
He never formally practiced it because he suffered from tuberculosis, which would come and go. And his advice from doctors was to move to the country. And that's actually why he moved from New York to New Hampshire to Jaffrey, New Hampshire. And he married his first cousin, Mary Dean. More common, more common back then in the eight class. Yeah, he was 25. She was older than him by, I think, two or three years. And they lived off of her wealth primarily because I'm pretty sure it was her dad.
Who was the father that his uncle. Yeah. Thank you. Medical debt to wipe away their habit. Yes, yes. So in 1889 he bought what is the former Elijah Smith farm in Jaffrey and Jaffrey in the early 1900. It's about 2000 residents today. It's only like 4000, it's still a small town and and on the property they built a bungalow which that's what they would call it a bungalow, it's just a nice house.
And then they also built years later what they called the big house which is a much nicer house on top of a hill, the kind of overlook things and had a nice view of Mount Vernon knock and in the coming this is like the 1890s by a decade or so later they actually moved out of the big house lived in the bungalow and they would rent the big house out in the summertime.
And I don't think this has changed much for like places like Vermont and New Hampshire but people from Boston, New York, the bigger cities and New England would vacation in places like New Hampshire. And back then they would stay the whole summer. So it wasn't like, oh, you get a hotel room for a week or whatever. They would rent a house, be there all summer long to enjoy the beautiful sights of lovely new England. Now, Dean was known around town as being a bit peculiar.
He was a very nice guy, very well respected in town, but he would wear, like, bright bow ties. His style was different. It just sounds cool. Yeah. Yeah, he's a cool guy. He's, you know, that's not weird. That's just cool. Yeah. And it's it's a rural farming town, so that's going to stand out. But it doesn't mean anybody was, you know, had. They're not used to personality. Right? Right. And he also did something very strange for a real rural, rural murder juror. I'm right there with you.
I want to ask you now, what is it I forget which show that was never juror that's got to be third rock from. Oh yeah. 3030 right. Excuse me three right. There we go. So anyway, he would milk his cows at noon and midnight, which you don't do when you're a farmer. It was just an odd way of living. He would stay up late. He would sleep in in the morning because he's basically living off family wealth and occasionally renting out a home so he doesn't have to abide by normal schedules.
Now in 1916 a man named Lawrence Cole felt Junior and his wife Margaret and their stepdaughter or his stepdaughter, daughter Margaret's actual daughter they moved to the Jaffrey area they originally stayed at a different place in and around 1917 they moved into the dean's big house and how much do I want to share right now about coalfield. We will we will come back to him especially. Our. Two. Yeah yeah it is important. So Cole felt was similarly kind of peculiar in that he didn't have a job.
He inherited money from his wealthy grandfather and people thought he was very strange because of that like that just wasn't like a trust fund baby today we would be like, oh, a trust fund baby. But back then it was kind of poo pooed upon and also worry is a coming by the time he moves to Jaffrey. And so people, when you weren't doing anything to help the community or contributing to society, people really frowned upon that. So, yeah, he was considered very unusual.
His family also stayed in town over the winter, which if you're not local, you do not stay in New Hampshire over the winter. That is a it's not fun. So why is someone doing that? He doesn't have a job, so why is he there? It was just a very unusual thing to do. Now accounts say that in May of 1918 Dr Dean kicked Cole Feldt out of the big house and most of what I read says he gave him 24 hours to vacate.
I actually have contradictions to that, that he was not given 24 hours, but he was indeed kicked out and so I'll just leave it at that. But that is something to remember we will talk about. Cole felt much more later on in the show. I like it. Yeah. Now at the time of William Dean's murder, Dean and his wife were not so much wealthy anymore. They had no steady income for decades. Now, and it was wartime. And they, they just, they didn't have a steady income.
So that's another reason why it's kind of odd that Doctor Dean kicked out his only source of income, which was his renter. The that's also Mrs. Dean wasn't in her. I don't know how to properly say this, but like her usual capacities any more at the time of the death, she was suffering from dementia, some kind of dementia. They didn't quite nail it down specifically back in 1918. Yes. Go ahead, Jordan. No, this is just a you're going to want to edit this out. You know what I want to say?
I just given a warning. They say that like when older, older ladies get UTIs, it can exhibit itself as dementia like often. And so like, I know that sounds. Weird, but like older women in your family who people are like, she just kind of lost her mind one day and it's out of character. Like dementia doesn't run in the family or anything like that. Get them tested for a UTI because they can't feel the symptoms quite like they used to. And it was really literally just messes with their brain.
That's I mean, hey, that's interesting. I looked the medicine wasn't where it is today in 1918. Yeah. So an antibiotic, you know would bring them to bring them back to normal. Yeah. But yeah. So now it's. Yeah, she just had a urinary tract infection, bless her heart. We don't know. But the fact that she wasn't mentally there is a really important aspect of the case and something that, it's a detail that we have to know when we think about what is, what is about to come.
Now let me get your opinion guys. That knowing the area and knowing the small towns of New Hampshire, what would a really a brutal murder do to a town like what do you think people would react like what do you think people are going to think? Yeah, well, it'd. Be everything that was talked about for years. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a small town. Of course, it would be. Especially if it's still unsolved. It would still be talked about. I mean, clearly. And it still is.
And like if everyone was seeing the lights on, you know what else connected? I mean, like, can you imagine how just like, terrifying the rumors would be. That, I mean, you're hitting it on the head? I think you mentioned rumors, which I will talk about a lot today. Terrify your neighbor after that. Yeah. Paranoia be anyone. Mm hmm. And and still talking about they're still talking about the whole Jaffrey Historical Society.
Again, they're the ones that compiled all this information and all the transcripts and all this amazing thing is they still want it solved, you know, like that's that's my feeling of it. I haven't heard it said that specifically, but I would imagine they're doing this because they want people. That's going to be a great episode. You've got to you got to talk to them. I know. Yeah. Yeah, that's so. Please, everybody. Right in a stranger, Jim. Okay, let me know if you're. Still out there.
We have to fight for it's. Still out there. It's only it's only been 104 years they might still be alive or she your niece. OK, so before we get into the day of the murder, there are two big quick bits of gossip that I do want to notate. Dr. Dean had told a few people that he had received a threatening letter. We don't know what was in the letter. We don't know who it was from. We don't know what it said. We don't know what the threat was.
Dr. Dean, as far as we know, is the only person to ever have read it. No one has ever found it. Also, he apparently approached a local police officer named Lindsey and asked how he could get police protection if he needed it. So those are just two quick bits of of details that are interesting. Now, something was up. He knew something was up. Now, on the day of the murder, it was August 13th, 1918, and it was around noon and a Mrs. Morris and also side note, you've probably already noticed this.
I keep referring to people as like Mr. Dr. Mrs.. That's because almost all the old newspaper articles, the court transcripts, even people today that have written stuff, there's this formal way of referring to people back then that just kind of has trickled down through the research. That's the way I think about them now. Yeah, that's fine.
Yeah. So anyway, Mrs. Morrison came by the Dean's property and she was with two other women, Mrs. Harrington and Mrs. Lynch, and they were asking for donations for a type of like rubbish sale to raise money for a local hospital. And it's 1918. The war is not over yet at this point. So they're local hospitals, very, very important in wartime, obviously, as well as any time.
So according to Mrs. Morrison's testimony, she said, Mr. Dean said that he would love to write her a check, but he couldn't afford to. So he basically offered anything in the house is like a fine stuff. So they picked out some items in the house for the sale, and then Dean suggested that they go over to the big house, which was now empty because he had felt. And moved out about a month. Yeah, a month or so before. So Dr. Dean and Mrs. Morrison walked over to the big house together.
The other lady stayed behind with Mrs. Dean. And this is where we get to our first scene, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, if you guys can open up the email I sent you with the it'll be Dean one. This is what I called it. Dean one. Let me know when you have it. Oh, I've got it pulled up. Tweet should we just classes on? Oh, yeah, you go. There you go. I love it. Your glasses on a baby in your lap. This is this. Good. How are you? I'm just relaxing in here with my sparkle water.
So do you guys want to keep sort of gender norms for casting, or do you want to mix it up? What do you guys want to do? We don't care. Yeah, no, I can. Do you want me to read for Mrs. Morrison? Yeah, sure, sure. So, Terry, you'll be Mrs. Morrison. I'll read the the descriptors, the scene settings and things. Boston accent. Right. Real thick. And that's what you want to stop it?
Yes. Back then, I have I have no idea what they would have sounded like back then, to be honest, is a good it could have been more of that, like. Oh, yeah. Down the road there. Like it could have been that. I can give I can give you no idea. You don't even give you that accent. You guys are under no obligation to do an accent. It is up to you. See what happens. All right. You guys ready? Yes. Let's see what comes up. All right. Here we go. So it's the exterior of the Dean property.
During the day, Dr. Dean walks alongside Mrs. Morris and up a path towards the big house. About halfway up, Dean stops. Mrs. Ware told me you've seen the lights in this part of the country, right? Yeah, that's. That's something I can tell. You're from Arkansas. It's all right. Oh. Oh, boy. He's good. All right. Dean Masuo told me you've seen the lights in this part of the country. Have you seen them lately? Yes, Mr. Dean. I saw them last night. About what time? I would say a little after 12.
Can you tell me where. Mrs. Morrison leads Dr. Dean to a point in the yard and points up at Mount Monadnock. Dr. Dean points puts a few stones and places them at their feet to mark the spot to see the location of the light. Miss Morrison, are you ever in communication with anyone who could be of any help with the light? Yes, I am in constant communication with the Boston office. Well, when will you be in Boston? Next. Tomorrow. Could you do me a favor?
Can you get a message to send up one of the best men they have? I want the very best, not just an ordinary man who doesn't know his work. Could you tell me what it is? And I will get the message to them. I'll telephone as soon as I'm home. No, no telephones, Miss Morrison. What I know is too dangerous for a woman. I have no right to tell you. Why haven't you said anything? Before? Because I wasn't ready. I wanted to be perfectly sure. Now the quicker someone comes, the better I I did. I had.
Really? That went somewhere? Yeah. Yeah, it did. So that is. These are actually quotes from Mrs. Morrison's grand jury testimony about the conversation she had with Dean So you have the instance of the lights that have been seen from the mountains. She has seen them. I will get to her a bit later. She actually was working with federal agents about the lights. And, yeah, he wanted someone to come investigate right away. And this is soon after he. Got to that. Not a woman. Well, yeah.
No women. It's too. It's too. It's too. Yeah. It's too dangerous. Yes. So that is the. Look who died. Yeah. Yeah. Good boy. Good point. Yeah. So it's a really interesting scene and scenario that happened between the two of them. Now, where am I in my notes? There I am. I found it. So again, it's August 13th. 19, 18. The day of the murder. Mrs. Morrison leaves the property and the rest of the day for Dr. Dean. Went something like this.
He continued afternoon chores until the evening, and it's commonly known that he went into the town center of Jaffrey around 8:30 p.m.. There was a witness, Alice Burgoyne, I hope I'm saying that right. Who saw Dean in town around earlier than that at 645 or seven, where there was like a town band playing a performance.
And she saw him there, whether he was in town earlier than 830 or not, I don't know if it matters to the investigation, but I want to share it just in case someone else out there figures something out that I haven't. Regardless, he is in town at 830 to do shopping for the week. He drove his cart with a horse, just one horse. Most people did not own cars in that time in Jaffrey, New Hampshire.
If they did, they still had a horse and buggy because in the winter they wouldn't use where they wouldn't use cars, they would use the horses in the winter. Stores in town stayed open till 9 p.m. on Tuesday because Jaffrey is poppin on a Tuesday night. That's later than they stay open now. Yeah, it's really interesting. So he buys some goods from a few stores loads item into his carriage and I'll mention at the grocery store good now or good knows I don't I pronounce it. I'm sure locals do.
Jeffrey will get mad at me for not knowing. Let me know Brenan his entire bill for a week's worth of food was $3.75. So yeah I love that. I love that. Wow that's. Great. He then went to the junk Duncan's drugstore. It was around 845 and I should say there are a lot of witnesses because people are in town. So like this isn't just like, you know some some hearsay about what he was doing. Like there's a lot of witnesses for his shopping. New England runs on Duncan.
Here you go. There you go. Nice plug. Dunkin Donuts. Please sponsor the show. So in the drugstore he runs into Mrs. or excuse me, Mr. Charles Rich's sister in law, Georgiana Hodgkins. Mr. Rich, we're also going to talk a lot about today. He's a good friend of Dr. Dean's. He worked at the local bank as a cashier, and he was also a magistrate for the court in a lot of the articles from back then. And today, he's referred to as Judge Rich. He's he was not a judge.
He had like a ceremonial title in the court, but a respected and respected man around town. And Georgiana Hodgkins, who's in the drugstore with Dr. Dean. It's his sister in law. And she was staying in town for like this summer or something like that. Doctor Dean and Georgiana started talking. People saw them talking and, you know, hanging out a little. They knew each other very well. And Dr. Dean offered to give her a ride back to Mr. Rich's house that evening where she was staying.
They left apparently a few minutes before 9 p.m. or a few minutes after, depending on which witness you talked to. But around nine and Dean was in town. This may not matter either, but I find it interesting. He was in town asking for batteries. So like every store he went to, he wanted to find batteries for his flashlight because getting home on the horse and buggy, there's no there's no headlights on those things. There's no streetlights. Outside. I'm just amazed they had batteries in 1918.
Why didn't I think they had batteries that you could buy at the store? Well apparently not because he could find anything. So he was asked around for us. So it was just hard. It is a time traveler. Everyone's like, what the hell is he talking about? Batteries. They can just have a flame with like a silver bulb behind it that, you know. I mean, I mean a lot of he. Really got himself into trouble. I can, I can see the story already. He tries to like. He was asking for it.
He now know what I'm saying though. I can see where this guy's going. He's like, I'm going to I'm going to get these lights. I'm on, talk to these guys, figure out what's going on, get abducted and you know, it just go south. From there. Yeah. Yeah. One of the lights to communicate potentially. Who knows? According to Miss Hodgkins, who we we gave the ride to and the cashier at the drugstore, Dean drove Hodgkins back to Mr. Rich's house. They arrive just a minute or so later.
It wasn't far away. And Mr. Rich was apparently in his kitchen heating water to treat a wound to his eye. So the common story here is that he told people that his horse had kicked him, and it's often confuse people think the horse kicked him in the eye. That's actually not the case. It kicked him like somewhere in the chest or stomach, and he was carrying a basket and he had a pipe in his mouth and like, oh, flung up and like the basket hit the pipe.
Pipe hits his eye gives him a wound of some kind. Yeah. A horse kicks you in the eye. You're not heating up water in the kitchen. No, you're you're you're you're either dead or you're getting a doctor so. Yes. So Dad got kicked in the teeth one time and lost his upper lip. They put it back on. I don't I don't know how to reply to that. That's what's so funny. Good, good. Good for him. Good for Roger. Good on good. Good on him. I'm really glad. I'm really glad they put it back.
Yeah. Yeah, I. Think that's important, man. That would hurt regardless. That would hurt. Yeah, yeah. OK, and question. I have a question. Who gave him a ride back? Oh, no. Doctor Dean gave Miss Georgiana Hodgkin's a ride to Mr. Rich's house, and Mr. Rich is the one with the eye. Yeah. So it was completely miss. Ask those questions. Yeah, OK. Can I ask why he was boiling water? How was that going to help his eyeball? I don't know. I don't know. And actually it's 1980.
He got kicked in the chest. He was confused. He might have been actually he does have an anecdote or a story that he told people is that Doctor Dean was unlike the patio or porch with Georgiana and and Mrs. Rich, and he went out and said, Hey, I'm sorry I'm not talking so much because I'm trying to treat this wound. And Dr. Dean had studied medicine, obviously, and he told them alcohol would do better than water, both on the outside and inside as well.
I made a joke that he should have say maybe he was. Just sterilizing, maybe he was heating water up to sterilize something. And he's like, maybe that was better. So the riches claim that Dr. Dean stayed hung out for a while and left around 11 p.m., I will say, because there's a lot of talk about time and you're going to hear times from me. You already have people are like, Oh, well, this couldn't have happened because of this time and then this exact moment, blah, blah, blah.
All these are witness accounts, witnesses never remember these things specifically. Also, it's 1980. Not everybody has a watch that everybody had a pocket watch there were clocks and things, but not everybody had them everywhere. No one has an iPhone to check, so everybody just guesses when they say, oh around 11, around 1030 around 930. And it's just too important to note when I try to deduce what is going on.
So Dean heads home around 11, he speaks to his wife when he gets home, he eats some currant buns that he had bought in town, had a glass of milk and then. I was like maybe. Ganga. And then he wanted to go milk his cow. So he takes his lantern and he tells Mrs. Dean he's going up to the barn, a milk skim. Remember, he milks. At midnight, milks it at night. And he goes off to milk the cow. Mrs. Dean waits for him.
Apparently, she prepared some food for him, and she's waiting and waiting and waiting hours go by. He's not coming home. She starts to panic, but she doesn't want to go up to the barn herself. It is like it's a bit of a hike up to the barn. I mean, it's not far away, but it's not like just out the door. It is. And there are there are creatures, there are critters. In New Hampshire, there's bears and stuff. So I understand. Absolutely. She could have been scared.
Yeah. So at 7:30 a.m. the next morning, a young man named Arthur Smith arrived at the Dean Farm. He had been hired to mow hay for the deans, and Mrs. Dean ran out to them in a panic, saying, oh, my gosh, I'm sure Dr. Dean is dead and he's in the barn. I'm not sure why or what Arthur did next, but I do imagine he checked the barn, didn't find a dead body.
Mrs. Dean had checked the barn herself at 5 a.m., and all she had found was the lantern, and the oil had been burnt out, but she didn't find anything. Around 8 a.m., Mrs. Dean calls a neighbor, Barton Garfield and she told Garfield she search, can't find Dean. She's in a panic. She's in really frantic. And Garfield contacted others for assistance. And by 10 a.m., William Coolidge and Peter Hogan, who were Jaffrey selectmen. I will also pause. I had to look this up. I'm not from New England.
Selectmen are like town council. So it's it's the local authorities in town. Apparently it's a very New England thing and I had never heard of it. It is, yeah. And then also Pearlie Enos, who was the acting chief of police, the three of them had arrived. They were all searching, trying to figure out what was going on. Garfield and his sons were also at the Dean property to help and on the property there is a cistern in the ground. I think it's like 100 feet, 200 feet away from the barn.
Oh, it's very low. And the ground has a heavy sort of circular top to it. And at some point in time they decided to search the cistern and it took a lot of work. They had to get a pole and a hook and dig around in there. And at the bottom of about six feet of water, they found a body. So here is a quote from Mr. Garfield, as reported by Bert Ford, who is a a journalist that compiled articles in the 1920s for a book on the case. So here's his quote.
We continued hunting around and went up to the barn again, and we happened to sit down on the barn steps. And the first thing my boy saw was a piece of Timothy Hay covered in blood. We then noticed blood on the step and the doorknob. About this time, the Selectman Hogan and Coolidge and Pearlie Enos. Then we started off to hunt again and it was agreed to look in the cistern and Wells. This was about noon.
I went down by the wall and got a pole and went up and took the cover off the cistern, and I put the pole down in this and soon felt a bag with a stone in it after discovering the object in the well to be a body, we built it back and covered over the cistern and the selectman went for authorities. We will. That was a longer quote than I realized so they covered it up, which I don't know if that's smart or not.
I mean, probably it's better to not disturb a body, you know, but it's already in water and they don't know if it's Dene or not. Like. Yeah, it's just interesting that they waited for the authorities to pull it up. And they found a bag with a stone in it. So like, maybe. Yeah, yeah. Well, I'll, I'll explain that in just a second. So authorities arrived around two, including Mr. Pickard, who is the county solicitor, and they were able to get the body out.
It took like an hour and a half and they found it covered in a horse blanket. The head was also additionally covered with a burlap bag. His hands were tied behind his back. His knees were tied. There was a rope found around his neck and it was Dr. William Dean. They also discovered he had a massive head injury, like somebody hit them really hard with something heavy and the horse blanket is thought to have been covered around him to actually stop blood from getting over absolutely everything.
I should also mention there was a 27 and a half pound of rock in the burlap bag that helped weigh the body down in the water and the sister woof. So yeah. Yeah. Wasn't aliens it was not. I don't think aliens would use burlap. Doesn't that's a suicide situation. No, no. And also, depending on how big he was like, could a single person carry him and like walk him to the sister and, and dump him in there? You were like. You were thinking the wrong thing. You were thinking the right things.
Yes. We will get into this probably more in part two, but I think it had to be more than one person. Now, share more of my personal thoughts later. But yeah, you had to. There was going to be Milton at midnight. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And it definitely seems like. They knew the parameters because it's like, yeah, we'll just put a big old rock in a burlap bag and sink him in the system. Absolutely. Absolutely. You guys and I are on the same page. Did I win? You win. Oh, good episode over.
Thanks, guys. Thank you so much. Hang on. This has been a study of strange brought to you by Dunkin Donuts. So. So here's what was also found at the scene. There was a hairpin found on the ground I can't definitively connect it to the murder, though. There was blood on the entryway. The sort of steps into the barn. There's blood on the door handle to the barn. There's some blood, very little bit sort of spattered in the grass and hay nearby.
A Cigaret case was found in the system, though there's a lot of hearsay about the case. There's a lot of articles, there's a lot of rumors. It's hard to differentiate what was actually found and what people in town just kind of talked about over the years. However, apparently it was not Dean's Cigaret case, so it could have belonged to a murderer. It was also not the brand of Cigarets that Dr. Dean would smoke. He would roll his own cigarets.
And I guess in the Cigaret case was a brand of Cigaret. Yeah, sorry. Go ahead, Tara. Where you going to say something? Or were you just. Brand of cigarets? Just like my love hey. Yeah, exactly those cigarets. Good question, Jordan, but I actually don't know. And I don't know if I ever read if they mention what brand of Cigaret. That is a good question. Yeah. I mean, small town, honestly, it's like it's such a big blue.
The milk pail that Dean had carried out to milk his cows has never been found so that's interesting. Also, no murder weapon has ever been found or not murder weapon because he was actually strangled to death. But the thing that hit him on the head, some people think they found it, but it's not it's never been definitively proven or found. And it wouldn't have been the rock. No, apparently it's not the furthest away. Him. Dan Yeah. Yeah. Apparently it's not the wreck.
I thought that too. Yeah. And maybe it was. I mean, look, it's been a hundred years. Criminal investigation tools, science, all this has improved. That's one of the I mean, I guess like a norm. Saying that the milk bucket could have been the weapon to be had to be. I mean, that's those things are not like. That is something I've thought about.
And that may lend some theories there to why they never found and why the whoever killed him took it because if it's got evidence on it that it was used as a as a weapon to me. In 1918. What kind of evidence would that be like they don't so. They could give fingerprints they can't they. Yeah they can do fingerprints. It just wasn't as good as it is now. But yeah, they could search for fingerprints. You just can't do DNA. But they could do a lot of other things.
Now as far as we know, nothing was stolen from the barn, nothing was stolen from the big house which was empty. No one was renting it at the time. Motive is a question and it's obviously important and my theory and your guys's theory, the motive kind of ties in to those, which is fine, which we'll get to later. It has been theorized that whoever did this knew that Dean would be milking his cows late at night, like Tara said, knew his habits.
And also my point of the sister and I think, Terry, you said it to to know the sister is there because that can't be easy to. Detect. And know how to use it. Yeah. So the wound on his head, it hit his left temple region and it left like a bit of like a triangle shape in his head. And the thought is, is that it did not kill him because the rope found around his neck did strangle him and it strangled they strangled up hard enough that it broke a vertebrae. So it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Not not not fun. Not pretty. An autopsy did take place, though. Later. It was not right away. And they did find the current buns and milk. And they estimated through that through the digestion pattern that he would have died between 1115 and 1130 somewhere in that range. Well that is closer than I thought they did. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how exact they were back there. But I'm taking your word. For it. There we go. And that's what they said.
No, I mean, I mean, yeah, I mean yeah, that's had to be close to midnight. It's a little earlier than night in my opinion. He went out so. Some days later. Yeah, absolutely. So some days later a man named Charles been search the barn and found a kind of a wider hand cultivators the way it's described. So something, you know, you hit on the ground and eventually plant things and it was found under a stone wall. I cannot find out what stone wall he means when he says he found it there.
He claims that it could have been the weapon and he claims that blood and hair was on it. But the investigators kind of wrote it off. So I don't know if he was mistaken. Investigators kind of were like, now, that's that's thank you for finding this, but that's not it. It's just it's 100 years, you know, so I don't know enough about that to also definitively say and we'll do a scene later about that. Now, theories, as you can imagine, started immediately and we'll dig in more into those.
In part two. Mrs. Dean, though, became a suspect right away. I don't I don't judge people too harshly for thinking of that right away, because you do look at the spouse immediately after a murder. But she was not in her full capacity. She was not in a full capacity. I will actually share a story right now because I was thinking about this when people including myself and we'll get more into this in part two about why she probably wasn't the killer. And a lot of that has to do with physicality
and the amount of strength that would take. And she's late sixties. When this happened, I had a neighbor growing up who suffered from dementia and her relatives found that she had ripped all of the kitchen cabinets off the hinges.
So I do think that there is a thing that can happen with like adrenaline that suddenly gives you a. Lot about to actually say that like, you know, sometimes if you go visit someone at a at a home and that is their ailment, they can say, like, be very careful because they're very strong. Yes, I was actually. Do you think a spouse would kill somebody that systematically, like tied their hands behind their back and I. Don't I don't. That's why I write it off pretty easily.
But yes, it is. It's worth kind of notating. Yeah. I mean, I could see if some especially if you swung something and hit someone in the head obviously they'd have to be right handed if it's from there on the left side. Right. Typically, that you wouldn't be able to hang them because they'd be too heavy. But if you pulled a rope hard enough, like, you wouldn't have to be that big or strong to do that, right? Yeah, that's a good question.
But it would need they would need a second person because she wouldn't be able to. Yeah, she definitely wouldn't be able to hoist him up and throw them into the system. I mean, let me look, I'm going to I was going to do this in part two, but let's kind of dove into her I think we have plenty of time to do this because it doesn't take a lot. But one of the things I was going to talk about in part two is the the kind of the bricks that were around the system that held the lid on top were loose.
And if someone dragged a body, it actually would have knocked them over. Apparently. So someone had to lift up Dr. Guard to drop him into it. And so I do think no matter how strong someone is at that stage, I don't think that's plausible for her. Also motive. I notice she she's suffering from from a degenerative mental state, but they were a loving couple. People talked about how much they loved each other. There are rumors that Dr. Dean was seeing other ladies in town.
But when you actually talked to people that were close to them, they're like, no, no, they were he was so devoted to his wife and her to him like it was it's not a thing at all. So I think family man. Yeah. I mean, he kind of was and and he took care of her like she was suffering I don't know when her her dementia settled in, but he had been taking care of her for a long time, and he showed no signs
of wanting to slow down or stop how they live their life. And I think it's his cousin or nephew or somebody talked about how much that he talked about her and would miss her when they weren't together. And all this kind of loving stuff. So I just don't see a motive. Also, no money motive which can happen between couples. They they did not have money at the time. He didn't have life inheritance, you know, like or life insurance or an inheritance that she would have gotten. And same with her.
It's not like she was protecting herself from any so. No, it's just I think I do not think it's her. But yeah, I was going to talk about in part two, but I think it's so easy to write her off and there's a lot of people have talked about how the county solicitor, Mr. Pickard, targeted her and wanted her to be the murderer. And when the grand jury inquest kind of targets her, that's not true. I read through the inquest. I don't think he did target her.
And he even admitted in his own testimony in it that he's like, no, I don't think she could have done it. So I think it's like local rumors that that go into these old newspaper articles that kind of roll and other things that you like wanted to put it on her. And he was even like, no, after learning, investigating and looking at more of the evidence, I don't think she could have done it as much as the theory did exist. And there's existence evidence now. Yeah, I don't think it's her.
So one of the first people on the scene I'm going to rephrase that, one of the people in the scene immediately assumed that German spies got to Dean. So this was such paranoia because the lights because of the war, people did immediately think they got him. He saw some with this guy. He heard. Something. This person he had them, Mr. Rich, his friend to his house. He had visited, too, the night before, arrived at the scene that day, too fresh with his black eye.
And what we'll find is that there are conflicting witness accounts with Dean's comings and goings from Mr. Rich's house the night before. Some people say Dr. Dean never went to Mr. Rich's house. Others say yes. But Dean and Rich's family are the only people to have seen Rich with his black eye before he showed up at the scene of the crime and the only people that could corroborate, oh, he did get kicked by a horse. And that's how it happened.
And Dr. Dean, being one of those witnesses, is now dead and cannot corroborate that he was kicked by a horse. The thought being that Rich got the black guy while in a fight with Dr. Dean during the murder. But that his wife, his wife isn't a credible witness. Yeah, but. I think some people don't consider her credible because she's the wife and she wants to protecting him. Yeah, but it is a rumor and people believed it wholeheartedly.
And still, to this day, there are some people that consider him the prime suspect. So Mr. Rich did become one of the prime suspects, as I just said. Still is to this day. In fact, a grand jury inquest, which I have talked about already, was held in April of the following year. Notes were transcribed from that inquest by Margaret Bean, whose family is still very prominent in Jaffrey.
In the 1970s, she actually found the court reporter's notes and spent years translating them into this document that we now have that I have read all of. And it took a very long time and which people can find online if they're interested. So in this grand jury inquest, I think it happened because the public wanted something to happen and the investigation wasn't really happening very. Yeah you want some so I think be able to answer for it.
Yeah. So I think there was pressure to have this grand jury inquest which was like hey, here's, here's some suspects, here's some of things. Do you jury people think we have a case and they eventually said no. Yeah. Jordan, go ahead. How long had Dean and Rich been friends before this? For many years. I don't know the exact date, but they Dean had lived in town since the 18 a late 1880s. And I think Mr. Rich had been there his whole life, if I remember correctly.
So they had they've known each other a very long time. So meanwhile I'm sorry. Go ahead, Tara. Yeah, well, you. Know, I'm just thinking about the guy who rented his house. I was just thinking. Yeah, felt. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, we're going to get, we're going to get him OK. Yeah. I was like, we're going to, you know, I want us now.
Yeah. The grand jury inquest was conducted by New Hampshire Attorney General Oscar, Oscar, L Young and Cheshire County Solicitor Roy Pickard, who I've already mentioned. He was there on the day the body was found. The findings were inconclusive. And at the end of the trial, they basically just determined, yeah, Dean was murdered by someone unknown that was there. That was their finding. Yeah. I could command the guy. Oh, yeah. I feel like I'm with y'all.
The trust fund, baby, stay in over the winter, which is so unnormal not having a job was definitely a spy, right? Like, yeah, because, of course. Yes, because listen, he's a rich. Why would you say that? He doesn't have to work, and he's bored because he doesn't have anything to do. So he's like, you know what's intriguing? He's been in the cigar parlors of Boston. Someone comes in, recruits him. He's like, I want a life like this. This is adventurous. You know, something else going on?
Added cigar powder right next to the Boston Police Department. Wait, so OK. It did OK. I'm sorry. We're going to get to him in part two. Meanwhile, I'll go into this the day Doctor Dean was found dead. Mrs. Morrison, you guys did the scene with Wes in Boston, and she did not know that Dr. Dean had been murdered. And she actually went into the Department of Justice, the local office, I believe it was actually the international division of the Department of Justice.
And she brought the message that Dean had left her that someone should come up to investigate in Jaffrey, that something had happened. He had found something. The only thing was they already had agents in the area. And not only that, Mrs. Morrison had helped some of them already, and they were familiar with not only people in Jaffrey, but the Dean property itself don't die. Because the guy renting his house was a. Spy. We will. Absolutely. And they are trying to figure out.
So that is where we're going to end. Part one later gentlemen. So fun. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. The DOJ files. The FBI files. It was it was actually the Bureau of Investigation back then. I believe it's actually confusing to find out who exactly was investigating because locals refer to it as a Department of Justice, which they're in charge of. But I do think it was specifically the Bureau of Investigation. If I'm wrong, if people know more specifically who was investigating, let me know.
But the files from the investigations are part of the FBI files today because they didn't exist back then. And there are man, it's so much fun to read them in. That's where my eyes went crossed researching because they're also not always in order. So you're reading stuff like out of order. It's really confusing, but it is fascinating. So next week, we're going to look into the prime suspects, the contradictions of witnesses.
And we're also going to dove into the skylights, the their signal lights from the mountains of New Hampshire. And we're also going to throw in a goofy con man psychological criminal, as he called himself, a very annoying witness that we're going to talk about as well, just for fun. So thank you both for being on. And we will continue this. Everybody, tune in next Week In Love. So cool. No, I mean, like this is so because his house was on the Hill right?
The big, big manor house was up on the hill. So that had a good vantage point. And of course, yeah, Dr. Dean found out was like, dude, you can't be a spy and live in my house if I get. Out of here. And if Mrs. Morrison, like, if they already knew that, like that Dean property, like 100%, 100%. And it's got to be that guy. And like, I was like, if Rich hadn't been a friend for that long, I'm like, that guy maybe could have, like, been doing that on purpose and befriended him on purpose.
But if they've been friends that long, got to be the guy in the house. No one stays over the winter. Well, it was me know. We're going to we're going to ask about this next, but next up. So but is he did he have a lot of friends in the area? Which one, Mr. Rich? Mr.. The guy who was ready to kill felt called. Not not necessarily. Not necessarily like he did. But he. Was he doing in the winter holiday. We will find out after these messages or, you know, thank you.
And tune in next week to hear our conclusion of the strange murder of Dr. William Dean. Again, thank you to Tara and Jordan. They'll be here as we conclude the show as well. Check out their films, Best of the Ozarks and Squirrel. And as I said at the top of the show, we have a special video giveaway for anybody that signs up a patriot over the next 60 days. Check that out.
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I look forward to telling you the rest of the story in part two thank you. Good night.