Where we left off. In part one, Dr. William Dean of Jaffrey, New Hampshire, was murdered around 11:30 p.m. on the night of August. 13 1918. He had returned home from running errands and visiting with his friends. Charles Rich's family had a snack of current buns and milk when he got home and then he walked to his barn to milk his cows some 500 feet away near their big house on the property which he and his wife had previously been renting out.
Dean was struck on the head upon entering the barn with something very heavy that left marks like a triangle in his head. He was then tied up, hands behind his back, knees tied together, covered in a horse blanket, then further covered up on his head with a burlap sack in which was a 27 and a half pound of rock used to help weigh him down in a cistern on the property. He was discovered the next day. This is a study of strange Welcome back.
I'm Michael May. Continuing with me from part one is Terry Perry, actor and producer and her husband, director Jordan Wayne Long. See, their films goes to the Ozarks, which is available for rent everywhere. I think as of this recording and Squirrel which just came out on to be if you skipped part one, I recommend going back and starting this amazing tale there. I'll skip the rest of the housekeeping today until the end so we can dove right back in to the strange murder of Dr. William Dean.
What would leave a triangle shape? I think he getting hit with a milk jug like on the corner. Do you hit it real hard, wouldn't it? Like, maybe when like indent with a drink? You know, we are calling this the midnight milk or midnight. To a midnight milker. I like it. I guess it sounds good to me. No, you actually you bring up a good point. The milk pail I you brought you brought up in part one, and I had not considered that before and because it wasn't there.
So they may have taken it because it was covered in blood and start their fingerprints around it or something. The marks. There are photos. I have seen them. It's not a perfect triangle. So I honestly think it's just something heavy and it could be just it could be a pale. Yeah, you should totally. Are you going to put. Are you going to put these, like, pictures up on my Instagram? I don't know. About Instagram because they are it is kind of ad. Yeah, maybe patron.
I'll definitely have links in the show notes. So if anybody wants to see them, there are plenty of links that will be in the show notes for everybody to check out. Maybe the murderer just wanted to steal a milk jug. You know, milk jerky. 80. It was wartime. You know, people. Had they were supposed to turn off their metal in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, man. Never, never. It's like wearing really nice Jordans on a basketball court. Don't do it because you might get robbed.
Where are you playing basketball, Mikey? You be careful. Nowhere anymore. But I grew up doing it, and that was like one of the rules when I would when I was, like, 1415 playing a lot of basketball is people would, like, tell you because I had Jordans, they're like, oh, don't wear those attack or right down. It's putting a target on your back. It's like hocus pocus. You know, the guy still issues it. Anyway, New England, I'm in the I'm in the Halloween New England mood. I love it.
Hocus pocus tooth coming out maybe you get sponsored by Disney I don't know you. Go yeah study of strange brought to you by hocus pocus to oh that would be so amazing. Wow. Yeah. They're into it. Yeah. All right so a few suspects came in to the target of the residents right away. We have talked about them in part one a little bit to introduce some Dean's good friend who Dean apparently visited the night of the murder and who many witnesses saw with a pretty bad black eye after the murder.
Leading to the question, did he get into a kerfuffle with Dr. Dean? And that is Charles Rich. The other prominent suspect is Lawrence Cole Felts, the former renter of Dean's big house, who many suspect was a German sympathizer and May has been involved in the lights flashing on the mountains lights the government was investigating during World War One. Jordan was giving a a pump of this pumped air. And Lawrence goes out. I think he's got. We're on to him. He's really.
He's he's. A targets lined up. Now before we get into them, I do want to diverge into a little bit of details about what happened right after the murder. So locals did try their best to investigate. But it is a tiny rural town in 1918. There's not a lot you can do you know if you don't catch somebody in the act back then it's really really hard. To you can really get away with murder. Yeah. Oh God it sounds I hate saying Yeah. Like that because it sounds like I'm like yeah good on you.
I know those people. It's not a positive thing. So. A local man named Richard Henchmen came by and cleaned up the barn. I know henchmen. Yeah. Yeah. That's his real name. That is his real name. He came by and cleaned up the house and the barn. This was approved from what I can tell by the authorities. But there are a lot of articles from back then that claim that Charles Rich sent him to clean up the crime scene. But from what I can read, it was like, no, like, it's. It's they don't know CSI.
They haven't you know, there isn't some special agency they go to to study how to investigate a crime scene. Back then, I think they were just like, Oh, you should clean up. That'll be helpful. Yeah. But obviously it makes it harder to investigate.
Various witnesses came forward, and if anybody wants to read more about this, see Bert Ford's book, which I will have a link to that claim that they saw and heard a wagon followed by a car on the night of the murder head through town towards Dean's house around 1030, 11:00. One witness or actually multiple witnesses, also saw a car coming through town, going the opposite way around midnight.
One witness, Charles Bean, who also found a tool we'll talk about, mentioned that he saw a wagon sermon notes, I can't decipher my own I was going to say handwriting, but it's typed, but I can't decipher how he wrote this note. What font did I use? Oh, Charles, it is Charles Bean. Excuse me. So that he saw the wagon he saw go through through town was not Dean's wagon or Dean's horse because he would recognize both of them. Other witnesses say the car that was seen in town was not a Ford.
It's just important to note that it had a heavier sounding engine. The car, if it was indeed the same car everybody was seeing, was leaving around midnight. So that would have been after the murder if he didn't indeed die at 1130. Get out of here. Wait. So, OK, I like the important note that it's not it wasn't a Ford that had a heavier motor with it. Were there imported cars like Volkswagen? There were not Volkswagen stay. They weren't around yet.
But you'll find out later. Cole felt Jordan excited. Cole felt our number one witness. He owned a Marmon, which was a very expensive car, which I will talk about a little bit later. On that he got when he signed up to be a double. Agent. Listen, I don't think you want Jordan and I on your jury because we're just like, yeah, it was him like maybe we were like, it was him. I don't what do we let me say, there is no more mystery. It was well. I might I might change your mind later.
Hey, hang on. I know. I love the good. It's going to get good. Change it so no one recognize the car and no one recognized people in the car except for one witness, a young man named Daniel LaRoche, who I keep wanting to read to the corner of my eyes, Daniel LaRusso. He was in in town and Jeffrey around midnight.
Apparently, he was looking for, like, a lighter or matches, or he was just hanging out, wanting to smoke he saw the car, and he thought Charles Rich was driving this car that came through town. Oh, yeah. Now, putting some some credence or validity to this car sighting. Tire tracks were actually found on a quiet road that circled behind the Dean property, and a pathway seemed to be made from the car through, you know, the land towards Dean's house to a rock wall.
And it looked like rocks had been pushed over where people walked through the rock wall towards the barn in the big house of Dean's boom. Which is where. There are rock walls. Everywhere. And there are at. My family's house in Vermont, too. Yeah. Is that the rock wall where they found the missing the tool? I don't know, because all I ever read is they found it under or he found it under a rock wall. I don't know what rock wall.
See if it's under a rock wall, wouldn't that be where it was pushed over? Maybe. Maybe under. I think we would know. I feel like that's such good detail that something would have come up right at the so handful of days after the body was found. William Dean's brother, I think he was named Fat Frederick. I didn't write his name down. I think it's Frederick Dean came up from I want to say New York I didn't write that down either. I apologize for my terrible no taking.
He came up to town because obviously his brother has been murdered. He wants to know what's going on. He brought with him a psychic detective or a criminal psychologist, as he called himself, a man named Zendt curler. I think he was Belgian. So I think it's vent not went to curler. He was self-professed and all of his credentials and I I won't beat around the bush. This dude was a con man. You know, he was a con man. And to curler he he's he's a character guys. He went into Dick Keller.
He had a huge ego and like all con man he he just lied continuously, especially if people were asking him questions about what he was doing. He would have to cover up his own lie so he would lie even more. He claimed to have been hired by Dr. Dean's brother to investigate, but not for a fee, because he's a he's a very good man just to cover his expenses. And the expenses, by the way, were very, very high.
And after Dean's brother left town in the days or weeks after the body was was found, the curler stayed on. And what I find really interesting is the town they were so they really wanted to solve this. They were so eager to solve it that they hired him to say, oh, God. No. Investigate. They he didn't accept a fee, though, is a good guy. So just the expenses, just as expenses. And he's writing his own receipts right. Exactly. So a few things that the curler founder claimed to have signed.
And by the way, he actually did, I will give him a little bit of credit. He did seem to really want to solve this, like legitimately. He wanted to be the man to solve the murder. So he did talk to he talked to everybody ever even invest people, investigators did not question. He went out and was questioning them and finding out information. PINKERTON Detectives also work the case. I don't I just I never came across anything they ever found. And I love when Pinkertons get involved.
Yeah. Yeah. Odd. So he declare claim that he found marks on the entryway to the barn and marks on a rock that was near the cistern that were the same shape of the marks on Dean's head. So he was thinking that whatever hit Dean also Fowler hit the floor of the barn, and then this rock or drug across this rock on the way to the cistern.
Keep that in mind, because we're going to talk about that in in a wee bit when we talk about Charles Rich as a suspect de curler also claimed that he was able to see faces and pictures of blood spatter on the faces. The faces could be the killer, maybe. And the pictures were asked about at the grand jury and Quest and he claimed he didn't bring them because they served no criminal justice purposes, because you can't prove that the murder is in the picture. But you can see it all.
You can say, I'll let you all look at it whenever you want. But of course, no one ever saw those pictures. I've never seen the picture. I don't think anybody ever saw those pictures. Yes. So, so interesting. Interesting stuff there. And on that note, we are going to do a scene of ventricular Undine two is what it's called. This is actually pulled from the grand jury inquest. This is his testimony.
I have pieced it together from three different parts because he goes on for many, many, many, many, many, many pages. So I just kind of pulled three different parts and combined them into one. Tara, let's have you read event to Curler and let me pull it up myself here. What a last name. How did you know that that's how you pronounced it? Oh, it's not. I copied it from the transcript, so it's not it just wasn't spelled fully. So that's why it it's not spelled correctly in that scene.
Apologies. Let me know when you guys are ready. I'm ready let's do it. Are you guys ready? Yeah. So you're reading Young Jordan. Thank God. All right, this is the courthouse in New Hampshire during the day. The jury is tired, yet hangs on to every word of the eccentric, the killer as he's questioned by New Hampshire Attorney General Oscar Young. Why were you going by a false name? I am very well known, not only in New York, Washington, France, as well as England.
And Italy, but I am very well known all over the world through my capacity as a psychologist and various activities. Now, then to get back, after you discovered those scratches on the barn and the scratches on the stone, you compare those two sets of marks and your conclusion was that they were both made by the same instrument. Yes. Since you have seen this instrument that Mr. Bain has found, do you still think that is the one that produced the injury on Mr. Dean's head? I she has some notes.
She, I, I haven't seen the instrument and I can't furnish an opinion. You haven't got any opinion. I merely based my deductions upon the facts. I ask you if you have got an opinion that it was. That it was what, sir? It please settle down in the court. Thank you. If you made any statement that the instrument which Mr. been found cause the injury to Mr. Dean's head. If the instrument.
I ask you if you have given it as your opinion that the instrument which was found by Mr. Bain was the one which inflicted the injury upon Mr. Dean's head? Excuse me, sir. Just answer by yes or no. You either have an opinion. Or you have it which is it? I don't think I can say that. Yes, you can't. Pardon me for demanding. I ask if you have voiced that opinion. I may have voiced that opinion, yes. Is that your opinion now, or have you changed your mind? No, sir, I haven't changed my mind.
Was Mr. Frederick Dean present during your whole investigation? No, sir. He had returned to New York on Tuesday. When did you change your mind about going back with him? I changed my mind on Tuesday morning and he went back at the on the 250 train. Did your employment with Mr. Dain cease at that time? I never was in his employ. He only paid the train fare and other things. That is you were willing to help him. So he paid your expense. Excuse me? It cost me up to about $6,000 up today.
What is the bulk of that expenditure for it? Was it for board over at the East Jafry at lunch or at the lunch cart? Was it. I boarded there and I don't think it would near correspond with I have nailed this thing. Excuse me. Sorry I was being bothered. What is the bulk of that expenditure? For it? Was it for your board over at East Jaffrey at the lunch cart? Was it? I boarded there and I don't think it would be would near correspond with $6,000.
No, but you see I had to be back in New York in order to discuss a very important proposition. And then of course I didn't turn up on Tuesday just at that time when I was ready to take my leave from Mr. Dean, I handed Mr. Dean a book that he had loaned me. I asked that he would lend me the book for psychological experiments, for I am always making psychological experiments. Giving that book. I said across the counter, Mr. Dean, we're going back. What is your theory about the murder?
It is the most baffling case. I am a detective, and I have got to get information. And there you have it. Wait, this is actually this is this is from the trial. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I did make a few minor changes because I skipped I combine like three different sections of his testimony. So I just added, like, a couple of these things, but it's 99%, right? I love it. Like, why do you use a fake name when he's like, I'm a very famous. I'm so famous.
I'm famous sound. France. Italy, Scotland, Germany, Bangladesh. I'm saying that I'm also Italy. Italy as well. Yeah. And which means when he showed up, it's because nowadays when you read about it, everybody just knows who he is. So they just refer to him as that. But he must have shown up to town using a completely different name for for what reason? You can't imagine like. Yeah, also. $6,000 in night. Yeah. 18. How much is that today. And we doubt it's own. I have not to.
I actually find out because I always make jokes when people ask this I'm like $482,000 but it's actually probably like 20. No it's probably more than that. Yeah it's a lot. Yeah. Find a territories looking it up everybody. We're going to hold hold for terror calculating. It be equal to $122,103. Whoa. Yeah. That is so much more than saying that. He's like, listen, I'm staying at East Jaffrey and I'll be damned if my bill is $122,000. Because
wow. Now I didn't include every bit of interesting saying that, he said, because we would literally be here for weeks because it's long. It's a long testimony. But I did want to give just a hint because I think he's so interesting. As to. The way he talked about now the lawyer, the young who was interviewing him, also Pickard, the county solicitor, did interview him some too. And De Curler gets in just weird, weird, like combative kind of things.
Every now and then when it's like simple things, it's just it's so interesting and so it's I think it hurt the case. You know, when you have somebody like that involved, even if they really wanted to solve it and solve it legitimately, like they're just you can't trust what they say. You can't trust what information they compile. So it's kind of sad that that he was involved. Now, my favorite part about him is that the locals have already said hired him.
I just find it so interesting that they they brought him on. Oh, yes. Now, a couple of clarifications I want to make in case you read a about this case listeners out there, in case you're you're researching this on your own. A lot of claims say that Pickard wanted Mrs. Dean during the grand jury trial.
She he excuse me, he really wanted to pinpointed a Mrs. Dean or that he really wanted to pinpoint it on Rich or Cohle felt like people have their own opinions about the way Pickard was doing his investigation. But when you read the testimony and you've read the whole thing like I did, which took way too long and you read Picard's own testimony he did not seem to have an opinion or want of one suspect over the other. He was very much just like, I don't know. I don't know who did it.
Here's the information. What can we decide? So he's not as opinionated as I think a lot of the local rumors and articles and things you've come across read we talked about Mrs. Dean a little bit in part one. We don't think she could have done it. We're not going to go into that again. If anybody out there is listening and wants to review that, go into part one.
So towards the end of that episode, the other quick little thing we can go into before we get into the main suspects is some people theorize that it could be hoodlums like some kids or some young vagabonds were hanging out in the barn and Dean came in to milk the cow and they were panicked and were like, oh, god, we've been found in like hit them and tied them up and drug panic. Here's all this rope we have. Propane. Yeah, that's where that's where it doesn't tie in with my mind.
Jordan dismisses him. I just turn my back on. It, make sure he turns it off. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, that is one of the other theories is that hoodlums could have done it. I don't agree with it for the main reason Jordan just said, like Terry just said, which one of you said it? I'm losing my mind about the rope. Means who said that? OK, yeah. I think you panic. If you hit somebody in panic and you kill them, I don't think you're tying them up by the knees. And the arms and the head and the like.
Because also it got hit but not killed. Then he was tied up. Was he was he tortured or anything? Do we know that that's what. That's that's part of my theory. It's like, why? Yeah, yeah. Spy Spies first he was they had to pump him for information. He and then they asked them. You're your daughter. Grayson. Oh, yeah. Thank you.
She's like, I get to do both. I back them up if anyone disagrees with my reasoning to write off either Mrs. Dean or the hoodlums, please write me a study of a study of strange at gmail.com. Now. All right, that out of the way. We have the two main, main suspects, Cole Felt, who was the lodger of the big house with his family, and Charles Rich, the friend who do you guys want to talk about first? Let's talk about Rich first, OK, so we can get that. That means I have to get. His name.
Further down and my. Note. Oh, I'm sorry. All right. A quick refresher. Charles Rich is the bank cashier. In some articles you read, they call him a banker. He's just the cashier, but a very important job. He also worked at the local courthouse. Again, not a judge. You talked about that part one he's always referred to as judge. He's not a crazy title. It's like yeah, we just call him that. Yeah. Well, I think it's just people here, he worked in the courthouse and they're like, oh, a judge.
And just and it just, you know, once one rumor happens or one mistake, happens, people read it, pick up on it, and it turns into fact. So Dean visited Rich. They had known each other for years. They were friends. They would play billiards together. Sometimes the families knew each other.
And Dean visited supposedly Rich on the night of the murder when he drove Rich, his sister in law, Georgiana Atkins, back home that night, Rich had a black eye because he said he got hit by the horse and it made his hand jerk up, hit his pipe, hit his basket, hit his eye. And he apparently got advice from Dean to put alcohol on it. And Dean apparently left Rich's house around 1030. You're in that range. So that's the end of the story.
We talked about the common story when the rich's weird I'm going to I'm going to admit this before I say everything about him. There's some inconsistencies with him as a suspect. So even as I like glance at my notes right now, I'm like, how am I even going to tell this? Because we get to bounce around a little bit. But that's that's just what we're going to have to do. Yeah. My God, this is so interesting. I want to, like, go drive around, Jeffrey, when we're there to be like.
Oh, I really want to go. Town square still, you know what I mean? Like the town square with still. Oh, it's. Can't be that different. Yeah. Yeah. Just Rich's rich's hard to pinpoint, in my opinion. So when I go over some of the facts about him and and details about why he's a suspect, I apologize if it seems like it's bouncing around, and that's my own fault. Of not being able to fully agree that he's a suspect. Sorry.
The morning after the murder, here's some things that that may that may make rich look like a suspect. Like he could have done it and not look like a suspect. He is a suspect, but it looks it's not good for him. So after the murder, Rich apparently went to the undertaker. This is the morning that Dean was found and asked if he was going up to the Dean property. And the undertaker was like, what? But why? And Dean was like, oh, Mr. Dean's dead.
And this is at 8 a.m. before they ever found his body. That's according to the undertaker. This is according to the undertaker. According. OK, Mr. Rich, though Rich actually says no, it was 11 a.m. and I never said Dean's dead. I said He's missing, and everybody's up there looking for him. Can you take me up in your car? He wanted a ride up to the dean. Thank God. That's like, why would you lie about that? To be like, yeah, no. I went to the undertaker and I said, all of this other stuff.
Yeah. I don't know if Rich did it. I don't. He's not an idiot. Like, I don't think he's going to go in and be like, Oh, Dean's dead. Take me up there. It's like, but. But no. So I think the undertaker is literally just mistaken. I don't think he's trying to, like, get Rich to look guilty. I literally think just the undertaker is mistaken about the time of day it happened and what exactly happened. However, it's it's worth noting, you know, that the undertaker claims this.
Now, one of my question, I'm going to pose this to you guys again. It's why I have a tough time with Rich. You got to have motivation. Motivation is a big factor in any murder. What kind of motivation would someone like Rich? He works in a bank. He's a friend with a guy. Can I if you guys are writing a script, like, why would someone like this want to kill Doctor Dean. If he had any involvement with the German spies?
Like, if he was also like a double agent or, you know, if he was like, he helped the other guy kill him because he got rid of his, you know? Mm hmm. That's the only thing I can think of. They flipped him. They flipped the prominent person in the community that they knew they could. It's it's kind of the only motivation I can think of as well, because money wasn't a motivation. Like, he didn't like Doctor Dean didn't. No money to the guy.
Doctor Dean was over, drafted at the bank, but, like, by a few dollars. And apparently that would happen every so often. Unless he you know, you said that there were rumors that he was kind of like, philandering around town and he brought his wife home. If he was like, why were you with my wife? And he was like, she was that's for right and it's like after Boinking her, you know? Yeah. So this is just to clarify that it was his sister in law that he that he brought home, not his wife.
So Mrs. Dean was home, but that is that is also a good motivating factor, though. Tara is like was was there some philandering going on? But Mrs. Rich, Mrs. Dean, like all these other people that are super intimate with these families, basically shut that down. But that's great.
It's kind of like money, which I don't agree was a saying is he didn't Dr. Tina no money philandering which everybody is like now and the potential of like in cahoots with some other people related to spies and that's the only one that I think has any chance of being true if if Mr. Rich was involved.
Now, I mentioned the car scene by witnesses earlier and that this guy or this young man saw Rich driving a car that had two other men in it, that he could not identify witnesses also saw a carriage go towards Dean's house before the murder that was followed by a car. And one witness who slept on us slept on his porch because his wife had tuberculosis, although he still called it consumption.
So I love his testimony when they say that apparently porch sleeping was very common for people with tuberculosis and people that would move to that area of the country. On purpose. So he slept on the porch and saw from Rich's house his carriage leave around ten, 1030, something like that, and claimed it was rich. So why is he leaving the house? Why didn't he ever tell people he left the house? Because he said he was home all night. Someone saw him in a car. He also has a black eye.
That's kind of also a big deal. To some people. Dick Curler, our good friend, psychic detective, declared, my guess kind of that Rich did it and he invited people, including Rich, up to the Dean property when Dick Miller was investigating. And a curler had drawn the shape of the hit on Dean's head on a piece of paper. And he looked at Rich and the story goes that he took the paper and slapped it on Rich's face by his eye, where he still had some marks. And the curler claimed it's the same marks.
So like, therefore, he did. It was kind of his suggestion when this happened, Rich didn't defend himself but as Rich says, he was he was just in shock. He was like, I was I was just baffled. I was soaking. I was just in shock of what happened. But so some people put some validity into this idea of like, oh, the marks on Dean's head matched Rich's. I, I don't think that's actually true. I think the curler is just a nut. And I, you know, like slapping a piece of paper on someone's face.
It's just, it's so bizarre and weird. If they did match. Yeah, interesting. Yeah. Well, also, most people say he didn't have marks on his. I must be like, he just had a black eye. He didn't have marks. So I really feel like the curler was just trying to invent something. There Rich actually filed a libel suit against newspapers after the murder in the years after it, because so many people claim that he did it, that he was actually like, you're ruining my life.
This is libelous. So he and he won the case. So he actually won this nice case. Yeah. Now, there are questions about Dean going to Rich's house the night of the murder some people saw Dean leave town alone. Others saw him leave with Georgiana Hodgkin's. So I think it's just a he said she said. And I think witnesses are also not great. They're not great for evidence. They're great to hear. But they don't always see and remember things correctly.
So I'm not sure what to believe in whether he went to Rich's house or not. And also, I question, what does it even matter with the murder? Like it because if you went to Rich's house, do they get into a fight? But if he didn't go to Rich's house, why was Rich going over there later to kill him? Like, I don't know. It just it just doesn't seem to fit to me. So I actually do think Dean went to the Rich's house also Mrs.
Dean. She said that Mr. Dr. Dean came home at 930, which means he would not have gone to Rich's house. But the people that say this don't take into account that she was suffering from dementia. And in other times that she was asked, she said 1030. And another time she was asked, she said he went to his friend Rich's house. So I think she just she we can not rely on her for information and time. I don't think we can rely on anybody for time in these stories, especially especially her.
So, um, her question. I feel like none of that matters because he was a known midnight milker. It was clear that people knew that and people premeditated that. Yeah. Mm hmm. And so similar to this is why I'm going to say why not Rich? And I've already kind of gone into that when I brought up stuff similar to Cole felt his testimony. And I'm going to talk about Clifford's testimony later to Rich's testimony in the grand jury hearing. Just it just makes sense.
And when I was working on my shows and I was researching stuff and just my own love of stories like this, the the more bizarre a story is the more it's likely that there's lies in it. Like, things have to kind of line up when someone tells the truth and everything Mr. Rich says and his testimony lines up to me, like everything about his horse, the time Dr. Dean coming over and hanging out on the porch.
But like Mr. Rich didn't talk to him a lot because he was trying to treat his I like everything he talks about seems very earnest, very authentic, very real. Obviously, I'm just reading it. I'm not hearing it. But still, it seems and also just all makes sense. There's no inconsistencies about what he says. And I think a lot of what he went through as a suspect and still goes through as a suspect is just a local rumor. I think rumor spreads, it grows and grows and it grows and grows.
And and that's where it is. They were friends. These are guys that would hang out. They would talk a lot. Mrs. Dean and Mrs. Rich knew each other very well. Obviously, Dr. Dean went over to hang out that night, you know, like, are there. Any descendants in this town that you're going to have to interview? That is a I don't think the riches are there's a lot of descendants with the Dean family and and other families.
There's also some videos on YouTube that were done in like the early nineties that people shared with two gentlemen who were alive back then. And one of them even saw Rich with the black guy. Oh, my God. Yeah. All right. Yeah. But from my account of the videos, I saw them and it doesn't sound like they think Rich did it either. So, yeah, they were friends. They weren't enemies.
The only way the only only way I think he would ever have been involved is if he was friends with somebody that was a spy. Like, one of these people. Have to be better friends with the new, with the spy, then with him. And also money. He would have had to be paid like. Yeah, he would be able to find that. You'd be able to find it. And no one ever. Like, he didn't move into a bigger house. He didn't, you know, go on vacations to Tahiti. Like there he was, you know, stayed in town and did his job.
So, yeah. So I'm not a big Charles Rich proponent as a as a rightful suspect. I think you can write him off again, my opinion. But that I agree on that. I agree. So let's get to Jordan study call, fellas, consult so why is Cole felt a suspect? Well, I'll do a little review and no, actually, I'm going to now Tara's counting using her fingers. She has lots of reason to think.
I'm actually going to talk about the signal lights to give some background to that, because that does tie in with Cole Felt as a suspect around the time Lawrence Cole Felt moved to New Hampshire, was around the time that the lights actually started not exact, but it's around that time. As you've heard me say, there have been many reports about these strange lights coming from the top of Mount Monadnock and other PAC Monadnock and Temple Mountain and all the other mountains in the area.
There's there's many reports of lights and they generally start before the US got involved in World War One, but they ramped up as soon as the US did enter the war formally, and no one was ever caught doing this in the area of Jaffrey. I will specifically say there's just rumors and sightings. People did try to investigate the Department of Justice, the Bureau of Investigation. I think they sent investigators out there to find out what was going on. And I do apologize. I just hit my microphone.
I do apologize because again, if you heard me say this earlier or in part one, the FBI files are very confusing. So I just I just hope I do it justice. Explaining, kind of summarizing different things that are in it because there's just so much detail. But they investigated the shit out of these lights. They would camp out, they would find places to be. There were a few instances where they saw people that they thought could be going up the mountain, but then they would lose track of them.
Like there's a lot of different interesting things in these investigations and there's a lot of it. Like a lot of investigating. A lot of the pages you read are like, Oh, we got breakfast and then we watched the mountain and then nothing happened. And there's a lot of that, too. The lights have been described. As note taking. Yeah, there have been a lot of descriptions about the lights because they're not consistent. They're flashes like to me.
I want to hear it. Yeah, there are flashes like Morse code. Some people have described them kind of like meteor showers. But on the mountain, however, to differentiate it and develop, validate being real lights is there were flares sometimes like actual flares there were just lights would like be signal lights where they would shine really bright, then maybe move a little. They kind of move back, maybe move up and down and they would disappear and there'd be lights on other mountains.
So they were there were different lights, meaning that there could have been different codes. Different kinds of lights could mean different things. Think about how fast they could send messages. Yeah. Like that, that. That and that's not. There's also 2 hours in a car on a horse and buggy would take what, six, eight? Yeah. Yeah. A long time. And they could just like all four mountain and then knock. That is. No. And also. It's message.
It is and it's but it's unlike a text message, it's untraceable you can't decode it unless you know what the code is. This is, you know, this is World War One, not World War Two is there was no what's the German code thing they had to break the tower with typewriters. So it's always in movies and stuff, but there's none of that. Like you just have Morse code type of stuff.
You also have the beginning of numbers stations which I'm sure you guys have heard about this weird radio signals that just count things. I think the I think the earliest ones were during World War One. So it's like a form of like we're just going to send a signal someone's got to know how to how to, you know, figure out what it says. But there's only probably one person who knows what it says. It's really interesting. It is so it's wild.
There's also this is not in my notes. This is just from my reading. There was somebody that was actually captured like a fisherman or somebody like that by a German sub at this time off the coast of New England. And apparently the captain of the sub had been to like a Broadway show the night before. So they were able to get people on and off, you know, secret back then without being seen. So yeah. Yeah, it's it is fast mating. Wow. Yeah, yeah.
So in order for these lights to work, though, you have to have people local that are either reading them creating the code for them, putting them up. Yeah. And actually, let me read I'm going to read this thing. This is from Bert Ford's book that I mentioned earlier. He he's a journalist, compiled a lot of stories in the 1920s about this.
It says Automobiles were seen in lonely sections of the mountains equipped with two rear lights as powerful as headlights these lights were used as signals by covering them with colored discs of red, blue and green. It is suspected, but has not been established by direct evidence that dynamos and wireless apparatus were conveyed from point to point in automobiles.
So that's just an example of like some of the things people had seen or thought about lights they were usually seen on Friday nights between 1045 and 1120. Not always, but usually. So there was it seemed to be like a designated time. Mm hmm. The signals in the vicinity of East Rafferty and Dublin and Marysville and everything everywhere were talking about in New Hampshire, there were actually many persons of German blood or pro-German sympathies that lived in the area.
And apparently I cannot find corroborating evidence for this, but I read this somewhere apparently this move to this area started because there was a composer named Edward McDowell who was American, but had studied and lived in Germany. Oh, did you guys know Edward McDowell? Well, that's the MacDowell colony. Oh. That's like the like yes. The artist is it. Is it is the same he bought the farm where it is to this day and like 19.
Oh, note I think he died in eight, I think it was 1800s when he bought it. So apparently because he had lived in Germany in France and stuff, but he was very famous over there. That's why a lot of German immigrants would be in the area. They would go to shows and like concerts and stuff. He passed away before this murder. I think ten years before it. But that's one of the reasons why there might have been some influence for people of German ancestry to move to the area. That's really funny.
I love that you guys are able to react to That's perfect. Why I want to do so. These signals also attracted international attention. Letters have been saved from France and the UK, corresponding with authorities here in the US that the signals need to be investigated because of potential spy activity.
A local gentleman named Frank Human Stone of Jaffrey, who would serve in the war, has a story where he would see these dots and dashes and flares at night, and he tried to investigate himself and he tells a story that one night while he was trying to watch the mountainside, he had he had his horse with them. This car pulled up near him that didn't have its lights on. And people got out and he heard something along the lines of, Oh, this is the place.
And then they saw his horse and they kind of scattered the get back in the car and they drive away. And he kind of on his horse was near them and they yell at him. It's like, what are you doing out here? State your business. And he was like, turn on your headlights, idiots or whatever. And they kind of drove off. So that was he suspects could have been people trying to to send signal light as an example of people that were actually arrested because this did happen just not around Jaffrey.
A doctor Rudolf Hutz, who was a Boston chemist, was arrested for espionage the same month Dean was murdered up and Pine Island in Lake Winnipesaukee. In New Hampshire. And it was because he was placing signal lights in his windows of his summer home in New Hampshire. A palsy. Yeah, also a count, Johann Heinrich von Bern staff, who was a German ambassador to the U.S. for a while he was known to visit Dublin, New Hampshire, which I actually drove through when I was in town. Yeah, we left Dublin.
Yeah, he went to Dublin to have a meeting with other Germans and so he had some strange meetings. Apparently, depending on what you read, he either went multiple times in Dublin to have meetings or once. But why is the ambassador for Germany in a small town in New. Hampshire, Dublin, New Hampshire. Because of Mount Monadnock. That's what you would expect.
Yeah. So there's some specific experts from the Exerpt excuse me, from the FBI files, which I'll kind of mention because they're very interesting. There's a it was reported by an agent named Norman Gifford that says Mr. R.C. Nash was sent to investigate. He was an attorney, but he had considerable experience in the woods, which is important in New Hampshire. And he worked with other agents and met with a doctor, Louis Bell, who was an expert on signal lights.
And they determined that there is there is some likelihood that they that signal lights were being experimented on in New Hampshire. There's a report from June 11th 1918 which is pre murder and it says that the country surrounding Mount Monadnock and including Peterborough and Dublin has every facility for pro-German operations. It would be very easy to establish a chain of signal points.
There is much wild land, abandoned farms and passable but disused roads which could be utilized for secret communication Lonely lakes from which hydro airplanes might operate are numerous. The farming population has not awakened to the dangerous possibilities. Oh my God. I mean. Oh, cool. Because like, I. Mean terror. Still Hawesville has so many lakes around it that they named them ponds. Yeah. So that people like so many people wouldn't want to come.
I mean, there are so many lakes that I mean, just the imagery. Like, every time we're up at Aldworth, like on the weekends, you'll see little Cessnas and stuff flying really low. And it, man, it just makes me. What a perfect spot. Honestly, what a spot for signal lights. In Lake Winnipesaukee. Like, is, what, like an hour and 35 minutes from. Yeah. Monadnock. But yeah, Peterborough is on the other side of the mountain from Peterborough and Dublin. So they just had.
They had the mountains circled everywhere. Yeah. So a report from June 5th of 1918 18 mentioned being taken to Dean's farm and this is pre his murder because agents believed it might be where a signal light came from on April 19th of 1918 as reported by witnesses and agents on the ground, Dean's farm had an excellent view of West to southeast. So Cole felt our suspect lived on Dean's property on April 19th when they suspected a signal light came from that area.
The investigation also multiple times talks about Mrs. Morrison, who you guys did the wonderful scene with. In Part one. Mrs. Morrison actually lived on a property that had good view of a lot of lights. She witnessed a lot of them, and agents would show up at her house and be like, Can we can we come see it? So she would like let them be sit on her porch and watch the lights and things like that. So she's in a lot of reports, which is why I think she was.
And that's why she was looking for the battery he caught. That guy kicks him out and he's like any batteries to figure out how this thing works, he couldn't find batteries. Possible, possible. Now, I'm going to tie it in, Tara. It all makes sense to me. Just we just wait because we are not done, though. I will tie it more to Taco Bell. So you will like this. Just a quick refresher, but if people want to hear more.
Turning to part one he Caufield moved to New Hampshire in 1916 from I think it was in Boston originally but his family does live in New York and he would eventually move back to New York. He didn't live at the dean's property right away they lived somewhere else but close by they allegedly moved to the area because their daughter or his stepdaughter was at college. She went to Radcliffe which is in Boston. So it's hours away, but they're definitely closer in New Hampshire than where they were.
New York. He's from New York. Sorry. That's not that much closer. Say they found a temporary place and then they looked for the perfect place to rent that they could do the signals from there. So go in. They they moved up with two cars because remember, he was wealthy. His grandfather was wealthy. And he was he was basically a trust fund baby. He had two cars. But when he moved to town, he sold them and bought a Marmon.
I don't know exactly what model of Marmon he had, but if you look at today's dollars with a Marmon, back then, most of them were over $100,000. And today's today's money. So he would spend the equivalent back then. Though, about what it would cost you for a good psychic. Yeah. Yeah, damn. Near exactly a good second. Mr. Jack Warner or what's his name? Dick. Earlier to, I guess how you say it.
So he was a wealthy dude and he became friends with Charles Rich and he also did become friends with Dean, and he would move into the dean's big house in 1917. His rent was $40 a month. I just love looking at those numbers. I wish that was rent now. What does that Jordan do the calculator. $40 then is how much now. All right. It's going to be a lot, right? Yeah. I mean, it's a nice house. It's going to be $784. Yeah. Wow. For a very nice home. Yeah. For a very large home.
Co felt would play billiards with Mr. Rich and Dr. Dean from time to time. So they were very friendly. The co felts though were known around town as being very odd, mainly because of their wealth. I talked about this in part one a little bit. Co I felt did not work, which everybody thought was super weird, and the CO felt stayed in town over the winter, which is also something you do not do if you are not local.
In New Hampshire. So the CO Feltz also received mail at multiple different post offices, so they didn't get their mail at one post office. They would go to like three or four of them to get mail, which is also very odd. There is a local rumor that Cole felt would seem to to really make sure people knew that he was American like he would talk about it quite a lot. He was his ancestors were Irish and he would make sure everybody knew. Now, again, that's a rumor.
So I don't know how much of that is actually because he's odd and the war was going on and there was a lot of paranoia about Germans. People thought he was German. In fact, a an employee of his named Frank Romano told people that Cole Felt was German. I don't know why Romano said it. I don't know why Romano knew it. I will make a short tease of Romano is actually a suspect in a lot of stories that you read about this. We do not have time, nor do I want to go too into him.
So it's one of those things if I do a follow up, I will talk about Romano. But some people think he may he may have done it. I don't. That's why it's my podcast, so I'm just not going to take the time to do it. But I will in a follow up, as I've mentioned before, the Cole Felt moved out of Deen's house in 1918 in June, and we don't know why Dean kicked him out Dean said they couldn't stay there anymore. Rumors persist.
It's because Dean found something out about Cole Felt and wanted him out of the house and that's. Why he's at Magnum sympathizer. Yeah. So the Cole Felt's stepdaughter, who was in college, like I said, they found after the murder when they were cleaning out things in the big house, the Cole fellow had left a box. And in that box was a lot of pictures of teddy bears that their stepdaughter or his stepdaughter Mrs. Rich's daughter would take.
And people because people are people, they just immediately went, oh, that's code. Those are all like spy messages, all the different pictures of the teddy bears mean different things to spy activity. I don't know if I believe that, but I thought I'd still share because people do think that's a thing. Was it the same teddy bear in each picture? I think it I think it was. I think it's the same teddy bear. I think not 100% sure. And I have not been able to find the pictures now, allegedly.
And it depends on what report you read. The big house was found once the CO feltz moved out with some sort of chemical treatment on the window, like treatment that would make if it was raining the water wouldn't stay on the window. OK. So to make sure you'd. Have to be able to see you'd have to be able to see the lights on a storm, see the. Lights.
Some reports also say, again, it depends on what report you read that either the screens, the windows or the windows themselves were discolored like a hot light would shine through them and like burn or discolored the screen or the window. I will I will come back to that.
Oh, and then I bet you Dean's wife had been disclosed this information, and that's why she's like, he's dead, because he she knew that, like, they were getting into trouble and they kicked those people out, and they must have come back to go. Yeah, yeah. OK, honey, I don't know why I should just listen to you, sweetheart. Your daughter just left the room OK? So for various reasons.
Primarily, though, the paranoia of German spies and rumors that Cold Felt was German, he is the main suspect in French, but he is considered kind of the main one today. And don't forget, the dean told Mrs. Morrison that he had proof. Now he needed federal investigators come up because he finally he finally had proof and he had this man. He should have really told that lady what was going on. Absolutely. So question any questions before I get into some some more details about coffee, anything.
Now, you guys you guys just you're ready. You're ready to ready. Say he did it. So I'm going to bring up now that Jordan left because he will not want to hear this. I'm going to talk now. He's out. He's bringing back Jordan. Jones stood up and left. OK, I just ran back a bit. He was running in the background. And any naming engineering. Maybe I'll wait for him. Guess I want to hear this. All right. Love it.
So now that Jordan is amped up to prove or to not to prove, but to get excited that Cole felt did it, let's talk about why it's not coffee. He didn't. OK or why I don't think he did it. You can still think he did it, though. You're under no obligation to do so. You don't think he did it? I don't think he did it. You know, I don't know I know. I know. Oh, OK. I don't I don't every thinking is this fact. But you please disagree with me. Let me know. And all the listeners disagree with me. Right.
In your opinions, please. Is that even stranger to America? So yeah, why not caufield his testimony during the grand jury hearing, like Rich's that I mentioned before, everything seemed to make perfect sense. He wasn't defensive. He didn't beat around the bush on things. He everything had a clear reason. Mikey, because he knows how to do he's been. Tracked by the German army. Yeah. Hey. Hey. Yeah, we're just going to keep up on valid. Yeah. No, no, absolutely.
But also, what you're saying actually is valid to like, if he is very good, he knows how to handle himself. But my my whole thing is and I don't, I don't want to relate myself to Columbo because I am not a detective. I'm not a world away. But like Columbo, he would always figure out things because he would just find something that didn't fit. There was an inconsistency.
It could be as simple as like a book being opened when all the other ones are closed and it would eat at him until he was able to, like, piece everything together. There's no inconsistencies. Nicole Felt's story that I can find and by the way, I'm not talking to him. I'm just reading transcripts, so I could be wrong. So here's some other some other bits of information he was in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, when the murder happened.
He was working for a ship builder because he, as he said in his testimony, it was wartime. He felt bad. He wasn't doing anything. He didn't need the money. So he signed up for work. I actually have a reason for why I think he went to work before joining and assisting I don't think it's because he felt that he wasn't working. He wanted to do something or wartime. I think he was afraid of being drafted. I think he wanted a job so he didn't have to go fight. I think they needed an alibi. Boom.
There you go. There's the other there's the other way to do it also because he could still be involved, right, to disprove my own thing. He could be setting it up sending other people to go do it. And he's he could be. Sending a message to the Monadnock and they had a known right away. Boom. So but he was he was legitimately out of town when it happened. He did work for the thing. There's pay bills, there's receipts, there's witnesses. He was out of. Town, man.
What a weird thing to quickly do that, though, to get like all those receipts and stuff that seems. Well, he he just had them on them. I guess he needed them. Hey, and also witnesses there are like he works with people. It is a very specific it was like a seven to 5 p.m. job or whatever. There's people on the ground also. His car was in town. He drove his car there. His car was there at a garage. I like the draft reason though. He all right. I think he got a job to get out of draft. Yeah.
So his car, that fancy car was not a car. It was not the one seen in town because it was in not Portsmith, but like a little town next door to tell me now as to why he was kicked out of Dean's house, Dean said to Mrs. Morrison, a man like Cole felt young and strong who will not do useful work at this time is not the man I want in my place. This, by some has been taken that like dainty was a spy. I think it means he wanted somebody to because he had actually said this at other times.
He wanted someone to actually use his land for agriculture and Cole Felt didn't is felt didn't want to do the work. When did he kick them out? What time of the year? So this is the other thing. It's often reported that he kicked him out, gave him 24 hours. Apparently he actually told him to leave in May. He didn't move out until June. No. So it's not like he packed up overnight, which is you've read that a lot.
So I think local rumor and what actually happened does blend and people think he left right away. I think it took a month for him to move out. He also he didn't move far away. He didn't like run away from town even after the murder. They lived I forget where because I didn't write it down. But it's still in the same same area. It just wasn't in Jaffrey, but it was nearby. He still needed to see the signals, so I couldn't wait. He worked in Portsmouth but lived nearby.
So, yeah, so he would what he did is he started the job. He would go stay for the week in Portsmouth, come back in the weekend because it's only like an hour and a half, two hour drive. So at the time, so he would go stay for the week, come back, and it was just during the course of the war. So he only worked there a few months because I think us the war was over a few months after the murder happened.
So it wasn't like a job to do forever, which is also why I think he did it did not have to go fight as the war ended and he stopped working. Yeah. So also when Dean says he wanted someone useful to work at the house, I think he wanted someone to work the land. I don't think he kicked him out because he was a spy. I think he kicked him out because it's like, look, I want a tenant that's going to work the land.
There were also some other arguments they did have there apparently been fighting about chickens and some other stuff. Yeah. Well, I just feel that, like, if I were Dean and I knew this guy was a spy, let's just saying I'm not going to be like, Hey, get out of my house. You're a spy. And be like, Listen, man, honestly, I need somebody to work the land, and you're just not going to do that. So I need you to leave. Good point. A thought no, no. It's a good deal.
So if he was a spy and they were also buddies before he realized it was him, they probably chatted about like, hey, man, there's like, weird lives going on and like, I see some weird shit going on, and then obviously he's like, shit, he's on to me. Yeah. I mean, I can't I can't disagree. I can't disagree. I could be throwing an innocent person. Under. The bus, under the carriage wheel. They're long dead, so you don't have to to worry about sending him.
They could haunt me, though, up in New Hampshire. It's true. So. Oh, that Jordan was going to say something. Were you just pointing? Oh, sorry. I need to shut up. No, no, you don't. You're basically yeah. So they had also. Yeah, they had been fighting about some chickens and some, like other things around the barn. Apparently, there was like, Cole Felt wanted to pay for hay, and Dean was like, Hey, pay me for the hay. And cause that was like, Yeah, I need a bill, though.
I need, like, I need a receipt. And Dean wouldn't send them the bill, so of course, I wouldn't pay for the hay. And it was this whole rigamarole. My point is, I think they were fighting and arguing, and Dean wanted them out because a very typical tenant landlord stuff. I don't think it sounds like he discovered that was a spy. Well, then who did it? Mickey? Oh, well, I. All pressures. Pressures on. So we're not we're not done with coffee yet.
So apparently the the the screen and the lights and the chemical treatment and all these things about like windows and the big house having been affected by signal lights up to the mountain. I've never found any way to validate that there's no pictures of land. There's also that they're like contradicting evidence of like, oh, it's chemical treatment. No, it's like the screens have been burnt. No, the windows were discolored. It all just seems like local stories.
That's. Was the house still there? You know. That house is not still there. There's other houses from the story that are still there, but not the big house. But no, I've never been able to validate something happening to the windows. So I do think that's just rumor. Even in the grand jury testimony. If that was real, I feel like that would have been brought up. It never. Was. Yeah, that would have been so right that. Yeah. Now, there's also another story about Caufield.
I forgot to mention that I work. So there is there's pros and cons to it of him being a suspect but when he moved out, he had a big box and no one saw the inside of it. And he was really worried about it when it was being moved. He wanted to make sure it was really well taken care of. He didn't want it bouncing around when it was being transported. And so a lot of people think that it was holding wireless communications.
You got to be very careful because it was some sort of generator or communication device that he was using and spy activity. He said it was a Victrola, which is basically a record player. It's a stereo so when I hear that, I'm like, Well, yeah, of course he was trying to take care of his stereo. Like, that's what even today TVs and stereos are like. When I move those are the things I'm worried about. So if he's. Rich, couldn't he just buy a new one?
I think people still worry about this thing and it's bad. It's Jordan Space it's got. So it would that's that's my that's my reasoning for why he was worried about the box. I don't think it was a communication device. I think it was a Victrola and he wanted to take care of it. Now, as to him being German, his family was most definitely not German. He was from Pennsylvania. His family lineage goes back many generations on both sides.
His grandfather was involved with business and politics in Pennsylvania. He has relatives that fought in the Civil War. He was he loves. Being an American. He loves being an American. He was also of Irish ancestry. Now, could he have been a German sympathizer? I don't know. But it definitely doesn't point to that. Federal investing gators did investigate them and they actually just found him to be very pure blooded American.
You know, like they found nothing in his activity or his family or anything he did to be connected with Germany in any way. So those are my those are my reasons to. Sort of exonerate. Exonerate. Thank you for the good word. So my theory, I will share my theory. I'll dove into it because I actually think you guys will agree with me. Please. I think the killing was very brutal. It seems like someone or something, someone who would have to do with multiple people.
I think people were waiting for Dean or approached him at the barn, which means they knew his his activity they knew he milked his cows late at night. They knew the land, they knew the cistern. They knew how to get there. They did not take anything. Nothing was stolen. There's no sign that hoodlums were, you know, drawing graffiti or having a campfire like this. Looks like somebody was specifically there to attack. Dean also being tied up.
I think that he was hit on the head to kind of like get them to, you know, just the initial like a sneak up and discombobulation. Yeah, tie them up. And then potentially what is their where and not not ask questions. What is there with the word. Interrogate. I think they tie him up to interrogate him. Find out actually how much he really knows. And as he's talking, they're choking him. If he's not saying what they want to hear and not saying what I want to know. And I think that's how he died.
And then they, you know. Yeah, go ahead. No, I feel the same way. Have you looked up how people were killed other like like in that time frame from like spies or anything? Any you know, I have not. And that is something to look into. I did look up other like spy activity in the area, but mostly it had to do with lights and signals. There were no murders that we can find that was like, oh, this is an international conspiracy of someone doing that. So I think he's the only one.
He's like the soul mate, like guy, like victim that we have to even look at. But just the nature of the murder makes me think it's not Charles Rich. I can't see a guy like that that worked in the bank and helped of the court. And he did other, like, things around town to help things out and had these like like that just does not seem like the kind of guy that would kill somebody in this manner. Also hiding him in the system. Whoever did it knew he'd eventually be found.
Yeah. So that can be sent as a bit of a message to like, hey, you know, don't be quiet, this could happen to you kind of thing. And I keep thinking, as I think about this who would who would actually assassinate him? And I do think spies, you know, this rural doctor that didn't become a doctor that just kind of farmed his land and rented a house he's got if he had enemies, they're not going to kill him in this manner. No. This has to be spy activity.
And as I was thinking this, as I'm learning this researching, I keep thinking now it's too it's too Hollywood. It can't be that. It cannot be it. But the more I look into it, the more I'm like, no, this has to be. He came across something. He saw some past his house. Yeah. I don't know that it's the guy in the big house. Yeah. But it has to be I mean, it has to be spies because he files. For this guy. He. Yeah, he knew something was up with the lights.
I mean, giving Mrs. Morrison the message, trying to get someone here, like, I've really got to think that it was someone, like, if there were already agents, they're, like, trying to figure it out. I wish someone would have gone to and been like, we know, dude, just lay low. Yeah, but if he. Would just told Mrs. Moore, just tell me, because we would know exactly what he found out. Like, I overheard Joe talk at the, you know, general store the other day, and he's speaking German.
And I've been saying, you know, like, I wish he had said something to Mrs. Morrison. But she was a. Woman because women. Can't handle dangerous things. That's true. But also, she's alive or she lived because of that. Maybe because had she know that, oh, she might have been killed, too. Who? But but also, like, I mean, it could have been a ruse to be like, hey, I'm going to get out of town. I'll be I'll be here. Working you. I'll take care of him because he's figured it out and you need to do it.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it really does protect his ass by being like oh, I guess he he did. He left and got a job like me is more of a stand up guy than we thought lies. Yeah. I mean, look, as much as I kind of write off co felt, I think that is it's a good point. You know, he could have been a mastermind behind this. And even if he wasn't German, like I said, he could have had sympathies. He could have been paid off. He could have just been. Bored. And if you're looking for something to do.
Yeah, yeah. Like, what's in it? Well, staying up late. So idle hands make the devil's work. That's right, honey. But also, why the fuck would you go up there and just hang out in the month? In the winter? Yeah. Yeah. That's that's the biggest thing, man. We've been in the winter. Brutal. It's I mean, like, and we've got all the modern conveniences. Yeah. Now, would you rather be up. There and up for fun? Yeah. Would you rather be out there in the winter or during mud season?
Oh, I think you're about to say bye bye because I was like, Ah. Boy, black flag. Winter over. Black Fly. Yeah, me too. Winter over Black Fly. Yeah, I don't know. I haven't been up there for mid-season. Yeah, I haven't either. I've got to get to try it out. So it's. Like leaving. Yeah. Is there anything else you guys want to add to this? Any other series you brought up? And if I could just wrap this up in a tight bow real quick, I'd probably. I'm just kidding. I really solved it.
I was like with a metal detector around Jaffrey and like in the next couple of months, and I could find the milk bucket. Ooh, listen, the next time you're filming up there, we must take a spotlight up there and do a test. Oh, my God, that is so funny. Oh, that really would be cool. Honestly, do we know what kind of lights they used, or was it? I think it was a variety. I think it was always a variety of things. I don't think it was always the same thing.
Like how that's kind of a light did you have to have back then to be able to do that? Well, what I mean, even if it wasn't like electrical, like the gas, you know, the gas ones they'd use for mining just had like huge polished disks. And they like I mean. The lighthouse would have a giant like. So. Yeah, and honestly, I don't think you guys think back then. I mean, it's still rural. There's still not a lot of light pollution, but back then, even less. Oh yeah, you're right.
So you actually don't need something super powerful and if you're just sending a signal from the top of the mountain to the other mountain to the pack Pacman, not Monadnock, it's always a crash mountain. Oh, is that what it's called? OK, if you're sending that, it's not. Yeah. I don't think you need something super powerful.
No, because even when you're at Aldworth, if you're in the top floor of the manor, you can see people skiing at night, and then they do the night skis and they carry torches. You can see them coming down the mountain, and that's. Good. That's good. Direct, direct information. From the land there for the story. I love it. I love it. Yeah, man. Yeah. God, yeah. I didn't. We haven't even talked.
We haven't even talked about how there's more lay lines that cross over the Monadnock region than, like, anywhere in the world. That's what. Boom. When we're researching weird stuff. Yeah, that always pops up. I've got to look into that next. Yeah, no, I mean, look, when I started this, guys, when I started reading, at first I was like, it's not going to be enough here for a story because these these lights, they're not going to be anything.
And then I look into it, I'm like, Oh, these lights are something. Yeah, I get more like murder. And I'm like, Oh, this, this is a good mystery. And then I. But I never expected at the end to actually come to the conclusion that I think he actually came across some spy activity, and that's what got him killed. I literally never expected to have that conclusion. I was like, Nah, it's someone in town jealous of him or whatever, like it normally is.
And it's like, no, I actually came to the conclusion I think it's spies. Oh, yeah. And for Dr. Dean, you know, one of the guys at all was named Dean maybe we can channel his spirit through him now. Yeah, well, I think this has got to be where Tolkien got his idea for, like, the lights of Gondor and, like, sending those messages, right? Like, he was in the war he was in. Yeah. From of town. Oh, yeah, yeah. And that's the other thing, too.
Just if people do question the lights, a lot of people that it is are investigated they're we're talked to when people are investigating the lights is in Europe, they were using similar type coding and signals. So it just it fits it's just it was the best way to send signals that you didn't want people to understand or translate. Yeah. Especially knowing that they use different colored things like I mean gosh, all kinds of messages, man.
Yeah. And that guy on the horseback, like that's a really that's that's really scary. Yeah. Him being on horseback and those people pulling up in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. And especially, like, you don't have like, like you were saying light pollution. Like when it's dark up there. It is dark. It's dark like on a, on a moonlit night, you're like, wow, it's incredible because, like, otherwise it is dark. You see every star in the sky, like, it's really something else.
So if you're out in the woods by yourself without your headlights on, I mean, well, on a horse and then you see a car come up without headlights on, like, what were they doing? And wait, what they said was this is it? This is the spot. That's what they said. That's what he says that he heard. Yeah. Yes. Or something like that. Who knows? They could have been picnicking. They could have been having you know. Could be lovers later. Yeah, exactly. You know, we don't know. We don't know.
But it is it is you know, it's the coincidence of the lights going on and him investigating the lights and seeing a car with no lights on hiding from people. Yeah, I definitely see. Yeah, there could have been. In the battery. Yeah. What was in the battery thing. But I actually do think he legitimately wanted a flashlight to see home because there actually is talk that the the rich family gave him a lantern on his way home the night that he died.
So I do think he just was like, it's dark outside. It's hard to see the roads. You know, I think he just wanted that. But it is it does have the same question. I'm not saying that it's 100%. I think he could have may have wanted his flash to work to try to like respond back to a light and see if he could get some sort of like, you know, provoke sense that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Play with it back. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. See what happened. Poor guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think you're right being fair. They knew it would be found. And it is a bit of a message because like, say, the people in the car that were like, this is it. Maybe they thought like, hey, those lights in the mountains and they went to go try to find out what it was too. And then like someone in the town dying, if it was rumored that it could have been involvement with spies and stuff like that. Which is what, everyone. Yeah. Real quick. Yeah, well, thank you all you both this better?
I said, because you guys are from Arkansas, so I was going to like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Darwin was here giving her opinions as well. Yeah, exactly. Well, thank you for doing this. Thank you for doing it with a wee wee babe at home. Yes. So fun. Thanks for having us. This is going to really it's going to really bad may not knowing this yet. Yeah, I well, me. Hey, me too.
But I do think we've we've been able to come to a conclusion that actually helps because I don't think everybody thinks about the spies. And I actually I've gone through everything. The only thing left to do is talk to more people locally. That's it. But I'm like, I'm so leaning. Got to like it's I know I've got and on that note. You got to you got to bring. Yeah. Yeah.
On the other note listeners, please, if you enjoyed this story, you want to hear more message me at a study of stranger gmail.com. Let me know because I will I will do a follow up. If there's enough of a of an eagerness out there and see if I can interview people in Jaffrey that are part of the historical society that have compiled all of this amazing research. I cannot thank them enough. They don't even know I did this.
And yet, if you are listening, thank you so much for your research into this I have spent countless hours reading, reading so much. But it's been it's been really fun. And but I would love to interview you, interview you if there's enough interest so please message me and then let's tell everybody to to watch Squirrel and Ghost of the Ozarks to see work from Tara and Jordan and hint myself too. I'm involved in this things too. The that goes to the Ozarks is out for rent everywhere.
Yeah, in the hunted woods and on squirrel, you will see a landscape from this area. So if you watch squirrel, just know it was all filmed right around where this story happens. Where this. Seed is going to be for. Free. Yeah. Gorgeous shot of Mount Monadnock. Yes, you will. I forgot. That's the mountain edit itself. It's so amazing to think about that. Well, yes. Thank you all again. Love it. Thanks, Michael. We loved. It. Yes. So fun. And that concludes the bizarre murder of Dr. William Dean.
It seems like most of my first episodes have involved people named William from William Herbert Wallace. William Butler and now William Dean. That's an interesting coincidence. Anyway, please hit that subscribe button. Or as my son would say, Smash that button. Leave a review and tune in for more. A study of strange show notes and more information for our Patreon, which has a very special giveaway going on right now.
Can be found at WW dot a study of strange dot com and stay up to date with releases by following us on Instagram. And also lastly you heard me say it in the show. I am very serious that if there's enough interest in this particular topic of Dr. William Dean, send me an email, a study of strange at gmail.com. Yeah, if there's enough interest, I'm definitely going to be reaching out to people in Jaffrey and seeing if I can get an interview or something like that to do a follow up.
So let me know otherwise. Thank you and good night.