The True Story of Pearl Bryan

In the early morning light of February 1, 1896 sixteen year old James Hewling walked across the orchard owned by his employer John Lock, on his way to work. As he approached Alexandria Pike, which bordered the field, he noticed something lying on the ground, and when he got closer he realized it was a woman, lying face down near the brush that separated the field from the road. He didn't approach her, and didn't think much of it because the area was isolated and near Fort Thomas; it was not unusual for women from the town to come out there with soldiers from the fort. In his own words, he didn't know, "...if she was asleep or just drunk..." When he arrived at the house he informed Colonel Lock of what he had seen and went on to work. Colonel Lock contacted Campbell County Sheriff Julius "Jake" Plummer who dispatched a deputy to investigate. As luck would have it, the county coroner Robert Tingely was nearby and accompanied the deputy to the scene.

The sun had fully risen by the time the two men arrived at the field and they discovered that the woman was still there. As he approached the woman Coroner Tingley noticed a torn part of a man's shirtsleeve lying on the ground; the shirtsleeve had blood on it. From this Robert Tingely knew that the woman was dead before he got within a few steps of her. The body was laying face down on the slope of the hill towards the road, with the feet higher than the torso. The dead girl was wearing a blue and white checked skirt and white blouse. The skirt was thrown up over the torso, and she was wearing blue stockings with black, button top shoes that were covered by worn rubbers. Her right arm was pinned under her. As Tingley knelt beside the body he lifted her left hand and saw that the four fingers were cut almost to the bone. When he turned the body over and pulled the skirt down to see who the girl might be, he discovered to his horror that her head was missing.

Tingely turned to the deputy and told him to get to the Fort and call Sheriff Plummer. As the deputy raced across the field toward the military post, Tingely continued his examination of the body. The woman's blouse had been torn open, her corset had been torn off and was lying a few feet away. Her undergarments were also torn open exposing her breasts. All of her underclothes had bloody fingerprints on them. The skirt had grass and mud stains at the knees and part of it had been torn away. This fragment was hanging from one for the nearby bushes. As he looked up at the surrounding brush he noticed that blood droplets stained the undersides of many of the leaves and the upper part of the body was lying in a pool of blood. Tingley stood and stepped back away from the corpse to wait for the sheriff.

Plummer arrived quickly and he, along with the deputy and Tingely looked around the crime scene. They noticed that there were three distinct sets of footprints. One ended near the top of the small rise along the edge of the field, as if that person never left sight of the road. The other two sets of footprints were side by side as if the couple were walking together peacefully, then they turned and went in a straight line toward the road. Both sets of footprints went across a small muddy patch and ended abruptly. Plummer noted that there were signs of a struggle and drag marks from where the footprints ended to where the body lay. Coroner Tingely informed the Sheriff that it looked like a rape, but he would know more when he performed a full autopsy. The coroner had done most of the work that could be done at the scene and thought it would be best to remove the body. Looking at the people who had already come to the orchard to see the ghastly find, the Sheriff readily agreed and sent a deputy to arrange for a wagon to carry the remains to Newport where they could be thoroughly examined. As the body was being driven away, Plummer thought to himself that perhaps a soldier from the fort was the perpetrator. Curious onlookers had already begun plucking blood stained leaves from the bushes and gathering small samples of dirt from the pool of blood where the body had lain. Out of curiosity a man had dug down into the puddle and found that the earth was saturated with blood to a depth of over eight inches.

Soon officers from neighboring Covington had come over to assist in the investigation, and these were put to work restraining the onlookers. Two Cincinnati detectives named Crim and McDermott arrived to assist as well. This was not an unusual occurrence because the small Northern Kentucky towns didn't have the resources to handle a major case. While they could not make an arrest in a crime committed in Kentucky, the Cincinnati detective's skills and experience were helpful and welcome. Sheriff Plummer would need all the help he could get; he had no idea who this unfortunate young woman was, and without the head, it was unlikely that he would ever know. Plummer shared what he had found so far with the two detectives and proceeded into town to begin sorting through missing persons reports.

As Coroner Tingley arrived at White's Mortuary on 4^th Street in Newport a small crowd had already gathered and he quickly moved the body into the building to prepare it to be viewed. The Newport Police brought in several people who had reported missing young girls to look at the remains in an attempt to identify them, but it was to no avail. The body remained in the mortuary until that Monday when a team gathered to conduct the post mortem. For this Doctor Tingley was joined by William Carothers, Charles Pythian, and doctors Jenkins, Fishbach and Schofield. The doctors began by undressing the body and placing the clothing in bags to be given to Sheriff Plummer. As he removed the shoes Carothers noticed that while most of the clothing was well worn, the shoes were fairly new and well made. Inside the shoes Carothers noticed a marking, 22-11.

Once they had bagged the clothing they began a thorough external examination. What they found disproved Tingely's initial belief; there was no evidence of the trauma that would have been present had the girl been raped. They found ligature marks around the remains of the neck that appeared to be caused by human hands. The neck itself was cleanly cut, as if a very sharp instrument had been used. When the fingers of the left hand were held together it was apparent that the cuts noted by Tingely at the scene were inflicted by a single stroke as if she had grabbed the blade of the knife in an attempt to defend herself. Further examination of the hands showed that she did not perform manual labor, she was most likely someone who worked indoors. Tingely wrote in his report that she had hands like those of a seamstress. On one of the fingers of her right hand was a small wart. The first three toes of her right foot were fused, a common birth defect.

Following the external examination the doctors began dissecting the body. They found that she was about five months pregnant, and they removed the fetus and preserved it for later examination. Her stomach was also removed and sent to The Medical College of Ohio in Cincinnati for analysis of its contents. They established her age as being between nineteen and twenty-two and determined that her pregnancy was her first. When the autopsy was finished they had discovered much and while it was all useful information, none of it told the doctors who this woman was.

Following the autopsy, Carothers spoke to Sheriff Plummer about the clothing that the woman was wearing, telling him that it was likely that the dress was homemade, but the shoes were commercially manufactured and new enough that they may be able to trace them to the company that made them. With the sheriff's permission, Carothers took the shoes to a local merchant named L.D. Poock. Poock did not know where the shoes had come from, but he was confident that some of his contacts in Cincinnati would recognize them. He was given permission to take the shoes over the river to see if anyone knew where they might have been made. While at a factory a salesman stepped forward saying the he thought the shoes were similar to those manufactured by Drew, Selby and Company of Portsmouth, Ohio. With this information in hand Poock boarded a train for Portsmouth.

Upon his arrival he headed immediately to Drew, Selby and Company's factory. Their manager established within minutes that the shoes were indeed made by them; the curious mark 22-11 was the number of a size three shoe form used in their manufacture. A check of the company's books revealed that the shoes were part of a lot of twelve pairs made for the Louis and Hays Department Store of Greencastle, Indiana. Only one of the twelve pairs was size three. Poock immediately telegraphed this news back to Newport and caught the evening train home.

Retrieving the shoes from Poock, Sheriff Plummer, accompanied by Detectives Crim and McDermott set out for Greencastle. They arrived the next morning and immediately went to Louis and Hays' store with the shoes. The salesmen there recognized them and confirmed that they were in fact made by Drew, Selby and Company as part of a special order. After checking the store's books it was discovered that nine pairs of the shoes had been sold but the policemen could only locate buyers for seven of them; all were found to be very much alive. Leaving Louis and Hays, the detectives took the clothing to every dry goods merchant in town, along with a pair of gloves that had been also been found at the crime scene. This proved to be a dead end as no one recognized any of the items. Tired from their day's work, the three policemen returned to their hotel planning to start anew the next day.

Word of the grisly find in the Northern Kentucky highlands had preceded the lawmen's arrival in the tiny town and their presence caused a good deal of excitement. In one particular family that excitement quickly turned to concern. Fred Bryan went to the local Western Union office to telegraph Indianapolis inquiring about his youngest sister, Pearl who nine days ago had told her family that she was going there to visit friends. They had not heard from her since. The friends quickly wired back that Pearl had not been in Indianapolis and they were not aware that she was supposed to be there. The telegraph operator, Andrew Early quickly realized the importance of this exchange and went immediately to the policemen's hotel to share this information along with some details that were unknown to the Bryan family.

Early was a good friend of Pearl Bryan's cousin William Wood. Two weeks earlier Wood had confided to Early that there had been a relationship between Pearl and a man named Scott Jackson who was now attending dental college in Cincinnati. Early knew that Pearl hadn't gone to Indianapolis as she had told her family; she went to Cincinnati to see Scott Jackson.

It was well after midnight but in spite of the late hour, the three policemen went to the home of Louis and Hays' manager, a man named Spivey. Returning with him to the store they took another look at the books, this time they had only one question: did Pearl Bryan purchase a pair of the black, cloth button top shoes? In a short time they found that she had; Pearl Bryan had bought the one pair of size three shoes.

Plummer, Crim and McDermott left the store and went immediately to the Bryan home just outside of town. Waking the family, they gathered with them in the sitting room and removed the skirt that had been worn by the dead girl from a small case. In the dim lantern light Plummer handed it to the girl's mother, who looked at it only briefly and exclaimed, "Pearl, my poor Pearl!" and broke into sobs. Pearl Bryan's sister identified the clothing as having been remade for Pearl from one of her old dresses. As each item was produced the family was able to identify it. Mrs. Bryan tried to rationalize what was happening, searching for some hope that Pearl might still be alive. Perhaps she gave her clothes to some other unfortunate girl who was wearing them when she was killed. Pearl's older sister gave up this thought when a pair of hairpins was produced, they had been hers; she had given them to Pearl. Sheriff Plummer described the body, including the small wart and the webbed toes and the family surrendered all hope. Jake Plummer now had a name to go with the headless body, and also the name of her possible murderer.

It was in the early morning hours when the officers returned to their hotel, but before turning in for the night they sent a telegram off to Cincinnati identifying the dead girl as Pearl Bryan of Greencastle, Indiana and ordering the arrest of Scott Jackson, a student at the Dental College of Ohio. They added a description of Jackson and also ordered the arrest of Will Wood, Pearl's cousin, if he too happened to be in Cincinnati. They informed the Chief of Police, Phillip Deitsch that they intended to go to South Bend, Indiana in pursuit of Wood after being told he had left Greencastle for there to study medicine under his uncle.

By all outward appearances Scott Jackson, William Wood, and Pearl Bryan were normal upper middle class young adults. They lived in a genteel era that observed the niceties of late Victorian society and should have gone on to live prosperous, if nondescript lives. But somehow they became tangled in a web together; a web that pulled them down a path that left Pearl lying dead in a rural Kentucky orchard. The story of how this happened is a cautionary tale that reminds us to be careful of who we trust and that not everyone is what they appear to be on the surface.

In 1896 Pearl Bryan was twenty-one years old and the daughter of a prosperous Indiana farmer. She was the youngest of twelve children, five of her siblings having died in infancy or as children. Her parents doted on Pearl and being the last of their children to remain at home they showered her with affection and what material things they could provide. She was described as being slender, with a good figure and porcelain skin. She had graduated from high school with honors and her outgoing and vivacious personality made her a favorite among her classmates. Pearl had many suitors and although she rejected them all, she was said to have treated every one of them with equal respect regardless of their station in life. She could have had any man she wanted, but Pearl wanted more than what could be found in the farmlands of Southern Indiana. She had many friends, but one of her closest was her cousin William Wood.

Will Wood lived near the Bryan farm and was a second cousin to Pearl. They were about the same age and had attended high school together, as such they remained close after graduation; the relationship was that of a sister with her protective older brother. Will's father was a Methodist minister and this gave him a certain standing within the community. After graduation Will sought to study medicine, first as an assistant to a local doctor, and later at DePauw University nearby.

In late 1894 Will Wood met a newcomer to Greencastle, a man named Scott Jackson. Jackson was older than Wood and seemed much more sophisticated. His father was a sea captain who had risen from deck seaman to command several vessels in long and storied career. Through the auspices of his father's work, Scott Jackson had traveled extensively by the time he was a young adult. Jackson's sister had married a man from Greencastle and after his father passed away unexpectedly, Jackson's mother moved to the small Indiana town to be near her. It was to visit his mother that Scott Jackson came to Greencastle for the first time and met Will Wood. From outward appearances Jackson seemed a typical fine young man, coming of age at the end of the nineteenth century. He was considered handsome and was outwardly very charming; for this reason people were naturally drawn to him. But beneath the façade of breeding and manners he hid a darker side so effectively that no one in Greencastle had any inkling of the double life he led.

After his mother had left their native New Jersey Jackson remained, finding employment with the Pennsylvania Railroad as an assistant clerk. He worked in the accounts receivable department and part of his job was to open the mail each day and tally the mailed checks to be deposited into the railroad's accounts. His boss, Alexander Letts was responsible for entering the payments in the books and the two of them colluded to steal some of the checks, cash them, and split the money. Most of the money was spent in carousing at some of the more notorious saloons of Jersey City, but a good portion of it was bet on horses at local race tracks. In time their thefts amounted to over $32,000, a huge sum of money in an era where a laborer might make five dollars a week.

It didn't take long before word of their high living had spread throughout the company and this led to an audit of the books. Their embezzlements were quickly discovered and charges filed. Their first trial ended in a hung jury but during its course more evidence was discovered of how involved Scott Jackson was. Confronted with this he chose to testify against his partner and in exchange for his testimony the charges against him were dropped. Following the trial he left for Indiana, hoping to start anew.

Jackson's was not a particularly spectacular crime, and not the kind of thing that would appear in any but the local papers, so when he first came to Greencastle no one knew of what had happened in New Jersey. His sister was married to a prominent local doctor and professor at DePauw University, his mother was the widow of a well known seafarer; with these credentials Scott Jackson was immediately taken into the best families of the small farming town. He decided that he would study dentistry and after a short visit with his mother he traveled to Indianapolis to enroll in the Indiana College of Dentistry. Before leaving he invited his new found friend Will Wood to visit him there when he had the chance.

In Indianapolis Scott Jackson quickly fell into his old habits, becoming notorious in his escapades with the pliant female company that was available in the state capitol. Will Wood regularly joined him there and the two of them became fast friends while carousing in the bars around town. Somehow word of their behavior never reached Greencastle so they were able to maintain their image of gentility. During one of his visits to Greencastle Will Wood introduced his friend to his cousin Pearl Bryan.

Pearl was immediately taken with the sophisticated, handsome young man from back east. Unlike the sons of farmers and merchants that she had known through school, he had traveled extensively and lived in the big cities of the eastern seaboard. He was different from anyone she had ever known. Jackson was also very charming and Pearl was completely smitten. Her family was happy to see that she had found someone like him; he was intelligent, from a good family, and had good prospects. All in all they saw Jackson as an excellent match for their youngest daughter and allowed him to see her whenever he was in town. They even permitted the two young people to visit in their sitting room until the late hours of the night which was nearly scandalous behavior in rural Indiana at the time.

As time went on their relationship intensified and at some point became intimate. Then in the late summer of 1895 Jackson decided to leave dental school in Indianapolis and transfer to the Dental College of Ohio in Cincinnati. At the same time he abruptly ended his relationship with Pearl. Rather than telling her he didn't want to see her anymore, he simply cut off communication, refusing to see her and not returning her messages. Two months later she "...made a discovery..." in the parlance of the day, she was pregnant. This threw her into a panic, her father was one of the most respected men in Greencastle and she was considered the most eligible girl in the county, who had turned down every young man in the area. The scandal would be more than her family could bear. With Jackson refusing her messages and seemingly nowhere else to turn, she went to her cousin, Will Wood.

Wood wrote to Jackson in Cincinnati and there followed a heated exchange of letters in which Jackson provided recipes for various drugs that were supposed to induce a miscarriage. All of these failed and finally, just after the New Year 1896, Jackson relented and wrote to Wood, "Tell the girl to come to Cincinnati." In his letter he said he had made all of the necessary arrangements for Pearl to have an abortion. According to Jackson the procedure would be performed by a doctor and a chemist who were, "...old hands at that sort of work..." and she would be attended to by an old woman. It all seemed to be the solution to her problem so Pearl agreed to go, and on January 27^th she told her parents that she was going to Indianapolis to visit friends. She packed two valises, one of leather and the other of alligator skin and headed to the train station. Will Wood was supposed to accompany her on the trip but at the last minute his father asked him to stay at home. He escorted Pearl to the train station and saw her off, it was the last time he saw her alive.

The train arrived in Cincinnati in the early afternoon and Pearl was met by Scott Jackson who immediately took her to the Indiana House, a hostel for women near the station. Once he saw her into a room he told her that he had to go to class and he would see her later. They had dinner that evening at one of the taverns around town where Scott Jackson normally took his meals.

The next day Pearl Bryan was introduced to Alonzo Walling. Alonzo Walling was almost the polar opposite of Scott Jackson. He was the son of a poor widow. His father had been a glassmaker and had died when Alonzo was three. This left the mother on her own to raise her small family as best she could. Through a strange fluke Walling had once lived in Greencastle as a child and had worked at the local glass factory to help support his family. There is no indication that he had met Pearl Bryan or her cousin William Wood before that January day in Cincinnati. He had attended the Indiana Dental College at the same time as Jackson but they had only a passing acquaintance, sharing a few classes. Through another strange coincidence after Jackson moved to Cincinnati they became reacquainted when Jackson returned to his boarding house one day to find Walling standing on the doorstep looking for a place to stay. They agreed to share a room, taking their meals out, usually at Wallingford's Tavern which was nearby or Legner's Tavern which was just across the street.

Over the next few days Jackson, Walling and Pearl were spotted at various places about town which culminated in an incident that possibly sealed Pearl's fate. On the morning of January 30^th the three were walking down Elm Street involved in a heated discussion. They had reached the street corner in front of the John Church Music Publishing Company when the discussion exploded into a violent argument. As the shocked workers watched and listened Pearl Bryan made it clear to Scott Jackson that she had been in town since Monday and he had not done what he promised to do. If he was not going to meet his obligation she would return home on the afternoon train and her cousin Will Wood would "...make things right..." The two men were apparently able to placate her because she did not go home that afternoon; instead she returned to her room and promised to meet them the next evening when everything would be taken care of.

Sometime that evening Alonzo Walling went down to the corner of Elm and George Streets where he met a man named George H. Jackson. He offered George Jackson five dollars if he would drive a cab for him the next night. George accepted and agreed to meet Walling on the corner the next night at 7:00PM.

The following night, January 31, 1896 Pearl Bryan met with Walling and Scott Jackson at Wallingford's Tavern, located at the corner of Elm and Plum Streets. Rather than stay in the main bar they took a table in a small sitting room off to the side. They had dinner and Jackson ordered a whiskey for himself and a sarsaparilla, which was a popular non-alcoholic drink much like root beer, for Pearl. In Jackson's pocket was a small bottle containing sixteen grains of cocaine dissolved in water. Before returning to the table he emptied the contents of the bottle into Pearl's drink. Just before 7:00PM Walling left the group and returned a few minutes later with the cab, driven by George Jackson.

As George Jackson waited with the carriage, Alonzo Walling went into the Tavern and soon emerged with Scott Jackson and Pearl, who was now feeling ill; the three of them got into the back of the cab and told George Jackson to drive across the Central Bridge into Newport. It was raining when the carriage arrived at the foot of York Street and in spite of this Alonzo Walling got out of the cab and climbed onto the driver's seat with Jackson. He directed him to continue south on York Street until they got to 11^th Street. They then turned right, down 11^th Street until they reached Licking Pike. At Licking Pike the carriage turned left. In the cold winter rain they came to John's Hill Road where they turned left again, moving east. Once over the hill they arrived at Alexandria Pike where they made a final left turn, headed north. Their route had described a large hook, finally coming to the orchard belonging to John R. Lock. It was close to 11:00PM when they arrived and the rain had stopped. Walling ordered George Jackson to stop the carriage and he climbed down from the driver's seat. Scott Jackson emerged from the carriage and the two men helped Pearl Bryan out. She had moaned and cried throughout the trip; this along with the isolated location and the strange behavior of the group unnerved George Jackson. One of the men told Jackson to drive the carriage down the road a short distance, turn around and wait there for them to call him. He did as he was told and as he tied the horse to a fencepost he could see the group making their way over the fence into the orchard. George Jackson was not an educated man but he was smart enough to know that something was going to happen here that he wanted no part of, so he dropped the reins and fled on foot for home.

Pearl Bryan, with Alonzo Walling and Scott Jackson on either side of her made their way over the three-rail fence. The two top rails were down which made it easy for them, and as they stepped into the orchard they had to climb a small hill. At the top of this hill Alonzo Walling stopped, watching the road and also watching Jackson and Bryan as they continued on across the field.

Scott Jackson and Pearl Bryan continued to walk across the field, side by side, for some distance when suddenly Pearl turned and began to run back toward the road. Jackson pursued, quickly overtaking her and he attempted to strangle her with his bare hands. After throwing the young woman to the ground he started to drag her toward the brush that lined the edge of the field. Pearl began to struggle again and Jackson produced his knife thrusting at her in an attempt to stab the young woman. Pearl reached out with her left hand to defend herself, grabbing the blade. The knife was razor sharp and left deep cuts on her fingers but she forced Jackson to pull it away to break her grip. He came at her again and this time she grabbed his shirtsleeve at the elbow, gripping it so hard that her fingernails penetrated the material gouging Jackson's arm. As he pulled away in pain she left two deep scratches in his arm that caused him to drop the knife. As Jackson turned to retrieve his weapon Pearl crawled away, hoping to find safety. If she could only make it to the road perhaps the driver would help her, or maybe she could hide in the darkness, but she couldn't get away. Scott Jackson came up behind Pearl, grabbed her by the hair, pulling her head back, and cut her throat. Pearl Bryan died within seconds.

Scott Jackson finished removing the head and wrapped it in his coat. Laying it aside he turned the body over and tore open the bodice of her dress. He ripped off her corset and threw it aside. He then tore open the undergarment beneath; leaving bloody fingerprints on all of her clothing. Investigators speculated that he was searching the body for some incriminating letter hidden on her person, but more likely he was staging the crime scene to look like a rape. This finished, he turned the corpse over and threw the skirts over the torso. He picked up the head and he and Walling walked out onto the road to find George Jackson gone, but the horse and carriage still there. They boarded it and made their way back to Cincinnati the way they had come. As Walling drove, Jackson rode in the back, wiping the blood from his hands with a handkerchief. He spotted Pearl's hat still in the carriage and threw it, along with the handkerchief out by the side of the road.

It was well after 3:00AM when they returned to their room at the boarding house. Jackson took the head from his coat and placed it in one of Pearl Bryan's valises along with the knife. Pearl had gathered her belongings from the Indiana House earlier and given them to Jackson with the thought that she would be staying somewhere less public while she recovered from the procedure, and these Jackson gave to Walling who disposed of them, along with the coat, in various sewers around Cincinnati. The valise containing the head he kept in his room. Their deed done, Jackson and Walling went to sleep.

At some point that day Scott Jackson woke up and wrote a letter to Will Wood, who had since gone to South Bend, Indiana to study medicine under his uncle. In the letter he simply said that he had made a great mistake and that they were all in trouble. He admonished Wood to "Say nothing and stand by your old friend and I'll do the same for you sometime." He also instructed Wood to destroy the letter after reading it. He left his room, first going to the Dental College even though it was a Saturday. He put the mud and bloodstained trousers he had worn the night before into his locker and then took the tan valise to Legner's Tavern and gave it to the bartender, asking him to hold it for him. The bartender noted how oddly weighted the valise was and asked Jackson if there was a bowling ball in it. Jackson chuckled and said yes. The Valise remained at Legner's until the next evening at about 8:00 o'clock when Jackson returned and picked it up.

After retrieving the valise Scott Jackson walked down Elm Street and out onto the Covington Suspension Bridge. In the cold dark night there was no one around as he continued onto the bridge and once he reached the center of the span Jackson looked around. Seeing no one nearby, he dumped the contents of the valise over the rail and into the Ohio River below. In the winter the river was high and the current strong, the discarded contents would never be seen again. Jackson took the valise with him as he returned to Cincinnati, walking back up Elm Street. He went into a nearby Tavern, a place where he was not known, and left the now empty satchel with the bartender.

For the next few days Jackson and Walling went about their normal business as if nothing had happened. They went to class, and took their meals separately at different taverns about the area. In the morning hours of February 5, 1896 Chief of Police Phillip Deitsch was awakened to be informed of the telegram from his men in Greencastle. He quickly read the note and ordered three detectives to find and arrest Jackson. It was soon discovered that Jackson lived in a boarding house at 222 West Ninth Street and the three policemen headed there to make the arrest. One man stationed himself at Legner's Tavern; the other two took up posts at either end of the block to wait for their quarry. After several hours of waiting Chief Deitsch received information that Jackson was at a nearby hotel. He rushed from his office to the scene and spied a man matching Jackson's description. Deitsch was able to inform his detectives at the boarding house and watched the man as he walked down 9^th Street toward number 222. When the suspect reached the house he stopped and looked up at the windows before continuing on. The detectives knew that this was their man but they followed cautiously as he continued down the street. He paused again and turned around to look at the boarding house once more, as if he was expecting to see someone waiting for him, someone he did not want to see. He continued on and as he walked through the courtyard at Plum and Court Streets he was approached by Detective Bulmer who said, "Your name is Jackson isn't it?" Jackson, taken aback could only stammer as Bulmer continued, "I want you."

The prisoner was taken to the office of Mayor John Caldwell. The mayor's clerk was also present and recorded the proceedings. In this initial interrogation Scott Jackson admitted knowing Pearl Bryan but denied that he knew she had come to Cincinnati. He admitted to leaving a valise at Legner's tavern, a fact gathered by one of the detectives as he waited for Jackson, but claimed it was empty. He said that he didn't know where the valise was, he had lent it to a friend named Hackleman. He also claimed not to know where Hackleman lived or his first name.

The mayor ordered Jackson held on suspicion of murder and had the police escort him to the jail which was connected to the courthouse by a tunnel. As Jackson was taken through the building a throng of city workers followed close behind hoping to catch some snippet of information. When he arrived at the jail Jackson was subjected to a thorough search. They made him remove his clothes and found blood on his undershirt. He claimed to have been bothered by bugs which explained the spotting and later changed his story, saying he had a rash and scratched himself. On his arm were two deep scratches, one about three inches long extending from his elbow down his forearm and another was smaller and nearer his wrist. He offered no explanation for these scratches. In his coat pocket the jailer found two trolley tickets for the Central Bridge Line indicating that he was accustomed to taking the trolley into Newport. Following his search Jackson was escorted to a cell and locked up. After a short time he asked if the jailer would get a chair and sit outside his cell, perhaps realizing the gravity of his situation he thought he should be well guarded. Unable to sleep, he soon struck up a conversation with the jailer. It was during this conversation he asked a strange question, "Has Walling been arrested yet?" The jailer told him no, and continued their conversation. Eventually Jackson dozed off and the jailer reported the conversation to Chief Deitsch. Walling was picked up at 3:00AM the following morning and housed in another cell at the Hamilton County Jail.

What followed were several days of interrogations where each man denied any knowledge of the crime. Jackson vehemently denied knowing that Pearl Bryan was even in Cincinnati when he was confronted by evidence that had been provided by Will Wood. Wood immediately admitted his part in the whole affair when he was arrested in South Bend. He also told Sheriff Plummer about the letter written to him by Jackson, which he had destroyed. Informed of this Mayor Caldwell requested the postmaster in South Bend to forward all mail for Wood from Cincinnati to him. A letter from Jackson to Wood arrived on the Mayor's desk shortly and its contents were damning. In the letter Jackson instructed Wood to write a letter as if it were from Pearl and send it to her mother. In the letter he was to say that Pearl was tired of living at home and had found a position in another town. It was clear that the purpose of the letter was to throw Pearl's family off the track.

Then another startling piece of evidence appeared. A man named Kugel ran a saloon at the corner of 9^th Street and Central Avenue and he was behind his bar when a man answering Jackson's description came in with a tan leather valise. He asked the barkeep to hold it for him but never returned for it. The barkeep still had the valise. He was sent to get it and soon turned the bag over to the police. After an examination by detectives it was brought into the room where Jackson was being interrogated. The young man was confronted with the valise and told to look inside. He noted that it was stained but tried to deny knowing what the stains were. Told to look closer he admitted that it was blood. Asked point blank if this was the valise that had held the head, he replied that he thought it was but he was not the one who carried it. Finally Kugel was brought in and positively identified Jackson as the man who had given him the valise.

It was at this point that the course of the interrogations changed. It was now clear to both Jackson and Walling that denying the crime was not going to work so they began to blame each other. Bit by bit the investigators were able to piece together what had really happened even through the lies that both men were telling. Even though they blamed each other for the murder, it was clear to the investigators that they were in it together. One important piece of information that came out was that the head was thrown into the river, by who was in doubt, but they felt strongly that it was Jackson.

While the two accused murderers were being held in Cincinnati, an inquest was called in Newport to sort out the facts of the case. The key question was whether Pearl Bryan was alive when she was brought into Kentucky. At the inquest the coroners testified about the cocaine found in Pearl's stomach, and the pregnancy. The main question was answered by the huge mount of blood found at the scene. She was most definitely alive when she was brought to the orchard and when she was decapitated.

The key testimony came from Sheriff Plummer and detectives Crim and McDermott, who explained how her identity had been established and most importantly about the blood evidence at the scene. The inquest determined that Pearl Bryan was alive when she was brought to Kentucky. The cause of her death was having her throat cut. That her death was a homicide and the likely perpetrators were Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, presently being held in the Hamilton County Jail in Cincinnati. Finally they expressed the belief that the head was removed and disposed of in an unknown place to prevent identification of the body.

The cause and manner of death established, Sheriff Plummer moved immediately to have Walling and Jackson extradited from Ohio. The proper papers were filed and accepted by the Governor of Ohio. Walling and Jackson had procured attorneys and they immediately began to fight the extradition. This delayed moving them to Newport for about three weeks but finally the papers were accepted and the two were loaded into a van for the move across the river.

Transferring the prisoners proved to be an immediate concern because tempers had run high in Newport since the identity of the killers was revealed. There were rumors afoot that the men in Kentucky wouldn't wait for the law to run its course, they planned to lynch the two as soon as they crossed the bridge. To avoid this, the pair was rushed out of the Hamilton County Jail by a back exit while another van left through the front. The van stormed across the Central Bridge almost at a gallop and arrived at the jail before anyone knew they were coming. With his prisoners secured in their cells, Sheriff Plummer laid on extra guards to protect them and preparations were made for their trials.

Walling and Jackson were tried separately; Jackson's beginning on April 21, 1896 and lasting until May 14. In the course of the prosecution the events described earlier were offered in testimony by various witnesses. In all it was a damning case and nearly airtight.

In the three week trial the events that took place after Pearl arrived from Greencastle were laid out step by step. Witnesses from the John Church Music Company recounted how they had witnessed and overheard Jackson and Bryan arguing on the street corner outside their loading dock. The most damaging witness was George H. Jackson who provided the details of the strange trip to Fort Thomas on the night of the murder. Finally witnesses were presented who testified that Jackson had often displayed a dissecting knife, a large, sharp knife used in amputations. Colonel Nelson, the lead prosecutor made the point that the knife, which Jackson was so proud to show to his friends was now nowhere to be found.

When the defense opened their case the first person to take the stand was Scott Jackson himself. He was described as very confident on the stand and offered nothing sensational. Throughout his testimony he adhered to his story that Walling had murdered the girl. Although on the stand Jackson denied having anything to do with Pearl Bryan's death, his defense team concentrated instead on trying to prove that the murder had been committed in Ohio rather than Kentucky, which would force a dismissal of the charges. As part of the defense a witness named William Trusty testified that he was the one who had driven the carriage on the night of the murder. He further stated that the woman was already dead when put into the cab and that he had been told that an abortion had been attempted on her and she died from the affects of it. Immediately after delivering his testimony Trusty left the area never to be seen in Newport again. Because his story did not correlate with the statements of other witnesses that a living Pearl Bryan was seen getting into the cab with the two men, no one believed him. Jackson's testimony did not impress the jury either and he was found guilty of the murder of Pearl Bryan.

Walling's trial followed on May 20, 1896, continuing until June 18. It followed the same pattern as Jackson's with most of the same witnesses and the same result. It came as no surprise that both men were sentenced to hang for their crime. They remained in the Campbell County Jail as their appeals and continuances dragged on through most of the next year, and in one of their final appeals their attorneys argued before the Kentucky Supreme Court that Pearl Bryan had actually been killed with a dose of cocaine that had been administered in Ohio and as such they were not guilty of the murder in Kentucky for which they had been tried and convicted.

Since they had already been tried for the crime, their attorney's thinking was that they could not be retried for it in Ohio because of the double jeopardy clause of the US Constitution and as such would be free men. The justices were not amused by this novel approach and since the Coroner's Inquest established beyond a doubt that she was alive when brought to the orchard, the appeal was denied. The hanging was scheduled for 9:00AM May 20, 1897. As the two convicted murderers languished in jail awaiting execution the threat of lynching hung heavy in the air. They had been threatened repeatedly since being brought across the river and Sheriff Plummer had ordered that they be closely guarded. In spite of these precautions there was a mass jailbreak from the county jail while they were being held and it would have been easy for them to slip away in the confusion, but such was their fear of the potentially angry mobs that might await them, they chose to remain in their cells.

On the day of the executions what was already a strange case took another bizarre turn. A few minutes before he was to be walked out to the gallows Jackson requested to speak to the minister in attendance. After he had spoken to the minister he requested to talk to Sheriff Plummer. To the sheriff he announced that, "I know that Alonzo Walling is not guilty of the crime of murder." The execution was immediately delayed and the Governor of Kentucky was alerted by telegraph of this new development.

Governor Bradley wired back that more information was needed. He would commute Walling's sentence if Jackson would confess to the crime and disclose what he did with the head. Questioned again Jackson was given a few minutes to think things over. When asked what he had to say he only replied, "I have nothing more to say." The gallows were rechecked and at 11:32 AM the prisoners were marched out. When they reached the gallows Jackson was asked if he had any last words. He paused for what seemed to be a long time and Walling turned toward him hoping that his friend would finally say the words which would save his life, but Jackson said, "I have only this to say, that I am not guilty of the crime for which I am now compelled to pay the penalty of my life."

The minister then turned to Walling and asked for his last words, to which Walling replied, "Nothing; only that you are taking the life of an innocent man and I will call upon God to witness the truth of what I say." At 11:40 the trapdoors were sprung by Sheriff Julius Plummer. Walling and Jackson fell to their deaths at the ends of the ropes.

For many years the actual ropes used in the executions were kept in the basement of the Campbell County Courthouse and over the years many young boys were taken to see them with stern warnings from their fathers of the fate that resulted from living badly. The valise which probably held Pearl Bryan's head is now housed at the Campbell County Historical Society. Following the coroner's inquest, Pearl Bryan's headless body was taken by her family back to Greencastle where she was buried in the family plot. Even today visitors to her grave sometimes leave Lincoln pennies on the grave marker so that she will not be headless on resurrection day.

Over the years an urban legend of what happened to Pearl Bryan has evolved. It involved a satanic cult, strange rituals, and the haunting of a local bar located in the building at 44 Licking Pike. That building is one of the oldest in the area, having started out life as a slaughterhouse which operated continuously until about 1894 - 95. At the time of the Pearl Bryan murder the building was vacant and the group would have passed it along their roundabout path to the murder scene. In the legend the building was equipped with a drainage system to discharge the "blood of slaughtered animals" into a "well" in the basement which eventually drained into the Licking River below. It is true that such a system existed but it most likely consisted of a series of lined trenches cut into the hillside leading down to the Licking River below. The building was also allegedly home to a cult of Satanists of which Jackson and Walling were members. As the story goes the group conducted secret rituals in the basement of the building in which the severed head of Pearl Bryan played an important role. When the rituals were done with the head was supposedly disposed of down the well. The reason for Jackson's and Walling's steadfast refusal to reveal what they had done with the head stemmed from their fear of the "Wrath of Satan". Possibly the most ridiculous assertion of the story is that Jackson and Walling removed Pearl's head with their dental tools, a detail that adds a horrific touch to the tale. But then if a person thinks about it, what tool on a dentist's tray could possibly be used to decapitate someone?

Shortly after the murder the building was extensively remodeled becoming a saloon catering to workers at the Andrews Iron Works and it operated with reasonable success for a number of years. In the late 1930s it was taken over by E.P. "Buck" Brady, completely remodeled again, expanded, and then reopened as the Primrose Country Club. In this incarnation it included a first class dining room, a showroom with nightly floor shows, and a casino. Brady was so successful that the Primrose began to draw business away from the Cleveland Syndicate's Beverly Hills Country Club which was in nearby Southgate. To stop the business losses the Cleveland group sent local enforcer Albert "Red" Masterson to talk Brady into selling out. Knowing Masterson from their days in the George Remus Bootlegging operation, Brady knew that the offer was not one to be refused, and not wanting to sell out, he decided instead to strike first. On the evening of August 5, 1946 a car pulled up alongside Masterson as he was leaving the Merchant's Club on 4^th Street in Newport. Shots rang out and Masterson fell to the ground wounded. The car fled down 4^th Street but crashed into some parked cars, forcing the occupants to escape on foot. Meanwhile Masterson had managed to crawl into his own car for cover until some of his men reached him and drove him to a hospital. Shortly after the shooting Brady was found hiding in a nearby outhouse. On the ground outside of the outhouse a rifle with a bent cartridge jammed in the chamber was found. Buck Brady was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

Masterson made a full recovery and refused to identify the shooter. Brady denied all knowledge of the shooting and said he was out for a walk that night and had simply hidden when he heard the gunfire. He was found guilty of disturbing the peace and was released after paying a $1500 fine. His problems with the law concluded, Brady still had Red Masterson and the Cleveland Four to deal with. To avoid disappearing into the Ohio River, Brady decided it would be best to leave town so he turned the Primrose over to the Cleveland Four and departed for Florida. Brady committed suicide in 1968 at the age of 83 after a long battle with a terminal illness. Part of the story is that when he turned over the casino he swore that there would never be another successful business in the building. If Brady did say such a thing it didn't work out that way because after the Cleveland Four took over and renamed it the Latin Quarter the club operated continuously and very profitably until the gambling interests were run out of town in 1961.

During the time it was owned by the Cleveland Group the ghost story says that several mob murders were committed in the building with the remains disposed of down the basement well. This unsubstantiated notion comes from the idea that many people have that gangsters kill each other all of time. In reality the Latin Quarter was a huge money maker for the Syndicate and they certainly wouldn't jeopardize those profits by involving their business in a murder when there were so many less conspicuous places available. In fact throughout the gambling era in Newport there were very few mob killings and each of them had serious repercussions for the casino operators. Quoting The Godfather, "Blood is a big expense." It's an expense that the mob prefers to bear only when absolutely necessary.

After the Latin Quarter shut down there were several unsuccessful bars in the building up until 1977 when it was finally closed down as a nuisance by the county police. This dubious "fact" is cited as evidence of some kind of curse on the building. At the time it was closed it housed a club called the Hard Rock Café, no relation to the international franchise. This club was patronized by members of the Seventh Sons and Iron Horsemen Motorcycle Clubs, so it should come as no surprise that there were a lot of fights and the occasional shooting. But there are no reports of anyone being killed in the building. Since Country Singer Bobby Mackey purchased the building in 1978 and opened Bobby Mackey's Music World it has operated very successfully.

The ghost story ends with the statement that "...everyone involved in the case met a tragic end..." A little research shows this to be patently false. Although Sheriff Julius Plummer, who led the investigation into the murder, died as the result of a car accident, the accident took place twenty years after Walling and Jackson were hanged. Dr. William Carothers, who assisted in the autopsy of Pearl Bryan and whose idea it was that the shoes may lead to an identification of the body, was a highly respected and successful physician and forty years later was made President of the Ohio State Medical Board. Colonel Robert Nelson, the lead prosecutor in the case was also highly successful both in his law practice, political, and business endeavors, He helped found the Latonia Race Track, was a trustee of the Georgetown Waterworks and Nelson Place in Newport is named for him. He died in 1927, thirty years after the trial. And finally Mayor John Caldwell of Cincinnati who conducted the initial interrogations of the accused murderers and was instrumental in their extradition to Kentucky, went on to be Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and a U.S. Congressman before passing away in 1927 at the age of 75. Rather than all meeting tragic ends most of the key participants in this case went on to lead long and successful lives.

Time passed and as it did the people who were directly involved in the case gradually passed on themselves. It had been a horrible and sensational crime, probably the most sensational in the history of the area, so the story was told and retold again, the facts becoming less clear as the years went by. Finally in the late 1970s people's memory of what had happened completely faded and what was left was a story so twisted and distorted that it bore no resemblance to reality whatsoever. The "legend" of Pearl Bryan is a sad commentary about a part of our society who, in their zeal to pursue their belief in the supernatural have twisted reality to make their version of the story fit their beliefs, and in the process have completely forgotten that Pearl Bryan was a real person with a family who cared about her and a bright future. She just had the misfortune to become involved with a sociopath.

Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling took a roundabout way to get to John Lock's orchard that night, a route that they had obviously investigated beforehand. Was there some reason that they traveled so far out of their way, passing by the nondescript, abandoned slaughterhouse before they killed Pearl Bryan? As it turns out there was a reason they went that way. It would have been faster to go directly down Alexandria Pike, the trip would have taken half the time, but Alexandria Pike was a privately owned road in 1896 and taking the shorter path would have required them to pass through a pair of occupied toll stations. They didn't want to be seen heading south with Pearl Bryan and returning north without her.