Escape From The Asylum

True Crime Historian

Richard O Jones

True Crime, Performing Arts, Documentary, Arts, Society & Culture

4.5 • 720 Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Pearce Insanity Plot

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Episode 289 is a scandalous story that shook two Midwestern cities in the late 1930s when a woman came forward with a bizarre tale of abduction, adultery, assault, addiction and absconsion. That’s why I’m putting this story on my A-list.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Popular.com
0:03.0	November 3rd, 1937.
0:10.8	A bizarre tale of drugged drinks and stolen jewels
0:15.3	was revealed by Allegheny County detectives last night,
0:20.2	following the arrest of a woman and two men in Cleveland.
0:25.6	Mrs. Lucille Pierce, about 35, the sister of Mrs. Mary DeWalt of Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania,
0:34.6	told police authorities that under the influence of drugs, she had been forced by the trio
0:39.9	to open a strong box in the Mellon National Bank in Pittsburgh, and give them $15,000 in
0:47.0	jewels and securities with which they absconded. Those arrested in Cleveland were docketed as Maxwell D. Pierce, 52, Garfield Heights, Ohio, said to be the victim's estranged husband.
1:04.0	Margaret Maggie Gordon, 48, a domestic, and Eno Dease, alias Frank Bryce Jr., a chauffeur.
1:16.0	According to Mrs. Pierce, her husband conspired with the servant to swindle her.
1:22.4	In October of last year, she told detectives they went to her residence in Cleveland to have a talk with her.
1:29.9	Drinks were passed around, she said, and someone slipped a strong drug into her glass.
1:36.9	While under the influence of the narcotic, she claims she was driven to Pittsburgh,
1:42.4	talked into opening her box in a safety deposit
1:45.1	vault, and into giving the three her valuables.
1:49.9	The after-effects of the drugs were such, she said, that she spent some time in a Pittsburgh
1:55.1	hospital, unable to walk, until her sister and the latter's husband, Harry DeWalt, brought her to their home in Cannonsburg.
2:05.6	For eight months she was under the care of a local physician.
2:10.6	She was unable to return to her home some time ago, but has been in Cannonsburg for the past few days.
2:22.3	Mrs. Pierce was reluctant to discuss the whole matter here yesterday, and although stating emphatically that her strange tale is true,
2:26.3	would not comment further for fear of hurting the DeWaltz.
	...

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