A quick note before you listen.

This serialized podcast includes references to a theory of death by suicide.

Please listen with care if this topic is sensitive for you.

In the days and weeks after Mary Cooper's body was discovered, crowds gathered in front of 287 Montfort Avenue,

curious onlookers geared through the windows of the Cooper home and walked the path through the vacant lot where her body had been found.

Some came for the spectacle, but many came searching for something more.

Answers. Mary Cooper's death was the latest in a troubling series of violent, unsolved crimes

in the Montford neighborhood. There was still the unsolved murder of Annie Mae Burgess, the killing of a man in

a house off Broadway, and two hidden run deaths that had shaken the community. Now the question

haunting the city had shifted, would there be justice for Mary Cooper? A trial was set to decide. Welcome to Southern Mysteries, exploring

Southern history and true crime. I'm your host, Shannon Ballard. This is part three of the

Southern Mystery Serial, Mystery on Montford Avenue.

When the trial of Anna Montague began on June 23rd, 1927, it was clear this would be no ordinary proceeding.

By sunrise, a crowd of nearly a thousand had gathered outside the

Buncombe County Courthouse. When the doors opened, they surged forward, desperate for a seat.

Inside, the courtroom was filled to capacity. Spectators stood shoulder to shoulder. Most of them were women. For many, it was their

first time attending a criminal trial. And this one was unlike anything Asheville had ever seen

before. A woman was on trial for murdering another woman, and Mary Cooper wasn't just any woman.

She was a neighbor, a friend, and by many accounts, the heart of Montford Avenue.

At the center of it all sat Anna Montague, holding a crucifix and praying.

To Mrs. Montague's left, her formidable legal team,

Colonel Lusk, Wayne Beachboard, Robert Reynolds, and William Sullivan.

...