Pearl Bryan

Criminal

Vox Media Podcast Network

Society & Culture, True Crime

4.7 • 39.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2015

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In February of 1896, a little boy discovered a woman's headless body in a farmer's field in Fort Thomas, Kentucky. No one knew who she was, or what had happened. Newspapers carried headlines like "Hunt for the Head" and "Headless Horror." Quickly, the crime scene became a tourist attraction and visitors traveled from all over to collect bloody souvenirs. The gruesome details were adapted into a popular song that's been recorded dozens of times. We talk with folklorist Sarah Bryan about the true story behind the murder ballad, and the band Elephant Micah performs an original arrangement. Download Elephant Micah’s “Pearl Bryan” on iTunes or Bandcamp. Read their guide, “How to Bring a Murder Ballad Back to Life” here. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow. We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this show comes from Krakan.
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0:25.0	This is a high risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong. At Barclays, we're here for the land of football.
0:35.0	We're here for the Premier League.
0:38.0	And the Barclays Women's Super League.
0:41.0	We're here for the football chance for giving more girls a chance. We're
0:48.1	here for the grassroots and all the muddy booths. From schools to stadiums, we're here for it all.
0:55.0	Barclay's here for the land of football. It's not known whether they themselves thought they could perform the abortion or
1:14.2	whether they took her to a doctor who was willing to do it.
1:17.8	It was a felony at the time in most states, including Ohio and Indiana.
1:22.3	Pearl brine was a 20-year-old. States, including Ohio and Indiana.
1:23.0	Pearl Bryan was a 22-year-old woman from Greencastle, Indiana.
1:28.0	She was five months pregnant and she wasn't married.
1:31.0	The year was 1896, and so she had a big problem.
1:35.0	She was from a fairly well-to-do family and she was, had a boyfriend named Scott Jackson who was a dental student from Cincinnati.
1:45.2	She got pregnant either by Scott Jackson or by her cousin Will Wood who was another boyfriend
1:51.9	of hers.
	...

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