The Bizarre and Unexplained Death on Rattlesnake Hill

Murder, She Told

Kristen Seavey

True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.9 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2021

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

1936 - Mount Wantastiquet, New Hampshire. In May of 1936 firefighters responded to a fire on top of Mount Wantastiquet in New Hampshire, right across the river from Brattleboro, Vermont. The next day, when sifting through the rubble for the source of the fire, they made a horrifying discovery: The broken and burned body of a woman, blunt force trauma to the back of her head, with a gun and an oil can laying nearby. As police unraveled the mystery to find her identity, they learned of a Grace Hurley who had visited hotels in the NH and VT area. Even more bizarre, Grace Hurley was actually a woman named Elizabeth Freel from Massachusetts, and Grace Hurley had purchased the very oil that had killed her. What happened to Elizabeth Freel on Rattlesnake Hill? Tune in and hear a tale of bizarre history that's been lost to time, and left investigators in a stalemate over what happened. Detailed sources can be found on murdershetold.com Connect on Instagram @murdershetoldpodcast Support the show here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Murder She Told, true crime stories from Maine, New England, and small town USA.
0:18.6	I'm your host, Kristen Ceevy.
0:20.6	You can connect with me and suggest your hometown crime at MurderSheTold.com and follow on Instagram
0:26.2	at MurderSheTold podcast.
0:33.8	In the middle of the night, on Thursday, May 20, 1936, firefighters and forestry service
0:41.1	members fought a still burning underbrushed fire near the top of rattlesnake hill.
0:47.2	They were trying to extinguish a mysterious blaze that had arisen the day prior and had
0:52.9	burned through several acres of forest.
0:56.4	In heavy gear, officials climbed the steep and ill-used two-mile trail, ascending 1,000 feet
1:03.4	to the summit and put it out.
1:05.8	The fire look-out station in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, about 10 miles to the north,
1:12.4	cited the fire at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
1:15.8	They notified the local fire warden who assembled a team of 15 men and made the laborious
1:22.6	trip up the mountain on Wednesday evening, reaching the fire around midnight.
1:28.8	The men worked through the night until about 5 a.m. Thursday morning to stop the flames
1:34.7	and then returned home.
1:37.1	The fire warden sent two men back up the mountain to keep watch, fearing the embers might
1:42.9	kindle another blaze, telling them to wait for him until 11 a.m.
1:48.4	As they waited and searched the peak to find the source of the conflagration, they stumbled
1:53.9	on a horrifying discovery.
1:56.2	A woman whose body was burned beyond recognition, they realized then that this scene wasn't
2:02.8	the ruins of a rogue lightning bolt, but rather the scars from the barbarity of man.
	...

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