The Revenge of Zona Shue

Normally when a murder victim helps to convict their killer, they do so via forensics. Zona Shue went one step further when she allegedly returned from beyond the grave as a ghost and provided evidence that helped convict her murderous husband. This is the story of the tragic young bride who would become known as the Greenbrier Ghost.

Zona and Erasmus Stribbling Shue, 1896, image in Public Domain

Elva Zona Heaster was born and raised in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Known to her friends and family as Zona, we know very little of her life before her murder as precious little has been recorded. What is known is that, in 1896, Zona met a man by the name of Erasmus "Edward" Stribbling Shue, known to those who made his acquaintance as Trout. The two fell in love. It was a good old fashioned whirlwind romance. Suitably swept off her feet, Zona married Trout not long after. This seemingly happy marriage was short-lived. Less than three months later Zona was dead.

It was January 1897, and Trout was working as a blacksmith. Apparently trade was good because although he claimed his wife was unwell, he was too busy to go home and check on her himself. He still found time to visit the local errand boy's home and hired 11-year-old Anderson Jones to check on Zona. What the poor boy found probably left him with some serious PTSD. Zona was home, but she was a little worse than unwell. Her body lay face down on the floor at the bottom of the stairs; her legs together, one arm tucked under her, the other stretched out, her head twisted to the side at an unnatural angle. An oddly neat corpse, but still a terrible sight for one so young to witness. Anderson fled the scene, running all the way back to Trout to tell him what had happened before running to tell his mother, who called for the local doctor.

Doctor George Knapp took around an hour to reach the Shue's home. This delay allowed Trout to get there before him. Upon his arrival he discovered that the grieving husband had been busy. He had carried Zona's body upstares, wasting no time in washing and dressing her for her funeral in a high collared dress and veil, preventing the doctor from getting a good look at her face and neck. Trout was wailing like a banshee, cradling his wife's upper body and head. Doctor Knapp did notice what looked like bruising on the girl's neck, but any attempt made to get a better look at her only seemed to distress Trout even more, so he gave up. Knapp would initially put Zona's death down to an Everlasting Faint, an old fashioned and rather whimsical way of saying she'd had a heart attack. For reasons unknown he would later change the cause of death to Childbirth. There's no evidence that she was pregnant, but Knapp had been treating her for "Female Trouble." This doesn't mean she was pregnant, because in those days "Female Trouble" could be anything from a headache to cramps.

If Doctor Knapp thought Trout's behaviour was a bit extreme, it only got worse. By cart, Zona's body was moved to her parents' house for an open casket wake before her funeral, a final chance for her friends and loved ones to say goodbye. Trout refused to leave her side, specifically the upper half of her, even on the journey there. The high collared dress and veil were now accompanied by a huge scarf, which Trout refused to remove, telling anyone who would listen that it had been her favourite. At the wake itself, he covered much of Zona's head with a pillow on one side and wadded up bedsheet on the other, apparently to make her more comfortable. If this wasn't odd enough, his mood seemed to constantly swing from pantomime level grief to barely restrained excitement. People were meant to be able to view the body and say their final farewells, but Trout patrolled the coffin-like a guard dog, not letting people get too close and virtually chasing them away when they did. It was all quite bizarre to those who witnessed it, and people were already becoming quite suspicious.

Mary Jane Heaster,
image in Public Domain

Enter Mary Jane Heaster, Zona's mother. 

Mary Jane wasn't just heartbroken. She was filled with rage. She'd never liked Trout and had objected to the marriage from day one. She refused to accept the verdict of a natural death, seeing how suspicious the whole situation was. Everything Trout had done was off, from his behaviour at the funeral to how he'd treated Zona's body. Preparing the body for burial wasn't the husband's job; it was traditionally done by the women in the family or community where they lived. It wouldn't have been done before the doctor had had a chance to check the body over. There was also the chance that Mary Jane was aware that Trout had been married twice before, with the first wife divorcing him for being abusive and the second one having died under mysterious circumstances after Trout "accidentally" dropped a stone on her head while doing some DIY. Suspicions alone weren't enough to get Trout arrested, and it looked like he was going to get away with murder, quite literally.

Mary Jane would soon experience something that convinced her that her instincts were correct. Between the wake and the funeral, she managed to get close enough to the coffin to see her only daughter and removed the sheet at her head. It wasn't at all clean. It smelt very unpleasant and had odd stains, a strange thing to have near a loved one's body. Why not use a clean one? Why use something that was little more than a dirty rag? Despite her dislike for Trout, she approached him and attempted to return the sheet to him, but he told her that he didn't want it. For reasons unknown, Mary Jane decided that she would wash the sheet rather than throw it away. As she soaked it, the stain seeped out into the soapy water, turning it an unpleasantly bright shade of red and staining the sheet itself pink. Mary Jane took it as a bad omen, proof of her suspicions that her daughter had been murdered. But what could she do? Zona had been buried, and Trout had gone his merry way, probably intending on skipping town like he had when his last wife had died. A devoutly religious woman, Mary Jane did the only thing she could think of doing. She prayed. Every night for four weeks. She prayed for answers, for her daughter to give her some sign from the beyond, for anything that would help her bring Trout to justice.

And then, one night, Zona returned.

She appeared in an ethereal glow, freezing the air around her and, for four nights, this desperate and angry spirit would describe to her mother how her husband had ended her life. He had been an abusive monster, she told her mother. He had thrown a tantrum because she hadn't cooked the meat he wanted for dinner. In his rage, he had strangled her and then broke her neck. One night, while recounting her story, Zona's spirit even twisted her head around a full 360⁰ degrees to demonstrate how broken her neck was. This horrified Mary Jane, yet at the same time bought her a sense of purpose. There was always the risk that nobody would believe her fantastical story. She stood to lose a lot if they didn't; her reputation would be in tatters, her family would be a laughing stock and there was the very real chance of being sent to a sanatorium. But to Mary Jane the visitations were all the proof she needed to drag her son in law straight through the courts and onto the gallows. It was a risk she was willing to take and that's why, when morning came, she marched into town and into the office of John Preston, a local prosecutor. In a situation where many would have laughed in her face, Mr Preston chose to listen to Mary Jane, sitting with her for hours as she explained the situation. And it seemed to some degree that he took her seriously, maybe not about the ghost but definitely about the possibility of Zona having been murdered. 

Preston began an investigation immediately, starting by reinterviewing people who'd been involved in the case. When talking to Doctor Knapp, he hit gold, as the doctor finally admitted that he hadn't properly examined the body and explained why. This was all Mr Preston needed to have Zona's body exhumed for an autopsy. Trout was furious, strongly objecting to the situation. He grew even more agitated when he found out that, as next of kin, he would have to be present as it was performed. He knew he'd be arrested, he said, but boasted that they wouldn't be able to prove that he did anything. Not the sort of thing you expect an innocent man to say.

The autopsy was performed by Doctor Knapp, and it quickly became clear why Trout had been so desperate to hide Zona's neck and face. Her windpipe was crushed, the bones broken, and the tendons mangled. The blanket and pillow had been needed at her funeral because the damage was so severe that her neck couldn't support her head's weight. Even though she'd been buried for over a month, the bruises from her husbands hands still showed on her neck. Just as Zona's ghost had suggested, her death had been a violent one. These injuries might seem a little too extreme to have been inflicted on her by another person, but we must remember that Trout was a blacksmith. As a result, he easily had the strength to snap his wife's neck, just as her ghost had described.

You can't send a person to jail on suspicions and a ghost story, but those autopsy results changed everything and the case went to court on the 22nd of June, 1897. Trout, convinced that he'd walk free, plead not guilty. The Defence tried to use the ghost story to get the case thrown out of court, questioning Mary Jane on her experience. All attempts they made to embarrass her or get her to back down failed. She stuck to her story, changing nothing about it. In all probability it was probably the autopsy results that swayed the jury, but their decision was unanimous, GUILTY.

Erasmus Stribbling Shue was sentenced to spend the rest of his life locked up in the infamous West Virginia State Penitentiary, narrowly avoiding the hangman and a lynch mob that had formed outside.

Three years later, the flu swept through the prison, claiming Trout's life. Like many serving sentences there, he was buried in an unmarked grave. No records were kept, so its location is unknown. Zona is a different story. Not only is there a state historical marker near the cemetery where she's buried, but also a grave to visit if you are so inclined.

Photo by Jimmy Emerson, DVM - CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Personally I'd like to believe in Zona's vengeful spirit, but I think this mystery has a much more earthly origin; a heartbroken mother determined to avenge her beloved daughter, one who was prepared to go to extreme lengths to do so. Like I previously said, she was a very religious woman and would have sworn an oath over a bible in court. It's unlikely that she would have willingly lied over something so important to her faith. However I'm still sceptical about her having seen an actual ghost. I believe that when Mary Jane removed the sheet from her daughter's coffin, she saw what had done to her, and it pushed her over the edge. Whatever the truth is, Mary Jane took it to her grave with her, swearing up until her death that her story was true.

What do you guys think? Ghost or dream? Have you heard of any similar stories? Let me know by tagging me in a Tweet or by leaving a comment below.

Killer Unknown: the Villisca Axe Murders

The daybook, Chicago, 14th June 1912.
 Public domain

Every town has it's haunted house, a grim-looking place where terrible things have happened or are
rumoured to have had happened. But not many can boast of a crime quite like the Villisca Axe Murders of 1912. A crime so brutal that it replaced the recent Titanic disaster on the front pages of many American newspapers. People were fascinated by true crime, even 108 years ago.

June 9th, 1912.

The Moore family returned to their home after an enjoyable, but busy, day out. The family was made up of Josiah (43 y/o), Sarah (39 y/o) and their four children, Paul (5 y/o), Boyd (7 y/o), Katherine (10 y/o) and Herman (11 y/o).

Joining them were Lena (8 y/o) and Ina Mae Stillinger (12 y/o), two of Katherine's friends, who had been invited over for a sleepover. They'd spent the day at their local church, attending a Children's Day event organised by Sarah and they didn't get home until late, around 9:45 or 10:00.

It's not known what time they all went to bed, but it's safe to assume they had some tea first and spent some time unwinding before they did. Eventually, the household would go to bed, the Moores and their brood in their own rooms upstares and the Stillinger girls in the guestroom downstairs.

None of them would ever wake up.

June 10th, 1912

The Moores neighbour, Mary, has started her day. But, as she goes about her morning routine, she can't help but notice that something is missing and that something was the Moores. See, at that point in the morning, the children should have been out and about, starting their daily chores. To Mary's growing concern, as the morning went on there was no sign of life over at the house next to hers. She assumed that the family had fallen ill and went to check on them. The curtains were still drawn and the house seemed dark. Mary first tried knocking on the door, then calling out to the people inside, but got no response. Her attempt to let herself in was met with something unusual; a locked door. It was unusual because in those days, in those sleepy, safe little towns, people would leave their doors unlocked. They had nothing to fear, or at least thought they didn't, but what would be discovered inside that house would have the whole town locking their doors and windows. Unable to get in, Mary called Ross Moore, Josiah's brother and owner of a spare door key. And, being the good person she was, while Ross let himself into the house, Mary fed the families chickens, thinking she was doing her friends a favour. She wasn't expecting him to come running out, calling to her to call the police.

Inside the house had been ominously silent, Ross may have been expecting to find something grim but nothing could prepare him for the horror contained inside that building. Wandering around the ground floor, calling for his family, he came across the guestroom and its chilling contents. And having guessed why the family was nowhere to be seen, he fled.

Photo by Jennifer Kirkland, CC BY-ND 2.0

Town Marshal Horton and his men arrive to discover a human abattoir and a rapidly growing crowd of onlookers. A search of the house reveals that somebody has taken the families axe from the woodshed and, starting with Josiah and Sarah, killed everyone. These murders were methodical and precise. Everything seems to indicate a lot of anger and most of this rage seems to have been aimed at Josiah. Mr Moore had been struck at least thirty times, with both the blade and back of the axe. The force of the blows rained down upon him were strong enough to pop his eye right out of its socket and the murderer had gone out of his way to demolish Josiah's face. Investigators even found chunks gouged out of the ceiling above the bed, where the axe had been swung back so far that it had struck it. After finishing of the adults, he went after the children and, after he was finished, he went back to the parent's room to beat Josiah's face into an unrecognisable mush. Once he had done so he went downstairs and killed Lena and Ina Mae. And this is where it starts to get weird. Or weirder. You see, killing someone with an axe, especially when using such extreme brute strength, is going to make a lot of noise. And yet no one woke up, except for possibly Lena Stillinger. She was found lying sideways across her bed and there were signs of a struggle, defensive wounds on her arms. But other than Lena, it looks like everyone just slept through the carnage. Sarah, tucked up in bed with Josiah didn't stir as her husbands head was caved in. The children didn't wake as their siblings, in the same room as them, had their short lives ended. And Ina Mae Stillinger didn't wake as her sister fought off her attacker. Stranger still, after finishing off his victims, the killer had covered their faces, mirrors and other reflective surfaces with bedsheets and items of clothing. This could indicate two things. The first possibility is that it was an act of remorse, the killer knew they'd done wrong and this was some strange way of showing respect to the victims, much like wrapping a body in a burial shroud. The second possibility is that he was covering his tracks, much like how serial killer Andrei Chikatilo would put out his victim's eyes for fear that they somehow contained his image burnt onto them. Is it possible the killer thought this act could prevent him from being caught? For some reason, the killer also removed a 4lb cut of bacon from the pantry, only to discard it in the living room along with the murder weapon, which he propped up against the wall. Was this some bizarre attempt at making the murders look like a robbery gone wrong, or had the killer intended to take it with him but forgot it or changed his mind? Police also found a bowl of bloody water, as if the killer had tried to wash himself clean, before leaving and locking the door behind him.

Doctors on the scene work out that the crime had been committed sometime between 12:00 am and 5:00am, but it doesn't seem that they looked into why no one had woken up while it was happening. 

Considering how much of a shambles the investigation was, it's possible that they did look into it but the evidence was lost. 

Crime Scene or Circus?

Photo by Jennifer Kirkland, CC BY-ND 2.0

The local law enforcement's half-hearted attempts at investigation pretty much ensured the killer would never be found and the suspect list they came up with was based on rumours and mudslinging rather than actual evidence. They didn't rush to start a manhunt, believing that it would be a waste of time and the killer would be long gone. Some even dismissed the case as just part of a string of similar murders that had been taking place at the time. Worse yet, in a time where forensic science was still developing and relied on an untampered with crime scene, the police didn't properly secure the building. All they did was warn the crowd outside not to go in and made no real attempt to stop them when they started to do so anyway. It was a small town and news travelled fast. The crowd that had been outside when the police arrived had swelled in numbers. Driven by morbid fascination, they ignored the police and proceeded to enter the house. Over 100 people treated a tragic crime scene full of gore as a sideshow, wandering around the house like it was a museum and, most likely, destroying vital evidence. The desecration didn't stop there, as one of the ghoulish visitors took a chunk of Josiah's crushed skull home with them, as a souvenir. 

All this while the families of the dead watched on in grief and horror.

The Suspects

Despite the lack of real evidence, there was no shortage of suspects, with people being blamed left, right and centre. There were seven suspects in total, most of it comes across as a bit of a witch hunt. In some cases, it looks as if the police were trying to cover up their incompetence at the crime scene by desperately scrabbling for someone to blame. But, as you'll see, there are a couple of potential suspect here.

Sam Moyer

It's said that when a murder happens, it's usually perpetrated by someone the victim knows. And the Moore's definitely knew Moyer, as he was a family member, Sarah's brother. He became a suspect when it came to light that he'd often threatened the life of his brother-in-law, but his alibi was a solid one and resulted in him being cleared of all charges at the inquest.

It's worth noting that while Sam had a history of threatening Josiah, there are no reports of those threats being extended to his sister, nieces and nephews. 

Henry Moore

Henry's surname is just an odd coincidence, since he was in no way related to the victims. I've mentioned before that there was a slwe of violent axe murders being commited at the time, which some consider the Villisca murders to be a part of. Henry was one of the suspects for those murders, incriminating himself even further when he took and axe to his own grandmother, wife and infant child.

Despite this he wasnt officially charged for the Villisca murders, remaining only a suspect and it's worth pointing out that the murder of his family was one fueled by greed. He'd taken out insurance on each of them and it appears that he was hoping to pass the murders off as one of the many commited at that time, so that he could make a claim.

Reverend George Kelly

To the people of Villisca, Reverend George was a bit of an oddball and a creep. A travelling minister, he attended the same church event that the Moores did before their deaths and left Villisca sometime around 5:30am, not long after the murders had happened. What made people even more suspicious of him is that he'd often been seen peeping through peoples windows and had been accused, multiple times, of asking young girls to pose for naked for him. Young girls around Lena Stillinger's age and up. He was also completely obsessed with the crime, bothering the families and the police with letters and attempting to sneak onto the crime scene, when it was secured, by pretending to be a policeman. He even told a P.I. that he'd been around the house the night the murders took place and may have witnessed it, but the police didn't bother to take him into custody for the murders until 1917. That's a whole five years after the murders took place. After hours of interrogation, they got a confession out of him and sent him off to court. He would go to trial two times and be acquitted on both occasions. At the first trial, the jury looked at his history of mental illness and refused to sentence him. At the second he went back on his claim that he'd committed the crime, insisting that the police had beat the confession out of him. 

Andrew Sawyer

Andrew was a railroad worker, a bit of a loner, with no link to the Moore family. And like the rest of the nation, he was fascinated by the murders that had taken place, but fascinated to the degree that his constant talking about it unnerved his co-workers enough that they complained to the crew's foreman. The foreman, a man named Dyer, took him aside to speak to him about it, hoping to solve the strange problem. He was shocked when Andrew admitted to being in Villisca the night of the murder and told him that had heard it happen, but ran away for fear of being blamed for it. As a transient, he would have made the perfect scapegoat. Dyer was so unnerved by this that he immediately reported the man to the police. Despite his bizarre claims, Andrew was able to provide the police with a pretty solid alibi, as on the night of the murders he had been arrested for vagrancy in Osceola, Iowa. This lead to him being dismissed as a suspect.

Paul Mueller 

A European immigrant, Paul Mueller was never arrested or charged for the Villisca axe murders and is a relatively new suspect in the case, having been suggested as the murderer in Bill James and Rachel McCarthy's 2017 book The Man from the Train. Evidence against him includes him being tracked in a year-long manhunt, accused of killing a family in Massachusetts in 1897.

Frank F. Jones

Out of all the people on this list, it seems that Mr Jones had an actual reason for wanting Josiah Moore dead. An Iowa State Senator living in Villisca, before he turned to politics he had owned a store there. And who worked for him? None other than Josiah. Josiah who turned out to be so good at his job that he would go on to leave Jones' employment and open a store of his very own, taking a lot of high paying customers with him in the process. On top of that, there was an unfounded rumour going round that Josiah was having an affair with Jones' daughter in law. 

Although he went uncharged for the murders, many of the locals, including the father of the Stillinger sisters and Ross Moore himself, still strongly felt that he was the guilty party. It was suggested that he'd hired someone to commit the deed, rather than risk dirtying his own hands and reputation. Josiah's family and their friends? Collateral damage. But who could he hire to do such a terrible thing? Well, that would be William Mansfield, the next suspect on our list.

William Mansfield

I chose to place Mansfield after Jones on this list, because of their possible link to each other. He was a deeply unpleasant person and one who wasn't just a prime suspect for the string of axe murders that had been going on, some even suspect him of being a potential suspect in the Axeman of New Orleans killings. He even killed his own wife, parents-in-law and infant child with an axe just two years after the Moores murders. Yet he wasn't investigated for killings in Villisca until 1916 and was quickly acquitted as he had a seemingly solid alibi. A witness would later come forward stating that he'd seen Mansfield in Shenandoah, Iowa, heading to the train station. If this is true then it blows Mansfields alibi clear out of the water, but he was never re-arrested. At the same time of his first arrest, Frank Jones was pushing for the arrest of Reverend Kelly, an investigator at the time believes this led to Mansfields release and the subsequent trial of Kelly.

A Crime Unsolved.

There are few crimes as chaotic as the Villisca Axe Murders, with the surviving family members being failed so abysmally by those who should have been supporting them and solving the crime. Even with seven suspects, no killer was ever bought to justice. I'll leave it to you to make up your mind which one of the accused committed the crime, if any and I'd love to hear your theories in the comments. Or, as always, if you'd prefer to do so, then you can tag me in a post on Twitter. Personally, I side with the theory that it was Jones and Mansfield. Being popular in the community, Josiah Moore would have been an even bigger thorn in Jones' side had he decided to jump into politics as well, not to mention the rumours about the alleged affair would have damaged Jones' families reputation to a degree. Out of everyone on that list, Jones was the only person to have a real reason to want Moore out of the way, Mansfield was the perfect tool to get the job done and Reverend Kelly was the perfect sacrificial lamb. I'm not saying Kelly was an angel. Far from it, he was a complete dumpster fire of a human being who had already had numerous complaints raised against him for his odious behaviour, but he'd never shown signs of being violent before and seems to be the only person to be interrogated to such a degree that he admitted to the crime. Kelly was a very scrawny, malnourished looking man whom I doubt would have had the strength to kill one person with an axe, let alone do that amount of damage. Mansfield could though, and proved it by committing a near-identical crime two years later when he slaughtered his own family. It would also make sense that Jones would approach someone who didn't live locally to kill the Moores.

Photo by Jennifer Kirkland, CC BY-ND 2.0

One thing has always fascinated me though; why didn't the family wake up? Again, the murders wouldn't have been quiet. If they were sleeping naturally then they would have woken up, there would have been panic and screaming, and survivors. One theory does come to mind and that is that the family had been drugged. Barbiturates were readily available in many forms in those days, buying them was as easy as buying a packet of sweets. You picked your poison and you paid for it. If the family had a late tea planned for when they got home, Sarah probably would have prepared it in advance and left it out ready to reheat, making it easy for a home intruder to slip something a bit stronger than salt and pepper into the mix. There is a theory that instead of entering the house after everyone had gone to bed, the killer was already hiding in the house when they got home, in the attic. When searching the house for clues, the police found cigarette butts up there, adding weight to this theory, but they also could have come from one of the many townfolk who trudged through the house that day. However, the possibility of someone lurking up there, waiting for the unfortunates below to go to bed, ties in very well with the family being drugged, since the suspect would have had to enter the house to do so. It also adds another level of horror to the situation. Even if the family had locked their door, they wouldn't have escaped.

A Murder House in Modern Times

These days, the Moores home remains unlived in, but not completely abandoned. It would seem that the Moores never left. Visitors to the house have reported the sound of children playing and running from room to room, doors slamming on their own and opening just as easily, plus unexplained banging and dripping noises. The temperature will drop without warning, a feeling of darkness and heaviness will invade the atmosphere, and both shadow figures and an odd mist have been seen roaming the halls. Evidence has been caught on camera too. Subsequently, the house is on most paranormal enthusiasts bucket list and has featured on many ghost hunting programs and documentaries.

The strangest thing to happen in the house to date (other than the hauntings and the murders.) would have to be the accident that occurred there in 2014. honestly, I can't think of any other way to describe it than as an accident, but a visitor staying the night for a paranormal investigation stabbed himself, in the chest. There was no warning that it was going to happen and he didn't give a reason as to why he'd done such a thing, but the police did out foul play. Because of the building bloody history and alleged hauntings, a lot of people have linked the visitors odd behaviour to that, but he would appear to be the only person who has felt the need to harm themselves in the house.

Speaking of paranormal investigations; the house had various different owners after the 1912 tragedy, until it was bought in 1994 and renovated. All modernities were stripped back and the house returned to it's early 1900's glory, to how it would have been when the murders occurred, complete with historically accurate furnishings, decore and accessories. The owners now allow people to visit the house, running daytime tours and night experiences that allow you to sleepover. And if you're unable to travel to Villisca for a tour (or are just too scared to.), you can take a virtual tour of the house instead. 

Photo by The Man-Machine, CC0 1.0

Have you visited the Villisca Axe Murder house? Have a story of your own to tell, maybe some evidence of the paranormal or just your own theories as to who committed the terrible deed? Let me know in the comments below or tag me in a Tweet! As always, I adore getting comments from you guys and hearing any fascinating stories you have to tell.

A Love Undying

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Act 1, Scene 2.

Carl Tanzler
Florida Keys Public Libraries (cc by 2.0)

Normally, when a person has an odd dream, it's put down to an

experience you've had that day or something you've eaten. So if you had a dream where an (alleged) ancestor of yours turned up and revealed to you the face of your one true love, you'd be very unlikely to take it seriously. After all, it's just a weird dream. Shame nobody told Carl Tänzler that when, as a child, he dreamt that Countess Anna Constantia von Cosel came to him in a vision and showed him the face of the woman he was destined to one day marry. Tänzler was born in Germany, in the February of 1877. His parents would name him Georg Karl Tänzler, but this would eventually change when, in 1927, after emigrating to Florida, he got a job as a radiology technician at a U.S Marine Hospital in Key West, giving his new employers the name of Carl Von Cosel. With a good job, a wife and two daughters, he seemed to be living a very happy life, but the problem is that he'd never forgotten that dream. So when Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos (also known as just Elena) was bought to the hospital, Carl's happy marriage went straight out the window. He was convinced that the ailing girl was the one from his dream. It was fate, it was destiny, it was one-sided love at first sight. For Maria, acquiring a boyfriend old enough to be her father was the last thing on her mind and even if she hadn't been told by a doctor that she had tuberculosis, she still wouldn't have been interested. Carl had no intention of letting this stop him, he was determined to cure the woman of his dreams and spend the rest of his life with her. He introduced himself to Maria and her family as a renowned doctor and a Count, gaining their trust to the point where they eventually allowed him to take over the girls treatment. During this time he also showered her with gifts, in an attempt to win her heart.

The Nightmare Begins

Maria, sometimes known as Elena.
Floria Keys Public Libraries (cc by 2.0)

If this was a fairy tale then he would have succeeded, Maria would have got better and would have been charmed by this gentleman. Carl would have triumphantly swept her off her feet to live happily ever after, once his divorce had been finalised. However Maria had TB and despite the stories he had told her and her family, Carl wasn't a doctor, he wasn't a Count and he hadn't the foggiest idea what he was doing. X-ray equipment and other such gadgets soon filled the Hoyos' home, along with a variety of medicines as treatment began. Today we're lucky, TB isn't as common and can be treated, but in the 1920's? It was a death sentence. Even with treatment and experienced doctors, you didn't really stand much of a chance and the fatality rate was through the roof. In a lot of cases, all doctors could do was prolong the inevitable. Maria only had Carl to rely on. She didn't stand a chance and died on the 25th of October, 1931. It is also worth noting that during the time she was treated by Tänzler, she didn't return his romantic feelings once but Carl was oblivious to this.
Despite everything, the Hoyos Family was still charmed by the man, even accepting his offer to pay for Maria's funeral and a lavish above ground tomb. Carl would then visit this tomb every night and everyone thought this was very sweet and romantic. At this point in our morbid tale, we can now add two more things to our list of Things Carl Tänzler Was Not; a skilled taxidermist and an experienced grave robber. Carl had become convinced that Maria's spirit had been visiting him and had been begging him to free her from her tomb. His nightly visits were actually an excuse to see her, both in spirit and in the flesh, thanks to the spare key he had to her final resting place. He'd had been sneaking into the tomb at night to preserve Maria's corpse. This went on for some time until one night he took Maria home with him. Using a child's toy wagon. Once in the privacy of his own home, he set to work on rebuilding Maria's mouldering corpse to the best of his abilities. Like a budget Frankenstein. Long absent eyes were replaced with glass replicas, her chest and abdomen were filled to bursting with rags to rebuild her body, a dark haired wig replaced her lost hair and wire helped hold the bones together, allowing her to be posed much like a doll. As her skin decayed, Tänzler replaced it with wax dipped silk and plaster. He bought and dressed her in the best clothes he could, and doused her in perfume, preservatives and disinfectant in an attempt to hide the stench. It must have been horrific to witness, but Carl Tänzler was in love and oblivious to the horror of it. People had seen him buying women's clothing and toiletries, initially they thought he'd found himself a new lady friend to dote on and were happy for him.

Maria's tomb, for which Carl held the only key.
Florida Keys Public Libraries (cc by 2.0)

A Horrific Discovery
Soon macabre rumors began to circulate. A young boy living in the neighbourhood had witnessed Tänzler dancing with what looked like a life sized doll. Some people suspected it was just that; a large doll made by a broken hearted eccentric. Other people, however, jumped to the correct conclusion that it was Maria herself. These rumours spread fast, finally reaching the ears of Maria's sister, Florinda, in the October of 1940. Not wanting to believe what she'd heard, but wanting to know the truth before the rumours reached her parents, Florinda paid Carl a visit. She was welcomed into his home, but wasn't there for long before she discovered her sisters body, sitting in it's usual resting place. Carl's bed. Florinda did the most sensible thing anyone in that situation could do. She ran screaming from the house. The police were called immediately. Tänzler made no attempt to escape as he genuinely didn't believe he'd done anything wrong. While detained, he was examined by Psychiatrists who claimed he was mentally competent and able to stand trial, where he would be charged with "wantonly and maliciously destroying a grave and removing a body without authorization." Despite being declared mentally competent, Carl was clearly anything but. He'd been living with Maria's crumbling body for seven years, keeping her together with DIY, like some budget Frankenstein's monster. His plan was to somehow take her up into earths stratosphere so that he could soak her with cosmic radiation. This, he believed, would bring her back from the dead. Ultimately the case was dropped because the statute of limitations for Carl's crimes had expired.
Carl's first act as a free man? To ask if he could have Maria's body back. Funnily enough, the answer was a resounding no.


The Aftermath.

Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyo,
after Tanzler's DIY taxidermy attempts.

You'd think that Maria's ordeal would be over by this point, that she could finally be laid to rest by her shocked and grieving family. But you'd be wrong. Maria's body was thoroughly examined by physicians, who wanted to know what Carl had been up to. When they had finished with her, they put her on display in the nearby Dean-Lopez Funeral Home instead of laying her to rest. Here she was gawped at by over 6000 curious people like she was a sideshow attraction, before finally being returned to her family, who re-buried her in the Key West Cemetery. This time, she was buried in an unmarked grave, for fear that Carl would come back with his little cart and try to steal her again.
And Carl? He moved to Pasco County, in the State of Florida. Despite his disturbing crimes, the public actually showed pity for him and some considered what he'd done to be romantic. Carl even wrote an autobiography, which was published in 1947, in a pulp magazine known as Fantastic Adventures. He died on the 3rd of July, 1952, at the age of 75. After his death it was discovered that he'd used a death mask he'd made of Maria to construct a second life sized doll of her. Official reports say that his body was discovered lying on the floor of his home, other less reliable reports claim he was discovered in his creations arms, after dying in his sleep. And this story didn't die with Carl, instead becoming one of the most well known tales of obsession and grave robbery in the world. There is even the conspiracy theory that the second doll Carl made was not a recreation at all, but Maria herself, either returned to him or stolen again.

And so ends The Strange Ways first ever morbid true crime post! I hope you enjoyed it. There was no way you'd ever find a normal Valentines Day blog here, although next year I may consider a spooky gift guide for the lovers of the macabre in your life. I've been wanting to write about Carl Tänzler for ages, and I was fascinated by the horror of his crimes and obsession, but hadn't been able to find a good time to do so. I've a fascination for bizarre true crime, so expect more in the future. In the mean time, if you have any comments then pop them into the comments section below, or tag me on Twitter.