True Crime – IOTW Report

True Crime

Why are there pennies on this grave marker?

5-4-383

Indy Star

Pearl Bryan packed her red valise for a trip in late January of  1896. She told her parents and friends she was traveling to Indianapolis from her Greencastle home to see a friend. Instead, Bryan headed to Cincinnati to sort out her troubles. Her brutal death days later would be considered a “crime of the century.”

The 22-year-old’s headless body was discovered near an orchard in Fort Thomas, Ky. Thrill-seekers descended upon the crime scene to collect souvenirs such as bloody twigs, grass and dirt.

Detectives identified her body in just a matter of hours. A serial number on her shoe identified the manufacturer, which led them to the store in Greencastle that sold the shoes. The size revealed they belonged to Bryan, the daughter of a socially prominent farmer living just south of Greencastle. The mother revealed one other fact about  Pearl that helped police identify her — she had webbed toes.

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ht/ FarmWife

19 Comments on True Crime

  1. I wouldn’t think cocaine would have made the girl “groggy”.

    Buckwheat gets pennies on his grave too. Doc Holiday gets quarters. Seems like they were heads up too.

    Thought the same thing. I think they meant codeine. -bfh

  2. From 1793 to 1857, the U.S. Large Cent featured the head of Lady Liberty in various designs…the later issues would still be in circulation in 1896. 😉

  3. Grave marker? That looks like the moldy loaf of bread I found in the trunk of my car in January. It must have fallen out of my shopping bag last summer. 😯

  4. Yuck. It’s a story worth pondering. I wouldn’t want to return to those days of forced birthings, illegal abortions and murder again.
    Lot of unnecessarily dead people…..

    Are we close? ….Lady in Red

  5. The story had nothing to do with abortion. The harebrained author interjected it, probably because a baby died and abortion is the leading killer of babies.
    It was a love triangle, and they often end badly. As the article stated, the baby was untouched.
    I have to say that my joy related to the slaughter of over a million innocent children every year in this country is not as boundless as you would hope it to be.
    My apologies.

  6. All right, boys and girls.

    A young 22 yr old woman was beheaded, by “boyfriend” and cohort because she was an “unwanted” pregnancy.

    Let’s keep it simple.: Is this funny? …Lady in Red

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