The Horrifying Murder of Alzada Pauline Young | FEATURED EPISODE

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Tapes from the Dark Side will be
back next week with a brand new episode

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for you, But in the meantime, I want to share with you a

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show called Murder, she told.
Every small town has a story in Murder

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she told is focused on Maine and
New England true crime. I know Tapes

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from the Dark Side fans appreciate deep
dives and extensive research, and Kristen Cev,

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the host and creator, is one
of the most meticulous researchers I've ever

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encountered in the true crime podcast world. She's also even been certified as a

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victim advocate. She tells these stories
in a compelling way, but in a

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way that is also victim focused and
empathetic. The episode I'm going to play

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for you is al Zeta Pauline Young, and it's about a father who murders

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his stepdaughter and then disposes of the
body in a most disturbing way. After

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you listen to this episode, please
go and subscribe to Murder she told on

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Apple, Spotify or wherever you get
your podcasts. And now Here's Murder,

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she told. This is Murder she
told true crime stories from Maine, New

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England, and smalltown USA. I'm
Kristin Sevie. You can connect with the

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show at Murder, she told dot
Com or on Instagram at Murder, she

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told podcast. This episode contains descriptions
that are graphic in nature and also describes

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attempted suicide. If this is a
trigger for you, please listen with care.

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It is un doubtedly the most hideous
and dastardly crime I have ever known,

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the medical examiner, doctor Weisman said
as he left the autopsy room.

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Sheriff Ludwick agreed, it's the worst
thing That's happened in Knox County while I've

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been here. Leaves crunched under his
shoes, and the sun's last rays pried

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their way into his squinted eyes.
As John walked down Crescent Street, he

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had an errand to run. John
and Albert lived on the same street,

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merely its name changed. As he
crossed Main Street, John knocked on his

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neighbor's door. He had gotten fed
up with his stepdaughter's long absences. It

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had been a week since he'd seen
Pauline. Albert came to the door,

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and John asked for her. It's
time to come home. Pauline, she

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was just sixteen years old, but
had a mind of her own and John

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was growing impatient with her. She
obliged and they walked home, their backs

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to the setting sun. It was
hallow Queen Knight. When they arrived home

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around five thirty pm, John asked
his daughter Rachel, who was eleven,

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to call his wife at work and
let her know that Pauline was back.

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Rachel got her on the line,
and Thelma asked to keep Pauline at home

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until she could get there at seven
pm. Then the kids, Rachel and

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her younger brother Bernard, went out
trick or treating, leaving Pauline and John

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alone. John, in his authoritarian
way, said that her days of staying

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overnight away from the house were over
and that her wings were getting clipped.

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She was livid. She said that
she was going back to Albert's, saying

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to hell with supper, to hell
with you, and to hell with mother.

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John locked all the doors, daring
her to try and leave. Pauline

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grabbed a knife from the kitchen and
came at John. He grabbed the closest

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weapon, a hammer, and threw
it at her, hitting her in the

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forehead and rendering her instantly unconscious.
She crumpled to the floor face down.

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John rolled her over, checked her
Pulls, checked her breathing and discovered that

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he had killed his wife's daughter with
a single blow. He panicked, who

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would believe that a husky stoneworker like
him could have felt threatened by a sixteen

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year old girl? Who would believe
that he acted in self defense? He

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had to think fast. He picked
up her body and moved it downstairs in

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the cellar as a temporary measure.
He cleaned up the kitchen from their struggle.

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He'd figure out what to do with
a body later. When Thelma got

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home from work at seven pm,
John told her that Pauline could not be

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reined in. He recounted her angry
tirade and said that she refused to stay

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at their home any longer, that
she was running off to get married.

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He said that she left, probably
to Albert's, and Thelma accepted her daughter's

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decision, saying if she felt that
way, perhaps it was for the best.

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Children had gotten back home from playing
in the neighborhood. They had supper

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together, and then Thelma and the
kids went to a Halloween party, leaving

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John alone with his thoughts. It
was a Thursday evening, and John knew

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that the following day his wife would
be at work. Had Rockland's Almshouse,

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a town subsidized home for the poor, and the children would be at the

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elementary school on Purchase Street, he
would have more time to work without interruption

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than Thelma, Rachel, and Bernard
went to bed that night, but John

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couldn't sleep, knowing what he had
done and what gruesome task awaited him tomorrow.

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When he shut the door to his
home after ushering his children off to

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school, he breathed a sigh of
relief. His family hadn't discovered his secret.

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But what now. John lived in
a duplex at twenty eight Crescent Street,

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right in the heart of Rockland,
Maine. He couldn't just carry a

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body to the ocean. He had
neighbors in foot traffic on all sides,

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so he improvised. He gathered up
some sharp tools and went to work dissecting

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Pauline's sixteen year old frame into pieces
that would fit into burlap bags. Using

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an axe and a kitchen knife,
he cleaved her body into six parts,

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placing each in its respective container.
He buried some of them under his porch,

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which he cleverly accessed through a basement
window. He worked in the shallow

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crawl space beneath the porch deck,
which was concealed by a wooden trellis,

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dug a trench and buried two of
the bags there. He covered them with

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dirt and placed two wooden planks on
top to conceal the disturbed soil. He

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had four to go. There was
some cover in the back yard, where

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there were some outbuildings. At first, he considered working within the buildings,

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but the shed was chalk full of
coal and the hen house had a wooden

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floor. But there were a few
feet between the shed and the hen house

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where he wouldn't be too exposed to
nosy neighbors. He grabbed his shovel and

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went to work. When he finished, he made three trips inside, bringing

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one sack per trip, and deposited
them into the earth. He covered the

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soil and then asked a couple of
neighbors to move his children's playhouse into the

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tight spot and conceal the turned soil. The final sack would have to wait

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for the cover of darkness. His
family returned home from their routine daily schedule,

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and he tried to maintain normalcy,
but he felt nervous and wild.

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After they went to bed, John
picked up the final sack and walked to

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the salty shore of Rockland Harbor.
He picked up a heavy rock and stowed

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it in the bag next to Pauline's
head. He cinched the bag shut,

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bound it with rope, and walked
it to the end of the pier by

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Rackliffe and with on lobster company.
With his considerable strength, he hurled the

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bag into the harbor and collapsed.
What had he done? On Tuesday,

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November fifth, five days after he'd
killed Pauline, John went to the police

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and reported her missing. He had
a part to play the concerned father.

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The chief of police remembered Thelma telling
him to have Pauline picked up if he

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found her on the street. Little
did John know neighbors were growing suspicious.

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His neighbors, Marian Allen and her
boarders Rule and Ruby, were only separated

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from John's family by a thin wall, and Marian had been home all Halloween

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night. She remembered hearing a woman's
scream four times and then a heavy fall,

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after which all was quiet except the
radio. She then heard Thelma return

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from work and say to John three
times, I can't daddy. Thelma was

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accustomed to calling her husband daddy,
after all he was twenty one years her

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senior, she being thirty three and
he being fifty four. What terrible thing

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had John asked his wife to do? And Marian heard John pacing all night,

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walking up and down the stairs.
She could feel the heat radiating from

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the walls. He had built two
heavy fires, one in the kitchen range

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and another in the parlor stove.
She was suspicious of the purpose of those

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fires. The next day, Marian
was home again and thought John was acting

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wild. She saw him carefully studying
every car that approached the vicinity. She

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remembered him busily washing clothes and cleaning, paying particular attention to the floor,

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and she watched John prepare a fire
in his driveway, which, in addition

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to the ordinary wood and refuse,
he also burned some clothes. Rule Marian's

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border saw John carrying bags between the
hen house and the duplex, and he

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heard him working in the cellar.
And aside from the direct observations, Albert

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Wilson, at whose home Pauline had
been staying, was incredulous of the story

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that he'd been told that Pauline had
run off to get married. He started

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asking about her around town, alerting
others to her disappearance. Alice Rich from

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nearby State Street, happened to drop
by the Phelps home and John asked her

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if she quote noticed an awful smell. She took note of this strange question.

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Stories were circulating around the Phelps home, and on Thursday, a week

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after the killing, Marian decided to
act. She went to the sheriff of

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Knox County, Earl Ludwick, and
told him everything she knew. The sheriff

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recalled Marian coming into his office and
opening up about her fears that something terrible

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had befallen Pauline. She became so
unglued during her telling that he fetched a

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doctor to treat her. Moved by
her impassioned to plea, Earl called up

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the county district attorney and asked him
to hold the grand jury, which had

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been convened that week, for another
couple of day days. He thought this

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might be an open and shut case. He figured if he could present evidence

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to a jury in the next day
or two, he might just have an

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indictment within days. The wheels of
justice moved a lot faster. In nineteen

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forty, the sheriff, a deputy
sheriff, and a main state police Lieutenant

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Leon Shepherd all went to the Phelps
home that evening to look into the matter.

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John was home and answered the door. Earl recalled that he was very

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calm and invited them to search wherever
they liked. Following the tip from Marion,

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they made an especially careful search of
the two stoves, but Leon believed

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that neither would have been large enough
to dispose of a one hundred and thirty

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pound body. They went to the
cellar and John invited them to use the

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short handled shovel that was laying against
the foundation wall to dig around. He

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fetched them a pickaxe that was out
in the shed. They used the tools

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to poke around for a bit,
but their thorough search revealed nothing unusual.

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John said simply that she had gathered
her clothing and run away on the night

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of Halloween. After further routine questioning, the officers left. That might have

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been the end of the story of
Pauline if it hadn't have been for what

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happened on Saturday morning. It was
the early morning hours of Saturday, November

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ninth. The temperatures had dropped in
the twenties, and what little moisture was

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left had been wrenched out in the
still air Fogg had settled in. Overnight.

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Rockland patrolman Ronald Sukaforth was doing his
rounds on the cobblestone streets and dirt

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roads when he came across a middle
aged man covered with blood. His left

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wrist was slashed with a razor.
He was wandering dazedly near the police station

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on Union Street. The officer took
him straight to Knox County Hospital, where

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doctor Weissman took over his care.
The man said that he had taken five

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poisonous tablets mercury by chloride, and
that when those failed to work, he

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tried to take his own life by
cutting his left wrist. He also told

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the doctor that there was an important
note in one of his pockets, a

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truth he wished to tell. Doctor
Wiseman searched his pockets and discovered a slip

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of paper scrawled with a handful of
simple words that revealed that the man before

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him, John Phelps, had killed
his step daughter. He immediately notified the

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sheriff of his discovery. The sheriff, the Knox County District Attorney, and

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police Chief Arthur Fish were all roused
around three thirty a m. Saturday morning,

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and made it to the hospital.
Shortly after four a m. Doctor

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Wiseman had sent word that his patient
was in poor shape and there was no

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telling how long he might survive.
They rushed to the hospital. John told

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the three of them what he'd done. That he had killed Pauline with a

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hammer, divided her body into parts, stashed them into gunnysacks, and buried

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them. He even told them where
he had hurled the last one into the

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harbor. The men summoned additional help
and made their way to the Phelps home

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on twenty eight Crescent Street, where
they arrived just before sunrise. First,

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they removed the lattice work from below
the front porch and shimmied into the crawl

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space below the wooden deck. They
found the boards that John had used to

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cover the disturbed earth and started digging. It wasn't long before they found the

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first two sacks. Doctor Weissman,
borrowing a knife from newspaper reporter, slit

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the ropes that bound the sack and
revealed the right thigh and groin. The

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second sack contained both legs, still
clad with stockings. They staged them in

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an ambulance. Other officers searched the
interior of the house, hoping to find

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a murder weapon. John had said
he used an axe, but no axe

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was discovered. They found a razor, though, that they thought might have

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been used in the butchery. By
this point, Rule told the cops that

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he believed the sounds that he had
heard coming from the cellar must have been

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digging in. Two neighborhood men,
Leroy Firth and Harvey Curtis, came forward

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to tell police that John had asked
them to help him place the playhouse in

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a strange spot. They went in
the backyard and dug in the henhouse,

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but found nothing. They then considered
the coal filled shed, but doubted that

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all the coal had been moved.
They then looked at the strange location of

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the playhouse, wedged between the other
two buildings, and decided to move it.

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Several officers lifted it up and revealed
that the earth had been recently disturbed.

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A foot and a half under the
surface, they discovered a third sack,

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then a fourth, and then a
fifth. Doctor Wiseman again cut the

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rope securing the bags and found first
the left arm and upper left half of

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the body cut down A center line
in the fourth bag was the other thigh,

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and in the fifth was the right
half of the body. According to

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the Portland Press Herald, doctor Weissman
ordered the parts to be taken to Burbie

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Funeral Home, where he assembled the
parts like a ghastly jigsaw puzzle. He

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later told reporters that some of the
internal organs were never found. While the

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search was underway, Thelma and the
two children went to the almshouse, where

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she worked to try and shield Rachel
and Bernard from the gruesome scene. That

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afternoon, doctor Weissman told reporters that
he believed John wouldn't live more than a

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week. He was in critical condition. Police headed to Witham's Wharf and started

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dragging the bottom of the harbor with
grappling hooks, hoping to snag the bag

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that contained Pauline's head. They worked
systematically, pulling up the hook from the

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cold water and plunging it back hundreds
of times. They called the Coastguard from

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Whitehead and they came to help.
There was an urgency to the search.

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The sooner they recovered the bag,
the better the condition would be, and

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the sooner they could examine the head
to determine if John's story of a single

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hammer blow was truthful. Thelma and
the children returned to the house, where

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she had to tell them the horrific
news about their half sister, Pauline.

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Doctor Weissman conducted an autopsy on the
remains the same day, and while he

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00:17:22.039 --> 00:17:26.839
was occupied at the funeral home,
police officers kept a twenty four hour watch

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over John. Their concern was threefold, keeping him safe from some vigilante,

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keeping him safe from further self harm, and preventing his albeit unlikely escape.

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The county attorney had been unable to
keep the grand jury any longer, and

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00:17:42.440 --> 00:17:47.839
they had dispersed. Indictment would have
to wait until the next time they met

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00:17:47.880 --> 00:17:59.519
in February. As the sun rose
on Sunday, Thelma contemplated how much her

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life changed in a single day.
Her daughter was dead, her husband was

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infamous, and the search was still
under way. Reporters grilled Thelma, what

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00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:15.079
did she know and when she told
them quote Pauline was accustomed to visiting the

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Wilsons and other families and not returning
home for a few days at a time.

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I didn't suspect anything was wrong.
The fishing boat, called the Alfhea

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00:18:25.599 --> 00:18:30.720
Jay continued combing the harbor's waters,
but the chief of Police told reporters that

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00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:33.440
he had hired a diver from another
town that would be able to do a

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00:18:33.480 --> 00:18:38.400
more thorough search. Though he was
in dire health. Police helped John from

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00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:42.640
his hospital bed to a police car
and drove him to the wharf. They

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wanted to see exactly where he had
thrown the final bag. Reporters watched as

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00:18:48.079 --> 00:18:53.000
he pointed out the spot in the
silent waters before collapsing into tears, and

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just like that, he was whisked
away back to Knox County Hospital and the

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00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:03.920
men on the THEA J were left
to their grim task. The next day,

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Monday, November eleventh, doctor Weissman
became more optimistic about John's prognosis,

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and police Chief fish said that John
would be arraigned on a murder charge as

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soon as his condition permitted. The
next day, John's condition worsened. Doctor

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00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:23.920
Weisman explained that infection had set in
where he cut his wrist, and his

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00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:30.279
hand was badly swollen. The slow
acting poison exacerbated the situation. If he

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00:19:30.359 --> 00:19:33.960
made it through the next day,
he would likely survive, but he was

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00:19:34.039 --> 00:19:40.279
on the precipice of life and death. Police did another search of the property

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00:19:40.319 --> 00:19:42.880
and discovered the head of an axe
that was in the shed in the backyard.

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00:19:44.240 --> 00:19:48.480
There was no handle and the steel
was badly damaged by fire. Reporters

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00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:53.039
reasoned that the wooden handle had been
burnt out of it. Police suspected it

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00:19:53.079 --> 00:19:59.920
was the axe used to dismember Pauline. A southeast storm rolled into the Heart

239
00:20:00.359 --> 00:20:04.400
and heavy seas put a temporary halt
to the dragging operation. Marian Allen and

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00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:10.079
her two boarders had packed up their
things and moved to a nearby vacant home

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00:20:10.200 --> 00:20:15.160
on South Main Street in Rockland.
They were too disgusted by what had transpired

242
00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:18.400
on the other side of the thin
walls of their duplex to live there any

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00:20:18.440 --> 00:20:23.640
longer. Pauline's remains were transported to
a tomb in Thomaston, where her burial

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00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:29.519
would be. Her biological father,
Lowell Young, had died three years prior,

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00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:33.039
and he had been buried in Thomaston
Cemetery, where he was from.

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00:20:33.720 --> 00:20:37.759
But it's strange that she would be
returned to her father because in his obituary,

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00:20:37.079 --> 00:20:42.319
Pauline wasn't even mentioned as a surviving
daughter. A headstone marked Lowell's grave

248
00:20:42.519 --> 00:20:48.920
and she would be buried right next
to him On Wednesday in Rockland, Doctor

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00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:53.720
Weissman told reporters that John continued to
heal, but would uncontrollably burst into tears.

250
00:20:55.480 --> 00:21:00.279
Dragging operations continued in the harbor,
and they waited for the contracted diver

251
00:21:00.440 --> 00:21:06.000
to arrive. Skepticism grew amongst the
searchers and the community as to whether the

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00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:11.119
head was actually where John said it
was. On Thursday, the fever had

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00:21:11.160 --> 00:21:15.119
finally broken. Doctor Wiseman shared the
news that there was much improvement in John's

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00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:19.359
condition, and on Friday, John
was discharged from the hospital. At the

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00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:25.240
same moment, an arrest warrant was
issued by local judge Zelma Dwinnell. John

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00:21:25.359 --> 00:21:29.319
was taken to the county jail and
booked on a charge of murder. The

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00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:33.559
next day, John was brought up
the basement stairs at the court house to

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00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:37.799
face Judge Dwinnell. His face was
covered with several days of stubby beard growth,

259
00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:42.720
and he wore working clothes. When
he spotted the photography apparatus of cameraman,

260
00:21:44.039 --> 00:21:48.039
he shielded his face with both of
his hands. He'd been assigned an

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00:21:48.039 --> 00:21:52.079
attorney, Harry Wilbur, a judge
in the probate court system. John faced

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00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:57.079
Judge Dwinnell. As he read the
charge the murder of his stepdaughter, Alzeta

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00:21:57.240 --> 00:22:03.920
Pauline Young, John pled not guilty. The judge ordered him held without bail

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00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:07.240
for the next three months, when
the grand jury would convene in February for

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00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:11.920
the next term of Superior Court.
In better late than never, the diver

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00:22:12.359 --> 00:22:18.640
Frank Hansen arrived to search the harbor. Frank got his preparations underway, working

267
00:22:18.680 --> 00:22:23.200
with Captain John Snow and his boat
called Hugh. He recruited a couple of

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00:22:23.240 --> 00:22:26.559
local men to operate the air pump
that would be stationed on the boat,

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00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:32.519
and on Sunday he got in the
water and started looking around, connected to

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00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:37.519
the surface with an umbilical cord.
By Monday afternoon, though they threw in

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00:22:37.559 --> 00:22:41.000
the towel. The Bangor Daily News
stated that the bag might have been carried

272
00:22:41.079 --> 00:22:47.960
a considerable distance by tidal currents or
even currents generated by the large tankers of

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00:22:48.039 --> 00:22:52.880
Standard Oil Company, which operate out
of the company's plant at the Atlantic Wharf

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00:22:52.960 --> 00:22:57.640
near the search area. On November
thirtieth, the Rockland Courier Gazette published a

275
00:22:57.680 --> 00:23:03.599
story that revealed the Thelma and her
two remaining children planned to move to Danforth,

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00:23:03.960 --> 00:23:07.920
John's hometown, a tiny town near
Holton, Maine, on the eastern

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00:23:07.960 --> 00:23:11.559
border of Canada. By the time
the story appeared, she had already resigned

278
00:23:11.559 --> 00:23:17.279
from her job at the almshouse.
The reporter pressed her again on her potential

279
00:23:17.319 --> 00:23:22.880
involvement with Pauline's murder. She insisted, when Pauline went to a neighbor's home

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a week before Halloween, it was
the last time I ever saw her.

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00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:30.480
I asked the authorities to help find
her in connection to that previous disappearance,

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00:23:30.839 --> 00:23:36.920
and if she could have returned at
that time, this dreadful thing probably never

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00:23:36.960 --> 00:23:41.720
would have happened. The night she
did come home, I returned between six

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00:23:41.799 --> 00:23:45.799
and seven pm, and John told
me that she'd gone away to get married.

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00:23:47.319 --> 00:23:52.519
On the following Monday, December second, nineteen forty, Thelma left Rockland,

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00:23:52.839 --> 00:23:56.079
never to live there again. She
had divorced John and would remarry again

287
00:23:56.160 --> 00:24:02.400
in nineteen forty two to Frederick Mailman. After holding her remains for a month,

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00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:07.079
Pauline's body was buried in Thomaston on
December fourteenth, next to her father.

289
00:24:07.599 --> 00:24:11.720
A reverend at the local Federated Church
officiated the ceremony. Her mother was

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00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:17.519
not present, but two of her
uncles were there. Her body had only

291
00:24:17.599 --> 00:24:22.440
been resting for forty days when Maine's
Attorney General, Frank Cohen, ordered the

292
00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:27.400
Medical Examiner's office to perform a second
autopsy. On January twenty third, her

293
00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:33.240
remains were disinterred and another examination was
done at the local funeral home. All

294
00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:37.640
of the key players from Rockland and
Knox County law enforcement were there to attend,

295
00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:44.400
including doctor Wiseman, who performed the
initial autopsy. Her remains were immediately

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00:24:44.440 --> 00:24:48.480
reburied. Officials were tight lipped with
a press about what they hoped to determine.

297
00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:55.079
John's trial was imminent. There must
have been some concern about John's defense

298
00:24:55.119 --> 00:24:59.839
succeeding because the Knox County District Attorney
wanted to see a change in the law.

299
00:25:00.519 --> 00:25:04.839
State legislator representative from Rockland, Cleveland
Sleeper, told reporters that he was

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00:25:04.920 --> 00:25:10.480
drafting a bill that would make it
an automatic charge of murder against anyone who

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00:25:10.519 --> 00:25:15.799
dismembered or disposed of a human body. On February ninth, Portland Press published

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00:25:15.799 --> 00:25:21.319
an article hyping up the trial.
John was reported to be well behaved in

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00:25:21.400 --> 00:25:26.519
jail. On Tuesday, the first
session of nineteen forty one of Knox County

304
00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:30.240
Superior Court began. They had a
new judge, Raymond Fellows, and he

305
00:25:30.359 --> 00:25:34.920
had a cheeky sense of humor.
He said to the esteemed gathering, I

306
00:25:36.039 --> 00:25:38.279
know I shall enjoy the term,
and with a twinkle in his eye,

307
00:25:38.519 --> 00:25:44.680
he said, time will tell whether
or not you do. That same day,

308
00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:48.599
the grand jury convened and handed up
three indictments against John, the murder

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00:25:48.680 --> 00:25:53.720
charge obviously, but also dismemberment of
a body and abandonment of a body.

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00:25:55.359 --> 00:26:00.160
Two weeks later, John appeared before
Judge Fellows for his second arraignment. Was

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00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:06.039
escorted through the courtroom by Sheriff Earl
Ludwick and another deputy. The courtroom was

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00:26:06.279 --> 00:26:11.400
filled to overflowing. John wore blue
jeans, a blue shirt, and horn

313
00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:15.839
rimmed glasses. As part of the
typical questions of identification, John began to

314
00:26:15.880 --> 00:26:21.119
sob when requested to give the name
of his ex wife, Thelma Phelps,

315
00:26:21.279 --> 00:26:25.720
who was in fact present at the
time in another building next to the courthouse.

316
00:26:26.359 --> 00:26:30.119
John, officials said, had refused
to see her or their two children,

317
00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:34.880
Rachel and Bernard, who had come
from Danforth to support him. Judge

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00:26:34.920 --> 00:26:40.279
Fellows read the charges against him and
asked how he pled, and, to

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00:26:40.359 --> 00:26:45.279
the surprise of everyone present, John
replied, guilty, your honor. The

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00:26:45.400 --> 00:26:51.559
judge asked if John wanted to make
any statements before being sentenced. John just

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00:26:51.720 --> 00:26:56.599
sobbed convulsively and said that he never
intended to kill his stepdaughter, saying that

322
00:26:56.759 --> 00:27:00.400
kid came at me with a knife. I didn't mean to hit her.

323
00:27:00.839 --> 00:27:06.640
He then sobbed so loudly that reporters
couldn't understand the rest of his speech.

324
00:27:07.519 --> 00:27:12.079
The prosecutor motioned for sentence to be
immediately imposed, and Judge Fellows obliged.

325
00:27:12.599 --> 00:27:17.839
He imposed a sentence of hard labor
at the main state prison in Thomaston for

326
00:27:17.960 --> 00:27:22.279
the rest of John's life. The
entire proceeding only took five minutes, and

327
00:27:22.400 --> 00:27:27.599
then John was returned to the county
jail to await transportation to Thomaston. That

328
00:27:27.759 --> 00:27:33.039
afternoon, Earl and his deputy took
him to prison. With him was a

329
00:27:33.079 --> 00:27:36.839
box of candy in some small packages
that had been sent to him by his

330
00:27:36.920 --> 00:27:42.559
sister in Connecticut. A smug editorial
appeared in the Rockland Courier Tribune three days

331
00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:48.079
later in their Sunday edition. It
read, the County of Knox. The

332
00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:52.839
men and women who pay the taxes, and the citizens at large are to

333
00:27:52.880 --> 00:27:57.200
be congratulated upon the capable manner in
which the Phelps murder case was handled by

334
00:27:57.279 --> 00:28:03.079
the city and county authority, in
the speedy manner in which it was disposed

335
00:28:03.119 --> 00:28:07.640
of by the Superior Court. A
protracted trial would have drawn countrywide attention to

336
00:28:07.720 --> 00:28:15.400
the shocking case for which nobody was
responsible except an enraged man upon whom remorse

337
00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:18.880
fell quickly, and which would have
placed a heavy burden of expense upon the

338
00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:23.920
county with nothing to gain by further
publicity. Phelps did the right thing in

339
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:30.160
pleading guilty, and the stordid story
has become a closed book. John had

340
00:28:30.160 --> 00:28:34.599
been in jail and Thomaston for twenty
three years when in nineteen sixty three he

341
00:28:34.680 --> 00:28:40.240
petitioned Maine's governor and the Executive Council
for a pardon. He said that he

342
00:28:40.319 --> 00:28:44.240
was seventy three years old, in
poor health, and had spent much of

343
00:28:44.279 --> 00:28:48.559
the last fifteen years in the prison
hospital. He said he felt sufficiently punished,

344
00:28:48.799 --> 00:28:53.440
fully rehabilitated, and wished to spend
quote his last few days with his

345
00:28:53.519 --> 00:28:59.480
family. On February sixth, the
attorney representing him, went to the hearing

346
00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:03.920
and lamed that John had an acute
bronchial disease in what he termed rheumatism,

347
00:29:04.119 --> 00:29:10.599
which likely referred to rheumatoid arthritis.
He said that John's only prayer was to

348
00:29:10.680 --> 00:29:14.920
quote return home and try to live
like a decent citizen. He told the

349
00:29:14.960 --> 00:29:18.079
council that John had been a model
prisoner and that his daughter was willing to

350
00:29:18.119 --> 00:29:22.880
give him a home. A few
weeks later, the council responded, rejecting

351
00:29:22.920 --> 00:29:26.880
the petition, but he tried again
the following year in nineteen sixty four,

352
00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:33.799
and the council relented. John was
paroled officially on March seventeenth, nineteen sixty

353
00:29:33.839 --> 00:29:37.519
four, and taken in by his
daughter, Rachel Rainey Phelps. It was

354
00:29:37.640 --> 00:29:41.279
just eleven when he went to prison, according to prison records. He was

355
00:29:41.359 --> 00:29:47.599
reparoled a year later on March sixth, nineteen sixty five, which suggested that

356
00:29:47.640 --> 00:29:52.400
he had somehow violated his parole conditions, and was reincarcerated three years later.

357
00:29:52.599 --> 00:29:56.759
On August twenty eighth, nineteen sixty
eight, John died at the age of

358
00:29:56.799 --> 00:30:02.039
eighty one in East Hartford, Connecticut, near where Rachel lived, and he

359
00:30:02.119 --> 00:30:07.599
was buried in somers Connecticut in West
Cemetery. Pauline's head stone in Thomaston,

360
00:30:07.799 --> 00:30:14.079
which was installed right next to her
father's, no longer stands today. According

361
00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:18.240
to a comment on find a Grave, her stone was destroyed and removed.

362
00:30:18.119 --> 00:30:23.519
Pauline's life was likely a difficult one. Her mother got married at just fifteen

363
00:30:23.599 --> 00:30:29.119
years old to twenty six year old
Lowell Young, and Pauline was her mother's

364
00:30:29.119 --> 00:30:33.480
second child. At just seventeen,
when she was a toddler, her parents

365
00:30:33.519 --> 00:30:37.640
got divorced, and it's unclear whether
she ever even knew her father, judging

366
00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:42.440
by the omission of her name in
his obituary, likely not. Her mother

367
00:30:42.519 --> 00:30:47.839
remarried when she was just four years
old to John Phelps, a man with

368
00:30:47.960 --> 00:30:52.359
two previous marriages and seven biological children, none of whom lived with him.

369
00:30:52.599 --> 00:30:57.599
One of his sons had reportedly disowned
him. Pauline was forced to drop out

370
00:30:57.599 --> 00:31:02.519
of school in the fifth grade to
stay home and help with housework while her

371
00:31:02.519 --> 00:31:07.880
mother worked. She was only ten
years old. Her biological father, if

372
00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:11.799
she ever knew him, died in
nineteen thirty seven when she was just thirteen.

373
00:31:11.559 --> 00:31:17.279
Pauline, by her early teens was
doing everything she could to stay away

374
00:31:17.279 --> 00:31:22.480
from home and from her stepfather John, and by sixteen she was killed in

375
00:31:22.599 --> 00:31:30.359
either a tragic accident or a homicidal
rage. A strange coincidence was noticed by

376
00:31:30.440 --> 00:31:36.400
Rockland residents and reported on by the
Bangor Daily News. There was a classified

377
00:31:36.440 --> 00:31:41.279
ad that appeared in the Rockland Courier
Gazette for a girl's bicycle right around the

378
00:31:41.359 --> 00:31:45.920
time of Pauline's death. Upon closer
inspection, we discovered that the ad was

379
00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:51.079
run on four dates over the period
of a week. The first one was

380
00:31:51.119 --> 00:31:55.960
on the night of Halloween, the
same date that John killed Pauline, we

381
00:31:56.119 --> 00:32:00.079
believe. At the time the Courier
Tribune was printed in the afternoon and distributed

382
00:32:00.119 --> 00:32:07.599
in the evening. The classified ad
read girl's standard sized bicycle for sale almost

383
00:32:07.799 --> 00:32:13.680
new good trade if taken at once. If then listed the Phelps address and

384
00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:19.599
presumably a phone number. The cost
for classified ads was twenty five cents for

385
00:32:19.640 --> 00:32:23.000
a single print, in fifty cents
for three for to have appeared in the

386
00:32:23.039 --> 00:32:29.119
Halloween evening paper. The ad must
have been submitted no later than that morning,

387
00:32:29.400 --> 00:32:34.279
perhaps by noon at the latest,
which was five hours before Pauline's death.

388
00:32:35.079 --> 00:32:37.960
Is it a coincidence, or was
John planning to get rid of any

389
00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:44.880
trace of Pauline, including her bike. This story became a legend in the

390
00:32:44.960 --> 00:32:50.000
Rockland community. People comment on it
even today on blog posts about the murder.

391
00:32:50.279 --> 00:32:53.240
They always thought it was a myth
and were stunned to learn that it's

392
00:32:53.279 --> 00:32:59.279
true. The house became known as
a haunted house. Kids were fearful of

393
00:32:59.319 --> 00:33:04.240
going near it. There was speculation
of what happened to Pauline's head. Perhaps

394
00:33:04.319 --> 00:33:08.160
it was not discarded in the bay. Some people hated Halloween from that night

395
00:33:08.200 --> 00:33:15.720
on One long time Rockland resident road
My mom lived nearby on Thomaston Street when

396
00:33:15.720 --> 00:33:19.279
this happened. She was about eight
years old, and she said to me

397
00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:22.519
she believed he threw her head in
the quarry behind the church. He passed

398
00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:28.279
by my mom and her younger sister
carrying a bag that resembled a human head.

399
00:33:28.960 --> 00:33:32.319
Another woman wrote, my father told
me that his mother saw John walking

400
00:33:32.359 --> 00:33:37.400
down Thomaston Street with a burlap bag. She asked him what he was doing,

401
00:33:37.759 --> 00:33:40.160
and he said he was going to
drown kittens in the quarry. That

402
00:33:40.319 --> 00:33:45.519
same woman said, I actually lived
in that building when I was about seventeen.

403
00:33:45.839 --> 00:33:49.480
I hated being home alone. I
always got an eerie feeling about the

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place. In a Rockland history book
covering the nineteen forties, which was published

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in nineteen ninety one, one of
the authors, Theodore Sylvester, wrote,

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in a chapter titled Youthful Recollections,
the impression that the tragedy left on him.

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I grew up playing on the streets
of the neighborhood. There was a

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lot of speculation and stories going around. The one that impressed us most was

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at the Phelps home was forever haunted
and that the head was buried under the

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00:34:16.599 --> 00:34:21.960
porch. It was literally years before
any of us would walk past the house

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day or night. Sometimes we would
race past the house on our bicycles,

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but that was the extent of our
courage. If you take a trip to

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Rockland today, it's beautiful, the
harbors filled with sailboats and lobster boats.

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The streets are lined with beautiful brick
buildings. But underneath the surface is a

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dark chapter and a haunting mystery that
still lingers today. I want to thank

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you so much for listening. I
am so grateful that you chose to tune

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00:34:54.480 --> 00:34:58.440
in, and I couldn't be here
without you. Thank you. If you

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00:34:58.480 --> 00:35:00.400
would like to support the show,
there's a link in the show notes with

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00:35:00.440 --> 00:35:05.679
options. Another way to support is
telling a friend, sharing on social media,

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00:35:06.079 --> 00:35:09.079
or leaving a review. A detailed
list of sources and photos can be

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00:35:09.079 --> 00:35:13.719
found at Murdershotel dot com. Thank
you to Byron Willis for his writing and

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00:35:13.800 --> 00:35:17.360
research. Additional thanks to Michelle Soulier
for her research support. If you have

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a story that needs to be told
or a correction, I would love to

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00:35:21.519 --> 00:35:23.960
hear from you. My only hope
is that I've kept the memories of your

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loved ones alive. I'm Kristin Sevie, and this is murder she told.

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Thank you for listening.