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July 13, 2023

The Horrifying Murder of Alzada Pauline Young | FEATURED EPISODE

The Horrifying Murder of Alzada Pauline Young | FEATURED EPISODE
Tapes from the Darkside
The Horrifying Murder of Alzada Pauline Young | FEATURED EPISODE
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"It is undoubtedly the most hideous and dastardly crime I have ever known," the medical examiner, Dr. Weisman, said, as he left the autopsy room. Sheriff Ludwick agreed. "[It’s] the worst thing that’s happened in Knox County while I’ve been here.”...

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"It is undoubtedly the most hideous and dastardly crime I have ever known," the medical examiner, Dr. Weisman, said, as he left the autopsy room. Sheriff Ludwick agreed. "[It’s] the worst thing that’s happened in Knox County while I’ve been here.”

Leaves crunched under his shoes and the sun’s last rays pried their way into his squinted eyes as John walked down Crescent Street. He had an errand to run. John and Albert lived on the same street—merely its name changed as you crossed Main Street.

John knocked on his neighbor’s door. He had gotten fed up with his stepdaughter’s long absences. It had been a week since he’d seen Pauline. Albert came to the door and John asked for her. “It’s time to come home, Pauline.” She was just 16 years old, but had a mind of her own, and John was growing impatient with her.

She obliged and they walked home, their backs to the setting sun. It was Halloween night and John wanted his family together.When they arrived home, around 5:30PM, John asked his daughter, Rachel, who was 11, to call his wife at work, and let her know that Pauline was back. Rachel got her on the line and Thelma asked her to keep Pauline at home until she could get there at 7:00PM. Then the kids—Rachel and her younger brother, Bernard—went out trick-or-treating, leaving Pauline and John alone.

I'm excited to share with you one of the most meticulously researched true crime podcasts I've ever heard. This is MURDER, SHE TOLD.

Show notes:
murdershetold.com/episodes/alzada-pauline-young

Another episode I think DARKSIDE fans would enjoy:
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apple.co/3ObcnbJ

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0:11 Tapes from the Dark Side will be back next week with a brand new episode for you, But in the meantime, I want to share with you a show called Murder, she told. Every small town has a story in Murder she told is focused on Maine and New England true crime. I know Tapes from the Dark Side fans appreciate deep dives and extensive research, and Kristen Cev, the host and creator, is one of the most meticulous researchers I've ever encountered in the true crime podcast world. She's also even been certified as a victim advocate. She tells these stories in a compelling way, but in a way that is also victim focused and empathetic. The episode I'm going to play for you is al Zeta Pauline Young, and it's about a father who murders his stepdaughter and then disposes of the body in a most disturbing way. After you listen to this episode, please go and subscribe to Murder she told on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And now Here's Murder, she told. This is Murder she told true crime stories from Maine, New England, and smalltown USA. I'm Kristin Sevie. You can connect with the show at Murder, she told dot Com or on Instagram at Murder, she

1:42 told podcast. This episode contains descriptions that are graphic in nature and also describes attempted suicide. If this is a trigger for you, please listen with care. It is un doubtedly the most hideous and dastardly crime I have ever known, the medical examiner, doctor Weisman said as he left the autopsy room. Sheriff Ludwick agreed, it's the worst thing That's happened in Knox County while I've been here. Leaves crunched under his shoes, and the sun's last rays pried their way into his squinted eyes. As John walked down Crescent Street, he had an errand to run. John and Albert lived on the same street, merely its name changed. As he crossed Main Street, John knocked on his neighbor's door. He had gotten fed up with his stepdaughter's long absences. It had been a week since he'd seen Pauline. Albert came to the door, and John asked for her. It's time to come home. Pauline, she was just sixteen years old, but had a mind of her own and John was growing impatient with her. She obliged and they walked home, their backs to the setting sun. It was hallow Queen Knight. When they arrived home around five thirty pm, John asked his daughter Rachel, who was eleven, to call his wife at work and let her know that Pauline was back.

3:12 Rachel got her on the line, and Thelma asked to keep Pauline at home until she could get there at seven pm. Then the kids, Rachel and her younger brother Bernard, went out trick or treating, leaving Pauline and John alone. John, in his authoritarian way, said that her days of staying overnight away from the house were over and that her wings were getting clipped. She was livid. She said that she was going back to Albert's, saying to hell with supper, to hell with you, and to hell with mother. John locked all the doors, daring her to try and leave. Pauline grabbed a knife from the kitchen and came at John. He grabbed the closest weapon, a hammer, and threw it at her, hitting her in the forehead and rendering her instantly unconscious. She crumpled to the floor face down.

4:01 John rolled her over, checked her Pulls, checked her breathing and discovered that he had killed his wife's daughter with a single blow. He panicked, who would believe that a husky stoneworker like him could have felt threatened by a sixteen year old girl? Who would believe that he acted in self defense? He had to think fast. He picked up her body and moved it downstairs in the cellar as a temporary measure. He cleaned up the kitchen from their struggle. He'd figure out what to do with a body later. When Thelma got home from work at seven pm, John told her that Pauline could not be reined in. He recounted her angry tirade and said that she refused to stay at their home any longer, that she was running off to get married.

4:48 He said that she left, probably to Albert's, and Thelma accepted her daughter's decision, saying if she felt that way, perhaps it was for the best. Children had gotten back home from playing in the neighborhood. They had supper together, and then Thelma and the kids went to a Halloween party, leaving John alone with his thoughts. It was a Thursday evening, and John knew that the following day his wife would be at work. Had Rockland's Almshouse, a town subsidized home for the poor, and the children would be at the elementary school on Purchase Street, he would have more time to work without interruption than Thelma, Rachel, and Bernard went to bed that night, but John couldn't sleep, knowing what he had done and what gruesome task awaited him tomorrow.

5:36 When he shut the door to his home after ushering his children off to school, he breathed a sigh of relief. His family hadn't discovered his secret. But what now. John lived in a duplex at twenty eight Crescent Street, right in the heart of Rockland, Maine. He couldn't just carry a body to the ocean. He had neighbors in foot traffic on all sides, so he improvised. He gathered up some sharp tools and went to work dissecting Pauline's sixteen year old frame into pieces that would fit into burlap bags. Using an axe and a kitchen knife, he cleaved her body into six parts, placing each in its respective container. He buried some of them under his porch, which he cleverly accessed through a basement window. He worked in the shallow crawl space beneath the porch deck, which was concealed by a wooden trellis, dug a trench and buried two of the bags there. He covered them with dirt and placed two wooden planks on top to conceal the disturbed soil. He had four to go. There was some cover in the back yard, where there were some outbuildings. At first, he considered working within the buildings, but the shed was chalk full of coal and the hen house had a wooden floor. But there were a few feet between the shed and the hen house where he wouldn't be too exposed to nosy neighbors. He grabbed his shovel and went to work. When he finished, he made three trips inside, bringing one sack per trip, and deposited them into the earth. He covered the

7:09 soil and then asked a couple of neighbors to move his children's playhouse into the tight spot and conceal the turned soil. The final sack would have to wait for the cover of darkness. His family returned home from their routine daily schedule, and he tried to maintain normalcy, but he felt nervous and wild. After they went to bed, John picked up the final sack and walked to the salty shore of Rockland Harbor. He picked up a heavy rock and stowed it in the bag next to Pauline's head. He cinched the bag shut, bound it with rope, and walked it to the end of the pier by Rackliffe and with on lobster company. With his considerable strength, he hurled the bag into the harbor and collapsed. What had he done? On Tuesday, November fifth, five days after he'd killed Pauline, John went to the police and reported her missing. He had a part to play the concerned father.

8:07 The chief of police remembered Thelma telling him to have Pauline picked up if he found her on the street. Little did John know neighbors were growing suspicious. His neighbors, Marian Allen and her boarders Rule and Ruby, were only separated from John's family by a thin wall, and Marian had been home all Halloween night. She remembered hearing a woman's scream four times and then a heavy fall, after which all was quiet except the radio. She then heard Thelma return from work and say to John three times, I can't daddy. Thelma was accustomed to calling her husband daddy, after all he was twenty one years her senior, she being thirty three and he being fifty four. What terrible thing had John asked his wife to do? And Marian heard John pacing all night, walking up and down the stairs. She could feel the heat radiating from the walls. He had built two heavy fires, one in the kitchen range and another in the parlor stove. She was suspicious of the purpose of those fires. The next day, Marian was home again and thought John was acting wild. She saw him carefully studying every car that approached the vicinity. She remembered him busily washing clothes and cleaning, paying particular attention to the floor, and she watched John prepare a fire in his driveway, which, in addition

9:41 to the ordinary wood and refuse, he also burned some clothes. Rule Marian's border saw John carrying bags between the hen house and the duplex, and he heard him working in the cellar. And aside from the direct observations, Albert Wilson, at whose home Pauline had been staying, was incredulous of the story that he'd been told that Pauline had run off to get married. He started asking about her around town, alerting others to her disappearance. Alice Rich from nearby State Street, happened to drop by the Phelps home and John asked her if she quote noticed an awful smell. She took note of this strange question.

10:24 Stories were circulating around the Phelps home, and on Thursday, a week after the killing, Marian decided to act. She went to the sheriff of Knox County, Earl Ludwick, and told him everything she knew. The sheriff recalled Marian coming into his office and opening up about her fears that something terrible had befallen Pauline. She became so unglued during her telling that he fetched a doctor to treat her. Moved by her impassioned to plea, Earl called up the county district attorney and asked him to hold the grand jury, which had been convened that week, for another couple of day days. He thought this might be an open and shut case. He figured if he could present evidence to a jury in the next day or two, he might just have an indictment within days. The wheels of justice moved a lot faster. In nineteen forty, the sheriff, a deputy sheriff, and a main state police Lieutenant Leon Shepherd all went to the Phelps home that evening to look into the matter.

11:24 John was home and answered the door. Earl recalled that he was very calm and invited them to search wherever they liked. Following the tip from Marion, they made an especially careful search of the two stoves, but Leon believed that neither would have been large enough to dispose of a one hundred and thirty pound body. They went to the cellar and John invited them to use the short handled shovel that was laying against the foundation wall to dig around. He fetched them a pickaxe that was out in the shed. They used the tools to poke around for a bit, but their thorough search revealed nothing unusual. John said simply that she had gathered her clothing and run away on the night of Halloween. After further routine questioning, the officers left. That might have been the end of the story of Pauline if it hadn't have been for what happened on Saturday morning. It was the early morning hours of Saturday, November ninth. The temperatures had dropped in the twenties, and what little moisture was left had been wrenched out in the still air Fogg had settled in. Overnight.

12:31 Rockland patrolman Ronald Sukaforth was doing his rounds on the cobblestone streets and dirt roads when he came across a middle aged man covered with blood. His left wrist was slashed with a razor. He was wandering dazedly near the police station on Union Street. The officer took him straight to Knox County Hospital, where doctor Weissman took over his care. The man said that he had taken five poisonous tablets mercury by chloride, and that when those failed to work, he tried to take his own life by cutting his left wrist. He also told the doctor that there was an important note in one of his pockets, a truth he wished to tell. Doctor Wiseman searched his pockets and discovered a slip of paper scrawled with a handful of simple words that revealed that the man before him, John Phelps, had killed his step daughter. He immediately notified the sheriff of his discovery. The sheriff, the Knox County District Attorney, and police Chief Arthur Fish were all roused around three thirty a m. Saturday morning, and made it to the hospital. Shortly after four a m. Doctor Wiseman had sent word that his patient was in poor shape and there was no telling how long he might survive. They rushed to the hospital. John told the three of them what he'd done. That he had killed Pauline with a hammer, divided her body into parts, stashed them into gunnysacks, and buried them. He even told them where he had hurled the last one into the

14:03 harbor. The men summoned additional help and made their way to the Phelps home on twenty eight Crescent Street, where they arrived just before sunrise. First, they removed the lattice work from below the front porch and shimmied into the crawl space below the wooden deck. They found the boards that John had used to cover the disturbed earth and started digging. It wasn't long before they found the first two sacks. Doctor Weissman, borrowing a knife from newspaper reporter, slit the ropes that bound the sack and revealed the right thigh and groin. The second sack contained both legs, still clad with stockings. They staged them in an ambulance. Other officers searched the interior of the house, hoping to find a murder weapon. John had said he used an axe, but no axe was discovered. They found a razor, though, that they thought might have been used in the butchery. By this point, Rule told the cops that he believed the sounds that he had heard coming from the cellar must have been digging in. Two neighborhood men, Leroy Firth and Harvey Curtis, came forward to tell police that John had asked them to help him place the playhouse in a strange spot. They went in the backyard and dug in the henhouse, but found nothing. They then considered the coal filled shed, but doubted that all the coal had been moved. They then looked at the strange location of the playhouse, wedged between the other two buildings, and decided to move it.

15:33 Several officers lifted it up and revealed that the earth had been recently disturbed. A foot and a half under the surface, they discovered a third sack, then a fourth, and then a fifth. Doctor Wiseman again cut the rope securing the bags and found first the left arm and upper left half of the body cut down A center line in the fourth bag was the other thigh, and in the fifth was the right half of the body. According to the Portland Press Herald, doctor Weissman ordered the parts to be taken to Burbie Funeral Home, where he assembled the parts like a ghastly jigsaw puzzle. He later told reporters that some of the internal organs were never found. While the search was underway, Thelma and the two children went to the almshouse, where she worked to try and shield Rachel and Bernard from the gruesome scene. That afternoon, doctor Weissman told reporters that he believed John wouldn't live more than a week. He was in critical condition. Police headed to Witham's Wharf and started dragging the bottom of the harbor with grappling hooks, hoping to snag the bag that contained Pauline's head. They worked systematically, pulling up the hook from the cold water and plunging it back hundreds of times. They called the Coastguard from Whitehead and they came to help. There was an urgency to the search.

16:57 The sooner they recovered the bag, the better the condition would be, and the sooner they could examine the head to determine if John's story of a single hammer blow was truthful. Thelma and the children returned to the house, where she had to tell them the horrific news about their half sister, Pauline. Doctor Weissman conducted an autopsy on the remains the same day, and while he was occupied at the funeral home, police officers kept a twenty four hour watch over John. Their concern was threefold, keeping him safe from some vigilante, keeping him safe from further self harm, and preventing his albeit unlikely escape.

17:38 The county attorney had been unable to keep the grand jury any longer, and they had dispersed. Indictment would have to wait until the next time they met in February. As the sun rose on Sunday, Thelma contemplated how much her life changed in a single day. Her daughter was dead, her husband was infamous, and the search was still under way. Reporters grilled Thelma, what did she know and when she told them quote Pauline was accustomed to visiting the Wilsons and other families and not returning home for a few days at a time.

18:19 I didn't suspect anything was wrong. The fishing boat, called the Alfhea Jay continued combing the harbor's waters, but the chief of Police told reporters that he had hired a diver from another town that would be able to do a more thorough search. Though he was in dire health. Police helped John from his hospital bed to a police car and drove him to the wharf. They wanted to see exactly where he had thrown the final bag. Reporters watched as he pointed out the spot in the silent waters before collapsing into tears, and just like that, he was whisked away back to Knox County Hospital and the men on the THEA J were left to their grim task. The next day, Monday, November eleventh, doctor Weissman became more optimistic about John's prognosis, and police Chief fish said that John would be arraigned on a murder charge as soon as his condition permitted. The next day, John's condition worsened. Doctor Weisman explained that infection had set in where he cut his wrist, and his hand was badly swollen. The slow acting poison exacerbated the situation. If he made it through the next day, he would likely survive, but he was on the precipice of life and death. Police did another search of the property and discovered the head of an axe that was in the shed in the backyard.

19:44 There was no handle and the steel was badly damaged by fire. Reporters reasoned that the wooden handle had been burnt out of it. Police suspected it was the axe used to dismember Pauline. A southeast storm rolled into the Heart and heavy seas put a temporary halt to the dragging operation. Marian Allen and her two boarders had packed up their things and moved to a nearby vacant home on South Main Street in Rockland. They were too disgusted by what had transpired on the other side of the thin walls of their duplex to live there any longer. Pauline's remains were transported to a tomb in Thomaston, where her burial would be. Her biological father, Lowell Young, had died three years prior, and he had been buried in Thomaston Cemetery, where he was from.

20:33 But it's strange that she would be returned to her father because in his obituary, Pauline wasn't even mentioned as a surviving daughter. A headstone marked Lowell's grave and she would be buried right next to him On Wednesday in Rockland, Doctor Weissman told reporters that John continued to heal, but would uncontrollably burst into tears. Dragging operations continued in the harbor, and they waited for the contracted diver to arrive. Skepticism grew amongst the searchers and the community as to whether the head was actually where John said it was. On Thursday, the fever had finally broken. Doctor Wiseman shared the news that there was much improvement in John's condition, and on Friday, John was discharged from the hospital. At the same moment, an arrest warrant was issued by local judge Zelma Dwinnell. John was taken to the county jail and booked on a charge of murder. The next day, John was brought up the basement stairs at the court house to face Judge Dwinnell. His face was covered with several days of stubby beard growth, and he wore working clothes. When he spotted the photography apparatus of cameraman, he shielded his face with both of his hands. He'd been assigned an attorney, Harry Wilbur, a judge in the probate court system. John faced Judge Dwinnell. As he read the charge the murder of his stepdaughter, Alzeta Pauline Young, John pled not guilty. The judge ordered him held without bail for the next three months, when the grand jury would convene in February for

22:07 the next term of Superior Court. In better late than never, the diver Frank Hansen arrived to search the harbor. Frank got his preparations underway, working with Captain John Snow and his boat called Hugh. He recruited a couple of local men to operate the air pump that would be stationed on the boat, and on Sunday he got in the water and started looking around, connected to the surface with an umbilical cord. By Monday afternoon, though they threw in the towel. The Bangor Daily News stated that the bag might have been carried a considerable distance by tidal currents or even currents generated by the large tankers of Standard Oil Company, which operate out of the company's plant at the Atlantic Wharf near the search area. On November thirtieth, the Rockland Courier Gazette published a story that revealed the Thelma and her two remaining children planned to move to Danforth, John's hometown, a tiny town near Holton, Maine, on the eastern border of Canada. By the time the story appeared, she had already resigned from her job at the almshouse. The reporter pressed her again on her potential involvement with Pauline's murder. She insisted, when Pauline went to a neighbor's home a week before Halloween, it was the last time I ever saw her.

23:26 I asked the authorities to help find her in connection to that previous disappearance, and if she could have returned at that time, this dreadful thing probably never would have happened. The night she did come home, I returned between six and seven pm, and John told me that she'd gone away to get married. On the following Monday, December second, nineteen forty, Thelma left Rockland, never to live there again. She had divorced John and would remarry again in nineteen forty two to Frederick Mailman. After holding her remains for a month, Pauline's body was buried in Thomaston on December fourteenth, next to her father.

24:07 A reverend at the local Federated Church officiated the ceremony. Her mother was not present, but two of her uncles were there. Her body had only been resting for forty days when Maine's Attorney General, Frank Cohen, ordered the Medical Examiner's office to perform a second autopsy. On January twenty third, her remains were disinterred and another examination was done at the local funeral home. All of the key players from Rockland and Knox County law enforcement were there to attend, including doctor Wiseman, who performed the initial autopsy. Her remains were immediately reburied. Officials were tight lipped with a press about what they hoped to determine.

24:49 John's trial was imminent. There must have been some concern about John's defense succeeding because the Knox County District Attorney wanted to see a change in the law. State legislator representative from Rockland, Cleveland Sleeper, told reporters that he was drafting a bill that would make it an automatic charge of murder against anyone who dismembered or disposed of a human body. On February ninth, Portland Press published an article hyping up the trial. John was reported to be well behaved in jail. On Tuesday, the first session of nineteen forty one of Knox County Superior Court began. They had a new judge, Raymond Fellows, and he had a cheeky sense of humor. He said to the esteemed gathering, I know I shall enjoy the term, and with a twinkle in his eye, he said, time will tell whether or not you do. That same day, the grand jury convened and handed up three indictments against John, the murder charge obviously, but also dismemberment of a body and abandonment of a body.

25:55 Two weeks later, John appeared before Judge Fellows for his second arraignment. Was escorted through the courtroom by Sheriff Earl Ludwick and another deputy. The courtroom was filled to overflowing. John wore blue jeans, a blue shirt, and horn rimmed glasses. As part of the typical questions of identification, John began to sob when requested to give the name of his ex wife, Thelma Phelps, who was in fact present at the time in another building next to the courthouse. John, officials said, had refused to see her or their two children, Rachel and Bernard, who had come from Danforth to support him. Judge Fellows read the charges against him and asked how he pled, and, to the surprise of everyone present, John replied, guilty, your honor. The judge asked if John wanted to make any statements before being sentenced. John just sobbed convulsively and said that he never intended to kill his stepdaughter, saying that kid came at me with a knife. I didn't mean to hit her.

27:00 He then sobbed so loudly that reporters couldn't understand the rest of his speech. The prosecutor motioned for sentence to be immediately imposed, and Judge Fellows obliged. He imposed a sentence of hard labor at the main state prison in Thomaston for the rest of John's life. The entire proceeding only took five minutes, and then John was returned to the county jail to await transportation to Thomaston. That afternoon, Earl and his deputy took him to prison. With him was a box of candy in some small packages that had been sent to him by his sister in Connecticut. A smug editorial appeared in the Rockland Courier Tribune three days later in their Sunday edition. It read, the County of Knox. The men and women who pay the taxes, and the citizens at large are to be congratulated upon the capable manner in which the Phelps murder case was handled by the city and county authority, in the speedy manner in which it was disposed of by the Superior Court. A protracted trial would have drawn countrywide attention to the shocking case for which nobody was responsible except an enraged man upon whom remorse fell quickly, and which would have placed a heavy burden of expense upon the county with nothing to gain by further publicity. Phelps did the right thing in pleading guilty, and the stordid story has become a closed book. John had been in jail and Thomaston for twenty three years when in nineteen sixty three he

28:34 petitioned Maine's governor and the Executive Council for a pardon. He said that he was seventy three years old, in poor health, and had spent much of the last fifteen years in the prison hospital. He said he felt sufficiently punished, fully rehabilitated, and wished to spend quote his last few days with his family. On February sixth, the attorney representing him, went to the hearing and lamed that John had an acute bronchial disease in what he termed rheumatism, which likely referred to rheumatoid arthritis. He said that John's only prayer was to quote return home and try to live like a decent citizen. He told the council that John had been a model prisoner and that his daughter was willing to give him a home. A few weeks later, the council responded, rejecting the petition, but he tried again the following year in nineteen sixty four, and the council relented. John was paroled officially on March seventeenth, nineteen sixty four, and taken in by his daughter, Rachel Rainey Phelps. It was just eleven when he went to prison, according to prison records. He was reparoled a year later on March sixth, nineteen sixty five, which suggested that he had somehow violated his parole conditions, and was reincarcerated three years later.

29:52 On August twenty eighth, nineteen sixty eight, John died at the age of eighty one in East Hartford, Connecticut, near where Rachel lived, and he was buried in somers Connecticut in West Cemetery. Pauline's head stone in Thomaston, which was installed right next to her father's, no longer stands today. According to a comment on find a Grave, her stone was destroyed and removed. Pauline's life was likely a difficult one. Her mother got married at just fifteen years old to twenty six year old Lowell Young, and Pauline was her mother's second child. At just seventeen, when she was a toddler, her parents got divorced, and it's unclear whether she ever even knew her father, judging by the omission of her name in his obituary, likely not. Her mother remarried when she was just four years old to John Phelps, a man with two previous marriages and seven biological children, none of whom lived with him.

30:52 One of his sons had reportedly disowned him. Pauline was forced to drop out of school in the fifth grade to stay home and help with housework while her mother worked. She was only ten years old. Her biological father, if she ever knew him, died in nineteen thirty seven when she was just thirteen. Pauline, by her early teens was doing everything she could to stay away from home and from her stepfather John, and by sixteen she was killed in either a tragic accident or a homicidal rage. A strange coincidence was noticed by Rockland residents and reported on by the Bangor Daily News. There was a classified ad that appeared in the Rockland Courier Gazette for a girl's bicycle right around the time of Pauline's death. Upon closer inspection, we discovered that the ad was run on four dates over the period of a week. The first one was on the night of Halloween, the same date that John killed Pauline, we believe. At the time the Courier Tribune was printed in the afternoon and distributed in the evening. The classified ad read girl's standard sized bicycle for sale almost new good trade if taken at once. If then listed the Phelps address and presumably a phone number. The cost for classified ads was twenty five cents for a single print, in fifty cents for three for to have appeared in the

32:23 Halloween evening paper. The ad must have been submitted no later than that morning, perhaps by noon at the latest, which was five hours before Pauline's death. Is it a coincidence, or was John planning to get rid of any trace of Pauline, including her bike. This story became a legend in the Rockland community. People comment on it even today on blog posts about the murder. They always thought it was a myth and were stunned to learn that it's true. The house became known as a haunted house. Kids were fearful of going near it. There was speculation of what happened to Pauline's head. Perhaps it was not discarded in the bay. Some people hated Halloween from that night on One long time Rockland resident road My mom lived nearby on Thomaston Street when this happened. She was about eight years old, and she said to me she believed he threw her head in the quarry behind the church. He passed by my mom and her younger sister carrying a bag that resembled a human head.

33:28 Another woman wrote, my father told me that his mother saw John walking down Thomaston Street with a burlap bag. She asked him what he was doing, and he said he was going to drown kittens in the quarry. That same woman said, I actually lived in that building when I was about seventeen. I hated being home alone. I always got an eerie feeling about the place. In a Rockland history book covering the nineteen forties, which was published in nineteen ninety one, one of the authors, Theodore Sylvester, wrote, in a chapter titled Youthful Recollections, the impression that the tragedy left on him. I grew up playing on the streets of the neighborhood. There was a lot of speculation and stories going around. The one that impressed us most was at the Phelps home was forever haunted and that the head was buried under the porch. It was literally years before any of us would walk past the house day or night. Sometimes we would race past the house on our bicycles, but that was the extent of our courage. If you take a trip to Rockland today, it's beautiful, the harbors filled with sailboats and lobster boats.

34:36 The streets are lined with beautiful brick buildings. But underneath the surface is a dark chapter and a haunting mystery that still lingers today. I want to thank you so much for listening. I am so grateful that you chose to tune in, and I couldn't be here without you. Thank you. If you would like to support the show, there's a link in the show notes with options. Another way to support is telling a friend, sharing on social media, or leaving a review. A detailed list of sources and photos can be found at Murdershotel dot com. Thank you to Byron Willis for his writing and research. Additional thanks to Michelle Soulier for her research support. If you have a story that needs to be told or a correction, I would love to hear from you. My only hope is that I've kept the memories of your loved ones alive. I'm Kristin Sevie, and this is murder she told.

35:29 Thank you for listening.

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