Hey weirdos, Alayna here.
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Right now, I am listening to The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, and I just cannot get enough of it.
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That's spooky. Speaking of spooky, jack -o' -lanterns.
Only a few more weekends until fall, everybody.
More than a few. But so many people listening are like, shut the fuck up, Alayna.
And to that, I say, never.
I am excited about fall.
Summer's almost over, everyone.
Not true. It's almost wrapped.
Not true. We're almost through.
We just started, actually.
Time can move forward for a little while.
What? Like quicker than normal.
I was like, time will always move forward for a little while.
You're like, what? Are you okay over there?
I was like, what's happening?
Again, I said, no. I'm excited for spooky season.
I want to go to a farm.
I want to pick some jack -o' -lanterns.
I want to carve said jack -o' -lanterns because that's when they become jack -o' -lanterns.
Before that, they're just pumpkins.
that's i'm excited i want to bake i want to bake fall shit in my fall pots and pans and i want to make fall soups i'm just like really love for this and guys i know it's summer and it literally just started but that means it's almost over so i'm ready also i don't like summer clothes i don't like summer hot here's the thing everybody there's not summer clothes no they're stupid stupid you heard it here first i don't like there's not even real summer clothes yeah it just i don't like shorts especially if you're a bodacious baddie bodacious baddie if you're a bodacious baddie summer is the clothing
is just i mean or if you're a pale ass bitch like me like if your legs can blind whole armies of people i'm both of those things and it's like there's nothing for us but a bodacious pale ass baddie there you go god god god what a predictor what a predictor is right i don't know what's happening we've been recording a lot we've been recording a lot i'm getting silly goofy we are i was gonna say something you were you were going to talk about the um uh donations that was yeah that is it actually that was a that was a really cool thing this is a really cool thing so i don't know if you guys remember
when i covered um it was a really really sad story it was the murders of um joel and lisa guy they were murdered by their son and their their dog was there when it happened and luckily the young williams animal shelter in um knoxville tennessee was able to like take the the puppy in until like family could come get him and in their obituaries they asked like um the family asked for people to make donations in lisa and joel's name to this animal shelter the young williams animal shelter and i mentioned that on the episode and it was it was like back in 2022 yeah and they have received close to seven
thousand dollars in donations because of you guys that that's like you guys went hard almost seven thousand dollars you guys killed it so if you're able to go ahead and donate to the young williams animal shelter continue to and if you're if you're going to do it definitely do it in Lisa and Joel Guy's name.
Yeah. And that's how they know they've gotten that many donations in their name.
Since the episode. Since that date.
And they said countless animals have been saved for health.
Yeah, they said. Yeah.
That's so cool, guys.
Keep doing that. Like, that's really cool.
I know. That was a really fun email to receive today.
It was such a little bright spot in all the shadiness of the world.
So that was really nice.
And good job, guys.
Good job, you guys.
Well done. Party. Party.
for animals out here oh yeah love it because animals most of the time are better than humans so i would say 10 times keep them happy man i'd say good track record animals good track wrecking animals you sounded like a bob's burgers character oh i love bob and i love bob's burgers at tina i love it at tina belcher tina belcher i'm more of a louise yeah i don't know who you are and you're Bob.
I'm Bob. You're absolutely Bob.
Yeah. I was like, I don't know.
Oh, nope. I do. Like, nope.
It hit me all right.
Oh, and Mikey is Jean.
Okay. So do you watch Bob's Burgers?
No, you're Jean. He's a little better.
I love he's like, no. And you're like, you're Jean.
That was helpful. Thank you.
You betcha. All right.
We should probably podcast. We probably should.
Podcasting things. But you know, it happens sometimes.
I got an old timey one for you today oh my god it's sad oh okay I was just like it's sad it's sad I'm like oh man let me bring it down yeah we gotta bring it down and also interesting that you brought up Halloween it happens on Halloween oh yeah that is interesting right since Halloween is so close exactly all right so we're gonna be talking about Bessie Darling today Bessie Warren before she she became Bessie Darling, was born on August 4th, 1885 in Baltimore, Maryland.
She was the oldest child to John and Fanny Warren.
Oh, John and Fanny forever.
John was a grocer and Fanny was a homemaker.
Oh, I love them. There aren't really like a lot of records that give insight into Bessie's life before purchasing the Valley View Hotel, which is like a big thing that she does in her life.
But there are some historical facts that give us a couple of details.
tales uh like many families in baltimore's 15th ward the warrens were a lower middle class family of german descent they didn't really come from a lot but john warren owned the family's house with a free title quote unquote just like that's so like john warren it's a big deal good for him i know and he owned and operated his own grocery business which gave the warrens way more stability than other families would have had at the time so for them they didn't have a law but what they did did have was keeping them afloat.
Hell yeah. Now, it's safe to assume that Bessie's early life was similar to most children in the late 19th century.
Since she was the oldest of four children, it's very likely she would have helped her mom with domestic responsibilities around the house, taking care of the younger ones.
She had one younger brother and two younger sisters.
And in addition to her chores at home, she also attended school at least through the 8th grade as records show.
But by 1920, she was employed as a teacher, so it's pretty fair to assume that she She got education beyond what that documentation implies.
In 1902, she married Charles Howard Darling.
He was known to his friends and family as Howard. Howard. So many people went by their middle names back then.
I know. Perfectly nice name, Charles.
I know. And he's like, nah.
In fact, like, nothing's wrong with the name Howard, but I prefer Charles.
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.
But his family owned a large commercial bakery in Baltimore.
Yum. Two years later, November of 1904, Bessie gave birth to the couple's only child, Charles Jr., who was known to his friends and family by his middle name, also Wesley.
What is wrong with the name Charles, everybody?
I don't know. I don't know, but Wesley is adorable.
I like the name Wesley, yeah.
For the first few years of Wesley, a .k .a.
Charles Jr.'s life, the bakery enjoyed continued success, and the family was doing pretty well financially.
potentially but in 1907 Howard lost the bakery due to a quote mismanagement of resources oh which also meant several steps down on the social ladder as he went from business owner to a clerk in somebody else's business so they they took a pretty big fall during this yeah and the loss of the family bakery appears to have been a bigger trigger point for tension in the darling's marriage and in 1917 they actually ended up divorcing that's sad yeah it is sad seems like that was like a quick like yeah like it was a high and i was just like yeah yeah well before they had divorced around 1914 bessie
had taken a job as a secretary for baltimore conductor joseph posh in order to help him uh help support the family so she was able to support herself and her son after the divorce because she kind of already had this like side And the work not only allowed her to support herself as a single mother, but it also afforded her a degree of, like, social cachet that she definitely wouldn't have had if it weren't for her association with the Posh and Baltimore Oratorio Society.
It was a musical conservatory headed by Posh himself.
Oh, okay. Yeah. According to Casey Clay, Bessie's association with Posh and the orchestra lasted until his death in 1926.
And it would have a huge influence on how she was perceived by her rural neighbors later in life.
Because she was, even though she had like kind of that like fall from like her place in society, she never really had like a super high place.
But her family was making money.
She married a man who was like owned his own business.
They were doing well.
And then it all kind of.
And then she kind of fell, but then she had the connection, so she didn't fall all the way down the ladder kind of thing.
She was able to hang on.
Yes. It was Bessie's relationship with Joseph Pash, actually, that ultimately led to her purchasing Valley View Manor in November of 1917.
So since the early part of the 20th century, there was a state and federal emphasis on building up, like, these rural areas to accommodate the unsustainably large populations in urban areas, specifically on the East Coast. Okay.
So in Maryland, the expansion of the Western Maryland Railroad had reached Catoctin, I looked up how to say that, mountain, that region by the end of the 19th century.
So it made a once remote area a lot more easily accessible to people who were looking to travel.
Initially, the plan was to develop the area into like a robust industrial production center.
but by the late 1800s the area's largest employer the catoctin furnace company had shut down and that discouraged other businesses from moving to the area because they were like why would i bring my business there if it's gonna fail and it's like i don't know be a trailblazer be a trailblazer i know just because they failed doesn't mean you will try try try again the point of this but i'm just saying be a trailblazer i agree with you can do it you can we believe in you But the collapse of the area's industrial manufacturing center was a big setback for this like small rural.
I can never say rural.
Rural juror. Rural community.
Yeah. But it coincided with a rise in tourism across the United States.
It was like one bad thing, one good thing.
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Happy wedding! Starting in the last part of the 19th century, America's newly formed middle class was very much encouraged by the government to invest some of their disposable income in recreational travel, particularly to the growing number of national parks that the government had started establishing they said go on vacation girls go girls in wars everybody just do your thing you know what you should do you should commit tourism commit tourism that's what you should do it's it should be though because it's so fun so dang fun yeah you're disposable and come toward that they're like what what so like
what you guys are right it's disposable no so seeing an opportunity in this new national trend of tourism Western Maryland railroad president John Hood pivoted pivoted away from the industrial plan that he had for the Cantoctin Mountains and started investing heavily in promoting the area as this premier destination for tourism I just picture him on like a billboard being like you come to my place that I have come to this place you know and do some things exactly Exactly.
And the place he wanted people to come was Penmar. He built it in 1877.
It was a large resort in the mountains near the Pennsylvania border.
And within a few years, the entire tourism industry had developed around it.
So it was like this really cool place to go.
There was more than 100 hotels, countless boarding houses, dance halls, gaming parlors, and observation towers.
towers oh you can look at the stars you can observe them oh yes from galileo shit precisely so basically they're just building up this area and more and more people are flocking to it yeah and there's more shit to do making it cool cool to hang out there yeah it's giving like david busters you know that's exactly what it's giving that's what i thought absolutely tourism so giving david buster i don't know after her divorce from howard in 1917 1917, Bessie bought Mount Lent, which was then named for former owner Mary Lent.
And she bought this with financial help from that guy, Posh, who was with the music.
Ah, look at that guy.
I thought she bought her own mountain for a second.
I was like, she's really moving up in the world.
That would have been iconic.
That would have been pretty iconic, but this is still cool.
It's still iconic what she does.
But Posh helped her provide the down payment on the 36 -acre property in Deerfield.
Lent was one of the first public health nurses in the country and she had come to Deerfield in 1907 when the Maryland Tubercular Sanatorium opened about 20 miles away from her property by train.
She retired about 10 years later and that's when she sold the property to Bessie who opened Valley View Manor which was a boarding house that she ran in the summer months.
Valley View Manor. Valley View Manor.
I want to go to there.
When the weather got cold in the fall all, Bessie would go back to Baltimore, but she spent all summer and a lot of the spring pretty much just working at Valley View Manor.
Hell, yeah. According to one report, once she was back in Baltimore, Bessie, quote, used her considerable social context to drum up summer business for her hotel.
We love a networking queen.
I'm saying. Now, the three -story, 12 -room Valley View Manor opened to the public in 1918 with a staff of just two.
Whoa. Two. Two, Bessie cooked the meals, she entertained the guest, she also provided transportation, all of that, while a seasonal worker acted as a maid and housekeeper.
Damn. Just two chicas.
That's a lot of work.
Running a three -story, 12 -room manor.
Damn. So the boarding house initially was successful, but the area experienced a pretty big economic downturn during the First World War, obviously.
People weren't spending a lot of extra money.
They didn't have a lot of extra money.
Yeah. And Bessie actually almost lost the property two times for failure to pay her property taxes because it sounds like she just wasn't bringing in enough to pay for it.
She faced yet another hardship in 1921 when a visitor sued Darling and Posh for $15 ,000, about $250 ,000 today, after a bridge in the Manor's driveway collapsed beneath him.
Damn. Yeah. Records do indicate that after the lawsuit was resolved, Pash actually had nothing to do with Valley View Manor anymore, but I think on paper it still belonged to him.
Yeah. So during the summer season of 1929, a man named George Schultz checked in as a guest at Valley View Manor and he and Bessie really hit it off.
But like Bessie, there's not a lot that's known about George or his life prior to his relationship with Bessie beginning in 1929.
But what we do know is that he was also born in Baltimore, just like Bessie.
He was born about 1871, and he spent most of his life in Baltimore.
Most reports about this case refer to him as an inspector for the Baltimore Health Department.
He did hold that position for nearly 16 years, but he was said to be fired from that job in August of 1916.
And it was kind of a big deal, because that year he told a reporter, I went to see my supervisor, and I asked if I was being dismissed for inefficiency or politics.
He frankly told me it was politics.
Oh, the plot thickens.
It does. George claimed that his friendship and support for local Baltimore politician Frank Kelly was the reason for his being fired.
And this explanation was probably accurate because Danny Loden, who was a leader of the local chapter of the KKK, had been making a major your push to force all the progressive politicians like kelly out of baltimore politics gross according to the baltimore evening sun just days before schultz was fired loden was known to have had a long conference with dr john blake the head of the department of health quote at which several places in the department are said to have been discussed oh my so he just went in there and was like i don't like this politician anybody who has connections with him get
rid of them or like transfer them out of there of all of this yeah like this is so dorks out and it is and it's clear that the reason for george's change of position was political but technically he wasn't fired he kind of like took it as being fired yeah but he ended up being transferred from his position with the baltimore health department to a new role as an inspector for the state health department okay so he kind of just like got switched around yeah it's almost like a lateral move yeah but it's still fucked up but it's still like why did i get moved yeah Yeah, and especially when you know
why, like, that it has to do with politics.
You're like, so it has nothing to do with my quality of work?
Yeah. Like, that's shitty.
Not cool, man. Not cool.
Not cool. That's a scary mask, bro.
It is. So the emphasis on George's employment, first in Baltimore, then with the state, might have just been the result of journalists not really knowing much else about him at the time.
So they were like, this sounds good.
They were like, hey, this is a little bit scandalous.
But, so they didn't really know a lot about him at the time that the murder that we're going to talk about took place, but it's also possible that class and social status kind of heavily influenced the press at the time.
It seems like the perspective of the locals in the Deerfield area was that Bessie and George were outsiders, and one of the ways that status was signaled and reinforced was through the repeated references to their economic ties to Baltimore.
That makes sense. Yeah.
According to one local history report, most of the women who ran boarding houses were the wives of local farmers, but Darling was from Baltimore and thus appeared somewhat exotic and sophisticated to local residents.
Exotic and sophisticated.
She's not married to a farmer.
That's exotic and sophisticated.
If you're not married to a farmer, it's like, who is she?
Who's that girl? She's from Baltimore.
She's beauty and she's grace.
And she's not married to a farmer.
her social ties to Baltimore and her interest in entertaining her guests was a pretty frequent topic of discussion in Deerfield particularly as the area was hit by the Great Depression and discouraged residents were eager for any gossip that was going to distract from the recession I don't blame them I don't either the Great Depression as the name kind of signals was probably very depressing and it's like yeah you gotta have some tea yeah you need something to but bessie's social life was not the only thing that interested the locals as soon as george schultz entered the picture he too became
a source of gossip and rumor oh according to one thurmont resident schultz was a heavy drinker and would often cause a scene in public on one occasion bessie and george got into an argument in front of the post office which eventually escalated to the point that george assaulted bessie oh in like at all but also out in the front of the post office jesus uh -huh in later news reports the press indicated that other residents around town remembered witnessing similarly abusive situations oh that's awful so it wasn't like you just did this one time this was something that yeah this was like a regular
occurrence but because a lot of the information relating to bessie and george's relationship is based on on a lot of speculation gossip and rumor and all of that gossip speculation and rumor was kind of entered into the historical record after a murder it's a little difficult to separate truth from fiction slightly tainted yes slightly tainted yeah but the reports of him being drunk in public on numerous occasions and his brandishing a gun on several of those occasions and his being verbally and physically abusive toward Bessie does suggest that their relationship wasn't very stable or very good
at the very least I would say it suggests that yeah yeah yeah that's very concerning even though like maybe some things were embellished a little bit yeah they didn't come out of nowhere where there's smoke there's fire exactly like it's not like they were just like wow he's such a sweet kind man that never does anything and somebody was like I saw him whip out a gun and try to to shoot her it's like no it doesn't go from there to there yeah no it's like there was something in between exactly so Bessie and George carried on their relationship for almost four years from 1929 to 1933 that must have been
a long four years but it's actually a little bit unclear how much of that time was really spent together because from the moment she purchased the property Bessie like I said she spent her spring and summer months at Valley View and Deerfield but then she'd go to of Baltimore for the fall and winter.
And although George met Bessie while he was staying at Valley View, he was also from Baltimore.
So nobody really knows if their relationship was only ongoing when they were in the same place at the same time or if they actually went back to Baltimore together during the off season.
That's interesting.
Just because of the time, I think.
Yeah, you just don't know.
There's just not a lot of record of them.
Yeah, like they couldn't check in on Facebook.
Exactly. So nobody knows.
If you can't do that, nobody knows what's going on.
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Now, whatever the structure of their relationship, by the summer of 1933, Bessie had grown pretty tired of George and was pretty done tolerating his abuse.
So she was like, Like, you know what?
I think I'm done here.
I'm good. Nice knowing you.
Not really. And she broke off the relationship.
As if to emphasize the finality of her decision, she decided that that winter she was going to actually stay at Valley View rather than return to Baltimore and probably risk crossing paths with George.
Yeah. So to make matters worse, at least from George's perspective, after ending their relationship, Bessie had been seen around town in the company of one Charles Wolfe, a widower from nearby Foxville.
A Charles who goes by Charles.
Exactly. She has a thing for Charles.
According to one article published in the Catoctin Banner in 1978, George's murderous jealousy was triggered by Bessie accepting Wolf's invitation to the local Halloween parade.
Oh no. Could just be gossip and rumor, but who's to say?
Who's to say? So, unable to accept Bessie's rejection, George became irrationally jealous and angry and didn't really try to hide either of those feelings even when he was in public.
Awesome. On one occasion, about a week before the murder, he was overheard by Maisie Willard, who was the maid at Valley View, angrily telling Bessie he would, quote -unquote, get her for her decision to end things.
Now, on Halloween morning 1933, just two days after the last guests had checked out of Valley View, George boarded a train in Baltimore bound for Deerfield.
during his later trial the train conductor uh irvin and ens i think it is testified that when george boarded the train that morning he quote showed his health department badge and gun and said there probably will be a shooting match there this morning oh that's ominous yeah and according to the same conductor george was drinking but not drunk okay but literally is like here's my gun there might be some shooting later just putting it out there just saying yeah foreshadowing Now, once he reached the station in Thurmont, George caught a ride in the direction of Deerfield from Clarence Lide, who was both the local
mail carrier and the taxi operator.
Oh, I love when it's like the dual jobs around town.
Like small town. Like, I do the mail and I drive everybody around.
Yeah, like the 1800s of it all and like early 1900s is always like, I am the local surgeon.
I am also the pet groomer and the mailman.
And the teacher. Like, I know.
I do it all. How do I do it?
I gotta change my hat.
now lied also testified that george appeared to have been drinking but he also didn't think the man was drunk just agitated according to lied once they were about a half a mile from valley view george took his pistol from his jacket and said i better get ready we might run into some bad actors around here oh other reports quote him as having said he didn't know what he might run into so he's just showing his gun to everybody and being like i might need to use this yeah like Like, what the fuck?
Yeah. In his initial statement to the police, Lide also stated throughout the drive from the train station, George, quote, questioned him about several people, including Mrs. Darling and Charles Wolfe.
So he was like, oh, are they together?
Interesting. Now, later during her testimony, the maid, Maisie Willard, recalled that morning as being very serene.
She said she and Bessie just worked alongside one another.
They were closing sections of the house that wouldn't be in use until the next tourist season.
She said the leaves were beautiful that fall, the petunias were blooming in the yard, and we had gathered bunches of leaves to put all throughout the house.
She had been preparing breakfast on the first floor when she heard a knock at the door a little past 7 .30 that morning.
When she opened it, she was confronted by George Schultz, who demanded to see Bessie immediately.
Before Maisie could say anything, Schultz literally just pushed right past her into the house and started going up the stairs that led to Bessie's bedroom.
Oh no. Now, this is the point where the details kind of vary depending on where you read the story.
In the more objective account of what happened that appeared in the papers outside of the Catoctin mountain area, and this account is actually informed by Maisie's statement to the police.
Okay. When George got to the second floor of the house, he found that the door to Bessie's bedroom was locked.
So he broke the door down in order to get inside.
Oh, that's horrifying.
And once he made it through the door, he raised his pistol and fired one round into Bessie's chest, severing an artery and killing her instantly.
After killing Bessie, he held Maisie at gunpoint for an hour before sending her out of the house to go get the authorities.
Holy shit. And when she came back with police, he was lying at the top of the stairs, bleeding from a self -inflicted gunshot wound to his chest. Wow.
Yeah. Yeah. Now, in the more sensational version of the story, which was the one circulated by locals, George Schultz snuck into the home through the back door and demanded to be led to Bessie.
Once Maisie led him to the top of the stairs, George entered Bessie's room and locked the door behind him, making him the only witness to this version of events.
Now, according to George.
So he doesn't die. Oh.
Oh. Once she saw him lock the door behind him, Bessie, quote, had her own pistol nearby and made a mad garb for her gun.
Fearing that she'd kill him, he claimed he fired in self -defense, hitting Bessie in the chest and nearly killing her.
After shooting Bessie, he said he emerged from the room and demanded that Maisie make him a cup of coffee.
Then, as he disrobed in front of the terrified girl, he tossed her the engagement ring that Bessie had recently returned to him upon their breakup and said, you can have that to remember her by.
And then he sent Maisie to go get the police and said, when you come back, you'll find the two of us dead.
Damn. So like part of that story is informed by George, his account.
It's like pretty verified.
And then part of it is very embellished and sensationalized upon by just like spreading it through the local rumor mill.
Like, I don't know about the engagement ring and him disrobing or anything like that.
Like it could have happened, but there's nothing to...
Substantial. Yeah, to confirm that.
But his whole thing of like, she pulled the gun on me and that's why I fired, he did say that.
Yeah. Now, the differences in the two versions of the story are, they might seem kind of small and insignificant, but they do speak to the fundamental differences in how Bessie and George were perceived by year -round residents in the area versus in Baltimore.
Yeah. Because in Baltimore, it was a very simple case of domestic violence brought to a terribly sad conclusion.
Yeah. But the local account of the story is scandalous, dramatic.
George sneaks into the house.
Two lovers are pointing guns at one another.
He gets naked and asks for a cup of coffee afterwards.
Exactly. Yeah. It gets to be a lot.
But back to the facts.
Maisie did end up running down the mountain to the nearest phone and called Sheriff Charles Crum, who immediately drove out to the hotel.
And when he arrived at Valley View, he found all the doors locked and actually had to force his way into the house through the basement.
and once he made his way upstairs he found bessie dead on the floor of her bedroom just wearing only her nightgown oh that's just sad i know just outside the room on the landing at the top of the store the stairs was george schultz bleeding from a hole in his chest so crumb sent for the local physician dr morris beerly who did his best to stabilize schultz and then the two men transported him to the hospital in nearby frederick about 10 miles away wow so he shot himself in the the chest and then it took a while for the police to even get there and then they have to stabilize him and drive him
10 miles away and this is like this isn't like you're getting in like a fucking tesla and going flying down the highway yeah or even like an ambulance it's like you're in your horse and bugging it basically you know what i mean like you're going very slow yeah so when schultz arrived at the hospital obviously he was in critical condition condition the bullet had entered his chest and traveled downward quote and this is a quote lodging in the kidney region yeah also real quick i know it's not a horse and buggy i was saying that it's like a you know silly laugh just making sure no i got that and everybody
else did too they told me they told me yeah so fortunately though after a lengthy surgery the medical staff was able to remove the bullet and save his life ensuring that he would stand trial for the murder which is crazy that especially after like it hitting like lodging in the kidney yeah eek that's shocking it's also like how are you doing yeah not well bitch no now the next day november 1st an autopsy was performed by dr edward thomas with assistance from dr beerly and they concluded that bessie had most likely been lying down in bed when she was shot oh and the bullet killed her almost instantly
interesting now given that they also had a statement from maizey willard describing what had happened which supported the physical evidence gleaned from the autopsy a coroner's inquest was deemed unnecessary yeah while george was recovering from surgery at frederick hospital crumb and state's attorney walter sin took his formal statement and in the statement he did confess to shooting bessie telling the men that after their breakup he was unable to accept her decision and had become extremely quote -unquote quote, jealous of a farmer living near Deerfield.
And he believed that Bessie had started a new relationship with that farmer.
So investigators spoke with Charles Wolfe, the man that George believed was dating Bessie, and he denied any romantic relationship, telling the detective, quote, he knew Mrs. Darling only as a neighbor and Schultz had no reason to be jealous.
Wow. So this was all just rumor.
In his head. And in his head.
Totally in his head.
like people maybe were like oh i saw bessie talking to charles but it was like a very like acquaintance type of relationship a good lesson of how talking unsubstantiated shit is not good it's dangerous ruin a person's life like you could like like talk to with your friends yeah for sure totally like when it gets serious like that shut up yeah just like quiet down yeah Yeah.
Just the fact that he was like, yeah, he had no reason to be jealous.
Like, I knew her as a neighbor.
And like, not one person, like he never thought to just like ask him.
Nope. He just went.
And he would have heard that, like, you have no reason to be jealous.
And he didn't even ask Bessie.
He didn't give her a chance at all.
He just walked into her room and shot her.
Yeah. He didn't ask Bessie.
He didn't ask Charles.
Both of them probably would have been like, well, yeah, we're just friends.
We literally just know each other.
Like, we're barely friends.
Yeah. We know each other as neighbors.
Wow. We weren't even going to the Halloween parade together.
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now by early december george schultz had recovered from his bullet wound and would be facing murder charges at the same time he also changed his story from his initial statement where he was jealous and that because the official statement he gave was just that he was jealous and that's why he killed her but this is when he started saying that he shot her in self -defense he He claimed he, quote, knew Mrs. Darling for four years and boarded at her home.
That day, he entered her hotel on October 31st, and when she threatened to shoot him, he shot in self -defense.
He also claimed that after he shot Bessie, he, quote, became highly nervous and used his own weapon on himself, firing one shot into his chest, which then rendered him unconscious.
Wow. So, after his initial statement of, like, we dated, I really loved her, I got jealous.
i heard this whole rumor and i couldn't handle it so i killed her now he just has stayed at her boarding i've known her for years i stayed at her boarding house i know her as like you know the landlord i walked in on halloween she said she was gonna shoot me so i just shot her yeah it's like what like you're really going with that what and the evidence uh strongly indicated that things simply couldn't have happened no most importantly it was believed that after pushing his way into the house and up the stairs, he shot Bessie, like I said, immediately after entering the room, which meant she likely
wouldn't have had any time to threaten him.
Yeah. So on February 27th, 1934, a grand jury indicted George Schultz for Bessie's murder.
And a few days later, he was arraigned in Frederick Circuit Court on a charge of first -degree murder.
The trial began on March 12th, and the prosecutor, Walterson, laid out a pretty simple case for the jury.
He said George Schultz and Bessie Darling were in a romantic relationship for a number of years, and when she called it off, he got pissed and vowed to get his revenge, ultimately shooting her to death on October 31st. It was his belief that the crime was premeditated, based on reports of George having made threats against Bessie in the days before the murder, because remember, he said, I'll get you for this.
Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, he was running his his mouth and to support his case sin called a total of 26 witnesses wow yeah among them were the two men who reported seeing schultz on the morning of the shooting and testified that it seemed as though he had been drinking and of course both said that he showed them his pistol and made pretty vague references about possibly using it later that day and the state star witness maizey willard also testified that day providing a very detailed account of what she had witnessed and experienced yeah george schultz entered a plea of not guilty and the defense
quote went with a tri -prong approach of self -defense crime of passion and reasonable doubt yeah we're just gonna throw it all at the wall and see what sticks yeah it's pasta yeah sticking with the second story that he'd given investigators george claimed he'd gone to confront bessie out of the jealousy he was feeling and had broken into the bedroom believing that he would find her with another man she's like really you killed her now you just need to paint her like this just stop and also even if you did she could have been because she broke up with you yeah she's single she can do what she wants
now he said when she pointed her gun at him he fired first in self defense Bessie did own a gun and it was found in the room with her but when it was found the safety was still on and it wasn't in her hand so how would she yeah so since there was no denying that that he shot her george's defense team's goal was to create enough reasonable doubt and convince a jury that it was a crime of passion committed by an otherwise sane and very rational man oh yeah okay in order to cast himself as an upstanding citizen george made a number of strange and unverified claims on the witness stand these got wild
he told the jury that he was a deputy sheriff a veteran of the great war and a major league league baseball player oh because that instills impressive like what very impressive the state's star witness and one of the only eyewitnesses by contrast was a teenage girl they said with no credibility and that was mazy yeah it's like meanwhile i don't know everything she's saying is supported by actual evidence but like a teenage girl makes it makes it that she's not credible yeah she's just a teenage teenage girl cool yeah now the next day the jury deliberated for one an hour before returning a verdict.
Although they didn't believe that the crime had been a premeditated deliberate act, they also didn't believe that George had shot Bessie in self -defense.
So ultimately they found Mr. George Schultz guilty of second -degree murder.
Okay. Judge Hammond Erner wasted no time on passing the sentence and immediately sentenced Schultz to 18 years in prison.
He said the jury's verdict indicated that it rejected the self -defense theory.
We think it's justified that the court has no doubt he returned to carry out his threat.
When the sentence was read in the courtroom, George cried out, I didn't intend to shoot.
I loved her too dearly.
It's like, but you did.
I don't know about that.
You shot her in the chest and killed her instantly.
You came with a gun.
And told people all the way there that you were going to be using it.
Yeah, you called the town crier to go run out to the town square and tell everybody.
Exactly. Like, come on.
That afternoon, Sheriff Crum transported Schultz to the state penitentiary in Baltimore, where he began serving his sentence.
now with Joseph Pash having died many years earlier he was the one who helped Bessie by the Valley View Manor ownership of Valley View Manor defaulted to his heirs in Germany because he was passed away at this point and she's passed away and he I think he provided actually all of the down payment so it was technically his property but they were unable they were either unable or uninterested in claiming it so the property was foreclosed on by the bank in 1934 oh damn but bessie's son wesley purchased the property back from the bank for three thousand dollars and immediately signed it over to his grandparents
john and fanny warren and they ran the hotel until john died the next year oh so they like really tried to keep it in the family i was gonna say they like ran it in her honor but not interested in running the hotel without her husband fanny signed the property over to the state in 1936 and it became included in what is now the Catoctin Recreational Demonstration Area.
It's a part of the national park system.
Wow. Interesting, huh?
That's crazy. Now in March of 1940, George Schultz, then 70 years old, applied for parole, but he was denied.
And a few months later, then -Governor Herbert O 'Connor announced his administration would be implementing a new and more humane parole system in which the governor would play an an active role in determining who was going to be paroled among the cases on his agenda was that of the elderly george schultz but after reviewing the cases he was again denied whoa o 'connor said upon that coming right he said upon my first consideration of the matters i could not see my way clear to grant paroles in these cases whoa schultz was denied parole one more time before finally winning release in february of 1943
after serving nine years of his 18 year sentence nine years only served nine years come on but he died just one year later from unspecified causes whoa unspecified i know whoa and that is the halloween murder of bessie darling oh poor bessie i know and she just seemed like she was a trailblazer she was and she wasn't doing anything wrong no she just broke up with him she broke up with him after he sounded like he was pretty fucking abusive it just sounds like she had a lot to offer the world hell yeah and she was like stepping out do like taking charge of shit yeah good she didn't come from much
and she used her connections to try to make her life better and i'm telling google bessie darling because she's an icon she is like take a peek at her and she's awesome yeah she's gorgeous she's just fabulous yeah it's really sad that it is it was just like such a senseless killing it really was but wow an interesting case very interesting interesting old -timey case you know we love it yeah so that's so sad we hope you keep listening though and we hope you keep it weird but not so weird that you listen to the rumor mill in town and think that your girl who's not even your role anymore because she
broke up with you is seeing a new man's and you get all jealous and shoot her because cool it brother cool it cool it like cool whip like cool whip or like ice cool snakes be like ice Oh my god, I'm so tired, I hope I can read it Hello I'm exhausted I watch too much telly In the evening It's the most little kid thing I've ever heard You're like, I watch too much TV I'm tired Have you ever stayed up Until the early morning hours of the evening Just watching your telly I haven't recently Because I just can't I fell asleep too early I don't have the stamina I'm going to.
I just didn't. I just didn't.
I think I was up late with the cake the other night, and then my body was like, oh, we do this now.
This is what we do.
We could just relax, though, and watch the telly.
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Bay. Hey, weirdos, you know, Ash and I have covered some seriously dark tales about romance gone really wrong.
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