Grave Spotlight of the Month - July 2024 - Pearl Bryan

Welcome to another Grave Spotlight of the Month.  For July 2024, my daughter and I decided to take a road trip to Greencastle, Indiana in Putnam County and to the final resting place of Pearl Bryan.  

Pearl Bryan was born in Greencastle, Putnam County, Indiana on October 25, 1872.  She was the daughter of Alexander Stanford Bryan (1824-1901) and Susan Jane Farrow Bryan (1833-1913).  Her siblings were many, eleven that I could find.  These include: Belle Bryan Yates (1850-1899), James Parker Bryan (1852-1933), Elizabeth F. Bryan Hamrick (1855-1948), Elvira S. Bryan Kellar (1856-1943), Flora Bryan Mitchell (1859-1881), Marion Alexander Bryan (1861-1882), Mary B. Bryan Stanley (1863-1939), Auta Bryan Harris (1865-1892), Frederick D. Bryan (1867-1931), Jennie Bryan (1870-1885) and Frank Bryan (1875-1939).  Some of her family is buried nearby in Forest Hill Cemetery, including her parents and two of her siblings.

Pearl was a lovely young woman living in the town of Greencastle, Indiana in 1896.  She was charming and wealthy, the toast of the town in the minds of many.  But she harbored a secret.  She was pregnant.  In the late Victorian Period, this was considered a sin.  It would bring shame on the family and could make a young woman an outcast in her own society.  The father of her unborn child: her boyfriend, William Wood, convinced her that the best course of action was to have an abortion.  

William arranged the procedure with his friend, Scott Jackson.  But Scott was not a doctor.  He was a student at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery and likely had no idea how to perform an abortion, which was a tricky subject at this time in medical history in the first place.

Pearl left her home on February 1, 1896, telling her parents that she was on her way to Indianapolis.  Instead, she travelled to Cincinnati, Ohio, obtaining a room at the Indiana House where she registered under her sister's name, Maude Stanley.  She met with Scott Jackson and his friend Alonzo Walling at the dental school.  Scott initially attempted to perform the abortion using chemicals, including cocaine, to no avail.  When they proved futile, they attempted to use dental tools.  At this point, Pearl was frightened, in pain and bleeding.  The two men transported Pearl across state lines into Kentucky (near Fort Thomas).  At some point, the two men decided that the best course of action was to end her life.  

Using the same dental tools that they used in the failed abortion, they severed her head from her body.  The two men discarded her body off the Alexandria Turnpike and but her head was no where to be found.  Without a head, it would make identification difficult if not impossible, except that she was wearing a specific pair of shoes bearing the imprint of Louis and Hays.  This company was located in Greencastle and they confirmed that they matched a pair sold to Pearl Bryan.  If this wasn't enough for the police, Pearl's mother also confirmed another identifying feature - Pearl had webbed toes.

Walling and Jackson were arrested in 1897 and sent to trial for the murder.  During the trial, Walling testified that it was Jackson's idea to dismember the body, though originally the plan was to distribute the body parts throughout the sewers of Cincinnati.  All except for the head.  Scott Jackson claimed to have other uses for it.  In fact, her hair was found in a valise in Jackson's room.  Unfortunately, Pearl's head was never found.  Walling and Jackson were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.  William Wood, Pearl's sweetheart, was later arrested and charged as an accomplice to the crime.  The charges, however, were dropped when he agreed to testify against the others.  Walling and Jackson were offered a lighter sentence, life in prison instead of death, if they were disclose the location of Pearl's head, but they refused.  They were hanged in Newport on March 21, 1897.  This was the last public hanging in Campbell County, Kentucky.

It is here that it all takes a supernatural, and likely untrue, turn.  It is said that Scott Jackson was a member of a satanic cult and her head was the centerpiece of a ritual at a nearby slaughterhouse.  In fact, legend has it that when Scott Jackson was led up the steps to the gallows and the noose slipped over his head, he cursed the area, threatening to come back and haunt the area.  

There are some conflicts with the story of how Pearl got into her situation.  Some stories state, as above, that she was with child and her boyfriend, William, convinced her to have an abortion.  Others state that she lied to her parents and made her way to Cincinnati to instead marry William.  It is confused even further, when other stories state that Pearl was friends with Scott Jackson and he is the one that introduced her to William Woods.  

It is hard to tell what version of the story is true.  Did Pearl meat Scott Jackson in Greencastle in 1893?  Did Scott Jackson introduce her to his friend William Wood in 1895?  Was Pearl pregnant with Wood or Jackson's child?  The stories get confusing and have so many little threads, it is hard to be sure and, unfortunately, those that knew the truth to the story are all long since dead.

The story was covered extensively in the newspaper, even 40 years after it happened.  My favorite, however, is just a little snippet from the Name It! & Take It! newspaper from Smithville, Indiana.  It only lasted for 7 issues, but it was in publication long enough for the following headline:  "HEAD FOUND" on June 15, 1897.  This article states that the head was found in a cellar in Rushville, Indiana and that there were no decapitated women reported so therefore it had to be the head of Pearl Bryan.  I could find no follow-up story, so I am not sure of the outcome of this particular find.  It is unlikely to have been her head, however, since it was never found. 

It is popular to stop by Pearl's grave and leave a penny, Lincoln head side up on the base of her headstone.  The actual stone was stolen long ago by relic hunters and the location is unknown to this day.  And when I said relic hunters, I don't mean recently.  The below photo from the J. Willard Marriott Library Archives in Utah is dated from 1947.  It has been gone a long time.  

Pearl Bryan may be long gone and forgotten by many, though her story will live on in stories of the supernatural and tales of ghost hunters.  But, in my mind, she was an unfortunate woman in an unfortunate circumstance who was take from her family by men who didn't care a whit about her life.  Her infant child is said to be buried with her in the grave.  

Rest in Peace Pearl Bryan.

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SOURCES:

The Legend of Pearl Bryan  - an excerpt from the book "No Rest for the Wicked" by Troy Taylor

Pearl Bryan Murder - an excerpt from the book "Pieces of the Past - Volume 1" by Jim Ries

Indy Star, March 6, 2016 - "Pennies on Gravestone Provide Murder Victim With Head"