The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 89 - The Murder of Russell Colvin

Episode Date: June 18, 2015

Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine the murder of Russell ColvinSourcesTour DatesRedbubble MerchPatreon

When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. Welcome to the dollop. This is a bi-weekly podcast about American history. Each week

I, Dave Anthony, comedian, actor, writer, read a story from American history to another guy. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is about. Done eating? That was a good again. A solid stretch. Well done. Do you want to look who to do? I'll do one bottle. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gareth. Dave okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not gonna come to Tickly podcast. Okay. You are queen fakie of made-up town. All hail Queen Shit of Liesville. A bunch of religious virgins go to Mingle and do what? Pray. Hi Gary. No. Is he done my friend? No. Okay girl. I'm ready girl. Are you? Early 1800s. I don't have an exact date.

Go ahead. Early 1800s. I don't have an exact date. Okay. Sure. I'm okay with that. This is a safe place. Early in the 19th century amongst the people living in Manchester, Vermont was a family known as the Bournes. Jason Bourne. Not the same Bournes. This is B-O-O-R-N-S. The Bournes. But if it was that Bournes, this would be a different story. Yeah. Fuck yeah. The family consisted of Barney Bourne, his wife, three adult married children, Stephen, Jesse, and Sally. Barney also had a brother, Amos. The Bourne children were not known to conduct themselves with the sobriety and dignity expected in the town. They were considered to be wild and reckless. Stephen was described as

malicious, passionate, and when angry, blind to consequences. What? Passionate, it seems like you're putting a nice shine on it. Yeah. Jesse was pretty much the same. Sally was called tough, willful, and disrespectful of conventions. You got a lead with some of these later ones. One of the devil's unaccountables she was once described. Jesus. And she always seemed to be pregnant. Wow. Sally married Russell Colvin, who was not considered to be the brightest of men. He was called feeble-minded by the people of Manchester. In 1801, Russell's father walked out, moved to Rhode Island, and never came back. The people of Manchester did not

believe Russell was capable of running the farm by himself, and because the town had an obligation to protect the rights of widow and fearing Russell would run the farm into the ground because he was stupid, the city fathers confiscated the Colvin farm. They leased it to tenants and used the rent to support Russell's mother. Stripped of his birthright and his home, Russell was forced to move in with his wife and six children to the home of her parents. Always fun. In-laws. And then they got an ABC show. Yeah, right now this is a great sitcom. Yeah. It's stupid, Russell. Just the fuck to us.

What about idiot moves in? Yeah. It was generally agreed upon that he was eccentric. From time to time, time he would get up and start walking, leaving his family sometimes for a day or two, sometimes for several months. Well, sorry, a day or two or several months on a walk. Up to eight or nine months. Up to eight or nine months? He's just like for his gum, just like gotta fucking go cross country on him. Yeah, he'd just go for a walk. On several of these trips, he took his favorite infant son, carrying the boy on his back. This is not... For months? I think that's not great parenting. No. For the infant or the five kids that he left

behind. But he would always come back. So... So did weird cats. It's classic Russell, man. Yeah, but okay. Then on May 10th, 1812, Russell up and walked out again. Of course, no one thought it was strange. Just Russ going for another of his walkabouts. Yep. Sally was away when he took off. When she came home, she asked her brothers and father where he'd gone. No one had an answer. But Sally wasn't too concerned because she was also big on just wandering off on long trips. They had a lot in common. They're such... I love to leave the house for eight or nine months unannounced. This whole... Right now, this reeks of alcoholism.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think the long walks may be benders. Yeah. Yeah, these aren't... These walks aren't very far. Of course... Okay, wait. So even after Russell was gone, she continued to head out for weeks at a time. That's... There's kids. It's just good parenting, I know. So weeks, months, and years went by and nothing whatsoever was heard of Russell Colvin. Sally and his in-laws showed a profound lack of curiosity about his whereabouts. He's been gone for years? Yes. And nobody gives a fuck. They showed a quote a profound lack of curiosity about his whereabouts. I think any... Yeah, that is profound. And it's general welfare. So the

rest of Manchester just shrugged and thought no more about the mystery. Okay. Manchester, that's on you too. It's a good town. Years went by before the townsfolk were like, hey, when the fuck happened to dumb Russell? Yeah. Gossip and speculation increased about what had really happened. The Bournes were, of course, suspected because it was well known that Russell had never been a favorite amongst his wife's family. Sally went on another one of her trips in 1815. So that's three years later. Mm-hmm. And when she came home, she was pregnant. So she found Russ. Are you Russ? Put it in, we'll find out. No, you're not. I'm sorry, what the

fuck just happened? So now this is obviously a predicament. Under Vermont law, an unwed mother could swear the child, which meant to name the father and compel him to provide child support. But Sally could not swear a child, because in the eyes of the law, she was still married, because her husband was still alive, just walking. And that's another, you break another law there, right? Yeah. Isn't this when they were like, marriage is forever? I don't know if they yelled it like that. Sure they did. They had guns. Stephen said that she should go ahead and swear the child, because Russell was dead. Someone else in the town said they had

heard one of the boys say that Russell was dead as well. Huh. Another reported that one of the boys had said that they had put Russell, quote, where the potatoes would not freeze. Everywhere. It was probably a root cellar, which was dug below the frost line for storing vegetables. Okay, sure. Then Thomas Johnson's children were crossing a field one day near the Born Place when they found Russell Colvin's hat. You know. Russell's sister said he would never go about without his hat. Then suspicion of murder fell heavily upon Jason and Stephen Born. Okay, so this should have

happened years ago. No, not until they found the hat. No, no, no, no. Definitely when you heard someone say that he's where the potatoes won't freeze. That's when you gotta be like, sorry, I have follow up questions. No, it's when you find the hat. He didn't go anywhere without his hat. Okay, sorry. It's when you find a fucking hat. Have you ever seen, have you read an ad against a Christie or seen Murder She Wrote? Listen, what, you want to talk Poirot? Let's talk Poirot, motherfucker. So, meanwhile, Sally was too busy consoling herself with her extensive network of male friends to pay much need to her husband's possible fate. That did

not help the the Born Case. Yeah. So wait, sorry. So she's fucking everyone. So that's okay. I just want to make sure. Right. Okay, great. Because she's a drunk because they're all drunk. Okay, gotcha. Gotcha. Then in 1819, seven years after Russell's disappearance, they found a mitten. It all blew open. Amos Boom, Sally's uncle, revealed that he had a dream in which he was visited by the ghost of Russell. The ghost stood by the side of his bed and told Amos that he had been murdered. I've been murdered. It's all about you. The ghost then told Amos to follow him and he could show the place where he'd been buried, which was the

cellar hole where the old house once stood. Okay. When this news came out, other Manchester residents were visited by Russell's ghost. Oh, so he's doing the rounds. The ghost is making the rounds. Kind of a mayoral ghost. It's a very kissing the babies. The ghost likes people, likes telling stories, likes hanging out in different places. He's a social ghost. Yeah, eventually. I know. You told my friend. I know. We're working on it. We're working on it. Hi there. Do you want to know where they buried me? Let's go to the cellar. Do you want to know where I'm buried?

He's a fucking drunk. Hey, I had a couple. Why? The community. A drunk ghost. Yes, so what's the unit going to sell her home? He's still drunk. He's telling the same person every night, but he thinks he's telling other people. You were here last night. Why is it why? I don't think so. They murdered. They murdered poor me. This is Russ. Russ. Yeah, I can walk through Walmart, fucker. R-U-S-S. Russ. The community demanded action on April 27, 18, 19, seven years after he disappeared. Someone gave up. A court of inquiry was finally formed. Jesus.

The cellar was dug up revealing a coat button and a jackknife, which were both identified by Sally as belonging to Russell. Yeah. So we have a hat and a knife, a hat, a button, and a knife. But yeah, okay. That's murder. No, this is, no. Beyond this, the court had very little evidence to hold Stephen or Jesse. Next, fire destroyed an old barn at the born place. This fed right into the gossip. The born barn? The born barn. Okay. The born barn burn. Ah, the born barn burn. This fed right into the gossip as townspeople said the barn probably had been burned to

conceal evidence of Russell's murder. Uh-huh, sure. Sometime after this, a boy was out walking with his dog near Barney Bourne's house. The animal. There's just too many fucking bees. The animal suddenly rushed to a tree stump and began to frenetically dig. This inspired a crowd of villagers to examine the soil around the stump for themselves. Their search was sooner ordered by a heap of bones. Bones. Uh-huh. This was it. Well. Excitement spread through Manchester. They had finally found Russell Colvin. All right. Jesse Bloom was arrested. Stephen would have been arrested as well,

but he had long since moved to Denmark, New York. They pressured Jesse to confess, but he would not. It was quite a let down when physicians ruled that the bones were mostly chicken bones, easily mistaken for a human. Uh-huh. Yeah. For a very tiny human man. Russell got small as he aged. Russell was a foot tall with wings. The more ghosty he became, the more he looked like he had a beak. You're telling me that this beak belongs to a bird and not Russ? Come on, you guys. The authorities decided they had no evidence to hold Jesse. But before he was released, Jesse's neighbor, Thomas Johnson, went to visit Jesse alone in the cell. Jesse came

out of the meeting ready to talk. He said that his brother Stephen had killed Russell. Okay. A party of locals was immediately assembled to go to New York to put Stephen under arrest. He was taken from his home and brought back to Manchester, protesting his innocence all the way. Meanwhile in jail, Jesse told the whole story to his cellmate, Silas Merrill. He said that Stephen had clubbed Russell to the ground during an argument and fractured his skull. Then Jesse, Stephen and their dad carried Russell to an old cellar where their dad slit his throat. Just to be safe. Just to make sure. He was then buried there. After 18 months, they dug up the bones and took them to a barn, the one that later burned

down. At that point, they gathered up the bones and pounded them into dust and threw them into a river. I mean, as far as they're planned to get rid of the body, not bad. Pretty sound. That's not bad. Once you're dust and bones for a river, you're pretty far down the line. You're dust and bones. You've done it all. You can have that sort of got away with murder grin after you're dust and bones into a river. Merrill related this story to the authorities and he was set free. We don't know what he did. So I guess that's reasonable. Turns out Jesse was just trying to save his own ass by blaming Stephen when he figured that he figured that Stephen was in New York, so he wouldn't be arrested. But when he learned

that Stephen had been arrested, he recanted his confession. Cool. But more and more witnesses were coming forward saying they had heard Stephen and Jesse threaten Russell's life. So the trial moved forward. The townspeople continued to unsuccessfully search every inch of Manchester in hopes of finding Russell Cullen's body. When the brothers stood trial two months later, their conviction was so regarded as inevitable that the court had a very difficult time finding 12 men willing to declare themselves as impartial. Okay, that's bad. Uncle Amos was amongst the witnesses, but he was not allowed to tell about his ghost dream. Why? That's inadmissible? Apparently ghost dreams are not admissible. You can do

that in ghost court. Your honor, without the ghost dream, we don't have a case. He's standing right next to me and he's quite... Don't you see the ghost? He's shitfaced. I'm gonna tell me what his shitface is, isn't it? Fuck. You still walk about. I can't even... I just sit down. I'm not doing good, man. Are you SS? That spells moon. No, Russ, that's your name. Amos merely testified about the discovery of the knife and the bones. Then witnesses after witness, witness after witness, got up and said how they had heard Steve. Stephen and Jesse say they'd killed Russell. Thomas Johnson described an argument he had seen between Jesse and Stephen and Russ as did one of Russell's sons, Lewis. Lewis went even further saying he saw Stephen

hit Russell with a club. Lewis said he was so frightened that he ran away and he never saw his father again. Even though the entire case was hearsay, the brothers were convicted. They were sentenced to be hanged on January 18th, 1820. But the brothers were so adamant that they were innocent that their lawyer sent a petition of pardon to be presented to the state legislature. And the state legislature then decided to commute Jesse's sentence to life imprisonment, but they maintained that Stephen must die. Oh, geez. Yet Stephen would not give up. He pushed his defense attorney to go for a long shot. The attorney placed advertisements and regional newspapers asking for information about Russell Colvin's whereabouts.

A man in New Jersey named Tabor Chadwick was reading the New York Evening Post. And he remembered that a few years earlier, a stranger had appeared in his neighborhood who said he was from Manchester, Vermont. The man appeared to be in a state of, quote, mental derangement. But he was able to give many details about his life. This man gave his name as Russell Colvin. Chadwick wrote saying that the man was currently working on his brother-in-law's farm and urged Russell's relations to come to the area to see if they could identify. Okay. Wait. A James Webley, Webley was sent to New Jersey to interview this strange farmhand. When they met, Webley called him by name, but the man said there must be some mistake.

Russell Colvin had been his name once, but it wasn't anymore. What? Wait. That's an idiot talking. You got to be wrong. That ain't my name no more. Nobody here's got that name. Besides me a few years ago. Now, sir, you were wrong because that's my past name. Yeah. The man said he was another man now with a different name. He claimed to never have lived in Manchester, but he clearly had familiarity with the town when it was discussed. He also flatly refused to go near or back to Manchester. It was useless. Webley couldn't get the man

to return. So he tricked him. It doesn't sound like that's a hard thing. He talked a feeble-minded man into going to New York with him. I don't know how he's like, Hey, this looks a lot like Manchester. I need to take you. I need to take you back to Manchester. No, I'm not going. No way. Hey, how about a trip to New York? I've always wanted to go. He then placed the idiot on a boat headed for Manchester. When they arrived in Vermont, the moron was presented to the county court in Bennington, Vermont. Everyone immediately recognized the stranger as Russell. Do you want to know what's crazy? This is exactly like what Manchester was like, but it's New York. No, Russell, you idiot.

Bones. That spells Russell. Yeah. So he was taken to Manchester. He was confronted by his brother, Stephen, who was in prison. Russell looked at the situation Stephen was in and asked, quote, What is that for? Because they said I murdered you, Stephen replied. You never hurt me. Russell shrugged. Jess struck me with a briar once, but it did not hurt much. So what the fuck? He just quit his life. When Sally was brought to him, Russell said merely that is all over with and would have nothing more to do with her. And what would be called the best identification ever?

He then returned to the farm in New Jersey. The court was in a bit of a pickle. Yeah, they were. Well, well, you might have murdered you. I mean, here's the thing. You have been convicted. You are and sentenced to murder and die for murder. Problematically, the gentleman you killed just walked in and said, Hey, low, how were you? Yeah. But we but we already done. We got all the rope. They finally ordered a new trial and the brothers were declared innocent of killing the not dead guy. So they had another trial. Well, you got to make sure, dude, even though the

guy you have to make sure, your honor. First of all, I would like to say that the dead guy is alive. Objection, your honor. Objection. I was told that that would be that we could not that would be not admissible. I took this case because I love a long shot, your honor. Stephen left Manchester as soon as he could and moved to Ohio where he built a farm and raised a family. Jesse ended up in Ohio as well, but lived a different life going by the name Jesse Bowen. He was part of a counterfeiting ring in Cleveland that was particularly good at alluding capture. In 1860, he met a man counterfeiter who was a counterfeiter named Hackett, who also who asked Jesse for an introduction to the ring. Jesse eventually

trusted Hackett enough and admitted that he was a counterfeiter, too. He also admitted that he and his brother had killed a man, but they were released from jail when an imposter that they had hired to what the fuck stop this shit that they had hired to play the dead man convinced the town that he'd never died. Hackett was actually a federal marshal. Jesus, you over told man. And Jesse was arrested and spent four years in prison for counterfeiting. The story of the imposter was published and made its way back to Vermont, but Manchester residents refused to believe it. Old timers who had seen the resurrected Russell Colvin were brought out to swear again that he was the right man. Today, most believe that it

really was Russell Colvin who returned from New Jersey to Vermont and that the original born convictions were an error. However, a 1993 book, The Counterfeit Man, written by Gerald McFarland makes a very believable case that the born family perpetrated an elaborate hoax. Holy shit. Yeah, all right. Geez. So when do we find out for sure? Well the next episode of Murder She Wrote. All right. Geez. Simpler times, man, when you could just hire a fucking nobody just be like, oh, that situation's over with and then be like, well, I'm out here to talk.

Oh, fuck, good times. There's been a lot of good times. All right. Bye. I love you. That's it.