The
year 1897 is remembered for a great many things. William McKinley was
inaugurated as the 25th President of the United States of America.
The first football game between African American Colleges Atlanta and Tuskegee
occurred, with Atlanta winning by ten points. Sherlock Holmes began his
‘Adventure of Abbey Grange.’ John
Phillip Holland launches his gas powered submarine and Utah elects the first
female State Senator, M. H. Cannon.
While
all this was happening, some unusual events were occurring in West Virginia as
well. A meteorite enters the Earth’s atmosphere whereupon it explodes over New
Martinsville in what was reported to be a spectacular display of brilliant
shrapnel. While damage and debris were reported, thankfully there were no known
injures to have occurred. Earlier in the year Elva Zona Heaster is found
tragically murdered in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The events surrounding
the investigation of this murder brought her husband to trial for the act. The case remains notorious to this very
day because testimony from a ghost helped to bring about a conviction.
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| Elva Zona Heaster (Wikipedia) |
The
case of Elva Heaster is in many ways a typically tragic tale of spousal abuse,
and the main reason it has survived to this day is the legends that surround
the incident and have perpetuated the tale as stories of the Greenbrier Ghost.
Sadly Elva’s life was not so remarkable. She was known to be a native to
Greenbrier County, born there in the early 1870’s, and little information
remains about her life except that it is claimed she had a child out of wedlock
two years prior to her murder, something that was considered shocking for the
time. The autumn before her murder
she met a man named Edward Shue who was a drifter who had moved into the area
to look for work as a blacksmith. About the time that Edward found work in the
shop of a James Crookshanks, is also said to be about when he and Elva met. It
is said that the two fell into a whirlwind romance, delighting in each other’s
company. Shortly into this budding romance, the two married. Elva’s mother,
Mary Jane Heaster was known to have objected to the union, and many knew of her
dislike for Mr. Shue. It was not very long after the wedding that Elva Zona
Heaster was murdered.
Less
than five months after meeting Edward, Elva was found dead in her home by a
small boy. The boy had been sent to the house on an errand by Mr. Shue. Elva
was found at the base of the stairs, laid out with her feet together and one
hand upon her stomach. Dr. George Knapp was sent for, however due to difficulties
and distance, it took over and hour for the Doctor to arrive at the scene of
the murder. When the Doctor had finally arrived, Mr. Shue had already carried Elva
Heaster’s body upstairs, laid her body upon a bed, and had washed and dressed
the corpse himself, placing her in a dress with a high stiff collar and
covering her face with a veil. Edward was said to be strongly affected by this
tragedy, cradling Elva’s head all during the doctor’s brief examination of the
body. The examination was cut short when upon the Doctor’s discovery and
examination of bruises around Elva’s throat, Edward was said to have gone into
a raging fit which frightened the Doctor and caused him to end the visit
abruptly.
 |
| The Shue House (Wikipedia) |
On
January 24th, 1897, Elva was buried in the local cemetery now known
as the Soule Chapel Methodist Cemetary. Sadly it would be less than a month
later before her body was exhumed for examination. A great cloud of suspicion
grew around Edward Shue and his particularly odd behavior at the time of his
wife’s death. Despite Elva’s body
being displayed at their home during the wake, Edward specifically loomed as an
emotional guard over it, not allowing anyone to approach her too closely. He is
said to have placed a small pillow on one side of his dead wife’s head, and a
rolled up sheet at the other side. Her neck was wrapped in a thick scarf. Al of
these Edward claimed were treasured items that would bring his departed wife
comfort as she passed from this world to the next. Edward is said to have
flashed from incredible sadness to a disquieting energetic demeanor during this time, which also added to
local suspicion.
None
were more suspicious of Edward than her mother, Mary Jane Heaster, who had so
strongly objected to their union. Mary Jane was convinced that Edward had
murdered her daughter, and she prayed every night for four weeks that her
daughter might be given the justice she deserved. Many believe her prayers were
answered. Legend has it that Elva appeared to her mother four weeks after her
funeral as an apparition. A distinctly bright light that gradually took on
Elva’s form and filling the chamber she occupied with a profound chill. It is
said she visited her mother for four nights in a row, imparting her tragic tale
of woe. Her ghostly form informed
her mother that Edward Shue was in fact a cruel and evil man who abused her
horrifically. He had attacked her in a fit of rage when he discovered she had
cooked no meat that night for dinner and broker her neck. Unbeknownst to Mr.
Shue, Mary Jane Heaster had retrieved the folded sheet from her daughters
coffin prior to her burial. She had tried to return the sheet to Edward Shue,
but he had refused it. Noticing an odd color to it, she washed it, which caused
the water in the basin to turn a rusty red color, which permanently stained the
sheet pink.
 |
| Mary Jane Heaster (Wikipedia) |
It
was this evidence that Mary Jane took to the local prosecutor John A. Preston.
Mr. Preston is not known to have given a great deal of credit to the ghostly
visitations by Elva, however the evidence of the sheet and the general
disposition of the local townsfolk, a great majority of whom suspected Mr. Shue
of misdoing, persuaded him to open an investigation. Almost immediately, Doctor
Knapp was questioned in the case. Dr. Knapp conveyed to Mr. Preston the events
that occurred as he was examining Elva’s body when it was discovered, and
confessed that he himself had not been able to make a complete and thorough
examination of Elva because of the interference of Mr. Shue at the time. It was
this testimony that convinced John Preston to exhume Elva’s corpse for a proper
autopsy, and an inquest jury was formed.
Elva
Zona Heaster’s body was exhumed and examined in the local schoolhouse on
February 22nd. The examination lasted three hours. A report, dated March 9, 1897, "the discovery was
made that the neck was broken and the windpipe mashed. On the throat were the
marks of fingers indicating that she had been choked. The neck was dislocated
between the first and second vertebrae. The ligaments were torn and ruptured.
The windpipe had been crushed at a point in front of the neck." (Wikipedia)
Edward Shue, who complained and protested his wife’s grave being disturbed, was
immediately arrested and charged with murder.
The
trial of Edward Shue would not begin until June, and in the time between then
and his arrest, the people of Greenbrier County began to learn more and more
about this wandering blacksmith, and the more they learned the more villainous
Edward seemed. One of the first things discovered was that his name was not in
fact Edward Shue, but rather Erasumus Stribbling Trout Shue. It was also
learned that Mr. Shue had been married twice prior to his wedlock with Elva
Zona Heaster. His first marriage had ended in divorce after his wife had
accused him of great cruelties, and his second marriage had ended when the
woman he had married died in unusual circumstances. While imprisoned, it is said that Mr. Shue spoke frequently
with reporters about his ambition to eventually marry seven wives, and his
complete confidence that he would be absolved of any crime due to the lack of
evidence against him.
The
trial came on June 22nd, 1897, with Elva’s mother, Mary Jane Heaster
as the prosecution’s star witness. While the prosecutor attempted to focus more
upon the physical evidence and public perception of the character of Mr. Shue,
it was the Defense who questioned Mary Jane at length about her supernatural
visitations, hoping to undermine her credibility with the jury. This plan is
said to have backfired completely. Rather than make Elva’s mother look foolish,
Mary Jane instead repeatedly and calmly related the events of the ghostly
visitations with exacting details which never wavered despite the defense’s
attempts to rattle and unnerve her during testimony. Because the Ghostly witness
had been introduced by the defense, the Judge could not ask the jury to
disregard that particular testimony. Erasumus Stribbling Trout Shue was found
guilty of Elva Zona Heaster’s murder on July 11th and was sentenced
to life in prison at West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville. There are
stories that a local lynch mob tried to prevent this from occurring, but were
dissuaded from their actions by the local Sheriff’s Deputy.
Mr.
Shue would live the rest of his life in the Penitentiary in Moundsville. He
died three years later on March 13th, 1900 when an unusual epidemic
swept through the prison. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the prison
cemetery. It is said that Mary Jane Heaster remained convinced of the
ghostly visitations that brought justice to her daughter’s killer up to her
death in 1916. At no time did she ever recant, or alter her tale, and the Ghost
is not said to have appeared to anyone else since.
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| West Virginia State Penitentiary, Moundsville |
1897 was indeed a very unusual
year, filled with a remarkable amount of extraordinary events and the
Greenbrier Ghost is not the only one which we will whisper upon Night’s breath
as we fly by in the Glittering Darkness. So check back soon for more tales and
events from that remarkable year.
-Mr. Cat
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