Pearl Bryan Murder

Ξ March 17th, 2007 | → | ∇ Paranormal Worlds |

One of the first things you hear about, when discussing the Bobby Mackey’s Music World haunting lore, located in Wilder, KY., is the case of Pearl Bryan’s murder in 1896. 

Bobby Mackey’s is a popular country music club, fashioned and opened during the late 70’s as an “urban cowboy” type of bar, complete with mechanical bull. The site was originally used as a slaughterhouse in the early 1800’s, then torn down and built upon it a roadhouse, that took on various names and ownership until Bobby Mackey purchased it in 1978. 
 

Staynky.com has this to say about it: 

The numerous ghosts that are said to inhabit the nightclub have attracted substantial national attention, with segments about the club appearing on television shows such as “Sightings,” “Hard Copy,” “A Current Affair,” “Geraldo,” and “Jerry Springer.” 

Somehow, a man named Doug Hensley has published a book, based on “five years of research,” regarding the “evil demons” that roam Bobby Mackey’s Music World. The heart of his assertion, revolves around the Pearl Bryan murder in 1896. It was a very notorious and popular murder case nationally at the time, provoking citizens to take souvenirs from the crime scene (even branches from a tree next to where the body was found), and buy Pearl Bryan “merchandise” from a store near the Newport Courthouse.

One thing that I have yet to discover, is just how Doug Hensley connects her murder to the site of Bobby Mackey’s, other than through a wildly concocted story that has apparently no written or verifiable source. Instead he takes the word of psychics in his book as factual? (no disrespect to psychics out there at all)

Echo Bodine, Psychic, Spiritual Healer, Ghost Counsellor, Author of “Hands that Heal” and “Passion to Heal” has this to say:

“Bobby Mackey’s Music World was one of the scariest ghost busting jobs I’ve ever been on.  Johana tried pushing me down a very steep stairway.  I saw a ghost named Pearl holding her head and repeating over and over “Oh, my head. Oh, my head.” There was a male ghost named Scott repeatedly yelling at her that it was her fault he and his friend, Alonzo, were dead. There were ghosts in the bathroom, on stage, in the caretaker’s apartment, near the bucking bronco, and in the main bar. They were everywhere. The story of ‘Hell’s Gate’ is compelling, and true.”

There are some discrepancies on names and what happened that night exactly is still speculation and to an extent, always will be.

There is a Cincinnati Post article(s), written in 1896, on the murder, part of which is pictured below. This depicts how the body was found in a period newspaper sketch of the scene.

The body was found, headless, just behind what is now the YMCA in Fort Thomas, KY. It was cut “clean” with dental tools, and the woman was five months pregnant, with cocaine in her system (stomach).

The story goes that Pearl was the daughter of a wealthy farmer in Greencastle, IN. She had a boyfriend named Scott Jackson, a dental student in a downtown Cincinnati dental school at the time. According to rootsweb author Chris Ries, a second cousin of Pearl’s, William Wood, introduced Jackson and Pearl, after Jackson and his mother moved to Greencastle, IN., from New Jersey.

Ries states Pearl confided in her cousin William that she was pregnant, and when Jackson was telegrammed by Wood about it, Jackson sent a telegram for Pearl, asking her to come to Cincinnati. She arrived with her belongings and leather valise (hand bag) in late January, 1896, at Union Terminal. Jackson met her there with his friend and fellow dental student, Alonzo Walling, who was from Mt. Carmel, IN.

Accoring to author Albert Stegman (source), they arrived downtown at 4th and Plum, then proceeded to walk up to 4th and Central, then to Elm, where they had a heated argument in public. Stegman relates employees of a nearby business overheard them and listened to everything they were saying. A black coachmen who ran a horse and hack business near Peebles Corner was told to pick up two men and a woman that night, at Legner’s Tavern, at 4th and Plum St. Apparently when word of the abortion idea came about, Bryan threated to go home, but after much heated discussion on the streets, they drugged her at the Tavern, by putting cocaine into her sasparilla drink.

According to Stegman the coachman relates much of the route and what happened from there - they went over what is now the Taylor-Southgate bridge, up York St. and through the heart of Newport. They then went through Wilder KY (passing the site of Bobby Mackey’s) to Alexandria Pike, and back around to Ft. Thomas., where her body was found behind what is now the YMCA there, up on hill and out of the way of the road. The coachmen dropped them off with the girl that night, and how they made it all the way back by foot, is unknown. No one witnessed them that night or the next morning.

Her headless body was found shortly thereafter by a passing farmhand. Her body identified by her shoes, tracing the maker back to Greencastle, IN. Jackson was soon arrested due to the knowledge of the telgram to Pearl’s cousin William Wood, and Jackson implicated Walling as the other man.

The autopsy revealed a “clean cut” that possibly occured before she was dead, due to the amount of blood present at the scene. Stegman reports a struggle was also evident. It’s not known if this was simply an abortion attempt gone wrong, or if the plan was to murder her all along, and removing her head would simply not allow her to be ID’d, ecspecially since she was from out of town.

Stegman goes on to say the bartender at Legner’s Tavern was asked by Jackson to hold the leather valise until they came back for it, despite questioning it’s heavy contents, he agreed, without knowledge of what was inside. The theory here is that the incinerator at the nearby dental school basement was used, to get rid of her head, and they needed to wait until the building was open again on Monday to do it. So they asked someone to hold it for them, confiding in the bartender that it contained a ladies’ belongings.

Below is the leather valise that held Pearl’s head for three days at the 4th and Plum tavern. Now on display at the Campbell County Historical Society Museum. In front of the valise are the handcuffs used on either Jackson or Walling when they were hung.

Jackson (28 yrs. old) and Walling (21 yrs. old) were hung in early 1897 for her murder in 1896, behind what is now the Newport Courthouse, on York St., just south of the Taylor-Southgate bridge. They were the last people hung in Newport. The gallows were then torn down, which again were housed behind the courthouse. One report says the trial was “theatrical.” The actual double-hanging was urged to be done hastily due to the threat of a public lynching by friends and relatives of Bryan. Ries relates that even during a jail break, the two men remained in their cell due to fear of a public lynching, and were heavily protected.

Doug Hensley’s book, “Hell’s Gate, purports that Walling and/or Jackson “cursed” the grounds Pearl was killed upon, and said they would be back to haunt the “area,” and everyone involved in prosecuting the case. Hensley states the two were Satan worshippers, and used the old well in the basement of Bobby Mackey’s, when it was a shut down slaughterhouse in the 1890’s, to sacrifice animals and perform rituals with others. I do not know where he gets this from, other than from heresay and rumors and legend. There is nothing to support this somewhat wild theory. Therefore I cannot see where the Pearl Bryan murder, the rumors of her ghost in the bar, so far have any validity. The body was located more than two miles away, and the two men were never known to frequent the site, let alone know of it’s existence. Some believe the well is a “portal” for demons and is a convenient site for them to manifest. Again, this seems somewhat crazy and not based on anything other than not-so-creative storytelling over the years.

Ries nor Stegman mentions any of this, and I have not yet found any evidence or referrals to the satanism or promises of curses and hauntings during the hangings, in the newspaper articles.

Troy Taylor mentions the occult connection and Bobby Mackey’s, in one of his writings, but does not cite a source or reference.

Instead Ries offers the following depiction of the double hanging in Newport:

Jackson was described as standing erect and playing the part of an actor. Walling trembled with his eyes downcast. At that point, Jackson was again asked if he had anything to say. An eyewitness said, “Jackson hesitated fully two moments before he replied. Before he spoke, Walling turned expectantly evidently believing Jackson would speak the words that would save his life, even while he stood on the brink of death. Walling had half turned around and he stood in that position with an appealing expression on his face, while Jackson without looking at him, upturned his eyes and replied, ‘I have only this to say, that I am not guilty of the crime for which I am now compelled to pay the penalty of my life.”

Walling was then asked if he had any comments. He said, “Nothing, only that you are taking the life of an innocent man and I will call upon God to witness the truth of what I say.”

At 11:40am the trapdoors opened and Jackson and Walling were hanged.

The deputy sheriff (Pullman) who helped prosecute and arrest the two, witnessed the hanging, and was quoted as saying that when the trap doors fell, they did not die immediately, and were left to slowly choke to death for about “ten minutes.” The deputy related that it was one of the few times he had to turn his head, including the time he found Bryan’s mutilated, headless corpse, in Ft. Thomas.
As a result of this I would not consider there to be any rational relation to the Pearl Bryan murder affecting the site of Bobby Mackey’s Music World. There simply, at this time, is no connection whatsoever. I will continue to try and find sources Hensley used as his link that are verifiable.

Birth Records and Identities:

I was able to locate the birth and census records for Pearl Bryan in Greencastle, and her family, including her brother Fred, who reportedly came to Cincinnati, in order to pick up her body and over-see the funeral arrangements. I was able to locate Alonzo Walling’s census and birth records in Mt. Carmel, IN., and his family, as well. 

Scott Jackson was born in New Jersey and I was unable to locate his at this time.

So, these people did exist. The murder did happen pretty much as lore tells it, save for a few minor inconsistencies. But I cannot find any connection at all to Bobby Mackey’s, or why a person killed two miles away and their head probably incinerated and kept in downtown Cincinnati, would haunt the building.

After some newspaper validations and further investigation on the satanic reports, I will move on to the history of Bobby Mackey’s after the murder, and the murders that reportedly actually took place at the club into the 50’s and 60’s.

This is not to say spirits cannot travel wherever they want to, they can from what we know, to whatever extent.  But the likelihood of these 3 spirits somehow holing up in Bobby Mackey’s, at this point, has no real basis in evidence, history, or geography ultimately.