Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Oh, it was a double pop. Whoa, whoa, that was aggressive.
I did it. No, it's not that fine. Okay. Well, happy almost new year everybody.
Yeah, having a year. It is December 29th, so we were two days away, but still nonetheless. Cheers. Cheers.
Cheers. Cheers. Yes. Nice.
No, we're shooting champagne coffee mugs. Listen, we do what we can. It's fine. We're still, we're back at in the podcast room.
That's right. My, you know, I moved over Thanksgiving. She has an unpacked her wine glass. Yeah, there's still some things that are, you know, still not out.
We celebrate the best we know how, you know, one time, Blonde Meghan and I, my friend Blonde Meghan, this was 2007, 2007. We, she said, oh, look, we should get the bigger bottle of wine because, and I realized you were 10, so you couldn't, anyway, but we were grown-ups. And so she got the bigger bottle of wine because she said it was a better value. But the problem is, all she had was solo cups.
She did not have, yeah, we got a very drunk. She was dancing a lot. I remember that. And I just got bossy and was like, stop dying.
I like that. And she thought that she, you know, was one of the Irish dancers. Oh, nice. Yes.
Oh, no. No. She wasn't. And, and if you were listening, or if your children are listening, they shouldn't.
But, yeah, it's out there now. So you have a friend Blonde Meghan and Brunette Meghan. And I recently have gotten to know a red head Meghan. I think it really, Meghan's are non-discriminatory.
And all hair colors. They do. I do. I thought that was one.
Okay. All right. So are you ready to start the almost new year with this crazy story? I am so ready.
All right. Well, let's begin. So it is, ironically, the first of the year, it is January 1963. Nice.
Yeah. Apropos. The number one song on the radio is Telstar by the tornadoes. I mean, they're actually, and I usually know music, but this was like, no.
John Kennedy would enter his final year as president. He was actually killed that number by a sniper bullet. And the number one movie at the box office was Terrace Bulba with Tony Curtis and Ailey's giving me this look. I've never heard of this either.
Apparently it is a Soviet Union kind of movie. You know, I don't know. Like, by action, I guess. Maybe?
I don't know. It's not my list of maybe not on my list of films. Please hold. Terrace T-A-R-A-S Bulba B-U-L-B-A.
Hayley, Ailey's gonna Netflix. Terrace Bulba, no. Oh god, it looks aggressive. Why is she probably gonna watch it tonight?
Oh, no. It's um, it's... Take more time, please. Oh no, I don't know what it is.
You see, that was my thing as I kind of looked at it and was like, nah. The tale of a cosec chief who has sworn to be the eternal enemy of the treacherous poles. So when his son follows sort of beautiful pole, who has saved his life, the father has faced with the dilemma of whether to kill his own flesh and blood is a trigger. Whoa!
Yeah. Yeah. That got intense fast. It did.
It did. That was at your box office, folks. Two hours and four minutes. That's a lot of time.
It looks maybe like it could potentially be racist. I don't know. I... Yeah.
Maybe, I don't know. Maybe it's fine. I don't think I'm gonna watch it and find out, but if you do or know about it, let us know. Definitely let us know.
And just so you know, Telstar by the tornadoes sounds like this. Well, after this. After that. Quick, add for Mountain Dew.
It sounds just like this. I'm a little scared. Me too. Whoa!
Okay, I'm gonna end it now for copyright purposes. Yeah. So, I mean, that's the start of Telstar by the tornadoes. It sounds kind of into it.
I think all January 1963 sounds really intense. And I think you've got to think about what was going on in the world. I mean, we've got things like we just got out of, you know, the big threat that we were going to be annihilated by Russia. Yeah.
So, I mean, there's a lot going on. You know, people need intensity and... Clearly our movies and music did that. Calhoun County, West Virginia is not going to disappoint them.
So, we are traveling back to West Virginia, which, you know, here lately, this has been a hot spot. And I'm not hating it. How do you love West Virginia? Same.
We've talked about it before. We've apparently deeply offended somebody in West Virginia, but one point because I got a nasty email. But... Well, your brother did.
Travis. Travis. The brother did. It was not me.
I was absent. You were absent during the time. I covered. But listen, we still, whether you like us or not, West Virginia, we're here for you.
We like you, baby. We love you. Okay. Okay.
All right. On this chilly January morning, the phone rings at Henry Welch's home. On the other line is Delfred Wilson. Delfred?
Delfred? To the name of the name book. I won't. But all right.
The Welch's neighbor, Delfred. He gives them a call. Delfred was actually calling from his job. He worked as a night watchman at the Rubber Fabricator Factory.
Rubber fabricator? What do they make there? Rubber? Rubber?
I don't know. Fakes. Rubber. Rubber for different things.
Fabric? Fabric rubber? Rubber sheets? Oh.
With so many things that we can make up that he does for a living. But you know what? At night. He watches that rubber.
He watches that rubber. The little condoms. That's the baby. He's like, well, gotta go watch the rubbers.
Yeah. No. I know. We don't know.
He does. He's a night watch. That's an important job. He tells Mr.
Welch, his neighbor, that he hasn't heard from his wife Irene all day and had attempted to call her multiple times without her answering the phone. Like nothing. So he was pretty concerned about her safety and wondered if Mr. Welch would go and check on her.
So Mr. Welch assured Delfred that he would send he wouldn't go himself, but he would send his step-daughters to go and check on Irene and will report back. So two things about this that I thought about. Was it that he preferred to send girls because it was a woman alone and you thought maybe that's a little more appropriate?
That's or was he just like, you know, I'm listening to the game. I'm gonna get up and go. Right. It's fine.
Like I'll check on the neighbor. Exactly. Kids, get up. Go check on the neighbor.
So he sends Diane Cochran, age 15, and her 14-year-old sister Juanita to go check on, you know, Mrs. Wilson. Okay. So they walked to the home, which was in the remote woods.
So not like an external neighbor situation. Right. Like, you know, maybe a half mile down the road, miles down the road, something of that effect. Also, you probably just didn't want to walk that.
Probably not. Why didn't he drive them? The game's on. Right.
I've totally made this up. I don't know. And I can feel his family members sending me hate. So we don't really know.
But nonetheless, the girls go. They knock on the front door, but no one answers. Okay. So they open the unlocked door and they call out for her.
And this is Wilson. This is Wilson. But no one responds to their calls. And the girls quickly notice that, oh my gosh, there's Irene, but she is slumped over the dining room table, like onto the floor, like over the dining table, like half like on the floor, like, oh my gosh.
So the girls, you know, run up to her and, you know, think like, oh my gosh, maybe she fainted. Maybe she's something happened. Yeah. They run up and they find a horrifying sight.
Irene was covered in blood in bruises and the girls scream and run out of the house, which is 100% what I would do. So they go to the closest neighbor's home and it was there that the girls, you know, knock on the door and said, like, we've got to use the phone. We've got to call the police, poor Mrs. Wilson.
Right. So when police arrived on the scene, a little after 10 p.m. So the girls had gone around 9 30. It appeared that Irene had been stabbed, beaten, and possibly burned.
Oh, yeah. So not just true, run of the milk killing. Right. Not just a home invasion gone wrong.
Very much like we're going to make sure you're dead. Yeah. So police took photographs of the scene and sent off a butcher knife that was on the kitchen counter. They sent that to the crime lab for analysis.
Okay. The county coroner conducted an inquest and ordered an autopsy of Irene's body. Right. At your several days, Dr.
Robert McDougall submitted his findings in the autopsy report. Dr. McDougall stated that Irene's cause of death was due to numerous lacerations, which resulted in perforation of the left lung and aorta causing Irene to hemorrhage to death. So she she bled out.
Yeah. She bled it up, basically. Dr. McDougall also noted no sign of sexual assault or attempted sexual assault.
So this wasn't a rape. Irene's hair had been burned and the duster that she was wearing. So women back in the stay, you know, the cleaning their house and stuff, they were a buster. What's a duster?
What's it look like? A duster is kind of like, it's almost like individuals were like, do radghed. It's like, you put your hair up in a duster so that it doesn't get anything in your hair. Oh, yes.
Like a little bandana. Sort of like a hangerchief. I think I'm going to wear some of those. Yes.
Yes. Exactly. So that's what she'd been wearing a duster. Duster.
And she, half of the duster had actually been burned as well. Oh. So because it was in her hair, it was half like hanging off of her head, half on, you know. So she had suffered 52 stab wounds, along with a pretty severe being.
One of the hits that she took to her jaw had completely broken her dental plate. I know I've tried this before, but if you ever like, if you've ever stabbed anything, 52 times. That's a lot of energy. Yeah.
In 52 times. Haley currently is kind of acting that out and it's a little unsettling. Two hands, okay. Wow.
In my direction. I think it's best that you, you know, try that at home at night in. No, no, not just maybe not do that. That's just a lot.
It's a lot of energy. That's a lot of, you know, anger. And then to also beat her. That's crazy.
Yeah. Okay. So and had beaten her so severely that it broke her dental plate. And the type of death was believed to have been anywhere between 5 30 and 6 30 p.m.
So roughly about three, four hours before the girls found her, you know, they're able to do the time of death based on D-comp and, you know, that kind of thing. So anyway, once the report was released, neighbors started locking their doors for the first time ever. Yeah. That's a good idea.
I should do that. 100%. Exactly. And fear pretty much swept through the county with folks keeping loaded guns by their bedside and adding a lot more lighting around their house.
I don't blame them. That would have terrified me as well. Some neighbors were so scared by the crime that they actually picked up and moved away. Okay.
Yeah. That's a little much, but you do what you got to know. Listen, if you have the ability to just pick up and say, you know what, over it, let's do it. Yeah.
I guess the idea of something's would terrifying happening that had never happened before. Could just startle you to just pick up and say, I'm over it. And this particular family just moved to another county. They were like, yeah, we're not going to sit around here.
And it seemed to be the mom was really pressuring like dad like we got to live like we're not sitting here and being killed next, you know, which makes sense since it happened to a woman. Yeah. Yeah. 100%.
But the real question is who and why? Yeah. Why would someone do this to Irene by all standard? She was a, you know, great citizen of her community.
I mean, she was described as a Christian who worked hard and was employed at a local store called Fetties. Fetties. Fetties. What about I sold it Fetties?
I don't know. I don't know if it was like a grocery store or it was more like a general shop. Yeah. Probably.
It's one of those where if you need like a can of beans, you can find it, but also if you need it, you know, some yard or motor oil. Well, cigarettes. Some cigarettes. I mean, it is 1963.
So clearly, you know, get your pack of marble. I don't know. I don't know whether they were smoking back. Probably that Winston Salem lights.
Yeah. Yeah. So. All right.
She is this hardworking lady and she was considered older that she was 52. Oh, yeah. Yeah. She's like, oh, she's an older lady at 52, which I am, you know, not horribly far off from 52.
Your mother isn't a far off from 52. And would you think of her as like an older woman? No, I would not. No, me neither.
So no one just had anything negatively to say about poor old Irene. Negatively negative to say. What's it? It's a rough night.
It's it's the new year. We're trying. We're trying. So who would harm her?
It's just like makes no sense. At the crime scene, police quickly ruled out robbery as a motive since they found a good sum of money on the dining room table along with jewelry and other items of value in the home. So no one was there to take their goods and their valuables. It appeared that Irene had come home from work that evening and began cooking vegetables on the stove.
She took a moment to sit at her dining room table probably to rest and been a long day at the at Fettie. At Fettie's. When it appeared she was attacked. Damn it.
Don't you hate that. Like killing it at the office, you know, come home to make your dinner, you're exhausted. You just want that dinner done. And somebody's, you know, sniff you out.
Yeah. That does not sound fun. No. That sounds like a tough way to go.
Definitely. Catch me on a day when I haven't worked, you know, 12 hours. Right. Right.
So was somebody already in her home hiding waiting to assault her? Oh, I hate that. Like, you know, she didn't have her door locked clearly. So did they come in while she was in the kitchen?
You know, I mean, it seems like a plausible scenario. But if rape or robbery wasn't the motive, why would someone kill her? Like, I mean, if it was a stranger, they would have killed her quickly and just gotten out of the house. There wouldn't be this like 52 stabs.
I'm going to beat you. I'm going to burn you. Seems excessive. It feels personal.
Exactly. And with the amount of stab wounds, 52, which was the exact same as her age. One for each year of her life. That's some weird coincidence.
Isn't it? Or is it purposeful? Right. And how does everybody just know your age?
Like a random stranger wouldn't know that. I think like here you go. One for every year of your life. Yeah, that feels weird.
Yes, it does. Not like it. So 52 stab wounds. It's just overkill.
Yeah. The burning, the beating. This was someone who was really angry at Irene. Numerous people were on the suspect list.
And several were questioned about the murder. In fact, one suspect who was mentioned frequently by police was a local man. He suffered from schizophrenia. Okay.
The man had a history of troubling behavior. And you're going to like this part, Haley. In fact, he had chopped off his own penis and flushed it down the toilet and local bar. Oh, no.
No, no. That's uncomfortable. Absolutely. A win, especially for him.
Yeah. Prior to the incident, he was quoted as, yeah, stating, if it offends the cut it off, which is, you know, scripture. You know, what is it? Despite your nose.
Yeah. Cut off your, your hand. Your heels. Cut off your nose.
Despite your face. I don't know. Clearly, I know scripture very well. But you know, this is what he did prior to his self-castration.
I also, I'm thinking that's going to clog the toilet. That's going to be an issue. I feel bad for whatever bar employee had to go deal with that because that's going to be a lot of blood. Yeah.
That's going to be a whole pressure on the wound. Weird scene to walk into. But did he like, he does this? Does he immediately start screaming or is he like, yep, done it?
Can't say that. You know, there's not as much information in regards to that event. I need you to find that. I tried, believe me, because I did think that was fascinating.
I was like, I want to know more about that. Yeah. So I did try to investigate that a little bit more so far, nothing, but I am on the penis hunt. I am on the hunt for, you know, that'll just shed more light on the penis.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I mean, that's a weird little tidbit, just a story not saying that it was a tidbit.
It might have been marcho. Maybe it was more of me than more of just a tip. Oh, there's a really inappropriate joke. I'm just, all right.
All right. I'm squeamish now. I kind of am crossing my legs. Yeah, I'm like, cool.
So police spoke numerous times to the man, but they were never able to link him to the crime and just because he had a mental illness and he was making some really poor life choices, did not mean that he came in and killed. No, definitely not. But also now I'm like, how does he pee now? I did a catheter?
Maybe. And maybe it was just the tip. Or maybe and not, you know, or maybe it was just foreskin. Maybe it was just he, you know, okay.
I don't know. Anyway, sorry, y'all. All right. So police having eliminated some folks determined that it was more a crime of passion than convenience, which we had already told them.
They didn't hear it, but we told them. And they narrowed it down to one person. Really? Yes.
Interesting. Do you know who that was? The husband. Ding ding ding.
We have a winner. Delphred. Delphred. Yes.
So like Irene Delphred, you know, was an older gentleman. He was 54. Oh, wow. Yeah, so old.
A hard-working individual. When questioned by police, Delphred stated that he was at work at the time of the alleged crime happened, you know, at the time it happened. And there was just no way. Right.
He says, you know, he worked the evening shift. So he had to be on duty by 5 p.m. His job was several miles from the home. So, you know, by the time he left, he left around 4.30.
Irene didn't get off work till 5. Right. So the two would never have crossed paths. And when neighbors of the Wilson's were interviewed, they stated that Delphred actually had a really nasty timber.
And he often got into arguments with them. Interesting. A neighbor was quoted by the local paper as saying Delphred had a strange slant on life and liked to threaten and fight with his neighbors. Yeah.
End quote. So family members and the Wilson's children stated that Delphred was innocent and that police were only going after him because he was the husband. There were no other indications that he had killed her. Gotcha.
Okay. So let's think this roof for a second, right? All right. So we got the whole intruder's theory.
That goes out the window. Right. Because no sign of robbery, no sexual assault, there would be no reason that would have happened unless someone random just came in to kill her for the sake of it and like, you know, just for funsy. Let's, you know, do 52 times.
I mean, it's not unheard of, but it's just not common. Right. So it seems highly unlikely. So that theory of a stranger goes out the window.
Okay. Then there's the possibility that it was someone that she knew. Perhaps maybe she was having a secret romance or someone wanted to get even with Delphred. I mean, Delphred, if he was as belligerent as his neighbor said he was, you know, perhaps someone that he had threatened just one too many times, decided, okay, I'm going to take some anger out on your wife and teach you a lesson.
So could be. Maybe Irene had said something to someone that offended them and they, that's it. They were going to take it out on her. So could it have been a family member who was angry with either of them?
You know, the last theory would be that Delphred himself had clocked into work at five the time that he was supposed to. He would have been the only one on the premises at the rubber factory. The rubber factory. The rubber fabrication.
The rubber fabrication factory. Sure. Where they make rubber. Right.
Exactly. The same. He was the only one on the premises argument, you know, right? So all the other workers had gone home.
There was no one to see him. So he could have driven the few miles back home, committed the crime, and then gone back to work. No one really knows or has said if the couple was having any kind of trouble in their marriage. They had been together for like over 30 years, but that doesn't mean that there was a trouble brewing.
You know, maybe Delphred was abusive. Maybe he was given her what for and it just went too far. Perhaps it started out with like, you know, that beating and then escalated and then he burned her hair. He stabbed her.
I don't know. Maybe he found out she was hiding something. And he, you know, wanted to teach her a lesson. No matter what, there's just points to a crime of passion.
So sadly though, police would not get to interview Delphred. Oh. Five months after the crime, Delphred was taken by his family to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. It is believed Delphred had a heart attack, but as far as I've researched, no autopsy was conducted.
Delphred, of course, was 54 at the time of his death, you know, in elderly man. An elderly man. Yes, that's right. I mean, you know, just brought in his heart attacks and not heard of.
No, no, and at that age too. And the stress of it all. Right. That's a lot of stress.
Yeah. It's not uncommon to, yeah, have a sudden heart attack. Right. You know, the stress kind of gets to you and you're just go.
And when you've been married to someone for that long, like they've passed, there's a lot of time around that. You know, sometimes people who've been married a long time die within a short time of each other because they kind of can't live without each other. You know, or, I don't know, maybe he just went on a guilty conscience. Maybe there were other motives.
Maybe there are things that we just don't know. Maybe he, I mean, it's kind of suspicious. Right. And that there were no other suspects.
Right. It just makes more sense that he would potentially possibly Irene and Delfred's adult children stayed fairly quiet about the murder but did write to a local paper in an effort to support their fathers in a sense. Basically, you know, the reporters were writing that, you know, oh yeah, this guy totally killed his wife and all these things and they were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you don't know our dad. Right.
The situation, which obviously of course, you do that. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
He would write in support of your dad. Yeah. I'd write in support of my dad. He didn't stuff out.
No. That's fine. No. No, he'd never do that.
But the Wilson's home. Oh, I'm sorry. You were gonna say no. No, I'm just thinking like, I mean, obviously you're in most cases, you know, if you've got a healthy relationship with your kids, they like they know.
Right. You know, they would support you and right. One would hope. One would hope.
The Wilson's home was actually burned down and all that remains is a patch of grass surrounded by large trees and brush. Wow. And I mean, we're not talking a hundred years though. Right.
In 1962. Yeah. Less than 60. Well, right at 60 years ago.
Yeah. Irene was buried in broomstick cemetery. I love that. I feel like that's where you would be buried.
Yeah. Yeah. I like and sadly, you know, here we are 60 years since the crime. We are no closer to finding her killer.
Similar to some of the older cases we covered on this podcast, I wonder if any evidence still exists. Like, was there ever a definitive answer on the knife? Like, I know that it was found in the house. Like, was this the weapon used to kill her?
Right. It was sent off. Right. Like, was it bloody or did they just see a knife and know, you know, she was stabbed and they're like, oh, yeah, this was probably it because Irene had actually been chopping vegetables on the counter, you know, to make for her soup.
So was it just that they saw that and they're like, oh, must be it, you know, this could speak to some premeditation if the killer went back in, like washed it off, put it back on the counter, you know, so someone who was scared would have like dropped the knife and ran away. Right. Like, if you're like, oh gosh, I know what you know, you would just run. Or if you were trying to hide it, you would take a knife and ditch it in a river somewhere or something.
You know, her death certificate, though, which I got an opportunity to look at. Her death certificate does assert that she was stabbed with a butcher knife. But it also says that she was stabbed only 51 times. So really, who's to say?
Who knows? Who knows? You know, maybe she was in the parlour with, you know, Professor Fink. The candlestick.
It's a candlestick. I really don't know. I realized that DNA processing didn't exist in 1963, but fingerprints and footprint typing did. So like, were any of those collected?
As far as I know, no. And if some evidence does exist, is it possible to do some genetic testing to assess like, who could the killer be, or at least where they related to? So yeah, in the next three weeks, this murder will turn 60 years old. So I just wish that there's going to be some kind of peace and finality for the family.
Yeah, that's crazy. There's still so many unanswered questions. And you know, several years ago, a former neighbor of the Wilson's asserted that the answers to all of our questions are buried with Irene and broomstick cemetery. Wow.
Irene. I just, I feel, you know, as always, I feel that sense of justice of like, I just want to answer. I want peace for Irene. I know, I know.
Maybe it was her husband doing me. You know, I mean, he would have had the time and ability to do it. But what is the rationale? Right.
You know, we'll never know. And they never arrested any other suspects. That's not to say that there wasn't someone out here there who knew or who did it. Yeah, that's where we're at.
That is the story of Irene Wilson. All right. Paley, how are you feeling? I'm fine.
I'm still caught up on this man as penis. Just the fact that no longer I have to do this whole thing where the story has left you with a man who I just sat a little tidbit, really just a little tidbit. But he's still looking for his tidbit. Apparently.
No, I mean, I don't know. I mean, logically, it seems like the husband did it. Right. But I mean, the kids are like adamant that he didn't, which I mean, people can be very deceiving.
Here's something to think about. Right. Okay. If you are getting that belligerent with your neighbors, you know, like wanting to physically fight them, that just speaks to a really hot and heavy temper that you are someone who can go off with that.
So it could mean that maybe he was abusive towards her. Maybe he had a hard time holding back his temper. Maybe she said, I'm 50 blank and two and I'm not going to put up with this stuff anymore. I work as well.
Like, you know, I'm not going to do this. I'm going to leave or, you know, I mean, we don't know. Very welcome. And he was like, no, you're not.
And took his beating too far. I don't know. Who's to say? Who knows.
But here's the thing. We would like to get you guys's feedback of what you think happened. And you can do so by sending us an email. Please don't send us anything else, but emails we don't need any penises.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, just keep your body parts intact. You can do that by sending us an email at mountainmysteries.applelatchit at gmail.com. Find us on Facebook at Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Find us on Instagram at mountainmysteries.applelatchit and, last but not least, for more silly goofy content, subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com slash mountainmysteries.
Hailey, do you have a shoutout? I do. Let's go. Queens, New York.
Shoutout to Queens. I do believe that's where my cousin lives. So thank you. Aw, nice.
Thank you. Yeah. I don't like it. Yeah.
Well, we'll see you next week. Next week in a completely new year. So no, I'm not going to see you guys until 2023. That's crazy.
Let's pray to God. It's going to be a better year because I'm this close to losing my shit. I've already lost mine. All right.
Well, keep your penis. Keep those. If you have a penis, hold on to it. If you want to keep them, just keep those.
Yes. That's always a good idea. All right. See you next year.
Bye.