Hi, I'm Holly. And I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries, Tales from Appalachia. Alright, welcome back.
Hailey, it's 2023. It is. I feel a sense of optimism. Do you?
Well, I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful too. I hope so. I hope so.
Let's start it out with a bang. Oh, are we? Is that what this episode is about? Is something that I'm just like, I don't really know.
You don't know. You didn't research it? I did, but this is one that I've written a while ago. And then I never used it.
And I thought, you know, because I was like, nah, I wasn't feeling it. And I found someone that I, you know, liked. But then I found this one in the archives. That is the archives.
I dusted off my archives. I dusted off. You know, I think that's true. There are so many times that I'll start with a story, and I don't know if you guys know that.
This is kind of how this works, at least for us, where sometimes I'll start off with a story, and I'm just not feeling it, whether it's just this time period I'm not feeling to do the story. But I'll kind of put it in my archives, like Hailey said, and then revisit it later when it feels like, okay, I want to do this one or I want to talk about it. Because sometimes other stories find us that we just have to pursue in that moment. So I am excited to see what the story might be about.
Yeah. You know, do you have that same sort of, you do that as well? I do, yes. And I was looking up now with this one, because I realized I didn't write the year that this happened, I don't think.
And I was truly trying to find it before I jumped into the story from Roanoke, Virginia. Oh, Roanoke. But I believe it was in the 1930s. Okay.
It was kind of the time period that we're going in. But no, I've done that several times where I started a story and I'm like, I hate this. And then it's an interesting story, and it's one that needs to be told, but I can't, I just can't do it at the time. I got to find something else.
Yeah. It's really weird because you also, in every story you want to do them justice. And maybe at that point you just don't feel like you can do it enough justice. Or there's so much to research, we just don't have enough time to get it done by the time we come to record.
So anyway, but we are back in the podcast room. We are. We are waiting for a shade for your layup. It's just a bear bowl right now.
Yeah, it looks very sad. Oh, yeah. But my mother actually painted it. I love the color of the lamp.
I love that. I just, it just, you know, feels a little sad. Yeah. I think there's a shade floating around here somewhere.
Like it's walking around half naked. Right. I just have to find the shade. I have to find the shade.
It's just, it's been, yeah, just other things have come before. Like eating, like eating, going to work. We're off of, you know, our Christmas break. So how's that been treating you?
It's been fine. The first few days after a break, if you work in schools or really anywhere, you know, a little bit hectic, a little crazy. Things are happening. Lots of, you know, class changes and, you know, starting a new semester with new classes and, you know, and this Monday you go back, right?
Tuesday is our first student day. Gotcha. Yes. Tuesday, student day.
Monday we have a, just staff in the building. So, which is nice. Yeah. A little more freeing.
Right. Right. Yeah. You get to be kind of goofy.
Yeah. Where? Jeans. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, we have a lot of, you know, more than 20 days, which is amazing. However, you know, we just don't get that, like, built-in.
Right, that the school, built-in schools. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Just really, really nice.
I mean, granted we do only get paid for 10 months. So, you know, kind of figuring out what the summer looks like. You know, saving money or finding, you know, summer job, which I might be doing. You know.
But it's, you know, beginning of the year, starting to think about that. That's true. Getting, you know, getting ready to get into some of things. Hey, well, we're in 23, so hopefully the New Year treated all of you guys.
I hope so. And, uh, fingers crossed for a much better 23. Virginia area area. So I think this is the Bint Mountain community in Virginia, which is a part of Floyd County.
Yes, part of Floyd County in the 1930s, like early 1930s, because if I was ever done writing or not, which is, you know, not unlike me. So we're talking about Frida Bolt was her name. She woke on a mid-December morning. Very excited because she was eloping.
Oh, she's going to look at her. Her sister, Mary Gardner, was, you know, her older sister, went with her and they boarded a train in Willis in Florida County. You know, Mary was a little bit skeptical as, you know, free to put on her long sleeve coat with a gray for a collar. Was ready to go get married.
So wait, her sister was skeptical, skeptical about the man she was marrying. Yeah, yeah, I think it was kind of like, you know, I don't really know if this is going to work. Like, are you really going to go through with this kind of thing? Oh, yeah.
So she was, you know, going to go with her. No, it's great when your marriage starts out with your family going, yeah. So she was going with her and I don't know, I don't think she went on wasn't going to go on the train, like, or wherever she was going. I think she was going to take her to the train station and like always really uncomfortable.
Like, all right, so I'll drop you off because like on the marriage, I like that great coat. Have a good life. Oh, so she wasn't coming back. Oh, she was planning to come back.
Oh, okay. But like, you're going to start this was kind of like a destination running of sorts. I guess you're going to like a courthouse to like do this situation and then do this situation. Holy bonds of math, right?
Yes, situation. Come back. Well, because Frida was only 18, which at that time period isn't uncommon. No, to get married.
I think my grandmother got married at 18. So not super uncommon for the time. She was still a senior in high school and she was in school at in Willis County, which was about seven miles away from her home. And apparently at this time, she had other young people like stayed near the schools.
I didn't stay at home. They stayed in like a, so it almost sounds like a boarding school situation. I'm not a college. No, no, no, just like high school, but they went and they like stay or they made a state with other families near those near to the school, which I feel like their house was too far away.
Right. Like, yeah, and did have a vehicle and would have had a walk the same miles, which obviously you don't want to have to do. Right. So probably we're staying with them.
Their family are staying in like a boarding house situation. Yeah, I mean, maybe it was a private school or maybe the schools in there, you know, vicinity weren't that great a school or something. So they had to travel. Yeah.
Sure. We can make anything right. Right, right. So she, you know, she told her sister Mary that that evening she and Buren Harmon, who was also lived in Floyd County, that, you know, he and she were going to head to Roanoke, Virginia, or, you know, farther if they needed to to get married.
Why did they want to go as far as they need to do? I mean, why couldn't they marry within their own family? I mean, I guess maybe they didn't have the, you know, support support or, you know, couldn't find a place to get married in a county. And maybe somebody would be opposed.
Right. Does anybody have any, you know, just cause and everybody stands up. Right. Right.
Buren though. Buren. Buren. Buren.
I could not imagine. Buren. Buren. What?
Turn off the TV. We got comedy. You know, that'd be hard to say. Yeah.
Buren Harmon. Buren Harmon. Buren Harmon. Listen, people, when you name your children, they'll love a Pete.
Just think about how it sounds with the last name. That and also sound when you have to yell it. Buren Harmon. Buren Harmon.
Buren Harmon. Buren Harmon. I don't like that. No.
No, sorry. So days passed and freed his parents, you know, got a little suspicious because they had not heard from their daughter, which was, you know, unlike her. So they actually offered a $100 reward for anyone knowing anything about, you know, her whereabouts. Well, we got to find her.
Garner, you know, Mary Garner could offer little information other than, you know, Frida's saying she was going to a lope. Drop, drop the train station. Right. Buren, who was actually seen and Floyd the day after Frida left.
And now that he and Frida had even met that evening or had any wedding plans. So he's like, I don't know what she's talking about. Weird, right? So Frida's telling everyone that she and Buren are headed off to a lope.
And she goes to the train station and they're going for it. But he's seen the next day. He's like, I don't even know what you're talking about. So he didn't deny that they had a relationship.
He just denied like we never planned to go off and get Mary. Right. You know, he'd seen her the night before. Can you imagine when the cops come, they're like, Buren, Buren Harmon, turn that television down on the cops are here.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So weird, weird all the way around.
Yeah, it is really weird. So either there's a mystery man that you went off or Buren has some kind of a problem. Right. Well, the sheriff DP Hilton.
Why did they always do that? I don't know. Why isn't he like Douglas Paul as opposed to like DP? Yeah, DP Hilton decided that it was a little suspicious and he was going to hold Buren in jail for a bit.
So he took him to jail was going to question him until, you know, they found more information out. Eventually Buren confessed to what the family had feared. He had murdered Frida. Why Buren?
I don't know. Frida was about five feet, four inches tall. She weighed about 135 pounds. So she's a pretty petite girl.
Was she pregnant? Oh, good theory though. Yeah. And maybe it's in this article.
I don't remember writing that though. Or in my little notes here. Before we get started. I know.
Well, as I'm going through here, I'm like, wow, I don't know if I'm writing you this. But I'm looking at this. I'm looking at this. I'm going to write this down.
So he had apparently murdered her along the road going behind Bent Mountain. He had dragged her body 30 yards off the shoulder down the hill and hidden her beneath some leaves and logs. That's a lot of effort he has put in. He definitely didn't want anybody to find her.
Right. But it's what he kind of said next to him that just really was awful. He returned to the body the next morning, I guess just to, you know, check in. People do that.
It's weird. Do that. Yeah. However, she was alive when he was in that.
No. She had survived the initial, you know, attack or however he had done it. And she was still alive. So he finished her off.
He went back. That was just alive and killed her for real. But it doesn't say how. Well, get to that.
Okay. Oh, gosh. Her body lied in the woods for six days before he could best. Sick bastard now.
So Hilton, sure. Hilton along with two deputies, Giles Harris and J.C. Anderson. Why?
Why? John Christopher. Just be John Christopher or just go by John. Good Lord.
I want you to call me. Remember how I was Holly Torrington-Smith? I want you to call me Holly T.S. or T.S.
Holly. T.S. Holly. T.S.
Smife. No. HT. HT.
Smife. HT. Smife. Please.
From now on, only refer to me as HT. Smife. How'd you come up with smife? Because it's not Smith here.
It's smife. Smife. Smife. Yes.
Anyway. Please telephone. Oh wait, there's more of these names. We're going to get into it in a hilarious article, like reading through this article or this thing I typed up here.
And there's like at least three more of them. Of course. Which is great. So J.C.
Anderson. They went and discovered the body where he had said it would be found. Heavy cord had been tied around her neck. Dr.
G.A. Colmer. Gavin Alfred. Sure.
He was the county coroner, was called to the scene. Night had kind of started falling so it was getting dark and her body was removed to the back Creek Orchard building which was owned by J.D. Willett. James Dolis.
Willett. But why? Why can't you just take her in your, you know, herse and take her to the lukem. And like do it there.
Like why? No, it's the Orchard building. I hate that. And it's like, what's with all the authorities?
It makes you think about your apples and what you're eating. Like, oh, I'm sorry. What else was on this slab besides apples? Dead body.
Days like Frida. That's awful. Not free toes. Frida.
Oh god. Oh no. I do love a good apple. Sorry.
Yeah, me too. Anyway, so they took her to the Orchard. And at that point, the sheriff used the phone. They were to call her parents to inform them what had happened.
The following morning, the body was taken to Salem for an autopsy that eventually concluded that Frida had been strangled to death. That was caused to death, strangulation. In this, you know, community, it seems like it was pretty tight knit. You know, this type of crime really shocked the community.
Absolutely. So Hilton, sure if Hilton actually moved the jail in Roanoke or Bjorn's own safety. Oh, and then she found the problem. Yeah, it was getting a little dicey.
A cone, a tight curt. It's coming in. Somebody with some initials. Yeah.
With some more initials. HT smife. She's outside the jail. Who?
HT smife. Yeah. Frida was late to rest five days before Christmas. Oh my gosh.
It's awful for her family. The funeral was largely attended. So once people wanted to come out and support. Bjorn's trial began April 7th.
So several months later. Pretty quick. I mean, that's four months. Right.
We're used to seeing years. Yeah. 60 witnesses took the stand over the course of several days in a very packed courtroom. The defense stated that she had committed suicide, which the coroner's like, no.
By strangulation. Which I guess maybe they were thinking she died by hanging. String. I guess how maybe they could make that connection.
She said the cord was found right on her neck. Right. And she was on the ground. And she was outside not hanging by a tree like by leaves and logs.
And he had confessed. And drag marks. Yeah. So that doesn't really go.
I'm sorry. Bjorn, you need to fire that lawyer because he's an idiot. The coroner though revealed that Frida had been pregnant. Good job.
Good job. I told you. And pregnant at the time of her death. Scandal.
Yep. So the defense attorneys decided they were going to adopt a new strategy. With some new evidence that the Harmon family was plagued by insanity. And this is from the report.
And sanity and facility and epilepsy. I think they're just going off of the C. Let's throw out some random things. Random things.
We also had colitis. Colitis. Colitis. Colitis.
Choliosis. Yes. Anything. Right.
You know, probably. John does. Maybe the herb. It's a friend of India.
Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. Yeah. You know, all those things.
Sign your sinus. Sure. I mean, I'm telling you what, when you have a pretty gnarly sinus. Yeah, they'll do some wild things.
Okay. So there was some expert testimony from a Dr. L. G.
Pettigow. Yes, he was. Or Larry Gordon. Sure.
Pettigow. And it showed he stated that Harmon suffered from epileptic insanity, which I did not know was a thing. Here's the thing. When Haley was a youngster, she also had epilepsy.
I did have epilepsy. I don't believe she ever murdered. I did not murder anyone, nor was I insane. And typically people who are having seizures, after you have a seizure, you usually are passed out for hours because it is so exhausting to the body.
So how then would, you know, amidst you've post seizing, you'll be able to go? There is post dictal aggression. Right. But usually it's not in the form of like you're getting up and like trying to.
It's just a response of the body to try like deflected. Like in severe cases, you can, you know, really cause harm to someone. But I don't think it would be driving or taking someone and dragging them and dragging them and then coming back a day later and killing them. But again, we're also talking about there's motive here.
So in your state of you having a seizure, typically, I mean, everything's just kind of going haywire in your body. Right. Yeah. And your brain is not really focused on, oh, she's pregnant.
I've got to eliminate her. Right. It's usually like whoever would be right around you at the time and then you have no memory of it. Right.
And it could just be like, you know, you grab their arm and so they have a bruise on their arm or it's something like that. And you know, or you were just like flailing and hitting, not, you know, yeah. And then I took four minutes because it takes around four to five minutes to actually, you know, choke someone out basically. So, um, yeah, no, no, I don't know.
Again, his attorney sucks. Yeah. So he, um, you know, this Dr. Pettigott, LG, LG, he said that his epileptic insanity, which, and I don't think they're calling it, you know, I think they're saying that he's insane because he's had all of this brain damage probably from multiple issues.
I don't think they're calling it a post-ictal episode. Okay. But that's kind of where my mind went. But they said he was suffering with insanity to such a degree that he had the mental capacity of a 12 year old.
So essentially they're saying that he had a traumatic brain injury. Right. And having a TBI, he doesn't have the ability to, you know, think like a logical 18 year old man, right, well, whatever logic that is. But now he, his brain is, he's functional at a 12 year old.
Right. So well, and it gets more interesting. So the doctor told the court, quote, he is mentally unsound. He is below par mentally to start with.
And he is so far abnormal that under any excitement or irritation or provocation, his impulses and passions would get beyond any self control. He has left and quote. Okay. So there you go.
They're saying, well, that's why I mean, you had impulse control. Right. Well, a lot of people have impulse control and they'll kill. So a distant cousin though of the family cooperated this claim that the family was mentally ill or that they had these problems.
He said that members of the extended family had committed suicide, had been sent to a Satan's islands, died of epileptic fits and had quote, imbecile children. Remember this is a 30s. So our terminology is not great. Another doctor, Dr.
J. S. Did you join it? Okay.
So you do it this time. Yes. J. S.
Jeffrey Smith. My panic tell me. No, no. Here's what it is.
It's Jack Stanley. Oh, good. Jack Stanley. This person, and I don't know, I'm assuming mail because it's a 30s.
Of course. Right. He was a superintendent of Western State Hospital at Staunton. And Dr.
John Bell, who was the superintendent of the state's epileptic home at Lynchburg, also examined Harmon and did affirm the testimony that he was mentally unsound. So now we have three medical professionals and a distant family member, all saying, you know, he really is like mentally unsound, which is, you know, possible, I guess. So the trial lasted about nine days and the jury did though return a verdict of guilty and Björn was sentenced to life in the state to penitentiary. The judge did spare harm in the death penalty.
A state law exempted punishment for the quote mentally deficient. Good. A. G.
Smith. Albert Godfrey. Nice. Yeah.
Of the Roanoke times, I wrote this in an article which I thought was pretty interesting. Quote, the prisoner heard the verdict with the same immobile countenance, which has characterized his demeanor throughout the trial. A slight movement of the upper lip, followed a moment later by the faintest suggestion of a smile, we're noted. I don't like the smile.
I don't either. It kind of freaks me out a little bit. So the reporter, you know, summarized the trial as quote, the most bitterly contested and sensational court battles ever witnessed in this section. And probably the longest criminal trial a Roanoke County court has ever witnessed.
Interesting. Which is super interesting. Also interesting, Björn was released after serving 18 years. So they felt safe enough.
It got a life sentence, but they felt safe enough to send him out. He was paroled or something. Did you find out what happened? No.
Oh, well, all it is, is, you know, he died of natural causes in 1969. So I guess he just lived, you know, lived his life. Was it back in jail or anything? Died of natural causes.
I mean, even still in 16, I think he was relatively young, because let's say this was 32. We're talking 37 years. He was 18 years old. So, you know, 55?
Maybe. Yeah. Well, but if he's that mentally unsound, since, but he never caused any other trouble, right? It doesn't say.
I mean, I never, I didn't see any other reports where he'd been re-rested for anything. I mean, I really think motive was she's pregnant. Yeah. He just kind of lost it.
He didn't have that control. And he killed her. I don't like the going back though. Yeah.
Like that to me could have been the turning point where he tried to help her. Right. But then he decided, no, I'm going to finish her off. Yeah.
So I don't think there's any redemption. I see this scenario, right? So the reason that he told her, we're going to go off and get married. She had told him she was pregnant.
And he was like, okay, you know, back in that day and age, like you could not be a pregnant woman, you know, unmarried mother, exactly. You would have to give your baby away back. I think so. He was like, I'm going to be honorable.
I'm going to marry you. Right. We're going to hop a train. We're going to go to Rome.
We're going to get hitched. We're going to come back, have this life, have this child, all these things. So she's excited. And he plans like, no, I am not ruining my life.
I'm not going to do this. So I'm going to have to take her out. Right. And that's what happens.
Yeah. Do I think he had more, you know, did he plan this out? Yes. You know, yes, he may have had lower cognition, but it's in tone.
Yeah, there was premeditation. There's no motive. So yes. Yeah.
You're welcome. Just call me H.T. Smiles. I'm your service.
Well, there's a little more. Oh, so the story. Well, I know that part of the case. Oh, I close that part of the case.
We're going to talk now just a little bit about her father, Rita's father, Kyle Bolt. He was actually murdered three years after his daughter, which is like, not related in any way, but just like kind of another weird sort of like he was also murdered. This wasn't a dispute with a local merchant named Harley Gardener. Shooting took place at Gardener's store, six miles south of Willis was hardly gardener related.
Was he married to Mary? I don't know because I have the same right? Right. You know, maybe.
So that would have been totally like, yeah, weird. And this occurred in October, on October 18th of 1932. So three years after the murders that would put us back at 1929. Okay.
So we don't know. Okay, there. So written an article quote authorities were told, went to the store about five o'clock and asked for a settlement of his account after a few words had been spoken by the two men, Gardener is alleged to have drawn a pistol and fired twice at Bolt, who then ran to the road. Two more shots were fired through the window by Gardener.
It was said at this time, Bolt was hit, death being instantaneous. Gardener thereupon walked to a room in the back of the store, picked up a shotgun and fired full charge into his own head, according to officers. So murder suicide? Yes.
So in some type of crazy rage, he shot him, thought, what have I done? And killed himself. So just a little more insanity to add to this. No kidding.
Family story situation. But the father, Kyle Bolt, he was survived by his widow and eight children. So well, crazy. Frida's murder was actually popularized as a bluegrass ballad, which ballads are super cool.
Kind of a common Appalachian storytelling method for song. It was written by DM Shank. I'm starting to run out of names here. Dennis Michael.
Sure. And it was recorded by the Floyd County ramblers. In 1930 and was later renowned and later was rerecorded by the renowned Carter family in 1938. If you haven't heard the Carter family, like any other music, if you're into bluegrass, they're really good.
Awesome. I will. And I now feel like I need to listen to the Floyd County ramblers. But when when you ask, will HT's wife come out with heart and loss?
I don't know. That's got to be soon. It's got to be. It's got to be soon.
Summer. Po, Po, 2023. Yeah. Listen, we'll watch you on the look count.
I know. I know. I know you're having palpitations. You know why?
Alrighty then. That's it. That's it. That's it.
Yeah. That was a lot of, you know, initials as names. That's a lot. That's I had to come up with a lot of things.
Yeah. And usually I try to like when I'm rewriting them, I try to take out the like, you know, I try to condense and make, you know, we're pulling from several different articles to write. It's kind of like a cardboard type situation. But I just, there were so many little, you know, initials in there.
And I felt like we just really needed those. We needed that. We needed Holly to come up with them. We needed that.
I like that story. I'm glad that you brought back out. That was it. I knew she was pregnant.
I knew. Yep. That was it. Just as the H.G.
Shmores. Yep. Already then. Okay.
So, Hayley, just in case they want to give us their initials. How do you do that? You can send us your initials through an email at not mysteries.avilatchin at gmail.com. Find us on our Facebook, Mount Mysteries Tales from Appalachia.
You can also find us on our Instagram mountain mysteries at Appalachia. Or you can check us out on our Patreon at patreon.com slash mountain mysteries. Always a good time. All right.
And we're going to give a shout out to Spring Branch, Texas. Thank you for listening. Spring Branch. We appreciate all of you guys.
Thanks so much. All right. Onto a better year. A better year.
Hopefully this year will be, this is our year for this will be our year to a long time to come. It's a song. Yeah, it is by the zombies in the 60s. Sure.
It is. Okay. That was very nice. You're welcome.
Thanks. H.G. Smyth. My song drops this summer.
Heart in a box. Oh, and I will come up with many more. And also, by the way, before we end, Hayley and I are going to actually start working. Sorry.
That was my one. I still am carrying on that cough. Oh, it's sexy. Oh my God.
That sounds like a horrific asthma. It does, doesn't it? I might turn into bronchitis. We don't know.
None of us. I'm probably going to die, but it's fine. No, we are working to create our, I'm not our fashion line, but some merch for you. So hopefully in 2023, that will come to fruition.
Yeah. We, you know, we had high hopes for the end of 2022. But they were gosh, I kind of died a little bit. Couldn't really, you know, function more than to go to work and come home and go to bed for about three months.
So, but it is coming to you this year. We are hopeful. Lots of things. Merch, Heart in a box record, maybe a live show or two.
Maybe we will go down to Hayley's basement and uncover what is under that. It's still there. The rings of a human slab. It's about that long ago.
We're going to find out. So join us for the great stories to come this year. Again, we continue to be grateful for you guys. And we'll see you soon.
See y'all. Bye.