Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries, Tales from Appalachia. Welcome back. Welcome back.
I'm, hello. Apparently going bald. I'm shedding like a way through a water here. For my head.
I'm just a clarifier. Because I don't check in water. I'm so thirsty. I'm saying I am too.
I feel very dry. Yeah. My skin is dry. My mouth is dry.
Glad you said mouth. Just keep it there. This is a PG channel. My hands are dry.
I need some lotion. My feet are dry. Same. Yeah, I was thinking about that.
I'm like you're really dry. Yeah, it's bad times. It's like everybody's, you know, like, your eyes don't dry. It's like winter skin.
It is. My son is too. And I'm always like putting lotion. He's like, why are you putting on me?
I'm like, here's two. Yeah, you don't want to be all scaly. And he's like, I like to be squiggly. Well, I'm like, I, like it was over the weekend.
Got like a bad breakout on my face. Like I don't, I don't get acne. Yeah. Very much.
Like it's not like, even as a teen who didn't really get acne. Yeah. But I have one like on my chin now, like a brand or my nose and I'm putting medicine on it to try to dry that. And do you ever get, so I get where my nose gets so dry that I end up getting the bumps inside of my nose.
And they hurt so badly. My primary care said to do a lot of saline to just keep it moist. And she said even to do a lot of like Vaseline inside my nose. I've heard that before.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The nose ones really get me.
They hurt a lot. But yeah, the one under, I think it's because I like, which is awful for me because I work in public schools. I touch my face a lot. And I need to stop doing that.
It's hard. Easier than done. You don't always really. Right.
And I like constantly, like I'll sit with my hand on my chin or like an old person. No, I do too. It's a therapist to me. Yeah.
But I touch my face. My favorite emoji is the one that the one that goes, hmm, that's my favorite emoji. That's the hand on the chin. Yeah.
So it's kind of a natural thing. Yeah. Actually, I was going to say I went to my primary care recently and I'm a migraine sufferer. Oh, same.
Yes. I, uh, horrific migraines. And I've been trying to work with my primary care on like, how do we find something that like really tames my migraines. So currently I am on the new round of medication.
Fine. Yes. So I had been taking an amitriptyling. Made me so tired.
I can function. Did you take it daily? Yes. Yes.
But still, maybe so tired. And it worked. Like it helped my headaches, but it made me so tired. So my new one is tote-o-pimax.
Ooh. And so far, so good. I got to say, and a friend of mine took it. And I was telling her that I was taking it and she was like, I love tote-o-pimax so much.
She said, I told all my doctors, take away any of my medicine, but don't take away my tote-o-pimax. I was like, oh, okay. It's summa-trypton. I take it.
It's just like the as-needed one. Like when you start to feel one. But my problem is, is I wait. I was like, two-and-a-half.
That's not what it is. And then it is what it is. And I need to take it quickly. It just helped.
Yeah. The last bad migraine, which was about two weeks over Christmas, actually, was one of those where it hit all of a sudden. Thankfully, I was out with my mom because I couldn't have drove home. We were in town doing some Christmas shopping.
And she thankfully drove me home. And I immediately went in, had the whole vomiting. And that was actually the kickstart of the flu. Like, had the flu right after that.
So that was fun. Do you have the whole aura? Well, I get hemopligic migraines too, which present strokes. That's terrific.
I've had two of them. And I get the right-sided weakness and numbness, slurred speech, confusion, vision loss in my right eye. Like, just total numbness. Like, it looks like I'm having, it feels like I'm having a stroke.
But I'm not. I'm just having a migraine. And my head doesn't hurt. Which is weird.
That's part of it. So I don't get the headache, but I get all the other symptoms. So I have to be kind of talked into taking medication. Because I can't, I just get really confused.
I will have those weird migraines manifest in strange ways. Like, it typically happens where I'll wake up and I have a headache. And I'm fine. I'm fine.
And I'll kind of go about my day in the headaches. Kind of omnipresent. And it's there. And it just intensifies.
It gets me really hard. And it instantly is like, I start sweating. I'm going to vomit. Yeah.
Like, you know, I start getting dizzy. And I'm like, I got to lay down. I'm going to throw up. Like, all the things start.
And it's like, if I don't lay down and like throw up soon, that, you know. And so one day I was at work. And my boss was like, but she was just fine. Like, a minute ago.
And I was like, no, I had the headache. Right. But now it's like, now everything in my body has just started to go off. Like, I've got to lay down really to get very, very sick.
Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So if y'all aren't migraines, suffer. Let us know. Let us know. Let us know.
We feel you. So, you know, that's a journey. Yeah. So hopefully, fingers crossed.
Topomax is the... That's my New Year's resolution. No migraines. That'd be great.
That'd be great. That'd be great. Ugh. So what is the story about?
Is it about a migraine before? It is not. We're going to talk about a ghost story. We're going to go to North Carolina.
We've been planning on being ghost forever and forever. So we're going to talk about one from Elizabeth City, North Carolina. If and when we're ghosts, can we just move to another state? Like, do we have to stay in the same state?
Or can we just travel? I think we can travel. We can do whatever we want. Yeah.
I mean, there are no state lines. We can cross state lines. We're not fugitives. No.
As ghosts. Right. As loading people, maybe. Yeah.
I mean, you know. We can't speak of that. No. Okay.
Wait. Still in the court system. Okay. Okay.
That's really your name. All right. Let's go to Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Cool.
All right. On the night of November 20th, 1901. Oh, far back. Yeah.
A young woman named Ella M. Cropsey was also called Nell by her family and friends. Disappeared from her home in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. 37 days later, her body was found floating in the Pasquot tank.
Pasquot tank. Sure. You got that. River.
Mm-hmm. Despite there being a man convicted of her murder, with many questions about her death, remain unanswered. And some say that her uneasy spirit still haunts her home in Elizabeth City. So what's going to do all of the history?
Of the Cropsey family, it moved to Elizabeth City in 1898 from Brooklyn, New York. Nell Cropsey was a beautiful young woman from a wealthy family. And in her new home, she would soon attract the attention of stutas. Nell began being courted by a local man named Jim Wilcox.
At the time of her disappearance, Wilcox and Cropsey had been courting for nearly three years. That's a really long time. Really long time, especially in that time. Well, didn't they usually courte for like three months to a year, maybe at most?
And then we're married. They're married and popping out kids. Yep. Well, and it is said that Nell was growing impatient, which in Wilcox's hesitancy.
Oh, he didn't ever propose. Oh, he didn't ever propose. Okay. Nell began flirting with other men in public in an attempt to get him to get him to propose.
Yeah. However, her plans seem to have gone awry. Because on the evening of November 20th, 1901, Cropsey and Wilcox had an argument that the fight was loud and everyone in the household could hear that the two were yelling at each other. Even if what all they were saying couldn't be fully understood.
They just people knew they were fighting. Some of Nell's family who were in the house the time did say that she and Wilcox had tentatively made up by the end of the evening. But no one ever learned, you know, kind of where they stood that night to the end of the night. Like were they still courting?
Or was that the end of the relationship? Right. What was going on? Yeah.
Yep. So Nell Cropsey stepped outside the door with Wilcox around 11 o'clock that night and it was the last time she was ever seen alive. Oh, that's suspicious especially for him. All right.
So Ollie Cropsey, who was Nell's sister, Oh, it's a terrible name. Ollie Cropsey? I think Ollie is cute, but Cropsey is kind of a weird person. So she was Nell's sister and she heard something bang against the back of the house shortly after Jim Wilcox left.
Going out to investigate, she found that the screen door had been broken. Bloody glove and it was OJ's. No, it was a broken screen door. Cato had just gotten back from McDonald's.
Oh, wrong case. Wrong case. Wrong case. Screen door have been broken.
So to me, I would think like, oh, he slammed the door or something and it broke. Yeah. Or went to college or something like that. So she saw no sign of who or what had broken the door.
Ollie went upstairs to see if Nell was already in bed, but found her sister's room empty. Uneasy about her absence. She decided, you know, maybe she's when went back out or was walking like walked with him back to his house or something like nobody. She really knows.
So she was still kind of weirded out by it, but she went back to her own room and attempted to go to sleep shortly after that. Neighbor woke up the entire house. The neighbor was yelling that someone was trying to steal the Cropsey's pig. Why alert the police.
Something's trying to steal the pig. We got, we got to act now. You know what? When somebody tries to steal my pig, I lose my shit.
Yeah, it's bad times. Don't steal all the near neighbors pig. That's what I say. I mean, we do have a, you know, HOA.
Right. So we're not allowed to have pigs. My, where I live is zoned for agriculture, so I couldn't, in theory, have a pig in my art. But who would want that?
Who would want that? Yeah, they stink. They do. They're actually very smart.
They are smart, but they stink. No, thanks. There's a lot of noises. Yeah, yeah.
But I mean, my son makes a lot of noises. Sometimes he dissociates and he turns into a cat and we saw that. I did say that tonight. It was entertaining.
So as they're trying to steal the pig, the entire family runs downstairs, where they find that the front door is standing wide open. That's a problem. The entire family then realizes that Nell's not there. Jim's, Jim Wilcox's umbrella though, which was a gift from Nell is standing inside the door.
And no one had noticed it there earlier that night. So like, did he bring it back? Did he come back? Was it raining or is this like a parasol?
I think it was like a raining umbrella. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
So when morning came and Nell was still missing, the hunt began to find her. Police were called and the entire town searched high and low, but there was no trace of Nell. Suspicion for her disappearance obviously immediately fell on Jim Wilcox, who maintained that he had no idea of what had happened to her. This wasn't really good enough for the local police, so they arrested Wilcox on suspicion of kidnapping and held him in the local jail.
Yeah. Well, they investigated further. Which kind of surprises me that they did? Really?
Just in that time period? Like, but I guess with her being a wealthy, well-to-do woman. I mean, it's logical. It is logical, but we don't often see logic in these cases.
You know, like... That's true, but I mean, she's not a thing. She was a white woman. He was a white man.
Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. You know, she was of wealthy status.
Her family was probably pushing for it. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.
So with Wilcox sitting in jail and Nell still missing, the family remained in this limbo status of where is she? However, this ended on the night of December 27, which was more than a month after Nell's disappearance. So, Mrs. Cropsey spotted something floating in the river near the family home.
So her mother, her mother found her home. So sending some boatmen out to investigate, she, you know, horrifyingly realized that her long wait for her daughter to come home was over. What she had seen floating in the river was her daughter's body. That's awful.
So, in one of the most wild occurrences in this case, a few days before Nell's body was discovered, the family received a letter with a New York postmark containing what claimed to be a detailed account of the events of the night of Nell's disappearance. The letter said that Nell Cropsey had interrupted a vagrant attempting to steal the family pig. Upon being discovered, the man grabbed a heavy stick and knocked Nell unconscious. This man then carried Nell down to the river and stole a boat rode out into the river and dumped Nell into the river.
The letter included a map which marked the spot where the body could be found. The spot marked on the map was very close to where Nell's body was eventually discovered. So, whoever sent the letter and if the events, it recounts really what happened that night, remain unknown. So, an odd letter appears like two days before the body's found.
Now to me, I'm thinking somebody who knows Wilcox is sending this letter. But how did it come from New York? Her family is from New York. Her family is from New York.
Somebody in the family killer. You think? Okay. All right.
So, I don't know. I don't know. Something is weird. It's really weird.
So, with the discovery of her body, the town, wait crazy, a lynch mob descended on the jail demanding that Wilcox be released into their hands. So, they were all like, We'll take care of them. We'll take care of them. Not great.
Not great. Nell's parents, however, refused to join the mob and pleaded with the crowd to let justice be served in the courts. Good. Smart.
Yeah. Eventually, Governor, Icock, AY is a terrible name. Acock. AY, Acock.
Still not great. There was a school in the Asheville area called Acock, here's many years ago. Seriously. I changed that.
It closed. Oh, that's probably good. Yeah. So, this governor, he actually sent in a small naval reserve group to disperse the crowd.
How is that wild? All I see is like torches and, you know. Yeah. Yep.
So, Wilcox was actually tried twice for Nell's murder. The first trial, Jerry, no pun intended. The first trial he was found guilty, but the conviction was overturned when the NC Supreme Court declared a mistrial. Don't really know why.
Second trial convicted Wilcox on a charge of second degree murder and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. And neither of trial did Wilcox take the stand in his own defense, so he never spoke. Which is probably interesting. Right.
We don't advise that. Wilcox was pardoned by Governor Thomas Bickett in 1920 and to the end of his life, Wilcox maintained his innocence. So, 19 years after the crime, this pardoned him. Yep.
Hmm. Which, I mean, to me, like, not having the court records or anything, like, it seems like they don't really have any evidence that this happened. What did he do when he did for the rest of his life? Um, no.
We don't. Interesting. I'm so curious. He did talk a little bit before.
He died. Oh. So, shortly before his death in 1932, Wilcox spoke with W.O. Saunders, the editor of the Elizabeth City newspaper, and he revealed everything he knew about the murder.
Saunders walked away from the interview, convinced that Wilcox was innocent, and planned to publish the full details. Two weeks after that interview, Jim Wilcox committed suicide. The journalist died shortly after in a car accident. So, whatever Wilcox told Saunders the journalist, would never be heard.
No. Isn't that suspicious, though? Yes. He tells a story.
He's convinced he's innocent. Dies by suicide, and then dies in a car accident. Like, that's suspicious to me. It is suspicious.
That doesn't sound right. So, okay, so then what's your theory that he tells the story, and then someone kills the reporter to nix the story? So then Wilcox was not the killer all along, because somebody else was. So, who was the killer?
I don't know. Somebody on the inside. Somebody on the inside. It has to be one of our family members.
I would think so. I mean, if it came, the letter came from New York. This guy told the journalist, you know, this, you know, story or whatever, or the events of that night. Maybe Wilcox had been paid off to kind of take the fall.
Because he didn't speak in his own defense. You know, maybe he was told, or he was threatened. You know, you take the fall for this, or I'll kill you. Yeah.
And then he gets out, or gets part in, talks to this journalist, somehow somebody finds out, and kills him in the journalist. Yeah. That's my theory. That's what makes sense in my brain.
Yeah. That's crazy. Well, much like people are told today, never testify in your own defense. It never goes well for you.
And since a lynch mob was out to get him, and think about how, okay, it sounds so educated for these parents to say, no, no, let the jury decide his fate. Yeah, let's leave it to the justice system. Let's leave it to the justice system. Now, that sounds so educated and so sophisticated for 1900 and one.
Yeah. But something smells fishy to me. And I don't subscribe to this theory. I think that something's going on within the house, and I think that somebody wanted to off the daughter.
Yeah. So what was she pregnant? Maybe. Was she in another relationship?
Was she in a homosexual relationship? That was my first thought. That's why, and maybe it will talk to me about it. And that's why I was taking, you know, there's, there's so many theories.
So many ways this could go. Lots of theories. Yeah. So for the past hundred years, those who have lived in the home where Nell, Cropsey lived, have reported some strange happenings.
Lights go on and off by themselves, stores open and shut by themselves, and there are strange guests. It's a cold air that move throughout the house. There's also been the pale figure of a young woman seen moving through the house. People passing by on the street outside have reported seeing the ghostly figure of a girl looking out of the upstairs windows.
Well, that could have just been me. And residents say that the figure of Nell Cropsey has appeared in their bedrooms at night. Ow. Yeah.
So, you know, the question is, is, you know, is she still, you know, haunting the house? And will, you know, what really happened to her ever be found out? I don't think so either. I think everybody knows is dead.
Well, of course it's been. Well, yeah, but like, I think anybody, like, I don't think that journalist would have told anybody else that would have told somebody that would have told somebody. Right. It's too late.
I think it's, I think it died with him. I think that the story is done and over, but. Yeah, this one was crazy. Wow.
It was really, really interesting. I mean, just the history of the murder alone, I kind of forgot that it was a ghost story. Yeah. I was like so intrigued by this.
It's a crazy, crazy time. It has to be some kind of why would a family or family member want to kill her? It would have to be embarrassment, particularly people who were of that social status. It would have to be embarrassment.
She was pregnant. She was gay. She was doing something that they frowned upon in some way, you know? Yeah.
So yeah. Or and making Wilcox mad too. So Wilcox found out that she was in a homosexual relationship. He too would be angry.
Okay. Yes. I'm in. Let me help you kill her or excuse me.
He found out that she was sleeping with someone and you know, he wanted to kill her too. Like, you know, so those kinds of things. Yeah. Makes sense.
Yeah. Or she, you know, got pregnant and that was what the fight was about. And then they decided, you know, well, we'll just go off and together and, you know, have this baby and have a family and somebody in the family didn't like that idea. And maybe Wilcox let's walk off on this ruse of like, oh, we're going to go off together.
Yeah. Here, let's go and we'll go talk about it. And maybe he did it all along, you know? Maybe.
He may have done it and he may have just told this. But it's odd to me that he then dies by suicide and then the reporter dies. Yeah. Like that's just a little weird.
Yeah. Buck wants to say that it was a suicide. Right. Or a car accident.
Yeah. Like, you may have no accident at all. Maybe no suicide or any accident. No.
Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.
What a good story. I'm so tickled. I'm so tickled by your murder and ghost story. Well, if y'all have heard of this one before or you want to tell us about your migraines, um, send us any mail at notmissories.appelachian at gmail.com.
Find us on our Facebook, Mount Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Find us on Instagram at mountmissories.appelachia or check us out on our patreon at patreon.com slash mountain mystery is. Well, that was beautiful. Winded.
It's a lot to get out there. That was, yes. And you did a beautiful job. Thank you.
Really appreciate it. I'm going to give a shout out to Santa Paula, California. Oh, nice. Yes.
Thank you for listening. Thanks. I really appreciate it. Hayley.
Until next time. Until next time. Bye.