UNCLAIMED: Charles Watson

 On June 16, 1941, Charles Watson would either die or his body was found in Ellensburg, Washington. He is an unclaimed person meaning that he was not claimed by family. There is little information in this case.

Charles was a white male.

SOURCES:
NamUs

GHOSTS: Watercress Lady

Created in Bing Create

Pluckley, England is home to many hauntings. One of which is of a woman called the Watercress Lady. In the early 1900's likely the 1920's there was a gypsy woman who was living in Pluckley. Now Gypsies at the time were traveling nomads from either Ireland or Eastern Europeans living in wagons and at their stops would either earn money from trading things or working on local farms. This woman made a living gathering watercress and selling it to the villagers.

The old woman was known as an eccentric but harmless person. She was known for smoking her clay pipe and known to enjoy gin from her battered old flask. After the sun would set she would go to the crossroads bridge. She would sit on the walls enjoying the night air smoking her pipe and drinking her gin.

However one unfortunate night she fell asleep while doing so. She would spill her flask on herself and the pipe would fall and light her up. It was said that no one heard her screams. The next day she would be found as a pile of ashes with her flask and pipe nearby. Letting people know it was the Watercress Lady and she had a tragic end.

Even though the Watercress Lady's screams were not heard the night she died it was afterward. Her ghost would be seen many times after her death reliving her death. She would be covered in flames and her heartbreaking screams could be heard. Slowly however she stopped being a screaming ball of fire to a faint pink glow hovering over the place she burned to death.

SOURCES:
London Walking Tours

Ghost Connections

Ghosts Wiki

UNIDENTIFIED: June 1858 London, England Baby John Doe

 In June 1858, an unknown baby boy was found on Hardwick St in London, England. The boy was not a newborn and was around 6 months old making his birth around or in December. It's not stated if his death was murder or not. He was buried at the  City of London Cemetery on June 14, 1858.

SOURCES:

Find a Grave

UNIDENTIFIED:June 11, 1952 Tama County, Iowa Baby John Doe

 On June 11, 1952, road construction was happening along the route of U.S. Highway 30, about four miles west of Tama, Iowa. A construction worker discovered a box 350 feet east of the Raven Creek bridge on the south side of the roadway. The box was a Wilson Packing Company box marked “chili.” and was wrapped with a cord.

The worker would open the box to find something horrifying. Inside the box were two packages wrapped with newspapers and tea towels. Inside the packages was the horrifying sight of the body of a baby boy. The other package was the afterbirth. It was found that the baby had blunt force trauma to the head and the baby was alive for 2 and a half to 3 hours.

They were the April 17 and May 8 issues of The Marshalltown Times-Republican. The newspapers had no mailing address attached, but two “stars” were discovered in the newspapers. This indicated they had been delivered on a Marshalltown city route. One tea towel had the embroidery of a lamb in one corner and the other had the numeral 49 in black.

John Doe was a white male newborn. He was fully developed. He weighed 8 lbs and had blonde hair.

SOURCES:
Iowa Cold Cases

Murder of Georgiana, William, Cary, Harriet, Henry, and George Brough

Queen Victoria ruled Great Britain for 63 years. For all nine of her children, that she had in 17 years, she had wet nurses for each one. On November 9, 1941, future King Edward VII was born, and by the bedside was his wet nurse, Mary Ann Brough.

She would be dismissed soon after because she did not seem to follow instructions and did not seem to be able to provide proper nutrients for the future king. Even though she was dismissed no one would have known that she would have killed her own children 13 years later. 

Mary was married to her husband George. He worked for the Royal family just as his father before him had. Their family lived in Esher, England. They had 7 children together,19-year-old Mary, 11-year-old Georgiana (Georgy), 8-year-old William, 7-year-old Cary, 4-year-old twins Harriet and Henry, and 2-year-old George, and an unnamed child.

 

In 1854 he would suspect her of an affair as she would go out often. He would hire a private detective to follow his wife. On May 29th she would be seen meeting another man at the tavern The two would also be seen entering a questionable house. George would accuse her of cheating. Feeling betrayed by the woman he loved he left on June 6th. He also told her that he was going to come back for the children and take them away from her.  He would refuse to talk or communicate with her. 

On the night of June 9th Mary was in a bad place. She would put the children to bed and try to go to sleep in a chair. Her oldest daughter would ask her to go to sleep in bed around 9 pm. She would go to bed. The children would ask her to bring them barley water up until midnight. 

Mary would look for a candle though she had one lit by the chair. She said there was a black cloud above her. She could not see, however. She then would think about slitting her own throat and would search in the dark for her husband's razor. She would find his keys and then find his razor. 

With the razor, she would go to her daughter Georgy and slit her throat without looking at her. There was no resistance. She would then go to Cary and do the same. The next victim was Henry and he would say "Don't mother" and she would tell him "I must" before slitting his throat. She would move onto Bill turn him over and do the same. He never woke up. Harriet and George were the last ones and there was no resistance. Harriet however struggled the most as she died. Mary would then slit her own throat. 

She said that she lay there for a long time and then went to get a drink. She said that the black cloud was gone. It then hit her on what she did so she placed something bloody in the window because she could not call out to anyone. She then undid the bolt to the front door.

On the morning of June 10th two men, Mager and Peasley, were walking past the Brough home and spotted something shocking. There was a blood-soaked pillow on the second-story back window sill. The two men would notify neighbors of there being possible trouble at the home. They would first try to ring the doorbell, but no one answered. The landlady would come and do the same, but more urgently. 

Mary would then come up to a window and wave to them with a towel. One of the men would scale the wall and let the others in. They would come up to the house. Mary would not let them in as the door was locked. The man would see a ladder and climb through the window with the bloody pillowcase. 

Mary would come up to the top of the stairs to the man's sight and see her more clearly. She was a mess covered in blood. When she turned to him he saw that there was a wound on her throat. He went back down the ladder and someone went to get the doctor. 

John Crockford was in his garden when this happened. he spotted the commotion and they explained to him what had happened. He would also climb up the ladder and would go into the room of the bloody pillow. 

Mary was lying on her side in the room. In one of the beds was one of the children. The house was a bloody mess. He would then make his way to the front door to unlock it. Passing one of the rooms he would see two dead at the end of a bed. He would notice that there was a pair of bloody boots and stockings under a table by the door. The lock and door handle also was covered in blood. He would leave the house and inform them that the children were dead.

 Mary was still alive and bleeding out. She would be saved from her attempted suicide. 

19-year-old Mary and her father would then see the children at their funeral. They were both extremely saddened by the tragedy. Mary would have been another victim if she had been in the home that night. Mary Sr would will all of her items to her remaining child.

While recovering she would be charged with murder. On August 8th she would go to the Surrey Assizes. She would admit that she did not want her children taken away from her. She would use a defense of insanity and the jury agreed with this as they returned with a verdict of not guilty on the grounds of insanity. 

She would be ordered to be detained at her Majesty's Pleasure. 

SOURCES:
Murderpedia
Ranker

Newcastle Weekly Courant June 16, 1854

Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser June 17, 1854

The Halifax Courier and Guardian August 12, 1854
The Sun April 24, 2018

MISSING: Mary Belle "Mary Beth" Henley

 

On June 5, 1951, 25-year-old Mary Belle Henley was last seen in Witchita, Kansas. There is little information in this case. She May go by Mary Beth.

Mary is a white female and was 25-years-old at the time. She's 5'8" to 5'9" and 125lbs to 135lbs. She has brown hair and brown eyes. She has a mole on her chin.

SOURCES:
NamUs

680 to 780 Hereford, England Man

 In late 2016 and early 2017, Archeological work by Headland Archeology's Midlands and West Office was done in Hereford, England in the College Cloisters beside Hereford Cathedral. They were trying to make improvements to the building and facilities. 

During this time they were able to excavate three skeletal remains. These three were radiocarbon dated to the 7th and 8th centuries. This was an interesting find as out of all 2456 burials excavated only one other person was found to be from the same time period.  They were found at a depth of around two meters within an area formerly occupied by the 15th-century Custos Lodge.

It was found that the three skeletons were of one male, one female, and one juvenile whose gender was unknown. I could not find information about the child and female, but the male had died a brutal death. 

The man was between 35 to 46 years old. He had lived and died between 680 and 780 AD. He had been stabbed at least 4 to 5 times with two of them being fatal on their own. However one of the wounds, a possible cut, on his elbow had traces of healing, unlike the rest. This meant this wound was older than the rest and was not from the time he died. 

His attacker used a narrow, and very sharp blade to attack the man. They stabbed him at a downward angle and was possibly left-handed as the wounds were on the left side. Two of the wounds would have been deadly, but if he had somehow survived he would have been paralyzed. 

The fatal wounds were stab wounds between the 8th and 9th ribs that would have punctured the spleen, stomach, or lungs. The second fatal wound was that the skull was hit with such a powerful blow from an edged weapon that the blade would have entered the brain. The lesser injury was on his thumb. 

At this period at the beginning of the 8th century, the Welsh and English were in conflict. In 743 the kings of Mercia and Wessex teamed up together against the Welsh. This would cause violent skirmishes and battles at the time. There was one battle in 760 AD this was the battle of Hereford. It's possible that this man was a casualty of this battle. This may be why he seemed to have a healed stab wound.

SOURCES:

Unsolved Murders UK

Headland Archeology

Hereford Times

Archeology