Elroy Kent & The Murder of Delia Congdon | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is more bad [Music] it's morbid it's morbid in the what time
is it mid-morning early afternoon yeah yeah so we don't really have a song for that
um it's morbid on an afternoon well it doesn't slap all right I I mean we can work on it we can we can kind of
Workshop that I have heartburn so I feel like it's limiting me right now she's living in an Alka-Seltzer world right
now so you know you're about to turn 27 and then you just can't put hot sauce on
your eggs anymore everything just falls apart like what the [ __ ] I literally have all the only thing I've eaten today
is my little breakfast burrito that I made which said but you had hot sauce but I put the tiniest little bit hot
sauce on it and I can't take it anymore you're living in a angry tummy world you
know I know unfortunately my tum's fine it's just my my esophagus it's being a little [ __ ] from because of your tongue
well maybe I need like spurting that acid right back up there yeah I don't like it remember when we looked into
like what heartburn really is yeah it's a little scary when you really look at what it is we won't get into it right
now but you guys should look into it yourselves if you look at it too look it up [ __ ] yourselves up and look at it
it's pretty gross it involves fermentation right yeah there's a lot of really gross things that happen in your
gut what are you doing over there I'm just fixing a wire because it was in my face and I felt like I was getting
slapped by a wire that's kind of funny it's like the wire because I'm trying to drink my coffee
yeah you drink your coffee while I drink my [ __ ] Alka-Seltzer over here I'll drink my tiramisu coffee I feel ooh
yummy from dead sled yeah from dead sled check that out yummy um I have a flavor to try later I hope
that my heartburn goes away so that I can try it I hope you can too because I love dead said coffee who doesn't
[Laughter] like that's our company somebody else only I can love them just me I own the
love of them you know why not but what's up man uh what's up what's up is that we're going back in time today what what
two my favorite kinds of things which is old-timey things you love old tiny things where is it in Europe uh no it is
not American uh it's in America and it's in you know our neck of the woods a little bit oh yeah okay nice a little
bit okay you could drive there I guess okay it's there so this is a wild one has to do with you know uh how shitty
the death penalty is and how really shitty it was back then okay it has to do with mental illness and how it was
handled back then not well [ __ ] and it has to do with whether or not somebody was executed for a crime they
potentially didn't [Music] so it's a it's a big okay that always stresses me out a little bit this one's
this is a lot I will say this one's a lot so hang in so where we're gonna be talking about Elroy Kent and the murder
of Delia Congdon okay now Elroy Kent is our convicted murderer okay here so I want to talk about him first just
because he's the one that we we're going to talk about Delia of course but I just
want to bring up Elroy because you should know what we're working with here and why it was such a shock that he
eventually receives the death penalty okay because whoa like he had a lot going on
so Elroy Kent was born in Rutland County Vermont in 1878 he was born to George and Caroline Kent according to the 1880
census he had one sister Bell Kent but later he would end up having six more siblings oh she's a big family that
sentence really popped off it really did but for back then that was just like normal you know but that's a family yeah
that was like having two so exactly so Kent himself said that he always hated school when he was younger he was kind
of a troublemaker he couldn't really focus and he would run away from home a lot and he probably just to get some
peace and quiet but each time he did this he would either be tracked down by the local constable and just returned
back to the family or he would just take it upon himself to come home he was like
I never really ran away for a long time I just did it all the time now exactly now when he did bother to show up at
Homer school he spent a lot of time like I said getting in trouble he liked to prank people he just liked to cause
havoc he liked to cause a lot of trouble for people okay once he actually set fire to a neighbor's plow when he was
younger like a kid that's a dick move uh and it was being stored in the man's barn and he only intended to do it this
is why like his reasoning skills were not great even from like you know kids reasoning skills are not great anyways
but like his were shockingly bad because evidently he was like I thought this was
a joke lighting fire to this plow in a barn yeah but like we should work on this sense of humor yeah like luckily it
was caught but if it wasn't caught it definitely would have spread very quickly and burned the entire Barn down
and probably the surrounding structures oh my God and he just like couldn't understand that he was like it's a joke
guys get over it do you know like roughly how old he was I think when he did this he was somewhere in like the 12
range okay I feel like he should know yeah yeah you absolutely should now Not only was he a pain in the ass at this
point getting into trouble running away all the time just causing issues for everybody around him but Kent's actual
criminal career began way earlier than this he began his criminal career when he was just seven years old
at seven years old he and his friend from school stole a cooking stove for a hut
how the [ __ ] did they manage to even move a cooking stove no idea and so they did that they got caught but he was
seven so they weren't gonna like throw him in prison for that they were just like wow that's really bad don't steal
things don't steal ovens you little later when he was in his teens he stole a horse from a neighbor in Brookline
Vermont and wrote it for several miles but then just jumped off it let the horse go and hopped a train Bound for
Townsend okay I feel like he's running from something yeah and that's the thing you can't really find out a lot about
that there's just not a lot about his family yeah in the 1800s but once he was in Townsend he found a short he actually
found work there he found like short-term work chopping wood and while he's there he breaks into the train
station at night and steals three mileage books that he later gave to friends and people he knew
okay now mileage books are books that dry like um um train conductors would use to log
their hours and their mileage I know I just motioned like a car but I motioned a car wheel like I was like steering
wheel driving well you don't know how to drive a train you know who knows maybe they I don't think they have that but
probably not but I who Am I who am I that's just my little stuff pantomime for driving something anything even
though like a plane I'm like yep that's how we do it she's really going going crazy on the 10 and two there and now
it's like a ship's wheel of like wow but these books were not valuable monetarily
but like they were just valuable to these drivers into like Administration purposes like for administration
purposes so it was just a very strange thing to steal and kind of a dick move a very dick move it'll be like now if
somebody stole your Google calendar yeah it's like they just stole [ __ ] that's
important to you because you need it to like function just function like do your
job like it's like that's all and it's like he couldn't sell those he wasn't making any money off of them he just
stole them to be a dick yeah you know um and they're also very clearly marked as property of the railroad so like I
don't know a lot of people that are going to want to take those off your hands because like that's bad right um
so they were quickly recovered okay because people like that he gave them to were like I don't want this and would
just leave it somewhere like that's not mine because why would you want that it's just such a strange thing to do so
in because he did this he was quickly arrested and sentenced to 20 months in the House of Corrections dad he stole
[ __ ] and he broke into a train station yeah so wrong the Casual theft of a horse by which by the way was quickly
recovered as well yay I ended the theft of completely valueless mileage books these are just like Petty crimes in the
grand scheme of things yeah like you know like they're not violent you know again he's really not doing anything
that he's is gaining any kind of value for himself he's just doing it he's just [ __ ] around and this was like stuff
he did when he was a teenager and it was just kind of like okay he's just he's just Elroy this is Elroy this is who he
is but in 1896 when he was 18 years old he was brought before a judge for something different he was brought
before a judge for trying to burglarize a store in Brookline ooh which we're starting to escalate yes as we can see
that's the thing when you were saying like it's just like petty crime it's like slowly yeah it's getting worse and
worse and he claimed that he was like I did not try to Rob this man's store that
wasn't my intent he did admit to the judge that he had destroyed several of the man's beehives that's [ __ ] rude
which again just rude [ __ ] and like wow you're really you're playing to fire there buddy yeah like that's just really
rude and he's broken a light in the store he admitted to that so I was just being disruptive as hell that's what
you're telling me and what happened was his uncle ended up paying a fine and he was free to like to go after this man
but only two months later he was caught again trying to break into the home of a
man named Royal Mars yes his name is Royal yes Mars me too that's an awesome name hi I'm Royal Mars
baby and you don't get away with trying to break into Royal Mars's House Idaho I
don't know if you thought you would I never did I never thought I never did I don't know why Elroy thought he could I
was born with the knowledge that you do not attempt to break into Royal's home I
thought we all were right to be honest that's what maybe that's a more a more modern knowledge that we are born with
okay they didn't have it then but for this one he was sentenced to jail and I don't know how many months because I
couldn't find the exact it just said many months many many months many months however you feel is many that's how many
yeah that could be anything yeah so at this point he's just a pain in the ass he's kind of an [ __ ] yeah but so far
sure he's escalating but he's not really stealing again anything of value he's not reselling things he's not hurting
people physically yeah of course it's like the 1800s so nobody's like hey what's going on
why are you taking random [ __ ] because it did seem at times that the act of stealing was equally or more important
as the value of items that he was stealing it seemed like he just like like doing it to do the act of breaking
in somewhere the act of stealing worthless [ __ ] that would just make someone's life like slightly
inconvenient right like a very strange set of events that is weird but this changed in 1899 when he was 21 years old
he said it's the brink of the 1900s and what's crazy to me exactly he's like we're entering a new era but what's
crazy to me is he's getting older and escalating and I'm like so your punishment gets greater the older you
get yeah so why are you escalating your crimes so that the punishment you get is
going to be far worse de-escalate so he's 21 years old 1899 and that year he was caught robbing a store in Milton
Vermont no he just broke a light and just broke a light no he stole seven gold watches a suit of clothes a hat and
a pair of shoes and he thought he was going to get away with that yeah damn and the thing that's
a loop well this one's wild to me because during the while he was in the middle of robbing the store
um a night Watchman saw him and the night Watchman fired his double-barreled shotgun hit him in the leg and the back
with buckshot what I was like whoa in the back you said yeah holy cow he was left in really
bad shape and the injury from the shotgun he he had to end up being hospitalized for several weeks from it
wow but he recovered and once he was finished healing his crimes had earned him three years in the state prison in
Windsor straight to jail so they were like you feeling good cool you're gone wrong so after his release from Windsor
in 18 in uh I think it was so the timelines between these ones get a little hairy because this was in 1899
but they say like after his release in Windsor in early 1900 so they say it was a three-year prison stint I'm not sure
if he actually served the whole three years because it seems like it's about 1901 9 like somewhere around there that
this happened okay maybe he got off for like good behavior and maybe like time served in the hospital or something so
either way he was sentenced to the three years in the state prison in Windsor he
did serve some time oh yeah now after he was released from there he traveled to Brattleboro where's the Brattleboro and
um is that a Maine Brattleboro I need to look it up now because I need to know I'll Vamp I just don't go to Maine that
often so I don't know a lot about it I've been to like I think Portsmouth Vermont it's Vermont we're in Vermont I
only went to Vermont one time Vermont's cool yeah I liked it yeah we like Vermont anyway Brattleboro Vermont
okay um so he traveled to Brattleboro and he was traveling there to visit his cousin
w.g Kent I always love how everyone's name back then was like WG yeah I like it but like I it's nothing really
goes past Royal Mars no nothing will beat that and I obviously know that like they had real names and that those are
initials wait what they did yeah like I'm not saying like it was WG like that's I know that but I
like how they referred to them as that yeah it's like like DW exactly my favorite where my Arthur heads out there
so while staying with that family his cousin his actual film he learned that his cousin WG had recently got a payment
of some sort of fifty dollars oh a hot air big money yeah so one evening while everyone was asleep Elroy Kent just goes
through his cousin's [ __ ] looking for that money and he's you're staying in my
CD house wg's house and he only ended up finding 12 of it but I'm sure he stole it and he fled the house in the middle
of the night what a [ __ ] bag I don't know Elroy I don't like I'm saying so the next morning when WG realized my
cousin has stolen all my money and then he's dollars or twelve dollars he reported it to the chief of police he
was like feds I'd like to report a crime he said [ __ ] this guy [ __ ] blood like blood is not thicker than water my
friends blood might be thicker than water but it's harder to clean when it spills oh
that was her [ __ ] quote this year blood may be thicker than water but it's harder to clean when it spills I was
like oh okay to that like damn just casual murder reference I was like Andy what wow damn like like Teresa says yeah
I mean you just felt that she felt that in his heart of hearts 9-1-1 I'd like to
report a crime yes so the chief of police traced elroy's movements back to his mother's house in Manchester now
he's getting his mama involved so they call Caroline Kent and they're like hey your son who has been a jackass his
whole life and has been obtaining all of our asses he was like what we know he's
there we're like traced him here and Caroline was like no he's not home oh she's aiding and abetting but oops
because they searched the home and they found him hiding in the basement oh my God it's giving good Fellas right and he
was taken to Newfane jail so by the time he was sent to Newfane for taking 12 out
of his cousin's belongings yeah oh wait also I meant blow not good Fellas don't yell at me that's okay I'm sharing
Goodfellas somebody hid in a basement I love that probably but uh but Kent had become kind of a notorious local
criminal but like me mainly due to this like myth he had created around himself like right because like we're saying he
did some [ __ ] but it wasn't like cray cray but it was all more like head scratching [ __ ] I see Mikey Mikey sneeze
it was a cute one it was it's okay you did not God damn it shut up how dare you there's no sneezing in the workplace
unpublish this episode [ __ ] it ruined it like I said he's not all his [ __ ] that
he's doing is more just like chin scratching head scratching I'm confused by him kind of [ __ ] more less than like
wow he's like physically harming people and like like nobody's afraid of him yeah like it's more just people are like
oh my God it's that Elroy Kent he's kooky put your fifty dollars away but and according to a news report from
January 1902 it said Kent has a dark record he knows it and does not hesitate to talk about it indeed he relates his
experiences on occasions with considerable Gusto so they're basically like that man loves to talk about his
[ __ ] like he's just running around being like yes yes Dark Passenger that's me
but by the time he was in his early twenties he had been arrested and jailed at least six times at this point and had
spent more than a quarter of his life locked up for petty crimes all of it so he looked at gel stretches as just
like inconvenient at this point and he also just kind of like loved that everybody was like oh that's that that
kooky criminal Elroy Kent like he loved his reputation so he was just like he's he's honestly kind of giving and again
I've never seen it but it's giving peaky blinders like like he like it's giving like he likes that reputation yeah but I
could see that you know he's one of The Outsiders they're definitely more violent I would say Well they're more
violent than him at this point oh no but uh yeah so but I would say like you're right like the kind of like like that
attitude he's walking around like he owns the place yeah you know so yeah the red right hand is playing at all times
when he's walking so he actually said to a reporter in 1902 because they would like press would
ask him and like be like hey What's your deal he's still being kooky all right and he was like I am I mean really what
else happens in Vermont yeah exactly at that point that like nothing so he said the two things I love best are whiskey
and railroad rides let's go baby he's living life now we're right now being like Elroy Kent he's a kooky guy yeah oh
it's Gonna Change okay I'm gonna it's gonna change but I believe there are extenuating
extenuated then you waiting yeah there it is extenuating factors that come into play later that I think were a little
ignored okay I also wonder if he actually committed the crime that he is um was convicted for and I wonder what
you guys will think so the paper said poor poor Elroy Kent finding enjoyment only in whiskey and railroad rides and
seeing nothing before him but prison life okay so everybody just kind of gave up on him too they were like this guy's
a loser and he's just gonna be in prison forever that's odd which again he didn't
really give them much of a choice but to look at him that way truth so the theft
of the money from his cousin actually resulted in him so he went to prison for he was sentenced to the three-year
prison stint he didn't serve the entire thing like I said I don't know exactly how much he served of it but he ended up
having to go back to prison because they had give him given him parole for the cousin stealing and he broke it he broke
the parole because he robbed a store in Milton and actually this was the first example of
someone violating parole in Vermont's history whoa look at that good old Elroy yeah so it was actually Governor William
Stickney who was the one who insisted he be sent back to prison to finish his sentence out because he said he just had
a flagrant disregard for the law truth and he did yeah so 100 I'm on the governor's side no once he was released
finally from Windsor again Kent found Brattleboro so Brattleboro authorities waiting for him with a warrant for his
arrest right away because they said hey you violated parole after we let you out
for stealing your cousins twelve dollars but now you have to go back to jail and
finish that sentence because they were like we got you out we paroled you you broke the parole you
went back to jail for violating the parole and now you've come out we're gonna make you finish off that sentence
it was only a few more months in Newfane at this point but now he had to go back
okay so we just got out and they were like ding ding ding you're going to that one goodbye now on December 6 1902 he
actually escaped from prison of course he did of course I honestly I was waiting for that yeah that was the the
obvious next he has the vibe of somebody that escapes he does now this is where [ __ ] gets wild and this is where his
life changes again from being a petty criminal who we can all go oh my goodness that Elroy he's so kooky that's
funny this is when it turns and this is when something happened that makes it turn in
my opinion at least yeah sure so he escapes from prison and he hops on a train in West dumberston headed away
from the city everything's going according to plan everything's smoothies hanging out on
this railroad car he's thinking about the whiskey he's gonna have he's like my two favorite things I'm excited free and
then someone on the train car looks at him and recognizes him uh-oh and calls him right the [ __ ] out he freaks out
thinking everyone else is going to hear this and everyone else is going to recognize him and he does not want to go
back to prison because now he's thinking like I'm just gonna get away from here and start living my life so he jumped
from the moving train and it was as it was approaching Williamsville station he jumps out and his head hit one of the
railroad ties oh and then according to the Boston Daily Globe In 1902 it hit with great force you would think now
according to reports that were came out later Elroy had sustained a skull fracture
when he hit the tracks holy [ __ ] he hit it he had a skull fracture and he lay unconscious on the tracks for several
hours no one helped him he just woke up and he wandered away to a nearby Farmhouse and
when he got to this Farmhouse the owner of the home called the local doctor Dr PP White
and I know I saw Ash's face now when he arrived when the doctor came he saw that Kent not only had a skull
fracture but he was like um this man has a piece of rotten wood that was driven into his brain when he fell I'm sorry
Hua this man has a skull fracture from diving out of a moving train and when that happened somehow a piece of rotten
wood had been driven into his brain not just his skull his brain he basically had like a a road pick lobotomy
literally holy [ __ ] so the doctor took out as much wood as he was able to and dressed the wounds and just kind of like
was like you're gonna die I hope you're gonna survive this and the next day the doctor saw him again and he was there to
kind of examine the wound to make sure it was make sure nothing was happening like drain everything do what he had to
do during this whole thing he discovers that quote the wood had been driven through the top of the head diagonally
through the brain to the base of the nose what how is he even functioning a piece of wood two and eight seven
eighths inches long and an inch in diameter was removed how is he functioning two and one-fourth ounces of
brain tissue were cut off and a piece of gauze just a yard Square was packed into the opening
they put gauze into his brain so as you can see anything that happens from here on out
likely the result of some mental illness and some severe like cognitive issues I
was just gonna say that's like the most traumatic brain injury I think I've ever
heard of which does not excuse anything that happens later but means that he should have been sent to a hospital for
anything that had happened after this and probably not executed for anything that happened after this so this is it's
honestly what's sad is if they had sent him to a hospital it probably would have
been worse I know it's true it's very true especially back then you know now we it's it obviously it's impossible for
us to sit here and say for sure that any of this that this injury that he got when he jumped out of the train affected
his behavior and like impossible but like impossible for us to like totally sit there and save 100 no we're not
doctors but like come on it seems like that would have a pretty big-ish like effect on what was going on like please
sit there and tell me with two inches of wood stuck into the middle of your [ __ ] Cranium that you'd act normal
feels like this and what we know is that by 1903 his behavior and his thinking was becoming very disordered I'm very
unpredictable enough for officials at the prison where he was brought back to after this oh my God they just threw him
back in prison but the officials actually had him transferred to this up from the state prison in Windsor to the
quote-unquote this is what they called it hospital for the insane in Waterbury sure now that was because the officials
at the prison were like something's wrong he's a different like this is a different Beast like that's got to go
that way was he like violent now I think he was becoming so disordered he was like unpredictable he was bizarre and
he's still I mean he still has rotten wood in his brain and in pieces of his brain were taken out oh my God
that yeah holy [ __ ] this is really insane this case did bring as you'll find out like at the end of it like this
brought up a lot of discussion about one the death penalty as a whole two how you
know executing the like what they referred to as the criminally insane back then and also just like the what
we're gonna see is like there's this was kind of a circumstantial case yeah so it's like and and it's kind of based off
of stuff that it's like you executed this guy yeah and you didn't even really know if this is like oh I don't know
about this one oh no so they did bring up a lot of discussion and it did also lead to like the death penalty in
Vermont like stopping like this really this was at least part of the discussion it was cited many times wow okay while
people were fighting to get the death penalty um abolish abolished that's what I was
looking for thank you no problem and it also gets brought up now as like a way of being like the death penalty is
barbaric like look what happened here wow so this case really did have a lot to do with that which I guess is the
positive that comes out of it because this is what I don't understand when some people don't like old-timey cases
because I'm sitting here right now like holy [ __ ] what it leads to so much it does and it's like this was before the
forensic you know science boom that had happened so it's like it's interesting to see the scrappy way in which cases
had to be solved and what happened when you didn't have the tools to solve it correctly and what comes out of that I
just think that's really interesting don't worry in my case this week has a lot of forensic DNA there you go so you
know we're we're balancing it yeah I like it yeah and once and we haven't even talked about Delia yet we're going
to get to Delia who is the victim in this case and it's like she also like this is there's a lot here there's a lot
here there's a lot of different victims here that I was just gonna say it's sad the whole case is very very sad but
sometime in the evening hours of because he's been transferred to the hospital now in the evening hours of August 12 19
105. he had spent 18 months in confinement at this point in the hospital he escaped from the hospital
disappeared out into the night the Press went wild immediately they're probably terrified pretty terrified again at this
point he hasn't been outwardly violent in his crimes still but I'm sure people were worried but now they're a little
worried but what they really went after was criticizing the hospital and criticizing the state for the
administrative insecurity failure yeah like why was he left alone yeah like what's happening here why was that
allowed to happen now according to reports quote in order to make his escape this was in the Rutland Daily
Herald by the way um or excuse me no it was in the Saint Albans Daily Messenger the next one is
the world excuse me uh it said in order to make his Escape he was obliged to unlock three doors and make his way out
through an attic window which was not barred y'all so they were like why was that
able to happen we got it we gotta fix these things and Hospital staff just checked his cell during the morning
rounds and they he just wasn't there and it's also like why were there not like rounds on rounds on rounds exactly and
they made note of that that they saw that he had procured in some way a new suit of clothes and his old one was
found in its usual place which is just outside the cell door yikes so like how did he even get new clothes like what
was going on there like what do do you believe that possibly he was helped I don't think so I think he just was able
to walk through three doors and up into an unbarred window and was like bye because he still had some you know he he
wasn't like you know unfunctioning you know at this point like he was functioning but his behavior and his
thinking was definitely scattered scattered and might mightily different than what it was before
um so once he had escaped and they had discovered that he escaped Sheriff FH Tracy was sent from Montpelier to
Waterbury to lead the search for him um he told reporters a basic description of Elroy he said his height is five feet
four inches weight 160 pounds he has hazel eyes and brown hair he wore a light mustache when last seen has a deep
scar on the left side of his forehead I bet he does two inches long one inch one
half inch wide and one half inch deep at lower end he also has scars on the back
remember from being shot with a buckshot there's six shot scars on the left leg or on the right leg six yeah oh my God
he was shot in like six times or it's a buck shot so it's like I think those are
the ones and I should probably look it up before I say this but I'll look it up I think that I believe those are the
ones that it like um like several pieces shoot out like it explodes a little bit oof that's I'm
gonna look it up absolutely terrible it does sound pretty terrible um I keep feeling that in my egg
I think yes so it's a um it's a big shock it's like shotgun shells for hunting game I guess
and uh basically it says the most commonly produced Buckshot shell is a 12 gauge which we've heard of yep um and
they hold eight pellets inside of them so when they hit it's like the pellets explode like it's one of those things or
when they shoot it the pellets explode I think yeah the schematics I'm not completely familiar with all that but I
believe that's like a very rudimentary way of saying it I like that word rudiment
um but but basically when you shoot someone with it with a buck shot they're gonna be they're gonna have several
scars they're gonna get [ __ ] up yeah it's not gonna be great so he had they explained his description
but unfortunately investigators lost his Trail pretty quickly and he didn't really come back into their focus until
like two months later oh [ __ ] that's when his brother uh luilin I think it's called Lula it's called I said it's it's
pronounced is what I meant um his brother luolin reported that Elroy had attacked him reported it to a
police now according to news reports on the morning of September 29th both of them the two brothers apparently Elroy
had been home with yeah they had been transported a load of potatoes to the market and nearby Rockingham and had
returned with supplies and some Provisions like flour sugar and apparently Liquid Fire
what is Liquid Fire I looked this up and I cannot find an actual response I think
it's just gonna mean many things like it could be like oil of some kind like I think it's something like that but they
called it Liquid Fire which sounds like it sounds like wildfire from like Game of Thrones like I feel like it's like
this green glowy liquid that they have and I'm like why do you have that for real it just makes me think of baked
Alaska there you go Liquid Fire you know I don't know no later that evening uh I
guess lulin's young son George said he heard shouts and groans outside the house so he went out there to
investigate what was going on and according to him he said about quote 40 rods from his house which thanks to Dave
I now know is 220 yards apparently George Kent the son found the family wagon overturned and he saw a
large pool of blood next to it oh no so a little bit further away he found his father lying beside a creek with his
nose broken a large gas gash in the back of his neck and his face and head badly
cut oh no that's very violent yeah now once he'd regained Consciousness lulin told police that he and Elroy had been
out on the road they got into an argument and the argument scared the horses so the horses ran off when this
happened the wagon overturned according to luolin uh the wagon flipped with him underneath it now when that
happened the force of that drove an iron bar into his neck dude what the [ __ ] yeah and when he asked Elroy he was like
freaking out asking Elroy to pull the metal bar out of his neck can we stop with the impalement of everyone said
that Elroy quote tried to drive it in still farther and then he said he lost Consciousness
and couldn't remember anything after that but when he came to later he said Elroy was gone and he had taken
llewellyn's wallet that's your brother dude so after all this petty theft generally non-violent
crimes everything is turned now if his brother was to be believed Elroy didn't just attack his brother and steal
his wallet he had tried to kill him and it kind of seems like maybe he thought he was dead I think he probably did
now luckily Elroy was arrested about three weeks later in Haddam Connecticut a local Constable actually spotted him
crossing a railroad bridge and just recognized who he was just Elroy still walking out across railroad Bridges
Elroy still just doing whatever the hell he wants to do I would never ever approach another railroad ever again no
he loves railroads he does but like even after that the love is deep you can take
the boy from the railroad but but he literally cannot literally come from the boy but it's still in his head accurate
so the Constable questioned him and during the course of the questioning he determined that Elroy was definitely
responsible for a burglary that it also occurred the day before in town oh another one yeah uh confirmation of this
came quickly when he searched his pockets and discovered all the stolen [ __ ] from the house oh my God elvoy so
he was confirmed to be Elroy Kent and the Constable contacted Sheriff Tracy who traveled to Connecticut and brought
him back to Vermont my goodness so Elroy said that he had managed to escape the hospital by picking the locks with a
piece of metal from his shoe and a length of wire the [ __ ] so he said once he was outside he had just climbed down
the wall wearing only a shirt and then he swam down the Winooski River until he felt like he was far enough away and he
just got away this man has lived a life and he's probably like 25 at this point truly
now the next day he said he stole a new suit of clothes and then he made his way
to his brother's house in Townsend hey broey uh when asked about the assault on his brother Kent said he was like well I
was like I don't really have any explanation for that so he was returned to the hospital in Waterbury pretty
quickly okay now once he was brought back to Vermont by the sheriff he spent several more years
in the hospital in Waterbury and that wasn't until the that wasn't until the early I don't know why I keep can't say
until that was until yeah I haven't had enough coffee and it's tiramisu coffee it's making me excited so I can't speak
two more do more coffee do more coffee it is a drug I will do one do your coffee ready oh my God guys she's doing
coffee right now whoa I just did some coffee okay so that's really yummy no that's what tiramisu yeah this was until
the early morning hour see that worked check it of July 11 1908 when he and a fellow inmate named John Keenan escaped
again they need to close this Hospital right the [ __ ] down if he the same guy like you would think that you'd be
keeping even more tabs on him a little bit like tabs on him anyways but even more so now because he's escaped once
y'all yeah he's escaped again this was years later escaped again and he even told you how he did it the first time
and you're not checking this out oh and this is even worse he escaped using a duplicate key
that was given to them by another inmate who tried to escape the previous week what it was like here's my duplicate key
you can use it how did you get like what they created 3D printer out there in 1908 they created a ladder using pieces
of Keenan's bed sheets and used it to climb over the walls surrounding the hospital he's like right this way just
this way Hospital administrators said they were confident that both men would be recaptured within a few days
confidence is a nice thing to have yeah especially at that point it's a nice thing to have I think that's all you
have that's really all you got because that confidence was pretty unfounded you [ __ ] idiots now let's talk about
Delia congda yeah so Delia's had a lot of struggle in her life as well but she was seemed like she was kind of thriving
out of it which is really cool she was sad though yeah she was born into one of Wallingford Vermont's founding families
oh wow um but she contracted scarlet fever at age eight back then scarlet fever is crazy that she lived and this
rendered her completely deaf at age eight oh wow so until then she had been able to hear and it was like a like just
Boop it happened all at once terrible and it also affected her speech to such a degree that it was difficult for
people to understand what she was saying so she would get frustrated and like it
was tough yeah now several family members also said that Delia had actually been born with a cognitive
impairment okay um and scarlet fever kind of exasperated that whole thing exacerbated excuse me
um by the time she had become an adult Delia's parents and several of her siblings had actually died from various
illnesses and her remaining siblings had just moved away um yeah I think I don't know what the
whole story was but it made me sad too yeah but she she made the best of it though because it because of all this
she inherited the family home which was this large farm on Sugar Hill yeah she said I got this house and she
so she had a little bit of a reputation that people call her like a spinster she
was only like 40. by the way else yeah of course she's 40. but in reality Delia was never alone and she was never lonely
she had mostly was surrounded by friends her neighbors were like all surrounding
her at all times oh yeah they all took care of her looked down for her looked out for her greatly and they didn't look
out for her in a way that like made her feel like they were like pitting like we
have to look out like people genuinely liked her and they were spent time with her a lot she always had friends over
she was just she was like thriving she was like you know what like I'm a cool person and everybody knows that yeah it
sounds like it also she had local school children at her Farm all the time because she would bake them cookies
regularly oh my God shut your [ __ ] face she's just like this nice person that's like I was dealt a tough set of
cards but like but here I am working [ __ ] it like everybody likes me and I'm awesome yeah like I'm gonna be kind and
just like live my life oh she sounds really cool yeah so on the morning of July 23rd 1908 two of Delia's neighbors
named the Sprague Brothers they were working in the field next to the Congdon house because she allowed them to you
farm on her land because they were so close all of her and her neighbors and that's a huge deal back then you don't
just give up your land for fun yeah so while they're working they said they were approached by a small man who said
he was looking for work five four five foot four exactly um according to the Sprague Brothers
they said the man noticed Delia in her yard and they noticed they saw that he noticed this and he said who's that
woman and they were like why do you need to know that yeah who's asking and then
they said he quote proceeded to say what sort of things he would like to do to her oh I don't like that so horrified by
these statements I guess the brothers looked at him and said they would quote shoot full of holes anyone who tried
such a thing [ __ ] yeah and they said you better move along and you better seek
work somewhere else over here like not after saying that which I was like [ __ ] yeah they said we
will make you swiss cheese yeah like these men are like you know they're Brothers don't you dare [ __ ] with Delia
she's our girl I love Community now the next day Delia didn't get the bottle of milk that was left on her front porch by
the Milkman neighbors of course noticed this immediately because like I said they all
love her they're looking out for her so they went right to her home to knock on the door and see if she was okay and I'm
sure even more so those two brothers now yeah of course so when they entered the
home they found Delia lying dead on the pantry floor no they said quote in a condition which indicated she had been
ravished and with several deep Cuts upon the head oh no now a large amount of blood was coming from her head it had
pulled next to her there was uh Blood spattered on the walls in the pantry Sheriff EC fish was immediately called
out to the scene he started talking to anyone who was on the farm around the farm all the Neighbors after a pretty
quick investigation of the scene he actually arrested a man named Frank Rogers who was an occasional farmhand
and was known as a pretty tough character that's a quote tough character sure Rogers had actually served three
sentences at the house of correction damn and people said they saw him on the property the previous evening okay so
that's why he was taken in so they did a little examination of the scene and they determined that Delia had
been probably preparing breakfast for herself in the pantry oh my god when whoever had killed her had approached
her from behind and struck her on the head several times with a wood splitting ax how senseless yeah now according to
State's attorney Robert Lawrence when she was discovered Delia quote was fully dressed and had a toothbrush in her hand
which had been broken into oh my God her false teeth were in the adjoining room and it appears as if she retreated into
the pantry when attacked the killer had then taken the handle of the ax and wrapped it with fabric
and like with her clothing Fabric and had Twisted the fabric around her neck and then used the ax as a grot oh my God
and had literally grotted her with the ax and her own clothing after after realizing her after sexually assaulting
her oh no which they found definitely happened and beating her in the head with the ax they then grotted her God
and she was just making breakfast just making breakfast just woke up oh my God the body also showed signs of bruising
and what they referred to as criminal assaults indicating that she was very likely
raped Lawrence the uh the state's attorney he also told reporters she had evidently
put up a fierce fight for her life but and this is his words not mine remember we're in 1900s here but as she had been
deaf and dumb from an early age it was impossible for her to cry out obviously cognitive impairment was
treated and discussed rather differently back then so we would never say deaf and
dumb no like what but if I haven't anybody ever thought that was well that's it's like why was dumb the word
for cognitive impairment from birth like come on like No And it's like all you have to say is like because she was she
couldn't hear yeah she couldn't hear them coming and because she like like you don't have to like she was just
unable to cry up right right you know like they we know who Delia is like people in the area know her just put it
simply like you don't need to make it sound like that but I it's like you know it's disrespectful stupid times
basically stupid times stupid statements but it's important to say them because that's the time period and it's simple
look at it and go my how far we have come but sort of what he was saying was she put up a fierce fight yeah but that
she was able unable to cry out she couldn't get the words out she obviously probably didn't hear the person coming
up behind her and she attacked her and she's already been struck in the head like immediately maybe she couldn't at
that point even yell out to incapacitate her right and she's in her own [ __ ] house like she's in her own house making
breakfast yeah like what the hell so after killing Delia the killer then went through all the drawers went
through all her stuff and the problem here was that she lived alone so nobody could say whether anything had been
stolen or not right because they didn't know exactly yeah no So based on this they did conclude that the motive was
likely robbery because of the ransacking but again with no evidence that something is stolen that can be staged
yeah and to me it looks like she was raped and brutally murdered that looks like the motive that's what I was gonna
say is like the the rape of the murder of the doll and the way he said it was evidence was found to indicate robbery
as the motive some of the furniture being ransacked and drawers being found open and the contents of the drawers
thrown about which I'm like that to me sounds staged definitely the content of the drawer is thrown about yeah so
the evidence against Frank Rogers the sometimes uh farm hand was not great okay flimsy and circumstantial might be
a better way to put it okay uh he'd been seen in the vicinity the night before there's that couldn't easily account for
like all his movements in the days leading up to the murder but it was really just them going will
you have a reputation for like being a criminal and being violent sometimes so like it's probably you yikes like that's
about it that's really all they had right it was only after examining his body and the clothes he was seen wearing
that day on the day of the murder that he was actually released because there was no evidence of blood there was no
evidence of a fight he had no scratches no Brew there was no blood on his clothes and there would be and that it
would have been next to impossible to achieve coming out of that with no wounds defensive wounds no blood on your
clothing and he would have been covered so two days later on July 27th was the autopsy of Delia Congdon
um and this was to determine the cause of death and hopefully the order of of events that had happened so doctors BH
Stone and William Stickney reported that Delia had been attacked in her home by an estate the assalian who sexually
assaulted her first in the main home of the house then she had run she had fled into the pantry to hide oh my God but
her attacker had followed her and struck her on the head six times with the wood
splitting act this is heartbreak which caused six cuts to her scalp but the doctors determined the cause of death
was actually strangulation caused by the handle of the ax having been wrapped in
her shirt and Cru and grotting her this is horrific yeah so also what's like a really strange
thing here is that and this also worked in Frank rogers's favor of them being like it's probably not him yeah was they
found something in the barn on the Congdon property okay carved into the wall oh I know like two
next to a pile of hay that was clearly recently Disturbed where the initials E K
and you don't know if he did this or not yeah yeah you said wait there's more here's
the thing I'm not saying he didn't do this I'm just I'm saying there it is really circumstantial evidence oh okay
my gut tells me he probably did oh okay but I don't think they had enough to convict him up oh okay and I don't think
they had enough to execute him on for sure gotcha gotcha um now police this was like excuse me I have misunderstood
I think he definitely was sleeping in that Barn for sure yeah but that doesn't say that he murdered everyone okay uh
now police had no luck tracking however I can so like they found those things and they haven't been able to find him
and that was since he escaped the hospital too right before this for the second time yeah but several people in
the area said they had seen him at least in the area of the kangan farm a week earlier I bet they did so residents of
East Wallingford believed he was kind of harmless because up until this point they didn't know like they they didn't
know what the brother thing was like they were kind of you know so in their words they called him quote a
half-witted [ __ ] who had drifted in Jesus Christ they really knew how to insult people but I'm saying a
half-witted a half-witted tram I know what I'm calling the next person that crosses me yeah there you go
but they figured he just drifted in to find work and so they were like eh when they saw him out and about they were
kind of just like yeah I guess he's supposed to be in a hospital but like which I'm like did anyone know what he
put He did to his brother it doesn't sound like did you all that didn't come out apparently he was not widely
reported apparently not um and Elroy can't he definitely matched the description of the man the Sprague
Brothers described seeing the day before Delia's murder and like you said he's looking for work so that's why to me I
most of me believes he did this for sure I think it just I think there when it comes to the execution is where my
problem lies sure yeah it's like there were other things happening here that I think he should have just been put back
in the hospital but do you think maybe and we'll talk about yeah we'll talk about no investigators searched um like
abandoned buildings and other areas that they said they knew that like people who
drifted in and out would kind of hang out and use like unused buildings and there was one on a um an unused
outbuilding on a nearby farm that they looked at and they found an area area of you know Disturbed hay kind of like in
the barn and they said it looked like it had been used as a bed and on the wall near it was carved e Kent oh another one
another one okay another one another one now this is why it's like they so he did
it here he did it there it's clear he's sleeping in these places and then leaving his initial on the side yeah
which also I'm like why are you leaving your initials yeah that's the thing now the carving matched that of the one
found in Dalia congdon's barn and investigators were like Okay so Kent had definitely slept in her bar in
the night before the murder that Barn we can we can see is connected to this next
one we can trace his movements that way but they also noted that from the barn he could probably see into Delia's
bedroom and would have been able to track her movements the next morning from that
Barn freaky so they theorized he probably watched he waited for her to unlock the door to the house and when
she did he snuck in and attacked her and then tore the house apart to search for
any money or anything valuable and it's I mean we have like the account from the
two brothers of him explicitly saying what he wanted to do to her exactly and then she was raped and that's the part
that really stuck in my mind is like you know but again it's based off of somebody's somebody's saying something
and we've never heard that's the only thing so this is a matter of like do I think he did it yeah do I think they had
enough to convict him and execute him probably not yeah but this was a different time
um you didn't need as much yeah exactly now this was definitely not the first time
that he had been leading the police on like a wild goose chase at this point but this time was a little different
because they're not dealing with the petty criminal Elroy Kent they're dealing with a man who is clearly
demonstrated that he does have a capacity for violence when he what he did to his brother was wild terrific
um he also kind of has everything to lose if he's captured at this point which is not good
so the search for Kent began immediately around the area once they found those carvings and it was around the areas of
Wallingford Rutland and Brattleboro so for some extra power and some extra help Sheriff fish gathered deputies from the
area who had known or dealt with Kent in the past like so from outside areas and
they thought maybe they would have like unique insight into who he is like his character so they could kind of
determine where he might be okay and the Sheriff's Office also got some Bloodhounds in oh [ __ ] and they tracked
Ken's trail from the Congdon Farm to a spot in the mountains near his sister's home in Wallingford but they soon they
got like the dogs got super exhausted it was a long way I mean and they needed yeah and they needed to rest yeah and
but and they couldn't even start the search again until the next day so they began again the next day August
1st and the dogs lost his Trail oh [ __ ] handlers tried to get them back on track
they gave him a pair of his old shoes that he wore at the hospital but and they were able to track them again
briefly but they were only able to track him as far as an abandoned building on his sister's property how [ __ ] cool
right is like that kind of bloodhounds [ __ ] wild that is a whole sure like to the whole whole subject
that I could just sit there and read about forever it's a fascinating time I really do think that would actually make
a very cool that'd be cool like how it came about how they are yeah and like that's just really cool I mean because
you could go back to like way long ago they've been using Bloodhounds like Bloodhounds cadaver dogs all that stuff
like dogs are wild even like in Royal times when they would go hunting it is interesting I I think you would do a
really good job at that that would be a fun one put it I would like that one and
then put it in the little little jar of Jar sounds better than bucket so we'll go with that bucket it's a jar but they
did try they gave them the shoes worn at the hospital they only got to that abandoned building
on the sisters property in East Dorset and then they lost the trail again I've never heard of Dorset now luckily
investigators received a tip that afternoon apparently some Berry Pickers were the ones who gave this tip they
were working at a nearby farm and they said a man wearing a bloody shirt and lightly and pretty much according to the
matching Kent's description had been discovered in some bushes on the property and was scared away before
anybody could call the police the dogs managed to pick up a scent where they said
um and it followed they followed it for nearly 10 miles down the highway and then they lost it again damn it and
according to the owners of the dogs really the only reason they would lose the trail was if the scent was too old
okay so that kind of LED investigators to think that Kent was definitely no longer in the area he's long gone now
the dogs losing the trail definitely sucked but a week later they became kind of hopeful because a new clue and a
pattern was starting to emerge wherever Kent was he just couldn't help but leave
his initials somewhere anywhere he stayed overnight he would leave his initials carved into it very
interesting yeah it's wild it began like emerging in different locations around southern Vermont he would do it on trees
are there abandoned buildings that still exist that you know of I don't know that's a good that's a good question we
should look it up because I wonder if there are I'm sure a lot of these buildings are probably gone but they
said on trees and stuff too and in one case this is pretty wild three boys passing by Red Mill Pond in
Woodford on August 8th they stopped at a local barn and they carved their initials into the side of the barn
because remember it's like 1908 yeah what else are you gonna do right and they returned the next day and they saw
that next to their initials someone had carved EK ooh creepy so it's like he saw
those initials and I was like I was here too yeah right creepy creepy now Kent's
family was still in the region so investigators were thinking he might be making his way through the mountains in
the direction of Massachusetts hey uh but they had no idea where he was going to show up next
now as weeks went by and investigators were failing to bring this guy in couldn't find him anywhere the news
started focusing more on them and their failures and less on the murderer on the
loose among other things the Articles were saying that the Wallingford deputy sheriff Alan Leonard and AC Mason uh who
were in charge of the hunt for Kent had been spotted drinking on the job and when they were refused for their alcohol
they produced bottles from their jackets so like like they'd brought their own liquor BYOB baby now in late August
attorneys for Leonard and Mason filed a lawsuit against Olin French who was the publisher of the Vermont Phoenix and
they sued him for five thousand dollars each damn and back then and the basis of
the lawsuit was the Vermont Phoenix had published articles that quote falsely wickedly and maliciously injured the
officers by claiming they quote appeared to be as much a menace to the piece in good order as Elroy Ken oh no yeah so
that's just a little like woof yeah drama now while while these are the lead investigators are just trying to fight
with the Press now over their reputation um sheriff's deputies were just trying to continue the search and trying to
make this happen you know the main focus the job uh then they finally caught a break in late October it was when it was
then that a man matching Kent's description was arrested in Pittsfield Massachusetts hey uh he was trying to
sell a stolen bicycle believe it right so he was arrested and the man said his name was William Allen and he said I've
never heard of Albert I can't tell what you're talking about several hours of questioning later he said you know what
I'm Elver I can't well [ __ ] here I am he said he escaped from the hospital in Waterbury and he vehemently denied
having anything to do with Delia congdon's murder he was like sure I escaped for sure and I just didn't want
to be caught and put back in the hospital but I did not murder that woman okay now in order to be sure it was the
man that they were looking for State's attorney Robert Lawrence was sent to Pittsfield to identify him and bring him
back and he definitely was however I can yeah I figured so on the morning of October 26th he was brought to Rutland
County in the company of deputies Leonard and Wilkins again he admitted to being a fugitive from Justice he was
like for sure I've been outrunning you because I didn't want to go back in the hospital but he continued to deny
anything to do with Delia cognan's murder and he said he wasn't even in the vicinity of East Wallingford at the time
of the murder wow when they reached the train station in Rutland I guess like more than 20 or 200 people had shown up
just to see him holy foot on the train and I guess he was quoted as saying I don't know I didn't know there were so
many fools in all the worlds like damn that's that's funny you're Saucy I don't want to laugh at him though no because
you just don't know I feel like he did it so yeah and no matter what he was like a he was a [ __ ] from beginning
before the drama so it's like he was a bad guy and he heard his brother he did and he hurt his brother like really bad
yeah they could have killed him like hurt his brother and robbed him and robbed his own cousin like I would
low-key call that attempted murder oh that was one they they called it attempted so that's what they looked at
it is that he walked away probably thinking he had killed him yeah no good so Elroy Kent had already been indicted
by a grand jury for the murder of Delia Congdon so he pled guilt not guilty and was held in a cell to a weight trial the
trial began March 30th 1909 and State's Attorney J.C Jones John Sargent and Robert Lawrence announced that they
intended to call more than 30 witnesses to the stand [ __ ] what's funny is that
most of them apparently all the witnesses apparently quote complained of being kept away from their farms at
Sugar making time I mean they were noise hello priorities my priorities I mean especially at that time it's like this
is big [ __ ] deal well now I'm away at a serious time here and I think sugar was expensive back then right yeah so
it's probably like you're really taking money out of my pocket here yeah the trial was a bit over two weeks long and
throughout it the prosecution called several witnesses like the Sprague brothers were called to the stand all
the sugar farmers all the sugar farmers and they claimed to have seen Kent in the area just before the murder and the
motive that they were putting out there was robbery wrong yeah I don't think that was the full motive think it was
rape because remember I think he even before the head injury he seemed to like just doing the the act of robbery yeah
you know what I mean like I think he liked it and I think he escalated into needing more to like what he was doing
yeah yeah but the prosecution introduced several pieces of evidence they had um Delia congdon's bloody clothing they had
section of wood bearing Kent's carved initials that they had taken out of various places where is it now where is
it I couldn't find I just tried to look while you were saying because I feel like there's got to be a tree so I wear
his initials on it well you would think like some random Museum in Vermont would
have it would have them you know just be interesting to see from all those years
ago you know so long ago right and just such a freaky weird thing it's such a weird thing that he did that yeah that's
why it's just really interesting um Dr b.h Stone who was one of the men who completed Delia's autopsy also
testified and said that Delia quote was subject to the most outrageous treatment
before she was killed um Herbert Savory a former inmate testified and he's claimed to have
overheard Kent confess that he killed killed Delia so quote she could couldn't tell um we know how that goes sometimes
because when you listen to like former inmates or like present inmates it stinks because like you want to and you
could help testimony some of the best line of information here and it's like sometimes it works out right it's really
like a 50 50 shot if it's gonna work because at the same time then there's some of the worst because they're just
trying to get out yeah they have something to gain right but the most crucial testimony definitely came from
Deputy Leonard he claimed that Kent had practically made a full confession to him following the arrest oh [ __ ] he said
quote Kent told me that Miss Congdon saw him before he reached her and that he grabbed her and threw her into the milk
room oh now Leonard's testimony was corroborated the following day by Dr W W Townsend who was the physician at the
House of Corrections um that was where Kent was staying and he said he had also discussed the murder
with Kent and according to Dr Townsend Kent knew very specific and intimate details of the crime and had even
corrected the doctor at one point the doctor asked something about the crime happening in the kitchen and he said no
it happened in the milk room oh no so the final bit of damning testimony came from Elgin Taggart who was an employee
of the East Wallingford Cheese Factory oh the cheese tax the cheese tax that's a great song anytime you hear cheese you
have to sing anytime so Taggart told the jury he had spoken to Kent just before the murder and it was when Elroy saw
Delia and made quote an obscene remark about her like the Sprague Brothers Taggart had told Kent that quote he had
better keep away from that house hell yeah I love that our neighbors protected her I love that her neighbors protected
her too and I the shitty thing here is that we're dealing with like Sinister people I feel like it almost made it
more exciting yeah exactly now the evidence and testimony against Elroy Kent was
unfortunately still pretty circumstantial like you were saying you know like that's just the reality of it
but there was a lot of it yeah and each piece seemed to kind of corroborate the one before it you know so rather than
try to disprove the state's claim Kent's defense attorneys knew that you know circumstantial evidence can still be
pretty compelling yeah definitely and Ernest O'Brien and John Spellman his defense attorneys decided to take like a
pretty broad approach to the defense they said Elroy was nowhere near the house at the time of the murder that was
the first one and they said even if he was his Prof he is profoundly mentally ill and could not be held accountable
for what he's done okay at least not held accountable in the sense that he is not sane right and
held accountable in the sense that he's going to go to prison or be executed like he's gonna have to like we're gonna
have to do an insanity defense and he needs like psychiatric treatment yeah so as an alternative they also suggested
that Taggart the guy who said that he had the cheese factory guy yeah he could have been responsible for the murder
okay they claim that by his own admission he knew Congdon and was aware of where she lived and that she lived
alone they also said that he was a known heavy drinker and had actually been fired from the cheese factory due to
um his drinking interfering with his work and they pointed out to the jury that when Taggart was called to the
hospital in Waterbury following Kent's arrest he could not pick Kent out of a lineup and he couldn't in any way
recognize him as the man who'd shown up at the cheese factory before the murder well that's interesting and taggart's
response to this was that he had quote made the apparent error purposely to fool Dr grout the superintendent why
would you want to fool them why he would want to do that unclear to this day but
still don't know why he would want to do that yeah so it didn't look good for him
either it was like survey says no survey says I don't [ __ ] know about that so everybody says
now to kind of bolster their Insanity claim the defense called a bunch of witnesses
to the stand to testify about Kent's like bizarre and unpredictable behavior and his thinking as well as disordered
thinking and the handful of years leading up to the murder um L.D Wright who was a nurse from the
hospital testified and told the court that he had been forced to restrain Kent with a quote leather jacket on occasions
where he had become very violent that's so sad and he said he had also heard Kent curse apparently at an imaginary
woman oh uh Dr grout the superintendent agreed while testifying that Kent was quote of unsound mind yeah obviously but
they're all like we are in the hospital we know and did anybody like I'm like did you guys tell them that he had
[ __ ] railroad spikes in his head yeah that's it I'm like was that introduced into any of it you would think I mean if
you told me that and I was on the jury I'd be like I think we should send him back to the hospital yeah I think so now
on April 8th the defense rested their case and the prosecution had an opportunity to call one final rebuttal
witness um of just to kind of testify a witness to those testifying us to Ken sanity
basically the witness was Dr D.A sharris he was a psychologist from Montreal now this guy told the jury in his
opinion Kent quote was not insane but had been faking the delusions which he appeared to have he said he did not
react to any questions like a man who had hallucinations and he said I don't believe that he is insane
okay but I would like to repeat are we taking into account the wild head injury that he sustained years earlier because
it's crazier to me that he would not be like what they would have said back then
insane yeah after having had that accident to me there's no way in hell that he didn't have any kind of this
repercussion this to me would be like a slam dunk for the insanity defense yeah like that clear like nobody's saying
it's right to what he did or it's justified in any way or like excused but that's we that's a defense like this
because clearly seems to fit here at the very least you know we have to take it into account right but I do guess it
complicates things that he did have a long history of that's the thing that's why this is such a duplicated case it's
a tough case yeah it's very complicated because you can see both sides of that either way if he did it he's got to go
somewhere yeah but execution [Music] let's see about that and this is the question I was going to ask earlier
because obviously we know he's ultimately executed do you think they thought to themselves whoever you know
made the final decision that's what I'm thinking I think I probably am we keep sending him back to the hospital he
keeps escaping whether or not he did this crime are we quote unquote getting rid of a problem that we have here I
think you hit the nail on the hood I think so too I think that's I think that's really what happened here is like
he's been a problem so we let's just eradicate the problem kind of thing and this is a perfect excuse again I don't
think the excuse was let's frame him for this murder I think he probably committed the murder yeah he was a
pretty good suspect something and I think they just looked at it as like well he did this so this is a way to get
rid of the problem I think so too but the jury only deliberated for less than a day only a few hours they came back to
the courtroom on April 10th and they delivered a verdict of guilty yeah uh his sentencing was going to be put off
until the fall that's when he could appeal and every one pretty much assumed he was going to get the death penalty
um and as he was being led out of the courtroom by the deputies he was heard saying I don't care damn anyway
wow so it's like I don't know if it's I don't care what I did or I don't care what happens to me either way
now in October 1909 the Vermont state supreme court came together to hear the courses the cases in their fall session
um Elroy kentz was in this case load and they uh the defense argued that the state's strongest evidence against Kent
was those initials carved in the barn right that was really like the number one thing and they said that was not the
same as handwriting samples and it couldn't be treated or analyzed like that and the court considered the case
as a whole they considered everything and then they came down and said nope the original sentence it's going to stay
in their decision the justices wrote it will be noticed that this is not strictly a comparison of handwriting it
is rather the proof of a habit regarding the use of a character which has ordinarily made and has made in this
case affords no opportunity for the development of individual characteristics capable of detection if
a writer invariably makes the same mistake or always adopts the same two or more legitimate methods which presents
substantial differences his practice therein is a circumstantial circumstance which makes his genuine writings
available to establish the authenticity of a disputed one but the respondent's connection with the carving in the
Congdon Barn does not depend entirely upon the similarity of letters the evidence of the respondents admission
that he passed the night of the 23rds in this Barn the evidence tending to show a
practice of cutting his initials as a Pastime the evidence that the hay was thrown upon upon the barn floor on the
22nd and that fresh whitlings were found on this hay just below the carving their
evidence tending to show that the respondent made the letters so that's a fancy way to say he said he did it yup
so I think he did it denied like that's that's essentially what he did it so bye
bye uh so they rejected his appeal and the court sentence can can quote to be hanged in the yard of the state prison
at Windsor on January 13 1911 between the hour of 1 and 3 P.M wow the court also ordered that Kent be quote employed
at hard labor in the state prison until October 13 1910 after that he was going to be held in solitary confinement until
the day of his execution oh wow that is so [ __ ] up yeah Kent's response to this was I am not guilty
so in Med and mid-December 1910 the Vermont legislature actually broke for their holiday recess and they made a
boo-boo because they didn't complete all of their end of year business and when they didn't do this they unintentionally
granted Kent a brief reprieve state laws stipulated that the legislature much must issue a formal warrant before
anyone can be executed which they did not do before they went out for recess and luckily the problem was fixed in a
new execution date had to be set though for January 5th 1912. so they keep protecting them like a year reprieve
unintentionally but was he still in solitary at that point he was going to be in solitary for that for a year yep
oh my God now after that that's the thing it's like this really God like this is a sad case now all of this and
he's going to be executed and the execution did not go off without a hitch when the day finally came he was taken
from his cell in solitary confinement and let out to the yard by 1 18 PM everything was done and prepared to go
Kent was standing over the trap door on The Gallows he had a noose around his neck this was going to be the first
execution in the state of Vermont to employ an electrical trapdoor this electrical trapdoor was controlled by
one of six switches now this new system required six men to each push one of the buttons wow they
did this so that no one none of them would ever know which button caused the door to open it's almost like a firing
squad like that kind of thing when the warding gave the signal all six men pushed the button the door dropped out
from beneath Kent as planned but when the Rope pulled taut it snapped immediately and he fell to the ground
so they had no other option the Rope was then tied Over The Gallows and Ken's body was hoisted up and left to hang in
the prison yard for more than a half hour so he just slowly was like asphyxiated yeah
oh my I mean yeah what a punishment if he really was responsible that's quite a punishment now when the prison doctor
examined the body he said that he initially said that Kent was most likely killed during the first drop and
suffered no conscious thought after the first tightening of the Noose I don't know about that but many across the
state were horrified by this whole thing because reports came out later that said
after seven minutes of strangulation from The Gallows he still had a pulse also this reminded a lot of people of
the 1905 execution of Mary Rogers which she was a woman who was convicted of killing her husband very similar kind of
rope break situation that happened there very botched I want to cover that case so I'm not going to tell you a lot about
it right now because I looked into it more and I was like that's actually interesting very interesting case say
that because while I was Googling to find out if his initials were anywhere I found that and I was going to suggest
you do it yep I'm gonna do it so the unexpected errors in the execution resulted in people really getting angry
a flood of letters and telephone calls to the governor's office came out mostly by people who were like I don't
know uh maybe this is barbaric do you think um others were just outraged that the
execution had taken place at all like that not even just the way it was done they were like no no because they didn't
think well not even that they said it's very clear he has mental illness like yes it likely influenced his behavior in
some way and in response Governor John Mead addressed a group of press and he said my wish and prayer is that I may
never again be called upon to undergo an experience like that of the last week I
tried in short to do my duty no matter how no matter how unpleasant as I bound myself to do when I took my oath of
office the execution of Elroy Kent like I said earlier really became a became a point
of rallying basically for death penalty opponents and for decades it was one of the cases that was cited as an example
of one like the questionable morality here of executing somebody that is clearly
mentally mentally ill and also just the the barbaric way that the death penalty kind of goes about itself you know like
especially this kind of execution it's like that is yeah and again you know where we all stand here like mine my
view has very much evolved way more towards against us yours really has I'm still way more pretty in the middle and
which I think is what it should do is it should always be evolving yeah um and it didn't help the case that
there were rumors when decades after Kent had been executed another man made a deathbed
confession that said he was the one who'd murdered Delia Congdon and that he had allowed Elroy Kent to take the fall
because he was an easy Fall Guy quite literally it's unclear whether they investigated this further
or if they said listen that's what it is this guy's dying that guy's dead whatever we're just gonna
move on holy [ __ ] but it definitely raises a question of oh [ __ ] was Elroy Kent the one to murder Delia
congda because why confess why like and a deathbed confession to me is always very compelling I know deathbed
confessions are the most compelling because it's like what because I think people are in their most scared State
yeah they just want to release it all something lying at the end of your life is not
you know why do it wow yeah and that is the case of Elroy Kent in the murder of Delia Condon that's wild it's that case
blew my mind poor Delia she did nothing except be the most like brightest light in her community vibrant
just like thriving lady and like had overcome so much throughout her life and that's the end she met like given off
pieces of her farm for people to use because she gets like cookies for making cookies for school children is just
attacked while she's making breakfast well she's just and all because she unlocked her door that's so scary
it's so scary wow but yeah so I'm left very unsettled I have to say that's how I always like to leave
everybody so that's good that's how you usually leave yes wow um well thank you for that you're
welcome thank you guys for listening we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it
weird but not so weird that just not this weird I guess not this weird yeah [Music]

On the morning of July 24, 1908, Delia Congdon, a deaf and non-verbal woman living alone in East Wallingford, Vermont, was found dead in her pantry—presumed to have been murdered while she prepared breakfast. At first, investigators suspected a local criminal known for his violent behavior; however, within a day, an unusual clue discovered in Congdon’s barn pointed them towards Elroy Kent, a notorious local thief and recent escapee from a nearby psychiatric hospital whose petty criminal antics had plagued police for decades. With a caveat of mental illness at stake, Kent's trial and execution came under heavy scrutiny.

Thank you to the magical and mystical Dave for research assistance.

References

Bennington Banner. 1909. "Elroy Kent found guilty in the 1st degree." Bennington Banner, April 10: 1.

—. 1909. "Shocking Tales in Elroy Kent murder trial." Bennington Banner, April 01: 1.

Bennington Evening Banner. 1908. "Bloodhounds at East Dorset on Kent's trail." Bennington Evening Banner, August 1: 1.

—. 1908. "Escaped lunatic through to be murderer ." Bennington Evening Banner, July 27: 1.

—. 1909. "Evidence against Elroy Kent is increasing." Bennington Evening Banner, April 2: 1.

—. 1908. "Tracing Kent by mania for name carving." Bennington Evening Banner, August 6: 1.

Boston Daily Globe. 1908. "Denies killing Delia Congdon." Boston Daily Globe, October 27: 9.

—. 1902. "Jumped from train." Boston Daily Globe, December 9: 3.

—. 1909. "Kent ""faking"" says Shirres." Boston Daily Globe, April 9: 8.

—. 1909. "Kent must die in 1911." Boston Daily Globe, November 3: 9.

—. 1912. "State aghast at Kent mishap." Boston Daily Globe, Janaury 6: 8.

Brattleboro Reformer. 1905. "Elroy Kent heard from." Brattleboro Reformer, October 6: 1.

Burlington Clipper. 1902. "May do some good." Burlington Clipper, February 8: 2.

Burlington Daily News. 1909. "Testimony against Kent." Burlington Daily News, April 3: 1.

—. 1908. ""Want $10,000 for an alleged libel." Burlington Daily News, August 25: 1.

Burlington Free Press. 1908. "Foul murder in East Wallingford." Burlington Free Press, July 25: 1.

—. 1909. "Grout may be called to stand." Burlington Free Press, April 5: 1.

Daily Journal. 1908. "Elroy Kent under arrest ." Daily Journal, October 24: 1.

Montpelier Evening Argus. 1909. "Kent pleads not guilty." Montpelier Evening Argus, March 30: 1.

New York Times. 1908. "Gte insane murder suspect." New York Times, October 25: 20.

Reformer, Brattleboro. 1908. "Elroy Kent a murderer?" Brattleboro Reformer, July 31: 1.

Rumboldt, John. 2013. Murder on Sugar Hill. Family history, genealogy, Rutland, VT: Rutland Historical Society.

Rutlad Daily Herald. 1961. "Two instances." Rutland Daily Herald, March 24: 8.

Rutland Daily Herald. 1905. "Insane criminal still at large." Rutland Daily Herald, August 19: 7.

—. 1908. "Murdered in E. Wallingford." Rutland Daily Herald, July 25: 1.

St. Albans Daily Messenger . 1905. "Escaped last night." St. Albans Daily Messenger, August 12: 1.

St. Albans Daily Messenger. 1902. "Elroy Kent back in jail." St. Albans Daily Messenger, December 8: 1.

—. 1905. "Elroy Kent captured." St. Albans Daily Messenger, October 23: 1.

State vs. Elroy Kent. 1909. NA (Supreme Court for the State of Vermont, October 1).Vermont Phoenix. 1902. "Burglar with record." Vermont Phoenix, January 31: 2.

—. 1905. "Elroy Kent, notorious criminal arrested." Vermont Phoenix, October 27: 2.

Veront Journal. 1902. "News and notes." Vermont Journal, March 8: 8.

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Brief Summary

Elroy Kent's violent history leads to the murder of Delia Congdon, raising questions about mental illness and the death penalty.

Key points

Elroy Kent's Troubled Youth. Elroy Kent's criminal career began at just seven years old, escalating through his teenage years.
The Shotgun Incident. During a robbery, Elroy was shot by a night watchman, marking a turning point in his life.
The Cousin's Betrayal. Elroy steals from his cousin, leading to his arrest and revealing his notorious reputation.
The Train Escape. Elroy escapes from prison but suffers a severe injury during his flight.
Violent Turn. Elroy's behavior escalates to violence against his brother after a petty argument.
Second Escape from Hospital. Elroy escapes from a mental hospital using a duplicate key and bed sheets.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Blood may be thicker than water, but it's harder to clean when it spills.

A poignant reflection on family loyalty amidst crime.

15:40WatchJun 20, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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