The Murder of Bessie Darling | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I am Ash and I'm Elena and this right here is morbid [Music] this is morbid it's a podcast and you
listen to it it's crime and it's creepy and it's dark and it's weird and it's spooky and I just saw a picture of a
jackal Lantern on my Instagram and it made me happy that's spooky speaking of spooky Jack only a
few more weekends until fall everybody more than a few but so many people listening are like shut the [ __ ] up
Elena and to that I Say Never I am excited about fall Summer's almost over everyone not true almost
wrap not true we're almost through it just started actually time can move forward for a little
while what like quicker than normal I me I was like time's always out here doing
time will always move forward for a little while you're like what you okay over there I was like
what's happening no I'm excited I'm excited for spooky season I want to go to a farm I want to pick some Jacko
lanterns I want to carve Jacko lanterns because that's when they become Jacko lanterns before that they're just
pumpkins that's I'm excited I want to bake I want to bake fall fall pots and pans and I want to make fall soups I'm
just like really love and guys I know it's summer and it literally just started but that means it's almost over
so I I'm ready also I don't like summer clothes I don't like summer hotness here's the thing everybody there's not
summer clothes no they're stupid you heard it here first I don't like summer there's not even real summer
clothes yeah it just I don't like shorts especially if you're a Bodacious Baddie
Bodacious baddy if you're a Bodacious batty summer is the clothing is just I mean or if you're a pale ass [ __ ] like
me like if your legs can blind whole armies of people I'm both of those things that it's like there's nothing
for us a a Bodacious pale ass baddy there you go God God God what a what a predi what a predi is right I don't know
what's happening we've been recording a lot so we've been recording a lot silly goofy
we are I was going to say something you were you were going to talk about the um
uh donations that was yeah that is it actually that was a that was a really cool thing this is a really cool thing
so I don't know if you guys remember when I covered um it was a really really sad story it was the murders of um Joel
and Lisa guy they were murdered by their son and their their dog was there when it happened and luckily the young
Williams animal shelter in um Knoxville Tennessee was able to like take the the puppy in until like family could come
get him and in their obituaries they asked like um the family asked for people to make donations in Lisa and
Joel's name to this animal shelter the young Williams animal shelter and I mentioned that on the episode and it was
it was like back in 2022 yeah and they have received close to $7,000 in donations because of you guys
that that's like you guys went hard almost $77,000 you guys killed it so if you're
able to go ahead and donate to the young Williams animal shelter continue to and
if you're if you're going to do it definitely do it in um Lisa and Joel guy's name yeah and that's how they know
they've gotten that many donations in their name like since the since since the episode and they said countless
animals have been saved or help yeah that's so cool guys keep doing that like that's really cool I know this was that
was a really a really fun email to receive today yeah it was such a little bright spot and all the the shadiness of
the world so that that was really and good job guys good job you guys party party party animals out here we love it
cuz animals most of the time are better than humans so I would say sometimes keep them happy man say good track
racket animals good track racket animals you sounded like a Bob's Burgers character oh I love Bob and I love Bob
burgers at Tina I love it at Tina Bel Tina beler I'm more of a Louise yeah I don't know who you are
you're Bob I'm Bob you're absolutely Bob yeah I was like I don't know oh nope I do like no it hit
me oh right oh and Mikey is Jean okay anyways so do you watch Bob burgers no e Jean brother I love he's like no and
you're like you're Jean he's like that was helpful thank you you beta all right we should probably podcast about should
podcasting things but you know it happens sometimes I got an old timey one for you today oh my
God it's sad oh okay I was just like it's sad it's sad I'm like oh man let me bring it down yeah we got to bring it
down and also interesting that you brought up Halloween it happens on Halloween oh yeah that is interesting
right since Halloween is so close exactly all right so we're going to be talking about Bessie darling today
Bessie Warren before she became Bessie darling was born on August 4th 18 1985 in Baltimore Maryland she was the oldest
child to John and Fanny Warren OH John and Fanny forever John was a grosser and Fanny was a homemaker oh I love them
there aren't really like a lot of records that give insight into Bessie's life before purchasing the Valley View
Hotel which is like a big thing that she does in her life but there are some historical facts that give us a couple
of details uh like many families in Baltimore's 15th Ward the Warren were a lower middle- class family of German
descent they didn't really come from a lot but John Warren owned the family's house with a free title quote unquote
just like that's so like John Warren a big deal good for him I know and he owned and operated his own grocery
business which gave the Warren way more stability than other families would have
had at the time so good for them they didn't have a lot but what they did have was keeping them afloat hell yeah now
it's safe to assume that Bessie's early life was similar to most children in the
late 19th century since she was the oldest of four children it's very likely she would have helped her mom with
domestic responsibilities around the house taking care of the younger ones she had one younger brother and two
younger sisters and in addition to her chores at home she also attended school at least through the eighth grade as
record show but by 1920 she was employed as a teacher so it's pretty fair to assume that she got education beyond
what that documentation implies mhm In 1902 she married Charles Howard darling he was known to his friends and family
as Howard Howard so many people went by their middle names back then I know perfectly nice name Charles and he's
like n in fact like nothing's wrong with the name Howard but I prefer Charles yeah yeah I don't know but his family
owned a large commercial Bakery in Baltimore yum two years later in November of 1904 Beth Bessie gave birth
to the couple's only child Charles Jr who was known to his friends and family by his middle name also Wesley what is
wrong with the name Charles everybody I don't know on but Wesley is adorable I like the name Wesley yeah for the first
few years of Wesley AKA Charles Jr's life the bakery enjoyed continued success and the family was doing pretty
well financially but in 1907 Howard lost the bakery due to a quote mismanagement
of resources oh which also meant several steps down on the social ladder as he went from business owner to a clerk in
somebody else's business so they they took a pretty big fall during this yeah and the loss of the family bakery
appears to have been a bigger trigger point for tension in the darling's marriage and in 1917 they actually ended
up divorcing sad yeah it is sad seems like that was like a quick like like yeah yeah well before they had
divorced around 1914 Bessie had taken a job as a secretary for Baltimore conductor Joseph Posh in order to help H
uh help support the family so she was able to support herself and her son after the divorce because she kind of
already had this like side gig and the work not only allowed her to support herself as a single mother but it also
afforded her a degree of like social cache that she definitely wouldn't have had if it weren't for her association
with the Posh and Baltimore uh oratorio Society it was a musical Conservatory headed by Posh himself oh okay yeah
according to Casey clay Bessie's association with Posh and the orchestra lasted until his death in 1926 and it
would have a huge influence on how she was perceived by her rural neighbors later in life cuz she was even though
she had like kind of that like fall from like her place in society she never really had like a super high place yeah
but she her family was making money she married a man who was like owned his own
business they were doing well and then it all kind of and then she kind of fell but then she had the connection so she
didn't fall all the way down the ladder kind of she was able to hang on yes it was Bessie's relationship with Joseph
Pash actually that ultimately led to her purchasing Valley View Manor in November
of 1917 ah so since the early part of the 20th century there was a state and federal emphasis on building up like
these rural areas to accommodate the unsustainably large populations in urban areas specifically on the East Coast
okay so in Maryland the expansion of the Western Maryland railroad had reached kton I looked up how to say that
mountain uh that region by the end of the 19th century so it made a once remote area a lot more more easily
accessible to people who were looking to travel okay initially the plan was to develop the area into like a robust
industrial production Center but by the late 1800s the area's largest employer the kakon furnace company had shut down
and that discouraged other businesses from moving to the area because they were like why would I bring my business
there if it's going to fail and it's like I don't know be a Trailblazer be a trail braer I know just cuz they failed
doesn't mean you will try try try not the point of this but I'm just saying be a Trailblazer I agree with you you can
do it you can we believe in in you but the collapse of the area's industrial manufacturing center was a big setback
for this like small rural I can never say rural rural juror rural community yeah but it coincided with a rise in
tourism across the United States it was like one bad thing one good thing starting in the last part of the 19th
century America's newly formed middle class was very much encouraged by the government to invest some of their
disposable income in recreational travel particularly to the growing number of national parks that the government had
started establishing they said go on vacation girls go see the boys everybody just do your thing you know what you
should do you should commit tourism commit tourism that's what you it's not a crime it's it should be though cuz
it's so fun so dang fun yeah a disposable income toward that they're like what like what you guys are right
it's disposable no so seeing an opportunity in this new National trend of Tourism tourism Western Maryland
Railroad President John Hood pivot pivoted away from the industrial plan that he had for the kton mountains and
started investing heavily in promoting the area as this Premier destination for tourism I just picture him on like a
billboard being like you come to my place that I have come to this place you know and do some things exactly and and
the place he wanted people to come was penar he built it in 1877 it was a large resort in the mountains near the
Pennsylvania border and within a few years the entire tourism industry had developed around it so it was like this
really cool place to go there was more than a 100 hotels countless boarding houses dance halls gaming parlors oh and
observation towers oh you can look at the stairs you can observe them oh some Galileo [ __ ] precisely so basically
they're just building up this area and more and more people are flocking to it and there's more [ __ ] to do making it
cool cool D out there yeah it's giving like Dave and Busters you know that's exactly what it's giving that's what I
thought of absolutely tourism giving D Busters I don't know after her divorce from Howard in 1917
Bessie bought Mount lent which was then named for um former owner Mary lent and she bought this with financial help from
that guy Posh who was with the music look at that guy I thought she bought her own Mountain for a second and I was
like she's really moving up in the world that would have been iconic that would have been pretty iconic but this is
still cool it's still iconic what she does but Posh helped her provide the down payment on the 36 acre property in
Deerfield uh lent was one of the first Public Health nurses in the country and she had come to Deerfield in 1907 when
the Maryland tubercular sanatorium opened about 20 mil away from her property by train she retired about 10
years later and that's when she sold the property to Bessie who opened Valley View Manor which was a boarding house
that she ran in the summer months Valley View Manor Valley View Manor I want to go to there when the weather got cold in
the fall Bessie would go back to Baltimore but she spent all summer and a lot of the spring pretty much just
working at Valley View Manor hell yeah according to one report when she was back in Baltimore Bessie quote used her
considerable social context to drum up Summer business for her hotel we love a networking queen I'm saying now the
three-story 12 room Valley View Manor opened to the public in 1918 with a staff of just two whoa two Bessie cooked
the meals she entertained the guest she also provided Transportation all of that
while a seasonal worker acted as a maid and housekeeper damn just two CH that's a lot of work running a three-story 12
12 room Manor damn so The Boarding House initially was successful but the area experienced a pretty big economic
downturn during the first world war obviously people weren't spending a lot of extra money they didn't have a lot of
extra money yeah and Bessie actually almost lost the property two times for failure to pay her property taxes cuz it
sounds like she just wasn't bringing in enough to pay for it she faced yet another hardship in 1921 when a visitor
sued darling and Posh for $1,000 about $250,000 today after a bridge in the manners driveway collapsed beneath him
damn records do indicate that after the lawsuit was resolved Pash actually had nothing to do with valy View Manor
anymore but I think on paper it still belonged to him yeah so during the summer season of 1929 a man named George
Schultz checked in as a guest at Valley View Manor and he and Bessie really had off oh but like Bessie there's not a lot
that's known about George or his life prior to his relationship with Bessie beginning in 1929 but what we do know is
that he was also born in Baltimore just like Bessie he was born about 1871 and he spent most of his life in
Baltimore most reports about this case refer to him as an inspector for the Baltimore Health Department uh he did
hold that position for nearly 16 years but he was said to be fired from that job in August of 1916 oo and it was kind
of a big deal because that year he told a reporter I went to see my supervisor and I asked if I was being dismissed for
inefficiency or politics oh he frankly told me it was politics oh the plot thickens it does George claimed that his
friendship and support for local Baltimore politician Frank Kelly was the reason for his being fired and this
explanation was probably accurate because Danny Len who was a leader of the local chapter of the KKK oh had been
making a major push to force all the progressive politicians like Kelly out of Baltimore politics gross according to
the Baltimore Evening Sun just days before Schultz was fired Loden was known to have had a long conference with Dr
John Blake the head of the Department of Health quote at which several places in
the department are said to have been discussed oh my so he just went in there and was like I don't like this
politician anybody who has connections with him get rid of them or like trans them of all of this yeah like this is so
dork sided it is dor and it's clear that the reason for George's change of position was
political but technically he wasn't fired he kind of like took it as being fired yeah but he ended up being
transferred from his position with the Baltimore Health Department to a new role as an inspector for the State
Health Department okay so he kind of just like got switched around yeah it's almost like a ladder move yeah but it's
still [ __ ] up why did I get moved yeah and especially when you know why like that it has to do with politics you're
like so it has nothing to do with my quality of work like that not cool man not cool not cool that's a scary mask
bro it is so the emphasis on George's employment first in Baltimore then with the state might have just been the
result of journalists not really knowing much else about him at the time they were like this sounds good they were
like hey this is a little bit scandalous but so they didn't really know a lot about him at the time that the murder
that we're going to talk about took place but it's also possible that class and social status kind of heavily
influenced the Press at the time it seems like the perspective of the locals in the Deerfield area was that Bessie
and George were Outsiders and one of the ways that status was signaled and reinforced was through the repeated
references to their economic ties to Baltimore that makes sense yeah um according to one local history report
most of the women who ran boarding houses were the wives of local farmers but darling was from Baltimore and thus
appeared somewhat exotic and sophisticated to local residents exotic and sophisticated she's not married to a
farmer that's exotic and sophisticated if you're not married to a farmer it's like who is
she that girl she's from Baltimore she's Beauty and she's Grace and she's not married to
a farmer so damn her social ties to Baltimore and her interest in entertaining her guests was a pretty
frequent topic of discussion in Deer Deerfield particularly as the area was hit by the Great Depression and
discouraged residents were eager for any gossip that was going to distract from the recession I don't blame them I don't
either the Great Depression as the name kind of signals was probably very depressing and it's like you got to have
some tea yeah you need something to hold on have some tea but Bessie's social life was not the only thing that
interested the locals as soon as George Schultz entered the picture he too became a source of gossip and rumor ooh
according to one Thermon resident Schultz was a heavy drinker and would often cause a scene in public on one
occasion Bessie and George got into an argument in front of the post office which eventually escalated to the point
that George assaulted Bessie oh out in like at all but also in front of the post office Jesus uhhuh in later news
reports the Press indicated that other residents around town remembered witnessing similarly abusive situations
oh that's awful so it wasn't like he just did this one time this was something that this was like a regular
occurrence but because a lot of the information relating to Bessie and George's relationship is based on a lot
of speculation gossip and rumor uh and all of that gossip speculation and rumor was kind of entered into the historical
record after a murder it's a little difficult to separate truth from fiction slightly tainted yeah slightly tainted
yeah but the reports of him being drunk in public on numerous occasions and his brandishing a gun on several of those
occasions and his being verbally and physically abusive toward Bessie does suggest that the relationship wasn't
very stable or very good at the very least I would say it suggests that yeah yeah yeah that's very concerning even
though like maybe some things were embellished a little bit Yeah they didn't come out of nowhere though where
there's smoke there's fire exactly like it's not like they were just like wow he's such a sweet kind man that never
does anything and somebody was like I saw him whip out a gun and try to shoot her it's like no it doesn't go from
there to there yeah no it's like there was something in between exactly so Bessie and George carried on their
relationship for almost four years from 1929 to 1933 that must been a long four years but it's actually a little bit
unclear how much of that time was really spent together because from the moment she purchased the property Bessie like I
said she spent her spring and summer months at valy View and Deerfield but then she'd go to Baltimore for a fall
and winter and although George met Bessie while he was staying at Valley View he was also from Baltimore so it's
nobody really knows if their relationship was only ongoing when they were in the same place at the same time
or if they actually went back to Baltimore together during the off season that's interesting just because of the
time I think there's just not a lot of record of them yeah like they couldn't check in on Facebook exactly so nobody
knows if you can't do that nobody knows what's going on that's the thing yeah now whatever the structure of their
relationship by the summer of 1933 Bessie had grown pretty tired of George and was uh pretty done tolerating his
abuse so she was like you know what I think I'm done here like nice and knowing you not really and she broke off
the relationship as if to emphasize the finality of her decision she decided that that winter she was going to
actually stay at Valley View rather than return to Baltimore and probably risk crossing paths with George yeah so to
make matters worse at least from Georgia's perspective after ending their relationship Bessie had been seen around
town in the company of one Charles wolf a widower from nearby foxville a Charles
who goes by Charles exactly she has a thing for Charles according to one article published uh in the kton banner
in 1978 George's murderous jealousy was triggered by Bessie accepting Wolf's invitation to the local Halloween parade
oh no could just be gossip and rumor but who's to say who's to say so unable to accept Bessie's rejection George became
irrationally jealous and angry and didn't really try to hide either of those feelings even when he was in
public awesome on one occasion about a week before a murder before the murder excuse me he was overheard by Maisy
Willard who was the maid of Valley View angrily telling Bessie he would quote unquote get her for her decision to end
things now on Halloween morning 1933 just 2 days after the last guest had checked out a Valley View George boarded
a train in Baltimore Bound for Deerfield during his later trial the train conductor uh Irvin en an I think it is
testified that when George boarded the train that morning he quote showed his Health Department badge and gun and said
there probably will be a shooting match there this morning oh that's ominous yeah and
according to the same conductor George was drinking but not drunk okay but literally is like here's my gun there
might be some shooting later just putting it out there just saying yeah foreshadowing now once he reached the
station in Thurmont George caught a ride in the direction of Deerfield from Clarence uh lied who was both the local
M mail carrier and the taxi operator oh I love when it's like the Dual jobs around town small town like I do the
mail and I drive 1800s of it all is in like early 1900s is always like I am the local surgeon I am also the pet groomer
and the mail like I know I do it all how do I I got to change my hat now lied also testified
that George appeared to have been drinking but he also didn't think the man was drunk just agitated according to
lied once they were about a half a mile from Valley View George took his pistol from his jacket and said I better get
ready we might run into some Bad actors around here o other reports quote him as
having said he didn't know what he might run into so he's just showing his gun to
everybody and being like I might need to use this yeah like what the [ __ ] yeah in
his initial statement to the police lied also stated throughout the drive from the train station George quote
questioned him about several people including Mrs darling and Charles wolf H so he was like oh are they together
interesting now later during her testimony the maid Maisy Willard recalled that morning as being very
Serene she said she and Bessy just worked alongside one another they were closing sections of the house that
wouldn't be in use until the next tour season she said the leaves were beautiful that fall the patunas were
blooming in the yard and we had gathered Bunches of leaves to put all throughout
the house she had been preparing breakfast on the first floor when she heard a knock at the door a little past
7:30 that morning when she opened it she was confronted by George Schultz who demanded to see Bessie
immediately before Maisy could say anything Schultz literally just pushed right past her into the house and
started going up the stairs that led to Bessie's bedroom oh no this is the point where the details kind
of vary depending on where you read the story in the more objective account of what happened uh that appeared in the
papers outside of the kakon mountain area and this account is actually informed by maisy's statement to the
police okay when George got to the second floor of the house he found that the door to Bessie's bedroom was locked
so he broke the door down in order to get inside oh that's horrifying and once he made it through the door he raised
his pistol and fired one round into Bessie's chest severing an artery and killing her instantly oh after killing
Bessie he held Maisy at gunpoint for an hour before sending her out of the house
to go get the authorities holy [ __ ] and when she came back with police he was lying at the top of the stairs bleeding
from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest wow yeah now in the more Sensational version of the story which
was the one circulated by locals George Schultz snuck into the home through the back door and demanded to be led to
Bessie once Maisy led him to the top of the stairs George entered Bessie's room and locked the door behind him making
him the only witness to this version of events ah now according to George so he doesn't die
oh once she saw him lock the door behind him Bessie quote had her own pistol nearby and made a mad Garb for her gun
fearing that she'd kill him he claimed he fired in self to fence hitting Bessie in the chest and nearly killing her
after shooting Bessie he said he emerged from the room and demanded that Maisy make him a cup of
coffee then as he what dis robed in front of the terrified girl what he tossed her the engagement ring that
Bessie had recently returned to him upon their breakup and said you can have that
to remember her by and then he sent Maisy to go get the police and said when you come back you'll find the two of us
dead damn so like part of that story is inform and then part of it is very embellished
and sensationalized upon by just like spreading it through the local Rumor Mill yeah like I don't know about the
engagement ring and him disrobing or anything like that like it could have happened but there's nothing to
substantiate that to confirm that but his his whole thing of like she pulled the gun on me and that's why I fired he
did say that yeah now the differences in the two versions of the story are they might seem kind of small in
insignificant but they do speak to the fundamental differences in how Bessie and George were perceived by yearr round
residents in the area versus in Baltimore because in Baltimore it was a very simple case of domestic violence
brought to a terribly sad conclusion yeah but the local account of the story is scandalous dramatic George sneaks
into the house two lovers are pointing guns at one another he get naked and ask for a cup of coffee afterwards like
exactly yeah it it gets to be a lot but back to the facts Maisie did end up running down the mountain to the nearest
phone and called Sheriff Charles crumb who immediately drove out to the hotel and when he arrived at Valley View he
found all the doors locked and actually had to force his way into the house through the basement and once he made
his way upstairs he found Bessie dead on the floor of her bedroom just wearing only her night gown oh that's so sad I
know just outside the room on the landing at the top of the store the stairs was George Schultz bleeding from
a hole in his chest so crumb sent for the local physician Dr Morris beerley who did his best to stabilize Schultz
and then the two men transported him to the hospital in nearby Frederick about 10 miles away wow so he shot himself in
the chest and then it took a while for the police to even get there and then they have to stabilize him and drive him
10 miles away and this is like this isn't like you're getting in like a a [ __ ] Tesla and going flying down the
highway yeah or even like an ambulance it's like you're in your buggying it basically you know what I mean like
you're going very slow yeah so when Schultz arrived at the hospital obviously he was in critical condition
the bullet had entered his chest and traveled downward quot and this is a quote lodging in the kidney region ooh
yeah also real quick I know it's not a horse and buggy I was saying that as like a you know Silly laugh ha making
sure no I got that and then everybody else did too they told me they told me yeah so fortunately though after a
lengthy surgery the medical staff was able to remove the bullet and save his life ensuring that he would stand trial
for the murder which is crazy that especially after like it hitting like lodging in the kidney yeah eek that's
shocking it's also like how you doing yeah not well [ __ ] no now the next day November 1st an autopsy was performed by
Dr Edward Thomas with assistance from Dr beerley and they concluded that Bessie had most likely been lying down in bed
when she was shot oh and the bullet killed her almost instantly interesting now given that they also had a statement
from Maisy Willard describing what had happened which supported the physical evidence gleaned from the autopsy a
Coroner's inquest was deemed unnecessary yeah while George was recovering from surgery at Frederick Hospital Crum and
States Attorney Walter sin took his formal statement and in the statement he did confess to shooting Bessie telling
the men that after their breakup he was unable to accept her decision and had become extremely quote unquote jealous
of a farmer living near Deerfield and he believed that Bessie had started a new relationship with that farmer wow
so investigators SP spoke with Charles Wolf the man that George believed was dating Bessie and he denied any romantic
relationship telling the detective quote he knew Mrs darling only as a neighbor and Schultz had no reason to be
jealous wow so this was all just rumor in his head and in his head totally in his head like people maybe were like oh
I saw Bessie talking to Charles but it was like a very like acquaintance type of
relationship a good lesson of how talking sh unsubstantiated [ __ ] mhm is not good it's dangerous ruin a person's
life like like talk tea with your friends yeah for sure totally like when it gets serious like that shut up yeah
just quiet quiet down yeah just the fact that he was like yeah he had no reason to be jealous like I knew her as a
neighbor and like not one person like he never thought to just like ask him nope
he just went and he would have heard that like you have no reason to be jealous like very platonic he didn't
even ask Bessie he didn't give her a chance at all he just walked in her room and shot her yeah he didn't ask Bessie
he didn't ask Charles both of them probably would have been like yeah we're just friends we literally just know like
we're barely friends we know each other as neighbors wow we weren't even going to the Halloween parade together damn
now by early December uh George Schulz had recovered from his bullet wound and would be facing murder charges at the
same time he also changed his story from his initial statement where he was jealous and that because the the
official statement he gave was just that he was jealous and that's why he killed
her but this is when he started saying that he shot her in self-defense ah he claimed he quote knew Mrs darling for 4
years and boarded at her home that day he entered her hotel on October 31st and when she threatened to shoot him he shot
in self-defense he also claimed that after he shot Bessie he quote became highly
nervous and used his own weapon on his on himself firing one shot into his chest which then rendered him
unconscious wow so after his initial statement of like we dated I really loved her I got jealous I heard this
whole rumor and I couldn't handle it so I killed her now he just has stayed at her boarding like I've known her for
years I st at her boarding house I know her as like you know the landlord I walked in on Halloween she said she was
going to shoot me so I shot her yeah it's like what it's like you're really going with that what and the evidence uh
strongly indicated that things simply couldn't have happened this way most importantly it was believed that after
pushing his way into the house and up the stairs he shot Bessie like I said immediately after entering the entering
the room which meant she likely wouldn't have had any time to threaten him yeah so on February 27th 1934 a grand jury
IND indicted George Schultz for Bessie's murder and a few days later he was arranged in Frederick's circuit court on
a charge of first-degree murder the trial began on March 12th and the prosecutor walterson laid out a pretty
simple case for the jury he said George Schultz and Bessie darling were in a romantic relationship for a number of
years and when she called it off he got pissed and vowed to get his revenge ultimately shooting her to death on
October 31st it was his belief that when the that the crime was premeditated based on reports of George having made
threats against Bessie in the days before the murder because remember he said I'll
I was going to say yeah he was running his mouth and to support his case sin called a total of 26 Witnesses wow yeah
among them were the two men who reported seeing Schultz on the morning of the shooting and testified that it seemed as
though he had been drinking and of course both said that he showed them his pistol and made pretty vague references
about possibly using it later that day and the state's star witness Maisy Willard also testified that day
providing a very detailed account of what she had witnessed and experienced yeah George Schultz entered a plea of
not guilty and the defense quote went with a tripr approach of self-defense crime of passion and Reasonable Doubt
yeah we're just going to throw it all at the wall and see what sticks yeah it's pasta yeah sticking with the second
story that he'd given investigators George claimed he'd gone to confront Bessie out of the jealousy he was
feeling and had broken into the bedroom believing that he would find her with another man it's like really you killed
her now you just need to paint her like this stop and also even if you did she could have been cuz she broke up with
you yeah she's single she can do what she wants wants now he said when she pointed her gun at him he fired first in
self-defense Bessie did own a gun and it was found in the room with her but when
it was found the safety was still on and it wasn't in her hand so how would she yeah so since there was no denying that
he shot her George's defense team's goal was to create enough Reasonable Doubt and convince a jury that it was a crime
of passion committed by an otherwise sane and very rational man oh yeah okay in order to cast himself as an
upstanding citizen George made a number of strange and unverified claims on the witness stand these got wild he told the
jury that he was a deputy sheriff a veteran of the Great War and a major league baseball
player oh because that instills TR impressive like what very impressive the state's star witness and one of the only
eyewitnesses by contrast was a teenage girl they said with no credibility and that was Maisy yeah it's like meanwhile
I don't know everything she's saying is supported by actual evidence but okay like a teenage girl makes it makes it
that she's not credible yeah she's just a teenage teenage girl cool yeah now the
next day the jury deliberated for 1 hour before returning a verdict although they
didn't believe that the crime had been a premeditated deliberate act they also didn't believe that George had shot
Bessie in self-defense so ultimately they found Mr George Schultz guilty of second degree murder
okay judge Hammond nner wasted no time on passing the sentence and immediately sentenced Schultz to 18 years in prison
he said the jury's verdict indicated that it rejected the self-defense Theory we think it's Justified that the court
has no doubt he returned to carry out his threat when the sentence was read in the courtroom George cried out I didn't
intend to shoot I loved her too dearly it's like but you did I don't know about that you shot her in the chest and
killed her instantly you came with a gun and told people all the going to be using it way yeah you called the TR the
town crier to go run out to the town square and tell everybody exactly come on that afternoon Sheriff crumb
transported Schultz to the state penitentiary in Baltimore where he began serving his sentence now with Joseph
Pash having died many years earlier he was the one who helped Bessie by the uh Valley View Manor ownership of Valley
View Manor defaulted to his heirs in Germany because he was passed away at this point oh and she's passed away and
he I think he provided actually all of the down payment so it was technically his property oh man but they were unable
they were either unable or uninterested in claiming it claiming it so the property was foreclosed on by the bank
in 1934 oh damn but Bessie's son Wesley purchased the property back from the bank for
$3,000 and immediately signed it over to his grandparents John and Fanny Warren and they ran the hotel until John died
the next year a so they like really tried to keep it in the family to say they like ran it in her honor but not
interested in running the hotel without her husband Fanny signed the property over to the state in
1936 and it became including included in what is now the kakon recreational demonstration area it's a part of the
national park system wow yeah interesting huh that's crazy now in March of 1940 Geor Schultz then 70 years
old appied applied for parole but he was denied who and a few months later then Governor Herbert o'conor announced his
administration would be implementing a new and more Humane parole system in which the governor would play an active
role in determining who was going to be paroled oh my among the cases on his agenda was that of the elderly George
Schultz but after reviewing the cases he was again denied whoa o Conor said upon
that coming right he said upon my first consideration of the matters I could not
see my way clear to Grant parols in these cases whoa Schultz was denied parole one more time before finally
winning release in February of 1943 after serving N9 years of his 18year sentence years only served N9
years but he died just one year later from unspecified causes whoa unspecified I know whoo and that is the Halloween
murder of Bessie darling a poor Bessie I know and she just seemed like she was a
Trailblazer she was and she wasn't doing anything wrong no she just broke up with
him she broke up with him after he sounded like he was pretty [ __ ] abusive being abusive it just sounds
like she had a lot to offer the world hell yeah and she was like stepping out do like taking charge of [ __ ] she didn't
come from much and she used her connections to try to make her life better and I'm telling Google Bessie
darling because she's an icon she is an like take a peek at her and she's awesome yeah she's Gorge she just
fabulous yeah it's really sad that it it was just like such a senseless killing it really was but wow an interesting
case very interesting interesting old timey case you know we love it yeah so that's so sad we hope you keep listening
though we hope you keep it weird but not so weird that you listen to the rumor mill in town and think that your girl
who is not even your girl anymore because she broke up with you is seeing a new mans and you get all jealous and
shoot her because cool it brother cool it cool it like cool whip like Cool Whip or like ice cool
things be like ice [Music] [Music] oh my God I'm so tired I hope I can read hello
I'm exhausted I watch too much Telly in the evening it's the most little kid thing I've ever heard you're
like I watch too much TV I'm tired have you ever stayed up until the early morning hours of the evening just
watching your Telly I haven't recently cuz I just can't I fell asleep too early I don't have the stamina I just didn't I
just didn't I think I was up late with the cake the other night and then my body was like oh we do this now we this
is what we do we we we could just relax though watch the telly

On the morning of October 31, 1933, a gunman burst through the door of Bessie Darling’s home in Foxville, Maryland and shot the woman to death. Police quickly arrested George Schultz, Darling’s boyfriend and business partner, who’d unsuccessfully attempted suicide after shooting Bessie. George confessed to the murder, claiming his actions were motivated by jealousy and a fear that Bessie was seeing other men, and he was sentenced to eighteen years in prison.

In many ways, the story of Bessie Darling’s murder is a straightforward and unfortunately common story of domestic violence. Yet beneath the basic facts of the case is another story of rural development and economic inequality at a time when many in the nation were facing serious economic struggles. These aspects of the story, mostly ignored by the press, shaped how Bessie was portrayed by the media and how people have told and retold her story since her death.

Thank you to the incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research!

References Associated Press. 1933. "Autopsy is held in Darling case." Baltimore Sun, November 1: 5.

—. 1934. "Mrs. Darling's slayer guilty; given 18 years." Baltimore Sun, March 13: 20.

—. 1940. "Gov. O'Conor invokes new parole plan." Cumberland Evening Times, May 29: 2.

Baltimore Evening Sun. 1934. "2 say Schultz was drinking on day of murder." Baltimore Evening Sun, March 12: 30.

—. 1916. "Ax for Kelly man." Baltimore Evening Sun, August 9: 12.

—. 1933. "Maid says man shot woman and himself." Baltimore Evening Sun, October 31: 1.

Baltimore Sun. 1933. "Alleged slayer admits jealousy." Baltimore Sun, November 2: 5.

Bedell, John, Gregory Katz, Jason Shellenhamer, Lisa Kraus, and Sarah Groesbeck. 2011. The People of the Mountain: Archeological Overview, Assessment, Identification, and Evaluation Study of Catoctin Mountain Park Maryland. Historical survey, Washington, DC: National Park Service.

Clay, K.C. 2018. Bessie Darling: A Brief Report on the Life of a Catoctin Mountain Proprietress. Historiography , Catoctin Mountain Park, MD: National Park Service.

Hagerstown Daily Mail. 1933. "Schultz has good chance of recovery." Hagerstown Daily Mail, November 2: 3.

—. 1933. "Schultz says shooting was self-defense." Hagerstown Daily Mail, December 4: 1.

National Park History. 2003. A New Deal for the Mountain. November 21. Accessed June 6, 2024. http://npshistory.com/publications/cato/hrs/chap5.htm.

—. 2003. Chapter Four: The Eve of Acquisition . November 21. Accessed June 5, 2024. http://npshistory.com/publications/cato/hrs/chap4.htm.

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Brief Summary

Bessie Darling's tragic murder by George Schultz reveals the dangers of jealousy and domestic violence in 1933.

Key points

Excitement for Fall. Ash and Elena express their enthusiasm for the upcoming spooky season.
Listeners Make a Difference. Listeners raised nearly $7,000 for an animal shelter in memory of a tragic story.
Bessie's Unique Status. Bessie's background from Baltimore made her stand out in rural Deerfield.
The Turbulent Relationship of Bessie and George. Bessie and George's relationship was marred by speculation and abuse, leading to tragic consequences.
The Murder of Bessie Darling. George's jealousy culminated in a tragic shooting, forever changing the lives of those involved.
George's Trial and Sentencing. George Schultz was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

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Tension

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