Most West Virginians love a good ghost story.
Others prefer reading or listening to stories about true crime.
The story of the “Greenbrier Ghost” — which notes a significant anniversary today — has quite a bit of both.
On this date in 1897, the trial of Edward Shue concluded in Greenbrier County. He was convicted of murdering his wife, Elva Zona Heaster Shue —forever known as the “Greenbrier Ghost.”
What makes this story unique; it marks the only documented time in American legal history where the alleged “testimony” of a ghost triggered a body to be exhumed and led to a murder conviction.
Elva Zona Heaster Shue was a well-liked local girl and just married to a dark haired and and mysterious blacksmith, Edward. But after only three months, she was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their home. The local doctor, who was also the coroner, determined the cause of death was “everlasting faint,” which was later revised to “childbirth.”
This didn’t sit well with Zone’s mother, Mary Jane Heaster, who didn’t like Edward from the beginning.
Mary Jane, who reportedly didn’t believe in ghosts, began telling people her daughter had been visiting her bedside at night. Heaster claimed that this occurred four nights in a row, with new details each night, leading up the claim that Zona’s neck has been snapped by Edward in a rage over the lack of meat for supper.
Heaster spent several hours telling her ghost story to the Greenbrier County prosecuting attorney, who was so intrigued by it, that he reopened the investigation. Zona’s body was exhumed, which confirmed that she did indeed have a broken neck and crushed windpipe.
When the trial of Edward Shue began in June of 1897, the prosecution didn’t want Mary Jane to talk about her ghostly visits. However, the defense put her on the stand quickly, hoping to discredit her, but her story was compelling and quite detailed.
Shue’s trial lasted just eight days, and the jury returned a guilty verdict in only seventy minutes on this date in 1897. The judge couldn’t tell the jury to ignore Mary Jane’s ghost story, because it was brought up by the defense, rather than the prosecution.
Many believed that Shue would get the death penalty, but since the verdict wasn’t unanimous, he was sentenced to life in prison. A lynch mob formed after word of the verdict spread, but the sheriff managed to hide Shue in the woods, where he reportedly was so scared that he couldn’t tie his own shoes.
Edward Shue died less than three years later in prison in Moundsville, while Mary Jane Heaster lived until 1916 and never recanted the story of the ghost of her murdered daughter’s multiple visits.
The case of the “Greenbrier Ghost’ remains the only known instance in which the testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
There are multiple books, at least four stage shows, an opera and even an episode of Comedy Central’s ‘Drunk History’ about the “Greenbrier Ghost” – so more information is out there to find — should the “spirit” move you.