Breakfast with Mom

We are a mother daughter podcast that like to share all the things we find interesting with True Crime and History with a focus on women and how they have impacted our world, whether for good or for bad.

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Breakfast with Mom

Episode 31: Pennies on the Grave- the Murder of Pearl Bryan

May 03, 2024

0:00 | 40:05

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Hello and welcome back to Breakfast with Mom!

Trigger warnings….this story includes fetal homicide and decapitation please listen with caution.

Pearl Bryan was a 22-year-old pregnant American woman from Greencastle, Indiana who was found decapitated in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, on February 1, 1896 by a 17-year-old farm hand named Johnny Hewling. Her head was severed below the fifth vertebra. According to the presiding coroner, Pear was found with multiple wounds across her back and her hands. He also indicated that she was decapitated while still alive. She was five months pregnant at the time of her death. Her body was identified by the tag in her custom-made shoes from Greencastle, Indiana. Unfortunately, her head was never located.

Resources:

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2016/03/06/pennies-gravestone-provide-murder-victim-head/81218676/

https://www.usgenwebsites.org/KYCampbell/piecespearlbryan.htm

https://www.usgenwebsites.org/KYCampbell/legendpearlbryan.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Pearl_Bryan#:~:text=Bryan's%20body%20was%20found%20headless,her%20back%20and%20her%20hands.

https://www.newspapers.com/paper/the-evening-republican/5545/

https://www.newspapers.com/paper/the-indianapolis-journal/4073/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/30686832/pearl-bryan

Further stories of Pearl Bryan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYAUPL725mg&pp=ygULcGVhcmwgYnJ5YW4%3D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Broy-8ox7y4&pp=ygULcGVhcmwgYnJ5YW4%3D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl9HxuXFcjc&pp=ygULcGVhcmwgYnJ5YW4%3D

All the things: