125. Buried Near the Cabin: The Annville Murders of 1887

By the late 1800s, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, had become one of the leading cigar producing regions in the United States. The industry grew out of the area's rich German farming culture, where tobacco could be grown locally and turned into cigars through small-scale hand labor rather than large factories. Unlike the giant industrial cigar factories people might picture today, much of the cigar trade in places like Hanville, Lebanon, Palmyra, and the surrounding rural communities happened inside of homes, sheds, barns, and tiny neighborhood workshops. Entire families often participated in the work. A man might grow tobacco during part of the year and then spend the winter months stripping leaves, bunching filler tobacco, and hand-rolling cigars at a wooden bench inside his house. The work itself was tedious and physically demanding. Workers sat for long hours in poorly ventilated rooms handling damp tobacco leaves that stained their fingers brown and filled the air with a thick smell of tobacco and fermentation. Many cigar makers developed chronic coughs and breathing problems and constant exposure to dust and smoke. Pay was generally loved, especially for independent hand rollers who worked from home. Most cigar makers were not wealthy businessmen or factory owners. They were working-class laborers, barely scraping by from week to week, and they were usually paid by the thousand cigars rather than by the hour, meaning the faster they worked, the more money they earned. Even then, wages could be unstable depending on the tobacco prices and demand. In Lebanon County, wagons loaded with tobacco leaves traveled the roads during harvest season. Entire communities depended on the industry economically. Okay, so I have a story today out of Pennsylvania. Okay. Yeah. An old one. I love those old stories. So I'm excited about telling this. Well, it's horrible. It's a terrible case, so I shouldn't be excited to tell it, but it's a pretty good one. Okay. William H. Showers was born on February 3rd in 1827 in Anvil, Pennsylvania, into a German-speaking community in rural Lebanon County. At the time, Anvil was a small agricultural village surrounded by farms, creeks, and just wagon roads, almost like a revolutionary kind of. Okay. Yeah, I was gonna say, tell me what year again, because I already Well, this was 1827, but because it was a rural town, it just kind of still had that feel. It was maybe stuck in time a little bit. Exactly. So the world where William Showers was born resembled an older America. It was lit by lanterns and fireplaces, governed by seasons and scripture. Physically, life was demanding from childhood onward. Children started working very young. We've talked about those old times where childhood was more about survival than it was about leisure and play. And that was pretty much life for everybody. It was, yeah. By the time William was old enough to walk, he would have been expected to help carry water, gather wood, feed livestock, weed gardens, help harvest and all the things. The world was still pre-industrial. There was no electricity, no indoor plumbing, or modern medical care. Illnesses like tuberculosis, dyspheria, scarlet fever, and pneumonia regularly took lives. Women still died in childbirth, and child mortality was still common enough that almost everybody was affected by it in some way. The old revolutionary generation was fading away. Andrew Jackson would soon reshape American politics. In 1851, William would marry a lady named Elizabeth Strom, and we don't really know much about their courtship or engagement, but it's pretty safe to say they probably met at church or their families had just been lifelong acquaintances. Elizabeth herself came from a Pennsylvania Dutch family in Lebanon as well. In the 1850 federal census, taken shortly before her marriage to William, it shows that Elizabeth would have been 22 years old, still living at home with her parents and younger siblings. The Strom home would have likely been really busy, crowded, and centered around work. For women like Elizabeth, daily chores consisted of hauling water, tending gardens, cooking over the open hearths. Seems like such hard work. Yeah. Is it a hearth? Hearth, right? I thought it was a hearth. It probably is a hearth. You're probably right. Preserving meat and vegetables. I was thinking about that the other day. I was like, oh, they were just cannon. But then you're like, no, they were smoking hams, killing chickens. They were doing all kind of stuff. Washing clothes by hand, candle making, sewing. And we think our lives are hard. I know. I would not go back to that time frame for anything. Well, I romanticize it until I actually think about I'm like, life is hard enough for me now. I can't imagine. Imagine without your washing machine and your dishwasher and your refrigerator. Or air conditioning. Hot water. Right. Oh no. Or running water for that matter. Oh, yeah. The outhouses. That's terrible. Terrible. So did I ever tell you that my mom went to Pennsylvania? And you know, they have a lot of Amish. Right. That's what I thought this may be an Amish story, but so no, it's not. Okay. But she went and had to use the outhouse because that's all they had. And when she went out there, there were these worm things all over eating everything. But she said that it actually made it not smell bad. Oh, it was it eating the bacteria? Yes. So they had them out there on purpose, maybe? I don't know if it was a natural occurring thing or I mean, because I hadn't I've never heard of that before. Oh, I had an aunt with an outhouse and we stayed with her for a while and I had to use that. And believe me, it stanked horribly. I can't imagine. Oh, yeah. But I thought that was interesting. Yeah, I've never heard of that. About the worms. Don't know what kind they were, but but anyway, so marriage wasn't just a romantic thing back then. It was kind of like two people coming together and let's run a household together, you know, and survive as best as we can. Yeah. So William and Elizabeth would begin building their life together in the early 1850s. William was working as a carpenter in America, was really changing fast at this point because railroads and industry were transforming Pennsylvania. Plus, political tensions over slavery and the future of the Union was very intense. And of course, then came the Civil War. Oh, you're right. Just 1861. William was already in his 30s, early 30s, I think 32, a lot older than many of the younger recruits who were practically running to be able to go fight for the Union cause. During the war, William served in Battery H of the 3rd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery. Heavy artillery regiments were responsible for operating these large cannons and defending railroads, supplies, and then military positions. So serving in heavy artillery meant very difficult physical work and nonstop labor. Removing cannons, protecting and building defenses. It was a big deal. William had been born into this candlelit world, but he'd lived long enough to see one of the most transformative periods in American history. On October 31st, 1862 is when he officially left his home, wife and children, but his military service would last less than four months. Why? Because on February 19th, 1863, he was officially discharged from the union under a surgeon's certificate of disability. He had been kicked in the chest and in the leg. Like serious it was a serious injury by a horse. And it left him with a limp for the rest of his life. That's not a light thing to get kicked by a horse. And because of that, he was able to draw a small pension for the rest of his life. By 1870, William Showers was no longer a young husband or new father. He was a 42-year-old laborer living in South Anvil Township, still Lebanon County, with his wife Elizabeth. She was about 42 at the time as well. The Showers were a working class Pennsylvania Dutch family trying to survive the years after the Civil War. Difficult years. Yeah, reconstruction was going on, which in the South. If he was in Pennsylvania, his still had they saw a lot of action in Pennsylvania. Yeah, a lot of those smaller battles were bigger battles were fought in Pennsylvania. Mm-hmm. In fact, it probably saved his life that he got out when he did because his uh his platoon or whatever, they went on to see some major action. Okay. By 1870, William and Elizabeth had been married nearly 20 years. Their daughter Sarah was still young and their sons were still growing up. So they weren't, I guess they weren't completely grown yet. The census doesn't tell us whether William was kind or whether Elizabeth was happy. It doesn't let us know the tone inside the house. It just gives us the shell of their lives. A man, a woman, a household, children. William Showers wasn't a wealthy man, but he wasn't completely destitute either. He owned a two-story log cabin, a barn, several necessary outbuildings so that he could work. And he had about seven acres of land. And so I feel like that's pretty modest. Well, he owned his land. He wasn't a sharecropper or forced to work somebody else's land. So if you had seven acres, that sounds I don't want to call it middle class back then, but I mean, sounds middle class. Definitely not poverty stricken at that point. Right. Exactly. Working class, maybe. Yeah, that's good. By 1880, records show that he was 52 years old, living in South Anvil still with his wife Elizabeth, several others in the household, and his occupation at this point was listed as a cigar maker. You know, it probably sounds more impressive than it really was. It wasn't like he owned a factory, but he it was a skill. And he was at home rolling cigars and selling them. You know, it wasn't like too profitable, but again, it did bring in money and with his pension on top of that. Well, we should have sat here and smoked us a cigar while we did this episode. Oh my gosh. You know what? I think I would get sick. I've smoked one and didn't get sick, but I don't want to, you know, you don't want to test the water together. That's right. That's right. We were just talking about that last night about yeah, about smoking. Isaiah asked me if I'd ever been nicotine sick. I was like, yes, sure have. So a few years earlier, William had been a deacon at the local Lutheran church, but somehow he'd fallen from grace. And this next part could possibly explain that. The 1880 census shows he and Elizabeth, William's wife, who was 53, their sons Stephen, also called Seth, and William John, were still at home. Also listed was Grant Baylor. He was age 13, most likely a laborer. His 27-year-old daughter, Sarah, who he recorded as a servant as well, along with her little two-year-old daughter, Leta. Sarah was living under her father's roof with a small child of her own, and she'd not been married, and that would have been a social disaster. Yeah. I did wonder if he was Lutheran when you started talking. Yes. So he was a Lutheran and he was a deacon. Yes, okay. But then they removed him from his position. And it does sound like it's possible it could but have been due to Yeah, it sounds like that's probably why. And but because I mean maybe some people won't understand that, one of the requirements for a deacon was that you had to have your own household in order. That's right. And they would not have seen that as him having control of his household. And I I don't know, that wouldn't have necessarily been wrong for that. I mean, it's the Bible does say it. Yeah. So it's one of those things that's like it's not very popular. It's not PC. No. So Leto was just one piece of a devastating pattern, though, because Sarah would actually go on to give birth to a total of six children out of wedlock. His daughter Sarah? Yes. All with different fathers. Oh. And she gave them all the fathers' last names. Wow. Yes. So we I think that does point to why maybe he wasn't no longer a deacon. Yeah, probably so. On top of that crushing embarrassment, it also meant endless cycles of mouths to feed. Yeah. Eventually, though, Sarah did either marry or she began a serious relationship with a man named Cow Cow Bay, C-O-W-E-Y, Cow Bay, Hofnagel. Does that not sound like a cartoon character? Where did she meet Cow Bay? I was like, Cal Bay. Okay. Um he was rough. He had a rough reputation. In fact, people would say when he was like wanted by the law, he would just shoot guns like by over by his house just all the time to keep the law from coming over there and arresting him. I'm picturing Yosemite Sam. Yes. So he was different. He had a very rough reputation in the township and was no stranger to the local authorities. Newspaper reports are kind of murky though. Some reports do say they were married. Some say they were just in a relationship, and some say that her youngest child belonged to him. Okay. If that's true, she did not give the child his last name. Well, that would have been odd since she gave all those other ones the last names of their father. I think so too. In 1886, though, tragedy would strike the Showers household when William's wife Elizabeth suddenly got sick and s and died. Her death left William a widower after many years of marriage and removed one of the central figures of holding their household together. Right. William wasn't completely alone though. His youngest son and daughter-in-law still lived at the home with him. Whatever happiness Sarah found with Hofnagel was short-lived, though, because she ended up getting really sick and dying as well very soon after her mother did. Oh wow. So now you have six orphans or pretty much. Yes. Wow. And left all of those kids motherless too, who had been fatherless their whole life. Now they had no mother. Yeah. And of course, Hofnagel abandoned the children and sent them to their next of kin, which would be William Showers, the grandfather. He was able to find homes relatively quickly. I feel like he treated them like puppies. So he just re-homed them? Yes. As quickly as humanly possible, he got rid of those kids. It was really easy to find homes for the older children who could work and were able to provide labor for whatever household they went into, but nobody wanted the younger two. Oh, how do you think that's true? Which was, I know, so sad. And they split them up. Yeah, they did split the kids up. Yes. Okay. So the four older kids born out. Just left and to different, yeah, to different places. That's very tragic for them. But five-year-old Willie and three-year-old little Sammy, they were staying with their grandfather. According to accounts, this is the newspaper uses these words. It says that he chafed under the additional expense of the boys. Which is so sad. Because rather than having sympathy for them losing their mother, he just saw them as burdens. Yeah. And that makes me sad. Poor kids. Other reports say that he was tough, like he was strict, but that he got along with them pretty well. Okay. In his position, he is, you know, 5960 is a lot older back then than it is now. Sure. And he's single. That would probably be difficult. And you and again, we talked about the work that had to be done back then. And I just wonder if any of why her any of her siblings couldn't have taken them. I know one of the boys were still living at home with a dead now. He was married, but very newly married. Okay. And he was the one though, I think the wife would cook dinner for the boys. She would make clothes for them. So she really helped a lot with them. But they ended up moving and getting their own place. They were not very well off. Yeah. And so they just may not have been in a physician. It didn't seem like they didn't care about the boys. Okay. Especially Sarah's brother's wife seemed to have a real good relationship with the boys. Like those were her nephews, and she was good to them. Okay. But in the early spring of 1887, William's son and daughter-in-law did move out and into a home of their own quite a few miles away. And for the first time, William was left alone with his young grandsons. Thankfully, though, sometimes his son did come to visit, would send money to help out, just still helped out as much as they could. But I get it, they probably wanted to be out on their own too. After his son left, William tried desperately to have the boys put into an orphanage. And then later he attempted to place them in a county poorhouse. But they weren't they wouldn't take them because they still had living relatives who were considered capable of providing. And at that time, this is not too many years after the Civil War. I'm sure there were a lot of children who were actually without relatives. More destitute than they were. Yeah, exactly. And so they probably just weren't in a position to be able to take them. Yeah. And I get it. They're probably like wouldn't didn't necessarily want the county taking care of of kids when they had relatives. Right. And really, I mean he should have been willing. I mean, if he's their next akin, he should have been willing to provide for his grandchildren. Yes, absolutely. I 100% agree. And it wasn't that he couldn't. Right. He could. He just didn't want to. Yeah, he may not have wanted to. It may not have been convenient. But how many grandparents have to take care of their grandkids when it's not convenient? But they do it for the love of the kids. Yeah. You see what you have to do. Right. Anyway, but there was this middle-aged woman in town, and her name was Betsy Sargent. And she'd never been married. She lived with her elderly mother, helping care for her and keeping house for her. Betsy knew the little boys, Sammy and Willie, because when they had lived in town with their mother, they were just down the way from her home. Okay. And so she felt sorry for them because they were a poor family. And so she would sometimes bring food to Sarah and the kids. Like when she would cook, she would bring them what they had extra. She brought them firewood sometimes. She had even brought clothes to them. And she was just a caring woman. And and neighborly, doing like taking care of your neighbors. Exactly. Betsy had been born and raised in Anvil as well, and so she'd always known of William Showers and his family. One afternoon, both had been invited to the home of a mutual friend, and during that visit, William began speaking to her about the possibility of her coming to keep house for him. He never directly proposed to her, but the implication was pretty clear. He uh painted a comfortable picture of the future. He bragged that he had plenty of money out on interest. He claimed that he was a good man. He assured her that she wouldn't have to work very hard. And he also told her that the children were going to be put into a boy's home. And Betsy told him she thought that would be best for the children. Betsy told William that once her brother finished building his new house, something expected to take not more than a couple of weeks. She thought her mother would be able to spare her. And then she'd come and keep house for him. And William was extremely happy with that. But when he came back a couple of weeks later and they talked about the boys, and he told her that they were still there because things had fallen through with the orphanage, he did start asking her about their arrangement and if she was coming to keep house for him. So Betsy told him she she couldn't leave home. And the reason was that her mother needed her. Her. She was still planning to go, but she just couldn't go right then. Her mom had gotten just basically a pretty bad cold, maybe it turned into bronchitis, and she just didn't feel like she could leave her like that. And she didn't go into all of that with him. She didn't really think she needed to. She just was like, I can't come right now. A few days later, William started telling different friends and neighbors that he had bound the boys out to a man in Texas. He told Betsy too and asked her again, hey, are you are you gonna come to the house? And she was like, I can't. It's sick. Now, while forms of child indenturement and binding out, orphan children, it had existed in America for generations, but by the late 1880s it had become illegal in Pennsylvania anyway. I'm not sure about the South, but I know in Pennsylvania it was. And earlier decades, they would apprentice these children out basically to teach them a trade, I guess help the farmers help them. But we talked about that in the Naomi Wise episode. But but these boys seem so young. They were entirely too young. They were three years old and five percent. Yeah, that's horrible. And William was pretty much saying, I gave my grandkids away. Yeah. And his story didn't sound right to his neighbors. Okay, so maybe they didn't completely buy it anyway. They didn't buy it, especially with everybody knowing how much he wanted to get rid of those boys. Uh the two little boys, they were last seen on the afternoon of May 16th in 1887. That next morning, Showers was seen driving a borrowed wagon in the direction and he was headed in the direction of Tower City. But later, the people who saw him said there was nobody with him in that wagon. The boys weren't with him. Well, before long, the rumor mill in town started spinning out of control that William must have done something awful to the boys to clear the way for Betsy Sargent to move in because William hadn't been shy about his feelings for her. He was pretty vocal to everybody that he was determined. He didn't want just a housewife. This arrangement was for a house. And I think at the time it was appealing to her because she'd never been married. When he died, she would have something. I don't think he ever asked her, and I don't think she ever agreed, but I do think it was unspoken at that point, but kind of understood. I think so. Okay. Her mom was not for that, and she was going to a neighbor's to speak to him. Do you see what I'm saying? So I don't know that to be a hundred percent true, but that's just that's what I think happened anyway. Okay. When you add the fact that William's wife had already passed away under pretty suspicious circumstances, just happened very quick. It was a very sudden illness. And okay. Yeah, I didn't realize it was considered suspicious. Yeah, and I don't know that it was before this. But now people are talking. But now it's suspicious. Now, yeah, I got you. So you know how it is when people get to talking. Yeah. When I was reading through some of the old newspaper archives from the times, one journalist wrote about William, although he is 60 years old, the fire of love has not been smothered from his wrinkled breast. Oh my gosh, those reporters were poetic. Those journalists from back in the day. So funny. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay. Anyway, I don't know about his wrinkled breast, but I do know that the rumors ended up getting to the district attorney. And he had an arrest warrant issued for Williams' arrest on May 30th in 1887. So it was it was like to the day two weeks. Just based on the fact that the boys were missing. It wasn't to the day two weeks, but it was really close to it. So he had him arrested under suspicion of murdering his grandsons. Wow. That's how quickly things could escalate. Okay. So the district attorney signed the warrant and the officers headed up to William's house. And when they walked through the door, William was tucked in bed. He told them, I'm too sick. I can't leave the house. And so they called the doctor and asked the doctor to give him a lookover and just make sure he was okay. And sure enough, the doctor determined he was perfectly fine to travel. So they packed him up and they headed for the Lebanon County jail. Okay. Now, if you looked at William showers, he definitely did not look the part of a murderer. He looked old and crotchety for sure, but he didn't look like a killer. He was barely 125 pounds soaking wet. He was like 5'2, little guy. He had salt and pepper hair, mostly salt, and this iron gray mustache. He walked with a serious limp, courtesy of that horse kick back in his army days. But once they had him behind bars, they wanted to get his side of the story. His claim was he was taking the boys to Tower City to hand them over to a farmer named John Mooma. This is when I say he treated them like puppies. Because I'm like, you're gonna give them over to somebody you don't even know. According to William, they took a long winding route past local spots like the Moonshine Church and Brown's Blacksmith Shop. Magnet Moonshine Church? Yes. I had to read that several times, but I was like, okay. That's an interesting name for a church. Yes, it was. And then they stopped at another church further down the road, and that's where William claims he ran into two dark-looking strangers sitting in a covered wagon playing cards. William said he left the boys with these total strangers while he took his horses down the road to find some water. But the water was further away than he thought. And by the time he got back, the strangers, the wagon, and the boys were completely gone. Completely gone. Well, isn't that mighty convenient for him? Yes. Now he claims he tried to follow them, but then he got lost. And then never reported it. Well, that's what they said. They're like, so you didn't tell anybody that your grandsons had been kidnapped? And he said, I just went home, ate my dinner, cried about it, but decided to keep the grief all to myself. Well, isn't that noble of him? Yes, poor guy. He didn't want to burden anybody. Right. And his daughter-in-law said when he got home that night, which was about 7 p.m., that she asked, because she'd made them clothes and stuff to go. Oh. And she was worried about him. She was like, Did they cry when you gave him over? And he was like, Oh no, they were happy. So he was lying. He was like, No, they were happy. The guy was really nice. The next day, a surge party gathered at William Shower's property. The men combed over the entire place. They searched for any sign of freshly turned earth. They searched the outbuildings, around the barn, around the fences, everywhere they could think of to search. And by the afternoon, some frustration was beginning to set in, especially among William's supporters who felt like he was being unfairly treated. They felt like this was all just based on rumors and it was malicious and they did not like it at all. So there were people in his corner. Yeah. And was it mostly his family? No, actually it wasn't his family. No, they they were not in his corner. I mean, I think they were for a while, but yeah. I don't think they believed he would have hurt the boys. Okay. But the district attorney who had personally joined the search refused to let the men quit. He had a feeling that the boys were there somewhere. And at about 3 p.m., about 70 yards from the house, the men had walked over to this kind of shallow ditch. And when somebody suggested, like, you know, we need to, we need to look at this. A couple of men took these long sticks and they just kind of probed the ground. When the sticks sank down really easy, they were like, you know, we need to dig this up and just see what we can find. And only about 18 inches. That's not very much. Under the soil, they uncovered the bodies of five-year-old Willie and three-year-old Sammy. Oh. What they found was their bodies were already in an advanced state of decomposition. They were still wearing their little nightgowns. I know that makes me so sad. Testimony from the time described their tiny faces as swollen. Their tongues and eyes were protruding. Around the neck of five-year-old Willie, there was still a rope tied. Oh my gosh. Yes. And it wasn't immediately clear because, like I said, it was their bodies were in that advanced state of decomposition. They weren't sure if he had died from that strangulation or from the brutal blows on the top of his head because both of those little boys' head had been crushed in. That is barbaric. Later, the coroner could tell that before being beaten, they had both been strangled. It was evident that those poor little boys had been taken right out of their beds in the dead of night and brutally horribly murdered. What would be the point after he strangled them in all in the I don't think he was able to kill him by the strangulation? Oh gosh, that's horrible. Yeah. Yeah. And I sat there when I was researching this case and I just tried to imagine being a kid and being that unwanted. I know. I mean, oh I'm not sure. Being that your own flesh and blood, I don't know. It just breaks my heart. But the one thought that gives me comfort is that when they wake up, they're they're safe in the arms of Jesus. They're never gonna suffer again. But what a hard way to go. Yes. Yeah. And terrible. I have to think too if he was able to do that to his own grandchildren. They probably felt the enemy unwanted way before that. Yeah. Like they knew. Everybody knew. I mean, oh, that's just everybody knew. I'm gonna cry. I know. It's so sad. So as you can imagine, the folks in Lebanon County were completely in shock. By this time, a massive crowd of townspeople had gathered outside and they were just distraught, especially his supporters, the ones that were like, no, he would never do that. They were heartbroken and furious over what had happened. William, he was safely locked away in jail, and he better be glad he was, because there is no doubt that crowd would have lynched him right then and there had they been able to get to him. And they still contemplated doing it even with him over in the jail. The Lebanon Daily News reported on Wednesday, june first, eighteen eighty seven, owing to their decomposed condition, it became necessary that a prompt disposition of the little bodies be made. And accordingly, two graves were dug on a block which showers alms an evergreen cemetery. Two rough boxes were hastily framed, and while the skies were weeping and not a star was peeping through the clouds, the bodies were consigned to Mother Earth, and what was mortal of the poor children was covered from sight forever, there to repose until the final judgment. No weeping friends surrounded them, no mother's anguish to add solemnity to the occasion. But where were the fathers of these poor innocent children who passed from earth to a home beyond the skies into a spiritual father where their trials and tribulations are ended? What must be the feelings of the author of their existence? But we throw around them the mantle of charity and hope that the great giver will be equally as charitable. That's powerful. That is powerful. And so, yeah, the boys' bodies literally had to be buried right away. They had to have the coroner come and it had to be done quickly because you know. When asked if William was still sticking to his earlier statements that he'd given, uh yeah, he said yes. When told that the bodies had been found in the ditch near his house and asked to explain, he simply said, I cannot explain it, and turned on his heels and walked away. If he had any regret at all, he sure didn't show it. He was one of those that he did cry sometimes in jail, but for himself. Yeah, he was the victim. Showers hired a defense attorney for $500, but this attorney ended up getting sick, like dangerously sick, to the point that he might die. And it it postponed his uh court hearings for a really long time. This attorney was smart and advised him to keep his mouth shut so that he didn't incriminate himself. But when his court date was coming up, he started getting afraid, getting anxiety, he's alone in his jail. And so he asked to see a substitute lawyer on September 23rd, in 1887. Speaking in German, Schauers gave an oral confession, which was translated into English. Later that afternoon, he was rushed to the courtroom where he unexpectedly pled guilty to both murders. As the prosecution read his confession out loud to this packed courtroom, it was a massive scandal because in his statement, William claimed that he had killed the boys, but that it was because Betsy Sargent had told him that if he did, she would come and marry him. In fact, he said she held the light and assisted him in strangling and burying the little boys. Betsy happened to be sitting in the courtroom. When she heard the accusation, she jumped to her feet and screamed, That is a lie. And then she was dragged out by the bailiffs. And a bench warrant was immediately issued for her arrest. But she had a rock solid alibi. She did? Yes. What was that? She was with family. She genuinely was not there. But what would make him why would he I thought the same thing? Like, what would be the point? She said she'd never gone to his house ever, and nobody had ever seen her there. This is a small town. She says the only time they ever had any conversation to speak of was always at that house that was where they mutually met. And she said, even then, she he never even asked her straight up to marry him. She said they had little conversations about the boys, but as far as them coming or going, it was when he told her that they were going to that home and she said, Well, I think that would be good for them. And then when he said that he wasn't able to get them in there. Yeah. And then he came back again and said they were bound out. And she's like, That's that's it. She was very confused too. But she so she was telling the truth. She was telling the truth. Okay. Yeah. But her reputation would never be the same because there were people who were always going to believe that. In fact, so many newspaper articles re you know, it's basically said that was why he did it. And she was like, he did not do it because of me. And if he did, it was his own, like in his own mind. Yeah. And as far as that goes, I mean, we see it today. You can be tried and found guilty in the media way before you ever come to trial for anything or get charged or proven innocent or guilty. I mean, yeah. That's just how the public does. 100%. It's scandalous, and people do love a scandal. Yeah. I think in his twisted mind, William thought that once the children were out of the picture, she would move in with him, and that getting rid of them, he was doing that to clear the way for her. And so when she didn't move in after he told her the boys had gone to Texas, I that was a serious blow to his expectations and ego. And I think he did blame her. I think he felt like it was her fault. Otherwise, he would have had to have blamed himself. Yeah. Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah. Or, and maybe this in addition to that, or maybe just another alternative theory, maybe he was mad because she wouldn't come, and so he just wants to hurt her too in the process. And if I'm going down for it, I'll just go because he was gonna be found guilty regardless of whether he confessed or not. Right. He knew that. So maybe just take out that little bit of revenge on her. That and I think it was a double uh double-sided coin because in under Pennsylvania law, if he had acted under coercion, he would possibly be spared the death penalty. Oh, so he could have just been trying to save us. Yes. That was probably his biggest motive. That's probably more likely for sure. For implicating her, yeah. Anyway, his defense was absolutely mortified. They didn't know he was by his confession. No, because they knew you just sold your fate. What are you doing? And so they were having to try to do some serious backtracking, and they were like, you know, he was pressured, he was mentally unfit, and surprisingly, they did convince the judge to let William withdraw his guilty plea. Yeah, I was surprised at about that. But that meant that he would have a full jury trial. Okay. The state of Pennsylvania tried William Showers for the murder of just one grandson. We see this a lot, to ensure a conviction in case they quit him for Willie's murder, then they could immediately try him again for Sammy's. So the trial lasted several days, and William had a news story. That doesn't surprise me. He said that Hofnagel, who had married his daughter, Sarah, was the father of the youngest boy, Sammy. William said that he was a violent man, and he was, everybody knew that. So I think he was probably an easy scapegoat. He told the jury that Hofnagel had broken into his house in the dead of night, choked the boys to death right in front of him, and forced him at gunpoint to uh bury them in the ditch. So again, not gonna take any responsibility for anything he's done. No. And somebody else made me do it. Right. And what would have really been his motive? He wasn't raising the kids anyway. Why did he care? Right. That was just dumb. Yeah. But then it was the defense's turn, and they presented overwhelming physical evidence, lots of witness testimony from both of his daughter-in-laws as well. One of the aunts said that a few days before the boys disappeared, that she was over his house. And I don't know how she knew that the oranges were poison, but she said she found poison oranges. And she asked, How did these get here? And he told her, Somebody must have put him there to poison me. She kind of suspected that he would have poisoned them. Yeah. Had which people are so dumb when they use poison because typically you get found out for that. But he may have gotten away with it with his wife. Oh, yeah. That's a very real possibility. Hmm. I'm just speculating. Why would he have done that to his wife though? Because people say he did it because he wanted to be with Betsy Sargent. Oh, even back then he was it was about it. People say that he had his eye on her. Yes. And maybe wonder what happened to the daughter. Like he wouldn't have poisoned her knowing he would have been stuck with all those kids. I don't know. It's it was rumored. Unless she's a possibility. Unless she found out. Right. You never know. Right. You know, you get varying accounts from newspapers. And in some accounts, she and all of the kids were living there because Hoffnagel had abandoned her and all of the kids. And she got sick and died while she was living with her dad. If that's the case, I can definitely see that. Yeah. I am interested to h and hopeful that the jury's gonna get this one right. Yes, me too. On December 18th, 1887, after 10 hours of deliberation, the jury found William Showers guilty of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to hang. Good. While his attorneys were desperately appealing the verdict to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Showers decided to take matters into his own hands. Now, this whole time that he's in prison, they're talking about how he's feeble, he's this old man, there's no way he would have even had the strength or he would have physically been able to murder the boys in the way that they were murdered. But on the night of May 7th in 1888, William dug through a solid stone wall cell. Wow. Okay. Yeah, probably using tools, I'm sure. I don't know exactly how it didn't say, but he made a rope out of sheets, he lowered himself into the jail yard and scaled the outer wall. Wow. His escape, of course, triggered this massive manhunt. But what I'm saying is he wasn't too feeble to be able to do all of that. Obviously not. Obviously not. Wow. He was recaptured just a few days later when a group of young men found him hiding out in the woods in this neighboring town. But the crazy thing was is that he still had friends in the area who were feeding him, visiting him and feeding him at night, giving him food. Crazy. After his appeal was denied, William Showers knew that his time was up. But if he was feeling nervous on the morning that he was going to be hanged, his appetite sure did not show it. For his very last meal on earth, he requested beefsteak, eggs, sweet potatoes, and a hot cup of coffee. And he ate every bite. When the guards came to dress him for the gallows, the reporters noted that he truly looked like a pathetic soul. Meanwhile, outside the county jail, officials allowed 300 people inside the prison courtyard to witness the hanging. And there were thousands packed around the courthouse. One reporter said that it was a mob of a solid mass of morbid-minded humanity. You gotta respect you gotta respect that alliteration there. Exactly. Just begging to see William Showers trip into eternity. And unfortunately for William, the execution did not go smoothly because he was so small and light that he didn't have enough weight to pull the rope tight. So when the trapdoor dropped, he only fell about three feet and his neck didn't it didn't break. Instead of an instant death, William slowly strangled to death on the gallows, lingering for 17 grueling minutes before he was finally pronounced dead. Much like the torture he subjected his grandsons to. But their murders were finally avenged. When jail officials contacted Williams' surviving sons to come collect their father's body, they were like, uh we're not taking him, no. But William's lawyers, Frank Seltzer and Frank Lance, they didn't want to see one of their clients be thrown into this nameless pauper's grave. And so they tracked the sons down and went to their jobs where they were working. I mean, they just were living their lives because they were done with their dad by that point. And begging them to take his body and trying to guilt them, saying, Whatever he did in the last years of his life, he's still your father. To honor your father is to honor God, but they were not moved. They're like, We're not taking him, no. But then some friends of theirs that they did respect stepped in and talked to them and convinced them that it was the right thing to do out of decency. And so, because of that intervention, William's remains were buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Anvil in the same plot that the boys that he murdered were in, yes, and the same plot that his wife was buried in. Yeah, I don't like that. I hate that. Oh, it makes me so mad. And that's the story, it's just a dark, sobering reminder of what can happen when human selfishness overrides basic humanity. Yeah. But I'm so thankful that out of the darkness, those two little boys were brought into eternal peace where selfishness no longer exists. Yeah. Wow. Is that a lot horrible? That was a rough one. It was. Those four boys. And like you said earlier, this was a crazy one. Yeah. I mean, they all are, but every time you hear another one, you just keep thinking, how much crazy can there be in the world? But apparently a lot. Yeah. And nothing new under the sun, because you know, that was then. Happened. Still happens today. Happens today. It happened thousands of years before then. It's just like we humans have a great pr propensity to do horrible things, whether we want to admit it or not. Yeah. Those were some hard times. Yes, they were. Now I like a good cigar every once in a while, or every day, whichever comes first. But not everybody's cool enough to pull off smoking cigars, but don't worry, there's still room at the cool table for people that listen to hard times and true crimes. So you make sure you download every episode, like, share, subscribe, and tell everybody you know, especially if they smoke cigars, to check us out. Till next time, goodbye.