FtV - Rockland’s Ghostly Severed Head
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Welcome, legendary listeners. Thanks for tuning in to From the Vault, a second look at some of our classic episodes. Look for a new episode every week. Now, can you go back and listen on your own at OurNewEnglandLegends.com? You bet. But you won't get the added bonus of an After the Legends segment featuring new commentary about that episode from your old pals Jeff and Ray. So let's open up the New England Legends Vault and revisit another legendary episode.

Welcome to The Vault. We're so glad you're here with us in The Vault. A little true crime this week called Rockland's Ghostly Severed Head. First aired October 1st, 2020. Enjoy. Well, happy October, Ray. Well, happy October to you too, Jeff. Halloween is in the air. Yeah. I know it's your busy season. That it is, and the air turns crisp, the leaves burst into color, and ghosts and hauntings and horror take center stage. All right, so we're in Rockland, Maine today. Yep. Stephen King country. Yeah, we're right on the coast, and

and we're here searching for a true-life horror that took place in this small town back on Halloween of 1940. We're in Rockland looking for a crime that left this town with the ghost of a severed head. I'm Jeff Belanger and welcome to episode 163 of the New England Legends podcast. If

If you give us about 10 minutes, we'll give you something strange to talk about today. And I'm Ray Ogier. Thank you for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England one story at a time. So many of our story leads come from you legendary listeners. True. You can reach out to us through our free New England Legends app, through social media,

by calling or texting our legend line anytime at 617-444-9683 or through our website. And on our website, you can not only listen to our entire archive of past episodes, read transcripts, and watch clips from the New England Legends television series that you can watch right now on Amazon Prime, but you can also see dates for my ongoing and now virtual story tour. Almost every night in October, I'm presenting stories of ghostbusters

of ghosts and monsters and legends at libraries and other venues. And the best part is that most of these events are free and you just need to register to get the Zoom link. We'd also like to thank our Patreon patrons who are the backbone of what we do. Yeah. For just three bucks per month, this group gets early access to new episodes plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear.

With your help, we can do even more. You can become a bigger part of the movement by heading over to patreon.com slash newenglandlegends. Just a word of warning about this week's episode for parents who tend to listen with their kids.

This week we're exploring some true crime here in Rockland, Maine, and the facts of the case may be a bit intense for young listeners, so you may want to preview this one first. When we were kids, the Halloween season was basically the last week of October, and that was it. Now it feels like it starts mid-September and continues through mid-November. Halloween is now the second biggest consumer holiday in America behind Christmas. It turns out we love to be scared and explore the macabre.

It's a tradition that goes back thousands of years to when Halloween was a Celtic festival called Samhain. It takes place halfway between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. It's believed that on that day, the veil between the world of the living and world of the dead is at its thinnest.

And that's a time when ghosts and monsters can come into our world and meddle in our affairs. Maybe even influence us. Influence us? Well, there's many different belief systems that suggest the spirits of the past might push us one way or another when it comes to our behavior. Almost like a devil made me do it kind of thing? Yeah, exactly. Now, for many centuries, people have tried to use that defense after committing an atrocious act...

And it even continues in modern times. Well, plus so many horror movies and stories come out during this time of the year. Yeah. I guess that's a byproduct of that influence. And I think that horror has an influence on us too. Add in a gruesome crime during this time of year, and it definitely carries more weight on our collective psyche. I agree. All right, let's head back to October of 1940 and set this up.

It's late October 1940, and we're standing just outside 28 Crescent Street, the tenement home of the Phelps family here in Rockland, Maine. 54-year-old John Phelps is a stonemason who lives in this building with his third wife, Thelma, and their two children, 9-year-old Bernard and 10-year-old Rachel. Also living with them is 16-year-old Alzada Pauline Young, Mrs. Phelps' daughter from a previous marriage.

Now there's a piazza, or a kind of covered porch that runs the length of the side of the tenement house, and if we look over there toward the back of the property, there's a hen house back there.

The Phelpses aren't the only family to live in this multifamily home. Inside the house, tensions have been building between Alzada and her stepfather. Alzada has always had issues with John Phelps. You know, those things will happen. Sure. After all, it's not her real father. And there's some jealousy because he clearly seems to prefer her two half-siblings more. The constant fighting and tension is more than the teenager can take. It's Saturday, October 26th, when Alzada grabs some of her things...

and leaves home to stay at a friend's house. A few days go by with no word from Alzada, but back at 28 Crescent Street, John Phelps is fuming at his insolent stepdaughter. You see, he's got ideas on how the girl should act, and being gone for days without permission is not one of those ideas. More days go by until it's Thursday, October 31st, Halloween. Late that afternoon, Alzada returns home.

As she walks into the kitchen, there's her stepfather John seething. An argument ensues. Outside, a neighbor hears the yelling. Then another sound. Then only silence. Inside, John is panicked. In his rage, he threw a hammer at Alzada. The hammer struck her in the forehead and now the girl lies bleeding on the kitchen floor.

and he can find no pulse. Keep in mind that his other children are outside playing in the yard. Thankfully, they don't seem interested enough in the noise to come inside to investigate. Or maybe they're too scared to confront their angry father. John must move fast. John drags the body of Alzada down to the basement of the tenement home.

Her corpse thumps down the stairs with a sickening sound. Once she's on the basement floor, John pulls out an axe and a knife and proceeds to decapitate the girl and cut her body into pieces. It's terrible. He places those pieces in six burlap sacks. The first sack he stuffs out of the small basement window located under the home's piazza.

Outside, he digs several holes around the yard, including one under the chicken coop, in order to hide the other bags. With this horrible deed done, John heads back into the house. But what he's done is already haunting him. The following day, he asks his neighbor, Mrs. Alice Rich, if she's noticed that awful smell near the piazza. She had not. She also thinks John is acting kind of peculiar. Mr. and Mrs. Phelps report Alzada missing to the police, and now the authorities are looking for her.

When police arrive at the home, John offers them the use of his shovel and pickaxe if they should need it. It seems like a strange offer to the officers at the time. I mean, why would someone need to dig to find a missing girl? And all the while, guilt is haunting John. He can't sleep, and now the police are searching. And that smell that wasn't there under the piazza on November 1st? Well, after a few days, it's now getting noticed by other tenants.

Friday night, November 8th, John lies awake in bed, haunted by his evil deed. Pieces of his stepdaughter are right outside buried in the yard.

He sweats. His pulse races. The thump of his heartbeat in his chest is like a drum. It can only be a matter of time before he's caught and exposed. After midnight, John gets out of bed. He heads to the kitchen where he takes five poisonous tablets. He pulls a knife out of the kitchen drawer and walks outside into the Rockland night. While walking along Spring Street, he slices at his left wrist with the knife.

and now the blood is running out and dripping along the road. For John, now lightheaded, the end of this nightmare is near. That would have been the end had Rockland night patrolman Roland Sukforth not come around the corner to find a profusely bleeding man wandering the street, dazed and confused. The officer gathers John Phelps into his car and races him to the hospital. Once he's stable and identified, John spills everything to the police.

He claims on Halloween afternoon, Alzada came at him with a butcher knife in the kitchen. That in order to protect himself, he grabbed a nearby hammer and threw it at her. He said the hammer hit her on the head and killed her, something he never meant to happen. Then, in a panic, he explained how he cut up the body and hid the burlap sacks.

He explained exactly where to find five of the bags on the property. But the sixth, the bag containing the girl's head? He said that he threw that from the Atlantic wharf not far from his home. Police dig up the yard and find all five sacks exactly where John had said they would find them. Police then hire a vessel to drag the shallow ocean bottom near the wharf to try to recover the head. But...

The search comes up empty. Next, police employ a diver to search, but he too finds nothing. The head of Alzada Young is never found. And that brings us back to today. John Phelps was sentenced to life in prison for his crime. And we only have John's word as to what exactly transpired in that kitchen that day. This story is the biggest news of the day around Rockland, of course. Folks here talk about it for years, and soon a legend grows surrounding Alzada's missing head.

Since it was never found, pretty soon people start to wonder if John lied about that one detail. Ah, interesting. Or if it still might turn up somewhere else. The poor girl's missing head literally haunts this town. It doesn't take long for locals to start spooking each other, especially around Halloween, the anniversary of the crime.

They claim Alzada's head was coming for them. Older siblings would taunt younger siblings. Neighborhood kids would suggest they know where the head is. And the horrible crime continues to haunt this small town for generations. The original house at 28 Crescent Street was torn down long ago, and the street has been developed, so it doesn't look like it did in 1940. And this bit of tragic history and lore seems to only make an appearance around Halloween. And here we go again.

Let's face it, the fact that the murder took place on Halloween makes it somehow more significant. We can't help but ask, what possessed John Phelps to do what he did? I mean, even if he really did act in self-defense and fighting back caused an accidental death, to dismember the girl sure makes it look differently. Yeah, I agree. And Halloween or not, dark spirit influence or not,

Ultimately, we're all responsible for our own actions. And sometimes those actions leave a stain on a town that can never be washed away.

So true. A tragic story and maybe a reminder in our hot-headed world to always try and let cooler heads prevail. Please be sure to subscribe to our podcast because, well, it's free. Yeah. And we also appreciate it when you post a review, tell a friend or two about us. I mean, it really helps us grow and find new stories. Please also be sure to download our app. It's also totally free. Just search for New England Legends in your app store. Make your smartphone a wicked smartphone.

And our theme music is always by John Judd. This is Kelly Baxter from North Canton, Ohio. Until next time, remember, the bizarre is closer than you think. All right, we'll break it down right after a word from our sponsor.

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What's in the box? That's all I think about with severed hands. Yeah, no, this is a rough one. You know, you've got a child being murdered by a step-parent. Tough one. Tough one for sure. And there is a little bit of a follow-up on this one. Alzada is buried in Thomaston Village Cemetery, which is in Knox County of Maine. Mm-hmm.

And her gravestone has been destroyed. Oh, no. Which... Oh, destroyed on purpose? Like... Yeah. Oh, okay. I thought it was wrecked by vandals. Well, yeah. No. Well, vandals destroyed her headstone. Oh. On purpose, I meant they tore it down. No. No, no. Yeah, it was vandalized. And so because her name has been attached to this ghostly legend...

People, of course, trace it to her headstone, which, ironically, there's no head down there, right? Because her head was never found. Right. And someone messed with her headstone, which to me, like, ah, that should just be... There should be some things that just is inherent in a society. Yeah, there's a special place in hell, I think, for people that mess with headstones and graves and... Like, okay, murder, right? We all... It's bad, it's abhorrent, don't do it, but...

Right? Like all of us could think of a conceivable reason where you're like, I get it. You know what I mean? Like I wouldn't do it, but I get why you did that. Sure. I don't have the stomach for it. If I did, yes, maybe I'd, yeah, I get it. But don't mess with their headstone. No. Like that's the last thing. Like that's it. That's all you get after you're gone. Yeah. If that. Some people don't even get that. Right. Don't mess with it.

with a headstone ever. Anyone's. You know what I mean? Take a picture. We see that too often. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's a desecration and a dishonoring of a life. You know, this girl was a victim. She wasn't a bad person. She didn't kill anybody. She was killed. Yeah. And we're going to horribly too. Yeah. And we're going to mess with her headstone to me that I just, please, please don't mess with any headstone ever for any reason. You know, there's certain, uh, even the historic ones now that,

This was a fad for years, but I don't see it anymore. Grave rubbings. You take like a crayon and you'd rub the grave. Lots of cemeteries now have signs, please don't do rubbings, because it does damage the stone. Even though you're trying to be respectful and get a rubbing, I totally get it. Right. But it is damaging to the... I didn't realize that. Yeah, well, you're wearing it down. Not that I do it often.

Well, right. But it's a little wear on the stone that doesn't need to be there. Yeah, really. You shouldn't need to be touching it in the first place. You know, observe it. I feel funny looking at graves. And I'm sure you've been to many cemeteries. Yeah, yeah. Do you still feel a little weird even walking on the grounds?

No, not anymore. I've been to so many. Oh, here's a pro tip, by the way. So I learned this from the great Frank Grace, photographer. We have a, well, he's got, I've got one too. It's just, it's about the size of a cell phone, but it's a light bar. You plug it in and it's adjustable brightness. I mean, it's enough to light up a backyard in daylight almost.

And he was teaching me. He said, when you're trying to photograph a grave, one of the problems is where the sun is. Okay. So if the sun's hitting the grave in a certain way, your photo may not get any of the words. Yeah. So you take your light and you get...

you know, at an angle until it casts a shadow so you can clearly see the letters. So you're not touching the grave. Good idea. And, and the, the engraved letters suddenly, you know, uh, pop because you're, you're putting a bright light at an angle. It also helps with night shooting. Well, right. There you go. So anyway, there's a little pro tip instead of a rubbing, just get yourself a really good light bar. They're like 20 bucks on Amazon. They're not, they're not expensive at all. And, um, and then you can get it that way. But, um, anyway, we've gone on a tangent already. Um,

You want another tangent? Sure. I went to visit my Pepe for the first time in like... I had a Pepe. Did you? Really? Most people don't understand what I'm saying when I say Pepe. Because we're both French-Canadian. Yeah, yeah. So I finally found his grave after like 15 years. And I had to ask the guy at the front desk, where is he? He looks it up, brings it...

We have a lot of Pepes here, sir. Right. So I sit down and I'm just doing what I do. And all of a sudden over my shoulder is the guy. I'm like, oh, did I forget something in the office? Or he goes, no, no, no. I'm just, you know, just wondering, you know, what your plans were for the afterlife.

And he was trying to sell me as I'm trying to talk to my Pepe, who I lost 15 years before, missed very much. And I'm in that moment, and this guy's trying to sell me a grave. And you looked at him, and you're just like, man, have you heard the New England Legends podcast? Yeah.

Let me give you a sticker. So weird. Anyway, that's a tangent. Like, have you thought about Amway? That's what it felt like. Here, let me give you some pamphlets from my religion. It was so unprofessional. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're like, oh. At least wait till I get back to my car or something. Right, right. Oh my gosh. Stop me on the way out. The business hasn't been good. People have been cremating lately, not buying plots like they used to.

I'm resorting to this. Do you think that you're joking, but do you think that's true? I do think that I do too. Cause that's what I want. I don't want to be buried anywhere. Yeah. And you want, you want your ashes fired out of a can and I got the memo. I want to be in space. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, no, I think a lot of, so, uh, dying is very expensive as anyone knows that, uh,

You know, just even on the cheap, there's only so cheap you can get rid of somebody. Right. And so, yeah, cemetery plots cost a fortune. Sure. You know, there was a time when I remember my grandparents, my mom's parents, they're like, oh, we bought this plot for 350 bucks back in like 1960. Wow. And we're like, it's a fortune, but we have enough room for...

a ton of people. And 350 bucks, they were like, that's obscene. And now you couldn't get a blade of grass for 350 bucks. I have a couple of cats buried in the backyard. I'm fine with that. Just put me next to my cats. That's what we all used to do. They all used to go in the backyard, you know, until someone was putting in a house and, you know, centuries later and go, oops.

Well, this house will be haunted. And then we talk about it on Knowing Legends. That's right. It's a circle of life. Yeah, circle of stories. That's how it goes. But yeah, it's an expensive endeavor dying. But this one, even when we did this originally back in 2020, I remember struggling. It was 1940, which I get. That's a long time ago, over 80 years. But still, you know. Well, it's a horrible story. It's a horrible story. Especially, I mean...

what he did to hide the body, you know, like, like the afterthoughts. It wasn't because he was guilt ridden. Of course. And he ended up turning himself in. Yep. But why go through all that if you're just going to turn yourself in eventually anyway? There must be a mania. Yeah.

That takes over. Maybe. When you've done something that truly horrible. Your adrenaline's all pumped up. You're just like... Yeah. You think you're going to get away with it for a moment. Can I get away with it? Like, rational thought is probably pretty far away. Yeah, that's true. You're in pure panic. Yeah. And... That's a gruesome scene, too. I mean, you throw a hammer at somebody, it sticks in their forehead, and... Yeah. Like, oh, my God. What did I just do? Yeah. And now you're trying to reconcile that with...

trying to get out of it trying to let's not do that let's not even think about it yeah why'd you bring this up you i picked the episode we're running out of legends by the way or vaults that's okay we're gonna be fine we have we have ideas we'll go back and do i think we should do a vault for the vault for the vault yeah so we'll talk we'll do commentary on the commentary that we did for the vault we have ideas we've been talking about some stuff sure we're smart guys wicked smart um

But yeah, so this one was one of those tragic stories. And sadly, it does still happen today. I mean, there are family members that kill other family members in a rage or whatever. And, you know, it's such a horrible thing. And sometimes it makes the news and we wonder what's wrong with people. And the reality is something's always been wrong with people. That's one thing we've learned along the way.