FtV - The Ghost of Elsie
15:54 Share

If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, Moms & Mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandi. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms & Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories.

Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heists to whodunits. We're your go-to podcast for mysteries with a motherly touch. Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts.

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.

Hey kids, welcome to the vault. Happy new year. Happy new year to you. Our first vault of 2025. Glad you're with us again. We'll be back on Thursday, January 9th with a brand new episode, but right now we're still in our holiday break.

But this is The Ghost of Elsie, first aired April 19th, 2018. Enjoy. So Jeff, why are we sitting out here next to Route 67 in New Braintree, Massachusetts? We're sitting here on a very specific day, April 18th, because it's kind of an anniversary and we're waiting for the sun to go down. Anniversary? Oh no, wait. Oh, mine is in December. I'm okay. No, no, not your anniversary, not mine, but possibly someone's. We're waiting for The Ghost of Elsie to appear by that stone wall.

Hey, I'm Jeff Belanger. And I'm Ray Osher. Welcome to episode 35 of the New England Legends podcast. If you give us 10 minutes, we'll give you something strange to talk about today.

You can help us out by posting a review of our podcast on iTunes. It takes just a second, especially if you're using a smartphone. And those reviews help us move up in the rankings so more people can find our show. And thank you to everyone who's posted a review so far. We already have over 100 five-star reviews. Not bad. Not bad at all. So April 18th is an anniversary for this female ghost who is set to show herself each year on this day.

That's what locals tell me. Now, New Braintree is a quiet, small town right in the center of Massachusetts, not too far from the eastern shores of the Quabbin Reservoir. I've been coming out here for years during my speaking tours on Ghosts and Legends. Two sisters I know from the area, Margaret and Mary, told me you gotta check out The Ghost of Elsie by Evergreen Cemetery. She's supposed to show up every April 18th, so this year, we did. Elsie was this beautiful young woman who was set to be married on April 18th.

She woke up that day in giddy anticipation of donning her white wedding dress and exchanging vows with the man she loves. But as the day wore on, a dark cloud formed on the horizon. Elsie's betrothed was a jealous man who heard some stories that made him question Elsie's virtue.

As she made her way to church, her fiancé met her en route, and in a fit of rage, he cuts off her head, leaving her wedding dress-clad corpse behind. After Elsie was buried here in Evergreen Cemetery in New Braintree, her wispy white ghost started showing up each April 18th. She walks along this stone wall for all to see as they pass by along Route 67.

So many people in New Braintree have heard about this story. It seems everyone knows someone who's seen Elsie. So we got a local on the phone. My name is Debbie Morrison, and I live in New Braintree, Massachusetts. Debbie said her mother told her about the following experience in the late 1980s. Well, this is a story that my mom told me quite a few years ago.

She and my dad were riding down Route 67 and they saw a woman on the side of the road. It's a country road. She looked a little disheveled, so they picked her up and she sat in the back seat of the car. They were carrying on a conversation. At one point, my mom turned around and the woman was gone.

Debbie says she spoke to her older sister about this story, who claims she remembers it the same way. But sadly, both of Debbie's parents have since passed away, so we can't talk to them directly.

Debbie did add that the experience would have happened between Reed's Country Store and North Brookfield, which is exactly where Evergreen Cemetery is located. Debbie's story is just one of many. So many folks in New Braintree know of someone who has experienced this ghostly specter in some way. Elsie has become part of the fabric of this community. But all this begs a big question. Who is, or I guess I should say, who was Elsie? That's a mystery I hope we can solve.

As we walk around Evergreen Cemetery, we can see a lot of headstones, but still plenty of room for more burials. All right, the cemetery is laid out in kind of a triangle shape with its longest wall running next to Route 67 and the second longest wall running by Cemetery Road. There's an ornate gate at the top of the triangle. As always, go to our website, click on Episode 35. There's some cool pictures there.

But there's one thing that we can't see, and that's the grave of anyone named Elsie. I guess it's easy to assume that with a story like this, the ghost must be buried here at Evergreen Cemetery. But we've learned from experience that we should never assume anything. So doing some historical digging, I searched for any records in the area of a woman named Elsie who may have been murdered. So many times with cases like these, these searches turn up nothing. Yet the ghostly legend persists.

Ray, not this time. Really? What'd you find? I found this article from January 10th, 1898. By telegraph. Awful triple murder. Farmer, wife, and child killed for robbery near Brookfield.

Worcester, Massachusetts, January 10th, 1898. News of a horrible triple murder near Brookfield Center reached the city early this morning. Francis D. Newton, a prosperous farmer, his wife Sarah, and a 10-year-old adopted daughter Ethel were the victims. They were found terribly mangled in their home about two miles from Brookfield Center on the Sturbridge Road last night. The article goes on to describe how the Newton family had a hired man named Paul who was staying with them and disappeared Friday night before the family was found murdered.

Paul knew Mr. Newton had a large sum of cash hidden in the house because he was getting ready to buy a new horse. When neighbors checked in on the Newtons because no one had fed their cattle, they discovered the bodies, horribly mutilated. Witnesses say the house had been ransacked, and they smelled kerosene spilled all around the home.

Clearly, the murderer's intention was to torch the house, though he never did. That sounds awful. What a heinous crime. But no one named Elsie was murdered, according to this article, Jeff. That's true. But I learned the Newton family is buried here in New Braintree. But not at this cemetery. They're resting over at Southeast Cemetery. That's only two miles away on Webb Road. Let's go check it out.

Okay, I'm pulling over on this dirt road here. The cemetery, Jeff, right across the street there. This place isn't very big. Not at all. It's maybe the size of three or four tennis courts. There's not a lot of headstones either. I'm sure it won't take us long to find the Newton plot. Let's see. Not over here. I'm checking these. Nope. As we make our way down the boneyard, I can see some monument stones, but also some stones are flat and in the ground. Jeff, over here. I think I found them.

Yeah, that's it. That's the Newton family monument. Along the ground, I see four stones. The first reads Frank, then Francis, then Sarah, then... Oh, my God. That last one says Elsie.

It turns out the initial newspaper report got the girl's name wrong. Follow-up articles got it right. Elsie and her family were brutally murdered. This community never forgot about it. Okay, so we have a murdered Elsie buried in a new brain tree, but she was only 10. She wouldn't have been anywhere near marrying age yet, not even in 1898. That's true, but it's possible Elsie could have been buried in a First Communion dress or some other white dress.

We know from episode four of our podcast, when we explored the White Lady of Easton, Connecticut, that women were often buried in their finest clothes, which was usually their wedding dress. Still, who's going to confuse a 10-year-old girl in a white dress for a woman bride? Plus, Elsie Newton was murdered January 7th, and that doesn't match up with April 18th, obviously. No, it doesn't. And to be thorough, I checked. Elsie's birthday was April 4th, 1887. But here's what I suspect. All right, let's hear it.

There's some kind of ghostly presence over by Evergreen Cemetery. The story's hung around far too long for us to dismiss it. And the date of April 18th must have some significance, because that comes up again and again. I get it. We've learned many times over that there's always some truth in folklore. Those elements of the story that carry through. So imagine it's 60 years ago, and you hear about the ghost of a woman walking by Evergreen Cemetery.

Somewhere in your memory, you recall hearing about that family who was horribly murdered. In a town this small, things like that just aren't forgotten. Pretty soon, people hear about the ghost of a woman. They recall the most tragic murder in memory, and the name Elsie gets attached to this ghost.

That's what I think happened here. After half a century, people may not remember how old Elsie was. And if you look at the Newton's headstone, no birth or death dates are given, so there's no way to know the ages at a glance. And now, every April 18th, people go look for the ghost by Route 67.

When I was a kid in high school, on April 18th, we'd go up. I only went once because, you know, my parents were kind of strict. But I did go up, and it was waiting at the cemetery to see what you could see. And, you know, it was a little, I was a little nervous. I didn't see anything, but it was more of the get-together-with-your-buddies sort of thing. And it was a place to go and something to do.

So this begs one more question. If this ghost isn't Elsie Newton, who is she? Ray, we don't know. And that will have to remain a mystery. One will ponder every April 18th for as long as people keep telling this story and experiencing this ghost.

You know, Jeff, it makes me wonder if maybe next April 18th there'll be a few more cars parked by Evergreen Cemetery because of this podcast. Legends wax and wane and then something happens and they get recharged. And if enough time goes by with no one talking about them, they eventually will die.

Well, thanks to all of our legendary listeners who are tuning in each and every week. If you don't subscribe to us already, do it. It's free on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRadio. Tune in or wherever you get your podcasts. Our theme music is by John Judd, and we'd like to thank Michael Legge for lending his voice acting talents this week. 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.

I love this one because the date is so specific. April 18th. If you knew a ghost would appear every April 18th, we could prove this to the world. Let's get all the cameras up. We'll roll for 24 hours. We'll start it just before midnight on the 17th. Roll all the way to the 19th. We'll get it from every angle. We're going to prove ghosts exist.

Perfect for a startup business to put a date on it like that. Yeah. Come to our grand opening. Oh, by the way, you know, this date has another meaning too. Oh, not bad. Somebody died here, you know, years ago and she only comes out on, on this date. It happens to be our grand opening. We got to open a haunted bar right across the street from evergreen cemetery. Yeah. Right. And open it April 18th. We have a few months to get this going. What's our specialty drink? Uh,

The Sally. Zombies. No, the Elsie. The Elsie, yeah. Yeah, everything would be like, yeah, haunted cocktails and stuff. I love that. They have a coffee bar for Lizzie. Yes. Lizzie Borden. Right next door to the Lizzie Borden house. Is it right next door? Yeah. Well, like, you know, it's the building next door. That's pretty smart. And that was the building where Andrew Borden's...

My aunt went crazy and killed her children. We did. We did, yeah. Yeah. The other Borden murders. The other Borden murders. Yeah, that's right. Years before, right? I forget the name of the coffee shop, but I know they listen to our podcast. Yeah, they pop up on my Facebook feed all the time. Yeah, it's right there. So that's pretty cool. How did we get to that? Oh, we were talking about haunted bars. Right. So what I love about... So Debbie Morrison, who was on the phone with us when we were talking about that her parents told her that they picked...

up Elsie. They pulled over on the side of the road. She was in the car. They talked to her, turned around and she vanished. That's crazy. Can you imagine? And so that's a story from Debbie's childhood and she remembers it. I mean, completely mind blowing, but it was always tied to this. What I love about it is that we were able to pick this thing apart and find out so, so much, right? So we discovered that there was a kid that was murdered or her whole family was murdered.

And everyone knew about this because it was so horrific that a whole family would be murdered like that. And then the newspaper article called her Ethel, I think. But then when you go to the actual cemetery, just around the corner from Evergreen, just like a mile away, you know, in the other little part of town, you can see her real name is Elsie. Elsie, yeah. But she was 10. And most people wouldn't confuse a 10-year-old girl with like a young woman. Yeah. I mean, you're still a kid, you know, at 10. Yeah.

Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Were they older back then? No, 10 is 10. They're getting older now. Right. So, but at the same time, I get how there's confusion, there's conflation, and then people forget. And who's to say that this woman ghost they're seeing at the Evergreen Cemetery is even Elsie at all. Right. It's just the names have been attached. And then how do you feel being that ghost, being mistaken for a 10-year-old girl? It's like, I'm not Elsie. No, she's fine. I'm Tara. She's in a pleasant place. And yeah, I'm someone else. Give me a legend. Yeah.

Give me a story. I need a better backstory. So the thing that bothered me, and I was thinking about this, I was like, why April 18th? Because I would really like to... We found no date that made any sense with April 18th. Elsie's birthday was not April 18th, her death day was not April 18th. None of this, right? None of this sort of checked out. Then I thought, I wonder if someone had a profound experience and said like,

I saw this ghost and it was April 18th. And I remembered because that's my mom's birthday. Right. And it was April 18th, April 18th. And then you found the story compelling enough that you told someone else. And he said, yeah, April 18th, he saw this ghost, which is when you add specifics to a ghost story, like a first and last name. If I say it's the ghost of, you know, Ray Ogier, suddenly they're like, oh, it can't be John Smith. That's too generic. Right. But Ray Ogier, you'd be like, oh, wait a minute.

Right. That sounds like a real name. I knew the family. I knew he did exist 80 years ago. And yeah, I saw the ghost on April 18th. And then I retell the story and I go, did you know that ghost appears every April 18th? Right. But it was only that one time with that one story. That's how legends grow. That's how legends grow. So suddenly someone said like, yeah, it was April 18th. Why that day?

Because it's always that day. It's that day every year. Usually it takes one overzealous person, a storyteller, to make things solid. No, no, no. I know. It's April 18th every single year. That's the best I can come up with as a theory, right? I mean, I don't know. We don't know how these things start. We don't know if we're even talking about the right person. But labels get applied, backstories get investigated, and the story persists. Whether you're naming it the right name or not...

people still talk about it. And I've been to that town a few times. And when you drive by that cemetery, of course, you're just looking around. You're like, wonderful. Checking your calendar. Wonderful. Right. What's today's date? Oh, but still, you never know. Maybe she pops up at other times of the year. But you always take a look and you always wonder.