This Issue's Featured Story
Kolb and the Hydes: a lingering mystery.
In the year 1928CE, Bessie and Glen Hyde take off to explore the Grand Canyon. Bessie was said to be young and beautiful, while Glen a little bit older and dashing—a real Indiana Jones type. Wishing to boat down the river, it is said that Glen wanted Bessie to be the first woman to accomplish the feat. The two were recently married before taking the trip. Upon entering the canyon, the two were never seen again.
The last person to see them was a man name Emery Kolb. He took a few pictures of the couple before their final departure. When it came time to form a search party, the Kolb brothers helped in the efforts. All that was found was their boat, but incredibly Bessie’s diary was there. According to it made it up the way but it is unknown what happened beyond it.
However the mystery deepens fifty years later, when a set of bones was discovered at the Kolb boat house. It is said that newer testing showed that it could not be Glen Hyde despite the theories; but then, that means this guy just had a second set of bones lying around.
Yet—we might not have come to the most grizzly detail. Years later, a group of people joined a tour through the Grand Canyon. Members of the group remember seeing an older woman that was polite but kept to herself. One night around the campfire, she confessed to being Bessie. One witness on “Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack” admitted that she would have been the right age to have been Bessie.
This elderly woman then claimed that she was responsible for murdering Glenn. Naturally the group was stunned. One of the witnesses tracked her down later on, and called her to ask about it. When asked she immediately denied it and the whole story. Could he have simply tracked down the wrong person? Perhaps but it doesn’t seem likely the studio wouldn’t have followed up.
To this day it is mostly a campfire story with nothing but a few photos and more questions than answers. Some have theorized that Glen was actually abusive and Bessie did in fact kill him. Regardless if she did, or if Bessie did return many years later or that was just some mad woman seeking attention we may never know. Nearly a hundred years later there remain only questions and rumors.
Extra Stories
On Japan's Darkest Forest
Deep in Japan’s Aokigahara forest lies something dark and unknown creeps through the brush. The odd trees, lava carved stone and eerie silence paints the landscape. Sun rarely breaks through the leafy canopy as the perimeter is decorated with warning signs.
The forest itself is a fairly new phenomenon, growing after the eruption of a nearby volcano. In recent years however it has picked up a reputation of being a place where people like to go and end their own life. According to some people that have covered it, it is quite common to walk through and see a body. They can be found often times at the end of a string, some use the string as a sort of breadcrumb trail in case they have a change of heart. The Japanese government actively encourages people with depressed thought to leave the area.
It is largely unknown as to why this has such a power over people. There was a book published in Japan that is linked to the deaths but it hardly explains the high numbers.
Some people argue that it could be some sort of haunted area. Infested with the souls of those that could not depart. Some local legends even go as far as to say that the spirits convince those on the fence to finish the deed. Others wonder if there is some sort of naturally occurring phenomenon at work. Perhaps even one that we don’t quite understand.
Regardless the reasoning all that have covered it have been left with the same dark impression.
On the Hall Mills Murder
If you’re scratching your head on this one, you can thank Charles Lindbergh for that. In September of 1922 and preacher and his mistress were found dead. They were killed at a farm in New Jersey. Found two days after their murder the bodies were already decaying quicker than the police would like.
The mystery almost instantly turned scandalous, as the couple’s love letters were placed in between their bodies. Now the case in of itself already has some made for TV qualities, but in the years following it would grow. Joe Pompeo of the New Yorker compared it to the OJ Simpson trial but for the Jazz Swing era.
The papers wrote extensively about a group of characters that could have been created in an Oscar Wilde play, or quite frankly, the Clue board game. One woman even became known as the Pig Farmer.
By all accounts the affair was something outside observers might not rush to applaud. The minister, was married to a woman with connections to Johnson & Johnson. The mistress was involved at the church where the minister preached. As was her husband.
Ultimately, the case would disappear for four years before coming back with a vengeance. Hall’s wife and brothers would eventually be brought to trial. The key witness for the prosecution was none other than the pig woman, Jane Gibson.
The case would eventually also be acquitted, and shortly there after the Lindbergh incident occurred taking the focus completely of the Jazz era’s first big crime.