In Episode 414 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger examine a murder scene 199 years after-the-fact. This murder rocked the small town of Chepachet, Rhode Island, to the point where they placed a plaque commemorating the gruesome event that took place on May 26, 1826. Each year the town marks the anniversary in a BIG way.
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Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Theme Music by: John Judd
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[CARS DRIVING BY]
RAY: So we’re walking along Main Street—also known as Victory Highway—in Chepachet, Rhode Island.
JEFF: We are.
RAY: This is a really quaint downtown section. There’s red-brick sidewalks, historic buildings, cute shops, and restaurants.
JEFF: It’s picture-perfect New England.
RAY: What are we here to see?
JEFF: Ray, we’re going to walk a little bit further up to this bridge that spans the Chepachet River down below.
RAY: Okay.
JEFF: On this bridge there’s a tiny plaque. You’d miss it if you were driving by. You might miss it if you were walking by and didn’t know to look. But this plaque marks the spot of a murder most foul. We’re here to explore the ruthless murder of Little Betty.
[INTRO]
JEFF: I’m Jeff Belanger. Welcome to Episode 414 of the New England Legends podcast.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger. Thanks for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England one story at a time. Whether ghosts, monsters, aliens, roadside oddities, or the wicked strange, we love it all. Most of our story leads come from you! So please reach out to us anytime through our website.
JEFF: We’ll explore this gruesome murder right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
RAY: Placing a plaque at the site of a murder doesn’t happen often. Especially in a small town like Chepachet.
JEFF: No, it doesn’t.
RAY: People don’t like a constant reminder of a bad event that took place on their Main Street.
JEFF: Especially in this case, considering the killing took place 199 years ago. That’s a long time to remember. But this was no ordinary murder.
RAY: Here’s a little more background on Chepachet, Rhode Island. For thousands of years this land was inhabited by the Pequot and Nipmuc people. In fact, the name Chapachet roughly translates to “Where the rivers meet.” The town was founded in 1774 and was an early hotbed for people who supported Independence from England. Chepachet was also the location where the famous Dorr Rebellion came to a close. That helped win voting rights for non-landowners in the Rhode Island state Constitution.
JEFF: This is an historic town for sure.
RAY: It’s so historic that Chepachet was the first town in Rhode Island to be added to the prestigious National Register of Historic Places back in 1971.
JEFF: That’s really cool! Especially for a small town like this.
RAY: It’s still a small town. About 1,700 people call Chepachet home today.
JEFF: So something like a murder won’t be forgotten for a long time.
RAY: No it won’t.
JEFF: To find out what happened to Little Betty, let’s head back to the year 1826.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It’s late May of 1826 here in Chepachet, Rhode Island. John Quincy Adams is President of the United States, and this new nation is still growing. Towns are expanding and businesses and farms are starting to prosper. That means people are starting to have a little extra spending money.
JEFF: Extra spending money is a good thing, because that means people can spend money on things like the circus. The timing is good too, because Hakaliah Bailey is coming back through Chepachet with his traveling circus!
RAY: Bailey’s circus last came through Chepachet four years ago. And with summer just about here, he’s returned! Everyone in town is buzzing about it.
JEFF: Bailey’s circus travels from Maine down the coast to the Carolinas and back again. They mostly travel at night, so people don’t get a free look at the menagerie of animals and attractions.
[CROWD NOISE BUILDING]
RAY: It’s Wednesday, May 24th when Bailey’s circus arrives back in Chepachet.
[BRASS BAND PLAYING]
RAY: There’s a good crowd gathered on the grounds of Angell’s Hotel. It’s festive. Most of the town is gathered to see the spectacle. The biggest draw… and I mean BIGGEST… is under a tent over there.
[ELEPHANT CRIES OUT]
RAY: Under that tent is a 6,000-pound, 12 year old elephant. One of the first three elephants to ever arrive in the United States. Patrons pay 12 and a half cents to see her, children under 12 years old pay half price.
JEFF: There’s quite the line too! Think about it. This is a real-live elephant! Most people around here have only read about them, maybe they saw a drawing somewhere, but this is the real thing. There is no beast anywhere near this size in New England. Not on land, anyway.
RAY: The crowd is pretty excited by seeing this thing up close. Bailey has billed the animal as the Fabulous Learned Elephant.
[ELEPHANT CRIES OUT]
JEFF: She IS smart too. The elephant can do a few tricks, and knows who various people are around her. They’re really smart animals. Thought many hear are delighted to see the pachyderm, there are some that view this whole event as an abomination. It distracts from church and work. And some poor folks can’t afford the 12 and a half cents to see something like this.
RAY: Haters gonna hate, I guess.
JEFF: That’s true.
[CROWD NOISE DIES OUT]
[CRICKETS AND NIGHT SOUNDS FADE IN]
JEFF: It’s now Friday, May 26th. Bailey’s circus is ready to move on to the next town. It’s just after midnight. The elephant’s handlers and other parts of the circus are packing up to travel under darkness to the town of Smithfield about 10 miles away.
RAY: They travel by night so no one gets a free look at the elephant.
[SLOW HORSE WALKING]
RAY: So the elephant heads out with one of her handlers on horseback, a couple others are walking along. There’s also a few locals who decided to stay up late and watch the elephant leave town. They had only been walking a few minutes when they reached the bridge heading out of town. It’s late. It’s been a long day, and there’s hours of travel ahead.
[SLOW HORSE WALKING]
[RIFLE FIRE]
[RIFLE FIRE]
JEFF/RAY: What was that?!
[RIFLE FIRE]
[HUGE THUMP]
JEFF: The elephant just dropped to the ground!
RAY: Were those gunshots?
JEFF: The elephant is bleeding from her head.
RAY: I think those were gunshots.
[CROWD NOISE]
RAY: Other people from nearby are gathering on the bridge now. It’s clear someone shot this elephant.
JEFF: The elephant’s handlers are beside themselves. Who would do such a cowardly and monstrous act?
(PAUSE)
JEFF: By the time the sun comes up, word has spread throughout town. Shock has given way to anger and folks are demanding justice. As is Hakaliah Bailey who lost his star attraction.
RAY: The investigation moves quickly. In just a couple of days, six men are arrested. There’s Fenner Eddy, John Inman, Albert Eddy, Francis West, Angell Darling, and Benjamin Bowen. The men go before the Rhode Island Court of Justices with Judge Branch of Chepachet presiding.
[GAVEL BANGS ON BENCH]
JEFF: During the trial the group’s entire plan comes to light. These men planned this murder of the elephant. They knew when he was being moved, and they waited. West and Bowen stood watch on the road to give a warning to the others when the elephant was getting close. Fenner Eddy and John Inman were stationed in the window of the nearby gristmill with three guns. Angell Darling and Albert Eddy helped load the guns. The plan was clear. If no man was in the way, shoot the elephant anywhere you can.
RAY: After the shots were fired, the men hid their guns in the gristmill, then came outside to mingle into the crowd of shocked onlookers.
JEFF: So they were hiding in plain sight.
RAY: They were. The event was so shocking that no one even considered a crime was happening at the time. No one thought to search for gunmen because who would do such a thing?
JEFF: The judge finds the men guilty, and fines each of them $100 and two months in prison which is the maximum allowed by law for killing an ordinary animal such as a horse. The laws were never written thinking an elephant might be in town. The judge then ruled that Bailey could go after the men in civil court for his other financial losses, but considering the killers were not men of much means, there was little that could be recovered besides their land.
RAY: At the end of the day, there was no clear motive or reason for the killing. The best they can figure is the men wanted to be able to say they shot and killed an elephant.
JEFF: How utterly stupid and senseless.
RAY: These men were utterly stupid and senseless.
JEFF: Agreed. The elephant’s name was Little Bett. And this was the second elephant Bailey saw murdered under his watch. The first was Old Bett in Alfred, Maine, back in 1816. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: Okay… there’s a lot more to say here.
JEFF: There is.
RAY: We covered the slaying of Old Bet back in Episode 189.
JEFF: We did.
RAY: I can’t believe this happened again.
JEFF: It did. Right here in Chepachet. So back in 1976, two Chepachet locals named Richmond and Edna Kent organized an event to commemorate the slaying of this poor elephant. The town wanted nothing to do with it until they determined that none of the perpetrators were from Chepachet. But they were all from Rhode Island.
RAY: So I’m reading this little plaque on the bridge. It says: May 25, 1826 to May 25, 1976. Diverse hands fired upon Betty, one of America’s first elephants at the north end of the rustic span that arched Chepachet River. Given in observation of the 150th anniversary of the event by Richmond and Edna Kent.
JEFF: If we head over to Douglas Hook Road just behind the Chepachet Town Hall and next to the old One Room Schoolhouse building, there’s a seven-foot statue of Betty the elephant. It looks a lot like a Mr. Potato Head statue that’s been painted with an elephant trunk.
RAY: I guess the town has since embraced this part of their identity.
JEFF: They have. And to this day, here in Chepachet, every May 25th they celebrate Elephant Day.
[OUTTRO]
RAY: And that brings us to After the Legend where we take a deeper dive into this week’s story and sometimes veer off course.
JEFF: After the Legend is brought to you by our patreon patrons! We love our patrons! They’re the best. We need each and every one of them, and we need you there too! Our patrons get a direct line to us, they get early ad-free access to our new episodes, they get the entire archive of shows, plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear. All we ask is $3 bucks per month, but it goes a long way in helping us with all of the costs it takes to do what we do. You can join us there at patreon.com/newenglandlegends.
To see some pictures related to this week’s story click on the link in our episode description, or head to our website and click on Episode 414.
Please make sure you subscribe to our podcast wherever you get your podcasts because it’s free and we don’t want you to miss a thing. We also appreciate it when you tell others about us, and when you post reviews for us online. They help a lot. Also be sure to check out Jeff Belanger and Frank Grace’s new book Wicked Strange New England, and check our website to see dates for Jeff’s fall story tour and dates to see my band the Pub Kings.
We’d like to thank our sponsors, thanks to our patreon patrons, and our theme music is by John Judd.
Until next time remember… the bizarre is closer than you think.