Terrifying & True | The Ashland Massacre — Kentucky’s 1881 Christmas Murders

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It's a cold December night in Ashland, Ohio. But what warms the evening

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up is a house on fire,
a house full of young, innocent children.

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But it turns out something even more
terrible than a house fire has befell

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those children. And the details and
the justice that the people want, it

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gets very complicated. What you are
about to the spurs to be based on

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witness accounts, testimonies, and public
record. This is terrifying and true.

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Ashland, Ohio. That's a place
I've driven by many, many times on

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Interstate seventy one. I'm born and
raised in Ohio, and I drive through

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Kentucky all the time. That being
said, I did not truly understand the

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weight of this heinous crime and the
aftermath, what it had to say about

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America in the eighteen hundreds, what
it had to say about the people of

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a small town when they witnessed something
so heinous, so brutal, so disgusting

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for the first time. In today's
era, we're used to hearing all about

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true crime stories and horrible crimes from
all over the world. But back then,

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the only way you knew that man
was capable of such hideous acts was

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when it happened next door to you. We're telling that story after these words.

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The Ashland Massacre, which is also
known as the Tragedy, took place

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in eighteen eighty one. It was
a long time ago but is still extremely

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heartbreaking and it'll make you feel deeply
for the victims. Martha Gibbons lived in

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a little house in a small town
in East Ashland. She lived with her

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youngest children, Fanny Gibbons, Robert
Gibbons and Sterling Gibbons. The small family

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lived a simple and peaceful life,
which was mostly supported by Robert's income from

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working as a nail feeder at the
Norton Ironworks. Also called Robbie by his

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loved ones, he was merely a
seventeen year old who had lost one leg

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in a tragic accident in the early
years of his life. Fanny Gibbons was

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a beautiful young girl who had just
turned fourteen. Sterling was the youngest of

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all children and only eleven years of
age. This impoverished family had no idea

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of the horror that would befall them. On the night of the twenty third

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of December eighteen eighty one, the
mother decided to visit her married daughter in

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Ironton, Ohio, and decided to
take Sterling with her. They even shopped

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for Christmas presents on their way.
The holiday spirit must have been in full

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bloom by then. Before leaving,
Martha asked her neighbor, Carolina Thomas,

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if the latter's daughter, Emma,
would be willing to stay and accompany Robbie

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and Fanny while their mother would be
away. This was also brought upon since

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the children's father was away and didn't
live with them at that point. The

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motive wasn't too babysit them, but
rather provide Fanny company while her brother would

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be away at work, and perhaps
even stay the night. The mother agreed,

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of course, since there was no
reason for her to say no.

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They were neighbors who already lived so
close to each other, and all three

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children would enjoy being together, especially
since Fanny and Emma were in the same

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age group and also best friends.
Their friendship, coupled with the holiday spirit,

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made them excited and delighted about this
arrangement. Emma went over to join

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Fanny at her house at six PM, and that was the last time her

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mother saw her alive. At four
thirty am the next morning, Carolina saw

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the Gibbons house in flames. You
can imagine the shock the poor woman must

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have felt knowing her young daughter was
inside. Instinctively, she rushed towards the

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house and cried for help, and
the fire was eventually put out with neighbors

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help. The dead bodies of all
three children were taken out and placed on

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mattresses. A whole crowd had gathered
by then, and everyone felt sheer pity

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for the befallen tragedy. However,
the darkness of the night did not reveal

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all the details of that horrifying evening. It was when the sun came out

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the next morning and the brightness of
the day was able to shed light upon

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the truth. People of all kinds
rushed and gathered, irrespective of age,

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size, color, or distance from
the crime scene. Firstly, the bodies

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were mutilated. Secondly, the examination
revealed evidence of sexual assault on both girls.

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The three innocent children had been murdered
in cold blood. We can be

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sure of the fact that the news
of this gruesome night reached the entire small

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town fast. Even in those days. Both mothers must have been devastated and

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feeling very guilty for leaving their children
behind. The entire populace of their small

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burg was outraged, and rightly so. There was a demand for answers,

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for justice and for the truth to
come out. The civic leaders of the

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area decided to put their Christmas festivities
aside and set out to thoroughly investigate the

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matter. There was a meeting that
was attended by hundreds of people to decide

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on this matter. Money was donated
and arranged to be paid to detectives,

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and a reward was raised to whoever
brings any crucial piece of information related to

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the case. Just imagine the level
of unity amongst the people who were outraged

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and wanted justice to be served.
The first suspect was George Gibbons, who

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was the father of Fanny and Robert
Gibbons, as his whereabouts were unknown at

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the time of the incident. However, later the father's innocence was proven and

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it was revealed that he had been
staying in Virginia, and the investigation took

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another turn. Deputy U S.
Marshall Hefflin was involved in the case and

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in January of eighteen eighty two.
A month later, he arrested some men.

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These three men were George Ellis,
William Neil and Ellis Kraft. George

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Ellis instantly confessed that he was present
at the house on the night of the

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murder, but put the entire blame
on his other two accomplices. He claimed

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that they had made him accompany them
at gunpoint and he had no choice in

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the matter. He also revealed some
very gruesome details of what happened within that

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small house while he was there with
his criminal compatriots and the three innocent children.

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He stated that Neil and Kraft awoke
him on the night of the twenty

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third of December and took him to
the Gian's house. The two had been

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planning to rape Fanny and Emma since
before the night started. They all moved

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into the house through a window.
Ellis claimed that he only supervised as Kraft

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raped Fanny and Neil raped Emma.
He even mentioned how Fanny kept weeping and

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pleaded with her attacker to stop to
no avail. He also claimed that Emma

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cried out that she knew who Neil
was and would tell her mother. Amidst

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all this, Robert awoke and was
about to come into the room they were

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all in, but he got struck
in the head with an axe by Kraft.

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He then hit Fanny with the axe
and killed her instantly. Emma was

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murdered by Neil after that. Ellis
Kraft even added that the cries of the

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girls were gripping and full of please
for mercy. However, the men paid

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no heed. He was the only
one of them to narrate this chain of

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events, as the other two completely
denied this story. The three men were

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apprehended and then brought by steamboat to
Catletzburg, where they were secured as there

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was a fear that the mob of
angry people could lynch them. But deep

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down everyone knew that lynching by a
mob was an inevitable fate in that era

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of American history. For these wretched
murderers. Around ten armed men safeguarded the

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prisoners held at the jail to keep
them safe until their trials. All three

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were charged with allowing a betting and
plotting murder. George Ellis was singly charged

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with three counts of murder, a
loophole he got from testifying against his accomplices.

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William Neil also confessed to the crime, albeit eventually there was a rumor

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that a militia was even trying to
save these men. Somehow, Neil and

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Craft were charged with first degree murder
and sentenced to hang, while Ellis was

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only sentenced to life in prison.
Some of the apprehensions did come true as

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some of the apprehensions did indeed come
true, as forty masked men broke into

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Catltzburg Jail through a window. They
had arrived by train and came with their

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aim to lynch these prisoners. Even
with this being a crime in and of

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itself, can we really blame these
people for being hungry for vengeance? In

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the eighteen hundreds, it was not
uncommon for the people to take matters into

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their own hands, and this is
exactly what these men did. They weren't

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satisfied with the verdict, and this
was the result of their disapproval. The

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mob of men was able to unlock
George Ellis's cell and take him out.

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They took him to the crime site
and hung him by a sick more tree.

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Neil and Kraft tried to appeal their
convictions and were given another trial each.

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Nearly a year after the crime,
there was a resumed urge for vengeance

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among the people of the town of
Ashland. The state militia kept the prisoners

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under armed surveillance. The judge was
requested by the prisoners for venue change to

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allow for a free and fair second
trial, which was approved. While the

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prisoners were on their way to their
new venue, a bunch of men opened

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fire on the steamboat of the prisoners, and the troops returned fire. It

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is unconfirmed who fired first, but
it is said that fifteen hundred shots were

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fired by the soldiers, mostly wounding
and killing civilians of the town. The

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soldiers fired everywhere, leaving many men, women, and children dead. This

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event marks how the populace was severely
infuriated by this case. Their level of

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anger can be seen by their efforts
to take the matter into their own hands.

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This also reflects the severity and sensitivity
of this crime. The prisoners then

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arrived at their new location safely.
However, neither of the two men was

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successful in their second trials and were
charged with the same crimes, first degree

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murder and the punishment to hang.
In the last attempt to save Kraft,

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his brother found a black man in
Ohio who would confess to the crime to

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save Kraft from execution. This is
a truly bizarre but interesting part of this

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case because once again, the unity
of the people in Ashland comes into place.

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They made sure that justice was truthfully
served and that no innocent man was

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punished. It was also rumored that
Kraft's friends intended to lynch Direly, who

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was the black man that they had
convinced to confess to the heinous crimes,

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in order to draw attention to him
and away from Kraft. However, the

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people of Ashland were intensely indignant and
made sure that Direly was not charged with

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something he hadn't done. Instead,
they made sure that the real criminal was

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the one punished, and not some
poor innocent man fearful for his life.

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Once again, we witnessed the uninterrupted
hatred of the people of Ashland toward those

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who harmed their inhabitants. Ellis Crafts
hanging took place on October twelfth, eighteen

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eighty three, in Grayson, Kentucky, and was witnessed by a large awaiting

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crowd. William Neale was hanged in
Grayson on March twenty seventh, eighteen eighty

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five. Till their last dying breath. These two men claimed innocence and did

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not confess fully at all. As
we bring the timeline of the Ashland tragedy

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to an end. There are some
extremely important things to go over, the

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primary question being why was the state
militia so willing to fire on civilians,

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many of them unarmed and innocent,
demanding justice. Could it have been a

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horrible misjudgment of the situation from the
militiamen Going back to the night of the

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twenty third of December eighteen eighty one, how did these men know that the

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children would be alone at the Gibbons
house? Were they stalking the family?

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Or perhaps they were stalking Fanny Gibbons
and Emma Thomas for a long while?

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Was the aggrieved populace of Ashland so
committed to standing by justice because they felt

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deeply for the poor children and their
local inhabitants, or simply because they had

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no faith in the system to provide
them with their justice. Could the latter

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be a reflection of the poor judicial
system of the state. If yes,

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then we can say, if it
weren't for the fight of these common people

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till the very end, justice might
not have been served. These unanswered questions

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could perhaps point toward a much much
larger picture. Now, putting these technical

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and political questions aside, our hearts
go out to the poor mothers of the

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children, Martha Gibbons and Carolina Thomas. These two women lost so much so

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suddenly, and had to live with
the grief and trauma of that loss for

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all their lives. After researching this
story, we also discovered that Martha Gibbons

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had lost a five year old child
before this tragedy as well, which made

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me feel even sadder for her.
We also discovered this song on Spotify called

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nothing Burns Like the Cold, which
is a tribute to the Ashland massacre for

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a crime that took place around one
hundred and fifty years ago, the wounds

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and grievances of the victim's family still
feel oddly fresh. The people of Ashland,

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Kentucky simply would not stand idly by
and watch such a vicious tragedy against

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the innocence of children go unpunished.
As a person born and raised in Ohio,

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but with a lot of family from
Kentucky, including my mother, this

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story truly tears my heart out.
The small towns and communities that are painted

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all across Kentucky have for a long
time been tight knit, to say the

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least, communities unafraid to stand together
against whatever evils befall them. In my

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hometown of Dayton, Ohio, we've
stood up against just about anything you could

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imagine, whether it be natural disasters
such as tornadoes which do strike here pretty

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often, or standing up against the
hate fueled rhetoric of the Ku Klux Klan,

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as they were heavily protested when trying
to hold a rally here in twenty

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nineteen. The people in this part
of the country have a sense of community

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unlike anywhere else. I'm proud to
have family from Kentucky as well as Ohio,

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and I hope that the people of
Ashland got what they needed to move

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on. Unfortunately, in that era, there was very little in the way

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of forensics to figure out who committed
such a ghastly crime. The judicial system

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in the United States of America is
innocent until proven guilty for a reason.

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It's to make sure that people cannot
be abused by the system. But when

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people are innocent until proven guilty,
sometimes the guilty slipped through the cracks.

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It's a harsh truth and one that
the people of Ashland would not stand for.

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Terrifying and True is narrated by Enrique
Kuto. It's executive produced by Rob

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Fields. Produced by Daniel Wilder with
the original theme music by Ray Maddis.

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If you have a story you'd like
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end of the show, and they
are Johnny Nicks bobotopia dot com, Megan

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Hua, Julia Kirsh, Brent McCullough, Steve King, Karen we met,

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Jack Kerr and Craig Cohen. Thank
you all so much and we'll see you

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next time right here on Weekly Spooky
and Terrifying and True