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Illustration by Estelle Lilly depicting the drowned Italian. From Melody Bragg's Window to the Past |
As Appalachian Ghost Tours gears up for our public investigation of Thurmond, WV this weekend, I thought I'd share some interesting stories from the Mountain State's most infamous 'ghost town. One of my favorite legends from the town is the tale of the dead man who was fined by the mayor.
In the story, made popular by the book, Window to the Past, by Melody Bragg, when the body of a foreigner washed up on the shore near Thurmond, there was one detail that made it distinct from the many other bodies that would wash up. The majority of the bodies that washed ashore usually had empty pockets---it was assumed that a lack of money meant that the person, depressed by gambling losses, committed suicide by jumping from the bridge, or that they were robbed and killed and tossed into the rapids to hide evidence of the crime.
Therefore, it was VERY strange that this person not only had quite a bit of cash on their person, but also a pistol. Leo Schaffer, the mayor of Glen Jean (which extended to include the southside area where the Dunglen Hotel once stood) decided to fine the dead man for illegally carrying a pistol. The amount of the fine---the exact amount of money found in the dead man's pockets. Afterwards, the man was given a pauper's funeral by the county.
Like all good legends, when you start to examine the documentation surrounding the event, details begin to become even more muddled!
According to various newspaper articles, linked below, here's a slightly different perspective on what happened:
On Tuesday, May 31st, 1904, two Italian brothers were visiting Thurmond during a work break from their job at nearby Dun Loop on the Loop Creek railway branch. They were drinking heavily and decided to head down toward the river to take a rest. It was about 2 o'clock (am or pm not given). One of the brothers, named J.M. Sariti, told the other he was "going to fly" and then plunged into the swift moving, swollen river.
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Thurmond Bridge Photo by Theresa |
There seems to be some confusion about what happened next. Onlookers may have tried to rescue Sariti, but it appears that his brother either didn't realize what was going on or considered rendering aid a lost cause. At one point, he walked off to get more beer. He did return later but made no effort to recover his brother's body. In fact, he seemed pretty unbothered by the whole affair and went back to work. The brother's attitude has led to speculation that this may have been more than just a drunk man doing drunk man things. Some say the Italian intended to commit suicide, while others threw suspicion on foul play.
A reward of $50 was offered up (some say by the brother, but one newspaper said by officers) to recover the body. That reward was indeed collected that Friday when Captain A.A. Hartford/Harford was coming east on his train through Thurmond and spotted the body floating in the river. Hartford alerted authorities, who were in no rush to do anything. The body was tied to the shore to prevent it from washing away but wasn't removed until Saturday evening.
That's when it was discovered that the dead man had a staggering $130.50 in his pockets! No pistol was mentioned, however, in contemporary news reports.
$50 of the dead man's cash was used to pay Hartford his reward and the remaining $80.50 WAS used to pay a fine...not for carrying a pistol, but for 'suiciding.' Mayor Schaffer definitely wasn't playing around. Sariti was then buried shortly after in Thurmond.
However, the next day, either a friend or the father of Sariti showed up in town from Pittsburgh, bringing with him a metal coffin in which to bring the body back home. By this time, the body was much too, uh, bloated, to even fit in the metal coffin and had to be reburied in Thurmond. This caused even further legal trouble. The cost of reburial was charged to the friend/father of the victim, and when a disagreement over payment was had with Mayor Schaffer, the friend/father was locked up by Marshall Harrison Ash until an agreement could be made.
Pardon my language, but fining the dead man the amount he had in his pockets for allegedly committing suicide (many sources say he didn't) THEN locking up a relative over a pauper's burial payment is quite frankly, a dick move. And, I'm not the only one who thought that. In the June 18th, 1904 edition of the Hinton Daily News, there was an editorial letter ran, written by J.S. Thurmond, who was the mayor of Thurmond proper. (Due to some disagreements over the selling of alcohol, the depot side of the river was actually the town of Thurmond, and right across the river, while generally considered a part of Thurmond, was actually annexed into the town of Glen Jean so that alcohol could be served at the Dunglen Hotel.)
Mayor Thurmond wrote about how Mayor Schaffer's actions in fining a dead man did not reflect the views of those in Thurmond, and that Schaffer was in no way affiliated with that town. Further, as the body was found outside of either city's limits, Schaffer had no right in doing what he did. Mayor Thurmond was pretty upset that local newspapers kept attributing the bad stuff happening on the south side (in Glen Jean), including criminal behavior and the misdeeds of the mayor, to the dry town of Thurmond.
Sources and Further Reading:
Window to the Past, by Melody Bragg. Edited and Designed by George Bragg. Illustrations by Estelle Lilly. Published 1990 by Gem Publications.
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Hinton Daily News 01 June 1904 |
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Hinton Daily News 06 June 1904 |
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Hinton Daily News 18 June 1904 |