Someday, I would love to say “Mystery Solved” when it comes to the unusual circumstances surrounding the death of a 41 year old man named Jerry. Haunting tales always seem to fit well into the month of October, and this story is no different. Today is the 65th anniversary of Jerry’s tragic end.
October 13, 1959
I have a lot of questions.
So many that I ordered a copy of his death certificate for any additional clues. Nothing too different from what I already knew, but still, the assumptions and no autopsy is strange to me.
Is it even possible to have been so sedated (medicine from having ulcer surgery at the hospital) after lighting up the coal furnace to pump heat in the house, to then have fallen asleep on your couch, only to wake up either from smelling smoke, feeling heat, or having the smoke detector beep (how did smoke detectors work in 1959?) that you would get up and fall through a hole in your floor (did he create the floor from weakened boards? or was the hole there and he was too groggy to notice it?) and then burn to death on coal furnace pipes?
Is it just a coincidence or is it odd to have this happen to you during a time when within the last few weeks, your estranged wife is allegedly helping a siding salesman cash forged checks at banks in town, and then a couple weeks after your death she gets arrested in connection with said siding salesman?
Doesn’t it seem suspicious that when the authorities found this man two weeks later in a rando apartment towns away from his own house and family he had an infected leg from a bullet wound he never tended to and a duffle bag containing wire cutters, screwdrivers, two revolvers, ammunition, and a blonde wig?
Not to mention that the house you live in that apparently gave way to your death just got new siding?
Is it also weird that another woman earlier that same year had a relationship with the siding man and is 7 months pregnant when this happens decides to cut out each newspaper articles mentioning the tragedy and pastes them in her scrapbook?
It’s weird, right?
Jerry’s story is featured in the Epilogue of The Record Keeper and is entitled “A Ghost Story”. It’s a tale that I wonder about often, especially when I drive past the location where it happened.
Hopefully someday, I can say “mystery solved”.
RIP Jerry.
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