 Good evening. This is Crime Classics. I am Thomas Highland. I'm going to tell you another true crime story. Listen. A man writing. Listen closely because it's a quiet sound and intimate sound. The year is 1795 and the man who is doing this quiet intimate thing is named Peter Drute. He is writing his will making with goose quill and parchment his bequest to his children when he is done Unknowingly he will have made certain the death of his two sons and now he is done now. He has made certain and Tonight my report to you on the axe and the Drute family how they fared Crime Classics a series of true crime stories taken from the records and newspapers of every land from every time Your host each week Mr. Thomas Highland Connoisseur of crime student of violence and teller of murders Now once again Thomas Highland The place is Heidelberg Township, Dauphin County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania During the closing years of the 18th century Heidelberg snuggled against a bend of the Susquehanna Its chief product was people who were sent downstream to Harrisburg and overland to Philadelphia So great was the margin of export over import that I can no longer locate Heidelberg Township on a very good map of Pennsylvania However during the time that it flourished it was noted chiefly for its rocks Which were used all over the county to build churches sheds barns and gravestones The Drute family lived in a stone house And Peter Drute was so wealthy that he was buried in a coffin imported from Bavaria Which was decorated with cherubs painted on porcelain and other sad scenes His shroud was of genuine black Westphalian lace His lawyer was of 100 Saxony stock and came from Philadelphia And to my daughter Elizabeth I Peter Drute do will and bequeat the sum of 1000 pounds However, the sums I have already advanced to her in the amount of 800 pounds Shall be considered a part of this legacy And to my sons Francis and Peter I leave the residue of my estate But in the event of the death of either of my sons without his and his daughter Elizabeth Pure product of Heidelberg Township was moved Some father Some father I had to leave to his own true daughter a measly 200 pounds You have done a deception to me Deception how to tell me you were the favorite of the old man's children and would inherit the money This is deception to get me to be the husband of you What I did not mean to deceive you get the away I begged you to believe me get thee from the chair and take my hand the likes of you were spouts to the likes of me I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I said it Elizabeth get the away That vile man that father to me You've done this to his daughter That I have to wait until the death of my brothers to get to his wealth That I have to wait until the death of my brothers to get to his wealth But I have to wait until the death of my brother. Yes. Yes. I heard it And that is each one of them would die. I would get 500 pounds. Yes. Yes. I heard it Elizabeth What husband How well do you love your brothers? Francis is the oldest and I can recall one day at the quarry when he struck me with a stone This scar and the younger one peter who was named for my father and as cruel as my father And who became my father's favorite in my stead Who once called me a name I shall never forget were they to die I I am sister to them. I should weep In your arms husband And you would make me smile again smile now In your arm John and elizabeth hower pennsylvania lovers He a stone mason who had more epitaphs at the tip of his chisel than any stone mason in the county She noted for her scar and her elderberry jelly The old man just growing chill in his coffin from bavaria And john and elizabeth daughter and son-in-law were getting ready to lay the rest of the family beside him I think we should start with the younger one first Where whatever are you talking about? He's better off dead than alive anyhow Where whatever are you talking about? Put me down put me down John putt elizabeth down and got on his horse He rode to harrisburg at a clip which can only be described as uh furious Now in harrisburg, they lived a friend of his an elderly gentleman who distilled things and bottled them It is said that this gentleman could do a thing with toad stools and snake venom that you wouldn't believe The gentleman whose name is recorded in state annals as uncle hess der Kleiner Was finally ducked in a pond for 12 minutes by the authorities Well John bought a few ounces of an essence from uncle hess and rode back to heidelberg township And the next day in the stone quarry This is what happened And how is your brother francis these days peter lads? I don't see much of him these days. He's busy counting his money. I suppose and yours He is a farmer. He farms a question lad. Hi john Have you had the fancies lately? How do you know about that your sister lad? She told me How since a lad you have been seeing Stranges and ghosties and whatnot And what of it? Nothing lad. Nothing It is true that I have been visited and me too The last week I was lying beneath the stars near the barn There was a wailing And I look about me Such a beautiful fancy she was And she was crying Go on go on john of such beauty And I reached out my hands to her and her image was smoke Wondrous I can see her any time I wish it how I have a thing here a potion A small bottle of it Prepared specially to lie under the stars to see this wondrous beautiful lady Was she indeed so beautiful? I am unschooled. I have not the words for her beauty Please what lad give me of that vial. Let me taste she stirs your imagination lad Yes, oh yes, you can almost see her in your mind now. Can you not even while you talk? I try to imagine her Please give me of the vial here drink it. Yes all of it Good lad Tonight lie down under the stars and see what will happen to you Thank you john. The bottle is good no longer throw it away lad Poor lad 18 years old and given to fancies Now all of us know that many lads of 18 even today are given to fancies But young peter droot was very rich and lived in pennsylvania And it was a rare moment indeed when he wasn't beginning or ending a fancy And to this we must remember was the era of potions to conjure up most anything from rain to a lady made of smoke So young peter droot had everything going for him that night youth imagination And potion He went out under the stars and lay down near the barn just like his brother-in-law told him to do What happened then may be described as a good night in the country gone to waste Oh my stomach My stomach my stomach my stomach Oh That rooster crowing really upset schedules an old heidelberg township that night People and animals looked out of the window and wondered what ale that rooster anyhow It was too early to get out of bed and too late to go back to sleep So they gave ear to the commotion Through the din rose the whales of peter droot who had seen no fancies But was writhing with a terrible ache in his stomach His brother frances brought him back to the house and applied an old pennsylvania potis which relieved the lad no end So the next morning in the stone quarry And all that happened john was an ache right here a grievous ache poor lad Lad Yes When you lay yourself down under the stars, which way were you facing toward the east toward brooder gansel's farm? Uh, I should have told you I did it wrong. Oh, it was my fault. You faced the wrong way However, come here walk with me Sit yourself down here by this pile of rocks Here to your left a wee bit Very good Now close your eyes and think hard Of what of beautiful things Silently I will say a magical thing And I will go from you a little And behind you Peter keep closed your eyes. See it. See the magical thing. Hi right now Man all of you the lad peter droot is buried beneath the rocks. He is dead No No, I am not the slide of rocks did not touch me. I heard their sound and I leaped and I what a relief it is to me Oh, how happy I am But why have we come here john to the loft of the barn? I have another way to show you the fancy How this rope I have here tied to the rafter place it about your neck Very well Do not let me fall for the rope is not long enough to reach the floor. Is the rope tight enough about your neck now lad Tight enough For what for this? John The rope broke john Please don't be frightened. I'm not hurt I'm not hurt at all And as long as peter stayed alive john couldn't collect any of the legacy Which is why john sat in the hayloft head in hand and pondered Then john thought about an axe And he pondered no more. You are listening to crime classics and your host thomas highland Petroman kirk reported in from box 23 at 142 on time to the minute His next call was to come from post 7. He never made it When they finally found him. He had been shot to death. Was it suicide or murder? The steady detailed work the real police do will again be evident on cbs radio's 21st precinct Tomorrow evening as the world's largest police force tackles the case of patrolman kirk and post 7 21st precinct is broadcast on most of these same stations be at post 7 tomorrow And now once again thomas highland and the second act of crime classics And his report to you on the axe and the droot family how they fared A few notes about pennsylvania's at near the end of the 18th century It was already a state to be reckoned with general washington had camped there during the winter of 1777 78 At a place known as valley forge in the town of chester mad anthony wane drilled his troops in an unusual manner in the courthouse square The western part of the state was rife with forests game Trout streams and beneath it the silent flow of oil to be discovered 50 years later in Titusville of all places A dominion of wealth discovered and as yet undiscovered Of history made and as yet unmade To prove my point a person by the name of barbara fritchie who was born in old heidelberg township Had not quite yet been born But across the street from the house where barbara would first see the light of day Where her grubby little fingers would reach for her first needle across the street Live john and elizabeth howe man and wife As is our prerogative Let's look in on them The rope broke. What a pity. It seems i can't kill him Something always goes wrong. You always were a hasty man ruined things in the barn this morning I did everything neatly the rope broke. It was a new rope and both of my brothers still live I thought of something both of my brothers still live and both of my brothers still live would you listen spouse I I thought of an axe And what did you think of an axe how it can smash things? What thing tables and cups chairs and chicken and skulls and skulls And husband what will you do it? It will be done by whom By you by a man. I know and his friend And after it's done What shall I have you will have no brothers? And in their state money Husband yes Lift me lift me spin me around Um What is it to talk with you Charles come in man to talk with me. Hey Where's your friend patrick? There's uh the talk money in it. I Before or after the akir a little before and much after There's money in it. Mm-hmm John howl I come into here Good evening to you patrick No John howl speak to the both of us My wife's brothers are alive If they were to die My dear wife would receive all of their money And uh, is this the end of it a very great sum of money And And this axe I have brought It cuts deep I Well patrick Uh-huh Well John howl Wait it is enough uh for now Patrick get out of bed man There were frontiers in those days as a matter of fact our country was more frontier than anything else And the people of those who survived were the fittest I would like to describe two fit people of the time Charles mcmanus, which is my name I am 42 years old. I stand six inches above five feet and my weight is close to 200 pounds Once in Killarney, I killed a man with my fists. I fled to america In new york, I killed again with my fist I fled to the backwoods of pennsylvania Patrick donigan, that's me. I'm much too slight to kill with my fists I must have steel in my hand There was a woman in danegal county Her death brought me here where I am now very fit persons indeed Killers and a tune to the wilderness. They moved quietly Leaps there he said the young one sleeps in there he said in patrick Are you a fancy Now we can go I'll do the dancing Come to me Come to me They are dead They are dead Outside the night is warm And there is the moon And there will be us They came the townspeople and they knocked on the door of john hower and his wife elizabeth And they brought him and his wife to the house where peter and francis droop were lying Elizabeth fell down upon the floor and wept bitterly john sat down and made no remark And this is the tableau one hour after the murder had been committed And the townspeople had found that nothing had been plundered from the house And the townspeople knew that only john and elizabeth would profit from the death of the brothers And an axe had been found and a townsman knew it to be the axe of john hower Then john hower made a remark I did not do it Then they asked him who did do it Two murderers Two they asked him how do you know it was two john I hired them it is Charles open Who are all these people? What people have you brought with you? The man holding the torch there is ebner by his side and holding another torch is george And the next to him Neighbors and neighbors and neighbors They have come after you and after patrick For what for what you have done For what for the murder of the brothers of my wife You hired us john. I told them that Patrick wake up In june 1798 a trial was made charging the three men and elizabeth hower with murder I have never been one whose life has been governed by the lust for money Only love and sweet solicitude for my husband If it has been my husband's immodesty to have committed murder I do love him still I committed no murder He committed no murder he says He gave me an axe. He gave me money. I returned them and said do your dirty work yourself Didn't I patrick? As sure as you're born. I heard you refused the man distinct and I heard him muttering that he'd do it himself Gentlemen of the jury as your judge. I now charge you The murder of peter and francis druth rouses the indignation of the county Its atrocity is unequaled by anything of the kind hitherto known in pennsylvania The execution of the murders was as horrid as the motives were base and groveling The keenest sensations must arise in the minds of all good men The judge then went into particular detail of all the evidence that had been given And committed the case to the jury at four o'clock on sunday afternoon At seven o'clock in the evening. They returned a verdict john hower guilty charles mcmanus guilty patrick donigan guilty elizabeth hower Not guilty I'm pleased I'm so pleased Goodbye my husband The guilty were all of them hanged on saturday july 14th 1798 elizabeth hower mourned for a respectable interval then married again to one obid fannis stock The fannis stocks moved to maryland to the growing community of cumberland Where they bought a house and a well and sold water to settlers moving west And it all happened in old heidelberg township Which i can no longer find on the map In just a moment tomas highland will tell you about next week's crime classic The druth family tonight's crime classic was adapted from the original court reports and newspaper accounts by morten fine and david friedkin The music was composed and conducted by bernard herman and the program is produced and directed by elliott louis tomas highland is portrayed on radio by lou merrow in tonight's story Mary jane croft was heard as elizabeth and clayton post as john Featured in the cast were her butterfield sam edwards paul frieze and charles davis george wall speaking And here again is tomas highland next week san francisco bay Midway between oakland and san francisco On board the good fairy el capitán the year is 1870 and the events are catastrophic As i report to you on the incredible trial of laura d fair Thank you Good night Academy award winner joan fontaine will be your star in lever to heaven on luck summer theater on cbs radio later tonight You'll enjoy this celebrated story of a ruthless woman who destroys the things she loves And you like joan fontaine in this dramatic role That's lever to heaven starring joan fontaine later tonight on the luck summer theater show on most of these same stations And remember bill cullen's walk a mile show is heard monday evenings on the cbs radio network