 Good evening. This is crime classics. I am Thomas Highland with another true story of crime listen That was Jack-O Jack-O the three-quarter Irish setter a good dog Usually a well-behaved dog friend to the children of Manchester Village Vermont and inquisitive dog Whatever disturbs him isn't buried very deep Listen to him digging smart dog He's found what he was after He's tugging at it gets it good dog What have you got there Jack-O? A bone Looks like a leg bone doesn't it? A human leg bone Tonight I'm going to report to you on the Bourne brothers and the hangman A study in Nip and Tuck 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 Mr. Thomas Highland They were fighting battles on Lake Champlain in eighteen hundred and twelve but across the state forests away and mountains apart The village of Manchester sent peaceful fans of chimney smoke into the February air It was ebb of winter and edge of spring It was snow flurry and thaw and chill sunlight Here the Baton Hill River flowed swift and dark down from the green mountains and crusted icily near its banks and past the village then flowed swift and dark away and where the snow had melted the soil glistened and was rich and black farmhouses gleamed white and where the furrow began the shallow furrow that deepened and roughened and slowly rose up the mountainside and became the gorge that cut across the face of Mount Equinox where it gently began was the backyard of the house of Russell and Sally Colvin and inside it he's sleeping asleep Why? Why asleep? What did you put him to sleep for? There's moonlight on the snow and there's moonlight on the mountain and I've promised my son he'd see Why do you do that? Why do you fill his mind with lies and fancies? There's little men on the mountain tonight and I told my son he'd see them Lewis! Don't wake him Russell, don't wake him! Stop hanging in on my arm woman Russell! Stop hanging in on my arm! Wake son! I'll bundle you and it's up the mountain we'll go tonight with you riding my shoulders and little men will find them that they are bowls and singing and dancing and we'll join them come with me son up the path the moonlight makes on the mountain snow as any mother knows this is an upsetting experience and as Sally Colvin knew this was not the first experience of its kind sometimes her husband would hoist her son on his back and walk away from the house and not come back for days at a time and when they did they would smile at each other secret smiles and say nothing of where they had been and there were secret words between them that Sally could not understand signs and small patterns of dance and then great bursts of laughter and this time the time when Russell took his son up the path the moonlight made and they returned two days later we'll sleep the day away and the night the son and dream of the fancies we've seen the little men sleep tell me tell me oh sister or come in what can I do for you in the morning hold me hold me well sister sister to me what troubles you him again your husband yes oh yes and what what he's doing to my son soon soon what my son will become as mad as my husband they speak of creatures in the mist and the gorge and starbursts and moon do you want me to do i don't a stronger man than i there's not much i can do but you and our brother jessie born together you could do it don't speak to me of jessie him that i hate that me no more of it save me of you sister very well you know how you and jessie you know it and you have said it come with me to our brother's forge and make peace and save me your sister i've got the sinews of you but listen to your sister and what her trouble is or i'll try you will you head to your heart in a stroke try me will you of our husband let her say it i've heard strangenesses in the village of your husband sister and when i've heard them i've smiled at myself in remembering this is the man you needed to marry sister would die without sister and now he's a daft and a loon now he's hero hero out say on sister he takes lewis with him on walkings for days and they return and there are secrets and madnesses and loneliness for you i care nothing of it i care only for my son jessie jessie take his hand jessie born and be brothers again for there is a bond now the need to help me yes and now listen to me there where the ravine starts by the field where it is rocky i will send my husband there i'll plot her our sister i will send my husband there tomorrow in the morning will you be there will the both of you be there will be there here to me son the way i do it come a goblin come a teeny come an elf and come a greeny come about come about come about all and you shall rustle i'll finish it for you later son rustle and there you are with your son mute and agape at you again what do you want it's a new morning and the new season of springs coming in with it and so and so there's work and you need not tell me of it there's no work i do not do on this farm i need no telling of it in the upper field and where the rocks are easy to pull from the ground now that the thaw softened it i know of it you need not remind me tonight the night frost may harden the ground again i know it i know it then go i'll be back son think hard of the verse he i taught to you and the way he went did rustle colvin on this new morning toward the upper field he'd not gone 20 yards when he stopped gold sparkle of sun on vermont granite small pool of sparkle gold and he picked it up and put it in his pocket then on again the long way around through the grove of naked spruce to give throat to the new season and on and on to the brook now and stop beside it and kneel beside it and listen yes yes then through a thicket and into the upper field and the surprise in store for him oh rustle hello jesse born steven oh brother in law what do you hear to help you rustle you do what to help you clear the rocks now that the ground is soft with thaw and how do you know i'm here to do that how indeed i need not your help i'm hearing you do brother in law i'm hearing that way too we're in here and you don't do well by our sister rustle that's what we hear most of and who's saying that our sister your wife's saying it rustle more wife than sister so it's not of your business so it's off the land with you the two of you oh now indeed but you have to net branch for us even i'm aiming to brain you with it you are aiming the same jesse gonna help and let's get to it and we'll see let's get to it indeed steven born used the branch as a club and with excellent teamwork he and his brother jesse won the fight you are listening to crime classics and your host thomas highland tomorrow evening cbs radio invites you again to mystery and intrigue enhanced by the presence of miss marlena detrick this thursday miss detrick's adventure leads her to a little town in southern france where stories of buried treasure have been brooded loudly enough to gather rap scallions of reprehensible inclination from all corners of europe time for love is heard tomorrow evening on most of these same stations now once again thomas highland in the second act of crime classics and his report to you on the born brothers and the hangman a study in nip and tuck it was a good spring april of 1812 was the gentlest in the memory of those who lived on the soft shoulder of mount equinox and vermont there were rumors of marchings and torch and war outside but no one paid much attention they were more important things church crops and children living to be done in the green mountains the crackling air to be breathed roam away through the soft fall of twilight and press a cheek against the warmth of an animal wondrous sunsets and tomorrow a wondrous dawn good place and good time this valley and one morning as a matter of fact on the morning after the born brothers had done an errand for their sister new mrs colvin a sweet morning tears and what may i do for you it's Wednesday and so it is so i've come again so your mister can drive me to the village again he to shop for you and me for mine he's not here oh no in the field then not in the field oh of course he is not for i saw your son lewis had played just outside the door and he would be in the fields with his daddy dear where his daddy dear in the fields you'll be late to market mrs wyerman where's the dear man your husband mrs colvin gone where gone to the mountain i think and when will he return i don't know such a dear man and the dear fancies he sees and tells you of oh what a fortunate woman you are mrs colvin i'm cleaning to do mrs wyerman mrs colvin preparing supper for you and your beautiful child but it's a month since the village has seen your husband last and for the last week it's been raining and if the dear mr colvin is in the mountains as you say what then maybe what maybe he has gone to learn from the dear man happy new year mrs wyerman happy new year and a pity mr colvin's not here i suppose he'll never return now will now stop your crying sally boy's a boy went off to join the militia what's that what's what all boys doing now maybe i've failed what are you saying sister maybe the whole fence he's had no father should have been close to him and all in this again sister oh my this is a chair of skinner see the glazes barn jesse is a fire to dr glazes barn you surely know the barn jesse in 1800 19 fires were not very easy to control it was a matter of having enough men and enough buckets to reach from the fire to the stream and dr glazes barn was not notably close to the stream nor were there enough men nor buckets so the fire had its own way it burned the barn to the ground and later when the ashes had cooled and wild sheriff skinner was consoling dr glazier on his loss the sheriff's dog what you're digging they are trying something jackal bring it here jackal and see what you got they are funny looking bone big bone what kind of bone would you say this was dr glazier leg bone human don't say not positive could be though let's take a look jacka where you found this bone can we that stick of wood will you doctor so i can make this hole a little bigger where i used to store my potatoes to keep them from freezing uh-huh button now and look here a knife funny looking knife let me see it i know the knife truth now who's russell colvin's knife russell colvin now he's not been around six year seven it's his knife all right and that's a button off his coat too and this is a human leg bone you're saying doctor i'm not saying it's not a human leg bone let's get along jackal come on come on boy a few words about sheriff silas skinner a good man had been sheriff of the county for nearly 20 years and there wasn't a man who could say he hadn't got a fair shake from old silas or woman either an honest man with no bias nor prejudice a direct man where's your husband sally why i don't know a man a few words you kill him no who killed him sally my brother jesse killed him sheriff a cautious man maybe he did and maybe he didn't but i'm arresting you till i find out which a man of his word jesse yes sheriff you kill your brother-in-law russell colvin no sheriff i did not who did my brother steven did maybe he did and maybe he didn't but i'm arresting you till i find out which sheriff silas skinner sees it through steven yes sheriff i locked up your sister and i locked up your brother and i'm putting you behind bars too on what charge sure for murdering murdering who russell colvin i didn't murder him sheriff jesse said you did jesse's lion and on jesse for long he don't lie he's starting to now when he says i murdered you didn't murder him by yourself that's what you're saying isn't it steven i'm saying that right enough your sister have anything to do with the murdering well not that i know i'm i'm going to tell you something boy what i'm gonna tell you something son what you say to me what happened it'll be easier for you what do you mean a little scale that's all no hanging there is a handshake that goes with it there is indeed here's my hand sheriff and mine now how was it done son how was it done boy russell colvin was on his rocky upper field and that's where you're done it son and my brother got on one side of him i got to the other and that's how you're done it boy i hit him with a tree branch jesse with his fist that's right that's right and that's the way you killed him yes sir then you took him to another farm dark blazers and to that barn dark blazers and buried him yes sir we'll write this out son and you'll sign it won't you boy just a little jail boy son just a little jail i shook your hand then i'll sign it good boy up taken on so steven born your brother jesse is not acting up the way you are they found us guilty well you confess they're gonna hang us you said just a little jail you said no hanging i did what i could you said no hang now you listen to me you killed your brother-in-law and you confessed to it and you had a trial by jury and they found you guilty the judge said hanging now that's the laws apply to you and your brother so don't carry on let's do a thing sure what thing put an advertisement in the newspapers an advertisement for what for russell coven put a description and and say life depends on him turning up you crazy you killed him you confessed you killed him who knows of russell coven whether killed he stayed killed he and his moonlight little people do it now don't order me some please please do it well i have a copy here of the ruttland herald a newspaper of the time which was circulated throughout this area of vermont i would like to read to you a classified ad which appeared in the issue of november 26th 1819 printers of newspapers throughout the united states are desired to publish that steven born of manchester in vermont is sentenced to be executed for the murder of russell coven who has been absent about seven years any person who can give information of said coven may save the life of the innocent by making immediate communication coven is about five feet five inches light complexion light colored hair blue eyes in about 40 years of age why that sounds like our hand russell except he doesn't say about a boy being with him i'll see if it is russell russell now what was you doing russell talking to my boy lewis your son ain't he my son they're looking for a man named russell in manchester oh it's going to be a hanging unless they find a man named russell russell coven you once said you was from manchester i am they looking for you i'm russell coven it's my duty to see you get back to manchester russell yes it is and so two days before the scheduled hanging russell coven again appeared in manchester and the born boys were not hanged they were set free what about the bone well it was never proven to be a human bone and the knife and button russell's how had they gotten there russell always smiled when he was asked that and what did his wife say to all this you can come home if you want i don't want you no more i hear our sons with you yes ma'am he is how did he find you a hundred miles away oh the little people told him where i was him that lives on the path the moonlight makes they told him according to the report i have right here in just a moment thomas highland will tell you about next week's crime classic the born brothers tonight's crime classic was adapted from the original court reports and newspaper accounts by morten fine and david freedkin the music was composed and conducted by bernard herman and the program is produced and directed by elliot louis thomas highland is portrayed on radio by lou merrill in tonight's story virginia greg was heard as sally lamont johnson is russell william conradis steven and jack crucian is jesse featured in the cast were iran tedrow joseph cernes and her butterfield bob laman speaking here again is thomas highland next week london england in the year 1722 we will concern ourselves with the strange behavior of an escape artist he robbed women and escaped from their men it's listed in my files as the incredible history of john shepherd thank you good night stay with cbs radio right now and you're guaranteed a ringside seat for the archie moore joy maxim championship fight in miami yes right after station identification most of these same stations will bring you joy maxim's bid to ko archie moore and regain the world's light heavyweight crown the exclusive radio broadcast in just a moment mr keen tracer of lost persons has heard friday nights on the cbs radio network