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The Mystery of Pearl Bryan’s Missing Head
On a cold January day in 1896, 22-year-old Pearl Bryan, a Sunday school teacher from Greencastle, Indiana, set off with what seemed like an innocent mission — to visit a friend in Indianapolis. Unfortunately, Pearl never made it back home. She was five months pregnant, a truth unknown to her family, and her disappearance quickly spiraled into one of the most gruesome crimes in American history, capturing the nation’s attention.
Less than a week after her departure, tragedy took a shocking turn when Pearl Bryan’s headless body was discovered over 150 miles away in Fort Thomas, Kentucky. To this day, Pearl’s head has never been found, adding a haunting layer of mystery to her murder.
Cocaine and Crimes: The Suspects
The horrific crime soon led authorities to two main suspects — Scott Jackson and his roommate Alonzo M. Walling, students from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in nearby Cincinnati. Scott had secretly been involved with Pearl, and during their trial, evidence suggested that he had convinced Alonzo to aid him in this heinous act. The gruesome details unfolded: cocaine had been slipped into Pearl’s drink at a saloon, and she was later brutally decapitated while still alive. The coroner confirmed the presence of cocaine in her stomach.
