Salem’s Gallows & Grace: The Delaney Murder & Rachel Belden Brooks

0:02 Rachel's life remains remarkable. She stands among Oregon's first black pioneers and is recognized as the first documented black woman to live in the state. Her story reflects both the harsh contradictions and the rare opportunities that define the lives of black Oregonians in the mid nineteenth century. Rachel's story stands as an equal companion to that of the Delaneys, a reminder that the legacies of power, violence, and resilience are often bound together in Oregon's early history. Hi Cassie, Hi Caitlin, Hi, creepy people, Hello hellou. This is PNW Hants and Homicides, where we chat about true crime, the paranormal and all things spooky for Spootober season and always woh spooked over?

0:59 I just like that? That's the thing? Is that a thing you just made up? Just now? Oh, you're so smart. I don't know. I'm sure somebody else has said it before. I might be recycling that, I don't know. Do you know what else is kind of spooky for Spootober walk Taro I like it, which we do in every episode for a little deeper insight into our topic for the day. All right, Well, we've already talked about this topic a little bit like a couple times. Yeah, actually, yeah we have. So I just wanted to really quick just say thank you to hill See from Ghosts at the Grand for hooking us up.

1:41 Seriously. We just did their kind of dry run influencer like it's their soft opening for Ghosts of the Grand. It's like a haunted house. It's down in Salem, and thankfully for me, I was able to experience it because they were doing kind of a dry run and I got to go through ahead of time and see everything basically with the lights on. And they also sandwiched me between Cassie and Chris, so everything worked out. We made sure Caitlin had an escape route if needed, yeah, so if she got overwhelmed and overstimulated, she could step out if she needed to, which she didn't.

2:26 Yeah, it was totally fine, you guys, I did it from start to finish. I felt kind of bad because you were like no, and I like wanted to respect you because I know it's overstimulating, but I was like, no, seriously, try this one, because I feel like this one you're gonna like appreciate a little bit more than a normal just walk through jump Scared Jump, scared, Jump, scared, jomb scared. Jump, Yeah, you know what I mean, definitely, and just knowing that everybody was like, oh wait, we have the sissy pants in the audience. Yeah, and you guys you know sandwiching man. You know. So I had my bubble. That was great, totally worth doing the trek. So this is kind of the crazy turnaround for that couple of days leading up to Ghosts at the Grand. I went up to Seattle for the Beach to Sandy show with Alicia.

3:18 Got to hang out with Sandy and Christine and some of their friends and yeah, I've seen an actual green room and holy shit, it was green as hail. Oh yeah. So we had a really really phenomenal time on that trip. And right after their show, I gifted Sandy his very first. Tarrot duck, So I love that. Yeah, Christine was immediately demanding reading. So I'm hoping that, you know, they'll let us. Know how that goes. Yeah. Yeah, But back to Ghosts at the Grand. Okay, So drove up to Seattle, went to the show after, and around Seattle for a couple of hours with Alicia. We had a couple of hours the next day to hang out at Pike's Place and or Pike Place. I always want to add an S and you know what, I'm going to count it. I'm gonna mark it down. Is just sheer exhaustion. Drove back home and then had about two hours of downtime before I had to drive down to Salem for the Ghost of the Grand soft Open.

4:32 Was it even two hours? I feel like it was like an hour. Yeah, it was like anybe an hour and a half. Yeah, yeah, yeah, No. It was pretty intense, pretty intense couple of days. And then I actually had things to do on Friday as well, like. My normal job and normal jobs. Yeah. So so that was a lot, right, but it was totally worth it. So checkout goes at the Grand in Safe on the soft opening night, I happened to grab one of their little flyers here and so I've added into my show notes for the week the promo code they get you five dollars off your ticket.

5:16 Oh shit, I didn't know there's a promo code. Yeah, so hot tip, just the tip. Okay, you got to talk about your trip. And then I drove to Tacoma this weekend to go to the Haunted Market. So we're like both up and down, all over the states, all over the PNW. Oh my gosh, really though, really yeah, I've been everywhere. Man. Okay, spoiler alert is just the singular murder. But we're gonna sprinkle in just like a ton of old timey racism. So great. Yeah, so, I mean I didn't learn about it in school, So I'm ready. Let's go.

5:56 And you know what, I spent probably almost as much time working on my show notes, the title and all of that for this episode as I did for like the research of the episode itself, just because what I learned was, oh my god, this is someone who's been almost entirely erased from Oregon history, like early Oregon history. Holy shit. And I'll give you I'll give you one guess why. Because racism. Also that andsogon woman. Oh I was gonna say, because she's a woman. Yeah. Yeah, she happened to be both black and a lady. So so yay. Rachel Rachel is that her name? Yep, I remember it.

6:41 Remember, Salem, Oregon wasn't always the capital city we know today. Back in the mid eighteen hundreds, it was still a muddy pioneer town with more than its fair share of rowdy saloons and hard drinking, hell raising locals. It was the kind of place where gossip traveled fast, making secrets hard to keep, and sometimes those secrets turned deadly. In an environment so lawless and unruly, it almost feels inevitable that a brutal crime would leave its bloody mark on the history of the West, the wild wild West, the wild wild wist. I will say, in the era that we are predominantly talking about, and I know it's going to come up again later, Oregon had been a state for less than ten years.

7:35 Okay, wow yeah, so okay, yeah, wow wow, and she was. Still kind of wilin for like the next hundred years after that. We're being honest, so. Oh, p and w if you're nasty, if you're nasty. The story begins with Daniel Delaney, an early settler of Oregon, who was accompanied by his wife and the woman who was enslave to care for her. I was wondering if she was sick or if she just this. Was like a normal thing, like a lady in waiting, like someone to help you with things. I could see it going either way, but my impression not having like delved into it, super deep was that she was ill, and I think you'll see why.

8:20 Okay. Yeah, I didn't look into like if there was a specific diagnosed illness or anything, but it really kind of it doesn't really have any bearing on the story in particular, but yeah, as a wealthy lady of the scile, I could imagine that, you know, she maybe would have had a caretaker in any case, but I think it was because she was ill, Okay. Like tighten my baldice or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I could see it either way, but I think it was the latter. Okay. Delaney had arrived from the South in eighteen forty three already wealthy. He made his fortune in the slave trade. Primarily, it's a grim reality that we can't gloss over. He used that money to build his life here. Yi. Yeah, it's not my favorite part of the story. Born into slavery in the state of Tennessee in eighteen twenty nine, Rachel Belden became the property of Daniel Delaney Senior. In eighteen forty two, prior to his migration west, Delaney sold his plantation in Tennessee as well as his slaves. And I think it's important to say that's not because he'd had a change of heart about the moral implications of owning other humans. As it turns out, he enslaved Belden just prior to the journey, specifically tasking her to care

9:53 for his ailing wife Elizabeth. So he sold all of the other slaves, but he specifically tasked his latest acquirement. I don't know, there's not a good way to put it. It's really yucky. I feel uncomfortable talking about it. I know you're talking about property and it's so gross, but it's pretty yucky as it should make us uncomfortable. Yeah, it kind of gives me the ick, as it were. I was gonna say, though, it didn't dawn on me even that he would have had a change of heart because you right sold them. Like, if he had a change of heart, he would just you know, a thousand of them regular human beings and let them go for you.

10:37 Yep. Yeah, at that point in history, I don't know that still being in Tennessee, there was such a thing as really successfully living as a free, you know, formally enslaved black person. Oh wow. Yeah, it would be very difficult to make the journey all the way to Oregon with multiple slaves, in tow and they would not have been welcomed into what would later become the state of Oregon because he settled in Oregon before Oregon was actually a state. Oh okay, so eighteen forty three not a state. Right Upon moving westward and eventually settling in Oregon, he was known by his neighbors as a hospitable, well to do man. His was a life of relative and well established wealth. By eighteen forty five, the Delaneys had established a home and farm in the Limb Valley to the south of Salem, now known as the Delaney Edwards House. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Just outside of Turner, Oregon, the Delaney Edwards House has seen more of history than most of us can imagine, though in truth, most records officially list a Salem address for the home. So Salem, Turner, you know, kind of an interchangeable Yeah. I think it's

12:09 sort of like how people living in Gresham or like Milwaukee might just say Portland when they're outside of Oregon. You know, it's like I'm just going to point to the nearest feasible, like, you know, the closest city exactly, you know, Portland. You may not really like know some of the surrounding area, but close enough. The Delaney Edwards House is one of the three oldest standing houses in the entire state. Portions of the home date back as far as eighteen forty five. That was already a couple of years after the Delaneys arrived in Oregon, but it was nearly a decade and a half before Oregon achieved statehood.

12:50 So let that sink in this house was already already sheltering generations when the ink was still drying on the state constitution. That like we were there, you guys, Like we. Were in the house that was this old, I know, before we were even a state. That's so crazy, Like I'm still getting chills thinking about it. Yeah, Like they're to think about how much energy is just there from like that had soaked into the wood and the walls and the. Yep, she got a lot of energy. Yeah, Like I wonder if that's what if you just like felt everything there and just exploded your brain and a little bit.

13:31 I don't know. I mean, I'm really like part of me is like I kind of want to go back and see, and part of me is like, maybe don't. We're definitely invited back. So yeah, that's why I Chelsea would love to have a slumber party there with us. I know, And and honestly, I think maybe we can do a little bit of preparation to maybe, you know, create a little. Bit of a of a barrier for a little energy. Sponge such just the self. Yeah, so we'll see, maybe we can make it happened. Recognized for its historic significance, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in July of two thousand and four, which, honestly, what took so long?

14:13 I know that. And as you all know, if you've listened to last week's episode, we've been there, and every episode for like the last couple of weeks. Right, the last couple of episodes, if you've listened, Yeah, we've been there. We keep braging about it, deal with it. Originally built by Daniel Delaney and his wife, Elizabeth McGee Delaney, the home first stood about three hundred feet from where it rests today. It was eventually moved to a sturdier foundation to ensure its long term preservation. Good call, I know, a second chance of sorts for a structure that's lived through more than its share of stories. Constructed as a wood frame farmhouse, it has evolved through generations, the eighteen forty five original structure, followed by a parlor edition and kitchen expansion with a charming wrap around porch in the eighteen seventies, then a woodshed in the early nineteen hundreds that, through a modern lens, looks more like a garage. Today, this layered piece of Oregon history operates as a bed and breakfast, an occasional host of seances and various salons, welcoming guests into a space that stood through more than a century and a half of change.

15:31 I want to do a seanceer so bad. But when you step across that threshold, it's hard not to wonder how much of the past still lingers here. This house has stood through pioneer struggles, a brutal murder tied to its builder's name, and the slow march of history. And while generally it's considered a place of comfort today, it's also a space that seems to hold whispers of everything it's witnessed. If only walsk talk. Oo, which technically like their walls kind of do, because there's stuff written on them and they're like preserved. I didn't find the home of particularly comfortable space, But then I hadn't expected to experience searing pain in my head and the wooziness typically associated with seasickness. Our gracious tea brewing and gregarious host, Vicky, on the other hand, has nothing but good vibes.

16:28 Oh seriously, Oh that reminded me too. Sorry, I just got really excited because I forgot this, But I remembered. Vicky is in Ghosts of the Grand too, so if you go there you'll see her. She's like in the show. Yea super fun But we digress. I meant to add that to the beginning. Getting back to our frontier days. One of the men who frequently enjoyed the hospitality that mister Daniel Dulaney was seemingly known. For was George Beale. Beale had once worked for Delaney and was a familiar face around the farm. He was handsome, charming, and ran a saloon where the Marion Hotel would later stand. Local said he belonged to a respected fraternity and plenty of people liked him. But behind the charm, it seems Beale had a habit of talking too much about things that back then and perhaps even now would have been considered impolite topics in some circles like locker room talker.

17:28 Not exactly. He couldn't keep quiet about Delaney's wealth. Oh, in fact, he even knew that not only had Delaney recently sold off cattle, but also that, as a result, the man was keeping a significant amount of cash on hand. Beale, the wobblin' jaw really couldn't help himself, that chatty chad. In the Old West, a person who drank too much and talked too much was often called a wobblin jaw. I love that is a legitimate old timey slang term. The slang term was used for someone whose inebriation loosened their tongue and caused them to ramble or talk accessible excessively.

18:14 My goodness, I feel like I met a wobble in jaw this weekend. Oh, my goodness, you surely did. He began bragging about how easy it would be to rob the old man. Oh, oh, that's fucked. Wait. Okay, so the wobble and jaw was talking about how easy it was. Okay, I know, are we surprised? No? No. Enter George Baker, a recent arrival to the Salem area. Baker was a butcher by trade. Whispers circulated about his personal life, including his marriage to a Native woman. Of course, this was likely considered a dark mark against his character. Historically, the wild West didn't exactly embody the love is love ideal.

18:58 Oh yeah, but then you have the other people like the Fur Trading Company that like encouraged their employees to marry Native people. Yeah, and I think that was much earlier, was it. Okay? Yeah, and I think you know, it's very like regionally and it in that case, it makes sense because that was a that was purely driven by capitalism. Yeah, and yeah, they wanted them to be like incorporated so that they could like take over. Yeah, yep. And then they were like, Okay, then don't marry them anymore. We've got what we wanted.

19:39 That's so fucked the fuck, Yeah, you guys. History really sucks anyway. Baker's frequent visits to Beale's saloon soon led to something far darker than camaraderie. Together, Beal and Baker hatched a deadly plan. On Sunday, January ninth, eighteen sixty five, the two men arrived at Delaney's home, their faces darkened in disguise because obviously there wasn't already enough racism in this story, so. They were purposely darkened their faces like colored it not just like where it wore like a ski mask.

20:22 Nope, they were doing like blackface. Okay. Basically, one knocked at the door asking to be directed to the house of Delaney's son. The old man stepped outside. From their accounts differ on the exact sequence of events, but what's certain is that a musket fired and Daniel Delaney was killed on the spot. Wow, they just knocked on the door, he comes out and they shoot him, pretty much. Yeah, And I mean, I know you said it wasn't clear, like exactly clear, but. That's that's kind of what I've distilled down as like the established events, there are kind of like some other like more minor details that are sort of bandied about, and you know, oh, it could have gone this way, or you know, they could have said this or that, and it's like, I don't really care. Yeah, this was you know, over one hundred and fifty years ago, so yeah, you know what I mean.

21:17 It's like, in the end, we know, here's a couple of things that for sureseys happened, it just seems so scary and so sudden, like you just never know, you answer your door and next second you're done. No, for sure, the wild West was not a kind mistress. That's a fuck the thing. Why? I mean, so that if anyone saw that, they would think that that black people did it, did the crime. I I'm not really sure. I'm not sure if they thought it was going to disguise them, or if they thought, oh, this will totally fool people and they'll think that, you know, yeah, I just I can't. I can't fathom, because I really don't think that either of those things could be accomplished by the rudimentary tools that they had at their disposal. And also, again, eighteen sixties Oregon, there's not that many people just peopling about.

22:18 The chances we're going to be seen. Well, I think more importantly, it's kind of like kind of everybody knew everybody, right, there's not that many fucking people. So who else do you think they are gonna think? It was? Yeah, like I know, your face brout coloring, yeah, you know. And here's the thing is like maybe that would obscure their looks. Just I don't buy that it and it super didn't work spoiler alert, so stay stupid. The pair ransacked the house, taking about fourteen hundred dollars in cash, though some believed the hall was much greater, but their crime would hardly go unnoticed as they had hoped.

23:07 Did they use permanent paint on their faces? That would have been hilarious. I don't think there was really such a Like they didn't have sharpies back then. But that would be really funny if they just something and they couldn't get it off, so then they should just had. To walk around like that. I didn't really tug at that thread as to like what they were using to darken their faces, But I have to imagine like at hole or something grease ash, cold, like, yeah, something of you know, who knows, shoe polish, nothing great, nothing you probably should put on your face. I hope it was like dog shit, cowshit, some sort of poo poo. These doo dooo smear motherfuckers. Yeah, A girl can dream, and I'm gonna picture. I'm gonna go ahead and just picture that they put dodo on their faces.

23:54 Yeah, and then you then you could call them dodoo face. Do do faces? SUPI? Yeah? Like when we talked about the do doodler. Yeah, living with Delaney was a young black child named Jack de Wolf. Now one might ask themselves why was a young black child living with Delaney at the time, which is a fair question. There's speculation both Jack and his brother Noah were fathered by Delaney. Oh, getting around town. Well, I mean, technically if it were true, not even getting off his own property. Well you'll see, you know, it's convenient.

24:37 Convenience, convenience, of course, of course. Yep. The language used to describe Jack in historical sources was, as you can probably sadly imagine, super duper racist and or cruelly demeaning, oftentimes both. What matters is this Jack was clever and brave. When he he heard the chaos unfold, he managed to stay hidden, apparently concealed in the nearby woodshed. Oh uh. It was described alternately as like a wood pile. It's kind of unclear it he was in a stack of logs. Well, could have been a wood pile and a woodshed. Yeah, what a wood check, you know that whole bit.

25:24 Yeah. AnyWho, Jack saw and heard more than enough to later identify at least one of the intruders damn Jack. Wow. Yeah, so he was like able to even watch because that would be so scary. Did you say how old he was or just that he was a kid, you know? So I came across several different published ages, so anywhere from like seven to twelve. Okay, but yeah that's really young still to just know that you need to watch and just see who's doing it so that you could help. Wow. Yeah. Just knowing that, like, oh, something bad is happening, and having the wherewithal at any of those ages is you know, you just.

26:11 Look like you see if something bad happening, you don't want to look at it. Yeah, yeah, or adult anybody. Yeah, it's just bad. By morning, Jack told relatives what he'd witnessed. As traces of the men's disguise were discovered. Suspicion fell squarely on Beal and Baker. A distinctive hat band and the materials used to darken their faces were recovered near a watering trough on Turner Road. With evidence mounting quickly, both men were arrested. Their trial began that March. So, I mean the murder happened January ninth, March, We're going to trial.

26:53 I'm like honestly, great police were, you know, not bad for the time, but you found the evidence. Listen into a black child. Yeah, and actually, and I won't quote the specifics on this because here's the thing is, it's reported multiple ways as to whether or not his testimony was actually used in court. Technically because at the time it would have been illegal for Jack to testify. Oh okay, wow, because you know racism. Yeah, just casually. I never thought about that. Well, technically he was illegal just being there president in the state. And we'll get to that.

27:37 Don't worry, dude, this is like also complicated. There's so much more racism. It's wild. Okay. The trial was swift, the entire region seemingly eagerly awaiting their punishment. Beial and Baker were locked away in a small red jail tucked into a corner of the courthouse grounds. Meanwhile, carpenters worked nearby. The Wilber brothers were busy constructing double gallows in a grove of young oak trees at the corner of Church and Mill Streets. If you pass that area today, the oaks are massive, immature, but they still stand as solemn witnesses to Salem's history.

28:18 Dude, I totally forgot about this part because I semi looked into this was like the only thing I kind of looked into. It was like the how much not like a ton because I wanted to see if you could still go to the spot. M h. A lot of what I was seeing about hauntings in connection to the Delaney case was actually in this spot. That's why I was like kind of drawn to like researching that more So, I completely forgot about it though, because I dropped it. Yeah, and then yes, I'm glad you brought it back up. I really want to still go. I want to go visit that spot. Oh I do too. Yeah. The courtroom was reportedly quite a spectacle throughout. On one side were heavy hitting prosecutors Williams and Mallory.

29:09 It's getting. On the other Beal and Baker's defense team. It was a clash of Oregon's legal titans of the time, whatever that means, because. They're probably the only legal titans of the time. Yeah, I mean the eighteen sixties of it all. I bet they just. Had fun, though, Like old timey courtroom is just a place I want to It just seems like a circus. Oh yeah, No, I mean people were like smoking openly. I don't know if women were allowed in this particular courtroom, but it was not uncommon for them to be like, oh, this part of the testimony, you know, the ferror, the delicate sex just shouldn't hear, so they would, you know, usher women out.

30:03 I was picturing like when you when I said circus and everything. I was picturing like women standing up and go like oh, like fainting and like oh I. Can't yes, oh the scarlett O'Haras. Yeah. Still in the end, the testimony of young Jack de Wolfe, combined with the overwhelming circumstantial evidence, sealed the case. On March twenty fifth, eighteen sixty five, the jury returned a guilty verdict. Beale denied his guilt to the end, but Judge Ruben Boise or Boise, it spelled like Boise wasn't having it. That's the important part. He was not having it.

30:44 He literally told Beale to his face that he was lying. Shit. I thought the judges were supposed to be like impartial. Well, I mean at this point he's already been found. Dudgety okay, okay, yeah, I can't judge. Yeah, I pretty Joji even for Oh god, we should make that a T shirt for the judge, even for a judge. Yeah, I want judges to wear that everywhere. That'd be so great. We need more lady judges. I think that would get that, that would get people going, like lady Judges's sure. We're going it's propocative. On May seventeenth, eighteen sixty five, Judge Ruben Boise, I'm going, I'm going hard on the Boise sentenced George Beale and George Baker to death by hanging.

31:32 That's kind of how they did it back then. And they were both Georgia's I guess I didn't realize that. Yep, real common name Salem turned out for the Dark Spectacle. People came in wagons from Marion, Polk, Yamhill, and Lynn Counties, probably a lot of other places. Who knows. Some of the spectators came on foot. They walked to see someone die. Yeah, families brought their children. Can you imagine, Like that's not easy travel either back then. Like I have to assume it was people that lived in the nearby surrounding area that came on foot. But I don't know. I guess, yeah, I guess, Okay, the walkers maybe were close.

32:14 I just hope, I hope. I don't know. Listen, I don't know what to hope for in this case. It's real dark either way. Entertainment, You know, people are willing to do anything for entertainment. Think about like the Romans. Yeah, yikes, the men in their finest clothing, top hats and waistcoats. Amongst the eager strangers, there were also familiar faces barflies who used to haunt Beal Saloon, now waiting to see their old drinking companion meet his end. Jesus Christ. I will say it was very common when they were doing a public execution for people that like knew that. That's intense.

32:55 Yeah, but it's like, I mean, you kind of I feel like I wouldn't you feel you need to be there for like that person, as gruesome and awful as that is. I don't know. I honestly don't know how to answer that. Questionhoud Nope, anyway, I really don't. Among them was a boy named t t Gear, just a child. He'd once lived with the Beeal family. He carried a lunch his grandmother had packed, and walked seven miles to the gallows. See you seven miles? Yeah, Wow, okay, but get this. Thirty years later, as governor of Oregon, he would recall that day in his autobiography, describing the deep revulsion he felt at being part of the crowd.

33:46 So the kid became the governor. Yes, the little kid who walked seven miles with his greennies lung with his pack lunch and was so grossed out. What a good child, what a good human? And so not long after, Beal and Baker were led to the hastily erected double gallows and were executed before a massive crowd. The throng of spectators was said to have numbered anywhere between one and five thousand, all there to witness Salem's first execution, cementing this crime as one of early Salem's most notorious murders. God, that's a lot of fucking people for backside.

34:26 Were the wild West? Yeah? That's crazy. Did you say that they built those gallows before they were even found guilty? Yep? Wow, I don't know. Yeah, something something doesn't really sit right with that, right. Why was it the first Did they just put it into law or did they just not need to execute anyone until this point? I'm not sure. I think a lot of times, especially in the wild West as. It were, They're just like, hey, let's kill these guys. I think, yeah, I think a lot of people died, and like, especially prior to statehood, a lot of those things wouldn't have been officially documented. Oh yeah, interesting.

35:08 As a territory, I think there were a lot of things that probably occurred that it's harder to document officially. That makes sense. It wasn't just the crowd or the condemned making noise that day. Hawkers cut through the hush with their sales. Pitch One printer Frederick G. Schwatka had rushed to print copies of the men's confessions. Hawkers, in this context you can think of as essentially small time murderabilia dealers. He sold them as morbid souvenirs whoa In those confessions, Beal and Baker admitted their guilt, but each tried to pin the worst of it on the other. So here's the other thing is they had confessed in some former fashion.

35:55 I wasn't there. I can't say if they were, you know, in some way coerce. But what little ships though, man, they're I was there were more and better stiff me. Some witnesses never forgot what they saw. E M. Cross Croissan. That's how I'm saying it, because that is how I have said it every time I've looked at the name in my notes and in the source material. It is I am obsessed with a buttery croissant. So well she was not anyway, E M. Describe the Marion Rifles a militia unit. Important to note, uh, not to be confused with the Confederate Virginia Infantry unit.

36:43 Very different. They were in full dress and armed, forming a protective ring around the transport wagon, bringing Beale and Baker to the gallows. Like did was? Were they scared someone was going to murder them, like on the way there, or that they were going to say? I think the concern was more so escaped and you know that they might be assisted. By ah, some people on the outside. Exactly. Meanwhile, young Josie Lafour, just twelve, and the victim's granddaughter, so Daniel Delaney's granddaughter, recalled a final insult. One of the condemned spat in William Delaney's direction before the drop.

37:31 What the fuck while he was being. Hanged, right before he was being Yeah, whoa? So don't love that? That's rude. What did he do? I mean, I killed her relative and now I'm mad at you. I listen, don't it the math ain't math, and don't make don't ask me to make that make sense. I mean, Plus, the only thing I can think is if they were somehow falsely confused confused. It's not even because it's not. True falsely accused, Like then okay, be mad and like maybe spit on the but like did that guy even but not have anything to do?

38:12 I mean it's like literally one of the victim's family. Yeah, I think you're guilty, Like right, I think that's the whole point of that little tidbit Having been shared, Sheriff Sam Hendrick carried out the grim duty of pulling the lever, sending both men to their deaths. According to later accounts, he then dropped to his knees on the scaffold and prayed aloud for forgiveness. Well shit, yeah, I mean that's heavy. I know. I was just like holding my breath through that because, like I was like picturing for some reason, me having to do that for whatever reason, Like yeah, I mean I don't think.

38:52 I couldn't think even if you. Like truly in your heart of hearts believe that these two men, you know, did what they were accused of, and you're like, okay, they were found guilty by a jury of their peers. Whatever that looked like in eighteen sixties, that is that is still very very heavy. Yeah. I have a hard time even like I wanted to be a vet at one point and like just having to like picture putting dogs down, Like I was like, there's no way, even though it's good, yeah, like better for them, it's. Right, medical, it's the kind thing to do. I just don't. I can barely kill a fucking spider. We all know this. Yeah, yeah, me too, but for totally different reasons. The crowd began to disperse almost immediately, spectacle complete, and onlookers seemingly satisfied, they climbed into wagons and simply drove away.

39:48 But the bodies, well, the bodies were another matter. Baker's family eventually claimed him, taking his remains to rest in a family plot. Wasn't so fortunate. His family refused to take him back. It was Daniel Waldo, namesake of the Waldo Hills, who finally claimed Beeale's body, though he wasn't a man of faith or a churchgoer himself, he believed even a condemned man deserved a proper burial and a measure of dignity and death. Wow. Yeah, I remember reading something that was attributed as a quote about this, you know, from him at the time, and it said I may not be a Christian man, but if the church won't bury him, I will. Essentially.

40:39 I was literally just thinking something along those lines. How is the community just not even just wanting a dead body hanging out in the open, right? I mean, if nothing else, but I don't think they had a real grasp on bare minimum sanitation. Yeah. He hauled the coffin to his farm, turing Beale on the hillside and erecting a simple fence to enclose the grave site. Today, if you were to drive the highway between McLay and Shaw, though the fence has long since fallen away, you might spot the lonely grave marker of George Beale, Salem's first executed murderer.

41:21 WHOA well, we should go find it one of two. Yeah, but not everyone's story ended at the gallows. There's a strange, somber continuity between Beale's burial and some aspects of Rachel's story, a shared thread of suffering, and the faint, imperfect Mercy's history offered them both. For Beale, it came in the form of a stranger's compassion when his own family refused him burial. For Rachel Belden, it meant survival in a place codified cruelty, yet seemingly spared her the worst of it. Rachel Belden, who you recall, was noted not only the mother of one of the key witnesses, Jack to Wolf, but also the enslaved caretaker of Missus Delaney, ran the household and tended their garden. When the Delaneys brought her to Oregon, settlers assembled in Shampooy had just passed the eighteen forty three Organic Law. It established the provisional government of Oregon, including the prohibition of slavery. It wasn't until eighteen forty four that another law was passed designed to exclude and punish free black people who tried to settle in Oregon. However, the law was rarely enforced.

42:40 Records mentioned only a single known instance of someone being forcibly removed, so there was no effect on the Delaneys or Rachel Belden. Upon their arrival in the state, nor during the twenty plus years she was enslaved to the Delaney family in Oregon. Even though the last law was never in form it should be noted that didn't mean a number of black residents in Oregon weren't targeted and harassed in an attempt to make them flee or see them permanently removed. I don't like that. Well, like I said, prior to becoming a state, I think there's a lot of things that may not have been officially documented. I think it goes without saying that there's a strong possibility in some rural communities that bad things could have happened that were supported by the very now antiquated and awful laws that were established here in the then territory prior to statehood.

43:41 Yeah, I feel like it's pretty much just guaranteed. Like I don't. I don't think it's like a probably. Yeah, I kind of think so too. I mean, the fact that there are no documented cases means that that's all it means is there's nothing that was documented, and that's all there is and that's all there's going to be. It's particularly relevant because following Elizabeth's passing, Rachel finally gained her freedom. By the early eighteen sixties, she was manumitted freed from the Delaney household after more than two decades of service. I mean, some sources say she was pushing nearly three wow, three decades of service. Not long after, on September fifteenth, eighteen sixty three, she married Nathan Brooks, a seventy year old widower who, like Rachel, had known more than his share of hardship. Their union was officiated by Reverend John Stip, a white minister, something unusual enough in that era to make local headlines.

44:44 That was documented. Yeah, and you know what, it happened again that same year, the marriage of America Waldo and Richard Bogel drew attention for the very same reason. When the couple wed, Rachel already had two sons. Again, they were leave to have been fathered by Daniel Delaney Senior, and Nathan had five children of his own together. They later welcomed two more sons and settled on the farm of Daniel Waldo. His name lives on in the hills nearby. Daniel Waldo just seems like a real good fucking dude. Really, Yes, he's the one who buried the unclaimed murderer. Okay, he lived on his property. He seems like a solid fucking dude.

45:29 I really, Oh, I kind of want to look into him deeper, but I'm afraid because I'm like, oh God, no, please, don't be secretly trash. Yeah, but it sounds like from what we know, Yeah, he sounds like a solid human. Knock on wood, you know, salt over the shoulder, you get it. It was there only a few miles east of the Delaney property that Rachel built the rest of her life. No longer bound to the household where her story began, she lived to the age of eighty one, passing away on October twelfth, nineteen ten, a survivor in every sense of the word. Just a year after Delaney's murder, though, Rachel Belden Brooks brought a civil suit in Salem for compensation from the estate of the late Daniel Delaney Senior.

46:21 She legally sought payment for the decades of labor she and her sons had provided to the family throughout her years of enslavement. Wow, certainly a bold move for the time. Seriously, Like, my I'm like my jaw dropped, my eyes are wide. I love her. I had no idea. In the end, she won the case, Holy shit, though she was awarded only one thousand dollars, far less than the ten thousand, three hundred and thirty three dollars and thirty cents she had requested. Residing judge is said to have concluded that the food and shelter that Delaneys had provided to Rachel and her children were nearly adequate compensation for their labor, which is kind of bullshit. But she still won.

47:14 Well, I mean, she was allowed to live on her own, to make the money to buy her own food and shelter. It's kind of a yeah, but whatever kind of judge for a judge. After Nathan's death in eighteen seventy four, Rachel took ownership of their one hundred and forty four acre homestead on the west side of the Willamette River. Hell yeah. She not only managed the land, but sustained her family's livelihood there for decades. When she passed away in nineteen ten, she was laid to rest beside her son Noah at City View Cemetery in Salem. I want to visit her grave too. I know Rachel's life remains remarkable. She stands among Oregon's first black pioneers and is recognized as the first documented black woman to live in the state. Her story reflects both the harsh contradictions and the rare opportunities that define the lives of black Oregonians in the mid nineteenth century.

48:15 Rachel's story stands as an equal companion to that of the Delaneys, a reminder that the legacies of power, violence, and resilience are often bound together in Oregon's early history. The same household that once embodied the privilege afforded to families like the Delaneys in pioneer days also became the setting for Rachel's eventual independence. In some ways, Daniel Delaney's name has faded into the footnotes of frontier crime, while Rachel's life continues to serve as an example of how an unlikely individual can leave a lasting impact in bold and enduring ways. I will say she does not feature dominantly in the same way in Oregon history, and I think we understand that that is, I mean, just the most typical and awful whitewashing that we just have come to expect. Obviously, I mean a black woman, how dare she.

49:20 And she did something completely amazing too, like yeah, wow, to stand up for herself, knowing like what could happen to her if she did? Yep, from history, Like from the history that she has witnessed her entire life. Her journey from enslavement to landowner remains one of the most compelling and overlooked chapters in Salem's past. And I had to fact check that as I was writing it, because I was like, wait, holy shit. In the United States, women couldn't have their own credit cards in the nineteen sixties and seventies. I think nineteen seventy four was when it became legal for women to have their own own credit card. Are we sure that she actually owned the land? Like, I'm it happened through inheritance, Okay, but yeah, great, she sure fucking did.

50:10 Like that's amazing. Stories like Rachel's remind us that history isn't just written in court records or carved into headstones. It lives in the choices people made when the world gave them few good ones. The Delaney case may have begun with violence and greed, leaving behind a complicated legacy, but also carries the quiet power of survival and self determination. Rachel Beldon Brooks didn't just endure Oregon's early years. She reshaped what it meant to belong here, and in doing so, she thrived, and long after the echoes of the gallows faded, her life still speaks.

50:54 Thank you, thank you for telling me about her. I'm so glad you found like anian for on it. I'm so glad it's not completely completely gone. I know I'm going to send you something. Oh, okay, you sent me a writing. It is hard to read. Yes, it's very cursify and old timey. Take a look and see if there's any of it that you can make out, and then I will tell you what it is. I see, Daniel Delaney. Is it a check? No? I saw it looks like one hundred and fifty dollars. So I'll try to read what I can make out of it. Okay, received of Daniel Delaney four hundred and fifty dollars in full payment for a black girl named Rachel, aged fourteen years. There's a lot of it that you can't make out. It's signed, and it is dated September eighteen forty two, when she would have been just a very young teenage girl. It's literally a receipt.

52:10 I was like being positive. I was like, oh, is it a check, It's a fucking receipt. No, it's a receipt for a human being. Wow, that's gross. Yeah, but like in fourteen, it also makes me wonder, you know, like we know that possibly she had I mean, she definitely had children, but like the father was possibly Daniel Delaney, right, it just makes me wonder if he bought her at fourteen. It's just giving me vibes of that celebrity guy who adopted a daughter and then like married or later like oh woody Allen. Yes, it's giving me those vibes. And I just really I'm really glad that she like got something out of it, you know, like if if it wasn't a good situation for it's making me very uncomfortable.

52:55 Yeah, it's kind of the worst. I found some really interesting photos from various decades of the house's existence pertinent things related to the case, but that was the one that stuck with me. It is literally a receipt for the sale of a human being, an actual child. Boy, though, did she have one hell of a come up. Yeah, I'm glad, sheep, gosh, I'm so glad that she did such amazing things and got that land, and yeah, because she fucking. Worked for it too. She worked for all of that. Yeah, so deserving.

53:39 And there's so many facets to this case because I feel like it really just highlights kind of the cruelty of the era really because it's like, I think about the fact that they were constructing gallows before the men were convicted. I don't feel good about that, and they may have been guilty of sin, but holy shit, insane. Yeah. I mean, there's there's a lot of things to not feel great about news case, unfortunately. And it's like, gosh, we've come so far as humans, but have we? But also have we? I guess we're not. Yeah, you read my mind. Outwardly constructing gallows before people are found guilty, But we might be doing it metaphorically.

54:26 I mean, we're keeping children in cages and a lot of other awful things. But but I digress. Should we do some taro about it? Yes? Please? I really want Rachel Vibes for this card. I just really really do. I want her to come. I want her to come through the cars pick a card for us, Rachel. I have the cards drawn in kind of like a a half moon. Right, Rachel will tell you it's the Six of Swords. And it looks like kind of like a crab looking thing, Oh, like a hermit crab. Yeah.

55:12 Interesting, Okay, we haven't gotten this one. I don't think we have. No. It just makes me think of like her holding the household on her back. Honestly, who is it? Is it a hermit crab like going towards a bigger shell. It kind of looks like like needing to. Get like out growing its home. That's like suffocating it because it's like being enslaved, you know, like trapped and then needs to grow. And be free. Okay, so I'll start with the little book and yeah, like you nailed it, the Six of Swords, it's a black eyed hermit crab, and the key phrases are finding a new home, escaping a bad.

55:54 Situation, departure, starting over a right of past. Moving is such a pain. It never goes quite as smoothly as you hope it would. On the off chance you actually find the perfect shell, half the time another crab is already scheduling toward it. And those moments when you've left your old you've left your old home and aren't in the new one, yet are terrifying, not least because you're easy pickings for a goal, not to mention. Maybe the new place doesn't even work out, there's some gross sand at the bottom, or it doesn't fit quite right. Well, good luck getting back in your old house when some other crab has already claimed it. Plus it takes months to settle in. All that time spent molting barely sticking your head out of the sand, it's enough to make you want to give up on moving all together. But then I think about all the shells I've had, how I've grown into each one and then outgrown it. Every move I've ever made has been for the better. Oh that's so Rachel.

57:07 Wow, this is all the all the stuff she had to go through to get to like her final destination, her final home. It's crazy. Like we are talking a lot about a house too. Yeah, like that whole thing was like about home house like. Yeah. Keywords are movement, escape, a change for the. Better escape a wow, literally escape change for the better man that yeah. The Six of Swords represents moving away from past troubles, putting them behind you. It marks the beginning of a new phase after a time of upheaval. Some decks depict a person in a boat ferrying six swords, symbolizing pain, struggles, regrets, or losses across the water, so the wounds can heal on another shore.

58:04 Wow, and she experienced all of that. Yeah. The upright sixth suggests smooth sailing ahead as you leave behind the trauma and sadness of the past. You're embarking on a new path, and the changes you make now are based in the wisdom you've gathered through suffering. Sometimes this card symbolizes a journey, either a physical or spiritual nature, perhaps a vision quest. Wow, she definitely went on a journey man, Yeah she did. In a reading about money, you've learned much as a result of past difficulties and now have more clarity that can help you benefit financially well.

58:48 Yeah. Literally. Sometimes this card recommends letting go of an investment or possession. It can also represent relocation or travel for financial reasons. If the reading is about your job, this card shows your work situation improving. I think she has a sense of humor. Perhaps you've resolved past problems, or you've chosen to move to a different position that suits you better. Sometimes the upright six symbolizes a business trip. In a reading about love, the upright six indicates you and a partner have resolved major problems and arrived at a place of harmony and understanding.

59:32 Let bygones be bygones. In some cases, this card means leaving an unworkable relationship for something better. Wow, I was sort of thinking about what the loved one was going to say. Mm hmm. I was wondering if she had any hard feelings for Daniel, you know, like we just talked about, you know, the receipt and all the things that may or may not have happened, like we I really have no idea I was. I was just wondering, like how she was feeling about it. Obviously I don't know for sure, but I feel like she's telling us like it is what it is, Like I got my boys. Out of it, like I got my land out of it.

1:00:13 I ended up with, Yeah, another man. I honestly, I think by because here's the thing, based on you know, the things that we know about the timeline, it seems like Rachel and her boys were still living on the property after she was technically a free woman, and then you know, she married at a certain point and it wasn't until after Delaney died that you know, she went after the estate. And I think in the end, it's like it seems representative of let bygones be bygones. I'm holy shit. I don't know how you let literal slavery ever factor into that, but I think that in her case, she won the lawsuit. She ended up being the first documented black female resident in Oregon. She went from.

1:01:11 Literal slavery to property ownership. If he left her the land, right, or did she just inherit it because she was because they were married, That's right? Okay. You know, it sounds like whatever chunk of land that she had inherited that was that was specifically through her marriage, not because of her relationship whatever that allegedly or factually was with Delaney. I was just wondering too, like, if he really didn't want her to have it, he could I'm sure he could have written a will or something leaving it to somebody else. I really don't know how that would work. Yeah, I mean, certainly. I'm sure they had ways of stopping a woman from owning land if they really really want to.

1:01:54 So yeah, I mean, and here's the thing is that you know, she had two so and and he had five children before they got married. But Nathan and Rachel had two additional children together, So it's very possible that, yeah, like maybe he could have written into a will that he wanted you know, all of his earthly possessions to go to you know, their shared biological children. Anything's possible, I guess any you know, it's a I want to know. I need more details. Rachel spills the tea.

1:02:37 I know. To be honest, it really it sounds like in the end, this was a woman who was you know, about her business and about not just moving on and surviving, but figuring out a way to go for what she deserved. And and like I said, to thrive. Thrive is like the word I was thinking of. Yeah, she's amazing. Honest, I really feel like she pulled this card too, Like I was like really asking her because I'm like, we just love you, Kim Visit and pulled card for us. Truthfully, we just talked you up so hard. Girl, Come on, I don't it's hard for me to imagine us having pulled a better card for this case.

1:03:22 And I you know, it's hard because there are so many people like I said this. It really just this whole story for me just shows how how brutal things were at this point in history, and especially in an area that was like so brand new for for the people inhabiting it. Like obviously there had been people inhabiting it long before any of the settlers, you know, came west. But rough, dude, it was rough for the two guys that, Like, obviously, it really seems I don't have any qualms saying that they I mean, they were found guilty, and I believe they were guilty, but it is a raw deal to sit in the jail cell and hear your gallows being constructed.

1:04:09 Yeah, that's fucked. That's sometimes Daniel Delaney, slave owner, don't love that also though, don't kill people, Yeah, you know, but I feel. Like not to be like that person who like everything happened for a rethon. But he freed Rachel. It's so obvious how Rachel got such a raw deal for so many years, but then in the end, the way that her life so radically transformed. It's like, you know, it's rags to riches and then the complete opposite for for some. Yeah, I really wonder too, like how much money they've got because you said it.

1:04:50 Could have been more than the twelve hundred dollars or whatever. Fourteen fourteen dollars dollars is the amount that was reported, like very very widely. I did see some source of say nineteen hundred. I thought you were saying maybe that they had more and they hit it somewhere and like they weren't found with it or something very possibly like there's hidden treasure. This is what I'm getting at you, guys. I'm really excited about the fact that there might be hidden treasure. Okay, I need a national treasure. Situation that sat Yeah, absolutely so, just a quick Google search, fourteen hundred dollars in eighteen sixty five is worth I'm going to say approximately between twenty six thousand, four hundred and twenty six dollars today and twenty seven, eight hundred and twenty six dollars. I mean, it was a lot of money, But to kill somebody for thirty grand today, I'm like, once again I am.

1:05:46 Forced to state that no amount of money. Would I mean, yes, yes, but also I just would like to point out that wouldn't even pay off my student loans. So have a creepys day. See you next Tuesday unless I see you, Rachel, because like, come over anytime, girl. I know, seriously, you're invited whenever we want to hang out with you. Yeah, I know. Hopefully she's not annoyed by us. We're just fans. I mean, just like if you could just like be cool about it. Though, like I don't listen, I've had. A lot of ghosty. Oh my god, she said no, I won't be chill.

1:06:30 I'm freaking out. Is she going to come back? You have got to be kidding me? Okay, Well I logged back in because I was like, I guess I got kicked off, like I don't oh. My god, oh my god, oh my god. I was sitting here talking and I was like, okay, she said no, I won't be chill. It happened immediately after you said that. Looks so bizarre. Everything just like closed, like everything closed. And I was like, Rachel, Rachel, girl, who here. I get a calming vibe from her, though, like I feel like just the yeah, strong, no nonsense, you know. Yeah. That's why I feel like she slightly could get annoyed with us, because she's just like no nonsense.

1:07:13 And we're just like a one hundred and fifty percent nonsense, So that's tough. She can have a sense of humor. She showed us in the car she has a little sense of humor, but it's like but also like get it done, like stop. Yeah no, it's like that's tough to hang with. I get that. So she'll just visit us occasionally, but like you know, she won't be around all the time. That's the vibe I'm getting. I hope. So I think she'll be with us if we need like a strong I don't know why. I feel like now she's a part of our show. Yeah, Like I feel like she's gonna show up around us when we just need like a strong woman like get through it journey, like if we're ever talking about another woman like that, like she's gonna be around us.

1:07:54 I feel it. Rachel stands. Rachel Stands