what you're about to see is a shooting
incident reconstruction of a historical
event historical shooting this is one of
the earliest documented shooting
incident reconstructions done in the USA
there have been many shootings in the
USA over the years and there were many
books and other things written about
them but this is one of the few that are
fully documented and it may be the
earliest fully documented shooting
reconstruction I got interested in this
case because I read a book about
California history fascinating book it's
called one man's gold and what it is
it's a compilation of the letters of
eNOS Chrisman and his fiancee back in
Pennsylvania
Ellen Apple and they wrote back and
forth to each other and he described
what he was doing with what was
happening and so on now he had gone to
California in 18-49 to be a gold miner
to get rich like a lot of people did and
he took a boat from Philadelphia all the
way down under South America under the
Cape there and back up it took him I
think it was like eight months people
didn't believe that eight months trip
just to get there anyway it was a
fascinating book I really enjoyed it and
there's a picture of eNOS and then a
later picture of Ellen and they wrote
and he also kept a journal a really nice
journal described what he was doing and
what was happening and what what life
was like in California fascinating
reading but one of the one line in there
interested me greatly and that was when
Ellen wrote and said that there was a
big trial and back home in Pennsylvania
and it was a murder trial and it said in
speaking of the gun wadding
corresponding with a paper in his pocket
he said he which he said he intended to
burn it but when he returned to the
house he forgot well I thought what was
this about the paper wadding just got my
interest up so I looked into the case I
was able to contact the Historical
Society of Chester County Historical
Society and I was able to obtain the
actual transfer
trips of the trial that are handwritten
and they're very hard to read because
you have to get through the you have to
decipher the handwriting style to
understand all this but we work through
it and we were able to translate this
into understandable text and then I then
I really learned about the story what
had happened now here's the background
of it this happened in Chester County
Pennsylvania that's south of
Philadelphia I believe and there was a
schoolhouse the Rocky Hill schoolhouse
now this what you're seeing here is not
the actual schoolhouse it's a typical
type of schoolhouse of the - of the
period but September 28th and 1850
schoolteacher 18 year old Rachel
Sharples was shot and killed as she was
about to unlock the door of her
schoolhouse and she's found laying on
the schoolhouse steps with wounds to her
head keys in her right hand and her gold
watch in her pocket her little pouch
that she kept and that's important
important issue about the watch as
you'll see later not now the suspect
there was this fellow George Farrell who
lived in the area local guy 19 years old
and several people reported seeing
George that morning with a shotgun now
he carried a double-barreled percussion
shotgun that's a muzzleloading shotguns
different than than the type of shotguns
we see today and you'll understand the
differences later on so the sheriff was
called and the sheriff went to the scene
and talked to George because he was a
local there and he had a shotgun and
this is part of his trial testimony he
said he asked him George what do you
suppose any person shot that poor girl
for George replied that he didn't know
unless it was for her watch the sheriff
said well why did they not take the
watch then and he answered I don't know
unless the children or someone came up
too soon
interesting answers for someone now the
evidence that was starting to be
gathered was first of all there were
footprints in the area right by the by
the school and by a tree nearby and
Jorge shoes Jorge's shoes fit exactly
into those impressions the footprint
impressions but the key evidence was
wadding found at the scene
now what widening is I'll explain in a
minute but this wadding was collected
someone noticed it and collected it
luckily the wadding was a was from a
newspaper it was just piece of a
newspaper they've been wadded up inside
the shotgun for reasons I'll explain
well all these things are put together
Jorge Ferro is indicted and arrested for
murder now in the trial transcript
he said dr. John Hoskins is a local
doctor who was one of the first persons
to the scene and dr. Hoskins said I was
called on by the sheriff to go to Rocky
Hill school I went there as soon as I
could get there and when I got there I
went to the body I think I turned aside
the bonnet on the left side of her head
and discovered marks there which
afterwards proved to be shot marks and I
sent for the sheriff then proceeded to
an examination of the body before that I
saw a paper supposed to be the wad one
wad in particular I picked it up it has
been in my possession ever since that's
what we call chain of custody he didn't
he hadn't heard those terms yet but
that's important now I have it now this
is it and he brings it out in court it
was it was day when I found it laying
there it rained the night before but the
wadding was dry indicating it was a
recent wadding wasn't from the day
before or earlier there was several
pieces handed to me and may have been in
possession in my possession ever since
now he recovered pellets from the body
and from the door the door of the of the
schoolhouse was also was shot with the
wood pellets the shot was taken out of
the body and the school door have been
in my possession ever since the shot I
suppose our numbers three four and five
we weighed them and found them that they
found that there were three sizes now
shotgun pellets come in different sizes
in there they have a number to indicate
their size in this case there were
different sized shot in that door and in
that in the victims head so someone
fired a shotgun with different sized
shot inside dr. John Hoskins also
testified that dr. Worthington came to
the scene dr. Worthington was the
coroner and dr. Hoskins described what
happened he took a probe four or five
inches long out of his pocket and put it
in one of the shot holes you know that
we're in the door and the end of it
pointed to a large walnut tree as you
see it on the left side as you're
looking at it now that's indicating
because a bullet or a pellet going
making a hole through a solid material
will reflect back the trajectory of the
round coming in to it so you can tell
from that angle into the door you can
follow it out and it will indicate the
shooting location where the shot was
fired from it's a technique we still use
today and he put a measure on the door
for the measure of the pattern of the
pellets and found that it was 26 inches
in diameter and dr. John Hoskins further
stated I saw a wad lying on the ground
in a compact body the watt i picked up
was dried it had not been exposed to the
rain during the night it was colored
with powder it has some blackening from
the gunpowder
now that wad was found between the the
the school door and the tree as you can
see here what other red mark they're
indicating where the wad was found and
the Widing had readable text and it was
collected by the sheriff and the sheriff
investigates now he went to the suspects
house the suspect being George Farrell I
then asked him where his gun was he
handed me the gun I examined it i
likewise asked him for this powder horn
and shot pouch he's holding it up in
court
he brought them and also a game bag I
found a few grains of shot in the bag I
took them out and they are of three
different weights so in his bag that he
used to carry his shot he has shot that
were three different weights which was
consistent with what was found in the
victim
sheriff further stated I said these are
not the pantaloons you had on yesterday
he answered no they were not I said
where are they he replied upstairs and
luckily one of the kids one of his
siblings went up and got the pants not
allowing George to get him but somebody
else got the pants and presented him to
the sheriff so I said the sheriff said
George are these the pantaloons you had
on yesterday he said yes so was the
sheriff too he puts his hand in the
pockets of the pants and he says I put
my hand into his pocket I took out this
paper it was squeezed as if you had just
squeezed it in your hand I then opened
it and George without anyone speaking to
him said I did not know that was there
yesterday I did not use that kind of
paper yesterday interesting comment I
asked where he got this paper from which
I got from his pocket he said I got it
at the Gaussian store gostin was the
little town there nearby
so the sheriff goes to the store and he
talks to the clerk the clerk George
Speakman said this George Faro was at
the store on the 24th of September he
got some shot he got one pound of number
three shot one pound of number five and
he came back the next day and got two
pounds of numbers one and two in a
quarter of gunpowder and half a box of
caps of the percussion percussion caps
for the shotgun he then asked me for
some wadding I gave him some a Saturday
Evening Post
I gave no paper to anyone else he gave
them he gave him a page from a Saturday
Evening Post which was a very popular
newspaper back then and it lasted for
many many years after that
sheriff Darlington on the stand said I
called on dr. Hoskins and Jesse Matlack
to compare the paper I had taken from
George's pocket with what they had
we compared the paper I took from his
pocket with a wad the doctor had and
those with the paper of the same date
with one that I have in my pocket I
examine the wad
I believe it to be the same it has the
words of select poetry on it and is cut
like the wad was and he produces the the
these wadding in court and the page from
the Saturday night Saturday Evening Post
so now to summarize this so far we have
a wad found at the scene which came from
the shotgun or a shotgun and we have it
matching the paper that was in George's
pocket the two pieces fit together two
pieces fit together like a puzzle and
then that paper also matches the
newspaper in the store from which the
wadding came now if you're an expert
witness as I am and miss maybe some of
you were out there who would you call in
who would you call now if to to further
testify about the newspaper well you
bring in the printer The Saturday
Evening Post
printer and the printer is John Gilliam
and John Gilliam testified I am a
printer by profession in the office of
The Saturday Evening Post I'm a foreman
in the office I pronounce that this
paper from George Pharaoh's pocket to be
part of a Saturday Evening Post issued
May 25th 1850 and then when he was asked
to examine the wad found at the scene he
said this is part of a paper of the same
issue it belongs in the first column on
the first page on the ninth column on
the second page another piece of why was
shown to him this belongs to the
Saturday Evening Post of the same date
the side I hold belongs to the first
page The Saturday Evening Post from the
store the hold of the big issue from the
store from which the page was torn he's
shown to him and he says I know that
paper it is a Saturday Evening Post of
May 25th 1850 it is a genuine copy so we
are here we have the expert witness
being authoritative about that this is
the paper and this these wadding
sections came from the same paper now
here's a question if you're an expert
witness are you doing if you're
crime-scene analysts and you're doing
work is it possible if someone asked me
is it possible to match a fired paper
wad to a newspaper page remember the
murder weapon is a double-barrel
muzzleloading of black powder percussion
cap shotgun now if you ask me I had
never fired a I don't think IRA fired a
percussion cap shotgun I don't think I
were loaded once I wasn't really sure
how the wadding was placed inside the
gun but I got one and I got an expert on
all this to help me with this now first
of all you should know that this is a
modern shotgun cartridge it has
everything in the cartridge and you just
stick the cartridge in a shotgun and you
fire it and you can see it has a case
which is the outer layer the outer body
of it then it has the shot the little
lead balls then it has a wad which is a
plastic piece the most commonly nowadays
and then you have the gun powder the
powder charge and then you have a primer
that's what it ignites the powder which
then burns rapidly and creates expanding
gas and pushes the shot out the barrel
that's the way it's done now but with a
double-barrel percussion shotgun it's a
little different and you can see this
cutaway that I prepared you're looking
at the side the barrel there of a
percussion muzzleloading shotgun and you
see the powder is there and then you
have newspaper wadding why do you put
newspaper wadding in there or some kind
of wadding because you want to keep the
powder from spilling forward keep the
powder separated from the shot so you
put a piece of paper in there or a piece
of cotton something like that and you
Ram it down and then you pour the shot
into the shotgun barrel and the shot of
the little balls and then you need put
another piece of wadding so it'll hold
the shot in place so if you tip the the
shotgun down they're not going to roll
out so you'll have two pieces of wadding
you'll have a powder wadding and shot
wadding and then on the little lip up
here is that's where the percussion cap
goes and that's that that's the
equivalent of a primer so when that
hammer comes down and strikes the
percussion cap it causes a little flame
to go into the powder ignites the powder
and then everything is pushed out the
barrel by the expanding gasses so we
took a black powder shotgun to the range
we set up a door and we have a distance
which is similar to what was at the
scene and we fired it and we took
measurements and we did some video and
you'll see here one of the first things
we found is the other there's we put a
piece of newspaper in there for wadding
when we found the wadding it did show up
there were actually many pieces of
wadding and you see how it's blackened
like from gunpowder and we have a
pattern in the door and we stuck a probe
in the door see where it points back
towards and there's the probe pointing
back to the shooting point as you'll see
more we also did some T's we also did
some high speed video shooting of the
black-powder
gun and that's me using even with all
the modern technology we have I still
use a towel over my head to look at my
computer screen because it's so bright
in the sunlight that you can't really
see the screen with fancy computers you
have but they're not that bright so it's
the old Mathew Brady technique of
photography used here with high-tech
equipment and then we have the expert at
the range who's doing the work with the
shotgun and we'll watch a video of him
doing this work here's what we did we we
cut this so that we have a piece to load
in the barrel and we have a piece
against which we can compare it powder
charge approximately 3 grams of 2fg go X
D Steve is pushing in the newspaper
wadding forged into its compressed
tightly
pushing all the way down number four
buck is approximately 22 caliber
complaint a4 I'm sorry
and now we're going to make an overshot
wad so that the shot will stay in the
barrel if it's pointed down
okay
we've set up the door
pottsy the 40 feet away similar to the
shooting scene at the school
putting on the percussion cap hey we all
set there the bait big chunks i trapped
this one
this is a piece of the wadding that was
found on the ground after the shot and
you can see it was all crumpled up and I
flattened it out a bit you can see a
blue line here with some blue lettering
above it and a piece of a photograph
below the blue line now the original
newspaper that we cut this from is here
and if you you can match it almost
perfectly from the blue line and the
blue letters above it and the photograph
below you can also see a match with the
writing there from the black line now we
set up a probe in the door just in one
of the holes made by the pellets and
look where it points back to right to
the shooting location very good
indicator it's a 15 bore cylinder board
as all guns of that era were we use was
made by William Powell and son a
Birmingham firm but those shotguns were
sold in the United States that gun could
have possibly been the type of gun use
it's a long shot bit of a pun here we
see some of the shot that was recovered
from the door on the right
and then unfired pellets on the left you
can see how distorted they become the
ones on the right and now we did some
high-speed video to look at the dynamics
of the projectiles coming out with the
wadding and you can see here's a 10,000
frames per second you can just see the
shock of the shells coming out right
there I mean the pellets right there
and a lot of flame and a lot of smoke
member this is black powder we don't use
this in modern firearms we use what's
called a smokeless powder which doesn't
produce this much smoke now we're going
to shoot again and this time you'll see
a little clearer what is going on there
is a the the shot wad comes out first
and now you see the powder wad and if
you look to the left left of the screen
you'll see that the pellets are right
there there are the shotgun pellets
coming out and they'll go a long
distance well the newspaper wadding
won't and now we'll look at it from a
different point of view and here come
the pellets okay there then you just
flew by and there's a wadding lots of
water you can see that you'd have a lot
of pieces of wadding all over to use
newspaper
and then another one another shot
here comes look at that ball of fire
smoke soot newspaper and then the shot
will push through all of that there goes
a shot on the left side makes a big mess
and here's a close-up looking at that
percussion cap when the hammer comes
down hits that percussion cap and it
fires into the shotgun itself igniting
the powder and look at the mess of stuff
that comes out from inside the barrel
look at this here's a shot look at all
this nonsense
but it is flame still coming still
coming still coming
of course what you're seeing is few
hundredths of a second back to the trial
one of the letters written by Eno's
christmas fiance described a trial she
said there was so much excitement
hundreds of persons weren't able to get
within the courthouse it is supposed at
700 to 1500 persons were inside on the
last day of the trial among those were
700 females several fainted I think this
was like the OJ trial of its time very
big trial so the jury heard all this
testimony you heard little bits of it
and they found George guilty and George
after all this he had denied doing this
shooting the schoolmarm but after he was
convicted and sentenced he he gave a
confession and he said I had nothing
against Rachel Sharples she had never
done me any harm I just wanted to watch
and I never thought of any way to get
one George's sentence was death by
hanging and on the gallows there under
the noose he faced the the people
watching the spectators and he said God
be merciful to me a sinner that was his
last words and I know I don't know why
God would be merciful or anyone the
interesting thing was I found out that
he was hung by the same rope on the same
gallows as his uncle had been hung for
murder was he was also convicted of
murder five years earlier
both of George Fowler's defense
attorneys had also been the defense
attorneys for his uncle who was also
found guilty now if you knew what the
Georges uncle had done you could find a
connection there might be a genetic
predisposition for this type of behavior
because what his uncle does was his
uncle did was a completely cold-blooded
horrible murder of a 14 year old boy and
much similar to the the type of emotion
or lack of emotion that George would
have had in shooting this 18 year old
schoolmarm
for a watch so it
might be a case to study for that kind
of connection I don't know anything more
about what happened to the other
pharaohs in Pennsylvania thereafter and
the rocky hill schoolhouse was boarded
up it was never used as a schoolhouse
again a new schoolhouse was built
because people didn't like the memory of
what had happened there I got interested
in doing this because I thought this was
a very interesting shooting incident
reconstruction case and I was interested
in how they did that back then and I saw
that this was done very well they really
secured the evidence and they they made
use of the evidence in a very
intelligent way and there was strong
evidence to convict George and there was
no doubt about it but there's more
there's something else I learned
something unexpected and completely
unwelcomed my research indicates that
this shooting was part of an inglorious
shameful history that lives with us even
now this appears to be the first school
shooting in the United States the first
non war or Indian related school
shooting so from history we come to
reality