Mantrap
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What challenges did Ed and Bertha Briney face with their farmhouse?
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Well, everyone knew everyone in this very small town called Eddyville, and everyone apparently knew the Brineys.
In 1957, a couple named Ed and Bertha Briney inherited an old farmhouse from Bertha's parents in a rural part of Iowa.
And they left it unoccupied for 10 years. And it was an uninhabited old farmhouse and out in the middle of nowhere, basically. But they kept items of value apparently in there.
Bertha Briney's grandparents and parents had lived in the house. After her parents died, Bertha Briney had wanted to keep things as they were, down to the plates and silverware on the kitchen table. We're hearing about the Brineys and their farmhouse from retired law professor Andrew McClurg.
People had repeatedly broken into this house.
According to the Brineys, in the decades since they inherited the house, it had been broken into 50 times. Ed Briney later said he'd nailed doors and windows shut, posted seven no trespassing signs around the property, and complained to sheriffs in two different counties over and over. But nothing seemed to work.
So they basically boarded up the windows and put tin over the windows to try to keep people from breaking in, but that was unsuccessful.
And that's when Ed Briney got out his shotgun.
because they were fed up, as I think Mr. Barney, I think those were his words, they were just fed up with people breaking in.
Ed and Bertha attached the shotgun to an iron bed frame and ran a wire from the gun's trigger to the bedroom doorknob so that if someone opened the bedroom door, the trigger would be pulled and the gun would go off.
Originally, the barrel was aimed to hit the intruder in the stomach. Ed Briney, the husband, wired it, and his wife, Mrs. Briney, that paragon of reasonableness that she was, suggested he lower it to just shoot the intruder in the leg.
Was there any sign posted outside of the house saying no trespassing or gun on premises, you will be shot if you enter?
There were no trespassing signs that they had on the land for several years. Just regular no trespass signs. There were no warnings that there was a deadly trap inside.
A booby trap.
A booby trap.
The population of Eddyville was around 1,000 people, Its main street was two blocks long, and just off of it was a gas station owned by the Katko family. 28-year-old Marvin Katko worked there with his father.
And he had an interest in collecting, apparently, jars and bottles that he considered to be valuable antiques. And one day he broke into an abandoned, not abandoned actually, an uninhabited farmhouse out in the country about seven miles away.
Ed and Bertha Briney's farmhouse. Marvin had noticed the house over the years when he went hunting in the area. It was surrounded by tall weeds. And some of the smaller buildings around the property were falling apart. According to court documents, Marvin had broken in once before with a friend to collect bottles, and they had decided to come back to see if there was anything they missed. The window they'd used to get in the first time had been completely boarded up, so they walked around the house until they found another window that was easier to get into, even though it was boarded up too.
So he removed a board or a piece of tin and entered the house.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What challenges did Ed and Bertha Briney face with their farmhouse?
0:00–13:53
2
What drastic measures did the Brineys take to protect their property?
13:53–17:58
3
How did the shotgun trap work that the Brineys set up?
17:58–29:40
4
What happened when Marvin Katko broke into the Brineys' farmhouse?
29:40–33:23
5
What legal case arose from the shotgun incident involving Marvin Katko?
33:23–40:20