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I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.
She did not listen to it, but she said, girl, this title sounds so you.
And let me tell you, it did. I've been listening to it while I walk, and I am absolutely loving it.
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The sale ends 831. Don't miss it. Hey, weirdos.
I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid. And it's Elena-centric.
It's Elena-centric. So sit down and take a seat and get comfy.
Yeah. Yeah, unbutton your pants because I bet you just ate a lot of stuffing.
Because while we record this Thanksgiving hasn't happened yet, but by the time you get it, Thanksgiving has happened, so.
That's weird. Thanksgiving was delicious, everybody.
Amen. I got Alina's the best cook. I loved all the things that she made.
Everything came out perfect. It was a breeze.
Nothing lit ablaze in the kitchen. My charcuterie boards were a hit they were the ones i pinned on pinterest there you go as i was looking up curses too My garlic butter rub on my turkey just made it the moistest.
So I was going to say that I hated that you did a weird hand motion while you said rub.
But then I added rub. And then you said moist and now I quit our podcast.
So it's been real. Everybody fucking nasty.
But either way, I hope everybody was safe.
I hope everybody's healthy. I hope you all stayed put.
Yeah. And stayed in your little pod. Stay in your lane.
But yeah, everybody stay safe. And I'm glad that you're all here listening because it means you're safe.
So good job. Good job. I don't think there's really any business that we have to catch up on for this episode.
Now we just have to get ready for like the holiday.
The holiday. Christmas. Or Hanukkah. Or Kwanzaa.
Or anything that you celebrate in December.
Literally anything. Whatever you're celebrating that's ... Boxing day.
There you go. Whatever you're celebrating that happens during the winter.
You know, let's do it. The winter solstice.
Let's do it. I think that happens in December, doesn't it?
Sure. Why not? I'm not real sure. Everybody's gonna be like, no.
I think it actually does. But either way, I mean, the next, we're talking about my birthday, right?
That was the holiday we were talking about?
Yes. Correct. Yeah. Okay. I was just making sure.
Obviously. The one everybody celebrates.
The biggest holiday coming up. Alina's birthday is three days after Christmas.
Yeah. But don't worry, Elena never gets ripped off.
I don't. The only thing that sometimes happens is people hand me my birthday gift with Christmas wrapping paper.
And I get infuriated and I rage. I think this time, this time that I get you a birthday gift this year, I'm going to do half.
Christmas wrapping and half regular wrapping just to get you.
I'll be very angry. We're going to get a new P.O. box and everybody send Alayna Christmas gifts wrapped in Christmas...
No, no, no. Birthday gifts wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper.
Don't do it. It infuriates me. Do it, infuriator.
I want... birthday wrapping paper. What is so hard about it?
Why does everyone else get birthday wrapping paper and I still get Santa Claus?
I don't know understand that at least you're getting gifts Whatever.
No, if my birthday was near Christmas, I would be exactly the same.
I was gonna say, like you would be. My birthday?
June birthday. Let me tell you why Geminis are the best, honey, because June birthdays. you get your birthday, and then six months later, it's Christmas.
So you kind of get two birthdays in the year.
Well, you get... you get to celebrate all year round right it's like six months to each thing that's why june birthday is like the best like i'm gonna plan to have my children in june Good luck with that.
Thank you. Yeah. Let me know how that goes.
I will. I will. I'll let you know. So it's super easy to do.
So I think This case that we're going to do today, I'm going to begin it By giving you a ton of information on this really good book I read because I like devoured this book. in a matter of one night like sat down it was just like rawr rawr rawr Because it's so good.
Wait, I'm sorry. What were you like? Roar.
And it was so good. I wish that you could see the hand motions that Elena uses to describe things.
But I used this book and then I used a few articles and some newspaper clippings that I could find.
And the way I found this book, which I'm going to mention in a second, was initially I was looking for like I was just in, you know how you're in the mood for like an old-timey murder?
Oh, yeah. You just get in that mood. I'm in the mood for that a lot.
You and I have very different versions of old-timey murders, though.
Yeah, I know we do in that... Really hurts.
That hurts a lot of people listening to.
I just want you to know. No, I didn't mean the times.
I meant like you like a really like. fucked up old timey murder oh yeah i like like an old hollywood murder that's very That's a very glitzy murder.
I love a glitzy murder. And I like those ones that you're like, oh...
What? What have we here? And don't worry, this is one of those.
Awesome. So initially I was looking, looking, looking, and I like to look through like true crime books and see what I can find.
And I found this book called A Slayer Waits.
He does. The True Story of a Michigan Double Murder.
And it was by Rod Sadler. And I was like, ooh, this looks good.
Which, by the way, I'm going to cover that case in another episode. but i looked at it and i was like oh this looks good i might cover this and then i it like linked to another one by rod sadler the same author and i was like oh what's that And I saw it and it was called To Hell I Must Go.
And I was like, oh, that's the one. And you were like, me too.
I was like, oh my god, he wrote about me.
You were like, on my way, Rob. I was like, wow, Rod.
Oh, Rod. Sorry. Rod. So I saw this one, To Hell I Must Go, and I was like, that's it.
I got to cover that one next. okay so this that's how i got to this one but i also discovered he's written a third book shit called killing women A True Crime by Rod Sadler.
And it's about a serial. It's amazing. So he has three true crime books.
I highly recommend go read them because his writing is great.
His research is great. The dude is a retired police officer. in mid Michigan for 30 years.
Wow. I think he just retired in like 2012.
Congratulations, Rod. Yeah, he's amazing.
And he started researching this particular case that I'm going to cover Because his great great grandfather was the sheriff who worked on this case.
Oh my goodness. And he initially just went on like ancestry.com and like went to the newspaper at the local library and was like looking up stuff about his grandfather because he was like cool he's a sheriff i'm a police officer connection And then he found this crazy case that he worked on and he just did a crazy deep dive on it.
And it just opened this whole thing up. All right.
So Rod just really killed it. And I appreciate his work.
On his way to hell. Wow. He was like, I'm killing it.
He was like, I'm killing it. So this case is called the Michigan Lizzie Borden case by some.
Yeah. OK, so that's what literally like when I saw that, I was like, oh, OK, I'm in.
I'm here. Here I am. That's the only thing Elena has told me so far about the case.
That's all I've told you. And I was like, well, shit.
Cause I wanted to tell you everything. In fact, I literally just like word vomited this all over John last night.
And he was like, wow, at the end of it. He's like, hey, that's why you started a podcast and you didn't have to tell me all these fucked up things.
He was literally like, you just told me the entire story.
I walked by him while he was at his desk.
And I didn't have like a computer in my hands or anything.
And I was like, can I just tell you a really quick thing?
And I gave him a little tidbit about it.
And then I ended up telling him the entire story.
How long did it take you to tell him? I must have been standing there for at least 10 minutes because I gave him like an overview.
But he was at the end. He was like, whoa.
He was like, thank you for telling me that quick thing.
All right, so... This guy, so Rod Sadler's great-great-grandfather, like I said, was the sheriff on this case and we're gonna, his name was John Jacob I believe it's pronounced R-E-H-L-E.
He's of German descent. So I believe it's R-E-H-L-E.
Uh, he calls him JJ throughout the book and a lot of things I found have called him JJ because John Jacob.
Jingleheimer Schmidt. So I'm going to call him Sheriff JJ.
Because I like it. It's adorable. JJ. And it works.
So this takes place in Williamston, Michigan.
It was on April 23rd, 1897. So good and old timing. oh yeah we love it we love an old timey So Sheriff JJ received a telegram from Deputy L.
Deputy J.W. Loringer. This telegram said, because telegrams.
This telegram said that there had been a killing in town in Williamston and that he needed to come immediately.
Okay. So he had to get on a train to get there.
Like, it was a whole, it was very 1890s.
Yes. A very 1890s scene happening here.
The vibe was like so 1890s. So he gets there.
He meets his deputy. The deputy kind of fills him in a little bit on what he's about to walk into.
Row, row. But he's like, even after hearing about it, I was like, um, it can't be that bad.
But you should never say that. So he and the deputy arrived back on the scene. where a huge crowd had gathered, and they could smell the stench.
Of burning flesh permeating the air. Okay.
Permeating. Just permeating that air. Thank you. flesh smell you're like extra gross today a potpourri if you will that is not So this scene was a house located at 320 Elevator Street.
It was described everywhere I saw it, and when you see the picture of it, you will agree, it's described as a shack. like a little shack it's like a it almost looks like a one room house it's just like a little square I guess it did have a couple of rooms in it, but they must have been tiny.
Like very tiny. And it's like a very simple house.
It only had like a few windows. no trees around it just like open fields i don't like that um no paint on the house just wood Hate that.
When officers arrived, they noticed that the door was hanging on one hinge.
I hate that even more. And they were like, well, that's weird.
They also saw what they described as, quote, holes cut into the wooden doorframe as if someone had hacked away at it.
Wow, that was literally the perfect timing for that.
That's the kids downstairs. That was a really loud scream.
And it was perfect. That was so perfect.
That was one of my children, their new thing is that they've learned that they can scream at the top of their lungs and they're teaching the youngest one to do the same thing.
So it makes for a really, really calming household.
Yeah, the environment is so chill here every single day.
Always. I'm like a good thing I dye my hair gray because it's probably just actually gray at this point.
Oh, 100%. But either so. So no one's like in trouble, by the way.
That was a happy. Yeah, don't worry. It really set the mood, though.
It did. So thank you for that. Final girl vibes.
Yeah, love that. Bye. So the place was filthy.
It was clearly like... I mean, I think it was described as like squalor.
It was like... Like, come on, you had, like, three rooms to clean.
I think it was just, like, real dirty. Just, like, you know, there was...
There's like, they said there was always plates, like dirty plates stacked everywhere.
Very little furniture, very little things in there.
Clearly these people did not have a lot of money at all.
Right. Now, as soon as they went inside, they noticed a ton of blood pooled on the ground as soon as they walked through the door.
They also noticed that there was a ton of clumps of gray hair stuck in it.
Shut up, ew. And in the floor... were deep gouges like a sharp instrument had struck the floor several times.
What the fuck? Covered in blood. The couch was soaked, there were things overturned and thrown about like they saw a picture frame that was shattered and covered in blood.
The picture frame had no photo in it. Ooh, I don't like that. huge blood trail leading from the front door to the back of the home where someone had clearly been dragged.
Good. Blood had soaked through the carpet.
It splattered on the walls. They said it was the worst thing they had ever even imagined.
Yeah. the 1890s. Oh, yeah. Now, as they entered the kitchen, which was in the back of the house, they were met with A corpse on the floor.
Now this corpse was barely able to be seen as a human upon first glance because it had been burned And the clothing had been melted into it.
They could really only see like hands sticking up in the air.
There were slippers melted into the feet.
Like, clearly slippers. Oh, so that... That tells me old.
Although I'm wearing slippers at this very moment.
Well, let's not just assume, you know. But it was clear. clear that the killer, because they could smell kerosene, it was clear that the killer used kerosene to light the fire.
And then it had been doused several times with water to put it out.
Oh. Oh, it was missing its head, too. Oh, okay, okay.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that was like when they were like, oh, whoop.
Doesn't have a head. Good. They noticed that there was water all over the floor, like all over the floor, like buckets of water had been poured onto this floor.
And they were like, what the fuck is going on?
So this person started a fire in the house and then put out said fire?
Well, we'll find out what exactly happened.
Because that's why. But yeah, so then, so they're like, wow, okay, that's... alarming what's going on here.
So they looked at the table to the left of them And there were dishes like all over with rotting and disgusted, like disgusting food all over it.
I don't like that. Then sitting on a platter in the middle of the table as a centerpiece with a fork and a knife set out next to it. was the severed head of an old woman, eyes wide open, surrounded by what looked like liters of blood.
She had been set to look at one seat at the table Her hair was completely red with blood Yep.
Like, mouth open, eyes open, just staring blankly into one of the seats at the table.
What? now. Fuck that. Fuck a whole bunch of that.
That's a bold centerpiece. I mean, you won't see that on Pinterest, I'm willing to bet.
You'll find curses on Pinterest, but you will not find this. want to type in like severed head center honestly you probably will find something on there i don't want to hashtag the internet But this old woman was, she was clearly old.
Her face was covered in bruises and lacerations.
Oh, no. Part of her head had been, like, caved in.
Oh, my God. She had clearly been beaten before being...
Fatally brutalized and beheaded. Oh my god and she had her slippers on.
Yeah, so So officers were retching. They were like puking.
Crying. Not just at the sight of all this, because the sight enough, but the smell of the blood, the amount of blood in there.
Because blood... Yeah, especially a lot of it.
It has a real... And that much blood? Ooh.
And then on top of that, the blood, the kerosene smell.
Yeah, burnt. burning flesh and then also it's just not a clean house to begin with so it already The amount of smells that are hitting these poor people walking into this house must have been outrageous.
Because there's rotting food, too, on the plates.
So it's just every... terrible smell you could ever think of do you know what i think a stinky house is number one on my list of fears There you go.
No one wants a smelly house. No. I mean, you have kids.
You're going to have certain smells in your house, like his kids pee and poop and like I'm going to teach generally gross.
We're going to get an outhouse at my place.
We thought we had just got rid of the side note.
We just got rid of the rug in our playroom for the kids because we were like, did one of you pee on this rug?
Or did Bailey pee? Because Bailey's getting really old and she's starting to have a little trouble with that.
So we're like, we'll just get rid of the rug.
We'll get it on. Because it was smelling like pee.
And then we figured out that it was pear juice that they had smelled before.
Spilled. Spilled, and it smelled like pee.
It does. So, warning to... Parents out there, pear juice smells a lot like pee.
Yeah, just like don't fuck with that. But yeah, either way, kids smell.
Severed heads smell. So... They went into the bedroom because there's like two little, little bedrooms in this house.
So like somehow, I don't know how they were.
When you look at it, you're like, how? Yeah, it's making my...
Little tiny bedrooms. They're probably like little pantries.
I assume they're probably that size. They saw that the bedroom was also soaked in water. and that the window had been broken in.
Oh. Yeah, and they saw, so they were like, what the hell happened here?
Right. Did someone come in and do this?
What happened? So once they went outside to get what you know because they were like what we need to find the murder weapon here like what who did this and what did they do it with or even like is there tracks leading up to the window Well, they noticed that they saw another blood trail leading to the back set of stairs.
And when they looked under the stairs...
Ton more blood under there, and they found a completely gore-saturated axe.
So, the murder weapon. Saturated in gore.
Now, the woman in question here... that had her head separated from her body in a most aggressive way, was Mariah Haney.
Mm-hmm. Mariah Haney was somewhere between 80 and 85 years old.
Oh, my God. And that's how she went back then.
She was like 112. She would have been on the Smucker's Jar on the Today Show.
She was so old. Love that comparison. She was so old back then.
And what's her advice for us? Her advice for us would be don't move in with your daughter-in-law.
That's what it would be. Oh, my God. Daughter-in-law.
Okay. That's just a little hinty hint for what's going on.
Now, some sources I see she's like 80, 82 and then some, but I will go with Rod Sadler because I trust Rod.
He wrote three books, I mean. I just trust him.
And he says 85 years old, so I'm going with 85.
So Mariah never got along with her daughter-in-law.
You know, it's rare. It's rare. It really is.
I feel very lucky that I get along with my mother in law.
I'm pretty lucky with Annie's mom. She's technically not my mother-in-law yet.
But it's rare. It's a very rare thing. So they didn't get along, but they like really didn't. didn't get along.
They did not like each other at all. Her daughter-in-law's name was Martha.
And she had actually tried to convince her son, Alfie.
His name was Alfred Haney. Alfie is my favorite name.
We almost named Lux Alfie. She had tried to convince Alfie not to marry Martha.
But he had gone ahead and done it. She didn't trust her.
She thought she was very odd, which... You know she kind of was.
But she let her live in the house. There's a little bit of a reason for it.
And the two of them would fight and bicker constantly.
Alfie said he never saw them hit each other, but he would see or hear... them like push each other yeah and so he was like you know I'd have to break that up a little bit sometimes or when it got really heated but like I never saw them actually actually strike each other.
And you're saying like push each other like verbally.
Yeah, and I think they would do like a little shove.
Oh, OK. Like nothing crazy, though. She was like they never like shoved each other down or anything.
It was like a little push here and there.
OK. And that's when he would break things up.
Oftentimes, I guess it would happen when he would go to work for the day. because neighbors would hear, all the neighbors would hear.
They lived next door to a mill factory. And I guess all the factory workers out there were like, oh, we were very used to hearing the two of them screaming at each other.
It's like your work time entertainment. Yeah, they're just like, whatever.
Knowing all this and knowing that Martha Haney ended up being right on scene, which we'll get into later, Martha Haney was arrested for the murder of Mariah.
Believable. So she was arrested at the scene of the crime and they found her in the backyard digging with her hands in the backyard.
That's no good. And just like mumbling to herself.
When they walked up to her in the backyard, they were like, hey, what you doing, Martha?
And she was like, I just killed my mother-in-law in there.
Oh, okay. And they were like, cool, cool.
All right. They were like, yeah, we saw that.
They were like, yep, we definitely saw that.
Smelled it too. So they got her, they arrested her.
Again, she was fully... She was very quiet.
The only thing she would say is like, yes, I did it.
Wow. And they were like, really? And she was like, I cut her head off.
And they were like, yes, we know. And they were like, all right.
So they brought her directly into the village lockup, which is like where you would go before jail.
She was described as acting very peculiar.
Her appearance at the time was very emaciated.
She was like a waif. interesting very small she had like dark hair dark eyes and they said she had like a very sunken in She was just a little scary.
She was a little scary. The village, so...
They ended up going, you know, she's being held at this lockup.
Now they have to talk to her. Yeah. She's acting a little... off.
And they're like, you go do it. No, you go do it.
I talked to her yesterday. I don't want to talk to her.
So the village health officer, Dr. Frank Sumway, was called in to evaluate her mental state because immediately anybody who didn't know her would look at her and be like something's off here like let's go take a look people who knew her in the village were like oh yeah Like something's wrong with her.
Like she's definitely not sane. Okay. So this was already like, okay, we got to see what's going on here.
So, Dr. Frank Someway had an incredible mustache.
I feel it's important. we're just we're gonna move right along from that had an incredible mustache and went in to talk to Martha.
And he was, that's literally all I have to say about that.
I love you so much. You just like, you get me.
You did. He had an incredible message. I love it.
So who doesn't trust that? So when he was told who the killer was suspected to be, He said he wasn't very surprised.
Like, he was like, oh. I know her. Martha Haney.
All right. And he was like, that's. Okay.
He was like, I was waiting for this day.
He said, you know, I've seen her around town and he said he was Every time he saw her around town, he's a doctor after all, he was like, I was very concerned about her mental state.
And he was like, but obviously no one's going to walk up to someone and be like, hey, are you insane?
Right. talk to you right so she would just be like whatever Now, the thing is, she had actually been scheduled to have an appointment with him that morning.
That they found her in the backyard. The morning of the murder.
But she hadn't showed up. It would have been a great time for that.
I'm saying. And the person who had made the appointment was Alfie.
And we're going to get into that whole thing because Alfie's going to explain what happened there.
But she never showed up. So he and another doctor, Dr. Shaw, went into the lockup to examine her.
She really didn't want to talk to anybody.
She would not talk to the police. wouldn't even look at them, nothing.
She would kind of answer the doctors, but only really like nodding at them and stuff.
That is really spooky. Yeah, and she was sitting on the floor, they said, wrapped in a blanket.
That's even spookier. And they asked her what happened.
And she said, I killed my mother-in-law.
We know, but why? They were like, after saying this, she just stared at them.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Which to me, when I read it in the book, I was like, oh God.
That's terrifying. They then said, you know, what exactly happened?
And she just stayed quiet So they were like, all right, she's not going to talk.
They tried a few times. She wasn't going to give them anything else.
They kind of saw what they needed to see.
As they were leaving, she was like, wait.
No. And they were like, we're done here today, Martha.
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That's greenlight.com slash wondery. The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.
But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn.
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Start your free trial in Apple Podcasts Spotify or the Wondery app And she was like, all right, here's the deal.
We argued something about a photo. Which I'm going to get into the details later.
I knew that was going to come back. Yeah, something about a photo... that she had put in a frame that belonged to Mariah.
And she left out the part, like a big part of this, but she's like, yep, I put this photo in the frame.
She was pissed when she saw this and she hit me.
Okay. So, she said we got really angry.
I was really angry at her for that. We started screaming.
The workers at the mill also said they heard this whole fight happen.
Yeah. At one point, some of the workers at the mill said that they... heard Martha's story or they saw Martha storm out of the house and like just get angry on the front lawn like by herself and they were like oh What's happening?
And then she tried to go back in and Mariah had locked the front door.
Oh, that will infuriate you. This is what really pissed her off.
If you're going to snap, that's when it's going to happen.
And so they were like, OK, well, you know, this sounds like this was a bigger fight than like just you put a picture in a frame.
Like, what? I don't understand what that's about.
So she was like, well, the The photo was Mariah, the victim, her late husband was in the photo frame.
What Martha did was take the photo out and put a photo in of her three kids.
Yeah. And what we're gonna find out later is that she doesn't have those three kids anymore.
And no one's quite sure exactly where they went.
Shut the fuck up. So that's weird that she suddenly in the middle of the day just took this... photo of her late husband out of the photo and put her kids so that no one knows really what happened.
Martha's kids? Yeah. Okay. We're going to get into that.
Don't worry. We're going to talk about Martha.
We are. We are. We are. So this Mariah came back in because Mariah at eight, whatever she was, 80 to 85 years old, was doing chores outside.
Yes. when this happened. Walked in, saw that she had done that and was like, what the fuck?
Where's the picture of her husband's name is John.
Yeah, and this is my fucking house. And she was like, where's the picture of John?
Like, where is that? And she wouldn't answer her.
And she was like, where's the picture? Like, she was pissed about the picture.
I would be mad, too. So what happened was Mariah, like, hit her on the back of the... on her back yeah like hit her like hey answer me yeah and then all hell broke loose So those workers that had seen Martha storm out of the house and try to get back in, they were like shit was going down like but they were like but they fight all the time so we just thought they were having this like like we decided to take a lot and check it out.
And honestly, they were like, we were just watching it for a while.
And then they said they saw Martha looking around for something in the backyard.
But she did it a long time, so they just were like, whatever, they'll figure it out.
And they just stopped paying attention while she was looking for the axe.
She got the axe. She ended up walking up to the front of the house and destroying the front door with the house.
This poor 85 year old woman is in this house watching her daughter-in-law acts herself like Jack Nicholson in The Shining through the front door.
Here's Martha. Here's Martha. My God. It's like, holy shit.
And that's why when the police came here, that whole thing was hanging on one hinge because Martha had busted. her way through.
Wilden. It's insane. You don't expect a lady named Martha to be out here wilding.
You don't. You really don't. You don't expect that.
And she's tiny. She's like this thin, thin.
And so is Mariah. Those ones always wild the hardest.
But what she did was they think she first hit Mariah with the blunt end of the axe to the face.
And that knocked her down and then hit her with the sharp end to the face and knocked her out.
Oh. Then she just, by her own admission, stomped on her as hard as she could with her own feet. is always so personal.
She said she broke ribs. She broke anything she could.
She just kept stomping. And she's probably still alive.
In her own words. Oh, yeah. And she said that she could hear her like gurgling and breathing through most of this.
Wow, that's so fucked. In her own words, she said, I don't know.
I killed her anyway. And then I got on her with my feet and jumped on her as hard as I could.
Yes, I did. My mother told me to kill her.
Oh no, I feel like your mom is dead and you shouldn't be talking to her.
Hey, nailed it. I knew it. Interesting, because Susan Pierce, her mother, had died seven years prior in Ionia.
So that's weird that, you know, she's dead and she's like, my mom told me to do that.
Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. Your mom didn't. know your mother-in-law because you've only been married for like three or four years.
So what? Right. So this struck them as interesting.
So they were like, okay, that's interesting.
So they said, okay, cool. Does she talk to you a lot? um and she said oh yeah she talks to me all the time i thought i was literally gonna say all the time all the time and then she said you know she was speaking to her a lot more lately um And she was telling her to kill the old woman.
Of course. And she said that she was talking to her while she was committing the murder, in fact. and encouraging her to do it.
Wow. Yeah. So that's a supportive mom, I guess.
That's really sad. And it's horrible. And I guess she was telling her, what she was saying was that her mom kept telling her, you need to kill that old woman before she kills you. oh so she was like oh shit do you so she probably had like paranoid schizophrenia Yeah, I think that's actually what everything that I've read says that today she would likely be diagnosed with that.
I am not diagnosing her. No, no, no, no.
I'm not saying anything about that, so I have no idea what's wrong.
Who knows? Maybe she was faking this whole thing.
We have no idea. Like, literally no idea.
This was 1897, so I have no fucking idea.
But it's, everything I have seen has said they would say today she was probably being, she would be diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. yeah uh but yeah so so then she continued on telling them the next parts that happened She was like, let me just lay this all out for you.
I love that they were going to leave. And she was like, you know what?
She was like, let me just tell you everything.
So then she said another hit in the head to Mariah opened up her skull.
That was the reason there was gray hair. all over the floor when he first walked in and those gouges on the floor.
Uh-huh. She had literally embedded the axe into the floor.
So they were like, oh, fun. And they were like, what happened next, Martha?
And she said, quote, I said, hold on now.
And I turned her over and I killed her. And she did not kill me.
Nope, she did not. You're here right now telling us.
Correct. accurate information. All right.
True. So to She said two more blows severed her head from her neck pretty cleanly as she lie there on the floor.
Then she picked up the head by the hair and placed it on a platter on the table-
She also intentionally set Mariah's head to face Alfie's place at the table That's weird Because it was supposed to be a gift to him Oh, so she's Matt Adelphi, too.
Which, yeah, which, by all accounts, not really sure why.
There was no indication that he was violent or anything.
Well, with people that hate their mother-in-laws, I feel like that's a thing.
Well, and I think this is also just definitely just mental illness.
Yeah. I mean, I think this is just all... that.
Yeah. She said that she was then worried about what to do with the rest of the body because, uh-oh.
I have a head on a plate. What do I do with the rest of it?
Because she was like, I can't bring it outside because the mill workers are going to see me dragging it outside.
So she did have the forethought to think that.
So she was like, all right, I'll just pour kerosene from the oil lamp. in the other room on her and light her on fire.
Now, according to To Hell I Must Go, she used coals from the stove in a heated frying pan and put them between Mariah's legs. and let it smolder and create a fire.
What the fuck? Which I thought was interesting When I first heard she lit the body on fire, I was like, how though?
Yeah. How did she do that? But that's crazy.
She just lit coals in a heated pan and put it under her like between her legs and then it just smoldered and caught fire. fire this is really fucked up to stay say but she literally made her like uh like a like a heat i forgot the word Yeah.
She did. She did that. What are those stoves called that people in Maine have in their houses?
Like a... Coal burning stove? No, it's a different thing.
I don't know. You wouldn't get it. She just made her one of those stoves.
She made her... I forget. Unfortunately.
Now, so they were like, okay... Thanks, Martha.
And when they left, they were like, yeah, I'm pretty sure she's not sane.
I think we can both say that. So let's talk about... martha haney who she is as a person i thought we just did no we're going to talk about her before this so martha haney was somewhere in the middle of seven children Her siblings were Richard, William, George, Esther, Florence, and Audie, who died at the age of 12.
Oh, those are all really cute names. Now, by all accounts, she had like a terrible childhood.
But there's no information about it. We don't know why it was terrible.
You don't know how terrible. Just it was terrible.
Okay, so it's like, okay. In fact, her brother Richard, who comes up later... had said, you know, that he knew what she had endured her whole life and childhood and like, was really sad that this is who she had become.
Okay. But like nothing else than that. Now, when she was only 16 years old, she married a 21 year old, a man named John Woodard in 1884.
They had three children. He left, but no one could tell where the children went.
That he didn't take them? He did not take those children.
Uh, she had told Alfie that the two older children were living in Ohio and Pennsylvania, having been given up for adoption.
But the youngest was the real mystery. Alfie said that the story he heard and a lot of other people heard from her own parents was that she left one day with the child who was under the age of two. and was her youngest.
And she returned a couple of days later without that child.
Okay, so she killed that child. And she said she gave it away.
Okay. So people believed she may have killed that child.
Me too. Well, a newspaper article that in May 6th, 1897, the Ingham Ingham County News said, quote, is all wrong.
She did the best of it and placed it in the charge of Reverend W.S.
Sly of Lansing. the gentleman who has done such an excellent work with homeless children."
So she did give the baby away. Now, looking it up, I did find that this guy and Rod Sadler also talks about it in his book that this guy like actually did this like he would take children he would like He actually was like a really good person.
So he apparently did confirm that her and her sister Florence had gone to him. to give her son away.
His name was George and he was only 10 months old.
Oh my goodness. And he ran this orphanage.
He had taken her. So he did confirm that that child was given away.
So the other two children, she claims the same happened, but nobody can really confirm that.
But, you know, who knows. If she gave this one away, I imagine she gave the other two up for adoption.
I mean, good on her because... she clearly shouldn't be raising children in this kind of state that she was in.
Do you think she realized that and that's why she gave them away?
I wonder if she did. If she had some form of self-realization.
Because I feel like she had some kind of self-realization that I cannot provide. by myself for these children, like the emotional and stability that I need to.
So like, if she did do that good on her yeah so and her sister Florence did say she was happy she was doing it because she she said the same thing she was not going to be able to properly care for these children well that's good So Alfie and Martha had gotten married in 1894.
They had originally lived together with his mother, Mariah, and her husband, John. in Mariah and John's farmhouse.
John was a Civil War vet, but he had passed away years earlier, and they were having trouble keeping up at the farm. that their parents had originally run.
So they left that place and That's when Alfie got this tiny little house for him, Mariah, and Martha.
But it was Alfie who was the one who found his dead mother that day.
Oh no. He was the one who had called police.
Now, I feel so bad for Elfie. Me too. I really do.
Because he lost two people in this. Yeah, so obviously they were like, because he found the mother, we got to go talk to him.
They found him at a pub. He was drinking with his friends.
His friends were trying to like cheer him up.
Yeah. He was just like sitting there. they're crying, because again, he's losing his wife and his mother.
Right. When investigators picked him up at the pub, he was an absolute mess.
They said he was so upset. But they asked him, you know, you got to give us a little background here.
Like, how was your marriage? You got to tell us what's going on.
Now, Alfie was a laborer. They did not have a lot of money because Martha stayed home.
And he would basically just take work whenever he could, like road work. like hard labor, anything.
And you just would take it wherever you can get it.
They often were given help From the rest of the community, I guess.
Like, the village would help them out. That's nice.
Um... Alfie told investigators that their home was quote, cheerless.
Oh! Which is like the saddest thing I've ever heard.
That's what I'm picturing. Yeah. He said Martha was, you know, Martha was sick a lot and she was very off a lot and it was getting worse and worse recently and, you know, her and Mariah just hated each other and it seemed like they were always fighting.
Martha wouldn't sleep in bed with him, it was just very weird.
And the emotional states in that house were always shifting crazily.
So he said he often heard Martha speaking to people that weren't there.
Oh. And this started like right after they got married.
Oh, God. And she also had a very scary temper.
Okay. And it would like Snap into. Just boom.
With like no. An explosive. Yeah. Yeah. No.
And in the three weeks leading up to the murder, he said that the talking to voices who weren't there thing was happening every single day, like way more. and she was losing her shit a lot.
Like, could not... And he said it got to the point where he like within those last few weeks, he said he was really scared to leave his mom alone with her while he went to work.
I know, but it's like, what is he going to do?
And he would say like, it was that or he's like, I literally couldn't miss a day's wages.
I had to make money. Yeah. or we wouldn't be able to sleep in this house or eat or anything.
Right. So he then explained how they both had come to the decision eventually to have her see Dr. Shumway.
He had the first doctor that had walked in there and was like, oh, hi.
What had happened was Alfie was working on a road job.
This was, I think, the day before the murder.
And he had seen the doctor walking by and he was like, you know what?
I got to ask him. Which I'm like, good for Alfie.
What a good husband. So he got himself together and he like walked up to him and he was like, can I just like ask you about my wife?
And he was like, can you talk to my wife?
So the doctor agreed. He was like, yeah, bring her in.
I'll talk to her. So, he had gone home, he had told his mom about it, and his mom was like, she's not going to agree to that. she's going to lose her shit.
Like, but Godspeed. And she was right because when he brought it up to Martha, she lost her shit.
Um, Somehow he had managed to convince her to agree to go to the appointment.
And he was like, all right, things are going to get better.
This is going to be fine. But then she started blaming Mariah and saying Mariah was the one who was forcing her to go to get like this doctor.
She was the one who thought she was crazy.
And Alfie was like, no, she has nothing to do with this.
I'm the one who wants you to do this. Right.
She was like, no, it's Mariah. So she immediately had it in her head that this is her.
But then the next morning... Alfie wakes up to go to work or not to go to work, to go to the appointment.
And he was, I think this was a Friday. And he was like, I woke up and saw her and she was smiling.
And he was like, genuinely smiling. And he was like, I had not seen her smile. forever.
That's almost like ominous. Well, and he was like, at first I was like, what is happening?
And she was like, I feel bad. so much better than I'd felt in weeks and weeks.
Oh, wow. Maybe it was just the idea of going to the doctor that made me snap out of it. you know she was like i do want to talk to the doctor but why don't we do it tomorrow morning Wow.
Yeah. And he was like, and she kind of did like, you know, you don't want to miss out on money and tomorrow's Saturday.
So, and he was like, you know what? He was willing to miss a day's pay for it, but he was like, why do it when she's willing to go tomorrow?
Yeah, we can always go tomorrow. And he obviously wasn't thinking that anything this bad was going to happen.
So he agreed. He was like, all right. take her on a saturday yeah i'll take her tomorrow morning it's fine i feel so bad for this guy I know.
He said he came home for lunch from work that day.
He was like, he always does. And he was like, when I walked up to the house, I noticed this like terrible odor. coming from the house no and he's like in the doors off the hinges and i can see smoke he's probably like what the And he was like, holy shit.
So he was like, oh my God, the house is on fire.
So he runs in there and he's like, I gotta get my mom out. my wife out.
Like, I gotta help everybody. He runs in and immediately sees his mother's head staring at him from the fucking platter.
So neighbors said that in the people at the mill said they heard his blood curdling scream.
Can you imagine? And they saw him run out of the house because he was running straight for the sheriff's office.
Yeah. fuck and they said he saw they saw him running straight out So his neighbors saw the smoke coming from the house and they saw him run out of the house.
So they were like, holy shit, the house is on fire.
We have to help. So they were like, all right, well, he's going to get maybe the fire department will help and try to stop this.
Oh, my God. So they used a pump because it was a water pump.
That's all they had to fill buckets. of water and throw them through the kitchen window, which is why the kitchen was covered in water.
They did this, they kept doing it over and over.
This is when another, and I guess they'd also like smash the window in the bedside together.
And poured it in there because they didn't know where the smoke was coming from.
So that's why there was water all in there too.
So this is when another neighbor who had actually worked at the mill next door walked over and was like, what the fuck is going on?
So he grabs a bucket of water and he runs into the house because he's like, you know what, I'll try to get at him from the inside.
So he runs right to the lump he saw smoldering on the kitchen floor.
And he couldn't tell what it was, but he could see that it was where the most things were coming from.
So he just dumped the water bucket on it.
Oh, my God. He then realized he was looking at a smoking, decapitated body.
Yeah, that'll fuck you up. So that's when he himself looked up and saw Mariah's head on the table.
And that'll fuck you up even further. And he said later that he looked over and saw Martha just calmly walk out of the bedroom with just underwear on.
What? And she looked at him and then was like, and just like walked back into the bedroom. put on a dress and came back out.
Like, she was like, fucking A. Like, why are you in my house?
I'm in my underwear. What the fuck? And what had happened was Martha had taken off the dress she had worn when she killed Maria and put it on top of Maria.
Mariah and lit it on fire. Oh, that is very Lizzie Borden.
Which is very like... There's certain parts of this where I'm like, there was a little bit of cunning in here.
Like that's not totally like, yeah. I wonder if she, you know, you don't know.
You just don't know. You really don't know.
I've been hearing all these voices. She could. there's no proof that says that she was, you know, you just don't know.
She wasn't diagnosed, you don't know. So, we don't know.
We don't know. So she put on a dress. She comes back out, she lays on the couch for a second, and meanwhile this guy So this guy's name was John Robinson, I believe.
Okay. And he's just... sitting there watching her, like holding this empty bucket of water, standing in this kitchen with a decapitated old woman's head, And he decapitated body on the floor that he just poured water on.
And he's like, uh, and she lays on the couch.
And then she just gets up and starts peeling the wallpaper off the walls in the living room.
So he was like... I'm going to go. So he is so scary.
So he goes running out the back and he's like, what the fuck?
And she followed him out the back door and then starts kneeling down in the backyard and is digging.
Dirt with her hands and people think that she was digging to put the body in there.
What the fuck? Fuck. Now by this time... the mill workers and people around the village are starting to crowd around this house because it's a small little like hamlet. kind of thing.
So it's like a bunch of people coming. Everyone's like, what the fuck is going on?
They're hearing screaming. They're hearing nuts, like crazy stuff.
So meanwhile, Elfie had reached the deputy sheriff. deputy loringer and had brought which we talked about in the first part yes and brought him back to the house Okay.
And this is Rod's great-great-grandfather.
This is not the great-great-grandfather.
This is the deputy sheriff. Oh. The Sheriff Rel...
JJ is the one that's his great-great-grandfather.
So John Robinson, the guy who had seen all this happen and is the only one who has been inside the house besides Alfie.
He had Loringer come to the backyard and he was like, there she be, here she is.
Martha's still digging with her hands in the ground and they said she looked completely blankly at them when they asked her what was going on and then she just coldly said I killed my mother-in-law oh my god and they were like you did and she was like I cut off her head it's in there And I also decided that I was going to change the wallpaper.
So this is when she was restrained and brought to the lockup where the doctor spoke to her.
This is when Loringer went inside the house.
He saw everything inside, immediately was retching and gagging like the rest of the officers later.
He had some dudes come to, like, stand guard at the house to not let anybody in while he followed her to the lockup.
Smart for 1897. They were kind of on it.
Yeah. I will give it to them. It gets weird, but they did the best they could.
It always does. So now that Martha was in custody and they had been, you know, she had been interviewed, Alfie had been spoken to about the day's events. there was now the next thing to be done, which is the coroner's inquest.
Mm-hmm. Basically, a coroner's inquest is done to prove that a crime has been committed.
I think you just have to hold up the head and you could be like, yeah, crime.
I mean, like a crime was. indeed guilty of crime.
What is insane is that the inquest had to take place in the house uh-huh so according to uh to hell i must go the law says quote And there, in view of the dead body, shall the justice of the peace administer the oath.
Wow. So they had to drag six men that they chose or who had to volunteer.
They had to be law abiding men. like as jurors yeah they just had to go like find them too And they had to drag them into this crime scene, take this oath, and then determine whether a crime happened.
Yes. Like, holy shit. I'd be like, can we just skip the oath?
Yes. What if one of them was like, you know...
I'm not sure. I'm just not convinced that this was criminal.
Sometimes a head will just... Decide it's done hanging out with its given body and it'll just dip.
I've seen it happen. And prove that it didn't happen.
Tell me. Prove to me. And they could be like, well, the house is on fire and there's blood everywhere.
And when I was saying this, I was like, yeah, that's silly.
And then I was like, but honestly, in an era where... where crazy shit was happening all the time and believed all the time, that's really not that far-fetched.
He kind of walked in the house and just been like, witchcraft.
Because honestly, and I was like, you know what?
People thought back then that something called ring turning was like real.
And let me tell you a quick little side because.
I started looking up like 1890s things. Holy shit.
What is ring turning? So ring turning was from the 1890s.
And it was that a woman would meet men with rings on their fingers.
And when they did that, they would turn the ring a couple of times.
They would do this 24 times in a row with 24 different ring wearing fellas. and then immediately they would have to find a man or a woman with a wedding ring on, you would turn their ring two times, and the next man you shake hands with that's your husband.
So all you have to do is find 24 men and then turn their rings around and then you have to Then you have to find a married man or woman, turn their wedding ring twice, and then the next man you shake hands with, that's your husband.
So basically you just have to turn 25 rings.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Simple. Good to know.
But people believed that then. So honestly, it's not shocking to me that they had to have this very formal coroner's inquest. in the crime scene to be like, yes, crime committed here.
Life was weird. Yeah, life was real strange for them.
So either way, back to the task at hand.
So these six jurors were just six law abiding dudes That they just ran downtown and grabbed out of a pub somewhere.
I'm surprised they didn't just like go to the mill.
How awesome would that be? You would die to be one of those people.
Hey, want to come down to the most gnarly crime scene ever fathomed and just... tell me whether it's a crime scene or not.
You would be that bitch in the corner of a bar, like sipping on a brew and you'd be like, Oh my God, I want to go so bad.
Me, me, me. Hold my beer. I'm coming. Pick me.
And they'd be like. you're a woman you're a woman and you've shown your ankles arrest her they'd be like what are you doing in a pub get the fuck out like god go have a baby No, I would be on that.
I would go get a fake majestic mustache and be like, me, I'm the one.
His eye. Bring me there. So the law for this says, quote, the jury upon inspection of the dead body. and after hearing the testimony of the witnesses and making all needful inquiries... shall draw upon and deliver to the justice of the priests their inquisition under their hands, in which they shall find and certify when, in what manner, and by what means the deceased came to his death. and his name, if known, together with all the material circumstances attending his death, and if it appear that he came to his death by unlawful means, the jurors shall forthwith state with the guilty either as principal or accessory, or were in any manner the cause of his death if known.
You lost me for a minute. I was literally thinking about when I was going to cook for dinner.
Honestly, the only reason why I wanted to read that was because it says FORTHWITH!
Elena's just going to put forthwith in all of the episodes.
You're going to get to the end and she's going to be like, and forthwith.
And forthwith, I say. Keep it weird. So they did manage to get six dudes to volunteer for this. forthwith just went and grabbed him down there brought him back to the crime scene and i guess they were all like oh it really smells out here i don't know if this is smells of crime i think she did it yeah they were like i don't know if anyone really told us what this was about no So they're like, we're here.
Let's do this. So The sheriff described the scene and the telegram he sent, and they determined that, yes, a crime had occurred.
Next was to take a look at Martha's mental state at the time of the murder.
Yeah. Because now they've gotten the coroner's inquest over with.
Because, by all accounts... Yes, a crime.
So they were like, let's look at Martha.
The next morning on Saturday was Mariah's funeral at the Baptist church in the village. like boom right away.
That's so sad. 85 and that's how you go out.
That's how you go out. I'd be so mad at Elfie.
I'd be like, I told you. I've stayed telling you.
And I feel bad for Alfie, because then Alfie and his siblings, he had a brother, Riley, and a sister, Louise.
We're in attendance as well as many of the villagers, like the whole community.
I would be a little mad if I was Alfie's brother or sister, too.
I'd be like... I'd be a little mad. Mm-mm.
Can you pick them better? I'd be like, not a great choice.
So Martha was transferred to the jail officially from lockup.
She was almost catatonic, they said, like just staring blankly, like wouldn't even, like no emotion.
The sheriff and Sheriff JJ, like Rod Sadler's great-great-grandfather.
Yes. ended up sleeping on a cot outside of her cell in the jail that first night.
Because he was worried. Wow. He was worried she was going to take her own life.
He was worried that she was because she was like losing her shit in there once she got put in the jail.
She's not someone I would want to spend the night with.
No. And she cried all night or she paced. or just wailed.
The next morning, she repeated to him that she had killed her and said that she had hit her.
She said, My mother-in-law hit me in the back with something and I thought she was trying to kill me.
That's what she said. And she said that she would have killed me if I had let her.
I don't know. They were like, probably not.
She was 85. 85. But he was like, do you feel bad?
And she said, no. And she said, I don't feel bad because I didn't do it to be mean.
Murder is always mean. It's never taken any other way other than mean-spirited.
It's not a good deed. It's just... It's never taken as like, huh...
Well, you know, I didn't murder her with malicious intent.
It's always mean. Yikes. hate you're mean i hate to tell you meanie number one right there it was mean what you did meanie martha I'd be like, I'm sorry, it was kind of mean.
I hate to break it to you, but you're kind of an asshole.
But he also said that while she said this whole thing, she was grinning the entire oh no and like she scares the shit out of me she's like I'm terrified.
Yeah, she's real scary. She was like, I didn't mean to be.
And she does these things where you're like, oh, God, murder.
Yeah, ew, I just got fucked. And then all of a sudden she'll flip into like, you're like, oh no, like something's wrong.
So it's like everything is wrong with this situation.
She started banging her head against the steel bars.
Oh, no. Martha, come on. To the point where she was bleeding and clearly trying to kill herself.
What the fuckery? And then she would go between singing and praying and screaming and crying.
No. Clearly she was unwell. After she hit her head so hard on the bars, they talked to another doctor. who said, he was like, oh yeah, I know Martha Haney.
And then he was like, I tried to have her committed before.
Like I tried. I tried to get someone to commit her.
To help her. And he said he had actually encouraged her brother Richard. to apply to have her taken into care.
They don't know exactly what happened there, if he had tried or not.
But he was like, I tried to like, I know about this lady.
Her brother Richard actually came to visit her in jail.
And when she saw him, she claimed she didn't know him.
Interesting. And he was like, it's me. It's Richard.
And she said, no, Jesus got him. I don't know you.
Oh, I see. There's definitely something going on.
Throughout this, you're like, what? And then it gets to this part and you're like, oh, yeah, something's off.
Like struggling with her mental wellness.
Yeah. And she started praying and she started singing a song.
And the song is, oh, I can't go to heaven.
To hell I must go. Murderers don't go to heaven, and that is where I'm bound to go.
Is that a Martha original? I think that's a Martha original.
I'm not positive. Alrighty. She said this, she sang this a ton of times over and over.
She just kept repeating it. getting like louder and louder.
But then she fell on the floor in an epileptic seizure. oh my god so yeah so then it's like whoa she had an epileptic seizure in the middle of this seizure Okay, I don't know if this is a really stupid question.
Can stress bring on a seizure if you have epilepsy?
If you have epilepsy, I would imagine it does.
Clearly, she must have. Yeah. I know that there had been talk that she was epileptic, but Alfie said he never saw her have an epileptic fit.
But you can go like a super long time. Yeah.
So maybe this just brought it on. Yeah. She went to court and three doctors, Dr. Sidney Culver, Dr. Alexander McMillan, and Dr. E.D.
North, of Lansing were brought on to determine whether she was actually insane or not.
They agreed that she was indeed insane. They said, quote, "'We the undersigned, appointed by the said court to examine,' said Martha Haney, "'and to inquire into the facts of her case,' and report to the same court, do hereby report to said court that in compliance with said appointment we have carefully examined said Martha Haney and have inquired into the facts of her case and do find that she is at this time insane. and without sufficient mental capacity to undertake her defense in this case. and that she has dangerous and criminal tendencies and is wholly irresponsible for her acts.
We base our findings on the following history and mental condition.
She has always been considered simple and feeble minded, even as a child.
She has been subject to epileptic seizures since she evidently resulted from the from this epilepsy.
She frequently engages in prayer and the singing of devotional songs at inopportune times and places.
She presents the appearance of a simple-minded person, her face lacks expression, her conversation is disconnected.
She seems to be almost wholly deprived of memory, but this loss of memory is partially assumed without any apparent reason.
While she sometimes admits the act of killing Mariah Haney, She does not seem to have any conception of the enormity of the crime or even that she has committed a crime.
In witness thereof, we have fixed our hands this 28th day of April 1897.
Wow. So, boom. She was insane, according to these three doctors.
You know, I think so. Yeah. And it seems like paranoid schizophrenia seems like...
They're still screaming. They're still screaming.
I'm sorry. It's my house. So she was found to be insane at the time of the murder, and she was committed to Michigan asylum for the dangerous and criminally insane.
Oh, God, I can only imagine what that was like for her in the 1890s.
It can't have been good. I did find another newspaper article that I just wanted to read some of it.
This was for when she was going through her hearing period, before the doctors got there.
It says a preliminary hearing in the, or the title of this is the Williamston murderous, undoubtedly insane.
Murderous. Murderous. A preliminary hearing in the Williamston murder case was held before Justice Squires this afternoon. conducted by prosecuting attorney A.M.
Cummins. The testimony of but two witnesses was taken, that of Sheriff Rell, under whose constant care the woman has been since the terrible deed, and that of John Robinson of Williamston, who discovered the ghastly crime.
John Robinson was the guy who came in and saw her walk out of the room and all that. absolutely nothing new was disclosed.
Probate Judge Porter declined to hear the case as he could not commit to the asylum for criminal insane, and accordingly the proceedings were held today.
The case will go before Judge Person of the Circuit Court, and Mrs. Haney will be committed to the asylum for criminally insane in Ionia.
The prisoner sat in court half bent forward with the expressionless face unconscious of the gaze of curious spectators and of the terrible statements being made against her by the Witnesses. occasionally she would make an incoherent remark, swinging backwards and forwards, constantly applying a handkerchief to her face. she was a most pitiful being to behold when adjournment was taken she was half carried from the courtroom between sheriff rel and a brother of hers who who lives near Mason.
That's Richard. So that's a bummer. Yeah.
And when you hear that, because at first you're like, oh no, maybe she's faking some of it.
And you hear that and you're like, this does not sound like faking.
No, it sounds really sad to me. And then I found another article from the Sacramento Daily Union.
Um, and it's entitled Shocking Tragedy in Michigan.
I love these old newspaper clippings. They're like my favorite.
Oh, the best. It says, horrible deed committed by an insane woman at Williamston, which is-
It's so insane. It's just so mean. Well, in this whole, like, this is so outdated.
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Like, horrible deed committed by insane.
I mean, if you think about it, language from 10 years ago is like... It's outdated.
Exactly. So 1890s, this is like... Whoa.
Holy shit. And it literally says the worst crime in the history of the city and state.
A woman decapitates her mother-in-law and places the head upon the dinner table in front of the son's plate when he sat down to eat.
Yikes. Like, whoa. And I'll just read a couple of these things because I, again... old time newspapers.
We love. The people here were frighteningly shocked at the details of an awful tragedy which had just come to light.
Never before in the history of this town, or of the state for that matter, has there been such a horrible crime perpetrated.
It appears that Alfred Haney, a respectable and hardworking citizen here, returned home at noon today, and when sitting down to take his dinner... which that's not what happened.
I was going to say that's lies. Found his mother's head on a platter in front of him.
His wife had gone crazy, cut off the old lady's head and placed it before her husband for dinner.
Haney was shocked beyond expression and for some moments sat in his chair in dumb horror.
No. This is not true. Lies. Like what a lying asshole.
The media has always been filthy. Yeah. His great love for his mother and the thought of her frightful end almost caused his heart to stop beating.
Oh come on. With what passed through his mind will probably never be known as he is a reticent sort of a man who seldom talks except on rare occasions.
Why do you... think he fucking seldom talks now he probably doesn't want to talk to you about this shit After remaining some moments in a dull stupor, he realized that something must be done.
Something needs to be done. He jumped from his chair and rushing out of the house, he called on some neighbors for assistance.
No, he did not. So then it just goes on, you know.
Haney had some... enemies in town, but he did not think it possible that they could have been so fiendish as to murder his mother and then shamefully mutilate her.
It doesn't even sound like he had enemies.
Yeah, exactly. And then it says after a thorough search of the house, they found Haney's wife hiding in one of the upper bedrooms.
This was a floor there was no upper bedroom like there was no upper bedroom and they found her in the backyard Yeah, and it says, it did not take very long for them to be confirmed of his suspicions.
The woman laughed hysterically and said, did you see it?
Wow. Which I don't know if she said that.
Maybe she said that to someone else. She may have.
She then shrieked and laughed alternatively until the people who found her They just locked her in the room.
That's not true. Okay. She was outside digging.
Then it says a further search revealed the presence of a bloody knife hidden in one of the front rooms.
No. Uh-uh. Like it's just crazy to me that they like got away with this bullshit.
And then it says it appears they didn't get along very well.
The old lady was inclined to be friendly with the wife. but the latter always said that she had no business in the house and ought to go and live somewhere else.
When in all actuality, it seems like they both hated each other.
Not that I'm saying she deserved anything.
No, no, no. The mother, however, felt that she was entitled to a home with her son, and for that reason she would not go.
It says, the wife had begun to act queerly.
Queerly. the oddest things at all times, and it was then seen that she was verging on insanity.
Her husband, however, and friends never for a moment imagined that she would contemplate murder.
Once she was seen taking a big bread knife and running her hand over its edge as though to feel the temper. her husband asked why she did that and she smiled and said nothing which is like who are you hearing this from Well, like, what are your sources?
Because they're all incorrect. So it says... And then this...
As far as her husband can find out, the deed was committed just before he reached home.
No, that's a lot to set up before he reached the house.
His mother was accustomed to taking a nap in the forenoon and it is supposed that she while she slept on the lounge her daughter-in-law approached and severed her head with a big knife No.
I just had to read that because I was like, wow, that's so wrong.
That's like where Get Your Facts Straight originated. from like that is very wrong i'm astounded at how wrong that was like wow fact checkers yikes i'm sorry if you heard a paper I printed out all these newspaper articles because I wanted to make sure to read them.
That's so you. That's so me. So, unfortunately, Martha was committed to Michigan Asylum for the Dangerous and Criminally Insane, which I think we can all agree that mental illness was probably not handled in a great you know, gentle, loving, understanding way back then.
So I imagine it was not a great place. Definitely not.
And, once she got there, she was immediately diagnosed with consumption.
So they were like, you've had consumption for quite a long time.
That's how gaunt she looked and how she was losing weight.
She had a constant cough and they thought she was coughing because of the smoke from the crime scene.
Right. But then Alfie was like, no, she's had that cough.
Oh, wow. Wow. So she had consumption and tuberculosis was like huge back then.
So they were like, oh good. So it went diagnosed and untreated, undiagnosed and untreated.
I wonder if that made her mental health worse.
Who knows? And so she ended up dying 17 months later.
At the of consumption. Wow. Yeah. And like a little another little snippet I found on like find a grave dot com.
I always go to that when I do pieces. Someone had posted a newspaper clipping And it said, Mariah Haney, the woman who in April 1897 cut off her mother-in-law's head was just like, wow, what a way to be known. at Williamston and had it on a platter at the table when her husband came to dinner, died at the Ionia Asylum of Consumption last Saturday night.
Yeah. Yeah. Way to write. She has not, like, she has not been troublesome, but she has been very insane since she got there.
Not troublesome. Just insane. Just very insane.
Maybe they're saying just like very sick.
Super insane since she's got here. Very unwell.
Very nice. Well, three years later, Alfie met a woman named Alice and fell in love.
Alfie and Alice were destined to be together.
Come on. They moved in together. And then people saw them move in together and they got in trouble because they weren't married.
So they were legit arrested and charged with lewd and lascivious cohabitation.
Yes, that was real. Also, lewd and lascivious cohabitation band name, I call it.
Just lewd and lascivious. Lewd and lascivious cohabitation taking the stage.
Wow. So he pled guilty to it. He was like, guilty as charged.
I have lived with this woman. And was sentenced to 10 months.
We've been living lewd over here. We have been lewd and lascivious for days.
Alice got eight months. Wow. Yeah. And when they got out of the clink, they got married.
I believe it. good on them. They got married.
Seemingly everything was cool. They should have just given Given them the chance to get married right then and there.
I know. Like, just marry. It's fine. Right.
So the Haney house where it all, you know, the house where it happened, that was around for quite a bit.
No, thank you. It's at 320 Elevator Street, but was burned down by the Williamston Fire Department in 1990. ironic.
But the foundation still stands. You can find the place.
In 1990? 1990. Wow. So it was around until 1990, the entire structure.
So another hundred years. And people had lived in that house after that.
No, that's not a good idea. Which, no thank you.
Mm-mm. I would be good with that. That idea is all around.
So that is the story of Martha Haney. Girl.
It's insane. Also, I was just literally thinking this the entire time.
I did not know that Mariah was like an older name.
Yeah. I thought that was like originated from Mariah Carey.
Yeah, totally. I thought that's when it really hit me.
Mariah Carey was like me. Because I feel like everyone I know named Mariah is very trendy.
I mean, who knows if Mariah Haney, maybe she was a trendy lady.
She gives trendy vibes. You don't know. You don't know.
I don't. You don't. All you know is that she was kicking it like 85 back in the 1890s.
I did know that now. She didn't deserve it.
And you know what? Martha Haney, it sounds like, was a very ill woman.
This was a very sad case. In many ways. And it's like she was ill in many ways, physically, you know, emotionally, mentally, she was ill.
And unfortunately, she lived in a time where it wasn't exactly easy to... take care of or to manage or you know it was i didn't even know what that was i bet And you could be I mean, you could literally people thought that mental illness came from being poor sometimes.
They literally were like, oh, poverty makes you mentally ill.
And it's like, no, that's not what that is.
I think like a lot of rich people are also struggling.
You know, affluenza. uh but oh my god do you remember that oh i remember oh my god Yeah, so I feel bad for everybody involved here.
It got a bum rap. They did. They really did.
Mariah, most of all. Bummiest. Alfie. For sure.
But you know what? He lived happily ever after.
I'm glad he got at least a... you know, a little bump in the road.
A little bit of a happy life after that.
Or from what I could see, I couldn't find anything else that said... besides his arrest for lewd and lascivious cohabitation.
I think everybody else was, you know, and then Martha.
I just feel bad. I do too. So you may have just heard my stomach growl.
I don't think anybody did I hope not it was very loud But yeah, that's the case of Martha Haney.
And go read Rod Sadler's books because holy shit, there's three of them.
I'll link them all. And what did you do?
What did you do when you read them? What did I do when I read them?
Yeah, remember you said in the beginning you like devoured it like Om nom nom.
Thank you. Yeah. I ate them up. So... And I will be covering more of his cases because... holy shit hello he's a great writer so go follow and if you want to see like his whole thing Go to RodSadler.com because his website, his bio is there.
You can look at his books. You can see all the craziness.
The whole darn thing. The whole darn thing. dude started using like ancestry.com and just was like connecting leaves and was like holy shit look at this story That's what Papa's doing.
That's so cool. Papa, every time I go to the house, he's like, you know, you got a cousin out in Missouri who... was related to Lorenzo.
And I'm like, Oh, do I? That's cool. That's great.
I'll write them a letter. He loves his ancestry.
And yeah, it's insane. And if you read this book, you know, To Hell I Must Go.
There's a ton of other history in there that obviously I did not include because you should read the book.
Duh. because, you know, that's the whole point here is go read his book.
It goes into the history of the town, the history, you know, further back into these people and the sheriff and all this cool stuff so definitely go read his book to find out more Yay!
And you can also go ahead and follow us on Instagram.
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At Amorbid Podcast. Send us a mail morbid podcast at gmail.com get some of our merch for christmas hanukkah kwanzaa whatever you celebrate my birthday i was just gonna say elena's birthday i remembered um at shop.morbidpodcast.com Do it.
We love you and we hope you keep listening.
And we hope you keep it. Weird. But that's where they move in with your mother and your husband.
No, your mother and... Okay. But not so weird that you move in with your mother-in-law and your husband and you're really angry at everybody and then one day you change the photo.
I don't know why you wanted to do that. change the photo maybe you wanted to warm up the distant memories of your kids that you gave away I don't really know And, you know, you got mad and you chopped mama up and you went to jail and you started singing, singing, singing.
And then. You died of consumption, and so you shouldn't keep it that weird.
Don't keep it that weird. I had to close my eyes throughout that to remember all the details.
Don't keep it tuberculosis weird. Don't keep it TB weird.
Bye. Peace. Thank you. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
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