Hey weirdos, it's Ash.
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Hey, weirdos. I'm Ash.
And I'm Elena. And this is Morbid.
I was just struggling.
Okay, can I just talk about myself for a second?
Never. Never. I was going to say this is mermaid instead of morbid because I went to like a, I think it's called a white elephant.
Yeah. It's not like a secret stand.
It's like a white elephant spot.
And I got this sexy mermaid ornament, which I have pictured here.
Wow. Drew just put it on the Christmas tree Are we sure we're calling that a sexy mermaid Or Yeah Are we calling it a A slightly disturbing mermaid Yeah He's sexy Look he's ripped He's a sexy mermaid What do you think Michael You guys are never on my side Whatever He's my sexy mermaid in my heart Okay I got number one At the white elephant And I actually got to Pick that out of All the gifts Yeah well Well, they were silly gifts, so that was the best one in my opinion.
Yeah, I wanted him.
What a Yankee swap delight.
It was great. That was.
It was fantastic. I love it.
I loved it. I never done like a silly swap before, and this one was like the silliest one that I ever did.
The silliest of all the swaps.
Yeah, my brother -in -law has a Newfoundland, and hi, Caroline and Michael.
You were looking off into the distance when you said that, and I thought Caroline and Michael just materialized next to me.
I was like, they're right there.
Where are they? You don't see them?
Hi. Are they in the room with us right now?
Do not see them. But my brother -in -law, he put a bunch of his dog's hair into a bag.
And he put, like, a sewing kit in there.
And he was like, make your own Newfoundland sweatshirt.
That's funny. DIY. There was, like, a half -drink bottle of soda that somebody won.
So, yeah. I picked the sexy mermaid.
Okay. All right. The quote unquote sexy mermaid.
She's sexy. She's sexy.
So, yeah, I was going to say this is mermaid.
I feel like the moral of that story.
You might have also been feeling it because of so much talk of the sea that we've been doing.
Alina's an aquatic hoe.
Now, we all, I think you guys know me by now.
We're like five years into this, that I hyperfixate.
and when I hyperfixate I really go hard on my hyperfixations like John John can feel them come he like senses it in the air yeah like he feels a vibration and he's like what are you hyperfixating on today no I can feel it from my house sometimes I'm like oh she's got a new one she's got a new one my latest hyperfixations involve the sea aqua which I've been I've been moving in that direction for a while you've been swimming against that curtain yeah I mean it's I mean it started long ago with the Titanic We all got hyperfixated on that for a little bit.
Oh, yeah. Okay. I was like, just me?
No, I feel like everybody had that moment in their childhood.
For me, second grade, it was like when you could start reading articles on the computer in computer class.
They would teach you how to do that, and I read a little article about the Titanic.
I can't believe that was in second grade for you.
Yeah. What was it like last year for you?
I was like a grown -ass adult when we could do that.
Yeah. No, it was second grade.
That's crazy. It was like a big -ass computers.
Yeah, mine was when they brought, they called it the big piece, and it was like a big piece of the Titanic.
Oh my God. And we got to go see it in the Museum of Science.
And you could literally put your hand, I don't think we should have touched it, but we did.
You touched it? Yeah, and it had one of the portholes, I think they're called, like those circular windows, because it must have been a lower part of the ship.
It was still intact in there.
How old were you? Did you have representation with you?
I was in elementary school.
And they just said, touch that?
Well, we just went in a line.
I would say my representation is not here.
Yeah, I don't know.
I'm not touching that.
They were, I mean, they weren't, they didn't force us to touch it.
Like, they weren't like, touch it.
But I think we just were like, whoa.
You have to touch the Titanic.
Like, I don't think it was part of the whole thing.
Have you suffered great misfortunes in your life?
Nah, I'm good. It was, I touched it.
I was like, I'm going to touch that.
but i'm not gonna go down to the bottom of the sea and touch that that's for sure that's different but it's that that's where it all begins really is when you should have a healthy respect and fear of the ocean some of us don't get that yeah yeah most of us do and i then all of a sudden i think you're all probably with me because i think everyone is you're on north sea tiktok right now oh abso -fucking -lutely of course you are like as soon as that starts i'm like welp i'm watching this till the end weirdly i don't know the what the fuck happened i got on north sea tiktok immediately after my wedding
like i just started getting maybe i had been on it so maybe my vibes shifted over perhaps and then also maybe your phone heard me on north sea tiktok a lot and it was like she likes that that's probably part of it and then actually i answered my own question on our honeymoon we were really interested by the boats that were coming and going to the point that drew literally downloaded a boat tracker hell yeah onto his phone and i'd be like what's that one what's that one i love that yeah but But that's, like, I got to know who the people that are working in the North Sea are.
Yeah. Because I keep seeing these videos, and I'm like, are you all, are you okay?
I feel like. Like, what happened?
You must, like, I feel like that's, like, when you're, like, you're in trouble.
No, I think that, no, that's, like, that's their job.
No, but, like, you should be in trouble if you have to go to the North Sea.
Like, that should be a punishment.
That should be a punishment.
Like, these are just, like, men and women who are, like, this is my job.
the ballsiest motherfuckers my day at the office is swimming next to the biggest propeller you've ever seen in your life while the sea rages around me and I fix that propeller I can't even hear that sentence without losing my marbles or like I'm fixing this light underneath the ocean while it rages around me and drowns me a hundred times and I'm like I gotta shake one of your hands I gotta just be like what did you see Did you see the one that I got the other day where they were like pushing the biggest ships and like the whole entire world out to sea for the first time?
That fucked me up. Yeah, you know, I don't like the big things.
But you watched them.
I don't like big structures.
Yeah, it stresses me out.
I think it was the North Sea page posted that.
All right, well, here we go.
Now, if you guys are listening to this, I think I'm now going to make you be on North Sea TikTok because your devices are going to think.
They're going to hear me talking about it and they're going to think that's something you like.
Honestly, you're welcome because it's a great place to be.
And you will find yourself being like, yo.
And the last clip will shock you.
Always. It's always going to shock you.
I don't know why, but it makes me laugh so hard. It usually does.
So the whole thing shocks me.
Usually it's the first clip for me.
I'm like, I feel like you should have swapped this one to the end.
But you know what? Luckily, my story is on land today.
I'm happy about that.
I say luckily, but it's not a really lucky story on land.
It's a pretty terrible one.
But it's on land, so we're out of the sea.
We have a little bit of an old -timey crime here, but my goodness, is there a lot happening here.
It's an old -timey crimey.
This is the murder of Mary Stannard, and I looked up the pronunciation to say it because I thought it was Stannard at first, but it's Stannard. I could see why you would think that.
Now, on the afternoon of September 3rd, 1878, 22 -year -old Mary Stannard left her home in Madison, Connecticut, What's up, Connecticut?
Hey, CT. Telling her father she was going to go blackberry picking because that's very 1800s Connecticut.
I love that. She said she was going to be back by dark, so don't worry about it.
And night came and Mary had not returned.
So her father went out to look for her and eventually found her body by a creek in the woods.
Her father found her body?
Yes, and horrifically.
Oh. The investigation into her murder was truly wild.
I mean, wait, there's a preacher involved.
There's adultery, an illicit affair.
Always. There's a possible pregnancy.
There's all kinds of things.
And it remains technically unsolved to this day.
Allegedly. But it doesn't.
Allegedly. Yeah. I mean, they're all dead.
Everybody's dead. Yeah.
And also, when you hear this, you're going to say, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I could tell by the gleam in your eye over there that something salacious is happening.
this is the most salacious all of this isn't that such a good word it has a good mouth feel it does have a good salacious uh so let's talk about mary okay mary elizabeth stannard was born september 3rd i don't know if that sounds familiar to you yeah she died on her birthday oh god september 3rd 1856 in madison connecticut so we love a virgo we do love a virgo virgo we love virgos i I have a Virgo, Dave has a Virgo, Caleb's a Virgo, my aunt's a Virgo, my niece is a Virgo.
I have Virgo in my chart.
I'm sure I do somewhere.
But Madison itself was a small town of about 1 ,500 residents on the southeastern coast along the Long Island Sound.
Not a ton is known about her life prior to becoming an adult because it was the 1800s.
She was living a pretty, by those standards, unremarkable life.
You know, just a very normal, just average life.
But at the time she was killed, Mary was living at home with her father.
Again, she was 22. Her father was Charles Stenard. No, I said it the way I wanted to say it first, Stenard. Stenard, huh.
And she was also living with her stepsister, Susan Hawley, and Mary's two -year -old son, William.
Okay. There's very little information about Mary's mother, but several newer newspaper articles claim that Mary's, quote, quote, mother and grandmother were insane.
Oh, that's sad. From the Hartford Courant.
Okay. Now, Mary had given birth to a child, William.
She was unmarried. And in the 1800s, that's already kind of a little black mark there.
And she was also refusing to name the child's father.
Oh, okay. So there were rumors around town that the father was a married man in a nearby town.
And when you find out what happens later, you're like, uh -oh.
but this meant that mary was not held in the highest of social regards yeah but shockingly and this is pretty shocking for this she wasn't a complete pariah she was considered a quote -unquote fallen woman by those who at that time were trying to claim their own shit didn't stink uh moral superiority shit you know was like rampant still is rampant everybody tries to pretend that their shit doesn't think what they want to shit on someone correct uh but so she She gave birth to what they considered, and I hate the term illegitimate child, you know, because it's like, that's a child.
Yeah, they're pretty legit.
I see them. And although that kind of thing was undesirable, especially back then, most residents actually believed, quote, in their estimation, she had been more sinned against than sinning.
Wow. And she was generally treated fairly.
That's surprising. With a reasonable amount of respect, considering.
Hmm. Like she wasn't, again, held in high social regard, but she was not treated shittily.
As shitty as you've seen, we've seen in other cases where it's like she might as well be like thrown in the river at that point.
100%. Yeah. But like many rural people, especially at the time, Mary was poor.
She was uneducated.
But generally, everybody thought she was very cheerful.
She was friendly. She was a very hard worker.
worker and it was said that she was, quote, ready at any time to do any labor no matter how menial that would result in her being able to contribute to the family fund that herself and child should not become a burden.
So she's kind of like a boss bitch who's going to work hard for herself and her family.
That's what I'm getting.
She's got that and she seems nice.
She's friendly. She's cheerful.
You know, she had a little oops like situation.
I don't know if it was a married man.
That was was the rumor and you know what rumors and you know what she got William out of it exactly she seemed happy she was a great mom and she has like a nice little fam yeah and she had a great dad and stuff and mom and everything that was gonna take care of her summer is in full swing whether you're traveling taking kids to summer camp or or heading to the pool, we are all looking for ways to stay healthy and save money this summer.
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In 1920, a broke immigrant in Boston became one of America's richest, most infamous men practically overnight.
He swindled the modern equivalent of a quarter billion dollars and etched his name into history as the mastermind behind one of the most notorious scams ever, the Ponzi scheme.
Hosted by Maya Lau and featuring award -winning comedian and actor Sebastian Maniscalco.
This is Easy Money, The Charles Ponzi Story, an Apple original podcast produced by Atwill Media.
Follow and listen on Apple Podcasts.
Now, again, had she gone past her 22 years, she would have probably gone on to lead a pretty, you know, fairly average life.
So young. Unfortunately, she had to come and meet Reverend Herbert Hayden in the summer of 1878.
I'm going to go out on a limb here.
He sounds like a douche.
Herbert Hayden. Herbert Hayden.
Not interested. Well, let's talk about him.
Shall we? Shall we?
We shall. Herbert Hayden was born in 1850 in Taunton, Massachusetts.
Girl, bye. Mike, everyone just looked at me in the room.
Girl, girl, bye. Listen, I used to live there, I can say that.
It's true. I no longer do.
Yeah, he was born in Taunton.
Oh my god, my friends used to call me Taunton Ash when I would get mad.
Taunton Ash. Oh, the Taunton of it all.
Well, that's where Herbert Hayden came from.
Yeah, that checks. But at the time, Taunton was actually a thriving mill town.
Yeah, Taunton was like gorgeous at one point.
It's pretty wild what became of Taunton.
And he, you know, Hayden spent—or Herbert Hayden spent—had a very ordinary childhood in a very modest home.
Very normal. Okay. In 1869, he attended the Providence Conference Seminary in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.
And around this time, Hayden met Rosa Shaw, who was a schoolteacher from Carver, Massachusetts.
Carver. Carver, kid.
Carver, right next to Plymouth.
There you go. And Plymouth is in here, too.
I know it is. I knew it.
You know, so they fell for each other.
You know, the school teacher, the guy going to, you know, a seminary.
Jesus. Place. Jesus Place.
They fell for each other and the two became engaged and eventually married in 1971.
Is that allowed? In 1971.
1871. Do you love that?
I didn't question that.
They married. I was like, sure, sure, sure.
Can he even get married though?
Yeah, you're like, but I don't care.
I was like, cool, back to the future.
He's 150. That's awesome.
Can he actually get married?
Is he immortal? Yeah.
Yeah, there's certain, there's all kinds of different, like, I think it's certain, like, certain pastors can get married.
Oh, okay. I think it's all different.
Okay, okay. Like, priests can't.
Different, like, steps of spiritual leaders?
Not even steps. I think it's certain, like, offshoots.
Like, it depends on your religion.
It depends on your congregation.
It depends on your place.
So many logistics. Yeah, there's a lot of different things, and I don't know all of them, but I know that this in particular was okay.
Okay. Now, according to Herbert Hayden, just one year before they were married, Rosa lost her mother and her sister to tuberculosis.
Oh, shit. And her doctor predicted Rosa might also succumb to that disease within the year.
But he recommended maybe a change of scenery to a less polluted environment just to help out.
Okay. Because, remember, there aren't a ton.
Of course, there's tuberculosis a ton.
So the couple ended up marrying in August 1871.
Like I said, not 1971.
You're going to do it again?
I was. A hundred years later in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Yay. So let's go see that rock.
But they went and returned to East Greenwich so Hayden could continue his education.
And it was a good place for Rosa to kind of like chill out for a minute.
Now, over the course of two years that followed their marriage, Rosa gave birth to two children.
And while Herbert continued his education, completing his seminary training in the spring of 1873, he graduated from the conference seminary and then enrolled at was I think it's Wesleyan College in Middletown, Connecticut.
Yeah, totally. And Rosa stayed home and raised the kids.
Hayden really wanted to complete the program, but the workload and his part time minister, like minister duties essentially became a little too much for him to handle.
And he began a long battle with really extreme fatigue that kind of prevented him from keeping up with his studies.
Like, he just couldn't keep up with it all.
He was running himself into the ground.
Out of six semesters, he only completed about two semesters worth of work.
So, he really gave up.
Thumbs down. He really gave up.
Quitter. Now, he accepted that he was no longer going to be able to meet all his responsibilities, so he dropped out.
And in 1875, he accepted a part -time position preaching on Sundays at the church in West Rocky Hill, Connecticut.
Got it. That was a small community between Hartford and Middletown.
The position at Rocky Hill was supposed to just be like kind of a temporary thing.
He intended to kind of parlay it into something more long -term, but this worked for now because it was helping to pay the bills.
So, like, why not? Yeah.
And it's in your line of work that you want to do.
Right, right. And after one year at Rocky Hills, he was transferred again to Rockland and then transferred again in 1877, this time to replace the minister at a church in Monroe, Connecticut.
etiquette so the position in monroe was had better pay and it seemed like it could really turn into something more permanent but there was a problem it was nearly 50 miles from his home in Rockland oh shit that's that's a far drive yeah and it's especially so it made sense for herbert to spend the majority of his week in monroe to kind of handle church business and you know not have to do that commute all the time so this left rosa though at home alone with the kids a lot lot.
And again, this position held promise for Herbert's career, but it meant Rosa was left alone.
And like, that's a lot to put on her.
And it was like five or six days out of the week, she was completely alone.
Yeah. And that's putting a lot of distance in between them as a married couple too.
Yeah. And she was kind of recovering from like almost having tuberculosis anyway.
So she's already kind of dealing with stuff.
And the loss of her mom and sister.
Yeah. Like she's dealing with grief, all that stuff.
And the stress and anxiety were starting to make her ill at this point.
And because of this, the couple, because he had this new job, decided that they were going to hire someone to help her around the house with the kids.
And so they hired a young woman.
And this young woman was Mary Standard. I knew it.
She lived on a farm with her father, just a few houses down from the Haydens.
So it worked out. Now, by late 1877, Mary had moved into the Haydens house and was working like five or six days a week with them.
Like just, you know, helping with the kids, keeping the house, helping with meals.
And she was even more necessary to the family when at the end of the year, Rosa became pregnant again with their third child.
Oh, wow. And although she was very much an indispensable part of the household as far as Rosa was concerned, by March 1878, several residents of Monroe began noticing that although Rosa found her indispensable, it seemed like Herbert really liked Mary.
Mary. It was coming home more often, eh?
Yeah. Within a few weeks of her being hired on a full time by the Haydens, quote, there were scandalous stories of meetings in lots and other unfrequented places in the evening where Herbert and Mary would be alone.
Uh -oh. It was unconfirmed, of course, but later it kind of was.
But there was a popular story shared around town that one evening, Hayden took his wife out for an oyster dinner and halfway through the meal he excused himself briefly to return home where he was quote guilty of improper intimacy with mary before coming back to the restaurant you take your wife out for oysters and then your raggedy ass goes home to your mistress are you kidding me yeah that was a story on a date to get oysters which like there's implications there already yeah you know yeah and then you you go home because the aphrodisiac's hitting, and you go, fuck your mistress.
Yeah, like, what the fuck?
No. The mistress that's taking care of our kids?
Yes, yeah, what? Yeah, I'm saying.
No. Now, and then poor Rose is sitting there, aphrodisiac -ed up.
Yeah, with nowhere to go.
He's already done. With nowhere to go.
Yeah, she should find someone else.
Herbert sucks. Now, it also should be said right away that as far as anyone knew, the attraction between Mary and Herbert was mutual, and they had a very consensual relationship.
Sounds like it. And again, this is shocking for the time.
Few people really thought badly of Mary for her participation in the affair.
And actually, when it came to responsibility for the infidelities, many around town noted that Mary, and this might have been part of it, I think, because I was really shocked to see that everybody wasn't blaming her.
Not because I think they should just blame her, but because that's usually the way it goes, especially in the 1800s.
It still goes like that now.
Yeah, and it's like in the 1800s, it was like, you don't even blink an eye.
It's like, of course it's her fault.
But apparently Mary was very easily influenced by others and was likely very susceptible to Hayden's charms, because in fact, when it came to Mary, it seems like everyone kind of had a fondness for her because they deemed her, quote, a very simple and easy minded girl.
Okay. Now that doesn't necessarily mean she was like cognitively, you know, like cognitively anything was wrong here.
I think it just means that she was like, you know, she's innocent.
And since she kind of grew up uneducated, she's not very worldly.
Yeah. And she's very easily influenced and manipulated.
There's like a naivete about her.
A naivete, I think, yeah.
And so I think people were like a little easier to forgive, like quicker to forgive her.
Yeah. Of her social missteps, I should say.
But Herbert Hayden denied the affair with Mary.
Okay. And he maintained his innocence until the day he died.
So where the fuck did you go during that aphrodisiac dinner?
So we'll never know what caused their affair to eventually come to an end, which it did.
Or will we? But whatever the case, by late spring, their romance had died out.
And when Rosa gave birth to the couple's third child in August, because remember he was carrying this on while his wife was pregnant.
Yeah, that's good. Mary had moved out of the Hayden house and stopped working for them.
I wonder why. We don't know.
I wonder, do you think Rosa caught wind of something and was like, eh?
You get the fuck out of here.
Yeah. Well, we'll see.
Okay. She ended up moving in with Jane Studley in nearby Guilford. It was Jane Studley, a friend to whom Mary first confided this affair.
After about two weeks of moving into the home, Jane noticed that Mary seemed very despondent.
She was like super emotional.
She could be set off a lot easier.
And it was not typical of Mary.
She pregnant. And so when Jane asked what's wrong with her, Mary broke down and confessed that she and Hayden had been having an affair and that she had been, quote, criminally intimate with the reverend and now believed she was pregnant.
I was going to say those emotions.
Criminally intimate.
Criminally intimate.
That would be a fucking awesome band name.
We are criminally intimate.
That's fucking great.
Somebody name your band that.
Please do. Or a good book even.
do criminally intimate would be a great book I would pick that up and never put it down listen up book talk that's your next book criminally intimate you shouldn't tell anybody that I know never mind well you don't really write smuts I do not criminally intimate is a smut book yeah and I give credit to smut writers because like I don't know if I could no I feel it I feel right in the face like I don't know if I could like I'm like good for you man because I could not it's the inner workings of somebody's mind right there so like shout out to smut authors yeah hats off but But Jane herself had
some medical knowledge, and she definitely knew—I'm not sure exactly how, like, she had so much medical knowledge, but she knew a lot about pregnancy.
Maybe she was a midwife or new midwives had some kind of interest in it.
But Jane examined Mary, and she said she found, quote, two well -recognized signs of pregnancy.
pregnancy. The text that we found this in isn't super specific about it, but together the two women did the math and determined that Mary was about five months pregnant.
Five months? Yeah, and this fell in the time frame that Mary and Herbert were carrying on an affair.
Damn, that's pretty far along.
Yeah, so although she was known to be what, like I said earlier, people thought of of her as a woman of lower than average intellect, I'll say.
Mary knew giving birth to another child out of wedlock with a married man, a married preacher, no less, was about as undesirable an occurrence as she could imagine.
Like, this was definitely not a good thing.
And not only would it be a significant and unavoidable source of shame at the time and probably alter or really end a lot of her relationships with family and friends.
Like, this was a biggie.
Yeah. But it would also be just another what she considered undue burden on her father, who was also struggling and was trying to keep her and her son afloat.
So she was feeling like she was becoming an issue, which is sad.
So desperate for a solution, Jane suggested that Mary go to Herbert Hayden to explain the circumstances and ask for his help.
Basically reasoning that he would have to be just as invested in dealing with this as she was, like, we have to come up with a solution here.
You would think. And Mary agreed that this was a good idea, but before doing that, she sat down to write a letter to her sister Susan and included in the envelope another letter that was intended to be given to Herbert Hayden.
In the letter, Mary told her sister Susan about the affair, the possible pregnancy, and asked that she give the letter to Herbert Hayden.
Now, according to Mary, the letter she wrote to Hayden Hayden was a similar explanation and a request that he take her to New Haven, quote, for an operation and then to return her to Mrs. Studley for any sickness that might follow.
Okay. Now, Mary mailed the letter to her sister in Rockland and she got it two days later.
But by then, Mary had returned home to her father's house and intercepted her sister before she gave the letter to Hayden.
Because she was like, I want to give it to him in person, actually.
Okay. She just changed her mind.
Yeah. Now, a little after 1 p .m. on September 3rd, 1878, her 22nd birthday, Mary Stannard gathered up her tin pail and left the house.
She told her father she was going to go to Big Rock about a quarter mile from the house to pick blackberries, and she would be home soon.
That afternoon, the sun went down, it was getting darker, and Charles Stannard became concerned.
She hadn't come back, that wasn't like her.
um and so he set out in the direction of big rock to find out where she had gone and as he made his way through the brush into the clearing by big rock charles made the gruesome discovery mary was lying on her back with her arms folded neatly across her chest she had a clean white bonnet that she was wearing when she left and it was folded neatly beneath her head and her tin pail was just a few feet away overturned but there was no evidence that any berries had ever been in it so she didn't even make it there and so charles ran to her and quickly realized that he was not going to be able to bring
her back mary's throat had been cut severing the jugular vein carotid artery and the larynx oh my god brutally cut yeah deep she also had a severe head wound there was a hole in her scalp what and there was also a large bruise on the back of her right hand.
Oh my God. So she was brutalized.
Yeah, absolutely. So Charles freaked out, ran to the nearest home for help, that of Francis Mills, and the news spread across the village very quickly.
And before long, a group of men had assembled at the Mills' house and they set out for the scene.
They discovered Mary's body in the woods where Charles had told them and a quick search of the area turned up no, nothing else really of note.
No instrument of murder, her.
No instrument, like, because it seems like there was two different things used, like something to cut her throat and probably a blunt instrument that hit her in the skull.
Neither one was found and because it was nearly completely dark at that point and at this point it had actually started to rain.
Oh no. The men called off the search for the evening and just carried Mary's body back to the Stannard home before sending for Justice Henry Stone and Dr. Dr. Rufus Mathewson.
Dr. Mathewson was the one who performed the autopsy.
In his post -mortem examination, Dr. Mathewson confirmed that Mary's cause of death was pretty certainly that wound to her throat.
He also noted the wound to the right side of the head, and he said, quote, jagged and star -shaped and apparently made by a blunt instrument.
Truly interesting, though, was that according to Dr. Mathewson, Mary's body showed no signs of pregnancy pregnancy or of having been recently pregnant interesting and the state of the body indicated quote an outrage was not committed upon her so no sexual assault okay so she was not pregnant so this all could have been avoided it's it sounds like yeah horrifying now a coroner's inquest was immediately called the following day and it was overseen by justice stone and dr Dr. Matthews.
Among the first witness called was Francis Mills, who was the owner of the home where Charles Standard had run to after discovering Mary's body.
And Mills told the jury that she had been walking out in the woods earlier with her son around 3 p .m. in the afternoon and heard agonizing shrieks and recognized the voice of Mary Standards, but didn't approach the scene and didn't see anything.
Why? so you heard agonized shrieks and you were just like you didn't tell anyone i'm gonna go about my business like i'm just gonna leave like like i understand not wanting to like run in the like you know to put your son in harm's way and all that yeah you're not gonna tell anyone like hey i heard some shit in the woods like we should probably go check that out she really said not my chair not my problem she really did but mills testimony led many in the inquest to speculate that she quote might have been outraged by and this is a quote by a tramp and then murdered Now, Dr. Mathewson, however,
dismissed that theory and reminded the jury there was no evidence of sexual assault.
She was not outraged, quote unquote.
Now, almost immediately after the body was discovered, rumors started swirling around town about Herbert Hayden's possible connection to this murder.
After all, for the past year, there had been a lot of talk about the illicit romance between the two.
Yeah. And then Mary's employment with the Haydens had ended rather abruptly.
But it was Mary's sister, Susan Holly, and Charles Stannard, her father, who offered the most insightful of testimonies, I would say.
Now, according to both of them, Reverend Hayden had come to their home around 11 a .m. on the morning of the murder.
But she was in town.
And he and Mary had gone out for a walk.
When they returned, Mary told them both that they had made an appointment to meet later that afternoon, not far from where the body was discovered.
Additional testimony from Susan and Jane Studley revealed that Mary had confessed her affair with Hayden to both of them and that she believed herself to be pregnant with Herbert Hayden's child.
Now, when asked about this, Herbert Hayden denied having met with Mary a second time that day.
He said he had been out cutting wood all afternoon, all by himself, and didn't see Mary again until he and the others went to the woods to retrieve her body.
What a great alibi.
A great alibi is one that no one can confirm or deny.
Totally. No one saw me, but I was there.
I was in the woods alone.
By myself. The whole day.
Secluded. Just chop, chop, chop and wood.
Now, after hearing two days of testimony, Head juror Charles Stannard, who, or Stanard, no relation, by the way.
Charles Stannard is her father.
This is head juror Charles Stanard, who is not related.
That's crazy. He went to Justice H .B.
Wilcox. H .B. Wilcox.
I have feelings. Oh.
I have feelings about this man.
Sorry, wait, who's H .B.
Wilcox? The judge? He's the justice.
Okay, yeah, okay. And so this head juror requested that an arrest warrant be issued for Hayden, Herbert Hayden.
Duh. The request stunned Justice Wilcox, who was a member of Hayden's church. Instead.
Girl, bye. He said, he insisted.
He said he had, quote, heard Hayden preach a very good sermon. It did not seem possible the minister could be guilty, and he would rather sign his own death warrant than that arrest warrant against Mr. Hayden.
Blink, blink, blink, blink, blink.
Now, luckily, against his protests, the arrest warrant was signed that Friday morning, and a sheriff, because they were like, fuck off.
Well, and also, don't you think that would be like, like, you know how jurors get dismissed for being too close to the case?
Wouldn't you think that would be a conflict?
yeah back then i don't think they believed in conflicts i think they were just like whatever as we'll see because it gets worse i had a feeling um so a sheriff's deputy went out to madison i don't know why i said sheriff's deputy sorry i don't really know what happened there a sheriff's deputy went to madison and placed herbert hayden under arrest for the murder of mary stannard although the evidence against hayden was at this point pretty circumstantial and opinions kind of heavily were influenced by rumor at this point yeah um belief in his guilt was pretty widespread one reporter wrote yeah
one reporter wrote the circumstances of the murder were so overwhelming against the clergyman that surprise was expressed that he was not at once placed in custody and the reporter then wrote of his guilt as the case appears now there can be be very little doubt and it looks as if he was led through fright to commit the crime of murder and yet did it in such in so bungling a manner as to make it almost impossible for him to escape suspicion and arrest damn so they're like this fucking idiot like that's essentially what they're saying now the public and at the very least the press might have been
very confident in hayden's guilt at the time but far more important in this case was the judge's opinion and in this case the judge on the case was Justice H .B.
Wilcox. I had a feeling.
Our friend. He's not my friend.
A friend and staunch advocate of Herbert Hayden's innocence, which seems fine, seems so legit.
Can we call anyone else?
Literally any— That guy over there.
Go outside and grab the first guy you see, and I think that'll be better.
Like, come on. The trial began September 10th and was held in the basement of the Madison Town Hall, and it was a space described as quote low ceiling stifling dirty room almost a cellar why don't they have a courthouse you know the 1800s so judge come over to this basement let's judge this man judge h lynd harrison was acting on behalf of the state while lm hubbard the local postmaster was acting on behalf of hayden that's real close to how they were wily back then for real now So Wilcox, again, was the presiding justice, and it should be noted that although he had legal training, he had no trial
experience. Where are we?
Sounds like this is a well -oiled machine.
He doesn't. I think it's going to turn out fine.
Yeah, everything will be great.
So the rumors about Herbert Hayden's affair with Mary went a long way to people drawing conclusions about his guilt, but that wasn't the sole or even the most important reason he was arrested.
Actually, it was the testimony from Susan Hawley and Charles Stannard regarding Hayden's supposed appointment with Mary on the day of her murder.
That was the most suspicious.
Yeah. And in her testimony, and the fact that he didn't have an alibi.
His alibi was like, I was chopping wood alone in the forest. Right.
No one saw me. Can you get me a bear to corroborate this?
No. No. No, I can't.
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lie. Now, so in her testimony during the inquest and during the first trial, Susan Holly, her sister, explained that after Mary's first visit with Hayden on the day of her murder, her sister claimed that she had told Hayden of the supposed pregnancy.
So in that first meeting where they they took a walk, she had revealed to Herbert Hayden that she was pregnant.
And he told her not to worry that they would go to the pharmacy and get a quote -unquote quick medicine that would end the pregnancy.
Now further testimony from other residents confirmed that Hayden had gone to the pharmacy on the morning of the murder and purchased a quantity of arsenic.
Quick medicine, I bet.
I don't know if I would call it medicine per se.
Now, during his testimony, Hayden said, well, of course I did that.
My house and barn are overrun with rats.
I purchased the arsenic to mix with sugar and kill the rats.
Okay. However, he insisted he had not yet used the arsenic.
He hadn't used it to kill the rats.
And as far as he knew, it was still in the package in his barn.
So he's like, I didn't even open it.
And he made sure to say that, which I was like, that wasn't smart.
Because we can figure that out later.
Now, the second piece of compelling evidence was a bloody knife that they discovered during the search of Herbert Hayden's property.
Did he also use that on the rats?
Following his arrest, authorities searched his home and the adjacent barn where they discovered a bloody knife about the size and shape of that which was believed to have made the wound in Mary's neck.
But you brought that home?
The knife was sent to M .C.
White, a professor of pathology at Yale Medical School, who conducted extensive tests on the blood.
I love this because it's very 1800s, because it's like, it went to Yale University where they conducted extensive tests on the blood.
He just, like, sniffed it.
And what he said was, I think it's human blood.
That's so extensive.
And I didn't just make that up.
That's a fucking quote from the New York Times in 1878.
That checks. When he was called to testify, Professor White confirmed that it was blood and he told the prosecuting attorney, quote, I think it's human blood.
I have a feeling. I'm like, I get it, it's the 1800s.
I'm surprised they could tell it was blood and not jelly.
But like still, White explained that he had made a similar examination of the bloodstains found on Mary's bonnet, that pure white bonnet that she had worn.
And those discovered on a large stone found near the body.
And said he, quote, had no doubt that this blood on the stone was human blood.
So he could definitely tell that that was human blood.
A few days later, Herbert Hayden's wife, Rosa, took the stand to testify for the defense.
Come on, Rosa. And told the court when her husband went out that afternoon to chop wood, he left the knife in question with her.
quote to use in peeling pears while he was away here peel these pears according to Rosa I'm glad you asked I think it was human according to a human pear and Professor White is like I'll do some extensive testing and I'll be able to tell you that I too think it might be human me thinks now according to Rosa Herbert Hayden had cut his finger with that knife a few days prior to the murder and that likely explained the blood on the blade bitch you were gonna use that to cut pears i know i was like that's gross that's nasty now additional testimony was provided by the defense's own expert professor lj
sanford who gave extensive testimony regarding the testing process and it all did little to explain the presence of the blood like how it got there yeah but it was long -winded and complicated enough to raise doubts in in uh professor white's testimony yeah so he just confused the jury that was his his whole aim he was like science science science science biology biology biology and the sirs were like ah i don't know what that is and at the same time that testimony was being given in the court h lynd harrison lobbied to have mary's body disinterred and have the wound and stomach be examined more
thoroughly harrison's request came in light of the fact that not only Only had the knife been discovered in the barn and could now be compared to the wound.
They were like, we need to get her back so we can compare it.
But also after the prosecution learned that Hayden had purchased a large quantity of arsenic poison from the local pharmacy just days before the murder, the defense objected strongly because they were like, we can now test her stomach contents.
And the defense was like, no. And they were like, why though?
And they were like, he's a preacher, he can't afford additional legal fees that we're going to accrue while the state puts this hold on the case to exhume and examine the body.
And Judge Wilcox, being a friend and having no sympathy or affinity for the prosecution, agreed with the defense and refused to pause the case.
But he said, you can exhume her, I'm just not pausing the case.
so we might find him innocent while you're doing your tests so while you figure out like indubitably that he did this wow yeah wow now so they're not going to pause the case could get to the end of it before they even get mary out of the ground and try to make these like literally the smoking gun discoveries right but he's like yeah i don't care during the inquest in the first trial a great deal of information came to light that the prosecution really believed warranted further investigation before any court could reasonably determine guilt or innocence.
They were like, we're having a lot of stuff come up that like you do need to pause so we can go through all this.
And this included like we said, an exhumation of Mary's body to examine stomach contents and that neck wound.
And as well as several statements and claims relating to the knife and to Hayden's whereabouts on the afternoon of the murder.
It was just too much coming out that was like, this is shady.
Now Judge Wilcox, however, disagreed.
He refused again to adjourn the case to allow the further investigation, and on September 19, 1887, Wilcox announced that he had heard enough.
He wasn't even going to let it keep going.
According to Wilcox, a close friend and defender of the accused, remember.
The prosecution had presented a largely circumstantial case that was easily explained away by the defense.
Regarding the knife, Wilcox said, quote, he himself had at that moment a knife in his pocket, This man killed a dog, and we're listening to this fucker?
Why did he kill a dog with a knife?
Fuck this guy. What the hell?
Fuck this guy. Judge Wilcox, fuck you.
What? Sitting there being like, this guy's fine, he's innocent, he's innocent, I don't give a shit, I'm not going to listen to anything.
thing also i have a knife in my pocket that i fucking murdered a dog with so i could also be a murderer and it's like why don't we put your ass on trial then what the fuck are you doing seriously killing dogs out here in these streets what the fuck judge will there's a supreme court at this point well then willcox can we go somewhere else this court sucks the 1800s of it all but willcox went on to say that mrs mrs hayden rosa hayden's testimony was further proof of Hayden's innocence because, quote, he didn't think she would tell a falsehood to save her husband from the gallows.
I don't think. Like, go to bed.
Judge Wilcox, go to your room.
Shut up. It's like, yeah.
Are you kidding? This woman won't, you don't think she'll get on the stand and tell a falsehood to save her husband and father of her children from the gallows?
Father of her three children whom she needs him to provide for?
You're like, ah, who'd do that?
what lies she's a religious woman he's like secret secrets are no fun I don't think she would do that she doesn't like those like what the fuck what like and everybody and all these men were just sitting there going huh yeah uh -huh absolutely he's like she pinky swore to me that she'd tell the whole truth and nothing about the truth we we spit shook on it yeah she get she flashed a peace sign and i thought that was pretty great so and you think that's the worst shit you've heard the last thing that i'm gonna tell you i'm not even there yet but the last thing i will tell you in this thing is gonna blow
your fucking mind get out of here now in closing wilcox told the crowd assembled in the courtroom let me say no from the testimony ready no no i I won't.
Let me say, from the testimony given, that if I were as sure of heaven and eternal felicity as I am of this man, that this man is guiltless of the crime of killing Mary E.
Stannard, I should rest content.
What? So he's saying, if I was, I am more, I am more sure that this man is innocent of this crime than I am that heaven exists.
Wow, cool. And I would rest content if I was as sure that heaven exists as I am sure of his innocence.
And it's like, what did this guy, what's he got on you?
Like, what the fuck's going on?
I'm like, what's happening?
Are you two having an affair with preacher Hayden?
I'm just like, Wilcox, what's happening?
Yeah, do you guys get together on the weekends?
Just be honest. I don't know, I'm just wondering.
I'm asking for a friend.
Because he's just like, I love him.
Wait, I mean he's innocent.
and and they're literally like here's the bloody knife found in his barn no it's not no me too i have bloody knives like it's just like you aren't shut up like you're just like yeah it's getting real bloody knives everywhere we all got them and it's like no no no we don't i don't know about this brother he's uh he's wild and with that the charges against herbert hayden were discharged charged and he was allowed to leave the court a free man what the fuck now at the time of herbert hayden's arrest public opinion was generally that he had killed mary stannard and gotten away with after being told
that she was pregnant that's what everybody thought um the prosecution offered a strong and compelling case that presented motive her pregnancy and their affair yep means the bloody knife discovered in the barn his barn yeah and opportunity the appointment in the woods they They had literally laid out motive, means, and opportunity clearly for everybody.
And they had a wealth of damaging testimony to go along with it.
Which he bought arsenic that morning.
The defense, on the other hand, presented a rebuttal that included basically some murky scientific jargon that they probably just pulled out of their ass.
But mostly relied on the assertion that Hayden simply couldn't have done this because he's a minister and his wife wouldn't lie.
lie totally that's literally the case they rested on no you're not wrong this guy is a minister or preacher and his wife she's so pretty she wouldn't lie yeah that's it and they were like sounds good and like the prosecution's like we have literally the perfect case so sorry did the jury even make the decision or did the judge just was like he was just like all done i've heard enough so what was the point of the jury and again well one of those arguments is clearly and objectively much stronger than the other uh the charges were nonetheless dismissed by a judge who from the very start was convinced
of hayden's innocence and not only resented even having to preside over this case in the first place but resented the prosecutor for what he believed was an unjust unjust and fucked up attack on his friend and a beloved preacher of the town so while the charges against hayden were dismissed at the time h lynd harrison remained convinced of his guilt and that's the prosecutor he was like fuck that like I know this is true and he refused to let Wilcox's bullshit decision biased decision prevent him from continuing to pursue the case which is like good on him he believed that Mary's statement to
her sister about quote quick medicine referred to the arsenic purchased by Hayden on the morning of the murder agreed and Harrison arranged for Mary's body to be exhumed he was like fuck that I'm still gonna look I'm gonna still do this investigation Yeah, because the family deserves to know, like, without a doubt.
Yeah, what happened?
And not content to leave the second examination up to the county doctor, he was like, I don't trust anybody in this fucking place.
He's got a DIY. Harrison arranged for the second post -mortem examination to be conducted by pathologist M .C.
White and S .W. Johnson, the chair of the chemistry department, also from Yale.
So the two Yale pathology professors.
He was like, I trust them.
In their examination of the contents of Mary's stomach, the pathologist discovered, quote, a mass of unabsorbed arsenic, which they claimed was, quote, enough arsenic to kill the whole community of Rockland.
Oh, my God. They found the arsenic in her stomach. stomach they found all of the arsenic in her stomach and then he slid her throat as well yep by white and johnson's estimation there were roughly 50 or 60 grams of arsenic in mary's stomach but she had likely ingested more and some had already been absorbed prior to her death oh my god it doesn't take a ton of arsenic to kill an average size adult i looked it up in grant like the fbi is probably like coming to my door tomorrow they're like hey can you In grams, at the low end of the dosage, 0 .145 grams can be lethal.
Wait, and I'm sorry, how much was in her?
50 or 60 grams. And they believe there was more that had already been absorbed.
What the fuck? And that's on the low end of the dosage.
But even 0 .145 can be lethal.
And that is less than only one -eighth of a teaspoon is a lethal dose.
Holy shit. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. I am dumbstruck right now.
And it was during this second autopsy that another surprising revelation was made relating to Mary's belief that she was pregnant.
Although there was still no evidence to suggest that she had recently been pregnant.
Okay. During the examination of her reproductive organs, the pathologist discovered several ovarian cysts, which they said explained, quote, had only mimicked the symptoms of early pregnancy.
So that explained, they said that's why she believed she was pregnant.
It wasn't her making it up.
Because that was another thing that was starting to come up.
Oh, she made this shit up to keep him, to like take him away from his wife.
I don't think so. And they were like, no, no. She was experiencing symptoms that at that point especially mimicked early pregnancy.
And they weren't, how were they to tell?
You just go off of symptoms back then.
Yeah, and the argument that she was saying that she was pregnant because she wanted to keep him is stupid because she literally had written a letter where she was like, I don't want to do this again.
I don't know what to do.
I'm going to be shunned.
This is not what I meant to happen.
I'm actually leaning more toward I would not like to do this again.
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That's DimeBeautyCO .com and get the hydrated skin of your dreams. now when white and johnson reported their findings back to harrison he took their support their report to superior court judge hitchcock and culvert i was like there's gotta be another court because this one is janky as fuck i'd like to trade it in they immediately issued a warrant for haven's arrest again and he was taken into custody by sheriff's deputies and delivered to a cell at the jailhouse in New Haven.
The following day, reporters noted that as he was being transported to the jail, quote, Hayden was as smiling and talkative as on the day of his trial.
What the fuck? Because he thought he was like, I'm not, they're not going to get me.
Cuckoo nut man. In between the dismissal of charges and his rearrest, Hayden had managed to gain considerable sympathy from the residents of Monroe.
E. Particularly those in his congregation.
Yeah, of course. Who viewed him as a victim of an overzealous prosecutor.
And after the first trial ended, the congregation passed, quote, resolutions of unqualified and continued respect for Brother Hayden as a man and minister.
Among other things, the resolutions claimed, quote, his late arrest was made on the most criminally frivolous grounds and was therefore a great outrage upon him and society at large.
And it noted that his arrest was due only to, quote, wicked designs of evil men.
And the resolution closed with a pledge by the congregation to continue their unconditional emotional and financial support.
Unconditional, you say?
So this man conned that entire congregation into also paying to support him through this murder trial where he is so fucking guilty.
It is outrageous. He's a dickhole.
Now, the general support for Hayden was pretty broad, and the resolution was specifically kind of signaling that there was a huge shift in what was going to happen here.
Before, it was, like, pretty broad that everybody was like, yeah, he did this, and it makes sense.
Like, here's the motive, here's the means, here's the opportunity.
Now they're like, he might have done this, but we don't give a fuck.
And everybody's like, no, I think you guys are just mean.
No way. He loves God.
So, and that's because everybody's now reframing Hayden as a pious and morally righteous victim in what was essentially described as a battle between good and evil now.
Are you fucking kidding me?
Where he is good, and they are evil.
For sure. And as such, Herbert Hayden entered into his second trial for the murder of Mary Stennard as a kind of, like, folk hero and a victim of a government system determined to pin a murder on him that he did not commit.
I don't know about that.
Why do you have arsenic in your possession and she's got it in her stomach?
Rats. You went to get it that morning?
Yep. I need to know more about this package.
It's just a coincidence.
I know it's coming back.
Now, while Hayden sat in jail waiting his second trial, Harrison and a small group of investigators continued building their case against him.
The exhumation and second autopsy had not only allowed them to confirm the arsenic in Mary's stomach, but also meant that they could take a sample so they could compare it to something.
Ooh. And the problem was, however, that Hayden claimed he hadn't seen that packet of arsenic since he purchased it.
And the initial search of the barn hadn't turned up any arsenic.
Yeah, because it was all fucking gone.
Now, upon re -arrest, and remember, he said, I never even opened that.
Right. He offered up that information that he had never opened that package.
Now, upon re -arrest, they searched the barn a second time, and the arsenic was located.
Empty. Only after the defense ended up having to give specific instructions as to where it could be found, so it was hidden as well.
The packet of arsenic from the barn was turned over to C .M.
White for analysis and was confirmed to be opened and to have the same chemical structure as what was discovered in Mary's stomach. Dude, come on.
And it was fucking hidden.
It was hidden. Hidden and opened when this man said, I never opened it, and it's just sitting in my barn.
and has the same chemical structure as the kind in Mary's stomach. And was fucking 60 grams missing?
Pretty much. So for a variety of reasons unrelated to the case, Hayden's trial was actually delayed repeatedly and nearly a year passed before the second trial even began in early November 1898.
And during the first trial, witnesses for the prosecution like Susan Hawley and, you know, Jane Studley, they were all kind of regarded with sympathy because they had just lost a loved one in a very gruesome way.
Charles, Stannard, they were all treated very nicely.
This time, however, the public opinion had swayed in Herbert Hayden's favor, remember, and the public, including the judge and defense attorneys, had no sympathy for anyone that they believed was participating in the persecution of this minister.
On the stand and in the press, witnesses like Susan Hawley and Charles Stannard were belittled in court and portrayed to be ignorant laborers of low intelligence now.
Herbert Hayden, on the other hand, was held up of a man of culture and strong moral and religious character, while his wife Rosa was treated as though she were the real victim here, having been robbed of her husband for so long.
Baby, he robbed you of him.
Yeah, he robbed a woman of her whole fucking life and William of his mother.
Exactly. And Charles of his daughter.
daughter yeah and susan of her sister and as he had done the first time around harris presented the jury with a strong case built on scientific evidence and witness testimony science he established they're like science i don't know her no i don't know her he established the relationship between hayden and mary reminded them of the motive in the case and more importantly gave incredibly compelling evidence that connected mary's death to the arsenic and the knife discovered in Herbert Hayden's barn.
Right. And it was the scientific evidence that was the linchpin of the entire case, and Harris went out of his way to include expert testimony from several pathologists at Yale, many of whom recreated their experiments in the courtroom before the judge and jury just to make it, like, drive it home.
unfortunately while such scientific evidence might seem irrefutable to us now to a 19th century jury in the confusing like in this whole case witchcraft this confusing stream of jargon and strange looking lab instruments that were brought in just confuse the hell out of them yeah and according to one press report at the time this is wild oh god no quote at one time during the the examination no five jurymen who had finished their inspection were reading newspapers which were spread out before them but no one imagined they were reading reports about the trial they're just reading newspapers while
this is happening come on like yeah you can't make that shit up even and it's gonna get worse how when it came Came to the argument from the defense, Hayden's lawyer Samuel Jones presented more or less the same case that was presented during the first trial.
The strong scientific evidence presented by the prosecution was treated that it was like it was mystical gibberish, further muddying the jury's understanding of the arsenic analysis.
He just confused them more.
And also their defense rested largely on Hayden's supposed strong moral character and that of his wife.
and then they made sure to say that the victim and her family were just ignorant farmers and made poor choices and were poorer had poor character I cannot and remember Herbert cheated on his wife I do remember that but we're we're holding him up as the strong moral character but of course but like this man is admitting to meeting with Mary To discuss the affair and possible pregnancy.
But they're holding him up as the moral character and just like sanctimonious motherfucker up here.
Yeah. In fact, during Charles Stannard's testimony, the defense focused considerable attention on Mary's illegitimate child, William.
That's fucked up. And even, quote unquote, illegitimate child.
and even made attempts to establish that Mary herself had been born out of wedlock, implying that not only was the witness immoral, but also couldn't be trusted.
That's so fucked up.
So now they're like, Charles, were you married when Mary was born?
Maybe she's an illegitimate child, so that makes you fucking gross, and we can't trust you anymore.
What does that have to do with anything?
That's not why we're here.
And they had nothing to prove it.
No basis, exactly. So rather than prove his client's innocence, since, Jones just cast suspicions on someone else.
He just decided to throw it on someone else.
Benjamin Stevens, a neighbor of the Stanards, who occasionally did work for Charles Stanard. Just out of the blue.
And slept at their home sometimes.
Just decided to off -marry.
Yeah. Unlike the morally righteous and upstanding Herbert Hayden who was fucking his nanny behind his wife's back, by the way.
And had hidden arsenic within his possession and a bloody knife.
Stevens was a poor farmer who was known to partake in the drink at times heavily.
I think that happens.
It's the 1800s. What?
Come on. What the fuck else is there to do?
Let's go drunk. Also, Stevens had been seen leaving the house just after Mary did on the day of the murder and had no alibi for the rest of the afternoon that anybody could confirm.
Neither does this motherfucker.
Neither does this fucker.
Jones also pointed out that it could have just as easily been Charles Stannard who committed the murder.
Wow, that's fucked up.
Quote, to prevent the repetition of the disgrace that had once before fallen upon the family from the same source.
Saying from the same source, the same source being Mary, his own fucking child.
That's so fucked up.
To be clear, there was not one fucking shred of evidence to suggest either of these men had anything to do with Mary's death.
Jones was just sowing the seed of doubt just to fuck with the jury because that's all he had.
Right. He didn't have anything to prove his client was innocent.
No. Everything proved his guilt.
There is not one shred of evidence besides Rosa sitting on the fucking stand and being like, I love my husband.
I don't think he'd do that.
He would not murder someone.
I was cutting peaches.
And they were bloody.
That's all he has. So his only way of doing this is to just go, those two could have done it.
Like, I could have done it.
You could have done it.
but like i don't have arsenic in my possession or a bloody knife fucking what it's wild now after more than two months the trial finally reached closing arguments on january 13th 1880 lind harrison reiterated his case for the jury emphasizing that fearing his reputation would be ruined should the affair and pregnancy be made public hayden had a very strong motive to kill and the weapons used in the murder were found in his fucking home with blood on them.
Quote, the experts had shown that arsenic was found in the brain of the murdered girl and that it must have reached there before death.
Harrison reminded the courtroom, quote, it was also shown that Hayden was the only man who was known to have arsenic in Rockland that entire day.
That could have killed an entire fucking village of people.
And that he bought it secretly.
Yeah. He secretly bought it.
And then said it was never opened, and then it was, and then it was hidden.
In his closing arguments on the other side, Jones focused on Hayden's supposedly upstanding character and again cast dispersions on Benjamin Stevens.
Quote, if Hayden had killed the girl, it was most strange that no blood was found on his clothing.
But it was found on a knife in his possession, you dumb fuck.
And also, what clothing?
We don't know what clothing he was wearing that day.
He could have gotten rid of them.
That's the other thing.
Jones remarked in statement, quote, Ben Stevens' denial that he committed the crime should have no weight, as he had been contradicted in material parts of his testimony.
He is referring to an earlier part of the trial when Stevens' testimony was challenged by a witness for the defense, and that's it.
It wasn't, like, contradicted.
Right. They challenged it.
Right. With no basis.
Which is the same thing that's happening to your client, but with basis.
The jury deliberated for nearly four days before finally reporting that they had become hopelessly deadlocked.
How the fuck are you deadlocked?
Eleven jurors were in favor of acquittal.
One was a holdout that was committed to Hayden's guilt.
One. What? Certain that they would not reach a verdict if the jury returned for further deliberation, the judge declared a mistrial and herbert hayden walked free no the prosecution briefly considered retrying the case because they were like this is fucked up are you guys kidding me but there was exorbitant costs in two trials alone and the fact that they had already presented a perfect most compelling case they possibly could yeah aside from having like some just omniscient narrator narrator that that could come in and be like hi i was watching the whole thing and here's what happened they they
didn't see a point to try him a third time they were like he's just gonna be allowed to walk free again we're exhausted this family is now being torn to shreds and now god now we've put them through a second trial and now people are blaming her father and accusing him we're not gonna put him through that again no now in both trials the jury weighed what was very clear evidence of Hayden's guilt and chose instead to absolve him of everything all wrongdoing rather than challenge their beliefs about class and respectability at the time I want to know about this one juror that was like y 'all are wrong
well and while Hayden may have escaped criminal penalties he didn't escape consequences altogether okay well that's good to hear following the declaration of a mistrial Herbert Hayden was stripped of his credentials and banned from From preaching all together.
Oh, wow. I'm surprised by that.
Sounds to me like people knew what was the truth.
Yeah. Sounds to me like after hearing that trial that there was really no denying it.
I'm so surprised by that, that the jury was like, no way, no, no, no, not at all.
And now they're like, well, fuck.
But then like somebody was like, no, you fucking did this and you're not.
Many people I think were like, you clearly did this.
Wow. And you got away with it.
And like the higher ups within the church were like, no, you're not preaching to us anymore.
Damn. so no longer a pillar of the community and held up as this righteous righteous moral god for all of them he and rosa moved to new haven where they lived until his death in 1907 wow now in 1914 33 years after that second trial the hartford current interviewed the last living member of the jury stop it stop his name is horace perry horace and he was asked what was your rationale for voting to acquit Herbert Hayden of the charge.
Because was he one of the 11 in favor of acquittal?
I don't think they knew whether he was one of the 11, but they assumed he was.
But I think they're just like, clearly there was like, what was the rationale there?
Like what was the conversation that day?
Perry explained. Oh my God.
That throughout the trial, Rosa Hayden had been sitting in front of the jury and was quote, a very beautiful young woman.
As far as the majority of the jury was concerned, quote, Quote, from the day the trial opened until the last ballot was cast, their view had been, how can we convict a man with a beautiful young wife like that?
And that is the end of the fucking story.
How can we convict a man because we want to fuck his wife?
That is the end of that story.
I'm going to go run over my microphone really fast. I quit.
14? This man, this whores, Mr. Perry said, you want to know why we didn't listen to a shred of the fucking evidence that was presented to us?
His wife was hot and she was sitting in front of us.
What the fuck does that have to do with anything?
When I tell you my soul launched into orbit at that moment.
No, this will be my last podcast. It's been a great run.
Are you fucking—like, bye!
Bye! Most of the jury wanted to fuck his wife so we couldn't convict him.
That is essentially what that man just said.
No, that is what he's—what?
what I'm I'm I'm on another I'm on a new level that is what his wife was beautiful so not even like his wife was so beautiful we thought to ourselves like wow he'd never cheat on her so this is ridiculous that he'd even be involved with that woman we convict him it's like yeah maybe he killed her but like his wife super hot also wouldn't you think that's why you would want to convict him so you could step on in there and be like hey baby i horace literally saying convict that man we convict a man who pulled a gal like that like that's i'm are you joking me do you do we know what rosa looked like
is there like an artist's rendition i don't even know but i'm like let me see i'll be the fucking judge of that i am just how gorgeous was she the fuck fuck marilyn monroe sitting in front of that jury i am are you joking me without words to be honest no that's i'm telling like that bye that's why i was like just you fucking wait like it you don't think it's gonna get worse but it does i need to function for the rest of this day are you kidding me i'm saying i'm saying i got i was looking up to see if i could find rosa it's hard to what But she's so beautiful, nobody ever took a photograph of her
because they were scared.
Oh, my God. Oh. I mean, there's an artist's rendition, but I don't know if this is correct.
It's got to be like something.
Let's see it. I'll be the judge, the jury.
Let me see. The executioner.
Probably. No, that's not.
It's an artist's rendition.
If that. You know what?
Thank you so much for listening.
listening um on that note we totally hope that you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but not so weird that you go google a picture of rosa in that artist's rendition because baby you will have different thoughts than that whole ass jury goodbye I'll see you next time.
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