Pod Insights Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings and Mysteries 155. Vanished At Christmas: Two Mysteries That Will Make You Question Everything About this episode Today, I want to tell you about two winter mysteries that have haunted New York for over a century. The first is about Dorothy Arnold, who disappeared on a cold December day in 1910 after leaving a bookstore in Manhattan. And the second is about a devastating Christmas night fire in Staten Island in 1843, and the legend of the witch who started it.
Show Notes: https://www.heartstartspounding.com/episodes/witchofstatenisland
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:00 Kaelyn Moore? This episode is brought to you by SiJoo. A new season always makes me want to reset things. My space, my routine, how my mornings feel. And honestly, upgrading my bedding has made a big difference. And that's why I have been loving SiJoo Home. I have the Aerie Weight Eucalyptus Sheets from SiJoo. They have a lightweight feel, cool to the touch texture. And now my bed feels like a real reset at the end of a long day. I know that every little bit of improvement I can do with my sleep routine makes a huge difference. And so I'm so happy I was able to get SiJoo Sheets. The Aerie Weight Sheets are made with Tencel Liocell. They're doctor recommended, Ecotec certified, and even HSA and FSA eligible, which I genuinely did not know was a thing for bedding. And if you're someone who prefers a more lived-in texture,
1:43 Kaelyn Moore? their Lux Weave French Linen Sheets are stone washed and get softer with every wash. Really beautiful for a bedroom refresh. Go to sijohome.com and use code HSP to get 20% off your first order. That's S-I-J-O-H-O-M-E dot com and use code HSP for 20% off at checkout. Today, I want to tell you about two mysteries that have truly kept me up at night. The first is about a girl who walked out of her home into the middle of a busy street in New York. New York City and then vanished into thin air. And the other is about a mysterious fire that happened on Christmas night in Staten Island and the legend of the witch who maybe started it. Also, a reminder that if you love true crime that reads like Gothic horror, disappearances
2:24 Kaelyn Moore? that make you question everything, and urban legends that ended up being true, you are in the right place because you are just like me. I upload episodes once a week, so make sure you're subscribed. Thanks, guys.
2:41 Kaelyn Moore? It's when your heart starts pounding.
2:45 Kaelyn Moore? December 12th, 1910 was a cold but clear day in New York City. Dorothy Arnold was wearing a crisp blue suit and a velvet hat. She walked leisurely but with purpose from store to store. The sidewalks were laced with ice, but the young woman was very sure exactly where she wanted to go. Another woman, Gladys King, saw her from not very far away, waving until her friend waved back. The two women met outside of a bookstore and they chatted for a brief while. Dorothy seemed to be in good spirits during this meeting, and the two of them talked about an upcoming party that they would both be attending. It was not a very long conversation. Dorothy then said that she was going to meet her mother for lunch at the Waldorf Astoria, so she really needed to be on her way. And Gladys wished her well, and then the two women parted.
3:29 Kaelyn Moore? Dorothy turned and waved once, then twice, and then she fully turned to walk towards Central Park, which she had to cross in order to get to her lunch. It was a fairly normal interaction, but that would be the last time that anyone saw Dorothy Arnold, dead or alive. And it begs the question, where was Dorothy really headed that day? And what happened to her? Welcome back to Heart Starts Pounding, a podcast of horrors, hauntings, and mysteries. As always, I'm your host, Kayla Moore. Jinx, our friendly ghost, and I have been sitting here in our Rogue Detecting Society, scaring ourselves silly about these two old timey mysteries that I want to tell you about today. Isn't that right, Jinx?
4:11 Kaelyn Moore? Both of these mysteries feel very classic Heart Starts Pounding, back when our show was a lot of mysteries and crimes from the 1800s. And it really made me wonder, which episode was the first one that you guys listened to? The one that made you keep listening to our show? You can comment wherever you listen, but every now and then I will get a message from one of you, like Lydia, Heather, Erin, my dad. And they'll say something like, they've been listening since the very beginning of the show. And I truly just can't believe it. So, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who's been here since the beginning. Okay, let's get right back into it. Dorothy Arnold had what many would call an enviable life. She was the daughter of Frances R. Arnold, one of the owners of a successful perfume import business.
4:54 Kaelyn Moore? Neither she nor her brothers ever wanted for anything. But being a woman of high society meant that the expectations of her from her family were pretty clear from the get-go. She was to make a good impression amongst the upper crust of Manhattan, and then find a respectable man to marry. But that didn't seem to be exactly what Dorothy wanted out of life. From a very young age, she had a bit of a independent spirit about her. First of all, she went to college, which was not a typical choice of women of that era. And that's because Dorothy didn't want to sit around high society on her husband's arm. She wanted to be an author. After her graduation, she eagerly wrote all these short stories, and she started sending them off to all these different literary magazines.
5:39 Kaelyn Moore? But when she brought up this ambition she had to her family, they just made fun of her. From what I can tell, it seems like her family treated her life's ambition as this phase that she would just grow out of once she decided to meet a man and start a family. Dorothy, to her credit, was not deterred by this. She continued writing. She even opened a P.O. box under her own name so that her parents wouldn't see her correspondence with the literary magazines. Dorothy also asked her father if she could have her own apartment in Greenwich Village, the famous haven of artists and bohemian creatives in New York City. Her dad initially said no. He said that, quote, "A good writer can write anywhere." And there wasn't really much Dorothy could do after
6:21 Kaelyn Moore? Dorothy said that she was financially reliant on her parents until she got married, and then she'd be financially reliant on her husband. Or there was a third option. She could sell a short story or a novel, and then she would only be reliant on herself. In late November of 1910, Dorothy traveled to Washington DC. She was going to stay with Theodora Bates, a friend of hers from college who was teaching in Washington. Theodora welcomed Dorothy, but she was initially surprised at how moody and down Dorothy seemed. Thanksgiving morning, Dorothy even refused to get out of bed. But then, something even stranger happened.
7:00 Kaelyn Moore? This heavy envelope arrived at Theodora's door for Dorothy, even though it was a holiday and all of the regular mail was suspended. Theodora handed Dorothy the envelope, and to her surprise, her friend just tossed it to the side. Now, Theodora thought this was weird, but she didn't really ask her friend any more questions about it. She seemed upset enough as it was, and really, she just figured that it was another rejected manuscript that Dorothy had sent out. But then again, that wouldn't have really arrived at Theodora's home with the mail suspended? And also, how would they have gotten her address? Was there something else in that envelope? The next day, Theodora awoke to find Dorothy already up and fully packed. That was odd, she thought.
7:45 Kaelyn Moore? Dorothy was planning on staying through the weekend, but now, her story changed. She said that she always meant to leave by Friday, and with that, she got up and very quickly left her friend's house. And it seemed like something changed in Dorothy after this. The moody, moping girl that Theodora was with all week was gone, and Dorothy was back in the swing of her social life when she got back to New York. She planned this tea party for all of her college friends, set for Tuesday, December 17th, and the invite list included 60 of her former classmates. It was going to be a huge deal, the kind of high society gathering that her parents wanted her to partake in. Dorothy herself, though, would never show up.
8:29 Kaelyn Moore? The party was set for Five days after she disappeared. Late in the morning of December 12th, she got dressed to go out. At 11:30 a.m., she told her mother that she was going to walk to Fifth Avenue to buy a dress for a big event that was coming up. Her younger sister, Marjorie, had a coming out party soon, and she didn't have anything to wear. Her mother would have been, of course, thrilled about this. Dorothy was now taking her social engagements seriously instead of holding up in her room to write her little manuscripts. So she offered to tag along with her daughter to help her find a dress. But Dorothy got kind of quiet, and she declined her mother's offer. She said that she would call her when she found a dress that she liked.
9:14 Kaelyn Moore? The two never made lunch plans for that day. Her mother then watched as Dorothy stepped out of the door and began her walk downtown. It was about 20 blocks between their home on 108th Street to Fifth Ave and 59th, where she intended to do the bulk of her shopping. Along the way, she stopped at a candy store, Park and Tilford's. The salesgirl at the counter greeted her warmly, recognizing her from the previous visit she had made. According to the salesgirl, Dorothy purchased a box of chocolates, which she stored in her coat. Then she walked to Bretano's Bookshop. There she purchased a book, An Engaged Girl's Sketches by Emily Calvin Blake. Maybe this was going to be inspiration for her next work of short fiction.
10:00 Kaelyn Moore? Outside of Bretano's is where she ran into her friend Gladys King. And after that, she walked towards Central Park, saying that she was going to meet her mother for the lunch they never set. And Gladys went on with her day. But her mother was not at the Waldorf Astoria. She was at home, expecting a phone call about the dress that Dorothy was supposedly buying. But the phone never rang. By the time dinner rolled around, she started to grow concerned over her daughter's whereabouts. Dorothy never missed a meal, so she and her husband started calling all the neighbors and parents of friends, asking if Dorothy had visited them throughout the day, but no one said that she had.
10:40 Kaelyn Moore? Her mother understandably started to panic, but a woman of her status could never look stressed. So when anyone asked about Dorothy that night, her mother just lied. She said that Dorothy was at home and had just gone to bed early with a headache. But all night passed without any word from Dorothy. Over breakfast the following morning, the family realized that they had to do something. Francis was adamantly opposed to calling the police, though. The last thing he wanted was any sort of scandal. It would make his family look really bad. He said that they should handle this quietly. So he had Dorothy's brother John contact a lawyer friend of his, this guy John S. Keith.
11:22 Kaelyn Moore? Keith was not much older than Dorothy, but he was tasked by the Arnolds with quietly leading an investigation alongside Dorothy's brother. They knew for a fact that she had been on Fifth Avenue that day. She charged both the chocolates and her book to the family account. But what they didn't know was where she went after the bookstore. So Keith and John went up to Dorothy's room to search for any clues that could tell them where she maybe went that day. And that is when they found a couple of interesting things.
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13:39 Speaker 06 I'm starting to freak out a little bit. I'm pleading with them to just please let me out. Dee's eyes started opening. They were pure white and I lose it.
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13:59 Kaelyn Moore? Inside of Dorothy's room, she had left a number of letters behind and some of them had foreign postmarks. And also there were ashes in her fireplace, like she had been burning papers recently. They weren't able to tell what the pages that had been burned were, but John kind of had a theory about what they might be. Dorothy had been sending her short stories to all of these publications, including the well-known McClures magazine. If one of the stories had been rejected, maybe she burnt the remains in the fireplace out of shame. They couldn't really be sure, but that was kind of all the thought they gave it. There was nothing else in her room, though, that gave any indication about what might have happened. So Keith would go on to search for a few weeks for any trace of Dorothy. He didn't find any evidence that she
14:43 Kaelyn Moore? She had taken a train that day, so he decided to broaden his search to hospitals and morgues in the area in case something horrible had happened to her. He checked three cities outside of New York and he came back completely empty handed. Finally, Francis decided that their investigation just wasn't working enough and he decided to go to the professionals. He brought the case to the Pinkerton Detective Agency, the famous organization of private investigators, and they really jumped on the case immediately. It definitely helped that the Arnolds were a high status family. Multiple Pinkerton agents showed up to New York to comb through the city. They interviewed friends and family and acquaintances of Dorothy's. They pieced together every step
15:28 Kaelyn Moore? of her final day that they could, but they hit the exact same wall that everyone else did. They could never figure out what happened after she met with Gladys. Eventually, the Arnolds couldn't contain the story anymore and the news broke to the public that Dorothy was missing on January 25th, 1911. That was over a month after Dorothy disappeared. The press, kind of to no one's surprise, went into a total frenzy. They were looking for any statement they could get from the Arnold family about what had happened. And of course, the Arnolds didn't know anything, but something they said to the press ended up leading police to the first real suspect in this
16:08 Kaelyn Moore? case. During an interview, journalists asked Dorothy's dad if Dorothy vanished because he was too strict with her suitors. Yes, they immediately wondered if she was mad that she couldn't have a boyfriend. And Francis responded that it was actually quite the opposite. He wished that she spent more time with men instead of writing poems or whatever in her damn room. Well, actually, come to think of it, as long as it was men who were worthy of her, he added. He said, quote, "I don't approve of young men who have nothing to do." This comment was pointed enough that journalists wondered if there actually was a specific man that Dorothy knew Francis didn't approve of. So one of the journalists began asking around and soon-
16:54 Kaelyn Moore? He found out that Dorothy did have a suitor, this guy named George Griscum Jr. And Dorothy's family did not like him at all. But the journalist quickly found out that Griscum was actually vacationing in Italy at the time of Dorothy's disappearance. So while he couldn't have been responsible for Dorothy's disappearance, was he maybe the source of the foreign postage that was found in her room? The two of them had been close for a while. Turns out they met when she was in college and they struck up a relationship. He visited the Arnold family over the summer of 1910 with an offer for Dorothy's hand in marriage, but he was turned away by her family. Francis thought that an engineer from Philadelphia was not very well suited for his heiress,
17:39 Kaelyn Moore? high-status daughter. And at first, you know, reading about this, it seems like another huge overstep in their parenting style. Like, can they let this girl live at all? She can't be an author, she can't date the guy she wants to. But however much her family disapproved of him, it seemed like Dorothy really liked George and was not going to let them stop her. The September before she vanished, it was discovered that she had spent a week with him in Boston after telling her parents that she was visiting Theodora. People who saw them in Boston said that they were acting really coupley the whole time they were together. They walked around hand in hand. Dorothy even pawned some of her jewelry that she had on her in order to pay for a hotel room that they stayed in together.
18:21 Kaelyn Moore? And so it started begging the question, did Dorothy run away to go be with Griscum? Eventually, the Arnolds were able to contact him and his family. John, Dorothy's brother, went with their mother to Florence where he confronted Griscum himself. And according to one report, John greeted Griscum with a punch straight to the face. Dorothy, though, was nowhere to be found. She was not in Italy with him. There was a letter there, though, from Dorothy herself, which ended with a slightly chilling passage. Quote, "Well, it has come back. McClures has turned me down. All I can see ahead is a long road with no turning. Mother will always think an accident has happened."
19:05 Kaelyn Moore? It wasn't much, but it felt like the only clue that they had found in months. Insight into Dorothy's mindset at the time of her disappearance, though the actual intentions remained unclear. Did the letter mean that because of this rejection, she was considering taking her own life? Or did it mean that she wanted to flee and start a new life? What accident was she anticipating? Well, if she had been meaning to run away, she probably would have packed more than she did, and she left most of her valuable pieces of jewelry in her room, along with a significant amount of private correspondence. Her family didn't necessarily believe that she had taken her own life, though, either. She didn't leave them a note, and her family thought that she was clearly planning for
19:50 Kaelyn Moore? her future. Her upcoming tea party, the book that she bought to read that day. They thought it didn't sound like the plans of someone who intended to take their own life. Her father had an inkling that she had been killed and thrown into the Hudson River. But by who? And why? That he couldn't really answer. By February 25th, no new leads had turned up in the case. After 75 days of investigating, the police officially closed Dorothy's case. They said she somehow vanished into thin air in the middle of New York City for who knows what reason. And as the years passed, her father eventually wrote her out of the estate.
20:35 Kaelyn Moore? He was very, very convinced that she was dead, though no one could say for certain. However, five years after Dorothy disappeared, another clue would arise, one that actually may have been the piece of the puzzle they were missing. In a Rhode Island prison, a man named Edward Glennons was serving an 18-month sentence for sending a threatening letter to a priest, which was worthy of 18 months of jail time back then. In the spring of 1916, he confessed that the guilt was driving him mad. Not guilt over the letter to the priest, no, that guy deserved it, he said, but guilt about another crime that he knew of.
21:15 Kaelyn Moore? Involved Dorothy Arnold. He was ready to open up, he said, and this is the information that he gave police. Years ago, he and a friend had been contacted by a wealthy man. He didn't give his name, who would pay them $250 to help him dispose of a body. He and this friend met the rich man in a Seventh Avenue salon. The man took them in a limousine to New Rochelle, where they buried the body of a woman in a cellar. Glanoris was adamant that he didn't see the killing of the poor girl, just her body, but he was certain that it was Dorothy Arnold. Naturally, the press was very interested in this story. But when the warden tried to follow up in mid-April, Glanoris denied that he ever said any of that.
21:58 Kaelyn Moore? A month later, though, he doubled back again, saying that he had been frightened off initially by a powerful man who wanted to keep him silent, but now he had found his courage again. He would talk for the low, low price of a pardon and $50 cash to pay an outstanding fine that he had. And one of the inspectors with the New York Police Department heard him out, paid him the $50 and gave him a pardon, and then followed his story for about two months. The investigation, though, went nowhere. They ended up identifying several houses in New Rochelle that matched the description he had given, but none of the basements had hidden bodies in them. So that was the end of the road, right? Another dead end, leaving us forever wondering what became of Dorothy Arnold.
22:43 Kaelyn Moore? Well, actually, no. There might have been a bit of truth in that confession, and we know that because of another confession that came out later. On April 9, 1914, two years before Glanoris started spreading his wild stories, a private home in Pittsburgh was raided by the police, but not because they believed there were bodies in the basement. The home, which was owned by two doctors, functioned as a private, kind of off-the-books hospital. A group of doctors were operating in a legal abortion clinic out of the basement, which included an operating table and a pair of heavy-duty furnaces. Dr. H. E. Lutz, who was one of those doctors,
23:28 Kaelyn Moore? would later confess that sometimes patients who came in for these legal services would die from complications due to the procedures. And whenever that happened, they would discreetly dispose of them. One of the patients, who he said, did die during an abortion and had been cremated in the basement, was Dorothy Arnold. Now, this was not easy for her family to hear, and they denied that this ever happened at all for the rest of their lives. But if we really think about it, the timing does make sense. If she had seen Griscum for a week in September, by December, she would have been fairly positive she was pregnant. And of course, this doesn't mean that this theory is true or perfect by any means.
24:13 Kaelyn Moore? The Pinkertons couldn't find any evidence that she had actually taken a train out of town the day that she disappeared. And how would she have gotten to Pittsburgh if not by train? But it seems to be the best answer we have, even if her parents forever insisted that it was impossible. But could it be that they just didn't know their daughter very well and didn't really want to get to know her? They had this idea of who Dorothy was in their head and this idea of who they wanted her to be. But is it possible that she was someone else entirely? Well, we may never know because Dorothy is not around to tell us. The only account we have of her is from her parents. And it's tragic that this author at heart was never able to tell her story herself.
24:57 Kaelyn Moore? Now, the next wintery mystery that I want to tell you about begins exactly how most of my favorite Heartland episodes begin, with an urban legend. Let me tell you about the witch of Staten Island.
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25:54 Kaelyn Moore? To learn more about PreNuvo and get $300 off your whole-body MRI, go to prenuvo.com/hsp and use code HSP. That's P-R-E-N-U-V-O dot com slash HSP. Terms and conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Toyota. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it all starts with a great deal from your local Toyota dealer. Make a smart buy on an all-wheel-drive Camry, Corolla Cross, or get a Corolla Sedan, packed with the latest features, advanced tech, and head-turning style. Take a test drive in two of Toyota's most popular SUVs, the spacious, family-friendly Grand Highlander and adventure-ready RAV4.
26:37 Kaelyn Moore? And with so many hybrid and plug-in hybrid models available across the lineup, plus efficient all-electrics like the BZ, BZ Woodland, and all-wheel-drive CHR, you can drive your way and skip the pump. And long after you leave the lot, your Toyota keeps delivering with legendary resale value, built on a reputation for quality and reliability. So when it's time for your next Toyota, you could trade in for more. From a great deal today to a great value tomorrow, a Toyota is right for you. Shop toyota.com for deals and details, or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let's go places. This episode is brought to you by Bigelow Tea. By now, you should all know that I'm obviously a very curious person, and I'm also a big tea drinker.
27:19 Kaelyn Moore? So I have always heard about this tea called Bigelow Constant Comment. It's been around forever, and people absolutely love it. I realized I had no idea what it actually tasted like. Obviously, I had to investigate, and now I'm obsessed. Constant Comment is this incredible black tea with real orange rind, cold-pressed orange oil, and sweet spices. The best way I can describe it is it's like Christmas in a cup, except you get to drink it all year long. Then I learned the story behind it, which made me love it even more. Constant Comment was created by Ruth Campbell Bigelow and her New York City Kitchen in 1945. She shared it with her friends, and everyone kept talking about it. And all of those "Constant Comments" actually gave it its name. The recipe is still a Bigelow family secret over 80 years later.
28:04 Kaelyn Moore? So this one is a mystery worth investigating for yourself. Bigelow Constant Comment: Curiously different, impossible to forget.
28:13 Kaelyn Moore? In a cemetery on Staten Island lies the body of one of the most infamous women in New York history. They call her "The Witch of Staten Island." It's said that today, if you go to her grave nestled amongst the stones in Fairview Cemetery, you can hear her cackle in the wind. You might even be able to catch a glimpse of a reflection of flames on her tombstone, symbolic of the victims that she burned alive. The story goes that on Christmas night over 120 years ago, the Witch of Staten Island locked a mother and her child in their home and set it on fire as an offering to the devil himself. She danced around the flames, laughing her signature laugh at the sight of the poor souls trapped inside. Her story was so infamous
28:58 Kaelyn Moore? that if you had gone to my parasocial historical enemy, P.T. Barnum's American Museum in 1844, you would have seen this woman's likeness in waxwork. An old crone with evil eyes and prematurely withered skin, newspaper salesmen would sell wood carvings of her on the streets to passerbys. And anyone who was anyone had an opinion. About her horrible crimes. But the truth is, there really was a great fire on the island all those years ago. And the woman who was buried beneath this tombstone was really put on trial for it. However, was she actually a witch who murdered without remorse? Or was the whole thing just a witch hunt against a complicated woman?
29:43 Kaelyn Moore? It all started on Christmas night, 1843. A man named Isaac Cruiser was walking through Granite Village, a small community in northeast Staten Island, when he saw a plume of smoke rising from the chimney of a nearby cottage. Something was off about the smoke, though. It was too thick and dark to be from a fireplace fire. Cruiser realized that he was seeing a house fire in progress. He and his friends screamed for the neighborhood to come out, and soon everyone was converging in the streets. Even though it was so late at night, the neighbors were very quick to act, passing buckets from the tavern to the house and throwing water through the burst windows. By the morning, the fire had been put out. The house still stood, but inside of it was charred completely black.
30:27 Kaelyn Moore? Now Granite Village was a very close-knit community. Everyone knew whose house this was. Captain George Houseman, an oyster man currently at sea with his schooner, the Wig. He was safely out of danger, but he was not the only one who lived there. Walking through the house, Cruiser and the others found a pair of bodies. It was George Houseman's wife, Emmeline, and their 18-month-old daughter, Eliza Ann. A coroner was brought in for a postmortem examination of the bodies, and it was an unspeakably horrible task for him to have to do, because he had been the Houseman's family physician. What he found on the bodies was even worse than what he could have imagined.
31:08 Kaelyn Moore? Emmeline had these deep, rough scars on her arms, what looked like defensive wounds. A black silk handkerchief was tied around her wrist in a sailor's knot. It looked like some sort of restraint. And most gruesome of all was that part of Eliza's skull was separated from her head. A fire would not have done this. No, this was a murder. Murder. That same day, December 26, 1843, the Whig came into Harbor and Captain George learned of his family's murder. He was on a ferry to shore when he ran into his younger sister, Mary. Mary had already heard what had happened. In fact, she had visited Emmeline often while George was away because Emmeline was scared to be home alone while her husband was gone.
31:52 Kaelyn Moore? She told him what had happened as gently as she could, and she watched as her brother crumbled. "Who could have done this?" he thought. The couple didn't have any enemies, at least not that he knew of. Arrangements were made for the funeral on Wednesday, December 27. George's family, the Houssmans and Emmeline's family, the Van Pelt's, were all in attendance, as well as a significant chunk of Granite Village. The Houssmans were a respectable family of Staten Island, which at this point in history had a population of only 10,000 people. It was a small and very proud community, standing apart from the riffraff of New York City across the water. By the end of the funeral, John Van Pelt, who was Emily's father, was grumbling to
32:35 Kaelyn Moore? the other family members about something. He had been thinking it over, and there was just something that didn't sit right with him about this crime. A small crowd gathered around, and John kept sorting through the details he knew about the murder. When all of a sudden, he announced that he thought he knew who would have killed his granddaughter and daughter. There was only one person who had seen Emmeline and her daughter while George was away: George's younger sister, Mary. Now, Mary, as far as John knew, was the last person to see Emmeline and her daughter alive. He knew that she had been over to visit on December 23, which was just two days before the fire.
33:19 Kaelyn Moore? He also knew that George had given Emmeline a gift before he left for his journey: $1,000 in silver. Now, not many people outside of their family would have known about this, but Mary would have known. But anyone who would have seen Mary recently would have had questions about this accusation. This crime was incredibly violent. And Mary was eight months pregnant at the time. She was not very agile. And maybe you or I today would have questioned this accusation a little bit more. But Mary was somewhat of a black sheep in the community already. And before long, all of Staten Island was saying that she did kill Emmeline for the $1,000 of silver.
34:02 Kaelyn Moore? And then she returned and burned the evidence on Christmas night. But let me tell you a little bit more about who Mary was. Mary Bodine was 33 years old at the time, but she was already something of an outcast amongst the people of Granite Village. When she was young, she was known by the nickname Polly, just like her mother. At age 15, she married a sailor named Andrew Bodine. She had plans to start a family with him. However, unfortunately, Andrew was severely addicted to alcohol and he abused Mary physically. So Mary did something that was unheard of at the time. After three years of marriage, she took her two children and left him. She couldn't technically get a divorce. At the time divorce was possible, but it was only for infidelity.
34:47 Kaelyn Moore? And you would have to actually go prove that in court, which was always very embarrassing for everyone involved. So Mary took the simpler route of being married to Andrew Bodine in name only. But in practice, she was a single mother. And this really put a target on her back. From 1828 on, she was a, quote, fallen woman who could not be trusted. When she tried to start a grammar school after her separation from Andrew, she couldn't find enough families who were willing to let their kids be taught by her. So to work, she had to go all the way to Manhattan, which was far from the judgmental eyes of the Staten Island neighbors she lived around. She went ahead and changed her name from Polly and started going by her real name, Mary, in an attempt to rebrand herself.
35:31 Kaelyn Moore? But what made all of this worse was that in late spring of 1843, Mary got pregnant and no one knew who the father was. And she for sure was not telling. On December 29th, while Staten Island households locked their doors and brought out their muskets, another suspect was caught coming from the mainland over to Staten Island, and he was accompanying Mary's son. He was not really known around Staten Island, so it immediately provoked suspicion from the sheriff. His name was George Waite, and he owned an apothecary in the city, and Mary's young son was his apprentice. Under interrogation from the sheriff, he also revealed that he was Mary Bodine's lover,
36:13 Kaelyn Moore? and that she was carrying his child. Now, that same night, Mary's brother-in-law, Emmeline's brother, knocked on the door of the houseman residence. He told the family gathered there that all of the neighbors believed Mary was guilty of the murder. Mary immediately put on a veil, a hood, and a shawl, and she went out the back door into the very cold rainy night. Now, we don't know if she fled because she was panicked or because she felt guilty, but either way, the result was the same. She immediately became a fugitive, and everyone just felt like this proved her guilt. It was December 30th, 1843. Mary was on the run. The previous night, she had abandoned her home in Granite Village,
36:57 Kaelyn Moore? trudging eight miles through the woods and country roads until she could sneak aboard a ferry to Manhattan. It was a horribly punishing trek, and remember, she was eight months pregnant at this time. I'm currently eight months pregnant, and I'm out of breath just reading this script, so I really don't know how she did it. Turns out, Mary went for the one place that she thought she would be safe: George's apothecary shop. The shop, however, was locked up, and she didn't know that George was currently in custody and being questioned about her. So she decided to pivot, and she stayed at a boarding house that wasn't very far away. She didn't stay for long, though. Once she heard other guests gossiping about the murders, she put her hood back on and went back out into the freezing streets. And after that, Mary had nowhere to go.
37:42 Kaelyn Moore? She trudged through New York City overnight, and on Sunday morning, she fell asleep among a group of churchgoers. And that's when someone finally recognized her. But they didn't approach her as a guilty person. They saw a woman who looked broken and pregnant and completely drained. So they told her to go back to her family and friends. But Mary broke down, saying that they were the first ones to turn on her. However, she was out of other options and on New Year's Eve, she turned herself into the authorities and was jailed on suspicion of murder. Meanwhile, George Wade's apothecary shop had been searched and there investigators found a string of coral beads that resembled a necklace worn by Emmeline's daughter.
38:24 Kaelyn Moore? George Wade repeatedly denied knowing how they got there, but it was later discovered on top of this that George owed $2,000 to Mary's father, which he had yet to repay. More damning still, he had a letter from Mary, which read in part, quote, "Mr. Wade, you can't imagine my troubles as I slept with Emmeline last. I want you to get a suit of clothes and come to see me with Albert. Close the store. You will be examined concerning my coming to New York on Monday. You and Albert must say that Albert came to the Jersey Ferry for me and I remained with you all day, with the exception of 15 minutes, when I went back to Spring Street to get
39:05 Kaelyn Moore? a basket mended and was going to stay some days, but her brother came to let me know. Come to the island. You will be treated well. The store and all is going to be searched. Hide the things where they cannot be found." This letter wasn't known to the public yet, but to the police, it seemed to be an attempt for Mary to establish an alibi for herself on Christmas Day. Also, what was she telling George to hide? And it begged the question, did she really murder her sister-in-law? Or did George do it? Or did both of them do it together? Now, while the police have been searching for Mary's whereabouts, a justice of the peace had been investigating a number of missing items from the burned cottage.
39:47 Kaelyn Moore? And all of these items turned up at three different pawn shops in the area. The pawnbrokers all said that a mysterious woman came in on the day, introduced herself as, quote, "Mrs. Henderson," and pawned the items off. The justice brought the three pawnbrokers to the Staten Island jail where both Mary and George were being held, and all three of them said that Mary was the one who had sold them the stolen items. And I mean, if you know anything about modern investigative techniques, you can probably see the problem here. The pawnbrokers were only shown one potential suspect, which biased them towards positively identifying Mary. These were the days before police lineups were really a thing, which were designed to rule out any possibility of misidentification.
40:30 Kaelyn Moore? And even more tragic, but on Wednesday, January 3rd, Mary actually went into premature labor while she was in custody. And it was said to be due to the exhaustion and stress of the last week. And without access to proper care, her child did not make it. This is unimaginably devastating. And the fact is, Mary didn't even have time to mourn. The people of New York were already going for her throat. The whole time newspapers had been printing every detail they could find about her. And when they found out that she had a stillbirth while in prison, the rumor mill went absolutely wild. And they started to accuse her of killing her own child, saying that she maybe smothered the baby while she was in her jail cell.
41:14 Kaelyn Moore? Reporters also wrote about the affair between George Wade and Mary Bowden and started to sell woodcuts of both of them alongside the newspapers. The woodcuts of Mary were inaccurate and they showed her with these really sunken eyes, a withered face, looking very crone-like. And I would like to add here that at the time, she was only 33 years old. She was not that old. And while the real woman behind these images was suffering under the pressure of the accusations and her traumatic birth, the press created this version of her that was a witch who killed women and children with delight. Mary Bowden went to trial three times over the following two years. Ahead of the first trial, Edgar Allan Poe actually wrote,
41:58 Kaelyn Moore? quote, "The trial of Polly Bowden will take place at Richmond on Monday next and will no doubt excite much interest. This woman may possibly escape, for they manage these matters wretchedly in New York." His attitude at the time aligned with the public's attitude. She was guilty and that only an incompetent court would rule otherwise. One of the only prominent figures who never accused Mary of the crime was actually her brother, the husband and father of the victims. Through the entire process, he only spoke publicly when he was asked to speak in court. Otherwise, he stood silently by his sister. He never accused her, but he never defended her either.
42:40 Kaelyn Moore? Now, her defense team had to establish not only reasonable doubt, but they also had to divert suspicion away from her onto anyone else involved. And so George Waite was the primary alternate suspect. He was the only one who also had a potential motive, and he also had less personal connection to the victims. Mary wouldn't have killed her sister-in-law for money. The $1,000 of silver possessed by George Houseman wasn't even kept at their home. It was with George and Mary's father for safekeeping, which was something that only Mary knew. So if she had wanted to steal that money, she didn't even need to involve Emily at all.
43:18 Kaelyn Moore? George Waite, however, might not have known this. He might have assumed the money was left at Emily's house. However, George Waite did have an alibi, and it was provided by Mary's son Albert, who placed him at the alchemy shop all weekend. In short, George had a motive, but no alibi. Mary had no motive, but also no alibi. Mary's first trial ended with a mistrial. Then she was tried in Manhattan, where she was found guilty. However, her lawyer appealed to the Supreme Court on the grounds that her jury had been biased against her by the intense media coverage of her case. The Supreme Court found this argument compelling, and they did agree to a third trial.
44:00 Kaelyn Moore? And in the third, Mary was fully acquitted of the crime to her relief. On May 21, 1847, she was finally released from jail. So who really killed Emily Houseman and her daughter on Christmas night, 1843? The list of suspects isn't very long. Besides Mary, there's George Waite, but George Waite was never tried for the crime. While Mary spent over two years in jail, he only spent about six months, and then he was bailed out after the mistrial in 1844. The other culprit is less satisfying. During the trials, the defense lawyer brought up the supposed motive. Motive for the murder, the $1,000 of silver that George Hausmann brought back from a recent
44:41 Kaelyn Moore? voyage to put into savings. This was public knowledge. It wasn't just known amongst his family, but it was also known amongst the crew of his ship, the Whig. And sailors talk, and some sailors steal. It is very likely that some sailor or nefarious actor from the city had heard about a rich sea captain from Staten Island, and they took the opportunity to make themselves rich. But when they broke into the Hausmann residence on December 25th, they found that the money wasn't there, and then everything went wrong. Ultimately, even though she was legally a free woman, Mary was guilty in the court of public opinion. She inherited enough money from her father to live on, but she became a recluse for the
45:23 Kaelyn Moore? rest of her life, living on the edge of Staten Island. For 50 years, her only visitors were her two adult children. All the while, her story would fester from this true crime narrative into whispered tales of a witch who lived in a cottage down by the water. And those stories didn't end when she died, either. To this day, stories of the Witch of Staten Island swirl about, especially around Christmas time. But was Mary a murderer? Or was she just the perfect scapegoat? Well, just like the mystery of Dorothy Arnold, we may never truly know. If you want to learn more about the story of Mary Bodine, the book, The Witch of Staten Island by Alex Hortis was one of the main sources that we used in our research, and I
46:07 Kaelyn Moore? highly recommend it. And until next time, stay curious.
46:17 Kaelyn Moore? Heartland is written and produced by me, Kayla Moore. Heartland is also produced by Matt Brown. Our associate producer is Juno Hobbs. Additional research and writing by Rob Teamstra. Sound design and mix by Peachtree Sound. Special thanks to Travis Unlap, Grayson Trennigan, the team at WME, and Ben Jaffe. Have a heart pounding story or a case request, check out heartland.com.
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47:22 Kaelyn Moore? There's a reason over 17 million businesses trust Vistaprint with their print needs. Vistaprint, print your possible. Right now, new customers get 20% off with code NEW20 at Vistaprint.com. That's 20% off at Vistaprint.com using code NEW20. Do you want more darkly curious stories in your life? Sign up for our Patreon for free and get access to a rotating shelf of bonus content, our weekly Rogue Detecting Society newsletter, and the HSP Book Club. Paid members also get monthly bonus episodes and archive access, which I think is more than 40 episodes at this point. You also get a cool jinx sticker after your first three months. And you can check it all out with a free seven day trial. Link in the bio or go to patreon.com backslash Heart Starts Pounding. But whatever you do, stay curious.
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