1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,640 Speaker 1: He was probably the most famous architect in American history. 2 00:00:03,920 --> 00:00:07,600 Speaker 1: But what about his chaotic personal life, including a mass 3 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:11,559 Speaker 1: murder at his home. I'm Patty Steele. Frank Lloyd Wright 4 00:00:11,960 --> 00:00:19,600 Speaker 1: one hot mess. Next on the backstory, no doubt about it. 5 00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:22,800 Speaker 1: Frank Lloyd Wright was a game changing architect. I don't 6 00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:25,279 Speaker 1: know one hundred years ago or so, but in a moment, 7 00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:28,680 Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you why he was one hot mess. 8 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:32,879 Speaker 1: The guy built spectacular buildings like the kind of tornado 9 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:36,040 Speaker 1: shaped Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and maybe, at 10 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:39,400 Speaker 1: least in my mind, the most beautiful early modern home 11 00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:43,080 Speaker 1: ever called Falling Water, built in a forest over a 12 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:46,839 Speaker 1: huge waterfall in Pennsylvania. I'm telling it. You look at it 13 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:50,879 Speaker 1: and you just want to exhale. Oh, it's incredible. But 14 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:54,280 Speaker 1: Frank has a crazy backstory and has nothing to do 15 00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:58,720 Speaker 1: with architecture and everything to do with his libido. It's 16 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:02,760 Speaker 1: about Frank's multiple including one with a married woman and 17 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:06,479 Speaker 1: the mass murders that followed. Yeah, Frank is an icon, 18 00:01:06,959 --> 00:01:11,040 Speaker 1: but he's an icon who's also the ultimate narcissist, and 19 00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:15,479 Speaker 1: he defines the term hot mess. Okay, it's nineteen oh three, 20 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:18,680 Speaker 1: he's a young architect. He's in Oak Park, Illinois, which 21 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:22,040 Speaker 1: is right near Chicago. He's married, he has six kids. 22 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:24,480 Speaker 1: At that point, when his wife brings him a client 23 00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:26,880 Speaker 1: who wants him to build a house, Frank takes the 24 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:30,000 Speaker 1: job and he gets to know the wife really well. 25 00:01:30,160 --> 00:01:33,920 Speaker 1: Her name is Mema. They become totally obsessed with each other. 26 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:36,679 Speaker 1: A few years go by and the passion only gets 27 00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:40,160 Speaker 1: more intense, so intense that they both feel like the 28 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:42,919 Speaker 1: hell with the spouses and the kids. They just want 29 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:45,679 Speaker 1: one thing, and that is to be together. Now. The 30 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 1: problem is is he early nineteen hundreds, nobody, but nobody 31 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:52,840 Speaker 1: leaves their family for somebody else. But that's what they do. 32 00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:56,120 Speaker 1: Frank leaves his wife and all those little kiddies, and 33 00:01:56,120 --> 00:01:59,760 Speaker 1: Mama leaves her husband and two toddlers. Of course, Frank's 34 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:03,080 Speaker 1: BIS begins to dry up, so they decide they got 35 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:05,080 Speaker 1: to get out of town. They meet up in New 36 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:08,120 Speaker 1: York City and hop a ship to Europe. Once there, 37 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:11,960 Speaker 1: Mema works for a Swedish feminist, interpreting her books on 38 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:16,400 Speaker 1: female sexuality, and Frank, meantime, takes a really deep dive 39 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:20,839 Speaker 1: into his passion for Japanese art and architecture, which, by 40 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:25,000 Speaker 1: the way, actually helps evolve his exquisite style. But then, 41 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:27,320 Speaker 1: after a few years, he and Mema want to head 42 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:30,360 Speaker 1: back to America. He'd like to re establish his career, 43 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:35,040 Speaker 1: but Chicago is out due to their sketchy reputation, so 44 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:39,360 Speaker 1: they head to Frank's hometown, Spring Green, Wisconsin, and he 45 00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:42,960 Speaker 1: builds them an awesome house. He calls it Taliesen, but 46 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:45,679 Speaker 1: the locals there aren't thrilled either. They call it his 47 00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:48,880 Speaker 1: love cottage. Who cares, says Frank. In fact, he says, 48 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:52,360 Speaker 1: laws and rules are made for the average. Two women 49 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:55,720 Speaker 1: are necessary for a man of artistic mind, one to 50 00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:57,840 Speaker 1: be the mother of his children and the other to 51 00:02:57,880 --> 00:03:01,800 Speaker 1: be his inspiration and soulmate. Would a guy I wonder 52 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: how he'd feel if mama thought the same thing and 53 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:07,040 Speaker 1: needed more than one man. Anyway, it's a beautiful life 54 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:10,239 Speaker 1: for a few years. Finally Frank gets a major job 55 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:13,760 Speaker 1: to build a massive three hundred and sixty thousand square 56 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:17,720 Speaker 1: foot entertainment venue in Chicago. It was called Midway Gardens, 57 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:21,680 Speaker 1: and it's really spectacularly beautiful. It's a triumph for him, 58 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:24,360 Speaker 1: but it means he spends a lot of time away 59 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:30,480 Speaker 1: from home. Now. It's August of nineteen fourteen. Frank's in Chicago. 60 00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:33,320 Speaker 1: Mama up in Spring Green and her two kids are 61 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:36,240 Speaker 1: there spending the summer with her working at the house. 62 00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:40,280 Speaker 1: There's a husband and wife, Gertrude and Julian. Okay, it's lunchtime. 63 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:42,840 Speaker 1: Mayma and the kids are out on the porch and 64 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:46,520 Speaker 1: six of Frank's students and workers are in the dining room. 65 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:49,720 Speaker 1: Julian serves the meal in the dining room and then 66 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:53,320 Speaker 1: proceeds to lock all the doors and pours gasoline around 67 00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:56,080 Speaker 1: the exterior of the dining room, inside and out of 68 00:03:56,080 --> 00:03:59,480 Speaker 1: the house clearly nuts. He heads to the porch with 69 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:03,520 Speaker 1: a hat flailing away. He slaughters Mema and the children, 70 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:09,360 Speaker 1: actually cleaving Mama's head in two vertically right down the middle. God. 71 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:13,760 Speaker 1: Next he lights the dining room on fire. Those inside 72 00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 1: tried desperately to get out, but remember the doors are locked. 73 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:20,279 Speaker 1: Then they try to jump out the windows, but outside 74 00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:23,880 Speaker 1: is Julian with the hatchet chopping away. He kills three 75 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:27,040 Speaker 1: of them. The others had a different way and are burned, 76 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:29,560 Speaker 1: one of them dying a day later, So in all 77 00:04:29,839 --> 00:04:38,119 Speaker 1: seven are dead. Only to survive. There's a frantic phone 78 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:41,520 Speaker 1: call to Frank in Chicago. He's in total shock. He 79 00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:45,359 Speaker 1: takes the first train north and ironically runs into Mama's 80 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:48,520 Speaker 1: ex husband, also headed north to collect the bodies of 81 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:52,400 Speaker 1: his dead children, and they share a private compartment. Once 82 00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:55,800 Speaker 1: in Spring Green, Frank buries Mema in a plain pine 83 00:04:55,839 --> 00:04:59,560 Speaker 1: box in his family cemetery, in an unmarked grave. He 84 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:02,200 Speaker 1: actually he throws the dirt into the grave with his 85 00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:06,280 Speaker 1: bare hands. No one really knows why Julian killed all 86 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:10,320 Speaker 1: those people, because he died weeks later. Despite the tragedy, 87 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:15,080 Speaker 1: Frank rebuilds the house, saying in his autobiography anguish would 88 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:20,040 Speaker 1: not leave Taliessen until renewal began. Talk about renewal, while 89 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:23,640 Speaker 1: he says in his bio that he grieved Mama's loss 90 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:26,599 Speaker 1: for the rest of his life. Within weeks, we're talking 91 00:05:26,640 --> 00:05:29,520 Speaker 1: weeks a months, Frank had already fallen in love again, 92 00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:32,040 Speaker 1: and over the course of the next decade or so, 93 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:35,799 Speaker 1: he married two more times. Here's what's ironic about his life. 94 00:05:36,279 --> 00:05:40,800 Speaker 1: He literally introduced into architecture this sense of serenity and 95 00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:45,440 Speaker 1: earthy beauty, raw wood, stone glass. But his life was 96 00:05:45,560 --> 00:05:48,400 Speaker 1: red hot and chaotic. Do you think he was searching 97 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:51,279 Speaker 1: through his art for the piece he could never find 98 00:05:51,320 --> 00:06:01,040 Speaker 1: in his personal life. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is 99 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:05,200 Speaker 1: a production of iHeartMedia and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer 100 00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:08,680 Speaker 1: is Doug Fraser. Our executive producer is Steve Goldstein of 101 00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:12,200 Speaker 1: Amplified Media. We're out with new episodes twice a week. 102 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:15,799 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Backstory, the pieces of history 103 00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:17,480 Speaker 1: you didn't know you needed to know.