Speaker 1: Lafayette Square in Washington, d C. Is an elegant public
Speaker 1: park located across the street from the White House. It
Speaker 1: has big, beautiful trees and several large statues. It's popular
Speaker 1: with tourists and protesters, who often gather on the park
Speaker 1: south edge, the one nearest the White House. This was
Speaker 1: a quite different scene back in eighteen hundred. The park
Speaker 1: was used as the staging ground for the construction of
Speaker 1: the White House. They called it President's Park, and at
Speaker 1: various times it was a zoo, a graveyard, a race track,
Speaker 1: a slave market, even an encampment for soldiers. And on
Speaker 1: one sunny winter day in eighteen fifty nine, Lafayette Park
Speaker 1: was the site of one of the most significant murders
Speaker 1: in American history. A sitting US congressman walks up to
Speaker 1: a U S attorney in broad daylight. He fires several
Speaker 1: shots at blank range. The prosecution later argued that the
Speaker 1: shocking murder turned the idyllic square into a carnival of blood.
Speaker 1: I mean literally, if it was an episode of House
Speaker 1: of Guards, you wouldn't believe it, right, but it really happened,
Speaker 1: you know, There's really nothing like it in American political history.
Speaker 1: The author of the Star Spangled Banner, the nation's national anthem,
Speaker 1: was a lawyer and amateur poet named Francis scott Key.
Speaker 1: We all learned in school that he penned the poem
Speaker 1: after he watched the British bombardment of Fort McHenry during
Speaker 1: the War of eighteen twelve. He saw the American flag
Speaker 1: still flying over the fort at dawned the next morning.
Speaker 1: Francis scott Key's son was Barton Key, and he was
Speaker 1: the attorney shot dead in Lafayette Square. His killer was
Speaker 1: a crazed congressman from New York named Daniel Sickles. Sickles
Speaker 1: lawyers employed a bold legal defense strategy. They argued he
Speaker 1: was not guilty by reason of temporary and samity. This
Speaker 1: season of The Thread unravels the complicated history of the
Speaker 1: insanity defense to recap our threads so far. Episode one
Speaker 1: was the story of James Holmes, the young man who
Speaker 1: opened fire on a Colorado movie theater. In Holmes has
Speaker 1: pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Doctors diagnosed Homes
Speaker 1: with a mental illness, but the jury decided he was
Speaker 1: legally sane and therefore guilty of his crimes. That verdict
Speaker 1: was in part the product of growing public skepticism about
Speaker 1: the insanity defense, a skepticism fueled by the acquittal of
Speaker 1: earlier defendants like Lorraino Bobbitt. From episode two. It was
Speaker 1: a story about a woman who said that her husband
Speaker 1: had been abusing her in terrible, horrific ways for a
Speaker 1: year is and she did something horrible. Bobby admitted to
Speaker 1: cutting off her husband's penis, but a jury found her
Speaker 1: not guilty by reason of insanity. John Hinckley Jr. Tried
Speaker 1: to kill the President of the United States in he
Speaker 1: was acquitted on similar grounds, an outcome that shocked the
Speaker 1: public and changed the law. And there were congressional hearings
Speaker 1: about the insanity defense and then uh reconsiderations around the country.
Speaker 1: And that short of it was that in the half
Speaker 1: decade after the Hinckley trial uh the insanity defense was
Speaker 1: reformed in and thirty eight states. The American public and
Speaker 1: the legal system were more open to insanity please prior
Speaker 1: to Hinckley. One of the best examples of that was
Speaker 1: the landmark trial of Harry kay Thaw, the Pittsburgh millionaire
Speaker 1: who murdered the wealthy architect Stanford White in a fit
Speaker 1: of rage back in nineteen o six, Harry Thaw's high
Speaker 1: paid lawyers had a plan. They came up with the
Speaker 1: term of a brainstorm, that Harry was suffering from a
Speaker 1: temporary brainstorm. The temporary brainstorm defense worked in part because
Speaker 1: of another case almost half a century earlier, the first
Speaker 1: in America to invoke the temporary insanity defense, the case
Speaker 1: of Congressman Dan Sickles and his horrific Act in Lafayette
Speaker 1: Park in eighteen fifty nine. I've often referred to Dan
Speaker 1: Sickles as kind of a combination of Donald Trump, Anthony Weener,
Speaker 1: and O. J. Simpson. James Hessler is a historian, a
Speaker 1: battlefield guide at Gettysburg National Military Park, and the author
Speaker 1: of Sickles at Gettysburg. I use that analogy for many years,
Speaker 1: and people used to laugh. But now with the political
Speaker 1: aspects of it, they kind of got uncomfortable with the
Speaker 1: Trump comparison. But the idea was, you know, Dan Sickles
Speaker 1: was a larger than life, brash New Yorker. Like Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: Sickles came from a well heeled New York family. He
Speaker 1: was born in eighteen nineteen in New York City, uh
Speaker 1: to fairly prosperous parents, and I think it's kind of
Speaker 1: an only cho old. He was spoiled, he was rebellious,
Speaker 1: and you know, he never really grew up. The young
Speaker 1: Sickles tried his hand at the printing trade, but eventually
Speaker 1: settled on a career as a lawyer and then as
Speaker 1: a politician. Sickles was elected to the New York State
Speaker 1: Assembly in eighteen forty seven. At the age of thirty three,
Speaker 1: Sickles fell in love with a woman less than half
Speaker 1: his age, a fifteen year old named Teresa Baggioli. Teresa
Speaker 1: was young, but she was mature beyond her years, precocious, refined,
Speaker 1: she spoke five languages. They married and settled down in
Speaker 1: New York. Sickles ran for Congress a few years later,
Speaker 1: so in eighteen fifty six he's elected to Congress. Dan
Speaker 1: and Teresa and their young daughter moved to uh to Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. And they end up setting up household on
Speaker 1: fashionable Lafayette Square, which was and still is immediately behind
Speaker 1: the White House. It was in Washington the Dan and
Speaker 1: Theresa met the handsome man who would change their lives forever.
Speaker 1: Francis Scott Key was nominated to be the U S
Speaker 1: attorney for the District of Columbia, twenty years after he
Speaker 1: wrote The Star Spangled Banner. His son, Philip barton Key,
Speaker 1: also known as Barton Key, later served in that same position.
Speaker 1: Philip barton Key seems to have differed from his father
Speaker 1: in a couple of ways, uh significantly. Philip barton Key
Speaker 1: was a more of a shall we say, a ladies
Speaker 1: man and less studious than his father was. By the
Speaker 1: time Dan and Theresa Sickles arrived in Washington in eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty seven, Barton Key was a thirty eight year old
Speaker 1: widower with four children with a well established reputation. While
Speaker 1: he was a district attorney in Washington, he seemed to
Speaker 1: be quite a favorite on the Washington social circuit. Would
Speaker 1: often attend parties again, a great favorite of all of
Speaker 1: the single women in in society, and uh just considered
Speaker 1: an all around player. Key was a tall lawyer with
Speaker 1: a mustache. He looked like a sandy haired version of
Speaker 1: the actor Kevin Klein. One prominent DC hostess described him
Speaker 1: as the handsomest man in all of Washington society and
Speaker 1: uh it was said that he once reportedly bragged that
Speaker 1: he only needed thirty six hours with any woman to
Speaker 1: get her to do whatever he wanted. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I kind of think, is is the guys really a professional?
Speaker 1: Rake the Dapper Key attended an inaugural ball for President
Speaker 1: James Buchanan in eighteen fifty seven. That's where he met
Speaker 1: the beautiful wife of New York's newest congressman. It was
Speaker 1: the beginning of the end for Barton Key. You know,
Speaker 1: people off in portrait Ky as a victim, but yeah,
Speaker 1: you know Key, you could kind of argue was a
Speaker 1: little bit of a scumbag too, And I think, uh,
Speaker 1: just sort of getting his his scoundrel le personality out
Speaker 1: in the open um, you know, kind of helps people, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, get a better understanding that this might be
Speaker 1: one of those stories where there really are no good guys.
Speaker 1: Barton Key got to no Congressman Sickles first, and the
Speaker 1: congressman helped him. Key was worried that President Buchanan would
Speaker 1: appoint someone else to his position as DC's top prosecutor.
Speaker 1: Sickles and Keys seemed to have kind of gotten together
Speaker 1: through some card games and social circles, and the two
Speaker 1: men took a liking to each other. Sickles helped Key
Speaker 1: retain his position as as district attorney. Teresa Sickles maintained
Speaker 1: a very busy social calendar as the wife of a congressman.
Speaker 1: She hosted weekly dinners for guests at their Lafayette Square home.
Speaker 1: She was invited to countless social gatherings and parties, ones
Speaker 1: that her husband often could not attend, And it was
Speaker 1: not uncommon for eligible bachelor's to somewhat platonically escort married women,
Speaker 1: you know, wives of friends and that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: to these parties. Perhaps no bachelor was more eligible than
Speaker 1: Barton Key. So at some point, while Nickles is away,
Speaker 1: he starts escorting Teresa to parties. Uh. It quickly seems
Speaker 1: to develop into some romantic escapades between Key and Teresa.
Speaker 1: The two of them, they're they're meeting at parties, They're
Speaker 1: often seen leaving together. Uh. And more and more people
Speaker 1: start to say these two around Washington, d C. At
Speaker 1: all hours of the day in the night. The Torrent
Speaker 1: affair raged throughout eighteen fifty eight in rented apartments, on
Speaker 1: parlor sofas, even in secluded portions of the old Congressional Cemetery.
Speaker 1: After one fancy costume ball, Teresa dressed his little red
Speaker 1: riding Hood was seen entering a carriage at two am
Speaker 1: with Key clad as an English huntsman. Their coach driver
Speaker 1: was instructed to drive around Washington. As the affair continued,
Speaker 1: the two levers started to get reckless. Key decides he's
Speaker 1: going to rent a house a few blocks away from
Speaker 1: Laffiette Square, and this is where Key and Teresa's start
Speaker 1: having rendezvous in this, in this rented sort of love shack,
Speaker 1: he usually turned up first at the love nest. He
Speaker 1: placed a white ribbon or towel in the shutters of
Speaker 1: the upstairs window as a signal to Teresa, who could
Speaker 1: see the window from her own across the square. Teresa
Speaker 1: arrived and entered at the back door. People started to notice.
Speaker 1: On the evening of February eighteen fifty nine, it all
Speaker 1: comes crashing down on Key. After dinner that night, Sickles
Speaker 1: retires to his study and he opens up the evening mail,
Speaker 1: and one of the things he's received in the mail
Speaker 1: is an anonymous letter, Dear sir. The letter began with
Speaker 1: deep regret, I enclose your address a few lines, but
Speaker 1: an indispensable duty compels me so to do, seeing that
Speaker 1: you are greatly imposed upon. It's pretty graphics stuff for
Speaker 1: the eighteen fifties. Um. It talks about how you know
Speaker 1: your wife and key, who is no gentleman. You know
Speaker 1: that two of them have been spotted going into this
Speaker 1: rented house, and uh, you know, Mr Sickles, I assure
Speaker 1: you that he has more use of your wife than
Speaker 1: you have. Those are tough words for any husband to read,
Speaker 1: even one with a mild manner in a gentle disposition.
Speaker 1: Dan Sickles had neither, but he was an experienced lawyer.
Speaker 1: Sickles probe into his wife, Theresa's affair with Barton Key
Speaker 1: was both prompt and thorough. Sickles spends the next day
Speaker 1: or so kind of investigating, sends some friends around to
Speaker 1: the neighborhood where the love shack is, and pretty much
Speaker 1: confirms that, yes, you know, the rumors are true. Sickles
Speaker 1: confronted Teresa about the affair. He even extracted a written
Speaker 1: confession from her on the spot. She pretty much spells
Speaker 1: it all out. You know, she says, I did what
Speaker 1: is normal for a wicked woman to do. But of
Speaker 1: course her lover, Barton Key, had no idea that the
Speaker 1: game was up, and as it turned out, Keith's fate
Speaker 1: like his poet father's fame, hinged on a cloth, waving
Speaker 1: in the breeze. Up next, How an American Congressman Got
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Speaker 1: today that CBS dot com slash thread t z to
Speaker 1: redeem your free trial of CBS All Access. Dan Sickles
Speaker 1: was tough, but he could get quite emotional at times. Once,
Speaker 1: when a friend of his passed away, Sickles wept uncontrollably
Speaker 1: at the funeral. One witness said that the future congressman
Speaker 1: raved tore up and down the graveyard, shrieking his grief
Speaker 1: so aggravating that the other mourners worried his mind would
Speaker 1: entirely give way. Sickles ten minute outburst led to his
Speaker 1: removal from the cemetery. One of Sickles's friends put it,
Speaker 1: mild lee. Dan was subject to very sudden emotions. Sickles
Speaker 1: was inconsolable after Theresa confessed her affair with Barton Key
Speaker 1: James Hessler again. People who see him over that one
Speaker 1: to two day period just say that Sickles looks like
Speaker 1: a wild man. One person said, you know, I saw
Speaker 1: him on the streets and he looked like he was
Speaker 1: gonna kill every man, woman and child that he came across.
Speaker 1: Another friends said, you know that he saw Sickles in
Speaker 1: the you know, in one of the offices in Congress,
Speaker 1: and Sickles emotionally flung himself onto his sofa and you know,
Speaker 1: buried his head in the pillow and and started crying.
Speaker 1: That weekend, Sickles retreated to the sanctuary of his home
Speaker 1: on Lafayette Square. Sunday, February seven is a beautiful spring day. Uh,
Speaker 1: temperatures are about fifty four degrees, you know, the kind
Speaker 1: of spring day that uh, you know, you see in
Speaker 1: Washington sometimes, and Sickles is still very emotionally distraught. Again.
Speaker 1: The household servants would later say that they could, you know,
Speaker 1: they could hear him crying, groaning, moaning, you know, just
Speaker 1: as sobs are kind of carrying throughout the house. Some
Speaker 1: of Sickle's closest friends came by the house to console him.
Speaker 1: One of them was an old New York friend named
Speaker 1: Sam Butterworth. Sickles ranted to his friend, I am a
Speaker 1: dishonored and ruined man. He was worried that once word
Speaker 1: of the affair got around town, his reputation and his
Speaker 1: political career would be destroyed. Finally, at some point, Sickles
Speaker 1: looks out the window, sees Key out there, and Sickles
Speaker 1: kind of just exclaims, you know, my god, that villain,
Speaker 1: that bastard has just past my house. Uh, this is horrible.
Speaker 1: The whole town is going to know about this. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be disgraced. I'm going to be humiliated. Barton
Speaker 1: Key started that Sunday morning with a shave and a
Speaker 1: hair trim and a d C barbershop. He then walked
Speaker 1: up Pennsylvania Avenue towards Lafayette Square. Key too received an
Speaker 1: anonymous letter arning him that Dan Sickles knew about the affair.
Speaker 1: It didn't keep him from Lafayette Square. The anxious DC
Speaker 1: attorney proud the park for two hours, hoping to catch
Speaker 1: a glimpse of his beloved or a signal from her
Speaker 1: that she could meet him. While Walt Sickles and Butterworth
Speaker 1: are you know, thinking about what they're gonna do. Key meanwhile,
Speaker 1: is strolling through Lafayette Park waiting for Teresa to come
Speaker 1: out and play, and so he's kind of going. Key
Speaker 1: is kind of going back and forth in front of
Speaker 1: the Sickles house. Then the Sickles dog, an Italian greyhound
Speaker 1: named Dandy, catches side of his favorite gentleman caller and
Speaker 1: rushes into the square to greet him. Barton Key pulls
Speaker 1: out a white handkerchief and whirls it at the dog.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's meant to be a signal to Teresa as well.
Speaker 1: Whatever the reason, keys waving white banner gave proof through
Speaker 1: the afternoon that the adulterer was still there. You can
Speaker 1: imagine the fireworks display that follows when Sickles sees the
Speaker 1: handsomest man in Washington society outside his The enraged congressman
Speaker 1: heads for the door, but before Sickles leaves the house,
Speaker 1: he throws on an overcoat and he puts a a
Speaker 1: revolver into Derringer's in his code pocket and follows behind
Speaker 1: Butterworth As they go into a offi at square, Sickles
Speaker 1: charges towards key. He calls out a phrase that sounds
Speaker 1: ripped from a theatrical drama. He says, your scoundrel, you've
Speaker 1: dishonored my house and you must die. Uh. Sickles pulls
Speaker 1: out one of his guns and the first shot only
Speaker 1: graze his key, but he realizes that he's in trouble
Speaker 1: at this point, shouts murder, tries to get the attention
Speaker 1: of you know again, probably at least six or seven
Speaker 1: people who are who are nearby and watching all of
Speaker 1: this um and there's a struggle, and while they're struggling,
Speaker 1: maybe puts Sickles in some kind of bear hug. But
Speaker 1: Sickles breaks free from the bear hug and then pulls
Speaker 1: out another gun. Key at this point again shouts, you know,
Speaker 1: don't murder me. Then Key reaches into his pocket. Is
Speaker 1: he gonna pull out a gun? No, all he's got
Speaker 1: is a pair of opera glasses, So he throws the
Speaker 1: opera glasses harmlessly at Sickles, all the time kind of
Speaker 1: shouting you know, don't murder me, don't shoot, But Dan
Speaker 1: Sickles shows no mercy for the man who has dishonored him.
Speaker 1: Sickles gets off a second shot, uh, and this one
Speaker 1: basically hits Key around the groin. He gasps, He staggers,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm shot, and he starts to starts to
Speaker 1: slump down to the ground. Sickles puts the gun up
Speaker 1: the key point blank, It misfires, puts it the keys
Speaker 1: chest and basically fires point blank in the keys chest
Speaker 1: near his heart. That's the fatal shot. Sickle stands over
Speaker 1: his wounded prey. The congressman mutters over and over, he
Speaker 1: has violated my bed, He has violated my bed as
Speaker 1: the blood runs out of the dying Barton Key. Obviously
Speaker 1: immediately this is the talk of Washington. A young page
Speaker 1: goes into the White House and says, the President of Buchanan,
Speaker 1: you know you're not gonna believe what happened. Sickles just
Speaker 1: shock Key. Souvenir hunters cut pieces of wood from the
Speaker 1: tree close to where Key fell in Lafayette Square. Artists
Speaker 1: from the newspapers set up their easels to paint the
Speaker 1: scene of the crime. Dan Sickles was placed in a cold,
Speaker 1: damp cell in the city jail. He reportedly asked the
Speaker 1: warden if there was a chance of getting better accommodations.
Speaker 1: The warden replied, this is the best place you members
Speaker 1: of Congress have afforded us. Meanwhile, news of the murder
Speaker 1: continued to spread. Once that gets out, public opinion and
Speaker 1: the newspapers are almost unanimously in sickles favor. Uh you know,
Speaker 1: the idea is that, uh, you know, you just don't
Speaker 1: do that in eighteen fifties society. I mean, you just
Speaker 1: didn't sleep with another guy's wife and and expect to
Speaker 1: get away with it. But the bigger question, of course,
Speaker 1: was could you kill your wife's lover and get away
Speaker 1: with it. Up next, the perilous courtroom fight that captivated
Speaker 1: the country just before a civil war would divide it.
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Speaker 1: Congressman Dan Sickles was charged with the murder of Barton Key.
Speaker 1: A trial was set for April eighteen fifty nine. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of parallels between what happens to UH Sickles
Speaker 1: in the eighteen fifties and you know O. J. Simpson
Speaker 1: during our time, like the importance of a big time lawyer,
Speaker 1: ideally many big time lawyers. The first thing the Congressman
Speaker 1: Sickles is he assembles a legal dream team. Um. Now,
Speaker 1: the dream team today is best known for the presence
Speaker 1: of future Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, but Stanton actually
Speaker 1: was not the lead attorney for that. Sickles engaged a
Speaker 1: brilliant lawyer from his hometown of New York, James T. Brady.
Speaker 1: Brady at one time had been the city's district attorney.
Speaker 1: At age eight, he had been offered the position of
Speaker 1: U S Attorney General. Brady was beyond proficient and almost
Speaker 1: any area of the law. He had supposedly won fifty
Speaker 1: one out of fifty two murder trials. So with with
Speaker 1: Brady and the lead and then Edwin Stanton Uh and
Speaker 1: some other New York attorneys, Sickles comes into court. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, ready for action. Sickle's all star group of
Speaker 1: lawyers knew that their client was in great legal peril.
Speaker 1: Sickles shot an unarmed man multiple times in broad daylight
Speaker 1: in front of dozens of bystanders. He ignored his victims
Speaker 1: repeated pleas for mercy. The congressman would hang unless sickle
Speaker 1: legal team could come up with a stellar defense. Sickles
Speaker 1: lead attorney, James Brady, was fascinated by issues of insanity
Speaker 1: and invoked the defense at permanent insanity and other trials.
Speaker 1: But no lawyer in America, including Brady, had ever attempted
Speaker 1: a plea of temporary insanity. The much anticipated trial was
Speaker 1: held at City Hall, where Barton Key had worked just
Speaker 1: a few months before. The courtroom was packed. The accused
Speaker 1: Congressman Dan Sickles was placed in the dock, a cage
Speaker 1: like area that one observer described as a chicken coop
Speaker 1: with a chair placed inside it. Sickles pled not guilty.
Speaker 1: His arsenal of top attorneys was opposed by a single
Speaker 1: government lawyer. Prosecution is one man, basically a man by
Speaker 1: an attorney by the name of Robert Old, who was uh,
Speaker 1: Philip Barton Key's assistant. Uh. He basically gets a battlefield
Speaker 1: promotion when his boss is killed. Uh. And now Old
Speaker 1: is going to have to pro secued his his boss's killer.
Speaker 1: So right off the bat, you get, you get the
Speaker 1: sense of the prosecution is badly outmatched. The prosecution argued
Speaker 1: Sickles was quote moved and seduced by the instigation of
Speaker 1: the devil to murder his helpless victim on the Sabbath. Key,
Speaker 1: they claimed, was unarmed, whereas his assailant was a walking
Speaker 1: magazine who wore a convenient overcoat on an inconveniently warm day. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Sickle's dream team went on the offensive. They focused on
Speaker 1: barton Keys conduct. The defense immediately trots out forty three
Speaker 1: witnesses who knew about the affair, and so they just
Speaker 1: start pointing one person on the stand after the other.
Speaker 1: Did you know they were sleeping together? Did you see it?
Speaker 1: Stanton talks about Keys supposedly dragging Teresa day by day
Speaker 1: through the streets, you know, to gratify his lost um,
Speaker 1: and that she's one step above prostitution at this point,
Speaker 1: so they're really laying it on thick The result was
Speaker 1: that when Pickles learned about his wife's affair and saw
Speaker 1: her lover outside his window, his mind became diseased. According
Speaker 1: to the defense, and they argued that if Sickles quote
Speaker 1: labored under insanity at the time of the commission of
Speaker 1: the acting question, it would leave him legally unaccountable. The
Speaker 1: case is remembered as the first temporary insanity defense. Sickle's
Speaker 1: lead attorney, James Brady, invoked another insanity case to make
Speaker 1: his argument, a case from another country, England, the McNaughton case.
Speaker 1: Daniel McNaughton was an unstable woodcutter who tried to murder
Speaker 1: the British Prime Minister under the delusion that he was
Speaker 1: being politically persecuted. McNaughton was acquitted by reason of being insane.
Speaker 1: McNaughton's delusions, unlike Dan Sickle's jealous rage, persisted over a
Speaker 1: long period of time, but James Brady argued the principle
Speaker 1: should be the same. What mattered was whether the defendant
Speaker 1: was mentally unsound at the time he committed the acting question.
Speaker 1: It proved to be a winning argument, and America didn't
Speaker 1: get to see a congressman hanged. The jury has only
Speaker 1: gone for seventy minutes. Daniel Edgar Sickles was found not guilty.
Speaker 1: The courtroom goes berserk. You know, there's pandemonium. Everybody is celebrating.
Speaker 1: People are ripping clothes off of Sickles for souvenirs. But
Speaker 1: they get him out of there. Sickles was free to
Speaker 1: go and remain in Congress. Hundreds would join him at
Speaker 1: a victory party that evening. The success of sickles Temporary
Speaker 1: Insanity Plea also ushered in a new legal era. As
Speaker 1: one of Sickles's dream team put it to the press,
Speaker 1: an honest, upright, and intelligent American jury has established a
Speaker 1: precedent which all civilized nations should henceforth recognize and be
Speaker 1: guided by. What happened next in the life of Dan
Speaker 1: Sickles is really worthy of its own thread. First, he
Speaker 1: became an outcast in Congress, so he does not run
Speaker 1: for re election, which is ultimately going to you know,
Speaker 1: leave him back in New York practicing law as a
Speaker 1: private citizen. When the American Civil War starts in the
Speaker 1: spring of eighteen sixty one, I was saying a lot
Speaker 1: of ways. The American Civil War comes along at the
Speaker 1: perfect time for Dan Sickles. Because he needs a new career,
Speaker 1: and because he was never hanged for the murder of
Speaker 1: Barton Key, Dan Sickles was free to play another role
Speaker 1: on the stage of history, this time at the Battle
Speaker 1: of Gettysburg in eighteen sixty three. By that point in
Speaker 1: the war, Sickles in the commanding General of the Army
Speaker 1: of the Potomac, George Gordon Mead, do not like each other.
Speaker 1: So on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg,
Speaker 1: Mead and Sickles have basically a spectacular failure to communicate. UH.
Speaker 1: Mead orders Sickles to guard the left flank of the
Speaker 1: Union Army's position. UH. Sickles either UH misinterprets his orders
Speaker 1: or outright disobeys them moves his troops too far forward. UH,
Speaker 1: and then we'll face the bront of the Confederate attack
Speaker 1: on July two at Gettysburg. Many people think Sickles nearly
Speaker 1: loses the battle for the Northern Army at Gettysburg, that's right.
Speaker 1: Dan Sickles nearly changed the course of the Civil War,
Speaker 1: but Sickle's defense teams did help change the course of
Speaker 1: American law. The case laid the groundwork for countless criminals
Speaker 1: to plead temporary insanity that included Harry Thaw in nineteen
Speaker 1: o six and Lorraino Bob. As we saw in previous
Speaker 1: episodes this season. Next on the Thread, we returned to
Speaker 1: the eighty three case in England that saved Dan Sickles,
Speaker 1: but we go back even further to eight hundred and
Speaker 1: dissect the first modern insanity defense. A former British soldier,
Speaker 1: traumatized by battle tries to kill the King of England.
Speaker 1: The Threat is produced by Robert Coulo's Sophia Perpetua and
Speaker 1: me Sean Braswell. Chris Hoff engineered our show. This episode
Speaker 1: features the star spangled banner arranged by Robert Aslin. To
Speaker 1: learn more about the Thread, visit AUSI dot com, Slash
Speaker 1: the Threat all one word, and make sure to subscribe
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Speaker 1: If you love surprising, engaging stories from history. Look no
Speaker 1: further than the flashback section of Ausi dot com. That's
Speaker 1: o z y dot com.