WEBVTT - Rachel Wall: New England’s Only 'Lady' Pirate 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:05.200 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:15.040 partnership with I Heart Radio. Welcome to Criminalia, where it's 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:18.880 pirate season. We'll be exploring the lives and motivations of 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.800 some of the most notorious freebooters throughout history. I'm Maria 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:27.040 Tremarqui and I'm Holly Fry. And Rachel Wall, who we're 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:30.640 talking about in this episode, was probably born as Rachel 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:36.839 Schmidt too devoutedly Presbyterian parents sometime in seventeen sixteen. She 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:39.880 is unique because she is credited with being New England's 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:44.360 only quote lady pirate, or, as she's been mentioned in 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:47.040 some of the research that came up, the dread pirate 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:51.960 Rachel sort of marvelous. She was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:55.200 and she may also have been the first American born 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:58.440 woman to become a pirate. But she most certainly was 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:02.240 the last woman to be hanged in Boston, although the 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:06.959 specific crime that landed her fate was not actually piracy, 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:10.320 and that becomes an interesting twist in her story. Yes, 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.639 certainly so. We're the lucky when it comes to Rachel 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.800 Wall's life history, or at least parts of her history, 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:20.320 and that's because before the end of her life, she 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:24.640 wrote a piece called Life, Last Words and Dying Confession 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:28.920 of Rachel Wall Right here, we want to emphasize two things. First, 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:33.280 half of that headline is in all caps. And second, 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:36.360 keep in mind that this confession was penned shortly before 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:40.360 her execution. Will reference it throughout, But keep in mind 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.240 it's it's not a journal, it's a document created at 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:45.280 the end of her life when she knew her fate 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:47.480 was sealed. Okay, before we get to the end of 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:52.040 her life, though, let's talk about her younger years. Rachel 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:55.000 was born into what she described in that document as 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:58.800 a good family. She called her parents quote good and reputable. 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.400 Her father was a farmer, but we do know that 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:05.640 he was definitely a man quote of a very serious 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:08.480 and devout turn of mind, and always made it his 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:12.440 constant practice to perform family prayers in his house every 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:15.480 morning and evening, and was very careful to call his 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:19.440 children and family together every Sabbath day evening to hear 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:22.919 the holy scriptures and other pious books read to them. 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:26.400 And according to this written confession, which it's uh laid 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:29.320 out as though she actually verbally gave it as a 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:31.760 confession and someone else took it down just for clarity. 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:35.040 But according to this confession, her parents gave her the 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:39.480 moral foundation to lead a happy, crime free life. She said, quote, 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.400 they gave me a good education and instructed me in 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.880 the fundamental principles of the Christian religion, and taught me 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:48.640 the fear of God. And if I had followed the 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.240 good advice, I should never have come to this untimely fate. 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.200 Rachel had three brothers and two sisters who were living 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:58.720 at the time she left home. At least again, according 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:01.840 to this document, they do not appear to have similarly 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.800 been drawn into a life of crime, but we really 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:08.679 don't hear about them. After Rachel left Carlisle, her family 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.400 life wasn't enough to make Rachel happy, so she actually 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:15.000 ended up leaving home at the age of sixteen and 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:17.320 made her way to where she always said she was 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:20.320 most comfortable and felt most at home, and that was 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.720 the waterfront. We looked at maps. Depending on the waterfront 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.720 you're talking about around Carlyle, that could be quite a 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:30.880 walking journey, you know, as many as days. Several sources 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:33.720 say she went to the waterfront. Whichever one that means, 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:35.800 we know she went there, and that's where she met 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.760 a man named George Wall, who made his living as 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:42.120 a fisherman and who also would change the course of 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:45.360 her life. The pair soon married, and they began traveling 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:48.800 around the United States together, first of Philadelphia briefly, and 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:51.080 then a few months in New York City, and eventually 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:54.280 to Boston, where they settled. And in her confession, Rachel 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:57.280 does make a point of clearing her parents name of 0:03:57.320 --> 0:03:59.840 any blame by stating that she did all of this 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.240 without their consent. So it was not long after the 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:06.880 Walls moved to Boston, however, that George left Rachel for 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:10.480 time at sea. When the newlywed Rachel was questioned about 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:13.400 her husband's whereabouts, she admitted she had no idea where 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:16.320 he was. She would say, quote, he went off again 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:19.720 and left me, and then would continue and where he 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:22.880 is now I know not. It is actually now thought 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:26.640 by historians that George was probably a privateer during the 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:30.320 American Revolution, and that's how and when he observed the 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:32.960 life of a pirate and decided that that was the 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:36.320 life for him. To support herself while he was away, 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:40.680 Rachel turned to one of two possible professions, depending which 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.919 piece of her folklore you hear, so it's possible, yet unlikely, 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:47.880 that she took a job as a barmaid. It is 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.800 way more likely, especially because she's actually quoted talking about 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:55.000 it in her confession, that she really took a job 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:59.039 as domestic help in Boston's wealthy Beacon Hill neighborhood, and 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:02.800 it was there that she was she said, quote very contented. 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:08.120 George did eventually returned to his wife, and when he did, 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:10.560 he began a campaign to get her to join the 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:14.920 business of piracy with him. During her final confession, Rachel 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:17.880 was quoted about that, saying, as soon as he came back, 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:20.960 he enticed me to leave my service and take to 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:25.000 bad company from which I might date my ruin. So 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:27.600 at this point we're going to take a break for 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:30.240 a word from our sponsor, and when we return, we'll 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:34.080 talk about how Rachel and George began their life of piracy. 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:45.960 So romantic, welcome back to Criminalia, all right, Coming up, 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:49.800 we're going to talk about everything from Blackbeard to Rachel's trial. 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.480 As it turns out, some of the most notorious pirates, 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:57.200 such as black Beard, Samuel Bellamy, and Captain Kidd were 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:00.440 all known to travel in the waters off of Boston's sure, 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:03.360 So it's believed that they came north to New England 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.240 to trade their goods with merchants in Connecticut, New York, 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:10.440 and you guessed it, Boston too. Not the only pirates 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:14.120 in the area, obviously, and definitely not as famous. Rachel 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:17.040 and George also sailed off the coast of New England, 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.320 and legend says they stole a ship named the Essex 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.960 to begin this journey together. It said they robbed as 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:28.120 many as twelve ships and plundered and killed twenty four sailors. 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.520 Their lowres suggests they made as much as six thousand 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.880 dollars doing this, perhaps more, perhaps less. We haven't done 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:38.360 this in a little bit, so hold on and remember, 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:42.480 translating dollars to dollars over nearly two hundred fifty years 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:46.000 is super sketchy. Don't quote these as real numbers, but 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:50.320 here we go. The purchasing power of that six thousand 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:54.120 dollars would be maybe about roughly equivalent to a hundred 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:58.599 and thirty thousand dollars in one and the amount they 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.640 took in may have actually been as highest twelve thousand, 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:05.520 which bear with us again, is somewhere possibly around the 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:09.039 equivalent in purchasing power to more than two hundred seventy 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:13.240 thousand dollars today, although there isn't any proof beyond her 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:17.840 pre execution confession. According to the legends surrounding the Walls, 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:21.520 they attacked vessels around the aisles of the shoals just 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:25.360 off the coast of New Hampshire. In her confession, Rachel 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:27.840 went into pretty good detail about how she and George 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:32.040 worked as a team. They primarily worked after storms had hit, 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:35.000 and they made use of the unique situation of having 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:39.520 a woman on board to lorian victims. Through deception. Rachel 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:41.600 would stand on the deck or the mast of the 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:44.280 ship and pretend to be the lady in distress. She 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:47.960 would scream for help until nearby sailors came to her rescue, 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.600 and that's when George and his crew would plunder their 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:56.720 ships and murder their crew. In two though, tragedy struck 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.240 when George and most of his crew drowned at sea 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:02.440 during a storm. Worm Rachel, as well as a number 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:04.760 of the crew, were rescued from the shipwreck, and it 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:07.640 is at that point that she gave up piracy and 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:11.160 returned to Boston. Back in Boston, Rachel turned her work 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:15.360 from piracy back to domestic help. She did, though, keep 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:18.560 her hand in the game a bit by committing petty crimes. 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:21.520 It said she could never shake her love of the 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:25.440 sea or her love of looting. In fact, she's known 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.560 to have sneaked aboard ships docked in Boston Harbor. She 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:32.800 described one of these outings on Long Wharf in Boston, saying, quote, 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:36.640 sometime in the spring of seventy seven, not being able 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:40.000 to ascertain the exact time, I happened to go on 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:42.880 board a ship lying at the Long Morph in Boston. 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.200 The captain's name I cannot recollect, but think he was 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:49.320 a Frenchman. On my entering the cabin, the door of 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.600 which not being fastened, and finding the captain and mate 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:56.240 asleep in their beds, I hunted about for plunder and 0:08:56.320 --> 0:09:00.120 discovered under the captain's head a black silk hank or 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:03.880 chief containing upwards of thirty pounds in gold crowns and 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:08.120 small change, on which I immediately seized the booty and 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:12.080 decamped therewith as quick as possible. I like that she 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.360 was stealthy enough to steal money from under a man's head. 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:20.080 Under his head, so I actually found two versions of 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.640 this little story, and they had all the same basic 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:25.760 information in them, and I think the last like maybe 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.480 one or two sentences were even exactly the same. It 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:31.240 was missing a few things, like in the spring of 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:35.760 sevent seven. Um, it was missing lying at the long wharf, 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:37.679 and it was missing that he was a Frenchman. So 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:39.240 it was pretty much the same. But I thought that 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:41.560 this one had some Besides, I liked that she said 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:45.800 she seized the booty. This was not the truncated version 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:47.560 of her quote, which I thought was pretty good. It 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:49.760 was nice to be able to see two versions. Um. So, 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.439 moving on back to her confession, racial states in that 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:57.480 confession quote in short, the many small crimes I have 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.920 committed are too numerous to mention in is sheet. But 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:03.600 in addition to the theft we just mentioned, she also 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:07.760 recounts two other specific crimes, which she said she included 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.200 quote as a solemn warning to the living of my sex, 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:16.160 at least especially to those whom they were immediately concerned. Yeah. 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.319 One of those is this account of stealing from yet 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:23.240 another ship's captain, which goes quote At another time. I 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:26.319 think it was about the year seventy eight, I broke 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:29.040 into a sloop on board of which I was acquainted. 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:32.600 Lying at Dones Wharf in this town, and finding the 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:35.959 captain and every hand on board asleep in the cabin 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:38.720 and steerage, I looked round to see what I could 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.440 help myself to when I aspied a silver watch hanging 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:45.880 over the captain's head, which I pocketed. I also took 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:48.520 a pair of silver buckles out of the captain's shoes. 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:51.840 I likewise made free with a parcel of small change 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:56.080 for pocket money to make myself marry among my evil companions, 0:10:56.440 --> 0:11:01.240 and made my escape without being discovered. And here's why 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:05.040 Rachel's confession should be taken with a grain of salt. 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:09.320 So in it, she confessed she attempted to break her 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.079 husband out of jail by using what is now pretty 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:13.959 much one of the oldest tricks in the book. By 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:16.760 this time, Rachel's confession seems to have been more a 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:19.640 work of fiction or at least an exaggeration, But we're 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.679 going to talk about it anyway because it's really an 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:26.520 interesting part of her legend. So here's the problem. Her 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:31.199 husband George in this story was in jail, but we 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:34.600 know he died in a shipwreck in Sight two. So 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:37.679 what's real, and what's not real is a little bit 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:42.640 blended here. Right. It's also possible just that she has 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:45.320 a bad grasp of calendar dates. I was just going 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:48.760 to say that she earlier mentioned in her confession she 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:51.560 couldn't remember the year of something that happened, and you know, 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:54.520 maybe that's true. Right, So it may be true, it 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:56.640 may not be true. We're going to tell it. It's 0:11:56.640 --> 0:12:01.559 part of legend. It's a pretty good one. So this, 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:06.680 this possibly fictional part of her confession states that Rachel 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:10.520 had tools to escape baked into a loaf of bread 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:13.920 and had that bread sent to George. She wrote, quote, 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:17.840 sometime about the year seventeen eighty five, my husband being 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:20.640 confined in the jail in this place for these I 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.600 had a mind to try an expedient to extricate him 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.520 from his imprisonment, which was to have a brick loaf 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.480 baked in which I contrived to enclose a number of 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:33.320 tools such as a saw, file, et cetera, in order 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.439 to assist him to make his escape, which was handed 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.600 to him by the jailer in person, who little suspected 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:42.880 such a trick was playing with him. However, it liked 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:46.160 to have had the desired effect the crafty contriver intended 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:50.400 for by means of this stratagem. The poor culprit Wall 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:54.240 had busily employed himself with the implements that his kind 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:57.600 helpmate had in this curious manner conveyed to him, and 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:02.200 had nearly affected his design before it was discovered. So 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.120 before he could dig his way out, they were onto him. 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:07.960 The part that I really like about what she put 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:10.600 in the brick loaf of baked bread was the saw 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.480 just they saw that I imagine is very small because 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:17.720 it goes in a loaf of bread um, And I 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:19.680 just think to myself, Wow, I'd take a long time. 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.439 Rachel's life changed again on the evening of March eighteen 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:28.720 seventy nine. According to her confession, she was walking home 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:32.600 from work and we quote without design to injure any person. 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:35.960 She was she continued, quote surprised when the crime was 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:40.079 laid to her charge. And here's what happened. Seventeen year 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:43.280 old Margaret Bender, who had also been walking on that road, 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:47.640 accused Rachel of stealing a bonnet, shoes and buckles, and 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:52.839 possibly a few shillings to violently off her body. There's 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:55.760 also an odd and highly unlikely version of this story 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:59.360 that suggests that she and that she is Rachel, tried 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:03.880 to ripped out Margaret's tongue. That sounds a little like 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:07.680 the exaggeration of gossip going around, but we don't know 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.160 for sure. Yeah, the report of the crime that was 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:15.280 published in the papers about two weeks later definitely leaned 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:19.160 toward Margaret's version of the story. That was reported as follows. 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.280 As a woman was walking alone, she was met by 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.280 another woman who seized hold of her and stopped her 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:28.160 mouth with her handkerchief and tore from her head her 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:32.200 bonnet and cushion, after which she flung her down, took 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:35.280 her shoes and buckles, and then fled. She was soon 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:39.920 after overtaken and committed to jail. Rachel did run from 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:42.400 the police, but she was quickly arrested and jailed for 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:46.920 highway robbery, which is robbery that's committed you could guess 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:49.680 on or near a public road. It was during this 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:52.200 time that Rachel came clean about her life of piracy 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:55.120 and all it entailed. But the one thing she always 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:58.400 maintained was her innocence in regard to that bonnet. Of 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:01.320 all the acts of piracy, Rachel had been involved with 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:05.240 her arrest record was actually just for things like petty theft. 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:08.680 This arrest was for highway robbery, which meant that she 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:12.520 could be executed if found guilty. She pleaded innocent, and 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.560 we quote as to the crime of robbery, I am 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:19.240 entirely innocent. To the truth of this declaration, I appealed 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:22.120 to that God before whom I must shortly appear. She 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:25.040 was tried by a jury and only men could serve 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.480 on juries at this time before the Supreme Judicial Court 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:33.040 in Massachusetts in August of seventy nine, and Rachel was 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:36.720 found guilty. Not to take anything away from Rachel's life, 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.560 we would be remiss if we didn't mention how famous 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:43.960 those who participated in her trial would become. For example, 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.960 Rachel's life was happening at exactly the same time that 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:50.480 George Washington, a founding father of the United States, was 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.800 leading troops to victory in the American Revolution. But his 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:56.120 is not the only name that you will recognize from 0:15:56.120 --> 0:16:00.600 this time period and specifically from Rachel's trial. Right, So, 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.880 the presiding judge was William Cushing, who went on to 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:06.560 become one of the first U. S Supreme Court justices. 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:10.359 The prosecutor was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:14.480 Her court appointed lawyer, Christopher Gore, not only helped ratify 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.920 the Constitution, he also became the first U. S Attorney 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:22.160 from Massachusetts. During trial, he requested, and we quote, that 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.520 sentence of death might be given against the said Rachel Wall, 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.480 the prisoner at the bar, and her death warrant. And 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:31.360 this one, I thought was really kind of the most interesting, 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:35.360 carried what may be considered the most famous signature in 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:39.680 US history, and that's John Hancock, who was the first 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.920 governor of Massachusetts at the time. I wonder if it 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:46.520 was massive and overtook the document. I wondered the same thing. Honestly, 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:51.640 I need a page for my last name. We are 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:53.320 going to take a break here and have a word 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:55.800 from our sponsor, and when we come back, we're going 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:59.440 to talk about Rachel's conviction of highway robbery. Again, not 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:11.480 Pyras sing. Welcome back to Criminal Lea. Let's talk about 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:15.320 how Rachel requested to be hanged like a pirate. So 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:18.760 here's one thing about Rachel. She never denied that she 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:21.520 was a criminal. She never denied that she had been 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:26.159 arrested for petty theft, for larceny. She did, while technically 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.359 no longer a pirate, loot a few important people that 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:33.080 included Perez Morton, who was a revolutionary patriot, a friend 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:35.560 of John Adams, and a man who would become a 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:39.760 powerful lawyer and future Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:44.600 But this accusation of highway robbery stuck, and she pleaded 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:48.760 not guilty. She always said she didn't do it, so 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:53.479 if hanging would be her execution, which it was, she 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.680 believed and requested that she be hanged as a pirate. 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.600 She went on to argue that she shouldn't be executed 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:03.320 or sentenced for this crime of highway robbery. She maintained 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:06.760 her innocence, saying, quote witnesses who swore against me are 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.879 certainly mistaken, she said, but she continued, as a dying person, 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:15.439 I freely forgive them. She quote hoped her awful and 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:19.280 untimely fate will be a solemn warning and caution to everyone, 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:23.040 but more particularly to the youth, especially those of my 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:27.159 own sex. There were three hangings on the day that 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:31.760 Rachel was executed, including William Smith and William Dunigan. All 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:35.960 three had been convicted and sentenced to death for highway robbery. 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:38.879 Rachel was the final execution of the day and was 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:42.800 hanged at the Great Elm in Boston Commons. It's reported 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:46.119 that there were thousands of bystanders on hand for the event, 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:49.920 and it was reported that quote everyone present was ready 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:53.879 for the morning's gruesome excitement. When Rachel's time came, she 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:56.840 jumped out off the edge to her death without help. 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:02.080 You made me wondering, as Rachel did. Was hanging really 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:06.680 the punishment for allegedly stealing a bonnet? Yes? Actually, well 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:09.200 it could be, so we'll do a really quick overview 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:14.040 of that. The Massachusetts Bay Colony Charter had previously been 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:16.919 revoked by the King of England, and that meant that 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:20.960 Massachusetts was totally free to establish its own laws based 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:25.119 on court judgments and jury opinions. Additionally, by the end 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.679 of the eighteenth century, the ruling class in Massachusetts believed 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:32.840 there was a massive and unprecedented crime wave just occurring 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:35.879 around them all the time, and their solution was to 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:40.000 be swift and merciless. They may have actually been exaggerating 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.240 that crime problem, but their solution just the same was 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:47.080 capital punishment, and this law could mean hanging for the 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:50.359 theft of a bonnet. It could also, unfortunately permit the 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:53.119 execution of any woman with a baby born outside of 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:57.280 marriage to be hanged, while the man involved was almost 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:02.600 always exempt from punishment. The time and place is interesting here. Okay, 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:04.920 we don't intend to gloss over the importance of the 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.119 American Revolution, of course, but for the context of what 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:12.160 we're talking about today, that's the setting for Rachel's story 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:15.200 in Boston. So we're gonna talk just a little nip 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:19.040 about the Revolution. Battles were fought from Quebec all the 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:22.520 way down to the Carolina's. Basically everyone along the Eastern 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:26.399 seaboard was recovering from battle, either through participating or it 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:30.760 just being part of their world. In Massachusetts, many residents 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:34.400 have become stressed and distressed about any sort of lawlessness 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:37.960 or crime. There was a lot going on in Massachusetts 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:40.600 at the time, and in particular in Boston and the 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:44.320 surrounding area. The Siege of Boston, which began the American 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:47.879 Revolutionary War, the Battle of Bunker Hill, the battles of 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:51.560 Lexington and Conquered you know, these battles and all of 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:57.160 these had just completely exhausted the population. To contextualize where 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:01.080 Rachel's story and her execution fit in the larger area. 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:04.679 By this time, in Massachusetts, juris had hanged a hundred 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:07.240 and twenty seven women over two hundred years, and that 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:11.440 included famously women accused of being witches in the Salem 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:16.640 witch Trials, which happened between six and six Though not 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:20.480 all of the more than two hundred alleged witches were executed, 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:24.240 that brief period marks a notable concentration of the total 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:26.119 number of women who had been put to death for 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:29.000 crimes in the colony and in the state. The number 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:31.720 of women hanged in Massachusetts after the witch trials and 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:36.480 before Rachel Wall came along, dwindled for about a century. 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:39.919 Rachel was not only the last woman hanged in Massachusetts, 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:43.520 she also became a unique outlier, and that she had 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:46.040 not been accused of being a witch and was one 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:48.119 of the last that could claim that to be hanged 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:52.160 there that is true. She died on Thursday October eight, 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:55.040 sevent eighty nine, when she was twenty nine years old. 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:59.240 Word of her death was announced through various newspapers. In 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:02.119 the plight of her life was memorialized as a woodcut 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:06.800 illustration of her corpse dangling from the gallows while she 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:10.639 lost her life for theft, at least on paper, we 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:13.800 wonder if it sort of seems like she was really 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:17.680 being tried for her life of piracy. Maybe maybe not. 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:20.679 It's hard to determine the politics at hand and her trial. 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:23.960 We do know that in her final hours, Rachel went 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:27.160 to her death asking for mercy on her soul, completing 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:30.640 her confession with we quote and now into the hands 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:33.879 of Almighty God, I commit my soul relying on his 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:37.679 mercy through the merits and mediation of my redeemer, and 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:40.720 die an unworthy member of the Presbyterian Church in the 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:47.320 twenty nine year of my age. Alright, so Holly, I'm 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:49.320 gonna come and meet you in the groggery, and I 0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:52.119 hope the grogory has a lot of nutmeg. Today the 0:22:52.119 --> 0:22:55.560 gregory is actually nutmeg free. I'm sorry to disappoint you. 0:22:56.240 --> 0:22:59.120 You ran out, That's okay, but there is a little 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:02.199 bit of autumnal fun going on. Well that's really what 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:06.520 I want in thinking about this story and what might 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:09.199 be a good way to honor Rachel. I wanted to 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:13.920 kind of recognize that she was living in New England 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:18.280 at a time when ciders and hard ciders were very popular. 0:23:19.040 --> 0:23:20.879 But it's also I wanted to do a little extra 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:24.960 autumnal twist, so because she did die in October, and 0:23:25.040 --> 0:23:28.680 because we're we're at that time of year ourselves, and 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:31.800 because I always have autumn flavored things in my house 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:35.879 year round anyway. So this is a cocktail called the 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:40.400 Hanged Woman, and it is very simple and to my palette, 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:46.399 dangerously delicious. You're gonna start with a champagne coupe or 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:48.800 a flute, your preference. I prefer a coupe for this. 0:23:49.680 --> 0:23:53.320 A splash of pumpkin syrup. If you want to measure it, 0:23:53.359 --> 0:23:55.040