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Speaker 1: This story contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is advised.

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Speaker 1: My daughter and I are on Chestnut Street in Uptown,

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Speaker 1: New Orleans, in front of the large Victorian house that

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Speaker 1: was the Crawford family home in the early nineteen hundreds.

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Speaker 1: So this is the house where three out of four

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Speaker 1: people died. So Mary Agnes lived here and her parents

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Speaker 1: lived here, along with Gertrude and Annie, and you could

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Speaker 1: see it's a.

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Speaker 2: Pretty big historical house. It's giving little women. What do

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Speaker 2: you mean the book it feels like little women? Why?

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Speaker 1: Because they all live together, a bunch of sisters.

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Speaker 2: And a mom, and one of them dies.

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Speaker 1: Emma and Walter Crawford had lived here for almost twenty

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Speaker 1: years before two tragedies happened. First, one of their five daughters,

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Speaker 1: Mary Agnes, died in late June of nineteen ten. Then

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Speaker 1: Emma's husband, Walter died less than three weeks later, And

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Speaker 1: now just about two weeks after his death, the matriarch

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Speaker 1: of the family was dying. It was late Thursday night

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Speaker 1: on July twenty eighth. Emma was drifting in and out

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Speaker 1: of consciousness. She showed the same symptoms as her husband,

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Speaker 1: stomach pains, aching, and just misery as they had before,

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Speaker 1: the family hovered over her. Emma Crawford had always been

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Speaker 1: at the epicenter of their family. She was loving and committed,

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Speaker 1: and now she was dying. Elise wept, as she had

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Speaker 1: two times before. There seemed to be no hope. Three

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Speaker 1: deaths in less than six weeks was too much for.

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Speaker 2: A lease to bear.

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Speaker 1: She disappeared to her room several times.

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Speaker 2: That night.

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Speaker 1: In July, at ten forty five, Emma Crawford took her

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Speaker 1: last breath, Her suffering finally ended. She was fifty four

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Speaker 1: years old. For the third time in about a month,

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Speaker 1: Saint Stephen Catholic Church honored a member of the Crawford family,

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Speaker 1: and for the third time in about a month, a

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Speaker 1: Crawford was buried in the family plot in Saint Patrick's

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Speaker 1: Cemetery Number three. There were other headstones and tombs nearby

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Speaker 1: that were much older. Many had died of natural causes,

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Speaker 1: but few of those deaths were as mysterious as the

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Speaker 1: deaths of the three members of the Crawford family. The

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Speaker 1: newspapers printed a short, simple obituary fees for Emma A

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Speaker 1: few days later. One read on Thursday, July twenty eighth

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Speaker 1: nineteen ten, at ten forty five pm, Emma Steyer, wife.

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Speaker 2: Of the late Walter B. Crawford, died.

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Speaker 1: Of course, the obituary didn't mention the cause of death.

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Speaker 2: Doctor P. W.

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Speaker 1: Falls had surveyed all of Emma's symptoms. He listened to

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Speaker 1: the sisters as they disclosed doctor Bacon's diagnosis for their

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Speaker 1: father's death less than two weeks earlier, euremia poisoning. After

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Speaker 1: some thought, doctor Falls came to the same conclusion. Emma

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Speaker 1: Crawford had been afflicted by the same disease, just like

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Speaker 1: her husband. Emma died from euremia poisoning. That seems like

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Speaker 1: a big coincidence, doesn't it? Maybe too much of a coincidence.

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Speaker 1: I asked doctor Neil Bradburry if it were possible for

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Speaker 1: two people in the same household to have euremia poisoning

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Speaker 1: and to die of it within weeks of each other.

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Speaker 2: He said, it is possible.

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Speaker 1: Kidney issues can be caused by an ongoing health problem

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Speaker 1: like diabetes or high blood pressure, or they can be

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Speaker 1: caused by a severe injury or when an infection damages

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Speaker 1: your kidneys or untreated diabetes. Did both Walter and Emma

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Speaker 1: suffer from high blood pressure, did either one of them

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Speaker 1: have accidents that were never reported, or did they both

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Speaker 1: have diabetes. None of those things were unusual, particularly at

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Speaker 1: the turn of the century. Now patients might be treated

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Speaker 1: for uremia, poisoning with dialysis, or even a kidney transplant.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Bradbury says that many doctors today might come to

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Speaker 1: the same conclusion as doctor Bacon and doctor Falls. If

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Speaker 1: the first person in the household received that diagnosis and

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Speaker 1: the second person had the same symptoms, then it strengthens

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Speaker 1: the diagnosis and the other possibilities get ignored. As much

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Speaker 1: as I've read about poisoners in history, I had always

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Speaker 1: assumed it was fairly common, but it wasn't. So it's

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Speaker 1: understandable that all three doctors didn't suspect morphine poisoning. Fall's

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Speaker 1: diagnosis prevented any questions about Emma's death if there had

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Speaker 1: been any to begin with. There was no need to

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Speaker 1: involve the coroner or the police, or introduce any speculation

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Speaker 1: about her fate. Remember, we found out in the last

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Speaker 1: episode that a modern coroner would use a simple test

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Speaker 1: to determine if it were in fact euremia, but that

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Speaker 1: test wasn't available in nineteen ten. Now at some point

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Speaker 1: you would expect there to be speculation about the Crawfords

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Speaker 1: dying from mysterious illnesses, but apparently not quite yet. Elise, Gertrude,

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Speaker 1: and Emma all mourned their mother. Alise in particular, wept.

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Speaker 1: She was close to both parents. While Annie's sisters were

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Speaker 1: clearly devastated, it was less clear how she felt about

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Speaker 1: her parents' deaths. She seemed to show little emotion, and

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Speaker 1: soon she would go on to become the center of

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Speaker 1: one of the city's most scrutinized investigations of the twentieth century.

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Speaker 1: Now that their parents had died, the Crawford women discussed

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Speaker 1: their options. Their father, Walter's job as a carpenter for

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Speaker 1: the railway, was necessary for them to keep their home.

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Speaker 1: The rent would be due each month, and trying to

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Speaker 1: pay their bills without their father would be challenging, So

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Speaker 1: the three sisters discussed moving in with Walter's step brother Edward,

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Speaker 1: who lived nearby, but they didn't seem as close to

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Speaker 1: him as they were to his brother Robert and Robert's

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Speaker 1: wife Mary. Their aunt and uncle agreed, but with some reservations,

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Speaker 1: and rightly so. Aunt Mary felt that her niece Annie

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Speaker 1: was difficult and controlling, but she had no idea just

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Speaker 1: how controlling Annie might be. But then, before the three

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Speaker 1: sisters began to pack up their clothes and hats and

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Speaker 1: other personal items, they received a pair of visitors, two

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Speaker 1: men with Walter Crawford's fraternal organization, the Druids, knocked on

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Speaker 1: the front door. One of the sisters answered, may we

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Speaker 1: speak with Missus Walter Crawford. The men asked they were

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Speaker 1: there to deliver a check to Emma Crawford for five

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars. It was the premium for Walter's burial expenses

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Speaker 1: provided by the Druids. The policy with the Druids was

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Speaker 1: always payable to the wife if there were one who

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Speaker 1: was living. But that was the problem in the Crawford household,

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Speaker 1: replied one of the sisters. Missus Walter Crawford had recently died.

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Speaker 1: The Druids were taken aback. Walter Crawford had died less

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Speaker 1: than two weeks earlier. Emma's recent death complicated things. Would

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Speaker 1: the money now be directed to Walter's daughters, or perhaps

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Speaker 1: to his brother so Robert might supervise their spending. Women

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Speaker 1: were largely not trusted to manage their own money in

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Speaker 1: the early nineteen hundreds, the Druids needed to phone an attorney,

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Speaker 1: and once they did, he directed them to distribute the

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Speaker 1: five hundred dollars to the couple's four surviving daughters. Annie

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Speaker 1: would get money once again, while the Druid sorted out

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Speaker 1: Walter Crawford's life insurance payment. The three daughters organized their

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Speaker 1: move to their aunt and uncle's home, just a fifteen

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Speaker 1: minute walk away. In nineteen ten, Robert and Mary Crawford

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Speaker 1: lived on Peters Avenue. That street has since been renamed

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Speaker 1: Jefferson Avenue. When Elise, Annie, and Gertrude all knocked on

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Speaker 1: their aunt and uncle's door, it was clear they were.

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Speaker 2: In for a change.

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Speaker 1: Their home was smaller than the Crawford's house on Chestnut Street,

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Speaker 1: but it would be comfortable enough. The sisters sat down

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Speaker 1: with Uncle Robert and Aunt Mary, and they agreed on

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Speaker 1: rent that each woman would pay to stay in the house.

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Speaker 1: Elise would help supplement Gertrude's rent since the youngest sister

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Speaker 1: was still in school, but Annie would need to pay

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Speaker 1: her share of the rent herself, and she still didn't

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Speaker 1: have a job. Annie had been out of work for

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Speaker 1: more than a year now, and yet she promised she

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Speaker 1: had the money for the rent because of her share

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Speaker 1: of her sister and her father and her mother's life

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Speaker 1: insurance policies, less the funeral expenses of course.

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Speaker 2: Not seeing anything so far.

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Speaker 1: Now, Crawford and I think it's going to be one

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Speaker 1: of the big ones, but I'm not sure. My twelve

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Speaker 1: year old daughter and I still haven't found the Crawford

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Speaker 1: family gravesite in Saint Patrick's number three. We need to

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Speaker 1: find it to see just how much money Annie had

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Speaker 1: spent on it. That might tell us a little bit

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Speaker 1: more about whether money was really a motive. Okay, so look,

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Speaker 1: just pay attention to where we are. You know what

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Speaker 1: I wonder if we do a grid search, came here?

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Speaker 1: Why this is what we do. I think we'll start

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Speaker 1: down here and we'll walk together, but across the way

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Speaker 1: from each other.

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Speaker 2: Do you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 1: So you'll look at these two sets, and I'll look

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Speaker 1: at these two sets. So make sure you see every

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Speaker 1: one of them. You're ready, you start, you go down

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Speaker 1: that way. I'm gonna go over here. We're gonna go

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Speaker 1: at the same time.

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Speaker 3: Here.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, start down, go through the center, Buddy. The agreement

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Speaker 1: between Alice and Annie and Gertrude and their aunt and

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Speaker 1: uncle should have been simple. The Crawford women were moving

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Speaker 1: into an established home with Mary and Robert, their aunt

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Speaker 1: and uncle, people they were supposed to defer to. But

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Speaker 1: that's not at all what happened, because Aunt Mary and

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Speaker 1: her niece Annie really disliked each other. To put it simply,

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Speaker 1: both women wanted to be the head of household. Annie's

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Speaker 1: sisters in the Crawford household on Chestnut Street were fairly passive.

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Speaker 1: She got her way a lot, and that certainly happened

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Speaker 1: with Walter Crawford also, but Aunt Mary was anything but passive.

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Speaker 1: Historian Terrence fits More says that Annie found out quickly

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Speaker 1: that Mary Crawford was not easily controlled.

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Speaker 4: Those are two women that do not like one another.

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Speaker 4: Annie has come in to Mary Crawford's house and tries

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Speaker 4: to dictate the norms of the household.

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Speaker 1: Aunt Mary had always despised the way that Annie tried

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Speaker 1: to control everyone, including her own sisters. When young Gertrude

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Speaker 1: got a crush on a boy, Emma and Alice tried

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Speaker 1: to encourage the romance, but Annie stepped in and forbade

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Speaker 1: Gertrude from being courted.

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Speaker 4: That's the dynamic. You have Annie and her sister coming

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Speaker 4: into this house and there are just too many women

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Speaker 4: in the house for Mary Crawford. One too many, and

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Speaker 4: that's being Annie.

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Speaker 1: If you were listening to the story and you wanted

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Speaker 1: to be generous, you might think that perhaps Annie was

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Speaker 1: just in mourning and she had little patience for women

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Speaker 1: who were even more assertive than she was. But her

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Speaker 1: niece in law, Cecil Leo, says Annie was still just

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Speaker 1: as prickly decades later when Cecil met her. Remember, before

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Speaker 1: Cecil and Patrick were first married, Pat had been living

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Speaker 1: in the family home in Port Arthur with his aunt Annie,

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Speaker 1: though he called her nanny.

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Speaker 5: Pat and I did this, you know, we had a

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Speaker 5: discussion before we married it do we want to get

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Speaker 5: an apartment or did we want to get a house

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Speaker 5: or or? And he said, well, that was his home,

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Speaker 5: I mean the house that he and Nanny were living in.

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Speaker 5: He had purchased that house after World War Two for

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Speaker 5: his parents and it was in his name and he

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Speaker 5: was the owner of that property. And he and I said, well,

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Speaker 5: why can't we just live there till we decide what

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Speaker 5: we want to do.

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Speaker 1: So cecil and Patrick got married, and cecil moved into

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Speaker 1: the home where Nanny had lived for decades. Cecil sensed

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Speaker 1: immediately that Annie Crawford would be a difficult woman to

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Speaker 1: live with.

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Speaker 5: The one time that I did get aggravated because I

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Speaker 5: had bought a shelf for our bathroom to keep the

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Speaker 5: towels on. Because when you be in the bathroom, if

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Speaker 5: you need a towel, you had to go into another

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Speaker 5: room to get the towels. So I had these towels,

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Speaker 5: and I'm the first and that when I fold my towels,

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Speaker 5: I fold them all the same way she would.

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Speaker 2: During the day.

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Speaker 5: She'd be there by herself, of course, and I guess

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Speaker 5: rumbling around, and she'd go in there and she'd take

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Speaker 5: those towels and she'd cross some different ways where they

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Speaker 5: weren't weren't even and folded, you know. And I'd get

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Speaker 5: there in the evening and then I'd look up at

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Speaker 5: those towels and I say, now, where did she do that?

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Speaker 5: So I'd rearrange them.

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Speaker 1: Cecilia and Annie were engaged in a quiet battle over

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Speaker 1: the control of the household. It was a young bride

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Speaker 1: pitted against the self appointed house manager.

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Speaker 5: Well, she did that about three times, and I don't know.

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Speaker 5: She thought that she would stir me enough that I

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Speaker 5: would say something to her about it, but I didn't.

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Speaker 5: I'd say, Nanny did it again, I straightened my bows

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Speaker 5: out again, and then she finally gave up.

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Speaker 2: She stopped it.

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Speaker 5: But I don't know if she was doing that to

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Speaker 5: aggravate me. I'm sure she was.

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00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:24,920
Speaker 1: I'm sure that she was too. But Cecil says, despite

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Speaker 1: any acrimony between them, it didn't occur to her to

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Speaker 1: be suspicious of Annie Crawford, probably because no one in

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Speaker 1: the family would talk about her life in New Orleans.

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Speaker 5: I had no idea that anything was strange about Nannie.

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Speaker 5: She was very quiet, and like I say, she had

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Speaker 5: that one spot on the couch in the living room

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Speaker 5: and she sat there hours on hours, just and not

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Speaker 5: saal word.

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Speaker 1: Clearly, Annie had been gloomy for her whole life, and

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00:14:56,960 --> 00:15:00,240
Speaker 1: that remains the case when she was an elderly aunt

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Speaker 1: living with her nephew and his new wife. I loved

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Speaker 1: my aunts, so it's hard for me to relate to

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Speaker 1: Cecil's experience with her. But I asked historian Terrence Fitzmorris

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Speaker 1: about the way people described Annie.

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Speaker 4: I think many of us have stories of I had

250
00:15:16,720 --> 00:15:19,560
Speaker 4: old ants that gave me the creaks. I mean they

251
00:15:19,560 --> 00:15:22,000
Speaker 4: were in the eighties and I was, you know, nine

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Speaker 4: or ten years old, and they were relics of the

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Speaker 4: Civil War. I mean they were just the creepiest old

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Speaker 4: women and biddies that ever met in my life. And

255
00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:33,240
Speaker 4: I didn't want to go into their homes because they

256
00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:36,600
Speaker 4: were dark, and they were filled with mahogany, and you know,

257
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Speaker 4: there were rooms that you couldn't sit in because they

258
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Speaker 4: did they wanted to keep it, you know, clean and

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Speaker 4: pristine for the priests to come over. You know, they

260
00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:46,320
Speaker 4: were just unpleasant people.

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Speaker 1: Didn't make them killers.

262
00:15:48,160 --> 00:15:50,520
Speaker 4: Doesn't make them killers, no, but it made them unpleasant.

263
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Speaker 4: And I can see where somebody unpleasant would rouse the suspicion.

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Speaker 4: When outward appearances are so important.

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Speaker 1: Most people wouldn't think elderly aunts were auspicious or murderers.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen ten or now, it seems silly. In fact,

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Speaker 1: the theme of little old ladies poisoning people was so

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00:16:09,080 --> 00:16:13,600
Speaker 1: outlandish that Hollywood used it for a ghoulish, wonderful comedy

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Speaker 1: called Arsenic and Old Lace in nineteen forty four. Carrie

270
00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:21,640
Speaker 1: Grant starred in the Frank Capra movie. It's about a

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Speaker 1: man who discovers that his two elderly aunts are poisoning

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Speaker 1: lonely old men. It was billed as the funniest movie

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Speaker 1: You'll ever see, even though it was about a pair

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00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:37,800
Speaker 1: of serial killers. But back in nineteen ten, twenty eight

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00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:47,920
Speaker 1: year old Annie Crawford hadn't aroused suspicion yet. By August first,

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00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:51,640
Speaker 1: there had been three deaths in the Crawford home, Annie's sister,

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Speaker 1: her mother, and her father. If she were a poisoner,

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Speaker 1: was she murdering them simply for the life insurance money?

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Speaker 1: It didn't seem like a big enough motive, But she

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00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:04,480
Speaker 1: had lost her job at the sanitarium, so perhaps she

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00:17:04,600 --> 00:17:08,439
Speaker 1: needed the money. Or maybe she just disliked those people

282
00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:12,560
Speaker 1: in her family, or maybe she was addicted to drugs.

283
00:17:14,760 --> 00:17:18,240
Speaker 1: Even without a clear motive, it's difficult to dismiss three

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00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:21,440
Speaker 1: deaths as coincidence. There just seems to be too much

285
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Speaker 1: dying right now. We might have enough information to suspect

286
00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:29,960
Speaker 1: a serial killer inside the Crawford family. And if that's

287
00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:34,640
Speaker 1: the case, were there more family members at risk? Let's

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00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:39,480
Speaker 1: go through the potential victims. The first was Annie's uncle Robert.

289
00:17:40,080 --> 00:17:43,720
Speaker 1: In nineteen ten, Robert Crawford welcomed the Crawford sisters into

290
00:17:43,760 --> 00:17:48,119
Speaker 1: his house on Peters Avenue. Welcome might be a strong word.

291
00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:51,840
Speaker 1: Even though they had just lost both of their parents.

292
00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:55,439
Speaker 1: Uncle Robert quickly made them agreed to pay monthly rent.

293
00:17:56,400 --> 00:17:59,800
Speaker 1: Robert had always been a respectable resident of New Orleans.

294
00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:02,399
Speaker 1: He was a motor man for one of the city's

295
00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:05,920
Speaker 1: streetcar lines for years. He had a reputation for being

296
00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:10,040
Speaker 1: polite and attentive to customers, But in his own household,

297
00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:14,560
Speaker 1: Robert seemed almost anonymous. He paid little attention to any

298
00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:16,879
Speaker 1: of the women in the house except for his wife Mary.

299
00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:20,399
Speaker 1: He just floated around, not getting in the way. But

300
00:18:20,560 --> 00:18:23,520
Speaker 1: so did his brother Walter, and he had ended up

301
00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:27,800
Speaker 1: in the family tomb. Then there was Aunt Mary, who

302
00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:31,640
Speaker 1: already had a tense relationship with her niece. Annie complained

303
00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:35,600
Speaker 1: that Mary was the controlling one, not her. Annie said,

304
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:38,560
Speaker 1: every time I left the house, Aunt Mary would want

305
00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:41,320
Speaker 1: to know where I was going. She gossiped all over

306
00:18:41,359 --> 00:18:44,920
Speaker 1: the neighborhood. She was always trying to pry into my business.

307
00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:48,880
Speaker 1: I hate that. I hate people who are always talking.

308
00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:53,359
Speaker 1: Both Annie and Aunt Mary were strong willed, and the

309
00:18:53,359 --> 00:18:57,520
Speaker 1: power struggle between the two made the household unpleasant. Aunt

310
00:18:57,560 --> 00:19:03,080
Speaker 1: Mary was definitely a potential vicary. There was also Annie's

311
00:19:03,080 --> 00:19:06,399
Speaker 1: youngest sister, Gertrude, who wasn't even eighteen yet. It was

312
00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:09,840
Speaker 1: unlikely that she had done enough to really aggravate her sister,

313
00:19:10,359 --> 00:19:13,479
Speaker 1: so she would not have been a likely victim. And

314
00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:16,560
Speaker 1: then there was the oldest sister, Emma, who was married

315
00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:19,879
Speaker 1: and living in Texas. Annie said they were actually close

316
00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:25,280
Speaker 1: and Emma agreed, so no major conflict there. So finally

317
00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:29,440
Speaker 1: we have Elise. Twenty four year old Elise Crawford was very,

318
00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:33,240
Speaker 1: very complicated even before the deaths of her sister and

319
00:19:33,280 --> 00:19:36,359
Speaker 1: her parents. But before we get to that, let's start

320
00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:40,159
Speaker 1: with her job. Author Alan Gotrow says that Elise and

321
00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:42,440
Speaker 1: Mary Agnes both had the same career.

322
00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:47,520
Speaker 3: Elise was a stenographer. She would have had to have

323
00:19:47,560 --> 00:19:49,879
Speaker 3: gone to a school to learn that. There wasn't any

324
00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:53,080
Speaker 3: type of, you know, clinical type of internships, so she

325
00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:54,480
Speaker 3: would have had to go on to school like that.

326
00:19:55,440 --> 00:20:00,480
Speaker 3: The public schools at the time were kind of tip notch.

327
00:20:02,960 --> 00:20:05,280
Speaker 1: Alise seemed to be a hard worker, and for more

328
00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:07,800
Speaker 1: than a year she and her two sisters lived with

329
00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:11,359
Speaker 1: Aunt Mary and Uncle Robert on Peters Avenue with no

330
00:20:11,560 --> 00:20:12,480
Speaker 1: major issues.

331
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Speaker 2: It seems Christmas of.

332
00:20:14,920 --> 00:20:18,360
Speaker 1: Nineteen ten was a time of sadness. It was their

333
00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:21,359
Speaker 1: first Christmas without their parents there at the dinner table

334
00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:25,480
Speaker 1: for the holiday meal. Easter of nineteen eleven came and went,

335
00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:30,040
Speaker 1: and soon summer arrived. Annie still wasn't employed, but a

336
00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:34,240
Speaker 1: Leise was, while Gertrude was still in school. That summer,

337
00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:37,960
Speaker 1: there were problems brewing in the house. Annie and Elise

338
00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:42,560
Speaker 1: bickered a lot, even more than usual. Alise accused Annie

339
00:20:42,600 --> 00:20:45,640
Speaker 1: of trying to control her Anne, Gertrude, and just about

340
00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:49,520
Speaker 1: everyone else. Annie snapped back that Elise had given her

341
00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:52,400
Speaker 1: the cold shoulder for much of her life. Elise would

342
00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:55,399
Speaker 1: go days without even acknowledging that Annie was there in

343
00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:58,440
Speaker 1: the home. It was clear to Aunt Mary that there

344
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:01,600
Speaker 1: was tension between the sisters. There was a six year

345
00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:05,320
Speaker 1: age difference between the two. It's also unclear what Annie's

346
00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:08,640
Speaker 1: goal was. For a woman in the South in nineteen eleven,

347
00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:12,680
Speaker 1: it was socially unacceptable to remain unmarried. She didn't seem

348
00:21:12,720 --> 00:21:16,480
Speaker 1: ambitious in her career. Clearly she was moody, and distant,

349
00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:21,480
Speaker 1: and now she wasn't getting along with Elise or Aunt Mary.

350
00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:34,800
Speaker 1: Annie was also running out of money. Annie Crawford was

351
00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:38,760
Speaker 1: certainly sneaky. On Friday, September twenty second of nineteen eleven,

352
00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:42,720
Speaker 1: she had taken the Saint Charles street car to the

353
00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:46,120
Speaker 1: New Orleans Sanitarium, the hospital she had been fired from

354
00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:50,520
Speaker 1: the previous year. It had recently been renamed Presbyterian Hospital.

355
00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:54,920
Speaker 1: As Annie strolled through the hospital, she stopped to talk

356
00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:57,480
Speaker 1: with some nurses that she knew. Why are you here,

357
00:21:57,680 --> 00:22:01,560
Speaker 1: they asked, I loaned Missus Lewis my fan. Annie told

358
00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:05,000
Speaker 1: them I'd like it back now. Missus Lewis was one

359
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:08,439
Speaker 1: of the hospital's housekeepers. After she located the woman and

360
00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:14,720
Speaker 1: retrieved her fan, Annie lingered. When she was alone, Annie

361
00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:17,280
Speaker 1: opened the door to the cabinet at the drug dispensary.

362
00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:21,280
Speaker 1: She took a jar with some white pills inside and

363
00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:26,040
Speaker 1: slipped the jar into her pocket. Soon Annie Crawford was

364
00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:31,399
Speaker 1: waving goodbye to the nurses at the Presbyterian Hospital, and

365
00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:33,560
Speaker 1: then she rode the street car back to her aunt

366
00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:38,400
Speaker 1: and uncle's home. What happened next would finally turn people's

367
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:58,600
Speaker 1: attention to Annie Crawford. At the end of that Friday

368
00:22:58,760 --> 00:23:03,359
Speaker 1: in nineteen eleven, Annie Crawford's younger sister, Elise, returned home.

369
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,080
Speaker 1: She had not seemed the same for more than a year.

370
00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:10,080
Speaker 1: The deaths of Mary, Agnes and her mother and her

371
00:23:10,119 --> 00:23:14,000
Speaker 1: father had all weighed on her, leaving Elise constantly on edge.

372
00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:18,520
Speaker 1: She was weepy and prone to lashing out, especially at Annie,

373
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:22,720
Speaker 1: her mercurial sister. Weekends in the Crawford household had been

374
00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:26,720
Speaker 1: especially difficult. Too much togetherness, and this one would be

375
00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:31,680
Speaker 1: even more terrible. Author Alan Gotrode tells me what happened next.

376
00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:35,920
Speaker 3: Well, Elise returns she's coming home from her job as

377
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:39,679
Speaker 3: a stenographer to the residents that they lived in, and

378
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:41,880
Speaker 3: of course there was her aunt and uncle that were

379
00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:44,000
Speaker 3: there in addition to Annie and Gertrude.

380
00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:47,359
Speaker 1: Soon Elise was complaining that she didn't feel well, a

381
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:50,320
Speaker 1: feeling that had started at work, and she had actually

382
00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:55,080
Speaker 1: vomited when she first came home. A bit later, Annie

383
00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:59,199
Speaker 1: handed alisea drink in her dinner, which wasn't unusual. Aside

384
00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:02,160
Speaker 1: from her aunt Mary, Annie was home more than anyone else,

385
00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:05,200
Speaker 1: and women who were home were expected to take care

386
00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:09,320
Speaker 1: of the people who were working. Annie watched as Elise

387
00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:12,520
Speaker 1: slowly ate her food and took SIPs of tea, but

388
00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:17,240
Speaker 1: then suddenly she spit something out. Elise looked disgusted. She

389
00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:21,479
Speaker 1: flashed an angry glare at Annie. This tastes doped, she yelled.

390
00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:25,399
Speaker 1: Annie stared back and calmly told the Lease that she

391
00:24:25,520 --> 00:24:31,000
Speaker 1: was being ridiculous, even hysterical. Alise had been erratic for months.

392
00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:35,399
Speaker 1: Annie assured aunt Mary that her sister was imagining things,

393
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:39,960
Speaker 1: but Gertrude eyed Annie. The day before, Annie had offered

394
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:42,719
Speaker 1: her a glass of milk, but Gertrude spit it out

395
00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:46,720
Speaker 1: because it also tasted off as if it had soured.

396
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:53,520
Speaker 1: Now Gertrude didn't know what to think. Alise continued to

397
00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:56,439
Speaker 1: complain throughout the night. She put her hands on her

398
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:58,040
Speaker 1: stomach and moaned.

399
00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:01,560
Speaker 3: And she starts complaining of stomach bans, and so Annie

400
00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:04,840
Speaker 3: took her upstairs to lay her down in the hopes

401
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:05,840
Speaker 3: that she would feel better.

402
00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:09,399
Speaker 1: But Elise didn't feel better. Her stomach continued to ache.

403
00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:12,880
Speaker 1: She cried, she screamed, and she had a difficult time

404
00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:17,919
Speaker 1: even talking. Aunt Mary raced to the room where Elise

405
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:21,480
Speaker 1: was lying. Her eyes darted to Annie who was standing nearby.

406
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:26,320
Speaker 1: She begged Annie call a doctor. So Annie went next

407
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:30,119
Speaker 1: door and called a doctor for the fourth time in

408
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:34,120
Speaker 1: fourteen months, and soon a physician was at their door.

409
00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:37,240
Speaker 3: The people in the house were concerned for the young lady,

410
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:40,480
Speaker 3: having lost the father, the mother, and the younger sister

411
00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:45,360
Speaker 3: due to what was termed quote mysterious illnesses. The family

412
00:25:45,359 --> 00:25:48,080
Speaker 3: physician was a guy by the name of doctor Mary McGuire.

413
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:52,080
Speaker 1: Doctor maguire had been treating Elise for extreme nervousness for

414
00:25:52,119 --> 00:25:55,520
Speaker 1: the past year, so he knew her well. She complained

415
00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:59,440
Speaker 1: that she felt lethargic. She grimaced from the immense pain.

416
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:03,520
Speaker 3: And after examining her, he prescribed colomel and soda to

417
00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:06,359
Speaker 3: relieve the stomach distressed, kind of like by carbon and soda.

418
00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:10,280
Speaker 3: They were in type of pills. Annie Crawford. After receiving

419
00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:13,160
Speaker 3: the prescription, she went to the drug store and when

420
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:17,040
Speaker 3: she returned and administered that medicine to her sister. Later on,

421
00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:22,760
Speaker 3: she gave Elise a cup of broth, but Annie gave

422
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:25,800
Speaker 3: her another capsule to make her feel better.

423
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:32,440
Speaker 1: That's the bicarbonate type of capsule right allegedly, Okay, After

424
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:36,280
Speaker 1: a lot of fidgeting. Elise Crawford finally calmed down and

425
00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:39,760
Speaker 1: then fell asleep in her bed. The house on Peter's

426
00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:44,800
Speaker 1: Avenue became quiet. Annie, Gertrude, Uncle Robert, and Aunt Mary

427
00:26:44,920 --> 00:26:49,200
Speaker 1: all turned in for the night. The lights were flipped off,

428
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:54,560
Speaker 1: the night was warm, and Elise Crawford was fading.

429
00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:05,920
Speaker 3: On the following day, Alisa's aunt Mary goes to check

430
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:07,679
Speaker 3: up on her and she finds her in a rocking

431
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:12,280
Speaker 3: chair and she's not moving, and Annie was called to

432
00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:15,720
Speaker 3: the room. When she got to the room, she lifted

433
00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:18,479
Speaker 3: Alisa's arm up and let it drop. She thought she

434
00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:22,360
Speaker 3: was dead. But Mary, the aunt, now listen, this isn't interesting.

435
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 3: Mary accuses Annie of having something to do with her

436
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:26,680
Speaker 3: sister's condition.

437
00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:31,399
Speaker 1: Before Annie could respond to the accusation, aunt Mary yelled

438
00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:37,600
Speaker 1: at her to call doctor Maguire. Annie slunk down the

439
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:40,800
Speaker 1: stairs and walked to the neighbor's house, but she didn't

440
00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:44,240
Speaker 1: call the physician. She would later say that Aunt Mary

441
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:47,040
Speaker 1: scared her so much when she yelled that Annie was

442
00:27:47,119 --> 00:27:50,760
Speaker 1: too stunned to even call. She was afraid of Aunt Mary,

443
00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 1: but she could also see that Aunt Mary was frantic

444
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:59,280
Speaker 1: and upset or release. So Annie made her aunt something

445
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:06,240
Speaker 1: that might have well.

446
00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:09,080
Speaker 3: When she returned back to Elisa's room, she brought her

447
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:12,879
Speaker 3: aunt something in a glass it looked like something was

448
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:16,119
Speaker 3: mixed up in it to calm her down. Well, Mary

449
00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:18,879
Speaker 3: bats it out of Annie's hands, said I'm not taking this,

450
00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:23,560
Speaker 3: and she looks at her with this very accusatory look.

451
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:26,720
Speaker 3: If you know what that accusatory look looks.

452
00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:30,720
Speaker 1: Like, I think I do. Aunt Mary clearly didn't trust

453
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:33,719
Speaker 1: her niece, and it sounds like it was for good reason.

454
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,600
Speaker 1: I think it's time to talk about the obvious conclusion

455
00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:43,400
Speaker 1: that we're all likely coming to. Annie Crawford was a

456
00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:47,800
Speaker 1: serial poisoner. But why was she a serial poisoner? Was

457
00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:50,600
Speaker 1: she killing for financial gain or maybe out of spite?

458
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:54,120
Speaker 1: And her sister Elise, if she died, would be her

459
00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:57,920
Speaker 1: latest victim. But who would even believe she was capable

460
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:01,920
Speaker 1: of that? Not most male doctors, not her uncle, not

461
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:06,400
Speaker 1: her father, and maybe not even veteran male police investigators.

462
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:11,000
Speaker 1: Most women weren't considered capable of cold blood and murder,

463
00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:15,120
Speaker 1: even though it did happen, and in those rare cases,

464
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:20,560
Speaker 1: there were usually extenuating circumstances like abuse or mental illness.

465
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:24,719
Speaker 1: But the assumption that women are rarely violent follows gender

466
00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 1: patterns in law. I talked with retired law professor Linda

467
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:32,080
Speaker 1: Frost about it. When you think about women killing, it's

468
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:35,240
Speaker 1: usually in retaliation for something or because of abuse. It

469
00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:38,240
Speaker 1: is not seem to be simply for the sake of money.

470
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:40,400
Speaker 2: Isn't that surprising to people?

471
00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:43,920
Speaker 6: I think it's I think it is probably a bit surprising,

472
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:49,240
Speaker 6: and there are gendered patterns to violence, but that doesn't

473
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:53,560
Speaker 6: mean that everybody follows that overall pattern. So I think

474
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:58,080
Speaker 6: we're as people were very bad at assessing outlying risks

475
00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:01,640
Speaker 6: and experiences, so the unusual patterns surprise.

476
00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:06,080
Speaker 1: Us, like the female family annihilator. Those cases are pretty unusual.

477
00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:10,239
Speaker 6: But of course women are capable of doing pretty much

478
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:15,120
Speaker 6: anything as our men. Generally, things don't happen in ways

479
00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:20,120
Speaker 6: that are horrifying, but sometimes they do, and that's individualized.

480
00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:23,800
Speaker 1: It seems clear in this case that Annie Crawford was

481
00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:27,480
Speaker 1: capable of being a multiple murderer. But why use poison?

482
00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:32,160
Speaker 1: We've talked about how calculating poisoners need to be. It's

483
00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:34,720
Speaker 1: not a spur of the moment type of weapon. You

484
00:30:34,840 --> 00:30:37,640
Speaker 1: have to know what you're doing. Used too little and

485
00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:40,320
Speaker 1: the victim won't die, and then they might be suspicious,

486
00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:44,760
Speaker 1: use too much poison, and a coroner might find the cause.

487
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:49,960
Speaker 1: Doctor Neil Bradberry says that sorting out the mindset of

488
00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:52,080
Speaker 1: a poisoner can be tricky.

489
00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:55,960
Speaker 7: The thing that's hard to understand. We try to think

490
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,840
Speaker 7: about the rationalepha poisoners and try to think about what

491
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 7: would motivate them. I think a lot of the time

492
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:07,160
Speaker 7: we're just unable to do that because there isn't irrationale.

493
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:11,000
Speaker 7: We're trying to think about a rational explanation for something

494
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 7: that just isn't.

495
00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:14,880
Speaker 1: Working because they're not thinking right.

496
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:19,320
Speaker 7: They do have mental health issues that prevent them from

497
00:31:19,360 --> 00:31:22,280
Speaker 7: thinking in in a rational way, and so I think

498
00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:24,560
Speaker 7: a lot of the time us trying to figure out

499
00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:28,640
Speaker 7: why a person would commit murder with poison is just

500
00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:31,280
Speaker 7: not going to be able to be done because we're

501
00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 7: thinking rationally and they're not.

502
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:37,760
Speaker 1: But rational or not. Alan Gotrow says that Annie Crawford

503
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:41,400
Speaker 1: was discreet and sneaky and street wise.

504
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:46,920
Speaker 3: I consider her quite cunning. Not clever, but cunning, and

505
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:50,800
Speaker 3: that denotes some sort of critical thinking. And so I

506
00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:54,520
Speaker 3: don't know if critical thinking it can be learned, but

507
00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:57,520
Speaker 3: I think they had a very good education. They really did.

508
00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:05,240
Speaker 1: Early that Saturday morning, Annie watched over her sister waiting

509
00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:08,880
Speaker 1: for a doctor whom she never called. As she gazed

510
00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:11,240
Speaker 1: at Elise, Annie kept a little secret.

511
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:13,200
Speaker 2: A couple of them. Actually.

512
00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:17,560
Speaker 1: The first one is something we've suspected all along, that

513
00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:21,920
Speaker 1: Annie was an addict. For years, Annie had been curious

514
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:24,600
Speaker 1: about the medicines she issued to nurses at the.

515
00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:25,800
Speaker 2: New Orleans Sanitarium.

516
00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:29,640
Speaker 1: She could see their effects on patients, how they calmed

517
00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:32,440
Speaker 1: people in pain and lulled them to sleep until they

518
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:35,440
Speaker 1: could heal. And just like other medical workers had done

519
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:39,600
Speaker 1: before her, Annie Crawford tried some of the drugs and

520
00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:44,120
Speaker 1: the one she found she liked the most was morphine.

521
00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:47,160
Speaker 1: So she's at the hospital and at some point we

522
00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:49,480
Speaker 1: think that she becomes addicted to morphine.

523
00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:52,040
Speaker 2: Did she admit that she was addicted to morphine?

524
00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 3: Yes. Eventually, when a person was addicted to drugs or

525
00:32:56,800 --> 00:33:01,080
Speaker 3: was an alcoholic, they were not considered to have an illness.

526
00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:06,400
Speaker 3: They were considered to be insane. So here's my theory.

527
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:10,240
Speaker 3: She probably ran into one of these Civil War veterans,

528
00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:13,200
Speaker 3: had probably lost a limb and got addicted to morphine

529
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:18,000
Speaker 3: and He probably sang the praises of it, and perhaps

530
00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 3: maybe she just tried it and liked it. Well.

531
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:23,480
Speaker 1: I'm sure she saw the effects in patience, and maybe

532
00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:24,600
Speaker 1: it made her curious.

533
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:29,800
Speaker 3: Morphine was highly addicted back then still is, and I

534
00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:31,960
Speaker 3: think she just kind of fell into it. That was

535
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:33,160
Speaker 3: my theory.

536
00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:37,400
Speaker 1: But Annie was keeping another secret too. Her sister Elise,

537
00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:43,520
Speaker 1: was also addicted to morphine. Elise had given birth to

538
00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:47,240
Speaker 1: at least one child, and she was never married. This

539
00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:50,640
Speaker 1: would have been disgraceful. In the early nineteen hundreds, Elise

540
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:53,240
Speaker 1: had been sleeping with a man, the grocer edwards On,

541
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,800
Speaker 1: but he wouldn't marry her. She talked about it with

542
00:33:56,880 --> 00:33:59,480
Speaker 1: her family's previous landlord, Missus Dunn.

543
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:03,360
Speaker 4: Had confided in her and said that the man that

544
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:06,120
Speaker 4: was the father of her child did not marry her.

545
00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 4: She would then find no problem with having the embrace

546
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:10,799
Speaker 4: of Mother Earth.

547
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:11,680
Speaker 2: What does that mean?

548
00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:15,240
Speaker 4: You know, I'm going to kill myself? Who knows that

549
00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:19,120
Speaker 4: in childbirth she wasn't damaged in some way and was

550
00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:22,799
Speaker 4: in utter pain and took morphine in order to dull

551
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:26,000
Speaker 4: the pain of any of her of those afflictions not

552
00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:31,200
Speaker 4: only physical but now mental instability where she was just

553
00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:35,680
Speaker 4: broken about the loss of her child given up in childbirth,

554
00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:39,080
Speaker 4: and the loss of her sister and mother and father.

555
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:43,360
Speaker 1: And like many addictions, it sounds like a Least started

556
00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:46,600
Speaker 1: using morphine when she was having life troubles, and then

557
00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:50,160
Speaker 1: she wasn't able to stop. After her sister and her

558
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:54,800
Speaker 1: parents died, Elise continued to unravel and her addiction became

559
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:59,920
Speaker 1: even worse. Now in nineteen eleven in Uptown, New Orleans,

560
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:03,800
Speaker 1: the twenty five year old was fighting for her life quietly,

561
00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:08,759
Speaker 1: had at least taken some of Annie's morphine pills and

562
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:13,040
Speaker 1: ingested too much? Had Annie given her too many? Was

563
00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:17,960
Speaker 1: this a suicide attempt? Or was a least poisoned? Annie

564
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:21,640
Speaker 1: hovered nearby as Aunt Mary fretted, and then Mary wondered

565
00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:25,080
Speaker 1: where doctor McGuire was, because Annie had called him quite

566
00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:29,920
Speaker 1: a long time ago. Alise was deeply asleep and snoring.

567
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:30,680
Speaker 2: At this point.

568
00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:34,400
Speaker 1: Aunt Mary turned quickly to Annie. Does she always snore

569
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:35,240
Speaker 1: when she sleeps?

570
00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:36,040
Speaker 2: She asked?

571
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:42,160
Speaker 1: Sometimes replied Annie, Annie, what did you do? Mary snapped.

572
00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:46,600
Speaker 1: Annie glared at her. Aunt Mary ordered Annie to head

573
00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:54,640
Speaker 1: back down the stairs and called doctor McGuire again. This time,

574
00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:58,799
Speaker 1: Annie did it When she returned, Annie circled Elise, the

575
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:03,040
Speaker 1: sister who was never kind to her, not ever, eighteen

576
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:07,000
Speaker 1: year old Gertrude was nearby. She felt unnerved when Aunt

577
00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:09,720
Speaker 1: Mary slapped away the drink that Annie offered her earlier

578
00:36:09,760 --> 00:36:13,360
Speaker 1: that morning. Mary seemed convinced that Annie had done something

579
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:17,080
Speaker 1: funny to Elise's food, and now Elise was unconscious and

580
00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:21,319
Speaker 1: she might die. And yes, the night before, Alise had

581
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:25,040
Speaker 1: accused someone of tampering with her food. It tasted like

582
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:29,839
Speaker 1: horrid chemicals. But Gertrude knew that Annie and Elise never

583
00:36:29,920 --> 00:36:33,160
Speaker 1: got along and they were always accusing each other of something.

584
00:36:33,719 --> 00:36:37,680
Speaker 1: But here's what's interesting about Gertrude. She may have been young,

585
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:41,239
Speaker 1: but she was astute enough to be frightened because she

586
00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:43,799
Speaker 1: knew that Elise and everyone in the family had a

587
00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:49,200
Speaker 1: life insurance policy, including her. And I'm sure you all

588
00:36:49,280 --> 00:37:02,600
Speaker 1: remember who the beneficiary was. I love old, old crimes.

589
00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:05,080
Speaker 1: It's not often that I get to meet someone who

590
00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:09,880
Speaker 1: actually knew the killer or the victims. Cecil Leo knew

591
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:14,480
Speaker 1: Annie Crawford forty years after this story concluded, but Annie's

592
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:18,880
Speaker 1: personality seemed to stay consistent even in her eighties. She

593
00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:22,560
Speaker 1: was still ornery, still hard to read, and still a mystery.

594
00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:26,320
Speaker 1: We know now that Annie ended up living with Cecil

595
00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:29,720
Speaker 1: and Texas, So one big question you might be asking

596
00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:35,000
Speaker 1: is why wasn't she in prison. There are some crimes

597
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:38,279
Speaker 1: in our family histories that we don't mind talking about,

598
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:42,880
Speaker 1: and some that we want to keep buried. Cecil's husband,

599
00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:46,800
Speaker 1: Patrick wanted to keep the story of his aunt Annie deeply,

600
00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:51,040
Speaker 1: deeply buried. I asked Cecil if she ever wondered why

601
00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:53,600
Speaker 1: Pat never wanted to go to New Orleans.

602
00:37:54,239 --> 00:37:58,240
Speaker 5: We take our trips on the sailboat every summer. We'd

603
00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:01,719
Speaker 5: be gone about three weeks, and we sailed in and

604
00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:05,360
Speaker 5: out of Southern Yacht Club in New Orleans. And I

605
00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:08,200
Speaker 5: mentioned to Pat, you know that since we were in

606
00:38:08,239 --> 00:38:10,520
Speaker 5: New Orleans and we'd be there two or three days

607
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:14,640
Speaker 5: and Didy avenuey relatives that he could contact, And he said,

608
00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:16,160
Speaker 5: none that I'm interested in.

609
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:22,600
Speaker 1: We have just two episodes left and more surprises to

610
00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:28,560
Speaker 1: come on the next episode of tenfold War wicked on

611
00:38:28,719 --> 00:38:29,479
Speaker 1: exactly right.

612
00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:34,759
Speaker 8: I mean, I wasn't a good nurse. I wasn't as

613
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:37,520
Speaker 8: attentive as I should have been. I was skipping treatments,

614
00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:40,600
Speaker 8: I was skipping certain medications. Obviously they weren't getting the

615
00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:44,080
Speaker 8: medications that were owed to them. A high nurse is

616
00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:44,960
Speaker 8: not a good nurse.

617
00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:48,600
Speaker 4: The least was unstable and had threatened to kill herself

618
00:38:48,719 --> 00:38:51,480
Speaker 4: at least once before. And she had a child out

619
00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:55,160
Speaker 4: of wedlock. And imagine in a Roman Catholic Irish family

620
00:38:55,960 --> 00:38:59,160
Speaker 4: a child born out of wedlock that it was a

621
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:01,120
Speaker 4: serious issue for her to face.

622
00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:04,600
Speaker 9: That's when the detectives are like, there's no way all

623
00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:07,520
Speaker 9: four of these family members, who were in totally fine

624
00:39:07,560 --> 00:39:10,600
Speaker 9: health before just happened to come into this woman's orbit

625
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:14,680
Speaker 9: and then died unexpectedly. There's no way She's not related

626
00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:15,560
Speaker 9: in some way.

627
00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:23,120
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Speaker 1: This has been an exactly right Tenfold War Media Production

636
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Speaker 1: producers Jason Whaling, Alexis and Morosi and Natalie Wrenn. Sound

637
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Speaker 1: designer Eric Friend, composer Curtis Heath, artwork by Nick Toga.

638
00:40:05,640 --> 00:40:11,120
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641
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Speaker 1: a historical crime that could use some attention, especially if

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Speaker 1: it happened in your family, email us at info at

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