Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. When you meet someone for the first time,
Speaker 1: one question they'll inevitably ask you is what do you do?
Speaker 1: As if the job you perform for eight hours a
Speaker 1: day is all that defines you, it doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: you're also a spouse, a parent, a dungeon master, or
Speaker 1: a glassblower. All they care about is what you get
Speaker 1: paid to do for a living. The thing is, we
Speaker 1: are so much more than our occupations. We as human
Speaker 1: beings contain multitudes. We have passions and talents and people
Speaker 1: we love who fulfill us and enrich our lives. Well.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Sagrew didn't have any of those things. She was
Speaker 1: born in Ireland in the mid seventeen hundreds, and from
Speaker 1: what little is known about her, she had a heck
Speaker 1: of a temper. Her husband, a farmer, died suddenly, leaving
Speaker 1: her to raise her two small children alone. Without a
Speaker 1: single set to her name, Elizabeth was evicted from her home.
Speaker 1: It's not clear why she chose to move to the
Speaker 1: town of ross Common, one hundred and eighties six miles away,
Speaker 1: but she and her children walked all the way there
Speaker 1: to start their lives over. Her youngest sadly did not
Speaker 1: make the trip. He succumbed to starvation and exposure, and
Speaker 1: was most likely buried along the road. Elizabeth and her
Speaker 1: older child Patrick, moved into a tiny house in ross Common.
Speaker 1: They resorted to panhandling and rubbaging through trash to get by. Occasionally,
Speaker 1: they'd also steal what they could from unsuspecting neighbors. The
Speaker 1: Sagrew's develop upd quite the reputation around town. For one,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth's bad temper made her prone to violent outbursts. Patrick
Speaker 1: bore the brunt of these. In around sevent seventy five,
Speaker 1: he left home for good to serve in the British Army.
Speaker 1: He traveled to North America to serve the Crown. He
Speaker 1: wrote to his mother about his travels over the years,
Speaker 1: but his departure only sent Elizabeth spiraling inward. She got
Speaker 1: angrier and spent much of her time in her home.
Speaker 1: Occasionally she would take in a lodger, earning a few
Speaker 1: pennies for a night's day. One night, a man appeared
Speaker 1: at her doorstep, asking for room and board. He was
Speaker 1: finally dressed and carried with him a small purse full
Speaker 1: of gold coins. Elizabeth let him in as she had
Speaker 1: done for others, allowing him to use her bed while
Speaker 1: she slept elsewhere. But this time she took note of
Speaker 1: the coin purse he had with him, and how all
Speaker 1: that gold could do wonders for her. She could finally
Speaker 1: afford proper food, maybe even a better house. The more
Speaker 1: she thought about it, the darker her thoughts grew. That night,
Speaker 1: as the man sled, she approached the bed with a
Speaker 1: knife in her hand and stabbed him. She then relieved
Speaker 1: his body of the gold coins. As she went through
Speaker 1: his pockets, however, she came across some identification papers that
Speaker 1: he was also carrying. Elizabeth read them carefully. The man
Speaker 1: she had killed was none other than Patrick Segrew, her
Speaker 1: eldest son. Filled with grief over the loss of her
Speaker 1: only son, she fled into the nights and confessed her
Speaker 1: crimes for all to hear. She was arrested, tried and
Speaker 1: sentenced to death for her crimes. Alongside a rogue's gallery
Speaker 1: of twenty other criminals. There were thieves and vandals, including
Speaker 1: children who had gone around knocking down fence posts for fun.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Lady Betty, as she had come to be known,
Speaker 1: would be hanged. A large crowd gathered around the gallows
Speaker 1: to watch her pay for her crime. There was just
Speaker 1: one problem. The hangman was homesick. With no one else
Speaker 1: willing to take on the job, and a restless crowd
Speaker 1: waiting to see some executions, Betty volunteered to do the
Speaker 1: deed one I one. She sent the other twenty four
Speaker 1: prisoners ahead of her to their deaths as she released
Speaker 1: the trap door below them. Her performance that day left
Speaker 1: an impression on the authorities. In fact, she had inadvertently
Speaker 1: auditioned to be the regular hangman's replacement, as he eventually
Speaker 1: died from his illness. Lady Betty lived the rest of
Speaker 1: her life in jail. She had a garden she tended
Speaker 1: each day, and she covered her walls and charcoal sketches
Speaker 1: that she drew of the people she killed. Her life
Speaker 1: was difficult and tragic from beginning to end, and she
Speaker 1: died in prison in eighteen oh seven, and was buried
Speaker 1: in an unmarked grave. The story surrounding her death is
Speaker 1: questionable as well. According to some she died of natural causes. However,
Speaker 1: the prevailing theory is that she was killed by another
Speaker 1: prisoner who hit her with a rock. Elizabeth Segrew never
Speaker 1: got her happy ending, but she did eventually find peace.
Speaker 1: It's just a shame so many people had to die
Speaker 1: for her to get there. When British Commander Robert Ross
Speaker 1: marched his army into Washington, d c. The night of
Speaker 1: August eighteen fourteen, he wasn't expecting a ghost town. You see,
Speaker 1: President Madison and all of his government officials had already
Speaker 1: vacated the city in preparation for the invasion. With no
Speaker 1: one to stop him, Ross saw his opportunity for British
Speaker 1: vengeance and ordered the burning of the White House and
Speaker 1: the Capitol Building, which at that time housed the Congressional
Speaker 1: Library in the North Wing. It had no chance against
Speaker 1: British rockets and gunpowder, creating a blaze that claimed three
Speaker 1: thousand books and maps. One of the few pieces to
Speaker 1: survive was and Accounts and Receipts book from eighteen ten,
Speaker 1: taken as a souvenir by Sir George Cockburn. When the
Speaker 1: war finally ended in February of eighteen fifteen, President Madison
Speaker 1: returned to d C, but found the city a bit
Speaker 1: lacking in amenities. The White House and the Capitol Building
Speaker 1: lay in ruins, and the books within nothing but ash.
Speaker 1: And that's when former President Thomas Jefferson returned to action.
Speaker 1: A veteran of this kind of quandary, if you will.
Speaker 1: That's because in seventeen seventy, when Thomas Jefferson was just
Speaker 1: twenty seven years old, his family home burned down, taking
Speaker 1: with it the collection of books he had already amassed
Speaker 1: at his young age. Naturally it was the books Jefferson
Speaker 1: lamented losing the most. So when more books were lost
Speaker 1: to flames in eighteen fourteen in d C, this time
Speaker 1: with Jefferson in a position to help, that's exactly what
Speaker 1: he did, offering his six thousand five volumes to the
Speaker 1: nation for any price they deemed fair. Problem solved, right, well,
Speaker 1: not necessarily, after all, this is politics, and nothing ever
Speaker 1: comes easy. Before Congress could accept Jefferson's offer and make
Speaker 1: a deal, they first had to pass a bill that
Speaker 1: allowed them to do so. And in a tune eerily
Speaker 1: familiar to the modern ear. This bill did not pass unanimously,
Speaker 1: not even close. In fact, some Federalists didn't even want
Speaker 1: the books, one of whom claimed that they contained too
Speaker 1: much of Jefferson's and I quote infidel philosophy. So when
Speaker 1: the time came to vote, there was only one thing
Speaker 1: that counted a majority along party lines. But they got it.
Speaker 1: With Congress out of the way, the US was clear
Speaker 1: to repair the damage. They paid Jefferson twenty three thousand,
Speaker 1: nine and fifty dollars for his collection, roughly half a
Speaker 1: million dollars today. Now, before you go accusing Jefferson of
Speaker 1: cashing in on the situation for a quick payday, remember
Speaker 1: that Jefferson offered to sell for and I quote whatever
Speaker 1: valuation they deemed fair. Besides, he had his own bills
Speaker 1: to pay to. Over half of that sum was used
Speaker 1: to pay off debts to William Short, who funded Jefferson's
Speaker 1: nail manufactory, and to John Barnes, who covered Jefferson's kind
Speaker 1: donation to a friend in need. By May of eighteen five,
Speaker 1: team just two months after the conclusion of the war,
Speaker 1: Jefferson's books were packed up in their original cases that
Speaker 1: they were shelved in at Monticello, loaded into ten wagons,
Speaker 1: and carted off to their new home in the capital.
Speaker 1: But the story still doesn't end there. In fact, you
Speaker 1: could say that there was still more fuel to throw
Speaker 1: on the fire. On Christmas Eve of eighteen fifty one,
Speaker 1: the library burned down yet again, this time at no
Speaker 1: fault of the British, but rather a faulty chimney flew.
Speaker 1: The fire destroyed nearly two thirds of the then fifty
Speaker 1: five thousand volumes, and yes, that included most of what
Speaker 1: Jefferson provided in eighteen fifteen. Not all is lost, though,
Speaker 1: Remember the account book taken by Sir George Cockburn as
Speaker 1: a souvenir in nineteen forty, It was gifted back to
Speaker 1: the United States Government and restored to its rightful place
Speaker 1: in the new and improved Library of Congress, now in
Speaker 1: its own building. There it sits alongside over one hundred
Speaker 1: million other books, all hoping that that old adage of
Speaker 1: third times a charm holds true. And in case you're wondering,
Speaker 1: despite the new building being built in it has indeed
Speaker 1: been recently updated with modern fire prevention measures, including a
Speaker 1: sprinkler system because you know, just in case. I hope
Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Speaker 1: Ye