Speaker 1: What would it take to drive you to murder? And
Speaker 1: how would you or your lawyers effectively offer a defense.
Speaker 1: Would it help if you were a pretty powerful guy
Speaker 1: and you could afford powerhouse attorneys? When does that not help?
Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele, Murder and the first successful claim of
Speaker 1: temporary insanity. That's next on the back story. We're back
Speaker 1: with the back story. History and sex scandals actually go
Speaker 1: together way more than you'd think. I mean, there's something
Speaker 1: so seductive about an illicit interlude, especially when you come
Speaker 1: from a time and place where everybody is expected to
Speaker 1: totally behave themselves right. Well. A perfect example is the
Speaker 1: story of Philip Barton Key, the second. You probably know
Speaker 1: his father better. He was Francis Scott Key, who of
Speaker 1: course was the guy who wrote the lyrics to the
Speaker 1: Star Spangled Banner. But Philip Key was the victim in
Speaker 1: this case, so we have to start with the other
Speaker 1: key players. Daniel Sickles was an American general during the
Speaker 1: Civil War. Despite eventually making it to major general by
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three, he was simply a political appointee from
Speaker 1: a prestigious family and had almost no military experience. At
Speaker 1: the Battle of Gettysburg, he disobeyed orders and moved his
Speaker 1: troops into a position that left them completely defenseless, and
Speaker 1: his unit was decimated. Sickles himself had a leg shot
Speaker 1: off by cannon fire, But despite disobeying orders and his incompetence,
Speaker 1: Daniel Sickles somehow got a Medal of honor. But let's
Speaker 1: go back. Long before the war, Daniel was a power
Speaker 1: player in Washington, a lawyer and a congressman from New York,
Speaker 1: and a socialite, a notorious womanizer. Daniel nevertheless fell helplessly
Speaker 1: in love with Teresa Bajoli. It was eighteen fifty one.
Speaker 1: He was thirty two years old, Teresa was just fifteen.
Speaker 1: They married the following year and had a baby, girl,
Speaker 1: seven months later. Imagine you're married at sixteen, you have
Speaker 1: a baby at seventeen, and a husband who's twice your age,
Speaker 1: who's a very busy guy, both in politics send in
Speaker 1: his personal life. As she herself later explained, and these
Speaker 1: are her own words, I did what is usual for
Speaker 1: a wicked woman to do. At the age of twenty one,
Speaker 1: Theresa took a lover. That lover was a close friend
Speaker 1: of her husband's, an attorney named Philip Barton. Key the second,
Speaker 1: again the son of Francis Scott Key. In fact, he
Speaker 1: was a US district attorney. The couple would rendezvous at
Speaker 1: an empty house not far from Teresa's home, where she
Speaker 1: lived with her husband and daughter on Lafayette Square in Washington. Now, interestingly,
Speaker 1: extramarital affairs were really pretty common in the upper echelons
Speaker 1: of Washington society. But it seems Teresa's husband, Daniel was
Speaker 1: a really jealous guy. Now. The thing is, when somebody's
Speaker 1: prone to messing around, they pretty often suspect everybody else
Speaker 1: is doing the same thing, including their own spouses. He'd
Speaker 1: often accused Teresa of having affairs, and she had always
Speaker 1: been able to reassure him that she was faithful and
Speaker 1: devoted to him, But eventually the truth came out. On
Speaker 1: the evening of February twenty fourth, eighteen fifty nine, Daniel
Speaker 1: and Teresa are having a dinner party at their home. Afterward,
Speaker 1: they and their guests decide to head over to the
Speaker 1: Willard Hotel for a dance. A messenger approaches Daniel and
Speaker 1: hands him a sealed envelope, which he stuffed in his
Speaker 1: pocket without opening. Later that night, after they got home,
Speaker 1: he pulls the letter out and is shocked by what
Speaker 1: he reads. The anonymous writer tells him what was going
Speaker 1: on between Teresa and u S District Attorney Philip Key,
Speaker 1: and gave him details of their trysts. The letter said
Speaker 1: Key would hang a string out of the window of
Speaker 1: the house, and that meant he was there and she
Speaker 1: could slip in because he'd left the door open. The
Speaker 1: letter ends with the lines with these few hints, I
Speaker 1: leave the rest to your imagination, respectfully, your friend RPG. Well,
Speaker 1: Daniel had no idea who RPG was. At first, he
Speaker 1: thought the letter might be the work of a political rival,
Speaker 1: but then he realized that the dates given in the
Speaker 1: letter matched with his wife's frequent disappearances. He asked a
Speaker 1: friend to scope out the house and question neighbors, and
Speaker 1: it all added up. Daniel confronted his now twenty two
Speaker 1: year old wife and she intently denied the story until
Speaker 1: she couldn't. She sobbed and shouted, I am betrayed and lost,
Speaker 1: finally admitting she was having an affair with Key. Daniel
Speaker 1: forced her to write out her confession. In part, she said,
Speaker 1: I met with mister Key many times in the house
Speaker 1: on Fifteenth Street, I stayed for an hour or more
Speaker 1: each time there is a bed in it in the
Speaker 1: second story, to do what is usual for a wicked
Speaker 1: woman to do. It was an intimacy of an improper kind.
Speaker 1: Sickles was crazy with jealousy and anger, but he was
Speaker 1: convinced that Key had taken advantage of his very young wife,
Speaker 1: so he planned his revenge against Key, his friend. A
Speaker 1: few days later, on Sunday, February twenty seventh, eighteen fifty nine, Key,
Speaker 1: still totally unaware that Sickles knew about the affair, was
Speaker 1: in front of the Sickles house waving his handkerchief and
Speaker 1: whistling to try to get Teresa's attention. That's what happened
Speaker 1: before cell phones. So Sickles came outside, and Key, thinking
Speaker 1: it would be a friendly greeting, put out his hand
Speaker 1: and said how are you. But Sickles was furious and
Speaker 1: he shouted, you villain, you have dishonored my house and
Speaker 1: you must die. He pulled out a pistol and fired it,
Speaker 1: missing Key by a long shot, who then tried to
Speaker 1: grab him by the coat, but Sickles fired again and
Speaker 1: this time hit him. Key yelled out, don't murder me.
Speaker 1: He staggered away, but Sickles ran after him and fired
Speaker 1: twice at close range, killing him. The murder in broad
Speaker 1: daylight and the following trial was all anybody could talk about.
Speaker 1: The eye idea of male honor, female virtue, and the
Speaker 1: law all processed through the lens of insanity. Sickles turned
Speaker 1: himself in and hired a powerful legal team, which included
Speaker 1: Edwin Stanton, who just a year or two later went
Speaker 1: on to become President Lincoln's Secretary of War. Sickles told
Speaker 1: reporters Key had dishonored me, and we too could no
Speaker 1: longer live on the same planet. The trial began a
Speaker 1: little over a month after the murder. While other lawyers
Speaker 1: had used an insanity defense in the past, this was
Speaker 1: the first time anybody had pleaded not guilty due to
Speaker 1: temporary insanity. The New York Evening Post printed Teresa's confession verbatim,
Speaker 1: while The New York Times accused the Post of indecency,
Speaker 1: saying the confession was altogether too disgusting to be laid
Speaker 1: before our readers. The lawyers loved the upset, and the
Speaker 1: destruction of both Key's reputation and of Teresa's made their
Speaker 1: case easier. They said Sickles had been blind with rage
Speaker 1: and was driven temporarily insane, and it worked. The judge
Speaker 1: even told the jury to consider Sickles's state of mind
Speaker 1: when he shot key. After deliberating for just one hour,
Speaker 1: they came back with a verdict of not guilty. But
Speaker 1: here's what shocked people the most. Daniel and Teresa Sickles reconciled.
Speaker 1: The public was furious that he would take back what
Speaker 1: they called a fallen woman. She actually never really recovered
Speaker 1: from the upset and died of tuberculosis in eighteen sixty seven,
Speaker 1: when she was just thirty one years old. Daniel led
Speaker 1: a long life. Aside from being a general in the
Speaker 1: Civil War, he was a diplomat to Spain, where he
Speaker 1: married a young Spanish aristocrat. He served in Congress again,
Speaker 1: and he was made Sheriff of New York County in
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety, among lots of other accomplishments. Daniel Sickles finally
Speaker 1: died in nineteen fourteen at the age of ninety four.
Speaker 1: His successful use of the temporary insanity plea changed the
Speaker 1: criminal judicial system in America. But here's the question, was
Speaker 1: it fair? Hope you're enjoying the Backstory with me, Patty Steele.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and if you have a story you'd like
Speaker 1: me to dig into and share, feel free to dm
Speaker 1: me on Facebook at Patty Steele or on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel
Speaker 1: Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner.
Speaker 1: We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free
Speaker 1: to reach out to me with comments and even story
Speaker 1: suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook
Speaker 1: at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with
Speaker 1: Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't know you
Speaker 1: needed to know.