Speaker 1: Hey, just a heads up. This episode contains topics of
Speaker 1: suicide and violence that may be disturbing to some. Please
Speaker 1: take care while listening. If you were someone you know
Speaker 1: is struggling with suicidal ideations, please call the suicide Prevention
Speaker 1: lifeline at three eight to five. And thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: Take care of yourself. Okay, you're listening to American Shadows,
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild
Speaker 1: from Aaron Mankey. It was dinner time when Dr Herbert
Speaker 1: Simmons received the call. The woman on the other end
Speaker 1: calmly asked him to come to her home on West
Speaker 1: fourteenth Street. A girl in the house had killed herself
Speaker 1: in the bathtub. The same woman had called the police
Speaker 1: a half hour before, asking for the corner in the
Speaker 1: town of East Orange, New Jersey. Didn't have a corner,
Speaker 1: and the officer told her to call the doctor. Simmons
Speaker 1: arrived at the dilapidated house and double checked the address.
Speaker 1: Although he doubted that anyone could possibly live there, he
Speaker 1: knocked and waited. A woman holding a candle and dressed
Speaker 1: in black answered. She led him to the darkened house,
Speaker 1: up the stairs and to the bathroom. In the flickering
Speaker 1: candle light. Simmons noted the odd position of the body
Speaker 1: in the tub. The girl's legs were folded underneath her,
Speaker 1: and her left hand still clutched a washcloth. Her torso
Speaker 1: slumped forward. Long strands of auburn hair floated in the water.
Speaker 1: He knelt and raised her head. Large unseeing brown eyes
Speaker 1: stared outward from an emaciated face. Simmons turned his attention
Speaker 1: to the clothes stacked next to the tub. A suicide
Speaker 1: note lay on top. She had apparently taken her life
Speaker 1: to be reunited with her daughter, and the doctor looked
Speaker 1: at the woman in black. He asked when the tragedy
Speaker 1: had occurred. The woman replied that she didn't really know
Speaker 1: that she had just discovered the corpse minutes before. She
Speaker 1: called him. Who is she and who are you? Simmons asked.
Speaker 1: The woman tersely answered that he had learned that soon enough.
Speaker 1: Confused and a bit alarmed, Simmons asked a barrage of questions.
Speaker 1: The woman, still resolved, turned to nervousness. She claimed the
Speaker 1: last time she had seen the girl was earlier that morning.
Speaker 1: Simmons got to his feet. The girl had been dead
Speaker 1: for at least a day, He immediately summoned the police.
Speaker 1: Detective William O'Neill questioned the woman in black. She gave
Speaker 1: her name as Virginia Oceana Wardlaw, a former co owner
Speaker 1: of the Montgomery College in Christiansburg, Virginia. The girl in
Speaker 1: the tub was her niece, Ossie Snead. Although Ossie had
Speaker 1: written a suicide note, Wardlaw couldn't explain why there was
Speaker 1: no pen or ink in the home. His questioning began
Speaker 1: to unraffle the dark truth that ward Law and her
Speaker 1: sisters had kept for decades. When Ossie's brother died as
Speaker 1: a child, her parents received twenty two thousand dollars in insurance.
Speaker 1: In nineteen o one, her father died, Ossie's mother, Caroline,
Speaker 1: cashed in another policy and moved in with her sisters
Speaker 1: Mary in Virginia. All three took to wearing black dresses, hats,
Speaker 1: and veils. Mary's son John died when his night shirt
Speaker 1: accidentally caught fire while he slept. The sisters split the
Speaker 1: eighteen thousand dollar insurance policy. Ossie married her cousin Fletcher,
Speaker 1: and the two had a daughter named after Fletcher's mother Mary. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the child died two days later. Fletcher disappeared, and the
Speaker 1: sisters claimed had killed himself. Fletcher's insurance policy named his
Speaker 1: mother and aunts as beneficiaries, but without a body, the
Speaker 1: insurance company refused to pay. They tried forcing Osi to
Speaker 1: write a will naming them as beneficiaries. They've also tried
Speaker 1: to bribe a doctor, the milkman, and a plumber to
Speaker 1: help them end Osie's life, all refused. The autopsy revealed
Speaker 1: o c had been nearly starved to death, overdosed with morphine,
Speaker 1: and placed in the tub to drown. O'Neill also discovered
Speaker 1: small bones in the oven belonging to an infant. But
Speaker 1: the most shocking detail came when investigators learned that Ossie's
Speaker 1: mother had masterminded at all. Sometimes the monsters are the
Speaker 1: ones closest to us. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, Welcome to American Shadows.
Speaker 1: William Beadle had good looks, expressive features, and the clear intelligence.
Speaker 1: Those who met him said he possessed an easy going
Speaker 1: disposition on commonly good sense and the manners of a
Speaker 1: true gentleman. Historians believe William might have been born to
Speaker 1: a man of means and his mistress sometime in seventeen
Speaker 1: thirty in London, he spent time around the court and
Speaker 1: suggesting he had been well provided for. William and his
Speaker 1: sister grew up well liked and honest, by Ball accounts.
Speaker 1: For a short time he met with a group of deists.
Speaker 1: A Deism had become the religion of free thinkers in England.
Speaker 1: They believed God revealed himself through human reasoning instead of
Speaker 1: divine intervention as written in Christian Bibles. In seventeen fifty five,
Speaker 1: William moved to Barbados, where he lived with the governor
Speaker 1: and his family for the next six years. When he
Speaker 1: returned to London, he established a merchant business. He sailed
Speaker 1: to New York to take advantage of the growing mercantile
Speaker 1: opportunities there. Eventually he settled in Fairfield, Connecticut, where he
Speaker 1: met Lyddia Lothrop. The two married on April fifteenth of
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy. The following year, they welcomed his son and soul.
Speaker 1: Their second child, Elizabeth, arrived in seventeen seventy two. William's
Speaker 1: business easily provided a comfortable living for his growing family.
Speaker 1: After having amassed a considerable fortune, William moved his business
Speaker 1: and family to Weathersfield, Connecticut in seventeen seventy three. Nestled
Speaker 1: along the Connecticut River and brick paver streets, colonial homes
Speaker 1: completed a picturesque landscape. The town, founded in the mid
Speaker 1: sixteen sixties, was one of the oldest in the colony.
Speaker 1: William and Lydia became well known, William for his wealth
Speaker 1: and integrity in his business, and Lydia for her sweet
Speaker 1: and kind nature. They welcomed little Lydia in seventeen seventy
Speaker 1: four and Mary in seventeen seventy six. They seemed the
Speaker 1: perfect family and doated on their children. William proudly told
Speaker 1: neighbors about his children's endeavors and accomplishments. More success followed,
Speaker 1: earning William more wealth than most other New England merchants.
Speaker 1: He and Lydia enjoyed the company of the town is
Speaker 1: most elite. Life in Weathersfield seemed as perfect as the
Speaker 1: scenery itself. William was happy everything had turned out just
Speaker 1: the way he had imagined in his youth. Times were changing, though.
Speaker 1: In seventeen seventy six, anger toward the British swept across
Speaker 1: the colonies following the Boston Tea Party, Parliament had Boston
Speaker 1: Harbor blocked, which cut off supplies to the city and
Speaker 1: the revolutionaries. As you might imagine, merchants lost a lot
Speaker 1: of business, but a blockade proved to be just one
Speaker 1: misfortune for the Beadle family. In seventeen seventy seven, the
Speaker 1: value of continental paper currency began to plummet. At the time,
Speaker 1: it took a dollar twenty five and continental currency to
Speaker 1: purchase a dollar worth of gold or silver coins. A
Speaker 1: Congress stopped issuing the bills by seventeen seventy nine, and
Speaker 1: by seventeen eighty one it took a hundred dollars continental
Speaker 1: to buy one dollar, where the gold or silver coupled
Speaker 1: with the blocked ports and rye inflation due to a
Speaker 1: lack of goods, shops preferred British pounds over the nearly
Speaker 1: worthless colonial currency. A Congress had printed so many of
Speaker 1: the bills to pay for the war that the value
Speaker 1: continued to fall for five years. This greatly affected everyone
Speaker 1: in Wethersfield, including William Beadle. A. Most businesses stayed afloat
Speaker 1: by either charging more for goods and services or taking
Speaker 1: only the British pound. William did neither. It was illegal
Speaker 1: to not accept continental currency at face value. Obeying the
Speaker 1: law and sticking to his code of integrity would be
Speaker 1: William's downfall. It didn't take long for him to lose
Speaker 1: much of his fortune. The Beatles slid into middle class status,
Speaker 1: and for William, who had been one of the town's
Speaker 1: wealthiest men, this wouldn't do. He wrote to a friend,
Speaker 1: lamenting that he could no longer adequately provide for his family.
Speaker 1: It wasn't exactly true. Although no longer exceptionally wealthy, the
Speaker 1: family had plenty of food and could even keep the
Speaker 1: services of a maid. Still, William ended the letter asking
Speaker 1: if it were time for him to die. The Revolutionary
Speaker 1: War dragged on, further reducing his wealth. To William, things
Speaker 1: looked very bleak for him and his family. Had once
Speaker 1: been wealthy and enjoyed the company of society's elite. Now
Speaker 1: he stared down poverty. Soon afterward, William began carrying an
Speaker 1: axe and a carving knife to bed. In William's mind,
Speaker 1: without his fortune and social standing, the town would surely
Speaker 1: mock and ridicule them. He reasoned that the lowest of
Speaker 1: wretches on the street would despise them if they fell
Speaker 1: into poverty. He worried that without his fortune, his family
Speaker 1: would fall victim to the vilest and most vicious people
Speaker 1: in all of Weathersfield. He thought of their friends and
Speaker 1: social circles. Surely prominent men like Theadeus Burr, Colonel John Chester,
Speaker 1: and Stephen Mitchell would no longer socialize with him. William
Speaker 1: imagined people talking about him behind his back and laugh
Speaker 1: ad met his family's misfortune. Though he continued to dress
Speaker 1: and act as a well to do gentleman, he reasoned
Speaker 1: there was only one thing to do, become meaner than
Speaker 1: all of them. Had been an affectionate and devoted husband,
Speaker 1: and took great pleasure in indulging his children. His family
Speaker 1: had been one of his greatest joys. Yet for a
Speaker 1: couple of years William contemplated ending his life. By seventeen eighty,
Speaker 1: thoughts of suicide turned to homicide. Over the years, William
Speaker 1: had remained a deist. He firmly believed in the right
Speaker 1: to take his own life without consequences, even in the hereafter,
Speaker 1: and in an extreme interpretation of the era's view of masculinity,
Speaker 1: he felt that he had the same privileges over the
Speaker 1: lives of his family members a Deists believed divine revelations
Speaker 1: came from logic and rejected the writings Christianity as superstition.
Speaker 1: In an enlightened age, free thinkers like the Deists chastised
Speaker 1: those who believed literally in Christ's resurrection. The religion remained
Speaker 1: more popular with the wealthy than with the lower classes.
Speaker 1: Men spent time debating certain philosophies and opinions regarding Deism,
Speaker 1: though they kept relatively quiet outside their circles, The Puritans
Speaker 1: often took to violence against Deists. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Payne,
Speaker 1: and other Founding fathers practiced Deism, making the religion even
Speaker 1: more appealing to William Beadle. With his beliefs intact and
Speaker 1: his status and manhood at perceived risk, William wrestled with
Speaker 1: a solution. If he killed himself, his family would suffer.
Speaker 1: If he killed the children, his wife, being as attached
Speaker 1: to the children as she was, would suffer. William tried
Speaker 1: to resolve a way to spare his family, but in
Speaker 1: his mind, the world had conspired against him and his children.
Speaker 1: If he died, they would need to die too. He
Speaker 1: came to an answer that made perfect sense, or at
Speaker 1: least an answer he liked. His religious beliefs required only
Speaker 1: that he seek the solution from within, and whatever sense
Speaker 1: of morality came from his reasoning was the indisputable truth.
Speaker 1: He saw his children as an extension of himself, so
Speaker 1: killing them was his right. However, his wife presented a
Speaker 1: different problem. At first, she wasn't his flesh and blood. However,
Speaker 1: she belonged to him by marriage. Therefore she was his
Speaker 1: to do with as he wished. In seventeen seventy two,
Speaker 1: he struggled with how and when to spare his family
Speaker 1: from poverty. That November, Lydia announced she wanted to visit
Speaker 1: relatives in Fairfield for a while. William breathed a sigh
Speaker 1: of relief. It was a sign that he wouldn't have
Speaker 1: to kill his wife. He drafted a will and a note,
Speaker 1: fully explaining what he planned to do to the children.
Speaker 1: When he finished, he set a date November. Lydia returned early, though,
Speaker 1: and on November seventeenth, Lydia told him of a terrible
Speaker 1: dream she had had the night before. A man had
Speaker 1: injured himself beyond recovery, and William had written her a letter.
Speaker 1: Those spots of blood had covered the note. She could
Speaker 1: make out that he was concerned for her. William wrote
Speaker 1: another note to accompany his will. He felt terrible for
Speaker 1: his wife, but her fear left him unfazed. Her early
Speaker 1: return had been another sign he'd have to kill her too.
Speaker 1: He loved his wife, she had a good heart and
Speaker 1: wanted only to bring happiness to those around her. But
Speaker 1: he reasoned that a woman without a husband stood little
Speaker 1: chance of employment, much less the ability to support four children.
Speaker 1: Having married before, she was also less likely to find
Speaker 1: a suitable partner. After much internal debate, he felt at peace.
Speaker 1: He interpreted that sense of well being God's support for
Speaker 1: his plan. He jotted down one last entry, the hand
Speaker 1: of Heaven is with us. Only one question remained, should
Speaker 1: he kill his children first or his wife? On November,
Speaker 1: William sent the maid on an errand to a neighbor's
Speaker 1: house some distance away. We had written a letter and
Speaker 1: asked her to wait for a written reply, regardless of
Speaker 1: how long it would take. William made sure the answer
Speaker 1: would require some thought, preventing the maid from returning until
Speaker 1: after he carried out his plan. She wasn't family and
Speaker 1: he had no right to harm or scare her. However,
Speaker 1: the maid returned much sooner than he expected, and now
Speaker 1: William could have taken his wife's early return, her dreams,
Speaker 1: and the maid's return as a sign that he shouldn't
Speaker 1: kill them. None of that dissuaded him, though it only
Speaker 1: delayed his action. Let You continued to dream that terrible
Speaker 1: things were about to happen to the family. The nightmares
Speaker 1: frightened her so much that she told her friends when
Speaker 1: they gathered to catch up with each other. William remained
Speaker 1: convinced that Lydia's dreams were premonitions and therefore a sign
Speaker 1: from the heavens. Clearly, God agreed with his plan. It
Speaker 1: never occurred to him that she had picked up on
Speaker 1: his paranoia that people were out to get him, or
Speaker 1: that his taking weapons to bed might have frightened her.
Speaker 1: On November twenty eight, Lydia told him she had dreamed
Speaker 1: that their children lay dead and that she was also killed.
Speaker 1: She recalled that she was free and happy after they
Speaker 1: were all dead. To some the dream would have been
Speaker 1: very telling in a different way, but Lydia's dream excited him.
Speaker 1: He thought God was directing him to end his family's suffering.
Speaker 1: He had failed his wife and children. William vowed not
Speaker 1: to fail God. On December six, while his family slept,
Speaker 1: he rose and took the axe he kept with him. Quietly,
Speaker 1: he stood over his wife, axe poised, then he turned
Speaker 1: and left the room. He entered the children's room next.
Speaker 1: One by one, he stood over them and watched them sleep,
Speaker 1: still gripping the axe and contemplating each of their deaths.
Speaker 1: This practice run pleased him. It was the final proof
Speaker 1: he needed. As he had imagined swinging the axe, he
Speaker 1: had remained confident that he was doing the right thing.
Speaker 1: He journaled, marveling at his restraint. The Christmas season was
Speaker 1: in full swing, and on December ten, the Beatles hosted
Speaker 1: a party for friends and family. Prominent guest Stephen mix
Speaker 1: Mitchell noted William's cheerful and upbeat mood. William doated on
Speaker 1: his family. After dinner and celebrations, guests began to leave
Speaker 1: around nine pm. He asked them to stay, but all declined,
Speaker 1: leaving the Beetle family to settle in for the night.
Speaker 1: The children were exhausted and didn't need coaxing to go
Speaker 1: to bed. Lydia was all so tired, and after tucking
Speaker 1: her children in, she put out the candles and headed
Speaker 1: to bed for some much needed rest. Some time before dawn,
Speaker 1: William woke the maid and handed her a sealed note
Speaker 1: addressed to doctor Joseph Farnsworth. Lydia was not well. He
Speaker 1: said he needed the maid to dress quickly without waking
Speaker 1: the children, delivered the letter to the doctor and bring
Speaker 1: him back to the house. The maid did as she
Speaker 1: had been told, though her employer's last words as she
Speaker 1: headed down the path confused her. Don't rush, he called
Speaker 1: after her. William watched her until she disappeared into the night.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't have long. The doctor lived close. As Dr
Speaker 1: Farnsworth read the letter, the maid noted the horror on
Speaker 1: his face. She might have asked, though there's no record
Speaker 1: that he told her what the letter said. Instead, the
Speaker 1: doctor summoned Colonel John Chester and Stephen Mitchell. Still unsure
Speaker 1: of what had happened, the maid accompanied the men back
Speaker 1: to the Dolls home. She entered first. When they reached
Speaker 1: the children's room and opened the door, she fainted. The
Speaker 1: scene was so dreadful that Mitchell ran outside to catch
Speaker 1: his breath. Farnsworth found Lydia in the couple's bedroom. William
Speaker 1: had taken the axe to her twice then slit her throat.
Speaker 1: The doctor followed a trail of bloody footprints out of
Speaker 1: the room and down the hall. William was slumped forward
Speaker 1: in a chair, the bloody knife on the end table.
Speaker 1: He had taken two pistols, raised them to each side
Speaker 1: of his head, and pulled the triggers. The bullets had
Speaker 1: ended his life. Regardless of their religion, the townsfolk hoped
Speaker 1: it had not ended his perceived suffering. The murders outraged
Speaker 1: everyone in town and across the state as ours. The
Speaker 1: residents in Weathersfield were concerned William Beadle didn't deserve a burial.
Speaker 1: They strapped the knife to his chest and bound his
Speaker 1: body to a sled. Residents lined the street while a
Speaker 1: horse pulled the sled towards the Connecticut River. They spat
Speaker 1: on his corpse and cursed his soul. Once the sled
Speaker 1: reached its destination, men dumped his body into a shallow grave.
Speaker 1: As satisfied that they were done with the likes of
Speaker 1: William Beadle, they returned home and prepared to bury Lydia
Speaker 1: and the children. Lydia was thirty two at the time
Speaker 1: of her death. The oldest Beetle child Ansel was eleven,
Speaker 1: the youngest Mary was just six. Oncember thirteenth, the townsfolk
Speaker 1: carried the bodies to their final resting place. Attendees wept
Speaker 1: as mother and children were laid together, and the marker
Speaker 1: covering their grave told their story, their destruction at the
Speaker 1: hands of the husband and father they loved and trusted.
Speaker 1: After the funeral, the townsfolk hoped to put the tragedy
Speaker 1: behind them. Instead, they wrestled with William's actions. How could
Speaker 1: any one kill their whole family. Heavily religious, the people
Speaker 1: there commonly thought of deeds as guided by either God
Speaker 1: or the devil A William's act was unspeakable even for Satan.
Speaker 1: Christian ministers took the pulpit warning congregations of the dangers
Speaker 1: of deism. But even the most devoted churchgoers were faced
Speaker 1: with something other than religion, the dark side of human nature.
Speaker 1: Workers at a dock on the Connecticut River complained about
Speaker 1: the smell of William's decaying body. A few men dragged
Speaker 1: the corpse to another location away from the docks. The
Speaker 1: next day, children came across the body, forcing the residence
Speaker 1: to deal with dumping it once more. This time, they
Speaker 1: hoped to be done with William Beadle. Congress eventually paid
Speaker 1: off its war debts, Treasury notes replaced the once worthless
Speaker 1: continental currency, and William waited another couple of years. He
Speaker 1: might have recovered financially. Instead of a desperate and misguided man,
Speaker 1: the townsfolk saw him as a monster who acted on
Speaker 1: his worst fears and impulses. People began to look at
Speaker 1: the narratives of such crimes, piecing together trails of clues
Speaker 1: leading up to the offense itself. Williams heinous actions paved
Speaker 1: the way for the true crime and horror genres. No
Speaker 1: one had seen the murders coming until then. William seemed
Speaker 1: like a devoted husband, doating father, and kind man. His
Speaker 1: will and journals chilled them for years, something worse than
Speaker 1: the devil had walked among them. William Beatle methodically, almost enthusiastically,
Speaker 1: planned the murders of his family. In his neighbors minds,
Speaker 1: William had done what the devil could not. His actions
Speaker 1: whispered to them in the dark as they blew out
Speaker 1: the candles before bed. Some couldn't help but wonder who
Speaker 1: the people in their house really and truly were. There's
Speaker 1: more to this, story. Dick around after this brief sponsored
Speaker 1: break to hear all about it. Today, you'll still find
Speaker 1: the Tuttle name in several places along the east side
Speaker 1: of the Quinnipiac River. There's Tuttle Road, Tuttle Place, and
Speaker 1: even Tuttle Elementary and the family had roots in the
Speaker 1: area of dating back to the mid sixteen hundreds. William,
Speaker 1: his wife, and their children arrived in the New World
Speaker 1: along with his widowed mother, two brothers, and their families
Speaker 1: in sixteen thirty five. The family were successful merchants in England,
Speaker 1: but were excited about greater trade opportunities in the American colonies,
Speaker 1: and they were not the only ones heading across the Atlantic.
Speaker 1: Many families left England to avoid religious persecution, and the
Speaker 1: Tuttles were strongly Protestant in a time when England was not.
Speaker 1: History calls them Puritans, so when they're Minister John Davenport
Speaker 1: set sail for the New World, and most of his
Speaker 1: congregation followed. The brothers, John and Richard stayed in Boston,
Speaker 1: while William settled in New Haven, Connecticut. He re established
Speaker 1: his business, setting up ventures along the New England coast
Speaker 1: and down into Delaware. In addition to his trade business,
Speaker 1: William was named a commissioner, arbitrator and constable. The money
Speaker 1: wasn't an issue for the Tuttles, and William and his
Speaker 1: wife purchased a considerable amount of land In sixteen fifty six.
Speaker 1: They lived in a mansion with their growing family of
Speaker 1: eleven children. From there, drama followed the Tuttle family like
Speaker 1: a loyal dog. By many accounts, at least one of
Speaker 1: the children was deemed insane, another had been branded in adulteress,
Speaker 1: and two became murderers. William died in sixteen seventy three
Speaker 1: without leaving a proper will, throwing the family into chaos
Speaker 1: over their father's accumulated wealth. They fought constantly. On November
Speaker 1: eighteenth of sixteen seventy six, Benjamin Tuttle visited his sister Sarah,
Speaker 1: who lived in Stamford. As Sara's husband left the house
Speaker 1: one night without eating dinner, setting off a quarrel between
Speaker 1: the siblings. Benjamin left in a rage, and Sara instructed
Speaker 1: her daughter to shut the door behind him. Moments later,
Speaker 1: Benjamin burst back in wielding an axe. He shouted that
Speaker 1: he intended to take Sara to God after striking her
Speaker 1: in the head, he pushed her body into the fireplace
Speaker 1: and continued striking her with the axe. Upon his arrest,
Speaker 1: he claimed had killed his sister because she might have
Speaker 1: killed him first if he hadn't. Benjamin's niece and nephew
Speaker 1: testified against him, and the court sentenced him to hang.
Speaker 1: Before's execution, Benjamin willed his entire estate to another sister, Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: who had her own issues. When it came out that
Speaker 1: one of her seven children had been fathered during one
Speaker 1: of her many affairs, Elizabeth's husband, Richard, filed for divorce.
Speaker 1: The Richard had had his own affairs. One of his
Speaker 1: mistresses was fined for her part. When Elizabeth and Richard divorced,
Speaker 1: he married his mistress. Another sibling, Mercy Tuttle, took an
Speaker 1: axe to one of her sons in and blamed the devil.
Speaker 1: Her husband told the court his wife had not been
Speaker 1: acting right lately, and just days before his son's death,
Speaker 1: Mercy told him should have the children buried in the barn.
Speaker 1: Her comment had puzzled him. The children were healthy, after all,
Speaker 1: and when he questioned why she thought the children would
Speaker 1: need to be buried, she replied that dreadful days were coming.
Speaker 1: Sam Jr. Overheard the conversation and asked his mother if
Speaker 1: she would do such a thing. She responded that she
Speaker 1: certainly would, as long as it didn't hurt him. Other
Speaker 1: neighbors also testified that Mercy was insane. The court found
Speaker 1: her not guilty due to insanity, and Mercy returned home
Speaker 1: to her husband and daughter. Psychologists remain curious about people
Speaker 1: they call family and I leaders like William Beadle and
Speaker 1: the Tuttles. Those who commit familiar side often seem to
Speaker 1: believe that killing their family, even pets, will spare them
Speaker 1: from humiliation or some other negative outcome. Experts believe there
Speaker 1: are three reasons people commit familiar side. Sometimes they suffer
Speaker 1: from a mental break or psychosis. Often they think God
Speaker 1: or the devil guided them. The second is financial distress.
Speaker 1: Nearly a third of familiar sides are due to financial strain.
Speaker 1: The killers are otherwise upstanding members of society and are
Speaker 1: seen as respectable. The last is the feeling of being
Speaker 1: trapped in an intolerable situation. These cases typically involve divorce
Speaker 1: affairs or the fear that children will be taken from them.
Speaker 1: According to mental health professionals, men commit of familiar sides.
Speaker 1: Out of deep shame or fear of losing control over
Speaker 1: their family. From O. C. Snee into the Beatles and Tuttles,
Speaker 1: a couple of things are certain. Though familiar side has
Speaker 1: happened for centuries, studies regarding family annihilators are still new,
Speaker 1: and it's one of the most horrifying types of homicides.
Speaker 1: American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was
Speaker 1: written by Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed, and produced
Speaker 1: by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Mankey,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show,
Speaker 1: visit grim and Mild dot com. From more podcasts from
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.