WEBVTT - Family Blood 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:04.040 Hey, just a heads up. This episode contains topics of 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.800 suicide and violence that may be disturbing to some. Please 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:10.640 take care while listening. If you were someone you know 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:14.840 is struggling with suicidal ideations, please call the suicide Prevention 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:20.640 lifeline at three eight to five. And thanks for listening. 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:27.920 Take care of yourself. Okay, you're listening to American Shadows, 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:30.680 a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:44.760 from Aaron Mankey. It was dinner time when Dr Herbert 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:48.360 Simmons received the call. The woman on the other end 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:51.160 calmly asked him to come to her home on West 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:54.760 fourteenth Street. A girl in the house had killed herself 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:58.560 in the bathtub. The same woman had called the police 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:02.680 a half hour before, asking for the corner in the 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.360 town of East Orange, New Jersey. Didn't have a corner, 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.560 and the officer told her to call the doctor. Simmons 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:11.800 arrived at the dilapidated house and double checked the address. 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:15.640 Although he doubted that anyone could possibly live there, he 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:19.360 knocked and waited. A woman holding a candle and dressed 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:22.880 in black answered. She led him to the darkened house, 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:26.720 up the stairs and to the bathroom. In the flickering 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:30.080 candle light. Simmons noted the odd position of the body 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.840 in the tub. The girl's legs were folded underneath her, 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:38.000 and her left hand still clutched a washcloth. Her torso 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:42.440 slumped forward. Long strands of auburn hair floated in the water. 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:48.120 He knelt and raised her head. Large unseeing brown eyes 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:52.640 stared outward from an emaciated face. Simmons turned his attention 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:56.280 to the clothes stacked next to the tub. A suicide 0:01:56.320 --> 0:02:00.000 note lay on top. She had apparently taken her life 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.200 to be reunited with her daughter, and the doctor looked 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:06.000 at the woman in black. He asked when the tragedy 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:09.240 had occurred. The woman replied that she didn't really know 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:11.800 that she had just discovered the corpse minutes before. She 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:16.400 called him. Who is she and who are you? Simmons asked. 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.200 The woman tersely answered that he had learned that soon enough. 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:25.639 Confused and a bit alarmed, Simmons asked a barrage of questions. 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:30.600 The woman, still resolved, turned to nervousness. She claimed the 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.360 last time she had seen the girl was earlier that morning. 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:36.839 Simmons got to his feet. The girl had been dead 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:40.240 for at least a day, He immediately summoned the police. 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:45.519 Detective William O'Neill questioned the woman in black. She gave 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:49.280 her name as Virginia Oceana Wardlaw, a former co owner 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:53.200 of the Montgomery College in Christiansburg, Virginia. The girl in 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:57.280 the tub was her niece, Ossie Snead. Although Ossie had 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:01.080 written a suicide note, Wardlaw couldn't explain why there was 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:04.560 no pen or ink in the home. His questioning began 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.360 to unraffle the dark truth that ward Law and her 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:11.360 sisters had kept for decades. When Ossie's brother died as 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:15.400 a child, her parents received twenty two thousand dollars in insurance. 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:20.160 In nineteen o one, her father died, Ossie's mother, Caroline, 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:23.360 cashed in another policy and moved in with her sisters 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:28.360 Mary in Virginia. All three took to wearing black dresses, hats, 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:32.880 and veils. Mary's son John died when his night shirt 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:37.040 accidentally caught fire while he slept. The sisters split the 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:42.080 eighteen thousand dollar insurance policy. Ossie married her cousin Fletcher, 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:47.080 and the two had a daughter named after Fletcher's mother Mary. Unfortunately, 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:51.440 the child died two days later. Fletcher disappeared, and the 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:55.960 sisters claimed had killed himself. Fletcher's insurance policy named his 0:03:56.000 --> 0:04:00.120 mother and aunts as beneficiaries, but without a body, the 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:04.040 insurance company refused to pay. They tried forcing Osi to 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:08.080 write a will naming them as beneficiaries. They've also tried 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:10.760 to bribe a doctor, the milkman, and a plumber to 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:16.039 help them end Osie's life, all refused. The autopsy revealed 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.799 o c had been nearly starved to death, overdosed with morphine, 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:24.359 and placed in the tub to drown. O'Neill also discovered 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:28.120 small bones in the oven belonging to an infant. But 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:32.240 the most shocking detail came when investigators learned that Ossie's 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:36.719 mother had masterminded at all. Sometimes the monsters are the 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:42.880 ones closest to us. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, Welcome to American Shadows. 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:55.760 William Beadle had good looks, expressive features, and the clear intelligence. 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:58.840 Those who met him said he possessed an easy going 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.159 disposition on commonly good sense and the manners of a 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:06.560 true gentleman. Historians believe William might have been born to 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:09.640 a man of means and his mistress sometime in seventeen 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:13.120 thirty in London, he spent time around the court and 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:16.719 suggesting he had been well provided for. William and his 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:19.919 sister grew up well liked and honest, by Ball accounts. 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:23.360 For a short time he met with a group of deists. 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:27.320 A Deism had become the religion of free thinkers in England. 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:31.159 They believed God revealed himself through human reasoning instead of 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:36.000 divine intervention as written in Christian Bibles. In seventeen fifty five, 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:38.960 William moved to Barbados, where he lived with the governor 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:41.880 and his family for the next six years. When he 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:45.560 returned to London, he established a merchant business. He sailed 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.080 to New York to take advantage of the growing mercantile 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:52.560 opportunities there. Eventually he settled in Fairfield, Connecticut, where he 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:56.160 met Lyddia Lothrop. The two married on April fifteenth of 0:05:56.200 --> 0:06:00.320 seventeen seventy. The following year, they welcomed his son and soul. 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:05.760 Their second child, Elizabeth, arrived in seventeen seventy two. William's 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:09.120 business easily provided a comfortable living for his growing family. 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:13.960 After having amassed a considerable fortune, William moved his business 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:18.520 and family to Weathersfield, Connecticut in seventeen seventy three. Nestled 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:22.440 along the Connecticut River and brick paver streets, colonial homes 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:26.680 completed a picturesque landscape. The town, founded in the mid 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:29.400 sixteen sixties, was one of the oldest in the colony. 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:33.320 William and Lydia became well known, William for his wealth 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:36.320 and integrity in his business, and Lydia for her sweet 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:40.679 and kind nature. They welcomed little Lydia in seventeen seventy 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:44.960 four and Mary in seventeen seventy six. They seemed the 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:49.480 perfect family and doated on their children. William proudly told 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:54.120 neighbors about his children's endeavors and accomplishments. More success followed, 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.640 earning William more wealth than most other New England merchants. 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:00.120 He and Lydia enjoyed the company of the town is 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:03.520 most elite. Life in Weathersfield seemed as perfect as the 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:07.960 scenery itself. William was happy everything had turned out just 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:11.880 the way he had imagined in his youth. Times were changing, though. 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:16.400 In seventeen seventy six, anger toward the British swept across 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:20.680 the colonies following the Boston Tea Party, Parliament had Boston 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.880 Harbor blocked, which cut off supplies to the city and 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:28.280 the revolutionaries. As you might imagine, merchants lost a lot 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:32.280 of business, but a blockade proved to be just one 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:36.680 misfortune for the Beadle family. In seventeen seventy seven, the 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:41.360 value of continental paper currency began to plummet. At the time, 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.280 it took a dollar twenty five and continental currency to 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:48.040 purchase a dollar worth of gold or silver coins. A 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.720 Congress stopped issuing the bills by seventeen seventy nine, and 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:55.280 by seventeen eighty one it took a hundred dollars continental 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.480 to buy one dollar, where the gold or silver coupled 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.120 with the blocked ports and rye inflation due to a 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:05.040 lack of goods, shops preferred British pounds over the nearly 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:09.200 worthless colonial currency. A Congress had printed so many of 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:11.400 the bills to pay for the war that the value 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:16.200 continued to fall for five years. This greatly affected everyone 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:21.000 in Wethersfield, including William Beadle. A. Most businesses stayed afloat 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.280 by either charging more for goods and services or taking 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:28.920 only the British pound. William did neither. It was illegal 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:32.640 to not accept continental currency at face value. Obeying the 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.240 law and sticking to his code of integrity would be 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.920 William's downfall. It didn't take long for him to lose 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:43.439 much of his fortune. The Beatles slid into middle class status, 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:45.720 and for William, who had been one of the town's 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:49.840 wealthiest men, this wouldn't do. He wrote to a friend, 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.920 lamenting that he could no longer adequately provide for his family. 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:59.360 It wasn't exactly true. Although no longer exceptionally wealthy, the 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.280 family had plenty of food and could even keep the 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:06.640 services of a maid. Still, William ended the letter asking 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:10.080 if it were time for him to die. The Revolutionary 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:14.880 War dragged on, further reducing his wealth. To William, things 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:18.800 looked very bleak for him and his family. Had once 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:22.640 been wealthy and enjoyed the company of society's elite. Now 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:27.240 he stared down poverty. Soon afterward, William began carrying an 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:37.800 axe and a carving knife to bed. In William's mind, 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:41.440 without his fortune and social standing, the town would surely 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:45.560 mock and ridicule them. He reasoned that the lowest of 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:48.040 wretches on the street would despise them if they fell 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:51.760 into poverty. He worried that without his fortune, his family 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:54.839 would fall victim to the vilest and most vicious people 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:58.320 in all of Weathersfield. He thought of their friends and 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:03.760 social circles. Surely prominent men like Theadeus Burr, Colonel John Chester, 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.440 and Stephen Mitchell would no longer socialize with him. William 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.360 imagined people talking about him behind his back and laugh 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:13.440 ad met his family's misfortune. Though he continued to dress 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:16.200 and act as a well to do gentleman, he reasoned 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.640 there was only one thing to do, become meaner than 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:23.199 all of them. Had been an affectionate and devoted husband, 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.960 and took great pleasure in indulging his children. His family 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:29.959 had been one of his greatest joys. Yet for a 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:34.560 couple of years William contemplated ending his life. By seventeen eighty, 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:39.360 thoughts of suicide turned to homicide. Over the years, William 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.559 had remained a deist. He firmly believed in the right 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:45.600 to take his own life without consequences, even in the hereafter, 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:50.679 and in an extreme interpretation of the era's view of masculinity, 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:53.200 he felt that he had the same privileges over the 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:57.480 lives of his family members a Deists believed divine revelations 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:01.760 came from logic and rejected the writings Christianity as superstition. 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:06.800 In an enlightened age, free thinkers like the Deists chastised 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:11.120 those who believed literally in Christ's resurrection. The religion remained 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:14.119 more popular with the wealthy than with the lower classes. 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:19.080 Men spent time debating certain philosophies and opinions regarding Deism, 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:23.840 though they kept relatively quiet outside their circles, The Puritans 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:28.360 often took to violence against Deists. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Payne, 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:32.520 and other Founding fathers practiced Deism, making the religion even 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:36.839 more appealing to William Beadle. With his beliefs intact and 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:41.040 his status and manhood at perceived risk, William wrestled with 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.480 a solution. If he killed himself, his family would suffer. 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:47.840 If he killed the children, his wife, being as attached 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:51.320 to the children as she was, would suffer. William tried 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.840 to resolve a way to spare his family, but in 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:58.360 his mind, the world had conspired against him and his children. 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.400 If he died, they would need to die too. He 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:05.880 came to an answer that made perfect sense, or at 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:10.240 least an answer he liked. His religious beliefs required only 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.840 that he seek the solution from within, and whatever sense 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:18.080 of morality came from his reasoning was the indisputable truth. 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.800 He saw his children as an extension of himself, so 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:26.280 killing them was his right. However, his wife presented a 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:31.480 different problem. At first, she wasn't his flesh and blood. However, 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.600 she belonged to him by marriage. Therefore she was his 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.000 to do with as he wished. In seventeen seventy two, 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:42.040 he struggled with how and when to spare his family 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:46.720 from poverty. That November, Lydia announced she wanted to visit 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:50.120 relatives in Fairfield for a while. William breathed a sigh 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:52.880 of relief. It was a sign that he wouldn't have 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:55.920 to kill his wife. He drafted a will and a note, 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:58.760 fully explaining what he planned to do to the children. 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:05.280 When he finished, he set a date November. Lydia returned early, though, 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:09.400 and on November seventeenth, Lydia told him of a terrible 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:12.440 dream she had had the night before. A man had 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:15.920 injured himself beyond recovery, and William had written her a letter. 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:19.160 Those spots of blood had covered the note. She could 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:22.720 make out that he was concerned for her. William wrote 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:26.240 another note to accompany his will. He felt terrible for 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:30.079 his wife, but her fear left him unfazed. Her early 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:33.920 return had been another sign he'd have to kill her too. 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.960 He loved his wife, she had a good heart and 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:41.760 wanted only to bring happiness to those around her. But 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:44.640 he reasoned that a woman without a husband stood little 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:48.480 chance of employment, much less the ability to support four children. 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:52.240 Having married before, she was also less likely to find 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:56.920 a suitable partner. After much internal debate, he felt at peace. 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:01.120 He interpreted that sense of well being God's support for 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:05.439 his plan. He jotted down one last entry, the hand 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:10.800 of Heaven is with us. Only one question remained, should 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:22.720 he kill his children first or his wife? On November, 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:26.040 William sent the maid on an errand to a neighbor's 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.160 house some distance away. We had written a letter and 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.720 asked her to wait for a written reply, regardless of 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.360 how long it would take. William made sure the answer 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:37.800 would require some thought, preventing the maid from returning until 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:41.160 after he carried out his plan. She wasn't family and 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:44.560 he had no right to harm or scare her. However, 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:48.240 the maid returned much sooner than he expected, and now 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:52.080 William could have taken his wife's early return, her dreams, 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:54.320 and the maid's return as a sign that he shouldn't 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:57.880 kill them. None of that dissuaded him, though it only 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:02.080 delayed his action. Let You continued to dream that terrible 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:05.480 things were about to happen to the family. The nightmares 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:07.920 frightened her so much that she told her friends when 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:11.000 they gathered to catch up with each other. William remained 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:15.640 convinced that Lydia's dreams were premonitions and therefore a sign 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:19.920 from the heavens. Clearly, God agreed with his plan. It 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:22.000 never occurred to him that she had picked up on 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:24.680 his paranoia that people were out to get him, or 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.200 that his taking weapons to bed might have frightened her. 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.720 On November twenty eight, Lydia told him she had dreamed 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:34.200 that their children lay dead and that she was also killed. 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:38.080 She recalled that she was free and happy after they 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:41.240 were all dead. To some the dream would have been 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:47.040 very telling in a different way, but Lydia's dream excited him. 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:50.440 He thought God was directing him to end his family's suffering. 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:54.000 He had failed his wife and children. William vowed not 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:58.640 to fail God. On December six, while his family slept, 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:03.000 he rose and took the axe he kept with him. Quietly, 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.760 he stood over his wife, axe poised, then he turned 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.840 and left the room. He entered the children's room next. 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:13.320 One by one, he stood over them and watched them sleep, 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:17.280 still gripping the axe and contemplating each of their deaths. 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.680 This practice run pleased him. It was the final proof 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:24.640 he needed. As he had imagined swinging the axe, he 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:26.960 had remained confident that he was doing the right thing. 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:32.160 He journaled, marveling at his restraint. The Christmas season was 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.560 in full swing, and on December ten, the Beatles hosted 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:39.200 a party for friends and family. Prominent guest Stephen mix 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:44.320 Mitchell noted William's cheerful and upbeat mood. William doated on 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:48.200 his family. After dinner and celebrations, guests began to leave 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:52.240 around nine pm. He asked them to stay, but all declined, 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:54.880 leaving the Beetle family to settle in for the night. 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.160 The children were exhausted and didn't need coaxing to go 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:01.880 to bed. Lydia was all so tired, and after tucking 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:04.480 her children in, she put out the candles and headed 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.879 to bed for some much needed rest. Some time before dawn, 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:12.040 William woke the maid and handed her a sealed note 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:16.240 addressed to doctor Joseph Farnsworth. Lydia was not well. He 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:19.480 said he needed the maid to dress quickly without waking 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:22.440 the children, delivered the letter to the doctor and bring 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.159 him back to the house. The maid did as she 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:28.280 had been told, though her employer's last words as she 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:32.480 headed down the path confused her. Don't rush, he called 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:36.360 after her. William watched her until she disappeared into the night. 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:41.680 He wouldn't have long. The doctor lived close. As Dr 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:44.960 Farnsworth read the letter, the maid noted the horror on 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.800 his face. She might have asked, though there's no record 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:52.000 that he told her what the letter said. Instead, the 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:57.280 doctor summoned Colonel John Chester and Stephen Mitchell. Still unsure 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:59.600 of what had happened, the maid accompanied the men back 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:03.760 to the Dolls home. She entered first. When they reached 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:08.000 the children's room and opened the door, she fainted. The 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:11.160 scene was so dreadful that Mitchell ran outside to catch 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:16.120 his breath. Farnsworth found Lydia in the couple's bedroom. William 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:19.200 had taken the axe to her twice then slit her throat. 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:22.840 The doctor followed a trail of bloody footprints out of 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:26.520 the room and down the hall. William was slumped forward 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:29.399 in a chair, the bloody knife on the end table. 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.280 He had taken two pistols, raised them to each side 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:37.080 of his head, and pulled the triggers. The bullets had 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:41.919 ended his life. Regardless of their religion, the townsfolk hoped 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:56.440 it had not ended his perceived suffering. The murders outraged 0:18:56.480 --> 0:19:00.359 everyone in town and across the state as ours. The 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:04.600 residents in Weathersfield were concerned William Beadle didn't deserve a burial. 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:07.840 They strapped the knife to his chest and bound his 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:10.919 body to a sled. Residents lined the street while a 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:14.560 horse pulled the sled towards the Connecticut River. They spat 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:17.879 on his corpse and cursed his soul. Once the sled 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:21.520 reached its destination, men dumped his body into a shallow grave. 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:24.359 As satisfied that they were done with the likes of 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.959 William Beadle, they returned home and prepared to bury Lydia 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:31.600 and the children. Lydia was thirty two at the time 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:35.120 of her death. The oldest Beetle child Ansel was eleven, 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:40.800 the youngest Mary was just six. Oncember thirteenth, the townsfolk 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.960 carried the bodies to their final resting place. Attendees wept 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:48.560 as mother and children were laid together, and the marker 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:52.080 covering their grave told their story, their destruction at the 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:55.280 hands of the husband and father they loved and trusted. 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:58.920 After the funeral, the townsfolk hoped to put the tragedy 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:03.800 behind them. Instead, they wrestled with William's actions. How could 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:07.520 any one kill their whole family. Heavily religious, the people 0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:10.480 there commonly thought of deeds as guided by either God 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:14.920 or the devil A William's act was unspeakable even for Satan. 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:19.920 Christian ministers took the pulpit warning congregations of the dangers 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:24.320 of deism. But even the most devoted churchgoers were faced 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:28.800 with something other than religion, the dark side of human nature. 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:32.720 Workers at a dock on the Connecticut River complained about 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:36.240 the smell of William's decaying body. A few men dragged 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.320 the corpse to another location away from the docks. The 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:42.960 next day, children came across the body, forcing the residence 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.000 to deal with dumping it once more. This time, they 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:49.920 hoped to be done with William Beadle. Congress eventually paid 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:53.920 off its war debts, Treasury notes replaced the once worthless 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:57.680 continental currency, and William waited another couple of years. He 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:02.160 might have recovered financially. Instead of a desperate and misguided man, 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:05.639 the townsfolk saw him as a monster who acted on 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:09.720 his worst fears and impulses. People began to look at 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:13.440 the narratives of such crimes, piecing together trails of clues 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:17.879 leading up to the offense itself. Williams heinous actions paved 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:21.440 the way for the true crime and horror genres. No 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:25.240 one had seen the murders coming until then. William seemed 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:29.399 like a devoted husband, doating father, and kind man. His 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:33.479 will and journals chilled them for years, something worse than 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:38.960 the devil had walked among them. William Beatle methodically, almost enthusiastically, 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:42.920 planned the murders of his family. In his neighbors minds, 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:46.360 William had done what the devil could not. His actions 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:48.560 whispered to them in the dark as they blew out 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:52.960 the candles before bed. Some couldn't help but wonder who 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:58.320 the people in their house really and truly were. There's 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:01.680 more to this, story. Dick around after this brief sponsored 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:13.120 break to hear all about it. Today, you'll still find 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:16.040 the Tuttle name in several places along the east side 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:20.400 of the Quinnipiac River. There's Tuttle Road, Tuttle Place, and 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:24.119 even Tuttle Elementary and the family had roots in the 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:27.760 area of dating back to the mid sixteen hundreds. William, 0:22:27.920 --> 0:22:30.520 his wife, and their children arrived in the New World 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:33.800 along with his widowed mother, two brothers, and their families 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:38.640 in sixteen thirty five. The family were successful merchants in England, 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:42.719 but were excited about greater trade opportunities in the American colonies, 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:46.240 and they were not the only ones heading across the Atlantic. 0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:50.879 Many families left England to avoid religious persecution, and the 0:22:50.920 --> 0:22:54.360 Tuttles were strongly Protestant in a time when England was not. 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:59.959 History calls them Puritans, so when they're Minister John Davenport 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:02.679 set sail for the New World, and most of his 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:07.120 congregation followed. The brothers, John and Richard stayed in Boston, 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:11.040 while William settled in New Haven, Connecticut. He re established 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:14.000 his business, setting up ventures along the New England coast 0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:17.960 and down into Delaware. In addition to his trade business, 0:23:18.000 --> 0:23:22.679 William was named a commissioner, arbitrator and constable. The money 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:25.359 wasn't an issue for the Tuttles, and William and his 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:29.000 wife purchased a considerable amount of land In sixteen fifty six. 0:23:29.800 --> 0:23:32.159 They lived in a mansion with their growing family of 0:23:32.240 --> 0:23:37.119 eleven children. From there, drama followed the Tuttle family like 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:40.879 a loyal dog. By many accounts, at least one of 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:45.520 the children was deemed insane, another had been branded in adulteress, 0:23:46.560 --> 0:23:52.000 and two became murderers. William died in sixteen seventy three 0:23:52.160 --> 0:23:55.800 without leaving a proper will, throwing the family into chaos 0:23:55.920 --> 0:24:00.920 over their father's accumulated wealth. They fought constantly. On November 0:24:00.960 --> 0:24:05.359 eighteenth of sixteen seventy six, Benjamin Tuttle visited his sister Sarah, 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:09.040 who lived in Stamford. As Sara's husband left the house 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:12.200 one night without eating dinner, setting off a quarrel between 0:24:12.200 --> 0:24:16.680 the siblings. Benjamin left in a rage, and Sara instructed 0:24:16.720 --> 0:24:19.800 her daughter to shut the door behind him. Moments later, 0:24:19.880 --> 0:24:23.320 Benjamin burst back in wielding an axe. He shouted that 0:24:23.359 --> 0:24:27.320 he intended to take Sara to God after striking her 0:24:27.320 --> 0:24:29.840 in the head, he pushed her body into the fireplace 0:24:29.920 --> 0:24:34.399 and continued striking her with the axe. Upon his arrest, 0:24:34.480 --> 0:24:36.639 he claimed had killed his sister because she might have 0:24:36.720 --> 0:24:40.320 killed him first if he hadn't. Benjamin's niece and nephew 0:24:40.400 --> 0:24:43.400 testified against him, and the court sentenced him to hang. 0:24:43.960 --> 0:24:48.840 Before's execution, Benjamin willed his entire estate to another sister, Elizabeth, 0:24:49.119 --> 0:24:52.159 who had her own issues. When it came out that 0:24:52.240 --> 0:24:54.639 one of her seven children had been fathered during one 0:24:54.680 --> 0:24:58.800 of her many affairs, Elizabeth's husband, Richard, filed for divorce. 0:24:59.440 --> 0:25:01.960 The Richard had had his own affairs. One of his 0:25:02.000 --> 0:25:06.160 mistresses was fined for her part. When Elizabeth and Richard divorced, 0:25:06.200 --> 0:25:10.199 he married his mistress. Another sibling, Mercy Tuttle, took an 0:25:10.240 --> 0:25:14.080 axe to one of her sons in and blamed the devil. 0:25:14.560 --> 0:25:16.760 Her husband told the court his wife had not been 0:25:16.800 --> 0:25:20.680 acting right lately, and just days before his son's death, 0:25:20.960 --> 0:25:23.560 Mercy told him should have the children buried in the barn. 0:25:24.320 --> 0:25:27.800 Her comment had puzzled him. The children were healthy, after all, 0:25:28.200 --> 0:25:30.520 and when he questioned why she thought the children would 0:25:30.600 --> 0:25:34.439 need to be buried, she replied that dreadful days were coming. 0:25:35.080 --> 0:25:38.520 Sam Jr. Overheard the conversation and asked his mother if 0:25:38.520 --> 0:25:41.040 she would do such a thing. She responded that she 0:25:41.080 --> 0:25:44.440 certainly would, as long as it didn't hurt him. Other 0:25:44.480 --> 0:25:49.480 neighbors also testified that Mercy was insane. The court found 0:25:49.480 --> 0:25:53.120 her not guilty due to insanity, and Mercy returned home 0:25:53.200 --> 0:25:58.320 to her husband and daughter. Psychologists remain curious about people 0:25:58.359 --> 0:26:02.560 they call family and I leaders like William Beadle and 0:26:02.600 --> 0:26:06.399 the Tuttles. Those who commit familiar side often seem to 0:26:06.440 --> 0:26:10.600 believe that killing their family, even pets, will spare them 0:26:10.640 --> 0:26:15.400 from humiliation or some other negative outcome. Experts believe there 0:26:15.440 --> 0:26:20.040 are three reasons people commit familiar side. Sometimes they suffer 0:26:20.080 --> 0:26:23.840 from a mental break or psychosis. Often they think God 0:26:23.960 --> 0:26:27.760