Episode 540: Anna George and the Murder of George Saxton

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I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast. What's the answer, and what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

Hey weirdos, I'm ash.

And I'm Elena.

And this is morbid.

It's morbid on the floor.

On the floor because we're getting new furniture up in here. I keep every every time I talk today, I'm just going, whoa, whoa, whoa at the end of my sentence.

For some reason, every time she does it, I burst out laughing, I think because she does it randomly, so it hits right when it hits.

And I do a dance for that.

She does, she does, like it's like an Ariana Grande-esque, like I'm hitting a high note kind of thing, and it makes me laugh.

Yeah, I said that I'm going to deliver all bad news to Elena within this voice, like, I think that's a great idea. Sorry, I can't come into work today, I got the flu, whoa, whoa.

Me and Mikey will laugh and then say, too bad.

Get in loser, we're going recording.

But yeah, it feels like the olden days. Yeah, we used to sit on the floor.

I feel a lot older, though, because already my back's like, Oh, bitch, don't do that.

Well, this is more comfortable because there's carpet.

And you're up against a wall.

And I'm up against a wall before it was just sitting on a hardwood floor in the middle of the laundry room with nothing around me.

Yeah, I'm sitting on a p.

On a p.

On a p.

That's right.

Well, I have a case today.

Yeah, I'm glad you do, because why else are we here?

Yeah, imagine if I was like, Well, I thought you had one.

Thought you were like, Oh well, shit, all right. guess this is over. see you guys, later bye.

No, we can't do that. No, no, I have an interesting old timey case today, but it is actually the murder of a man who was brothers with one of our first ladies.

Whoa, yes.

This is, unfortunately, the murder of George Saxton, and he was sisters with.

He was the brother of.

Yep, exactly.

He was sisters with.

He was the brother of Miss Ida McKinley.

Whoa, President McKinley, you don't say?

How did you get that?

I don't know, I just know so much about politics.

What if I was like, No, Lincoln's wife? But yeah, isn't that crazy?

That is nuts.

So let's start, let's go. George Dewalt Saxton was born October 31st, 1850..

Ooh, spooky already.

Halloween for those who don't know. In Canton, Ohio, he was the third of three children born to James and Catherine Saxton. And as the children of one of Canton's wealthiest families, they were rich, rich, rich, rich.

Wow, I love the way of describing someone as saying they instead of being like they were spoiled rotten when they were little, they were hella privileged.

They were indulged, oh, indulged.

Yeah, they were indulged a little bit. I kind of like, that makes it feel a little better.

That's what I think, yeah, well. After finishing up with high school, George spent a brief period as a Sunday school teacher. Which, like, just based off the rest of the story, I don't get that vibe from him.

Yeah, George had a lot of thinking to do, I guess.

I guess so. But once he was done with that, he moved on to go and work at his father's bank. And it was there that he gained a lot of experience in this family business of finance and property development. And once he kind of, like, got his foot in the door and really got going, he was like, You know what? I think I could take this over someday, I think I could run this shit.

Wow.

So in the early 1870s, he made his first attempt to marry and settle down, as was expected of all young, prominent men at the time. The woman he eventually became engaged to was named Alice Schaefer. She was the daughter of another prominent and local businessman. And as children of elite families, George and Alice had actually known each other since they were in early childhood.

Prominence begets prominence, and we make more rich people and the world goes round.

Yeah, they were all like super duper excited, they were like rich people doing rich people shit. But unfortunately for Alice, George's commitment to her was less than sincere or committed really. And not long after the engagement, a lot of rumors, nastiness started going around that he was seeing other women.

Your stories often have illicit affairs in them, and I appreciate you telling us this.

I don't like the true crime part of it because like that makes me sad. Of course not, but I love an illicit affair, I love a scandal. Yeah, you do.

Oh, just really. And I do, too, I love listening to it.

Really quickly, I started watching, I mentioned it, when I covered Anne and Billy Woodward, I started watching Capote versus the Swans.

And it is so fucking good, I need to watch it.

It is awesome, there's only two episodes out and then the third one comes out tomorrow.

Ooh, I'm gonna watch it because John and I are finishing Fall of the House of Usher, and then we can nice move on from it.

For anybody that, like, hasn't started it yet, just like trigger warning, there's a good amount of domestic violence. But I just wanna, like, put that out there. But overall it's really good. Oh wow, and it's part of the story, so.

Yeah, unfortunately.

Okay, but back to this scandalous affair.

At it again.

So, according to a newspaper report at the time. And this is about George. His conduct toward her and his seeming indifference were a cruel blow for her future happiness. She could not believe that he would disregard so readily the sacred vows in which he had so earnestly made.

I mean, we all, you know, yeah, these men.-.

Play is gonna play.

Especially from the 1800s, 1800s and early 1900s, men were wild in it.

We think, and I'm not saying George is a fuck boy, but like, this is just like reminding me of, like, fuck boy behavior. We think that fuck boys originated like within the 21st century. Incorrect.

No, incorrect.

Ghosting happened before. It just looked different.

It just wasn't called that.

Exactly, it was just called like, reckless abandonment.

It was called phantoming, cause that's more fancy.

I like that a lot better.

He phantomed.

I would feel so much better, like if I was like, back in my dating days, being like I got phantomed.

I got phantomed, I got Danny phantomed.

That'd be so much better, it is better, but anyway. According to the news article, George's callousness toward Alice quote threw her into an illness from which she never recovered, and she eventually died of a broken heart.

Oh, that's terrible.

It's unlikely that she actually did die of a broken heart. I think she had a different illness.

I was gonna skip over that part, I was just gonna let that fly, cause I get the hyperbole of it all.

Yeah, she was sick, but she was also sad because of what had happened.

And that can, like, shatter you.

Yeah, she, actually, she did die a few years after the engagement was called off. So I don't think anybody really knows truly if it was of a broken heart.

Did she die with a broken heart? possibly?

There you go, that's a better way to say it. But either way, George's disregard for her feelings or her reputation, too. You have to think that was a big part of life back then, to be abandoned like that was huge.

Yeah.

Not long after Alice passed away, George actually became engaged again, this time to a local socialite named Louisa Miller. However, just like his engagement to Alice, his interest in marriage and monogamy was more fleeting than genuine. And it wasn't long before he was seen around town in the company of other, less reputable women. We shall say so before long. Louisa called off the engagement. And, according to Bellamy, that author that I referenced before, there was a rumor of quote. Yet a third engagement with a woman named Elizabeth France. But that too quickly ended.

Wow, just racking them up. yeah, rack them up, rack them up.

So how many of the details of this period in George's life are true is definitely debatable. But what is clear is that, after three failed engagements due to very public infidelities, George did at this point earn a reputation in and around Canton. As a bit of a fuck boy, if you will.

Yeah, I mean, I could see it.

Yeah, it didn't help matters that, while he maintained his official residence at the Saxton House, he also had a separate apartment where he would like take ladies.

His booty bungalow, if you will.

Absolutely obsessed. Someone should create a market in which they sell booty bungalows, because I'm telling you there's money there. Fuck boys would sign up for that in a minute. Elite, fuck boys, they're like, elite, fuck boys would love a booty bungalow.

They don't want a bachelor pad, no elite fuck boys, want a booty bungalow, booty bungalow.

I want a booty bungalow for myself, I don't want anyone to come over, I just want one.

Wow, I don't want anyone to come over, I just want one, no.

It's my booty in that bungalow.

Only booty in that bungalow is me.

But however, despite what people thought of his relationship history and his disregard for the feelings of the women that he had scorned. George was still considered really charming and likable by a lot of people in and around town.

Well, I mean, yeah, he must've been. It sounded like, honestly.

If you've ever watched Southern Charm, he sounds like Shep Rose.

Oh my God, the fact that you said that.

That's who I pictured the entire time.

I've been thinking this the whole time that he has such shep rose vibes.

He does because I know he got a little problematic as of late in the last couple of years.

But before that, he just seemed like this.

Really nice, chill dude that was known around town, that people really loved.

It was just kind of a mess.

And he's friends with everybody, but in relationships he's a fucking wreck.

Yeah, he's that good time guy and he seems like whatever, but relationships, like you said, are his kryptonite.

It's almost like in Austin, too. Austin Kroll Yeah, there you go. Hey guys, I don't know them, but anyway.

It's insane, Madison. Literally insane right now, Madison. Also. Sorry, I'm so I must sound wild in this because I'm just laughing at everything. But I am working off of, I think, 4.5 seconds of sleep in the past three days.

Yeah, we went to the Lizzie Borden House, which we're gonna talk about at another moment in time, but sleep didn't happen there, obviously.

And then my youngest got a stomach bug in the middle of the night, which is always and before-.

And that was when she came home, like the night that you came home.

The night we came home, so I was like, no sleep the night before, then. Boom, stomach bug. And it's cold and flu season. And kids get sick all the time before you start being like, your kids are sick all the time, they are, kids are always sick.

She said, Fucking kids.

It's cold and flu season.

It is cold and flu season and kids, if you have kids, I feel like you realize that they are just sick all the time.

Yeah, there's like a group of people in the world who are very shocked when your children get sick.

They probably don't have kids. Yeah, it happens, I don't know what to tell you, but that's why we're punchy.

Yeah, I'm very punchy.

I love when you're punchy.

I think it's funny, I'm punchy, bang, bang, and I'm punchy, ha ha.

You're always punchy, bang, bang, and most of the time you're punchy, ha ha. But this is like a different level, but I like it.

It's on a galactic level today, it's a galactic.

She struck him with her motor vehicle, she had been under the influence, and then she left him there. In January 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe. It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location. What happens next depends on who you ask.

I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like, stuttering, super bad. I'm like, stop around. She's like, I can't.

A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

Like doubling and tripling, and it's all these girls.

With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down-low. Everybody thought I was holding something back. Well, you were holding something back intentionally. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah.

Leroy was the new dateline and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

But so the fact that he was still considered charming in town, it really helped him, obviously, not only socially, but professionally, too. His private life really didn't seem to affect his dating life too much, actually, which is kind of shocking. And by the late 1880s, he had taken up with a new woman who was at the center of this story Anna or Annie George?

Annie George.

Her name was Anna, but she went by Annie. Oh so, by the time she met George Saxton, Annie George had actually been married for 10 years. To sample George, so it gets a little confusing, there's George Saxton, and then there's Sample George.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, his name. He was a local carpenter, and together they had two young children.

Sample is such an interesting name, I just have to point that out.

No, it is, it very much is.

It's a very interesting because I thought you were calling him like, sample George, like this is the sample size George. But like, she's, this is the real George. And it's like, I was like, who's sample George? But that's, that's a name, that's him.

I almost just said, That's his name, that's his name, so that's him name, you know, just never heard that before. Yeah, neither have I.

So this man just swooped in, mm-hmm.

She and her husband, Sample, moved to Canton, Ohio, in 1883, hoping to build a better business, and it wasn't long after they moved to Canton that. George Saxton first caught sight of Annie in the Goldberg Brothers store on the Saxton Block. Because he literally had his own block.

Romantic.

It is if she wasn't married.

Goldberg Brothers Store hot.

And immediately he was taken. He told a friend She is a remarkably handsome woman. I will make her acquaintance.

Remember, I'm obsessed with that statement. First of all, remember when people used to call women handsome, they were like, She's such a handsome woman. Yeah, it's interesting.

Because I feel like it depends on where you live, if that's like an insult or a compliment.

Oh, really, I've only ever heard it as a compliment.

Because I thought a handsome woman was like, Oh, she's a handsome woman.

Oh, no, I've only ever heard it, like, she's a handsome woman, like she is a very striking woman.

Because I've heard it in that context.

Like, she's got very like, striking features.

Yeah, I've heard it in that context, but then I've heard it in the context of, like, Oh, she's like a handsome woman.

Oh, I've never heard that, yeah.

Interesting, or maybe I just misinterpreted, you're like, maybe I made that up. It is possible.

But anyway, before I just that statement is just awesome though.

He's like, I will make her acquaintance.

I'm like, you will, I believe in you?

But she married.

I know, I know.

But I believe in him because it happens.

He just had so much confidence that he charmed me, confidence from afar.

That's what it's all about.

Through time and space, he just charmed me so.

That's when, you know, and that's what it's really all about is confidence. It is chutzpah.

Yes, swag, I will make her acquaintance you will, I love it.

And he did, yeah. Before she even left the store. George had not only introduced himself to Annie, but also extended an offer to move into a large apartment in the Saxton block, where he kept his bachelor apartment. Wow, now. This was perfect because they remember her and her husband had just moved there and they only had a temporary living situation.

Yeah, thinking this guy's just being nice.

Yeah, he's like, Oh wow, what a nice man you've met, Hopefully he's ugly. But within a remarkably short amount of time, George Saxton had fully integrated himself into Annie and Sample's life. And, like, not in a super fun, friendly way.

That feels very, it feels very h.

Yeah, it is interesting. When you start setting up the story, it does sound a little bit like you're like, wait, is he the or the?

Is what's going on?

Yeah, so he would stop by at the apartment regularly, usually when Sample wasn't home, if he could help it. Oh, and it wasn't long before Annie really started to look forward to George's visits, during which it was reported. Quote This is iconic. He poured into her ears all the flattering endearments of which he was capable and sought to gain her affection and confidence.

Wow, I love all that, except for the use of the word poured, yeah.

Because it makes your ear feel full of water.

You hate that? As soon as you started saying it, I was like, Oh, and I just covered one of my ears.

You said, Not my ears.

I said, Nope, don't pour anything and even compliments into my ears.

Poured into her ears all the flattering endearments of which he was capable. Wow, that's a writer right there.

That is how flowery as fuck.

I wrote it as in other words, he was laying it on thick, and she was smitten, she liked that shit.

She was picking up what he was putting down, she was smelling what he was stepping in. Yeah, all that good stuff.

Now, at first, Sample assumed George's interest in the family was of genuine concern. They had two small children. Oh, Sample. He gave them a place to live. He's looking after his wife.

What a nice guy.

You know, they were a young family who were new in town. And his generosity seemed like what you would expect from a guy like George. He was well off, he was prominent, well-known, yada yada. But within a few months, sample did start to become suspicious of George Saxton's intentions.

But onlookers might not think so.

And people are gonna talk and we're new here.

Yeah, we're new in town, I love it.

Now, Sample was right to be suspicious of the attention that George Saxton was lavishing upon his wife. Indeed, and he would only become more so in the months that followed. Now, it's unclear exactly when George and Annie's affair began. Because it did. But by most accounts, she really did try to reject his advances, at least initially. But if his relationship history was any indication, George absolutely loved the chase and the courtship phase of relationships.

Oh yeah, of course, the forbidden fruit.

Exactly the more and more she resisted his advances, the harder he tried to win her over. Of course, endlessly complimenting her, sending her all kinds of gifts, showing up all of it, all of it.

Yeah, absolutely.

Now, after years of George's relentless campaign to win her over.

Damn.

Years Annie finally gave in, and in 1889, she agreed to join him for a trip to Myers Lake Casino.

What the fuck years he played the long game.

He sure did now. Later, Annie would claim that she was unwittingly seduced by Saxton based on his explicit promise to marry her. So, and that was like a thing back then, if you had vocal, like a verbal agreement, that, like somebody had said they were gonna marry you. That was actually that like, weighed heavy back then.

That would like hold up in court. Uh-huh, yeah, like it was, I forget what it was called.

I think I might touch upon it later, actually.

Yeah, cause it's been in a couple of my cases too.

Now, given George's track record with engagements, though, this seemed entirely possible. That, like he had said, Yeah, totally, I'll marry you, but whatever his strategy. By 1890, Annie had become estranged from her husband and was openly carrying on an affair with George. Now sample. George was completely outraged, and by that point, he had already taken the children and moved back to where they came from. Hanoverton. Oh, damn.

Oh, wow.

So he was like, That's fine, I'll still pay for your ass, but like, you can't marry that man that you stepped out the back with me on.

Sample seems pretty full size to me.

Oh, he is, he seems family size. You just wait.

The party pack.

He's like, he's a Yeah, I was just gonna say he's a party pack. So now, having failed to leverage Sample's anger into getting a divorce, George and Annie devised a new scheme. Annie would move to South Dakota, where divorce laws were liberal. Because, remember, at this point, like, you can just get divorced here, there and everywhere.

Yeah, no way, that's wild, crazy. You can't just end a lifelong commitment.

That's so shameful to stay in it. But after staying the requisite six months, she could file for divorce and then promptly return to Ohio and marry George. So, in October of 1891, she took a train to Canton, South Dakota. Wow, literally so many cantons.

So many cantons.

And she set up residence at the Heartland House Hotel. But whatever she had expected to find in South Dakota was probably much better than what she ended up actually experiencing. It was then referred to as the divorce colony where she was staying.

The divorce Colony. Yeah, wow.

And at that time, divorce, under any circumstances, obviously was seriously discouraged. And to seek one would have meant public scorn, and then the scorn was doubled. When Annie, she was not the injured party, that's what they would have referred to it as back then. So when word started going around that like this is why she was in South Dakota, people really didn't treat her well.

Aw, yeah.

For close to a year, she lived as kind of a social pariah in South Dakota, with only occasional visits from George to interrupt the boredom and really, rather rough conditions.

Was it worth it? No, okay.

Things became worse in February of 1892 when she got word from Ohio that, in her absence, her soon to be, hopefully ex-husband. Sample George had filed a $30,000 lawsuit against George Saxton for alienation of affection. That is a term that allows the aggrieved party to sue an adulterer who had seduced their spouse.

Damn.

That's a fucking thing.

Alienation of affection. Yes, interesting.

Isn't that crazy, yeah, now. Until that point, George and Annie's relationship had been spoken of in like, very hushed tones and rumors. But the lawsuit made it a document, a public fact.

Oh, shit.

And one that detailed the sexual relationship between Saxton and a married woman. Oh no, so, like, a lot of people could get their hands on that.

Yeah.

With the lawsuit against Saxton filed, Sample agreed to grant Annie a divorce in September of 1892, and she was officially a single woman. But he was like, I'm gonna get $30,000 out of this, yeah. Unfortunately for Annie, the pending lawsuit gave George a reason to put off getting married because, remember, he doesn't really like to get married. It never really ends up panning out.

He loves the lead up to getting married.

Yeah, who doesn't? It's really exciting. I personally love the being married part as well. But in the meantime, she moved to Cleveland in order to avoid the fallout from now a very public scandal. And just waited for everything to blow over. So she could finally go back and marry George. Months turned into years, but Annie continued to wait very patiently for the timing to be right for her and George to marry.

Oh man.

Now in, I know she fucked up.

It's bad news, bears.

She fucked up. In March of 1894, Sample's lawsuit against George was actually dismissed. So Annie was able to move back to Canton, Ohio, and she took up residence in her old apartment in the Saxton building. Okay, and she started a sewing business in order to support herself. Now. By this time, it seems George's affections for her had started to wane, and it's likely that their relationship would have just ended. Like all his other engagements.

Damn.

Meaning he would have to keep up his affection for her at least until the case was settled.

Or else, she would be like testifying against him, absolutely.

So whatever scheme George had in mind, it didn't quite work out the way that he had planned. While she may have been naive, Annie wasn't so foolish as to not recognize that. George had very little time for her and only seemed to show affection to her when it suited him. Like she was catching on to this, oh yeah, and just as it had been with his other fiancées. Rumors about George carrying on with other women soon made their way back to Annie, leading to a actually violent confrontation in late 1894, in which she fell down a flight of stairs and George threw her out of her room at the Saxton building.

What the fuck?

No one knows for sure, but she would later claim that George kicked her down the stairs during this, Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

If she hadn't been so blinded by love or excitement, she probably would have recognized a pattern in George's life of seducing women, proposing marriage, then very unceremoniously, dropping them once, he'd lost interest. But she didn't seem to have put all the pieces together until her life was in shambles. She had endured everything and pretty much lost everything.

That's horrific.

But if George thought that this was gonna go away, like all the other ones, completely without consequences, he was very seriously mistaken.

Surprise.

Now, as the son of one of Canton's wealthiest families, George Saxton, as we know, was accustomed to easily getting what he wanted. Whether it was his company, his family home, his money, his three former fiancés. George didn't really have to work too too hard to get anything. And when he was done with something or someone, he was accustomed to just making it go away with ease, just moving on.

It's not always gonna work, honey.

It's not always gonna work. It's likely that after his contrived and surprisingly physical falling out with Annie, he assumed that she would just go away. Fade into the background like the others had. Yeah, but neither Annie or Sample George had any intention of going away without a fight.

Uh-oh.

In August of 1895, George Saxton filed a demurer in court alleging that the statue of limitations had run out. On Sample's suit, however, Sample quickly filed an appeal that would eventually take the case to the state Supreme Court.

Whoa?

So they're just suing each other left and right, and Annie joins now. In the meantime, she filed her own lawsuit against George, demanding $50,000 for his alleged breach of promise to marry her.

Breach of promise.

Breach of promise? Despite the lawsuit and obviously bitter split, Annie remained committed to George in a manner that kind of bordered on obsession. Ooh, she was telling anyone who would listen that she was still very much in love with him and was gonna win him back. Oh, I hate this.

Yeah.

Now, given how protective George was of his wealth, it's likely that the breach of promise suit was intended to drive him back to her. She figured that's how she would get him back, but it wasn't gonna be that easy. But no, and also it's like, you wanna sue someone to make them love you again.

That's what I don't get is it's like the end result, man, you're not getting what you want.

And in the months and years that followed their breakup, Annie refused to give George a moment's peace or privacy. She would quote, accost him whenever he showed himself and loudly beseech him to return to her loving arm.

Wow.

The only thing that seemed to work in George's favor was that, regardless of how publicly they carried out their affair, he had never made any written promises to marry her. So I don't think it was a.

I was wrong there. A full breach of promise.

I don't think verbal counted, I think it had to be written down now. As a result, his lawyer was able to get this breach of promise suit thrown out of court. But Annie immediately refiled, and George found himself fighting not only her lawsuit, but Sample's lawsuit. That was, like, I said, making its way to the Supreme Court.

I was just going to say, This sounds awful, yeah.

It also it's like a little bit of like, like this part of it is like karma. I think it's like his like, three previous, like, you know, the first one was up there, like pulling some shit. Oh yeah, you know what, Georgie now? While the lawsuits were a costly and obviously stressful experience, George would come to find that they were, or at least should have, been, the least of his concerns.

Meanwhile, she's like she was married, she had kids whole life.

Sample took them back to Hanoverton and she never went back. It's like, ugh, yeah, she was like a very quote unquote, normal woman now. Years later, William Cook, a resident of the building, told the court one evening quote. He came home late at night to find all the lights on the second floor were out. Turning a light on, he discovered Annie George standing motionless and silent in front of George Saxton's room.

Whoa?

On another occasion, the same man returned late from the theater one evening and found Annie standing outside of Saxton's door with a pistol in her hand, which she tried to hide when she realized that he had spotted her.

What the fuck?

So she's essentially stalking him at this point, like, there's really not a better way to say it.

No.

In response to her increasingly disruptive and harassing behavior, George actually ended up filing a request for a restraining order against her. And, in turn, she made several public claims that he was running a sex work and gambling business out of the Saxton building. And the only reason she had been going to the building on a regular basis was to check on her belongings, which she claimed he was withholding from her after throwing her out. Jesus, So this is a fucking wreck.

Yeah.

The restraining order was granted in early 1896.

What the can you imagine your new guy, no, is pulling up to your house and his ex is stopping him? Each time? To be like, You don't wanna go up there, you wanna be with me, like, I'd be like, what the fuck?

I don't know if I could handle that. No, I think I'd be like, Listen, you're awesome, but like, you need to figure this out.

Before we can be together, yeah, you gotta figure it out.

Because, like, I don't wanna get killed in the meantime.

Oh, yeah, you don't wanna deal with that.

Because it's dangerous.

Yeah, they get scary.

Like, I know this is like a salacious story from the 1800s, but it's scary what happened.

But it can get scary, yeah.

Now, if it happened that George managed to get inside the house before Annie arrived, she would just stand outside all evening. Quote varying her anguished cries for George's return, with angry and often obscene abuse of Eva.

What?

Yeah.

Are you kidding me?

No, so she'd just stand outside of this woman's house, like screaming for George to come back to her and yelling obscenities about Eva. No, which I'd be like, get the fuck off my property.

No, yeah, that's not. That's when you do the old like, that's when the old plague habits come back and you piss in a bucket and empty it on the streets.

Oops, oops, that's my shit. When she wasn't causing an embarrassing public scene. Annie continued her legal pressure on George, filing multiple suits, alleging, among other things, that he'd stolen her belongings or was holding them hostage inside his building. It's not clear how serious these legal claims were, or whether they might've just been thrown out by a judge. But George engaged in each battle, which you can understand why he wants to. But you're like, like, from the future, you're like, don't do it, just give her back her shit.

Yeah, like, just stop it all.

In one instance, he claimed that he had in fact been holding some of her belongings, but he was holding them as collateral for a loan of $300 that he'd given her several years earlier and he'd never gotten any money back. And he said, I'll give her her belongings when she pays me back. Eventually, he relented because I think he just couldn't fucking take it, and he allowed Annie to retrieve some of her belongings. But that turned out to be a bad idea in the grand scheme of things. Because rather than putting an end to the matter, which I'm sure he thought it was gonna do, she interpreted this as success. Like he wants to see me, he invited me over. And she spent months finding reasons to enter the premises and access different things. Saxton's lawyer complained to the constable about it during all the lawsuit fighting, saying she's got everything but the paper on the wall and now she wants that.

I would like the paper on the wall.

Who really knows? That'd be amazing, that'd be iconic. In the late 19th century, public awareness, obviously, or understanding of stalking and mental illness, were way more limited than they are today. So while Annie's behavior may have been seen by her neighbors as strange or probably desperate, she was just deemed an overly emotional woman, rather than malicious or dangerous.

I was gonna say, I'll find you.

Exactly.

Yeah, that's the like, I'm gonna legally bind us. Yeah, in one way or another, one way or another, she's gonna bind you.

Gonna sue ya, sue ya, sue ya, sue ya everyday. Finally, in January of 19, nope. 1898, one of those legal battles finally came to an end. When the Ohio Supreme Court actually ruled in Sample George's favor in the years-long suit alleging that alienation of affections. And it resulted in Saxton being ordered to pay Sample $30,000 Whoa? But George sought to get an injunction to stop the verdict, arguing that at the time the suit was followed, Sample and Annie actually were already divorced.

Huh versus the 30,000..

Given all the time and effort that had gone into Sample's lawsuits against George Saxton, it struck everybody as odd. That he would agree to, like a fraction of a fraction of the settlement of the original claim.

Like, one percent, yeah, like if that.

However, the reason would soon become clear when the press discovered that Sample had been married for more than a year and had kept it secret. Oh so as not which like, he was fully, well, he was fully within his bounds to do that because he was divorced. Yeah, of course he was, yeah.

But it just adds to the drama.

But it doesn't make it look good because he's supposed to be like this heartbroken man. Yeah, of course, yada yada, yada. But anyway, the resolution of the alienation case may have been largely in George Saxton's favor. But everywhere else he turned, things were decidedly less pleasant. I guess you could say. Annie Sarasman only increased. And by then, she had enlisted the press and her campaign to win George back by ruining everything in his life.

That's not how you form a relationship.

That's not how I've ever gone about it.

No.

So who am I to say?

Don't be a life ruiner and ruin people's lives.

Yeah, and don't forget, this is all now, like, right around this time is when his sister is married to the president.

Oh so, that's even more, yeah, scandaloso.

So, like, the president's brother-in-law is getting smeared in the press.

Yeah.

And now this is the time, like right around the time that William McKinley was like, elected president. So the brother-in-law of the president is getting smeared in the press. Eek, Yeah, now. Fortunately, though, while the residents of Canton had come to expect certain types of behavior from both Annie and George. And certain people really kind of delighted in the gossip. Luckily, the local press really rarely accommodated Annie's requests for them to print updates on personal squabbles.

Yeah, and it's like they're gonna start losing their reputation and credibility by printing everything, she says.

Exactly, and not actually looking into it. And just like mere squabbles, yeah. So when that failed, Annie resorted to the only other thing she could think of to win George back. Regular and numerous threats against his life.

I don't really understand the thought process here.

Neither do I.

But okay, I guess it's a good thing that I don't understand the thought process here.

I think it says good things about you.

I think it does, too.

But throughout 1897 and well into 1898, nearly everyone in Canton, Ohio, had become aware of the very toxic relationship that had developed between George and Annie. And while they may have been sympathetic, most of them knew exactly who was to blame for the acrimony under those circumstances. It probably came as no surprise to a lot of people when Annie started making threats against George's life. To quite literally anyone and everyone who would listen. In one instance, in June of 1898, during a conversation with just an acquaintance on the sidewalk, Annie loudly exclaimed If George Saxton does not keep his promise of marriage to me, I'll kill him. Damn him.

Why do you? Okay? I mean, why do you want to be married to someone like who doesn't want to be married to you?

I think it's just obviously it's a mental illness and it's just like, obsessed.

Like, yeah, this is like true obsession.

And it's like, she scorned, and you're not gonna scorn her, you're gonna follow through on your promise.

Unbelievable to me, like, that's an unbelievable amount of obsession.

It is, and it is worth noting. Obviously, like we were saying earlier, like she left her whole fucking family for this man. And who knows? I don't think he like asked her to. But it was part of it, you know, like, be with me.

Fits into it, for sure.

So I think that definitely-.

Like, she doesn't see her kids. Yeah, she's totally isolated at this point.

And obviously that's like, partially a choice that she made, but I think that's definitely a driving factor.

Yeah, I think so, too.

Exactly, and in the months that followed, the threats intensified in both detail and frequency. During a quilting bee, a motherfucking quilting bee with several women, Annie exclaimed. After the case is settled, there will be a wedding or a funeral. If he doesn't marry me, he'll not walk the streets of Canton another day, I'll shoot him dead.

I need everyone to picture. You are on one of your finest squares and this lady. Just a casual conversation is like, I'll be real with you. Here are the two things that are gonna happen. One of these two things is gonna happen. One of them is a funeral. Because I'm gonna kill this man, yeah.

I'm just trying to quilt.

This is a motherfucking quilting bee.

Like this is for my newborn grandchild, Annie, I need you to chill.

There should be no murder plots or murder admissions happening at a quilting bee. I would like to say that right now.

You can't put murderous vibes into one of the coziest things on the planet.

Yeah, that quilt is tarnished.

It absolutely is.

That's and like, who's sitting next to her, hearing this? like, where did that? like? she just casually drops this? And they're all just like, Wow, yeah, that's wild, Annie.

Well, luckily there was somebody there of sound mind, okay, good. One of the ladies was like, Yeah, so like, a wedding would be awesome. I hope that happens for you. Yeah, like, happy.

She's like, Hun, that's murder. Here's another square. Yeah, please just concentrate on this, you know? Double stitch.

But when that woman was like, Here, here. Annie replied to her that she had always gotten out of trouble before. And she would get out of that kind too.

I'd be like, Have you murdered before, though? Cause that's a different kind of trouble.

I would not ask any further questions, I would just count the hours until the quilting beat was over.

Yeah, I would just be like, there's varying levels of trouble that you can wiggle yourself out of. Murder, murder's probably the highest.

Top tier, I'd say.

I'm gonna go with the highest one.

Things that are hard to get yourself out of.

Don't do that.

Eventually, the incidents of threats were made directly to George and sometimes included physical assaults. Wow. In one instance. Annie stopped George and Eva as they were walking into Eva's house, and she grabbed George's arm and shouted, Look here. You're not going into there tonight, like saying, like, you're not going to Eva's place.

What?

George managed to get himself free of her grasp by whacking her on the arm with his umbrella and then fled into the house. Like, had to whack this woman in the arm with his umbrella. Which that's self-defense at that point.

Oh, absolutely.

And then had to run into his girlfriend's house like the police aren't arresting her. No, like, I didn't come across any like, and she got, like, cited for this or anything like that.

It was just happening, what is going on? They just had to endure this.

Well, and I think he had gotten that restraining order, but it was only, I don't think, restraining orders.

Only for the Saxton buildings, right?

And I don't think they were what they are now.

No, I don't think they were at all.

I think it's like, this is a small town we can't like, tell her she can't walk down the street.

Yeah, like, you can't wow, cause it's just, and it's the timeframe. But you just think about, like, now it's like somebody would be like, you need to go to a hospital, you need some treatment here.

They love to throw us in the hospital, U.S. women for like.

I know that's true, but that's the thing. They would throw women in the hospital for nothing. Yeah, for bullshit reasons. When there was real instances of mental health crisis, they were just like, Well, that's annoying, I don't want to deal with that.

And I think there wasn't a lot going on back then, and I hate to say this, but I think it was a source of entertainment for people in the town. Yeah, I think people like, to a degree.

Like, gossiped about it, yeah, got to watch the interactions, and.

And I don't think anybody thought what ultimately ends up happening was going to happen. But then when it happens, they're like, Yeah, that makes sense.

That's the thing that, like Pete, as a human beings, we need to get it together in so many ways, but in one way, we need to get it together. When someone tells you that they're going to kill someone.

They're probably going to kill that person.

They do think about killing that person. Yeah, so you should tell someone yes, blanket statement.

I think that's.

Overreact.

Quilt statement.

Quilt statement, Quilting bee statement right here. Overreact, Yeah, overreact.

The guidance counselor Go let someone know the police.

You can wash your hands of it after that, but go do your due diligence and go tell someone. Cause we have covered so many fucking cases, especially lately, of people laying down.

Word for word.

The most non-subtle threats, like the most conspicuous shit. They're just like, I am going to kill this person with an Ax. And people are like, you know, it's so weird. I didn't think they would actually do it.

It's good that that's unbelievable to you, like it's good that you and your heart of hearts don't think that's going to happen. I think that's because you yourself are like, Well, I could never do that. Like, how would they?

And no one's ever told me I'm going to kill someone. If someone told me I want to kill this person, or I think about killing this person. Sometimes I'm telling someone, so don't tell me your shit, because I'm going to go blow your shit up.

And that's the spot on that.

Spotlight right on you like, you can't, I'm going to snitch.

So don't tell me you should, I would exactly.

It's never happened. I can't wrap my brain around these people that are just. It happens so often through history.

No, it really is, it's wild, it really is quite alarming.

And we haven't learned because we've covered cases from the 2000s where people were like, Yeah, I don't know. They produced a murder weapon and told me they were going to do it, but I didn't think they would actually do it. Why would they do it? We got to stop, stop underestimating our fellow human beings, we should.

In every different aspect, yeah.

Not even just like killing people in the bad ways. Yeah, yeah, exactly, there you go.

But anyway, on another occasion, Annie confronted the couple, Eva and George, as they walked home. And she grabbed George's arm again, this time pulling a revolver from her pocket and forcing him to walk down the street with her.

Call the police.

Call the police.

What's going on?

This situation only ended when she actually dropped the revolver at one point, and George was able to grab it from the ground and, like, speedily walk away from her.

What the fuck?

Given the way things were headed, it was only a matter of time before this situation reached a very tragic conclusion. And that's where we are at right now.

Oh, no.

A little after 6 p.

Like, a couple weeks.

Just as the working men and women of Canton were ending the day and making their way home, George Saxton was on his bicycle. Headed to his girlfriend Eva Althaus Place at a nearby grocery store, just right across the street from Eva's house. Henry Biederman was standing in the doorway of his store, talking with another man, August Boren, the store's owner, when the two men heard a loud gunshot ring out. Followed by another as many of the Cantonians who had witnessed the ongoing deterioration of George's relationship with Annie. One of the men, like so many others in town, knew things had come to, or knew things would come to a violent head sooner or later. And he recalled that his first thought, upon hearing the sound of gunshots, was Saxton's finally getting it.

Whoa?

Which like, Wow, what a first thought, sir.

That is the most chilling shit I've ever heard, like Saxton's finally getting it. It's like someone is dying.

And that's your immediate thought.

Damn, yeah.

So the two men walked out to the sidewalk and peered around the corner in the direction of Eva's house, where they saw a figure approaching George Saxton, who lay on the stone walkway leading to Eva's door. The figure was wearing dark clothing, and from their build and the way they moved, Biederman thought that it looked like a woman. Damn. The figure leaned down close to George and appeared to grab his arm and then stood up and fired twice more into his body.

Holy shit.

Before running off toward a nearby vacant lot and then disappearing into the woods. So Henry Biederman was one of the first people to reach George, who by then was laying on his right side with his face turned toward the sidewalk. By then, the sun had gone down completely and there were no streetlights outside of Eva's house. So the men who assembled around the body actually couldn't make out who it was, but they knew. And even when Biederman turned the body over, several men around him had to light matches before they could confirm that it was George, which it was.

What the fuck?

A few feet away, his satchel had landed hard on the ground, scattering the contents. A night shirt and a bottle of champagne, which we'll come back later out onto Eva's lawn. And finally, after several minutes, somebody went to go get police Sergeant William Hassler and a doctor, Dr. Edward Brandt. Regardless of how it appeared to the crowd that had now assembled around the body, George Saxton was 100 dead and he had died violently, according to the autopsy. The first bullet entered his side above the right breast and then bounced off a suspender buckle and exited two inches above the entry wound.

Holy shit.

So it literally went in and then out, oh wow, which is wild. The second bullet entered the left side of his chest, grazed his ribs and then exited near the left shoulder, and the slug was later discovered among his clothing.

Oh my god, that's so violent.

So violent, four shots. The bullets collected from the body and George's clothing were from a 38 caliber revolver and had all been fired at close range. Close enough to leave burn marks on his clothing, Oh my god, so that's like really close, and burn marks on his clothing down to his underwear.

Oh yeah, I'm sure, with all that going on.

So horrific.

Oh yeah.

As soon as the news of George's murder started to spread around Canton, there was literally not a shed of doubt in anyone's mind as to who killed him. You know who did it? And the search for Annie George began immediately. Large teams of men spent hours combing Canton's downtown and residential areas, but there was no sign of her anywhere.

Wow.

At that time, she was at the home of her friend Florence Klinger, having arrived there at about 6.

Yeah.

After a stop at the lawyer's office, she returned home to Cora Oberlin's rooming house around 9 p.

Oh boy.

So the next day, his murder had not only made the headlines of all the local papers, but, of course, national ones as well. Yeah. Since marrying William McKinley in 1871, George's sister, Ida had become a household name. As the First Lady of Ohio. First, excuse me, as the First Lady of Ohio from 1892 to 1896, and then, like I said, as the First Lady of the United States, starting in 1897. Although Ida and George actually rarely saw one another and really only had like a casual relationship since they were young. The murder of the president's brother-in-law was big news, no matter what. And it was made more so by the fact that the primary and only suspect in the case was a woman.

Yeah.

Like, that was insane, like that was shocking. Yeah, we're talking 1897..

Oh yeah, they weren't believing that women could do that.

Exactly. Annie didn't resist her arrest, and she walked calmly with the officers back to the station, asking no questions and making no mention of George along the way. Despite officers repeatedly asking her questions about where she had been that evening. And despite her stoicism, arresting officers would later say that she did seem agitated from the moment she was arrested. It's to them. It seemed like she was very tense and they could see that she was sweating. Ooh.

Trying to hide it.

Mm-hmm. The officers actually made a point to look closely at her hands as they walked back to the station. And they noted that one of her hands was discolored and looked to be smeared. In what they believed to be gunpowder boom, they also noted. Or, excuse me, noticed that the right side of her dress was covered in Spanish needles and burrs, like the ones that were literally scattered around Eva's front yard.