Episode 527: The Murder of Mary Stannard

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?

Hysterical, a new podcast from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free on Wondery. Plus. Hey weirdos, I'm ash.

And I'm Alayna, and this is morbid.

Ash is struggling. OK, can I just talk about myself for a second? Never I was going to say, this is mermaid instead of morbid, because I went to, like, a, I think it's called a white elephant, yeah.

It's not like a secret Santa, it's like a white elephant. And I got this sexy mermaid ornament, which I have pictured here. Wow, Drew just put it on the Christmas tree. Are we sure we're calling that a sexy mermaid?

Yeah, are we calling it a slightly disturbing mermaid? Yeah, he's sexy, look, he's ripped.

He's a sexy mermaid, what do you think, Michael?

You guys are never on my side, whatever, he's my sexy mermaid in my heart. OK, I got number one at The White Elephant and I actually got to pick that out of all the gifts. Yeah, well, they were silly gifts, so that was the best one in my opinion.

Yeah, I wanted him. What a Yankee swap. The light, it was great that was.

It was fantastic, I love it, I loved it. I never done like a silly swap before, and this one was like the silliest one that I ever did.

The silliest of all the swaps. Yeah, my brother-in-law has a Newfoundland. And hi, Caroline and Michael, you were looking off into the distance when you said that, and I thought, Caroline and Michael, just like, materialized next to me.

I was like, right there, where are they? you don't see them? Hi, are they in the room with us right now?

Do not see them, but my brother-in-law. He put a bunch of his dog's hair into a bag and he put like a sewing kit in there. And he was like, make your own Newfoundland sweatshirt, that's funny.

DIY There is like, a half drink bottle of soda that somebody won. So yeah, I picked the sexy mermaid. OK, all right.

Quote unquote Sexy mermaid, She's sexy, she's sexy, so yeah, I was going to say, this is mermaid, yeah, like the moral of that story.

You might have also been feeling it because of so much talk of the sea. Yeah, Alina's an aquatic hoe. Now we all, I think you guys know me. By now. We're like five years into this that I hyperfixate, and when I hyperfixate, I really go hard on my hyperfixing.

Like John, John can feel them coming, he, like, senses it in the air. Yeah, like he feels a vibration, and he's like, What are you hyperfixating on today? No, I can feel it from my house.

Sometimes I'm like, Oh, she's got a new one, she's got a new one. My latest hyperfixations involve the sea aqua.

Which I've been, I've been moving in that direction for a while, ever since, swimming against that current. Yeah, I mean, it's.

I mean, it started long ago with the Titanic. We all got hyperfixated on that for a little bit. Oh yeah, OK, I was like, just me.

No, I feel like everybody had that moment in their childhood, like for me, second grade there. It was like when you could start reading articles on the computer and computer class, they would like teach you how to do that. And I read a little like article about the Titanic.

Can you believe I was in second grade for you? Yeah, what was it like last year for you? I was like a grown ass adult? Yeah, No, it was second grade.

It was like a big ass. Computers, yeah, mine was. When they brought, they called it the big piece, and it was like a big piece of the Titanic. Oh my god.

And we got to go see it in the Museum of Science and we got. And you could you like, could literally, like, put your hand. I don't think we should have touched it, but we did do. You touched it, yeah.

And it had, like, a How old were you? One of the portholes, I think they're called, like those circular windows. Yeah, because it must have been like a lower part of the ship was still intact in there.

Oh, how old were you? Did you have representation with you? I was in elementary school and they just said, touch that. Well, we just went in a line.

And like I would say, my representation is not here. Yeah, I don't know, I'm not touching that. They they were, I mean, they weren't.

They didn't force us to touch it, like they weren't like, touch it, but I think we just were like, Whoa?

Like, I don't think it was part of the whole thing. Well, have you suffered great misfortunes in your life? Nah, I'm good it was, I touched it.

I was like, I'm going to touch that, but I'm not going to go down to the bottom of the sea and touch that, that's for sure. That's different, but it's that that's where it all begins. Really is when you should have a healthy respect and fear of the ocean. Some of us don't get that.

Yeah, yeah, most of us do. And I then all of a sudden I think you're all probably with me, because I think everyone is you're on North Sea TikTok right now. Oh, abso-fucking-lutely, of course you are.

Yo-ho, like, as soon as that starts, I'm like, Welp, I'm watching this till the end. Weirdly, I don't know what the fuck happened. I got on North Sea TikTok immediately after my wedding, like I just started getting there.

Maybe I had been on it, so maybe my vibes shifted over to you, perhaps, and then also maybe your phone. Heard me on North Sea TikTok a lot, and it was like she likes that.

That's probably part of it. And then actually, I answered my own question. On our honeymoon, we were really interested by the boats that were coming and going to the point that Drew literally downloaded a boat tracker onto his phone. And I'd be like, What's that one? what's that one?

I love that, yeah, but that's like, I got to know who the people that are working in the North Sea are. Yeah, because I keep seeing these videos and I'm like, Are you all?

Are you OK? I feel like what happened? You must like, I feel like that's like when you're like, you're in trouble.

No, I think that that, no, that's like they, that's their job, no. But like, you should, like, you should be in trouble if you if you have to go to the North Sea.

Like, that should be a punishment, that should be a punishment. Like these are just like men and women who are like, This is my job. The ballsy-est motherfuckers is swimming next to the biggest propeller you've ever seen in your life, while the sea rages around me and I fix that propeller.

I can't even hear that sentence. And I'm like, losing my marbles. Or like, I'm fixing this light underneath the ocean while it rages around me and drowns me a hundred times. And I'm like, I got, I got to shake one of your hands.

Like, I got to just be like, What did you see, wild? Did you see? The one that I got the other day where they were like, pushing the biggest ships and like the whole entire world out to sea for the first time? That fucked me, yeah.

You know, I don't like the big thing, but you watch the structures. Yeah, it was, I think it was the North Sea page that posted that. All right, well, here we go.

Now if you guys are listening to this, I think I'm now going to make you be on North Sea. TikTok. Because your devices are going to think they're going to hear me talking about it and they're going to think that's something you like. So I honestly, you're welcome because it's a great place, you're welcome. And you will find yourself being like, Yo ho and the last clip will shock you.

Always, it's always going to shock you. I don't know why that makes me laugh so hard. it usually does so. the whole thing shocks me.

Usually it's the first clip for me. I'm like, I feel like you should swap this one to the end, but you know what? Luckily, my story is on land today, I'm happy.

I say, luckily, but it's not a really lucky story. On land, it's a pretty terrible one, but it's on land, so we're out of the sea. We have. We have a little bit of an old timey crime here.

But my goodness, is there a lot happening here? It's old timey crimey. This is the murder of Mary Stannard. And I looked at the pronunciation to say it because I thought it was Stannard at first, but it's Stannard. I could see why you would think that.

Now, on the afternoon of September 3rd, 1878, 22 year old Mary Stannard left her home in Madison, Connecticut. What's up Connecticut Act? Telling her father she was going to go Blackberry picking because that's very 1800s Connecticut. I love that.

She said she was going to be back by dark, so don't worry about it. And night came and Mary had not returned. So her father went out to look for her and eventually found her body by a creek in the woods her father found her body.

And it, horrifically, the investigation into her murder was truly wild. I mean, wait, there's a there's a preacher involved. Oh, there's adultery, an illicit affair, always a possible pregnancy, there's all kinds of things.

And it remains technically unsolved to this day. Allegedly, but it doesn't allegedly, yeah.

I mean, they're all dead, everybody's dead. And also when you hear this, you're going to say, Yeah, yeah, yeah. I could tell by the by the gleam in your eye over there that this is a salacious is happening. This is the most salacious.

All of this isn't that such a good word? It has a good mouthfeel, it does have a good salacious, so let's talk about Mary.

OK, Mary Elizabeth Stannard was born September 3rd. I don't know if that sounds familiar to you. Yeah, she died on her birthday.

Oh God. September 3rd, 1856 in Madison, Connecticut. So we love a Virgo, we do love a Virgo. I love a Virgo.

We love Virgos. I have a virgo, Dave's a Virgo, Caleb's a Virgo, My aunt's a virgo.

My niece is a virgo in my chart, I'm sure I do somewhere. But Madison itself was a small town of about 1,500 residents on the southeastern coast along the Long Island sound. Not a ton is known about her life prior to becoming an adult because it was the 1800s.

She was living a pretty, by those standards, unremarkable life, you know, just a very normal, just average life. But Mary, at the time she was killed, Mary was living at home with her father again. She was 22. Her father was Charles Stannard.

No, I said it the way I wanted to say it first. Stannard, Stannard. And she was also living with her stepsister, Susan Hawley, and Mary's two-year-old son, William. OK.

There's very little information about Mary's mother, but several newer newspaper articles claim that Mary's quote mother and grandmother were insane. Oh, that's sad. From the Hartford Courant, OK, now? Mary had given birth to a child, William.

She was unmarried and in the 1800s, that's already kind of a little black mark there, and she was also refusing to name the child's father. Oh, OK, so there were rumors around town that the father was a married man in a nearby town.

And when you find out what happens later, you're like, Oh. But this meant that Mary was not held in the highest of social regards. Yeah, but shockingly, and this is pretty shocking for this, she wasn't a complete pariah.

She was considered a quote unquote fallen woman by those who at that time, were trying to claim their own shit didn't stink. Moral superiority, shit, you know, was like, rampant still is rampant. Everybody tries to pretend that their shit doesn't sink when they want to shit on someone, correct.

But so she gave birth to what they considered. And I hate the term illegitimate child, you know, because it's like, that's a child. But they're pretty legit, I see them. And although that kind of thing was undesirable, especially back then, most residents actually believed quote in their estimation. She had been more sinned against than sinning.

Wow, and she was generally treated fairly, that's surprising, with a reasonable amount of respect considering, like.

She wasn't again held in high social regard, but she was not treated shittily. Like as shitty as you've seen in the we've seen in other cases where it's like, she might as well be like, thrown in the river at that point. One hundred percent, yeah.

But like many rural people, especially at the time, Mary was poor. She was uneducated, but generally she everybody thought she was very cheerful, she was friendly, she was a very hard worker.

And it was said that she was quote ready at any time to do any labor, no matter how menial. That would result in her being able to contribute to the family fund that herself and child should not become a burden. So she's kind of like a boss bitch who's going to work hard for herself and her family. That's what I'm getting, she's got that.

And she seems nice, she's friendly, she's cheerful, you know, she had a little oops like situation. I don't know if it was a married man.

That was the rumor, and you know what rumors, nah, and you know what?

She got William out of it exactly, she seemed happy, she was a great mom and she has like, a nice little fam.

Yeah, and she had a great dad and stuff and mom and everything that was going to take care of her. MM hmm.

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, now it's hysteria.

It's all in your head, it's not physical. Oh my gosh, you're exaggerating. Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem, or is it something else entirely? Something's wrong here.

Something's not right. 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.

Scammers are best known for living the high life until they're forced to trade it all in for handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit once they're finally caught. I'm Sachi Cole and I'm Sarah Hagee. And we're the host of Scamfluencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of some of the most infamous scams of all time. The impact on victims and what's left once the facade falls away? We've covered stories like a Shark tank certified entrepreneur who left the show with an investment but soon faced mounting bills. An active lawsuit filed by Larry King. And no real product to push.

He then began to prey on vulnerable women, instead selling the idea of a future together while stealing from them behind their backs. To the infamous scams of Real Housewives stars like Teresa Giudice, what should have proven to be a major downfall only seemed to solidify her place in the Real Housewives Hall of Fame. Follow Scamfluencers on the Wondery app, or wherever you get your podcasts. you can listen to Scamfluencers early and ad free right now on Wondery Plus.

Now again, had she gone past her 22 years, she would have probably gone on to lead a pretty, you know, fairly average life. So young. Unfortunately, she had to come and meet Reverend Herbert Hayden in the summer of 1878. I'm going to go out on a limb here. He sounds like a douche.

Herbert Hayden Oh, bleh, bleh. Not interested. Well, let's talk about him.

Shall we, shall we, we shall. Herbert Hayden was born in 1850 in Taunton, Massachusetts.

Girl bye, Micah, everyone just looked at me in the room. girl, girl bye.

Listen, I used to live there. I can say that it's true, I no longer do, but yeah, he was born in Taunton.

Oh my god, my friends used to call me Taunton Ash when I would get mad, Taunton Ash, oh, the taunton of it all. Well, that's where Herbert Hayden came from.

Yeah, that checks, but at the time, Taunton was actually a thriving mill town. Yeah, Taunton was like, gorgeous at one point, very thriving. It's pretty wild.

What became of Taunton? And he, you know, Hayden spent, or Herbert Hayden spent, had a very ordinary childhood and a very modest home. Very normal, okay. In 1869, he attended the Providence Conference Seminary in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.

And around this time, Hayden met Rosa Shaw, who was a schoolteacher from Carver, Massachusetts, Carver Carver Kid Carver, right next to Plymouth.

There you go, and Plymouth is in here, too. I know it is, I knew it, you know.

So they fell for each other. You know, the schoolteacher, the guy going to, you know, a seminary, Jesus place, Jesus place.

They fell for each other, and the two became engaged and eventually married in 1971.

Is that allowed in 1971, 1871? Do you love that?

100 years later, they married. I was like, Sure, sure, sure, can he even get married though? Yeah, you're like, I don't care. I was like, cool.

Back to the future. Cool, he's 150, that's awesome. Can he actually get married, though?

Is he mortal? Yeah, there's certain there's all kinds of different, like I think it's certain, like certain pastors can get married. Oh, okay, I think it's all different.

Okay, okay. And like, you know, priests can't different, like steps of spiritual leaders, not even steps, I think it's certain, like offshoots.

Like, it depends on your religion, it depends on your congregation, it depends on your, your place. So many logistics, yeah, there's a lot of different things.

And I don't know all of them, but I know that this in particular was okay, okay now. According to Herbert Hayden, just one year before they were married, Rosa lost her mother and her sister to tuberculosis. Oh shit. And her doctor predicted Rosa might also succumb to that disease within the year.

But he recommended maybe a change of scenery to a less polluted environment just to help out. Okay, because, remember, they're in town? Yes, of course, there's tuberculosis in town.

So the couple ended up marrying in August 1871.

Like I said, not 1971, you're going to do it again. I was a hundred years later in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Yay, so let's go see that rock. But they went and returned to East Greenwich so Hayden could continue his education. And it was a good place for Rosa to kind of like, chill out for a minute now. Over the course of two years that followed their marriage, Rosa gave birth to two children.

And while Herbert continued his education, completing his seminary training, in the spring of 1873, he graduated from the Conference Seminary and then enrolled at. I Think It's Wesleyan College in Middletown, Connecticut. Yeah, totally, and Rosa stayed home and raised the kids. Hayden really wanted to complete the program, but the workload and his part-time minister like minister duties essentially became a little too much for him to handle. And he began a long battle with really extreme fatigue that kind of prevented him from keeping up with his studies.

Like, he just couldn't keep up with it all, he was running himself into the ground. Out of six semesters, he only completed about two semesters worth of work, so he really gave up thumbs down.

He really gave up. Quitter, No. He accepted that he was no longer going to be able to meet all his responsibilities, so he dropped out. And in 1875, he accepted a part-time position. Preaching on Sundays at the church in West Rocky Hill, Connecticut.

Got it? That was a small community between Hartford and Middletown. The position at Rocky Hill was supposed to just be like, kind of a temporary thing. He intended to kind of parlay it into something more long-term. But this worked for now because it was helping to pay the bills.

So like, why not? Yeah, and it's in your line of work that you want to do right, right. And after one year at Rocky Hills, he was transferred again to Rockland. And then transferred again in 1877, this time to replace the minister at a church in Monroe, Connecticut.

So the position in Monroe was had better pay, and it seemed like it could really turn into something more permanent. But there was a problem. It was nearly 50 miles from his home in Rockland. Oh shit, that's, that's a far drive. And especially in the 1800s.

So it made sense for Herbert to spend the majority of his week in Monroe to kind of handle church business. And, you know, not have to do that commute all the time. So this left Rosa, though, at home, alone with the kids, a lot. And again, this position held promise for Herbert's career. But it meant Rosa was left alone. And like, that's a lot to put on her. And it was like five or six days out of the week, she was completely alone.

Yeah, and that's putting a lot of distance in between them as a married couple, too. And she was, she was kind of recovering from, like, almost having tuberculosis anyway, so she's already kind of dealing with stuff and the loss of her mom and sister.

Yeah, like she's dealing with grief, all that stuff, and the stress and anxiety were starting to make her ill at this point. And because of this, the couple, because he had this new job, decided that they were going to hire someone to help her around the house with the kids. And so they hired a young woman, and this young woman was Mary Stanard.

I knew it. She lived on a farm with her father, just a few houses down from the Haydens, so it worked out now. By late 1877, Mary had moved into the Haydens house and was working like five or six days a week with them. Like, just, you know, helping with the kids, keeping the house, like helping with meals.

And she was even more necessary to the family when, at the end of the year, Rosa became pregnant again with their third child. Oh, wow. And although she was very much an indispensable part of the household, as far as Rosa was concerned, by March 1878, several residents of Monroe began noticing that. Uh, although Rosa found her indispensable, it seemed like Herbert really liked Mary. He was coming home more often, eh? Within a few weeks of her being hired on a full time by the Haydens quote. There were scandalous stories of meetings in lots and other unfrequented places in the evening, where Herbert and Mary would be alone.

Uh-oh, it was unconfirmed, of course, uh, but later it kind of was. But there was a popular story shared around town that one evening, Hayden took his wife out for an oyster dinner. And halfway through the meal, he excused himself briefly to return home, where he was quote guilty of improper intimacy with Mary. Before coming back to the restaurant, you take your wife out for oysters and then your raggedy ass goes home to your mistress.

Are you kidding me? That was a story around town. You take me on a date to get oysters, which, like, there's implications there already. Yeah, you know.

Yeah, and then you go home because the aphrodisiac's hitting and you go, fuck your mistress, what the fuck? no, the mistress that's taking care of our kids.

Yes, yeah, what? yeah, I'm saying, no, no.

And then poor Rosa's sitting there, aphrodisiac'd up, yeah, and he's already done with nowhere to go. She should find someone else.

Herbert sucks now. It also should be said right away that, as far as anyone knew, the attraction between Mary and Herbert was mutual and they had a very consensual relationship. Sounds like it. And again, this is shocking.

For the time, few people really thought badly of Mary for her participation in the affair, and actually, when it came to responsibility for the infidelities. Many around town noted that Mary and this might have been part of it. I think because I was really shocked to see that everybody wasn't blaming her. Yeah, not because I think they should just blame her, but because that's usually the way it goes.

Yeah, especially in the 1800s, it still goes like that now, yeah, and it's like in the 1800s, it was like, you don't even blink an eye. It's like, of course, it's her fault.

But apparently, Mary was very easily influenced by others and was likely very susceptible to Hayden's charms. Because, in fact, when it came to Mary, it seems like everyone kind of had a fondness for her because they deemed her quote a very simple and easy-minded girl. Okay, now, that doesn't necessarily mean she was like, cognitively, you know? like cognitively anything was wrong here, I think it just means that she was like, you know?

An innocent, she's innocent. She kind of grew up uneducated, She's not very worldly, yeah.

And she's very easily influenced and manipulated. There's like a naivete about her, a naivete, I think, yeah. And so I think people were like a little easier to forgive, like, quicker to forgive her, yeah.

Of her social missteps, I should say. But Herbert Hayden denied the affair with Mary. Okay, he maintained his innocence until the day he died. So where the fuck did you go during that aphrodisiac dinner?

So we'll never know what caused their affair to eventually come to an end, which it did, or will we. But whatever the case, by late spring, their romance had died out, and when Rosa gave birth to the couple's third child in August. Because, remember, he was carrying this on while his wife was pregnant? Yeah, that's good.

Mary had moved out of the Hayden house and stopped working for them. I wonder why we don't know. I wonder, Do you think Rosa caught wind of something? and was like, you get the fuck out of here, yeah?

Well, we'll see, okay, she ended up moving in with Jane Studley in nearby Guilford. It was Jane Studley, a friend to whom Mary first confided this affair with Herbert Hayden. After about two weeks of moving into the home, Jane noticed that Mary seemed very despondent.

She was, like, super emotional, she could be set off a lot easier. And it was not typical of Mary. She pregnant, and so when Jane asked what's wrong with her? Mary broke down and confessed that she and Hayden had been having an affair and that she had been, quote, criminally intimate with the reverend and now believed she was pregnant.

I was going to say, those emotions, criminally, yeah, intimate, criminally intimate.

That would be a fucking awesome band name. we are criminally intimate. that's fucking great. somebody name your band that.

Please do. Or a good book, even criminally intimate, would be a great book. I would pick that up and never put it down. Listen up, book talk.

That's your next book? Criminally intimate, you shouldn't tell anybody that I know, nevermind.

Well, you don't really write smuts. I do not criminally Intimate is a smut book, yeah, and I give credit to smut writers. Because, like, I don't know if I could.

No, I feel it. I feel right in the face, just thinking about it, like, I'm like, good for you, man, because I could not. It's the inner workings of somebody's mind right there. So, like, shout out to smut authors.

Yeah, hats off. But Jane herself had some medical knowledge, and she definitely knew, I'm not sure exactly how, like she had so much medical knowledge. But she knew a lot about pregnancy, maybe she was a midwife or knew midwives had some kind of interest in it. But Jane examined Mary, and she said she found, quote, two, well-recognized signs of pregnancy. Um, the text that we found this in isn't super specific about it. But together, the two women did the math and determined that Mary was about five months pregnant.

Five months, yeah, and this fell in the timeframe that Mary and Herbert were carrying on an affair. Damn, that's pretty far along, yeah.

So although she was known to be what, like I said earlier, people thought of her as a woman of lower than average intellect. I would say Mary knew giving birth to another child out of wedlock with a married man, married Preacher, no less, was about as undesirable an occurrence as she could imagine. Like, this was definitely not a good thing. And not only would it be a significant and unavoidable source of shame at the time. And probably alter, or really end a lot of her relationships with family and friends like this was a biggie.

Um, but it would also be just another what she considered undue burden on her father, who was also also struggling and was trying to keep, you know, her and her son afloat. So she was feeling like she was becoming an issue, which is sad. Mary So desperate for a solution, Jane suggested that Mary go to Herbert Hayden to explain the circumstances and ask for his help. Uh, basically, reasoning that he would have to be just as invested in dealing with this as she was.

Like, we have to come up with a solution here, you would think, and Mary agreed that this was a good idea. But before doing that, she sat down to write a letter to her sister Susan. And included in the envelope another letter that was intended to be given to Herbert Hayden.

In the letter, Mary told her sister Susan about the affair, the possible pregnancy, and asked that she give the letter to Herbert Hayden now, according to Mary, the letter she wrote to Hayden was a similar explanation. And a request that he take her to New Haven Quote for an operation, and then to return her to Mrs Studley for any sickness that might follow now. Mary mailed the letter to her sister in Rockland, and she got it two days later. But by then, Mary had returned home to her father's house and intercepted her sister before she gave the letter to Hayden.

Because she was like, I want to give it to him in person. Actually, okay, she just changed her mind. Yeah, now a little after 1 p..m.

On September 3rd, 1878, her 22nd birthday, Mary Stannard gathered up her tin pail and left the house. She told her father she was going to go to Big Rock, about a quarter mile from the house, to pick blackberries, and she would be home soon. That afternoon, the sun went down, it was getting darker, and Charles Stannard became concerned he hadn't come back. That wasn't like her.

And so he set out in the direction of Big Rock to find out where she had gone. And as he made his way through the brush into the clearing by Big Rock, Charles made the gruesome discovery. Mary was lying on her back, with her arms folded neatly across her chest. She had a clean white bonnet that she was wearing when she left, and it was folded neatly beneath her head. And her tin pail was just a few feet away, overturned, but there was no evidence that any berries had ever been in it.

So she didn't even make it there, and so Charles ran to her and quickly realized that he was not going to be able to bring her back. Mary's throat had been cut, severing the jugular vein, carotid artery and the larynx. Oh my God, brutally cut.

Yeah, deep. She also had a severe head wound. There was a hole in her scalp, what?

And there was also a large bruise on the back of her right hand. Oh my God, so she was brutalized. Yeah, absolutely so. Charles, freaked out, ran to the nearest home for help, that of Francis Mills, and the news spread across the village.

Very quickly, and before long, a group of men had assembled at the Mills house and they set out for the scene. They discovered Mary's body in the woods where Charles had told them, and a quick search of the area turned up. Nothing else really of note, no instrument of murder.

No instrument, because it seems like there was two different things used like something to cut her throat and probably a blunt instrument that hit her in the skull. Neither one was found. And because it was nearly completely dark at that point and at this point, it had actually started to rain.

Oh, no. The men called off the search for the evening and just carried Mary's body back to the Stannard home before sending for justice. Henry Stone and Dr. Rufus Mathewson. Dr. Mathewson was the one who performed the autopsy.

In his post-mortem examination, Dr. Mathewson confirmed that Mary's cause of death was pretty certainly that wound to her throat. Yeah. He also noted the wound to the right side of the head. And he said, Quote Jagged and star-shaped, and apparently made by a blunt instrument. Truly interesting, though, is that, according to Dr.

Mathewson Mary's body showed no signs of pregnancy or of having been recently pregnant. Interesting, and the state of the body indicated. QuoTe An outrage was not committed upon her, so no sexual assault, okay?

So she was not pregnant, so this all could have been avoided. It's it sounds like, yeah, horrifying.

Now, a coroner's inquest was immediately called the following day, and it was overseen by Justice Stone and Dr. Matthews. Among the first witness called was Frances Mills, who was the owner of the home where Charles Stannard had run to after discovering Mary's body. And Mills told the jury that she had been walking out in the woods earlier with her son around 3 p...m.

In the afternoon and heard agonizing shrieks and recognized the voice of Mary Stannard's, but didn't approach the scene and didn't see anything. Why? So you heard agonized shrieks and you were just like, but you didn't tell anyone?

I'm a girl about my business, like, I'm just gonna leave, like, I like, I understand. Not wanting to, like, run in the like, you know, to put your son in harm's way and all that. Yeah, you're not gonna tell anyone.

Like, Hey, I heard some shit in the woods, like, we should probably go check that out. She really said, Not my chair, not my problem, she really did. But Mills testimony led many in the inquest to speculate that she quote might have been outraged by, And this is a quote by a tramp and then murdered.

Now, Dr Mathewson, however, dismissed that theory and reminded the jury there was no evidence of sexual assault. She was not outraged. Quote unquote, Okay now. Almost immediately after the body was discovered, rumors started swirling around town about Herbert Hayden's possible connection to this murder.

After all, for the past year there had been a lot of talk about the illicit romance between the two. And then, Mary's employment with the Haydens had ended rather abruptly. But it was Mary's sister, Susan Holly, and Charles Stanard, her father, who offered the most insightful of testimonies, I would say now. According to both of them, Reverend Hayden had come to their home around 11 a...m. on the morning of the murder.

But she was in town and he and Mary had gone out for a walk. When they returned, Mary told them both that they had made an appointment to meet later that afternoon. Not far from where the body was discovered, right? Additional testimony from Susan and Jane Studley revealed that Mary had confessed her affair with Hayden to both of them, and that she believed herself to be pregnant with Herbert Hayden's child.

Now, when asked about this, Herbert Hayden denied having met with Mary a second time that day. He said he had been out cutting wood all afternoon, all by himself, and didn't see Mary again. Until he and the others went to the woods to retrieve her body. What a great alibi. A great alibi is one that no one can confirm or deny. No one saw me, but I was there.

Alone?

By myself, all day secluded, just chop, chop, chop, chopping wood.

Now, after hearing two days of testimony, Head Juror Charles Stanard.

No relation, By the way. Charles Stanard is her father. This is head juror Charles Stanard, who is not related. That's crazy. He went to justice. H..B.

Wilcox H..B Wilcox I have feelings. Oh, I have feelings about this man.

Sorry, who's H?

B. Wilcox, The judge, he's the justice. Okay, and so this head juror requested that an arrest warrant be issued for Hayden, Herbert Hayden.

Yeah, duh. The request stunned Justice Wilcox, who was a member of Hayden's church.

Instead.

Girl bye, he said. He insisted, he said he had, quote, heard Hayden preach a very good sermon. It did not seem possible the minister could be guilty, and he would rather sign his own death warrant than that arrest warrant against Mr.

Hayden.

Blink, blink, blink, blink, blink. Now, luckily, against his protests, the arrest warrant was signed that Friday morning and the sheriff. Because they were like, fuck off well. And also, don't you think that would be like, you know how jurors get dismissed for being too close to the case? Wouldn't you think that would be a conflict? Yeah?

Back then, I don't think they believed in conflicts. I think they were just like, Huh, nah, nah, fuck it.

Whatever, as we'll see, because it gets worse. I had a feeling. So a sheriff's deputy went out to Madison.

I don't know why I said, sheriff, a sheriff's deputy, I don't really know what happened there. A sheriff's deputy went to Madison and placed Herbert Hayden under arrest for the murder of Mary Stannard. Although the evidence against Hayden was at this point pretty circumstantial, and opinions kind of heavily were influenced by rumor at this point.

Yeah, belief in his guilt was pretty widespread. One reporter wrote I wonder why? yeah.

One reporter wrote The circumstances of the murder were so overwhelming against the clergyman. That surprise was expressed that he was not at once placed in custody, and the reporter then wrote of his guilt. As the case appears now, there can be very little doubt, and it looks as if he was led through fright to commit the crime of murder. And yet did it in such, in so bungling a manner as to make it almost impossible for him to escape suspicion and arrest. Damn so they're like, this fucking idiot.

Like, that's essentially what they're saying, moron now. The public, and at the very least the press, might have been very confident in Hayden's guilt at the time. But far more important in this case was the judge's opinion, and in this case, the judge on the case was Justice H..B.

Wilcox I had a feeling our friend and also he's not my friend.

A friend and staunch advocate of Herbert Hayden's innocence, which seems, seems fine, seems so legit. It's like, Can we call anyone else? Literally any? Go outside and grab the first guy you see, and I think that'll be better, like, come on.

The trial began September 10th and was held in the basement of the Madison Town Hall. And it was a space described as quote low ceiling, stifling, dirty room, almost a cellar. Why don't they have a courthouse? You know, the 1800s and all the fuck.

So judge, come over to this basement and let's judge this man. Judge H. Lynde Harrison was acting on behalf of the state, while L..M. Hubbard, the local postmaster, was acting on behalf of Hayden.

That's real close to how wrong these were. Real, uh, they were wily back then, for real now. Wilcox again was the presiding justice, and it should be noted that although he had legal training, he had no trial experience.

Sounds like this, where are we? Sounds like this is a well-oiled machine. I think it's going to turn out fine. Yeah, everything will be great.

So the rumors about Herbert Hayden's affair with Mary went a long way to people drawing conclusions about his guilt. But that wasn't the sole, or even the most important, reason he was arrested. Actually, it was the testimony from Susan Hawley and Charles Stannard regarding Hayden's supposed appointment with Mary on the day of her murder. That was the most suspicious. And in her testimony. And the fact that he didn't have an alibi, his alibi was like I was chopping wood alone in the forest.

Right, no one saw me. Can you get me a bear? To tell to, like, you know, corroborate this? No, no.

No, I can't.

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.

Was it a crime of passion? If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling. This was clearly an intentional act. And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia or a corrupt police coverup?

If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a coverup to prevent one of their own from going down. Everyone had an opinion, and after the 10-week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision to end in a mistrial. It's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is. Law and Crime presents the most in-depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen.

You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery Plus. join Wondery Plus in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Now so, in her testimony during the inquest and during the first trial. Susan Holly, her sister, explained that. After Mary's first visit with Hayden on the day of her murder, her sister claimed that she had told Hayden of the supposed pregnancy. So, in that first meeting, where they took a walk, she had revealed to Herbert Hayden that she was pregnant and he told her not to worry. That they would go to the pharmacy and get a quote-unquote quick medicine that would end the pregnancy now. Further testimony from other residents confirmed that Hayden had gone to the pharmacy on the morning of the murder and purchased a quantity of arsenic quick medicine. I bet.

I don't know if I would call it medicine per se now. During his testimony, Hayden said Well, of course, I did that. My house and barn are overrun with rats. I had purchased the arsenic to mix with sugar and kill the rats, However, he insisted he had not yet used the arsenic.

He hadn't used it to kill the rats, and as far as he knew, it was still in the package in his barn. So he's like, I didn't even open it and he made sure to say that, which I was like, that wasn't smart because we can figure that out later.

Now, the second piece of compelling evidence was a bloody knife that they discovered during the search of Herbert Hayden's property. Did he also use that on the rats? Following his arrest, authorities searched his home and the adjacent barn, where they discovered a bloody knife. About the size and shape of that, which was believed to have made the wound in Mary's neck. But you brought that home. The knife was sent to M..C.

White, a professor of pathology at Yale Medical School who conducted extensive tests on the blood. I love this because it's very 1800s, because it's like it went to Yale University, where they conducted extensive tests on the blood. He just, like, sniffed it, and what he said was, I think it's human blood that's so extensive.

And I didn't just make that up. That's a fucking quote from the New York Times in 1878. That checks. When he was called to testify, Professor White confirmed that it was blood, and he told the prosecuting attorney quote I think it's human blood.

I have a feeling it's his blood. I'm like, I get it, it's the 1800s. I'm surprised they could tell it was blood and not jelly.

But still, White explained that he had made a similar examination of the blood stains found on Mary's bonnet. That pure white bonnet that she had worn, and those discovered on a large stone found near the body. And said he quote had no doubt that this blood on the stone was human blood, so he could definitely tell that that was human blood. A few days later, Herbert Hayden's wife, Rosa, took the stand to testify for the defense.

Come on, Rosa, and told the court. When her husband went out that afternoon to chop wood, he left the knife in question. With her quote to use in Peeling pears while he was away here, Peel these pears while I'm away. How did it get bloody? In the meantime, according to Rosa, I'm glad you asked.

Because one of those pears, I think, was human, according to a human pear. And Professor White is like, I'll do some extensive testing and I'll be able to tell you that I too think it might be human, me thinks.

Now, according to Rosa Herbert, Hayden had cut his finger with that knife a few days prior to the murder, and that likely explained the blood on the blade. Bitch, you were going to use that to cut pears. I know I was like, That's gross, that's nasty.

Now, additional testimony was provided by the defense's own expert, Professor L.

J. Sanford, who gave extensive testimony regarding the testing process. And it all did little to explain the presence of the blood. Like how it got there, yeah, but it was long-winded and complicated enough to raise doubts in Professor White's testimony.

Yeah, so he just confused the jury. That was his whole aim. He was like, science, science, science, science, biology, biology, biology. and the jurors were like, Ah, I don't know what that is.

And at the same time, that testimony was being given in the court, H. Lynde. Harrison lobbied to have Mary's body disinterred and have the wound and stomach be examined more thoroughly. Harrison's request came in light of the fact that not only had the knife been discovered in the barn and can now be compared to the wound. They were like, we need to get her back so we can compare it. But also after the prosecution learned that Hayden had purchased a large quantity of arsenic poison from the local pharmacy just days before the murder. The defense objected strongly. Because they were like, we can now test her stomach contents, right?

And the defense was like, No, and they were like, why though? and they were like, he's a preacher. He can't afford additional legal fees that we're going to accrue while the state puts this hold on the case to exhume and examine the body, okay?

And Judge Wilcox, being a friend and having no sympathy or affinity for the prosecution, agreed with the defense and refused to pause the case. But, he said, you can exhume her, I'm just not pausing the case. So we might find him innocent. While you're doing your tests, while you figure out, like, indubitably, that he did this, Wow, yeah.

Wow, now. So they're not going to pause. The case could get to the end of it before they even get Mary out of the ground. And try to make these, like, literally the smoking gun discoveries, right? But he's like, Yeah, I don't care.

Nah, during the inquest in the first trial, a great deal of information came to light that the prosecution really believed warranted further investigation before any court could reasonably determine guilt or innocence. They were like, we're having a lot of stuff come up that, like, you do need to pause so we can go through all this. And this included, like we said, an exhumation of Mary's body to examine stomach contents and that neck wound. And as well as several statements and claims relating to the knife and to Hayden's whereabouts on the afternoon of the murder.

It was just too much coming out that was like, This is shady now. Judge Wilcox, however, he said, That's my friend, yeah. He refused again to adjourn the case to allow the further investigation.

And on September 19th, 1887, Wilcox announced that he had heard enough. He wasn't even going to let it keep going, according to Wilcox, a close friend and defender of the accused. Remember Aye? The prosecution had presented a largely circumstantial case that was easily explained away by the defense.

Regarding the knife, Wilcox said quote He himself had at that moment a knife in his pocket, which must have been full of blood resembling human. For he had recently killed a dog with it, and a dog's blood resembles that of a human being. This man killed a dog and we're listening to this fucker, why did he kill a dog with a knife?

Fuck this guy, what the hell fuck this guy, Judge Wilcox, fuck you sitting there being like, this guy's fine.

He's innocent, he's innocent. I don't give a shit, I'm not going to listen to anything. Also, I have a knife in my pocket that I fucking murdered a dog with.

So I could also be a murderer and it's like, why don't we put your ass on trial? Then? What the fuck are you doing, seriously?

Killing dogs out here in these streets, what the fuck, fuck? Judge Wilcox. Is there a Supreme Court at this point? Well, then Wilcox.

Can we go somewhere else? This court sucks the 1800s of it all. But Wilcox went on to say that Mrs. Hayden Rosa Hayden's testimony was further proof of Hayden's innocence. Because, quote he didn't think she would tell a falsehood to save her husband from the gallows.

I don't think.

Like, Go to bed, Judge Wilcox, go to your room, shut up. It's like, Are you kidding? this woman won't.

You don't think she'll get on the stand and tell a falsehood? To save her husband and father of her children from the gallows? Father of her three children, whom she needs him to provide for? You're, you're like, Ah, nah, who would do that?

She doesn't like those. I'm like, what the fuck, what like? And everybody and all these men were just sitting there going, huh? yeah, uh-huh, absolutely. He's like, she, she Pinky swore to me that she'd tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

We, we spit shook on it. Yeah, she. She flashed a peace sign, and I thought that was pretty great. So, and you think that's the worst shit you've heard? The last thing that I'm gonna tell you, I'm not even there yet. But the last thing I will tell you in this thing is gonna blow your fucking mind, get out of here.

Get out of here, girlfriend now. In closing, Wilcox told the crowd assembled in the courtroom Let me say from the testimony, Ready, ready, No.

I won't just kidding, let me say from the testimony. Given that. If I were as sure of heaven and eternal felicity as I am of this man, that this man is guiltless of the crime of killing Mary E. Stannard, I should rest content, what?

So he's saying, if I was, I am more. I am more sure that this man is innocent of this crime than I am. That Heaven exists. Wow, cool. And I would rest content if I was as sure that Heaven exists as I am sure of his innocence. And it's like, What did this guy? what's he got on you? I'm like, What the fuck's going on?

Yeah, I'm like, what, what's happening? You guys are like, you seem? He's like, Are you two having an affair with Preacher Hayden? I'm just like, Wilcox, what's happening? Yeah, do you guys get together on the weekends?

Just be honest, I don't know, I'm just I'm just wondering, I'm asking for a friend because he's just like, he's innocent.

Like, you're trying to like, yeah, it's getting real bloody knives everywhere. We all got them, and it's like, No, no, no, we don't. I don't know about this, brother.

He's, uh, he's wild. And with that, the charges against Herbert Hayden were discharged and he was allowed to leave the court. A free man. What the fuck now? At the time of Herbert Hayden's arrest, public opinion was generally that he had killed Mary Stannard.

And gotten away with it after being told that she was pregnant. That's what everybody thought. The prosecution offered a strong and compelling case that presented motive, her pregnancy and their affair. Yep.

Means the bloody knife discovered in the barn, his barn. Yep, and opportunity, the appointment in the woods. They had literally laid out motive, means and opportunity clearly for everybody, and they had a wealth of damaging testimony to go along with it.

Which he bought arsenic that morning. The defense, on the other hand, presented a rebuttal that included basically some murky scientific jargon that they probably just pulled out of their ass. But mostly relied on the assertion that Hayden simply couldn't have done this because he's a minister and his wife wouldn't lie totally. That's literally the case they rested on.

No, you're not wrong. This guy is a minister or preacher. And his wife, she's so pretty she wouldn't lie. Yeah, that's it. And they were like, Sounds good.

And like, the prosecution's like, we have literally the perfect case. So sorry. Did the jury even make the decision or did the judge? No? The judge just was like, nope, done, I've heard enough. So what was the point of the jury?

And again, well, one of those arguments is clearly and objectively, much stronger than the other. The charges were nonetheless dismissed by a judge who, from the very start was convinced of Hayden's innocence. And not only resented even having to preside over this case in the first place, but resented the prosecutor for what he believed was an unjust and fucked up attack on his friend and a beloved preacher of the town. So, while the charges against Hayden were dismissed at the time, H. Lynde Harrison remained convinced of his guilt. And that's the prosecutor.

He was like, Fuck that, like, I know this is true. And he refused to let Wilcox's bullshit decision, biased decision prevent him from continuing to pursue the case, which is, like, good on him. He believed that Mary's statement to her sister about Quote Quick Medicine referred to the arsenic purchased by Hayden on the morning of the murder, agreed.

And Harrison arranged for Mary's body to be exhumed. He was like, Fuck that I'm still going to look, I'm going to still do this investigation. Yeah, because the family deserves to know, without a doubt.

What happened? And not content to leave the second examination up to the county doctor. He was like, I don't trust anybody in this fucking place. He's going to DIY. Harrison arranged for the second postmortem examination to be conducted by pathologist M...C. White and S...W.

Johnson, the chair of the chemistry department, also from Yale, so the two Yale pathology professors. He was like, I trust them. In their examination of the contents of Mary's stomach, the pathologist discovered quote a mass of unabsorbed arsenic, which they claimed was quote enough arsenic to kill the whole community of Rockland. Oh my God, they found the arsenic in her stomach.

They found all of the arsenic in her stomach, and then he slid her throat as well. Yep. By White and Johnson's estimation, there were roughly 50 or 60 grams of arsenic in Mary's stomach. But she had likely ingested more, and some had already been absorbed prior to her death. Oh my God.

It doesn't take a ton of arsenic to kill an average size adult. I looked it up in grams. Like, the FBI is probably like, coming to my door tomorrow. They're like, Hey, can you stop doing that? At the low end of the dosage, 0.145 grams can be lethal.

Wait, and I'm sorry. How much was in her 50 or 60 grams? And they believe there was more that had already been absorbed. What the fuck? And that's on the low end of the dosage.

But even one point 0.

145 can be lethal, and that is less than only one eighth of a teaspoon is a lethal dose. Holy shit, yeah.

Yeah, I am dumbstruck right now. And it was during this second autopsy that another surprising revelation was made relating to Mary's belief that she was pregnant. Although there was still no evidence to suggest that she had recently been pregnant. During the examination of her reproductive organs, the pathologist discovered several ovarian cysts, which, they said, explained Quote, had only mimicked the symptoms of early pregnancy.

Oh, so, that, explained. They said. That's why she believed she was pregnant. It wasn't her making it up right because that was another thing that was starting to go. Oh, she made this shit up to keep him, to take him away from his wife.

I don't think so. And they were like, No, no, she was experiencing symptoms that at that point especially mimicked early pregnancy, and they weren't. How were they to tell? And also you just go off of symptoms back then, yeah.

And the argument that she was saying that she was pregnant because she wanted to keep him is stupid. Because she literally had written a letter where she was like, I don't want to do this, I don't know what to do, like, I'm going to be shunned like this is not what I meant to happen, leaning more toward, I would not like to do this again.

Now, when White and Johnson reported their findings back to Harrison, he took their report to Superior Court Judge Hitchcock and culvert. I was like, there's got to be another court, because this one is janky as fuck. I'd like to trade it in. They immediately issued a warrant for Haven's arrest again, and he was taken into custody by sheriff's deputies and delivered to a cell at the jailhouse in New Haven.

The following day, reporters noted that as he was being transported to the jail, quote, Hayden was as smiling and talkative as on the day of his trial. What the fuck? Because he thought he was like, I'm not, they're not going to get me cuckoo nut man. In between the dismissal of charges and his re-arrest, Hayden had managed to gain considerable sympathy from the residents of Monroe.

Particularly those in his congregation, Yeah, of course, who viewed him as a victim of an overzealous prosecutor. And after the first trial ended, the congregation passed quote resolutions of unqualified and continued respect for Brother Hayden as a man and minister, among other things, the resolutions claimed. Quote. His late arrest was made on the most criminally frivolous grounds and was therefore a great outrage upon him and society at large.

And it noted that his arrest was due only to quote wicked designs of evil men. And the resolution closed with a pledge by the congregation to continue their unconditional emotional and financial support. Unconditional. You say so. This man conned that entire Invest congregation into also paying to support him through this murder trial, where he is so fucking guilty.

It is outrageous. He's a dickle now. The general support for Hayden was pretty broad. And the resolution was specifically kind of signaling that there was a huge shift in what was going to happen here. Before. It was like, pretty broad, that everybody was like, Yeah, he did this.

It makes sense like, here's the motive, here's the means, here's the opportunity. Now they're like, he might have done this, but we don't give a fuck.

And everybody's like, No, I think you guys are just mean, no way, and it's like he loves God. And that's because everybody's now. Reframing Hayden as a pious and morally righteous victim in what was essentially described as a battle between good and evil now.

Are you fucking kidding me? Where he is good? And they are evil, for sure. And as such, Herbert Hayden entered into a second trial for the murder of Mary Stannard. As a kind of like folk hero and a victim of a government system determined to pin a murder on him that he did not commit.

I don't know about that. Why do you have arsenic in your possession? And she's got it in her stomach, rats, you went to get it that morning.

I need to know more about this package, I know it's coming back now. While Hayden sat in jail waiting his second trial, Harrison and a small group of investigators continued building their case against him. The exhumation and second autopsy had not only allowed them to confirm the arsenic in Mary's stomach, but also meant that they could take a sample so they could compare it to something. And the problem was, however, that Hayden claimed he hadn't seen that packet of arsenic since he purchased it.

And the initial search of the barn hadn't turned up any arsenic. Yeah, because it was all fucking gone now, upon re-arrest. And remember, he said, I never even opened that. He made he, Oh, I remember, baby.

Offered up that information that he had never opened that package. Now, upon re-arrest, they searched the barn a second time, and the arsenic was located empty. Only after the defense ended up having to give specific instructions as to where it could be found, so it was hidden as well.

The packet of arsenic from the barn was turned over to C.

M. White for analysis and was confirmed to be opened and to have the same chemical structure as what was discovered in Mary's stomach. Dude, come on, and it was fucking hidden, it was hidden.

Hidden and opened when this man said, I never opened it. And it's just sitting in my barn. And has the same chemical structure as the kind in Mary's stomach, and was fucking 60 grams missing. Pretty much so.

For a variety of reasons unrelated to the case. Hayden's trial was actually delayed repeatedly, and nearly a year passed before the second trial even began, in early November 1898.

And during the first trial, witnesses for the prosecution, like Susan Hawley and, you know, Jane Studley. They were all kind of regarded with sympathy. Because they had just lost a loved one in a very gruesome way. You know, Charles Stannard, they were all treated very nicely. This time, however, the public opinion had swayed in Herbert Hayden's favor. Remember?

And the public, including the judge and defense attorneys, had no sympathy for anyone that they believed was participating in the persecution of this minister. On the stand and in the press, witnesses like Susan Hawley and Charles Stannard were belittled in court and portrayed to be ignorant laborers of low intelligence. Now, wow. Herbert Hayden, on the other hand, was held up of a man of culture and strong moral and religious character. While his wife, Rosa, was treated as though she were the real victim here, having been robbed of her husband for so long. Baby, he robbed you of him.

Yeah, he robbed a woman of her whole fucking life, and William of his mother, exactly, and Charles of his daughter, yeah, and Susan of her sister.

And as he had done the first time around, Harris presented the jury with a strong case built on scientific evidence and witness testimony. Science, they're like, science. I don't know her, No, I don't know her.

He established the relationship between Hayden and Mary, reminded them of the motive in the case, and, more importantly, gave incredibly compelling evidence that connected Mary's death to the arsenic and the knife discovered in Herbert Hayden's barn, right? And it was the scientific evidence that was the linchpin of the entire case. And Harris went out of his way to include expert testimony from several pathologists at Yale, many of whom recreated their experiments in the courtroom before the judge and jury. Just to make it like, drive it home, unfortunately, while such scientific evidence might seem irrefutable to us now, to a 19th century jury in the confusing like, in this whole case.

Witchcraft, This confusing stream of jargon and strange looking lab instruments that were brought in just confused the hell out of them. And, according to one press report at the time, this is wild. Oh God, no quote. At one time. During the examination, five jury men who had finished their inspection were reading newspapers which were spread out before them. But no one imagined they were reading reports about the trial.

They're just reading newspapers while this is happening. Come on like, Yeah, you can't make that shit up even, and it's gonna get worse. How?

When it came to the argument from the defense, Hayden's lawyer, Samuel Jones, presented more or less the same case that was presented during the first trial. The strong scientific evidence presented by the prosecution was treated that it was like it was mystical gibberish, further muddying the jury's understanding of the trial, the jury's understanding of the arsenic analysis. He just confused them more, and also their defense rested largely on Hayden's supposed strong moral character and that of his wife.

And then they made sure to say that the victim and her family were just ignorant farmers and made poor choices, and were poor, had poor character. I cannot and remember Herbert cheated on his wife, I do remember that, but we're we're holding him up as the strong moral character.

But of course, but like, this man is admitting to meeting with Mary to discuss the affair and possible pregnancy. But they're holding him up as the moral character and just like, sanctimonious motherfucker up here, yes, yeah, yeah.

In fact, during Charles Stannard's testimony, the defense focused considerable attention on Mary's illegitimate child, William That's fucked up and quote unquote illegitimate child. And even made attempts to establish that Mary herself had been born out of wedlock. Implying that not only was the witness immoral, but also couldn't be trusted, that's so fucked up.

So now they're like, Charles, how was she? were you married when Mary was born? Maybe she's an illegitimate child, so that makes you fucking gross and we can't trust you anymore.

It's just like, What does that have to do with anything like? That's not why we're here. And they had no, nothing to prove, no basis, exactly.

So rather than prove his client's innocence, Jones just cast suspicions on someone else. He just decided to throw it on someone else. Benjamin Stevens, a neighbor of the Stannards, who occasionally did work for Charles Stannard, just out of the blue.

Slept at their home, sometimes just decided to off Mary. Unlike the morally righteous and upstanding Herbert Hayden, who was fucking his nanny behind his wife's back. By the way, and had hidden arsenic within his possession and a bloody knife. Stevens was a poor farmer who was known to partake in the drink.

At times, heavily, it happens. It's the 1800s, what come on?

What the fuck else is there to do? Let's get drunk also. Stevens had been seen leaving the house just after Mary did on the day of the murder and had no alibi for the rest of the afternoon. That anybody could confirm, neither did this motherfucker.

Jones also pointed out that it could have just as easily been Charles Stannard who committed the murder. Wow, that's fucked up. Quote to prevent the repetition of the disgrace that had once before fallen upon the family. From the same source Wow saying from the same source, the same source being Mary, his own fucking child.

That's so fucked up. To be clear, there was not one fucking shred of evidence to suggest either of these men had anything to do with Mary's death. Jones was just sowing the seed of doubt just to fuck with the jury, because that's all he had, right. He didn't have anything to prove his client was innocent.

No, everything proved his guilt. There is not one shred of evidence besides Rosa sitting on the fucking stand and being like, I love my husband. I don't think he'd do that, he would not murder someone.

Yeah, I was cutting peaches and it's like, So that's all he has, so his only way of doing this is to just go. Those two could have done it like I could have done it.

You could have done it, but like, I don't have arsenic in my possession or a bloody knife. Fucking what, it's wild now. After more than two months, the trial finally reached closing arguments on January 13th, 1880..

Lynde Harrison reiterated his case for the jury, emphasizing that fearing his reputation would be ruined should the affair and pregnancy be made public. Hayden had a very strong motive to kill Mary, and the weapons used in the murder were found in his fucking home with blood on them. Quote. The experts had shown that arsenic was found in the brain of the murdered girl and that it must have reached there before death. Yeah, Harrison reminded the courtroom quote. It was also shown that Hayden was the only man who was known to have arsenic in Rockland. That entire day, that could have killed an entire fucking village of people.

And that he bought it secretly. Yeah, he secretly bought it and then said it was never opened, and then it was, and then it was hidden. In his closing arguments. On the other side, Jones focused on Hayden's supposedly upstanding character, and again cast dispersions on Benjamin Stevens.

Quote If Hayden had killed the girl? It was most strange that no blood was found on his clothing, but it was found on a knife in his possession. You dumb fuck. And also what clothing? We don't know what clothing he was wearing that day, he could have gotten rid of them.

That's the other thing, Jones remarked in statement. Quote. Ben Stevens denial that he committed the crime should have no weight, as he had been contradicted in material parts of his testimony. He is referring to an earlier part of the trial, when Stevens testimony was challenged by a witness for the defense. And that's it. It wasn't, it wasn't like.

Contradicted, right, they challenged it right, with no basis.

Which is the same thing that's happening to your client, yeah, but with basis. The jury deliberated for nearly four days before finally reporting that they had become hopelessly deadlocked. How the fuck are you deadlocked?

Eleven jurors were in favor of acquittal one was a holdout that was committed to Hayden's guilt, one what certain that they would not reach a verdict if the jury returned for further deliberation.

The judge declared a mistrial and Herbert Hayden walked free. The prosecution briefly considered retrying the case because they were like, This is fucked up. Are you guys kidding me? But there was exorbitant costs in two trials alone and the fact that they had already presented a perfect case.

The most compelling case they possibly could. Yeah, aside from having, like, some just omniscient narrator that could come in and be like, Hi, I was watching the whole thing. Here's what happened. They didn't see a point to try him a third time.

They were like, he's just going to be allowed to walk free again. We're exhausted. This family is now being torn to shreds and now we've put them through a second trial. And now people are blaming her father and accusing him.

We're not going to put him through that again, no, now. In both trials, the jury weighed what was very clear evidence of Hayden's guilt and chose instead to absolve him of everything. All wrongdoing. Rather than challenge their beliefs about class and respectability at the time, I want to know about this one juror that was like, Y'all are wrong, well. And while Hayden may have escaped criminal penalties, he didn't escape consequences altogether.

Okay, well, that's good to hear. Following the declaration of a mistrial, Herbert Hayden was stripped of his credentials and banned from preaching altogether. Oh wow, I'm surprised by that. Sounds to me like people knew what was the truth.

Yeah, sounds to me like after hearing that trial, that there was really no denying it. I'm so surprised by that that the jury was like, no way. No, no, no, not at all. And now they're like, Well, fuck, but then like, somebody was like, No, you fucking did this and you're not.

Many people, I think, were like, you clearly did this, wow, and you got away with it. And like, the higher ups within the church were like, No, you're not preaching to us anymore, like bye.

So no longer a pillar of the community and held up as this righteous, righteous, moral God for all of them. He and Rosa moved to New Haven, where they lived until his death in 1907. Wow, now. In 1914, 33 years after that second trial, the Hartford Courant interviewed the last living member of the jury. Stop it.

Stop it. His name is Horace Perry Horace. And he was asked, What was your rationale for voting to acquit Herbert Hayden of the charge? because was he one of the 11 in favor of acquittal?

I don't think they knew whether he was one of the 11, but they assumed he was. But I think they're just like, clearly, there was like, what was the rationale there? What was the conversation that day? Perry explained. Oh, my God.

That throughout the trial, Rosa Hayden had been sitting in front of the jury and was, quote, a very beautiful young woman. As far as the majority of the jury was concerned. Quote From the day the trial opened until the last ballot was cast, their view had been, How can we convict a man with a beautiful young wife like that?

And that is the end of the fucking story. How can we convict a man because we want to fuck his wife? That is the end of that story. I'm going to go run over my microphone really fast, I quit.

This man, I'm going to go now this Horace, Mr Perry said. You want to know why? We didn't listen to a shred of the fucking evidence that was presented to us? His wife was hot and she was sitting in front of us.

What the fuck does that have to do with anything? When I tell you, my soul launched into orbit? This will be my last podcast. It's been a great run. Are you fucking like bye?

Bye. Most of the jury wanted to fuck his wife so we couldn't convict him. That is essentially what that man just said. No, that is what he's, what I'm, I'm. I'm on another, I'm on a new level.

That is what his wife was beautiful, so not even like his wife was so beautiful. We thought to ourselves like, Wow, he'd never cheat on her. So this is ridiculous.

That he'd even be involved with that woman and killed her, it's like, Yeah, maybe he killed her, but like his wife, super hot also. Wouldn't you think? That's why you would want to convict him? So you could step on in there and be like, Hey, baby.

Horace, shoot your fucking shot, convict that man. How can we convict a man who pulled a gal like that? Are you joking me? Do you do we know what Rosa looked like?

Is there, like an artist's rendition? I don't even know, but I'm like, let me see, I'll be the fucking judge of that I am just.

How gorgeous was she the fuck? Marilyn Monroe sitting in front of that jury? I am, Are you joking me?

Without words, to be honest. No, that's, I'm telling, like that bye, that's why I was like, just you fucking wait.

Like, you don't think it's going to get worse? How do you expect me to function for the rest of this day? Are you kidding me? I'm saying?

I'm saying I got. I was looking up to see if I could find Rosa. It's hard to find her. Wasn't she so beautiful? Nobody ever took a photograph of her because they were scared.

Oh my god. Oh, I mean, there's an artist's rendition, but I don't know if this is correct. It's gotta be like something, let's see it. I'll be the judge, the jury.

Let me see the executioner, it probably.

No, that's not, it's an artist's rendition.

If that, you know what? Thank you so much for listening on that note, we totally hope that you keep listening, and we hope you keep it. Weird, not so weird that you go google a picture of Rosa in that artist's rendition. Because, baby, you will have different thoughts than that whole ass jury.

Goodbye.

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