Murder Creek & the Halloween Murderess, Sadie McMullen

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Three girls left a party on Halloween night of eighteen ninety, but only one returned. A robbery gone wrong, a tragic love story, a murder, or four. These are the stories that gave Murder Creek its name. But how much truth are in these tales? Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Citegeist, the podcast that puts the "ahh!" in bibliography.

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I'm your host, Joshua Spellman. Today, we're headed to Murder Creek in the small town of Akron, New York to discover the tragedies that led to its name. One, a tragic love story of Shakes pearean proportions, and the other, an incredibly curious case of murder and intrigue. But before we get into all of that, I have a little announcement. If you didn't catch it at the end of last week's episode, it's October, which means I have a little treat.

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New episodes are dropping every single week in October to keep your spines chilled and your hungry little minds fed. Hi. Editing Josh here. Quick disclaimer. All indigenous place names come from settler recorded sources that were written phonetically, so they most likely do not accurately reflect the Seneca language or pronunciation.

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But this episode is a lot, so it's time to quit my yapping and dive head first into the cold, cold waters of Murder Creek's alleged history. Before it became known as Murder Creek, the Seneca tribes called it Deyangote Gohanda or the place of hearing, while others called it Siangat, meaning the roar of distant waters. Early colonizers, however, simply knew the waterway as Sulphur Creek. That is until one chilly October evening when everything changed. A white settler named John Dolph built a cabin on the creek's banks in 1820 where he planned to harness the stream to run a sawmill with his business partner, Peter Van Deventer.

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On this October night, as John and his wife Sarah were reviewing their building plans, a blood curdling scream pierced the silence of the woods outside. Concerned, John and Sarah both leapt to their feet and threw open the door. A native woman was running toward them wildly out of breath shouting, save me, save me, please save me. And without a moment's hesitation, the dolphs quickly ushered the woman inside and promptly barred their door. Within moments, the door began shaking violently on its hinges.

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Let me in. A man's voice bellowed outside as he threw his weight against the door. John stalled the unknown assailant with questions while motioning for his wife to hide the young woman. Sarah opened a trap door in the floor and led the woman out into the night and directed her toward a nearby cavern in the gorge. Meanwhile, back at the cabin, the strange man impatiently responded to John's inquiries, introducing himself as a man named Sanders.

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He claimed that the girl was his prisoner and that her father, an Indian chief, placed her under his watch because she wished to elope with a quote, bad Indian. Sanders then asked once more, albeit a little bit more politely, for entrance into the Dolph's home. With the girl safely concealed from view, John obliged, unbarred the door, and let Sanders inside. Sanders, panting with rage, immediately began surveying the home. But seeing no sign of his prey on the main floor, he looked upward toward the captain's attic, which had a ladder that led into darkness.

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John lit a candle and handed it to Sanders with a smug satisfaction. Please, he said. Feel free to look. Sanders snatched the candle and ascended the ladder, but soon came back down, now even more enraged. That girl is in here, he hissed.

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I saw her come in. Where is your cellar? He snarled, scanning the floorboards. John slyly moved aside the carpet with his foot to reveal the trapdoor and bade Sanders to investigate. And once again, Sanders went and discovered nothing.

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Making his way back up, Sanders swore and muttered under his breath that he would have the girl if it was the last thing that he ever did. Exasperated, Sanders decided to give up and declared that he was headed to Canfield Tavern for a drink and he retreated into the night. Sometime later, John reunited with his wife and together they cautiously made their way down the steep gorge. Their destination was the cave that was sheltering the young girl. They looked up and down the dirt path and peered into the forest and scanned the banks of the stream.

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Satisfied that they saw no one and that they weren't being followed, they made their way to the cave. The dolphs found the girl asleep, but the sound of their footsteps startled her awake. Where is he? She cried. And Sarah quickly calmed the young girl, holding her close, assuring her that she was safe.

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And as the girl settled, she recounted her tale of horror. The girl's name was Aweha, or as she said in the language of the pal face, wild rose. She explained that she lived near Spirit Lake under the cliff about a mile from the Tonawanda Falls. Her mother had died several years ago and she lived with her elderly father, Gawana, the great fire, who was a chief of the Seneca nation. You see, Sanders had been stalking Aweha for over a year, repeatedly demanding her hand in marriage.

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But she already had a love whose name was Teone, Gray Wolf, whom she was to marry. And Sanders vowed that he would murder the one who stood in his path rather than see Aweha marry a fellow Seneca. Being resourceful, Aweha took it upon herself to prevent her love from crossing paths with Sanders. She knew that if Teone harmed Sanders even in self defense, that the authorities would side with Sanders, a white man, and would punish Teone regardless of his innocence. Now Gowana, noting his daughter could not keep Sanders away forever, decided to send her to the Cataraugus nation far away from the bloodthirsty clutches of Sanders, where her fiance Tejune could safely join her later.

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So that very morning, Aweha and her father set out for Teasawa, known as the city of Buffalo. When they reached the bank of the Deyamgote Gahunda, they sat down to listen to the waterfall and rest. And it was then that they saw Sanders approaching them. But he approached them with a smile and an extended hand, apologizing for his actions. He explained that he had made up his mind to let go of Aweha and he was making his way to the Wild West to start his life anew and he never expected to ever see Aweha or her father ever again.

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However, as fortune would have it, they appeared to be headed in the same direction. And so Sanders offered to help them on their journey, hoping to atone for his sins. After a slight moment of hesitation, Hueha and her father agreed to travel with Sanders. After walking for some time, they set up camp and night fell. And Hueha found herself staring into the dark forest toward the east and she noticed a small light in the valley not too far away.

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But before she could discern exactly what it was, she was startled by a loud thud followed by a groan. She turned around to see her father lying face down in the dirt with Sanders looming over him, an uplifted club in his hands. With a devilish grin, Sanders moved to attack Aweha, but she was swift. She dodged the hulking, ungainly man and slipped deftly into the cover of darkness, rushing through the brush toward the light in the distance, which turned out to be the Dolph's residence. Now caught up with her story, the Dolph's resolve to protect Awayha, and John made his way to the camp she had described.

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And there he found the smoldering coals of the campfire and the lifeless body of Gowana. This is the spot that later became known as the Haunted Corners. When dawn broke, John and his business partner, Peter Van de Winter, buried the chief's remains and they had heard from people in town that Sanders had taken the Buffalo stagecoach at midnight. Word of the tragedy spread quickly to the Seneca nation, and when John returned home, Teone had already arrived, eager to reunite with his love. While Aweha was elated to see her lover, she was still distraught from the previous night's events, and she begged to visit her father's grave.

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Together, the lovers made their way, and once there, Aweha and Teone chanted a traditional death song, ignited a fire, and burned ceremonial tobacco. However, enveloped in their grief and distracted by their funeral rites, they did not notice the dark form lurking in Brandishing an axe with a demonic glint in his eye, Sanders leapt from the brush, screaming and bearing down on the couple. They reacted just in time. Teone reached for his tomahawk and a brawl ensued. Both men lost hold of their axes in the scuffle and they reached for their hunting knives, furiously ripping at one another's flesh.

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Blood flowed like Sulfur Creek itself until suddenly, it was quiet. Sanders stopped motionless and fell to the ground. Frozen in fear, Aweha could not move, but Teane went to comfort her. But when he opened his mouth, he could not speak, only blood came out. He swayed from side to side, staggered and fell.

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Dying right there on her father's grave, Aweha let out a scream of agony that echoed through the woods and hearing this cry, John Dolph ran the quarter mile down to the camp from his home. When he arrived, he found two more bodies in the way inconsolable, singing the death chant between her ragged sobs. John once again dug another grave. Time passed and Aweha would often visit the graves of her father and her love, singing her grief to the wind. Oh, my gray wolf, my taone, do you hear the wild rose calling?

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Hear the song of your Aweha? Hear her tell you how her heart aches? Why did not the brave Teone take his lonely wild rose with him? Oh, come back, my own Teone, for my heart is breaking, breaking. You will wait for me, my gray wolf, for I soon shall come to join you.

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Oh, my gray wolf, my Teone, hear the voice of your Aweha. Only wait a few days longer and then I will walk beside you. Many moons later, the doves realized they hadn't seen or heard from Weiha who visited the graves regularly. They searched and found her lifeless body lying upon her lover's grave seemingly having died of a broken heart. And so she too was buried there between her father and her love.

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And legend has it, if you walk the trails of Murder Creek at night, you may hear the voices of the two lovers as they wander hand in hand. Though denied marriage in life, they were united in death by an unbreakable bond. And it was their tragic deaths that forever changed the name of Sulphur Creek to Murder Creek. But once given this name, The Creek had a reputation to uphold, and theirs were not the last murders to occur there. Exactly seventy years later on Halloween night eighteen ninety, the holiday began like any other.

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The day had been spent at the Brown home who hosted a small get together for the holiday. It was filled with laughter, singing, apple bobbing, and parlor games. But the night would take a tragic turn. 17 year old Sarah Sadie McMullen, accompanied by six year old Delia Brown and four year old Nellie Mae Connor, left the party to buy some butter at the Johnson's local store. Sadie had worked as a servant in the Brown home for quite a while, first caring for the late missus Brown during a period of illness.

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And during this time, Sadie bonded closely with missus Brown's daughter, Delia. And so Delia's father, Simon Brown, kept Sadie on as a housekeeper after his wife's passing. Now once the three girls arrived at the Johnson store, Sadie began to act strangely. She walked up to the counter, requested a block of butter, took out a quarter and slammed it violently on the counter. But before the clerk could even get the butter from the icebox or provide her with her change, Sadie had already turned and walked out of the store with nothing.

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Leaving the store behind, Sadie took the children's hands and they began to walk, aimlessly it seemed. They left the streets, passed the alleys, walked through the grass, and headed down to the railroad tracks toward the trestle bridge that stood 50 feet above the Murder Creek Gorge. Sadie assured the two little girls it was safe to cross, coaxing them to follow her. And once they had reached the center of the bridge, high above the gorge, Sadie looked at both girls with a gentle smile. Nellie whimpered.

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She was scared of heights. And Sadie gently reached out to comfort her, rubbing her back to calm her before suddenly hurling her off the edge. Nellie's body made a horrid sound as it splashed and cracked on the jagged rocks below. And before little Delia could even process what had happened, Sadie turned to her, the girl who she supposedly loved like a daughter. And after a brief struggle, Sadie heaved her off the trestle to join her friend in the creek below.

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And then, without so much as a look down at what she had done, Sadie straightened up, shook her head as if stirring herself from a daze, and began the walk back into town as if nothing had ever happened. Sadie walked straight through the front door of the Brown home, and Simon Brown's sister Hannah greeted Sadie from the parlor. Oh, hello, Sadie, she said cheerfully. Simon is bartending at the saloon. He won't be home for a while.

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And Sadie said, nothing. She just stared at Hannah before slowly extending her hand. Goodbye, Hannah. And Hannah looked at her perplexed. Where are you going?

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You've only just returned. Well, fine. If you don't want to shake hands with me, well, then, alright, Sadie exclaimed, turning on her heel and storming out the house into the chill October night. It was only as she watched Sadie leave that Hannah had realized that the children were not with her. Concerned, Hannah went to tell her father of her apprehensions.

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And in the midst of her explanation, Simon happened to stop home. Simon, trusting his housekeeper who treated his daughter like her own, simply laughed her off and assured Hannah that the children could not be in better hands. Meanwhile, Sadie made her way through the dark and onto a bridge behind mister Brown's saloon. She walked slowly to the bridge's center and stared down at the stream below her flowing black like ink. The current seemed to hypnotize her as she stood there for quite some time before absently walking off the edge.

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But unlike the girls, there was no hideous crack, no long descent. Unlike the railroad bridge, this bridge was a mere 10 feet from the water. However, that wouldn't stop her from drowning. While she had planned a silent death, the water was cold and so she let out a shriek causing the water to flood her lungs. Hearing the screech in the night, Simon Brown rushed from his home to the water's edge and with the help of his friend George Jones, they pulled Sadie from the drink.

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Sadie screamed and shrieked in mister Brown's arms, but not out of fear, but because she demanded the men put her back into the water. She struggled and fought as the men against Sadie's wishes carried the hysterical girl back to the Browns' home where they called the doctor to tend to her. Where are the children? Simon asked her. What what children?

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Sadie replied confused. Delia. Where is Delia? What what Was she was she with me? Yes.

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Last I remember, she was at the Johnson store, Sadie replied, running her fingers through her hair. Why is my hair wet? A search party was then quickly assembled and sent out to look for the girls. The body of four year old Nellie Mae Conner was discovered quickly. Her tiny form twisted in a grotesque manner over the rocks.

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Her lifeless glassy eyes staring up at the bridge from which she fell. But Delia was not with her. The crew searched but failed to find her. Could the creek really have carried her body that far? The search continued into the early hours of the morning.

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In sometime around 3AM, someone in the search party heard a moan in the dark. Following the sound, they found something in the reeds, a small, dark, and twisted mass. Little Delia Brown had survived. And as they carried Delia up the gorge, they heard her mutter weakly, Sarah was smart to throw us off the bridge. Two stories, two time periods, and a lot to unpack.

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While the first story feels a lot like folklore, unlike Ricketts Glen State Park's tale of the boy beneath the ice, this one actually has some historical basis. That said, it's still not quite easy to discern what elements in the story are true, what are embellished, and what are complete fiction. So the version of the dolph legend I told you came from Arthur Caswell Parker's 1919 book, The Life of General Eli s Parker, the Last Grand Sachem of the Iroquois and General Grant's Military Secretary. But even at that point, the story is a little messy. You see, Parker lifted his version of the legend from a book called The Haunted Corners written by Uriah Cummings in nineteen o six.

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So what is The Haunted Corners? It's a book that Cummings wrote in order to explain the origin of the ghosts he believed haunted his property. He claimed to possess John Dolph's diary and personal papers, and that's how he learned of the story of Aweha and Teone. However, this archival material doesn't exist anymore, if it ever did, and it's not clear like some authors of the time if Cummings was just claiming this provenance to bolster the validity of his story. But I will say the Dahl family was indeed a real family that lived on the land, and they're buried in the Ledgelawn Cemetery in Neustad.

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But the story itself is a little bit questionable for a number of reasons. This is because other accounts about how the creek changed from Sulphur Creek to Murder Creek were published before Cummings' book, and they say it happened because of a robbery gone wrong with no hint of a romantic Shakespearean tragedy at all. And this other story is actually briefly mentioned in one of the articles about Sadie McMullen's case in the 11/04/1890 issue of the Buffalo Times, which states, the name of the sluggish little stream will have a new and horrible significance to the citizens of Akron until some other tragedy obscures the memory of poor little Nellie Mae Conner. Within a few yards of the spot where Sadie McMullen attempted to take her own life was enacted the tragedy which gave the stream its grim name. Almost a century ago, a wealthy man engaged an Indian guide to conduct him from Clarence to the Genesee Valley.

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On the banks of the little stream at a place near the foot of Main Street, Akron, there is a beautiful spring. And near this place, the traveler and his dusky guide camped for the night. When the great dawn streamed in and through the treetops in the morning, the traveler's body was lying by the side of the stream horribly mutilated and his pockets rifled of the money. So this is why the little stream is called Murder Creek. Now, is obviously a completely different story than the one that Cummings recalls.

[00:20:47] - [Speaker 0]
But perhaps it's just another event that had happened there. But I'm not personally convinced of the story that Cummings tells. And this is because Cummings said that in the spring of the early twenties, which would be the eighteen twenties, a white man named John Dolph came and built his cabin a stone's throw from the way out So even if this legend is true, it can't be the event that gave Murder Creek its name because I did some digging. And the earliest reference to Murder Creek in the area was from a newspaper article I found in 1812. And so while maps at the time still referred to it as Sulphur Creek, it was clearly known colloquially as Murder Creek as early as 1812.

[00:21:32] - [Speaker 0]
So it seems right there, I think we can say that this legend, if it did happen, at least wasn't the reason why the Creek's name changed from Sulphur Creek to Murder Creek. Another detail from this legend that I find interesting, if not suspect, is its October setting. This creates a perfect narrative connection to the Sadie McMullen case, which occurred on Halloween of eighteen ninety. And you see both Uriah Cummings and Parker's books were published decades after the Sadie McMullen case. And I can't help but wonder if this October setting was done intentionally.

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Although, I will also say that the odds of an event occurring sometime in October are pretty high, a little over 8%. So I may just be jaded and skeptical about every little bit of folklore at this point. But my skepticism isn't going to change much when we look at the case of Sadie McMullen, albeit for different reasons. The bulk of my research into Sadie's story came from newspaper articles, which while they are technically primary sources, they need to be taken with a heaping pile of salt. You see, murders and trials like Sadie's were like the love island of the day.

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While there was serious reporting being done, just like reality TV, there could also be a lot of embellishment or manufactured drama. And sometimes, was just a case of publish first and apologize later or apologize never. While Love Island and Drag Race stars can blame it on the edit, those caught in the Victorian headlines couldn't just blame it on the edit ter editor. Blame it on the editor. Anyway, is what I'm saying is sometimes the stakes were higher than just a sickening supply of makeup products.

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Sometimes your life was on the line. And the edit that Sadie received was a strange one to say the least. Sadie was a 17 year old girl facing not only the reality of the death penalty, but also the incredibly grim prospect of being the first woman to be executed by the newly invented electric chair. Like I said, the stakes were high. These weren't brow pencils.

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Her life was on the line. Yet journalists covering her trial mainly focused on her hair, her outfits. There was an odd amount of word count dedicated to Sadie's appearance in all of the coverage. The Washington DC evening star described her entrance into the courtroom thusly. Pale, slender, self possessed, and dressed with simple taste with her luxuriant brown hair flowing loosely over her shoulders.

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Pretty blue eyed Sadie walked composedly into the courtroom to be tried for her life. She's a little creature though almost a woman in years. There is nothing about her face in repose that indicates a murderous spirit nor yet insanity. She wore a dress of a dull red shade simply made with collar of black lace at her throat. On her head was a neat round hat.

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On her feet, new looking shoes of shiny patent leather. And honestly, New York's world was not much better saying of her, her face, while not particularly intelligent, is pretty. It bears a chic expression which is taking and she has such a naive way of pursing up her lips which at times is quite fascinating. There is nothing in her manners or her features which would indicate insanity or any other spirit than that of peace and girlish love. Yet this pale, slim, childish looking creature is charged with taking two helpless children of four and six and throwing them off a trussle.

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When the accused came into court, she wore a cute little black toque tied in the ribbon in a dozen mysterious ways. Her hands were covered with long black undressed kid gloves and she wore a snugly fitting prettily made gown of a crew Henrietta which displayed every line of her willowy form. She showed not the slightest trace of emotion or surprise and only once when her former sweetheart was testifying today did her half closed sensuous eyes brighten and they glittered like live coals. Now, I wish the journalist had used the same attention to detail regarding the facts of the case instead of describing Sadie's appearance because they didn't pay attention to the accuracy of the facts at all. Red flags popped up almost right away when I started researching.

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One of the most glaring issues is with the age of Sadie's victim Nellie Mae Connors. During the trial coverage in May 1891, the world said, Nellie Mae Connors aged four, while others cite her age as eight or nine. Obviously, this was confusing and I was never gonna get an answer, so I took the liberty of looking up Nellie's grave, which confirms that she was 10 years old on the day of her death. Her name was also Ellen May, though she went by Nellie, which side note is another fun thing about historic research. People often formally went by nicknames and that's how they were published in papers.

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While official documents would differ, which actually kinda does bring me to my next point that another person that we already covered, Mildred Brewster, also didn't go by her legal name. And while I was researching the Mildred Brewster case, I actually kept coming back in my mind to the trial of Sadie McMullen, since I had covered it before on the old version of this podcast. The thing that bothered me was that Mildred Brewster's case was being heralded as revolutionary for being one of the first cases to successfully use the insanity plea to great effect. But Sadie's case actually did so first, and there are a lot of parallels you'll probably notice between their two stories as we move on, but I think that Sadie's story is a much more tragic and sympathetic tale. And just like Mildred Brewster's case, a lot of the trial rested on proving that Sadie was insane at the time that she committed her murder.

[00:27:39] - [Speaker 0]
But the prosecution obviously said, no, this woman's not crazy. She's a murderer. But what could Sadie's motive be if not insanity? What would Sadie gain by murdering two children and herself? Now, I couldn't really rationalize it, but the prosecution and the papers tried to do that based on a couple of letters that Sadie had sent and received that Halloween day.

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Early in the day, Sadie received a letter from a Jesse Jessmond of Buffalo, which accused Sadie of stealing from her former employer. This letter was thought to have been destroyed by Sadie if it ever existed at all. However, this letter was believed to be what made Sadie snap and lose her mind or go on a murderous rampage of perfectly sound mind. It's up to interpretation. In addition to receiving a letter, Sadie wrote a letter to her aunt in Buffalo that day.

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Now the letter was reproduced in the 11/04/1890 Buffalo Times article which states is an exact copy of the letter which is important and it goes as follows. Dear aunt, when you get this, I will be far from earth. I am sick and tired of living. And as I told you, my last hope has gone at last. I am thankful to die.

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People rebuke me for things that I am not guilty of. And as I have no one to love me, I can go in peace. My heart, I leave in Akron with the one I always spoke to you of as he seems not to care for me. I know it is a sin for me to put an end to myself, but I am not the only one. My brain is longing for the end.

[00:29:17] - [Speaker 0]
Now, if I only had my little brother to take with me, I would be happy. If I had died when I was young, how thankful I would have been. But as it is, I must die as it is. So tell my sister that I love her as much as ever, but could not stay with her. I hope you will see to them as I know you will.

[00:29:35] - [Speaker 0]
And when I am dead, will come to you and explain, but do not fear me, I will not hurt you. And the man I loved will know me as a frequent visitor. Oh dear, if it was only over how thankful I would be. I think I will take someone with me. So I will close my last letter on earth hoping God will do justice with me as he does with everybody.

[00:29:55] - [Speaker 0]
So when you will know that I am no more, you will find my body in the bath in Buffalo. Please bury me in Akron as I will be near my loved one. So goodbye from Sadie, you're no more niece. Now it's clear from that letter that Sadie was not well, but that's not what the media had drawn from it. Instead, they zeroed in on the lines, my heart, I leave in Akron with the one I always spoke to you of, and the man I loved will know me as a frequent visitor.

[00:30:25] - [Speaker 0]
Because it sounds juicy. Oh. A lovesick murderers? Print it. And to further prove my point about the reliability of these papers, that same letter was reprinted in an article on trial for her life by the world on 03/06/1891 during her trial.

[00:30:43] - [Speaker 0]
But that published letter has some notable differences. When you get this, will be far from earth. I am sick and tired of living. My last hope has gone at last. People accuse me of things I am not guilty of and I can go in peace as my heart I leave in Akron with the man I spoke to you about.

[00:30:59] - [Speaker 0]
He seems to not care for me. My brain is longing for the end. If I only had my little brother to take with me. When I am dead, will come to you and explain, do not fear me. The man I love will know me as a frequent visitor.

[00:31:12] - [Speaker 0]
I think I will take someone with me and so I will close my last letter on earth. Please bury me in Akron, so I will be near my loved one. So goodbye. Yours no more. Now, is clearly a paraphrased version, but it was presented as the original letter.

[00:31:27] - [Speaker 0]
And to me, it was deliberately manipulated to remove any kind of sympathetic and humanizing details. Things like Sadie's past struggles with suicidal ideation or asking God for mercy, And the part about her brain longing for the end, which I found really interesting. It was that particular phrasing which suggests that Sadie almost had a medical understanding of her mental state, that she wasn't just over emotional or hysteric. It feels like Sadie actually recognized that something was wrong with her brain, which isn't something that you hear a lot at this time, especially in regards to women. And the paraphrase letter places a much heavier emphasis on her alleged loved one, and it makes her seem cold and callous, which the prosecution later used as her motive for murder.

[00:32:19] - [Speaker 0]
The media tried to spin that her loved one was Simon Brown, Sadie's boss and Delia's father. And rumors stated that Simon and Sadie had been secretly engaged at one point. But Simon had broke it off because he felt it was inappropriate, or perhaps he found her to be insane and was scared for his safety. And after breaking off the engagement, Simon Brown allegedly became romantically involved with Eliza Connors, Nellie Mae's mother. Now this would have been an obvious motive for an insane woman to kill her rival's child.

[00:32:53] - [Speaker 0]
But it wasn't the case at all. Because in fact, we know who Sadie's loved one was. It was Patrick Brown, Simon's younger brother. And it appears to be more of an intense crush since his feelings were not reciprocated and nothing ever happened between them. And Sadie's letter also mentioned, people rebuke me of things that I am not guilty of, which was a reference to the letter she had received earlier that day that accused her of stealing from her former employer.

[00:33:21] - [Speaker 0]
And indeed, Sadie had a reason to be pissed off and anxious about receiving that letter because she was innocent. It was revealed later during her trial that the alleged stolen valuables were recovered and they were likely displaced during one of Sadie's Sadie's blackouts, which she suffered from for years. Just like in the case of Mildred Brewster and Anna Wheeler, the burden of proof was on establishing Sadie's insanity. And this meant that a parade of relatives and family friends came forward to testify, and their accounts painted an incredibly bleak picture of Sadie's life before she arrived in Akron. Sadie's aunt, missus Patrick Morgan, the same aunt that she wrote to the day of her murder, revealed in her testimony as the Buffalo Times reported that the entire McMullen family for generations back have been lunatics or dissipated characters.

[00:34:13] - [Speaker 0]
Her sister Julia a Morgan is at the present time in the insane asylum. Her brother James McMullen is in the county asylum. Sadie's grandfather and grandmother were first cousins, and her father was a hard drinker, and her mother was of such an eccentric disposition that she was considered insane. Missus Morgan's evidence proved that other members of the McMullen family were or had been insane. And Sadie's aunt further testified that while Sadie was what she would call quick tempered, she did not have a quote revengeful disposition.

[00:34:46] - [Speaker 0]
Another witness was a clerk from a local store who testified that Sadie would act strangely when she came in the store. He claimed that she would whistle and sing and waltz around, and her acts impressed him as irrational. But honestly, like, kinda sounds like your average target goer. I have sung and danced in the aisles, but I digress. Another witness, doctor James g Childs testified that Sadie's uncle was currently in the asylum suffering from a chronic case of dementia, which back then dementia wasn't what we know now, like a memory disease.

[00:35:21] - [Speaker 0]
It was a catch all term for insanity. Think demented. But what really piqued my interest was when Sadie's father, William t McMullen took the stand because I was surprised that he did, mostly because he was an abusive, alcoholic, deadbeat dad. However, his testimony did explain a lot, and at least he was honest about himself. So I'm gonna kinda sum up the highlights of his testimony.

[00:35:46] - [Speaker 0]
So Sadie's father was a wanderer roaming from Detroit into what was then at the time known as Indian territory. Now this could have been anywhere from the Dakotas to Oklahoma, but it's important to note that much of this Indian territory was land that native Americans were forcibly relocated to during the Trail of Tears, not necessarily their ancestral lands. And according to William, Sadie's father, she was born somewhere in the West. Now Sadie's mother was, as her aunt had testified, unstable. William said that she would raise up in the bed at night and with her eyes wide open, declare that she saw all sorts of fiendish creatures coming after her, and a herd of little boys and girls with white hats coming to kill her.

[00:36:33] - [Speaker 0]
Naturally, I'm just picturing lock, shock, and barrel from The Nightmare Before Christmas, But again, I digress. Another time, Sadie's mother stubbed her toe, and William laughed at her. And doing the rational thing, Sadie's mother dumped a pot of near boiling water on William's head. And she allegedly even tried to kill William's brother with an axe held, which is the wooden part of an axe. So I'm not sure if it didn't have a blade on it or how she held that, but, hey, whatever works.

[00:37:04] - [Speaker 0]
So Sadie's mother clearly had some issues and she eventually died. And the cause is kind of unclear, but it was said that while she was living in Wisconsin, she saw a bear that had frightened her so badly that she had fainted and then died three weeks later. William also said that Sadie's uncle Bill Cummings was very strange and sometimes he was good and then he would swear and rave. So he quote, had to put him out. And I'm not sure if that means they pulled a Lenny situation or what, but I think the history of mental illness in the family was firmly established on both sides of the family.

[00:37:45] - [Speaker 0]
And as more testimony was received, it became evident that Sadie was obviously not well herself. The first evidence of Sadie's mental illness appeared when she was only two years old and she suffered her first seizure. At times, Sadie would appear to be in a trance and would look at you with a blank stare before just running off into the distance. In one of these times, her father beat her for running away. In a little while later, Sadie came back up to him and asked what the marks on her body were from.

[00:38:14] - [Speaker 0]
And when her father told her it was for running away, she insisted that she didn't. Now, Sadie's father remarried and they moved from Wisconsin to Missouri, where his second wife also died. It was then that William decided he'd move the family back east to Akron, and so they walked on foot from Missouri to New York. The father and his three little children, they slept outdoors and they begged for food and barely survived. And I cannot imagine the impact that that, in addition to everything else she had went through, had on Sadie and her siblings.

[00:38:52] - [Speaker 0]
But eventually, they reached Akron in 1884. And while in Akron, Sadie's fits continued. One time she arrived home completely soaked with water and when asked why she was wet, she didn't know. Sounds familiar. Right?

[00:39:08] - [Speaker 0]
Apparently, when Sadie had episodes, she would frequently try and drown herself. And Sadie's sister, Josephine testified recounting an incident. Once father had been drinking and Sarah went after him. And when she came back, had father with her and he tried to punish her for coming after him and she hit father in the arm. Then she ran out and said, you will find my body in the bottom of the creek and there will never be a day that I won't haunt you.

[00:39:33] - [Speaker 0]
We got her back and the next morning, she didn't remember anything about it. And when Josephine was asked when the death of Sadie's mother occurred, Josephine's answer was revelatory. She said, fourteen years ago, the thirty first day of October on Halloween. So Sadie committed her crime on the anniversary of her mother's death. To me, at least, it seems like Sadie was already carrying a tremendous weight on Halloween when then she received a letter from her former employer wrongly accusing her of theft.

[00:40:04] - [Speaker 0]
And that combined with her grief and her history of mental illness, she snapped and fell into one of her epileptic episodes. Sadie's trial was only a few days long, and on the morning of Saturday, March 7, closing arguments were made, and the jury was sent to deliberate. Sadie sat there nervously playing with her handkerchief, her life hanging in the balance, a potential date with the electric chair looming over her. She didn't have to agonize for too long as after only forty minutes later, the jury emerged to read their verdict. The foreman cleared his throat and read from his paper.

[00:40:42] - [Speaker 0]
We find that the defendant is not guilty on the ground of insanity at the time. And the papers describe followed as a pitiful and merciful scene stating, all the springs of emotion in Sadie McMullen's frail being seemed to break at once. She swayed to and fro and would have fallen had not her aunt and another woman sprang to her side. And from the rear of the room came a sound of clapping, which all the judges pounding and the officers rapping for order could not subdue. And mingled with this was the cries of the prisoner who moaned and cried convulsively, and great tears ran down the faces of several of the jurors and many of the others in the room.

[00:41:24] - [Speaker 0]
Now the judge, it seemed, was not entirely pleased with this verdict, and honestly, his bias was pretty evident throughout the trial. But nevertheless, he committed Sadie to the Buffalo State Asylum citing that, quote, it is entirely uncertain whether at any time tomorrow it may be, she may not kill some other children under a like attack. And with that, Sadie kissed her relatives goodbye one by one before being led out of the room and taken to the asylum. And before we continue on, I think it's something worth noting that it was so emotional, not only for Sadie and her family, but even the jurors were crying at the not guilty verdict. There seemed to be a surprising amount of sympathy for Sadie and her story.

[00:42:09] - [Speaker 0]
Now being sent off to the asylum is where the story would end for most, And it almost did for Sadie, but we're not quite done with her story yet. Only a year and a half after her committal, the asylum superintendent JB Andrews announced that quote, she is now perfectly sane, and she was sent out into the world. And I will say there were insane, no pun intended, inaccuracies printed in the newspapers at the time of her release, which is a shock given how recent her case actually was. The quick highlights of some of the inaccuracies were that she had murdered two children, that she was 14 years old when she committed the crime. She wasn't.

[00:42:49] - [Speaker 0]
She was 17. And Nellie was misnamed, and she was misaged at age 11, and they exaggerated the drop from the trestle bridge from 50 feet to 70 feet. But you're probably wondering, what happened to Sadie after her release? Now that is a mystery. Some say she went west to California, and some say she went to Tennessee.

[00:43:10] - [Speaker 0]
And many have claimed to have found her, but I looked at those same records and they're not our Sadie McMullins. They're just other Sadie McMullins. But according to history, Sadie McMullin wouldn't have been her name anyway. Only one clue about Sadie's life after her release appeared in an article titled Queer Human Beings in the 10/23/1898 issue of the Buffalo News. This article summarized a paper by doctor Kraus on the country's lax marriage laws, which he blamed for many societal evils.

[00:43:41] - [Speaker 0]
Doctor Krause passionately lobbied for marriage licenses to be contingent on a physical and psychological examination. And while he didn't mention Sadie by name, he clearly referenced her case, stating that she was allowed to marry immediately after leaving the asylum. Who she married is still a bit of a mystery. A retrospective article from 1926 discovered by one of her descendants, Mark Zaglian, claims she married the lawyer who secured her release from the asylum, Everett Hayes, but historical records don't support that. Mark has been searching for the end to his great aunt story for the past twenty five years with no luck.

[00:44:20] - [Speaker 0]
Unfortunately, laws prohibit access to psychiatric records that can complete her story even for her relatives and even for her relatives over a hundred years later. I understand the importance of keeping the confidentiality of medical and psychiatric records, but this is a little bit much. Her descendant, Mark, really paints her as this tragic story. And when I first covered this story, I was really harsh on Sadie. I gave her a really hard time, but I was convinced that she was a liar and I had felt no sympathy towards her.

[00:44:54] - [Speaker 0]
And I know now as to why I thought that, but that's what therapy for me is for. But now I can look at the story and not only mourn the young girl that she murdered and the other that she permanently disabled, but I can also hold space for Sadie in everything that she went through. Her father was an abusive alcoholic. Her mother died when she was young, and she was forced to travel hundreds of miles on foot, all on top of clearly suffering from mental illness and epilepsy. And even though Sadie's story seems to get a happy ending with her release and her apparent marriage, it's still really sad.

[00:45:34] - [Speaker 0]
There's a lot we don't know. How do we know that her marriage was something that was safe for her? We don't. You know, she must have been very vulnerable and scared in that mental institution. Was she coerced into marriage?

[00:45:47] - [Speaker 0]
Was that something that she truly wanted, or did she see it as an escape? Did she feel forced into it? Was she even in her right mind? Yes. She was declared sane, but records can be manipulated.

[00:46:00] - [Speaker 0]
Regardless of however her story ended for her sake, I genuinely hope that she had a happy life. But that's where the story ends, and what a story to kick off spooky season, A Halloween murder? That's gonna be hard to top. And you know what else is hard to top? A five star rating.

[00:46:18] - [Speaker 0]
What did you think I was gonna say? So please leave a review if you haven't already, and make sure that you tell all your friends about the podcast to keep our little community of bibliographers growing. But until next time, please sing and dance in your local target like no one is watching. Stay off of railroad bridges, and I'll see you in the stacks.