The Christmas Fire

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0:36Or are you stuck in one you've outgrown? Or never wanted in the first place? Sure, you can probably list the reasons for staying, but are they actually just excuses for not leaving? Let a career coach from strawberry.me help you get unstuck. Discover the benefits of having a dedicated career coach in your corner. Go to strawberry.me slash unstuck to claim a special offer. On Christmas 1843 and Christmas night on Staten Island, there were a group of men that were walking towards the town's only tavern. One of them noticed smoke coming out of the kitchen chimney of Captain George Hausman. Didn't think much of it.

1:24There had been snow and it may have been wet logs. But soon, a young kid comes down the road and yells, fire, fire, fire. Alex Hortis is a historian and lawyer. They run back. They arrive at this chaotic scene at the house. The back kitchen is on fire. There's flames spitting out of the windows, smoke billowing out. They break down the door. They find a way in. and inside, it's just a very intense fire. There was resin melting from the top. You know, it was permeated with smoke. Everything seemed to be on fire. Neighbors formed a line and started passing buckets of water from the nearest well.

2:13They were able to put the fire out. Three men volunteered to go into the house to check that the fire was fully out. Neighbors told them that the owner of the house, Captain Houseman was out at sea on his oyster schooner. And that his wife, Emmeline Houseman, and their one-year-old daughter, Anne Eliza, were visiting relatives. When the volunteers entered the house, one of the men checked the kitchen. So as he's sifting through the ashes, he hits something hard. He initially thinks it's a sheep or a dog. It ends up being Emmeline Hausman's torched and bludgeoned body. Next to her was the burned body of her daughter, Anna Eliza.

2:59The press reported that both bodies were wrapped in a blanket, but the blanket was barely burned. They also reported that Emmeline's hands were tied with a silk black handkerchief in a sailor's knot. Captain George Houseman returned from sea the next day. He docks his schooner, and then he's walking over to the ferry boat, and he literally runs into his sister, Polly. It falls upon Polly to tell him the horrible news. They ride back in silence. He doesn't know what to say or think. He goes to the house, and all that's left is this burnt-out, scorched kitchen and the horrible remains of what was left of his family, Emmeline and Annalisa.

3:55The autopsy of the body found that Emmeline had a stab wound on her arm so deep that it fractured the bone. 18-month-old Annalisa's skull was completely fractured. They determined that the mother and daughter were murdered before the fire. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.

4:23In the 1840s, Staten Island was mostly farmland. The farmers grew corn, wheat, and potatoes from Manhattan and New Jersey. The first ferry service between Manhattan and Staten Island started only a few decades earlier. Only about 10 ,000 people lived on the island. Everyone knew everybody. But what was also distinct about Staten Island was just across the bay was the largest city in North America. And if you go over the hills, you could see some of the lights and all the ships going in and out from all over the world. So it was a very stark contrast between a very rural, small village that was connected to the great metropolis of the West.

5:14Captain George Hausman's family was one of the wealthiest and most important on the island. His father, Abraham, got rich from managing a granite quarry and farming oysters. He had a very prosperous oyster business. There was an oyster craze in New York. And so much of Staten Island's economy was feeding New York oysters. Abraham had eight children. George Houseman was his second son. And Alex Horta says George was closest to his younger sister, Polly. Polly got married when she was 15 to a 24-year-old man named Andrew Bedine. It was considered sort of a match made in heaven because it was a marriage between two great clans on Staten Island, and clans meant everything on Staten Island.

6:04And these were families that predated the formation of the United States, and in the case of the housemen, predated even the English arriving. Polly and Andrew moved to a little house on the ocean. And within a year of getting married, had their first son. Soon after, they had a daughter. But after three years, their marriage fell apart. He ends up being a drunk, ends up being abusive towards her, ends up spending all the family money. So she separates from him. And in the 1840s, this is, if not unheard of, it's certainly scandalous. Polly could only divorce Andrew if she could prove adultery, which would have been an expensive process attracting even more attention from people in town.

6:54So instead, Polly decided to move in with her father, Abraham. Her brother, George, lived next door with his wife and daughter. He has a schooner business, but he's away at sea for long stretches of time. Polly and her daughter, Elizabeth, would walk across the yard and keep Emily in company while her husband, George, was away. Polly also spent a lot of her time in Manhattan. Her son Albert had an apprenticeship at an apothecary shop in Lower Manhattan. But Polly wasn't just visiting her son. She was having an affair with his boss. His name was George Waite. George Waite is a 30-something sort of merchant prince.

7:38He owns his own apothecary just off Broadway. Broadway is the commercial emporium of the Western world at this point. and she would go in, come for a long weekend, and travel back usually on Monday or Tuesday, back to Staten Island. Rumors began spreading about Polly. Soon, she found out she was pregnant. They decided to keep it a secret. They had no idea that the whole entire country would in a few weeks know about their adulterous relationship. We'll be right back.

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9:32This was revolutionary at the time, because before that, there were these really kind of dull merchant publications. They would carry stock prices. They would carry official news, maybe some news from Washington. But they did not have a wide audience. At the same time, the penny press papers were a penny. So they were affordable for the working person. The founders of it had this fantastic idea that you don't have to wait and sit back for subscriptions. You can sell it on the streets. So they start hawking the news. These are the first newsboys. And so they're selling to anybody who comes along.

10:07and initially gets a working class audience, but then it becomes so popular and so addictive to get this different kind of newspaper that it goes all the way up to the upper classes of New York City. The mayor, everyone was reading the Penny Press. So it made the Penny Press very different. It would cover murder and suicides. It would cover scandals. It was about sex. It was really in many ways the forerunners to our current tabloids. The first penny press was printed in New York in 1833, and other cities followed. In 1835, a newspaper man named James Gordon Bennett founded one of New York's largest penny presses, the New York Herald.

10:52He claimed,

10:59The penny press headlines were catchy and vague, like, highly important, if true. Or, from Florida, more murders. And another one gone. The stories were not always accurate. In the mid-1830s, one penny paper reported a series of articles that an astronomer had found evidence of unicorns, two-legged beavers, and creatures that were part human and part bat on the moon. Everyone, from longshoremen, rope makers, to ladies in smoking parlors, to the mayor, to anyone who could read, was starting to pick up the penny press, and they loved these stories. On December 27, 1843, two days after the bodies of Captain George Houseman's wife and daughter were discovered, the Herald's headline read, Destructive conflagration at Port Richmond, Two Lives Lost.

12:01Arrival paper's headline read, horrible affair, mysterious murder, and arson at Staten Island. The police had barely started their investigation and hadn't made any announcements. But James Gordon Bennett published that a gang had killed Emmeline and her daughter. Gangs were very much a concern in New York City, and they would kind of roam through the streets committing crimes, occasionally committing murders. He really didn't have much of anything to go on when he said that. The New York Daily Tribune reported that Emmeline had also been gagged, which wasn't true. But among Emmeline's family, there was a suspect, and it was Polly Bedine.

12:50Emmeline's father knew that Polly Bedine was the last person who Emmeline was seen alive with. And he began telling people that Pauly murdered his daughter. The other thing that aroused his suspicion was George Hausman had carried around$1 ,000 in silver coins at the time, which was a considerable amount of money, in big bags. And he had suspected that Pauly had somehow tried to rob the money from Emmeline. At this point, the investigators didn't have any other real leads. Pauly Medine subsequently becomes the primary suspect. The reasons for this are a mix of rumor and some troubling facts. First of all, she's led a scandalous life.

13:38Her character is, quote, considered low. And so she was always held to be suspicious. When authorities look at Pauly, they find out about the relationship with George Waite. The police took George Wade in for questioning. He eventually quickly confesses to say that he had a relationship with Pauly Boudin. They find a very suspicious note on him when they search him, written from Pauly, which, quote, says, hide the things. This really alarms the authorities. They search the apothecary of George Waite, and they find this coral necklace that belonged to the infant, Annalisa, one of the victims. They arrested George Waite and started looking for Polly.

14:31Polly is in her father's house. Her brother-in-law comes in out of the rain and says, essentially, Polly, you know, everybody thinks that you're the murderer. She immediately gets up, she goes to the back room, she gets her shawl, and she takes off into the rain as she's eight months pregnant. She walks the length of Staten Island all night long. In the early morning hours, she's seen taking the Staten Island ferry, the Staten Islander, over to Manhattan. Finally, Polly went inside a restaurant where the owner saw her, pregnant and soaking wet, and offered her food and a bed. Polly said as she was falling asleep, she overheard other guests talking about a murder on Staten Island and that the authorities were looking for a woman suspect.

15:23She left and continued walking. And then she walks all the way up to Harlem, which at the time were country estates. So she, over the course of two days, she essentially walks a marathon in the cold and rain as she's eight months pregnant. Polly found a church where she could finally sleep. When she woke up, she continued roaming Manhattan. Then someone she knew recognized her and told Polly that the police were looking for her. And he talks her into giving herself up. She hasn't been charged yet, but they treat her like a fugitive. They took her to Manhattan's prison, the tombs, and transferred her to the Staten Island jail.

16:11That day, the editor of the New York Herald, James Gordon Bennett, published a story about Pauly. He went into George Waite's apothecary, and he detailed evidence that Pauly had essentially been sleeping with George Waite. The Herald reported that they found a nightcap, nightgown, and hair, similar to Pauly's color, in George's bedroom. Soon, all of the papers started publishing their own accounts of what happened. One reported that Polly had poisoned Emmeline with a dose of acid. Another used Polly's separation from her husband and her bad character as signs that she probably committed the murder.

16:55Another reported that Polly had confessed. She hadn't. A few days after her arrest, Polly went into labor alone in her jail cell and delivered a stillborn baby. When word got out, a penny paper reported that Polly had smothered her own child. James Gordon Bennett of the Herald printed that Polly had nearly a half dozen abortions during her relationship with George Wade. George Wade is an apothecary, of course, off of Broadway, so he sold abortifacients at the time, these herbal remedies, which are very dangerous and noxious. So he is rumored to have procured, you know, maybe half a dozen abortions.

17:41There's really no proof of that. There's no way that the press could approve that, but they ran with the story anyway. During the investigation, the editors of the penny papers petitioned the commissioner and the district attorney to let the press observe the witness examinations. Previously, press weren't allowed to sit in on those proceedings. But James Gordon Bennett argued that the press was the living jury of the nation. The district attorney and the commissioner allowed it. From his jail cell, George Waite knew the penny press was writing about him. He was being charged as an accessory after the murders.

18:21He decided to publish a letter in the papers claiming his own innocence. He wrote he had no idea how Captain Houseman's daughter, Annalisa's beads, had ended up in his shop. And George did not come to Polly's defense. Polly's trial was scheduled for June 1844, five months after she was arrested. One reporter predicted that it would be a mess. Quote, They manage these matters wretchedly in New York. That reporter was Edgar Allan Poe. At this point, he's a newsman, so he's writing essays for the Columbia spy. But he was also very interested in crime. And he becomes fascinated with the idea of being essentially an amateur detective.

19:10And becomes fascinated in this idea that I can solve crimes using logic reported in the newspapers. And I can use deductive logic to solve crimes. He even invented a word for this way of thinking, radiocination, the idea of using logic more than just facts to solve a crime. In post-detective stories, the main characters used radiocination to solve crimes police couldn't. So he's already writing detective stories. He writes the first detective story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, in which this detective Dupin, who becomes his alter ego and becomes the first sort of Sherlock Holmes character, solves an unsolvable crime.

19:55And then he comes across the Polly Bidine case. He's following it very carefully. And then he goes on and he criticizes the police. And he decides that Polly Bidine is clearly guilty, but he believes that the authorities will undoubtedly mess it up. To him, the police seemed, quote, Blown about in all directions by every varying puff of the most unconsidered newspaper opinion. The trial of Pauly Bodine began on June 24, 1844, on Staten Island. As soon as the Herald and the Sun started reporting on the trial, it caused a huge furor. So people from Manhattan, people from Long Island, people from New Jersey, they all flock to Little Staten Island and its courthouse.

20:50The case against Polly Budine at that trial is largely circumstantial, but it's fairly extensive. of. The prosecution argued that Polly murdered Emmeline and Annalisa the night before Christmas Eve, stole their belongings, and then returned on Christmas to set fire to their house. They called a relative of Polly's who testified that she heard a scream coming from Emmeline's home the night the prosecution said she committed the murder. A neighbor said she saw Polly go to Emmeline's house that same night, but never saw Emmeline alive after that. She also said that the morning of Christmas Eve, she saw Polly leaving Emmeline's home with a shawl over her head.

21:38The prosecution also called two Staten Island ferry workers, who said they saw Polly taking the ferry to Manhattan the morning after the murders were discovered. They said they noticed her because she ordered a slice of cake and a gin so early in the morning. Then Polly's son Albert took the stand. He was 16. He'd been subpoenaed. He said he didn't know where his mother was for part of the day on Christmas. Polly told him she was going to a neighbor's home. But that neighbor testified she never saw Polly. One of the key pieces of evidence that had come out was some pawnbrokers had answered a reward in the newspapers and had said that somebody had come on Christmas Day, this is several hours before the murders were discovered, and had pawned Emmeline's valuables.

22:38So it raises the obvious question, how in the world were those goods pawned half a day before the bodies were discovered? How to have somebody who had access to the house. Before the trial, authorities brought the pawnbrokers to the Staten Island Jail, where Polly was being held. But what they did was they had her dress up in her outfit that they had caught her with. And they brought the pawnbrokers to this lone cell. She was the only person there. There was no lineup. Like, you would have today, you would have to have a lineup. Otherwise, it would be considered unduly suggestive. And he said, you know, basically said, this is who we think it is.

23:19Is that her? And they all said it was her. In her defense, Pauly's attorneys told the jury that it was George Waite, the apothecary, who had committed the murders. And her family, Pauly Bedine's family, the housemen, say George Wade's the killer, Pauly's innocent. George Wade essentially killed her for money. The defense also argued that Pauly wouldn't kill Emmeline and her niece because they were so close. It was the defense's strongest point in many ways. She had actually delivered Annalisa, the young girl, an 18-month-old girl. Why in the world would Polly Bodine murder her 18-month-old niece over Christmas?

24:02Why would she murder her sister-in-law? The prosecution suggested that Polly was, in fact, in financial distress. The problem with this is that Polly came from a wealthy family. So what is the verdict? There was an eccentric juror who actually was a fairly prosperous farmer on Staten Island, and he holds out and he says, I'm not going to convict her under any circumstances. There were some reports that he had been opposed to the death penalty. And so they have an all-night deliberation. And remember, these jurors, you know, these are not comfortable beds here. They're in a very small jury room.

24:47They don't have much to eat. They have bread and water. They used to actually withhold bread and water from jurors until they reached a decision. but he's the lone holdout. Everyone else votes to convict. He literally jumps out the window and runs away. We'll be right back.

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26:52Teach me, Sildana. I couldn't possibly. At T-Mobile, get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most powerful iPhone yet and has the ultimate pro camera system. Impressive. Let me try. At T-Mobile, you can save up to 20 % versus the other big guys. You heard them. T-Mobile is the best place to get the new iPhone 17 Pro on us with eligible trade-in in any condition. Check them out to see how much you can save versus the other big guys at T-Mobile.com slash switch. After the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision because one juror ran away, they had to start over. A second trial was scheduled.

27:26The court couldn't find 12 jurors on Staten Island who hadn't already read everything about the case and the penny papers. So they moved the second trial to Manhattan. And it becomes this enormous social event. It far attracted women spectators far more than men. They'd be dressed up in the latest stylish outfits. They'd be eating lunches. They'd bring their children. They'd treat it like a show, essentially. On the first day of trial, there was a near riot, and the police had to beat down spectators because it had caused such strong feelings about it. It's really the first case in which the entire country is following details of the case.

28:06And you have very able reporters that are transcribing it and doing very detailed day-to-day trial testimony. The head of a museum down the street from where Polly's trial was held, a man named P.T. Barnum, noticed all the excitement. P.T. Barnum, short for Phineas Taylor, had started his career with a traveling musical, Barnum's Grand Scientific and Musical Theater. He bought a museum in Lower Manhattan. It featured exhibits like the Siamese twins Chang and Ang, an alleged orangutan's torso with a fishtail that he called Fiji Mermaid, and bearded ladies. So he creates this disgusting wax figure of Pauly essentially as this old witch, killing Emmeline and Aunt Eliza.

29:02In the American Museum, he advertises during her trials, There are undoubtedly were many, many thousands of people who saw both this horrible wax figure and then went over and sat in the trial, which was only about two blocks away. The museum called the wax figure a faithful representation of the celebrated Polly Budine. Curiously, P.T. Barnum was not, you know, probably trying to endanger. He wasn't a bloodthirsty person. He opposed the death penalty. But he also knew he believed in selling tickets. That was his modus operandi. And so he really becomes one of the first people to make true crime entertainment.