Modern Commemoration and Final Thoughts

This is exactly right When a charming neurosurgeon rode into Frontier town, selling a persona of confidence and care, patients trusted him. He wore cowboy boots in the operating room and became sought after by patients. He promised to heal them, instead, he left a trail of broken bodies. This is a story of greed, betrayal, and a fight for justice. Listen to Doror Death The Cowboy wherever you get your podcast or binge the entire series right now only with Audible Goodbye The best time to think about home security is before you need it. That's exactly why there's SimplySafe. Traditional home security only alerts you after a break in has already happened, and that's too late. Simply Safe is changing that. Simplyafe's US based live agents identify threats on your property and help deter them so intruders never get to your house. The system is customizable so you can build one that fits your home and your specific needs. 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Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. G Goodbye. Hello and welcome to my favor murder. That's Georgia Hard Start. That's Karent Kilgarereff. And we've got some surprises in store for you today. Sloody vacation nails.. Oh, those are the longest I've ever seen your nail.ot not mine. They're like literally vacation nails that I'm obsessed with. Will you throw up those nails to your camera as we are on Netflix and show the world Gell X and they just make you feel like a grown up. Yeah, they look really nice. My nails have always been like junior high school And now I'm like in my thirties working at a law firm. Oh my God, congratulations Thank. Wheny'd you get that job? When I got back? They came with nails. Exactly. Wow, because my nails are the manicure I gave myself at the last minute because I couldn't somehow get to the Manny petty salon? Show your camera? Well, no, because it's It's just dire because it now looks like a French manicure, but that's not how it started. That's how kind of old I also always immediately smudged my right thumb. Always so irritating. Life is hard. Yeah Are you Having any since you've been back from your trip to Italy, which now that you're a travel influencer, I think we should discuss all of your opinions likes and dislikes. Finally, thank you. Come with me Is anything staying with you that you miss about being on that trip or like your Italian experience? You know what I miss, which was really nice, which probably gets old after a while, but it was only two weeks Stressing for dinner Oh yeah. Be they have that period between the afternoon and the evening where nobody does anything. You take a nap and then you have to put on like a dress dinner, you can't wear tennis shoes. and it just like made everything feel so much more special. Yeah. I loved that. Yeah. but yeah, it was incredible at a really good. beautiful time Milan is like incredible. I'd go back there immediately. Yeah. We stay My mom text me a thing of like, Wear your star of David? Again, she texts me this things as if I've ever had a fucking piece of jewelry Yes. She said, donon't wear your star of David. like Ke keep it low key that you're Jewish as if that's not what I already do. But then we found out we were staying at a hotel where Mussolini had stayed before. Yeah. So like I can't tell her that But you're like, look, I'm seeing their side of things No, that's not good. But also you can't get away from a city's history. You can't, you know, It's not your fault. That the really nice hotel was also his. What my fault? Was lotots of things or my fault in my mind. World War twoI though. I don't think so you can let yourself off the hook for that one I mean, it must be a huge relief. It is. What's up with you I've just been wearing a star David around see what I can kick up U notot much. You know, we went on vacation obviously, you know, at the same time, but I did a staycation and truly just tried to do nothing Literally lay on the couch and pull a blanket up to my chin like it was the middle of winter, any chance I could. I love it. Did you binge Widows Bay? Oh, yeah And now I'm in the watching people react to how much they love Widows Bay on social media, which is such Like it's becoming this new way that we all watch TV Yeah where it's just as satisfying for me to watch people get excited to go, Here's what I think sur was my favorite. I fuck the whole thing up though. Here's the negative side of that I watched a spoiler an accident and knew that last bit The last exciting bit I accidentally watched a fucking likeike it's the whole turn point of the show. when you went in knowing it. When she goes about, you know, I was pregnant. Yeah, I knew what happened. And at the beginning of that episode before it even happened, I go, I get why that matters. 'use I thought it was just like a regular random scene that I was gonna laugh at.. It was the whole point of the fucking show.. And I knew and I was so bummed, likeike Vince gasped and I wanted to gasp too But And also the danger of when we get all the stuff through social media, you can't control that someone's about to give you a spoiler as we do on this show constantly If that wasn't a spoiler, and you should watch it. But But I mean, like you there's a backwards way that like I always seem to end up consuming like a TV show the way I hate the most, which is you know all the big moments before you go in. then you're kind of j you have to see them at that point. You know the story. Right. But I would argue that with Widows Bay, they're doing so much. they work so hard to easaster egg and storyline. Yeah. I watched a woman lay out this whole idea and we will in our social media, we'll post her video and we will give her the full credit because it's a brill brilliant thing she noticed which is that time is all screwed up in Widows Bay. Like the calendar has a car accident on. And then in her theory, she's like, actually, these three episodes all happened in one day, but you don't realize it. If you think about it, you can't tell when a thing is actually happening. You're not sure. And she introduced all these kind of doubts about, oh, that's right and the time where he' Hes got the wolves' calendar but then he opens the month that they're in and it's the car accident. So random. Like there's so many easter eggs about You assume you think you know what's going on and how and it's gonna start like What's the comedian's name who plays the shaman? It's just like the best. Oh, Chris Fleming. That's just the best You know, five minutes of TV. It's so good. Chris Fleming, he's so perfect in it It's okay, just drink it slow. He goes, I just gotstandad Thank God . This is not it should be a widow's Bay pod Just for the next four years. We turn it into. You have a true crime update? There's a true crime update and it's just plain good news, which when in the ten years we've been doing this podcast has that ever happened?. Rex Herman, the Gilgo Beach murderer, on Wednesday, june seventeenth, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole For the murders of Meghgan Waterman, Melissa Barthelomey, Amberlyn Costello, Maureen Brainnard Barnes, Valerie Mac Jessica Taylor, Sanda Christia, and Karen Regatta And he initially denied these charges and he was set to go to trial, but basically he changed his plea to guilty in April and now he is in jail. So yeah, I'm glad that is over with and he can go rotten hell H Wow, it's always strange when it ends and you know the reality and it is the big ghost, the big monster, mysterious monster is just some horrible man. Some small little man, coward. Yeah. That's why I love cold cases is like, let's not make them this big You know, powerful being. It's just some fucking Dad from Long Island who sucks, you know? Yeah,'s just Yeahah, not good. Okay. Sh we get into it? You mean talk about our network? Sure. Hey, we have a podcast network. It's called Exactly Rite Media Here are some headls. Let's here some headlights. Nope. Here are some highlights. Here's some highlights. This week on our podcast Bananas, Kurt and Scotty discuss whether all the water on Earth has already been peed in. They talk about a World Cup trophy bong that landed a head shop in legal trouble and everything in between. And then over on Ghosted, Ros is joined by comedian and tarot quQeen, our friend, Lizzy, Cooperman. They shuffle the cards while discussing yes, no, later manifestations, hermit crabs, and one lingering question When will Ros become more famous? Well we kind of have the answer to that. Right because R' just released her new audio book. It is her memoir, and it's entitled Peing in an Empty Bottle on other glamorous shenanigans of an almost famous transgender comedian on the Rad, and that book is out now. It blends stories obviously from her cross country comedy tour with exclusive standup and behind the scenes audio. So if you want to support Rz, she is an incredible stand up comic, hilarious podcaster. We love her, obviously, member of our family here, but also just like an entertainer to beat the band.ally. herer is going to be great. Rz Hernandez . Then this week on Trust Me, Lola and Megan are joined by doctor Christine Marie Lola's mom, who was also the podcast's very first guest. She shares how she went undercover with the FBI to help bring down self proclaimed profet Sam Bateman. So if you watch Trust me on Netflix, this is the one we're talking about. And you can also watch the full video episode now at YouTube dot com slash exactly Wite media Kar and goes first So my story today It begins on march first, seventeen seventy eight. Are you ready? Noot so long ago. So long ago. We're talking about an area that I truly and literally know almost nothing about except for this story, which is the Revolutionary War era of America. Got it. I know that you can't correct me in any of these mistakes I'm about to make, right? No, That's why we do this podcast R Again, my excuse is that I changed schools fifth to sixth grade. Oh, that's gota be ye, that's hard. They learned about stuff like that in the fifth grade at my new school and in the sixth grade at my old school. You're preaching to the choir. Okay. Roman numerals. I was sick that day All the presidents, not my business. None of my business. Not really never brought up. I didn't vote for them I didn't get to see pictures of them all around the walls all year long. Okay. so march first, seventeen seventy eight, we are in Brookfield, Massachusetts, west of Woocesa And it's a snowy night around nine o'clock. Most of the locals in Brookfield are either at home sitting in front of the fire or they've already gotten into bed under their thick quilts and blankets because it's so cold outside.. But a local wealthy local businessman, thirty seven year old Joshua Spooner, he's outside in the Elements because he spent the last few hours at the local tavern and now he's making the quarter mile walk home down Brookfield's main road. It's dark outside, almost no moonlight. He's holding a lantern because this is old fashioned times, and that's required at night. So Chugggy, right keep saying hello Hello. And the beginning of his walk he is with his friend, doctor Jonathan King, who is the town's physician. The doctor splits off in the direction of his house when they come to the fork in the road. and then Joshua continues on by himself, eventually making it to his very stately two story home, which is one of the nicest in Brookfield. He climbs a set of stone steps that take him from the street up onto his property. He unlatches his front gate And then he heads back toward one of the back entrances of the house.. He never makes it inside. Instead, Joshua Spooner's body will be discovered, beaten, strangled and stuff down his well. What? Yes This is the story of the murder of Joshua Spooner, which is one of the very first high profile murder cases in America. Dude seventeen, seventy eight. Get at that vintage murder. Right? Happy fourth of July, everybody. That's right. While we are lighting off firecrackers and trying to dissociate, let's remember how this country started with extreme violence On a day to day basis. Yeah. True crime isn't new. No. The main source of today's story is the research and writing of Deborah Novis, and the rest of the sources are in our show notes. Itts seventeen seventy eight, only two years have passed since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We're in deep early history for us. kindind of nauseating, It feels like you haven't eaten lunch, but you have to listen to the teacher keep talking. R The revolutionary war has continued and will continue for five more years. It's been going for about two and a half three. So the American Revolution is the backdrop for this whole case. The colonies are fiercely divided at this time between patriots and loyalists, and Joshua Spoer, this murder victim, was a supporter of the Patriot cause. That cause is especially strong and well supported in New England. At this point in the Revolutionary War, British leadership has been driven out of Massachusetts. The colony is now governed by revolutionary leaders, one of the highest ranking officials is Joshua's stepbother, a man named John Avery Jr.. So the problem is, Joshua has a prominent loyalist in his family, his father in law Brigadier General Timothy Ruggles. Cute, N. Little Timmy Ruggles ince his father in law, his wife' Bathsheba's father. So Bathsheba Ruggles is the woman that Joshua married, Joshua S Booner. Rring that name back. Bathsheba. You're a witch. You're immediately a witch. You're a witch or you're a Bible lady. Congratulations. Like one of two things. Yeah. in this story So before the Revolution, Timothy Ruggles was a very powerful man. He held a bunch of important political posts in Massachusetts while under British rule. So when the Revolution started, colonists began to embrace the Patriot cause. Timothy Ruggles stays committed to the British crrown. Huge mistake in Worcesa. So in the mid seventeen seventies Timothy Ruggles goes to New York to join the British arrmy. That's how much he commits. L literally wrong side of history, bro. Read the fucking room, dude of Massachusetts. There's a room as wide as Massachusetts So obviously bad for his reputation in New England. So soon, Timothy Ruggles is considered one of the most despised political figures in revolutionary Massachusetts. So what do you compare him to these days, do you think? Donald Trump Sounds right. So this work was that a little too fast? So all of this has created serious tension in the spooner household between Joshua and his wife, Bathsheba. She is very close with her father, Timothy Ruggles, and there are four Ruggles daughters, but Bathsheba has always been known to be her father's favorite. She's also suspected of sharing his political leanings. so when he leaves town basically to join with the British, Joshua forbids his wife from having any communication with her disgraced turn coat father she is devastated You got to discuss politics before you get married. I mean get on the same page before you get Well here's here's the real gossip about this story is that this relationship has never been good.. It was basically engineered in seventeen sixty six as a political arrangement hashed out by their wealthy fathers. Timothy saw the political writing on the wall and he knew his loyalist sympathies could someday cause harm to his beloved Bathsheba. And I was kidding about that because women don't get to choose their politics or their husbands back then. So discussing politics before you getarried, deciding if you want to marry them or not is not an option. So I was not being serious. No, no, no.. It's not only not an option. It was literally like, how dare you You couldn't suggest that. I I would be backhanded and told to go make a sandwich And they didn't have sliced bread. so imagine that. I mean, back before the internet, they were still doing that. So when Bathsheba was around twenty years old, she was married off into the Spooner family who were wealthy Boston merchants because basically Timothy Ruggles knew his daughter would be protected socially and financially. But both Joshua and Bathsheba grew up incredibly privileged in aristocratic families. they both had generational power. and Bathsheba is roundly described to be exceptionally beautiful Josh, meanwhile is a successful lumber man. So on paper, they were supposed to make a perfect couple. right? She brings all the gorgeousness, he's money. In reality, they're just a miserable pair because despite the gender norms dictating quiet, dautiful wives of the time, Bathsheba is headstrong, she's rash, and she is free spirited And she said to have, quote passions that have never been properly restrained Same and, right? Yeah. Meanwhile, Joshua her husband is described in old records as, quote, frequently drunk. There you go. rightight? He's also unfaithful to his wife. He is suspected of being physically abusive to his wife And one of the few surviving direct quotes we have from Eitherpooner is one where Bathsheba describes her feelings about her husband with just two words utter aversion So should have said same after always drunk. L I would have been soaked. Do it again. G again. And he is described in old records as, quote, frequently drunk. Same. Oh my God B by seventeen seventy seven. Thank you. Thankk you for indulging me. Yeah, it's fun. Yeah, the couple has, as were the practices of the times, the couple has four children together Bummer Only three of those children survived to adulthood and years later, one of the adult spooner sons will be heard calling his father, quote, old bogus Oh, yeah was like such an insult back then. Such an eighteenth century dig that historians say suggests H children did not respect him very much. So by seventeen seventy seven, it's been more than a decade into this miserable marriage and the relationship is as bad as it will ever be They detest each other, but on top of that, Bathsheba is struggling terribly personally. She's isolated because she has to hide at home because her father is such a pariah Yeah And then hiding at home, she's there with this miserable marriage, no support. Yeah. You know So many kids. So many kids. So in March of that year, a stranger is passing by the front of the Spooner home, and it's a Contental soldier who's just completed a year of service in George Washington's army. And this is how Cinemax starts. That's the first Cinemax kick in those saxophones from the Revolutionary W. D pictures? Was he hot? We don't have pictures of the Contental soldier. I'm about to tell you. That's picture who Jacob Alordi I give you a little more information. Okay. and then we're gonna cast him. because his name is Ezra Ross and he's sixteen years old Okay, everyone. So how old is she grown? She thirty two? Okay, that's illegal. It is illegal. I'm not sure colonial law. So as we go, you can maybe think about who could be cast as a sixteen year old. What do you know?? I feel like he would be he's cast in everything. Yes. He looks like a teenager Very true. But like, how old are your nephews? Who Oh, Mike is sixteen. Yeahah. okay. Oh gross. R. Oh gross The reality of a sixteen year old no, as opposed to a shalomy So it's so funny. Okay, so he's on break between military duties, walking by. He was in a New Jersey Army encampment and he has to walk home to Ipswich, Massachusetts whichich is essentially a three hundred mile walk round trip. Bro, hitchhiking wasn't invented yet. 'a the carts, right slow. They just knock you off. Also, it's the winter.. So it's worst case scenario for this young soldier. And to complicate it even more, he's dealing with the lingering effects of what was probably the flu that he caught at camp. So he's on a long winter walk kind of getting over a bad flu. It's unclear whether he approached the spooner house out of desperation or whether somebody in the spooner house saw him passing and realized he needed help. Either way, the spooners welcome Ezra into their home. The sick young man is put to bed, Bathsheba, begins to nurse him back to health, feeding him and tending to him. And what side is he on? He's not on the British side. He' is the American side, right Yeah Sos like it's like forbidden for her too, because like her dad is super the British. Yeah, you know, She's like not, he's sixteen. fuck, man. it's just keeps getting ruined. It's so ruined, but it also it's like it's a sixteen year old who is being asked to live like a man.. So there is that might help it a little more that he is actually taking on the horrors and responsibilities of Be in the army and fighting a war, if only he were twenty. But he does have the lllama curl at the front of his hair the way all the sixteen year olds do these days. Okay, I go Oh sorry. Wow. It So loud. Okay Taking in soldiers who are walking long distances after military stints is not uncommon in revolutionary wartimes. What sets this encounter apart is that the time it takes for Ezra, Emmost said Timothy Chalam. The time it takes for Ezra to recover, we don't know exactly how long it is. We can assume it was at least a couple of weeks because he has to know fully recover whatever But in that time, thirty one year old Bathheiva Sooner and this adolescent soldier develop what a tasteful person would call a uniquely strong bond. But what we can all maybe in our bravo minds assume was fucking So the age difference, we don't want to be calling things affairs like that, right. And also just let's not spend the time getting into all that discussion Yeah. Here's what we know. It's unclear if they start byy having a physical affair, they have definitely started an emotional affair, though And it's a secret, which makes it even hotter. No one has any idea it's going on, especially Joshua Spooner, who has actually developed his own friendship with Ezra. So Ezra playing both sides. That's right and getting some soup while he on his long journey home. right Do what he's got to do. At some point, Ezra's health improves enough so that the spooners send him back on the road to Ipswich, but he never forgets Bathsheba Within month, thirty one year old woman. Some hot milk that's like, let me take care. He's like, I'll be seeing you within weeks. I'm sorry, within months. He's called back to military service, but then when he gets leave, he comes and visits the spooners in Brookfield. So it's a little less than a year later now, january seventeen seventy eight. and Bathsheba has news for Ezra on his next visit He comes to see the spooners and she pulls him aside and is like Pregnant Oh shuh Now I wanted to act that out. I love. She yanks him into the pantry and then has to push him back out because they have to act normal So it's assumed by historians that given her like on the record out her aversion with her husband Yeah. They weren't probably having sex and probably Ezra is the father of this baby Bathsheb' definitely panicked, and writer Deborah Novis puts it this way, quote, Divorces were all but impossible for women in revolutionary America, and adultresses were stripped to the wasate and publicly whipped. Jesus. So she is truly panicking. Yeah During one of Ezra's visits, Bathheba asks him to poison her husband aquafortus, or also known as nitric acid. It's an extremely corrosive acid used to dissolve hough materials like metal. and unlike other poisons from these old stories like arsenic Aquaforus has an incredibly strong and very terrible taste. So it's a bad idea to use to begin with Ezra's just a sophomore in love with having sex with an old lady, so he does it. He's like sounds good to me He poisons Joshua's drink So The problem is when Joshua takes a sip of that drink, it's literally like who put gasoline in my teh.. imediately tastes the poison, spits out the mouthful, dumps the drink So then basically for the rest of Ezra's stay, he keeps trying to poison Joshua and can't get it done. Oh, folly. I mean, right?. The hilarious back and forth of all the things that Ezra has to spit out and be like, I this taste is driving me crazy. So basically, by the end, Ezra gets cold feet about this whole scheme, his visit ends without a poisoning taking place, and he leaves Bathsheba to carry out that plan for herself Support for today's episode comes from Square. Nobody starts a business because they love payroll or invoices or business. And that's why they're square. Square brings your payments, inventory, scheduling, staff, online orders and reporting together in one connected system. You can take payments in person, online or on the go and track sales and inventory in real time. Inead of juggling a bunch of different apps Square keeps everything connected behind the scenes, so you're spending less time fixing problems. Whether you're just getting started or growing your business, Square is designed to grow with you without complicated setup, contracts, or hidden fees. If you're starting a business or running one that deserves better tools, Square helps you sell, manage, and grow without slowing down. Right now, you can get up to two hundred dollars off square hardware at square dot com slash go slashM. That's squaRE dot com slash Go slash MFM. Run your business smarter with square. Get started today. Goodbye. Pandora jewelry brings a sparkle to your summer. and now with even better prices, it's the perfect time to treat yourself or someone special. For a limited time, enjoy up to fifty percent off, select styles across a wide range of beautifully crafted jewelry. 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Head to quintince d. com slash mFM for free shipping and three hundred sixty five day returns. Go to QuNcE dot com slash mFM for free shipping and three hundred sixty five day returns Quinints d. com slash MFM Coodbe So a few weeks later, February of seventeen seventy eight, Joshua is away on a business trip Bathheba spots two British soldiers passing by the front of the house They are Private William Brooks, who's in his late twenties and Sergeant James Buch Canan, who is in his mid thirties. Okay, so we're age appropriate now. Now, yes, we're getting into some adults, involving adults Bathsheba sends out one of her basically to intercept them and offer them a place to sleep and food to eat. And they're very grateful to come inside. and when they do, Bathsheiba learns they're British deserters who are trying to get home by way of Canada. W. So basically they're just trying to escape America alive to get home So Sensing her opportunity, Bathsheba offers them clothing and cash if they kill her husband when he comes back from his business. Some sources say she offers them a thousand dollars. Wow, whichich in today's money from seventeen seventy eight to twenty twenty six. twelve thousandars twenty five thousand A lot of money, That's a lot of money So they accept And when they do, Bathsheba writes to Ezra, Hey When you graduate from high school, come back here because the plan is afoot. Okay So by the time Joshua Spooner gets back from his business trip to Brookfield, these British soldiers have been staying in their house in the Spooner house for more than a week sleep in nice beds, eating great food whenever they want, running up an enormous tab at the local tavern under Joshua Spooner's name The whole line. Joshua finds this out. He's irate at his wife for letting these British soldiers into their home. He kicks them out William and James don't go anywhere. They just hang around town lurkking, laying low, waiting for the opportunity to strike. And then on february twenty eighth, Ezra Ross quietly arrives back in Brookfield and joins up with the two British soldiers. This and now we're back to the day this all started, which is the cold Dark Night of march first and thirty seven year old Joshua Spooner just arriving from home from the tavern around nine o'clock that night. He goes onto his property, he approaches the back entrance, and that's where Ezra, William and James appear out of the darkness and ambush him and they strangle him to death. Jesus. Then they carry his body over to the well and they throw him down into it head first And the idea is that because Joshua has a reputation for heavy drinking, people will think he accidentally stumbled and fell into the well. I'm sorry, look at your marks from the fall. It just all of it in our forensic files. know how these days, it's like you Rubes from the Revolutionary War. You don't know how to murder. But also I love the idea of like, odds of a drunk person stumbling and falling into a hole smaller than really their own shoulder. Right. Probably whoa whoa, orr the same size. Don't go to the hole. You're falling So Before they do drop Joshua's body into the well, they take his fancy watch, his ring, his silver shoe buckles, which have his initials engraved on them and like basically keep it for themselves. Yeah. Then when they're done, they go into the house where Bathsheba Spooner is waiting. James Buchanan will later testify that she seemed quote utterly confused, which could imply a state of shock, or as some historians have wondered, the throes of an undiagnosed mental health crisis It's basically kind of like at its apex with this, you know horrible event She gives the men a thick stack of cash as well as a few pieces of clothing.ot so confused that she doesn't pay them off for killing her husband. She's not Catonic Yeah Exactly. She's like, I can't deal with this nine, ten, That's it for you. And she also gives them clothes from Joshua's closet. So she is in on the cover up. So confusing. You can take his vest and his boots. At around eleven o'clock, Ezra, William and James, all wearing Joshua's clothes, riding his horses or the spooners's horses, skiip town head twenty miles out toward, of course, the star of this show Wcester They arrive at an inn around four AM. Of course, the inn keepepers immediately sent somethings off. don't go at four AM. Wait till nine in the morning. Middle of the night with big silver bbles on your fuck like clothes that don't fit you correctly. What streaks of mud on your cheeks. Yeah. And of course, acting very, very strangely. I was gonna say paying in cash, but they didn't have any other way to pay back then. then no cards No gift cards, no tabs. Right Paying in u dirty, dirty cash. Yeah. I guess gold Do they pay gold? Yeah, but I think that would count as cash. That wouldn't stand out as much.s. So writer Deborah Nova suggests that all of these actors in this murder are dealing with their guilt and their regret and then it's just coming out in their own ways. So Ezra is despondent. He refuses to give the innkeepers his name. He immediately isolates himself in a bedroom turch just in the funny. I roll to me like she hates Ezra so much Luck Of course he does. Like you fucking did the crime. Yep. And now like it doesn't matter how horrible you feel afterwards. Yes, you got all high on like being in the murder group. Right. And then like they could have probably done it without you, bro. But you wanted to prove your sixteen year old ass to your fucking thirty one year old lover. Yes He had a hot milf lover. He was willing to go the distance But now he's despondent. And listener, we're just telling you, that's how it always goes. Yeah. whether it's murder or just taking people to weddings. Yeah. It's on your permanent record. That nerd and you spending time with them He's in the photos. Your family talks about it. Okay. William and James, on the other hand, immediately go to the Inn's tavern buy alcohol and just start drinking their way into the early daylight hours. That's the way to deal with your Reret. Except for adult. Ecept for they wear the silver shoe buckles and the jewelry and the clothing, so they couldn't be drawing more attention to themselves as they're trying to have a nice escape from reality drink. So the average person in the colonies would just never have the wealth to afford silver shoe buckles with their own engraved initials on them or whatever especially not a pair of British deserters, which I'm sure is kind of pretty obvious right away. So by the afternoon, the men have raised so much suspicion, the authorities are notified Meanwhile, back in Brookfield, there's already a swirl of suspicion around Bathsheba because she, of course, the very next day had morning visitors because she's a lady the know of the elite And when they show up and ask where Joshua is, she just burst into tears So they're just kind of like, arere you okay? And they start looking for him and they find his body in the well. Right. Ladies, who were just there for some nice tea and tiny sandwiches and suddenly they're like, we just found your husband dead., they're like, Is Mercurian retrograde or what? I' having a bad day. So Joshua's body is pulled from the well, doctor Jonathan King, his friend who was walking home with him the night before from the tavern He shows up to examine the corpse and he notes the signs of strangulation and injuries consistent with being beaten He testifies later that Joshua hadn't seemed all that drunk when they left the tavern and walked home together. Pretty crucial element to the story And that's of course, in direct contrast to the idea that Joshua was so drunk that he walked in big circles and fell down a well, almost impossible Unless he sat down and then singing and maybe fell backwards wouldn't you just kind of fold like that R stop and then start screaming, getet me out of here. I don't know. So less than twenty four hours after Joshua Spooner's murder, his wife Bsheba, the young soldier Ezra Ross, Private William Brooks and Sergeant James Buchanan have all been arrested as suspects in his murder The joint trial begins. So now you're on trial with two strangers and you're teen lo. God, yeah, that's quick. That begins late april, seventeen seventy eight. It becomes, of course, a huge sensation. First of all, it's the wealth, the scandal, the violence at play, but it truly is one of the first times like in the official newborn two year old America There has been a murder trial The prosecution is led by a man named Robert Treat Payne. He's one of the signes of the Declaration of Independence. I knew that. Maybe you've heard of it As your friend Nicholas Cage, if you knowt know. And then the defense is led by a man named Levi Lincoln, no relation, but he would later serve as presresident Thomas Jefferson's attorney general. So it's not only one of the first capital murder cases tried in the United States because Levi Lincoln will attempt to paint Bathsheba Spooner as mentally unwell at the time of the murder. It's also believed to be one of the first times the insanity defense is used. Yeah, interestnteresting. Given the patriotic backdrop of Massachusetts at the time, the involvement of two British soldiers and the infamy of Bathsheba's loyalist father makes this trial inherently political. And of course, everybody has big opinions about it. Levi Lincoln urges the jurors to look past their, quote political feelings, but the evidence is overwhelming. The trial quickly ends and four guilty verdicts are turned in. All of them are sentenced to death And they're scheduled to hang on june fourth, seventeen seventy eight And this is when Bathsheba begs the court to delay her execution. to spare the life of our unborn child. R The gallery gasps That's not true. I put that in. I don't know when she told them or how could have been in a letter. I bet there was a gas somewhere. I bet someone gased, even if it was just someone somewhere the secretary of the person that opened that letter. So at the time common law protects fetuses, if there have been signs of what they used to call the quickening which is basically when the mother can feel the baby. It happens usually between the fourth and fifth month of pregnancy. So if she really did get pregnant sometime in January, which is when she told Ezra that she was pregnant, this would put her in the correct time frrame. And there are theories that Bathsheba is lying about being pregnant just to buy herself time But either way, it works. the execution date gets pushed to july second. And then in the interim, she is examined And she's examined many times to determine whether she's pregnant by a panel of midwives that the court puts together. Wow It is as bad as you are anticipating, humiliating, also needlessly painful. It's as gross as you can think of it to be and it's described by one contemporary as, quote, indeccent and cruel In the end, the panel concludes that she is not pregnant, but Bathsheba appeals and she hires her own midwife to conduct her own exam. and then that midwife concludes she is pregnant. So the court sides with their own panel surprisingly. No, it's been like this all along. And they reject Bathsheba's pregnancy claims so on july second, seventeen eighty eight seventeen year old Ozra Ross, twenty seven year old William Brooks, thirty six year old James Buch Cannan and thirty two year old Bathsheba Ruggle spooner are brought to the gallows Bathsheba demands that they perform an autopsy on her body after she is hanged to prove the existence of her unborn child. Which is like, I'll be looking down at all of you as you murder me.. Okay, so outside of that discussion, which I imagined to happen in a darken tunnel, but probably didn't Five thousand people have gathered to watch this hanging. You guys Okay. A small town has gathered Which is funny because that what was that at the beginning? Was that Widow's Bay at the beginning when all the people are there and they're cheering for the hanging? Or is that just another movie I was watching? Wuthering Heights? It was Wuthering Heights Molly has dialed in. K's brain. She knows. Well, because we've been talking about Wuthering Heights and I mistakenly thought that Molly loved it. And so then we watched it to be like, other people hate it, but Molly seems to love it. Let's cheheck it out. And then we were like, Oh, this is good. We like it. Yeah. I really liked it U People love their books. They really do. The children love the books. Okay, so outside five thousand people gather to watch this hanging. The man who signs the execution warrant is John Avery junior, who was Joshua's stepbrother. Testimony from the execution describes the onset of, quote, one of the most terrified thunderstorms heard within the memory of anyone living. end quote And they say that that that storm quote, came up and darkened the heavens conspiring to produce a scene of most dreadful horror So as they're walking to the gallows, black cloud rolls in my God, God is pissed. Shortly after the executions, an autopsy is performed on Bathsheba's body, and the physician finds a quote, perfect male fetus of the growth of five months complepletely correct The panel lied. The panel lied. The clouds told you. But you wouldn't listen. Okay. when word gets out that Massachusetts has just executed a pregnant woman, the public is horrorifing. Wow. And over time, this is a plot twist I did notaz see coming. Right? Yeah. Because you're kind of like, Ohh, she's bad. She's bad. This is the crime. They killed him. and here's the execution. It's like, ye, but wait. Oh, but hold on one second So the real controversy most associated with this case over like history is in the beginning, of course, It was the usual moralizing about the risks of adultery and evil women having their way and being free spirited and loud and all the things that are so terrible. about sexually abusing a child, but don't worry. Yeah, that is very seene. The risks of adultery and evil women using dumb men actually lived on as a cautionary tale about how the biases around politics and gender seep into the justice system. Bathsheba herself has increasingly been treated with more and more empathy as the years pass and sympathy, I should say. But no one doubts she wanted her husband dead or that she conspired to kill him, but contemporary historians mull over the extreme circumstances of her life that led up to the crime. Her marriage was stifling, and it likely involved domestic abuse The double standard in how women who commit adultery are treated versus the men who commit adultery, not to mention Bathsheiva's grief around being basically cut off from her father, him being going from being an incredibly respected man to an all out pariah and then that reverberating into her life people judging her and her being socially isolated because of all that. In the end, the Sooner's children end up being adopted by relatives, and it seems they most likely escape all the notoriety that is around this case. A few years after his daughter's execution, Bathsheiva's father, Timothy Ruggles dies in exile in Canada in his early eighties. And the well that they put Joshua Spooner's body into is actually still standing in Brookfield, Massachusetts, according to the Brookfield Historical Commission Although They say it's obscured by thick poison ivy much of the year. AKA Stay the fuck away from the well And that is the story of the first murder in America, the murder of Joshua Spooner. Wow That's crazy. That's heavy. Good job Thank you. That's a great one for the fourourth of July Right? It's coming up. Do your homework, everybody. I don't tell you this shit at school Support for today's episode comes from Square. Nobody starts a business because they love payroll or invoices, or business. And that's why they're square. Square brings your payments, inventory, scheduling, staff, online orders, and reporting together in one connected system. You can take payments in person, online, or on the go and track sales and inventory in real time. inststead of juggling a bunch of different apps Square keeps everything connected behind the scenes, so you're spending less time fixing problems. Whether you're just getting started or growing your business, Square is designed to grow with you without complicated setup, contracts, or hidden fees. 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Are you kidding me? That'd be humiliating. It's a fan cult video of us trying to pass the GED, get our GED? No I'd rather talk about my modeling photos. Come on. Oh my God, the people love the fucking modeling photos. We have to talk about that. People are going crazy for that entire thing. C't. They've really met you at that vulnerability that you revealed for them. That's really nice.ate that. That iss nice. So here we go. We're getting into the country's two hundred fiftieth anniversary. Okay As you know, right now. Definitely Now we're going to go back to the centennial, which is eighteen seventy six. and we're going to be in Kentucky Today's story is an unexplained phenomenon that's straight out of an episode of Bananas, weird news. Great. And this one is in the genre of weird stuff falling from the sky. Like when I covered the Oakville bllobs in episode four hundred twenty nine where unidentified goo fell out of the sky in the eighties in Washington State, but today in our story, there's a bit more progress made in identifying the stuff that actually fell from the sky. big of a mystery This is the story of the Kentucky Mat shower Oh, I've heard of this. Oh no. Yeah. Meat shower. Meat shower. Let's meditate on meat shower. You're just out in a Kentucky field. Y roaming through hip high grass and love in life. and then splat Boom right on your face. There's a prime rib The main sources for the story are articles from Scientific America and Atlas Obscura, and the rest of the sources can be found in our show notes. And Cook's illustrated. And Cloudy withith the Chance of meballs So it's march third, eighteen seventy six, and we're in Olympian Springs, Kentucky. It's a small rural community in Bath County about fifty miles east of Lexington, Kentucky. Greay. A woman named Rebecca Crouch is in the front yard of her family farm making soap. as you had to do back then. Mixing some lye with some tallow. That's right whichich is a time and labor intensive chore done by boiling rendered animal fat on an open fire and combining it with lye How do you think I used to spend my summers That's right, you're a farm girl. Country girl. Have you read the book Yestery Year yet? No, it's great. You should read it. Okay. But there's a soap making scene in it. That's all I know about it. Is it sexy? No. I forget it. Very not sexy. It's about a trad wife blogger who gets taken back into the time when she would have to actually work as a travel. like had to do the things like make soap, and make bread fresh instead and like that's genius So good yester year. It's getting man into movie.'s like That's hilarious. Okay. So as Mrs. Crouch is working, she begins to see what she'll later describe as a substance that looks a bit like snowflakes. falling out of the sky. Snowflakes is fine. It's so fun. It's no big deal. But it's sunny and warm out. There's no snow. This isn't snowflakes. It's a cloudless day. and some of the flakes are very big. She describes them as being, quote, as long as my hand and about half an inch wide So well as long as my hand, the big oneess in like half an inch wide. Okay. So big pieces of. I'm sorry it's me. I already me. spoiler. It's fucking me. It's me Meatflakes, meeatflakes U o, there's a really great drawing of the whole thing if you don't have the imagination for it. Great. I love this so much. Let's take a look . The artist is James Fostke. Brilliant. And it's just James Fostke, you sure can draw gristle. I don't like the look of those meat clumps that are falling on her. It looks like a children's book. Yeah. So if you're watching on Netflix, you can see this. If you're not, you shouldn be, it's good. So as everything gathers on her yard and she inspects them further, mrs. Crouch realizes that they look not unlike the stuff she's making her soap out of Animal flesh meats or bits of fatty connective tissue She said, quote, it looked grisly as if it had been torn from the throat of some animal. Good Lord, Cutch family cat and dog are fucking stoked They come a running And they start going to town. Do we know the names of those pets? No, well let's name them now for history's sake. Snowflake, Snowflake and Cristle. Pety Chrisle I a friend whose dog was namedrph. It's a great name for a dog that I just made it up. Or was it in like a movie? Probably both. Okay. So they're losing their minds eating all of this. The family hogs and chickens get in on the action too and eat a lot of what was following. C cannibalize themselves? Well, we don't know exactly what the animal is Okay.. It's human meat. Right Oh, it's not cannibalism, it's human The chickens are like finally we get our say I've been feeding the crow's freez fried Chicken Hearts. Oh, which feels bad, but they love it. They're gonna take over. They are. They're gonna take the keys to your home Fine. I can. Okay, a few days later, just by the by, the dog does get a bit sick, but we don't know if it's connected and it doesn't seem like any of the other animals do either. So Right ' the dog ran over and like ate some gristle and then he ran over there and ate a big cowpieactly So in all About two hundred pounds of this meat like substance falls for about a minute. A grown man's worth true. Oh the sound of a slop. And just one lady trying to make some soap What the fuck. It seems like this event is pretty much limited to the area around misses Crouch's house. and she says that the meat smells fresh when it had just fallen, but throughout the day it starts to go off and by the next day the little flakes are all dried out does what Meet does. The event attracts national media attention And several samples are saved. One is sent to Louisville for analysis, while another is sent to Washington, DC. Also a correspondent for the New York Herald goes to visit the Crouch farm This reporter goes all around town interviewing people about the phenomenon, asking if misses Crouch is full of shit, basically. A actually' full of shit. Yeah. But no, everyone is like, this is not a woman who like she's making soap. She doesn't have a lot of time for joking around and like pranks. She handles lives. Yeah with no gloves She's a fucking farmer. like she's not making shit up. Yeah, do not even. And while there is some investigation going on in the article, it does seem like a lot of it is just a reporter making fun of the members of this very rural community. He's kind of a dick about it and And he's probably pissed that he got sent all the way out there So what are you saying like people are kind of dumb or Yeah. Or he's making stuff up because some of the conversations in the article are just don't seem like conversations people have, but yeah, you know, it was the eighteen seventies, so what do I know? Fill it up fill up that article, Rusty. Exactly. We need two thousand words. So he bargains with a railroad laborer named Jimmy Welsh to eat a dollar's worth of the meat. No Like just so we could get some fucking color for his article. So he's saying, if you eat this lump of gristle, I will pay you a dollar. That fell how many days ago? And also sorry, but can we do a dollar what is a dollar worth back then? Oh shit. One dollar. eighteen seventy six, one dollar gonna go You the first in that Mlly will? Um wouldould that be I'm gonna guess too. I can guess too. You can too. We're all in this now. I'm gonna say thirty one dollars. Okay, I'm gonna say fifty. Karen is just AI overview, but it says thirty one dollars. No Yeah I I have to ask for it. Do that looks like I set this whole thing up because I demanded it. No I don't believe that you would use something. Have we ever had a dead on one onnce And this is yours Congratulations. drop the streamers We you've hiding a, I guess, I've tried so hard for so long to guess the numbers. I'm really bad at it. Elvis. I couldn't have done it without Elvis. His necklace Molly's like, could you please do your job? No, I love it. That was cute. This is your job Yeah this is my job. Do believe it., this is your job. Good job getting this job. Thank you. making this job. my God, than you. Creating this job. I applied And then I called back two weeks later and I said, hey, I am a bad interview, but I know I can do this. Okay, so we're in the moment when he's given thirty one dollars for this poor guy named Jimmy to eat this meat, which is probably a lot of money. He's a railroad laborer. That's a lot of money. At this point, it's been about a week after the meat first fell from the sky. This Jimmy's got a tummy ache Well, journalist writes, quote, The article was ordered and placed before him me He then hesitated and said he was not hungry I then told him I would give him three dollars to gulp it down. ninety Then ninety three, rightight. He then suddenly remembered that it was the season of Lent and backed out on moral principles So Jimmy Jimmy check it out. Jimy chen or mtoned out. we don't really know. You know what he did? He dummed his way in to a thing thatight. Why were you ever sitting at that table? disgusting and risky. Don't do it. drinking alcohol. There's no way alcohol wasn't involved. Just met some guy at the bar. Yeah. So the meat is sent to several different agencies for testing in Kentucky and also out of state. There's a man named Leopold Brandeis whose qualifications are unclear. same. Well he has his own college. Does that count? Does he? Brandeis? Oh yeah, university. He analyzes a sample that's been preserved in glycerin, and he publishes his findings in the scientific American ' I guess anyone could throw anything in there now saying he believes the substance is something called gnostic Have you heard of Gnostic? Only in the Bible or Gnostic GNO? NOSTOC. No, I've never heard of that. Basically it's a bacteria that swells up into a jelly like substance when it rains. I went to Wikipedia and it said that quote, The word itself is a combination of the English nostril and German Nasenlach, which means nosehole or nostril because basically because it looks like That's disgusting. Yeah. And when it lands on the ground, I have a photo of it. Great. Here we go Yeah. It just looks like seaweed. like help It looks like Kelp, it looks like, oh, I have a photo of Mrses. Crouch too. Oh perfect.. We're all guessing she's fifty, but that's in today's money. She's probably twenty seven. Great. I know Also, listener, misses Crouch took a photo smartly with a parasol Paras and her hand and her fucking hip. She's doing it. Yeah. She's making it happen. Yeah. comeome at me. She says misses Crouch. Now she has to use an umbrella because there's fucking gnostics falling all over the place. I bet that was the journalist idea. That's so true. Okay. But the problem with this theory is that of course, the weather was fine and clear, so it's not that Other testers believe that the meat is lung tissue Either from a horse or a human infant, which is fucking insane and everyone just moves on Yeah that statement Please no. Like nobody's like What? Well, because there was two hundred pounds of it. Right. And actually, when misses Crouch first sees it falling, she had said she had, quote, a vague idea that my husband and son, who were away had been torn to pieces and their remains were being brought home to me in this way by the wind, end quote. So She needed some Xanax before this even fucking happened. Well, and after the Civil War, maybe she saw some stuff. And she was like, this reminds me of human. Good point tragedy Yeah. And then they probably still believe in God back then, so they like God works that guy works in mysterious ways. Absolutely. L throwing meat through the weather as a punishment Go to church, Mrs. Crouch That's very weird though, because I think that idea of looking at something completely foreign and immediately attributing it to a certain place is meaningful.'s like And also that like you're being punished in some way for something. Yeah.'s We understand how that works But multiple testers believe the meat might be human. this is so dumb. People think that two or more men may have killed each other somewhere in a nearby knife fight, and then the wind picked off all the remains and tornado dropped. It's just like, ye, stupid. They slashed each other to ribbons and then without bones, they become car those car dealership You can set One of those car dealership guys that dances around to any songs and I will laugh my ass. That so funny. Really good. Okay, so a humor writer back then, named William, Livingston Elden writes in the New York Times that the meat might have come from space