← Murder, Mystery & Makeup
Murder, Mystery & Makeup
A Victorian lesbian romance ends in madness, jealousy, and MURDER?? - Alice Mitchell & Freda Ward
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Bailey Sarian
Hi, friends. How are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian, and today is Monday, which means it's murder mystery and makeup Monday, if you're new here. Hi, my name is Bailey Sarian, and on Mondays, I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin, and I do my makeup at the same time. We are time traveling today to the end of the 19th century in Memphis, Tennessee. Oh, yes. I don't think we've done a story in Memphis, have we? Well, that's where a Gilded Age girl crush ended. On a cold winter day with one teenager's throat slashed and her killer locked away in an asylum forever. Not to give it away, but it was not for what she did. It was for who she loved. The murder was easily solved. But the question at the root of, like, this whole messy tragedy still nags at psychiatrists, juries, and like anyone who's ever been rejected. Can love actually drive you crazy? You drive me crazy. I just can't see. You know, to even begin to understand, like, this tangled tale, you need to understand the time and the place where it, like, all fell apart. Because things were different back then. Very, very different. So the Gilded Age was what Mark Twain sarcastically dubbed the final years of the 1800s. This was, like what we know as the Victorian era. So Mark Twain, he compared the tremendous wealth flaunted by high society back then to fake gold. Like, it was all shine and glitter until you scratched the surface and discovered the rot underneath. Love that, huh? I mean, when I hear the word Victorian, I immediately picture, like, layers and layers and layers of clothing. It must be so hot. And everyone probably stom donk and of course, over the top manners. Right? But scratch that surface. And the Victorians were, like, up to all kinds of shady shenanigans in this era. The super rich got more rich, and then the poor ended up getting thrown out, like, on the streets pretty much. There was so much political corruption, so much so that, like, New York State, they actually legalized bribery. I mean, this was like, a really big time. You know, America was going through a lot of changes, and she was really torn between the past and the future. I mean, lots of things were happening. The telephone was invented. The very first light bulb. Oh, light. Then we got cars. And then one of, like, the very first skyscrapers went up in Chicago. People were just like, what is going on? Like, it was blowing everyone's mind, you know? But as inventive as the Victorians were, they also were hardcore prudes, pretty much and women, especially young women, you know, they had to follow very strict rules. It was all to preserve their innocence and their good reputations. So being Southern belles, I mean, this was definitely true for Alice Mitchell and Freda Ward, the two ladies that we're talking about today. So these two young ladies, they ended up meeting at Ms. Higby School for Young Ladies in Memphis, Tennessee. It was said that they were opposites, you know, but they became very close friends. So back then, especially in their teen years, it was common for girls to be openly affectionate with, with each other, like holding hands, hugging, and even kissing. And it was called chumming. Chumming. Great. Love it. Now, chumming was considered a kind of rehearsal for adulthood and like becoming a man's wife. So you would practice on someone, if you know what I'm saying. Because, like, you weren't allowed to practice on a man if you were a woman. The only physical contact that was considered to be acceptable at this time, besides making out with your friend, would be like, if you're dating a guy and like, maybe he extended his hand out to help you, like out of the carriage, and that was like, as far as you can go with someone. So friends would be chumming? Yeah. And I was thinking, well, what kind of, like, what does this mean? Like, were they making out? Were they, what were they doing? Cause I know you're wondering and you're asking the real questions out there and you want to know what kind of kissing was allowed in. Chumming. Yeah, you're thinking it. I know you are, and that's a great question. So there's a lot of research regarding this case. In particular, it's not clear if they were like, making out. Was it just a peck on the cheek? What was it? But I think as we go on, you can kind of put together what it was. Do you know what I'm saying? Well, you'll see. They were like lesbian lovers. Okay, so we're getting into it. Both Alice Mitchell and Freda Ward, they had recently graduated from school. You know, alice had turned 18, which may sound exciting, but in 1892, that didn't necessarily mean, like, freedom. I'm moving out of my parents house. Society at this time, AKA like white men in power. They dictated what was supposed to come next. And there was really only one answer. Marriage and babies, that was your future ladies. And that's all you had going for you. Of course, like, women who had to help support their families could join the workforce. Usually they'd work in like, factories or shops, but for the Most part, women were mainly expected to be like homemakers. And if you did work, you still had to be like a good homemaker. That was your first and only job. It's kind of funny. It's not funny, but it's kind of funny. We can laugh at it now because we've come some ways because you know, there were some colleges that would allow women in, I know, shocking, like Ivy League colleges. But there was always a lot of controversy, controversy around it because at this time leading doctors, including like a very prominent doctor from Harvard, warned that female brains were small and that the extra effort it took them to solve algebra pre problems or read Latin would actually kill their overtaxed brain cells. I know, so rough for us ladies, isn't it? Algebra. It's too hard. I can't do it. My overtaxed brain cells. Let's say a lady did go to college and she got a degree. Now it was thought that this woman, if she got a degree, she would be sterile and sickly from for the rest of her life. That's because a woman's brain and whole central nervous system were thought to be linked to the uterus. Ain't it funny? So if the brain like diverted too much energy, the reproductive system would shrivel up and die. What a bummer. They thought this was true, you know. So if you like were a woman who like went to college and you're proud, it's kind of like a buzz kill really. 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And her older sister, her name was Ada, she was the one that had taught Frida domestic arts. My dumbass literally had to look up like, what are domestic arts? It's stuff that women are supposed to be doing, like embroidery, making clothes. You get it, right? Hopefully you get it anyways. Domestic arts. So this family, they were pretty wealthy. They had, they had like servants, they had a cook growing up. So the Ward sisters, they didn't have to do housework, which was nice, good for them. But proper young ladies of their class were still expected to mostly stay at home and like, just wait for a suitor to come along and like start courting them, which was kind of confusing to me. I was like, how are you supposed to meet someone if you're inside waiting all day? But I don't know, I didn't get that far into it. Meanwhile, they were supposed to focus on feminine arts like music, doing charity work and spending hours each day and embroidering linens or like making needlepoint decor for their future homes. That kind of sounds nice. I wouldn't mind doing that. It doesn't matter. Frida Ward, I guess she didn't mind sewing. She kind of liked it. But her chum, her bff, her best friend, her bestie, Alice, absolutely hated it ever since she was small. Alice Mitchell, she, I guess was a little bit of a rebel. You know, she always went against like social norms and whatever was expected of her, you know, to like sit inside, be dainty, be a cute little woman. She was like, no, no, I'm not doing that. She was known to be more of a tomboy who like excelled at climbing trees. So it said she excelled at climbing trees and playing with marbles with the boys. What a Rebel. I guess Ms. Alice, she could shoot a rifle just as well as, like, any of the guys. And she didn't bother, like, with a saddle. Whenever she rode the horse that her father bought her, she raw dogged it. And she even, like, learned how to harness a spirited horse and hitch it to a buggy. Wow. I know. So Miss Alice, she had, like, light brown hair, she had hazel eyes. Said she was like a medium curvy build, which was like, okay, what is she, a car? I don't know. But she wasn't, like, regarded as someone who was conventionally pretty. It was also said that she didn't show any interest in boys and the feelings seemed to be mutual. Really. No one seemed to like her either. It was said that teachers were also unimpressed with Alice. They described her as badly balanced with zero interest in education. She was a slow learner who didn't like to read. But on the other hand, she was, like, a prolific writer. So despite all of, like, the Victorian rules, young women, you know, they were still given some freedom as long as, like, they had a chaperone around or they were venturing out with, like, other women their age. Frieda and Alice sometimes hung out with, like, a few other girls. There was a neighbor that was. Well, it was a neighbor of Alice and her name was Lily Johnson. They would all hang out or sometimes Frida's sister, her name's Joe. These names will come up later, so that's why I'm giving them to you. So Lily was a neighbor. Joe is Frida's sister, and she was like a couple years older. And like, they would all hang out sometimes, you know. So the girls, they like to go on carriage rides into town to, like, stop by the post office or visit a Photoshop. This was exciting to them because Kodak had just put the first camera on the market and it came with enough film for like, a hundred pictures. And taking pictures was all the rage amongst. Amongst or among the elite. If you had money, it was like a flex to take a photo. And it's so funny. Cause when you kind of look at these photos from back then, they're always so serious. Like, no one's ever smiling. They look miserable. But deep down, they were so stoked. So in the six months leading up to a very tragic day, the friendship between Alice Mitchell and Freda Ward took a turn. Like typical best friends. They would spend hours together every day. And, you know, sometimes they would have sleepovers. So the two of them would express undying devotion in notes that they wrote to each other and in different diaries that they kept. They even had nicknames for each other. I feel like this is kind of a normal best friend thing, but they had nicknames. So Frida went by Fred and Alice went by Ali. I know, so unique. Even Frida's married sister, Ada, kind of shrugged it off when she saw Frieda and Alice keep kissing and snuggling in a porch hammock together. You know, it was just called chumming. And that's what they were doing. They were chumming. And as they got older, the girls would outgrow it. But what the family didn't know, what they didn't know, was that this chumming had already turned into a serious love affair. Ha. Good for them. You gotta remember, this is the Victorian era and, like, they don't know what this is. Two girls licking each other's lollipop. Inappropriate. So this is where, like, the steamy details get a little fuzzy. Obviously, different eras have their own moral boundaries and, like, different ways of defining intimacy. And it's also important to note that there's no clear cut record of what exactly was going on physically between Alice and Frida. So some accounts out there say that they weren't lovers, and others say that the two of them were, you know, hot and heavy. So in May of 1890, Frieda's father ends up getting a new job and the Ward family, they end up having to move. So they move like 80 miles up the Mississippi river to a small town called Goldust, which I kind of love that name. Goldust. What a great name. Much of what happened afterward is based on the testimony of trial witnesses and Alice Mitchell's writings. Yeah, and interrogations. So what is known for sure is that after the Wards moved away, there'd be long, flowery letters that started flying between Alice and Frieda. And they made plans to see each other, like, as soon as possible. I mean, they're best friends. They have to. They miss each other. So it was said that Frida, she was able to adjust to the separation, like, a lot easier than Alice did. So whenever Alice was getting pissed off, she would write back and pretty much condemn Frida for her perceived betrayal. Or sometimes, on the other hand, she would pledge her undying love for her. In other words, it was very toxic. It was very toxic. So that summer, Alice was invited to visit the Wards. And, you know, she's really excited. She took him up on that offer and she ended up taking a steamboat. So Gold Dust. Steamboat sounds fake, but it's not. So she takes a steamboat, she goes out to Gold Dust, and she ends up staying For a couple of weeks. And it was just like old times, you know, it was two chums chumming it up, being chummy. And because they're just two chums, they were openly affectionate. They were inseparable. It was said that they were sharing a bed. I feel like we do that we share beds. But, like, you know, I was like, what else were they doing? I don't know. Before she returned home, Alice made Frieda promise her to come visit, you know, sometime in the fall or the winter, whenever. But she's like, you have to come visit me. Pinky promise. And they promised. But until then, you know, they were back to being, like passionate pen pals. And, you know, sometimes they'd send each other stuff in the mail, like little trinkets, whatever it was like, to show, like, their affection to one another. This is all fine and cute, right? Love that for them. They're in love. Good for them. By now, though, Ada, Frida's sister, she was getting a little suspicious of the situation. She's like, I don't know. They seem like real close. That December, Frida kept her promise and went to visit Alice for, like, a couple of weeks. So she's out there visiting and, you know, they're having cute little girl talk. And Frida ends up telling Alice about these two guys back in gold dust who were kind of, like, trying to get her attention. One of the guys names was Ashley, and the other was Harry. Ashley was a popular man's name. I think it's cute. Anyways, so she's like, telling Alice all this about these two guys. So when Alice hears that, ooh, she gets extremely jealous. I mean, how could she? They had vowed that it would be just the two of them forever, you know, how dare Frida. I mean, she knew how courtship worked. Once suitors had made their interests known and, like, got permission to formally court an unwed lady, marriage was, like, just around the corner, you know, so she's like, shit. At this point, it didn't sound like either of those guys had gotten that far with Frieda yet. But they were obviously, like, trying to get her attention, and then it would be heading in that direction. So Alice is just going, like, getting worked up in that head. And for Alice, I mean, her own future would be that of a spinster pretty much because she didn't have a man. And if you were an unwed woman, you are a spinster. I love that I'm a spinster. I'm proud. But it was bad back then. Like, you didn't want to be a spinster, you know, because if you, if you became a spinster, then you would be expected to live like under your family's roof until you died. So not ideal. So whether it was in letters or in person, Frida's response to Alice's jealous insecurity was like really to try her best to assure, assure Alice that she was loyal and her feelings were as deep as ever. But Alice, on, on the other hand, she was like spiraling. She had gone to a dark place. It was bad. And at some point, or even during Frida's visit, Alice had gone to the pharmacy and had bought a vial of La Dunm. Did I say it right? I don't know, but La Dunm, it's like an opiate cocktail. Get this morphine, codeine and alcohol. I know, where was I? But it was widely used as like an over the counter painkiller to help women, especially Victorian women with menstrual cramps. Bring it back, bring it back. Mine get real bad. The downside, widely abused and highly addictive. So pros and cons here. Pros and cons. So it would come in like this little bottle and it would be like poison on it. All it took was like two teaspoons and it could kill a healthy adult. She goes out and she buys this bottle, okay? And she's trying to decide whether she wants to take her own life or Frida's with this bottle. You know, she wants to guarantee that only she and Frida would be together for eternity. And by killing her would give her that peace of mind, I guess. Geez. So one night during that winter visit, she was on the verge of giving a fatal dose to Frida while she was sleeping. So she's about to give it to her Alice, she's about to give it to Frida. And before she could, Frida wakes up. She's like, what the are you doing? Like, why are you hovering over me? I don't know. Alice, I guess, shows her the bottle. And then Frida decided, you know what, I'm going to stay up. I'm gonna stay up for the rest of the night. I can't sleep. It's wild. Like she knew something was up with Alice. She didn't know what. She didn't know what her plan was, but she didn't like whatever was going on. Do you know what I'm saying? So Frida decided, I'm not going to bed. Staying awake, you psycho. And we don't know what Alice was gonna do, but we can guess. And we can use our imagination. And I think she was gonna kill her. So Frida, she packs up and she leaves. The next day, Alice, I guess they don't, like, talk about what happened, whatever. Alice, like, takes her to the back to the boat. And she even, like, boards the boat with her and walks Frida to her stateroom. Now, once they get into the stateroom, Alice goes psycho. She locks the door behind them. She takes out that bottle of La La Da, La Nom, whatever it's called. And she screams at Frida, like, marry whoever you want. And then she. She being Alice, she swallowed the contents of the bottle. So she was, like, gonna end it in front of her. She fucked up. So public accounts of this situation end there. And then the story picks back up with Frieda back in gold dust. And Alice, she's bedridden. She's at home with, like, an itchy rash. She has shortness of breath and also diarrhea. And, like, these are the side effects from that poison she had taken from consuming too much of it instead of death. She didn't die. She almost died. But instead she got diarrhea and stuff. So that sucks. Which would you rather have? I don't know. So Alice and Frida go back to how they were communicating before writing each other letters. I know I was like, poor Frida. Like, she. I don't know, she, like, loves her best friend or loves her, I'm not sure. But it's like, so toxic. Obviously, Alice is psychotic. Can I say that? Yeah. She's not coming to get me. So Alice had apparently convinced Frieda that her attempt to end her own life was a selfless act intended to leave Frida free to marry whichever man, Harry or Ashley. And, you know, I guess, like, Frida's like, okay, I get it. I don't know. Sure. So two months go by and guess what happens? Well, let me tell you. Alice, she writes a letter to Frida, you know, and she ends up proposing to Frida through her letter. And Frida had wrote a letter back accepting the proposal. So Alice proposed at least, like, three more times in separate letters, threatening in, like, the last one that she was going to off herself if Frida broke up with her. So then the two of them began making wedding plans. This part was interesting. At this time, same sex relationships, they weren't even, like, recognized. There wasn't even a name for them at this time. Like, people just didn't know what that was. They didn't get it. No one got it. But this didn't stop Alice or Frida from going ahead with, like, plans for a legal marriage and life as husband and wife. The husband would be Alice and the wife would be Frida. That's what they decided. I was really impressed with this. Like, they didn't care. They were just. They wanted to do it at a time when, like, this was. It was bold, it was brave, you know, like, mm. Confession time. I love soda. I've always been obsessed with soda. Growing up, I was a full blown soda junkie. I never drank water. I would instead. If I were thirsty, I would open up a soda instead. Like, looking back, I'm like, what was I doing anyways? I mean, you name it. Cola, root beer, grape soda. Mm. I loved it all. But as I've become a certain age, I realized soda just did not love me back. All those questionable ingredients, gut problems, and the sugar. Don't get me started. Did you know most soda has about 40 grams of sugar? But then I found Olipop, and let me tell you, it's a game changer. Olipop is a new kind of soda that's reimagined all those nostalgic flavors from our childhood. They blend classic soda taste with functional ingredients that support digestive health. Each can has just 2 to 5 grams of sugar, which is nothing compared to those 40 grams I mentioned earlier. And my personal favorite is the classic root beer. It tastes exactly like the root beer floats I would have, like, when I was a kid. It tastes just like root beer. I don't know how they do it. 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She said that she would go to the barbershop and she would get her hair cut like a man. Step one. Then she would ditch all of her frilly dresses, her corsets, her bustles, and then buy men's clothes. Then she would start going by the name Alvin J. Ward. She's like, that's it then. That's. That'll do it. At this time, facial hair happened to be, like, very fashionable among men. And if Frida wanted her husband to have a mustache, Alice promised that she would grow one. She figured it would be easy if she just, like, started shaving her face daily. She's, you know, she was like, it'll come in. In. Yeah. So the plot further called for Frida to sneak away from home and take a late night boat from Gold Dust to Memphis. And then once she arrived, Alice would go get a marriage license. And then they could have a wedding ceremony at Alice's church with her pastor. If the pastor, like, did not agree to officiate. Thank you. They would just, like, have a justice of peace, marry them, which, again, very, very ahead of their time. Huh. So let's say all this went through, like, once they were legally wed, Alice envisioned Mr. And Ms. Alvin J. Ward, they would go, like, live in St. Louis. Is it St. Louis or St. Louis? I'm thinking of, you know what I'm thinking about that song, you know, Anyhow, but they decided they would go live there as, like, a married couple with Alice still posing outside the home as a man named Alvin. Like, nobody would know Frieda, she would be stay at home wife and, you know, do all the wifely duties. And, like, Alice would expect her to respect and obey her the same as any proper Victorian lady would her husband. This was the goal. So Frida, she's like, oh, my God, sounds great, I'm in. And she agreed to the plan. Alice dipped into her savings and she ended up buying, like, an engagement ring. She buys a ring and she heads to Goldust in June of, like, 1891, and she's going to see Frieda and, like, present the ring to her, right? And she did. And Frida, like, accepted it, put it on her finger, and I guess she freely flaunted it whenever she was out and about. It was said that Frieda enjoyed engaging in public displays of affection with Alice. Again, bold. Way ahead of their time, right? Love that. For them, anyway. So she liked it. She was like. But Alice, supposedly, she was kind of, like, ashamed by it. Like, I Don't know. I don't. We don't really know. But we do know that it led to some arguments. But as always, like, the two would make up, and they were just fine. Meanwhile, Brida's sister Ada, she was starting to find her little sister's makeout sessions with her old school chum disgusting. That's what she's thinking. So she's, like, kind of putting pieces together. She's like, I don't like this. I don't like this at all. So when Alice had left and, like, went back to Memphis, she was glad she wanted her away from her sister. So a month later, Alice somehow caught wind that Frieda was still seeing this guy named Ashley. She hears this. She's like, what's that? On top of that, this man Ashley had officially, like, stepped up his game and was courting Frina. What does that even mean? I don't know. So when Alice hears this, I mean, she's thinking, you know, they're about to head down the aisle pretty much, right? Like, that's what this is. That's what's gonna happen. That's how this always ends. So she's pissed. So Alice fires off a pretty furious letter, you know, and in the letter, she's like, alice, you promised me your hand in marriage. And, like, you're being unfaithful. Kind of like calling her a slut without calling her a slut, you know? She told Frida in this letter to stop encouraging Ashley immediately or else, no, no, you got a crazy one. So Frida gets a letter. She writes back. God, could you imagine? Like, we're so spoiled now with, like, texts and everything. You know, when you send someone a text and you're like, hey, do you like me? And, like, it feels like forever for them to respond. Could you imagine having to wait weeks or something for a letter to come back? Oh, man, the suspense. Anyways. But Frida responds eventually. You know, it finally gets to her, and she's apologizing just, like, over and over again. And she's swearing to Alice, like, you know, that they're gonna be together forever and, like, that she loved her. And once things were cleared up, I guess they went back to, like, planning their escape and their marriage together. Frida's sister Ada, you know, the hater, she knew something was up, so she had gone snooping around, and she found the letters that Alice had written to Frida, including the ones that pretty much spelled out, like, the whole marriage plot. Ada's like, oh, I'm onto you. So Ada, she Finds these letters and she's like, she knows she's got something, you know, so she tells her husband and they decided to keep, like a close eye on Frank to prevent her from taking the boat to Memphis because she and Alice were like, you know, planning on riding away together and get married and all that. So the two of them were gonna keep their eye on Frida to make sure that she didn't run off and try to like, catch a boat to see Alice, you know. So Frida, she's all dressed up, she's packed, and she's about ready to like go catch a boat, right? To go see Alice. So that's when Ada and maybe her husband, I don't know if her husband was there, but. But Ada confronts Frida and is like, you're not going. You know, like, we found these letters, bleep, blah, bloop. And I guess a big family blow up happened and Frida didn't go. She didn't. She didn't go. Boat left without her. So Ada, I guess she ends up taking the engagement ring, you know, that Alice gave to her and like other little rings, little trinkets and whatnot that Alice had mailed to Frida. And she ended up like gathering them all up and she mails them back to Alice's home, like to the whole family. And Ada, she writes a super spicy letter addressed to Alice and her mother. Whoa. It said, like, don't try in any way, shape or form or manner to have any intercourse with Frida again. I thought you were a lady. I have found out to the contrary. Such a classy way to tell someone off. So this letter gets fired off. And, you know, we don't know if Alice got in trouble or not, like with her parents because of this whole letter. We don't know. I mean, technically she was an adult anyway. But this letter was like devastating to Alice, I guess it was said that she was constantly crying and she hardly slept or like eight at all. And her love was gone. But Alice was like, crazy. So, girl, get out of here. So Alice took the letter and like all the trinkets, put it in a box and like put it on a shelf. And she was devastated, right? Super sad, crying all the time. Alice, like, wasn't eating. I guess she was getting thinner and thinner and like, more anxious and she seemed like more and more out of it. Neighbors and acquaintances. Acquaintances, It's a hard word for me. Neighbors and friends or people who knew her, they always thought she was like really, not really weird, but they thought she was Odd. She was an odd one. But now, after all this, they were like, she's definitely odd. They said she was cracked. Like, that was a diss, I think. But she. She was real questionable. Now, it's not clear why. Like, maybe she heard it somewhere or maybe she just imagined it. But. But Alice became convinced that Frida was planning a November trip to Memphis. So she thinks that she's coming to Memphis. So Alice, she stole her father's straight razor and began, like, carrying it with her. I guess she was, like, hiding it in her gown whenever she left the house. I mean, it makes sense. There was, like, 18 layers these girls were wearing back then. So you had a place to hide things. Well, Alice is, like, walking around. I think she's trying to find her. You know what I'm saying? Like, trying to accidentally run into her, but no luck. So instead, Alice, you know what she does? She finds that man that Brita was talking to. His name's Ashley. She finds this man, and she starts following and, like, stalking him. Yeah, girl, she. Okay. So in Alice's mind, this was her rival, this Ashley guy, right? I mean, he was the one in between her and Frida. So you know what she does? She ends up becoming friends with this Ashley guy. Yeah, she doesn't tell him that she knows Frida. She just, like, strikes up a conversation, and the two end up becoming friends. So Frida, she did have a trip to Memphis planned with her sister Joe. We mentioned her earlier a long time ago, feels like. So she had this trip planned, right? But she didn't tell Alice that. And they wouldn't. They wouldn't be arriving until, like, January. Alice had heard that they were coming and that they were staying in a boarding house. She's a little creep, this one. Alice is, like, dying to see Frida, right? So she sends her two letters to the boarding house where she was staying. Now, one of them was, like, in intercepted, and then the other one came back to her with the word returned scrawled across the envelope. Now, Alice recognized the writing on the letter was, like, Frida's writing. Very upsetting. So Alice, you know, she needs a new friend. So she started taking her neighbor Lily. Remember Lily? She starts taking her friend Lily to go on carriage rides into town. So Lily had kind of been Alice's backup friend. You know, like when your. Your best friend is busy doing something, so you call out the. The backup friend. I don't know if they know that they're the backup friend. You never tell them, but you have them on call, you Know what I'm saying? So that was Lily. So Lily knew about Alice, her obsession with, like, Frida. And she even later convinced a jury that she wasn't clued in about, like, the love affair. But I'm getting ahead of myself. So Alice, you know, she tried to go see Frida at the boarding house, but that didn't work out. So instead she did that thing where, like, you cruise by slowly in hopes to have, like, an accidental run in, like, oh, my God, what are you doing here? That's crazy. I didn't know you were here. That's nuts. I'm here too. One day, Alice and Lily, they're riding around town. They're cruising around, kind of waiting to accidentally run into Frida. So Alice sees Frida popping into a photo gallery. And she's alone. And she's like, oh, my God, this is my chance. Alice waits outside. When Frida comes out of the gallery, I guess she walked right past Alice without even, like, acknowledging her. But she. I don't even think she noticed her. So feelings were hurt. So Alice steps out of the carriage that she's in. Cause she's gonna go and approach Frida. But I guess, like, she slipped on the cobblestone. Cause it was like, icy and it was like, really embarrassing to her. So she ends up just, like, getting back into the carriage and like, going home. But she was so close, you know, she could taste it. She was almost there. She was like, I just need another chance. So on January 18th, Alice, she ends up getting, like, her very last letter from Frida. It's the very last letter that Frida would ever write her. It said, dear Allie, I will love you now and always will, but I have been forbidden to speak to you and I have to obey. You say, I am much to blame as you are if I have done you any harm or caused you any trouble. I humbly beg your forgiveness. Please don't let anyone know I wrote this. No one knows about last summer's business except her family. That is, unless you have told someone. We go back to Goldust this evening. Frida. Ooh. I know what you did last summer. So Alice gets this letter, and you know what she knows? She knows that Brita is lying. Because there is no steamboat that's leaving on the evening of January 18th. She's lying. There had been, like, heavy snow. There was too much ice in the river. Frida was a lying ho. She knows that Frida's gonna be in town just a little bit longer. She can't leave. Where's she gonna go. She knows that the next steamboat wouldn't be for another week. So on January 25th, Alice was ready. She hitched up her horse and buggy. That's so funny. And she went over to fetch her neighbor slash second BFF Lily. Now at this time, Lily was babysitting like a six. A six year old, I think it was her nephew. She's babysitting. So she's like, can I bring the baby? Well, not baby, you get it? She's like, yeah, sure, bring them. So the three of them, they jump into the little carriage situation and they go. So they go to, like, where, the steamboat loading area. I'm sorry, I don't know technically, like, what you call it. I think it's a loading area. Sure. But Alice spots Frida and her sister Joe on their way to the boat. A few moments later, Alice, she climbs out of the buggy, leaving Lily and her nephew to mind the horse. Lily, allegedly, I believe her. She didn't know anything that was going on. She had no clue, like, this was gonna happen. Because within, like, just a few minutes, Alice had caught up to Frida and her sister. And I guess, like, without a word, she slashed at Frida with a straight razor. So Joe cried out and, like, tried to jump between Alice and her bleeding sister, like, trying to. I guess she had an umbrella, and she was, like, trying to beat Alice back with an umbrella. And she's calling Alice like a dirty dog, which is like the meanest thing you can call someone dirty dog, you know. So Jo's trying to beat her with the umbrella, and I guess Alice, she knocks the umbrella out of her face away, whatever, and she cuts Jo. So Joe had yelled at Alice, like, you'll hang for this. And then Alice, this was according to witnesses who were there. And then Alice had shouted back, like, I don't care if I'm hung, I want to die anyhow. So she's just raging. Frida had managed to stumble only a few steps away, like, trying desperately to reach the boat ramp. But Alice was right there. She was right there and she was cutting her. She was slicing her. Frida collapsed. And then when Frida collapsed, that's when Alice, like, ran back to that buggy, right? And she jumps in and they take off. So they were witnesses there, and they described Alice as looking insane. Her face was bloody, her hat was missing. I know. Her hair was wild and, like, streaming behind her. I love that drama. So Alice, she jumps into the carriage, she takes the reins, she whips the horse, like, into a gallop and there were some. You know, there were a lot of witnesses, a lot of bystanders. And there was one bystander who. Who I guess started chasing them, thinking that Lily and her nephew had, like, just been kidnapped by this psychopath, you know? So this guy's following them, so they take off. High speeds, buggy. I don't know how fast that thing can go, but I imagine it could go fast, right? They take off, and you know where they go. Alice didn't think this far ahead. She didn't think of, like, I don't know, a hideout spot or something, because she went straight home. You can't go home. That's exactly where the police are gonna come, right? They know. Okay? That's where she went. She went home. So Alice goes home. Her mom is there. Her mom is, like, helping her clean up. Cause she has blood all over her face and whatnot. So her mother's, like, washing the blood from Alice's face. She put some bandages on, like, different cuts that she had gotten, like, on her fingers. And then it didn't take long, because then the chief of police arrived and placed Alice. Alice under arrest for murder. So again, like, the street had been filled with different witnesses, so everyone was, like, able to, like, identify her. And then also Joe, Frina's sister, she survived. She ended up having, like, superficial cuts to her face, you know? But, like, other than that, she was good. So Alice was placed under arrest, taken to jail. She was in trouble. Well, obviously, she murdered someone. So at the jailhouse, Alice had calmly explained that she caught Frida because she loved her and because Frida wouldn't speak to her. Duh. That's when I did it. She's like, you guys are being a waste of my time. It wasn't hitting her that she had, like, done anything wrong. It was said that Alice, like, felt no remorse because she felt like it was her duty to kill Frieda. So since she couldn't marry her. And to her, she was like, I'm just keeping my promise to Frida now. Only death would keep us apart. You know who else got arrested? I was shocked at this. Thank God it was fine. But Lily. Yeah, the girl who was in the carriage with her, Lily, the neighbor, the second best friend. She ended up behind bars. She was, like, an accessory to murder. So her trial actually came first. I was like, oh, this can't be good. On February 23, 1892, the hearings had been delayed until the courtroom could be, like, renovated. Which sounds silly, but they needed to renovate it because they Needed to accommodate the crowd of spectators who were following the story. Oh, it was everywhere. Newspapers and tabloids were, like, at this time, new to America. And the press, they loved it. They were like, we love this. I mean, hello. It's a racy story of a murderous romance between two girls. It's perfect. It sold many papers, and many people were interested. So the courthouse was, like, remodeled to accommodate thousands of spectators. So when Lily takes a stand, you know, there's tons of people in there. So her lawyers had argued that she had no prior knowledge to Alice's intentions, her murderous intentions. And luckily for Lily, like, all of her charges were dropped. So she's like, close call. So on the night of Alice's arrest, her. Her daddy, very rich. So he immediately hires, like, some of the best lawyers in Memphis, right? Because his daughter is not going to prison, not with his money. So they interview Alice, and they decided, you know, at her father's urging, on a plea of insanity. At the very least, like, if convicted, she would spend the rest of her life in prison, which is not ideal. She had just turned 19, and that would be really bad for her. I mean, yes, she did murder someone, but did she? I wasn't there. You know, the father. Insanity, on the other hand, let me tell you what would spare her life and confine her to a hospital instead of a prison cell. Plus, asylums had, at this point, had recent reforms. These recent reforms actually tried to treat the mentally ill with compassion instead of isolation and crude experimental treatments. I know. Shocking. So her dad was like, you want that, babe. That's what you want. They're being nice now. It hadn't been that long ago that these, quote, unquote, I'm not saying this. Crazy people were chained up and even put on public display as, like, curiosities. People were subjected to crude electroshock therapy, ice baths. They did, like, a procedure thought to purge toxins from people's system by hanging patients upside down in a contraption that, like, whirled them around really fast until they puked, you know? You know, to purify. So they would do all this. And the recent reforms stopped all. This is what we're getting at. So a hearing was held on July 18, 1892, to determine whether Alice Mitchell was of sound enough mind to stand trial for murder. So when she was questioned by her defense attorney whether she had intended to kill Frida, Alice replied, lied. Yes. And they're like, okay, this is not helping your case, ma'. Am. But she's like, yes, I did. I killed her because I Loved her. So then they asked her, like, well, why did you do it? And she was like, well, if I couldn't have Frida, I want to make sure no one else can. And, you know, at least she was honest and she wasn't trying to lie and be like, I didn't do it. There's no proof it wasn't me. So Alice pleaded not guilty. So her defense argued that she was, quote, presently insane, unquote, and not mentally fit to stand trial. Okay, look, look, if she wanted an insanity plea, that would be fine. She could do that. But it required establishing a hereditary history. You had to, like, prove to be genetically, quote, unquote crazy. Now, that might be hard to do, but luckily for Alice, it turned out that her own mother had been hospitalized several times for something called purlu per per poi. Postpartum depression. The proper name is really hard for me to pronounce, obviously, but it's known as we know it, as postpartum depression. Thank you. But her mom had this. After the birth of her first child, Alice's mom, she had to be committed to a mental asylum for, like, a couple of months. And when she returned home, she learned that her baby had died and became increasingly unstable. I could imagine Isabella, Alice's mom, she ended up giving birth to, like, seven kids, and only four survived. And it was said that her mental state had. Had deteriorated after each birth. And Alice was her youngest. Her youngest child. So, like, she kind of, like, got the shit end of the stick, you know? So the hereditary argument was that Isabella had passed on her postpartum psychosis to her daughter, and they're like, boom, case closed. So then medical and psychiatric experts, you know, they weighed in for the defense, and they concluded that Alice's boyish behavior growing up, like shooting marbles with her brothers, pointed to her inherited insanity. Because shooting marbles really gives it away. If you're doing that, you must be a little off. So then one of Alice's brothers, which is kind of funny because, like, throughout the whole story, you don't hear anything about the siblings, but one of Alice's brothers, he testifies, and he tells the court about Alice's attempt to, you know, off herself over Frieda's infidelity. And, you know, the jury's like, oh, see, she is off. Something's off with her. I mean, I'm sure we can all agree here something was off with her, right? The psychologist for the defense concluded that Alice was pretty much triggered by the emotional turmoil of love and jealousy and that the insanity Lurking inside Alice, they said, revealed itself in her belief that she could actually marry Frida. Does that make sense? That makes sense. So when doctors and asylum superintendents weighed in, they suggested a variety of theories and diagnosises, diagnoses. This is what they came up with. Cause again, they didn't know what this was called, a woman loving a woman. They were like, there was no name for it, so they were trying to give it names. So at first they thought maybe like Alice was a hermaphrodite, half woman, half man. They thought maybe she suffered from like perverted sexual attachment or emotional morbid impulse. They're like one of those everyone, everyone's like, yeah, that sounds right. Those are big words. Yeah, great. We agree. The closest word that the Victorians had for whatever this was was called sexual inversion, which implied that someone carried traits of like the opposite gender inside of them. And some physicians argued that a woman loving another woman in itself was insane and that they really didn't even need any proof other than that the prosecution, you know, it was their turn. They said that being a tomboy was like, they're like, that's just a normal part of like growing up. Other than that, Alice was just weird and a murderer. But in court they said that Alice is weird. And that was like what they came up with. And I really liked that. I don't know why. Throughout the 10 day trial, Alice came across as unconcerned, which to some observers and the press was further proof that she was. Well, it was further proof of like her insanity. Alice took the witness stand and it was said that she was pretty calm and indifferent as she told the court of her love and planned marriage with Frida. When it came to the murder itself, she explained it this way, saying, quote, my intention was to cut Frida's throat and then my own. But Joe's interference made me cut Frida again. And now I know she is happy. Good for her, I guess. I don't really know what she thought people were gonna do after that. So the jury delivered a verdict of insanity on her way to the Western State Insane asylum in Bolivar, Tennessee. Sure, I got that right. Alice was allowed to visit Frida's grave. And it was said only there did she finally start sobbing. So the widely publicized and sensationalized case was said to have spark public discourse on the like, taboo subject of lesbianism. So lesbianism, it's in the conversation now. And this seemed to influence popular literature of this era, which began to depict lesbians as murderous and like masculine or mannish. But what Came of Alice, let me tell you. Alice's father tried at some point to get, like, her released, insisting that his daughter was, like, not actually insane, but only had suffered what he described as temporary distress. God, man, your daughter killed someone. Let it be that. But anyways, that went nowhere. Alice remained institutionalized until her death just six years later at the age of 25. Now, initially it was reported that she died from tuberculosis. That's a hard one. Tuberculosis, tb. But a Memphis newspaper quoted one of her attorneys years later as saying Alice actually offed herself by jumping into a water tower. We don't know, but she's buried in the same cemetery as Frida. Not next to her grave, though, thank God. So that technically is the story of Alice Mitchell and Frida Ward. And I found it interesting because one, lesbians in the Victorian era. That to me, I was like, what? I'm in bold, right? Two, we get lots of stories of this, of like, you know, men being psychotic, right? And like, they can't take no for an answer, so they just go too far and, like, kill someone. It's like, finally we get a woman doing it. Geez. Come on, ladies. I'm kidding, but you know what I mean? It's just we don't get it that often. But also, I think it, like. It really kind of like started the whole conversation about lesbians. This case, which I found interesting. We've come a long way. I feel like there's still obviously, like psychos out there, right? That's the takeaway, really. Do you like these types of story? Well, it doesn't fudgeing matter. I like them anyhow. I hope you have a good rest of your day. You make good choices. Be safe out there. If somebody is. If somebody is treating you badly, making you feel guilty for being a human being with your own life and your own choices and your own thoughts and stuff and like, guilt tripping you into like, kind of like being with them. Run. Anyways, I'll be seeing you guys later. Bye.