← My Victorian Nightmare
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This show is supported by Odoo. When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on features you need. Check out Odoo at O D O O dot com. That's O D O O dot com. Ugh. You said you were over him, but his hoodie's still in your rotation. It's time. Grab your phone, snap a few pics and sell it on Depop. Listed in minutes with no selling fees. And just like that, a guy 500 miles away just paid full price for your closure. And right on cue. Hey, still got my hoodie? Nope. But I've got tonight's dinner paid for. So start selling on Depop, where taste recognizes taste list. Now with no selling fees, payment processing fees and boosting fees still apply. See website for details. Hello, and welcome to My Victorian Nightmare. I'm your host, Genevieve Manion, and I'm here to talk about mysterious deaths, morbid fascinations, disturbing stories, and otherwise spooky events from the Victorian era. Cuz to me, there's just something especially intriguing, creepy and oddly comforting about horror and mayhem from the 19th century. So listener discretion is advised. Hello friends, and welcome to this, my 88th episode. I'm going to try something a little different for our intro today. I'm feeling spicy, a little adventur. What do you think about this extra spooky intro? They say some places never forget, abandoned asylums grown over cemeteries, and even moldering old prisons converted into snazzy luxury apartments will still forever hold onto dark memories. In the quiet town of Salem, Massachusetts, a fancy apartment complex now stands where a Civil War era prison stood atop the very spot where witch trial executions took place. And according to some, many of the prisoners never left the building. And in 1856, a dangerously delusional cult believed a demon had come to murder their prophetess and bring about the very end of the world. They believed that if they didn't kill him first, every living being on earth would descend into hell. And it turns out a man with demonically maniacal intentions really did walk among them. They just got the wrong guy for you. Today, dear listener, I will discuss ghost sightings in the old salem jail, the 1856 Wakemanite cult killing of Justice Matthews, and their connection to the maniac murderer Charles Sanford, what do you think? I had some extra time to mess around with sound effects this week. Are you intrigued? Are you jazzed? I certainly hope so because I had so much fun digging into these very upsetting stories this week. But first I need to say thank you to Vanessa, Faith, Shiv, Sabrina, Sonia, Kristen, Robin, Riley K and Lessa for joining the Patreon. You and everyone who has joined are the reason why my show can continue. So thank you to you, you and everyone who has joined or who have signed up for the free trial. It means so much to me. On last week's Fan Coven episode I talked about how to manifest a coven because I just had such a lovely time like I always do with mine. Last weekend we got together for the spring equinox. I made lamb stew. I tried to make flower crowns but they didn't work out so well. I just ended up using the flowers as like cocktail garnishes. There really is nothing more precious than having a bunch of witchy girls and boys to make dinner with, light things on fire with, and discuss witchy stuff. We pondered that all of our ghosts, our spirits, souls, whatever may have actually decided to come do their human thing now, knowing full well that we would be living in the most awful, blind, inhuman time like you, me, and all of these so and so's that we share this ghastly timeline with may very well be the elite. The ones who chose to come back to remember who they were and grow and find others in the darkest, blindest of times. It made us all the more delighted that we found each other. So that's the topic of last week's Fan Coven episode. I also covered the wild Florence Maybrick murder on the True Crime Extras. So if you too would like to receive this show right here at free. Get Victorian True Crime Extras, perhaps hear some witchy weekly content. Feel free to join the free trial of my Patreon content. Just go to myvictorianightmare.com to find out how. Link in the show notes oh, and merch. I haven't talked about merch in a while. You'll also find super cool totes and shirts and mugs with burglars being bitten by skeletons and such on the site. Help yourself. And as always, please leave me comments on Apple podcasts and Spotify. I love them so much.
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Experian okay, let us have our first segment with their own eyes where I generally have discussed the personal haunting accounts of petrified Victorians. But today I want to talk about the hauntings of ghosts, of Victorians petrifying other people and some other very creepy facts about the old Salem jail. It was built in 1813, so a few years before the official start of the Victorian era. A historian, Tim McGuire believes that the jail was built on the very location for the execution of one of Salem wrongfully accused witches, GILES Corey, the 80 year old man who was accused of being a warlock in 1692. It was accused that his spirit was wandering around at night and attacking young girls, which poor Mr. Corey denied adamantly. And because he denied it, he was refused a trial. That's how it was done in those days. Admit to doing things you didn't do or die because you maintained your innocence. Mr. Corey was dragged to the location of the later old Salem jail jail, which was just wide open land at the time. They placed a wooden frame on top of him and then began to place stones on top. They begged him to plead guilty, but instead of saying he was, he simply repeated the words more wait until he was literally crushed to death. Personally, I hate the witchifying of Salem. These people weren't witches, they were innocent victims. Bless his soul. Incidentally, just a few more Salem witch trial facts that I was unaware of before we get to the haunted prison. I didn't know that. After the trials, Salem suffered various tragic afflictions. Terrible droughts, smallpox and other deadly diseases ran rampant and many of the folks there believed that it was retribution. Over time, those involved expressed terrible guilt and shame for what they had done to their neighbors. I never knew that any of the girls admitted to lying, but they eventually did. An official day of humiliation was declared on January 15, 1698. One of the girls, who is now a woman who made the false accusations, publicly apologized. In the early 1700s, the colony of Massachusetts gave $600 to the families of the accused and executed. That would have been equivalent to about $100,000 today. A memorial was later constructed officially absol involving all of the accused, and placed at Proctor's Ledge in 2017. Rewind about 100 years to the construction of the old salem jail in 1813. Execution styles of this prison were different than the one used on Poor Mr. Giles Corey. They were hanged. It's an estimation that about 50 people were hanged over the years in old Salem Jail. In a peculiar part of the jail, the dining area. It's unclear why this area was used for this, but there are also many folks who died by hanging. Not because they had death sentences, but the prison had a high suicide rate due to the terrible living conditions. The jail was constantly overcrowded despite a massive expansion in 1887. This was due to the strict temperance laws enacted in the county with stiff penalties. If you were caught drinking, you were imprisoned. So many people were caught and imprisoned because of drinking alcohol that they were afraid that they would have to further expand the jail to fit more people. Luckily, they just repealed the law instead. Eventually. There was also no indoor plumbing in the building until the 1970s, so prisoners were using chamber pots and buckets when the prison was set to be closed in 1991. Before prisoners were transferred to another, they completely trashed the place in a riot. Food was thrown all over the walls, Trash cans were lit on fire. We won was written in toothpaste in the prisoner's rectory. Everything was smashed, furniture destroyed. For the next decade, the place stood creepily empty and of course attracted teenagers like me when I was young. Squatters and vandals ran rampant in the place. The city bought the former jail for $1. I wonder who from. Eventually it was turned into what is now beautiful luxury apartments for 10 million dol. But it appears a number of the jail's original occupants never left. Or even more terrifying, they're still trying to escape. Many men attempted prison breaks during the 1800s and a good deal of them were caught, sent back, and they died in that prison. And before the jail was turned into fancy apartments, numerous witnesses have claimed to see full bodied white apparitions, full torso, free roaming vapors sprinting from the jail across the front lawn in the dead of night. With echoing sounds of rattling chains, the apparitions allegedly fade as they approach the border of the prison property. People also claimed to see from the outside a shadowy figure walking up to one of the windows of the jail and moving around from one cell to another. This shadowy figure was always seen holding a candle. And my first thought was this was likely just like a squatter. Maybe people were always going in and out of that ab abandoned building for a long time. But what's creepy about this is the floor that this candle holding figure has been seen walking around through the windows. Collapsed years ago. There was nothing under its feet. Some current residents of the apartment building claim to have witnessed what they believe to be Civil War soldiers in the hallways. Confederate soldiers were imprisoned in the old Salem jail in the 1860s. They were also claimed to see spirits in 19th century clothing walking around in their own apartments. Some folks claim to hear agonizing cries and moans throughout the building. To be fair, we have a lot of kids in my building and I'm pretty sure when I hear wails and moans, it's just the kids or the lady that lives on my second floor, Mae. She's quite harmless. Ugh God. There's something so creepy to me about the concept of ghosts that are seen trying to escape over and over again. Imagine you're dead and stuck in a loop trying to escape. Ugh. I hope knocking the place down and turning it into a place for like new life put a stop to that. I always wonder if knocking a place down helps to rid a place of ghosts, like forces them to move out, or if they're just stuck there like still. If they still see the place as it was when they died, even if it's not there anymore These are my 3am insomnia thoughts what are your 3am insomnia thoughts? Are they just as creepily upsetting? Okay, I need to thank a listener named Bronwyn, I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, who emailed me and requested a topic that immediately made my twisted little dead heart flutter. I have never heard of the Wakemanite cult of the mid-1800s or their murders or their connection to the so called maniac murderer Charles Sanford. This was such a gift. Please if you have any suggestions for topics that you would like to hear about, email me@myvictorianightmaremail.com I've got a running list of topics that I want to cover at the beginning of each week that I pull out and I see what tickles my creepy fancy. But sometimes you guys tickle my creepy fancy better than anything on that list. Thank you again Bronwyn for that fancy tickle. And I just want to make a quick disclaimer. I am not anti Christian. This particular cult was a Christian based cult and I do make a distinction between Christianity and Christian cults. If your religion, I don't care what it is, says it's okay to murder or oppress people on behalf of your deity, your prophet, your leaders. Again, I don't care what your religion is you're in a cult, call your dad. I know and love plenty of Christians who do not subscribe to murdering or oppressing anyone. Quite the contrary. I'm also rather a fan of Jesus Christ's table flipping style. He's my kind of guy. So again, I do not hold any disrespect for anyone who loves their neighbors. Wants to make the world a safer, more kind and beautiful place for all beings. And if you want to do these things in the name of any deity at all, I'd sign your herebook. I'd be delighted to. And that certainly goes for Christian folks as well. These folks, however, were not those kinds of folks. So let's begin at the very beginning with cult leader Rhoda Wakeman's death that occurred 30 years before she decided to prepare the world for the second coming of Jesus Christ himself in 1828. In 1985, Rhoda was married to, by her account, a monster in Greenfield, Connecticut. She claimed that one night he had beaten her so badly that she believed that she died. She claimed that she was dead for seven hours and in that time two angels stood beside her and touched her with bright swords. And when they did, she said she ascended to heaven and met Jesus Christ. She said he still had a crown of thorns and nails in his hand which like, can't even Jesus Christ get a break in heaven. Still got to wear that crown. Can't even enjoy the arts and crafts. Regardless of this no doubt harrowing vision, she said he spoke to her and her soul was filled with peace. She also said that she saw God sitting on his throne surrounded by angels before another spirit walked up, told her, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here, and whisked her right back to earth where she viewed her own dead corpse lying on the ground. And it occurred to her that she was being returned for a darn good reason to this wicked, wicked world. She rose again and claimed that from that day forward she communicated directly with God himself and was tasked with preparing the world for the second coming, what she referred to as the new millennium, an event described in Revelations. In her interpretation, the new millennium meant the return of Christ to earth who would establish a kingdom lasting 1000 years and she and those who chose to follow her would have a front row seat. They'd be the very most chosen ones to assist the hopefully now not thorn crowned Jesus Christ in his holy doings upon earth. In fact, they believed that only true believers, essentially just them, would be saved while the rest of the world would be punished and cast into hell. Rhoda believed that she was receiving the only true word of the ever loving God who planned to brutally murder and damn everyone on earth but her and her pals. Of course, a very common theme in many cults. We and only we will be saved, and soon. I'm pretty sure I mentioned this on one of the other episodes on Victorian cults, but I think the most accurate way to distinguish between, like a healthy religion versus a cult is that in a cult the bottom serves the top and in a healthy religion, the top serves the bottom. I heard that on the way down. Documentary. Really good if you're into cult documentaries. That is so true across the board. I actually went to a Christian church when I was little. They were a wonderful church, so lovely and I think they were so lovely that they are largely responsible for why I became a Buddhist. But my family had no money when I was a kid and I wanted to study opera singing. And an anonymous person from my church paid for years of my studies. And I only found out after all that time that it was the reverence of the church the whole time. Her name was Dee Dee Turlington. God rest her sweet soul. The top serving the bottom. So Rhoda Wakeman got to work building this flock of Wakemanites, to whom she was referred to as the Prophetess. When her abusive husband died, she moved to New Haven, Connecticut to live with her half brother, a man named Samuel Sly, who was totally into this whole concept, thought it sounded fabulous. He helped her gather followers who used his home as official meeting house. He was able to wrangle a good 12 folks into this. Ms. Wakeman believed more than just she and her followers would be the stewards of God's new kingdom on earth. She also believed, as did her followers, that a curse was placed on the earth by the Holy Spirit. And only when Jesus returned would that curse be lifted. Seems like a pretty harsh thing for a Holy Spirit to do. Rhoda also believed that she herself had the power to destroy the entire world if she wanted to. She just, just, you know, didn't want to yet. She claimed that God imbued her with supreme power and can exercise that power over anyone in the world. She said that she had the power to forgive sins on God's behalf. She claimed to be able to read minds just by looking into a person's eyes. She also believed that all marriages were evil. And this is the most important thing. The devil had power over death. And whenever his satanic majesty chooses a particular sinner that sinner must, must die. End quote. The definition of the term chooses left rather ominously vague there. In December of 1855, Rhoda began suffering terrible bodily pains. And she knew the cause. It wasn't arthritis or the arsenic in everything. At the time, one of her followers was getting second thoughts. He had stopped coming to their meetings. And so this. This meant that a devilish demon chose him. A man named Justice Matthews. So she had supreme power over anyone in the world. But apparently not this guy. She claimed that the demon was not only possessing this man and getting in her joints, causing her gout. But this particular demon was single handedly trying to prevent the commencement of the new millennium. And so Jesus Christ was not going to step foot foot on this planet as long as the demon was stinking up the place. Not only that, but this demon was so powerful that if it wasn't stopped and she were to die due to his corrosive power. The entire world would end. And even her followers would be sucked into hell. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria. The members of her cult knew exactly what to do. Get the hell away from this insane woman. Woman?
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No.
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They planned to perform a murderous exorcism of sorts. And similar to Manson's cult. Rhoda got to keep her hands clean while her followers did her dirty work. One of the followers, a woman named Polly Sanford, who was the sister of Justice Matthews, went with her husband to his house to try to convince him to come to a meeting on Sunday. And they'd do everything they could to dispel this demon. Funny enough, he was like. Like perfect. Yes, I also believe that I am possessed. So he was down with this entire idea. They weren't tricking him into anything. Or at least this is what they said. There's actually no way to know exactly how he felt about this entire ordeal. Sadly, he didn't survive to tell his own tale.
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Zootopia 2 has come home to Disney. Let's go get ready for a new
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case where the greatest partners of all time. New friends, Gary the Snake. And your last name. The Snake Dream Team. New habitats. Zootopia has a secret reptile population.
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You can watch the record breaking phenomenon at home. Zootopia 2. Now available on Disney. Rated PG. And right now you can get Disney and hulu for just $4.99 a month for three months with a special limited time offer. Ends March 24th. After three months, plan auto renews and $12.99 a month terms apply.
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Justice Matthews arrived on Sunday, December 23rd at 9pm the group had already been praying since 2 o' clock that afternoon. He, according to followers, expressed how guilty he felt for causing so much distress to the prophetess and was real sorry about housing a demon that wanted to end the world. He felt real bad about that. Paulie tied her handkerchief around his eyes to prevent the demon from enchanting anyone through his sight. Then the group tied his hands behind his back. Back as they would the devil, she said. They left him in a room alone on the second floor of the house and all went downstairs to pray that he be released from this devil. They prayed until 2am, periodically going up and beseeching that the devil release him. It's not said if they beat him in this process or if they were just coming in to yell at him, then return to praying downstairs. They told him that it would be better that he were dead than the demon continue to be allowed to hurt Mrs. Wakeman and also also bring about the end of the world. And according to them, he agreed. And also according to them, they left the room, left him alone, and all went home without checking on him any further. Just leaving him there tied up by himself. Justice Matthews did not escape that room. In the morning, his son came to the house looking for him. And when no one answered, he broke into the house. There was no one there at the time. Time. He crept up the stairs to the second floor. And this is so horrifying. He found his father laying on the floor with pools of blood all around him. His throat had been slit and it was nearly entirely severed from his body. He found the rope that was used to tie his father's wrists and noticed that it appeared that his stomach had been stabbed with particular puncture wounds like from a force. His son ran to the police, who arrived not long after. But by this time, Mrs. Wakeman and Samuel Sly were home and were held there to give a testimony to the coroner and a coroner's jury that was quickly assembled. A number of other cult members were immediately arrested and brought to the home to testify along Rhoda and Samuel. The members of the cult all confessed that they believed that if justice didn't die, then the world would end. And they believed that he killed himself to rid himself of the demon, save the world. But by Wednesday, Samuel Sly, Rhoda's half brother, confessed to killing Mr. Matthews. He said that his sister was so distressed by this demon that he couldn't allow it to torment her any longer. He said that as the other cult members were preparing to leave, he went up to the room where justice was sitting and locked the door behind him. He brought a two foot club made of hazelwood and bashed his head in so hard that he knocked him to the floor. Floor. He beat him in the head numerous times with the club before taking out a pocket knife and slitting his throat with a 2 inch blade. He then began stabbing him with a fork. Rhoda and a woman named Thankful Hershey were still in the house, although at least from his confession. Rhoda wasn't there for this process, but who can say? He went to thankful Hershey and asked that she bring him a basin of water to wash off the blood. They tore up justice's shirt and burned it in the stove. Samuel also confessed to breaking the club into three pieces and throwing it with the knife into the ouse toilet. All of the other cult members were released except for Samuel, rhoda wakeman and Thankful Hershey, who were all tried for murder. Rhoda testified, quote, I was sick that night and expected to die and asked them to take Matthews out of the house. He had such a bad spirit that he was taking away my divine spirit and killing me by it. If I should die, the judgment would come.
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Come.
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This man of sin cursed God. And when he died, there was a black spot on the throne of God. End quote. She also said that if she was found guilty, God told her that the world would be immediately destroyed. The trial lasted only about an hour. The jury found all three of the defendants not guilty. But for reasons of insanity, they were sent not to a brutal insane asylum like most criminally insane people of the time, but to one of the very nicest asylums of the day. It was called the insane retreat in Hartford. They all rather lucked out. This facility was one of the few in the late 1850s to retain its progressive healthcare approach. Many lunatic asylums in the victorian era began as very progressive, compassionate places. Many with gardens, beautiful interiors, intended to treat the mentally ill as just that. Not monsters like they had in the 18th century and before then, but but unwell, perhaps treatable. And even if they couldn't relieve delusions, they would still be treated with dignity. It was only until the 1860s that many asylums built between 1790-1850 began to go off the rails due to overcrowding. The fact that any man could just send his wife to a lunatic asylum if he didn't like her anymore. Many immigrants were sent to asylums and all of the brain damaging poisons and general trauma of the era swelled capacities of almost every asylum in the United States and England. Many turned into torture prisons. But not this one. This one appeared to have remained a beautiful place to live all throughout the 1800s. It appears Rhoda, her brother, and Thankful Hershey all died in that asylum, and they remained true believers until the very end. It's unclear exactly which year Ms. Wakeman died. Asylum records in the 1800 portraits were often incomplete or lost to time. All I'll say is I'm glad that the world didn't end when she met hers. Now, this may sound like the end of the terrible story, but, oh my God, does it get so much worse. A man named Charles Sanford, who was the nephew of Almiron Sanford, one of the Wakemanites, who was originally arrested, then released. A man who was there the night of the murder of poor Mr. Matthews was a severely disturbed man. He, too, had been invited to join the cult and attend a number of their meetings. He didn't subscribe to all of their teachings, but he did believe that Rhoda Wakeman was an angel sent from God to redeem mankind. But it appears that he may have been discharged from the group because he had lately been exhibiting maniacal behavior. He had gone to, say, several other religious meetings of other religious sects and was known to interrupt the reverends and demand that they stop talking and that they should listen to him preach instead. He was finding himself more and more isolated. He had actually gone in and out of that same asylum that Rhoda, her brother, and Thankful were sent to numerous times over the years. But up until fairly recently, he was believed to be sane enough to live in society again, and he was relieved. Released. But when he heard of the horrifying murder of Justice Matthews, his behavior became more strange and concerning to his family. He was rambling, getting threateningly close to other family members, like literally standing directly next to them and ominously just staring. His speech was described as incoherent. He was randomly screaming in loud, loud bursts of rage. Then he would just go mute. And if you would follow me down this quiet, snowy Woodbridge, Connecticut road, I want to show you something. It is nearly 10:30am on a Tuesday morning. 1856. It is January. Rather chilly. I brought you two of those cool hand warmer packs that you just break and they get warm, you know. Those should keep your paws nice and toasty in your pockets. I put these in my pants pockets to keep my bottom warm when autumn camping. Not those, though. Those are new. It is but a few days since the murder of Mr. Matthews by the Wakemanites, and the entire county is rather on edge about it. They weren't the only cult around these parts. There are many small Christian adjacent sects with their own sections sets of beliefs, many which are rather strict and strange to others. Some keep their groups tight and aren't looking to broaden their flocks like the Wakemans were. There's kind of like a post Manson like paranoia after Manson. All these hippie communes that were sprouting up all over the place seemed more or less harmless to the squares. But when the Manson killings happened, people got real concerned about what was going on in all these alternative communities around them. Kinda similar to the vibe around here at the moment. Let's snuggle up over here beside this brookside juniper bush. We'll be able to see what's about to happen fairly clearly from here. Okay. Shh. Look there coming up the road. That man in no shoes stumbling irritably, mumbling incoherently and holding the most menacing of axes. That's Charles Sanford. And just up the road in the other direction, riding the horse drawn carriage is Mr. Enoch Sperry. He is the 70 year old father of the Secretary of State. He lives not far from here. Okay, sit back a bit. I'll describe what's happening. Sanford is now scrambling behind a tree across from us. Mr. Sperry didn't see him I don't think, but he's approaching. Close your eyes. Ugh. Sanford just crashed his ax into Mr. Sperry's skull as he was riding by. Sanford is pulling him off the seat of the carriage. Oh God. He's striking him again on the back of the head. And now, although it appears Mr. Sperry likely died with that first blow, Sanford is using the voice very sharp axe to cut Mr. Sperry's throat. The horse is walking off down the road. Now Sanford is leaving Mr. Sperry here and making his way to the home of Ichabod Umberfield here. Let's get out of here in the opposite direction of Charles. Oh, poor Mr. Sperry. A man named Samuel Perkins saw Mr. Sperry's horse passing his house with the empty car carriage just before noon and went to stop it on the road. He knew Mr. Sperry and he knew his horse. He also knew that Mr. Sperry had epilepsy and thought that perhaps he'd had a fit on the road and maybe fell off his carriage. So he got in his own carriage and took off to find him. He found him in the gloomy forest part of the road with his head nearly severed from his body. He was holding a handkerchief One side of his face had been paralyzed with poly palsy. And in the cold weather he would hold a handkerchief to his face to prevent spasms. That must have been why he was still holding the handkerchief. Mr. Perkins loaded his body into his own carriage and took him immediately to the house of Dr. Goodell. He and another doctor, Dr. Castle, examined his wounds. Mr. Sperry's two sons were called to make the official identification. Oh, so horrible. These poor men. Word spread fast about the murder. But not fast enough to reach the home of Ichabod Umberfield.
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Charles opened the back door of the home. He was known to the family that lived there now. This is so horrifying. It's all horrifying. But he walked into the kitchen and inside was one of the servant women of the home. He had placed his axe and a wooden club in the hallway outside of the kitchen. He had sharpened this club on both ends and etched some writing into it. It. It's unclear what that was. It was described as such. Quote the writing on the Hickory club cannot be deciphered but is probably some of Sanford's insane ravings or some of the Wakemanite doctrines. He placed this out with the axe just outside the hall beside the kitchen. He walked up behind this woman, put his hands around her waist and calmly and quietly told her to go out into the hall where he had an axe and cloak club waiting for her. She slapped him across the face and ran. Thank God for her. And he slowly followed. Like horror movie style. He grabbed the axe and the club but turned back into the kitchen and sat down next to the stove. The woman named Mrs. Deming ran to find Mr. Umberfield and the other girls in the home quickly ran for him as well. When they heard her screaming. He was outside of the house and was one of the girls screamed out the window. Charles Sanford is in the house with an axe and he is crazy. You must come in. Ichabod ran into the house and tried to stay calm. When he saw Charles sitting by the stove covered in blood with an axe and a sharpened club on the floor beside him. He quietly asked him how he was tried to make simple conversation so that he could calm him and take away the words weapons. But then after sitting quietly and somberly for two minutes, he quickly grabbed the axe and slammed it down on Mr. Umberfield's head. Just like Mr. Sperry. He then also sliced his throat with the axe. One of Mr. Umberfield's little daughters witnessed all of this. She was standing in the door with Mrs. Deming. Sanford then got up and walked out the back door to clean the blood off of his axe in the snow. And the women and girls ran and locked the doors. Luckily, luckily he didn't try to break his way back in. Which he likely could have easily done if he wanted. I can only imagine the horrifying here's Johnny like shining event that could have unfolded for those women and girls. Luckily he took off back into the woods. Mrs. Deming quickly ran for help. So bravely. Imagine running out of a house when you know a maniac is out there somewhere. She ran next door and word just as quickly spread about what had happened and that he was on the move. A group of eight men were quickly escaped assembled and Charles's bloody footsteps were luckily easy to track. They found him up a mountain and none of them had guns for some reason. It's possible that they were part of like a religious order or orders that didn't own weapons. They found him and one of the men had a pitchfork which he used to thrust into Sanford's chest. It didn't kill him though. It just held him back long enough for another man, Mr. Gorham, to grab the club and smack him over the head with it. He still was fighting back though. And it took all eight of the men to subdue him. One of the men was struck with the axe on his shoulder, but luckily it didn't kill him. They tied him up, threw him in a carriage and took him off to jail, they said. The whole way Charles was incoherently rambling and screaming. He did say that he killed Mr. Sperry because he quote had a cramp and he killed the man to prevent the cramp from killing him. He was described as a quote unquote raving maniac. When he arrived at the jail it was determined that Mr. Sperry wasn't murdered for his money. He actually had a good amount of money on him. He was likely on the way to a bank. It was also determined that it wasn't out of malice. Charles had actually expressed great respect for Mr. Sperry often. He was a beloved and respected member of his community. And Mr. Ichabod Umberfield was also greatly respected, not only in his community, but by Charles, who the family was very charitable with. There was a haunting paragraph in an article I read about this that said, quote, the morning of Mr. Sperry's death, he had in his family prayer, made some very affecting allusions to the New Year and said that none but the Almighty knew of its import and that it might be his last. His prayer was greatly in this vein and all his words now rushed back to his family as if they were ominous or almost prophetic of his end. Just like the Wakemanites, Charles was found not guilty for reasons of insanity. He was not sentenced to to death, but he was sent to a much less nice asylum. He was sent to the Connecticut State Hospital for the Insane, now known as the Connecticut Valley Hospital. It's still used as a psychiatric facility. By the time Charles arrived, the asylum was already overcrowded, had inadequate staff and dismal living conditions. There are no records of his time there, but it is likely that he died there. The hospital has a sprawling patient cemetery with 1652 graves marked only with numbers. This was a practice done in asylum cemeteries in the 1800s to avoid what was viewed as shaming families. Many people there weren't criminals. They were simply mentally ill people whose families wanted forgotten. And not adding their names to their gravestones would prevent anyone who may go there from seeing the names of other patients and perhaps recognizing the names embarrassing the families. Such a terrible practice. But there is now a memorial in the hospital graveyard that lists all of the names of as many folks that could be traced by the numbers on those markers. I put photos of that beautiful memorial on the Instagram. I have often said that despite all of the horrors of our time, it is so important, important that we take note of the ways many, many people devote their time, energy, their art, to restoring the dignity and memory of others. And this, a memorial to people who, many of which were forgotten by their families even in life, stands as such a touching tribute that they mattered and that they were not forgotten. And that was the story of the Wakemanite cult and the murders of Justice Matthews, Ichabod Umberfield and Enoch Sperry. If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more, please rate the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts leave me comments because you know I love them so much. And join the fan coven to listen at free and for even more creepy and witchy content. Until next time, be kind to yourselves and I will see you in your nightmares.