00:00:06
hey weirdos I'm and I'm Elena and this is [Music] morbid and this is saltburn oh God no
00:00:25
you can't say that cuz you haven't freaking watched it yet I know here here's the said wait no sh she said she
00:00:32
might I yeah cuz here's the thing it's Tik Tok Tik Tok will it influences me can I tell you how heavily heavily
00:00:39
offended I am right now that I sat here many no I think Mikey can get on board with the fact that you did not sell
00:00:47
salurn no but I recommended it to you multiple times you did how was I supposed to sell it to you I don't know
00:00:55
was I supposed to run around a mansion saying it's a matter on the time I think I had to I'm still not sure
00:01:02
if I'm going to watch it because it feels too long no you gota you didn't even sell it the second when I said I
00:01:07
was going to watch you you were like by the way like half the movie they're not even in salurn and it's kind of slow
00:01:12
like well I just want you to know what you're in for I app I'm an honest gly you are you're an honest gal you're not
00:01:19
a Salesman no I'm really not a Salesman I don't I'm not into that none of us are
00:01:24
I sometimes on the ads I feel like I do a good job though you do I'm like I have
00:01:27
a code for you babe I have a code for you for you it's Tik Tok that has made me think that I should watch it but then
00:01:35
I'm also like I think I've watched it now at this point like all the things I need to see I think I've seen on Tik Tok
00:01:41
you haven't watched the movie until you watched that movie there are some movies
00:01:45
that on Tik Tok if you see certain scenes it's like yeah I watch that movie pretty much salurn you got to watch that
00:01:50
movie maybe I will maybe I should just film my reactions to it please do so cuz it seems all because that song is stuck
00:01:58
in my head on the top FLW I that one precisely you better not kill the groove I thought for a while
00:02:06
she was saying you better not kill the groom um Ash has this awesome Quirk about her and it's everybody's favorite
00:02:13
like I'm being dead serious that I love it uh that she always gets the lyrics wrong but her lyrics are always more fun
00:02:20
they are and I'm like I like believe them oh with her whole heart like we were talking about it earlier that that
00:02:26
yooo song like Yeah from like um Jawbreaker yeah Ash had a great version for that okay so it said the real things
00:02:33
are like she said Yoohoo and then and then she it just says Ah youo Ah you so I thought it said ice queen Ice Queen
00:02:43
she's so beautiful but it doesn't at all but I was singing those lyrics for weeks
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yeah cuz I isn't that what it says it says like she said yoooo she said yooo or like I said yooo yeah you're right
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and then it says like ah yooo yeah yeah you're you're lyrics are mine are better
00:03:01
Primo she's so beautiful the way that's the she's so beautiful like just it's so
00:03:07
good you're welcome that's what I sing every time I hear it now oh and then hold on one more let me just chew my own
00:03:12
horn beep beep um remember that the OG one that I think we realized it with was um walking on a dream yes by Empire of
00:03:20
the Sun and they say like is it real now when two people become one but I say is
00:03:25
it is it grandma is she making and she was so serious that those lyrics I didn't think those were the lyrics but
00:03:35
I was like I don't know what he say she knew it in her heart but you know what uh pean pie or
00:03:42
shme and Pie that's what I always say we have a story to tell today it's always hard when we have to transition out of
00:03:50
our redonkulous speak in the beginning I mean cuz we're we speak silly yeah we just do or redonkulous silly existences
00:04:00
we have silly little things going on silly and now we're going to be talking about some really intense murder happen
00:04:07
serious so you know this this is a Bonkers tale just because of like the people involved like FL I'm going to be
00:04:16
talking about Florence Burns and the murder of Walter Brooks we're going to be talking about um this little like
00:04:22
they're called like the Bedford Avenue gang or something like that but it's a bunch of like rich kids in this gang who
00:04:28
just are like I'm bored with being rich so I'm going to cause trouble who the [ __ ] is Bored bizarre Bonker get out of
00:04:36
here like thing I've ever seen like it's just it feels made up wait what's the year so the year of this
00:04:45
is to cut sorry to stump you is um it's like the early 1900s like 1901 okay you know around that time it's
00:04:55
always funny to hear the 1900s I don't know why the early 1900s remember I can't think of the the gang but we were
00:05:01
doing a crime countdown episode and there was like another group of rich kids that got bored of being rich and
00:05:07
made a gang and it was like the white Bronco gang or something you know what I'm talking about we're going to have to
00:05:11
look back on that yeah that's all I had right now oh I miss crime countdown I do
00:05:16
too every single day of my life so fun I miss it Max Cutler you rock Max Cutler is great mhm uh yeah bring back crime
00:05:25
countdown sorry if you can hear my ice but get into this with uh let's start off with who Florence Burns is yeah so
00:05:35
who is Florence tell me now at the dawn of the 20th century the United States was definitely undergoing a pretty big
00:05:42
social and cultural change mostly because you know there was Major advances in technology and
00:05:48
transportation that's going to cause huge like swooping changes all the way around because that's allowing Americans
00:05:56
to travel outside of the relatively closed regions that they were living in what is the space that you're making I'm
00:06:02
just like in a silly goofy mood when started talking about transportation and then you said Americans could like take
00:06:10
it all I could think of was the Charlie XCX song where she goes let's Rod I don't even know what that is me
00:06:19
and Mikey are just looking at each other it's from the Barbie movie isn't it maybe not Mikey Mikey became that shrug
00:06:28
emoji like I don't know I got to play it for it's the beginning of the song and she just goes
00:06:35
let's ride as I'm saying this I'm like what is happening cuz she's just like I know I
00:06:40
need to get out of my throwing her head back I'm like what's going on I got to get out of my silly goofy mood I
00:06:45
apologize hold on I'll I'll get it for you put the elevator music out of [Music]
00:06:58
here all of America all of America just going I'm not even laughing at that I'm laughing at you laughing at that I'm
00:07:18
soing I don't know why my brain is a [ __ ] weird place okay your brain is like a a midnight Carnival it's just I
00:07:27
like that it's cooky a little spooky w wow your brain is a midnight Carnival if I was still in
00:07:36
dating UPS I would write that my brain is a midnight Carnival oh my God sometimes I think about people in
00:07:52
real life that listen to this that I know and I'm like oh God all right all right all right all
00:08:00
right all right all right isn't that all of America going let's Ro that's great all of
00:08:12
America transportation is easier the technology becomes available and it's just like please please leave at least some
00:08:24
of them oh man so oh [ __ ] so as Ash was saying all of America said let's ride um
00:08:33
but according to Virginia McConnell whose book you should definitely pick up we are linking in the show notes um this
00:08:40
quote gave teenagers and young adults access to places they might not have had earlier particularly those living in
00:08:47
cities like New York for instance this whole expansion of urban infrastructure like Bridges tunnels public
00:08:55
transportation uh that all meant that people living in places like Brooklyn and in Coney Island could now easily
00:09:01
access the business and entertainment districts that were in what was once a far away land of Manhattan until they
00:09:07
were like let's ride let's ride and this opened up new opportunities for employment but also for cultural
00:09:13
engagement so everybody's just being their worlds are opening up basically for teenagers and young adults
00:09:20
particularly the wealthier without financial responsibilities or really familial obligations this expansion of
00:09:27
Transportation allowed them to Escape what was usually the watchful eye of their parents and gave them easy access
00:09:33
to all the fun stuff the dance halls the speak e the restaurants all the other social spaces like Riding in Cars with
00:09:41
Boys with Drew Barrymore it's exactly like that and this meant that maybe for the first time they could actually shed
00:09:48
the societal expectations of responsibility and respectability that usually kids in those families had and
00:09:54
they were now free to be themselves without any of the adult supervision in judgment although the idea of teenagers
00:10:01
as we understand it today wouldn't really emerge for many decades that's probably better that's probably good
00:10:07
probably the this early 20th century youth culture youth culture I like that you said that it was still a big social
00:10:15
shift from the previous generations because that's the thing each generation of teen gets Wier and Wier get more
00:10:22
confusing for the previous generation like it just happens Boomers look at gen Z like what the oh yeah [ __ ] they
00:10:29
thought Millennials they hated oh honey man oh honey oh honey but pre so this so
00:10:35
this social shift from previous generations was really unlike anything Americans had seen to that point for
00:10:42
young people in New York many of them from conservative immigrant families the freedom of movement allowed them to shed
00:10:48
the restrictive culture experienced in the home and experiment with sometimes new often rebellious identities now
00:10:56
among those young people in New York basically seeking to establish their own identity their own Rebellion outside of
00:11:03
the home was Florence Burns I knew it she was the daughter of strict German immigrant parents born uh April 9th 1882
00:11:11
in New York to Frederick and Henrietta Burns uh Florence had a lot of advantages a lot and she had a sense of
00:11:20
stability that her peers could probably only dream of uh Frederick Burns was a very successful Manhattan insurance
00:11:27
broker uh he had actually he was like kind of locally famous as a popular announcer for the various events held by
00:11:34
the amateur athletic Union as well oh wow uh Florence's mother Henrietta was also well respected she was the daughter
00:11:41
of wilheim Frederick vand der BOS one of the lead you know that guy of one of the
00:11:46
lead engineers in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge oh [ __ ] you know of it I think I've heard of her now given
00:11:54
her parents social status and respective pedigrees it was baffling to friends and
00:11:58
family that Florence seemed to be out of control from an early age they said you're a rich girl you gone too far she
00:12:07
was by most accounts pretty lazy she she's [ __ ] Rich so she consistently did poorly in school which is different
00:12:16
because usually it was like they had like you're from a prominent standard to be held to right and quote was more
00:12:22
interested in boys than in her studies word despite her beauty however vapid personality and general lack of
00:12:31
curiosity did kind of little to win her over many friends or male suitors oh [ __ ] like she was beautiful she was you
00:12:38
know but she just didn't have a lot of depth vapid I love the word vapid to describe somebody and she seems like she
00:12:44
was the definition of that at that time like it just she didn't really have a lot of ambition she didn't really have a
00:12:51
lot of substance happening she didn't have HSPA yeah and as most people knew her they thought she was like pretty
00:12:58
boring to be like not a lot going on you got a lot of money that's about it um also Florence's Behavior was
00:13:05
occasionally extreme or inappropriate especially when she didn't get her way oh for instance when her first serious
00:13:12
boyfriend Harry broke up with her after the initial you know like romance in the
00:13:17
beginning War off Florence exhibit a behavior that would today most likely be considered stalking
00:13:24
oh goody um and there were even rumors that she had threatened to kill him unless he married her
00:13:29
so she went she went too far usually I mean at least in my experience that doesn't
00:13:35
work that doesn't um work also I was joking about the my experien yeah I was going to say I don't think you've ever
00:13:40
done that but no but like in experiences that I've heard of I don't think that works yeah I don't see ultimatums like
00:13:46
that really working out marry me or I will especially in like something like like lve you know I wonder if he Billy
00:13:52
would worded her and was like I'll think about it I'll think about it well Florence's parents were equally at a
00:13:57
loss as we are when it came to understanding Florence they had given her literally every opportunity in the
00:14:03
world everyone she had anything at her fingertips yet she seemed determined to defy them at every turn oh No in fact as
00:14:12
far as Florence was concerned her parents were more like jailers than parents [ __ ] they were outdated
00:14:18
disciplinarians who had no idea what it was like to be young they just didn't get it Mom Dad face and in reaction to
00:14:25
What She perceived as parents that were too rigid and overly restrictive Florence acted out a lot getting kicked
00:14:33
out of school getting kicked out of local businesses for smoking at the time it was illegal for women to smoke in
00:14:38
public fake and which like nobody should because it's bad for you but yeah stupid
00:14:43
law uh but running away she would hang out with a bad crowd she was just not she was doing all kinds of things it was
00:14:50
the Classic this sounds like the beginning remember those old that old show on A&E like beond Scared Straight
00:14:56
yeah doesn't it sound like the It honestly is like that's true and now in response to all this Fred the dad
00:15:02
disciplined his daughter in ways that would uh no longer be considered acceptable uh this included physical
00:15:09
abuse oh no uh confining her to her bedroom and on more than one occasion he would just enroll her in a boarding
00:15:15
school outside of the city including one in Montreal oh goody uh though she always ran away and made her way back to
00:15:20
Brooklyn on her own now by the time she was 17 years old Florence had dropped out of school she hadn't gone further
00:15:26
than eth grade at this point and seemed just completely directionless when she was finally when she finally found a
00:15:33
group of friends um she felt super comfortable finally and she felt like she was accepted by these people and
00:15:40
they didn't want anything more of her than who she was and this group was called the Bedford Avenue gang oh no so
00:15:48
she joined a gang so I'll I'll give you a little more in insight into this uh gang okay so given her lack of interest
00:15:56
in things like school or creative Pursuit suits it shouldn't come to much of a surprise that this is the kind of
00:16:03
group that she fell in with it was in 1901 and this um this is this gang was mainly I say gang like quote unquote
00:16:11
that's what they were called yeah uh this gang was comprised of what her parents would almost certainly deem bad
00:16:17
influences yeah I would think so the Bedford Avenue gang as they called themselves was named for the Bedford sty
00:16:24
vescent neighborhood of Brooklyn where many of its members lived and it was compressed of boys and young men mostly
00:16:31
from Mostly well-off if not affluent families interesting now according to mcconell the gang's quote main goal was
00:16:39
to get money from unsuspecting citizens primarily shopkeepers but like you don't need it
00:16:45
so yeah they're just [ __ ] they're [ __ ] who are like we're bored our parents are mean because like we can't
00:16:53
just like lazily roll around all the time and just get money so we're just going to steal it from people who work
00:16:58
yeah that's still money that we could already have yeah that's good of course this was not like we said like like ash
00:17:03
just pointed out it wasn't for lack of having their own money to spend because hello or you know given to them by their
00:17:08
parents but instead the shoplifting Petty robbery and pickpocketing were committed just for the thrill of it they
00:17:15
were Bor Rich Kids Wild their secondary interest however was women and for this group of wealthy well-dressed bad boys I
00:17:24
gotta look them up uh which you know they were like the the bootlegg of Bad Boys you know
00:17:32
what I mean sounds like these kids are like coming from boarding schools and like you know they have all the
00:17:40
everything in the world that they could ever want and they're like but they're like rebelling against Mommy and Daddy
00:17:45
it's like that one kid that we always knew who that had a rich dad in school and they like they thought they were
00:17:50
Rich because their dad was rich they're the kids that say my dad's a lawyer that's that's these kids my dad's a
00:17:58
lawyer so it's fine if your dad is a lawyer like cool that's awesome but if you're flaunting it around like
00:18:04
grade if you're walking in the eighth grade like my dad is a lawyer if you are any human being and you're retort to
00:18:10
something somebody being mean to you is my dad's a lawyer walk away walk the other way the other way toxic person
00:18:18
walk the other way sorry what is this gang's name there's been so much avenue gang the Bedford Avenue gang here's the
00:18:26
thing though this is a bunch of You Know Rich boys who are rebelling they're get
00:18:34
they get everything they want and they're probably well quaffed you know like they're put together and so they
00:18:41
had no shortage of girls and young women who followed them around like groupes of
00:18:45
course of course cuz it's like the it's like bad boy light you know yeah like Diet bad boy so it's like Diet bad boy
00:18:54
so if you're not ready for like the full the full thing you get get the diet bad
00:18:59
boy and you can be like well everything will be fine cuz he'll pay the bail yeah
00:19:02
I can't even find pictures of them it's just like do you want to see these other
00:19:05
gangs that are that are different you want to see these ones they're different uh but the thing is McConnell notes the
00:19:11
Bedford Avenue gang of boys was dedicated to seducing the groupy girls who followed them and it gets worse and
00:19:18
darker because this is all like very fluffy and like they're just little shitty Rich boys you're like you'll get
00:19:23
yours you know what I mean like you're stealing from people who work but it get worse it got darker because they would
00:19:29
they were all about these groupy girls and they would keep them around they were like you know it was like an actual
00:19:34
like like Mafia style you know like the gals hanging around sure sure but if they didn't weren't able to seduce them
00:19:41
they would turn to sexual assault they would just they would like they were rapists as well so Jesus Christ it turns
00:19:49
from this like silly so like that's why this this gang is like so gross in so many ways because it's it's a bunch of
00:19:57
[ __ ] heads who have everything in the world at their fingertips are doing all of this just for the thrill of it and
00:20:04
also taking advantage of women who these young women who probably don't know any
00:20:09
better it's just like the whole thing is so nasty layers and layers of they're just gross yeah so despite the petty
00:20:18
shallow and criminal interests of this gang um they provided like we were just talking about a pretty attractive
00:20:24
lifestyle and kind of social outlet that appealed to rebellious young people like
00:20:29
Florence who were looking for just that they were easily recognizable because they wore flamboyant outfits which
00:20:36
included Diamond Jewelry the girls would wear corsets brightly colored vests the
00:20:42
boys would wear the vests and the spiked tailed overcoats like very over the top
00:20:47
and they also carried heavy canes and baseball bats with them while definitely part of the overall outfit would also
00:20:54
double as a weapon if they wanted to be viol Jesus what a Wy time to be right the Bedford Avenue gang would be
00:21:01
comparable to something and this is actually um this is Dave brought this up and it's such a perfect comparison I had
00:21:08
like brilliant comparison by Dave they would be comparable to something like the fictional droes and Anthony uh
00:21:14
burgess's 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange they're very much like that get like it it calls into like you can think of that
00:21:22
gang when you like you should read it it's crazy I will uh but they're also and these two are also similar to what
00:21:28
we would modernly probably think of young middle class white men who engage in rioting and looting after certain
00:21:35
sporting events you know what I mean like that kind of thing where it has no purpose whatsoever just just for the
00:21:41
hell of it yeah now their behavior and engagement and violence and destructions there it's not a matter of survival or
00:21:48
necessity or even purpose right you know what I mean like there's nothing to back
00:21:52
it up at all bored rich kids it's just a thrilling Outburst of bad or criminal Behavior because they know they're not
00:21:58
going to be punished for it because of the where they sit in the in the class system because their dad's a lawyer
00:22:05
because my dad's a lawyer that's that's why now when it came to the Bedford Avenue gang there wasn't exactly a
00:22:11
hierarchy or organizational structure per se but there was a kind of like informal leader I feel like that always
00:22:18
happens yeah um and this informal leader was Theodore or Ted buus and his best friend Walter Brooks uhoh now buus was
00:22:27
the son the only son of a millionaire stock broker and after graduating from high school in 1898 using his generous
00:22:35
allowance given to him by his mother to fund his flashy lifestyle and Petty criminal es escapades uh like the others
00:22:42
in the gang he was known to lash out violently anytime he felt the urge targeting anyone from a random
00:22:48
pedestrian on the street to the police but Ted's criminal activities weren't confined only to violence beus was a
00:22:55
well-known thief and cheat he stole everything from money cars jewelry and even one stoy prized French Bulldog
00:23:05
worth $1,000 he does not deserve that [ __ ] dog dog that's I'm like what did you do with the dog I want to Helga
00:23:12
Pataky him right to the face that's exactly what I want to do now although he came from a family far less wealthy
00:23:19
than that of Ted buus Walter Brooks did fit in with the gang nonetheless Walter was born in Brooklyn in the summer of
00:23:26
1881 and grew up in a stable household where his father was a typ Setter with one of the New York newspapers as a
00:23:33
child Walter was smart he was attractive very popular athlete very good student but he was known as quote something of a
00:23:41
wild young man rather fast addicted to fine clothes alcohol and pretty women now following his graduation from
00:23:49
high school Walter chose not to pursue a college education which usually at this
00:23:54
time young men of his social standing would definitely pursue College but instead he went into with two
00:24:02
friends um as commission Merchants um and Walter shared many interests with Ted buus the informal leader there he
00:24:09
was less interested in acts of violence and destruction and he was more inclined
00:24:14
to like move towards like you know schemes and scams like he liked that part of it he's a con man he wanted to
00:24:21
earn money and he wanted attention and he wanted adoration from young women that's what he was looking for he wasn't
00:24:26
looking to beat the [ __ ] out of someone he just wanted girlss to fall over them
00:24:29
for him so he thought scams and scheming were going to do it for him there's other ways to go about that absolutely
00:24:34
many uh Walter was incredibly popular with women really but much to their dismay he wasn't really into commitment
00:24:42
he wasn't one girl kind of guy in fact the year before his death Walter was engaged to a young woman named lahi
00:24:49
Eaton I love the name lah I do too it makes me think of The Princess and the Frog which we watched recently CU my
00:24:55
youngest wanted to watch it for the first time and uh I think her name is Charlotte and the
00:25:00
best friend but they call her lah I I like lah just as name is so cute so cute guys I love Princess and the Frog oh
00:25:06
such a [ __ ] bop it is no but Walter was engaged to a young woman named lah Eden but just a few months later lah
00:25:14
call called off the engagement because she cited Walter's quote moral lapses as a reason also can we just take a second
00:25:21
for the name lah Eaton that's the richest girl in the [ __ ] world like you none of us should be
00:25:28
we can't be in the room with L eaten lah eaten like I don't eat your [ __ ] heart out I don't belong in the same
00:25:33
room as lah Eaton like who do I think I am I don't hold a what do they say I don't hold a a candle a candle to lot
00:25:40
yeah who who holds a candle to lot of eat I don't know not me that's crazy not I uh now our our girl lah Eaton she
00:25:47
wasn't specific about what those moral lapses were uh but we can kind of a cheat think with the thing between our
00:25:54
ears yeah fidelities and other trouble he's a Bo yeah it's not good so uh there was also a lot of rumors about him um
00:26:05
being part of a many uh secretive pregnancies oh God and you know like secret abortions all kinds of things
00:26:13
going on he was very much being irresponsible with his uh with his affections oh goody spreading it too
00:26:20
much no and again you're engaged don't be engaged right exactly do whatever the [ __ ] you want if you're not engag be
00:26:26
engaged if ever there was a woman that was perfect for Walter Brooks it was Florence Burns was it both were young
00:26:33
they were impetuous they were shallow they were Reckless when it came to the emotions and wants of others um and and
00:26:40
according to uh Virginia McConnell even the gang's leader Ted buus quote made a conscious decision to stay away from
00:26:48
Florence Burns because he knew she would cause him trouble [ __ ] that's dead beerus who's like hitting people on the
00:26:54
streets he's like the most Reckless and he's like not like I don't [ __ ] with you
00:27:00
that's that's a lot so while Ted and the other gang members may have been smart enough to steer clear of Florence Walter
00:27:07
saw something of an irresistible kindred spirit in her and his desire would ultimately lead to deadly consequences
00:27:15
yeah I felt that way so in 1900 around the time Florence started hanging around the Bedford Avenue gang the base of
00:27:21
operations for the group was a Coney Island dance hall which obessed I got to say this does have the vibe are right
00:27:29
the substance is off yeah The Vibes are right and like the setting like thinking
00:27:32
of like a Cony Island dance hall gang like that's that's fun and then you get into the substance of it and you say no
00:27:41
no no no no con Island Queen but this Coney Island dance hall was called Bader's roadh house I love that name do
00:27:51
better took away the vi yeah like oh a dance hall in Cony Island what baders what baders dance no Bader's Roadhouse
00:27:58
Bader's Roadhouse like in Coney Island are you sure are you sure what uh it was only a half hour commute from their
00:28:06
homes so that's good and it honestly may as well have been in another country when it came to the freedom it offered
00:28:12
the young clientele I mean they were totally on their own there yeah um it was a wild uh very Anonymous place oh
00:28:21
away from judgmental eyes and expectations of anyone including their parents um the members of the for avenue
00:28:28
gang there would smoke they would drink they shed the Victorian era protocols cuz remember we're in a specific era
00:28:34
here right uh that could and those protocols would have kept young men and women separate at all times wow this was
00:28:40
that's crazy to think about and it would require very elaborate courtship rituals
00:28:45
before they could even think of getting to the more intimate parts of a romantic
00:28:49
relation even look at each other but it was at Bader's Roadhouse Bader's Roadhouse that Walter and Florence met
00:28:56
for the first time and Walter immediately found her irresistible oh God the two became romantically involved
00:29:03
very soon after and things became physically intimate very quickly no Victorian era protocols here none of
00:29:10
that all I'm picturing in my head is the guy on Tik Tok that runs around with the
00:29:13
red flag yeah that's literally him he should run out and just be like to both of you to be honest like no um so unlike
00:29:24
most of the other girls in the neighborhood Who either appreciated Walter from far or were put off by his
00:29:29
reputation as a member of this gang Florence liked that diet bad boy image and his rebellious attitude she was like
00:29:37
oh my goodness this is exactly what I've been looking for my whole life and before long Florence was claiming that
00:29:42
she had fallen in love with Walter and she loved him quote even more than my mother and father uhoh and he generally
00:29:50
returned these bold Declarations of Love damn Florence had been in love before Walter or at least something that
00:29:56
resembled I remember she said she was going to kill the guy I'm going to kill you a year before they met she had been
00:30:02
in a relationship with at least three members of the Bedford Avenue gang before Walter we got a groupy all of
00:30:09
them burned very hot very bright you know you know how these go I love that she was able to like stick around after
00:30:14
that yeah she just they were like that's fine didn't last very long mostly due to
00:30:19
their inability or you know disinterest in any kind of commitment they were all just living and so it was with Florence
00:30:25
and Walter who met and quickly fell in love in August 1901 um they were already having relationship troubles by October
00:30:33
so they they're kind of following right in the right in the footsteps of those previous relationships same kind of
00:30:39
thing there were rumors going around the group that Walter had been chasing after
00:30:42
another young woman who hung out on the fringes of the gang Florence found out she made her displeasure known saying if
00:30:49
it were true Walter would quote suffer for it she scares me yeah she's got a lot she scares me a lot uh yeah that's
00:30:58
is that's not good never want to worry much about what others thought though Florence made no attempts to keep her
00:31:04
relationship with Walter a secret and the two were anything but discreet when it came to physical displays of
00:31:09
affection oh I hate that I hate that so much it's so not for that's usually to me that's a that's a red flag right
00:31:15
there yeah you're making up for something when word of the relationship made its way to Fred and Henry and a
00:31:20
Burns you know Mom and Dad and Dad were outraged Not only was there daughter uh being very inappropriate
00:31:30
sexually active in a time when this was just not okay they said our daughter is a hot she's a hussy but also she was
00:31:37
once again according to them what they're thinking a source of embarrassment and she was going to be a
00:31:42
source of potentially scandalous rumors about that family right in response Fred
00:31:48
and Henrietta took yet another hard line with their daughter making it clear in no uncertain terms that she they
00:31:54
disapproved of this relationship and they kicked her out of the house house oh [ __ ] they told her she couldn't
00:31:59
return unless she was married to Walter oh man yeah so now she's got a new goal yeah so Fred and henrietta's reaction
00:32:07
likely seems pretty harsh um but the burnses had already endured a lot of embarrassments from their point of view
00:32:15
yeah everybody you know as a result of Florence's behavior and they didn't think they could stand for another um
00:32:21
and also as Virginia McConnell points out quote possibly there was a pregnancy involved as it seems to have been a
00:32:28
drastic action on their part and they had not drawn such a hard line with Florence under like similar
00:32:34
circumstances before so they think there must have been something else in here I
00:32:37
could see that but I could also see it just being like so many things leading up to this that this was just the final
00:32:43
one and remember they had a different style of parenting you know so oh yeah I forgot all about so the possibility of a
00:32:49
pregnancy would also explain why Florence began pressuring Walter to marry her that fall uh something that
00:32:55
everyone from everyone from the other gang members to his parents strongly discouraged oh wow so his parents were
00:33:01
like no no and the other gang members were like no they like not Florence no Walter might not have been interested in
00:33:07
marrying Florence but that didn't stop him from continuing his relationship with her throughout the better part of
00:33:12
November Florence lived in a boarding house in Brooklyn but that didn't stop her from being a near constant presence
00:33:18
in the Brooks household uh she would take along lunches with Walter she would lunch with his mother sometimes even
00:33:25
attended church services with them on Sundays it's interesting that she really like became part of their lives and even
00:33:31
still like [ __ ] them that should tell you yeah uh but by the end of November she had moved in with the Brooks family
00:33:38
after coming down with some vague illness that many speculated could have been the unexpected consequences of a
00:33:44
self-induced miscarriage or abortion that's really sad rather than insist Florence return home to her parents care
00:33:51
Walter's father Thomas Brooks simply paid for Florence's Medical Care and he was like you know what I I'm pretty
00:33:59
accustomed to taking care of my my you know Walter's stuff that goes on yeah so I'm just going to take care of whatever
00:34:06
you need as well I mean which is like all right and it seems likely that Florence was actually pretty ill for a
00:34:14
short time but the fact remains that she definitely used the opportunity to force
00:34:18
her way into the Brooks home and stake a further claim on Walter by early December when she had finally recovered
00:34:24
from whatever was ailing her cuz there's no actual like medical records here yeah
00:34:30
uh Florence had all but formally moved into the house and once again started pressuring Walter to marry her each
00:34:36
conversation became more and more desperate at this point and later after Walter's death Mrs Brooks would recall
00:34:43
the ways in which Florence would attempt to manipulate and control Walter uhoh she would claim that she would shoot him
00:34:49
with her father's pistol if he didn't agree to marry her that's again not the way to go about that mother saying this
00:34:58
later being like yeah like I witnessed that oh my God so I can see why they were like I'd rather you not marry her
00:35:05
and this is even this is such a wild thing that happened so very frustrated and very exhausted with Florence's
00:35:11
childish behavior Walter's mother eventually one time when she was like I'm going to shoot you with my father's
00:35:16
pistol she just looked at her and said why don't you just shoot yourself with it and it's
00:35:23
like and Florence responded because I love Walter too much so I'm going to kill him instead like that doesn't even
00:35:30
make any sense my girl and also like Mrs Brooks She's damn she said get out me house she said that's some Mama Bear
00:35:39
energy right there like damn boy Mom that's boy mom energy that's a boy mom for sure Dam that's just a mama
00:35:51
jokies but [ __ ] Mrs Brooks really she had enough holy [ __ ] so that'll tell you
00:35:56
how uh how at the end of their rope everyone was with Florence that they're just like why don't you just take the
00:36:01
pistol and shoot yourself like when you're saying that [ __ ] has gone a ride that's bad cuz that's a rough thing to
00:36:07
say yeah that you shouldn't say that to anybody ever don't say that to people Mrs Brooks come on come on girl get some
00:36:13
decorum you're a rich girl but also Florence don't be threatening to kill her son yeah bad on both ends lots of
00:36:18
things happening I don't want to be in that house get I got to get out of here exactly really like
00:36:25
okay I'll be your Escape oh good now as the year came to a close the arguments between Walter and Florence continued to
00:36:34
escalate to the point that Thomas Brooks Walter's father hid his pistol went to Fred Burns Florence's father and begged
00:36:43
him to allow Florence to come home he was like please get her the [ __ ] out of me house and he told him that she had
00:36:49
become a major disruption in their household he was like you got to take your kid back and her dad is like yeah
00:36:54
she's a major disruption in our house too that's why we got rid of Florence's father was like no telling Brooks he
00:36:59
wouldn't allow her back until the couple had married and Thomas literally was like that will never happen well then
00:37:06
she's never coming back he was like then she's never coming back and they were like we're at a standstill here [ __ ] now
00:37:11
while the brookses may not have been successful at convincing Florence's parents to take her back they were
00:37:16
finally able to rid themselves of her constant presence when she moved to a new boarding house at the end of
00:37:21
December um and after only a few weeks at this boarding house she did get her own parents to agree to let her back in
00:37:29
oh wow so she was able to convince them I'm actually very surprised by that news
00:37:32
it doesn't last had a feeling it wouldn't it turned out that Fred and Henrietta Burns had only agreed to let
00:37:38
Florence move back in because she said she and Walter were getting married yeah I had a feeling um I knew she I knew she
00:37:44
was doing stunts and shows out here yeah it definitely came to a surprise uh to Walter yeah that he was getting married
00:37:52
he agreed to no such thing so he didn't understand this but regardless of all that the lie had put Walter in a
00:37:58
difficult position as well he either had to agree to marry Florence or be responsible for her getting kicked out
00:38:03
of her house again oh man either way he would be responsible for taking care of her she is the Wiest [ __ ] I got to
00:38:10
marry her and take care of her or she's going to get kicked out of her house and
00:38:13
I'm going to have to take care of her cuz it's my fault right so that's a catch 22 if I ever heard one for some
00:38:18
reason whatever reason it is just before the year ended Walter agreed to marry Florence and the two went to the Church
00:38:25
of the Good Shepherd in Brooklyn where Florence insisted that Reverend Robert Rogers marry them
00:38:31
immediately perhaps sensing something was a Miss uh Reverend Rogers said no and he said there's no Witnesses here
00:38:39
that's that's a no for me right so that was it they didn't get married uh having
00:38:45
once again failed to manipulate Walter to marry her Florence returned home and told her parents the truth and they
00:38:51
promptly kicked her out of the house for a second time that's kind of sad cuz like we tried to get married and we
00:38:58
couldn't and we couldn't now he doesn't want to marry me like that's not your fault pack your bags like I don't get
00:39:03
that once again Walter feared Florence would worm her way back into his household but fortunately a friend of
00:39:09
his recommended a boring House on West 144th Street where she could stay for $10 a week which now would be a little
00:39:16
over $300 in the present oh wow that's a lot of money now after nearly a month at
00:39:20
the new boarding house Florence was allowed to move back into her parents house again likely with the
00:39:25
understanding that she and alter were now engaged and would eventually be married oh man despite that promise
00:39:31
however Florence found herself in the same position she had already been in twice either convince Walter to marry
00:39:35
her or find herself out on the street again more importantly at least in the long term there was a growing chance
00:39:41
that if she continue to defy them that her parents would cut her off like financially as well they hadn't done
00:39:47
that yet okay so she was worried that was the big that was going to be the big hammer uh basically putting an end to
00:39:54
her life of excess and luxury which she was just not willing to do of course not
00:39:58
V jinia McConnell points out that given Florence and her father's desperation for her to be married quote there must
00:40:04
have been a baby on the way so everybody keeps pointing out that there's there had to have been something here that's
00:40:11
like much more over the top I don't know about that not convinced I'm not convinced of that either that's just
00:40:17
what a lot of people thought so I wanted to make sure I mentioned it but I also am not as convinced I think this is just
00:40:23
respectability I agree era respectability I can see why people would think that but I agree with you
00:40:30
yeah and I think I think what she what Virginia McConnell is pointing out and what many people thought too so she is
00:40:36
going off of like a lot of other things is that if it was a pregnancy it would become obvious to everyone shortly that
00:40:44
she was pregnant and that would be another Scandal another moral failing for that family if she was unwed
00:40:50
pregnant and living with them right and presumably she had already maybe performed an abortion so she didn't want
00:40:56
to go through that a they didn't want to go through that again but despite Florence's obvious desperation and you
00:41:01
know Walter continuing to be attracted to her Walter remained uninterested in in getting married he didn't want to tie
00:41:08
himself to someone for the rest of his life he was non-committal he was part of this gang at this point it's like you're
00:41:14
really not non-committal because like she lives with you half the time she's always showing up at your doorstep you
00:41:19
might as well just [ __ ] marry her and call it a dad I don't think he's I he's having many Affairs I'm sure there
00:41:25
there's no yeah yeah and it's like you're going to continue to do that any like life you want to live that's fine
00:41:30
right and also she was just relentlessly demanding so I think he was like I'm I'm
00:41:34
attracted to you but this is a lot and like I don't want to do this for the rest of my life I don't want this to be
00:41:39
the only thing for the rest of my life so by February 1902 it seemed Walter had avoided yet another one of Florence's
00:41:47
meltdowns and you know crises damn this is like two years of this [ __ ] yeah his
00:41:51
vague half promises to Fred Burns and his willingness to at least go see a priest about marriage had kept Florence
00:41:58
living in her parents' home rather than you know a boarding house or the Brooks house so there's a lot of just like
00:42:05
dishonesty here on everyone's part it's everyone's so false like this is all just such a facade you know CU it's like
00:42:14
fred is like demanding that they get married not caring whether they're in love or not y Walter is like I like her
00:42:22
I'm attracted to her sometimes we have a nice time right don't want to marry her
00:42:27
though and then he but he's just trying to keep everybody satiated by being like
00:42:30
okay I'll just fake it I guess I'll just talk to this priest about it I guess and
00:42:33
I'm like none of this is good but and this is not like this is not what you know talking about getting married be
00:42:41
like you life is supposed to be no but as far as he was concerned he had exceeded the expectations of his
00:42:47
responsibility and he was like you know what I've given it my all I talked to a priest we almost got married once he was
00:42:53
ready to end things with Florence finally without feeling guilt he was that was the whole thing he didn't want
00:42:58
to end it with her and have her end up on the street and it be his which is Honorable and then he was worried that
00:43:03
he was going to have to take her in if that happen so he was like I'm going to be in this endless cycle so he's like
00:43:09
now I feel like I've done my duty I've tried it's not working and he's so in fact by the time the attempted wedding
00:43:16
had fallen through Walter was actually already dating a new girl he was just out of there uh this girl was
00:43:21
17-year-old Ruth Dunn and she and he was looking for the easiest way to end things with Florence and kind of avoid
00:43:28
her wrath as well cuz remember she threatened to shoot him with Fred's pistol how did he think he was going to
00:43:34
avoid her wrath though I don't know I think dating another girl would be like the wrathi of Wrath that's going to
00:43:40
inspire a lot of Wrath I'm going to be honest I think that would that would pack a punch speaking as from someone
00:43:45
who has dated someone who also started dating another girl while we were dating it inspires a lot of Wrath I would think
00:43:52
a lot of Wrath I would certainly think so so much wrath all the Wrath the most Wrath W one could have I became wrath in
00:43:58
that moment so I imagine uh yeah yeah I always just think of the America's Next Top Model shoot where they did all the I
00:44:04
literally thought of that as we were saying that so I love you tup oh my God I love you too so TPP so Walter's
00:44:13
Relationship with Ruth began quietly and sub subtly at the beginning of the new year and he'd spent weeks assuring Ruth
00:44:20
that he was going to end things with Florence he was like I just got to figure out how to go about it without
00:44:26
you being in danger and me being like this was actually like a little scary he was like I'm scared to do this so like I
00:44:33
do want to be with you and I'm trying oh man this is a wreck so by the second week of February Walter seemed to be
00:44:41
taking the matter more seriously and had started talking with his friends in the
00:44:44
Bedford Avenue gang about it all of whom quote assured him it was a good move on
00:44:48
his part now given the gang's penchant for drama and hijinks drama it's very likely that Florence had some idea of
00:44:56
Walters and 1010 their relationship I'm sure one of the other gang members was like he's going to break up with you
00:45:01
girl like I'm sure one of them was like he's already dating someone like I bet there was hot love that [ __ ] and she
00:45:07
almost certainly noticed his absence and distance in the recent weeks beginning Monday February 10th she began showing
00:45:14
up at Walter's office every day demanding to see Walter but he was typically out of the office at this time
00:45:20
girl this isn't appealing Behavior no like don't and each time she asks off Walter's office boy 15-year-old Joseph
00:45:30
cribbons this poor kid found a way to insinuate that Walter had received many female visitors at the office likely
00:45:37
intending to irritate her okay I was this poor boy Joseph you got to chill you don't know who you're dealing with
00:45:44
yeah now while this may seem trivial like you know it's just like him being a little 15-year-old [ __ ] yeah Walter had
00:45:50
in fact never received any other woman other than Florence in his office oh wow that the truth but by the end of the
00:45:57
week Florence would come to believe that he was cheating on her with countless Anonymous women like that Anonymous
00:46:03
women were showing up all over the place like no he was only cheating with one woman and whether he was like having
00:46:07
other things outside you know they weren't coming to his office that could be said now on the morning of February
00:46:13
14th Valentine's Day Walter and his business partner Harry Cohen had a business meeting with a man in Patterson
00:46:20
New Jersey and after that they all had lunch in Newark uh that's at this lunch they met two young women at the lunch
00:46:28
side eyes downward yep and after chatting with the girls for a short time they all went to a nearby Hotel they all
00:46:35
had sex and they all went their separate ways they just lived the flashiest lifestyle they're just the flash it's
00:46:42
like the it's like the party scene in Gatsby that's all I could think of wow look at us just that's literally all I
00:46:49
could think of as like oh my God like that's that's it that's literally it that's it meanwhile for Florence while
00:46:56
this is going on had stopped by Walter's office yet again oh no you got to stop going there mama she left a note saying
00:47:03
she was leaving for Detroit that afternoon and had only stopped to say goodbye Florence said she actually
00:47:08
returned three more times that day hoping to catch Walter girl I thought you were going to Detroit and she
00:47:13
finally caught him on the last visit around 5:30 p.m. Walter seemed unsurprised to see Florence in his
00:47:18
office and they made plans to go out after he closed up the office for the day and Walter was intending to give
00:47:25
Florence a proper send off before she left for Detroit I don't know if he was like I guess we'll just [ __ ] one more
00:47:31
time like that seems like the vi that way um according to McConnell Walter's partner Harry Cohen quote begged Walter
00:47:39
not to go with Florence that night and to come out to dinner with him instead oh um but not wanting to do anything to
00:47:46
upset Florence just as he was about to you know end things and things Walter dismissed Cohen's concerns and promised
00:47:53
to meet him later that night instead even Cohen was like I don't know man like I don't it sounds like he he knew
00:47:59
obviously what she was like but it sounds like he also had some kind of like bad feeling yeah he was like I just
00:48:04
don't feel good about this now that evening Walter and Florence checked into the Glenn Island Hotel so you can see
00:48:10
why I think what I think yeah of course uh they they checked in as John Williamson and wife of Brooklyn oh just
00:48:18
adding insult to injury and they were shown to their room by a bellhop named George Washington shut the [ __ ] up name
00:48:24
was George Washington I and after setting down the couple's bag Washington lit the pilot lights on the gas heater
00:48:31
then asked Florence whether they would need anything else and she said no thank you okay later around midnight
00:48:36
Washington noticed the smell of gas coming from Florence in Walter's room oh God and when he entered to search the
00:48:42
area he discovered Walter passed out on the bed and Florence nowhere to be found
00:48:47
a doctor was called and they tempted to Rouse Walter who was alive but only barely conscious at the time oh man now
00:48:55
this is wild this doctor I'm like are you okay sir despite the presence of blood on the pillowcase it took Dr John
00:49:05
Sweeney much longer than it should have to notice that there was a giant wound on Walter's head what and even when he
00:49:12
did finally notice it he assumed it had been from a fall and he was like oh it's
00:49:16
nothing serious and at this time neither Hospital sta staff or Dr Sweeney were interested in quote causing a fuss so
00:49:24
they aired out the room and washed the area around Walter's head wound then left the room and assumed he would sleep
00:49:31
it off and be fine in the morning what Y what so they came in and they were like wow it's weird there's gas in
00:49:40
this room and he's unconscious and there blood on the pillow and he's like not awake and they were like oh weird let's
00:49:45
air the room out silly that that happened open a window I guess and then they were just like Boop bopa doop using
00:49:51
some antiseptic G to wash your wound but not pick your head up they literally just washed the area around the wound
00:49:59
what the [ __ ] didn't actually look at it and he was like you know what you should
00:50:03
do with head wounds you should sleep them off that's what you should do in a gas filled room the gas filled room the
00:50:10
head wound of it all uh also the fact that the wife is quote unquote wife is missing and this man is sitting in a gas
00:50:17
filled room with a [ __ ] wound in his head and we don't think it's a little suspish that the wife is gone or the
00:50:23
presumed wife no doct this is fine Dr Sweeney everybody B the next morning when Hotel staff went back to check on
00:50:32
the man with the head wound in the gas fil room with the missing wife he wasad they found Walter unresponsive on the
00:50:37
bed which by then had become saturated with blood from a hole in his head the fact that it sounds like they probably
00:50:46
could have saved this kid's life yeah that's what I'm saying it's really [ __ ] up Dr Sweeney was called back to
00:50:52
the room and in the light of day realized that what he thought was a wound from a fall was actually a gunshot
00:50:58
wound to his head this man was shot in the head was alive and just left to bleed out oh my God they could have
00:51:06
saved him absolutely or at least given a shot I shouldn't say they could have saved him they could have at least given
00:51:11
any kind of shot well just the fact that he was still alive when they left him to
00:51:16
bleed over there was an actual opportunity to to save him or try to wow and how awful he just lay there with a
00:51:24
bullet in his head left there not able to move or call anyone and just lay there wow now Dr Sweeney insisted
00:51:32
someone call an ambulance which like oh the doctor everybody uh but it still hadn't occurred to anyone to call the
00:51:39
actual [ __ ] police because there was another person in this room with him and he has a bullet hole in his head no
00:51:44
one's worried about it instead after searching Walter's pockets and learning his real identity someone from the hotel
00:51:51
called his office and talked to Harry Cohen his business partner har turn called Walter's father and the two
00:51:57
rushed to the Glenn Island and up to room 12 his Poor Dad where Thomas Brooks found his son alive but in very bad
00:52:04
condition so he's still alive unresponsive but alive wow while the two men waited 2 hours for the ambulance to
00:52:11
arrive two hours why did it this is New York correct Cohen and Brooks searched the room they picked up all of Walter's
00:52:17
belongings as well as a haircomb that both men recognized as belonging to Florence Burns oh we knew when the
00:52:25
ambulance had finally arrived and taken Walter to the hospital Thomas Brooks made the following statement to police
00:52:31
quote I've expected this for a long time my boy has been in scrapes with girls before this and I expected this would
00:52:37
happen a girl named Florence Burns made threats against my son oh man now the ambulance transported Walter to the
00:52:45
hospital he was rushed into emergency surgery and the 32 Caliber slug was removed from his head but he never
00:52:52
regained Consciousness and was pronounced dead at 11:15 a.m. wow now like Thomas Brooks Harry Cohen also told
00:53:00
police you should question Florence Burns um he was like she was with Walter and was you know they were supposed
00:53:07
that's where they were supposed to be that night together like this all adds up and now she's missing and also Harry
00:53:12
was like they've had a very long complicated and tumultuous relationship when officers arrived at the burns
00:53:18
apartment and Flatbush Florence didn't seem very surprised to see them she told them that yes she did know Walter Brooks
00:53:24
and she had seen him the previous day but she said after I spoke to him at his office we parted ways and I hadn't seen
00:53:30
him since then liar if the officers were suspicious by her initial reaction they
00:53:35
were double suspicious when after informing her that Walter had been shot her response was I wonder who could have
00:53:42
done it have they found the pistol girl what girl what the officers took Florence into custody immediately and
00:53:53
brought her to the Church Street Station escorting her directly into the office of captain
00:53:58
halpen now she had been informed that she was under arrest and was being charged with a felony but the police
00:54:05
neglected or refused to inform Florence what the charge was or that Walter was in fact dead they didn't tell her that
00:54:12
oh wow instead they asked her to see her hair combs aha which she handed over and
00:54:18
but one of them she appeared to be missing the back comb which was precisely the comb that had been
00:54:23
discovered in the room at Glenn Hotel remember she said she saw him at the office and never saw him again imagine
00:54:29
that when she was finally informed of the charge against her Florence insisted she knew nothing about the shooting she
00:54:34
said how could I shoot him I've not seen him since 6:00 when I left his office I
00:54:38
came right home and arrived at 7:30 o00 my father and mother were at the theater
00:54:42
I saw no one and went to bed I I saw no one no one I love that you had to make sure to
00:54:50
be like no one absolutely not one person on planet Earth can confirm this alibi and that I went to sleep thank you and
00:54:56
good night thank you and good night other than her insistence that she had nothing to do with the shooting Florence
00:55:02
was generally uncooperative in an effort to get more what do you mean excuse me in an effort to get more
00:55:10
information or to catcher in a lie the interviewing detective told Florence that Walter had been robbed and in
00:55:16
response Florence with one hand bald into a fist pounded the desk and said that the Bell hop George Washington must
00:55:24
have done it wow that that little [ __ ] she also used like racist language to describe him when she did it so like why
00:55:31
did I know that why did I you just know I felt that as soon as you said she blamed it on the bellhop I was like oh
00:55:37
she's being racist yep she said obviously George Washington hadn't you know he did it what a CO but obviously
00:55:43
George Washington hadn't taken the money but he did however when they talked to him remember Florence and when he was
00:55:50
brought into the station that day and asked whether she was the one woman who had checked into the hotel with Walter
00:55:55
Brooks he emphatically confirmed that yes that [ __ ] was the woman who was in the room with he's like I remember her
00:56:02
she was a pain in the ass certain that she was responsible for the shooting and confident that they weren't going to get
00:56:07
much more out of her being very uncooperative and a dick detectives escorted her out of the captain's office
00:56:14
and took her to a cell in the Center Street Station uh it was at this point that the Press got their first look at
00:56:20
Florence Burns and now she was being called an accused murderer you know she was getting like fem fatal [ __ ] Y and
00:56:27
you know this is the first time that she wasn't really liking the attention enough um at one point she
00:56:33
screamed to her father father father help me they're trying to take my picture honey no one's going to help you
00:56:39
now you're D front page news now girl he not a good guy yeah now on the morning of February 16th Florence appeared
00:56:46
before a judge at the Center Street Court and she was wearing a dark Veil to indicate that she was in morning of
00:56:51
course uh speaking on Florence's behalf was her defense attorne attorney Foster bacus a former King's County district
00:56:58
attorney who'd gone into private practice after leaving public office now as a former da bakis was intimately
00:57:05
familiar with the ins and outs of the system and knew very well that his clients his client wouldn't be in court
00:57:10
that morning if the authorities didn't have a strong case against her because of this he quickly developed a strategy
00:57:16
where he would attempt to delay any sentencing or formal charges giving him time to evaluate the evidence that was
00:57:23
against Florence okay and the days that followed the evidence against Florence came out in multiple pre-trial hearings
00:57:29
and it was likely kind of encouraging to bakis aside from her hair comb discovered in the room and George
00:57:35
Washington's identification of Florence as the woman with Walter the night he checked in the case against Florence was
00:57:42
pretty like circumstantial it's true the bullet taken from Walter's head was a match for
00:57:48
the caliber of pistol owned by Fred Burns but neither the gun used in the shooting or the gun owned by Burns could
00:57:55
be found okay so that was a problem so there was nothing for the slug to be compared to right um and I also love
00:58:02
that like the fact that that gun was suddenly missing isn't considered sus pretty good proof here like where did it
00:58:08
go exactly now at the same time George Washington's identification had also kind of become a problem for the
00:58:14
district attorney William Jerome why although Washington was and always would be adamant that Florence was the woman
00:58:20
who checked into the hotel with Walter Brooks he looked her in the face multiple times
00:58:25
it was pointed out that Florence had been the only woman seen in the hotel that day and more importantly Washington
00:58:32
had made the identification after being brought to the police station where he saw Florence being questioned oh you
00:58:39
can't do that that's painton it gave the impression that she was a suspect if not
00:58:44
guilty the problem with this type of identification is that by asking him to identify Florence under those
00:58:50
circumstances he could have naturally assumed her to be guilty and that can taint the identification it's like in
00:58:55
the little things exactly that movie precisely now it started out as a strong case against Florence was kind of
00:59:02
unraveling a little bit although Jerome could have gone to a grand jury to get an indictment he was aware that his
00:59:08
already shaky case could be completely undone by the unwritten law causing him to lose the case according to Virginia
00:59:15
McConnell the unwritten law emerged in the American South in the mid 19th century and it quote started out as a
00:59:23
permission for a man to kill a man who had Dishonored raped seduced or even ruined the reputation of a woman they
00:59:30
were related to or intimately connected with okay let me say that one more time so you guys can get that because this is
00:59:37
a an unwritten law it was permission for a man to kill another man who had Dishonored raped seduced or even ruined
00:59:47
the reputation of a woman they were related to or intimately connected with that's wild and basically what they're
00:59:54
trying to say is that they're going to pin this on Fred Burns that they could actually and that he could get away with
00:59:58
it because of that law that they could actually like say that her reputation was Dishonored in some way so that
01:00:05
exactly like that this done in her name what now in time it was extended to women accused of murder at the as well
01:00:17
and was considered a viable defense so now it can be like you Dishonored me so I killed you was as long as they had
01:00:25
committed the crime to protect their decency isn't this wild Mama Florence doesn't have any decency no although it
01:00:35
wasn't really a law in the formal legal sense the unwritten law was more like a temporary insanity claim okay and could
01:00:42
reasonably be used to achieve an aquid on the grounds of self-defense cuckoo nuts ban isn't this bananas knowing that
01:00:50
his case was already somewhat precarious at this time Jerome agreed to backus's request for a special sessions hearing
01:00:56
where judge would determine whether the evidence was strong enough okay if at any point he changed his mind or wanted
01:01:02
to go to a grand jury bakus assured Jerome the da could go to the grand jury and get an indictment in reality this
01:01:09
was just an attempt for Backus to stall Jerome's investigation and give himself time to put critical evidence or
01:01:15
Witnesses like Fred and Henrietta burns out of the prosecution's reach mhm now agreeing to the special sessions hearing
01:01:23
the first for a woman in New York by the way wow Jerome effectively put the responsibility for determining
01:01:28
Florence's guilt in the hands of the newly appointed judge Julius mayor mayor's job was to interview Witnesses
01:01:35
and evaluate the evidence to determine whether she was responsible for Walter's death which meant he had to determine
01:01:41
the following one means so we're going to need means motive and opportunity y means Walter Brooks was shot in the head
01:01:48
with a 32 caliber pistol so mayor needed to confirm that not only did Florence Burns have access to a 342 caliber
01:01:56
pistol but also that she knew how to use one a motive although motive cannot always be arrived at conclusively in
01:02:03
order to determine guilt mayor needed to be convinced Beyond a reasonable doubt that Florence had a reason to kill the
01:02:10
man she frequently and passionately and outwardly excla claimed to be in love with M an opportunity Walter was shot in
01:02:17
the middle of the night in a room at the Glenn Island Hotel under those circumstances mayor needed to be
01:02:23
confident that either Florence or someone acting on Florence's behalf had been in the hotel room with Walter at
01:02:29
the time of the shooting okay now given what needed to be establish judge mayor had a difficult task ahead yeah the gun
01:02:36
used to kill Walter was never recovered so there was no way to connect it back to Florence still it was a well
01:02:42
established fact that freder burns owned a handgun of that same caliber so it was
01:02:46
possible that Florence could have used that gun yeah and then she threw it off Grandpa's Bridge as far as the ability
01:02:52
to use it the Grandpa's Bridge as as far as the ability to use it the coroner had
01:02:56
examined the wound on Walter's head and found that while there was burn marks around the wound there was no Powder
01:03:02
marks indicating that the barrel had been placed against his head when the gun was fired that's horrific given that
01:03:08
the prosecution could easily and convincingly argue that one needed any firearms training to have committed this
01:03:14
murder because it was right up against it right like it's not like she right the biggest issue was to be
01:03:20
the ID and to me that would also mean that you were intimately near this man yes if you maybe he was asleep you able
01:03:26
to get that's what I think he was asleep and she just pressed it to his head damn
01:03:30
now the biggest issue was going to be the identification placing Florence at the hotel with Walter after all if she
01:03:36
couldn't be placed at the scene of the crime how are you going to convince a jury that she was the shooter in his
01:03:41
testimony George Washington not only described Florence perfectly for the judge he also described the exact outfit
01:03:48
she had been wearing when Harry Cohen saw her at the office that morning come on throughout the interviewing process
01:03:54
Washington's story remained consistent and he appeared to take the process very seriously but as a black man he was
01:04:02
already suspect in the eyes of many and considered at that time by these people to be lower intelligence than his white
01:04:09
peers that's the most [ __ ] up thing bakus used this to his Advantage taking every opportunity to remind the judge
01:04:15
and the Press of Washington's race referring to him as different terms very loaded and sometimes aggressively racist
01:04:23
terms so disgusting um after hearing Washington's testimony and the arguments against it judge mayor decided the
01:04:30
identification and the circumstances under which it was obtained were too questionable and he was unwilling to
01:04:36
consider it it's also like why put this poor man through this if you're just going to sit there and pick him aart and
01:04:42
exactly humiliate him George Washington looked this woman in the face several times yeah he asked her if she needed
01:04:49
anything else she turned and looked right at him and said no right he knew who this like he described her outfit
01:04:56
exactly and Harry Cohen said yes that is the outfit I saw her in that day at the
01:05:00
office out of thin air yeah he wouldn't know that there were others who had seen
01:05:05
Florence with Walter on the evening they checked into the hotel including John Earl the other Glenn Island employee on
01:05:11
duty that evening unfortunately Earl was frequently maligned in the press and described as not as astute as the bell
01:05:18
boy so if the bell boy is so astute then why are we publicly humiliating him no also I'm paraphrasing that sentence
01:05:25
because I'm avoiding saying racist terms Out Loud by the way they were they just
01:05:29
went all in in the Press uh so his testimony and identification were equally unhelpful in the prosecution's
01:05:35
case they just threw them all out these two men saw this like could identify her
01:05:39
and they were like no we're racist so it's no wow now finally as the question of motive there was a great deal of
01:05:46
hearsay and circumstantial testimony that supported the widely held belief that Walter and Florence had a difficult
01:05:51
relationship and that Florence was generally a difficult person M Walter's mother Mary testified at length about
01:05:58
her interactions remember remember Mrs Brooks why don't you use that pistol on yourself uh she testified at length
01:06:05
about her interactions with Florence during the time she lived with them telling mayor that not only did Florence
01:06:10
regularly threatened to kill Walter but she said quote it seemed to happen every
01:06:14
time they met every single day wow but when pressed for clarification M Mrs Brooks acknowledged
01:06:21
that she had been exaggerating when she said the threats were a daily occurr and
01:06:24
that it wasn't as often as that I mean just the fact that she too yeah exactly the fact that she felt confident enough
01:06:32
to say that in front of his parents is [ __ ] up yeah and Mary also had to acknowledge that despite the frequency
01:06:38
with what which Florence had threatened her son she had never done it in front of anyone else so there was no one else
01:06:42
who could corroborate it the final piece of testimony in which Jerome's case rested was the hair comb discovered in
01:06:49
the room although the comb matched those worn by Florence on the day of her arrest and would have accounted for the
01:06:55
missing back comb Combs of that type were ubiquitous at the time of the murder and there was no way to prove
01:07:02
that the comb in the room belonged to Florence even though she was missing that exact comb did anybody also ever
01:07:08
ask her like where'd you go in the middle of the night yeah no or she just trying to say like I was never there I
01:07:13
think she was just like I wasn't there well that's what she's saying she's like I met with him at his office I left him
01:07:21
at 6:00 I was home by 7:30 no one saw me me but I went right to sleep and then the next morning she was home so as far
01:07:28
as anyone was concerned she was asleep wow they had to tie this comb directly to her and other than that it wasn't
01:07:35
really value because they couldn't use like it's not like they were using hair and [ __ ] at this point so it's like and
01:07:40
even still that's like tough that comb even though she was missing that exact comb that she was wearing in her hair
01:07:46
when they interviewed her wow they still couldn't use it after considering the evidence and testimony judge mayor came
01:07:52
to the following conclusions one one the threats Florence had hurled regarding shooting Walter were irrelevant because
01:07:59
they had happened too long before the murder and were set under a specific context to a specific person and were
01:08:05
never heard by anyone else she said that she was going to shoot him he ended up shot dead yeah she had also threatened
01:08:12
to kill another boyfriend of hers and other people had heard that right so it's like pattern wow number two the
01:08:20
discovery and identification of the haircomb found in the room at the Gren Glenn Island was irrelevant because it
01:08:25
matched the Combs of thousands of women in New York I guess I have to like accept that one but it's so frust but
01:08:31
she was missing that one comb in her hair it's like come on I know it's circumstantial I know that I believe
01:08:36
that it was her obviously but it's just like frustrating so frustrating number three George Washington's identification
01:08:42
of Florence was valueless because the lineup and identification process was so deeply flawed that it couldn't be
01:08:48
trusted that really sucks that they [ __ ] up on that and number four the statements made by Florence to
01:08:53
detectives that were were incriminating or suggested she knew more than she was saying were also thrown out because of
01:08:58
the circumstances under which they were taken detectives lied and withheld various facts about the case like not
01:09:04
telling her what felony she was being charged with or that Walter was dead that's right so the comments could not
01:09:08
be taken as a factual statement so was botched everybody [ __ ] up here now on this last Point McConnell notes that
01:09:15
there is no law prohibiting investigators from using deception to obtain a statement or confession from a
01:09:21
suspect so the statements made by Florence to police could very well have been used against her this wasn't the
01:09:27
law so him saying they used deception against her so that those weren't factual statements no that's not the law
01:09:33
and it wasn't the law then yeah it would be different if they said like they bullied her into a confession or
01:09:38
something like that if they beat the [ __ ] out of her or something or said we're going to kill you if you don't
01:09:41
confess but they were like they just didn't tell her they were keeping close to the chest or you know like they said
01:09:46
certain things that were could be deemed deceptive there's no law that says they
01:09:50
can't do that so that that being thrown out of the trial is not right no cuz legally it should have been let back in
01:09:58
but McConnell suggests quote the judge needed something to hang his hat on from a legal standpoint in order to apply the
01:10:05
unwritten law even though the burns case didn't fit the typical Narrative of of a naive
01:10:11
young woman seduced and abused by a scheming man um they were going to use it anyway given Walter's history as a
01:10:17
member of the Bedford Avenue gang and the number of times he'd been arrested for fraud schemes it was very easy for
01:10:23
any defense attorney to use the unwritten law as a self-defense claim especially when the evidence against the
01:10:29
accused was flimsy and circumstantial it's not that flimsy it's really not it's circumstantial sure flimsy flimsy
01:10:36
not so much now without new evidence there would have been little point in indicating and trying Florence for
01:10:43
Walter's murder and Jerome knew it Jerome told the Press I still believe that Florence Burns killed Walter Brooks
01:10:49
but I have not got the evidence to prove it we presented every bit of evidence we
01:10:53
had Jerome signaled his intent to keep the case open and seek additional evidence saying quote to bring the one
01:10:59
who did The Killing to account is still one of the unfulfilled duties of this office we will try to get more evidence
01:11:06
now despite his insistence that they were going to continue pursuing this Justice for Walter Brooks judge mayor's
01:11:11
decision in the special session essentially brought the case to an end a Coroner's inquest followed a few weeks
01:11:17
after the hearing during which the coroner and jury heard more or less the same testimony presented in the special
01:11:23
session and after reviewing the evidence and testimony the jury concluded that the
01:11:28
said Walter S Brooks came to his death on the 15th day of February 1902 at Hudson Street hospital by a penetrating
01:11:34
pistol shot wound of the head inflicted on the 14th day of of February 1902 at the Glenn Island hotel by a revolver in
01:11:41
the hands of some person unknown to the jury following the outcome of the inquest William Jerome gave a statement
01:11:48
to the Press saying for the present at least the case is closed of course no murder Cas is actually closed closed I
01:11:54
shall be on the lookout for new developments all the time and The Slayer of young Brooks May yet be
01:11:59
found now although the hearings had come to an end the Public's interest in Florence and the Burns family continued
01:12:05
bet Fred and Henrietta Burns were mortified they thought she had shamed them before they were mortified by the
01:12:13
attention and furious with Florence for once again bringing shame to their family and for her part Florence hardly
01:12:19
ever left the house and rather than take any responsibility for her situation she
01:12:24
just grew resentful of everyone else she believe was to blame for everything that
01:12:27
had happened to her like girl you shot a in as far as she was concerned if her parents hadn't been so strict or if the
01:12:33
Bedford Avenue gang hadn't been such Scoundrels or if Harry Cohen hadn't tried to interfere with her relationship
01:12:38
with Walter none of this would have happened the [ __ ] did Harry Cohen do he tried to get he tried to get Walter to
01:12:44
like not meet with her yeah and she was pissed about it and he shouldn't have exactly by the fall of 1902 Florence had
01:12:51
grown tired of being a prisoner in her own home and she had eloped with Charles wrick A Man 10 years
01:12:58
older than her howo like the members of the Bedford Avenue gang wri came from a prominent family but rather than take
01:13:05
advantage of the opportunities afforded to him he chose a life of leisure and petty crime oh God a year before the
01:13:11
marriage wri had been arrested for passing bad checks at hotels so he it's like you have the money a gem you
01:13:17
literally come from a rich family uh after hearing testimony from wri's friends and girlfriend all of whom lied
01:13:23
for him the judge dismissed the charges deeming him a gentleman in hard luck who'd Fallen among bad associates oh
01:13:30
please a few months later in an attempt to capitalize on her notoriety Florence accepted an offer from a Vaudeville
01:13:36
company willing to pay her $1,500 to appear on stage damn that was a lot of money McConnell points out most people
01:13:44
believed Florence had killed Walter Brooks and most did not mind that she got away with it but making money off of
01:13:49
it was crossing the line it surely didn't help that the theater company build her as the most persecuted and
01:13:56
most beautiful woman in America I don't know about that not surprisingly Florence's debut on the stage was a
01:14:03
disaster oh God she had no Talent she had no determination she refused to rehearse and was generally very
01:14:09
unpleasant to everybody around her critics called her a dismal and pable pitiable failure would she even do and
01:14:16
they called her ungraceful in her movements she was supposed to dance but she wouldn't rehearse so she just
01:14:21
[ __ ] went everybody so she just everybody hated her they probably were like go break a leg literally literally
01:14:27
break a leg Florence's stage career ended after 3 years just around the time her marriage to wri began falling apart
01:14:34
in December 1906 the I'm sorry the fact that it lasted three years years Bonkers
01:14:39
to me in January 1907 she moved back in with her parents claiming that he you know her husband had been unfaithful
01:14:47
then she began sending postcards to his employer claiming among among other things that he was a morphine fiend
01:14:54
hoping the accusations would ruin his career Jesus Christ she just she doesn't stop after the collapse of her marriage
01:15:01
Florence's life continued a downward spiral living mostly on money sent to her by her father she began drinking
01:15:07
heavily frequently caused drunken scenes in public whenever she was recognized around town people were often surprised
01:15:13
that she was um no longer what they had seen in the papers but instead she was in shambles at this point Karma ACH
01:15:20
dirty rumpled clothing just not taking care of herself in the fall of 1910 Florence and her
01:15:26
boyfriend Edward Brooks which is no relation uh were arrested for running a scheme known as a Badger game in which a
01:15:35
woman tricks an unsuspecting person into a compromising position then extorts money from them in exchange for their
01:15:41
silence what the [ __ ] the victim in this case was a man named Charles hbert and
01:15:46
he had for months been giving Florence money under the assumption they were involved in a romantic relationship oh
01:15:52
that's so sad eventually Burns and Brooks forced her Herbert to sign a declaration admitting quote he had been
01:15:58
guilty on various occasions of degrading practices with women wow now Florence and Brooks were both arrested and put on
01:16:06
trial after which it took a jury only 12 minutes to find both guilty 12 minutes and each were sentenced to 7 to 14 years
01:16:13
in prison good Florence was released from prison in August 1918 and continued that downward spiral uh in 1922 she
01:16:22
pleaded guilty to violating the Sullivan act which required New York gun owners to carry a license and was sent back to
01:16:29
prison how the [ __ ] did this woman get a gun and was paroled 2 years later in March
01:16:34
1944 firefighters 1944 wow I know firefighters responded to a house fire at the home of Florence and her fourth
01:16:42
husband John stankovich after forcing their way into the home they found Florence unconscious
01:16:49
on the kitchen floor and dragged her out of the house into a hospital where she was revived and sent on her way this was
01:16:57
the last time Florence's name appeared in the newspaper until her death in August 1949 no cause of death is given
01:17:05
and she's described only as loving wife of John what and that is Florence Burns and
01:17:14
the murder of Walter Brooks wow what I think I said wow at least 49 times 1944 there's just a fire at her house
01:17:25
they find Florence unconscious on the kitchen floor they drag her ass out bring her to a hospital revive her send
01:17:31
her on her way and no one hears from her again until she dies that's so Eerie like what like 5 years later or four
01:17:38
years later yeah and and nobody even knows how she died no no cause of death is given that's chilling isn't that
01:17:45
Bonkers chilling what a what a woman question mark what a woman question mark truly damn that was a crazy case that
01:17:56
was very captivating it was it's a wild case it's just got a lot of like what the hell's going on here yeah I feel so
01:18:02
bad for for his family I know that's just the fact that they could see it coming and that they were trying to you
01:18:10
know kind of save him from it yeah and all of his friends and everything yeah just I don't I feel it's it's not like
01:18:19
any of the Bedford Avenue gang were like good you no one deserves to die though and it's like well it sounds like he
01:18:26
wasn't looks like he was trying to get away from this situation you know right and it's just like that's crazy that
01:18:33
could be a movie it really could like it really could you could see this being like such a visually Wild movie to watch
01:18:41
absolutely she really got away with it man she sure did well that's crazy and uh we hope you keep listening and we
01:18:48
hope you keep it we but not somewh that you do anything that floor instead in this case because woi Kazi wow wow yeah
01:18:59
[Music] bye I know know I know I know I know I know I know I didn't know you hit the button
01:19:28
how was I supposed to know