00:00:06
hey weirdos I'm Ash and I am Elena and this is morbid it's morbid on the floor on the
00:00:29
floow cuz we're getting new furniture up in here I keep every every time I talk today I'm just going w w w
00:00:38
at the end of my sentence and Elena thinks it's the funniest thing ever for some reason every time she does it I
00:00:43
burst out laughing I think because she does it randomly so it hits right when it hits and I do a dance with it she
00:00:49
does she does like it's like an Ariana grandees like I'm hitting a high note kind of thing and it makes me
00:00:56
laugh yeah I said that I'm going to deliver all bad news to Elena within this voice like I think that's a great
00:01:02
idea sorry I can't come into work today I got the flow me and Mikey will laugh and then say too bad get in loser
00:01:10
we're going recording that's perfect that's pretty great but yeah it feels like the olden days when we used
00:01:21
to sit on the floor I feel a lot older though cuz already my back's like o [ __ ] don't do that well this is more
00:01:28
comfortable cuz this carpet and you're up against a wall and I'm up against a wall before it was just sitting on a
00:01:33
hardwood floor in the middle of a laundry room with nothing around me yeah I'm sitting on a PO on a PO on a PO as
00:01:39
your kids would say that's right well I have a case today and yeah I'm glad you do because why else are we here yeah and
00:01:46
imagine if I was like well I thought you had one thought you were like oh well [ __ ] all right guess this is over see
00:01:52
you guys later bye bye no we can't do that no no uh I have an interesting old timey case today but but it is actually
00:02:00
the murder of a man who was Brothers with one of our first ladies whoa yes this is unfortunately the murder of
00:02:09
George Saxton and he was sisters with he was the brother of yep exactly he was sisters
00:02:17
with by he was the brother of Miss Ida McKinley whoa President McKinley you don't say how did you get that I don't
00:02:31
know I just know so much about politics no Lincoln's wife no but yeah isn't that
00:02:37
crazy that is nuts so let's start let's go George DeWalt Saxton was born October
00:02:43
31st 1850 oo spooky already Halloween for those who don't know Halloween in Canton Ohio uh he was the third of three
00:02:53
children born to James and Katherine Saxton and as the children of one of canton's wealthiest families they they
00:03:00
they were rich rich rich rich George and his sisters Ida and Mary they were all raised in hella privilege they went to
00:03:08
the finest schools in Ohio they had access to just all the best [ __ ] really um there's not like a ton out there
00:03:15
about their their really like CORE family life or most of their childhood experiences like indepth but author John
00:03:22
Stark Bellamy writes it seems probably judging from the adult characters of Ida and George that these children of the
00:03:28
Canton elite were indulged from the beginning oh and then later he added their adult personalities were imbued
00:03:34
with a remarkable selfishness and uncomprehending blindness to the needs desires and deserts of others wow I love
00:03:42
the um the way of describing someone as saying they instead of being like they were spoiled rotten when they were
00:03:47
little they were privileged indulged oh indulged yeah they were indulged a little bit I kind of like that makes it
00:03:54
feel a little better that's what I think yeah well after finishing up with high school George spent a brief period as a
00:04:00
Sunday school teacher which like I don't just based off the rest of the story I don't get that vibe from him you know
00:04:06
George had a lot of thinking to do I guess I guess so but once he was done with that he moved on to go and work at
00:04:11
his father's bank and it was there that he gained a lot of experience in this family business of finance and property
00:04:16
development and once he kind of like got his foot in the door and really got going he was like you know what I think
00:04:22
I could take this over someday I think I could run this [ __ ] yeah so while he definitely showed a willingness to put
00:04:27
in the effort to learn the family belt uh business he did develop skills in finance and property management but he
00:04:34
was also still as spoiled as he had been during childhood literally almost everything was handed to him he lived in
00:04:40
his childhood home his entire life that which was called the Saxton house ooh when his father died in early 1887
00:04:48
George actually did take over the company and he inherited all of his father's Holdings which made him one of
00:04:55
if not maybe the wealthiest man in Canton wow mhm so in the early 1870s he made his first attempt to marry and
00:05:02
settle down as was expected of all young prominent men at the time the woman he eventually became engaged to was named
00:05:09
Alice schaer she was the daughter of another prominent and local businessman and as children of elite families George
00:05:15
and Alice had actually known each other since they were in early childhood and both families were really really excited
00:05:21
over this engagement they were like oh my God rich people marrying rich people prominence uh hand inand with prominence
00:05:28
let's go prominence begets prominence and we make more rich people and the world goes round yeah they were all like
00:05:34
super duper excited they were like rich people doing rich people [ __ ] but unfortunately for Alice uh George's
00:05:40
commitment to her was um less than sincere or committed really and not long after the engagement a lot of rumors
00:05:48
nastiness started going around that he was seeing other women your stories often have elicit Affairs in them and I
00:05:57
appreciate you telling us those I don't like the True Crime part of it cuzz like
00:06:00
that makes me sad but I love an elicit I love a scand doll in fact oh just and I
00:06:07
do too I love listening to it really quickly I started watching um I I mentioned it when I covered an an and
00:06:13
Billy Woodward I started watching uh capot versus the swans and it is so [ __ ] good I need to watch it it is
00:06:19
awesome there's only two episodes out and then the third one comes out tomorrow oo I'm going to watch it
00:06:24
because John and I are finishing fall the House of Usher and then we can nice move on from it for anybody um that like
00:06:31
hasn't started it yet just like trigger warning there's a good amount of domestic violence um but I just want to
00:06:37
like put that out there but overall it's really good and it's part of the story so yeah unfortunately okay but back to
00:06:43
this scandalous Affair at it again so according to a newspaper report at the time and this is about George his
00:06:49
conduct toward her and his seeming indifference were a cruel blow for her future happiness she could not believe
00:06:55
that he would disregard so readily the sacred vows in which he had so earnestly made
00:07:00
I mean we all you know these men especially from the 1800s I'm like 1800s and early 1900s men were Wilding
00:07:12
we think and I'm not saying George is a [ __ ] boy but like this is just like reminding me of like [ __ ] booy Behavior
00:07:18
we think that [ __ ] boys originated like within the 21st century incorrect incorrect ghosting happened before it
00:07:24
just looked different it just wasn't called that exactly it was just called like Reckless abandon
00:07:30
abandon it was called Phantom cuz that's more fancy I like that a lot better he Phantom I would feel so much better like
00:07:36
if I was like back in my dating days being like I got Phantom I got Phantom I got dannny Phantom that'd be so much
00:07:43
better it is better but anyway according to the news article George's callousness
00:07:47
toward Alice quote threw her into an illness from which she never recovered and she eventually died of a broken
00:07:52
heart oh that's terrible it's unlikely that she actually did die of a broken heart I think she had a different ill
00:08:00
I was going to skip over that part I was just going to let that fly cuz I get the
00:08:03
hyperbole of it all yeah she was sick yeah but she was also sad because of what had happened and that can like
00:08:10
shatter you yeah she actually she did die a few years after the engagement was called off so I don't think anybody
00:08:16
really knows truly if it was of a broken heart did she die with a broken heart possibly there you go that's a better
00:08:21
way to say it but either way George's disregard for her feelings or her reputation too cuz you have to think
00:08:27
that was a big part of life back then abely to be abandoned like that was huge but it's the first example of what would
00:08:33
become a pattern of you would say self-centered behavior that George would kind of demonstrate throughout his life
00:08:40
yeah not long after Alice passed away George actually became engaged again this time to a local socialite named
00:08:46
Louisa Miller however just like his engagement to Alice his interest in marriage and monogamy was more fleeting
00:08:53
than genuine and it wasn't long before he was seen around town in the company of other less reputable women wom we
00:08:59
shall say so before long Louisa called off the engagement and according to Bellamy that author that I referenced
00:09:06
before there was a rumor of quote yet a third engagement with a woman named Elizabeth France but that too quickly
00:09:12
ended wow just racking them up yeah ragam up rag up so how many of the details of this period in George's life
00:09:20
are true is definitely debatable but what is clear is that after three failed engagements due to very public
00:09:27
infidelities George did at the this point earn a reputation in and around Canton as a bit of a [ __ ] boy if you
00:09:34
will yeah I mean I could see it yeah it didn't help matters that while he maintained His official Residence at the
00:09:39
Saxton house he also had a separate apartment where he would like take ladies his booty Bungalow if you will
00:09:47
absolutely obsessed someone should create a market in which they sell booty Bungalows because I'm telling you
00:09:55
there's money there there is [ __ ] boys would sign up for that in a minute like
00:10:00
Elite [ __ ] boys they're like Elite [ __ ] boys would love a booty Bungalow they
00:10:04
don't want a bachelor pad no Elite [ __ ] boys want a booty booty Bungalow I I want a booty Bungalow for myself like I
00:10:12
don't want anyone to come over I just want one wow I don't want anyone to come over I just
00:10:19
W it's my booty in that Bungalow only booty in that Bungalow is me but however despite what people thought of his
00:10:28
relationship history his disregard for the feelings of you know the women that he had scorned George was still
00:10:33
considered really charming and likable by a lot of people in around town they I mean yeah he must have been it sounded
00:10:39
like honestly if you've ever watched Southern Charm he sounds like she Rose I was oh my God the fact you said that
00:10:45
that's who I pictured the entire time I've been thinking this the whole time that he has such Shep Rose Vibes he does
00:10:51
cuz like I know he got like a little problematic as of late in like the last couple years but before that he just
00:10:56
seemed like ear really nice nice chill dude that was like known around town that like people really loved it was
00:11:02
just kind of a mess and he's like friends with everybody but in relationships he's a [ __ ] wreck yeah
00:11:06
like he's that good time guy yeah and he's and he seems like whatever but relationships like you said are like the
00:11:13
are cryptonite it's almost in Austin too Austin Cru yeah yeah there you go hey guys I don't know them but anyway insane
00:11:20
Madison literally insane right now Madison also sorry I'm so like I must sound like wild in this because I'm just
00:11:28
laughing at everything but I am working off of like I think like 4.5 seconds of sleep in the past like 3 days yeah we
00:11:34
went to the Lizzy boardon house which we're going to talk about like at another moment in time yeah um but sleep
00:11:41
didn't happen there obviously and then my youngest got like a stomach bug in the middle of the night which is always
00:11:49
and like before and that was like when she came home like the night that you came home the night we came up so it was
00:11:53
like No Sleep the night before then boom stomach bug yeah and it's cold and flu season and kids get sick all the time
00:11:59
before you start being like your kids are sick all the time they are kids are always sick she said [ __ ] your it's C
00:12:05
and flu season it's C and flu season and kids if you have kids I feel like you realize that they are just sick all the
00:12:11
time yeah there's like there's like a a a group of people in the world who are very shocked when your children get sick
00:12:18
they probably don't have kids yeah like it happens it happens I don't know what to tell you but that's why we're Punchy
00:12:24
yeah I'm very Punchy I love when you're Punchy I think it's funny I'm Punchy bang bang and I'm Punchy haha you're
00:12:29
always Punchy bang bang and most of the time you're Punchy haha but this is like
00:12:32
a different level but I like it it's not a galactic level today it's a galactic but so the fact that he was still
00:12:38
considered Charming in town it really helped him obviously not only socially but professionally too yeah his private
00:12:45
life really didn't seem to affect his dating life too much actually which is kind of shocking and by the late 1880s
00:12:50
he had taken up with a new woman who was at the center of this story Anna or Annie George Annie George her name was
00:12:57
Anna but she went by Annie oh so by the time she met George Saxton Annie George had actually been married for 10 years
00:13:04
to sample George so it gets a little confusing there's George sackton and then there's sample George oh okay
00:13:11
that's his name uh he was a local Carpenter and together they had two young children sample is such an
00:13:16
interesting name I just have to point that out no it is it very much is it's a very interesting because I thought you
00:13:20
were calling him like sample George like like this is the sample siiz George but
00:13:25
like she's this is the real George and it's like I was like who's sample Joy but that's that's a name that's him
00:13:30
that's an I almost have said that's him's name that's him name that's him name you know um years that before yeah
00:13:37
neither have I but interesting according to Accounts at the time Annie was quote
00:13:41
very much devoted to her husband and children and seemed to be delighted with the care of her family so she was very
00:13:47
much like a a a wife and Mama So this man just swooped in mhm she and her husband sample moved to Canton Ohio in
00:13:55
1883 hoping to Build a Better Business and it wasn't long after they moved to Canton that George Saxton first caught
00:14:02
sight of Annie in the Goldberg brother's store on the Saxton block cuz he literally had his own block romantic it
00:14:08
is if she wasn't married Goldberg brother store hot and immediately he was taken he told a friend she is a
00:14:15
remarkably handsome woman I will make her acquaintance REM I'm obsessed with that statement first of all remember
00:14:22
what people used to call women handsome they're like she's such a handsome woman
00:14:26
yeah it's it's interesting because I feel like it depends on where you live if that's like an insult or a compliment
00:14:33
oh really I've only ever heard it as a compliment because I I thought like a handsome woman was like oh like she's a
00:14:38
handsome woman like oh no I've only ever heard it like she's a handsome woman like she is a very striking woman I've
00:14:44
heard in that context like she's got very like striking features yeah I I've heard it in that context but then I've
00:14:49
heard it in the context of like oh she's like a handsome woman like a oh I've never heard that yeah interesting or
00:14:54
maybe I just misinterpreted you're like maybe I made it is possible but anyway before yeah just that statement is just
00:15:00
awesome though he's like I will I will make her acquaintance I'm like you will I believe in you but she married I know
00:15:07
I know but I believe in him because he he just had so much confidence that he he Charmed meid from
00:15:15
afar through time and space he just Charmed me so that's when you know and that's what it's really all about is
00:15:21
confidence it is HPA yeah I will make her acquaintance you will it manifest and he did before she even left the
00:15:29
store George had not only introduced himself to Annie but also extended an offer to move into a large apartment in
00:15:35
the Saxton block where he kept his bachelor apartment wow now this was perfect because they remember her and
00:15:42
her husband had just moved there and they only had a temporary living situation so she went home to tell
00:15:47
sample who was super grateful and was really looking forward to the opportunity yeah thinking this guy's
00:15:53
just being nice yeah he's like oh wow what a nice man you've met hopefully he's ugly but within a remarkably short
00:15:58
amount of time George Saxton had fully integrated himself into Annie and sample's life and like not in a super
00:16:05
fun friendly way that feels very um it feels very HH holes yes of him it does I'm not saying he's a serial killer I'm
00:16:12
just saying like the way he's going about this whole situation with like the apartment and stuff it just feels that
00:16:17
way yeah it is interesting when and when you start setting up the story it does sound a little bit like you're like wait
00:16:23
is he the or the is what's going on yeah so he would stop by at the apartment regularly usually when sample wasn't
00:16:31
home if he could help it oh and it wasn't long before Annie really started to look forward to George's visits
00:16:37
during which it was reported quote this is Iconic he poured into her ears all the flattering endearments of which he
00:16:43
was capable and sought to gain her affection and confidence wow I love all that except
00:16:49
for the use of the word poured yeah because it makes your ear feel full of water you hate that as soon as you
00:16:57
started saying it I was like o and I just covered one of my ears he said not my ears said nope don't pour anything
00:17:02
and even compliments into my ears poured into her ears all the flattering endearments of which he was capable wow
00:17:08
that's a writer right there that is that was flowery as [ __ ] I wrote it as in other words he was laying it on thick
00:17:14
and she was smitten she liked that [ __ ] she was picking up what he was putting
00:17:18
down she was smelling what he was stepping in yeah all that good stuff now at first sample assumed George's
00:17:24
interest in the family was of genuine concern they had two small children he gave them a place to live he's looking
00:17:30
after his wife when he's at work it's like a this guy rocks what a nice guy you know they were young family who were
00:17:36
new in town and his generosity seemed like what you would expect from a guy like George
00:17:42
he was well off he was prominent well known yada but within a few months sample did start to become suspicious of
00:17:49
George Saxton's intentions and he warned his wife not to spend too much time in Saxton's company and he was at that
00:17:56
point it wasn't really so much that he was jealous didn't trust Annie like at that point but he was worried that
00:18:02
George Saxton's unusually frequent presence in their home and how often they were seen together on the street
00:18:08
might start to cause a scandal that people might start he was like I know that your relationship is pure and
00:18:13
innocent or at least I hope it is Butlers might not think so and people are going to talk and we're new here
00:18:20
yeah we're new in town I love it now sample was right to be suspicious of the attention that George Saxton was
00:18:26
lavishing upon his wife indeed and he would only become more so in the months that followed now it's unclear exactly
00:18:33
when George and Annie's Affair began because it did but by most accounts she really did try to reject his advances at
00:18:40
least initially but if his relationship history was any indication George absolutely loved the Chase and the
00:18:49
courtship phase of relationships y far more than anything that came after and the fact that Annie was married and kind
00:18:56
of like saying no to his advances made the situation more enticing oh yeah of course the forbidden fruit exactly the
00:19:03
more and more she resisted his advances the harder he tried to win her over of course endlessly complimenting her
00:19:09
sending her all kinds of gifts showing up all of it all of it and as a woman of she remember he's like this really
00:19:16
well-off prominent man she's a woman of modest social standing meager means so she probably found the intention of
00:19:22
somebody so well off and of a higher standing very exciting yeah like it's a little bit of like an Ann Woodward like
00:19:30
way into society absolutely now after years of George's Relentless campaign to win her over damn years Annie finally
00:19:40
gave in and in 1889 she agreed to join him for a trip to Myers Lake Casino what the [ __ ] years that he played the long
00:19:48
game he sure did now later Annie would claim that she was unwittingly seduced by Saxton quote based on his explicit uh
00:19:56
promise to marry her oh so and that was like a thing back then if you had vocal like a verbal agreement that like
00:20:04
somebody had said they were going to marry you that was actually that like weighed heavy back then that would like
00:20:09
hold up in court uhhuh yeah yeah like it was um I forget what it was called I think I might touch upon it later
00:20:15
actually yeah cuz it's been in a couple of my cases too mhm now given George's track record with engagements though
00:20:22
this seemed entirely possible that like he had said yeah totally I'll marry you yeah but whatever his strategy by 189
00:20:28
Annie had become estranged from her husband and was openly carrying on an affair with George Now sample George uh
00:20:35
was completely outraged and by that point he had already taken the children and moved back to where they came from
00:20:40
Han Overton oh damn and it was there that he filed for divorce but when he realized that a divorce was actually
00:20:47
exactly what Annie wanted this fella got Tom Petty with it he withdrew the petition knowing full well that he'd
00:20:54
still have to financially support her but also that she wouldn't be able to to marry George oh wow so he's like that's
00:21:00
fine I'll still pay for your ass but like you can't marry that man that you stepped out the back with me on Sample
00:21:06
seems pretty fullsize to me oh he is he seems family siiz you just wait the the party pack he's a yeah I was just going
00:21:15
to say he's a party P so now having failed to leverage sample's anger into getting a divorce George and Annie
00:21:21
devised a new scheme Annie would move to so uh South Dakota where divorce laws were liberal because remember at this
00:21:27
point like can just get divorced Here There and Everywhere yeah no way that's that's wild crazy can't just end a
00:21:33
lifelong commitment that's so shameful not actually it but after staying the requisite 6 months she could file for
00:21:39
divorce and then promptly return to Ohio and marry George so in October of 1891 she took a train to Canton South Dakota
00:21:47
wow literally so many cantons so many cantons and she set up Residence at the Heartland House hotel but whatever she
00:21:55
had expected to find in South Dakota was probably much better than what she ended
00:21:59
up actually experiencing uh it was then referred to as the divorce colony where she was
00:22:06
taking the divorce Colony yeah wow and at that time divorce under any circumstances obviously was seriously
00:22:13
discouraged and to seek one would have meant public scorn and then the scorn was doubled when Annie she was not the
00:22:20
injured party that's what they would have referred to it as back then so when words started going around that like
00:22:26
this is why she was in South Dakota people really didn't treat her well a yeah for close to a year she lived as
00:22:33
kind of a social Pariah in South Dakota with only occasional visits from George to interrupt the boredom in really
00:22:40
rather rough conditions was it worth it no okay things became worse in February of 1892 when she got word from Ohio that
00:22:48
in her absence her soon to be hopefully ex-husband sample George had filed a $330,000 lawsuit against George Saxton
00:22:58
for alienation of affection that is a term that allows the grieved party to sue an adulterer who
00:23:06
had seduced their spouse damn that's a [ __ ] thing alienation of affection yes interesting isn't that crazy yeah
00:23:16
now until that Point Georgia and Annie's relationship had been spoken of in like
00:23:19
very hush tones and rumors but the lawsuit made it a document a public fact and one that detailed the sexual ual
00:23:28
relationship between Saxton and a married woman oh no so like a lot of people could get their hands on that
00:23:33
yeah with the lawsuit against Saxton filed sample agreed to Grant Annie a divorce in September of 1892 and she was
00:23:40
officially a single woman but he was like I'm going to get $30,000 out of this yeah uh unfortunately for Annie the
00:23:46
pending lawsuit gave George a reason to put off getting married because remember
00:23:51
he doesn't really like to get married it never really ends up panning out he loves the leadup to getting married yeah
00:23:58
who doesn't it's really exciting I personally love the being married part as well but in the meantime she moved to
00:24:03
Cleveland in order to avoid avoid the Fallout from now a very public Scandal and just waited for everything to blow
00:24:09
over so she could finally go back and marry George months turned into years but Annie continued to wait very
00:24:16
patiently for the timing to be right for her and George to marry she was just out
00:24:21
there living on a modest allowance from George and she eventually found work as a seamstress to earn even more income
00:24:27
really in just a few short years she'd gone from a life of complete excitement like illicit excitement and lavish gifts
00:24:35
right back to the life that she lived before she even met her first husband oh man now in girl I know she [ __ ] up Bad
00:24:42
News Bears she [ __ ] up in March of 1894 sample's lawsuit against George was actually dismissed so Annie was able to
00:24:49
move back to Canton Ohio and she took up residence in her old apartment in the Saxton building okay and she started a
00:24:56
sewing business in order to support herself now by this time it seems georg's affections for her had started
00:25:02
to wne and it's likely that their relationship would have just ended like all his other engagements but not long
00:25:09
after Annie returned to Canton sample George filed a new lawsuit against Saxton and as author Bellamy points out
00:25:16
George Saxton quote would probably have to rely on Annie's willingness to purger
00:25:21
herself in defending himself against sample's lawsuit damn meaning he would have to keep up his affection for her at
00:25:27
at least until the case was settled or else she would be like testifying against him absolutely so whatever
00:25:34
scheme George had in mind it didn't quite work out the way that he had planned while she may have been naive
00:25:39
Annie wasn't so foolish as to not recognize that George had very little time for her and only seemed to show
00:25:46
affection to her when it suited him like she was catching on to this oh yeah and
00:25:50
just as it had been with his other fian rumors about George carrying on with other women soon made their way back to
00:25:57
Annie leading to a actually violent confrontation in late 1894 in which she fell down a flight of stairs and George
00:26:06
threw her out of her room at the Saxton building what the [ __ ] no one knows for
00:26:11
sure but she would later claim that George kicked her down the stairs during this go yeah if she hadn't been so
00:26:17
blinded by love excitement she probably would have recognized a pattern in George's life of seducing women
00:26:23
proposing marriage then very unceremoniously dropping them once he'd lost interest but she didn't seem to
00:26:30
have put all the pieces together until her life was in shambles she had endured everything and pretty much lost
00:26:37
everything that's horrific but if George thought that this was going to go away like all the other ones completely
00:26:44
without consequences he was very seriously mistaken surprise now as the son of one of canton's wealthiest
00:26:51
families George sa Saxton as we know was accustomed to easily getting what he wanted whether it was his his company
00:26:58
his family home his money his three former fiances George didn't really have to work too too hard to get anything and
00:27:05
when he was done with something or someone he was accustomed to just making it go away with ease just moving on not
00:27:13
always going to work honey it's not always going to work it's likely that after his contrived and surprisingly
00:27:18
physical falling out with Annie he assumed that she would just go away Fade Into the background like the others had
00:27:23
yeah but neither Annie or sample George had any ention of going away without a fight uh oh in August of 1895 George
00:27:32
Saxton filed um a demure in court alleging that the statue of limitations had run out on Sample suit however
00:27:41
sample quickly filed an appeal that would eventually take the case to the state supreme court whoa so they're just
00:27:48
suing each other left and right and Annie joins now in the meantime she filed her own lawsuit against George
00:27:55
demanding $50,000 for his his alleged breach of promise to marry her breach of Promise breach of Promise despite the
00:28:03
lawsuit and obviously bitter split Annie remained committed to George in a manner
00:28:07
that kind of bordered on Obsession o she was telling anyone who would listen that
00:28:12
she was still very much in love with him and was going to win him back I hate this was also suing him yeah now given
00:28:19
how protective George was of his wealth it's likely that the breach of Promise suit was intended to drive him back to
00:28:24
her she figured that's how she would get him back but it wasn't going to be that
00:28:29
easy no and also it's like you want to sue someone to make them love you again like it doesn't work get is it's like
00:28:36
the end result man you're not get what you want and in the months and years that followed their breakup Annie
00:28:42
refused to give George A Moment's Peace or privacy she would quote accost him whenever he showed himself and loudly
00:28:49
beseech him to return to her loving arm wow the only thing that seemed to work in George's favor was that regardless of
00:28:56
how publicly They Carried out their Affair he had never made any written promises to marry her so I don't think
00:29:01
it was a i WR it's I don't think verbal counted I think it had to be written down okay now as a result his lawyer was
00:29:10
able to get this breach of Promise suit thrown out of court but Annie immediately refiled and George found
00:29:17
himself fighting not only her lawsuit but sample's lawsuit that was like I said making its way to the Supreme Court
00:29:23
so he was in hell I was just going to say this sounds aw yeah it also it's like a little bit of
00:29:30
like like this part of it is like Karma I think it's like his like free previous
00:29:34
like you know the first one was up there like pulling some [ __ ] like oh yeah you
00:29:38
know what Georgie now while the lawsuits were a costly and obviously stressful experience George would come to find
00:29:45
that they were or at least should have been the least of his concerns after refiling her breach of Promise suit
00:29:52
Annie's obsessive Behavior took on a much more ominous tone she started a routine of show showing up outside the
00:29:58
Saxton block early in the mornings and she would stay camped outside all day waiting for George who was obviously
00:30:06
never happy to see her meanwhile she's like she was married she had kids whole life sample took them back to H and she
00:30:13
never went back it's like yeah she was like a very quote unquote normal woman yeah now years later William cook a
00:30:21
resident of the building told the court one evening quote he came home late at night to find all the lights on the
00:30:26
second floor were out turning a light on he discovered Annie George standing motionless and Silent in front of George
00:30:33
Saxton's room whoa on another occasion this same man returned late from the theater one evening and found Annie
00:30:40
standing outside of Saxton's door with a pistol in her hand which she tried to hide when she realized that he had
00:30:46
spotted her what the [ __ ] so she's Los essentially stalking him at this point like there's really not a better way to
00:30:52
say it no in response to her increasingly disruptive and harassing Behavior avior George actually ended up
00:30:58
filing a request for a restraining order against her and in turn she made several
00:31:04
public claims that he was running a sex work and gambling business out of the Saxton building and the only reason she
00:31:10
had been going to the building on a regular basis was to check on her belongings which he claimed he was
00:31:15
withholding from her after throwing her out Jesus so this is a [ __ ] wreck yeah the restraining order was granted
00:31:21
in early uh 1896 effectively barring her from entering the Saxton building but that did not uh stop her from
00:31:30
accosting George on the sidewalk or anywhere else in town which she started doing much more often once he started
00:31:36
dating a new woman publicly Eva out house it's unclear when Eva and georg's relationship truly began but by 1896
00:31:45
they were a full-fledged couple and would remain so until George's death uh this however didn't stop Annie who was
00:31:52
completely still committed to convincing George to come back to her when even George went out Annie would follow them
00:31:59
and at times just stalk them from one place to the other by late 1897 so a year into them dating and just like her
00:32:06
following them around all the time her behavior had reached alarming New Heights she would walk every single
00:32:13
evening to the area around or directly outside of Eva's house where she would either wait for George to arrive on his
00:32:19
bicycle and quote entreat him not to enter Eva's house and return to her and please keep his pledge to marry her or
00:32:27
she would just like stand outside and wait for him to come what the can you imagine your your new guy no is pulling
00:32:36
up to your house and his ex is stopping him each time to be like you don't want to go up there you want to be with me
00:32:43
like like I'd be like what the [ __ ] I don't know if I could handle that no I think I'd be like listen you're awesome
00:32:50
but like you need to figure this out before we can be together cuz like I don't want to get killed in the meantime
00:32:54
oh yeah you don't want to deal with that cuz it's dangerous yeah they get scary like I know this is like a salacious
00:32:59
story from the 1800s but it's scary what happened scary yeah now if it happened that George managed to get inside the
00:33:07
house before Annie arrived she would just stand outside all evening quote varying her anguished cries for George's
00:33:13
return with angry and often obscene abuse of Eva what yeah are you kidding me no so she just stand outside This
00:33:21
Woman's house like screaming for George to come back to her and yelling obscenities about Eva no which i' be
00:33:27
like get the [ __ ] off my property yeah that's not that's when you do the old like that's that's when the old plague
00:33:34
habits come back and you piss in a bucket and empty it on the streets oops oops that's my [ __ ] when she wasn't
00:33:42
causing an embarrassing public scene Annie continued her legal uh pressure on George filing multiple suits alleging
00:33:48
among other things that he'd stolen her belongings or was holding them hostage inside his building it's not clear how
00:33:54
serious these legal claims were or whether they might have just been thrown out by a judge but George engaged in
00:34:00
each battle which you can understand why he wants to but you're like like from the future you're like don't do it just
00:34:08
give her back her [ __ ] yeah like just stop it all in one instance he claimed that he had in fact been holding some of
00:34:14
her belongings but he was holding them as collateral for a loan of $300 that he given her several years earlier and he'd
00:34:21
never gotten any money back and he said I'll give them I'll give her her belongings when she pays back eventually
00:34:27
he relented because I think he just couldn't [ __ ] take it and he allowed Annie to retrieve some of her belongings
00:34:33
but that turned out to be a bad idea in the grand scheme of things because rather than putting an end to the matter
00:34:38
which I'm sure he thought it was going to do she interpreted this as success like he wants to see me he invited me
00:34:45
over absolutely and she spent months finding reasons to enter the premises and access different things Saxton's
00:34:51
lawyer complained to the Constable about it during all the lawsuit fighting saying she's got everything but the
00:34:56
paper on the wall and now she wants that which I don't know if that was like him
00:35:01
being hyperbolic or she if she actually was like I'd like the paper on the wall I would like the paper on the wall who
00:35:05
really knows be amazing that' be iconic in the late 19th century public awareness
00:35:12
obviously or under understanding of stalking and mental illness were way more limited than they are today so
00:35:18
while Annie's Behavior may have been seen by her neighbors as strange or probably desperate she was just deemed
00:35:25
an overly emotional woman rather than malicious or dangerous yeah and aside from the restraining order barring her
00:35:32
from entering the Saxton building which was granted more on the grounds of it being private property than like
00:35:38
harassment George had little legal recourse and he was forced to endure years of aggressive daily assaults for
00:35:46
man when she wasn't harassing him in person which like she was doing pretty frequently George was inundated with
00:35:51
legal challenges and all these different suits and the suits at least as far as were concerned and were intended to keep
00:35:59
the two of them bound to one another so it was like her way of being like I'll find you I was going to say I'll find
00:36:06
you exactly yeah that's the like I'm going to legally bind us yeah in in one way or another one way or another she
00:36:16
going to bind you going to sue you Su you you Su you every day finally in January of 19 uh NOP 1898 one of those
00:36:25
legal battles finally came to an end when the Ohio Supreme Court actually ruled in Sample George's favor in the
00:36:32
yearslong suit alleging that alienation of affections and it resulted in Saxton being ordered to pay sample
00:36:40
$30,000 whoa but George S to get an injunction to stop the verdict arguing that at the time the suit was followed
00:36:48
sample and Annie actually were already divorced and eventually they ended up agreeing to settle the matter outside of
00:36:54
court and George paid sample 1 825 huh versus the 30,000 yeah given all the time and
00:37:04
effort that had gone into sample's lawsuits against George Saxton it struck everybody as odd that he would agree to
00:37:10
like a fraction of a fraction of the of the original 1% yeah like if that however the reason would soon become
00:37:19
clear when the Press discovered that sample had been married for more than a year and had kept it secret oh so as not
00:37:27
which like he was fully well he was fully within his bounds to do that because he was divorced but but it just
00:37:33
adds to the dram but it doesn't make it look good cuz he's supposed to be like this heartbroken man of course yada yada
00:37:40
y but anyway the resolution of the alienation case may have been largely in George Saxton's favor but everywhere
00:37:46
else he turned things were decidedly Less Pleasant I guess you could say Annie's harassment only increased and by
00:37:53
then she had Enlisted the press in her campaign to win George back by uh ruining everything in his life that's
00:38:00
not how you you form a relationship that's not how I've ever gone about it no um so who am I to say don't be a a
00:38:10
life ruiner and ruin people's lives yeah and don't forget this is all now like right around this time is when his
00:38:17
sister is married to the president like oh so that's even more yeah scandalo so like the the president's brother in-law
00:38:27
is getting smeared in the Press yeah and now this is the time like right around the time that William McKinley was like
00:38:33
elected president so the brother-in-law of the president is getting smeared in the Press EK yeah now fortunately though
00:38:41
while the residents of Canton had come to expect certain types of behavior from both Annie and George and certain people
00:38:48
really kind of delighted in the gossip luckily the local press really rarely accommodated Annie's requests for them
00:38:55
to print updates on personal squabbles cuz it got to the point where it's like you're doing this in the streets we can
00:39:00
all see it like I don't need to write about it yeah and it's like you're they're going to start losing their
00:39:05
reputation and credibility by by print printing everything she says exactly and just looking into it and just like mere
00:39:12
squabbles you so when that failed Annie resorted to the only other thing she could think of to win George back
00:39:19
regular and numerous threats against his life I don't really understand the thought process here uh
00:39:27
neither do I but okay I guess it's a good thing that I don't understand the thought process here I think it says
00:39:32
good things about you I think it does too but throughout 1897 and well into 1898 nearly everyone in Canton Ohio had
00:39:39
become aware of the very toxic relationship that had developed between George and Annie and while they may have
00:39:46
been sympathetic most of them knew exactly who was to blame for the acrimony under those circumstances it
00:39:53
probably came as no surprise to a lot of people when Annie started making threats
00:39:57
against George's life to um quite literally anyone and everyone who would listen in one instance in June of 1898
00:40:05
during a conversation with just an acquaintance on the sidewalk Annie loudly exclaimed if George Saxton does
00:40:12
not keep his promise of marriage to me I'll kill him damn him I'll kill him why do you okay I mean why do you
00:40:20
want to be married to someone like who doesn't want to be married to you I think it's just I obviously mental
00:40:26
illness and it's just like obsessed like yeah this is like true OBS and it's like
00:40:33
she's scorned and you're not going to scorn her you're going to follow through on your promise unbelievable to me like
00:40:39
that's an unbelievable amount of obsession it is and it is worth noting obviously like we were saying earlier
00:40:46
like she left her whole [ __ ] family for this and who know I don't think he like asked her to like yeah but it was
00:40:54
part of it you know me fits into it for sure so I think that definitely like she
00:40:59
doesn't see her kids she doesn't like she's totally isolated at this point and obviously that's like partially a choice
00:41:05
that she made but I think that's definitely a driving Factor yeah I think so too exactly and in the months that
00:41:12
followed the threats intensified in both detail and frequency o during a quilting
00:41:17
bee a [ __ ] quilting be quilting be with several women Annie exclaimed after the case is settled there will be
00:41:25
a wedding or a funeral if he doesn't marry me he'll not walk the streets of Canton another day I'll shoot him dead I
00:41:32
need everyone to picture you were on one of your finest squares and this lady just casual
00:41:42
conversation is like I'll be real with you here are the two things that are going to happen one of these two things
00:41:48
is going to happen one of them is a funeral because I'm going to kill this man yeah I'd be like you're harshing the
00:41:54
Mellow here like you got to go I'm just trying to quilt this is a [ __ ] quilting bee like this is for my newborn
00:42:02
grandchild Annie I need you to chill there should be no murder plots or murder admissions happening at a
00:42:08
quilting bee I would like to say that right now you can't put murderous Vibes into one of the coziest things on the
00:42:15
planet yeah you that quilt is tarnished it absolutely is that's it and like who's sitting next to
00:42:23
her hearing this like where did they like they she just casually drops this and they're all just like wow yeah
00:42:28
that's that's wild Annie well luckily there was somebody there of uh sound mind one of the ladies was like yeah um
00:42:35
so like a wedding would be awesome I hope that happens for you but uh if you were to shoot him you would definitely
00:42:42
face serious consequences and like I'm sure you don't want to do that like hush now she's like hun that's murder here's
00:42:48
another Square yeah please just concentrate on this you know double Stitch but when that woman was like here
00:42:53
here Annie replied to her that she had always gotten out of trouble before and she would get out of that kind
00:42:59
too I like have have you murdered before though cuz that's a different kind of trouble I would not ask any further
00:43:07
questions I would just count the hours until the quilting be was over yeah I would just be like that is there's
00:43:12
there's varying levels of trouble that you can wiggle yourself out of murder murder is probably the highest top tier
00:43:19
I'd say I'm going to go with the highest things that are hard to get yourself out
00:43:23
of so don't do that eventually the incident of threats were made directly to George and sometimes included
00:43:29
physical assaults in one instance Annie stopped George and Eva as they were walking into Eva's house and she grabbed
00:43:36
George's arm and shouted look here you're not going into there tonight like saying like you're not going to Eva's
00:43:41
place what George managed to get himself free of her grassp by whacking her on the arm with his umbrella and then fled
00:43:48
into the house like had to whack this woman in the arm with his umbrella which that's self-defense at that point oh
00:43:55
absolutely is had to run into his girlfriend's house and like the police aren't arresting her like
00:44:03
no like I didn't come across any like she and she got like cited for this or anything like that it was just happen
00:44:10
what is going on they just had to endure this well and I think he had gotten that
00:44:15
that restraining order but it was only I I don't think restraining ERS sax buildings and I don't think they were
00:44:20
what they are now you know no I don't think they were at all I think it's like this is a small town we can't like tell
00:44:24
her she can't walk down the street yeah you can't wow cuz it's just and and it's
00:44:29
the time frame but you just think about like now it's like somebody would be like we you need to go to a hospital
00:44:35
like you need you need some treatment here like something needs to be done to bring you down they love to throw us in
00:44:42
the hospital us women for like I know that's true but that's the thing they would throw women in the hospital for
00:44:47
[ __ ] reasons yeah for [ __ ] reasons because when when there was real instances of Mental Health crisis they
00:44:54
were just like well that's annoying I don't want to deal with that and I think there wasn't a lot going on back then
00:45:02
and I hate to say this but I think it was a source of entertainment for people in the town to a degree like gossiped
00:45:07
about it got to watch the interactions and and I don't think anybody thought what ultimately ends up happening was
00:45:14
going to happen but then when it happens they're like yeah that makes sense that's the thing that like P as a human
00:45:21
beings we need to get it together in so many ways but in one one way we need to get it together when someone tells you
00:45:29
that they're going to kill someone they're probably going to kill that person they do think about killing that
00:45:34
person yeah so you should tell someone yes blanket statement I think that's overreact quilt statement over quilt
00:45:43
statement quilting be statement right here overreact yeah overreact if someone tells you they're going to kill hey I
00:45:51
really hate my mom I would love to kill her someday things would be better if I just murdered her go tell someone go
00:45:57
tell go tell someone the guidance counselor go let someone know the police you can wash your hands of it after that
00:46:03
but go do your do diligence and go tell someone cuz we have covered so many [ __ ] cases especially lately of
00:46:09
people laying down word for word the most UN nons subtle threats like the most conspicuous [ __ ] they're just like
00:46:18
I am going to kill this person with an axe and people are like you know it's so weird I didn't think they would actually
00:46:24
do it and it's like they said it to you with their words like they said it to you from their face into your face take
00:46:30
your face and go say it into someone else's face and here's the thing it's good that that's unbelievable to you
00:46:35
like it's it's good that you and your heart of hearts don't think that's going to happen I think that's because you
00:46:40
yourself are like well I could never do that like and no one's ever told me I'm going to kill someone no if someone told
00:46:46
me I want to kill this person or I think about killing this person sometimes I'm
00:46:50
telling someone so don't tell me your [ __ ] cuz I'm going to go blow your [ __ ]
00:46:53
up and that's the that on that Spotlight right on your like you can't I'm going to
00:46:58
snitch so don't you I would exactly it's never happened so I can't wrap my brain
00:47:04
around these people that are just and it happens so often through history no it really is it's wild it really is quite
00:47:10
alarming and we haven't learned cuz we've covered cases from the 2000s yeah where people were like yeah I don't know
00:47:17
they they produced a murder weapon and told me they were going to do it but I didn't think they would actually do it
00:47:22
why would they do it we got to stop stop underestimating our fellow human beings
00:47:27
we should we really do in in every different aspect yeah not even just like killing people in the bad ways yeah yeah
00:47:33
exactly there you go you turn look at you turning it positive that's what I do you flip that right on its but that's
00:47:38
what I do I was like stop underestimating that people aren't the shittiest things on the planet and
00:47:42
you're like and that's the best but anyway on another occasion Annie confronted the couple even George
00:47:50
as they walked home and she grabbed George's arm again this time pulling a revolver from from her pocket and
00:47:57
forcing him to walk down the street with her call the police call the police what's going on this situation only
00:48:05
ended when she actually dropped the revolver at one point and George was able to grab it from the ground and like
00:48:11
speedily walk away from her what the [ __ ] given the the way things were headed it was only a matter of time
00:48:17
before this situation reached a very tragic conclusion and that's where we are at right now oh no a little after
00:48:24
6:00 p.m. on the even of October 7th 1898 so like just before his birthday too like a couple weeks yeah just as the
00:48:31
working men and women of Canton were ending the day and making their way home George Saxton was on his bicycle headed
00:48:37
to his girlfriend Eva Al House's place at a nearby grocery store just right across the street from Eva's house Henry
00:48:44
Beerman was standing in the doorway of his store talking with another man August Boren the store's owner when the
00:48:50
two men heard a loud gunshot ring out followed by another as many of the Canton who had witnessed the ongoing
00:48:57
deterioration of George's relationship with Annie one of the men like so many others in town knew things had come to
00:49:04
or new things would come to a violent head sooner or later yeah and he recalled that his first thought upon
00:49:09
hearing the sound of gunshots was Saxton's finally getting it whoa which like wow what a first thought
00:49:17
sir that is the most chilling [ __ ] I've ever heard Saxton's finally getting it
00:49:21
it's like someone is dying and that's your immediate Dam yeah so the two men walked out to the sidewalk and peered
00:49:28
around the corner in the direction of Eva's house where they saw a figure approaching George Saxton who lay on the
00:49:34
stone uh the stone walkway leading to Eva's door the figure was wearing dark clothing and from their build and the
00:49:40
way they moved Beerman thought that it looked like a woman damn the figure leaned down close to George and appeared
00:49:47
to grab his arm and then stood up uh and fired twice more into his body holy [ __ ]
00:49:53
before running off toward a nearby vacant lot and then disappearing into the woods so Henry Beerman was one of the
00:50:01
first people to reach George Who by then was laying uh on his right side with his
00:50:05
face turned toward the sidewalk by then the sun had gone down completely and there were no street lights outside of
00:50:11
E's house so the men who assembled around the body actually couldn't make out who it was but they knew and even
00:50:18
when Beerman turned the body over several men around him had to light matches before they could confirm that
00:50:23
it was George which it was remarkably there were no obvious signs of violence it literally just looked
00:50:30
like he had fallen from his bicycle what the [ __ ] a few feet away his Satchel had
00:50:34
landed hard on the ground scattering the contents a night shirt and a bottle of champagne which we'll come back later
00:50:41
out onto Eva's lawn and finally after several minutes Somebody went to go get police Sergeant William Hassler and a
00:50:47
doctor Dr Edward Brandt regardless of how it appeared to the crowd that had now assembled around the body George
00:50:54
Saxton was 100% % dead and he had died violently according to the autopsy the first bullet entered his side above the
00:51:02
right breast and then bounced off a suspender buckle and exited 2 in above the entry wound holy [ __ ] so it
00:51:09
literally went in and then out oh wow which is wild the second bullet entered the left side of his chest grazed his
00:51:17
ribs and then exited near the left shoulder and the slug was later discovered amongst uh among his clothing
00:51:24
as far as Brent could tell those wounds were actually superficial and were unlikely the cause of death so two of
00:51:31
those shots would not have been fatal oh wow but the third wound was much more serious that bullet had entered George's
00:51:37
body under his left arm penetrating his lungs and his diaphragm severing multiple arteries before settling in his
00:51:45
liver damn and the final bullet that entered his left side grazing grazed his ribs then penetrated his stomach which
00:51:52
caused a tear in one artery and in his small intestine oh so Brent wasn't sure if it was the third bullet or the fourth
00:52:00
that had been the cause of death but he had concluded that it was the severing of the iliac artery that had killed
00:52:06
Saxton almost immediately damn which if you have to go thankfully it's it happened pretty immediately oh my God
00:52:14
but that's so violent so violent four shots oh the bullets collected from the body in George's clothing were from a 38
00:52:22
caliber caliber revolver and had all been fired at close Range close enough to leave burn marks on his clothing God
00:52:28
so that's like really close and uh burn marks on his clothing down to his underwear wow isn't that crazy Dr Brent
00:52:38
concluded that the reason for the lack of blood at the scene of the uh of the shooting or on George's clothes was
00:52:44
because the vast majority of his bleeding was actually going on internally oh yeah I'm sure all that
00:52:49
going on so horrific oh yeah as soon as the news of georg's murder started to spread around Canton there was literally
00:52:56
not a shed of doubt in anyone's mind as to who killed him and the search for Annie George began immediately large
00:53:04
teams of men spent hours combing cantons downtown in residential areas but there
00:53:08
was no sign of her anywhere wow at that time she was at the home of her friend Florence Clinger having arrived there at
00:53:16
about 6:30 p.m. Florence lived about a mile away from Eva out house a distance Annie could have easily covered in the
00:53:24
half hour between the shooting and when she arrived at the home the two women were said to have chatted for about 15
00:53:30
minutes or so and then Annie stood up abruptly and told her friend she needed to go downtown to see her lawyer James
00:53:37
Sterling so while the groups of men searching for Annie never had any luck locating her several other people
00:53:43
spotted her as she was walking through town on her way to Sterling's office she exchanged pleasantries with several
00:53:50
people as she walked through town and many remarked that she appeared quote calm and unad itated which like she
00:53:57
hadn't appeared that way in a while yeah after a stop at the lawyer's office she
00:54:01
returned to home to cor obin's rooming house around 9:00 p.m. where she found several men including a number of Canton
00:54:08
police officers waiting for her and she was immediately taken into the into custody for the murder of George Saxton
00:54:14
oh boy so the next day his murder had not only made the headlines of all the local papers but of course National ones
00:54:21
as well yeah since marrying William McKinley in 1871 George sister Ida had become a household name as the first
00:54:27
lady of Ohio as first excuse me as the first lady of Ohio from 1892 to 1896 and then like I said as the first lady of
00:54:36
the United States starting in 19 uh 1897 mhm although Ida and Joe George actually
00:54:41
rarely saw one another and really only had like a casual relationship since they were young the murder of the
00:54:47
president's brother-in-law was big news no matter what and it was made more so by the fact that the primary and only
00:54:54
suspect in the case was a woman yeah like that was insane shocking yeah we're talk 1897 oh yeah they weren't believing
00:55:01
that women could do that exactly Annie didn't resist her arrest and she walked calmly with the officers back to the
00:55:07
station asking no questions and making no mention of George along the way despite officers repeatedly asking her
00:55:14
questions about where she had been that evening and despite her stoicism arresting officers would later say that
00:55:19
she did seem agitated from the moment she was arrested it's to them it seemed like she was very tense and they could
00:55:26
see that she was sweating ooh yeah she trying to hide it mhm the officers actually made a point to look closely at
00:55:32
her hands as they walked back to the station and they noted that one of her hands was discolored and looked to be
00:55:38
smeared in what they believed to be gunpowder boom they also noted or excuse me noticed that the right side of her
00:55:45
dress was covered in Spanish needles and Burrs like the ones that were literally
00:55:51
scattered around Eva's front yard wow yeah so she didn't do a good job hiding it no not now so they reached the
00:55:59
station a little after 9:00 p.m. at which point Annie was immediately peppered with questions by a prosecutor
00:56:04
in response she only asked that her attorney and mayor of Canton James rice be contacted saying she would answer
00:56:12
questions once he arrived unfortunately her request for her attorney was repeatedly ignored which was like not
00:56:18
great that's that's not part of protocol that's bad police work yeah that's bad that's G to [ __ ] you up in trial yeah
00:56:25
officials and reporters rapidly hurled questions at her asking about everything from her threats to George's life to her
00:56:31
movements that evening why she was covered in Burrs but when it was finally clear that they were not going to get
00:56:37
anything out of her they gave up and she was handed over to the jail physici for
00:56:41
a physical examination and in the days that followed a very unusual story began unfolding in the Press while Annie
00:56:48
remained mostly silent on whether or not she had shot George there was very little doubt among the public as to her
00:56:54
guilt but what was remarkable was that many people in and around Canton actually
00:57:00
sympathized or at the very least understood her actions what one reporter wrote sentiment is divided between the belief
00:57:09
that her wrongs Pate the criminal Madness of the deed and the Declaration of the Act was the last resort of a
00:57:15
foled and financially a ruined woman that's from the Boston Globe and it's like she get it takes two to tango
00:57:24
here but like two to tango she had to make the decision to leave her family this man and you have been like
00:57:33
assaulting this man berating this man for years and no one feels bad for him like yeah it's [ __ ] up that he left
00:57:39
her in the way that he did absolutely I I'm not going to sit here and argue that
00:57:42
absolutely you're allowed to leave someone you should do it in a cooler manner like a because you don't do it in
00:57:48
a nicer way doesn't mean you deserve to be stalked and harassed and assaulted and then ultimately murdered
00:57:55
for doing that like that's not okay exactly and that's that's a little scary that public sentiment was like well you
00:58:02
have to leave someone a certain way or if you get murdered we don't really care but basically what they were trying to
00:58:06
say was that either she was insane or she had been pushed to the murder out of desperation but either way that report
00:58:12
seemed to feel that Annie could hardly be held entirely responsible for her her actions wow it's like that's crazy
00:58:19
that's unbelievable to that's absolutely insane yeah that's truly unbelievable on
00:58:23
Monday October 10th she was aranged before Justice Jacob Rainer where she pleaded not guilty to the charge of
00:58:28
murder and asked that the hearing take place as soon as possible she was like let's get this going let's get this over
00:58:34
with I'm not guilty let's go yeah the trial of the woman who allegedly shot the president's brother-in-law was
00:58:39
itself in and of itself an object of Fascination around the country but in Ohio it was also a chance to test a
00:58:46
newly enacted law that allowed the jury to determine the degree of the crime in capital murder cases given the degree of
00:58:53
vital and acri demonstrated in the Years leading up to the murder this seemed like the perfect opportunity to set a
00:59:00
precedent so that's why they were doing that so they were excited they were like
00:59:03
ooh legal legal legal yeah legal legal legal the following day Annie appeared before a grand jury where the
00:59:09
prosecution presented the evidence against her among the more compelling pieces of evidence was proof that in the
00:59:16
days before George's Murder She had traveled to Chicago and purchased a 38 caliber
00:59:22
revolver that's what we call a Smoking Gun quite literally although investigators had been unable to locate
00:59:30
that gun they did have a statement from a witness that Annie said she intended to use this this very gun to shoot
00:59:36
George just as soon as the alienation case had been settled between Saxon and Sample George which it had been so she
00:59:45
bought a gun that was used in the murder and then that same gun is the one that she blatantly told someone I'm GNA use
00:59:53
this gun yep to kill this man who happens to be killed by a gun such as that that exact kind of gun and I'm
01:00:03
going to do it at this exact time and then it happened at that exact time and she's still like I didn't do it
01:00:11
didn't do it and like what problem for the prosecution they didn't have the gun yeah they couldn't find that's the
01:00:17
problem they do not have the Smoking Gun they do not now in her defense attorney
01:00:21
James rice also the mayor argued that it was not Annie had killed George but a man dressed in women's clothing so as to
01:00:28
throw investigators off their Trail what like sir sir sir this is a Wendy's is the defense in the room with us yeah
01:00:38
what in support of their Theory rice emphasized that there had only been one witness to the shooting false and he was
01:00:44
too far away to make out any details of the shooter only that they appeared to be a Woman based almost entirely on the
01:00:51
fact that they were dressed in women's clothes it's like okay okay now sure it should be said that not only was a
01:00:58
significant amount of the public sympathetic to Annie but just as many doubted the case would ever make it to
01:01:04
trial like I don't even think this will go to trial the only witness to the crime couldn't positively identify the
01:01:09
shooter or say with certainty now that it was a woman much less Annie George oh jeez and while the prosecutor was more
01:01:16
than competent Annie literally had the mayor of Canton James rice arguing on her behalf that's wild and he was backed
01:01:23
by some of the country's most prominent attorneys I'm so confused by that it's crazy like what the you're like how is
01:01:29
that not a conflict of interest I would think so too the prosecution on the other hand had George Saxton a man who
01:01:36
most people faked their respect toward unfortunately and who few really genuinely liked when it came down to him
01:01:43
like they liked chatting with him in town because I think it was good to be seen with him but when it came down to
01:01:49
it they all talk [ __ ] about him by back and in an editorial published a few weeks later one journalist wrote it
01:01:56
seems that everybody in Canton was glad that somebody killed Saxton as no home was safe while he lived at the time of
01:02:02
the shooting he was living with Mrs Al house Rich his only business was that of a family wrecker Mrs Al house was one of
01:02:09
his victims even the man who saw the shooting did not cross the street to interfere that's pretty brutal yeah he
01:02:16
was getting like that's pretty Brut no that's that's awful he was getting like this man just got killed in the street I
01:02:22
feel like this happened so much when and and we get so upset and like I'm upset right now we get so upset when this
01:02:27
happens with like women too cuz I feel like most often this happens to women that they're like smeared in court later
01:02:33
on but I'm like damn you guys did it to George yeah like damn the president's brother-in-law you were like ah [ __ ] him
01:02:39
and this guy who was uring like some some of the worst stalking and harassment and assaults yeah Not only
01:02:46
was he a shooting victim but he was a victim of asss stalking of like you name it and
01:02:53
it's like yeah okay so he was you know he liked to go after ladies that may a good time guy he was he was you know
01:03:01
like yeah he was a h wrecker like it's just that he was it is what it and it's like it's just the fact of the matter
01:03:06
but it's like that doesn't to Define him by that after he's been murdered in the
01:03:13
street he's so much more than just that one thing is like pretty it just seems callous to me it's like yeah that was a
01:03:19
part of what he did but does he deserve to die no that way like come on that's the thing yeah after hearing the
01:03:26
evidence though presented by the prosecution as well as the evidence collected during the coroner's inquest
01:03:30
held a day earlier the grand jury handed down the indictment and Annie was bound
01:03:35
over for trial so this was going to trial yeah however while this seemed like a positive step toward getting
01:03:40
Justice for George everyone really knew that the case against Annie was slim and
01:03:45
very circumstantial damn the prosecution's evidence amounted to a witness seeing Annie in the area shortly
01:03:50
before the shooting a dirty dress some gunpowder residue maybe on her hands and a long history of threatening and
01:03:58
stalking behavior which when chocked up altogether like it is seems pretty good I mean there's a lot of circumstantial
01:04:05
but it's like this lady was walking around to anybody she was going to like anybody who would listen anybody who had
01:04:13
ears she was telling she was going to murder this man yeah like that does need to be taken into account cuz nine times
01:04:20
out of 10 they follow through and they do it yeah exactly we've seen this time and time again
01:04:24
it's this is a wild case yeah so despite the high-profile nature of the case and
01:04:29
how well everyone in Stark County knew the toxic history between Annie and George jury selection was uh completed
01:04:35
very quickly and the trial got underway on April 8th 1899 arguing for uh for the
01:04:40
state was County prosecutor Atley pomerance while the defense team was led by Canton mayor like I said James rice
01:04:47
in his opening statement pomerance laid out the states case that on the evening of October 6th George got on his bicycle
01:04:53
and had headed to the home of his girlfriend arriving in the vicinity a little after 6:00 p.m. at the same time
01:04:59
Witnesses saw Annie board a street car headed in the direction of Eva's house according to pomerance the two met on
01:05:06
the sidewalk outside of Eva's house where Annie fired two shots at George Who immediately dropped to the ground
01:05:12
after hearing George cry out for help she approached and stood over him firing twice more at close range killing him
01:05:19
instantly in support of this Theory pomerans explained to the jury that officers found quote Mrs George's
01:05:25
fingers were blackened with burned powder when arrested and that she had not only threatened to kill Saxton but
01:05:31
had long planned how to do it and that she had outlined her plans to another party so they were like yeah they're
01:05:38
they're saying exactly what they're saying what we're saying it's like this is how it happened someone literally saw
01:05:44
her in the vicinity like a mile away and then she has all this gunpowder on her hands and she's been telling people
01:05:50
people for [ __ ] years that she was going to do this like you got to follow the breadcrumbs here when something
01:05:55
happens the exact way that somebody said they were going to do it they did it they did it come on come on by that time
01:06:02
a great deal of media attention and gossip had focus on the scandalous and ultimately ugly relationship that
01:06:07
existed between the two of them which some viewed as an explanation for the crime but in the months since her arrest
01:06:13
some in the press and residents of Canton had raised George's history with women almost like I was saying as a
01:06:19
justification for the shooting Rumors in inuendo that not not started by the defense were still encouraged by rice
01:06:27
Sterling and Welty all of the defense or [ __ ] up like they didn't the defense didn't start the rumors but they were
01:06:33
like they're not stopping we're not going to stop them exactly people knew that at the time of his death too George
01:06:40
was traveling to Eva's home with a bottle of champagne and his nightclothes which was very curious given that
01:06:47
although he had a key to the house Eva was away and not expected to return for several days the the implication being
01:06:55
who was he there to meet oh no yeah that's not great in anticipation of the questions and imp implications this
01:07:03
raised pomerance the prosecutor told the jury he cares not what relations were shown to have existed between the two
01:07:10
and that they were not such as to have Justified the crime so it's like while he may have been going to his
01:07:16
girlfriend's house to meet up with a mistress like that sucks but that doesn't mean that he didn't get shot by
01:07:22
any doesn't have anything to do with it yeah that's neither here nor there exactly it's like when we say when they
01:07:28
bring up like a victim's sexual history or like dating history and it's like that's [ __ ] up it is [ __ ] up like
01:07:34
because we're we should be looking at the task at hand here well it's like that's just gossip for gossip sake when
01:07:39
when it comes down to it true the next day defense attorney John walty gave his opening remarks to the jury during which
01:07:45
he laid out the broad argument for Annie's defense he opened by complimenting the jury telling them
01:07:51
quote his client was satisfied to leave her life in Liberty in their hands she felt confident in them wow from there
01:07:58
Welty gave the jury an overview of the legal history between Saxton and the Georges including George saxon's
01:08:04
supposed promise to marry Annie and the extent of his seduction and deception and luring her away from her husband and
01:08:11
convincing her to divorce sample and abandon their family yeah it doesn't look great it doesn't sound great when
01:08:17
you put it all together it was true he acknowledged that there had been some threats made over the years sure sure
01:08:21
sure oh yeah but they were nothing at all all as menacing as the prosecution made them sound instead he claimed they
01:08:28
were simply the frustrated outbursts of a woman scorned in fact in his opinion the degree of passion evident in that
01:08:36
frustration and those outbursts were if anything evidence that showed the extent
01:08:40
of Annie's love for George even after he had abandoned her and left her destitute she loves him that's why she
01:08:49
talks about killing him so much now I know some of you listening have also found yourself scorned Yeah by someone
01:08:57
you loved most of us have I don't I didn't walk around saying that you know I was going to kill that man no I just
01:09:05
didn't laying out exactly how showing people a a a murder weapon like no like you don't go go around saying you are
01:09:15
legitimately going and you don't follow them around you don't assault them you don't stalk them you don't hold
01:09:22
revolvers to their heads and walk them down the street you don't you don't make it so they have to whack you with an
01:09:28
umbrella to get you off of them like like I'm sorry but in my book walking around talking about how much you're
01:09:33
going to kill someone and like how much you want to kill that person to me doesn't show how much you love them
01:09:39
follow me crazy that's not how how me and John's Love Story started I can that wasn't our love language maybe it is
01:09:46
somewhere else but it's not here but since the prosecution had very little evidence against Annie uh physical
01:09:52
evidence against Danny and no witnesses that could put the gun directly in her hand or place her at the scene Beyond
01:09:59
Reasonable Doubt pomerans had to convince the jury that the circumstantial evidence amounted to
01:10:04
irrefutable guilt so to do this they offered testimony from the arresting officers who told the jury how Annie
01:10:10
appeared nervous when arrested and how they found evidence of her having recently fired a pistol literal
01:10:18
arresting officers were like when we arrested her she had gunpowder on her hands like no we don't have pics of it
01:10:24
cuz I don't even know about cameras right now but he's like cameras who I don't know her they might have been
01:10:28
around I don't know but like that's coming out of the arresting officer's mouth like they're saying there's GSR on
01:10:35
her hand man exactly and that along with everything else like come on yeah additional Witnesses included the street
01:10:41
car driver who testified that Annie got out of the car near Eva's at the time of
01:10:47
the shooting and several friends and acquaintances who told the story of Annie's desperate attempts to reconcile
01:10:53
with with George and failing that the number of times she had threatened his life exactly oh cameras were invented by
01:11:00
the way it was 1816 I I had a feeling they were they were definitely those big like poof cameras that you had to like
01:11:05
you know and I don't know if they were really like photographing evidence like I don't think they just like pulling one
01:11:10
out of their pocket and like taking a quick you know photo like macro photo of GSR on someone's hands exactly now Annie
01:11:18
never testified on her own behalf but she didn't really have to her demeanor in performance from behind the defense
01:11:24
table was more than enough for the jury to witness as she listened to her people
01:11:29
arguing on her behalf quote the serenity with which she had faced the jury gave way to the the appearance of Sorrow her
01:11:36
eyes were moist and downcast her manner was natural enough in view of welty's graphic description of events from the
01:11:42
time that she left Hanoverton as an innocent and contended woman to the time when she was cast a drift by Saxton so
01:11:50
she was [ __ ] haming it up she was haming up was I was going to say beefing it up she was she was beefing it up she
01:11:57
was playing the part she was to listen to the defense one would have assumed though that it was George Saxton who was
01:12:02
on trial not but things got even worse for the prosecution when the defense entered several scraps of shredded paper
01:12:09
into evidence that when reassembled compromised a series of notes between George Saxton and Jake Mintz the head of
01:12:16
a private investigation agency employed by Saxton so the defense called mince to
01:12:22
the stand and he testified quote Saxton came to Cleveland and engaged me to secure evidence against Mrs George
01:12:29
Saxton by this time was tired of the woman and wanted to get rid of her oh his idea was to catch her together with
01:12:36
another man and have her sent to the workhouse he thought that would end her it didn't mean like he didn't mean
01:12:44
like he wanted to kill her but he was like I need to get rid of her so like have her sent to a workhouse and
01:12:49
workhouses are [ __ ] up that's that's also brutal and super callous of him like that's [ __ ] up yeah this is a
01:12:57
horrific story on both ends like he was just like yeah send her to a workhouse it's like where she might die exactly
01:13:02
okay like and not great everybody no this is not this is not a love story damn no despite the fact that this was a
01:13:11
murder trial and min's business dealings with saxt Saxton really had little bearing on the case the defense still
01:13:16
used this as evidence of Georgia's cruelty towards Annie and it worked and as support for their argument that any
01:13:22
outburst threatening behavior from her was only the natural result of a woman pushed to the brink of Madness by a
01:13:28
callous and abusive man wow so after 3 weeks of evidence and testimony closing remarks came on April 27th 1899 so we
01:13:37
are literally almost in the 1900s wow look at us the prosecution Revisited the stronger points of their case including
01:13:44
the fact that Annie had made countless threats against George and even physically assaulted him and again had
01:13:49
been seen in the area at the [ __ ] time of the crime come on the evidence may have been circumstantial but it was
01:13:55
also compelling and pointed to her as the most likely suspect in the murder when it came time for the defense to
01:14:01
give closing remarks James Sterling the [ __ ] mayor took a play from Welty strategy and began by complimenting the
01:14:09
prosecutor oh wow Hance he told the jury was quote An Elegant gentleman he's a good lawyer and a nice fellow and that
01:14:16
man said flattery will get you everywhere with me sir exactly he continued basically saying it was not
01:14:22
the prosecutor's fault that he had been LED astray by bad advice and false stories and he had no doubt regretted
01:14:27
building a case on such flimsy evidence oh that is so Pat underhanded like that is so just like like they're there it's
01:14:35
not your fault that you're dumb they're thereon D said after all they had presented a case based on threats made
01:14:41
by a frustrated heartbroken woman and as Sterling pointed out quote it does not follow that because threats were made
01:14:48
they were executed yes it does but but when they are executed did I feel like that's when
01:14:54
you can you can color those dots in he said no no in a Stern tone he went on to say the more I think of it the more
01:15:01
astounded I am to think of it that an officer of this court a member of the Stark County Bar should hold it to be
01:15:07
the rule that suspicion missing links and distorted ideas are evidence of guilt so he literally was like I can't
01:15:14
even believe you're a lawyer he's like wow you suck at this he started off by being like you are an elegant man and
01:15:20
then ended with like but I can't believe you're a lawyer you sure are elegant but
01:15:23
you suck at this you dumb yeah over the course of the next 3 weeks the defense team barely acknowledged the evidence
01:15:29
against their CL or over the course of the last three weeks excuse me the defense barely acknowledged the evidence
01:15:33
against their client and they never considered entering a plea of insanity they weren't even going to do that which
01:15:38
why wouldn't you you would think that would be the easiest thing and I think they would have gotten that you would
01:15:43
get that in a hot second they wanted her to get off like Scott free damn they just operated from the very reasonable
01:15:49
and very legitimate position that threats in inuendo made by an raped person didn't make them guilty of murder
01:15:56
no matter how close they were to the scene of crime when it happened very reasonable wow all right I say that with
01:16:02
sarcasm yeah they strengthened their case by reminding the jury and everybody else in the courtroom that George Saxton
01:16:08
had a long history as basically what they said was a self-centered Playboy and a home wrecker just in case anybody
01:16:14
questioned why Annie had become so desperate yeah under the circumstances it was uh questionable and tacky but it
01:16:21
worked ah the jury deliberated for nearly 23 hours and voted a total of 22 times before returning a verdict of not
01:16:31
guilty how the [ __ ] did that happen not guilty W don't no like it come on now given the weak case against her like I
01:16:44
say weak because it's circumstantial but it's really not Annie's acquittal came as a a surprise to very few people given
01:16:51
that the residents of Canton were shocked 6 months later when new evidence came to light that likely would have
01:16:58
seriously uh had important bearing had it become known to the prosecution at the time of the trial uhoh in July 1899
01:17:05
15-year-old Russell Hogan was arrested in Chicago and brought before the juvenile court to face a charge of
01:17:11
disorderly conduct when he told the pr prosecutor he had witnessed the shooting of George
01:17:17
Saxton he said I was standing right across Lincoln Avenue from Mrs Al house place and saw Mr Saxon on the porch and
01:17:25
I saw Mrs George shoot him wow when the judge was like uh why the [ __ ] didn't you tell anybody about
01:17:33
this sooner he said I was afraid they might do something to me if I told what I seen so I left home and traveled all
01:17:40
over the country since then holy he like carrying that with him yeah according to
01:17:45
the Press Hogan had told the story to others prior to his arrest and was generally believed to be trustworthy wow
01:17:52
not to mention he hadn't told the story in exchange for any type of plea and he didn't expect anything in exchange for
01:17:58
the information it was literally just like I think he needed to get off of his chest which led the authorities to
01:18:04
conclude that he was most likely telling the truth holy [ __ ] but regardless of
01:18:09
his truthfulness Annie had already been acquitted of georg's murder couldn't be retried so in the end his eyewitness
01:18:16
testimony was useless why did he wait so long I know I think he was just scared I think a few
01:18:23
years later Annie relocated to akan Ohio where she met and married local physician Dr Arthur rot Annie's past and
01:18:31
the near certainty of her guilt caused a stir among the uh residents of akan and
01:18:36
the Scandal eventually forced them to relocate little is known about her life from that point forward but in July of
01:18:43
1906 The akan Beacon Journal reported on Arthur R outs quote unquote suicide oh he was quoted as telling Annie on the
01:18:52
night of his death I am tired and sleepy I shall go to bed the following morning
01:18:57
Annie went to check on her husband and found his lifeless body hanging by a belt from the chandelier oh wow his
01:19:03
cause of death was listed as Strang strangulation and he left no note and there was no reason that anybody knew as
01:19:10
to why he would end his life oh boy Annie R out died June 25th 1922 wow of unknown causes and is buried
01:19:20
in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn New York hly and that is the story of the murder
01:19:25
of George Saxton and Annie George ride out wow that's a little sketchy that's very sketchy everybody was like he had
01:19:35
no reason to do that and the last thing he said was like I'm sleepy I'm going to
01:19:39
go to bed that's wild and the fact that that kid came forward later was like I saw the whole thing like I literally saw
01:19:46
all of it and I'm I'm just telling you this to get it off my chest I don't have anything to gain from this wow that's
01:19:51
that's brutal yeah yeah damn and it's really it's just and we said it the whole way through but it's just so
01:19:57
[ __ ] up that everybody was like yeah guess he drove her to it yeah like yeah I guess he's kind of a [ __ ] boy so Mur
01:20:04
him on the street a [ __ ] boy in my life but I've never wanted to kill any of them or never thought like they deserved
01:20:10
I'm not murder them on the street like Jesus God damn y'all that's wild crazy what a what a crazy tail I know
01:20:18
absolutely Bonkers so yeah uh we you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but not so
01:20:27
weird that you run around telling people that you're going to kill somebody and then actually go and kill them and get
01:20:31
away with it because we don't condone that kind of behavior here we don't thank you
01:20:51
goodbye