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hey weirdos I'm Elena I'm Ash and this is morbid [Music] you sounded morose I don't know why I'm
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not but it was also like I don't know it's kind of happy at the same time it was I I'm
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pretty neutral right now all right so maybe it was like half happy half morose and that's that makes a neutral yeah
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like I went into this I think like in a pretty happy mood and then I looked back
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over this case and I said oh it's gonna be a rough one oh yeah that that'll happen on this show called morbid yeah
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this one's a little different today though okay so I'm going I this is shocking and very out of character of me
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but we're going back to the 1800s that's not different um I love to be there I just do be at the 1800s or be square
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yeah honestly that's what I always Elena's motto yeah I'm gonna get that tattooed on me but he said okay today
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we're going to talk about the really really really brutal and awful murder of Bridget Cleary oh
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um this has to do with like folklore and fairy okay folklore in particular that's
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kind of cool which sounds like it's gonna be like fun and Whimsical and that like something will go awry and that's
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where it will get bad but really the whole thing just goes awry there's no Whimsy involved it does at all that's a
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bummer yeah I thought there would be when I went into it but nope there's alas no whims but you know what we're
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gonna get through it together because this is a rough one and it's an important one to tell because Bridget
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Cleary was like a badass lady and he she was like she was like outside of the norm she was like very successful and
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independent like she didn't need her man she didn't need any of that and that's why they killed me it was a problem yeah
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exactly independent but I think the story gets twisted a lot to like be something it's not and it's like no I
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think like I think she was just too badass for everybody but this is a story like I said of a truly heinous and
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senseless act of brutality and eventually murder um but again full of fairies and Fey
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folk and magic at the same time but none of it is Whimsical damn it roller coaster ride so the question here was is
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was Bridget Cleary really murdered out of fear of witches fairies or other you know fantasy monsters no or did her
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husband simply convince himself of this in order to commit murder for a more mundane reason would you say yes yes I
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don't know anything about this yeah I was going to say you don't have the information but I like your answer yeah
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uh so let's talk about Bridget first Bridget Boland was born in and I'm gonna do I've looked up these pronunciations
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because Irish towns are who boy beautiful beautiful sounding but they don't sound the way they look yeah uh so
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she was born in Bali vadley okay County Tipperary okay I'm so sorry everybody she tried this is like my ancestral
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background but I don't know what to do uh she was born on February 19 1869 a Pisces there you go she was the youngest
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born to Patrick Boland and Bridget Keating I want you to remember their names especially Patrick Boland
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does that sound familiar or no no just remember the name got it uh baby Bridget um she grew up in an extremely rural
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Irish village you said you were real good I did rural juror I was able to say it yes uh Bali vaidley was only a little
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under 300 acres which in the late 19th century had just nine houses and had a population of 31 people wow that's a
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little different little rural uh sadly this was actually around a quarter of what it had been before the
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Famine of 1845 to 49. now given the time period in the very rural environment I keep saying it right look at you so I'm
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going to keep saying it's really hard to say um little is known about Bridget's family or her early life you know like
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we can only get so much from it everyone was focused on the potato of it all yeah
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exactly but according to Angela bork who wrote the book the burning of the burning of
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a true story that's a little spoiler alert for you so uh but it's a I recommend that book it's fascinating
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um she claims that the family lived in a tiny wood mud walled thatched cabin across the street from Patrick bolin's
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Sister Mary Kennedy okay remember that name too that is Bridget's Aunt as the youngest in the family bork notes that
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Bridget was more likely to be indulged with education than her brothers were because they were they kind of had to be
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relied upon to be help with like the farming with all the tasks of the day you know the manless stuff yeah so it's
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really it's likely that she was the only one in her family with strong reading and writing skills which was also kind
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of different for women at the time 100 and as she Grew Older her education would come to include again what were
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considered women's skills of the time like embroidery needlework the really important things but at the time they
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were important because because that's how she could make a living because as an adult she made her income
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as a millionaire which she made hats for women essentially um there's also sources that say she
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would call her a seamstress but I think it was probably around the same kind of thing she was doing a little bit of a
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fixing and creating clothing and hats and all that good stuff it was a multi-faceted girly exactly and not only
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that she's a young adult now she would use some of her income to send her father to help with his expenses so she
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was out here making her own money through her own educational skills and sending that money to her father wow
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independent lady uh but in the timeline and the reasons are unclear but by the time she reached
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her late teens or early 20s Bridget's mother had passed away and some of her siblings a lot of them actually had
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either died or emigrated in search of work so she was kind of I don't know how her mother died but um she was kind of
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left with her father and they were really the only remaining members of the family in that area oh wow that's really
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yeah it was really sad it just kind of like family just dispersed in different ways now despite being very successful
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as a seamstress milliner people in the area often spoke of Bridget being quote a bit queer which means she didn't fit
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in okay because you know they they basically kind of thought she seemed a little Superior
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because she like knew more than them she was just confident I mean it still happens today yep like if you have any
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kind of confidence you're just a [ __ ] like that's the way it is especially when it comes to being a woman exactly
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um she also had like in a modest style of attire a lot of modest like yeah so she was she wasn't wearing the like up
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to the chin stuff she was letting the she said check out my job she might have just been letting the tits Flow Free I
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don't know free the titty baby but either way she was very much set apart from the typical Irish Country woman
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attire of the time ah [ __ ] it so I'm sure some people were like bad [ __ ] alert and then some people were like
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she's a bit queer it was probably the woman that were like put your tits away I just want my husband to see exactly
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and it's like blame him don't blame her exactly but in simpler terms Bridget's success as a seamstress slash
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millionaire and a merchant at that point already set her apart from her at the time very poor and Rural neighbors right
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um but her difference was kind of under scored by the fact that she also was very open about her success like she was
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proud of herself she did people hated that yeah the people and again even now people want you to minimize it so it's
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like she if she was out here today being like yeah I'm a badass like business lady I made this I made this damn dress
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look at it everybody's wearing it like people would be like calm down don't be sick of oh go finish oh no I was just
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gonna say like don't be so you know don't don't be so outward with your success don't be so boss but yeah it
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makes me think of the dojo cat song I'm a [ __ ] I'm a ball oh there you go that's Bridget Triple B yeah Boss [ __ ]
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Bridget there you go I like it um I like it um but she was brought up on a farm she
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was brought up in a rural area so she had like a good relationship with that part of her life as well she didn't
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totally neglect it she didn't leave it behind she didn't pretend it wasn't part of her daily life because it was yeah
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she was known to have kept chickens and she ended up supplementing her own income by selling eggs at the market she
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was a businesswoman yeah she really was she's just looking to make income any way she can and like you had to yeah so
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she was working as an apprentice at the market in the nearby town of Clonmel I think it is Clonmel uh this is when
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Bridget met her future husband Michael Cleary I don't like him uh he was a local Cooper and nearly 10 years older
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than her she was already yeah so he was already established as a Tradesman and they began you know courting each other
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I suppose and they ended up marrying like a short time later because you know 1800s of it all yeah according was like
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five minutes and you're like hey we should get married yeah you know why not let's have a kid no in hindsight people
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looked back at this relationship and were like they were a little of a strange pairing yeah it didn't make a
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lot of sense not just because of the age gap which wasn't that big of a deal back
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then right it was and and you know depending on the the age grouping it's always like different yeah yeah but I
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think they just didn't match like it didn't seem like he was very he was very like understated he was very
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quiet modest very modest and she was kind of the total opposite which you could say could be like a nice balance
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and maybe it would work well maybe not back then it did not um this also didn't really help Bridget's
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whole like she's a bit queer thing you know like people would look at her and be like and they were like oh and this
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is weird too that she's doing this like a stark contrast too so it shut off her differences even more and then the way
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they went about things in their relationship which shouldn't be anybody else's business no to be quite honest
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but she knows whatever again there's only like 30 people in this town so it's everyone's business apparently also what
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the hell else are you gonna do I'm not that's the thing what do you got to do in their business oh I I'm I am up in
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their business right now so like I can't say anything but I'm like at the time I'm like guys come on yeah settle down
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I'm being weird about what happened uh but you know they're married now yeah and Bridget and Michael spent the first
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few years of their lives not living together that's a little weird but like whatever
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like whatever who am I to say what works in your damn relationship you know like
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I'm like whatever and you know Michael would she lived at her parents house with her father and he would visit her
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on the weekends like stay at the house on the weekends so I don't know if it was like a work thing I was gonna say do
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you travel right who knows but Angela bork who had just named that book that everybody should read said in those days
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it was definitely because I was like I don't know was that not weird back then I don't know what was weird back then
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but it was unusual for them to live apart from each other like that wasn't an unusual thing yeah especially if they
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were relatively financially stable which they were so they were like I don't she's like I
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don't really know what that was about um but she says that Bridget may have had to nurse her mother at the time
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before she had passed away because we don't know the timeline of her death exactly it gets put into different years
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so this could have been during this beginning of their marriage could have been when she was dealing with her sick
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mother and that makes sense that she wouldn't want to move out in the midst of that yeah it would make a lot of
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sense at the beginning she just wants to stay in the house he's going to visit she's going to take care of her mom
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until she eventually died which we don't know when right um but again while it's entirely
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possible that there's a very simple a normal explanation for this rumors of course went quickly through the small
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town what else are you gonna do yeah exactly and there were many people who would later speculate that Michael had
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been having an affair with Bridget's cousin Joanna Burke damn all of these names are going to come back later so
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they definitely had an affair is what you're telling me um so there was that and in court later
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he would vehemently deny having any type of relationship with Johanna yeah I bet
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he would um you know we don't know but there were also rumors that Bridget was not exactly
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um faithful faithful to her husband in the weeks and months after her death many locals said that they believed that
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she was involved with a local emergency man named William Simpson well he sounds
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more exciting so how about that you know it did sound exciting but I looked it up
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apparently an emergency man is a guy called in by Farmers to help save dying crops exciting so I still think it's so
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easy it's exciting but like in a different way than I thought imagine if your crops were dying and then it would
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be pretty exciting I'd be excited yeah but Michael Cleary would later tell reporters that he thought Bridget was
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having an affair with the local farmer named Patrick power so there's a lot of just scandalous like Desperate
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Housewives kind of thing going on here like this is Wisteria Lane is that what it's called yeah it is yeah this is
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that's this still got to finish that you know she probably like showed one of them her ankle or something and they
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were like oh they're [ __ ] that's exactly they were like unfair yeah there it is now in the small village of
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ballyvadly and nearby conmell I think it's cottonmouth I'm sorry if I'm saying that wrong you're like my people so I
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love you uh Bridget's socioeconomic status her Youth and her perceived arrogance could have been perceived
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poorly by the rural population particularly women unfortunately women don't ever like each other yeah so Borg
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suggests the independence and economic Prosperity enjoyed by Bridget and you know this Emergency Man William Simpson
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also did well in his business they thought this could have been a jealousy thing that they paired the two of them
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together okay like they were both doing all right they were both pretty open about doing all right they had they were
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arrogant you know people didn't like it so they decided to [ __ ] with them because he was also
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married so they decided to be like well you two are [ __ ] like that's obvious and it's like no I think they were just
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like both doing okay yeah and maybe they talked every once in a while and were like you still doing okay that's awesome
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and people were like yeah it's definitely that that's annoying it's a bunch of busy bodies so I think that
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people do believe that that's why they became the subject of like a lot of slanderous they were doers just because
00:15:04
they were doing well and we're open about it [ __ ] imagine if everyone that was doing well had an affair yeah
00:15:09
but yeah like I mean there are but like let me just work through that but that in real time now on the other hand
00:15:18
it's also possible the rumors of Michael and Bridget's infidelity were kind of true so it sounds like he sucked so I
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mean you know yeah it wasn't great I don't think their marriage was was super Solid Ground yeah I don't think it was
00:15:33
on any round to be quite honest in the sky it was in a swamp but following him following her death a lot was made of
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the fact that they were married for eight years at that time and they never had any children now now we would just
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go okay they made that decision or whatever like that's just the way it is maybe they couldn't but Angela bork
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points out in her book A book that um that the church's influence on Irish life at the time made it that it's
00:16:01
unlikely that they were childless by choice yeah because at that time that wasn't a common thing to do to become
00:16:07
true almost by choice so there might have been a biological or a medical reason for this
00:16:12
um but people looked at it as something's wrong here yeah you know and it's not and it's
00:16:18
something within you know within this marriage and not within their control outside of their control that's stupid
00:16:23
now and so there's like a lot of layers to this that just make it more complicated than just like wow you know
00:16:30
fairies like it's like no there was a lot going on here but in his testimony in court Michael Cleary described his
00:16:36
relationship to his wife saying we were not great at all oh well yeah I think we
00:16:42
could we could realize that yeah and apparently um in like in you know Irish parlance at
00:16:49
the time this means that not only did they not get along but they were not in love with women with each other oh so
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this was pretty much him saying like we did not love each other it was a marriage of like convenience um it's
00:16:59
pretty evident from Michael's testimony that there was a lot of bitterness between them
00:17:06
um it doesn't seem like Michael liked the fact that she was like a strong woman and independent and didn't really
00:17:13
rely on him for anything which is strange because it seems like she was already very well established when they
00:17:18
got married she was that's the thing it wasn't like this was you know news flash
00:17:21
or like her business took off while they were married or something yeah and there
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was a lot of mistrust between the two of them because the town was always talking
00:17:28
exactly um there was also a lot this complicated matters too that Bridget was surrounded
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by family in the village not you know not so much her brothers anymore her mom had passed away but like her aunts and
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uncles cousins her dad they were all there Johanna and Michael Johanna Michael had no nearby relatives at all
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oh so he was gel so exactly so in a culture especially at the time that encouraged large close-knit families
00:17:56
this lack of one for him would have made him feel a little isolated and the fact
00:18:02
that they most likely couldn't start a family themselves exactly so he was just kind of at the mercy of her family so he
00:18:08
felt it was definitely a powerless thing and he did not do well with feeling powerless and he didn't look at it like
00:18:15
hey I've become part of this family so I should just be part of this family yeah
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he took it I think with him it was a lot of he didn't handle feeling powerless well which is wild
00:18:28
um some also you're like wait a second but also this entire family and support system for Bridget took her side all the
00:18:37
time when they would argue so I think that's a big Irish fan yeah that's a big Irish family they're gonna be like [ __ ]
00:18:42
you Michael yeah but that probably you know teed him off as well of course and you know when this is all taken together
00:18:49
it kind of seems like their marriage was like a lot of conflict a lot of jealousy
00:18:55
a lot of Suspicion a lot of bitterness and a lot of loneliness a lot of one-sided things it sounds like they
00:19:01
were both very lonely in their marriage which is horrible exactly now and people
00:19:06
could see that there was like anger and bitterness especially in Michael they could it wasn't outward but they could
00:19:11
just sense it when they were around them um and because of this he was definitely
00:19:17
more susceptible to some influence of the outside ah nature especially yeah like it was he was definitely looking
00:19:26
for ways out of this and he wasn't looking for like a divorce a regular way out of this for sure because divorce
00:19:32
probably wasn't even like a word back then yeah it's like and it's like dude I think you both would have been fine if
00:19:37
you both just went your separate ways here like you would have you would have survived the society issues like we
00:19:42
didn't need to go here right now on the afternoon of March 4th 1895 Bridget walked home from her Bali vaidley home
00:19:50
about two miles to kilnamina hold on kill the Mana kill the Mana I wrote it out phonetically so I wanted
00:20:03
to make sure I said it right kill the Mana I hate when I do that and then I'm like I still can't say yeah my damn uh
00:20:10
she walked to the home of her father's cousin Jack Dunn so another family member she had gone to the house to
00:20:17
deliver eggs and get payment from previously delivered eggs because she was charging a business woman and you
00:20:24
didn't pay me last time I'm collecting these eggs uh but Jack wasn't there and his wife wasn't there either yeah I bet
00:20:31
they were so she decided to wait for one of them to come back because she said I'd make good on my [ __ ] leg I'm
00:20:37
bringing you eggs you're gonna pay me for the last one yeah I'm not bringing you new eggs till you pay for the last
00:20:41
eggs so I guess it was like sunny out it was nice out but there was a deep chill
00:20:45
in the air that day um and Bridget was apparently because remember we're just not one for to be
00:20:50
very conservatively dressed she was underdressed for the weather so by the time she got back home she was very cold
00:20:57
shivering like very much had a chill um even sitting by the fireplace it didn't do anything to warm her up and
00:21:03
according to Angela bork uh the next day Bridget woke with quote a violent headache and had fits of shivering and
00:21:11
wasn't able to get out of bed sounds like she has pneumonia thank you you're welcome uh in the days after this the
00:21:18
weather got warmer but you know the I think it was like just damp like the Earth was damp which is not great when
00:21:25
you're not feeling great and so it kind of made her worse and especially if she had pneumonia or bronchitis or something
00:21:30
like that it probably made it worse right so she was in bed for like the entire week after that
00:21:36
um and during this time especially in rural communities people would come to your bedside people yeah you know all
00:21:43
the time like it was you were not going to be alone in bed um and so she's bedridden and she got a
00:21:48
ton of visitors and they came by to kind of help around the house help with the cooking you know just to offer well
00:21:55
wishes just that kind of thing she's got a lot of loved ones around Community um and one of those visitors was Jack
00:22:00
Dunn her her father's cousin her father's cousin so and this was also the man who she had gone to visit on the day
00:22:08
she got ill [ __ ] better have my money exactly now of course at this time um and this time in this place like rural
00:22:18
places like this they were a little slower to embrace scientific and technological changes yeah more than
00:22:24
like you know their Urban countrymen sure sure so but by this but honestly even by those standards Jack Dunn was an
00:22:31
outlier here like he was even further back in the evolution of like believing in science and technology okay
00:22:40
um so he was as he's described in the book a man who might have commanded respect in an earlier generation or a
00:22:48
more remote place but who had become marginalized and isolated in an increasingly modern society so he's a
00:22:55
guy who believes in all the folklore and he's you know the um the folk medicine and all that and
00:23:01
he's staying very hard into that and not moving with the times so people were starting to see him as kind of like oh
00:23:07
that's Jack done Jack the quack boom see you would have killed it back then oh my God
00:23:15
ultimately it's Jack the quack coming they would have bad guys me immediately I would have been killed on impact on
00:23:22
him we're just like shunned into the woods it would have been fun I was gonna say which would have been awesome uh so
00:23:29
a report in the cork examiner um said it like this at 55 years old Dunn is an old man and is fairy ridden
00:23:37
he's learned apparently in incantations charms and spells and can tell ghost stories and fairy tales he is the he is
00:23:46
the very shinachi of ancient Ireland now I found out that that is what is referred to as just like a teller of old
00:23:53
Tales or Legends a shinachi yeah that's fun to say yeah and at the time when I read this I was like he sounds awesome
00:23:59
when I when you say that he sounds awesome but I can already tell that he's up to some [ __ ] [ __ ] yeah I'm gonna go
00:24:04
ahead and tell you he sucks yeah I saw that and the people here suck besides like Bridget yeah pretty much Johanna I
00:24:12
have her number yeah I have his number yeah Jack I was like you had promise in the
00:24:17
beginning but no he didn't though because he never even paid for her eggs that's true so [ __ ] him that's true now
00:24:23
apparently Jack Dunn truly was a very rigid representation of cultural heritage and traditions that
00:24:30
had all but died out after the famine because before the famine folk tales and Superstition were treated very seriously
00:24:38
much more seriously than they were after um as is pointed out in the book in another time he again would be kind of
00:24:47
an authority figure in the community and he probably was at one point but by the
00:24:51
late 1800s he just became eccentric that's like he was kind of ridiculed for it so he was
00:24:58
kind of thirsting for that time when he was the authority on things look upon me
00:25:03
again and there was also so the other thing that made him a target for mockery at
00:25:08
this time was he held a genuine belief in fairies and their influence over humans Jack and his wife apparently
00:25:14
lived near what he referred to as a fairy Fort that's a real thing and he was frequently heard to say quote he
00:25:22
heard the fairies outside his house every night and that sometimes they played hurling matches there Jack honey
00:25:28
now a fairy Fort was apparently a prehistoric or pre-christian dwelling of some sort that had kind of been like
00:25:36
taken over by nature and so it looked very super high fantasy and looks like a place fairies would live okay I'm not
00:25:43
saying they don't personally no I think I believe in Faye and [ __ ] yeah so like
00:25:47
let's go but like I don't know if they like overtake humans though I don't know I don't know about it I'm gonna sit over
00:25:52
here with my no knowledge of Faye or fairy from the only thing I know is what we talked about in our episode that we
00:25:59
did yeah so I also know not to [ __ ] with it even if it's not real so yep here I
00:26:04
am I don't know anything I'm just out here reporting this yep uh but he truly believed in this and that fairy Fort was
00:26:12
was very real and that's what it was again it sounds awesome I'm into this sounds awesome until it's
00:26:19
not I think exactly now again much of Ireland at this time was embracing the modern era so this was
00:26:27
this was weird yeah but I feel like they were like you need to chill out um but a belief in fairies was also at
00:26:35
the time kind of a means of explaining some part of life that didn't make logical sense right uh for example like
00:26:42
if this man if a random man like your neighbor was known to have walked with a limp for his entire life and then all of
00:26:50
a sudden he's gone for a short period of time and he comes back and he doesn't have that limp anymore uh anyone see a
00:26:56
doctor no he did not they most likely would have said there had to be some magical explanation for this which again
00:27:03
I don't know I wasn't in the 1800s could have been but in Jack Dunn's experience
00:27:08
Bridget Cleary had always been very well put together she was a merchant she was
00:27:14
a seamstress a business woman she was independent she was confident she was together so to see her so unwell and so
00:27:23
quote unquote weak and bedridden and unkempt in her bed as well um particularly after she had been near
00:27:31
his Ferry for it in his home had sat outside next to it for a while it made him very stressed out and he apparently
00:27:39
cried out when he saw her that is not Bridget Boland why so like sir she sat in the damp cold
00:27:47
air we know what happened next to a ferry for it no according to him shut up now if this were other anyone else there
00:27:54
that had said that they probably would have interpreted that as just like a way to say she looks
00:28:00
very ill like that's not her that looks so wow like she didn't seem like herself
00:28:04
but coming from Jack they're like oh [ __ ] that's not Bridge it was interpreted to mean that is not Bridget
00:28:12
Cleary that is not Bridget Boland and it's this moment that likely started to seal the deal here because even
00:28:21
though he wasn't looked at as an authority anymore him saying that with such like
00:28:26
conviction I think at least set a couple of people if not one in particular Michael Cleary um into a little bit of a
00:28:35
tizzy because he already had some thoughts I feel so real tizzy or a [ __ ] put on Disney exactly now in
00:28:42
fact the cork examiner later wrote quote Dunn's remarks set all the fairy Machinery in motion so they fully were
00:28:50
like it's him he did it but it's like let's not take all the all the stuff off of the person who actually does it and
00:28:57
we'll get there okay so to a lot of people Bridget was [ __ ] sick she had bronchitis she had pneumonia she was
00:29:04
just sick that was it but Jack Dunn was like nope there's clear evidence here that she is a changeling
00:29:11
which is a human-like creature that's left behind by fairies after they stole the actual person this [ __ ] just
00:29:20
didn't want to pick up his egg tab that's true he just wanted that egg tub to remain honestly I think that's all it
00:29:26
lines up for for him and well and here's the thing to anybody around who he was not the last person there to believe
00:29:34
this stuff it's not like it was totally gone and everybody's like oh yeah that's
00:29:37
all [ __ ] why do we ever believe that in the beginning like this is through generations people believed this stuff
00:29:42
they still do today so it's like there were people there that still at least kind of believed in this and if he's
00:29:48
sitting here going I'm the authority here's the evidence to suggest it your swaying people who are already in a
00:29:55
state of like what the hell is going on so according to them her case checked all the boxes of a person who had been
00:30:01
away with the fairies away with the face um like for example Bridget and Michael
00:30:06
Cleary had experienced um a period of uncommon Prosperity before she was ill and this was after her being at the
00:30:14
ferry for it so this indicated that she had maybe traded her health for wealth now I think she was wealthy before even
00:30:22
I think so too now also they'd been married for eight years they were remaining childless so some people
00:30:28
thought that that meant she had exchanged her ability to Bear children for economic Prosperity yeah
00:30:34
absolutely and finally Jack Dunn said several times that the creature in the bed had one leg that was longer than the
00:30:42
other remember the creature in the bed is bridgeable and and also people can have one leg that is longer than the
00:30:47
other you absolutely can but he said this was proof that Bridget had been changed after her interaction with the
00:30:53
fairies I would just like to point out that your best friend Debbie is sitting here in one of her legs is longer than
00:30:58
the other Faye you're a fairy get out of here you're a changeling that's and they would have said that if
00:31:05
you looked at your ass and would have said you're a changeling she's which you're a witch and while Jack Dunn
00:31:11
ranted about you know she's a changeling other members of the community were expressing serious concerns for her
00:31:17
actual health because I'm glad there were some people because at this point she wasn't seeming to be getting any
00:31:22
better so people were genuinely like what's going on here more pneumonia back then I'm sure they didn't have a way to
00:31:29
treat exactly like a good way to treat it now on March 9th Bridget's Father Patrick Boland walked four miles in The
00:31:36
Heavy Rain to get the doctor Dr William cream don't don't be too impressed by him
00:31:42
um a physician Who provided Medical Care to the poor and destitute which was shocking to me because because she was
00:31:49
neither poor or destitute but several days passed and Dr creene did not respond did not come to the home
00:31:56
because he was busy with the poor in the distance probably so Michael Cleary went
00:32:00
to go get him but was only able to leave word with a neighbor that Bridget was still very ill and they needed to see
00:32:05
the doctor was there no other doctor I guess he was the only one around that they wanted to talk to so a few days
00:32:11
later Michael returned again in hopes of finding the doctor but he still couldn't
00:32:15
find him meanwhile William Simpson the guy that she was supposed to be have an affair with the Emergency Man
00:32:22
um he sent one of his Maids because remember we're not porn destitute here his maids to Dragon to fetch father Khan
00:32:29
Ryan um and he did this which it kind of implicates that she was close to death and needed less rights yeah like why
00:32:40
else you know or at least needed a priest there to perform some sort of if need be stuff so like this this would
00:32:46
implicate that but that really wasn't the case now on March 13th so four days after he was first contacted Dr creene
00:32:54
finally made his way to the clearly house imagine just having to go find a doctor yeah come find you right like now
00:33:03
in his testimony later that he gave to the coroner later uh Queen said I found her suffering sir simply from nervous
00:33:11
excitement and slight bronchitis okay so Dr crean prescribed medication for Bridget but he never followed up after
00:33:19
the visit that's uh so he also didn't know if the prescription ever got filled or if it
00:33:25
was given to her um as far as he knew and what he told the courts he said Bridget was perfectly
00:33:30
healthy she had a body of good physique and well nourished the only thing I can say is that she was awfully nervous hmm
00:33:36
and he keeps saying that she was very anxious very nervous probably because everyone's saying she's a [ __ ] fairy
00:33:42
well when you hear what happens to her later I'm like yeah probably um it's most likely that Bridget had
00:33:49
probably caught like a nasty cold on or around the time she was visiting Jack Dunn's house because like she probably
00:33:56
didn't get it there she was probably just developing it and I'm sure the cold didn't help the dampness and all that
00:34:01
um and that probably developed into bronchitis which likely went into pneumonia that's like pneumonia will
00:34:07
knock you on your ass especially in the 1800s well there wasn't a lot to do about it right later in fact a
00:34:13
post-mortem examination said the coroner reported that the only evidence of illness was that her lungs
00:34:19
were slightly congested okay so it does indicate that um and but also I guess what what they were
00:34:27
trying to say to was they were like okay so she has congested lungs but there's all these other like symptoms that were
00:34:33
coming out so what they're trying to do is kind of like be polite about it but like Dr creane essentially wrote in his
00:34:40
report when he saw her that basically whatever illness was plaguing her was likely something you know in the chest
00:34:47
area but it likely could have also been like slightly psychological in nature because he was pointing to her her
00:34:54
anxiety it sounds like you know that kind of thing that maybe she was suffering from some of that as well
00:34:59
maybe whatever if it was pneumonia or bronchitis or whatever was going on that was also making her nervous maybe she
00:35:06
was okay she was getting kind of over over upset about everything and it was he probably Michael Cleary probably
00:35:12
wasn't being like a great caretaker so I'm sure she was also stressed out yeah so I think he was pointing a little to
00:35:18
that that like there was some psychological stuff Happening Here um but they don't say it outright okay
00:35:23
now given the autopsy results it's entirely possible that crean's assessment was accurate
00:35:30
um and it actually seemed at the time that she was close to considering Jack Dunn's claims of like the changeling
00:35:39
thing with seriousness so that leads me to believe that there's definitely some psychological stuff going on right now
00:35:45
because she told her cousin Johanna that it all started when she quote took like
00:35:51
a trembling coming by kilnament kilnamina um meaning that she kind of believed she
00:35:57
caught a chill down by the fairy Fort okay so she was at least mentioning that she was near a ferry for it when this
00:36:05
happened Okay so if we really think about it like if we take a step back it's like okay yeah I
00:36:11
think what I think happened was she was probably developing a cold anyway she was down there it was damp she sat
00:36:18
out there tits out and she probably caught like a little more of a chill it probably developed into bronchitis
00:36:25
pneumonia it was making her stressed out she's hearing Jack done say that she's a
00:36:31
changeling she's seeing all these people questioning whether she's really Bridget
00:36:35
Boland laying in this bed which is probably stressing her the [ __ ] out and now she she like sold her ability to
00:36:41
have children so now she's probably sitting there and being like well it was near a ferry for it like what exactly
00:36:47
she's probably getting scared now like yeah this is deep-rooted folklore that she changed her whole life a child yeah
00:36:53
yeah it's like no matter what she's gonna be like [ __ ] is this real like is is this what is happening right yeah now
00:37:01
it was unfortunately clear that after a week of being sick and the Fairy talk on
00:37:05
top of it there was beginning to be that psychological toll um she said she told her Aunt Mary
00:37:11
Kennedy I'm very bad and she said he's making he and she's referring to as uh to Michael Cleary he's making a fairy of
00:37:20
me now in an emergency he thought to burn me about three months ago but if I had my mother I would not be this way
00:37:27
and don't worry I'm gonna explain to you what she probably meant by that okay because when I first read it I was like
00:37:31
coming again yeah um so Bridget wasn't referring to Jack Dunn She's referring to Michael Cleary
00:37:38
when she says he and that's her husband yeah yes um and according to Angela bork to make
00:37:44
a fairy of someone actually could also mean to isolate or reject them okay um so this is kind of implying that
00:37:53
under the growing influence of Jack Dunn Michael Cleary was starting to isolate his wife and blow her illness way out of
00:38:01
proportion which was making it seem far worse than it really was and she also notes that the phrase he thought to burn
00:38:08
me about three months ago implies that this wasn't the first time the couple had dealt with an argument or crisis
00:38:16
like this okay so that there was some [ __ ] that was happening before this so she doesn't
00:38:22
kind of she doesn't actually mean burn her no they think at least that's what the that's what like is thought to be
00:38:29
what she meant by that's interesting because from the name of the book it sounds like he does burn thank you
00:38:34
because then that's the thing like nobody knows if that's because there is different ways to take
00:38:39
that when you look at language and like what it was back then but then when you look at what when you look at what
00:38:44
happens in the end you're like did she mean that but I don't know what does she mean say because I can't really about
00:38:49
her mom I think she's just saying if my mom was here like she wouldn't let this happen yeah like I I think that's part
00:38:56
of it which is really sad basically the distress and emotional stress that was referenced by Dr cream
00:39:03
was the result of Bridget's belief that Michael's Behavior had some sort of Nefarious intent but this wasn't him
00:39:11
caring and being influenced it was him wanting an end game here a means to him um and that she's referring to possibly
00:39:19
the idea that they had been in that argument or crisis before and that he had possibly tried to get rid of her that is
00:39:26
a possibility like who knows if it means exactly that that's terrifying so Michael Cleary left the house shortly
00:39:33
after Dr Crane and he was still away that afternoon when Father Ryan actually ended up coming to the house and he got
00:39:39
back just as Father Ryan was leaving now according to Cleary's testimony he went
00:39:45
by Father Ryan as he was leaving and this is when he was informed that Bridget was very weak and that the
00:39:51
priest had already prepared her for death by giving her her last rights wow so this is like shocking like they're
00:39:58
like [ __ ] and in the days following later after Cleary was arrested later um a lot was made of Father Ryan's
00:40:07
assessment of Bridget's Health as so dire that he had to give last rights um especially because Dr crean's opinion
00:40:14
was that she had a bad cold that turned into pneumonia and she was like why is she suddenly on the on death's door
00:40:20
um but bork explains in her book that as a Catholic priest who took his vows very
00:40:25
seriously father Ryan's vow of celibacy quote forbade him to have any more dealings than necessary with women
00:40:33
so it's unlikely that he spent even more than 20 minutes with her um and was probably in very poor
00:40:40
lighting others were around everyone's in an emotional heightened state so all while Cleary reported Father Ryan as
00:40:49
having made dire predictions about Bridget's like impending death he never considered her to be
00:40:55
dangerously ill instead he likely administered last rights as a precautionary measure in case it did
00:41:02
progress and he couldn't get back there in time yeah and he wasn't but he didn't
00:41:06
have to come back because she's a woman exactly he's like I don't want to spend any more time with women than I have to
00:41:10
so he probably did it like just in case she seemed pretty [ __ ] sick right now so like I'm just gonna do it so that
00:41:17
it's there yeah but Michael Cleary took it as like she's dying so when Dr creene
00:41:22
and Father Ryan saw Bridget clearey that day because it was on the same day that
00:41:27
they saw him both men recalled her being way more emotionally upset and agitated
00:41:31
than physically ill because she probably had her husband talking about hitting her yeah killing her yeah and this was
00:41:37
supported later by testimony from friends and family who visited that same day that it was way more emotionally
00:41:43
upset than physically upset um and while both men did what they could for Bridget green gave the
00:41:49
prescription and told them to fill it and give it to her and Ryan did the last rites and prayers and all that good
00:41:55
stuff which probably upset her even more if she's thinking that she's feeling better
00:41:59
last rights like Jesus yeah they literally but they kind of didn't give Michael Cleary the answer he was looking
00:42:06
for so it was kind of like it was just kind of Dr crane saying yeah it seems like it's bronchitis pneumonia like take
00:42:14
this prescription I'm sure she'll be fine and then Father Ryan being like no she seems like you know she seems pretty
00:42:21
sick I just did this just in case that's very all of that is very unclear yeah it's like you could just have taken Dr
00:42:28
Green's word for it but like who am I um but Michael Cleary took it as like this is very ambiguous so he looked over
00:42:35
to Jack Dunn and was like you know what say it is that seems more likely or did it just seem simpler Now While most of
00:42:44
those who saw Bridget in the days just before her death remarked on again her her agitated emotional state far fewer
00:42:52
seemed to notice Michael Cleary who was deteriorating into like a madman in the at this time like he was becoming more
00:43:01
and more wild with his his thoughts with his actions because he's hanging out with the quack Jack yeah exactly
00:43:10
exactly whichever you prefer yeah he he wasn't looking at it and it soon became clear that he was not going to look to
00:43:16
traditional medicine to help his wife he was not going to fill that prescription
00:43:20
he was not going to give her the medicine which probably would have just helped her she probably would have
00:43:25
gotten out of bed in a couple days and that's probably what he was hoping would not happen exactly and then
00:43:30
unfortunately the premature last white rights reading by Father Ryan put that in
00:43:36
um and again they were on the same day so they're back to back things on the same day which just sent him into a
00:43:41
different tizzy now acting under Jack Dunn's influence Michael Cleary went to the market and fettered to get several
00:43:49
herbs that he thought would improve her condition now after Dr Crane and Father Ryan had
00:43:55
left Dunn had chastised Michael for waiting so long to take action he was like I can't believe you even had these
00:44:02
two men in here like why are you having a medical doctor in here he doesn't know
00:44:05
anything about Faye and why did you have Father Ryan in here he doesn't know [ __ ]
00:44:08
about Faye either like you're taking to you're you're not taking the right action okay yeah he said it is not your
00:44:15
wife in there this is the eighth day and you had a right to have gone to Gainey on the fifth day
00:44:21
so he's making reference to Dennis Gainey who is a local farmer and Herb Doctor Who
00:44:28
had a very strong belief in fairies and folklore just as strong as Jack Dunn um so later that evening they went got
00:44:36
the herbs from him and they gave Bridget the first dose of those herbs and I'm going to explain to you in a little bit
00:44:43
how they gave her those herbs now the following day the herbs didn't seem to have any effect on Bridget's Health they
00:44:50
weren't helping her which wow but done in Cleary we're going to go ahead with their full plan they were not willing to
00:44:56
accept this and that afternoon Jack Dunn Michael Cleary and two other young men gathered in Bridget's room with a glass
00:45:04
of milk they put the herbs in there they mixed them up and in his testimony in court Dunn said
00:45:10
quote the four of us caught her and I had her by the neck it was very hard on her to take it
00:45:16
so well done is essentially admitting he and the three other men violently forced
00:45:22
Bridget to drink the liquid he's just minimizing it into like it was tough on her but she also and it's like you
00:45:28
poured it down her throat and [ __ ] yeah and he's saying I caught her which indicates that she was that she was
00:45:33
trying to get away from them so I'm like there's way more to this story of what they were planning to do to her oh and
00:45:39
it gets worse because as they were forcing her to drink this milk with herbs in it William Simpson who she was
00:45:47
accused of having the affair with the emergency man and his wife as well as Joanna Burke and her mother told you
00:45:53
they all came to the clary's front door and were coming to visit Bridget but Michael Cleary refused to open the door
00:46:01
at the time so they could just hear what was going on inside and from the bedroom
00:46:05
they could hear a man's voice shouting take that you rap and then they were banging on the door being like let us in
00:46:12
no one was coming so they just could stay out there and try to get in the house but they were hearing the whole
00:46:17
thing and they said a moment or two later they heard another man shouting take it you old [ __ ] or I'll kill you
00:46:23
oh my God yeah so four or five minutes later Michael Cleary just walks up to the front door
00:46:30
and lets everybody in hey everybody Welcome nothing to see here and this is when they stepped in they were like what
00:46:37
the [ __ ] and they said as soon as they stepped in they heard another man shout
00:46:40
away she go away she go and later William Simpson would tell the court that Cleary had claimed the house
00:46:48
was full of fairies and that he had only opened the door to force the fairies out
00:46:52
not to let them in what the [ __ ] yes I told you no this is sad it's very sad it's [ __ ]
00:47:02
up and sad I don't think they thought she was a fairy yeah I really don't think they thought
00:47:08
she was a fairy really brutal now when Simpson finally William Simpson made his way into the bedroom he said he found
00:47:14
the men aggressively restraining Bridget who was struggling and Jack Dunn was pouring the hot milk and Herb mixture
00:47:22
down her throat oh my God like forcibly and as Bridget was struggling Michael Cleary held his hand over her nose and
00:47:29
mouth to make sure she swallowed it because Dunn was telling him if it went on the ground she could not be brought
00:47:35
back from the fairies what the [ __ ] so The Simpsons would later learn that this was actually the
00:47:42
third time that they had administered the herb mixture in this way this was the third time they had forced it down
00:47:48
her throat and they're forcing milk down her throat when she has bronchitis or pneumonia oh and it gets worse because
00:47:54
during um a well when was it the I think it was during the second time the time before
00:47:59
this one uh she had actually sustained a burn on her forehead because Jack Dunn struck her with a hot fireplace poker in
00:48:07
order to force her to drink the mixture what the [ __ ] yeah also remember these are her family
00:48:14
members yeah this is like her father's cousin now throughout the force feeding of the
00:48:19
herb mixture the men gathered around the bed were repeatedly shouting at her Are
00:48:24
You Bridget Boland wife of Michael Cleary in the name of God okay and when she wouldn't or should I
00:48:31
say couldn't answer them because remember they're forcing hot milk with herbs down her throat and hitting her in
00:48:38
the head with hot pokers done hurt was heard to say make down a good fire and we will make her answer oh my God now
00:48:46
finally when the fire was burning the men and it was burning low the men got Bridget off the bed and carried her
00:48:53
towards the fire now she has been abused but she is fully conscious and aware of
00:48:58
what's happening so she started to yell for them to give her a chance because I'm sure she's like just I don't
00:49:04
even know what you want from me like just let like put me down and the men just ignored her and placed her body on
00:49:10
the grate above the fire of the kitchen fire oh my God and William Simpson later
00:49:14
told the court she gave no evidence of being in pain she did not scream and it's like probably because she was
00:49:21
in shock I would assume now she's crumpled up on the great over the fire and her father is there by the
00:49:28
way and her father looks at her and says Are You Bridget Boland wife of Michael Cleary in the name of God and this is
00:49:35
when she spoke and she said I am da da I am the father of Pat Boland in the name
00:49:40
of God I'm the daughter of Pat Bowlen in the name of God and after about 10 minutes they removed her from the great
00:49:46
and put her back in bed gone the fact that she called him yeah it's important also makes me think of
00:49:54
your kids yeah it's important to note that among the things that made this story so [ __ ] shocking to the public
00:50:00
was that during this whole thing there were like nine to 13 people in the house who witnessed and participated in all of
00:50:08
this and at no time did anyone do anything to stop it or help her horrific so she lay in bed and she's arriving in
00:50:16
pain she's mumbling incoherently because now she's essentially been like beaten and at this point she's writhing in pain
00:50:22
she's a mess and the men around her were described in court later as being more relaxed than ever
00:50:29
including her own father and William Simpson later told the court they were satisfied that they had their
00:50:36
own which implies that they believe their actions were successful in that they had magically returned Bridget to
00:50:42
her body okay so then why did they need to go further so the following morning uh
00:50:48
Michael Cleary went to see Father Ryan and explained to him that Bridget had a very difficult evening and he was hoping
00:50:55
that the priest could come pay her a visit I like how he describes it as a very difficult evening okay and at some point
00:51:01
during the night apparently Bridget's clothing had been changed and her body cleaned so there was no obvious evidence
00:51:08
of her abuse Father Ryan said mass in her bedroom and then left and he later told the
00:51:15
police that Bridget appeared definitely more nervous and overexcited than she had been previously but he said that she
00:51:22
he didn't see anything that indicated she was in danger like nobody was acting strange
00:51:27
um as he was leaving he asked whether Bridget had been given the medicine that Dr Green had prescribed he was like you
00:51:34
know she doesn't seem great so like did you give her anything and Michael replied people may have some remedy of
00:51:40
their own that might do more good than doctor's medicine and he was like okay Incorrect and the rest of the afternoon
00:51:47
was spent by various visitors stopping by to check on her and later that evening Bridget apparently was feeling a
00:51:54
little stronger and she got out of bed by herself dressed herself and sat by the fire with a neighbor Tom Smythe
00:52:03
um when Smythe asked how she was doing though Bridget seemed very agitated and told Smythe that she was quote
00:52:10
middling that he was making a fairy of her now in an emergency which accusing her of being a changeling now Bridget's
00:52:18
anger was like very clear that day towards Michael like she was very angry very upset many of the visitors remarked
00:52:27
on it later they said they could very much tell that and that evening apparently Joanna Burke Patrick Boland
00:52:33
her own father Mary Kennedy her aunt James Boland uh which I believe is a cousin and Patrick
00:52:42
um or no excuse me it's James Kennedy excuse me um and not the DJ uh James Kennedy and
00:52:48
Patrick Kennedy who were um her cousins they all sat at the table with Bridget and Michael and she was
00:52:55
served some bread and jam with some tea and she ate two pieces of bread and then
00:53:00
Michael Cleary which you know she's sitting there being like honestly everyone shut the [ __ ] up because
00:53:04
Michael clear is just eating her jam and drinking her tea and Michael Clary says
00:53:08
Are You Bridget Cleary my wife in the name of God oh my God I'd be like yes I'm your goddamn wife but not for long
00:53:13
because I'm gonna kill you like literally and Bridget didn't answer because she he's like will you just let
00:53:17
me in my [ __ ] jam and drink my tea like everyone leave me alone she did she became pissed she was like shut the [ __ ]
00:53:22
up and then Michael became enraged that she wouldn't answer and forced her to eat the third piece of bread oh my God
00:53:30
and then threw her to the floor in front of her entire family now Joanna Burke I will say was screaming for him
00:53:38
to stop okay but didn't I mean nobody intervened here everybody was just like yelling
00:53:44
Michael then stripped his wife of all but her nightgown and took a flaming stick from the fire held it near her
00:53:51
mouth in a threatening way and was telling her to declare that she was Bridget Boland holy [ __ ] like he didn't
00:53:57
put it in her mouth but he held it there at a very threatening this man is a [ __ ] and immediately what I thought
00:54:02
something immediately and Angela bork seems to also agree in her book that the details of this part of the crime are
00:54:09
reported like that that this is how it went but there's there's a sexual sadist act aspect about
00:54:18
this that I think is underplayed and I think wasn't reported upon as much the fact that he stripped her down in front
00:54:24
of everybody and then and then holding that to her mouth yeah I don't like he's gonna shove it into her mouth it's like
00:54:30
there's something about that that seems way more sadistic than anybody's given it credit for and I think Angela bork is
00:54:37
kind of pointing to that too being like um reported correctly but and also each of these like attacks on
00:54:46
Bridget were seeming more like at this point not to kill her but to put some kind of Terror into her and dominate her
00:54:54
that seems to be this [ __ ] felt powerless and he snapped and decided to assert what he felt was a an unbalance
00:55:05
in his relationship is what I think he said are you Bridget Cleary wife of Michael Cleary he wanted her to say yes
00:55:11
I am I am your wife he was looking for he wanted to dominate and he wanted to put Terror into her
00:55:19
that's what I wanted to beat her down it certainly feels that way it doesn't feel
00:55:24
like he's sitting here acting out of love and compassion or anything like that in some kind of you know
00:55:29
disillusion that he's you know some kind of Hysteria I think that plays into it because he was in a state but I think
00:55:36
this is more about him feeling for a long time less than in his marriage and he decided
00:55:43
to assert it this way which is unbelievably [ __ ] up yep um now this escalated very quickly the
00:55:49
scene of violence um according to Witnesses they said it was awful and they also said this was really scary to
00:55:57
witness in general but also that Michael Cleary before this was a very unassuming
00:56:02
man he was quiet he wasn't outwardly violent he wasn't loud he wasn't abrasive he wasn't like any of this it
00:56:09
sounds like he might have been more violent behind closing that's what I wonder if he it was all behind the
00:56:15
scenes and she she had previously said before this had even happened that he was trying to make a fairy effort yeah
00:56:20
and it's like hmm because he became so enraged during this that he knelt on her chest and she was begging him to stop
00:56:27
and nobody knows and I'm not going to speculate because I was not there nobody knows if what happened next was the
00:56:37
intended end here but what happened was he was holding that stick that he had taken out of the
00:56:43
fire yeah and he's kneeling over her very menacingly he's trying to terrify her he's trying to hurt her he's trying
00:56:49
to assert dominance in Flames from the stick that he was holding from her face like fell onto her night dress and it
00:56:57
caught fire and engulfed her in Flames oh my God oh my God now this is where this is where I say
00:57:06
to me this sounds intentional because that right here you can go okay that seems like it went further than was was
00:57:14
maybe intended but Joanna Burke later testified that she that Michael Cleary grabbed a nearby Lantern and threw lamp
00:57:23
oil over her body before that before she caught fire like while her nightgown was
00:57:29
going up he ignited it more that's why like and after this you can absolutely say that he intended for her to die wow
00:57:38
because he didn't help her he threw the lamp oil on her the fire grew very intensely and Mary Kennedy her aunt ran
00:57:47
to help her but Michael stopped her and shoved her to the floor oh my God now she then that he shoved them all out of
00:57:56
the house and trapped Bridget in the House locked the door and put the key in his pocket Witnesses are yelling for him
00:58:04
to help his wife like everyone there is like help is [ __ ] uh like are you kidding me and he was shouting she's not
00:58:09
my wife she's an old deceiver sent in place by of my wife and he said as I begin it with her I will finish it with
00:58:16
her you will soon see her go up the chimney what so he was saying like she's a changeling she's a deceiver she was sent
00:58:25
here that's not her you're gonna see her go like the the changeling go up the chimney and you'll see it okay that was
00:58:32
what he was saying when anyone tried to go in there to help her Michael was threatening them saying he would burn
00:58:38
them as well if he if they attempted to help her and she's just laying on the floor on fire at this point and he's in
00:58:43
the house with her yeah okay now Bridget died yeah this way um and nobody knew what to do it just
00:58:52
completely stopped at this point and Mary Kennedy her aunt wrapped the body in a sheet and left the room didn't know
00:58:59
what to do and when she came back she found that Michael had put Bridget's body in the fireplace to try to destroy
00:59:06
or remains oh my god um somebody going to get a policeman exactly now she said the house was full
00:59:12
of smoke and smell she later said uh yeah now later when they were all in the kitchen again Michael Cleary said she's
00:59:19
burned now and God knows I would never do it but for Jack Dunn I would never have forced my wife into the fire but
00:59:25
for Jack it was he who told me my wife was a fairy so now he's trying to say yeah that's not me Jack told me to do it
00:59:32
it's like nah dude you let your wife on fire and struck her way before that you [ __ ] piece of [ __ ] yeah now Michael
00:59:38
Cleary collected his Bridget's remains in a bag and Patrick Kennedy helped him and they both took her to a new nearby
00:59:46
churchyard to bury her on consecrated ground that night Cleary forced all who were
00:59:52
involved to swear that they would never talk about what had happened sounds like that and if anyone asked
00:59:58
they were told to say that Bridget had gotten dressed that evening and left the house and they just didn't never saw her
01:00:03
again she just like walked away with pneumonia now throughout the entire thing what's weird about this and what makes
01:00:11
you say there was more to this than just like somebody who was caught up in Hysteria
01:00:16
Michael Cleary was pretty ambivalent when it came to his beliefs and fairies in witchcraft like in the moments
01:00:22
directly after Bridget's death he kind of seemed to recognize that Jack Dunn was like a quack had like a lot of
01:00:30
rhetoric that he was spewing and that he was saying well that's what led me to do
01:00:34
this like it's already placing the blame he was kind of taking his own belief out
01:00:38
of it which is wild considering the length he's claiming to have gone to rid her of this changeling that had taken
01:00:46
over so it's like to me I'm like you're conflicting your own reasoning here and you're making it more obvious that there
01:00:53
was a lot more intention behind this than just of hysterical fear of changeling yeah
01:01:00
um and in fact but then it and I say ambiguous because it's going back and forth because there's that and you're
01:01:06
like I don't know you're telling me that you really don't believe that stuff and
01:01:09
it was Jack Dunn who set you up on this but then for three nights following her death Michael was said to have waited on
01:01:17
kilnamana Hill for her to return from the ferry fort on Horseback because that's what the legend said
01:01:24
was that after you kill the changeling the real human will return on Horseback from the fairy Fort wow so no
01:01:32
everybody's like was that you know was that just for show or what was it because exactly you could look at that
01:01:38
either way like he truly believed it or that or that he was doing to maintain that
01:01:43
so as he was waiting the police were alerted to Bridget's disappearance by William Simpson you think they were
01:01:50
[ __ ] I gotta do I hope they were I hope they were he seems like you at least read
01:01:55
um but then also a day after that Joanna Burke went to the police and told them that she was disappeared I was mad at
01:02:02
her earlier because like you were in a face and I didn't mean to but I just didn't
01:02:07
know how to stop it so it just happened you know um but Justice for Joanna it's true now the police spent a lot of days
01:02:14
looking for her um and I mean by the same coin nobody stepped in and helped this or stopped
01:02:20
the abuse like yeah there was a lot here for Joanna I'm I'm going back because I'm like oh no because
01:02:28
she couldn't have stood up to the men like they would have just yeah I think and again I wasn't there so I can't sit
01:02:35
there and say that Joanna didn't try to do something exactly it didn't seem like
01:02:39
a lot of people were do making great vast efforts to stop what was going on here which is very disconcerting but I'm
01:02:45
not gonna sit here and crucify anyone in particular except for the people who actually did the things exactly um but
01:02:51
based on the information provided by William Simpson um Burke and several others in the house
01:02:57
that night they did make nine arrests they set out nine arrested warrants um on March 21st and Michael Cleary and
01:03:05
all his co-conspirators were arrested for the assault and murder of Bridget Cleary now that included Patrick Kennedy
01:03:12
Dennis Gainey the farmer and Herb Doctor Who prescribed the herbs Jack Dunn and Joanna Burke because again they were
01:03:20
there yeah the following day March 22nd which was a week after her murder Bridget Cleary's remains were discovered
01:03:28
they were buried in a shallow grave on the grounds of the Abbey and dragon I got she must I can't imagine yeah it
01:03:34
must have been really bad now the news of this whole thing spread very quickly it actually made its way to London the
01:03:40
United States like very quickly because this was just wild um and it was reported as a witch
01:03:46
burning very like you know very sensationalistically yeah um but in the British press at the time
01:03:54
were were very eager to hold this up as evidence of you know how rural Ireland is so barbaric uh which it's not great
01:04:03
um and you know the Irish papers were equally quick to blame the murder on folkloric beliefs of the Irish peasantry
01:04:11
ignoring the fact that very few of the people involved would have con been considered peasants at all yeah so it
01:04:17
was a lot of misrepresentation a lot of sensationalism reporting that came out of this the day after the arrests a
01:04:24
Coroner's inquest was held in Clone uh cloning I believe it is um at this time Dr creene and Dr w k
01:04:30
Heffernan provided the jury with details of the postmortem examination um so there was obviously extensive
01:04:37
burning and charring of Bridget's body but Dr creane and Dr Heffernan also found an abrasion on the inner side of
01:04:44
the lips at the right side of the mouth and the tongue at the side was slightly lacerated huh yeah so they don't know
01:04:51
where that came from or what happened maybe when they were forcing the milk downers possibly or that poker that he
01:04:57
held to her mouth or mouth did she did he do that at some point um they also reported that other than
01:05:02
the obvious burns the evidence suggested that Bridget had been perfectly healthy
01:05:07
when she died in the cause of death was attributed to shock caused by Burns oh my God yeah which is even more
01:05:15
horrifying on April 1st 1895 all nine defendants were brought before the magistrate and
01:05:21
charged with maliciously wounding Bridget Michael Cleary Patrick Boland Mary Kennedy James Kennedy and Patrick
01:05:27
Kennedy were also charged with murder wow um so like her own father was charged with like that's just so like ugh this
01:05:37
is a very interesting no one helped her and the trial began in early July and you know everyone testified that it was
01:05:44
Michael clearly who was directly responsible for the death but the testimony from Witnesses were kind of
01:05:50
conflicting and contradictory at times too everybody's saying something different and Cleary would would shout
01:05:57
out in the middle of the Court a lot he would have a lot of angry responses outraged responses one paper described
01:06:05
him as having a wild kind of look in his eyes during the whole thing I bet and during the prosecution's questioning of
01:06:11
Joanna Burke who testified about what happened on the night of the murder he jumped to Michael Cleary jumped out of
01:06:17
his seat and shouted I can't listen to it any longer like he had nothing to do with it
01:06:23
when it came time for him to testify he just kind of confirmed though what the witnesses had said explaining that
01:06:30
based on what he was told by Jack Dunn he and his neighbors he made sure to include them had attempted to drive out
01:06:36
the changeling with herbs and fire believing that in doing so he would cause the changeling to flee and return
01:06:43
his wife to the bed that's when he kept he maintained that and although he definitely attempted to
01:06:50
pass the blame on to Jack Dunn like he was like without jacked on I wouldn't have done this right
01:06:55
um and he was like it was because of his beliefs and fairies in witchcraft not me
01:06:59
being an awful person I didn't believe it but I did burn my wife alive everyone else though tried to minimize their role
01:07:06
and just pointed right at Michael Cleary and said it was awesome yeah I mean he's
01:07:09
the one that [ __ ] lit her on fire and then threw lamp oil on her exactly and a
01:07:14
lot of people said the motive while a lot of witnesses said that he that Cleary's mind was going astray for sure
01:07:21
they said he definitely become somewhat hysterical they said they they believe that may have made him more susceptible
01:07:28
to this whole fairies and changeling rhetoric that was being spewed now even after all the testimony that have been
01:07:35
heard though it remained unclear what exactly happened like how did this go here like it got here so quick what
01:07:43
happened but it sounds like it just happened so quickly that's the thing it was like a Runaway Runaway Train
01:07:49
um but what was clear to the jury was that although Michael Cleary had been the one directly responsible for the
01:07:54
death there were others whose participation and influence had definitely contributed to the outcome
01:08:00
like Jack um even the judge in the case felt that murder was in an inappropriate sentence
01:08:06
and reminded the jury that um they alone had the right to recommend a sentence of
01:08:11
manslaughter which they chose to do in the end are you [ __ ] kidding me he threw the oil onto her as she was
01:08:19
already burning thank you uh I agree who the [ __ ] doesn't understand that concept
01:08:24
Michael Cleary was sentenced to 20 years in prison that's it yeah um yeah Joanna Dunn Patrick Kennedy
01:08:32
James Kennedy and William Kennedy were all found guilty of malicious wounding um
01:08:38
done sentence was sentenced to three years he needed more William and James Kennedy were sentenced to 18 months and
01:08:46
Michael Kennedy to six months um Michael Kennedy definitely obviously received the harshest penalty which he
01:08:53
should have but while so many others may have avoided the lengthy sentence that doesn't mean like jail sentence that
01:09:00
doesn't mean they got out of it don't worry because um they definitely got it when they got
01:09:06
out of prison good upon his relief release from prison Jack Dunn's reputation had uh plummeted into the
01:09:13
Earth's crust one would think he was seen as a laughing stock and obviously someone who was involved in creating
01:09:20
this hysterical hysteria yeah that led to the murder of an innocent woman pretty much and Mary Kennedy her his um
01:09:30
her aunt Bridget's Aunt avoided prosecution for her role in the murder but when neighbors learned about the
01:09:36
details of what had happened um and that her sons were also involved they burned the Kennedy house to the
01:09:42
ground to make sure they couldn't return which is didn't Mary try to help her uh
01:09:49
I mean yeah but it was like too a little too late I don't I mean I think people heard a lot of stories and I think there
01:09:57
was there's a lot of like unclear parts of this like when the when the whole herb mixture was being
01:10:05
force fed to her when she was being violently abused during her illness who was there right there were some some of
01:10:12
them were there right and they didn't stop it it's like you're that's guilty man but because somebody could have gone
01:10:18
to the police somebody could have gone to somebody but like this is happening in this house somebody needs to go stop
01:10:23
it but go do something and nobody did um so on its face it definitely sounds like
01:10:29
a sensational story of murder motivated by kind of outrageous beliefs at the time
01:10:35
um but it's kind of more complicated than that because it has a lot to do with where and when it like
01:10:42
it really has to do with like the time and place yeah less about like the reasoning I guess like it's it's strange
01:10:50
there's so many layers to this one you know what I mean yeah definitely like the Press at the time also was a wild
01:10:56
part of the story because as particularly the British newspapers at the time because they were using it yeah
01:11:01
they made a lot of the folkloric beliefs that were involved like they really went
01:11:06
to those and they kind of place those those kind of hard steadfast somewhat archaic beliefs at the time
01:11:13
they placed them on an entire rural population in Ireland and just when it seems like they were on their way out
01:11:19
yeah and they used it to portray these people as very superstitious very Antiquated very like wow they're just
01:11:26
gonna burn you at the stake if they think you're a changeling kind of thing um and at the time it was also like this
01:11:33
kind of language was used like fairy language and witches and kind of folkloric language was used in Ireland a
01:11:39
lot yeah but it also was used metaphorically not so much like for real you know like um as like bork points out
01:11:48
in her in her book that um the term gone to the fairies can absolutely be used in the
01:11:55
literal sense and it was used in the little literal sense but in Bridget's case it was likely referring to having
01:12:01
an affair or stepping out of the house kind of thing um and to like make a fairy of me like
01:12:09
Bridget said doesn't mean that you know making me like he's making people believe I'm a fairy it's isolating her
01:12:15
like we said from others and you know making people treat her like she's sick and rotten like something that you don't
01:12:21
need to be around um and again the Press coverage definitely and the trial really didn't
01:12:27
really entangle any of the true motive behind this but um Angela bork's book suggests that the language and
01:12:34
circumstances of those involved might be where we can find the keys to what happened here she says Michael Cleary
01:12:41
had no relatives close by and says for over a week his wife his wife's relatives had been in and out of the
01:12:48
house shaking their heads and making dark insinuations about her condition a suggestion that she was away with the
01:12:54
fairies was a serious reflection on him in their marriage so that's all to say that Michael Cleary
01:13:01
was already an outsider yeah he already wasn't surrounded by his own family he had come from another County which meant
01:13:07
he didn't have a lot of social support here his wife had a huge social and familial support network and he took it
01:13:14
all and she was also independent she supported herself she didn't need him she didn't need to rely on him which is
01:13:22
all great in like people should look at that as like what a bad [ __ ] but not like good fur you guys can just love
01:13:29
each other and live your lives nobody needs the other one to live you know what I mean like you're just doing this
01:13:35
because you care about each other but there's the other part where like there was all these rumors of her having an
01:13:41
affair and him having an affair and all their marriage talking all that stuff he
01:13:46
was being very you know feeling very powerless at the time and so they kind of feel like that was likely the real
01:13:55
motive was the feeling of powerless and wanting to dominate her wanting to take back that power wanting to be the man of
01:14:01
the house you're my wife you're not this you know and you'll answer to me you will answer to me when I ask you to say
01:14:08
who you are you say you are Michael Cleary's wife right you don't say you are just bridgeable and you are my wife
01:14:14
and I bet because she answered when they wanted her originally to say you're the
01:14:18
wife of Michael Cleary she said I'm the daughter of yeah and of her father I am the daughter of Pat Bowlen that's the
01:14:24
only thing she would really answer and that in in and of itself is so telling yeah that one almost forced into a fire
01:14:32
she still wouldn't say that she was his wife yeah and then you have the other side of that with Jack Dunn being this
01:14:41
other piece of the puzzle where he was also feeling powerless and feeling like he was not the authority anymore because
01:14:48
he believed all these archaic folkloric things and he used to be the authority and these things would have made him
01:14:54
powerful and would have had made him somebody that everybody came to to find out what was going on he doesn't have
01:14:59
that anymore another feeling of powerless and it's really scary to think about but it's true that that could that
01:15:08
could have absolutely been part of this that it's two unfortunately two men in a
01:15:13
time when men are supposed to have all the power and all the influence and all the the handhold on the the home and
01:15:20
they didn't or they felt they didn't and so they decided to assert it in a very violent and horrific and tragic way I
01:15:30
mean Jack there for lack of a better term added fuel to the fire absolutely physically and theoretically yeah I mean
01:15:37
it's very clear that Bridget's death was not simply about fairies no and I think
01:15:42
real or imagine no and I think there's a lot of things we don't know that happen
01:15:48
behind closed doors before her death yeah I don't think Michael Cleary necessarily quote unquote
01:15:53
one insane I think sure you could say that he definitely did at some fell into some kind of Hysteria maybe but I think
01:16:02
he may have been on his way there before that no heard before the fairies even happened her death was about power
01:16:07
definitely had it who didn't have it and in this time especially Bridget clearly
01:16:14
had achieved stuff that most rural you know women at the time in Ireland especially wanted
01:16:23
and were striving towards she was successful she was independent she was powerful she I mean she was going to
01:16:29
jack Dunn's house to collect some payment because she gave you the goods like it's like you she was on it she was
01:16:34
like a business lady yeah and she was murdered for that you know that's the unfortunately that's the that's the end
01:16:41
of it like that I think that's really where it all boils down to fairies are no fairies here and it's wow a really
01:16:48
sad story it's a very interesting one he just went to prison and that was the last anyone heard about yeah I don't
01:16:54
know what happened to him after that I hope he died of brutal death yeah just saying
01:17:00
just saying just saying and I think wow um I'm trying to think because I remember hearing about this story a long
01:17:07
long time ago I've never heard this one I think Aaron Menke did it on lore oh in
01:17:13
one of the early lore episodes I think so if you if you were interested by the story and you want to hear a different
01:17:20
telling of it Aaron Minke does a really good job of telling stories and it does you should go listen to it just because
01:17:25
he rules so good and he has a new podcast doesn't he he does yeah you posted about it on Instagram yeah he has
01:17:33
a podcast that he just launched recently called that's just weird and it's like a
01:17:39
family-friendly thing but it's also like he does and it's short it's short little
01:17:43
like bite-sized episodes I think they're like 17 minutes and he just talks about
01:17:46
like weird phenomena weird history weird news and like you can listen to it with
01:17:51
your kids okay it's very cool you should listen to it and go listen to it just shouting out
01:17:58
Aaron a Aeron a Ron all right well we love you and we hope that you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird
01:18:07
and that's where you kill your wife and then blame it on fairies because I don't
01:18:09
believe you Michael Cleary I think you're a giant [ __ ] an [ __ ] an [ __ ] giant an [ __ ] bye
01:18:17
foreign [Music]