The Evil Stepmom - Martha M. Place

Suzanne: Warning. This episode may contain graphic and disturbing content. Listener discretion is advised.

June: Hi, y'all and welcome to Crime With My Coffee. I'm your fabulous hostess with the mostess, June. 

S: And I'm Suzanne. We're gonna tell you some stories you've heard. 

J: Some you haven't.

S: And some you'll wish you hadn't. 

J: All with a Texas Twang. So we can say welcome back. Here we are again. And, uh, my brew of the day, like always is a breakfast blend. French Vanilla creamer because I do not venture very far, often. How about you? 

S: I actually got a little adventurous today. We got a bag of coffee as a gift recently. It's the - it's by Folgers, the 1850 Collection. We have the Lantern Glow, which is a light roast coffee. Okay, so this stuff not only smells fabulous, but it tastes amazing, too. Um, on the bag it's described as a as being crisp with bright citrus undertones. 

J: Hmm. Might have to pick me up some of that. 

S: Oh, it's good. It's good. I'll share with you but only like enough for like one pot then you got to get your own. 

J: Okay, well, it sounds delicious, anyway.

S: It is. It's good. And I've got it with the Dunkin Donuts Extra Extra creamer because I didn't get that adventurous. 

J: Okay. Speaking of adventures... 

S: Speaking of adventures, just want to give a huge shout out to our first ever patron on Patreon. Crystal S. is our first ever Exceptional, no. Exceptional Esspresso? 

J: Yeah, yeah. 

S: Exceptional Espresso. Yes. Yes, she went she come strong, straight out of the gate, top tier. Bam. Here you go. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 

J: Thank you very much, Crystal. We're getting everything together so we can, you know, get stuff, get your stuff to you. 

S: Yes. Get your goodies sent out to you. 

J: Yeah.

S: So, and I've been in touch with her, we'll talk after the show. I've been in touch with her. I know what case she wants us to cover already. 

J: Nice. Nice, nice, nice. 

S: So listen for that one. It'll be coming up pretty soon. 

J: All right. Well, as usual, I don't know. I don't know what it is. I always do seems like really short cases. I don't know if I just, I don't, I don't know why I just do, maybe I don't like to talk, but I really do. 

S: I think it's because we try to find the ones that like not everybody has covered. So there's not a whole lot of stuff to find on them. Because the case that I'm currently working on to tell you about next week is, uh, I'm not finding a whole lot. 

J: Okay, well, I didn't find a whole lot on this, either. But I did go to several sources, but still bea - yeah, probably because it was way back in the day. Because for some reason I like that stuff. Maybe there just wasn't a lot of stuff out there. You know. 

S: Maybe, maybe. Mine was in the 80s. 

J: Oh, mine was in the 90s but 1890s.

S: Oh snap! Okay. Yeah. I don't think they had very much media going back then. 

J: No. You had newspapers, and that's about it. So - 

S: And I don't even think everywhere had newspapers? 

J: Probably not. Probably not. So, my - like I said, mine starts way, way back in the day. The lady I'm covering today is Martha M., they called her Mattie, Place. She was born September 18, 1849. A couple of places I did read, she was born in 1854 or 1855, but I'm not going to go with that because of some of the other things that I found 1849 basically has to be the year she was born. 

S: Okay. Yeah, I don't think their record keeping skills were as great back then as they are now, either. 

J: No, no. Oh, I'm sure they weren't So, anyway, yeah, born in 1849, in Readington Township in New Jersey. She was born to an Ellen and Isaac Garretson. Now, Isaac was a farmer. They'd lived where they lived in New Jersey forever. I didn't find a whole lot on her younger life. I guess because if you don't do anything that really matters, nobody knows you. And nobody keeps records of anything. But in 1872, she was 23 years old. So that does mean she was born in 1849, right around there. Only they - 

S: Yeah, that's how my math works. 

J: Yeah. Anyway, her brother did say that she was hit in the head with a sleigh. And he - she never did fully recover, and it left her mentally unstable. 

S: Were they going over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house? 

J: They probably were. I mean, Why else do you need a sleigh? I don't know. Anyway - 

S: I don't know. We don't get snow.

J: No, not really. No. 

S: We have sleigh beds.

J: Yes, that is true. She, 1893 and she married a man named Wesley Savacool. He apparently - 

S: So she was an old maid, by their standards? 

J: Yes, yes. I agree. I agree. Because, yeah. Normally they were married at a very, very young age. But she, she didn't get married 'til 1893. You know what? This, I, I don't believe the dates are really right, because he went off West, go West young man, and never returned. So she actually was considered a widow. But four years into their marriage is when he left. And they did have a son by this time that they named Ross. So, you know, it's, it's kind of really hard to say, but I do know, in 1893, she did marry a man named William Place. 

S: Okay.

J: So you have, you know, you have to kind of go back I think a little bit from there. So I'm not real sure when they got married. I know that she had a son who was about four years old when he left, when he left her. Could have been three. I'm not real sure. Yeah, it's really, it's really kind of hard to find out exactly specific dates until she did what she did. But, um, so she was considered a widow. And she went to work for a man named William Place who was also a widower and had a young daughter. Her name was Ida. She went to work for him as a housekeeper. I think before that she had done some seamstress type work. I think that was a lot of what women did back then. They did live at 598 Hancock Street in Brooklyn. My understanding she was a little jealous of the relationship that Ida and her father had together. Not that anything inappropriate happened. But, you know, of course, Ida was kind of mourning the loss of her mother, and then the housekeeper now becomes her stepmother. She was a little, had a little bit of resentment there, I'm pretty sure. So, my understanding William and Martha, Martha, you know, fought quite often and it was about money. Now William was a insurance adjuster, so I'm sure he was making decent money. He gave Martha an allowance every week. She wouldn't pay her part of the bills with the money, she would kind of put it back, and then they would always fight about money. So who knows really. So unfortunately, on February 7, 1898, Ida is now 17 years old. William and Martha had a squabble the night before. Martha said that William had hit her before he left to go to work that morning. But they had squabbled before he went to work because she claims Ida had said some things about Martha to William, that she didn't like and, and they were kind of going back and forth with that. 

S: Well, she's 17. 

J: Exactly. She's gonna say what she wants to because you know, 17 year olds,

S: And none of it's gonna be nice anyway.

J: Yeah, it doesn't matter how nice you are to them. 

S: Because teenagers are just evil. 

J: Yes, yes. William goes to work. Martha goes to Ida's room to confront her and ask her, beeotch why are you saying things that are not true? Or why would you tell him these things? Whatever. You know, apparently they got in a squabble. You know how 17 year olds can be, very disrespectful and hateful and just buttmunches,

S: Jerks, man.

J: Yeah. So apparently, they had a little bit of an issue. Martha goes to her room where William, uh, did some photography on the side. So he had the supplies to, I don't know, what do you mean? Uh, develop the film and stuff himself? You know, so that takes acid to do that to do these things. Well, apparently, Martha sees some acid that's in their room. She gets it, goes back to Ida's room, and throws it in her face. 

S: What? 

J: Yes. Yes.

S: Okay, so I'm no longer saying that this little teenage girl is evil. But the stepmomma, she is the definition of evil stepmother. What the hell? 

J: Yeah, well, we're not done yet. 

S: What? 

J: No, no, not done yet. So not only does she have burns to her face, and she's probably got a little bit in her throat and everything that. Well, apparently, Martha is pissed very, very pissed. I don't know if it's the pile on of not having a very happy home life or what. She climbs on top of Ida, places a pillow over her head, and smothers her. 

S: What? 

J: Yes, that's what technically killed this little girl. The coroner report shows that she died of asphyxiation, which is the deficient supply of oxygen to the body from abnormal breathing, like choking or something like that. And normally, this takes about seven minutes for somebody to die. I did read that - Yeah, I did read that after six minutes, people can be revived. But after seven that's it. 

S: So this crazy lady sat on top of this child. Well, I guess maybe at that point, she would be considered a grown up but still a child. She's seven frickin teen for almost 10 minutes. 

J: Yes. After throwing acid on her face. 

S: What the fuck? 

J: Yeah, well, crazy lady ain't done yet.

S: How is she not done yet? This friggin lady is psycho.

J: Yeah, so what she does is she says she's afraid her husband's going to come home from work and be mad at her. Can't imagine why Martha, come on. 

S: You think?

J: So she goes in the basement and gets an axe and waits for the guy. 

S: What? 

J: Yes. William comes home from work, and Martha just chases after him with this axe. He sees what's going on, turns around, tries to get out the front door. He's yelling for Ida to get out of the house because he doesn't know at this time that his daughter is dead. Starts screaming, Martha hits him with the axe. Skull fracture. You know, he's knocked down. But he's fighting for his life. He gets back up. Somehow or another he makes it out the front door and he's screaming murderer murderer. You know Ida goes, Martha I'm sorry. Martha goes back in the house. She had apparently cut all the gas lines. Because she's just eh, fuck it. I'm gonna commit suicide. I believe what she wanted was to kill William as well, and herself, by gas. That way they're all dead. They're all dead. But luckily the neighbors heard William screaming. They went down to the local pharmacy called the police. Police show up. They get William, take him to the hospital. They go in the house, they find Martha, who's unconscious by this time because she's sucking on all the gas fumes, take her to the - 

S: Well, at least she didn't light it and explode the house. 

J: Well, you'd think she'd be smart and do that if she really wanted to kill everybody? I don't know. Maybe she.

S: That’s where I thought the story was going until you said she's just like, you know, sucking in the fumes, getting high like a weirdo. 

J: Yeah, well, you know, apparently mentally unstable, like her brother said, you know.

S: Yeah, I, I agree.

J: But yes, I'm thinking she was, but I think she was also a little pissed off about the whole situation when she married William, because William wouldn't allow her son Ross, from her first husband, to live at the house with them. So she in turn -

S: That would be a deal breaker for me.

J: Yeah, but I guess she wanted the money. I guess he made good money being an insurance adjuster. But she did, thank goodness, adopt out her son Ross. You know who was adopted by, I'm just assuming from what I read, a wealthy family. So good for him. And it's a good thing he wasn't there. 

S: Absolutely. Or this crazy bitch would have like tried to kill him, too. What the f- oh my gosh, some people's kids. I swear. Oh, my God, I'm just like gah! 

J: Yes, yes. So anyway, it turns out, both the husband and the wife actually are in the same hospital. She's two floors up from where he's at. So they put a police detail on him because they're like, man this bitch might come try to finish the job. You know? 

S: Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll sneak out and finish her off. 

J: Yeah, maybe. She was just in there a couple of days. She, you know, there was really nothing wrong with her. She just needed a couple of days to recuperate. She was fine.

S: Oh, there's a lot wrong with her.

J: Yeah. They didn't, they didn't release her out into the public. They did take her into custody, took her to jail.

S: Good - 

J: Which -

S: - hope they put her under it.

J: Well, well.

S: No, wait, what? Why are we saying well, this does not sound good.

J: No, no, no, no. Okay, you know. Eh, we'll get to it. Anyway. Took her to jail. While she's, uh, awaiting trial, she's I'm innocent. I'm innocent. I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything. I don't remember.

S: Liar, liar, pants on fire. 

J: Yes, exactly. She just trying to say she was innocent, or she was just insane. Trying to get off on that. And it didn't work. They're like, no, guess what? We're gonna go ahead and find you guilty once the trial started. And they did.

S: Right, because she can't be innocent and insane. She either didn't do it. Or she did it. And she did it. 

J: She did do it. Because the key witness in her trial was her husband, William.

S: Good. Good. Still think he should know he got his hospital bed and finished her off. 

J: Yeah, so she was she was found guilty. And she was sentenced to death by the electric chair. What?

S: Good. Good. 

J: She, she. I know she she did try to get her sentence commuted to something else so she could just spend life in prison. So she wrote the governor of the state of New York, who at that time was Theodore Teddy Roosevelt.

S: Hey, I know that name.

J: Yep, you heard me right. Teddy Roosevelt was the governor for the state of New York. From ni- um, and the 26th president of the US of A from 1901 to 1909. Anyway, yeah, she had asked to have her sentence commuted. He's like, nope, not gonna happen. So away she goes to Sing Sing Prison. Sing Sing, for ya'll that don't know - 

S: Yay!

J: I know, is a maximum security prison, which operated but which is operated by the department, New York Department of Correction. It's in the village of Ossining. I'm not positive how you say that, but I'm pretty sure that's pretty close. It is 30 miles north of New York City on the west bank of the Hudson River. This prison holds 1,700 prisoners, and it was opened in 1826. So Sing Sing is actually derived from the Native American tribe Sintsick, no Sintsink, which means stone upon stone. And it was purchased in 1685. So, so far - so far, like it really does it anymore - 1,614 women and men have been executed by the electric chair in Sing Sing, until the death penalty was abolished in 1972 there. So.

S: That’s a lot. 

J: It is a lot. It is a lot. So the executioner at this at the time, his name was Edwin F. Davis, and he was the first state, this is in quotation marks, state electrician, which is actually an executioner for the state of New York. He, while he was the executioner, he performed 240 executions from 1890 to 1914.

S: That’s a lot of switch flipping.

J: Yeah, definitely is. And a lot of the features on the first electric chair, he finalized a lot of them and actually got a patent on them.

S: Oh, that's kind of cool.

J: Yeah, I thought that was cool, too.

S: I learned a lot of new stuff.

J: Yeah. Well, when it came to Martha, a woman had never been executed in the chair. So they had to change some of the things that they did, because normally one of the electrodes went on the calf of the person. But this was a woman and you didn't show the calves of women back in the day. So they actually -

S: She was a monster.

J: I - well, I know, but you still didn't do women like, it was not right. So they actually. They actually put it on her ankle. I read two different ways. One of them is they just barely lifted the skirt of the dress that she had on, which she made by herself because she was planning on wearing this black dress she made either at her new trial or once she was released. 

S: She was sentenced to death. You're not getting out, lady, unless it's in a pine box. 

J: Well, she thought she was going to so she made herself a new dress.

S: It didn't work for her, she's crazy.

J: Yeah. So she ended up wearing it to her execution because nope, not getting out. Anyway, so I read two different ways. One they lifted the skirt of this dress up a little bit to put this electrode on her ankle. And two, I read that they made a slit in the dress to put this electrode on her ankle. Either way it goes she had the electrode on her ankle and bitch gonna die.

S: Okay. 

J: I’m just sayin'. Just sayin'. Well, the warden was very anxious regarding the elec- execution because the you know, it's the first woman fixing to be executed by the electric chair so he made a lot of precautions. On the day of the execution, March 20, 1899, he sent a doctor, a Reverend Dr. Cole to go be with her, say some prayers, kind of make sure she's calm, about 9:15. Well, Sing Sing's Dr. Irving and a couple of female counterparts were also sent to be with her. They all walked her down the aisle, you know, walking the Green Mile walking the mile.

S: I love that movie.

J: It is a good movie. She went; she didn't make a scene. So there was no delay in anything. They took her to the room where there were 12 witnesses. They put her in the chair. They strapped her down, and at 11:01 pulled the lever. And that lever sent a current of 1760 I guess that's watts. I don't know, for about -

S: Pull the lever, Kronk!

J: Pull the lever! Uh, it was gradually lowered to a current of 200 for 56 seconds, so Dr. Irving's female counterpart and him check for a heartbeat, went ahead and ordered a second shock. So it was the same as before, the four seconds and the 56 seconds, then they checked her. She was declared dead. They said it was the easiest execution probably ever done in Sing Sing.

S: Wow.

J: So what I read is this made the 46th electrocution at Sing Sing, which also, I read, made around the 20, 26, the first of 26 females that were executed. 

S: Okay. 

J: So, yeah, I'm like, okay, works for me. She was buried in a family plot in East Millstone in New Jersey. And like I said, excuse me, she was the first woman to die in the electric chair. But she weren't, she was not the first to be sentenced to die that way. She was actually the third woman sentenced to die by the electric chair. But the first woman to die by the electric chair. The first woman that was sentenced to die by the electric chair was a serial killer by the name of Lizzie Halliday. 

S: Ah, I thought you were gonna say Borden. I was like, nuh-uh, she didn't. She didn't get in trouble. 

J: I know. No, it was Lizzie Halliday. She was a serial killer. Yeah, we'll leave that for another episode, I'm sure. But her sentence was overturned. And she was actually put into a mental asylum in 1894. The second female ever sentenced to die by the electric chair was Marie Barbella, who in 1895 was acquitted of the murder she committed. So 

S: So how does she get sentenced to death but then acquitted after that? Did they have any appeals back then?

J: I’m not sure. 

S: We’ll leave that for another episode. Maybe.

J: We will because you know, it was it was pretty cool. I've seen a couple of things on this. Maire Bar, how did we say it? Bar, Bar, Bar Bella. Bar Bella. Barbella, barbell. barbell 

S: Nailed it. First try. 

J: Yes! Anyway, I've seen a couple of things on that. And for whatever reason, I can't remember how it all came about that she got acquitted but she did.

S: Okay, well, another episode another day.

J: Yeah. So yeah, that's Martha Place right there.

S: Wow.

J: Third woman to be convicted to die by the electric chair. The first woman that it was carried out on and what a bitch. Crazy ass, bitch. Anyway, yeah, that was pretty short. 

S: But at least she made it easy. At the end. 

J: You know, she really did. I gotta give her props for that. She did make it easy. No fuss. No scene. No delay. Let's, let's go. I guess she had just accepted her fate by then. And knew it was gonna happen.

S: She’s a bigger woman than me 'cause I'd've been like No don't take me!

J: Oh, kickin' and screamin' and cryin' and pissin', shittin'. I'd have been doing it all, yes, ma'am. 

S: I would not have been walking the mile. I would have been drug down the mile. 

J: Oh, yeah. Yeah, you definitely gonna have to drag my ass. Oh, and also I did read where mostly when people were going to the electric chair, they shave their heads so they can put the electrodes on and everything like that. No, no, she had her fancy little 'do with her hair pulled back. The only part of her head that were there was a small part of her hair that was shaved for the electrode that way she looked good. And I guess this is because she was a woman. I don't know. 

S: Probably so. Back then it was way different than now.

J: Absolutely. I agree. I agree. And that's probably why they, you know, put the electrode on her ankle. You know, you didn't show a woman's calf or, you know, knees or anything like that way back in the day. 

S: Yeah. 

J: So yeah. Anyway. 

S: That was crazy. Thank you for telling us all about that. I had no idea. 

J: Yeah, there you go. 

S: Well, I hadn't even heard of the name. 

J: Really?

S: And I watch a lot of true crime shows.

J: You know, I don't know if this was ever really on anything that I've seen. I, I don't think I remember seeing anything on Deadly Women about this or anything. I don't know how I knew about this woman. Maybe I'm just way deeper in it than I thought. 

S: Maybe we need to take you to a doctor. 

J: Maybe, maybe. Anyway, that's my case. That's what I got. 

S: Well, thanks. That was, that was very informative. Although I, it did raise my blood pressure a little bit there for a little while.

J: Yeah, it does kind of make you just on the edge of your seat going, "What the hell is going on here? This woman batshit crazy." 

S: I was ready to asphysixiate her with my pillow. Oh, geez. 

J: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and the funny thing is like her husband, you you don't have to put this in, but her husband did call the police on her before because she had threatened Ida, threatened to kill her. 

S: Oh, we're totally putting that in because now he's a dummy because he stayed with her. 

J: Eh, my understanding he did want to get a divorce but they couldn't get anything on her. The, uh - 

S: Yeah, I guess it wasn't as easy then to get a divorce as it is now.

J: Yeah. Yeah. So I guess that's why they were still married. But maybe she figured out he wanted to divorce her and he's, she's like, nope, guess what? 

S: Okay, so I take back my he's a dummy statement. 

J: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

S: That’s crazy. 

J: Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad I surprised you. 

S: You did, you did, actually very much so. I rather enjoyed that. 

J: Thank you. Thank you. 

S: So brava, brava. 

J: Yes, cheers. 

S: Thanks for listening today. Be sure to tune in next week for another episode of Crime With My Coffee.

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