Alex Hortis
speaker
52 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Alex Hortis’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
On Christmas 1843 and Christmas night on Staten Island, there were a group of men that were walking towards the town's only tavern. One of them noticed smoke coming out of the kitchen chimney of Captain George Hausman. Didn't think much of it. There had been snow and it may have been wet logs. But soon a young kid comes down the road and yells, fire, fire, fire.
They run back. They arrive at this chaotic scene at the house. The back kitchen is on fire. There's flames spitting out of the windows, smoke billowing out. They break down the door. They find a way in. And inside, it's just a very intense fire. There was resin melting from the top. You know, it was permeated with smoke. Everything seemed to be on fire.
So as he's sifting through the ashes, he hits something hard. He initially thinks it's a sheep or a dog. It ends up being Emmeline Hausman's torched and bludgeoned body.
He docks his schooner, and then he's walking over to the ferry boat, and he literally runs into his sister, Polly. And it falls upon Polly to tell him, the horrible news. They ride back in silence. He doesn't know what to say or think. He goes to the house, and all that's left is this burnt-out, scorched kitchen and the horrible remains of what was left of his family, Emmeline and Annalisa.
Everyone knew everybody. But what was also distinct about Staten Island was just across the bay was the largest city, North America. And if you go over the hills, you could see some of the lights and all the ships going in and out from all over the world. So it was a very stark contrast between a very rural, small town that was connected to the great metropolis of the West.
He had a very prosperous oyster business. There was an oyster craze in New York. And so much of Staten Island's economy was feeding New York oysters.
It was considered sort of a match made in heaven because it was a marriage between two great clans on Staten Island, and clans meant everything on Staten Island. And these were families that predated the formation of the United States, and in the case of the Hausmans, predated even the English arriving.
He ends up being a drunk, ends up being abusive towards her, and ends up spending all the family money. So she separates from him, and in the 1840s, this is, if not unheard of, it's certainly scandalous.
He has a schooner business, but he's away at sea for long stretches of time.
George Waite is a 30-something sort of merchant prince. He owns his own apothecary just off Broadway. Broadway is the commercial emporium of the Western world at this point. And she would go in, come for a long weekend, and travel back, usually on Monday or Tuesday, back to Staten Island.
They had no idea that the whole entire country would in a few weeks know about their adulterous relationship.
What was the penny press? The penny press were the first newspapers to appeal to a mass popular audience. This was revolutionary at the time, because before that, there were these really kind of dull merchant publications. They would carry stock prices, they would carry official news, maybe some news from Washington, but they did not have a wide audience.
So at the same time, the penny press papers were a penny, so they were affordable for the working person. The founders of it had this fantastic idea that you don't have to wait and sit back for subscriptions. You can sell it on the streets. So they start hawking the news. These are the first newsboys. And so they're selling to anybody who comes along and initially gets a working class audience.
But then it becomes so popular and so addictive. to get this different kind of newspaper that it goes all the way up to the upper classes of New York City. The mayor, everyone was reading the penny press. So what made the penny press very different, it would cover murder and suicides. It would cover scandals. It was about sex. It was really, in many ways, the forerunners to our current tabloids.
Everyone from longshoremen, rope makers, to ladies in smoking parlors, to the mayor, to anyone who could read was starting to pick up the penny press. And they love these stories.
Gangs were very much a concern in New York City. And they would kind of roam through the streets committing crimes, occasionally committing murders. He really didn't have much of anything to go on when he said that.
The other thing that aroused his suspicion was George Hausman had carried around $1,000 in silver coins at the time, which was a considerable amount of money, in big bags. And he had suspected that Polly had somehow tried to rob the money from Emmeline.
Polly Medine subsequently becomes the primary suspect. The reasons for this are a mix of rumor and some troubling facts. First of all, she's led a scandalous life. Her character is, quote, considered low. And so she was always held to be suspicious. When authorities look at Polly, they find out about the relationship with George Waite.
He eventually quickly confesses to say that he had a relationship with Polly Bodine. They find a very suspicious note on him when they search him, written from Polly, which, quote, says, "'Hide the things.'" This really alarms the authorities. They search the apothecary of George Waite, and they find this coral necklace that belonged to the infant, Annalisa, one of the victims.
Polly is in her father's house. Her brother-in-law comes in out of the rain and says, essentially, Polly, you know, everybody thinks that you're the murderer. She immediately gets up. She goes to the back room. She gets her shawl, and she takes off into the rain as she's eight months pregnant. She walks the length of Staten Island all night long.
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