Murder, Mischief & Mayhem!

Upon the discovery of the body of Ocey Snead, the three Wardlaw sisters are apprehended and indicted on first degree murder charges. The circumstances surrounding the girl’s passing are incriminating. The “women in black” all steadfastly maintain their innocence in a courtroom unnerved by the untimely death of Virginia Wardlaw (who starves herself in her jail cell) and the egomaniacal ravings of Caroline Martin during the proceedings. However, the trial takes a dramatic turn when a surprise witness, Albert Wardlaw – the sisters’ brother – takes the stand.  

East Orange New Jersey was an affluent, tree-lined, mansion-filled community in 1909, populated by oil tycoons and Newark industrialists. In November of that year, its tranquility was suddenly shattered by a phone call to the police from Virginia Wardlaw, one of the three Wardlaw women (the Sisters in Black) who were well known in East Orange for their weird attire and strange behavior. That disturbing call resulted in a visit by the authorities to the Wardlaw home, where they discovered the body of a 19-year girl, Miss Ocey Snead, in an upstairs bathtub. Despite the protests of Virginia Wardlaw that this was an accident (or a possible suicide) the authorities felt otherwise. The investigation that followed and the evidence that surfaced painted a far different picture of how the three sisters treated the young girl in their care. Hardly the benevolent custodians they claimed to be, the sisters plotted to rob the young victim of her inheritance, her sanity, and her life. Join our host, G.W. Bailey, as we chronicle another true story from America’s criminal past—a tale of betrayal, gaslighting and murder.

Three sisters disturb the peace in East Orange New Jersey in 1909 when they take a 19-year-old girl hostage and imprison her in their hovel. Their plan for the girl (the daughter of one of the sisters) is diabolical: gaslight their victim into submission, gain control over her inheritance, and then starve her to death. 

The trial of Dr. Rosenzweig attracted national attention, thanks to its relentless coverage in the New York press. Abortion was relatively common in Post-Civil War New York. In fact, an underground network of providers openly advertised their services in the classified sections of the local newspapers. However, in 1871, it was an unsafe and often fatal pursuit. The Rosenzweig trial went well beyond arguing the facts of the case; it quickly became a forum on the legality and morality of the practice. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court in 2022, the reproductive rights battle rages on – as contentious and intractable an issue in the 21st century as it was in the 19th. 

Nothing could prepare the baggage handlers on the loading dock of the Hudson River Railroad Depot for what they found when they cracked open a suspicious steamer trunk headed for Chicago. They recoil in horror. The authorities are immediately called in. The New York City Constabulary conducts an investigation with a zeal that befits the enormity of the suspected crime.

In 1871, a mysterious woman deposits a Saratoga trunk on the loading dock of the Hudson River Train Depot for transport to Chicago. The steamer never makes it to its destination. Instead, it triggers arrests, an indictment and a sensational trial that attracts national attention.  The issue at stake in that courtroom foreshadows a  judicial and cultural firestorm that continues to rip the fabric of American society over 150 years later.   Join G.W. Bailey as he narrates the first story in Season II of Murder, Mischief & Mayhem, a dramatic chronicle of legendary cases from America's criminal history. 

J. Edgar Hoover, now smelling blood, rejoins the interrogation, from the other side of the two-way mirror. He leans hard and loud into McCall. With Hoover relentlessly breathing down his neck, McCall agrees to escort the cops to where he “believes” his alleged partner in crime may have left the child. The field team quickly comes across an appalling find; the decomposed body of young Skeegie Cash, buried in a dense palmetto thicket. Hoover leaves Florida shortly thereafter, taking the lion’s share of the credit for cracking the case. Franklin McCall breaks down and admits that he acted alone. With astonishing speed, he is indicted, pleads guilty, is tried, and convicted of murder. All less than three weeks after the actual kidnapping. A year later, on June 24th, 1939 in the Death House at the State Prison in Raiford, FL, 22-year-old Franklin Pierce McCall walks the “Green Mile” on his way to the chair, a.k.a. Old Sparky.   

Young Skeegie, Old Sparky & J. Edgar Season 1 Episode 3As the FBI fumble their way through the case, a skeptical Sherriff D.C. Coleman pursues his own investigation. He reaches out to several of the locals to confirm his belief that the kidnapper was right under his nose. His folksy charm and wry sense of humor disguise a keen observational skill set based on years’ worth of police work. The sheriff determines that the comments of Franklin Pierce McCall, another of the town’s good old boys, do not add up. McCall agrees to come to the Miami FBI office for an interview where he is “braced” relentlessly by Coleman and a federal interrogator. McCall finally breaks down and confesses. However, he says he was no more than a co-conspirator in the kidnapping and that he can only identify the location of the ransom money, not what happened to the boy. The Feds head out and locate the cash exactly where McCall says it was buried.

Four days pass after the kidnapping. The search team has expanded to include the local volunteers, the Sheriff’s office, FBI agents from the Miami office and other public and private agencies. The search fans out miles beyond the town of Princeton – but produces no results. The child has not been returned nor has the kidnapper communicated anything new. One day later, on June 3, 1938, a private plane bound from Washington, D.C. lands at Wilcox Field, the airport serving the Greater Miami area. J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the FBI, steps onto the tarmac. With a need to boost the flagging credibility of his agency, Hoover decides to take personal control of the case in the field. That includes participating in the questioning of a suspect, Frampy Braxton, a close friend of Bailey Cash. The local FBI agent and Hoover “sweat” Braxton in a prolong interrogation in an attempt to force a confession – with mixed results. 

On May 28, 1938, a toddler is kidnapped in the middle of the night from his bedroom in a rural South Florida town on the edge of The Everglades. The father shapes up a posse to find the culprit and the child. Soon, all the locals join in the hunt – and are suspects. Local law enforcement and the Miami office of the FBI join the rescue effort; it produces three ransom notes and one failed attempt to rendezvous with the kidnapper – but no 5-year-old. With help from the government, Bailey Cash, the father, gathers up the considerable ransom money, makes a second trek to the agreed-upon drop, deposits a shoebox full of cash and waits anxiously for the return of his son.

During a kidnap-for-ransom crime wave that plagued the country during the Great Depression (beginning with the notorious Lindbergh baby kidnapping case in 1932) a 5-year boy is snatched from his crib in a remote town on the edge of the Florida Everglades. The parents, Bailey and Vera Cash, find a ransom note demanding $10,000 for the safe return of their son. The kidnapping of “Skeegie” Cash attracts immediate national attention when J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI czar, decides to get out from behind his desk and take over the investigation himself. It would be the only time that Director Hoover (to score political points and save the Bureau from defunding) led his “G” men in a the field. What follows turns out to be a Keystone Cops comedy of procedural mishaps by the Feds – until the local sheriff quietly breaks the case wide open.