The Tragic & Sinister Case of Mary Stannard

Brief Case

The Case of Mary Stannard that shocked 19th Century Connecticut   Please remember to subscribe and hit the bell icon as well as leave a like and a comment for more videos every week!  Brief Case is a True Crime Channel focusing on old or lost cases that have been forgotten to history. If you have any recommendations for future cases that you would like to bring to light, feel free to reach out to me to: briefcaseuk@gmail.com  Music by CO.AG Music - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwZB4l43iTw&t=105s Music by Myuu -https://www.youtube.com/user/myuuji Music by Kevin Macleod - https://incompetech.com  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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00:08Today we are looking at a case from the second part of the 19th century. So sit back as we

00:15go

00:15to the USA. Mary Elizabeth Stanard was born in 1856 in Madison, New Haven County, Connecticut.

00:25As a young girl she was considered to be quite shy. She lived with her father named Charles,

00:29her stepmother and half-sister named Susan. Mary was a helpful child. She would tidy the house

00:36and do all her chores without any fuss. She had some education but struggled at school.

00:42When she was a teenager she would work when she could, usually helping to clean in the larger

00:47houses of Madison. She was known to most of the residents of the town, mainly because of her

00:52cheerful demeanor. It was noticed that she would often be approached by young men, all of who

00:57appeared to be eager to make her acquaintance, but everyone believed Mary to be a sweet and

01:02innocent young lady. So it was a surprise when in 1875 people started to wonder if Miss Mary Stanard

01:10was with child. On the 7th of April 1876, when she was 19 years old, Mary gave birth to a

01:18baby boy

01:19who she named William Victor Stanard. Soon it seemed that all the 1600 residents of Madison knew about her

01:25situation, and it was rumoured that the father was a young married man who lived in the town of

01:31Wallingford. Whoever he was, he had no intention of leaving his wife and marrying Mary. At the time,

01:37a woman who gave birth to a baby whilst unmarried was considered immoral, and with it came a certain

01:43social stigma. Mary, however, was looked upon with far more sympathy, as although she was always courteous

01:50and polite, and did her best to help people when she was able. Many of the residents of

01:55Madison thought her to be quite a simple-minded young lady. Mary cared for her baby in the small

02:00house, and she was often visited by friends and relatives, as she wanted to be able to provide for

02:06her child herself. She was not prepared to stay at home and accept the charity of others. Reverend

02:12Herbert H. Hayden was a 27-year-old Methodist minister who had been appointed to the village of

02:17Rockland, some 10 miles from Madison. He had married his wife named Rosa on the 8th of August 1871,

02:25and in 1873, Rosa gave birth to a daughter. She was a pleasant, hard-working young lady who was

02:32employed as a schoolteacher. She was intelligent, but considered to be of a delicate constitution.

02:38She had suffered terrible losses in her life, as within one year of her marriage, her mother,

02:43sister, and brother, all died of consumption. Reverend Hayden was born in 1850, in Boston,

02:51Massachusetts. He was the son of a shoemaker, and when he was four years old, the family moved a few

02:57miles away to Dighton, where his father opened a country store, which became a very successful

03:02business. He attended school until the age of 16, when he took employment as a carpenter's apprentice,

03:08but after two years, he received his calling to work as a pastor. He claimed that he did not want

03:14to undertake this work, and prayed that he would not have to take it up, but the calling was too

03:19strong, so he studied to become a preacher. In 1876, he was asked to become the pastor in the village

03:26of

03:27Rockland. He duly obliged, and along with his wife and two children, moved to a small farm nearby.

03:33Things were going well for him, and his reputation grew, so much so, that in August 1877, he was asked

03:41if he would also conduct the Sunday service in the town of Madison. In the winter of 1877, he was

03:48offered a teaching position in Madison. This meant that he would have to leave his family on Saturday

03:53afternoons to travel there. He would then preach on Sundays, and work in his teaching position all week,

03:59before returning home to his wife and children on Fridays. It was a difficult time for the preacher's

04:04wife, Mrs Rosa Hayden. She taught classes from the farmhouse, and was finding it quite difficult to cope

04:10with her work, and looking after their children, and by now, she was pregnant again. She also did not

04:17like being left alone at night. Concerned for his wife, Reverend Hayden arranged for her to have some

04:22help. So in December 1877, he hired Miss Mary Elizabeth Stannard, a young lady he was already

04:30acquainted with, as he had visited the family, and encouraged them to attend church. Mary's father had also

04:37borrowed tools from the Reverend. It was agreed that Mary would help Mrs Hayden during the week. She'd arrive

04:43at the house on Saturday afternoons, just before Mrs Hayden's husband left, and she would stay there until

04:48the Friday evening, when Reverend Hayden returned from Madison. The situation lasted until the end of

04:54February 1878, when the school where Reverend Hayden was teaching closed, and he returned to live with his

05:00family. However, people had begun to suspect that the Reverend's interest in young Mary Stannard, was more than

05:06just a concerned pastor, who had employed her to assist his wife. He had often been seen out in her

05:12company, and there

05:13was gossip in the town that the pair may have been involved in something more sinister. Although Mary was no

05:19longer engaged in employment at the Hayden's house, they asked her if she would look after their two

05:24children, one evening in March 1878, as they were obliged to attend an oyster supper, given in benefit of the

05:31Rockland church. The supper took place very close to the house. In fact, it was less than 230 feet away,

05:38so at around

05:399pm, Reverend Hayden returned to check on the children. He was only gone for a short time, and

05:45everything was in order. He then returned to the oyster supper. In August 1878, Mary went to stay of a

05:53friend

05:53named Miss Jane Studley, who lived in Guildford, Connecticut. Mary had previously worked on Mr. Studley's

05:59farm, and both Mr. and Mrs. Studley considered Mary to be a pleasant young lady, who had been unfortunate to

06:05have previously found herself in poor circumstances. Mr. Studley noticed that Mary was in very low

06:10spirits, and asked his wife to speak to her. After some persuasion, a tearful Mary told of how she had

06:17been intimate with another gentleman, and feared that she was again with child. She was most troubled

06:22by this, as she knew that having a second child whilst unmarried would bring shame onto her family, and she

06:28was

06:28sure that this time, the good people of Madison would not be so sympathetic towards her situation.

06:35Mrs. Studley asked Mary who was responsible for this unfortunate circumstance, but Mary was very

06:41reluctant to say. Eventually, however, she tearfully revealed that the person was Reverend Hayden.

06:48She said that it happened in March, while she was looking after the Reverend and Mrs. Hayden's children,

06:54so they could attend the oyster supper. She said that the Reverend had returned during the evening,

06:59and they had been intimate. He then went back to the supper. She believed that she was by now five

07:05months pregnant. Mrs. Studley observed Mary, and came to the conclusion that she was indeed with child.

07:12Mary wrote a letter to her half-sister. In it, she included a letter, which she asked her to send

07:17on to the Reverend. In this, she asked him to escort her to New Haven for a termination. She wrote

07:24that

07:24afterwards, she would return to the house of Mr. and Mrs. Studley, until she was suitably recovered.

07:29However, Mr. Studley said he would not have any part of it, and the next day, he accompanied Mary

07:35back to her father's small house. By this time, she had decided that the letter she had written to

07:41Reverend Hayden should not be sent, and asked her half-sister to destroy it. Mary told her that she was

07:47anxious to speak to him in person, to make sure that everything was all right. On Monday the 2nd of

07:53September, Mary met with Reverend Hayden. He told her not to worry, and that he would take care of

07:59the situation. He said he would purchase some medicine that would make the problem disappear.

08:04He then arranged to meet her the following day at 2.30, next to the big rock, a boulder that

08:09was so large,

08:10it had been given a name. It was a place where wild blackberries grew, and was surrounded by large trees.

08:16Her father came back to the house at about 4.30 in the afternoon, and noticed that Mary had not

08:22returned. He knew that she had gone to gather blackberries, but she should have been back by

08:26now, so he headed out to find her. He walked down the path, calling out her name. At about half

08:33past

08:33five, Mr. Charles Stannard came across for horrifying sight of his daughter, laying dead on the ground.

08:40Her arms were folded over her chest. Her clothing was not disarranged, and there was no indication

08:46that she had been in any type of struggle. Her bonnet had been placed neatly by her sides. There

08:52were no blackberries in the pail that she had brought with her. Mr. Stannard quickly ran to fetch help.

08:57He banged on the door of Mr. Francis Mills, who alerted his two sons, and they all immediately went to

09:03the place where Mary was lying. News of the murder then started to spread throughout the town, and within a

09:08short time, more than a dozen people had gathered at the remote spot around the body, one of who was

09:13a Methodist minister, Reverend Herbert H. Hayden. A search was made for the weapon, but nothing was

09:20found. By now, it was getting dark, and it had started to rain. Mary's body was carried to her

09:25father's house, and the local justice was notified. Rumors of how this terrible tragedy had happened

09:31soon started to spread throughout the town of Madison and beyond. At first, there was speculation that

09:37Mary may have taken her own life, but her arms had been folded. There was a blow on her head,

09:42and she had

09:43been stabbed in the throat. No weapon had been seen nearby, and there were bruises on her wrists. The

09:48justice ordered the post-mortem be undertaken, which took place at 3am on Wednesday the 4th of September, and

09:55was carried out by Dr. Ruthus W. Matthewson. He concluded that the cause of death was caused by being hit

10:01in the

10:02head with a blunt object and a stab wound to the neck. The death of poor Mary Stannard was the

10:07only

10:08thing that the residents of Madison were talking about. All day on the Wednesday and Thursday, people

10:13would stop in the streets to see if anyone had heard if there had been any new occurrences in the

10:18investigation. But in truth, the only name that was being mentioned was the name of the Reverend,

10:24Herbert H. Hayden. When Mary's half-sister told the justices the story of how Mary had arranged to meet

10:30the pastor to discuss her condition, Deputy Sheriff Hull was instructed to arrest him. The Reverend's

10:37wife had only recently given birth to their third child. Nevertheless, he was taken into custody.

10:43The following day, newspaper reporters flocked to Madison and attempted to interview the suspect.

10:48However, he was unwilling to speak about the crime for which he was accused, only to say that he was

10:55not guilty. The crime became the news story of the time. The Hartford Courant printed in its

11:00columns. Off his guilt, as the case appears now, there can be very little doubt, and it looks as

11:06though he was led through fright to commit the murder, and yet did it in so bungling a manner,

11:11as to make it almost impossible for him to escape suspicion and arrest. On Tuesday the 10th of

11:18September, a hearing began at the Madison Town Hall. Mary Stannard's vital organs had been preserved

11:23in glass jars. In a strange twist, it was revealed that at the time of her death, Mary had not

11:29been

11:30pregnant at all. The hearing was also told that a large amount of arsenic was found in her body,

11:36enough in fact, to have killed up to 20 people. The hearing lasted for two weeks, and Reverend Herbert

11:42Hayden was found to be innocent of all charges. Many of the people of Madison had found it hard to

11:48believe that the Reverend could be guilty of such a crime, and when he left court, he was met by

11:54some

11:54of his cheering supporters. Later, however, evidence emerged that after meeting Mary on the 3rd of

12:00September, the Reverend had travelled to Middletown, where he had purchased an ounce of arsenic, on the

12:06pretense that he wanted to get rid of rats that were a nuisance in his house. The poison was wrapped

12:10and labelled, but the purchaser's name had not been taken. However, as he left the chemist shop,

12:16he was approached by a gentleman who attended his church, and inquired as to the health of his wife

12:21and newborn baby. With this new evidence, Reverend Hayden was again arrested, and taken to New Haven

12:28jail. He was then charged, and stayed in jail to await his trial, for the murder of Miss Mary Elizabeth

12:35Dannard. The trial of Reverend Herbert H. Hayden began on the 7th of October 1879, more than a year after

12:44the murder had been committed, and just like the first hearing, it was a contentious affair. All of

12:49the witnesses who had appeared previously were ordered to attend. For defence floated a number

12:54of alternative suspects, including Mary's father, Childs. Another name mentioned was 60-year-old Ben

13:01Stevens, who was well known to the family. There had been suggestions that on the Friday following the

13:06murder, Mr. Stevens' wife was washing his trousers, and found so much blood on them, that she fainted.

13:12When reporters had questioned her about this, she had told them that she had indeed fainted,

13:17but due to exhaustion from working so hard that day, and assured the reporters that she had not

13:22found any blood on her husband's trousers. The one thing that was puzzling was the arsenic.

13:28The defendant had admitted purchasing an ounce of arsenic, for the purpose of getting rid of rats in his

13:32home. He'd even told the authorities that it had not been used, and was still in his barn. The

13:38authorities had found it exactly where he had said it was. It was still wrapped, and none had been used.

13:44However, Professor Samuel Johnson, of Yale Medical College, was able to determine that the arsenic found

13:50in the barn was different to that found in Mary's stomach. It was explained to the court that arsenic

13:57condenses in eight-sided crystals, which are then ground up with a roller. However, some of the crystals are

14:03so small that they remain unbroken. By using a microscope to look in detail at these crystals,

14:09the professor was able to conclusively say that the arsenic found in the barn had not been purchased

14:15at the same time, or from the same store, that the defendant had claimed to have bought the arsenic

14:21in order to get rid of rats from his property. However, the arsenic found in Mary's stomach had

14:27without doubt been purchased from the store in Middletown. The defense also produced their own

14:32witnesses to try and disprove this theory. Although the scientific evidence presented did not prove

14:38that the defendant was guilty, it did suggest that he had not told the truth about where he had purchased

14:43the arsenic found in his barn. The prosecution informed the courts that they believed that the

14:48defendant had purchased more arsenic after he had given the arsenic purchased in Middletown to Mary.

14:53They claimed he did this in order to try and cover up his crime. The prosecution thought that Mary had

14:59taken the arsenic, thinking it to be a quick remedy to end her pregnancy. She became concerned for her

15:05safety and tried to run back to her house. In a panic, Reverend Hayden had hit her with a small

15:11rock

15:11and then cut her throat. The court was shown a pocket knife that belonged to the defendant.

15:16However, it was not uncommon to possess such a knife at the time. It was the appearance in the witness

15:21box

15:22of Reverend Hayden's wife Rosa that resonated most with the jury. In an emotional testimony,

15:28she told her sheer complete faith in her husband's innocence. The trial lasted for three months and it

15:34was not until January 1880, but the jury eventually retired to deliberate the case. But after much

15:40consideration, they were unable to reach a verdict. There was instead a hung jury. The trial had taken far

15:47longer than anticipated and cost in excess of $30,000. The state was not prepared to finance

15:53another trial, especially after learning that only one juror had thought the defendant to be guilty.

15:59The others had all been convinced of his innocence, following the testimony of Mrs. Rosa Hayden.

16:04A few days later, Reverend Herbert H. Hayden was released. He then returned to his family.

16:10For a short time, he continued to preach in the Methodist ministry, but eventually decided to

16:17move to Newhaven and took up work as a carpenter. He died on the 13th of May 1907, at the

16:23age of 57.

16:25Money had been raised to help Mary's son William. He continued to live in the area. Ironically,

16:30he died in Middletown in 1957, at the age of 81.

16:36Hello everyone, and thank you so much for listening. As usual, please leave any comments or feedback you

16:43may have, and I hope to see you all again in the next brief case.

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