Speaker 1: This episode maintained content of a graphic nature, including descriptions
Speaker 1: of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals.
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2: Hi. I'm Shannon. Hi I'm Tanya, and we are Crimes
Speaker 2: and Consequences, a hardcore true crime podcast. Hey Shannon, Hey Tanya.
Speaker 2: How you doing.
Speaker 3: I'm doing pretty good for this day after our long
Speaker 3: holiday weekend.
Speaker 2: Yes, and it's hard. I'm not going to complain. I'm
Speaker 2: just going to state that it's hard to know what
Speaker 2: day it is with a two week old. And I
Speaker 2: say that with much glee, even though you don't hear
Speaker 2: it in my voice because of how extremely tired I am.
Speaker 2: But yes, it was a nice holiday. This weather was great.
Speaker 2: What did you guys do? Did you barbecue? What'd you do? Cute?
Speaker 3: Yes, we spend some time outside barrens just I spent
Speaker 3: a lot of time outside because the weather was so beautiful.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, you have to when it's like that. Oh
Speaker 2: we've been waiting. We've been waiting since gosh what September
Speaker 2: for these nice sunny days to come back. So I
Speaker 2: am here.
Speaker 3: For it, like mild times, beautiful sun. So yeah, it
Speaker 3: was a little hard getting up this morning. And people
Speaker 3: were crazy today at my job. No, not driving, but
Speaker 3: like people sending in complaints and whatever, and like people
Speaker 3: be wild and out there. I don't know, like you
Speaker 3: think it was a full moon. That's how crazy it was.
Speaker 2: It's just the weather. It's something people. It takes so
Speaker 2: little nowadays you think it was the moon. But now, jeez,
Speaker 2: what time is it? Did the wind blow?
Speaker 3: I was a little tired tape. By ten thirty, I
Speaker 3: was done. I'm like, I am done with these people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like to take some personal time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, bring my coffee creamer because I ran out. I
Speaker 3: didn't bring my.
Speaker 4: Resale and I was like, oh my god, I need caffeine.
Speaker 4: I can't get your post to my assistant and like
Speaker 4: she's working from home today and she's like, I have
Speaker 4: some in the fridge in my under my desk, And
Speaker 4: I was like, oh God, bless you.
Speaker 3: I was able to have a cup of coffee this morning.
Speaker 2: Oh that's nice. So what do you bring into the
Speaker 2: table this week for us?
Speaker 3: Oh? I have a crazy ass story. Do you know
Speaker 3: who Frank Lloyd Wright is?
Speaker 2: The name is familiar. Is he an architect?
Speaker 3: He's an architect and he used to design homes and
Speaker 3: he had like a movement and everything. Yeah, this center's
Speaker 3: around him. So before I get into it, just would
Speaker 3: like to remind everyone to hit subscribe or follow on
Speaker 3: whatever app you're listening to. And as I mentioned Frank
Speaker 3: Lloyd Wright, he was a pioneer of what came to
Speaker 3: be known as the Prairie School movement of architecture. This
Speaker 3: model of home was to have one or two stories,
Speaker 3: an open floor plan, low pitched roofs, strong horizontal lines,
Speaker 3: ribbons of windows, and integration into the surrounding landscape with
Speaker 3: the use of natural materials. The first iteration that he
Speaker 3: did was a home that he called Talleison one and
Speaker 3: that was his personal home and studio and it was
Speaker 3: located in spring Green, Wisconsin. It was built to epitomize
Speaker 3: the characteristics of the Prairie School home in his own vision,
Speaker 3: and he built his home. He ended up sharing it
Speaker 3: with his mistress, Ms. Mayma Bouton Bothwick, and it was
Speaker 3: a one story, thirty seven thousand square feet wow. It
Speaker 3: was an L shaped complex and it was made of
Speaker 3: partially detached structures. The sprawling estate included a residential wing,
Speaker 3: an agricultural wing, and an office wing. And it had
Speaker 3: a courtyard, stables, servants quarters, and a garage on the
Speaker 3: thirty one acres.
Speaker 2: It was built on Tanya. That sounds a place where
Speaker 2: I want to live.
Speaker 3: Right, thirty seven thousand square feet with a fucking stable
Speaker 3: and servants quarters and.
Speaker 2: Duns, and I make a movie room, geology room.
Speaker 4: This I know.
Speaker 3: So, as I mentioned Mayma, she is Frank Lloyd Wright's
Speaker 3: mistress at the time of the story. And our story
Speaker 3: takes place on Saturday, August fifteenth, nineteen fourteen. And on
Speaker 3: that day, Mama sat down on the terrace just outside
Speaker 3: the family dining room of the Talleison estate with her children,
Speaker 3: twelve year old John and eight year old Martha. And
Speaker 3: these are not Frank Lloyd Wright's children, Maima and that's
Speaker 3: her nickname. I believe her name was Martha as well.
Speaker 3: But Mayma was married prior to having this affair with
Speaker 3: Frank Lloyd Wright, and Frank Lloyd Wright was also married.
Speaker 2: FYI.
Speaker 3: So she's out on the terrace of the Teleisin estate
Speaker 3: with her kids, and there were servants on the property.
Speaker 3: There was Julian Carlton and his wife Gertrude, and Gertrude
Speaker 3: was the cook she had prepared the soup that Julian
Speaker 3: would be serving for lunch that day. Laborers and draftsmen
Speaker 3: working for Frank Lloyd Wright were also on the property
Speaker 3: waiting for Julian to bring their lunch into the workmen's
Speaker 3: dining room, which was about eighty feet from the terrace
Speaker 3: where Mayma was and was being served. So they're like
Speaker 3: in a different wing.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Gertrude finished up the food preparation and handed the soup
Speaker 3: she'd made off to Julian, who walked up to the
Speaker 3: terrace to serve the family first. After ladling the soup
Speaker 3: into the bowls, the family began to eat. Julian was
Speaker 3: standing off to the side of Mama in his white jacket,
Speaker 3: where he produced a hatchet. And this is where the terror.
Speaker 3: My gosh, yeah, Mama took the first hit. The hatchet
Speaker 3: hit her with such rage and intensity that her head
Speaker 3: nearly split in two as she fell forward onto the
Speaker 3: table and slunk to the floor. Julian had already taken
Speaker 3: the weapons to young John, who was killed with a
Speaker 3: quick blow to his forehead. Little Martha, eight years old,
Speaker 3: having witnessed the end of her mother and her brother,
Speaker 3: ran through the dining room and entryway and out into
Speaker 3: the driveway, where Juliane caught up with her. He would
Speaker 3: beat her as if with a hammer, repeatedly in the head,
Speaker 3: like with this axe this hatchet. When she collapsed, her
Speaker 3: attacker would assume that she was dead, but unfortunately for her,
Speaker 3: she was not. Around this time, Gertrude, Julian's wife, who
Speaker 3: had heard the commotion of what was happening, began to
Speaker 3: work on an escape. After she gathered her things, she
Speaker 3: began to look for an exit, initially trying a basement door,
Speaker 3: but she couldn't get it to budge. Eventually, she dove
Speaker 3: through a window and began to run. The men waiting
Speaker 3: to be served in the workmen's dining room had no
Speaker 3: idea what was taking place. So they're sitting around a table,
Speaker 3: and like I said, this is a separate wing, so
Speaker 3: they don't know what's going on. So they're sitting around
Speaker 3: a table discussing the work of the day, and Julian
Speaker 3: walks into the dining room to dish out the soup.
Speaker 3: Once he was done ladling the soup into their bulls,
Speaker 3: he walked out of the door and he bolted the
Speaker 3: outside locks to prevent the man from escaping, so he
Speaker 3: leaves the room and he bolts the doors. Then he
Speaker 3: pulled a pipe out of his pocket and he lit it,
Speaker 3: taking a few puffs, after which he bent down and
Speaker 3: picked up the cans of gasoline that he had gathered
Speaker 3: that morning, and he began pouring the liquid out onto
Speaker 3: the floor, where it silently flowed into the workmen's dining room.
Speaker 3: Herbert Fritz, a young twenty something draftsman from Chicago, saw
Speaker 3: the steam flow toward the table, thinking the servants must
Speaker 3: have spilled, you know, maybe his mop bucket. And it
Speaker 3: wasn't until he recognized the smell of gasoline that he
Speaker 3: opened his mouth to begin to warn the others. But
Speaker 3: in that same moment, Julian dropped the match used to
Speaker 3: lightest pipe, and the room the men were in just
Speaker 3: burst into flames at once. The men rose to their feet,
Speaker 3: howling and flailing their arms trying to exit. They threw
Speaker 3: themselves against the door that Julian had bolted shut. As
Speaker 3: their struggle continued. The one who caused all the happenings
Speaker 3: that afternoon was waiting just outside with.
Speaker 2: The hatchet in hand.
Speaker 3: For the sixth he had trapped to break down the
Speaker 3: door and come running to escape somehow Herbert's he gathered
Speaker 3: the presence of mind to remember that there was a
Speaker 3: creek just down the hill from where Julian had locked
Speaker 3: him in. He threw his body against one low window
Speaker 3: and fell a story and a half, breaking his arm
Speaker 3: before he rolled down a steep, rocky incline attempting to
Speaker 3: reach the water. Julian spotted Herbert rolling down the hill
Speaker 3: on the other side of the house, tipping his gaze
Speaker 3: to the lower south window Herbert had broken through. There,
Speaker 3: Julian spotted a mill Brodell, attempting to make the same exit.
Speaker 3: Of all the people in the home at the time,
Speaker 3: a mill wasn't going to be able to dodge the
Speaker 3: fate that Julian had created for all of them. Driven
Speaker 3: to seal a mill's doom, Julian bolted from his watch
Speaker 3: over the door and ran to the ground below to
Speaker 3: the broken window. He reached it just as Brodell squeezed through,
Speaker 3: and he swung the hatchet, catching his victim at the
Speaker 3: hairline just above his left ear, slicing through his brain.
Speaker 3: Herbert Fritz had paused making his way down to the
Speaker 3: creek just in time to witness this entire grizzly scene.
Speaker 3: Then he watched Julian run back to his place monitoring
Speaker 3: the door of the workmen's dining room. Fritz's clothes were
Speaker 3: no longer on fire, but he was thoroughly burned and
Speaker 3: had his broken arm. He decided to begin hiking back
Speaker 3: up to tally Icon. The killer reached the door that
Speaker 3: he'd been guarding just as the other men he trapped
Speaker 3: began to break through. He was there in time, but
Speaker 3: he'd been put off by the temporary lapse and his plan.
Speaker 3: By the time carpenter Billy Weston broke through the doors,
Speaker 3: the rattled Julian hit him in the head twice with
Speaker 3: the blunt end of the hatchet instead of its blade.
Speaker 3: Then came Tom Brunker, who received a glancing blow but
Speaker 3: was able to avoid serious injury from the weapon as well,
Speaker 3: and he began running. Billy Weston's young son, Ernest, followed,
Speaker 3: and Julian by then had regained his bearings. He hit
Speaker 3: the boy right on the head, leading him to stagger away,
Speaker 3: collapsing in the fountain, where his charred remains stayed. Last
Speaker 3: came David Lindblom, who was savagely burned and fell upon
Speaker 3: being struck on the back of the head. Only after
Speaker 3: all the workers were out of the room did Julian
Speaker 3: begin chasing down Tom Brunker, who he was able to
Speaker 3: hit with such a thump that his skull opened and
Speaker 3: his brains protruded through the gap. By this time, Herbert
Speaker 3: Fritz had reached Tellyson after his clon and he hobbled
Speaker 3: his burned body around the corner in time to witness
Speaker 3: Tom Bunker's demise at Julian's hands. After all the exertion
Speaker 3: and shot, he fainted among the bodies, poor Herbert.
Speaker 2: No kidding.
Speaker 3: Seeing no one left standing, Julian grabbed the gasoline and
Speaker 3: began dousing Mama and her son John with the liquid
Speaker 3: before they burst into flames. Young Martha, still alive, caught
Speaker 3: fire due to the burning bodies inflaming gasoline around her.
Speaker 3: She would not survive to the next day, found with
Speaker 3: three hatchet wounds to the back of her head, one
Speaker 3: of which had gone completely through her skull. A fourth
Speaker 3: hatchet wound got her in the face, just under her
Speaker 3: right eye. In the end, seven of the nine victims
Speaker 3: who had been at the estate that day would die
Speaker 3: the survivors would be Herbert Fritz and Billy Weston. The
Speaker 3: estate that Lloyd Wright had imagined for his beloved mistress
Speaker 3: sat on a hill in the Helena Valley that day
Speaker 3: in nineteen fourteen. Anyone looking in the direction of that
Speaker 3: hell would have seen smoke billowing from where Talley Ison sat.
Speaker 3: The smoke is what brought farm hand Jack Ferris onto
Speaker 3: the scene. Julian, taking stock of his surroundings and seeing
Speaker 3: that residents were curious and would come to check it out,
Speaker 3: decided it wasn't a good idea for a black man
Speaker 3: to be found living among all the dead white people.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: He dug in his pocket for a vial of a
Speaker 3: said and he went to see got a place to hide,
Speaker 3: hatchet in hand. Twenty five years before the death of
Speaker 3: Mama Borthwick, Frank Lloyd Wright had met and married a tall,
Speaker 3: suitably virginal redhead named Catherine Kitty Lee Tobin, with both
Speaker 3: families unsure of the union. Kitty was shipped off to
Speaker 3: northern Michigan for several months, and Frank's mother actively was
Speaker 3: attempting to sabotage the nuptials. Frank had always been banned
Speaker 3: with money taking that trait from his father, and Kitty
Speaker 3: was moneyed and sat a bit higher on the social
Speaker 3: spectrum than the struggling architect that was wooing her. The
Speaker 3: two were married on June first, eighteen eighty nine, and
Speaker 3: Frank was twenty two and Catherine was barely eighteen. Catherine's
Speaker 3: father cried through the entire ceremony and Frank's mother, Anne fainted.
Speaker 2: A lot of reactions.
Speaker 3: Nuptials, right, it's supposed to be a happy day, so happy.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: Over the course of their marriage, Anna, Frank's mother, would
Speaker 3: continue to be adversarial toward her son's wife, and he
Speaker 3: did little to nothing to stop this treatment of poor Kitty. Ever,
Speaker 3: the dutiful daughter in law, she took the abuse with
Speaker 3: remarkable competence. It's been said between the years of eighteen
Speaker 3: ninety to nineteen oh five the couple was relatively happy
Speaker 3: outside of Anna's torment, and Kitty gave birth to Frank's
Speaker 3: six children, and there were some rumored infidelities. Frank seemed
Speaker 3: to be an active and happy parent, his son John
Speaker 3: saying quote, there were parties somewhere all of the time
Speaker 3: and everywhere some of the time. It was just fun
Speaker 3: to have him about end, but there seems to have
Speaker 3: been a shift in his attitude toward domesticity and family life.
Speaker 3: Around nineteen oh five, Frank began feeling his home life
Speaker 3: was frustratingly restrictive and Kitty, having become a mature woman
Speaker 3: and mother, was no longer the girl he married. She
Speaker 3: had been taken over by raising children, attending social clubs,
Speaker 3: and other aspects of family life. He felt she had
Speaker 3: deteriorated intellectually simply being content with her successful husband, healthy children,
Speaker 3: and beautiful home.
Speaker 2: What a dick. And I was gonna say, don't blame her,
Speaker 2: trying to make her sound like she's dumb down? Are
Speaker 2: you kidding me? You just want some new tale. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so don't put it on her.
Speaker 3: Don't put it on her. But you know so, I'm
Speaker 3: guessing he's restless, right, sure. So It's believed that Frank
Speaker 3: met mister and missus Edwin Cheney, who was Maema Borthwick's
Speaker 3: married name, Cheni Okay, through Kitty's membership in the Oak
Speaker 3: Park's nineteenth century women's club, having been mentioned together within
Speaker 3: the social pages of the town newspaper. Mayma who was
Speaker 3: born in Iowa in eighteen sixty nine, moved to Oak
Speaker 3: Park when her father, who was a machinist for the railroads,
Speaker 3: was promoted to superintendent of the repair department. She would
Speaker 3: attend the University of Michigan, where she would meet her
Speaker 3: future husband, Edwin Cheney. He was majoring in electrical engineering
Speaker 3: while she took classes and languages in literature. Edwin would
Speaker 3: pursue her tirelessly for nearly a decade while she continued
Speaker 3: her education, receiving a master's degree in teaching. She would
Speaker 3: become a librarian in Port Huron, Michigan for five years.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Port Huron's gorgeous. Sorry off, Lake Huron. Yeah, Lake
Speaker 3: Huron is gorgeous. It wasn't until she was approaching her
Speaker 3: thirtieth birthday around the time of her mother's death, that
Speaker 3: she conceded to marrying mister Cheney. After the birth of
Speaker 3: their son John in nineteen oh two, the couple decided
Speaker 3: it was time to build a house. They commissioned Frank
Speaker 3: Lloyd Wright to build the family home for the family
Speaker 3: unit he was about to destroy.
Speaker 2: Yes, he was what.
Speaker 3: The assumed timeline for the development of their relationship begins
Speaker 3: around the time that he was commissioned for the Cheney
Speaker 3: family Home Park were attempting to dissuade the man from
Speaker 3: continuing to persist in his disastrous relationship with Missus Cheney.
Speaker 3: Mima did give birth to her daughter by Edwin, named Martha,
Speaker 3: in nineteen oh six. However, by nineteen oh nine, both
Speaker 3: Frank and Mema were asking their respective spouses for divorce.
Speaker 3: For Edwin, although his pursuit of Mama was long and
Speaker 3: hard one, he didn't seem the least bit ruffled. Described
Speaker 3: as charming and gracious by his neighbors, he was not
Speaker 3: ever known to have an enemy or even who have
Speaker 3: raised his voice. On the other hand, Kitty was shocked.
Speaker 3: Not one to give up her marriage without attempting to
Speaker 3: save it, she told Frank she would like one year
Speaker 3: of grace, and if he still desired the divorce, she
Speaker 3: would grant it to him. She was confident that he
Speaker 3: would return and that they would reconcile. Ellen Key Kay,
Speaker 3: she was known by Kate, was a Swedish writer and
Speaker 3: feminist of the era during the time of Wright's struggle
Speaker 3: with deserting his family. Her writings were the ones Mamma
Speaker 3: was tesked with translating in her ideas. Frank found comfort
Speaker 3: in his choices if not expressed permission to abandon his
Speaker 3: wife and children. He believed his desertion of his family
Speaker 3: showed the pursuit of loftier goals, including devotion to his
Speaker 3: ethical principles, which I find to.
Speaker 2: Be a sorry early ethical principles and desertion of family.
Speaker 2: Never thought I'd hear those two things as yeah, because
Speaker 2: that's some bullshit.
Speaker 3: Frank, thank you. So Kay supported this belief, stating quote,
Speaker 3: marriage not mutual is worse than slavery end quote, and
Speaker 3: described it as barbaric. With these thoughts in mind, in
Speaker 3: nineteen oh nine, Frank was offered an opportunity to go
Speaker 3: to Berlin. This trip would allow a German born Harvard
Speaker 3: professor to oversee the publishing of a portfolio of Frank
Speaker 3: Lloyd Wright's collected work. With the excitement of this opportunity,
Speaker 3: he sent his draftsman to prepare for the trip and
Speaker 3: visited Mama to tell her all about it. Later that year,
Speaker 3: Mama took her children to Boulder, Colorado, to quote unquote
Speaker 3: visit a pregnant friend. While there, she eventually messaged Edwin
Speaker 3: to come pick the children up, and by the time
Speaker 3: he arrived Mama was gone. Shortly thereafter, Frank Lloyd Wright
Speaker 3: hurriedly sold his architectural firm, practically giving it away to
Speaker 3: an architect with a vastly different style who worked mostly
Speaker 3: on conventional church buildings rather than Frank's prairie style residential homes.
Speaker 3: Soon after, he said goodbye to Kitty and his kids,
Speaker 3: telling his thirteen year old son David, who was the
Speaker 3: third of his six kids, that he was now man
Speaker 3: of the house and leaving him with a nine hundred
Speaker 3: dollars grocery bill. About yeah. About seventy years later, David
Speaker 3: was interviewed and questioned about it, still appearing to be
Speaker 3: vexed about the whole situation in which his father had
Speaker 3: left him. After Frank had thoroughly cut his ties, he
Speaker 3: boarded a train to New York to meet up with
Speaker 3: Mama and set sail for Europe. They're going to go
Speaker 3: gallivanting off to Berlin. When they first reached Europe, Mamma
Speaker 3: took a job as a teacher and rented an apartment
Speaker 3: in Berlin while Frank went to Florence to work on
Speaker 3: his portfolio. When he needed to stay in Berlin, he
Speaker 3: would stay at mama's apartment with her. When the exhibition
Speaker 3: was completed, he brought her to Florence, where he seemed
Speaker 3: utterly content. It was here that he saw Villa Medici,
Speaker 3: the inspiration upon which he would design Talley Iison. However,
Speaker 3: within the year nineteen ten, mister Wright was back in
Speaker 3: Oak Park with Kitty with his wife. He had written
Speaker 3: his wife and given her the conditions upon which he
Speaker 3: would return, the most substantial of which being that they
Speaker 3: would no longer share normal marital relations, but they would
Speaker 3: put up a front for the kids. In return, he
Speaker 3: would give up Mama, though he couldn't stop loving her,
Speaker 3: But he told Kitty that he was afraid if he
Speaker 3: stayed in Italy with her, he would start to hate her.
Speaker 3: So I'm not sure that what went down.
Speaker 2: I would like to point out real quick because I
Speaker 2: did look up his birthday. Frank was a Gemini. Okay,
Speaker 2: that speaks fucking volumes on this flip flop, flip flop.
Speaker 2: I bet this, I want this, I want this. No,
Speaker 2: I don't want this, So.
Speaker 3: I put it out God, bless our, why.
Speaker 2: Please absolutely, I am married to Yeah, my best friend
Speaker 2: in high school was a Gemini, which was her husband.
Speaker 3: That's how I met she, so I took his friend
Speaker 3: away from him.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: Oh that makes a lot of sense, totally, And I
Speaker 3: love you geminis. Some of the life have been geminized absolutely,
Speaker 3: ever the dutiful son. After sending out his letter to
Speaker 3: his wife, he also sent a letter to his mother
Speaker 3: with a copy of what he sent to Kitty. So
Speaker 3: Frank not only wrote his wife, he tells his mom
Speaker 3: what he told her. In his correspondence with Anna, he
Speaker 3: defended his actions, telling her that his behavior should be
Speaker 3: excused because his family hadn't given him quote emotional support
Speaker 3: in his time of need.
Speaker 2: And oh no, that sounds Oh I can't be mean,
Speaker 2: I'm not Can I even say anything? It sounds like
Speaker 2: sounds like some Gemini male bullshit.
Speaker 3: After sending the letters, he took Mama to Paris and
Speaker 3: left her there before he boarded the next ship sailing
Speaker 3: back to the US. Upon his return, Kitty, feeling reasonably
Speaker 3: sorry for herself, wrote a friend saying, womankind seems to
Speaker 3: be so moveable, a feast easily sold and easily bought,
Speaker 3: and passed around and tossed away, and no mercy except
Speaker 3: from outsiders end quote preach, yes, yeah, girl oak Park
Speaker 3: was alarmed when Frank arrived on October eighth, nineteen ten.
Speaker 3: Frank was equally alarmed by the town's cold reception. Women
Speaker 3: would turn away from him in the street. Former friends
Speaker 3: would cross the road to avoid walking past him. Ministers
Speaker 3: across town were preparing sermons educating on the sins of adultery,
Speaker 3: and he became a social outcast. In nineteen eleven, Frank
Speaker 3: approached his mother about a thirty one acre parcel of
Speaker 3: land in Helena Valley, Wisconsin. Knowing the plot of land
Speaker 3: had a hill similar to that which Villa Medici sat
Speaker 3: up han. He immediately got to work right after, mentioning
Speaker 3: to friends that he was thinking about building a small
Speaker 3: house for his mother there. So he did this all
Speaker 3: under the guy's like, oh, this is a house for
Speaker 3: my mom.
Speaker 2: It sounds like his mother was a bit intrusive. Sounds
Speaker 2: like she was okay with really anything Frank did. Yeah, right, like,
Speaker 2: which is not yeah, even though it's shitty decisions, very selfish. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I agree with you.
Speaker 3: In the meantime, Mama came back to oak Park, having
Speaker 3: been gone the requisite two years, to sue for divorce.
Speaker 3: After establishing desertion Mamma gave the custody of the children
Speaker 3: to Edwin. One of her finer qualities, according to Frank,
Speaker 3: was her quote relative indifference toward her son and daughter
Speaker 3: end quote.
Speaker 2: That's real nice. It is great parenting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, great parenting, mamma. So Mamma, in contrast to Kitty,
Speaker 3: had exchanged her children for pursuing the world of ideas, thoughts,
Speaker 3: and dreams. A choice, mister Wright, he greatly respected that.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm sure I just looked her up. Another Gemini
Speaker 2: Olympics blind leading the blind. Here, MEM's a Gemini. He's
Speaker 2: June ninth, I believe June eighth or ninth, and she's
Speaker 2: June nineteenth. So pretty volatile. It makes sense. Yeah, everything's okay.
Speaker 2: You know they can and I know it seems aggressive,
Speaker 2: but you love geminis. Yes, yes, you can call me
Speaker 2: a cry baby because I'm a cancer. Yes, and I cry.
Speaker 2: So there you go. You're so fucking emotional girl, always
Speaker 2: on the verge tears. But yes, okay, now back to Mayma. Yeah.
Speaker 3: When the work on Telly Iison began, the ruse was up.
Speaker 3: Frank had come home in nineteen ten under conditions to
Speaker 3: his wife. He had bought a parcel of land to
Speaker 3: build his mother a home on. Shortly after Mayma arrives
Speaker 3: in town, though asking for a divorce from when that
Speaker 3: was granted. When the construction on the estate had gotten
Speaker 3: far enough along, Frank took her on a tour of
Speaker 3: their home. She moved in as soon as she could,
Speaker 3: and Frank would join her there permanently in December nineteen eleven.
Speaker 3: Telly Son was a beautiful home, meant to house elegant residents,
Speaker 3: and yet the people of the town saw merely a
Speaker 3: house where Frank and Mema were shacking up. The locals
Speaker 3: were openly hostile, and the room or mill moved at
Speaker 3: a furious pace. Kitty would be shaking with tears in
Speaker 3: her eyes as she denied the stories to the press,
Speaker 3: which poor Kitty.
Speaker 2: Oh humiliating at the time, I'm sure, oh my, But.
Speaker 3: For Frank's part, her husband would invite the Chicago Tribune
Speaker 3: to tally Icon shortly after moving in, feeling it was
Speaker 3: time to explain his side of the story. The reporter
Speaker 3: came and sat while Frank provided his report of the
Speaker 3: events leading to that day. After finishing his prepared statement,
Speaker 3: he was fully ready for the rest of the people
Speaker 3: in the town to see things his way. He blamed
Speaker 3: the marital struggles on his and Kitty's parents, saying the
Speaker 3: two were much too young to marry. When they did,
Speaker 3: he conveniently forgot that neither of the families supported them,
Speaker 3: you know, supported the marriage in way. He also explained
Speaker 3: that his abandon or to develop into their individual selves
Speaker 3: outside of the influence of his quote dominant personality unquote
Speaker 3: uh yeah, Gemini. Among all the words he shared that day,
Speaker 3: the biggest mistake he made was in this statement. He said,
Speaker 3: quote as for the general aspect of things, I want
Speaker 3: to say this, laws and rules are made for the average.
Speaker 3: The ordinary man cannot live without rules to guide his conduct.
Speaker 3: It is infinitely more difficult to live without rules. But
Speaker 3: that is what the really honest, sincere thinking man is
Speaker 3: compelled to do. And I think when a man has
Speaker 3: displayed some spiritual power has given concrete evident of his
Speaker 3: ability to see and to feel the higher and better
Speaker 3: things in life, we ought to go slow in deciding
Speaker 3: he has acted badly end quote wow, yeah, wow, fucking narcissist. Honestly,
Speaker 3: I have to tell you, the Midwest did not look
Speaker 3: kindly on his elitism.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, this house aude.
Speaker 3: He's in the heartland of the United States, and he's
Speaker 3: going to be like, oh, I'm the exception.
Speaker 2: Yes it's again.
Speaker 3: It's you know, rules are for the pooh poo pooh, for.
Speaker 2: The ordinary and the average. Right you see, I'm not ordinary.
Speaker 2: Look at my work.
Speaker 3: I'm fucking fabulous and therefore the rules.
Speaker 2: Wow, that sounds like a Leo rising.
Speaker 3: The bewildered and angry residents reached out to the sheriffs
Speaker 3: to evict the couple. When the sheriffs let the people
Speaker 3: know that he didn't have any charges that had been brought,
Speaker 3: nor any warrant filed, so he really had no legal
Speaker 3: authority to act. People of the town began to speak
Speaker 3: about vigilante justice.
Speaker 2: They're pissed about this. Whoa I know.
Speaker 3: Over time, with some humility in silence from Frank, the
Speaker 3: couple was able to settle into Teleisin with limited scandal,
Speaker 3: allowing locals to adapt over the course of time. Although Kitty,
Speaker 3: who had promised Franka divorce during their discussions in nineteen
Speaker 3: oh nine after a year of grace, had never followed through,
Speaker 3: the couple was still married all these years later.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: In the fall of nineteen thirteen, Frank was approached by
Speaker 3: real estate developer Edward C. Waller Junior to build a
Speaker 3: grand scale, open air urban resort like Beer Garden, open
Speaker 3: year round, with a sophisticated entertainment like orchestra and fine dining.
Speaker 3: The site was chosen, they merely needed an architect to
Speaker 3: make it unique. After reaching an agreement on cost and timeline,
Speaker 3: the project began. But even though the Midway Garden project
Speaker 3: was agreed to be completed on May first, nineteen fourteen,
Speaker 3: things still ran behind. Even after the gardens were open,
Speaker 3: Frank and his son John, who had gone into business
Speaker 3: with his father, were still working on it in August,
Speaker 3: when Frank received the worst news of his life. Julian
Speaker 3: and Gertrude Carleton had come to work for Frank and
Speaker 3: Mama in mid June that year. It's unknown if the
Speaker 3: two originally came to the US from Barbados, Cuba, the
Speaker 3: West Indies, or anywhere of that sort, but they arrived
Speaker 3: in the area from Chicago, having been recommended by a
Speaker 3: restaurant tour known to Frank. The gentleman said that they
Speaker 3: had worked as house servants for his father and it
Speaker 3: had done a good job, but he didn't know much
Speaker 3: else about them. Time has not changed that fact. We
Speaker 3: still don't know much about them. It was known that
Speaker 3: Julian was about five eight, one hundred and forty five pounds,
Speaker 3: dark skin, thin lipped, and handsome in the average sense
Speaker 3: of the word. The couple said they had been married
Speaker 3: about two years and they were both around thirty years
Speaker 3: old when the offer to work at telly Ison came through,
Speaker 3: for Gertrude to cook and for Julian to work as
Speaker 3: a butler and handyman. The couple boarded the first train
Speaker 3: to spring Green. Within two weeks, Julian was ready to
Speaker 3: go back to Chicago. By late July, Billy Weston and
Speaker 3: David Lindblom were overheard at the tavern talking about Julian
Speaker 3: in an ominous and threatening way. Around that same time,
Speaker 3: Julian told Gertrude he needed to go to Madison to
Speaker 3: see Adnis, but when she received a telegram on August first,
Speaker 3: he had gone to Chicago instead. When Julian returned, Martha
Speaker 3: and John Cheeney had arrived to visit their mother. Edwin
Speaker 3: had to go on a business trip, and Mehma accepted
Speaker 3: her children for periods over the summer. On Friday, August seventh,
Speaker 3: Julian went into Spring Green to purchase a bottle of
Speaker 3: acid quote unquote for the farm stores at Tellison. On
Speaker 3: August eleventh, Frank left for Chicago to work at Midway Gardens.
Speaker 3: The following day, the confrontation between a mill Broadell and
Speaker 3: Julian took place. For a reason unknown to us, Julian
Speaker 3: had refused to saddle Brodel's horse. In anger, Brodell called
Speaker 3: him a black son of a bitch. If Brodell had
Speaker 3: any chance of surviving the day of the attack, what
Speaker 3: he said to Julian that day solidifying his face, sure
Speaker 3: for sure. On the morning of the attack, Julian approached
Speaker 3: Billy Weston to ask where Frank kept the gasoline. He
Speaker 3: said that there was a soiled rug and he needed
Speaker 3: gas to clean it, even though I've never heard of
Speaker 3: gas being used to clean anything, not ever.
Speaker 2: Not ever.
Speaker 3: But apparently Billy Weston told him where the gas was,
Speaker 3: and around noon the attack began. Maema's children didn't enjoy
Speaker 3: being at tally Icon. The home was not constructed for
Speaker 3: the entertainment of children, so there was very little for
Speaker 3: them to do. Being that they spent most time with
Speaker 3: their father. They didn't have many playmates in the area either. However,
Speaker 3: when she arrived at the estate, Martha reached out to
Speaker 3: a local girl, and that fateful day Edna Kritz had
Speaker 3: mounted her horse named Beauty to ride the three miles
Speaker 3: and invite John and Martha to watch the threshing at
Speaker 3: her farm, which is about as exciting as it sounds
Speaker 3: from a real farm girl. From the road she was
Speaker 3: approaching telly Son from the little girl likely would have
Speaker 3: been the first to hear the screams and see the
Speaker 3: horror unfold. She would reach telly Son around twelve forty five.
Speaker 3: In the aftermath of the attack, Billy Weston rose to
Speaker 3: his feet, surrounded with bodies, not the least of which
Speaker 3: that of his young son Ernest. He roused David Lindblom
Speaker 3: and the two ran to the best of their ability.
Speaker 3: After having been hatcheted and burned alive, they ran to
Speaker 3: the Reader home, which was the closest place that they knew,
Speaker 3: with a phone to call for help. Resolutely, Billy Weston
Speaker 3: ran back to telly Son, with Lindblaum limping behind. Upon
Speaker 3: reaching the estate, he grabbed the hose in the garden
Speaker 3: wall and he began to spray the flames. Within thirty minutes,
Speaker 3: the residential wing of the home had burned to the ground.
Speaker 3: All that was left was the workmen's wing, and Billy
Speaker 3: Weston saved that part. Soon locals began to arrive, farmers
Speaker 3: with their farm hands, wives and children, and the hundreds
Speaker 3: filled the road. A bucket mcgrade was established to continue
Speaker 3: working on the fire, but Posse's also formed to scour
Speaker 3: the fields for Julian and Carleton, and someone was going
Speaker 3: to have to call Frank. After about an hour after
Speaker 3: the fire started, a stenographer at Midway Gardens answered the
Speaker 3: phone and called Frank into the office to take the call.
Speaker 3: When he returned to his workstation next to his son John,
Speaker 3: the young man could tell something was wrong, hearing labor
Speaker 3: breathing and groaning. John asked what had happened, and Frank
Speaker 3: told him the only information that he had. Talley Son
Speaker 3: was on fire. Mayma, the children, the students, what if
Speaker 3: they're hurt?
Speaker 2: Why did I leave them? What? He was lamenting.
Speaker 3: John summoned a taxi to take them to the train
Speaker 3: station immediately. Once there, they learned that the next train
Speaker 3: headed to Spring Green would be a slow train whose
Speaker 3: route was meant to make several stops. That train wouldn't
Speaker 3: leave until early evening, and it would take hours to
Speaker 3: get to where it was going. And then, as fate
Speaker 3: would have it, who would show up to the very
Speaker 3: same train station at the very same time, but Edwin
Speaker 3: Geneye's ex husband, My Frank approached him and shook his hand.
Speaker 3: During this exchange, there was a silent understanding reached. The
Speaker 3: train pulled in, Reporters began to approach, and John took
Speaker 3: it upon himself to shove both men into the same train.
Speaker 3: Card Edwin was silent the entire way to spring Green,
Speaker 3: while Frank was making his way home. Doctors had made
Speaker 3: it to talley Son to treat the injured. Sheets covered
Speaker 3: the victims that didn't make it. There would be no
Speaker 3: sheet for young John, who was burned so thoroughly there
Speaker 3: was really nothing but ash and bone. The boy wouldn't
Speaker 3: even be issued a death certificate. At five point thirty
Speaker 3: that evening, one of the searchers hurriedly ran to find
Speaker 3: the sheriff. The man had the thought to open the
Speaker 3: door to the furnace, and inside he found Julian Carlton
Speaker 3: by the time the sheriff returned, Julian had drank the
Speaker 3: vial of acid when it became clear that he was
Speaker 3: going to be captured. In pain and half conscious, the
Speaker 3: man moaned as he was pulled from his hiding spot,
Speaker 3: still holding onto the hatchet. Seeing the hundreds of residents
Speaker 3: noticed that the murderer had been found, and noting that
Speaker 3: they were likely looking to form a lynch, Moob Carlton stated, quote,
Speaker 3: they'd better let me live if they expect to find
Speaker 3: out something end quote. The train bearing Frank, John and
Speaker 3: Edwin pulled in about ten ten pm. It had been
Speaker 3: an unbearable trip. During the long train ride, at every stop,
Speaker 3: the men had heard unwanted news. Newsboys were shouting at
Speaker 3: every station, tally Icon burning to the ground, seven slain. Finally,
Speaker 3: when they arrived, Frank made a short statement to the press.
Speaker 3: He said Julian and Gertrude were the best servants he
Speaker 3: had ever seen, and that the couple was only temporarily
Speaker 3: planning on working at telly Son. The day of the
Speaker 3: fire was to have been their last day. They were
Speaker 3: to pick up their wages that afternoon. That night, Staring
Speaker 3: blankly from the car, Frank approached the ruins of his
Speaker 3: beloved Tally Icon. Quote thirty six hours earlier, I had
Speaker 3: left Tally Icon, leaving all living, friendly and happy. Now
Speaker 3: the blow had fallen like a lightning stroke, violently swept
Speaker 3: down and away in a madman's nightmare of flame and
Speaker 3: murder end quote. Edwin and Frank had a whispered conversation
Speaker 3: about what to do regarding the disposition of the bodies.
Speaker 3: Edwin remarked that Mamma had said that if anything happened
Speaker 3: to the children, she would like to have them cremated
Speaker 3: with unintended redundancy. Edwin stated he would take the remains
Speaker 3: and fulfill her wishes. The box he carried with the
Speaker 3: remains was painfully small, easily carried in one hand. He
Speaker 3: would not hold a funeral for them. He made no
Speaker 3: remarks regarding intentions from Mema. That would be Frank's responsibility alone,
Speaker 3: to which he said he would bury her at Talley Icon.
Speaker 3: The two men shook hands, said their goodbyes respectfully, and
Speaker 3: Edwin drove away without a second glance. Julian Carleton only
Speaker 3: lived for seven and a half weeks after his arrest.
Speaker 3: He made three short court appearances before succumbing to starvation
Speaker 3: on October seventh, at one in the afternoon. It is
Speaker 3: not thought that the drink of the acid affected his
Speaker 3: ability to eat, and this would be starvation by willpower alone.
Speaker 3: He weighed a scant ninety pounds at the end of
Speaker 3: his life. He never admitted to any particular motive for
Speaker 3: the crime. However, the most likely possibility is simply that
Speaker 3: he was emotionally violatile. Maybe he had some sort.
Speaker 2: Of mentals break who you can't come with the this
Speaker 2: is why I did it? Yeah, right right, Chalk it
Speaker 2: up to mental mm hmm.
Speaker 3: Gertrude Carlton, Julian's wife had been found hiding in the
Speaker 3: brush off the road to spring Green shortly after the attack.
Speaker 3: She was taken to the jail in town overnight and
Speaker 3: transferred to the Iowa County Jail in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. She
Speaker 3: was detained under suspicion for two weeks, where she had
Speaker 3: much to say about her husband. Before even leaving Chicago,
Speaker 3: his mental issues were evident, reported by African American neighbors
Speaker 3: as erratic and bizarre.
Speaker 2: He was a very nervous person.
Speaker 3: He would fly off the handle at the slightest provocation,
Speaker 3: and was constantly worried about money. Gertrude sought refuge with
Speaker 3: a neighbor of their former employer. In any event where
Speaker 3: her husband began to terrify her, her neighbor relayed what
Speaker 3: Gertrude had said, saying, quote, he would get these spells
Speaker 3: where he was wild eyed and dous, strange things.
Speaker 2: That she feared for her life. End quote.
Speaker 3: When the couple moved to tele Ison, he became even
Speaker 3: more unstable. Billy Weston and David Lindblaum were overheard at
Speaker 3: the tavern saying quote, he's polite and smart, but he's
Speaker 3: the most desperate, hot headed fellow I ever saw. Don't
Speaker 3: ever contradict him. He'll fly off the handle any minute.
Speaker 2: End quote.
Speaker 3: When she was detained by the deputy, she told him
Speaker 3: this quote. My husband had the notion that he.
Speaker 2: Was being pursued.
Speaker 3: He recently got to waking me up in the night
Speaker 3: at our quarters in the bungalow to listen for noises.
Speaker 3: They're trying to get me, he kept saying. Then sometimes
Speaker 3: he would choke me and threaten to knock my brains out.
Speaker 3: He took that hatchet to bed with him.
Speaker 2: End quote.
Speaker 3: Wow, on the morning of Saturday, August twenty ninth, Gertrude
Speaker 3: was released outright. The deputies put her on a train
Speaker 3: headed for Chicago with seven dollars in her pocket, and
Speaker 3: she vanished from the historical record. Frank Lloyd Wright would
Speaker 3: go on to rebuild telly Ison. The next structure, dubbed
Speaker 3: tell Ison Too, would also burn down, this time due
Speaker 3: to faulty wiring. Much as before. The residential wing was destroyed,
Speaker 3: but the working wing remained. Frank took it as a
Speaker 3: sign that he should try again. Tally Son three is
Speaker 3: the version still standing today, open to the public as
Speaker 3: a tourist attraction and googling it tally Son East. It's
Speaker 3: thirty seven dollars and ten cents for the tour.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so.
Speaker 3: If you're ever in that part of Wisconsin, check it out.
Speaker 2: I would, I will. I do love architecture. I know.
Speaker 3: Kitty granted Frank his divorce in nineteen twenty two. He
Speaker 3: would go on to marry two more times. Upon his
Speaker 3: death in nineteen fifty nine, he was buried at tally
Speaker 3: Son next to Mama. Edwin Cheney wasted no time and
Speaker 3: was remarried within a year of his nineteen eleven divorce
Speaker 3: from Meyma. He would have three more children with his
Speaker 3: new wife, Elizabeth. Kitty remarried in nineteen thirty to a
Speaker 3: retired Chicago businessman, Benjamin And that's the end of today's story.
Speaker 2: Tanya, that is so crazy. I had no idea such
Speaker 2: horror befell him.
Speaker 3: I know, like it's never brought to me. I feel
Speaker 3: like it's never brought up.
Speaker 2: Never.
Speaker 3: There is some Frank Lloyd Wright homes here locally. I
Speaker 3: want to say they're probably I don't know for sure,
Speaker 3: so don't quote me, but I want to say, like
Speaker 3: Birmingham West Bloomfield, like somewhere in that area. I'm pretty
Speaker 3: sure there's a house or two that he designed, and
Speaker 3: so that I think our residential homes, like people actually
Speaker 3: still live there. I had no idea that this is
Speaker 3: a crazy story, right.
Speaker 2: It's so separate from him and his legacy as an architect. Yes,
Speaker 2: because when I was living in Buffalo, there's a street
Speaker 2: I lived nearby, Delaware Delaware Avenue, and it used to
Speaker 2: be called I believe Millionaire's Row something because Millionaire lived
Speaker 2: on this street and Frank Lloyd Webber has I think
Speaker 2: ten structures, and I'm sorry, thank you Frank Loyd Webber
Speaker 2: the composer, is that, yeah, thank you. Frank Lloyd Right
Speaker 2: does have I think ten buildings in Buffalo, so he
Speaker 2: has a connection there, and I do love his architecture,
Speaker 2: like what I've seen and the gorgeous so yeah, he's
Speaker 2: It's just amazing that it doesn't go hand in hand.
Speaker 3: You know, you think this tragedy would be something that
Speaker 3: would never like it would be Frank Lloyd Wright and
Speaker 3: his mistress who was murdered at Telly Yson.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? How that is never brought
Speaker 2: You're right, it's never brought up. I'm so impressed with
Speaker 2: this story. I'm not impressed with what happened. I'm impressed
Speaker 2: that it's been not told. Yeah, this is my first
Speaker 2: time hearing it. Thank you so much for bringing it.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do I you know, I'm always looking up
Speaker 2: people's birthdays to understand or they come in at and
Speaker 2: his mother Anna, so she's she's also one to her
Speaker 2: sign Aquarius. You know, it's an Aquarius supporting a gemini'sed
Speaker 2: delusion of danger. No, that's so cool, Tanya, thank you
Speaker 2: so much for bringing this. I do feel smarter now.
Speaker 2: No Ie about.
Speaker 3: Crazy American I know. So thank you Shannon for listening
Speaker 3: to this week's story, and thank you everyone for listening
Speaker 3: to this week's story as well. Before you go, please
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Speaker 3: of them i've been with Shannon. I think you maybe
Speaker 3: you came around what episode two hundred, two hundred and
Speaker 3: ten something like that, early two hundreds, yes, yeah, early
Speaker 3: two hundred. So the other previous two hundreds are Teleia
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Speaker 2: And I think that's all the business. Sounds like it,
Speaker 2: my friends, sounds like good business.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, thank you again and I will see you soon.
Speaker 3: So until our next episode, bye bye.