July 4, 2025 • 40 mins
For the season 19 finale we once again talk murder committed by the wealthy. This time we travel to the years leading up to the American Civil War when a congressman shot a man in public, admitted to the crime, showed no remorse, and still lived a long life. How did Daniel Sickles get away with murder? And he introduced who to the queen of England?! All answered in this episode!
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(00:02):
Wall Street veteran Bernard Madoff has been arrested and
charged with running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
Congress wants to know what caused the Enron meltdown, and
while the collective rage currently is focused on low
comp, Tyco CEO Dennis Koslowski was convicted of looting
hundreds of millions of dollars.This is one of the biggest fraud
cases ever. Their president's a crook.
(00:25):
Well, I'm not a crook. Find out more on this week's
episode of White Collars, Red Hands.
In Harper Lee's famous 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom
Robinson, a black man, is falsely accused of raping a
white woman. Throughout the trial process,
the book's protagonist, lawyer Atticus Finch, systematically
(00:47):
proves this accusation to be false, but the jury convicts Tom
anyway because of societal pretexts of racism.
This is not just a story, but loosely based on a true event
that happened in Harper Lee's life.
All to say that there is a lot of history showing that our
justice system does not work in a utopic bubble.
(01:08):
Instead, many times people are either convicted or not
convicted based on certain unwritten societal rules.
Juries don't always make decisions based on facts.
Sometimes they make decisions based on feelings.
When those on trial are the other and the disenfranchised,
they're more likely to be convicted.
Things went slightly different for affluent white men in
(01:29):
America's history. Today we provide a key example
as on February 27th, 1956, a manwas shot dead in cold blood in
the middle of the day in Lafayette Square of Washington,
DC. The murderer confessed
immediately, showed no remorse, faced trial, and went on to live
a decorated life. That man was none other than New
(01:52):
York Congressman Daniel Sickles.What were the circumstances that
led up to the murderer, and how did he avoid facing
consequences? We find out in the Season 19
finale of White Collar's Red Hands.
Great, someone who does not see justice, who deserves it.
Happy day before 4th of July everyone.
Yeah, it's definitely, it is very, very topical today with a
(02:16):
lot of stuff happening in in ourcourts right now too, in between
congressman and congresswoman and a lot of really terrible
stuff going on. So, hey, we might as well do
another one also. You'll you'll, you'll find out
that. Well, I guess let's introduce
ourselves before I get into it. I'm getting ahead of myself.
(02:37):
Welcome back everybody, to another episode of White Collar
Shred Hands. I'm Kashawn.
And I'm Nina. And yet you're going to notice
that our story today resembles one that we did a couple of
seasons ago. If you remember the story of
Harry K Thaw and the murder of Sanford White, 2 billionaires
and one was shot in broad daylight.
(02:58):
Well, it was at night time, but whatever, you get the idea and.
Broad night time and. Broad night time in front of.
In the moonlight. In front of like 1000 people on
the the roof of Madison Square Garden.
And then Harry K Thaw got off completely Scott free.
Well, these stories share a lot of similarities.
This one's just a little bit older.
Not even that much older, like 40 years older.
(03:20):
Daniel Edgar Sickles. Terrible name.
OK, sorry, Sorry it. Was born at the beginning of 18
of the 1800s. Of course, he's got a terrible.
Name terrible. Name.
It's not going to be John, bro. Actually, well, it could be.
That was like a super popular name back then.
Whatever, Daniel Edgar Sickles was likely born in 1819,
although he himself would tell you that it was actually 1825.
(03:43):
Turns out bro under appear younger to make it seem less
weird when he married a 15 year old Teresa Baggioli or Baggioli
at the age of 32. Yeah, so great.
Because, you know, marrying a 15year old is so much better when
you're 20. Six.
Yeah, I was just going to say that makes it a lot.
That makes it so much better actually.
(04:04):
So don't worry though, she was very mature for her age,
speaking 5 languages. No, she could tell him I don't
consent in five languages and hewouldn't listen to any of them.
Exactly. Does sound like today?
Daniel's parents held some of the most evil professions out
there of lawyer and politician, and inspired their little evil
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kid to do both in the future. At first, Daniel started
learning to be a printer at whatwould eventually be New York
University, but after graduating, he studied law under
the tutelage of famous lawyer Benjamin Butler and was admitted
into the bar in 1843. After four years of working as a
lawyer, he ran and was successfully elected to the New
(04:45):
York State House of Representatives in 1847.
He married his teenage bride in 1852, and a year later he became
Corporation Counsel of New York City, which is kind of like the
de facto lawyer that handles civil battles against a city.
In some cases, this is just likethe the prosecutor, like the
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city prosecutor. But he was only there briefly
though, as he was offered an even better position as
secretary of a diplomatic officeunder the future of President
James Buchanan. That was in London when he was
doing that, being appointed to the position by current
President Franklin Pierce, a president I know nothing about.
(05:30):
Now I was just going to say, I was like, that was a president.
It was with his newfound political allies he moved up
from the New York State House tothe New York State Senate in
1856. And then he was re elected to
the State Senate in 1857 before moving up nationally to the
highest office that he held as amember of the US House of
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Representatives, representing the Third District, which is
most of lower Manhattan and someother New York City boroughs.
And this was despite a pretty notable scandal that he had
during his New York tenure that involved a famous courtesan,
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also known as a prostitute, Fannie White.
Was Fannie White her real name? I think so.
Oh well, but I don't know. Some people really destined
their children for certain careers when they named them.
Well, technically it doesn't. Well, I don't know if it meant
it probably did mean something in America at this time.
(06:34):
Yeah. Daniel and Fanny had been having
an intimate relationship since 1847, and not in a way that he
paid for directly. Kind of like a sugar daddy
situation, I guess. It was common for like notable
prostitutes at the time to have like one man that was like their
friend that they would that theydeveloped like a romantic
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relationship with and didn't like pay for services.
But we're often like giving themexpensive gifts and things.
And Sickles was not shy about showing this relationship, to
the dismay of many around him. We'll talk about it.
He would show up to small eventsand introduce her around the
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table, making his hoity toity friends very uncomfortable.
He even arranged a mortgage so that Fanny could buy a building
to run a high end brothel out ofGreenwich Village and used his
future father in law's name to cover his tracks.
He signed the mortgage using hisfuture father-in-law.
'S name. Mr. Baggioli when Sickles
married Teresa in 1852, Fanny was supposedly so upset that she
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attacked Sickles with a riding whip.
But that might have just been something they did on The Reg,
so who knows? But Sickles did not let you know
his wife get in the way of publicly parading his paramour
about. Of course, not even in the worst
places to do so, as in August of1853 Sickles travelled to London
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to work as a secretary, as I mentioned, and instead of taking
his wife with him, he took Fanny.
Whose name? Whose name does mean something
else entirely in England that ismaybe more fitting for a
prostitute than what Fanny meanshere in America.
He openly took his mistress around town to theaters and
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operas. What was really scandalous is
how he took her to many diplomatic events, including a
reception at Buckingham Palace where he introduced her to none
other than Queen Victoria. Using a fake name.
Of course, he didn't say this isFannie White.
Yeah, she'd be like, you're whatnow?
He. Said like she's like, well, I
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can see the rest of you so I know what it looks like.
I. Know what it looks like he.
Introduced her instead as like Missus Bennett of New York City
I, which I think is just. Something.
But did the people there know hewas married?
Yes. And they knew he that woman
wasn't his wife, correct? OK, I do think it's more
socially appropriate for him to be bringing around.
(09:08):
How old was Fannie Waite? I don't know.
Not 15. Yeah, I think it's better for
him to bring not a 15 year old around.
Because at this point, they had been in like a relationship for
five years. So she was 15.
That'd be a much. I'd be a much bigger scandal.
So as I mentioned, yes, people knew that this was not his wife.
And yes, it was scandalous because for this act he was
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actually censured by the New York State Assembly and was also
the subject of vicious rumors, including word that money from
Fannie's brothels were helped tolater fund his political careers
and maybe even his his other political campaigns.
I mean, I believe it. I mean, he kind of, he helped
with the, with the building thata brothel's run out of.
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So, you know, definitely could be.
I mean, she probably gifted him some money.
So, and for those of you that don't know what Centre did it is
it just means that he was like officially rebuked?
By. Them, that is what happens when
someone is censured. So more importantly for this
story and what happens later is that I want you to remember that
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Daniel Sickles has a public, very known and well detailed
past of unapologetically cheating on his wife and not
caring about it at all. So keep that in mind.
Meanwhile, in their new town of Washington, DC, there was a man
gallivanting about that in only a few years time would be shot
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dead in Lafayette Square by the name of Philip Bardon Key.
Philip Bardon Key was actually Philip Bardon key the second
that. One wasn't enough.
Not the famous Circuit Court judge and revolutionary Philip
Bardon Key. OK, just in case that's who you
thought I was talking about. He was actually that Philip
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Bardon Key's great nephew. He was also the son of Francis
Scott Key, another lawyer who served as the US attorney for
DC. But you might know him from any
sporting event because he wrote the poem called Defensive Fort
Henry, the words of which would be set to music and become the
Star Spangled Band. So his dad wrote the words to
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our national anthem. That is actually an old British
song that it was set to. It was set to the tune of a
British song, which is also kindof a a kick to the nuts.
I was just going to say kind of like an FU.
Star Spangled Banner. But yeah, he spent his entire
life in Washington, DC studying law, most likely with his
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father. He was known about town to be
one of the most handsome men in the city.
He did have a very great mustache, I guess, if that
counts, but whatever. And it's also not hard because
you're in a city that is famously filled with fat old
guys. So maybe not then, but at least
now. So he surprisingly had no issue
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finding a wife, and he married the daughter of a Baltimore
attorney in 1845. They had four kids together
before his wife tragically passed away, but afterwards, and
most likely during their marriage, he became known as a
bit of a womanizer, using his devilish good looks to bed many
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women, even those already spokenfor, as it were.
Plus, Roe had a good job, all right.
In 1853, he was appointed to theposition formerly held by his
father when President Franklin Pierce appointed him as the US
Attorney for DCA position, whichhe would be renominated and
reconfirmed to four years later under a different president,
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James Buchanan. All of this is probably how he
caught the eye of Teresa Sicklesin 1858 after he befriended her
husband, the congressman, at a card game and the two soon began
A heated affair. Well, he doesn't.
I mean, I've been very forward that he gets shot.
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So they weren't necessarily hiding it either.
As much like Dan Sickles did with his mistress, he was
accompanying Teresa about town to various events and private
parties. They were seen around enough
that rumors swirled about the circles of the Washington elite,
but somehow Daniel's Sickles wasnone the wiser.
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And this went on for a while, right under Sickle's nose.
At least it did until February of 1859, when Sickles hosted a
dinner at their house. After dinner, most of the guests
attended a dance, including bothof the Sickles.
Upon returning home, Daniel found that an anonymous note had
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been shoved into his jacket pocket.
Opening the envelope, he found aletter that was later publicly
printed in newspapers that read And this is.
This is the letter in its entirety.
Dear Sir, with deep regrets, I enclosed to your address these
few lines. But an indispensable duty
compels me to do so, seeing thatyou are greatly imposed upon.
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There is a fellow, I may say, for he is not a gentleman by any
means, by the name of Philip Bardon Key, and I believe the
District Attorney, who rents a House of a Negro man By the name
of John A Gray, situated on 15thSt. between K&L Streets, for no
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other purpose than to meet your wife, Missus Sickles.
He hangs a string out of the window as a signal to her that
he is in and leaves the door unfastened and she walks in.
And Sir, I do assure you with these few hints, I leave the
rest for you to imagine most respectfully.
(14:53):
Your friend RPG can't believe role-playing games sent him
that. That's why it is still unknown
who wrote or gave the letter to Daniel Sickles.
But we do know his reaction to it.
At first, he didn't believe the letter.
He believed it to be a target onhim from a political rival to
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besmirch to besmirch him. But he was pretty worried about
just how specific the details were.
I mean, who owned the house? The name of the guy who owned
it? Where it was exactly?
String in the window. It's a lot of specifics for it
to be a lot for sure. So he sent a friend of his,
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George Wooldridge, to investigate the house that was
described in the letter. George found the house and
questioned the neighbors, who indeed said that they had seen a
couple fitting the description of Teresa and Phillip multiple
times at the house. This and the fact that many
rumors already were circulating made Daniel confront his wife,
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and at first Teresa denied the allegations.
But after he also laid out all of the details, she confessed
that she had been intimate with Key multiple times, not only at
the house on 15th Street, but also in their own home.
One day it was away on business.Oh no.
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Although furious, Daniel eventually became determined
that the affair happened becauseKey took advantage of his young
wife. Well, he called himself out on
that one. He was like, no, only I get to
take advantage of my. Only I get to take advantage of
my young wife. How dare you do it?
How you? Why?
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How can you? You cannot trick me at my own
game. He actually had Teresa write and
sign a detailed but very difficult to follow confession
to the affair and had it witnessed by two nurses that
lived with them that took care of their children and like kept
it. It's it's also probably very
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vulgar for the time. It talks about how they like,
there was a bed upstairs, like there was nothing in the house
except for like a bed and a sofa.
And like she would show up just to have sex with him.
And I was like spicy. But it also like the grammar and
flow of it was very difficult. I was like, this woman was under
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like stress when she wrote this.For sure.
They published it in its entirety in the newspaper.
Why? You'll find out later.
So he then invited Wooldridge aswell as a political supporter,
Samuel Butterworth. I think he's unrelated to the.
Mrs. Butterworth. Yeah.
So he invited Wooldridge and Butterworth over to talk about
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how he was to get revenge for the affair.
Daniels told them that he wantedto kill Key and interesting.
Interestingly enough, though, Sickles appeared to be less
upset about the affair and more upset about how Key had damaged
his political reputation so badly by flaunting it in public.
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The two friends at first tried to talk Sickles down from any
sort of violence, but how strongly they did this is
debated because some accounts have butter words saying I'm
just imagining he's a very jowlyperson.
Yeah. If that we show there is but one
course left for you as a man of honor.
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You need no advice. Which really kind of just sounds
like yo shoot that guy bro. No, it's so crazy.
If you killed him, like don't, don't do it.
Don't. That would be crazy.
Don't do it. And it just so happened that
while they were discussing, a completely oblivious Philip
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Bardon, Key had arrived outside the house and was trying to get
Theresa's attention by waving a white handkerchief while walking
the street outside her house. Read the room, bro.
Turns out he had been renting a hotel room across the way of
Lafayette Square, and he was looking at the window with a
pair of opera glasses. Not creepy at all.
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Well, it's because she would send him a signal from the
window, but she hadn't signaled him.
Probably because of everything going on.
Because she was having to write a ransom letter damn near.
So he instead, when she didn't send the signal, he came down
and was using the handkerchief because he's like, what's going?
On he's like, hey, I'm horny. So Daniel was in a rage.
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Butterworth actually left the house and exchanged greetings
with Key before leaving. Did did he know Key?
Yes, they all know each other. They all work in.
Politics. Oh my God.
They're in Washington, DC every.All of these people know each.
Other Oh my God. So he says like, oh, hey, what's
up? And Phil and Philip is like, oh,
hey, Butterworth, how you doing?Blah, blah blah, whatever today.
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And he just leaves. Not not key.
Doesn't confront him. Doesn't confront him.
Just as like, oh hey man. Yeah, doesn't even tell him
what's up. Yo, there's a madman behind me
that wants to fucking kill you. None, none of that.
So he goes on his way and then Daniel Sickles is coming out
right behind him, armed with three pistols.
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He exited the house after Butterworth, so Phillip thought
they were still friends. So he actually is like, hey, how
are you? You know, like, greets him
warmly, To which Sickles responded.
You villain, you have dishonoredmy house and you must die.
OK. So, you know, not a group.
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It's very dramatic. You've dishonored my house.
Like he hasn't been sleeping with a sex worker.
You. Villain, you have dishonored my
house, and you must die. And he pulled a pistol out of
his pocket and obviously that took key off guard, so he threw
his upper glasses at. Him.
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Take that. Ah, you scoundrel.
Don't do that. Be gone and he basically begged
Sickles not to shoot him. He was like please don't shoot
me murderer. Murder I guess is what he cried.
But obviously shoot Daniel Sickles did.
The first shot went wide. He missed him, but the second
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shot found purchase in the groinof Key.
Sickles then fired three more times at close range, physically
struggling with with Key, who had tried to run away.
One missed, but 2 landed squarely in the man's chest.
And as Sickles stood over the fatally wounded Key, onlookers
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said he once again repeated his line.
You villain, you have dishonoredmy house and you must die.
And Key soon acquiesced. Immediately, Daniel Sickles
worried that a political rival would try to avenge Key.
So fearing for his life and understanding that he just
murdered a man in broad daylightwith plenty of witnesses, he
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instead walked immediately to the attorney general's house and
turned himself in. So Sickles was obviously well
connected as far as lawyers go. So he put together a mid 19th
century dream team of seven lawyers to represent him.
That included famous criminal lawyer James T Brady, who had
won 51 of 52 murder cases in hiscareer.
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All right, imagine being that one.
I know that would suck. And also included Edwin M
Stanton, who would later be the Secretary of War for President
Lincoln during the American Civil War.
OK. But even with the best lawyers
money could buy, the case originally looked difficult to
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win. I mean, Sickles admitted to the
crime and showed no remorse. The only option for a plea was
not guilty by means of insanity if he was gonna go not guilty.
But at the time in America, a defendant was only deemed to be
insane if they did not understand that they had done
something wrong. That's.
(23:20):
Very interesting. Yeah, this right or wrong
doctrine and that kind of equated to if they knew that
they were committing a crime or not, it basically if they could
say that they're like I knew this was a crime, then they're.
Technically. Not insane or they were
suffering from a mental illness that overcame their reasoning
and still forced them to commit a crime, even if they knew that
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it was a crime. Sickles understood that murder
was a crime and was not obviously suffering from a
mental illness. So this, you know, couldn't be
an option, right? Yeah.
Well, up until now, yeah, that couldn't be an option.
But Sickle's team, for the firsttime in American history, argued
that Sickle was a victim of a brief break in judgement based
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on the anger that was caused from learning that he defiled
his marriage bed, creating the plea of not guilty by reason of
temporary insanity. I'm only crazy for a little bit.
Just tiny bit crazy. It was a full moon.
It was daytime. It was going to be a full moon
later. In reality though it was a crime
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of passion. Like was sickles upset?
Sure, yes he was and when peopleare this upset they can do rash
things like even kill somebody. But in a more modern way of
thinking this would still be at least manslaughter.
I mean, you couldn't argue that being super upset meant that you
were temporarily insane. Yeah, I've, I've been pretty
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upset in my life. And you know what I've never
done? Commit a murder.
Like crimes of passion, They usually aren't like murder in
the first, they're usually murder in the second.
Or manslaughter, right? But like, still murder.
Like, yeah, you still killed somebody.
You still couldn't get a not guilty plea just because like,
this is really upset. Really upset.
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But in the 1800s, this argument could be used to basically
justify arguments that aligned more with public opinion.
Just like Harry K Thaw and his dementia Americana that we
covered previously, which was literally just a term for this
exact same thing. Like a guy being so upset that
someone had defiled his marriagebed by sleeping with his wife
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that he became enraged and temporarily insane enough to
just murder somebody in public opinion.
At least the public opinion of those that sat on juries at the
time, white men with money were in favor of Sickles.
In fact, during jury selection, they found it impossible to find
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enough people that said they weren't sympathetic with what
Sickles had done. 72 of 75 potential jurors admitted to
that they were sympathetic to what he did in response to Keith
sleeping with his wife. So they created a completely
they they couldn't create a completely impartial body of
jurors. I think it's pretty hard to do
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that anyway. Well, basically the entire pool
of people they were going to select from were going.
To, yeah, be biased in some way,yeah.
I would have done the same thing.
Yeah. Nevertheless, they moved forward
with the trial starting April 4th, 1859.
This is another one of those like, Trial of the Centuries.
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There's one of them every every year, century, you know.
But this was another one. It was very highly publicized.
And the defense called multiple character witnesses that
testified about the affair and colored Key as a devilish
villain who preyed upon naive young women.
They actually pulled the exact same thing in the Sanford White.
Yeah, Kate thought. There really is a lot of
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crossover, like I said at the beginning.
And although the judge said the confession written by Teresa was
inadmissible in court because ittechnically counted as private
correspondence between spouses, which is protected, it's the
same reason that you can't forcea spouse to testify against the
other in court. Oh, I actually didn't know that.
Yeah. So you can't, even if the spouse
(27:15):
like has said they like know their spouse did something, you
can't force them to. You can't like subpoena them and
force them to testify. Interesting.
The confession was leaked and published publicly in
newspapers. So that's why they published it,
because it was getting such suchnotoriety.
So people, you know, also in the1800s, they don't really care if
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they printed stuff like this. Yeah, I mean, they don't really
Care now, but whatever. But you couldn't, you know, you
probably can't sue them in the 1800s or it'd be hard.
And it made its way into the trial through witness testimony.
The details from that at least made its way through other
witnesses testimony. The jury also heard testimony
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from Wooldridge and Butterworth about how Sickles was
inconsolable that day and, and crazy.
And when they they met him on the day of the murder and
especially when Key was noticed outside, he was like making all
these like crazy sobbing sounds or, you know, whatever, like he
was just generally. Upset.
Upset. And to top it all off, the
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defense often quoted Bible passages about adultery and its
punishments and basically said to the jurors that like, you're
not good Christians if you don'tagree what Sickles had had done
in response. I think that is a perfect
example of twisting scripture tofit your own narrative, but OK.
That being said, the prosecutionjust kind of had no real good
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defense against any of these tactics, and after only 70
minutes of deliberation, the jury returned the verdict of not
guilty by means of insanity. One of the only times that the
insanity plea had worked up to this point in America, and the
first time ever that it was temporary insanity.
(29:06):
Don't think you hear that much anymore.
No, I don't think so. Because it seems like the this
like plea of not guilty by temporary insanity is only used
in cases like this where is likeit's something so unbelievable
in in the societal eye happened that someone broke and did
something crazy. So now you're probably thinking,
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well, you know what? At least Daniel Sickles, now
known murderer, even though he was acquitted, was probably
ostracized by the political community.
Well you're wrong. The only thing that they got mad
at him for actually was reconciling and staying with his
wife. What the?
Fuck also but divorce was so. I thought divorce was pretty
(29:52):
uncommon back then. But with adultery, I think
they're. I think they were.
They were. I think they were.
Cool with adultery. You could, you could.
You could get rid of her. But here's they're mad at him
for staying with his wife, but he's been cheating on her their
whole marriage. Yeah.
Well guys can cheat at the time.Also also once again crazy of
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her to take him back. He literally killed her lover.
But it's also the 1850s so I can't understand.
So he did not resign from Congress either.
He stayed in Congress and he actually only left as the Civil
War broke out and then he started putting in a lot of
effort to rehab his public imageby raising troops for the Union.
Although he was an elected Democrat, which was actually the
(30:34):
opposite party of Lincoln at thetime.
Lincoln was a Republican. This was before the party
switched when they switched platforms.
So anyone who is like well Lincoln was a Republican is is
dumb and they don't understand history if they're trying to use
that as a as a reason why Democrats now are evil,
whatever. So he had previously joined the
New York militia and attained the rank of major there.
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So when the war started, he was appointed Colonel of a regiment
in the New York infantry, eventually rising to Brigadier
General in 1861, leading troops through multiple battles in the
Civil War before Lincoln promoted him to Major General in
1862, making him the only core commander who didn't go to West
Point. Oh, interesting.
(31:17):
So he was kind of, that was a little scandalous.
During the Battle of Gettysburg,Sickles lost a leg after being
shot with a cannon, but it was amputated later that day.
And he survived. Wow.
Yeah, probably not many people survived the limb amputation at
the time. He then weirdly went on to
(31:39):
donate the mangled bones to the National Museum of Health and
Medicine, which would display them for several years
afterwards alongside A replica cannonball.
So you can go see like this. Would want a cannonball just to
a leg when it hits it. Oh my God.
Even weirder is that Sickles would make a pilgrimage to see
his bones on the anniversary of the day he lost them every.
(31:59):
Year that feels like a trauma response.
He's like, I got to go see my leg bones, Yeah.
He's also. Oh, sorry, go.
Ahead. No, it just feels like a trauma
thing. He was also super pissed that
they didn't save the bones to his foot.
They probably were shattered. Well the bones to his legs
definitely were. They had those.
He's like why the fuck didn't you save the foot?
I guess they only saved the leg at his request.
(32:21):
He was like I want that. And then he was pissed off they
didn't have the foot too. Sickles wanted to return to
combat even like he wanted to still be on the field.
With one leg. Yes, even though he had lost a
leg. But Ulysses S Grant told him no.
Yeah, yeah. He's like, that's a stupid idea,
but he still let him operate as a Brigadier General and a Major
General for the Army, working on, I don't know, tactics or
(32:44):
some shit. Unfortunately, in 1867, Teresa
passed away from tuberculosis. And wait a minute, she didn't
outlive him. Oh no, She died young.
She died in her 30s. What a tragic life.
Yeah, it was pretty rough. Well, I hope he really rocked
her bones. I really hope she gave her the
(33:05):
loving she deserved. Cindy was pretty good at it.
And I mean, a lot of experience.Yeah.
So she passed away from tuberculosis.
And two years later, in 1869, Sickles finally retired from the
military and was immediately appointed to the position of the
US minister to Spain, a positionwhich she served in for five
years. He did remarry.
(33:27):
He remarried like a French person out there.
And they had a couple more kids and he served in multiple other
high-ranking positions, being appointed to the chairman of the
New York State Civil Service Commission.
And then he also acted as the sheriff of New York County for
one year. In 1890, he was the sheriff.
And then in 1892 he was elected again to Congress and served
(33:50):
another two year term even though he legit murdered someone
like 30 years before that. They.
Didn't care. Well, he finally died on May
3rd, 1914 from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 94.
That is crazy that he lived thatlong back then and had his leg
(34:11):
blown off. Yep, that is OK.
That is impressive, even though he did a lot of bad things.
I feel like he was just fueled on spite.
Yeah, you know how just like really angry people.
Seem to. They live forever.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's him. That's him.
In the end, the story of Philip Key's murder is 1 of a case
settled not by the actual law asit is written, but instead by
(34:34):
the unridden law of public opinion.
It is hard to separate collective ideas of morality
from jurors who are supposed to follow the law.
Sometimes people don't get juries of their peers, like the
fictional Tom Robinson, who represents countless people of
color who have been convicted more based on biases than facts.
(34:55):
Sometimes people have juries that are too much like their
peers, and that was the case with Daniel Sickles.
Although he had a documented history of cheating publicly on
his wife in the exact same fashion that she was cheating on
him, he was somehow socially justified in murdering the man
who did the same to him. In the end, it minimizes the
(35:18):
autonomy that women have over themselves.
Like maybe she wanted to sleep around because her husband was a
piece of shit, but unfortunatelythat piece of shit lived a long
and fruitful life after gunning someone down in public.
But that likely wouldn't have been the case if he wasn't a
rich white man in the 1850s. Eighteen 50s.
(35:39):
So that's the story of I don't know how many Congress people
have murdered someone and not faced any any sort of
repercussions for it, but that'swe know it's at least not 0.
It's not zero and it's a it's a higher number than we care to
live in. Yeah, so that is the story of
(36:00):
Daniel Sickles and the murderer Philip Bardon Key the 2nd May I
add. And that was the Season 19
finale. Yes, it was.
Of white college red hands. So for those of you who are new,
I mean, obviously we just did a murder.
That's like normal. But we're going to be taking a
(36:20):
break after this 3-4 week break and then we'll we'll be back
with Season 20. Damn.
So if you haven't already gone back and and listened to our
past episodes, you want to fill some time in during, then listen
to some of those, feel free to do so.
We're still getting messages. I just recently got a message
(36:43):
that said like, Hey, I just found your podcast.
I'm listening to like 4 years ofepisodes back-to-back.
So and had a had a suggestion init too.
So thank you so much for sendingthat over.
Oh, that's cool. Yeah.
If you are are like that person you're and you're liking what
you you hear, you want to support us, you can do so by
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(37:04):
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(37:24):
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(37:44):
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(38:06):
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(38:29):
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(39:13):
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That's what I hope from you is that your friends start going
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You know that would be helpful for us.
(39:34):
Yeah, coerce your friends into listening.
To us coerce your friends by whatever means necessary is our
motto. You know, so do that.
I think that's it. So with the same sign off we
always do. Thank you so much for listening.
And we'll see you in season 20 of White Collars.
Red hands.
Wall Street veteran Bernard Madoff has been arrested and
charged with running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
Congress wants to know what caused the Enron meltdown, and
while the collective rage currently is focused on low
comp, Tyco CEO Dennis Koslowski was convicted of looting
hundreds of millions of dollars.This is one of the biggest fraud
cases ever. Their president's a crook.
(00:25):
Well, I'm not a crook. Find out more on this week's
episode of White Collars, Red Hands.
In Harper Lee's famous 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom
Robinson, a black man, is falsely accused of raping a
white woman. Throughout the trial process,
the book's protagonist, lawyer Atticus Finch, systematically
(00:47):
proves this accusation to be false, but the jury convicts Tom
anyway because of societal pretexts of racism.
This is not just a story, but loosely based on a true event
that happened in Harper Lee's life.
All to say that there is a lot of history showing that our
justice system does not work in a utopic bubble.
(01:08):
Instead, many times people are either convicted or not
convicted based on certain unwritten societal rules.
Juries don't always make decisions based on facts.
Sometimes they make decisions based on feelings.
When those on trial are the other and the disenfranchised,
they're more likely to be convicted.
Things went slightly different for affluent white men in
(01:29):
America's history. Today we provide a key example
as on February 27th, 1956, a manwas shot dead in cold blood in
the middle of the day in Lafayette Square of Washington,
DC. The murderer confessed
immediately, showed no remorse, faced trial, and went on to live
a decorated life. That man was none other than New
(01:52):
York Congressman Daniel Sickles.What were the circumstances that
led up to the murderer, and how did he avoid facing
consequences? We find out in the Season 19
finale of White Collar's Red Hands.
Great, someone who does not see justice, who deserves it.
Happy day before 4th of July everyone.
Yeah, it's definitely, it is very, very topical today with a
(02:16):
lot of stuff happening in in ourcourts right now too, in between
congressman and congresswoman and a lot of really terrible
stuff going on. So, hey, we might as well do
another one also. You'll you'll, you'll find out
that. Well, I guess let's introduce
ourselves before I get into it. I'm getting ahead of myself.
(02:37):
Welcome back everybody, to another episode of White Collar
Shred Hands. I'm Kashawn.
And I'm Nina. And yet you're going to notice
that our story today resembles one that we did a couple of
seasons ago. If you remember the story of
Harry K Thaw and the murder of Sanford White, 2 billionaires
and one was shot in broad daylight.
(02:58):
Well, it was at night time, but whatever, you get the idea and.
Broad night time and. Broad night time in front of.
In the moonlight. In front of like 1000 people on
the the roof of Madison Square Garden.
And then Harry K Thaw got off completely Scott free.
Well, these stories share a lot of similarities.
This one's just a little bit older.
Not even that much older, like 40 years older.
(03:20):
Daniel Edgar Sickles. Terrible name.
OK, sorry, Sorry it. Was born at the beginning of 18
of the 1800s. Of course, he's got a terrible.
Name terrible. Name.
It's not going to be John, bro. Actually, well, it could be.
That was like a super popular name back then.
Whatever, Daniel Edgar Sickles was likely born in 1819,
although he himself would tell you that it was actually 1825.
(03:43):
Turns out bro under appear younger to make it seem less
weird when he married a 15 year old Teresa Baggioli or Baggioli
at the age of 32. Yeah, so great.
Because, you know, marrying a 15year old is so much better when
you're 20. Six.
Yeah, I was just going to say that makes it a lot.
That makes it so much better actually.
(04:04):
So don't worry though, she was very mature for her age,
speaking 5 languages. No, she could tell him I don't
consent in five languages and hewouldn't listen to any of them.
Exactly. Does sound like today?
Daniel's parents held some of the most evil professions out
there of lawyer and politician, and inspired their little evil
(04:24):
kid to do both in the future. At first, Daniel started
learning to be a printer at whatwould eventually be New York
University, but after graduating, he studied law under
the tutelage of famous lawyer Benjamin Butler and was admitted
into the bar in 1843. After four years of working as a
lawyer, he ran and was successfully elected to the New
(04:45):
York State House of Representatives in 1847.
He married his teenage bride in 1852, and a year later he became
Corporation Counsel of New York City, which is kind of like the
de facto lawyer that handles civil battles against a city.
In some cases, this is just likethe the prosecutor, like the
(05:09):
city prosecutor. But he was only there briefly
though, as he was offered an even better position as
secretary of a diplomatic officeunder the future of President
James Buchanan. That was in London when he was
doing that, being appointed to the position by current
President Franklin Pierce, a president I know nothing about.
(05:30):
Now I was just going to say, I was like, that was a president.
It was with his newfound political allies he moved up
from the New York State House tothe New York State Senate in
1856. And then he was re elected to
the State Senate in 1857 before moving up nationally to the
highest office that he held as amember of the US House of
(05:52):
Representatives, representing the Third District, which is
most of lower Manhattan and someother New York City boroughs.
And this was despite a pretty notable scandal that he had
during his New York tenure that involved a famous courtesan,
(06:13):
also known as a prostitute, Fannie White.
Was Fannie White her real name? I think so.
Oh well, but I don't know. Some people really destined
their children for certain careers when they named them.
Well, technically it doesn't. Well, I don't know if it meant
it probably did mean something in America at this time.
(06:34):
Yeah. Daniel and Fanny had been having
an intimate relationship since 1847, and not in a way that he
paid for directly. Kind of like a sugar daddy
situation, I guess. It was common for like notable
prostitutes at the time to have like one man that was like their
friend that they would that theydeveloped like a romantic
(06:54):
relationship with and didn't like pay for services.
But we're often like giving themexpensive gifts and things.
And Sickles was not shy about showing this relationship, to
the dismay of many around him. We'll talk about it.
He would show up to small eventsand introduce her around the
(07:15):
table, making his hoity toity friends very uncomfortable.
He even arranged a mortgage so that Fanny could buy a building
to run a high end brothel out ofGreenwich Village and used his
future father in law's name to cover his tracks.
He signed the mortgage using hisfuture father-in-law.
'S name. Mr. Baggioli when Sickles
married Teresa in 1852, Fanny was supposedly so upset that she
(07:40):
attacked Sickles with a riding whip.
But that might have just been something they did on The Reg,
so who knows? But Sickles did not let you know
his wife get in the way of publicly parading his paramour
about. Of course, not even in the worst
places to do so, as in August of1853 Sickles travelled to London
(08:03):
to work as a secretary, as I mentioned, and instead of taking
his wife with him, he took Fanny.
Whose name? Whose name does mean something
else entirely in England that ismaybe more fitting for a
prostitute than what Fanny meanshere in America.
He openly took his mistress around town to theaters and
(08:26):
operas. What was really scandalous is
how he took her to many diplomatic events, including a
reception at Buckingham Palace where he introduced her to none
other than Queen Victoria. Using a fake name.
Of course, he didn't say this isFannie White.
Yeah, she'd be like, you're whatnow?
He. Said like she's like, well, I
(08:47):
can see the rest of you so I know what it looks like.
I. Know what it looks like he.
Introduced her instead as like Missus Bennett of New York City
I, which I think is just. Something.
But did the people there know hewas married?
Yes. And they knew he that woman
wasn't his wife, correct? OK, I do think it's more
socially appropriate for him to be bringing around.
(09:08):
How old was Fannie Waite? I don't know.
Not 15. Yeah, I think it's better for
him to bring not a 15 year old around.
Because at this point, they had been in like a relationship for
five years. So she was 15.
That'd be a much. I'd be a much bigger scandal.
So as I mentioned, yes, people knew that this was not his wife.
And yes, it was scandalous because for this act he was
(09:30):
actually censured by the New York State Assembly and was also
the subject of vicious rumors, including word that money from
Fannie's brothels were helped tolater fund his political careers
and maybe even his his other political campaigns.
I mean, I believe it. I mean, he kind of, he helped
with the, with the building thata brothel's run out of.
(09:50):
So, you know, definitely could be.
I mean, she probably gifted him some money.
So, and for those of you that don't know what Centre did it is
it just means that he was like officially rebuked?
By. Them, that is what happens when
someone is censured. So more importantly for this
story and what happens later is that I want you to remember that
(10:11):
Daniel Sickles has a public, very known and well detailed
past of unapologetically cheating on his wife and not
caring about it at all. So keep that in mind.
Meanwhile, in their new town of Washington, DC, there was a man
gallivanting about that in only a few years time would be shot
(10:32):
dead in Lafayette Square by the name of Philip Bardon Key.
Philip Bardon Key was actually Philip Bardon key the second
that. One wasn't enough.
Not the famous Circuit Court judge and revolutionary Philip
Bardon Key. OK, just in case that's who you
thought I was talking about. He was actually that Philip
(10:53):
Bardon Key's great nephew. He was also the son of Francis
Scott Key, another lawyer who served as the US attorney for
DC. But you might know him from any
sporting event because he wrote the poem called Defensive Fort
Henry, the words of which would be set to music and become the
Star Spangled Band. So his dad wrote the words to
(11:16):
our national anthem. That is actually an old British
song that it was set to. It was set to the tune of a
British song, which is also kindof a a kick to the nuts.
I was just going to say kind of like an FU.
Star Spangled Banner. But yeah, he spent his entire
life in Washington, DC studying law, most likely with his
(11:38):
father. He was known about town to be
one of the most handsome men in the city.
He did have a very great mustache, I guess, if that
counts, but whatever. And it's also not hard because
you're in a city that is famously filled with fat old
guys. So maybe not then, but at least
now. So he surprisingly had no issue
(12:00):
finding a wife, and he married the daughter of a Baltimore
attorney in 1845. They had four kids together
before his wife tragically passed away, but afterwards, and
most likely during their marriage, he became known as a
bit of a womanizer, using his devilish good looks to bed many
(12:20):
women, even those already spokenfor, as it were.
Plus, Roe had a good job, all right.
In 1853, he was appointed to theposition formerly held by his
father when President Franklin Pierce appointed him as the US
Attorney for DCA position, whichhe would be renominated and
reconfirmed to four years later under a different president,
(12:42):
James Buchanan. All of this is probably how he
caught the eye of Teresa Sicklesin 1858 after he befriended her
husband, the congressman, at a card game and the two soon began
A heated affair. Well, he doesn't.
I mean, I've been very forward that he gets shot.
(13:04):
So they weren't necessarily hiding it either.
As much like Dan Sickles did with his mistress, he was
accompanying Teresa about town to various events and private
parties. They were seen around enough
that rumors swirled about the circles of the Washington elite,
but somehow Daniel's Sickles wasnone the wiser.
(13:27):
And this went on for a while, right under Sickle's nose.
At least it did until February of 1859, when Sickles hosted a
dinner at their house. After dinner, most of the guests
attended a dance, including bothof the Sickles.
Upon returning home, Daniel found that an anonymous note had
(13:48):
been shoved into his jacket pocket.
Opening the envelope, he found aletter that was later publicly
printed in newspapers that read And this is.
This is the letter in its entirety.
Dear Sir, with deep regrets, I enclosed to your address these
few lines. But an indispensable duty
compels me to do so, seeing thatyou are greatly imposed upon.
(14:13):
There is a fellow, I may say, for he is not a gentleman by any
means, by the name of Philip Bardon Key, and I believe the
District Attorney, who rents a House of a Negro man By the name
of John A Gray, situated on 15thSt. between K&L Streets, for no
(14:33):
other purpose than to meet your wife, Missus Sickles.
He hangs a string out of the window as a signal to her that
he is in and leaves the door unfastened and she walks in.
And Sir, I do assure you with these few hints, I leave the
rest for you to imagine most respectfully.
(14:53):
Your friend RPG can't believe role-playing games sent him
that. That's why it is still unknown
who wrote or gave the letter to Daniel Sickles.
But we do know his reaction to it.
At first, he didn't believe the letter.
He believed it to be a target onhim from a political rival to
(15:17):
besmirch to besmirch him. But he was pretty worried about
just how specific the details were.
I mean, who owned the house? The name of the guy who owned
it? Where it was exactly?
String in the window. It's a lot of specifics for it
to be a lot for sure. So he sent a friend of his,
(15:39):
George Wooldridge, to investigate the house that was
described in the letter. George found the house and
questioned the neighbors, who indeed said that they had seen a
couple fitting the description of Teresa and Phillip multiple
times at the house. This and the fact that many
rumors already were circulating made Daniel confront his wife,
(16:03):
and at first Teresa denied the allegations.
But after he also laid out all of the details, she confessed
that she had been intimate with Key multiple times, not only at
the house on 15th Street, but also in their own home.
One day it was away on business.Oh no.
(16:23):
Although furious, Daniel eventually became determined
that the affair happened becauseKey took advantage of his young
wife. Well, he called himself out on
that one. He was like, no, only I get to
take advantage of my. Only I get to take advantage of
my young wife. How dare you do it?
How you? Why?
(16:44):
How can you? You cannot trick me at my own
game. He actually had Teresa write and
sign a detailed but very difficult to follow confession
to the affair and had it witnessed by two nurses that
lived with them that took care of their children and like kept
it. It's it's also probably very
(17:06):
vulgar for the time. It talks about how they like,
there was a bed upstairs, like there was nothing in the house
except for like a bed and a sofa.
And like she would show up just to have sex with him.
And I was like spicy. But it also like the grammar and
flow of it was very difficult. I was like, this woman was under
(17:28):
like stress when she wrote this.For sure.
They published it in its entirety in the newspaper.
Why? You'll find out later.
So he then invited Wooldridge aswell as a political supporter,
Samuel Butterworth. I think he's unrelated to the.
Mrs. Butterworth. Yeah.
So he invited Wooldridge and Butterworth over to talk about
(17:49):
how he was to get revenge for the affair.
Daniels told them that he wantedto kill Key and interesting.
Interestingly enough, though, Sickles appeared to be less
upset about the affair and more upset about how Key had damaged
his political reputation so badly by flaunting it in public.
(18:10):
The two friends at first tried to talk Sickles down from any
sort of violence, but how strongly they did this is
debated because some accounts have butter words saying I'm
just imagining he's a very jowlyperson.
Yeah. If that we show there is but one
course left for you as a man of honor.
(18:31):
You need no advice. Which really kind of just sounds
like yo shoot that guy bro. No, it's so crazy.
If you killed him, like don't, don't do it.
Don't. That would be crazy.
Don't do it. And it just so happened that
while they were discussing, a completely oblivious Philip
(18:55):
Bardon, Key had arrived outside the house and was trying to get
Theresa's attention by waving a white handkerchief while walking
the street outside her house. Read the room, bro.
Turns out he had been renting a hotel room across the way of
Lafayette Square, and he was looking at the window with a
pair of opera glasses. Not creepy at all.
(19:19):
Well, it's because she would send him a signal from the
window, but she hadn't signaled him.
Probably because of everything going on.
Because she was having to write a ransom letter damn near.
So he instead, when she didn't send the signal, he came down
and was using the handkerchief because he's like, what's going?
On he's like, hey, I'm horny. So Daniel was in a rage.
(19:43):
Butterworth actually left the house and exchanged greetings
with Key before leaving. Did did he know Key?
Yes, they all know each other. They all work in.
Politics. Oh my God.
They're in Washington, DC every.All of these people know each.
Other Oh my God. So he says like, oh, hey, what's
up? And Phil and Philip is like, oh,
hey, Butterworth, how you doing?Blah, blah blah, whatever today.
(20:04):
And he just leaves. Not not key.
Doesn't confront him. Doesn't confront him.
Just as like, oh hey man. Yeah, doesn't even tell him
what's up. Yo, there's a madman behind me
that wants to fucking kill you. None, none of that.
So he goes on his way and then Daniel Sickles is coming out
right behind him, armed with three pistols.
(20:28):
He exited the house after Butterworth, so Phillip thought
they were still friends. So he actually is like, hey, how
are you? You know, like, greets him
warmly, To which Sickles responded.
You villain, you have dishonoredmy house and you must die.
OK. So, you know, not a group.
(20:48):
It's very dramatic. You've dishonored my house.
Like he hasn't been sleeping with a sex worker.
You. Villain, you have dishonored my
house, and you must die. And he pulled a pistol out of
his pocket and obviously that took key off guard, so he threw
his upper glasses at. Him.
(21:09):
Take that. Ah, you scoundrel.
Don't do that. Be gone and he basically begged
Sickles not to shoot him. He was like please don't shoot
me murderer. Murder I guess is what he cried.
But obviously shoot Daniel Sickles did.
The first shot went wide. He missed him, but the second
(21:30):
shot found purchase in the groinof Key.
Sickles then fired three more times at close range, physically
struggling with with Key, who had tried to run away.
One missed, but 2 landed squarely in the man's chest.
And as Sickles stood over the fatally wounded Key, onlookers
(21:51):
said he once again repeated his line.
You villain, you have dishonoredmy house and you must die.
And Key soon acquiesced. Immediately, Daniel Sickles
worried that a political rival would try to avenge Key.
So fearing for his life and understanding that he just
murdered a man in broad daylightwith plenty of witnesses, he
(22:15):
instead walked immediately to the attorney general's house and
turned himself in. So Sickles was obviously well
connected as far as lawyers go. So he put together a mid 19th
century dream team of seven lawyers to represent him.
That included famous criminal lawyer James T Brady, who had
won 51 of 52 murder cases in hiscareer.
(22:39):
All right, imagine being that one.
I know that would suck. And also included Edwin M
Stanton, who would later be the Secretary of War for President
Lincoln during the American Civil War.
OK. But even with the best lawyers
money could buy, the case originally looked difficult to
(22:59):
win. I mean, Sickles admitted to the
crime and showed no remorse. The only option for a plea was
not guilty by means of insanity if he was gonna go not guilty.
But at the time in America, a defendant was only deemed to be
insane if they did not understand that they had done
something wrong. That's.
(23:20):
Very interesting. Yeah, this right or wrong
doctrine and that kind of equated to if they knew that
they were committing a crime or not, it basically if they could
say that they're like I knew this was a crime, then they're.
Technically. Not insane or they were
suffering from a mental illness that overcame their reasoning
and still forced them to commit a crime, even if they knew that
(23:41):
it was a crime. Sickles understood that murder
was a crime and was not obviously suffering from a
mental illness. So this, you know, couldn't be
an option, right? Yeah.
Well, up until now, yeah, that couldn't be an option.
But Sickle's team, for the firsttime in American history, argued
that Sickle was a victim of a brief break in judgement based
(24:04):
on the anger that was caused from learning that he defiled
his marriage bed, creating the plea of not guilty by reason of
temporary insanity. I'm only crazy for a little bit.
Just tiny bit crazy. It was a full moon.
It was daytime. It was going to be a full moon
later. In reality though it was a crime
(24:28):
of passion. Like was sickles upset?
Sure, yes he was and when peopleare this upset they can do rash
things like even kill somebody. But in a more modern way of
thinking this would still be at least manslaughter.
I mean, you couldn't argue that being super upset meant that you
were temporarily insane. Yeah, I've, I've been pretty
(24:48):
upset in my life. And you know what I've never
done? Commit a murder.
Like crimes of passion, They usually aren't like murder in
the first, they're usually murder in the second.
Or manslaughter, right? But like, still murder.
Like, yeah, you still killed somebody.
You still couldn't get a not guilty plea just because like,
this is really upset. Really upset.
(25:08):
But in the 1800s, this argument could be used to basically
justify arguments that aligned more with public opinion.
Just like Harry K Thaw and his dementia Americana that we
covered previously, which was literally just a term for this
exact same thing. Like a guy being so upset that
someone had defiled his marriagebed by sleeping with his wife
(25:30):
that he became enraged and temporarily insane enough to
just murder somebody in public opinion.
At least the public opinion of those that sat on juries at the
time, white men with money were in favor of Sickles.
In fact, during jury selection, they found it impossible to find
(25:51):
enough people that said they weren't sympathetic with what
Sickles had done. 72 of 75 potential jurors admitted to
that they were sympathetic to what he did in response to Keith
sleeping with his wife. So they created a completely
they they couldn't create a completely impartial body of
jurors. I think it's pretty hard to do
(26:11):
that anyway. Well, basically the entire pool
of people they were going to select from were going.
To, yeah, be biased in some way,yeah.
I would have done the same thing.
Yeah. Nevertheless, they moved forward
with the trial starting April 4th, 1859.
This is another one of those like, Trial of the Centuries.
(26:32):
There's one of them every every year, century, you know.
But this was another one. It was very highly publicized.
And the defense called multiple character witnesses that
testified about the affair and colored Key as a devilish
villain who preyed upon naive young women.
They actually pulled the exact same thing in the Sanford White.
Yeah, Kate thought. There really is a lot of
(26:54):
crossover, like I said at the beginning.
And although the judge said the confession written by Teresa was
inadmissible in court because ittechnically counted as private
correspondence between spouses, which is protected, it's the
same reason that you can't forcea spouse to testify against the
other in court. Oh, I actually didn't know that.
Yeah. So you can't, even if the spouse
(27:15):
like has said they like know their spouse did something, you
can't force them to. You can't like subpoena them and
force them to testify. Interesting.
The confession was leaked and published publicly in
newspapers. So that's why they published it,
because it was getting such suchnotoriety.
So people, you know, also in the1800s, they don't really care if
(27:39):
they printed stuff like this. Yeah, I mean, they don't really
Care now, but whatever. But you couldn't, you know, you
probably can't sue them in the 1800s or it'd be hard.
And it made its way into the trial through witness testimony.
The details from that at least made its way through other
witnesses testimony. The jury also heard testimony
(27:59):
from Wooldridge and Butterworth about how Sickles was
inconsolable that day and, and crazy.
And when they they met him on the day of the murder and
especially when Key was noticed outside, he was like making all
these like crazy sobbing sounds or, you know, whatever, like he
was just generally. Upset.
Upset. And to top it all off, the
(28:21):
defense often quoted Bible passages about adultery and its
punishments and basically said to the jurors that like, you're
not good Christians if you don'tagree what Sickles had had done
in response. I think that is a perfect
example of twisting scripture tofit your own narrative, but OK.
That being said, the prosecutionjust kind of had no real good
(28:43):
defense against any of these tactics, and after only 70
minutes of deliberation, the jury returned the verdict of not
guilty by means of insanity. One of the only times that the
insanity plea had worked up to this point in America, and the
first time ever that it was temporary insanity.
(29:06):
Don't think you hear that much anymore.
No, I don't think so. Because it seems like the this
like plea of not guilty by temporary insanity is only used
in cases like this where is likeit's something so unbelievable
in in the societal eye happened that someone broke and did
something crazy. So now you're probably thinking,
(29:30):
well, you know what? At least Daniel Sickles, now
known murderer, even though he was acquitted, was probably
ostracized by the political community.
Well you're wrong. The only thing that they got mad
at him for actually was reconciling and staying with his
wife. What the?
Fuck also but divorce was so. I thought divorce was pretty
(29:52):
uncommon back then. But with adultery, I think
they're. I think they were.
They were. I think they were.
Cool with adultery. You could, you could.
You could get rid of her. But here's they're mad at him
for staying with his wife, but he's been cheating on her their
whole marriage. Yeah.
Well guys can cheat at the time.Also also once again crazy of
(30:12):
her to take him back. He literally killed her lover.
But it's also the 1850s so I can't understand.
So he did not resign from Congress either.
He stayed in Congress and he actually only left as the Civil
War broke out and then he started putting in a lot of
effort to rehab his public imageby raising troops for the Union.
Although he was an elected Democrat, which was actually the
(30:34):
opposite party of Lincoln at thetime.
Lincoln was a Republican. This was before the party
switched when they switched platforms.
So anyone who is like well Lincoln was a Republican is is
dumb and they don't understand history if they're trying to use
that as a as a reason why Democrats now are evil,
whatever. So he had previously joined the
New York militia and attained the rank of major there.
(30:56):
So when the war started, he was appointed Colonel of a regiment
in the New York infantry, eventually rising to Brigadier
General in 1861, leading troops through multiple battles in the
Civil War before Lincoln promoted him to Major General in
1862, making him the only core commander who didn't go to West
Point. Oh, interesting.
(31:17):
So he was kind of, that was a little scandalous.
During the Battle of Gettysburg,Sickles lost a leg after being
shot with a cannon, but it was amputated later that day.
And he survived. Wow.
Yeah, probably not many people survived the limb amputation at
the time. He then weirdly went on to
(31:39):
donate the mangled bones to the National Museum of Health and
Medicine, which would display them for several years
afterwards alongside A replica cannonball.
So you can go see like this. Would want a cannonball just to
a leg when it hits it. Oh my God.
Even weirder is that Sickles would make a pilgrimage to see
his bones on the anniversary of the day he lost them every.
(31:59):
Year that feels like a trauma response.
He's like, I got to go see my leg bones, Yeah.
He's also. Oh, sorry, go.
Ahead. No, it just feels like a trauma
thing. He was also super pissed that
they didn't save the bones to his foot.
They probably were shattered. Well the bones to his legs
definitely were. They had those.
He's like why the fuck didn't you save the foot?
I guess they only saved the leg at his request.
(32:21):
He was like I want that. And then he was pissed off they
didn't have the foot too. Sickles wanted to return to
combat even like he wanted to still be on the field.
With one leg. Yes, even though he had lost a
leg. But Ulysses S Grant told him no.
Yeah, yeah. He's like, that's a stupid idea,
but he still let him operate as a Brigadier General and a Major
General for the Army, working on, I don't know, tactics or
(32:44):
some shit. Unfortunately, in 1867, Teresa
passed away from tuberculosis. And wait a minute, she didn't
outlive him. Oh no, She died young.
She died in her 30s. What a tragic life.
Yeah, it was pretty rough. Well, I hope he really rocked
her bones. I really hope she gave her the
(33:05):
loving she deserved. Cindy was pretty good at it.
And I mean, a lot of experience.Yeah.
So she passed away from tuberculosis.
And two years later, in 1869, Sickles finally retired from the
military and was immediately appointed to the position of the
US minister to Spain, a positionwhich she served in for five
years. He did remarry.
(33:27):
He remarried like a French person out there.
And they had a couple more kids and he served in multiple other
high-ranking positions, being appointed to the chairman of the
New York State Civil Service Commission.
And then he also acted as the sheriff of New York County for
one year. In 1890, he was the sheriff.
And then in 1892 he was elected again to Congress and served
(33:50):
another two year term even though he legit murdered someone
like 30 years before that. They.
Didn't care. Well, he finally died on May
3rd, 1914 from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 94.
That is crazy that he lived thatlong back then and had his leg
(34:11):
blown off. Yep, that is OK.
That is impressive, even though he did a lot of bad things.
I feel like he was just fueled on spite.
Yeah, you know how just like really angry people.
Seem to. They live forever.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's him. That's him.
In the end, the story of Philip Key's murder is 1 of a case
settled not by the actual law asit is written, but instead by
(34:34):
the unridden law of public opinion.
It is hard to separate collective ideas of morality
from jurors who are supposed to follow the law.
Sometimes people don't get juries of their peers, like the
fictional Tom Robinson, who represents countless people of
color who have been convicted more based on biases than facts.
(34:55):
Sometimes people have juries that are too much like their
peers, and that was the case with Daniel Sickles.
Although he had a documented history of cheating publicly on
his wife in the exact same fashion that she was cheating on
him, he was somehow socially justified in murdering the man
who did the same to him. In the end, it minimizes the
(35:18):
autonomy that women have over themselves.
Like maybe she wanted to sleep around because her husband was a
piece of shit, but unfortunatelythat piece of shit lived a long
and fruitful life after gunning someone down in public.
But that likely wouldn't have been the case if he wasn't a
rich white man in the 1850s. Eighteen 50s.
(35:39):
So that's the story of I don't know how many Congress people
have murdered someone and not faced any any sort of
repercussions for it, but that'swe know it's at least not 0.
It's not zero and it's a it's a higher number than we care to
live in. Yeah, so that is the story of
(36:00):
Daniel Sickles and the murderer Philip Bardon Key the 2nd May I
add. And that was the Season 19
finale. Yes, it was.
Of white college red hands. So for those of you who are new,
I mean, obviously we just did a murder.
That's like normal. But we're going to be taking a
(36:20):
break after this 3-4 week break and then we'll we'll be back
with Season 20. Damn.
So if you haven't already gone back and and listened to our
past episodes, you want to fill some time in during, then listen
to some of those, feel free to do so.
We're still getting messages. I just recently got a message
(36:43):
that said like, Hey, I just found your podcast.
I'm listening to like 4 years ofepisodes back-to-back.
So and had a had a suggestion init too.
So thank you so much for sendingthat over.
Oh, that's cool. Yeah.
If you are are like that person you're and you're liking what
you you hear, you want to support us, you can do so by
leaving a rating. You can give us a star rating on
(37:04):
Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Apple Podcasts.
You can include words if if you want to write a paragraph or so,
feel free to do that. If you're not on one of those,
don't worry. You can like subscribe, follow
whatever on any of the pod catching services you use.
But I would recommend if you're going to listen somewhere to
listen on Spotify because you can watch our videos just like
(37:24):
you can on our YouTube channel at White Collars, Red Hands.
You can also there are ads in our podcasts.
OK, We've been doing it for fouryears.
It costs money to make this. We don't we don't make a profit
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Don't, at least not yet. So ads are included.
If you want to listen without ads for only $1.00 a month on
(37:44):
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Honestly. Very thankful to you if you did
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Maybe facebook.com White collars, Red Hands X at White
(38:06):
Collars pod, Instagram at White collars under score Red Hands
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hands. You can catch us anywhere there.
You can send us a message and you can suggest an episode.
We have multiple episodes suggested for our Phantom ended
episode next season, but we willdo multiple if they're
interesting. And we'll always give you a
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So feel free to send us ideas that we haven't touched on yet
(38:29):
over. You can send those through Adm
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whitecollarsredhands@gmail.com or you can go to our website,
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Also, while you're there, you might as well click that button
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(38:51):
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Actually, I don't even I don't even know the multitudes that
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public. But you can get a hat, a shirt,
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that as well. So once again, would love that.
Oh, and then last thing, the best way to spread news of a
(39:13):
podcast. Word of mouth.
Is word of mouth. Tell everyone you know.
Don't stop talking about it. Talk about it so much that
people start getting annoyed with you.
That's what I hope from you is that your friends start going
like, Oh my God, I'll listen to it just to get you to shut up.
You know that would be helpful for us.
(39:34):
Yeah, coerce your friends into listening.
To us coerce your friends by whatever means necessary is our
motto. You know, so do that.
I think that's it. So with the same sign off we
always do. Thank you so much for listening.
And we'll see you in season 20 of White Collars.
Red hands.
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