Mavens of Misdeeds
Mavens of Misdeeds
The Fates and Sarah Ware Murder Part 1
Do you believe everything that happens on this big marble is by chance or do you believe your life path is predetermined? In Greek mythology the Moirai or the fates determine your best life. Yasmine breaks it down for us in the first half of the episode. Then we dive into a historical true crime from 1898 in Bucksport, Maine that remains unsolved despite trials and multiple shady suspects. This one is a doozy with a severed head, courtroom drama, a town-wide conspiracy, and a haunting. Part 2 coming next week!
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Hello, mavens. Welcome to mavens of Misdeeds. The podcast about folklore, the paranormal and historical true crime. I'm Jen and joined by my equally spooky cohost Yasmine. Hello I am definitely going to be covering the major historical true crime in that intro for my part this week. I've determined that I'm gonna have at least a two-parter.
It may be three. We'll see. Yasmine is going to kick us off that I can go. Last and then first, next week. Hopefully all of this craziness in in this murder mystery will stay in your mind.
Everything nice and fresh yes. Yeah. aweme. Okay. Well, I'm going first today. That unds good.
I could do that. Today I'm going to be talking about the fates. We all have heard of fates from Greek mythology, the three sisters that are in charge of apparently everything. Yeah. Let's, before I jump into it too much my urces today are from YouTube, the fate Greek mythology, most powerful deities is the specific video I watched a couple of times.
I watched a couple of other videos that kind of, , the things that pop up. Yeah. Search certain stuff. Shorter ones. Of course, our friend Wikipedia we use the collector.com and Greek gods and goddesses.net. Ooh.
Yeah. Yeah. I think I've been on that one of time or two.
Yeah, that's a good fun quotes and stuff like that.
We'll we'll yeah, go over the stuff I found. Traditionally the fates they're not called the fates oh, no. Now I forget how to pronounce it. Moirai is their name and that is, it means a share or a portion of, the Moirai we're in charge of our lives. Basically they spun the yarn. of a pern's life. They determined how long it would be and they determined when it would end.
That is the what is it? TLDR version
ah, yes. Oh my gosh. Funny side note. I had to look that up just this week. Did you? I have no idea what it means.
I did have to look it up when I, when I first started seeing it, but it's a big, , on Reddit and now like Facebook groups are using it. And it's kind of everywhere now.
Yeah. But, but yeah. That's funny that you, you had to look that up this week. Yeah.
I think it was like literally the day before yesterday. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. A talk or mething. Mebody. Yeah. And I was like, what? I gotta figure this out.
Well, now it's not just in print. It's like being used, like how I just use it.
People are saying it just like LOL, like people will say it now instead. Too
long. Well, that was kind of my thing. I was like in the context that she was using it, even after I looked it up, I was like, I still don't understand yeah, because there wasn't anything to read. I don't understand. Oh. Oh.
Maybe she used it wrong.
That's weird.
Yeah. It was very confusing. Huh. Anyway, but it was to, what do ? I don't know. Who
knows? okay. The Moirai were there. Their origins are there's a few different urces of their origins, but they're thought to be daughters of Zeus and the tightness tightness Fe or the fatherless offspring of Nick's, which is night.
There are three sisters there's metimes depicted as three women, all the same age, different stages of life or three women. Okay.
There's lots of depictions of them. Let me start with that. All three women, metimes they're at all of the same stage of life, which could be different or they're depicted as three women all in different stages of life. If that makes sense. Yes. Metimes they're all the same age and metimes you have a young woman, a middle aged woman and an older woman.
Okay. Yeah. They make their appearance in the Disney movie Hercules. However, Disney's depiction is a hybrid between the gray that shared. The, the eye in the tooth that I talked about a couple weeks ago that they got tricked into passing the eye.
They, those, the gray served the Gorgons and the Moirai did not share body parts.
They were their own separate entities. Okay. Complete. Me versions of their story say they possessed powers greater than the gods. Others suggest that they were ruled by Zeus depending on who, in, in that particular story you're reading, depending on who their lineage comes from. Like if their dad was Zeus, then Zeus could sway their decisions.
But in other stories, if, if there's dad was not Zeus, if, if they were from Nyx or the other lady whose name I is escaping me right now then they could not be swayed by the gods. They were steadfast, but al very flexible as you'll find . Okay. Yeah. There were three of them Clotho. Was is normally depicted as if they're different ages.
She's the younger one. She's the one that's early in her womanhood. She's the spinner. She spins fibers to make a yarn. You can al take the term spinning yarn from the story. That's probably where that came
from. Oh, cool. I was wondering like in my head,
yeah. Yeah. Like when a baby was born, she spun the thread of their life or like the fabric of their being.
And she used a spindle and a small loom, which was called the book of life or the book of fate. And I don't know why it was called a, a book if it was a loom, but I'm sure there's a little bit of overlap in language, maybe. Right. She's often depicted as the youngest of the trio. And I have a quote from the Odyssey.
Homer says he must look to meet. whatever events, his own fate and the stern cloths twisted into his thread of destiny when he entered the world and his mother bore him. He's talking about meone and Clotho knitting the thread of his life. Okay. Lachesis spun all the events of life, often depicted as the middle aged woman.
She was considered the apportioner her tools were a measuring staff in a globe. She was the one that decided and, and spelled out basically the events of your life and the length of your life. And then you had Atropos. She cut the thread of human life, thus ending the life of the mortal with a pair of scisrs.
Her tool was the scisrs and her job was very exacting. She decided the way you died and the exact moment she would be depicted as the elderly woman. She was inflexible. Aro post basically means the inflexible. She chose the way and time of death. After being cut a ul would then be sent to the underworld for judgment after which it would be sent to Elysium the fields of punishment or the fields of Asphodel.
And in Platos, the Republic, the Moirai are daughters. Oh, wait. That's I'm skipping. My bad. Okay. listen, I start writing and then I leave myself space in my notes and then I'm like, oh, but I need the or mething. That's mething else. That was the origin story. We'll go back to that. Like I mentioned before, there are three origin stories, three main ones, because even in searching, I'm like, these are more parents, like who are these people?
You don't know. That's what I think that's why it never sticks in my head. Maybe. Is it if , or if you have a theory is there many, was it like regions, like regional, how they like which story they would believe and follow? Do you think? There are, and this would just be Greek mythology in general.
okay. These named. These ones, the Moirai are specifically Greek. You have other depictions of three sisters that control the fate of humankind in other regions, in other mythologies and other stories. And then you have one, that's just one lady. I think it's Japan. I might look that up and, and maybe tell you all the rest of those at the end.
But these ones that I'm talking about are specifically Greek. Okay. Even in specific Greek mythology, there's at least three, but these are the three main ones. Gotcha. , yeah. Okay. The kind of way that the order that I'm telling it, I think this first one makes the most sense, but. they all kind of make a little bit of sense too.
They all kind of connect. Okay. Nyx was a goddess outside or above the realm of the gods. She represented night but she was a very, very powerful, she brought forth abstract con abstract concepts and gave them name and gave them names and had children that were the pernification of these concepts as well.
Oh she was al the pernification of night. She stood at the beginning of creation and mothered all of these ideas. I'm gonna read them off and give me a little bit of grace with the Greek. Here we go. Hypnos is the God of sleep than Thanatos is death. Erebus is darkness. Aethra brightness Hemera Moros doom or destiny carries destruction or death Oneiroi dreams, Momos blame
Oizys pain or distress. The Moirai is the Fates nemesis is indignation or retribution. Apate is deceit Philotes friendship, Geras old age and Eris strife. She's more of like a darker negative interpretation of what the fates were in her, in the stories that involve Nix as their mother, they can be swayed.
They are swayed, but usually in more of an, their. they're kind of the bad guys in her stories. Or at least they support the negative force in whatever stories is happening. They, they have implied benevolence in her story. Okay. In Plato's the Republic, the Moirai are daughters of, okay, this is different.
Okay. We're gonna go, see. I keep trying to read the same one. I liked her. Okay. For, for night it's like a overarching concept kind of wrapping around the whole world that's created of like the gods and things like that. Mm-hmm they're kind of outsiders, they're not active participants in the adventures.
But they are, they do influence the stories. Okay. The main characters. . One of the other possible parents is Ananke. She was the goddess and pernification of inevitability and necessity. I like this one, her daughters are embody her daughters embodied that role by taking on birth life and death, but al inevitability and fate.
This is more of a neutral parentage like this Ananke, like inevitability necessity is not bad or good. It can be difficult, but it's not negative or positive. It's just right. , and birth life and death to me is al neutral. , it's not a bad or a good thing. I, I did like this idea that they weren't.
The bad
guys, , right. Yes.
Practical, practical, right? Right. In it's more common to see that they were the children of Zeus and famous, famous, like I mentioned before was a Titan. She was a daughter of Titans, but she was a God. She was a Titan, her name, her name means justice law and custom, which I thought was interesting.
She's the goddess of justice, divine order, fairness law custom, her symbols are the scales of justice. , ah, was she a Libra? Was she the original Libra like me? Ah, I like her, like, she's she, we can hang out. According to the last CIA, by. Stainy of Cyprus Fe and Zeus together plotted the start of the Trojan war.
This is a quote by the way, according to Quintus Sims, when the gods defied the orders of Zeus and started fighting each other, after the creation of the Trojan horse famous stopped them by warning them of the Zeus's wrath. Fe was influential enough over Zeus, cuz I think she was second or third wife.
She was not first wife, but she was influential enough for a time that they were able to start the Trojan war and then she was able to save people I guess, by warning them, which is great. Yeah. The Moirai could have been more powerful than Zeus himself. Hmm famous and her girls once stopped Zeus from killing thieves that attempted to steal honey from the Diktaean cave as it would've been blasphemous or against the gods for anyone to die in the caves.
Instead he turned the thieves into birds, , oh yeah. But they're birds. Yeah. could be worse about them being a little bit influential with him. Because Zeus was not known to be one that was influenced, he just right. Yeah. Did what he was gonna do without regard. That's kind of what he's known for.
One of the many things what was their job? Why, why were they around the origin of the name Mo more. you've been doing good, good.
I lost it.
More, no, I, I keep, wanna say Moriarty from like Sherlock Holmes like I can't,
I think that's why I'm saying it the way that I am, cuz I don't think I'm pronouncing it even right. I know it's a Moirai Moirai Mo that's it could cut. Okay. Mo your Ry could come into the world.
The origin name Mo could come from the word Moira, which may mean portion share in distribution. I thought this was funny of booty lot destiny. It's basically saying like, their very name means a portion, which is what they were in charge of. They were in charge of portion of life.
Right. It al related to, it's al related to marrows which means part or lot and Morros meaning fate or do . A lot of the Greek words, , they have origins and they they're all connected and their meanings are very deep, very interesting that even just, they origins of these words could mean what they are.
I don't know. It's just all very interesting. Okay. Another quote the role of the Moirai was to ensure that every being mortal and divine lived out their destiny, as it was assigned to them by the laws of the universe, For mortals, this destiny spanned their entire lives and was represented by a thread spun from a spindle.
Generally they were considered to be above even the gods as enforcers of fate. Although me representations Zeus is able to command them here, goes back and forth. It was the moisturized job to visit a new life. Within three days of birth, the child's life's thread would be spun by Clotho onto her loom.
Lachesis would map all events and use her measuring tool to determine the length of the child's life. And Atropos with her scisrs determine the exact time and way of death. Hmm. Okay. We're gonna tell a story of one gentleman. He was a prince that. his fate determined by the Moirai. This is the story of Meleager
He was the n of king Oeneus and queen Althea. He was visited by the fate's three days after birth. His mother was still recovering from birth he's in his little bassinet. They've got a fire going, these three fates come in. And they had news for his mother. Hmm. They rarely shared news of death.
However, they told Althea that he would, that Meleager would have a short life. In me stories that I, that I listened to, he was not even alive. He was still born and just kind of in that middle, FA that middle. Space where he's not quite dead and he's not quite alive. Oh, wow. The fates
told queen Althea that when the log in the fireplace was done, burning Meleager would die.
Oh. They like, like real
short. Yeah. He's about to die. Just say goodbyes. kind of sad. Althea thinking very quickly and very desperately remove the log from the fireplace with her bare hands to extinguish the fire and preserve the log, thus preserving her baby's life. And she did that. Wow. She stowed the log away in a chest, wrapped it up, locked it up because she knew when that log was burnt, he would die.
Meleager grew up to be a strong formidable young man. He he was a prince. He had every opportunity available to him at that time. Yeah, he was, he was a strong young guy. I did a little bit of rabbit hole and I know why this story happens, but I'm let me try to tell this in kind of a concise way.
On the outskirts of town, they heard, Meleager heard of this giant boar that was coming and attacking people on the outskirts of town. And he put together a hunting party that had quite a few other strong men, including Jan. He had me of his uncles were, that were princes and they al got help from.
a woman which was weird named
at Atalanta ooh. The boar was there because of dealings with her parents, they owed the fate mething and the parents hadn't given the fates that mething the boar was sent and the boar probably was sent specifically to, to kill at Atalanta because they were trying to get back at her parents. Her parents were al a king and queen.
She was a princess, they wanted a, a n. She was a daughter. But instead of like, I don't know, being mean to her or whatever, they taught her everything. She loved hunting. She loved archery. She was a strong, fierce, oh, okay.
Woman. She's like a
warrior princess, a warrior princess. Exactly. that's the term that I was looking for.
Perfect. okay. She joined this hunting party in hearing stories of Meleager I don't know if they knew how connected she was to this, these happenings. I don't know. Right. It doesn't seem like they, they all connected the dots anyways. They tracked this boar to a cave and set up like booby traps with nets and spiky things, swords and all kinds of stuff to, to stop this boar and to kill it.
And they sent one of their party in with a torch to like scare it out. Okay. Well, when they did that, they didn't realize how huge this boar was. And he immediately like threw the guy and knocked down all their booby traps. Like it was nothing. And the chase ensued he was cornered. He broke out. They, they chased him.
They stabbed him every chance they got, they had dogs like hunting dogs that the boar would just like stab with its big trunks. Yeah.
For things I don't, I don't know,
not trunks tusks.
Ah, those things on their face. Ah, yeah. Eventually he started to tire out because of the relentless pursuit and stabbing as one does. Right.
At Atalanta waited for a perfect shot to finally take down the boar. She was a great Archer shot. Her arrow shot him right in the eyeball. She took her shot, hit the boar directly in the eye. And it was still breathing, but he had like started to waiver. And then Meleager steps up to take the final swing and cut off its head.
Aweme. Bore is dead. Good job guys. High fives for everyone
but remember, this is a group of hunting warrior dudes that are not used to a girl being a part of their hunting party. They were giving all the credit to Meleager even though it belonged to a Atalanta a part that I did not mention, and I should have is Meleager had his eye on a Atalanta I mean, obviously it helped that she was a princess, but she was this girl doing things that he didn't see other girls doing.
Obviously they spent the day hunting and every time he tried to like talk to her, other people would distract them, bore hunting, all those things. At the end he was excited for her. He was proud of her. He, , she did a great job. He chopped off his head. He wanted to give a Atalanta the spoils of her kill.
And he handed her the giant Boar's head. I can't even imagine how big it would've been. I, yeah, pretty big. Well, the, the guys were offended, especially his uncle. He was mad. He didn't think girls should get the prizes. He didn't even think she should have been on the hunting trip to begin with, but he begrudgingly allowed it.
And now this was just like a slap in the face to dudes everywhere. and he started tussling with Malik, with a Atalanta over this boar's head Meleager steps in and stabs his uncle uhoh. Yeah. The other uncle jumps in the other guys jumps in and in that tussle, his other uncle is al killed. Oh,
Yeah. The, the family holidays are gonna be awkward.
Yeah.
It's all all over. Yeah.
When a Atalanta when, okay, they're out the, in the wild they're far away, but him being the prince, I'm sure they had, , pages and, , things like that. I don't know if they had stuff like that for the Greeks back then, but word gets back to his mother queen Althea while she was not happy. She was very disappointed that her n killed her brothers.
And she found the log and set it on.
Oh, I didn't see that coming
I didn't either in everything that I had and saw, he wasn't even back home yet. She didn't even confront him to say what happened. She heard what happened and burnt his log and he was still with Atalanta and he died in her arms.
Yeah.
That's a plot
twist. That is a plot twist. Yeah,
I thought she was just gonna be mad at him. I
mean, yeah. , I mean, her brothers that's pretty, I mean, that's pretty bad, but like, would he have done that if she would've allowed his log to burn? Like how would his, would his uncle's lives have been longer if he would've died in infancy?
Like, this is the question. For, for Greeks, Was the, was their fate set.
Right. Did she mess everything up when she didn't just accept what they were coming and told her was gonna happen? Yeah. It's kind of, that is that like butterfly
effect, right? Cause if they wouldn't have said anything, she wouldn't have even have known that there was a possibility, right.
That could have been saved. Exactly. But they already knew what was going on with a Atlanta. They already knew what was going on in this other realm. Maybe his help with, , accepting her into the hunting party. That was his purpose. Maybe,
maybe
. Ugh. Okay. In this story, Meleager's death was postponed by his mother.
You said that could the fates have prevented the uncle's death at all? I mean, I mean, the uncles would've died eventually, but not violently. Was there a rean the uncles had to stay alive, longer or die when they did, , like there's all these questions. And in, in seeing different stories of how they interacted with the Greeks and the gods, metimes a God would go in and plead for the life of mebody or and they would allow it okay.
Or they could influence mebody else could influence them in a different way to end mebody's life and they would do it. I don't know, back then, it seems like they. The Greeks themselves felt that fate, even though your, the length of your time on earth is determined, maybe not always the events that happened and when you die.
, yeah, I mean, that I feel is, was very, very short , but that is what I have on the face.
But that is just enough in Greek mythology while you were talking, I found mething I have to get on Amazon and it's gonna be, it's gonna be my new background for us to reference. And it's this poster of the Greek mythology family tree.
Oh my gosh. And it's only like $15. I'm here for it.
Is it like tiny teen little writing?
No, it's not. And it's in color. Wow. I know. I'm kinda like, I think that I need this. Oh. And it's even, I'm separated with the Titans, the Olympians.
Oh, that's cool. Because there's a lot of interaction. A lot of
Primordial they're top.
You're gonna make me say it again. I don't want to wait. Yeah. Primor P I and then like cordial, except with an M . Poral
poral. Yeah.
Who are they? I can't, I can't zoom it. Oh, you got, okay. Chaos is at the top Uhhuh and then I can't, when I zoom in enough to read it just on this picture, I can't I can just read chaos.
all right.
Yeah. yeah. Save that puppy to the wishlist. Cause I am serious. I get lo like, as that makes sense, like, as you tell me that, and then just like with Medusa mm-hmm , in 10 minutes I would not be able to relay that story to meone
yeah. Yeah. It's I mean, there's many,
that's what I'm saying.
That poster, that poster is the bomb. Now, now I'm like, is there for Viking for Norse
mythology oh, I'm sure there is because
that's my next one. but no, that's really interesting. And like I said,
Before we move on too, too far. I did that in other cultures, they have a few different names. Let me see if I can say 'em
Parcae in Roman counterpart, the Roman counterparts of the Greek Moirai Moirai mm-hmm Rozhanitsy figures in Slavic mythology who foretell a pern's destiny. Is that an M or an N? Norms? N O R N S incarnations of destiny in Norse mythology. And then you have Dievs Val D toe holes. There's seven sisters. That was a long word. And seven sisters of Baltic mythology who weave garments from human lives.
Yeah, I, over
three witches in Shakespeare's McBeth, the poem Howell by Allen Ginsburg, warns of three old shrews of fate, the one eye Shrew of the heterosexual dollar, the one eye Shrew that winks out of the womb and the one eye true. That does nothing, but sit on her ass and snip the intellectual golden threads of the craftsman's loom.
Okay.
Yeah. I have no words for
that. No, you're the other two
I do recall him, him being a, a bit of an oddball, but. Yeah. Yep. That was extra.
Yeah. You have, or do, or when, or go characters in Lloyd Alexander's 1960s book, the Chronicles of PN, the Fs and Disney Hercules, the kindly ones characters in the Sandman series of comics by Neil Gayman, the fates Moirai characters in various books by the Percy Jackn series, the sisters of fates in God of, these are all like the sisters of fates and the gods of war, the fates in Hades town, the fate's and the primary antagonist of sean five of the superhero television series, legends of tomorrow.
And then the three aspects of fate in with a tangled skin by peers, Anthony. , yeah. Ah, you had those first five were in mythology and the last few were in fiction and like movies and stuff. Very interesting though. Yeah.
That's that is wild.
It's cool. It's interesting to me though, too, that many cultures have given that.
I mean, everybody wants to explain why things happen. Yes. And that's, that's the long and short of it. Everybody wants to, to say, well, , it, it had to happen that way because it was already my destiny. Or metimes you feel passionate about mething that you feel it's your destiny. And these, these big words come in and these big concepts and , what is even fate?
Well, I guess it's me ladies that have me tools.
Yeah. I mean, it is, it's pretty crazy cuz yeah. Even, , today with all the, , technology and all the knowledge that we think, , that we have, it's still mething that we can't, , explain or we can't get over trying to figure out and control.
Exactly.
Yeah. Much cool. It really is. Yeah, that was really cool. Aweme. I have almost an equally hot mess in this story. Well, this story, this historical true crime. The urce that I use just for, for part one here is a book called or titled in search of Sarah Ware and that is by Emeric Spooner.
And Mr. Spooner is he does actually live in Bucksport, Maine where this took place. He for a while was either the librarian or assistant librarian there at the Bucksport library up until very recently from what I gather. Obviously he had access and the research skills to a lot of documents and just to, to get all these urces.
And I think I read that he spent about two years lidly, just. Collecting all of these old newspapers even me accounts from, I guess they would've been like the children of people that were there that lived during the time of this and that kind of thing. He, he, , definitely did just went the whole nine with, with it.
And it is much I highly recommend getting the book it's it's on Amazon and whatever. But you, and you can al get it on Kindle too, if you like that rt of thing. But's really good. And then a few years after that, he ended up publishing a second book and it's. Mething I'll have that urce for part two, but it's basically Sarah Ware revisited, I think mething along those lines because you got even more information and that kind of thing.
Yeah. Kind of updated the, , from the, from the first one we are. going back to, oh, and this was really cool and I didn't even plan this. This was really cool. She, this actually, this murder goes down on September 17th, 1898. And obvious we are recording on September 16th. Yeah, and I actually, I saw where he went.
He posted today on a, he he's an amazing guy, he basically is going around and trying to restore all of the old cemeteries there. Make sure they're kept up. They're in Bucksport in that surrounding area. But he had posted today that he went. And visited her grave today. Wow. But that's even her grave is up for debate as we will get into.
And that is why there may be three parts to this I'm telling you. Essentially Sarah, where was born in Nova Scotia in 1846, she was of Scottish descent. She did come from a poor family and like, Most people then, and even still today , she had heard that America was full of opportunity and where, , your dreams can come true.
And when she was old enough, she did come to America. Had a few stops in between, but pretty early on ends up lands in Bucksport, Maine. Okay. Bucksport at that time was a thriving coastal town. You've got lots of ships in the Harbor. , things, things are, are happening there, a big granite, they would that's where they could, I can't get the word in my head.
I'm like, you're not gonna chop granite. What are you doing to get, you're not harvesting granite. What
they would kick. is it excavate? Let's
do that. Sure. Let's do that. Yeah. Anyway, it was lots of granite and, , people like granite. Anyway things were happening and it was a, it was a thriving town.
She ends up marrying a prominent citizen of the town. His name was Charles Ware. He was the Undertaker's n, but this, he was like the elite. The undertaker for the elite. Oh yes. Not just, , anybody, any old undertaker. They went in 1869. She was 25 years old. She was a, a bit of a Cougar.
No, just kidding. He was 23. It was just, I'm just kidding. They had, I don't know, back in that day, it might have been when you could drop dead at, , 25 was like middle age. They do have three children together. However, one daughter, she passed away at 18 years old. But the not much is really known.
I gather about their, , life together. Must not have been anything too, , too crazy. Good stuff. Yes. And kids, the two, the other two kids, , they grow up, they leave home, they get married, all of that. And it seems that her marriage to, to Charles starts to, to fall apart. She was very scandalous.
She divorced Charles which was very gutsy and made her though target, obviously, , the tongues were gonna be wagging. She's gonna be gossiped about, she's gonna be looked down on because at that point, , if a divorce happened, it was automatically the fault of the, the wife, right.
In me way, shape or form. Right. Even if she's divorcing him, it's still her fault mehow. Yeah. Anyway, me, exactly. Yeah. She. Now, , she's got to earn her, her own money. She's got she's she's on her own. She begins to earn money as a housekeeper and a babysitter. Okay. Or maybe like a nanny maybe.
She had several of these jobs, she would maybe like be a live-in nanny for a time with a family or mething, but then she would still often have these housekeeping jobs going on the side too. She was very, very busy lady. Yeah. Very exactly. I mean, she really did. And she, the first pern that's gonna be important later and there's many names in this story.
Many. Names. I've tried to, this is why you should really, , get the book and, and read it. I highly recommend, but I've tried to pair it down. It's not as confusing. Okay. But this is a name that is definitely definitely worth remembering. One of the, the folks she lived with was a gentleman by the name of William Treworgy.
Treworgy tr I'd practice that too. It's weird. T R E w O R G Y. Trevor. That just unds like I had Trey, Trey wary, Trey wary. Right? That's all you can do with that, Trey. Sure. Okay. She, yeah, anyway, his wife had actually divorced or left him and left him with the children. She cos and she ends up living there and she's caring for his children and keeping house, that kind of thing.
Okay. Mething happens not sure what speculation was. He could have made advances towards her and she was, , not about that. Or he al was not one that was good at paying people well, and, or on time for things. Okay. It could al have been that basically she's doing all this work for and not getting paid, whatever they had agreed upon.
Either, yeah, either way she ends up. Obviously leaving there. And she is immediately taken in by another important character Almira miles. And she comes on as her not just a housekeeper, but kind of as a, a caregiver too. Amira was a part of the spiritualist movement and Sarah would've been no stranger to that because her former father-in-law who was a, a civil war vet and was heavily involved in spiritualism.
And in fact was the first president of the Verona park spiritualist camp. Wow. And Verona island is extremely in extreme, close proximity to Bucksport. Okay. Then according to Emeric Spooner's book, Sarah. And her father-in-law at this point, they do not really, they do not speak anymore following the divorce.
, , right. It, it's not a, a, a super great situation. And it's, it's really, she's really on her own. You've got, , her husband, she's now divorced. Father-in-law and his, and then her husband's brothers and stuff, , nobody's really talking to her, her kids have moved on and moved out of Bucksport, they're not , super involved.
Exactly. Just to kind of, , as a reminder that she, she really didn't have anybody to, to really lean on that was super close.
When she came, she, she came by herself.
Wow. Yes. Wow. And she did apparently after the divorce in between me of these, , gigs as being a live-in housekeeper or nanny or both she did go back to Nova Scotia, but apparently she just didn't feel like she belonged there anymore either after she had been , away from there for long.
Yeah. , yeah, that's great. She was well known around town not just because of her marriage to, to Charles and that prominent family. But al because she cared for many prominent citizen, Homes either as the housekeeper or, , actually being a part of raising their children, , to speak.
She was al known to be fiercely private individual. And nobody really knew much about her like financial state of affairs. , that kind of thing. She wasn't going around just telling anybody and everybody, , her business. And she was, she was a fairly, , well respected.
, woman people over and over and over in the the direct accounts that he has. Cause he's got the whole transcriptions of the coroner's inquest, all of the witness statements to the police. He's got it all in their own words and wow. , in the book it's amazing. But everybody describes her pretty much like the first thing is just the da gone best housekeeper ever.
They kind of, , in saying that, or al kind of saying that she was a very , sensible woman, she was very , organized, I would assume, , that kind of thing. Yes. And the children, , they must really have al liked her because even after parting on potentially not great terms with I just don't like this guy's name.
Treworgy I feel like a dufus every time I say it, what is, cause I feel like I'm doing it wrong, but I don't know. Anyway, the children, his children still would come visit every week at Mrs. Miles, , house where she's now living. Yeah. , and he would drop 'em off to do that. , there was a connection there.
Anyway, I think that's just, , important to kind of, , how she is. By this point, Sarah is 59 years old. And that's another, , to keep in mind that still really hustling. Like we said, , she is taking care of herself and, , it's, she's, she's independent. Another thing about Tury gosh, is that he was al known to have a very quick temper.
I forgot to mention that and that's gonna be important later. Okay. As part of his character according to witness statements on the afternoon of September 17th, 1898 it was a typical day for Sarah. She is out running errands. She's got to get stuff for, this is a Saturday. She's got to get stuff for Sunday dinner , market, all of those things.
Mm-hmm . And she ends up back home with Mrs. Miles after doing all that and Treworgy comes by and he is working in the garden. I wasn't clear if it was. Mrs. Miles garden, or just nearby a shared, obviously it was a shared type garden because he's there with a helper, a hired helper of his, and they've been doing that.
And they come they come over to Mrs. Miles house and they to talk about sharing, basically the harvest of what he, , had gotten outta the garden to split it, to figure out how they were gonna split it or mething. According to his helper, they Mrs. Miles and Sarah and him had friendly conversations.
They were laughing, everything was good. But then after a little bit, Mrs. Miles went inside and he says that the discussion between Sarah and William becomes a bit. Unfriendly. And he's able to gather that they are mewhat arguing about money. Later on in the evening, the, the two women, they they left home.
They made me cial visits to me friends in the area, and then Sarah walks Mrs. Miles back home, but she tells her that she is gonna go back out again to visit a friend of hers. He was a widower named John Bulduc and he was just a friend. No indications of anything else. And she did not one of the few people that she did not work for.
He said that, yeah, she didn't cook for him. Didn't not housekeeping. None of that. I believe that his late wife and her were very close friends and , she just continued to just kind of check in and, and, and whatever, but yeah, he, he repeatedly said that she never worked for him or anything like that.
She heads out at about 7:00 PM at this point to walk, to to visit him. She tells Mrs. Miles that she will be back just a little bit after dark. Obviously it's already seven and it's, mid-September in Maine. And I mean, well, any of us here it's, it's, that's, she's not planning on being gone very long, basically.
yeah. Several witnesses and I do mean several and I'm sparing you all, like 10 of their names saw her that evening on her way to John Bulduc's house. And upon leaving his home, which he describes and witnesses can back up was about 8:45 PM. Townspeople see her, , walking and I don't know why if it was just me, but I guess I always pictured 1898.
Everybody was in bed by seven
I'm like, why is this busy? it, it triggered in my mind. I was like, it was it probably summer because, eh, at seven, like the sun's maybe down, like maybe it was summertime
who knows. I mean, set. That's the thing. I mean, September in Maine is, I mean, it could be like very warm one day and then freezing the next cuz they are definitely in that, ?
I, , maybe I guess, I don't know. Anyway. Yeah, I know. But I mean I could go out right now in my neighborhood and I guarantee you like 90% of the houses are dark. Yeah. I mean like, well it's kinda late now. It's
eight. It's not even eight 30 where I'm at and our neighborhood is.
Locked up. Yeah.
I'm telling you that's the way. Exactly. And they're not, I mean, there's me young people too, like, I mean, I don't know what's wrong with us anyway. Huh? Yeah. Apparently things were a lot more happening and swinging in 1898 than I imagined, especially in buck sport, because the number I'm just telling you the number, the sheer number of people that saw this woman.
Wow. Let's see. She, they see her about 8:45 PM. Then she stops by the Fogg store. That's Mr. And Mrs. Fogg and that's F OG G they had like the store attached to their, their house, , the store part is in, towards the front of the house. That makes sense. And apparently they stayed open late, cuz I mean, cuz Peck everybody's up and I'm like, it's like amazing to me.
She buys two cigars. and they notice , when she goes to pay them that she did have, , a purse with her. She al in conversation, she tells Mrs. Fogg that she's planning to head home and she's planning to do it via the fields. Mrs. Fogg asked if she wanted to stay and just, , chat and catch up for a little bit, cuz , heck we're not going to bed anytime on.
Right. And she declines she declines that offer and says, , she's, she's heading on home. Yet even more people saw her after that. And they see her around 9:15 PM and she's walking presumably. Towards home. Yeah. But after 9:15 PM, no one else sees her except for her murderer or murderers.
Plural.
Okay.
Interesting to me. I don't know. I think about it all the time, like who would know where I'm going when I'm going there, but obviously people are watching I'm I'm no like Sarah where, , like mm-hmm, no like installation in the community type pillar pern, , I'm not recognizable, but like would really everybody know exactly a person's comings and goings in an evening all evening.
I
a, a flipping spaceship could land in my neighborhood right now. Huh there be two. And they could carry me out on a, a neon cot and I am telling you right now, my neighbors would be like, huh? No, I didn't see anything. What? Wait, was this after 8:00 PM? Yeah, ablutely. Cause if ,
there's no way
she's a goner.
We have nothing to tell you. It's
incredible to me. How many people,
that's, why I'm telling you. If I had put all the names in there, I mean, we would all be just nuts because it, it was , yeah, I mean, and me of them are gonna be important later, but it was just too much for round one. Yeah. Like I said, just given the highlights here.
Woo . That was Saturday. Sunday, September 18th. Now things are really gonna start to get Harry .
Okay. Wait a sec. Saturday, September 17th. That's when
she disappears.
And we have a Saturday, September 17th, tomorrow is Saturday. Oh crap.
We do. Ooh. Oh, I probably just invited, got another spirit into my house.
Aweme. And I swear, I really did not, even until I saw his post, like, cuz I hadn't started taking notes yet, ? And I was just like, , have been reading through and until I saw his post, he was like , like tomorrow's the day. And I was like, wait, what? Tomorrow's what? And then I was like, oh, I'm doing this episode
like right at the thing. This is like meant to be. Yeah, please don't ha me Sarah. I have enough problems at my house. Okay. Yasmine only has a ghost cat though.
Yes. Only a cat is no, Sarah. Oh,
oh, okay. Mrs. Miles she is just, just ever slightly worried that Sarah has not, did not come home. Okay.
When Mr. Treworgy stops by with his daughters for a visit their typical Sunday after church visit she asked him if he would go by Mr. Bulduc's home to see if, , Sarah was there, or if he knew where she had gone. Because, and it is important to note that, , back then, , if you, Got to talking, whatever that it got late, then it was definitely not uncommon for people to be like, oh yeah, no, just stay, , in the spare room.
That would not have been a super uncommon thing and I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I'm seeing me things in, in the book that people that she may have not really disappeared, but she would maybe be gone for a couple of days or something huh. , and , maybe me that didn't know where she was because she was private or what, I don't know.
I'm seeing rumblings
normal for her to like go visiting or whatever and stay for.
yeah. Clearly these people that's, all they do is visit all the time. , which, I mean, that's great. , cause like I said, I could get abducted and nobody would notice, but yeah, I mean, I I'm seeing rumblings. That is not totally conf I haven't yet confirmed that just yet, but that could explain why Mrs.
Wills or mills is not freaking out. Okay. , and I'm, I'm assuming that, , at least at first that's probably what she did thinks like, oh, well it got late and , she didn't wanna walk all the way. Yeah, exactly. He says that he would go do that, but the jury is still out literally if he ever did actually go check with Mr.
Bulduc okay. He later says that he did, but that Mr. Bulduc wasn't home, but that's just one of many inconsist inconsistencies to come from him. Okay. It seems though just for this, , town in general, that there was very little urgency or concern about Sarah being missing until two weeks had passed.
What yeah. Wait lady. Yeah. Very odd. Especially considering you're, you're gonna later describe her as, , dependable or heads on straight all of these, , things. What I have a question, does that not
seem weird? it's very weird. Was she still working regularly or was she yes. Oh, she's missing work, like, yeah, she probably didn't do that too often without letting people
know.
I would think not. And , yeah, it's just, it's very weird and it's very weird and this will be important this weirdness later about why these key people, this many people saw her and she pretty much told them what her plan was. Mm-hmm and then she didn't do it and they're not running to the police.
Right. Why yeah, basically, , People are starting to notice on the per people are starting to notice, obviously the people that know her, they, they know mething's wrong, they've at this, , they know. Yeah. Why they're not doing anything. Not sure yet. , Treworgy was struggling financially and very much like Sarah, he had several little side jobs, , and that kind of thing.
I think in the book Spooner says that he might have been described as, , rt of a Jack of all trades master of none , kind of guy to make ends meet. He is on one of these, , jobs and a woman testified that while working, he told her that he had to leave early to help search for Sarah and that she had died two weeks prior.
The woman says Sarah, basically I thought she was just missing, , kind of thing, Uhhuh and he clarified that. Well, he just didn't think that she would be found alive.
Oh, hang on. I'm gonna go search for this dead person yes. Is assuming he is alive. That's crazy, right.
Up until this two week point, like I said, no one thought to alert the police.
Now we are at October 1st and someone finally, , goes and tells the deputy sheriff about this he's on it immediately. Oh my God. He literally immediately, he rounds up a search party and the, they split him into two groups. The first group is. John Bulduc and Charles Fogg, the owner of the store mm-hmm
They're in a group together. And then there is Wesley Webster, Frank Duco, and Isaac Richardson are in the second search party. They spread out as you would. And the second group starts to smell the unmistakable, something has died. Yes mm-hmm . And they locate. Sarah Ware on October 2nd, 1898, their second day, basically of searching.
Ugh. From the accounts of those that saw the body, which was essentially the whole flipping town and , cuz as one did in those days, yes, most men agreed that it looked like Sarah. Had fought an attacker. And then me of them reported that they did see a broken broom handle laying on the road nearby.
Yes. And her hat was found under her body and appeared that she possibly had been posed after death. Her arms are crossed across her chest Uhhuh and her, her legs are crossed. Oh my gosh. She was missing me undergarments. Yes. Her shirt had been unbuttoned slightly, but apparently back in that time that was a, like indicator of a robbery and she was known to literally I think the word was, , like keep a, a purse her bosom
oh, you don't get to say bosom very often. I just wanna take that opportunity. And they, , yeah. The other thing that people thought, cuz I'm gonna pretty much stop at at this juncture because it's about to get real. Oh man. And I'm gotta figure out how in the world to condense this, this next roller coaster of a, of a story.
But another theory that people that saw her had was that she had been possibly like wrapped up in like a canvas tarp of some sort and then dumped and that she had sort of, , landed in that position. Mm-hmm that theory is important. Maybe not that exact, like the way they think, that, but the theory that she might not have died, there is important because of her clothes.
Can, can you remind me where exactly she was? You said road I'm
sorry I'm yeah, I'm rry. That's okay. It was basically like a a path is how they describe it. Basically if people wanna look, it's now the parking lot of the high school creepy where, where she was found. But at that point, but I mean, it would've been, a well-traveled, , yeah.
Thing. But yeah, it, it was just a, a path, , for her to, to get from where she had been visiting. And without getting. too heavy. into, into part two. I think though it will al help to realize. Remembering that she is very private about her financial matters and things like that.
Right. It apparently was, was me knowledge to me people that she she had fairly recently made a deposit of like $50 into the, the Bangor bank which that would've been a large in 1898, , a decent sum of money. She was al it was starting to get around town that another gentleman that she had done housekeeping and things for owed her $65 that she was starting to complain about, , about that.
And then of course, , we know we've got the witness. The helper of tr I have to look at it. Treworgy I swear. I gotta give him a nickname. I don't know what it's gonna be. We're gonna have to think on that. Just make me, help me stop saying that his name. I can't same. I feel like I'm not giving doing it justice.
I, , I feel like I'm likes,
, or mething. Me
letter, I think I'm making it und like wooy or mething. What I mean? Like something just silly and I don't mean to, but it's like, that's how it, I don't know. I can't, I can't go on with like three parts and say that cuz he is a main character entire flipping thing.
I mean, I could, if everybody can agree, he is William and please Lord, don't let there be another prominent William that I don't know about yet in this story, but for right now he's gonna be William. Okay. William. , we know that he's had, he's overheard having an argument to the best of that helpers, , what he could hear that he was pretty sure was an argument about money and it had been speculated that that was the reason , possible reason that she had left his employee was because remember, , that was, the advances was rumor, but then another one was that , he wasn't paying her.
Yeah. And that's why she left. Already, and this is, that's not even, this is just the beginning of a suspect list. That is forming. There will be wow. At least six more for
a respectable lady upstanding doing it own independent woman. Dang it.
There's and I think it's okay to mention here too.
I, there there's me. Question about her housekeeping or if , essentially, could she have known a lot of things? During her time, , housekeeping for people al that she had been very frugal with the money that she earned true. And that she could have actually gotten involved with loaning money to these people, obviously on the serious down low, cuz that would be very embarrassing mm-hmm for them.
And could that al play a role in her, her death? Yeah. I think that's a, a good place to, to stop with, with part one. And yeah, I'm only like this is, this really only covers up to chapter three out of 11 in one book.
awesome wow.
But it, it gets, it gets very, very fascinating, very fast. Yeah, there's gonna be trials and, well, that
is exciting.
I cannot wait for
next heads missing. Heads are going to be missing. Oh my God. And that's not plural why I did that. It's just one. There is. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I haven't gotten to the absolute end once I realized that was not gonna happen this week. Okay. But I do know there was at least one head and that's coming up.
We've got yeah, lots and lots of stuff to come. I'm excited about it. I love historical true crimes. One of my favorite things. and then Maine, well, Maine thin historical true crime. When you combine the two, I am off the rails. Yeah, but stay tuned.
Yeah. all right. I'm gonna lead us out here.
I wrote it down today.
oh, see, I've been meaning to do that. And I was like, we al need to tell people, please support your indie podcast. Give us five stars on apple. It's the literal only way that we ever get found.
Yeah. Give us a little rating, five star rating. That would be awesome that would be awesome
yeah. Yeah. Thank you all for listening to us. Tell me stories today. We would love to interact with you guys on the cials. You can find us on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook at Mavens of Misdeeds tweet with us at Mavens of Misdeeds or email us. At mavensofmisdeeds@gmail.com. And don't forget to check out our website that has our entire library at mavensofmisdeeds.com.
Nice, awesome yes. All right. And don't forget, spooky season is upon us. We really, really, really would like to for Halloween, , hear from you guys about, , maybe a local spooky thing that you've got in your town or a personal paranormal
experience, perhaps. Yeah. Any of that we could read 'em on the show.
That'd be fun. Exactly. That would be fun. Just get in touch and we'll see you guys next week. See you
next week. Bye bye.
