Wndyri Plus subscribers can listen to Morbid early and ad-free. Join WNDYRI Plus in the WNDYRI app or on Apple podcasts. I'm Dan Tabersky. In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast. What's the answer?

And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

Hysterical, a new podcast from WNDYRI and Pineapple Street studios. Follow Hysterical on the WNDYRI app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash.

And I'm Elaina.

And this is morbid. It's morbid. Did you like my weird, shrill introduction?

I loved it.

Thank you.

I'm sure everybody loved it.

I hope so. Yeah, for them.

I know they will.

It's for the people.

You know? I know it. You know? I I know it.

We're very silly today.

Yeah, it's a silly day.

Just a Tuesday.

Just a silly ass Tuesday.

A silly ass Tuesday. Why is that so funny? I don't know. Because it's silly Tuesday. I don't know what's happening. We're not on drugs, I swear.

It's true.

We sound like it, but we're not.

It's just life, man.

Just high on life.

This is just a toasted Asiago bagel with cream cheese.

I did not know where you were going with.

With a cup of coffee.

I didn't hear the part where you said, I just had. So I thought you said, It's just a toasted Asiago.

Oh, no, I did say that. Oh, you did? Because you were saying, This is just us. And I was like, Yeah, it's just a toasted Asiago.

Oh, you're high on the Asiago. Yeah. I see. I see. Yeah. Do you have any... You should plug your book.

Oh, yeah. I have a book. A couple. A couple. No, I have a sequel coming out.

A couple of books.

You guys have been awesome with the pre-orders. You're fucking killing it. The Butcher Game comes out September 17th. You can pre-order everywhere right now. It's going to be awesome. I promise you it's longer, it's gorier, it's got some shit in it. It's fucked. And I just read it.

I read it and I love it. And I would read it again. I'm probably going to read it again when it comes out. Hell, yeah. I want a hardcover one.

Oh, yeah. The hard cover will come out first. Oh, cool. I'll buy that. And it will be followed by a paperback at some point. So don't worry. I already have that. But if you can pre-order, that would be so fucking sick of you. I'd be forever in your debt. You guys have been awesome about it, but it's very helpful to authors to pre-order for sure. And you know, sometimes, you get the book a day early, sometimes. That's happened to me. I'm not saying it'll happen all the time, but like...

No promises. It happens.

So it's one of those things that it's like, you might as well roll those dice and see if you can get the book a day early.

Being first is the best. It is.

It always is.

Like the drag queen, me, me, I'm first.

There you So you can go to thebutchergame. Com, and it'll give you a list of all the places that you can order it at. And I'm going to be letting out some little quotes from the book. I've been doing that now and then. Notable quotables. That Mikey has made. Mikey's made those graphics.

He's so good at that.

All by himself. All by himself. You need to know that the talent is there.

The talent.

The talent, the charisma, the- The uniqueness nerve. Exactly.

Of course, can't forget the talent.

It's all there.

The cunt is showing, baby. Serving cunt, cunt, cunt.

So it's fun. And the audiobook will be available, so you can pre order that. It's all exciting. It's the same narrators for the sequel. Oh my God. Sophie and Joe. It is Joe and Sophie. We I love Joe and Sophie. They're amazing. And I'm very excited that they came back. So, yeah.

Yay. Yippie.

I'm excited about it.

Let's get this bitch on the New York Times best-selling off this list. Let's do it. Again. I don't know who I am today. I'm several different people. I don't know who I am. I have anxiety today. I got things to do. Oh, no. But I'm silly today.

Feeling a lot of emotions.

Feeling a lot of things going on. Yeah.

But Are you going to take us back in time today?

I am indeed. Right at the top of this story, silly all aside, I want to get serious for a second, because this is an interesting story, and it's my typical socialite vibe. But because I'm taking you back in time, there are heavy themes of homophobia. And that was a bummer going through this, to say the least. It always is. It was very angering going through this. And it's not I mean, the person who committed the crime is the one who faces these themes. So you're going to feel a lot of different feelings going through this. A lot of conflicting feelings. Yeah, because you're going to be upset for them that they face things like this. But then also at the same time, they are the murderer. So you feel a little bit stressed.

Yeah, it's going to be stressful. It will be. Feel all your feelings.

Feel them all. Feelings are valid. But let's get into it.

They're not fact, but they're valid.

That's exactly See what my therapist says. She says, my old therapist, actually not the new one. The old one said, feelings aren't fact.

Yeah, it's true.

The new one- But they're valid. Probably would say the same thing. Anyway, so let's get into it. Patricia Hartley-Burton was born September first 1921, the only child to William Burton and Lucile Wolf. I fucking love the name Lucile.

I love the name Lucile.

It's so cute.

I feel like, how could you ever meet a Lucile and not like them? I don't know.

It hasn't happened to me. Now, William William was the son of Emmanuel Bernheimer, the owner of Lion Brewing, which was one of the largest breweries in the United States in the early 20th century. So when William turned 21, he had inherited a trust fund of $250,000. Dollars, which today would be like inheriting six million motherfucking smackeroos.

Oh my.

Or dollars, if you're nasty.

Smackeroos is much better.

Smackeroos is where it's at.

I like that. I like that. Smackeroos is definitely it's at. That's a lot of money. A lot of smackeros.

A lot of smackeroo's. They were rolling in smackeroo's.

A lot of cha-ching.

A lot of kashash. I don't know. A lot of kashash. A lot of kashash. A lot of kashash. I was going somewhere else, and then my brain forgot where we were going.

I saw you struggling, and you were making this motion with your hand. And I was like, I want to help, but I don't know where you're going.

Yeah, kashish. That's what I was trying to say. Kashish, not kashash. Kashash. Like kashash. T. M. But so as the heirs to the Bernheimer fortune, William, Lucile, and their daughter Patricia lived a remarkably privileged life. Everything was insanely extravagant. They had butlers, they had this, they had that, they had everything.

You know, like the Gilmore.

Yeah, exactly. Even richer.

Even more. Wow.

Don't tell Emily that. I would never. But despite having been raised in a family of brewer industrialists, William actually didn't really have any interest in brewing or running a major corporation.

That could present a problem.

Yeah, it didn't even. He was just like, Yeah, I'm not that interested. Okay. So the business just went to his brother George, and William, he still got to keep his money, and he pursued a career in painting and visual arts. Now, despite their seemingly charmed life, the Burtons had what people, especially back then, would have considered a nontraditional marriage. According to author Alan Levine, who wrote a book about this case, Details are unprintable, was the title. Definitely a good read. I check it out.

Good title.

Alan wrote, There's sufficient evidence to strongly suggest that William Burton was gay, and his marriage to Lucile was somewhat of a shame or like a cover up, because obviously he couldn't be a very out gay man at that time. Now, William's parents seemed to be aware of his sexual orientation, but they insisted that he, quote, find a nice girl and get married, settle down and have children. Okay. Hence the marriage to Lucile on September 25th, 1920. Not surprisingly, William and Lucile's marriage was not very happy because neither of them was really living their true identity and their true lives.

So you can't truly be happy.

No. In March of 1925, less than five years after getting married, Lucille actually ended up filing for separation on the grounds of cruelty. In her filing, she alleged, among other things, that William had, quote, used profane language in front of their home and had caused a crowd to gather. She also said that he was physically abusive on more than one occasion. Whoa. And had taken their daughter to an undisclosed location for several days without informing her. So things were nasty. That's fucked up. It's super fucked up. Things were nasty behind closed doors. William denied the allegations, but the court did end up siding with Lucile. And in May of 1926, she was granted a divorce, and she was awarded primary custody of Patricia. But just four years later, in 1930, Lucile and William actually ended up getting remarried in a small ceremony in France. Later, Lucile admitted that she had only gotten remarried for the sake of Patricia, who William adored and couldn't stand to be apart from. It was like keeping the family together for the sake of her daughter and for her ex-husband. But there wasn't real love between William and Lucile.

Okay.

It was, from the jump, very fractured and very sad.

I was going to say this is just very sad.

And for William, I I can't imagine it was lonely. I hope the abuse allegations weren't true, but it sounds... I mean, the court saw them as true. But it sounds like William was lonely. It sounds like Lucile was lonely.

It just sounds miserable.

And then Patricia just suffers because she's being brought up in such turmoil.

Yeah. And it's like, that's not healthy.

Yeah. And she sees the example of her mother just dealing with it. Yeah. Just bearing the load of all this. The other thing was, while the remarriage likely surprised those who them well. It had the benefit of upholding social expectations and shielding them from any further gossip about William's sexuality.

Very '40s.

Very, very '40s. And actually at this point, '30s.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, we're not even there yet. We'll get there. Don't worry.

We're Are you like, Don't worry, we'll get there, too? We're on our way. We're on our way. Very 30s. Yeah.

So throughout a good portion of Patricia's life, the family lived in Europe, spending most of their time in and around Paris. France was among the capitals of the art world at the time, and also at the time was a country that had pretty accepting attitudes around homosexuality. At the time, gay relationships were definitely not encouraged, but it was a place that would have been tolerant of William's casual relationships with men. Yeah. Especially given his station. He lived a little bit more of a privileged life, so people were willing to look the other way, which is silly that even had to be done.

They had to look the other way.

Yeah, so get over it.

That's wild.

But during this period, the family spent considerable time traveling back and forth between New York until finally deciding to move back to the United States in the later 1930s, just before the start of World War II. Patricia often referred to her parents as strict, but there's actually a lot of evidence to suggest that when it came to their daughter, William and Lucile weren't any more strict than the average parent at the time. In fact, according to author Laveen, Patricia was, spoiled, rotten by both her parents as they competed for her affection.

Oh, man.

To think of your parents competing for your affection is... It's great that they want you to know how much they love you, but that shouldn't be a competition.

Yeah, and you just see all the chaos.

It's a little hollow.

It is a little hollow. At the end of the day, I'm sure.

But by the time she reached her late teens, Patricia was receiving a regular and in men. It seemed essentially that he probably did have some interest in men and women. To me, it seems like maybe he was bi, but obviously, you couldn't come out and say that back then without facing legitimate consequences. That's wild. Yeah, which is sad. But who really knows? The only reason I bring it up is because his sexuality ends up playing a role in his later trial.Otherwise, it's like, who cares?I wouldn't have brought it up otherwise because it's not pertinent to me at all, but it plays a role in the trial.Be happy, my friend.Exactly. But anyway, it was actually through William Burton, Patricia's father, in case you forgot, that Wayne came to meet Patricia in 1939. William had met Wayne, so Patricia's father had met Wayne, in late 1939. And despite their 20-year age difference, they entered a short lived relationship of sorts. In later interviews, Wayne would acknowledge his relationship with William Burton, but he would always insist that it was Patricia he was interested in.Yeah, it's interesting. Interesting.But at the time, homosexuality was not only a crime, but also considered by most, including medical professionals, to be a mental illness. Which is insane.That's inconceivable.No, it truly is. It really is. Well, and it's sad that people are still trying to make that happen. Yeah. But given the stigma and potentially serious consequences of being labeled gay or bisexual, you can understand why Wayne would have gone out of his way to conceal his sexuality. Absolutely. But like I remember, like I said earlier, William Burton had the luxury and protection of wealth and status, where Wayne didn't really have that. He's a middle-class, blue-collar guy.You can't cover it up with that stuff.Exactly. But anyway, nobody really knows why, but William and Wayne ended did their relationship after a few months. And with William's approval, Wayne started dating his daughter Patricia.Okay.Yeah. There's a lot of different theories. Some people think that it was like... Do you remember the the fucking William Woodward story? Yes. Where he set Anne up with his son so that they could carry on their relationship, but then they fell in love. Yeah. To me, it seems maybe like that is what happened here. Wayne was dating Patricia Patricia, so he could stay close to William, but then maybe it worked out that he actually did fall in love with Patricia.Wow.Or maybe it just...The fact that you've had at least two cases where this scenario happens is pretty wily.Yeah, it is. I love a fucked up high society face. You do. It's my favorite thing ever.Damn, these high society bitches are like...Oh, secrets on secrets on secrets. Yeah. What? Scandals on scandals. A scandalo. But according to journalist Dominic Dunn, one of my faves Wayne Lonergan, quote, was one of those young men in New York who liked to be taken care of, and he had the look, swagger, and charm to ensure that he was.I'm not going to look him up.I know you should. This certainly explained at least some of his interest in William Burton, but also his interest in Patricia. For her part, Patricia didn't really seem bothered by this arrangement. She'd spent her entire life seeing her father carry on relationships with men while still being married to her mom. So the idea that the companionship of her latest love interest could be bought honestly seemed fine to her.Yeah, it's like this is not something foreign to her.Exactly. So not long after a meeting, Patricia and Wayne were frequently spotted at some of New York's fanciest restaurants and nightclubs. They were really hitting it off and having a good time together. The relationship, though, resembled Patricia's parents' marriage in other ways, too. Most significantly, she and Wayne were decidedly non-monogamous, the two of them. They spent a great deal of time together socially, but Wayne also courted other wealthy young women at the time to climb the social ladder, it seemed. Patricia may have been doing the same thing. I think people just focus more impossible to believe. Journalist Sid Bohem, wrote in the New York Journal, American, he's lying. The only bit of truth in the whole story is that he admits he's a degenerate. Can we move on, everybody? A degenerate.A woman was murdered. Can we start talking about this guy's sex life for a minute?Thank you. Like, literally, the fact that she was murdered at all, but she was brutally murdered murdered in her own home.Where her infant child is.Absolutely. And nobody's focusing on that part that you're right. All they are focusing on is this man's sexuality. That's it. And trying to use it as proof that he's a vicious murder.And some people are literally willing to believe his alibi just because there's no way a man would ever, ever, ever admit to being even slightly homosexual if he was guilty.What? Yeah. It's wild to think that this even happened at all. And it's wild to think that some people still fucking think that way.I was going to say this isn't completely gone.That's the thing. And I think it's important to say that. I'm Afwa Hush. I'm Peter Frankerpan. And in our series, Legacy, we look at the lives of some of the most famous people to have ever lived and ask if they have the reputation they deserve. In this series, we look at J. Edgar Hoover. He was the director of the FBI for half a century. An immensely powerful political figure, he was said to know everything about everyone. He held the ear of eight presidents and terrified them all. When asked why he didn't fire Hoover, JFK replied, You don't fire God. From chasing gangsters to pursuing communists to relentlessly persecuting Dr Martin Luther King and civil rights activists, Hoover's dirty tricks tactics have endlessly echoed in the years since his death. And his political playbook still shapes American politics today. Follow Legacy Now wherever you listen to podcasts. It was very clear that the salacious aspects of the story were far too irresistible for the press who, like we were just saying, latched on to Wayne's sexuality and scandalous alibi and just spread that across the front pages of the papers all over the city. Wow. Versus a woman's brutal murder.Yeah, let's follow the evidence. That would be so sick.That'd be cool. Yeah. In reality, Wayne's story was actually a lot more plausible than people realized or were willing to admit at the time. Throughout a lot of history, queer men who risked anonymous sexual encounters because remember, he met Maurice that night.Yeah, that night.With strangers, there was an exponentially greater risk for them. A lot of times, those people were victims of assault, robbery, murder. Those things happened. But in Wayne's case, there really was no risk. So the police were right to be skeptical. Because within a day, detectives had interviewed John Hargis's Butler, who actually only remembered Wayne because he had been so rude that weekend.Oh, people are going to remember you if you're a dickhead.The Butler told police there had never been an American soldier in the apartment that weekend or anyone else for that matter. Similarly, when Wayne's alibi had made it to the papers, an American serviceman from Connecticut named Maurice Worcester came forward and told police that while he had been in New York that weekend, he had, quote, never seen or heard of anyone named Wayne Lonergan. Holy shit.Yeah. This man was just going to totally blame it on this guy we had never met. Yep.Wow. So detectives interrogated Wayne Lonergan for nearly 24 hours straight with breaks, very few breaks and very little food. But he stuck to his story for a while. But still, Investigators had already begun reporting to the press that they had their killer. A detective told reporters, We feel that we have a very good circumstantial case against him, a case that will be extremely difficult for any defense to attack, knock down, or shake in any degree. Damn. A strong case that was actually really starting to take shape. Because despite Wayne's insistence that he had nothing to do with Patricia's death, after intense questioning and scrutiny, his story was beginning to fall apart. When detectives confronted him with bloody fingerprint evidence collected from the apartment, which they insisted could prove his guilt, he finally broke down and confessed in great detail to the murder of his wife. According to Wayne- That's so brutal.Yeah.Wow. According to Wayne, after he dropped Jean off at home early that morning, he returned back to John Hardges' apartment. But a few hours later, he decided to pay a visit to Patricia. He arrived at her apartment a little before 9:00 AM, and she let him in and then returned to her bed. They had a brief discussion about him wanting to see Billy, which turned into an argument during which Patricia allegedly told him, You're not going to see the baby again, ever. Wayne claimed it was that statement that sent him into a rage, and he continued telling detectives, I lost my head. His connection to Billy was his last chance at accessing Patricia's fortune at all, and if she severed that tie, he was never going to see another penny from her. Yeah. So he explained that after Patricia threatened to withhold their son, he grabbed the candelabra from the night stand and struck her in the head with it. The candelabra broke, so he grabbed the identical one from the other night stand and hit her again. Still not subdued, Patricia managed to get out of bed and began fighting him, punching, kicking, clawing at his face, hence the scratches.Finally, Wayne grabbed her by the throat and he said he started squeezing as hard as he could. He estimated that it took several minutes, about three minutes, for her to actually die. When he said he finally let go of her body, he realized that the blood from her head had gotten all over his hands and his uniform. So he went back to John Hargis's apartment, where he cut the uniform into strips for easy disposal, and then pulled a suit from Hargis's closet and left a note that he hoped would later support his alibi. He wrote, John, thank you so much for the use of your flat. Due to a slight case of mistaken trust, I lost my uniform and borrowed a jacket and trousers from you. I will return it on my arrival in Toronto. I'll call you up and tell you about it. Yours, Wayne. Once he got talking, it seemed like he couldn't stop. The only thing he didn't want was for the case to go to court. He actually asked the assistant district attorney, Jacob Grumet, Suppose I say I'm guilty and have it over with. Can I do that? Grumet explained that while he certainly could confess to the DA and the investigators in the room, any legal consequences would have to come from a judge, so he was going to have to see the inside of a courtroom at some point.But for whatever reason, Wayne seemed very reluctant to provide the details of the murder itself. It was describing the act of killing Patricia that he wanted to avoid, especially in the court. Yeah. So Grumet explained that he could bring in a stenographer and take the confession, meaning Wayne would only have to go over the details once. But if he planned to confess to first-degree murder, a guilty plea actually wasn't permitted under New York law, and he would have to stand trial. Now, the details of Patricia's murder, her brutal murder, may have been the primary thing that Wayne wanted to avoid. But of course, there was also the matter of his that the press was fucking harping on. Obsessed with. Literally obsessed with. Like, why are you so obsessed with me? Wayne asked the assistant DA, Well, suppose I have to go to trial. Will you bring all this out about what I am, about my morals? He had mostly denied, like I said, his homosexuality or bisexuality. But regardless of what he said, there was evidence of his supposed quote unquote deviance.No, his deviance is that he's a murderer.That's the thing. That's the deviance. That's the deviance right there.I don't give a fuck who he's sleeping with. He's a murderer. Exactly. He's a vicious, callous, cold piece of shit murderer. What the fuck are you doing talking about who he goes to bed with?And claiming that's the deviance in the story. He gives a shit. He's an asshole. Exactly. God. But like most queer men, he knew that that was what was going to be splashed across the newspaper, every single newspaper in New York, and it would have probably a primary role in the trial itself. So that was another big reason he didn't want this to go to court. So Grumet and Loher tried to minimize his sexuality when speaking in hypotheticals, but the press had already seen to it that any version of this story that was told was going to be framed as a deviant murder.It's like, no, he's a horrible, vicious murderer.Also, all murder is deviant. Exactly. Because it is murder.Exactly. And the others aren't. All of them are deviant. This one's very deviant because of how It was brutal. It was.Nothing to do with preferences. The act itself.Nothing else.So on October 30th, 1943, a grand jury indicated Wayne Lonergan for the first-degree murder of Patricia, after which he was returned to a cell at Rikers Island. Damn. I know. If anybody had hoped for a speedy trial and resolution, they were going to be very disappointed. Five days after the indictment, Wayne's lawyer, Edward Broderick, succeeded in getting an 11-day stay in the Court of General Sessions in which to enter a plea. It's unclear why Lonergan or Broderick wanted to put off entering a plea to the charge, but it was going to be the first of many delays in the case that was receiving intense press coverage. A few weeks later, Wayne ended up pleading not guilty to the charge of first three murder, but Broderick succeeded in delaying a trial with just one motion after the other. After multiple delays and shakeups, the trial finally got underway on March 22nd in New York's Court of General Sessions. Despite the courtroom theatrics leading up to the trial, the opening statements from the prosecution and defense were actually surprisingly short. Not required to offer a motive for the murder, Grumet laid out the facts of the case explaining that Wayne Lonergan had murdered his wife, and after a few days of attempting to deny his actions, he confessed to the crime.He told the jury, We have only his statement as to what transpired there just before he killed her. His wife, the only person in the room at the time, is dead. As for any of the salacious details emphasized by the press, Grumet did his to live up to the promise that he had made to Wayne, saying, I don't believe it's necessary to go into the sorted story of degeneracy that he told, indicating it had no bearing on the facts of the case. Because it doesn't.It literally doesn't. I'm surprised it was even allowed to be brought up so much because it really doesn't have anything to do. It feels like it's a very extraneous thing to add into a pretty brutal and open and shut case.It's actually like, it was surprising to me that the prosecution didn't rely more on it because they could have back then. It just was a thing that happened a lot.I think they just didn't need to.They didn't need to in this case. Because he had admitted it. But we've seen cases where they didn't need to and they still did. So it was surprising that he was like, Yeah, we don't have to talk about that.Yeah, that is a little surprising. I think it was mostly just it's open and shut a little bit.I mean, pretty much.He confessed. It's right there. He has all the motive in the world.He was there. It's an easy case for the DA.There's nothing to really contend with here. So they're probably Why not just get this done quicker?Exactly. Which, honestly, good because it has no place in a courtroom. It's ridiculous. Now, the defense, on the other hand, gave opening remarks in which Wayne was made out to be another victim in the case. Broderick told the jury, We'll show you that this defendant, Lonergan, from the very inception of this case, has been the victim of double dealing, double crossing, and double talk. His defense was a very simple one. He said his client was innocent and had only confessed under duress and coercion. In fact, he argued, If anyone appeared guilty in the case, it was Mario Gabbulini, who had been with Patricia just hours before her murder. According to Broderick, Wayne had only confessed after being subjected to illegal and immoral tactics that included, quote, allowing the defendant to go hungry for a lengthy period, plying him with brandy and pyramiding a series of petty discomforts. A number of witnesses were called to testify as to the discovery and facts of the case, including Elizabeth Black, Dr. Halpern, Lucille Wolf, and Gabbalini himself. But the most damning evidence that you just called it out against Lonergan, it was the confession. He confessed in great detail.Despite Broderick's repeated attempts to prevent the confession from actually being introduced into the courtroom, including badgering nine police witnesses into admitting coercion. About a week into the trial, the confession was read aloud for the jury. Through the confession, the jury heard in his own words how Wayne had killed his wife in the heat of an argument over their son and over money, how he panicked, destroyed his uniform and threw it in the river, and how he bought makeup later that day in order to conceal those heavy scratches on his face. So on March 29th, the state rested its case. In the lead up to the trial, Broderick, the defense attorney, had made illusions to several important witnesses that he was going to call to prove his client's innocence, including tombs, stool pigeons, and a well-known wealthy lawyer who was in the murder chamber at the killing.The murder chamber at the killing?Yeah. None of those exciting supposed witnesses were ever called, and he rested his case after calling three witnesses. Cool. Yeah. So on March 30th, the defense rested their case, having proven little, if anything.I was going to say after doing what?After doing theater. Yeah. In his final remarks, Jacob Grumet revisited the facts of the case. He emphasized the violence of the murder, which like, thank you, finally somebody does that.Can we talk about that part?He told the jury this was brutal, cold-blooded, deliberate murder. There she was on the side of the bed opposite it to him, but he was determined to kill her. He grabbed her by the throat with both hands and continued to strangle her for three minutes. Given the brutality of the crime and the defendant's repeated attempts to cover up what he had done to avoid detection, Grumet encouraged the jury not only to find Wayne guilty, but also to impose a death sentence. The jury retired for deliberation on March 31st, and after ten and a half hours, they emerged to find him guilty of murder in the second degree. The jury foreman later said, There's no question that Lonergan murdered his wife, but I think it's obvious he did not premeditate it. I don't think he went to see his wife for the purpose of murdering her.I can agree with that. I agree with that. From what I know.Yeah. I mean, just that he didn't go there with any weapon.With a weapon or anything. It just seemed like it was in the heat of the moment.He did the moment. Yeah. Wayne said nothing when the verdict was read. Outside the courtroom, district Attorney Frank Hogan addressed the press saying he believed the jury's verdict was fair and just. Joseph Broderick was similarly unmoved, saying that his client was a soldier of fortune. He said it's his belief that if his number's up, it's up.Okay. All righty. I don't think it's that your number's up. I think you murdered your wife.Yeah, I think that's more it.Yeah.The jury also rejected Wayne's claims of coercion, saying the people assert that the defendant had sufficient sleep in Canada and Statler Hotel in Buffalo, and that this was all necessary in order to discover whether or not the defendant was guilty of murder. Yeah. So two weeks later, on April 18th, Wayne returned to the Court of General Sessions, where he was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Again, he said nothing after the verdict was read, and he was transported to Sing-Sing Prison. He went to some of the worst prisons. He hit the biggies. Yeah. While Wayne seemed resigned to his fate, Broderick appeared more than hopeful when he stood before the press. He told them, Last week, district Attorney Frank S. Hogan received a major setback when the Court of Appeals reversed another murder conviction obtained by his office. I expect my appeal will add to the list of Mr. Hogan's setbacks. I doubt it. His confidence notwithstanding, Wayne's appeal was ultimately rejected, as were his later attempts to a new trial.Not shocking.According to Dominic Dunn, in prison, Lonergan enjoyed the celebrity certain high-profile killers achieve among the other inmates. His charm worked for him in prison as it had in life. Damn. Which is crazy when you think of the prisons that he was in. That's crazy. Yeah. And it's also like, no, I want you to not have a great experience in prison. I don't want anything bad to happen to you. I'm not crazy. But you should go to prison and not become a celebrity. You shouldn't have a fun time. Yeah. It's not for funsies. No. Now, after serving several years at Sing-Sing, he was transferred to Clinton Prison in Danamora before being released in December of 1965 after serving 22 years of his sentence.Oh, excuse me.Following his release, he was deported back to Canada, where he lived quietly in Toronto until his death from cancer in 1986.So this man just went like 20 more years after They're strangling and bludgeoning his wife to death in her bed where their infant son was in another room..Cool. Yeah. Sick. Yeah.That's wow. Yeah. He was literally sick.Really sick.Wayne and Patricia's son Billy grew up in the care of his grandmother, Lucile Wolf, like I said earlier. A few months after Patricia was murdered, Lucile actually petitioned the court for a name change, and Billy was rechrissened William Anthony Burton. I think she didn't want him to carry father's name. And as far as anybody knows, Wayne never made any attempt to contact Billy after he was released from jail. In an interview later in his life, he told a reporter, I know where my son is, but I'd rather not say. He's had enough to put up with. No one ever hears of him or where he's living. He has a bodyguard to keep it that way.Honestly, I'm keep listening.And we hope you keep it weird.But not to worry that you murder your wife in cloud blood with a candelabra, because holy shit, that is dark.If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining WNDRI+ in the WNDRI app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wundri. Com/survey.Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of WNDRI's podcast, American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history, events that have shaped who we are as a country and continue to define the American experience. We go behind the scenes looking at devastating financial crimes like the fraud committed at Enron and Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. American Scandal also tells marquee stories about American politics. In our latest season, we retrace the greatest corruption scheme in US history as we bring to life the bribes and backroom deals that spawn the Teapot Dome Scandal, resulting in the first presidential cabinet member going to prison. Follow American Scandal on the WNDRI app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge this season, American Scandal: Teapot Dome, early and ad-free right now on Wundery Plus. After you listen to American Scandal, go deeper and get more to the story with Wundry's other top history podcasts, including American History Tellers, Legacy, and even the Royals.

in men. It seemed essentially that he probably did have some interest in men and women. To me, it seems like maybe he was bi, but obviously, you couldn't come out and say that back then without facing legitimate consequences. That's wild. Yeah, which is sad. But who really knows? The only reason I bring it up is because his sexuality ends up playing a role in his later trial.

Otherwise, it's like, who cares?

I wouldn't have brought it up otherwise because it's not pertinent to me at all, but it plays a role in the trial.

Be happy, my friend.

Exactly. But anyway, it was actually through William Burton, Patricia's father, in case you forgot, that Wayne came to meet Patricia in 1939. William had met Wayne, so Patricia's father had met Wayne, in late 1939. And despite their 20-year age difference, they entered a short lived relationship of sorts. In later interviews, Wayne would acknowledge his relationship with William Burton, but he would always insist that it was Patricia he was interested in.

Yeah, it's interesting. Interesting.

But at the time, homosexuality was not only a crime, but also considered by most, including medical professionals, to be a mental illness. Which is insane.

That's inconceivable.

No, it truly is. It really is. Well, and it's sad that people are still trying to make that happen. Yeah. But given the stigma and potentially serious consequences of being labeled gay or bisexual, you can understand why Wayne would have gone out of his way to conceal his sexuality. Absolutely. But like I remember, like I said earlier, William Burton had the luxury and protection of wealth and status, where Wayne didn't really have that. He's a middle-class, blue-collar guy.

You can't cover it up with that stuff.

Exactly. But anyway, nobody really knows why, but William and Wayne ended did their relationship after a few months. And with William's approval, Wayne started dating his daughter Patricia.

Okay.

Yeah. There's a lot of different theories. Some people think that it was like... Do you remember the the fucking William Woodward story? Yes. Where he set Anne up with his son so that they could carry on their relationship, but then they fell in love. Yeah. To me, it seems maybe like that is what happened here. Wayne was dating Patricia Patricia, so he could stay close to William, but then maybe it worked out that he actually did fall in love with Patricia.

Wow.

Or maybe it just...

The fact that you've had at least two cases where this scenario happens is pretty wily.

Yeah, it is. I love a fucked up high society face. You do. It's my favorite thing ever.

Damn, these high society bitches are like...

Oh, secrets on secrets on secrets. Yeah. What? Scandals on scandals. A scandalo. But according to journalist Dominic Dunn, one of my faves Wayne Lonergan, quote, was one of those young men in New York who liked to be taken care of, and he had the look, swagger, and charm to ensure that he was.

I'm not going to look him up.

I know you should. This certainly explained at least some of his interest in William Burton, but also his interest in Patricia. For her part, Patricia didn't really seem bothered by this arrangement. She'd spent her entire life seeing her father carry on relationships with men while still being married to her mom. So the idea that the companionship of her latest love interest could be bought honestly seemed fine to her.

Yeah, it's like this is not something foreign to her.

Exactly. So not long after a meeting, Patricia and Wayne were frequently spotted at some of New York's fanciest restaurants and nightclubs. They were really hitting it off and having a good time together. The relationship, though, resembled Patricia's parents' marriage in other ways, too. Most significantly, she and Wayne were decidedly non-monogamous, the two of them. They spent a great deal of time together socially, but Wayne also courted other wealthy young women at the time to climb the social ladder, it seemed. Patricia may have been doing the same thing. I think people just focus more impossible to believe. Journalist Sid Bohem, wrote in the New York Journal, American, he's lying. The only bit of truth in the whole story is that he admits he's a degenerate. Can we move on, everybody? A degenerate.A woman was murdered. Can we start talking about this guy's sex life for a minute?Thank you. Like, literally, the fact that she was murdered at all, but she was brutally murdered murdered in her own home.Where her infant child is.Absolutely. And nobody's focusing on that part that you're right. All they are focusing on is this man's sexuality. That's it. And trying to use it as proof that he's a vicious murder.And some people are literally willing to believe his alibi just because there's no way a man would ever, ever, ever admit to being even slightly homosexual if he was guilty.What? Yeah. It's wild to think that this even happened at all. And it's wild to think that some people still fucking think that way.I was going to say this isn't completely gone.That's the thing. And I think it's important to say that. I'm Afwa Hush. I'm Peter Frankerpan. And in our series, Legacy, we look at the lives of some of the most famous people to have ever lived and ask if they have the reputation they deserve. In this series, we look at J. Edgar Hoover. He was the director of the FBI for half a century. An immensely powerful political figure, he was said to know everything about everyone. He held the ear of eight presidents and terrified them all. When asked why he didn't fire Hoover, JFK replied, You don't fire God. From chasing gangsters to pursuing communists to relentlessly persecuting Dr Martin Luther King and civil rights activists, Hoover's dirty tricks tactics have endlessly echoed in the years since his death. And his political playbook still shapes American politics today. Follow Legacy Now wherever you listen to podcasts. It was very clear that the salacious aspects of the story were far too irresistible for the press who, like we were just saying, latched on to Wayne's sexuality and scandalous alibi and just spread that across the front pages of the papers all over the city. Wow. Versus a woman's brutal murder.Yeah, let's follow the evidence. That would be so sick.That'd be cool. Yeah. In reality, Wayne's story was actually a lot more plausible than people realized or were willing to admit at the time. Throughout a lot of history, queer men who risked anonymous sexual encounters because remember, he met Maurice that night.Yeah, that night.With strangers, there was an exponentially greater risk for them. A lot of times, those people were victims of assault, robbery, murder. Those things happened. But in Wayne's case, there really was no risk. So the police were right to be skeptical. Because within a day, detectives had interviewed John Hargis's Butler, who actually only remembered Wayne because he had been so rude that weekend.Oh, people are going to remember you if you're a dickhead.The Butler told police there had never been an American soldier in the apartment that weekend or anyone else for that matter. Similarly, when Wayne's alibi had made it to the papers, an American serviceman from Connecticut named Maurice Worcester came forward and told police that while he had been in New York that weekend, he had, quote, never seen or heard of anyone named Wayne Lonergan. Holy shit.Yeah. This man was just going to totally blame it on this guy we had never met. Yep.Wow. So detectives interrogated Wayne Lonergan for nearly 24 hours straight with breaks, very few breaks and very little food. But he stuck to his story for a while. But still, Investigators had already begun reporting to the press that they had their killer. A detective told reporters, We feel that we have a very good circumstantial case against him, a case that will be extremely difficult for any defense to attack, knock down, or shake in any degree. Damn. A strong case that was actually really starting to take shape. Because despite Wayne's insistence that he had nothing to do with Patricia's death, after intense questioning and scrutiny, his story was beginning to fall apart. When detectives confronted him with bloody fingerprint evidence collected from the apartment, which they insisted could prove his guilt, he finally broke down and confessed in great detail to the murder of his wife. According to Wayne- That's so brutal.Yeah.Wow. According to Wayne, after he dropped Jean off at home early that morning, he returned back to John Hardges' apartment. But a few hours later, he decided to pay a visit to Patricia. He arrived at her apartment a little before 9:00 AM, and she let him in and then returned to her bed. They had a brief discussion about him wanting to see Billy, which turned into an argument during which Patricia allegedly told him, You're not going to see the baby again, ever. Wayne claimed it was that statement that sent him into a rage, and he continued telling detectives, I lost my head. His connection to Billy was his last chance at accessing Patricia's fortune at all, and if she severed that tie, he was never going to see another penny from her. Yeah. So he explained that after Patricia threatened to withhold their son, he grabbed the candelabra from the night stand and struck her in the head with it. The candelabra broke, so he grabbed the identical one from the other night stand and hit her again. Still not subdued, Patricia managed to get out of bed and began fighting him, punching, kicking, clawing at his face, hence the scratches.Finally, Wayne grabbed her by the throat and he said he started squeezing as hard as he could. He estimated that it took several minutes, about three minutes, for her to actually die. When he said he finally let go of her body, he realized that the blood from her head had gotten all over his hands and his uniform. So he went back to John Hargis's apartment, where he cut the uniform into strips for easy disposal, and then pulled a suit from Hargis's closet and left a note that he hoped would later support his alibi. He wrote, John, thank you so much for the use of your flat. Due to a slight case of mistaken trust, I lost my uniform and borrowed a jacket and trousers from you. I will return it on my arrival in Toronto. I'll call you up and tell you about it. Yours, Wayne. Once he got talking, it seemed like he couldn't stop. The only thing he didn't want was for the case to go to court. He actually asked the assistant district attorney, Jacob Grumet, Suppose I say I'm guilty and have it over with. Can I do that? Grumet explained that while he certainly could confess to the DA and the investigators in the room, any legal consequences would have to come from a judge, so he was going to have to see the inside of a courtroom at some point.But for whatever reason, Wayne seemed very reluctant to provide the details of the murder itself. It was describing the act of killing Patricia that he wanted to avoid, especially in the court. Yeah. So Grumet explained that he could bring in a stenographer and take the confession, meaning Wayne would only have to go over the details once. But if he planned to confess to first-degree murder, a guilty plea actually wasn't permitted under New York law, and he would have to stand trial. Now, the details of Patricia's murder, her brutal murder, may have been the primary thing that Wayne wanted to avoid. But of course, there was also the matter of his that the press was fucking harping on. Obsessed with. Literally obsessed with. Like, why are you so obsessed with me? Wayne asked the assistant DA, Well, suppose I have to go to trial. Will you bring all this out about what I am, about my morals? He had mostly denied, like I said, his homosexuality or bisexuality. But regardless of what he said, there was evidence of his supposed quote unquote deviance.No, his deviance is that he's a murderer.That's the thing. That's the deviance. That's the deviance right there.I don't give a fuck who he's sleeping with. He's a murderer. Exactly. He's a vicious, callous, cold piece of shit murderer. What the fuck are you doing talking about who he goes to bed with?And claiming that's the deviance in the story. He gives a shit. He's an asshole. Exactly. God. But like most queer men, he knew that that was what was going to be splashed across the newspaper, every single newspaper in New York, and it would have probably a primary role in the trial itself. So that was another big reason he didn't want this to go to court. So Grumet and Loher tried to minimize his sexuality when speaking in hypotheticals, but the press had already seen to it that any version of this story that was told was going to be framed as a deviant murder.It's like, no, he's a horrible, vicious murderer.Also, all murder is deviant. Exactly. Because it is murder.Exactly. And the others aren't. All of them are deviant. This one's very deviant because of how It was brutal. It was.Nothing to do with preferences. The act itself.Nothing else.So on October 30th, 1943, a grand jury indicated Wayne Lonergan for the first-degree murder of Patricia, after which he was returned to a cell at Rikers Island. Damn. I know. If anybody had hoped for a speedy trial and resolution, they were going to be very disappointed. Five days after the indictment, Wayne's lawyer, Edward Broderick, succeeded in getting an 11-day stay in the Court of General Sessions in which to enter a plea. It's unclear why Lonergan or Broderick wanted to put off entering a plea to the charge, but it was going to be the first of many delays in the case that was receiving intense press coverage. A few weeks later, Wayne ended up pleading not guilty to the charge of first three murder, but Broderick succeeded in delaying a trial with just one motion after the other. After multiple delays and shakeups, the trial finally got underway on March 22nd in New York's Court of General Sessions. Despite the courtroom theatrics leading up to the trial, the opening statements from the prosecution and defense were actually surprisingly short. Not required to offer a motive for the murder, Grumet laid out the facts of the case explaining that Wayne Lonergan had murdered his wife, and after a few days of attempting to deny his actions, he confessed to the crime.He told the jury, We have only his statement as to what transpired there just before he killed her. His wife, the only person in the room at the time, is dead. As for any of the salacious details emphasized by the press, Grumet did his to live up to the promise that he had made to Wayne, saying, I don't believe it's necessary to go into the sorted story of degeneracy that he told, indicating it had no bearing on the facts of the case. Because it doesn't.It literally doesn't. I'm surprised it was even allowed to be brought up so much because it really doesn't have anything to do. It feels like it's a very extraneous thing to add into a pretty brutal and open and shut case.It's actually like, it was surprising to me that the prosecution didn't rely more on it because they could have back then. It just was a thing that happened a lot.I think they just didn't need to.They didn't need to in this case. Because he had admitted it. But we've seen cases where they didn't need to and they still did. So it was surprising that he was like, Yeah, we don't have to talk about that.Yeah, that is a little surprising. I think it was mostly just it's open and shut a little bit.I mean, pretty much.He confessed. It's right there. He has all the motive in the world.He was there. It's an easy case for the DA.There's nothing to really contend with here. So they're probably Why not just get this done quicker?Exactly. Which, honestly, good because it has no place in a courtroom. It's ridiculous. Now, the defense, on the other hand, gave opening remarks in which Wayne was made out to be another victim in the case. Broderick told the jury, We'll show you that this defendant, Lonergan, from the very inception of this case, has been the victim of double dealing, double crossing, and double talk. His defense was a very simple one. He said his client was innocent and had only confessed under duress and coercion. In fact, he argued, If anyone appeared guilty in the case, it was Mario Gabbulini, who had been with Patricia just hours before her murder. According to Broderick, Wayne had only confessed after being subjected to illegal and immoral tactics that included, quote, allowing the defendant to go hungry for a lengthy period, plying him with brandy and pyramiding a series of petty discomforts. A number of witnesses were called to testify as to the discovery and facts of the case, including Elizabeth Black, Dr. Halpern, Lucille Wolf, and Gabbalini himself. But the most damning evidence that you just called it out against Lonergan, it was the confession. He confessed in great detail.Despite Broderick's repeated attempts to prevent the confession from actually being introduced into the courtroom, including badgering nine police witnesses into admitting coercion. About a week into the trial, the confession was read aloud for the jury. Through the confession, the jury heard in his own words how Wayne had killed his wife in the heat of an argument over their son and over money, how he panicked, destroyed his uniform and threw it in the river, and how he bought makeup later that day in order to conceal those heavy scratches on his face. So on March 29th, the state rested its case. In the lead up to the trial, Broderick, the defense attorney, had made illusions to several important witnesses that he was going to call to prove his client's innocence, including tombs, stool pigeons, and a well-known wealthy lawyer who was in the murder chamber at the killing.The murder chamber at the killing?Yeah. None of those exciting supposed witnesses were ever called, and he rested his case after calling three witnesses. Cool. Yeah. So on March 30th, the defense rested their case, having proven little, if anything.I was going to say after doing what?After doing theater. Yeah. In his final remarks, Jacob Grumet revisited the facts of the case. He emphasized the violence of the murder, which like, thank you, finally somebody does that.Can we talk about that part?He told the jury this was brutal, cold-blooded, deliberate murder. There she was on the side of the bed opposite it to him, but he was determined to kill her. He grabbed her by the throat with both hands and continued to strangle her for three minutes. Given the brutality of the crime and the defendant's repeated attempts to cover up what he had done to avoid detection, Grumet encouraged the jury not only to find Wayne guilty, but also to impose a death sentence. The jury retired for deliberation on March 31st, and after ten and a half hours, they emerged to find him guilty of murder in the second degree. The jury foreman later said, There's no question that Lonergan murdered his wife, but I think it's obvious he did not premeditate it. I don't think he went to see his wife for the purpose of murdering her.I can agree with that. I agree with that. From what I know.Yeah. I mean, just that he didn't go there with any weapon.With a weapon or anything. It just seemed like it was in the heat of the moment.He did the moment. Yeah. Wayne said nothing when the verdict was read. Outside the courtroom, district Attorney Frank Hogan addressed the press saying he believed the jury's verdict was fair and just. Joseph Broderick was similarly unmoved, saying that his client was a soldier of fortune. He said it's his belief that if his number's up, it's up.Okay. All righty. I don't think it's that your number's up. I think you murdered your wife.Yeah, I think that's more it.Yeah.The jury also rejected Wayne's claims of coercion, saying the people assert that the defendant had sufficient sleep in Canada and Statler Hotel in Buffalo, and that this was all necessary in order to discover whether or not the defendant was guilty of murder. Yeah. So two weeks later, on April 18th, Wayne returned to the Court of General Sessions, where he was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Again, he said nothing after the verdict was read, and he was transported to Sing-Sing Prison. He went to some of the worst prisons. He hit the biggies. Yeah. While Wayne seemed resigned to his fate, Broderick appeared more than hopeful when he stood before the press. He told them, Last week, district Attorney Frank S. Hogan received a major setback when the Court of Appeals reversed another murder conviction obtained by his office. I expect my appeal will add to the list of Mr. Hogan's setbacks. I doubt it. His confidence notwithstanding, Wayne's appeal was ultimately rejected, as were his later attempts to a new trial.Not shocking.According to Dominic Dunn, in prison, Lonergan enjoyed the celebrity certain high-profile killers achieve among the other inmates. His charm worked for him in prison as it had in life. Damn. Which is crazy when you think of the prisons that he was in. That's crazy. Yeah. And it's also like, no, I want you to not have a great experience in prison. I don't want anything bad to happen to you. I'm not crazy. But you should go to prison and not become a celebrity. You shouldn't have a fun time. Yeah. It's not for funsies. No. Now, after serving several years at Sing-Sing, he was transferred to Clinton Prison in Danamora before being released in December of 1965 after serving 22 years of his sentence.Oh, excuse me.Following his release, he was deported back to Canada, where he lived quietly in Toronto until his death from cancer in 1986.So this man just went like 20 more years after They're strangling and bludgeoning his wife to death in her bed where their infant son was in another room..Cool. Yeah. Sick. Yeah.That's wow. Yeah. He was literally sick.Really sick.Wayne and Patricia's son Billy grew up in the care of his grandmother, Lucile Wolf, like I said earlier. A few months after Patricia was murdered, Lucile actually petitioned the court for a name change, and Billy was rechrissened William Anthony Burton. I think she didn't want him to carry father's name. And as far as anybody knows, Wayne never made any attempt to contact Billy after he was released from jail. In an interview later in his life, he told a reporter, I know where my son is, but I'd rather not say. He's had enough to put up with. No one ever hears of him or where he's living. He has a bodyguard to keep it that way.Honestly, I'm keep listening.And we hope you keep it weird.But not to worry that you murder your wife in cloud blood with a candelabra, because holy shit, that is dark.If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining WNDRI+ in the WNDRI app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wundri. Com/survey.Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of WNDRI's podcast, American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history, events that have shaped who we are as a country and continue to define the American experience. We go behind the scenes looking at devastating financial crimes like the fraud committed at Enron and Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. American Scandal also tells marquee stories about American politics. In our latest season, we retrace the greatest corruption scheme in US history as we bring to life the bribes and backroom deals that spawn the Teapot Dome Scandal, resulting in the first presidential cabinet member going to prison. Follow American Scandal on the WNDRI app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge this season, American Scandal: Teapot Dome, early and ad-free right now on Wundery Plus. After you listen to American Scandal, go deeper and get more to the story with Wundry's other top history podcasts, including American History Tellers, Legacy, and even the Royals.

impossible to believe. Journalist Sid Bohem, wrote in the New York Journal, American, he's lying. The only bit of truth in the whole story is that he admits he's a degenerate. Can we move on, everybody? A degenerate.

A woman was murdered. Can we start talking about this guy's sex life for a minute?

Thank you. Like, literally, the fact that she was murdered at all, but she was brutally murdered murdered in her own home.

Where her infant child is.

Absolutely. And nobody's focusing on that part that you're right. All they are focusing on is this man's sexuality. That's it. And trying to use it as proof that he's a vicious murder.

And some people are literally willing to believe his alibi just because there's no way a man would ever, ever, ever admit to being even slightly homosexual if he was guilty.

What? Yeah. It's wild to think that this even happened at all. And it's wild to think that some people still fucking think that way.

I was going to say this isn't completely gone.

That's the thing. And I think it's important to say that. I'm Afwa Hush. I'm Peter Frankerpan. And in our series, Legacy, we look at the lives of some of the most famous people to have ever lived and ask if they have the reputation they deserve. In this series, we look at J. Edgar Hoover. He was the director of the FBI for half a century. An immensely powerful political figure, he was said to know everything about everyone. He held the ear of eight presidents and terrified them all. When asked why he didn't fire Hoover, JFK replied, You don't fire God. From chasing gangsters to pursuing communists to relentlessly persecuting Dr Martin Luther King and civil rights activists, Hoover's dirty tricks tactics have endlessly echoed in the years since his death. And his political playbook still shapes American politics today. Follow Legacy Now wherever you listen to podcasts. It was very clear that the salacious aspects of the story were far too irresistible for the press who, like we were just saying, latched on to Wayne's sexuality and scandalous alibi and just spread that across the front pages of the papers all over the city. Wow. Versus a woman's brutal murder.

Yeah, let's follow the evidence. That would be so sick.

That'd be cool. Yeah. In reality, Wayne's story was actually a lot more plausible than people realized or were willing to admit at the time. Throughout a lot of history, queer men who risked anonymous sexual encounters because remember, he met Maurice that night.

Yeah, that night.

With strangers, there was an exponentially greater risk for them. A lot of times, those people were victims of assault, robbery, murder. Those things happened. But in Wayne's case, there really was no risk. So the police were right to be skeptical. Because within a day, detectives had interviewed John Hargis's Butler, who actually only remembered Wayne because he had been so rude that weekend.

Oh, people are going to remember you if you're a dickhead.

The Butler told police there had never been an American soldier in the apartment that weekend or anyone else for that matter. Similarly, when Wayne's alibi had made it to the papers, an American serviceman from Connecticut named Maurice Worcester came forward and told police that while he had been in New York that weekend, he had, quote, never seen or heard of anyone named Wayne Lonergan. Holy shit.

Yeah. This man was just going to totally blame it on this guy we had never met. Yep.

Wow. So detectives interrogated Wayne Lonergan for nearly 24 hours straight with breaks, very few breaks and very little food. But he stuck to his story for a while. But still, Investigators had already begun reporting to the press that they had their killer. A detective told reporters, We feel that we have a very good circumstantial case against him, a case that will be extremely difficult for any defense to attack, knock down, or shake in any degree. Damn. A strong case that was actually really starting to take shape. Because despite Wayne's insistence that he had nothing to do with Patricia's death, after intense questioning and scrutiny, his story was beginning to fall apart. When detectives confronted him with bloody fingerprint evidence collected from the apartment, which they insisted could prove his guilt, he finally broke down and confessed in great detail to the murder of his wife. According to Wayne- That's so brutal.

Yeah.

Wow. According to Wayne, after he dropped Jean off at home early that morning, he returned back to John Hardges' apartment. But a few hours later, he decided to pay a visit to Patricia. He arrived at her apartment a little before 9:00 AM, and she let him in and then returned to her bed. They had a brief discussion about him wanting to see Billy, which turned into an argument during which Patricia allegedly told him, You're not going to see the baby again, ever. Wayne claimed it was that statement that sent him into a rage, and he continued telling detectives, I lost my head. His connection to Billy was his last chance at accessing Patricia's fortune at all, and if she severed that tie, he was never going to see another penny from her. Yeah. So he explained that after Patricia threatened to withhold their son, he grabbed the candelabra from the night stand and struck her in the head with it. The candelabra broke, so he grabbed the identical one from the other night stand and hit her again. Still not subdued, Patricia managed to get out of bed and began fighting him, punching, kicking, clawing at his face, hence the scratches.

Finally, Wayne grabbed her by the throat and he said he started squeezing as hard as he could. He estimated that it took several minutes, about three minutes, for her to actually die. When he said he finally let go of her body, he realized that the blood from her head had gotten all over his hands and his uniform. So he went back to John Hargis's apartment, where he cut the uniform into strips for easy disposal, and then pulled a suit from Hargis's closet and left a note that he hoped would later support his alibi. He wrote, John, thank you so much for the use of your flat. Due to a slight case of mistaken trust, I lost my uniform and borrowed a jacket and trousers from you. I will return it on my arrival in Toronto. I'll call you up and tell you about it. Yours, Wayne. Once he got talking, it seemed like he couldn't stop. The only thing he didn't want was for the case to go to court. He actually asked the assistant district attorney, Jacob Grumet, Suppose I say I'm guilty and have it over with. Can I do that? Grumet explained that while he certainly could confess to the DA and the investigators in the room, any legal consequences would have to come from a judge, so he was going to have to see the inside of a courtroom at some point.

But for whatever reason, Wayne seemed very reluctant to provide the details of the murder itself. It was describing the act of killing Patricia that he wanted to avoid, especially in the court. Yeah. So Grumet explained that he could bring in a stenographer and take the confession, meaning Wayne would only have to go over the details once. But if he planned to confess to first-degree murder, a guilty plea actually wasn't permitted under New York law, and he would have to stand trial. Now, the details of Patricia's murder, her brutal murder, may have been the primary thing that Wayne wanted to avoid. But of course, there was also the matter of his that the press was fucking harping on. Obsessed with. Literally obsessed with. Like, why are you so obsessed with me? Wayne asked the assistant DA, Well, suppose I have to go to trial. Will you bring all this out about what I am, about my morals? He had mostly denied, like I said, his homosexuality or bisexuality. But regardless of what he said, there was evidence of his supposed quote unquote deviance.

No, his deviance is that he's a murderer.

That's the thing. That's the deviance. That's the deviance right there.

I don't give a fuck who he's sleeping with. He's a murderer. Exactly. He's a vicious, callous, cold piece of shit murderer. What the fuck are you doing talking about who he goes to bed with?

And claiming that's the deviance in the story. He gives a shit. He's an asshole. Exactly. God. But like most queer men, he knew that that was what was going to be splashed across the newspaper, every single newspaper in New York, and it would have probably a primary role in the trial itself. So that was another big reason he didn't want this to go to court. So Grumet and Loher tried to minimize his sexuality when speaking in hypotheticals, but the press had already seen to it that any version of this story that was told was going to be framed as a deviant murder.

It's like, no, he's a horrible, vicious murderer.

Also, all murder is deviant. Exactly. Because it is murder.

Exactly. And the others aren't. All of them are deviant. This one's very deviant because of how It was brutal. It was.

Nothing to do with preferences. The act itself.

Nothing else.

So on October 30th, 1943, a grand jury indicated Wayne Lonergan for the first-degree murder of Patricia, after which he was returned to a cell at Rikers Island. Damn. I know. If anybody had hoped for a speedy trial and resolution, they were going to be very disappointed. Five days after the indictment, Wayne's lawyer, Edward Broderick, succeeded in getting an 11-day stay in the Court of General Sessions in which to enter a plea. It's unclear why Lonergan or Broderick wanted to put off entering a plea to the charge, but it was going to be the first of many delays in the case that was receiving intense press coverage. A few weeks later, Wayne ended up pleading not guilty to the charge of first three murder, but Broderick succeeded in delaying a trial with just one motion after the other. After multiple delays and shakeups, the trial finally got underway on March 22nd in New York's Court of General Sessions. Despite the courtroom theatrics leading up to the trial, the opening statements from the prosecution and defense were actually surprisingly short. Not required to offer a motive for the murder, Grumet laid out the facts of the case explaining that Wayne Lonergan had murdered his wife, and after a few days of attempting to deny his actions, he confessed to the crime.

He told the jury, We have only his statement as to what transpired there just before he killed her. His wife, the only person in the room at the time, is dead. As for any of the salacious details emphasized by the press, Grumet did his to live up to the promise that he had made to Wayne, saying, I don't believe it's necessary to go into the sorted story of degeneracy that he told, indicating it had no bearing on the facts of the case. Because it doesn't.

It literally doesn't. I'm surprised it was even allowed to be brought up so much because it really doesn't have anything to do. It feels like it's a very extraneous thing to add into a pretty brutal and open and shut case.

It's actually like, it was surprising to me that the prosecution didn't rely more on it because they could have back then. It just was a thing that happened a lot.

I think they just didn't need to.

They didn't need to in this case. Because he had admitted it. But we've seen cases where they didn't need to and they still did. So it was surprising that he was like, Yeah, we don't have to talk about that.

Yeah, that is a little surprising. I think it was mostly just it's open and shut a little bit.

I mean, pretty much.

He confessed. It's right there. He has all the motive in the world.

He was there. It's an easy case for the DA.

There's nothing to really contend with here. So they're probably Why not just get this done quicker?

Exactly. Which, honestly, good because it has no place in a courtroom. It's ridiculous. Now, the defense, on the other hand, gave opening remarks in which Wayne was made out to be another victim in the case. Broderick told the jury, We'll show you that this defendant, Lonergan, from the very inception of this case, has been the victim of double dealing, double crossing, and double talk. His defense was a very simple one. He said his client was innocent and had only confessed under duress and coercion. In fact, he argued, If anyone appeared guilty in the case, it was Mario Gabbulini, who had been with Patricia just hours before her murder. According to Broderick, Wayne had only confessed after being subjected to illegal and immoral tactics that included, quote, allowing the defendant to go hungry for a lengthy period, plying him with brandy and pyramiding a series of petty discomforts. A number of witnesses were called to testify as to the discovery and facts of the case, including Elizabeth Black, Dr. Halpern, Lucille Wolf, and Gabbalini himself. But the most damning evidence that you just called it out against Lonergan, it was the confession. He confessed in great detail.

Despite Broderick's repeated attempts to prevent the confession from actually being introduced into the courtroom, including badgering nine police witnesses into admitting coercion. About a week into the trial, the confession was read aloud for the jury. Through the confession, the jury heard in his own words how Wayne had killed his wife in the heat of an argument over their son and over money, how he panicked, destroyed his uniform and threw it in the river, and how he bought makeup later that day in order to conceal those heavy scratches on his face. So on March 29th, the state rested its case. In the lead up to the trial, Broderick, the defense attorney, had made illusions to several important witnesses that he was going to call to prove his client's innocence, including tombs, stool pigeons, and a well-known wealthy lawyer who was in the murder chamber at the killing.

The murder chamber at the killing?

Yeah. None of those exciting supposed witnesses were ever called, and he rested his case after calling three witnesses. Cool. Yeah. So on March 30th, the defense rested their case, having proven little, if anything.

I was going to say after doing what?

After doing theater. Yeah. In his final remarks, Jacob Grumet revisited the facts of the case. He emphasized the violence of the murder, which like, thank you, finally somebody does that.

Can we talk about that part?

He told the jury this was brutal, cold-blooded, deliberate murder. There she was on the side of the bed opposite it to him, but he was determined to kill her. He grabbed her by the throat with both hands and continued to strangle her for three minutes. Given the brutality of the crime and the defendant's repeated attempts to cover up what he had done to avoid detection, Grumet encouraged the jury not only to find Wayne guilty, but also to impose a death sentence. The jury retired for deliberation on March 31st, and after ten and a half hours, they emerged to find him guilty of murder in the second degree. The jury foreman later said, There's no question that Lonergan murdered his wife, but I think it's obvious he did not premeditate it. I don't think he went to see his wife for the purpose of murdering her.

I can agree with that. I agree with that. From what I know.

Yeah. I mean, just that he didn't go there with any weapon.

With a weapon or anything. It just seemed like it was in the heat of the moment.

He did the moment. Yeah. Wayne said nothing when the verdict was read. Outside the courtroom, district Attorney Frank Hogan addressed the press saying he believed the jury's verdict was fair and just. Joseph Broderick was similarly unmoved, saying that his client was a soldier of fortune. He said it's his belief that if his number's up, it's up.

Okay. All righty. I don't think it's that your number's up. I think you murdered your wife.

Yeah, I think that's more it.

Yeah.

The jury also rejected Wayne's claims of coercion, saying the people assert that the defendant had sufficient sleep in Canada and Statler Hotel in Buffalo, and that this was all necessary in order to discover whether or not the defendant was guilty of murder. Yeah. So two weeks later, on April 18th, Wayne returned to the Court of General Sessions, where he was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Again, he said nothing after the verdict was read, and he was transported to Sing-Sing Prison. He went to some of the worst prisons. He hit the biggies. Yeah. While Wayne seemed resigned to his fate, Broderick appeared more than hopeful when he stood before the press. He told them, Last week, district Attorney Frank S. Hogan received a major setback when the Court of Appeals reversed another murder conviction obtained by his office. I expect my appeal will add to the list of Mr. Hogan's setbacks. I doubt it. His confidence notwithstanding, Wayne's appeal was ultimately rejected, as were his later attempts to a new trial.

Not shocking.

According to Dominic Dunn, in prison, Lonergan enjoyed the celebrity certain high-profile killers achieve among the other inmates. His charm worked for him in prison as it had in life. Damn. Which is crazy when you think of the prisons that he was in. That's crazy. Yeah. And it's also like, no, I want you to not have a great experience in prison. I don't want anything bad to happen to you. I'm not crazy. But you should go to prison and not become a celebrity. You shouldn't have a fun time. Yeah. It's not for funsies. No. Now, after serving several years at Sing-Sing, he was transferred to Clinton Prison in Danamora before being released in December of 1965 after serving 22 years of his sentence.

Oh, excuse me.

Following his release, he was deported back to Canada, where he lived quietly in Toronto until his death from cancer in 1986.

So this man just went like 20 more years after They're strangling and bludgeoning his wife to death in her bed where their infant son was in another room.

.

Cool. Yeah. Sick. Yeah.

That's wow. Yeah. He was literally sick.

Really sick.

Wayne and Patricia's son Billy grew up in the care of his grandmother, Lucile Wolf, like I said earlier. A few months after Patricia was murdered, Lucile actually petitioned the court for a name change, and Billy was rechrissened William Anthony Burton. I think she didn't want him to carry father's name. And as far as anybody knows, Wayne never made any attempt to contact Billy after he was released from jail. In an interview later in his life, he told a reporter, I know where my son is, but I'd rather not say. He's had enough to put up with. No one ever hears of him or where he's living. He has a bodyguard to keep it that way.

Honestly, I'm keep listening.And we hope you keep it weird.But not to worry that you murder your wife in cloud blood with a candelabra, because holy shit, that is dark.If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining WNDRI+ in the WNDRI app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wundri. Com/survey.Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of WNDRI's podcast, American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history, events that have shaped who we are as a country and continue to define the American experience. We go behind the scenes looking at devastating financial crimes like the fraud committed at Enron and Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. American Scandal also tells marquee stories about American politics. In our latest season, we retrace the greatest corruption scheme in US history as we bring to life the bribes and backroom deals that spawn the Teapot Dome Scandal, resulting in the first presidential cabinet member going to prison. Follow American Scandal on the WNDRI app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge this season, American Scandal: Teapot Dome, early and ad-free right now on Wundery Plus. After you listen to American Scandal, go deeper and get more to the story with Wundry's other top history podcasts, including American History Tellers, Legacy, and even the Royals.

keep listening.

And we hope you keep it weird.

But not to worry that you murder your wife in cloud blood with a candelabra, because holy shit, that is dark.

If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining WNDRI+ in the WNDRI app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wundri. Com/survey.

Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of WNDRI's podcast, American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history, events that have shaped who we are as a country and continue to define the American experience. We go behind the scenes looking at devastating financial crimes like the fraud committed at Enron and Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. American Scandal also tells marquee stories about American politics. In our latest season, we retrace the greatest corruption scheme in US history as we bring to life the bribes and backroom deals that spawn the Teapot Dome Scandal, resulting in the first presidential cabinet member going to prison. Follow American Scandal on the WNDRI app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge this season, American Scandal: Teapot Dome, early and ad-free right now on Wundery Plus. After you listen to American Scandal, go deeper and get more to the story with Wundry's other top history podcasts, including American History Tellers, Legacy, and even the Royals.