On Christmas night, December 25, 1843, in a serene village on Staten Island, shocked neighbors discovered the burnt remains of twenty-four-year-old mother Emeline Houseman and her infant daughter, Ann Eliza. In a perverse nativity, someone bludgeoned to death a mother and child in their home—and then covered up the crime with hellfire.
When an ambitious district attorney charges Polly Bodine (Emelin’s sister-in-law) with a double homicide, the new “penny press” explodes. Polly is a perfect media villain: she’s a separated wife who drinks gin, commits adultery, and has had multiple abortions. Between June 1844 and April 1846, the nation was enthralled by her three trials—in Staten Island, Manhattan, and Newburgh—for the “Christmas murders.”
My guest is Alex Hortis, author of “The Witch of New York: The Trials of Polly Bodine and the Cursed Birth of Tabloid Justice.” He shares with us some of the incredible twists and turns in this absolutely fascinating case.
The author’s website: https://alexhortis.com/
Register here for the author’s online “History of the New York Mafia Class”, through The Gotham Center for New York City History (starting 1/29/2025): https://www.gothamcenter.org/gothamed-january/history-of-the-new-york-mafia
