Episode 3. Martha Haney.
In episode one of Good Nightmare, we talked about Lizzie Borden and the question of her guilt. In today’s case, again featuring a female axe murderer, there is no doubt that the woman accused committed the crime. This case, however, is no less complicated as you will come to see. While the woman we’re going to talk about committed this crime with no doubt, she was not held criminally responsible.
Today we’re going back to 1897, Michigan, to a humble and unassuming home to a family of three.
Here, Martha Haney lives with her husband Alfred, affectionately known as Alfie, and Alfie’s mother, Mariah. Alfie and his family were considered peasants in their time. They had enough money to cover their basic needs of food and shelter, but luxuries were scarce.
Alfie would work odd jobs as often as he could to bring home a much needed pay check for his family. His mother and wife would take care of the home, together, though more often than not they would find themselves butting heads.
Martha was mentally ill. This was no secret. People around town were aware of her odd behaviour: talking to herself and wandering aimlessly about town. As you can imagine in the 1800s there was little understanding of appropriate treatment for mental illness, and to a family such as hers, not many resources.
Alfie’s mother, Mariah, was a widow. She spent most of her days at home with Martha. Mariah never took a liking to Martha. In fact, when Aflie first introduced the two, Mariah took an instant disliking to the younger woman but she couldn’t quite explain what it was that put her off.
The two women would often bicker and fight, sometimes go as far as giving each other a little push or a shove. The construction workers nearby were used to hearing this kind of commotion and would often ignore it. It had become something of background noise, not worth tuning in for.
If only they had listened this day.
It was spring and Martha’s odd behaviour was only getting worse. She would mumble to herself and bicker constantly with Alfie’s mother. Alfie knew his wife needed support. He wanted to take her to see a doctor to get help for her ailments. He broached the subject to his wife but soon backed down as she instantly became agitated at the idea. Perhaps, he thought, he would try again tomorrow or another day when she was calmer.
The following morning, Martha greeted Alfie with a smile. She reassured him that she was just fine and the doctor could wait. He hadn’t seen his wife in such high spirits in a long time. They decided that he would use that day to go to work and earn a wage, the doctor could wait. So that’s exactly what he did.
A little background about Martha that lead to the trigger for the crime:
Martha had had children in a previous relationship, well before she met Aflie, and that she never talked about. No one had ever seen, let alone met, her children and due to her seemingly odd behaviour, people around town often spread or believed in rumours that she had killed them before marrying Alfie. They were wrong, of course. The children had been adopted out to another family.
On this particular morning, doctor’s appointment cancelled and Alfie away at work, Martha removed a photo of Mariah’s deceased husband from a frame and replaced it with a photo of her own children. Children she hadn’t spoken of in years.
Upon discovering the change, Mariah became upset. She confronted Martha and the women began to argue. The commotion would have been no different to the men outside than what they were already so used to.
During the argument, Martha was forced out of the home. Finding herself stranded outside and irate, she began moving around the garden, when she came across an axe. She returned to the house and used it to break in the door. The events that took place next where unspeakable.
Alfie, after working half the day, was coming home for a cooked lunch with his family. He entered the house but was soon seen coming out in quite a state. This alerted the construction workers nearby as this was unusual for the usually upbeat young man. They saw smoke billowing from the kitchen window and believed this to be the cause of Alfie’s alarm. They moved quickly, thinking that if the fire was small enough they may be able to put it out or contain it to avoid any further damage. They were not expecting to see what was behind the smoke.
You see, when Alfie had entered the house he was first confronted by a horrible smell, and an even more disturbing sight followed. It was his mother’s head, set at his place on the table, adorned with a knife and fork. His mother’s body lay on the floor, her dress in flames.
Martha was not in sight.
After gaining access to the house again by force, Martha had brutally murdered and decapitated the older woman with an axe. It was said that there were chunks of the old woman’s hair embedded in the floorboards where the axe had come down on her. It was an absolute bloodbath. Not satisfied with simply killing the woman, Martha set her head at the table the way she would Alfie’s meal. The body was laying nearby, soaked in kerosene from a lamp, and set alight with the coals from the stove that she had been using to cook her husband’s lunch.
Martha was found in only her underwear as she exited her bedroom when the law and her husband returned. She sat in the lounge at first, stripping wall paper from the walls, completely detached from the scene around her.
Later, while the crime scene was still being investigated, she moved to the backyard and started digging frantically in the dirt with her bare hands. Witnesses suggested that it looked as though she was trying to dig a hole in which to bury her mother-in-law’s body.
When the deputy came to take her away, she was speaking of her own dead mother, saying that she had been told by her mother’s ghost to kill Mariah.
‘Kill Mariah or she will kill you.’
Martha said that she had to kill the woman. That she ‘did not do it to be mean.’
She was held in a men’s jail for a time as her fate was being determined. She was kept separate from the men, of course. She was treated kindly by another woman who tended to her, though Martha had difficulty understanding her situation.
Martha’s mental state had to be evaluated to determine her responsibility in committing the murder. Three separate doctors ruled her insane and she was not prosecuted for her crimes. However, she didn’t go free. She was sentenced to the Home for the Dangerous and Criminally Insane. This is where she lived out the rest of her life.
What about Alfie?
He went on to live as normal a life as possible. He even remarried. Though of course they didn’t remain in that home.
And what happened to the house?
Years later, it was used as a test site for firemen to train. It was burnt down, in a way, completing the job that Martha had started.
If you’re interested in reading more about Martha Haney, I recommend the novel To Hell I Must Go by Rod Sadler. Sadler is a 30 year police veteren and a direct relation of the deputy involved in the case.
Good Nightmare 