George Hassell - The Man Who Erased Two Families

"No one ever lived who loved children more than I did." These are the words spoken by a man who laughed and joked when recounting the murders of 11 children—all of whom saw him as their father figure. George Hassell was a special type of family annihilator who would extinguish his family when he found them to be inconvenient in some way. If his family became an obstacle, they simply had to go and he would move on as if nothing had happened. While these murders still happen today, back in the early 1900s it was a lot easier to get away with.

Stuart's Dyspepsia Tablets ad from 1927 Houston Post.

Waddell's Department Store ad from 1926 Houston Chronicle.

Transcript

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What do incest, war, and stalkings have in common? You're about to find out on this episode of Forgotten Felonies. Welcome back to Forgotten Felonies. I'm Monica. And I'm Olivia. And this is where we take you back in time to rediscover the tales of vintage villainy that time forgot. Today's story takes us back to 1924, and I am so excited because we have ourselves an eraser killer. Could you please tell us what an eraser killer is? Yes, I absolutely love this topic. An eraser killer is a subtype of a family. Now, we talked about family annihilators in episode one, and a typical family annihilator is someone who's going through some kind of crisis. And, you know, they're having a big emotional event, like the breakdown of the family through a divorce, or maybe like the state is threatening to take the kids away, or maybe they just lost their job. Their livelihood is, you know, being threatened and they don't know how their family will survive or whatever. And somehow they've come to the conclusion that the whole family is better off dead, right? They gotta go. Right. So, 88% of the time, your typical family annihilator will also kill themselves. Now, those who don't, they'll have different reasons. Like in the case of John List in the early 1970s, he didn't kill himself because he thought that he couldn't go with his family to heaven if he committed suicide. So he had to wait and die a natural death or, you know, accidental or whatever. So you can see there may be different reasons why they don't kill themselves. But the typical family annihilator is going through a really big emotional event, like a big crisis, and they feel like ending it all is the only option. Interesting. Now, an eraser killer is different. So this term was actually coined by an investigative reporter by the name of Marilee Strong. So, if you Google Eraser Killer, you will find her blog all about it.

And she also published a book called Erased: 2:17

Missing Women, Murdered Wives. I highly recommend looking her up. Like, it's really cool. But to be very clear, an eraser killer is a subtype of a family annihilator. So, the victims of an eraser killer are family members. I've had students in the past, like I've used this in discussion forums and things in my classes. And I've said, you know,

bonus question: 2:43

can you think of anyone who would be an eraser killer? And I've had students get confused and say, like, well, Ted Bundy, he's an eraser killer. Some of his victims weren't found right away. You know, they disappeared. And I'm like, 'No, no, no.' This is a subtype of a family annihilator. So, you know, his victims. We're not family members. So eraser killers are different from your typical family annihilator because these killers are not acting out of a big emotional event. They're not in a crisis. They're not, you know, losing their sense of identity. They are. Cold and calculated. And their motive is simply that the family member or the family members have become inconvenient to their goals. So maybe the eraser killer wants something new or something different. Like maybe they have met a new woman and now their wife and their kids are in the way of this new relationship. So the man in this scenario, Chris Watts, right, thinks divorce would be expensive and messy. And, you know, gosh, it sure would. Be easier if the wife and kids just happened to disappear, right? He doesn't want to die himself. Like he has every intention of going on with life. He just wants his life to go in a different direction. Mm-hmm. So an eraser killer, you know, typically not being in this big emotional event, being in this really big crisis, he will usually... be able to plan it out from a more level-headed headspace. And they often make the person completely disappear and you never find them. So, like Robert Durst, for example, if you've seen that docuseries, The Jinx. I have not. I highly recommend it. It's very good. His wife, Kathy Durst, it was decades ago, she just vanished. And now he's dead and we will likely never know what happened to her. We'll never find her body. But he was an eraser killer. And then the case of Alyssa Turney. She, as a teenager, she was erased by her stepfather. And we assume it's because, you know, maybe he was maligned. molesting her or something. I know I listened to the podcast about her case and there was a recording. I think he was taking video and you can hear her say, like, you know, you're a pervert or something. Yeah. Is that the one that her sister did? Yeah. That's a good one. Yeah. And so just she was saying things and stuff, starting to talk about things, maybe that was threatening. His. You know, goals, his life, you know, whatever it was, it was making him unhappy. And so he picked her up early from school and nobody saw her ever again. And we'll, you know, we don't know what happened to her. So yeah, and then the case of Susan Powell, right? Now that case, I love talking about. I bring it up in my classes a lot. That one is so fascinating because when Josh... killed Susan, that was a case of an eraser killer. You know, he made her disappear. He didn't have any intention of himself dying. He very much... planned on going on with life. He just needed to get rid of her because she was inconvenient to what he wanted and so he erased her. But then later, when the state was coming in threatening to take the kids, you know, from him or you know, and her her parents were going to take the kids. That's when he became your typical family annihilator and he killed himself and the boys. Yeah, that case. Still wild. Yeah. So that one's, I like to tell that whole story to my students and then make them guess what kind of a family annihilator is he? So it's an interesting discussion. So anyway, eraser killers, they'll sometimes just stage the scene so that it looks like an accident or a suicide. So maybe they don't make the person completely disappear. You know, you'll still find the body, but nobody realizes that the person was the victim of foul play. So maybe, you know, it's an accidental drowning in the bathtub, right? The wife slipped and hit her head and she drowned in the tub. She fell down the stairs. Right. Fell down the stairs or she was changing a tire and the jack slipped and she was crushed by the car. I never believe those stories. Or they were taking a picture by a cliff and she slipped and fell off, you know? Yeah. So now what's interesting about eraser killers is that often if they get away with it, they will do it again in the very same way in the future. So there are cases where, you know, a man's wife, she drowns in the bathtub and then you find out. Wow, this poor guy, his wife before, his former wife from, you know, five years ago, also drowned in the bathtub. What terrible luck, right? And then, oh man, he also had a, you know, a fiancé in college who drowned in the bathtub. This poor thing. And it turns out, no, that's not a coincidence. So that would be an eraser killer. So today's case takes us back to an eraser killer in the early 1900s in Texas. And what's really... neat about this story is that our villain decided to come clean. He was blessed with the gift of gab and he told reporters everything while he eagerly awaited his date with old Sparky. So, Olivia, please tell our listeners about George. Hassel. For sure. So George Jefferson Hassel was born in July of 1888. I could not find an exact birth date. But all sources said July 1888. His birthday was July 5th. Just so you know. There you go. Yeah. He was born in Smithville, Bastrop, Texas. He was the youngest of eight children born to James William Hassel and Martha Jane Stovall Hassel. He had six sisters and one brother. So he started chewing tobacco before he had even turned six years old. And he actually reported that his first crime was stealing tobacco from a trunk in the house. That was the first bad thing he recalls ever doing. It was... The first bad thing he actually got in trouble for, his mom had been a very religious woman and she caught him chewing tobacco when he was six. So she took him out to the barn and kneeled and prayed for him. And then she forced him to repeat every prayer after her. That was his punishment. George was brought up as a 'quote-unquote' student of the Bible in the Methodist church and was even regarded as one of the best men at public prayer when he grew older. So it's not like he was growing up in a really bad home. I mean, we don't know if his mom was overly wild with religious fervor or anything, but it sounds like... She was just a good, solid Christian woman. I read that she was a good church worker in her community. And, you know, everyone seemed to think that she was great. Now, I didn't find any. And with as much as George liked to talk, he never said a single negative word about any of his family members. And I think he would have if there had been anything bad to say about them. Because, I mean, he talked a lot. He didn't say anything bad about his blood relatives at all. There were some events that definitely caused some issues for a very young George Hassel, though. So George did relay a detail to reporters that I find incredibly disturbing. And, I mean, he didn't say it as if it was disturbing. I mean, he said it almost as if it was normal. It's so, it's baffling. I mean, the 1800s wasn't normal. Well, this, I just, I don't see how, just, okay, listen. So, it's worded two different ways in the various articles. There's two ways that it's worded, and no matter how it's worded, it's just not okay. One way that it's worded is that he had his first, quote, affair with a girl when he was just eight years old and she was 15. Was she married at 15, do we think? I don't know, because it doesn't say who it was with. Yeah. And I wonder, oh, I was going to have you look and see, were any of his sisters 15 when he was eight? You should look. I'll do that right now. I'll mute myself so you don't hear me. You look that up. The other way it's worded is that, quote, the first trouble, as connected with a 15-year-old girl, was when he was eight years old. So that's the other way that it's worded. And in yet another article, he was saying that he had constant relationships with women, like he always had to have a woman that he was in a relationship with to have, you know, sexual activity with. And it had been a regular thing starting from the time that he was eight years old. So this is a huge red flag. This is not just a red flag, but this is a red flag on fire. It's like shooting out fireworks. You know, in every direction. The kind of fireworks that make that horrible screaming sound that makes you cover your ears. I think anyone with a psychology degree is thinking the same thing right now because any eight-year-old who is in a relationship with a 15-year-old is actually a victim of child sexual abuse. And George Hassel is... basically saying he was regularly sexually abused from the age of eight and for the rest of his childhood. And I'd say that's where this damage stems from. So what did you find, Olivia? There was one sister who... And I just did basic math. I didn't look like actual dates. Would have been 16 when he was eight. Mm-hmm. So roughly... And I mean, his birthday, it was in July. I saw that. And this sister was December. Okay, so just depending on where the birthdays fell in those years and stuff, it's possible. But I mean, also cousins. He was going to church regularly, so he's around community people. It could have been anyone, but clearly. We do know. That if he was... sexually... active at the age of eight. I mean, I have an eight-year-old son. At eight, they are not sexual beings. Nope. Unless they have been harmed in some way. So, George was harmed. He was very harmed. So we do know that about George Hassell. Still doesn't excuse it. What he did. No, there are no excuses, but there are reasons. Yes. And we have found them. Yes, I just want to make that clear. Yes. We have found our reasons, though. Now, the next traumatic event is that his mother left when he was 13 years old. The only information I found about this was... From an interview he gave in 1927. And in that article. In the January 5th, 1927 edition. Of the Cameron Herald. It says that his mother. had actually died. Being born in 1888, this puts her death around the year 1901 or 1902, depending on what exact date she died. However, looking at genealogy websites, Mary Stovall Hassel's death is listed as being in 1914. So it makes you wonder if she just abandoned her husband and children and they didn't know where to find her. Did she join a cult and disappear? Did they think she died? Did something happen? And George was like, 'You're dead to me.' Like, I don't know what it was. But at the time that George was 13, something major happened with his mother and George packed up and left home. And that makes me wonder, like, how was that relationship at home then? Like, if his mom dying was when he left, he must not have had a good relationship with his father if he was like, 'All right, that's it, I'm out.' There's no reason for me to stay. Hmm, or siblings. Yeah. I mean, mom's dead. There's nothing left here for me. So it couldn't have been like a close-knit, great place for him to be. So what else was going on? Yeah. You know, but yeah, he never said anything in the papers about siblings or. His parents, other than his mom, was a Bible. Like a really religious lady, you know, that's it. And I couldn't find anything about his mother's death. But I know he did. He did have some sort of allegiance to his father, and I'll explain that in a bit. But yeah, so it was tough for him and he left. And so being born in 1888, her death would have been around 1901 or 1902, just depending on what time of year. And so he packed up and he left home. Now, he didn't say where he went, but he left the home where his father and siblings lived. Did he move in with an older woman? Who had been abusing him? Was he homeless? Were any of his abusers men? Like, I have no idea. But it doesn't sound good. 13-year-old adult. on the streets. I don't know how he survived, but he did. He left Smithville, where his family still lived, and he wound up in Abilene. I looked this up. This is 258 miles away. And yeah, being in 1901, 1902, I mean, by car, I looked this up, by car today, that would be four hours and 11 minutes. So he probably was like hopping on a train or. I don't even know. I'd have to look and see where the tracks are. Maybe it just took several years to eventually make it that far, just a little at a time. But by 1906, he made it to Abilene, and he was offered a job. By a man named Sid Ross, who was a gin maker. Yes, you are. Making alcohol. So George took the job. Now, somehow he met a girl by the name of Minnie, who was one year younger than he was. And Minnie was actually from Buffalo Gap, Texas. Buffalo Gap is just 16 miles away from Abilene, so somehow their paths had crossed. I imagine working in the alcohol business, he had to do some... traveling. And so he had met Minnie. He had fallen head over heels in love with her. But then, in 1907, something bad happened and things... took a very bad turn in the life of George Hassell. An old friend of George's from back home in Smithville had shown up in Abilene and he had some news that was not good. George's father had remarried after George's mother had died in 1901 or 1902, and that was fine. And George had probably already known that. I don't know, maybe not. But his stepmother had done something truly unforgivable, and George had not heard this news yet. In 1905, just two years earlier, George's stepmother had poisoned and almost murdered George's father. Now, thankfully, George's father had survived and he divorced this wicked woman. She had even gone on to marry someone else and was now living with her new husband and still in Smith. Phil. But George was livid and George was dead set on revenge. George later told reporters that this was actually the first time he had plotted to murder an entire family. So it was 1907. He was 18 years old. He just needed some money so he could get back to Smithville, 258 miles away. Well, one of his— working for Sid Ross was to take the money at the end of the day and deposit it in the bank. So one day he took the money into town, abandoned the team of horses, and he just disappeared with about $100. Olivia, how much was $100 worth in 1907? $3, 419. 84. Now that is not a bad haul. So George and his friend made the trip back to Smithville together, spending the money on the way. Now, George made it to where his former stepmother lived with her new husband, her three children, and her niece. So there's four kids and two adults in the house. His plan was to hide outside in the grass with his gun and wait until they were all asleep. And then he was going to go in and shoot them all. As he lay in wait, he drank some whiskey. But he got a little too drunk and he wound up falling asleep with his gun. He woke up the next morning with the sun blazing in his face and he did not wind up shooting anybody that day. Imagine the sunburn. Oh, my gosh. Oh, yeah. So he made his way back to Abilene and he was arrested for embezzlement. Now he asked Mr. Ross if he could just work off his debt instead of going to jail. And actually, Mr. Ross said that was fine. But the law had its own way of working through legal matters. They were like, 'No, we have to do this, you know, through the court system.' And so he was sentenced to two years in state prison. He spent two years in prison before he had even turned 21, and he later said that he suffered many abuses in prison. And he felt that prison was no place for young men, because it just taught them how to become criminals rather than how to become better men. Word. Yeah. So upon his release in 1909, George went back to Abilene and he sought out none other than Sid Roth. His old boss and he told him, 'I've turned over a new leaf' and Ross hired him again so he's back working for the same boss. George also married Minnie Laughlin on the 9th of December 1909, who had stayed faithful to him the whole time he'd been in prison. Her family, however, was not very supportive now that he was an ex-con. And the two were pregnant almost right off the bat, and they welcomed a baby boy, which they named James Delbert Hassel. Now, things were going pretty well. George was married. He had a baby. He was working for Sid Ross in the gin business. And then one day, George... cashed a check that belonged to Sid Ross. So he stole money from his boss yet again. Yeah, so this time no charges were pressed against him, but George was fired and he had to find a new job. So first, George worked as a night watchman on a farm, and then he wound up moving up to Hobart, Oklahoma, where he worked for his brother, Thomas. He sent Minnie and wee baby James to Winters, Texas, where she had some family members. Now, initially, you know, because this is a young married couple, the plan was— was they were going to write to each other every day. And George kept up his side of the deal. You know, he was writing to her every day, but he wasn't getting any letters back. And it took a whole week before he finally gets a letter. And it was a Dear John letter. She was like, 'I'm done with you.' You know, let's take advantage of this space between us. We're through. And it completely broke his heart. It's so surprising, though, that she waited while he was in prison. Yeah. And then. It's like, 'What was going on?' Well, absence does make the heart grow fonder. Maybe she had this idea of how things would be. And then, when reality hit, and they were living together, maybe she was like, 'Oh, yeah, actually.' Maybe not. But, you know, now that he was an ex-con and then she's with her family, and they probably were like, 'Honey, what are you thinking? He's bad news.' The reason why he has to go find a job now is because he did it again. He's not going to change. He chewed tobacco when he was six, Minnie. Get it together. Yeah. Bad news. Bad news. Yeah. I don't know. So, anyway, now after this, he kind of spiraled. He made some really bad choices. As one does when you're heartbroken. Yeah. Yes, just he did some dumb stuff. So he joins the army under a fake name, which, why would you do that? Why not just use your real name? I don't know. Anyway, George Stovall is the name that he used. What's his mom's maiden name? Oh. Why not use his real name? I don't understand. So he joins the Army under a fake name, George Stovall. But he didn't like the Army, so he desertes, and he joins the Navy in California instead. But while he's in the Navy, he thought, you know, man, I really want to get back together with my wife. So he deserts the Navy and he goes back to Texas to try to see Minnie. But she refused to have anything to do with him. So he's like, 'Well, shoot.' So he goes back to California again and tries to rejoin the Army. George. The army sees him and they're like, 'Hey, you're under arrest. You deserted.' And so they send him to Leavenworth to prison for a year. Is this Leavenworth, Washington? It's in Kansas, I believe. Oh, interesting. Yeah. So it's not the fun little... Germantown in Washington. Where it's Christmas all year. No. And that's why I was like. Interesting. He got to dress up as Santa. That was his punishment. You got to make gin in a tiny German town in Washington. No, you have to wear lederhosen. No, no, he was in prison for a year. So he was writing to Minnie the whole time he's in prison and she wouldn't write back. And he's just so heartbroken. So he's released from prison there, but immediately he's sent to prison in Norfolk, Virginia to serve prison time for deserting the Navy. So from one to the other. So he spends two years in prison for desertion from the military. So, I mean, just bad choices, bad choices. But yeah, so he gets out. He tries again to go back to see Minnie and his son, little James. And finally, one day he shows up. It's in 1914. And his son literally threw rocks at him. And that's when he realized it was a lost cause, and his heart was permanently broken, and he never tried again. The fact that he's like... kind of blaming a four-year-old. Well, I don't think he was blaming—that's just when he realized, like, okay, they've completely turned against me. Well, yeah, but at the same time— little Jimmy had never seen him. Yes, yes. So he's not just gonna what did he expect Jimmy to go? Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, he's a broken man. He was like 26 years old at this time. And I think the whole time he was like, no, I just want my wife back. But yeah, he finally was like shattered, you know. Fine. Yeah, they hate me. They hate me forever. So yeah, after that, he just made his way all over the States, working just odd jobs, having flings with whoever would have him. And two years later, in 1916, George again shows up in Abilene, Texas, and he seeks out Sid Ross in the gin business, asking for a job, and this time Sid Ross says no. Good for him. He's learned. Fool me once. Maybe fall them twice. Maybe twice. Yeah. But not a third time. You cannot come back. Yep. So. That was 1916, but now we're going to fast forward about eight years to Tuesday, July 1st of 1924. Brother Thomas. He was working on his farm in Hobart, Oklahoma. He was in the process of shearing a mule's tail that day. Interesting choice. Yeah, you know, I guess that's a thing that they do. I didn't know that you did that thing, but I mean, you know, you do it, apparently. Now, something went wrong. And the mule became very displeased, and Thomas Hassel, who was a 41-year-old father of eight with a pregnant wife, he wound up getting kicked really hard in the lower abdomen. Now, he didn't think it was that serious at the time, but after a couple days, the pain grew worse. And he was taken to the hospital for surgery. And they got in there and saw that the gangrene had already set in

and he died at 3: 29:15

30 a. m. on the morning of July 3rd. Thomas's sister contacted George, who at the time was in Louisiana. Now, George had recently left his job with an oil company in Fresno, California, and he was back to living as a grifter again, just, you know, floating around the States. Now, she asked George if he would please come to Hobart, Oklahoma, to finish with Thomas's crops. George made the trip to Hobart, Oklahoma, as was requested, and within a few months, George Hassel had married his brother's pregnant widow, Susie Hassel. It was on October 7th, and he took over responsibility of his nieces and his nephews. Now, in a rather ironic newspaper article in the Thursday, October 9th edition of the Lawton News Review. It says, quote, 'Cupid takes advantage of OpenSea. For lovers, and Arrows make nine hits.' It then lists the nine couples who were granted marriage licenses that week, and George J. Hassel and Mrs. Susie F. Hassel were among them. Anyway, Olivia, please tell us all about Susie and Thomas' children, which were George's biological nieces and nephews, and now were his stepchildren. For sure. Susan Frances Ferguson and Thomas Virgil Hassel married on September 4, 1902, in New Cardell, Wichita, Oklahoma. Together, they had 10 children. Nora Lorraine, 1903. Arthur Alton, 1905. Virgil, 1911. Maude, 1913. Russell, 1915. David, 1919. Johnny, 1920. Nanny Martha, 1922, and Samuel in 1925. They also had Otis, who was born in 1909, but sadly passed away at a year old in 1910. All right. Thank you. So yeah, they had a very low key wedding in October. It was just before the justice of the peace and little baby Sammy. who she was pregnant with at the time that they got married, he was born February 18th of 1925. And then just about three months later, Later, George, Susie, and the eight youngest kids, so from baby Sammy on up to Alton, but not Nora, the oldest child. moved to Farwell, Texas. So Nora, the very oldest one, she actually was already married and moved out because Nora and Alton were both adults already by this time. Because Alton was 21, and so Nora was... 23? Yeah, because she was two years older than Alton. Mm-hmm. But yeah, so George, Susie, and then the eight kids moved to Farwell, Texas. Olivia, tell us about their new home sweet home in Farwell. Farwell, Texas is located right on the border of Texas and New Mexico. The border runs right through the middle of the city and technically one side of the city is called Texaco and the other is Farwell. If you look up the distance between Texaco and Farwell, it's three miles because they're basically just two sides of the same city. They moved to a ranch that was located in the plains section of the Panhandle, and it was devoted mostly to grazing. Back in 1925, there was a lot of wheat farming in the area and a lot of settlers had arrived, but that particular section of Farwell was still very sparsely settled. A really big community. Well, looking at a map of Farwell today, it's still not a big community. According to the 2020 census, it had just 1, 000 425 people like in 2020. So it has never been huge. Well, apparently, there wasn't a whole lot of love and affection between George and Susie, and he wanted some lovins. Now he explained later that he had been married three times in his life. And he had also lived with seven different women during his lifetime that he had not been married to. And those relationships lasted anywhere from three months to three years. years. And he said that he was always a one-woman man too. So anytime he was in a sexual relationship with a woman, he was not cheating with another. So he just needed one woman at a time, but he needed to have a woman and he couldn't go without one. And it turns out that Susie wasn't actually all that interested in George. And she was, as he put it, repulsed by him. And she would not allow him to be intimate with her beginning around December of 1925. So just to like lay out the timeline so you guys can all like put it together. They were married in October of 1924. And then the youngest son, which she had been pregnant with, you know, when her husband had died, he was born in February of 1925. So just a few months later. And by December of 1925, Susie was totally over it and didn't want to have a physical relationship with George. And honestly, I think a lot of women listening can relate with Susie. I mean, she's got a 10-month-old in December of 1925. As well as a 3-year-old, a 5-year-old, a 6-year-old, a 10-year-old, a 12-year-old, a 14-year-old, and two adult children. I mean, she's tired. She didn't even have time to grieve the love of her life. She hardly even knows you, George. Leave her alone. But George isn't a patient man. And there's a girl right there. I mean, sure, she's 12. And sure, she's his biological niece. But apparently that didn't matter to George. He started up intimate relations with Maudie at some point. I don't know if he waited until she was 13. I honestly have no idea how long it lasted or when it began. And all I know is that he later said that his wife, Susie, refused to be intimate with him beginning around December of 1925. And then, at some point, he turned to Susie. So, technically, according to him, he didn't break his one-woman-man thing because Susie had essentially broken off the romantic element of the relationship. Now, Maudie turned 13 on June 7th, 1926. Again, I have no idea when he began molesting her. One newspaper source says that by December of 1926, Maudie was, quote, about to become a mother. And George said that Susie had found out. Other newspapers simply said that Susie and George were arguing about George and Maudie having been intimate. But just the one newspaper said that George said Maudie was about to become a mother, and George was the father. And that's why they were arguing in December of 1926. Knowing what I know about those old newspapers and how a lot of them would take liberties to add in whatever little tidbits of information they wanted. They love being dramatic. Yeah, they would add in whatever they wanted to make a story juicy. So I would say that, because only one article had that little pregnancy bit, that probably was not true. So I would say that Susie had just found out that George had been molesting her 13-year-old daughter, his biological niece, by the way, and that Susie was not happy about it. I wouldn't be either. Yeah, no. And the fighting had come to a head on the night of December 8th of 1926. A sweet stomach. What a pity when youth and vitality are set at naught by a disordered stomach and bad breath. Don't have them at any age. Hardy eaters, hard smokers, high livers. Find Stewart's a boon and a blessing. Eat what you wish. Drink what you like. Then chew a Stuart tablet. That gives the stomach sufficient alkaline. The result is a sweet stomach, serene digestion, no pains, no gas. Full box free. Every druggist has Stewart's tablets, 25 cents and 60 cents, or a full box free if you write the F. A. Stewart Company, Department Number 70, Marshall, Michigan. Get a box of Stewart's for the pocket and keep it filled. A sweet stomach for 25 cents. Stewart's dyspepsia tablets. They were arguing, George and Susie. So he went out to the barn and drank some whiskey, hoping she'd be asleep when he went back into the house. When he walked back in... There she was again, wide awake in the bed, starting up the argument all over again. He happened to see a hammer lying nearby and wasn't even sure why it was there. But he picked it up and clubbed her in the head with it a couple of times. Her skull was pretty well crushed, but she was still moaning, so he grabbed a stocking and tied it tightly around her throat. There was still a bit of noise coming from her, so he used the hammer one last time to silence her for good. One-year-old Sammy, just two months away from his second birthday, had been asleep in the bed beside his mother. He woke up and began to cry, so George strangled him. He then tied a stocking tightly around his little neck. George later said, 'I don't know why, but when I saw what I had done, I decided that I had best go on and kill the whole outfit.' From there, he went into the room where Nanny Martha, age 4, Johnny, age 6, and David, age 7, were sleeping. One by one, he choked them and tied stockings around their throats. Next, he went to the room of 13-year-old Madi. This is the child that all the arguing had been over in the first place. This is the child who he had been, quote, intimate with. His biological niece that he'd regarded as his girlfriend. He went beside her bed and crushed her head with a hammer. She moaned, so he, quote, tied something around her neck to keep her quiet. I feel like it's very symbolic that he killed Madi the same way he killed Susie. I agree. In his mind, these were both his love interests, and he killed them both by crushing their skulls first with a hammer and then tying stockings around their necks to strangle them. So they're the only two that were killed in exactly this manner. So it is very interesting. Now, Russell and Virgil were next. Russell was 11 and Virgil was 15. Now they were sleeping in a back room and they actually put up a fight. They woke up when he went into their room around midnight. He told the older of the two, Virgil, to go into the front room to sleep. He took his clothes with him. George went after him, and as he got settled down to sleep, George started choking him with his hands. Russell came in and exclaimed, 'Daddy, what are you trying to do, kill somebody?' Russell started to help his big brother. They were about to get the better of George, but he reached over and grabbed his gun. He shot Virgil to death, and then Russell ran to a closet to hide. George found him and used an axe to kill him. Out in the yard, about ten feet away from the kitchen door, there was a cellar that George and the boys had been digging. It was a huge pit in the yard with a big pile of dirt beside it. He threw the bodies into this cellar, and then with an axe he crushed the heads of those still showing signs of life. He threw the axe in with the bodies and then shoveled in the dirt on top. All the killing and the burying was complete by 5 a. m. The rest of the day, December 9th, was... spent washing blood off of everything. George couldn't stand the sight of blood. And then he packed all the children's clothes into trunks. He didn't just stop there. He packed up the whole house. He told the neighbors that the wife and kids had gone to visit family in Oklahoma, and he would be selling the farm and joining them. Alton, the 21-year-old's son, was out of town when the murders happened. He was due back on December 11th. The house was all cleaned up by the time he arrived. George told him that the family was actually visiting Aunt Liddy in Shallow Water, Oklahoma. Now George made him some dinner and then they played cards together until about midnight. And after Alton was asleep, George drank some whiskey and then he snuck into his bedroom with a shotgun and he shot him right through the head. Elton's body was taken out to the dugout cellar and put in one corner in a sitting position. Wife, Susie; 15-year-old Virgil; 13-year-old Maudie; and 11-year-old Russell had been piled up in an opposite corner of the cellar. The three youngest kids were laid out in a spread between the two locations, and George had wrapped each body in a blanket. Now that all nine of the intended victims were killed, George just had to finish filling in the hole, which he did. He had a sale of all the farm equipment, and eventually he went to the bank in Farwell to deposit $1, 500. He told the bank that he was moving to Oklahoma to be with his family, and the neighbors thought he was acting a little strange. And someone had actually tried to reach Susie in shallow water and was told that she and the children weren't there. So the police were contacted, and on Christmas Eve, which was Friday, December 24, 1926, the police showed up at the house to ask George some questions. Now, George didn't have the right answers. He was not prepared for this. And he grew so nervous that he pulled out his pocket knife and he stabbed himself. In the side of his chest near his heart. He slashed his wrists and he slashed his own throat right in front of the officers. Now, if that's not a big red flag, I don't know what is. George Hassel was immediately taken to the hospital and a search was immediately begun for his family. And when the officers drove a vehicle over that patch of ground about 10 feet away from the kitchen door, it caved in. And that's how they discovered the mass grave and unearthed all of the bodies. Susie, Sammy, Nanny Martha, Johnny, David, and Maudie all still had stockings tied around their necks. In the hospital, the doctors didn't think George was going to live. He could barely speak because his throat had been slashed. Police were also now curious about his brother's death. Death back in 1924. Some were speculating that George had been working on his farm with him that day, but George insisted that he hadn't even been in Oklahoma. By the night of December 24th, charges were officially filed against George in the murders of his wife and eight nieces and nephews. On Christmas Day, George admitted, 'I did it, I did it.' He could still barely speak above a whisper, but he promised that he would give a detailed account the next day along with the reasons why. At the time that he made these statements on Christmas Day, his wife and eight stepkids were being buried in the tiny little cemetery in Farwell. Citizenship of the community was attending the funeral. Every able-bodied man had volunteered to help dig the nine graves in which the bodies were buried. They only used six caskets, though. Susie and baby Sammy were buried together in one casket, and then nanny Martha, Johnny, and David were buried together in another. They were ages 4, 6, and 7, so they all fit together. And then Maudie, Russell, Virgil, and Alton had their own caskets. As promised, on December 26, 1926, George gave a full confession. And oh boy, was it packed full. This was a 3, 000-word confession. It even had some surprises. This is when he told them, you know, that he'd been, quote, intimate with. Maudie, because you know he wasn't going to call it sexual abuse or rape, and this is when he said that she was about to become a mother— if you know, that is actually what he said. So this is when he told them that he had clubbed his wife with the hammer and then choked the baby and detailed how he murdered the rest of the children. Also told them that he had murdered a woman and three children in California back in 1917. Now, he would not tell them who or where. He just said California. You know, he wouldn't give any names. All he would say was, 'It was a good job. No one will ever know.' Now, in this confession, he detailed pretty much everything. He talked about his multiple relationships with women from the time he was eight. He talked about going AWOL from both the Army and the Navy. He talked about stealing money from his employer twice and going to prison for it. He admitted to having slept with his own 13-year-old biological niece. He talked about the details of murdering his wife and stepkids, and he even dropped the bomb of killing another woman and three children previously in California. You know, but refusing to give up the deets. It definitely sounds like he needed a therapist. Yeah. And he said that out of all those terrible things that he had done in his 38 years of life, he had just one regret. He only regretted one, one thing. And that one regret was that he had not succeeded in taking his own life. Didn't regret anything else. Not choking a baby, not anything. Just that he hadn't succeeded in killing himself. He tried, but not hard enough. Yep. Now, the next day, Monday, December 27th, the 3, 000-word confession was made public. And Tuesday, December 28th, a crowd began to gather outside of the jail in Farwell, Texas. Nobody was threatening violence or anything, but the crowd was growing larger and larger, and the people were essentially reciting the confession verbatim. Now, the officers were growing very concerned that this was going to turn into mob violence. And so that night, under the cover of darkness, and while George was still recovering, from those self-inflicted knife wounds, Sheriff Martin of Palmer County and his entire force of deputies, along with Sheriff Douglas of Bailey County, formed an escort. They turned off all the lights in the jail, and they carried George out to a big automobile that had a litter placed in the back. As they began to drive down the street, they were followed by a second car that was jammed full of heavily armed men. And when they were about two blocks away from the jail, the two cars both picked up speed at a tremendous rate and whirled south. George was whisked off to a different jail for his own safety, just in case. And when he was asked for a statement about this later, George said, 'I'm not afraid to die and expect I will die in the electric chair. But I am scared of a mob. So as we've learned through the telling of all these old historical crimes, these cases moved very quickly through the courts. And George was charged with nine murders, but he was going to be tried separately for each one. The first trial was for Alton's murder. Now Alton, he was the 21-year-old stepson that was the last one to die on December 12th. The very premeditated one. Yeah. So George pled guilty and asked for the death sentence. And it wasn't much of a trial.' You know, he didn't really put up any sort of defense. And the jury was sent to deliberate on January 11th,

1927 at 11: 49:34

10 p. m.

And they came back with their guilty verdict at 1: 49:37

00 a. m. on the 12th. Now, none of George's relatives were present for the reading of the verdict, but Susie Hassel's parents, her four brothers, and her oldest daughter were all there. George's attorney wasn't even there because he had, you know, gone home and gone to bed. He's tired. Now, George was given the death penalty and it would be death by electric chair, no less, you know, just as he expected. And the date of execution was supposed to be February 25th of 1927. Now, because of the outcome of this trial, the prosecution didn't see any need to go to trial for the remaining eight murders. You know, I mean, how many times can you kill a man? So they just didn't even worry about the others. Now, the trials went very quickly back then, but the executions did not. So, you know, appeals were automatic. And death sentences were kind of drawn out just as they are today. I mean, not as drawn out as they are today, but that death date did get pushed back a couple of times. And George Hassel, he, again, he had that gift of gab. So reporters took advantage of it. And George used that time to do some, you know. reflecting on his choices, and he came to the conclusion that perhaps he ought to make things right with that previous murder in California. After all, all, someone there in Texas had suggested that maybe he was lying about it because they had called California to find out where George Hassel might have lived. And California had no record of a George Hassel ever having lived there. And George Hassel was not a liar. No, he wasn't. He had never lied about anything in his life, he said. He may have fooled people, like when he signed up for the army with a fake name, but he didn't technically lie in his mind. An article printed in the January 5th, 1928 edition of the Cameron Herald says, Hassell stoutly sustains all of his statements with proof and is angered when anyone doubts his word or his honesty. George is then quoted as saying, 'My father, who was a high-up lodge member and believed to be a good man, although he may have fooled the people, always taught us that honesty was the best policy.' So. They had questioned his honesty, and he met them with proof. George starts naming names. Oh, snap. Finally. So it was actually before he was even found guilty of the murder of Alton in Texas that he was spilling the details about the California murder. Murders. He admitted that he had been living in Whittier, California, and the reason they had no record of a George Hassel living there was because he was living under an assumed name. He was living there as George G. Baker. Except in the papers that I found, it said George T. Baker. So who knows? One of them had it wrong. Did Santa bring you everything you need? Special this week at Waddles, Prairie Avenue and Fannin Street. Ash trays, cash and carry, each 65 cents. A neat model for the table, finished gunmetal color. Sample smoking stands, priced under their real value for quick selling. Exceptionally good values, priced in a manner thrifty shoppers appreciate. Quite an assortment of styles. After George had been totally rejected by his first wife, Minnie Laughlin, and his beloved son, and after he had finished serving out his sentences for deserting... both the Army and the Navy. It was around 1913 or so, and he was just wandering around the United States, taking up random jobs here and there. Ultimately, by the time it was all said and done, and he was awaiting his date with death, he had lived and worked in 37 states. So George Hassell had gotten around. Now, at some point, he met a woman by the name of Marie Vogel, who was originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. But my sources say she was living in Pittsburgh. In San Angelo, Texas, when they met in the 1910s. Marie had a son named Gerald, who had been born in 1908, so he was roughly the same age as George's biological son, James. George and Marie hit it off, and he wanted to move them to California. They ran out of money on the way, so they made a pit stop in New Mexico and lived there, in Deming, for a short time. He told newspaper reporters that he posed as an outraged husband, which I'm not really sure what that means, but he posts as an outraged husband, which got more money from men victims. Like, that's what it says. Which then got them enough money to get to California. And so, on they went to California. Oh! What? I think I know. I think it was a scam. Kind of like what, um... The Van Holsteins did. Where she went to the bar and, like, took the guy back to the room. Oh. And then. He came in and was like, 'Give me money and I will forgive you for your transgression.' Oh. Oh, maybe. That would make sense. So he'd come in and be outraged. Okay. That would make sense. Oh my gosh. Okay. So they would, okay. I wonder if we could find newspaper articles. Like, I mean, they probably didn't go to jail for it, but I wonder if, like, so-and-so was robbed by a couple. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. Oh, my gosh. So yeah, Deming, New Mexico. I wonder if we could find anything about that. But who knows what he was going by. Yeah, I know. Well, I mean, if they weren't caught, it would just be like mystery couple or something, you know? Yeah. But, okay. And so on they went to California. And at some point along the way, they decided to pretend they were married. I guess they probably were pretending already if they were posing as an outraged husband. And they also decided to pretend that their last name was Baker. Now, George later explained that this was because they didn't want Marie's ex-husband, Mr. John Vogel, back in Pennsylvania, to get his hands on little Gerald. Now, I'm fuzzy on the timeline, but at some point, George, Marie, and little Gerald wound up in Colorado for a little while. George really wanted a little... boy and girl of his own, and Marie's mother just so happened to work at an orphanage asylum, apparently that's what it was called, back in Pittsburgh. So George paid $100, which again was equivalent to about $3, 000, to have a tiny little boy and girl. From Pittsburgh to Colorado for George Emery to adopt. So I'm not sure if they just went to Colorado to like meet up with the train or if... they were living there or something. I'm really not sure. But the adoption could not have been any earlier than January of 1916, because I know that the baby girl was about 18 months old in June of 1917. Um, but anyway, so the adoption would likely have been later than that, unless they got her when she was like an infant, but I don't know. It was certainly sometime in 1916. Now, something very interesting to note is that Sid Ross, the guy who worked in the gin business down in Abilene, Texas, the one that George embezzled $100 from. Back in 1907, he says that George showed up again in 1916 asking for a job again. Remember when I said that? That fits into George's story. So he actually had that live-in girlfriend, Marie Vogel, and at least one child and possibly two more that he either just adopted or was about to adopt. When he was asking for that job again in Texas. Now, at the time in California, Marie Baker, as she was going by, she was working at... As a housekeeper on a ranch at 239 South Pickering Avenue in Whittier, California, and George Baker was working as a rancher. Hand at the same place, and they were living there at the ranch. Now, I looked it up. It was a six-room farmhouse owned by the Lane family, and then, in March of 1917, it's in the newspaper that G. T. Baker, so I don't know if that newspaper printed it wrong, because... Later, they said he went by G. G. Baker. I don't know, but... G. T. Baker bought a six-room home at 236 South Whittier Avenue. And so George later states that he moved his little family into, you know, 236 South Whittier Avenue. 6 South Whittier Avenue on March 4th of 1917. So he and his girlfriend, who was posing as his wife, along with Gerald, who would have been about nine, and then the 18-month-old little baby girl and the almost three-year-old little boy moved into this home. Now, There was something special about Murray Vogel. Oh yeah? Oh, yeah. Now, she could hear voices at night. When the lights went out and everything was quiet, the voices would talk to her and they would tell her. her where money was buried. Now, this was the whole thing. They even built a trumpet sort of thing that she could put up to her ear so the voices could talk through it. After a while, she had a vision. And in the vision, a bolt of light came from the sky and struck the center of the floor, pointing to buried money. And it was clear to Marie and George that there was money buried under the house. And so George began to dig. He dug a hole under the house that was three feet by seven feet, and it was four feet deep. But he didn't find any money. Now, this was around the third week into May of 1917. He didn't bother filling the hole back in because he figured he just needed to dig a little deeper. Because, I mean, voices and visions don't lie, obviously. So he'd get back to it eventually. Meanwhile, on the political scene, Olivia, what was going on? So World War I had started in 1914 and the United States had not officially joined yet. The U. S. declared war against Germany in April of 1917. and we had asked for volunteers for military service, but there wasn't a very good response. So in June of 1917, the U. S. instituted a... draft. Registration for the draft began on June 5th. Uh-huh. So June 5th was designated as the first day for registration for the draft. All men aged 21 through 30 were required to register for the draft. And see, George didn't. Now, George, by this time, was working for the Standard Oil Company. He came home from work on June 5th, and Marie asked him if he'd registered for the draft. He told her no, and she told him that he'd better do it. I mean, after all, it was the law. I don't know why he didn't. Maybe it's because he deserted from both the Army and the Navy. Maybe it's because both the Army and the Navy had put him in prison. Maybe it's because he was living under an assumed name. I feel like there was a lot that could have gone wrong for George and maybe he felt that way too. I don't know. But in any case, they argued about it. She wanted him to follow the law, and he had other plans. So the arguing continued until 2 a. m., until George finally had enough. He ended the argument by choking Marie to death. He tied stockings and a piece of rope around her neck in a square knot. He then went to the beds of each child and he killed them in the same fashion. They all had stockings and rope tied around their necks as well. They were buried in the hole underneath the house. Marie was placed in the grave first with the children. Wow. More women come in to live with him, actually. I mean he was a one-woman man, so I mean he moved one in. They had a relationship for like three months and you know, moved out. Moved another one in. And he told neighbors that Marie and the kids had just moved to San Francisco. Now, he sent a picture of little Gerald to Marie's family in Pennsylvania to tell them that they were never going to see them again and that they'd gone to Australia. Now, you found something about that. What did you find? Oh, this was also part of the podcast episode I listened to. Oh, okay. But essentially, he said that to her sister. And then... The sister, once she found out what actually happened, was like, 'I had a feeling.' Oh. Like. I kind of knew. Interesting. Now, the neighbors on South Whittier Avenue, they thought this was all a little bit weird and they were concerned about Marie Baker and the kids. And they had seen. George dig a large hole in the garage. And they had also seen him carrying a big trunk from the house to the garage. So after he moved out in 1980, 18 they called the police and they talked to constable Way and they thought maybe he had killed the family and buried them in the garage. So constable Way did investigate and he actually dug the garage up, but there were no bodies found in the garage. He did his job. Right. And nobody ever said anything about George having been under the house. So they didn't know there had been a hole under the house. Yeah, it makes you wonder if Marie also had a vision about there being money buried in the garage. And maybe that's why he was digging. I would assume that's probably why. She probably did. I mean. If he's digging because she said, 'Oh, the voices said that there's probably money here,' I would assume that's probably why there was a hole in the garage. I wonder if she thought it was spirits, because I do know from watching ghost hunting shows that they... in the time of the spiritual era at that time, they had horns that they would put up to their ears. And Houdini had one. Probably. But yeah, they never, I mean, he believed it or he wouldn't have been doing all the digging, right? Yeah. I wonder how much they actually found. Probably nothing. Well, yeah, but I mean, if... What made him keep digging, though? Like, maybe they found something at one point. Yeah. Maybe she buried some money and was like. Hey, look. Maybe. I wonder when she started hearing voices. I wonder if she actually heard voices. Yeah. mixture. Because you think. I mean, I wonder if she was actually schizophrenic or if she was just saying that. That's what I was thinking earlier. I was like, hmm, voices? Yeah. So I wonder if she was actually hearing things or just saying that because it was fun to say. I don't know. Fun to make him work. I like to watch you sweat. I don't know. I don't know. All right. She had a thing for arms. I want you to wear that tight t-shirt while you do it. Yeah. All right. So now, after he moved out in 1918, after murdering his live-in girlfriend and those three kids, he did remain in California. And he actually... actually got married. So he met another woman whose name happened to be Minnie Edwards. If you remember, his first wife had been named Minnie Laughlin. And Minnie Edwards happened to have a son who was about the same age as his own biological son. Little James. So he marries Minnie Edwards. But after three months, he decides he doesn't really like her that much, so he deserters her like a skunk. For the best. If you remember, Mark Van Winkle. Mark. So off he went. But honestly. A blessing in disguise for... For many. Yes. But we don't know when she died, actually. And reporters back then later were saying, 'We don't know if she's okay.' We don't even know where she is or what happened to her. So. I do know that her name was Minnie Horry on the marriage certificate. So she remarried. Later. Yeah, I can look. Oh, so Edwards was her last name later. Mm-hmm. Okay, so then we know he didn't kill her, so that's good. Yeah, she died in 1943 in Santa Barbara. Okay, so we know he didn't kill her. Good for her. Good for her. Yep, she... Yeah. Good. Shoot, she had a lot of siblings too. Anyways. All right. She lived. She lived. She made it. Well, that's good. All right. So he worked as a fireman for the Southern Pacific Railway for a while. He got hired at the Associated Pipeline Company in Fresno, California in March of 1922. And then he joined the Merchant Marines as a cook on the Pacific coast and he was discharged in 1924. And then his brother died, and he went to Oklahoma where he married his brother's widow. And you know what happened after that. So, there's George, awaiting his execution, and cheerfully telling his whole story to every reporter who's willing to listen, and he swears he's not a liar, and he will give any detail necessary to prove it. Now, you may be wondering why Marie Vogel's family never reported her missing. And you're not alone. I'm also wondering, well, her sister, Gertrude Hoffman, actually... called the police in Whittier, California in 1925 and said that her sister, Marie Vogel, had been living there and perhaps she was Marie Hassel by that time. Time because maybe she had married George Hassel. She spoke to Constable Way, who had gone to the Baker house to check out the garage, if you recall. So Constable Way didn't make any connection between George Baker or the names Vogel or Hassel. And why should he have? You know, because the names didn't match up. But Marie's sister didn't know that Marie was living under an assumed name. Life would have been so much easier if they had the internet. So they did make an attempt to locate Maria and the kids, though it was eight years after they had gone missing. You know, it was eight years after the last time they'd seen them. So they waited a while. But when it came time for George Hassel to prove that he had murdered Maria and the kids, he did. He actually drew a chart of the house and like the underneath and he, you know, to direct them straight to where the hole would be so they could find the body. and it was sent by telegram to the police in Whittier, and the directions were correct. The four skeletons were located by Constable Way and his team, all four skeletons were intact, and the stockings and rope were still firmly tied around their necks. You know, at least he was forthcoming. Yep. Well, he says the reason why he did it, why he told them, is because the thought of someday them finding the skeletons and someone else being accused and being punished for the murder. It was, it just would be terrible. Like that would be unforgivable. Someone else doing time for his crime. Mm. That would be just awful. I have been wondering. Like if people were living in the house at the time. Oh, yeah. Probably. Oh, yeah. Yeah. When I did a Google search of that address, it was, yeah, people lived there. And like, there was a lady who was selling like jam, always in the paper for years out of the house. People were living there. Yeah. All right. So now, when it came time to talk about what would happen with George's body after his death, it didn't sound like any of his family members were going to claim his body or, like, take him to be buried anywhere special, like around their family members. Susie Hassel's father did have two specific requests though. Now I'm going to read this to you as it's written in the article. The second part blows my mind. So here it is. Here's how it's written. Members of the Ferguson family had but two requests to make in the disposition of the body of Hassel, that it not be buried with the bodies of Mrs. Hassel and her eight children, and that the head of the executed man be placed north, the grave of a convicted criminal. Now, Olivia, I looked this up the other day, the custom of placing the head of a convicted criminal to the north, because I had never heard of this before, and I cannot find anything. anything about it. Not that it was done anytime in history or that it was done anywhere. It's like it never happened. And yet, here it is in print. 1927 in the newspaper. So, if anyone listening is a historian and knows anything about this, please reach out to us at forgottenfelonies@gmail. com and tell me more about this burial custom for convicted criminals. I did say, I just Googled it too. Um. And it says, for religious reasons, the head is typically facing the west and the feet the east. So that they, if they were to sit up like raised from the dead, they're facing the east. Yeah, because... It symbolizes. They would face the rising sun. Resurrection of Christ. Maybe it's so that... Confused? The-So Jesus can know that they were convicts. I don't know. Well, I saw that usually... People who were outcasts or whatever would be buried on the north side of the cemetery. Because it would get, like, less sun or, like, something like that. But never, like, that you would have the head, like, pointed, like, placed north. You know what I mean? And that that would be the grave of a convicted criminal. That's interesting. So like that's different. I couldn't find that that was ever done anywhere. So. But there it was. I mean, like, it was written as if, like, this is a thing. So I'm like, where? When? Tell me. I need to know. But anyway, so as I said before, the execution date was originally set for February 25th of 1927. It did get pushed back a couple times. Eventually, it was set for February 10th of 1928. So almost a whole year pushed back. So six days before his execution, George sat down with a reporter for one final interview. And this time, his recounting of his life and crimes was slightly different. This time, he said that Marie Vogel in California wasn't arguing with him about the draft. He said that they were talking and laughing until 2 a. m. that night, and he just suddenly found himself choking her out of nowhere, and he doesn't know why. As for the Texas killings, he said that he and his wife were arguing about his oldest stepson, the 21-year-old, not the 13-year-old. He says he got out of bed and went to the table, and Susie came out and put her arms around him and begged him to come back to bed. He says he went to the barn for a drink of whiskey, went into the room. His wife said something, and then he hit her with the hammer and killed all the kids. I did see an article from her family that was like, she wasn't even happy with her first husband. We don't know why she married back into the family. Right? I think she just needed somebody to help with the kids, you know? I don't know. Also, in this new version, he said that when he was in Norfolk, Virginia, for desertion from the Navy, he was actually there as an employee. And was discharged in 1914. So, wasn't even in prison. Sure. And so I think he was losing his marbles a little bit. But remember, he doesn't lie. Right. Yeah. No, at the end there, I think he was just losing it. So on February 9th, the day before his execution, George declined a spell. His two sisters were there and one cousin. The sisters didn't want to stay for the actual execution. They didn't want to watch. But they did visit him several times over the days preceding his death. At midnight on that early morning of February 10th, 1928, Warden N. L. Speer made a request of all the men in the execution chamber. He said, 'There's just one thing I want to request of you men. Please do not say one word. Let's all be quiet.' And now the rest of this is written word for word by Ed Ryder, who was a staff correspondent for the Houston Chronicle back in 1928. And he wrote it so eloquently. So I'm just going to read it to you guys word for word. Soon the little narrow door at the end of death row opened. A guard walked in. A rather short, heavy-set man followed. Two guards were close behind him. He was tense, but wholly in control of himself. Warden Spear stood almost directly in front of the chair. Hassel, eyes glued on the warden, stopped abruptly two or three feet from Captain Spear. George began the warden. It was the first sound in ages. Have you anything to say? Yes, sir, I have, Hassel answered in a firm, almost loud voice. I have sinned against the world, but I have made a full confession to my God. Man does not understand, but my God does. He paused. Then he added, 'That is all.' And it was. The guards worked rapidly with the electrodes. In the last moments, there was a grimness. Hassel knew the meaning of all of this. When the electrodes had been placed on Hassel's leg and head, and then tested and tried by the attendants, Warden Speer stepped behind the curtain at the rear of the chair. The attendants stepped back. Silence— shrieked, God, wasn't anything going to happen. Then came a long moaning, whining, whir of the prison dynamo. The body bulged in the chair. A popping sound, a glow came over the bare leg above the electrode. The lights went dim just a few seconds, but it seemed to observers that there was no end. It was bright once again, something to be thankful for. The guards stepped close and peered at the body in the chair. They stepped back. Apparently, all was going well. Once again, the hum of the dynamo. The glow on the man's leg brightened. The ghastly job was nearer done. Silence again. Bright lights. Another inspection. But no words. The man behind the curtain needed none. A third time, Warden Spear jammed that lever down. This time, the sizzling is intensified. An odor pervades the room. Reporters look around to see how their fellow workers are taking it. The whining ceases. The job is done.

At 12: 1:18:12

31 a. m. Then came the doctor's words. I pronounce George Hassel dead. This came at 12. 31, eight minutes after the first thrust of the lever. That's gross. Sorry. Dude. The fact that his leg was lighting up. Sorry! I had a stink face the whole time. I saw that. I looked over and I was like, uh-oh. Trigger warning. That's why my students love me. So... That's the story of George Hassel, two-time eraser killer. It's interesting how, I mean, He killed them both the same way. I do think it's interesting that he... Tried suicide the second time. But only because... they came to the door and were asking questions and it was like, oh shoot. Because if they hadn't, if they hadn't, he probably would have just. Gone on with his life, found the next girlfriend, found the next, you know. Just kept on doing what he was doing. No. And as I told you earlier, I also heard from the podcast I listened to, James. When he found out his dad was on death row, wrote a letter to get some answers. I don't know if you got them, but. He was like... That's my dad. Wild. I know at the end, he stopped talking to reporters. When they were asking him questions about the murders, he was like, 'Just go look it up. It's all in the records.' And then he would just like stare out the window. Wouldn't talk to him. So, yeah, I don't know. But I wonder if it had something to do with the fact that he had been contacted by his son and now he was like, 'Oh, geez.' Yeah. I don't know. But yeah, so there was question. They thought, I mean, a lot of people back then were saying that, you know, we probably don't even know the half of it. He probably had so many more victims because, you know, he did have. The three marriages, and we know that the first one, she's still alive. Now we know, because of the records and stuff, that the second one is still alive. And then the third wife, you know, is dead. And then he had the seven live-in girlfriends that he admitted to. And we know that, we just know that Marie Vogel is dead. So what happened to the other six? Um, And then. All of the other flings, countless flings in 37 states, you know. So it's possible there were more. He did say that he didn't believe anyone was doing time for any crimes that he had ever committed. Um, But. Like. I don't know. I feel like if there were more murders, he probably would have talked about it because he was. Yeah, he was very open. Yeah. I mean, what did he have to lose? He was going to die anyway, you know. And I mean, he himself, he was like, well, it would be a shame if anyone ever took the blame for a murder that I committed. So, I mean, I feel like he would have been like, 'Hey, I did this thing. Here's where you can find the body.' I wouldn't want anyone else to, you know, take the fall for it. Yeah. It's nice that he did say where Marie and the kids were, because if they found them in like 2026, they would have been like, 'Who are these people?' They never would have figured it out either, because there was no... Mm-hmm. No record. I mean, maybe they could have done, like, some DNA testing. Yeah. Maybe. Well, yeah, that's our story. But yeah, I don't think he had any other victims personally, just because he was so apt to talk. Yeah. Well, shout outs to... Find a Grave, Ancestry, Family Search, Newspapers, the Southern Mysteries podcast. Where I learned some fun tidbits of information. Nice. But, um... Ricky said, like we were talking about the Mabel, we were messaging about the Mabel Schofield. One and she said that she loves how, at the end, when I have just like the fade out conversation, and you have us just, like, talking and stuff. She likes that. Um... But, uh... it's funny because then I was like, because she hadn't listened to the um, the Asa Carey one yet, and we don't have a fade out conversation on that one. I didn't want to break her heart, so I didn't say anything. So this will probably make it into the fade out. Sorry, Ricky. Bye, Ricky. Anyway, so, okay. I did cut out that part last time where you were like, 'I have to use the bathroom.' Right before you said that, um... We were like, it was like the end and we did the shout outs and everything. And then I was like, okay. Or like, I think you said it first, but you were like, 'okay.' And I said, 'okay.' And then right after that, you said, 'I have to use the bathroom.' And then that's where I stopped recording. And so I cut it off right after both of us said it. So that's how it ended. Like, the song, the music stopped. It got all the way to the end, the music stopped, and then you said, 'K.' And I said, K. And then it stopped. You could have put the bathroom part in. You probably would have liked that. Knowing your personality. I just need the world to know when I use that one. And when you do have that one ad. Great bathroom. I did. I got rid of it. I should get it and get it back. Yeah. Okay. Shout out. Make it a sponsor. Sponsor us. Do you ever need to use the bathroom but want to make sure it's a good one? I really gotta poop, I wanna know where to go. Who has the best toilet paper? POOPMAD You can follow each other. Thank you. Thank you for watching. I don't know who shows up when he's pumped. I want to poop where Olivia pooped. Wow.