Baby John: The Boy Who Lived Through Fire - Part 1

In 1907, a judge’s home in Oakland, CA was blown apart by a homemade bomb. For months, the case went unsolved — until a trail of clues led not to a hardened criminal, but to a sixteen-year-old boy known as “Baby John.”

Episode 1 uncovers the hidden truth behind that headline: Baby John was not a prodigy of crime, but a child raised in isolation and fear under the control of Isabella J. Martin, one of the most destructive women in California’s early legal history.

This chapter follows the path that brought him into Isabella Martin's unforgiving grip and uncovers what his childhood was really like. We explore his origins and see his "mother" escalate in her thirst for more and more. Nothing was ever good enough for her—especially not Baby John.

Vintage ads featured:

• Sexol, 1894
• American Fuel Co., 1908

Transcript

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[Olivia S] What do dynamite babies and princesses have in common?[Olivia S] You're about to find out on this episode of Forgotten Felonies.[Monica M] Welcome back to Forgotten Felonies.[Monica M] I'm Monica.[Monica M] And I'm Olivia.[Monica M] And this is where we take you back in time to rediscover the tales[Monica M] of vintage villainy that time forgot.[Monica M] For the next couple episodes here on Forgotten Felonies,[Monica M] we have a real treat.[Monica M] Let me explain what happened.[Monica M] Those of you who are in our Facebook group probably saw a screenshot[Monica M] I posted three weeks ago of a random news article that said[Monica M] something about a bomb and someone named Baby John.[Monica M] I had found the article while researching a crime committed by Zolly Clement,[Monica M] the subject of our previous episode.[Monica M] When I posted the screenshot,[Monica M] I had no idea what the case was about,[Monica M] and out of context,[Monica M] the article made me think of the crime family from the movie Goonies.[Monica M] In that movie,[Monica M] the leader of the gang is the elderly mother and her two adult sons[Monica M] carry out the crimes for her.[Monica M] Well,[Monica M] the following morning,[Monica M] while drinking my coffee,[Monica M] I decided to look up a few more articles about Baby John just to see what it was about.[Monica M] And I saw that he was referred to as a boy.[Monica M] And it turned out that he was indeed a teenager.[Monica M] And as I kept reading these stories,[Monica M] it just got crazy.[Monica M] Crazier and crazier.[Monica M] So I went to find a grave to look up his memorial,[Monica M] and I saw a comment left there that said something to the tune of[Monica M] , 'Your story will be told correctly.' And that right there just[Monica M] sealed the deal for me.[Monica M] We have to tell Baby John's story.[Monica M] I reached out to the person who left the comment on Find a Grave,[Monica M] and it turned out to be a man named Mike Detweiler who has been[Monica M] heavily researching this case since about 2012.[Monica M] He was very excited that Olivia and I are taking on this case.[Monica M] As I researched and uncovered things,[Monica M] I'd email him with what I'd found,[Monica M] and then he would elaborate with more detail.[Olivia S] And then I did some research on Facebook for information,[Olivia S] and I actually found the great-great-grandson of Baby John,[Olivia S] and he had posted a few pictures.[Olivia S] His name is also John.[Monica M] So I reached out to him and he is also excited the case will be covered.[Monica M] So then we set up a Zoom meeting with all four of us and we talked for three hours.[Monica M] So there will be just a few bits and pieces of that included in the episode.[Monica M] Not a whole lot,[Monica M] but just a little bit of it is going to be included.[Monica M] John shared with us some never-before-shared documents that he got[Monica M] from San Quentin prison.[Monica M] And he actually gave us permission to share that information on the podcast.[Olivia S] Oh yeah,[Olivia S] you won't find that information anywhere else.[Olivia S] You heard it here first.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] truth be told,[Monica M] this story isn't exactly forgotten.[Monica M] Isabella J.[Monica M] Martin has been written about many times over in the last century,[Monica M] and she'll probably be written about over and over,[Monica M] over the next century.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] it's usually in the same tone.[Monica M] She's written about as a bizarre criminal genius,[Monica M] a courtroom menace,[Monica M] or a local eccentric who,[Monica M] along with her adopted son,[Monica M] baby John,[Monica M] became dangerous.[Monica M] And while those parts of the story are true,[Monica M] they're also...[Monica M] incomplete.[Monica M] Because almost every version of this story gets one thing wrong.[Monica M] They treat baby John as her accomplice.[Monica M] They don't ask what kind of childhood creates a child bomber,[Monica M] or even more importantly,[Monica M] what choice did he have?[Monica M] The deeper you go into this case,[Monica M] the clearer it becomes.[Monica M] Baby John was not raised.[Monica M] He was kept.[Monica M] He was hidden,[Monica M] controlled,[Monica M] manipulated.[Monica M] used.[Monica M] He didn't grow up with schoolmates,[Monica M] cousins or friends.[Monica M] He didn't grow up with teachers or neighbors checking on him.[Monica M] He grew up under Isabella's thumb,[Monica M] a woman who believed she could bend the world to her will and who[Monica M] enforced that belief inside her home.[Monica M] Through years of beratings and brutal beatings,[Monica M] Baby John eventually learned that obedience wasn't loyalty.[Monica M] It was survival.[Monica M] This is not the story of a boy who became a criminal.[Monica M] This is the story of a boy who was never allowed to be anything else,[Monica M] and who,[Monica M] against all odds,[Monica M] found the courage to expose the truth and end the nightmare.[Monica M] This is the story of John Bidwell Martin,[Monica M] mostly known as Baby John,[Monica M] the victim who became the hero.[Monica M] March 19,[Monica M] 1907 was a rainy spring night in Oakland,[Monica M] California.[Monica M] Just before 10 p.[Monica M] m.,[Monica M] the home of Judge Frank Ogden at 1175 Alice Street shook so[Monica M] violently that the windows blew inward.[Monica M] Plaster rained from the ceilings.[Monica M] The explosion was so massive that neighbors came running into the street,[Monica M] convinced there had been an earthquake.[Monica M] But this wasn't the end.[Monica M] wasn't an act of nature.[Monica M] This was a bomb made with 12 sticks of dynamite purposely placed on[Monica M] Judge Ogden's front porch with his wife and children inside the home.[Monica M] Someone had planted a homemade dynamite bomb literally on the[Monica M] judge's porch and lit a 50-foot fuse.[Monica M] And when investigators eventually learned who set it off,[Monica M] they found something they were not prepared for.[Monica M] At first,[Monica M] investigators thought it must have been a political attack or a[Monica M] revenge plot by a disgruntled litigant.[Monica M] And honestly,[Monica M] they were partly right.[Monica M] Imagined or even considered was that the person who lit the fuse[Monica M] wasn't even an adult.[Monica M] It was a child.[Monica M] A thin,[Monica M] baby-faced,[Monica M] 15-year-old boy named John Bidwell Martin.[Monica M] But to everyone who knew him,[Monica M] his name was Baby John.[Monica M] And behind him,[Monica M] behind the match he struck,[Monica M] behind every stick of dynamite,[Monica M] every scheme,[Monica M] was one woman.[Monica M] His mother,[Monica M] Isabella J.[Monica M] Martin.[Monica M] Her mind had been sharpening itself against the world for decades by this point.[Monica M] She believed the law existed to be bent,[Monica M] challenged,[Monica M] and punished.[Monica M] Her grievances ran so deep that she tried to erase them with fire.[Monica M] That bomb actually wasn't the first,[Monica M] nor was it the last.[Monica M] It should have been the moment everything unraveled,[Monica M] though.[Monica M] Something with that kind of optics,[Monica M] out in the open against such a public figure,[Monica M] that should have brought her down.[Monica M] But it didn't.[Monica M] For months,[Monica M] this case went unsolved,[Monica M] and the trail went cold.[Monica M] All of the judges in Oakland put up a $1,[Monica M] 000 reward for information leading to the responsible party,[Monica M] but nobody had any leads to share.[Monica M] And while they searched for clues,[Monica M] Isabella went on with her regular life,[Monica M] traipsing across the country,[Monica M] leaving utter chaos in her wake.[Monica M] Ultimately,[Monica M] this woman down wasn't a bomb.[Monica M] It was a trail of footprints in the snow leading to a modest cabin in Trinity County,[Monica M] California,[Monica M] from a giant heap of ashes that were once a big cattle barn.[Monica M] These footprints were left in the snow by a now 16-year-old boy who[Monica M] could no longer hide what he had been forced to do.[Monica M] Why was the 16-year-old boy out in the freezing winter striking a[Monica M] match against a barn he begged not to burn down?[Monica M] To understand how he wound up setting off bombs and burning down multiple properties,[Monica M] and to understand how he became the hero of this entire case,[Monica M] you simply have to go back to the beginning.[Monica M] You have to go back to Isabella.[Olivia S] Isabella Josephine Bidwell was born to Gilbert G.[Olivia S] Bidwell and his wife,[Olivia S] Azenath Cornelia Kingsbury Bidwell,[Olivia S] on June 22,[Olivia S] 1852,[Olivia S] in Stillwater Junction,[Olivia S] Saratoga,[Olivia S] New York.[Olivia S] She was the second of three girls.[Olivia S] She and her family primarily lived in Elmira,[Olivia S] New York,[Olivia S] while she was growing up.[Olivia S] According to the 1865 and 1880 censuses,[Olivia S] her father was a farmer and an ice peddler.[Olivia S] But some sources in 1893 say that he was a butcher.[Olivia S] She married her first husband,[Olivia S] Jacob Bowman Hoffman,[Olivia S] in 1873.[Olivia S] With him,[Olivia S] she had two children,[Olivia S] Sarah C.[Olivia S] Hoffman,[Olivia S] who went by Sadie,[Olivia S] born June 1874 in New York,[Olivia S] and Henry Kingsbury Hoffman,[Olivia S] born August 15,[Olivia S] 1876,[Olivia S] also in New York.[Monica M] By all accounts,[Monica M] Isabella was a gorgeous young lady.[Monica M] She got a lot of attention from all the menfolk in Elmira,[Monica M] New York.[Monica M] It's said that even traveling...[Monica M] salesmen would come through town and stop to see her,[Monica M] and then they'd go on these long buggy rides,[Monica M] which was very scandalous for the 1800s.[Monica M] She had men falling at her feet,[Monica M] and this meant she could be choosy.[Monica M] She had dreams of diamonds and beautiful gowns,[Monica M] so she paid the most attention to men with a lot of money.[Monica M] Her first marriage was to a man who was a successful farmer and business owner,[Monica M] and because of Isabella's love for attention,[Monica M] the marriage ended in scandal.[Monica M] According to the newspapers,[Monica M] Isabella had been pretty free with her affections,[Monica M] and it caused a lot of strain in her marriage with Jacob Hoffman.[Monica M] Then Isabella got cozy with a married man.[Monica M] When that sort of thing happened,[Monica M] the jilted spouse could accuse the mistress of alienating the[Monica M] affections of my husband.[Monica M] And that's just what the man's wife did.[Monica M] She made a public accusation against Isabella Hoffman and even presented evidence.[Monica M] At that point,[Monica M] Jacob realized he needed to end the marriage for the same reason[Monica M] . 'For the sake of his self-respect.' They didn't get divorced right away,[Monica M] but they separated,[Monica M] and Isabella moved to Philadelphia,[Monica M] Pennsylvania.[Monica M] She took both of her kids with her.[Monica M] And Henry,[Monica M] and I don't know exactly what year they separated,[Monica M] but I know that the divorce was made final in 1883.[Monica M] So this was 10 years after they had been married.[Monica M] Sadie would have been about nine years old at that time,[Monica M] and Henry would have been seven when the divorce was final.[Monica M] Sadie wasn't fond of her mother though,[Monica M] so when Isabella first moved the kids to Philadelphia,[Monica M] Sadie soon ran away to her grandmother's house where she was[Monica M] returned to her father's care.[Monica M] Isabella wasn't about to have that,[Monica M] so she and Henry traveled back to New York to collect Sadie,[Monica M] but this backfired and Jacob wound up with both of the children.[Monica M] One article I read said that Jacob then moved the children to Wichita,[Monica M] Kansas,[Monica M] and he got them into school and all was going well until Isabella[Monica M] had him arrested for kidnapping.[Monica M] So she eventually dropped the charges,[Monica M] and then her son Henry was given back to her.[Monica M] And unfortunately,[Monica M] I don't have a precise timeline on this,[Monica M] so I don't know if it was...[Monica M] years later or not.[Monica M] But I do know that at some point when she was living in Philadelphia,[Monica M] she moved into a rooming house in May of 1886.[Monica M] and there's no mention of her having either child living with her.[Monica M] And four days later,[Monica M] four days after moving in,[Monica M] the house caught fire.[Monica M] The furniture and the jewelry inside were a loss.[Monica M] Everyone got out except for Isabella.[Monica M] She was on a second-story balcony calling for help and eventually[Monica M] had to jump because nobody came fast enough.[Olivia S] Um,[Olivia S] she was probably hoping a really attractive fireman from the time[Olivia S] would come to her rescue.[Olivia S] That is exactly what I was thinking.[Monica M] She probably chose not to run out the door like everyone else and[Monica M] went up there to call for help,[Monica M] but didn't realize how hot it was going to get before help could arrive.[Monica M] But yeah,[Monica M] I would assume,[Monica M] knowing what I know,[Monica M] that she probably started that fire.[Monica M] But anyway,[Monica M] so that fire was in 1886,[Monica M] and not long afterward,[Monica M] Isabella had...[Monica M] moved to California.[Monica M] It turns out that she actually headed over there to see if she could[Monica M] live with an uncle who supposedly had quite a lot of money.[Monica M] But when she arrived,[Monica M] she found that he just had a measly little farm and it wasn't anything fancy,[Monica M] but Isabella wanted to live a very lavish lifestyle,[Monica M] so she made her way to a mining community where the rich miners lived.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] the details on when she initially arrived in California are murky.[Monica M] One article from 1908 says that she initially moved to Weaverville,[Monica M] California in 1882,[Monica M] but we know that she was living in Philadelphia.[Monica M] In 1886,[Monica M] when her house burned down,[Monica M] but one thing you need to know about Isabella is that she was[Monica M] constantly on the move from state to state because she always had[Monica M] access to heaps and gobs of money.[Monica M] She could travel whenever and wherever she wanted,[Monica M] and she had multiple homes at all times.[Monica M] So it is possible that the first time she went to Weaverville was in 1882.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] apparently,[Monica M] she took up residence at a hotel in Weaverville.[Monica M] And caught the eyes and the affections of quite a number of men there.[Monica M] She was the talk of the town because of how inappropriately she behaved.[Monica M] I love it.[Monica M] And when she first arrived in 1882,[Monica M] according to that article,[Monica M] she wasn't even divorced from her husband yet.[Monica M] And she had a nickname at the hotel.[Monica M] She was called Lady Bell.[Monica M] You can probably imagine she didn't make a lot of female friends.[Monica M] But eventually,[Monica M] she caught the eye of John Martin,[Monica M] a man who had arrived in Trinity County way back in 1849 with the gold rush.[Monica M] He was much older than she was.[Monica M] In the year 1882,[Monica M] Isabella was 30 years old and John Martin was 55.[Monica M] John and his brother were in the mining business,[Monica M] though John wasn't into it as much as his brother Henry.[Monica M] John also owned his own livery stable in Weaverville.[Olivia S] Can you remind me and our audience what a livery stable is?[Olivia S] Yes.[Monica M] So it's basically a place where people could go and rent horses or horses and buggies,[Monica M] or they could hire a hack,[Monica M] which is a taxi,[Monica M] to drive them somewhere.[Monica M] Like a taxi barn or something,[Monica M] but when they were horses.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] John Martin was a wealthy man and he fell hard for this beautiful woman.[Monica M] And they got married on January 18th of 1888.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] something really interesting happened here.[Monica M] This was very interesting to track in the papers.[Monica M] They got married in San Francisco.[Monica M] That's where she had actually been living.[Monica M] And they spent their honeymoon in Santa Barbara.[Monica M] And then they barely ever lived together.[Monica M] Like at all.[Monica M] It was weird.[Monica M] They had a really,[Monica M] really lavish home on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco.[Monica M] And that's where Isabella preferred to be because she was all,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] uppity.[Monica M] and fancy and diamonds and gowns and all of that.[Monica M] But then John often went back to Weaverville by himself.[Monica M] The newspapers were all gossipy,[Monica M] of course.[Monica M] And they printed something in April of 1888,[Monica M] so just a few months after the wedding,[Monica M] and it said that he had come back to Weaverville without the new Mrs.[Monica M] Martin because she wasn't feeling well,[Monica M] it said.

[Monica M] And he said, 'There's a quote from him: 15:59

he said he didn't like[Monica M] Southern California very much and he didn't want to live there.[Monica M] And that's how it went from the time they got married in January of[Monica M] 1888 until the middle of 1890.[Monica M] So for two and a half years,[Monica M] she stayed primarily in San Francisco and he would just go down[Monica M] there to visit a few times a year.[Monica M] There were a few times where she came to Weaverville to see him.[Monica M] But she mostly was in San Francisco,[Monica M] according to you know,[Monica M] because the newspapers would say, 'Oh,[Monica M] he left on Sunday to be down there' and then,[Monica M] you see,[Monica M] when it says he came back,[Monica M] like, 'Yeah.' And sometimes it would say, 'This time he has Mrs.[Monica M] Martin with him.' So,[Monica M] I mean,[Monica M] it was really interesting.[Monica M] I have a whole timeline tracking their movements,[Monica M] and they were hardly ever living together.[Monica M] Interesting.[Monica M] Yeah,[Monica M] it was very interesting.[Monica M] But yeah,[Monica M] so now Isabella was in Weaverville at the end of summer in 1890.[Monica M] And on the night of September 3rd,[Monica M] 1890,[Monica M] when Isabella was all alone in John Martin's house,[Monica M] a fire broke out.[Olivia S] Oh,[Olivia S] no.[Olivia S] Kind of sounds like she wanted her husband to move to San Francisco.[Monica M] Yeah,[Monica M] well,[Monica M] oddly,[Monica M] the neighbor's dog had been intentionally poisoned with[Monica M] arsenic-laced meat the day before.[Monica M] And it was said that this dog would have...[Monica M] have barked and alerted his owners if,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] he had seen a fire.[Monica M] By the time Isabella alerted anyone,[Monica M] though,[Monica M] it was already a raging inferno.[Monica M] No.[Monica M] And it wound up setting Whitmore's large two-story hall next to it on fire.[Monica M] And then the residence and carpenter shop of E.[Monica M] W.[Monica M] Wallace and a church caught fire.[Monica M] Like this was giant.[Monica M] And nothing could be saved except for some furniture of Mr.[Monica M] Wallace's.[Monica M] And then the church was able to be saved.[Monica M] Wow.[Monica M] Yeah.[Monica M] So just looking at John Martin's home and everything in it,[Monica M] I mean,[Monica M] because the whole thing was gone.[Monica M] And that was a $10,[Monica M] 000 loss.[Monica M] And the insurance was only for $7,[Monica M] 500.[Monica M] Yes,[Monica M] basically everything that was burned,[Monica M] the insurance was not enough to cover the amount of the loss for[Monica M] everything that night.[Monica M] And she was accused of setting the fire,[Monica M] and of course she denied it.[Monica M] Until many years later,[Monica M] she admitted it.[Monica M] Well,[Monica M] there we go.[Monica M] Mm-hmm.[Monica M] So she started that fire.[Monica M] On purpose.[Monica M] Yep.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] a couple months later,[Monica M] November of 1890,[Monica M] Isabella went to San Francisco,[Monica M] and she didn't go back to Weaverville for a very long time.[Monica M] She had something up her sleeve.[Monica M] In March of 1891,[Monica M] John Martin went back to Weaverville from San Francisco.[Monica M] The paper said he'd been in San Francisco for the previous two months.[Monica M] When he went to Weaverville,[Monica M] Isabella decided to go to San Francisco.[Monica M] To take a trip over to New York,[Monica M] where she got a room at the Imperial Hotel.[Monica M] She gambled,[Monica M] she bought a baby,[Monica M] she went to fancy dinners.[Monica M] Hold on,[Monica M] did you just say she bought a baby?[Monica M] Oh,[Monica M] yeah,[Monica M] she bought a baby.[Monica M] Here's Mike Detweiler explaining what he found about the baby's origins.[Mike D] He was bought off the street.[Mike D] He was just a,[Mike D] you know,[Mike D] I could tell you a lot about that,[Mike D] actually.[Mike D] Okay,[Mike D] go.[Mike D] Okay,[Mike D] well,[Mike D] so Isabella went out there to New York.[Mike D] And she was going around hospitals and asking anybody,[Mike D] you know,[Mike D] like,[Mike D] when can I get a baby?[Mike D] When can I get a baby?[Mike D] You know?[Mike D] And finally,[Mike D] she found this sort of like hippie woman.[Mike D] Like,[Mike D] keep in mind,[Mike D] I mean,[Mike D] this was like 80 years before any actual hippies.[Mike D] But this woman was like this English woman.[Mike D] was Josephine Plowsday.[Mike D] And she was sort of like a midwife,[Mike D] but also sort of like this weird hippie that just felt like,[Mike D] you know,[Mike D] oh,[Mike D] yeah,[Mike D] the vibes are right.[Mike D] So,[Mike D] like,[Mike D] you can go with this.[Mike D] But,[Mike D] you know,[Mike D] she was just,[Mike D] I guess,[Mike D] corrupt or not.[Mike D] I don't think of her as being corrupt.[Mike D] I think of her as having a really weird idea of how the world should be.[Mike D] And it's like,[Mike D] yeah,[Mike D] sure,[Mike D] you want the baby,[Mike D] and here's this baby that got dumped off or something like that.[Mike D] So I don't exactly know how that happened,[Mike D] but she facilitated it.[Mike D] She got this doctor who sounds like a real person.[Mike D] Just you know,[Mike D] he was just like, 'Give me the money and I'll sign the paper.' You know,[Mike D] and so Van Valza or something like that.[Mike D] He just signed the paper,[Mike D] and then that legitimized the thing.[Mike D] Oh yeah,[Mike D] this is your baby now.[Mike D] And so John probably got into that situation with Plowsday and the[Mike D] hospital or wherever it was.[Mike D] I think it was Plowsday's house,[Mike D] actually,[Mike D] that,[Mike D] you know,[Mike D] they actually arranged that.[Mike D] But whatever it was,[Mike D] he was probably like a foundling that they just,[Mike D] you know,[Mike D] showed up on somebody's doorstep or something.[Mike D] We can't take care of this kid.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] who even knows what's truly accurate?[Monica M] Isabella told different people different stories.[Monica M] She told baby John himself that a nurse brought him from a hospital.[Monica M] To the hotel,[Monica M] and put him in a closet.[Monica M] And then they called the doctor and Mrs.[Monica M] Plowsday over,[Monica M] and I guess Isabella pretended she had just been in labor,[Monica M] and the nurse said she'd helped her give birth to the baby.[Monica M] Dr.[Monica M] Van Valza just had to sign the birth certificate.[Monica M] I don't really know where the part about putting him in the closet comes into play,[Monica M] but that's what he said,[Monica M] like twice on the stand when he was asked.[Monica M] But yeah,[Monica M] so the nurse put him in the closet,[Monica M] according to what she told him.[Monica M] But anyway,[Monica M] so according to what he was told,[Monica M] everyone was fooled except for the nurse,[Monica M] because the nurse was the one who brought the baby from the hospital.[Monica M] But yeah,[Monica M] there were different stories.[Olivia S] Interesting.[Olivia S] So what did her husband say about that?[Monica M] Well,[Monica M] Isabella showed back up in California in May of 1891 and presented John with his son.[Monica M] And she told him she'd been...[Monica M] pregnant and she had a baby while she was on vacation and she named the baby after him.[Monica M] So little John Bidwell Martin,[Monica M] who she called baby John.[Monica M] Now apparently her husband may have had his own doubts,[Monica M] but he kept them to himself.[Monica M] But his brother,[Monica M] Henry Martin,[Monica M] he knew right off the bat there was no way this was John's kid.[Monica M] Henry saw through Isabella right from the start,[Monica M] and he despised her.[Monica M] He could not stand her.[Monica M] But on May 16,[Monica M] 1891,[Monica M] there is an article in the New York Times.[Monica M] Printed in a San Francisco newspaper that says, 'Master John Martin Jr.[Monica M] arrived early this week and is with his parents,[Monica M] Isabella and John Martin,[Monica M] in their house.[Monica M] elegant suite of apartments in the San Carlos at Broadway and 31st Street.[Monica M] Whether or not John Martin Sr.[Monica M] believed it,[Monica M] there was nothing he could do about it.[Monica M] Baby John was here to stay.[Monica M] He now had an heir.[Monica M] And just in time,[Monica M] too,[Monica M] because just 14 months later...[Monica M] Don't tell me,[Monica M] a funeral?[Monica M] Yep.[Monica M] So,[Monica M] Mr.[Monica M] John Martin— years old— gets very,[Monica M] very sick and dies on July 31st,[Monica M] 1892.[Monica M] And I mean,[Monica M] he was so sick.[Monica M] The doctors put down that he died of laryngitis,[Monica M] paresis,[Monica M] gastritis,[Monica M] and enteritis,[Monica M] which,[Monica M] by the way,[Monica M] these happen to be symptoms of arsenic poisoning?[Monica M] And everyone in Weaverville knew it.[Monica M] A witness had heard Isabella actually pressing John to take more medicine,[Monica M] and he had actually said to her, 'I've taken enough of your medicine already.' The doctors even found an empty bottle of arsenic in a drawer in the house.[Monica M] But still,[Monica M] the doctors signed the insurance certificate and she was paid $10,[Monica M] 000 in life insurance.[Olivia S] That has the purchasing power of about $356,[Olivia S] 017.[Olivia S] 58 in today's 2025 American dollars.[Olivia S] That is insane.[Monica M] Well,[Monica M] people insisted that they do an autopsy and Isabella was very much against it.[Monica M] She finally told Dr.[Monica M] Blake, 'If you do mutilate him and find anything,[Monica M] it will be arsenic,[Monica M] as he has been taking it for rheumatism.' So there was no reason to look,[Monica M] really,[Monica M] since they already knew it was there.[Monica M] Right.[Monica M] And she was giving them an explanation.[Monica M] Like, 'There you go.' So,[Monica M] yeah,[Monica M] that life insurance was a nice chunk of change.[Monica M] On top of that,[Monica M] though,[Monica M] John Martin's estate was worth about $100,[Monica M] 000,[Monica M] and that included several properties that he owned in San Francisco and Weaverville.[Monica M] So,[Monica M] Isabella,[Monica M] she's now a landlord with some passive income,[Monica M] right?[Monica M] So that's a pretty cozy spot in which to be sitting.[Monica M] But you know what she did?[Monica M] No,[Monica M] what?[Monica M] Okay,[Monica M] so it turns out that prior to marrying him,[Monica M] she and her son,[Monica M] Henry Hoffman,— her older son— had been boarding at the home of an[Monica M] older lady named Jenny Tibbetts at 504 Gary Street in San Francisco.[Monica M] Isabella left from there to go to New York and then came back and married John Martin.[Monica M] After he died in 1892,[Monica M] Isabella moved back in with Jenny Tibbetts,[Monica M] but she didn't bring baby John with her.[Monica M] She sent baby John to live with a nurse on Garden Street in San Francisco,[Monica M] and the nurse would just bring baby John over to visit.[Monica M] This was the living arrangement for five months.[Monica M] At the time of John Martin's death on July 31st of 1892,[Monica M] baby John would have been right around 15 months old,[Monica M] so a year and three months,[Monica M] and she just handed him off to a nurse.[Monica M] But you know what?[Monica M] Every time the papers said that she went to Weaverville after he was born,[Monica M] it never mentioned the baby.[Monica M] Like it wouldn't surprise me if the nurse had been keeping him for[Monica M] the majority of his life already up to that point.[Monica M] Because I did notice that when I was tracking,[Monica M] like when they went everywhere.[Monica M] Um,[Monica M] after he was born,[Monica M] and it would say, 'Mrs.[Monica M] Martin and her son Henry arrived in Weaverville.' It never mentioned Baby John,[Monica M] and I thought that was so weird,[Monica M] because it was like,[Monica M] why isn't it saying anything about the baby?[Monica M] You know,[Monica M] because she was not raising this baby.[Monica M] You come to find out much later.[Monica M] So her husband died in July of 1892.[Monica M] And just a few months later,[Monica M] her husband's brother's wife gets really sick and is near death for it.[Monica M] Eight weeks.[Monica M] So,[Monica M] just for clarity,[Monica M] Isabella was married to John Martin,[Monica M] and John had a brother named Henry Martin who hated Isabella from day one.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] Henry's wife is literally about to die.[Monica M] Henry and his wife,[Monica M] May,[Monica M] live in San Francisco.[Monica M] May has peritonitis,[Monica M] say the doctors.[Monica M] And she's sick to the point that she is unconscious in bed.[Monica M] Her husband,[Monica M] Henry,[Monica M] loves her so very much.[Monica M] And he's doing all that he can to nurse her back to health.[Monica M] And then suddenly,[Monica M] Henry himself becomes sick with peritonitis.[Monica M] He's in bed for three days,[Monica M] and then he dies.[Monica M] His wife,[Monica M] May,[Monica M] was still unconscious.[Monica M] And had no idea that he even died.[Monica M] So he was 54 years old and he had no children.[Monica M] Now you all think John Martin was rich with his $100,[Monica M] 000 estate in 1892.[Monica M] Well,[Monica M] Henry Martin was worth a million bucks.[Olivia S] And that would be like $35.[Olivia S] 6 million in today's 2025 currency.[Monica M] Yeah.[Monica M] He owned a literal gold mine.[Monica M] Like,[Monica M] I'm not kidding.[Monica M] It was a gold mine.[Monica M] He owned it.[Monica M] So this guy was the real deal.[Monica M] His lawyers go to get his will that he'd had drawn up a while back,[Monica M] and they realize that his will is missing.[Monica M] And this is just so weird because just a few months prior,[Monica M] it had been right there.[Monica M] His wife and the lawyers had actually had it photographed for some[Monica M] reason three months prior.[Monica M] And so they had the photograph of this will,[Monica M] but the original will was gone.[Monica M] And they were really glad that they had the photograph because they said,[Monica M] well,[Monica M] this will work,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] just.[Monica M] The same,[Monica M] but what happened to the will?[Monica M] And as they're going through the process of settling the estate,[Monica M] who should appear but Isabella Martin with a new will?[Monica M] And she says that Henry had written it up shortly before his death and gave it to her.[Monica M] And in the will,[Monica M] he gave one third of his fortune to baby John.[Olivia S] A third of a million dollars back then would be the equivalent of about $11.[Olivia S] 86 million today.[Olivia S] Who did the will say he left the rest of the money to?[Monica M] One third was for his wife,[Monica M] and then the other third was to be split between a brother and a[Monica M] sister back on the East Coast where the Martin brothers had been born.[Monica M] Everyone immediately found this newly surfaced will fishy because[Monica M] Henry hated Isabella and he didn't have any sort of affection for[Monica M] this baby whatsoever.[Monica M] Whatever that was,[Monica M] because he knew it wasn't his brother's child.[Monica M] Isabella began to protest this and said Henry liked her just fine.[Monica M] And she said that his wife was just jealous.[Monica M] And that's why she was saying that this will was fake.[Monica M] Henry's wife,[Monica M] May Martin,[Monica M] had actually never even met Isabella.[Monica M] Oh,[Monica M] and by the way,[Monica M] she didn't die.[Monica M] Everyone thought that May was going to die,[Monica M] and I mean,[Monica M] it— It was a shock that she didn't.[Monica M] But she survived.[Monica M] She came back to life and was very upset that her husband was dead.[Monica M] But anyway,[Monica M] here she is.[Monica M] getting money from her husband's estate.[Monica M] So Henry's wife had actually never even met Isabella because that's[Monica M] how much Henry wanted nothing to do with Isabella.[Monica M] So she was not jealous of Isabella in any way.[Monica M] Whatever.[Monica M] Duh.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] Isabella came up with a wild tale,[Monica M] saying that Henry had actually proposed to Isabella twice before John ever did.[Monica M] And just for good measure,[Monica M] Isabella states that she had actually had an inappropriate[Monica M] relationship with May's first husband before either May or Isabella[Monica M] had married the Martin brothers.[Monica M] Do you know if any of that was true?[Monica M] Honestly,[Monica M] I'm not sure.[Monica M] So the newspaper article said that May had found a piece of paper in[Monica M] her first husband's jacket pocket.[Monica M] That showed that he had set up an appointment to meet with Isabella.[Monica M] And this is when she was basically sleeping with a ton of guys while[Monica M] living in the hotel prior to marrying John.[Monica M] Martin.[Monica M] The newspaper said it like it actually happened,[Monica M] but they could have just been repeating what Isabella claimed had happened.[Monica M] I don't know if it really happened or not.[Monica M] I think if it had happened,[Monica M] there would have been some kind of quote from May saying something[Monica M] about it or something about Isabella's character.[Monica M] I have a feeling that it didn't happen.[Monica M] I don't know.[Monica M] But yeah,[Monica M] so Isabella is insisting that this second will is perfectly[Monica M] legitimate and legal.[Monica M] should be honored,[Monica M] and Mae and her lawyers are saying it is complete hogwash,[Monica M] and thus the whole thing went to trial,[Monica M] and Isabella just loves it.[Monica M] Loved the attention.[Monica M] She had tons of money already,[Monica M] right?[Monica M] From her own husband's death.[Monica M] And she wore a different fancy gown to court every single day.[Monica M] So the newspapers were just eating this up because she's giving them,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] all of this fodder for their,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] news reports.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] Isabella's lawyer.[Monica M] Were fighting for Baby John,[Monica M] saying he was entitled to a third of Henry's million.[Monica M] And handwriting experts were brought in because these wills were written out by hand.[Monica M] And when things looked like they weren't going very well,[Monica M] suddenly the narrative changed.[Monica M] Now Isabella was saying that Henry was Baby John's true father.[Monica M] She said that she and Henry had had an affair,[Monica M] and that's why Henry wanted Baby John to have the money.[Monica M] And then all of these letters started popping up during the trial,[Monica M] supposedly written by Henry to Isabella,[Monica M] referring to Baby John as 'my boy' and 'our little one'.[Monica M] All of these were found to be forgeries by the handwriting expert,[Monica M] and Isabella lost the case.[Monica M] And she was a pretty sore loser.[Monica M] During that trial,[Monica M] she even threw a book at the head of an attorney who was testifying[Monica M] as a witness against her.[Monica M] I mean,[Monica M] she had a really bad temper.[Monica M] This woman was just crazy.[Olivia S] Okay,[Olivia S] that whole thing with the will sounds really suspicious.[Olivia S] Do you think that she was poisoning Henry and May?[Monica M] I think she somehow had a hand in it.[Monica M] I mean,[Monica M] obviously the first will was stolen because there was a plan to change it.[Monica M] And May was probably supposed to die so that baby John would get her[Monica M] portion of the inheritance as well.[Monica M] And she was in a coma,[Monica M] right?[Monica M] And was basically...[Monica M] Going to die as far as anyone was concerned.[Monica M] And then Henry died within three days.[Monica M] It was just a miracle that Mae survived.[Monica M] I think that Isabella—likely— paid a doctor to poison them or[Monica M] whoever was handling their food.[Monica M] They lived in a hotel as well.[Monica M] That's where Henry and May lived.[Monica M] It was called the Palace Hotel.[Monica M] So whoever,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] did their food or whatever— I think she probably had them put poison in it.[Monica M] But I really do think she was trying to kill them.[Monica M] And I think...[Monica M] Henry probably died faster than he was meant to die.[Monica M] Because May's death was dragging out eight weeks,[Monica M] his was probably supposed to go just as slowly,[Monica M] which would have given Isabella time to get that forged will back[Monica M] into the office where she had stolen the first one from.[Monica M] And I think his dying in three days kind of ruined that plan because[Monica M] now she had to say, 'Oh,[Monica M] he came over and he wrote it up and he left it with me.' Because that makes sense,[Monica M] you know?[Monica M] So I think she had a hand in it.[Monica M] I do.[Monica M] I don't see any other explanation.[Monica M] But anyway.[Monica M] Something very interesting happened at this point in Isabella's[Monica M] story and just like kind of changes the trajectory of her life[Monica M] because all of this time she spent in the courtroom with lawyers and judges and,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] trying to find ways to manipulate the legal system.[Monica M] It really made her take up an interest in law.[Monica M] And she decided she wanted to practice law and she wanted to act as[Monica M] her own lawyer from that point forward.[Monica M] And so she did.[Monica M] She learned quite a bit about the legal system,[Monica M] and she even represented several other people through their legal proceedings.[Monica M] And she became a giant headache to the court systems in California,[Monica M] New York,[Monica M] and at least once in Chicago.[Christian N] Any man who has weakened himself by secret follies and excesses when[Christian N] he was young can be cured by taking Sexol,[Christian N] the newly discovered vitalizer.[Christian N] Try it.[Christian N] It never,[Christian N] never fails.[Christian N] Over 2,[Christian N] 000 bad cases of lost manhood,[Christian N] seminal weakness,[Christian N] emissions,[Christian N] and nervous debility have already been cured by Sexall. $5 for full course treatment.[Christian N] Enough to affect a permanent cure.[Christian N] Call or address Sexall Medicine Co.[Christian N] 629 Kearney Street,[Christian N] San Francisco.[Monica M] The trial over Henry Martin's money was lost in August of 1894.[Monica M] According to the elderly gal Jenny Tibbetts,[Monica M] who Isabella was boarding with in San Diego,[Monica M] Francisco,[Monica M] Isabella went to New York after the trial ended.[Monica M] She left baby John behind with Jenny Tibbetts.[Monica M] At this time,[Monica M] baby John would have been three years and three months old.[Monica M] Jenny says Isabella was gone for about a year.[Monica M] It was many,[Monica M] many years later when the elderly woman was giving this testimony,[Monica M] so her details may be a little off.[Monica M] She says that Isabella was gone for about a year and baby John was[Monica M] about five or six when Isabella came back.[Monica M] So we know for sure he was three years and three months at the end of the trial.[Monica M] And if Isabella left right away,[Monica M] then she would have had to have been gone for well over a year if[Monica M] baby John was five or six when she came back.[Monica M] Would he have even remembered her?[Monica M] No.[Monica M] With how little she was raising him already,[Monica M] there wouldn't have even been a mother-child bond between them.[Monica M] But Jenny Tibbetts says that Isabella came back from New York and took baby John,[Monica M] and the two of them went to live at the Baldwin Hotel for a little while,[Monica M] and then they moved into the Van Ness Avenue house,[Monica M] which was again,[Monica M] like,[Monica M] very lavish and very uppity.[Monica M] Now it was 1896,[Monica M] when baby John was five,[Monica M] that Isabella's older son,[Monica M] son Henry,[Monica M] who would have been 19 or 20,[Monica M] stopped living with Isabella,[Monica M] and he later told a detective that it was because he couldn't stand[Monica M] the way she was abusing him.[Monica M] Baby John.[Monica M] Later on the stand,[Monica M] though,[Monica M] he said he didn't remember making that statement,[Monica M] but it was in the detective's notes.[Monica M] Like that's what he had said.[Monica M] He moved out because she was so abusive to baby John.[Monica M] And that jives with what Jenny Tibbetts was saying,[Monica M] that he was around that age,[Monica M] the age of five,[Monica M] when Isabella took him back.[Monica M] And so,[Monica M] yeah,[Monica M] Henry just couldn't stand it and he left.[Monica M] For a year after that,[Monica M] baby John would frequently go back to Jenny's house and stay like a[Monica M] day or two at a time.[Monica M] And when she was about to send him back home to Isabella,[Monica M] he would cry and he would say, 'Aunt Jenny,[Monica M] don't send me home.' You promised to keep me.[Monica M] I don't want to go home.[Monica M] And Jenny said that she would see the bruising on his arms and legs.[Monica M] And she said that once he couldn't even raise himself,[Monica M] which I assumed meant raise himself off the floor,[Monica M] but he couldn't raise himself after a beating with a broom.[Monica M] And so the next time that she saw Isabella,[Monica M] she asked her about it.[Monica M] And Isabella admitted that she had done it and she was sorry that[Monica M] she had hit him that hard.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] right around the time Isabella and baby John moved to Oakland,[Monica M] which was in 1898,[Monica M] they went over to Jenny's house and Jenny noticed that[Monica M] seven-year-old baby John's sweet little nose was bent,[Monica M] like bent in near the bridge.[Monica M] And Jenny asked what happened.[Monica M] And Isabella admitted that she had struck him,[Monica M] but didn't mean to do it that hard.[Olivia S] She broke his wee little nose.[Monica M] Yes.[Monica M] So Jenny asked her if she was ashamed of herself for disfiguring him[Monica M] for the rest of his life.[Monica M] And Isabella said she was sorry,[Monica M] not ashamed,[Monica M] and being sorry was enough.[Monica M] Trash.[Monica M] Yeah,[Monica M] she's a very,[Monica M] very vile woman.[Monica M] Yeah,[Monica M] so there were times that she knocked his teeth out,[Monica M] according to Jenny Tibbetts.[Monica M] She would tell him not to tell anyone.[Monica M] And then,[Monica M] by the time he was six or seven,[Monica M] according to Jenny,[Monica M] he was the one in the house who had to scrub the floors.[Monica M] He was carrying the wood.[Monica M] He was carrying the coal,[Monica M] all of that.[Monica M] So basically,[Monica M] she just bought herself a slave.[Monica M] Yeah.[Monica M] In New York.[Monica M] Yep.[Monica M] She did not want a baby.[Monica M] Like she never bonded with him as her own child.[Monica M] So during that trial over the will.[Monica M] She had that doctor from New York testify to prove that baby John[Monica M] was really her baby because it had come up that,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] I don't think that he's even her baby.[Monica M] Right.[Monica M] So.[Monica M] So that question came up.[Monica M] And so one of her friends that was in New York also testified.[Monica M] And this friend's name was Mrs.[Monica M] Larkin.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] she said she wasn't there for the birth.[Monica M] She was out shopping when the birth happened,[Monica M] but that she came back later and she was there with Isabella and the[Monica M] baby for the first four weeks.[Monica M] And then she took baby John home with her because Isabella was[Monica M] unable to breastfeed him.[Olivia S] Well,[Olivia S] I mean,[Olivia S] duh,[Olivia S] she couldn't breastfeed him.[Monica M] Yeah,[Monica M] I know,[Monica M] but I mean,[Monica M] she just let her four-week-old baby go home with someone else,[Monica M] and I don't even know for how long.[Monica M] But like,[Monica M] these are crucial times for bonding with your baby.[Monica M] And she did not bond with him at all.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] I'm really curious about this timeline because his date of birth was May 5th.[Monica M] And then we know by May 16th,[Monica M] she was in San Francisco with him.[Monica M] And we don't even know for sure that his birthday was May 5th,[Monica M] honestly,[Monica M] because that's just when the doctor signed the thing and said, 'Yup,[Monica M] he was born this day.' Here you go.[Monica M] But nobody saw him be born,[Monica M] you know.[Olivia S] That we know of.[Olivia S] Well,[Olivia S] you could go four weeks back from May 5th.[Olivia S] At least.[Monica M] Yeah,[Monica M] well.[Monica M] Well,[Monica M] it makes me wonder if Mrs.[Monica M] Larkin came back to San Francisco with her.[Olivia S] Mm-hmm.[Monica M] And then,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] So,[Monica M] yeah.[Monica M] So I don't know.[Monica M] But so apparently she was just hanging out with the baby for four weeks.[Monica M] I think she just wanted him because she needed to have an heir to the Martin fortune.[Monica M] Because if she had an heir,[Monica M] I mean,[Monica M] there's no other way she could have gotten Henry's money.[Monica M] The Million.[Monica M] And so she needed to have an heir somehow.[Monica M] Someone related.[Monica M] Because Henry had no children.[Monica M] I think this was just her way.[Monica M] And then bump off his brother.[Monica M] Maybe she didn't kill her husband,[Monica M] right?[Monica M] And so he would have gotten Henry's money and then...[Monica M] her son would have gotten.[Monica M] The money that way.[Monica M] I don't know.[Monica M] She just needed a way to get at the Martin money.[Monica M] So that's why she got a baby.[Monica M] Yep.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] when Jenny asked her,[Monica M] Jenny asked her where she got baby John.[Monica M] Isabella said that she had made arrangements with a doctor to get[Monica M] the first good-looking male child that was born in a certain[Monica M] hospital and to just make it look like the baby was hers.[Monica M] And Isabella told Jenny that she didn't know who the father was and she didn't care.[Monica M] So as you see,[Monica M] I mean,[Monica M] she told different people different stories about how she got the baby.[Monica M] Like,[Monica M] where the baby came from.[Monica M] Yeah.[Monica M] So we don't actually know.[Monica M] So the first time they took up a residence in Oakland,[Monica M] it was 1898.[Monica M] Baby John was seven.[Monica M] Isabella owned a few rental homes in Oakland,[Monica M] and they moved into one.[Monica M] They also sometimes stayed in a cabin on one of John Martin Sr.'s[Monica M] mining claims back in Weaverville.[Monica M] And they also went back to New York from time to time.[Monica M] Isabella refused to enroll baby John in school,[Monica M] so they had freedom,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] to move around whenever they pleased.[Monica M] In the year 1900,[Monica M] when baby John was nine,[Monica M] Isabella started leaving him on his own to fend for himself.[Monica M] You know,[Monica M] eat what you can.[Monica M] There's food somewhere.[Monica M] You'll be fine.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] I'm not entirely sure what she was doing,[Monica M] but I do know that in 1900,[Monica M] one of her homes in Oakland was set on fire by her or by baby John[Monica M] at her behest for the insurance money.[Monica M] Maybe she started the fire while he was alone back in Weaverville.[Monica M] I don't know.[Monica M] I'm not sure how long she would leave him alone,[Monica M] but somehow in the year 1900,[Monica M] it got the attention of the law in Trinity County,[Monica M] California,[Monica M] where Weaverville is located.[Monica M] District Attorney D.[Monica M] J.[Monica M] Hall took custody of baby John while he had been abandoned and put[Monica M] him in the county infirmary.[Monica M] When Isabella returned and she wanted her son back,[Monica M] D.[Monica M] A.[Monica M] Hall wasn't about to just hand him over.[Monica M] He advised the superintendent of the hospital to keep baby John away from the hospital.[Monica M] From his mother until they could,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] get to the bottom of this whole thing.[Monica M] So Isabella followed D.[Monica M] A.[Monica M] Hall one day with her trusty black whip that she carried around.[Monica M] Around all the time when she went to go and collect rent from her renters,[Monica M] she always had her whip with her,[Monica M] like no joke.[Monica M] She was nuts,[Monica M] but um,[Monica M] anyway.[Monica M] So she followed D.[Monica M] A.[Monica M] Hall and,[Monica M] as he was boarding a ferry,[Monica M] she horse-whipped him because he was not allowing her to have her son back.[Monica M] And then,[Monica M] a while later,[Monica M] because he still had her son in the hospital,[Monica M] a while later,[Monica M] she was following him to attack him again.[Monica M] But this time he had been warned.[Monica M] Somebody told him.[Monica M] And so when she came up behind him,[Monica M] he happened to see her coming.[Monica M] And so he turned around and he punched her in the forehead.[Christian N] Let's go.[Monica M] And it knocked her to the ground.[Monica M] So she actually sued him for assault and said that the whip she was[Monica M] carrying was simply for dog walking.[Monica M] And I'm not sure.[Monica M] Of the outcome of that case because I couldn't find a follow-up.[Monica M] But that is not the end of D.[Monica M] A.[Monica M] Hall in Isabella's story.[Monica M] So he didn't lose his job or anything.[Monica M] It must have worked out fine.[Olivia S] I am glad that he punched her in the head.[Olivia S] Um,[Olivia S] maybe she started that fire while he was home alone in Weaverville,[Olivia S] and then she decided she'd just have to take him along in the future[Olivia S] to avoid that whole mess again.[Olivia S] That's a possibility.[Monica M] That is a good possibility.[Monica M] You know,[Monica M] so she really took that lawyer thing to heart.[Monica M] And the papers show that she was acting as a defense attorney for herself,[Monica M] as well as others throughout that first decade of the 20th century.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] in 1902,[Monica M] two more of Isabella's homes caught on fire in Oakland.[Monica M] She really just has such bad luck.[Monica M] Right?[Monica M] Thing there's fire insurance.[Monica M] So she put in her claims with Westchester Fire Insurance Company,[Monica M] and for some reason,[Monica M] they denied her claim.[Monica M] Maybe it was because there was evidence of arson.[Monica M] I'm not sure why they denied it,[Monica M] but this did not sit right with Isabella Martin.[Monica M] It was May of 1903 when Isabella first filed a complaint against the[Monica M] Westchester Fire Insurance Company in the Oakland court system.[Monica M] And this was just going on.[Monica M] To drag on and on.[Monica M] There was a hearing coming up about it three years later,[Monica M] in 1906,[Monica M] and it would be in front of Judge Ogden.[Monica M] So she showed up at Judge Ogden's house.[Monica M] He wasn't going to talk to her about it because this was,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] inappropriate.[Monica M] And so he sent her away.[Monica M] So she went back to his house.[Monica M] The next day,[Monica M] she went to see if she could become good pals with his wife and get to him that way.[Monica M] Well,[Monica M] his wife also couldn't talk to her about it,[Monica M] so she tried to change the subject.[Monica M] What better subject than her child?[Monica M] So she said, 'You know,[Monica M] baby John sure looks like a bright young boy.' And she asked if he was in school.[Monica M] Isabella said, 'No.' And Mrs.[Monica M] Ogden said something like, 'Oh,[Monica M] he ought to go to school or,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] something like that.' And apparently that made Isabella absolutely livid.[Monica M] So she said, 'Her a nasty letter a couple days later telling her to[Monica M] mind her own business.' You know,[Monica M] you raise your kids and I'll raise mine.[Monica M] And I mean,[Monica M] one thing about Isabella J.[Monica M] Martin is that this woman could hold a grudge forever.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] ultimately,[Monica M] it was in Judge Ogden's court in 1906 that the insurance case was decided against her.[Monica M] And it wasn't even Judge Ogden who did it.[Monica M] had been tired of the whole thing and he sent it to be heard by a judge sergeant.[Monica M] When judge sergeant decided against her,[Monica M] Isabella still blamed Judge Ogden for the decision and she wanted revenge.[Monica M] And honestly,[Monica M] I don't know what she expected.[Monica M] When the fire department had arrived at the fire of one of her cottages in 1902,[Monica M] they found two gas cans inside.[Monica M] They had a bunch of puncture holes in them,[Monica M] so the gas would pour out onto the floors.[Monica M] And somehow the trails of gasoline hadn't connected the two cans of[Monica M] gasoline to each other.[Monica M] And the fire department said that if that had happened,[Monica M] there would have been an explosion and then they might not have[Monica M] found evidence of the deliberate arson at all.[Olivia S] So what you're saying is that she burned down her own house again.[Monica M] Yes.[Monica M] And I mean,[Monica M] we find out later that she made baby John set several of her own[Monica M] properties on fire for her,[Monica M] but yes.[Monica M] And she was livid when her scheme didn't work.[Monica M] And she even put this sign,[Monica M] this brightly colored sign,[Monica M] out in front of her burnt home,[Monica M] saying that she had been defrauded by the Westchester Fire Company.[Monica M] Because she was just so mad that they were not paying out.[Monica M] And it was $1,[Monica M] 700 that,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] her policy was for,[Monica M] and they were not going to pay on it because she set the fire.[Monica M] We're not going to pay you for that.[Monica M] So yeah,[Monica M] the property that Isabella and Baby Jong lived on in Weaverville was[Monica M] located just four miles outside of town.[Monica M] Mind,[Monica M] now we're talking about Weaverville,[Monica M] not Oakland.[Monica M] She had a few mining claims and lived in a fairly small cabin over there,[Monica M] and Isabella had a few hired men that worked in her mines for her.[Monica M] And of course,[Monica M] they had to have supplies that included things like dynamite and fuses.[Monica M] And it was actually in September of 1906 when Isabella and baby John[Monica M] were at this cabin that Isabella first broached the idea of bombing[Monica M] Judge Ogden's home in Oakland.[Monica M] She said Judge Ogden was not their friend and she already had the[Monica M] powder in Oakland that could blow him up and nobody would ever suspect it was her.[Monica M] Um,[Monica M] what do you mean by powder?[Monica M] Well,[Monica M] initially back in the day,[Monica M] dynamite was called Nobel's safety powder,[Monica M] which is so weird.[Monica M] Safety powder.[Monica M] But yeah,[Monica M] so it was often just referred to as powder.[Monica M] Powder,[Monica M] even though they were sticks of dynamite and not powder at all,[Monica M] was referred to as powder in these old articles over and over.[Monica M] So I was confused myself.[Monica M] I was imagining just a pile of powder with sticks of dynamite in it.[Olivia S] Or just like.[Olivia S] Gunpowder?[Olivia S] Here's what I'm thinking.[Olivia S] Here's what I'm thinking.[Olivia S] Go back to Bugs Bunny.[Olivia S] Hear me out.[Olivia S] Just like.[Olivia S] Gunpowder with a fuse.[Olivia S] Like along the ground.[Monica M] See,[Monica M] and I did that.[Monica M] Yes.[Monica M] All of these things in my mind,[Monica M] I had to look it up and it was like,[Monica M] oh yeah,[Monica M] dynamite was called powder.[Olivia S] I wonder if they like used to break the sticks open before they're like,[Olivia S] let's just put a fuse in it.[Olivia S] I don't know.[Monica M] That is an excellent question.[Monica M] Hmm.[Monica M] It turns out that at some point prior to September of 1906,[Monica M] she had already shipped dynamite and fuses from her mines in[Monica M] Weaverville to her home in Oakland.[Monica M] And she put them in a trunk that was marked household goods and just put them on a train.[Monica M] It was Hercules dynamite number one,[Monica M] and she would take a little more with her to Oakland every time she[Monica M] made the trip from Weaverville.[Monica M] So just pack a few more sticks of dynamite.[Monica M] Carry him on the train.[Monica M] Also,[Monica M] while they were in Weaverville for this trip in September of 1906,[Monica M] Isabella decided that her life was in danger.[Monica M] There had been some human skeletons.[Monica M] Found in the hills,[Monica M] there in Trinity County.[Monica M] And Isabella was convinced that one of her hired men,[Monica M] Thomas Cox,[Monica M] was the person who had killed them.[Monica M] He was going to kill her and baby John next.[Monica M] So she wrote to the local newspapers and she had them publish[Monica M] articles about Thomas Cox being responsible for the murders and[Monica M] begging for the governor's assistance and protection.[Monica M] So it was just all very bizarre.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] a few months later,[Monica M] on January 12th of 1907,[Monica M] Isabella and baby John left Weaverville and headed back to their home in Oakland.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] getting to the dynamite that they had in Oakland was going to be a little tricky.[Monica M] You see,[Monica M] the Oakland living arrangements in January of 1907 were sadly comical.[Monica M] So Isabella had made Baby John burn down one of their homes for the[Monica M] insurance money on West Street.[Monica M] And it was the home that they had been living in.[Monica M] And so then they had to move into one of her other properties that[Monica M] was literally right next door to that home.[Monica M] But it was like a duplex sort of arrangement where Isabella and Baby[Monica M] John took the top floor of the building and the bottom floor was its own residence.[Monica M] In January of 1907,[Monica M] Leon Era and his family lived downstairs at the 1534 West Street residence,[Monica M] and Isabella and Baby John lived upstairs.[Monica M] Stairs.[Monica M] And unfortunately,[Monica M] all of the dynamite was buried beneath the building,[Monica M] meaning under the floor of the Era family's residence.[Monica M] And it would be awfully difficult to get to the dynamite with the[Monica M] Era family living there,[Monica M] so Isabella needed to make them move out.[Monica M] To accomplish this,[Monica M] she got some crude petroleum and she had baby John pour it over a[Monica M] number of timbers and then put them under the steps of the house.[Monica M] And then Isabel called the fire department and accused the Era[Monica M] family of trying to burn the house down.[Monica M] So the fire chief comes out and he investigates and the Era family[Monica M] moved out by that afternoon.[Monica M] Because she's accusing them of trying to burn that stuff.[Monica M] That was really quick.[Monica M] Yeah.[Monica M] They were like, 'Whatever,[Monica M] we're out.' So once they were gone.[Monica M] The dynamite was taken out from under the floor and put on a shelf to dry,[Monica M] because apparently if it gets wet,[Monica M] it doesn't really work anymore.[Monica M] So they had to like dry it out.[Monica M] And then 12 sticks were chosen and made into a bomb.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] Isabella said she didn't care whether the entire Ogden family died or not.[Monica M] Even if they didn't die,[Monica M] they would at least be scared.[Monica M] And she'd already been sending,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] anonymous threatening letters to Judge Ogden since she had lost the case.[Monica M] Again in 1907,[Monica M] and probably after they'd already built the bomb for Judge Ogden's house,[Monica M] Isabella filed a motion for a new trial against the Westchester Fire Company.[Monica M] It was dismissed on March 6th.[Monica M] Isabella had had it.[Monica M] A friend of hers,[Monica M] a married man by the name of John Whitmore,[Monica M] who she'd been having a rather questionable relationship with for a[Monica M] while in Weaverville,[Monica M] actually,[Monica M] he was going to arrive in Oakland for a visit on March 19th at 5 p.[Monica M] m.

[Monica M] Baby John went with Whitmore to buy Isabella some whiskey around 7: 54:10

30 p.[Monica M] m.[Monica M] That evening,[Monica M] and when they got back,[Monica M] Isabella told Baby John that this was the perfect day to bomb the[Monica M] Ogden home because they could use John Whitmore for their alibi.[Monica M] Isabella told Mr.[Monica M] Whitmore that Baby John was going to sit in the kitchen and study[Monica M] his arithmetic while they visited in the parlor.[Monica M] And Isabella got up and went into the kitchen,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] every fifteen minutes or so to see if Baby John needed help with his math.[Monica M] Just,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] to keep up the Ruth.[Monica M] But in reality,[Monica M] 15-year-old Baby John got on his bicycle with the rest of the[Monica M] dynamite and he hid it in Defremory Park.[Monica M] Then he rode back home.[Monica M] It was raining out,[Monica M] so Isabella gave him a change of clothes,[Monica M] and then she handed him the bomb wrapped in newspaper.[Monica M] He was wearing overalls,[Monica M] a flannel shirt,[Monica M] a brown overcoat,[Monica M] and an old slouch hat over his long curly hair.[Monica M] He got on his bicycle and he rode in the...[Monica M] rain for about 25 minutes until he reached the Ogden home at 1175 Alice Street.[Monica M] When he got up close to the house,[Monica M] he could see Mrs.[Monica M] Ogden and the children inside the front room.[Monica M] Baby John got a sinking feeling in his gut and he really didn't want[Monica M] to hurt these people,[Monica M] so he did not put the bomb where Isabella had told him to,[Monica M] right in the middle of the front porch.[Monica M] Instead,[Monica M] he went around the other side of the house and placed it there,[Monica M] just on the side of the front porch,[Monica M] furthest away from the room where Mrs.[Monica M] Ogden and the children were.

[Monica M] He thinks it was around 9: 55:45

35 p.[Monica M] m.[Monica M] when he placed the bomb on the front porch.[Monica M] He stretched the 50-foot fuse as far as it would go before striking the match,[Monica M] and then he hopped on his bicycle and headed home.[Monica M] He didn't go exceptionally fast because it was raining and he didn't[Monica M] want the wheel to slip.[Monica M] He actually saw a police officer on his way and didn't act suspicious at all.

[Monica M] He got home around 9: 56:07

55 p.[Monica M] m.[Monica M] and he met his mother in the kitchen.[Monica M] She asked, 'Is it done?' and he said yes.[Monica M] She told him to take off his coat and then go see Mr.[Monica M] Whitmore in the parlor for the sake of the alibi.[Monica M] He did that,[Monica M] then he went back outside to wipe down his wheel,[Monica M] and it was a minute or so later that he heard the sound of the[Monica M] explosion in the distance.[Monica M] The next morning,[Monica M] Baby John was in the room when his mother picked up the newspaper and said, 'My God![Monica M] Judge Ogden's house has been blown up!' Luckily,[Monica M] no one was hurt.[Monica M] Judge Ogden himself wasn't even home at the time.[Monica M] Isabella was one of the first people,[Monica M] though,[Monica M] to show up at the destruction and extend her sympathies to the Ogden family that day.[Monica M] Yeah.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] she wasn't done seeking her revenge for the fire insurance,[Monica M] though.[Monica M] Not by a long shot.[Monica M] Her next stop,[Monica M] New York City.[Christian N] Free dustpans![Christian N] We are giving away 2,[Christian N] 000 dustpans that are worth almost their weight in gold because they[Christian N] save women from stooping down.[Christian N] A metal loop fits over the toe of the sweeper's shoe,[Christian N] and by a slight pressure of the foot,[Christian N] the sweepings are brushed into the pan.[Christian N] They are the greatest little labor savers you ever saw and will save many a backache.[Christian N] Anyone purchasing half a ton of American block coal of us will be[Christian N] given one of these dustpans.[Christian N] You know you need some coal.[Christian N] You know also that the genuine American block coal is unquestionably[Christian N] the most wonderfully satisfactory coal ever sold in this city.[Christian N] American Fuel Co.,[Christian N] Liberty Theater,[Christian N] Oakland.[Monica M] On June 18th of 1907,[Monica M] just three months after bombing Judge Ogden's home,[Monica M] Isabella Martin showed up at the home of a man named George R.[Monica M] Crawford,[Monica M] who just so happened to be the president of Westchester Insurance Company.[Monica M] He wasn't home,[Monica M] and the maid refused her request to sit and wait for him.[Monica M] Isabella then sent him a letter saying she was there to give him a bullet,[Monica M] though she insisted to the newspapers later that she actually had[Monica M] written, 'give you a bouquet.' In any case,[Monica M] she demanded the $1,[Monica M] 700 insurance money that she believed she was owed,[Monica M] and she was making threats if he didn't pay up.[Monica M] She told reporters that she had left her pistol back in her mining camp in California,[Monica M] so she couldn't have shot him anyway.[Monica M] So that was in New York.[Monica M] She shows up at this man's house.[Monica M] Now there was another reason for this trip too.[Monica M] Isabella took baby John to see Dr.[Monica M] Austin Flint.[Monica M] He was a specialist.[Monica M] She wanted him to examine baby John to see if he was a born criminal.[Monica M] See,[Monica M] she'd been accusing baby John of doing terrible things from the time[Monica M] that she took him back from Jenny Tibbetts.[Monica M] Anytime anything went wrong,[Monica M] it was baby John's fault.[Monica M] 48 cans of condensed milk went missing.[Monica M] You bet your tookus,[Monica M] Baby John,[Monica M] probably drank them all.[Monica M] A raw ham disappeared,[Monica M] and the possible culprits are the dog and Baby John.[Monica M] John,[Monica M] clearly,[Monica M] your dog is the more innocent of the two.[Monica M] Your horse died?[Monica M] Yep,[Monica M] Baby John must have poisoned it.[Monica M] At one point,[Monica M] she said that Baby John had been planning criminal acts from the moment of birth.[Monica M] She literally said that.[Monica M] But yeah,[Monica M] in reality.[Monica M] She coached Baby John on what to say to this doctor because she[Monica M] wanted him to be labeled as a degenerate so that if she were ever to[Monica M] be caught for any of her crimes,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] that she was planning,[Monica M] she could blame it all on him.[Monica M] Well,[Monica M] apparently Dr.[Monica M] Flint didn't do a full exam.[Monica M] And to this day,[Monica M] we aren't sure what he put in his notes about his meeting with baby John.[Monica M] But he would never even testify.[Monica M] He said,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] it was patient.[Monica M] Doctor-patient confidentiality.[Monica M] Yes.[Monica M] He would not testify to anything.[Monica M] But that's not all that happened in New York.[Monica M] Stuff got crazier than you could ever imagine.[Monica M] Even I didn't believe it at first,[Monica M] but it's true.[Monica M] And my research tells me that things had actually been getting[Monica M] pretty bizarre for a while already.[Monica M] As if nothing you've just told us is bizarre.[Monica M] Oh,[Monica M] it gets weirder.[Monica M] And this is on a whole new level.[Monica M] Like,[Monica M] this is weird.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] keep in mind.[Monica M] That Isabella knows very well that neither John nor Henry Martin are[Monica M] the biological fathers of baby John.[Monica M] Like,[Monica M] she knows,[Monica M] obviously.[Monica M] One time,[Monica M] she...[Monica M] even wrote a letter to this other guy named Andrew Crawford and she[Monica M] told him that he had a beautiful son and he needed to send her a[Monica M] thousand dollars but she knew that was a lie too because I mean she[Monica M] knows she's not even baby John's real mother.[Monica M] Like obviously she is aware.[Monica M] Um,[Monica M] so she might have other people fooled,[Monica M] but you know,[Monica M] she knows that this,[Monica M] this baby has real.[Monica M] biological parents out there somewhere and she is not one of them.[Monica M] So as baby John was growing and his beautiful curly hair grew longer,[Monica M] Isabella noticed something.[Monica M] There once was a girl from Detroit,[Monica M] Michigan,[Monica M] named Clara Ward.[Monica M] When Clara was but 16 years old,[Monica M] she caught the eye of a 31-year-old Belgian prince who fell madly in love.[Monica M] Prince Joseph de Caraman-Chemay soon proposed marriage and whisked[Monica M] young Clara across the Atlantic to her new home and her new life.[Monica M] The two soon had two children and lived happily ever after.[Monica M] Until she met a Hungarian violinist by the name of Janchi Rigaud and ran off with him,[Monica M] abandoning her prince and their two young daughters.[Monica M] She and Mr.[Monica M] Rigaud then got married and they lived happily ever after.[Monica M] Question mark?[Monica M] Clara was a beautiful princess with locks of flowing curls.[Monica M] And when Isabella looked at baby John with his locks of flowing curls,[Monica M] well,[Monica M] she could hardly tell the difference between the two of them.[Monica M] She was more certain by the day that Baby John must be the real[Monica M] child of the Prince and Princess de Caramon Chimay.[Monica M] She first informed Baby John that he was not her child and was[Monica M] really the son of the Prince and Princess in 1899,[Monica M] when he was just eight years old.[Monica M] A year before that,[Monica M] though,[Monica M] in 1898,[Monica M] Clara Ward's mother,[Monica M] whose name was Mrs.[Monica M] Morrow,[Monica M] received two letters from a person calling herself Mrs.[Monica M] J.[Monica M] Hotchkiss.[Monica M] In these letters,[Monica M] Mrs.[Monica M] Hotchkiss said she had gotten a baby boy in 1891 in New York,[Monica M] and this baby was the son of the prince and princess.[Monica M] She insisted that Mrs.[Monica M] Morrow was in New York with Princess Clara,[Monica M] helping her get rid of the baby.[Monica M] In December of 1898,[Monica M] Mrs.[Monica M] Morrow gave these two strange letters over to a Mr.[Monica M] Thomas Lyons,[Monica M] who was Princess Clara's uncle.[Monica M] And he was also in charge of the huge Ward family estate in Michigan,[Monica M] because Clara Ward's father was like...[Monica M] really,[Monica M] really rich,[Monica M] one of the richest men in Detroit,[Monica M] Michigan.[Monica M] Mr.[Monica M] Lyons came to the conclusion that the writer of these letters was[Monica M] suffering from mental delusions and was making a false statement in[Monica M] hopes of just extorting money from the family.[Monica M] In reality,[Monica M] Princess Clara hadn't even been back to the United States after her[Monica M] wedding by the year 1891.[Monica M] And in June of 1891,[Monica M] 1991,[Monica M] which was just a month after baby John was born,[Monica M] Princess Clara actually gave birth to her oldest daughter over in Paris.[Monica M] Documents were actually provided to prove this,[Monica M] that she had given birth to a baby girl,[Monica M] and so she obviously could not have given birth to a baby boy a month before.[Monica M] When this proof was provided,[Monica M] Isabella said that the princess had given birth to a boy in New York,[Monica M] but was in a state of pique,[Monica M] P-I-Q-U-E.[Monica M] And then she swapped the boy out for a baby girl and presented this[Monica M] baby girl to the prince as his daughter.[Monica M] So,[Monica M] of course,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] Isabella had,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] an explanation for everything.[Monica M] Whether Isabella believed this story that she was telling,[Monica M] whether she believed it or not at first,[Monica M] I don't know.[Monica M] But she even dressed Baby John up in girls' clothing,[Monica M] and she had him pose in an identical pose to recreate a famous[Monica M] picture of the princess.[Monica M] And yes,[Monica M] I do have those pictures in a side-by-side comparison,[Monica M] and I will post this in the Facebook group.[Monica M] Isabella continued to dress him in girls' clothing.[Monica M] And,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] he had the long,[Monica M] just beautiful curly hair.[Monica M] And she also had him wear other male royal clothes.[Monica M] That these clothes just did not fit in with their location or with the times.[Monica M] But she was fancy.[Monica M] She's wearing these fancy gowns all the time.[Monica M] Jewels and everything,[Monica M] and so she needed her son to match.[Monica M] People who saw him,[Monica M] they came up with the nickname Little Lord Fauntleroy,[Monica M] and if you guys google it,[Monica M] you'll see why he was wearing that outfit.[Monica M] But yeah,[Monica M] so that's how he was dressed a lot of the time.[Monica M] And she also wanted him to become a stage actor because she thought[Monica M] that would get her rich.[Monica M] And so that's another reason why she was dressing him as a girl and[Monica M] was teaching him to dance.[Monica M] And it was a strange sight.[Monica M] You know,[Monica M] she didn't allow baby John to speak to anyone.[Monica M] He couldn't play with kids.[Monica M] He couldn't talk to neighbors.[Monica M] And he just had to follow her around silently.[Monica M] This bizarre getup while she was carrying this big black whip to[Monica M] collect her rent money.[Monica M] I mean,[Monica M] can you imagine seeing this?[Monica M] This is just weird.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] kids who were later interviewed said that they had honestly thought[Monica M] he was a girl for a really long time.[Monica M] They honestly thought he was a girl because of that long hair,[Monica M] and he was dressed as a girl.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] while Isabella is in New York in the summer of 1907 when baby John is 16 years old,[Monica M] she finds out that the Hungarian violinist that Princess Clara ran[Monica M] off with is also there with his wife,[Monica M] Mrs.[Monica M] Rigaud.[Monica M] So,[Monica M] okay,[Monica M] Princess Clara fell in love with Yan-Chi Rigo and abandoned her[Monica M] prince and their daughters and married Rigo.[Monica M] But when Rigo met Yan-Chi,[Monica M] Clara's much younger cousin,[Monica M] Catherine Emerson,[Monica M] he left Clara for Catherine.[Monica M] So now the Hungarian violinist,[Monica M] Janci Rigo,[Monica M] is married to Clara.[Monica M] Married to Catherine Emerson Rigo,[Monica M] and neither of these two people are the prince or princess of Chimay,[Monica M] okay?[Monica M] Well,[Monica M] in July of 1907,[Monica M] Isabella Martin contacted the Rigots to let them know she was in New[Monica M] York because they were also in New York and she insisted that Mrs.[Monica M] Rigot was actually Princess Shemay in disguise,[Monica M] and she was the real mother of Baby John,[Monica M] and she just needed to admit it.[Monica M] Of course,[Monica M] the Rigauds,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] they didn't even know who this crazy lady was.[Monica M] She had shown up at a restaurant on Broadway where the Rigauds were dining,[Monica M] and she accused Catherine of being the Princess de Chimay.[Monica M] Catherine talked to reporters about this whole confrontation later,[Monica M] and she said that Isabella said she was going to blind her with[Monica M] vitriol unless she confessed.[Monica M] Her true identity.[Monica M] And Catherine also said that there had been these strange men that[Monica M] had been following her around recently,[Monica M] and she was sure that Isabella probably hired them.[Monica M] To do it.[Monica M] And then Catherine also thought that maybe Clara Ward,[Monica M] the real princess,[Monica M] and her family might have put Isabella up to all of this.[Monica M] So Catherine didn't know what was going on.[Monica M] Clearly there was some bad blood between Catherine and Clara because[Monica M] Rigaud had left Clara for Catherine.[Monica M] But anyway.[Monica M] So now,[Monica M] because Catherine had made these statements to the news reporters,[Monica M] Isabella decided to sue her for slander to the tune of $250,[Monica M] 000.[Olivia S] Whoa.[Olivia S] In 1907,[Olivia S] That equaled...[Olivia S] $8,[Olivia S] 616,[Olivia S] 382.[Olivia S] 98 in today's 2025 U.[Olivia S] S.[Olivia S] dollars.[Monica M] In the suit that Isabella filed,[Monica M] she said that Mrs.[Monica M] Rigo informed her that she had all the skin burned from her face to erase it.[Monica M] The crimson stain that had been tattooed there when she was the Princess de Chimay,[Monica M] and that she had also had her arm burned to erase the Chimay coat of arms.[Monica M] Rigo's name that had been tattooed there.[Monica M] So she was really the princess,[Monica M] but had burned off her face to look like someone else.[Monica M] And Isabella wanted her to admit it and also admit that she was Baby John's real mother.[Olivia S] I'm very confused by the,[Olivia S] she had to get a tattoo on her face.[Olivia S] I have no idea.[Monica M] She may have had a birthmark or something.[Monica M] I have no idea.[Olivia S] So,[Olivia S] is Isabella mentally ill?[Olivia S] Because this sounds really far out there.[Olivia S] Right?[Monica M] See what I mean?[Monica M] Because,[Monica M] I mean,[Monica M] this is a totally different level than just setting our own houses on fire.[Monica M] Like,[Monica M] this is weird.[Monica M] This goes beyond bombing people for revenge.[Monica M] Something is going on.[Monica M] At this time in the summer of 1907,[Monica M] Isabella Martin was 55 years old.[Monica M] Just FYI,[Monica M] everyone who's listening,[Monica M] just have that as a reference point.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] Isabella then wrote a play.[Monica M] Like theater,[Monica M] okay?[Monica M] She writes a Broadway play about her experience with the prince and[Monica M] princess of Chimay and tries to sell the script to playwrights around New York.[Monica M] I'm not kidding.[Monica M] I am not making this up.[Monica M] Now.[Monica M] Remember how hard she fought for that inheritance when her[Monica M] brother-in-law died and she was swearing up and down that her[Monica M] brother-in-law was the real father of baby John?[Monica M] And she even fought for it.[Monica M] forged letters from him referring to baby John as our little one.[Monica M] Well,[Monica M] the opposing counsel from that case,[Monica M] D.[Monica M] M.[Monica M] Delmas,[Monica M] he had a heyday with all of this because,[Monica M] I mean,[Monica M] this is making national news.[Monica M] He got his 'I told you so' moment because now Isabella is openly[Monica M] admitting that she is not the mother of this child.[Monica M] So yeah,[Monica M] on September 23rd,[Monica M] 1907,[Monica M] Isabella and baby John returned to their home in Oakland.[Monica M] And for some reason,[Monica M] she had cut off John's long curly hair while they were in New York.[Monica M] And it was a short buzz cut.[Monica M] But when they got home to Oakland,[Monica M] John was actually incredibly sick with typhoid fever.[Monica M] Of course,[Monica M] with,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] the giant kerfuffle that she'd made in New York,[Monica M] reporters back in Oakland were dying to talk to her when she returned,[Monica M] but she kept the doors bolted.[Monica M] And her giant mastiff dog,[Monica M] Kruger,[Monica M] was guarding the back of the house.[Monica M] Isabella would only speak from the window of her upstairs residence,[Monica M] like yelling down to the reporters.[Monica M] And she said that,[Monica M] while she was in New York,[Monica M] she and Mrs.[Monica M] Rego sat in her carriage for four hours,[Monica M] while Mrs.[Monica M] Rego begged her to drop the case.[Monica M] But Isabella refused.[Monica M] And she said that she has evidence to prove that baby John is their son.[Monica M] And she won't say any more about it because her lawyers back in New[Monica M] York are handling everything.[Monica M] When asked about the estate case back in 1894,[Monica M] Isabella said that she had never claimed that baby John was Henry Martin's son.[Monica M] She said that it was her lawyer who said it,[Monica M] not her.[Monica M] And about a week and a half after giving that interview from her window,[Monica M] an article was printed on October 5th of 1907 in which Isabel...[Monica M] Bella said that she never said baby John was the son of the princess.[Monica M] And it was some random woman named Mrs.[Monica M] Mary Martin who had spread that story.[Monica M] And as a consequence of this random woman's actions,[Monica M] the princess's uncle,[Monica M] Thomas Lyon,[Monica M] is now planning to murder Isabella Martin.[Monica M] I mean,[Monica M] it's just,[Monica M] it's weird.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] meanwhile,[Monica M] Isabella decided she wanted to bomb the home of another Oakland judge,[Monica M] this one being Judge Samuels.[Monica M] So what did he do?[Monica M] Well,[Monica M] he was actually very nice to her and helped her all the time when[Monica M] she came in for legal advice.[Monica M] Because she sued people constantly.[Monica M] and represented herself when she was,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] charged with disorderly conduct or whatever else.[Monica M] So she'd come to his office with questions and he made sure to all...[Monica M] always be friendly with her because he didn't want her as an enemy.[Monica M] And one time he suggested that she file a counterclaim in a suit that was,[Monica M] you know,[Monica M] filed against her.[Monica M] And then when that counterclaim was thrown out,[Monica M] Isabella decided that Judge Samuels had purposely steered her wrong.[Monica M] And for that,[Monica M] she wanted his entire family to die.[Monica M] Something else very intriguing was happening in the country in 1907.[Olivia S] Yes.[Olivia S] So when we covered the John Branton case a couple episodes ago,[Olivia S] we mentioned that he had made a threat to kill the governor of[Olivia S] Oregon if he wouldn't let him out of prison.[Olivia S] In his letter,[Olivia S] he said, 'What happened to Stunenberg will happen to you.' I looked up Stunenberg,[Olivia S] and it turns out that in 1905,[Olivia S] he was killed with a bomb by a man named Harry Orchard.[Olivia S] In 1907,[Olivia S] Harry Orchard was on trial for his crime.[Olivia S] He spent several days on the stand in June,[Olivia S] giving detailed confessions about how he built his bombs and carried[Olivia S] out his attacks on political figures.[Olivia S] That's right.[Monica M] It was June of-[Monica M] 1907 when he went into detail over the course of several days,[Monica M] and this was considered the crime of the century.[Monica M] His confession was printed in full and printed over the course of[Monica M] three monthly magazine issues.[Monica M] Isabella bought a copy of every one,[Monica M] the third being issued in November of 1907,[Monica M] and she gave them all to baby John and told him to read them.[Monica M] The bomb that Harry Orchard used for Stunenberg was massive,[Monica M] and the magazine gave detailed instructions for its construction.[Monica M] Now,[Monica M] Isabella told John...[Monica M] you're going to build this.[Monica M] This bomb,[Monica M] built by the hands of a 16-year-old boy,[Monica M] used 70 sticks of dynamite and could have easily destroyed the[Monica M] tallest building in Oakland.[Monica M] And that's where we'll pause the story for now,[Monica M] because everything you've heard in this episode— the forged will,[Monica M] the suspicious deaths,[Monica M] the never-ending war,[Monica M] lawsuits,[Monica M] the dynamite— all of it was only the buildup.[Monica M] The breaking point came far from Oakland in the snow-covered[Monica M] mountains of Northern California.[Monica M] A cattle barn set ablaze in the freezing dark,[Monica M] a boy who begged not to strike the match,[Monica M] and a trail of footprints pressed into the sand.[Monica M] snow.[Monica M] Footprints that led straight back to the child who had spent his[Monica M] whole life obeying her.[Monica M] That arrest didn't just expose one crime,[Monica M] it exposed all of them.[Monica M] Because once baby John was taken into custody,[Monica M] away from Isabella's control for the first time in his 16 years of life,[Monica M] the truth finally came pouring out.[Monica M] Every fire,[Monica M] every bomb,[Monica M] every beating,[Monica M] every secret she had buried inside of him.[Monica M] But here's the part of the story almost no one has ever known.[Monica M] Long after the headlines faded,[Monica M] long after Isabella was sentenced,[Monica M] her behavior inside San Quentin raised red flags that even hardened[Monica M] prison officials couldn't ignore.[Monica M] ignore.[Monica M] She spiraled,[Monica M] she unraveled,[Monica M] and eventually she was sent somewhere far beyond the prison walls.[Monica M] And today,[Monica M] over a century later,[Monica M] newly unearthed documents,[Monica M] records locked away for generations,[Monica M] finally reveal what was happening behind those bars and what those[Monica M] closest to her never understood about her mind.[Monica M] In the next episode,[Monica M] we'll open those files,[Monica M] step into that courtroom,[Monica M] and learn the truth about who Isabella really was,[Monica M] and how Baby John became the unlikely hero in the story that nearly destroyed him.[Olivia S] Huzzah![Olivia S] That was part one.[Olivia S] If you want to follow our socials where we post pictures,[Olivia S] you can find us on Facebook at Forgotten Felonies.[Olivia S] Instagram is Forgotten underscore Felonies.[Olivia S] And Threads is also Forgotten underscore Felonies.[Olivia S] And big shout out to...[Olivia S] Mike?[Olivia S] John,[Olivia S] my brother Christian,[Olivia S] UMKC School of Law website.[Olivia S] Wendy,[Olivia S] Ancestry.[Olivia S] com,[Olivia S] Findagrave.[Olivia S] com,[Olivia S] Newspapers.[Olivia S] com.[Olivia S] Do we still have an affiliate code with them?[Olivia S] We do.[Olivia S] Yes,[Olivia S] we do.[Olivia S] We didn't mention it,[Olivia S] but if you want 20% off a six-month subscription.[Olivia S] Mm-hmm.[Olivia S] Um,[Olivia S] use forgotten 20.[Olivia S] That's F-O-R-G-O-T-T-E-N-2-0.[Olivia S] And also shout out to FamilySearch.[Olivia S] This was a time-consuming...[Olivia S] all-consuming episode.[Monica M] It's Hans,[Monica M] but happier.[Monica M] Ish.[Monica M] Bones,[Monica M] but less gory.[Monica M] Not nearly as dark,[Monica M] I would say.[Monica M] Not nearly as dark.[Monica M] Yep.[Monica M] And there's so much more to this story.[Olivia S] Yeah,[Olivia S] stuff I don't even know.[Monica M] Yeah.[Olivia S] What was the most surprising out of this?[Olivia S] This one,[Olivia S] um...[Olivia S] I think breaking his nose.[Olivia S] I don't know how bad it was.[Olivia S] Yeah.[Olivia S] It's really sad.[Olivia S] Or,[Olivia S] um...[Olivia S] I knew that she claimed that he was the daughter of a princess,[Olivia S] but I didn't know it was that one because I have heard that story before.[Olivia S] Hmm.[Olivia S] Or the son of a princess,[Olivia S] you mean?[Olivia S] Yes.[Monica M] So you've heard the story of the Princess de Chimay.[Monica M] Oh,[Monica M] interesting.[Monica M] I had never heard of her before.[Monica M] Yeah.[Olivia S] I actually read about it recently.[Olivia S] So.[Monica M] Was that what Wendy sent you?[Olivia S] No.[Olivia S] No,[Olivia S] I saw it on Facebook.[Monica M] Oh.[Monica M] Intriguing.[Olivia S] Yeah,[Olivia S] I follow a lot of history pages.[Monica M] Yeah,[Monica M] but yeah,[Monica M] the nose thing.[Monica M] I had seen one from...[Monica M] Later,[Monica M] when he was older,[Monica M] after you know,[Monica M] when the court stuff was happening,[Monica M] and one of the Articles said something like, 'You can see the[Monica M] evidence of the abuse on his face because of his nose.' And another[Monica M] article said, 'The least attractive part of him is his nose.[Monica M] Dirtbags.[Monica M] That was a low blow.[Monica M] For shame.'.[Olivia S] I know.[Olivia S] But,[Olivia S] um...[Olivia S] I-I didn't exactly know where Weaverville was.[Olivia S] So they're calling San Francisco,[Olivia S] Southern California.[Olivia S] And I'm like, 'That's,[Olivia S] like,[Olivia S] the middle.'.[Monica M] Yeah,[Monica M] well,[Monica M] I mean,[Monica M] that's what John Martin called it.