Murder, Mystery & Makeup - A Victorian lesbian romance ends in madness, jealousy, and MURDER?? - Alice Mitchell & Freda Ward

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

Hi friends, happy Tuesday! Today we're talking about a scandalous story that went down in the late 1800s in Memphis, Tennessee. That's where a same-sex, Gilded Age girl-crush came to an abrupt, bloody end. Lemme tell you... this story's got passion, it's got jealousy, some big secrets and there's even a bit of stalking going on. This is the story of Alice Mitchell - a woman who was maybe driven literally crazy by love. Also, let me know who you want me to talk about next time. Hope you have a great rest of your week, make good choices and I'll be seeing you very soon xo Bailey Sarian I sometimes talk about my Good Reads in show. So here's the link if you want to check it out. IDK. lol: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/139701263-bailey ________ FOLLOW ME AROUND Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d Discord: https://discord.gg/BaileySarian RECOMMEND A STORY HERE: [e-mail] Business Related Emails: [e-mail] Business Related Mail: Bailey Sarian 4400 W. Riverside Dr., Ste 110-300 Burbank, CA 91505 _________ Life insurance is never cheaper than it is today. Get the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, and save more than fifty percent at https://www.selectquote.com/makeup. Save more than fifty percent on term life insurance at https://www.selectquote.com/makeup TODAY to get started.  And, if you’re ready to try it, OLIPOP is giving you a free can! All you have to do is buy any 2 cans of OLIPOP in-store, and they'll pay you back for one. You can grab it online at https://www.drinkolipop.com or Amazon, or find it at over 50,000 retailers nationwide like Costco, Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, you name it. Head over to https://www.drinkolipop.com/MAKEUP to snag your free can.

Hi friends, how are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's murder, mystery, and makeup Monday. If you're new here, hi, my name is Bailey Sarian. And on Mondays, I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin and I do my makeup at the same time. We are time traveling today to the end of the 19th century in Memphis, Tennessee. Oh yes, I don't think we've 19th century in Memphis, Tennessee. Oh, yes. I don't think we've done a story in Memphis, have we? Well, that's where a Gilded Age girl crush ended on a cold winter day with one teenager's throat slashed and her killer locked away in an asylum forever.

Not to give it away, but it was not for what she did. It was for who she loved. The murder was easily solved, but the question at the root of this whole messy tragedy still nags at psychiatrists, juries, and anyone who's ever been rejected. Can love actually drive you crazy? You drive me crazy. I just can't see. To even begin to understand like this tangled tale, you need to understand the time and the place where it like all fell apart. Because things were different back then,

very, very different. So the Gilded Age was what Mark Twain sarcastically dubbed the final years of the 1800s. This was like what we know as the Victorian era. So Mark Twain, he compared the tremendous wealth flaunted by high society back then to fake gold. Like it was all shine and glitter until you scratched the surface

and discovered the rot underneath. Love that, huh? I mean, when I hear the word Victorian, I immediately picture like layers and layers and layers of clothing. It must be so hot and everyone probably stonk. And of course, over-the-top manners, right? But scratch that surface and the Victorians were like up to all kinds of shady shenanigans. In this era, the super rich got more rich and then the poor ended up getting thrown out like on the streets pretty much. There was so much political corruption, so much so that like New York State, they actually legalized bribery. I mean, this was like a

really big time, you know, America was going through a lot of changes and she was really torn between the past and the future. I mean lots of things were happening. The telephone was invented, the very first light bulb, oh light, then we got cars, and then one of like the very first skyscrapers went up in Chicago. People were just like, what is going on? Like it was blowing everyone's mind, you know, but as inventive as the Victorians were, they also were hardcore prudes pretty much. And women, especially young women,

they had to follow very strict rules. It was all to preserve their innocence and their good reputations. So being Southern Bells, I mean, this was definitely true for Alice Mitchell and Frieda Ward, the two ladies that we're talking about today. So these two young ladies, they ended up meeting at Miss Higbee School for Young Ladies in Memphis, Tennessee.

It was said that they were opposites, you know, but they became very close friends. So back then, especially in their teen years, it was common for girls to be openly affectionate with each other, like holding hands, hugging, and even kissing. And it was called chumming. Chumming, great, love it. Now, chumming was considered a kind of rehearsal for adulthood and like becoming a man's wife.

So you would practice on someone, if you know what I'm saying. Because like you weren't allowed to practice on a man if you were a woman. The only physical contact that was considered to be acceptable at this time, besides making out with your friend, would be like if you're dating a guy and like maybe he extended his hand out to help you like out of the carriage. And that was like as far as you can go with someone. So friends would be chumming. Yeah.

And I was thinking, well, what kind of like, what does this mean? Like, were they making out? Were they, what were they doing? Cause I know you're wondering and you're asking the real questions out there and you wanna know what kind of kissing was allowed in chumming.

Yeah, you're thinking it. I know you are. And that's a great question. So there's a lot of research regarding this case in particular. It's not clear if they were like making out, was it just a peck on the cheek, what was it? But I think as we go on, you can kind of put together what it was. Do you know what I'm saying? Well, you'll see. They were like lesbian lovers, okay? So we're getting into it. Both Alice Mitchell and Frieda Ward, they had recently graduated from school, you know? Alice had turned 18, which may sound exciting, but in 1892 that didn't necessarily mean like, freedom, I'm moving out of my parents' house. Society, at this time,

I'm moving out of my parents' house. Society at this time, AKA like white men in power, they dictated what was supposed to come next. And there was really only one answer, marriage and babies. That was your future ladies. And that's all you had going for you. Of course, like women who had to help support their families could join the workforce. Usually they'd work in like factories or shops,

but for the most part, women works mainly expected to be like homemakers. And if you did work, you still had to be like a good homemaker. That was your first and only job. It's kind of funny. It's not funny, but it's kind of funny. We can laugh at it now,

because we've come some ways. Because, you know, there were some colleges that would allow women in. kind of funny we can laugh at it now because we've come some ways because you know there were there were some colleges that would allow women in I know shocking like Ivy League colleges but there was always a lot of controversy controversy around it because at this time leading doctors including like a very prominent doctor from Harvard warned that female brains were small and that the extra effort it took them to solve algebra problems or read Latin

would actually kill their overtaxed brain cells. Ah, I know. So rough for us ladies, isn't it? Algebra? It's too hard. I can't do it. My overtaxed brain cells. Let's say a lady did go to college and she got a degree. Now it was thought that this woman, if she got a degree,

she would be sterile and sickly for the rest of her life. That's because a woman's brain and whole central nervous system were thought to be linked to the uterus. Ain't it funny? So if the brain diverted too much energy, the reproductive system would shrivel up and die. What a bummer. They thought this was true, you know?

So if you were a woman who went to college and you're proud, it's kind of like a buzzkill, really. I have a morbid question for you. Have you ever thought about what would happen if, knock on wood, something unexpected happened to you? We spend so much time binge watching true crime documentaries, but a lot of us skip one of the most important ways to protect ourselves and our loved ones. Life insurance. Damn. That's why I wanted to tell you

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Life insurance is never cheaper than it is today. Get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50% at selectquote.com slash makeup. Save more than 50% on term life insurance at selectquote.com slash makeup. Today to get started. That's selectquote.com slash makeup. So Ms. Frida Ward, she had always been studious and well behaved.

It was said that she was really pretty. She was tall, flirtatious, blonde, blue eyes, you know, good for her. When she was young, her mother had passed away. I guess she was like only eight years old. And her older sister, her name was Ada. She was the one that had taught Frida domestic arts. My dumb ass literally had to look up,

like what are domestic arts? It's stuff that women are supposed to be doing, like embroidery, making clothes. You get it, right? Hopefully you get it. Anyways, domestic arts. So this family, they were pretty wealthy. They had like servants, they had a cook growing up.

So the Ward sisters, they didn't have to do housework, which was nice. Good for them. But proper young ladies of their class were still expected to mostly stay at home and like just wait for a suitor to come along and like start courting them, which was kind of confusing to me. I was like, how are you supposed to meet someone if you're inside waiting all day? But I don't know. I didn't get that far into it. Meanwhile, they were supposed to focus on feminine arts like music, doing charity work, and spending hours each day embroidering linens or like making needlepoint decor for their future homes. That kind of sounds nice.

I wouldn't mind doing that. It doesn't matter. Frida Ward, I guess she didn't mind sewing. She kind of liked it, but her chum, her BFF, her best friend, her bestie, Alice, absolutely hated it. Ever since she was small, Alice Mitchell, she, I guess, was a little bit of a rebel, you know? She always went against like social norms and whatever was expected of her, you know, to like sit inside, be dainty,

be a cute little woman. She was like, no, no, I'm not doing that. She was known to be more of a tomboy who like excelled at climbing trees. So that said, she excelled at climbing trees and playing with marbles with the boys. What a rebel. I guess Miss Alice she could shoot a rifle just as well as like any of the guys and she didn't bother like with a saddle whenever she rode the horse that her father bought her. She raw dogged it and she even like learned how to harness a spirited horse and hitch it to a buggy. Wow, I know.

So Ms. Alice, she had like light brown hair, she had hazel eyes, said she was like a medium curvy build, which was like, okay, what is she a car? I don't know. But she wasn't like regarded as someone who was conventionally pretty. It was also said that she didn't like regarded as someone who was conventionally pretty. It was also said that she didn't show like any interest in boys and the feelings seemed to be mutual really.

No one seemed to like her either. It was said that like teachers were also unimpressed with Alice. They described her as badly balanced with zero interest in education. She was a slow learner who didn't like to read, but on the other hand, she was like a prolific writer. So despite all of like the Victorian rules, young women, you know, they were still given some freedom as long as like they had a chaperone around

or they were venturing out with like other women their age. Rita and Alice sometimes hung out with like a few other girls. There was a neighbor that was, well it was a neighbor of Alice, and her name was Lily Johnson. They would all hang out. Or sometimes Frieda's sister, her name's Jo. These names will come up later, so that's why I'm giving them to you. So Lily was a neighbor, Joe is Frida's sister. And she was like a couple of years older. And like they would all hang out sometimes, you know?

So the girls, they like to go on carriage rides into town, to like stop by the post office or visit a photo shop. This was exciting to them because Kodak had just put the first camera on the market and it came with enough film for like a hundred pictures and taking pictures was all the rage amongst, among, amongst or among the elite. If you had money it was like a flex to take a photo and it's so funny because when you kind of look at these photos from back then they're always so serious like no one's ever smiling they look miserable but deep down they were so stoked so in the six months leading up to a very tragic day the friendship between alice mitchell and frida ward took

a turn like typical best friends they would spend hours together every day and you know sometimes they would have sleepovers so the two of them would express undying devotion in notes that they wrote to each other and in different diaries that they kept. They even had nicknames for each other. I feel like this is kind of a normal best friend thing. But they had nicknames. So Frida went by Fred and Alice went by Allie. I know. so unique. Even Frida's married sister Ada kind of shrugged it off when she saw Frida and Alice kissing and snuggling in a porch hammock together. You know it was just called chumming and that's what they were doing. They were chumming and as they got older the girls would outgrow it. But what the family didn't know,

what they didn't know was that this chumming had already turned into a serious love affair. Ha, good for them. You gotta remember this is the Victorian era and like they don't know what this is. Two girls licking each other's lollipop, inappropriate. So this is where like the steamy details get a little fuzzy. Obviously different eras have their own moral boundaries and like different ways of defining intimacy. And it's also important to note that there's no clear-cut record of what

exactly was going on physically between Alice and Frieda. So some accounts out there say that they weren't lovers and others say that the two of them were you know hot and heavy. So in May of 1890, Frieda's father ends up getting a new job and the Ward family they end up having to move. So they move like 80 miles up the Mississippi River to a small town called Goldust, which I kind of love that name, Goldust. What a great name. Much of what happened afterward is based on the testimony of trial witnesses

and Alice Mitchell's writings. Yeah, and interrogations. So what is known for sure is that after the wards moved away, there'd be long flowery letters that started flying between Alice and Frida. And they made plans to see each other like as soon as possible. I mean they're best friends. They have to. They miss each other.

So it was said that Frida, she was able to adjust to the separation like a lot easier than Alice did. So whenever Alice was getting pissed off she would write back and pretty much condemn Frida for her perceived betrayal or sometimes on the other hand she would pledge much condemn Frida for her perceived betrayal Or sometimes on the other hand she would pledge her undying love for her in other words It was very toxic. It's very toxic. So that summer Alice was invited to visit The wards and you know, she's really excited She took him up on that offer and she ended up taking a steamboat to Goldust. Steamboat. Sounds fake, but it's not. So she takes a steamboat, she goes out to to Goldust and she ends up staying for a couple of weeks and it was just like old times, you know,

it was two chums, chumming it up, being chummy. And because they're just two chums, they were openly affectionate, they were inseparable, it was said that they were sharing a bed. I feel like we do that, we share beds, but like you know it was like what else were they doing? I don't know. Before she returned home, Alice made Frida promise her to come visit, you know sometime in the fall or the winter, whenever, but she's like you have to come visit me, pinky promise, and they promised. But until then, you know, they were back to being like passionate pen pals and, you know, sometimes they'd send each other stuff in the mail,

like little trinkets, whatever. It was like to show like their affection to one another. Like this is all fine and cute, right? Love that for them, they're in love, good for them. By now though, Ada, Frieda's sister, she was getting a little...suspish of the situation. She's like, I don't know. They seem like real close. That December, Frieda kept her promise and went to visit Alice for like a couple of weeks. So she's out there visiting and you know they're having cute little girl talk and Frida ends

up telling Alice about these two guys back in Gold Dust who were kind of like trying to get her attention. One of the guys names was Ashley and the other was Harry. Ashley was a popular man's name. I think it's cute. Anyways so she's like telling Alice all this about these two guys. So when Alice hears that, she gets extremely jealous. I mean, how could she? They had vowed that it would be just the two of them forever. You know, how dare Frida? I mean, she knew how courtship worked. Once suitors had made their interests known and like got permission to formally court

an unwed lady, marriage was like just around the corner, you know? So she's like, shit. At this point, it didn't sound like either of those guys had gotten that far with Frida yet, but they were obviously like trying to get her attention and then it would be heading in that direction. So Alice is just going like getting worked up in that head. And for Alice, I mean, her own future would be that of a spinster pretty much because she didn't have a man. And if you were an unwed woman, you were a spinster. I love that. I'm a spinster.

I'm proud. But it was bad back then. Like you didn't want to be a spinster, you know? Cause if you became a spinster, then you would be expected to live like under your family's roof until you died. So, not ideal. So whether it was in letters or in person,

Frida's response to Alice's jealous insecurity was like really to try her best to assure Alice that she was loyal and her feelings were as deep as ever. But Alice on the other hand, she was like spiraling. She had gone to a dark place. It was bad. And at some point or even during Frieda's visit, Alice had gone to the pharmacy and had bought a vial of La- La-Dunum. Did I say it right? I don't know.

But La-Dunum, it's like an opiate cocktail. Get this. Morphine, codeine, and alcohol. I don't know. It's like, where was I? But it was widely used as like an over-the-counter painkiller to help women, especially Victorian women, with menstrual cramps. Bring it back, bring it back. Mine get real bad. The downside, widely abused and highly addictive.

So pros and cons here, pros and cons. So it would come in like this little bottle and it would be like poison on it. All it took was like two teaspoons and it could kill a healthy adult. She goes out and she buys this bottle, okay? And she's trying to decide whether she wants to take her own life or free us with this bottle.

You know, she wants to guarantee that only she and Frida's with this bottle. You know, she wants to guarantee that only she and Frida would be together for eternity. And by killing her, it would give her that peace of mind, I guess. Jeez. So one night during that winter visit, she was on the verge of giving a fatal dose to Frida while she was sleeping.

So she's about to give it to her, Alice. She's about to give it to Frieda. And before she could, Frieda wakes up. She's like, what the fuck are you doing? Like, why are you hovering over me? I don't know. Alice, I guess, shows her the bottle. And then Frieda decided, you know what?

I'm gonna stay up. I'm gonna stay up for the rest of the night. I can't sleep. It's wild. Like she knew something was up with Alice. She didn't know what, she didn't know what her plan was, but she didn't like whatever was going on. Do you know what I'm saying? So Frida decided, I'm not going to bed. Staying awake you psycho. And we don't know what Alice was going to do, but we can guess and we can use our imagination. I think she was going to kill her. So Frida, she packs up and

she leaves the next day. Alice, I guess I don't like talk about what happened. Whatever. Alice like takes her to the back to the boat and she even like boards the boat with her and walks Frida to her stateroom. Now once they get into the stateroom, Alice goes psycho. She locks the door behind them. She takes out that bottle of laladaladum, whatever it's called, and she screams at Frieda like, marry whoever you want. And then she, she being Alice, she swallowed the contents of the bottle. So she was like gonna end it in front of her. She fucked up. So public accounts of this situation end there. And then the story picks back up with Frieda back in Gold Dust and Alice, she's bedridden.

She's at home with like an itchy rash. She has shortness of breath and also diarrhea. And like, these are the side effects from that poison she had taken from consuming too much of it. Instead of death, she didn't die, she almost died, but instead she got diarrhea and stuff, so that sucks. Which would you rather have? I don't know. So Alice and Frieda go back to

how they were communicating before writing each other letters. I know. I was like, poor Frieda. Like she, I don't know, she like loves her best friend or loves her, I'm not know, she like loves her best friend or loves her I'm not sure but it's like so toxic obviously. Alice is psychotic. Can I say that? Yeah, she's not coming to get me. So Alice had apparently convinced Frieda that her attempt to end her own life was a selfless act her own life was a selfless act intended to leave Frieda free to marry whichever man Harry or Ashley. And you know I guess like Frieda's like okay I get it I don't know sure. So two months go by and guess what happens? Well let me tell you Alice she writes a letter to Frida, you know, and she ends up proposing to Frida through her letter. And Frida had wrote a letter back accepting the proposal. So Alice proposed at least like three more times in separate letters, threatening in like the last one that she was going to off herself

if Frida broke up with her. So then the two of them began making wedding plans. This part was interesting. At this time same-sex relationships they weren't even like recognized. There wasn't even a name for them at this time. Like people just didn't know what that was. They didn't get it. No one got it. But this didn't stop Alice or Frida from going ahead with like plans for a legal marriage and life as husband and wife. The husband would be Alice and the wife would be Frida. That's what they decided. I was really impressed with this. Like they didn't care. They were just they wanted to do it at a time when like this was it was bold. It was brave. You know, like, oof. ["Soda Song"] Confession time.

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like teenage girls with limited freedoms of Victorian society going to get married? Well, Alice, you know, she like completely spelled it out. Okay. This is all in a letter that Alice had wrote to Frida. She said that she would go to the barber shop and she would get her hair cut like a man. Step one. Then she would ditch all of her frilly dresses, her corsets, her bustles, and then buy men's clothes. Then she would start going by the name Alvin J Ward. She's like, that's it? Then that's, that'll do it? At this time, facial hair happened to be like very fashionable among men.

And if Frieda wanted her husband to have a mustache, Alice promised that she would grow one. She figured it would be easy if she just like started shaving her face daily. She, you know, she was like, it'll come in. Yeah. she's you know she was like it'll come in yeah so the plot further called for Frida to sneak away from home and take a late night boat from Goldust to Memphis and then once she arrived Alice would go get a marriage license and then they could have a wedding ceremony at

Alice's church with her pastor if the pastor like did not agree to officiate, thank you, they would just like have a justice of peace marry them, which again, very ahead of their time, huh? So let's say all this went through, like once they were legally wed, Alice envisioned Mr. and Ms. Alvin J Ward,

they would go like live in St. Louis. Is it St. Louis or St. Louis? I'm thinking of um you know what I'm thinking about that song you know. Anyhow but they decided they would go live there as like a married couple with Alice still posing outside the home as a man named Alvin. Like nobody would know. Frieda she would be stay at home wife and you know do all the wifely duties and like Alice would expect her to respect and obey her the same as any proper Victorian lady would her husband. This was the goal. So Frida she's like oh my god sounds great I'm in and she agreed to the plan. Alice dipped into her savings and she

ended up buying like an engagement ring. She buys a ring and she heads to Goldust in June of like 1891 and she's going to see Frieda and like present the ring to her right and she did and Frieda like accepted it put it on her finger and I guess she freely flaunted it whenever she was out and about. It was said that Frieda enjoyed engaging in public displays of affection with Alice. Again, bold. Way ahead of their time, right? Love that for them. Anyway, so she liked it. She was like, ugh. But Alice, supposedly, she was kind of like ashamed by it. Like, I don't know. We don't really know, but we do know that it led to some arguments.

But as always, like the two would make up and they were just fine. Meanwhile, Brita's sister, Ada, she was starting to find her little sister's make-out sessions with her old school chum disgusting. That's what she's thinking. So she's like kind of putting pieces together. She's like, I don't like this.

I don't like this at all. So when Alice had left and like went back to Memphis, she was glad. She wanted her away from her sister. So a month later, Alice somehow caught wind that Frida was still seeing this guy named Ashley. She hears this, she's like, what's that? On top of that, this man, Ashley,

had officially like stepped up his game and was courting Frida. Was that even mean? I don't know. So when Alice hears this, she's thinking, they're about to head down the aisle pretty much, right? That's what this is. That's what's gonna happen.

That's how this always ends. So she's pissed. So Alice fires off a pretty furious letter. You know, in the letter, she's like, Alice, you promised me your hand in marriage and like, you're being unfaithful. Kind of like calling her a slut without calling her a slut, you know?

She told Frieda in this letter to stop encouraging Ashley immediately. What else? No, no. You got a crazy one. So Frieda gets a letter. She writes back. God, could you imagine? Like, we're so spoiled now with, like, texts and everything.

You know when you send someone a text and you're like, hey, do you like me? And like, it feels like forever for them to respond. Could you imagine having to wait weeks or something for a letter to come back? Oh, man. The suspense. Anyways, but Freida responds eventually, you know, it finally gets to her. And she's apologizing just like over and over again. And she's swearing to Alice like, you know, that they're gonna be together forever and like that she loved her. And once things were cleared up, I guess, they went back

to like planning their escape and their marriage together. Freida's sister Ada, you know the hater, she knew something was up. So she had gone snooping around and she found the letters that Alice had written to Freida, including the ones that pretty much spelled out like the whole marriage plot. Ada's like, oh, I'm on to you. So Ada, she finds these letters and she's like, she knows she's got something, you know, so she tells her husband and they decided to keep like a close eye on Frida to prevent her from taking the boat to Memphis because she and Alice were like, you know, planning on riding away together and get

married and all that. So the two of them were going to keep their eye on Frieda to make sure that she didn't run off and try to like catch a boat to see Alice you know. So Frieda she's all dressed up she's packed and she's about ready to like go catch a boat right to go see Alice. So that's when Ada and maybe her husband I don't know if her husband was there, but Ada confronts Frida and is like, you're not going, you know, like we found these letters, bleep, blop, bloop. And I guess a big family blow up happened

and Frida didn't go. She didn't, she didn't go, boat left without her. So Ada, I guess she ends up taking the engagement ring, you know, that Alice gave to her and like other little, little trinkets and whatnot that Alice had mailed to Frida. And she ended up like gathering them all up and she mails them back to Alice's home

and to the whole family. And Ada, she writes a super spicy letter addressed to Alice and home. Like to the whole family. And Ana, she writes a super spicy letter addressed to Alice and her mother. Whoa. It said like don't try in any way shape or form or manner to have any intercourse with Frida again. I thought you were a lady. I have found out to the contrary. Such a classy way to tell someone off. So this letter gets fired off. And you know, we don't know if Alice got in trouble or not, like with her parents because of this whole letter.

We don't know. I mean, technically she was an adult anyway, but this letter was like devastating to Alice. I guess it was said that she was constantly crying and she hardly slept or like ate at all and her love was gone. But Alice was like crazy. So girl, get out of here. So Alice took the letter and like all the trinkets,

put it in a box and like put it on a shelf and she was devastated, right? Super sad, crying all the time. Alice like wasn't eating. I guess she was getting thinner and thinner and like more anxious. And she seems like more and more out of it. Neighbors and acquaintances, that's a hard word for me, neighbors and friends are people who knew her. They always thought she was like really, not really weird, but they thought she was odd. She was an odd one. But now after all this,

they were like, um, she's definitely odd. They said she was cracked like that was a diss I think but she she was real questionable. Now it's not clear why like maybe she heard it somewhere or maybe she just imagined it but Alice became convinced that Frida was planning a November trip to Memphis. So she thinks that she's coming to Memphis. So Alice, she stole her father's straight razor and began like carrying it with her. I guess she was like hiding it in her gown whenever she left the house.

I mean, it makes sense. There was like 18 layers these girls were wearing back then. So you had a place to hide things. Well, Alice was like walking around. I think she's trying to find her. You know what I'm saying? Like trying to accidentally run into her but no luck. So instead Alice, you know what she does? She finds that man that Brita was talking to. His name's Ashley. She's, she finds this man and she starts following and like stalking him. Yeah, girl, she... Okay, so in Alice's mind, this was her rival, this Ashley guy, right?

I mean, he was the one in between her and Frieda. So you know what she does? She ends up becoming friends with this Ashley guy. Yeah, she doesn't tell him that she knows she knows Frida. She just like strikes up a conversation and the two end up becoming friends. So Frida, she did have a trip to Memphis planned with her sister Jo. We mentioned her earlier a long time ago, feels like. So she had this trip planned, right? But she didn't tell Alice that and they wouldn't be arriving until like January. Alice had heard that they were coming and that they were staying in a

boarding house. She's a little creep this one. Alice is like dying to see Frieda, right? So she sends her two letters to the boarding house where she was staying. Now one of them was like intercepted and then the other one came back to her with the word returned, scrawled across the envelope. Now Alice recognized the writing on the letter was like Frieda's writing. Very upsetting. So Alice, you know, she needs a new friend. So she started taking her neighbor Lily. Remember Lily? taking her neighbor Lily, remember Lily? She starts taking her friend Lily to go on carriage rides into town.

So Lily had kind of been Alice's backup friend. You know like when your best friend is busy doing something so you call out the backup friend? I don't know if they know that they're the backup friend. You never tell them, but you have them on call. You know what I'm saying? So that was Lilly. So Lilly knew about Alice, her obsession with like Frida,

and she even later convinced a jury that she wasn't clued in about like the love affair, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So Alice, you know, she tried to go see Frida at the boarding house, but that didn't work out. So instead she did that thing where like you cruise by slowly in hopes to have like an accidental run in. Like, oh my God, what are you doing here?

That's crazy. I didn't know you were here. That's nuts. I'm here too. One day, Alice and Lily, they're riding around town. They're cruising around kind of waiting to accidentally run into Frieda so Alice sees Frieda popping into a photo gallery and she's alone and she's like oh my god this is my chance. Alice waits outside when Frieda comes out of the gallery I guess she walked

right past Alice without even like acknowledging her but she I don't even think she noticed her so feelings were hurt so Alice steps out of the carriage that she's in because she's gonna go and approach Frida but I guess like she slipped on the cobblestone because it was like icy and it was like really embarrassing her so she ends up just like getting back into the carriage and like going home but she was so close you know she could taste it she was almost there she was like i just need another chance so on january 18th alice she ends up getting like um her very last letter from frida it's the very last letter that frida would ever write her. It said, Dear Ali, I will love you now and always will, but I have been forbidden to speak to you and I have to obey. You say I am much to blame as you

are. If I have done you any harm or caused you any trouble, I humbly beg your forgiveness. Please don't let anyone know I wrote this. No one knows about last summer's business except our family. That is unless you have told someone. We go back to gold dust this evening. Freida. Oh I know what you did last summer. So Alice gets this this letter and you know what she knows? She knows that Frida is lying because there is no steamboat that's leaving on the evening of January 18th. Ah, she's lying. There had been like heavy snow, there was too much ice in the river. Frida was a lying hoe. She knows that Frida is gonna be in town just a little bit longer. She can't leave. Where's she going to go? She knows that the next steamboat wouldn't be for another week. So on January 25th,

Alice was ready. She hitched up her horse and buggy. That's so funny. And she went over to fetch her neighbor slash second BFF, Lily. Now at this time, Lily was babysitting like a six, a six year old, I think it was her nephew. She's babysitting. So she's like, can I bring the baby? Well, not baby, you get it. She's like, yeah, sure, bring them. So the three of them,

they jump into the little carriage situation and they go. So they go to like where the steamboat loading area. I'm sorry, I don't know technically like what you call it. I think it's a loading area, sure. But Alice spots Freida and her sister, Jo, on their way to the boat. A few moments later, Alice, she climbs out of the buggy, leaving Lily and her nephew to mind the horse.

Lily, allegedly, I believe her, she didn't know anything that was going on. She had no clue like this was gonna happen because within like just a few minutes, Alice had caught up to Frida and her sister. And I guess like without a word, she slashed at Frida with a straight razor. So Joe cried out and like tried to jump

between Alice and her bleeding sister, like trying to, I guess she had an umbrella and she was like trying to beat Alice back with an umbrella and she's calling Alice like a dirty dog, which is like the meanest thing you can call someone. Dirty dog, you know? So Joe's trying to beat her with the umbrella and I guess Alice, she knocks the umbrella

out of her face, away, whatever, and she cuts Jo. So Jo had yelled at Alice, like, you'll hang for this, and then Alice, this was according to witnesses who were there, and then Alice had shouted back like, I don't care if I'm hung, I want to die anyhow. So she's just raging. Frieda had managed to stumble only a few steps away like trying desperately to reach the boat ramp but Alice was right there she was right there and she was cutting her she

was slicing her Frida collapsed and then when Frida collapsed that's when Alice like ran back to that buggy right and she jumps in and they take off so they were witnesses there and they described Alice as looking insane her face was bloody her hat was missing I know her hair was wild and like streaming behind her. I love that drama. So Alice she jumps into the carriage, she takes the reins, she whips the horse like into a gallop, and there were some, you know there were a lot of witnesses, a lot of bystanders, and there was one bystander who I guess started chasing them thinking that Lily and her nephew had like just been kidnapped by this psychopath you know. So this guy's following them. So they take off high-speed buggy. I don't know how fast that thing can go but I

imagine it could go fast right? They take off and you know where they go? Alice didn't think this far ahead. She didn't think of like I don't know a hideout spot or something because she went straight home. You can't go home that's exactly where the police are gonna come, right? They know, okay. Which that's where she went. She went home. So Alice goes home. Her mom is there. Her mom is like helping her clean up because she has blood all over her face and whatnot. So her mother is like washing the blood from Alice's face. She put some bandages on like different cuts that she had gotten like on her fingers. And then it didn't take long because then the chief of police arrived and placed Alice under

arrest for murder. So again like the street had been filled with different witnesses. So everyone was like able to like identify her. And then also Joe, Frida's sister, she survived. She ended up having like superficial cuts to her face, you know, but like other than that, she was good. So Alice was placed under arrest, taken to jail. She was in trouble. Obviously she murdered someone. So at the jail house, Alice had calmly explained

that she caught Fra because she loved her and because Frieda wouldn't speak to her. Duh. That's why I did it. She's like, you guys are being a waste of my time. It wasn't hitting her that she had done anything wrong. It was said that Alice felt no remorse because she felt like it was her duty to kill Frida since she couldn't marry her. And to her she was like, I'm just keeping my promise to Frida. Not only death would keep us apart. You know who else got arrested? I was shocked at this. Thank God it was fine. But Lily. Yeah, the girl who was in the carriage with her, Lily, the neighbor, the second best friend.

She ended up behind bars. She was like an accessory to murder. So her trial actually came first. I was like, uh-oh, this can't be good. On February 23rd, 1892, the hearings had been delayed until the courtroom could be like renovated, which sounds silly, but they needed to renovate it because they needed to accommodate the crowd of spectators who were following the story. Oh, it was everywhere. Newspapers and tabloids were like, at this time, new to America. And the press, they loved it. They're like, we love this. I mean, hello. It's a racy story of a murderous romance between two girls. It's perfect. It sold many papers and many people were interested.

So the courthouse was like remodeled to accommodate thousands of spectators. So when Lily takes a stand, you know, there's tons of people in there. So her lawyers had argued that she had no prior knowledge to Alice's intentions, her murderous intentions. And luckily for Lily, like all, her murderous intentions. And luckily for Lily, like all of her charges were dropped. So she's like, close call. So on the night of Alice's arrest, her daddy, very rich. So he immediately hires like some of the best lawyers in Memphis, right? Because his daughter is not going to prison. Not with his money.

So they interview Alice and they decided you know at her father's urging on a plea of insanity. At the very least like if convicted she would spend the rest of her life in prison which is not ideal. She had just turned 19 and that would be really bad for her. I mean yes she did murder someone but did she? I wasn't there, you know, the father. Insanity on the other hand, let me tell you, would spare her life and confine her to a hospital instead of a prison cell. Plus asylums had at this point like had recent reforms. These recent reforms actually tried to treat the mentally ill with compassion instead

of isolation and like crude experimental treatments. And I was shocking. So her dad was like you want that babe that's what you want. They're being nice now. It hadn't been that long ago that these quote unquote, I'm not saying this crazy people were chained up and even put on public display as like curiosities. People were subjected to crude electroshock therapy, ice baths. They did like a procedure thought to purge toxins from people's system by hanging patients upside down in a contraption that like whirled them around really fast until they puked, you know, to purify.

So they would do all this and the recent reforms stopped all this is what we're getting at. So a hearing was held on July 18th, 1892 to determine whether Alice Mitchell was of sound enough mind to stand trial for murder. So when she was questioned by her defense attorney whether she had intended to kill Frieda, Alice replied, yes. And they're like, okay, this is not helping your case ma'am. But she's like, yes, I did.

I killed her because I loved her. So then they asked her like, well, why did you do it? And she was like, well, if I couldn't have Frida, I wanna make sure no one else can. And you know, at least she was honest and she wasn't trying to lie and be like, I didn't do it. There's no proof, it wasn't me.

So Alice pleaded not guilty. So her defense argued that she was quote, presently insane, unquote, and not mentally fit to stand trial. Okay, look, look, if she wanted an insanity plea, that would be fine. She could do that. But it required establishing a hereditary history. You had to like prove to be genetically Quote unquote crazy now that might be hard to do but luckily for Alice It turned out that her own mother had been hospitalized several times for something called per you Per point Postpartum depression the proper name is Poe... postpartum depression. The proper name is really hard for me to pronounce, obviously, but it's known as, we know it as postpartum depression, thank you. But her mom had this.

After the birth of her first child, Alice's mom, she had to be committed to mental asylum for like a couple of months and when she returned home she learned that her baby had died and became increasingly unstable. I could imagine. Isabella, Alice's mom, she ended up giving birth to like seven kids and only four survived and it was said that her mental state had deteriorated after each birth. And Alice was her youngest, her youngest child. So like she kind of like got a shit end of the stick, you know? So the hereditary argument was that Isabella had passed on her postpartum psychosis to

her daughter. And they're like, boom, case closed. So then medical and psychiatric experts, you know, they weighed in for the defense. And they concluded that Alice's boyish behavior growing up like shooting marbles with her brothers pointed to her inherited insanity. Because shooting marbles really gives it away. If you're doing that, you must be a little off. So then one of Alice's brothers, which is kind of funny because like throughout the whole story,

you don't hear anything about the siblings. But one of Alice's brothers, he testifies and he tells the court about Alice's attempt to, you know, off herself over Freida's infidelity. And, you know, the jury's like, oh, see, she is off. Something's off with her. I mean, I'm sure we can all agree here, something was off with her, right? The psychologist for the defense concluded

that Alice was pretty much triggered by the emotional turmoil of love and jealousy. And that the insanity lurking inside Alice, they said, revealed itself in her belief that she could actually marry Frieda. That make sense? That makes sense. So when doctors and asylum superintendents weighed in, they suggested a variety of theories

and diagnoses. This is what they came up with. Because again, they didn't know what this was called. A woman loving a woman. There was no name for it. So they were trying to give it names. So at first they thought maybe like Alice was a hermaphrodite half woman half man they thought maybe she suffered from like perverted sexual attachment or emotional morbid impulse. They're like one of those everyone?

Everyone's like yeah that sounds right those are big words. Yeah, great. We agree. The closest word that the Victorians had for whatever this was, was called sexual inversion, which implied that someone carried traits of like the opposite gender inside of them. And some physicians argued that a woman loving another woman in itself was insane. And that they really didn't even need any proof other than that the prosecution, you know, was their turn. They said that being a tomboy was like,

they're like, that's just a normal part of like growing up. Other than that, Alice was just weird and a murderer. But in court, they said that Alice is weird and that was like what they came up with and I really liked that. I don't know why. Throughout the 10-day trial Alice came across as unconcerned which to some observers and the press was further proof that she was uh well it was further proof of like her insanity. Alice took the witness stand and it was said that she was pretty calm and indifferent as she told the core of her love and planned marriage with Frieda. When it came to the murder itself, she explained it this way, saying quote,

My intention was to cut Frieda's throat and then my own but Joe's interference made me cut Frida again and now I know she is happy good for her I guess I don't really know what she saw people were gonna do after that so the jury delivered a verdict of insanity on her way to the Western State insane asylum Asylum in Boulevard, Tennessee, I'm sure I got that right, Alice was allowed to visit Frieda's grave. And it was said only there did she finally start sobbing. So, the widely publicized and sensationalized case was said to have spark public discourse on the taboo subject of lesbianism. So lesbianism, it's in the conversation now. And this seemed to influence popular literature of this era,

which began to depict lesbians as murderous and like masculine or mannish. But what came of Alice, let me tell you. Alice's father tried at some point to get her released, insisting that his daughter was not actually insane but only had suffered what he described as temporary distress. God, man. Your daughter killed someone. Let it be that.

But anyways, that went nowhere. Alice remained institutionalized until her death just six years later at the age of 25. Now, initially it was reported that she died from tuberculosis. That's a water tower. We don't know. But she's buried in the same cemetery as Frida. Not next to her grave though. Thank god. So that technically is the story of Alice Mitchell and Frida Ward. And I found it interesting because one, lesbians in the Victorian era, that to me I was like what? I'm in. Bold, right? Two, we get lots of stories of this of like you

know men being psychotic, right? And like they can't take no for an answer so they just go too far and like kill someone. It's like finally we get a woman doing it. Jeez, come on ladies. I'm kidding but you know what I mean? Like it's just we don't get it that often. But also I think it like it really kind of like started the whole conversation about lesbians. This case which I found interesting. We've come a long way, I feel like. There's still obviously like psychos out there, right? That's the takeaway, really. Do you like these types of stories? Well, it doesn't fucking matter. I like them.

Anywho, I hope you have a good rest of your day. You make good choices. Be safe out there. If somebody is um... If somebody is treating you badly, making you feel guilty for being a human being with your own life and your own choices and your own thoughts and stuff and like guilt tripping you into like kind of like being with them? Run. Anyways, I'll be seeing you guys later. Bye!