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This is the Fox True Crime podcast.

Today we bring you a case review.

It was Christmas night, 1843, in the small rural village of Staten Island, and the townsmen

were celebrating the way they knew best by drinking at a local tavern.

But the merry festivities were cut short by the piercing scream of a teenage boy

not far away. The men rushed outside to investigate only to find thick black smoke and a blazing fire

eating away at the house of Captain George Hausman. Captain Hausman was away on an oyster trip. His wife,

Emmeline, and baby Anna Eliza were believed to be away on travel as well. But as the neighbors extinguished the flames and investigated the scene, they were met with a horrifying sight. Within the scorched bones of the houseman's kitchen laid the charred body of Emmeline Houseman. Her white broken bones were visible,

and her skull had been severely shattered. Beside her was the small body of young Anna Eliza

in even worse shape. As investigators worked to piece together the haunting crime, the question

remained in such a small town. Who would commit such a

violent and evil murder? Who did commit such a violent and evil murder? Before long, police had

their suspect, a vampire, a monster, the witch of New York. Pali Bodine.

I'm Emily Campano, and this is the Fox True Crime podcast. Thank you. Polly Bodine, the sister of Captain Hausman, was a social pariah whose lifestyle was deemed

highly unconventional by her peers on Staten Island.

She was a 33-year-old single mother of two who had separated from her husband who was an abusive drunk.

Polly was known as a gin drinker and an adulteress who had multiple abortions,

and for her controversial ways, she was shunned by her community.

Whispers and gossip spread across the island,

and on New Year's Eve, Polly was subsequently arrested for the murders of her sister-in-law and niece.

...