The Strange Death of Ocey Snead: The East Orange Bathtub Mystery

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2025

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1909, the discovery of a young woman, pale and emaciated, lying lifeless in a bathtub marked the start of an investigation into what seemed like a tragic story with a bleak ending. Just beneath the surface, however, lurked something far darker. As investigators pulled back the curtain, they uncovered a twisted tale of manipulation, greed, and murder. At its heart, the eerie, calculating Wardlaw sisters - A trio of eccentric aunts who wore nothing but black. SOURCES Zierold, Norman (1968) Three Sisters in Black: The Bizarre True Case of the Bathtub Tragedy. Open Road Media, NY, USA. Wardlaw, Joseph G. (1928) Genealogy of the Wardlaw Family. Manuscript, SC, USA. Brooklyn Eagle (1909) Mysterious Suicide Lived Strangely Here. Brooklyn Eagle, Tues 30 Nov 1909, p2. NY, USA. The Brooklyn Daily Times (1909) Flatbush Mystery Turns Into A Laughable Farce. The Brooklyn Daily Times, Weds 01 Dec 1909, p1. NY, USA. New York Times. (1909) Bathtub Mystery No Murder She Says. New York Times, Thurs 02 Dec 1909, p1. NY, USA. ------- For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9 Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories & Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/ Or you can contact us directly via email at [email protected] or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:00.1	In 1909, the discovery of a young woman, pale and emaciated, lying lifeless in a bathtub,
1:07.8	marked the start of an investigation into what seemed like a tragic story with a bleak ending.
1:13.6	Just beneath the surface, however, lurks something far darker. As investigators pulled back the
1:19.9	curtain, they uncovered a twisted tale of manipulation, greed and murder. At its heart, the eerie,
1:27.1	calculating wardlaw sisters, a trio of eccentric
	...

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