George Hassell: The Family Axeman

It is, I have that song stuck in my head, it's like, okay, it's actually kind of weird because I have two songs stuck in my head.

One of them is Tuped-O, but I have the window, and then the other one is like that club beat that I'm just getting on TikTok a lot that's like So for that to like, Tuped-O, you mean call on me?

“Call on me, but that quote unquote club beat that you just couldn't make. Is that what it is? Is he saying call on me?”

Hold on, we know I'm famous for lyrics. Yes, this is a song, this is like a good song. It's a good, yeah, I love that song. That and So very different, some D.J. police. Mashma, police. Mashma.

Send it to my box. Mash that up. I don't know how it will work. Oh, that will be so tiny to Tuped-O through the tulips, and call on me. You know you're a signman. We're so, we're so recklessly. We are recklessly. Just sit in front of it Domino's pizza. That shit was good. It's just an open dog. It's really, isn't it? Because let's be clear here. Let's talk shop, okay?

Let's talk. Let's talk. He's through the state of the pod lab right now. Delena's, I don't know, to my views through your right. She's got all these Canadian candies. To my, on my side table, I have multiple coffees from a couple days ago to be completely honest. Also Canadian candy, this is a water. And then in front of me is a half-eaten Domino's pizza. That was all of ours with like a half-open garlic sauce. Then there's a whole slew of

Canadian shit that Mikey got for us, candy chips, all Tim Tam's, you name it. And then beyond that, there's a Papa Gino's box of breadsticks because Elena likes Papa Gino's breadsticks, but I don't fuck with their pizza. And I don't either. But I fuck with their breadsticks.

“So, that's what's happening right now. It's either right this more. Oh god, to my right,”

there's more Tim Tam's. There's a lot of crumbs. There's more candy. Oh my god, there's an old McDonald's wrapper and an old coke. We are crash raccoon.

Here's the thing, this is representing the stain of our soul.

No, you guys are mercury retrograde. I know that we've referenced it all lately, but it's like, you can picture this state of this room, but you don't even know. No, because there's other shit that I didn't even mention. But it's so real. It's so what is happening. We're gonna clean it up. We are. We are. Yeah. Because I don't want to sit in here like this. No, I don't either. Now that I like pointed it out,

I feel like it's all enclosing me. It's disgusting. But so, I feel like I've had a little bit of a trash solely. So, I feel like my soul is feeling less trashed. So, I think we can start cleaning it up. We'll be realized. Alina has a cancer moon and this retrograde started in cancer. So, like that's fucked up. So, like once you've processed one emotion barely, you were already on to the next one. Yeah, it's a loss. That's real fucked up.

Mm-hmm. I don't love it. But here we are. I don't want some more other. I do not. Do not. Give me some more. I think it's over on Thursday. Oh. Yeah, because of the 23rd. Is that God's willing? How did days work? Is that? I have no idea. I am one person.

“You should not ask how days work lately. Yeah, I was just kind of like asking out aloud.”

That was just asking the universe. Yeah, it's so it's on Thursday. All right. We're all going to get through this together. That freaks me out because I'm trying to get

Celtic 76ers tickets for the first game. Yeah, and that is going to be during the band of

Mercury retrograde and I retrograde and I swear to God. And I swear to God if I can't get those fucking tickets will burst into flames. I will Hulk it out. Yeah, as you should. That's all I have. That's all we got. Um, oh, also like God, I got the 76ers tickets because Jalen Brown should have been traded. Thank you so much. We're pissed about it. You like understatement of the subject. Yeah, not not happy about that at all. So if you're listening

owners of the Celtics, fuck y'all. We're pissed. How dare you? We're pissed. How? I was pissed about Christophe's for Singus. Yeah. I've been pissed. And then you want to have this about true holiday. And then you want to be really proud of it. Yeah, that is not available. But yeah, that's where we are. And now we're with this idiot. I'm about to talk to you. I'm talking to you. Don't talk to you. You're

me in this asshole talking. How fun. Yeah. I guess I'll go. We're going to be talking about a

George Hassel. He is a hassle. Oh, yeah. He's the family X man. I call that a hassle. A little trigger warning. This from the 1800s. It's old. And he is he kills quite a few people. Okay. And some of them are children. So just before warned, he is a family X man. That's such a weird way to describe that. Yeah, not on your part. Just in general. Yeah. Well, it's a good family movie. I know you just think like, oh, it's just our family X man over here. You know, but that's still a family for generations.

Yeah, that's not what he is. He's not fun. You don't. You're not excited to see him. No at all. All right. He's also a liar. I thought you were going to say he's also alive. And I said, there's actually no way that that's so decrepit. And so alive. And let's feel like widow's being. Yeah. Yeah. He's a liar. He's like the founder of widow's bay. We just keep a minute off. And yeah.

“Yeah. No. Watch what was bay if you haven't yet. It was telling you guys. You have to.”

I'm so fucking nice shirt by the way. Oh, I like that. Thank you. Good one. Thanks. You're welcome. I got to swear on it. I got to get more widows bay merch. I'll get you one of these ones. Thank you. I didn't know how good it was going to be, but you got it. Yeah. So on that, the Patricia one then I got us holes in so I'm good. I love it, though. It's a little thin. Yeah, you know. Sorry. Anyway, that's for the point. Everybody marked your times. Yeah. Mark your time.

We're about to start. We'll start with your chassel. He was born July 5th, 1888 in Smithville, Texas. He was the youngest of seven children born to William and Martha Hasel. His earliest years were spent in cloud chief Oklahoma. They moved around, which by the time the hassles had arrived was a little more than a ghost town. So no, a lot to do. Throughout the first decade of the 20th century, William worked as a farmer, struggling to keep his pretty large family fed and housed at a

time when rural families across the country were struggling to keep up. Hasel claimed that his mother

“died when he was 12, and that his father was later poisoned by his stepmother. Honestly, if that's”

true, that's pretty intense and likely a pretty formative experience for him. Like, did you contact the authorities about that? Yeah, we're just not sure, though. Historian Michael Roth did find, didn't find a lot of evidence to support either of those claims like nothing solid. A lot of

George's life was just dramatized by him. Yeah. Like, a lot of it, his crimes weren't. He always

down graded his force, but everything else was very theatrical. And his reasoning, I'm sure with like, oh, well, everything went wrong in my life. Oh, he constantly plays the woe is me coming out. I had to act people. Yeah, I had to because life was so hard on me to do. So his life sounds actually like putting aside like him, making sure up. His life sounds fairly typical for a young man at the turn of the century, like nothing crazy. In his account, he recalled his mother as

rigidly religious with high expectations and described his father as a strict, but disciplinarian, which is literally everybody at that time. Yeah, it's the 1800s, but according to George, one particularly bad beating he received from his father, quote, "Cost him to leave the home and become a wanderer." Whoa. I mean, that's not cool. Yeah, to be beat. His version tended to place this event around 1899 when he was just 11 years old. They just dipped. But it's much more likely

in the evidence and like research points to it, having happened when George was in his late teens. Okay. Obviously, that's a big difference because, yeah, until 11-year-olds becoming a wanderer is a lot more sympathetic than like a 19-year-old. Yeah, and neither one is okay, but, you know, George drifted through Oklahoma before eventually settling back in Texas, where he found work driving a freight wagon for a cotton company. Okay. The company was owned by a guy named

Sid Ross and his partner, and they came to trust George at one point, enough that he was regularly

“sent to, uh, I believe, is it A-Balene to run errands? Is it A-Balene or A-Balene? A-Balene, Texas, A-Balene?”

You'll let us know. I was just gonna say, you guys will tell me. I think it's A-Balene.

A-Balene. A-Balene. A-Balene. A-Balene makes more sense. I could absolutely look this up right now. This is the first time I'm

just gonna let it roll. Let it roll. It's A-Balene. Boom. It's A-Balene. We'll find out. So you want to A-Balene to run errands? I would make deposits at the bank. You would buy supplies. In 1906, George was given $100 to deposit into the company account and another $40 to buy a crate of chickens, about $6,000. In present day money. I want chickens so bad. Also, holy shit. That's a crazy conversion. Yeah. He stole it all. I had a skill in town. That was like his first big crime. He did not want to

get him so badly. You know, he said these are mine. When George didn't return from A-Balene,

which is when he discovered the wagon still full of cotton to be delivered, had been abandoned.

Oh, and George and the money were nowhere to be found. Ross reported the theft of the authorities and demanded that it be found in that they find George and charge him with theft. When asked about the incident years later, Ross said, "Hassel as a boy was unworthy of the confidence I placed in him and turned out to be thoroughly shift-list and shift-list and unworthy." Oh, unworthy is damn. It's a great insult. Yeah. You were unworthy. You were unworthy.

Oh, so I looked it up, and we're correct. It's Evelyn. Evelyn, hey, it didn't take long for police to track George down. He was at his sister's home in Fort Worth and on March 11th, 1907,

“he was indicted for a bezzlement. You got to find a better hideout. Yeah, what are you doing?”

You just went to a family member's because everybody knows where to find me. Everyone knows to find go to your sister's house. Yeah. George pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to two years in prison for the theft. It was sent to a work farm in Hillsboro, Texas. He used the sentence to elicit a lot of sympathy telling anyone who would listen that he was just a small boy when it happened. I mean, no, he was 19. Yeah, that's an adult. Despite his reputation

as a liar, and later as a killer, one can be reasonably certain. While he was incarcerated, he did likely suffer the worse that the American prison system has probably ever had to offer. Yeah. According to Michael Roth, quote, no facility in Texas was more violent than the prison farms. Prisoners were routinely whipped until they lost consciousness. And in other cases, they were raped and physically abused. Oh, God. To make matters worse, while at the camp,

“George was assigned first to the local turpentine, or it's turpentine, right? I believe so.”

Why can't I say words to turpentine or is it turpentine? I think it's turpentine. It's turpentine. Let's tell you guys, I'm trash recently. I just can't. I can't. I understand. Turpentine. Turpentine. That makes the turpentine. You're good. Yeah, woof, everybody. We're all in this together. He was assigned to the local turpentine factory. And this job was assigned to prisoners because of how dangerous it was to be in the presence of turpentine. Yeah, it's a very hazardous chemical.

So that's not great. I'm sure he didn't breathe in, you know, things that were really making brain cells double and quadruple while he was there. Yeah, they were probably to pull him off. When he was released from the camp in the spring of 1909, he was given $5 in the clothes he was wearing that he went in with. Awesome. That's it. In his own recollection of events, George claimed that just a few days

“out of the prison and without any other prospects, he enlisted in the US Army and he used his mother's”

maiden name as an alias, so he wouldn't be found out to be a criminal. Ah, there's no records to confirm he was ever in the military at all. Great. Now, according to Sid Ross, not long after his release from the prison camp. George just showed up at the cotton cotton company and begged for his job back after he had stolen from them. Yes. What? And he insisted that he'd been to prison. He were formed from getting caught from that and they wouldn't have any other problems from him again.

He had learned his lesson. Okay. I could see why you would want to believe that. I mean, he was younger. Obviously, he was still like a grown man. Yeah. When he did that, but still.

And Sid Ross and his partner were ultimately persuaded to give George another chance. Good people.

As he later said in an interview, George was, quote, a great workman and Malone, his partner, and I had hoped that he had learned his lesson. Yeah. Given his later crimes, it seems strange to describe George Hassel as having anything like a romantic life as well. When you think about it, but because he's called the family axman or yes, but that's exactly what began once he started working for Ross and Malone again. Not long after starting work back at the cotton company,

George met many lawflon described as a, quote, splendid little woman. Oh, what is that? We did right. You're splendid little woman. I love that. Although there's little information that you can really find about many or their relationship, she was described by George as, quote, the only woman I ever loved. And so obviously, people are very interested in who she was. Yeah. After meeting in 1909 and carrying on a brief courtship, George and many married in 1909,

the same year when she was just 15 years old. That's inappropriate. That's very inappropriate. According to Michael Ross, other than two appearances in the U.S. census, there's no documentation of many's existence outside of stories told by locals in Texas.

Interesting. So does she exist? I mean she's on the chart. Yeah. But this means that basically,

like most aspects of his biography, the only source of information we have is George Hassel himself,

was rocky from the start. It appears that while she was thoroughly enamored with him, according to him,

“I bet. Many's parents did not like George from the moment they met him and spent the two”

years of their marriage trying to convince their daughter to end the relationship. Probably because she was 15 and he was a man. Yeah. And probably because he sounds like he ends up being the worst people ever. Mm-hmm. Yeah. According to George, his marriage to many was rocky from the start. It appears that while she, according to him, was thoroughly enamored by him, I bet. Her parents really didn't like him. And from the moment they met him,

they were trying to convince their daughter to get rid of him. Because they were like, hey, you're a child and he's a man who's got the prison. He's the worst. Yeah.

Less than a year later, many gave birth to a son, Delbert. Less than a year later,

many gave birth to a son who they named Delbert. Cute. Which is a very of the time name, I feel.

“I don't ever heard that one before. I don't think I've heard that one either. It's definitely”

of the time, I would say. You don't run into a lot of Delbert, slightly. No? Um, that's the only child they would have together. No, they stayed together. They stayed together for one more year, then according to George, many left him and took baby Delbert with her. Good for her. Give any a point. Do we think that Delbert is real? I think Delbert's real. Because I just love that we're not sure if Minnie's real. Yeah, there's a letter written by Delbert.

Given his later crimes, it's likely she narrowly avoided a pretty terrible fate. Oh, man. Obviously she didn't know that at the time. But there is reason to believe that at some point before she left things between George and Minnie had turned violent already. I wonder if the reason why there's like really no record of hers because if she changed her name for safety. Yeah. And a letter written by Delbert Loughlin. Oh, they need to tell John about that. Yeah.

John, why do you love it? But written to the Texas Department of Corrections in 1964, Delbert wrote,

“"We only live together a short time, but I can remember that he made attempts on the lives of”

my mother and myself in which he failed and for which I am thankful for my life today." Wow. Which, what? So see, there you go. I invite Garen to you, Minnie. Yeah. Yeah. In their only couple years of marriage, Sid Ross allowed Hasselin his wife and baby, Delbert, to live in a small cabin on the farm, hoping to free the free housing would set them off on the right foot. Yeah. Because Sid Ross sounds like a real one angel. That's a man in your corner.

Like, he was just trying to help. And he's just trying to help him out. He's like, I just want to give it, so you don't have to struggle with a baby. Right. That's a really nice guy. That is really nice. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Ross to be disappointed that he had re-hired George. Just a few months after moving into the cabin at the farm, George found an old cash check that was written by Ross and it had been cashed at the bank like months before that. And despite that,

George was somehow able to convince the bank to cash the check a second time one and hand the $20 over to him. That's crazy. Yeah. So by the time Ross learned about the theft, George had already made off with the money and left his wife and baby behind. What a dick. Rather than going through the process of pressing charges against George, Ross decided it wasn't worth the time. Instead, he just hoped that was the last that he was going to see of George. Like, stay off my farm.

Yeah. At some point, George reconnected with many. And for years, George drifted from ranch to ranch town to town, brought his family with him, rarely keeping a job for long. And whenever

employment ended, the explanation was always the same. Someone else had wronged him. But it was their fault.

I know so many people like that. Yep. Now at some point, many went back home with Delbert to stay with her family because it was going to be another situation. According to George, they both promised to keep in touch regularly through letters. But while George sent many letters to many, she never sent a single reply back. Probably because you're a deadbeat, George. Yeah. This, it seems, was the manner in which she probably officially abandoned him. Finally, went a letter from many did arrive.

It was straight to the point. George would later say, say, she was through with him and that that many's rejection, quote, ruined his life and just like everything else that everyone wrong in his life, he blamed the dissolution of his marriage on someone else. In this case, many's parents. How kind? So with no job or family to stick around for, George left Texas and went to San Francisco. Once there, he enlisted in the Navy. This time using his real name instead of a pseudonym.

How'd that work? Well, within days of enlisting, he claimed that he got very paranoid that the

figure it out through fingerprint records. So once again, he abandoned his post and headed back to Oklahoma.

“Damn. Naval authorities, though, tracked him down and he was arrested for a desertion.”

According to George, he was sentenced to two years at 11, four, 11, worth prison in Kansas and one year at a military prison in Virginia. There's not exact records to prove that. So he, that's where he claims. Once out of prison, somewhere in mid to late 1915, George claims he returned to Texas and tried to reconnect to with many, but he rejected him entirely. In years later, he would repeatedly claim that it was many second rejection that sent him down the path of irredeemable violence. Yes,

it's many. Yes, it's not you for your own actions. He went away from you and tried to keep you away

from her, but it's her fault that you wouldn't take no for an answer. Yes, always. As he put it,

many's rejection, quote, was responsible for the queer quirk in my makeup, which led to deeds of violence. Nope, that's your fault. Now, you're just a piece of shit. Not long after leaving a

“value to a George wound up in San Angelo, Texas, where he met a woman by the name of Marie Vogel,”

the owner of a boarding house where he was living at the time. Now, Marie was recently divorced and living at the boarding house with her young son Gerald. George later told the prison psychologist, quote, "We both loved children and soon became great friends." Okay, I want you to hold on to him saying we both loved children. I bet you did, George. There is not a lot known about Marie unfortunately, but what is known is that sometime in 1915, not long after meeting in Texas,

they began a romantic relationship in soon after. He convinced her to leave Texas and travel with him to California. He was charming. Whatever was going on here, he was definitely able to convince people to do things. I mean, he convinced the bank to cash to check that had already been cash. That's the thing, like, people like this, that'll totally good at manipulation. Yeah, they really, like, unfortunately, they do tend to have a little bit of charm. Something

that can get them places. It's cunning, it's charm, it's manipulation. It's a genusic law. Yeah, their snake oil sales, you know? Now, so he convinces her to go to California with him and according to George to make money along the way, he enlisted Marie, which in my mind means he forced Marie to help him with a con known as the Badger Game. The Badger Game, and that is when a victim is tricked into a compromising position in this case with Marie. And when discovered, they're

blackmailed in order to keep their indiscretion from becoming known. Oh, no. And then they would, you know, so there's Robin people along the way. So they make it to California in 1916, and upon arrival, Marie found work at the home of a local doctor in George found work as a ranch hand that a nearby farm. According to Marie's mother, who visited her daughter not long after they got to California, George was going by the name George Baker. And when asked about

George, Marie's mother and recalled how George acted strangely at times and was always selling.

Years later, Marie's sister Gertrude also identified a photograph of George as the man she knew as G Baker. Okay. Now, as a ranch hand, George was able to find housing for himself, Marie, and Gerald on the farm. And by the end of the year, they had somehow acquired two adopted toddlers. What? The exactly where those two children came from has never been figured out. That's weird. And suspicious. And upsetting. Yeah. What the fuck? It doesn't work out. So in 1917, George found

new work in the oil fields with the Southern Counties Gas Company. And the family was able to rent a home of their own in Whittier, which they moved into some time and early March of that year. Then in June, not long after moving into that new house, Marie and the three children disappeared. That happens all the time. Yeah, all the time. Don't even know the story at all. The first person to notice their absence was the neighbor Mrs. Clara Shanker,

who often stopped by during the day just a visit with Marie. Yeah. A few weeks later, Marie's mother, A.L. Sherlin, received a letter from George at her home in Pennsylvania. The letter was pretty brief into the point. And said, Marie and the children had, quote, decided to go to Australia.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Everybody always does that all the time. It's like Alexander and his

no good terrible. You know, good really bad terrible day. You know, he's just going to go to Australia. Of course. Yeah. He didn't give any more information. They just went to Australia. I mean,

“what's there? What's more to it? He said, bye. He said, do you know how they went down in Australia?”

They went down on that. Yeah. The details of what did happen to Marie and the children remains a little bit of a mystery. But George did tell several versions of this at one point following his arrest later. Okay. Now, the most likely scenario in one that did come from him was told to his

my nerves and the house was always cluttered up by the kids. One night, when I came home, she began

“to argue because I wasn't giving her enough money. We had a hot time of it for a while and then I”

got mad. I went over to her and grabbed her by the neck. She went purple and began to struggle before I knew it. I had choked her. I love she went purple. Yeah. No, oh, he, you choked the life out of her. He loves to use passive language when describing the horrible things he has done. Nice. He sings just happened to the people. It's crazy. Yeah. It's crazy. I also love that the reason was she got on my nerves. Nice. And the house was cluttered because kids, well, you didn't

have to acquire two more written kids if you didn't want them. Now, the noise woke the children. So George then killed the children in the same manner. He said, quote, then I went down into the cellar and began to dig. When I got through, I dug out a good-sized hole. I threw the woman in there and the kids after her and covered up the place. The woman, the woman. After George's arresting confession, the bodies would be unearthed and investigators discovered that each had been placed

face down in the grave with stockings or rope tied and square knots around their next. Oh, so he didn't even, yeah, because he had it seen like he just went over to her and strangled

“her. It's like no, you thought it was a lot of the secret to do it. Yeah. Now years later, when”

interview by police, the neighbor Clara recalled seeing George carrying a heavy trunk in, quote, other small bundles into the garage. One night in June. Oh. For days after, she watched George going into the basement under the garage day after day until one day he caught her looking at him and told her he was, quote, just cleaning out the basement. In the days that followed if anyone asked, George said he'd been digging a hole in the garage to get under the car to perform

maintenance. Because that makes sense. Yeah. Now whenever anyone asked about Marie and the children, he told them that she gone back to the East Coast to be near her parents, or that she gone up to San Francisco to see a sister. What happened to Australia? Yeah. To make the story more convincing, he packed up all Marie's clothing as well as the kids belongings and put them on storage in a storage unit in Los Angeles. A short time later, he returned to the house with another woman

he met in Los Angeles. According to George, she was separated from her husband at the time and

the two had a brief relationship, but he never told anyone her name. One afternoon, George sent

the housekeeper to the movies and told his new girlfriend that he was going out for a while and he would be back. But he just ended her cool. He said, I'll be right back. He also abandoned the house and whatever belongings were in it, though. He didn't know what to turn in the house and was like, bye. But you can have my house, I guess. Yeah, you just get every, like curiously, this woman's stayed at the house for at least a few weeks after he left. I guess he was waiting for him to come

back. Yeah. And she just went back to Los Angeles. She was like, well, I guess that's not coming back. Now in the years after that, George went back to his wandering ways and appears to have bounced from one job to another. But eventually, he did reconnect with his family, particularly his brother Tom in Oklahoma. During one of these trips, George convinced his brother and his brother's wife Susan to allow him to take their teenage daughter Nora on a road trip to see California.

Oh, later, George would describe the trip as pleasant and said he didn't get in a big hurry because they were sleeping together every night. Isn't that his niece? I have to go. By the end of 1923 Nora had given birth to George's child. What did his brother think of that? Yeah. Well, not long after she was sent away. And a few years later, she married another man and didn't return. So she went and had another life. That's traumatic as fuck. Now strangely,

on July 1st, 1924, now, by the end of 1923 Nora gave birth to the child. Okay. Like halfway through the next year, 1924, Tom Hassel died under mysterious circumstances in a strange

farming accident when he was kicked by a mule. What? Tom was the second of the Hassel children

to have been kicked to death by a farm animal. And in both cases, George claimed to have been nowhere near the scene, but he went in both cases. He just thought he could say that a mule kicked his

“brother and that's how he died. Yep. Now after Tom's death, Susan, Tom's wife received only”

$1,100, which would be about $20,000 today. Okay. In an insurance payout. Not enough for your husband. Well, and she had to take care of the children and children and children and run a farm. Great. So under the circumstances, it's not difficult to understand why Susan accepted George's marriage proposal just a few months later. Oh, that's so dark. It's really dark. He had no other choice.

wild loss and the fact that George had impregnated her daughter. Yeah. She had very few options in

“front of her and needed to provide for her family. This was the different time, a very different time.”

None of us can say anything about this. No, definitely not. And his own account of their relationship, George described himself as, quote, "foot loose to go and help her." I felt my duty because you killed her husband and like impregnated her child. Which again, kind of shows you that they both agreed that this was not like a romantic or relationship built on love. It was convenience and pregnancy. Yeah. George and Susan married at the county court house on October 7,

1924. Imagine how bleak that ceremony was. It's like in the in the office when Dwight says that they get married in the in the fruit family, they get married standing in their graves. What the fuck? And he said, so he says that like funerals are really fun, but like weddings are bleak affairs. What? It made me think of that. But it really would have been such a bleak affair. Yeah. They like, oh, so that was October 7, 1924. And in the wake of

“the wedding, some neighbors speculated that George may have had something to do with Tom's death.”

Or so, or that George and Susan had been having a relationship before his death. I don't think so. Which of course, they're going to talk about skin doll. Yeah. He was back in that like, come on. But most people just accepted that the death wasn't accident and moved on. Maybe it was the rumors, but for whatever reason, not long after the wedding, George convinced Susan to pack up the children and abandon the farm in Oklahoma. And by December 2025, they had settled down in a

small house in far-well Texas. He wasn't exactly a farmer, but the family of 10 ultimately settled down on a small farm located slightly outside of the town proper. Now, one local man described his farm methods as, quote, out of the ordinary or abnormal. He was clueless. Awesome. Now, around the area, some people were charmed by George. Like I said, he could be charming when he wanted to be.

And but others described him as, quote, always irritable and impatient and often quarrel

some with his family. So it's like he could turn it on. Yeah. Yeah, too. Exactly. But he didn't know a strike because behind closed doors, things between George and Susan were typically very tense. And he was prone to getting into petty arguments with the children. He couldn't handle free. This is not according to Roth among George's biggest complaints was that Susan always took the side of the children rather than him because their her children and you murdered her husband.

Yeah. They're her children. Yeah. Like I'm sorry. Yeah. That's a period. Bye. Now, by the fall of 1926, things between George and Susan were definitely getting way worse to the point that he was considering packing up and leaving for good. He should. I wish he had later during his trial. George told the jury, I started to pack up and leave and did pack up to leave, but didn't use judgment enough to leave. Because sadly, by the time he had reached the point where he was going to leave,

the Midwestern winter was settling in, making travel difficult and finding work even more difficult. Try and you. So instead, he chose to stay with Susan, which sealed everyone's fate. So no.

The first sign that something was off in the George Hasselhouse came in the late October when a

neighbor, Mrs. Hamlin, noticed that someone was digging a big trench in the yard beside the farmhouse. Right. Later, when she was asked to describe it, she said it was, quote, at least 10 by 15 square feet or possibly larger, just a square hole in the ground about four or five feet deep. There was already a fruit seller dug out by in the house where Susan kept preserves and can't fruits. So the new trench was odd and seemed like they didn't need it. Several months later,

when George was questioned about the trench, he said he dug it because he thought he needed it. Then when he realized he didn't need it, he filled in in because he, quote, "wanted to leave the premises and his good condition is possible." That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. To others, he simply said that he intended to build a storm shelter but changed his mind.

“Have you never dug a trench on your property and then decided not to and just filled it?”

Have you not done that? Have you not done that? I mean, I have. I did like every day. Now the next indication that something was wrong came on December 22nd. When George put up all the farming equipment and furnishings for sale at auction. Great. Along with a large number of farm animals. To even the most casual of shoppers at the auction, just to glance at George's auction item suggested a man who was literally liquidating his life and selling off everything he owned.

For those who even knew a little bit about him though, it would seem pretty odd that a man and with a wife and eight children at home would be selling off all of his essentials. Yeah. Like the previous murders of Murray and the three children back in Texas,

are a little vague since we really only have George's confession to rely on. He said that on the night of December 2nd, 1926, George and Susan got into an argument about Susan's daughter, 13-year-old model and her pregnancy. Okay, which is like 13. I know.

She, and this is the quote from him, she quotes like Susan, would always uphold her children on

any correction I would make and fusses come more frequent and plentiful. And it appears it was one of those times. Although it seems unlikely that Susan wouldn't have known that it was George,

“who had an impregnated model. Why did I literally know that you were going to say that?”

Yeah, why did I know you were going to say that? He maintained that it wasn't until that night in December that she found out and it caused another blow up between the two. This guy is so fucking foul. He's a demon. He has gotten two of her young daughters pregnant. Yep. And that's supposed to be like they are his biological nieces. Yeah. That's not forget. Yep. And also his stepchildren. Yeah.

What the fuck? A 15-year-old in a 13-year-old. Oh my god. Now obviously, enraged, enraged Susan stormed off into the house and George retreated to the barn where he had hidden a stoutled big stash of whiskey. And his confession, George frequently went out of his way to avoid, like I said before, taking any kind of responsibility, like directly for what happened after this window acre. Just like all the other crimes he committed in the past, he was just very

“passively a participant. As the rest of the family slept inside, George went back into the house where”

the argument with Susan continued in the bedroom. A few minutes later, George got up and went into the kitchen where he sat down at the table, but Susan followed him. George told police, "Now I'm honest.

I don't know how come the hammer got there. I never put it there and didn't know it was in the

house, but that was the first thing I seen was the hammer, a ball-peen hammer." "Oh my god." Taking up the hammer in his hand, he hit Susan twice in the face with the hammer, causing her to fall to the floor. Once she was down, George climbed on top of her and put his very large hands around her throat. And he said, "Before I could stop myself, I shut her window with my hand to keep the sound in and then all blood commenced running everywhere."

"Oh, that is such a chilling way to describe that." And it's always before I could stop myself, or I don't know, got there. "And to stop the wind." "Yeah, oh." The noise and commotion woke the baby, Sammy, who was sleeping in the room with George and Susan, and he said in his confession, "I just reached over and choked him." Before leaving the room, George tied a stalking around the next of his wife and steps on,

just to be sure they didn't survive. He never said what caused him to do what he did next,

just as he hadn't in 1917 when he killed Marie and he decided he needed to kill the rest of the family for no reason. George said, "So I had started and Lord God, I would have given anything in the world if I had not made the first lick, but I started it and I finished it." George, well, look, that's so simple. He didn't just be like, "Yeah, I had to do it."

“"Do you have the finish it?" Oh, George said, "Because remember this eight kids?"”

Yeah. George left so much time to stop. Yeah. He left the bedroom, went downstairs to the middle bedroom where four-year-old Nanny, 13-year-old Mody, who was pregnant with his child, seven-year-old David and six-year-old Johnny slept. Somehow he managed to choke the three youngest children without waking the others. Then he turned to Mody who was still a sleeping bed and struck her in the head twice with two heavy blows from the hammer. Then just to make sure she

died, he choked her. Interesting that he felt the need to also hit her hand with the hammer. When he came to the remaining children, George must have realized that the three older boys would not be as easy to get rid of as the small children in a pregnant teenager. According to Roth, they were, quote, "hardy young country boys used to toiling on the farm, possessing the strength of most men." Yeah. On his way to the bedroom, 11-year-old Russell shared with his brother,

15-year-old Virgil, George spotted the shotgun and moved it to the kitchen. So neither of them would have to run for it. However, when he went to hide the gun in the kitchen, he saw that Russell was not asleep in his bed, but on the floor in the front room. So he woke the boy up and told him to get back to bed. Russell's returned to the bedroom, woke Virgil, throwing a wrench in George's plan. So his whole thing was he was going to try to kill them off one by one as they were

incapacitated or at least asleep, but now he was going to have to take on two at once. To make matters worse, his George sat in the front room trying to come up with whatever his plan was. Now, Virgil no longer able to sleep came and joined him in the front room. With the two boys now separated, George used the opportunity to go down the hall to where Russell was sleeping. And he said,

started to make a noise. I couldn't handle him in the way I had the rest of him. The way he just

“was like, "Yeah, just had to." He just made a noise. So I had to hit him with an axe. Like, "What is wrong with”

you?" The noise from the bedroom got Virgil's attention. And when he went down to the bedroom, Virgil jumped on George and was hitting and scratching him. But George managed to throw him to the floor and ran to the kitchen where he'd left the shotgun. Virgil chased after him and having armed himself with a brick. He managed to hit George three or four times. Unfortunately, by the time he caught up with a stepfather in the kitchen, George had reached the gun. And when Virgil raised the brick to strike him

again, he shot him in the chest, killing him instantly. Now when he returned to the boys room, Russell was nowhere to be seen. George tore the house apart until he found the boy hiding in a closet in the girls bedroom. Oh, that's so sad. He dragged him from the closet and choked him to death. Then he tied a piece of rope around his neck. Now with all but one of his children did, George began dragging the bodies out to the trench in the yard where he buried all of them that night.

“Now there was one child that wasn't in the house. That was 21 year old, Alton.”

So now that he had put everyone into the pit, he just sat inside and waited for Alton to come home.

Alton was working in the fields. So he was coming from work. Yeah. When he finally returned

three days later, and asked where his family was, George told them they'd gone to shallow water Texas to visit other family. So Alton was like, that's weird. So he just went to bed and George sat up drinking whiskey. A short time after that, George picked up the shotgun one in Tolton's room and shot him to death. As he left the reading. He waited to do the days. Just just to finish. He could have left Alton. Right. I thought you're obviously, what kind of like what is he really

leaving him with? At the point, I'm not saying like, you know, it's worn either way. It's horrific. Yeah. But then he threw his body in the mass grave in the yard. And one of his last interviews a reporter asked why George didn't just flee after killing Susan and the baby in a fit of rage. Like you could have just left at that point. His response was, the impulse to kill was not satisfied until I had slain every member of the family. That is like terrifying. Next level, shit.

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Among the first people to notice that the hassle family appeared to be missing was their

land lady, Mrs. Hamlin. Sometime in early December, she asked George where they were, and he gave the same answer he told Alton just before killing him. They were in shallow water visiting Susan's sister. But when Mrs. Hamlin asked a similar question a few days later, George must have forgotten what he told her the first time because he then told her they gone to Oklahoma. Okay. One question from a neighbor seemed to lead to another and another,

and with George seemingly incapable of keeping track of all his lies he was telling, they all got different stories about where Susan and the kids had gone. Now in small towns, people of it didn't see it at all. Oh honey. And by the end of the month, the stories about Susan's supposed visit to her sister's house had gotten around. In late December, Mrs. Hamlin approached George again and asked where he planned to stay or whether he planned to stay

another year to keep farming as he'd intended to the last time they spoke. But this time he was evasive. She said, I looked at him sharply and asked him if he had been having trouble with his family, and it seemed to startled him. He hesitated before he answered me, and he didn't look me in the face for a little bit. He gave some vague response and indicated there were problems

“between didn't give any details. Here's the thing, man. We know when you're lying. Yeah,”

you're not good at it. We know when you're lying. Things finally came to a head on December 22,

the day of George's auction. Hundreds of farmers showed up with their families and nearly everything George had put up for sale with sold. And he managed to make a big amount of money from the sale, bringing everyone in town together, though only seemed to amplify the gossip that had been circulating about what the fuck happened here. Because not only did your entire family disappear, now like you said, you're liquidating every asset you have. Yeah. But what's your plan? You're all going on.

But yeah, so now it's just making people like, what the fuck is going on here? And so they disappear. They leave behind you. You also still, he still had injuries from being struck with the brick. Oh, no, I didn't even think of that. Yeah, they were still apparent. So people were like, what the fuck's going on? Come on. Now the next morning, Sheriff James Martin and his deputy R. A. Hawkins paid a visit to George out at the farm to ask questions about his wife and family.

Martin explained that several of the neighbors had expressed concern about what was going on.

member, it seemed odd Martin told to said later, that Susan would leave without saying anything to

“anyone. Because apparently she was a Russellite, which is a religion, and it relies heavily on”

strong ties to the community. So just leaving your community would be very out of character. And almost it sounds like kind of against her religion. Pretty much. After a few minutes, Martin suggested they go to the county attorney's office to continue their conversation. Oh, said, boy, let's take you down. I'm George agreed. Now at the attorney's office, the conversation continued with George growing more and more uncomfortable each with each question.

Later, the attorney, JD Thomas, recalled George, quote, looked rather excited, but I expected that, of course, coming to the county attorney's office, whether guilty or not, like he's doing. Yeah, of course, we're going to be nervous. Despite his apparent discomfort with the line of questioning, he did manage to convince the attorney that it was, at least possible, his wife had gone to visit family in Oklahoma. Okay, backtrack it now. And even provided contact information,

so they could verify it. That seemed to satisfy the authorities for the time being and George was permitted to leave. But as the day went on, Thomas was unsuccessful in getting a hold of Susan or her sister, and George's story was starting to look like a lie. Yeah. Now the next morning, Thomas and Martin were called to the hassle farm for what they were told was an emergency. When the men arrived, they called out to George and didn't get a response. Finally, by the

fourth or fifth try, they heard a reply from George at the back of the house. They followed his voice and found him lying in bed, bleeding heavily from his chest. What when they asked what happened,

he said, here's what they done to me in this knife, and this is what they done with it.

So they came back from visiting family, shank to you, and then disappeared again and left the knife. Yeah. Okay. Under the dim light of their flashlight, it was clear to the men that George had been stabbed. So they called an ambulance and they were like, okay. At the hospital, doctors cleaned and dressed his wounds. They also assured, Sheriff Martin, the wounds were very superficial. Yeah. George would be fine. No surprise there. Later in the day, in a drug-induced

haze, George started muttering the story about how one of the boys had impregnated his sister and had been having a sexual relationship with his mother. What an douche bag. It's like,

“no, you're the senator. You're the desking predator. Yeah. He said, that's how the rouse started.”

Now the bizarre statement from George seemed to confirm the public suspicion that hassle had in fact done something. He killed his entire family. So the sheriff was notified and a group of men was assembled to the farm to search for evidence of a crime. Back at the farmhouse, it did not take long for the sheriff and the others to find what they were looking for. After all, by that time, most people in town had heard about the big trench that George had dug in the front yard

or in the backyard. Excuse me. And now suspicious. It was that he simply filled it in a short time later. Right around the time that the family went missing. Weird. They didn't have to dig very

deep to find the first body. Oh. And as the day went on, the other eight family members were

exhumed. By the side of the house, the deputy found the axe covered in blood. Wow. Between George's self-inflicted wounds and the body and the bodies in the yard, it was becoming clear to Martin that George had very likely killed his entire family earlier in the month. And the fact that he'd sold off all their belongings, strongly indicated he was planning to skip mother fucking time. Make a break for it. On the afternoon of December 24th,

George Hassel was indicted on nine counts of murder. The only question remaining was, why the fuck did he do that? Yeah. Within a day or two, he had recovered enough from his quote unquote injuries to speak. And the first person he wanted to talk to wasn't the sheriff or the county attorney, but a reporter. Why? From his hospital bed, he gave a statement saying, quote, he was ready to be shot for the slaying of his wife and eight step children,

“which had been a poor way to serve the Lord. I'd say so. I think it's a way to serve the Lord.”

I feel the I'm not in touch, but I feel the Lord himself. Yeah, would call that an understatement. Yeah. Hello. Yeah. Hello. Hello. You know, goodbye. Yeah. It's nice. No, not great. I'm not having this conversation. No, it's unclear why he chose to confess rather than come up with another story about what happened to his wife. Maybe it was the Lord. Whatever his reasons on December 27th, he met with the sheriff in the county attorney until them that not only had he killed his family,

but oh, he had also killed another woman and three children a decade earlier in California. Wow. He just met it all. The best he could offer by way of explanation was that quote, "The initial slings were in a moment of passion and then he just couldn't stop." Okay. After giving his full confession to 13 murders, George refused to say anything else and he was transferred

Yeah. Now, after his confession, a special session was called at the county courthouse.

“George's lawyer, W.H. Russell, petitioned to have his client examined by a psychiatrist.”

After evaluating George, the doctor reported, quote, "Although Hassel has had some strange ideas about religion about which he did not elaborate, Hassel appeared to be a normal person who is conscious of his actions. During this period, George also told authorities about his life as George Baker and gave them instructions on where to find the bodies of Marie and the three children. I wonder if it was like for religious reasons like he needed to clear his conscience. Maybe.

He probably was very proud of that. So in early January 1927, a trial was convened and after two days of testimony, the jury found Hassel guilty on all nine counts and he was sentenced to die in the

“electric chair. By when the verdict was read, all George told reporters was that he was confident”

quote, "Prison authorities or officers of the law would would make any investigations apparently necessary before they would execute an insane man." You're not insane, you're just awful. When it turned out he was right, the authorities did investigate us to whether George was saying

at the time he committed the murders. But after being evaluated second time, the death sentence was

upheld. They said, "You're just awful." Yeah, and his request for a neutral was denied when the judge confirmed that the sentence would be upheld because he was indeed saying. All George said was, "Thank you." Now on February 10th, just after midnight, George Hassel was taken from his cell and led to the electric chair. Good. When the warden asked whether he had anything to say before being strapped into the chair, George said, "I would like to announce to the world

that I'm prepared to meet my God. I have made my confession to God and man. Man does not understand at all, but God does." How can you be so sure, though? How can you be so righteous after what you've done? Yeah. And with that, George was strapped into the chair and after three strong vaults of electricity, he was pronounced dead at 1229 AM. What a way to go. In summing up the case of George Hassel, Michael Roth wrote, "No one knows exactly what drove him to murder the whole family

because he never provided an explanation. What a certain is that when he said his mind to do

something nefarious, he usually followed through." And that's horrific. And that's George Hassel, the family X-Men. That's wild. Yeah. I never heard of that case before. I know. I hadn't either. That's a rough one. It's like a more unknown, but really gruesome, super gruesome. Perfect case. Yeah. Yeah. I really hated it. But you told it good. I'm saying, "I'm looking for a fun fact." How's that? Let's find a fun fact. All right. I got a poop fact. I got a poop

fact, which some may argue as a fun fact. Wombats make cube-shaped poop. And you're the only known animal in the world to do this. To go even further for you from from Goot, it stops the feces from rolling away, and that helps them mark their territory on raised rocks. Just like evolution or some shit. All right. I feel the difference. So that's got a suck to pass. God damn, that would definitely suck to the cube-shaped poop. And maybe that's not the most fun fact. Yeah,

I don't love that. It is crazy though. I don't love that. I kind of do. All right. Why don't we go clean this room? We got to clean it. All right. Well, thanks for supporting us by listening to how disgusting we are. Yeah. Appreciate it. And then listening to the show. And next time we record, it's going to be from a clean, sparkly, pod-lob. Woohoo. So we hope to keep listening. And we hope

“you keep it. We! But not so weird that you should cubes. Don't do that. That would be so painful.”

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