Post by Joanna on Apr 26, 2015 22:23:10 GMT -5
To Hell I Must Go Recounts Gruesome Michigan Murder
WILLIAMSTON, Mich. – A burning decapitated corpse, its severed head sitting atop a dinner plate at the kitchen table. An angry killer covered in blood and wandering aimlessly around the scene of the crime. The gruesome murder of Mariah Haney in Williamston almost 118 years ago has the makings of an engrossing true crime novel, but Rod Sadler didn't decide to write about it for shock value.
Family ties convinced the retired Eaton County sergeant to take a second look. Sadler's great-great grandfather, John Jacob Rehle, was the sheriff of Ingham County when it happened. He investigated the death and was a key player in the Haney murder case. To Hell I Must Go, Sadler's account of the bizarre, brutal slaying that took place in his hometown in 1897 got its start at the Mason Public Library almost 20 years ago.
A compelling tale. Sadler, 54, an Eaton County deputy sheriff, was researching his family history. He now lives in Olivet, but grew up in Williamston where Rehle was the county sheriff from 1897 to 1898. "I was essentially looking for some bits about my great-great grandfather and what he did as the sheriff," he said. "I came across this newspaper article that described this murder in Williamston. The headline was something like, 'Revolting crime.'" It detailed a century-old murder in a house on Elevator Street where Alfred Haney and his wife, Martha, lived with his mother Mariah. The account described how Martha killed her mother-in-law with an ax, chopped off her head and arranged it on a plate at the table before her husband arrived home for lunch. When Alfred arrived, he discovered Mariah's body burning on the floor and her severed head on the plate at his place on the table. A knife and fork were placed on either side. He ran from the house.
His wife was sitting in the bedroom when he bolted out the door. Police would arrive later and find Martha in the backyard, digging in the dirt with her bare hands. "As I started reading, it was just so gruesome and so grisly," he said. "I thought, 'This would make an interesting book.'"
Details and connections. It would be another 10 years before Sadler sought out historical documentation that revealed more details about the murder and the days that followed. After he retired from the sheriff's office in 2012, Sadler set out in earnest to write the story. It follows Martha's slaying of her husband's mother and details the five-day investigation and trial. Witnesses would attest to the killer's unstable background and she would be sentenced to the Michigan Asylum for the Criminally Insane.
The Detroit Free Press, Kalamazoo Daily Telegraph, Grand Rapids Democrat and Williamston Enterprise all wrote about the Haney murder. But it was the original circuit court records that Sadler was after. He found the file in Michigan's state archives. In it were Rehle's handwritten statement concerning the murder, a witness account of what was found in the house and the judge's sentence. "It was only 14 pages, but I felt like I was Indiana Jones and had discovered some great, secret treasure because I had dreamed about finding some sort of tangible piece of the murder and this was it," Sadler says. "The circuit court file was like the Holy Grail."
He pored over aging documents and visited the spot at 320 Elevator Street where the Haney house stood until 1990. It was burned down that year in part of a Williamston Fire Department training exercise. "Once I realized where it was I realized that early in my career, I had been in that house and never even realized it," Sadler relates. "A friend of mine, his grandparents lived in that house. We had stopped over there for a party one night." He also collected about 20 historical photos, including a rendering of Martha published in the Detroit Free Press three days after the murder.
And the book title? It alludes to a song that documents indicate Martha sang frequently from her jail cell in Mason. The lyrics are:
O, I can't go to heaven,
to hell I must go.
Murders don't go to heaven,
and that is where I'm bound to go.
The book was published in February and can be purchased online at Amazon, Schuler and Barnes and Noble.
Sadler has made a few local appearances promoting the book and others are scheduled. He says the experience was partly a lesson in family history, but also just plain fun. He's already started working on a second true crime novel that explores a murder in Stockbridge. "I was able to put my hand over my great-great grandfather's signature," he says. "That was gold to me. It was."
Source: Rachel Greco, The Lansing State Journal, April 3, 2015.