Freaky Friday: The Young Witch takes a Trip to the Square

As I was driving to St. Louis one weekend, as you do when you're a multi-state resident, I was listening to the glory that is "My Favorite Murder" as your normal true crime obsessed weirdo does (I finally made it to 2019!!), when I heard a tale I knew I had to look up, so today let's talk about Ms. Alice Riley, the first woman hung in Georgia for murder.

Now, I did have to do some research and I listen to my sources, so I went to Murderpedia because obviously it will have the answers, along with just googling in general. So away we go.

Alice Riley was originally from Ireland (my dude). She was a teenager (ages vary from 15-17) and she was not in a good place. In the 1730s, Ireland was having a famine and from what is implied, she needed to get out. So she took a job in Georgia (the Colonies!!) as an indentured servant.

What's an indentured servant, Ariel? I'm so glad you didn't actually ask. They are servants who are indentured to, or are hired to serve, certain people for various reasons. It could be a debt that your family has to pay, it could be a debt you need to pay. It could be you made a deal for something and this was your end of the bargain. For Alice, she needed out of Ireland and man named William Wise needed servants. So he paid a pretty penny for Alice and others to cross the Atlantic.

Alice crossed with her boyfriend/common-law husband/husband?/significant other, Richard White and many others who died or nearly died from the terrible ship conditions. They both were hired by Wise and became servants in the household taking care of him, since Wise was sick.

Now let's talk about Wise. This was not a good guy. No one liked him and he didn't like anyone it seems. He was the guy who worked around the rules and did it with pride the Murderpedia articles seem to say. When he headed to the Colonies, he went on a ship that brought the first colonist headed to Georgia over. The thing was, the ship required the people on it to be married. He was definitely not married.

So he hired a sex-worker to pretend to be his wife, or his daughter...sources about the 1700s are iffy. It's safe to say though, it did not go over well with his fellow passengers. Once in Georgia, he set up a farm (which was actually a punishment according to Ghost City Tours), but he eventually got sick. Alice and Richard were to take care of his hygiene needs. He was still very abusive to his servants and did not treat anyone well.

Especially the lovely Alice, who he took an...unpleasant interest in.

This made life unbearable for Alice and Richard and based on reports it was pretty awful, which is where murder comes into play.

It's reported that Richard came up with a plan to kill Wise. He convinced Alice to help and she did because love according to letters from people of the day. While they were bathing him one night, Alice started to wash Wise's hair and Richard to hold of his collar and...began to choke him. Once he began to struggle, Alice dunked his head in the water she was washing with.

Obviously he died.

The two began to flee towards South Carolina, but they were found and rather quickly sentenced to death. Richard escaped from jail for a moment but was quickly brought back. He was quickly hung, but not before protesting the he was innocent. Alice also protested she was innocent and that she was pregnant...

Quickest way to delay your execution it seems.

And she was. She stayed in jail the entire time she was pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy... who was quickly taken from her and adopted it out. She was hung two weeks later in Wright Square. I'm afraid the baby didn't survive either, dying quickly after his mother did. She did protest her innocence to the very end though.

And there's possible reasons why she would do that. As previously stated, several people believed she was just following the man she loved and wanted to help him. Another theory is anti-Irish sentiment of the time. Considering the colonies were made of British citizens, and Britain likes to screw over Ireland like they do all their colonies and takeovers and imperialism pieces (I may like British culture, but y'all...). The sentiment and the murder of a prominent (even if he was hated) citizen may have spurred the need to find a scapegoat and two Irish people who are Catholic (Protestant/Catholic hate is real...it's why I like my weird mix. Everyone thinks I'm doomed) were perfect.

Whatever the case, Alice perished... but was perhaps not gone. Wright Square is a famous tourist destination with historical reenactments. To see a lady in period clothes wouldn't be abnormal. Except for the fact she only seems to approach pregnant women and women with children asking if they've seen her baby. And the fact that it's been going on for a long while now. And the fact that she quickly disappears. And the police have received so many calls for so long about this disappearing woman, they send the newbies out as a joke.

The tale of Alice Riley's life is a short and tragic one...but it's one that will live on if she has anything to say about it.