Ep. 36 - Murder in Ballston Spa

 (Suggested by: Memory Burcalow)

The Crandell Murder shocked the nation. Sylvester Crandell shot his mother-in-law, his step-daughter, his wife and himself in 1887. This was the worst crime Saratoga County had experienced up to that point. All four people would die and the main motivation seems to have been money. Sylvester Crandell and wanted more of it and when his wife and mother-in-law wouldn't give it to him, his rage erupted. And in the wake of the crime, it seems that the Crandell House has some paranormal activity.

Julia V. Stone was born in 1846, the daughter of paper collar manufacturer Samuel S. Stone. During the 1850s and 1860s, companies were experimenting with making cuffs and collars out of paper. These detachable paper collars and cuffs could be thrown away when they got dirty. So they were very convenient and popular during a time when laundry was hard to get done. This made Samuel Stone a very wealthy man. He was worth around $1,625,000 in today's dollars. Julia's mother was named Emma, who was a very strong-willed woman, and after her husband passed, she was very fiscally conservative with the fortune, wanting to protect her daughter's inheritance. Julia had refused to take any inheritance until her mother passed. 

Julia was 24-years-old when she met and married Cassius E. Bulkley in 1870. The couple would have a daughter they named Julie. At the time of their marriage, Cassius was working as a clerk at W.M. Whitney and Co. in Albany. Julia wanted more for him and so she convinced him to attend law school and she paid for it. He more than likely went to Albany Law and graduated in 1882. The couple moved to Troy, New York and moved into what is known as the Adams Mansion on Pawling Avenue, an elegant three-story Victorian mansion. Julia's mother Emma had purchased the property. Cassius partnered with a loan and real estate broker and began working out of offices in the Mutual Bank Building on State Street in downtown Troy. The loan and real estate firm that Cassius joined was owned by Sylvester Crandell.

Sylvester Crandell was born in Washington County and grew up on a farm. was a tall and handsome man, described as having "full, dark eyes and red cheeks, an easy talker and a man of winning address" who had an impressive presence. He walked into a room with authority. But when it came to money, he wasn't very good with it. He was one of those men that would make grand gestures, even though he didn't make the kind of money he needed to pay for those gestures. If you attended one of his parties, you took a bottle of wine home with you. Another of his faults was his temper. In 1866, he ran for sheriff of Washington County, but lost. He married a woman with the last name of Sherman who came from a wealthy family in New Bedford, Massachusetts. They lived in Salem, New York boarding at a leading hotel that seemed to be outside of their means. In 1870, they moved to Troy, New York. Sylvester first got work there as a deputy tax collector, but was laid off a few years later. He decided to started his own real estate business, which was probably a good idea as he found himself at a new address nearly every year. His constant jumping from one living situation to another seems to indicate that he was having trouble paying his rent.  

Sylvester happily took on Cassius Bulkley and the firm reopened as Crandell & Bulkley Real Estate, Loan and Collection Agency. They advertised themselves, "All matters promptly and satisfactorily attended to. Sales of Real estate by auction a specialty. Particular attention paid to the management of estates." The business didn't seem to do particularly well. We're not sure if Sylvester and Julia took a liking to each other and started an affair, but it seems a tad suspicious that by the next year, 1883, Julia was traveling to the Dakota territory and suing Cassius for divorce. The courts granted it on the grounds of incompatibility and lack of support. Cassius left the partnership and moved out of Troy. Julia remained living with her mother and daughter at the house where she and Cassius had also lived. A brief courtship began between Julia and Sylvester with him telling her that he had assets worth $40,000. He had nothing of the sort. His first wife had become an invalid and passed away in 1879 and he had received no money from that or he had wasted it.

Three months after Julia's divorce papers were signed, Sylvester asked her to marry him. The couple went to a Reverend Dr. Irvin to be married and he refused saying that it was quite improper. We're not sure if that is because Julia was divorced or if it was the community rumors flying around talking about what a scandal this relationship appeared to be. Someone did marry the couple because by the end of 1883, Sylvester had moved into the home on Pawling Avenue and was sleeping in Cassius’ bed with Cassius’ former wife. 

Emma Stone bought a beautiful Victorian mansion in Ballston Spa, New York known as the Colonel Baker Place in 1886. She moved into it with her sister Mrs. Ellis, Sylvester and Julia and Julia's daughter Julie. Things were already bad in the Crandell marriage and they would continue to worse. Sylvester seemed to resent Julie because she wasn't his daughter. There were stories of abuse. He hated the fact that Emma controlled his wife's fortune. There was a lot of pressure coming from him for Julia to get her complete inheritance. This would amount to two-thirds of her father’s property. Julia preferred to let her mother handle it, and again, she wanted to make sure her mother was provided for. And by this point, surely Julia knew that her husband had no money of his own and had probably racked up some debt. If she obtained her inheritance, it would rightfully become his. One of the debts he definitely carried was for the care of his mother. He had abandoned her to a poor house across the border in New Bedford and he hadn't been helping to pay for her care. The Northern Budget reporter wrote that he "has paid no attention to repeated letters from the poor authorities of that place asking him to contribute to [his mother’s] comfort in her declining years."

A week before the murders, Julie had complained about some abuse she had received at the hand of Sylvester and she wanted him to be arrested. One can imagine how the neighborhood would have reacted as residents referred to Julie as a beautiful child who was the pride of the neighborhood. Emma and Julia had agreed to go to Troy and consult their attorney, R.H. McClellan as to what they should do. On the morning of December 19, 1887 around 8 am, everybody was seated at breakfast except Mrs. Ellis. Sylvester had gotten up to gather his things to head into Troy that day. There had been this ongoing issue with money and Sylvester was getting increasingly impatient with his wife and mother-in-law because they wouldn't give him any of the fortune they were sitting on. The fight about this came to a head between Sylvester and Julia as he prepared to leave. Heated words were exchanged. Sylvester called Julia a few vulgar names and she retorted that he was only a pauper and had nothing except what she and her mother gave him. Despite this being the truth, Sylvester replied that she would be poorer before she was richer. He owned a revolver, which must have been nearby as he snatched it up quickly and shot Julia.

Julie and Emma jumped up from the table and ran for the door with Sylvester shooting aimlessly around the room. Mrs. Ellis had come into the room when she heard the commotion and Sylvester tried to shoot her, missing. Emma, who was sixty-two at the time, got outside and was making her way across the snowy front yard when she collapsed, bullets flying past her as Crandell shot from the front door. She died there in the snow from a bullet wound in her chest that it is believed she received before exiting the house. Sylvester was out of bullets and reloaded quickly. Julie hadn't gotten out of the house yet and Sylvester shot her in the abdomen. The New York Times reported that he was so close to young Julie that "the white apron which she wore was burned by the powder." No one knows when Julia was hit, but she had two bullets in her groin and was still alive. Sylvester Crandell ran upstairs as Mrs. Ellis made it outside and ran for help.

When the authorities got to the house, it was too late for Julie and Emma, but Julia Crandell was still alive and conscience. She was carried to another room where she succumbed to her injuries around 10 am.   Sylvester was nowhere to be found until officers found him with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the cupola of the house. Now strangely, the papers claimed that a man or men who worked at the house, came down from the cupola and told the officers that Sylvester was upstairs dead. There were two wounds in Sylvester's chest near his heart. Now it is possible that someone could shoot themselves twice like that, especially if they missed the heart the first time. But it is also possible that this man or men took him out after the fact. We have no idea where these men came from or where they were when the fight and shooting started. The paper didn't seem curious about them at all.

The investigation that followed had the family's lawyer, R.H. McClellan, claiming that he thought Crandell was insane and that he had actually told Mrs. Crandell this a week before the murders. Sylvester was known to be a heavy drinker and without money, he had been unable to get any liquor, which probably added to his agitation. Another man named George Day Concurred with McClellan and said that he believed Crandell was insane as well. A few days before the murders, Crandell had gone to the office where his real estate business had been housed (based on what the paper reported, Crandell no longer occupied the office, but his desk did, so he apparently had closed up shop) and he asked the man who now occupied the office, Gerald G. Riordan, if he wanted to buy the desk. Riordan agreed and paid $25 for the desk. He told the police that Crandell seemed worn and weary and suffering mentally. There were also reports that Mrs. Crandell was abused. The paper reported that "Crandell would stand gazing steadfastly at his wife for an hour at a time, then would abuse her for two hours and then for another hour would use expressions of endearment." So, a typical abuser. 

The Crandell House still stands and seems to be well cared for. It seems to be privately owned, so no one can see the inside. Stories have been told for years about the Crandell House, especially by local schoolchildren. Mark Schmidt writes the blog "Letters From Orchard Valley" and he reported in 2015, "I grew up in a Village in Saratoga County that has its share of interesting 'haunts'. One such notorious place is the Crandell Mansion. This old Victorian home is immediately in front of the elementary school; where I along with many other children in the 80’s ran around on the playground pretending to hide from old ghost Crandell and his silhouette in the cupola. We would tell tales amongst ourselves of the ghostly inhabitants and that children who got too close would end up missing." The author also shared that he had a co-worker whose family had owned the house and rented it out as apartments and that some tenants had experienced nothing, while others claimed to see and hear things that scared them. People reported capturing orbs in pictures and seeing full-bodied apparitions. Many people have claimed to see a shadowy figure up in the cupola.

Is it possible that the haunting at the Crandell House is to serve as a warning as to what greed can lead a person to do? Is Sylvester Crandall trapped in a hell of his own making in the afterlife? Are there spirits connected to this familial annihilation murder still wandering the property? Is this home in Ballston Spa haunted? That is for you to decide.