Black True Crime Podcast · iHeartPodcasts

The Revenge Story of William Freeman (Episode 203)

·46 min·2 clips

William Henry Seward argued that William Freeman was innocent by reason of insanity.

1. Black True Crime examines the revenge story of William Freeman in Auburn, New York, and ties it to a first-of-its-kind insanity defense. 2. Hosts Kayla and Nikki narrate Freeman’s life story and frame him as a man shaped by slavery, family instability, and prison abuse. 3. The episode asks what happens when William Freeman, convicted as a teenager, decides to seek revenge after being treated as guilty. 4. Freeman was born in 1824 in Cayuga County, New York, to James and a mother who was described as Black and Native American. 5. James had been born enslaved and later became free in 1815 before dying when William was a child. 6. The hosts say William had siblings who were described as mentally ill, including a brother called a wandering lunatic and a sister said to be insane. 7. As a child, William was sent to work and live on plantations and with captains, lawyers, and a judge starting around age seven or eight. 8. The episode describes William as playful and physically loose, but also more withdrawn and resistant when people tried to control him. 9. In spring 1840, Martha Godfrey accused William of stealing a horse from her stable in Bennett, and he was arrested without evidence. 10. The horse was later found in Chemung County, and Jack Furman identified William again after he had already been in custody. 11. William was convicted of horse theft and escaping jail, then sentenced at age 16 to five years of hard labor at Auburn State Prison. 12. The hosts say Jack Furman was later convicted of a similar theft crime, which reinforced the sense that William had been wrongly blamed. 13. Auburn State Prison required inmates to remain silent at all times and punished speaking with whipping or beatings. 14. William allegedly fought with other inmates, danced when he was punished, and once charged at a guard with a knife. 15. A guard hit William in the head with a board, shattered his left eardrum, and damaged his left temporal bone. 16. After that injury, the hosts say William became weak, childlike, hard of hearing, and more disoriented. 17. When William was released in 1845, he tried to demand compensation for prison labor because he believed he should be paid for the work. 18. The legal system refused, and William became focused on revenge, repeatedly asking where Jack Furman could be found. 19. Kayla and Nikki keep the tone conversational, reactive, and critical of prison cruelty, while still following the timeline closely. 20. Listeners who want 19th-century legal history, prison conditions, and William Henry Seward will get the most from this episode.

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