In 1931, something happened that had never happened before in room 552 at New York’s Herald Square Hotel: The door opened. Out popped a frizzy, white-haired head, which quickly turned to the nearby maid and shrieked, “My sister is sick. Get a doctor.” The old woman who called for help had been holed up inside her suite for 24 years, and when she finally told her life story, people didn’t know whether she was eccentric, pathological, or both.
Lifetime of Lies
If Mary hadn’t died before Ida, there’s a chance the world never would have heard the strange, fantastical story of Ida Mayfield Wood. But she did die, and Ida, left alone in her hotel room surrounded by strangers, couldn’t contain her stranger-than-fiction life story any longer.
Do Not Disturb
Before investigators could search through Ida’s hotel room, they had to figure out why Ida became a recluse in the first place. Hotel records didn’t tell them much, just that Ida, Mary, and Ida’s daughter Emma, had moved into the suite in 1907 and locked the door behind them.
Eccentric Elders
Emma passed away in 1928, leaving just Ida and Mary alone in the suite. Brief interactions with the sisters convinced the bellhops and maids of one thing: They were odd, all right. For the sisters, money and hygiene weren’t exactly priorities.
Secret Cash
According to one maid, only twice had the sisters allowed her to wash their sheets and towels. Ida routinely told a bellhop that her 10 cent tip was the only money she had in the world…and then she’d promptly pay her hotel bills with stacks of cash.
Ida’s Story
And now that Mary was dead, all the strange rumors swirling around the sisters focused on Ida. The investigators were desperate for answers…which Ida was ready to give. As suddenly as she’d holed herself up 24 years before, Ida started talking.
Fortune Teller Prediction
It all started with a fortune teller from Ida’s youth. “You are going to marry a rich man, and get everything you want out of this life,” the fortune teller predicted. Ida held onto that prediction throughout her childhood, which she spent in New Orleans.
No Ordinary Girl
Ida was no ordinary girl, either. She told the investigators that back in New Orleans, she was the daughter of prominent sugar planter Henry Mayfield. Despite having a luxurious upbringing, Ida was determined to reinvent herself in New York, where she moved at just 19 years old.
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Eyeing Benjamin Wood
Of course, she didn’t move there without first securing a marriage prospect. Back in New Orleans, she’d listened to gossip long enough to learn about Benjamin Wood, a NY politician and newspaper owner. There was just one problem: He was already married.
Whirlwind Romance
But what the rest of us would see as an issue, Ida only saw as a temporary obstacle. She brazenly wrote to Benjamin Wood and offered herself up as a mistress. Ten years of “covert” meetings later, the couple had a baby, Emma, and got married — in that order.
Gambling Debts
But Ida’s marriage was no picnic. Glitz and glamour aside, her days usually ended the same way: By picking her husband up after a night of gambling, never knowing whether they were broke or thousands of dollars richer. As time passed, Benjamin’s gambling only escalated.
Quick Thinking
Ida realized that if she wanted to live out the destiny predicted for her, she’d have to take matters into her own hands. So, she demanded that Benjamin give her half of his winnings every time he gambled…and unlike him, she was a meticulous saver.
Ida’s Demand
When Benjamin died in 1900, everything he had left — property, savings, stocks — was in Ida’s name. But seven years later, Ida started to sell most of her possessions. At the height of the financial panic of the early 1900s, Ida strolled into her bank with a baffling demand.
“Tired of Everything”
According to an officer at the bank, Ida, clutching a netted bag, demanded that the bank give her the balance of her savings account in cash — $1 million — which she stuffed into her bag. She then said she was “tired of everything” and booked a room at the Herald Square Hotel.
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Was She Lying?
After 93-year-old Ida finished telling her story, the investigators weren’t sure what to do next, or even if she was telling the truth. Her age plus her living conditions made her story hard to believe, and the investigators started to think she was simply a crazy old lady.
Treasure Hunting
So, she was declared incompetent and moved to a different suite against her will. When the investigators searched her old hotel room, what they found officially debunked Ida’s claims that all she had was 10 cents to her name.
Priceless Possessions
They found $247,200 in an old shoebox, and discovered $500,000 in a bag Ida had hidden inside the dress she was wearing. In her 54 trunks were some of the finest fabrics and lace in the world, as well as gowns, jewelry, tiaras, and gems.
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Downward Spiral
When Ida wasn’t trying (and failing) to escape her new suite, she would dreamily tell anyone who would listen about her luxurious upbringing. The people monitoring her had stopped doubting her claims — after all, she really was rich, as they’d discovered. But then, her health started to fail.
Nothing Was Real
When Ida died on March 12, 1932, the fantasy she’d built over 93 years finally collapsed. Sure, the money she’d had was hers, fair and square — but everything else she’d told the lawyers and investigators had been a fantasy.
The Walsh Family
As it turned out, Ida Mayfield Wood wasn’t actually a Mayfield — no one was, actually, since she’d made the name up. Her father wasn’t Henry Mayfield, successful Southern sugar planter, but Thomas Walsh, a poor Irish immigrant.
Web of Lies
And Ida hadn’t been a Southern Belle at all, since she was actually born and raised in Massachusetts. As it turns out, “Ida” wasn’t even her real name; it was Ellen Walsh. Even her sister and daughter were part of the lie.
The Truth Comes Out
Mary wasn’t a Mayfield either, obviously, and Emma, the woman Ida claimed to be her daughter, was actually her sister. Ida really had been married to Benjamin Wood, who never told a soul about her real parentage and unglamorous childhood.
From Socialite to Recluse
Sure, Ida had lied in order to raise her station. But Ida’s rise from poor working girl to respected socialite to eccentric recluse is the kind of rags to riches story that makes places like New York so dynamic, and Ida wasn’t the only New Yorker keeping secrets at the time.
