Tuesday,
two arsenic poisoning victims and an insurance executive were among the 12
witnesses who testified against Mrs. Elmer Stone Conyers.
The
prosecution is trying to prove a plot by Mrs. Conyers to poison her second
husband, Milton Reese Conyers, who died in April 1973. Mrs. Conyers is also
charged with fatally poisoning her first husband, Willie Graham Stone, and with
administering arsenic to three other persons — her mother-in-law, Mrs. Louise
Opal Conyers; her son-in-law, John Van Bazen; and a distant relative, Iris
Stevens.
Mrs.
Conyers was arrested March 14 after a five-month investigation requiring the
exhumation of three bodies from different Florence cemeteries. The probe began
when hospital officials in Charleston notified local officials of an apparently
unsuccessful poisoning attempt.
Bazen
told the court Tuesday he became ill about two months after he and his wife
moved into Mrs. Conyer's home. However, he conceded he didn't know who poisoned
him.
Another
of the poisoning victims, Iris Stevens, testified she was poisoned after she
refused to allow Mrs. Conyers to buy into her florist shop.
Also
testifying Tuesday was Sam Batson, executive vice president of Equity Life and
Annuity Co. of Greenville, who said Conyers, the defendant's second husband,
had two life insurance policies with his company – one for $1,000 and other for $10,000.
Mrs.
Conyers was named as the beneficiary on both policies, Batson told the court.
But
he added that after Conyers death, Mrs. Conyers received a combined total of
only $5,000 from the policies because her husband was classified as an habitual
alcoholic with suicidal tendencies.
[“Arsenic Victims Begin Testimony Against
Woman,” syndicated (AP), The High Point Enterprise (N.C.), Oct. 1, 1975,
p. 2A]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 2): Florence, S.C. – A jury of
seven men and five women took exactly one hour Friday to find Mrs. Elmer
Conyers, a blonde grandmother, guilty of killing one of her two husbands by
slipping arsenic into his coffee.
Mrs. Conyers showed little emotion when the verdict was
delivered at 5:16 p.m. and managed a weak smile as she was led out of the
courtroom.
Circuit Court Judge Harry Agnew sentenced Mrs. Conyers to
life imprisonment, the only punishment allowed under law.
Defense attorney Richard Dusenberry said the verdict said
the verdict “will definitely be appealed.”
Mrs. Conyers showed little emotion when the verdict was
delivered at 5:16 p.m. and managed a weak smile as she was led out of the
courtroom.
Circuit Judge Harry E. Agnew sentenced Mrs. Conyers to life
imprisonment, the only punishment allowed under law.
Defense attorney Richard Dusenberry said the verdict “will
definitely be appealed.”
Mrs. Conyers, 53, was charged with killing Willie Graham
Stone, 52, her first husband, in 1967 and Milton Reece Conyers, 37, her second
husband, in 1973. She is also charged with giving nonfatal doses of arsenic to
three other relatives.
She was being tried only for the death of Conyers.
The prosecution maintained throughout the five-day trial
that Mrs. Conyers put arsenic in the coffee of her two men.
“There is but not one scintilla of evidence that anybody put
anything in coffee,” Dusenberry said.”
He also said the prosecution had failed to show, without
reasonable doubt, that the men had been poisoned by arsenic.
He said the arsenic found in the bodies of the two men was
probably no more than found in the bodies of the general population. He said
that could never be proven because no one had ever had reason to measure the
amount of arsenic in other bodies.
The defense also attempted to knock down a prosecution
argument that Mrs. Conyers killed the two men for their insurance money.
Defense attorneys said Mrs. Conyers received $7,296 from the death of Conyers
and nothing from the death of her first husband.
Mrs. Conyers, who had sat calmly through the trial,
occasionally turning to smile at persons in the courtroom, testified Thursday
she never poisoned anyone, never bought arsenic, and “I wouldn’t know if it was
to see it.”
The defense has attempted to picture both husbands as
alcoholics who, if they died of arsenic poisoning, could have swallowed the
arsenic in illegal whiskey.
Mrs. Conyers testified Conyers would “drink anything he
could get his hands on including cologne, rubbing alcohol and ammonia.”
[“Grandmother found guilty in arsenic death of husband,”
syndicated (UPI), St. Joseph News-Press (Mo.), Oct. 4, 1975, p. 2A]
***
***
FULL
TEXT: Mrs. Elmer Hughes Stone Conyers received a 15-year prison sentence Monday
after she pled guilty to the arsenic poisoning of her son-in-law during
Florence General Sessions Court.
The
solicitor's office accepted a plea of guilty to assault with intent to kill.
Mrs. Conyers' murder conviction of October 1975 was reversed by the S.C.
Supreme Court in March.
In the
plea, Mrs. Conyers, 55, of Pamplico admitted guilt to poisoning John Van Bazen,
her son-in-law, who was in court. According to testimony in the previous trial,
analyzed hair samples taken from Bazen contained about 50 times the normal
amount of arsenic.
The
indictment charged that she administered the arsenic to Bazen on Nov. 21, 1974
and on days prior to this.
Mrs.
Conyers will be eligible for parole in about 1980. Judge Dan McEachin said a
statute provides for her receiving credit for her prison time.
Mrs.
Conyers was tried in 1975 for the murder of her second husband, Milton Reese
Conyers. According to trial testimony, his body contained from 100 to 1000
times the normal level of arsenic at the time of his death.
She
was also charged with arsenic poisoning of her first husband, Willie Graham
Stone, in 1967 and with administering poison to three other people.
Summerford
said any other charges against the woman would be placed on the contingent
docket. One of her attorneys, Richard G. Dusenbury said the other charges have
all been "cleared up" and will not be held against her. Mrs. Conyers
faced a maximum sentence of 20 years for her plea but Summerford asked Judge
McEachin to consider a 15-year sentence.
In
explaining the plea on the Bazen case, Summerford told the court that Bazen had
indicated he ate meals prepared by Mrs. Conyers and became ill. He was confined
to a hospital in Charleston where they determined he had a high arsenic rate,
according to Summerford.
The
solicitor added that the Bazen case was what instigated the investigation which
ultimately resulted in Mrs. Conyers' arrest. Mrs. Conyers' two husbands were
exhumed from their graves and three people, including Bazen, were found to have
arsenic in their bodies.
Mrs.
Conyers stood quietly in court, flanked by two of her attorneys, Dusenbury and
Gene Fallen, both from Florence. She clutched a small purse and a black handbag
was slung across her shoulder.
[The
rest of the article discusses other cases before the court.]
[Wayne
Ford, “Mrs. Conyers Enters Guilty Plea To Charge,” Florence Morning News (S.
C.), May 31, 1977, p. 2]
***
CHRONOLOGY
Ca. 1922 – born.
1967 – William Graham Stone, husband #1, dies.
Apr. 1973 – Milton Reese Conyers, husband #2, dies.
Nov. 2, 1974 – John Van Bazen, s-in-l, poisoned; survives.
Date? – Iris Stevens, distant relative, poisoned; survives.
Date? – Louise Opal Conyers, m-in-l, poisoned; survived.
Mar. 14, 1975 – Convers (53) arrested.
Aug. 30, 1975 – trial begins.
Sep. 23, 1975 – Indicted: 2 murders, 3 assaults.
Oct. 3, 1975 – convicted.
Mar. 1977 – conviction overturned.
May 30, 1977 – Pleads guilty. Sentenced to 15 years.
***
The full name, “Emily Stone Conyers,” appears in [“Woman accused
Of Poisoning Family On Trial,” The Sumner Daily Item (S.C.), Sep. 30, 1975, p.
1B]
Mrs.
Elmer Hughes Stone Conyers [Wayne Ford, “Mrs. Conyers Enters Guilty Plea To Charge,”
Florence Morning News (S. C.), May 31, 1977, p. 2]
***
***
***
For links to other cases of woman who murdered 2 or more husbands (or paramours), see Black Widow Serial Killers.
***
[2204-12/31/20]
***
My great grandmother was Louise Conyers and Reece Conyers was my great uncle.
ReplyDeleteI am related as well. Emily Conyers was my cousin. Her dad's sister, rotha hughes was my great grandmother.
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