FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 3): Alabama, N. Y., Jan. 30. – A
case of poisoning has been under investigation in this town for a few days
past, which, if substantiated, exceeds in atrocity any case in the annals of
criminal jurisprudence.
Some time in July, Henry Hoag, a responsible citizen of this
town, died quite suddenly. About six weeks after his death, a little daughter,
five or six years old, died after an illness of only 24 hours. Suspicions of
foul play were entertained by some, but no action was taken in this case. Last
spring an infant child (born subsequent to Mr. Hoag’s death) died after a short
illness. Suspicion was again aroused, but nothing was done. Last fall another
child, some two years old, died under still more suspicious circumstances. A post mortem examination was had, but the
chemist to whom the child’s stomach was sent bad become satisfied that the
death of so many members of the family, under such circumstances, required
further investigation, and the bodies of all of them were exhumed, and the
stomachs of the first, and a portion of the duodenum of the last secured, upon
analysis, arsenic was found in them all.
Suspicion at once pointed to the wife and mother, as the
person who administered the poison, and she was arrested, and is now in our
county jail at Batavia, awaiting the action of the grand jury, which sits next
week.
Since her husband’s death she has been married again to a
man by the name of Frisch, who lived with her but a short time – some
difficulty having arisen between them.
Some years since, three other of her children died, quite
suddenly, with symptoms almost precisely similar to the last one, and, it is
inferred, that she poisoned them also, from the fact that she confessed that
she poisoned the first one, but that she did it accidentally, and through
mistake. Altogether it is one of the most horrid cases on record. That a woman
would poison her husband may not be incredible, but that a mother would poison,
deliberately, one after another, six of her own offspring, seems too inhuman
for belief. I will give no opinion of her guilt or innocence, as her case will
soon be brought before the proper tribunal for investigation.
[“Poisoning in Genessee County,” The Lorrain County Eagle
(Oh.), Feb. 23, 1858, p. 2]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 3): Albany, Dec. 9. – In 1859 Polly Frisch was indicted in Genessee County for killing her husband and two children by poisoning them with arsenic. Four trials were had [error: there were five], upon the last of which she was convicted and sentenced [on September 8, 1859] to be executed. An application was made to Gov. Morgan for clemency. He caused an investigation to be made by an expert, who reported that the prisoner was insane, and her sentence was thereupon commuted [on October 27, 1859] to imprisonment for life. [The date of execution had been set at November 2, 1859.]
She was at first sent to the prison at Sing Sing, but
afterward was transferred to the Kings County Penitentiary, and has now served
an imprisonment of more than thirty-three years. Dr. Homer L. Bartlett, for
many years attending physician at the penitentiary, has assured Gov. Flower
that whatever might have been her mental condition at the time of the
commission of the crime or afterward, she is now and for many years has been
perfectly sane, and there is no reason to believe that she will ever become
otherwise.
During her imprisonment at the penitentiary she has been
employed almost constantly in the hospital, where she has been of great
service. She is now quite old and feeble, and a very strong appeal has been
presented to Gov. Flower for her pardon. The District Attorney who prosecuted
her recommended some years ago that she be released, and several persons of the
highest respectability have undertaken to provide her with a suitable home.
The Governor therefore pardoned the woman.
[“Polly Frisch Pardoned – She Had Been In Prison For More
Than Thirty-Three Years.” New York Times (N.Y.), Dec. 10, 1892, p. ?]
***
EXCERPT from 2000
book (Article 3 of 3): About the year 1848-1856 Alabama Center was the scene of
a crime committed by a woman, Polly Franklin who married Henry Hoag about 1844.
Their children Rosa and Viola, died suddenly, and soon the father died, then
another child Frances, followed him. After the death of Mr. Hoag, his widow
married Otto Frisch, but soon was deserted by him. About this time suspicion
was aroused, and S.E. Filkins (counselor) caused an investigation to be made,
which revealed the fact that some of her family had died from the effects of
poison, large quantities of arsenic having been administered to them. She was
arrested and tried three times, and being finally found guilty was sentenced to
be hung, but was eventually imprisoned for life.
[Cindy
Amrhein & Ellen Lea Bachorski, Bread & Butter: The Murders of Polly
Frisch, 2000, Morris Publishing]
Review of the book
on History Sleuth
***
A source from 1869: Marvin H. Bovee, Christ
and the Gallows: Or, Reasons for the Abolition of Capital Punishment, 1869,
Masonic Publishing Company, New York, N. Y. , pp. 121-24
In Google Books, full text available
***
On November 9, 1857, Polly Frisch, then in her early
thirties, was arrested by Genesee County Sheriff Alvin Pease.
Michael Keene, “The woman who poisoned her family,”
examiner.com, 
May 17, 2012
May 17, 2012
***
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FULL TEXT: The trial of POLLY FRISCH for the murder of her
former husband, HENRY HOAG, progresses slowly at Batavia. The testimony taken
Thursday related to the symptoms preceding his death. They were shown to be
those of poison. A son of the accused gave the following testimony, which we
find in the Herald:
Albert Hoag sworn – Was 11 years old last September; live in
Michigan; lived there one year; live with Lyman Hoag; come down last Friday;
Henry Hoag was my father; was home when he died; mother sent me after liquor
before he died; got it at Heacock’s in a bottle; it was a day or two before Pa
died; saw Ma take a paper with white powder in it from behind the clock and put
it into a bottle and shake it up; she said it was saleratus; asked her what she
put it in for, and she said to sweeten it; kept the saleratus in the buttery on
a shelf; I looked at the powder behind the clock after she put part of it in
the bottle; it looked like flour, only glistened more – did not look like
saleratus, it was not so fine; it was in the day time when I looked at it; no
one was there at the time she did it but me; Pa was on the bed in the bedroom
at the time; he cramped and puked so I knew he was sick; Ma slept down stairs
on the lounge; he was in bed with me when I first saw him puke and cramp; Ma did
the cooking at that time; got brandy often; I first saw him puking; know
Bardswwell [sic]; know nothing of him and Maw going away. Went to Wheatville
with Ma; Maw saw Matthew there; went in a buggy, Ma and I together. She told me
we were going to Center; Ma told me not to tell Pa where she was going; Matthew
was at her house; I saw them in bed together before Pa died; saw them twice;
know Bicknall; he was not working in Pa’s shop then. Paw saw Ma and Matthew in
bed together, and they has a fuss; Matthew staid there; Pa told Matthew to
leave; he didn’t leave in a good while.
We learn that since the above was put in type that the woman
has been acquitted.
[“The Murder Trial at Batavia.” Buffalo Express (N. Y.),
Jul. 7, 1858, p. 7]
***
FULL TEXT: Mrs. Polly Frisch, who was formerly tried at
Batavia for the murder of her husband by poisoning, and acquitted, was tried a
second time last week for the murder of her infant child, 21 months old, in a
similar manner. The evidence is regard to arsenic being found in the stomach of
the deceased was wholly insufficient, and the accused was again acquitted.
[“Acquitted.” Buffalo Express (N. Y.), Nov. 6, 1858, p. 3]
***
FULL TEXT: In the case of Mrs. Polly Frisch, on trial at
Batavia for murder, the jury on Monday failed to agree, after being oat 40
hours, and were discharged. They stood six for acquittal and six for
conviction. It will be remembered that Mrs. Frisch, formerly Mrs. Hoag, was
arrested in November, 1857, charged with the murder of her husband, Hoag, and
her two children, one a girl of seven years, and the other an infant. She was indicted upon three separate charges.
Last summer she was tried for the murder of her husband, and, the jury did not
think the offense sufficiently proven to warrant a conviction, and site was
acquitted. In the fall she was strain arraigned, charged with the murder of the
infant child, and after a short trial acquitted. This last trial was for the
murder of her daughter, Frances, aged seven years, or thereabouts. This crime,
like the others, It Is alleged, consisted of giving arsenic insufficient
quantities, and for the purpose of producing death. After the jury was
discharged she was remanded to jail for a fourth trial.
[“The Batavia Murderess’s Trial.” Buffalo Weekly Express (N.
Y.), Mar. 29, 1859, p. 3]
***
FULL TEXT: Polly Frisch, convicted at Batavia of the murder
of her child on a fourth trial for the same crime alleged to have been
committed against various deceased members of her family, was granted a new
trial.
[Racine Daily Journal (Wi.), Jul. 25, 1859, P. 1]
***
FULL TEXT: A special term of this Court at Batavia, convened
on Monday, and proceeded to empanel a Jury for a new trial for the case of
POLLY FRISCH, charged with the murder of her child by administration of
arsenic. It will be remembered that a new trial was granted in this case on the
ground of some irregularity in the proceedings at the last session of this
court, when a verdict of guilty was obtained.
Yesterday the testimony of some ten witnesses was gone
through with, and it would seem that the case will be again to the jury at an
early day.
[“Court of Oyer and Terminer,” Buffalo Daily Republic (N.
Y.), Sep. 2, 1859, p. 3]
***
FULL TEXT: Polly Frisch Again Convicted and Sentenced to be
Hung. – This woman has been again convicted and sentenced to be hung, at
Batavia, on the 2d of November. The jury were out twenty-six hours. This is the
fifth trial she has had. The jury recommended a commutation of the sentence to
imprisonment for life.
[Buffalo Daily Republic (N.Y.), Sep. 10, 1859, P. 3]
***
FULL TEXT: At Casandalgua, New York, a woman named Polly
Frisch, who had been five times tried for the murder of her husband and
children, was convicted of murder for poisoning one of her children.
[Untitled, Daily National Democrat (Marysville, Ca.), Oct.
18, 1859, p. 3]
***
FULL TEXT: We are informed that Mrs. Polly Frisch, who was
convicted in Genesse County, for the murder of her little daughter, and whose
sentence Governor Morgan commuted to life imprisonment to Sing Sing, has, since
her incarceration, at that prison, become decidedly insane. The prison officers
are about taking steps for her removal to the Lunatic Asylum at Utica.
The case has left on record, features worthy of the
attention of the medical and philanthropic world. While her counsel from the
first, suspected some mental disturbance on her part, yet, in the belief that
the evidence, especially on the point of the want of a motive, was insufficient
to warrant her condition as a sane person, did not interpose insanity as a
defence, until near the close of her fifth and last trial. The late doctor John
Cotes, of Batavia, was called by the prisoner’s counsel, to examine her as to
her sanity, before her first trial, and he reported that, although he found her
a very singular person, ans suffering under a complication of physical
ailments, he could no advise them to rely at all upon the defence of sanity.
On the last trial, however, certain new evidence was
produced new evidence was produced by the prosecution, which so startled her
counsel, as indicating mental aberration, that they determined that doctor
George Cook, the eminent physician and Superintendent of the Insane Asylum at
Canandaigua, should be sent for. He arrived in the evening, examined the
prisoner closely, learned her former habits and ailments from her family
physician, and the diseases with which she had been afflicted during her
confinement in jail, and then testified, on the witness stand, that she was
then, and at the time of the alleged homicides had been suffering under disease
epileptiform in character, and that she was not a person of sound mind. He also
pronounced that the fits and convulsions to which she was liable, and which
were often very violent and alarming, were epileptic, though to the eye of the
ordinary observer, or even of the medical man not especially conversant with
the treatment of insane persons, they would be regarded merely hysterical.
Doctors L. B. Cotes, Root, Long and Griswold, of the locality, concurred with
Dr. Cook. But so great is the prejudice against the defence of insanity – where
its manifestations are not palpable and obvious to the common understanding,
and where, as in this case, it was set up so late – that the jury found her
sane and guilty.
Such, however, was the apprehension on the part of medical
and thinking men that there was danger of execution of the woman, at least
partially deranged, that Gov. Morgan was induced, after her sentenced to death,
to send Dr. Edward Hall, the well known Superintendent of the State Lunatic
Asylum for Insane Convicts, at Auburn, to make a special examination as to her
mental condition. Dr. Hall spent several days in a thorough investigation of
the case, and examined numerous witnesses and obtained many additional facts,
himself. He came unhesitatingly to the conclusion, and so reported to the
Governor, “That the prisoner, Polly Frisch, is now and has for several years
been subject to that form of insanity which is frequently the result of
epileptic disease. This is now plainly apparent, and, I think, if attention had
been called to this form of mental disease as a solution of her of her
unnatural actions, she would have been as much an object of sympathy and pity
as of horror and aversion.” Dr. Hall also said that he thought it proper to
send to his Excellency an abstract of the prominent facts in a case which was
so peculiar, in order that he might be able to form some judgment of the
correctness of his conclusions.
[“Polly Frisch, the Alleged Murderess of Her Husband and
Children, to be Removed to Utica as an Insane Convict.” Buffalo Daily Courier
(N.Y.), Nov. 19, 1860, p. 2]
***
CHRONOLOGY
Nov. 1857 – Polly Frisch (ca. 33) arrested.
Jul. 1858 – Trial for murder of Henry Hoag (ca. 38);
acquitted.
Nov. 1858 – Trial for murder of Eliza Jane (21 mo.);
acquitted.
Mar. 1859 – Trial for murder of Frances (“about 7,” “9”);
convicted; hung jury (6/6).
Jul. 1859 – Trial for murder of Frances (about 7);
convicted; mistrial declared on technicality.
Sep. 1859 – Retrial for murder of Frances; convicted.
Nov. 1860 – Declared insane; transferred from Sing Sing to
State Lunatic Asylum, Utica, N. Y.
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For more cases of this category, see: Female Serial Killers of 19th Century America
***
[1747-12/27/20]
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